He winked. “I’ll hold you to that date, sweetie.” He left sick bay and she went to the head to freshen up. Maybe she should have let him have a little solo fun with her.
Ford walked in ten minutes later. She read him without turning to face him, knew that Caph had kept the secret.
“What’s up, sweetie?” he asked.
Oh, they sometimes made the comments too easy.
“Get undressed. I need to do your physical.” She turned to him and he was already out of his shirt and his pants were halfway down.
Laughing, she shook her head. “Don’t have to ask you twice, do I?”
“Come on, Emi. Do you really think I’m going to tell you ‘no’
when you tell me to strip?”
She went through the same procedure with Ford, only with more of their familiar banter and chit chat. Caph was more quiet when they were together. Ford didn’t feel the need to fill silence, their conversations just naturally happened. Talking about any and everything. She suspected her arrival had filled an intellectual need for him that was long unmet. Not that the other two men weren’t smart, because they were. However, Emi understood from living with them that Ford frequently suppressed his need for ambling non sequitur conversations around the other two men so he didn’t try their patience.
He was a chatterbox.
It wasn’t unusual during her talks with Ford for them to start on one topic¯a book, for example¯then suddenly switch tracks to a completely unrelated topic, bouncing around with light speed until they couldn’t remember the original conversation. Caph and Aaron tolerated this in him, but he strongly curtailed his desire to talk around them for their sake, not wanting to drive them crazy.
When she got to the point where she asked him to bend over the table, he looked at her, then smiled. “Sure.” Grabbing another glove, she repeated the same procedure she had with Caph. Ford closed his eyes, sighing.
“Thought you said you weren’t a tease.” His voice had taken on an arousal-tinged depth.
“I’m not.” She stroked him, enjoying the way his body responded.
“Damn,” he whispered. He kissed her, his eyes still closed.
“Please don’t stop.”
“I won’t.” She pressed her body against his, her sex throbbing again. “Show me how good you feel.”
“That feels sooo good.”
“Caph said I’m getting a good hard fucking tonight after what I did to him.”
“Times two…” He grunted, closer to release. “What do you want us to do to you, baby?”
“I figured you’d be trying to get a little revenge, hold me down and tease me, make me beg for it.”
“That what you want? Want me to make you beg?” She was damn close to begging him now. “You know what you do to me.” That finished him, his entire body trembled with the force of his release. Emi gave him a moment to recover, cleaned up, and handed him a towel.
Ford pulled her to him, crushing her against him, kissing her.
“Dammit you’re so sexy, babe. I love you so much. I don’t even mind sharing you with those two guys.”
“I love you, too. And I don’t mind sharing you with them, either.” He grinned. “I still can’t believe you’re okay with all this. You just fit right in.”
“Why wouldn’t I be okay with it? Maybe if those other stupid women could have felt what I felt with you guys, they would have kept an open mind.”
His eyes grew sad for a moment, and she felt his mood shift. “The three of us, we’ve been together a lot of years. And I’m not saying I would have changed anything, because I love them, and I know they love me even though I drive them crazy. But it’s like…it’s like we’re complete now, you know? Like we were waiting for you and now that you’re here, I can’t imagine you not being here. It feels right.” Emi nodded. “I know. And you’re stuck with me for at least five years.”
He kissed her again. “Hopefully a lot longer than that, babe.” She sent him on with the same admonishment she gave Caph.
Before he left he turned, his face clouded.
“Do me a favor, babe. Keep in mind Cap never bottoms, okay?” She nodded, curious. This wasn’t the same thing. Was it? “Okay.” He left, and she finished his chart. Aaron walked in a few minutes later, his eyes playful.
“What did you do to the twins?”
Emi went for wide-eyed innocence, knowing her act wasn’t fooling Aaron in the slightest. “What?”
“I know those two. They both look like they got laid. Thought this was supposed to be a medical exam?”
“I did examine them, just like I’m about to examine you.” He laughed, shaking his head. “Guess I just have to wait and see for myself, huh?”
“You can undress now, Captain.”
He did, sitting on the table and letting her go through the procedure.
When she got to the point where she was going to have him bend over she felt it¯his anxiety, stress levels suddenly through the roof.
His entire body as well as his mind and soul had tensed, and it was one of the times she wished she was a full clairvoyant.
“What’s wrong?”
He shook his head, his playful smile gone and replaced by a grim look. “Nothing. Let’s get this over with.” He sensed what was up.
She waited, watching him. “Aaron, tell me. Please.” His ragged breath told her she needed to change her plans or there might be serious emotional repercussions for him. “Long story.” He looked at her, but his smirk was anything but playful or amused. It reminded her of his hostile response her first night with them, before they started over. “Crew story.”
She stepped back, almost physically rocked by his words. “I thought I was crew.”
“I¯” He stopped, probably mentally swearing. “I didn’t mean it like that, Em.” His voice softened. “Look, before we leave, after you’ve signed on the line and all, we’ll go out and we’ll tell you. The basics, at the very least. I promise.” This was part of his deep grief. She sensed there were two parts to this story, separate, but so entwined they wove the tapestry of his pain.
“You don’t trust me yet, do you?”
He stood up. “I do. But it’s taken me a lot of years to get to the point where I can even think about it, much less talk about it.” That was the best she would get from him for now, and Ford’s words before he left sick bay came back to her. “Okay.” She grabbed a glove and carefully and quickly did the exam, professionally, taking mere seconds, without the happy finish she’d given the other two.
Maybe this was tied into why he didn’t “bottom.” His sigh of relief when it was over wasn’t merely physical, it was mental. She sensed it wasn’t that he hated it. It was like he wanted to enjoy it the way the other two did, perhaps even once had, but something stopped him. He enjoyed going down on the twins, she’d watched him do it, and he certainly enjoyed fucking them and letting them go down on him. But this was something different, something preventing him from enjoying it.
His emotional pain.
She had an idea.
“Up on the table and lay down on your back, please.” Puzzled, he did.
She looked at him. “I need to check for any irregularities.” She winked, hoping it would relax him.
As if a fog cleared in his soul he laughed, crossing his arms behind his head. “I think I’m going to like this.” She started with a traditional testicular exam¯for all of five seconds. Then she went down on him, his moan setting her insides on fire as she laved her tongue around his now-erect cock. The men each had subtle preferences, and they’d had fun teaching her. Always a quick study, she knew just what combination of techniques would quickly bring him over, and that’s what she did.
He closed his eyes, one hand going to the back of her head, gently cupping it as she stayed with him until he was completely spent. She looked up to his cautious smile and smoldering gaze.