Page 28 of Sloane

"In the morning." Jovi presses a kiss to her temple. He sits down and pulls Sloane down beside him on the couch. She nuzzles into him easily, tucking her feet underneath her, her arms wrapping around Jovi. They look perfect together, at ease with one another. "We'll both make it up to you tomorrow."

He looks up at me, making sure I'm okay with that plan. I give him a short nod and turn my attention over to Essa. I could spend all night looking at them together, but we have other things that need to be dealt with. Not to mention, the more I watch Jovi and Sloane melt into one another, the more I want to join them.

Jovi can handle keeping Sloane safe and comfortable tonight. He's better than I am at making sure she knows we care about her. I'm really only good at losing myself too much, taking more than I should, and then hiding out in our room. It hasn't exactly been a healthy response to how Sloane affects me.

"Are you okay?" Essa eyes me as I try to keep myself under control. I want to be the one to have my arms wrapped around Sloane while she sleeps. I want to press soft kisses to her temple and feel her warm breath on my chest. I can't be trusted right now, though. If I were as close as Jovi is, I'd be making far worse decisions.

"I'll be fine."

I don't know how true my words are, but I'm working on not losing it. It helps that at least Jovi's the one offering Sloane comfort. The possessive side of me doesn't mind sharing with Jovi, which is good since he's the male I'll always have to share with. At least one of us has the ability to hold Sloane close and comfort her without the need to bite and mark and claim. I just wish it was me.

"What did you want to talk about?" Jovi nudges Sloane softly, her head jostling, but it's clear she's already fallen asleep.

Jovi smiles and muffles a soft laugh that he doesn't want to wake up Sloane. He relaxes more into the couch, pulling Sloane with him. Our eyes meet for just a moment, and he gives me a questioning look. He wants to know if I'm okay with what he's doing, which is about right.

There's a system in place between males of our species. We're given a partner we'll share our life with when we're young males. We either become friends, lovers, or enemies. Most in the first two categories stay compatible for their entire life. The ones in the last category end up killing each other at some point. Thankfully, Jovi and I are in the first category.

Not that we didn't test out being lovers. We just found we both preferred having a female in between us rather than all of us finding pleasure together.

Once the bond forms between two males, we spend our entire life together, but we're an aggressive species. There's always one stronger than the other, one who submits to the other. Jovi and I didn't even have to fight to figure out which of us was taking on which role. The first time a conflict popped up between us, he defaulted to me and has defaulted to me every time except for once. It helps that I'm more serious than him in most things, whereas he's fine with going with the flow over everything.

"Let her rest on you," I say, leaning back in Holoth's recliner. I pop my feet up, hoping it will keep me from joining him in touching our Sloane.

Holoth will hate me for getting my smell all over his seat. His sense of smell is better than anyone else on the ship, but the only thing he's particular about is the smells in his room and on his chair. I'm hoping he won't care so much about my smell on his recliner when I tell him it was either sit here or maybe cause more issues for Jovi and me and probably scare Sloane away.

Jovi relaxes, his eyes turning down to watch Sloane breathe deeply in her sleep. She's already so contented, so peaceful, as she lies against him. I turn back to Essa, hoping we have the conversation with her and she can relay it to Sloane when she's awake and feeling more herself.

"We have a proposition," I start. "Jovi and I haven't been taking to having Sloane here very well."

"I like her." Essa cuts me off before I can explain that we just so happen to like her a lot. "She's staying at least for this mission."

"At least?" I try not to sound too excited about the prospect of Sloane staying with us for longer than just this mission when Essa could mean any number of things.

I shake my head, not waiting for Essa to answer because we have plenty of other things to discuss first. Things that are more important than what happens after we finish this mission and return to Earth.

"We want to amend the contract or come to some sort of agreement with Sloane to help with the stronger urges we're having."

Essa's realization is quick, and it has her frowning and pulling out her own comm. I grab mine and send her the list Jovi, and I made before coming down here. Her brows furrow, the sparkle of her skin seeming to dim. Her skin's sparkle seems dependenton her moods, even though she's told us all it is our minds playing tricks on us.

She frowns deeper before looking up at me. "I'll need to report this."

"We know." I try to keep my voice even, but I'm sick of others thinking that I care about my ranking or standing with the pleasure crew company when I'm never going to request a pleasure crew female again.

I haven't brought it up with anyone but myself, but once this mission is over, I'm asking Sloane if Jovi and I can live on Earth with her. If she says no, we'll go back to our planet, get our affairs in order, and then spend our time in solitude until we lose ourselves and pass.

I don't care if we're barred from ever using any pleasure crew company again because I will either have Sloane or I'll have no one ever again. I can't tell anyone yet because they'll lock me away for my own well-being. As though my well-being isn't directly determined by my proximity to Sloane.

Essa nods, her frown lifting slightly but not enough to show she's okay with it. "I'll speak with Sloane about it when she wakes up, but this isn't going into effect until I talk to her."

"Fair enough," I say. Then, because I can't stop myself from knowing, I ask, "How mad are you at me for what I did?"

Essa's brows furrow, her tail flicking in the air by her calves as she tries to think of what to say. Essa cares about the pleasure crew members more than anything. She feels like it's her responsibility to make sure they're all kept safe and happy, not that any of them except Sloane have ever noticed.

Essa used to try to befriend the pleasure crew females when they'd join the crew for a mission or two, but after being rejected over and over, she stopped trying as hard. She still watched over them from a distance, made sure Jovi and I behaved ourselvesand followed the rules. I'm sure it hurt her to feel that sting of rejection, but she never made it out like it was any of their fault.

Sloane's changed all of that. She chose to be Essa's friend, even before Essa herself could get attached. She chose to be all of our friends, and it's making it more difficult to think about a crew without her on it. Essa's care for the females who join us has only become more fierce now that she and Sloane have grown close.

"I'm livid," Essa says and then sighs like she hates what she's about to say. "You hurt my friend, and then instead of making things right, you used her in a way that's only going to confuse her more."

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