“I’m not a thing.”
“No, you aren’t. Nor did he say you were. We want you. You’re beautiful and sexy and neither of us likes it when you’re angry with us.” Ash knelt beside them.
“Then neither of you should act like idiots.”
“You’re right. But, Freka, as you pointed out just the other day, we’re just men.” Ash whipped his shirt off and tossed it behind him. “Is this bed big enough for three?” He nodded to the bed next to where they lay.
“You want me, but you don’t need me. I’m a complication neither of you needs.”
Brandt looked her straight in her beautiful eyes and shook his head. They’d slipped and moved through the portal. They didn’t have monitors on board, and damn it, he wanted to say what he meant. Out loud. “Fuck this whole thing. I do need you. More than I expected to, more than I planned to, more than I knew I could need anyone. You’re not going to push me away because of how complicated things are. I may be heavy-handed, but damn it, I love you. I’m not going to allow it.”
“You may change your mind if we find something out you didn’t want to know.” She held up the comb Rina had given her. With a flick of her wrist, it split open, and a data chip fell into her palm. He didn’t miss the emotion in her voice.
Ash sighed and stood, helping her up.
“No matter what we find, it’s not your fault.” Ash grabbed her waist and pulled her against his body, and she moaned softly.
Brandt knelt behind her and nipped, hard, on one delicious cheek of her perfect ass. He ran his palms over the smooth skin of her legs, over the taut flesh of her belly, and she writhed between them.
“Don’t get too involved back there,” Ash said, looking around her body and down at him.
“I’m changing into clothes. Real clothes. And then I’ll do a bit of reading.”
“No more of this nonsense about changing rooms.” Brandt frowned.
“My room is bigger; it might be a more comfortable fit for the three of us.” Ash shrugged, and Sera threw her hands up.
“Fine. It’s not like I have any say.”
Brandt grinned and watched as she dug through the drawers until she located a pair of soft pants and a long-sleeved shirt. And for some reason, she looked even sexier in them than she had in the scant little things she’d been wearing on Nondal.
She turned and saw his perusal and snorted. The sweet smoothness of Sela had been replaced by the sharper bite of Sera. He preferred it. “I like you much better this way. Sela was sexy and all, but Sera is vibrant, sharp, vivid, and far more sensual than I’d started to learn back in Borran. And Sera?”
She cocked her head.
“I love you. A thousand times over until I cease to live, I love you.”
He didn’t fail to notice the quirk of her lips as she fought a smile or the way the stiffness of her spine softened.
“I’m sorry.” He said it genuinely and out loud.
“I know.” She rolled her eyes and sashayed from the room. “Oh, and I love you, too.”
Smiling like the fool he was, he trailed after her into Ash’s room just down the corridor.
Ash hadn’t lied; it was a much larger room. Sera’s eyes widened a bit as she took it in while heading straight for the computer and other electronic gadgetry in the far corner. First she loaded the data she’d mined that first night and hit a wall straight off. Encryption. She’d need to set a program up to try to get through whatever locks so they could access the information.
Once that was set up, she loaded the chip Rina had given her and ran it through a virus program before uploading the information it contained.
Sera looked at the screen and frowned. It wasn’t concrete proof, but it was a host of things Rina suspected Owen Alder had been up to on the Edge. She believed Perry was part of it and that Tifrit was also becoming involved. She felt quite strongly that Giles’s murder was arranged by Owen because Giles had been talking too much and had outlived his usefulness. Rina wasn’t sure just how involved Kira was but felt she had some level of knowledge of the situation.
Ash sat heavily behind her, and Brandt sighed and began to pace. She may not like Kira and Perry, but their possible involvement hurt the men she loved, and that hurt her. She loved them. She wanted to run and hide from it, but she couldn’t. Instead, she tried to focus.
“This isn’t good.”
Brandt undid his hair and shook it out, sending sensual shivers through her despite the seriousness of the situation. It was so long and so dark; she knew the feel of the cool, dark silk as it glided over her skin. She swallowed hard and dug her nails into her palms to focus on the issue.
“I may need to make a trip home to follow up,” Brandt said.
“Me, as well,” Ash agreed.
“Why don’t you both head on, and I’ll change transport in Pilus? That way you can keep going, and I can go back to Borran. The data I got the first night is encrypted. It’s a very sophisticated program, actually. It may be a few days before I can get it translated. No use wasting time when you two can get on your way.”
Ash looked at her, spun her chair to face him, pulled her up, and grabbed her hair. “We’ll be together, Freka.” He tipped her head, angling her mouth just where he wanted it, and stole a kiss. She’d expected a ferocious one, but instead, he delivered a touch so gentle and reverent, tears stung her eyes.
“We’ll all go back to Borran and then head out once we’re there.” Brandt moved behind them, pressing his cock into the flesh of her ass.
“Now that we’ve taken care of work, some play is in order, wouldn’t you say?” Ash asked her with a wicked smile.
“Are you suggesting a vid?” She smiled. They were both ridiculously incorrigible.
She found herself slung over Ash’s shoulder, and she growled, “I believe we’ve discussed how unamused I am by this position.”
Ash laughed and tossed her to the bed, and she bounced.
“You’re very saucy today.”
Sera couldn’t pry her gaze away from Ash’s hands working the fastenings on his pants.
“Something here you find of interest?” He looked particularly feral in that moment; shirtless, bare skin on his skull gleaming, deep concentration on his face. All for her. It made her heart beat faster just to watch him look at her.
“I’m saucy every day, Ash. It’s just that your diet has apparently been quite bland.”
Brandt burst out laughing and quickly undressed, standing at the foot of the bed, naked, hair loose around his shoulders.
“So, um, you two,” Sera licked her lips, “are you together? I mean, I know you’re together.” She couldn’t believe she was blushing. “But I meant, like as a couple?”
Ash’s smile turned wicked as he reached out, sliding his hands through Brandt’s hair. “Does the idea please you?”
“Look, I’m all about the boy-touching, let’s make that clear. As long as I’m involved, I can watch, and you come back to me, I’m on board.”
“Like this?” Brandt turned and kissed Ash’s jaw and down his neck. Ash hissed, arching into Brandt’s touch as Brandt tugged on one of Ash’s nipple rings.
Sera got rid of her shirt and pants before piling some pillows to lean against so she’d be better able to watch. “How long? How long have you been lovers?”
Ash encircled Brandt’s cock in his fist and pumped slowly. “I wouldn’t say we’re lovers. Not the way we are with you. We’ve given each other pleasure; he’s let me use the cat on his ass and back. I like to make him come. He likes to make me come. It works out.”
Sera idly tweaked one of her nipples and spread her thighs wide. Both men homed in on her pussy, and she smiled. Yes, she was the submissive, but in submission there was power.
“Who tops?” The idea of the two of them together, all that male strength, all that dominance writhing and moaning together made her wet and achy. She’d never actually been in a threesome before, so the whole thing was new. But watching her two men together, the small glimpses they’d given her was beyond titillating. It was comforting, too, in some sense. At first she’d had a twinge of unease, of jealousy. But they clearly needed her, wanted her, desired her, and the jealousy had eased until all that remained was how sexy it was.
“We switch.” Brandt lifted his lips from where they’d been on Ash’s collarbone. “Finger your cunt for me.”
A flush of heat rose from her toes as she slid her hand down her belly. She wasn’t surprised to find herself already wet as she played her fingers over her clit. Still, she wasn’t going to let go of the subject at hand. “Can I watch? You know, you two going at it. Or, well . . .” She paused as a wave of sensation echoed through her, her clit hardening against her fingertips. “Be in charge, too?”
Ash laughed and raised a brow in her direction. “I didn’t say you could come. Hold off.” He waited for her to slow her fingers down before going on. “We don’t need to with you around, Freka. We can both top you. And I don’t need Brandt that way, not with you in my bed.”
She frowned dramatically, pulling her glistening fingers free and painting her nipples with them. “Well, I can’t deny the appeal of that and all, but you know, it would make me so happy to see it. Like, say, one of you could top the other two.” She sat up, looking hopeful.