by Ivy Barrett
The excuse was thin, but Dare would take it. “So we were.”
They walked from the room together as maintenance bots went to work on the smears of blood and sweat they’d left behind.
Dare wiped his chin with his fingers and came away bloody. His lower lip was starting to swell and his temples pounded. He carefully rolled his head from side to side and his neck muscles protested. His medi-bots would be busy for the next few hours, especially if he spent all night in bed with Jessica.
“Did you come find me for a reason or did you just want to tell me about Gat covering my shifts?” They were walking side by side, but tension still arced between them. Dare wanted it gone before they focused on Jessica.
“Do you want the bad news or the even worse news?” Rook asked with dry humor.
Dare shot him a sidelong glance, then grimaced. His jaw—make that his entire face—hurt like hells. “Either, both. Just tell me what happened.”
“Ciffton detected an encrypted transmission coming from one of the officer cabins. It wasn’t logged by any of the officers, so it seems we’ve got a spy in our midst.”
“Shit.” Dare shook his head. This was all they needed. “Any idea who might have sent it?”
“Only three officers were in their cabins at the time, Gidurant, Lelo, and Gat.”
Dare narrowed his gaze impatiently, trying to focus through the pounding in his head. “Then it was Gidurant or Lelo. Gat would never betray us.”
Rook stopped walking and faced him. “Are you sure about that? Gat is bloodthirsty. He lost more than most and that’s saying a lot. He won’t be satisfied until every Skarilian has breathed their last.”
“We all hate the Skarilians,” Dare objected.
“Not like Gat. He thinks the high command has gone soft.”
Dare just nodded and started walking again. That was certainly true. Dare, and everyone else onboard, had heard Gat complain about the protectorate “making treaties with humans when they should be hunting down Skarilians.” And now Rook and Dare were basically doing the same thing. They’d taken their minds off war and focused on females. Well, one particular female anyway.
“It doesn’t mean he’s the traitor,” Rook stressed after a tense pause. “It just means I’m not ruling him out.”
“Is it wise to leave him in charge? Maybe we should—”
“Whoever sent the message doesn’t know we know. That’s our only advantage,” Rook insisted. “Ciffton is monitoring any communication made by all three of our suspects. If they send or receive another message we’ll know for certain the identity of our spy.”
Dare hated to think that any of their officers would do this, but he couldn’t help hoping it wasn’t Gat. “So what’s the even worse news?” He was almost afraid to ask. “Chancellor Savator knows about the females,” Rook casually informed. He was an even bigger mess than Dare. His nose was clearly broken and he had his hand pressed to his side, his stride rather stilted. “He ordered us to bring them to Protectorate Headquarters immediately.”
“I sense a ‘but.’”
Rook smiled, despite his obvious pain. “But we need more time with Jessica. I think we should alter the video record of the Skarilian scout ship to make it appear that we were in a fight. We escaped without casualties, but the scout ship took out communications and either navigation or our hyper-space engine. We need to delay our arrival by several days, without landing our asses in front of a tribunal.”
Dare thought about the possible complications and shook his head. “How in all the hells would we sell that to the crew? We’d be asking them to risk prison or worse so we can fuck our mate.”
With a frustrated sigh, Rook ran his hand through his hair. The naturally curly strands sprang back, forming peaks all over his head. “I don’t know what else to do. As soon as we arrive, the high command will take control of the females. We both know they will.”
Dare agreed, but expecting the entire crew to lie for them wasn’t the answer. “What if Jessica insists on staying with us? Even the high command isn’t going to keep a female from her males during mating fever.”
“We could be at headquarters in a couple of hours if that’s what we wanted,” Rook pointed out. “We need more time.”
Dare’s steps lagged as his mind sorted through ideas, disregarding one after another. “We can’t involve the entire crew, but what about only a few?”
“Go on.” Rook’s gaze narrowed and he hunched slightly forward, his hand still pressed against his side. “What are you thinking?”
“What sort of malfunction would take out communications, force an emergency landing, yet be repairable with parts we could manufacture ourselves?”
“Some sort of targeted power failure,” Rook mused.
“Exactly. Repairing a power failure would involve an engineering team, not the entire crew. Maybe we can find a way to reward them for their loyalty.”
Invigorated by the half-formed strategy, Rook pivoted on the ball of his foot and headed in the opposite direction. “We can trust Danswhal to play along. He’s family.”
The lead engineer was a distant cousin, but blood was blood. “And he’ll know who else to put on the team.” Infected by Rook’s enthusiasm, Dare felt his mood lightening.
They reached the main power station a few minutes later and told Danswhal they needed to speak with him in private. The engineer listened intently as they explained what they needed and why.
“How soon does this need to happen?” Danswhal asked.
“How soon can you make it happen?” Rook countered.
Danswhal stared off into the distance for another few minutes, then his gaze focused on Rook. “You said Gat is on duty right now. He’ll have to be told at least part of this.”
“Not a problem,” Rook said. “We can trust him.”
“I’ll try to keep my team to three, but that could be difficult. Gat will need to know where to land the ship.”
“Good point.” Dare looked at Rook. “It needs to look like we were headed toward Protectorate Headquarters when the malfunction occurred.” The high command had taken over Fort Hood, a large military complex sixty miles north of Austin, Texas. The wide open spaces surrounding the fort made it perfect for landing spaceships.
“How about the badlands of New Mexico?” Rook proposed. “Much of Texas is also desolate, but I’d rather be a little farther away.”
“New Mexico it is,” Danswhal said. “I’ll talk to Gat, bring him up to speed. The ride will get bumpy when the stabilizers go offline, so you’ll know when we start the show.”
“We’ll need to respond to the crisis or it will seem suspicious,” Dare decided.
Danswhal waved away his concern. “No need. Gat and I can pretend to com you. You two need to focus on your mate. I’m not sure how much time I can buy you if Chancellor Savator is already on your trail.”
Rook shook his head. “Dare’s right. If we’re going to sell this to the crew, we’ll have to show up in person. There’s no way either of us would shrug off a catastrophic malfunction. We’ll make time to reinforce the story. Jessica will understand.”
“That’s your call, but I think we’ll be fine with a couple of frantic commlinks.”
“I guess we’ll leave you to it,” Dare said. “And Danswhal, thank you.”
* * *
Jessica heard the door in the outer room open and her heart flipped over. She sat on the bed, legs drawn up toward her chest, covering herself in the only way Dare had left to her. After Rook returned to work, she’d taken a quick shower, and the temptation to slip on the bathrobe had been nearly overwhelming. She’d been spanked and… used in a way she’d found strangely arousing. Wasn’t that punishment enough?
The door between the bedroom and the living room was open, but the angle was wrong for her to see the main entrance.
She heard Dare say something in Ventori and Rook responded in the same language. A shiver dropped down her spine as she realized they’d returned to
gether. Both her men were here to seduce her, to convince her to accept their claim. Sex with Rook had been intense and wonderful, yet something had been missing. Something named Dare.
Frustrated by her nudity, she stayed on the bed when she really wanted to rush into the other room and greet them with a smile or better yet a nice firm hug. Rook had given her the Ventori version of a tablet computer. The thin device had several games and a small selection of English books. She’d grown bored with both quickly, but the distraction helped pass the time.
They appeared in the doorway together, yet they were unable to enter side by side.
She noticed the blood and gasped. Her nudity forgotten, she scrambled off the bed and rushed across the room. “What in the world happened? You both look terrible.”
Rook turned sideways and slipped past Dare. “Just a misunderstanding.” He held one hand to his side and his nose was horribly swollen. “We’re better now.”
“You did this to each other?” Her hand flew to her mouth. “Why would you… Was this about me?”
Dare hurried to her, raising his blood-crusted fingers toward her face. He stopped just short of touching her. “This wasn’t your fault. It was mine.”
“I don’t believe you.” She turned on Rook, anger surging past her worry. “I told you I deserved the spanking. Why did you—”
“I hit him first.” Dare touched her arm, but quickly pulled back his dirty hand. “I was angry when he told me how you two spent his midday break.”
Her heart fell and guilt rippled through her other emotions. “He said what you and I did could create an imbalance unless he evened things up.”
“He’s right.” Dare looked at Rook as if to make sure he heard the admission. “I just wanted to be involved in your first time.”
He knew she wasn’t a virgin, so he must have meant her first time with a Ventori. Her first time should have been with them. “Will the cream Rook used on me help with all of this?” She motioned toward both of them, feeling helpless and annoyed. She didn’t want to cause dissension between the two. If they were going to fight every time one touched her without the other present, a long-term relationship would never work.
“Our medi-bots will heal our wounds,” Rook assured her, “but it might take a little while. The blood is making it look worse than it is. I’m going to go take a shower.”
“I’m right behind you, so don’t dawdle.”
“‘Dawdle’?” Rook laughed. “I never dawdle.”
The door to the bathroom slid closed behind Rook and Jessica lightly touched Dare’s face. “I want to kiss you, but your lip is so swollen. I can’t believe you did this to each other.”
Dare’s smile turned into a cringe as the expression pulled on his sore lip. “We’re brothers. We’ve been beating the shit out of each other for decades.”
“Really? When’s the last time you had a fistfight before today?”
He gingerly rolled his shoulders then admitted, “It had been many years, but we frequently bloodied each other as teens.”
“Teens don’t know better. Grown men should. Fighting never solves anything.”
“It was cathartic,” he argued.
She wanted to let it go, knew he wanted her to, but this couldn’t be a preview of the rest of their lives. “I thought you two had shared women before. If jealousy is going to be a problem, how can we hope to keep this from happening again?”
“Jealousy won’t be a problem once the bond is formed.”
She didn’t know enough about the bond to understand what he meant. And it was high time that changed. “Why will the bond make a difference?”
He hesitated, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.
“Tell me. I want to understand.”
A strangled sigh hissed out between his lips, but he explained. “Not knowing if you’ll accept our claim has created a great deal of stress. Combine that with endless hours of desire, a lot of it unrequited, and the result is short tempers and volatile emotions. Once we’re bonded all of that will stabilize and we’ll be able to focus on building a future together.”
She’d experienced much of what he described, so she knew the power of sexual frustration. “You won’t be jealous if he touches me when you’re not around?”
“No. First of all, I’ll experience a faint echo of the pleasure. The bond connects all three of us.”
This was the most specific either of them had been about the bonding process, so she decided to press a little farther. “Explain exactly how the bond is formed and what it does.”
He moved to the foot of the bed and sat before he began. She stood in front of him, arms folded over her chest, trying to forget she was naked.
“If you accept our claim, we will anchor a metaphysical link connecting all three of our minds. The connection builds slowly each time we have sex and exchange energy.”
“But I don’t know how to exchange energy.”
His smile turned into a wince, but the swelling in his lip was finally starting to subside. “It happens spontaneously every time you come.”
Her nipples tingled and she was glad her arms were covering them. This conversation was too important to be interrupted by lust. “And the connection will allow us to do what exactly?”
“As soon as the link is anchored, we should be able to consciously send and receive thoughts. After it expands a bit, we’ll sense each other’s emotions. But once the link is fully formed—which also means it’s permanent—we’ll need to shield our minds or the other two will hear every thought and sense every emotion. A permanent link is wide open all the time.”
She wasn’t sure she wanted that sort of transparency, even with her mates. “You can teach me how to build a mental shield?”
“Of course. It’s not as hard as it sounds.”
That was a relief, but everything was still happening incredibly fast. She’d left the recruitment center expecting to become a carnal companion for Layhee pod. Then she’d spent endless hours terrified that she was about to die or end up in a situation worse than death. Now she was involved with an entirely different pod, and they wanted her as their mate, not a temporarily pleasure-giver. The changes were dizzying.
“How long does it take for the connection to fully form, to become permanent?”
The blue lines in his eyes gleamed as he said, “It depends how many times we make love to you.”
It might be true, but it still sounded like an evasion. “Give me a rough estimate.”
“Several weeks, maybe a month.”
A month? How could she decide something this monumental in a month?
The door to the bathroom slid open and Rook walked out, a towel wrapped around his lean hips. “Next,” he called with a bright smile. “Gods, that felt good.”
He looked better. In fact, a lot better. His nose was straight again and only faintly discolored. The cuts across his knuckles had closed, leaving pale purple bruises. His side, however, was still horribly bruised and looked painful.
She walked to him and lightly touched the discoloration. “Why aren’t your medi-bots fixing this?”
“They are.” He chuckled, the red pattern in his eyes sparked with life and male awareness. “Broken bones take longer to heal than soft tissue injuries.”
“Dare cracked your ribs?” She glared at him.
“And broke my nose,” Rook pointed out dramatically.
“His ribs were already cracked,” Dare told her. “I just landed a lucky punch.”
“You call that lucky?” Jessica cried. “What if you’d punctured his lung?”
Rook cupped her chin, turning her face toward him. “You’re taking this way too seriously, sweetheart. We’re brothers. Brothers fight.”
“Not anymore they don’t. You two have to swear that you will never do this again or you’re both sleeping somewhere else tonight.”
Rook and Dare exchanged surprised expressions, and Rook’s hand slid into her hair. “Are you trying to order us arou
nd? I thought you knew better.”
She stomped down her anger and lowered her gaze to his mouth, wanting kisses and caresses, not another spanking. “I’m sorry, Sir. I don’t like seeing either of you hurt.”
“We’re warriors. Injuries are an occupational hazard.” Rook’s other hand came to rest on her hip.
“You didn’t get your injuries in a battle,” she pointed out, fighting to keep her tone respectful. “Two people I care about intentionally hurt each other, and that—”
“Say it again.” Rook’s fingers tightened in her hair, immobilizing her head.
“What did I say?” She nervously licked her lips. “Why are you angry?”
He loosened his grip, but didn’t let go. “I’m not angry. Think about what you said. Did you mean it?”
She thought back, still confused. She’d said two people she cared about hurt each other. Ah, two people she cared about. “Of course I care about you.” She looked into his black marble eyes and let him see how deeply they’d affected her. “I care about you both, probably more than I should. How can you doubt that after this afternoon?”
Gradually his fingers released and he pulled his hand out of her hair. “Dare, you better take the fastest shower of your life if you expect me to wait for you.”
Without argument, Dare rushed into the bathroom and shut the door.
“Get on the bed.” When she didn’t move fast enough, Rook slapped her on the ass. “I was going to let your bossiness slide because your worry is rather sweet. Don’t make me change my mind.”
She crawled onto the bed, lingering on her hands and knees, knowing the position drove him crazy. Not only was it inherently submissive, it showcased her pussy and ass. At the top of the bed, she shifted to sit on her butt and leaned against the wall. Then she drew her knees up toward her chest as they’d been earlier. Her gaze greedily devoured Rook’s bare torso. She wanted to run her hands over every bulge and ripple until she knew each contour by heart. The swirl of color shifted hypnotically as he moved with predatory grace. The tattoo-like markings on his arms, shoulders, and back stood out in stark relief against his nearly white skin.
“Are your markings natural or decorative?” The question was out before she could wonder if it was rude to ask.
