All her answers about love had been put to rest.
* * * *
As Ronan and Noah stepped off the service elevator, he had a sense of dread that grew exponentially when he saw the docking bay filled with people, all looking toward hangar seven. One arm was around his partner, supporting him, and the other was pushing people aside. They hurried as fast as they could through the crowd.
And then he saw her. She stood staring down at Max, who wasn’t moving. A blaster was in her hand and smoke was curling up from the body.
“Alivia!” he cried.
She looked up and locked her eyes on him and Noah. He saw all the fear and all the despair she must have just gone through that caused her to pull the trigger.
She ran right at them and he and Noah caught her, hugging her close. Hugging her tight.
“Are you all right?” he murmured into her hair.
“Yes,” she whispered. “He told me he had hurt one of you, that he had a body. I was…I was…”
“Shh,” he said. “It’s okay. I’m okay. And Noah’s going to be okay.”
She jerked back to look at Noah. “What happened? What’s wrong with him?”
Ronan knew the precise moment when she spotted the bandage-wrapped hand.
With trembling hands she cradled his left hand, crying, as she inspected where his little finger used to be.
Behind them, people began milling around, approaching Max’s body and Ronan knew it was only a matter of time before enforcers were called in. While the policing on Tortuga was relatively lax and usually based on how much money was dangled as an incentive to look the other way, Ronan wasn’t about to push their luck.
“Alivia, take Noah into the ship and secure him in the berth,” he ordered.
She didn’t seem to hear him. She was focused on Noah’s hand. “He cut off your finger,” she said.
Ronan cupped her face and forced her to look at him. “Sweetheart, we have to get off Tortuga. Take Noah inside the ship and secure him. Do you understand?”
She blinked and then nodded. She gently took Noah’s arm and they went inside the ship. Ronan took a deep breath and then turned to the people gathered around.
“Has anyone called the enforcers yet?” he asked.
“Don’t think so,” said one man. “I saw it all, though. This bloke went after her. She was just defending herself.”
“That there’s tenth floor Max,” said another. “Mean bastard.”
“Your woman was pretty lucky he didn’t get his hands on her,” another man told him. “Go on. Get on your ship and get out of here. As far as I’m concerned, this was a justified killing.”
“Thank you,” Ronan said and hurried to his ship. He wasn’t about to linger. As he walked by Max’s body he had the strongest urge to kick the dead bastard but refrained.
Minutes later, he was confirming his exit with the station’s control tower. Once he was clear of Tortuga, he fired up the engine and they were soaring through space.
* * * *
Noah walked alongside Alivia as she helped him along. She tended to pamper and coddle him and he had to admit that he liked this even though he felt strong enough to walk on his own.
He hadn’t lost the entire finger. Max had his goons hold him down while he cut up to the second knuckle. He had passed out from the pain so he didn’t remember too much. When he had woken up, he had found himself covered in dried blood and the tip cauterized.
It didn’t hurt now like it did a few hours ago. Now it was more like a dull throb. He suspected he was still in a state of shock, perhaps even a little bit of denial. All he knew was that he was damn grateful that Ronan hadn’t written him off.
“I know it’s asking a lot, but could you help me into the sterilizing shower?” he asked.
“You should lie down.”
“Probably, but I want to wash this blood and stink off.” He pulled the shirt away from his chest, some of the material cracking a little from the dried blood.
“Okay,” she said. “Lean on me.”
Gladly, he thought. She sat him gently down on the closed toilet lid and began to gently, carefully remove his soiled clothing. First the shirt and then the pants. He noticed she deliberately averted her eyes when his pants slid past his hips to pool around his feet. Having her on her knees in front of him made his cock stir to life, even though he was beyond weary and just a little bit heartsick.
It was just a damn finger. It could have been worse.
If he kept telling himself that, maybe he’d believe it.
“We should go to Valin,” Alivia said.
“Why?” he asked.
“Because of your finger!”
“My finger is gone, Alivia. I can survive without it.”
“But he hurt you,” she whispered.
“I’m going to be fine,” he told her. “Of all the things that Max could have done to me, this was nothing. This I will recover from.”
“How can you be so calm about this?”
He took a deep breath and suddenly he knew the reason why he didn’t have to be too broken up over what he lost. “Because I still have Ronan and I still have you.”
She looked at him with luminous eyes and all he wanted to do was pull her into him and kiss her until they were both breathless. Instead he leaned over and kissed her gently on the mouth. She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.
“I love you, Noah.”
His heart just about stopped from the beauty of her words.
“I love you, too, Alivia.”
* * * *
Once Noah was clean, Alivia helped him into clean clothing and eased him onto the bed he shared with Ronan.
“We’re going to have to find some decent clothes,” she said. “Between me wearing your stuff and you bleeding all over them, well, it’s getting close to a crisis time.”
He leaned his head back against the wall and gave her a small smile. “Are there any shops on Marvala we can stop at?”
She shrugged. “I spent all of my time in the house my mother provided for me, with nannies who had love lives while I didn’t even have a pet. I couldn’t tell you anything about Marvala unless it’s about the flora and fauna from the back garden.”
“You were that sheltered?”
“Well, I did have an education with all the modern technology, of course. I know about the five galaxies humans now inhabit as well as our origins on Earth. But I had a steady diet of loneliness and isolation growing up.”
“Isn’t it about time you told us everything?” Ronan asked from the doorway, startling them both.
He moved further into the room and sat at the end of the bed.
“I’ve been instructed all my life never to reveal my true identity,” she replied. “But those were instructions made thirty-one years ago and I’m tired of being alone. Of being a pawn.”
“Pawn?” Ronan asked.
“You said you didn’t know much about Marvala’s king and queen,” she said, looking between them.
Ronan nodded. “Just from what I read.”
She took a deep breath. “The king is sterile. Or was. If it had been known that he was unable to father a child to inherit the throne, it would have disrupted the balance of power.”
“Why?” Noah asked. “I don’t know much about monarchies but I do know that the law doesn’t forbid adoption.”
“True, but the preference is for a blood relation. The king had a brother and the crown would have reverted to him.”
“So? Was the king power hungry?”
“No,” she assured. “But the brother was in an accident when he was a child and had mild brain damage. He could’ve ruled but just not ruled well.”
“Okay,” Noah said, clearly waiting.
“My mother had an idea,” she continued. “To have a child so if the time came that the brother was proved incompetent then the child could take over because of having royal DNA.”
“But you said the king was sterile,” N
oah reminded her.
“But his brother wasn’t,” Ronan said.
She waited.
“You’re the daughter of the queen and her brother-in-law,” Ronan surmised. “You were meant to rule.”
“My education was one of a queen in training,” she said. “But I wasn’t much of a student, I’m afraid. My mother kept me locked away in one of her palace homes because she was ashamed that I wasn’t the brain she was hoping for. I believe the term she used was lackluster.”
“Oh, honey,” Noah murmured. He took her hand in his and entwined their fingers.
“And then your cousin comes along and issues a challenge for the crown,” Ronan said, “staring a civil war. Your bodyguard…what was his name?”
“Kaden.”
“This Kaden shuttles you off Marvala while the conflict rages, hoping to return you once everything dies down.”
She gave a half-nod, half-shrug sort of answer.
“But they were all killed, right?” Noah asked. “The king, the queen, and the brother. Making you the rightful ruler of Marvala.”
“I’m no queen,” she assured him. “I didn’t even live at court. I have no idea how to run a planet.”
“Someone thinks you are,” Ronan replied. “Someone was hunting you on Outpost Four.”
“I know. That’s what worries me.”
“We’ll take care of you,” Noah promised.
He hoped it was a promise he could keep.
* * * *
Ronan sat in his pilot seat, staring absently out the viewscreen. He had so much running through his mind it was hard to focus on one thing. He was trying hard to wrap his brain around all that had happened since they had woken Alivia up.
“Hey,” Noah greeted as he eased into the chair next to Ronan’s.
“You should be resting,” Ronan grumbled.
“And you should be sleeping next to me, but you aren’t.”
“I have a lot on my mind.”
“I realize that. Your forehead creases are deep.”
“Hey now,” Ronan chided. “You trying to tell me I’m old?”
Noah smiled. “By the way, happy birthday.”
“Yeah, happy fucking birthday to me. Would love to have the past seventy-two hours back. Maybe save you a world of hurt.”
“Hey now,” Noah said, using Ronan’s turn of phrase. Noah held up his left hand. “Look on the bright side. I’m right handed, and you saved me, in quite an ingenious way, I might add.”
“My mother used to use knock-out incense on her clients that liked pain,” Ronan said. “It gave me the idea.”
Noah grabbed his hand. “Listen, I know we’ve never really gone deep with expressing our feelings for each other. I blame myself for that. I did…some awful things before I met you. Things I don’t like to think about. But I want you to know that I love you and it’s not just the superficial you-saved-me crap either. I can’t imagine living my life without you.”
Ronan squeezed his hand. “I feel the same, Noah. I don’t want to ever relive what I felt when Alivia told me you’d been taken. It felt like I couldn’t breathe, like someone had pushed my head in a bucket of water and wouldn’t let me up. When you accused me of withholding from you, it was because I was trying to protect you from my past. You say you’ve done shameful things. Well, so have I.”
“Confession time? Because if so there’s something else I need to confess,” Noah told him. “Alivia.”
Ronan smirked. “Don’t bother. Because if you confess then I have to confess.”
“Ah,” Noah replied, biting his lower lip. “Have you fucked her?”
“No. I knew if we ever came to that point I’d want you to be there. But we did go down on each other.”
Noah was quiet for a moment. “She tastes amazing, doesn’t she?”
“Fuck yeah.”
“So the agreement we gave each other,” Noah said. “The one about not fucking other people…I still want to hold to that, but with adding her. Just the three of us.”
Ronan’s heart jumped at the words and his cock definitely stirred with interest. But he was, above all, practical. “Do you think that’ll work?”
“A relationship with three people?” Noah asked. “Why couldn’t it?”
“No,” Ronan said, shaking his head. “I didn’t mean that, but that’s a good point. What I meant was pointing out the fact that she’s a fucking queen. We’re taking her back to Marvala to assume her place on its throne.”
“I don’t want to be queen,” Alivia said from behind them. Both Ronan and Noah swiveled in their chairs to look at her. “I’ve never wanted to be queen.”
“But your mother—”
Alivia met Ronan’s eyes with steely resolve. “My mother birthed me as a means to an end. But I wasn’t her husband’s child and she never let me forget it. I know nothing of Marvala or of being a queen. That’s not what I want.”
“What do you want?” Noah asked.
“You once told me that I could be with you, that you’d be my family.” She glanced back and forth. “I do believe love can be an equal partnership between three people, that what we can give each other completes a bigger picture. You love each other and I would never interfere with that, but I can offer a different type of companionship.”
Ronan shot a look at Noah. He knew what he wanted, but he’d never go against what Noah wanted.
Noah held out his hand to her, the one bandaged up. She took it. Then he turned to Ronan and held out his other hand. He didn’t have to think twice. Not only did he take Noah’s hand, he picked up Alivia’s other one. Ronan felt something inside him shift and unlock, and his heart thundered with joy. He’d always had Noah, but he’d never taken that final step to commit.
But now…now they were together as one.
She smiled tenderly at him. Lovingly.
“I’d like to give you a birthday present,” she said.
He squeezed her hand. “You’ve given me a wonderful present already.”
“Not quite. I want to give you me.”
And just like that his cock sprang to life, harder than fucking diamonds.
“Are you sure?” he whispered. “Because once we take that step I’ll never let you go.”
“Yes, Ronan.” She looked at Noah. “Yes, Noah.”
Ronan stood and pulled her into his arms. “I fucking love you.”
Chapter Seventeen
Ronan kissed the back of her neck and rubbed his soft cheek bristles against the sensitive skin, causing her to gasp. She had never realized how arousing her back could be. She watched through half-closed eyes as Noah removed his clothing, admiring his lean body and smooth muscles.
Once he was naked, he took her in his arms, claiming her lips. She distinctly heard the rustling of clothes and realized that Ronan was also disrobing, the clothes falling in a pile on the floor.
Then Ronan’s hands slid around her. His hands cupped her breasts, filling his palms with the heaviness of their weight. He massaged the plump mounds, teasing the nipples all over again. She thrust her chest out, wanting more, moaning as she broke the kiss to let her head fall back onto Ronan’s chest.
Noah leaned over her, kissing his way down her body as he unbuttoned her shirt and peeled it from her body. He nipped and licked all the way down, until he fell to his knees in front of her, unsnapping her pants and pushing them down, exposing her inch by inch to his gaze.
“Her pussy is so pretty, Ronan,” Noah murmured as his fingers slid through the red curls that protected her most intimate part. “The hair down here matches what’s on her head. And…oh! She’s already slick.”
Alivia’s hips bucked as Noah’s fingers touched her slit. Her heart pounded with excitement. She couldn’t believe she was naked, in front of both men, letting them look at her. Touch her. Fuck her.
“How does she taste, Noah?” Ronan asked in between the kisses he was laving against her neck. His hands were still working magic upon her breasts.
Noah pulled his hand out and stuck his finger in his mouth. “She tastes like honey. Like sweet nectar. Should I eat her delicious pussy, Ronan?”
“Do it,” Ronan ordered.
With one hand spreading her, Noah’s mouth descended. He licked his way up and down, over and over, until she thought she would go out of her mind. Her juices flowed and he lapped them up like a cat licking cream. And then he found the spot that cried for attention, the little bundle of nerves, and sucked that into the hot vortex of his mouth. She jumped, cried out, and came immediately. The white-hot fire that roared through her caused her to beg for more even though she wasn’t quite sure what she was begging for.
“She’s ready, Ronan,” Noah murmured, the lower half of his face shining with her cream.
Ronan turned her around and tilted her face up so she was looking directly at him. “Remember how I taught you to give a blow job?”
She nodded.
“You’re going to give one to Noah, my love,” he told her. “I’m going to lay you on the bed and he’s going to give you his cock, and you’re going to suck him down. Can you do that for me? Can you make Noah come?”
“Yes.”
Ronan lifted her and laid her on the bed. Then he spread her legs wide and kissed her inner thighs, working his way up until he latched onto her pussy. Her body arched in pleasure as his tongue swept into her channel, licking up and down. Just when she thought it couldn’t feel any better, he pushed his middle finger into her. His index finger rubbed over her clit, and her hips instinctively found the rhythm to mimic his hand, pumping in and out. She went up in flames, crying as she convulsed in pleasure.
“Her cunt is gripping my fingers so tight, Noah,” Ronan said. “God, she’s going to be so tight.”
“Make her nice and wet, Ronan,” Noah ordered as he began to play with her nipples.
“She is.”
“Are you ready to take Ronan’s huge cock, Alivia?” Noah asked, bending to kiss her neck. “Look at it. See how much he wants you?”
Sleeping Beauty (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 12
