by Fox, Jaide
The door opened. Both of them looked up to see Fallon standing there and staring at them. He looked from one to the other, and then gave them a cold smile. “No need to explain what happened here,” he said. “Your voices carry well out into the corridor. You may want to remember that for the next time.”
He walked inside and sat down in the chair, glancing first at Ebony sitting on the edge of the bed covered only by a towel and then at Damon standing over her. “Ebony,” Fallon said, “you wished to know why I allowed each of my men to stay alone in a room with one of the women we brought back.”
“Yeah. That seemed—” She stopped at the hard look on his face. “Yeah. I did.”
“Actually, I hoped the men would begin to form bonds with these women.”
“You hoped--you hoped that they would get attached to each other?” Ebony frowned. “I don’t understand. How do you expect us to go back to the harem if those other girls are all sleeping with your men, and maybe falling in love with them as rescuers?”
Fallon shrugged. “I do not see how you can be surprised at this, Ebony. Have not you yourself done the same thing? And with two men? At least the other women only took one man apiece.” He sat back in the chair and touched his fingertips together, almost smirking at Ebony as he waited for her response.
Ebony snapped her gaping mouth shut and narrowed her eyes. “Now, look, Fallon,” Ebony said, standing up and walking over to him. She kept the towel close around her. “Your boy Damon thinks you’re going to punish him just because he had sex with me. It was my fault as much as it was his. You don’t have to do anything to him.”
Fallon ignored Damon and slowly stood up in front of Ebony, fixing his gaze on her. She stepped back a pace, but there was really nowhere to go in the small room.
He kept walking directly towards her, silent and staring, one heavy step at a time. She backed away until she was in the corner between the bed and the closet, and could go no farther.
Fallon caught her by the arms and turned her around so that she faced the bed. The towel fell to the floor. Slowly, forcibly, he moved her arms forward so that they rested on the bed and then put one hand on her shoulders and made her bend forward. He pushed his knee between her legs and forced them apart, and then, still holding her by one shoulder, he began pulling his belt from his pants and releasing the buckles that held them shut.
Ebony knew better than to resist. She didn’t so much as gasp in outrage. Besides, she did not think Fallon would actually harm her. Damon was probably right. Fallon would have to save face in such a situation and put her back in her place. And so he did…
She felt Damon’s eyes on her like a caress as she awaited her punishment.
Fallon’s cock pushed through the underside of her buttocks, ramming her violently from behind with his very large member, holding her very tightly with both hands as he did so.
He held her still, making her take every painful inch of him. If she hadn’t enjoyed herself for so long with Damon, it might not have stretched her so painfully, but she was tender and sore from too many bouts of lovemaking.
Ebony tightened her hands into fists, biting her lip to keep from crying out.
She felt Fallon’s mouth on her back as he leaned over and drove into her body again and again.
She ducked her head and allowed him to “punish” her. If that was what he thought, he was welcome to it. If he thought she didn’t like it, maybe he’d do it again sometime.
She wasn’t sure how she felt about this, but from the corner of her eye, she could see Damon watching her breasts bounce and jiggle with every thrust.
Incredibly, she felt her body give in to Fallon, her passage slickening with cream to ease his entry and retreat. The hot bite of his mouth made shivers course down her spine. The pressure of his hands on her hips, manacled her in place, forcing her to feel everything without respite.
He pounded into her, driving her up onto her toes to greet him. Within, her pussy quivered and trembled with impending orgasm.
She wanted to beg for surcease but couldn’t seem to catch her breath. She closed her eyes against Damon’s knowing look, trembling with desire as the wave of bliss came crashing down in the midst of Fallon’s rampaging lust.
Finally he was exhausted and spent, and then he slowly withdrew from her. She stayed very still until he was all the way out and fastening his clothes back together. She kept her face hidden so that the two of them would think she’d been “punished” into submission, even though she was pretty sure they both realized she’d come.
Geez, men are so delicate...they just have to be babied all the time...
Ebony looked up again at the sound of the door closing. Fallon was gone, and Damon sat sulking in his chair.
She swallowed, feeling weak kneed and in desperate need of some rest.
“There, you see?” she said to him, giving a little shudder. “I told you he wouldn’t do anything to you. He took it out on me, and you two can go back to being friends. The ‘punishment’ was all mine.”
Damon looked up at her, and actually smiled. “Oh, Ebony,” he whispered, “surely you do not think that what he did was to punish you.” He got up out of the chair and slowly walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. Ebony could only watch him go.
***
The day passed, and to Ebony’s relief she found that she and the other women were to be put to work in the caverns doing a variety of odd jobs. One of Fallon’s men--Kye, the one who had taken the plain-looking but smart little redhead Pamela to his room--brought all of the women to the dining hall and began assigning them different tasks.
But before he could finish speaking, all of the women squealed at the sight of each other and could not be stopped from gathering together in a tight group hug.
“Oh, look at you!”
“Yes! Real clothes! And different colors from those harem gowns!”
“We made it this far--they’re not going to send us back, are they?”
“We can all stay together a while, can’t we?”
Ebony was surprised at how glad she was to see them, and at how much better they looked after a couple of days of rest, food, bathing, and real clothes...and she wondered if the men would notice how much the women had changed.
The heavy makeup that they usually wore had been scrubbed from their faces and their skin looked fresh and young. Their hair simply hung down their backs, freely and naturally. And dressed in the plain scrubs with little leather boots on their feet, they were able to move freely and comfortably instead of being confined in long sheer gowns which were difficult to walk in and kept barefoot all the time even though they lived on cold hard floors.
Ebony was amused to see that each of them wore scrubs of a different color. Her own were blue, a welcome change from the red and gold gowns she had been assigned.
“Listen! Listen to me!” Kye clapped his hands and tried to get their attention, but to no avail. Eventually, though the girls broke up from their group hug and their crying at seeing one another and turned to face Kye, some of them wiping tears from their eyes.
In a few moments they all had their assigned tasks and were on their way to their new jobs.
Jane in pink and Suzanne in navy were sent out to operate the washing machines for the clothes and sheets and towels.
Rebecca in orange and Michelle in green were handed brooms and rags and told to begin sweeping and cleaning the sleeping rooms.
Pamela, in yellow scrubs, was allowed to sit down at a table in the dining hall and given some needles and thread and a set to repairing torn seams and lost fastenings on a stack of garments and sheets.
Assigned to the kitchen, Ebony worked beside Cassie in red and Famke in purple. Ebony was pleased to see that even the reticent Famke seemed a little more friendly and out of her shell. “Hey, Big F,” said Ebony to the tall blonde woman, “what kind of fish do you think this is?”
Famke glanced over at the white fillets on her cutting board and on Ebony’s, and almost s
miled. “I’m just thinking of it as ‘not herring.’ That pretty much covers it.”
“I couldn’t say what kind of animal this came from, either,” said Cassie, who had some kind of red meat on her own cutting board. “But I’m glad to have some of it to eat, no matter where the men got it.”
“I’m afraid to ask what kind of fish this is,” Ebony said. “I’m afraid it’s probably from that awful, slimy black lake out in the mine. But I’m so hungry I’m not going to ask any questions.”
“Me, either,” said Cassie.
“There’s a whole sack of some kind of nuts and berries on the shelf over there,” said Famke, nodding towards them.
“Ooh! Wonder what we can make out of that?” said Cassie.
“Dessert, maybe?” added Ebony. “I can’t wait!” She glanced towards the shelf, and then turned back to her companions. “I wonder if they’ve got any sugar--or honey--or flour--or anything like that around here.”
“Chocolate, maybe?” said Cassie, her eyes growing large.
“Oh, I’d kill for some good chocolate right now,” said Ebony. “I used to love those great big thick bars that you could buy from school kids doing fundraisers--you know, the kind with almonds in them.”
“And my favorite was German chocolate cake,” whispered Cassie. “Three layers tall, with dark chocolate frosting between the layers and coconut on the top and a cherry on each piece.”
“We’d better tell these men that if they’re going to have women around, they’d better call the Grays and trade everything they’ve got for some chocolate!” Ebony said, feeling her stomach grumble and her mouth water.
“Yes!” cried Cassie, and both women laughed out loud.
“You all look much happier now,” said Famke, with a faint smile.
“I think I’m most happy to have something to do besides sit around alone in that room,” said Ebony, and grinned at Famke. “My career plans didn’t include turning into Suzy Homemaker, but right now a little cooking and cleaning are way better than either being alone…or…or…”
“Or being back in the harem,” whispered Famke, and the three of them nodded in silence.
All of the women worked together for the rest of the afternoon, feeling better and more hopeful about their futures than they had in a very long time.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Finally, at the end of the long working day, Ebony returned to her room, closed the door behind her, and lay back on the bed with a tremendous sigh. It had been a long time since she’d simply done an honest day’s work--one that didn’t involve sex, anyway--and it felt good. Very good. She found that she was looking forward to whatever she might be called upon to do tomorrow, even if it was just the equivalent of peeling potatoes or sweeping floors.
Eventually she got up, and after a nice, long, hot shower, she stepped back into the room with just a towel around her to find that Fallon was back and already stretched out on the bed, propped up on a couple of cushions. “Where is Damon?” Ebony asked, keeping the towel closely wrapped and searching the clothes rack for another set of blue scrubs.
“He’s supervising some late mining operations. He’ll be along soon enough. Come over here.” Fallon patted the covers beside him.
Ebony paused. She had the top of her scrubs in her hands, ready to pull off the rack, but with a sigh she let it go and shut the closet door. “Okay,” she said resignedly, and lay down naked on the bed beside Fallon.
“No, no.” He sat up and reached for her hand, pulling her back to a sitting position. “Get dressed. I want to talk.”
A little surprised, and confused, Ebony glanced sideways at him. “Really. You really want me to get dressed?”
“Hasn’t there been enough sex for one day, Ebony Raines?” Fallon said, and he sounded as if he was laughing. “Perhaps we could just talk. You seem to enjoy that, too.”
“Well, well. If it ain’t just one long day of surprises,” Ebony murmured, and got up and went back to the rack to put on the scrubs. She finished adjusting her clothes before sitting down on the bed once more. “Now that you mention it, yeah, there are a few things I’d still like to know.”
Fallon remained silent, simply gazing at her and waiting.
“For starters,” she said, thinking carefully, “I’d like to know how it was that your brother ended up on the throne if you were the first born. Even if you are identical twins, seems like the first one out should be the first in line.”
“That is true. That is why I should be king right now, and not Kore. Everyone knew it.”
She shook her head. “Then I don’t understand. How could your father declare Kore to be king in place of you without fearing an uprising or breaking the law? Why didn’t anybody else do anything about it? There must have been others who wanted the same changes you did--there are some here with you at these mines, and there must have been more.”
Fallon sat up from the pillows and swung his legs over so that he sat on the edge of the bed. “I will tell you something that few people know,” he said quietly. “When my brother, King Kore, took over the rulership of this world, he feared exactly what you describe. He feared that more and more of his own people might turn against him and follow me instead.”
Ebony cocked her head at him. “And did they?”
“Yes, many did. A few at first, and then more and more as others gathered their courage. For a short time, thousands rallied with me and proclaimed their support of the ideas I championed.”
“No wonder your brother wanted you out,” Ebony said. “What happened to all those followers?”
“They were told I was dead.”
“Dead?” She paused, frowning at him. “Even with no body?” Then her eyes widened. “Don’t tell me there were triplets and not just twins!”
He almost smiled. “No. No triplets. There was just myself and Kore. The truth was that when the rebellion failed and I was captured, Kore meant to have me executed--but he had an almost superstitious fear of killing his own twin. I suppose I might feel the same, much as I despise the man who happens to be my brother.
“He solved his dilemma by secretly banishing me to the wildest and deadliest part of Chalcydon with just a handful of men, most of which are still with me, and proclaiming to the populace that I was dead--killed in the rebellion.”
“Wow,” Ebony said, with a low whistle. “Y’all got some seriously messed up people around here.” She thought for a moment. “Where did he drop you off for this exile? Was it here, at this mine?”
“No. Nothing so close or so simple. No, this place would have been much too hospitable.” Fallon stood up and walked a few paces in the small room. “Kore’s men flew us to the other side of this planet and left us there. Left us there to die in the middle of a vast desert, the Desert of Fire. Each of us was given one small bottle of water and a handful of food--but still, we made it out. All of us but one. And that one sacrificed himself defending us against--against the terrors that live out there in the deep and scorching sand wastelands.
“Kore expected us to die. He never saw any trace of us again, so we let him go on thinking that we did die out there. But the truth was that we made our way to this mountain and this mine, and we’ve been here ever since trying to rebuild our lives.”
“But I thought--I thought you said, and Damon said, that you wanted to die...wanted to die to somehow pay for what you did in causing the deaths of all the women, even though you didn’t intend for that to happen.”
He nodded slowly. “You are right. I am torn. Many of us still are. We deserve to die for what we have done, and sometimes the pain of it becomes too much to live with day after day.”
Ebony frowned again. “Now that I think about it--where are the scientists who actually made this virus? I’ve seen miners, and the workers, and a doctor, and your men--but no scientists, unless you’ve got them hidden away. Are they here, in this mountain fortress of yours, or are they somewhere else? Maybe they’re working on new technology to help the peop
le, once the rebellion finally succeeds? Or are they working on mining applications, so that the rebellion will have money from getting all that chalcedonite out of the ground here in this old mine?”
Fallon sat up very straight, and stared hard into Ebony’s eyes. “There is one other thing that you, and most others, do not know: The scientists who agreed with me that advancing the technology would be to our benefit, and who developed the virus as our means of persuasion--the same scientists who couldn’t stop the virus when it mutated--are all dead.”
“Dead.”
“They took their own lives.” He got to his feet and began to pace. “They made their way to the Desert of Fire--the one my men and I managed to escape--and that is where they chose to meet their end. They simply could not suffer the pain, the guilt, of knowing they had destroyed every last female on their own planet and doomed their own race to extinction. They walked out into that hell and died there.