Settler's Mine 2: The Lovers

by Mechele Armstrong

  Gemini handed over a card. “The funds are unlimited. You take off with it, do anything beyond what I’ve ordered, I’ll cut you up so bad, they’ll never find all the pieces.” As there had once been a third minion, and they’d seen what happened to him, they’d believe his words. Sometimes a show worked twice as well as a tell.

  Swill gulped. “Yes, Gemini. We’ll get rig’t on it.”

  “Do your work in here. I’m going to patrol my mine.” My mine. How Gemini loved the sound of that. He’d enjoy it even more when the mine was blasted into the heavens.

  * * * * *

  Amory couldn’t get what had happened with Bren out of his head. Such power in a touch. He’d had no idea that anything like it existed in the galaxy. Tales didn’t begin to tell the reality of being touched there when one had their heartstone. Heaven couldn’t be as sweet as the pleasures his touch had ignited.

  His cock had remained hard since the encounter. Nothing seemed to bring him any relief, not even thinking about the most boring things he could. Aching and swollen, the appendage wanted something badly.

  Release.

  Even though he’d never had sex or an erection, he’d read about the mechanics, what was supposed to happen. The cock got hard, desire escalated, then a male orgasmed with a jet of semen pulsing through the tip. Rudimentary sexual instruction had been included in his classes, and he’d read more about it from books.

  Only he hadn’t counted on the force of the desire that went along with sex. The storm of emotions that accompanied arousal.

  How did men deal with having so much blood go down to their nether regions and think? Once Bren had placed Amory’s hand on him, coherency had been far beyond his reach. All he could conceive of was what he’d clutched in his hand.

  No wonder some killed for lack of heartstones or became obsessed to the point of pain with finding theirs. Now this behavior made sense to him, whereas before he’d not understood wanting the heartstone that badly. He’d wanted his heart, but not enough to kill. Maybe he really was naïve. After all, he’d made a vow to a woman he’d never have, but his honor was all wrapped up in the situation. And, he’d tried to deny something that felt like breathing to his mates.

  He lay on the bed and shifted his body around.

  Couldn’t get comfortable because of his own hardness.

  He rubbed against the mattress, plowing against the sheet, much as he had when he’d been dreaming. Dreaming of his mates, though Bren hadn’t asked. The cloth rubbed against his sensitized skin. Not where he wanted to be. Needed to be. Not soft enough. Not wet enough. Not pliant enough.

  The way he’d plow into Zelda would set his loins on fire. The way Bren would take him would break over him like a storm. Only the mattress wasn’t as yielding as her body would be. As Amory’s body would be for Bren.

  It was only a matter of time before one of them or both of them took him. And the idea thrilled him. All his protests had been lost by the wayside. He wanted his mates. If only time would move faster, so he could have that experience. Then, he’d go take care of the past so he could face his future.

  His cock seemed to expand even more. Impossible. He couldn’t get harder, yet he did. Uncomfortably so.

  He rolled on his back and took his newly found erection in his hand. He rubbed up its length and back down to the base under his pants.

  A moan escaped his lips. He remained so turned on. He wouldn’t last long at this rate of excitement.

  Men jerked themselves off often, especially if they hadn’t found mates yet. Time for him to join that club. The action would relieve him for now.

  He moved, taking off his pants, dropping them on the floor, and positioned himself so he could use both hands.

  One of his hands gripped himself tighter, fluttering up his length with grip and lightness all in the same touch.

  Up and down, he moved while encasing his cock within his fingers.

  His hips bucked. The sensations slid across him like a tidal wave. His hands were slippery from the moisture that leaked from the tip.

  Back down he traveled to the base with his hands moving like a channel across his cock. Faster and faster, he jerked his hands.

  Zelda’s face flashed before his thoughts. Bren’s eyes. Amory’s hands would tangle in his hair. The thoughts almost sent him over the edge, but not quite. Something more. Their hands on him. Yes. His breathing increased. Maybe that would do it.

  A sound. A click.

  Amory jerked, his eyes scanning. His hands skittered away from his cock when he saw who stood in the room.

  Zelda.

  Her serious face looked beautiful in the lamplight. Her scent drifted over him as it always did whenever she entered a room. Flowery, yet with spice. She shimmied her hip to close a drawer on the nightstand.

  Without a word, hips swaying, she walked toward him. One hand gripped something tightly.

  He drew up his legs as she tossed one dark leg over his to almost straddle him. The movement made him shiver.

  He couldn’t think of anything witty to say. Nothing that would break the moment. If only he hadn’t slid off his pants. Only she seemed happy to see him that way. As she drew closer, he could smell her musk.

  She held her hands up in front of him. A tube. Opening it, she poured thick liquid out onto her hand.

  Lube.

  * * * * *

  Zelda pressed her hands, sliding her palms together. The slippery friction warmed up the gooey substance.

  Amory’s eyes were wide as he stared at her with parted lips.

  When she’d come quietly into the room and realized what Amory was doing, her passion had kick-started. Revved up like some motor to an old shuttle. She’d watched his face most of all as it lit up with his desire.

  A desire he’d never felt before.

  He’d never come to climax. Just gotten his first erections. What a special time he was having. And she and Bren were a part of this slice of his life. The sexual awakening.

  She couldn’t wait to introduce him to all the varied joys that being with each other had to offer.

  The lube had heated within her rubbing hands.

  She lifted them over Amory’s cock, drizzling moisture down on him. Drips hit his erect cock.

  He swallowed, his throat moving capriciously. His Adam’s apple bobbed under flushed skin.

  Her hands dipped down to cover him.

  He hissed in a breath. Sounded like a rotor leaking air. Only he wasn’t getting softer with the sound. Not at all. He was getting harder.

  She rubbed the lube into his soft skin, barely grazing her hands across him. Then, she rubbed harder, lengthening her strokes across his full length.

  His head arced back into the mattress in abandon.

  One of her hands slipped underneath him to cup heavy balls. She fondled them, stroking and squeezing them. “You know you want this.” She squeezed again, taking her time letting go of the sensitive skin.

  He started to shake his head.

  She squeezed again, cupping him as firmly as she could get her hands. “You know you want this.”

  He let out a rich moan. “Yes. Yes, I do.”

  He’d admitted his passions. Yes, he could protest all he wanted. But he wanted this as much as they all did. If she’d had any doubts about him and his needs, she’d never have tied him up in the first place. All she was doing was making him confront his true desires. He’d lived in a fantasy world with Tania for so long, he’d had trouble grasping reality when it happened. This way, he’d begin to live his own life. With Bren and Zelda. The way Fate had decreed the future. Even if he didn’t stay with them, which was unthinkable, he’d begun to get to know his own being as opposed to doing things because of culture, parents, or a woman. If only Zelda could get the adherence to vows from him, but Etruscans never let go of their honor. Not time to think of that, because she’d not want to let him go after a week, and she couldn’t leave the mine. No, time to concentrate on the hard cock at hand.


  Her hands stroked along him with renewed vigor. The hand on his sacs squeezed with a motion designed to tantalize. She touched his length with firmness, going up and down. She loved the way he felt under her hands.

  Her gaze drew to his face again as his hips rocked up and down methodically in time with her touch.

  He’d closed his eyes, lashes fluttering against his cheeks. His tousled hair was tossed back across the mattress like an odd-looking planet ring. The muscles of his face drew up in pleasure. Intense pleasure always looked like agony. It was agony sometimes, waiting for the orgasm, the little death, as some long ago people had called the act.

  Only she wouldn’t let him have his climax. Not yet. That would be too quick. The fun was in prolonging the orgasm. Of course, she didn’t think that way when she was on the receiving end of this, only when she was the giver.

  His first time needed to be drawn out by her. He was so turned on, he could achieve what he needed to explode quickly, if she’d let him. She wouldn’t let him. No, she’d take her time and make him ask for his pleasure.

  She slowed her motions, softened her touch. Removed her hand from his balls. Didn’t give him the full impact of her touch.

  He opened his eyes. “What are you doing?”

  “Making it last.”

  His mouth shriveled up. “I don’t…”

  She leaned over to press a kiss against the tip of his cock, making his words die upon his lips. “Shhhhh.”

  He closed his mouth, leaning his head back with a sour look upon his face and a huff of breath.

  She’d seen that look. On her own face. Bren and she had made love under mirrors before. She’d seen her expressions and had shot Bren a look much like this one, which he’d promptly ignored, to continue drawing out her passions.

  Amory and she were more alike than she cared to admit. They both liked to be in control.

  She continued her ministrations on his cock, stroking and touching, but not quite hard enough to bring him ultimate satisfaction. She’d build his banking passions, then slide down the touch.

  He writhed back and forth on the bed. “Zelda.” Sweat coated his face and the flush had increased to a ruddy red.

  “Yes?”

  “Let me come.”

  She removed her hands. “I don’t know if it’s time yet. I want this to last.” She hovered her hands just over his body.

  “It has, dammit. Long enough.”

  She licked her lips, enjoying the show of impatience. Their taking Amory would be an all night event. One she couldn’t wait for. Moisture built up in her pussy, coating her. “Are you sure it’s been long enough? I mean I don’t want to rush you or anything.” She grinned at his murderous expression.

  He snorted, bucking his head back into the pillow like a wildebeest she’d seen once in an extinction exhibit from a planet far away. “I’m sure.”

  She sprinkled her touch over his hips, not touching anywhere long, but spreading it around. “Sit up.”

  His cock jerked and tilted toward her hand. Shiny under the lamp, his length was covered in lube and swollen. “What?”

  “Sit up.”

  He moved to sitting with her help so that his back rested against the headboard. This way they’d both be more comfortable for what she had in mind. She wanted him to enjoy this as much as he could.

  His first blowjob.

  She lowered her mouth and encased his tip into her full lips. She suckled on his end like she would a straw.

  His entire body spasmed.

  There was so much more. So much Amory had never experienced. She sucked him down into her mouth. Puckering her lips like she was going to whistle, she ran her mouth up and down his length.

  Each time he went deeper into her mouth, his hips swiveled taking him down a little more. Finally, he drove himself in as deep as she could take him without gagging. He didn’t give her time to react, but went in with unrelenting pressure.

  She opened her jaws, careful not to settle her teeth upon his length and held him there for a second, before going up and taking him down into her mouth again.

  Out of the corner of her eye around her hair, she could see his hands white knuckled, so tight was their grasp upon the sheet.

  His hips bucked up wildly. His hands left the sheet to tangle in her hair. He held her in place so she couldn’t move back but a fraction.

  So close to the edge. Soon enough he traveled over.

  His cock jerked in her mouth just before he started to spray. His orgasm hit with a force to be reckoned with.

  She could barely keep up with his spurting semen, but managed to keep from gagging as he pulsed out his pleasure.

  As the throes of his passion calmed, she withdrew him from her mouth. Swiping her tongue across her lips, she tasted sweetness. He must have eaten candy or drunk something sweet tasting. How good he tasted. She loved to get Bren to eat a hcaep, a fleshy, sweet, peachlike fruit, before she gave him oral sex so his cum could taste like it.

  “Enjoy yourself?” She ran her hand across his flat stomach, which sucked in at the touch. His skin was still sensitive after his orgasm.

  “I think you know I did.”

  She looked at the man stretched out before her. A banquet of contradictions. Ornery yet gentle. Tough yet soft. She’d spend the rest of her life getting to know him, and he’d spend that time getting to know her. Goddess knew, she was a mess of conflicts as well. Yeah, she wore the label of bitch proudly. “I know.”

  “It was incredible. I had no idea…”

  “No idea what?” She lowered her hips to sit on the bed near his feet. She stroked across them gently.

  “That sex could be like this.”

  “There’s even more. Even more than this, Amory.”

  “And Zelda and I will have fun teaching you all about it.”

  Bren’s voice had them both jerking to look at him.

  “I came in earlier, but you two were busy.” His eyebrows went up and down.

  So he’d watched them. His pants tented, testifying he’d seen enough to set off his own arousal. “Perverted voyeur.” Zelda inflected the words with humor. Things were going well. Life was finally going her way with her newest mate. This had been a start to what would hopefully develop into an ongoing relationship.

  Only she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was about to come crashing down. Like things had in the past. No, she’d protect her mates with her every cell of being.

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah. You love me that way.” Bren flopped on the bed with them. He noticed her quietness and shot her a look of concern.

  She patted his knee. No sense worrying Bren with shades of the past. That had to be all it was.

  * * * * *

  Zelda had a secret.

  Even as his minions were loading the station with unsavory characters who’d be loyal to him, Gemini had been checking on her new mate.

  After all, if he was going to exploit her distraction by having a mate, he should know all about this other man.

  Bren, he’d read enough on to know the man was unflappable and would not be turned from Zelda. This new mate was a question. Gemini was already using her distraction over having a third mate to his advantage. Could other means be explored?

  It hadn’t taken Gemini long to find out who the mate was.

  Amory.

  A man who, by all reports, had no love or like for Bren and Zelda. He’d not been friendly to them despite their continued efforts at friendship. In fact, he’d railed against them as greedy bastards to several patrons of the bar one night.

  Friendship was something they didn’t offer to just anyone. Other than business deals and threats, they didn’t have drinks and dinner with every newcomer to the station. They’d made an exception for Amory.

  They’d made overtures to him, and he’d rejected their efforts, according to several sources.

  That made him a reluctant friend.

  So where did that leave them all as mates?

  Checking h
ad netted him some more interesting information. This new mate seemed to be full of interesting facts.

  Amory had found his heartstone and immediately been ready to leave Settler’s Mine. Within an hour, he’d arranged passage and been ready to go.

  Only he hadn’t left.

  He’d stayed onboard Settler’s Mine despite having been ready to jet off a few hours earlier.

  Why?

  Had he changed his mind after he’d found out they were mates?

  Logical, but the time line didn’t make sense.

  Amory should have found out about them being mated before he’d booked the passage off the mine, because Zelda and Bren had gone to see him right after he’d found his heartstone. Several sources said Amory had booked the flight after the stones had glowed in relation to each other.

  Why leave Settler’s Mine so quickly when his mates were here, as he’d obviously been ready to do?

  Unless…

  Amory hadn’t wanted Bren and Zelda as mates.

  Further checking revealed that Amory hadn’t been seen since booking that passage. His gear and items had been on the shuttle, but he’d never shown up to leave. The shuttle and all his property remained docked.

  He’d gone into Bren and Zelda’s quarters just before he was scheduled to take off, but never left.

  What had happened to Amory once he’d gone into their quarters? Why hadn’t he left when he said he was going to?

  One conclusion made sense.

  They were holding Amory prisoner in some way in their quarters. Holding him against his will because he was their mate.

  Illogical.

  But what would Zelda do with a reluctant mate? She’d try and keep them. And Zelda wasn’t known for her niceties. Instead, she was known as a bitch who, when she wanted something, would stop at nothing to get it.

  Gemini pulled up the infrared scanners. Not much could probe into Zelda’s room. She had a com, but not much else that would monitor her personal rooms. Her rooms possessed shields as well. The infrared could penetrate and tell him how many people were in the room by detecting heat.

  Three balls of warmth polarized on the screen.

  There were three people in the room.

  Amory was in Zelda and Bren’s quarters.