by Mima
With her team mostly accounted for, she let out a deep breath. One hour into the night and she hadn’t seen any of them. Her old team. Her real team. Her loves. Intel had clearly stated they’d all be here for Vel’s coronation. It was only a month since it had all come together. The Duke was dead. His ability to call bugs to a jumpgate had washed rage over the population. The technology was in their hands, and the most brilliant minds in the worlds were working on it. If it could call them, she hoped it could drive them away. Hopefully it would lead them to who had developed it in the first place.
She hadn’t been part of any of it, but she’d kept watch over her men from the lonely distance across space. Grady and Kor had stayed together, for a few months, but then Kor had to take a disability reassignment when he got nicked by an ion cannon. He had lost hearing in one ear. The only thing that had kept her from going to his bed was the fact that he had refused all of her notes she’d tried to send. The fact he had shouted at her as she left that day after handing Char’s team over. The fact that he hadn’t come to drink from her during that last service. He was furious and hurt and she thought her presence would just disturb his recovery.
Grady and she wrote regularly. He had been sick at heart away from Vel, but his call to duty demanded that he contribute the best he could give to the war. Which was everything.
After Kor’s replacement had died, the team had disbanded. Thank Spirit, her and Vel’s prayers were answered and Grady survived. He had a few new scars, but was now assigned to a team that was off the front lines. Very vocal about how much he missed her and how he wanted her off an exploration team and closer to High Post where he could see her more often, he wrote that he had a business proposition for her tonight.
It was going to break her heart to say no. She needed to stay with Jack’s team. She needed to stay far, far away, or she’d be weak, and go right back to his bed. To all of their beds. Frog had explicit instructions not to let her be seduced tonight, but it seemed like the lure of fresh fruit was winning over Malla’s orders.
Vel had taken his increased role in stride. He had directed the hunt for the Duke when he escaped after his conviction, and received the hero’s welcome when the bastard had been retaken, interrogated, and fried. She hadn’t written Vel, passing wishes through Grady, who passed Vel’s back. It was hard enough keeping Grady’s correspondence private. Everything in Vel’s life was scrutinized. She knew he was busy. She knew he was gone from her.
And Shon. Shon would be here tonight as well. He’d become a trainer to newly formed Elite teams. He didn’t write her. She didn’t write him. Her intel reported he trained his men hard, trained himself harder, and kept himself apart. Until four months ago, when the Duke was on the run, and there had been a showdown. The Duke had lured his trackers to a jumpgate and ambushed them with the largest bug attack in history. Scores of men, Luo and others, had died. The battle had raged for six days.
Shon had shipped out on the fourth day. He landed, and the report she received said the battle would’ve gone on much longer if not for him. If not for his…gift. For forty-two hours he’d fought, with no team at his side. He’d been in the med unit a week afterwards and still walked with a limp. He’d almost lost his arm and still had limited use of one hand. And then there was his eye. His beautiful black eye. In the months since, he had gone through rehab.
She’d gone to him. Jack had taken her. She’d gone in with her server cape on, the hood pulled low over her face, in the dark of night when the nurses had made Vel, Kor, and Grady leave. She’d stood by his bed and held his poor, broken hand, the good one. She hadn’t cried.
She whispered to him, for an hour, how much she loved him, how sorry she was that the team had broken up over her, how she missed all of them, how she always would.
When Jack had told her the hour he’d bribed for her was up, Malla had touched
herself, remembering. Softly, she’d petted her clit, rubbing it until she grew sopping, then pinched it with a twist. She’d felt him drink her light and was only able to leave his side knowing she’d contributed to his healing. She told him to live. Maybe he’d heard her because he had lived, even when it looked like he wouldn’t.
She’d see them. Somewhere in this throng of the all the worlds’ most Elite, they’d be here.
Frog appeared at her elbow, offering a slice of cantaloupe. “You have to try this. I almost came when I ate the first one.”
Looking at the tiny, high-strung woman, Malla laughed. “That good?”
“Damn straight.”
“I don’t want to get sticky. With my luck, a big blob of juice will go down my chest.”
“You’re giving up this fruit because you’re worried about looking good?”
Malla just looked at her partner, raising an eyebrow.
“Fine.” Frog huffed testily. “I’ll eat it myself.”
“Such sacrifices you make.”
“Damn straight.”
Malla smiled fondly. “Did you see Ragvald? He’s already been taken in by the first pretty face he saw.”
“He’s such a sucker. Do we know her?”
“I don’t. There. Under the blue chandelier.”
“Ahhhh. That’s Princess Catty-Catriona. If he fucks her, every move will be recorded.
I’m surprised they let her out of her closet tonight.”
“A princess, huh?”
Frog shrugged. “Same parts as us.”
“Where’s Marc?”
“He moved on to the meat.”
Malla raised one eyebrow.
“The real meat, I mean. They have steak from six planets here.”
“Ah. You left me. You can’t do that.”
“Gotcha.”
Frog managed to stand by her side for one song. Then, “Hey, I think they just brought out some grapes over there. Want some?”
Malla sighed. She didn’t even try to argue. “Keep an eye out, will you?”
Frog nodded as she wandered into the crowd. It was weird to see her in the short, slinky pink silk. She looked stunning.
“She’s gorgeous, until she opens her mouth. Then she’s more like a little sister.”
Malla jumped. Happiness burst like a laserwork inside of her. “Grady!”
She leaped up onto him, and he caught her, arms around her waist. She wrapped her arms tight around his neck, kicking her feet as he swung her.
“Malla. Oh, love. Malla.” He whispered in her ear. Then his big hands lowered her and he kissed her.
She kissed him back, just as passionately. His taste, his size, the edge of his close-cut hair beneath her fingers, it was all so familiar, and so very, very missed. She cried as she kissed him, twining her tongue, sealing his mouth.
“Shhhh. What’s this now?” He pulled back, big hands gently wiping her tears.
“I’m s-so h-happy. I m-missed you s-so much.” His eyes were so very blue.
He kissed her, softer, deeper. “Malla.”
She buried her face in his beautiful black suit. Wrapped in his arms, she was safe.
Memories from her precious days with them zinged through her. Grady’s drawn face by Vel’s bedside. Grady and Vel fighting, rolling in a blur across the mats. Grady’s blue eyes looking at her from between her legs, her cream on his mouth. “I want this. All of it.” He was her first. Despite the lovers she’d had before she’d become a server, and all of her training, it really felt like he was her first.
Rolling her face, surreptitiously wiping her tears on him, she sniffed. Mmmmm.
Sniffed again. She reached up and drew his big head down to her, but only smelled his jaw, inhaling deep.
“What is it?” He palmed her ass in his big hands, petting the velvet over her curves.
“You’ve been with him. I know this smell. Vel.”
“Oh, yes. In fact, he’s barely escaped my clutches.” Vel’s voice from behind her had her spinning, speechless.
He looked bigger than she remembered. More handsome, older, eve
n a bit tired. Had she ever seen him with his fiery hair combed? She gaped at him, her gaze darting out at the crowd mere meters from her shadowed alcove. “You shouldn’t be here! You’re to be introduced later!”
“This is where my lovers are. This is where I belong.”
Her hand flew to her trembling mouth. Oh. “Vel.”
“Hello, Malla.” He stood so still. His face was smooth, gray eyes cautious. Too much the Prince, soon to be King.
She flew forward, and he grabbed her, using her momentum to spin her deeper into the shadows, up against the wall. He grabbed her head with his hands, pressed into her body hard. Her arms wrapped under his, covering his shoulders.
“Every woman I’ve had since you left only makes me wish she was you.”
He kissed her, and she sighed into him. The heat, the control, the complete feeling of Vel against her…her head spun. She moaned again, and he growled against her mouth.
“Spirit, you’re so beautiful. No one is as warm and real as you.” His mouth owned her, and her knees gave out, but he held her against the wall, grinding his erection into her belly.
She moaned, nipping at his lips.
“I hear it’s the height of bad taste to seduce someone else’s Elite server.” The drawl came from right next to her ear, startling her into jerking away from Vel.
The shadows were too dark to reveal the color of Kor’s eyes here. He was so shockingly beautiful to her. His face had a new scar mass across one cheek, and it only made him look more dangerous, with those brooding eyes that didn’t match the flippant grin.
“Hullo, my King. Am I interrupting?”
“Kor!” Malla squirmed, but Vel wouldn’t let her loose.
“Kor…damn it’s good to see you.” Vel reached up his hand and cupped the back of
Kor’s neck, pulled him in until their foreheads rested together. “It’s been too long, little brother.”
“Always with the qualifier. Had to throw the ‘little’ in there, didn’t you.” Kor clapped Vel on the back, and they held the embrace. Pulling back, he glanced at her again. Softly, he said, “Malla.”
Vel stepped away, and Malla buried her face in Kor’s neck, his arms tight around her.
He smelled spicy, delicious. She kissed his neck fiercely.
He groaned. “Vel…”
“Bring her this way.”
With a dip of his shoulders Kor tossed her into his arms. He carried her through a door in the wall, perfectly disguised in the historic paneling. Grady followed, closing it behind them.
They went down one hall, out a door, through an official-looking hall and into another room. It was some sort of sitting room, with three groupings of formal chairs and delicate tables. Kor kicked a chair out of the way and laid her down on a long padded bench.
Malla laughed, stretched her hands over her head as she reclined. Anticipation curled in her stomach. She shouldn’t be doing this. She had another team now, and this was rude, while not entirely forbidden. She should tell Frog where she’d gone. She’d worry.
Vel knelt next to her. “I like your hair up like this, the curls. It makes your neck look amazing.”
“Thanks.” The lack of air behind her breathy word was because Kor had pulled one breast free from her V-neck dress and was sucking on it vigorously. The way he drew the whole crest against his mouth was amazing.
“Did they give you this?” Vel flicked the necklace at her throat.
“Yes.”
“I’ll give you something nicer.”
“I like it! Don’t ruin it.”
“I won’t.” He bent, angled her head away, set his teeth to her neck, and began to suck.
All thoughts of her new team vanished. She knew exactly what Vel was doing.
Marking her. “Ahhhh!”
Kor nipped her breast, then pulled her other breast free. The sides of the dress plumped the globes up, despite her position.
Grady picked up her feet and sat at the end of the lounge. He put her feet in his lap, and began to undo the ankle straps of the delicate high heels. “I have a proposition for you, Malla.”
“Grady…not now. I can’t…can’t think.”
Kor growled against her breast, shaking it in his teeth. She cried out. She remembered him doing that, had remembered it a thousand times over the months. Vel moved his mouth from the burning place on her neck, and took her ear, sending his tongue through the folds, and deep inside the sensitive rim. Grady wrapped his huge hands around one foot and began to rub, soothing, firm sweeps. Malla sobbed.
“Yes, I think now is best. What if I were to ask you to join us again. A new Elite Luo team is forming. Alpha Five. It serves the King of Shaubia.” His fingers pulled at each of her toes. Electricity sizzled up her legs.
Kor lifted off her breast. “Fuck. Look at her nipples. Look at them, Vel. Do you see, Grady? I’d forgotten how red they were.” He licked across one tip. “Malla, say yes. Stay with us here. Vel needs help with security, and there’s spying and thieving to do. It will be fun.”
He licked her in a frenzy.
Vel lifted from her ear to watch Kor for a moment. Malla went to move her arms from above her head and his hand came down on her crossed wrists, pressing them firmly to the couch. “It’s important. It’s a bit dangerous, but I believe you can handle it. I need people I trust absolutely. You’re the only server who meets that bill for me, lovely. Kor, stop slobbering on her. Suck.” He went back to her neck.
“Shut the fuck up, Vel.” But Kor obeyed, sucking. Malla had been panting through his lashing, but now keened, twisting beneath the men. “I can’t do that, Vel. I can’t lose myself.
You didn’t listen to me. You were right about Shon, but I was, too.”
Grady pushed her dress up. Straddling the wide lounge, he put one of her feet over each of his spread thighs. He slid his hands up and down her shins, then leaned forward to push his hands up her thighs. “How were we both right, Malla?”
She bucked, arching. Kor bit her, then went back to sucking.
Her teeth clenched at the long, hard licks Vel was tracing up and down her neck.
“Shon was dangerous. He shouldn’t have been put in situations where he could turn on civilians. But he should’ve had watchers that guarded him more closely, so he could trust his gift. He was just left to deal with it alone, and you were all so ready to fear him. You all had jobs to do in the fight. You all hoped you could be his watchers, but it wasn’t enough. He was so afraid, and you were so brutal. He needed a partner dedicated to just shadowing him. He needed support.”
Grady’s fingers toyed in the fold where her thigh met her hips.
Kor lifted off her chest, pulling on her puffy nipples with strong hands. “Spirit, I love your tits.” He bent and licked along the bottom of one breast, under the weight of it.
Pinchingand rolling her breasts onto pain’s pretty edge, Kor spread heat across her torso. She moaned when a wash of cream burned her outer lips. Grady saw it. She moaned again. Kor’s pure passion could always take coherent thought away.
Vel spoke against her throat. “That’s very true, Malla. We did fail our team leader, while he never failed us. Now he’s an interstellar hero, and I’m so proud of him. I want him back. Not because of that, but because I want him on our team. I miss him.”
“You…you do?” Her lids fluttered. She struggled to think.
Grady gently peeled her pussy lips open. Her clit throbbed at the exposure. Vel
traveled along her collarbone with stinging nips. Kor sat back and ripped her dress right down the middle, then fell on her belly, kissing all around her ribs.
Grady scooted up, bunching her dress around her hips. Kor growled and pushed it back down out of his way. Her thighs draped over Grady’s, spreading her wide. He touched one finger gently to her clit.
“Oh!” Her hips jerked.
“Malla, we all miss you so much. We miss Shon, too. We miss each other, one family, the way it was for such a beautiful, crazy time
. The way it should be.” Grady’s thick finger sank into her.
She clamped hard on it, swished her hips. But Kor took hold of them and pinned them down while he dipped into her belly button.
“You…do?” She panted. “Grady, you’d leave the battle lines?”
“I’m not leaving the war. I’m switching fronts. I’m ready to be a better partner to my lifemate.” He added another finger, working to open her softness.
Vel moved on his knees down to Grady, grabbed him. They kissed. It was so beautiful to see again. Tears welled in her eyes.
“Spirit, I still say you’re never going to do me, but you guys are so hot when you do that.” Kor panted against her belly, watching the two men from where he lapped at one hip.
Vel pulled away from Grady and looked at Malla. His eyes were practically mirrors with the intense emotion shining out of them. “Malla. Forgive us. We’ll be better at listening to you. Come back, let’s be a team again.”
“I…can’t. I can’t be with men who won’t believe me when I say it wasn’t rape.” Vel started to speak but she shook her head wildly and talked over him. “Even if you say you believe it, Shon won’t. He doesn’t trust himself. How could he with all that he’s been through? He won’t believe me when I say he’s trustworthy. When I say that I love all of him.
I can’t be with a man who doesn’t believe he’s worthy of love.”
Grady drew his hand from her. Moaning, Kor sat back, too, although one hand continued to massage and mold one breast.
Vel turned his head. “Shon, can you respond to that challenge?”
Malla jackknifed up to see Shon step out of the shadows on the far side of the room.
“Shon!” She braced her arms behind her, with her jaw hanging open. Then rage burned through her at the set up, at all he’d heard while they distracted her. “Oh! You…you rats !”
She glared at Vel.
He smirked at her, calm as can be. “As bad as that, Malla?”