by Missy Lyons
He would be bruised and battered in the morning, but he didn’t care right now. All he wanted to do was fight. His anger ruled him, and he deliberately ended the match by taking the clone’s head in between his hands and snapping the neck. The clone’s mouth opened slightly and closed like a fish out of water. Then the man’s body disintegrated, and it suddenly was as if there was no one ever there. There was no evidence that the fight took place or that Saber just spent the last half hour wrestling with a clone. No witnesses but E.V.E. and the bruises that were left as evidence.
Saber took a moment to gather his breath and his thoughts. It had helped him to use up some of the energy he felt, but it had not helped to get his mind off Lily. His mate.
He suddenly got up and left the ring. He picked up a towel and wiped away the drips of sweat on his forehead.
“So what’s up, big guy? Why aren’t you with your mate and your brother?”
“Shouldn’t have to tell you to mind your own business, E.V.E.,” he muttered with an oath.
“Well, as long as you are on this ship, you are my business, so spill it.”
Saber rolled his eyes and got himself a glass of water. “Did anyone tell you that you talk too much sometimes? I don’t feel like talking.”
“You never do when something is wrong, but this display of brute force isn’t going to solve anything,” E.V.E. reasoned.
“No? But it will make me feel better.” Saber smiled. Then he climbed back in the ring. “Let’s do this one more time.”
“You’re hopeless. Do you know that? Your mate is wondering where you are as we speak.”
Saber’s voice grew a notch deeper. “She has my brother.”
“She needs you both. So why are you acting like a hardheaded barbarian?”
“Because I can’t keep my emotions in check! When I am near her, I want her for myself, and if I see her now, it’s likely I won’t want to share,” Saber burst out suddenly in frustration. He hated losing control of himself and his emotions. He stopped himself from saying more and took a moment to calm his breathing, and then he ordered E.V.E. to give him another fight. “Do your damn job, E.V.E., and let me worry about my life.”
“No need to get your panties in a twist, warrior. I only tried to help you help yourself.”
“Fuck you and your help,” he muttered.
A vision flashed and then solidified of a man that equaled his size and weight. He felt an adrenaline rush when the clone landed his first punch, and his head torqued with the impact. Anger flooded his veins, and he tasted the iron in his blood inside his mouth.
He threw two lightning-fast punches. The first one was easily blocked, but the second landed squarely on the other man’s jaw.
Saber was rewarded with a satisfied crunch beneath his knuckles, and the battle was on. Most of the hits the clone landed were from laziness on Saber’s part to not bother with defense. The clone landed him in a scissor lock, and he was incapacitated for a few seconds.
He escaped but was more careful when he wrestled the clone beneath him and began to mercilessly beat the man, landing repeated blows to the head with his rock hard fists. Then when the man didn’t move, he finally got up and had the oddest feeling. It was as if someone was watching him. Eyes bore into the back of his head. He turned to see if he was imagining it and saw Lily standing there. Her mouth was slightly open, probably in shock to see the cruelty he was capable of. Her beautiful, red hair was cascading all around her shoulders. Her emerald-green eyes flashed with sympathy and got wide.
“Did you kill him?” she asked incredulously.
“He was never alive. It’s a clone.” Saber kicked the body before it flashed a few times and eventually pixilated and disappeared, leaving no trace of its existence.
Lily looked as if she didn’t quite believe him, but the hard lines on her face softened when the body disappeared.
“I think it’s going to take me a while to get used to your technology. He looked so real.”
“Clone’s eyes are the real giveaway. They don’t speak and don’t have a personality like we do. They are not programmed to be intelligent life-forms. They are just used for things people don’t want to do themselves. E.V.E. is a clone. Her operating system is the top of the line. Most the time she is used in the ship, but she has a shell that can be used outside of the ship with a bio-engineered skin that looks exactly like you or me. It comes in handy sometimes.”
“Do you use her to fight you?”
“E.V.E. is an Essential Needs, Voice, and Entertainment Unit. She can be used for all sorts of things, but I felt like sparring, and there is no one else I can get sexual release from now that you are near.” Saber shrugged and exited the ring. “My brother and I sometimes spar, and I might have asked him to fight…but he was otherwise being entertained.”
She blushed furiously and looked away from his eyes, but he liked the way the pink crept down her throat and toward her breasts. The red dress was very appealing on her rich curves. It was the same dress that ladies of nobility wore on his home planet to show their status as mated women. He would have to share his approval with E.V.E. later. He didn’t want to do anything to distract him from Lily at the moment.
“Where is my brother, by the way?” He picked up the towel casually and wiped his face again.
“Oh, yeah, he said he had to check on the prisoner, but he really didn’t want me to come. So, I thought I would find you.”
“But you didn’t expect to find me here.”
“No.”
“On my planet, men make our place in the world by proving our ability to fight. My brother and I are both warriors. We enjoy fighting. We also enjoy fucking.”
She took a step toward him, and he froze. He didn’t want to startle her. Her soft voice trembled, betraying her true feelings. She was afraid of him. “Do you kill men?”
“I try not to, but in a battle, sometimes it is necessary. They’d kill me if I let down my guard.” He hardened himself. It was best she know all about him, even the darker parts.
She frowned at the answer but didn’t run away screaming. She confused him further by coming another step closer. “I guess if you were a killer, you wouldn’t have brought Girvan back as your prisoner.”
“I don’t kill for the pleasure of killing, Lily.”
She straightened and reached out to touch his hardened flesh. Her soft fingers traced the contours of his muscles. “But you could.”
“Only if I needed to.” He caught her wrist in his hands, stopping the torture of her sweet touch. She needed to understand what and who he was wouldn’t change and how very much he needed her in his life. “I would kill to protect you. I would kill to have you in my bed. I would kill if I couldn’t keep you there.”
A smile tugged at her lips, and she pressed her body closer to his. “But, Saber, you don’t have to kill to have that. I am already yours.”
He folded his arms around her and tasted her lips. The kiss was gentle at first, but the passion it raised in his blood soon swept him away, and his body made demands on hers that she yield to him. She opened to him, and when his tongue dove in, she tasted of honey and sex.
“You bewitch me, woman. I would fight my own brother to have you in my bed.”
“I don’t like seeing you fight.”
“You’re worth everything to me. To us. I can’t help myself.”
Her body melted against him, and he let loose a groan. He could not imagine he would ever stop wanting this woman. He needed her as much as he needed food and water or the very air he breathed.
She sucked his bottom lip and withdrew from the kiss, driving him crazy. She whimpered, “I feel like such a slut. I’ve just fucked Ryder, but I want you, Saber. All I want around either of you is to be fucked. Please fuck me now.”
“You are my mate. It is right you should want me.” He wanted her to need him as much as he already needed her. His fingers explored her body, coming back up slowly to thread through her hair and hold her lips
to his. He couldn’t get close enough to her, without being inside of her. She was just as turned on as he was. He didn’t understand the term slut she used, but he felt it was derogatory the way it came out of her mouth. She had to understand that this was not only normal but expected to share between mates.
He was wrong for being jealous. He knew it could hurt the new relationship, but it was hard not to express his baser emotions when she was near. He wanted to keep her all to himself as much as he knew Ryder needed her, too.
Passion exploded as she ground her hips against his. His cock was hard as stone, and his dick ached to join with her and pulsed with life. He growled when she climbed up him and wrapped her legs around his waist, keeping his sex just where she wanted it, between her legs.
He set her on a nearby table and hiked her skirts high. He slipped a hand between her thighs and pressed them further apart. When he touched the apex of her sex, she was still wet between her legs from her encounter with his twin brother, Ryder.
Her dark lashes fanned her cheeks and cloaked the emotions so easily read in her emerald-green eyes. Saber landed kisses on her lips and lower on her neck. She answered him with kisses of her own, and she nipped and bit his skin. Remembering what she could do with that mouth on his cock made him want her more.
He released his cock from the restraints of his pants and pressed it into her waiting pussy. Her wet heat enveloped him and tightened around his cock. She moaned, and he laughed as he drove into her.
“I can’t believe I want to fuck you so much. I never wanted anything like this before. It’s like I can’t sleep, can’t think of anything but the next time you will sink your cock inside of me.” She reached for him, trying to pull him closer to her. He could feel the hardened tips of her nipples pressing through the red, gauzy material of her dress.
A sizzle of electricity fanned the flames of his passion. She rocked under him, and he repeatedly drove into her. Relentless in his pursuit to conquer her body.
It wasn’t her fertile time, and he knew he should be saving his seed, but he couldn’t stand the thought of waiting another minute to claim her. He wanted to keep her close to him, and it scared him a little to realize he would do anything to keep her there by his side and in his bed.
He could kill for Lily.
“Mine,” he growled, pressing his cock deep inside of her.
“Yours,” she agreed, slightly breathless. Her wet heat enveloped him, milking him.
She smelled of sin and pure seduction. He pressed his nose against her clean hair, and a wildflower scent lingered there. He closed his eyes against the sensations that threatened to overtake his control.
She did that to him. His self-control was always at risk with her around. Every time he saw her in a room, he wanted to act the part of a barbarian and throw her over his shoulder and fuck her so many times that his brand imprinted on her permanent memory.
“Oh, Saber, I can’t stop it. I am going to come!” Her body shivered, and he recognized the signs. She resisted her passion.
“I want you to come for me. I love watching the way you squeeze your eyes closed and the sounds you make. It’s intoxicating to watch you experience that joy.”
“I love you so much, Saber. Please just don’t stop fucking me.” Short, jagged breaths ripped from her chest. Her body rocked against his caught up in a fiery tempest. “Harder, baby. Please!”
He didn’t think it was possible, but his cock hardened when she said those husky words. Her moist heat made it easy to slide in and out of her pussy as he fucked her. She moaned as he repeatedly drove home. She whimpered when he grew another inch and touched her innermost core. She was on the edge of release and only needed a gentle shove over the edge. He invited her to let go in a gentle voice. “Come for me, baby.”
He stroked her hair and fucked her a few more times before inserting a hand between their bodies and stroking her clit, ensuring she would let go and release herself to the powerful orgasm.
Her body clenched tightly around his dick, milking him for all it was worth.
“Mine!” Saber yelled the words as her body clamped around his dick. He couldn’t stop his own orgasm from coming. He saw red as he pushed deep inside her velvet folds before unloading his hot seed inside of her. His body was awash in pleasure.
He tensed for a moment as he let the waves of pleasure roll over their bodies, locked in a lover’s embrace. He should have known better than to try and think he could stay away from her. He kissed her gently on the cheek and then the nose and last her forehead. Fucking her had been the only true release from his lust. He could try to ignore it and try to use another outlet like fighting, but only in her arms could he lose himself completely.
Finally content and sated, he closed his eyes and lazily drew circles on her flesh.
Sex with Lily was dangerous. Not because of any physical harm she could cause him, but he was addicted to her. He could lose himself in her arms, and he knew he would do anything to keep her there.
His dick pulsed deep inside her, and she gasped. “So soon?”
He rocked inside her, and she moaned into his neck. Her hips convulsed against him once more.
He chuckled. “It’s hard to stop with you. That is the way it is with mates. Our pheromones make us slaves to our desires, and when our mate is near, it is hard to think of anything else.”
“You mean it’s my smell that makes you want to fuck me?” She didn’t sound as amused, suddenly.
“Combined with your body.” He withdrew to stare deeply me into her eyes, but his hips had begun to steadily rock against hers, sinking his cock deep inside of her pussy, then withdrawing only to do it again. “I am a slave to your seduction, woman.”
It was her turn to laugh, but her eyes sparkled dangerously full of lust. She said in a husky voice, “Then fuck me like you mean it, slave boy.”
* * * *
Time passed far too quickly for Lily.
The closer their ship got to Saber and Ryder’s home planet, the more nervous she got about meeting their family and fitting into her new world. They would be making a stop at the prison planet first, but all she could think about was what would happen once she arrived on Cimera.
They would no longer be in the cocoon of the spaceship and alone. The world would be watching them. Watching her.
While both of her lovers spent their time trying to ease her fears, she still couldn’t help being nervous about the unknown. What if she did something to insult their family? What if she wasn’t accepted by their siblings or their mother? What if she never found another woman to become friends with?
It didn’t help that everything she ever knew in her short life was something she gave up to be with her two lovers. While she had no desire to go back to Earth because it would mean leaving her lovers, she still had fears that haunted every second of her waking days.
Fears she couldn’t let go until she knew otherwise.
Saber sat next to her at a table of sorts in the captain’s bridge. The ship was usually flown from here, and while E.V.E. had it covered on autopilot most the time, they still came up here frequently to look at the progress and other things. They had to take a small detour around a meteor field, but for the most part they were making excellent progress.
“My mother can’t wait to meet you.” Her stomach turned over at his words.
“What? When did you talk to your mother? How does she already know about me?” Her hands worked nervously in her lap.
“The first day you were aboard our ship she knew you would be coming home with us.” His large hand covered her forearm while his thumb caressed her skin.
“Do you think she will like me?”
“She won’t just like you. She will love you because you are the other halves of our heart.” Of course he would try to reassure her.
She smiled weakly. “Of course, I am worried for nothing.”
“You haven’t eaten anything all morning. Aren’t you hungry?”
“No,
I have a little upset tummy this morning.” She put her hand over her stomach protectively. Her body had been feeling…different for a little while. Although she attributed her sensitive breasts to the increased amount of lovemaking she participated in, she was beginning to wonder if it wasn’t something more.
He frowned at her. “My mother may accuse us of not taking care of you if you don’t eat some more.”
“It’s okay. I am not hungry.” She had nothing to eat all morning but took a glass of sweet iced tea to drink and to help settle her stomach. It rumbled loudly enough for Saber to hear it and declare her words a lie.
“You are hungry.” He grinned and offered her a bite of breakfast sausage he had on his plate. He had a mass of food that she didn’t recognize but guessed must be from his home planet. It was lined with sliced fruit that she didn’t recognize but looked yummy.
“No,” she said, smoothly putting her hands out defensively.
“Just one bite. You need to keep up your strength if you want to carry our baby.” He used the fork, picked up a bite of sausage, and held it close to her mouth.
Lily leaned in close and opened her mouth. He gracefully slipped the food inside, and she closed her mouth. He looked satisfied when she chewed. It didn’t taste like any sausage she had ever tasted. It wasn’t the pork she expected but something from his home world.
The taste was different, and she would say gamey, but she managed to swallow and reached out for her tea to follow it down. She just hoped it would stay down.
“What was that?”
“Trogger,” he answered simply. She had seen the large creatures in pictures they had shared of his home planet. The creatures were quite ugly and quite big. They were used as pack animals and beasts of burden, and their thick reptilian skin protected them from the fierce sun in desertlike conditions.
Her eyes flared wide. “You fed me trogger? I hope it was synthesized.”
“No. That’s the real deal. I had a small stockpile we kept on board.”
