Captivated: Return to Earth (2 page)

“Don’t worry, it’s not always like this,” she assured him.

“Heat is good, real good,” he muttered.

A limo waited, courtesy of Virgin Galactic. The company’s
logo was painted all over the vehicle because they wanted to boost lagging
tourism to the moon. When she’d first been contacted by the company about the
rescue mission she didn’t care what she needed to do or give up for the flight.
The government had rejected her pleas, but her story broke enough hearts to get
her the offer from the world’s biggest interplanetary travel company.

The limo driver rushed to open the door, and she and Dawson got
inside. The small amount of privacy the tinted windows allowed them was a
blessing.

More reporters waited outside. Cade and Nebraska made their
way out of the shuttleport. Security kept the growing crowd away from the car.
Nebraska crawled in next. She gazed at his beloved face as he glanced around
the interior with curiosity. He had beautiful, strong features, and even the
sunless days of Utopia winter couldn’t steal the natural tan pigment of his
skin. Then Cade got inside and the driver shut the door. Cade was her heart.
She loved them all, but it was Cade she’d loved first and with the fiercest
part of her soul.

Once inside, the men sat in stunned silence. Franny bit her
lip and tried to think of what to say. Cade was still scowling.

“Fuck. You okay?” he asked with an outraged, albeit
concerned, tone. He reached out and took her hand.

The car lurched as they pulled away from the curb and
security helped the driver navigate the insistent media. He tightened his grip.

“Yes. That man didn’t hurt me. He was just trying to get our
attention for his story.”

Dawson grinned and shook his head. “Cade sure as shit showed
the boy attention.”

Nebraska sat back, crossing his arms over his chest, and
nodded. Then they all laughed a little, but the awkward nervousness lingered.
She squeezed Cade’s hand, and he finally let go as if reassured by the simple
acknowledgement.

Franny sighed deeply. “It’s going to go viral.”

“What the fuck? Are you saying we’re going to get sick from
being in that place?” Nebraska asked with a deeply furrowed scowl. He pounded
on the glass separating them from the driver. The window quickly lowered.

“Yes, sir,” said the young, handsome driver.

“Get us to a doc,” Nebraska demanded. “We need to get our
lady medical attention.”

“No! Please just put the window back up. It’s a
misunderstanding. I’m great. We’re all great. No one is getting sick. A viral
video is a recording. The popular clips on the internet are referred to as
viral,” Franny rushed to explain. “Remember what I told you about the
internet?”

The driver raised the window, and Franny collapsed back into
the plush seat. A sigh rushed out of her lungs as she sagged with relief.

“Fuck me. I sounded stupid as hell. Why didn’t you say so?”

“Well…” She made a frustrated sound caught between a gasp
and a tongue smack. “This misunderstanding isn’t worth an argument.” Nebraska
was stubborn.

Franny was positive this was the first of many cultural
disconnections to come between her miners and Chicago. She didn’t know why the
thought made her ridiculously happy.
Because we finally have a future now,
that’s why.
A future. Joy bubbled up inside her like a geyser.

“Maybe we should take you to see a doctor, Cade. It couldn’t
hurt to get you checked out by a real doc. We should feed Cade too.” Dawson
reached out and took her hand. Worry was alive in the way he squinted his dark
eyes at her. “He half killed himself, and an exam wouldn’t be a bad idea.”

“I don’t want no doc poking and prodding me,” Cade grumbled.
“And I’ll eat when I eat.”

“Fuck the doctors. Franny is safe. Cade’s gotten over worse
than this. Forget I mentioned docs,” Nebraska replied.

Dawson shrugged.

Nebraska pointed out the window as the city rolled by
outside. “What the hell is that?”

Franny followed the direction he was pointing to see the Mr.
T memorial statue waving at the Michigan Avenue traffic. After Mr. T’s death
Chicago citizens crowdfunded an animated monument in his honor.

“That’s, um, Mr. T,” she stuttered. “When he died people
wanted a monument built.”

“That’s amazing. Is he important?” Dawson asked.

“He was famous,” she responded.

“So was he a president or something?” Nebraska asked.

Franny snorted. “No, he was an actor.”

“Like a play? Or is that the television that you told us
about?” Cade chimed in with his curiosity. “If entertainers get that kind of
tribute, what kind of effigy do you make for your leaders?”

“People really liked that guy, but politicians aren’t always
as popular. Yes, he was on TV and in movies. I don’t think he was ever in
plays. I’ll take you to a play, but I think you guys will like movies better.
There’s so much I want to show you all.”

“I like the look of your Chicago. It’s so clean, and
everything looks so new. I never imagined it like this. I want to draw it,”
Nebraska, her artist, said.

Cade pointed at some of the historic buildings. “Those don’t
look too modern.”

“They aren’t. This town is a blending of the historical and
the modern. That’s why I love it here,” Franny explained.

She had to give them credit. She would have been terrified
in their position. Chicago was enormous. They’d come from a rustic village of
tents and shacks and had never seen anything like the Windy City.

“Everything is so orderly,” Dawson said, soft and awestruck.
“Damn, I ain’t never imagined Earth was like this.”

Franny grinned. “Chicago is a great city. I love it here,
but it can get very cold in the winter. If you guys want to go someplace where
it never snows, we could do a little traveling. I’ve had a bunch of offers from
the media, and other airlines are just as keen on gathering the publicity we’ve
given Virgin Galactic,” she explained.

“I ain’t got no idea what you’re talking about, but as long
as you’re with me I don’t care where I live.” Cade’s words were heavy with
emotion. His gravelly voice was music to her ears. But when he realized she
wasn’t the only woman on Earth would he still mean what he said, and if not, could
she survive letting him go?

Cade had fought his friends once to save her life by letting
her go. She owed him the same level of love. The horrible memory made her
stomach clench. She’d understood afterward, but his forcing her away had been
painful. She’d only survived because Cade had loved her enough to send her
away, otherwise all of them would have died.

If any of her men wanted a normal relationship now that they
were free she wouldn’t stop them from finding happiness. Cade reached out and took
her hand. He stroked her skin with his thumb. She’d missed that. He’d done the
same thing when they’d laid in bed listening to the winter howl outside during
the long, brutal Utopia winter. She’d missed her time in bed with her men.
Memories came flooding back.

She pulled the covers away from Cade’s waist. His body
was great. The man could model for
Playgirl
if
he ever found his way to Earth. She enjoyed the view for a moment before
dropping a kiss on the tip of his cock. The slightest hiss escaped from him
when she wrapped her lips around the head of his erection. Cade groaned. She
cupped his balls gently with her left hand.

Franny peeked up to watch his face contort into a
relaxed expression of pure pleasure. She worked her lips down his shaft. She could
taste the bitter saltiness of his arousal. Her hands found the sexy masculine V
at his waist and she explored him with her fingers. Franny’s happy fingers
caressed his external oblique muscles with reverence as her eager mouth found a
pace and kept going. His groan told her he liked what she was doing to him. Her
hands sprawled across his belly and she could feel his muscles clench.

Closing her eyes, Franny reveled in the almost
hypnotic moment of making love to this man. She’d gone from disgust, fear, and
horror to lust in a matter of hours, and her emotional whiplash needed this
moment. For the first time, she realized if she kept her head together,
everything might be all right.

“You gotta stop that, darlin’, please,” Cade rasped.

Franny’s lips were still wrapped around him, but she
didn’t move. She looked up at him. His chiseled features were set in a hard
line of concentration. She pulled her mouth away from him slowly.

“Goddamn, woman. Hell. Come here,” he ordered as he
grasped her gently and pulled her to him.

She was lying on top of him and looking down into his
face. Sudden consciousness about her weight pressing on him made her try to
roll away, but he held her firmly. Cade smoothed the hair away from her face.
He half sat up to press his mouth against hers. Franny let him kiss her, and
she kissed him back with a sweetness she hadn’t expected. When he lay back down
after a few moments, he put one hand behind his head.

“I don’t want to hurt you.” He said the words with so
much sincerity, and she knew he was being totally honest. “As much as I want
you, I won’t hurt you.”

In that moment, she was lost. Whatever circumstance
had brought them together, it didn’t matter anymore. A man this noble was a
rare find. He was hot too, which was a fantastic bonus. She wasn’t about to let
common sense stand in the way of whatever the hell she was feeling for him.

“Let me take the burden of guilt away,” she whispered
with a wicked little grin.

Franny pressed a kiss to his lips, and he wrapped his
arms around her shoulders. This time the kiss wasn’t tender, it was atomic. His
mouth punished hers, and she loved it. Cade kissed like a man. Their tongues
touched and explored. In his arms, she was real in a way beyond her
understanding. Cade’s kiss was oxygen and she was fire. He nurtured her to her
full potential. Her sexuality bloomed for him and lust roared through her
blood, awakening something raw and primitive.

Unable to take another moment, Franny pulled away and
gazed into his eyes. “I need you,” she said without artifice.

She’d never been on top before. Nervous excitement
sent her heart racing. She hovered over him. He watched her, but didn’t try to
stop her. Franny held the base of his shaft with one hand as she balanced with
the other. Her pussy was wet and ready for him. Then he was inside of her. Cade
groaned as she slid down him until she’d taken all of him inside. He reached up
and stroked her nipples. His fingers pinched and tweaked.

Franny rocked forward. She sat up more and used the
wall for support. Then she began to move. His cock rubbed against her clit as
she rode him. When Franny came, she screamed. Moaning Cade’s name, Franny shook
with the force of the pleasure coursing through her body.

Cade’s hips bucked. His eyes closed. The long, purely
male sound that came from him only fueled her orgasm. Franny had never come
this hard before. She whimpered. Her eyes fluttered shut, and she arched her
back. Tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes as she kept coming with a
shudder.

Cade sat up with a roaring sound of triumph as he
released. His arms wrapped around her and he was kissing her. “You quiet the
anger in me, darlin’,” he whispered in her ear.

Heat rolled through Franny as the lust of her long
separation rekindled at the gruff sound of Cade’s declaration that she was his
home. Her pussy contracted just hearing him talk. She’d missed her men so much
it hurt. She might have been bought as a sex slave, but they’d made her so much
more. After her rescue from their dying world she went back for them because
she loved them with her whole heart. She’d worked tirelessly to save them and
now that she had them she didn’t know if she was willing to wait another moment
to make love to them—all of them.

“I’ve missed you all so much,” she whispered.

Cade pulled her into his lap. Being in his arms was as
natural as breathing. His musky scent filled her lungs, and she closed her eyes
and snuggled her head into the nook where his neck joined his shoulder. His
body was hard, but it was clear he’d lost weight.

“The first thing I’m going to do is feed you,” she told him.

The sensation of his chuckle tickled her cheek. “The first
thing I want to do is eat, but it’s pussy I’m hungry for,” he whispered in her
ear.

Franny shivered. His meal request made her wet. “I think
that might be on the menu,” she replied, unable to hide her grin.
Thank God
I had my annual birth control injection.

Nebraska groaned. “I could do with a helping myself,” he
said in a strained tone.

“My cock has missed you too, but it’s my heart that’s
hungry.” Dawson’s unusually poetic words brought her head up and she turned
toward him.

He was off his seat and kneeling on the limo floor next to
where Cade cradled her in his lap. Dawson smoothed the flyaway strands of hair
off her face, and his adoring eyes flashed with his own special combination of
dark jealousy and lust before he moved to claim her lips. Franny kissed him
back.

Cade’s arms tightened around her and she felt infused with
these men. Warmth from their bodies and the strange, tangy smell of Utopia
surrounded her and brought back a rush of sensation that was part memory and
part primitive response. She’d missed this connection so much. It wasn’t fair
to want them as she did, but she was selfish.
I shouldn’t make them share
me. I should just pick and then the other two will be free to have a woman
that’s just his.
In combination, they were the perfect boyfriend.
How
could I ever choose? I love them all.

Dawson darted his tongue into her mouth. She let him deepen
the kiss, and his rough hands gripped her head. His fingers tangled in her
hair. Dawson groaned against her mouth, and she explored his warmth with her
tongue. Her eyes closed and she let the security of Cade’s arms and lusty
caress of Dawson’s mouth lull her into a hypnotic trance. Her body hummed with
awareness. If the men suggested she let them fuck her in the limo, she wouldn’t
be able to refuse.