Married. Wait! What?

by Virginia Nelson

  “Whoever attacked them were rank amateurs.” Bo ran his knuckles over the top. “They probably didn’t even notice.”

  “You guys always notice?” Since they’d both touched it, I went ahead and did it, too. The metal was smooth and cold.

  River nodded. “One of us hangs back in a small shuttle and watches. They expel their precious stuff, we take it.”

  “Is it a battle? Do they fight back?”

  Jordan put his hand on my back. “Not usually. Every once in a while, they’re carrying something they know they can’t lose. Then they fight. Most of the time, these ship captains aren’t going to risk their life, their ship, or their crew for their cargo that doesn’t belong to them. They’re carriers, nothing more. They stop the ship. Let us board. Sometimes they even hand us what we want. And they move on.”

  Bo clicked a button on a small tablet, and a machine came down from the ceiling. It had a saw blade, bigger and sharper than any I’d ever seen. Instinctually, I stepped back and bumped River.

  “Sorry.” I had to get more competent moving around these guys.

  He shrugged. “No harm done.”

  Bo picked up a pair of safety glasses and put them on. “It’s going to get loud in here. We’ll call you back when we see the stash.”

  Jordan put his hand on my back and ushered me from the room. I guessed Bo and River were going to work on the box. What kinds of things were so important they had to be expelled from a ship under attack? What thing could be so important it would be worth risking a life?

  “I got River’s okay to go ahead and fix some of your furniture. Is it okay with you, too?”

  Jordan raised his dark eyebrows. “You want to fix the furniture? We can probably get new stuff. I never think about the stuff.”

  I put my hand on his arm. “Can we see if I can fix it first? It’s really what I liked to do at home.”

  “Well, if you liked to do it, then sure.” He followed me back into the small conference room with its ramshackle table. I was going to have to take it apart to fix it, which meant I had to get tools first. I backed out of the room, Jordan following me the entire time, and finally returned to the room when I had what I needed.

  Jordan was quiet, but it didn’t feel off to have him with me all the time. I stopped and took the crystal out of my pocket. “I don’t want anything to happen to this while I work. Would you mind holding it?”

  His long fingers closed around the crystal. “Sure. We need to find a better way for you to carry it than just in your pocket. I suppose it’s too big for you to just carry around. Maybe we could shape it into some jewelry for you.”

  I shook my head. “First, I’m not sure I really should have accepted this.”

  “You should. You’re my wife.” He held my gaze, refusing to let me look down when I would have. “Don’t be uncomfortable with that. We’re all going to get there, to the place where it feels like it was meant to be and where you can hear wife without looking like you want to run away.”

  I laughed. I couldn’t help it. Jordan’s sweet belief in this whole thing working out was refreshing, and he’d read me absolutely correctly. “Okay. But please don’t do anything to that crystal. I don’t want it to ever really change. I don’t want it to lose the rawness of it.”

  If Jordan thought that was weird, he didn’t say anything, instead he simply nodded. I got down on the floor under the table to look at how it had been screwed together. It didn’t take me long to realize this might prove to be simpler than I’d expected it to be. The table might really just need some new screws and a slight adjustment. I wasn’t going to have to cut any wood at this point.

  My husband knelt down next to me. “Amazing that we don’t have a better way to do this just yet. This really has to be done by hand?”

  “No, I’m sure there are better ways to do this. On the farm where we grew up, we had to do this stuff by hand because my father was never going to pay for the right machines to come in and do it.” I grabbed the electric screwdriver—so much nicer than the one I had at home—and started. Raising my voice slightly so Jordan could hear me, I asked him an obvious question I should have voiced before now. “Why aren’t you still on your planet finding these crystals?”

  He moved slightly, no longer kneeling next to me but rather sitting straight down on the floor. “I had to leave there. I got accused of stealing, which I hadn’t done. It’s funny. As it is, I steal now. But back then? I wouldn’t have considered it. They came to arrest me. I still think about who might have taken all that gold from the overseers. It wasn’t me. But they were sure it was. Someone had named me. I’ll never know who. They’d have killed me. I’m nothing if not full of a real sense of self-preservation. I fought back. Killed a man. Then there was no choice but to run. I got to the nearest town, stowed away—which by the way, other than killing that man who wanted to take me to jail, was the first time I broke the law—and got out of there. I got caught half-way to the Space Station Miranda. The captain didn’t have me arrested. I think he felt sorry for me. Then he left me there. I worked on that station for a while until River and Bo came along.”

  While he spoke, I worked on the table until I had to take the top of it off and move it aside. He moved then to help me as though I couldn’t hold it myself. Maybe other females would have needed the help. I wasn’t one of them, but the small smile on Jordan’s face told me he really wanted to move the top of the table for me.

  “Thanks.”

  He nodded. “You’re welcome.”

  “How long have you guys all been together?” It seemed like it had been a very long time.

  “Twenty-years.” He shook his head. “We’re forty. Probably too old for you?”

  The thought must have just dawned on him. “I’m twenty-two. Maybe I’m too young for you?”

  He cupped the side of my face with one of his hands, smoothing his thumb on my skin. “And all of this time you’ve been sitting on a farm just waiting to be taken off where we found you. How is that possible? How could you have been there the whole time I knew Bo and River? How could that time have been your lifespan?”

  “I think technically I was two.” I knew that was an inane answer, but I didn’t know what to say.

  His grin was slow, and it moved through me. “We’re old men. Somehow, day-by-day, we got busy. We were never going to have wives. I don’t know how your father got your mother, but men from the Dark Planets don’t get women unless they do something drastic to find them. River is from a place where he could have had a wife. That didn’t work out for various reasons. I’d stopped thinking about more than casual encounters a long time ago. Yet, here you are. If I’m too old, tell me now.”

  There was nothing about Jordan, River, or Bo that looked ‘old.’ They were the most viscerally attractive men I’d ever encountered, each one of them gorgeous in a way the others weren’t. “You’re not too old, Jordan. I think you’re… I don’t have the words.” I rose on tiptoes and kissed his lips gently. “I was raised with a very specific set of skillsets. I may not be right for you. I don’t know anything about pirating or spaceships, but I can plant you some crops and clean your house.”

  “Oh, I don’t know.” He kissed my temple. “I think we’re going to suit just fine.” He took a deep breath and stepped back. “Now, what can we do about this table?”

  When all was said and done, fixing the table didn’t take very long at all. The chairs were a different matter. They were going to need to be sanded and painted. We had the tools to sand them on board. The paint, we did not. Jordan promised to get us some the next time we stopped at a space station.

  Bo cooked dinner again that night. They still hadn’t opened the space container. Apparently, it had ‘extra infusion.’ I wasn’t certain what that meant. Sometimes, I could have sworn they spoke a different language.

  River wasn’t there at the table, having apparently passed out finally in his room, face planted, still in his clothes.

  “Should we brin
g him some food?”

  Bo grinned and shook his head. “When River Sandler goes to bed, we leave him that way. He’s not pleasant when he’s woken. If we really need him, that’s fine. I don’t want to listen to him bitch and moan for something as unimportant as missing a meal.”

  I played with my noodles. They were delicious, but I’d eaten more than I usually did and was full. “You guys use his last name a lot. Sandler. That’s a part of space, right?”

  Jordan reached out and tugged on a piece of my hair. “He’ll tell you all about that. You’re not wrong. He has that last name, and it is relevant.”

  “I didn’t mean to talk out of turn. I was just curious, really. You don’t use your own last names. I’m Priscilla Hamilton.”

  Bo shifted in his chair. “We’re going to have to decide which one of our last names you take. That is, if you stay with us. Or you could somehow take all three. You could be Priscilla Tyler,” he pointed to himself, “slash Chimes,” he pointed at Jordan, “slash Sandler.”

  Jordan shook his head. “That would be a hell of a moniker. Maybe she should stay Priscilla Hamilton.”

  I didn’t feel like Priscilla Hamilton anymore. At least not the version of her I’d been before I woke up on Malice. Today alone, I’d kissed Jordan, been embraced by Bo, had a moment with River, and then I fixed a table without having to hide what I was doing. I’d never had so many things happen to me in one day.

  Maybe that was why, later that evening, I couldn’t sleep. I tossed and turned. My brain wouldn’t quiet. Three weeks to decide if we should all stay together. I liked them, and I wasn’t going to pretend I didn’t. Starting out, they’d rescued me. Now, they seemed really interesting, smart, sweet, and funny. They were also living their lives on the wrong side of the law.

  I wasn’t going to judge them or the decisions they made. Did I want to live on the other side of it with them?

  I didn’t know. I’d done a lot of things I shouldn’t in this life, too. The thought did no good, and I pushed it away. I never let myself remember those things…

  With no other choice, I got out of bed and tugged on an oversized sweatshirt to cover up my pajamas. They were warm, comfy, and blue and white. After slipping on my shoes, I left the room with no particular idea where I was going to go. I just had to move.

  At home, I would have left my bed on quiet feet and headed outside to look at the two moons. I had no such view here; even looking out the window brought me nothing to see but dark space. I’d never have chosen to spend time in the vast darkness of space. Maybe I could get used to it.

  I followed the sound of banging back to the storage area where Bo continued to work on getting the space container taken apart. There were layers of it disassembled and all over the room. He sat back on his heels as a machine that looked like a giant hammer pounded on the box.

  “Hi?”

  He sucked in a breath and almost fell over before he jumped to his feet. “Damn. Sorry. You’re awake. Ah, did this bother you?”

  I gave him a small smile. “Not at all. I can’t sleep. Nothing to do with you. When I heard noise, I came to look. Didn’t mean to startle you.”

  Bo walked to a panel on the wall and shut off the hammer-like machine. He shook his head. “I’m not getting this open tonight. It’ll be days. There’s never been a thing made I can’t break into. But this is going to take some time.”

  “Have you always been good at it or is this something you’ve learned in the last twenty years?” I knew almost nothing about the men I was married to. The only way all of us were going to learn if we wanted to stay together was to ask the right questions.

  He grinned. “My family have always been pirates. I was raised on a planet with my mom, but I’d see my father about every eight months, and he’d bring me up on this ship. I’d travel with him and see what he was doing, what his life was like. We’d do that for about a month. Then he’d come back, spend some time with mom and me before he was off again. One day, he didn’t come back. One of his fellow pirates returned Malice. He’d been killed in a raid against an Earth patrol who didn’t like how much he was traveling into their space to raid. Foolish of him to have done that. He’d always told me, a smart pirate stayed away from Earth Space. No idea why he did that, and I never will.”

  I walked toward him. “When you were older, you took back up the family business?”

  “Right. Well, I thought I might. I was tooling around on this ship by myself. Stopped at a space station and immediately met River Sandler, which was bizarre. We really are going to let River tell you about himself and not interfere. Needless to say—maybe—he’s not like Jordan and me. Not really. Or at least he wasn’t. Still, he was persistent. You might have noticed that personality trait of his already. He wanted to live this life and thought we’d make a good team. He usually wins when he sets out to. Here we all are, twenty years later, and we are still doing this.”

  I didn’t know exactly what his tone implied except that he’d earlier told me no one set out to be a thief. “Did you want something else before you took Malice?”

  “Some rather important people from Earth Space came and took over the planet. They believed they could mine uranium.” I went cold at that word. I might not know much about life outside of my limited upbringing, but I did know uranium. Earth had once almost completely destroyed itself in a nuclear war. We weren’t really supposed to go near the stuff. It was against the law. “They destroyed everything. My mom died. I had no choice but to leave. Before that, I was actually in school. Had some idea of taking Mom out of the dark planets and going to teach math and science to youngsters. I haven’t thought of that in years.”

  “I’m sorry if I’m asking too many questions.”

  He shook his head. “How else will we know each other? So what is your story? It can’t be all farm life and waiting to be married.”

  “I helped around the house, fixed things, took care of my sisters.” Saved the baby boys my father and mother discarded… I almost uttered those words then stopped. I didn’t know what was making me still my tongue on this subject. I was far from my home planet and my parents. Surely, the family secret didn’t have to continue to be upheld.

  Yet… I paused before I spoke.

  Bo pointed at me. “You’ve had a thought you’re not sure you’re going to share. I can see it, right there in your forehead. The second it passed through your mind and you didn’t speak, it wrinkled your forehead. Right there.” He touched the spot he said held my unspoken words.

  I leaned into Bo. “You’re so incredibly handsome. That wasn’t what I was thinking, but there it is.”

  He caught his breath. River had smelled like cinnamon, Jordan clean, fresh soap, and Bo like a cool breeze. I pressed my head against his chest. He wrapped his arms around me tightly. It felt so nice to be held by him that I decided I could finally say what I never did. “My parents get rid of the boys. They’d take them to the woods and leave them to die after they were born. Dad didn’t want to waste money raising boys. I rescued them. Over and over. I’d sneak out, save them, and bring them to the local town where a woman I knew there would smuggle them off the planet to orphanages elsewhere. Mom can’t have any more babies. But it’s a common practice there. We never speak of it. I don’t think my parents know I saved the boys. I couldn’t just… I couldn’t just let them die.”

  He pulled back to look at me. “Of course you couldn’t. Priscilla, you lovely woman, you’re like out of a dream I didn’t know I even had. I saw you on that station, and it was like all the world lit up. I wanted you for me, for us. I knew it wasn’t right. I’m too old, too scarred, too notorious. But I did. When the chance to save you came, I never hesitated. I knew you were supposed to be mine. That is so stupid. I’m not that guy. I don’t have Jordan’s belief in fate. Still.” His mouth pressed down on mine. This wasn’t the gentle peck with Jordan earlier. This was heat, and although I’d never experienced it before, I recognized a claiming when I got one.

/>   I let him lead me, our mouths fused together, again and again. I wrapped my arms around his neck and held on. His arms came around my waist, and he picked me up to carry me. I didn’t know where we were going, and I didn’t care. As long as he kept kissing me, all would be right in the world.

  Eventually, we reached his bedroom. It looked exactly like mine only the bed was bigger. “I’m not rushing you.” He spoke between kisses. “I just want to kiss you, and I want privacy to do so.”

  That sounded fine. I wasn’t sure I only wanted to kiss. I’d become a ball of passion. There was an ache inside of me from his kisses alone. We were married. Rushed though it was, I didn’t plan on letting go of an amazing man just because of the inconvenience of timing.

  “You can more than kiss me.”

  He made a low sound in the back of his throat. “We’re giving you time to know us.”

  Bo was right. I knew he was. Yet… still. “You’re my husband.” I kissed his chin. “The fact you even want to give me time to know you? That’s amazing. I wasn’t supposed to have that.”

  “Take the time. It’s not much. In three weeks, if you want us, honey, you won’t be able to breathe. I’m going to be attached to you and intent on getting you naked. Tonight, let me kiss you.”

  I wouldn’t object. He rolled on top of me, keeping himself off my body by holding himself up on his elbows. I’d never imagined this. In all the years I’d known I would someday be someone’s wife, I hadn’t fathomed I would feel this… snuggly. His mouth met mine again. This time I had a better sense of what to do.

  I met him, kiss for kiss.

  Time passed. I just wasn’t sure how much.

  Bo was a hard man—his shoulders were broad, his muscles defined. I felt soft against him, like I was small. Not a sensation I was used to. I ran my hands up his back, eventually traveling to the top of his shaved head. He moaned. I guessed he liked that. He squirmed above me. My nipples pebbled beneath my shirt from the slight friction. I sighed against his mouth.