AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“We know,” Ransom yawned. “I’ve had a headache all day and this asshat didn’t tell us he was leaving. We had a good scare for a few minutes before we figured it out and came after him.” He patted the bed next to him. “And Gunnar is hurting, so we’re a great trio. How the fuck did Crew get through his so much faster?”
Gunnar limped over and got on Mace’s other side. “I think he went off the machine the day she got here. He’s always ahead of us. Like he just knew that this would happen. I don’t know. But I’d guess.”
“He’ll never tell us.” Ransom put his head down.
I stood watching them for a second as they settled down around Mace. Their presence seemed to calm him down. Every once in a while, he muttered something. Eventually, he settled, his breathing evening out—not snoring anymore, just even. Right about when I noticed he’d fallen asleep, I noticed the other two were out, too.
It was sort of adorable. They didn’t regularly sleep together, as they told me as much, but they were willing to keep each other safe. Without hesitation or qualms, they climbed into bed with Mace because he needed them, no questions asked.
My heart turned over. What would it be like to have someone care so much about you, they willingly risked themselves for your good? But thinking them adorable wasn’t the only emotion my shattered thoughts considered. Little sparks of desire still pooled in my belly for Mace. What would it be like, I wondered? To have all their hard bodies against me, or at least two of them? Then maybe one could…
I shook my head. What was the matter with me? One good sexual encounter and my brain stopped working. I didn’t even know if the three of them actually wanted me. They were just going through withdrawal, so they could change their minds, right? For that matter, I could change my mind.
Scratch that, I realized. If they all wanted to, I would gladly be game. It might be very fun, in fact. I swallowed. Perhaps more than fun, too. That was the scary part. What was I supposed to do with any of this?
Crew made a noise. It had to be purposeful , because I knew just how quiet they could be if they tried. A second later, his hand touched my waist, followed fast by his chin on my shoulder. He kissed my neck, and I gasped as the warmth moved through me again. Apparently, Crew would only have to remind my body about what we shared for it to be ready for him again.
“I’d do anything for them, ” he whispered in my ear. “They’d do anything for me, for each other. And for you. Anything. I don’t know how it happened, Raven, but you’re one of us. It might not be something you want. Amias ran off because he didn’t want to be here anymore. It killed me a little bit to lose him, and to know he felt that way. You’re ours now, too. We will always see to it that you have whatever you need. Always. Almost instantly, you became someone we need.” He stepped back. “Come outside with me? Let them sleep. I’m going to cook, since they’ll likely wake up hungry. It won’t take them as long as me. I always pass out longer. They’re faster to recover, and always have been. Even Mace, who has, as he told you, more human reactions—even he gets better faster than me.”
I followed him outside where two dead animals waited to be skinned and cooked. They looked similar to pigs from my planet, but not exactly the same. Amias once told me about adaptations, and how different animals changed to suit the environments of the planets where they were introduced. I understood a little bit about it, enough to assume the animals would taste very similar to the pigs that we kept at home. Cooking wasn’t my main job, since everyone had a different role to fulfill to keep Clarke’s empire strong…
It was ridiculous, really. Why didn’t we poison his food? I shook my head. He was enhanced, which meant he would’ve smelled it, but no one even tried.
“What can I do to help?” I asked, deciding I didn’t want to think about things at the moment.
He pointed to a comfortable- looking seat next to his fire pit. “Sit and keep me company. This is going to take some time.”
“I’ll keep you company, but I’d like to help.” I joined him by the fire. “Might be nice to know how to do something useful, since my previous skill set isn’t helpful on this planet.” I paused, shaking my head. I wasn’t sure anymore how I’d go back to letting people handle my body against my will. I admitted, “I think…something has changed big time in me. And I’m not sure at all what the future will hold.”
Crew didn’t argue with me about my future being off kilter, he only squeezed my knee companionably. Instead of meaningless promises, he spent the next few hours showing me how to cook the animal—a visayan, he called it. It was a long process, and we actually didn’t speak very much, which was comfortable with Crew.
Sometimes I’d catch him staring at me. When he knew he’d been caught, he’d wink at me. About the third time, I winked back, and he laughed. It was just the easiest thing in the world to be together with him.
Eventually, he used sticks to suspend the pig over the flames. His timing struck me as flawless, since the sun dipped low over the horizon. Just in time for dinner.
The pork sizzled and popped over the flames for a few minutes, making tantalizing scents warm the air, when he lifted his head and grinned at me. “The food smell is rousing them.”
“Is that okay? Shouldn’t they sleep longer?”
He shook his head. “If they were really sick, they’d be still out of it. I mean, I’m not an expert, but that’s what I think.”
“Why did it move through you so much faster? Is it really just how things work for you?”
He smirked at me. “Smart girl asking what they won’t. I stopped going in the machine the day I met you. You arrived on my scheduled night, so I didn’t go in. Due to that, I’m a bit ahead. I guess, technically, it means it moved through me slower.”
I squeezed his knee again. Gunnar had been right. “That fast, you wanted out of the machine?”
“I wanted…” He caught his breath and then steeled his shoulders. “I wanted the chance to really love you, the way a man loves a woman, if that’s how it ended up feeling. Amias met and loved your brother, you said. When you told us that, it struck me like someone plunged a knife into my stomach. A man who was my brother ran away to have a life because he didn’t feel free to have one here with us. I have to believe it’s because of that machine. I’m so glad he found Stone, and I’m so glad he sent you to find us. I knew you might not have anywhere close to that kind of interest in me, and I understood the possibility you’d like someone else, but I wanted the chance, if it ever came. Plus. You’re just so fucking pretty. I knew that right off the bat. It turns out you are so many other amazing things too. I just thought, maybe if I stopped, there might be a chance.”
I caught my breath, tears flooding my eyes. I didn’t let them spill. His words moved through me like a gift from the universe to squeeze beauty into my soul. “Crew.”
He leaned over and kissed me. “I’m not pushing you. I just hope we can both be on that path. If you never get there, that’s fine, too. I’m just so happy to be near you. I get to feel like this, to feel real. To feel like a man should feel when he’s around the most special, beautiful woman he’s ever seen.”
It was hard to talk past the lump in my throat. “If I start crying, know they’re happy tears.”
“There are happy tears?”
He no sooner asked than Mace sort of stumbled out of the ship. He missed the bottom step and winced but kept walking toward us before he threw himself down on the other side of me. “I’m so sorry, Raven. So fucking sorry.”
