Page 16 of Keeping Sarah

I silently wheeled the onworlder from the shed and heeded Silence’s warning, not turning it on until I would reach deep into the forest. Walking it past Father’s front yard, I wondered if his hesitance to fully accept Sarah as a part of the family was due to the fact that she was a human.

Or perhaps, it was that when things had gone horribly wrong, she had left me and Jac behind.

Not that I blamed her for wanting to go back to Earth—she had nearly died in the first battle against Mother Portend and the conduits. But she came back for us, too, and that spoke volumes to me about who she was and how she felt. A smile tugged at my lips, thinking about when she came back for us.

The trees closed around me as I walked up the path into the forest. Blue cedars, olden pine, shimmer wood, and lemon oaks loomed overhead. I hoped the beasts of the forest would leave me be, at least until I got the onworlder working. It was heavy and pushing the machine without the engine running took a great deal of my strength. My concussion, it seemed, had sapped my energy. I damned Rex Terian’s men once more, as I pushed on and tried to think of better things.

Once Sarah had returned after the battle, our reunion was…epic. Passion was a gift of Sarah’s—she was never in short supply of such a commodity. But back then, before she had passed the Mother Test, Jac and I had to temper our passions. Humans were not as deep as Ladrians were long, so we could only use the first eight to nine inches of our cocks inside of her. But since she had passed the Mother Test, her body had changed internally. It seemed there was no limit to what she could take from her companions. Just thinking about such things was enough to swell my member. But the throb down below made my head do the same, making it hurt where I was injured.

It was not fair that the concussion had tried to rob me of both my freedomandmy fun.

Though perhaps the pain was a blessing or a warning. I scolded myself for getting sidetracked by my prurient interests. I needed to stay focused on the task at hand—rescuing Sarah. Still, it was challenging to think of her and not think ofallof her.

The way she tossed her head back when she rode me. Her breasts bouncing. The curve of her succulent lips as a moan flew through them. Jac on top of her, pinning her hands to the bed, while he sucked my cock. The hot wet press of his tongue on my shaft. His groans as I mounted him from behind, him charging into her body while I did the same to his. Sensations so mesmerizing that nothing else existed. Flavors of our sexes mixed together in my memory, tormenting me to distraction.

The mutual throb of my cock and my head told me to come back to the moment, but I fought to stay in my reverie. It was my only comfort.

I had never been one for comforts, not before Sarah. Jac and I…our relationship had grown from the bonds of fighting at each other’s sides, growing up together, discovering worlds together. It was already comfortable, so there was no urge to seek comforts elsewhere.

But with Sarah, each smile she gave me soothed some unnamed ache in my ghost. Every flash of her warm brown eyes sent a shiver deep inside of me, and yet, her very essence was made of comfort. As though she had been created with ridges and curves opposite of mine and Jac’s, so that she could complement our messiness perfectly. She was our missing piece.

And I was determined to get her back.

My muscles burned as I worked the onworlder up a short hill on the path. I had not felt so weak since I was a child. I had underestimated the toll this journey would take on my body. Every part of me wanted to do little more than lay down on the pine needles for a nap. I sucked in a deeper breath and forged ahead, finally cresting at the top of the short hill.

That was when I heard it. A footstep behind me. Whatever it was had stopped. Because I had stopped.

I stretched for a moment, pretending not to know they were there. Then I mumbled, “Need to take a piss,” and walked off the path and into the trees. I left the onworlder back on the path—no point in trying to keep it hidden, if they already saw me with it. Once between the trees, I crouched behind a stump, waiting for my predator to show himself.

A small figure came into view in the moonslight, but I could not make out any features. “You can come out, Deacon. It’s just me.”

I stomped through the underbrush in annoyance. “What are you doing here?” I asked the intruder.

Ode’s smile was evident, even in the dark. “I should ask you the same thing.”

I braced my hands on my hips. “You know what I am doing out here.”

My ship’s doctor sighed. “I do, I do. So, that’s why I’m here.”

“I do not understand.”

“Wave can take care of the others on the ship, but you need professional help.”

I arched a brow. “To take me back to Father’s?”

She rolled her eyes. “Like you’d stay put.” She swung her rucksacks around her shoulders to display them. “You’re too broken to be out here alone and you’re going to need medical help. So, here I am.” She swung them back behind her. “Your father’s old onworlder?”

I glanced back at the machine. “Yes, but I thought you would be angry with me—"

“Look, I don’t like that you’re out here. Am I angry? Does it matter? I told youthreedays of bedrest, hoping that I could get you to dooneof them—"

I gaped at her. “You lied to me?”

She laughed, but there was an edge to it. “I’m trying to save your life, Deacon. If I needed to lie, beg, borrow, steal, or kill to do it, I would. You need rest. That part, I did not lie about. But since I know you, I thought I should come along and make sure you don’t die trying to save Sarah. Now, how do we start this thing? I think we’re far enough from the house that they won’t hear it."

I hugged her in gratitude. “I am in your debt, Ode Hrimp.”

“No such thing. Not between family.”

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