Now it was Lucy’s turn to frown. She liked the idea of them staying together, but she had no idea how that had any impact on her feeling like hammered dog shit. She must have missed quite a bit more than she thought she had.
“Scoot over.” Letting go of her hand, Sparx nudged her hip.
“Okay,” she said before automatically following his instructions.
Wiggling toward the center of the bed, she kept her hands planted on the sheet draped over her front. Holding onto her titties to not only make sure they didn’t slip but also to hide what was going on under the sheet. The cold, which she’d craved earlier, now started to feel a bit too chilly.
Which made her nipples hard enough to poke holes in the fabric covering them.
Lucy didn’t have a chance to let Sparx know she was uncomfortable before he’d partially wrapped himself around her, taking the complaint right out of her mouth. Lying as close to her side as he possibly could without climbing on top of her, he wrapped one heavy arm around her middle. Pulling her into the curve of his body, he was careful to avoid bumping her bum foot.
“Comfortable?” he asked as if their position were the most normal place for them to be.
Which is what it felt like.
“Ummm, yeah,” she said, unable to stop snuggling back into him. She had absolutely no idea what was going on, but she went with it anyways. It wasn’t often she had the stuff her wet dreams were made of crawl into bed and want to snuggle. “Warm.”
“Too warm?” he asked, stiffening up.
“Not at all.” Lucy patted the thick arm wrapped just under her breasts. “Stay.”
“Good.” Sparx’s breath tickled the back of her neck, making her more than aware of how close they were. “They said you would need rest while your body acclimates to the heat.”
“The heat?” Lucy asked, tilting her head back to be able to see his face. “But it’s cold here.”
“Not the temperature,” he said, giving her a funny look. “The mating heat.”
Chapter Eighteen
The words echoed in her ears as her brain struggled to make sense of what he was saying.
“The what?” she squawked.
As he opened his mouth to answer, the door flew open with a loud bang.
“Step away from the goose!” Rue shouted, pointing an angry finger at Sparx, who’d placed himself protectively between Lucy and the door.
“Goose?” Sparx gave her such a startled look that she couldn’t stop the giggle that slipped out.
“These guys are crazy, Goose!” Rue announced somewhat hysterically, holding up her arms as if prepared to karate chop someone.
Colby ran into the room through the doors left wide-open from Rue’s explosive entry moment. Panting, he rubbed the side of his head and winced. “I’m so sorry, sir. We were just in the middle of explaining your mating when this volunteer hit me and ran from the room.”
“I hit you with a pillow!” Rue defended herself. “It’s not my fault you went down like a sack of potatoes.” Rue moved quickly around the bed, placing herself on the side that Lucy was laying on. “Let’s go.”
Sparx growled at Rue, before grimacing. “I know you’re her friend, but I’m her mate. You will not take her away from me.”
Lucy’s breath left her body as Sparx tightened his arm around her—partially from shock at what she was hearing and partially from the anaconda of an arm wrapped around her middle.
“Say what now?” she asked breathlessly. Surely, she thought, she was still somehow stuck in that dream from earlier.
“You’re my mate, Lucy.” He rolled her until she was facing him completely. Cupping her cheek, he helped her block out both Rue and Colby. “I thought I’d explained everything.”
“Noooooo,” she drawled, giving in to a hysterical giggle as she tried to slow her pounding heart.
She was sure she was dreaming. This was literally her fantasy as she’d slipped into her nap. Her version was a little more X-rated and without two voyeurs glaring at each other hovering over them, but other than that…
“Bunch of liars,” Rue snarled, holding out her hand to Lucy. Wiggling her fingers, she clicked her teeth together like she was calling a dog. “Come on, girl. We gotta get you some clothes and then get the fuck out of Dodge.”
“Wait…what?” Lucy held up her hands, giving a time-out sign. She was having trouble figuring out what she’d woken up in the middle of. “Everyone stop talking for a minute, while I try to understand what is happening.”
She stared up at Sparx where he was still plastered to her side. “Am I still dreaming or did you just say we’re mates?”
She held her breath, waiting for his answer, even though she already knew it… at least hoped she knew it.
“No. You’re not dreaming.” Raising a hand, he ran a finger down the curve of her cheek. The action created a shiver from her neck all the way down to her toes, zinging a few places in between. “And yes. Yes, I am.”
“Don’t fall for that line. Tabitha was bragging all the way back about how the big guy there was going to give her a private tour of his tunnel. He wants to show her his emeralds, if you know what I mean.” Rue gave Lucy an exaggerated eyebrow wiggle with matching hip thrust from where she was stationed on the opposing side. “C’mon, Goose. I know you think all of this is real, but it’s just a bunch of smoke and mirrors, right? This mating stuff is nothing more than a way to get women signed up. I mean, seriously. They can’t live without us? Pffft. It’s a bunch of romantic hooey that they know would be catnip.”
“Rue!” Lucy couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “I don’t understand. You were the one that suggested we sign up—”
“We’d just been robbed!” Rue sputtered, throwing her hands up in the air. “We were running out of options. When things went to shit…well, I knew this was something you would bring up again. I never thought all this stuff about mates was actually real. I mean, it can’t be, right? That’s romance novel stuff.”
“Well then why did you suggest it?” Lucy asked, exasperated.
“Ummm.” Rue looked away from her guiltily.
“Spit it out,” she snapped, angry at her best friend for still trying to hang onto secrets.
“I thought you’d get over the idea of living in an underground tunnel sooner rather than later and we’d go home,” Rue explained, pointing around her at the room they were in for emphasis. “I mean, you can’t even handle staying at a Super 8. This place is way more than just a little rustic, Goose. I figured we’d get here, you’d realize what a bad idea it was, we’d chisel a few stones away on our way out, and boom—easy-peasy. I mean…it’s a fucking cave, Lucy. You can’t handle using the bathroom at a rest stop.”
Rue finished with a strange smile that begged Lucy not to be mad or ask any more questions. Just to please let it go. How could she tell? Because she’d seen it plenty of times. Like the time Rue had accidently used laundry detergent in their dishwasher and flooded their basement apartment in two feet of suds.
Damnit. She couldn’t manage to ever stay mad at a face like that. Especially when that face was attached to someone who knew her well enough to know that the cave would have scared her off on any normal day.
A cave that didn’t include Sparx, that is.
“I get it, Rue. Well…” She frowned, trying to figure out if she got the entire gist of things. “I think. Well, kind of, at least,” Lucy said softly. She immediately felt the words having an instantaneous effect on the man holding her. She could tell she’d upset him.
Licking her lips, she kept her attention on Rue, even as she gave a comforting squeeze to the arm braced just beneath her breasts. She didn’t want the poor guy to think she was about to bail.
“This thing that’s happening,” Lucy said, her eyes pinning her best friend with the most honest look she could muster. She squeezed the arm around her again, bringing it to Rue’s attention. “It is real. I’m his—he’s
mine—we’re mates.”
“Don’t be silly,” Rue argued, propping her hands on her hips. “It can’t be real, it can’t be—”
Lucy knew Rue couldn’t believe the words coming out of her mouth. Unfortunately, she had no argument to give her other than denial.
“Why not?” Sparx asked over her head. His breath ruffled her hair. His tone was no more than curious. Not angry or judging, simply curious. “You seem so convinced that the mating heat is not—that what Lucy feels toward me, is not real. Why?”
Rue shifted from foot to foot, looking more uncomfortable the longer the question hung in the air.
“Rue?” Lucy could see her friend was legitimately upset and began to climb off the bed only to have Sparx stop her. She didn’t know why, but her friend needed her.
“You’re uncovered,” he warned with a shake of his head, stopping her protest before she’d even begun. “If you need to comfort your friend, she can come to you.”
With those words, Sparx climbed off his side of the mattress and moved to Colby standing beside the door. Lucy was relieved that he was giving her the space she needed to talk to Rue, to convince her friend that things were as they seemed.
“C’mon, Goose,” Rue urged halfheartedly, picking up Lucy’s still-damp clothes from the floor as she moved to the bed.
Holding out her hand to ward her friend off, she gave her a disgusted look. “You’re insane if you think I’m going to put those back on.” Swatting at Rue’s hands, she dodged her friend’s lame effort to try to put the shirt back over her head. “I’m not wearing those.”
“Well—” Rue huffed before letting out a chuckle. “Maybe we can use your naked ass as a distraction as we bust our way outta this joint.”
“That would be quite a distraction,” Sparx added, re-entering the room as the door closed behind him, leaving Colby in the corridor. Giving Rue a look, he crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re important to my mate, which means you’re important to me. So, I would greatly appreciate it if you stopped mentioning leaving.”
“I did not say we were going to leave,” Rue enunciated snottily, even as she gave him a half smile, letting Lucy know she was softening a bit towards him. “I said we were going to escape.”
“Can we have a second?” Lucy interrupted. The question was directed at Sparx as she struggled to sit up while wrapped in blankets. She had a feeling she was going to need to get more comfortable for the conversation she planned on having with her lovable—but obviously crazy—best friend.
“Of course,” he answered, taking a seat in the corner of the room.
When Rue looked at him with both brows raised, he shrugged.
“The healers said I need to stay within her sight at all times.”
“Sure, they did,” Rue agreed with a face that said she was lying.
“They actually did,” Lucy said, backing him up with the foggy memory she could recall. “At least that’s what I think I heard. I was a bit out of it there for a bit.”
“What do you mean out of it?” Rue asked worriedly. Smacking a hand onto Lucy’s forehead, she felt for a temperature. “Your clothes are soaking wet like you showered in them, and your skin is flushed. Did they drug you? Stick a worm in your ear? Ewwww! What about your belly button? That’s the way it works in the movies.” Rue reached for the blanket, as if she were prepared to take a peek and check herself.
Lucy pulled away with a gurgled laugh to stare at her weirdo of a friend. “No, they didn’t drug me or put anything in my belly button. That’s just gross. What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Nothing is wrong with me. I just—I just don’t think this is a good idea,” Rue argued, her expression one that Lucy was unable to read.
Which was odd, considering she could normally guess what her friend was thinking with one glance.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Rue.” Lucy caught Rue’s hands where she was twisting them back and forth in her lap. “What is going on? Talk to me.”
“I—” Rue gulped, her eyes shining in the lowlight of the room. “You’ve been acting weird since we got here…weirder than normal. I just thought none of this was real and we’d be going home when the time came. That things would go back to normal.” She sniffed sadly.
Lucy blinked, figuring out the best way to unbox the mess that was Rue’s headspace. Going piece by piece would be the best idea, but she wasn’t quite sure where to start—or how, for that matter.
“I know I’m acting weird, Rue. I know that.” She licked her lips, stalling for time by starting with the obvious. “I’m unable to concentrate on pretty much anything other than him. It’s weird, and I can’t ever remember feeling anything even remotely like this. I’m obsessed with someone I don’t even know, but, at the same time, I feel like I do know him,” she admitted, tilting her head to where Sparx was sitting. “I—I—I don’t even have the words to explain it.”
Lucy reached for Rue’s hand, needing the physical connection with the person who, up until now, had been the most important person in her life. Someone who would always be one of the most important people in her life. No matter who came into the picture or what planet they were on.
They’d been together far too long to let anyone break the chain that held them together. Their lives intertwined with shared experiences and heartbreak, instances that had been instrumental in forming who she was as a person. All of the ups and downs had been shared with Rue. Rue the secret keeper and the cheerleader. Rue the confidante and big sister—who wasn’t technically older but still fit that role better between the two of them.
“You remember how you felt when Tyson Bradshaw asked you to homecoming our junior year?” she asked, her memories drifting back to Rue’s ultimate high school crush before he moved away their senior year.
“Yeah,” Rue sighed, her eyes going dreamy for a second. “Why?”
“This…thing,” Lucy said, unable to find the right words for what she felt towards the man totally eavesdropping on their conversation just a few feet away. “It’s like homecoming with Tyson Bradshaw times a million.”
“For real?” Rue asked, sounding surprised.
“For real,” she answered with a nod before adding, “Maybe times two million.”
“Wow.” Rue’s eyes widened while she took in what Lucy was telling her. After a moment, she turned to stare at Sparx. Hard.
Sparx nodded back solemnly, while Lucy watched the interaction wondering what the hell had just happened.
Rue blew out a deep breath before making a face. “Well…poop.”
Lucy snorted before smiling so wide her cheeks ached. It wasn’t the pure acceptance she’d hoped for, but she was going to take every little bit she could wrangle from her stubborn bestie.
“Damnit.” Rue pouted for a moment before she straightened her shoulders. “Well. Okay then. You’re staying. That’s cool, right? Everything is going to be just fine. I will be fine.” Lucy wasn’t convinced by Rue’s obviously forced smile. But her friend continued. “I’m—I’m happy for you, Goose. I mean, if this is real and you’re happy, then I’m happy for you. Duh. I’ll always be happy for you. It’s part of the blood oath we agreed to when we were fifteen.”
She leaned forward and pulled Lucy into a tight hug. The pair squeezed into each other for a long moment.
“I completely forgot about that oath.” Lucy pulled back and giggled at the memory of what it entailed. “Didn’t we promise to only date brothers, so we’d eventually become sisters in real life too?”
Rue nodded. Her eyes welling up with tears.
Damn.
“C’mere,” Lucy grumbled, pulling her close again.
“Just ignore me. I’m pretty sure it’s PMS. I’m a hot mess,” Rue whispered with a sniff into her shoulder.
Lucy hugged her harder, fearing the changes she knew were going to come.
All of these years, it had been the two of them, an inseparable pair, through the ups, downs
, and all the in-betweens. Bad dates, bad jobs, broken hearts, and broken promises. They’d lived within a mile of each other as children, and as adults they’d become roommates. The pair had separate work lives—because they weren’t connected at the hip, after all—but that was about the only thing that was separate. And they liked it that way.
She’d never thought about what would happen if one of them found their mate and the other didn’t.
“I told you that real family sticks together, so that’s what is going to happen.” Lucy leaned back, breaking the hug to see Rue with tears in her eyes. She wasn’t about to leave her sister behind.
“What are you babbling about now?” Rue gave her a questioning smile as she blinked quickly, trying to dry the threatening wetness there.
“You have any brothers, Sparx?”
Rue let out a bark of laughter, the accompanying smile causing the tears to roll down her cheeks. “You’re crazy.” She swiped them away, shaking her head at Lucy.
“I’m not crazy. I’m a woman on a mission, and that mission will be making sure my sister from another mister follows up on her promise for us to grow old and bitchy together. We just have to find you a mate and ta-da, done. Easy-peasy.”
“You know she’s crazy, right?” Rue asked Sparx, who made no attempt at hiding his continued eavesdropping.
Lucy didn’t bother to defend herself, just happy that Rue was no longer trying to hustle her away from Sparx.
“Do you even comprehend what you’re getting yourself into?” her bestie teased her mate.
“I know exactly what I’m getting into.” Sparx’s smile was so big, Lucy felt her heart flutter.
Chapter Nineteen
“We’re really mated, huh?” Lucy’s voice drifted over to him as he sat quietly in the chair. The words carried weight as they filled the space between them.
He nodded, silently studying his gorgeous mate. He noted how her checks would occasionally bloom bright pink as she seemed to be considering the types of things they could do together to satisfy their growing hunger. Her eyes would occasionally grow wide at the unspoken temptations she seemed to be feeling.
Miners of Djaromir: Sparx Page 10