“Oh, no. Not again,” she whispered. Hope cautiously set her cup on the ground beside the saddle she was using for a chair. Even that innocuous motion was enough to shift her shirt over her breasts and her abruptly painfully sensitive nipples. She gritted her teeth and tried not to move.
“Hope?” Tarik knelt beside her. “Shalla, are you all right?”
Irritably, she said, “What does that mean, anyway? Shalla.”
“It means,” Tarik paused as he thought, “I guess it means ‘essence,’ because you are the essence of our triad. It’s an endearment.”
Hope could feel the heat of his body as he crouched there, watching her with concerned brown eyes. His lips looked totally kissable. Hope shuddered and closed her eyes. She knew without opening them when Stev joined them. He touched the back of her hand, and it was like he touched her everywhere. Hope sucked in a breath.
“It’s the zusha rising,” Stev said.
She gave the barest nod.
“I’m sorry. I know you weren’t expecting any of this. I wish we had time to court you properly, but we don’t.”
Tarik captured her other hand, thumb stroking lightly over her knuckles. “Remember how we helped you last night? We can help you again, if you’ll let us.”
Hope’s inner battle was a brief one. After all, what choice did she have? None. “Okay.”
They took her to the spring.
In short order, Stev and Tarik stripped the three of them of their boots and clothes. Stev guided her into the water until it reached the top of her thighs. Her nipples beaded with the cold, but the liquid soothed her fever hot skin.
Hope whimpered.
Stev used cupped hands to dribble water over her shoulders and chest. Tarik gathered her hair and held it out of the way. “It will be all right, Hope. As soon as you stop fighting the zusha, you’ll feel better.”
She closed her eyes, enjoying their hands on her body. “You’d better be right.”
“We know what we’re talking about,” Tarik said. He pulled her back against his chest and looped his arms around her waist. Without thought, Hope rested her arms over his. “Well, at least about this, anyway,” he added, a laugh in his voice.
Stev’s expression grew intent, and his caresses changed from comforting to arousing. Soon, he took her breasts and tilted them up to his face. Grazing her nipples with his teeth, he switched from one to the other before deciding which to suck into his mouth. Hope tunneled her fingers through the waves of his dark brown hair and cradled his nape. Tarik, cheek resting on her temple, seemed content for the moment to let his bond-brother have his way with her.
Hope was amazed she didn’t find it odd to let two men make love to her. She’d always been a reserved lover. Shy, almost. But not with Stev and Tarik. They carried her along with their passion until she was helpless to do anything but enjoy it. It was… freeing.
Stev straightened and searched her face. When she didn’t protest, his grin was slow and suggestive.
He edged closer until his chest touched hers, the smattering of hairs on it tickling her breasts. She slid her hands from his hair to his shoulders. Dragging her nails over his pecs, she teasingly circled the flat discs that surrounded the tight points of his masculine nipples. Stev shuddered. When his eyes opened, they blazed.
His mouth covered hers, and he snatched her close. Tarik let his arms fall away from her waist so his bond-brother could mold himself to Hope, hard cock throbbing at the apex of her thighs. Tarik’s erection, just as insistent, nudged her buttocks.
“Gotta have you,” Stev’s voice said in her head. Taking her hand, he led her out of the water onto the sparse grass covering the bank. Kicking their clothes into a rough pile, he urged her down and onto her back. Kneeling beside her, each man claimed a nipple. Where Stev was almost rough in his handling, delightfully so, Tarik’s lips felt exquisitely soft.
The now familiar ball of heat spread out from her belly, leaving Hope unsurprised when it stole her breath. Her thighs clenched together, and she squirmed her ass into the mound of clothing as the zusha claimed her.
Stev reared back, and his nostrils flared. He closed his eyes, breathing deeply. It was like he’d never smelled anything so wonderful in his life and never wanted to forget it. Tarik nuzzled her breasts and drew his own draught of her scent.
“I’m sorry, shalla,” Stev said, his voice gravelly. “I can’t wait any longer.”
Holding her hips, he flipped her to her belly and urged her to her knees. She didn’t have time to feel exposed. Stev covered her back, caging her with his body, muscled thighs pushing hers wider. Planting one fist on the ground, he used his other to guide his erection to her slit. Hope pushed her ass against the cradle of his hips and arched her neck like a mare begging a stallion to take her. Stev did. He slid into her in a long, hard thrust that made her teeth snap together. He felt huge, bigger than Tarik. The glide out was exquisitely slow before he rammed back into her.
Hope lowered her head and rocked on her hands and knees as Stev’s hips powered into her. When she tossed her head to get her hair out of her face, she saw Tarik stood in front of her. He didn’t touch her, didn’t force her in any way, but she got a clear mental picture of what he wanted. Literally. Obeying, she licked the very tip of his jutting cock, letting him see the drop of cum settle on her tongue. She sensed his concentration splinter, and the mental image disappeared.
Hope caught the head of his cock in her mouth. She lightly clamped her teeth down just behind the soft ridge, watching through her lashes to gauge his reaction. Tarik stared down with shining eyes, red flags on his cheeks as he panted through parted lips. His hands caught her chin, and he pulsed his hips forward until he sank deeper into her mouth. Hope tilted her head, letting Stev’s jarring pounding do the work of moving her lips back and forth over Tarik’s cock.
She could hear both men’s voices in her head now, praising, commanding, pleading. Instead of being captured by them, she was the conqueror, their pleasure hers to give. They were at her mercy.
Hope hummed with satisfaction. Tarik groaned, and she knew her growl sent a shockwave of sensation all the way to the rock hard spheres of his balls.
Stev’s hips began thrusting wildly, his rhythm breaking as ecstasy washed over him. Hope felt his orgasm roll from him to her, then on into Tarik, spurring his own orgasm as he shot his release into her mouth. Tarik’s hands fisted her hair and he gritted out a low-voiced curse.
Stev collapsed on her back for an instant before he caught his weight on shaky arms. Pulling Hope up into his embrace, he sat back on his heels, still inside her, and settled her on his thighs. While they each struggled to catch their breath, Tarik splashed unsteadily into the spring and dunked his head. Flipping his head back in a spray of water droplets, he let out a triumphant shout that echoed off the rocks of their hidden grotto.
Chapter 7
Hope groaned and folded down over Stev’s crossed arms.
“When is this supposed to stop again?”
Stev trailed an admiring palm down her spine. “I’m sure me and Rik can do better.”
She rolled her eyes, though he couldn’t see them. “I meant the rushka or whatever. When’s it supposed to stop?”
“Zusha. And it should start tapering off soon. Maybe a few days.”
“The longest I’ve ever heard it lasting is two weeks,” Tarik offered from where he splashed in the water.
“Two weeks!”
“He’s kidding. Right, Rik?”
“Uh, right.”
“Anyway, it’s always the strongest when the bonding link is first established. After that, while you’ll still go into zusha, it won’t be as…”
“Tear-off-your-clothes crazy to be fucked?” she asked sweetly.
“Compulsive,” he amended. “While you will always feel desire for me and Tarik, and us for you, you won’t be helpless to it.”
“Hmmm.” Hope felt incredibly relaxed, but she couldn’t stay like this. Stev’s sof
tening cock started to slide from her body. She felt a few twinges in unexpected places. Or maybe not so unexpected. When she thought of all the things she’d let these two men do to her…Of what she wanted to do to them…Her cheeks burned.
Stev’s cock stopped its retreat, and she felt the unmistakable renewal of his interest. “Anything,” he whispered in her ear. “Anything you want, shalla.”
Hope glanced over her shoulder to meet his eyes, and knew. He’d seen what she’d been thinking. So, it hadn’t been her imagination. “How is this possible?”
He quirked a brow as Tarik waded out of the spring. “How is what possible?”
She didn’t know whether to be afraid that he and Tarik could wander through her thoughts or outraged at the invasion of her privacy. She fought down a wild laugh. Privacy. She doubted she had any secrets left from this devastating pair of off-worlders who claimed she was theirs by, what, divine right? Genetic destiny?
Tarik shook his head like a dog shedding water, spattering Hope and Stev with a spray of droplets. Ignoring his water slick nudity, he twitched his shirt free from the pile of clothes and sat down on it. Dark hairs formed a T between his flat bronze nipples and down his belly, until the trail thickened into a nest around his cock, which now lay quiescent against the column of his thigh. His skin stretched tight over well-defined muscles, the honey brown color of it only marred by a white, star-shaped scar in the meaty part where his left arm met his torso. Tarik ran his fingers through his tousled dark curls, brown eyes sparkling under water clumped lashes, and gave Hope the smile of a man for whom all was right in the world.
Hope forced herself to get off Stev’s lap, trying to ignore the dart of pleasure as his semi-hard cock glided out of her sensitized passage. Both men reached to steady her, Tarik even handing her a discarded shirt—one of theirs, though she couldn’t be sure whether it was Tarik’s or Stev’s—when he noticed her shiver. She yanked it on over her head and dug her damp hair out from under the collar.
Pursing her lips, she looked from one man to the other. Stev and Tarik shared another of their speaking glances, and she realized why it was so fraught with meaning. They were speaking, telepathically.
“How is it possible you could read my thoughts just now? And earlier, when we,” she hesitated, “when we made love, I heard you. In my head.”
At first, neither man said anything. She narrowed her eyes. She knew they talked to each other again, right in front of her. “Is it a galactic secret or something?” she snapped. “Just answer the question!”
“It’s not a secret, shalla,” Tarik said. “It’s just we can sense how much this bothers you.” He held up a hand when she snorted. “I said sense, because that’s what I mean. Stev and I can’t read your thoughts. But we both feel how much this bothers you. On top of everything else that’s happened, you’ll have to forgive us if we don’t want to pile one shock on top of another right now.”
She looked at him, surprised he sounded so solemn. She’d come to think of Stev as the serious one of this pair, although admittedly, he was far from humorless.
“Bond-brothers can communicate mind to mind, but generally it’s more empathic than true telepathy. Rik and I have an unusually strong bond.”
“So you two can talk mind to mind? In sentences, you mean?”
They nodded.
“Which,” Tarik added, “has come in handy more than once in our line of work.”
“That’s interesting, but doesn’t explain why I could hear you. Or why Stev picked up on what I was thinking a minute ago.”
Tarik’s eyes brightened. “Oh? And what were you thinking that makes you blush like that?”
“Never mind.”
“Maybe because Rik and I are strong telepaths with each other, it makes it easier for us to ’path with you, too, since you’re our bondmate. I really have no idea. And as for me reading your mind,” he shrugged. “Well, I was focused on you, and you were really intent on what you were thinking about and it popped into my head.”
“Now I really have to know what you were thinking,” Tarik said.
Hope shot him a quelling glance. Unrepentant, he just grinned.
Bondmates. Zusha. Telepathy. And a gang hiding out somewhere on the ranch. It was a lot to process in a very little time. While they’d been occupied in the spring, and out of it, the second sun had risen and the third wouldn’t be far behind. The day was going to be a hot one. They needed to care for the horses, pack up the campsite, and get on the trail.
Hope dug her panties out of the pile and began to wriggle into them. When Stev and Tarik made no move to follow her lead in getting dressed, she threw a shirt at one and a pair of pants at the other. With a sigh, Tarik handed Stev his jeans and began to put on the other pair.
“We should be ready to leave in about twenty minutes,” Hope said, pulling on her jeans and reaching for her boots.
Stev paused in fastening his shirt. “Leave for where?”
“To find this gang you’re so hot for, of course.”
“You’re not going anywhere except back to the Bar-K,” he said, fingers getting back to work. He shoved the shirttails in his waistband and deftly buttoned and zipped.
“Excuse me?”
Tarik barely concealed a snort and shot his bond-brother a “you idiot” look.
“Did you just tell the little woman to go home?” Hope asked.
“No,” Stev said. “Of course not. It’s just this is a very dangerous gang, and it’s our job to bring them in, not yours. You’re a rancher, we’re marshals. Right?”
“Oh, you’ve got that right. So once I head back to safety, what’s your plan of action? Just curious.”
“Rik has the equipment to trace the gang’s ship once we get close enough to it. We’ve got intel that it’s somewhere in the canyons we were supposed to explore today. We’ll just head over there and see if we get any pings.”
“Uh huh. You’re going to wander around a canyon system that’s several hundred miles long with countless back-switches, dead-ends, gullies and hidden caverns and hope for a ‘ping’. Gotcha.” Under her breath, she added, “No wonder these guys keep getting away.”
Stev bristled. “What was that?”
“Nothing. I'm just curious about how you’re going to get a signal from anything in there since the rock in those canyon walls is a pretty effective signal killer. Oh, plus you have no idea where a ship the size of the Blackjack could hide, which, if you did, would give you a much better idea of where to start looking.”
Stev opened his mouth to retort, but she silenced him with a glare. “Now that I’m clear on the situation, I’ll just go back to camp and get our gear loaded.”
Hope turned on her heels. Idiot men. And she’d thought these two had shown at least some promise. Just went to prove even smart women like her could be distracted by a couple of mouthwatering dicks and men who knew how to use them.
* * * *
Stev watched her go. If her boots had the spurs he read about on the way to Jokers Wild, they’d be chiming ominously as she stalked out of sight full of barely restrained anger.
He caught his bond-brother’s skeptical look.
“You know I’m right,” he said, a bit defensively. “The safest place for Hope is back with her family. We’ll finish up here, then go get her. It’ll only be for a couple of days and then it’ll be over.”
“And if it isn’t? If the Rogan Gang gets away and we’re left holding our dicks again, looking like assholes while they blast off into the black? We’ll have one pissed-off bondmate to appease. Make that a pissed-off bondmate who was already kind of iffy about accepting she even belongs with us in the first place.”
“Remember what happened the last time we went up against these guys? You want Hope on the other end of Rogan’s disruptor cannon?”
“Stev, give over. You know she’s right. We’ll never find them in there in time. It’s either abort and hope the other teams can get the job done without us, or let Hope
help us.”
“Then maybe we should abort.”
Tarik considered him for a long moment. “Do you think we should?” he asked quietly. “Leave our team hurting because we’re afraid we can’t protect our mate?”
Stev exhaled sharply. It wasn’t in his nature to let down people who counted on him, and that he would even suggest it to Tarik made him curl his lip in self-disgust. Sure, the plan didn’t call for them to engage the gang directly. Get in, disable the ship, call for backup, get out. Done. But no plan ever went smoothly. Tarik let him think it through without interruption.
If Hope were anyone other than their mate, he would have been the first to take advantage of her knowledge and willingness to help.
“Okay. Fine,” he said, praying he wouldn’t regret it. “She can come. But if anything happens to her, brother—”
“We’ll both be there to make sure it won’t.”
“But if it does…” Stev trailed off, unable to complete the sentence. He couldn’t think of a threat worse than the thought of something happening to their sweet, feisty mate. So he and Tarik would have to ensure nothing did happen to her. Ever.
Chapter 8
Stev discovered a new facet to their bondmate that he quite enjoyed: she didn’t gloat. When he accepted her offer to continue as guide, she simply nodded and went about preparing for their departure.
They took a circuitous path down into the canyon. It was so narrow in places it almost brushed the horses’ ribs. In others, one side of the stony channel had sheared away, giving the impression that they clung to the face of a cliff overlooking a tumble of boulders the size of pebbles far, far below their feet. Stev released the breath he’d been holding when they reached the safety of the canyon’s floor. Normally, heights and close spaces didn’t bother him. But this natural grandeur was something else. The blend of beauty and danger would bring tourists to the Bar-K in droves.
Hope kept them to a sand covered trail that muffled the sound of the horses’ hooves. He estimated there was room for only ten horses to walk abreast in this section of the canyon system. Other sections were vast, judging by the maps Tarik downloaded onto his ever-present wristcomp. Here, proximity created the illusion the rock walls were even taller. A mix of reddish sand and rocks covered the floor of the canyon. Hardy shrubs and grasses eked what existence they could from the tiny stream wending a jagged course along the ancient riverbed. Smaller tributaries of stone branched off the one they traversed, some skinny passages, others true tunnels that disappeared into the rock. Every whisper seemed magnified, and Hope resorted to using hand signals to communicate with them.
Marshals' Most Wanted Page 5
