Honey Moon (27 page)

“Hell yes. I hate picking purple hair out of the shower. Instead of dragging some other long-haired freak here—this unnamed friend of yours—why don’t you go visit? Move in with him?”

Lav bristled. “You know Charlie’s secret code name’s Trouble. And his hair’s shorter than yours. He’s beautiful, so strong and going to karate chop your ass the moment he hears how mean you are to me.”

“Charlie?” Sam grinned. “As in Charles Ricker? I suspected but really find it hard to believe that the famous actor who stars in all those remakes of Bruce Lee movies actually likes
you
.”

Lav slapped his fingers over his mouth. “Oops. No, no. My man, named Trouble, isn’t some celebrity whom you’ll draw into your spiderweb—this online and offline, deadly battle with the peons of corrupt admirals lurking everywhere.”

Jenna hid her shudder. Yesterday numerous commenters on the blog said authorities had arrested a man, Gary Fenton whom she’d known intimately, who’d survived his honeymoon. He was charged with fraud, seeing as his twin brother, not him, was the applicant registered with the LC. Fenton cut a deal, claimed he could lead them to Thomas Madison, the agent who’d played the role of medic and done his best to see Lav dead. Yet another reason to keep Lav close, until Thomas joined Admiral Keltz behind bars.

“If the world learns,” Lav snapped at Sam, “Trouble is considering joining the notorious
Out of the Loop
asshat, he won’t seriously think about pretending to be on indefinite hiatus to Tibet or Timbuktu or anywhere. He’ll never give up the attention to hang with me in Nowhere Land until the world’s declared free of tyranny. And that’ll never happen, so yeah, I should go home where at least I can hold someone who loves me before I’m shot. Again. Then my man—who isn’t a selfish prick—would try to rescue me and eat a ton of bullets.” Lav wilted, giving them a glimpse of a woebegone expression before he turned aside.

Her brows arched and she looked to Sam. He rolled his eyes before he moved to fling his arm around Lav, whose gaze went wary with surprise.

“Maybe if you cut that damn hair, he’d be here already and stay as long as he wants,” Sam muttered.

Lav blinked and pulled back. “But…I told him not to uproot because you want me to cut the hair he loves and leave Jenna and you and never follow or see you again.”

“I never said that. And, you insecure phony, don’t you think he should like you for you? What type of jerk stays with someone because he…” Sam grasped a fistful of Lav’s hair, thrusting it aside. “Christ, stop me now. I don’t want to even imagine what you two do with all this hair.”

Lav leaned to smack a kiss on Sam’s forehead. “You want me around, the best uncle in the world?”

Uncle? Huh?

“Sure,” Sam mumbled, pushing Lav away and stepping back.

“You really do love me?”

“Whatever.” Sam raised his clenched fist. “Get the hell out of my bedroom before I show you how much.”

Lav’s eyes gleamed. He winked at Jenna. “See you in ten, dearie. Someday, your lazy man will let me show him how to last…” Lav gulped at the look on Sam’s face and ran. He made it to the threshold of the door before the closed switchblade Sam threw smacked him in the back. Not an idiot, Lav bent to pick up the knife and bolted.

Sam stomped after him and slammed the door closed. He turned, dark eyes smoldering, as he stared at her smiling at him. “You complained to him? Ten minutes? Seriously?”

Jenna laughed. “Of course not. I told him I can’t last five minutes and he changed it to you and ten. But you can prove me right, as always, at least twice before I get up. I don’t know why I slept so long.”
Oh God.
Maybe she did. She was never late—not ever.

Sam closed in. He flung himself down on the bed beside her. “You know I like teasing him, right? I don’t know how I survived before without you, the freak, Kurt and Lander in my life. I like it here. I want to put up that picket fence, a dog house for Lav and a nearby cabin for Kurt and Lander after he figures out how long he needs to grieve and they start doing more than occasionally brushing shoulders.”

Jenna smiled, her heart soaring. If only Sam was ready to accept one more person into their circle. “I still don’t know why Kurt and Lander went on a supply run when we’re not low on anything important. You hear from them?”

“Yeah. Should be back in a few hours.” Sam reached to rest his hand on her stomach. “And yes, they did go after some…”

The sound of rapidly approaching footsteps caused Sam to stiffen. He sat up.

Lav burst into the room without a call out or knocking.

“Damn it,” Sam snarled. “Man, you’re so asking for a beat—Lav? What the hell you’d do?”

Jenna sat up, clutching the sheet to her chest. Her jaw dropped.

Lav’s hair barely reached his shoulders, chopped off like he’d taken that switchblade to it. He stood facing them, tears springing into his eyes. “You gotta help me, Jenna. He…Charlie is… Sam, that note from Kurt in your messages is true? Charlie is on his way with him and Lander and they’ll be here…” Lav gasped. “This morning, not tonight?”

Sam lunged from the bed to stand with arms crossed. “You broke my codes? Read my mail?”

“Of course. I did the first week here. Jenna…my hair. I cut it before I read his”—Lav jerked his thumb at Sam—“mail. Thought I had all day. It makes sense if I remain hiding out with you I’m not so easily identified. I can’t—won’t—ever do anything to put you in jeopardy. Pleeease. Get your lazy pregnant ass out of bed and make me beautiful. It’s only fair you help…Jenna? Whaaat? You didn’t know we all know?”

Oh my God, I’m really pregnant?

“Get out,” roared Sam.

Lav remained rooted to the floor. He tugged at the ends of his hair. “Sam, what’ll I do? I look terrible, right?”

Sam sighed. “Leave my wife alone. I’ll help in…” he grinned, “ten. I heard a famous actor pulled out most of his hair shortly after the LC witch hunt on employees. Worried about some vain guy who could now surprise him by being nearly as bald as he is.”

I’m gonna have a baby?

Lav lit up, eyes twinkling like a nuclear bomb went off inside his head. “’K. That’s a good idea. But seeing as it’s
your
idea, I’ll stick to my plan of dyeing what’s left orange—or blue.” He twisted for the door, pivoting to blow them a kiss. “I love you both.”

“Jesus, kill me now,” Sam grumbled. He sat heavily on the edge of the bed and pushed back to his feet as Lav exited. “And he doesn’t even close the damn door.” He stomped, slammed the door closed, and paused. He crossed the room and grabbed a chair.

“I’m having…a…baby?”

Sam strode to wedge the chair beneath the doorknob and turned. His eyes shone so bright, a supernova had to have detonated. “No.”

“Oh.” Her chin fell, taking her heart with it. But surely that was for the best. Sam didn’t honestly want a kid, not living in hiding like this.

The bed dipped beside her and a strong finger forced her chin up. “You’re not having a baby.
We
are. You and me. Husband and wife.”

Her lungs froze. “Really? How do you know?”

Sam scowled. “I wanted to tell you. I wanted you to tell me.”

“But how?”

“Lavender Harding, the friend of yours I’m gonna kill, said your breasts looked swollen. I asked Lander to pick up one of those new bloodtest kits.” Sam had the decency to blush. “I didn’t want you to think I was behaving badly, worried about things, especially if that demented freak was staring at your breasts without reason and I blackened both his eyes. Even more important, why torture my needle-phobic girl? So I drew some blood after you’d fallen asleep. You’ll be glad to know you test healthy for diseases other than pregnancy.”

“You stuck a needle in me and I didn’t wake up? When?”

“Last week.” Sam stroked his fingers up her arm and tugged down the sheet. “The night you had me beneath you, then behind you.” Propped on his elbow, he drew little circles on her chest. “That’s the reason for this supply run.” Bursts of excitement fanned out through her as he inched his fingers up, widening then tightening his path to include her breast. “Prenatal vitamins, portable sonogram machine, backup battery for the Jeep and routes tested for the closest medical center are on the way.” He stared down at her, love and hope spreading across his face. “You’re happy? Want my baby?”

She smiled back with all her heart. “No.”

He narrowed his eyes, his hand on her breast gone still.

“I want
our
baby.”

He chuckled and lowered his palm to rest on her belly. “Right, beautiful mommy-to-be. Why don’t you sleep some more, while I go strangle the nuisance who woke you both up?”

“I don’t think so. I’ve no memory of this night last week,” she lied. “You have to show me how you made me pass out so thoroughly I didn’t feel the little prick of a needle
.” Just the big one of my awesome husband. My husband. How I love those two words.

Sam rolled to his feet. In less than a second, his clothes lay on the floor. She squealed as his powerful hands tore away the sheet, grabbed and lifted her. Sam threw himself on his back and pulled her down over him. “As you wish. But, sweetheart, how are you gonna know what I do after you faint from that much loving?”

She laughed as he clasped her butt, guiding her to crouch over his delicious, rising erection, her knees clamped against his hips. “Get real. You’re the one who’s gonna pass out this time.”

He reared up, arms wrapped around her and mouth homing in. He paused an inch away from her. “How about we stick together, awake and passed out, always and forever.”

“Sealed with a—”

His lips took hers and Jenna knew happiness, from head to toe.

Also available from Totally Bound Publishing:

Isolation

A.B. Gayle

Excerpt

Chapter One

Ethan groaned and rubbed his fingers across his temples, trying to reduce the throbbing inside.
What godforsaken hole am I in now
?

A quick scan of his room didn’t help. Bed, desk, chair, cupboard, small bathroom. He’d spent half his life sleeping in quarters like these.
Bog standard demountable army room, the same in every fuckin’ UN base on Earth.

He groaned again.

He wasn’t on Earth.

He wasn’t even on a planet that resembled Earth. Instead, he was stranded on a freakin’ space station. The familiar surroundings always confused him.

It was the Commandant’s fault. Before all the personnel were woken from their coma-like sleep, she had inspected the section that the Saa’ar had cleared out for their use. When she’d discovered how primitive and bare it was, she’d ordered Ethan and Tinker and his small team of engineers to temporarily transform the empty void with the flatpacks and wall linings that they’d brought for their new colony. She claimed it would prevent the personnel from becoming homesick while they waited for the Saa’ar to return. From what he could gather, the ship that had brought them from Earth was just a shuttle, but their big starship was more like an ore tanker and not equipped to take ‘beings of their size’ on the inter-stellar jump, so another vessel, more suited to their needs, was coming to get them. Or, at least, that’s how she explained it.

Personally, he’d have preferred leaving the dark alien walls with their patterns and symbols uncovered. That way he wouldn’t wake up every morning and wonder where the bloody hell he was, especially after having too much to drink the night before.

Ethan groaned and rubbed his head again. Boy, although it tasted vile that Skootch sure packed a punch. Carefully, he stretched all the kinks out of his body. Reality flooded through his brain like it did every time he awoke nowadays. These standard-sized beds used to cause him grief because his legs jutted out way past the end of them. Stepping on the land mine sure fixed that.
How fuckin’ ironic.

Ethan closed his eyes and idly stroked his morning woodie. Unfortunately, ever since the explosion, sex had become a distant memory. Pity, because given the chance, his cock still performed perfectly. He spat on his hand and resumed rubbing. It seemed like years since he’d been able to bury his shaft into some tight, wet pussy. Even an amateurish blow job would make a welcome break from Mrs Palm and her five daughters. He shouldn’t be griping, though. At least he still had his hands. Not being able to give himself relief would have been a fate worse than death. Though, come to think of it, maybe death would have been a better alternative. It was only when under the influence of the grog or at least lost in lustful fantasies that he managed to push the memories away.

His hand stilled for a moment as screams from the past intruded…his screams. In a way, the fact that his mates never knew the missile was coming was of some small consolation.

Taking a deep breath, he replaced that nightmarish vision with one of a room full of naked women, screaming with pleasure at the sight of him.
Ah, that’s better. Now which one should I pick?
The slim blonde beckoning him to join her on the satin covered bed? Judging by the pale curls covering her pussy, the colour didn’t come out of a bottle. Yep. Blondes were definitely more fun, but this one reminded him too much of his ex-wife
.
Fashionably thin. Tanned skin like leather. He preferred women with curves in all the right places.

Shoving that image out of his brain, Ethan replaced it with a wide-eyed brunette who was gazing up at him with adoring eyes as she sucked on his cock. He wet his hand again, trying to kid himself that the moisture was coming from her mouth. The girl gagged slightly as she tried to swallowed him all the way down, giving him an apologetic grin before going back to her task.
Nah, she’s too young.
He liked his women more mature. Ones that knew what they were doing.