Crystal’s Three Chosen Mates
A Profortuna Story
By Suzanne Graham
Resplendence Publishing, LLC
http://www.resplendencepublishing.com
Crystal’s Three Chosen Mates
Copyright © 2012 Suzanne Graham
Edited by Jessica Bimberg and Venus Cahill
Cover art by Les Byerley, www.les3photo8.com
Published by Resplendence Publishing, LLC
2665 N Atlantic Avenue, #349
Daytona Beach, FL 32118
Electronic format ISBN: 978-1-60735-577-9
Warning: All rights reserved. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.
Electronic Release: August 2012
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and occurrences are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, places or occurrences, is purely coincidental.
To Ing, for being the best brainstormer, and for walking alongside me all the way through to the finish line. Love you!
Chapter One
“Are you going to die a virgin?” Fisher goaded Crystal with an insistent whisper.
She glared up at him, pissed that he was lying on top of her as they hid in this cramped storage bench, especially because it was his fault their cover had been blown. Now, the Open Air Society terrorists were out for their blood.
Fisher’s thumb traced the outer edge of her breast. “Are you?”
She retaliated with a sharp elbow to his solar plexus. His muffled grunt was a satisfactory reward for her effort.
The bastard had the gall to chuckle softly, the low rich sound sending tingles to her girl parts, further enraging her. He was the last man on Profortuna she would choose, not that the Council ever gave anyone the opportunity to select his or her own mates.
“Come on, Crystal.” Fisher’s whisper tickled her ear and raised her core temperature. “Don’t go into the final darkness without experiencing the big O.”
She jerked her head away from his and almost knocked herself out when she bumped against the side of the compartment. She grabbed a fistful of his short brown hair and turned on him. “What the hellitude makes you think I don’t have experience? Do you think the males at the Military Academy are the only ones engaged in sexual exploits? I may not have a penis, but I’ll definitely know what to do with those of my three mates when the time comes.”
Even in the dimness of their hiding place, she could see his dark eyes widen as he digested her words. Even more telling was the hard ridge growing in his pants, pressing against her hip.
Damn, he felt long and wide, completely proportional to his superior height. Her nipples pebbled against his chest, and she prayed he’d stay oblivious to his effect on her, which she’d been fighting ever since they’d been classmates at the Academy. Mentally, his cocky, bad boy attitude sent her into fits, but physically, he made her hot and itchy to touch him.
“Now, you’re going to have to prove it.” His hushed words were rough and urgent as he rubbed against her.
Oh, stars forbid, she was tempted…so tempted to show him how she could blow his mind.
“You’re an idiot,” she snapped quietly. “We’ll be shot if the OAS finds us, and you want to make a bunch of noise and give away our hiding spot?”
Her grasp on his hair loosened as he lowered his nose to the sensitive part of her neck and nuzzled her softly, creating an electrical charge along her nerve endings.
Damn him.
“You’re right.” His breath warmed her skin. “When you scream, I’ll muffle it like this.” He covered her mouth with his, his tongue teasing her lips with feathery swipes.
No way in hellitude would she lie here passively and let him take control of this situation. She opened her lips and thrust her tongue into his mouth, exploring his upper palate and tangling with his tongue while she grabbed his ass with both hands and lifted her pelvis to grind harder against him.
She swallowed his moan, smiling to herself. She was going to drive him as crazy as he drove her, and he was going to have to fight back every grunt and groan.
She slipped a hand between them and loosened the front of his trousers, but she didn’t immediately dive in. Instead, she toyed with him, dragging her nails along the outside of his pants over his length, giving her a better idea of his size.
His hips jerked toward her, and his tongue plunged into her mouth.
Yeah, she was working him good, but her own need was burning through her, too.
He bunched up her tunic and unclasped her bra with amazing dexterity. His wide hand squeezed her generous breast as his thumb rubbed her nipple into a hard bud. She refused to vocalize her approval, but it took great restraint to hold back the moan in her throat.
Leaning on one elbow, he undid her trousers and slipped a hand inside her pants. His fingers ruffled her curls before diving between her wet folds.
Her back arched off the floor of the storage bench as he went deep into her channel, finding her g-spot without error. Her mouth gaped open as she silently gasped. She struggled to get herself under control, so she could tug his trousers down to his thighs and wrap her hand around his thick erection.
Stars, he was going to fill her good.
Together, they worked her trousers down to her knees so she could remove one leg from the pants. The tight space added an extra degree of challenge, but nothing about being with Fisher was ever easy. The man thrived on making life difficult for those around him.
With her legs free, Crystal wrapped herself around Fisher’s hips and guided him to her entrance.
He paused and looked down at her in the near-black darkness. “You sure?” His usual cockiness was stripped from those two words, softening a piece of her toward him.
Damn him. This wasn’t supposed to be anything other than physical release. How dare he reveal something buried behind his tough guy exterior.
“What? Worried you can’t get off without screaming?” she taunted him, taking back control of the situation.
Without warning, he plunged into her. She bit her bottom lip to stop her moans from giving away their hiding place as he thrust hard and fast into her. She dug her fingers into his ass as she rode through a mounting climax.
Her inner muscles clenched him as she reached her orgasm. She bit his left biceps to block her scream. He responded by biting her shoulder, sending her flying higher over the top.
With a last few uncontrolled jerks, he spilled his seed in her. For a moment, she wondered if she would be one of the rare women of their planet who conceived.
Stars forbid she get with child. That would put an end to her entire career. A career she’d worked her ass off to be good at—to be great at. She’d always been driven to be the best, to make her three high-ranking military fathers proud.
There was no way in hellitude she could conceive.
“Fisher,” she hissed. “Get. Off. Me.”
“Where am I supposed to go, darling? You just reminded me we’re hiding for our lives.”
Crystal was so frustrated she felt tears gathering, which further maddened her. “When we get out of here, I’m going to kill you, Fisher.”
Oh man, Fisher chuckled silently as he propped himself above Crystal’s curvy body and helped her pull on her trousers and straighten her tunic.
She was going to skin him alive when she found out that the OAS “terrorists” were actually undercover operatives who’d helped Fisher set up this near-miss with Crystal. B
ut desperate times called for desperate measures, and all that.
He and Crystal had been dancing around each other for too long, and he’d been determined to put an end to their eight years of foreplay. When he’d heard that Crystal was going to be assigned to undercover field training in Third Quadrant with him, he’d taken it as a sign from the stars that now was the time to make it happen between them. And his plan had worked flawlessly; he’d easily provoked her when he’d baited her about her virginity, which he damn well knew wasn’t intact.
That blaster Donovan had crowed his conquest all around the barracks several years ago when he’d breached Crystal’s barrier. A fist to the face had shut the man up real fast, and had only sent Fisher to the underground mineral mines for a week. Never one to shy away from physical labor, he’d managed the work easily; though, he’d been glad to get back to Fourth Quadrant and whole foods. The manufactured nutrishakes that most of the planet drank for sustenance left Fisher unsatisfied.
Once his trousers were fastened again around his waist, he moved to lift the lid to the storage bench.
“What are you doing?” Crystal growled at him, her blue eyes narrowing.
“Checking for the all clear.”
“By making a target of yourself?”
Uh, yeah. Now would probably be the best time to confess, but that would certainly ruin any chance of getting back in her trousers, which had become his new obsession as soon as he’d first thrust into her. Hellitude, he’d been obsessed with her long before that; hence, this elaborate rouse to seduce her.
Crystal shoved his hand away from the lid. “Get down, idiot,” she blasted him in a hushed voice.
Shiitake, he should have planned an exit strategy. Instead, he was going to have to improvise.
“I don’t plan to make this my permanent residence,” he drawled. “Though, you’d definitely be among my first choices for a pod mate.” Without waiting for her response, he pushed free of the storage bench and jumped to his feet. “It’s time to get out of here.”
She stood slowly, her head cocked as if she were listening for approaching “terrorists”. Stray blonde hairs fell from her mussed up ponytail.
He faked a serious expression as he made a show of searching the corridor before stepping out of the small storage room. Crystal stuck close behind him, her hand on the laser gun hidden in her hip pocket, which took his thoughts back to her shapely hips, nearly distracting him from his charade, but he kept his eyes forward and hustled them to the landing dock where they’d left their small runabout.
Their training assignment had been merely to enter Third Quadrant’s sector twenty-two, access a comm station to intercept a data packet supposedly sent by an OAS terrorist, then return to Fourth Quadrant. Their cover as two data engineers sent to fix a faulty comm link was ridiculously easy to maintain. Because Crystal didn’t have the same security clearance as Fisher, she didn’t realize there were no known OAS operatives anywhere in Third Quadrant. Though, she did know the Major was testing her for a possible upgrade in her rank, and Fisher’s report would heavily determine the outcome. Yet, another reason not to tell her the truth about their faked “discovery”. She’d probably think he gave her a good review because of the sex, but in actuality, she was a damn fine soldier and rightly deserved this promotion.
At the landing dock, Fisher and Crystal resumed their data engineer personas, boarded their runabout and set a return course to Fourth Quadrant.
For a relatively talkative female, Crystal remained unusually silent until they were more than forty clicks from Third Quadrant.
“Good job back there, Crystal. I’ll be sure to indicate in my report that you handled the sitch like a professional field soldier. I don’t think the Major will have any trouble making you a Corporal.”
“Let me make this perfectly clear, Fisher.” Crystal’s voice held a sharp edge. “You will not include anything in your report about what happened in that storage bench. As far as I am concerned, it never happened, nor will it ever happen in the future between us. Just remove any ideas about it from your brain right now.”
Damn, she really sounded like she meant it. He’d hoped once they’d cleared the Quadrant and gotten out of “danger”, she’d reconsider her threat to kill him. Didn’t seem like it, though. He wasn’t any closer to making a physical arrangement with her, and if she ever learned the truth, he’d definitely have to watch his back around her.
“Crystal, I’d never reveal what happened between us.” He used a hurt tone. “That was a private act.”
She snorted. “Don’t be an ass. I know how men talk about their vanquishments.”
“And women don’t?” he asked, truly curious whether they did or not.
“It’s not the same. Even though military women are given more freedom than civilians to experience physical intimacy before their assigned mating, we still have to maintain an unspoiled image. We can’t go around bragging about our adventures, like you can.”
“So, have you had a lot of adventures?”
“Shut. Up. Fisher.” She flicked the comm link switch on the control panel of the runabout, cutting off any opportunity to continue the discussion. “Base One, this is R-Five. We are ten clicks out. Over.”
“R-Five, we have you on our data screens. Welcome home. Over.”
“I never thought I’d say it, but I can’t wait to get back to my kitchen,” Crystal muttered under her breath.
“I thought you were ready to prove yourself in the field.”
She glared at him. “I was. I am. And I pray to the stars that I get another chance that won’t include you.”
Fisher mocked a stern look. “Is that any way to speak to your superior?”
“After this upgrade, we’ll be back on equal footing. The only reason it’s taken me this long is because I’ve been stuck in the damn mess hall while you’ve gotten extra field training.”
“But, darling, what you can do with a piece of beef—”
She held her palm up. “Don’t go there, Fisher.”
“Come on, Crystal. I was just complimenting you on your culinary skills. You really are talented with food preparation.”
“Thanks,” she begrudgingly offered.
“We used to be friends, Crystal. Is the thing, which shall not be mentioned, going to change that? Doesn’t that contradict your requirement that we act as if nothing happened?”
“We were never friends. You were merely a classmate at the Academy who I tolerated.”
He placed a hand over his heart. “Ouch. Girl, you know how to wound a man.”
“You’ll get over it…as soon as you spot the next female.”
“Crystal, Crystal, Crystal.” He slowly shook his head. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you sounded a trifle jealous.”
“Get over yourself. I don’t care who you do, but I recommend you stay away from the mated women. I don’t think you’re fast enough to escape three angry males out to permanently disfigure you.”
“Ah, you do care.”
“Shut up, Fisher,” she repeated, and flicked the comm link switch again. “Base One, this is R-Five. We are ready to dock. Over.”
“R-Five, you are clear to land. Over.”
Fisher sat back and watched Crystal expertly handle the controls of the runabout.
Yeah, there was a lot about this woman he admired, but he’d definitely ruined any chance at getting her to return the feeling.
He had to agree with her on this one. He was an idiot.
Chapter Two
“Congratulations, Specialist Crystal,” Major Jeffers addressed her in his office the following week, as she and Fisher stood at attention before him.
The Major pinned a double chevron insignia to her collar. “You have been promoted to Corporal in the Profortuna Military.” He saluted her sharply, and she returned the gesture of honor.
“Thank you, sir.” She stuffed the lingering thought that her interlude with Fisher had anything to do with her promotion.
She was on her way up the ranks, due to her own abilities, which was most important to her. In the Profortuna hereditary system of assigning occupations, offspring often strove for their parents’ approval by attempting to outperform them. She had a lot of work ahead of her in order to accomplish more than her three General fathers.
“Congrats, Corporal.” Fisher thumped her on the back.
She held her position, though the force of his felicitation nearly had her taking a step forward for balance. “Thanks, Fisher,” she tossed offhandedly to him.
“Now, for your new assignment.” The Major walked behind his desk and picked up his datapad.
Crystal held her breath. Was she finally going to get out of the kitchen for good and do some real soldier work? She’d been pissed when she was first assigned to the mess hall a year ago because she knew it would provide relatively few promotion opportunities. Eventually, she’d discovered a passion for nurturing others with good food, which she found difficult to reconcile with her drive to excel at soldiering.
Now, if she could prove herself in action, she could make Sergeant in half the time it’d taken her to make Corporal. With the continuing dispute between the Open Air Society and the Council having the potential to burgeon into a full-scale conflict, she could very likely see field action soon.
“Since the OAS’s initial attacks two moon cycles ago, they’ve adopted methods of non-violent resistance,” the Major continued, “and they’ve recruited a large support base in the First Quadrant.”
Crystal took a shallow breath as she waited for the Major to tell her exactly what her new role would be. She sensed Fisher’s tension in his stance next to her as he too waited.
“A work stoppage has been particularly effective, and the military has been ordered to take over most of the daily operations of First Quadrant.”
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