The Ninth Orb (29 page)

“Pointing fingers isn’t going to help, either. I accept responsibility for not taking all necessary precautions for the sake of security.”

Liz frowned. “What exactly did he repeat?”

Eden reddened to the roots of her hair.

Ivy snorted and then tried to pretend she’d choked.

Liz reddened until her face was almost the color of Eden’s. “Oh.” She was silent for several moments. “I think, maybe, we can discount that,” she said thoughtfully and then shrugged. “Truthfully, I suppose I’m as guilty of being blind as anybody. “Half my pazaan has taken to muttering ‘fuck and shit’. I knew they’d picked it up from me. I just didn’t make the connection between picking up a few expletives and actually learning the language.”

Eden bit her lip to contain her amusement, wondering if her own had picked up any of her verbal expressions. She thought it improbable. Unlike Liz, who apparently spent a great deal of time in the company of her pazaan, and for good reason since studying the Xtanians was her job, her contact had been fairly minimal and half that was spent fucking, not just yelling fuck.

She noticed that Liz was glaring at her indignantly and shook her head. “I was just wondering if that was going to be our legacy--teaching the natives to cuss in our language.”

Ivy frowned. “It’s absolutely settled, then? We are leaving?”

Eden glanced at Ivy in surprise. “We established more than a month ago that a contingency plan was needed, but, no, it certainly isn’t settled. In the first place, we still haven’t found an alternative site that even begins to compare to New Georgia--a few possibilities, yes, but nothing nearly as good. In the second, we’re still months away from meeting our bare minimum preparation.

“Can I assume from that question that you’re beginning to see things differently? And if so, why?”

Ivy’s dusky skin darkened. “My pazaan seems to be adapting readily enough to our customs and I haven’t noticed any break down in their behavior.”

Liz and Eden exchanged a speaking glance.

“What?” Ivy demanded irritably.

“It’s just … I never thought I’d hear you say that there was even a possibility that they might not be a threat,” Eden said.

“What ‘customs’ did you introduce them to?” Liz asked curiously.

Ivy focused on her food long enough they’d both begun to realize that she was stalling, and that she didn’t particularly want to tell them. Finally, she shrugged. “Recreational sex.”

Liz and Eden both gaped at her.

Ivy sent them a resentful glare. “I figured that if anything would jog them into the sort of behavior we were worried about that would.”

“And it hasn’t?” Eden asked carefully.

“Not that I can see. Nothing seems to ruffle them, to be honest. I’ve picked favorites. I’ve flatly refused to have sex at all if I didn’t feel like it. I’ve picked two or three at the time and experimented with orgies. If anything, it seems to me that they only try harder to please me.

“And, to be perfectly honest with you, I have a hard time hating or distrusting them when all of them are as well disciplined and orderly as the finest soldiers I’ve ever seen--not just their warriors. They work together like a well oiled machine--no slackers, no complainers--no trouble makers.

“If you want my honest opinion our people are more likely to cause trouble than they are. At least a quarter of our population doesn’t want anything to do with them--at all. Of the others we have some champing at the bit to collect their share of the men, and the vast majority resentful that the men come in ‘sets’, which they don’t want to have to deal with. But at the same time, they still want a man.

“Mark my words, it’s the colonists that are going to start in squabbling over the men, not the other way around.”

After staring at Ivy for several moments, trying to take all of that in, the three focused on their food for a time to consider it.

“That still spells trouble,” Eden pointed out as she finished her meal. “Whatever direction, it’s something that we have to consider.”

“Moving somewhere else isn’t going to make that go away,” Ivy pointed out. “Then everybody would be miserable, not just a few.”

“I’d be miserable, I think,” Liz muttered. “I’m actually growing rather fond of mine.”

Eden felt a knot form in her throat at that. She was growing rather fond of hers, some of them far more than others.

She was far more thoughtful when she returned to her office. Despite their difference of opinion that had resulted in Ivy being reduced in rank, she respected Ivy’s judgment for the most part, at least militarily.

Ivy was still a woman, however. Undoubtedly, she was currently thoroughly enjoying the novelty of having a harem--she was for that matter--but it was so radically different from what any of them knew that she couldn’t help but wonder if, once the novelty wore off, they would all have a lot of regret about adopting that particular custom.

There was also still the issue of off spring. Baen’s brood seemed to be enjoying the changes she’d made as much as Ivy claimed her pazaan did, but would the Xtanians be as accepting once they realized that their entire existence was threatened? The Xtanians had formed these strange ‘pyramid’ relationships solely for the purpose of giving everyone the chance of having a woman and children of their own. They couldn’t do that. They’d be lucky if they managed to produce one or two children--period--not broods. And she sure as hell didn’t want to even if she could and doubted any of the others would be keen on that either.

The Xtanian women had evolved the capability and bearing so many children still crippled and disfigured the poor things horribly. The wonder was that they managed to produce such healthy off spring in spite of it.

Or maybe that was why the males tended to be smaller in stature than the females? As big as the females were it seemed unlikely they could carry so many to full term, and immature fetuses were generally a lot smaller and often stayed that way, never catching up.

She was fairly certain Ivy had been right about the colonists, too. So far maybe a quarter of them had elected to choose a pazaan for themselves. Probably half were still vacillating, intrigued, but too cautious to nerve themselves to take the leap. Down the road, though, assuming they remained where they were, resentment was bound to arise when those who’d chosen not to fraternize with the Xtanians began to feel cheated because some of the women had more men than they knew what to do with, while they had none.

It was human nature.

She was still mentally debating the pros and cons when she realized that the sun was setting and it was time to return to her meznooku. By then, though, she had a powerful tension headache.

Ordinarily, Eden either spent her evenings going over work she’d taken ‘home’ with her, or the pazaan entertained her and each other by gathering to engage in various games, or conversation, occasionally playing music--or what passed for music on their world. Eden didn’t particularly care for it, but it seemed to entertain the men, so she simply tuned it out and focused on her work, or amused herself with a novel.

She found it difficult to focus on anything besides her dilemma, though, and the annoying tension headache that throbbed just enough to remind her continually that she was in pain. The evening meal soothed the discomfort somewhat, but a new tension arose in her when she finally emerged enough from her preoccupation to realize that it was nearing bedtime.

She’d been so full of energy that morning she’d blithely promised to take on half of Baen’s brood for the night.

It was far more daunting a prospect than it had seemed that morning and she began to toy with the notion as soon as she was escorted to her bath of reneging on her promise and sending them all away.

By the time they’d undressed her and led her into the pool, though, she’d concluded that she just didn’t have the heart to do so, no matter how unappealing the thought was at the moment. Because she couldn’t help but notice that those she’d promised expected her to honor her word and were containing their eagerness only with a supreme effort.

Struggling against her reluctance, Eden forced a smile of welcome for Trar and Vladiv when they knelt to bathe her.

They seemed to sense her reservations, or perhaps they merely noticed that she was more tense than usual, for they seemed to take more care in bathing her even than they ordinarily did, stroking her until the tension began to ease from her. By the time they’d rinsed the cleanser from her body, she’d not only relaxed enough to begin to enjoy their attentions, her belly had begun to shimmy in anticipation.

It occurred to her as Trar scooped her up to carry her back into the bedroom that Ivy claimed to have had more than one at the time. The notion was surprisingly intriguing, and not just because it meant that she could please more than one at the time.

The thought made her warm all over, particularly since it resurrected the memory of the night before when Baen, Cal, Trar and Vladiv had driven her to a frenzy by kissing her all at the same time.

She wondered why it hadn’t occurred to her before. Unlike Earth men, the Xtanians were used to doing everything as a group. They weren’t the least bit self-conscious about standing around naked and erect and merely watching the proceedings or moving forward to help position her or whoever she was with if they saw it was necessary.

Beyond the fact that they worked as a group whenever the saw that it was necessary or beneficial, they didn’t, in point of fact, seem to pay much attention to each other at all.

She’d made her mind by the time Trar settled her on the bed and climbed up beside her. Pushing herself up on her elbows, she looked around until she’d spotted Vladiv and crooked a finger at him, summoning him.

Trar, she saw when she lay down again, looked taken aback. She caught his hand as he tensed to move away, however, drawing him back.

He exchanged a perplexed glance with Valdiv as he settled on the other side of her, but his uncertainty vanished as she hooked an arm around his neck and drew him down. He yielded to the pressure, covering her mouth with his and kissing her with heated need, stoking the fires inside of her as he stroked his tongue along hers in eager exploration.

Vladiv, after a hesitant moment, began to massage her breasts and stroke her belly, bringing every nerve ending to vibrant life. His heated breath evoked a rash of goose bumps all over her as he leaned down to pluck at one engorged nipple and then sucked it into his mouth.

A torrent of heady need raced through her blood then, the muscles low in her belly convulsing almost painfully.

Blindly, she reached to stroke and explore both men as they kissed her, pleasuring them with her touch as they pleasured her with their mouths. The intoxicating drug of desire filled her mind, so dizzying and disorienting that she scarcely noticed the dip in the bed until she felt hands settle on either of her thighs, felt the stimulating caresses as the hands skated downward, grasped her calves and pushed her legs upward until her knees were bent and her soles resting flat on the bed.

She broke the kiss to look down as those same hands pushed her legs apart and she felt the coolness of air on her sex.

Pizan and Adri, she discovered, apparently laboring under the impression that she’d meant all of them at once, had joined the party. She was still trying to decide whether she was up to having them all when Adri bent to explore her cleft.

All thought of objections fled instantly at the jolt of fire that went through her when he dragged his tongue along her cleft and zeroed in on her clit.

Trar drew his legs up, shifting to allow Pizan closer.

It was crowded to say the very least, but as Pizan bent to finesse her orphaned nipple and Trar leaned down to cover her lips once more, Eden’s senses were so bombarded with pleasure from every direction that she couldn’t focus on anything beyond the meteoric rise of her body toward explosion.

She was gasping hoarsely for breath and near mindless with the pounding demand of her body when they began to shift around her, changing places so that each of them could explore her body.

Their tactic was sheer torture. Over and over, she peaked, hovered on the edge for many moments and then slipped back again when they would abruptly cease teasing her, change positions and cover her erogenous zones with their mouths and torment her some more until she could no longer be still. She moved beneath them feverishly, her mouth dry from gasping for air, her heart pounding with nearly unbearable excitement.

The quest to reach orgasm began to be almost more torture than pleasure.

She fought it for a while, endured, struggled to achieve her goal, and then fought it again, reaching a point where she felt like she simply had to have a cock pounding inside of her.

Pushing them away finally, she struggled to roll onto her belly and then onto her hands and knees. Trar had migrated to her feet by that time. She positioned herself for him, looking back at him expectantly, demandingly.

It went without saying that he had never considered sex in such a position. Moreover, he was gasping hoarsely for breath himself, and nearly as mindless with need as she was and in no shape to figure out anything more complicated than shoving his cock into her.

That one fact led him in the right direction, however. After staring at her cleft for several heartbeats as if hypnotisized, he shifted closer, grasped his engorged member and dragged it along her cleft, searching.

She gasped when his cock connected with the mouth of her passage, pushing back.

It was all the encouragement he needed. A shudder went through him as he countered her push and began the struggle to claim her completely. She dropped onto her elbows, bracing herself as he plowed past her resisting flesh and finally drove deeply inside of her.

Her body had plateaued during Trar’s struggle to enter her, but as he became caught up in the search for release, and began to thrust into her, she felt herself rising rapidly toward culmination again.

Vladiv was crouched on his knees by her head, she discovered, when she lifted her head. Her mouth instantly went dry as she looked at his painfully swollen member. Grabbing it, she opened her mouth over the head, sucking hard.