“News travels so fast in Nondal,” Rina said in a voice so low and sensual, Sera figured it had to be enhanced. “They are very fine-looking men. I hear you had a run-in with Walker’s former wife last evening.”
“News does travel fast.” Sera offered nothing else. She wanted to know what else they’d heard and how.
“Giles is close with Perry and the she-demon. When they’re together, it’s the only time Giles’s wife ever has the nerve to say anything about all his women on the side.” Delia sniffed as if offended by that. Sera thought Giles’s wife would make a better point with a large, blunt object while her wayward husband slept. Still, Sera did quite enjoy the characterization of Kira as a she-demon.
“Have you met her?” Sera asked nonchalantly.
“Of course not. Do you think she’d lower herself to speak to one of us? Is it true they introduced you to her? I would have loved to have seen it with my own eyes.” Delia laughed.
“She gasped as if she’d been injured and stepped back, hand over her heart, when Brandt introduced me. As if being a concubine would be something she could catch.” Venomous, evil, horrid woman.
“Not so perfect herself. Her or her precious Family.”
Really now? What did that mean? “This is lovely but this,” Sera held up another gown in a deeper color, “would suit your coloring so much better.”
Flattered, Delia took it, and in the middle of the boutique, stripped out of the gown she wore and tried on the delicate one Sera had handed her. “You’re right. I’ll wear it tonight, I think.”
Sera waited until they’d entered yet another shop to hedge around the topic again. “I’m just relieved she won’t be at the party this evening.”
“Perry will be. She doesn’t know what a beast he is when she’s not around. Wouldn’t be so superior-like if she knew. All she cares about is credits, anyway.”
“I’ve seen Perry. A girl has to get something out of a relationship, and since Ash is in my bed, I think credits must mean more to her than sex.” Whoo, way to channel Sela.
Delia and Rina laughed. “I’ve seen Perry’s cock; it’s nothing to put on a vid and report over. But as long as he’s willing to keep certain people happy and doesn’t have the morals of a speck, she’ll stay with him, and the Walkers will be happy.” Delia put yet another pair of shoes on the teetering stack she’d already created. Stander must be operating in the gray in a major way to finance this woman’s shoes alone.
“Certain people? Should I be worried about Ash ending up in some off-’Verse brig for dealing with the criminal element?” she asked as she handed a pair of shoes to the clerk with a smile.
“Doesn’t seem the type to play on the wrong side of the fence,” Rina said. “Oh, I love that bag!”
Sera let it go for the time being, she couldn’t push too hard about it. Sela wouldn’t care overly much, anyway. She’d find ways to bring it up at the party later that evening and whenever she could without looking suspicious. Certainly the comments Delia made didn’t cast Stander in a very good light, and the stuff about Perry was worrisome.
One thing that did bother her was the possible involvement of Kira in the dealings with the Imperialists. Not that she gave a purri seed one way or another about the stupid woman. But she worried for Brandt and Ash, for their feelings and their Families. Sera hoped the things they’d said about credits and that sort of thing just indicated Kira’s nature and not any sort of knowledge of what was going on between Stander and the Imperialists.
By the time the afternoon was over, she entered the quiet guesthouse. The shops had sent over her packages, and she was halfway to drunk from all the liquor they’d imbibed at each boutique.
As Ash and Brandt were both gone, she stripped down, got in the large bath, and soaked while she tried to figure out just what the hell Kira and Perry had to do with Giles Stander and what she could do to protect her men from whatever trouble might arise.
“Look what I found in our bed, Ash,” Brandt called back over his shoulder.
Sera opened her eyes, and when she saw him standing there, the smile she gave him pushed all his exhaustion away.
“I see by the mountain of packages in the common area you had a good time today.” He pulled his shirt off, kicked out of his shoes and pants, and got into bed with her. She immediately snuggled into him, warm and sweet-smelling.
“I missed you today.”
That meant something to him. More than a million credits. “After hours with a bunch of men trying to brag and drink each other to death, I missed you, too. Your company is far preferable. Ash had to make a communication to his family. They’ve pinged him several times today.”
“I learned something today he may want to deal with.”
“What is it, Sera?” Ash asked through the link.
She related what she’d heard during her outing with Delia and Rina. “I’m sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?” Brandt caressed her jawline.
“I wish it didn’t possibly implicate your sister and Ash’s cousin.”
“None of that is yours to be sorry for. We’ll see what we can see. I’ll be in momentarily.” Ash broke off, and Brandt held her close.
Brandt didn’t like thinking Kira could be so selfish she’d betray their own people for credits. She wasn’t the most forthright person he knew by any means, but he’d never thought her so very heartless and without even basic values.
“Did you fetch yourself any finery today?”
“More than enough.” She licked over his nipple, and he shivered at the sensation. “I’ve missed your taste, too.”
He moved, rolling her so that he lay atop her, her softness cradling him. “Well, I’m here to be tasted now.”
“But you’re on top.”
In one easy thrust, he filled her totally. “You’re right. You can suck my cock later.”
He kissed her over and over as he slowly fucked into her body. And she opened for him, opened her cunt, opened her mouth, made a home for him within her body in a way no one else ever had.
In Sera Ayers, he’d found something he realized he’d never known he was missing: sanctuary. He loved her, he realized. It’d gone far beyond a depth of affection. Beyond wanting something lasting. The exact moment it happened, he didn’t know, but he’d do anything to keep her, even deal with her wounds and prove to her he was real, and his feelings were true.
Their fingers intertwined, gazes locked, he made love to her like nothing and no one else mattered.
Sera was unsettled by the way Brandt touched her, by the tenderness he showed her. Much like the hand massage Ash had given her back on the transport, that gentle touch was her undoing. To be in the hands of men who could easily break her in half but who instead touched her with reverence was her downfall.
She’d given herself to him. Body and soul. And heart. Too late to panic, although beyond a doubt she was scared. She believed they cared about her. They’d shown her quite clearly. She believed what she felt when they touched her. Yes, they were undercover, but there were things she knew they weren’t faking.
But that was also part of the problem. She couldn’t really process all of what was happening, because she needed to wear Sela all the time. She couldn’t think with them in her head. She needed the emotional space to work through it without them instead of having them inside her brain when they discussed things.
And ultimately, despite knowing they cared about her, she was scared. Scared of ever feeling what she had ten years before when she’d had to leave Ash. The desolation had made her into a different person, had darkened and broken a part of her she couldn’t quite ever put back together. It had taken everything she had to recover, she didn’t have it in her to do it again. So even though she could admit she loved both men, she wasn’t sure if she could trust herself to believe it all the way just yet.
“Please don’t look at me with fear in your eyes. Do you think I could ever bear to hurt you?” Brandt’s voice whispered through the link as his cock continued to invade and retreat.
“Not with your hands.”
He leaned down and kissed her face. Gently, softly. “I love you, Sera. You’re meant for me.”
She closed her eyes, but he leaned down and whispered in her ear, “You’re beautiful, and it’s inevitable. Give in and love me.”
“I do,” she said back, the tears bleeding into her voice.
The bed dipped as Ash got in with them. But he did nothing more than lie there, one hand stroking over Brandt’s back and down his thigh before moving to Sera.
“Does his cock feel good inside you?” Ash asked, a fingertip circling her nipple.
“Yes,” she sighed.
“Good. I’m next.” The hand he’d been using on her nipple slipped down her belly until his fingertips dipped into her pussy, bringing her honey up to slick over her clit.
“Gods, when you touch her clit, her cunt ripples around me like liquid heat.” Brandt’s voice was pleasure-taut. “Make her come, Ash. All over my cock.”
Ash’s chuckle tightened things low in her gut as he danced the pad of his middle finger over her clit, drawing the pleasure from her, pulling her climax closer and closer.