Parallel Desire by Deidre Knight Read Free Book Online Page A

you saying you think this meeting with him is a bad idea?" If it was, she wanted to know his premonitions now, not later, once her father had arrived.
    "It's our work with the FBI, the task force, everything. I can't lay hold of it exactly, can't get a clear picture. If only I could, I'd know why I'm so anxious."
    She lifted her fingertips to the scars along his cheek. "You know my dad is going to love you."
    "Once he gets past the fact that I'm alien. That you're carrying an alien child, and that I've changed everything he ever knew about you."
    Kelsey couldn't help smiling, and felt an answering gyration within her belly. "You did change me. But that's a beautiful thing."
    "And what about the mitres? What would he say about that?"
    Kelsey pushed back against the pillows. This was familiar ground between them: Jared's fears that the operational codes to their greatest weapon, the mitres, were lodged deep within her psyche—and had been ever since he'd made a temporary link with her to keep the codes from falling into enemies' hands. His anxieties weren't entirely unfounded, either; the mitres allowed them to alter time itself, and their enemies would kill to gain control of the weapon. "My dad won't know anything about the mitres."
    "I'm a father now, and if some man—an alien—had done to our daughter"—he pressed his hand firmly against her stomach—"what I did to you? I'd have his head. I'd take his life for endangering her like that."
    She frowned. "Are you talking about Erica? That I'm pregnant with your child?"
    "How could I ever regret anything about our baby?" He shook his head adamantly. "I'm talking about the mitres codes, that you're the only one of us who can operate the weapon."
    She slid sideways on the bed. "So that's what this is really all about, huh? You still don't think I'm strong enough to handle what you put inside of me."
    He reached for her, but she ducked out of his grasp. "You're the strongest woman I've ever known—of any species."
    "Woman. Strongest woman ."
    Jared shook his head ruefully. "Strongest person, Kelsey. Please don't play my words against me. Don't act as my interrogator."
    She glared at him and slid toward the end of the bed, planting both feet on the floor. Quickly, she moved toward their bathroom. "I'm gonna take my shower. Then we can get moving."
    "If our enemies ever learned that you're the one who can control the mitres …" His voice trailed off.
    She turned to face him, pulling her bathrobe tight over her belly. "And how would they know? They don't have a clue about the mitres—they've never even found the freaking thing. How would they figure out the truth about me?"
    "You've never been to my home world, haven't seen what they did to my people."
    " Our people, Jared," she corrected softly, planting a palm over her heart. "Your people are my people now—I'm their queen. I may not have seen the devastation, but I feel it all around me every day. I've seen what they've done here on Earth … the attack at Warren. Of course I understand who we're dealing with."
    He raised both hands. "My point precisely. So if they ever did learn of your true identity"—he shook his head, crossing the small distance that separated them—"I couldn't live with what they might do to you."
    She wrapped both arms about his torso, resting her cheek against his chest. His heart was racing frantically beneath his uniform, and all her frustration melted away completely. "Jared, I'm right here, and I'm safe. You know what's been prophesied. I'm key to this revolution, and I love that fact."
    He blew out a heavy sigh, stroking her hair. "How can I argue with the Beloved of Refaria?" That's what the prophets had called her, a fact that had been confirmed by the intuitives in their midst. "I should spend all my days worshipping you and keeping you deeply satisfied."
    He slipped a palm beneath her bathrobe, sliding it suggestively along her thigh, then inward,