Origin

by Dani Worth

  “Nervous. But I’m okay.” He looked down at me. “I’m very okay with what’s happening here, Siri. Are you?”

  Reassured, I grinned. “Fuck yeah.”

  Anders started laughing and Clay groaned. “It’s like she’s absorbing your personality or something.”

  “We’re in so, so much trouble.” Anders pushed the captain back down to me.

  This time, Clay focused on my mouth and shared all the wicked things he could do to it with his own. He kissed me until I was sure I wouldn’t find more air, was sure I would melt into him and Anders at some point—just fuse our bodies so I could touch and taste them always.

  I pulled to the side, gasped air into my lungs, and dug my fingernails into his back. I spread my legs wider and lifted up until I could rub against the hard ridge of his cock. “Please, Claybourne, please.”

  He stared into my eyes, his mouth going slack as he pushed into me slowly. “Gods,” he bit out, not once looking away from me as he began to pump his hips.

  It felt so good, a low moan escaped my throat and I lifted to meet his thrusts.

  “Good?” he asked, changing his angle, making me open my legs even more.

  “Yes,” I hissed, glad for the wide cushions. I clutched at him, moved with him, then groped behind him to touch Anders. He kissed my fingers, nuzzling his hair against my hand and Clay’s back. Then I felt his fingers as he reached between Clay’s legs and mine to touch where we were joined.

  “So fucking beautiful.” Awe filled his low, grumbly words.

  Gasping, I looked again at Clay to find his eyes closed, his head held back. Anders’s other hand came up to hold Clay’s throat and he moved over the captain’s back. Clay’s eyes flew open as his body suddenly leaned harder into mine. He cried out and I anxiously watched his face, making sure his noises were from pleasure. The glazed look in those blue eyes, the mouth open in shock now, relieved me.

  Noises escaped Anders as he moved inside the captain, which in turn added pressure to Clay’s cock in me. “You good there, sweetheart?” Anders asked before he groaned and sucked on Clay’s shoulder.

  Clay’s eyes were closed now and he turned to rub his forehead on Anders, who instantly stretched up to take his mouth. The kiss started awkward from what I imagined was a difficult angle, then Clay gasped into Anders’s mouth and the bigger man picked up his pace. He looked over Clay to me. “You didn’t answer.”

  “I’ve never,” I gasped out, clutching Clay’s hipbones as I began pushing up harder into him and I loved it when Anders gasped that time. “Never seen or felt anything like this before.” I finally managed to answer.

  “Me neither.” Clay leaned down to crush our mouths together.

  “Oh yeah,” Anders muttered as he began snapping his hips. “Fuck. Good angle, Claybourne.”

  Clay’s tongue was in my mouth when I felt that wonderful tension building. I wrapped my arms around his neck and opened my mouth wide, adoring the pounding pressure from both men, wallowing in the noises they made, the sound of flesh on flesh. I even loved the smell of us. Together. That flowery scent filled the room along with our sweat.

  Sex, when consensual and loving, was the most amazing thing I’d ever experienced. It was beautiful.

  And with that thought, I went flying. “Oh!” I threw my head back and yelled and looked at the stars above their heads and it was like I was free-flying.

  Anders was right behind me, latching on to Clay’s neck and yelling.

  Clay moved once more inside me, then back onto Anders and his eyes rolled back in his head as he shuddered between us.

  All three of us just breathed for what felt like forever. Finally, Anders groaned and some of the weight left me. Clay’s arms were shaking a little and I realized neither man had put their full weight on me.

  “We need a wider bed so I can collapse and pull you both on my body.” Anders leaned against the window, stroked his hand down Clay’s back again. “I love this tattoo.”

  Clay half collapsed, but threw most of his weight to the side. His voice came muffled from the cushions. “Yeah, we’re doing that again. In my nice, big bed.” He turned and pressed a gentle kiss to my shoulder. “Did we squish you?”

  “No.” I smiled at him. “I loved it.” I held my hand to Anders and he managed to lean over Clay to kiss me. I was suddenly glad he was so tall. His lips were warm and they tasted of Clay.

  We froze when there was a noise outside the door.

  “Yeah, nobody go into the observation room for a while.” Lia’s amused voice came through the door before she banged on it. “Again, you guys? Damn, that sounded real nice.”

  My eyes flew open wide. “I’m never leaving this room,” I whispered.

  “Fine with me,” Clay murmured as he nuzzled into me then back into Anders. “But I’d rather we moved this to my bed. And I want food.”

  “You are the captain.” Anders stroked his hand down Clay’s back. “You can order them to bring us food.”

  Lia spoke again. “I hate to interrupt what sounds like something I’m hoping we accidentally caught on camera, but Lux is hailing you on the vidscreen. You never installed one in this room.”

  “Like I’d turn it on now if I had,” Clay said with a growl. “Go away, Lia. Tell Lux I’ll call her back soon.” He gasped when Anders sucked on his ear. “Busy!”

  I started giggling. Two grins turned my way and I tried to frown at them, but just couldn’t find a way to get the smile off my face.

  “I always want to see that expression,” Clay said, stroking his finger along my upper lip.

  “That one and the one when she’s saying, ‘Oh.’” Anders pushed Clay’s head aside so he could squish down for a kiss. The captain made an umph sound as his face was pushed into the cushions again. “That’s my favorite expression. In fact, that’s now my favorite word.”

  Clay must have done something naughty to Anders, because the bigger man suddenly said, “Oh!”

  “Please, please tell me there isn’t a camera in here.” I looked around the darkened room.

  “There is,” Clay said. “But it’s not on. I made sure.”

  “Good,” I said on a moan as someone’s hand slid between my legs. “Because the three of us? This is for us alone.”

  “Make her say ‘oh’ again, Captain.”

  “Who gives the orders around here, Sullivan?”

  Clay yelled and his body jerked.

  “What did you do to him?” I asked Anders.

  “I shut him up.” Anders chuckled. “With my fingers.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  We eventually made it back to Clay’s cabin, showered, and I asked them to put on the sleep pants again because I loved the soft material and the way their hard muscles and soft-for-now sexes felt in them. Clay ordered Anders to bring us food, grinning as he lay stretched out on his bed in soft blue pants.

  I only wore a robe and I was pretty sure it was Anders’s because the sleeves flopped over my hands and it nearly wrapped all around my body twice before I could tie off the belt. I sat cross-legged on the bed and grinned up at Anders when my stomach growled. When I stretched up to offer him a kiss, the robe slipped off my shoulder and he immediately put his mouth there.

  “You have the most amazingly soft skin,” he whispered before smacking a kiss on my lips. “Suppose you want me to get food for you too?”

  I nodded and grinned. “Cheese and Fagra wine.”

  “Yes,” Clay agreed. “Fagra wine for you both. And for me. And fruit. Not much else tastes good until we stop to restock the simulators.”

  “Bossy,” Anders muttered as he left the room—still only wearing a pair of black sleep pants.

  “Come here.” Clay tugged on the sleeve that had flopped over my hand, pulling me toward him.

  I lay down and snuggled into his side. “Shouldn’t you call Lux?”

  “I will.” He tightened his arm around me, hauling me even closer and kissed my forehead, my nose. “Let’s get some foo
d and have a little wine. Spend some more time together before we have to get into business.”

  That was fine with me. I placed my hand on the taut curve of his hipbone that jutted over the waist of the pants, lifted my leg until the robe fell off and I could rub my inner thigh over his soft pants.

  The panel door slid open and Anders returned with a tray of cheese, fruit and breads and a large tube of Fagra wine. “We’ll share.” He stopped at the end of the bed and stared down at us, blinking, then slid the tray onto the blanket and tugged off his sleep pants.

  “Nice,” I murmured, watching the muscles in his legs ripple as he crawled naked onto the bed and nudged the tray closer to us. He settled in on Clay’s other side, picked up a slice of cheese and popped it in Clay’s mouth.

  The captain chewed, staring up at Anders who leaned over him, stuck another piece of cheese in his teeth and winked. Chuckling, Clay rose up and took the cheese out of his mouth. He chewed, then swallowed. “That one tasted better.”

  “Let me try,” I whispered.

  Anders put another piece of cheese in his teeth and leaned across Clay, who shot up and stole it. His grin was cheeky as he chewed.

  This time, Anders clutched the cheese and put his hand over Clay’s mouth so he could feed it to me. I took it with my tongue and both men groaned.

  Laughing, I sat up and held out my hand for the tube of wine, amazed Anders hadn’t spilled it. I sipped and moaned at the lovely, lovely explosion of sweet at the back of my throat. I took another sip.

  Anders took the tube back, left some in his mouth and leaned across Clay to kiss me.

  “You guys are dripping it onto my chest,” Clay grouched.

  “Uh-oh,” I said, pulling away from Anders and dropping down to lick up the wine.

  “Spill more on me.”

  Anders grinned, drank more wine then tilted the tube so a small amount fell on Clay.

  I immediately lapped it up, noticing the rise in his sleep pants out of the corner of my eye.

  “I can’t get enough of you two,” he gasped out, groaning again when I cleaned wine off his nipple, sucked on the tattoo by it. I came up, held my hand out for the tube, drank some, then pulled Anders closer to share it again.

  This went on until I started to feel the buzz and saw that Anders was feeling it as well. His eyes took on this hooded stare, the green glittering in the slits as he drank wine, shared cheese and fruit with me and the captain.

  By the time we finished off the wine, Clay’s pants and my robe were gone and we were all sticky. “We’re going to have to shower again,” I said, licking a path down Clay’s thigh. “I like it when we shower together, like watching Anders lather soap all over your body, like the way your bodies look next to each other—both so gorgeous it’s like a gift. All for me.”

  I caught Anders lifting his eyebrow at Clay.

  Caught Clay mouthing wine back to him. Anders bit his lip, trying to hold back a smile.

  I was floating on a haze of pleasure and didn’t care if my words made them feel weird.

  “Not weird, sweetheart.”

  “I didn’t say that out loud.”

  Anders nodded. “Yeah, you did. And you don’t make us feel weird. I’m pretty sure you make us feel damned special and honored.”

  “And humbled,” Clay added. “And awed.”

  “Definitely horny,” I muttered.

  Both men cracked up and Clay reached down to haul me up and over him. I sprawled over his body, grimaced when our sticky places dragged skin, then decided I liked this new angle. I sat up, straddling his stomach, and flipped my hair off my face and the front of my shoulders.

  “Gods,” Anders muttered, stroking his hand down my back.

  “You like to pet us.” I turned my head to look at him through my eyelashes. “You like to stroke.”

  He was leaning in for a kiss when Clay’s vidscreen started beeping. The message that flashed across said urgent.

  Clay groaned, then lifted me off his lap and set me beside him. “Everyone under the covers.”

  He barely gave us time to get covered before he answered the summons. I recognized Lux on the screen. This time her dark hair was down and she looked pale. She leaned forward and lifted an eyebrow as she took in the scene.

  “Well, I can see why you took so long to answer.”

  “We’ll be reaching the outskirts of your sector in a little over twenty-four hours, so I didn’t see a need for urgency.”

  “Really?” She scowled. “You’ve managed to piss off a few people, Captain Asshole. I love that Lashin got obliterated, but somehow word got out that you have Crichton and since Lashin is no longer available for punishment, the governments are looking for another. They want Crichton. You’ve been ordered to take him to Bastilleen for sentencing.”

  Even I knew what Bastilleen was. I sat up, making sure to keep the covers over my breasts. “He’ll die if we take him there. He’s in bad shape.”

  Clay nodded, his hand comforting on my thigh under the sheet. “She’s right. He might not even live long on Kithra, so I think he should be there. Gwinarians should have the final decision here and most of them are there with you on Kithra now. How many?”

  Lux’s smile transformed her face, made her beautiful. “Over a hundred and I’m scheduled to pick up three more families over the next few weeks. It’s still pretty crowded here. We had to map out new tunnel paths because of the damn gushers, but it’s going better now that we have a detailed map. Oh and another kithronite ship!”

  “I hadn’t realized you were that close to building a second ship,” Clay said. “Who else is flying through the debris fields?”

  “Jarana. Well, she was. She went on a takedown—took her whole family this time. Seems to think her men will stay out of things and watch their daughter.” She started to laugh, sat up, then grimaced and touched her stomach. “Hold on a second.” She rubbed her hands over her face, then leaned back in her chair, her face paler than before.

  “You sick?” Clay asked.

  “Yeah. Pregnant sick.” She grinned.

  “Congratulations,” Anders said as he turned on his side and propped his head on his hand. “Do you know what it is?”

  “A boy. Egan and Kol have already started making plans. We’re excited. But this part of the process sucks ass.” She closed her eyes tight and winced. “But back to why I needed to talk to you. You won’t be able to dock your ship on our supply station because the authorities have put out another warrant.”

  “For what?” I asked. “They haven’t done anything remotely pirate-like since I’ve been on this ship.”

  “Shooting up a bar, killing a wanted man and making off with a huge supply of hidden kithronite that had been stashed on Burga One isn’t remotely pirate-like?”

  I turned raised eyebrows onto Anders and Clay, both of whom returned equally cocky grins. “When did we have time to get that? We weren’t there that long. And where would you even hide that much kithronite on this ridiculously small ship?”

  “Hey now, don’t be putting down our ride, sweetheart.” Anders’s chuckle went from soft to outright laughter. “It was pretty good though, eh?”

  “I was with you the whole time and Namito and Juniper were in that bar.”

  “But Lia, Bucho and Speero stayed behind.” Clay sat up, letting the blanket pool in his lap.

  “Nice tats,” Lux said.

  I scowled at her, surprising myself and Clay, who smiled and tugged me close to his side. He looked back up at Lux. “Kithronite isn’t the only thing Lia and Bucho managed to snag. We think we might have some of the material that was used in the explosions.”

  “Really. That’s fantastic news.” Lux frowned, tapped her finger on the arm of her chair. “We’ve got a pretty decent lab set up here and Vala is on her way home. She and Kol together can probably look at that and tell us how it worked, maybe even figure out where it came from. Did she tell you that she’s now found seven other instances of explosions using t
he same small containers? Turns out this thing was bigger than we thought.”

  Clay’s hand had tightened on my waist when she’d mentioned Vala. “If Vala is going home, that means she talked Jacks into going back.”

  Lux nodded, some of her color coming back into her cheeks. “Jacks, Bastian and Vala should be here not too long after you. We just have to figure out where we can hide your ship so we can get the kithronite onto my ship and bring Crichton here.”

  “You know you’ll get into trouble when they learn you flew him there.”

  She shrugged. “I’m always in trouble with The Company. Don’t really give a shit.” Her face paled again. “Damn, not holding it back this time. I’ll have to get back to you with a place.” She clicked off.

  I stared at the blank vidscreen. “So I’ll be home soon.”

  “You will. Excited?” Clay hugged me.

  “Yes.”

  “Don’t sound like it.”

  Anders made a strange smacking noise and we both turned to find that the big man had scooted down the bed and fallen asleep. I smiled, loving how relaxed and happy he looked. I lifted the covers. He had his arm wrapped around Clay’s thigh. My smile faded as I thought about how little time I had left with them.

  Clay yawned. “Think Sullivan has the right idea. I could nap. You?”

  I nodded and followed him down. Once we settled with my front all along Clay’s right side, Anders rolled closer and dropped his arm over Clay, his fingers on my leg. He seemed ready to hang on like that through sleep.

  I didn’t mind. “How long will you and Anders be able to stay on Kithra?”

  “Few days, maybe a week or so. The new warrant will put too much attention there, and once the governments learn Crichton is there, they’ll have enforcer ships along the outskirts of the debris fields to catch us, set them up on the supply station to inspect Lux’s ship every time she lands there.”

  “A week, huh? That’s not a long time.”

  “No, sweetheart, it’s not.”

  I loved how he’d picked up Anders’s nickname for me, how it felt to be in this bed with them.