Chapter 8 #2
“Where is he?” she demands.
I understand her suspicion, even if I don’t like it. “Like Kimba said, he’s sleeping.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“You don’t have to. But it’s true.” I glance at Trench, and then back to her. “Look up how far away Calisan is and then tell me if you’d be here after going there, finding what he did, and coming all the way back.”
“Kilo showed up.”
Risk snorts. “Kilo is a masochist. And he probably didn’t leave after they gave their report.”
Jess can’t argue with that, so she doesn’t. But she doesn’t give up.
“There’s something you’re not telling us. I want to know what it is. Arc hasn’t been patrolling.”
“You will know when you need to know. Kimba and Drift are aware. They’ve given us permission to keep certain things to ourselves.”
She lets out a heavy huff and seems to reset her body, adjusting every aspect of her posture. “I don’t trust any of you. You’ve got too many secrets.”
“Maybe. But maybe you should consider why Kimba didn’t say anything about ‘what we’re hiding.’”
That makes her brows pinch and she looks at me like she’s no longer certain. Then, she goes to Kimba, who does not look at me with gratitude when Jessica delivers her opening question.
“Is he okay?” Trench asks, and I nod, still watching his bondmate.
“She might get more answers if she was a little less… hostile to him.” Risk stretches out his neck.
Trench’s smile is tense with irritation. “We both know that is a reaction he brought on himself.”
“Now that you know why, does it change things?”
“A little, but not enough.” He gestures vaguely toward Jess. “At some point, that secret is going to come out.”
“We know.”
“Just imagine what they’re going to feel if they know he’s been listening to their private thoughts.”
I look up at him and manage not to laugh. “Just imagine what they’ll do when they find out I can see the future.”
“What?”
“We all have our secrets, Trench. Some of them are a little more explosive than others.”
He looks at me, and for a moment I know he thinks I’ve said it just to throw him off. But I see when he accepts that it’s not a lie.
“Why haven’t you told anyone that?”
“How do you think Richter would react if I told him I knew Laurel was going to be run off the road someday?” I look away. “How do you think Breaker would feel if he found out I knew Faith was going to die? Or that bringing her back would nearly kill him?”
Trench doesn’t say anything. What could he say?
“What I see is inevitable. I can’t change it, I just have to live with it.
” I laugh as that argument flashes in my mind, eyes unfocusing.
“When this all comes out—and it will, soon—you’ll stay quiet.
You and Jess will sit back and watch them explode.
There’s one more secret to learn before that…
and Jess won’t let you help us once that’s revealed. ”
“Is it Risk’s secret?”
“No, this one belongs to all of us… and one other person.”
“The woman Kimba asked about.”
I tip my head to the side in an acknowledgement. “She works for the Agency.” I say it so I can give him something without lying to him.
It doesn’t make him happy. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“I don’t… but I know how this ends, and that’s almost as good.”
CHRYS
I want to crawl into bed with Arc, but he needs to sleep and I’m too antsy.
Curling up next to him, with my head that close to his, I’m sure I’d wake him. Or, at the very least, I’d screw up his dreams.
A sadistic little laugh escapes me as I slip into the bathroom and slap off the lights. I can only imagine what nightmares would come from my current thoughts leaching into his unconscious thoughts.
The replacement meds sent over by the doctor have worn low and my mind has run riot.
I need something to turn it off. That doesn’t exist, but there is a bathtub. Hot water might get me close.
Enough light spills in from the windows that I can see everything I need to. I twist the lever Shock showed me and the water immediately flows up from the bottom. I shiver when the gentle steam hits me. This is exactly what I need.
Tossing in—probably too much of—the Epsom salts they got me, I wait until it’s half full before slipping out of my clothes and into the water.
I exhale and wish I could expel the jittery feeling beneath my skin into the air with my breath.
Something is wrong. There’s something we’re all missing and being horny as fuck isn’t helping.
I hear Arc moving in the other room and cringe. Damnit. I didn’t mean to wake him.
“You didn’t.” He sits on the floor beside the tub as the water level reaches the small line around the tub that sucks it back in again.
Laurel said something about Isian tech constantly recycling water, but I wasn’t paying attention.
“I’d hoped that taking a bath would clear out my head enough that I wasn’t thought-bombing you.”
“Kissu is exploring. His inner monologue is quite loud right now.”
“I guess that makes sense. This place is new to him…”
He catches my hand, pulling it up to trace the lines along my fingers. “I like your tattoos.”
“My mom tried to scrub the first one she saw off of me. She was so mad.” Chuckling, I sink lower into the water and then bob back up. “She’s given up on trying to make me stop.”
“There’s not much space left.”
I shake my head, the wet ends of my hair brushing at my jaw. “There’s always room for more tattoos.”
He laughs, but it’s strained. He’s tired, and I’m keeping him awake. I should get out of the tub, I should—
“You should stay exactly where you are. I didn’t come to you to make you get out.”
Maybe being able to read minds is more of a bitch than I thought it was.
“It can be torture.” He sweeps my hair back behind my ear. “But it has its uses.”
Trailing his fingertips down my neck, he takes hold of me with the barest squeeze. “I know what you want… Being able to give it to you—what I can, anyway—that isn’t torture.”
He knows what I want, but what if…
“I can’t read your mind. I need you to tell me you want this too.” I lick my lips and ask a question I need to know the answer to and am terrified of at the same time. “Do you want me? Or do you just know that I want you and—”
He catches my face in his hand. “I want you more than I knew was possible.”
“Then let me find a way to make this work, for all of us.”
He nods, and I twist in the water until I can wrap my arms around him and kiss him.
The air is cold, but I don’t care.
Arc seems to. He peels my arms off of him and eases me back into the water. “Give me a second.”
He pulls his shirt off over his head.
“Are you getting in with me?” I don’t try to hide the hopeful tone in my voice.
“Not exactly.” On his knees, chest against the stone side of the bath, Arc skims his palm over the water until he reaches my neck.
I shift when he wraps his wet fingers around my throat. God, I want him to climb into the water with me. I want him to drag me out and press me down into the floor…
“Such lusty thoughts,” he says, as he releases me to draw his palm down the front of me, between my breasts, through the winged dagger, over my stomach…
The heel of his palm presses down as his wrist pivots, and his fingers curl under almost as if he’s trying to protect my modesty. But they stroke me, teasing, and my eyes lock on his as he presses closer and then pulls his hand back up.
Exhaling raggedly, he closes his eyes and his fingers tap on my mound like he’s making a decision.
His other hand leaves the tub's edge.
His fingers slip through my hair, and when they clench to a fist, the tightness of his grip makes my back bow. The water slides from my breasts, chill air peaking my nipples.
“They took care of you last night.”
“Yes, they did.” I try to hold myself still. “But I wished you were there the whole time.”
“Yes, you did.” He closes his eyes and exhales again. “I wish I’d been here too.”
His fingers toy with me, teasing as he leans forward to lick my neck.
“Last week,” my breath hitches as his teeth graze my skin, “I would have sworn I didn’t want a boyfriend… And here I am now, wanting to keep the three of you forever.”
His eyes close and he breathes deeply again. I wonder just how fractured his control is.
“It’s completely fractured with you.” Arc’s grip in my hair tightens and he angles my mouth against his when he opens his eyes again.
“We’re all out of control around you. If we weren’t, you’d still be resting.
We wouldn’t have touched you until your bruises were fully healed.
I would have taken you to your sister instead of bringing you home with me. ”
“I’m glad you’re not in control.” When I push my head forward, he doesn’t release me, but the sharp tug on my scalp is almost as sweet as our kiss.
When he eases back, he makes a sound that is as reluctant as I feel.
“Are you just going to tease me again?” I ask the question he’s already heard in my mind. “Or are you going to be here when I come?”
“You have to ask for it, Chrys. Ask or take. Right now, those are your only two options.”
“Please make me come, Arc.” I press my toes against the edge of the tub to scoot up higher. “Make me come and then bundle me up and take me to bed.”
“Anything you want.” His fingers press into me finally, and the water sloshes around his arm as he pumps. “As long as you ask.”
I spread my knees wider and wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him like I never want to let him go.
I’m going to have all three of you. I’ll think that at him as many times as he needs to believe it.
And, once they’re mine…
I laugh into his mouth and he pulls back, eyes narrowed. “Finish the thought.”
“Once you’re mine, I’m going to ride you into the ground.”
He smiles at me, tongue peeking out to lick his lips. “If you break one of the beds, I’ll give you a prize.”
I laugh until his fingers twist and open, water sloshing around me.
My legs won’t open any wider, but I might try to…
“Let me up.”
I push at his shoulders and he moves back, sitting on the floor and looking up at me with a raised brow ridge.
“Your thoughts are dangerous, koah.”
“But you’re not going to stop me.”
“No, I’m not.” He lies back onto the bathroom floor, watching me climb out and holding out his hands for me while I drip water all over him.
I’m a wet mess as I straddle him, but he doesn’t make me ask for this… Maybe this qualifies as taking it.
He just whispers soft, encouraging Sianese words while I grind on him.
We’re both soaked as I abuse my clit on his cock.
The ridges are like washboard under his pants, and it shouldn’t be enough, but it gets me there.
Arc holds me against his chest as I shudder and shake through the last of it, still rubbing on him like a cat in heat.
“When I can finally fuck you, I’m going to abuse the word Shock taught me while you were gone.” I place my lips against his ear. “Mestava.”
His hips jerk and he clenches, groaning into my shoulder as he lifts me up and rolls me off of him onto my side.
“He wants to kill me.”
I look down at the front of Arc’s pants, and it’s my turn to bite my tongue.
“He told me it’s a magic word that will make you come instantly.” So far, it’s three for three.
“Did he tell you what it means?”
“Of course.”
He mutters something in Sianese and then gets up, hauling me off the ground and putting me back in the tub.
When he sinks to his knees, the only real evidence of what just happened is the water puddled behind him. The dark, wet stains on the front of him are hidden from view.
Dropping his forehead to mine, he says, “I’m going to get you latex shorts so you can do that again… and we don’t have to worry about anything soaking through.”
Yes please.
He takes a deep breath, forehead still pressed against mine. “Come to town with me tomorrow.”
“Okay.” Shock already told me I would. But not why. “I promised Mary I’d meet up with her and the woman still staying with her at a zurgle cafe. Is it okay if I do that too?”
“Of course.” He doesn’t tell me what we’re going to do either.
“It’ll make sense tomorrow. I promise.”
I don’t need an explanation. “I trust you.”
He kisses me one more time, and then he stands. The evidence of his own orgasm has darkened one leg of his sleeping pants.
“Give me a moment to clean up and I’ll get you a towel.”
“I can soak a little longer.”
He smiles at me, but when he turns, the large slash scars across his back make my stomach twist and I sink lower into the water.
They’re a sharp reminder that it’s safe in here, but outside, it very definitely isn’t… and I can’t stop any of them from going out to do what needs to be done.