Page 50 of Taken By the Convicts
Zev tapped the table, gaining Reece’s attention. He’d been staring into his beans. Zev scooped up his food to take with him. “I have a double shift today, but I’ll see you later. I’m gonna finish eating in my room. It’s getting too hot in here.”
Hot? The place was a constant sixty-eight degrees thanks to the same underground thermal fissures that heated the mines and all the other buildings on Veenith.
“Stop that,” Melina giggled.
Reece’s eyes flew to her. She was stretching to reach the top shelf. Her shirt had hiked up, exposing her lower back, and Jayce was running a finger across her skin. Melina was smiling as his hand slid under her shirt to the front where it billowed out.
“Jayce,” Melina whispered, her voice throaty as Jayce’s hand moved higher on her front.
Was this why she’d been so tired last night? Why she hadn’t come to Reece’s room and had fallen asleep before he’d finished showering?
Jayce’s hand moved down her front. Melina spread her legs and pushed her ass into him. Fucking-son-of-a. . . It was as if they’d forgotten he was here. Silent, invisible Reece who didn’t deserve a woman if he couldn’t speak up for her, who couldn’t whisper sweet nothings in her ear.
Reece shot out of his chair with such force he knocked the table over. Both Melina and Jayce turned sharply. Melina’s beautiful eyes widened as her mouth parted. “Reece. . .”
Reece shoved the chairs aside and stormed out of the kitchen. In seconds, he was running up the steps. He slammed his wrist against the panel and the door to the bunker unlocked. As he charged outside, the wind caught the door. He’d run right out in the middle of a squall, but he didn’t fucking care. He wouldn’t sit by and watch another man take Melina.
As Reece trudged through the snow, he started to regret having left without a coat. Letting his emotions rule would get him killed faster than entering a den of kuvaks.
Why did it hurt so much seeing her with the men of his unit? Back home, men shared women. It had been that way for three generations since the virus wiped out most of the females. The numbers never recovered, with more males than females born each year. Practically every planet in the system had suffered the same fate except for Daraan and Nelex.
Reece had lived his entire life knowing he may never be part of a unit, never have a female to mate and bear children. He’d convinced himself that he’d have to be happy with fucking the empallas, infertile women who were not entered into the lottery. They survived by fucking men who could pay their high prices. He’d found his release with a few empallas over the years, but there could never be more with an empalla. No connection, no love, no future.
Melina needed Reece to be safe. And happy. Then what the fuck was eating at him?
She hadgiggledfor Jayce. And that moan. . . That moan had been sensual andreal. Reece couldn’t make her laugh like Jayce or offer her fascinating conversation—hell, any conversation—like Zev.
Security. That’s all Reece could offer her, and Ivan could do that just as well, if not better. The man had been a respected soldier, a leader. He’d take Reece’s place soon enough.
* * *
MELINA
As Melina entered the kitchen,two sets of eyes looked up at her. The flecks of yellow in Reece’s eyes danced for her while Zev’s eyes, so deep and dark, drank her in. Zev’s gaze followed her with an intensity that made looking away difficult. The man was the polar opposite of her gentle giant in every way. Taller, leaner, and usually rather distant. Except when he was with Reece. It was as if Zev relaxed when Reece was nearby and could be himself, and yet she saw no signs of any intimacy or sexual tension between the men. Just a deep friendship and respect.
Reece’s mouth tipped into a smile just for her, making her heart sail. Perhaps he wasn’t mad at her after all. Zev sipped a steaming drink as he followed her every move.
Goddess, how her thighs clenched at the sight of both men, especially together. It made no sense, but life often didn’t make sense. She’d learned to accept that years ago and to accept whatever happiness came her way. She smiled at both, only for Reece to jump up and grab three tins from the pantry. He didn’t even look at the labels.
The labels, damn. He couldn’t read them, and she hadn’t explained the system she’d set up for him, to help him choose.
He’d grabbed all beans. And he’d refused the meat she slid across to him. Pride? Stubbornness? Or was he still upset with her?
Zev wasn’t exactly helping her solve this rift with Reece either, not with the looks he was sending her way. Granted, he hadn’t spoken a word. The man had a good sense of when not to get between her and Reece in this silent battle that appeared to be brewing, which was fascinating considering how he’d had no trouble giving her his cock to suck while Reece had been fucking her.
The dynamics of getting to know so many men at once was overwhelming. Her history with Namir, Tristen, and Patel hadn’t prepared her for this. It had prepared her to be fucked by several men at once, but nothing more. Reece seemed fragile at times. She didn’t want to hurt him, especially with a man he counted as a friend. His only friend.
“Where are the damned potatoes?” Jayce asked as he shoved cans around on the shelf, destroying all her efforts. “I need them for a trade.”
“Here, let me find them,” Melina said as she squeezed her way past him in the pantry.
As she reached up, he began nuzzling her neck. “You smell good. Good enough to eat.”
She nearly dropped the can at the not-so-subtle reminder of him eating her out.
“I have such a craving to lick something smooth and wet with my tongue.”
Goddess help her, the man had such a dirty mouth and no sense of when to shut up. Reece was sitting a few feet away.
