Catalyst (18 page)

Lux hugged Jarana, who went stiff, eyes wide as she stared at the human woman.

“Stop looking at me like that,” Lux snapped, obviously uncomfortable now.

“What was the hug about?” Jarana lifted an eyebrow.

“Just you. Maska and Erik did good.”

“Shut up,” Jarana growled before turning away. “Just hurry up and get back here with your ship.”

I couldn’t leave Jacks here alone to continue his search for Crichton.
I wouldn’t
. Bastian and I shared a look and he angled his head toward the door, wanting me to follow him. I nodded. “I’m going into the court to get some fruit for Lux to take on the trip.” Lux had developed a fondness for the same purple fruit that Bastian loved so much.

“I’ll help,” Bastian said, rising to his feet.

I didn’t miss Lux’s smirk as we left the room. Bastian threaded his fingers with mine as we silently walked through the tunnels lit by replicant crystals. We reached the big, wooden door that led to the court and he turned to me. “What do you want to do, Vala?”

I let go of his hand. My insides felt raw, like Jacks had peeled back my outer layer and left me a big, open wound. “I don’t know,” I whispered. “I love you both, want to be with you both.”

“You don’t want to live away from Yaira again, do you?” He cupped my cheeks, lifted my face to his. “Do you really think you’d be happy on this planet with just me and Jacks?”

“You want to stay?”

“I want to be wherever you are. And wherever he is. I don’t have family and though I did want to make Kithra my home, I’ll be happy anywhere as long as I have the both of you.”

I rose up on my toes and wrapped my arms around his neck, burying my face in his chest. “Jacks sounds like he doesn’t want us to stay.”

“Too bad.” He stroked his hands over my hair. “That man isn’t going to be alone anymore and that’s the way it’s going to be.”

I smirked against his chest before lifting my face to his. “You aren’t going to be alone ever again either. We’re your family now. Me and Jacks. Suns, Bastian, when I think about what you’ve—”

He put his finger over my lips. “Don’t. Don’t think about it. You and Jacks have shown me what life’s all about. All the bad things in my past are just that—in my past. Let’s get Lux’s fruit and then wait for Jacks to set his hack. We’ll drag him into that bed, which will be switched out for a bigger one as soon as possible. We’ll show him that he can’t live without us. Okay?”

I kissed him. Opened his mouth with my lips and stroked my tongue inside to tangle with his. I thrust my fingers into his hair and held him tight to me before I pulled back and kissed his nose. “I love you, Bastian Sithbrun.”

“Always knew you would,” he answered with a grin.

I blinked into the sudden light from the open bathroom door. Jackson stood in silhouette there, face shadowed, but I could tell by the tilt of his head that he stared at us.

We’d planned a huge seduction scene, posing ourselves naked in this bed, planning to wring pleasure from Jacks until he agreed to either come home with us or let us stay here. For now. We both wanted to be home eventually. But Jacks had taken too long and we’d both fallen asleep.

Now, Jacks sucked in a breath, his silhouetted hands tightening into fists.

I looked down at Bastian and understood immediately. His face was against my belly, his hand wrapped around my thigh. His skin, like polished marble, gleamed against the white sheets. And all that auburn hair lay in a luxurious disarray all over me, the bed…strands of it were tangled with my brighter hair.

“Stunning, isn’t he?” I whispered, heart in my throat.

Bastian nuzzled my flesh, his warm breath brushing over my belly.

“You both are.” Jackson’s voice came out hoarse, as if he had trouble getting them past his throat. “Your hair, fiery red—his darker, like Fagra wine. While you two are in my bed, there will always be white sheets. You can come back and visit. Will you?”

My heart did that flip-flop thing again. Jackson had been so reserved the last couple of days, that to see him struggling like this ripped me up. “I don’t know, I think Bastian’s hair would look fantastic against black or blue sheets, too.” I stroked his head. “Maybe we should try all the sheet colors.”

Bastian suddenly blinked sleepy eyes up at me as a shy smile lit up his face. This big, gentle man had crawled under my skin just as Jacks had all those years ago. He skimmed his palm up my thigh, opened his mouth on my belly. Strong, sure fingers stroked my sex. “Love how fast you get wet,” he murmured on a groan before sliding two fingers into me. Deep.

I hissed, tilted my head back. “Suns, I love your fingers.”

He fucked me with those perfect, long fingers as he opened his mouth over my skin. Over and over. He reached my right breast, sucking my nipple into the hot cavern of his mouth with a groan of pleasure. His thumb rubbed my clit and his gentleness was welcome. I bit my lip, looked up at Jacks as I heard his breathing pick up speed as he strode into the room. He pulled off his T-shirt, pushed down his pants and put his hands on Bastian, his mouth latching on to his neck. Bastian groaned again and shifted his head against me. All that soft hair fell over my breasts and shoulders, and I squeezed my eyes shut, overcome with pleasure.

Bastian grunted, a gritty sound of ecstasy, and I opened my eyes to find Jackson gripping Bastian’s cock, stroking up and down with sure, strong strokes. He sucked on Bastian’s neck and thrust his hips against Bastian’s ass.

And like that, fire burned in all three of us.

Bastian added a third finger inside me and I gasped. He came up over me, his tongue seeking entrance in my mouth. I opened for him, loving his warmth, his taste. He stroked me over and over, with his fingers, his tongue, and I felt Jacks’ hands in my hair, gently tugging. I turned and met his mouth, groaning as his taste combined with Bastian’s. They snuggled on either side of me and I turned from one mouth to the other as Jacks’ hand joined Bastian’s between my legs. He circled my clit, rubbing the moisture from my body onto Bastian’s fingers. I hissed, tilted my head back, and they moved their mouths down my neck to my shoulders. Bastian stroked his tongue over my nipple as Jacks moved back up to pull my mouth to his.

I gasped against his lips. “I’m gonna die here.”

“How about flying instead?” He whispered as Bastian’s pulled his fingers from me and replaced them with his tongue. I came up off the bed and screamed.

“Shit! Fuck!”

Amusement cushioned my fall back to the planet as Jacks was once again reduced to muttering four-letter words. I opened one eye and saw that Bastian had crouched over Jacks and pulled his hard cock into his mouth.

Hoarse cries spilled from Jacks’ mouth in between the cursing.

“Man has a wicked tongue, doesn’t he?” I whispered to Jacks, still breathing hard, tingles all over my body.

Bastian swept his hair away from his face so he could look at me while he loved Jacks’ cock with his mouth, and I knew he was pleased I hadn’t called him a boy this time. Watching him with Jacks, I didn’t see how young he was, I only saw how much he loved what he did with us…how much he loved us. I wanted to spend the rest of my life making sure he was touched every damned day.

I sat up and took Jacks’ jaw in my hands. “You said
while
we are in your bed. Jacks, Bastian and I want to
always
be in your bed, even if it’s here on this godsforsaken planet.”

“Kind of busy here. Not fair,” he gritted out between clenched teeth before he cried out, his back arching. “Fuck, Bastian!”

Low chuckling sounded from Jacks’ groin, and I grinned at Bastian before turning all my attention to watching the play of ecstasy over Jacks’ face. “I don’t play fair. You should know that after the two years I spent driving you nuts on my home planet. Bastian and I are going to stay here while you continue looking for Crichton. We are going to help you read those damned boring files, and your brother is going to bring us some nice things so this place isn’t so damned depressing.”

“Vala,” Jacks growled, then hissed as Bastian must have done something slightly painful. Jacks lifted his head and tried to glare at Bastian before his eyes rolled back in his head.

“You argue, Bastian retaliates. We’re a team. What you don’t seem to get is that all three of us are a team. We’re going to find your old lover and then we’re going to have serious discussions about you moving with us to Kithra. They need us, Jacks. They need Bastian and me and they need you. You’ll be a hero when all this comes out.”

“Not a hero.” This time, he tensed, waiting for whatever Bastian was going to do, but all Bastian did was slide his hands up Jacks chest while keeping up the suction. “Fuck,” he muttered, thrusting his hips, raising his hand to thread his fingers with Bastian’s. He looked up at me, eyes glazed. “Okay, okay! Just shut the fuck up and kiss me!”

Jacks sucked the smile right off my face then proceeded to make me pay for playing so dirty.

An hour later, I found myself staring at the cold walls of the room again as my men snoozed behind me. “I’m thinking tapestries. Great big tapestries would brighten up this room so much.”

Soft masculine chuckles sounded behind me and I came up on my elbow to find one of Bastian’s eyes aimed at me from where his face was smashed into the pillow. Amusement and love shone in the single stream of light still spilling from that bathroom. None of us wanted to get up to turn it off.

“She’s nesting again,” Jacks murmured into Bastian’s neck. He was curled around the taller man’s back.

Bastian patted the arm Jacks had around his waist. “Just go with it,” he said, voice muffled by the pillow. “She’s worth it.”

Jacks lifted slightly, met my eyes over Bastian’s head. “Yeah, she is.”

“This is it,” I whispered.

Bastian, Lux, Jarana and I all stood still as Jacks held his hand over the screen. With one touch, all the files he’d pulled over the years—along with the horrifically incriminating information we’d found on Para Lashin’s system—would be in the hands of every government system out there. We weren’t taking any chances, because corruption ran rampant in them all. Additionally, Jarana had hooked us into the top news stations, and they would be getting the same information the authorities would. At the same time.

We were about to unleash chaos on the universes, and my stomach was in the kind of knots it would take weeks to untangle.

Saturna didn’t stand a chance. They’d have nowhere to run. We still had to find Crichton, still had to learn about the explosive he’d used, and because my research had found other similar and sinister detonations across multiple planets, we now thought Kithra had possibly been part of a bigger plot. We’d only unraveled some of it.

“Everyone will finally know,” Jarana said, her voice breaking on a sob. Her knees gave out and Lux pushed her into the seat and kept her hand on Jarana’s shoulder. Tears spilled down the Tracker’s cheeks as she stared at the vidscreen.

My own cheeks were wet, and Bastian took my hand, squeezing it in his nice big warm one.

Jacks’ hand was shaking. He’d worked so hard for this. Tugging on Bastian’s hand, we crowded against Jacks’ sides, wrapping our arms around his waist. That seemed to give him the last push he needed. He touched the screen.

We held each other tight as streams of color shot out all over the map, and the universes found out why one company’s greed had nearly destroyed the small planet of Kithra.