by Lyssa Hart
When they’d finished eating, the guys cleaned up, and packed the vehicle.
Hawk got a map out and opened it, leaning on the hood of the vehicle to study it with the others.
After a few minutes, Brahma left the huddle and strode toward her. “You’re in back with me and Puma again.”
The tension left her in a rush. For a handful of moments, she was so relieved she thought she was going to cry. “Ok.”
He draped an arm across her shoulders and walked her to the vehicle.
“Where we headed, boss?” Brahma asked when Hawk got in.
Hawk glanced in the rearview mirror. “Yellowstone. You ok with that, baby?”
Alexis glanced at Brahma and saw he was looking at her.
Hawk looked a little red when she met his gaze in the mirror. “Me?” she asked, wondering when she got to be ‘baby’.
He gave her a look.
“Oh—wherever you guys are going, I’m fine.”
The ‘guys’ chuckled as if she’d made a joke.
If she had she’d damned sure missed it. She frowned. “Didn’t … wasn’t that a … like a huge volcano? That erupted?”
Hawk shrugged. “Yeah—we heard. Raven One headed there, though, so either we’ll meet up with them on the way back or … well, it’ll be livable. Ain’t likely it’ll blow again. I heard it blows about every hundred thousand years or so.”
“Hundred fifty,” Puma supplied.
Hawk shrugged. “Whatever. Don’t figure we’ll be around—even if we decide to stay.”
“Hot springs,” Alexis said, nodding, thinking about hot baths.
Puma snickered. “Don’t think you want to try the hot springs there.”
“Well that’s disappointing,” Alexis murmured, wishing she could get a decent bath.
The things a person takes for granted!
A bed—a toilet—a shower with hot water ….
She really missed them.
On the other hand, it was nice being around the guys. She’d never really had company before they rescued her.
They weren’t encouraged to chat with fellow employees when she’d had a job and she was too afraid of losing it to test it.
The guys rotated at driving, stopping about every four hours to stretch—and let her get out and stretch. Her seat remained the middle of the back, though. She just got the guys on rotation.
Not that she minded.
She felt a little shy around Hawk after what had passed between them the night before.
He had no such reservations, however. He pulled her onto his lap and fondled her.
Brahma was so busy watching them in the rear view mirror, he ran into a shallow trench and nearly fucked the vehicle up.
They all had to bail out. While Brahma lifted it, the others pulled and hammered the axle straight again.
“I’ll drive,” Puma said, snatching the keys.
Brahma fumed, but then he realized he would be sitting in the back with Alexis ….
Hawk and Cham-Two beat him into the back, leaving him shotgun up front.
He fumed for a while and then adjusted the side mirror to keep an eye on the activities in the back.
There was a lot of that.
Hawk spent the entire day fondling her until she was a razor’s edge from explosion.
Then he’d plant her back in her seat and Cham-Two would drag her into his lap.
The first time Hawk passed her she didn’t realize she’d been passed. She met Cham-Two’s gaze uneasily when he dragged her onto his lap and whipped a look at Hawk to see if he would object … violently.
Only to discover he was halfway out the window. He climbed onto the roof from there, spread his wings and took flight.
She caught a glimpse of him as Cham-Two yanked her head back on her neck and began to nibble a path from her chin to her boobs.
Hawk had teased her to the point that her body didn’t seem hers to command any longer, couldn’t seem to tell it wasn’t Hawk fondling her.
Her nipples were so swollen with the blood pounding in them that she thought the top of her head blew off when he clamped down on the first and nearly sucked a blister on it. Darkness and dizziness swept over her so that she was seesawing between blackout and total awareness.
He slid a hand into her pants and began to tease her clit when he dragged her head down for a kiss.
A shudder went through her. For a handful of seconds, she thought she’d cum. She discovered, though, that she was still aching with tension when he continued to rub the sensitive nub.
He withdrew his hand after a moment, peeled her pants down her hips and off one leg, and then dragged her astride his lap.
She got the idea right off.
Whether by accident or design, just about the time Cham-Two aligned his cock with the mouth of her sex, they hit a pothole. Cham-Two hissed, and she did, too, because he made connection and then some. She thought for a minute he’d displaced her womb. But the throbbing switched to a different location as soon as he started bouncing her up and down his shaft.
The jolting of the vehicle aided and abetted.
He dragged her close for a deep kiss when he reached his crisis and took her sailing with him. The hard jolts running through her felt like they were going to rip her from consciousness for a handful of heartbeats.
Then his cock got hard again and he started over.
She was so exhausted from rapturous convulsions by the time she hit the second climax that she fell asleep astride his lap—still mounted.
He nuzzled her neck and held her until she roused enough to dismount.
The whole vehicle reeked of sex by the time Hawk got back, but suddenly he was nose blind.
He pulled her onto his lap, but simply cuddled her. “No sign of them.”
This was a delightful new side to Hawk—cuddling.
Even when he had to know she’d just screwed Cham-Two.
Cham-Two was giving her ‘I could eat you alive’ looks every time she met his gaze and she was torn between arousal and amusement.
She finally decided, for the sake of peace, to just ignore him and closed her eyes.
She dozed off.
Sex was a really relaxing pastime, especially when coupled with the rocking of the vehicle and very little sleep since she’d been rescued from the very jaws of death.
Well, some sleep—feast or famine style—broken and less than ideal.
She was glad to escape the vehicle when they stopped to camp for the night and eat.
She still felt like she was moving, at first, but by the time they spread the sleeping bags, she’d gotten her ‘land legs’ back.
Just in time, she thought wryly, for Hawk to play make a wish.
He surprised her. He kissed her and then merely curled around her.
He was full of surprises.
Did that mean he didn’t want her anymore?
Or he wasn’t worried about her having sex with Cham-Two?
Well, she couldn’t say he hadn’t been totally aware of what was going on, so he couldn’t pretend to be shocked and outraged.
So it had had his blessing.
What she didn’t know and what mattered to her a lot was his perception of her. Was he really totally accepting of the situation, or was there that underlying contempt most men had when ‘their’ woman slept with another man?
There didn’t seem to be, and that almost worried her the most because she was afraid it meant he felt nothing because he cared nothing.
She couldn’t feel abused about it. As frantic as Hawk had been, he’d made sure he took care of her needs instead of just focusing on himself and he’d also snuggled her afterwards to make her feel appreciated if not cherished.
And Cham-Two had been just as sweet to her.
She realized they really did appreciate it.
They had needs.
Just because the company had made them what they had it didn’t follow that they weren’t like every other living being. They might b
e cyborgs, but there was a biological identity to that and it was that part of them that had human needs.
Even if they were more animal than human—and she didn’t believe that—not any more—animals wanted, had needs, searched for mates and comfort.
As handsome as they were, she didn’t know how receptive the average woman might be to them—especially if she discovered she was expected to be the squad’s woman. She knew she’d been—well, afraid of them before when she’d been the lab tech sent to collect samples for study. Then they’d seemed so cold and emotionless they’d seemed more like robots than anything that was supposed to be part human and that combined with the fact that they were designed to be so lethal had made it difficult to consider anything else.
Well they seemed anything but cold and emotionless now, but they were still … dangerous.
Any single one of them was intimidating.
All of them together?
Well, that was enough to blow anybody’s mind. And the sex damned sure was!
Chapter Eleven
Brahma and Puma were dead on ready when they packed up to leave the following morning.
They damned near had a knock down drag out fight when it was determined that it was their turn in the back seat with ‘the woman’. They had a specific pecking order, though, and Hawk pointed that out.
He also pointed out that they would behave themselves or … well, basically, no nukie for them!
Brahma subsided, but he made no attempt to hide the fact that he was pissed at being last.
He watched every move Puma made as if he was Hawk instead of Brahma.
Puma seemed to have no real problem focusing, though.
And Alexis, despite her doubts, ‘went with the flow’ as she’d determined long since was her best option if the situation arose.
The dispute before they even got into the vehicle seemed a bad sign that there would not be peace regardless of who got a piece, but she was hopeful it would calm the waters once they saw they weren’t going to get left out.
Puma surprised her. When he’d nearly fought with Brahma, she’d got the impression that he was frisky enough it was going to be a wild and fast ride. Instead, he undressed her and guided her to sit astride his lap and then settled to explore her with his eyes and his hands.
That made her self-conscious, but he wouldn’t allow her to cover anything up.
In a sense, the lack of rushing helped her to relax after a few moments, but it built the sexual tension almost as fast as it relieved her nervousness and the bashfulness that arose from being naked in such a situation.
When he’d thoroughly explored her breasts, plucking at the nipples until they stood erect and then teasing them until they were throbbing almost painfully with the blood pooled there, he leaned away from her and pulled his tunic off.
She was a little surprised at that—until he pulled her against his chest, tightening his arms around her so that he could feel the light brush of her skin against his with the swaying movements of the vehicle. He stroked his hands over every inch of her skin that he could reach, holding her gaze with his smoldering one and finally leaned closer to lightly gnaw a path along the edge of her jaw to her ear.
He explored that sensitive cavity with his tongue, tracing the intricate swirls of the shell before he delved inside. Her skin pebbled all over with the heated brush of his breath and tongue, sending cascades of shivers through her.
Her nipples throbbed in complaint.
Her kegels began to convulse plaintively.
He traced a path from her ear to her breasts and suckled her breasts with a leisure that made her feel like she was going to pass out.
“Wind it up,” Hawk growled abruptly. “Looks like company ahead.”
Puma pulled away from the nipple he was suckling abruptly enough to stretch it and making a sucking sound when he let go to look over her shoulder.
He met her gaze with a rueful gleam in his eyes. “Better get dressed, baby. We’ll … talk later.”
Alexis, unfortunately, hadn’t been tossed from heated passion to cold reality nearly as quickly as Puma had. She was still dizzy and weak and throbbing all over when he dismounted her and deposited her in her seat and so clumsy she thought she wasn’t going to be able to get into her clothing before … whatever was going to happen, happened.
She managed to get her pants on and drag the t-shirt top over her head, but she was still trying to get her arms into the thing when Cham-Two started slowing the vehicle.
He stopped it when they were still a good distance from the other military style vehicle they’d spotted that was, evidently, the objective and their reason for caution.
Cham-Two left theirs idling and got out at the same time Hawk did.
As Cham-Two strode confidently toward the vehicle Alexis could see he transformed from one step to the next from Hawk squad member to a soldier.
Cham-Two, the chameleon.
She’d never seen him transform himself, though, had had no idea he could do anything like that and especially not that quickly.
Hawk moved around the vehicle to the driver’s door, ready to dive in and gun it if that seemed like a good idea.
Instead, when Cham-Two had only covered maybe half the distance, Bull from Raven squad appeared, carrying a load of pipes.
Cham-Two stopped abruptly. “Bull?”
Bull dropped the load of pipes as he whirled. “Shit man! You startled the hell out of me!”
Hawk’s lips tightened. “What the fuck, man? You didn’t have anyone on watch?”
“Just me,” Cham retorted, directly behind him.
Hawk whipped around with a look of surprise that swiftly turned to annoyance and then amusement. He relaxed. “The whole squad here?”
“All of us,” Cham affirmed. “I would’ve preferred it if Nika had stayed back at camp, but you know how hardheaded she is.”
Raven, Lynx and a very pregnant Nika appeared out of the building.
Puma and Brahma relaxed and opened their doors to get out.
There was a brief tug-of-war while the two locked horns over who was helping Alexis out, and then Alexis got out on Puma’s side of the vehicle.
The two groups converged beside Raven squad’s vehicle.
“What’s going on?” Hawk asked as the rest of his squad joined the others.
Raven draped an arm across Nika’s shoulders, patting her belly proudly. “We’ve got a little one on the way. Wanted to get a jump on building something sturdy for Nika and the baby before baby gets here.”
They made a round of congratulations—which Alexis found just a lit-tle strange, because all of the guys Hawk of squad congratulated all of the guys in the other squad as if they were all ‘the’ father.
Since she wasn’t sure of what her place was, Alexis hung back.
Nika approached her. “I see Hawk squad captured a mate! Welcome to the wonderful world of Night Raven.”
Alexis felt her face redden—because she didn’t know if she was a mate or not or whether or not to disclaim the title. She compromised. “I’m Alexis. When’s the baby due?”
“Damned if I know,” Nika retorted. “I’ve never been much for counting and we were kind of busy fighting our way out of the city for a while. I think I’ve got a pretty good ways to go, though.”
Alexis studied her belly a little uneasily at that. She’d thought she must be pretty far along. Of course she was a small woman so maybe that accounted for the ratio …. And then it occurred to her that Nika couldn’t be very far along because it hadn’t been that long since the … break in or break out.
Maybe there was more than one?
She didn’t know if it was more disturbing to think of one really big baby or several.
She was glad she wasn’t pregnant, though.
That thought brought a cold sweat to her skin when it occurred to her that she could be.
She’d had enough semen pumped into her already to float a boat—and she hadn’t even made the r
ounds.
“Don’t look like that. You’re scaring the shit out of me,” Nika whispered. “It’ll be fine. We’re both going to be fine.”
Alexis managed a feeble smile. “Sure. You’re right.” She struggled for something to say to change the subject. “Sooo are you excited?”
Nika stared at her blankly.
“About the–well I guess they’re building a cabin?”
Nika snorted. “My guys? You’re kidding, right? Nothing less than a mansion will do for them!” she added loudly to make sure they heard.
Raven just grinned at her. “Five and half of us right now. I don’t see crowding into a little cabin. We might as well stay in the tent.”
“See?”
Alexis nodded. “He has a point. It’s hell packing everyone into the vehicle.”
Nika uttered a deep sigh. “I guess I’m in a hurry.”
“Sooo … y’all found a place to build?” Alexis prompted.
“Wait till you see it! It’s beautiful.”
Her enthusiasm was contagious, but Alexis had no idea whether they would be going in the same direction or not.
They discovered when they joined the guys that squad one was filling in squad two on the details with every bit as much enthusiasm as Nika had shown.
And it was just as contagious.
Hawk squad, to a man, was ready to pile back into the vehicles and head to the spot. Eager enough that they made short work of collecting the building materials Raven squad had come in search of.
The town had been pretty picked over already, unfortunately, and there wasn’t nearly as much as was needed for the project they had in mind. For that matter, it hadn’t particularly weathered well.
They sorted through what was gathered up, took the best and secured it to the roofs of the two vehicles and headed out in a short convoy.
Alexis was a little surprised that they didn’t reach this ‘heavenly valley’ by nightfall. They stopped and made camp.
And then Puma took his sleeping bag and walked her away from the camp after they’d eaten and conducted his own search for the heavenly valley.
Alexis was uncomfortable enough about the blatant sexual rendezvous that she wasn’t sure she could ‘focus’ enough to actually enjoy it.
