Maryam

by Tracy St. John

  How­ever, there were many con­cerns fol­low­ing her first tryst, namely Kels’s re­ac­tion to it. “Wouldn’t it get you in trou­ble?”

  “You’re worth it.”

  That made her smile. “Thank you. Just when I start think­ing Kels is al­most like­able, he shows him­self to be a jerk.”

  Pana sighed, his ir­ri­tabil­ity fad­ing. “Ac­tu­ally, he’s a great man. His duty is war­ring with his honor, and now loy­alty is pulling at him.”

  “Loy­alty to Briel?” Guilt tugged at Maryam.

  “To his best child­hood friend, though his con­science to our Matara is no doubt wor­ry­ing him as it does me.” Pana ex­plained Kels’s re­la­tion­ship with Se­bist.

  “If not for this friend and the idea Se­bist should get first crack at me, he’d be fine with what hap­pened be­tween us?” Maryam won­dered at her re­lief now that she un­der­stood Kels wasn’t blam­ing her for the romp with Pana.

  “He likes you, Maryam. He acts like a jerk be­cause he feels aw­ful about your cur­rent sit­u­a­tion and be­ing the rea­son for it.”

  Maryam mused at the strange twists and turns her life’s jour­ney had em­barked upon. “What’s your take on this Dramok Se­bist?”

  Pana took a while to an­swer, as if re­luc­tant to re­spond. “He’s ter­rific. As fine and up­stand­ing a man as you can imag­ine. He’s worth ev­ery ounce of angst Kels is go­ing through.”

  “Do you think I should join his clan? If I had any in­ten­tion of stay­ing on Kalquor, that is.” She couldn’t be­lieve she asked such a ques­tion, but go­ing home to Earth had ceased to be an op­tion. She may as well con­sider all al­ter­na­tives—though some­thing within her re­jected the idea of any clan that wasn’t Pana’s. Even if Kels was un­happy about it.

  “Se­bist’s clan would give you the moons and the stars of the em­pire if you agreed to be their Matara.”

  “You ad­mit that grudg­ingly.”

  “I’d rather ex­plore my clan’s chances with you.” Pana kicked the floor, his head bowed as he ad­mit­ted to it.

  Maryam’s heart’s pace quick­ened.

  Im­pos­si­ble. She couldn’t join a clan. Es­pe­cially not Kels’s, not when he erupted with bit­ter con­science ev­ery few hours. She needed to put such a no­tion right out of her skull.

  The sound of the dis­tant door open­ing drew a sigh from Pana. He rolled his eyes the­atri­cally at Maryam, but there was ten­sion in his stance. Maryam as­sumed Kels was re­turn­ing.

  How­ever, the Imdiko’s at­ti­tude changed af­ter a cou­ple of sec­onds. He cocked his head and grinned. “It must be Der­gan re­turn­ing.”

  “I don’t hear any­thing.”

  “Ex­actly.”

  A mo­ment later, Der­gan ap­peared at the ‘door­way’ be­tween the bins. He glanced around, his ex­pres­sion grouchy. “Where is he? I want to yell at him some more.”

  “He’s not here.” Pana chuck­led.

  “Oh. Well.” The Nobek glanced at Maryam. His face red­dened, and he stared down at his boots.

  Great. He was re­mem­ber­ing her naked. “This isn’t a bit awk­ward, is it?” she smarted off, ac­knowl­edg­ing her hu­mil­i­a­tion with sar­casm. Heat move from her throat to the top of her scalp.

  “Should I leave?”

  “I’ve been or­dered to not touch her again,” Pana sighed.

  Der­gan glanced up at him. His lips wrin­kled from his teeth in a show of tem­per.

  Maryam’s pulse quick­ened. Did the Nobek re­al­ize how sexy he was when he was an­gry? Dan­ger lurked be­neath the sur­face, dark­en­ing his stare, mak­ing that mus­cu­lar body tense. No doubt the fact his ir­ri­ta­tion wasn’t di­rected at her helped fuel the ner­vous ex­cite­ment his war­rior aura brought out.

  Mean­while, Pana bright­ened. “Kels didn’t men­tion any­thing about you two get­ting to know each other bet­ter. I can watch.”

  “Pana!” Maryam threw a pil­low at him, her face flam­ing hot.

  “Well, you were check­ing Der­gan out.”

  “She was? You were?” Dan­ger was re­placed by glee. The Nobek’s grin, openly las­civ­i­ous, make Maryam laugh de­spite her em­bar­rass­ment.

  “Rogues, both of you. Fine, you’re easy on the eyes, Der­gan. I ad­mit to ogling.”

  “Kels made it clear I should keep my dis­tance too.” He phrased it like a ques­tion.

  “I have no in­ten­tion what­so­ever of join­ing Se­bist’s clan.” Maryam re­al­ized be­lat­edly she sounded as if she were en­cour­ag­ing Der­gan to pur­sue her.

  What was with her? She was beg­ging for trou­ble. Yet her en­counter with Pana had brought slum­ber­ing urges to life. Maryam missed be­ing with a man. Be­ing held. Con­sumed with pas­sion.

  Pana had started some­thing Maryam didn’t want stopped. The re­al­iza­tion stunned her.

  Mean­while, Der­gan con­tem­plated her, his ex­pres­sion telling her he turned the mat­ter over in his mind. “Kels was adamant that if any clan had a claim to you, it would be Se­bist’s. He’d rather cut off an arm than dis­ap­point his friend. How­ever, I just had a crazy idea that might put the prob­lem to rest.”

  Maryam leaned for­ward, pat­ting the bed next to her in an in­vi­ta­tion for the Nobek to sit. “You have my at­ten­tion.”

  Der­gan shared his idea, and Maryam agreed it was an ex­cel­lent one. Car­ry­ing it out took a few min­utes of plan­ning and even fewer to im­ple­ment. Af­ter it was done, the trio con­grat­u­lated them­selves with high spir­its.

  Along with in­tense ca­ma­raderie. Maryam was amused and cha­grined to find her­self snug­gling with Der­gan and Pana. She was as­ton­ished at how nor­mal it felt to do so with two men.

  Who was this woman she’d be­come in such a short space of time? Had she been this way all along, with­out re­al­iz­ing it?

  She voiced some of her war­ring in­stincts to her com­pan­ions. “Just so you know, I can’t imag­ine hav­ing to live with three men in a mar­riage-type sit­u­a­tion. One was dif­fi­cult enough.”

  “It’s ob­vi­ous from what you’ve told us that your pre­vi­ous re­la­tion­ship was not a good match.” Der­gan gazed down at her, his strong fea­tures gen­tled from the smile he wore.

  “It wasn’t even ar­ranged,” Pana re­minded her.

  “You have a point. I was en­gaged for a year be­fore mar­ry­ing, be­lieved I knew him—yet when the sit­u­a­tion turned dif­fi­cult, he left me.” Maryam con­cen­trated on their arms em­brac­ing her, hold­ing her in a warm co­coon. Un­like her ex, Der­gan and Pana gave her their com­plete at­ten­tion as she re­mem­bered the hurt of that pe­riod.

  They’d get that whole bit of ‘for bet­ter or for worse, in sick­ness and in health’ right. They were do­ing it now, when they were barely more than ac­quainted with her.

  Why do these aliens have to be so damned per­fect?

  Der­gan in­ter­rupted her thoughts. “What are you smil­ing about?”

  “Am I? I sup­pose I’m amused at the turn this ab­duc­tion has taken. My kid­nap­pers have be­come my trusted con­fi­dantes. It’s bizarre.”

  “So maybe we’re not too aw­ful?” The Nobek’s grin and hope­ful tone widened her smile. She shook a fin­ger at him.

  “Hey, I told you—I’m not a three-man woman.”

  “Maybe clan­ship is more than you can en­vi­sion. Yet you’re cu­ri­ous about be­ing with two of us at once?”

  Their arms tight­ened around her, and they eased closer, sand­wich­ing her be­tween them­selves. Maryam’s body hummed with arousal. Cu­ri­ous? Yes. Will­ing? Hell, yes.

  Why not? She was al­ready judged and sen­tenced as far as Earth was con­cerned.

  Pre­tend­ing non­cha­lance, Maryam took her time an­swer­ing. “Hmm. It’s an idea. It could be worth my while, but I might have to be en­cour­aged.”

  “Ah. Well, I�
��ll have to see if my pow­ers of per­sua­sion are up to the task.”

  Der­gan kissed her, his lips mov­ing sin­u­ously against hers, his tongue teas­ing en­trance into her mouth to taste. Elec­tric­ity siz­zled through­out Maryam as his large palm cov­ered her breast. He kneaded it ex­pertly, pluck­ing through her blouse and bra at the brazenly hard nip­ple.

  An­other hand, slip­ping un­der her shirt and bra to touch bare flesh. Pana’s breath warmed Maryam’s ear, his tongue trac­ing its whorls as she writhed un­der their ac­com­plished at­ten­tions. Her panties were soaked.

  “The ru­mors of Earther fe­male frigid­ity are crim­i­nally ex­ag­ger­ated,” Pana whis­pered. “You are a pas­sion­ate woman, more than ca­pa­ble of sat­is­fy­ing two men.”

  She in­tended to prove him right.

  Maryam traced Der­gan’s im­pres­sive swells of mus­cle as he con­tin­ued to plun­der her mouth. Pana had been carved, but the Nobek was an­other level of brawn. He made Maryam feel frag­ile, and she imag­ined he was ca­pa­ble of break­ing her in half with a mere flick of a fin­ger. The idea lit her with ea­ger­ness, and she won­dered why.

  An­other im­age, that of him hold­ing her down as he claimed what he wanted, all he wanted. As Pana had. Her sex spasmed at the raw fan­tasy. It con­vulsed again when she imag­ined her­self at the mercy of both. It wasn’t hard to en­vi­sion when Pana held her blouse and bra out of the way, so Der­gan could ac­cess her breasts with his rough, cal­loused paw.

  Who am I? she won­dered again.

  Der­gan broke the kiss, leav­ing her lips tin­gling. They felt swollen and bruised, and Maryam moaned at his show of strength. His in­tense gaze left her trem­bling.

  “What do you en­joy?” he whis­pered. “Or should I ask my clan­mate?”

  “Com­mand her, my Nobek,” Pana said. “Per­haps I could hold her down for you?”

  Maryam’s breath caught, and her eyes widened. Her heart boomed with such fe­roc­ity, she feared it might leap out of her chest.

  A slow, know­ing smile spread over Der­gan’s mug. “Yes. Pin her to the bed so I may freely ex­plore all of her.”

  The next in­stant, Maryam’s shirt and bra were tugged off, flut­ter­ing through the air. Pana gripped her wrists, pulling her down so she lay be­neath Der­gan, her arms im­mo­bi­lized over her head. The po­si­tion stretched her torso, bring­ing her breasts up, as if to present them to the Nobek.

  He ac­cepted the in­vi­ta­tion, maul­ing her with hands, lips, tongue, and teeth. Maryam cried out as he nipped her, but she thrust to­ward his vo­ra­cious mouth, ea­ger for more.

  “That’s it. You’re his to en­joy,” Pana told her, his gaze bright with en­thu­si­asm as Der­gan de­voured her. “I’ll see to it you give him all he wishes.”

  A dim part of Maryam’s brain won­dered if Pana could read her mind. How had he in­tu­ited her de­sire? Was she so trans­par­ent?

  It didn’t mat­ter, not when he kept her vul­ner­a­ble to Der­gan’s vo­ra­cious ap­petite, not when her se­cret fan­tasy was be­ing played out with erotic per­fec­tion. Not when she was des­per­ate to be filled once again, filled as only a Kalquo­rian man could.

  “Soft woman,” Der­gan growled, his words muf­fled against her. He tugged at her skirt, pulling it from her hips. It slith­ered down her calves, pud­dling at her an­kles. Her panties quickly fol­lowed. The Nobek lifted her legs, free­ing her of the last of her cloth­ing. Leav­ing her naked, ex­posed.

  He lifted from her, stand­ing up­right and step­ping back to view her splayed across the bed. Pana grinned at Der­gan and held her help­less, rub­bing his palm over her breasts, belly, and mound. He grasped the thigh clos­est to him and lifted up and away, open­ing her for the Nobek’s pe­rusal. “She has a lovely pussy, doesn’t she?”

  Der­gan’s strong jaw clenched. He licked his lips as he stared at Maryam’s sex, and she whim­pered at the hun­gry gaze riv­eted on her.

  Pana in­haled deeply. “Smell her. She tastes as in­cred­i­ble as her scent prom­ises. See how wet she is? How ripe for the tak­ing?”

  Der­gan’s ex­pres­sion turned bes­tial, and Maryam’s heart skit­tered in out­right fear. He looked more an­i­mal than man in that in­stance, and real ter­ror coursed through her.

  Yet her pussy con­vulsed in an­tic­i­pa­tion, en­thralled with the man’s beastly as­pect. When he flung him­self to his knees, swoop­ing down on her wom­an­hood, she cried out more from ea­ger an­tic­i­pa­tion than fright.

  That was noth­ing com­pared to her shout when his lips and tongue moved over her pussy, lick­ing her folds and kiss­ing her clit. Light­ning flashed across her vi­sion. She tried to buck, un­able to con­trol her body’s re­ac­tion, but Der­gan’s weight held her down—which only in­creased the thrill.

  “An­ces­tors, yes. He’ll eat that pussy, then he’ll fuck it. You’ll come for him.” Pana leaned over her, star­ing into her face as he tweaked her nip­ples. The zaps of pain he dealt jolted straight to her clit, trans­form­ing into ex­hil­a­ra­tion. He squeezed the full mounds un­til they ached, height­en­ing his mas­tery over her.

  Two thick fin­gers en­tered her, pump­ing as Der­gan sucked her swollen clit. She squalled, over­come. Pana gen­tly slapped each breast, adding heat to the sen­sa­tions over­whelm­ing her. She jerked des­per­ately against the men, but could barely move.

  “Mmm, are you try­ing to es­cape us? Try­ing to break free? No, lit­tle Earther, you’ll stay right where you are. We’ll take what we wish from you. There’s noth­ing you can do about it.”

  Maryam groaned, feel­ing won­der­fully help­less. Der­gan’s fin­gers pumped in and out of her sex, their tips forc­ing heady fric­tion that set her eyes rolling. Pana’s lips pressed to hers, and their tongues twined to­gether.

  They kept at her un­til her cries were con­tin­u­ous. Thoughts tried to form but were shred­ded be­fore she could re­al­ize them. All was sen­sa­tion; de­li­cious, ex­hil­a­rat­ing sen­sa­tion.

  She kicked vi­o­lently when Der­gan’s mouth left her and his fin­gers pulled free. His low chuckle an­swered, along with the soft purr of a seam sep­a­rat­ing.

  Pana ended the kiss, lean­ing back so Maryam could see Der­gan stand­ing be­tween her legs, draped over the edge of the sleep­ing mat. The fly por­tion of his form­suit was open, ex­pos­ing his dark, swollen shafts. He stroked the pair in each hand, look­ing down on her with ra­bid lust.

  “I trust you’re still stretched from your en­counter with my Imdiko,” he rum­bled in a thick voice. “If not, you’ll ad­just soon enough.”

  He scooped her leg in the bend of his arm, tilt­ing her hips to greet the on­com­ing cocks. She shud­dered as the pri­mary’s tip probed her pussy. He was as big as Pana. His sexes were veined, livid lengths, ap­pear­ing big­ger with ev­ery sec­ond he paused. He watched her, let­ting an­tic­i­pa­tion turn her shiv­er­ing into quakes.

  Then he was thrust­ing in, mak­ing her yield. Maryam gasped at the surge of ec­static hurt, too over­whelmed to do more than jerk. They were both slick with pas­sion, and he en­tered fast de­spite the snug fit. The vi­o­lent fric­tion set off a burst of raw ela­tion, and Maryam raced straight to the precipice of or­gasm.

  Der­gan stared at where they melded to­gether, his chest heav­ing as if he’d run a marathon. He moaned low in his throat, and his cocks jolted. “Fuck,” he breathed.

  “That was close,” Pana chuck­led.

  The Nobek gripped Maryam’s hips, forc­ing her still while he re­cov­ered con­trol. She whim­pered as cli­max re­ceded, leav­ing her aching.

  “Please,” she whis­pered.

  “I like the sound of that,” Pana smirked. “Do you hear her, my Nobek? She’s beg­ging for it.”

  “I hear her.” The big­ger man’s eyes glit­tered as he looked his prize over. “I say we give her all she can han­dle. Did you have her mouth
yet?”

  Pana froze. The sharp, sweet scent of some­thing cin­na­mon-y wafted in the air. “Not yet.”

  “It’s time you did. Our lovely com­pan­ion wants to taste you. Don’t you, Maryam?” When her pussy con­vulsed, he barked a strained laugh. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  Serve both at once? It was shock­ing and en­thralling to vi­su­al­ize—how much bet­ter would the ac­tual ex­pe­ri­ence be?

  She found out in short or­der. Within a cou­ple of sec­onds, Pana knelt over her, strad­dling her shoul­ders. His cocks, re­leased from his form­suit, hov­ered over her. The cin­na­mon-like scent in­ten­si­fied. Would he taste as good as he smelled?

  Still grip­ping her wrists in one hand, he used the other to nudge his smaller shaft out of the way. Then he low­ered, his pri­mary de­scend­ing to­ward her open mouth.

  Hot, smooth skin, strangely soft though it cov­ered steely flesh, filled her senses. The sweet­ish-spicy nip of his fla­vor danced over her tongue. Maryam moaned. He did taste de­li­cious. Far bet­ter than her ex-hus­band had.

  The an­gle wouldn’t al­low her to ac­cept much of him, but she did her best. Her tongue twined around Pana’s of­fer­ing, to de­light him and her­self. His breath caught.

  “Mother of All, help me.”

  The strain in his tone brought a rush of pride to the fore. Maryam might not have the ex­pe­ri­ence of a Kalquo­rian, but what she did, she did well.

  Pana’s hips lifted and dipped, fuck­ing her mouth. Tak­ing up the same rhythm, Der­gan pulled free un­til only the ta­pered tips of his sexes re­mained within her. Then he thrust, fill­ing her yet again.

  It was Maryam’s turn to go breath­less. The dou­ble full­ness of Kalquo­rian male mov­ing within, along with the tit­il­lat­ing car­nal­ity of an­other us­ing her for oral sat­is­fac­tion, was in­cred­i­ble. Be­ing held help­less to their de­sires, play­ing the sex slave Earth had in­sisted Kalquo­ri­ans wished her to be, was the most ex­hil­a­rat­ing thing she’d ex­pe­ri­enced. Maybe the thrill of such a li­ai­son was per­verse, but Maryam couldn’t re­mem­ber ever feel­ing so alive. So vi­brant. Each sense was en­er­gized, al­low­ing her to ex­pe­ri­ence hy­per­aware­ness of her body, of the men fill­ing it.