by Marla Monroe
“It’s home, Ashley. That’s our new home.” Boyd wondered why she hadn’t referred to it as her home.
“I know. I guess I just haven’t gotten used to it yet. We’ve only been there a few days, and now I’m here.”
“You’ll be going home tomorrow. You’re doing too good to have to stay here. You’ll see. Why don’t you take a nap?”
“Um, would you hold me?” She didn’t look at him when she asked.
Boyd realized she was embarrassed to want him to hold her. He got out of the chair and sat on the edge of the bed, pulling her into his arms.
“There, better?” he asked.
“Um-hmm, thanks. I don’t like being here.”
“I know, baby. Only for tonight. Then we’ll all go home and take care of you there.”
He held her for several minutes before he felt her relax into sleep. Finally he gently laid her back against the pillows and settled the covers further over her.
He sat back in the chair and waited for her to wake up again. Hours passed and she didn’t wake up. It worried him. The doctor hadn’t told him anything, either. He’d said it would take some time to prepare the slides and read them, but he was anxious to know what was going on.
Boyd wondered how they were going to survive on a planet that seemed to be hostile to them. There was some giant creature out there that attacked cattle and people, and now a giant ratlike thing that had acid for saliva. Why hadn’t any of the others noticed them before? He checked that Ashley was asleep, then slipped out to talk to the doctor.
He found him in an office down the hall writing up notes. He looked up when Boyd knocked on the door.
“Come on in. I was just writing down my findings on the samples I took.” He put down his pen and turned to look at Boyd. “What can I do for you?”
“Why is it that no one has seen these things before? If we had three of them in our cellar, stands to reason someone else should have had them.”
“You would think so. I agree, but so far no one has reported seeing them. If they think they are just rats and are ignoring them or just shooting them, they don’t know how dangerous they are,” the doctor said.
“Someone needs to get the word out about them,” Boyd insisted.
“The council meets tonight, and I’m going to recommend that we contact all the outlanders about them. We did that about the creature when it attacked Rachel.”
“Outlanders?” Boyd asked.
“Yeah, that’s what we call all of you living outside the city.”
“Oh, funny. I think we still thought of ourselves as part of the city,” Boyd said with a half grin. “Guess we’re more the country folk.” Boyd shook his head and sighed. “Tell me what you found.”
“The skin has an acid burn, so it’s safe to say the saliva has acid in it and soaked through her jeans. It probably wouldn’t have been so bad if she’d pulled them right off. What I don’t understand is why didn’t it burn a hole in the jeans?” the doctor asked.
“I don’t know, either. She had several bumps on her leg that had a weird yellow tint to them, and then she got really sick, and they opened up.”
“Right now, she’s doing fine. I’m going to let her go home in the morning with oral antibiotics provided she doesn’t run a fever tonight.” The doctor got up and walked over to a shelf and pulled down some pills. He shook out several and placed them in another bottle. He made a label and handed it to Boyd.
“Give her one of these twice a day until they are all gone. Keep the bandage on as long as she is draining. Then let it stay open to air. I don’t want her walking on it for another couple of days, either. If it changes in any way, bring her back here.”
“Got it. Do you think there’s going to be any residual problem from it?” Boyd asked before he walked through the door.
“So far Rachel hasn’t had any trouble, and neither has Danny. Other than the scarring, they are fine.”
“But you aren’t saying there won’t be any. Is that what you’re saying?” Boyd asked.
“Yeah, I guess it is. I’ve never seen anything like it. Even from some of the astronauts I checked out after some of their planet landings. I just don’t know what to tell you.”
“Thanks for the help, though. She’s doing fine now.” Boyd walked through the door and headed back across to Ashley’s room. He hoped he would make it back before she woke up and found him gone.
He slipped back into the room and was sitting in the chair ten minutes later when she stretched and winced, but woke up. She smiled at him.
“Hi.”
“Hi yourself, Ashley. How do you feel?”
“I feel fine. Can we go home now?” she asked.
“Not till in the morning. Keeton will be back then to take us home.”
“Oh, I thought it was morning.” She pouted.
Boyd chuckled. “You only took a nap. You didn’t sleep all that long. It’s barely eight at night.”
“What am I going to do for the rest of the night?”
There was a knock at the door and the nurse, Scott, came in. “I’ve brought your night dose of antibiotics. I need to borrow your hand, Ashley.”
Ashley frowned, but dutifully held out her hand. Once he had her hooked up, he covered the site with gauze and tape. He left them alone again.
She and Boyd talked for several hours about their pasts, and he realized he knew very little about her. All he’d been interested in originally had been getting his cock in her cunt. Now he wanted to know more about her.
“Could you draw that thing if you had paper and a pencil?” Boyd asked her.
She shrugged. “Probably. It was sure close enough for me to get a good look at it. Why?”
“We need a record of what it looks like. No one has ever seen one before now.”
He told her he would be right back, then went and borrowed a notepad and pencil and brought it back to her. She took it and began to draw.
Chapter Seven
Keeton drove the transport as fast as he felt safe to drive. He was anxious to get back to town to find out how Ashley was. He had missed her as much as he had missed Boyd being there. He realized she had come to mean a lot to him. He never would have believed someone so innocent could hold his attention, much less become important to him.
He would easily admit to being a hard man who loved his women down and dirty. Finding that he cared about Ashley was messing with him. He wasn’t sure what to think.
He pulled into town at close to ten that morning. He parked out front of the medical clinic and climbed out of the transport, eager to see for himself that she was doing okay. He hoped they would be able to take her home with them today.
The nurse met him at the door with a smile. He felt his heart lighten. If the nurse was smiling, the news had to be good.
“She’s been driving Boyd crazy all morning about when you were going to get here,” he said.
“I had to deal with the horses before I could get here. Is she okay?”
“She’s doing fine, but I’ll let the doctor talk to you about her. Come on in.” The nurse led the way to a room in the back that was obviously the doctor’s office. “Have a seat and I’ll let him know you’re here.”
Keeton took the chair opposite the desk and leaned back. He didn’t have long to wait. The doctor walked in and shook his hand before taking his seat behind the desk.
“Ashley is a very lucky woman. She’s doing fine, but we don’t know anything about the animal that injured her. Her leg is healing up, but she’s going to have several small scars there. It looks like they are going to be yellow tinged as well.”
“Are you trying to say that you don’t know what sort of long-term effects this may have on her?” Keeton finally asked.
“Yes, that’s what I’m saying,” the doctor, Jeff, agreed.
“You took some samples of her wounds, so what did you figure out from them?”
“Basically that the saliva from the rat thing is a type of acid.” He upda
ted Keeton on everything he knew.
“So I can take her home now?” Keeton asked.
“As soon as this last dose of antibiotics is finished, my nurse will take her IV out, and you can take her home. I’ve given a bottle of pills to Boyd to give her for the next several days till they are all gone.”
“Thanks for taking care of her.”
“That’s what I’m here for. Thank goodness I have lots of time to do research and don’t have a lot of patients to care for. I really don’t want to be busy if it means someone is suffering. Now give me some pregnant women to birth and I’ll be a happy doctor.” He winked at Keeton.
“Um, okay.”
“If you’re careful with her leg, she can have sex. She needs to keep it dry, though, so no showers and only baths with her leg out of the water. Once it closes up, she can get it wet. I gave directions to Boyd on taking care of it till then.”
“Okay. Can I see her now?” Keeton stood up.
“Of course. You know where she is.” The doctor got up and saw him across the hall.
Keeton knocked on the door to Ashley’s room then opened it when Boyd called for him to come in. He was totally surprised by the reaction he got from Ashley, though. Her eyes brightened, and she smiled as big as a rainbow at him.
“Keeton! I’m so glad to see you. I missed you last night.” She reached out her arms to him, and he wasn’t sure what to do.
Boyd pushed him forward into Ashley’s arms. He found himself enfolded and squeezed.
“Careful of your IV thing, Ashley,” he said, pulling back.
“I can go home now. They said when you got here you’d take me home.”
“We’ll all go home just as soon as your IV is finished,” he said.
“Horses okay?” Boyd asked with a smile.
“Yeah. Got them all taken care of this morning.”
“Feel like going by the library on our way out?” Boyd asked.
“I want to get a couple more books on gardening while we’re here,” Ashley explained.
“I want to get you a drawing book so you can draw. You’re good at it.” Boyd picked up a piece of paper and handed it to Keeton. “What does that look like to you?”
“Fuck! That’s the rat thing we killed. Where did you get it?”
“Ashley drew it.”
Keeton turned and looked at her. “You can draw like this, and you’re stuck out on a ranch with us?”
“I’m not stuck. I want to be where I am. Don’t you want me anymore?” Tears welled up in her eyes.
Boyd cursed. “Of course we want you. What Keeton means…”
“What I mean is that you’re too talented to be living on a ranch when you could be documenting all the wildlife and native flowers and such,” Keeton said.
“They have scientists and cameras to do that. If it’s that important to you, I’ll draw anything new I see. I don’t want to live anywhere else. I want to live with you and Boyd.”
There was a knock on the door and the nurse walked in. “Looks like your IV is finished. Let’s get this out of your hand so you can go home,” he said.
Keeton realized she wasn’t as excited as she was when he first came in. That was his fault. He’d taken some of the light out of her eyes. Fuck, he wasn’t good at the relationship stuff. He’d always left that part to Boyd, and they never kept a woman long enough for it to matter that much. He would have to work on it since Ashley was their wife. He found that he wanted to work on it for her. She mattered to him.
“Okay, all done. You’re a free woman.” The nurse carried the supplies out of the room. “When you finish getting dressed, just come on down the hall and we’ll write you out as discharged.”
Ashley nodded then looked at Keeton. “Um, did you bring me any clothes?”
“Hell, yeah, just a minute. I left the bag outside in the transport. I was in a hurry to see about you.” He hurried out the door and back outside to get her clothes.
When he returned, Boyd was sitting next to her on the bed. She was sitting up on the side. Boyd gave him a definably unfriendly look. Keeton handed her the bag.
“Um, do you need help getting dressed?” He felt awkward watching her dress when he’d eaten her pussy out only a few days before. How crazy was that?”
“I can do it. You don’t have to wait around on me.”
Yep, he had hurt her feelings. Keeton drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. He had to make this right somehow.
“I can help you stand up while you step into your jeans,” he tried.
She ignored him and pulled out the clothes he’d chosen for her. She sighed and stood up, but was unsteady on her feet. Both he and Boyd grabbed her by the arm and held her still.
“Are you sure you don’t want us to help you?” Boyd asked.
“I can do it. I just haven’t been out of the bed that much for a couple days.”
She untied her gown and turned her back to them to pull it off. Then she pulled on panties and put on a bra. She slipped her legs into her jeans one foot at a time. After she pulled on her T-shirt, she turned back around and crossed her arms with a smile on her face.
“You did it,” Boyd said. “You ready to go now?”
“Yes, let’s go.”
They stopped by the office down the hall and signed her out, and then Keeton swung her up in his arms and carried her to the transport. She fussed all the way, but he didn’t want her walking on her leg. The doctor had said for her to keep off it.
Once inside the transport, he left Boyd to settle her in.
Keeton pulled the transport up in front of the library and carried her inside.
“I’m going to go get some things, and I’ll be right back.” Boyd left Keeton with Ashley in the library.
“Where do you want to go? I’ll carry you there,” Keeton insisted.
She sighed. “Okay. I want to go over to the gardening section.”
Keeton carried her to that section, then pulled up a chair and sat her on it.
“I’m going to go look at the buildings area to see how best to set up the fence. If you need to move, call me. I mean it.” He waggled a finger at her.
Ashley made as if to bite it, but he pulled it back with a grin. He liked seeing her feisty and playful. He hoped he could keep his foot out of his mouth and keep her that way.
A little while later, Ashley called out to him. “I need to move when you have time.”
He carried the book he was looking at with him and picked her up with hers.
“Where to?”
“The sex section.”
Keeton almost dropped her. “The what? Do they even have one of those?”
“Yes, it’s right next to the animal husbandry section.”
“How do you even know where anything is in here anyway?”
“They had a drawing of it in the shuttle library so we could find our way around in it.”
“Well, you don’t need any sex books. We’ll teach you anything you need to know.”
“Maybe I want to know what my options are,” she said, crossing her arms around the books. “There may be something in here not in my other book.”
Keeton sighed and carried her to where she wanted to go. He pulled up a chair and sat with her on his lap.
“Now show me what you’re looking for,” he said.
Ashley frowned at him but lifted her chin and pulled out a book on ménage loving. She flipped through it then sat it on her pile to pull out another one on S&M relationships.
“Whoa there. You definitely don’t need that. Where did you get the idea you wanted to explore S&M?” He was horrified that she would even consider it.
“I thought that was what you were into. I want to know what I need to do.”
“Well, that is not what you need to be studying.”
“But you used to do it when you were on Earth. I overheard you talking to Boyd about your past relationships the other day.” Ashley’s lower lip began to tremble.
“That w
as the past, Ashley. I’m not living that way anymore.”
“But you won’t be happy, and I want you to be happy with me, Keeton.”
“Aw, baby. I’m happy with you. I’m just really intense when it comes to sex. I don’t enjoy whipping people. I do like to spank, but we can work around that if you don’t like it.”
“With your hand?” she asked with wide eyes.
“Yes, with my hand.” He sighed. “Put away the other book, baby. You don’t need it.” He took the book from her and replaced it. “Keep the ménage book. You probably need to know about that sort of relationship. I don’t know about Boyd, but I’m a lousy teacher when it comes to the everyday part of it,” Keeton said.
“You’re more into the kinky side of it.” Ashley grinned up at him.
It was an engaging smile. He couldn’t help but return it. He picked her up with her load of books and took her to the checkout desk. They took her general information and signed the books out to her.
“When do we need to have them back?” he asked the clerk.
“Oh, a few months,” she said.
“Great.”
They left the library and ran into Boyd coming in. He didn’t have anything in his arms, so Keeton figured he had already stowed his purchases in the transport. They loaded up with Ashley between them. She pulled out one of her books to read, and Keeton cringed. It was the ménage one. Boyd looked amused more than anything else. Well, he could address her questions. He could show her all the different positions, and would over time, but he wasn’t one to dissect the relationship between the three of them. Boyd would have to talk theory with her.
They arrived back at the ranch house a little after four. He opened the door while Boyd carried Ashley inside. Then he went back for the books and Boyd’s purchases. One sack Boyd almost snatched from him. The other he had Keeton present to Ashley on the couch.
“What is it?”
“Open it and see,” Boyd told her.
She pulled open the wrapping then oohed and aahed over the sketchbook and colored pencils he’d gotten for her.
“Thanks, Boyd! I can’t wait to use them.” She hugged him.
