Wager: A Sci-Fi Romance (The Jekh Saga Book 4)

by H. E. Trent

“No. It’s not selfish unless we don’t want to do it.” His gaze settled on Jasper. Not on where Sera’s roving hands were, but arrow-sure to his eyes. An unspoken question.

  Jasper swallowed and dragged his tongue across his parched lips. “You can have whatever you want,” he said to Sera.”

  She laughed and moved in front of him, blocking his view of Marco and leaning in to kiss him straight on, hands delving into his pants from a new angle. His body straining from the attention, tense with both shame and need.

  “You don’t get to change your mind,” Marco said to him.

  “What?”

  Sera may not have been very strong, but when she wanted something, she took it. Her left fingers twined into his hair at the nape and tugged his head back as her right hand clamped around his shaft.

  He saw stars, and not just the ones spangling the Jekhan sky.

  “You don’t get to decide that you’ll try this a time or two and then move on when some other woman is freed up,” Marco said. “If you touch her, that’s a promise to her.”

  Ah.

  Despite the gravity of Marco’s warning, Sera’s playful touch continued. She gripped him lightly in her fist as her lips touched the front of his neck.

  “Do you understand what I’m telling you?” Marco asked. “Sera comes in a package deal.”

  “I understand you.”

  “Then you understand the promise, too?”

  Yeah.

  He understood.

  He understood that he wouldn’t be one member of a party of two. He’d be an individual in a trio of people who each had specific contributions to make and specific weaknesses that needed protecting.

  He traced his fingertips up Sera’s back and sighed at the sting of her teeth against the cord of his neck. At her slow pumps of his cock, and her scent invading his nose—like tea and sweet Jekhan fruit.

  Like the juice she’d set aside for him.

  “Well?” Marco barked.

  “Yes.”

  “Yes, what?”

  “Three,” Jasper said. “I don’t get to cut and run.”

  Sera dropped to her knees in front of him and tugged his waistband down past his cock. “No,” she said, taking him in hand. “You don’t.”

  She bent before he could stop her, not that he would have. His brain was operating at half speed. He was a witness to everything, but an actor coming in at all the wrong times to make any impact at all.

  Her mouth was hot and he ached so badly, and not just from the pains from his hip and leg and broken arm. There was fire in his body, pooling at the base of his spine and filling his belly, and Sera was trying to suck it out.

  “Fuck.” His toes curled in his boots and his eyes closed. He couldn’t thrust into her mouth, and that was probably a good thing. He wanted to erupt, but he wanted to make the experience last. Being touched by her, being accepted by Marco. Being a part of something that didn’t have to do with fighting or war or…taking.

  But he could have that forever. There’d be other times. He could wake up in front of her, or behind her, or under her—wherever—and maybe the next time, they’d be in a bed. He could grab her by the hips and pull her down onto his face. He didn’t have to be a taker all the time. He’d give back, and do so with pleasure.

  Smoothing back a few errant wisps of hair from her face, he tipped his face toward the sky and closed his eyes. Her fingers danced beneath his sac, tickling and enticing, making his blood rush from his head down lower.

  He slid his hand daringly into her bodice and tugged her nipple between his fingers. If not for his fucked-up hip, he could have had it in his mouth. She could have been on his lap, having her cunt artlessly drilled while he whispered apologies again and again.

  Freeing her breast from her bodice for him, she lowered her head and withdrew, stretching him as long as she could and letting her teeth scrape the hood of him with each suck, letting her fist tug the base of him.

  And there went the pleasure ache, the powerful rush of seed and the liquid carrying it through his loins and into her mouth. She kept sucking as he spent, and his eyes watered from the unexpected intensity.

  His toes were so damned cramped that he couldn’t care so much about the throbbing of his hip.

  His breath fell out in a ragged exhalation as Sera let him fall from her mouth and then tenderly stroked the underside of his shaft. She put her head on his lap and whispered something in Jekhani.

  He opened his eyes. She was looking up at him. Marco stood a short distance away with his hands in his pockets, peering at the stars once more.

  Not awkward. Different.

  Jasper could get used to different, because the rewards were so amazing.

  “What’d you say?” Jasper whispered to her.

  She grinned and picked her head up, flexing the fingers of her left hand. “I said I’d never wanted to do that before.”

  “You didn’t have to—”

  She reached up and placed her hand over his mouth. “Didn’t want to before because I didn’t have a choice. I was told what to do, and not asked. Freedom is quite the aphrodisiac, don’t you think?”

  “Hell yeah, it is.”

  While she used the arms of his chair to push herself to her feet, he fixed his pants and watched Marco turn and face him.

  Apparently, Marco had to fix his pants, too. He was coy about it, though. Tugging at the fabric over his thigh as if that were really going to do any good at shifting his junk.

  Jasper wasn’t going to rag on the guy. If the tables had been turned, Jasper would have probably gotten a stiffy, too. He’d never been immune to the arousing effects of the sound of an orgasm.

  “Owen and I had been toying with the idea of putting in a solar rail system on the farm,” Marco said. “No one has those. It’d be a new invention, but we’re pretty sure how we’d get it to work.”

  “Yeah?”

  He nodded and strode to Jasper, and then behind him. He reached down and disengaged the wheelchair’s locks. “Moving farm supplies around would be a lot more efficient. We could also leverage the system as an easy way for the kids to get from one end of the farm to the other if they want to see their cousins or whatever.”

  “My father would have loved that,” Sera said. “Our family was never so big at one time that we had to add housing for extended family, but he would have if he’d had a reason to. He would love the idea of all of his children still being here on the farm and wanting to stay even after we’ve found our partners.”

  “I don’t think those McGarrys will ever separate,” Jasper said.

  “You’re right about that,” Marco said. “As of now, their houses are all the perfect distance apart so they don’t kill each other, but still a schlep for people with short legs. If there’s a system where folks can jump onto a automated cart that cycles around to each stop, there’d be a lot less angst about who is where.”

  “So if I moved out of the main house and Elken decided she wanted to see Kerry…”

  “Exactly. She’d hop into the cart and hit a little lever. No driving required.”

  “You’ll have to set it up in some way that the carts don’t move unless the kids are buckled in,” Jasper said, remembering exactly what kind of hooligan he’d been and what kind of danger he could have easily found. “Maybe put weight sensors in the seats and floors so that they don’t move if there’s anything inside of a certain weight unless the belts are appropriately buckled.”

  “Good idea.” Marco started pushing him away from the cliff. “Maybe we can brainstorm. We’ve got some plans we sketched out, but didn’t get very far with them before Owen had to bounce with Ais and Luke.”

  “And you’re taking this plan to market?”

  “We hope to eventually,” Marco said. He slowed to tip the chair back and gently maneuver the back wheels over a rocky step. “The great thing is that the system will be easily customizable and we’ll be able to easily update when the technology becomes obsolete. We’re wor
king on developing a kind of rail that can be rolled from spools kind of like really fat cable wires. They’d slip from a protective sheath and then expand and harden once installed.”

  “That sounds like witchcraft,” Sera said.

  Marco laughed. “Science sometimes does, I guess.”

  “I’d start applying for every possible patent immediately,” Jasper said. “I don’t know if there are laws in place between Earth and Jekh to protect intellectual property, but I wouldn’t risk getting scooped on the technology.”

  “Owen’s already got the forms on his tablet. Now, we have to actually put the data in and upload the schematics,” Marco said, lifting the wheels over a rut. “Tedious as fuck.”

  “Get me up to speed, and I’ll do it for you.”

  “Really?”

  “Hell yeah. I like being useful.” Part of a team again. “And besides, probably sixty percent of my job has always been filling out forms. I’m a bureaucrat. With lots of guns.”

  Marco laughed again. “Who likes to blow things up, I hear.”

  “Sounds like something Salehi might have told you.”

  “He lied, then?” Sera asked.

  “Nah.” Jasper snorted and laced his fingers through Sera’s. “I’m good at what I do. That’s all.”

  “Well, great.” Marco halted the wheelchair beside a rocky field and gestured to the expanse. “Start figuring out ways to blow shit up. Trigrian said we can’t have a workshop near housing, so we’ve got to set up way back here on the backside of the property. Some of those rocks are stuck good, and we’ve got to clear them to get the foundation poured.”

  Jasper’s heart rate kicked up with exhilaration and he couldn’t help but to grin. “Sanctioned ka-booms?”

  “Yep.”

  “Can’t wait.”

  “Oh, boy,” Sera murmured. “What am I going to do with the two of you?”

  “Sleep between us,” Marco said equably. “Just like you said.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  FOUR MONTHS LATER, KA-BOOM HOUSE, BESHNI FARM

  Luke put his feet up on the edge of the makeshift coffee table that had been constructed using two shipping crates of unequal sizes that had a plank laid over the top. Judging by the lack of refinement, Marco had to have done the job. Maybe at some point, Sera would insist that he find something better to put in their living room, but their house was a work in progress.

  Luke could admit he was jealous. At first, he’d laughed at the idea of semi-prefab construction for both the house and workshop. If Marco had wanted to live in a big corrugated metal box, he could have joined the Air Force and lurked in plane hangars.

  But then some ex-military guys from Little Gitano helped haul the sides in. They poured the cement for the floors and slapped on roofs.

  Presto. Instant buildings.

  And, as much as Luke hated to admit it, they weren’t that bad, and already, Marco and Owen had the workshop set up to get shit done.

  Jasper hobbled out of the bathroom, laughing and zipping up the fly of his jeans, with Sera on his heels.

  “Shit. Didn’t know you were in here,” Jasper said, not even bothering to be discreet in shifting his bulge.

  Luke rolled his eyes. “Don’t tell me. Someone made a wager, and you won the lunchtime quickie.”

  Jasper shrugged. “Keeps things interesting, and you gotta admit there’d be nothing quick about all three of us being in the bed at once. There are rituals to respect. Turns to take.”

  “You’re talking about my brother, so TMI.”

  If Sera was embarrassed at all by the discussion, she didn’t show it. She’d stopped blushing ages ago.

  Jasper goosed her as she padded past him and toward the kitchen. She was barefooted and had her fists propped on her hips. A pain-free day, probably, since she wasn’t favoring her left arm. “How long have you been sitting there?” she asked him.

  Jasper dropped a kiss onto her cheek and took his leave. Back to the workshop he went. They had deadlines to respect.

  Grunting, Luke rubbed his chin. “About an hour?”

  “You were here when Jasper came in?”

  “Yep.”

  “I didn’t see you.”

  Luke had certainly saw enough. Jasper had started taking his clothes off the moment he crossed the threshold. Admittedly, the sight wasn’t a bad one. He was pretty cut for a middle-aged cop with a creaky hip.

  She crooked her left thumb toward the kitchen. The large living space had an open floor plan like a loft apartment, which seemed to be a fine arrangement for their trio. “I was in the kitchen earlier working on the Single’s Book for Brenna.”

  “Yeah. I didn’t wanna bother you.”

  “What are you doing here? Not that you’re not welcome at any time, but isn’t our home a bit out of the way for you? We’re not exactly close to the farm activity.”

  “I was just in the neighborhood.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “Way back here?”

  He put up his hands. “Okay. I don’t know why I ever try to lie to any of you ladies.”

  “You’re hiding.”

  “Maybe.”

  “Ah.” Smoothing her skirt beneath her, she sat on the armchair on the other side of the table and twined her fingers.

  “How’s your arm?”

  “Numb often, and when my arm gets numb, I forget to move it and that makes my shoulder ache. Mostly, it’s fine. I’m pleased that there’s still improvement to look forward to.”

  “Good.”

  “I appreciate you inquiring about my wellbeing, but I’m curious now about you.”

  “Hey! Where’s Elken?”

  “Luke,” she said with a note of warning in her tone.

  He knew damn well she was at the school. He’d seen Trigrian heading out with her, the same as he did every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Those were market days.

  Luke dragged his hand down his tired face and let out a breath. “Okay. I need some space. That’s all.”

  “Space from whom? I admit that our home is quieter than most on the farm, but hardly a museum. Who’s bothering you?”

  “Not bothering me, per se. Just…existing.”

  “Be more specific. A lot of people exist here.”

  “Promise you won’t say anything.”

  “To whom?”

  “Anyone. I don’t really want to talk about it. I’m only telling you so that someone can run interference if necessary. Marco’s not aggressive enough, and Precious is too ham-fisted with intersocial shit.”

  “Ah. I see.” She made a go on gesture.

  “Duke came back last night.”

  Sera’s brow furrowed. “Duke?”

  “Sorry. Hauge, I mean.”

  “Alex.”

  Luke shrugged. “Yeah. Alex.”

  “And?”

  “And I can’t be around him.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because he’s a flirty asshole who wants to play but doesn’t want anyone to know.”

  “He…” Sera’s eyes widened with slow understanding. “Oh.” She cringed. “An odd circumstance on Jekh. There are no taboos against male sensuality here.”

  “Yeah, so you see the problem. I’m not doing that. I don’t want that.”

  “Don’t want him or don’t want to be hidden?”

  He wanted to say “both,” but lying was pointless. He’d already said so much, and figured he might as well go for the gusto. “The second thing.”

  Sera notched her teeth into her bottom lip and nodded. She sat in quiet contemplation for a minute or two and then, tapping the toe of her gardening clog against the floor, cleared her throat. “When is he leaving?”

  “I don’t know. Because he helped liberate the women from the bunker, he managed to finagle a permit to stay on the planet. Now he can come and go now as he pleases.”

  “And you plan on hiding until he leaves?”

  “Maybe hiding’s not quite the right word. I’m simply trying to avoid hi
m.”

  “Because your self-control is so weak? You don’t believe you’d be able to refuse him?”

  “Nope.” Luke pounded his thighs with his fists and pointed his gaze to the ceiling. “There’s something about him, you know? Hits all the right buttons on me, even if those buttons are bad buttons. He’s no good for me, and I know it. I’m not doing that to myself again.”

  “You want more?” Her voice was soft, forehead creased with worry.

  “Yep.”

  She wrapped her left fingers around one of his tight fists and rubbed her thumb along the top.

  He appreciated the comfort, and her quietness. He didn’t need empty expressions of contrived optimism. He wanted something real.

  After a minute or two, she nodded and then rose to her feet. “Sometimes, more is simply enough. We all deserve to have enough.”

  “Even me?”

  “Of course you.” She cupped his chin and lifted his face. “A man like you who would move mountains to ensure the happiness of his siblings and his friends, and even strangers, certainly deserves to have love on his own terms.”

  “Who said anything about love?”

  “You did without saying a word. If lust was the only factor, you’d be wearing a wicked smile.”

  “I guess I’m pretty easy to see through.”

  “Only by the people who know what to look for.” She dropped her hand, and he dropped his head.

  “I’ll do what I can to help you, Luke. To start, should I put a listing for you in the book for Brenna? I believe she’s promoting every profile now. Many locals have already had women from Earth inquire about them. One has a woman coming on your sister’s next return trip.”

  Luke crossed his legs at the ankles and sunk lower into his seat, staring at the ceiling.

  A newcomer could make an excellent distraction. He could get a handpicked woman who knew exactly what she was getting herself into. Someone who would be content with the slow pace of living on the farm and with having to be more creative than she’d ever been to create some semblance of normalcy in her new life.

  He could be happy with someone like that, especially if she could make him laugh, and certainly if she could get along with his siblings, and the McGarry bunch, too.

  If she distracted him from the person he really wanted, so much the better.