The next week was the happiest of my life. I didn’t have a lot of joyful memories to draw upon, but I knew if I ever had to find a blissful time to remember, it would be my first week on Malice. It was funny to know how I would remember something even as I experienced it. A surrealness to it all.

The first thing that happened was that Bo finally got his container open. An alarm sounded all over the ship, and I stopped what I was working on in the laundry room to go see what was happening. Were they—we—taking on another ship?

Instead, I found all three guys standing over the container. Bo had a hand over his forehead when I arrived. “All okay?”

Jordan extended his hand, and I took it. He tugged me to him. River watched us, his gaze following my hand in Jordan’s then the tug into an embrace. I couldn’t read him all that well, but he didn’t look upset, more like… interested, as though the easy interaction fascinated him more than anything else.

“Yes,” Jordan answered my earlier question. “We’re just a little overwhelmed by what we found.”

I looked down in the opened bin. “What is the big deal?” As far as I could tell, it was a bunch of tablets. Everyone had one, even my parents on their farm. Procuring a tablet wasn’t that big of a problem.

River bent over. “It’s not what they are”—he picked up a tablet—“it’s what they have on them. They’re password protected, but that’s no problem for our Bo.”

Bo held up one in his hand. “They are meant for their legions of people who think they run things in the Dark Planets. It basically has their plans for the next three years. We’re going to make a killing. And even more so, it looks like they might be mining two planets past the protocol, so they’ll be officially stripped.”

“No wonder they shot this out the back.” It would be a disaster for someone to have this for whatever company this is. Or, I guessed in our case, it was a good thing they had. I was really having a hard time with pirating. What was a downside for the rest of the world benefited us. I’d get it, eventually.

Maybe.

With that behind them, the guys set out to reach the planet—where I was to make my choice about whether I wanted to stay or leave. They’d decide the same thing. Two weeks to go, and it felt like a lot longer time than it actually was.

Jordan liked to play games. He pulled out a card game I’d never heard of before and slowly set about to teach it to me.

“Do you play cards a lot?”

Jordan sat across from me in the kitchen area on the newly balanced table. If the guys were noticing the slight improvements to things, they weren’t telling me. I didn’t care. I felt much better about my living space. They’d been happy with their furniture slanted for years. I guessed it didn’t matter to them.

“Used to.” Jordan smiled at me as he leaned back in his chair. “When we first got together, we used to try to fill the nights. Now, we don’t. But I want to, with you. Do things. Remember that life is fun. You make me… hopeful.”

That was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to me. So much so that I didn’t question my need to lean over and kiss him. His lips were soft, and his clean, fresh scent wafted over me, alighting my desire for him. Jordan should be sculpted. He dropped his cards and pulled me over to the table to straddle his lap.

“Tell me if it’s too much, Priscilla.”

I loved how he said my name. It sounded almost musical. I wrapped my arms around his neck. “If what is too much?”

“I’m going to kiss you and kiss you. I’m desperate for you. Not to be crude, but I wake up hard and wanting you so badly I can’t think.” He picked me up in his arms and pressed me down on the table. I couldn’t help it. For a second, I considered whether or not the table was strong enough to hold us both. It was. I’d reinforced it when I’d straightened it out. Okay. With that behind me, I could actually focus on what was happening.

Jordan was there. He was hot, he was my husband, and he wanted me. I kissed both his cheeks. “I’ll tell you if it’s too much.”

I had no intention whatsoever of stopping whatever was about to happen. His words, which I didn’t consider crude, woke me up from the inside. My mouth watered. I wanted him, too.

His mouth met my own, and he wasn’t gentle in his claiming. Bo had been an easy going kisser, gentle in his caresses. Jordan was neither of those things. He kissed me and then kissed me some more. I could hardly keep up. I decided I didn’t need air, and let him lead me. Time lost essential meaning to me. There was only the sounds of the ship in the background and the small noises Jordan made in the back of his throat. They were a cross between a moan and a sigh. I dug my fingers into his back, which made him jolt, and his sighs turned into an outright moan.

He raised his head. “I can’t make love to my wife for the first time on the kitchen table.” He hauled me over his shoulder, and I squealed. I was too big to be carried like this, but if he didn’t mind, I wasn’t going to tell him. Abruptly, Jordan stopped. “I’m supposed to wait, right? Three weeks?”

“Jordan, if there are rules, no one has told me.”

“We make our own rules, you and me. The other two can manage things as they like.”

I thought that sounded great. My parents hadn’t had a plural marriage; it had only been the two of them. On our planet, where granted there weren’t that many married people around, it was often a split between those in a one-on-one and those in which there was one woman and multiple men. The Dark Planets didn’t have an abundance of women, even fewer than the rest of the galaxy, so even having any marriages was unusual. It seemed to me, from the outside looking in, that the wives always had their own relationships with each guy.

His room was close to the kitchen and was actually quite different than Bo’s. The size was the same, but Jordan had made a loft of his bed so that it was closer to the ceiling and opened up space beneath it for a desk. I made note that the desk needed to be looked at before it fell over. He had artwork on the walls and some crystals on shelves. His shelves actually seemed to be sound at a quick glance. His clothes were thrown all over the place.

The bed wasn’t made, and he kicked the top sheet of it with his foot when he laid me down. He was impressive getting up the ladder to the top of the loft.

“You’re so amazingly strong.”

He raised his eyebrows. “I’m glad that you think so. You’re so incredibly beautiful, inside and out. Everything you do, every little thing all day long, seems to be in service of others. You’re fixing up our ship. You think about everyone’s feelings. I can’t even begin to express how you fill me with joy.”

Well, he’d done a pretty good job of it right there. I stroked my hand down the side of his cheek. “I’ve never done this before.”

There was no surprise in his gaze. “I’m honored that you’d choose me for this. Or am I going too fast? Presuming too much?”

“You’re not. I have to tell you that I’m going to get really attached to you. Truth is, I am already.”

He kissed the top of my nose. “You were never going anywhere, lady. If River needs three weeks to accept what was always going to be, then he can have it. I knew in the space station. I heard the wind for the first time in two decades.”

“Jordan.” I didn’t know what to say. There weren’t words adequate enough to express to him how much he moved me.

He pulled off my shirt, yanking it over my head. The act rubbed the cloth against my nose, which made me giggle. He smiled at my laughter. “I’m going to take care of you, Priscilla. I promise. I’m going to make this so good for you.”

His hand splayed over my stomach, traveling upward until he reached the center of my bra. He eyed the clasp. “Doesn’t that hurt? Pressed up against your skin like that? It’s even leaving a mark.”

“Full figured gals like me don’t have the luxury of not wearing a bra unless we want to give ourselves a black eye.”

He snorted, which made my bad joke incredibly better. “Looks like it hurts.”

“It does. It’s one of those things in life.”

Jordan unhooked the front latch of my bra and discarded it somewhere on the floor. He caressed my now loose breasts gently in his callused fingers. Pleasure shot through me at his gentle ministrations. I never really gave very much thought to my breasts. Touching them myself didn’t elicit this response from my body.

But Jordan doing it? I’d probably be begging for him to stroke my breasts every day.

Muscles bunched under his shirt, and I was dying to get my hands on his skin. I tugged at his shirt. “Off, please.”

He grinned. “Sure.”

Jordan took my request and ran with it. He didn’t just take off his shirt but all of his clothing. He knelt in front of me on the bed, his head almost touching the ceiling. I hadn’t been wrong in my earlier assessment of Jordan. He should be sculpted, captured in his perfect, masculine glory. If he had any fat on him anywhere, I couldn’t see it. I ran my hand over his pectoral muscles, and they jumped beneath my touch.

“You move me, Priscilla.”

With light fingers I stroked my hand over his skin, abruptly stopping when he yanked my pants off and threw them aside. My panties followed suit. I’d always wondered how I would feel naked around someone else. With Jordan’s hot gaze roaming all over my body, I felt… desired. The thought buzzed my head and made me feel bolder than I’d been before. I leaned back on my elbows. “Like what you see?”

“So much.”

He ran a hand from my throat to the top of my pussy. I shuddered. By the time he finished with his slight caress, I was panting with want for him. Jordan slipped a finger inside of me. I studied his face while he stroked me. The expression on his face was almost as hot as what his steady finger was doing inside my pussy.

My pleasure started slowly and increased with every moment between us. I didn’t know everything about how it was between a man and a woman, but the basics I understood. What he did to me, I could do to him back. I reached down until I felt his hardness and cupped the top of him.

He sucked in his breath. “Careful.”

“You’ll tell me? If you like what I do?” I ran my hand the length of him, from his top down, and he trembled. Jordan, so big and strong, was as much at my mercy as I was at his. He grew harder in my hand. And then harder still. Would he fit inside of me?

Jordan grabbed my hand. “No more. I won’t make it.”

Pleasure shot through me. He’d found a rhythm that worked, and I was—wow. I was going to shatter into a million pieces. I was breathless, boneless, nothing until he pressed down with his second finger. I exploded.

I was so high I might have floated above my body, but soon Jordan moved until he was on top of me, his neck bent so he could look me in the eyes. He pressed the tip of his penis against my pussy and pressed inside of me, ever so slowly. I’d never felt full like I did then. Even still riding the orgasm he’d just given me, I couldn’t get over the sanctity of this moment. This was actually happening. Jordan was deep inside of my body.

And then he moved, slowly at first, but faster as the minutes passed. I wrapped my arms around his neck, laying kisses on his chin, anywhere I could reach. My muscles weren’t quite used to this. I’d never been loved in this way before, and although incredible wasn’t accurate enough to describe this experience, there was a discomfort to it, too.

He clenched his neck muscles. “This is…”

Jordan reached between us, finding the spot he’d caressed earlier. With every stroke, he pinched lightly. I cried out, the pleasure overwhelming whatever discomfort I had otherwise. I dug my nails into his back as my own arched off the bed. He moaned, the movement pushing him to his own completion. At first his face strained, and then a look of peace crossed over it. I held onto him for dear life. I didn’t ever want to let go.

We dozed in the bed together, sleep close but not overtaking either of us just yet. Jordan played with my fingers within his own, as though they fascinated him. “I’d love to see your blonde hair in the sunlight some time. Your blue eyes, your blonde hair.”

I liked how our skin looked together, his dark to my pale. I smiled at the contrast. “You’ll have to give me a hat so the sun doesn’t burn right through me and bring out all my freckles.”

“Freckles would be cute on you.” He kissed my cheek. “What did your father do to get a wife? I know that’s a weird question, but it’s so hard out here. What was his accomplishment that earned him your mom?”

I yawned. “He bought her from my grandfather. Her father was deeply poor, starving. My dad arrived at his doorstep, made him an offer, and apparently that was that.”

“Hmm.” He kissed my lips. “Sleep, darling.”

I closed my eyes.

Days later, I stood with Bo, helping him go through the tablets. I’d fixed everything I could on the ship, and now I contemplated painting it. At the very least, I was going to give the place a good scrub. Even knowing that, if I wanted to stay—and I did—I was going to have to figure out something more useful than being the maid and occasionally adjusting their shelving and furniture. I sighed. If only I could figure out what…

“What is that sigh for?” Bo nudged me with his foot.

I could lie. But not when the truth was what was needed, and I was a really, really bad liar. “I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to fit in here.”

He furrowed his brow. “You’re fitting in fine. You had River laughing last night. That’s almost unheard of.”

I smiled. River had a great laugh and day by day, he seemed to be loosening up around me. He didn’t scowl in my general direction anymore. “No, I mean, not that. What am I going to do on this ship? What will my role be?”

He stood and walked over to me, extending his hand for me to take. I laced our fingers together and let him help me get off the floor. I didn’t need help, per se, but I liked it nonetheless. “Priscilla, you’ve been doing a ton on the ship.”

“Done. Now what?”

Bo drew me to him. I pressed my head against his chest. “There’s always new things to do. They’ll always be more work to sort through, things breaking. Or something will happen and it’ll be something entirely unimagined that you’ll do. I can teach you to work all the machines.” He paused before he spoke again. “What did you imagine your life would be like after you were, ah, bought as a wife?”

I pulled back to look at him. “I thought I’d keep up someone’s house and have children. That’s pretty much what I envisioned before. I wasn’t sure what else to expect. Where I’m from, women don’t do much else.”

He rocked us both slightly, keeping eye contact the whole time. “Did you have other dreams?”

“No.” I shook my head. “It never occurred to me to have any.”

“All right, fair enough. So you’ll tell us if that changes and, Priscilla, you can have those other things here. This could be your home. And as for babies”—he winked at me—“I’d never say no.”

His kiss was slow, gentle and just what I needed at the moment. I sighed against him. He bit down on my lower lip, which made me giggle. It didn’t hurt, just tickled. I tried to remember what we were talking about. That was right. Babies. “Could you really see babies on a pirate ship?”

Bo pressed our foreheads together. “Maybe not full time. But when they were baby-babies? Yes. We’d figure it out. Whatever you wanted. I’d be happy staying like this forever, too.”

I touched his lip with my thumb. “Do you want me, Bo? With you? Forever?”

“I do.” He didn’t hesitate in his answer. I was able to take a deep breath. The three-week marker weighed on me. I supposed it shouldn’t. What was the difference? If we said we wanted each other now or then, why did it matter? For some reason, it did. I wanted Bo to crave me the way I did him.

He spoke again. “Do you want me, Priscilla? I love saying your name.”

I nodded. “So much. I don’t want to miss out on seeing you smile or hearing your voice for even one more day in my life.”

He let go of me, which jarred me, and I almost fell backward. What had happened? I thought we were having a moment. “Bo?”

My husband walked to the side of the room and hit a button. A loud clink sounded, and he strode back to me. “Locked the doors. I love Jordan and River, but I don’t want them right now.”

He kissed me again. And then again. And then again some more.

We shed clothes, becoming nothing but two tangled bodies. I was right in assuming the table in the back of the room wasn’t comfortable. I didn’t care right then whether or not it was.

Bo lay on his back. I came over his body. We moved like we had done this before, as though we were lovers who knew each other’s secrets instead of newly discovering what sounds we made, what we tasted like to each other, and how it felt to have him inside of me. I wasn’t a natural at being on top. After a while, I did take to the movement, like riding a horse. I ground against him, my clit rubbing just where it needed to be. Each jerk of our bodies rang pleasure through my head. I grabbed my own breasts, stroking them while he held onto my hips.

“Priscilla.” Over and over again my name like a prayer from Bo, while the sound of his voice became more and more strained. Watching him lose control, knowing I was doing it, the way this whole thing had become frenzied, it was an amazing turn on unto itself.

“I’m going to come,” he called out, his neck straining while his hands dug into my side. I loved the little bit of pain. It pushed me forward, and I exploded just as he did. I lost muscle control and fell right on top of him. He didn’t seem to mind. Bo held me close, neither of us speaking for a long, long time.

I finally moved, carefully getting myself off of Bo. He opened his eyes. “Where are you going?”

“Can’t be comfortable for you on the table.”

He shook his head. “I’ve had to sleep on worse places. Some time I’ll tell you about the time that Jordan and I had to wait for River to rescue us from a room filled with Prima Five’s snake pits. That was really awful.”

Snakes? I shuddered. Were they on every planet? I hated the slithering fiends. “Maybe you shouldn’t tell me. I may not want that visual.”

He grinned, sitting up. “Are you okay?”

I searched and finally found my panties, stopping to admire the beautiful male form nearby. Was that vulnerability on his face? I went to him, leaning over to kiss him with all the claiming he’d given me. “I’m never better. How are you?”

“Feeling like the luckiest son-of-a-bitch ever. You’re so much better than I deserve. I’m going to keep you anyway.”

I bit down lightly on his shoulder, liking the salty taste of his skin. I wanted to bottle this moment. “I know it’s too fast, but I want to be your wife. I don’t want anything else.”

He tipped my chin up to look at him. “Good.”

Bo unlocked the doors to the room, and we both returned to looking at the tablets, this time with me sitting on his lap. It was weird to return to the task after what had just happened but somehow normal, too.

Science tablet. Engineer tablet. Political tablet. I yawned. Bo set his device down just long enough to reposition my head to lean on his arm. “You can fall asleep, baby.”

That was the first time he’d called me that. I smiled. “I’m not lightweight, and I will break your arm eventually.”

“You’re tiny compared to me. My arm can manage just fine. Close those eyes. Let me feel all protective and hold you while I get this done.”

I snorted. “You’re funny, Bo.”

“I’m not. But, okay. If you think I am, then so be it.”

He was warm, safe, and secure where he sat on the floor. I closed my eyes.

My dream came fast. I was on a boat, floating atop a lake that was half a day’s journey from where I grew up. Maybe three times in my childhood, when my father wanted us out of the house for various reasons, Mother would take us there. Usually, it was because he had a headache.

This time I was with Bo, Jordan, and River. Bo and I floated in the boat while River and Jordan sat by the shoreline, talking to each other. The lake wasn’t huge. If we’d had to row back in suddenly, we’d be on the side in five minutes.

“You’re going to have to choose.” Bo played with the water, leaning slightly over the side of the boat. “I mean, I get that you think that you have.” He lifted his gaze to meet mine. “But you haven’t. You can’t do this halfway, baby. This is our life. If you want to be our wife, you’re going to have to accept that you live on a pirate ship going through space. There’ll always be risk. There’ll always be people after us, and no matter how safe we may tell you that we are, there really is no such thing in our world.”

I blinked. “Bo, we’re on the water.”

“Today we’re on the water. Today it’s lovely, yes. But what happens when the storm comes?”