Rescuing Rory (11 page)

“Why flowers.” Kal circled her wrist with his hand, covering the thorny vines from view.

“Because I always wanted a garden and knew I’d never have one.” She’d always been fascinated by the plant life on every planet they’d visited. She’d designed the tattoo herself, using pictures of her favorite flowers from around the galaxies. “My father wanted the thorns added to remind me that no garden is safe, no matter how beautiful.” Her father had, unfortunately, been right. Adam Brecker had been the thorny vine that had destroyed the life she’d had with her father.

Kal released her wrist and lifted her until she was straddling his lap facing him. The blanket dropped away and this time she left it where it fell. There was nothing between them but air.

“Life is fragile,” he began.

Rory knew firsthand just how fragile it could be. So did Kal. Everything could change in a split second. Her life certainly had, and so had his. What would he be doing right now if his sister hadn’t been kidnapped? Would he be working in a mine, spending half of his days far below the surface, buried in the bowels of the earth?

“I want you in my life,” he continued.

Not exactly a proclamation of love, but maybe it was for a man like Kal. Tough and hard and surrounded by men just like him, Rory couldn’t imagine the group of them sitting around talking about their feelings.

“For how long?” The question had to be asked.

“Hell, Rory, I can’t foresee a time when I won’t want you.” He ran his hands over her shoulders and down her arms. She was very aware of being naked in his lap. His cock was swollen and brushed against her stomach but he never took his eyes off her face. “Stay with me. Give us a chance.”

A chance. Isn’t that what she wanted out of life? Isn’t that why she’d originally wanted to go to Albion 5—a chance at something new, something better?

“And if it doesn’t work out?” Maybe she was being a pessimist but she preferred to think of herself as a realist. Sometimes things just didn’t work out.

The corners of Kal’s mouth turned upward as he sensed her surrender. The man could read her like an open book. It wasn’t fair. She had a tougher time reading him but there was no mistaking his growing sense of satisfaction. It was written all over his rugged face.

He eased her closer until their foreheads were touching. “I can’t see it not working. But if it doesn’t, I’ll take you to Albion 5.” He pulled back enough to brush a kiss over her lips. “Deal.”

Rory hesitated the briefest second, wondering if she was making the best decision of her life or the biggest mistake. Only time would tell. All she knew for sure was that this big rough mercenary who’d saved her from sexual slavery had stolen her heart. Impossible as it might be, she’d already fallen in love with him.

“Deal.”

Kal laughed and hugged her, banding his massive arms around her. Rory couldn’t remember ever feeling so safe in all her life. That was a gift she’d never take for granted.

“What will your brothers say?” She pushed back, wanting to see his face.

“Nothing if they know what’s good for them,” he shot back.

“Kal.” The last thing she wanted was to cause discord between them.

He cupped her breasts in his palms and thumbed her nipples. “Don’t you worry about them.”

“Someone has to.” She gasped and squirmed on his lap. This was no time to think about sex. This discussion was important to both of them. But damned if she could ignore the heat streaking through her. His touch was like setting a spark near gasoline. An explosion of sexual need being the result.

He paused in his sensual pursuits. “Are you really a good mechanic?”

Rory snorted and forced herself to concentrate, which wasn’t easy with his hands on her. In that area of her life she was supremely confident. “If it’s mechanical, I can fix it.”

A slow smile crossed Kal’s face. “Amos and Garth will both love you. Amos because he could use the help and Garth because he won’t have to help Amos anymore.”

Her heart skipped a beat when he said the “L” word even though he wasn’t referring to her.

“What about Flynn?” She was under no misconceptions that he’d be happy about her staying on a permanent basis. As the oldest and the captain, his say would hold the most weight.

“He’ll get used to you.” Kal lightly pinched her nipples, drawing a moan from her.

“Kal, this is serious.” She wanted to finish this conversation but couldn’t really think with his hands teasing her breasts.

“No, that’s minor details. This is serious.” He gave both mounds a squeeze. “All Flynn wants is to find Abigail and for all of us to be safe and happy. Once he realizes you make me happy, he’ll accept you.”

“Do I make you happy?” she asked him.

He stilled and his eyes grew darker and more serious. “Yeah, you do. I didn’t even realize there was anything missing in my life until I met you.” He slid his hands down her torso and around to her hips. Then he lifted her up until the head of his cock brushed against her opening.

She bit her bottom lip to keep from moaning out loud. Her pussy was throbbing with need, yet again. For a woman who’d managed to avoid sexual entanglements for most of her life, she was quickly becoming addicted to Kal.

He eased her down on his shaft, one slow inch at a time. Rory gripped his shoulders and felt the anger and sadness inside her dissipate. The past was just that. It was gone. She could either wallow in it or embrace the here and now. Who knew what the future held?

Kal’s scar seemed whiter and his hands tightened around her waist. When she was finally sitting on his lap they both breathed a sigh of relief. He filled her, driving out all the bad things in her past, giving her something new and beautiful to focus on.

“We’ll fight,” she pointed out. No way they wouldn’t. The last weeks of her life aside, she was used to being independent and answering only to her father, the captain of the ship where she’d lived and worked.

Kal lifted her several inches off his cock and then plunged her back down again. “Inevitable.” He lifted her again and again. “But as long as all our fights end with us making up like this, I don’t care.” He grunted when she took over and began to undulate at her own pace. “In fact, I might look forward to them.”

Rory laughed. She couldn’t help herself. “I can be just as stubborn as you,” she pointed out.

Kal tucked her against his big body and rolled, taking her under him. “But I’m stronger.”

There was no denying that. “So might means right?”

He lifted both her legs until her knees were pressed against her chest. His cock throbbed inside her and her pussy clutched at him. She couldn’t get him deep enough to suit her. “I’ll make sure you’re always happy with the end results,” he told her. Then he began to fuck her.

Nothing gentle. Only hard, fast thrusts. “Mine.” He pounded into her again and again. Rory clung to his shoulders, digging her nails into him. He retaliated by fucking her harder.

A thin sheen of sweat coated her skin. The slapping sound of their flesh meeting time and time again ratcheted up the sexual tension. She had to come. Now.

“Kal.
” She cried his name. He swore, reached between her legs and brushed her clit with his finger. Rory’s lower body spasmed, squeezing his cock as she flew apart.

Kal knew he couldn’t last much longer but he tried to hold out as Rory orgasmed around his shaft. She milked his dick hard and he lost it. He roared her name as he came. His balls tightened and his released rocketed through him.

He kept fucking her, unable to stop. She was his. She’d agreed to stay with him. He collapsed and barely kept from smothering her beneath his much larger body. Rory wrapped her legs around him as if she didn’t want to let him go any more than he wanted to be released.

It might be crazy but Rory made him happy. And he hadn’t felt anything remotely near that emotion for more than a decade. Even before Abigail had been kidnapped his family had been through hard times.

He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer. Rory made him vulnerable but he didn’t care. He’d only been half living for years.

“You okay?” he managed to ask after several long minutes.

She waved her hand limply. “I may never walk again but otherwise I’m fine.”

Kal laughed and swatted her playfully on the butt. “I need to get back to work and so do you.”

“Yeah. Yeah. Get what you want and then put me back to work.” He could tell by the tone of her voice she was teasing but he never wanted her to doubt she was important to him.

He rose on his hands and drove his semi-erect cock back into her. He was getting harder by the second. He’d always had a healthy sex drive but had no idea he could recover this quickly. Rory obviously inspired him.

Her eyes widened. “Again.”

He drove into her several more times. “I never want you to think I’m only using you for sex. Yes, the sex is great.” He closed his eyes as she intentionally tightened her pussy around his shaft. “But it’s more than that.” He felt awkward even trying to talk about his feelings.

Rory let him off the hook. “I know,” she told him. “It’s the same for me.”

He groaned and kissed her, wanting to inhale her essence into his body.
Mine
. The word vibrated in his head and it felt right. He forgot about his brothers, about getting back to work. All that mattered was Rory and the way she completed him.

* * * * *

Kal strode into the control room, barely able to keep the smile off his face. He felt refreshed after sleeping for seven hours straight and eating a hearty breakfast. That and the sex with Rory had left him feeling invigorated.

Rory was in the cleansing unit when he’d left and planned to get back to work on the list she was making. She’d finally kicked him out of his own quarters, their quarters now, he supposed, and he found himself grinning at how much he liked that idea.

He was worried she would be sore after their lovemaking. And while she told him she wasn’t, he wasn’t taking any chances. No sex for him today. That meant he needed to work. He also needed to tell his brothers about the change in Rory’s status aboard ship.

Flynn pinned him with a searching gaze the moment Kal walked in. “Finally decided to show up to work.”

Behind Flynn’s back, Garth gave him a thumbs-up.

“Rory is back to work on the list. And she’s settling into my quarters. Permanently.” Better to get everything out in the open.

“I knew it.” Flynn gripped the arms of his chair so tight Kal was surprised the darn thing didn’t crack. Then the arm being gripped by his robotic hand splintered. Flynn swore and jumped to his feet. “I don’t want a woman on board.”

“Why not?” Kal asked. His other brothers avidly watched the two of them. He wanted to gain their support. “Rory is a great mechanic.”

“You only have her word for that,” Flynn pointed out.

“Why would she lie? It’s easy enough to check.” Kal made his way over to his oldest brother, the one who’d held their family together through thick and thin. Kal didn’t remember his father very well. Whenever he’d needed anything as a child it was always Flynn he went to. Flynn had often been mother, father and brother to all of them.

Kal placed his hand on his chest, feeling his heart thumping beneath his palm. “She makes the ache go away.” It was as simple and complicated as that.

Flynn swore and dragged his real hand over his short hair. “Damn it, Kal.” He took a deep breath and slowly released it. “The first time she causes trouble she’s gone.”

Kal’s shoulders relaxed and the weight he’d felt on them slid away. “She won’t cause any problems.”

Flynn snorted. “Dream on. Women are always trouble.”

Kal turned to Amos and Garth. “What do you have to say about it?” He’d gotten Flynn’s grudging approval but they made all major decisions together. And adding a woman to the crew was certainly a big change.

Garth grinned. “If she makes you happy, which she obviously does, I don’t mind her being on board. She certainly brightens up the dull atmosphere around here.” His brother held his hands up in mock surrender when Kal frowned at him. “I promise I won’t give her too hard a time.”

That was the best Kal could hope for. He looked at Amos. “Well?”

Amos shrugged and then leaned back in his chair. “You say she’s a good mechanic?”

Kal nodded. “Learned on her father’s ship.”

“Good enough. I’d like to take her to the engine room and try her out later.”

Kal tensed at Amos’ choice of words. “I’ll go with you.”

“See, it’s started already.” Flynn glared at him. “If you can’t trust your brothers with her or her with them then she has to go.”

He knew Flynn was right but that didn’t make it any easier. “Okay,” Kal conceded, knowing Rory would have to be alone with his brothers eventually. He decided he’d simply monitor their communications through the security feed.

“I don’t want her having unlimited access to the ship. Not until I’m sure of her,” Flynn continued. “She can be coded into your quarters and the galley but that’s it. If she goes anywhere else on board she has to have one of us with her.”

“Fair enough.” And it was more than Kal had hoped for.

“Might as well know what we’re getting ourselves into.” Flynn motioned to Amos. “Take her down to the engine room and run her through her paces. See if she knows what she’s doing.”

“Sure thing.” Amos pushed out of his seat and headed toward the door.

“In the meantime,” Flynn continued, “you need to get back to work finding out where this Jasper Freeman calls home. We need to focus on our search for Abigail.”

“I’m on it.” As much as Kal wanted to go with Amos, he knew he had to accept that his brothers were going to be alone with her. He trusted his brothers and, even though he’d only known her a short time, he trusted Rory. She had to find her own place on board the ship if she was ever going to be truly accepted.

He caught Amos’ eye and his brother gave him a slight nod. Kal didn’t exactly relax but he did feel better. He immediately went to the communications station and began his search for Jasper. He pulled on his headset and opened up the hall monitors so he could follow his brother as Amos made his way to Kal’s quarters.