Virile (7 page)

“We take care of what is ours,” came the inflexible reply, reminiscent of his oldest brother. She would do well to remember that relationship. He stepped in behind her and sat, his long legs sliding along her own as he drew her into his lap, wrapping his arms around her middle. She was viscerally aware of the monster erection pulsing against her back as he rested his chin on the top of her head. For a while he simply breathed, the mild air current stirring the tendrils around her face.

Gradually, she relaxed into his embrace, and he then took a sponge from the little shelf. It was permeated with foam smelling of lavender and felt marvelous as Kellis glided it across her skin—these were definitely her toiletries. He took his time washing the parts of her he could reach, before urging her come up on her knees in order to thoroughly wash her pussy and bottom from behind. As she didn’t have to look at his face, she stared unseeingly at the end of the tub. His tender care both freaked her out and elicited a myriad of unsettling emotions—they weren’t allowing her any time to process or adjust.

“Lie back again, my love, and I will wash your hair.” He eased her into position and poured a jug of warm water over her head, carefully avoiding spillage over her face. She wondered why they hadn’t used the shower.

“You were too weary to stand to be bathed, Adara, and you needed to soak.” Darn it, she’d wondered out loud. She’d thought she had her second wind, what with the bath and all, but in truth she was craving sleep. The massage of Kellis’s fingers through her hair, on her scalp, made her want to drift off right then and there. Then it occurred to her it felt too intimate, trusting, and she struggled to get a grip.

“I’ll rinse her.” The spray of running water sounded, and Adara dragged her eyes open to see a very naked Orion reaching for her, his chest a replica of Kellis’s. His cock also curved up to meet his belly, a long, thick stalk, darker than his skin, the weighted sac beneath a perfect counterpoint. The heavy vein on the underside visibly swelled before her fascinated gaze and a creamy pearl of cum anointed the wide, mushroom head. Adara clenched both her buttocks and her thighs, whether in anticipation or fear she wasn’t certain, because both emotions tended to blend together around these men.

Orion scooped her up and moved with her quickly into the shower before she could get chilled. The water was definitely scented, something fresh, perhaps lemon, and it made short work of the suds still in her hair and on her body. He stood her against one tiled wall, still cocooned in the spray as he quickly washed and rinsed. The casual way he pumped his cock, slick with soap and water, made her clench again, and she made herself stare at her toes instead.

As they emerged, Kellis was there with a big towel, warm from the rack, and he enfolded her in it. He sported a smaller towel, slung casually around his waist, and the burnished skin of his chest still beaded with moisture. She could hear water running from the tub above the pounding of her heart and wondered if her willpower was swirling away as the water swirled down the drain. Orion passed a towel over his streaming body before securing it around his hips in much the same manner as Kellis.

“Thorn has gone to shower in the other bath, Kellis. He set Ronnie to preparing a tray—she was aware of our arrival but unaccountably wasn’t prepared.”

Adara caught the incredulity in Orion’s voice and saw it mirrored on Kellis’s face. Who was this Ronnie? What was she to the brothers? Adara’s gut told her this wasn’t an auspicious start. If Ronnie was a servant and hadn’t done her job, it could only be in relation to Adara’s arrival. Maybe Ronnie was one of their submissives and didn’t want Adara there. Or maybe she was just being nuts—she was so freaking tired. And why had Thorn gone elsewhere to shower? Now, that was an errant thought. Why would she
care
? So tired.

As if he heard her thoughts, Orion picked her up and carried her back into the bedroom. He managed her weight as if she weighed nothing at all. Setting her in the middle of that amazing bed, the linens already pulled back, he tugged her towel free. She snatched at it but lost the battle, much as she’d lost the blanket.

“You will be naked around us unless we state otherwise, my sweet. Now, let us situate the pillows so you are comfortable. Your food will soon arrive. You must be hungry. There wasn’t an opportunity for you to eat on the journey across the badlands.”

There’d been an opportunity for his brother to put a plug up her ass, though. And enough time to spank her ass. Adara worked hard at not narrowing her eyes.

Kellis chuckled, and she knew she hadn’t been successful. He climbed in beside her, having lost his towel somewhere along the line, and his hip melded to hers. His cock bobbed in her direction. Orion lounged at her feet, idly tracing the long bones from her ankles to her toes, his eyes unashamedly on her sex. She shifted a little to set her thighs closer together to veil herself as the testosterone filling the room honed her appetite—just not for food.

A slight rattle caught her attention, and she observed Thorn advancing with a tray. His hair glinted with moisture, but unlike his brothers he wore a loose pair of shorts, his thick cock evident even behind the dark material. Adara’s mouth went dry. She watched as he set the food on the stand beside the bed. Kellis leaned her forward, a gesture that seemed orchestrated, and Thorn moved in behind her to sit her on his lap. Her buttocks were stroked by the fine stuff of his shorts, and his cock fitted in the cleft of her ass as the hair on his legs dragged along her smooth ones. She tried to hold herself rigid, but he looped an arm around her and she leaned back, too tired to resist. It certainly wasn’t because he felt strong and comforting and smelled amazing.

The tray was laden with a variety of fruit—some she’d never seen before—cheeses, small pieces of bread, hunks of what appeared to be meat, and three goblets. Her mouth watered. Orion painstakingly put a piece of cheese and meat on some bread and held it against her lips. She opened her mouth, and he set it inside. Kellis waited for her to chew it up and swallow before teasing her with a round berry that tasted like pineapple when she bit into it. Thorn offered her a sip from one of the glasses. It coated her taste buds—the same refreshing fruit juice she’d drunk at the port—fresh with a nutty undertone that immediately quenched her thirst. She took a larger sip before he took it away and very deliberately turned it so he drank from the precise spot where her lips had been set. Adara recognized symbolism when she saw it, and it gave her a fright.

Orion and Kellis moved in to ensure she had eaten her fill, distracting her from Thorn’s action, and only then did they eat. Thorn drank his fill of the liquid but ignored the food. His near silence was unnerving, while the twins told her about the some of the food, where it had originated from and the Freestar role in its production. It seemed a luxury for such a harsh place, but she supposed technology tamed and enhanced any planet.

“You’ve eaten, Thorn?” Kellis asked the question.

“Ronnie fed me while she prepared this meal.” There was a wealth of insinuations behind that comment, but Adara couldn’t interpret any of them.

“What’s going on with her?”

Thorn shrugged. She felt it and wanted to turn to look at him but that drinking from the same place thing was still ricocheting around in her head. There were many things her head was trying to interpret—they were going to considerable effort for a woman they had won in a gambling game when they could have simply used her and locked her up until the next time. Thorn’s big chest lifted behind her as he answered. “I’ve dealt with it.”

There was a lengthy silence, and she knew they were exchanging glances over her head as she studied her nails. She wanted to ask who Ronnie was and screwed up her courage. “Who is this Ronnie?”

Thorn was the one who answered. “The housekeeper and cook, Adara. You will meet her tomorrow.”

So many unanswered questions, and a sense of foreboding prickled along her spine. Adara knew he was prevaricating, but didn’t dare push it. The old Adara would have, but she was coming to know her place, and resented it. Thorn gestured—she saw his hand move from the corner of her eye, and Orion got up. The bed was so big and dense it hardly moved as his weight transferred to the floor. Leaning to brush her cheek with a little kiss, he closed the lights and the room subsided into near darkness. Adara found herself positioned between Kellis and Thorn as he shifted her from him, her face pressed into Kellis’s shoulder, Thorn’s hand on her hip. Linen drifted over her, although she suspected the two human heating pads on either side of her would keep her warm. She speculated as to where Orion would sleep when she heard the doors close.

“Sleep, Adara. We have need of you on the morrow.”

All thoughts of a restful sleep fled. She had managed to dissociate the reality of being in bed between two big men, the whereabouts of the third unknown, because the bath had relaxed her and her belly was full. Being naked also consumed considerable energy, the
pretend this isn’t happening
kind. She’d put any thoughts of what tomorrow would bring away—until Thorn’s comment. Damn him. But in an amazingly short time, the cadence of the brothers’ steady breathing soothed her and she gave in to her exhaustion.

****

Thorn knew the moment their beloved had fallen asleep. Her curvy body went boneless, and her breathing changed into those little puffs of air. The scent of her surrounded him—the much prized lavender underscored with Adara’s own unique fragrance. Lavender was the one item unavailable to them on such short notice, but already they knew her preferences and retrieved it from her case. Orion would have ordered her more. They could have instructed her to bring it with her, but that would have raised suspicion—what woman required that amount of fragrance for a mere month away?

He planned to leave Kellis and Orion in the bed with her, but was unable to do so. Orion, ever practical, recognized Thorn’s need to spend this first night with Adara. His role as punisher would require more sweet moments with their intended—he had to stop thinking of her as their bride for now—and both twins knew it. He was the alpha in the family, assuming the mantle of authority when their parents were betrayed and slain all those decades ago, and the twins were but callow youths.

Orion would sleep outside the bedroom door tonight, as would Kellis the next night. Thorn would take his place in the rotation but rank had its privileges. Adara’s security was paramount. Already there was knowledge of her red hair spreading throughout the planet, and there were elements who wouldn’t want to see the Freestars prosper and expand. Ronnie’s reaction truly unsettled Thorn, and he wondered how many others in his employ feared change and disruption of the status quo. He had found it necessary to watch her prepare the meal they served Adara, sensing some kind of nefarious intent on the other woman’s part.

  
“Although I swear my balls will burst if I do not have her tomorrow, Thorn, perhaps we should wait until we scan for further threats.” Kellis spoke quietly, but Thorn didn’t want even a hint of problems to penetrate Adara’s subconscious.

He lowered his voice even further. “We will have her, Kellis. We have one month to elicit her surrender. She will embrace submission, of that I have no doubt. But her surrender is a different matter.”

He felt Kellis’s ambivalence, but he’d acquiesce. Thorn was exceptionally skilled, whereas his brothers were less than committed to true dominance, and he knew he could give Adara no quarter or she would rule them all. And probably get herself killed because she’d lose sight of her safety and blind them in the process.

“She drank of the nectar.” Kellis was very serious now, and it reflected in his tone.

“Did you think to wait, brother? She is ours, destined for us, and the sooner her physiology acclimates the better. Unless you thought to send her home at the end of this contract.”

“It’s a final step,” Kellis reminded him.

“And one I made with deliberation.”

“We support you, Thorn. It’s just that she’ll be—”

“Furious? Hateful? Want to kill us?” Thorn completed his brother’s comment. “Then it’s up to us to convince her to stay. We’ll deal with any fall out later. Once she surrenders it’s unlikely there will be an issue.”

“You say, Thorn. Adara has spirit.”

“And we can’t tell her anything about her destiny until she commits. No one said it would be easy, Kellis.”

“Ah, we’re up for the task.” Kellis was back to his optimistic self. “In more ways than one.”

Thorn didn’t reply. His physical need for Adara ached and pulsed, cradled as it was in the crevice of her bountiful ass, sweet, prolonged torture.

Chapter Five

Stretching, her body feeling a little worn down and achy, Adara curled both hands into fists before rubbing at her eyes. A quiet chuckle caused her to yank her hands away, and she belatedly remembered where she was. Squinting through early morning cobwebs, although in truth they’d been swept away at the sight of a naked Orion stretched out beside her, she managed to keep her mouth shut tight. All the strange and overwhelming experiences of the past few days addled her brain, but she somehow remembered to bite her tongue. She had twenty-nine days ahead of her and would need to find a place to keep track, like the prisoner she was. Orion’s handsome face and incredible body weren’t going to make her change her mind about the fact his was one of her captors.

“Good morning, my sweet.” What was it with these guys? Kellis called her his love, Orion his sweet and Thorn said something in a foreign language, like agapee moo. It must be a D/s thing on this planet. She’d never heard Samuel call his submissives anything other than sub or girl, sometimes pain slut and slave, albeit with affection in his voice.

She contented herself with a nod and watched Orion warily. Those blue, blue eyes of his darkened momentarily and she thought she’d annoyed him. His next words reassured her. “We encourage you to speak, Adara, unless directed otherwise. We are adept are reading women and you are quite expressive, but communication is very important. Not speaking feels to me like withholding or an attempt to punish.”

Adara blinked. Which part of that statement poked her? Ah, the part about being like other women, lots of other women. She filed the bit about
her
punishing
them
away to think on later but accepted that withholding might not be the best plan. Thorn tended to hit her when she displeased him. Well, maybe that wasn’t quite fair…

“Good morning.” She said it quietly, with no inflection, and Orion’s mouth set.

“Well, what did you expect, brother?” Kellis wandered in, casual pants riding low on his hips, his drool worthy chest on full display. Adara tried to look away when he continued. “You just told our beloved about other women.”

Orion shifted his position, and Adara glanced to see that his face had reddened. “That was in the past, Kellis. We didn’t know Adara then. And she will appreciate our experience.”

Well, shit. Men on any planet were stupid. No matter she was a possession, won in a freaking game, being compared to other women…Adara struggled to keep her breathing calm.

Kellis laughed heartily. “You are so practical, Orion. But Adara isn’t impressed. You are digging yourself deeper.”

Orion’s body flowed from the bed to take a threatening stance in front of his twin. She watched his superb backside overtly—they were too busy dissing one another to pay attention to her looking her fill.

“Better she know we are experienced and get it out into the open than have her wonder later. There is no place in this relationship for jealousy. None of the others matter. It is Adara we have been waiting for.”

And there it was again, pulling her attention away from observing that round, muscled piece of Orion’s anatomy.
Waiting for
. What was going on? She decided to
communicate.
“What does that mean you were waiting for me?”

Two identical faces turned to her, both reflecting the same level of wariness. Kellis responded first. “We were entranced by your image, my love. All of us were captured by it.”

That felt like prevarication, and Adara pushed a little. “Someone else told me you were waiting so it’s not like it isn’t common knowledge.”

“Who else told you that, little one?” Thorn was in the room with them and she hadn’t heard him. The man moved like Sammy, silent for such a big guy. Adara wondered at the silky threat in his tone.

“I forget.”

“Lies get punished.” The twins faded into the background as Thorn advanced on the bed. Adara pulled the sheet up, such a fragile barrier.

“It was one of the women on the transport,” she babbled, any thought of loyalty to a stranger flying out the window.
 

Thorn relaxed. She could see the tension flow visibly from his large frame, and he sat beside her, reaching out to touch her hair. She flinched back and thought she witnessed pain flash in his eyes, but he withdrew his hand.

“The attendant listens to gossip,” he commented. “We didn’t hide your imminent arrival.”

“So then why was it such a big deal to know who told me?” she countered.

For a moment she thought he wouldn’t reply. “I wondered if someone on your home planet had mentioned it.”

So what? Adara didn’t get it. She began to ask for further clarification when Thorn stood. “Prepare her, Orion. Kellis, come with me.”

Dismissed. Dismissed like…well, she didn’t know what…but the urge to smack him resurfaced. Clearly that wasn’t going to happen—he hit back, and much harder—but she needed to find a chink in that man’s armor, much as those outlaws had done. The memory of what Kellis shared about outlaws using women overtook her for a moment.

“Adara? My sweet?” Orion plucked her from the bed and held her tightly, the sheet yanked from under the mattress to wrap around her legs. “What’s wrong?”

He hadn’t been kidding when he said they read women. Adara managed a little smile. “Just thinking about outlaws.”

“Yes. That would cause your skin to pale and your lips to tremble. I can feel how your heart beats wildly. So Thorn didn’t cause that reaction.”

And there it was, her opportunity. She could appeal to this man’s tender side and use his practicality against him—she often thought in numbers and logic after all—although her emotions had been challenging that kind of mindset. With care and caution she could set Orion between her and Thorn. Kellis too, if she’d read his charming sweetness accurately.

Scalding shame heated her skin, flooding from her belly clear up to her scalp. Elliot might be the worst excuse for a brother in the universe, but Adara recognized the bond between these brothers. Sure, the bonds were twisted in some regard, all tied up with their interest in dominating sex and sharing women, but they were close to one another. She wouldn’t mess with that—unless it came down to real self-protection. With her decision came the sudden knowledge that Orion and Kellis were already her allies in some ways. She hid her head against Orion’s shoulder and nodded. She’d resemble those little toys pretty soon, those ones with the soft bodies and hard heads on a spring that bounced atop of the poles in the garden. That was her—soft body, hard head.

“We will keep you safe, Adara. Now come to use the facilities and wash. Your morning meal will be ready.” She didn’t need Orion to say anything about what would happen after that meal. His cock was a hard, solid presence against her, hot and damp. And her traitorous pussy was feeling a little wet too in anticipation. Damn it.

****

“Did you think it was the Dom who told her?” Kellis opened the oven and peered inside. Thorn waited for his brother to shut it and look at him before replying. Ronnie had gone to the greenhouse to find some herbs so they had privacy, but he wanted to make sure Kellis understood the seriousness of the issue.

“He wants her for himself,” he stated.

Kellis, the poster boy for sunny, morphed into a dark, forbidding presence. “What are you saying?”

“We spoke, that Samuel Redcliff and I. He is both an advisor to the brother and a friend. He spoke of friendship with Adara, but it is more than that. He offered to train her, prepare her, and I took him up on it.”

“How much could he accomplish in two days?” Kellis scoffed.

“Other than the basics, nothing. But I sensed he wanted her and rather than raise suspicions that we don’t intend to let her go—I agreed.”

“But you think he thought—”

“He’s a Dom, Kell, just as we are. And he loves our bride. Don’t you think he’d be vigilant and suspicious? That he understood the intensity, particularly when he had a copy of the contract?” Yes, there was many a twist in securing Adara. A Dom of all people in love with her, one she considered a very good friend. The prophecies did say it would be a struggle, but still… At least she had limited status on her world. Adara belonged to her brother—he likely inherited the responsibility when he became of age to take charge of his family estate and business. The Freestars would merely relieve him of that responsibility. She could marry here as easily as on that world, and here her husbands were predetermined.

“Okay. So you fobbed him off. And she’s ours.”

“We need to be careful, Kell. You expressed your concern last night. Women such as Adara won’t take kindly to being used to complete a prophecy that ensures an incredible legacy for us. It would be better if we could tell her.” He shrugged, accepting what they couldn’t do.

Kellis shook his head. “We have all fallen for her, Thorn. The legacy aside—we already have so much—Adara is ours. I love her already, and Orion is tripping all over himself to protect her from you.”

“That isn’t necessary.”

“He knows it. It’s just that she’s so…well, so naïve or something. And two punishments in one day!”

“There will likely be one or two a day for some time to come,” Thorn forecast. “And I find myself not liking my role.”

Kellis laughed so hard he had to brace himself against the counter. “I hope your inner sadist can be satisfied with the erotic pain then, brother. To think that a spanking didn’t make you hard!”

“Oh, it made me hard, you ass. Incredibly hard. But Adara hated it and hates me by extension.
That
does nothing for me. Pleasure and pain must combine, or at the very least, the promise of pleasure.”

“She’ll get past it,” Kellis assured him. “She’ll come to accept the reasons why. Orion was already on top of that, and I provided an explanation as well. And there is a fine line between love and hate, Thorn.”

Thorn wished he could believe it would be so simple, but somehow he doubted it. And Kellis didn’t have to say that the fine line could be crossed in the opposite direction as well.

He scented her just before she came into the room, lavender and Adara. She was nude, and not as awkward about it, so he’d been correct to include Orion. His brother had his arm around her shoulders as he drew her towards the stools set at the high counter, his head lowered to speak softly in her ear. Thorn noted he was speaking in her right ear, the better to appeal to the side of the brain more amenable to sincere flattery and sweet talk, bypassing her intellectual side.

Orion chivalrously helped her get comfortable on the soft leather seat. Envy lanced into Thorn’s gut before lust replaced it. Adara’s skin glowed in the muted illumination, the treated skylight cutting the glare of three suns, yet giving them plenty of light to work. Her hair shone from a recent brushing, and he could imagine Orion’s hands wielding the brush, stroking it through those curling strands—gods, he was losing his mind.

“Good morning, Adara.” He infused his comment with both warmth and a little bite of domination.

Her eyes finally darted in his direction, and he locked his gaze with hers. Awareness flickered there, perhaps a bit of chemistry, but as expected she was still wary of him, and angry too. Well, they had a month ahead of them to replace those negative emotions with positive ones. Gods be pleased a month would be enough.

“Morning.” Saccharine sweet, poorly veiling defiance. His palm itched and it took an effort to set the spatula down and not take it to her gorgeous ass. His prediction of spankings had become a certainty.

“Adara.” To Thorn’s surprise it was Kellis who spoke her name in warning.

She flushed, the entrancing color rising from the tops of her firm breasts to inch up the column of her throat and paint her cheeks. “Good morning, Thorn,” she said politely.

Inclining his head he hid surprise and rising amusement. This was indeed progress. He placed the final piece of food on her plate and set it in front of Orion. A bit of irritation niggled when he remembered the herbs Ronnie had gone to pull for garnish. Where was she?

As Orion forked up some of the tender hare to offer Adara, their housekeeper stalked into the kitchen, holding the knife she’d used on the herbs like a pointer in front of her skinny chest. The greenery dangled from her other hand and was torn and wilted. Then Thorn’s attention was pulled to their beloved. She gasped loudly and folded against the counter, dipping her head, her beautiful hair streaming to cover her face and breasts. The fork clattered to the plate as Orion dropped it.

“Excuse me.” Ronnie’s insincere apology reverberated in the room, and she tossed both the knife and herbs beside the stove as Kellis advanced. Thorn fixed her with a stare, and she wobbled before sinking to her knees, dark hair awry and her pallor very evident. But her black eyes snapped with rage and something worse. Kellis reached down and pulled her to her feet, then nearly dragged her from the room. Her sandals scuffed on the tile, and her colorful shift flowed in waves around her thin body like a sail. He speculated that forcing her to wear clothing had conjured up that garment—the better to underline the difference between her and their Adara.