Kidnapped By Her Husbands (Wings of Artemis Book 1) (22 page)

I stared at the scene and groaned. Like my other self, I really hated them. Looking at them moving would get old really fast. I could see why she wanted them down. Only it had been a nice gesture, and I could keep them off when Geoff wasn’t in the room.

All I needed was for him to come see them.

My feet were swollen, and I made a note to mention the problem to Dane, later. Waddling my way to Geoff’s room, I knocked on the door, loudly this time. He didn’t answer, and I took a deep breath. If he still slept, this time he needed to rouse. I poked my head in to find him in nearly the same position he’d been in before.

I hoped he had good dreams while I spent the day hooking machines on my ceiling and nearly killing myself in the process. If he rolled his eyes and walked out of my room, I was going to hit him over the head.

After I crossed to his bed, I touched him lightly on the arm. He sat in a flash, headphones flying to the side, and his eyes huge. “What’s wrong?”

Okay. I made a mental note to keep in mind that Geoff woke fast when touched. “I need you.”

He jumped to his feet. “Is it your heart? The bomb? Talk to me, sweetheart.”

I extended my hand. “Not my heart. Not the bomb. Come, please.”

He took my fingers. “You’re scaring me.”

“Don’t be scared. I remembered something. About you. About us.”

We reached my bedroom, and he stopped short. “You did? About me?”

“Yes, about you. Go in.” He walked in front of me, and I nearly collided with him when he abruptly quit moving again. His gaze fixed on the cloud scene above my bed.

“You remembered this?” He pointed to it. “Wait, this was in my closet.”

“Um. I may have been sneaking around in your room while you slept. Don’t be mad. Please.”

I rocked on my feet. I’d been hoping for more of a positive response than the one I got. He didn’t move, he simply stared at the floating clouds like he couldn’t quite make them out. I shuffled closer to his side.

“I realize it was a huge invasion of privacy. I guess…I wanted to give you a big gesture. I wasn’t nice about this the first time, and it must have taken you forever to make it. This is starting over. Or something.”

He turned on me so fast, I didn’t see it coming. With a swift move, he’d grabbed both of my shoulders and walked me backwards into the wall. “Did you put this up yourself?”

“Ah, yes. Did I do it wrong?”

“Are you out of your fucking mind? What if you’d hurt yourself? You have no business climbing around putting stuff on the ceiling. You have a bomb in your heart. And I…I…” He kissed me, softly. If I’d had any idea he would go from yelling to caressing, I wouldn’t have imagined he’d do it so gently. He made love to me with his mouth.

Deep kisses were followed by small, gentle ones. “Sweetheart…You…Love…” He spoke in between breaths, in between sucking my lip into his mouth and tracing it with his tongue. I could barely stand. I’d wanted a reaction to the clouds, and I’d gotten one.

He reached between us, caressing my breast before his hand moved to the ever-growing mound that was my stomach.

Geoff stopped, tugging my hair once, hard. “No more climbing on things high enough to get to the ceiling. Understand?”

“If I’m going to get kissed like that for climbing on the bed, I just might do it again.”

He made a groaning sound and closed his eyes. “You remembered that I made you the clouds. I never in a million years would have picked that.”

“Here’s the truth. I’m having a hard time reconciling myself, the two parts of me. I thought about how I could show you there was no need for you to feel guilty about something you couldn’t foresee coming and this is what came to me.”

He fell to his knees and I darted forward, like I could catch him. “Are you okay?”

He scooted closer. “I’ve never been better.”

Geoff never asked. Like he had on the shuttle, he took what he wanted. Before I could suck in another breath, my shorts were around my ankles and his mouth was on my pussy. I gasped. With all the sex I’d been having, and the petting associated with it, I’d not had anyone’s mouth on my core yet. Geoff dove in. His tongue was on my clit, his finger pressed deep inside of me, and I couldn’t breathe.

He had an amazing tongue, and he moaned as he found ways to massage me with his mouth. It didn’t take long for me to quake with the need to come. I’d been so lost and lonely at Master’s, even if I hadn’t known it. Each time I reconnected with one of my guys, it was like a part of me came back alive.

I might never remember everything about my life before—or any more of it at all, for that matter—but there were memories to be made and the chance to love people who never gave up on me, even while I thought they were evil and wrong.

With a jolt, I came hard in Geoff’s mouth. My knees threatened to give out, so I sunk gently to the floor, pulling him into my arms when I did. Pressed against me, I could feel how hard he was and his body shook in time with mine. He seemed hot and ready.

I stroked him, running my hands across his spine when I did.

“Do you want to come inside my mouth or my core?”

He stared at me, his gaze searching for something. “I get a choice?”

“Always.” I ran my finger down the slope of his nose, tracing his strong features, wanting to implant this memory so no one could take it, ever.

“In you, please.” He kissed me gently. “I want your wet, hot self spasming around my dick. I want it so bad. I can hardly think from needing you.”

I stood and extended my hand to him. He took it and we walked in silence toward the bed. “Lay down. I have to be on top or we have to be creative. My stomach gets in the way.”

He kissed my cheek, holding his mouth there for an extra few seconds in a gesture that made my heart flutter. “You on top. I want to look in your eyes when you come.”

Geoff let go of my hand and lay down on the bed. I undressed him slowly, not taking my gaze from his eyes for more than a few seconds at a time as I did. When he was naked, I caressed his body, rubbing his muscles and running my hands through his hair, wherever I found it on his body. Every second I took to touch him seemed to harden his cock.

“Sweetheart…” His voice sounded like a plea and his hands fisted the bed. I’d touched him everywhere but his erection.

With a smile, I straddled him, taking him deep inside me inch by slow inch. Sweat broke out on his brow.

“Fuck. Oh wow. I fucking love you.” He groaned his words and I couldn’t help my smile. I rode him, up and down, his body jerking beneath me with each move we made. Soon we found our rhythm, his hips dancing with my own, until I moaned and he cried out at every thrust. Pleasure came fast and finally together. I closed my eyes as I collapsed on top of him. His arms hugged me to him. There was no need for speech. Geoff was mine and I’d claimed him as such. If I never remembered, right then I was okay with it. “I love you,” he whispered in my ear.

I kissed his chest. I wouldn’t forget this, I could never allow it.  

Chapter 14

A Full House

PLAYING
poker with the guys turned into a nightly activity. They loved it and they took it very seriously. As I had only recently learned how to play, I tended to fold and watch the others go for gold. Geoff almost always won, which drove Dane the craziest.

By the end of the evenings, Geoff would strum on his guitar. I never knew what he played, but I loved listening to the sounds.

Nolan never joined us, and I hardly saw him even during the days.

With just a day away from the station, we’d fallen into a routine I’d grown comfortable with. I painted and cleaned. The Artemis looked better and, if my feet swelled at the end of the day, I ignored the discomfort.

I never slept alone, even if I fell asleep that way. No one had showed me the schedule C.J. made, yet they all showed up like they knew when they were supposed to share my room. Sometimes we just slept, although those nights were few and far between. If I worried how that would transfer to them all having to help me with a baby, I didn’t mention it. If they had the same concerns, they never told me.

“You ready for today?” C.J. stood in front of me, zipping me into one of his hoodies.

“No.” I blew out my breath. “Why do I have to go? Can’t you just do it without me?”

“Whine. Whine. Whine.” He raised an eyebrow even as he smirked at me. “Come on. Don’t you want to see something off this ship?”

He finished dressing me. “Do you think it’s smart for my pregnant self to go somewhere I have to hide my face under your hood for fear of discovery? I trust you. Go pick out my clothes without me.”

“Nope.” C.J. shrugged. “I insist you take this field trip with me and Nolan. You need a change of scenery. You spent yesterday obsessing over the color of the wall in the botanical lab. We never even go in there. That was Cooper’s deal.”

“A prince of a Noble spent his days working on plants?”

“Yep. He’s really smart.” He took a deep breath. “Come on.”

I wrapped my fingers in his and let him lead me to the shuttle. Nolan waited for us inside. He looked over his shoulder and nodded when I walked inside. If I was honest, I dreaded two things about this trip and neither of them had anything to do with the space station itself. I hated take offs. The shuttle was bound to make me throw up, and I really didn’t want to puke in front of Nolan.

I strapped myself in and hoped for the best. “Nolan, are you going to fly this? I don’t want C.J’s flying skills right now, if you wouldn’t mind.”

“Hey.” C.J. dropped himself in the co-pilot’s seek before he grinned at me. “Don’t knock my special brand of flying. You and I learned from the same people. We don’t fly pretty, but we get the job done.”

“No one has let me fly anything since Wes showed me how to point and click. I have to believe there’s more to it than that.”

Nolan shrugged. “Where would you have found the time, with all the redecorating you’ve been doing? Blue or navy blue are much more pressing than learning how to properly operate the very place that is the only thing keeping you alive in the wilds of space.”

“Thanks for that.” I leaned in my seat. “Haven’t seen you in weeks, and yet here we are with you and the judging.”

C.J. rubbed his forehead, one of his stress moves. “Okay, starting off well.”

“Let’s get out of here.” Nolan pressed several buttons on the console. “I want to get the scrap we’re towing out of here. Get paid and get on to The Bridge, if we’re still going there.” He eyed C.J. sideways.

Had plans changed and no one discussed it with me? Not that they needed to, I was certainly not contributing anything of use to anyone, as Nolan had to point out. Why had I thought things were getting better?

Nolan pulled the shuttle out, and I waited for the nausea to overtake me the way it had in the past. Nothing. My stomach remained as steady as it stayed on the Artemis. C.J. put his legs on the controls in front of him. “I’m going to take a nap.”

He pulled headphones out of his pocket and put them in.

“Are those Wes’ headphones?” I’d never seen C.J. with any, while Wes almost never seemed to be without them.

“Yep. I stole them. He’s going to be mad at me tomorrow.”

I leaned forward. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

“Moralizing, M? We steal things. We’re Nomads. We take from the bad and give to the less bad.”

I snorted at his description. “No, I’m only concerned he won’t be able to sleep. Other than when he stays in my room, he can’t sleep without the headphones. He listens to low sounding music.”

C.J.’s face fell. “I didn’t know that. When did he start?”

“When she died,” Nolan cut in. “Amazing he can sleep without them even with you there. Must be some magic sex you’re giving him.”

That was it. I’d really had enough. “Nolan, if you can’t find anything nice to say to me, could you just keep your mouth shut? I’ve really had enough of the criticism and the sarcastic remarks.”

“Just making conversation,” My bald husband who I didn’t know even a little shot at me.

“You might want to work on those skills.”

C.J. looked between the two of us. “Well, now I feel like a jackass for taking Wes’ lovee.”

This was going to be a very long trip.

We got to the station two hours later. C.J. had eventually taken the nap he wanted, and Nolan had kept quiet the rest of the trip. My head ached, which threw off what little emotional balance I’d found lately.

Stepping out onto the station didn’t help anything. Blaring lights, music, and more people than I’d ever imagined seeing in one place at the same time flooded my senses. For a second, the world pitched black before it righted itself again. A strong hand pressed into my spine, a presence grounding me. I turned to thank C.J. when I realized it was Nolan who’d kept me upright.

“Thank you,” I whispered. Nearly fainting in the Truest Space Station gave him another reason to hate me.

He nodded, not looking at me but scanning ahead. “I hate crowds.”

“Then how did they manage to convince you to come along?” He never spoke to me except to criticize. This was the closest thing we’d ever had to a conversation.

“Only I can negotiate with these guys. We come from similar backgrounds. I get them, they understand me. The other guys would get screwed in this transaction.”

C.J. popped up next to us, nodding toward the main street ahead. Shops and stands were everywhere. A huge screen kept changing pictures, one person encouraging us to report crime while the next asking us to check out a particular bar.

“I’m going to go get supplies and arrange to have them delivered to the shuttle. You two go take care of getting our stash sold.”

Wait…what? I started to ask him when Nolan beat me to it. “You’re not leaving me with her.”

I’d thought the same thing, but hearing him say it panged my chest. When it came to it, I had a hard time being hated. If that made me pathetic, then so be it. I was a person who wanted to be liked. Whether that was because of Master’s, the mind wipe, or something inherently about me, I didn’t know.

“I am.” A muscle in C.J.’s jaw ticked. “This doesn’t work like it’s been going. You don’t get to hide in your room and pretend if you stew and yell loud enough she’ll suddenly either vanish or become who you’d prefer her to be. She’s your wife. Has been for longer than she’s been mine.” He turned his attention to me. “As a single woman, with no husband, and only seventeen years old, you found this man in the worst circumstances imaginable and you picked him out of everyone in the world to be yours. Trust me when I tell you no one saw it coming, and although you never gave a shit about other people’s opinions, there were lots of them. There were a lot of reasons for it. You can’t remember them, and that’s not your fault. Fine. Learn what they are now. You’ve been trapped on a ship together for weeks and gotten nowhere. Let’s see how you do in public. I’ll meet you both here in three hours, and if you haven’t killed each other, we’ll go find you some clothes, M. This isn’t up for discussion. We voted. This is happening.”