Raines, Elizabeth - Sold [Wicked Missions 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (5 page)

I’d be nothing but a whore
.

He’d pushed too hard too quickly. She was going to have to get past the circumstances of their meeting, but that was going to take time. She would need to be around them and get to know the kind of men they were deep inside to realize that he and Brandon didn’t view her as their “purchase” or their “property.” If she couldn’t let the auction go, she would never accept it if they ever developed true affection for her, as he hoped they would. Yes, they would want her to share their bed. Hell, he’d wanted to fuck her the moment he saw her, and Brandon would surely feel the same the minute he laid eyes on Lyrianna. That beautiful face? Those gorgeous tits? That perfect ass? What man wouldn’t? Hopefully as they all worked side-by-side on the farm, and judging from her kind nature, stronger feelings were likely to develop. Maybe even love. Some day. Carter didn’t want her questioning the men’s true motives and constantly believing they saw her as something less than an independent and spirited woman.

All his lust vanished when her knee connected with his groin as she tried to scramble off his lap. Probably a good thing to let her go because he didn’t want things between them to get off on the wrong foot. Lyrianna was going to be with him and Brandon a good, long while, years and years, if not the rest of their lives. That thought gave him pause as he watched her move out of his reach.

The rest of my life.

Somewhere in the time since he’d moved to Pagonna, he’d made it his home. For good. And Carter knew Brandon felt the same. They’d turned that lovely little island into a profitable farm with the work of their own hands and the sweat of their brows. No way either of them could ever leave it to return to Earth. What would be waiting there for them anyway?
Nothing
. Their lives were here.

If they were never leaving, that meant Lyrianna wasn’t, either. He might have purchased her like any other piece of property on the farm, but that’s not how he viewed her. Nor would Brandon ever see her that way. She was a
gift
that would make their lives on Pagonna perfect, and he hoped she would fall in love with the planet the way he and Brandon had.

And maybe, just maybe, she might even fall in love with them.

Which meant he needed to start fresh with her. They’d have to win her over before they got to indulge themselves in that delectable little body of hers. He just hoped to hell he’d have the patience to wait until she came around, because he really,
really
missed pussy, which meant he’d be likely to say or do something stupid simply to get her in bed. At least her passionate response to their kissing predicted that wait might not be too awfully long or tormenting.

“I’ll tell you what,” Carter finally said. Lyrianna looked up at him, a frown fixed on her lips. Those lips were still rosy and wet from where he’d kissed her, and damn, but he really wanted to kiss her again. “Let’s back this whole thing up.”

“You’re taking me back to the transport? Will…will they give you your money back? Could they take me back to Rozale? No. I’d have to go back to prison. How about Earth? Would they take me to Earth?” Her gray eyes showed a spark of hope that rapidly put a damper on his mood.

“Whoa there, honey,” he said, holding up his hands. “That’s not what I meant.” Then he heaved a sigh. “I meant us—to back up to the beginning of where and how we met. Let’s start over. Hi. I’m Carter Verdel. I own a nice-sized pod farm here on Pagonna with my lover, Brandon Hunt. Problem is—something’s missing.”

Her mouth twitched into a small grin at his teasing. “So what, exactly, is missing?”

“A beautiful woman to share it with us. Would you be interested, Miss Seebré?”

The grin turned into a full-blown smile that took his breath away. Unfortunately, that smile quickly became a yawn that shook her whole body. “God, I’m tired.”

Carter stood up, opened the compartment he’d been sitting on, and frowned when he saw the yellow life jackets. Picking one up, he held it up to show her. “I’m so used to it only being Brandon and me, I forgot to ask. Can you swim? Brandon and I are like fish, so we don’t wear one of these on our boat. I sure don’t want you to drown.”

“I swim. Very well. So thank you, but no on the jacket.”

With a nod, he set it aside, reached in his pocket, and held out a breather to her.

She stared at the little white disc. “What is it?”

“A breather. We have a bunch of them around. Buy ’em by the case since we tend to lose them. You’ll probably find them all over the house.”

“What’s a breather?”

Carter decided to show her. Turning the disk, he held it flat against his nose as it started to quiver. As always, a few moments later, it spread, shaping itself to cover his nose and mouth before hardening again in a clear shell.

“What does it do?”

Since he couldn’t talk—or breathe air for that matter—with the breather in place, he peeled it away and set it back in the palm of his hand. As it slowly went through its transformation again, shaping itself back into a flat disk, he explained how it worked. “Underwater, it draws the oxygen out of the water so we can breathe it in. Much better than old-fashioned diving equipment, except we can’t talk to each other. Brandon and I use gestures when we’re working on pods. Our own sign language.”

“I’ve never seen one of those.”

“Another Pagonna settler invented it. He’s made a fortune making and selling them here. I don’t think he wants to share it with the universe yet.”

Her shocked expression didn’t surprise him. “What’s wrong with him? He could make himself the richest man in the sector.”

Carter shrugged as he offered her the breather. She patted her hips, and he realized why she didn’t take it. Her clothes were skin-tight with no pockets. He nodded and slid it back into his own pocket. “He likes it here. Most of us do. We don’t really care much about being rich, just having what we need. I suppose he could sell the idea, but… He likes tinkering with making them himself. Besides,” he added with a smile, “he makes plenty off all of us. Promise me you’ll always carry a breather with you.”

“Why?”

“Look around, Lyrianna. We’re surrounded by water. We practically live in it. If you make habit of carrying a breather, you always know it’s there if you need it. Promise?”

Her smile was prettier than the rainbows that appeared after the seasonal hurricanes. “If any of the clothes you have for me have pockets, I’ll carry one. Promise.”

“Clothes… yeah.” Carter rubbed the back of his neck. “About that…”

She glanced down at her black tank top. “This is all I have.”

“For now, you’ll have to share what Brandon and I wear.”

“You want me to wear your clothes?”

He felt lower than a bottom-feeder. “We didn’t know… Look, we didn’t know what size the girl we bought would be, so we didn’t buy any clothes yet.” A frustrated sigh slipped out as Carter realized they’d made a lot of stupid assumptions.

“Why didn’t we grab a few things back in the city?” she asked.

He felt even worse for having neglected her needs. “Sorry. I just didn’t…think about it.” He should have taken the time to buy her some clothes or other things a woman might like to have. Perfume. Makeup.

He and Brandon been thinking with their dicks, figuring they’d buy some horny pickpocket who wanted to stay out of prison and would be glad to come to their farm, run around naked, and fuck their brains out. Thank God, all of that testosterone-laden bullshit was a hundred and eighty degrees from what Carter was bringing home. Although he wasn’t sure what crime Lyrianna had committed to end up on that auction block, he had no doubt he was bringing home a
lady
.

Her gray eyes were studying him. Hard. The intelligence there was breathtaking. In those eyes, he saw a woman who had the strength to not only survive life on Pagonna, but thrive here. In those eyes, he saw someone who would help them solve the problems that popped up daily. And in those eyes, he saw someone he knew he could learn to love.

If only he and Brandon hadn’t had to purchase her to get her to come to them. Now, they had to not only try to win her affection, they had to clear that nearly insurmountable hurdle.

Might as well start now…

“Brandon and I pretty much wear nothing but shorts.” That softened the truth. Hell, they ran around naked ninety percent of the time. “We spend a lot of time in the water, and the rest of the time in the sun.”

Lyrianna smiled. “Explains that tan. Isn’t that much sun bad for your skin?”

Her curiosity boded well, and Carter was thrilled to teach her about the world he loved. “Not here, it’s not. No UVA or UVB from our sun. The temperature here is always around twenty-two or twenty-three degrees.”

“Fahrenheit? Don’t you freeze your balls off wearing shorts?”

He blinked a couple of times, hardly believing she was teasing him. Then he laughed, freely and happily.

Perhaps things would work out after all.

She yawned again, and he remembered how this whole discussion had started. He pulled a pillow out of the bin. Dropping the lid, he set the pillow down on top. Then he sat down next to it. “C’mon over here and sleep for a little bit. We’ve got a long trip to get home. I can keep an eye on you if you’re close to me and make sure you don’t roll overboard in your sleep.” He patted the pillow.

She still eyed him warily before she cautiously stood up, came to stand in front of him, and stared down into his eyes. “You won’t touch me?”

“Can’t guarantee that, but I won’t rape you, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Her eyes narrowed.

“Look, Lyrianna… I’ve never forced a woman in my life, and I never will. Yes, I own you.
Technically
. But that’s not what I want. It’s not what Brandon wants.”

“Then what
do
you want?”

Carter took her hand in his.”What we want is a woman to share our lives, a woman who loves our land and our waters as much as we do. And, yes, a woman to make love to. But we don’t want her in our beds because she feels she owes us anything. We want her there because she wants to be there.”

* * * *

“Carter!” the voice shouted from the distance. “Hey, Carter!”

Lyrianna sat up so fast that she got a little dizzy, especially since the bunk she was in seemed to be moving. Side to side to side to… A wave of nausea caught her by surprise.

“Oh, shit,” Carter said. He slipped one hand around her waist and used the other hand to hold her hair back as she leaned over the side of the boat and vomited up what little she had in her stomach.

How humiliating to get seasick on a planet of mostly oceans.

After the spasms died down and her stomach settled, she tried to push his hands away. He wouldn’t let her. Instead, Carter helped her sit back down. Fishing a linen handkerchief from his pocket, he grabbed the bottle of water next to him, poured some on the handkerchief, and then gently bathed her face. “Better?”

Lyrianna nodded.

“I should have known you might get seasick for that long a trip.” He handed her the bottle.

She took some in her mouth, swished it around, and spit it over the side. As she glanced up, she realized the sun was still high in the sky. “How long was I asleep?”

“A good eight hours.”

“Seriously?”

Carter nodded. “You were exhausted. We sailed through the night.”

She glanced up to the sky, but if she trusted her judgment, the sun was in the same place. How was that possible?

He must have noticed what she was looking at. “Days here are different. We have seventy-five hours of light, then seventy-five hours of dark.” He fished inside a small compartment, and he produced another bottle full of blue liquid. “Want some?”

“What is it?”

“A homemade mouthwash.”

She decided to give it a try, sniffing the stuff before deciding it was nothing more than peppermint. After swishing some around, she spit it over the side as what he’d said about the sun rising and setting registered. “How can you handle being up three days at a time?” She handed him back the bottle, and he dropped it back into the compartment.

“We aren’t. Our internal clocks keep our days around twenty-five hours. We have three days where it never gets dark, then three days when it’s just dark. But even the dark isn’t bad. Three moons light up the night pretty nicely.” His smile was warm, genuine, and far too appealing. “You’ll get used to it.” His gaze shifted to the dock where a tall man stood waving. “That’s Brandon. And this is our island. Welcome home, Lyrianna.”