by Susan Hayes
He kept pushing her toward her breaking point, and when she came it was on a shuddering cry that had him tumbling over the precipice right behind her.
She was still slumped over his chest, panting softly, when Dash chimed in.
“So, that endurance kick in yet? Or would you like a moment to recover?”
She lifted her head and gave Dash a slow, sultry smile that made Mack’s cock stir despite having come only seconds before. It was the sexiest expression he’d ever seen.
“I’m ready for more.”
Dash blinked. “Mack, we might be in trouble here.”
“Could be. Looks like we’re going to have to up our game.”
She arched a brow and tossed her hair back over her shoulder in open challenge. “In that case, game on.”
She gave Mack one last kiss before going into Dash’s arms with an eagerness that made him laugh. She tangled her arms around his neck as he laid claim to her mouth, need driving him hard. He needed to be inside her, loving her, making her call out his name. She hung onto him as he lowered her to the mattress, kissing her until the world fell away. He covered her body with his own, and she wrapped her legs around his hips, locking them together.
Her hands stroked down his arms and back up to his shoulders before twining around his neck again. “Love me,” she whispered.
“Always.”
He arched his back and positioned himself, then held still as his mouth plundered hers. He wanted to stretch out this moment, to memorize every detail of her face and body. This was the beginning of their life together, and he already knew it was a memory he would always cherish. When he couldn’t wait another second, he drove himself in deep, losing himself in the slick heat of her body. Need, raw and primal blended with emotions so powerful they stole his breath, and he knew part of his soul would be lost in her forever.
Her inner walls gripped his cock, milking him with every thrust and slowly shredding his control. It was a losing battle, and soon he was hammering into her, the air filled with the music of her cries and the relentless beat of their bodies coming together over and over. He wanted to hang onto these last moments, but it would have been easier to ride a comet than to stop the inevitable. Her nails raked his back, and he came harder than he’d ever done before. There were stars dancing in his vision when he finally opened his eyes again, but beyond them, he could see an even more dazzling sight; the woman he loved staring up at him with adoration glowing in her beautiful blue eyes.
“I love you so much it scared me at first,” she whispered, then reached up to cup his cheek in her hand. “I’m not afraid anymore. Not of this, or of anything that might be coming our way.”
“A little fear isn’t a bad thing. It keeps you alive. If Dash felt a bit more of it, maybe he wouldn’t get shot so often,” Mack observed, placing a gentle hand on the crown of her head.
She laughed. “If Dash hadn’t gotten shot, then we might never have crossed paths again. All of this was destined to happen. I know it.”
“I don’t care how we found each other again, I’m just glad we did.” Dash couldn’t imagine what their lives would be like if they’d never found their angel again, and now he would never have to. Against all the odds, she was back, and this time she was here to stay.
The End
BONUS CONTENT
TROUBLE DOUBLED
A short story with the characters from Double Down
Zura added a few more globs of icing to the gingerbread structure and quickly placed more of the blue and silver candies before the icing hardened. She had managed to find a decent source of gingerbread dough to load into the food dispenser, but the machine was having trouble getting the icing mixture right. There were always challenges to re-creating an old-fashioned recipe like this, but she was making it work. More or less. It had taken most of the afternoon to assemble and decorate all the pieces, and she was almost out of time. It would have gone faster if she’d asked one of her friends for help, but this was a labor of love, and she wanted to do it herself.
She worked as quickly as she could, humming an old, half-remembered holiday tune her father used to sing at this time of year, back when she was a little girl. As a child, she’d been fascinated by the lyrics and had peppered her dad with questions. What was a sleigh, and why did they make a horse pull it instead of having thrusters installed? Why did they need to put bells on the poor horse? Where were the people all dashing off to? Her dad had made up all sorts of answers to her questions, each sillier and more unlikely than the last.
As her hand rose to touch the battered family ring she wore on a chain around her neck she smiled at the memory, despite the pang of sadness that still hit every time she thought about her father. “I hope you’re out there, Daddy. Watching over me like you promised. I wish you were still with us. I miss you.”
She gripped the ring a little tighter. “I would give anything to have you here today, so I could see the look on your face when I share my big news.”
A timer chimed, announcing the last batch of gingerbread was finished being processed by the food dispenser. She had intentionally made more than she needed because she knew if she didn’t have extras to feed to Kit and Luke, they would likely devour her creation before it was finished. After all her hard work, she wasn’t going to let that happen.
It had taken a few days to get everything organized, and hours of planning to work out how to create a gingerbread version of Nova Club where they all worked and lived. Back when she’d done this with her dad, every year they would make a replica of their ship, the Sun Sprite. It was the only home she had ever known—until now.
These days, her home was Nova on Astek Station, and her heart belonged to her husbands, Kit and Luke. In the months since their wedding, everything had fallen into place. Business at the club continued to thrive, and her new business running luxury goods and precious cargo out to the Drift was off to a strong start. She had four pilots signed on, including her brother, Royan, and her friend, Phyl Harrington, each of them with their own ship. She was building more than a business out here in the dark reaches of the galaxy. She was building a future for herself, and her family.
Zura set the gingerbread out to cool, picked up the icing, and returned to the task of decorating the group of gingerbread figures laid out in front of her.
She was still working on them when the door opened.
“Holy fraxx, what smells so good?” Luke called out.
“Haven’t you ever had gingerbread before?” she asked in response.
“I have, and I know it didn’t taste half as good as that smells. Hey, gorgeous, you look sexy, and very sticky.” Luke appeared in the kitchen, scooping her into his arms for a kiss that made her toes curl. “Yep. Sticky, sweet, and very tasty.”
“What’s all this? Did you decide to open a bakery while we were at work?” Kit asked, gesturing around the small area that functioned as their kitchen. Every inch of counter space was taken up with candies, bowls of tinted icing, and racks of gingerbread, while the table was taken over by the gingerbread and confection creation she’d spent the day working on.
“Nope. Not a bakery. Just a little something my dad and I used to do to celebrate the Festival of Light.”
“I thought you two weren’t much for traditional holidays?” Luke said as he released her.
She went from Luke's arms to Kit's as her other husband moved in for a kiss of his own. “You taste amazing. If this is the holiday tradition, I’m all for it.”
“No, I’m not the tradition, that is.” She laughed and pointed her icing covered spatula in the direction of her gingerbread version of the Nova. “Tada!”
“Is that—“
“It’s Nova! Check it out, Kit. She’s even got the fight cage in here,” Luke was leaning over the table, eyeing everything with interest.
“Dad and I used to build a gingerbread house every year. It was something he’d done with his mother, all the way back through the generations. We’d bake,
and eat icing and candy, and sing old holiday songs. He said it was important to celebrate family, and remember that no matter how dark the night got, the light would always come back into the world eventually.”
“That’s a lovely sentiment, little one. But uh, I’m quite certain what you’ve made there is not a house,” Kit pointed out. He kept an arm draped around her waist as he admired her handiwork.
“No, it’s not. But the Nova is my home, just like the Sun Sprite used to be.”
“I like this tradition.” Kit pulled her in close and kissed her again. “Next year, maybe we can do it together? Like a family.”
“I’d like that.”
“Hey, I found people. Are these supposed to be us?” Luke asked, holding up the figures decorated to look a little like himself and his twin brother.
“I wasn’t finished setting everything up. The three of us go inside the club.” She pointed to a spot near the bar.
“This must be you,” Kit said, picking up another figure, this one covered in blue icing.
“And these must be extras.” Luke picked up the last two decorated gingerbread figures, both of them barely a quarter of the size of the others. “Snack sized!”
“Don’t you dare eat those!” She smacked Luke’s wrist with her spatula, sending frosting in all directions.
“Okay, okay, not eating the delicious little people-shaped cookies. Can I ask why not?”
Zura’s pulse raced and her stomach filled with butterflies the size of small asteroids. It was time to tell them. “Because they belong in the club next to the figures of the three of us.”
Both men looked at her with quizzical expressions. “Who are they supposed to be?”
She moved in, taking the pieces from Luke and arranging them inside the club, the three adults leaning up against the bar, with the smaller figures nestled at their feet.
“They don’t have names yet. We’ve got about seven months to rectify that.” She smiled up at them and placed a hand on her stomach. “Those are your children. I got confirmation from Alyson a couple of days ago. I’m pregnant.”
“Holy fraxx, babies!” Luke exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear.
“Two?” Kit asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
“Twins, just like their fathers,” she confirmed.
“I’m going to be a father,” Kit said, every word uttered slowly, as if he didn’t quite believe the words coming out of his mouth.
“We’re going to be fathers. Re’veth. We’re going to be in charge of raising tiny, helpless humans.” Luke shook his head, then walked over to her, sank to his knees, and leaned in to press his head to her stomach. “I’ve never been so excited and terrified in my entire life.”
“Me either,” Kit said.
“None of us had normal upbringings, but we’ll figure this out, together. That’s what we talked about when we decided to try for a family, right?” she reminded them, her fingers stroking Luke’s brow.
“Nothing about our lives has ever been normal. I don’t think it matters. We’re going to love our kids and do our best to protect them. That’s all any parent can do.” Kit hugged her and nuzzled his face into her hair. “You are going to be the sexiest mom the galaxy has ever seen.”
“Hell yeah,” Luke agreed, pressing a kiss to her tummy. “You hear that, little guys? You’ve got the prettiest, most amazing mom any kid could hope for.”
She patted Luke’s head. “You know, they might not be little guys at all. They could be little girls.”
Both men groaned at the thought.
“If you’re carrying our daughters, we’re doomed. They’ll have your silver eyes and gorgeous blue hair and we’ll be wrapped around their tiny fingers before they’ve spoken their first words,” Kit murmured.
“Yep. You don’t know yet, do you, gorgeous? I mean, if they’re girls or boys?”
She shook her head. “I thought we’d want to find out together. I have another appointment at the medical center in a few days.”
“Nothing’s wrong, though? You’re okay? Veth, should you have spent all this time on your feet? Shouldn’t you be resting or something? Pregnant women need a lot of rest, right? And food. You’re eating for three now!” Kit grabbed a piece of gingerbread and handed it to her. “Eat this. You have to keep your strength up.”
She was laughing as she took a bite, then another. When it was gone, she said, “I’m fine. The babies are fine. I’m going to need more rest, yes. But I have your medi-bots keeping me healthy, remember?”
Both men stilled. “That’s going to be a problem, isn’t it?” Luke asked, but it wasn’t really a question. They knew the answer already. The corporations that had created the cyborgs never intended for them to be freed from service. They were made to fight and die in the Resource Wars. They were the perfect soldiers, designed to fight better and longer than any human, without ever questioning an order or expecting payment. After the war ended and the cyborgs revealed that they were self-aware, the corporations were forced to free them.
What the corporations hadn’t told anyone was that they secretly administered something to every surviving female cyborg to ensure they couldn’t conceive. They had to. It was the only way to stop the nanobots every cyborg carried from being introduced into the civilian population. If the cyborg females ever conceived, their offspring would be born with their mother’s medi-bots in their bloodstream. The corporations were determined to stop that from happening, but Zura was a complication they hadn’t foreseen. When Kit and Luke had saved her life by introducing their own medi-bots into her system, they had inadvertently created a problem for the corporations. Any child of Zura’s would carry their mother’s nanotech, and there was nothing the corporations could do about it. At least, not legally.
Legalities wouldn’t stop the corporations from trying to interfere.
“Whatever they try, we’ll be ready for them. Dr. Jefferies sent copies of all my medical files off-station. If something happens, they’ll be released to the intergalactic newsgroups, along with her reports.”
Kit growled. “Nothing is going to happen to you or our children, little one. We won’t let them near you.”
“I know,” she said. She meant it, too. Luke and Kit were her life, and she was theirs. There was nothing they wouldn’t do for each other, or for their growing family.
“I love you, little one.”
Kit’s words made her smile, and she looked up to find him staring at her in utter adoration. He stroked her cheek and then pulled her in for a slow, lingering kiss. Luke caught her hand and drew it down to his lips, nibbling and licking at her icing-coated fingertips.
“Love you, too. My tasty little wife,” Luke said before sucking her finger into his mouth.
Before she knew it, both men were working together to strip her out of her clothes. “You know I still consider it cheating when you two talk between yourselves via that internal channel thing you have.”
“We know, but it makes coordinating seductions so much easier,” Kit replied.
She felt something cool touch her hip and looked down in time to see Luke slicing off her panties with the knife she’d been using to cut the gingerbread. “That’s not even a little bit sanitary,” she pointed out with a laugh.
“I promise to do the dishes and sanitize everything later.”
“So, I get orgasms, and you do the dishes? I like this arrangement,” she stuck her hip out to give him easier access.
“Whatever you want, gorgeous.”
He finished removing her underwear and then tossed the knife so it landed point first into the nearest wall. Before she could comment on the damage, he stroked his hands up her thighs, successfully distracting her. Her pussy flooded with arousal as he stared at her with a look of brazen hunger she would never grow tired of seeing. He buried his face between her thighs and she reached back to hang onto Kit as a wave of pleasure washed over her, leaving her weak-kneed and unsteady.
“I’ve got you,” Kit said.<
br />
“And you always will,” she answered.
Kit held her as Luke lifted her legs over his shoulders and started eating her pussy with eager strokes and soft groans. She was suspended between them, unable to do anything except enjoy the erotic sensation of being devoured. It didn’t take long for her to reach the jagged edge of her control, and when he slid a finger into her channel she exploded like a meteor on re-entry.
“You are breathtaking, little one. No matter how long we’re together, I will always love seeing you like this,” Kit said as the two of them eased her still trembling body to the floor.
She stretched out and got comfortable as the two of them stripped quickly. She loved seeing their hard, muscled bodies naked. Her two gorgeous cyborgs, the men she had once only dreamed of having in her bed. Now, they were her vardo, her lifemates and the fathers of her children.
“You stay right there,” Luke told her as he reached for a half-full bowl of frosting. It was the blue tinted one she had used to create her own figure, as well as decorate the walls of the gingerbread version of the bar.
“What are you going to do?” she asked, more focused on watching the flex and play of muscles across Luke’s chest than what he was doing.
“Finger-painting. Kids like this kind of thing, right? We should get some practice in before they’re born,” Kit said with a chuckle, reaching for another bowl.
“Yep. We’re going to paint your beautiful body with this, then lick it all over. Sound like a plan, gorgeous?”
“It sounds like a mess. But since I’m pregnant, you two wouldn’t expect me to scrub the floors, so I’m game.”
They were true to their word. As she lay on the warm floor, the two of them took turns painting her breasts, stomach, and thighs with different colors of frosting; licking it off as it started to harden. Soon she was on fire from head to toe, craving more than the light touches and nibbles they grazed along her skin. She needed them inside her, the three of them bound together, body and soul.
“I want you,” she whispered, and they responded so quickly she knew they were feeling the same way.
