Blake, Abby - Mikayla's Men [A Bride for Eight Brothers, Book 1] (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme Forever) (6 page)

“Sure,” he heard himself say, “my office is down the far end of this hall. But get some sleep first. I’ll be back with some food in a minute.”

* * * *

Mikayla watched John as he walked from the room. He seemed to be a really nice guy, as did Matt and Ty and Ryan. She’d seen another brother in the lab, but Matt had been busy teaching her what to expect from all of his brothers, so she hadn’t had a chance to meet Peter. At least she knew his name, but she’d noticed his absence when the fog of her climax had finally cleared from her mind. She worried what that meant but tried to put the disturbing thoughts aside.

Matt had told her about Brock and Lachlan’s penchant for BDSM as a way to pour fear into her and get her to leave, but the thought of being spanked had always given her a little thrill. Just imagining what two experienced Doms could do to her sent shivers rippling up and down her spine.

Ty and Ryan might enjoy sharing, but she felt instinctively that they wouldn’t do anything she didn’t want and would certainly never hurt her.

If truth be told, Matt was the one she was most worried about. He’d said he liked to be in control, but she’d basically taken that away from him by choosing to stay. He didn’t seem averse to sharing a woman with his brothers, but he did seem unwilling to share her.

Had she disappointed him with her choice?

She lay down on the bed, pondering all that had happened in such a short time. Less than five days ago, she’d believed herself to be in love with a man who had, for the most part, treated her well. She’d only seen glimpses of a terrible temper, but he’d always managed to pull it back under control quickly.

However, the fact that he dumped her on a planet where women were considered walking vaginas didn’t really mesh with the man’s previous attentions.

Why had they come here in the first place? Surely, Jet would’ve known something about the planet before landing. Or, at the very least, learned the truth when they’d booked into the one and only visitors’ hotel. She closed her eyes and tried not to remember how trusting and foolish she had been. God, she hoped she wasn’t repeating her mistakes.

She woke several hours later, surprised that she’d fallen asleep so quickly but feeling far more refreshed and relaxed than she had in a long time. A covered plate of sandwiches sat beside the bed, and she grabbed them and ate ravenously. She’d never truly appreciated a full belly until she’d had to survive with an empty stomach for so long. Food was not something she would ever take for granted again.

The sandwiches finished and her other needs taken care of, Mikayla wandered around the room for all of five minutes before going to the door and peering into the corridor. She looked up and down the long hallway, wondering which end John had meant. With a mental shrug, she turned left, figuring that if she was wrong she would just have to double back.

She knocked on the last door, and when a deep voice called, “Come in,” she twisted the handle and went inside.

“Mikayla.” Peter looked more startled than she felt. He recovered quickly to ask, “Is everything all right? Did you need something?”

“No.” Mikayla moved into the room a few more steps. She hadn’t planned on talking to him so soon but figured she may as well get the awkward questions out of the way while she had the opportunity. “I was just wondering why you left the lab earlier.”

He looked embarrassed for a moment but shook his head and replied, “My leaving had nothing to do with you.”

“So,” she asked, trying to get answers without offending him, “you don’t mind if I stay?”

“Not at all.” He gave her a slight smile.

“But?” she asked sensing there was more to his answer.

“But I won’t require your personal services despite what Matt may have told you.”

“Oh.” She had no idea what to say after such a succinct rejection. “I’ll…uhm…just…uhm”—
Where the fuck is the exit?
—”get out of your way. Sorry t–to interrupt.”

Finally, she managed to turn toward the door and make her escape. Hopefully before Peter saw the tears clouding her eyes.

Chapter Six

Peter watched Mikayla run from his office and felt lower than a slug. She didn’t deserve his hostility. She wasn’t the woman he was angry with, but trying to explain his reasons for wanting to avoid her seemed an awful lot to share with a virtual stranger. Especially when he hadn’t actually told any of his brothers the full story, either.

He tried to return his attention to the geological survey analysis reports but couldn’t seem to get his brain to focus. Somehow, he found himself staring at the doorway through which Mikayla had fled. He really should find her and apologize.

But he sat there instead and replayed everything that had happened with his fiancée fifteen months ago. His fiancée had been nothing like Mikayla, so he could only assume it was the presence of a woman—any woman, not Mikayla—that made the memories shaper, more painful. But still, it had nothing to do with Mikayla. His fiancée’s choices had been her own.

He really needed to apologize.

* * * *

John was on his feet the moment she ran through his door.

“Problem, princess?” he asked as he pulled her into his embrace.

She wrapped her arms around his waist and held on tight. Mikayla shivered in his arms for a moment and then seemed to relax slightly.

“Not anymore,” she said as she sighed and leaned against him.

He wanted to ask what had happened, but it felt so nice just to hold her that he set the questions aside. After a short while, he moved back into his chair and pulled her onto his lap. She was quiet so long he wondered if she’d gone to sleep until she finally lifted her head and looked around his workspace.

“Nice office. What do you do?”

“I handle the finances and contracts mostly. Occasionally, I help Ryan and Ty in their lab, but for the most part, I do the administration work. Basically, I’m the guy who gets to pay the bills.”

“Oh,” she said, seeming more interested than he would’ve expected. “I’ve always loved numbers, mathematics, bookkeeping, accounting…” She trailed off when she noticed the smile on his face. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing.” He tried to control the silly grin he could feel on his face. “I’ve just never met a woman interested in what I do. Most people think it’s pretty boring.”

“Really?” She seemed surprised by his words. “I know…well, I
knew
quite a few female accountants and bookkeepers back on Earth, but I suppose that would seem strange to a man who lives on a planet like this one.”

“Actually,” he said grinning broadly, “my brothers and I are only here on contract—a three-year geological survey mission and environmental impact study. Once we’re finished here, we’ll pack up and move on to the next planet.”

“So where were you born? Where did you grow up?”

He laughed at her enthusiasm, happy to indulge her curiosity. “We actually grew up on Earth. Our parents still live in a small town in Nevada, where polyamorous relationships are the norm.”

“Polyam…?”

“Polyamorous. It means multiple partners living in a committed relationship.” He decided she looked really cute when she was confused, but tried to explain more fully. “In our family, we have two mothers and three fathers.”

“So your brothers?”

“We know which mother gave birth to each of us, of course, but our dads are brothers, so no one knows for certain whose father is whose.”

“So sharing me with your brothers…?”

“Wouldn’t bother me at all.”

She smiled and bit her bottom lip, and he felt he understood the direction of her thoughts.

She hesitated before asking another question. “Would it bother the others?”

He had a pretty good idea she was referring to Matt—maybe Peter also, but mostly Matt. “Ryan and Ty always share, and Brock and
Lachlan
are both Doms, so sharing a woman is fairly standard for them. As for Peter, none of us are sure of the details, but he was engaged to a woman on Earth for a while, but something happened, and he’s been avoiding any sort of emotional entanglement since. Maybe that’s something you can help him to overcome.” He said the words before he realized the truth of them. Sharing a woman as sweet as Mikayla might just be what Peter needed to heal from the hurt of the past.

“I’m not so sure about that,” she mumbled against his chest, and he gently lifted her chin with his hand so he could see her face.

“Did he do something?” John asked, a little surprised at the anger that surged through him.

“No,” Mikayla replied, shaking her head vigorously. “No, he just said that he won’t be…ah…requiring my services.”

John smiled and pulled her closer once more. “Peter may think that’s what he wants.” He shrugged, trying to convince himself to stay out of Peter’s problems, yet added, “But a few months with you around, well, I’m fairly certain you can change his mind.”

She nodded against his chest and was silent for a while. Eventually, she whispered the last question he expected. “Does it bother you that I’m a whore?”

He moved her off his lap, stood her in front of him, and gathered her hands in his own. “Mikayla, Matt may have paid a lot of money to break the contract with your pimp, but no one here thinks of you as a whore—Matt especially. We all know the circumstances that brought you to this planet. You’re a victim, not a paid whore.”

“But,” she said nervously, “I chose to stay here as a whore rather than return to Earth.”

He chuckled but quieted quickly when he saw her sad expression. “Princess, none of my brothers will ever make you do anything you don’t want to do—not even Brock and
Lachlan
. As Doms, they might push your boundaries or ask you to try something you’d never considered before, but they would never hurt you. None of my brothers would,” he repeated, wanting to be certain that she understood. “What did you do back on Earth?”

She looked surprised by the change of subject but answered quietly. “I worked as an administrative assistant.”

He felt himself smiling at her soft words. “Well, then,” he said, quickly sifting the details through his brain, “it would seem that we’ve found an answer to our problem. All of us have paperwork and record keeping that needs to be done. You can work as an admin assistant and filing clerk while you’re here. God knows Matt could use some help with his paperwork. The man has handwriting that looks like chicken scratch.”

She giggled as he hoped she would.

“So, princess, now that you are officially an employee and not a paid whore, what would you like to do first?”

She spent the rest of the afternoon reorganizing his filing cabinets and setting up a more efficient system. Now if he could just get his libido under control. He sighed and adjusted his cock surreptitiously under his desk. Why the hell did he desire her more now that she wasn’t here for sex? He shook his head sharply and tried to concentrate on the report in front of him.

“John, can I ask you something?”

“Shoot,” he said, trying to sound more relaxed than he felt.

“Was it true? All that stuff Matt said earlier?”

The reminder of her sprawled over the counter in Ty and Ryan’s lab while Matt finger-fucked her to an amazing orgasm was an image burned into his brain forever. He tried hard to remember what Matt had said.

“The stuff about our…er…preferences?”

She nodded, and he found himself nodding back even though thinking of her in that manner was something he really needed to avoid.

“Oh,” she said in a noncommittal tone.

He wanted to ask more but at the same time drop the entire subject. Thinking of her on her knees as his cock slid deeper and deeper into her mouth was not helping the rigid hard-on that he was trying to control.

“If I’m hired as an administrative assistant, does it still make me a whore for wanting to experience the things Matt described?”

“Absolutely not,” John answered quickly. He and his brothers regularly attended the clubs in town to scratch their itches, so condemning her for the same type of urges would be more than a little hypocritical.

“Maybe we can explore that idea one day?”

“Come here, princess.” He stood and held his arms open, and she moved into his embrace without hesitation.

He bent to capture her lips, just the lightest feathery touch, but she responded so sweetly that he dipped his head lower and claimed her mouth harder. Her tongue danced against his, her soft sigh sending all of his blood rushing south.