Origin

by Dani Worth

  I smacked his hands away. “I need answers. Don’t try to confuse me with your gorgeous body. That’s not fair.”

  Anders tugged the captain closer and began unfastening his shirt. “Maybe Claybourne’s body is more a distraction.”

  I growled again.

  Both men started laughing. They also continued to undress each other. When they stood naked in front of me, I realized the dome cover was down too far. I could see into other pods. I turned and searched for the dome cover panel and raised the shields until only the sky and foliage above us showed through. Then I turned to them, letting my gaze run over them both. “Is this a goodbye fuck?” I whispered, tears clogging my eyes as the sob in my throat made the question hard to get out.

  “No.” Clay shook his head and walked to me. He stroked his hand down my cheek. “Jarana got us a pardon. The woman can pull miracles out of her ass it seems.”

  “The files you and your brother de-coded helped. And, Siri, your warrant was dissolved when the authorities decided it was self-defense. Lashin had lifted his weapon.” Anders came up behind Claybourne and slid his arms around him. He bent to rest his chin on Clay’s shoulder. “So we have a few decisions to make. We have a ship and a crew we are kind of attached to. We are, however, more attached to you. So you see the quandary, right?”

  Hope unfurled in me so fast, I began to breathe hard. I nodded.

  “I think the captain and I need to stick around a little while, make some plans.”

  Clay nodded as he pulled open my shirt. “We need to all be naked to make the plans. Saturna is being dismantled and soon, Crichton will talk and we’ll know the story behind the explosions. Jarana told us that every planet that has been hit with that new substance was one that had massive supplies of kithronite.” His hands moved to my pants and before I could blink, they were falling down around my ankles. He stepped closer, bringing Anders along with him and slid his hand between my legs. “She’s already wet, Sullivan.”

  “Of course she is. You’re stunning small body is naked.”

  Clay closed his eyes. “Anders.”

  “Yeah yeah, you’re not small.” His hand slid down to circle the captain’s very hard cock. “No,” he breathed, kissing Clay’s neck. “You’re not small at all.”

  I put my arms around both of them and rested my forehead against Clay’s. “You’re really not leaving?”

  “Sweetheart, we love you. If we go anywhere you’ll be going with us, and right now, we wouldn’t dream of pulling you away from your parents. Besides, did you see your father? He’s bigger than Anders.” He shuddered. “I have a feeling we’d end up worse off than your first owner. Wait, did you lock the door?”

  “Somehow, I don’t think my father would have a problem with either of you. You rescued me, remember?”

  “We did. So the pirates are now heroes.”

  Anders was still kissing Clay’s neck and he stopped to wink at me. “I was never a pirate. That was your gig, babe.”

  Clay looked at him over his shoulder. “You enjoyed our travels as much as I did. You loved taking down Saturna ships. Admit it.”

  “Never.”

  Clay turned and dropped to his knees to take Anders into his mouth. He didn’t tease, didn’t lick, didn’t do anything but deep throat him in one hard suck, then pull off to look up at him. “Admit it.”

  A blond eyebrow went up. “This really your idea of torture, Captain?”

  I dropped to my knees next to Clay, knowing I wouldn’t be able to stand back up unless I actually sat and pulled off my boots and the pants bagged around my ankles. I leaned over and took Anders down exactly the way Clay had.

  Anders groaned. “So not fair. Okay, I admit it. I liked the flying. Now can we go to bed and have lots and lots of sex?”

  Clay stood and I tried to, laughing when my pants tangled and I fell over. I rolled onto my back, loving the way their eyes flared as they stared down at me. “Have I ever told you two that sex with you is like flying?” I drawled, mimicking Anders’s slow way of speaking.

  Anders grinned, knelt and swiped me off the floor and into his arms. “‘We taught you to fight and to fly. What more could there be?’”

  I smiled at the changed Peter Pan quote and waited until both men were lying on the bed with me before answering.

  “What more could there be? Now we teach each other to love.”

  About the Author

  Dani Worth is a writer who loves to explore the boundaries of new worlds, love, desire or anything else that strikes her fancy. Good stories make life fun and she has such a blast writing her own. She’s currently writing sexy stories set in post-apocalyptic, science fiction and contemporary settings. She loves threads of paranormal and urban fantasy. Some of her stories will have pairs and some will have triads—Love is Love.

  Dani has lived all over the United States, but currently resides in the Midwest with her family. She’s represented by Miriam Kriss of the Irene Goodman Agency.

  Dani is the pen name for Rinda Elliott’s erotic romances. Rinda also publishes urban fantasy and more! Look for the Beri O’Dell series coming from Samhain.

  You can keep up with Dani at daniworth.wordpress.com or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/DaniWorthWrites.

  Look for these titles by Dani Worth

  Now Available:

  Crux Survivors

  After the Crux

  Sole Survivors

  The Kithran Regenesis

  Catalyst

  Kithra

  Replicant

  In a harsh new world, only she can bring him to life…

  Sole Survivors

  © 2014 Dani Worth

  Crux Survivors, Book 2

  Chase Hawthorne is on the run from a ghost. The shooting that took his little sister and scarred Chase’s face and body has left far deeper scars on his brother Tripp’s soul. Driven to pull up stakes and head for the most haunted place in Louisiana, Chase hopes to prove to Tripp there is no ghost of his twin beckoning from the afterlife.

  When he comes upon a young woman fighting off raiders, Chase doesn’t hesitate to help the first female he’s seen in years. And he tries to ignore his instant attraction, hoping Tripp will feel it, too—and emerge from his frightening depression.

  Keera has been alone too long, and Chase makes her feel things she never thought she’d feel again. Tripp may be the needier brother, but it’s Chase she wants. Scars and all.

  But letting people too close comes with risks. And as they are drawn into the search for a young man’s family, both must accept the possibility that there’s more to life—and love—than simple survival.

  Warning: A hero who puts his own needs aside for family. And a woman who’s out to prove there’s no law against a man listening to his body once in a while.

  Enjoy the following excerpt for Sole Survivors:

  “Why won’t you come out where I can see you?” Splattered with blood, the brunette curled her lip at the bodies, and stepped away from them. She squinted, obviously trying to see him through the leaves. “Who else is in the woods with you?”

  “There was a woman with those men, but she took off. She also threw the knife so I don’t think she was willingly with them.”

  She moved upstream and knelt in the clean water to wash the blood off her arms. She grimaced at the splotches on her shirt, then seemed to realize the side of her blouse was open to the waist…and that it was see-through. She crossed her arms, hunched her shoulders and grabbed the ripped sides of her blouse in one fist. “Let me see your face.”

  “Trust me, you won’t be happy you asked,” he muttered to himself before stepping into the sunlight.

  She winced.

  He didn’t blame her. Raiders had thought it would be great fun to race up and down the streets in pickup trucks while firing into rows of “empty” houses. He’d been sharing one of those houses with his younger brother, sister and two other people. A bullet had shattered his right cheek. Two more had hit his upper chest. No
ne had healed well in the year since it had happened. He’d been too busy grieving over the three who’d died, including his sister, Maggie. She’d been standing in front of the window when the first bullet struck.

  The woman stood. “Why did you help me if you were with them?”

  “I wasn’t. I’m passing through with my younger brother. We stopped to hunt and I followed the sound of a gun. Were you shot?”

  She shook her head, frowning when wet black hair stuck to her lips. She reached up fast to pull her hair off her face, then re-crossed her arms. “They weren’t trying to kill me, just scare me into going with them.” Her lips turned down as she looked at the bodies. “I hate this. Hate that people act like this, make me kill.” She looked up. “There are so few of us left. I can’t understand the way they think.”

  “Me neither.”

  “You said you were passing through? To where?”

  “I heard there was a settlement near here. I’m taking my brother by The Myrtles Plantation on the way.”

  Dark eyes went wide. “Why would you want to go there? Most of the roof caved in years ago—the place is a moldy deathtrap.”

  “I have—had—reasons.” Damn. It had been a gamble and the trip here had been a bitch. Most of the roads were overgrown with trees splitting them into barely passable chunks of old asphalt. He’d hoped the place would finally lay to rest Tripp’s ridiculous obsession with the afterlife. The Myrtles had been reputed to be the most haunted place in America once. The boy, well, he was really a man now at twenty-three, couldn’t get past his twin’s death and the longer they traveled without finding other people, the more often he stayed in these scary, depressed silences. The more he talked about ghosts and what happened after a person died.

  “Suppose your reasons are your own.” She knelt in the water again—this time to wash her knives. She stayed hunched.

  He guessed she thought the position hid her breasts. It didn’t. The wet blouse slicked to her like a second skin. Damn, her body was fine. He had to work hard not to let his gaze lock onto her chest again. But he didn’t say anything, didn’t want to make her more uncomfortable than she already was. As it was, needs he’d kept rigidly suppressed his entire adult life suddenly raged through his bloodstream, making sweat pop up on his forehead.

  She must have been able to see some of what he felt in his expression because fear crept back into her pretty, brown eyes.

  He shut his briefly before opening them and offering her a rueful smile. “Look, I won’t hurt you. I promise. It’s just been a long, long time since I saw anyone as beautiful as you.” He hoped she wouldn’t look down and catch the very uncomfortable evidence of his desire, but she did. He groaned. “Ignore that. I can’t help it.”

  Her chuckle was husky and it brushed over his skin like velvet. “I’d be flattered but when was the last time you saw a woman?”

  “About five minutes ago…in the woods.” He cleared his throat, told his dick to settle down. “Are there more people where you come from?”

  “Not anymore, though I probably shouldn’t tell you that.” Keeping her arms over her breasts, she walked out of the water.

  He frowned at the rate her shivering was increasing and reached up to remove his jacket, hesitating when she lifted her knives.

  “What are you doing?” Her voice had gone lower.

  He instantly thought of that low, husky voice whispering things close to his ears and had to keep himself from shuddering. It took effort. “You’re cold. I’m going to toss you my jacket. It’ll help if you cover those up anyway.”

  “From the looks of your clothes, you should keep that jacket. I’ll warm up fine once I’m on the move and it’s time to do that. Where’s your brother?”

  “We have an RV parked a couple of miles or so from here.”

  “An electric RV? How do you charge it on the road?”

  “No. it’s solar, with panels along the top—some we found and installed ourselves. It’s why we park in the middle of the day when the sun is like this. So they can power up. You have an electric car?”

  She nodded. “Don’t use it much—just to take the odd short trip into town to dig through the rubble. My house is solar powered.”

  She looked healthy, too. He wondered if she had a garden. He and Tripp had broken into a freeze-dried food factory and hit pay dirt, but they were always on the lookout for any overgrown mass of green that looked like it might have a few surviving vegetables. They got lucky with wild asparagus once in a while, but it had been a long time since either had seen a green bean or a bell pepper. He’d hated peppers as a kid, then spent most of his adult life craving the taste of one so much he dreamed about them. The ones his mother had stuffed with sausage, rice and cheese—three other foods he hadn’t had in years.

  Food and people. It was the reason he’d braved this trip with his brother. That and hoping a new place would snap Tripp out of his funk.

  Chase had read handwritten notes left in several places about a new settlement in the south and he’d thought with the warmer climate, some farmers could have saved seeds, kept gardens going every year. He craved fresh food nearly as much as he craved a woman. Nearly.

  Trapped on an alien ship full of sexy specimens. Whatever is a nurse to do?

  Amorous Overnight

  © 2014 Robin L. Rotham

  After four months of orbiting Earth in a spaceship bursting with sex-starved aliens, nurse Shelley Bonham will do just about anything to get off. The ship, that is.

  Not that the aliens aren’t hot enough to put her hormones on red alert. In fact, the more time she spends with the Garathani leader Cecine and his personal guard Hastion, the more she wants them. Knowing what Cecine and Hastion are doing to each other when nobody's looking only makes it harder to keep her hands to herself.

  But she’s already been betrayed by one alien—her dead douchebag of a husband. Can she trust her future—and her children—to another?

  Warning: Contains the usual Robin L. Rotham smorgasbord of m/m/f menage and D/s elements, plus a shipload of alien alphas in outer space.

  Enjoy the following excerpt for Amorous Overnight:

  “Can I do anything else for you before the council session, sir?” Milnon enquired.

  Cecine drained the tumbler in two more swallows before slamming it down on his desk. To hell with the council—if he had less than two hours as an unmated male left to him, he intended to make the most of them.

  Standing, he ordered, “Inform the high council with my regrets that I won’t be in attendance for the afternoon session, then extend my warmest regards to Portia Mitchell and ask her to flare to my quarters with all due haste.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Milnon stood back so that Cecine could precede him but when the door slid open, another young male stood in his path, looking nonplussed. He must have expected Milnon to emerge.

  “Ensign Hastion,” Cecine acknowledged with a short nod, expecting him to step aside.

  Instead, the ensign squared his shoulders. “Excuse me, sir, but may I request a moment of your time?”

  Cecine’s eyes narrowed. There could only be one reason Ensign Hastion was taking the notable risk of waylaying him. Hastion had been at the luncheon table when Empran announced Shelley Bonham’s labor, and Cecine had noted the way he frowned and retreated from the conversation as though contemplating weightier matters. Did he wish to claim her for himself? Surely not. He was as unsuitable for her as Milnon, in his own way, and was undoubtedly well aware of it.

  “Make an appointment, Ensign. I’ve got another commitment now.”

  “My apologies, Minister,” the ensign said, holding his ground with obvious trepidation, “but this is a matter of some urgency. I wouldn’t approach you otherwise.”

  Cecine leveled his most penetrating stare on the young warrior. He’d picked a fine time to become aggressive. “You have five minutes.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  “Milnon, have Ms. Mitchell flared di
rectly to my sleeping chamber when she’s ready,” he sent as he walked back into his office.

  Milnon tipped his head discreetly. “Aye, sir.”

  Once the door had closed, Cecine faced the ensign. “At ease.”

  The ensign relaxed only marginally, focusing his gaze over Cecine’s shoulder. “Permission to address you regarding Shelley Bonham, sir.”

  “You have permission to speak freely, Ensign. Ms. Bonham is one of the matters I must consider, and if you have thoughts, I might as well hear them.”

  After a brief hesitation, the ensign looked him in the eye. “Sir, if Shelley delivers her young aboard the Heptoral, I would respectfully request to be named your second.”

  Truly surprised, Cecine strolled over and stood directly in front of him, studying him critically. He’d always thought Hastion’s facial features rather too pretty, and now that his twin sister Jasmine had transitioned to full maturity, the resemblance between them was striking. Both possessed the same bounty of rich brown hair, elegant bone structure, intriguingly lush mouth and crystalline blue eyes framed by long, dark lashes. It was unfortunate for the ensign—his looks in combination with his marked lack of aggression made him a frequent target for males who had something to prove in the sparring arena.

  “You know I’m under no obligation to take a second,” Cecine said neutrally. The high council had exempted him from all current mating requirements because of the demanding nature of his office. Even now, he could step into the highest position on the mating rolls, claim his choice of pureblood Garathani female and keep her entirely to himself—assuming he were inclined to benefit at the expense of younger males and to the detriment of their waning genetic pool, which he most definitely wasn’t.

  “I do, sir.”