by Bianca D’Arc
And when they were together in dreams, they didn’t spend a lot of time talking. More often than not, passion was the topic and pleasure their only goal.
“Do you like to be watched, Jaci?” David kissed her stomach, his hand between her thighs on the dream bed Michael had conjured for them. She didn’t know how to answer and her hesitation must have showed on her face. “Hey, Mike, I think our little vixen likes the idea of being observed.”
“Really?” Michael hovered in the background, allowing David time with her while he held them all in the dream using his special gift. He leaned in, a twinkle in his eye that spoke of mischief. Of the two cousins, Michael was the more spontaneous, she’d learned, much to her delight.
“What do you think?” David moved back to look at his cousin.
“I say we give it a go.”
Both cousins looked at her, a speculative gleam of excitement in their eyes. She didn’t know what their cryptic words meant or what they intended, but she’d learned over the weeks to trust them when it came to pleasure. They knew how far to push her and just how hard. They were masters.
Michael shifted closer as the setting changed. The bed turned to a platform with restraints that wrapped around her arms and legs, posing her according to Michael’s whim. The small room opened outward, the walls replaced with blackness that hinted at an audience she couldn’t see as a spotlight interfered with her vision into the distance.
She was on a stage of sorts, bound in front of the two men she trusted and loved more than life and the illusion of others watching. The feeling was decidedly wicked.
“I think she likes it, Mike.” David smiled at his cousin, watching her reactions with approval.
“I think you’re right,” Michael agreed as he moved to her side. David was standing near her waist on her right, Michael at her left. “But maybe we can step it up a notch.” Michael tipped her chin up with one finger so she had no choice but to look into his dancing eyes. “Think of someone, Jaci.”
“Someone?” She didn’t understand.
“Someone you want to watch you come for us.” Michael’s expression practically steamed as her temperature spiked higher. Without conscious thought on her part, the image of Grady Prime appeared in her mind.
Both men jumped when the hulking mass of Grady Prime materialized in the dream. She’d forgotten how big he was—and how much the cousins hated him. Truth be told, she wasn’t sure why he came to mind, but then she realized he’d been her last encounter of a sexual kind before the cousins, and of all the Alvian men she’d serviced, he’d been the only one to give her pleasure that even came close to her mates. Close, but not the same maddening rush her two men gave her with the simplest of touches.
“Son of a bitch!” David looked at the new arrival on the dreamplane with a mix of anger and disgust.
“Interesting choice, babe,” Michael looked at her speculatively. “I was expecting an Alvian, but not this one.” His eyes narrowed with suspicion. “Did you have sex with him?”
Caught, she couldn’t lie to them. Mutely, she nodded. Michael looked at Grady Prime with even more hatred than before, if such a thing was possible. Michael turned his smoldering gaze back to her.
“Never again, Jaci.” She felt the vibrating thrum of his warning through her whole being.
“No. Never,” she agreed. “I don’t want him.”
“But you did,” David accused. “You must have.”
“I didn’t,” she protested. “It was an assigned duty. And it was only once. But it happened right after my accident and I felt…” She couldn’t finish the thought as their eyes darkened.
“You enjoyed it?” Michael asked finally, shooting Grady Prime a speculative look.
“It was the first time I’d really enjoyed the act of sample collection.”
“Sample collection?” David asked, shock and outrage warring in his tone. He stared into her eyes while he got control of his emotions. “Your people are barbarians, Jaci.”
“I understand that now, David.” Her voice was tempered with regret, but the situation was getting to her. She was restrained and naked on the small stage, a confused Alvian warrior off to one side watching everything. She noted that Michael had conjured restraints for Grady Prime, locking his wrists and ankles together so he couldn’t move.
“You do realize we’ll have to punish you.” Michael’s words shocked, but the look in his eyes promised nothing but pleasure. Unable to speak for the excitement rushing through her veins, Jaci looked up at him and nodded agreement.
“Good girl.” David’s voice purred over her senses, teasing, tantalizing as he flipped her over. The restraints allowed any movement the men directed, it seemed, but gave her no quarter when she tried to move her arms or legs. Convenient, considering that Michael controlled everything about the environment of the dream.
Masculine hands smoothed over her ass. She liked the feel of David’s strong hands against her bare skin. He dipped lower, into the dark valley between her thighs, lingering a moment, stroking inside the wet lips.
Her legs were still together, but now the restraints moved, pulling her knees up and apart. David’s large fingers spread her and exposed her most intimate area to Grady, who stood directly behind her. She couldn’t see the Alvian warrior from this position, but she knew he was there. The very idea of it—even though this was only a dream—raised her temperature.
“I love the way you warm for me.” David’s fingers stroked rhythmically within her.
Her only response was an almost incoherent keening as he sent her higher. She needed relief and she needed it soon.
Thwak!
The sound of the swat made her jump almost as much as the sting on the fleshy cheek of her butt. She looked over her shoulder at Michael, and he grinned at her.
“You have the most perfect ass, Jaci. And your skin is so fine, it won’t take much to turn it a lovely shade of pink.”
“She likes it, Mike,” David said, his fingers still within her. “You do understand the concept of spanking, don’t you, Jaci? It’s punishment, but as I think you’ve just discovered, it can be exciting under certain circumstances.”
“I—” Jaci had a hard time speaking, but she knew they were waiting for her to answer. “I’m learning rapidly.”
Michael tipped her head up to meet his gaze. “Is it okay, sweetheart?”
“She liked it, Mike,” David didn’t give her a chance to answer, though Michael kept watching her. “Take my word for it.”
Still, Michael hesitated. “Honey?”
Since David’s fingers were teasing her again, she could only nod. Michael smiled and the satisfaction gleaming from his eyes made her feel even better about her response. When his hand came down on her butt once more, this time on the other cheek, she felt better still.
The sensations racing through her epidermis would bear study, but they were so exciting, she found she couldn’t concentrate on anything beyond the next delicious wave of sensation. The mix of pleasure and the sting of those loud smacks made her hotter than almost anything the cousins had tried with her before. These two men could surprise her and turn her on like no one and nothing before.
“That’s just beautiful,” Michael said and she looked back again to see him gazing down at her with a mix of lust and satisfaction.
“I’d say she’s learned her lesson, cuz.” David pulled his fingers from her pussy. She whimpered, wanting his touch back in the worst way. “And now it’s time for her reward.”
David lifted her upward with little effort on the dreamplane, bringing her face to face with Grady Prime. She gasped, seeing the heated look in the soldier’s eyes. She’d almost forgotten he’d been watching, with a pussy-level view of her torment.
Grady Prime’s jaw firmed and a tick near his eye indicated just how tense he was. She looked downward and noted the thick bulge she remembered from their one encounter. He was aroused. And she was naked, aroused and wanting. But not Grady Prime. Certainly, h
aving him there—or the illusion of him, at least—elevated the experience, but the only men she wanted were her mates. And she wanted them now.
“Please.” Her voice was just a whisper as she tried to focus on her men. Her body was Humming as they touched her, the vibration of sound and the blistering heat of her arousal sending her higher than she’d ever been before. Making her needier than she’d ever been before. But they wouldn’t leave her wanting. Would they?
David moved her again as Michael stepped back. In their dreams, Michael always held back to let David make love to her first. He had to. Michael held the dream with his power. If he came first, the dream would dissolve, leaving his cousin unfulfilled.
They worked well together and especially when they made love to her, their teamwork was something she loved to indulge. After all, she benefited greatly from their sharing of minds.
David spread her out before him, flat on her back so he could look down into her face as he joined them together. His was a dominant personality and she loved the way he dominated their loveplay.
He came into her in a rush and his excitement matched hers. She was more than ready for him and the hard thrusts sent her spiraling upward with little effort.
“See him watching you? Wanting you?” David thrust heavily within her. “But he can’t have you. He can only watch. And wish.” David sped his strokes, raising her temperature yet again as her excitement rose higher. She cried out on every inward push of his strong body, clinging to him for strength as she came hard around him.
David came with her, thrusting one final time and holding, tight within her while his seed erupted in a hot, gushing torrent. His eyes closed as his head fell back in ecstasy. She loved making him look like that. She loved that they could drive each other to the brink of sanity.
David stepped back, disengaging from her body as he left her. A recliner formed behind him so he could collapse into it—one of the few times he was able to stay in the dream even after the tumult of climax. She looked to Michael, knowing he was holding this dreamplane together for all of them.
His grin was wicked as he turned the stage into a decadent bed, wider than any that existed in the real world and twice as comfortable. He came to her, kneeling between her legs as David looked on with indulgence from the side of the room.
Grady Prime was still there too. Bound hand and foot.
“Let him go, Jaci,” Michael kissed her cheek, nibbling down to her jaw.
“What do you mean?”
Michael flicked a look back to the Alvian soldier. “He’s here because he’s part of your imagination. Frankly, I’m surprised you held his image this long, but we don’t need him. All we need is each other.” He continued to kiss his way down her neck.
Jaci tried to locate the thought that was Grady Prime and realized she hadn’t been thinking of him at all for quite some time.
“Uh, Michael…” She tugged at his hair to get his attention. “I’m not thinking of him. It must be one of you.”
Michael left off sucking on her skin and looked up, his narrowed gaze going from her to Grady Prime to David.
“It’s not me,” David protested.
“Son of a bitch!” Michael leapt off the bed and turned to confront the Alvian warrior. He walked around the captive man as if inspecting him. “You know, Dave, I think he’s really here.”
For the first time, Jaci noted the way Grady Prime observed them, his calculating stare one she’d never received, but which was legend among the troops he led. Grady Prime was studying them. He didn’t speak, but then his image was more transparent than Michael and David’s, as if he weren’t fully with them on the dreamplane. Jaci didn’t know what that meant, but his presence here was troubling, to say the least.
“That means—” David began, but Michael cut him off.
“No shit. He’s nearby.” Worry crept into both of their expressions as Jaci sat up, clutching the bedding to her chest.
“Can you?” David didn’t even need to finish his thought, so aligned were the cousins.
“I’ll escort him back and plant a few suggestions. Hopefully he won’t remember any of this.”
“You can do that?” Jaci asked, astounded anew by her mate’s power.
Michael sent her a mischievous wink. “How do you think Dave and I handled dishonest competitors when we were in business? There’s a reason we were as successful as we once were. Between Dave’s smarts and my ability to make folks play fair, we were able to compete with the big corporate sharks and do rather well.” She could see the pride Michael had in his long-ago achievements though she didn’t understand all of what he talked about. “Don’t worry. I’ll take our voyeur back to his own mind and try to figure out what he’s doing so close to you, sweetheart. Warn the others. Grady Prime is closer than any of you think.” He turned back and gave her a kiss as David stood and did the same. “When I go with him, this dream will collapse. Know that we love you, sweetheart, and we’ll be in touch. Try not to worry, but be vigilant.”
“I will.” She did her best not to cling to either of them, but the specter of Grady Prime watching—knowing now that it really was him—was enough to want to end this dream as soon as possible. “Be careful.”
David gave her a hug. “You too.”
With a last look, they left the dream and Jaci woke with a gasp, sitting up in bed, worry hitting her like a sledgehammer.
“What’s wrong?” Bill was in the doorway to the small bedroom, disheveled from sleep but alert.
Tears gathered behind her eyes, but she gathered her courage and faced him. “Grady Prime is nearby.”
“How do you know?” Bill seemed skeptical and she couldn’t blame him. Besides crystallography, Alvians had no special powers. Not like humans.
“He was in our dream. Michael and David said it was because he was near. Michael was going to follow Grady Prime back to his own dreamplane and try to convince him to forget the interlude, but my mates seemed to think he was closer than we realized.”
A soft whistle sounded from over Bill’s shoulder as Sam came into view. “That bastard is tenacious as a leech. We’re going to have to be careful.”
“That’s what Michael and David said. They wanted me to warn everyone and I assume one of them—or maybe Davin—will be in touch as soon as they know anything. Michael seemed to think he might be able to tell us more after he visited Grady’s dreamplane.”
“That’s one freaky talent he’s got,” Sam said with admiration even as his jaw firmed. “I’ll make my way up to the house and let the O’Haras know. It should be dark enough to get there unseen if I’m careful. Besides, Grady’s dreaming, right? So as of a few minutes ago at least, he was asleep.”
“Good idea,” Bill agreed.
By dawn, Davin had checked in with the O’Hara family on a secure crystal, filling them in on what Michael had found out. Sam reported back to the inhabitants of the small outbuilding when he came back with breakfast for them all.
“Grady Prime is in the woods near the Northeast perimeter of the ranch. Michael seems to think he’s been there for a few weeks. Ever since the search teams gave up on finding you, Jaci. Looks like our old friend Grady never gave up.”
Jaci couldn’t really describe her feelings at the news. On the one hand, she was resentful that the soldier was still on her trail when all others had given up. Of course, that tenacity was part of what had made him rise to the level of Prime in the first place, so there was also a hint of admiration in her mix of emotion. In with that was a lot of fear, knowing how good at tracking Grady Prime truly was. His reputation was well earned and her mates knew firsthand how tenacious he could be.
Then there was a smidgen of flattery. The fact that he remained, personally, was good for her burgeoning ego. She knew from his own words that he liked her. Perhaps that was why he’d stayed when he sent all his men home.
“He will not give up,” Bill said with a grim expression. “The only thing that would make him leave is an eme
rgency elsewhere. Even then, he is Prime. He decides where he is needed. He probably is ordering his men from here. He has advanced technology not available to most Alvians. His crystals are some of the most complex in the system, allowing him to work from anywhere.”
“Great.” Sam’s disgust was plain, his gaze accusatory. “And you know this how?”
To his credit, Bill held the other man’s gaze as he divulged part of his past of which the human was no doubt unaware. “I was Prime,” Bill said without detectable emotion. The man who had been Sinclair Prime had come a long way in controlling his emotions, Jaci realized with some envy.
Sam and Bill stared at each other for several long moments. “The Prime assassin, I’m guessing.”
Jaci gasped.
Bill only nodded.
“And they chose you for the emotion experiment? Damn.” Sam whistled between his teeth. “What were they thinking? Give a stone killer emotions so he either turns into psycho who revels in his kills, or a regular guy who now has to live with the remorse of what he’s done. I’m guessing the latter happened to you, Bill.” Sam raised his coffee mug. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad you didn’t turn psycho. And you have my sympathy.”
Bill seemed at a loss for words and the silence stretched as they continued their meal. Finally, Sam sat back and looked at them both.
“So what now? Grady’s in the area. We need to get Jaci out of here. No offense, kid, but you’re a lab tech. You don’t stand a chance against someone with half Grady’s skill.”
“You’ll get no argument from me,” she agreed ruefully. “But where can I go? I dare not stay here. I don’t want to bring down any more trouble on the O’Haras.”
“But if you go anywhere by land, you’ll leave a trail Grady can follow,” Sam said. “We’ll need help from the O’Haras to get you off the ranch. Maybe Davin can send a ship or something. If we take you out by air—”
“Grady Prime undoubtedly has a ship nearby at his disposal. He could easily follow another ship and probably would investigate any irregular flights in or out of this valley or the surrounding areas.” Bill sat back as well, fingering his water glass with a thoughtful expression. “But there might be a way.”