Bightmares Read online

  He was also their resident motormouth.

  She glared at him while taking another sip of tea. “You’re a smart-ass, Ford.”

  “You should know. You’ve examined it.”

  She rolled her eyes as Caph laughed. Even Aaron smiled. “That’s enough, Ford,” Aaron said. “Don’t bust her balls too much on her first lift. If I remember correctly, you spent a lot of time hugging the head on our very first trip off this rock.”

  Ford snorted. “Don’t remind me.”

  Aaron gently guided her to her console seat. “Sit here for a minute while you finish that. It’ll help. It’s a natural anti-nausea remedy.”

  Her stomach did feel marginally better. “Why didn’t you guys warn me about this?”

  Caph shrugged his massive shoulders. “Sorry, babe. Didn’t think about it. We’ve been doing this for twenty years, remember? It’s old hat to us. I haven’t felt space sick in a long time.”

  Ford turned from his console. “After you finish that tea, I’ll go put you to bed.”

  “Sorry, no offense, but I don’t think I’m in the mood.” Her stomach took another dangerous lurch, barely righting itself in time. “In fact, I know I’m not.”

  Ford rolled his eyes and smiled. “Honey, I didn’t say I would take you to bed, did I? I said put you to bed. I’ve got an awesome chicken soup recipe that will help keep your tummy settled.”

  The very thought of eating nearly made her puke again. “I’m not sure I can tolerate that right now.”

  “You can’t keep dry heaving. You have to put something in there to come back up. Dry heaves are the worst. Trust me on this one.”

  Aaron settled into his command seat. “It’s okay, Em. We’ll let you know before we get to the orbital hub so you can see it.”

  Even Caph nodded. “It’s okay, babe. Go rest and settle your stomach.”

  All three sets of eyes were trained on her. She felt their overwhelming concern for her comfort, another benefit of her empath training. “All right. As long as you promise to come get me. I feel bad I’m wimping out on you.”

  Ford stood and stretched, tightening his shirt along his abs and setting off a flurry of activity in her lower belly that had nothing to do with her stomach. Damn, he was a good-looking man. All of them could dampen her panties with just a sultry stare or a playful wink.

  “You’re not wimping out on us, babe,” Ford said. “This is your first lift, your very first trip off this or any other rock. It’s natural you don’t feel good. I don’t care how long it felt like in the sim, some things can’t be duplicated.”

  She finished her tea and let Ford walk her back to their shared crew quarters. He helped her settle in bed and gently took her left wrist in his hand.

  “Let me try something.” His long fingers gently pinched a pressure point below her wrist, between the two large tendons. After a few minutes, Emi felt her stomach marginally settle.

  “How’s that?” he asked.

  “That’s helping.”

  He nodded as he reached for her other wrist and did the same thing. Another five minutes later, the worst of her nausea abated. “Better?” he asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “It won’t last. You can do it yourself.” He smiled, his eyes twinkling. “It’s always more fun to have help, though. Kind of like sex.” He leaned in and kissed her. “I’ll go make you some soup.”

  Of the three men, Ford naturally assumed the role of sensitive caretaker. He’d taken the lead in nursing Aaron back to health years ago when he almost died from his injuries. Whether it was easing Aaron through the stressful times, making Caph laugh, or having an almost psychic emotional connection of his own with Emi despite his lack of empath skills, he made sure they were all taken care of.

  Emi closed her eyes and tried to relax as her stomach rolled. The nausea returned with a vengeance. When Ford returned, he found her bent over the toilet in their cabin head.

  He sighed. “Oh, sweetie.” He knelt beside her and held her hair. When she finished retching, he helped her to her shaky feet and kept a steadying arm around her while she rinsed and spit. Then back to bed, where he settled in with her and repeated the acupressure on her wrists. Once her stomach settled again, he helped her sit up and held her left wrist while she ate with her right hand.

  The soup did help. “My own special recipe,” he proudly said. “Including fresh ginger.”

  Aaron came to check on her an hour later. “How’s our patient?”

  Ford was sitting up in their jumbo-sized shared bed, with Emi propped against his chest. He applied pressure to her wrists, trying to keep her stomach settled. “She’ll live.”

  “Can I have more of that soup?”

  Ford kissed her temple. “Of course you can. Maybe Cap’ll heat it up for you so I don’t have to get up and leave you. I left the container in the fridge.”

  “I’ll go get it,” Aaron said.

  “Thanks, guys.”

  Aaron smiled and stroked her cheek. “Hey, you always take damn good care of us. It’s time we return the favor.”

  Emi let Ford’s fingers work their stomach-calming magic. She couldn’t believe how different her life was now from less than a year ago. Following her graduation from medical school at the top of her class as an Alpha-ranked healer, class two empath, and with a psychology degree to boot, she’d applied to the DSMC on a lark. Alone in the world, with her parents dead and no home to go to, it seemed like a feasible plan.

  The five-year commitment and her medical degrees would net her a huge return bonus. She hadn’t counted on falling in love with the three-man crew of the Tamora Bight. The men had been shipmates, crew, friends, and lovers for nearly twenty years. They had bonded crew status as a result of a tragic betrayal years earlier, which had resulted in the death of the woman they’d loved. They’d transferred to the DSMC from the Merchant Marines and suffered through an ego-crushing crew pairing process to find a fourth crew member, a female medical officer who would accept their situation.

  That’s when they met Emi. Not only did Emi appreciate the deep, loving bond the men had, she desperately wanted to be a part of it. To have a family again. By the end of the sim session, Emi had fallen as deeply in love with the men as they had with her. The men didn’t just make her part of their bonded crew status—they legally married her before leaving Earth.

  Now their journey to space had started for real.

  Aaron returned with her soup and a mug of ginger tea a few minutes later. “Here you go, sweetheart.”

  She gratefully sipped at the soup, feeling her stomach marginally calm. “If this is the worst I have to suffer during our time together, I’ll gladly take it.”

  Ford laughed. “Let’s hope so, babe.”

  * * * *

  Six hours later, they neared the orbital hub. Emi’s stomach, while still iffy, had decided not to do a return to sender on the soup. She sat curled in Aaron’s lap in the command chair on the bridge. As he continued the acupressure on her wrists, she watched the orbital hub grow in size in their front vid screens. While nausea tempered her awe, she still couldn’t believe she had made it to space. Their stint in the sim hadn’t taken away from her childlike wonder of seeing a blanket of stars in a crystal black sky for the first time.

  I wonder what Mars will feel like this time around? “At least this is like the sim,” she observed.

  He chuckled. “We’ll be here for at least a month, probably longer. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us before we get underway since we’ve had drastic refits and modifications. Trust me, you’ll get bored before you know it. You can only eat at Charlie Tacos so many times before you long for the taste of freeze-dried rations. We need to do a lot of bench testing on the new systems in zero-G. Plus they’re bringing us the rest of our supplies, as well as a cargo shipment we have to transport to Mars.”

  She watched as the pilot tug flew out to greet them and guide them into their hub berth. An hour later, they were docked with their utility u
mbilicals and gangways safely secured.

  Her stomach rumbled in an unfriendly way.

  Ford turned from his place at the nav console. “Need more soup?”

  “Please.” He left to go take care of it.

  Aaron kissed her before helping her climb out of his lap. “I think you need to go back to bed. We’ve got stuff to take care of now that we’re here.”

  “I don’t want to miss anything!”

  “You won’t miss anything other than routine maintenance checks, trust me. Eat more soup and get some sleep. We’ll join you in a while, once we take care of stuff.”

  She left Caph and Aaron on the bridge and walked to the galley, where Ford was already putting the final touches on her soup.

  “Want to eat it here or in bed?” he asked.

  “Here.”

  He sat across the table and watched her with a tantalizing smile on his face. His expression annoyed her only because she felt like crap. Normally that look would have her crawling into his lap and trying to molest him. “What?”

  He shook his head, a playful gleam in his eyes. “I can’t wait until you’re feeling better.”

  “Why?”

  The full-on grin finally took over his features. “We’re back in space! We’ve been on that damn rock for, what, over a year. Not that Earth’s bad or anything. It’s just not space.”

  She didn’t need her empath skills to sense more. “You’re horny.”

  “Well, duh, sugar.”

  She rolled her eyes as she finished the last of the soup. “I’m sorry, but until my stomach catches up with your enthusiasm, you boys are going to have to play without me. My spirit’s willing. Unfortunately, my body’s liable to yak all over you.”

  “Aw, sugar, I didn’t mean it like that. Don’t be mad.”

  Emi sighed. “I’m not upset. Well, my stomach is, but I’m not.” Truth be told, she wished she was in a mood to play with her men. “Come on, you can put me back to bed. Use your magic fingers on me.”

  One of Ford’s eyebrows arched in a deliciously seductive and inquisitive way.

  “On my wrists,” she clarified.

  Chapter Three

  It took Emi’s stomach three days to marginally settle so she could wean herself off a diet of Ford’s soup and ginger tea. Nearly a week after their arrival at the orbital hub, Emi felt better, nearly normal, although sometimes dizzying waves of vertigo threatened to send her running for a head.

  She kept a conscious eye on the locations of available trash receptacles whenever she left the close proximity of a head.

  The men took her out to dinner at Charlie Tacos, where she braved a real meal. Later, they gave her a tour of the orbital hub before returning to the Tamora Bight. Truth be told, for her first week in space she found it…

  Pretty boring.

  They didn’t need a night watch while docked at the hub, but Ford and Caph had maintenance chores they wanted to take care of while the ship lay on the dark side of the Earth, more systems checks to complete.

  In their large, shared crew cabin, Emi cuddled with Aaron on their enormous bed. More like a gigantic pallet on the floor, there was plenty of room for them all to stretch out and sleep, or play.

  “Did you guys plan it this way?” she mumbled against his shoulder. The faintest rumblings of her libido had returned as her condition improved. “So you wouldn’t have to share me with the twins?” That was their nickname for Caph and Ford, so dubbed by Aaron years earlier due to the men’s habit of “twinspeak”—frequently saying the same thing at the same time.

  “No, but you won’t hear me complaining.” He stroked his fingers up and down her spine with a featherlight touch. “What kind of mood are you in?”

  “I’m in a ‘glad it’s just you tonight because I’m exhausted’ mood.”

  He slanted his mouth over hers, gently kissing her. His warm and tender kiss stirred more than a little interest deep inside her. “Then let’s roll over and go to sleep.”

  “I’m not that exhausted.” She wiggled a hand between them where she wrapped her fingers around his cock, which immediately responded and grew hard in her palm. “Besides, you guys haven’t played much lately.” The men had absolutely no problems making love to each other when she wasn’t in the mood. They hadn’t even done that since they’d reached the hub, unusual for her normally horny husbands.

  “We’ve been busy. Now that we’re in space, it’s not like we have the luxury of a quickie whenever we want.” He kissed her again, his tongue gently sweeping across hers as he rocked his hips against her hand. He rolled her onto her back and slowly kissed his way down her tummy, between her thighs. He needed no encouragement from her to lower his head to the juncture between her legs, where his tongue slowly traced every contour of her sex. His hair brushed against her thighs, soft and seductive. He urged her to drape her legs over his broad shoulders.

  Emi tangled her fingers in his hair. Eyes closed, her heart raced as he skillfully brought her closer to release. Before she met Aaron, Caph, and Ford, she’d only been with two other men.

  Those two other men were no comparison. While each of her three husbands had a distinct style, they all shared the ability to blow her mind and unhinge her control in an indescribable way.

  As Aaron’s lips and tongue playfully tormented her clit, he slipped two fingers inside her entrance and slowly stroked. Her muscles, already slick with her juices, clamped down on him, trying to keep him there.

  She felt her nerves tightening, straining, struggling for release. Now wound into her passion, she missed her other two men, wished they were there to add the exquisite pleasure of their hot mouths on her breasts, gentle grazing of their teeth against her nipples…

  That thought pushed her over the edge. Control shattered as she bucked her hips, trying to press her mound firmly into the delicious, hot pressure from his lips and tongue. She cried Aaron’s name as he drew out her climax, pulling her release from her like an over-wound wire that finally snapped from too much pressure.

  When he sensed she’d had enough, he rose up and grabbed her hips, the weight of his body pressing her thighs onto her chest. She felt her muscles quiver again as his hard cock slid deep inside her without the slightest hesitation, parting her and hitting nerve endings within her in an incredibly erotic way.

  His brown eyes smoldered, dark and smoky. “I love the way you sound like that, babe.” He took long, slow, teasing strokes, her body still trembling from the aftershocks.

  She pulled his head down and kissed him, plunging her tongue into him. He wouldn’t let her rush him even when she wrapped her legs around him and tried to rock him into a faster rhythm.

  He lifted his head, his deep voice soft and sultry. “Oh, no you don’t. I’m taking my time. I don’t mind sharing you with the twins, but I’m going to enjoy every second of this. You’re all mine for now.”

  His shaft slid along her throbbing clit, not enough to push her over a second time, but more than enough to make her beg. “Harder!”

  He grinned as he nuzzled her neck, gently nipping the tender skin at the base of her throat. “No.”

  She whined, moaned, pleaded, but he held fast and firm, torturously slow, enjoying her body.

  Then he switched to short, shallow strokes, the engorged head of his shaft teasing her as he rocked his hips away from her despite her desperate efforts to draw him deeper.

  After a few minutes, he stopped altogether. He sat up and held her hips still. “Tell me what you want, baby.”

  “Fuck me!”

  “You want to come again?”

  She eagerly nodded.

  A wicked smile painted his face. He used his thumb to caress her clit, not enough to get her over again, just to tease. “I don’t think you want it badly enough.”

  “Please!”

  He pulled her up into a sitting position and withdrew his cock, kissing her before rolling her over onto her hands and knees. As he plunged deep inside her again, he reached aroun
d and found her clit. “Show me how badly you want it, baby.” He feathered his lips down her spine as she fucked herself on his cock, doing all the work as he teased her closer to release.

  Just when she wasn’t sure if she’d ever make it, the dam burst, and she cried out as her muscles clamped down around his thick shaft.

  “That’s my girl.” He grabbed her hips and fucked her, hard and fast, quickly coming with her before they both collapsed to the bed. Spent, panting, and sweaty, he tightly wrapped his arms around her.

  He pressed a kiss to the side of her neck. “Good?” Too wiped out to speak, she nodded, earning another pleased chuckle from him. “Go to sleep, sweetheart. You need to rest. Love you.” He pulled the sheet over them.

  “Love you,” she managed to whisper before she crashed into sleep.

  * * * *

  Emi rolled over to snuggle closer to Aaron and found him gone. That’s when she heard the men’s low voices in the corridor. She glanced at the clock and realized she didn’t have to get up yet, but Aaron had an early meeting at the dockmaster’s office about their cargo. She closed her eyes and nearly went back to sleep when she heard the door open, followed by the sound of clothing hitting the floor. A moment later, she felt the bed move as Ford and Caph climbed in with her.

  “She’s still asleep,” Ford softly said. “Don’t wake her up.”

  She heard the rustle of bedsheets, and then Ford let out a soft, familiar moan that brought a smile to Emi’s face. She cracked open an eye and watched. Ford lay on his stomach, eyes closed, his head resting on his arms. Caph straddled him and slowly rubbed his back, sensuously kneading his muscles. He took his time, his large hands knowing from years of experience exactly where and how to apply pressure.

  As he worked lower, his thumbs traced along Ford’s spine, every vertebrae, the hollow in his lower back behind his hips that dipped between his firm ass cheeks. She resisted the urge to count the vertebrae in her head and name the muscles. These were her husbands, not anatomy models.