A Menage Made On Madison [The Federation 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Read online

  His gulp was audible. “I love you, too, Parker.”

  She squeezed his hand. “I know it must be weird, having to share me now after all these annals. But you’re not sharing me with a stranger. He’s your twinling. I’m going to have to learn to share you as well. I’ve seen your brothers and sisters, I know how close you two are going to be once you get used to having each other around again. These transitions are always filled with ups and downs, but we can make this work, baby. If anyone can, it’s us.”

  The sheets rustled again as he turned on his side. “What if we can’t?”

  “That won’t happen,” she denied immediately. “And I don’t want you being all defeatist on me, sugar. This is just because of last notte, you’re scared for me, but you don’t have to be. I was perfectly safe.”

  He pressed his forehead against hers. “We should try to get some sleep.”

  She sighed, knowing not to push this any further. “I’ll sleep so long as you do. Don’t leave me. I don’t want to wake up without both of you here. You’re not the only one feeling worse for wear.”

  It was a rotten thing to say, but she knew it was the only thing that would keep him in bed. As soon as she fell asleep, he’d sneak away to his office otherwise and drown in his morbid thoughts. At least this way, he could be close to her. She could be close to him.

  He grunted, but nodded, and when she eventually felt the steady brushes of air against her lips, she knew he was asleep and let herself tumble away as well.

  The next time she awoke, the windows were open to reveal Madison’s three moons, Lino, Maxt, and Rein. All three were named after Madison goddesses. She’d learned that when she and Knox had visited an observatory on their honeymoon sixty annals ago. The trip that had made them decide to settle here and try to earn their fortunes.

  She smiled at the memory of the two of them exploring, wearing the air lungs that had helped them survive in Madison’s atmosphere by filtering out the toxins in the air that were poisonous to their bodies—damn, they’d been uncomfortable. Thong uncomfortable.

  “What are you smiling about?”

  Rafer’s voice was low and close. She pried her eyes open and realized Rafer was the only one left in bed. She tried to get angry at Knox’s disappearing act, but he needed time and a little space to come to terms with the fact he had to share her, as well as the fact he couldn’t keep her wrapped up in cotton wool all the time.

  “I was smiling. I was thinking about the moons.”

  He cocked a brow at that. “Why were you thinking about the moons?”

  She huffed. “Just a random thought, that’s all. Thank you for staying with me.”

  “Knox was called away. His comm unit beeped and it was the Garda. The Fleet dealt with the aftermath, but they still need a report on the blast. He didn’t want to leave.”

  Parker rolled onto her side and looked up at him. She’d dreamed for so long about having him here, about falling asleep and waking up sandwiched between her two mates. It sucked balls that some freak-ass terrorist had decided to ruin something she’d been waiting a lifetime for…and she was fully aware that sounded totally selfish. But she wasn’t an angel. She was in no way perfect. She was just a woman, and she wanted to be with her men.

  “How does it feel to be here?” she asked, smiling as she rested a hand on his side. It was incredible to know that she could touch him, and that he was hers.

  “You wouldn’t believe how great it is. When I decided to come to the hotel, I wasn’t even sure how you two would react to my being here. I hoped I looked so damn bad that it would stop you from throwing me out onto the street.” When she tutted, he shook his head. “I fully deserved it, Parker. I’ve been a…”

  Before he could finish, she butted in, “A jackass. Yeah, you’ve definitely been one of those, but do you think Knox is perfect? There are times I could throttle him. And we’d never have thrown you out. We’ve just been waiting for you to come to your senses.”

  He smiled. “I don’t think I’ll need to worry about getting a big head when you’re around.”

  “That’s my chief role, don’t you know.” She winked at him.

  Rafer yawned and rolled onto his back. “I haven’t felt this tired in a long time.”

  “Considering you’ve spent the last two semanals in and out of deep sleeps, that doesn’t come as much of a surprise.”

  He grunted. “I figured it out last notte, Parker. What I’m going to do here.”

  “Security?”

  “Thunder stealer,” he retorted.

  She just grinned. “It was obvious. Apparently this place is not secure enough and that’s a shame on our parts. We should never have put our guests in such danger.”

  “I can understand why security was lax. When the status quo never changes, and the hotel has never been threatened, then it would be a stupid waste of resources to pile money into a sector that sees little to no action.

  “But times are changing, baby. Not just with the Barconians. There are a lot of people unhappy with the Federation, with the way it’s being run by the top-level ministers.”

  She frowned. “What do you mean? I haven’t seen anything about that in the periodicals.” The daily papers hadn’t mentioned anything about a possible rebellion.

  He smirked. “Love, the periodicals are about a mens behind on the information I have.”

  “Big shot.”

  His grin was smug. “Yup. But it’s the truth. There are going to be some serious changes coming soon. We need to control who comes in and out, need to make sure the place is safe and secure. It’s too large a resort not to keep on top of these things.”

  “I agree, and I’m sure when Knox gets back, he’ll feel the same way.”

  “I know this sounds cold, but we need to think of a spin for the Press. If we don’t, they’re going to nail us.”

  She hummed her agreement, and knew it was the truth. That was the problem with being in business. You became altruistic. She cared about her guests and her clients, and without them, her business wouldn’t exist. But she had to think of her name, of Knox’s and Rafer’s, as well as the reputation of the hotel.

  Knox strolled into the bedroom with a comm unit in his hand. “I don’t think we need to worry about that. Not for the moment, anyway.”

  Parker sat up on an elbow and puckered her lips. Knox, whose concentration had been on the comm unit, immediately walked over to her and bent over to buss her on the mouth. Rafer saw this and smirked. He just knew he’d become as whipped as Knox. He lukcin looked forward to it as well.

  “What’s going on?” he asked, holding his hand out for the comm unit. He should have been the one to deal with the Garda, especially in his position in the Fleet, but until the role he wanted to take in the hotel’s management was more fixed, he knew he had to let Knox take charge.

  That was more difficult than it ought to have been. Rafer was not used to sitting back and letting other people manage a situation directly under his authority.

  Knox tilted the comm unit so both of them could see the front page headline of the periodical.

  Parker gasped, and shook her head. “Oh, God, that’s so embarrassing.”

  Knox snorted. “Only you could say that. This picture is our salvation, Parker.”

  She grunted. “Slight exaggeration, Knox. And I didn’t do it for that. She was lost, and I know how frightening it is to be parted from your family. Hell, at any age. Never mind when you’re as small as Lizu is.”

  Rafer rubbed her shoulder. “I think it’s a good job you took a moment to hop into the particle shower last notte.”

  The comment had her bursting out with laughter. She looked over to him with a wide grin on her face. “Inappropriate as it might be, but I was thinking the same goddamn thing. Can you imagine if I hadn’t? The last thing I needed was to be on the front page with cum in my hair.”

  Knox snickered, and looked down at the picture, which was of Parker, knelt on the bridge, hair mussed bu
t clean, talking to the little girl, Lizu. There was something about the picture that put Rafer on edge. Maybe it was how right Parker looked with the child, a Shuzon child, and maybe it was to do with how long he’d denied her the possibility of becoming a mother.

  Shuzons were raised with the knowledge that if the Gods so blessed their union, and children could be born out of their mate bond, then that was the way of the world. He knew other cultures advocated abortion, not to mention family planning. But that wasn’t the Shuzon way.

  The Shuzon way embraced life in all its guises, but then, it could, because children could only be borne to a bound pair of twinlings.

  In their case, the situation was a little different. Had he realized who Parker was to him, had he claimed her for his own at the same time as Knox had, undoubtedly, they’d have had children by now, unless their mate bond was decreed infertile by the Gods.

  The knowledge that he’d denied her and Knox the children they should have had twisted his guts. There were many choices he could have made in his life, and holding back with his mate was one such choice that would forever plague him.

  It was only on deyas where disaster struck that those sentiments hit home. When he’d almost died on board his shuttle, he’d realized he needed to come home. And now, with this latest attack, he realized he wanted a family, and he regretted being the one to deny Parker and Knox the chance of being parents.

  Sometimes, regrets were futile. But, they were lessons to be learned as well, and he’d certainly been listening.

  “There could have been so many different headlines, Parker. Instead, it’s of you with the little Shuzon girl. Thank Griljerrd,” Knox rejoiced, but his words were broken off by a yawn.

  “Come back to bed, Knox,” Parker told him, uncaring that it was actually nighttime and they’d been in bed all deya. “If you’re tired, you’re no use to anyone in administration. And we pay enough people a hell of a lot of money to be able to control any kind of crisis. You don’t need to be there to crack the whip.”

  He grunted. “If I hadn’t already checked in with admin, I wouldn’t be doing this,” he told her as he pulled off his upper jacket, leaving behind the thin hemp undershirt he always wore. It was the Shuzon equivalent of a muscle shirt, and it exposed every single crinkle of muscle and every single river of veins on his chest.

  She loved his undershirts. Sometimes, she even preferred them to seeing him naked.

  “It’s good to know that I have absolutely no control over you,” she told him sweetly as she grabbed his jacket and threw it on the floor.

  “Now, now, Parker. Knox has always had to be in control.”

  “Like you haven’t, Rafer. Hell, you had to run away to head a part of the Fleet. Now if that isn’t what Parker calls a control freak, I don’t know what is.”

  “What’s a control freak?” Rafer asked, confused.

  She sighed. “Someone like Knox. And you, apparently. Just my luck to end up with two guys with sticks up their butts.”

  That defused the tension by making them both laugh, and she sucked in a relieved breath. The last thing she’d wanted was for the two of them to start bickering.

  She knew there was shit that needed to be dealt with downstairs, she knew the hotel was in the middle of a crisis, but at the moment, she really couldn’t give a damn. The injured folk had been treated with the best infirmary equipment on the galaxy. By now, their wounds would be healed. She knew the memory of what had happened to them would stick with them forever, but she couldn’t do anything to change that. Physically healing them was another matter.

  The admin team would already be dealing with the reconstruction of the damaged areas, and their publicity managers would be handling the Press.

  For these precious moments in time, things were at a gentle simmer. And before that hit boiling point, she wanted to take a moment to sit back, regroup, and be with the two most important people in her life.

  Was that such a lot to ask?

  Chapter Fourteen

  “I’m not going.”

  “Neither of us can concentrate when we both know there’s a good chance you’re in danger by staying here.”

  “If I’m in danger, then why haven’t you evacuated the entire hotel?” she argued.

  “Because Rafer’s team have isolated the threat.”

  “Bullshit,” she spat. “What the hell’s going on, Knox? Why do you want me to go to your parents’ place.”

  “Because you’re in danger, Parker. Why is that so hard to understand?”

  She shook her head. “If the threat was isolated, then there wouldn’t be a threat at all. Tell me what’s going on.” When his lips pursed and his face took on the mulish cast she’d come to recognize as his “won’t budge an inch” look, she pleaded, “If you tell me, I’ll consider going to stay with your family.”

  Like that would happen. She’d have to be dragged, kicking and screaming, onto the ship before she willingly went to Shuzon without her mates and stayed with their family. The family who hated her. Who wished she’d never been born.

  Yeah, talk about a welcome.

  Knox looked tired. For the past semanal, he’d been a whole spectrum of colors. Anything from washed out gray, lilac, and all the way over to navy, as his emotions took him from exhausted to angry, furious to weary.

  It was weird being able to judge his mood by merely glancing at his skin, but she’d grown used to it over the annals. It was just another facet of their relationship. Hell, he probably wished her skin worked the same way. The only time he had a clue what she was thinking was if she was embarrassed and her cheeks flushed.

  She watched as he scrubbed a hand over his face and rested a weary elbow on the desk. “Don’t fight me on this, Parker. Please.”

  She sighed, wanting to make things easier for him, but there was no way she was going to walk into a den of enemies unless the reason was a good one.

  “Your family hates me.”

  “They don’t hate you,” he denied.

  “Liar,” she retorted, but the words were without heat. She got up from her position opposite his desk. She’d taken a seat, almost like she was there on business, not at all like she was his mate. She moved around the desk and sat on the edge. “You know they hate me. And now Rafer has bound himself to me, they’ll hate me all the more.”

  He grunted. “They should respect you more. Rafer wouldn’t have been able to bind you to him if you weren’t ours.”

  “Yeah, well, your mothers are too busy cursing me to every Goddess of yours that will listen to actually figure that out for themselves. I don’t want to go there, Knox. Hell, I hate going for the festivities when you’re with me. Why would I want to go alone? Especially when the mate bond is still up in the air. And don’t lie, I know you can feel it, too.”

  Knox sighed and looked up at her with tired eyes. She felt his weariness and hurt for him. The last two semanals had been one long cycle of madness. Thankfully, the Press hadn’t decided to slate them, if anything, they’d applauded the hotel’s swift reaction to the explosion, and celebrated the onsite facilities that had allowed the hotel to autonomously handle the situation without requiring outside help from the Madison government.

  It also helped that Lizu’s fathers were, apparently, famous Shuzons. Not that she’d been aware of that. She was decidedly behind on who was who in Shuzon culture. She’d never been a huge fan of gossiping, but apparently, they were movie stars, and they’d also given the thumbs up to Madison Hotel. And to her specifically, which was kind of embarrassing—the last few times she’d left the hotel, the Press had been following her around like she was some kind of hero. What she’d done was something any human would do…but there was the rub.

  There were very few humans able to roam around at will. And her actions had pushed the plight of the Earthlings into debate. If a human was capable of stopping everything, of putting a chaotic situation to the side to care for one alien little girl, then what else were they capable of?


  It was a debate in need of discussion. At the moment, humans were nothing more than pets to most nations in the Federation. So as great as it was, it was just embarrassing that she was the poster girl for said discussion.

  Publicly, the hotel had blamed the explosion on a buildup of gases in Bar Azur’s bathroom facilities. It wasn’t unheard of for the particle units to go on the blink, and there had been nasty accidents reported on such occasions. It was a handy excuse, and one Knox had clung to.

  By leaving the investigation in the hands of Rafer and his team, they’d managed to cover up the bomb. It meant that whoever was behind said bomb hadn’t had the publicity they believed they deserved, which left them all in a precarious position.

  Another attack could be imminent.

  Apparently, if Knox was trying to send her to Shuzon, a threat was more than on the cards. It had been issued.

  Not that he’d told her. Hell, both of her men had been decidedly quiet on that front. On any damn front, actually, and dammit, she was horny!

  While she’d been sore after her claiming Ceremony, she wasn’t sore now. In the two semanals since the explosion, neither man had come near her, and they’d yet to touch her together. Hell, she’d been looking forward to that for the last sixty annals. Ever since she’d first met Rafer and learned who he was to Knox.

  Their world might be in the middle of chaos, but her body hadn’t received that particular memo.

  “Don’t push me on the mate bond, Parker. I’m too tired to sleep when I get into bed, never mind start anything with you.”

  She scowled at him and slapped him on the shoulder. “Where the hell do you get off in making me out to be some kind of ravenous slut? You’re my mate, Knox. Rafer is my mate. Now I’ve been through the Ceremony with both of you, I know we’re all supposed to come together. It’s the Shuzon way, and hell, I’ve heard that phrase often enough since Rafer got here to know that we’re supposed to follow a certain ritual. Don’t make me out to be the bad guy.”