by Kim Knox
“Let me have all of you.”
Athanasios’ warm voice seared the shell of her ear—the caress of lips, of the hint of teeth rippling pleasure. She opened her mouth. The hot steel strength of the dick, the sweet, musky taste tightened her chest. She licked and sucked, the tension in her belly wrenching as they found a slow, sure rhythm. She mewled, her body hardly her own under Athanasios’ sensual attack.
Foster’s guttural groan danced stars across her closed eyes.
“We’re so close, Fade. All of us.”
“Make Foster scream.” The thought burned through her. She wanted him to see how this could be. All of them together. But more, closer. Three minds bound in ecstasy.
Athanasios growled, their surge of want and need smashing over Fade. She lost all sense of control. Hands gripped her thighs, biting into her flesh and they fucked her, stroking into her pussy and ass in fierce rhythm, finding her mouth with the same wild and insatiable power. A tongue licked her clit, quick and sure and the heat, the intense pleasure firing under her skin drove her pulse. She moaned around the dick fucking her mouth, the heavy pressure in every inch of her flesh tightening until the intensity twisted and coiled within her.
Her body shook as Athanasios held her on the very edge of bliss. Fucking, licking, sucking. Everything she wanted. Everything she needed. But not the one thing, the one sound she ached for.
Foster’s harsh cry broke over her and her body snapped, a strangled moan the only noise she could make as white heat slammed over her again and again. Somewhere in the maelstrom, Athanasios found their own release and Fade came again as she swallowed and licked him clean.
“Fade…”
Foster’s voice was raw and in a blur of movement Athanasios tilted her up and slid her against him. She buried her face against his damp neck as his arms wrapped tight around her. He kissed her shoulder, his breath as short and quick as her own. His heart pounded against her palm.
“That was…” He crushed her to him and groaned.
“Strange?” she offered.
His laughter warmed through her, teasing her cooling skin. “It was certainly strange.” He eased back to brush a light kiss across her swollen lips. “But fuck, you were hot.”
She wetted her lips and Foster’s gaze darkened. His hand slid down to her ass, pressing her against his hardening dick. “I don’t want this to end.”
He stilled beneath her and his hand fell away. “Fadeyka.”
He’d slid back into the old Foster, the one who put rules between them, who was all about duty and not about soft kisses, unexpected laughter and hot sex. She closed her eyes and fought the tightness of her throat. She breathed, fighting to keep the pain from her voice. He wanted her—that much was an obvious cool wetness against her belly—but not enough to risk merging his soul and flesh with Athanasios.
She pulled herself away and he let her. No, that wasn’t fair. She wouldn’t have the alien living in her, she would only have the undoubted benefits of Foster sharing his body. “I said I wouldn’t try to convince you.” She pushed her hands over her tangled hair. “How long until they find us again?”
“They’re close.” It was Athanasios who answered, the rush of voices quiet and hard in her mind. The bitterness that swelled between them would make the merging of Athanasios’ energy and Foster’s mind and flesh an unpleasant experience for both. “They’ve tracked you here. You need to go.”
Athanasios had given up trying to convince the hardheaded idiot too.
There was no time to shower. Fade grabbed the clothes thrown around the floor and shrugged them on, too aware of Foster, who watched her from the couch. Only minutes later, she was dressed and grabbing her pack.
“You have the pyramid?”
Fade blinked and her heart turned over. Could she take it, them with her? Her belly hollowed at the thought. “I can…”
A ghostly kiss touched her lips, the bitter burn of coal swirling around her. “You have me forever, Fade.”
Foster stood and swept out his hand, calling up a wide light screen. His face was stark in its glow, his jaw tight. “They’re taking no chances this time.” He swiped the screen to pull up security footage of heavy, armored transports. “What did you do to Dolon, Fadeyka? Kill his puppy?”
“Dolon is head of the Castor Cartel.”
Foster’s frown deepened and he ran a hand over his hair. He turned away from the screen, pacing into the shadows as the transport continued to drone through the air toward them. “The Castor Cartel. Fuck.” For too long a moment, he was silent. Fade’s nerves stretched. She had to leave. Information ran fast along the screen, revealing too much. Such as the fact that in only a few minutes, the lead transport would be in weapons range. Foster turned back. “Will a genetic mask be enough?” The question was half to himself and she suspected half to Athanasios.
“You know the answer to that.”
Foster drew his hand down his mouth and swore again. “It’s not enough. Not with the resources he has. Dolon, I planned for. The Castor Cartel, I didn’t.” He straightened, lifting his chin. “Do it.”
Fade stared at him. “What?”
“Athanasios can get us out. Make it so we can’t be found, right?” Foster narrowed his eyes over her shoulder, focusing on the energy she couldn’t see.
“I can make all of this go away.”
“Then…” Foster spread his arms, his palms out. “I agree.”
“Foster…” He didn’t want this. Athanasios wanted it only for his own survival. They hated each other. He couldn’t do this…for her. “You don’t—”
“Separately, we can’t protect you.” Foster’s smile was dark. “Together? You’re ours.”
“Ready?” Athanasios’ voice was tight, almost pained.
Foster gave a slow nod and braced his body. His spine was ramrod straight and his fingers curled into fists at his sides. He didn’t close his eyes, but kept them fixed on the light screen. The data counted down, marking the seconds now until the lead transport came into range. New information flashed, identifying that the vehicle had powered up, ready for firing.
“Your net will interfere with the merging. This will hurt.”
A bitter smile pulled at Foster’s mouth. “Don’t say you won’t enjoy my pain.”
“Should I begin our partnership with a lie?”
Foster snorted. “I’m ready.”
“Fade.” Athanasios’ thought brushed her mind even as his kiss touched her lips in a light breath of bitter-scented air. “Stay back. Don’t try to help him. Understood?”
She jerked a nod and knotted her fingers at her waist, her feet taking her away from Foster. Her heart drummed. Her life kept on getting stranger, but this hopefully was the last touch of bizarreness. Her gaze darted to the screen and the flashed warning of the weapons ready to fire. If they survived, of course.
Foster’s sudden scream jolted into her stomach. His spine arched and his knuckles strained. His face bloomed red, the tension in his jaw, in his mouth running seams of thin, pressured white. He labored to breathe, hard breaths that flared his nostrils. His eyes, still focused on the light screen, leaked tears.
He was suffering more pain…because of her. Fade pressed her hand to her mouth, the other gripping her waist, holding herself against the need to run. To hold him and promise that the pain could stop, that he didn’t need to do this for her.
His skin bubbled and a low, animal moan broke through his clenched jaw. Something writhed under his skin, wrapping around muscle and through bone. She could almost see the alien form that was merging with him, as he had always seen Athanasios. Dark sinuous shapes, the hint of silver, of claws and scales pushing deeper and deeper into his flesh.
Apologies and promises shot through her thoughts over and over, her legs liquid, her nerves stretched. Seconds ticked by. The screen flashed that the transport had released its load, firing on the apartment. They had shielding. She knew they had shielding. Still, she had to look to the windows.
The impact slammed around the apartment, vibrating through the walls and floor. Fade fell back onto the couch with a shriek, but Foster only swayed. Athanasios moved within him, the push against Foster’s body less obvious, but still a slow, inexorable twist of alien energy.
On the screen the shield indicator flashed amber. One more hit would obliterate them. What would happen after? How could a merged Foster be any different? Already another transport had moved into range, its weaponry almost fully charged as the first transport built up its reserves again. A blast from either would destroy them. From both, it would take out half the mountain complex.
The second transport burned red, the first following it from a deep orange. They were ready. Fade’s heart lodged in her throat. This was it. The end. She should’ve known she could never outrun Dolon however hard she tried.
A warning flared across the screen. Weapons released.
Time slowed, every thud of her heart a hollow drum. She looked up to Foster, a man she loved, suffering, and now dying because of her—
“Fade…”
Foster, his dark eyes ringed with silver, held out his hand. As if she were a puppet on strings, Fade found her feet, her fingers slipping into his warm hold. He felt…different. More. She couldn’t explain it.
His smile was hot and dark as around her the world exploded into white.
Chapter Eight
Bright sunlight warmed her bare skin and Fade stretched against smooth, clean sheets. She pulled in a breath and the salted scent of the ocean slid into her lungs. She let out a long, slow sigh and kept her eyes closed. Light played against her lids, but she refused to open them. When she did, the dream would be over and she’d be in her stinking, metal-walled hole of a flat, with a day in a sealed suit ahead of her.
Sea breezes chased over her skin, gentle, cool and achingly real, bringing with them a hint of unknown perfumes. All the fantasy needed was a naked Taras Foster—
Fade jerked upright, her legs tangled in the thin sheets. The dream didn’t fracture. She sat on a wide bed in the center of a white, vaulted bedroom. Lattice doors stood open and were draped with a delicate, sheer fabric that billowed and flapped in the sea winds. Beyond them, a deck and empty blue-green ocean stretching to the horizon.
“Foster?” She planted her bare feet on the cool boards of the floor and grabbed a sheet from the bed to knot over her breasts. “Athanasios?”
The last thing she remembered was the transports attacking, Foster’s eyes ringed with a fierce and brilliant silver and then…whiteness.
She pinched her wrist and pain spiked on her skin. Not a dream. So she was alive at least. She stepped out onto the deck and into the first fresh light to touch her skin in months.
Thin white clouds chased over the pale-blue sky and a great yellow sun shone down. It wasn’t Earth. The star was a little too big, and the sky on that crowded planet couldn’t be so…empty.
Waves lapped against the shore and Fade leaned on a wooden railing. White rippled sand curved around a huge bay. A dark-green line of wide-fronded palms ringed the beach, but there was no other sign of life. Something moved in the clear water, caught in the white roll of the surf…
“Foster!”
She snatched up the billowing train of her sheet and ran down the steps to the hot sand, darting back into the shade cast by the deck. Shit. She was trapped against the house, while Foster pulled himself out of the sea. But it was worth it. Water slid in slow rivulets down his sculpted chest and Fade’s breath caught. “Shorts, Foster? Hardly fair.”
He slicked back his hair and grinned at her, something free, open and deliciously wicked. “I could say the same. A sheet, Fadeyka?”
He strode across the sand and her heart kicked up. She wetted her lips. “Where are we?”
“Beta-Sagittae-7. Eastern hemisphere. Quiet and exclusive.” His fingers teased along the edge of her knotted sheet and her skin prickled at the cool, wet glide. The need to question him was starting to slip away. And he knew it. It was there in the increasing ring of fire circling his irises. “The power of the Yalene brought us here.”
“They can do that?” Fade caught her sleep-tangled hair and felt the blush rising. “Of course they can. We’re here.” Her fingers itched to follow the path of a drop of water sliding over the curve of his collarbone, to lick it and taste salt and skin on her tongue. She fought to bring her mind back to their problem. Aleander Dolon. “So what now? Are we safe?”
“Perfectly safe.” Foster brushed her cheek, a simple, light touch with the edge of his finger but it slid heat and want fast through her flesh. “The threat has been…neutralized.”
Fade stared up at him, her gaze moving over his familiar features. He looked the same, still that hard beauty that’d had her fingers working overtime in the months he’d been ignoring her. No, not ignoring her. Working to protect her. “You don’t look any different.”
His light touch moved to her chin, teasing a line under her lip. “I am different.”
She frowned. Was this another aspect to the power of the Yalene? She could see him as he was, but to everyone else he wore a different face. Her fingers itched to examine her own features, to try to feel the difference in her skull. “Am I changed?”
He dipped his head to pull a kiss from her lips. “In a way.”
Fade ignored the rapid surge of want threatening to drop her to the shaded sand like a sack. His fusing with Athanasios had made him purely irresistible. “Will I ever get a straight answer from you?”
“We could talk.” He took a step closer and the tormenting heat of his body washed over her. His low, deep voice was liquid want in her flesh. “We could find shade, a drink, and I could explain how you’re completely safe.” He lifted an eyebrow and the ring of silver gleaming in his eyes caused her heart to skip. “Or I could stretch you out naked on our bed.”
Fade swallowed, her mouth dry. “Is that all?”
His sudden smile was wicked. Sure. The silver in his eyes increased. “I’ve tormented him with taking you. Shown him so many ways we can have you—”
“Athanasios?”
The depraved smile deepened, seeming alien on Foster’s stark face. “We had…rights and business to complete, but we’ve come to an understanding.”
“And me?”
The smile faded back, like a cloud moving across the sharp sun, and Foster was with her again. “I promised you you’d be safe. You are. Now the choice is yours. What life you want.” He gritted his teeth, rolling his neck as a silver gleam flared and died in his gaze. “Your choice.”
He was an honorable man. She’d always loved that about him and now he was willing to let her walk away from him, from them. He’d sacrificed his body, his soul for her…and yet he still gave her a choice. “I choose…” She ran her finger along the hard plane of his chest, the warm air drying the seawater from his skin but leaving tantalizing patterns of salt. She licked him and he hissed. Her tongue teased around his nipple and a tremor ran through his frame. Fade grinned up at him, finding his shadowed face tight, but the burn of silver in his eyes. “Both of you.”
Foster wrapped his arms around her, hauling her against him, and found her mouth. He pulled her up, his hands tight on her ass and she wrapped her legs around his hips, glorying in the press of him against her body and that they—both he and Athanasios—were hers.
Foster broke away, his breath short. “I’m sorry.” His forehead touched hers and for a moment he closed his eyes. “I had to stay away from you. Your cover—Fadeyka Bryce—was so thin. I couldn’t shore it up and have you.”
“Have me?” Fade grazed his bottom lip with her teeth and his fingers dug hard and sweet into her ass. Her chest tightened at Foster willingly sharing with her. “You wanted me?”
His gaze speared her. Hot, dark and not one line of silver. “From the moment you stood in my office. Only that there was something off in your records, or I would’ve bent you over my desk. Fucked you there.” He ground against her, the hard ridge
of his dick a delicious press against her sex. “Never let you out of my sight.”
She rolled against him. “Never?”
Foster groaned and turned, carrying her easily up the steps to the deck. “It’s our new mission.”
“Yours and Athanasios’?” She ran her fingers though his tangled, wet hair, finding a sharp pleasure in being able to touch him so easily. “And you did all this, because in your office you wanted to fuck me?”
“I also wanted to fuck you.”
The warm sunlight swept across her face and she squinted. There was only the rush and pull of the waves and the sound of Foster’s feet on the wooden deck. Nothing else. Everywhere was silence. “Where are we, Foster?”
“I said. Beta-Sagittae-7. My secret bolt hole.”
“You’re rich?”
She smirked at him and he leveled a cool look at her. “Yes, we’re rich.”
“We?”
A ring of silver flared around the blue of his eyes and a wry smile tugged at Foster’s mouth, again so alien on the man’s starkly handsome face. “Nothing is beyond my reach. It took him long enough to realize that.”
Fade bit his lip and he hissed. “Now play nice, Athanasios.”
Eyes narrowed on her and her chest tightened. The dark heat and silver fire forced a pulse low in her belly and the familiar ache burned sweet. “Nice is the last thing either of us are.”
“Is that a promise?”
Foster’s reply was low and guttural and he strode into the bedroom to stand at the end of the bed. With little finesse, he dropped her onto the high mattress and she hit it with a surprised squeal.
The lattice doors slammed shut. Fade blinked. That hadn’t been an act of technology. It had moved through her, Foster and Athanasios willing the wood to jerk into place. Golden light striped the floor and cut across the shadowed form of the man who stood over her. She resisted the sudden urge to scramble back over the bed, her heart tight and her breath short. The mix of fear and arousal was exhilarating.
“What should I call you?”
Fade frowned. “Call me?”