Page 83 of Into Orbit
‘It’s a definite plus, yes.’
‘You’d make very beautiful babies,’ I offered, deciding to roll with the chaos.
Tessa groaned. ‘Aster has already been researching how to make it happen. Don’t encourage him. He has it in his head that they allget a turn.’ She gestured at her stomach. ‘Like this is a ride at some fucking fairground.’
‘Thatisthe equitable way,’ I said with a grin. ‘I take it these are your new dresses?’
‘Dresses?’ the dark-haired man repeated.
Tessa snorted. ‘They’re rather lessnewnow, and sometimes I think about returning them,’ she said archly. She took the red-haired man’s hand. ‘Not you though. This is Cy, the love of my life who can do no wrong.’
Cy blushed a lovely deep pink and gave me an adorably awkward smile.
‘And Aster, who is all right sometimes.’
The black-haired man I’d seen at Advena grinned and offered a jaunty wave.
‘Andyou’re about to meet Morgan, who is going the right way for a thorough stabbing,’ Tessa concluded. ‘Unfortunately for me and my sanity, I love all three of them more than is sensible, so the stabbing will only happen in my imagination. Probably.’
‘Tessa?’ came a rumbling growl, and a blonde man pushed through the crowd to our side, tall and broad enough to give even Ashton and his shoulders a run for their money. ‘I can smell you crying.’
Tessa raised an eyebrow at me, as if to saysee why I want to stab him?
I was enjoying myself immensely, so I gave him a shit-eating grin. ‘That was my fault. I made her cry.’
His blue eyes focused on me and narrowed, and a deep, animal growl escaped his chest. Before I could blink, Ashton had pushed forward to stand between us and was growling right back, his hand hovering over the knife at his hip.
I laughed out loud.
‘Idiots,’ Elswyth muttered, loud enough for them all to hear.
‘Morgan,’ Tessa snarled. ‘Stop that.’
The blonde man stopped growling and eyed us suspiciously, then sniffed. ‘Oh. She’s your housemate. From Earth.’
‘And you just growled at her, you asshat,’ Tessa muttered.
Morgan looked utterly unrepentant. ‘Welcome to Natare.’
Tessa snorted, but Aster just grinned again. ‘This is already better than I imagined,’ he said.
I glanced to the side. Elswyth was looking around with a slight frown and Ashton’s hand was still rather close to his knife, but Willow was staring at Aster as if transfixed.
‘Do you have a twin?’ he blurted.
Aster blinked, surprised. ‘Yes,’ he said, studying Willow warily.
‘Vesper,’ Willow said carefully.
Aster’s expression clouded. ‘That’s right.’ His golden eyes narrowed. ‘You don’t know himprofessionally, do you?’
‘In a manner of speaking,’ Willow said calmly. ‘I’m a doctor. I was kidnapped by some Roth to heal a human in their … care. Vesper was sharing her cell. He was fine,’ Willow added hastily, when Aster’s brow furrowed. ‘He was chained with dark matter, but he was cheerful enough. He told me that if I ever met his twin, I should let him know that a timely rescue wouldn’t go astray.’ Willow paused. ‘He did admit to fairly serious theft, though, so I’m not sure if I should have passed the message along.’
Aster exchanged a long look with Morgan. ‘I see,’ he said eventually. ‘I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you.’
Tessa’s eyes were travelling over Ashton and Willow; when Elswyth met her stare, Tessa offered a friendly smile. ‘Something you want to tell me?’ she said to me.
I took Elswyth’s hand. ‘Tessa Wilding, these are my loves Elswyth, Ashton, and Willow.’
