Crashing Into Destiny

by Rebecca Royce

  He nodded. “Won’t happen. I promise.”

  “Then we’re good.”

  Sterling stood straight up and then nodded to Damian and me. Without another word he left, picking up the pipe when he went.

  I wasn’t sure how I felt about what had happened. I’d rushed into this with them. What did I really know about any of them? Maybe they were all tossing large objects all the time. Except I didn’t think that was the case, and I didn’t even believe it of Sterling. I sighed.

  “Don’t hold that against him. He’s the most controlled person I know. That’s a weird reaction from him, not the normal.”

  Damian’s eyes pleaded with me to listen to him, and I did. “Okay. I believe you. And him, for that matter.”

  “Awesome.” His smile was one of relief. “Hey, instead of sleep, up for something else?”

  I nodded. “Are you sure you don’t want to go somewhere and close the door and rest?”

  “That’s just what I want. Only difference is, I want my eyes open to do it.” He ran a finger down the side of my cheek.

  “Let’s do it.” He led me down the hall toward the game room.

  I didn’t spend any time there except after dinner. What did he have in mind? There were a number of choices. Maybe a movie?

  “Okay with you if I lock the door? This is a public space. They can all come in whenever they want. I’d kind of like to be alone. Is that okay? I’ll leave it unlocked if you prefer.”

  Damian made me want to wrap him up and hold him close all the time. “I want to be alone with you, too.”

  “Great.” He walked to the corner and pulled out what looked like two pair of binoculars. They had a strap on the back to hold them on the head. “Have you used these yet?”

  I shook my head. “Binoculars?”

  “No.” He handed me one. “Although I can see how you could think they were binoculars. This is a hologram device. Makes us feel like we’ve gone somewhere else. Programs are only ten minutes at a time. We can share an adventure. I find it really … fun.”

  He’d searched for that last word, and I didn’t miss the stumble. Did Damian have a lot of fun? “What should we do?”

  “Put them on.”

  I did as he told me to. The device sucked onto my face, and at first I wanted to pull it off. Then the next thing I knew, I wasn’t standing in the game room with Damian anymore. I was sitting on a beach—which I recognized from movies, I’d never been to one—and the sun was setting. Damian was right next to me.

  He took my hand in his. “I think this is what it used to look like on Ochoa. At the beach. Before you were born. I like the way it feels to be here.”

  “Damian.” I turned around looking right or left. “I can really feel this. The sun. The salt. The sand.”

  He pulled me against him, laying me down on his lap. “The program only works ten minutes at a time. We can only use it three times in a row. The idea is not to get addicted to being elsewhere. I don’t let myself do it more than once a month. It didn’t dawn on me to bring you here. Then you said relax … and this is pretty much how I do that.”

  “You come here alone?”

  He shrugged. “Which one of the guys do you think would want to hang out on this beach with me? We’re only in here ten minutes. It’ll feel like an hour or so.”

  “Tell me about your farm. The one you grew up on.”

  His eyes brightened up. “Oh, it was small as far as farms went. My father really needed to hide. The Jacksons were not welcome in many places. He’d married my mother. She was a maid in the Jackson home before the destruction. Marrying her was really not the thing, I guess. He didn’t care. They found a small homestead and made a go at it. Some years it flourished. Some years it didn’t. I never knew the difference when I was little. Later, when I helped, we really did well.”

  “You made things grow.” I could picture it—Damian as a young man discovering he had a green thumb.

  “I did. The house was white with yellow shutters. My mother used to let the chickens run here, there, and everywhere. She couldn’t stand to pen them up.” His face fell as he spoke. “She died from the flu. The one Cash would eventually cure. My father thought it was better if I had a different future. Evander was it.”

  I sat until I straddled him. “I wanted to make you happy. I think I just made you sad instead.”

  “You didn’t. We don’t talk about our pasts anymore. We know each other’s stories, and it’s easier to simply be. I like telling it to you.”

  His gaze was on my lips, and I knew he was going to kiss me a second before he did. His breath was sweet, and his lips gentle. He didn’t push, he didn’t force, just gave me the kindest affection. Eventually his hand found the back of my head, and he drew me closer. I wrapped my arms around his neck and held on.

  “Diana.” my name was so soft I barely heard it, yet it moved through me like a warm bath. I rocked against him, knowing what I needed even though I’d never had it, not like this anyway.

  Damian moaned against my lips and drew me tighter. His hips jolted against me. That was when I felt it.

  I pulled back and stared at him. Damian was hard. His gaze was lazy while he regarded me.

  “Damian?” I didn’t know how to ask him what I needed to know.

  He sucked in a breath. “I don’t know if it’s only in here or if I’m hard out there in the real world too. Come here, Diana.”

  I was soon back in the same position I’d been in before. He kissed me, hard, possessing me, and I really wanted him to.

  He laid me back on the sand, coming over me. We were both still fully dressed. His hands travelled my body while he kissed me, sometimes gently, sometimes not. Every so often his hard cock would push against my core, and I’d moan at the same time he would sigh. Or vice versa. We weren’t in the real world, yet it felt pretty damn accurate to me.

  Pressure built inside of me. I knew what was going to happen from the other times. This time I hadn’t even taken off my clothes. I squirmed, wanting him to be inside me when it happened. Damian made no moves to take off either of our clothes. I could see the muscles in his neck were strained.

  “Damian, I’m going to …” I never got the words out while I shattered beneath him. Damian cried out my name, coming hard. He said my name over and over again until he finished.

  He pulled me against him, rolling us both until he was flat on his back on the sand with me sprawled over him.

  Tears were in my eyes, and he wiped them away. “What’s the matter? Are you okay?”

  “I wish it was real.” I kissed his neck where I could reach. “I wish we could be like this in real life.”

  He held me closer. “Me too.”

  The program exited, and I nearly fell over coming back into the real world. Damian grabbed me, shoving the glasses off both of us and onto the floor. He tugged me to him. Flat against him, I could feel the unbelievable. He was still hard. And we weren’t in the program anymore.

  “Damian?” I ran my hand down his chest and abdomen until I cupped him on the outside of his pants. “Is this okay?”

  His eyes were huge, and he touched his forehead to my own. “I … yes. There’s no obligation though. Just because I can doesn’t mean you have to.”

  I unzipped his pants, letting them fall to the floor. Through his boxer shorts, I found his hard cock. It was thick and throbbing in my hand. He moaned, loudly. Unlike in the holo state, he sounded almost pained.

  “This okay?”

  His hands shook on my back, and his eyes closed. He didn’t answer me. I was nearly overwhelmed with wanting him. Only this moment wasn’t about me. It was about him. I was hot, and my insides pooled. This was giving me pleasure, too.

  I helped him get to the couch. With a long stroke, I embraced him, balls to tip. He sucked in a long gasp of air.

  “Diana.” His hands tangled in my hair. I hurried. Up and down, up and down. Finally, I covered his tip, using my other hand to continue the pace. I don’t
know how I knew what to do. His moans and jerks told me all I needed to know about what felt good and what didn’t.

  With a long groan, he emptied himself against my hand. His head was thrown back, and my name was on his lips. I didn’t move and neither did he. I was in no hurry. Eventually he softened, and a few seconds later, his eyes opened.

  I thought he might say something, only he didn’t. He grabbed me and kissed me over and over again. There were tears on his cheeks and soon on my own as well.

  He laid me back on the couch, holding me tightly.

  “Diana.” My name sounded strange on his lips. I raised my head to see that his eyes were mostly closed. “Wow. I … Give me a minute. I know how …”

  I covered his eyes with my hand, closing his lids. “Sleep. That’s all I want from you right now.”

  He didn’t fight it. It took only a minute at most, and then Damian was out cold. I didn’t dare move. I wasn’t tired and, much as I loved giving him pleasure, I had been left wanting with nothing to do for release.

  Damian whispered my name, only he wasn’t awake. He was dreaming of me. I smiled. Well, I had just brought him his first release outside of a US machine in years. I didn’t mind thinking it earned me a little dreamtime.

  Finally, I had to move. I got off him as gently as I could and wandered over to the door. I quietly unlocked it. He wasn’t in any condition to make dinner. I’d have to do it for him. My culinary expertise was slim to none. Still, I could do scrambled eggs and hope none of them minded breakfast for dinner. Toast I could also manage and some juice.

  Although it took me a few minutes to find everything I needed, I soon had everything set up. I hummed to myself. This wasn’t a perfect situation, but it was close. I couldn’t focus on the future. My family would come. I’d have to figure out what to do about things then. For now, I’d been to the beach and made Damian really, really happy on a day when he’d started out so upset he’d lost track of time.

  Strong arms came around me, pulling me against his chest. Damian kissed my neck. “Good call on the eggs.”

  “Thanks.” I giggled. He kissed me over and over. My cheek. My neck. The top of my shoulder. “How are you doing?”

  “Nearly perfect—except I woke up without you. There aren’t words, Diana. You’re mine, okay? I know I have to share you. I’m good with it. But you belong to me and vice versa. Whatever happens with them, it happens. I’ll always be here.” He flipped me around, turning off the stove. “Okay?”

  I kissed his lips. “More than okay.”

  “Tonight. I am going to make you feel so good. I promise.”

  “I’m not worried.”

  Damian took the spoon from my hand. “Move. My stove.”

  I scooted over and watched him make the eggs much more complicated than I would have. Spices went into the eggs. He quickly chopped vegetables and then added them, too. The meal became the most sophisticated scrambled eggs I’d ever seen.

  We were only five that evening. Judge’s absence at the table seemed acute to me. Every so often, one of my guys would look at Judge’s empty space. Damian was the most animated I’d ever seen him. He told jokes and smiled at Sterling’s story about locking himself out of the weapon locker temporarily.

  Cash set down his fork. “Are you okay? Are you on something?”

  “I’m on Diana. I had my date today. Big high.” He winked at me.

  Lewis raised his eyebrows. “I can attest to the high.”

  “I’m not disagreeing.” Cash nodded. “Only you seem really … different.”

  Sterling shrugged. “We should all be so lucky to be happy like that.”

  My cheeks must have been a tomato. I excused myself after dinner and made my way in to see Judge. His dream bars weren’t good again. I hit the button to fix them and relaxed when I saw them move into the positive direction.

  After a bit, Lewis stood next to me. “I can’t permanently fix the dreams. It’s too much happy juice, and it messes with the healing. But a few taps during the day is fine. Thanks for doing that.” He paused and then finished. “Anything you want to tell me?”

  It wasn’t my story to tell. “No.”

  He nodded. “All right then.”

  If Damian wanted to share, then it was his right to do so, I guessed. It was weird to think Lewis was going to have a running tab of who was back to fully functioning and when. Hopefully that would be the last time we ever had to discuss who did what with me.

  The activity that night was a movie. A drama Damian chose that had to do with a boy, his dog, and losing his father before finding him again. I leaned against Damian, and he stroked my arm gently with the tips of his fingertips. He was warm. I closed my eyes. The movie and the room faded away.

  “Diana?” Damian’s soft voice woke me. I blinked, trying to make sense of where we were. The others had left. We were alone in the game room. “I guess boy adventure movies knock you out.”

  I nestled my face into his chest. “Sorry.”

  “Don’t be.” Damian scooped me up. “I get to be all hero-like and carry you back to Artemis.”

  Why had I thought he was dangerous? He was … soft inside.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Damian Osborne

  Damian set me on my bed on Artemis then covered me with his body. I loved the weight of him on top of me. “Tired?”

  I shook my head. “I had a nap.”

  “We’re keeping you up all night. That’s why you’re conking out during game night. I’m not about to change that. Just pointing it out.”

  I wrapped my arms around his neck. “I’m not complaining.”

  “Diana.” His voice was low. “Can I make you feel good? Please?”

  I stroked my hand down his face. “You never have to ask me that. But I’d like to make you feel good, too. Now that you, ah, get hard, we can do all sorts of things, right?”

  He raised his dark eyebrows. “We can. Anything you want. That’s what I want. More than anything. To give you what you want. To make you feel amazing, to show you in every way I can what being here with you like this means to me.”

  His words moved through me, bringing tears to my eyes. Damian was so sweet. “You do already.”

  He shook his head. “No, not enough. I scared you. Twice. First, I busted into your ship and yelled at you. Second, I didn’t tell you I hadn’t contacted Evander about you. I get caught up in things. I don’t think about feelings. I …”

  I placed my hand over his mouth. “The first time, you thought I was a spy here to steal what Cash was doing. That was your job. Second, I don’t think any of us could have anticipated we’d end up like this. You didn’t know me. It wasn’t your job to let me know your plans.”

  “You’re wrong.” He scooted up a bit and pulled my shirt over my head. “I did imagine this. Well, maybe not the sharing bit. That’s fine, though. I like the thought of the others protecting you with the same fervor I would. The moment I stopped thinking of you as an enemy, maybe three minutes after I saw you, I knew I would want to be here. I knew you. Instantly. I knew your heart.”

  I leaned over to kiss his neck. He shuddered. “Damian, you stormed out of the dining room. You were really pissed that I grew up in a family with Cooper. Don’t romanticize how you felt about me. It’s okay.”

  “Diana,” he whispered my name. “You scared the shit out of me. How would I ever keep such a tiny bundle of perfection safe? Easier to be mad at you. You don’t remember our ride from your ship here. That’s a good thing. You were in so much pain. I held you up against me. And I knew if I’d been responsible for killing you, I’d never be okay.”

  He kissed me then. Slowly. With his body right over mine, I could feel his hardening length against my stomach. Damian made no move to speed up what we were doing. We kissed, his body on top of mine. I lost any sense of time. There was only Damian and the heat he generated. Eventually, he moaned against my mouth, his hips jerking.

  His eyes were slits when he pulled back. He di
dn’t stop kissing me, just changed where he did it. My neck, my cheeks, eventually moving down to take my breast in his mouth. I gasped, my hips pushing against him. Damian moaned and bit down on my nipple.

  My whole body was on fire. His hand reached out, massaging the other breast while he feverishly sucked on my nipple. My heart raced. I couldn’t get enough. I grabbed onto the back of his neck.

  Our bodies rubbed against each other, and it was different than when we’d been in the holo machine. I gripped his shirt, and he pulled it over his head. Under his clothes, I had no sense of how built Damian was. His chest was a wall of muscles. I stroked his chest, and he moaned, this time louder. His hip movements were faster, and I moved to try to match him when I could. I was so wet, so hot, and I wanted … .something.

  Damian slipped my pants down my body. He ran his hands from the top of thighs to my calves, his eyes following where his hands went. “I know you hate to be called beautiful. Can you see how I feel about you? Can you tell?”

  My breathing kicked up. His eyes caressed me in a way his words never could. I reached out, touching the tip of his cock through his pants. He closed his eyes, his nostrils flaring. “I have little control yet. You touch me, and I want to instantly explode. I’m not ready to be inside of you yet. Not until I’m sure I can make it good for you.”

  I didn’t care about how good it was or wasn’t. If he wanted the connection, I’d be happy to do with him what I’d never done before. “I …”

  He shook his head, interrupting me. “I need that. I have to know I can make it good for you. I can’t yet. Not like that. Doesn’t mean I don’t have other … things I can do.”

  Damian pulled off my panties, removing the rest of his clothes after. I had no idea what he meant to do if we weren’t going to be actually having sex. He must have seen the confusion on my face. “I want us skin to skin. I crave it. Please.”

  I lifted my head until I could kiss right above his heart. “You never have to say please with me. Ever.”

  He kissed me fast before he moved down to my pussy. I had no idea if he’d even heard me. He was focused, and he needed me. That much I could tell. I felt the same way, too, although Damian seemed a man possessed.