Page 27 of Tempting Jupiter (Arena Dogs #2)

Chapter Eighteen

Jupiter climbed into the ship behind Feeona. The thigh length garment she wore made it hard not to notice her sleekly muscled legs and the curve of her bottom as she moved. A quick glance to Seneca confirmed that the sight hadn’t gone unnoticed by his pack brother.

“Alfred, start launch prep.” Feeona stopped in the middle of the entry room and fixed her gaze on his. There were questions and explanations swirling in her eyes and they had time for neither.

She stepped forward like a youngling walking barefoot over rocks—like every step hurt and had the potential for serious injury.

Taking his hand and then Seneca’s, she stood close.

The subtle scent that was uniquely her permeated every breath Jupiter took.

Her smaller hand tempted him to fold his carefully around the fragile flesh and bones.

“You know you can’t stay on the station. It isn’t safe.” There was none of her usual sarcasm or spark in her voice.

He and Seneca both grunted their agreement.

“We haven’t had that talk.” Fee said.

She was worried about taking away their choice. He remembered her outrage when he’d told her he’d been a slave. He saw only acceptance on Seneca’s face.

“We choose to leave this place with you.” He held her gaze, letting his certainty show in his eyes.

Her lips curved into a small smile. “Good.” She squeezed his hand then spun on her heel and led them toward the pilot’s station. “This way.”

They followed her up several steps, then through a hatch to a generously sized room with a control panel and view screen dominating one wall. With a wave of her hand, she indicated two seats and showed them how to strap into the harnesses.

She dropped into the large, curved seat centered in the room.

Alfred’s voice filled the space around them. “Welcome back, Captain, launch sequence underway.”

Data flowed down the screen like flickering glow bugs.

“Release docking clamps and negotiate launch guidance with the Cavern.”

Lights blinked to life around them.

“Launch guidance confirmed.”

“Engage launch guidance assist.” Feeona locked her harness with a click. “Here we go.”

“Launch guidance assist engaged.”

The ship lurched and Jupiter tightened his grip on the arm rests of his seat. Feeona rotated her seat to an angle where he could see her face.

“There’ll be some tight turns,” she said. “And we’ll feel it until we cross out of the station’s gravity field. The launch will knock us up and back hard, but things will smooth out after that.”

Jupiter nodded, grateful for the information. He and Seneca had been unconscious when their journey on the resistance ship had begun and during their escape from Fitzhew they had already been drifting free in space.

The Owens kennel, the place where he had been imprisoned and trained on Roma Rex, had been near the spaceport. He’d heard and felt the percussion of ships launching, but being inside the ship when it launched was new to him.

Seneca’s body showed no sign of stress, but his ears were alert as he listened.

Feeona shifted her attention back to the data readouts. “Alfred, follow the nav-guides out of the bay and chart the closest safe skip-point.”

“Acknowledged, Captain. Shall I begin skip calculations?”

Feeona’s gaze flicked toward Jupiter, her face pale and lips pressed tightly together. “Yes, Alfred. Calculate the first skip using gamma approach for Petro-5 as our destination.”

“Yes, Captain.”

The grim press of her lips eased, softening her expression. When she spoke again her voice was lighter and her words were for him. “God, I’m tired.”

Jupiter reached for the straps holding him in place before his brain caught up with instinct.

Feeona shook her head. “No, stay strapped in until we’re free of the nav-guides and the standard engines kick-in.”

She’d warned him about the launch, but his urge to care for her had momentarily overpowered his sense.

He wanted to blame it on lust and the memory of her wet and naked, but all he wanted in that moment was to scoop her up and carry her to her cabin where he could tuck her into her bed and watch over her while she slept.

He should be thinking of the Dogs that remained on Roma Rex. Of the pack brothers whose fate was as yet unknown. Not the physical needs of one small human female.

He wrapped his hands around the straps, white knuckled with his internal battle. Then a brush against the bare skin of his arm snagged his attention. It was Seneca, reaching out with the barest of touches to refocus him.

Seneca’s lavender eyes were shades darker than normal. “We’ll find a way forward together.”

“As brothers,” he answered by rote. It didn’t help his mood that it had always been him aiding Seneca. Not this. Not him being the one struggling and off balance.

***

By the time Feeona got them safely into skipspace the remains of the drugs the med-tech had snuck into her system were gone, but Jupiter insisted on carrying her to her bed. Seneca trailed behind at a discreet distance.

This was the moment when she had to decide. She didn’t fully understand their relationship, but it was clear there was a special bond between them. If she wasn’t having them both in her bed, she needed to make it clear now.

Jupiter’s big body radiated heat, easing her muscles.

She pressed her nose against his neck and breathed him in.

The essence of the man. Something rare and comforting.

Safety. If safety had a smell that’s what Jupiter smelled like to her.

When had someone last gone to battle for her, or more importantly, simply been there when she needed saving?

Roland. He’d have piloted through a star to reach her. Not her flesh and blood mother or father—just a man. A good man.

Jupiter wasn’t Roland and the feelings growing for him were of a very different nature, but he was a good man, too.

If she hadn’t figured it out for herself, she would have known it by the way Seneca looked at him.

She looked over Jupiter’s shoulder as he carried her into her room.

Seneca’s gaze had been searing into Jupiter’s back, but he met her gaze over the muscular curve of Jupiter’s shoulder with those clear lavender eyes.

She curved her lips into a smile for him as she loosened her grip on the man carrying her.

Sen was impossible to read, but she suspected deep emotions hid behind the careful expression.

She didn’t know him yet, but she knew she didn’t want them to be adversaries. He was too important to Jupiter.

He hesitated just inside the door as Jupiter laid her on the bed.

She closed her eyes and listened as Jupiter rumbled an awkward request to Alfred for a warm water shower.

It was Seneca’s voice quietly asking for cleanser and then drying air.

A few minutes later the blowers stopped, and Jupiter slipped into bed behind her.

His body fit around her, but he made no move to demand anything more. She’d known he wouldn’t.

“Sleep,” Jupiter commanded softly as his hand stroked the curve of her shoulder and down the length of her arm.

A quick glance and she found Seneca back hovering at the door, He’d put back on the same clingy black pants as before and his snowy hair was now braided and pulled over one shoulder.

Feeona studied the still empty half of her big bed.

Roland’s room was across the hall from hers, but there was no reason to send him away.

They were only going to sleep. She was pretty sure they’d all slept together on the resistance’s heap of a ship.

But sleep would be followed by waking and this time there would be no recent injury to detour Jupiter.

Did she want Seneca there when sex was finally on the table?

She didn’t know Seneca as well as Jupiter, but she realized she wanted to know him better.

He was beautiful and strong and seemed to come as part of the deal.

He’d been right beside Jupiter when they’d come storming through the wall and if she didn’t yet know him well enough to trust him completely, that was okay.

She’d had sex with men she didn’t trust before.

Damn it. She trusted Jupiter. Really trusted him.

Feeona let that sink into her psyche then gave Seneca another smile. She reached out and patted the empty space. “Come on,” she said, gaze on the quiet stranger across the room. “Let’s all get some sleep.”

His face stayed blank, but he moved toward them and slipped into the empty space. The man lay on his back. No part of him touched her. Had she been wrong to think he and Jupiter came as a pair?

“Sleep.” Jupiter commanded more firmly.

Seneca’s eyelids closed and his body sank a bit deeper into the bed.

And they slept.