Light Unfolding_A Reverse Harem Science Fiction Romance

by Rebecca Royce

  Truth was, physically, while he had to learn his new normal, he was fit as a fiddle. As he said, the gene manipulation on them made them heal quickly. I got back to what I was doing as he exited the room, but it wasn’t consuming my mind the way it should be. Ari was growing plants in a botanical garden where Damian had once repurposed a compartment. It had since been converted for other use, but Ari relied on the original design in order to generate supplies we needed.

  Having vegetables grown on the ship negated some of the food issues associated with long-term space travel. It also gave Ari something to do since for the most part—other than Canyon’s condition—no one was injured or needing medical care.

  Of course, Rohan and Canyon might change the dynamic with their so-called target practice. Where were they going to do this? I marched to the botanical lab to complain to Ari.

  He looked away from some zucchini when I came in and grinned at me. “Hey, baby.”

  “Hi.” I put my hands on my hips. “Dr. Bennett, Canyon and Rohan are shooting at each other in some training exercise slash war games, and since Canyon got cleared this morning I can’t think of any reason to tell them don’t do it.”

  He stood straight, stretching his back. “Really? Shooting at each other?”

  “Pellets or something.”

  His eyes lit up. “What a great idea.”

  Wait. What? “You can’t think that.”

  “I do, actually. And I wonder if they’d let me join.” He dropped his small shovel and walked by to kiss me on the cheek. “The whole time we were on The Farm during the invasion, when we had to go rescue everyone, I couldn’t stop thinking how truly unprepared I was for the whole thing. We had our Super Soldiers, so I didn’t need to do anything, but even Sterling had been pinned down and unable to leave his people to save everyone. If they’d needed me, I was not going to be a great help. Maybe they can teach me some stuff right now.”

  Ari was all lit up. I cleared my throat. “I thought you’d hate this idea.”

  “No. It’s great. Do you know where they are?”

  I shook my head. What was happening here? “No clue.”

  “That’s okay. I’ll find them. They can already hear us. I’m coming guys.”

  Just like that Ari left me to my own devices. I blinked. Well, that had gone decidedly different than I thought. So much for Ari interfering, I’d half hoped he’d order them to other activities. I sighed. I wasn’t going to spend my day in the botanical garden. If Ari wanted me to help with it, he was going to have to teach me how.

  Growing vegetables was not something I knew. I wouldn’t mind it, but I wasn’t going to just figure it out when Ari was around to teach me. Except he wasn’t. He was going to shoot pellets at Rohan and Canyon.

  I slumped out of the room. This was just ridiculous. Jackson would understand. He was piloting the ship. I walked to where he lounged in the captain’s chair, staring at the ship’s monitor. A quick glance told me exactly what I would have expected and that was a whole bunch of nothing.

  Even when there was traffic in a black hole, ships didn’t see each other. Who knew with the time jump we were going through if there were even any ships on the exact same trajectory.

  “Hey, Jackson. The passengers on this ship have all lost their minds.”

  He swung around in his chair. “If they ever had any to begin with.” He winked at me. “Why, what are they doing?”

  “Shooting pellets at each other. Some war training thing. Even Ari is participating.”

  Jackson made a non-committal sound before he pushed some buttons on the tablet he used to control the ship. The lights dimmed in the room, and the ship’s alarm sounded. I jumped. “What the hell?”

  “Little mood ambience for the exercise. Might as well make it real.”

  I pointed at him. “You want to go play, too. Don’t you?”

  He shrugged. “Someone has to be at the controls.”

  I groaned. Were they all serious about this? I held out my hand. “I can fly. I know how. I learned during my rescue. It’s point and click. There is nothing out there. Go play. Did you guys do this when you were traveling here?”

  He shook his head. “No. Didn’t even occur to me to consider it.” He pulled me into a hug while he handed me the tablet. “You’re the best.” He ran out the door.

  I shook my head, sinking into the captain’s chair. “Bunch of little boys. Two Super Soldiers. The most gifted doctor I know. And a man with so many hidden layers I’ll never unfold them all, he hides his genius. Every one of them wants to play pretend battle today. No, Canyon and Ro, I don’t want you to stop… I get it. It’s been a long time since I could take a breath and relax, too.”

  There were books to read on the tablet. I was going to spend the day reading. That seemed as good a way as any. It would at least keep me from getting hit in the head with a pellet.

  Hours passed and I was deep into reading about a chef who worked on the outer parts of the Dark Planets when the door to the room finally opened. I didn’t look up to see who it was. I’d been listening to the alarm that Jackson left on all day. It had given me a headache. I was hungry, cranky, and being passive aggressive in my ignoring whoever was there.

  The alarm stopped, and considering that I held the tablet, that meant it had been ceased using other means. The only person who could have pulled that off was Canyon.

  “Have fun?”

  He stepped closer to me. I could see him out of my peripheral vision. “Yes, actually. But now I’m realizing we may have been exclusionary and left you alone too long.”

  “I’m a big girl.” I turned the page in my book. “I’m used to being alone. Don’t worry about me.” I’d only been away from all of them for almost a year. What difference did it make? Everyone should have fun? I felt the muscle in my jaw tic even as I knew I was being incredibly unfair.

  Canyon was still and silent. I sighed. He’d been practically dead earlier this week. I needed to get over myself. I set down the tablet and rose from the chair. “How are you feeling? Did you hurt yourself?”

  He met my gaze, his own steady. “I’m not your patient right now.”

  I was clearly feeling testy and maybe he was, too. It was probably a good moment to take a little space. “Okay. That’s fine. Do you want to pilot? There’s nothing much happening. I’d be happy to leave you here with the tablet and get out of this room.”

  “You’re mad at me.” His statement did not in any way answer the question I’d asked him.

  “Sometimes it’s a good thing to give a person a little distance to stop being… pissed about things. I just need to get over myself.”

  Canyon shook his head. “What does that expression even mean? Over yourself? How does a person even do that? You’re angry because we spent the day doing something that completely excluded you.”

  There was that. “It’s so unfair that I feel that way. I could have participated. I could have told one of you I didn’t want you to do that. I can’t expect anyone else to read my mind to know how I feel.”

  Canyon scrunched up his nose. “You don’t have to explain away your feelings. You don’t have to make it okay what we did. Not one of us thought about it until an hour ago. That’s not okay. That’s called being totally in our own worlds.”

  I sat back down in the chair. If he didn’t want to pilot, that was fine. I’d just keep doing it. “Fine. Let’s just let this go.”

  “I don’t think so.” He turned the chair around so I was facing him. “I’m new to facial recognition, but I read you just fine. The tone of voice. The pupil dilation. You’re mad.”

  I rubbed my eyes. “I’m not myself right now. I’m sorry. I’m just off Orion myself. I almost lost you. I… I can’t really explain it.”

  He hauled me off the chair and into his arms a second later. I gasped. Our faces were close together, I could feel his breath against my mouth. Nothing he had done had hurt. It was… exciting. This was not how Canyon and I had been together bef
ore. I’d had to initiate our sexual relationship the night I’d had sex for the first time.

  “I should have spent today with you. Not running around the ship. To be fair, it was supposed to be a training exercise that would have been over very quickly. A couple of hours. Once Jackson and Ari joined we took the time to get them really proficient in how Ro and I conduct war. It was helpful. It did turn into a game. I’m not going to lie. We should have cut it off hours ago, and I was inconsiderate. We all were.”

  I shook my head. “Canyon, I told you. I’m not my best self right this second. I’ll get over it.”

  “You don’t have to be your best self with me. I want all of you, Waverly. Even if you feel like being unreasonable. Even if you bite my head off for no reason. Even if you just want to be left alone. I want all of it. That’s real life, right? I get to look in your eyes. I never expected this. I want all of it.”

  I nodded. “Then you should know I’m not yet feeling like being reasonable. I didn’t like that all of you deserted me today. The ship is lonely and the alarm was loud. Or maybe I’m just being a baby because it’s been such a long time since we were together. I’m still feeling raw.”

  Canyon kissed me. I anticipated his coming in for the approach, and I expected a hard caress. Instead, his kiss was gentle, the slightest touch of our mouths together. Then he kissed my nose. My cheeks. My forehead.

  “I love your face, and you are bathing me in your light right now. Forgive me. I was a jackass.”

  I broke. I never saw it coming, didn’t even feel the tears before they streamed down my face. “Canyon, everyone on that planet is dead. I mean, they all were before I was born. But they were real. They had plans. They had lives. They got drunk every eighth day. I cleaned their homes. I walked their dogs. I kept my head down and I knew—I knew—the whole time that they were not going to get to that house they wanted or… or have a baby… or ever fall in love with a man again because they were all going to be dead in a planet wide bombing.”

  I blubbered now. I could hardly get the words out. “And when I tried to tell people they didn’t believe me.”

  He wrapped his arms around me tighter, drawing my head down to his shoulder. Canyon held me in the chair I’d sat on all day and just let me sob until I had no more tears inside of me.

  When I could speak again, I got out the word I needed to say. “Sorry.”

  “No,” he kissed my soaked cheeks, “I’m sorry. I told you in the VR, I don’t know how this happened to you but somehow I should have. I love you and you went through this because you got whipped through time, something you never should have had to do.”

  I kissed him. “I have to be a mess, and now you can actually see my splotches that come from the crying.”

  “You’re the most beautiful woman in the world. I hate that you cried, but I’m so glad I could see you do it. What a gift.”

  I was on him in a second. I kissed and kissed and kissed him. I practically planted my body against his on the chair. He didn’t hesitate, meeting me kiss for wet kiss. He gripped my thighs, urging me closer as I ached for just that. I moaned, from deep inside of me. Canyon was the missing piece in my life. I couldn’t feel returned, couldn’t know I was really away from there and heading back where I belonged without him. I loved him.

  He took my mouth, dancing our tongues together, and I wrapped my arms around his neck, nearly tipping the chair over in the process. We weren’t small people, and together we were using all the space available to us. I didn’t care. I’d break all the furniture to be with him.

  “You’re mine as much as you are theirs,” he whispered in my ear. “I’ll share you with them, but you are as much mine.”

  “Yes.” If he needed the reassurance he’d have it. “I am yours as much, Canyon. I love you with all of me.”

  Those words seemed to spur him forward. He tugged at my shirt, discarding it before taking off my bra. Canyon dipped his head, taking my nipple in his mouth, his body hardening even through his clothes. He lifted his eyes. “I love your nipples. I love looking at your nipples. But I love sucking on them more.”

  “I love you sucking on them.”

  My body was on fire. A hot, molten, lava kind of a fire. I was happy to let these flames scorch me. I also wanted my hands on Canyon. “We need to take your clothes off, too.”

  He made a sound that wasn’t so much an answer as a grunt before sucking harder. He bit down, and I yelped, pleasure surging up my spine. Canyon might never have been able to actually see me before, but he could play my body like an instrument.

  Like a piece of machinery he knew how to work.

  Suddenly I was off his lap. He pulled his clothes off before stripping me of the rest of mine. I’d never get over his intensity, the sheer magnitude of his focus. I would never stop loving when he turned it on me.

  He sat down on the chair, taking me with him. He was long, erect, hard, and masculine. I ran my hands over his sculpted chest. They’d made him to be a killer, manipulated his genes for battle. But right then he was my lover, my friend, my everything. I knew what he wanted, and I was going to give us both relief.

  But first I had to touch him.

  I ran my hand down the length of his erection, feeling him lengthen even further in my hands. A dab of moisture touched my fingers, and I smiled at him before I bent over to kiss him. In his eyes, love shone back at me. I’d always had his love. Even when he couldn’t see me.

  As I straddled Canyon’s lap, I fit him inside of me. He closed his eyes, throwing his head back for a second to hit the back of the chair. “How is it so much like finally being right where I’m supposed to be?”

  He lifted his hips, driving himself deeper, and I picked up the rhythm, sliding up and down him. I loved the sounds he made. This was Canyon, unfiltered. He had to hold back most of the time, he had too much power, and to be unrestrained was dangerous. But I had him right now, he was all mine, and I wanted that rawness, the Canyon who didn’t hold himself back.

  “How much did you miss me?” I knew I was poking the bear, and I loved it. I jolted against him, grinding myself against his cock, rubbing my clit in the process. It was all so incredibly good.

  His eyes flew open. “So much. So fucking much, Waverly.”

  “Show me how much.”

  His eyes widened, and his mouth was on me, kissing me as his hips jerked beneath me. I sped up my movements to keep up. The noises he made changed. They were strangled, animalistic… hot. I was on top, but he was in charge. That was more than fine by me. I’d wanted him lost to it, that was what I was getting.

  I came fast, suddenly, and Canyon bit down on my neck, almost all simultaneously. I couldn’t say which happened first, but it didn’t matter. It all led to the explosion of pleasure rushing through my body so intensely that I trembled in the aftermath, unable to stop shaking. He spent inside of me, and I held on as best I could for dear life.

  His arms captured me against him like he knew what was going to happen before I did. Maybe it was the sobbing. Maybe it was the lovemaking. Maybe it was the whole day. The whole week. The whole last year. My entire lifetime leading up to that moment… but I collapsed on him. My head hit his shoulder, I snuggled down, closed my eyes, and the world went black around me.

  I’d never been so tired and maybe I was just… done.

  Canyon was okay. We were all together. That was the last thing I thought before I gave into the overwhelming urge to sleep.

  I woke, slowly. As my mind returned to normal, the first clear thought I had was that I never wanted to pass out again. That was twice since I’d come back from Orion. I had to pull it together before I ended up permanently in a med machine.

  I yawned. The room was dark, and I wasn’t alone. I rested on someone’s arm. Moving slightly, I knew even in the darkness it was Canyon right next to me. He was asleep, breathing deeply. Behind him, Ari slept facing away, his hair fanning out on the pillow and over his face. Each breath he took sounded like a little sigh
. On my other side, facing me, was a passed out Rohan. He was silent in the same way Canyon always was in sleep. I knew they could both come awake instantly and completely alert.

  I missed Jackson, but I supposed someone had to steer the ship. I felt a little… hazy, and much as I hated to disturb my sleeping guys, I needed to sit up. The room spun slightly. That couldn’t be good. I lifted my head and Ro’s eyes flew open.

  “Hey, sleepy.” He blinked. “What’s wrong?”

  “Not sure.” I shook my head. “Not feeling exactly… right.”

  Ari leapt off the bed and came around the other side to crawl in front of me. He had the small scanner I’d used to keep the now awake Canyon alive days earlier. Nausea rolled through me. Still, I tried to make a joke. “Carrying that with you everywhere?”

  Ari ignored me. “What in the hell?”

  “What?” That couldn’t be good. Ari never did that. “Dying?”

  He raised his eyes. “Her brainwaves look like ours when we come back from time travel.” He jumped off the bed and tapped his wrist. That was right. They had communicators but still hadn’t fitted me for one. “Jackson, did we just change time streams?”

  It took a second for me to hear the reply. “We did. Why?”

  “Shit.”

  Canyon tugged me against him. “She never moved back from time. Never had the delirium or the recovery. Her brain is doing it now.”

  I thought I understood. “The delirious state you guys have post time travel? That’s going to happen to me now?”

  “Looks like we’re finally enough away from the time period you’ve been in to trigger it.” Rohan jumped off the bed. “Don’t worry, Wavey. You’ll never remember the next hour or so. Then you’ll sleep.”

  I’d already been doing enough of that. “This whole experience is like the gift that keeps on giving.”

  Ro shook his head. “How so?”

  “That’s sarcasm.” Ari told him. He looked back at me. “I love you, baby.”

  That was the last thing I heard.

  Waking up again felt like déjà vu. Hadn’t I already done this? My mouth felt thick, my muscles stiff. It had been too long since I moved. I struggled into a sitting position. Next to me, Rohan shifted. He’d been looking at a tablet. “Hey, you’re up.”