Virile

by Virile (Evernight)

  “You have been able to tell the difference between us from the beginning,” Orion took her attention away from watching Kellis’s nice buns pass out of the room.

  “True,” she agreed. “It—it seems obvious to me.”

  Feeling her brow furrow as it did when she really concentrated, she tilted her head too and stared at him. “I wonder why that is? You’re exactly the same to look at, although you’re a bit taller. But you’re different, despite being twins, and I feel it. Weird, seeing as we just met.”

  A strange, slightly panicked look crossed his face. “It’s probably being dropped into a strange environment. It makes you pay attention.”

  “Uh huh. I guess.” She wasn’t certain that was it. “Except it’s more familiar than that. Sometimes it’s like I met you before, a long time ago.”

  The sound of the shower stopped, and they both looked in that direction. She tore her eyes away, determined to continue the discussion with Orion, reminding herself she really didn’t care for Thorn’s attitude.

  “All of this is confusing,” she confided. “I’ve been here two days and already can tell the difference between identical twins I’ve never met before, right? I’m not usually that observant.”

  “You need to rest, little one.” Thorn was once again stripped down to dark shorts, water droplets evident on his broad shoulders and glinting in his hair as he passed a towel over the thick mass. He glared at Orion who gave her a wry smile.

  “Thorn took care of himself in the shower, Adara. It made him even more aware of what he is missing.”

  Okay, they were distracting her, but from what remained a mystery. She went with it. “Missing?”

  “We haven’t had your lush body yet, my sweet,” Orion explained as Thorn flung the towel in the general direction of the bath, now glowering with intent at his brother. Adara’s thoughts went sideways—all the drama had temporarily focused her thoughts away from her purpose here. She decided to ignore him and forced a yawn.

  Thorn moved to shut off the lights and close the bedroom door. “Be silent and let Adara rest, Orion.”

  She could vaguely see his big body in the dim glow cast by the embers in the fireplace. Someone had built a fire to take the chill from the room, probably Orion, as he’d been the last into the bathing room. Thorn’s silhouette cut her line of sight to the fireplace as he advanced on the bed, big, broad shoulders narrowing into slim hips. He climbed in to press close to her front, Orion spooning against her back.

  There was no reference to her earlier petulance, allowing the lesson learned to settle into her head rather than give her reason to raise her defenses through yet another angry response, and she relaxed her muscles one by one until she felt herself drift. Emotionally drained once again, she didn’t think or review her day as was her wont, merely let sleep claim her.

  ****

  “Are you trying to raise her interest? Elicit suspicions?” Thorn asked his brother conversationally, aware their woman had dropped into oblivion. He stroked her hair gently, not wanting her to pick up on the tension and awaken.

  “No,” defended Orion. “I want her to consider how comfortable she is becoming, however, in such a short time. She has turned to both Kellis and me, seeking information, wanting to converse and learn.”

  “And do you think such an intelligent woman won’t begin to wonder why she can immediately tell the two of you apart when our own parents struggled to do so? As do I on occasion? When she has known you but two days?” Thorn struggled to modulate his tone as Adara stirred restlessly in his arms. His cock, pressed as it was against her mound, her sweet heat enveloping it, swelled to huge proportions again, negating the taming in the shower. And damn Orion for using that example to distract her.

  Not that Thorn would hide his desire and need for Adara. Never that. But it seemed somewhat disrespectful that his cock would respond to her as he washed her little feet with their painted toes after the significant progress she’d made. He hadn’t forced her to kneel at his feet. They hadn’t ignored her during their discourse—had she contributed they would have included her—but she’d used the time to listen and accept her position in their ménage.Adara was a woman, not an adolescent, moody and difficult. They would tolerate her feistiness, encourage her spirit, but never tolerate pouting and sulking. Better she fought with them, if in a respectful manner. And she’d thought on it and hadn’t liked what she discovered about herself, he was sure. He felt there was also something else at work, something he would address in the next short while, because her tears weren’t just that of regret for unacceptable behavior. She was also saddened. Such sadness seemed extreme, but he was still learning her. Perhaps it was homesickness, and that they couldn’t help her with—her home was with them. But if not longing for her planet, then she required their emotional input. They needed to determine what that might be.

  Orion, a little defensive, his emotions reflected in his voice, said, “She’s ours, meant for us. I want to tell her.”

  “That’s not how it works, brother.” Thorn would rather tell her too—be up front, but Adara needed to commit, to surrender without knowing what that would mean in the end. Surrender her heart purely without the influence of knowing the prophecy.

  “I know. But she’ll feel betrayed.”

  No doubt. Thorn tried to paint a more positive picture. “Or her intelligence will prevail over a knee jerk emotional reaction.”

  “We love her, Kellis and I. And not just because of the prophecy.” Orion sounded pissed.

  “I believe you, Orion. I see it.”

  “Don’t you love her?”

  “It’s too soon to be talking about love,” he prevaricated. “I want her and definitely need her. She’s ordained to complete us.”

  “You think we’re influenced by the prophecy.”

  No, not that. Because I love her too, and not because of her red hair. I fell as you did when we laid eyes on her image, and Adara has done nothing to dissuade my feelings. But she doesn’t love us and she hates me. Thorn knew how their woman struggled with his dominance and being pushed into obeying, and held him responsible. If she knew he loved her…well, he didn’t want to take the risk and hand over that particular loaded weapon.

  “Influenced in part, Orion, and if you think about it you’d agree.”

  Silence greeted his comment and although he waited for his brother to reply, Orion didn’t respond. Thorn lay awake for a long time, listening to his brother’s eventual snores and his beloved’s huffing noises. She crept closer as the fire died completely and the room cooled off. Thorn didn’t cuddle—he took care of his subs of course, but he didn’t cuddle and rarely slept with them. Four in a bed was awkward. He left the sleeping and cuddling to Orion and Kellis. But with Adara…he plastered himself against her soft body and finally slept.

  Chapter Eight

  Head full of cotton wool, her body cushioned by a remarkably firm mattress, Adara managed to pry her eyes open. The mattress was a nearly naked Thorn. She scented him, different from the twin’s citrusy smell—he smelled like pine and musk. His chest rose and fell beneath her, deep, slow breaths that lifted her with her every inhalation. One arm was draped over her hip, the hand tucked cozily between her thighs, cupping her sex. It should have been intrusive, but wasn’t. Instead it comforted her. She catalogued her body and the slight throbbing deep in her pussy and some tenderness there confirmed the reality of the previous day. Never in her wildest dreams…she couldn’t think about how they had broken those boundaries by taking her choice away and made her come so hard in their careful hands.

  The incredible pleasure and their intense focus held the nasty specter of being less than at arm’s length for now. She was hungry and needed the lav.

  “You’re awake, agapi mou.”

  In the moment, she’d forgotten she was annoyed with him. “What is that you’re calling me?”

  His hesitation almost cost him. He didn’t know it, but she was giving him a chance. But then he answ
ered, “It is in the old language, like ancient Greek or Latin on your world, I believe. Few speak it now and I doubted you would want to know.”

  Oh, okay then. Adara liked his reasoning—he knew he was on her bad side and figured no sweet talk was going to cut it. “So what does it mean?”

  “My heart.”

  Flummoxed, she forgot to breathe, searching his face for some indication he was spoofing her, but she saw nothing other than truth. “Oh.”

  “You have meaning for us, little one. You belong to us.”

  She stiffened, despite trying not to, and he cupped her sex more firmly. “That is not a bad thing, Adara. You are not like property, or an animal or a craft. But you are ours just the same.”

  “I feel like chattel. You won me in a game!” Working at calming her rising temper, she took deep breaths.

  “We understand that isn’t necessarily the way of your world.” Samuel Redcliff had advised Thorn of that fact, although he’d chosen to ignore that inconvenient piece of information. Adara was still her brother’s responsibility, however, not unlike the social mores on Virile. “But it holds true here.” Or had done, if only in the ancient past, something he wasn’t sharing with her.

  “So what makes me so special? I could have been anyone.”

  “I saw your image, Adara. You are aware of that. I tried to win you. I succeeded, and here you are.”

  It felt too chauvinistic, gambling women and winning them. She bit her thoughts back and managed her resentment.

  “Your brother did try to renege, you know. But I convinced him otherwise. Because I wanted you. We wanted you.”

  She supposed it felt a little better knowing that Elliot had thought better of his stupid decision to bet his sister. And she wanted to believe Thorn tried to win her because he found her attractive—she knew the picture Elliot carried. It was one he’d taken of her unawares, on the beach, and showed her full figure in detail. She hated that image, all curves and cleavage, but her brother kept it to spite her. What if it wasn’t just her face Thorn had wanted, her passably pretty face, and the opportunity to have a sex slave at their beck and call for free? She cautiously considered that they wanted her for all of her, the considerable amount of her, except once they got to know her definitely non-submissive nature…well, if they couldn’t stand it they could send her home early.

  “I still hate Elliot.”

  “We don’t, little one. He’s weak and needs to man up, but he brought you to us.”

  “For one month,” she countered. “Less now. I have a life back on my planet and a—” She shut up, both because his face clouded over and because it didn’t pay to show her hand and share about the business. Thorn Freestar would be the last man to appreciate the skills in commerce she possessed. He obviously regarded women as sexual toys.

  “We have just under one month,” he agreed. “And seeing as yesterday was eventful and you required time to regroup, we have lost part of a day. Up you get, little one, my brothers and I have plans for you.”

  “But you spent yesterday morning…” She couldn’t begin to describe it and the prickle of shame niggled. Or maybe it was that lesson…

  “Pleasuring you to madness as we learned your delectable body?” Well, there was that, and he seemed sincere about liking her figure.

  “Uh, that I guess. I wondered about—”

  “Wondered why we didn’t ease ourselves yesterday? You were overwhelmed, little one. But no fear. We will have you today. Our work will claim us tomorrow, but we will pleasure you before and perhaps at the lunch break. And then there is the evening.”

  And he was back to Arrogant Thorn, all because she…what? She’d reminded him of the expiry date of the contract was what. Well, no one said the prisoner couldn’t count the days to her release. This madness had to end, after all. And if she was feeling that sexual anticipation again, well…there were other kinds of releases.

  He rolled with her off the bed and set her on her feet, patiently waiting until she was steady on them. Kissing the top of her head, he pushed her in the direction of the lav. She tottered along until she worked out the kinks and made her way inside, using the commode with a sigh of relief, blessing the privacy. She’d barely washed her hands when he was back, pulling a towel from the rack to pat them dry before directing her to the bidet. Now that wasn’t happening. Except it did. There was no contest, considering his size, strength, and that freaking Dom stare.

  Thorn carefully cleansed her pussy and bottom, the warm water soothing, along with the gentle soap. When he appeared satisfied, he shut it off and pulled her to stand with her legs apart, drying her well. His cock was fully engorged, the thick shaft heavily veined and the plum-sized head nodding as if in invitation. She felt her hand reach out, of its own accord, but it was captured in his.

  “You’ll wait until I give you leave to touch me, agapi mou.” Another kiss on the top of her head softened the rejection, and she was probably glad she hadn’t given in to her base instincts. She had another vagrant thought. Didn’t these guys believe in kissing on the mouth? Maybe it was a Virile thing, but she wouldn’t mind a kiss—everything felt merely sexual without a kiss—lacking in intimacy or something. She knew she wasn’t after intimacy but still…maybe she’d ask Kellis. Or Orion.

  “What is it, little one?” He was back to being mindreading Thorn.

  Remembering he was really good at picking up on fabrication, and that he didn’t like it and threatened to punish it, she said, “None of you have kissed me, really kissed me.”

  “You have yet to earn that, Adara.” He turned and preceded her through the door. Earned it? Earned it? What the fuck did that mean? Well, kissing suddenly dropped to least favorite activity on her to do list and to hell with intimacy. She’d make it all about the orgasms.

  Stalking out behind him, thinking dark thoughts, she stopped dead as she entered the kitchen. The wonderful smell of food permeated the air, plates on the counter in front of the stools. Kellis and Orion, however, stood beside the food, looking far more mouth wateringly fetching. Adara forgot she was hungry, at least for food.

  “Come sit, my sweet,” Orion offered. “You must eat.”

  Kellis pushed past Orion and took her hand, raising it to his chest, holding it over his heart. He looked down into her eyes, and she looked back. Sweet, funny Kellis was a dirty boy behind it all. She debated looking a little hurt to make him suffer a bit before relenting and making a tiny pout, teasing him. She had no intention of acting that way again.

  He instantly tapped a finger against her lips, and she nipped at it, reveling in the way playful passion snapped between them. She could really get into this pleasure thing, especially when given no choice. And they hadn’t hurt her. Yet.

  Urging her to Orion, Kellis sat on her other side and they fed her, a thick creamy cereal that tasted of grains and sugar. Tiny pieces of toast, festooned with thin slices of fruit and a chocolate spread accompanied the cereal. She furrowed her brow at the size of the toast and commented.

  Kellis flushed. “I can butcher a secattur carcass, and what you call a bunny, and any other animal, but I can’t slice bread.”

  “He hacked it to pieces and made toast out of the middle pieces,” Orion confided, laughing at his twin.

  “And you made the little skirts with the fruit,” Kellis taunted. It was Orion’s turn to flush.

  “Well, I appreciate both efforts,” Adara refereed. And she did. They were trying to please her and make everything a positive experience. Her eyes lit on Orion’s sensuous mouth and shivered to think of the havoc that mouth and its clever tongue wrought on her lady parts. They gave her identical, warm smiles.

  Squirming a little as her folds dampened with the memories, she took a large bite of the toast in Kellis’s fingers, effectively halving it. It didn’t serve to assuage the hunger growing elsewhere. They were such a bad influence, but one she thought she’d like to be persuaded by again. Thorn pressed a goblet against her lips and she drank deeply, th
e liquid once again quenching her thirst. And again, he allowed her only one more draught, but she was satisfied. He drank the rest, his lips in the same place hers had been. Freaky.

  “What is that we’re drinking?” she asked.

  “Something we drink regularly here, little one. It is a natural antioxidant, among other things.”

  “I like it. It’s the best juice I’ve had.”

  “And you shall have it with every meal, but you must drink sparingly until your system becomes accustomed to it.”

  She wanted to ask the deal with him putting his mouth where hers had been, but the memory of earning a kiss still stung and she decided not to. It meant something to him, but she wasn’t asking. He had something to earn from her! She wasn’t certain, exactly, what it was, but something.

  “If you have had enough?” Uh oh, Thorn was directing the action again. She nodded and this time he didn’t wait for her to verbalize. He grasped her elbow and ushered her down the hall, back to the playroom. Adara suddenly realized there was no sand beneath her feet, just tile, swept clean. A quick glance confirmed that the brothers were also barefoot.

  Placing a large cushion on the floor, he gestured. “Present.”

  Intensely aware of her nakedness in that moment, for it was something she’d actually become accustomed to, Adara made her way to the pillow and knelt in the proscribed position. The large, thick square protected her knees from the hard floor, but she still felt uncomfortable. She thought this kneeling thing was overrated. She tried to be calm and waited.

  Kellis, now totally nude, walked with less than his usual swagger to stand in front of her, his erect cock directly in her face. She couldn’t take her eyes off it. He reached out with both hands and worked them through her hair, effectively holding her steady.

  “Keep your hands where they are, my love. This is about me and what I need from you.” This was yet another side of Kellis, shades of big brother. She blinked and looked up at him, as much as his hold on her hair would allow.