Ours to Share: ES Siren 8
Page 10
Sudden tears welled up behind her eyes. What the hell? Turned out she wasn’t like her father after all. She didn’t want to break Silo. She wanted him as her equal—wanted him to be a permanent fixture in her and Cloey’s life.
She wouldn’t allow her girlfriend’s past to stuff up a future with this man. Though Jasmine had never been one to tread carefully, she’d sure as hell learn to tiptoe fast.
She chewed her bottom lip and focused on Silo. “You can’t just leave. We deserve better than that! Please, at least … stay the night.” At Cloey’s sharp gasp, Jasmine added softly, “No strings attached.”
He swallowed, and yearning flashed in his stare. But then he shook his head and dragged his stare away from them. “That would only make it harder to walk away.”
Silo pushed open the door and Jasmine refused to let the tears come, refused to break down in front of him. There had to be a reason why he hated goodbyes, and she didn’t want to make it worse.
Being with Silo made her realize more and more that she truly wasn’t like her father. It could have been the one thing she’d hold onto whenever she ached for this man, who was about to step into the corridor and out of their lives.
But she wasn’t going to lose him, not if she could help it.
When the door swung shut behind him, it was Cloey who burst into tears. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I don’t want to lose him either, but I can’t go someplace that hasn’t even been made habitable.”
Jasmine stayed calm, even though everything within her screamed blue murder. She cleared her throat and asked, “Why? What is it you’re afraid of?”
Jasmine had a fair idea, but Cloey needed to say it; needed to get it off her chest.
A tear trickled down her girlfriend’s cheek. “I lived on the streets with my parents for years before we moved into the towers. I remember the fear of wondering when our next bite of food would be, when—not if—one of us would be hurt or even killed by people wanting what little we had.”
Cloey swiped at the wetness on her face. Her voice cracked. “It was survival of the fittest. And we were never the fittest.”
Jasmine nodded slowly. It all made so much sense in hindsight. Her father had taken Cloey’s family in with the sole purpose of taking advantage of them. Like a hawk focused on something bloodied and injured, he’d known he could manipulate them and get exactly what he wanted.
Cloey’s mother.
He probably hadn’t anticipated that she and Cloey would become friends within days … and then, much later, more than friends. It had undoubtedly put a big fat spanner in the works. He couldn’t just throw the family back on the streets once he’d sated his sexual hunger. He’d had to pretend to care.
“You might be right,” Jasmine conceded, “but Silo is strong, in every way. And we’re not weak—you’re not weak. You’re far from a defenseless little girl anymore.” She smiled. “Put the three of us together and we’re invincible. You must know that.”
Cloey nodded, and stood, her chair scraping back even as Jasmine stepped toward her. She pressed a kiss to Cloey’s trembling mouth, sighing against her as a familiar flood of emotion hit her. This woman meant the world to her. She couldn’t lose Cloey. And she couldn’t lose Silo.
She pulled back and looked into Cloey’s gorgeous blue eyes. “No regrets, remember?”
Cloey’s lashes flickered a little, fanning her cheeks, before she looked up. And this time her stare was full of despair. “Jasmine, what have I done?” she whispered.
*
Silo stared unseeingly at the rows of dark-green spinach plants. It’d been two days since he’d walked out on Jasmine and Cloey. The ache within hadn’t subsided one bit, and he guessed it wouldn’t subside anytime soon.
He blew out a heavy breath. He might be a con, but he was also a first-class fool. He should have fought for his women, begged them, if that was what it took. But he’d presumed that what they’d shared had meant something. He’d believed the bond between them meant they would jump at the chance to be with him, even on virgin land that would take years to tame.
He scrubbed a grubby hand over his face, careless of the Earth mud. Two whole days without his women already felt like two lifetimes. He wouldn’t blame Cloey and Jasmine if they’d already moved on … left him behind for another con who’d undoubtedly jump when they told him to jump and who’d thank his lucky stars for any and all attention.
A con who wouldn’t make the mistake of falling for them.
Raymond appeared around the corner of a row of plants and strode toward him with a satisfied grin that didn’t improve Silo’s sullen mood. He turned his back on the guard and pretended to work. Eve had more guards in her pocket than she’d first let on.
When he’d walked out of Jasmine and Cloey’s cabin two days ago, a guard had stepped toward him and led him quietly back to his cell. He’d known the guard was under Eve’s control because anyone else who’d seen him alone in the civvies zone would have lit him up with the electro-whip and marched him straight to someone senior, no doubt in the hope he’d spend some quality time in the Box.
Given the unresolved murders that’d already occurred in the civvies zone, he just might have been tossed out of an airlock before he’d had time to voice his innocence. Not that his protests would have been heeded anyway.
He should be grateful he’d gotten nothing more than a cell door slammed in his face—pity being grateful was the last thing on his mind. He’d blown it with Cloey and Jasmine, lost the chance to convince them he was the only man they needed.
“That’s no way to treat a man who’s trying to cheer you up,” Raymond said from behind him, with laughter in his voice.
“Fuck off.” He didn’t care if his disrespect broke though Raymond’s friendly façade and caused the guard to activate his magna-cuffs. At least it might take his mind off the women he could never have. “And tell Eve I’m not interested in her new colony. I’m going to Unity.”
At least there he might catch a glimpse of the women who’d turned his heart inside out and upside down. Even if it half-killed him to see them with another man, he knew he wouldn’t be able to pretend he’d just forgotten about them.
That was why he hadn’t said goodbye … he couldn’t accept he wasn’t a part of their lives anymore. Goodbye was too permanent. It was something he’d reserved for his parents, when they’d slowly died before his eyes. First his father and then, not even a month later, his mother.
That was when he’d allowed the rage to slowly eat away at him, until the only thing that had eased it was helping to feed others who were starving.
“Really?” asked an achingly familiar, feminine voice. “Not even if we’re going to sign up for New Eden?”
His breath caught in his throat at Cloey’s voice, and his heart missed a beat as the implications of what she’d said sunk in. He spun, and drank in the sight of his women, barely registering that a number of spinach plants had toppled onto the floor behind him.
“Do you mean that?” he croaked.
“We do,” Cloey said with a big smile.
Jasmine nodded and added, “We want a future with you, no matter which continent that’s on.” She swept Cloey a quick look. “We don’t care about the place, only who’ll be there with us.”
Silo’s heart began to beat double-time, drumming in his chest while his thoughts raced at a million miles an hour and hope was fairly bursting from his chest. “Where we’re going won’t be easy. It will be dangerous, with lots of unknowns. But I won’t let anyone or anything harm either one of you. I’ll protect you both with my life.”
Cloey nodded her understanding. “Just as we’ll protect you with ours.”
Silo grinned. This petite woman and her luscious girlfriend just might do that, too. Not that he’d let them. If something happened to either one of them …
It didn’t bear thinking about.
He knew that for the first few years he wouldn’t have the means to give them everything th
ey wanted, but he’d damn well make sure they never lacked in love. He’d give them his heart, his soul.
Hell, they already had it!
Cloey sighed. “I thought I was being weak by wanting to surrender to you and your needs. But I realize now it takes real strength to let go of my reservations. Strength and … trust.” She blinked. “And I have them both for you in spades.”
Jasmine touched his hand, her eyes a beautiful liquid-brown. “We love you,” she whispered, her words heartfelt and sincere.
“We always will,” Cloey added. “We love everything about you.”
He swept them both into his arms, not caring about the dirt and sweat and god only knew what else he enveloped them in. They loved him, and that was all that mattered.
“I love you both too, equally,” he said huskily. “I want to be with you both. I want … forever.”
They grinned and each took one of his hands, leading him down the aisle where Raymond had seemingly disappeared.
“We’ve got something to show you,” Jasmine said.
Cloey giggled, and unable to hold back her secret, confessed, “I made you a pair of decent socks—big ones.”
If his heart had melted before, it was a puddle on the floor now. Warm, comfortable socks would be brilliant, but the fact that Cloey had hand-knitted them just for him, well, it got him all mushy and gooey inside.
Jasmine turned to him and winked. “And I procured, ah, bribed, that guitar of yours from very reluctant band members. I thought you might want some downtime after we land on this New Eden.”
The laugh that burst from Silo’s mouth had never been so filled with joy. These women knew him so well, they were almost a part of him. “You do realize it’s not my birthday, right?” he murmured.
Jasmine nodded. “That’s just one of the many things we don’t know about you. But we’re going to have fun finding out!”
They led him out the greenhouse and through the noisy, stinky hydroponics facility—damn, these women really did love him!—and stopped just outside the door where Raymond and another guard waited.
There on the floor, waiting for him, was his much-loved guitar and a pair of socks that already meant the world to him.
His gusty sigh was pure happiness.
It didn’t matter the unknown dangers ahead, as long as he had his women and kept them safe, his future couldn’t be more perfect.
He couldn’t wait now for the moment that ES Siren pulled out of jump mode. Then they’d be able to view Solitaire through the plexi-window.
They could admire their New Eden, and the new life that waited for them.
About Mel Teshco
As a rather quiet, introverted child, Mel Teshco would never have believed it possible she’d one day be making a living writing hot, erotic stories and meeting so many other wonderful writers. She can most often be found at her computer, giving into her children’s and/or cats’ demands and occasionally/often drinking home brew, which brings out her sociable (i.e. loud) side. Her long-suffering husband is still waiting for retirement.
She loves hearing from readers and will answer all emails from her meltescho@yahoo.com.au e-address.
Also in the ES Siren Series
Yours to Uncover: ES Siren 1
Yours to Command: ES Siren 2
Yours to Desire: ES Siren 3
Mine to Hold: ES Siren 4
Mine to Keep: ES Siren 5
Mine to Serve: ES Siren 6
Ours to Embrace: ES Siren 7
Ours to Save: ES Siren 9
First published by Momentum in 2015
This edition published in 2015 by Momentum
Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd
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Copyright © Mel Teshco 2015
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
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A CIP record for this book is available at the National Library of Australia
Ours to Share: ES Siren 8
EPUB format: 9781760082710
Mobi format: 9781760082727
Cover design by Danielle Hurps
Edited by Vanessa Lanaway
Proofread by Thomasin Litchfield
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