Protecting Nova

by Belle Harper

  “Is this okay?” I asked, turning my head up to see his face. I wanted to read what he was thinking because he usually didn’t tell you in words. His beautiful dark eyes met mine, as he tilted his head towards me. His soft dark wavy curls fell across his forehead. I was so attracted to Kento. His lips were a dusky shade of pink, and so kissable. I wanted to kiss him. I need to kiss him.

  “Yes,” he whispered. His voice a little strained. I moved my hand on his stomach, looking to see what his reaction was. He closed his eyes as he placed his forehead against mine. I ran my fingers up and down his chest, his breathing became more rapid as he lowered his head more. Our noses were touching as our breaths mingled together. All I had to do was move and I would be kissing him. Just a half inch, and his lips would be on mine.

  “Do you want to kiss me Kento?” I couldn’t move that tiny distance without permission. This was more than he had ever done with me, and I didn’t want to scare him off by forcing him to do something he wasn’t ready for.

  “I always want to kiss you,” his eyes opened, and time stood still. He moved his mouth, and our lips were touching. I closed my eyes as I pressed my lips to his. The kiss was small, but the meaning behind it was huge. Then he pulled away smiling. He was smiling. Nothing looked better than Kento’s radiant smile. “I liked that Nova, I… can I do it again?” He asked. I nodded and he took my lips again, but this time had more power behind that kiss. I opened up and licked his lower lip, he followed and before long we were making out. I’m making out with Kento. I can’t even describe the feel of my hand on his chest, his arm around my shoulders and the amazing kisses he was giving me.

  We kissed until there was a knock on the cabin door. “I’m coming,” Kento called out. I giggled and teased, “Not yet you’re not.” He turned back to me and the look on his face was priceless

  and he laughed. I had never heard him laugh like that before and it set me off in a fit of giggles. When he opened the door, I heard a voice. It wasn’t one of my guys. My husbands. I felt guilty. I had been in my own head, stuck there for the last few days. I didn’t let any of them in. Even though they tried so hard. Now had I snapped out of my…mood. But I didn’t go to them; I kissed Kento for the last half hour instead. I wanted to get out of bed and go out, see my cabin

  “And where are you going?” Kento asked as he closed the door on whoever was there. I laughed and pulled him to me. When I kissed him, nothing compared. It felt like two broken souls as one. We mended each other. And he was so amazing to kiss, plus the perfect height as well. I didn’t have to strain my neck up to him. He was the same height as me and the shortest of my guys. He had filled out a little. No longer skin and bones. His body was similar to Colton’s, just missing the muscle tone but he would get there. I could tell he would be quick on his feet. And every day we got more and more of Kento. I loved him so much. I love him.

  “You want to have a bath?” I wagged my eyebrows at him. He chuckled and turned to grab the bowl we used to wash ourselves and placed it on the table. He grabbed a jug and told me to wait in bed, and that he’d be back soon with the hot water. So, I did that, and while I waited, I tried to finger brush all the knots out of my hair. He returned not long after with the jug of hot water, the top of it steamy in the slightly cool air. After he poured the hot water in with some cold and tested the temperature, he shyly lifted his shirt and turned his back to me.

  I wasn’t going to stop touching him today. No, today was the day we took back our bodies. I slowly walked over to him. I made sure he knew I approached. He washed his front slowly while his back was untouched. I reached around to the bowl and grabbed the second wash cloth, squeezed out the excess water, and proceeded to wash his back. At first, he was rigid and then he relaxed. He held onto the table as I washed and massaged his back. I could never wash away the scars there, but I was there to help them heal. It showed me how strong this man really was. That even in the darkest hell, he never gave up. That every day he became stronger, and these wounds have healed and scarred, but he will always be whole and complete to me. He was my Kento. Mine.

  “Can you wash my back?” I asked him. He turned to me, his eyes dark and hooded. I took my top off. I wasn’t wearing a bra as I stood there topless in front of him. He took in a deep breath and quickly added more water to his cloth and started to wash my chest, started at my collarbone and worked down between my breasts to my belly. He came back up slowly and rubbed softly over my nipples. They were hard and sensitive. I leaned into to him as he continued to wash them, left then right. A figured eight motion.

  I ran my hand up his belly to his chest and circled his nipples. His eyes flashed to mine. I grinned. Because it felt good for me, I wanted to return the favor. He stopped washing my chest and held the small towel out to dry me. I held my hands up and let him dry me. He wasn’t so shy now, he was really taking big steps with me. He rubbed and massaged my breasts as he toweled them off. I took the towel next and dried his front and then back.

  “Can I wash the rest of you?” At first when I asked, I thought he would say no. But instead he gave me a shy smile and nodded. I leaned forward and kissed him, and slowly ran my hands down his chest and tucked my fingers into the waistband of his sweatpants. They were gray in color, old, but they suited Kento style. He placed his hands on mine and on a deep breath helped me pull them down. We broke apart from the kiss. I was breathing as deeply as he did, and the room felt charged with electricity. Everything felt so sensitive. I kept my eyes on his, until he closed them and smiled. I looked down to see his cock was hard, and I reached out and touched the top of his thigh. He opened his eyes and watched me as I ran my hand up to his chest and then down to the other thigh, after the third time he moved slightly closer.

  “You really are a tease.” He then laughed. He stopped, biting on his bottom lip, he stood there and waited for me to touch him again. The fact he was letting me get this far, without triggering him off was the best, and I wanted to go all the way with him. I wanted him; I needed him.

  “You want me to touch your cock?” I teased and a smirk appeared as he nodded. I pulled myself to him and ran my hand up between our bodies and grasped the hard length of his cock. He let out a small gasp as I slowly stroked him. “Feel good?” He held my shoulder as I continued to stroke and kiss him. The passion in the kiss got hotter and hotter, until I had to back myself up to the bed, cock in hand, leading him there. I turned around and pushed him down on the bed. He went easily.

  “Stay.” I pointed at him as I quickly turned back to the water on the table and wiggled my ass at him. I heard him laugh as I quickly washed myself clean. I dropped the cloth in the wash basket and then quickly dried myself. I turned around and stalked to him playfully. I knew I had to be careful with him, and he had not really touched me and I wasn’t sure if that was from lack of experience or because he just couldn’t fully touch me yet. I guided his hand to my pussy, moving it to where it felt good.

  I moaned. “Keep doing that. It feels amazing. Take your index finger and here…” I took his hand as I moved it to where I wanted him. I pushed his finger into my needy heat. The look on his face was priceless. I wanted to laugh at the way his eyes went wide. But I held it in. He was so cute and shy. I reached down and stroked his cock again. Until I was close to orgasm. Then I released it and helped him use his hand to make me come.

  I was so sensitive, my body shaking as I came down from such an incredible high. “You want to get into the bed with me?” He asked as he looked behind him and scooted up to the headboard. My heart couldn’t take it. He was seriously amazing. I crawled up and over him as I hovered above his body, the biggest smile on my face. The thought that Kento trusted me enough to get us this far was so huge. I wondered if we would go further? I hoped so

  “What do you want me to touch? Lick? Or did you have something else in mind?”

  He looked up at me through those dark lashes and those cute waves and curls that framed his face. He stuttered at first and then with
a deep breath, he asked, “Would you make love to me, Nova?” And I almost cried at his words. But before any tears could come I kissed him deeply. I arranged myself on his lap so I would be on top. He held my waist, so tenderly. So I moved his hands down to my ass and squeezed. We both laughed, and slowly and sweetly we made love. It was perfect and beautiful. Kento was the sweetest lover, and I was so proud to be his girl, his wife.

  When we had finished and actually cleaned ourselves up, Ryker came back to the cabin. I knew it was to check on me. I heard them talk earlier about it. But it was the perfect time for him to come back. I was glad he didn’t come ten minutes earlier. I couldn’t help the blush on my face when he looked at me. He knew something happened between Kento and me. But I wasn’t going to tell him what.

  29

  Colton

  It was two weeks since Nova had come back to us as such. She was happy and herself again. She told us that something happened to her and Adam when the Bakersfield men had taken her. She didn’t give us any details and we didn’t push for them, because I knew what it was. I was angry at myself for the first few days after that. Angry that I waited instead of chasing after her when they took her. But she didn’t want us to blame ourselves. There is nothing that will change what happened. She said she was working though it with Kento. Adam said he was fine, but the three of them sat down every day together and talked. It had helped them all so much already. So proud of Nova.

  She had been out many times with Ryker to play with the wolf cub Liberty. Ezra had his private time with her and took her to the lake at sunset. Adam had his private time with her, they baked together. It wasn’t like how I remembered a cupcake, but it tasted good because they had put the effort into making us one each for dessert that night. Everyone was getting into a rhythm of our weekly lives, and it was good. Real good.

  “And where are you off to this morning, sweetheart?” I grabbed Nova’s wrist as she tried to dart out the door. She laughed and swung her arms around my neck. She kissed my nose and ran off through the open door. Kento shrugged when I looked to him. “You’re not going after her?” He got up and walked over to the door. He looked outside and then turned to me.

  “No, she is going to pick berries. She won’t be long,” he said as he returned to his seat and took a long sip from his cup. What the fuck? Wasn’t that his job? To be a house husband and follow Nova around? I stomped out and looked for Nova. I finally saw her; she was next to someone, and they were going down toward where our cabin was. It was finally finished, and we wanted to show her today. We only put the last few items in this morning and wanted to show her now. The guys were waiting for me to bring Nova down. I turned to the cabin and called out to Kento.

  “Hey, get yourself down to the cabin. I will grab Nova. The guys are waiting on us to do the big reveal today.” I heard him shuffle around, probably to get his shoes on. I took off after Nova and when I got within a few yards, I noticed that the person she was with was Beckett. I growled under my breath. And furiously stomped up behind Nova. I took a deep breath to calm myself and reached over and wrapped my arm around her. She jumped and made a squeak sound, and her hand went to her chest.

  “You scared me, Colt.” She laughed and I glared at Beckett. What the fuck was the guy doing with our wife? I wanted to hit the kid. Fuck off, I wanted to yell at him. But I refrained. For the kids that were around us and for Nova’s sake. I didn’t want to upset her or have her be mad at me.

  “What are you doing?” My teeth gritted together as I asked.

  She smiled up at me and pointed to Beckett. “We are going to pick berries. I was hoping to make some more cupcakes. Everyone seemed to love them so I asked Beckett if we could go pick more. They are from his bushes.”

  Of course, they were from his bushes. Never had I felt the jealously in my chest so intensely toward someone. I wanted to reach over and grab him by his collar and smash him into the ground. He noticed the way I looked at him, and he quickly made an excuse as to why he couldn’t do berry picking right now, but that he would come back later. She was a little disappointed, but I told her I had a much better surprise.

  I led her down the path to our cabin. She had seen it almost complete but building a cabin when you have so many hands to help makes it light work that was for sure, plus we decided to work overtime. And really had not rested at all to get it done in record time. As we got closer I held my hands over her eyes. She grabbed onto my wrists and giggled as I led her down to our cabin.

  “You’re not going to walk me into a tree, or something are you?”

  “You have no faith in me, sweetheart.” I was dramatic, which set her off into another fit of giggles. But I loved to hear the sound, so I would say or do anything to continue them. I saw Kento had arrived, and all the guys were on our front porch…of our family cabin. I placed Nova right in front and told her to cover her eyes. I ran up and stood between Adam and Ezra. And all as one we called out to her. “Open your eyes.”

  The look on her face, with us all side by side, made her gasp, her hands flying to her mouth as she glanced back and forth.

  “Is it complete? Already?” I could hear her choke up on the words. Noah yelled out to get her butt up here, but we all jumped down and went to her. We wrapped her in a group hug, and she started to cry.

  “Happy tears,” she told us and I knew they were. “Can I go inside? I want to see it. You never let me see the actual layout.”

  Ryker chuckled at her words. Because it was true. “That’s because we wanted to surprise you, princess. And I can’t wait for you to see it. And we can all christen it today.” His eyebrows wagged at her, and she slapped his chest and shook her head. But she couldn’t hide that huge grin. All of us had swapped shifts with others so we could all be here on this special day. I wished I had a camera to take a photo. I wanted to remember this moment forever. It would be the perfect touch to our new home. A family portrait to hang in the living area. Maybe someone in Eden was a artist and could paint us one.

  I took her hand and led her up the stairs and gestured to the door. “After you.” She took a step forward and pushed open the door. Her hand flew to her mouth again as she let out such a happy sound. I heard the guys become excited at that sound. Nova liked it. In fact, she loved it.

  I walked in, followed her, and stood beside one of our new chairs. “Everyone helped out and gave us furniture, helped us make a bed. Which is huge. And will fit us all.” She walked around and touched everything. Her hands skimming the wooden bench top that Kento had helped make. He had told us what she thought would be the best-sized counter, as she loved to make all types of food. So did Kento and Adam. So, they spent a lot of time on the design of it, and it showed in the craftsmanship.

  “I’m speechless,” she said and Ryker chuckled before saying, “Finally.” And everyone laughed with him.

  “Wait until you see the bedroom, Nova. You’re going to have a lot to say in there,” Noah joked as he took her hand and led her into the first room. We all followed in after her. The bed was huge, and the room was small, so there was not a lot of space. We had made a cupboard with shelves. It was the best we could do with what we had. Ezra had already moved all our clothing in there. Not that it was much, but everyone had their own shelf. The bed was made up of dry grass and the camping mattresses that Jeremy told us to buy. Which now made total sense.

  “Wanna take it for a spin?” Noah laid down, his arms bent behind his head, and got very comfortable.

  “Yes, we need to make sure we all fit.” Ezra called out from behind And we all piled on. We had a discussion about this since we couldn’t make the bed as big as we wanted. That we were going to lie with half of us our heads up one end and the other half have heads down at the other end. Yeah we might get feet in our faces but it was the best we could do. As it worked the best when we practiced it. And with Nova it still worked.

  We took her through the rest of the house and showed her the other two rooms. One was a bathroom. It didn’t hav
e much and was small, but it was somewhere you could wash up, and we had a special clay bowl made so you didn’t have to leave the cabin at night to go to the outhouse since it was a bit further away from here then the temporary cabin. The other room was empty but hopefully one day we could fill it with children. We were each rewarded with a kiss and a hug from Nova after the tour.

  “I’m going to tell Poppy to come over. I want to show her. Then we can christen the house.” And she winked as she ran down the stairs and straight to our neighbors’ cabin. The one Beckett lived in too, which reminded me to talk to Ryker.

  “Ryker.” I stepped outside the house and over to the nearest tree.

  “What’s up, man?” He looked around to check who was around. Then his eyes came back to me.

  “That Beckett kid is what’s up. She was with him just before. I think we need to tell everyone about the whole female makes the first move thing. I need her to understand that we think he is trying to do. Cause he didn’t look like he wanted to just be friends. In fact, I can see that’s what he wants. And that doesn’t sit well with me. We are large enough as it is with six, I had to break up a fight last week between Adam and Noah. We just need to stop this, before it because something else.”

  Ryker didn’t feel the same way. His face was hard to read, but he wasn’t agreeing with my idea. “Now hear me out. Okay? I want to tell her, but you do realize she is going to be upset we have known for all this time. Plus, I think she likes him too. And yeah, I get jealous. I’m a man with eyes who can see how good he has got it with Nova. But you’re my family, and I think you need to be nicer to that poor kid, man. Imagine seeing Nova, and even talking to her for five minutes. He wants what we have. I would never want to deny a person that. So, if she wants him, I’m fine with that. And we will fix whatever is going on between Noah and Adam. They are getting a bit much.”