Accidental Acquisition by Evangeline Anderson
25
“Jilly! Oh my god, I’m so glad you’re all right! Dr. Liv called and told me what happened and I just can’t believe it! You were abducted at the Buy-All-Sell-All?”
Suzanne came rushing into the exam room, talking about a mile a minute and threw her arms around Jillian in a big hug.
Jillian winced—she was sore from being dragged around by both Trolloxes—but it felt wonderful to have her friend’s arms around her.
“Yes, I was abducted,” she admitted in a low voice. “But it was my own stupid fault…”
And before she knew it, she was spilling the entire, twisted story of her horrible day into her friend’s lap. Dr. Liv listened as well, a concerned look on her pretty face.
“So you accidentally bought a Kindred bodyslave from a Yonnite Mistress and then he saved your life twice but you basically told him you never wanted to see him again?” Suzanne asked, when she finally finished.
Jillian stared at her in disbelief.
“Out of everything I just told you, that’s what you picked up on? Did you not hear the part about how he turns into a massive, terrifying Grizzly-thing?”
“Did his beast actually attack you?” Liv asked, speaking up for the first time.
Jillian frowned.
“Well…I mean, no, but I was sure he was going to. He came right at me and roared so loud it’s amazing my eardrums didn’t burst!”
“But I thought you said a Trollox was holding you hostage,” Suzanne pointed out, frowning. “Are you sure he wasn’t roaring at him?”
“Probably,” Jillian admitted. “But you don’t understand, Suzanne—having that creature so close to me was terrifying. I thought I was going to die. It reminded me of…of something that happened when I was just a little kid.”
“What?” Dr. Live asked. “What happened to you?”
“It’s hard to talk about.” Jillian shook her head. “But it traumatized me. I just…don’t trust big animals—don’t trust predators. And this thing he turned into was pretty much the biggest, meanest, most terrifying predator I’ve ever seen.”
“You poor thing! I’m so sorry,” Suzanne said contritely and hugged her again. “It’s just that after Brad was such a bastard to you, I’ve been hoping you’d meet a nice Kindred who would treat you right. And this guy sounds like he was really devoted to you.”
Jillian sighed.
“He was, I guess. But I’m not ready for that kind of devotion, Suzanne. I guess…I guess it boils down to the fact that I’m not ready to trust again.” She shook her head. “I don’t think I’ll ever be ready, after Brad.”
“Listen, Brad wouldn’t have let somebody cut off the tip of his pinky finger to save you—let alone his entire hand,” Suzanne pointed out. “Even if he knew he could regrow it later.”
“I know all that and I hate to sound like a coward.” Jillian rubbed a hand over her dirty face. “It’s just been such a long, horrible day and I haven’t done a bit of prep work for the VIP dinner tomorrow night! I just can’t deal with this right now!”
She realized she had begun to cry and she put a hand over her face to try and hide the tears.
“Oh, Jilly honey—I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to push you!” Suzanne exclaimed. “And I don’t want you to worry about the dinner, either. I can ask Commander Sylvan if we can postpone it or maybe he can give it to another restaurant. Under the circumstances, I’m sure he’ll understand.”
Jillian swiped at her tears and glared at her friend and former sous chef.
“Don’t you dare. You know perfectly well I’ve never let down my standards when it comes to a VIP dinner!”
“I know that, but serving high-rollers at The Palms is different from catering to finicky alien ambassadors who want ingredients we’ve never even heard of before!” Suzanne protested.
But Jillian shook her head.
“I’ll be just fine in the morning—I only need a hot shower and a good night’s sleep,” she said firmly. “In fact, I need to get back into the kitchen—it’ll ground me and help me get over all the craziness from today.”
Suzanne looked at her closely.
“Are you sure? I don’t want to send you into some kind of breakdown from all the stress.”
“You know me,” Jillian told her. “I thrive on stress—as long as it comes in the form of food and cooking.” She gave a little laugh. “I’m actually looking forward to making that crazy jumja soup for the Nebrian ambassador—now that we have the thaelite and an ion-scoop to cut it with.” She frowned. “Although I’m going to have to ask you to send either Hard or Kind to bring the thaelite brick from the shuttle to the kitchen—it’s still in the anti-gravity compartment and there’s no way I can handle it myself.”
“I’ll send Hard and then I’ll come help you prep myself,” Suzanne promised. “The babies are over their croup now, so Kind can handle them all by himself—at least for a little while.”
“Thanks.” Jillian gave her a grateful smile. “I’d love to cook with you again.”
“You know I love motherhood, but I really miss being your sous chef sometimes,” Suzanne said, grinning back at her. “Tomorrow is going to be just like old times at The Palms—you’ll see.”
“Except we’ll be cooking jumja soup and frikencorn paste instead of Wagyu steaks and lobster tails,” Jillian pointed out, laughing and they hugged each other again.
It felt good to laugh with a friend—it made Jillian feel safe and normal. She just wanted to put the events of this horrible day behind her and forget everything that had happened. In time, she hoped it would all just seem like a bad dream.
Except not all of it was bad—what about that erotic massage Kalis gave you? whispered a sly little voice in her head. What about the way he rescued you and sacrificed himself for you? Are you really going to try to forget about him too?
Jillian tried uneasily to push the voice to the side. She didn’t want to think about the big B’varren Kindred right now—she just wanted to concentrate on getting back to normal.
She had no idea that things were going to be anything but normal the next day…
