Origin (14 page)

“What’s that?”

“It’s not even pronounceable in your language.”

“Gwinarian? I don’t even remember how to speak it.” Most everyone spoke the standard language adopted by multi-governments in most galaxies. On the ship, I’d heard different languages occasionally, but it had been a long, long time since I’d heard actual Gwinarian words—not even as a child on Kithra.

“They still taught it in schools on Kithra when you were there, but from what Anders told me, you were taken young.”

I nodded. “I was nine.”

Lia grimaced. “I can’t imagine. Don’t want to. I’d make a terrible slave because I’m mouthy and temperamental and well, most races won’t sleep with us.”

“Why not?” I covered my mouth with my hand, surprised I kept blurting out personal questions.

She laughed, and with her low, husky voice, it sounded slightly grating. “I’m humanoid, but there are a few differences.”

Questions burned on my tongue so hard, I winced.

Lia’s sudden huge grin made my eyes widen. She laughed again. “The teeth are a problem.” She lifted whatever she’d hidden from me before. “We don’t let on to most that we can file them unless we’re with someone we trust or we aren’t going out into an area heavily populated by different aliens.” She put the file into her mouth and started sawing.

Frowning and kind of shivering with the noise, I leaned forward, trying to get a better look at teeth that had looked normal just yesterday and today were long, sharp with the top overlapping the bottoms.

She pulled the file back out and pointed. “See? I can make them look similar to yours and they’ll stay like that a good week or so before they grow back to normal.”

“Why do you file them if that’s the way they’re supposed to be?”

“I have a human boyfriend and I trust him enough to let him know I can do this. Trust this entire crew enough, and now I’m putting you into that mix. You see, it’s our teeth that keep our race from being desirable slaves. That and we mate for life when we have sex. If we’re forced against our will, then we turn our teeth onto them. Take them out of the picture completely. Oh, there’s also the fact that some humans are squeamish about extra holes we have in other places.”

My eyes widened, my mouth fell open.

She started laughing again as she plopped the file back in her mouth.

I leaned back, strangely touched that she was sharing this knowledge with me but also confused because I couldn’t see how this would have remained a secret if her people could merely file their teeth. And if she had extra…holes—I felt the heat on my neck with just the thought—why make her mouth one of the accessible ones? And why not just pull the teeth? I’d seen worse done to slaves.

“I can see the questions flitting over your face. I like all of my Bucho and don’t want to hurt him. These babies are razor sharp—I can take a finger or something bigger off without any effort.”

“Ouch. Bucho must be brave.”

The smile that came over her face changed her looks completely. She went from slightly fierce and scary to glowing. “I’ve been in love with that big, silent man for two years.”

“And you just got together?”

She nodded. “He had to make the first move. Had to be willing enough to brave our first time together because that’s always the hardest one. My people tend to lose it in that first bond.”

I tried to remember if Bucho was missing any fingers.

Chuckling, she cradled the file in her lap. “He muzzled me. It was hot.”

Fire scorched my cheeks and her laughs grew louder.

“Plus, I made sure he understood that once we were together, it was for always. I wanted that, but he had to choose.” She shrugged, a sad smile taking away some of her glow. “We aren’t compatible when it comes to reproduction. He gave up ever having children to be with me.”

“Then he must care for you very much. You’re lucky.”

“Seems to me you might be getting lucky yourself when it comes to that. The captain doesn’t take on free passengers. Or any really, outside of us snatching those two other Gwinarians he took to his brother.”

“To his brother?”

“Can I have a tube of that tea? Love that stuff Namito brews.”

I nodded, didn’t tell her I’d made it, but gave her a tube of it anyway.

She sipped and sighed. “I hate that lemon stuff in every other way. This is the only time my system can even tolerate it.” She lifted her knee and propped her wrist on it so the tube dangled from her fingers as she eyed me. “Clay’s brother is the reason we’re a crew on this ship. He was partially responsible for what happened on Kithra, only he had been an unknowing pawn in something we’re all beginning to suspect is huge and intergalactic. But you saw him on the vidscreen with your friend, Bastian. The captain knew his brother already loved the Gwinarian woman and that he embraced the Kithran lifestyle of multiple partners…and that he liked pretty men.”

“Bastian is that. Too pretty.”

“Why do you say too pretty?”

I couldn’t answer. It wasn’t my place and I couldn’t bring myself to voice the utter horror of his life on that entertainment ship with my owner.

“You’re surprisingly compassionate for someone who suffered the same treatment that boy probably did, but much longer.”

“Bastian was the only friend I was ever allowed. I loved him.”

“He’ll end up on Kithra with you after we make this Burga run. You’ll get to see him whenever you want.”

“I hope so.”

Lia finished her tube of the tea, chatted in between filing her teeth, then took off with her huge human when he showed up at the door and gave her a shy smile. The top of the female’s head came to the middle of his chest and her form was so small, she disappeared completely when he stood in front of her. I wondered at the logistics of their mating for a time after they left. Bucho had to really love her to risk being with her—especially when he knew he’d be mating for life. But from the look on his face, he was perfectly content.

When the captain’s voice came over the speakers, I jumped.

“We’ll be landing on Burga One in less than two hours. The Tracker got us an official warrant, so we’re going in as prisoner transfer officers. Speero, that means you stay in hiding on the ship. Don’t want that face of yours setting off alarms. I remember what you told me you did here.”

I grinned. I’d gotten to know the strange man a little and as far as I could tell, there wasn’t much he hadn’t done. Couldn’t imagine what would send up flags on what Lia called a shit-hole. My smile faded to a grimace. I’d been glad Anders had explained the word shit to me, but now I wasn’t looking forward to the place at all.

When Anders came to my door, I’d showered but hadn’t used the auto-drier on my hair so it hung in a dark red wet sheet to my waist. It would be shorter as it dried into curls. I’d slicked it off my face but hadn’t yet used any of the makeup Anders had purchased for me. I had, however, used one of the skin softeners—one that smelled of some floral scent I didn’t recognize.

I loved digging through that ridiculously packed box of goodies, loved to imagine his big hands plucking all the small containers off shelves with me in mind.

He walked into my room dressed in something he called Earth denim. I’d noticed both he and Clay favored the strange pants. This pair looked like they’d gone through the cleaner so much, they’d thinned, cupping each line of muscle in Anders’s thick thighs lovingly.

Curling my hands into fists to keep from reaching out to see if that material was as soft as it looked, I looked up into his face and promptly pictured his expression when Clay had taken him into his mouth.

“Oh, sweetheart, I’m pretty sure I know what you’re seeing in that pretty head of yours, but you have to stop thinking about it before I embarrass myself. From what the crew has told me, no man wants to walk onto Burga One with a visible hard-on.” He looked at the bed, then the small table bolted into the wall. “You packed?”

“Packed?”

“You didn’t think we’d leave you on the ship, did you?”

“Isn’t Speero staying on?”

“Speero doesn’t share our bed.”

I looked down because I hadn’t thought I did either. Not more than once—not until I could fully participate with them as I knew they wanted.

“Hey,” he said softly as he raised my chin with his fingers. “We can’t risk you being alone here. You’ll need to stay in the rent room with the captain and me. I wish this wasn’t the first planet you were getting to see after being locked up, though. If we had more time, there is one in the Toquarian Sector that will take your breath away. Waterfalls like those on Kithra, but you can actually swim in their pools at the bottom and the most delicious fruits and vegetables that grow right on the trees. A person can wallow in pleasure for days without doing more than lazing in a pool and eating food right off the limbs that hang over the water.”

“I’d like to see this place. I remember Kithran waterfalls because I loved watching them as a child. My mother would—” I broke off, staring at him in shock.

He squeezed my shoulders. “Another memory. Can you coax it all the way through?”

I closed my eyes and suddenly, I saw her. Saw that her hair was the same color as mine and that she had freckles like me, that she was small next to my Gwinarian father who towered over me as he lifted me up to settle on his shoulders. I touched the ends of my wet hair, recalling how long and soft his hair had been, that it had been one of the lighter Gwinarian shades, a kind of reddish blond. Like my friend, Kei’s.

My eyes flew open and I wrapped my fingers around Anders’s forearms.

“I remember them. I remember my parents and I remember a friend. Kei.” I tried to pull up more memories of Kei other than a vague recollection of his name and the color of his hair and I couldn’t. Frustration made me tighten my fingers. “Why can’t I remember more? Where did the memories go? It’s not like I was a toddler when I left. I was nine years old.”

“Years of torture would wreak havoc on anyone’s mind, Siri.” He stroked my cheek, then cradled my face in his hands before leaning down to brush his lips over mine.

I didn’t flinch. Didn’t even think of it, and the warmth that came with the realization made me slide my palms up his arms.

He pulled back, surprise in his gaze…surprise and a growing warmth that made him shake his head. “You are determined to make me walk out there with a raging erection, aren’t you?”

“I could take care of that for you.” Clay stepped into my room and palmed the door closed behind him.

Anders sucked in a breath, his green eyes not leaving my face as the captain came around to stand next to us both.

“What did I miss?” he asked.

It was hard to pull away from the crazy heat coming from Anders’s gaze, but I looked at the captain and again wanted to hold my breath. His piercing stare affected me just as much as Anders’s did. I marveled over the way the men raised feelings in me simultaneously. I didn’t feel more for one than the other, and in fact realized they’d kind of morphed into a solid, unbreakable pair to me—especially after being in that bed. Again, I saw Clay’s steady stare as Anders had lifted his knees and spread himself open to the captain. I had a feeling the bigger man preferred topping—he’d pretty much told us with the
hump him like an animal
statement. But he’d laid himself out, vulnerable to Clay, and even though they hadn’t taken it to that point, his invitation had been clear. I wasn’t the only one humbled by the experience.

I knew what it was to be vulnerable in a way neither of these men would ever understand.

I shoved those thoughts away because they had no business being anywhere near the memories of these two loving each other.

“She was picturing us together again.” Anders hadn’t let go of me and when I glanced down, I saw that he had lost the battle to the erection. His cock, one I knew was long and thick, pressed the denim out in a way that looked uncomfortable.

“Were you, Siri?” Clay stepped closer, then moved around so he was behind Anders. He slid his arms around Anders’s waist and cupped him through the pants, stroking his hand up and down until Anders closed his eyes. His hands trembled against my cheeks.

“We don’t have time for this. Everyone is waiting,” Anders said with a groan.

Clay came around, his mouth in that crooked, naughty smile that made me think I could work up the nerve to rip off my clothes at some point. “True. Though it’d be fun to see their expressions if we made them wait. Thing is”—he stretched up to kiss Anders—“I don’t want a quickie. I want lots of time so I can sink into your body properly.”

“Fuck, Claybourne,” Anders muttered, squeezing his eyes shut.

I laughed, couldn’t help it. “And here I thought Anders was the wicked one in this relationship.”

“Oh, sweetheart, you have no idea how naughty the captain can be.”

Clay waggled his black eyebrows in agreement.

Still grinning, I leaned forward, grabbed Anders’s cheeks and kissed him. He didn’t even close his eyes, too shocked apparently to do more than stand there. I let go and turned to grab… “I don’t have anything to pack my clothes in. Maybe I should just stay here.”