Crux: A Sci-Fi Romance (The Jekh Saga Book 2)

by H. E. Trent

  “No. Not high enough, I think,” Esteben said. “Wouldn’t want her to choke.”

  “Are you—”

  Erin’s question was prematurely punctuated by Esteben’s quick repositioning of her. He’d gotten off her, and had let go of her wrists. He helped her up onto her knees, and gave her bottom a pinch. “Move. Knees to the edge of the bed.”

  “I don’t like being bossed around.”

  “I’ve decided you’re a liar, and so I’ll treat you accordingly. Shall I move you? Are you going to comply, or do you need assistance?”

  She blinked. Swallowed. “Maybe I do,” she said quietly.

  Ah.

  Amy was right. Headron had so much to learn from a man like Esteben.

  Esteben moved her. He situated her so she was sitting back on her heels at the edge of the bed, facing the door.

  He pinned her wrists together at the small of her back and hooked his chin over her shoulder. “Promise to be sweet and I’ll unhand you.”

  “We’re gonna reach an impasse real soon, then. I’m not going to promise to be what I’m not.”

  “Will you behave, at least?”

  “Behave according to whose standards? You are arguably the worst-behaved person in this house right now, and that’s saying something with there being three McGarrys here.”

  “You want to make this a game, Erin? Fine. Keep talking. The rules won’t change, and I’ll be the judge.” Esteben flicked his gaze over to Headron, who was waiting at the bedside. “Lower your trousers.”

  “What for?” was the response on his tongue, but Headron didn’t let it out. He complied. If they were going to work in solidarity—or at least pretend to—he didn’t want to be the one responsible for dropping the ball, as the Terrans might have said.

  He tugged the drawstring on his pants.

  Erin looked pointedly at the ceiling and screwed her lips to the side of her face like she did whenever she was chewing the inside of her cheek. He’d come to recognize the tic as a show of false nonchalance—when she was pretending not to be concerned about something.

  He stepped closer at Esteben’s beckoning and somehow managed not to gasp when the other man took Headron’s cock in hand.

  “I feel better than I have in years,” Esteben said in an undertone, his lips close to her ear, his hand tugging Headron slowly from root to shaft.

  Stars.

  Headron’s toes curled, and breath faltered. He hadn’t expected the touch, but it was more than welcome. He craved more of the same—wanted Esteben’s decisiveness.

  “You have no idea what it feels like to have your body shutting down incrementally because of some hormonal defect bred into you—some defect there’s no cure for except to take not only one lover who may grow weary of you, but two.” Esteben released Headron’s shaft. He hooked a couple of fingers into Erin’s bottom lip and tugged her mouth open. “Stick out your tongue.”

  She didn’t. She narrowed her eyes.

  “Did you hear me?”

  She stuck out her tongue, but only halfway, and slowly enough to infuriate even the most patient of men.

  Esteben wasn’t patient. He hissed.

  She complied.

  Stars.

  Why that made Headron’s cock throb, he didn’t want to guess.

  “Dispense with the drama, Erin,” Esteben murmured, “unless you want to be made to scream tonight. I don’t imagine you’d like to make that sort of commotion?”

  Keeping her gaze locked on Esteben’s chest, she shook her head.

  “Keep your tongue there.” He pressed his palm to the extended muscle, and then the pads of each finger before returning his hand to Headron’s cock.

  Gasping, Headron closed his eyes and kept them closed even when Esteben said to her, “Keep your tongue out. I’m not done.”

  He started tugging Headron again, and to keep himself upright against the unexpected stimulation, Headron curled his toes against the floor and gritted his teeth.

  What they were doing simply wasn’t done in Jekhan trios. Women weren’t participants in sexual play, although they may have sometimes been in the room when it occurred. More often than not, they’d leave the foreplay to the men and only be on hand to act as a vessel of seed. Their tolerance for the male of the species bottomed out extraordinarily quickly compared to other races. Esteben was pushing his luck, for sure, but Headron sure as hell wasn’t going to tell him to stop.

  Esteben pressed the pad of his thumb to the end of Headron’s cock and swirled the seepage around the slit. “I want to tell you some things about Jekhan culture that may not have been apparent to you. Nod if you’re listening.”

  Headron opened his eyes in time to see Erin nod.

  “Men on this planet have had no choice but to expect that our women will drift. Even the most exciting love affairs fizzle out over time. That’s in our wiring. It’s the Tyneali part of us that’s more concerned with procreation than socialization.”

  He pulled Headron by the shaft forward as far as he could go.

  Headron’s shins were bumping the bedside, and the end of his cock was pointed at Erin’s open mouth.

  Fuck. He’d never been in a woman’s mouth. He hadn’t even been in a man’s mouth for longer than he cared to remember.

  Esteben leaned in and whispered, “I want to play. I don’t give a fuck about what I’m supposed to do. For a change, I’d like to have something that I simply want.”

  His sudden slap to Headron’s ass not only made Headron snarl, but also caused him to thrust forward against Erin’s tongue, and Esteben held him in place there. His fingers were notched into the meat of Headron’s ass and he used his other hand to hold her head perfectly still.

  “Swallow and ask me what I want.”

  She closed her mouth fast and struggled visibly to swallow. Her throat had likely gone dry. “What do you want, Esteben?”

  “Open your mouth again.”

  She complied, no hissing necessary.

  He pulled Headron forward a bit more so his cock head brushed her wet tongue.

  Stars.

  Headron dug his nails into his palms. Having his cock licked certainly wasn’t a new experience, but he’d never had any witnesses to the act, and he’d certainly never had someone playing puppet master to get the deed in motion.

  And Headron didn’t mind being an actor in Esteben’s scheme. He couldn’t wait to hear what the man would say next.

  “Right now, I want you to take Headron’s cock in your mouth and not stop sucking until I tell you to. You wouldn’t want to disappoint him, would you? Can you really look at his face and choose not to please him?”

  Erin slowly raised her gaze to Headron’s, and he half wanted to look away. He was afraid she’d reject not only the salacious act, but also him along with it. He wanted those unspeakable things that Esteben wanted, too, but would never have thought to ask.

  “Do you know how this works?” Esteben asked. “If we were doing this thing properly, I could fuck him. He could fuck me. I could fuck you however I wanted to, but he...well, he couldn’t touch you yet.” He slid his hand down her belly and curled his fingers into her underwear. “Not there, except with tongue or fingers.” He pulled Headron farther into her mouth. “Will you refuse him?”

  She gave her head a miniscule shake, and Headron swallowed down his relief.

  Esteben slipped a couple of fingers into the seal her mouth made around Headron’s dick and then removed them. “Give him pleasure, Erin. Give him what his body needs, and I’ll take the same from you.”

  He pushed his fingers into the back of her panties, and she gasped, but quickly started sucking.

  “If we were doing this right,” Esteben mused, “I wouldn’t let him anywhere near your sweet core until I was certain my seed would take and that you’d give me a child. But what I think about when I have too much time to myself is wrong. All wrong, Erin.”

  Desperate for some control, Headron laced his fingers through the hair at
the sides of Erin’s head and slowed his thrusts into her mouth. She’d opened her throat wide for him and he didn’t want to hurt her. He pressed himself in as far as he could go—until his balls were tickling her chin—and swore in Jekhan.

  “I think about skewering you on my cock,” Esteben said. “Dropping you onto my lap and pinning you against my chest so your ass is still accessible. I’d let him do that. I’d let him shove his cock into your tight hole so you could feel both of us. You can’t ignore us like that. You’d have no choice but to pay attention. And I’d be feeling him, too.”

  “Hmm,” she moaned, either at his words or at whatever he was doing in her panties.

  “I’d just want to play. Take time for that—to explore fantasies and desires I shouldn’t want, but do. I should be concerned with my legacy. I should be like Murki and have a child or two and very soon, but why does the restoration of this planet have to fall on my shoulders?”

  “Ah!” Erin’s mouth opened wide around Headron’s shaft, and she gasped.

  He looked over her shoulder at what Esteben’s fingers were doing. They were deep inside her ass. Two, maybe three of them, and he looked to be plunging them in and out.

  “I understand my duty,” Esteben said. “And I will comply when I’m ready, and then Headron after me. But we’re going to do it my way, not the Jekhan way.”

  Headron didn’t know what Esteben’s way was. He only knew he was about to come, and he said so.

  “No,” Esteben said. He pushed Headron out of Erin’s mouth and pulled his fingers from her.

  He tugged her to the center of the bed and rolled her over.

  Since her face was turned toward Headron, he could see the look of confusion she wore on it, but she didn’t say anything.

  She was quiet as Esteben yanked down her panties and then guided her up onto her hands and knees.

  She didn’t say anything when he parted her ass cheeks and spit between them, but her eyes were glossy and cheeks bright red. She was complying.

  This’ll be bliss.

  “Come,” he said to Headron. “Slowly. Allow me the pleasure of watching you use that exquisite cock.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Erin wasn’t entirely certain of what was transpiring in the bedroom, but she was afraid to resist it.

  Had she been on Earth, having two gorgeous men in her bed begging to please her would have been her idea of a good night—and possibly a good next morning, too—but she couldn’t separate the politics from the lust.

  She wanted them and what they were doing to her, but shouldn’t have had them.

  “God, why can’t you leave me alone?” she whispered against in the mattress as she notched her fingers against the covers.

  They were so close to her. Esteben was at her side with his hands pressed to her ass and giving her no room to wiggle, much less flee. Headron was behind her, pressing the broad head of his cock against her tightest entrance, and countering her resistance with his hands at her hips.

  “Is that what you really want?” Esteben asked, even as he massaged the sides of her hole as Headron pushed slowly into her.

  “What I want doesn’t matter.”

  “I see. So you’ll simply just be a receptacle for us to expend our seed into.”

  “That is…” Fuck. At Headron’s breaching of her, her spine gave out, and if Headron’s hands hadn’t been at her waist, she would have gone absolutely flat against the bed. Anal sex wasn’t something she generally volunteered for. In fact, the last time she’d had it had been with Dewey. He hadn’t asked. He’d taken, and she’d needed it at the time. She’d been in a certain headspace then, though. With Esteben and Headron. She was feeling far too cerebral to approach that state. Too much was on her mind.

  She tapped out of the fight with her palm. “I surrender. This match is over.”

  “What is she going on about?” Headron asked.

  “Almost certainly some Earth reference,” Esteben said. “Ignore her. She’s already said that what she wants doesn’t matter. I believe that’s her consent for you to continue.”

  Erin sighed and curled her toes against the sides of Headron’s legs. “I don’t like being ganged up on. The last I knew…”

  Headron eased out, and pushed farther back in.

  Erin let out a choked sob, not so much from the pain, but simply reflex—her body’s natural response to an unexpected invasion. “Fuck. The last I knew, you two didn’t like each other.”

  “We don’t have the luxury of being on different sides of this battle.” Esteben pressed his fingers into the meat of her ass and squeezed hard, pushing her cheeks together before releasing her.

  Fuck.

  “I…I believe that’s what this argument is about,” she said. “This is about doing things that you wouldn’t have done if you’d had choices.”

  “Hand me that,” Esteben said.

  Erin couldn’t see what he was indicating, but Headron leaned a bit rightward and backward, sliding out of her a bit, and then cloth was being pressed into her mouth and more fabric was being tied over her lips.

  Gagged.

  “I didn’t like the noises you were making, pet,” Esteben leaned down and whispered as he pinned her wrists at the small of her back again. “Now, as you grunt and moan, I’ll choose to use my imagination and fill in the blanks as to what you might be saying.” He kissed her cheek. Nipped at her ear. Lashed his tongue around the shell and blew over the sensitive skin.

  Oh God.

  She was impossibly wet, and hoped he couldn’t see, because he’d try such a stunt again and she wouldn’t be able to resist.

  She closed her eyes and relaxed her jaw in what should have been a moan, but the sound she made was indistinguishable from a grunt or growl.

  Headron increased the speed of his thrusts, going faster but shallower, intensifying the feeling of expanding fullness that made her want to push him out, or come, or just explode.

  The sounds he made—desperate, breathy pants and whispers—amped up her lust and stimulated her anticipation. She wanted to hear him make more of those noises and for him to take what he needed.

  She squeezed her eyes shut tighter and fisted the sheets with all her might as Headron’s strokes went deeper, then shallower, and her pussy chimed in wanting the attention no one was giving it.

  She couldn’t touch herself. Esteben had her wrists, and Headron’s hands were still clutching her waist, pulling her back against him.

  “Down her thighs,” Headron whispered.

  “I see,” Esteben said.

  Fuck.

  Esteben then leaned over her again, whispering, “Can you come like this?”

  She shook her head.

  She wanted to come, and badly, but the stimulation wasn’t quite right. So much about her orgasms involved mental gymnastics—processing sights, scents, sounds, and sensations all at once and letting them overwhelm her, but she needed a little help from the right nerve endings.

  “So the next question,” Esteben purred, “is do I want you to come?”

  Oh God. He wouldn’t…

  He pulled away. “Finish.”

  “Thank you.” Headron tugged up Erin’s hips and Esteben finally let go of her wrists so she could put her hands down and prop herself up.

  “Feels so good… To be in…”

  “Yes,” Esteben said. “However, given our biological imperative, I’d surmise the pussy’s better. You’ll see.”

  “I can’t wait.”

  Erin rolled her eyes, but in truth, she didn’t really care what they said. They were being provocative, and that was a desirable trait for Jekhan men.

  She liked the premise of her body parts being owned by someone—or someones, in her case—who knew what to do with them. She just didn’t like when people took things for granted.

  They didn’t want to hear what she was saying, and she was going to have to be more forceful about it, right after Headron pulled his dick out of her.

 
Esteben crawled away from her side, and she craned her head around to see where he’d gone, but his back was to her. He knelt beside Headron and was speaking into his ear.

  Headron nodded, and in her periphery Erin caught dark hair falling over shoulders, and she heard Esteben’s grunt of satisfaction.

  She wanted to see. For all the months they’d been sharing a bed, she’d never gotten to see Headron’s hair down.

  The only way she could turn around was to make him come, so she clenched more tightly around him, gasping through her gag at the sting around her ring of flesh, and slammed back toward his belly. She fucked him as he fucked her, and kept rocking even as his hands started to shake at her hips and his whispered affirmations turned into vulgar oaths—dirty promises of what he would do to her next time.

  If she hadn’t been gagged, she would have told him, “I’d like to see you try” or some other teasing thing that would make him want to do exactly that.

  “Stars.”

  He stopped moving, so she did, too, and breathed through the sensation of his cock pulsing inside her, his seed spilling.

  “Feels different,” he said.

  “Mm. In what way? Fertile?”

  “Could that be? It’s never felt that way with any man I’ve been with.”

  “It’s only ever felt one way for me. If there’s a difference, I will know the next time I have her on her back.”

  Erin gave her throat an aggressive clearing. There was provocative and Dominant, and then there was just assholey.

  Muttering an oath, Headron pulled out of her.

  Esteben rolled her onto her back, turned her head to the side, and undid her gag. She spit out the sock he’d stuffed into her mouth and pushed up onto her elbows, glowering at him.

  Before she could say anything in response to his presumption about having her on her back again, there was a knock on the door.

  Headron started to crawl, wearily, toward it, but Esteben reached over Erin’s body and grabbed his arm. “No, your hair is down.”

  And it was. Erin blinked dumbly at the tresses. There had to be two feet of dark hair curtaining his face, making him look like some sort of erotic angel, especially with his skin flushed and mouth parted.