Crystals Three Chosen Mates by Suzanne Graham Page B

tell him, lest he figure out a way to hide his thoughts from her. Right now, his eyes shone with uncertainty, but she caught a glimmer of hope there, too.
    “I’m doing fine. Stepho is a good doc.” The honest respect was evident in his tone. “And not such a bad bedmate, either.” He winked at Stepho, who shook his head with mild embarrassment.
    “Bedmate?” How close had Fisher gotten to the other two men in a week and a half? And what kind of miracle had Stepho found in those plants?
    Fisher chuckled, and the old wise-cracking Fisher peeked out from around the edges of this relatively subdued man in front of her. “We share a bed. That’s it,” he clarified. “They know I don’t do men,” he waved at Henri and Stepho, “but I don’t have a problem with guys who do.”
    What the hellitude was going on here? She gazed dumbly at each man.
    “Inside, now,” Henri ordered all of them. “This isn’t a conversation I choose to have in the public domain.”
    They shuffled into the pod and stood awkwardly in the space that suddenly felt much too small for the four of them. Crystal glanced around and noticed a rolled up mattress in the far corner. Was that where Henri was sleeping if Stepho was sharing the berth with Fisher?
    “Stepho, mix up a nutrishake for Crystal,” Henri instructed. “She looks underfed.”
    She shook her head. “No, I can’t stomach them.”
    “Chew these.” Stepho handed Crystal some pointy-edged leaves on a thin green stem he picked from a pot on the corner shelf.
    She pinched one leaf between her fingers and inhaled the spicy aroma. “What is this? It smells so good.” She put a leaf in her mouth, chewed, and swallowed, almost instantly her stomach felt more settled.
    “It’s mint,” Stepho explained. “One of my herbs. Eat a few more, then you can have some berries.”
    “From the plants you took from Fourth Quadrant? You got them to bear fruit here?”
    “Yes.” He flashed her a bright, proud smile, and for the first time in over a week, she felt her appetite returning.
    “ Now, sit, Crystal,” Henri said. “You look like you’re going to fall over.”
    “Well, thanks a lot for the profuse compliments, Henri.” She sat on the edge of the berth and stared up at him. “I’ve never heard you so short before.” Certainly, he used these types of commands with her when they were role-playing, but in everyday interactions with him, he wasn’t normally like this.
    “You’ve kept yourself from us,” he said in a softer tone, and for the first time, she could see how much it had hurt him.
    “I’m sorry.” She reached out to him.
    He took her hand and knelt at her feet. “Do you promise not to leave us again?”
    She palmed his cheek, so wanting to make the promise to him and Stepho and Fisher, but she couldn’t—not until she found out what had happened this week between the three men.
    She looked up at Fisher. “Are you really okay?”
    He took a seat on the bench across from her. His movements were slow, and he definitely favored his left leg, but he was getting around on his own power. “I’ve been better, but the guys have taken good care of me.”
    “The guys?” The last time she’d talked to Fisher, he hadn’t been able to refer to Henri and Stepho as anything other than goobers or dweebs.
    Stepho took a seat on the berth next to her. “We’ve had time to sort things out.”
    “Really? How’s it look all sorted out?” She heard a touch of Fisher’s old sarcasm in her own tone, but she was a little pissed they seemed to have come up with some kind of solution without her input.
    Henri squeezed her hand, drawing her gaze back to him on the floor before her. “We’ve discussed the different kinds of relationships we have with you.”
    “Oh, stars. You didn’t.” She cast her eyes from Henri to Stepho, and finally, to Fisher. “That must have been…difficult.”
    Fisher nodded. “Yeah, not one of my favorite conversations.”
    “But it was