Best Friends (New Species #15)(85)

Mary admitted that he had a point. “Maybe you’re not so paranoid.” She’d noticed the way he’d said one word, almost spitting it out. “Do you mean Mercile Industries?”

He grunted.

“Was it as bad as I’ve read?”

His golden gaze narrowed, locked on her.

“I’m sorry. I was curious. I’ll drop it.”

“You are my mate. You can always ask me questions. It was worse for me, and ones like me.”

“How?”

“Some New Species were contained inside rooms with chains, for easier access when Mercile tested drugs. The technicians had to deal with them often, so their bodies were cleaned. It offended the human doctors if they stank. They used them in breeding experiments, too.”

He lowered his gaze. “My kind were kept in cages, and they hosed us down once a week like zoo animals. I can’t read or write the way most Species can. Mercile taught other Species so they could test their minds while on drugs. They just shot us with darts when they wanted to test a drug on my kind. We were the disposable ones. Our minds were irrelevant. The drugs they gave us were ones that either killed us…or didn’t. That’s how we were used. To test whether a drug could kill or not. Many of us died.”

That horrified her. “I’m so sorry, Lash.” She scooted closer to him, where they sat on the grass by the fountain. She reached out and put her hand on his thigh.

He looked at her. “I am learning to identify numbers to use the phone.” He jerked his thumb toward the doors. “They put up pictures for me of my friends, and the numbers to dial to reach them. I look at them and press the matching ones on the phone.”

“That’s pretty smart.”

“Mercile didn’t bring us Species females to breed with. Well, unless you count the one time they brought me a full-blooded lioness, thinking I’d mount her.”

Her mouth dropped open. She couldn’t imagine the horror, and it stunned her speechless.

“I refused. It would be like someone asking you to share sex with a full animal. It sickened me. The technicians would starve Species if we didn’t do what they wanted, and they applied that to us—with her inside my cage. She eventually grew hungry and lost her fear of me. I didn’t want to cause her harm. I tried to keep her calm…but she attacked. I had to break her neck to prevent her from killing me.

“They shot darts into me that had electricity in them as punishment, and spent days shocking me many times. I was already suffering. I felt deep guilt. The lioness was just trying to survive by following her instincts.”

He was breaking her heart. She moved on instinct and straddled his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck. “I’m so sorry.”

“You didn’t shoot me or bring that lioness into my cage. I know not all humans are like the ones from Mercile.”

“I’m just sorry you had such a rough past. That’s all. Life can be super unfair.”

He wrapped his arms around her. “You like me.”

Denial was on the tip of her tongue…until she saw the happy expression on his face. “I do.”

“You’re my mate. Say it.”

“Now you’re pushing your luck.”

He laughed. “I like you, Mary.”

“You’re growing on me.”

“So is my dick. I’m very aroused.”

She shook her head, trying not to laugh. “You have a one-track mind.”

“I enjoy sex with you. That’s why I’m keeping you.”

It dampened her mood when she remembered their earlier conversation. “Even if I’m not your magic pussy?”

He pulled her closer. “I said you could be that to me.”

She felt jealousy rear its head. “Who was she?”

He turned her sideways on his lap and bent her back a little, leaning over to gaze into her eyes. “Does it bother you thinking that some female has a hold on me that you don’t? Tell me the truth.”

“You keep telling me you want me to be your mate, but no one wants to be a man’s second choice. I refuse to be compared to another woman and always found lacking. I’ve already had a boyfriend like that once. It made me feel shitty and tore me up. I loved him, but he took off the moment he heard his ex-girlfriend had filed for divorce from the man she’d married instead of him. He flew back to New York to try to get her to date him again.”

He snarled. “You still love him?”

“No. All I feel now is anger and a bit of self-loathing, because I knew it couldn’t end well as soon as I realized he was hung up on his ex. I was hopelessly naive and believed I could make him love me more.”

“Is there a male you love now?”

“I have bad luck with men. It’s the types I’m attracted to. They aren’t the kind of men who are good for me. Mel is drawn to bad boys. I’m drawn to self-centered pricks.”

“Explain.”

“They’re men who are incapable of loving anyone more than they love themselves. It’s all about them and what they can get out of a woman. They move on to the next one as soon as they feel they’ve taken all they want.”

“You didn’t answer me. Is there a human male you love?”

“No.” She could say that honestly.