by Marla Monroe
The Men of Space Station One #9
Making Them Happy
Beverly wants nothing more than to make Caleb and Jeff happy in their new life on planet Alpha. They are two of the sexiest men she’s ever seen, which worries her that they will be disappointed with her. She isn’t a model-perfect woman, but she can take care of a house and garden. Will it be enough for her handsome cowboys?
Caleb and Jeff think Beverly is the perfect woman for them. How can they make her understand that she’s exactly who they want? When a foreign cell is found in her bloodstream and there are questions surrounding the babies being born on planet Alpha, what will the trio do when Beverly becomes pregnant?
The families on Alpha face dangerous creatures and poisonous plants every day. Now they are worried about how the planet is affecting their children as well. Will the strange cells in their bloodstream prove to be deadly, or will they be their salvation?
Genre: Futuristic, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Science Fiction
Length: 54,513 words
MAKING THEM HAPPY
The Men of Space Station One #9
Marla Monroe
MENAGE EVERLASTING
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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MAKING THEM HAPPY
Copyright © 2013 by Marla Monroe
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62242-604-1
First E-book Publication: March 2013
Cover design by Les Byerley
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MAKING THEM HAPPY
The Men of Space Station One #9
MARLA MONROE
Copyright © 2013
Chapter One
Jeff Bledsoe watched his friend Caleb Matthews maneuver the truck-like transport up to the loading dock of the spaceship they had just disembarked from. The shuttle had brought them safely from a slowly disintegrating Earth to Alpha, a newly colonized planet offering its transplanted inhabitants a second chance. The sun’s constant solar eruptions were slowly tearing Earth apart and had rendered most of the females barren from Shear’s Disease. Those still found to be able to reproduce had been sequestered in bunkers beneath the ground to protect them from the sun’s growing toxic energies.
Caleb nestled the transport snug against the loading dock and smiled. Jeff was thankful it was Caleb driving instead of him. He wasn’t as confident with things as Caleb seemed to be. They had only met about nine months ago when they had been chosen to be a part of the colonization of planet Alpha. Jeff was chosen because of his cattle ranching experience. He was the foreman of a large ranch in Montana. He had started there as a kid and worked his way up to the foreman position through hard work, guts, and determination.
His new friend Caleb came from a similar background, except he hailed from Texas. He also had experience with breeding horses as well as cows. Caleb hadn’t stuck with one ranch his entire career. Instead, he’d traveled from ranch to ranch gathering experience before building his own ranch from start to finish. At the age of thirty-three, he was one of the youngest ranch owners with the number of acres he’d managed to accumulate and work without having been born to it. Jeff admired Caleb’s ambition and determination. He wondered what it had cost him to leave Earth behind.
He jumped out of the transport to help Caleb load up. They had already ordered the supplies they wanted while they waited in line earlier. He and Caleb had discussed what they wanted to begin with over the last few weeks of their six-month trip across the universe and made out a master list encompassing everything from food to fencing materials. They had used the information supplied in their education classes about the planet that had recently been updated with the experiences of the pioneers of the planet from earlier shuttles.
Though it hadn’t been disclosed when they had agreed to join the next group of people going to planet Alpha, their studies revealed that there were numerous dangers on the planet they would need to plan for. Although their housing had been taken care of, they would have to build the fence to protect their wife and eventual children. It would be their first priority.
Jeff glanced over at where Caleb was checking off the supplies. Jeff was charged with arranging them in the transport buggy. They had yet to see their wife since the marriage ceremony back on Earth. That brief encounter had been less than satisfactory since she’d been covered from head to toe in a wedding dress and veil. Even lifting the veil to bestow the traditional kiss hadn’t offered much of a glimpse of her before she was whisked away to prepare for the trip.
“How in the hell are we supposed to find Beverly when we get finished?” Caleb’s question seemed to come out of nowhere.
“Not sure, but she’s supposed to be waiting for us with our luggage. I hope she still is by the time we make it there.”
“She’s probably going to be a little mad at having to wait so long. I sure don’t like starting out that way with her.”
“Surely they told the
women we would be getting supplies before we came to get them,” Jeff said.
The thought of an angry wife to deal with on top of everything else didn’t sit well with him. They needed to start out on a positive note if this arranged marriage was going to work. Although it had seemed to work out for all of the previous families on the planet, he still had his doubts. It would be hard enough to share her between him and Caleb as it was. They were both strong, opinionated men, and sharing a woman wasn’t something that came natural to them. Add to that the fact that they had known each other less than a year and it had the makings of a mess as far as he was concerned.
Caleb checked off a roll of fencing and shrugged. “You would think so, but we’ve already figured out that they haven’t exactly been honest with us up front on some things. Face it, there’s no telling what we’re likely to discover now that we’re here.”
“I hope she’s prepared for what we have ahead of us. We don’t really know anything about her.”
“Yeah, I’ve worried about that. What if she isn’t able to work a garden or she doesn’t really know how to cook?”
“I guess we best be ready for anything. All we do know about her is that she can get pregnant, according to the health tests and exams we all went through. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be on this trip at all.”
Caleb finished checking off the supplies, and Jeff made sure they were secure on the transport, leaving plenty of room for their luggage in the process. It was time to go find their wife. Jeff closed the hatch and locked it down before climbing back into his seat and fastening the harness. He watched Caleb do the same before nimbly moving them away from the loading dock and other transports in line behind them.
“Let’s go get our wife.” Caleb grinned across at him and pointed the buggy in the direction of the luggage pad and hopefully their woman.
* * * *
Beverly Eggers finally had all the luggage together after tracking down one of Jeff’s trunks. She just prayed the men hadn’t come and gone already. If they were out looking for her, they would be pissed. Not that she could blame them. They were probably tired from loading supplies and ready to get to their new home. Lord knows she was.
Although she was glad to be out of the bunkers on Earth where she had spent the last four years of her life, Beverly wasn’t quite sure what to think about being chosen to populate a strange planet that no one had heard of before the sun started having heartburn and destroying Earth. Neither was she exactly pleased to be married to two men she had never heard of before her wedding and hadn’t seen since the ceremony. She had expected to be able to get to know them on board the shuttle sometime during the six-month trip it took to reach planet Alpha.
Once everyone had boarded the spaceship, they had been hurried to their quarters and shown how to strap in for takeoff. Then they were informed that they wouldn’t be seeing their spouses until they landed. They had to concentrate on learning everything they could about the new world as soon as possible. Their lives would depend on it.
She had tried all during the trip to remember what her new husbands looked like, but other than believing them to be tall and strong looking, she drew a blank. She finally recalled that Caleb had dark-brown hair that was shaggy when they left Earth. Jeff’s was a lighter shade of brown and cut short. She sure hoped they remembered her because she wasn’t sure she would be able to pick them out when they showed up with the transport. Being seated on their luggage was probably the only thing that would prove her connection to them. More than likely they didn’t remember her any better than she could them.
The sound of another buggy pulling up snagged her attention. She stood up and strained to see what the men who got out would look like. The first man to jump down from the transport had shaggy, light-brown hair under a black Stetson. The second figure moved around the front of the vehicle and wore a similar black Stetson as well, but his hair was much darker and he had it pulled back. Had they both let their hair grow during the trip? Beverly didn’t know what to do, so she stayed where she was.
The two men headed her way in determined strides. As they grew nearer, she had to swallow at their imposing figures. She didn’t remember them being so tall and built so broad. Then she had been wearing extremely high heels with her wedding dress since it was much too long for her. The dresses were reused for every set of brides that came through the process. She had decided she was lucky that it had at least closed in the back so she wouldn’t be flashing bare skin to everyone.
The two men walked up to stand in front of her. They both removed their hats, and the results left her momentarily tongue-tied. They were both handsome men. The man with the longer, dark hair spoke first.
“Are you Beverly?”
She nodded, unable to say anything yet.
He stuck out his hand. “I’m Caleb Matthews. Sorry it took us so long, but we had to wait in line for a spell to load up.”
Beverly shook his hand, marveling at his firm grip. He had honey-gold eyes that were mesmerizing. He stood around six foot three inches and had broad shoulders and a wide, muscular-looking chest. His square face had wide cheekbones and a chiseled chin. She could easily imagine his strong arms wrapped around her. The sound of a throat clearing next to her jerked her back to the present.
“I’m Jeff Bledsoe. Pleased to meet you, Beverly.” His face was all angles and hard planes with warm, hazel eyes that held green and brown tones. She had to look up at him as well and figured he was an inch taller than Caleb but not quite as wide as the other man. Where Caleb’s body looked more muscular, Jeff’s seemed more streamlined. Neither man could be labeled weak or puny.
“I–I’m Beverly Eggers. I guess we didn’t really get a good look at each other back on Earth.” She swallowed and jumped to pick up some of the luggage. “I have everything together here according to the list they gave me. I hope it’s everything. I had to search for some of it.”
Beverly knew she was babbling, but she couldn’t help an attack of nerves at finally being alone with them and knowing next to nothing about either man. Not only that, but she was their wife and was expected to trust them with her well-being. Somehow the reality of the situation hadn’t seemed so daunting while they’d been six months off from landing. Now that they were about to head off into the wilds of a planet they knew very little about, she wasn’t as comfortable with the idea as she had been.
“We’ll get the luggage. It looks like everything of mine is here. What about you, Jeff?” Caleb took her suitcase from her.
“Mine all appears to be there. Let’s get loaded and get on the road. We’ve got a good five-hour trip according to the information we have.” Jeff took the handle of one end of a trunk.
Twenty minutes later, everything loaded and secure, Jeff double-checked Beverly’s harness then fastened his own. She watched as Caleb started the transport, and the hovercraft-like buggy rose off the ground and turned toward the far horizon. Despite the noise when outside of the vehicles, she found that inside it was fairly quiet. She listened as the two men talked about their destination and their confidence in the transport’s GPS before they lapsed into silence.
At twenty-eight, Beverly wasn’t a virgin by any means, but she hadn’t had a lot of experience with men either. Being what she thought of as pleasingly plump, she hadn’t had a lot of dates growing up. Then, when the knowledge of Shear’s Disease became widespread, she, along with every other fertile female, had been rounded up like cattle and shipped below ground in bunkers designed to keep the sun’s harmful rays from touching her.
Now, she wasn’t sure how to act around two such virile and handsome men. Their sexuality oozed from them like an overstuffed pastry. She had no hopes of making them happy, and the knowledge that they were stuck with her didn’t help. She would have been more than content with two decent guys who would be happy with her like she was. Now she would have to try and change who she was to make them happy. That thought depressed her even more than leaving behind everyone she knew.
“Hey. What’s wrong?” Jeff leaned over and looked at her.
She hadn’t realized that she was crying until he spoke. Now on top of being depressed, she was embarrassed as well.
“Nothing. I guess I’m just missing home. I mean nothing here looks the same, really. The trees are weird colors and shapes, and the grass is blue.”
“It will be okay, Beverly. Just give it a chance.” Jeff smiled at her.
She smiled back and vowed not to act so weak again. They were real cowboys and used to roughing it, she was sure. She didn’t think they would appreciate a whiner on top of someone who looked like she did. At least she would be good at housework and taking care of the garden. She had plenty of experience with that, having grown up with four brothers on a farm. She could cook and clean and put up vegetables better than most.
“Where are you originally from, Bev?” Caleb asked.
“A little town in Iowa. I grew up on a farm.”
“Do you have any brothers or sisters?” This time Jeff asked the question.
“I have four brothers. What about you two?”
Caleb grinned. “I owned a ranch outside of Bandera, Texas. I’ve got two sisters and one brother.”
“I’m from a ranch outside of Billings, Montana. I have one sister back home. She’s married and has twin boys.”
“So we’re going to live on a ranch here on Alpha? Cows or horses or both? Back on the shuttle they only told me about things I would need to handle.” Beverly frowned.
