He looked really good, even with the stains on his shirt. It was tucked in and he’d clearly at some point shaved. C.J. was much scruffier than he was at the moment.
“Wes.” I shouted his name. “Get away. It’ll see you.”
He waved his hand in the air. “It’s not going to see anything. I’ve got it under control.” He pushed at his wrist. “See? It’s dancing for you, honey.”
I looked upwards at the sky and had to laugh, despite the dread of the drone’s presence making me feel dead inside. Wes was really making the drone dart around in the sky, like it moved to music.
“I saw it a while back and I thought it would be harder to make it do what I wanted. Only, it wasn’t. Simplest hack ever.”
I rushed down the stairs and threw myself at him. He caught me and held tight. He smelled clean and like I’d finally gone home again. “How many years is it here?”
His voice was quiet in my ear. Leave it to Wes to figure out the time was off. I buried my head in his shoulder. “Five.”
“I thought I’d be mad at you, but I’m not. Just relieved I found you. My signal is off because everyone else seems to have done the same. Did any of the other guys make it here? I assume C.J. did but after that I’m unclear about what happened.”
“You. Geoff. C.J. Cooper.”
“Oh, awesome. I’m not last. I assumed I’d be last especially after I started messing with the drone up there.” He shuddered. “This feels so good. You in my arms. Alive. Not dead. I’m so sorry we got taken while you were out cold, left you alone.”
“I’m sorry I sent you through a black hole where you got stuck.”
“We didn’t get stuck for long. This is me we’re talking about.” I pulled back so I could grin at him. “One year through, one year to get supplies off the Mars colony and then back in. Took me six to pick that particular lock but, yeah, I’m just that good.”
“Melissa.” Tara’s frightened voice caught my attention and I turned toward her. “Can I assume you two have that drone under control or should we be running for our lives?”
“This is Wes. He’s got it.”
Tara let out a loud breath. “Can he make it stop moving like that? Because, frankly, I think it’s going to give me a heart attack.”
Wes poked at his wrist. “Any particular reason you picked this planet? It’s cold, Mel.”
Not anymore.
Chapter 9
A Meeting of the Minds
WE’D officially taken up residence in the third cabin. Diana slept on the bed and I sat on the floor, surrounded by my four guys, listening to the sounds outside. It was cold but I wouldn’t let them light a fire. Even if Wes could manage to hack every piece of technology that came our way, I wouldn’t risk it. We’d all have to just be a little cold.
“I’m not worried about Nolan.” Wes sat to my left and rubbed at my back, figure eights if I was feeling them correctly. “The man could survive days in the woods by himself. The fact that it’s nighttime and there’s no sign of Dane is somewhat concerning to me.”
Geoff shook his head from where he lounged to my right. “Not me. Dane is remarkably capable. If he’s not here yet, there’s a very good reason for it. He’ll get here when he gets here.” He yawned before he pressed his forehead against my shoulder. “Diana’s okay up there, right?”
I looked toward where she rested on the bed, her eyes closed in deep sleep. One of her legs poked out from under the covers.
“She’s fine.” I looked back to see all four sets of eyes staring at her. The tenderness radiating off them made me warm inside. “When she was first born, and we were running for our lives, I should have been sleeping every time she did. But for maybe the first three weeks or so I’d stare at her when she slept, counting her breaths. In, out. Eventually, I had to pull it together. I couldn’t keep her alive if I was a zombie.”
Geoff rubbed his forehead on the side of my arm, breathing deeply. I knew he wanted to be close, to reconnect like I’d done with Cooper and C.J., but this wasn’t the place for it, and like C.J. had to wait a night, he and Wes had to as well. It was frustrating. Being physical with C.J. and Cooper had been good for me, too.
I felt…steadier.
“I wish I had been there to help you.” Geoff closed his eyes. “We could have watched her together.”
“Six other people to keep her and you steady. That’s how it should have been.” Cooper sighed loudly from where he leaned against the wall. “I was never enamored with the idea of sharing you. Maybe I even thought sometimes that if I held on long enough, I’d be the last man standing with you. Don’t blame me. I was raised to believe I’d have a wife all to myself. That being said, I never would have dared even suggest such a thing or act on it. Especially after having spent the last eight years with these guys—and even forgiving them for thinking I screwed them over when I love them like brothers—none of them were going to give up on your love, either. Ever. If things could have been as they should have been, Diana would have had nothing but love and protection from the time she came into the universe.”
Silence stretched out between us. It wasn’t awkward but neither was it exactly pleasant. There was stuff that had to be said, questions answered both by me and by them.
“What have you all done with yourselves for eight years? Or five? Or whatever. I know what Wes was doing, but the rest of you…”
C.J. answered when my voice trailed off. “I worked on making Artemis a smarter ship. She’s technically savvy now, could probably take any fighter in the fleet. Cooper here made the botanic lab a thing of beauty. We lived off his vegetables most of the time. And Geoff…”
“I made bigger, smarter bombs. Could probably take out Ochoa if you wanted me to. The whole planet.”
Cooper looked away fast, like he was suddenly interested in the wall. My chest tightened. “I don’t give orders to blow things up anymore. Not planets, not people, not governments. I’m done. I’m ‘do we have enough water Melissa,’ not the girl on the screen anymore, not Melissa Fucking Alexander.”
The door banged open and Nolan stood in the doorway. Big, strong, alive, and totally fixated on me. “Could you people have made it any harder for me to find you? What the hell is the turning off our wireless about? Not having it is a big pain in the ass.”
I darted to my feet and lunged at him. My Nolan. He was here and he looked whole. He caught me in his arms and squeezed me so tight that for a moment I couldn’t breathe. His voice in my ear was warm. “I’m going to assume that everyone here has already yelled at you so I’m not going to, baby. But if you ever so much as send me anywhere again without my say so I’m going to spank your ass. Are we clear?”
My insides heated at his words. I loved when he got kinky. He knew it, too. He laughed at whatever he felt from my reaction. I didn’t even know what I’d done. I stared up at him. “Your beard has a touch of gray in it.”
“Well, you took eight years off my life. I got older.” He walked into the room, me still in his arms, and stopped two strides in. I didn’t have to see where he was looking to know what he’d seen. “That her?”
I stepped down from his arms but not away from him. I’m not sure I could have if I wanted to, since his hand on my arm stayed steadily holding me in place. “It is. Her name is Diana.”
He nodded. “Awesome.” Nolan ran a hand over his bald head. “Where the fuck is Dane?”
“That’s a good question.” Cooper got to his feet. “We’re having a discussion about whether we should be concerned.”
“Not yet.” Nolan shook his head. “This is Dane. He may have found something important or not wanted to lead someone here. In the morning we go look if he’s not here.”
Cooper nodded. “That works.”
So Nolan was in charge. Or at least enough that Cooper deferred to him, which constituted a big change from before. There were bound to be a lot of things that were altered. I had changed in a big way, too.
“Hold on.” Nolan hauled m
e up against him again, this time kissing me hard on the lips. I moaned against him, unable to hold back the sound. After a moment, he set me back down on the floor. “I’ve been wanting to do that for eight years.” Finally, he moved away from me and I could breathe again. Having them all near me was wreaking havoc on my senses. Was it possible to overdose on my husbands after so much time away from them?
“I’m…” I pointed at the door. “Going to stand on the porch and get some air.”
Before any of them could object, I ran through the door and onto the porch. The cold air hit me square in the face, but for a change I liked the onslaught. I breathed in through my nose. What did it even mean that they were back? Were we going to be able to make this work in our present circumstances? I couldn’t be who they needed me to be anymore. They’d come back for the girl who had led our small band through the universe, ordering them around. Or maybe not. Perhaps they’d returned for the girl who had no memory and clung to them like they were the air she breathed.
I was none of those things and all of them at the same time—and altogether too different from what they must have been expecting.
What would happen when I disappointed them all?
“Did you panic when each of them got here or just me?” Nolan stepped through the doorway, closing it gently behind him.
“I’m changed now, too. You guys spent eight years trying to get to me when you should have probably gone on with your lives on the other side of the universe. I missed you every second of every day and then I had to make you dead in my mind so I could survive. It all changed me. How am I supposed to be? How am I supposed to be worth the sacrifice you made to get to me?”
The night was dark. There weren’t even stars in the sky. I shivered in the wind and on silent feet Nolan wrapped his arms around me, pulling my body against his chest.
“You silly woman. I’ve loved you every day I’ve known you. And I failed you. I got taken while you couldn’t defend yourself, while you were pregnant. I left you to manage this hell by yourself. You’ve changed? Great. We’ll all figure it out. Don’t stress over things we can’t foresee yet.”
I let his words sink into my soul. Was such a thing possible? Could I actually just go with the flow?
“Come here.” He took my hand and led me down the porch toward the woods. I couldn’t see a thing, but Nolan seemed sure of his footing, or at least he pretended to be.
There could be guards anywhere but I trusted Nolan to know if there were. Maybe I was being naïve. Right then, I didn’t care.
He turned me around and pressed me against a tree. “The porch would have done the trick but I wasn’t going to risk our Diana waking up and finding her mommy coming all over my fingers.”
“And this tree looked appealing to you?”
“It’s just the right distance away.” He ran a hand down my stomach as he leaned closer. “Do you not like it?”
“It’s fine.” I pressed backward until my ass touched his cock. He was hard, which didn’t surprise me. Nolan could be ready to go, fast. It was a quality I’d always appreciated about him.
He kissed the back of my head. “Just fine?”
Nolan tugged at my pants until they pooled at my feet and then did the same with my panties. His fingers traced on the lips of my pussy, running along the outside of my core. “For eight years, I haven’t thought about being inside of you. I’ve dreamed of getting you off. Of feeling you come. Don’t get me wrong, I’m ready and willing. But what I want is to hear you come and know I gave you pleasure.”
I leaned my head against his chest. “You’re really sweet. I didn’t know it before I lost my memories. Then for a while, you terrified me. But eventually I saw it. You’re sweet, Nolan. That’s all there is to it.”
He nipped my ear. “Don’t tell a soul.”
“Never.” He pressed his fingers deep inside me and I squirmed, wanting to draw him further inside. He found my sweet spot fast. He groaned in my ear, his breath sending shivers up and down my spine. “Yes. Right there.”
“I’ll always know how to get you off. Five years. Eight years. Twenty. You’re my girl and your body is mine to play with.”
“Nolan.” I gripped the tree. I was going to have splinters and I didn’t give a shit. “Please. I don’t want just your fingers.” It was awesome but it wasn’t enough. “Can you be inside me?”
He bit down on my shoulder. “If that’s what you want. Don’t move.”
“I love you. Did I ever tell you often enough?” He moved behind me and I didn’t have to see to know what he was doing. The dark hair on his legs scratched my own when he moved forward, his knee hitting the back of mine.
“I don’t know that there is such a thing as too much.”
With a moan, he pressed inside me and I clung to the tree for dear life. I’d forgotten, if it was possible, just how large Nolan was. He filled me completely, rubbing against my clit as he did so. “Fuck.”
His cock jerked inside me and I laughed even as I moaned. I wasn’t the only one on the edge. Mr. Always In Control wasn’t holding onto his cool any better than I was.
“Laughing at me?” He pushed harder and I cried out. Yes, that’s what I wanted. “You’re so tight, it’s like a glove milking me. I’m only human and I missed you so fucking much.”
“Then don’t hold back. Two minutes. Two hours. I don’t care. As long as I have you.”
Nolan made a sound somewhere between a groan and a moan before he pressed in and out of me in long jerks. He was so hard and I was needy beyond belief. I moved my hips to push back at him and then I was lost. We might have been dancing for how quickly we found our rhythm. He pressed and I pushed while our bodies remembered how easy it was to love each other.
He grasped my breast, tweaking the nipple through my shirt and I cried out his name.
“So. Fucking. Hot. Baby.”
My head fell backward and colors danced in front of my eyes. I wanted release, I needed Nolan. I didn’t even know. I just…came harder than I could ever remember doing before. I panted, my body still clutching him, as he wasn’t finished. Over and over he pressed in and out of me until I was at my peak again, and much faster than I’d known I could be.
I exploded and lost my grip on the tree. Nolan’s hand shot out, stopping me before my head plowed right into it. He must have come then too but since I’d lost all sense of space or time I wasn’t even sure.
All I could do was breathe.
And love him.
“Hold on to me.” He whispered in my ear and I did as he asked, sort of. I think it was more like flopping around than actually grabbing onto him but eventually I did manage to grip on to him as he carried me back toward the cabin.
I was asleep before we got there, vaguely aware when he set me on the bed next to Diana. Someone lay down next to me on the other side and I rolled toward him. He smelled like Wes and I burrowed deeper.
Blackness shut off my brain.
When I woke up, it was still dark outside. The lamps were out in the cabin and Diana snored softly next to me. The guys were nowhere to be seen. I swung my legs over the bed, glad to see I was fully dressed. Nolan had his head in the woods even if I’d lost mine.
I padded toward the door, hearing voices outside on the porch.
“She’s so small right now. Does she eat?” Nolan’s voice caught my attention. I pressed myself against the door to hear what they were saying more clearly.
C.J. answered him. “Not much. And what she does get, she gives mostly to D, which I get—the whole mother child irreplaceable bond. She’d die for D as I suspect we all would now, too. But, we’ve got to get her fed. Get them both eating. When we can get back to Artemis, they’ll have to go on the veggie diet with the rest of us, but there’s enough to eat thanks to Coop.”
“She’s asleep right now.” Wes sounded frustrated, something about the hitch in his voice gave him away. “We could pick them up, put them on the ship, and be there by tomorrow. Nolan can go find
Dane wherever he went to get himself lost and then we’ll all be together.”
“But together where?” Cooper let out a loud breath. “She makes a good point. There is nowhere to go here. Do we spend the rest of our lives running from my sister on the Artemis? What kind of life is that for Diana or, hell, for any of us? I hate this cold-as-hell planet but, shit, I get why Melissa picked it. She’s smart and canny. They’re somewhat hidden here. If we wait it out, the guards will eventually leave again. Then we just make this work. I’m sure in twenty years we’ll all be used to it.”
They laughed, which seemed deranged. Eight years together had made them communicate better and I’d be impressed except I had no intention of being carted off while I slept.
“There is another option.” I’d never heard C.J. speak so much in group meetings. “We could go back through the black hole. Wes opened it one way, he opens it another. What do you think, buddy? Got it in you?”
“Be easy, actually.” Wes laughed. “But then what are you suggesting? We go make a life on Earth with her father? I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’d really rather not have to spend any more years in his company.”
Nolan snorted which made me want to laugh. I guess it hadn’t gone well with my dad. I’d have to get the story from them at some point.
C.J. answered. “I was thinking more like Mars colony. Close to daddy-dearest but far enough away M’s father isn’t dropping in regularly to drive us nuts.”
I’d heard enough. I opened the door and stepped out to look at them. “I can’t go running to the Mars Colony with all of you. These people here, they’re counting on me. Most of them would be dead if they hadn’t run into my mother and me when we’d gone on the run. I made promises. I won’t break them.”
“Your mother.” Nolan’s eyebrows shot up. “She’s here?” He darted to his feet.
“Down, cowboy.” C.J. groaned. “She’s not in her right mind. I tried speaking to her earlier. You’re not going to get any satisfaction from it, trust me. She seems to love D, though. That goes a long way with M.”