He reddened, and she knew she’d hit it on the nose. Daniel was a dump-er, not a dump-ee. He hadn’t really expected Emi not to take him back. Her refusal to let him return to her life was now also a personal challenge for him.
“What’s happened to you? You’ve changed. I thought we had something. I want you to marry me. She didn’t mean anything to me, I swear.”
She bitterly laughed. She’d changed, all right. “Yeah, that makes me feel a lot better. Asshole, read my lips¯you cheated on me, you lying sack of shit. I’d still be with your worthless ass if you hadn’t, so you did me a favor.” She met Aaron’s possessive gaze. “If you hadn’t been a jerk, I wouldn’t have met these guys.” She glared at Daniel.
“And you’d better believe they aren’t about to cheat on me.”
The twins chimed in. “Fucking got that right.” Aaron wanted his shot at Daniel. He let go of Emi and stepped forward, nearly six inches taller than Daniel. “We know how to treat a lady right, kid. I suggest in the future you learn how to keep your pants zipped.” He stepped forward again. Daniel was forced to step back or get stepped on. Daniel finally took the hint and backed out of the doorway.
“You’re going to regret this, Emilia. You don’t know what you’re losing.”
“Uh, that would be a lying, cheating, sack of shit ex-boyfriend I’m losing, right? Toodles!” She waggled her fingers at him. Aaron shut the door in his face and the men burst out laughing.
Aaron turned and pulled Emi into his arms. “What an asshole. I guess I should have told him thank you, though.” She put her arms around his neck and felt the twins press close.
“So not worth the aggravation.” They heard another knock on the door. Emi groaned. “Hades, what now!” Aaron opened the door. Donna stood there, looking confused.
“I just passed Daniel in the hall. Looks like he’s pretty pissed.” She eyed the three men.
“Yeah, we just threw him out. Come on in.” Emi introduced the men.
“Wow.” Donna looked at the men, smiling. “Want another crew member?” Donna graduated with a Beta healer ranking, no empath or psych training, but still a very skilled surgeon.
Emi grinned. “Sorry, it’s a four-crew ship, and I don’t share well.
I know there’s at least two more ships needing a med officer. One of them were military guys, really built.” Donna didn’t care about personalities—she liked her guys stacked. She was also slim and trim, a better “physical specimen” than Emi.
“Really?” Donna asked, curious.
“Mm hmm. You should apply. You can always decide not to sign on if you don’t like them.”
Caph slipped his arms around Emi’s waist and kissed the back of her neck. “You ready to go, Emi? Looks like we’ve got everything.” She patted his arm. “Yep. I have a storage locker we need to clean out, that’s not too far away.”
Donna couldn’t take her eyes off Ford. “Wow. When you told me yesterday morning you were going for an interview, you weren’t even sure you wanted to sign on.”
Emi shrugged. “A lot happened since then.” Boy, had it! “I met these guys.” She stepped away from Caph and hugged her friend. “I’ll see you when we get back. I’ll send you notes from the road.”
“Stay safe.” Donna stepped aside as the men finished loading the transport cart with Emi’s things for the final trip to the truck.
An hour later they were back at the ship, stowing her belongings in the storage room she’d staked out for herself near sick bay. Aaron looked inside as they stacked the last load for her.
“You know, it’s weird how this is mostly déjà vu,” he said.
She grinned. “Tell me about it. No regrets, right?” He smiled. “No regrets.”
Emi snapped her fingers. “Man, almost forgot.”
“What?” the twins asked.
“I’ve got to give you your crew physicals!” The men laughed. Aaron pulled her to him, his hands sliding down to her ass. He kissed her behind the ear and whispered, “Feel free to give me the same treatment you gave the twins.” She raised her eyebrow, hopeful. “Really?” His playful smirk melted her. “Really. If I can’t trust my ship’s med officer, who can I trust?”
Chapter Twenty
Graymard sent Emi a report about their time in the simulation.
Crews didn’t have to make it all the way through the scenarios to be paired, but where and how they failed determined where extra preparation or even repairing was necessary. The “required” simulation usually ended at the Tay-Dax’n scenario, which many crews failed to complete. But they’d done so well and progressed so quickly, Graymard told the techs to keep them in and see how far they played it out. Not only had they made it further in the simulation than any other crew, they scored the highest in the individual situations.
The report included summaries of what each situation was designed to evaluate.
In a confidential aside to Emi, Graymard apologized for the Dry Port scenario and explained they were evaluating the Angor Bay’s crew before deciding whether or not to accept them into the DSMC.
They would not have been allowed to sexually assault her, even in the simulator¯they would have been removed from the simulation before that happened¯but what the two men did automatically disqualified them from consideration for service, even though they faced punishment in the simulation to keep it realistic for her and the boys.
The Dry Port was not a normal scenario she would have been placed in, but the unintended benefit was it gave them extra data not only about the men’s devotion to her, but her ability to follow command orders and place her trust in her commanding officer despite her personal feelings to the contrary. It was also an unexpected but vital test for Aaron, to see if he could accept and have confidence in a “weaker” crew member he worried about, allowing her the ability to learn and grow and prove herself despite his obvious fears over her welfare.
“We had to gauge his trust and confidence in you and your abilities,” Graymard wrote, “as surely as we had to gauge your trust in him and in his.”
They spent a good chunk of their two weeks off in bed at the hillside resort in New Phoenix. The boys recreated their dream days with her. The only difference was that for the nights alone, they got a second room next door, and they all had breakfast together each morning. Otherwise, they spent every day¯and night¯together.
They also re-enacted Ford’s claiming of her virginity, so to speak.
She was nervous at first, but as his gentle fingers massaged her virgin rim and pressed for entrance, she relaxed and enjoyed the strange, new sensation. Aaron and Caph kept her busy and distracted. When Ford pushed his cock past the first resistance, she took a deep breath, and the slight burning as he stretched her soon transformed to pleasure under their hands.
She looked over her shoulder at him and wiggled her ass. “What are you waiting for?” she asked, smiling.
With his hands on her hips he carefully thrust into her, letting her get used to him. So this part wasn’t exactly like it’d been in the simulator, but in many ways it was better. She tasted the last remnants of champagne on Aaron’s lips, and Caph’s breath hinted at the chocolate mousse he’d had for dessert. Their skin felt warm and responsive, their collective musky male scent intoxicating to her senses. The simulation explained why she had always felt like she had a stuffy nose and could barely taste or smell anything. In real life she savored every scent and taste and feel of their bodies, from the salty tang of their juices as she went down on them, to the rough stubble on their cheeks at the end of the day.