“I’ve made my peace with my mother, but that doesn’t mean you have to. Although it would probably be better if you didn’t start screaming at her while everyone is asleep. And don’t think my being okay with her these days means that I’m okay with what she did to you. I’m not. I’m never going to forget for the rest of my life what it was like to wake up and find you missing, to know I was powerless to help you.”
I stepped further onto the porch. Geoff, who had remained silent during their discussion, extended his hand and I took it, letting him pull me onto his lap. “I get that you’re loyal. You’ll have to excuse us. We don’t have any strong feelings about any of this except to keep you safe. You and our daughter.”
“I would never ask any of you to stay here. I…I almost think you should take Diana from me. It might be the safest thing for her.” I would miss her; I’d never get over her absence in my life. But I’d endure any kind or type of pain to keep her safe. I had to stay. The most important thing was for her to be safe. “Go to the Mars Colony. Get out of town.”
“No one is going anywhere without you,” C.J. snapped, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “And so help me if you do something to send us away…”
I raised my hand to stop him. “I’ll promise that won’t happen as many times as you need to hear it. But carting me off while I sleep is not happening, either. Or you can count on me never going to bed.”
Wes grunted. “It was just a thought.”
“Where is Dane?” I had to vocalize my fear or it was going to eat at me. “I hate that he’s missing.”
A branch broke a distance away. “It’s good to know you’re worried, Melissa, because I’ve missed the hell out of you, too.”
I jumped to my feet and rushed down into the darkness toward where I heard Dane’s voice. He met me halfway, tugging me into his embrace. He felt solid, bigger than I remembered him, stronger, more muscular. His hair was longer, practically touching his shoulders.
“You’re okay.”
He picked me up in his arms, which made me laugh since it was such an un-Dane-like thing to do. With a smile, his mouth met mine. He tasted like mint and I closed my eyes. “I’m okay now.”
“Where have you been?”
Dane set me back down on my own feet. My heart was full. They were all here, safe, and not lost out in the woods where anyone or anything could hurt them. “I’ve been following the guards. The way they walked, something about it set off my senses. They’re not healthy or okay and I think I know how they’re being controlled.” He pulled a vial out of his back pocket. “She’s keeping them drugged. I’m not sure with what yet, but they are, in fact, all regularly taking this. The guy in charge doles it out. Really not pretty.” He held it up again. “Anyone got any equipment I can use? Otherwise I need to get back on Artemis. And why did we turn off our wireless? Would have made getting here much easier.”
We were all back together, which had to mean it was all about to go to hell.
* * * *
“And she hasn’t said a word since?” Dane held Diana’s doll out in front of her and smiled when she poked at him to get it back.
I shook my head. “She understands us completely. Can write her name, even seems to understand what she can read. But speaking? No, it stopped.” I smoothed my hand over her forehead. “It’s my fault.”
Dane placed his hand on my arm. “Probably not. If anything, I think she’s thriving the way she is thanks to you. She clearly loves you to death.” Diana’s face lit up when he said that and took my hand in hers. “It doesn’t necessarily have to be the trauma that took her voice. There could be something else going on. A sensory thing. Something wrong developmentally. Back in the day, before I was a Nomad, I could have suggested a speech therapist. I’m afraid you are stuck with me.”
I touched his arm, running my fingers down his muscles. “Never stuck.”
“She seems, health-wise, in good shape. Since it seems we’re not leaving here anytime soon, I’ll get back to Artemis in the next few days, analyze the substance I stole, and see what I can dig off the database for our girl.” He stood. “Can I speak to you outside?”
“Oh.” I rubbed at my forehead. If he wanted to speak privately, it couldn’t be a good thing. “Sure.”
Geoff crossed the room and sat down next to Diana to pick up her doll. With a nod to him, I followed Dane out of the room onto the porch. It was going to be a long winter if it was already this cold. I shivered and rubbed my arms.
“What’s up?” My heart kicked up. What had he seen with Diana that he wanted to speak privately about? The rock that settled in my stomach whenever I thought about something being horribly wrong with Diana formed. “What’s wrong with her?”
“Nothing.” He held his hands out in front of him. “I told you. She’s physically very healthy. We’ll figure the rest of it out. I’m more concerned with you. Figured you might not want me to dress you down in front of her.”
“I…” I placed my arms in front of me, covering my chest. “Dressing me down?”
“Do you eat anymore? Drink anything? At all take care of yourself? If I dragged you up to Artemis and hooked you up to the machine up there, really took a look at your blood work, I doubt very much that I’d like what I saw. Are you trying to die?”
“Dane.” I let go of the breath I held. “I’ll be honest, okay? I haven’t been giving a lot of thought to my own health. Not since she was born and I almost died in the process. On the floor, during a firefight.”
He winced. “You can’t know how sorry I am that happened.”
“I don’t want your apology. It’s not your fault. You blocked the bomb on my heart. None of this is on you. I take care of her. The rest of it falls in line.”
“Well, I take care of you. That’s how this works. So you’re going to eat more than the paltry bite you took of breakfast this morning if I have to jam it down your throat.”
His cheeks turned red and his pupils were huge. This was Dane really mad. I couldn’t say I’d seen it before. Out of his mind, yes. Doped up on relaxing herbs, yes. Happy, sure. Sad, absolutely. But mad? This was a new thing. Not even on the planet when I’d called him a coward…
I couldn’t help it. There was enough of the old me left that I had to poke the bear if for no other reason than to see what it would do.
“I’d like to see you try to do that. Jamming it down my throat.”
He narrowed his gaze, his nostrils flaring. I was sick in the head because I thought it was really hot.
Chapter 10
Outvoted
I’D never seen Dane so domineering. He picked me up and pushed me up against the back of the cabin. Out of sight and hearing from anyone around, he breathed heavily in my ear.
“For eight years I have thought you were probably dead. I pictured you dying in all kinds of ways—all of them things I could have prevented if I’d only been with you.” His hands dug into my shoulders and my mouth watered. This was a new side of Dane and I wanted more. “I left you asleep and helpless on a ship drifting through space. You had no memories and you were eight months pregnant. I’d operated on your heart. Who knew what the fuck could happen?” His body vibrated and so did mine.
“Now I find you alive, which is a gift, and so skinny I can feel every one of your ribs, which would be fine if that was how you were meant to be built. Only it’s not. You need thirty pounds. I love you. I won’t lose you to starvation after breaking through a black hole to get to you.”
“Dane…”
He didn’t let me finish. “You’re going to let me take care of you because I’m not going to give you any fucking choice.”
My husband who had always been so gentle kissed me hard. I could feel his heart pound against my hand where I pressed it on his chest. It raced in time with my own. His tongue pressed into mine and I moaned in his mouth, my body instantly ready for him.
The noise seemed to spur him forward. Still holding me with one hand, he cupped my breast through m
y shirt, kneading and pinching it. He pressed his forehead to mine, groaning. “You’re my wife. It’s my pleasure to keep you healthy, my honor to make you happy. Don’t argue with me.”
“I don’t know. Arguing with you seems to have elicited some exciting results.”
He raised an eyebrow. “If I’d known you liked my temper, I’d have unleashed it on you a long time ago.”
“I like you. Love you. Any way you come to me. Mad. Sweet. Whatever.” I kissed him on the lips. “You know that, right?”
His gaze bore into mine while he continued to press at my breast, finally pushing my shirt up so he could feel my skin under the material. “You’re different. Such a combo of who you were before and after the memory wipe. I thought about that, too. How you would have to reclaim your mind, how you’d have no choice, how I wouldn’t be there to keep you safe when you did.”
“Dane.” I kissed him again. And then again. “You aren’t responsible for every single thing that happens to me. You didn’t ask to be kidnapped. We’re together now. Your hand is on my breast.” As if mentioning it reminded him, he pinched my nipple. “Whatever the future is, we have it together.”
He yanked my pants down. I hadn’t seen the move coming and I gasped. Dane’s pupils were huge. Something I’d said had really set him off. I wrapped my arms around his neck. I loved him and what was more I wanted him, needed to reconnect this way. Whatever he needed, that’s what I wanted him to have.
With one hand, Dane freed himself. He was hard and ready. I could feel him right by my entrance. He pressed a finger inside me. “You’re wet.”
“Almost always when you’re around.”
He shut his eyes, his nostrils flaring. “Only since the memory wipe. Before that, not so much.”
“Look at me.” I wanted him to see the truth of what I had to say. It took a second for him to do as I’d instructed. There was such a dichotomy of things happening. On one hand, we were hot and ready for each other, nearly naked in the middle of the day. But we were also having a serious conversation we should maybe have waited to discuss under other circumstances. Yet, both were happening. Because he was Dane and I was Melissa and we’d always done things our own way. “I always loved you. I can’t entirely explain to you who I was either before or after because both of those times feel like someone else. But, I remember everything. I always loved you. If I didn’t make you feel that way, that is on me and the shit I was carrying around, the secrets I kept. Forgive me.”
Dane pushed up inside of me, filling me up until my insides pulsed with wanting him to move. “Guess you liked that?”
The good doctor was missing from Dane’s gaze as the force of his will alone kept me staring straight into his eyes. He pressed up, pushing inside me before he jerked back down. I cried out, missing his warmth the second he wasn’t fully within me.
“Melissa. Oh. Wow. Melissa.” He wasn’t making coherent sense, which was fine. I liked him lost to me. I closed my eyes, pressing my head to his shoulder while I did. Dane was running this show and I was happy to go along for the ride. My back rubbed against the brick. It might hurt later, but I didn’t care.
Dane pressed up and down, faster, then slower, each stroke bringing me closer to the brink of orgasm before stopping it again.
“Please. Dane. Please.” I begged. I wasn’t above it, not when I needed to come more than I required breath. Oh God, oh God, why wouldn’t he give it to me? “You’re torturing me.”
He snickered in my ear. “And you love it.”
I leaned forward and bit down on his neck. His whole body jerked before his thrusts became more intense. I’d finally broken through his control. He moaned in my ear as he finally pushed against a spot that made me explode. I shouted his name, my nails digging into his back when I did. His cock throbbed inside me, one long jolt while he followed me into oblivion.
We both held still, our breaths coming in and out. Finally, he laughed, which was such a surprising sound I raised my head to look at him. If he let go of me, I was going to fall on my ass and it wouldn’t be pretty.
“Look at the two of you. Getting it on in the middle of the day.”
Chapter 11
A New World
WES’ voice rang out and we both turned our heads to look at him. He sauntered toward us as though he didn’t have a care in the world. “Why wasn’t I invited to play?”
Dane smiled what could only be called an amused grin. “Come here, Wes. I think Melissa has another round in her. I’m happy to share.”
Wes was by my side seconds later and Dane passed me to him.
Apparently ménage and group sharing of me was something we did now. In the past, it had taken a lot of alcohol and/or some of Dane’s relaxing drugs to get us to this stage. Eight years away for them had changed some things.
Wes pushed my back up against the wall again. “This okay with you?”
I raised an eyebrow, my body already heating in anticipation. How was it possible I could get so immediately turned on again after Dane had given me so much pleasure? “You have to ask?”
“Just checking.” He kissed my neck and I shuddered. “Going to watch, Dane?”
He barked his laugh. “You clearly watched us.”
Wes’ eyes danced with laughter. “Only the last little bit and you so knew I was there.”
That was news to me. Dane had known Wes was present and he’d still gotten that hot? “Do you want to watch, Dane?”
“If you’ll let me.” He leaned against the bricks, his blue eyes challenging Wes to object.
“Have at it.” Wes nuzzled my neck. “Maybe you’ll learn something.”
Dane snorted. “Highly doubt it.”
“We’ll see.”
I guess I was kinky. I liked the idea of one of them watching me have sex with the other. It really worked for me and apparently for Dane and Wes, too. Hell, after the romp in the sheets I’d had with C.J. and Cooper, I knew it was hot for them, too.
Whatever. As long as everyone was…I lost my train of thought. Wes pressed his hands against my breasts. Stroking them on the outside of my shirt. He moaned when he pinched the nipple. The slight nip of pain surged through me. The muscles inside my core clenched, knowing what was coming, waiting for Wes.
He flipped me around until we dropped on the ground, me beneath him. It shouldn’t have been comfortable lying on the hard dirt, and yet I didn’t give a shit. Wes pushed my legs apart until he had me spread open for him. Without a word, in the quiet way he had of concentrating on things when he was really focused, he pressed his mouth against my pussy.
I shuddered, my whole body vibrating as I shut my eyes and let myself feel the way he loved me. “You always loved public sex, Wes.”
He laughed against my core. “You know you do, too, and even if he’d never admit it, Dane there does, too.”
“Liking it right now.” Dane’s voice had gone low and I knew he was turned on. I couldn’t see him right then; Wes was taking up my whole attention with the way he stroked and bit my most sensitive spots. My body had become a giant flame.
I could hardly speak. I needed relief, his attentions were almost too much. Was it possible to have too much pleasure? Between Dane and now what Wes was doing, how on earth was I supposed to…
I came hard and suddenly. My back arched off the ground and before I could even draw breath, Wes was on me again. His mouth met mine as he pushed my knees apart and pushed his hardened length inside of me. My nerve endings were on fire. He thrust hard inside me and I cried out. This was Wes at his most unrestrained. He held himself back, he behaved, tried to be who he was supposed to be, even knowing he almost always failed to entirely fit in. But the have-sex-in-front-of-people, take-what-he-wanted Wes lived deep in his soul.
I loved when I got to see it.
I wrapped my arms around him and held on for the ride. “Honey, am I hurting you?” His neck muscles tightened and I could see a vein in his forehead throb.
“No.” That wasn?
??t entirely true. There was some pain involved. But I loved it, I craved it. I wanted all of Wes. “I love you.”
He filled me, hard, and I came around his cock, my muscles milking him until he joined me in oblivion. When I could think again, the ground became hard and uncomfortable, digging into my back.
Wes raised his head to look at me. “I’m crushing you.”
“And the ground hurts.” I pushed at his shoulders. “Not really the place to sit around and pant in happiness.”
From above us, Dane looked down. “Maybe I should have watched the two of you before.”
He was hard, his cock tenting his pants. Wes pulled out and dressed himself before he offered me his hand to help me. I took it. My knees were wobbly while I adjusted myself into my clothes before I made my way over to Dane.
Without a word, I took his cock in my hand, stroking it through his pants. He gasped but held my eye contact. “Nothing is as good as fucking you, Melissa. But watching Wes do it? Yeah, it was a turn on. What can I say?”
I raised an eyebrow and pulled his cock from his pants, letting them drop to the ground. “Say please.”
I’d never been so bold but these were new days and seeing how far I could push him was fun. I stroked him, hard, strong movements.
“Please.” His voice was more of a croak than anything else. Behind me, Wes stepped up and wrapped his arms around me, placing his forehead on my shoulder while I stroked Dane. It didn’t take long. Soon, Dane threw his head back and moaned while he came in my hand.
The sounds of the day infiltrated my thoughts as tiredness pressed on me. Dane pulled me forward, taking Wes with him, and as we stood listening to the sounds of insects and birds, a cold breeze blew on us.
“Fuck.” Dane spoke first. “That was insane.”
Wes shrugged. “In eight years, I’ve imagined a lot of things. That was nothing compared to what I have been planning.”
“I could hardly let myself think about sex.” Dane’s body shuddered. “I was too convinced you were dead.”