She felt his climax growing close. Just before, he said, “Come for me, love.”
Aine’s back arched into him, her muscles deliciously clamping down on his shaft as his seed flooded her. White hot need rolled through her body as passion pulled her into that wonderfully familiar place where she wanted to do nothing more than exist as an extension of her men’s bodies as they took their pleasure.
No longer alone. Her soul joined to them.
He rolled them to their sides as he regained his breath. He wouldn’t release her, kept her tucked against his skin, wanting the contact with her. They were both sweaty and it finally occurred to her the sparring room door wasn’t locked.
She felt his agitation still there, bubbling below the surface, but a little more in check now that he had a chance to let some of it out and give it voice.
“When you finish this,” he whispered, as if afraid to speak it too loudly for fear of it not coming true, “would you please stay with us so we can be together? At least for a while, without any missions? I will gladly give up my ranking to stay with you and Master, to follow where you go if it means we are never separated again. If my pain at letting you go is this bad, then I can only imagine how badly Master must ache knowing both of us will leave him for this battle. Please? I beg of you, and I have begged only one other time in my life.”
She snuggled more tightly in his arms. “Okay.”
He exhaled his relief and showered her face with kisses. “Thank you, my love,” he said. “Thank you.”
* * * *
Ker sat in his chair, eyes closed, feeling them in his soul. They were not fighting.
Good.
Sending them away hurt more than he could ever tell them. His soul, his life.
His loves.
Not just twice as badly by sending her out, but a thousand times worse now that she completed them.
He felt them loving each other, Aine trying to ease Sammuel’s heartache. His soul twined with theirs as they coupled. He took a deep breath, relaxing. They desperately needed this.
Despite how he’d once teased Sammuel about finding their t’wren, he had himself wondered how he would love another as fiercely as he loved Sammuel. Once Aine lay in his arms, joined to his soul, he understood. Just as Sammuel understood how he could love someone else.
Ker, not a particularly spiritual man, offered up his prayers to the Universe. Please, keep them both safe. Bring them both home to me.
When Sammuel first bonded with her, Ker had felt it even through the cold distance of space. The sudden lightness and joy that gave everything a brighter shade of brilliance, sounds, colors, tastes, even scents. Energy flowing through him the likes of which he’d never felt before.
Their love.
In the back of his mind, he tried not to contemplate the dark shadow yet to leave her thoughts, the regret she had about walking away from what she felt her duty.
Added to his prayers, a hope that she would not let the shadow seduce her away from their arms.
* * * *
Sammuel pulled on his trousers, but he wouldn’t let Aine get dressed. Instead, he swaddled her in his uniform coat and carried her back to their cabin while she held her clothes and his shirt.
“We need to take care of your hands,” she insisted when he finally set her down. She dropped their clothes and tried to take his hands so she could examine them.
He smiled and caught her hands in his, brought them to his lips and kissed them. “No. They are fine.” He fell backward onto the bed, pulling her with him so she landed on top.
Ker emerged from the head. “I take it all is well?”
Sammuel pushed his coat off her shoulders. “Ki’ato made me an offer, Master.”
Ker walked over to their bed. “Oh, really? And what is that?”
She shrugged the coat off and let it join her clothes on the floor. She reached for Sammuel’s trousers and started to unfasten them. “I want both of you together.” She tugged his waistband, pulling them down. He kicked them off onto the floor.
Ker unbelted his robe. “Is that so? Then I would not wish to deny you, love.”
The mattress dipped under him as he knelt behind her on the bed, both of them straddling Sammuel. He wrapped his arms around her and cupped her breasts, which had filled out a little more in their time together. He stroked her nipples, sending tiny sparks to her clit and making her wet the way he always could.
He brushed his lips across the nape of her neck and along her shoulders, his breath making her shiver pleasantly. “What exactly would you like us to do to you, love?”
Her breath caught as she threw her head back onto his shoulder. “I want you to fuck my ass, Master. I want to feel you knotted inside me while Sammuel fucks me. I want to come hard with both your cocks inside me.”
“Mmm. I like the sound of that.”
Sammuel slipped his fingers between her legs, two pressing inside her, fucking her, gliding across her clit with every stroke. “I know I would like it very much.”
Ker wrapped her braid tightly around his hand, keeping her head pulled back. “Mount him, love. Take his cock deep inside you.”
She lowered herself onto Sammuel’s rigid length with a happy sigh. She’d discovered she loved letting them take control of her like this in bed, taking the decisions out of her hands. They wanted to do nothing but make her feel good even as they sometimes tormented her by denying her until the last possible moment.
They loved her.
Sammuel’s fingers gripped her hips, digging in as he thrust, controlling how fast she rode him.
“How does he feel, love?” Ker rumbled in her ear.
“Wonderful, Master!”
He pushed her down onto Sammuel’s chest, still not releasing her braid. “Hold her open for me, Ki’ran.”
Sammuel moved his hands to her ass and spread her cheeks for him. With his free hand, Ker stroked his cock, milking it and slicking his shaft before he nudged into position, his large head pressing against her tight rim. “Do not come yet, love,” he ordered. “Not until I say so.”
She whimpered and whined, pleading for release even as she squirmed harder against Sammuel’s body.
“Hold it, or I will not let you come at all,” Ker said. He pressed forward.
Aine gasped, enjoying the sensation of being erotically stretched, his hot shaft already giving her what her body now craved from him whether she was on her knees sucking his cock or laying happily spooned against him with it tightly knotted inside her. All doubts faded from her mind as she enjoyed feeling physically connected to both men, not just mentally—a true triad. They loved her, and yes, she absolutely loved them.
Every stroke Sammuel took hit her G-spot and her clit with Ker’s knot pushing him tightly against her inner muscles. She squirmed, wiggled, begged.
Ker loosened his grip on her braid only a little, just enough to capture Sammuel’s braid and tightly twine it with hers around his hand. With both of them firmly in his grip, he took a hard, deep stroke. “Both of you, come now!”
Aine moaned her release against Sammuel’s chest even as his arms clutched her to him and his cock throbbed inside her. They barely had time to catch their breath when Ker took a few more hard strokes. “Both of you, come again. Now!”
Aine closed her eyes, helpless to do anything but obey as her body clamped down on both cocks. Explosions rocked her as she felt through both mind and body Sammuel’s release beneath her.
Ker stroked her back with his free hand. “That sounded beautiful, loves. It is a memory I shall cherish until you are both safely back with me and we can once again do this. Come hard!”
Sammuel’s fingers dug into her shoulders as his body arched beneath her. She felt too weak to do anything but cry out and close her eyes as her own orgasm rendered her body a limp mass of passion.
Ker chuckled and unwound their braids from his hand. “I think I have already worn you out.” He fucked her, quickly reaching his own climax with his
knot deeply buried inside her.
She took a deep, satisfied breath.
Ker carefully rolled them onto their sides. Sammuel followed, clinging to her. Their legs entwined with hers as Sammuel draped an arm across her waist, his hand resting on Ker’s hip behind her.
Exhausted, she drifted to sleep, safe in the cocoon of their arms.
* * * *
Aine didn’t want to get up early the next morning even though she knew she had a lot of work to do in a very short amount of time. She needed to get over to the Haltoran-dey and prepare the crew and check the systems and supplies. There was so much to do—
“A few more minutes,” Ker muttered. “Give me that indulgence, love. Please?”
Sammuel also lay awake, but still nestled on her other side where he’d been when they all fell asleep. “Just a few minutes more,” he echoed.
She relaxed. It would be a long three to six months away from them. Away from this. “All right.”
They moved to the shower a little while later, lovingly washing each other. Before they got out, she couldn’t help but drop to her knees to spend a few minutes sucking Ker. Sammuel joined her, and they took turns as Ker leaned against the shower wall with his eyes closed, his hands resting on their heads. She felt guilty feeling his pain over their departure, but she wouldn’t deny the familiar excitement humming through her. The adrenaline.
A mission.
After their shower they shared one long group hug before they dressed. She started gathering things she needed to take with her when she spotted her knapsack in its usual place on the shelf.
Ker noticed.
“Do not forget that, love. I know it is important to you.”
Sammuel’s head snapped up from where he packed his own bag when he realized what Ker referred to.
She took a deep breath and draped her arms around Ker’s neck. “No,” she said. “This is my home. It’ll be safe here with you looking after it for me.”
He stared into her eyes for a long moment before crushing her to him. He buried his face in her hair, which still loosely flowed behind her, not yet bound in a braid. “Are you certain, love?”
“I’ll come home to you. I promise.”
Sammuel joined them again, and she didn’t miss the tears threatening in his eyes. He also kissed her. “That is a promise I shall hold you to, Ki’ato,” he hoarsely whispered.
Chapter Fourteen
They said their final good-byes at the gangway. Ker would escort Sammuel to his ship, the Haltoran-pau, sister ship of the Haltoran-dey. Aine struggled not to cry as she turned and walked through the hatch. This was the first time she’d been on a mission and left people behind to miss, even if she would be able to easily communicate with Sammuel ship-to-ship.
It wasn’t the same as being able to curl up in his arms at the end of every day, but at least she had sweet memories of Sammuel claiming her in the cabin she now occupied.
Service Before Self.
Ker sent Jarl with her to be her yeoman. At least she would have one close confidant amongst the crew of strangers. Most of her crew had seen battle action, but few of them had flown against the raiders or with the shadow ship missions. Even fewer of them knew English.
When she walked onto the bridge, everyone came to attention. Marcoln, her first officer hand-picked by Ker, saluted her. “T’ele cau P’acdaeux.” Welcome aboard, ma’am.
Aine didn’t bother correcting him. Making the crew address her with the male commanding officer honorific P’eycandaeux would only confuse them. The complex Act’huran language didn’t translate English idioms and phrases well in some cases. Besides, she wasn’t the Ice Queen anymore. She could effectively command this ship without resurrecting her cold, über-bitch alter-ego to do it. These men respected her for her skills, for her reputation, and they were all well aware of not only the bounty on her head, but that she was one of Admiral D’arsolan Ker-Pythan’s t’wren.
In their eyes, that automatically meant she had their respect. Unlike a human crew where, in this situation, they would snigger behind her back that she got the job by sleeping her way to the top with an Act’huran admiral regardless of her skills and experience, she truly was seen as an extension of her t’amar-te. These men accepted, without question or doubt, that her skills and qualifications equaled or rivaled those of the Admiral or Sammuel. She didn’t have to earn their respect—her position made it a given.
She looked over her crew. “At ease,” she quietly said as she slid into the command chair. Okay, so she did feel more comfortable slipping into that old habit, even if she now spoke the more complex Act’huran language. “Prepare to launch.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Marcoln replied.
* * * *
With the exception of the language there was very little difference in running an Act’huran battle cruiser than running the Kee-Raw. Protocols were nearly the same. Military around the universe tended to find solace in order and rituals very similar to each other despite vastly differing cultures.
They would take the Ab’yoika Maru and her five battle cruisers, along with three other battle destroyers and their cruisers at five apiece, into the fray. The destroyers would sit positioned on the sidelines and help with logistics, communications, scanner assistance, and support, as well as guard the perimeter of the battle to prevent escape by the raider forces into neutral territory and prevent the cruisers from being ambushed.
They would join a Confederation force of seventy-five vessels and sweep through ten different solar systems, driving the raiders toward Confederation territory where a joint coalition force of over a hundred ships awaited.
Unfortunately, the raiders wanted to utilize old “scorched earth” tactics, destroying as much as they could in their paths, including innocent civilians. Not only did they have to be fought in space, but sometimes on planets as well.
Aine’s job was to help prepare strategy to keep the raiders running so fast, or to engage them in battle off-planet, so they didn’t have time to destroy on-planet resources and kill people.
During their daily briefing via vid com, Aine’s heart throbbed while she watched Sammuel give his updates and hand out assignments. Always professional, she would expect nothing less from him even though it twisted her heart that he couldn’t address her by her pet name.
At first they tried to talk every evening. As the battle heated up they usually didn’t have time. Aine barely slept as it was, worried to leave her crew untended for too long against hostile forces despite Marcoln’s experience and skill as her first officer.
On the flip side, part of her felt more alive than she had in a long time. It wasn’t that she thirsted for blood, but with every raider ship they destroyed it meant less innocents would die.
And that was something that thrilled her.
Maybe because of what she did now, the sacrifice she made by leaving her men, perhaps another child wouldn’t find herself an orphan, staring down at her brother’s body as she lifted into the cargo hold of a freighter on some fucking hot, dirty planet.
Maybe a child could grow up without losing her parents to raider acts of violence.
As the weeks wore on, Aine found her body adapting to the tension, craving the adrenaline spike every time the sensor alarm went off that they were about to engage another enemy ship. She had forgotten the rush that gave her. Several times Sammuel’s ship fought alongside hers, then there were days they might not be in the same solar system.
One day, Aine realized nearly a week had gone by since she’d personally talked to him other than daily briefings.
Because of the Ab’yoika Maru’s position, she couldn’t have live talks with Ker. They sent messages back and forth frequently, which wasn’t the same as being able to talk with him. Yet sometimes at night, when she forced herself to lie down and attempt to sleep, she would close her eyes and quiet her mind and feel her men with her in spirit.
Perhaps she lay alone in her bunk, but she was not alone in the universe.
Even if her heart ached to be with them, the knowledge of their souls joined to hers made her smile and brought her comfort.
The raiders grew more desperate as they pushed them closer to Confederation lines. While the Ab’yoika Maru hadn’t lost any of her battle cruisers, Aine had to help rescue another Confederation crew when their ship was mortally wounded by a suicide attack. Casualties mounted on both sides of the dangerous and bloody battle, although the raiders bore the lion’s share of the loss.
One morning Aine awoke from a two-hour nap to a communiqué from Confederation command diverting her to protect a civilian base, putting her out of range of the other Act’huran ships and their morning briefing. This had been one of the pre-discussed contingencies. Now she and her ship were under Confederation command for the duration of their stay in that region. Her reputation pre-disappearance, as well as during the current conflict, afforded her every bit of respect and deference she had with the Act’huran forces.
Vice-Admiral Iago hailed her that afternoon on a vid com connection from a nearby Confederation battleship. “Captain Lorcan! Welcome back.”
“Thank you, sir. Although I wouldn’t exactly say I’m back.” Speaking English again with another native speaker felt ridiculously easy compared to the complex Act’huran dialect.
He waved her comment off. “We can discuss that when you finish kicking raider ass. There are a lot of brass here damn eager to get you back in Confederation colors once this is over. I’m just glad to see your skills are still as good as they ever were.”
“I’m here to do my job, sir.”
“And we’re all happy you’re doing it, believe me. You are now officially in charge of the Confederation and coalition ships in this region. We’ve already notified them.”
Shit. That meant she couldn’t cut and run back to her fellow Act’huran forces as soon as she wrapped up this latest scuffle. She was responsible for other ships.
Fierce Radiance Page 19