Married. Wait! What?

by Virginia Nelson

  I smiled. River had a great laugh and day by day, he seemed to be loosening up around me. He didn’t scowl in my general direction anymore. “No, I mean, not that. What am I going to do on this ship? What will my role be?”

  He stood and walked over to me, extending his hand for me to take. I laced our fingers together and let him help me get off the floor. I didn’t need help, per se, but I liked it nonetheless. “Priscilla, you’ve been doing a ton on the ship.”

  “Done. Now what?”

  Bo drew me to him. I pressed my head against his chest. “There’s always new things to do. They’ll always be more work to sort through, things breaking. Or something will happen and it’ll be something entirely unimagined that you’ll do. I can teach you to work all the machines.” He paused before he spoke again. “What did you imagine your life would be like after you were, ah, bought as a wife?”

  I pulled back to look at him. “I thought I’d keep up someone’s house and have children. That’s pretty much what I envisioned before. I wasn’t sure what else to expect. Where I’m from, women don’t do much else.”

  He rocked us both slightly, keeping eye contact the whole time. “Did you have other dreams?”

  “No.” I shook my head. “It never occurred to me to have any.”

  “All right, fair enough. So you’ll tell us if that changes and, Priscilla, you can have those other things here. This could be your home. And as for babies”—he winked at me—“I’d never say no.”

  His kiss was slow, gentle and just what I needed at the moment. I sighed against him. He bit down on my lower lip, which made me giggle. It didn’t hurt, just tickled. I tried to remember what we were talking about. That was right. Babies. “Could you really see babies on a pirate ship?”

  Bo pressed our foreheads together. “Maybe not full time. But when they were baby-babies? Yes. We’d figure it out. Whatever you wanted. I’d be happy staying like this forever, too.”

  I touched his lip with my thumb. “Do you want me, Bo? With you? Forever?”

  “I do.” He didn’t hesitate in his answer. I was able to take a deep breath. The three-week marker weighed on me. I supposed it shouldn’t. What was the difference? If we said we wanted each other now or then, why did it matter? For some reason, it did. I wanted Bo to crave me the way I did him.

  He spoke again. “Do you want me, Priscilla? I love saying your name.”

  I nodded. “So much. I don’t want to miss out on seeing you smile or hearing your voice for even one more day in my life.”

  He let go of me, which jarred me, and I almost fell backward. What had happened? I thought we were having a moment. “Bo?”

  My husband walked to the side of the room and hit a button. A loud clink sounded, and he strode back to me. “Locked the doors. I love Jordan and River, but I don’t want them right now.”

  He kissed me again. And then again. And then again some more.

  We shed clothes, becoming nothing but two tangled bodies. I was right in assuming the table in the back of the room wasn’t comfortable. I didn’t care right then whether or not it was.

  Bo lay on his back. I came over his body. We moved like we had done this before, as though we were lovers who knew each other’s secrets instead of newly discovering what sounds we made, what we tasted like to each other, and how it felt to have him inside of me. I wasn’t a natural at being on top. After a while, I did take to the movement, like riding a horse. I ground against him, my clit rubbing just where it needed to be. Each jerk of our bodies rang pleasure through my head. I grabbed my own breasts, stroking them while he held onto my hips.

  “Priscilla.” Over and over again my name like a prayer from Bo, while the sound of his voice became more and more strained. Watching him lose control, knowing I was doing it, the way this whole thing had become frenzied, it was an amazing turn on unto itself.

  “I’m going to come,” he called out, his neck straining while his hands dug into my side. I loved the little bit of pain. It pushed me forward, and I exploded just as he did. I lost muscle control and fell right on top of him. He didn’t seem to mind. Bo held me close, neither of us speaking for a long, long time.

  I finally moved, carefully getting myself off of Bo. He opened his eyes. “Where are you going?”

  “Can’t be comfortable for you on the table.”

  He shook his head. “I’ve had to sleep on worse places. Some time I’ll tell you about the time that Jordan and I had to wait for River to rescue us from a room filled with Prima Five’s snake pits. That was really awful.”

  Snakes? I shuddered. Were they on every planet? I hated the slithering fiends. “Maybe you shouldn’t tell me. I may not want that visual.”

  He grinned, sitting up. “Are you okay?”

  I searched and finally found my panties, stopping to admire the beautiful male form nearby. Was that vulnerability on his face? I went to him, leaning over to kiss him with all the claiming he’d given me. “I’m never better. How are you?”

  “Feeling like the luckiest son-of-a-bitch ever. You’re so much better than I deserve. I’m going to keep you anyway.”

  I bit down lightly on his shoulder, liking the salty taste of his skin. I wanted to bottle this moment. “I know it’s too fast, but I want to be your wife. I don’t want anything else.”

  He tipped my chin up to look at him. “Good.”

  Bo unlocked the doors to the room, and we both returned to looking at the tablets, this time with me sitting on his lap. It was weird to return to the task after what had just happened but somehow normal, too.

  Science tablet. Engineer tablet. Political tablet. I yawned. Bo set his device down just long enough to reposition my head to lean on his arm. “You can fall asleep, baby.”

  That was the first time he’d called me that. I smiled. “I’m not lightweight, and I will break your arm eventually.”

  “You’re tiny compared to me. My arm can manage just fine. Close those eyes. Let me feel all protective and hold you while I get this done.”

  I snorted. “You’re funny, Bo.”

  “I’m not. But, okay. If you think I am, then so be it.”

  He was warm, safe, and secure where he sat on the floor. I closed my eyes.

  My dream came fast. I was on a boat, floating atop a lake that was half a day’s journey from where I grew up. Maybe three times in my childhood, when my father wanted us out of the house for various reasons, Mother would take us there. Usually, it was because he had a headache.

  This time I was with Bo, Jordan, and River. Bo and I floated in the boat while River and Jordan sat by the shoreline, talking to each other. The lake wasn’t huge. If we’d had to row back in suddenly, we’d be on the side in five minutes.

  “You’re going to have to choose.” Bo played with the water, leaning slightly over the side of the boat. “I mean, I get that you think that you have.” He lifted his gaze to meet mine. “But you haven’t. You can’t do this halfway, baby. This is our life. If you want to be our wife, you’re going to have to accept that you live on a pirate ship going through space. There’ll always be risk. There’ll always be people after us, and no matter how safe we may tell you that we are, there really is no such thing in our world.”

  I blinked. “Bo, we’re on the water.”

  “Today we’re on the water. Today it’s lovely, yes. But what happens when the storm comes?”

  6

  Floating and Exploding

  I had a week left before our arrival at the women’s refuge, and the next day we were making our planned stop to unload and sell the tablets. River had said at dinner he wanted to scrub down the supply center on the shuttle before we docked on the station because the last time it had smelled muggy to him. I shook my head. When I’d been on the shuttle, I hadn’t smelled any musk. Maybe his sense of smell was better than mine.

  I’d offered to help.

  It wasn’t that River and I didn’t spend time together. Well, no that was exactly what it was. Okay. I alternat
ed between spending the night in Jordan’s arms or Bo’s. River hadn’t shown any interest in getting to know me physically. That would be fine, except I feared it meant he would want me off the ship.

  I really did want this to work. That meant it had to be real with all three of them. I couldn’t be married to the trio and only spend time with two guys. I wouldn’t force myself on River by any means. Maybe we could be friends?

  I stood on the shuttle, cleaning brushes in my hand as River used his tablet to identify any molds, spores, or otherwise semi-alive things growing in the room. He tapped the screen twice. “Yep.”

  “We’ve got growth?”

  He looked up at me and pointed at the ceiling. “Scan says in the corner?”

  We both walked to the center of the room and stared upward. Well, he was right. Now that he’d said it, I could see the black stuff in the corner. “Is there moisture up there?”

  “Must be.”

  Cleaning it out wouldn’t be a problem. Getting there certainly would. Even a tall ladder wouldn’t be tall enough. “How are we going to get up there? I could climb a ladder and dab at it with the anti-mold solution?”

  His grin could only be called cat-like. I’d never seen River get so immediately happy? Was there something amusing about me on the ladder?

  “I have a better idea. In a little while, we’ll put on a sanitizing clean into the computer and see if that helps. Before then, however, I do want to dab at it, as you put it so well, because that does help the mechanism get the job done. We won’t be climbing anything.” He put out his hand. “Here, hand me the brush with the solution.” I did as he instructed without question, although I still had no idea what we were going to do. “Computer, turn off the gravity in here but leave the oxygen levels the same.”

  “Wait… what?” That second, I lifted off the ground. River tugged me to him with his free hand. He still hadn’t lost the silly grin on his face.

  “Don’t worry, ‘Cilla, I won’t let you get hurt. This is fun. We so rarely have a reason to do this.”

  I could see why. My heart was in my throat. I was only sort of okay with being in space as it was and… I didn’t finish my thought. Floating above the floor toward the ceiling was kind of fun. It helped that River’s smile was so infectious. I couldn’t help but grin back.

  A sound dinged in the room. “River, I’m reading that gravity is off in the storage room. All okay?” Jordan’s low voice broadcasted around us.

  “Yep,” River answered. “We’re being creative. All is fine.”

  “Okay,” Jordan replied before the click sounded again.

  We reached the ceiling, and River had to let go of me to steady himself. I followed suit, and soon, we were both stilled at the top of the shuttle.

  “You can let go,” he instructed me. “Now that we’re up, very little can go wrong.”

  “This isn’t some kind of test, right? Like, let’s see how long it takes Priscilla to puke?”

  He shook his head, his smile fading. “No more tests, I promise.”

  “Too soon for that joke?” I poked him in the shoulder. “I was kidding.”

  “Might always be too soon.” He floated backward toward the small bit of mold. “I’m going to deal with this. We can kill the stuff easily and harmlessly to us. But it could make us sick if we miss it. I want to keep the system on constant monitoring, but Jordan and Bo think it uses too much energy. I got outvoted.”

  I floated to the other side of the room. It was easy now, and being weightless was actually relaxing. “Do you have a problem with germs?”

  “I don’t like getting sick if that’s what you mean, but no, I don’t have a problem with germs.” He rolled his eyes at me. “You sound like Bo.”

  I floated back toward him. “I grew up on a farm. So, lots of germs. Lots of mold. Lots of everything.”

  “What did you guys farm? I’ve never asked you.” He dabbed at the mold without looking at me. I was close enough to touch him, and yet I held back my hand. River still made me nervous. Maybe that was why I jabbed at him a little bit. I’d known I shouldn’t joke about the test. That was always going to be a bad memory for me. The truth was I didn’t find it funny, either.

  I’d forgiven him. I shouldn’t do that.

  “Wheat, mostly. It’s hard to get a lot of things to grow there. But the local population uses wheat, and dad sold some of his stuff in the local market or it got exported.”

  He turned to look at me, which made us bang each other, hard. I oomphed, grabbing onto my head. “I’m sorry. My fault, River. I was too close.”

  “No.” He reached out, grabbing me and tugging me tightly to him. “Are you okay? I just clonked you in the head.”

  His cleaning brush floated past us. He must have let go when he grabbed me. “I’m fine.”

  “Let me look.” He pushed my hand away so he could stare at my forehead. “Maybe we should put you in the med machine.”

  “River.” I laughed. “I’m not delicate. I’m sturdy. I’ve been whacked in the head before, usually because I’m not watching where I’m going, and I’m still here to tell the tale. It’s okay.”

  He cupped the side of my face. “But you are delicate. And also strong. You can be both. I mean, I didn’t realize that before I met you. I see it now.”

  I opened and closed my mouth. Finally, there was only one thing to say. “I didn’t realize you were paying attention to me. Other than at dinner.”

  “I watch you every chance I can. I don’t know how to approach you like Jordan and Bo did. I know you’ve progressed with them, that you have some kind of real marriage with them, and we’re kind of circling each other.”

  I leaned back, floating us both toward the wall. “I want to know you, too.”

  “You’re so lovely.” He kissed me, lightly on the mouth then both of my cheeks. “Can we go slower? Not because I don’t want to scoot you out of here right now and show you all the ways I want to be with you, but because it takes me a very long time, a ridiculously long time, to trust things. It’s not a test, I promise. Just for me. I need to believe this is real. That it’s possible.”

  “We can be however you want to be. I’m not in a hurry, except that looming deadline a week away.”

  He shook his head, and then instead of telling me what he was saying no to, he kissed me. Lightly at first, but the pressure changed quickly. He put a hand on the wall, and I grabbed his shirt, trying to keep us both steady. It didn’t work. The more we kissed the more we ended up floating away. I hung on to him and he to me. Our lips were practically fused together; we only stopped to occasionally breathe. Finally, he pulled back to regard me. His mouth looked slightly swollen, and I would have bet that mine did, too.

  “Can you come tonight? To my room? Not for sex. Not yet. But so we can spend time just together?”

  I nodded. “Sure.”

  His cat grin showed up again, and I returned it with my own happiness. Eventually, he told the computer to slowly add gravity to the room. We floated down gently, together.

  River’s room was completely clean. He had knickknacks orderly displayed on shelves that didn’t need fixing. When I came to his room, he looked tired.

  I touched the side of his face. He didn’t feel warm. “Are you okay?”

  “I haven’t been sleeping.”

  “Why not?” He moved so I could enter his space.

  He shrugged. “Because I’ve been up at night obsessing about how badly I screwed things up with you.”

  I shook my head. “I think we got to know each other a little bit today, right?”

  “We did.” He ran a hand through his dark blonde hair. “I had thought maybe we could watch something. I hooked the ship’s main computer up to my tablet so I could watch movies in here. I’m the only one who likes to.”

  “Oh, we so rarely got movies. I like them, too.”

  We ended up on his bed viewing a comedy. Bo had been wrong. River laughed all the time, he just did it alone in his bedroo
m at night. Maybe he did need me a little bit. Eventually, the program changed to a more romantic movie about a couple falling in love during the last days before Earth had its nuclear war.

  River hadn’t said anything in a while, and I wondered if he’d fallen asleep. Instead, I found him staring at the screen, his eyes fixed, not even really blinking.

  “Are you okay?”

  He shrugged. “They’re both going to die.”

  I was sure he was right. “They love each other first.”

  He switched off the screen. “How awful must that have been? We barely survived as a species.”

  “Okay, enough of this. That was too much of a downer for before bed.” I took his tablet and turned off the lights. The shuttle had voice recognition, but to control energy output, they used their tablets on Malice.

  He sighed. “Now I’ll be up at night thinking about Earth and the near destruction of humanity.”

  “Nah.” I cuddled up against him. At first, he stayed stiff, but then he started to relax, to breathe, and his arm came around me in the process. “We need to think about puppies.”

  River snorted. “Puppies?”

  “Sure, something like puppies. Something that’s not awful. Puppies.”

  He took a second to answer me. “I don’t even remember the last time I saw a puppy. We had a bunch of dogs at the Sandler compound. I had a puppy when I was little. It peed on Garrison’s clothes, so he killed it.”

  Well, that had gone downhill fast. And the imagery was horrific. No wonder River didn’t sleep well. I would cry for both the boy and the puppy another time. “How do you suppose people keep dogs on ships? I mean, they do, right? There were dogs at the space station where I was being sold.”

  “They must have a designated space for them to do their business.” He paused. “Do you want a dog?”

  “Not at the present time. I mean, I wouldn’t someday object to a dog. Do you want a dog?”

  River nodded, his body shifting slightly in the darkness. “Actually, I wouldn’t mind a dog.”