Raines, Elizabeth - Sold [Wicked Missions 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (10 page)

“Not that many,” Carter replied as he stood next to her by the fence. “We brought most of them from Earth. Tons of seeds and plants for the garden, too. We figured we better come prepared to grow or raise all the things we like to eat. We needed the chickens for eggs and sometimes for dinner. We hired an enormous transport ship and stocked it to the roof with everything we knew we’d need that we might not be able to find on Pagonna.”

The men were showing her the chores she could take over on the farm, and she’d believed she’d enjoy working with the animals up until she realized she’d have to be eating some of them. Because she tended to get really attached to anything she cared for, she knew she’d never be able to eat any creature she’d taken the time to feed. Hell, she’d probably give the all names eventually. “I can’t kill a chicken.”

Brandon chuckled. “You won’t have to. Carter takes care of that. You can cook if you’d like, though. Neither of us cooks too well.”

“We tend to just chuck everything on the grill. Chicken. Fish. Vegetables,” Carter added as he took her hand and led her toward an enormous garden. Row after row of vegetables grew there in various states of maturity. Brandon came out of the coop and followed, taking her other hand.

“Wow,” she said, a bit breathlessly. “You really planned well.”

“Since the weather is always perfect, we stagger when we plant so we can harvest fresh vegetables all year round,” Carter explained. He nodded toward the thick tree grove. “Plenty of fresh fruit, too. We have some Earth trees planted there, and we’ve always got the variety of Pagonna fruit. We’ll teach you all about them.” His fingers ran through her ponytail.

The men seemed to always be touching her, stroking her hair, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder, caressing her cheek. How easy it would be to see affection in those gestures rather than recognizing them for what they were—ways to stay physically connected after being without a woman for such a long time.

That thought hurt, and she almost gasped when she realized why. She was already forming strong feelings for Carter and Brandon. While she wanted to rejoice in those feelings because she’d always figured something was wrong with her since she never really loved a man before, she couldn’t find any joy. The men didn’t love her. She was simply a companion, a woman to sleep with instead of just being with each other.

Her heart whispered back that she’d be spending lots of time with them, that true affection could grow from their close quarters. They obviously loved each other. She’d seen them kiss, a bit ashamed at how hot it made her to see them touching. Unfortunately, her brain had its say as well, taunting that they already loved each other—that they didn’t have to fall in love with her. That she could simply end up being a convenient pussy.

“Why are you frowning?” Carter asked, bringing her back to the present.

“I just feel…inadequate. I don’t know anything about taking care of animals or growing vegetables. Now, if you need me to locate a smuggled part or get my hands on a banned medication, I’m your girl.”

“Was that why you were in prison, Lyri?” Brandon asked.

She wondered when that question would finally come up. Not surprising her blunt-to-a-fault Brandon asked first. “I smuggled black market vaccines for missionaries to take to the planet Fraiqua. They have a demise pox epidemic there.”

“So you stole vaccines? From a pharmaceutical company?” Carter’s frown was fierce. “We do a lot of business with a lot of them, and if they found out you stole—”

Lyrianna placed her fingertips to his lips. “I didn’t steal them from a pharmaceutical company. I stole them from a drug dealer—a black market guy. He was trying to charge a fortune for them, so I decided to force him to make a donation to the cause.”

“You ripped off a drug dealer?” Brandon asked, squeezing her hand. “Then why did you end up in prison?”

“Because right after the ship with the vaccines took off, there was a police raid. Let’s just say they didn’t believe a word of my story. After a quick trial where I didn’t get to defend myself, I ended up getting sentenced to forty years of hard labor.”

“I’m so sorry, honey.” Carter leaned in to kiss her cheek.

“I’m not,” she replied, meaning exactly what she’d said.

“You’re not?”

She shook her head. “If I hadn’t been sent to that prison on Delta moon, I wouldn’t have ended up here. You know, I still haven’t figured out how
that
happened. I didn’t know prisons were allowed to commute a prisoner’s sentence, especially to turn her into some kind of indentured servant.”

Brandon snorted a laugh. “Doubt too many people there know. Probably some prison official, a warden or someone, who makes a pretty penny on handpicking pretty girls like you to send to places like this.”

“Seriously?”

“Oh, yeah,” Carter added. “I imagine they’ve got a nice racket going. Probably get kickbacks from the auction. Where is Delta moon?”

“Rozale,” she replied, her mind spinning.

“Never heard of it. How far is it from Pagonna?”

She’d tried to blot the whole experience from Delta moon to the auction out of her mind, but now she struggled to remember. “It’s in the Prime Sector. I think they said I was in stasis for four months. I remember thinking only government ships could travel at the speed it would take to get here.”

“That answers your question about someone official being involved,” Brandon said.

Having never stopped long enough to think of the ramifications, Lyrianna now let her imagination run wild. “I wonder what they’ll tell my sister. After I was arrested, they wouldn’t even let me contact her.” Tears stung her eyes. “She won’t know what happened to me or where I am.” Her heart hurt. So many months had passed—the time for the trial and then traveling in stasis and the time she’d lived with the men—and Callinda would be worried sick. When it dawned on her that she might never see her sister again, a sob broke out. The wall of indifference she’d raised around her heart to cope with all that had happened suddenly crumbled.

Four arms wrapped around her, holding her close as she cried. “It’s okay, honey,” Carter whispered in her ear. “We’ll find a way to get her a message.”

“We’re going to the city soon for supplies,” Brandon added. “We’ll see if there’s any way we can let her know where you are. Might take a while to get a message there, but at least she’d know you’re safe.”

She sniffled and nodded against Brandon’s shoulder, feeling better simply from having the men hold her close. “Thank you.”

“Would you like to see the pod farm sometime?” Carter asked as he stepped back and wiped the tears off her cheeks.

Lyrianna nodded again. “Will I have to wear one of those…breathers?”

“Yeah, but—”

“Do we have to go today?” She probably sounded like a coward, but the notion of being smothered by one of those things frightened her.

“When you’re ready, Lyrianna.” Brandon’s soft voice comforted her. “We’ll take you diving to see the pods when you’re ready.”

Chapter 8

“Don’t be afraid of it, Lyri,” Brandon said, holding the breather out to her on his outstretched palm. “I promise to keep you safe. I know you’ve been looking forward to seeing the pods.”

The idea of putting that disk over her mouth and letting it suffocate her made Lyrianna’s gut twist. It looked even more foreign sitting on the webbed glove he wore to make swimming underwater easier. She’d been on the island three weeks, and today was the first day she’d finally worked up enough guts to try and dive with the guys to see the pod farm. While she might be dying of curiosity to see what Carter and Brandon did every day when they went to work, she simply hated the idea of using the breather, so she’d found excuse after excuse not to go. She adjusted her goggles and asked, “You’re sure it’ll work?”

“We use ’em every day. They filter the oxygen directly out of the water. Believe it or not, they’re much easier than using old-fashioned oxygen tanks. Doesn’t take much to get used to them.” He pressed the disk to his face, and she watched—just as she had when Carter had first shown one to her—as it quivered, becoming flexible enough to form itself to his mouth and nose. He spread his arms and gave her a quick bow as if to say, “Ta-da!”

Her mouth fixed into a thin line. She wanted to trust the guys, but she’d always had a fear of being smothered, probably because her younger sister, Callinda, had always liked to tease her by dropping things from the upper bunk onto her face while she slept. Lyrianna would always wake up thrashing as she tried to get whatever was covering her off.

That memory made her heart catch. Despite their teasing, she and Callinda had always been close. When their parents died, they’d been shuttled from uncaring relative to uncaring foster home, knowing they only had each other to depend on. They’d only lived on their home planet of Belusia for the first ten years of Lyrianna’s life. Since Callinda was two years younger, she might not even remember the planet at all. The last time Lyrianna had seen her sister, she’d been working as a nurse in a refugee camp on Bromond, helping the children there who’d been starving from yet another drought on the desert planet. Her sister had a heart of gold but the temper of a Dracorian.
Shortest fuse in the galaxy
, Lyrianna had always joked. Not that her own was much better.

Brandon peeled the breather away from his face, readjusted his goggles, and threw her a concerned frown. “Are you afraid of the water or is it really the breather that frightens you?”

Brushing aside the melancholy thoughts and getting herself back to the topic—her fright of being suffocated—she said, “The breather. Don’t you feel like it’s…smothering you or something?”

“Nah. I’m used to it. They’re not hard to use.” His hand encased hers, and he gave her a bolstering squeeze. “How about we go practice in the water? If it bothers you too much, we can just ease into it over time.” She loved his laugh. “Hell, time is something we’ve got
plenty
of around here. We’ll wait until you’re ready.”

“No. No more waiting. I want to do this.”

Lyrianna let Brandon lead her toward the surf. It was hard to walk with the flippers she wore on her feet, although Brandon acted like he’d been born with them. Flexing her fingers, she made sure the webbed gloves were on tight before she followed, implicitly trusting him to keep her safe. The water lapped against her legs, cooling her sun-warmed skin. She’d learned to love the feel of the island’s tropical heat, spending as much time as she could in the sun. Since she still didn’t have any kind of swimsuit, she wore her tank top and her only pair of panties. She didn’t mind wearing the guys’ clothes, enjoying the loose, breezy shirts that never stuck to her skin, even when she got sweaty from working in the garden or with the animals. The boxers she wore as shorts weren’t exactly feminine, but she’d found a needle and thread and sewed the flies shut on several pair so she wasn’t flashing the men all the time. If she rolled the waistbands down, they let her tummy get some sun as well. Over the weeks on the island, she’d gotten a nice golden tan, and her hair had grown quite a bit.

The water was comfortably warm. She’d quickly adjusted to bathing in the ocean, even looked forward to it because the men usually joined her. They seemed to love touching her, especially washing her hair. They made her feel cherished as they washed and dried her, which almost always resulted in them making love to her as well. Since she’d been on their island, they’d been attentive lovers, reaching for her almost every night.

Sometimes it was all three of them together. Sometimes Brandon would jump her while Carter was working on pods, or Carter would toss her on a blanket in the barn and make love to her while Brandon napped. She imagined they had their…
alone
times when they worked on the pods. They’d all fallen into a nice love life with no jealousy between the two men, and she was pretty sure she pleased them both. Heaven knew they pleased her.

Brandon held out a breather again, and she swallowed her fear. She really did want to see the underwater growing pods, having heard so much about them and knowing the profit from them made this paradise possible. Taking a deep breath, she pressed the disk to her nose and hoped for the best. As Brandon did the same with his breather, he dove into the surf. She followed, trying desperately not to panic. Once she was all the way underwater, she tried to take her first breath, relaxing as she realized how easy it was, even with the breather covering her mouth and nose. It felt a little like holding a cold washcloth over her face, but with each new inhale and exhale, the feeling of being smothered died a little more until it was finally washed away.

Taking her hand, Brandon pointed toward the deeper water. Then he started swimming away like he’d been born a merman, effortlessly gliding through the water. Lyrianna followed, pulling hard with her arms and kicking with her legs, trying to let the gloves and flippers help propel her forward. Damn, but it was hard work, making every muscle in her body start to scream with overuse. No wonder her guys were nothing but a mass of hard muscle. They swam for hours at a time.