“No, sir. It’s probably best if you don’t know what it is that we’re up to,” I said.
Stayton said, “She’s right. It would be best for all involved if you were to have plausible deniability.”
Raising his eyebrows, he stepped back inside of the lift. “I’m here if you need me,” he said as the doors closed.
I rummaged around until I found the giftwrapped boxes. The dining table slowly became covered.
“We have to unwrap them all?” Tyler asked.
Cedrenus shoved a gift bag against his chest. “Be a man and unwrap your dicks like the rest of us.”
Stayton said, “I think it would be more visually appealing to group them by color. The yellow ones would pop out more against the garland.”
“I agree,” Binder said, “but what about alternating with another color?”
“Sounds good. It shouldn’t be too much of a match. I think we’re going for more of an eclectic look.” Stayton met his eyes, and the two of them laughed.
“Okay, men, we’ve made our plans for infiltrating the ship, but now here comes the hard part.” Clark wiggled his eyebrows, and we all laughed. “This is a general floorplan for a Militia captain’s quarters. Who is decorating what?”
After our plans were finalized, we practiced decorating in my room twice. Then, we suited up, packed our decorations and dildoes, and donned our displacement shielding.
The worst part of our plan was all of the walking. If we were to use a transport or take seats on a roller, we’d surely be detected. There were too many of us for that. Therefore, we were doing what Phillip would argue was good for me anyway, walking. At least, the Constantine wasn’t docked too terribly far away. We had activated our visual displacement shielding before leaving the Empress. Now, as we walked toward our destination, I saw that my ship and Cormac’s weren’t the only two Parvac ships at the land port. Another had joined us. I hoped the captain of it wouldn’t draw any attention to us and ruin my revenge. Putting those thoughts aside, I concentrated on our objective.
Thunderdrop was riding on my back. While onboard my ship, we’d changed into plain black soldiers’ uniforms and body armor. No one wanted to sustain a life-threatening injury over a prank. The guys had our decorations and adhesives carefully wrapped and stowed in backpacks so that nothing would clank together and give us away. No one could see us as we passed like ghosts across the land port. The Laconians couldn’t sense us either thanks to the neural blockers we were wearing.
The closer we got, the harder it was for me to control my emotions. I was feeling a mix of excitement, fear, and doubt. Taking a deep breath, I calmed myself by thinking of my forest and what a bitch Espanoza had been to me. Then, before I knew it, we were at the Constantine’s berth. Huddled together off to the side of a cargo hold ramp, we waited and then fell in beside a heavily-laden cart of foodstuffs. I looked twice at a crate of cookies on it but didn’t allow it to distract me. I could bake my own damn cookies. I had a point to prove.
None of us made a sound. We had agreed to complete silence until our mission was complete and we were back aboard my ship. I kept behind Clark, like my team had requested of me. We could see each other through the visors on our helmets with one exception. Poor Thunderdrop couldn’t see us at all, but he could feel me beneath his claws. His only job was to take me out of harm’s way if I were threatened, and he’d already prepared for it by creating a sticky harness around my upper body.
Protected by body armor as we were and doubtful of anyone using a blaster cannon on us, I wasn’t too concerned. However, I did have my babies to protect and wouldn’t do anything to risk any harm coming to them. I’d lower my visual displacement shielding and surrender for them if I had to, and screw my pride. I forced my worries away and stopped when Clark held up his arm and made a fist. Surely, they wouldn’t shoot us if we were discovered. We weren’t even armed. We hadn’t brought any weapons along unless the dicks counted. I held my lips between my teeth and tried not to laugh about being bludgeoned to death by a dick.
We were onboard, and no alert had sounded. So far, so good. A service lift opened releasing a crewman. Clark motioned us forward. Thankfully, it was a large lift, but I worried about being discovered if someone entered with a cart. We rode the lift all of the way up to the kitchens on the command deck. From there, it got dicey.
Ross almost got hit in the helmet with a cold storage unit door which would have given us away instantly. I held my breath. Even with all of our planning and our lack of weapons, we could get into some serious trouble if we got caught being on a Galaxic Militia starship without permission. They could accuse us of espionage. My armpits started to sweat. Clark motioned us forward. We had to weave our way around the sous-chef who was on duty.
We were almost there. Stayton and Levi left us to scout ahead. Most of the crew enjoyed shore leave, but Captain Espanoza was on her bridge. I was glad she was on duty and not her first officer. I didn’t want an innocent person getting marks on his or her record because of our prank. The Captain could chew herself out for her lapse in security and then go fuck herself with a pink, sparkly dildo. Childish my ass.
My lower back spasmed and made me tense up. Espionage-like activities were harder when pregnant. Levi and Stayton motioned us forward and set up a projector imaging screen in the corridor to hide the door to the Captain’s quarters. If anyone looked our way, they would see nothing out of the ordinary. Quickly, we walked along the corridor and entered her quarters. I couldn’t recall a time when I’d ever been so relieved. I hadn’t planned on how to open her door had it been locked. I suppose we could have decorated a common area with dicks, but it wouldn’t have sent the same message and would have been far more problematic. All of us made it inside, and Levi quickly closed the door.
Now, time was our concern. We needed to decorate and get out before our projector was discovered. Each of us knew our assigned tasks. Cedrenus and Tyler secured the garland adorned with dicks to the wall behind her bed. I narrowed my eyes at her girly bedding with its frilled bed skirt and excessive use of decorative pillows and thought we might have a case of the pot calling the kettle black. I left the sparkly pink dildo and card I’d written on the center of her bed. Then, I took my backpack full of dicks into her bathroom.
Levi and Binder were decorating her sitting area while Stayton and Ross placed dicks on top of her storage unit. Clark signaled to us that it was time to go. I had one dick left and a patch of double-sided adhesive in my hand. Clark made sure it was clear and motioned us out. He grabbed our projector and deactivated it once we had closed the door behind us. Silently, we walked along the corridor and past the bridge.
Her back was turned. She was working on a report at another station. My vision narrowed in on her command chair, and before I could stop myself, I was gliding forward. Clark didn’t even have time to stop me. I knew it was rash, but I couldn’t resist. I stuck the dick to her command chair and scurried off the bridge and into the kitchens where my team waited.
We went straight into the open lift that a crewman with a cart of empty crates had just entered. He didn’t even notice. My fancy artificial heart thrummed in my chest. My nerves were making my stomach roll around, but we made it out of the lift and into the cargo hold. Moments later, we were out of the ship, all without having been detected. Clark took my hand, and together we all hurried back to the Empress.
Once we were aboard, we deactivated our visual displacement shielding, removed our helmets, and laughed our asses off all of the way to the Infirmary.
“I take it your mission was successful?” Dr. Savelli asked.
“Yes, sir,” I said cheerfully and with a big smile on my face. I sat on an exam bed and waited while he removed my neural blocker.
My Chief Medical Officer was in his early forties, had brown hair, brown eyes which were flecked with gold, and a very muscular and attractive physique. “Are you leaving right away?” He was looking over my medical scans and didn’t seem pleased.<
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Taking the hint, I said, “I think I’ll rest for a little while before we return home.”
“Good. You should also have something to eat. Your blood sugar is low.”
After Dr, Savelli had removed Clark’s neural blocker, I said, “Come on, Gravy. I could use some help changing.”
We entered the lift and went up to the Imperial Deck. Assured that I was now completely out of danger, Thunderdrop crawled around me removing his strands of silk, balled them up into a sticky mess, and left it in my hand before walking away to play with a toy transport. I took the glob to the waste unit. Clark followed me.
Turning to him, I admitted, “That was a stressful prank, I could use a shower. Will you join me?” Bending, I removed my boots and put them in the closet. Then, I sighed in pleasure at the luxurious feeling of soft carpet as my toes sank into it.
Clark sat on a black and purple chair to remove his boots. “I couldn’t believe it when you adhered a dick to her command chair.”
I shrugged. “She started it.”
“I know she did. I hope our prank has the desired effect, and she backs off. I know I said I’d fight your battles for you, but this situation is out of the ordinary. If Espanoza were a male, I’d challenge him to hand-to-hand combat over his treatment of you. However, after the time I fought you in the ring, I vowed never again to make the mistake of raising a hand, even in sparring, to a female. It made me feel dirty.”
“The last mission you went on must have left you feeling far worse,” I whispered sympathetically.
Meeting my eyes, he said, “No, it didn’t. The mission was duty. Sparring with you was unfair. It was reprehensible and cruel. I was doing to you then what Espanoza does to you now, trying to put you in your place. It was wrong of me, and it is wrong of her. Your place is wherever you wish it to be.”
I let my uniform fall piece by piece, crooked my finger at him, turned, and went to shower. I closed my eyes and savored the spray of water against my flesh. Then, I felt additional warmth against my back as he joined me. The tender fragility which had been so irresistible during the formation of our bond was a faint feeling now deep within his soul. Closest to me now was a possessiveness and a protectiveness. The feelings rose up within him like steam, but he moved his hands over my body with a gentleness that was almost worshipful.
“I love you, Teagan.” He suddenly stopped roaming my flesh with his needy fingers and felt closed off from me.
Turning to face him, I asked, “What’s wrong?”
He seemed to silently debate with himself whether or not to tell me.
“Clark?”
“Never a moment goes by that I don’t want to be with you.”
“But?”
“I want to make love to you in your bed, not the shower. I don’t want to rush.” His feelings were worried. He was afraid of offending me and not being with me at all.
“Is that it?” There had to be something else which troubled him.
“If you don’t want to….”
“I want to.”
He confessed, “It seems like it is often hurried between us, not that….”
“Clark, it’s okay. I’m not upset. It’s okay to tell me what you need and want.” I shut off the water and handed him a towel.
“What I want is to please you. I want to remain a part of your household.”
“You do please me, and you are a part of my household. Clark, I love you, too. Can’t you feel it? Can’t you feel my love for you along our bond?”
“I can, but it is difficult to believe. The attraction between us was physical at first.”
“Oh, I recall.” Smiling, I sniffed his chest in an attempt to get him to relax and laugh. I wrapped a towel around myself and led him into the bedroom. Guiding him over to the bed, I encouraged him to sit on the edge. I stood between his legs and placed my hands on his shoulders. They were hard with muscles. Kaoti had made him do hundreds of push-ups each day while we were on Epopeus.
As if worried about what I might say, he was staring at the wall where my painting from Thalassa was hung. “I want to make love to you there on a blanket on the beach beneath the shade of a tree with the waves crashing against the shore.”
“Do I have to wait that long?” I ran my fingers through his short damp hair. He smelled like soap and warm man. His scent was an aphrodisiac. It hadn’t been the gravy. It had been his pheromones affecting me, but he’d be stuck with the nickname forever.
Grinning, he said, “No, you don’t have to wait.” He reached up, held my hips, and gazed into my eyes. His were serious. He had something he needed to say, so I waited. “You mean more to me than some hormonal sexual crush. It’s not just your pheromones which attract me to you. I’m sure they still call to me, to all of us, but it’s more than that. You’re more than a beautiful female. You’re more than a friend. You’re more than a strong capable female who I have learned to see as an equal. I love you.”
I held his face in my hands. He didn’t possess the empathic, instinctual understanding of an Enyo to know that I felt the truth of his admission in my very soul. “I love you, too, and I need you. You’re my husband, but you’re also my friend. I trust you and know I can be myself around you. Tell me when something worries you. Let me be there for you. This is a partnership between us, Gravy.”
He snorted at me. My words had gotten through to him, and the uncertainty he had felt in the shower had been banished. “Gravy, everyone calls me Gravy.”
I gave him an innocent look, pulled at the towel at his waist, and lowered myself to my knees. Moisture beaded on his brow, and it wasn’t from the shower. His considerably sized manly appendage strained toward the ceiling. His eyes watched my tongue as I licked him from his balls to his tip. Then, he gasped and shivered when I closed my mouth over his head and licked his rim.
“Teagan, stop.”
Releasing him, I looked up, worried I’d done something wrong. My other husbands loved this particular activity. He reached down, lifted me to the bed, and positioned himself at my entrance.
“I couldn’t take it. I wouldn’t have lasted another second in your gorgeous mouth.” He brought his hand down between us, rubbing my clit until I came. Then, he entered me and quickly found his own release. “So, much for taking my time,” he said. He laid on his back with me resting against his side with a strong, long arm around me. “I never imagined a life like this for myself.” Spreading my fingers out over his stomach, I tilted my head so I could gaze up at him. His smile turned his stern, serious face into something far cuter and boyish. “I have the most beautiful female in the Empire in my arms, and not only does she share with me her love, but also her trust and friendship.”
Thinking of the Lady Fallon Braga, I said, “I am not the most beautiful woman in the Empire.”
Turning serious, he said, “Oh, but you are. How did I get so lucky?” His voice had gone deep and soft.
Dreamily staring into his eyes, I said, “You smelled like gravy.”
Grabbing a pillow, he gently smacked me with it while I laughed and laughed. Once our laughter quieted and our hearts calmed, we dressed, ate with our team, and drove the long forest road back home.
I was sitting with the children and reading them a bedtime story when Nico brought me my vid-screen. He traded it for the book and took over with the children. Walking into my bedroom, I sat on a chair by the darkened window and grinned at the screen.
She’d taken some time to calm down before calling, but she still looked positively livid. “How dare you?”
I tapped my index finger to my lips and pretended to think. Thinking wasn’t a proclivity of dumb, childish females. “Well, with so many husbands eager to bring me to completion, I don’t really have a need for them, but I’d imagine if one dared it would be with some sort of lubricant.”
Her lips puckered up like an angry asshole. “Teagan Probus!”
“Yes, that’s my name. Oh, and you can also suck on one. By the way, don’t tell me wh
at I can or can’t investigate. My research into the missing merchant ships didn’t break any laws. As a matter of fact, I have a relative on the Good Fortune. This is personal, not an Academy assignment. Oh, you might want to tighten security on your ship. As it is, it’s a joke.” She opened her mouth to let me have it, but I interrupted and rolled my eyes. “Ugh. Bored. Bye.” I ended the call.
Yukihyo watched me from the doorway. He leaned against it with his arms crossed over his chest which was never a good sign. He only stood that way when he was mad.
“What?”
In his deep monotone, he asked, “Was that really necessary?”
“She started it.”
Yukihyo sighed. I could read his posture, and he could read the stubbornness in my utterance of a single word. “Yes, but she is a friend of Ling and Hiroshi. We will see her upon occasion.” His emotions suggested to me that I should apologize.
My emotions suggested that I intended to be stubbornly unrepentant.
He surrendered with a shake of his head.
Chapter Seventeen
The next morning when my family came over for our farewell brunch, I realized that Yukihyo had been the voice of reason which I shouldn’t have ignored. My team and I had avoided detection aboard the Constantine, and while Captain Espanoza hadn’t filed a complaint against me with the Militia, she’d done something much more devastating. I was in worse trouble than I ever could have imagined. I stood in Yukihyo’s office and glanced toward the closed door, wanting nothing more than to slink away and hide. Large tears filled my eyes.
“Teagan, I’m not certain what point you intended to prove, but the execution of it was crass and unbefitting of you and our families.” Her pale blue eyes were crinkled at the corners with her distress.
The bitch had tattled on me to the worst possible person, the person who I couldn’t bear to disappoint, Gram.
The sweet little lady was shocked and embarrassed. Having almost a dozen husbands didn’t make her ashamed of me, but disrespect toward a female Galaxic Militia Captain did. I let my frustrated tears fall, crossed my arms over my chest, and lifted my chin. I didn’t like the way my actions had caused Gram to feel, but I had a right to my own feelings, too.
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