The outdoor wear we had on made me sweat.
“What the hell?” Lewis pulled his hat and headpiece off. I followed suit.
I pointed at the water in the center of the cave. “Heat’s coming from there.”
A pond of blue water filled the center of the cave, and hot air shot up from it, making the whole cave feel like an enclosure from the cold outside. I wandered to the sides of the space. Old-looking pots and discarded clothing were all over the place. They were all old.
“Lewis.” I caught his attention. “I think people stayed in here. For a while. Look at this old stuff.”
He came over my shoulder to look down. “You’re right. There’s no life signs here now. I wonder if some of the populace took shelter here after the bombs.”
Lewis backed up until he was over the pond, looking down. He pulled the backpack off his shoulder and took out some equipment. I almost asked him what he was doing. Then I remembered how many times I’d had to stop to explain a plan I had to those around me when it would’ve been faster, more efficient, and easier if they’d simply let me do what I did.
He put on a different set of gloves and grabbed then dipped a vial into the water. After applying a lid to the vial, he started to shake it really fast. He stood back and watched it for a second. “If there was anything toxic in the water, this would turn purple.”
I stepped toward him. “Are you planning on getting in it? Is it too hot? Are there creatures living in it?”
“No life signs whatsoever. I checked on them before we came. Maybe I will get in.” He grinned before he looked down at the ground. “Want to swim?”
He took off his outdoor suit and threw it to the side. He only had on a pair of boxer shorts. “It’s safe. It’ll be like a hot tub.”
“I’ve been to a sauna. Once. You have to be really rich to go on Mars Station. My parents don’t like to show off money. It doesn’t look good for the politics of it all. I … Lewis, I don’t know how to swim. There’s a pool, but no one ever taught me.”
He let the water run through his fingertips. “Want to know the good news about the amount of salt in this thing?”
That seemed like a completely wrong response to what I’d said. “What?”
“We’re both going to float. I could teach you to swim. If we had a pool anywhere. We don’t. You’ll have to come off Orion with me to learn.”
If we were going to float, I could get in. I pulled my clothes off. My underwear covered as much, I guessed, as a bathing suit—not that I’d ever had one on. I hadn’t.
“If my skin peels off because of this pool of heat, I’m never going to forgive you.”
He smirked. “We can melt together. Seriously? I bring you all the way out here; I plan this date where at any time you could run shrieking to the truck … I must be out of my mind.”
“I’m not the kind of person who shrieks. Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’m plenty afraid of everything. I’m more likely to go silent.”
His face fell. “I hope those days are behind you. Diana, I’m sorry; I know you hate being told what I’m about to say, but you are so … lovely. I’ve never seen anyone as beautiful as you. I could look at you all day long.”
“Thank you, Lewis.” I let him see me admire his physique. “You’re pretty spectacular yourself.”
He offered me his hand, and we both got into the steaming hot water together. I laughed as I immediately bobbed up to the top, floating flat on my back. The sensation was odd but restful. Lewis held my hand tightly.
“This is odd, right?” Lewis laughed. “I mean, we’re in hot water in the middle of Orion, floating, in the middle of a cave.”
“I was just thinking if you’d asked me a little over a year ago if I could ever imagine such a thing as this happening to me, I would have scoffed. This is real. You’re real. I’m here. This is happening.”
He was silent for a minute. “If you’d asked me if there would ever come a time when the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen—who also happens to know how to work tech and engineering and lived by herself in a ship while she was flung around the universe—would want to come to a cave and float with me, I’d never have believed it.”
“Why not? You’re smart. You’re gorgeous. You have a wicked sense of humor you keep hidden. You say really incredible things. She’d be crazy not to want to.” I closed my eyes.
“Because at best, I got lost and my family never found me. At worst, they didn’t want to.”
I didn’t expect his response. I opened my lids. I couldn’t roll to look at him. We were both kind of stuck where and how we floated. I didn’t need to see him to hear his pain. “The thing about this side of the galaxy is you’re all really preoccupied with where you came from. Your background. Like it has some kind of weight on who you should be. Where I’m from … the head of the council my mother sits on, he was born on a cargo ship and abandoned by the door of a military institution that raised him under hellish conditions not suitable for an animal. No one would ever suggest he couldn’t be whatever he wanted. There’s political power and financial power. Anyone can rise to it. Anyone can fall. I don’t care where you came from. I’m sorry it happened to you; it caused you pain. It would never change how I feel about you. Not for a minute.”
“I want to be in your world. With you.” He squeezed my fingers tighter. “Tell me about Earth.”
“I hardly remember it, but what I do is that it’s green. Blue. Alive. It’s always in turmoil. My grandfather is important there. He recently suggested if my parents couldn’t marry me off properly on Mars Station, I could come to earth and he’d do the job.”
Lewis laughed softly. “Nope. You had to come to us. That’s all there was to it.”
“I maintain if there was another female even anywhere nearby, you’d be less enthusiastic about me.”
“I’ll prove it to you someday. I’m not crazy. I know how incredible you are.”
Chapter Fourteen
Lewis Hurst
We got out of the pool and sat on the side together, holding hands. Somewhere in the distance, water dripped. It wasn’t cold inside the cave, and I’d gotten enough of floating around. Salt made my skin tingle. My muscles were relaxed, maybe more so than they’d ever been.
Lewis leaned over and kissed my shoulder. “I don’t know what you’re doing with everyone else. We’ve made a pact not to discuss it with each other. You get to have a separate relationship with each of us. Cash read through research in the system saying that’s the way it works best.”
“That’s pretty much how my parents and uncles manage it. There’s some crossover. They all love each other’s kids. They all take care of us. If my mom has a fight with Nolan, my dad stays out of it unless he absolutely has to get involved. We’re a family.”
He nodded, looking down at the pool. I wondered if there would ever come a time when he would hold my eye contact or if this was how it was always going to be. I didn’t mind either way.
“Right. So, I’m wondering if you would be okay with us not rushing through the beginning of this. I’m hearing a lot from the guys. They’re … anxious to be physical. They want the drugs out of their system. I get it. They have to report their physical symptoms to me. It was decided I’d manage better than Cash knowing which of us can get hard, which ones can’t, and when the change starts to happen. Please believe me, I want that, too. But do we need to rush? Can we enjoy the beginning? I never expected to have one. I’d like to kiss you many, many times. Share you bed because I want to hold you. Hold hands. I don’t want to rush through that. Is that okay with you?”
He was so sweet my heart swelled and I couldn’t hide my sigh from him. “You’re incredible. I want whatever you want. I never thought … that is, I’d hoped … I didn’t believe this would be my life. I expected eventually I’d have no choice but to get married to someone. I thought maybe I could manage one person. He wouldn’t want to talk much. He wouldn’t expect much of me in terms of … emotions. I’m sure
I’m bumbling this, making you all unhappy …”
Lewis interrupted me, fast. “No, just the opposite.
“Okay,” I put my hand on his arm. “Let me finish. I’m so grateful to have this time with you. I want to have our relationship however you want to have it.”
He took my hand and kissed my knuckles. “Awesome, Doll. Thank you.”
“Doll?” I asked him while he brought my palm to his mouth to plant a kiss there, too.
“Don’t like it?” His dark eyes met my gaze.
“I do.”
He pulled me against him into a hug. I closed my eyes. He didn’t want to rush the physical. That was fine. I’d dream about him just the same.
“We should go back.” He kissed both my cheeks. “You can’t know how much today means to me. When you were first on my table, I never thought I’d keep you alive.”
I breathed him in. “You did. Then you shined the light in my eye and called for Cash.”
“I was scared out of my mind about you. You made me … hope, again. That’s a dangerous thing.”
We dressed each other, which was awkward and funny at the same time. Eventually he zipped me into his black coat, and we walked back out into the cold Orion wind. Lewis stopped and grabbed some of the artifacts from inside. He was pretty sure Cash would want to see them.
I hopped into the truck, glad to be out of the wind. It seemed kind of dark outside, much more so than I would have expected.
“How long do you think we were in there? An hour?” Lewis stared at the clock in the truck. “This thing says it’s eight o’clock at night.”
“What?” No way had we been in the cave for any length of time. I couldn’t see it being more than two hours at most.
He shook his head. “Let’s get back quickly. Something is weird.”
The leisurely drive from the compound was different than the ride back there. We made it in about half the time. A muscle ticked in Lewis’ cheek. Tension radiated off him. He clicked the black button and got only static. “I think you’re going to have to fix this thing. Sometimes it won’t call out. Only in. We missed dinner for sure.”
I wasn’t hungry. It still felt like I’d only eaten breakfast a few hours earlier. Were the others going to yell at us?
I didn’t have to wait long to find out. No sooner had Lewis swung open the door than the whole group descended upon us.
“Are you okay?” Judge shook while he hugged me and then passed me to Cash who touched my face before Sterling picked me up in a bear hug.
I didn’t, however, touch Damian who stared down Lewis like he wanted to ring his neck. “Do you have any idea how terrified we have been? Where the hell did you go? You don’t call. You don’t let us know you’re wherever. You take her out there and don’t think we might all be worried about both of you.”
My date for the day held up his hands in surrender. “Took her to the caves. We were in there for an hour. Not more. Came out; it’s dark. I don’t know what the fuck happened. I would never have kept her out there that long without touching base.”
“Oh.” Judge jumped back on his feet. “There must be a time differential in the cave. Anything else weird in there?”
“Hot springs,” I answered, which brought Damian’s gaze to my own. “You float.”
“Sounds fucking fantastic. I thought you were both dead.” He stormed from the room, slamming the door behind him when he did.
Lewis let out a long breath. “Shit. I really didn’t have any idea. We were in there, and it felt like an hour.”
Sterling patted his back. “Give Damian the night. You’re only going to get fear tonight. You know that …” His voice trailed off.
“I do know.”
I didn’t. But it couldn’t be good. Judge knocked into Lewis and grinned. The others weren’t angry, but Damian really, really was.
There was no game night that evening. With Damian pissed off, the others seemed to retreat to their rooms. Lewis came back with me to Artemis. We both showered, and when I came out, it was to a message from Judge beeping on my computer. I played it quickly.
“Goodnight. So glad you’re okay. Hot springs and time differentials. How cool. Night, Di.”
I smiled. Tomorrow I would send him a message back. My clothes were folded nicely on my dresser, and five new sets of panties and bras were with them. Sterling had taken care of things.
I lay back on my bed in my too big pajamas. They’d all been afraid, and it sounded like Damian the most so. I felt terrible about the time they must have had. Still, I couldn’t regret the day. It had been utterly fantastic.
Lewis crawled into bed next to me, and I told Artemis to dim the lights. He pulled me up against him. “Feels like the middle of the day. I can’t believe it’s night. Yet I’m also exhausted.”
“The way we could float in there. Must play with gravity, which in turn must push on the differential.”
He snickered in my ear. “Talk to Judge about time stuff. Makes my head hurt.”
“Are you okay?”
Lewis nodded. “This would not be the first time Damian has been really angry at me. We’ve known each other the longest out of anyone in here. We actually understand each other quite well. He feels responsible for all of us since he put this group together. He worries. Obsesses. I go along at a pretty good pace of listening, and then suddenly I don’t. We yell at each other. Then we both get over it. This case, I can see why he’d worry. Nothing I can do. I’m not going to apologize for having the day—or morning—I wanted with you.”
“I had a great time.”
His fingers stroked down my arm gently. Lewis gently drifted off to sleep over the next few minutes. I was wide awake, and I couldn’t sleep worrying about Damian. It might break some kind of rule, but I had to see for myself that he was okay.
I got out the bed as quietly as I could manage. When I finally put feet on the floor, Lewis let out a loud snore. I smiled. He wasn’t going to wake up simply from my leaving for a few minutes. I slipped on my shoes.
As quietly as I could manage, I made my way to where the others slept. Lewis’ room was first on the left. I knew where he was, so I passed on by. Sterling was next. His door was cracked open, and I saw him flat on his stomach, sleeping. I wasn’t going to bother him. Judge’s door was open; he had headphones on, and he waved when I walked by. I waved back but hurried to Damian’s door, which was across from Cash’s, currently closed. Damian wasn’t in his room.
I could never find him. Where did he go?
Judge was awake. I was going to ask him to point me to Damian.
He took off his headphones when I approached. “Hi, Di. Everything okay?”
“Lewis is out cold. I feel bad leaving him, but I can’t sleep until I know Damian’s okay.”
Judge waved his hand. “I’m sure by now he’s fine. He’s probably stewing in the barn, where he always is, by his office.’
I put my hands on my hips. “No one told me to look there for him. I never see him.”
“Oh.” He rocked back laughing. “Sorry, you had a defunct tour guide.” He winked at me. “In addition to monitoring all the workings here, he takes care of the animals. Boy is busier than any of us combined.”
I didn’t think any of them were ever going to be accused of being lazy. “I’m sorry if I scared you today. We didn’t mean to.”
He lifted his eyebrows. “I don’t think I’ve ever known worry like that. The two of you … just gone. We couldn’t find any life signs anywhere.”
“I really am sorry.”
He smiled. “Not your fault. It’s okay. Just don’t do it again.”
I laughed. “Thanks. I won’t.”
“Welcome.” He put his headphones back on, although his eyes never left me until I exited the room.
I made my way to the agricultural center. I’d not been back since Judge showed it to me. Walking in, I realized he’d only let me see a small portion of it. The barn and growing areas were huge. They probably took
up the majority of the enclosure. Fake lights, which were now dimmed, must light up the area for the animals and the crops. I walked for a while, encountering horses and pigs in their enclosures. I still hadn’t seen Damian.
And then, there he was. He sat on a fence, staring down at the cows beneath. He’d either not heard me or wasn’t acknowledging me.
“Hey,” I called out, and he jolted, nearly falling off the fence. I gasped, but he righted himself and didn’t fall.
“Diana?” He jumped down and strode to me. “What’s wrong?”
Damian was intense, even when he wasn’t yelling. I took a deep breath. I wondered if he was ever easy, other than sleeping. “I came to say I was sorry. You must have been terribly worried. We didn’t mean to be so late. Still, being afraid is awful, and I couldn’t sleep thinking of you being upset.”
He stopped right in front of me. “You came here because you were worried I was upset?”
“Yes.” Lewis had left Damian alone, and I wondered if I’d made a terrible mistake not doing the same. Was he going to turn his temper on me now? Yell?
He raised his hand and put it on the side of my face. “No one has ever done that for me. Not even my parents. Thank you. I’m okay now. Well, sort of. I might never be okay again. I’m good for the night.”
“We missed dinner.” I walked past him. “So this is where you hang out. I never see you during the day.”
“Ah … yes. This is what I’m good at. I’m a farmer. I was raised on a farm. This was all I knew how to do before Evander. They made me a manager. I guess my heart is still in this. I love the animals. And seeing things grow.”
I touched the fence he’d sat on. “Must run in your family.”
He stood next to me. “My uncle does this, too?”
“He does. Well, not the animals. We don’t have any on Mars Station. All food, except the vegetables we grow in the hydroponics bay, is shipped in. Big problem. Lots of money. Trade. Pirating. Can be a big mess.”
“Wow.” He rubbed his chin. “Really amazing you came here. But I have to ask, what did Lewis say when you said you were going to come here on his night? We have this set of rules, and I don’t want him getting pissed off. He stews.”