by Rachel Clark
She wondered if they’d taste the same, too.
Before he could protest, she lowered her mouth over the flared head and took him deep into her throat, running her tongue over the thick vein. He groaned a sound of agony but tangled his fingers in her hair and massaged lightly.
“Oh, Bae, that feels so amazing.” She grinned at the compliment—and the affectionate shortening of her name—and then sucked hard against the length in her mouth, her fist still working the base, her other hand brushing against his balls. “Honey, Bae, honey,” he said breathlessly as she moved faster, sucked harder.
Devlin’s hands fisted in her hair, the movement seeming involuntary as his hips lifted and his cock pushed deeper into her throat. G’baena’s heart raced, her arousal ratcheting higher as her lover groaned and gave over his control. She loved the taste of the first warm strand that hit her tongue and greedily wanted more. She sucked hard and swallowed as stream after stream of salty flavored cum coated her tongue and slid down her throat.
By the time she let his cock slip from her mouth, they both lay limp on the floor. G’baena wondered if she ever really wanted to move again but smiled when Devlin’s cock lengthened from her small caresses and he tangled his fingers in her hair.
She winced at the small sting as he encouraged her to slide up his body. He smiled before kissing her gently, deepening the kiss as he groaned loudly. She tried to climb onto him, to straddle his hips, but he held her still.
“We can’t,” he groaned loudly. “Lord knows I want to, but we can’t.” She made a quiet mewl of protest, ready to argue again for what she wanted, but closed her mouth as he explained his reasons. “We need to speak to Tee-ani first. I don’t know anything about G’trobian-Human sexual interaction.”
G’baena tried to sit up, shaking her head in denial even as a small part of her brain registered the sanity of seeking advice first.
“Bae, let me do this. Let me protect you until we know for sure. Honey, I don’t want to hurt you, ever, and I’d rather be certain of the possible consequences before we do anything stupid.”
She could feel his fear for her well-being. It wrapped around her heart and mind like a warm caress. Everything about this man claimed her trust. “Can we visit Tee-ani now?” She smiled at the eagerness in her voice but couldn’t contain the giggle as he leaned over to press a kiss to the tip of her nose.
He began to nod, but before he could answer, his communicator chirped. He smiled apologetically and rolled towards his clothes to grab the small device. “Yes, Captain,” he said quietly.
“Dev, Ben, and Trey are finished. You can take G’baena to visit as soon as you’re ready.”
“Yes, Captain,” he said again as he grabbed his clothes and pulled his pants over his feet. “We’ll be there shortly.”
G’baena pushed herself into a sitting position and reached over to snatch her own clothes. She pulled them into her lap but was distracted by Devlin’s muscular body as he dragged his shirt over his head. Somehow, she forgot to breathe.
“Bae?” Devlin asked, concern lacing his voice. “Everything okay?”
“Just wondering,” she said vaguely, trying not to throw herself at the man in front of her. He smiled and waited for her to elaborate. “Just wondering what ‘honey’ means.”
He pulled her into his arms and kissed her softly.
“Now that one I can explain,” he said as he grabbed her hand and led her out the door.
* * * *
Kam sat in his small cell pondering the changes in his life in the last cycle and trying to ignore the sexually charged emotions he sensed from G'baena. Not only had everything changed in a physical sense, but his beliefs and ideals were being roughly shaken as well. G’baena owed him nothing. He’d failed her no matter which way he looked at it.
Even now, he could sense her happiness in the human’s arms, and a part of him rejoiced in her pleasure at the same time that a strange possessiveness seized him. Even when he’d realized that he’d developed much deeper emotions for her than any other female he and his brother had trained over the years, he hadn’t actually felt possessive.
Was it because the man was human? Kam didn’t think so but refused to rule out the possibility. He did, after all, come from a race of beings who considered themselves superior to most. To grow up in such an environment would undoubtedly color his view of other peoples, but he really didn’t think his emotions were so easily explained.
He held his breath as he felt G’baena’s climax sweep through her. Then he sensed her contented sigh and thought he had an idea of what she was doing to be so excited again so quickly. He closed his eyes and imagined it was him she lavished with her attention. It was torture and delight rolled into complex, overwhelming emotions, and he nearly lost control when he sensed the human’s orgasm as well.
Fuck.
He slammed the barriers in his mind into place, blocking the tidal wave of emotion. Goddess, he’d never felt anything like it—except with his brother. How the fuck did he end up being able to sense the human’s emotions as clearly as he sensed G’baena’s?
He was still trying to get a grip on the maelstrom of thoughts when he sensed both G’baena and her human enter the cell block. Trying to school his features and hide his emotional turmoil, Kam lowered his head and closed his eyes. He still felt everything she felt, but now, he could also sense her hesitation as she entered the cell.
“Kam?” she asked quietly. “Are you all right?”
It stung to realize that she was shoving aside her own emotions to concentrate on his. Goddess, did she truly care for him, or was that just conditioned behavior? He felt sick to his stomach that everything he and Ky had taught this young woman—all of the young women they’d trained—meant she’d ignore her own needs and concentrate only on the men in her life.
“I am sorry,” he said, his breath catching as she stepped closer and began to kneel. He felt her hesitation, and the human’s anger, and quickly reached for G’baena’s hand so that he could pull her to sit on the bench beside him.
“Why?” she asked, sounding confused. It didn’t help that her emotions had taken on a complexity that he was having trouble deciphering. Like many of the humans on this ship, she seemed to have many emotions competing for supremacy. Life had seemed so much simpler on G’trobia.
“I am sorry for attacking your ship. I am sorry for letting you get hurt.” He took a deep, faltering breath. “I am sorry for training you to be a mindless, obedient, subservient woman. I am very sorry for so many things I cannot begin to make up to you.”
She laughed quietly, the sound so sweet he could barely breathe. He finally looked into her eyes and saw genuine happiness. She gifted him with a smile and a small touch on his hand, and then her demeanor grew serious.
“Kam, you didn’t let me get hurt. My fathers did. It was their responsibility to keep me safe, their choice to sell me into slavery, not yours. You couldn’t have stopped them even if you’d known.” She leaned over and cupped his cheek in much the same way he remembered touching her on the first day of her training. “And you didn’t train me to be mindless or subservient. You taught me the joy of providing for my husbands, just as they should have provided for me.”
“If I had known about Ben and Trey—” he began, but she cut him off.
“You would not have been able to stop anything. What happened to me is not your fault.” He wanted to argue but saw no fairness in burdening her with his guilt. He nodded and almost heard the next question before she said it. What he didn’t expect was for her to be so direct. “How did he die?”
He swallowed hard, the usual pat answer seeming insufficient for the woman who’d meant so much to his brother. “Ky died in a vehicle collision but—”
She waited as he tried to find the words.
“But you don’t believe it was an accident,” she finished for him.
“No, I do not.” He expected to see sympathy, even pity, for what he believed, so she surpr
ised him again when she nodded in agreement.
“Tell me everything.”
* * * *
As the conversation between G’baena and Kam continued, Devlin stood back and took the opportunity to study their body language. Something he’d noticed a while ago was that G’trobians, being a race of empaths, never seemed to try to hide their body language. He’d actually refused to go on missions with Ben and Trey when they first joined the crew simply because he could read their intentions very clearly by their body language. Fortunately, Ben and Trey had been quick to learn how to hide it. Absently, he wondered how long it would take Kam and G’baena to adapt.
He glanced around the holding cells. Kam’s shipmates all watched the reunion with interest—a little too much interest for Devlin’s liking, and he found himself wondering how long was an appropriate amount of time to let these two catch up. After all, they hadn’t yet established that the displaced sons of G’trobia weren’t a danger to the ship. Where the hell was G’ntriel?
As if he’d conjured them with his thoughts, G’ntriel and her husband, Judge, stepped into the small area. Judge grinned at him, the type of shit-eating grin that suggested he knew something Devlin didn’t. Considering that G’ntriel seemed to know just about everything about everything, it was likely true.
G’ntriel smiled at him as she moved to the other cells and spoke quietly to each of the prisoners. She nodded to Judge, and he moved to turn off the electronic force fields.
“Gentlemen, welcome aboard. We will assign living quarters to each of you shortly. In the meanwhile, if you follow my darling husband,” she said, smiling at the big man, “he will show you where we serve the food.”
G’baena looked quite relieved and a little excited, but Kam was looking directly at Devlin. He tried not to fidget under the other man’s scrutiny as G’baena moved to stand at Devlin’s side.
“Will you join us for a meal?” she asked quietly. Devlin tried to control the pain that lanced through him. She’d said us, as in her and Kam, not us as in her and the man whose cock she was sucking on less than an hour ago.
Kam stepped forward, and Devlin’s fingers itched to close into fists. One wrong word from this asshole and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to control the urge to pound the displaced son of a bitch into the deck plating.
“I would be honored to join you two for a meal. I hope that I am not interrupting.” Almost floored by Kam’s acknowledgement and reversal of G’baena’s words, Devlin found himself nodding in confusion. Kam gave him a small smile and then indicated that he would follow. Devlin reached for G’baena’s hand, her familiar warmth sliding over his cold fingers.
Chapter Eight
Kam followed the couple into the food hall. He kept a respectful distance even as he tried to understand not only Devlin’s confused emotions but his own as well. Somewhere in the middle of all the perplexity of the past few hours, Kam had realized that Devlin was the man G’baena had chosen. She’d been given a chance to choose her mate, and she’d chosen someone about as opposite to a G’trobian male that she could get.
Even remembering how much Ky had loved G’baena didn’t lessen the need to give her what she wanted. What she wanted was Devlin, and there was no way Kam was going to get in the way of that—no matter how much it pained him to do so.
G’baena turned with a frown on her face, and he realized that she’d been trying to read his tightly hidden emotions. At least he hoped they were tightly hidden. Devlin led the way to a small table, making sure that G’baena was seated and comfortable before asking her what food she wanted. She smiled happily, gave him her order, and then turned her attention to Kam.
Uncomfortable with the idea of sitting with G’baena while Devlin fetched food, and unsure whether he was supposed to follow Devlin and get his own food, Kam hovered near his seat, uncertain whether to sit down or not. Fortunately, Devlin seemed to read his predicament and tilted his head in a silent order to follow him.
Kam did as he was told.
The others had grabbed trays and now stood waiting their turn for food to be served to them. Devlin and Kam joined the queue.
“You hurt her, we’ll have words. Understand?” Unsure what these words would encompass and fairly certain that words wouldn’t actually be involved, Kam nodded in acknowledgement.
“I have no intention of hurting her, I promise you that. She deserves to be happy, and she can have that with you. I am just a displaced son, a dead man on my planet. I have nothing of value to offer her.”
Devlin’s laugh was a little too strained to be completely natural, but Kam felt the relief and maybe a touch of pity in Devlin’s emotions.
“Today,” Devlin said, smiling, “you are a pirate, not a dead man. Welcome aboard.” Stunned by the unexpected acceptance, Kam turned to the food display, uncertain how to react to such a genuine welcome.
* * * *
G’baena sat at the small table watching the two men interact. They were practically opposites, but she couldn’t help wondering if on some level they may one day find common ground. She felt her face twist into an ironic grin when she acknowledged that a part of her wanted her to be their common ground.
Kam and Ky had been the only enjoyable, positive experience in an otherwise miserable life, until Tee-ani had come to her rescue. The more G’baena interacted with people, G’trobian and otherwise, the more she realized that her fathers were as far from model parents as they could get. They should’ve been the ones to protect her, not the ones to terrorize her.
Fear for her mother and sisters pounded at the base of her skull, and she tried to pull the emotion back by reminding herself that they were closer to G’trobia with every moment.
Devlin and Kam returned to the table, laden with quite a few different types of food. Kam looked a little shell-shocked by the wide selection, and G’baena had trouble hiding the laugh that threatened to escape. G’trobian life, by human standards, was very regimented and predictable. G’trobian cuisine was rather limited, and the myriad dishes enjoyed by humans was quite overwhelming.
As they settled to eat, Devlin and G’baena started talking about the various dishes, and she glanced up to see the stunned expression on Kam’s face.
“Something wrong?” Devlin asked with maybe a hint of suspicion.
“No,” Kam said, shaking his head slowly. “No, I mean, G’trobians never speak during meals. I guess living as a pirate will take some getting used to.”
“What did you do on board your vessel? What was your function?”
Kam looked a little embarrassed as he seemed to search for an answer. “Not much, really,” he replied. “I’m not a pilot or engineer, so my skills are few. Mainly, I led the raids when we boarded a ship. Turns out I’m not such a bad shot with a stun gun, but other than that, I’m fairly useless.”
G’baena could feel Devlin’s emotions and found herself giving more of her heart to the man. Instead of being concerned that Kam may be a rival for her affections, Devlin was busy planning, most likely figuring out where Kam’s skills would be best put to use. He confirmed his unselfish thoughts by saying, “Plenty of people on board can teach you what you need to know. Do you have any particular idea of what you’d like to do?”
Kam shook his head slightly, a small smile crossing his features. “No preference. I just don’t want to feel useless.”
“Never going to happen around here,” Devlin said around a mouthful of food. “Always plenty of stuff needing to be done.”
G’baena smiled as the men relaxed. Incredibly, her affection for them both skyrocketed even higher. Somehow, Devlin had managed to let go of his anger and offer Kam an opportunity, and Kam had managed to overcome his upbringing and accept that things were different here.
She was actually starting to relax and enjoy the meal when she felt Del’s outrage from the doorway. He flashed her an angry look, turned sharply, and left the dining room. G’baena was on her feet in an instant, managing to startle both men at her table.
“I need to speak to Del,” she said quickly, her concern for the young man overriding everything else.
“I’ll come with you,” Devlin said as he dropped his utensils and went to stand up. G’baena placed her hand on his shoulder.
“No, stay. I need to speak to him alone.”
She hurried out the door, determined to repair her friendship with Del.
* * * *
Devlin laughed at the stunned look on the other man’s face. Obviously he’d never heard a woman give an order before.
“You’ll get used to it,” he said to his companion. “This ship is full of headstrong women who like to give orders. G’baena seems to be a quick study.”
“Indeed,” Kam mumbled. “How do you keep them safe if they will not listen?”
Devlin had often asked himself the same question, and he was sure Ben, Trey, and Jordan asked themselves the same on an hourly basis. Tee-ani and Sarah were two of the most independent, forthright, determined women he’d ever met, and were prone to doing the exact opposite of what their husbands believed to be safe. But both Sarah and Tee-ani had proven their abilities time and time again. One day, G’baena would get the same opportunity. Devlin just hoped it was a long, long way away.
He swallowed heavily as he realized that day may be much closer than he’d hoped.
“Tell me about Ky,” he said to Kam as an awful suspicion connected in his head. “You don’t believe his death was an accident. Why?”
It was obviously hard for Kam to talk about his brother, but Devlin waited patiently for him to gather his thoughts.
“He died in an area that he had no reason to visit, in a vehicle that should’ve had active safety devices to keep it on the road. The investigator even suggested possible suicide. My brother was not suicidal. I knew he was upset by G’baena’s supposed death, we both were, but he never would’ve left me alone intentionally. We both knew what happens to displaced sons on our planet. He wouldn’t have done that to me.”
