Falling For Them: A New Adult Reverse Harem Collection

by C. L. Stone

  I kissed him. Did he think I’d complain?

  The door opened, and Tommy stood in it. “I heard her voice.”

  He strode toward us, his eyes blazing like he was on fire. A second later, he fell to his knees by the bed. I’d done something similar to him when I’d made peace.

  “Tommy?” I didn’t know what he was doing. Clay moved off me, and I sat up. The oldest McQueen had something to say, and he wanted to do it on his knees.

  “I’m sorry. I let you get taken. I didn’t believe he’d make a shot like that on the pod. I got cocky. It’ll never happen again.”

  The twins entered the room. All five of us together. I’d never felt better in my life. I’d been through hell, and they had come for me. Whatever our future held—whatever trouble there was, and I knew there would be more—I wanted them with me.

  I leaned forward. “Tommy, I once told Clay he’d just know when you should ask me that particular question?”

  His eyebrows rose. “The marriage question?”

  “Right.” I waited but he didn’t move or speak. “If you wanted to ask it, you could do so right now.”

  Clay kneed his way over to me. “He’s in shock. It’s okay. I’ll start. We’re all going to ask you. You have to say yes to all of us. Or not, if you don’t want to. Then we’ll figure out some kind of marriage ceremony.”

  “Stop talking about it and do it, or I’m going first.” Keith rocked back and forth on his feet.

  Clay took my cheeks in his hands. “I saw you at the Sisterhood. You came out of the back behind the curtain, and I could hardly breathe. I did everything to get you to talk to me, and you didn’t. I thought I’d go my whole life without hearing your voice, and then you saved my life.” He looked down. “And they beat you for it. I stood there, and I didn’t do anything.”

  “We’ve talked about this. There was no way you could have done a thing right then.” I hated that he still worried about this.

  “I’ll never be okay with how that went. I love you. Let me show you how much. Forever and ever. Will you marry me?”

  I kissed him lightly on the lips. “I will. And someday you won’t be so worked up about something that wasn’t your fault.”

  “My turn.” Keith took my hand. “The second I saw you in the Sisterhood, I knew you were mine. You wouldn’t come with us. I wanted to kidnap you. But you came to my door. And you are the sweetest, kindest, strongest woman on the planet. I love your heart. Please be my wife.” He leaned over and kissed me. “Please.” Kissed me again. “Please.”

  I laughed. “Yes, I will. Of course I will.”

  Quinn tugged me to him. “You are my reason. I can’t explain it more. I hope it doesn’t scare you. But you’re it. Marry me.”

  “I will.”

  He nodded once and then kissed me hard. “Good girl, P.”

  There was just Tommy left. My eyes fell to his where he still kneeled on the floor. Did he not want to?

  “You’re already my wife. You’ve been since our night in the control room.” He took a long breath. “Just waiting on you. You’re my family. Be my wife. And I’ll do better than I’ve been.”

  I leaned over and kissed him hard. “Bad things happen. Only the bad guys died. I love you. Of course, I’ll marry you.”

  Tommy’s grin was so sudden and so genuine pretty soon we were all smiling like fools at each other.

  “Do you want to wait?” Clay kissed my temple over and over. “For the actual ceremony?”

  “I …”

  I was going to say no. I was going to tell them I didn’t want to wait another second. I didn’t know how we’d all have sex together, but presumably they did. Maybe we’d take turns. I wasn’t nervous, more like excited. But the com rang a loud ding in the room.

  Tommy rolled his eyes before he stood. “Great timing.”

  “Who the hell is it?” Clay spoke through gritted teeth while Quinn groaned.

  “Ari.” Tommy hit the view screen to turn on the communication. “Terrible moment.”

  Ari grinned. “Is that so? Having fun? That’s nice. I’m stuck here on Mars Station, and we’re under attack by your asshole father. I was wondering if you had any intention of getting your asses over here to save us any time soon.”

  Quinn rushed to the screen. “Too soon. He shouldn’t be.”

  “He’s totally off book, Quinn.” Ari shook his head. “This isn’t your plan anymore. Or at least not the way you would have told him to do it. He’s grasping at something, and I don’t know what. But I could use some help here. I can’t tell the Alexanders what I know. They don’t trust me. I don’t know what to do about it, and I’m not going to betray you.”

  Clay answered him. “Our fiancée will be able to speak to them. We’re coming. We were delayed, but that’s been dealt with. We made up time chasing a bounty hunter. We’re closer than we should be, so he did us a favor in the long run.

  Tommy nodded. “Look for us tomorrow.”

  Keith spoke up. “How bad is it?”

  “We’ll push them back this time. The Alexanders are impressive strategists. But they’re fighting with half their arms tied behind their backs without information. Not to mention, most of their family went after Diana into the black hole.”

  Tommy nodded. “Tomorrow. Hold tight.”

  “Congratulations on the engagement, you lucky bastards. Assuming that’s what’s going on here. You went into hiding and still come out with the hottest wife. Well done.”

  I snorted as Quinn shut off the monitor. “Shit.”

  There was no doubt about it. Ari’s information had seriously dampened our engagement moment. Tommy ran a hand through his hair. “I’m going to set several courses and get them ready so we can go on a dime.”

  Clay patted Tommy on the back and then reached over to cup my cheek. “Terrible timing. I need to check on a client. If I’d known …” His voice trailed off.

  “Go. We’re all engaged now. We’ll have lots of time to be together. Forever, right?”

  Clay’s face lit up. “Love that word.”

  “I don’t believe in fairytales,” Tommy added. “But, yeah, we have time.” He kissed me hard on the lips. “We’re going to get married on Mars Station. If you think we were protective when we were just all working it out, you have no idea how much more we’ll be now we’re all in this forever.”

  I punched his shoulder. “You used the word forever.”

  “Must be rubbing off on me.”

  The older two brothers left, and I turned to regard the twins. They both sat on the edge of the bed. Keith crooked his finger at me. “Come here.”

  The air in the room changed. I knew what they wanted, and they’d get no complaint from me. Quinn lay back on the bed, his head on the pillow while Keith stayed where he was.

  I walked into Keith’s arms. “Keith?”

  “Nothing has changed in terms of what does and doesn’t happen here. You said married, and married you will be before we push this further.”

  I ran my hand through his hair. “Then what did you have in mind?”

  He flipped me over, his body over mine. Quinn hadn’t uttered a word. Was he just going to lie there?

  “I’m going to tell you everything I love about your body. And then Quinn and I are going to make you feel really, really good. You promised us forever—see, I can use it too—and I’m taking it. Starting now.”

  Quinn cleared his throat. “I’m going to try not to get sick when he gets really, really mushy. I finished the plan, by the way. I know how I’m going to beat myself and whatever maligning my father did to my original plan. Tonight, you’re going to get my full attention.”

  I gulped. It was possible to be both excited and nervous at the same time.

  10

  Never One Damn Second

  Keith kissed the side of my neck. I was wedged between the twins. Quinn ran his hands up and down my back while Keith said the sweetest things to me.

  “I love your neck. It’s
so lovely.” He bit down lightly. “Lots of places to leave marks.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “You want to mark me?”

  “Everywhere.”

  Behind me, Quinn snorted. “Take your turn. Should we compete? See which one of us can mark her the fastest?”

  I thought about it. “Now that doesn’t sound particularly fun to me, actually. Some biting, yes. Lots of it, probably not.”

  Quinn nuzzled his head against my back. “Okay.”

  “I still love your neck,” Keith whispered. “Even if I can only bite on it a little bit.” He took my hand and kissed my palm. “And your hand.” He fell quiet.

  I reached up to touch his high cheekbones. “You okay?”

  “He’s thinking about something. I can feel it over here.” Quinn sighed. “It’s that twin thing. We’re not as bad as some but worse than others. Keith has a nugget of an idea for something only he can imagine could be real. As we both obsess better than anyone in the universe, he’s not going to let this one go so easily.”

  One side of Keith’s mouth quirked in a smile. “I was thinking about time. How this moment is like a bubble. I’d like to freeze it so I could revisit it whenever I wanted to. Or if I could somehow go back in time and tell myself not to let you get in that pod, I would. One brief second of time I could change or keep forever.”

  “Deep, man. Deep.” Quinn groaned.

  I rolled my eyes. “I think it’s sweet. I would go back to this, too. And really? If I hadn’t gotten taken by the bounty hunter, Quinn wouldn’t have rescued me and then killed him. He’d still be out there.”

  Quinn interrupted me. “Don’t make that okay, P. It’s not okay. You’re ours to protect, and we let you get hurt. A couple of times. Yeah … I’d be in favor of you not going into the pod.”

  “But then how would we know what my not doing so would eventually cause? Explain it to me, Keith. How would you handle the ripple? What changed? What didn’t? Maybe we wouldn’t be here right now, engaged. Maybe we’d all be dead.”

  Keith pressed his forehead to mine. “Maybe then we don’t change anything. We visit to observe. I could come back here and be warm with you and watch it anytime I wanted. When things got hard, I could be here.”

  I pinched his nose. “You can do so in your mind any time you want. It’s called memory.”

  “Memory is flawed. It’s not as good as the real thing.”

  The ship alarm went off, and Keith pounded the bed. “We never get a second off. Okay, come on. Let’s see what’s going on.”

  Quinn jumped from the bed and grabbed my hand. “No pod. No separation. We go down, you go with us.”

  “Great imagery, love.” I kissed his cheek. “How about, ‘Your victory is my victory’?”

  “That works, too.”

  Tommy sat back in his chair; he leaned back, seemingly relaxed, with his hands steepled in front of him. Clay appeared less at ease. He stood behind his brother.

  “What’s up?” Keith yawned and sat down. “Another bounty?”

  Tommy pointed at the screen. All I saw were dots and triangles. I was glad he could read them. “Our cousin in my ship.”

  When he said my, his jaw ticked. I rubbed his shoulders. “What’s going on?”

  “When I left the fold and took them and ran, my father had to replace me. He took my ship—the best one I ever designed, the lead ship in his fleet—and he gave it to our stupid, overbearing, moron of a cousin. He’s out there in my ship and in our way.”

  Clay shook his head. “Hasn’t seen us yet. But unless we want to detour and be days later to Mars Station, we’re going to have to say hello.”

  Quinn took his seat. “You can beat him. Strategically, you’re smarter. This ship is stronger, despite your deep-seated love for that one. Shouldn’t be too much of a battle. Three shots up, two below. Take out the engine. Boom.”

  Tommy drummed his fingers on the console. “I’m not going to be firing on them unless they fire first.”

  Quinn shook his head. “That’ll cause maybe two more minutes of battle. Ultimately, you still win.”

  “Thanks for the confidence and the belief.” Tommy stood. “We just got our girl back. I don’t want to place her in harm again.”

  Now that I had an opinion on. “Tommy, we agreed. I’m a part of your life. I don’t sit around and hide. If this is our life, this is our life. I’ve never had anything to fight for. I have the four of you. That’s a gift to me.”

  “Then we fight them.” Tommy leaned over to kiss me. “I swear there will be a time when this doesn’t happen.”

  “Even if there isn’t, this is our life. Let’s enjoy the tiny moments.” I winked at Keith, who grinned. “If I hadn’t met you, I’d never have known I could be happy. Even in the midst of dark times, there is happiness.”

  Clay hoisted me over his shoulder, and I squealed. I hadn’t seen it coming. “We got engaged today, you crazy people. Nothing is going to spoil it.”

  I hoped he was right.

  ****

  Like Paloma and the McQueen boys? Don’t worry. There is A LOT more to their love story and many more bumps to their road … er … space trip. Look for more of them in January 2017 with LOVING THEM. Thanks for reading. And do check out the rest of the Wings of Artemis series—Kidnapped By Her Husbands, Rescued by their Wife, and Crashing Into Destiny available wherever ebooks are sold. For more information, check out my website www.rebeccaroyce.com

  Hugs

  Rebecca Royce

  About the Author

  As a teenager, I would hide in my room to read my favorite romance novels when I was supposed to be doing my homework. I hope, these days, that my parents think it was worth it.

  I am the mother of three adorable boys and I am fortunate to be married to my best friend. I live in Austin Texas where I am determined to eat all the barbecue in town.

  I am in love with science fiction, fantasy, and the paranormal and try to use all of these elements in my writing. I've been told I'm a little bloodthirsty so I hope that when you read my work you'll enjoy the action packed ride that always ends in romance. I love to write series because I love to see characters develop over time and it always makes me happy to see my favorite characters make guest appearances in other books.

  In my world anything is possible, anything can happen, and you should suspect that it will.

  Google Plus

  @RebeccaRoyce

  Rebecca Royce

  Finding Nora

  Ripley Proserpina

  1

  Dream

  Nora sat up in bed, gasping for breath, and pressed her palms against her eyes as if she could force the images from her nightmare out of her head.

  In her dream, she perched on the edge of a windowsill, leaning back and looking at the perfect, clear, blue sky. She hummed to herself, while rocking from side to side. She arched back farther, and farther. If she let go, the air would cushion her.

  Only it didn’t catch her. Her stomach dropped and she shut her eyes tight. Wake up, wake up, wake up. Her arms pinwheeled, hands grasping, but there was nothing to hold. The ground rushed toward her face, the strength of the air whipping past her body, forcing her eyes open as she watched her inevitable end come closer and closer.

  “Nora!”

  Her boyfriend, Ryan Valore, turned on the lamp next to the bed. She shut her eyes against the sudden brightness. He wrapped her in his arms, pulling her against his t-shirt clad chest and kissed the top of her head.

  “You’re awake,” he whispered. “I’m here. We’re okay.”

  Her body shuddered as she sucked in air.

  “Okay?” He pulled back a little, trying to look down at her.

  Nodding, she rubbed her eyes. “I was dreaming about the girl I saw fall from the window today.”

  “I’m so sorry, Nore.” He rubbed her back in slow, hypnotizing circles. Closing her eyes, she swayed in time with each stroke of his hand. It was hot in the room, and her shirt stuck to her sweaty s
kin. As if he could read her mind, he lifted it, sliding beneath the cotton, his hand cool on her bare skin.

  Instead of calming her racing heart, his touch sped it up. A ghost of sensation tickled her temple and she leaned into his lips, loving the way he brushed them back and forth against her skin.

  “Do you want me to stop?” he whispered, kissing her again before following the curve of her face and jaw.

  No. When his lips came close to hers, she turned and captured them. His tongue dipped inside her mouth and she was lost: her nightmare forgotten.

  Kissing him took all her concentration, all her focus. He stroked her tongue slowly, sucking gently to pull it into his mouth. Each caress he gave, she returned with her own. Body shifting, he pressed against her, and she let herself be forced against the pillows. His hands stayed at her lower back, touching her skin, but he was careful to avoid her still-healing wounds.

  Don’t think about them.

  Pulling the t-shirt out and away from her body, he gently lifted it over the gauze on her stomach, sides and head. The way he looked at her left her squirming on the bed.

  “Are you okay,” he asked again. His dark gaze roamed her body, pausing for a split-second on her injury.

  The last thing she wanted was a clinical observation. “I don’t want to think about what happened.” She grasped his face between her hands. “I only want to think about you.”

  “Nora.” He sat back, effectively caging her in with his knees and arms.

  Trailing her fingers up and down his arms, she traced the muscles standing out as he held himself over her. His skin was too tempting, and she lifted herself up, pressing her bare breasts against his chest. Her nipples pebbled at the rasp of his skin against hers, but she accidentally pulled at the wound in her side, and gasped.

  “Mood killer.” She gave him a small guilty smile.

  “Sit up, let me look at you.”

  Light filled the room, and he shifted, closely examining her wounds. Her side pulsed and ached, a tangible reminder of the thing she wanted to forget: she’d been shot.