Planet Athion: The Complete Series by Angel Lawson

22

Mercy

“Oh my god!Mercy! I was so worried about you!” Rose flings her arms around me and hugs me in the doorway. She pulls back and notices the healing bruise on my cheek. “You’re hurt!”

“No,” I say, touching the tender spot. “Really I’m fine. I just got caught in the storm, but a Custo found me and took me to safety.”

“A Custo?” she says, eyes wide. “They’re terrifying. Did you spend the last twenty-four hours with him?”

Them. I want to clarify but don’t. Instead, I step into the room and look through my clean clothes. I need to bathe and get to the clinic.

“Yes, there are some underground safe zones. We stayed there until the storm cleared.”

“Well, I’m just glad you’re okay. Someone called up here looking for you during the lockdown and I had no idea where you were. They definitely sounded panicked.”

I could only guess that was Alex. Before I would have wondered why he was looking out for me. Not anymore. All of those questions had shifted during the last day. Now we are on different footing—our thoughts and desires revealed.

“Which one was it?” she asks, as I rummage through a drawer.

“Which one who?”

“Which Custo was with you?”

I think of Dimka and our private moment in the office. I can tell her the truth about the men of the Southern Tip—how I hadn’t seen it yet but I’d felt it, how just the size and feel had brought me ecstasy. I could tell her how Kai’s nipples are a dark blue and incredibly sensitive. I could describe how his semen tastes, or the way his jaw slacked when he came hard for the first time in a woman’s mouth.

I couldn’t tell her those things, including how Alex watched me longingly, his hands as eager as his mouth. That we hadn’t taken it further but I knew we would, because something special happened down in that bunker. We’d bonded and started the early stages of a relationship none of us are supposed to be in.

We spent the remainder of our time together in affection. Small touches and kisses, sharing stories of past relationships, our family and homes. We used the time to become closer, forge bonds, and along with the joy I felt about that, I felt a pang in my chest at the idea of leaving them.

While experiencing something so wonderful—I’d also opened myself up to the risk of loss. Again.

“It was Alex,” I said, knowing he’d been the one to call for me. “When he realized I wasn’t in the dorm he came looking for me at the clinic. I was lucky he found me.”

An hour later I’m cleaned up and being escorted by a Custo I don’t know to the clinic. My boys had to report to their commander after being MIA for the last day. I don’t speak much to the Custo—instead watching the cleanup occurring in the streets. When we get outside the clinic, my eyes shift to where I’d been crouching by the statue. The iron figure stood untouched, but a large block of crumbling rock has shattered in the very spot I’d been hiding.

I fight a shudder at what could have happened if Kai hadn’t found me.

The workers have cleared the entrance to the clinic, which is a priority for obvious reasons. I step over debris and rocks. The windows held firm—the glass strong and resistant. I pass the front desk and enter my work area, glancing over at Dr. Kane’s office. His eyes connect with mine and he stands.

“You’re okay,” he says in disbelief.

I raise my eyebrows. “I am.”

“I got back to my home and heard over the scanner that you were missing. I was terrified you’d been injured. What happened? We left at the same time.”

I didn’t want to confess it was my fault—that going back in for the tablet had been my downfall. “I just got caught up in the wind and couldn’t make it through. Luckily, one of the Custo got me to safety.”

A line appears on his forehead. “Just one?”

There’s an intensity behind the question. “Well, one saved me. Two others were with me in the bunker.”

“I suspect I know who they are?”

Why does he care? He left me out there without a second thought. “The Custo assigned to watching me—yes, they noticed I didn’t make it to the dormitory. By the time they found me it was too late to go anywhere else. Thankfully, Kai knew of a safe zone nearby.” I hear the defensiveness in my tone and take a step back. “I was really very lucky they found me in time.”

His eyes soften. “Yes, of course. I was just worried and frankly ashamed of myself for not making sure you got to safety myself.”

“It wasn’t your fault. I’m the one that took the risk of going back in the building.”

“Still, I would hate for anything to happen to you, Ms. Ladd.” His voice lowers. “You know I’m very fond of you.”

Two days ago, hearing this would have made my heart race. Now it just made me uncomfortable. Things had changed that much in a matter of hours—all it took was one sandstorm and the four of us trapped in a small space where we couldn’t hide from our emotions. I give Dr. Kane a tight smile. “You’ve taught me a lot, Dr. Kane, it’s been a privilege to work with you.”

The statement seems to work and the professional façade returns between us. The day is busy and we double the number of patients we normally see, trying to make up for the lost day of work.

When Kai shows up to escort me home, I listen as he speaks to Dr. Kane in the outer office.

“I hear you kept Mercy safe during the storm.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I should have been more diligent with her welfare,” the doctor says. “The severity of that storm took me by surprise.”

“Things were chaotic and it’s not your job to look out for the safety of the residents. It’s mine.”

“Yes, that’s true, but,” I hear Kane pause, “Mercy is important to me. I owe you a great debt for keeping her safe.”

Kai says nothing in return, or at least nothing I can hear from the other room. I take the opportunity to make my presence known, making sure my expression is neutral. Kai looks at me with no emotion, but my heart thumps anyway.

“Good night, Ms. Ladd. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Good night, Doctor.”

We exit the building and walk the few feet toward the statue. The shattered rock hasn’t been cleaned up yet. Kai hesitates. “I don’t know what I would have done had you been seriously injured, Mercy.”

“Nothing happened,” I reassure him. “You found me just in time.”

He glances back at the clinic. “Seems I’m not the only one worried about your safety. He’s very interested in you.”

“I think Dr. Kane may be the type that likes to control what isn’t his.”

Kai frowns. “Are you certain he knows that you don’t belong to him?”

I walk forward until we’re in the shadows of the building. I grip Kai by the front of his uniform and pull him down. “I belong to the three men that saved my life,” I tell him in a whisper, “not the coward that left me in the storm.”

Not willing to reveal himself, Kai simply grazes his lips against mine—a hot warning for what would come later, when we find time alone. “I’m willing to share you, Mercy Ladd, but not with that man. I don’t like him.”

“Jealous?” I ask, walking out of the dark. We keep our distance and our voices low.

“Ridiculously.”

I love to know this side of him exists—that I bring such passion out in him. I give him a smirk and together we walk to the dormitory with our secret desires, the rest of the world oblivious of what’s bubbling beneath the surface.

* * *

“Close your eyes,”Alex says one night, when he’s on duty and I’ve just come downstairs for the night. I’ve got my blanket in my hands.

“What?”

“I have a surprise for you. Close your eyes.” He’s standing by the desk looking absolutely adorable with an eager and excited expression on his face. I touch my hand to the wall for balance. “Don’t move.”

“Where would I go?” I hear him walk across the lounge and open a door. A few moments later I hear his footsteps again. They stop in front of me.

“Open your mouth.”

I tilt my head. “What kind of surprise are we talking about here, Custo?”

“Get your mind out of the gutter, babe.” I feel the heat of his mouth near my ear. “And when we do stuff like that? I want your eyes open, okay?”

I nod and swallow slowly before following his directions and opening my mouth. “Should I be scared?”

“Of course not,” he says, and I trust him completely, so much that when I feel the chill of the spoon in my mouth followed by something sweet, I swallow it eagerly.

“Oh my god. Is that…” I open my eyes. Alex stands before me with a dish in his hands.

“Chocolate fudge sundae.”

“Alex!” I grab it from him and take another bite. It’s not quite the same as Dairy Queen, but it’s pretty damn close. I take another bite then offer him one. He takes the spoonful and then closes the distance between us, kissing the sweet sugar off my lips. “How did you pull this off?”

“I heard that on the ships they bring all kinds of Earth stuff with them—food and supplies. Most of it goes into storage, I think to see if they can replicate it or if it will last in this atmosphere. I asked around and my friend, Sai, he got me the things I needed. Although, no peanuts are allowed out of quarantine, but he suggested Manka root as an alternative and the chef at the dining hall gave me some.” He picks one off the top of the sundae and pops it in my mouth.

“It tastes a lot like peanuts.” I kiss him again, this time a little longer, and he hums against my mouth.

“You told me it was one of the things you missed most about home. I wanted to do something special for you.”

“It’s definitely special.” I smile at him. “Just like you.”

I finish my sundae before it melts, licking the chocolate off the bottom of the bowl.

“You’ve got a little right here,” he says, kissing my nose. It doesn’t take much to escalate and we fall into an hour-long make-out session.

“If Kai walks in here, he’s going to kick my ass.”

“Or join in,” I counter. He shivers every time I kiss his neck. I can’t stop doing it.

“You’d be into that? Two of us at once?” He pulls back and looks at me.

“Or three.” I shrug, acting like the idea doesn’t scare me. It does—a little—it’s new and something I’ve never done before, but the idea of being with the three of them excites me in a way I’ve never felt before. “Do you have a problem with it?”

“I thought I would,” he says thoughtfully, “but what we have is so different from what I ever had with a woman on Earth. You’re different—this place is different. Love shows itself in a new way. I’m open to that.”

We fall into one another again, Kai forgotten for the moment, well, at least I forgot him. Alex pulls back and takes a deep, settling, breath.

“Mercy, I really need to go on patrol.”

Yet he kisses me again, slow and lingering, like he has all the time in the world.

We’ve moved to a small alcove off the lounge. He’s got me against the wall, hard-muscled bodyweight against mine. I love the way he feels, I love his slow-burning intensity. But I appreciate his dedication to his job also. It’s something that ties us all together.

“Go, I’ll wait for you.”

“You should sleep.”

“You know I don’t sleep.”

He tilts his head. “You should—what’s keeping you up at night?”

“I don’t know.” I shrug. “I think I got enough rest on that ship for a lifetime.”

I don’t tell him that lately it’s more about how I can’t stop thinking about him, Kai, and Dimka. Other nights I still get paranoid, wondering about the girl that went missing and if there could be a Trad in our presence. If they knew I worried, they’d up my security and that isn’t necessary. Dr. Kane already had too many questions and I didn’t want others to catch on to our intensifying relationship.

“I guess I shouldn’t complain. If you hadn’t been a night owl, we wouldn’t have found the time to get to know one another.”

I kiss him quick. “Exactly. Now go. Kai will be all over your ass if you don’t patrol and check in.”

Alex gives me a slow, lopsided grin that I’m sure made a million hearts explode on Earth. “How did we luck out and end up on a planet a billion miles away together?”

“Fate, I guess.”

He leaves me with another kiss and a racing heart and as I watch his strong, broad shoulders walk away, I can’t help but think that I never want these days, or nights, to end.

* * *

The first timeI see Dimka after the bunker is in the early morning light as he waits to escort me to the clinic.

He’s quiet, as usual. Brooding, as usual. Handsome as ever. He’s also got the slightest spark in his eye that I know is just for me even though we don’t touch, or kiss, or anything remotely intimate.

He does watch me closely as I adjust my shoe for a moment on the path, eyes dark and focused. When I stand, he whispers, “Laird, you’re beautiful,” and my heart threatens to leap from my chest.

“I’m not even doing anything,” I argue, but I understand the feeling. It’s the little things that make me love him. The way he watches me, the way he holds the door. I see the small smile on his mouth when he thinks something’s funny but doesn’t want to admit it. I also love the cranky line that creases his forehead when he’s overthinking.

When he drops me at the clinic, I feel warm and fuzzy inside, a boost of adrenaline that gets me through my appointments, the women I’m here to serve, and Dr. Kane’s sly comments. Truthfully, every moment becomes about the next time I see them.

Later, when I meet Kai at the door after work, I know we’ve set a routine, a way of life on this planet. He’s less secretive about his work—sending messages to his friend Damon or discussing issues in the facility while I’m nearby. He trusts me and in turn, I trust him, and the new life established between me and the men I’m increasingly growing attached to. I know changes are coming but I think, between the four of us, we can come up with a solution.

No.

I don’t think, I know, because in my mind and heart, this is it for me.

Together, we’ll get through anything.