Keith kissed the side of my neck. I was wedged between the twins. Quinn ran his hands up and down my back while Keith said the sweetest things to me.
“I love your neck. It’s so lovely.” He bit down lightly. “Lots of places to leave marks.”
I raised my eyebrows. “You want to mark me?”
“Everywhere.”
Behind me, Quinn snorted. “Take your turn. Should we compete? See which one of us can mark her the fastest?”
I thought about it. “Now that doesn’t sound particularly fun to me, actually. Some biting, yes. Lots of it, probably not.”
Quinn nuzzled his head against my back. “Okay.”
“I still love your neck,” Keith whispered. “Even if I can only bite on it a little bit.” He took my hand and kissed my palm. “And your hand.” He fell quiet.
I reached up to touch his high cheekbones. “You okay?”
“He’s thinking about something. I can feel it over here.” Quinn sighed. “It’s that twin thing. We’re not as bad as some but worse than others. Keith has a nugget of an idea for something only he can imagine could be real. As we both obsess better than anyone in the universe, he’s not going to let this one go so easily.”
One side of Keith’s mouth quirked in a smile. “I was thinking about time. How this moment is like a bubble. I’d like to freeze it so I could revisit it whenever I wanted to. Or if I could somehow go back in time and tell myself not to let you get in that pod, I would. One brief second of time I could change or keep forever.”
“Deep, man. Deep.” Quinn groaned.
I rolled my eyes. “I think it’s sweet. I would go back to this, too. And really? If I hadn’t gotten taken by the bounty hunter, Quinn wouldn’t have rescued me and then killed him. He’d still be out there.”
Quinn interrupted me. “Don’t make that okay, P. It’s not okay. You’re ours to protect, and we let you get hurt. A couple of times. Yeah … I’d be in favor of you not going into the pod.”
“But then how would we know what my not doing so would eventually cause? Explain it to me, Keith. How would you handle the ripple? What changed? What didn’t? Maybe we wouldn’t be here right now, engaged. Maybe we’d all be dead.”
Keith pressed his forehead to mine. “Maybe then we don’t change anything. We visit to observe. I could come back here and be warm with you and watch it anytime I wanted. When things got hard, I could be here.”
I pinched his nose. “You can do so in your mind any time you want. It’s called memory.”
“Memory is flawed. It’s not as good as the real thing.”
The ship alarm went off, and Keith pounded the bed. “We never get a second off. Okay, come on. Let’s see what’s going on.”
Quinn jumped from the bed and grabbed my hand. “No pod. No separation. We go down, you go with us.”
“Great imagery, love.” I kissed his cheek. “How about, ‘Your victory is my victory’?”
“That works, too.”
Tommy sat back in his chair; he leaned back, seemingly relaxed, with his hands steepled in front of him. Clay appeared less at ease. He stood behind his brother.
“What’s up?” Keith yawned and sat down. “Another bounty?”
Tommy pointed at the screen. All I saw were dots and triangles. I was glad he could read them. “Our cousin in my ship.”
When he said my, his jaw ticked. I rubbed his shoulders. “What’s going on?”
“When I left the fold and took them and ran, my father had to replace me. He took my ship—the best one I ever designed, the lead ship in his fleet—and he gave it to our stupid, overbearing, moron of a cousin. He’s out there in my ship and in our way.”
Clay shook his head. “Hasn’t seen us yet. But unless we want to detour and be days later to Mars Station, we’re going to have to say hello.”
Quinn took his seat. “You can beat him. Strategically, you’re smarter. This ship is stronger, despite your deep-seated love for that one. Shouldn’t be too much of a battle. Three shots up, two below. Take out the engine. Boom.”
Tommy drummed his fingers on the console. “I’m not going to be firing on them unless they fire first.”
Quinn shook his head. “That’ll cause maybe two more minutes of battle. Ultimately, you still win.”
“Thanks for the confidence and the belief.” Tommy stood. “We just got our girl back. I don’t want to place her in harm again.”
Now that I had an opinion on. “Tommy, we agreed. I’m a part of your life. I don’t sit around and hide. If this is our life, this is our life. I’ve never had anything to fight for. I have the four of you. That’s a gift to me.”
“Then we fight them.” Tommy leaned over to kiss me. “I swear there will be a time when this doesn’t happen.”
“Even if there isn’t, this is our life. Let’s enjoy the tiny moments.” I winked at Keith, who grinned. “If I hadn’t met you, I’d never have known I could be happy. Even in the midst of dark times, there is happiness.”
Clay hoisted me over his shoulder, and I squealed. I hadn’t seen it coming. “We got engaged today, you crazy people. Nothing is going to spoil it.”
I hoped he was right.
THE END
***
Like Paloma and the McQueen boys? Don’t worry. There is A LOT more to their love story and many more bumps to their road … er … space trip. Look for more of them in January 2017 with LOVING THEM. Thanks for reading. And do check out the rest of the Wings of Artemis series—Kidnapped By Her Husbands, Rescued by their Wife, and Crashing Into Destiny available wherever ebooks are sold. For more information, check out my website www.rebeccaroyce.com
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Rebecca Royce
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
As a teenager, I would hide in my room to read my favorite romance novels when I was supposed to be doing my homework. I hope, these days, that my parents think it was worth it.
I am the mother of three adorable boys and I am fortunate to be married to my best friend. I live in Austin Texas where I am determined to eat all the barbecue in town.
I am in love with science fiction, fantasy, and the paranormal and try to use all of these elements in my writing. I've been told I'm a little bloodthirsty so I hope that when you read my work you'll enjoy the action packed ride that always ends in romance. I love to write series because I love to see characters develop over time and it always makes me happy to see my favorite characters make guest appearances in other books.
In my world anything is possible, anything can happen, and you should suspect that it will.
I'd love to hear from you!
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Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Rebecca Royce, Meeting Them
(Series: Wings of Artemis # 3.50)
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