Sleeping Beauty (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

by Beth D. Carter

  “Oh!” she breathed, her eyes falling half-shut. “Yes! Oh, this is so wicked but it’s…it’s so good, Noah!”

  He began to pump a little faster. His heart was thundering as he watched her turn herself on, desire causing her head to tilt a little as she bit her bottom lip. Liquid was dribbling over the mushroom head and leaking onto his hand.

  “Are you using your fingers to fuck yourself, Alivia? Like I did that first time? Remember how your hips bucked with my hand?”

  She nodded and a second later her hips started undulating. The scent of her arousal hit him hard and he almost came right then and there, but he gritted his teeth, holding on by a thread. He wanted them both to explode together.

  “I’m right there with you, Alivia,” he gasped. “My cock is swelling. I won’t be able to hold back, sweetheart. Are you almost there with me? Press your clit, press it hard, baby!”

  “Ah! Noah! I’m…I’m…”

  She cried out, her hips thrusting upward as her body stiffened, and he let go himself. Ropes of cum gushed out, spraying forward over his hand, landing on her leg.

  “Oh fuck!” he moaned, falling forward a little. He carefully caught himself and eased onto the bed.

  They both were panting, a light coat of sweat glistening on their skin. He stared at her through heavy-lidded eyes. After a moment, she opened hers and their gazes locked.

  “That was amazing,” she said, awe evident in her tone. “Why have I never done that to myself?”

  He chuckled. “I’m glad I was your first.”

  He held out the hand that wasn’t covered in his cum, the left one. She flicked a quick look at the bandage around his little finger.

  “Let’s clean up together,” he said.

  She took his hand gently, seemingly mindful of how she touched him. They rose and headed into the sanitizer shower.

  * * * *

  “We can’t go in the traditional way,” Ronan said as he studied his row of monitors.

  “What’s up?” Noah asked, next to him. He had balked at the idea of staying in bed one more day.

  “They have a sensor grid over the Carian skies. We’ll have to report to dock there.”

  “Then how do we get to the surface?” Alivia asked.

  “I’m looking,” Ronan replied absently. He scrolled through data and then smiled. “We’ll park on the far side of the planet.”

  “Near Asyiria? That’s the king’s cousin,” she said.

  “The same cousin who overthrew Carian?” Noah asked.

  “Yes.”

  Ronan swiveled to look at her. “Okay. Tell me about this cousin.”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know much about him. I just know his name is Otarun and his minor kingdom wasn’t as prosperous as Carian. Oh, and he has a son named Gordon.”

  “Great. That’s what I got from the webdata.”

  “Sorry. My mother never let me associate with family members.”

  Ronan pursed his lips. “In that case, I want you to do something for me.”

  “What?”

  “I take it you bound your breasts, right?”

  Her cheeks flushed red. “Ronan!”

  “What? Aren’t I right?”

  “Yes.”

  “I want you to put a weapon in the bindings. Something that can escape a pat down.”

  “What kind of weapon?”

  He shrugged. “We’ll find something for you. Okay? I’d feel better going into this knowing you had something on you.”

  She nodded. “Okay.”

  “So,” Noah said. “There’s not a sensor gird near Asyiria?”

  “Doesn’t look to be,” Ronan replied. “Maybe it’s the tourist parking lot.”

  Noah grinned.

  “Then how do we get to Carian?”

  Ronan shrugged. “Let’s cross that bridge when we get there. We can always blend.”

  “Okay,” Noah agreed, turning back to his computer. “Plotting a course for the tourist parking lot.”

  * * * *

  If Alivia hadn’t been told this was Marvala, she never would have believed it. It looked nothing like how she remembered, and to her, she’d only been on Marvala a week ago.

  Instead of a vibrant landscape teeming with flowers of all colors and lush foliage, the land looked barren and lifeless. Dead grass, chopped-down trees, brown underbrush all pointed to neglect. Something horrible had to have happened for such drastic changes.

  “I don’t understand,” Alivia said as she slowly turned in a circle, eyeing everything. “I saw photos of Asyiria. It didn’t look like this.”

  “It’s been thirty-one years,” Ronan reminded her. “And a war raged for five of them.”

  She didn’t comment but seeing the devastation that had taken its toll she felt sadness settle inside her heart.

  Noah put his arm around her and gave her a tight hug. “Now that we’re here, how do we get to Carian?”

  “I think I can help with that,” came a low, menacing voice.

  All three of them spun. A man stood there, a rifle blaster in each hand, one pointed at Ronan and one pointed at Noah. His face was covered with a breather mask with a neck scarf that hung on his black duster.

  Ronan shoved her behind him, and he raised his blaster, although she was pretty sure that wouldn’t be enough to deter him. Noah shifted until he stood shoulder to shoulder with Ronan, forming a wall between her and the man hunting her.

  Fear gripped her inside. Not for herself but for her men, because they would die trying to save her. She’d never survive without them. If they died she might as well lay down beside them and let the hunter finish his quest.

  “Put your guns down,” Ronan ordered.

  Even though she couldn’t see the man’s face she had the distinct feeling he was smirking at them.

  “You have something that belongs to me,” the man stated.

  “I don’t think so,” Ronan replied.

  “The girl is my unfinished business.”

  She gripped the back of Ronan’s shirt. She felt his muscles were hard and tense and she silently urged him to remain calm and cool.

  “I’m afraid you’re mistaken,” Noah spoke up. “This is our wife. We’re on our honeymoon.”

  “The woman is Alivia Carian, daughter of the old queen and a traitor to Marvala,” the man stated. “I was sent to apprehend her. Move or I will shoot.”

  “I’ll shoot first,” Ronan warned.

  Seconds ticked by. Alivia had a flash of what could happen, the lifeless bodies of Ronan and Noah at her feet. She couldn’t let them die.

  “Stop!” she yelled and pushed through the wall. Ronan tried to grab her arm but she evaded him.

  “Alivia! Get back here!” he ordered harshly.

  She marched closer to the man. Not close enough so he could touch her but close enough to be a shield for Ronan and Noah.

  “Shoot me now, be done with your business. But let them go,” she said. “Please. Let them go.”

  “No, Alivia,” Noah whispered.

  She ignored him and stared at the man who had hunted her, the one sent to kill her. Her heart beat so heavily in her chest it almost hurt but she figured she didn’t have much time left so she ignored the ache. All the while it pumped with the love she felt for Ronan and Noah. As much as she wanted to live, she wanted to protect them more.

  The man moved one rifle blaster, the one that had been pointed at Ronan a fraction, and now it pointed at her heart.

  “No!” Ronan yelled and charged.

  Everything happened so fast it was a blur to Alivia, but one minute she stood as a shield and the next she was on the ground with Noah on top of her, protecting her body as shots fired.

  “Ronan!” she screamed and immediately everything came to a halt.

  With tears streaming down her cheeks she was half-afraid to look but forced herself to see what had happened. Noah tried to pin her down but she struggled so much he eventually moved off her.

  Ronan lay on hi
s back, panting heavily. He had both hands up in the air as the man stood over him with one rifle blaster. Then he reached up and pulled his mask off his face.

  She gasped.

  “Kaden?” she asked, confusion heavy in her voice.

  She studied the man she had known all her life, now weathered with age. His once-dark hair was now silver and deep lines furrowed around his eyes and mouth. Other than the obvious signs of time, he didn’t act like a man close to sixty. He stood just as straight and confident as ever.

  Kaden ignored her. Instead, his eyes were focused directly on Ronan.

  “Ronan?” he asked softly. “Your mother was Stacia?”

  Ronan lowered his hands. “What?”

  “Your mother. Was her name Stacia?”

  “How did you know that?”

  The man lowered his rifle blaster. “Because I’m your father.”

  Chapter Twenty

  “Bullshit,” Ronan spat. He scooted back far enough so he could jump to his feet.

  Noah pulled Alivia up and pushed her over to him, where they once again formed a wall between her and Kaden.

  “I was there at your birth,” Kaden continued.

  “I was born on Tortuga.”

  “You were born on Marvala, in Carian’s Township.”

  “Liar!”

  Kaden shook his head. He half took off his duster and pulled his sleeve up, revealing his tattoo, the same tattoo his mother told him about. “Truth. Stacia and I were engaged.”

  Ronan rushed him and grabbed hold of Kaden’s coat. They stood nose to nose. “She was a whore!”

  Pain flashed over Kaden’s face. “I know, and that’s my fault.”

  Ronan shook him.

  “It was you. You turned my mother into a whore,” Ronan raged. “You bastard! You unimaginable bastard!”

  Ronan drew back and decked him across the chin. Kaden fell back and Ronan jumped on top of him, his fist drawing back again and again as he pummeled anywhere he could hit. Kaden didn’t put up a defense. In fact, he seemed to welcome the pain each hit delivered.

  “Enough!” Noah yelled. He put his arms around Ronan, holding him. “Enough, Ronan. You’ll kill him.”

  “He deserves to die!”

  “Maybe,” Noah soothed. “But not by you. You’d never forgive yourself.”

  Ronan heaved as he collapsed in Noah’s arms, crying. Noah pulled him off Kaden’s supine body. Blood seeped from his knuckles.

  They sat there, Noah holding the bigger man as Ronan pulled himself together. This was the first time he’d cried over his mother and it would be the last. He didn’t believe in mourning for the past.

  Alivia walked around them and fell to her knees beside Kaden. His eyes were open, staring up. Blood trickled from his split lip, a bruise covered one cheek, and an eye was swelling as it darkened to a nasty shade of purple.

  “What happened?” she asked him.

  His eyes flickered to her. “I was told to protect you—”

  “Not me,” she interrupted. “To Ronan’s mother.”

  He looked at his son. “I loved her. But this world wasn’t safe. Marvala was turning sour and I wanted her and you out of danger.”

  “So you sent her to Tortuga?” she asked.

  “I sent her there to catch a ship to somewhere safe. She disappeared. And I was caught in a civil war and to my duties to my queen. When I tried to find Stacia, years later, I was told she was dead and you were gone.”

  Ronan pulled out away from Noah and stood. “I hate you.”

  “I know.”

  “Seems like all you’re good for is abandoning people.” He pointed to Alivia. “You crashed her on some deserted moon in the Cold Lands and left her to rot.”

  “I monitored her,” Kaden said. “It was safer for her in the cryo stasis.”

  “Safer how?” she asked.

  Kaden slowly rolled to his side and sat up. “Your mother gave the orders for you to disappear. She made the arrangements on Jurdin Prime.”

  “Did she tell you to forget about me for thirty-one years?”

  “She died without giving me further orders. I kept you out there based on the last command she gave me. To protect you.”

  Alivia looked at Ronan. He could feel her eyes on him but he refused to let her see the sickness swarming through him. He knew what she was thinking. He’d been orphaned, his mother abandoned to the elements of Tortuga, because of her.

  “Then why are you hunting her?” Noah asked.

  Kaden pushed himself to his feet. “Because I have a king that gave me orders.”

  “I thought you were loyal to my mother,” Alivia said, confused.

  “I am. I was. When Otarun took the throne I knelt and swore allegiance to him,” Kaden stated. “But I do not consider it a legal oath and it was not one I kept. There are those who do not support Otarun and I am one of them.”

  “Otarun thinks you’re loyal?” Noah asked.

  “Yes. So while I pretend to obey one set of commands from him, I carry out another’s.”

  “From whom?” Alivia questioned.

  “Otarun’s son, Gordon.”

  She blinked. “Gordon wants to be king?”

  “No, he wants you to assume the throne. You are, after all, the rightful heir to the kingdom.”

  “I’m no queen,” she said, standing and moving to stand between Ronan and Noah. “I don’t want this kingdom.”

  Kaden looked like he didn’t understand. “You can’t ignore your birthright.”

  “Birthright? I was born for some grand design, not out of love. And you turned your back on your own family because of that…that…scheme! It sickens me. All of this sickens me!”

  She turned to look at Ronan.

  “I’m so sorry for what my family has done to your family,” she whispered, anguish turning her voice husky. “I know you can never forgive me but before you leave me, please take me off this world. Take me anywhere. And then I’ll never bother you again.”

  She bent her head, standing before him an ultimate picture of submission. His heart hurt so fucking much he couldn’t think straight. Noah took his hand, linking their fingers and squeezing. The simple gesture helped clear the thunder clouds in his brain, leaving him with the realization that no matter what had transpired with their parents, Alivia was an innocent pawn in all this. They had both been deceived.

  He pulled her into his arms and held her tightly. She gave a choked cry and hugged him back.

  “I love you,” she cried.

  “I love you, too,” he told her back.

  Noah embraced them both. And then a blaster shot hit him in the back and Noah crumpled.

  * * * *

  “Noah!” Alivia screamed.

  A second shot hit Ronan and he joined Noah on the ground.

  She screamed again but when she bent to inspect them, Kaden grabbed her arm and yanked her back.

  “You killed them!”

  “I stunned them,” Kaden told her. “Do you really think I’d kill my own son? Wait, on second thought, don’t answer that.”

  She struggled and spat in his face. “Let me go, you asshole.”

  “That’s not the language you were taught.”

  “Fuck you,” she said.

  He sighed. “I didn’t want to do this but I can’t have you struggling against me.”

  And then he fired a stun blast at her and she knew no more.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “What the fuck?” Ronan moaned as pain flashed through his skull. “Motherfucker stunned us.”

  “That’s some dad you got, Ronan,” Noah muttered. “Makes me glad I don’t know who mine is.”

  “He took her.”

  “Yeah, kind of figured that one out.”

  They sat up and looked around the room they were in, squinting against the sunlight streaming through the towering windows. A four-poster bed rested against one wall, framed with silk brocade, with a step stool near the footboard. An armoire was the only ot
her decoration except for a marble fireplace that wasn’t in use.

  “Where the hell are we?” Ronan asked.

  “We are in an awesome bedroom,” Noah answered, jumping to his feet and walking to the window. “And from the looks of the perfectly landscaped humongous backyard, I’m going to assume we’re at the Carian palace.”

  “So he brought us with him,” Ronan mused as he walked to the door and checked to see if it was locked. The knob didn’t even turn. “Why?”

  “To save Alivia?”

  “In that case, why lock the damn door?”

  “He probably thinks you can break it down.”

  “Me? That’s ironwood. Ten of the universe’s strongest men couldn’t bust that door down.”

  Noah looked around the room again. “Doesn’t this bedroom seem very barren? No computer, no vidscreens, no webdata link ups. No toilet. It’s like this bedroom was ripped from an Ancient Earth history book.” He walked over to the armoire and opened it. “Ah. Spoke too soon. Know how to hack into a palace mainframe?”

  “I can try,” Ronan muttered as he tapped a few keys. “But I don’t have to. Look, it’s already linked on.”

  Noah tapped the monitor screen. “And it seems someone initiated a positional tracking system. It’s blinking in the library. I’m guessing your daddy wants us to follow him.”

  “I still fucking hate him,” Ronan muttered as typed in the command to open the door.

  * * * *

  When Alivia opened her eyes it took a moment for the world to come into focus. She saw an ornate fireplace decorated in gold to match the rusty hues of marble. The gilded ornamental design was one of lions from Ancient Earth lore. Memory slammed into the forefront of her mind and she sat up abruptly, pain radiating down her back in waves. She gasped and slumped until it dissipated.

  “I’m sorry about that,” a man said from behind her.

  Alivia jumped to her feet and spun. She saw a tall, well-groomed man with light red hair and sea-green eyes. It was hard to tell his age but he looked to be in his mid to late forties. He wore a green velvet doublet buttoned to his chin, the gold buttons shiny in the soft light.