The Healer's Kiss: Book Four of the Forced To Serve Series Read Online Free PDF Page B

exhausted by having had to bring her problem to the source.
    “Then we have to figure it out, Boca. I’m even sorrier now that I took the sleep aide. I never suspected you would need me and seek me out,” Chiang said. “I too feel compelled. I’m compelled to see you happy.”
    He looked at her while he wondered what it was going to take to convince her.
    “That’s precisely what I’ve been trying to track you down to tell you. I want to help you do what you feel you must. I’m compelled to do that for you as much as anything else.”
    Boca wrapped her arms tightly around her own body and studied the floor, wanting more than anything for Chiang’s words to be a profound truth. Unfortunately, her instincts were never clear about the Greggor who wanted to bond with her. Yet it was obvious after today that keeping her distance was definitely not working either.
    If she did not resolve her issues this evening, tomorrow she would be banned from the mission. The ultimatums of her trainers could not be set aside just because she was trying to avoid conflict with Chiang.
    “Fine. If you truly want to help, I have a request. May I sleep beside you tonight?” she asked quietly. “I—it is the only thing I can think to do. I will not take advantage of your drugged condition.”
    Chiang snorted with humor as he scooted to make room in the bed that was already too small for him, much less a second person. Fortunately, Boca was tiny. “You could never wrong me by being here or asking to be with me.”
    Boca sighed and walked to the bed, this time with trepidation.
    “Will you—” she stopped, bit her lip, and then lifted her chin. It was the only solution she could come up with, and she had to ask. “If you grant me permission, I can create a vibrational sharing experience for us. It will let our energies interweave themselves. Perhaps—perhaps it will change me in some way that will convince Commander Jet not to take the mission away from me.”
    “You have my permission to do whatever you want with me that might help you,” Chiang said softly. “Also, it would be my pleasure to hold you in my arms while we sleep. I wish there could be more this sleep cycle. I long to show you pleasure in many forms.”
    “You will not have to do anything. I am trained—never mind. Just know nothing is expected.” Boca reached for the hem of her shirt and pulled it over her head. Then she unfastened her pants and let them fall to the floor. She walked to the bed in her hygiene straps with Chiang’s sleepy gaze never leaving her.
    “You forgot something,” he said flatly.
    Boca stomach lurched. She had been hoping Chiang wouldn’t expect her to get completely undressed. The thought of that much intimacy with him still made her uncomfortable, but he was being supportive. Sharing skin to skin sensation was not an unusual, or unreasonable, request under the circumstances. Lifting her hand to obediently tear the strip off her shoulder, she was quickly stopped by Chiang’s disapproving growl which froze her hand in place. He swore in a language Boca assumed was Greggor, but it was so vicious she couldn’t be sure. She made a mental note to look up the basics of Greggor swearing so she could at least know what Chiang was saying when he was displeased with her.
    “I was not talking about your hygiene straps. Leave them in place if you wish. I meant your hair. Let down your hair. Assuming you don’t sleep with it bound, I wish to see how long it is,” Chiang demanded.
    Both hands went to her hair in surprise. “My hair? Oh. Yes—of course. I should let it down.” She was so relieved to be leaving her hygiene straps in place that she automatically started slipping pins from the twist on the back of her head. “It is so unruly at this length that I keep it up most of the time. Sometimes I sleep with it pinned because I simply forget. But I cannot bear to shorten it. It reminds me of my…I do not know how to explain