He heard her gasp sharply and spared a moment to glance down and make certain he hadn’t stepped on her. It totally pissed him off, though, that Kane had nearly slammed him into her. Uttering a snarl of rage, he shoved away from the wall and slung both fists at Kane, piston-like, driving him back.
Chloe was too stunned to think when she slid weakly to the floor. It was instinct, and not the best, that prompted her to draw up into a tight little ball on the floor when she discovered Kane and Jared were slinging punches at one another and slamming into the walls around her. Just about the time it finally occurred to her that remaining beneath them was just asking to be flattened, someone caught her around the waist, jerked her off the floor, and rushed down the corridor with her dangling from his arm since she couldn’t seem to get her feet on the floor.
He skidded to an abrupt halt and Chloe looked up to see a wall of cyborgs. Sebastian, Lucien, and Thor formed the wall and their expressions weren’t friendly.
“Get out of my way,” Damon growled threateningly, alerting her finally to who it was that had grabbed her.
“Put her down,” Sebastian shot back at him.
“She does not need to be here,” Damon said tightly. “One of those idiots will crush her if they fall on her.”
Having managed to get her toes on the floor finally, Chloe wrenched around far enough to look back at the ‘idiots’ and sucked in a sharp breath as Kane drew his fist back to punch Jared in the face. “No! Don’t hit him!” she screamed.
Kane whipped his head around to look at her. When he did, Jared slammed his fist into his exposed jaw. “Oh Jared!” she exclaimed. “How could you? Don’t you dare hit him again!”
Either he ignored her or he was too angry to hear her. He punched Kane several more times in quick succession and Kane flew toward them, hit the deck, and slid until he slammed into the back of Damon’s knees. Damon’s knees buckled. He let go of her as he lost his balance and landed on top of Kane.
Someone behind her uttered a bellow of anger and then Sebastian leapt over her, Damon, and Kane, stalking toward Jared. Only mildly stunned from the fall, Chloe managed to get to her feet first. Lucien pushed past her, following Sebastian.
Damon bumped her as Kane ‘assisted’ him in getting up by punching him in the back with his fist, nearly knocking her down again. Catching his balance, Damon turned and kicked Kane in the face. Thor stalked past her and Damon, leaning down to grasp a handful of Kane’s flight suit when he halted.
“That’s it! Make them stop!” She’d no sooner gotten the words out, however, when Jared drove his shoulder into Sebastian’s belly, carrying him back and into Lucien. The three men went down in a tangle of writhing arms and legs, slamming against Thor, who’d been pounding Kane in the face with his fist. It broke Thor’s hold and Kane launched himself at Thor, slamming into the wall hard enough to make the metal buckle.
Damon grabbed her and hefted her onto his shoulder. “No wait!” she exclaimed when she realized his intent was to remove her. “You have to stop them! They’ll hurt each other. Sebastian! Stop that! I mean it! Right now! Kane! Don’t you dare slam his head into the wall one more time!”
Damon passed Reuel, who was leaning against the wall a safe distance from the battle, his arms folded over his chest. She glanced at him, hopeful that he’d stop the fight. “If they were my men I would have them in the brig,” he said as Damon swept past him with her over his shoulder.
Chloe gaped at him in shock and then anger swept through her. “Well! They’re notyourmen! They’re mine! Mind your own damned business!”
Surprise and anger flickered across his face in quick succession and then thoughtfulness. Dismissing her, he turned to watch the brawl in progress as Kane and Jared allied themselves and began to battle the other three.
Chloe lost sight of the battle as Damon finally turned off the corridor and into a cabin—her cabin. She glared at him when he set her on her feet. “You should have stopped them!” she said accusingly.
His expression hardened. “All five?” he asked tightly. “One at the time or all at the same time?”
Chloe stared at him blankly for a moment and burst into tears. “They’re hurting each other!”
Damon uttered a sound of disgust and swept her into his arms, cuddling her closely against his length, but lightly, allowing her to feel like she could pull away if she wanted to. “You worry for nothing. They will not cause one another lasting harm.”
Chloe sniffed, welcoming the reassurance. “You’re sure?”
“I am certain,” he said firmly. “When all is said and done, they are your men, they are allies not enemies, and they are aware of that regardless of their anger. They will not try to kill one another. They are only … expressing their frustration.”
Chloe drew in a shaky breath. “Well, I don’t understand that at all.”
Damon uttered a snort of amusement. Drawing away from her, he drew her toward her bunk and sat down on the edge, pulling her onto his lap. “I think you do, dearling, better than they do,” he murmured teasingly, nuzzling his face along the side of her neck and plucking at the tender flesh there with his lips.
Chloe shivered, feeling a flood of warmth that sent a rush of goosebumps scurrying along that side of her body. Desire rose in her, but she was instantly at war with it because Daman’s kiss brought the way she’d felt when Jared had kissed her swarming over her again.
* * * *
When Sebastian finally rolled off of him, Jared pushed himself up tiredly and lifted an arm that felt like a two-ton weight, trying to tighten his numb fingers into a fist. Seeing that Sebastian had apparently decided to rest, he lay back down, gasping for breath, and struggling to summon enough strength to get up and kick the bastard in the head.
“This was an interesting exercise,” Reuel said dryly. “What was the objective of this battle?”
Jared lifted his head and stared at Reuel blankly, trying to summon an answer. It took him a few minutes to remember that it had begun, for him, when Kane had gotten in the way ofhisobjective—which was to find a bed and fuck Chloe. Scowling, he looked around and discovered Kane was leaning against the wall of the corridor several yards away and Chloe had vanished. He pushed himself upright. “Where is Chloe?”
Reuel’s lips tightened. “One of your group had enough sense to remove her from harm’s way.”
