Chapter 6: Tripping

They were preparing to leave when a young man appeared with a backpack.

“Hi Daniel, I didn’t know that you were coming to visit,” Trixy said.

“Not quite Trixy. I’m going with them,” he announced.

Raina frowned at him and walked up to him. She gently touched his cheek and looked into his eyes. He gave her a cheeky grin and wiggled his eyebrows at her, and she had to smile back. Ben felt a prickle of unease at their interaction.

He was a nice looking young man about 178cm tall, with his dark beige skin hinting at his Aboriginal heritage. Ben suspected that there were a few more races thrown into the mix, possibly Maori and some variations of Caucasian. Daniels ancestry was as mixed up as his ancestry was.

His genes seemed to have picked an unusual arrangement that produced a pleasing combination physically and visually. His big brown eyes gave him an honest, trusting face. He was twenty-three and barely looked eighteen.

The slightly unkempt look and long dark brown curls that flopped into his eyes, made him look like he needed someone to take care of him. Ben suspected he deliberately used this look, to suck the girls in.

Raina looked at Zarka, “I know the message didn’t mention him, but I do believe that he is to come with us.”

“Where is he going to sleep?” Ben asked.

Daniel looked at the group. “I’m happy to share, Payton is pretty hot, and I like shape-shifters,” he said wiggling his eyebrows at her. He looked Ashley up and down, “He’s not bad either so either will do. Actually any bed with room for one more will do. Are the beds big enough for three?”

He grinned at Ben and looked him over as well. Ben has a sneaky suspicion that if he were given half a chance; the little bugger would crawl into his and Raina’s bed, just as quick as any of the others.

DT and KJ grinned at him. “Yep,” KJ answered.

“We’ll work it out,” Daniel said confidently.

Trixy and Lee both grinned at each other. Things were going to get interesting with Daniel aboard. They had met him when they were visiting Earth a few years before. James had tripped him after he had stolen a handbag from a woman.

Lee had taken him to Harmony, and the bloke was scary smart. He had an eye for art and artefacts. He could determine its era with incredible accuracy. He loved to learn the history of any item and about the culture that developed it. He had been a great help to both of them sorting out the artefacts they had found.

If there was one thing to his detriment, it was his love of sex. He’d screw anyone agreeable and the more, the merrier. His cheeky grin and puppy-dog eyes had gotten his cock into a lot of willing warm holes.

The visitors hugged everyone goodbye, and Lee and Trixy transported them to the ship. Lee warned Daniel to behave and had to laugh at the innocent look he gave her. She was going miss him. Trixy also gave him a hug and said the same thing making him grin even broader.

Reluctantly, they blinked back to the surface and hoped things worked out for the people on the ship. Both women were happy that they had closure on why they had gone missing and understood why they couldn’t stay.

They would miss them but were not worried about them.

Ben wasn’t a happy camper.

Daniel was his problem. The guy was too smooth. He had charmed the rest of them and Raina in particular. Ben was in the hold beating the crap out of a kick boxer’s bag that the boys had scored on Harmony and had hung it up so they could work out.

Raina came down to the hold, and she stopped to watch him. He had the wand extended and was using it to attack the bag. She loved watching him move. He had a lovely fluid action.

The singlet and short shorts showed off his sexy muscles, and a little tuft of hair peeked out of the top of the singlet. It made her hot for him just watching him in action. She knew why he was down here.

Raina and Daniel had been deliberately making him jealous. The others thought it was amusing. Five days before she and Ben had a massive blue. It was a stupid argument. Ben wanted to try to go back to Earth to their time. He couldn’t seem to accept that it wasn’t possible.

Raina had lost her temper with him. He had tossed at her that she was fine as her family wasn’t even there anymore. His was gone. His life, his job and his dreams were all gone. He had nothing left.

She took offence that he didn’t consider her his future. “Fine, well you can sulk here all by yourself then. I do have a future. If you don’t want me in yours, I’ll find someone who does,” she said in anger and stormed out on him.

She ran into Daniel. He took one look at her and took her to his room. He let her vent and then told her to stay in here with him. He was sure Payton wouldn’t mind. When Ben saw her coming out of Daniels room with his arm around her shoulders, he had slammed back into his room.

The others discussed his problem. None of them believed that his wish was possible. To start with, they had no idea how the time jumping worked. Lee had also said they didn’t make it back in her timeline.

From what Zara had told Zarka, if they did get back to Earth, it would be later in time from where they were now or way earlier where their presence wouldn’t affect what was to happen in their memories of the future, so what was the point?

So Raina had slept in Daniels room after the argument. Payton had graciously slept with Ashley. Not that Raina believed she had any qualms doing so. They seemed to get on well, but she doubted it was serious.

They had both slept with Daniel singularly and together in the days leading up to the argument. Daniel had slipped off to join them on several nights. Then he had come back and curled up with Raina.

Raina liked him, and he didn’t snore or hog the bed. Amusingly, she had told him if his hands wandered, they would suffer severe dislocation and he had believed her. Despite that, he had treated her as if he was courting her and screwing her, just to piss off Ben.

He served her dinner and would go work out with her and go and sit and talk with her in the helm. He was also a mean chess player and they both got very competitive when playing but were gracious in defeat.

In reality, he was teaching her what he had learned from Lee. However, he’d pat her arse and even hugged her or kiss her, when Ben came into the same room. They were all amused that they could see the dark cloud and felt the irritation roll off Ben when he saw them together.

He sulked and watched Raina but didn’t approach her. He spent more time with Zarka, DT and KJ. The boys felt a little sorry for him but not entirely, as the bloke seemed to have a knack of pissing off Raina.

Raina gave in first. She had missed him and was planning to tell him that she and Daniel hadn’t done anything and it was all an act to get him to wake up to himself. He was a stubborn bastard she had decided.

Ben looked up when he saw her watching him. “What?” he spat out.

“Nothing, I just felt like watching you work up a sweat. Want a real work out?” Raina offered.

“No, I’d hurt you,” he said and kicked the bag with brutal force.

“Crap, you fight like a wimp. I might get Daniel to come down. At least he tries to beat me,” she said.

Ben blew out a breath, “Fuck Raina! You drive me nuts.”

She nodded. Ben looked at her and wished he knew what was going on. Waking up without her had been torture. The thought of Daniel touching her was even worse. He speculated about how many other men had been with her. Then he wondered why he was torturing himself with what he couldn’t change.

Raina flipped out her wand to full length, and before he knew it, she had blinked behind him. She whacked him on the arse with it and danced back. “Come on sissy, I feel like blowing off some steam,” she said in an attempt to goad him.

She danced in again, and this time, he deflected the blow and tried to spin her stave away. She rolled it back under and poked him in the foot then danced back. She whirled it back behind her giving him an open shot at her, and he took it only to find she blinked again, and he was feeling a sting on his arse when she whacked him again.

He tried the same trick, but she outguessed him, and again he had his arse smacked. He spun, rolled and flipped the stave out at her feet. She jumped and turned to meet him as he came back to his feet.