by Jayne Ripley
Servants had brought food and laid it all out on one of the big tables. Nahkar was sitting at the head of the table, eating a breakfast of something that smelled as if it had been soaked in pungent spices. Ikestrans loved foods strong enough to set your mouth on fire. The Quindon had more refined taste. Or at least that was what he liked to taunt Nahkar with.
Jennifer wasn’t out of her room yet, it seemed. She’d been the first person he’d looked for. He glanced across the expansive common area of the suite, ignoring all its fancy artwork from the most accomplished cultures in the galaxy and its fountains and luxurious furniture, only caring about seeing the captivating Terran female again.
He knew he’d grown obsessed, but he couldn’t find the heart to care.
“Where is Jennifer?” he asked Nahkar.
Nahkar spoke around a chunk of what smelled like spice-drenched reerdal meat. “She is still in her room.” The big Ikestran set down his food and shrugged. “I don’t think she’s awake yet. Perhaps she did not know how to tell the AI to set an alarm.”
“Or maybe she had a poor night’s sleep,” Darkon said, rubbing a hand across his hairless head. If true, he was certainly sympathetic. Right now he felt as if a starship had used his body for a runway.
“I’ve heard it can be difficult adjusting to life on a space station,” Nahkar mused. “Especially for someone used to living on a planet.”
Somehow that didn’t strike Darkon as the most likely reason she’d spend a sleepless night. “Or maybe she’s worried about being here with us.”
“Why would that worry her? I care for my females. Their comfort, well-being, and pleasure are all important to me.”
He bit back a hiss of irritation at Nahkar’s arrogant presumptions. “Maybe she thinks you’re ugly. She did slap you, don’t forget. I couldn’t help but notice that lots of females enjoy slapping you.”
“Females do not care about pretty faces,” Nahkar said, flexing his arms. “They care about the size of your cock and how well you use it.”
Darkon arched an eyebrow at him. “With thinking like that, I’m surprised any female from any species anywhere puts up with your primitive arrogance.” He tapped a finger against his lips. “But now that I stop and consider it, that does explain why they like to slap you.”
“Females love primitive arrogance,” Nahkar told him with a smirk. “If you don’t know that, it’s no wonder I get more of them than you. Again you are second place to me.”
Darkon pulled out a seat at the opposite side of the table from Nahkar. Last night, he had carefully planned how he wanted to discuss a threesome relationship with Jennifer and Nahkar. He’d wanted to make certain not to set off Nahkar’s mara vrhon. He’d wanted to avoid turning Jennifer off to the concept before she gave it a chance.
But after less than five minutes in Nahkar’s presence, he no longer cared about being careful and diplomatic. His lack of sleep, Nahkar’s smug responses, all of that made him forget about treading gently.
He leaned forward in his chair. “I was going to talk to you as if you had a fully developed brain and a sliver of civilization, but silly me, I forgot who I was speaking with.”
Nahkar only laughed and began to eat again. That irritated Darkon even more.
“I guess I need to be blunt,” he continued. “Our new owner—also known as The Voice from the Ceiling—gave Jennifer Smith to us. Both of us.”
Nahkar stopped eating. His golden eyes locked on Darkon. Slowly, he set down the meat he had been eating. “What did you say?”
“Did I speak too softly? Or do you have meat in your ears? Jennifer is here for both of us. Not for you alone. Just because you’re caught by the balls by some uncontrollable urge does not mean she belongs to you.” He crossed his arms, leaned back in his chair, and put his boots on the table. “So I suggest we share her.”
“Share her?” Nahkar said ominously.
“Exactly. In my culture, threesomes are desirable and important. It is an honor to be involved in one. If Jennifer is willing and interested, then I suggest we share her. We make her feel like a queen instead of showing off and vying to impress her. Then all three of us will be winners. Since we are all trapped here together—”
With a roar, Nahkar launched himself out of his chair. Food and dishes went flying. They hit the tiles and shattered.
Darkon kicked off from the table, letting his chair hit the floor and rolling smoothly out of it in a backward somersault. He didn’t have time to ponder that he’d made a mistake with Nahkar. He was too busy jumping back to his feet, ready to face off against the big Ikestran who looked as if he wanted to tear him in half.
“What makes you think you are worthy of her?” Nahkar roared as he closed in. His fists were clenched. His eyes looked half mad. “She is mine.”
This was not good. Last night’s carefully considered plans to convince Nahkar and Jennifer what a glorious idea a threesome would be had flown straight out the docking bay and crashed into an asteroid.
“She wouldn’t be just another conquest for me,” Darkon shot back. Everything may have gone sour, but he had never fled from any of the arena monsters the gamemasters threw at him. He wasn’t going to back down just because some muscle-headed, aggressive Ikestran felt possessive.
Not over this. Not over her.
Nahkar Ka-Razal reached out and flipped over the entire table as if it weighed nothing. The table slammed against the wall with a resounding metallic clang. The rest of their morning repast went flying through the air, decorating the walls and floor with a colorful mix of Ikestran, Quindon, and Terran foods.
“She is more than just a conquest for me!” Nahkar shouted. His golden eyes blazed.
“She doesn’t belong to you either!” Darkon shouted back, ready for anything. “The three of us all are the same, with the same problems. And I’m confined here because of your inability to control yourself!”
Nahkar’s furious expression darkened. He charged forward with another wordless roar. His big fist swung for Darkon’s head.
Darkon ducked, dodging the blow. Instead of punching Darkon’s head, Nahkar’s crushing fist only smashed a fancy lamp into junk.
He didn’t have time to calm Nahkar down. Right now, Nahkar was beyond the reach of words, but maybe he would listen to fists. Darkon needed to defend himself. He danced aside from the big fighter. Then he launched a spinning kick at Nahkar’s head.
Nahkar was a talented fighter. He saw Darkon’s attack and began to lift his arms to block the kick.
“What the hell is going on here?” Jennifer’s shocked voice cut straight through Darkon’s fighting focus. It was too late to stop the momentum of his jumping kick.
Nahkar was just as distracted. He stopped moving to block Darkon’s kick. Instead, he turned in Jennifer’s direction.
Darkon’s boot slammed Nahkar full-force in the side of his head. The impact knocked Nahkar to the side. Nahkar lost his footing in all the spilled food, fell over one of the couches, and crashed onto the low, gold-and-crystal table. He utterly destroyed it. It sounded as if half the station had just broken apart.
Slowly, Darkon turned toward the suite’s hall where Jennifer was standing. He felt like a child who’d been caught misbehaving.
Looking around at the destruction and the mess, maybe he deserved to feel that way.
Jennifer stood at the edge of the suite’s great room, at the entrance to the long hallway. She wore sleepwear that covered her from neck to ankles but fit snugly against her curvy female form. He had to hold back a groan of lustful appreciation. Those pert breasts were gorgeous, full and begging to be caressed, worshiped. Those legs, those hips…the Terran female form had much to recommend it. He’d quickly become a true believer.
Unfortunately, right now she was staring at him with a mix of anger, outrage, and shock. Possibly because she’d just seen him kick Nahkar in the head. Possibly because half their suite was destroyed. Oh, and their morning meal was decorating the walls and floor.
“I can explain,” Darkon told her calmly, knowing that was going to be very hard to do.
Nahkar picked himself up from where he’d smashed the expensive table flat. He dusted off the glass and debris. His anger seemed to have faded because he made no move to try and rip Darkon apart again.
Instead, Nahkar spat out some blood and smiled at Jennifer. “Sorry. I tripped. Did I wake you?”
Jennifer stared at him, her mouth half open in disbelief. “Tripped?”
“He tripped over the couch,” Darkon offered, trying to support his friend’s unlikely story. “You’d think luxury furniture would be more robust. Maybe we should put up some warning signs.”
Jennifer turned her stunned and furious gaze back to Darkon. “He tripped over the couch because you kicked him in the head.”
Grox. He’d hoped she hadn’t noticed.
Nahkar only shrugged his massive shoulders. “Was that a kick?” He snorted. “I didn’t feel anything.”
“You felt it enough to fall on the table and crush it,” Darkon snapped.
Nahkar glared at him. “This is not over between us, you female-thieving niedrofa dung!”
“Stop it!” Jennifer shouted. Her blue eyes blazed. “You’re both acting like children, and I want it to stop right now!”
Darkon stopped it. So did Nahkar.
Again, this little Terran proved she had fire in her heart. He liked that. More and more, he really liked it.
She was still furious though. Perhaps this wasn’t the time to tell her so.
Jennifer slowly looked over the wreckage. “I suppose that’s my food all over the wall.”
Nahkar rubbed the back of his neck and looked abashed. Darkon tried not to gloat. After all, he hadn’t been the one to flip over the food table. Nahkar clearly hated tables. He had destroyed two of them already. He was a menace.
She sighed, closed her eyes, and rubbed her temple. “There I was, snoring away because I never get good sleep these days. You know, after having been abducted by ugly lizards and turned into a slave. So the chance to sleep in was a godsend. Then I was woken up to the sound of a small war outside my room.” She looked them both over with narrowed eyes. “Since you’re both still alive, do you mind telling me what this is all about?”
It began to occur to him just what he’d risked when he’d brought up the idea of a threesome to Nahkar in such an uncompromising, indelicate, and careless way. He had Quindon royal blood inside him. He had been a prince once, with a chance at the throne. He’d been instructed by some of the best teachers on his home planet. He should’ve been able to keep his temper and broach the subject with some tact. He should’ve been able to discuss it with Nahkar diplomatically, even knowing that Nahkar had the mara vrhon overshadowing him.
He had failed utterly to do any of that.
“We were talking about who was strongest,” Nahkar told her. “Things got interesting. Darkon lost.”
Jennifer gave a wild, unbelieving laugh as she shook her head. “That almost makes sense. Except that I heard what the two of you were shouting at each other.” She gave Nahkar an even look. “For your information, that was your chance not to lie to me.”
The number one fighter in the Aixen Arena—the Ikestran who had battled hundreds of huge, dangerous, and hungry alien monsters—looked stricken by those words. He didn’t seem to know what to say.
Darkon took pity on him. He had to. He’d played a role in this too. Besides, even though they’d just been trying to beat each other senseless, Nahkar was his friend. Friends helped friends.
“Don’t be too hard on him,” Darkon said. “He lied because he doesn’t want you to be angry with us.”
She looked at him with those narrowed blue eyes. “It’s too late now. Why shouldn’t I be angry? Because he’s caught up in this mating fever that makes males even stupider and more obnoxious than normal?”
“That’s not to blame this time. Not completely anyway.” Darkon paused, wondering the best way to put this. So far, he hadn’t been very successful in convincing anyone that a threesome would be viable. That didn’t bode well for his chance of success with her. To think, once upon a long time ago he’d even considered himself good with words.
He had no choice but to go on, having faith that she would forgive them for ruining breakfast and brawling. Or at least show some mercy. He had to press on because cowards never won glory in the arena. The same went for life outside the arena and life in the royal court.
Or life after exile.
“I told you yesterday about Nahkar’s mara vrhon.”
She said nothing, watching him and waiting for him to go on. But he noticed that those cream-colored cheeks had a bit more color to them. He loved that reaction from her body. He wondered if he could make more parts of her blush besides those lovely cheeks. That was an intriguing question. An oh-so-tempting question—
No, he couldn’t afford to be distracted right now. Again. He needed to be as charming and convincing as possible. He needed to patch things up with Nahkar if he hoped to have any chance at all with Jennifer Smith from Earth.
He took a deep breath and took his biggest risk in years.
* * *
Jennifer
She met Darkon’s silver-eyed gaze as she waited on his words, emotions boiling inside her. A part of her that she was not proud of had felt a thrill that two gorgeous and powerful males wanted her so badly they were willing to fight for her. But that was lower-brain thinking. Animal-brain thinking. She expected more from any man. The rest of her was upset that they had tried to hurt each other over her. They had been friends, and for some reason she couldn’t understand, she was helping to destroy that friendship.
“On my homeworld, threesomes known as da’katal are not only normal, they are celebrated,” Darkon said, his intense silver eyes on her, watching for her reaction.
When he said the word “da’katal” she heard the sound in her ears, but her mind changed it the word ménage. Her brain leaped ahead, putting it all together quickly. Ménage. There were three of them together here. Nahkar was already attracted to her for no reason she could fathom. Drawn to her by some mating instinct.
No, she corrected herself. It was more like Nahkar intended to claim her as his mate, to make her his no matter what. She almost laughed aloud at the craziness of it all. Hadn’t that been the kind of thing she’d been after when she’d gone to the party in the hills? Only she hadn’t imagined a bronze alien who was bigger than Arnold Schwarzenegger being the one interested in her to the point of wild obsession.
But now Darkon was talking about threesomes? Darkon, a male who might not have any hair but was still sexy as hell, with those silver patterns on his blue skin and that athletic body that was both powerful and graceful. Darkon was interested in her too?
Her head was spinning. Two males double-teaming her? She knew that kind of thing happened in the unrealistic world of porn, and maybe at some crazy Hollywood party somewhere. But in her life? She had a real shortage of good men in her life. What would be the chances of finding two of them who weren’t lowlifes that were both interested in her? That was like being hit by not one but two meteors at the same time.
It was crazy.
Wasn’t it?
She had to shove those out-of-character thoughts from her mind before her brain melted. These two aliens might not be lowlifes, but they had just torn apart their fancy-schmancy suite. And they had ruined her breakfast. Her stomach grumbled in peevish agreement.
Jennifer put her hands on her hips. “So you mentioned a ménage and then decided to wreck the place so I would agree. Makes perfect sense.”
“Jennifer, you must understand that you are a stunning female,” Darkon told her with a charming smile. The smile seemed to melt right through her like warm toffee. “I might not have been knocked off my feet when I first saw you like our massive friend here,” Darkon continued. “But I can’t deny that I find you endlessly fascinating. Tempting. Beautiful. Kind. And f
illed with a fire that I can’t help but envy.”
She felt her cheeks heating and knew she was blushing. She was glad the two aliens probably didn’t know what a blush might mean. Darkon thought she was beautiful? Nahkar was definitely attracted to her by some kind of magnetism that turned him into a really big, uniquely colored caveman. But Darkon too…?
“If that’s the case, then what happened?” she asked, her voice husky. That huskiness annoyed her, so she took on a harsher tone. “Why did I wake up to the sound of a war out here?”
Darkon nodded at Nahkar and gave her more of that trying-to-charm-her grin. “I was going to use my highly developed diplomatic skills to discuss the possibility with my Ikestran friend here.” His smile was suddenly gone. The flash of intense heat in his eyes made her draw a quick breath. That intense look promised all kinds of naughty possibilities if only she was willing to take a chance. “Because I hoped the two of us would have better odds at seducing such a beautiful creature who carries a warrior’s heart inside her.”
Nahkar grunted. He was looking at Darkon with some measure of grudging respect. That was much better than the death glares they had been shooting at each other earlier. Oh, and she couldn’t forget the jumping ninja kick Darkon had delivered to Nahkar’s head. She was lucky the two idiots hadn’t destroyed the entire space station. Other women might be secretly pleased when big, tough men fought over them, but she wasn’t. Well, aside from that little, shameful part of her that kind of was, but that was beside the point. Mostly, she felt like she was going to throw up at the thought of causing all this trouble between them without meaning to. She knew they competed in the arena, but they had been friends.
In the end, it all came down to her. She needed to be sure of her feelings. So what did she want?
Her old life had been destroyed. She didn’t have any hope that she would ever return home. If she thought about that fact too hard, she would start crying. But last night, after spending so much time with Nahkar and Darkon, she hadn’t cried herself to sleep. That had been the first time since her abduction. She had gone to sleep without the slave collar around her neck. She had gone to sleep in her own bed, not a pallet on a cold metal floor. She had almost felt free again.