“Close enough for real-time com links?”
He smiled. “Yes, you and Donna can have gab fests again.”
Sophie’s training with her men was going well. Emi had exchanged e-mails with her and Donna, but their distance from Earth meant live com links were impossible. She’d missed chatting with her friends in real time. It would be good to have that outside contact with someone besides her men. “The K-2 guys are good guys.”
His brow furrowed. “I never said they weren’t, babe. What brought that on?”
She carefully shrugged, mindful of her ribs. “I feel bad for hating them when stuff never actually even happened.” She’d never mentioned Rob’s private conversation with her at the party to her men.
“Ah, Rob and his guys are tough. I’m sure even if they knew, they wouldn’t hold it against you. Don’t beat yourself up.” He snickered. “Sorry, babe.”
She dropped his hand. “Watch it, or you’ll end up with a colonoscopy.”
“Promises, promises, Doctor.”
Chapter Sixteen
Three days later, with the exception of twinges in her still-tender ribs, Emi’s injuries had mostly healed. Aaron, Caph, and Ford relented and let her once again roam the ship and return to duty. She was working on reports at her desk in sick bay when she looked at Bucky. He stayed with her all the time now, and she’d put him on the desk beside her computer terminal.
Something still bugged her about the fight.
This is stupid. She saved her reports and closed out the files. Then she accessed their personal server in the main computer, wading through thousands of pictures and vids taken throughout the men’s years together.
Then she found one labeled First_Halloween and dated twenty years earlier.
With a trembling finger, she reached out and hit play.
She’d never watched vids of Kelsey before. Not that she didn’t want to get to know the woman as well as she could, but usually when she thought of it, the men were nearby and she wanted to watch them alone.
Emi wasn’t sure who was shooting the vid at first, until she heard a woman’s soft snicker. It looked like Kelsey was hiding in a bunk, under a blanket. The view showed a large cabin. The door opened and Caph walked in.
Emi’s heart twisted. He looked much like he did now, still in good shape but twenty years younger, with fewer lines and creases on his sweet face.
He crossed the cabin, heading toward another door. It opened and he walked in, a light coming on.
Must be the head.
Kelsey threw back the blanket and quickly walked over to the head door with the camera. She caught Caph just as he was getting ready to use the toilet, but a large rubber spider fell from the ceiling onto his shoulder.
Bucky.
He let out a screeching howl, almost drowned out by Kelsey’s laughter. The picture shook as the woman laughed.
Caph grabbed the rubber spider and wheeled around, advancing on her, his pants open and dick hanging out. “What the fuck is this! Not funny!” But he’d started laughing.
“Yeah, it was funny. You nearly pissed yourself, Caph.”
“Yeah, because I have to take a piss!”
“Aww, did little Bucky scare you?”
Emi’s heart chilled and she hit pause, her hand now shaking.
It was the voice she’d heard during the fight. She’d swear it.
She rewound the vid to just after the spider landed on Caph and listened again, this time letting the vid play through until the end just a few minutes later.
When it finished, Emi closed the file, sat back, and stared at Bucky.
She’d never heard Kelsey’s voice before, never watched any of the vids.
There has to be a rational explanation for this.
Theories ran through her brain. Maybe it was just something empathic she picked up from one of her men. Or, more likely, her own subconscious, and she imagined the voice matched the one on the vid. Kelsey’s voice reminded her a lot of Delaney’s voice, which would make a lot of sense.
Maybe that was the answer and her brain was trying to trick her into thinking the impossible.
Still, that answer didn’t feel right. Emi was used to being observant. It was in her training.
And her gut told her the voice she’d heard during the fight was the same as the voice on the vid.
Kelsey.
She picked Bucky up and stared at him. The rubber spider’s sightless eyes offered no answers.
After dinner that night she went to bed while Aaron and Ford volunteered to clean up the galley. Caph had the watch. The men, afraid of aggravating her injuries, had made no attempt to make love to her, or each other, for that matter. She loved them even more for the effort, but knew they had to be getting horny.
She damn sure was.
When Aaron and Ford made their way to the cabin, they found Emi stretched out, naked, in the middle of the bed. She wore a playful smile while her right hand stroked her clit.
Both men stopped at the doorway, staring.
“What’s wrong?” she innocently asked.
“Are you…feeling okay?” Aaron asked.
“If your question is am I horny? Then yes, I am. I’ll have you know there is a very qualified doctor on board this ship who insists I am perfectly ready to once again engage in whatever romantic endeavors I choose to…you know, engage in.”
Ford’s goofy grin made her laugh. “Watch out, Cap.” He tried to push past Aaron, who threw out an arm.
“Hey, captain first.”
“Aw, that’s no fair!”
“Boys, I have a very simple suggestion.” She rolled onto her hands and knees and wiggled her butt at them as she cast a sultry gaze over her shoulder. “I have a seating limit of three, and there’s only two of you right now. That means there’s plenty of room.”
“Doctor trumps captain.” Ford shoved Aaron out of the way and bolted for the bed, yanking his clothes off as he did. By the time he hit the mattress, he was naked.
“You are a man of many talents, Ford,” she teased.
“What do you mean?”
“If there was a time record for getting naked, you and Caph would probably tie for it.”
“Hey, I’m wiry and horny and this is going to be hard and fast and furious because I’m about to bust a nut. What can I say?” She couldn’t say anything, however, because he pulled her down on top him and kissed her with a hand fisted in her hair to hold her in place.
“Yeah, right there, Ford,” Aaron said. She felt him kneel behind them. Then his fingers gently probed between her legs. “Holy crap, I think she started without us, buddy.”
Ford broke their kiss only long enough to say, “She wet?”
“Very.” He nudged into place behind her, sliding his cock deep into her cunt. Ford swallowed her moan of pleasure.
She loved this, but wanted more and Ford apparently sensed it. He released his grip on her and swung around to change positions. On his back, he slid beneath her, his head between her legs. Aaron grabbed her hair and guided her mouth down onto Ford’s cock.
“There you go,” he said.
She moaned again, this time the sound muffled by her sucking Ford’s erection as far as she could take it into her throat. Ford went to town licking and sucking her clit. Combined with the feel of Aaron’s cock pounding into her, it didn’t take her body long to explode.
Instead of backing off, the men redoubled their efforts, turning her body into a limp mass of orgasming nerves as she tried to suck Ford’s cock dry.
Apparently Ford was waiting for Aaron to finish. She felt Aaron’s fingers dig into her waist. “I’m close,” he hoarsely said.