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.”
“I think so.” I rubbed my eyes. “Thirty hours?” That’s how long they’d pass out after the time travel.
“Thirty since you conked out. Yes. You had a little bit of hallucinations first.”
I groaned. “How bad?”
He shook his head. “Nothing terrible. Just makes me want to kill your father more. Leaving you in that place to be sold. I’ve never let myself think of what you went through but… yeah… if I hadn’t already blown those people up, I’d do it again. Figure out a way to make it hurt more.”
I patted his arm. For Ro, that was love. “Thank you.” My stomach rumbled. “I’m hungry.” Ravishingly, so.
He jumped up. “Yep. Let’s go eat. Everyone’s working. After you eat, I have an idea.”
“Should I be scared?”
“No, never of me. But I’m going to see to it that you’re never an easy target for any asshole to hurt ever again. Come on. Jackson cooked. It’ll be actually edible.”
I liked that idea. Never hurt again… if Rohan said that was the case, I’d believe him. He was amazing like that.
7 Ships Adrift
Rohan stood behind me, holding my hands on the laser trigger gun. “That’s right. You have steady hands. It’s just point and shoot.”
I tried to bring myself to do it. All I had to do was press the trigger and the laser would direct the gun to take out the target. It was hard to miss. I’d been told Canyon used an altered version of it when he was a sniper. His was more complicated. He could take out whole groups of people with it. I shuddered at the thought. Rohan was more of a close up assassin than a soldier.
Just pull the trigger. Point and shoot.
Still, I didn’t.
“Waverly?” Rohan hadn’t moved his hands from where they were on my own. “Point and click.”
I couldn’t really explain my hesitation. “I’m a Sandler. I should be good at this. Even my brothers, who are pretty nice men when it comes down to it, are lethal. But,” I dropped my hands, Rohan’s lowering with me, and eventually taking the gun, “I can’t explain it. Haven’t there been enough deaths by Sandler hands?”
He set the gun aside, placing it down at a table next to us. “Wavey, I don’t want you to kill anyone. Not a soul. If people need to die around you, I am going to take care of it. They’ll be no blood on your hands if I can help it. But for the last year, you have been away from me. I couldn’t have imagined what happened or prepared for it in a million years. Keep in mind, strategy is one of the things that I do.”
I nodded. “I didn’t choose to become a nurse. It wasn’t really like I set about to achieve this career. I was told I wasn’t marriage material.” And in a world with a female shortage that said a lot about how little my father thought of me. “So off I went. I’ve been asked to do all kinds of horrible things with my skills on behalf of my father. I stood there one day and helped him keep alive someone he needed to torture.”
If I suddenly disgusted Rohan thanks to this revelation, he didn’t respond. He touched the back of my neck, a most tender caress. His movement distracted me for a second as warmth invaded my body, but I had to keep going.
“I…” I took a deep breath. “I took forever to help Paloma on my father’s ship. I don’t know why I did. I was so afraid all the time. But then I did. I helped her escape and saved her life. I found my spine. I did what was right. I swore I’d never cower again, never not live up to my own standards.”
Ro kissed the side of my cheek. “You were what? Twenty? That’s a lot of blame to put on yourself considering you were raised to listen to him, and you had no options save death at his hands on that ship. Paloma doesn’t blame you. Your brothers adore you. When they talk about it, they talk about it as Waverly rescuing them all. Possible you don’t remember it the right way? Or possible you could take their not casting blame at you as a chance to stop blaming yourself?”
I turned in his arms. “I get to say when I’m responsible for things and when I’m not. Even if I’m the only one who sees how wrong I was. They weren’t in my head. They didn’t hear my thoughts.”
He pushed my hair off my forehead. “So hard on yourself, Wavey. Someday I’d like you to see yourself as the rest of us do. Thank you for sharing with me. But I’m not sure exactly why that made you not want to shoot the target?”
“I have to trust myself to do the right thing. I’ve had to learn to do that. And everything inside of me is protesting it, Ro. I don’t want to handle or use weaponry. Not unless it’s an ‘I’m going to die if I don’t’ situation. I just… don’t. I suppose I’m being foolish but…”
Rohan leaned over and kissed me. “Okay.”
He wasn’t going to argue? “I loved the idea when you suggested it. Like I could become some badass woman who told the universe to get out of her way.” I’d seen that woman strut off the Artemis back on Orion. Melissa “Fucking” Alexander was not me. “But, I’m not that. I might be a liability I know that. But I…”
“Wavey.” He grinned at me as he shook his head. “I get it. Sort of. I mean, I don’t. But I get that this is important to you. If it’s important, it’s important. I’ll never compromise your safety. That will just mean you’ll have to stick to one of us like glue for the rest of your long life.”
I pressed my head into his chest. “No more unexpected trips through space and time alone.”
“Absolutely none.” He wrapped me even closer. “How about if I taught you how to throw a punch?”
I laughed. “Okay. That I’d like to know how to do.”
Nothing much happened in the black hole and filling time seemed to be the name of the game for all of us. I couldn’t complain. The ship was looking beautiful, the med bay was organized to the point I could have found things in my sleep. The guys were happy. Everyone was smiling. Canyon’s nanos had taught his brain most of what he needed to know, but there were things he was teaching himself to identify visually.
Sometimes at night we’d spend hours laughing. The guys had taken to making him identify pictures on a tablet. They were some of the most ridiculous pictures I’d ever seen. Monkeys wearing tutus.
I’d really never laughed so much in life as I was lately. My body was always in a perpetual state of bliss. One of them was always interested in making love. I’d never complain. I slept in their arms after they ravished my body, night after night. There was peace in their arms. We didn’t have a schedule except that it seemed to run along the lines of whoever was piloting was not sleeping in the bed with the others.
I tried to offer to take a night, but they’d negated that. Sleeping with me was something they all wanted. If you took me out of the equation it didn’t work as well for them. I couldn’t help but smile all the time. I’d never imagined this life. And part of me was going to be disappointed when we came through the black hole and had to face reality again.
It was during one of those blissful evenings, while I lounged on a chair in the control room, hanging out while Jackson steered the ship, that he turned to me with a funny look on his face.
I pointed at him. “What’s that look for?”
“I’ve wanted to ask you something for some time. Actually, we all have. I’m nominating myself to do the asking.”
Ari sighed dramatically. “Just do it. Don’t make a whole thing out of it, or I’m going to do it for you.”
Jackson grinned and Rohan shifted at the wall. Canyon was doing his best impression of a statue, which just meant he was paying close attention.
What did they want to know about me that they didn’t already? Had I done something? Not done something? Anxiety could be a cruel mistress, and I needed to make sure I didn’t let this go too far.
“What’s up?”
Rohan shifted slightly. “You scared her.”
“I can see that.” Jackson took my hands in his. “I think, hope, and sincerely need, for this to be a good thing I’m going to ask you.”
I lowered my head to meet his gaze. When Jackson didn’t want to be read, he could steel his expression. This was one of those moments. Yet, the love he had for me was always present, and it was there in his eyes. I held onto that.
“Jackson. What is it?” I needed him to get to it, soon.
“We were wondering if you would marry us.”
I blinked. “What?” I couldn’t have been more surprised if he said he’d wondered if I would put on a bunny suit and run around the ship doing a jig. Maybe I shouldn’t have been. They were none of them quiet about their love for me or me to them.
“I never hid my intentions.” He squeezed my hands in his. “You remember our first date? On the snowmobile at The Farm, I told you where I wanted to build our house, and I wanted to walk a path that included a future with you. Nothing has changed. Every day I know you solidifies my love for you even stronger. It multiplies. Thinking I’d lost you was the worst time of my life and that includes some pretty bad times. What do you think, lady? Don’t answer yet. They’re each going to tell you why you should marry them. Then you can let us know what you think.”
Did he think I needed convincing? I never got to ask him that because Ari was suddenly on his knees in front of me as Jackson dropped my hands to back off.
“Waverly Sandler.” My last name always sounded beautiful coming out of his mouth. “You made me such a better man even to know you.”
“Ari.” I hated how he thought he had to be one. He’d never needed that. I had misunderstood him, he hadn’t known how insecure I was. We hadn’t gotten each other right off the bat. But he’d never needed any improvement of who he was.
He held out his hand. “Let me say it. Whether you agree or not. Okay, my love?” I nodded. That was fair. My cheeks heated. This was going to be a lot for me. All of them declaring themselves at the same time? I might go into emotional overload. But I wasn’t going to negate what this meant to me by not letting them say what they felt. I would cherish the words, run them through my head and wash myself in the memory of them when there were darker times.
I nodded. “Please, Ari. Go ahead.”
“You made me who I always should have been. Anytime I play the ‘if life had been kind’ game with you and imagine some fairytale existence on a Sandler One there never was, you remind me why that would never have worked.” I didn’t do what-ifs very well. That much was clear. “And you’re right. Our love story is exactly how it should have been. You make every day worth getting up, getting to it. You make every second you’re alive better for the people in your life. You are the reason for everything. Marry me? So I can show you that I love you, that we were always meant for each other, and we can be this wonderful creation of Ari and Waverly that we are for the rest of our lives?”
I wanted to answer him so much. Between him and Jackson there were tears in my eyes, but then he was moving away, so I had to hold them back. Rohan walked over.
He got down on his knees. “I’m told this is the traditional way of doing this. Dates back to before everything blew up on Earth. That’s what they tell me. I never felt any connection to Earth, if you want to know the truth. It’s like… I don’t know… a fake place when you’re born on the other side of the galaxy, and that’s for those who are still basically human.”
“Ro, you are human.”
He leaned over, took my hand in his, and kissed my palm. “I feel that way now. Before that, Canyon may have talked to machines but I felt like one. An alien. Or just wrong. Then I saw you and I thought… wow, she exists in the universe. There must be a purpose, a reason for being like this, because I am going to love that woman. I just knew it. Like I could breathe, and if I could love someone like you, even if you didn’t return those feelings, then I was human. You made me human, Wavey. I love you. I want to be somewhere in your mind, in your heart, every second of the day. I want to live there. I don’t know anything about husbands. I don’t know anything about families except in movies I see. I will try. If you’re willing to give me a go. Will you marry me, Wavey?”
He was worried he wouldn’t be a good husband? I swallowed. This not answering them was a personal hell. But there was still Canyon left.
He didn’t move from where he was. What he said to me was so perfectly Canyon it forced the tears from my eyes. “I see you. I always did, even when I saw nothing else. You see me, too. I can’t think of a better reason to spend our lives together. We see each other completely and love each other anyway. I can figure out how to be a husband, and if I do it wrong, you can tell me.” He smiled at me, a warmth moved through me at the adoration. “Will you marry me?”
Was it okay for me to answer them now? I was going to—whether it was okay or not. I let the tears loose. But they were the happy variety. “They’re not upset tears. I know for some of you that is confusing. So just trust me. I am so overwhelmed with joy. Yes, yes, I’ll marry you.”
Rohan was closest to me, so it was his lips that met mine first. They were sweet then salty from my tears. He smiled against my mouth. “I really will do my best.”
“You are so amazing Rohan. You were always human. And you are so deep in my heart. We’ll figure it out together. I’ve never been anyone’s wife. I don’t have a clue.”
Next it was Ari. He pulled me to him, and I put my head on his forehead. When I spoke to him, it was with a low tone. “You never had to be more than you are. You are so beyond everything you would ever need to be. You floor me. I never felt worthy. But I do now. Whatever it was Ari, was me. You were always all that you had to be. It’s my fault I didn’t read it right.”
“Sweetheart,” his voice was equally low. “You humble me. You’re my whole world. You make it okay to live with the monsters.”
I knew what that meant for Ari to say that. “Are there any here right now?”
He shook his head. “Nothing but you.”
“All right,” Jackson laughed. “My turn.”
I left Ari to go into Jackson’s arms. He smelled like soap. I had a second to recognize that before his mouth met my own. His kiss was scalding. Jackson possessed me, consumed my senses, and left me breathless. I stared into his eyes.
“I told you this would be how it was. It would end with us together forever.” He ran his hand over the chip in my wrist. The fertility monitor made it impossible for me to get pregnant unless I turned it off myself. All women over the age of ten were required to have them upon penalty of law. The Dark Planets could be problematic, but for the most part, women had them. Only I could turn it off. That way, no one could ever make me have a baby I didn’t want or force me to have sex with them to conceive and trap me in a marriage.
There were, of course, ways around it. Being forcibly made to turn off my birth control had been one problem I hadn’t faced. Jackson gave me a small smile. “If you really want ten, maybe it’s time to get started.”
I blinked. Children? I hadn’t given it thought lately. It
was always just a dream. He bent over to kiss my cheek. “Think about it, my love.”
Jackson let me go, and I walked toward Canyon. He pressed a kiss on my temple. “I never thought to have you. Even when I knew I wanted you, I thought you’d turn away. But here you are, I can see you, it’s like the universe is smiling at me.”
I let him hold me as I basked in the sunshine that was his love for me. They all acted like it was them who had lucked out. No, I knew the truth. It was me. I’d stumbled into the kind of love I’d once thought reserved for other women.
Ari clapped his hands together. “Okay. I am legally allowed to marry people. I… Well, maybe less said about why that happened the better.” That meant there was a story that he didn’t want me to hear, and it probably involved women. Yes, I didn’t want to know that right now. “I married Paloma and your brothers. I can marry us. I mean, it’ll be weird, but I can do it. We all have something for you.”
Had they coordinated this on their journey to Orion or since then? Each of them had a ring in their pockets and Ari handed me one. There were four stones in it. I knew immediately which was whose. Ari was the stone of Sandler One. He’d know the Sandler sapphire was important to our heritage. The ring had a sapphire. Jackson’s was a warm ruby stone. He hated the cold. I’d always think of heat when I looked at it. Canyon’s was a diamond so pure it was bright, catching the light. And Rohan’s was onyx, black like space outside but catching the rays of the room. Canyon held his out to me so I could see. There was one ring on each of theirs.
It was a red stone, differently shaded than Jackson’s. I didn’t recognize it. “What is it?”
Rohan answered. “It’s red coral.”
“From Sandler One.” The oceans were famous for it. The formations could be seen from space.
Light Unfolding: A Reverse Harem Science Fiction Romance (Wings of Artemis Book 8) Page 8
