Amorous Overnight

by Robin L. Rotham

  Moving behind Jasmine, Shauss tugged on the slender golden rings that pierced both her nipples, making her flush and bite her lip. Then he slid one hand down to run his fingers lightly over her pubis. “These, I’m inordinately fond of.”

  He split his fingers apart, baring her most intimate secrets.

  Feeling heat around his collar and ears, Cecine focused on the deep-pink flesh Shauss had exposed and was shocked to see two tiny gold rings piercing her tender inner lips. “You did all this yourself?”

  “I did all Jasmine’s piercings. Monica gets the credit—and the blame—for Tiber’s.”

  Cecine winced. He really could have done without that bit of knowledge.

  “It didn’t hurt that much, sir,” Jasmine assured him.

  “I’m glad to hear it,” he said in a heartfelt tone.

  Shauss pulled her face toward him and kissed her while still plying the fingers of his other hand between her thighs. He didn’t release her until she was whimpering and squirming, clutching at his forearms with both hands. It reminded him of all he’d done with Shelley, all the things he had yet to do with her.

  Then Shauss turned to Tiber. Instead of kissing him, he leaned down and enveloped the head of Tiber’s still-hard cock in his mouth, sucking until his cheeks hollowed. Tiber gasped, plunging his hands into Shauss’s hair, but Shauss released him at once and stepped back.

  “Thank you both. That was very well done,” he said. “Wait for me in the mating bed. Cecine and I have a few more things to discuss. No touching below the waist and no coming.”

  “You never let me have any fun,” Tiber murmured with a sly smile as he took Jasmine by the hand and pulled her out of the dining room.

  “Since you feel that way, don’t plan on having any for the rest of the night,” Shauss called after him. “He loves the mindfuck.”

  Tiber’s voice floated back. “As I said, Shauss will believe what he wishes to.”

  Shauss just smiled. “Join me for a drink on the deck.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Shelley had just finished her tray, which mercifully had contained mostly Terran comfort foods like chicken soup and vanilla pudding and even 7UP.

  Hastion said, “Ah, your guest has arrived.”

  “Guest?”

  “I didn’t expect to be making house calls.” Monica strolled through the door wearing the girliest thing Shelley had ever seen her in—black leggings and a tight, long-sleeved fuchsia top.

  Shelley squealed and Monica sat on the edge of the bed to give her a hug while Kellen and Hastion looked on indulgently.

  “Don’t you guys have something better to do than stare at us?” Monica demanded.

  They looked at each other and then said in unison, “No.”

  “Then find something.”

  Hastion grinned. “Would you care to join me for a swim, Commander?”

  “By all means.”

  After Hastion gave Shelley a lingering kiss goodbye and departed with the commander, she found Monica gaping at her. “What was that?”

  She blushed hard. “Um, I guess there’s something I need to tell you.”

  Monica’s eyes got even wider. “You slept with him?”

  “Yes,” Shelley said tentatively. “Actually, I’m mated to him.”

  “What!”

  “And…your father.”

  Monica’s jaw dropped and she thumped the side of her head with the heel of her hand a couple of times, as if trying to shake something out of her ear. “I’m sorry, I could swear you just said you’re mated to my father.”

  Shelley laughed for real this time. Few things were more fun than dropping a huge bomb on Monica. “I know, it totally weirds me out too—but in a good way,” she added. Then she smirked. “So I guess that makes me your stepmother, but you can just call me Shelley.”

  Monica gave her the stink eye. “When in the hell did all this happen?”

  “Last night, apparently.”

  Shelley explained what had happened, and about Tysan’s visit.

  Monica frowned. “That’s weird. It almost sounds like…”

  “What?”

  “Well, it kind of sounds like my pheromone overdose.”

  “Ha! I wish. I’d love to grow another foot or two, but I promise you, there’s nothing but shorty in my genes. I look just like my Great-grandma Wyatt and she was only four foot eight.”

  “Yikes! Okay, I believe you.” Monica still frowned. “So you’re cool with my father? It kind of sounds like you were forced into it.”

  “I’m…actually pretty happy about it. I’ve been falling for them both for a while now. After what the minister did for my mother—hell, my whole family—I couldn’t help crushing on him a little bit.”

  “Ha! So you were perving on him in his brief.”

  Shelley gave her a rueful smile. “I was. He’s freaking hot, and he smells so damn good I can hardly keep myself from licking him all over. They both do.”

  “Ew, TMI.” Then Monica frowned. “Wait, what do they smell like?”

  “Hmm. Your dad smells like windmill cookies and Hastion smells kind of like warm peanut brittle.”

  “When did they start smelling like that?”

  “I don’t know. On the ship. I’m surprised I didn’t notice it earlier. I’ve always had an abnormally keen sense of smell. A lot of times I could diagnose what was wrong with a patient just by the way they smelled. Once I even—”

  Monica held up a hand to stop her. “Wait, Empran, what are you saying? What kind of experiments?”

  Shelley’s eyes widened. “You’re talking to Empran? Tell her hi for me.”

  “Yes, I’m talking to her, and you can’t tell anyone or she’ll be deactivated. Now be quiet for a minute.” She concentrated hard and then her expression grew black. “Oh my fucking God, you can’t be serious! Brain death? They’re using brain-dead women?”

  Shelley leaned forward, practically dying of suspense, but she managed to contain herself until Monica finally seemed to focus on her again. “What, what? Tell me!”

  “Jesus, Shelley.” She looked stunned and almost…afraid.

  “Now you’re starting to scare me,” Shelley said. “Just tell me.”

  “I hope you were serious about wanting to be a foot or two taller, because you’re about to be assimilated.”

  Out on the deck overlooking the sea, Cecine regarded Shauss across the table while an elderly male servant opened a decanter of ale and poured them both a mug. The foundation of his beliefs was crumbling away beneath his feet like an unstable cliff, leaving him scrambling for something to hold on to.

  “Thank you, Von, that will be all for this evening,” Shauss said.

  “Very good, sir.”

  After taking a few sips, Cecine finally asked the question that had been burning in his mind for the past hour. “Why?”

  Shauss challenged him with a stare. “Why do you think?”

  Cecine gave an incredulous laugh. “Shauss, you cannot imagine that because you have revealed this deviant Utopia you share with your second, all other males will suddenly rush to follow your example.”

  “Not at all. But intimacy between males—true intimacy, both physical and emotional—has been anathema on our planet for too long, and it will take courage and strength to change that. My hope is that dominant males who fuck submissive males will do more than just make use of them. I want them to open their eyes and see what is before them.”

  “You think I don’t see Hastion?” Cecine demanded incredulously.

  Shauss’s stare didn’t waver. “I believe you don’t see what you don’t wish to see. In him or in yourself.”

  His heart rate escalating, Cecine blinked away a vision of Draeda hanging in his chains, his skin mottled and bloated, his eyes and tongue bulging grotesquely.

  “Has the ensign spoken of…our interactions?”

  “He spoke to Tiber,” Shauss said carefully. “I can’t say what they discussed but I don’t believe I’m betr
aying any confidences by telling you what I’ve observed. Hastion changed immediately after becoming your second, and the change was obvious enough that Shelley confronted you, fearing you were abusing him.”

  Cecine winced. “Thank you for that reminder, but I’m well aware he’s…unhappy serving me.” It was a bitter thing to admit Hastion endured service to him. “You may rest assured that, now that Shelley is available to me, I’ll make no further demands upon him.”

  “Minister…Cecine…” Shauss frowned for a moment and then leaned forward, “…I would make three observations about Hastion. First, he witnessed the intimacy between Tiber and me from its earliest stages. Though he was quite ill from Jasmine’s pheromones, he watched avidly when I claimed Tiber and was so accepting, it never occurred to us to hide our feelings for each other in his presence.”

  Before Cecine had time to draw any conclusions about what he was saying, Shauss continued, “Second, he craves attention and approval from authority figures, something I comprehended more fully after witnessing his interactions with his father. His need to earn the approval of his superiors is part of what makes him such an outstanding warrior. But I believe his needs go deeper than that, deeper than he would ever be comfortable confessing. To anyone.”

  Cecine nodded reluctantly. “I have suspected he needs something I do not provide. He seems to hold back…a great deal.” Everything. He holds back everything and gives me only what he must. The idea made his jaw clench.

  “He’s not the only one holding back, is he?” When Cecine looked away, Shauss said, “You’re the dominant, Cecine, and he’s very vulnerable. You shouldn’t expect him to lay out his secrets for you if you’re not willing to do the same for him.”

  “I’ll take that under advisement,” Cecine told him in a cool tone. “Your third observation?”

  Shauss sighed. “I have suspected since the probe demonstration that Hastion might receive the sexual advances of males and females with equal interest. If he weren’t Jasmine’s brother, I would have kept him as second and claimed him as thoroughly as I’ve claimed Tiber. He’s a beautiful specimen, and because he’s so profoundly submissive, I would have had absolutely no qualms about piercing him with my own hand in a dozen different places, beginning with his cock and balls. Then after I’d beaten him for my own enjoyment, I’d have marked him with tattoos proclaiming my ownership, fastened a collar and leash on him, and paraded him around the planet naked to show him off.”

  Stunned, Cecine opened his mouth and then closed it again. Before he could pull himself together to speak, Shauss added, “And he would have been thrilled by all of it.”

  After they swam, Hastion and the commander rinsed off under the shower by the stairs and then sat nude on the deck, drying in the warm air.

  “Something on your mind, Ensign?” Kellen said.

  “We claimed Shelley last night. Fully.”

  Kellen looked surprised but not displeased. “She was amenable?”

  “Surprisingly so, sir, although matters were a little unsettled this morning.”

  “I suppose since our Houses are joined, you should call me Kellen in private.”

  Hastion squirmed inwardly. It didn’t feel any more right to call the commander by his given name than it would the minister. “Perhaps not right away. I might accidentally call you that in front of the other warriors.”

  A smile tugged at the corners of the commander’s lips. “Whatever you’re most comfortable with.”

  “Thank you, sir. I’m still a little concerned about how she’ll react to the news that we’ve been mated for months already.”

  “Why does she have to find out?”

  Hastion blinked. “Sir, I don’t know if I can live with that deception for the rest of my life.”

  “I don’t see any reason to tell her. Isn’t it kinder just to let her believe it all unfolded naturally?”

  “Would you keep such a secret from Monica?”

  Kellen frowned. “Possibly. It’s in the past and there’s nothing she can do to change it. The deception was for her own good. Why upset her unnecessarily?”

  “I think she’d want to know.”

  “Of course she would. But what we want isn’t always what’s best for us, is it?” When Hastion didn’t reply, he continued, “If Shelley’s happy in her ignorance, I’d just as soon you left her that way. If she finds out and tells Monica, I’ll have hell to pay.”

  Hastion grinned at him. “So you want me to lie to protect you from Monica.”

  “Damn straight,” Kellen said. “To tell you the truth, I’m a bit concerned how she’ll react to the news of their being mated. He is her father, after all.”

  “She’s fair-minded. She’ll recover sooner or later.”

  “She carries a grudge, though. It could be much later than I care to wait.”

  They grinned at each other and then rose to dress.

  When they made their way to Shelley’s room, Monica looked like a thundercloud.

  “Let’s go, Kellen,” she snarled.

  Hastion looked at him. “Uh-oh.”

  “No, Ensign, I believe that look warrants an ‘oh shit,’” Kellen sent back. “But I haven’t had a chance to congratulate Shelley—”

  “I don’t think she’s in the mood to be congratulated.”

  Hastion’s stomach contracted. Shelley looked terrible, distant and upset, as she stared out at the sea. What in the Powers’ name had happened?

  Putting her hand on Shelley’s shoulder, Monica said, “Call me if you need me. For anything,” she added with an ominous look at Hastion. Then she walked out.

  Kellen nodded at him. “I’ll be available if you need me, as well.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  After the commander departed, he sat beside her. “Shelley, what’s wrong?”

  When he reached for her hand, she drew away and Hastion grew genuinely frightened. “Shelley, please tell me.”

  She finally looked at him. “You tell me, Hastion—how long have you been my mate?”

  He froze. Oh Peserin’s hell, he’d known they were going to regret that deception. He just hadn’t realized they would regret it within the hour. “Since the day the twins were born.”

  Her face crumpled. “Oh my God.”

  “Shelley, the minister thought you should have time to recover from the shock of losing your husband before being informed of the mating. He was—we all were afraid you’d do something dangerous if you felt trapped into a mating.”

  “Bastards,” she sobbed.

  “Shelley, please.”

  She drew her knees up under the covers, wrapping her arms around them and hiding her face in them. “I can’t believe I fell in love with rotten, lying, scheming aliens again,” she choked out. “What the fuck is the matter with me?”

  “Shelley, I love you. I love you,” Hastion said desperately. “Please believe me.”

  “Go away. Just go away and leave me alone!”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Cecine took his time walking from the landing area up to his house, considering all he’d seen and discussed that evening. Perhaps it was time to stop being fearful and begin to trust, to confront Hastion with the truth of what he wanted.

  But his viscera were tight with anxiety. What if Hastion recoiled in horror at the idea and petitioned the council to be released from their bond? Worse, what if he made public Cecine’s desires and the council cut him from the bond instead of Hastion?

  Most unthinkable, what if Hastion took his own life, as Draeda had, rather than be the object of his abnormal desires?

  You didn’t give Draeda the chance to reject your desires, logic insisted.

  But Draeda had died because of them anyway. Antani had somehow intuited how Cecine felt about him and used it to torture them both to the point of death. The same thing could happen to Hastion. He’d already been attacked by Ensign Mikal, and the male hadn’t acted alone—two others had helped, and several more had merely stood by and allowed i
t to happen.

  When Cecine learned that, it had taken considerable strength of will not to drag each and every one of them into the arena and publicly punish them for being slaves to fear and hatred.

  So why, then, was he allowing himself to be ruled by his own fear?

  His emotions were entirely too close to the surface when he walked into the house, and he was almost unnerved to find Hastion waiting at the door, barefoot and comfortably dressed in tunic and mabi pants.

  “I’m glad you’re back, sir,” Hastion said at once. “Something terrible has happened. Shelley—”

  “Why didn’t you contact me at once?” Alarmed, Cecine started toward the stairs. “Have you summoned Tysan?”

  “She’s not ill, sir.”

  Cecine turned with a frown. “What, then?”

  “She found out about our deception.”

  “How?”

  “I’m guessing Monica told her. She and the commander came to visit Shelley, and the commander and I went out for a swim. When we returned, Monica was furious and Shelley was almost hysterical.” Hastion’s heart ached at having left her alone. “I tried to talk to her but she ordered me out of the room and I left to avoid upsetting her further.”

  Cecine continued to the stairs and took them three at a time. When he reached her room, he opened the door and found the room dark.

  “Lights on fifty percent,” he ordered.

  When the lights came up, Shelley was curled in a ball under her blanket.

  Stifling a rush of remorse, Cecine sat on the bed behind her. “Shelley, we should discuss this like adults.”

  “You should fuck off, you lying sack of alien shit,” came the nasal reply.

  Annoyance rose but he tamped it down. “I apologize for the deception but I felt it was best for you, and so did Dr. Tiber.”

  She rolled over and propped up on her elbows, glaring at him with swollen eyes. “For me?” she said incredulously.

  “Yes, for you.”

  “You could have given me a choice!”

  “Oh? You really think you could have made the choice between being mated to me and being parted from your children right after they were born?”