Her exploration encountered hard, smooth skin. She delved further, breath catching as she measured his length. “Um…”
Xander stilled, frozen like a statue, and suddenly she understood his trepidation and reluctance to let her in his pants.
Because there was more than one dick there above his heavy balls, both of them hard and throbbing under her questing fingers. She smoothed her index and middle finger over the one on top, then its lower twin, the breath caught in her throat. “Holy shit. You’re a Lexar.”
“Half.”
The revelation shocked as much as it fascinated. She stroked him again, earning another low groan, but it wasn’t enough to satisfy her mounting curiosity. Now that she knew the truth, she wanted—no, needed—to see everything.
After moving around the couch, Thandie knelt between his legs and tugged on his waistband, urging Xander to raise his ass enough for her to pull the pajama bottoms down his muscular thighs. Both dicks stood at full attention, but the one on top was harder, flushed dark, and an inch longer.
“Thandie—”
“Is this what you were hiding from me? Did you think I’d judge you?”
His chest moved in a deep breath. She had the sexiest man on the ship, maybe the sexiest man in all the Royal Navy, sprawled back naked on a couch in front of her, vulnerable and exposed. She stroked one of his cocks and held back a gleeful giggle when the other twitched in response, as if jealous of the attention she’d given its twin. “Maybe.”
“You’re not gonna get any alien hate from me.” She might not have known what the hell to do with two dicks, since all of her plans had involved one, but she certainly wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Improvising, she wrapped one hand around each and sized them up. “Do they both…?”
“Fully functioning, I assure you.”
Twice the fun for her.
Up and down, she found a casual rhythm while a low growl rumbled in Xander’s chest. Now, the resemblance to his Lexar ancestry was unmistakable. She thought back to all the signs—enormous muscles, impressive height, the feral gleam she sometimes saw in his eyes, and the glow she’d chalked up to her imagination. Both of his cocks were girthy and plump, thickly veined and so hard in her hands. She tried to imagine both of them inside her and a hot flush swept over her.
Would both even fit at once?
Daunted, but not disgusted, Thandie leaned forward between his thighs and kissed the dark, smooth crown of his bottom cock. He shuddered and closed his eyes. The other received the same tender care, but then she took it a step further and drew him into her mouth. Xander sucked in a sharp breath. His hips bucked forward, then he fisted a handful of couch cushion.
His low groan was pure pleasure to her ears and all the encouragement she needed to continue. To return the favor. To spoil and delight him as he’d satisfied her on Athena.
“You don’t have to do this.”
“I want to. Completely selfless. Because it’s what you did for me.” He opened his mouth to respond, but she cut him off. “And because I want to,” she repeated for emphasis. Then her mouth was on him again, his hips jerking.
It took her a moment, but she found a rhythm, using her mouth on one dick and her hands on the other. Then she swapped, ensuring both received equal treatment. At some point, Xander had taken hold of her hair and threaded his fingers through it.
She peeked up to find him watching her, eyes smoldering with desire. One lick, one stroke of her tongue against the throbbing underside, sent a shudder through his body. “Is it good?”
“Fuck yes.”
Thandie sucked him into her mouth again and tested her limit, thrusting him deeper on each glide. He filled her mouth, stretching her lips around him, and then she hummed. Xander swore again. His hips pumped up and down, breaths ragged and muscles so tight every inch of definition stood out from his glorious eight-pack to his corded neck when his head fell back against the couch. She pushed past the ache in her jaw and refused to stop.
“Thandie, baby, I’m gonna blow.” His voice was thick and husky with passion, little more than a sensual murmur.
“Perfect.”
Preparing for his orgasm, she pressed his cocks together and took the tips of both into her mouth, uncertain if they’d come simultaneously. Xander swore under his breath and tensed, the hand in her hair tightening its grip.
One spurted before the other, the rush of it felt throbbing down the shaft until it exploded from the rounded tip and filled her mouth with the rich, salty taste of him. Xander’s fingers tangled in her hair, hips thrusting wildly, erratically, his low groans rising louder as the spent cock pulsed its final drops. She let it slip out, aware that the lower cock remained hard.
And then she slipped it deeply into her mouth until it reached her throat and hummed.
His cry was absolute bliss conveyed in one word. Another spurt pulsed as he shouted her name, every muscle of his delicious frame seeming to tighten and ripple. She lapped up and swallowed each drop, until his second dick was as soft as the first. Thandie kissed both a last time and turned her face against his thigh.
“Fuck,” Xander exhaled after a few moments passed. He still hadn’t opened his eyes.
Laughing, she stroked his abs. “Feel better?”
“I’d be better if you were up here beside me.”
Needing no further encouragement, she joined him on the couch. The minutes blurred together, lost in a series of slow and drugging kisses. Hands wandered and fingers explored, gliding over curves, muscles, and ticklish places. They were free to kiss without urgency or guilt, no patients awaiting his care and no marines relying on their vigilance.
Suddenly, he drew back and ran his fingers through her hair. After a few moments of enduring his silent study, heat rushed to her face. How could he make her feel so beautiful with only a look?
“What are you thinking about?”
“I was deciding whether to ask if you wanted to stay. I happen to be an excellent bedtime cuddler.”
“You’d have to toss me out to get rid of me now.”
“C’mere.” He reached down and dragged Thandie to her feet by both hands, only to draw her close with both arms around her. She stepped into the embrace, placing her hands at his hips.
“I feel I should warn you. I’m a horrible bed hog.” Her words were only half in jest.
“I’m not worried.”
“Good.” The warmth and humor suffused her voice with an inviting quality, chasing the fluttering moments of shyness and anxiety away.
With their sleeping arrangements made, Thandie stripped off her boots and coveralls. She joined him in only a camisole and panties, crawling beneath the tidy sheets and into his secure embrace. The bed fit them both with room to spare, much nicer than her enlisted bunk.
“That’s pretty.” Thandie said, gesturing toward a keepsake bottle on the nightstand. Pink sand glittered at the bottom of a water-filled globe, cushioning three pearlescent shells. The room’s dim lighting glinted off several fine purple and ivory filaments floating inside. It resembled a marine feather duster. “Is that from Elora?”
Xander inhaled deeply. “It is.”
“What is it?”
“Ask me again another day, and I’ll tell you.” He squeezed her tightly and pressed his lips against her brow. “Right now, I only want to enjoy having you here.”
She sensed a sudden wave of nostalgia and sadness fluttering to the surface of his thoughts. And the last thing she wanted was to taint the sensual mood. Rather than give in to her curiosity, she dropped the subject and snuggled in closer.
There was plenty of time to learn all of Xander Vargas’s secrets, because now that she had him, nothing would convince her to let go.
Chapter Eleven
The shift was never going to end. While there had been a decrease in the number of crewmen needing medical services, it had also resulted in one hell of a boring day for the doctors who worked in the infirmary.
“Wan
t one?” Kathleen asked Xander, leaning one hip against the desk. She held out a bag of assorted chocolates and candies that had already suffered a thorough rummaging from the medical technicians.
He grunted. “Who the hell ate all the Silk Classics?”
“Lil got to them before you. Maybe if you were socializing with the rest of us instead of hiding in your office, you would have gotten a few.”
Xander growled under his breath and plucked out an acceptable substitute, turning his nose up at the ones with nuts.
“I’ve never met a man so bloody picky about his sweets.”
“We have an hour of this bullshit left. I need sugar, and I’d like to get it without picking nuts out of my teeth in front of my next patient.” He plucked a few more of his choice favorites from the bag, then groaned inwardly when Kathleen scooted her rear onto the corner of his desk.
“If you get a patient. It’s been dead for you, too.” She popped another candy into her mouth and watched him. “You know, I’m a practicing empath.”
“So? You mentioned this to me before.” Every other person on the street had some empathic ability these days, a positive side effect of humankind moving to the planet Albion a few generations ago. Most never took the time to hone their skills and develop some talent with the ability.
“You’re excited about something. What’s up, Xander? You’re hiding in your office, anxious to leave when you’re usually the last to go, and you’re stuffing your face with candies—when they’re serving fried chicken in the mess tonight. Your favorite.”
“If you are reading my thoughts, I will punch you out of this ship’s airlock. I’ll explain later to Bishop about why he lost a physician.” He avoided meeting her eyes and kicked the trash bin out from behind his desk. “I have a lot of things on my mind.”
“Oh, touchy-touchy. You know I don’t read thoughts. C’mon. Dish.”
A quick glance to the left and to the right confirmed no one was within earshot. Their conversation would remain private. “I have a date.”
“Ohhh?” Her eyebrows rose beneath her bangs. “Will you meet her for tea in the cafe? Or shall it be a make-out in the bio-farm? That’s where all the kids are snogging these days.”
“It’s an online date,” Xander quickly clarified. “I don’t want… we aren’t ready to meet in public here yet.” Except he’d been an excited dumbass and forgotten to ask for her game handle. Xander sighed and considered phoning Thandie back to ask, but her time on the clock wasn’t as fluid. He had all the free time he needed between patients.
“I have to say, I’m curious about who’s caught your eye. Pretty sure you’re not going to tell me, though.” Hart wrinkled her nose at him.
“You guessed correctly.”
“Go on, then. Sod off and get out of here. Shift is almost up, and unless Viljoen rips someone’s tech out of a socket, you won’t be needed.”
“You don’t mind?” Xander hesitated, perched on the edge of his seat.
“I can handle things. Besides, the way your feelings are bouncing all over the place, you won’t be focused anyway.”
“Thanks, Kath.”
He was halfway to his stateroom when his communicator beeped.
“Tactical room, Xander.”
Ethan’s terse voice cut off and Xander swore. A call like that meant now, not later. He turned about and headed directly for the briefing room as ordered. Viljoen arrived at the same time and didn’t utter a word or acknowledge his sociable nod.
Ethan, Amelia, and Oshiro had already taken their seats. Their grim expressions told it all.
“We just received word from the Glenn. She’s been on similar missions as ours in the Tersian Nebula.” Ethan cut to the point without greeting them. “They discovered a mining settlement out there under the same circumstances as Athena. Only they arrived too late and the pirates left more bodies behind than they took.”
“We forwarded several autopsy results to your personal medical rig, Doctor Vargas,” Amelia informed him. “You’ll find them to be of interest.”
“Why is that?” Xander asked politely.
“The survivors from Athena said the pirates took everyone with cybernetic implants on the ship first and secured them. After that, they weeded through the rest. According to the personnel files, everyone taken either had an implant or was a technician involved in the manufacture of cybernetic parts.”
“Right. So, we have pirates on a high-tech ship with their sights set on cyborgs.”
“The bodies found by the Glenn had been… stripped.” Amelia frowned and pulled up a file on the display. Over a dozen images flickered open, each more disturbing than the last.
“What the hell is all that?” Viljoen leaned forward to get a better look.
“Someone practiced cerebral augmentation on that man. Right here, I recognize it by the cyberware burns on the left temporal lobe.” Xander stared at the frozen image hovering above their table. “Typically, we’re allowed minimal interference with the brain.”
The photos portrayed another story, one with opened skulls and blank, staring faces attached to motionless corpses, their bodies strewn over the ground like refuse. It wasn’t ethical. It wasn’t right.
“He is correct,” Oshiro said. “Good eye, Xander. I didn’t recognize the burns.”
“Okay. It’s clear that they’re abducting experimental subjects, but why would they prefer to take cyborgs?” Viljoen asked, cutting in. “If they plan to do the work on them already…”
Experimental brain research could help millions, but the strict codes enacted by the Lexar forbade it. Of all the scientific advancements they’d made to their own race and to humankind, the brain was the one organ left untouched.
To the Lexar, the brain was sacred.
His brows notched, then he went back to another autopsy photograph to examine the placement of the scarring. “I’ve got it.”
“Well, don’t keep us in suspense,” Viljoen said.
The four officers gave Xander their full attention. “When the steps are made to become a cyborg, often we install a small neurochip against the spinal cord just above C1. It’s a wireless conduit between the brain and the new cybernetic part. Practically every cyborg over the past twenty years should have one. Because it isn’t actual brain augmentation, it’s cool with the Lexar.”
“You think they’re after the chips?” Ethan asked. “Why not simply hijack a freighter with a shipment of them on the way to a medical installation?”
“No. About ten percent of the cyborg population rejects their chip. When that happens, they’re downgraded to a less efficient, but very useful, model from early century. There’s a firm that specializes in building more of the old tech to today’s standards.
“You think they’re hunting for cyborgs who have already undergone the trial?” Viljoen asked. “Christ. I didn’t know it was so complicated.”
“Choosing cybernetics isn’t an easy decision. There was once a time when many died on the table, but we’ve gotten that down to less than a 0.01% chance.” For a marine with a career, like Thandie, augmentation became absolutely necessary to remain in the military. Otherwise they faced medical discharge, all their effort and years of training gone to waste.
Viljoen grimaced. “I didn’t know.”
Xander shifted through the remaining images until he reached the report. “But there’s more to it than that. They’re also claiming registered psychics. I believe that whoever we’re after has chosen to abduct them for illegal brain experimentation. A psychic’s brain can accept a lot of punishment before it’s absolutely exhausted beyond the point of regenerating.”
“Why plant the seed when you can purchase a sapling? Only, in their case, they’re stealing living human beings.” The words chilled Xander as they left Oshiro’s mouth. “But what do we plan to do about it?”
“Find them,” Ethan said. “I have Shahid and Lockhart conducting a search of their own. In the meantime, we plan to visit the remaining outer-
rim colonies, set them on alert. We’ll conduct weapons training with their militias and local police forces to prepare them.”
Amelia crossed her arms, lips in a flat, disapproving line. “Still, what is their goal? Can just anyone do this kind of work on a body? You went through years of training to get where you are.”
“Takes a skilled neurosurgeon and a cyberneticist working in conjunction with each other,” Xander replied. “Anything less is murder. You can’t pick this up from an online video and practice it out.”
Oshiro sighed. “I haven’t seen butchery like this in forty years. The Lexar warned us, but we were arrogant and thought, with their technology, we could finally solve the mystery of the brain. I was fresh to neurosurgery then, but I remember the grim reports. Hundreds died during unnecessary cybernetic procedures.”
“That’s when the Lexar stepped in and threatened to dissolve the treaty between us,” Ethan said. “Obviously, someone has decided to pick that research back up.”
Amelia grunted in disgust. “Doesn’t matter why, not right now. We can figure that out after we catch them.”
They adjourned the meeting after discussing their next destination. Ethan hung back instead of filing from the room along with the others.
“Xander, a moment.”
“Yes?” The door closed behind Oshiro, leaving the two men alone.
“We’ve been so busy that we haven’t had a chance to really talk. Free time has been shite.”
“That’s because you’ve been busy flirting with virtual nymphs.” Xander grinned uneasily. He had a niggling feeling about the reason behind this chat.
“We don’t all have young women visiting our staterooms aboard the ship.”
“How did you—?”
“No one told me anything. No one alive, anyway. I tried to ring you last night for a chat, but Jem insisted you were busy with a female friend. She screened me. Me. Do you plan to tell me who?”
“No.”
“Fair enough.” Ethan backed down easily. He always had a knack for knowing when to push and when to withdraw. “At any rate, that isn’t why I asked you to hang back a moment. You’re aware of the mission schedule, right?”
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