by Bianca D'Arc
She shocked him by reaching up to stroke his cheek. No woman had ever offered to comfort him before and he found the very idea of it intriguing, the feel of her soft hand, more special than anything he’d ever felt before. Leah was such a miracle to him.
“I’ve never said anything, but I think it’s wrong the way they expect you to father all these babies, but never have a chance to raise any of them. I mean, I know it would be impossible for you to know all your children, but why not at least a few? You could be such a good influence on a young boy.”
He covered her hand with his own, loving the feel of her soft skin against his. “I’m glad you think so.”
“I wouldn’t have chosen you to be my baby’s father if I didn’t admire you, Michael. I just don’t know if I—”
“What?” He had to coax her. She was blushing again and it charmed him.
“I don’t know if I can be submissive. I’m not exactly a shrinking violet. Or hadn’t you noticed?” She laughed at herself, charming him even more.
“You’re a strong-willed, capable woman, but being sexually submissive doesn’t require a weakling personality. In fact, I gain very little satisfaction from a meek woman’s obedience. I can all too easily trample over a weaker personality. I know that much about myself, at least.” He shrugged. “Which is why I’ve enjoyed your company for so long. You’re the first woman who hasn’t bored me to tears after a week or two, Leah. That’s something unique in my experience.” He pulled her closer, pressing his hardness against the soft V of her thighs. “I know I can make you want to follow my orders in the bedroom—or wherever we take our pleasure—and it will be pleasure, Leah. The greatest you’ve ever known, or will ever know. I can guarantee that.”
Her breathless sigh thrilled him. He was getting to her. He knew it.
“I don’t know, Michael.” He loved the sound of his name on her lips. “I’m still concerned I won’t be able to do what you want and I don’t want to fight you.”
He hugged her close. “I’ll never force you, Leah. There’s no satisfaction in overpowering a woman. What I want from you is your willing compliance with my desires.” He pulled back to look into her eyes. “I know you want me. I can make you want my dominance, too. Give it a try, Leah. Have dinner with me tonight. Let’s see where it leads.”
“Michael—”
“Come on, Leah. We’ve shared a thousand meals together.”
“But this is different.”
Mike cupped her ass audaciously with one hand as he grinned down at her. “Very different. I dare you, Leah. Take a chance.”
Michael always could talk her into doing things against her better judgment. Well, to be fair, he never wanted her to do anything that was dangerous or could be harmful. He just had a way of getting what he wanted. She guessed it was part of his Dominant personality, and to be truthful, it didn’t bother her much. In a way, it was sort of endearing.
That was the truly dangerous thing. This man was all too appealing. She knew it wouldn’t take much to turn her admiration for him into something much more intimate. Everyone knew it was impossible to keep a Son of Amber for longer than it took to get pregnant, but so many women still tried and failed.
Although there were a few stories making the rounds of gossip lately, and she knew for a fact that Ezekiel had been reassigned permanently to the newly discovered uninfected colony of Espians. It was rumored that he had married and was living monogamously with one of the colony women. Oh, he still made the required sperm deposits so his DNA could go further in repopulating the human race, but he didn’t make personal calls anymore and had been taken off the reservation lists permanently.
“I don’t know, Michael.” She’d never dared call him by name to his face, though it had crept into her mind more and more often.
His lips nipped at hers playfully. This side of him was new, and very exciting. She’d seen him in full Dom mode as he ruled most of the human fighting forces in this sector. She’d seen him weighted down by the burdens of his position and role. Her heart had gone out to him as time and again he sacrificed his own desires for the greater good of humanity, and she’d admired him for his steadfast determination to defeat their enemies.
This coaxing, cajoling, teasing hunk was something altogether new. His lips teased hers, his breath hot and sweet, mingling with her own. This man was born a Dom, but he was patient and kind in ways she never expected.
“Do it, Leah. You know you want to.” He cuddled into her his chest, his cheek seeking her neck as he rubbed against her in the most delicious way. “Dinner. With me. What happens after that is wide open.”
“But what about your rule? No fraternizing, remember?”
“Rules are made to be broken. Besides, you’re the only woman under my command I’ve ever wanted to break that little unofficial rule with. No one else, Leah. Just you.” He punctuated his words with small kisses to her face, teasing her until she smiled.
“All right,” she answered, finally. He wanted to pound the air with his fist in triumph, but refrained. “I’ll have dinner with you tonight, Michael, but we’ll discuss this. I won’t be rushed into anything.”
“No rushing.” He nodded. “Gotcha.” Pulling her closer, he kissed her, wanting to feel her response again and again. She was his. He knew it deep in his soul, though he didn’t understand it at all. Now he just had to make sure she knew it, too.
She would have his baby and he’d enjoy every moment of putting it in her womb and watching it grow. The very idea made something soft and fragile blossom in his sheltered heart. He didn’t know quite what it was, but he definitely had his suspicions.
CHAPTER FOUR
Mike had a plan. He’d spent time breaking Leah in to his ways when she’d started as his XO two years ago. She’d been skittish at first, and it had taken him a few weeks to get her used to being around him and his manner of speaking—and sometimes barking orders—when he was in full Dom mode. Eventually, she’d come to anticipate his wants and needs and turned out to be the best XO he’d ever had.
That was only part of the reason he didn’t want to lose her.
The rest had to do with little things. The way she moved. The way she spoke. The way she could talk him down from a Dominant rage with just a few well-placed words of caution and sense. The way her mind worked. The way she smelled of clean woman and daffodils. The way her hair swayed on the rare occasions she wore it down, and the way she smiled at him every so often as if he personally hung all the moons of Jupiter.
He couldn’t lose her. Especially not after she’d conceived his child. He’d fathered many children, but this one would be special. This one in particular, he wanted to see gestate and be born, grow and change. He wanted to know and love this child as he knew and…loved…its mother.
The thought stopped him.
Did he love her?
Mike wasn’t sure. He didn’t really know what love was all about. It wasn’t something he’d ever come across before personally. He’d seen a few of his brothers succumb, and longed to learn what it was that made one woman preferable to all others. If there was such a woman for him, he hoped she was like Leah.
Hell, perhaps she was Leah. He’d be damned if he’d let her leave him now. First, he had to know for sure whether these odd new feelings could really be love. That question had to be answered before anyone left, or retired, or resigned. Mike knew from his research, and from watching his brothers, that love was too important to let go.
So, he had devised a plan.
Like he’d done when she’d first signed on as his assistant, he would gentle her to his ways little by little. He knew the demands of a Dominant could be difficult on the uninitiated, but he couldn’t change what he was born to be. His only hope lay in the idea that she could adapt to not only accept, but revel in the kind of pleasure he could give her.
He’d start slow. He’d start with the basics. Never had he looked so forward to just kissing a woman for hours on end.
And that’s just what he’d do. He’d train her to hunger for his kiss, to want it more than her next breath, and then he’d move the next level. He’d break her in gently. Unlike the way he’d been introduced to sex and what it meant to be a Dominant.
Michael’s first memory was of a woman’s hand on his cock. Woken in adolescence from the incubator in which he’d been grown at an abnormally fast rate, Mike’s nascent memory was of pleasure. He supposed there were worse things to remember, but he hadn’t understood much of anything at that point. He only knew the amazing feeling of the woman’s soft hand massaging his cock until he spewed.
When he’d come five or six times—enough to fill her sample collection units—she had left him to sleep. By that time he was tired enough to fall into unconsciousness while the doctors ran their tests on his semen to see if their experiment was a success or not. To see whether he lived or died, essentially.
He had some muscle tone, thanks to the automated units that were designed to move his limbs and the rest of his body while he grew at an alarmingly fast rate in the incubator, but motor coordination had to be learned the old fashioned way. The first few months out of the incubator were an intense time of learning and growing, though his rate of growth eventually slowed almost to the stopping point. He’d been designed that way. He grew to adulthood quickly, then practically ceased to age, so he’d have many productive years in which to do his ordained work of re-seeding the human population of the Milky Way galaxy.
He’d been subject to data downloads that worked—for the most part—to bring him up to speed with linguistic skills and book learning, but there was a great deal to be gleaned just from existing and interacting with the scientists and his brothers. They formed a family together and there were real, caring relationships among them.
Though at first they’d been kept separate, until they learned the role of sexuality. Just hatched from the incubators and knowing nothing but pleasure, most of the Sons tried to hump anyone who came into their chambers the first few weeks. It was a bit of a joke now, but the sad fact that the adolescent Sons were nothing more than sex machines when they were first born was an all too true urban legend.
When your first memory is pleasure, it’s kind of hard not to want to repeat the sensation over and over…and over again, Mike thought with a small grin.
*
Leah didn’t know what to expect after the tumultuous events of the afternoon. She fussed over her hair, unsure what to wear for this…date. She hadn’t been on a date since before the jit virus. Since before she was married. Women didn’t date these days. For one thing, the men were few and far between. When you got one to yourself, you didn’t waste time going to dinner and a movie. No, you kept him to yourself and enjoyed him while you could.
Michael had asked her to have dinner with him, but other than that, had given no indication of where they were going to eat, or whether she should wear her uniform or off-duty clothing. Nervous as she hadn’t been for years, Leah decided to comm him to find out.
“Yes, Leah, what is it? Not chickening out on me, are you?”
“No, sir. I—” She faltered, feeling foolish.
“It’s Michael when we’re alone, remember?” His deep voice charmed her, even over the comm. “Unless I order you to call me something else.”
The wicked purr in his words made her insides itch. She knew he was a Dom. He was designed to take charge, especially in sexual situations, but other than that, she was unprepared for just how far he might go in his Dominant games.
“Something else?” She couldn’t help the words that escaped before she thought better of it.
He chuckled low, the sound sending shivers down her spine. “Eventually. But we’ll save that for later. Now why did you comm me? Not that I’m complaining.”
“I wanted to know, uh, what time we were having dinner and where. I mean, should I wear my uniform, or—”
“Leah, sweetheart,” he stopped her nervous words. “I was hoping you’d ask.”
She knew that tone. “This was some kind of test?”
“Just a little one.” He shrugged. “I wanted to know how you’d react. Would you come to me? Would you make assumptions without asking for my guidance? Or worse, would you forge ahead with some preconceived notion without considering my desires at all?” He smiled as her outrage grew. “I thought I knew you well enough after the past two years to judge your reaction, but I wanted to know for certain. It was a test of my own perceptions as much as it was a test of your reactions.”
“I don’t like being studied like a lab rat, Michael.” She couldn’t help the hurt that crept into her tone. The anger had been surprisingly short-lived.
On the other end of the comm, Michael straightened abruptly. “That wasn’t my intention, Leah. I’m sorry. I know very well what a lab rat feels like and I didn’t mean to do that to you.” His eyes narrowed and she looked away, wishing she could just end the comm and crawl under her bed to hide for a few centuries. “Look, can we start over? It was foolish of me not to realize—”
She’d never heard Michael Amber so contrite. This was a man used to giving orders and not taking any guff from anyone. That he was sincerely sorry, she saw immediately.
“All right,” she said softly. She raised her eyes to meet his across the screen. “What time do you want me and where?” His gaze sparked and she realized the double entendre in her innocent words. She laughed.
Just like that the tension between them broke and they were back on easier footing.
“Forget I said that,” she joked.
“Never.” Michael’s voice growled across the comm. “But for dinner, I’d like you at my quarters in half a standard. Wear civilian clothes. A dress of some kind, if you have one handy, and leave off the underwear.”
“Michael!” She was scandalized. “I didn’t agree to anything other than talking tonight.”
“But you’re going to have my baby, Leah.” His voice deepened as his eyes burned into hers through the screen. “We’ll talk about it, sure. But then we’ll act on it. I’m a Dom, sweetheart. You knew that. Now you need to learn what that really means. Leave off the panties and wear your hair down. It’s a small enough request.”
He cut the comm, leaving her muttering. “Damn you, Michael Amber.” She stalked toward her closet to dig out a dress. She didn’t wear them often, but she still had a few from the old days, when she’d been a newlywed woman embarking on a happy life, not a career soldier living on a space station.
Things had changed drastically when her husband—and most other men—had died. She’d taken up arms and joined the military, taking the place of the many men in her family and tribe who’d defended humanity in centuries past. She’d never seriously thought of the military as a career, but found she liked the order and discipline.
The Blackfoot tribe had been cut in half, but her grandmother had been Leah’s inspiration. General Adelaide Blackfoot was too old to serve now, but she helped guide the tribe as a member of the Council of Elders and kept tabs on her granddaughter, following Leah’s career from afar. Leah looked forward to the letters and comms her grandmother sent every standard month or so. Leah wasn’t the only Blackfoot woman serving in the military now, but she was the highest ranked and the closest relation to the old general. Leah liked carrying on the tradition of service. She also liked the idea she was helping protect what was left of the human worlds after the plague had nearly destroyed them all.
Then there was Michael.
She loved working with him. His decisive nature reminded her of her lost family members. In that way, at least, he was very much like her father and brothers had been. He didn’t wait to gather consensus. He saw his way forward and acted on his decisions. He wasn’t foolish or rash, but he was definitely a leader, not a follower. She liked that. Perhaps more than she should, considering they worked so closely together.
Tonight would take that working relationship and change it forever. Tonight she would see him as a woman
sees a man, not as a subordinate views a superior officer. She was looking forward to it, but at the same time, she was scared to death.
Deciding to put it out of her mind for the moment, she chose a short, cobalt blue dress and got ready for dinner. At the last moment, she decided to leave off the underwear, feeling scandalously decadent as she walked down the corridor toward Michael’s private quarters. Luckily, she didn’t pass anyone in the hall. This area of the station was restricted to the highest ranks and contained only private quarters, so the chances of running into anyone at all weren’t high.
Before she could chicken out, she pushed the chime. A moment later, the door slid open and Michael’s voice came to her from the dimly lit interior of his living room.
“Come in, Leah.” She entered hesitantly, unable to see well for a moment as her eyes adjusted from the brightly lit corridor to the dusky twilight inside. “Close and lock,” Michael commanded the computer that regulated the door. She heard the panel slide shut and then snick into secure mode. They were locked in until Michael’s voice command released them.
As her eyes adjusted, she noted candles burning on a small table set for two. Michael sat just behind the candles on the far end of the room, watching her.
“I’m glad you’re here, Leah.” He glanced at his wrist chrono. “On time, too.”
She squared her chin, refusing to be unsettled by his burning stare. “I told you I’d be here and here I am.”
He stood and skirted the table, walking toward her. She held her ground, unwilling to be intimidated by his almost predatory walk. Their eyes met and held as he drew near.
“I’ve always admired that about you, Leah. You’re a woman of your word.” He stopped just a foot away, his fingers tracing over her cheek as gentle as a butterfly’s wings. “Your beautiful hair is loose.” His palm opened to caress the back of her head and down her back. “Can assume you’ve followed my instructions to the letter?”