by Rachel Clark
“Why do I get the impression our relationship just became platonic?”
Daku tilted his head, nodded slightly, and then smiled sadly. “You and Felicity can be happy together. Once we’re certain it’s safe, you two can start a family.” He took a step back, touched Felicity in the same affectionate way, and then pressed a kiss to her forehead. “And you’ll have three—what is it humans call them? Uncles?” When Chris nodded, Daku gave them that sad smile again. “You’ll have three uncles prepared to protect you and your podlings.”
“What about you?” Felicity asked Daku as she felt Chris’s anguish wash through him. They’d just lost Reyne and now Daku, Naith, and Ben were losing Chris, too. It had seemed very clear these past weeks that the three aliens adored Chris and he loved them right back.
“It’s easy to see why Chris loves you,” Daku said instead of answering her question.
“No,” Felicity said as she looked up and saw Naith and Ben standing in the doorway to the bedroom. “I won’t take him away from you.”
“It’s okay, sweetheart,” Ben said stepping into the room, “we’ll still be a part of his life, and yours.”
“That’s not good enough,” she said feeling like her chest was caving in. This was wrong. She wouldn’t deny Chris a chance to be truly happy. He’d never hidden his sexuality from her. He’d openly admitted needing more than one partner. The past three week’s happenings might have put her in a position where she could no longer deny her love for the man, but she wasn’t cruel enough to deny him the men he needed. “I need him to be…He needs…I mean…” She shook her head, trying to slow her words down so that they didn’t come out all wrong. “He needs you as well.”
“But you said only a few minutes ago that you don’t share,” Naith said, suggesting that they’d heard almost all of their earlier conversation. It was a very tiny house.
“If it’s what Chris needs to feel whole, then I’m willing to try it. As long as that’s as far as it goes. Me and Chris, and you three and Chris. No one else.”
“Do I get a vote in this?” Chris asked in a tight voice.
He was essentially getting what he wanted, so he should have been smiling. A little bit annoyed by his less than enthusiastic tone, Felicity narrowed her eyes at him but nodded quickly. Of course he could have a fucking vote.
“Jernodrian families are a six-way relationship. Without Reyne we can’t be a true family pod, but we can still have the same type of relationship.”
“Meaning?” she asked feeling a little too emotionally raw to try and guess at what he was trying to tell her.
“Meaning that if you chose to have sex with Daku, Naith, and Ben as well as me that none of us would object.”
“I haven’t decided to have sex with you yet,” she said in annoyance. “Last month I had a job to go to, an apartment to live in, bills to pay, a car to wash, dry cleaning to collect…” Her breath caught on a sob as Daku enfolded both her and Chris in his warm embrace once more. Ben and Naith moved to cage them in completely as she tried desperately to hold back the tears. Hell, these men had just lost a man they’d loved dearly. They shouldn’t have to deal with her petty, shallow concerns, too.
But as she tried to hold back her reaction, they just tightened their hold and urged her to cry if she needed. She hated the weakness but couldn’t deny the relief at the chance to release the tension. Surrounded by so much hot man muscle should have felt claustrophobic, but somehow she just felt safe within their circle.
“We’re sorry that everything happened the way it has,” Naith said as he caressed a finger down her cheek, “but we’ll never regret the chance to get to know you.”
“No decisions need to be made today,” Ben said with a reassuring smile. “We’ll just take one day at a time.”
Those damn tears spilled over at the men’s caring attitudes.
“Thank you for not asking us to give up Chris,” Daku said quietly. He pressed another kiss to her forehead, one to Chris’s lips, and then urged Naith and Ben out of the room. They both stopped to kiss Chris and give her a brief hug, but then they were gone and it was just the two of them in the bedroom once more.
“I love you, Flick,” Chris said as he hugged her close. “We’ll just take everything one day at a time.”
She didn’t object when he urged her back into the bed and curled his body protectively around her once more.
* * * *
Daku shook in reaction to everything that had just happened. He’d gone into that bedroom determined to see the two humans happy together. Without the DNA changes Reyne’s claiming would have wrought, Felicity and Chris were at least able to produce human offspring of their own.
Perhaps his motivation hadn’t been completely altruistic. He and Reyne had long dreamed of having podlings of their own. Finding Naith and then Ben just over an Earth year ago had been like a dream come true. But with Reyne’s death and their chance of having a family stolen so violently from them, Daku had convinced himself that living vicariously through Felicity’s and Chris’s parenting experiences would be enough. He’d even discussed it with Ben and Naith long before they’d overheard the conversation going on in the bedroom. They’d missed having Chris in their bed these few weeks, but they’d understood his need to hold close the woman he loved.
Yet to have Felicity suggest that they continue building their relationship even as she and Chris worked at one of their own was a gift he hadn’t been expecting.
“You okay?” Naith asked as he moved into the kitchen area and started making breakfast.
Daku nodded. “I’m good,” he said, truly meaning it. He still felt Reyne’s loss so deeply most of the time it hurt to breathe, yet at least the family pod they’d been building wasn’t completely lost. They couldn’t go home, but they could stay and love Chris, and maybe one day Felicity as well. That was precious.
“Any news from the Council?” he asked Ben as he joined him on the sofa where he was busily scrolling through websites. They both knew better than to get in Naith’s way when he was cooking for his family.
“Only a repeat of the general warning they issued a couple weeks ago. Whatever is going on they’re not sharing.” Ben flipped a few more electronic pages and shook his head. The Jernodrian High Council had been rather clever when it came to disseminating information to the Jernodrians dotted across this planet. Human technology was advanced enough for them to trace individual messages so they’d created an online game complete with complex storylines that were updated whenever they needed to get word out. It looked like fiction, but if you knew what you were looking for it contained a lot of necessary information.
It was quite popular with humans, and they’d kept the funding for it separate from the shares in diamond mines, so there was little chance of the people who’d attacked them realizing the connection. When Reyne had first made the decision to come to Earth, Daku had thought the complex preparations by Jernodrian authorities perhaps a little paranoid. They’d known there was a group on Earth who’d identified some of the visiting family pods but they hadn’t truly been concerned. Dria-coldars were very powerful beings—telekinesis, shape-shifting, and memory alteration were only some of the abilities they had. Add that to a yala-coldar’s ability to create realistic illusions and they’d felt safe enough.
Daku swallowed painfully as the terrifying moments of Reyne’s death replayed in his head.
They’d learned very quickly that their skills meant nothing against a determined enemy who knew more than they’d imagined. They still didn’t know how humans had known how to take down a dria-coldar. The fact that it resembled some of the more horrifying accounts from their own planet-wide war several decades ago was very disturbing.
It was like humans had somehow delved into the history of the Jernodrian home planet and not only understood the dria-coldar’s role but had found ways to kill them as well. The only reason any of them were here now had been the combination of Chris’s skill with a gun and Reyne’s
determination to hold off brain-death and stay conscious for a few minutes longer than should have been possible considering his hideous wounds.
Daku didn’t even realize tears rolled down his face until Ben wrapped his arms around his waist and pressed his head to his chest. His arms closed of their own volition, the grief tightening his throat as he gasped for air and cried again for a man he’d never expected to lose.
* * * *
Chris held Felicity close as his heart pounded with a combination of love, relief, and fear. He’d spent at least the past few years imagining a moment like this, but it had been the beginning of a bright, happy future, not the scramble to hold onto what was left of the dreams he’d weaved.
He’d loved Felicity for almost all of his life.
“Are you sure?” he asked one last time. She’d agreed to consider the relationship they’d proposed, but he’d sensed an awful lot of irritation coming from her. Even with the dramatic changes in her life he’d been certain at least part of that annoyance had been aimed at him.
She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly as she rolled in his arms.
“I’m sure,” she said quietly, “about you.” She hesitated a moment but then moved back slightly so that she could see his face. “I’ve never truly considered the type of relationship you’re suggesting. I always thought I’d have a traditional marriage—you know, husband, kids, carpooling…a soccer-mom kind of life.”
“I’m sorry I ruined that for you. If I’d never met Reyne and—”
“Hey, that wasn’t your fault,” she said as she placed a hand against his cheek. “I would give up far more than a silly dream…hell, it wasn’t even something I really wanted. I just expected that’s the way my life would go eventually.” She gave him a determined look. “But I would give up far more than that if it meant Reyne rescued you when he did. I’m sorry I never met him, but I’ll be forever grateful for his intervention.”
“Me, too,” Chris added softly. It hurt to know that Reyne was gone, but he used that pain to keep him focused, to keep him grounded, to make certain he was always protecting the family Reyne had left behind. It seemed like the least he could do for a man as incredible as Reyne had been. Yet his death also reminded Chris that nothing lasts forever. “I love you, Flick. I’ve always loved you.”
Her smile softened and her eyes shimmered with tears. “I love you, too, Chris. Please make love to me.”
He nodded quickly, wanting nothing more than to feel that physical and emotional connection with this woman who’d meant so much to him for so long. Very slowly he helped her to stand and then moved to strip her clothes away, the silky pajamas quickly falling to the floor as her beautiful body was revealed. She was even lovelier than he’d imagined, the clothes she usually wore apparently hiding her delicious curves. She sighed as he lowered to his knees, her hands tangling in his hair as he pressed his mouth against one of her nipples, his hand moving to tease the other as his tongue laved over the rapidly hardening bud.
He tormented her, switching his mouth from breast to breast as he pushed his hands into her pajama pants and lowered them and her underwear to the floor. She moaned softly, her legs shaking as he caressed over the smooth skin. He brushed over the soft curls at the juncture of her thighs and then moved lower, exploring every inch of her body with his mouth and fingers as she stood before him and let him play.
She shivered convulsively when he moved his mouth to her pussy, his tongue slicking in between the soft folds that hid her clit as his fingers traveled up her thigh and brushed against the entrance of her pussy. Her clit was swollen, the tiny bud growing harder as he explored her body, his cock pressing so hard against his own pajama shorts that he almost groaned with the pain.
Her legs wobbled as her shivering increased. He moved his hands to her ass to steady her, and then shuffled her backward toward the bed, his tongue still flicking over her clit as he carefully pushed her onto the mattress.
“Chris,” she said in a strained voice as she tried to get a grip on his hair and pull him away. “Chris…Chris…too close…I–I’m too close.”
He smiled against her flesh, pushed his fingers deep into her pussy, and then started to flick his tongue harder and harder over her swollen clit. She arched against the mattress, trying to pull away even as her body betrayed her control.
He pressed her harder onto the bed, using his shoulders to keep her thighs wide open and a hand to hold her hips in place as he felt her orgasm begin. She shook wildly, thrashing against his hold as her pussy gripped his fingers hard and then began to pulse around the invasion. Cream coated his fingers, her orgasm going on and on and on as he kept her there, tormenting her clit, caressing her inner pussy walls, reveling in her orgasm even as his own body cried out for relief.
“Fuck,” Felicity whispered on a long exhale as her body slowly relaxed against the mattress.
As much as he wanted to shuck his own pajamas and slam into her gorgeous body, he knew he couldn’t, not yet. Hell, he was hard enough to pound nails but he wouldn’t risk getting her pregnant. Not yet, not with everything still so damned uncertain.
Felicity reached for him, trying to drag him over her, trying to get him to do exactly what his body and mind craved.
“Flick, I don’t have any condoms.”
“Huh?” she asked as if she didn’t know the meaning of the word.
“Baby,” he said as he helped her shimmy up the bed into a more comfortable position, “we can’t risk a pregnancy. Not now.”
“Preg—” She cut her own words off. “I won’t,” she said, shaking her head. “I have the contraceptive implant.” She lifted her arm and looked at the place where the little capsule-like rod was apparently embedded under the skin. “Unless…”
“No, I’m clean. Reyne checked that when I was injured.” He lay down beside her and touched her face as he watched her absorb that information. “Jernodrians don’t have any communicable diseases, so we’re safe there. And I know you haven’t been in a relationship for a long time.” He grinned as the urge to tease her the way he’d always done overwhelmed him. “Unless you discovered the questionable thrill of one-night stands, I think we’re safe.”
She shook her head quickly, apparently taking him seriously for all of half a second before she realized he was just talking with her the way he’d always done. Felicity grinned wickedly as she wrapped her hand around his hard cock and squeezed just a little harder than was comfortable. He gasped, writhing a little as the pleasure and pain combined.
“You’ll pay for that,” he said, unable to control his grin.
“I certainly hope so,” she answered with a bright smile.
He climbed over her, caging her beautiful naked body under his still partially clothed one. She didn’t waste any time pushing his pajama pants down as far as she could manage. The warm touch of her hand, this time stroking him gently, was enough to push him over the edge of sanity. He ground his teeth, desperate not to lose control as he let her guide him into her moist heat.
Chris groaned as her body surrounded his cock, her cream coating him as he slid deeper inside. “I love you, Flick.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck, nodding frantically as he started to slide into and out of her pussy. “I love you, too.”
He nodded with her, instinct taking over as she moved with him, their dance as old as time, their lovemaking slow and deliberate, the emotions between them deep and all encompassing. Felicity cried out as he ground into her and then rolled them over so that she rode his cock. He slid a hand between them, his fingers easily finding her still swollen clit. He circled that tiny bud, grinning as he watched Felicity shatter in orgasm once more. He started moving faster, his need for her overwhelming all else. Deeper and harder he pushed into her, thrusting his hips up as she slammed down onto him, riding him desperately as her pussy convulsed around him and she cried out her pleasure.
His climax boiled in his balls, his movements suddenly jolting, almost painfu
l as he fucked her harder and finally let go. He practically growled as he released inside her, the incredible sensation turning the sound into a long, drawn-out sigh.
Spent, Felicity collapsed forward, her hair spreading across him as she laid her face against his chest and they held each other close and slowly recovered.
Chapter Five
Zed paced the floor of his tiny cabin and cursed the lack of activity. He’d managed to talk his way onto a military transport headed for Earth—the death of a dria-coldar wasn’t something any of them had ever expected, so being related to Reyne had worked to get him through a lot of red tape—but the confined space, forced inactivity, and long journey were taking a toll on his sanity. He already knew Reyne’s body had been vaporized by his family to protect all Jernodrians from discovery, so a part of him still lived in denial.
But the news he’d just gotten from home wasn’t encouraging.
He was reading over the communication for the fifth time when the door chime sounded. Not really wanting company, but unwilling to ignore someone who could give him more information, he quickly pressed the remote to unlock the door.
“Bik?” he asked as the captain stepped into his cabin and quickly closed the door behind him. Technically as a civilian traveler, Zed wasn’t really supposed to be privy to the orders coming from the Jernodrian High Council, but as the brother of a murdered dria-coldar, he was being given a little bit of leeway.
“Are you aware of what’s happening on Jernodria?”
“I am,” he said glancing back at the communication he’d already read five times.
Bik seemed to be grinding his teeth. It was clear that he wasn’t any happier with the situation than Zed was. “We’ve been given increased powers. If the humans attack again we’re authorized to respond with hostile force.”
Zed shook his head at the implications. It was natural that families desperate for dal-sheras would be concerned about what had happened with Reyne, but it was only one incident. Zed wanted justice for his brother, yet the anger and fear being stirred up on Jernodria was almost guaranteed to pull innocent victims into the middle. Starting a conflict with the people who could help them wasn’t the answer.
