The Spawning (41 page)

This was far better than what she’d thought of—taking the current situation into consideration. With only twenty women to so many men, it could only have caused resentment if some had been left completely out. They seemed to prefer the idea of sharing a woman to doing without, and she certainly couldn’t blame them. “Yes,” she managed to say finally. “This is perfect.”

* * * *

The situation was perfectly awful, Miranda decided after her first few weeks in the ‘new village’. She got to sleep with her men,
sleeping
being the damned operative word. It wasn’t as if she would’ve been completely comfortable having sex with one while the others were close enough to touch—and the rest of the village population certainly close enough to hear. It was worse, though, that she lay in their arms night after night, feeling achy and needy and unable to do a damned thing about it.

She’d just
thought
she was miserable before. She hadn’t had good night kisses to get her thoroughly aroused, though, and then had to curl up in bed with them. She could cool off when she climbed into an empty bed. She couldn’t cool off with an erect cock nestled between the cheeks of her ass every night, or against her thigh and belly.

She might not know anything about being pregnant, but she didn’t believe for one moment that either humans
or
Hirachi just stopped having sex altogether once a woman was pregnant. She thought it probably wouldn’t be a good idea in the last month even it she actually felt like it, and she doubted she’d be able to for a while afterward, but that was still months away. As close as she could calculate it, she wasn’t even halfway there, yet.

At least she knew they weren’t screwing around, she thought wryly, which helped her feelings but didn’t do anything for her rampant hormones.

Maybe they thought she didn’t want to?

Well, there was no doubt she didn’t feel particularly sexy but that didn’t deter her THE SPAWNING Kaitlyn O’Connor 184

from wanting sex, particularly when it was dark enough at night inside the nursery to eliminate any possibility that they could actually
see
her.

She was tempted to come right out and demand to know why they didn’t want to,

but she couldn’t dismiss the uneasy feeling that they might give her a reason she didn’t especially want to know. Finally, she simply decided to take the initiative and force the issue—sneak attack. She’d already tried a more or less direct approach without success.

It didn’t matter how enthusiastically she returned their kisses, however. Good night, was good night and that was the end of it.

Of course, she knew they had to be exhausted. They split their time between

working to finish the land village, as they called it, mining the
jasumi,
and providing food for everyone. They’d made the last a little simpler. Using the bamboo and vine method of construction, they’d build a wall around the clearing and then chased a small herd of the beasts into it and corralled them.

They were without a doubt the ugliest damned ‘cows’ any of them had ever seen, but it worked. They had cow-like and fish-like. All they needed now was pig-like and chicken-like and they were set, Deborah had commented wryly.

They still worked very hard, much harder Miranda was sure than they’d worked

before when they hadn’t been concerned about providing for anyone but themselves.

True, they’d built the village in the sea and that was a hell of accomplishment, but it had been modest beside what they were building now.

It made her feel guilty—a little guilty—about demanding more, but she didn’t

figure it was
that
much more. It wasn’t as if she wanted, or expected, them to entertain her all night. She could be satisfied with once—once in a while.

She decided to focus on Adar. He seemed the most defenseless where she was

concerned, poor baby, which also made her feel guilty, but not enough to make her change her mind. The hell of it was, she fell asleep herself the first time she decided to put her plan in motion.

She couldn’t even claim justifiable exhaustion. Since the Hirachi had moved

them all to the new village, all of the women spent most of their day in the nursery weaving or preparing the food for the meals. They couldn’t
cook
it themselves, but they could certainly prepare it for cooking. They went out to ‘gather’ early in the day before the height of the heat, and late in the afternoon, but they didn’t have anything too strenuous to do anymore.

She supposed it was just the pregnancy. She’d felt more tired and inclined to want to sleep more ever since she’d gotten pregnant, but it irritated her when she realized she’d fallen asleep before Adar did and she’d have to wait until the next ‘rotation’ to have another chance at seducing him.

She was prepared the next time. She’d taken a nap during the day, which she

rarely did, and woken refreshed and determined. The men actually seemed to prefer to spoon, but since that made it impossible for her to get her hands on ‘the meat’, she simply ignored Adar’s attempt to get her to roll over and put her back to him.

Disconcerted, he rolled and presented her with his back.

Bad move, she thought wickedly. She could still reach around him to play.

Predictably, he dropped to sleep almost as soon as he’d settled comfortably. She waited until he’d had time to drop more deeply asleep and then very casually brushed her hand along the ridge in his trousers that had just begun to soften. He stirred, but she didn’t feel THE SPAWNING Kaitlyn O’Connor 185

any tension that suggested she’d woken him. After a brief debate of whether to slip her hand beneath his waistband or unfasten his trousers, she decided to risk opening them. If his pants were still fastened when he woke up, he would be wearing armor against her.

She hadn’t counted on how fucking
loud
it would sound when she opened the damned closure of his pants. Wincing at the noise, she froze briefly, held her breath.

Adar seemed to be breathing a little more rapidly, but she wasn’t certain. Her own breath was short from the mixture of anticipation and excitement that had begun to thrum through her. After that brief hesitation, she slipped her hand inside his pants and began to stroke him.

He’d been semi-erect before she’d even touched him. His cock was as hard as a piece of iron by the time she’d stroked her hand from the root to the tip. She shifted closer, curling her fingers around it, nibbling lightly at his bare shoulder since she couldn’t reach any higher and still maintain her grip on his cock—and she wasn’t letting go of that unless he pried her loose.

He began to move restlessly after a few moments, his breath catching in his throat in soft grunts of pleasure. Miranda felt her own heat index rise in direct proportion to his. Her sex quaked with anticipation, grew moist and achy—more achy. She’d gone from a mild interest, to a definite interest, to a sense of desperation over the weeks since she’d had any relief at all.

She felt him tense when he roused from sleep. As he shifted over onto his back to look at her, she climbed on top of him, straddling his waist. He caught her waist, but she knew it wasn’t to mount her on his staff, knew, regardless of the desire she’d aroused in him that he wasn’t going to take it any further.

She sprawled on top of him before he could lift her away, pushing back against him until the head of his cock was wedged in her cleft—about an inch north of where she needed it. Nuzzling her face across his broad chest, she found his nipple and clamped down on both the nipple and the ring through it.

He stilled instantly. She didn’t know if it was because he thought she might bite the sensitive nub or if it had sent a hard enough shaft of arousal through him to paralyze him, but she didn’t wait to find out. She sucked at it, teased it with her tongue, all the while wiggling her hips and trying to get his cock shifted into a lock and load position.

He sucked in a deep breath, lifting her upward, and expelled it on a harsh groan, lowering her again.

Taking that as a sign of defeat, she released her grip on his nipple and reached between them, grasping his cock and aligning it. He caught her hips again just as she managed to connect. Ignoring his light hold, she rocked back, engulfing more of his flesh.

He seemed to wrestle with himself for a moment and finally surrendered,

squeezing her flesh as she rocked back and forth on him but making no attempt to either help or hinder. A vague sense of disappointment flitted through her, but the rising tide of passion banished it as she finally managed to engulf him completely, felt the wondrous friction of his flesh brushing along her channel.

She pushed herself upright, moving on him until she found the rhythm she

needed. It didn’t take much. She’d begun to feel so deprived she was ready almost before she managed to get him fully inside.

And Adar
still
nearly beat her to culmination. She was hovering on the brink, THE SPAWNING Kaitlyn O’Connor 186

focused on reaching her goal when he stiffened beneath her, his hands tightening almost painfully. She ignored the warning to be still, grinding herself on him when his grip prevented her from moving until she felt the first quakes. She lowered herself to his chest then, trying to muffle her pleasurable gasps against his flesh as she came shatteringly.

The rippling of the muscles along her channel in climax, pushed him over the

edge, as well. He jerked beneath her, jarring her with the force of his own release and finally expelled a long, drawn out breath of relief. For several moments, he didn’t even attempt to move. Finally, wrapping his arms around her, he twisted beneath her, tumbling her onto the mattress beside him.

He sought her mouth, kissing her with what almost seemed a mixture of apology

and appreciation. “You are alright?” he asked in a low voice made husky by expended desire.

Or maybe anxiety?

“Mmmhmm,” Miranda murmured dreamily, more than half asleep already.

“Better than alright.”

Adar was gone when she woke the next morning, but Miranda felt too glorious to be deeply disturbed by it. As often as not they woke before her and left without even arousing her since she’d grown accustomed to having a bed partner. She saw with little surprise when she finally rolled over that all of them gone. Yawning and stretching, she finally got up and made her way to the community facilities just off the main room of the nursery.

She didn’t know how they’d managed running water for showers and working

toilets and she didn’t care as long as they worked. It was civilization at its finest.

Actually, finest would be when they had their own private facilities, but this was close enough to heaven, in her opinion for the moment.

When she’d dressed, she gathered up her basket, shoved her knife in her boot and went to see who else was stirring. Deborah and Stacy were just heading to the facilities, so she waited for them.

Both women gave her knowing looks when they came out again. “I wonder why

she looks so well laid this morning?” Deborah teased wryly.

Miranda felt her face redden at the discovery that her attempt to keep quiet hadn’t been terribly successful, but she grinned unrepentantly. “Because I am?”

They were still chuckling about it when they reached the surface and left the

building. Miranda’s amusement died when she saw that the bulk of the Hirachi were gathered in a tight knot at the far end of the grounds.

She should’ve known something was up, she thought fearfully, when she didn’t

hear any sounds of work. After glancing anxiously at Deborah and Stacy, she hurried toward the gathering, imagining all sorts of horrible possibilities—except what was actually in progress.

The men gathered as spectators moved very reluctantly when the three of them

began trying to push their way to the front to see what was going on, but Miranda realized just from the sounds that there was a fight in progress even before she could see who was involved.

Teron and Gerek, their arms folded over their chests, were watching while Khan beat the shit out of Adar.

THE SPAWNING Kaitlyn O’Connor 187

“What’s going on?” Miranda demanded before she thought better of it.

Khan paused, his fist poised in the air, and turned to look at her, then flicked a significant glance at Teron and Gerek. Unfolding their arms, Teron and Gerek strode quickly toward her.

“Nothing you need be concerned about,” Teron said tightly as he stopped directly in front of her, blocking her view of the other two men. “Go back to the nursery.”

Miranda stared up at him and then looked at Gerek’s taut face. “Not until you tell me what this is about!” she said stubbornly.

“The dispute is between the four of us. We will settle it,” Teron said evenly.

If he’d slapped her she couldn’t been more stunned—or hurt, if it came to that.

To be so abruptly relegated to nothing but an interfering outsider when she’d begun to feel like they were a family was shattering. She swallowed with an effort, searching her mind to try to understand what kind of dispute they could possibly have with Adar.

The only thing that leapt to mind was the fact that they’d had sex the night before, but she couldn’t believe it was that. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t before, with their full knowledge. It wasn’t as if they didn’t know and accept that he was one of her lovers.

She hadn’t refused any of them in favor of him.

As little as that made any sense at all to her, she couldn’t think of anything else Adar might have done. She didn’t believe he would’ve refused any order Khan might have given him.

“Tell me it has nothing to do with me at all and I’ll go,” she said finally.

Teron studied her for a long moment and finally flicked a dismissing glance at the Hirachi men still standing behind her. When Miranda glanced significantly at Deborah and Stacy, they turned rather reluctantly and followed the Hirachi away.

“He ignored a direct order given to him by Khan … and me.”