Amorous Overnight (36 page)

Cecine narrowed his eyes in warning, but at that moment Shauss leaned forward and slid a hand behind Tiber’s head, drawing him forward into…a kiss.

A kiss between two males.

Cecine’s heart thundered as he watched. Shauss of Andagon, possibly the most lethal warrior he knew, was pushing his tongue almost playfully into his second’s mouth, and Tiber didn’t just accept the invasion with resignation—he responded with enthusiasm, sliding his hands up Shauss’s thighs to grasp his hips.

It was, without doubt, the most erotic thing he’d ever witnessed, and he was all but slain by arousal and alarm in equal measures. It was all too easy to imagine himself engaging in similar behavior with Hastion.

“They’re beautiful, aren’t they?” Jasmine whispered without taking her glowing eyes off them.

He swallowed, painfully aware of the stiffness jutting up from between his thighs. “This doesn’t displease you?”

“I love it. They need each other.”

Shauss broke away. “I need Tiber more than he needs me,” he said, looking into the other male’s eyes.

Tiber shook his head. “Not true. Well, perhaps for holding your ego in check,” he added with an impudent grin.

“Which is why I love you—for that, and for your talented mouth,” Shauss said, stroking his bondmate’s head one more time.

Cecine inhaled sharply. Words of love now.
Love
.

In that instant, bitter regret almost felled him. If he’d exchanged such a kiss with Draeda, if he’d confessed his feelings for him regardless of the risk, would Draeda have lived?

He swallowed hard as Shauss slouched back with his hands folded behind his head, his cock arching toward the ceiling, and gazed at Tiber. “Now suck me, mate.”

Cecine squeezed his eyes shut, jarred by the contradiction. How could Shauss treat Tiber in such a manner if he loved him?

When he could bring himself to look again, Tiber had wrapped his hands around the base of Shauss’s cock and was mouthing the bursting head as if he were savoring the richest of fruits. Both males’ feelings were plainly written on their faces as they stared at each other.

I love you…and I enjoy seeing you debased.

I love you too…and I enjoy being debased.

Shauss glanced at him and looked amused. “You look as though your head is about to explode.”

“Which one?” he asked through taut lips.

Shauss chuckled. “Both. You know, sir…” he cocked his head to the side, reaching down to stroke Tiber’s hair again, “…if I told her to, Jasmine would see to your needs as Tiber is seeing to mine.”

Lightning cracked down Cecine’s spine and for an instant all he could hear was a high-pitched hum. Was the lieutenant’s goal this night to give him a brain attack? If so, he was well on his way to achieving it.

“Why would you do that?” he managed to ask.

“Because I suffer an excess of pride,” Shauss said with a sigh. “I enjoy showing off my treasures and Jasmine enjoys being shown off more than Tiber does. I don’t believe I could convince Tiber to suck your cock.”

Tiber raised his head long enough to say, “You couldn’t. No offense intended, Minister.”

“None taken, I assure you,” Cecine said with an incredulous laugh. Then he looked at Jasmine. “And you would do it.”

“Gladly,” she said in a firm voice. “I love to please Shauss. He deserves my obedience.”

Cecine narrowed his gaze on Shauss. “And if I wished to fuck her?”

Betraying no hint of affront at the crude challenge, Shauss replied lazily, “If I asked it of her, she would comply with the same enthusiasm. However, I’m afraid I’d have to kill you before you finished, which would take most of the fun out of it—for you anyway.”

Cecine laughed in earnest this time. “It is fortunate then that, as lovely as she is, I wouldn’t betray my mates, especially with my second’s sister.”

Shauss stirred then, tugging Tiber’s head up with one last stroke of his hair and standing, righting his waistband as he went. “In that case, I’m going to ask both Tiber and Jasmine to disrobe for you before they retire for the evening.”

Cecine stared at him. “Why?”

Shauss’s lips quirked. “Why not?”

“I…” Cecine shook his head. Peserin, but the lieutenant was going to be the death of him. “Proceed.”

Jasmine and Tiber were both smiling as they turned their backs to him and pulled off what little clothing they wore. Having less to shed, Tiber finished first and turned around.

Cecine’s brows shot up as he stared at Tiber’s cock, which was poking straight out in front of him. “What in Peserin’s name is that?”

“A gross mutilation of one of my very favorite toys,” Shauss told him with a stern look, “for which he was properly punished.”

“It’s called a Prince Albert piercing.” Tiber took himself in hand and showed off the silver ring that entered his cock underneath the head and exited through his urethra.

Cecine’s pulse pounded in his ears. “Then it’s not a slave piercing?”

“It is now,” Shauss said, “but there is nothing in Peserin’s creation that could induce me to poke holes in my own phallus, so I would certainly never have poked any in Tiber’s.”

Tiber smiled. “You pierced Jasmine. I felt left out.”

Moving behind Jasmine, Shauss tugged on the slender golden rings that pierced both her nipples, making her flush and bite her lip. Then he slid one hand down to run his fingers lightly over her pubis. “These, I’m inordinately fond of.”

He split his fingers apart, baring her most intimate secrets.

Feeling heat around his collar and ears, Cecine focused on the deep-pink flesh Shauss had exposed and was shocked to see two tiny gold rings piercing her tender inner lips. “You did all this yourself?”

“I did all Jasmine’s piercings. Monica gets the credit—and the blame—for Tiber’s.”

Cecine winced. He really could have done without that bit of knowledge.

“It didn’t hurt that much, sir,” Jasmine assured him.

“I’m glad to hear it,” he said in a heartfelt tone.

Shauss pulled her face toward him and kissed her while still plying the fingers of his other hand between her thighs. He didn’t release her until she was whimpering and squirming, clutching at his forearms with both hands. It reminded him of all he’d done with Shelley, all the things he had yet to do with her.

Then Shauss turned to Tiber. Instead of kissing him, he leaned down and enveloped the head of Tiber’s still-hard cock in his mouth, sucking until his cheeks hollowed. Tiber gasped, plunging his hands into Shauss’s hair, but Shauss released him at once and stepped back.

“Thank you both. That was very well done,” he said. “Wait for me in the mating bed. Cecine and I have a few more things to discuss. No touching below the waist and no coming.”

“You never let me have any fun,” Tiber murmured with a sly smile as he took Jasmine by the hand and pulled her out of the dining room.

“Since you feel that way, don’t plan on having any for the rest of the night,” Shauss called after him. “He loves the mindfuck.”

Tiber’s voice floated back. “As I said, Shauss will believe what he wishes to.”

Shauss just smiled. “Join me for a drink on the deck.”

Chapter Eighteen

Shelley had just finished her tray, which mercifully had contained mostly Terran comfort foods like chicken soup and vanilla pudding and even 7UP.

Hastion said, “Ah, your guest has arrived.”

“Guest?”

“I didn’t expect to be making house calls.” Monica strolled through the door wearing the girliest thing Shelley had ever seen her in—black leggings and a tight, long-sleeved fuchsia top.

Shelley squealed and Monica sat on the edge of the bed to give her a hug while Kellen and Hastion looked on indulgently.

“Don’t you guys have something better to do than stare at us?” Monica demanded.

They looked at each other and then said in unison, “No.”

“Then find something.”

Hastion grinned. “Would you care to join me for a swim, Commander?”

“By all means.”

After Hastion gave Shelley a lingering kiss goodbye and departed with the commander, she found Monica gaping at her. “What was
that
?”

She blushed hard. “Um, I guess there’s something I need to tell you.”

Monica’s eyes got even wider. “You
slept
with him?”

“Yes,” Shelley said tentatively. “Actually, I’m mated to him.”

“What!”

“And…your father.”

Monica’s jaw dropped and she thumped the side of her head with the heel of her hand a couple of times, as if trying to shake something out of her ear. “I’m sorry, I could swear you just said you’re mated to my father.”

Shelley laughed for real this time. Few things were more fun than dropping a huge bomb on Monica. “I know, it totally weirds me out too—but in a good way,” she added. Then she smirked. “So I guess that makes me your stepmother, but you can just call me Shelley.”

Monica gave her the stink eye. “When in the hell did all this happen?”

“Last night, apparently.”

Shelley explained what had happened, and about Tysan’s visit.

Monica frowned. “That’s weird. It almost sounds like…”

“What?”

“Well, it kind of sounds like my pheromone overdose.”

“Ha! I wish. I’d love to grow another foot or two, but I promise you, there’s nothing but shorty in my genes. I look just like my Great-grandma Wyatt and she was only four foot eight.”

“Yikes! Okay, I believe you.” Monica still frowned. “So you’re cool with my father? It kind of sounds like you were forced into it.”

“I’m…actually pretty happy about it. I’ve been falling for them both for a while now. After what the minister did for my mother—hell, my whole family—I couldn’t help crushing on him a little bit.”

“Ha! So you
were
perving on him in his brief.”

Shelley gave her a rueful smile. “I was. He’s freaking hot, and he smells so damn good I can hardly keep myself from licking him all over. They both do.”

“Ew, TMI.” Then Monica frowned. “Wait, what do they smell like?”

“Hmm. Your dad smells like windmill cookies and Hastion smells kind of like warm peanut brittle.”

“When did they start smelling like that?”

“I don’t know. On the ship. I’m surprised I didn’t notice it earlier. I’ve always had an abnormally keen sense of smell. A lot of times I could diagnose what was wrong with a patient just by the way they smelled. Once I even—”

Monica held up a hand to stop her. “Wait, Empran, what are you saying? What kind of experiments?”

Shelley’s eyes widened. “You’re talking to Empran? Tell her hi for me.”

“Yes, I’m talking to her, and you can’t tell anyone or she’ll be deactivated. Now be quiet for a minute.” She concentrated hard and then her expression grew black. “Oh my fucking God, you can’t be serious! Brain death? They’re using
brain-dead women
?”

Shelley leaned forward, practically dying of suspense, but she managed to contain herself until Monica finally seemed to focus on her again. “What, what? Tell me!”

“Jesus, Shelley.” She looked stunned and almost…afraid.

“Now you’re starting to scare me,” Shelley said. “Just tell me.”

“I hope you were serious about wanting to be a foot or two taller, because you’re about to be assimilated.”

Out on the deck overlooking the sea, Cecine regarded Shauss across the table while an elderly male servant opened a decanter of ale and poured them both a mug. The foundation of his beliefs was crumbling away beneath his feet like an unstable cliff, leaving him scrambling for something to hold on to.

“Thank you, Von, that will be all for this evening,” Shauss said.

“Very good, sir.”

After taking a few sips, Cecine finally asked the question that had been burning in his mind for the past hour. “Why?”

Shauss challenged him with a stare. “Why do you think?”

Cecine gave an incredulous laugh. “Shauss, you cannot imagine that because you have revealed this deviant Utopia you share with your second, all other males will suddenly rush to follow your example.”

“Not at all. But intimacy between males—true intimacy, both physical and emotional—has been anathema on our planet for too long, and it will take courage and strength to change that. My hope is that dominant males who fuck submissive males will do more than just make use of them. I want them to open their eyes and
see
what is before them.”

“You think I don’t see Hastion?” Cecine demanded incredulously.

Shauss’s stare didn’t waver. “I believe you don’t see what you don’t wish to see. In him or in yourself.”

His heart rate escalating, Cecine blinked away a vision of Draeda hanging in his chains, his skin mottled and bloated, his eyes and tongue bulging grotesquely.

“Has the ensign spoken of…our interactions?”

“He spoke to Tiber,” Shauss said carefully. “I can’t say what they discussed but I don’t believe I’m betraying any confidences by telling you what I’ve observed. Hastion changed immediately after becoming your second, and the change was obvious enough that Shelley confronted you, fearing you were abusing him.”