“Don’t we all?” Keith sat forward. “So okay, she’s there. What now?”
“I guess it’s a good thing Diana sent me since they’ll know the three of you and those two”—he nodded toward the super-soldiers—“will garner too much attention. Paloma and I will go down. I’m going to act like I want to sell her. We’ll get as close to the women as we can and then…”
“That’s not happening.” Quinn was on his feet, and Clay’s arms tightened around me. “She doesn’t go anywhere without the three of us. We’ve all been through hell. Months and months of separation. The only way she leaves my sight is if she’s in Clay’s or Keith’s. Fuck it. Blast the shit out of the station. We’ll go collect the girls that way.”
Canyon, who was quieter than Rohan, spun around in his seat. “That’s of course a possibility. We can always make things explode. I’ll go down and set up the bombs now. There will be casualties. What do you think, Ro? Fifteen percent?”
“Ten, if you’re careful.”
For a second, I wondered if they were trying to make some kind of point and wanted Quinn to change his mind based on their numbers, which would indicate how little they knew him. But as I waited for their a-ha moment, it never came. Rohan and Canyon weren’t judging, they were simply stating facts.
“Jackson, I’m sorry to negate your plan before we even get started. The truth is I’ve found, lately, that everything we plan goes to hell.” I spoke as Clay squeezed my shoulders, his grip on me loosening. “I don’t think we should go down to that station and pretend to be anything. It’ll end with Jackson being killed, I’ll be sold off to space pirates who deal in illegal drugs, and Waverly will never be heard from again.”
I drummed my fingers on the table. “Let’s be strategic about this. Where could you blow up the station that would inflict the least amount of casualties and still break the women free from their captivity?”
Quinn turned to me, his brows furrowed, an expression in his eyes I couldn’t make out. “P, you know once you plan this sort of thing, you can never come back from it. People’s deaths stay with you.”
“I know, Quinn.” And I did. I wasn’t doing this flippantly. I wasn’t saying the deaths that would happen today wouldn’t weigh on me. I knew they would.
But this was war. To pretend it was anything else would be to lie. We’d come to rescue Waverly. I wanted to save the other women. But we were going to have to destroy things, and it was time I did my part.
“Whatever has to happen to get those ladies out. Then we get out of here as fast as we can.”
Rohan nodded. “We can do that. Canyon and I continue to be amazed by the females we encounter. The women, we were told on the other side of the galaxy, they’re softer than us. That’s what we were told. That is not proving to be true. Diana. Melissa. You. All of you give hard orders without flinching.”
I laughed even though it wasn’t funny. “There was a time I was a different kind of woman. But everything explodes again and again. I’m done with it. Let’s get it done.”
I turned and left. My head hurt, and I wanted… well, I didn’t even know what I wanted. I just wanted out of there.
* * *
Quinn Sandler
I watched my wife flee the room—and flee was exactly what she was doing—with my heart in the pit of my stomach. She kept her back stiff and her head high. P still looked like the woman who had come to us after the Sisterhood exploded, terrified. She’d been gorgeous then, and she still was now.
But so much of the rest of her had changed. How could it not have? She’d been through tremendous amounts since becoming my wife. And she’d just made the decision to blow up a space station. How much of that was because she didn’t want me to make that suggestion? How much of it was because she’d known me and now didn’t see any hope for the future?
The thought made my stomach clench. Keith must have felt the same panic. I made eye contact with him and felt all my own thoughts returned to me. We didn’t always do the twin thing where we read each other’s thoughts, but when we did, we really were right on.
Clay’s eyes widened. She’d be whoever she had to be, but I wouldn’t lose her heart to the darkness. I couldn’t let that happen.
I chased P down the hall. She was heading toward the bedroom. “Hey, wait.”
She didn’t stop. “I can’t do it right now, my love. I love, love, love you. But I only have enough room inside of me right now for my own stuff. If you want to yell at me, you can do that later.”
Her words were like a sword through my gut, but I’d certainly earned them. I’d hardly been a partner to her. It was always her taking care of me. It had to be exhausting.
“I’m not here to yell at you.” I grabbed her arm as gently as I could. I wouldn’t bruise her, not for anything in the universe. “Yell at me.”
She closed her eyes. “Quinn, I’m not tired. I get plenty of sleep. But I am dizzy. I need to lie down.”
I scooped her up. “The battle isn’t just on you. We’ll work the whole thing down to the last details, and it’ll be on all of us.”
I walked her into the room and laid her down on the bed. She opened her lids. “You’re so worried about blame. I’m not interested in worrying about whether or not I’m at fault for this or something else. It’s us versus them. I’ll take us. But I won’t become them. Does that make sense? Probably not.”
It didn’t, not really. There was always blame. There was always responsibility. If she didn’t care about that, what did she give a shit about? I loved her soft soul, even if sometimes she was a puzzle to me that I couldn’t quite solve.
I smoothed her hair off her face. Most of the time, I didn’t try to make sense of things. I just worshiped at the feet of P. Today was different. “What do you care about?”
“I…” She hiccupped and then started again. P was trying not to cry. I hated her tears, detested them as much as anything in the universe. “I care about you. About Keith and Clay. About Tommy. He might not recover fully. Ari said his leg might be permanently damaged.”
The hot poker of her words struck me deep inside. “Is he going to die?”
“No.” She shook her head. “But we won’t know the extent of the damage until he’s awake. I need Waverly to be okay. I need this to be over.” She rolled away from me, covering her head with the pillow. “I’m overwhelmed.”
I spent most of my life that way. This moment, however, wasn’t about me. I scooted next to her on the bed. “Did I tell you about the time I decided I could hike Mount Marage?”
She lifted her head. “No. What is Mount Marage?”
“Oh, just the tallest mountain on Sandler One. You don’t just hike Mount Marage. Not untrained and without gear. But my eight-year-old self didn’t really understand that. All I knew were the stories that my Uncle Quinn had hiked it.”
I had been so ridiculously sure of myself. For as long as I could remember, everyone talked about the virtues of my namesake. I’d figured if he could do it, I could do it. I shook my head at the ridiculous notion. P was waiting for me to continue.
“I snuck out. Didn’t even tell Keith where I was going. I didn’t want him to get the credit for this. I was going to do this all on my own. Left in the middle of the night.”
She leaned on her elbow. That was good. Her color was getting slightly better, too. “A lot of your stories talk about you sneaking out.”
“I was always trying to run away from home. Maybe I knew you were out there.” She grinned which made me feel more like a real man and less the guy who constantly needed her to fix things. “So I decided to climb the mountain. But I was eight, and despite my big brain, I knew little about anything. The climb started out well. It was the middle of the night. There wasn’t anyone around to see me. The sun started to rise over the horizon, and it was beautiful. It was also freezing cold. The higher I climbed, the colder the experience became. I didn’t stop. I kept thinking the top of the mountain had to be close. It wasn’t. For the reco
rd, I never made it anywhere near the top.”
I had her full attention. She touched my leg. “Go on.”
“I think I was probably pretty close to freezing to death and too dumb and stubborn to know it. I finally made it to this ledge. I was hungry, frozen, stupid. I looked down over the ledge and the sheer height of how far I climbed overwhelmed me. Granted, I was nowhere near the top but, again, eight years old.”
She widened her eyes. Those deep-brown depths I wanted to get lost in. “What did you do?”
“I became so dizzy I thought I might plummet right over the side. Then I got scared. But I… I realized something in that moment. I didn’t want to be alone. I wanted to be standing there with someone beside me, someone to look down and be dizzy with me.” When I’d started talking, I hadn’t realized just how ridiculous that revelation might actually be. “And right then, Keith showed up. He’d heard me leave, followed me, gone back home and found us both heavier clothing. We stared over the side together for a while, feeling dizzy, and then we went back home. I wasn’t alone for very long. You’re not either, P. You’re a Sandler. You’re my wife. What do you need? I’ll get it.”
P rose to her knees, some of her brown hair falling over her shoulders and down her chest. “I need you.”
“I’m here.” I always would be, from now on.
She pushed me back on the bed. “No, you’re not understanding me, Mr. Sandler. I need you.”
Her meaning sunk in, and immediately, my cock hardened. I had so little experience before her, and I was in awe that I could make her happy the way I seemed to be able to.
I loved her. I wouldn’t lose her. Even to herself.
Paloma
I climbed up onto Quinn’s lap, glad to find him hard. I wanted him. I always did—that wasn’t new—but right then, I really did need him. I kissed him hard. After a second, he took over the embrace.
It was hard for me to say what I had to. “Quinn, can you take care of me?”
I didn’t think it was weakness for me to ask. Sometimes I was just so tired of keeping it all together.
“I’d love to.” His tone was low, his eyes sincere. He’d followed me here, and it hadn’t been to do anything but talk to me about climbing a mountain. Maybe he did get that I was two seconds from falling apart.
Quinn knee walked to the end of the bed. He took off my shoes and threw them behind him and then followed with my pants.
Like everything else he did, undressing me seemed to hold his total attention. I wondered sometimes exactly what went on in his head. “I can’t be the only one getting naked.”
“For now you are.” He didn’t lift his gaze to meet mine. “And you’re only getting half naked anyway.”
What exactly did he have in mind? When my underpants were removed, he scooted forward just a bit. Bending down, he kissed the top of my knee. A jolt of electricity moved through my body. I almost couldn’t believe it. If asked, I wouldn’t have said my kneecap was a particularly sensitive area when it came to sex. Or maybe it was just Quinn. Everything about him was a turn on to me. The heart he hid from the world, his fast wit, his blue eyes…
He trailed kisses down my leg, from my knee cap down, pushing my legs apart as he did. I closed my eyes. Watching him was too much. Since I quickly caught on to what he was doing, I wasn’t sure if I could actually keep my eyes open and not get nervous. It was silly. We’d been intimate so much now, he was my husband, it was nuts that I could still be anxious when it came to anything we did together.
But there it was.
Quinn kissed the outside of my pussy. I shuddered with anticipation. Having my eyes closed made the whole experience more intense. I didn’t know what he was about to do. And then I really did. Even prepared, the feel of his tongue on my clit rushed through me like a shock to my very soul.
“Quinn.” I had to say his name. My eyes flew open.
He didn’t answer me, instead the movements of his tongue became more intense. He circled my clit, over and over, finding a rhythm similar to the one he used with his fingers sometimes but different. Feeling his tongue on me made everything oh so much more intense. I gripped the bed. Pleasure swirled, it peaked and pulled back, as though I’d come close to peaking and then not made it. Each time I nearly touched climax, it felt more intense. I didn’t know how much more of this I could take.
“Quinn.” I said his name again. What was I asking him for? More? Less? Him? By the universe, I didn’t know.
He moaned against me and I was a goner. I peeked and it pressed through me, a wave of pleasure so intense I wasn’t sure I would survive it. I called out his name, over and over. Yes, I’d needed this. I’d told him to take care of me and he’d done that.
I could hardly breathe, couldn’t even manage to open my lids—when had I closed them?—when I felt him move back a little bit. Almost immediately, the door squeaked open and then closed. I opened my eyes. Quinn stared down at me, a smirk on his face.
“I don’t remember asking you in here, Keith.”
How had he known it was his brother coming through the door? Maybe it was a twin thing. I was still floating. They could do anything they wanted. Life was wonderful right now.
Keith shook his head. “Daytime isn’t assigned, unless Paloma wants me out. Do you, honey? Or can we both play with you right now?”
“I…” I rubbed at my face. “Quinn?” This had been between us. He had just… wow. Yep.
Quinn scooted back. “I think we can both make her come again. Been a little while since we shared.”
There was some moving around, and then I was pressed in Quinn’s arm, my back to his front. He tugged off my shirt and must have gotten his off at some point, too, because we were skin to skin. My mind came alert. Keith was naked, too. How had I become so lucky to have these gorgeous men so completely devoted to me?
“Hold onto his neck,” Quinn whispered in my ear, and I wrapped my arms around Keith’s to do as he said.
Anticipation shivered up my spine. Quinn somehow knew. He bit down, right in the center of my back. I cried out. There was an element of pain that always resulted in pleasure for me. I didn’t want to be beaten, but in bed with my husbands I liked if things got a little bit hard.
Keith kissed me softly on the lips then more aggressively. He moved his hands to roam over my stomach then my breasts. Keith squeezed my nipple, and I loved the pinch. I let my hands roam down his chest while at the same time I rocked back against Quinn. He moaned in my ear. I tried to memorize the sound.
This was what it felt like to be truly loved by these guys, to be between them and know they would do anything for me anytime. I hoped they understood I felt the same way. I backed up. If this was going to work smoothly, I needed to be better positioned on Quinn.
I dropped my hands to Keith’s cock and felt it harden in my fingers.
“Fuck.” He closed his eyes. Keith was a beautiful man, inside and out. He never stopped doing for others.
“Here’s what I want, my loves.” I turned slightly so Quinn could kiss my lips over my shoulder before I spoke again. “I’m going to press down on you, Quinn. Can you fit yourself inside of me?”
He nodded against my shoulder and uttered something that sounded like yes but was muffled at the same time. I lifted up on my knees and pressed backward. Quinn was there, where I’d asked him to be. Then he was inside of me, my weight thrusting him upward until we both cried out.
Keith’s chest was against mine, and I could feel his fast inhales and exhales of breath. I stroked him, a long pass over his hard cock, while I moved, taking Quinn in and out of me. It should have been awkward. It wasn’t. Our movements became something like a dance, and I swam in the sounds they each made.
“I love you. Both of you. So. Fucking. Much.” Yes, I was cursing.
Responses were given, but I could hardly hear them over the pounding in my ears from my heartbeat and the way my body threatened to explode. Quinn was close, I could hear it in the way he moaned, an
d Keith quivered in my hand. I bet if I came, they would, too.
It didn’t take long. One last hit on the spot inside of me and I was done. Colors passed over my eyes, and I fell forward, hitting Keith, who caught me in his arms. He came almost at the same time Quinn did and soon we were a pile of bodies—all arms and legs, lying on the bed, panting together. I closed my eyes. I wasn’t tired but for just a few minutes I wasn’t going to think. I was just going to feel.
Eventually, I had to let the world back in. The guys lay still around me, but they weren’t asleep either. Quinn had a particular way he breathed when he was asleep, and Keith had small movements that told me he was awake since he hardly moved at all when he was out cold. I lifted my lids.
Keith lay with his arm over his eyes. On my other side, Quinn had his face pressed down into my shoulder.
“I would look down a cliff with the two of you anytime.”
Keith moved his arm, sitting up to lean on his elbow. “I think I’m missing the reference.”
“I told her the story about the time I climbed the mountain.” Quinn’s voice was low, relaxed.
“Oh, about the time you climbed the mountain and I chased you up it?” Keith grinned. “Yeah, that was kind of awesome, wasn’t it? That view.”
Quinn sighed. “This is better.”
“Worlds better,” Keith agreed.
What had Quinn said? If you were going to be dizzy looking over a cliff, it was better not to do that alone. I sat up. My body warred with my mind’s decision, my muscles preferring I spend the rest of the day wrapped up in bed between the twins.
“Time to go rescue your sister.” They both shifted until the three of us sat shoulder to shoulder on the bed, facing the door. “There will be a time when we can spend days like this, just making love, resting, and doing it again if we want to.”
Saving Them: Wings of Artemis, Book Six Page 13