by Renee Rose
“We should pierce her,” Jax murmurs, producing the small bag of crystals we’ve worked our entire lives to accumulate. The Zandian mating ritual involves piercing the bride with Zandian crystal to mark her as yours.
I nod, grateful for Jax’s better functioning brain. Jax fishes through the bag, producing some of the smaller gems and holding them to the light to examine.
“Ronan, go get the equipment and anything else we need for a human mate.”
Ronan hesitates. “What if we’re not allowed to mate her? Do you think we need to petition first?”
“No,” both Jax and I snap at the same time. Ronan’s concerns are legitimate. But we’ve already decided it’s better to claim her before any plans are announced.
“Right,” he mutters. “I’ll figure it out.”
Riya swallows and takes a step back. To my dismay, she’s turning pale.
Jax reaches for her twisted fingers and takes them into his hands. “Piercing won’t hurt. We’ll numb the areas first—you won’t feel a thing.”
Tension radiates from her shoulders and I have the sense she’s about ready to bolt for the door. “Wh-where will you pierce me?”
I can’t stop the slow smile from spreading across my face. “Anywhere we want to, Riya.”
Jax shoots me a you’re not helping glance. “Where would you like to wear our crystal?”
Her fingers tug on an earlobe.
“Certainly there,” Jax says smoothly, advancing on her. He brings the back of his index finger to brush over one of her nipples through her tunic. “How about here?”
She swallows. “I-I don’t know.”
I’m no good at soothing with words, so I do what I know. I pick her up, sit on my hoverdisk and settle her on my lap. Her body goes rigid at first, but gradually relaxes, the fresh scent of her arousal making my eyes roll back in my head with desire.
My body’s response to having her soft ass resting over my cock is immediate. Her exotic scent—earthy and sweet—fills my nostrils. My cock strains painfully against my pants and my fingers splay around one of her firm thighs, pulling her tighter.
“Riya.” My voice comes out sounding even deeper than normal. “We know you were mistreated before… badly. But you can trust us. If Jax says something won’t hurt, he means it. Zandians don’t lie.”
Except for that one vecker we once called a friend. But I’m not thinking about him now.
I can’t stop myself from going after one of her breasts. I palm it, squeeze it. I lean forward and scrape my teeth over her nipple. “It will give us pride to see you wearing our crystals.” I’m already imagining her naked, bejeweled by us. It’s making me crazy. I drag my gaze up from her breast and catch her chin in my fingers. “Tell me what you’re afraid of.”
She shivers and touches her eye. “I want to trust you. It’s just… my experience with males has been bad. Extremely bad. Not just the shock sticks, but the…” she touches her eye again. “I don’t know if I can be what you want, when it comes to, this.” Her muscles are tight again.
Jax moves closer and burrows his fingers in Riya’s hair. “We will not harm you, little female. We want to bring you pleasure, Riya.”
She lifts her gaze to Jax’s face and rubs her lips together. It’s the same look she gave me in the medbay during the battle. When I had my hand on her ass. Vulnerability. Desire. Fear.
Ronan returns with a box of items and a broad smile.
“Any trouble?” Jax asked.
He shrugs. “Doctor Daneth wants to give her a full examination and gene test prior to mating, but I told him we didn’t give two stars about the results of the test, she’s the one we want.”
I scent something salty and catch Riya blinking back tears. Alarm rockets through me. Is she that terrified?
But Jax puts a finger under her chin. “You see, pretty girl? You’re the one we want.”
She draws in a shaky breath and nods, squaring her shoulders. “Let’s do this, then.”
I’m loathe to move her from my lap, so I tug on her tunic until I free it from underneath her ass. “Lift up your arms,” I command, and she obeys. I gently take the fabric and tug it over her head.
Veck, she’s perfection. Her breasts are small and taut, the ripe buds of her nipples a warm peach. I palm both of them, causing Jax to growl.
“We want to look, too.’
I squeeze and knead her breasts, pinching the nipples until they stiffen even more. “I’m just readying her for you,” I say gruffly.
Jax arches a brow and Ronan rolls his eyes, but they don’t argue. Ronan sprays the same analgesic spray Riya used on me in the medbay over both her nipples, then onto his fingers to rub on her ear lobes. “Where else?”
I circle the rim of her belly button. “Here.”
Ronan crouches down and I nearly groan, remembering the sounds she made last time he was between her legs. He lifts a brow toward the apex of her thighs. “Do we want to pierce her there?”
My cock screams yes, but Riya’s gone rigid again.
Jax shakes his head. I give a nod of agreement.
Ronan loads the gun with our crystal and a bit of platinum wire to pierce her. I cage her hands in her lap with one hand and wrap the other around her waist to keep her from squirming. Ronan steps forward, but when Riya flinches, he hesitates.
Jax snatches the gun from Ronan and makes quick work of her earlobes. “You see?” He strokes his thumb down her pretty cheek. “It’s nothing. Are you hurt?”
She shakes her head.
“Good. Pinch them for me, Tarren.” He indicates her breasts.
With vecking pleasure.
I pull her hands behind her head and trap them there with one hand, then grip her breast with the other, lifting the protruding nipple in Jax’s direction. Again, he’s quick and deft with his movements, piercing her with an admirable efficiency. I change hands to offer the other nipple up and it’s done.
“Now for the navel.” Jax squats at our feet and runs his finger around the rim. “Top or bottom?” He’s asking Riya, but I growl, “bottom” before she can answer.
“Is that agreeable, beautiful?” He flashes her his most charming smile. I don’t know how he always maintains his easy, confident manner.
She gives a wobbling nod.
I squeeze a small section of her flesh below the navel for Jax’s gun. In just a breath, he’s pierced her there, too.
“Anywhere else?” He includes all of us in the question. “Somewhere else on the face?”
Riya gives an emphatic shake of her head and Jax chuckles. “All right, sweet thing. That’s enough, then. Good girl. Thank you for your surrender.”
“Not sure I had a choice,” she mumbles, and I bristle, thinking of all the times her choice has been taken away from her. It makes me sick to think she’d put us in the same category as those Ocretion veckers.
“By the stars, do you think we’re monsters?” I snap. I don’t mean to sound so harsh. Jax flashes me a warning look but I plow on, “Did you not agree that we’re your mates?”
She flushes, and I scent fear on her.
I’m instantly sorry. I soften my tone. “We’ve just won back our home planet. We want to share the satisfaction of rebuilding and making a home with a female. With you,” I amend. “We don’t wish to terrorize you.”
Thank the one true Zandian star for my cousins, who step in to soothe her. “We’re going to help you get over your past.” Ronan holds out a hand and she takes it, standing up from my lap.
“After you’ve known pleasure with us, you’ll never be afraid of sex again,” Jax promises.
She swallows. “All right.” Her voice is small. I hate seeing her diminished. It makes me swear anew to find every last asshole who hurt her and tear them apart.
But it’s a start. She’s agreed to let us try to please her. We can’t ask for more than that.
Riya
I stare into Ronan’s eyes. His handsome features are drawn into a look of need th
at makes my breath catch. I’ve never seen a being look at me, Riya, with such blatant desire.
I put a hand to my mouth and step back, bumping into Jax’s strong body. He winds his arms around me and leans down to whisper into my ear. “Riya, I promise you will not find it so unpleasant.” His breath is hot and sends wild tingles down my neck and to the tips of my nipples. Without thinking, I push backwards, grinding into his hips, to feel his hard length. Hard is the operative word, for sure. Even clothed as he is, I can tell that he has a large member, and suddenly, Lily’s whispers about how wonderful mating is? It starts to make sense, at least to my body.
What’s even better? He said my name. He named me, making me a person, not a possession. None of the Ocretion guards—that thought is swept away as he puts his lips to my neck and presses down, sending stars into my eyes and down my pulse.
“Relax into me,” he murmurs and cups my breasts. He gently thumbs the new nipple rings and I flinch, even though the area is numb. “If these start to hurt, you be sure to tell us, all right, beautiful? Ronan will spray them again and take away any pain.”
I nod and let my eyes flicker shut and drop my head back onto his strong chest, savoring his scent. I’ve never been held by a male before, never cared for. It feels so good to be in his arms.
Tarren’s voice breaks into my reverie. “Let us move to the hoverdisk.” His gruff tone, instead of putting me on edge, makes me eager for more of his touch as well. He may be rougher, but Jax was right earlier when he said I trust Tarren. Maybe it’s because I saw him risking his life for humans and Zandians alike during the battle. Maybe it’s because that shared trauma bonded me to him. For whatever reason, I do trust him.
I open my eyes and find him staring at me, and then he smiles. It’s a wicked, feral smile, and it makes the stitches on his wound contort, but I love it. His lopsided grin is so gorgeous that I can’t resist, and I smile tentatively back and hold out my hand. I’ve never done this willingly with one male, let alone three, but it feels right. His grip is warm and firm, and I squeeze hard, then shift my touch, sliding my small fingers along his long, strong ones. It still amazes me how powerful his species is, how large.
One of them rearranged the hoverdisks so that the three separate hoverdisks are now joined, making one enormous surface. Jax settles onto the mattress, leaning his back against the fabric on the wall, and holds me backwards against his chest. I feel his arousal between his legs, pushing against my buttocks. I wait for the sick feeling to take hold, the one I have any time I think about the male organ, but it doesn’t come. When Jax holds my hips and tugs me harder into his body, the pressure of his malehood against my ass only makes me push back, wanting more.
Tarren steps forward, eyes glittering. “Veck, you’re beautiful,” he growls. “Wrap your arms around Jax’s neck and hold on.”
I obey. The position lifts and separates my breasts. My nipples peak in the air, even though it’s not cold. My breath rasps in and out in short gasps as I watch him approach.
He kneels on the soft mattress. “Don’t let go,” he orders, then he leans in and puts his mouth to my nipple.
I don’t expect to feel anything, since they’ve numbed the surface, but the sensation is like nothing I’ve ever experienced. I still can feel the warmth of his tongue, and when he sucks my stiffened nipple in his mouth, a shot of pure desire hits me at the juncture of my thighs. I shift, grabbing Jax’s hair, and tug hard as Tarren suckles me, first on one side, then the other. When he bites down, I yelp at the sudden pop of pain, and then moan as the next feeling comes: desire.
“I think she likes that,” Jax chuckles, stroking my belly, just above the area where I’m on fire. I make some kind of noise and push up, but that makes my nipples even more accessible to Tarren, who growls and bites the other one. He runs his hands down my thighs, squeezing, touching in the same rhythm his tongue uses on my nipples. Coupled with the way Jax is stroking my belly, soft, tickling brushes, it’s making me both sweaty and needy.
“Oh!” I want more than I’m getting, although the sensation is almost too much.
“I think she needs to be bare,” comments Ronan, his voice low and gravelly.
Tarren sucks hard on my nipple, then pulls back, letting go with a pop of suction that makes me whimper anew. “Agreed.” He swings his legs to the side and stands up. He helps me kick off my boots. “Lift your hips.” He tugs at my panties. I obey and when I’m naked, Ronan taps my elbows.
“Let go of Jax now,” he says, “and give me your hands.” He pulls me up to a sitting position, then says simply, “Stand up. Let us see you.”
He assists me to my feet and points to a spot on the floor. “Stand there, Riya.” All of his usual joking playfulness is gone, replaced with a gritty, feral determination.
I don’t know if it’s fear or just resistance. Maybe I can’t stand the humiliation of being naked while they’re clothed. I shake my head and fold my arms across my breasts. “No.” It was one thing to lie back with my eyes shut and let them touch me. This seems too intense. I won’t do it.
Jax chuckles softly as he crawls off the hoverdisk. “Then we’ll help you, lovely.” He grips my wrists and pulls them over my head. He’s so tall he can hold them fully stretched. Tarren and Ronan both circle me, taking their fill of my naked form. I should be angry, but instead I’m turned on. Like in the corridor, when Tarren covered my eyes, it’s actually easier for me when they take control. Which makes no sense considering my history.
Still, there’s no denying the arousal dripping onto my inner thighs.
Tarren steps up behind me and wraps one arm around my waist, splaying his fingers over my belly.
The belly that won’t be growing large with Zandian babies. But I can’t think about that.
His palm glides lower, then lower still, but before it reaches the place I’m dying for him to touch, his other palm smacks down on my bare ass.
“Spread your legs,” Tarren says.
I don’t move.
Jax pushes his boot between my legs and kicks my feet apart. “A little more obedience, beautiful,” he says, but there’s laughter in his voice. “Or else Tarren will heat that adorable ass of yours.”
All three males inhale deeply.
Oh sweet Mother Earth. They can smell my excitement. Damn their sensitive Zandian noses.
Jax chuckles darkly. “I think she wants that.” He burrows his fingers into my hair again and tugs my head back. His grip is not hard, but possessive. “Should we turn your pretty ass pink?” The pleasure in his voice reverberates around the room.
“No.” It’s less a word than a gasp and I already know it’s useless. The matter has been decided. By my body as much as their desire.
“I’ve been dying to spank this ass since I first threatened it and watched your pretty face blush.” Tarren nips my neck, his lips soft, teeth hard, and the mix of pain and pleasure makes me moan and try to push my body closer to his. “Don’t worry. The pain will be worth it. Because, veck, I promise we know how to make you cry with pleasure, little mate.”
Jax and Tarren both walk me over to the hoverdisk. Ronan sits on one side, and Jax on the other. Tarren, in the middle, adjusts me so my hips are over his lap, and my body is stretched out over the other two. Jax takes my hands, and Ronan holds my calves. Although I am naked, lying face downward, I feel surprisingly… safe. Like they will take care of me. Which is a strange feeling, since I’m about to be spanked.
“Spread her thighs a little,” Tarren orders.
Ronan slides my legs apart. “Wider, Riya.” He taps my inner thighs, then slides his fingers along my skin, up and down, when I obey. “More.” He helps me shift. “Good. Just like that, as wide as you can. This will be the position we like when you are to be punished.”
My pussy clenches even as my face burns. Thankfully they can’t see it. Jax squeezes my hands. “A little punishment always sweetens the pleasure,” he promises.
I’m not so sure I agree, but I
also can’t bring myself to protest. The flutters in my belly wing with desire and heat and anticipation.
Maybe there is a bit of fear, because I blurt, “I’ll obey you!”
Jax chuckles. “Of course you will.”
Tarren—at least I think it’s Tarren—rubs his palm over my ass. “Our punishment is not something to fear.” He strokes, and at the same time, Ronan runs his fingers up my inner thighs.
“I don’t know,” Ronan’s fingers trail closer and closer to where I need them. “I rather hope she disobeys often.”
I never imagined I’d find punishment sexy, but I’m tingly everywhere and wet between my legs. For the first time in my life, I desire something only a male can give me. Only what these males can give me.
Tarren’s palm crashes down on my ass and I squeal in shock. Pain blooms, a slow spreading fire across the offended cheek.
“Start her out lightly,” suggests Jax, “Let her get used to the burn before you increase the impact.”
I’m grateful for Jax’s practical advice. I definitely want it lighter.
“If she takes it obediently, she might not even need the strap,” suggests Ronan.
I nearly jackknife off their laps, my back bowing as my head surges up. “Strap?” I twist to look over my shoulder at him.
Ronan laughs and shrugs, a slightly guilty expression on his face. “It would be fun, don’t you think?” His fingers drift nearly to the cleft between my legs and flutter there, teasing me, where I am already wet. He chuckles when I squirm. “Riya, you think you’re afraid, but your body has another idea.”
“Veck, you’re so wet,” growls Tarren. “It’s time to start this.” He raises his hand, I feel the air draft, and then he slaps my other cheek. The impact makes a loud sound, and I cry out even though it doesn’t really hurt this time.
He spanks me again. I wiggle.
“I see my handprint on your skin.” His voice is low. “I’m going to turn you pink with spank after spank, Riya, so they all blend together to make your bottom glow.”
