“Gotta love those difficult bastards in the delta quadrant,” Rowe said, not without affection.
Nell thought they sounded like awkward little shits.
“If you return now and show your face, it’ll be obvious that the emergency council have been up to something and there will be an all-out war. People are already angry,” Angel informed Rowe, his face grave. “It’s going to be one hell of an ugly fight, and might give other factions the opportunity to annex large portions of the Eastern Complex for themselves. I would guess Gordon would be first among them.”
“Gordon?” In her head, Nell echoed Rowe’s question to Angel.
“Fleet Sector Commander Gordon.” Angel replied, with a quick glance towards Nell.
A GEF Sector Commander? Nell stifled a groan.
“Then it’s back to the Council, or war.” Rowe looked up at Angel. “I thought you had betrayed me.”
“Why the hell would I do that?”
“It was something Gordon said.”
“Bloody Sector Commander Gordon,” Angel growled. “Everything leads back to that greedy bastard.”
Nell kept quiet and stared at her hands, listening. She still did not quite trust Angel as far as she could throw him, but the involvement of an officer of the Galaxy Elite Fleet made her role in this all the more difficult.
Gordon. Nell had heard of him, and none of it had been good. It was a well-known fact that he had harboured a deep, abiding grudge against the Thorn family for some years, and that was one reason why Nell had barely reacted to the fact that the assassin on her ship had been tattooed with the insignia of Gordon’s personal guard. It would not be the first time that supporters of various factions within the Fleet and the Inner Galaxy Worlds had used violence against the Thorn family as a means to ingratiate themselves with their leadership. However, it would appear she had been complacent. The real target of the assassin’s attack must always have been Rowe.
She had been careless.
Angel rubbed his face in his hands before he asked Rowe, “Have you any suggestions?”
Rowe emptied his glass of its contents and banged the empty vessel back down onto the bar table. “Yes I have. Let’s forget all the crap and have sex.”
“What?” Nell looked from one to the other and remembered that she had seen Rowe lip-locked with Angel way before her own mind-blowing encounter with him. It seemed fair to say that Woodson Rowe believed in spreading as much joy as he could, as quickly as possible.
She told herself to be an adult, brutally squashing the jealousy that rose in her chest when she intercepted the look that passed between the two men. None of this was really about her, it was about them, she thought enviously. They had been separated for some time and finally they were coming back together.
“How long do you think you’ll be?” she managed to ask in a fairly normal voice, whilst calculating how long she would have to wait for them to finish up before they could leave. She might then get back to Fleet space, where you didn’t get dumped quite as quickly as you did here, when a man’s boyfriend turned up.
“I don’t know, Nell, but you are going to join us, aren’t you?”
Chapter Twelve
“Relax. You were brave enough to say yes, so relax and enjoy it,” Rowe whispered in her ear. He lay partially behind her, both hands on her breasts, gently pulling on her nipples and rubbing the tips with broad, strong fingers. Nell was leaning back against his chest, her left hand on one of his thighs.
“I’ll do my best.” Nell wriggled a bit, so that the soft surface of the bed abraded her already sensitive skin. She was so wet they were going to have to peel her from the mattress at this rate. Nell threw back her head and revelled in the hot desire that seemed to be rushing through every blood vessel in her body as she ran a naked foot down the sheet where she lay.
Rowe had his right leg half bent, his legs spread wide so that Nell was supported by him, her bare hand resting gently on his magnificent cock as he idly toyed with her.
“Suck it.” The tone of his voice was so commanding Nell felt an additional shiver of desire prickle over her.
She began to point out that she would have to be released from his firm hold in order to reach, when another body slid across her field of vision and swallowed Rowe’s engorged, erect penis.
It was Angel.
“Suck it.”
Angel sucked Rowe hard, hollows appearing in his cheeks as he applied as much pressure as he could, the muscles working in his jaw as his tongue laved and twisted over Rowe’s sensitive skin.
Holy shit, it’s the kind of sight that could make a girl’s clit catch fire, thought Nell as she squirmed restlessly on the bed.
“Poor Nell, are we neglecting you?”
Rowe half twisted on his side so he could look at her.
“Would you like me to fuck him?” Rowe smiled his slow lazy grin. “While he eats you?”
Nell stared at Rowe, mesmerised, swallowing as he went on, “Or you can tell me what to do, if you like… Would you like that, Nell?”
“Me?” Nell coughed to clear her suddenly clogged throat. “Yes, do it. Let him go.” She tapped Angel imperiously on the shoulder to get him to release Rowe’s cock. “Lick me.”
With a gleam in his eye that promised some sort of revenge in the future, Angel moved on to her clit. Worrying it briefly with his teeth, he licked her with his entire tongue from her labia down to the fold in her buttocks.
“Oh, oh…” She shifted on her back as the sensation grew between her legs. “Rowe, I want… I want to come while you are in him.”
With a soft chuckle, Rowe released her and moved around them both as Nell lay writhing on the bed. He then started rubbing his cock against Angel’s back and buttocks, licking and kissing his neck.
“In where, sweetness?”
“In Angel.” Angel was obviously as affected by her fumbling efforts to direct their lover as much as Rowe was. He groaned against her clit, making her shudder with the sensation. “I…I want you to be fucking him when I come.”
To be a part of their reunion, of whatever it was that seemed to link these two extraordinary men together, gave her such an erotic charge that even speaking the words left her more aroused than before.
If that could be possible. Nell squeezed her eyes shut as Angel shifted position. The sensation of her clitoris being expertly sucked and teased was affecting her ability to even think.
From Rowe’s sinuous movements it was apparent that he was using his cock to apply ample amounts of lube to Angel’s buttocks and anus, his hand rubbing Angel’s back, then disappearing as he pushed fingers into Angel to prepare his way.
“Come on,” growled Angel against Nell’s mons, “get on with it. You heard her.”
Rowe simply laughed and leaned around Angel’s lean hips to milk his cock with his oil-slicked hand.
“Bastard, that’s not what I meant.” Angel gasped as Rowe pulled his cock in long, squeezing strokes away from his body. From the way Angel’s hips worked at the pressure applied by Rowe, Nell could see he was walking a tightrope of sexual arousal.
“Come on, Nell, what next?” Rowe groaned. “Keep talking so that I know you’re enjoying this as much as we are.”
“Are you in him yet?” She could barely get the words out, her breath was so short.
“I’m working on it.”
“Oh, my…” Emboldened by Rowe’s deep laugh, she went on to gasp, “Angel, my nipples.”
Her natural tone of command rang through her words and brought a chuckle from Rowe and a deep groan from between her legs. Nell threw her head back and pulled her legs wider as the talented Angel sucked and flicked her clitoris, his tongue continuing to tease the engorged bud of pleasure until she thought she would scream.
Angel pulled his arms out from underneath her legs, sliding them up and over to fasten his hands firmly over her generous breasts. With a firm pinch, he attached his fingers to both her nipples and pulled them sharply upwards. Nell
arched her back in response, pushing more firmly down onto his rubbing, thrusting tongue. A delicious wave of arousal swept over her as, despite being the one that had given the orders, she suddenly felt trapped and at the mercy of his firm hands and wicked mouth.
Nell stared deeply into Rowe’s silver, passion-filled gaze, then looked down to engage Angel’s blue, soft-focused eyes as he glanced up at her. “Let him take you,” she gasped. “Make Rowe come, for me.”
Angel’s fingers clenched and pinched Nell’s nipples until she was sobbing with painful arousal, but he also pushed himself back as Rowe moved forwards to impale him on his erect cock. Nell watched the expressions on both men’s faces as Rowe relentlessly pushed himself inside, and Angel lifted his head from Nell’s lap and his hands from her nipples to brace himself against the bed. The second Rowe was partially in, Angel gave a breathless gasp and clearly started taking control, pushing backwards and pulling himself forwards, working Rowe’s dick like a master. Soon Rowe started jerking his hips, rocking gently to feed more of his erection deeper and deeper into Angel.
“Fuck me, Rowe.” Angel’s eyes burned with a lusty blue fire. “Hard. Put your back into it.”
The sight of Rowe refusing to be hurried, his lean, muscled body working to deliver long, measured strokes, brought a flood of blood into Nell’s erogenous zones and pulled her close to the edge.
“Don’t you dare come before me.” Nell slid herself down, but found her arms pulled taut as she ran out of play from where her hands held fast to the bed head. “Don’t either of you dare.” She writhed beneath the thrusting Angel, whose erect cock was bobbing within Rowe’s brutal grip.
Rowe shoved Angel forward, stopping Angel’s pounding for one moment to grip Nell’s hips and buttocks and move her body firmly onto Angel’s hot, turgid cock. She slid onto his erection with such force that Nell was unable to contain a sucked-in breath of sensation as his thickness moved into her swollen, aroused cunt. It was as if Rowe was fucking Nell through Angel. Each time Rowe shoved his cock into Angel’s anal passage, Angel took it with a rough grunt, and Nell felt another gush of juices flood her passage, soaking her legs as Angel fucked her in turn.
“Oh, yes. Oh! Oh…oh!” Nell shook her head, unable to remain still. “Ah! Ah! Ah!” Her voice broke and rose as the two men rocked against her.
Without a change to his rhythm, Angel slid his thumb across Nell’s clit before moving his hand to her buttocks and slipping a scorching finger into her hot, sweat-slicked backside.
Nell hit her climax full on, with a sobbing scream. In an instant, the orgasm that claimed her with a powerful clenching wave milked Angel’s penis and gripped him inside her. Angel’s intense stare burned into her as he swelled and spilled inside Nell, flooding her with his seed. Rowe let go of the struggle to hold back and exploded right along with Angel, turning his head and burying his face in Angel’s neck as if to stifle his shout as he jerked violently to empty himself completely into Angel. Rowe’s handsome face distorted in an expression of agonised ecstasy, his distinctive dark locks of hair plastered across his forehead, slicked with sweat, as he kept thrusting until both of them had exhausted every sexual aftershock and collapsed replete on top of Nell.
* * * *
Some time later, as Nell was toying with a drink, watching the two men recover, she said, “I need to ask you something.”
She avoided their eyes, a tense, clutching sensation in the base of her stomach as she rushed on to say, “It’s quite important.”
The tone of her voice was enough for both men to look at each other before rolling over onto their stomachs.
“What?” Rowe was intent on her face, studying her expression, his silver gaze concerned.
“What happens now? Do we go back?” Nell kept her gaze down, focusing on her drink as she asked the question.
“You would still be prepared to do that?” Rowe’s voice sounded surprised, and the rustle of fabric with the thump of feet suggested that someone had moved off the bed. “You do realise your kidnappers probably had every intention of killing you?”
“You think?” she said finally, her heart heavy. Nell’s suspicion was that someone else had identified her potential as a bargaining chip, even if Rowe had not. “You’re still in trouble, and I still have evidence that may help.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Angel replied. “I’d like to see the Eastern Complex representatives convince those suspicious bastards on the Rim Council that they had absolutely nothing to do with your abduction. I could do with a laugh.”
“Your sense of humour was always suspect,” Rowe observed.
“Excuse me?” Nell shot into a sitting position, wincing as her stiff muscles moved at speed. “This is a really serious matter. You said there was a potential for war if you did not go back to the Council.”
“Yes.” Angel rolled onto his back once more. “Just a great big bit of a chance, I suppose.”
“We could maybe persuade Danyeo that we could resolve things,” Rowe mused, “although my gut reaction is that we will still end up fighting this thing out.”
Nell got to her feet. “Can you two be serious for just one fucking moment? You are talking about a full-on war.”
“That’s a little harsh.” Doing his best to sound hurt, Angel finally rolled to his feet as well. “We’re always very serious. The Danyeo Collective heads up a massive fighting force…”
The thought of them fighting made her throat constrict and her chest feel tight. Nell recognised it immediately as panic. She was afraid they were going to leave her behind and get killed when she could do something to stop it.
“You are such short-sighted idiots!” Nell hissed. “I’m going to have to come back with you to give evidence to the fucking Council. Someone has to act like a responsible adult here.”
“No, Nell, you are not.” Rowe smiled slightly. “You are not going anywhere near the Rim Council, simply because my nerves cannot take it anymore. It is too dangerous for you to go back.”
“But you need me,” she insisted, but Nell could tell that the two of them had made their minds up, and it was pretty obvious she didn’t feature in their plans.
“No.” Rowe was implacable.
“But…but you need me.” She repeated the words, but they sounded annoyingly forlorn. “If I give evidence to the Rim Council, then surely that must help stop the slavers. Stop the misery that is being trafficked across the borders of Rim and Fleet space. Those slaves are being effectively worked to death in Eastern Complex mines because they simply cannot survive there. Angel…tell him.”
Angel looked towards Rowe and took his lead immediately.
“No, of course not. Rowe’s right.”
“Do you think I’m scared because of a stupid attempted abduction?” Nell’s temper flared. “Do you think I’d let them win that easily?”
“No, you wouldn’t.” Rowe reached forward and gently unclipped the silver collar from about her neck that had been there since he had ‘collected’ her. “But I would. There are other ways I can get these bastards without putting you in their way.”
“But…” Nell rubbed her neck, which now suddenly felt both naked and exposed with the collar gone.
She had no idea what it had been supposed to do, or what it had represented. He had never told her.
“This is goodbye, Nell,” he said firmly.
Nell threw her hands up in the air in a gesture of frustration. “I’m not scared. I can do this for you. And, as lovely as Angel is, can you trust him?”
Angel snorted loudly.
“No offence, Angel, but you gave me a knife in the middle of a staged fight. And we only have your word that Gordon is at the bottom of all this.”
“Yes, I did give you a knife,” Angel replied, eyes blazing. “To protect you both. Have you any idea how ugly those things can become? Rowe was an idiot even to suggest such a thing. Often both combatants end up dead, killed by spectators. Add to that the fact that you are Fleet…”
Nell suppressed a very real shudder, remembering the raucous calls and the press of bodies round them before Danyeo had intervened.
“I am a desperate idiot,” Rowe agreed. “But not so desperate that I am prepared to take you back there to be either killed or have your mind wiped clean. This is Rim business, Nell; you need to go back to your own side now.”
Great, Nell thought, back to being on the same side as Fleet Sector Commander Gordon.
“What about the bug in my backside?” she asked them finally, for the collar had gone but the tag remained.
“Get it sorted and bill him,” Angel advised her, “and get the best you can to do it. He can afford it.”
And that, it would seem, was that.
Chapter Thirteen
Nell was left standing on a remote boundary station on the edge of GEF space, looking out at the stars towards the Rim, aware of a hollow ache in her chest. The thought of them out there, somewhere, without her made the hollow ache swell and settle into a painful lump.
If she didn’t know better, she’d think they had broken her heart.
Crap.
She traced the distant lights with one last look as she turned back to face the flat greyness of Fleet architecture.
“Welcome back from your…er…break.” Talbot emerged from nowhere to take one case and look at the remaining luggage scattered about where Nell stood. “You might want to try travelling a little lighter, Area Commander Thorn.”
Nell turned and fixed him with a drop-dead stare.
Talbot shrugged and picked up another case at random.
“Are you about to return to your old area?” he asked, his tone one of studied nonchalance.
“No.”
“No?”
“No. I have set my heart on a Sector job, Talbot. I want a Sector job really badly, and you owe me.” Nell took one of the bags from him and stood in his path. “You know what I am like.”
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