Captivated: Return to Earth Read online

  Nebraska sat back, crossing his arms over his chest, and nodded. Then they all laughed a little, but the awkward nervousness lingered. She squeezed Cade’s hand, and he finally let go as if reassured by the simple acknowledgement.

  Franny sighed deeply. “It’s going to go viral.”

  “What the fuck? Are you saying we’re going to get sick from being in that place?” Nebraska asked with a deeply furrowed scowl. He pounded on the glass separating them from the driver. The window quickly lowered.

  “Yes, sir,” said the young, handsome driver.

  “Get us to a doc,” Nebraska demanded. “We need to get our lady medical attention.”

  “No! Please just put the window back up. It’s a misunderstanding. I’m great. We’re all great. No one is getting sick. A viral video is a recording. The popular clips on the internet are referred to as viral,” Franny rushed to explain. “Remember what I told you about the internet?”

  The driver raised the window, and Franny collapsed back into the plush seat. A sigh rushed out of her lungs as she sagged with relief.

  “Fuck me. I sounded stupid as hell. Why didn’t you say so?”

  “Well…” She made a frustrated sound caught between a gasp and a tongue smack. “This misunderstanding isn’t worth an argument.” Nebraska was stubborn.

  Franny was positive this was the first of many cultural disconnections to come between her miners and Chicago. She didn’t know why the thought made her ridiculously happy. Because we finally have a future now, that’s why. A future. Joy bubbled up inside her like a geyser.

  “Maybe we should take you to see a doctor, Cade. It couldn’t hurt to get you checked out by a real doc. We should feed Cade too.” Dawson reached out and took her hand. Worry was alive in the way he squinted his dark eyes at her. “He half killed himself, and an exam wouldn’t be a bad idea.”

  “I don’t want no doc poking and prodding me,” Cade grumbled. “And I’ll eat when I eat.”

  “Fuck the doctors. Franny is safe. Cade’s gotten over worse than this. Forget I mentioned docs,” Nebraska replied.

  Dawson shrugged.

  Nebraska pointed out the window as the city rolled by outside. “What the hell is that?”

  Franny followed the direction he was pointing to see the Mr. T memorial statue waving at the Michigan Avenue traffic. After Mr. T’s death Chicago citizens crowdfunded an animated monument in his honor.

  “That’s, um, Mr. T,” she stuttered. “When he died people wanted a monument built.”

  “That’s amazing. Is he important?” Dawson asked.

  “He was famous,” she responded.

  “So was he a president or something?” Nebraska asked.

  Franny snorted. “No, he was an actor.”

  “Like a play? Or is that the television that you told us about?” Cade chimed in with his curiosity. “If entertainers get that kind of tribute, what kind of effigy do you make for your leaders?”

  “People really liked that guy, but politicians aren’t always as popular. Yes, he was on TV and in movies. I don’t think he was ever in plays. I’ll take you to a play, but I think you guys will like movies better. There’s so much I want to show you all.”

  “I like the look of your Chicago. It’s so clean, and everything looks so new. I never imagined it like this. I want to draw it,” Nebraska, her artist, said.

  Cade pointed at some of the historic buildings. “Those don’t look too modern.”

  “They aren’t. This town is a blending of the historical and the modern. That’s why I love it here,” Franny explained.

  She had to give them credit. She would have been terrified in their position. Chicago was enormous. They’d come from a rustic village of tents and shacks and had never seen anything like the Windy City.

  “Everything is so orderly,” Dawson said, soft and awestruck. “Damn, I ain’t never imagined Earth was like this.”

  Franny grinned. “Chicago is a great city. I love it here, but it can get very cold in the winter. If you guys want to go someplace where it never snows, we could do a little traveling. I’ve had a bunch of offers from the media, and other airlines are just as keen on gathering the publicity we’ve given Virgin Galactic,” she explained.

  “I ain’t got no idea what you’re talking about, but as long as you’re with me I don’t care where I live.” Cade’s words were heavy with emotion. His gravelly voice was music to her ears. But when he realized she wasn’t the only woman on Earth would he still mean what he said, and if not, could she survive letting him go?

  Cade had fought his friends once to save her life by letting her go. She owed him the same level of love. The horrible memory made her stomach clench. She’d understood afterward, but his forcing her away had been painful. She’d only survived because Cade had loved her enough to send her away, otherwise all of them would have died.

  If any of her men wanted a normal relationship now that they were free she wouldn’t stop them from finding happiness. Cade reached out and took her hand. He stroked her skin with his thumb. She’d missed that. He’d done the same thing when they’d laid in bed listening to the winter howl outside during the long, brutal Utopia winter. She’d missed her time in bed with her men. Memories came flooding back.

  She pulled the covers away from Cade’s waist. His body was great. The man could model for Playgirl if he ever found his way to Earth. She enjoyed the view for a moment before dropping a kiss on the tip of his cock. The slightest hiss escaped from him when she wrapped her lips around the head of his erection. Cade groaned. She cupped his balls gently with her left hand.

  Franny peeked up to watch his face contort into a relaxed expression of pure pleasure. She worked her lips down his shaft. She could taste the bitter saltiness of his arousal. Her hands found the sexy masculine V at his waist and she explored him with her fingers. Franny’s happy fingers caressed his external oblique muscles with reverence as her eager mouth found a pace and kept going. His groan told her he liked what she was doing to him. Her hands sprawled across his belly and she could feel his muscles clench.

  Closing her eyes, Franny reveled in the almost hypnotic moment of making love to this man. She’d gone from disgust, fear, and horror to lust in a matter of hours, and her emotional whiplash needed this moment. For the first time, she realized if she kept her head together, everything might be all right.

  “You gotta stop that, darlin’, please,” Cade rasped.

  Franny’s lips were still wrapped around him, but she didn’t move. She looked up at him. His chiseled features were set in a hard line of concentration. She pulled her mouth away from him slowly.

  “Goddamn, woman. Hell. Come here,” he ordered as he grasped her gently and pulled her to him.

  She was lying on top of him and looking down into his face. Sudden consciousness about her weight pressing on him made her try to roll away, but he held her firmly. Cade smoothed the hair away from her face. He half sat up to press his mouth against hers. Franny let him kiss her, and she kissed him back with a sweetness she hadn’t expected. When he lay back down after a few moments, he put one hand behind his head.

  “I don’t want to hurt you.” He said the words with so much sincerity, and she knew he was being totally honest. “As much as I want you, I won’t hurt you.”

  In that moment, she was lost. Whatever circumstance had brought them together, it didn’t matter anymore. A man this noble was a rare find. He was hot too, which was a fantastic bonus. She wasn’t about to let common sense stand in the way of whatever the hell she was feeling for him.

  “Let me take the burden of guilt away,” she whispered with a wicked little grin.

  Franny pressed a kiss to his lips, and he wrapped his arms around her shoulders. This time the kiss wasn’t tender, it was atomic. His mouth punished hers, and she loved it. Cade kissed like a man. Their tongues touched and explored. In his arms, she was real in a way beyond her understanding. Cade’s kiss was oxygen and she was fire. He nurtured her t
o her full potential. Her sexuality bloomed for him and lust roared through her blood, awakening something raw and primitive.

  Unable to take another moment, Franny pulled away and gazed into his eyes. “I need you,” she said without artifice.

  She’d never been on top before. Nervous excitement sent her heart racing. She hovered over him. He watched her, but didn’t try to stop her. Franny held the base of his shaft with one hand as she balanced with the other. Her pussy was wet and ready for him. Then he was inside of her. Cade groaned as she slid down him until she’d taken all of him inside. He reached up and stroked her nipples. His fingers pinched and tweaked.

  Franny rocked forward. She sat up more and used the wall for support. Then she began to move. His cock rubbed against her clit as she rode him. When Franny came, she screamed. Moaning Cade’s name, Franny shook with the force of the pleasure coursing through her body.

  Cade’s hips bucked. His eyes closed. The long, purely male sound that came from him only fueled her orgasm. Franny had never come this hard before. She whimpered. Her eyes fluttered shut, and she arched her back. Tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes as she kept coming with a shudder.

  Cade sat up with a roaring sound of triumph as he released. His arms wrapped around her and he was kissing her. “You quiet the anger in me, darlin’,” he whispered in her ear.

  Heat rolled through Franny as the lust of her long separation rekindled at the gruff sound of Cade’s declaration that she was his home. Her pussy contracted just hearing him talk. She’d missed her men so much it hurt. She might have been bought as a sex slave, but they’d made her so much more. After her rescue from their dying world she went back for them because she loved them with her whole heart. She’d worked tirelessly to save them and now that she had them she didn’t know if she was willing to wait another moment to make love to them—all of them.

  “I’ve missed you all so much,” she whispered.

  Cade pulled her into his lap. Being in his arms was as natural as breathing. His musky scent filled her lungs, and she closed her eyes and snuggled her head into the nook where his neck joined his shoulder. His body was hard, but it was clear he’d lost weight.

  “The first thing I’m going to do is feed you,” she told him.

  The sensation of his chuckle tickled her cheek. “The first thing I want to do is eat, but it’s pussy I’m hungry for,” he whispered in her ear.

  Franny shivered. His meal request made her wet. “I think that might be on the menu,” she replied, unable to hide her grin. Thank God I had my annual birth control injection.

  Nebraska groaned. “I could do with a helping myself,” he said in a strained tone.

  “My cock has missed you too, but it’s my heart that’s hungry.” Dawson’s unusually poetic words brought her head up and she turned toward him.

  He was off his seat and kneeling on the limo floor next to where Cade cradled her in his lap. Dawson smoothed the flyaway strands of hair off her face, and his adoring eyes flashed with his own special combination of dark jealousy and lust before he moved to claim her lips. Franny kissed him back.

  Cade’s arms tightened around her and she felt infused with these men. Warmth from their bodies and the strange, tangy smell of Utopia surrounded her and brought back a rush of sensation that was part memory and part primitive response. She’d missed this connection so much. It wasn’t fair to want them as she did, but she was selfish. I shouldn’t make them share me. I should just pick and then the other two will be free to have a woman that’s just his. In combination, they were the perfect boyfriend. How could I ever choose? I love them all.

  Dawson darted his tongue into her mouth. She let him deepen the kiss, and his rough hands gripped her head. His fingers tangled in her hair. Dawson groaned against her mouth, and she explored his warmth with her tongue. Her eyes closed and she let the security of Cade’s arms and lusty caress of Dawson’s mouth lull her into a hypnotic trance. Her body hummed with awareness. If the men suggested she let them fuck her in the limo, she wouldn’t be able to refuse.

  Dawson pulled away from her fast and rough, just like his flare of passion, to gaze into her face. Her eyes fluttered open and their eyes met. There was a shadow of an emotion she couldn’t fully name in his face, and the lines around his mouth and eyes deepened. His expression confused her.

  “How long until we get to your home?” Nebraska asked in a tight voice. “I can’t wait to see you naked. I’ve missed how good you taste.”

  She turned and noticed his erection straining against his fly.

  Dawson pinched her left nipple through her shirt and bra. Heat erupted in her cheeks and a little whimper escaped her. Wet heat made her shift uncomfortably on Cade’s lap.

  “I can smell you, darlin’. You’re so hot I can feel you against my thigh.”

  Franny groaned. She’d missed Cade calling her darling. When she’d dreamed of them, his voice had haunted her for hours after she’d woken up. Those mornings she’d seen through a haze of tears as she opened her eyes on a world without them.

  She turned her head and leaned forward to press her mouth against Cade’s. He groaned in response and the sound was low and feral, deep in the back of his throat. His mouth consumed hers with a delicious need that left her shaking in his arms. The delicate ache in her womb exploded to tighten her pussy and leave her gasping with momentary agony. Her wicked body demanded she fuck them right now, but they displayed incredible control. She wanted them to throw her down and take her savagely, but they all managed their lust far better than she was.

  Franny tore her mouth off Cade’s and gazed into his beautiful eyes, looking for any sign he wanted her as much as she wanted him. “I want you to fuck me,” she said in a quiet, soft voice.

  He grinned, which completely infuriated her, and he shook his head no.

  “I’m going to take my time with you, darlin’. A man who doesn’t savor such a delicious banquet ain’t much of a man,” he drawled in a soft growl. Hearing the suffering in his tone only inflamed her nuclear-blast-level lust. If he didn’t give in, she’d knew she’d never survive.

  Each of her breaths were little pants. Seeing the changes in him constricted her heart. He’d sent her away to live, but had stayed to die. He didn’t have to tell her, she could see the shadow of illness shrouding his powerful masculinity. The sight made her hurt as nothing else could.

  “Don’t ever let go of me again,” she demanded as she hugged him tight.

  “I won’t. I learned my lesson. I was starving for you, and I just couldn’t die fast enough to suit me.”

  “I’m glad you didn’t die.”

  “I’m glad I made it too, but for a while I hated every heartbeat because it was another moment I didn’t have you.” Cade’s breath made the hair at her temple tickle before he pressed a kiss to her forehead.

  “He was a real asshole. I told him you’d be pissed if he died,” Dawson chimed in.

  His voice pulled her out of her intensity and she managed to draw a good breath into her lungs. She pulled away from Cade, scooted off his lap, and sat down next to him. If she didn’t cool down, she’d jump them in the limo. They were too close to home for that, and considering what had awaited them at the terminal, she imagined more than one crafty media person would think to find her home address and stake out her apartment building. They didn’t have the security they’d had before, so that could be bad.

  “We need to be ready. My building is coming up around the corner, and there might be more reporters.”

  Cade stiffened beside her. She put her hand gently on his forearm. “No punching,” she ordered.

  “I ain’t making promises I don’t plan on keeping. If another man touches you without your permission, I’m going to hit him. I don’t care if we’re on Earth or Utopia, a man don’t touch my woman and not learn a lesson.”

  She gave an annoyed little huff to hide the pleasure his barbaric words stirred in the primeval part of her brain. Her men might be r
ough and tough on the outside, but they made her an absolute beast on the inside. She wanted to rip their clothing off and have them again and again until none of them could stand.

  The limo turned the corner, and she saw the crowd as she gazed out the tinted window. Her heart raced as her adrenaline surged. She was thankful the guys only had a few personal possessions, which Dawson carried in one small burlap sack. She’d hate to deal with luggage and paparazzi.

  “We’re here. Rush inside with me. The building is secured with biometrics. My thumbprint is the only way to get in. At least we won’t have to deal with this insanity once we’re inside. Don’t make eye contact, just move,” she advised in a crisp, no-nonsense tone.

  The men sat tensely as the limo stopped. Franny didn’t wait for the driver to open the door. She pulled the handle quickly and shoved the door. The men rushed out behind her. The unexpected running gave them just a moment to travel toward the door before cameramen blocked the sidewalk.

  Franny kept moving forward. They pushed their way through the mob. Her men followed her up the stairs, and she pressed her thumb on the panel next to the door. Franny ushered them in and pulled at the door. She had to push a few hands and kick a few feet, but she managed to lock out the twenty or so overzealous interlopers.

  They walked to her unit. She gave a surreptitious look down the hall. To her relief no one was watching or following them. She’d only lived in this apartment for a few months. She’d found it after her return to Earth. Her mother hadn’t kept up Franny’s old lease while she’d been missing, but at least she hadn’t thrown out all of her stuff.

  Honestly, she’d picked this place with her three guys in mind. She’d done a lot in hopes this day would come. They’d haunted her and she’d known from the moment she’d woken up in the hospital back on Earth that her life wouldn’t be complete without them. Franny had moved in her belongings, but the place had never felt like home because they were missing.

  Once they entered the apartment and the door was closed behind her, she noticed her men looking around with fascination. This was going to be interesting.