“We would.” Tarin smiled and covered her hand with his. “We must return home and tell others of your miraculous planet so far untouched by intergalactic war. Perhaps we can protect your people and, in turn, your planet can give us the mates we so desperately seek.”
Dana licked her lips, her gaze darting back and forth between them. “And if I say yes?”
“You won’t regret it, baby. I promise you.” Lorcan stared into her eyes and she could see his sincerity.
“Well…” She paused to take another drink, barely believing she was going to capitulate. “I did enter into a contract with at least one of you.” Closing her eyes, she shook her head. “I don’t even believe I’m going to say this, it seems so wrong, so wanton, but—” Stopping, she took a deep breath. “I will do it.”
There. She’d said it. She jumped feetfirst into an ocean of uncertainty, but one thing was certain. At least she would only have to surrender her favors to two men, not two hundred. That was something, at least.
Chapter Nine
Lorcan almost choked on the mouthful of Naruvian ale he’d just started to swallow. She agreed that soon? How brave their mate was. “You won’t regret it, I promise you,” he said with a smile. Standing, he looked at Tarin and held out his hand for Dana to take it. “Shall we adjourn to the bonding room?”
“Bonding room?” Dana’s hand trembled in his. “You mean to take me there now, just after lunch?” She blushed prettily, her gaze darting everywhere but to his or Tarin’s face. “It’s the middle of the day! It’s—it’s indecent!” Dana put her free hand to her throat, her fingers trembling against her pounding pulse.
Her heartbeat increased with the idea. He could hear it. But it wasn’t with fear that her heart pounded so loudly. It was with excitement. Her heart raced with anticipation, and he could smell her arousal.
It seems our mate is more eager than she would seem, old friend. I smell her sweet cream, and I can hear her heart pounding with eagerness to feel our bodies become one.
I, too, hear it, Lorcan. Tarin stood, barely suppressing the smile Lorcan could see hovering around the corners of his mouth. We can only hope our mate is as curious as she is eager.
Yes, he thought. Tarin was right with that one. Turning, he led their mate from the mess hall, leaving Tarin to clean up their mess. Normally he would have stayed and helped, but he didn’t want to give Dana the time to change her mind.
The best thing he could think of was getting her to the bonding chamber as quickly as possible where they could ply her with Laluna, the drink meant for nervous mates that would free them of their inhibitions without dulling their cognitive decision-making abilities. That way, the mate in question knew what they were doing but felt neither guilt nor shame over the acts of which they found themselves a part.
Thankfully, the bonding chamber wasn’t far by multi-lift, and they arrived near the room almost immediately after they stepped inside and Lorcan punched the code for their destination.
Just outside the Chamber, he turned Dana to face him, gently cupped her cheek and tilted her head back to meet his gaze. As much as he didn’t want to give her the chance to recant her decision, he knew he must. She had the right to know she had a choice, no matter how impossible that choice may seem to her. “You have this one chance to change your mind, my beauty.” He indicated the door to her right. “Once you step through that door, you are giving your consent to bond with us. As much as Tarin and I might like to think we could stop and let you go, you must know that there is a chance that our other sides may not allow it. Choose now. Enter or not, it is still your choice.”
Dana smiled up at him and tilted her head to better fit his palm. “I know, and I still choose you. You don’t understand, Lorcan. You and Tarin have given me a choice. It was all I ever wanted. My uncle took my choices away and wanted to turn me into one of his soiled doves.” She shook her head. “Don’t you see? Being the wife of two men, loving two men, is a choice I would gladly make over that.”
Pain stabbed him in the heart. He didn’t want her to choose them because they were the lesser of two evils. He wanted her to choose them because it was what felt right in her heart. He couldn’t take what she offered even if it meant he would never mate. The bonding process had already begun, and no other woman would ever do for him, but he couldn’t accept such a sacrifice from her no matter the consequences. Dropping his hand from her cheek he stepped back.
With a frown, Dana stepped forward. “Did I say something wrong?”
Lorcan scrubbed his face with his hands and shook his head. “No. You didn’t say anything wrong. What you said was right for you, but I can’t accept your sacrifice.”
She clasped her hands together beneath her breast and twisted her fingers together. “What have I said?” She searched his gaze, and he looked away. How could he tell her that they couldn’t accept her if she sacrificed herself to them to avoid a greater evil? That wasn’t what the bonding was about.
The bonding was a blending of two or more souls. They bound themselves together in life and in death. If one died, the other died unless there was another to anchor them to this plane of existence. In the instance of three or more in a bond, one could die without affecting the others in any way but grief. That was the type of bond he and Tarin wanted with her.
Each of them had loved her for months. They felt the bond reaching for her and allowed it because they had been so certain she would agree to mate with them, willingly. How could they have been so wrong?
“But…but why?” Tears filled her eyes as she stood before him. “I told you that I would do this, even though my people would think it wanton and deviant.” She shook her head, almost as though she couldn’t believe he was backing out. “Are you going to make me say it, make me admit it?” She looked around them as though frightened someone would overhear her words.
“Do you wish for me to tell you that I have had these strange, forbidden feelings ever since I saw you and Tarin enter the train? Must I confess to wanting you both from the minute my gaze met yours across the train? Will you force me to tell you that I have wanted you and Tarin like I have wanted no man…together?”
She spun around, her head in her hands, and sobbed. “I don’t understand these feelings roiling inside of me. I want things I shouldn’t possibly want. I need things that I have no idea how to make happen, and you stand there and tell me that you cannot accept my sacrifice because you think me unworthy?”
Reaching down, Dana grasped at her jumpsuit then stomped her foot. “I hate this thing. I want my dress. I want my pockets. I have nowhere to carry a hanky in this…this whatever this is.”
Lorcan stepped up behind her, wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. “Are you agreeing to the bonding because you feel you must, or because you want this, Dana?”
“I—I…” her breath hitched. “I don’t know. I only know that I have never wanted a man the way I want you two, and it makes me feel wanton like one of Agatha’s painted ladies.” She shook her head. “I don’t know what this is. All I know is that I want the right to reach up and push your hair from your forehead when it falls in disarray. I want the right to feel your arms around me as they are now without feeling as though it’s wrong.” She looked up at him. “You did say it isn’t wrong for one woman to take two of your men as husbands, didn’t you?”
“Yes, love. I did.” Lorcan kissed her temple. Her intoxicating scent filled his nostrils, and his cock grew harder than it ever had before. This was it. This was the way he should feel when he held his mate in his arms.
The chime on the multi-lift announced a new arrival, and Lorcan stepped back in case it wasn’t Tarin. He didn’t want to embarrass Dana. Her antiquated beliefs would no doubt send her into some kind of self-conscious fit if someone were to see her in his arms without the benefit of a mate bond.
Tarin stepped out of the lift, his smile fading as he saw Dana’s expression. “Has she refused?”
“No.” Lorcan shook
his head. “I refused her when I thought she accepted us out of some misguided obligation.”
“Oh.” His shoulders slumped. “And?”
“It’s been clarified.” He turned to open the door and waved his arm at Tarin. “You do the honors, old friend. I don’t want to screw this part up as well.”
Chapter Ten
Dana gasped as Tarin bent and scooped her up in his arms. Instinctively, she wrapped her arms around his neck. She loved to feel the warmth of his body as it soaked into hers.
It felt odd. Both right and wrong. How would she ever come to terms with the way she felt about these two men? Would she ever gather the nerve to actually let them touch her body in the ways that the strumpets at Agatha’s establishment had told her about?
She watched as Lorcan entered the decadent-looking room. There were lounges and pillows everywhere. Mattresses lay on the floor covered in thick silken coverlets. A pool sat in the center of the room, a large fountain sprayed steaming water from the top like simulated rain.
He walked to one of the food devices she’d seen Tarin use and, after pushing a few buttons, turned around with three glasses in hand. He handed her a glass with a bubbling pink liquid that she knew must be champagne.
Taking a sip, Dana smiled. “It’s delicious.”
“Drink it, our mate, and soon you will feel better.”
Just one sip and she already did. Warmth stole through her and relaxed her muscles. Another sip had her rolling her head back and forth on her shoulders. Nothing had ever made her feel so calm.
One would think a step like this would make her nervous. Dana searched her thoughts. Nothing. She glanced at the two men who waited to make her theirs and smiled. “What are you waiting for?” She winked at them like she’d seen Molly do with one of her visitors.
“We await your empty glass, our mate.”
Dana took another sip of her delicious champagne and licked her lips slowly. “Mmm… this is good.” With a grin, she ran her finger around the rim of the glass and sauntered over to her two men and leaned her hip against the back of a lounger. “I think I want to savor it.”
Taking another sip, she tilted her head back and swallowed, allowing the men to see her throat work. Another of Agatha’s girls, Emily, told her that all men loved to see a woman swallow. She thought that a bit odd but swallowed again for good measure.
With a frown, she lowered her glass. “It’s gone.” Her bottom lip thrust out, and she could have sworn she heard one of them groan. She was almost certain it was Tarin. “Can I have some more?”
“Later, love,” Tarin said as he moved closer and took her glass. “Now it’s time to undress for our ritual bath.”
“A bath? I would love a bath.” Dana danced around in a circle, trying to find the closure on her jumpsuit. “I hated that nasty dress. It was ugly and smelled like a pig’s sty, but at least I knew how to get out of it.” She danced around a bit longer before she looked up, her expression filled with a mixture of consternation and befuddlement.
“You know, I just realized something. I haven’t relieved myself since I woke up.” She tilted her head to the side with a frown. “Why have I not had to relieve myself?” Leaning forward, she placed her hand to one side of her mouth and said in a stage whisper, “You know… I haven’t peed.”
Tarin looked to Lorcan and grinned. “Well, the Laluna is working.”
“I see that,” his friend replied dryly as he moved behind Dana to unfasten the jumpsuit. Their clothing, while sometimes a bit inconvenient for one person to dress alone, was designed to deal with their bodily functions in cases just like this.
When one of them forgets to explain the many functions of their unusual clothing or how to remove them for something as simple as relieving oneself, the jumpsuits leeched the unwanted waste from the body and released it into space through their transport technology.
Even he didn’t know exactly how it worked. He only knew that it did. He also knew that the person wearing it wouldn’t need to use the facilities as long as they wore it. It also cleaned itself in the process. It was one of their greater inventions. One could even wear a jumpsuit for an Earth calendar month before it needed to recharge. At least that was what he had heard. He had never put that to the test. He liked to don clean clothes on a daily basis. It was a habit he enjoyed and didn’t plan to change.
When Lorcan pushed the jumpsuit from her shoulders, Tarin’s breath caught in his throat. He had seen her beauty before, when they dressed her in the suit, but it didn’t detract from the way the perfect pink tips of her breasts looked as Lorcan lowered the top down to her waist.
His cock hardened and his mouth actually watered to feel those pert little buds in his mouth as he suckled them.
Moving closer, Tarin lowered himself to his knees and pulled the suit the rest of the way down, lifting first one dainty foot then the other to strip her bare for their inspection.
Yes. This was what they had waited for—this woman whose scent could drive him wild and whose beauty glowed radiant in the darkest of nights. He looked up at the hair on her head that was so much darker than the golden hair at the juncture of her thighs and groaned.
“First, we’re going to wash that damned walnut juice or whatever it is out of your hair. I can’t wait to see it wrapped around us like a golden halo as we make love.” Picking her up, Tarin walked her to the bathtub in the center of the room and lowered her into it. “Stay there while we undress.”
Gods, he couldn’t wait. His hands, his entire body trembled with the need to make her his. He wanted to kiss her, knew Lorcan wanted the same, but they didn’t dare. Not yet. They knew they must bathe her and themselves in the ritual bath before they lost control and took her without it.
The bond wouldn’t last. None of it would be binding if they didn’t follow the tenants of their beliefs. Without the structure, the bathing and bonding, they would be no different than those who would force the women into sexual servitude, because they would never feel their mate’s love through the mate-bond.
Both he and Lorcan took their time bathing themselves in the ritual way. When finished, they both turned to Dana. With a frown on her face, she tried to copy what they did but failed miserably. She was as sober as a preacher, but her inhibitions were gone. She had no sense of modesty. Perhaps the plant that they used to make the Laluna had once been plentiful here. This state was what the humans must have mistaken for innocence when they spoke of the Garden of Eden. Without inhibitions, nothing seemed wrong.
Picking up the ritual bathing gel, he squirted some into a wet cloth and handed the bottle to Lorcan. This was where they would tempt their mate. This was where their touch would inflame her and themselves, as she grew more and more attuned to her body.
Tarin sucked in a sharp breath as her hand moved through the water, brushing his thigh, her fingers moving gently over his already sensitized skin. He gritted his teeth. As much as he would like to sink himself into her wet cunt, he knew he must wait. She wasn’t ready, and this was her first time.
He stared down at her pink nipples sitting atop the milky mounds of her breasts like little buds and imagined himself suckling them like he would the ripe berries they resembled.
Lorcan picked Dana up and set her on a low shelf in the tub. Leaning her back, he wet her hair beneath the shower and began massaging the bathing gel into her scalp. The lather turned brown as the impurities of the walnut oil dissolved into the water.
While his triad mate continued to wash the grime and dye from Dana’s hair, Tarin swiped the washcloth over her neck, behind her ears, moving lower to her collarbone until he moved the cloth over the tips of her breasts. Dana gasped and arched her back, unconsciously begging for more contact as he moved away.
He moved the cloth lower until he reached her navel. He dipped and swirled the cloth over her abdomen, in and out of her belly button, over the curve of her hips. Dana moaned and bit her lip. He knew she was inexperienced. He also knew she had no idea what she
wanted, only that she did want. And need.
Moving the cloth even lower, he dipped it between her legs. “Open for me, Dana.” Her legs moved open easily and Tarin moved the cloth lower, pushing the lather between her legs. His gut clenched as he continued his ministrations. His cock pulsed with the need to sink into her silky depths and empty its seed.
Every muscle, every nerve ending, reached for her as he felt the bond between them grow stronger. This was what he’d waited so long for. This woman was the woman he would live for, die for, even leave his world for. His heart expanded as it prepared to accept a part of her soul beside his and Lorcan’s. Nothing felt so deep, so profound as a mate bond. At least he’d never felt anything like it and this was just the beginning.
When he looked up into Dana’s face, it was flushed, but not from embarrassment. This was passion, sexual tension, and a deep-seated need. Her green eyes were closed, her face filled with an expression of pure bliss as he continued to move his hands and the cloth over her silky, soft skin.
After he washed every inch of her, Tarin moved back up to lightly kiss the tip of each breast. Again she arched up with a groan, her eyes still closed. The bath complete, Lorcan lifted her into his arms and stepped from the pool to the cool chamber. Dana’s hair dripped clear water, the brown stain gone. Her hair was again that gorgeous gold color it had been when they first saw her.
Chapter Eleven
Dana felt incredible. The things they did to her, with her, felt amazing and so right when before it had felt so wrong. Something in the back of her mind told her that it should bother her that these two men she barely knew bathed her like a babe, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. It felt so good to have Lorcan wash her hair. It had felt exquisite, better even than when her maids washed it when her father was alive.
Mail-Order Bride [Taos Wolven Mates] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 6
