by Lili Zander
Vulrux seats himself behind me, his long, bare legs on either side of mine.
“Vulrux, what... what are you doing?”
“Showing you what I was taught.” His hands skim down my arms, and I tense involuntarily. “Relax,” he soothes, drawing me back against him with an arm around my middle. “Rest your head against me.”
I do as he asks, and he shifts so I’m leaning into the crook of his arm. His big hand brushes my hair from my shoulder and then wraps around the base of my neck and lightly squeezes. Not like he’s choking me, more like a firm, claiming grip.
“Um, I’m not sure—” My voice trails off as he starts to massage my shoulder, his thumb sliding over the tight muscle. All the fight goes out of me as he gives me the best massage of my life, focusing on my neck and shoulders. I used to get massages regularly after swimming, but not like this. Vulrux seems to know just how to soothe the stress right out of me. And man, do I have a lot of stress. Crashing a spaceship on an alien planet will do that to a girl.
Vulrux’s fingers knead me expertly. I let out a moan.
This is way better than my own attempts at self-care. This is perfect. Or it would be if Dennox weren’t watching us with a raised brow.
“Is this how a Highborn fucks?” The dark-haired Draekon’s tone says ‘you’re doing it wrong.’
I stifle back a laugh. Vulrux is unfazed. “This is how we begin,” he says. “A woman’s neck is very sensitive. I hold her life,” his voice lowers, his palm sliding to my front and his fingers encircling my neck, “In my hands.”
My insides quiver, but my pussy is thrilled. Apparently, I like having a guy’s hand around my neck. Vulrux doesn’t leave it there but gently works the tight tendons, working on relaxing me as if he has all the time in the world.
“Touching her this way, without immediately groping her breasts or cunt, gives her time to relax,” Vulrux continues to lecture, his deep voice rumbling. “Takes her thoughts away. Allows her to slip into pleasure.”
It’s working.
Dennox grunts as if he’s not convinced. “It’s okay, Dennox.” I give him a lazy smile. “You’ll get your turn.”
His lips curl into a smile. “And when I do,” he says, looking straight at me, his voice whiskey-smooth, “I’ll show you how a soldier fucks.”
My pussy clenches with a rush of pleasure.
“Not yet,” Vulrux orders. “No fucking today. This is all for you, Harper.”
“Wait, what?” I start, but Vulrux digs in deeper, releasing a knot I didn’t even know was there. I melt into a puddle. I was hoping to feel them inside me, but at this point, I’d take anything. Vulrux’s clever fingers ease down the straps of my bathing suit, baring my chest, but I barely register it.
“He’s right,” Dennox agrees. “This is all for you.” He gets to his feet and moves closer to me, his hard cock jutting from between his legs. I’m pretty sure my mouth is open, and I’m drooling. But when he gets close, he only sits down in front of me, pulls my feet into my lap, and starts massaging them too. “Not just this time. Every time. Our focus is always on you.”
Mini. Orgasm.
My eyes roll back in my head. “Oh God,” I whimper. “This is so good.”
“She’s praying?” Dennox asks Vulrux, looking puzzled.
“Human women sometimes do that, when they feel immense pleasure. I have heard this from Arax and Nyx.”
“More rubbing, less talking,” I try to say, but it comes out a barely intelligible mumble. Dennox’s thumbs work my arches, and Vulrux has taken to massaging my scalp. He moves my hair aside and places a gentle kiss on the curve of my shoulder.
I shiver. He does it again, his lips doing delicious things to my insides. I feel the press of his lips all the way down in my pussy.
“Someone got an A in anatomy,” I murmur, as he continues to light my body up with each kiss at the base of my neck. Fuck, this is so good. I feel like I should be writing a thank-you note to Vulrux’s pleasure coach.
“Shh. Close your eyes,” Vulrux orders. “Surrender to pleasure, Harper.” He pulls me flush against him, so my bottom is cradled in his lap. A comfortable seat, even with the long, hard bar of his cock pressing into me.
I lean back against his chest, and his hands come around to stroke my collarbone, teasing just above my breasts. Under my wet bathing suit, my nipples tingle, and my breath catches in anticipation.
“Once she is relaxed, it is time to touch new places.”
“Breasts?” Dennox asks.
“Not yet.”
I almost laugh at Dennox’s disappointed grunt. He must be a boob man. Boob alien. Boob dragon?
A giggle escapes me. Dennox cocks a brow. “Are you laughing at me?” He lifts my leg and props it on his shoulder. Turning his head, he presses a kiss under my knee.
“Oooh,” I half-whimper, half-squeal. Who’d have thought the back of my knee was an erogenous spot? Not me.
He does it again, and again, turning his head this way and that to scrape his stubble on my sensitive skin.
I jerk. “That tickles—”
“Does it?” He holds my leg tighter as I struggle, his eyes crinkling as he smiles at me. “This is my revenge for you laughing at me.”
“I wasn’t—”
His smile widens. “I like the way you laugh, Harper. I wish to hear it again.” He lifts my other leg on his opposite shoulder and nuzzles it too.
My pussy is dripping. There’s probably a puddle on the rock.
Vulrux, not to be left out, latches onto the tender spot between my neck and shoulder, and sucks hard. I feel the pull of his lips all the way between my legs. “Oh God,” I whimper again.
Dennox bites my calf lightly. Vulrux slides his hand down between my breasts, still avoiding my aching mounds. His palm heats my skin as he pushes my swimsuit even lower. I raise my hips and let him and Dennox ease the garment off.
Both men’s eyes drink me in greedily. Dennox keeps massaging my calves, working slowly up my legs. Vulrux’s fingers trail everywhere, dipping into the hollow in front of my hip bones, stroking back up my side to trace my collarbone. Every so often both men pause to press their lips to my skin.
I’m in Paradise, completely lost to the two mouths and four hands working up and down my body. They touch every part of me. Every part, that is, except my breasts and clit, which they leave alone. Maddening dragons. Enough foreplay. I need more.
“Fuck,” I beg, lifting my hips toward their fingers, “fuck me.”
“Not today Harper,” Vulrux says firmly. His fingers trail around my breasts, the whisper-soft strokes stimulating them without touching.
“Argh,” I open my mouth to curse, and Dennox drops down between my legs, kissing up my thighs. My legs clamp together, but he holds them apart. Vulrux wraps his hand around my right breast and squeezes just as Dennox stabs his tongue into me.
I almost explode.
Dennox thrusts again and again, and it drives me wild. Vulrux’s slow teasing combined with Dennox’s firm touch? The combination of the two of them is going to kill me. My muscles quiver and tremble under the assault of Dennox’s skillful tongue. My insides tighten and twist, and I throw my head back and plead for more. My orgasm dances just out of reach. I’m close, so close.
“My turn. I wish to taste her.”
I groan with frustration as Dennox takes his mouth off my pussy, and the two men switch places. I’m too dazed to move. Not that I want to escape. I’d have to be made to want to run away from this. Why have I been resisting?
Vulrux settles himself between my legs. His strong hands close around my thighs, holding them open. Bending his head, he nibbles my pussy, and I squirm restlessly as desire overtakes me.
“Stay still,” he growls. He holds my hips so I can’t move, and he laps me up and down. His tongue finds the sweet spot beside my clit and flicks it over and over, a maddening cadence that has my hips dancing.
Just as I’m getting close, he slides his hand under m
e and probes a finger into my ass.
I explode, screaming and bucking into Vulrux’s face. Dennox’s hands cover my breasts, his thumbs strumming my nipples as I spasm over and over. My cries echo around the lake.
Crap, I hope no one else heard me.
Dennox cradles me against his hard body, holding me as I bask in the afterglow of my orgasm. Vulrux comes close, offering me a drink of water from his cupped palms. I wet my throat, and he pulls me into a hug. As I bury my face in his chest, his hands roam, finding my ass and squeezing my bottom cheeks.
Definitely an ass draekon.
“Holy fuck,” I say as soon as I find my voice. “That was incredible. Your pleasure coach was certainly good at her job.”
Vulrux’s grin stretches from ear to ear.
Smug alien. I’ll show him. Twining my arms around his shoulders, I pull him close and kiss him hard. I want to see them unravel with the same pleasure they gave me. I want to feel their cocks move inside me, and I want to feel the hard press of their bodies against mine.
After a startled pause, he cups the back of my neck, holding me still for his plundering tongue. He’s not patient now. His kiss is deep and possessive, and I close my eyes as another wave of lust washes over me.
The second he lets me go, Dennox tugs my hair lightly and takes his turn to claim my lips. My hands rest on two muscled chests, one hand on Vulrux, the other on Dennox. My palm vibrates as a deep purr rumbles through their giant, muscled forms.
Somehow, I know the source of the sound.
Dragon.
“You never told me about your first time,” I accuse Dennox lazily as we lie on the rocks. I guess we should head back up, but I’m too sated to move.
He laughs. “We were otherwise distracted,” he replies. “I was taken right after puberty to join the Zoraken. Sex was not permitted during training; it was only a distraction. I didn’t feel the pleasure of a woman’s touch until after my first battle. It was the Liberation of Kraush. The planet was occupied by rogue slavers. The Zoraken got rid of them.” His mouth widens into a grin as he remembers. “The citizens of Kraush were very grateful.”
Vulrux sits up suddenly. “You said the Zoraken are mind-wiped after every battle. How can you remember the Liberation of Kraush?”
Dennox’s face goes white. I look from one man to the other.
Something’s just happened. Something momentous.
11
Vulrux:
We climb the stairs silently, each of us lost in our thoughts.
So much is happening. Dennox’s memories might be coming back. Harper knows about the mind-wipes, but I don’t know if she realizes the significance of what’s happening. If Dennox can remember the Liberation of Kraush, he might also eventually remember how he ended up at the Crimson Citadel.
Dennox wants to be certain that he isn’t a monster. Me? I just want to know what happened so I can get closure on the past.
“I’m really getting in good shape,” Harper says as she climbs. “The first day, every muscle in my body was screaming in protest by the time I was back at camp. Another weird thing? I don’t have a timer, and the lake isn’t exactly set up for laps, but I swear I’m swimming faster too.”
I exchange a wary look with Dennox. It’s obvious what’s happening; the same thing happened with Viola when she mated with Arax and Nyx. In Harper’s case, the blood transfusion is causing her body to change. “It’s the Draekon genes,” I reply.
She stops in her tracks. I brace myself for her anger, but after a moment of thought, she shrugs philosophically. “Well, you did warn me,” she says. “And I like being stronger and faster.” Her expression turns intrigued. “At some point, will I become a dragon? That’d be awesome.”
I laugh out loud. At almost every turn, Harper surprises me. She has a resilience about her that is very attractive. In camp, she’s friendly and cheerful, taking the time to get to know every single person. She volunteers for chores and does her share without complaint. She’s curious about everything, and she’s genuinely interested in our lives, both back on the homeworld and on the prison planet.
“Only men with the Draekon mutation transform into dragons,” I tell her. “Sorry.”
“Of course.” She rolls her eyes. “Even on an alien planet, a glass ceiling.”
I frown in confusion at the unfamiliar phrase. “Never mind,” she murmurs. “Why are there no female dragons?”
“I don’t know,” I reply honestly. “The Draekons were mostly wiped out during the Great Rebellion, and any mention of them was erased from the ThoughtVaults. That was a thousand years ago. Arax, as Firstborn, was able to access the secret archives, but there wasn’t much detail in them.”
Harper chews on her lower lip as she digests that.
Beirax believes the Draekon race is poised on the edge of rebirth. Is he right? I’m inclined to doubt the scientist. He’s got all the hallmarks of a fanatic, and I can’t trust him to be objective.
“The whole thing sucks,” she says. “You guys got exiled from your home, and you don’t even know why?”
Her concern warms my heart. “We’ll know soon enough what the Draekons are capable of,” I tell her. “Arax and Nyx can transform at will now. Once the rains stop, they’ll be able to test their abilities.”
“Not just Arax and Nyx,” she says, her face coloring. “Won’t you transform too?”
If we complete the mating bond.
But that isn’t as simple as it appears because it isn’t just about desire. I’m hiding Beirax’s revelations from Harper. A small, base part of me wants to forget about the cloakship and take what Harper freely offers, but I won’t allow myself to do that.
I’m blurring the line between right and wrong. Guilt about drugging Beirax fills me. I should have told everyone about what I discovered ten days ago, but I didn’t. I’ve kept shamefully silent.
Before we go any further, Harper deserves to know the truth.
I hesitate, wondering how to formulate my reply. Dennox gives me a sharp look, and I shake my head imperceptibly. “I expect so,” I reply at last. “I don’t want to take you for granted, Harper.”
She flushes. “I don’t know if you noticed,” she says, “but I had a really good time down there. I think it’s safe to say that sex is a foregone conclusion.”
Harper:
Confession time. I’m a little freaked out by the Draekon mutation thingy. The idea of an organism inside me rewriting my genetic code, tweaking and fine-tuning until it gets to a better, more perfect version of Harper? It reminds me of the Cybermen in Doctor Who. You will be upgraded. Or, worse, the scene in Alien, the one where the baby alien bursts out of that guy’s belly.
Don’t be ridiculous, Harper.
From what Vulrux just told me, nobody knows anything about the Draekons, not even Arax. The scientists created them, and the scientists destroyed them, and when Draekon genes show up in the population, the scientists just sweep it under the rug by exiling them.
The scientists. Of course. The fourteen exiles might not know anything about the mutation, but I bet that the two scientists stuck on the prison planet do.
I’m going to need to talk to Raiht’vi. As soon as I can.
You know the women who claim they have headaches to avoid sex? I never thought I’d be one of them, but the moment we reach the camp, I turn to Dennox and Vulrux. “I’m not feeling too good,” I fib, feeling a stab of guilt at their concerned expressions. “My head hurts. It’s nothing a nap won’t solve.”
Liar, liar, pants on fire.
“What about food, diya?” Dennox asks, his hand cradling my cheek. “Should we get you something?”
I shake my head. “I’m fine. I’m still stuffed from breakfast.”
Vulrux looks like he’s going to probe further, but he’s distracted by the sight of an approaching man. It’s Rorix, the Draekon who was in a coma for three months. I wonder if Thrax teased him about my own quicker recovery. If so, Rorix has never given any ind
ication. The man is perpetually cheerful and good-natured.
He greets us with a friendly smile before turning to Vulrux. “Zorux cut himself while carving a knife,” he says. “It’s nothing serious. Do you have a salve for him?”
“You don’t think anything short of a full enrak attack is serious,” Vulrux replies with a roll of his eyes. “I’ll come along and take a look.” He gives me an uncertain gaze. “Are you sure you’re okay, Harper?”
“Yes.” I put my hand on his arm. Mmm. Nice biceps. Really nice. Firm. I picture Vulrux holding me down as he kisses me, and my stomach does a funny little jump. I can’t wait to make love to them.
Vulrux disappears with Rorix. Once he leaves, Dennox turns to me. “If you need me, I’ll be in my house.”
His expression is pensive. In fact, come to think of it, he’s barely said anything since he mentioned the Liberation of Kraush. “Is everything okay, Dennox? You look shaken.”
His shoulders lift in a small shrug. “I’ve been mind-wiped eighteen times, Harper. I thought my memories were lost forever. To find out that I might be able to regain them…” He takes a deep breath. “I don’t know what to feel.”
I nicknamed Dennox Mr. Linebacker when I first met him. He’s big, strong and fearless. The rare moment of vulnerability takes me by surprise. I stand on tiptoe and brush my lips against his. “If you want to talk about it, I’m here.”
He squeezes my hand. “Thank you. But I need to be alone.”
“Of course.” I stare at his back as he walks away, my heart sinking in my chest. Dennox and Vulrux have told me all about their lives, with one exception. They’ve never talked about their first mate. Ever.
Now Dennox doesn’t want to talk about his memories.
I stand outside Vulrux’s front door for a long time, staring at the rain. If I’m being perfectly honest, I really like Dennox and Vulrux. They’re hot. They’re nice. They treat me like some kind of princess. And umm, not to be too crass, but the stuff we did down in the lake? Whoa. I have no words.
