Virile (17 page)

She thought he said, “And one that’s been waiting here forever.” But the wind was blowing again and he’d turned away so she dismissed it. It didn’t pay to think too much and confuse herself—she was here for a while longer and would try her best to be what they expected of her. Telling her they loved her was ridiculous—no one believed in love at first sight. They’d said it because they had climaxed.

A smaller white grimalkin with enormous ears and a black spot on its left back foot pounced on a whirl of sand, pulling a spate of laughter from her. She didn’t think she had laughed since coming to Virile, although she’d certainly cried enough. She reached to pet the creature, and it swatted gently at her fingers.

Jurvis, one of the foremen if she remembered correctly, scooped it up—it hissed and spat at him. “Careful, careful. They hurt with those claws.”

Instinctively reaching for it, Adara extricated the animal from his grasp. It subsided in her hold, curling up against her, and purred with a ridiculous sputter of drool.

“That one will grow very large, Mistress, and in record time. It’s a she, so will be a guardian.” The nut brown fellow stared at her through the same goggles she wore to protect from the ever present dust and blowing grit in the air. His mobile mouth twitched up at the corners. “She’s taken to you already. It’s rare they don’t scratch.”

Maybe she could take the animal back with her…but there were import rules about certain species. She shook her head regretfully and carefully set the critter down. It squatted at her feet and regarded her with interest as she petted it gently before turning away. She’d have to get a cat when she got home. If she worked the number of hours she anticipated to whip the organization back into shape she would be grateful for company when she dragged herself home. There would be no time for friends—or men—in her life then. She ignored the voice in her head jibing that no men could hope to replace the three she’d had here.

Kellis escorted her back to the house, entering through the sun room where she tugged the sandsuit off, now impregnated with grit. The underwear was so beautiful, but she divested herself of it under his decisive look.

“Cenna will wash these things and put them in our room, my love.”

“I’ll do the laundry. Cenna has enough to do.” She couldn’t just eat and sleep and have sex while that nice older lady did the scut work.

“Orion awaits, Adara. And most things are automated. Thorn has ordered more to make the tasks even lighter. Robotics on both our planets will soon be routine.”

It seemed extravagant to order updated automated technology seeing as Cenna would likely leave soon after she did, but Adara said nothing. If the brothers didn’t want to deal with any housework, she could well understand it. And there would be another submissive installed in this place without a doubt, so she’d appreciate being able to concentrate on the sexual piece—Adara would, if she was that submissive.

But she wasn’t, and it didn’t bother her to think about the next woman the men would install in this house. It. Did. Not. The twins would probably tell her they loved her too.

After freshening up and sharing a meal with Cenna—the men were called away to a breach in the perimeter by some animal that apparently came to eat their animals, and people too—Adara was at loose ends. She offered to clean up, but Cenna sent her on her way. Without the men around, her self-consciousness over being nude with the old nanny had returned, so she went with relief, finding her way to the great room.

The view was the same if the light very different. A strange green hue filtered over the horizon, and she peered through the windows, her skin registering even greater heat transferred through the glass. Great clouds of dust rose in a grotesque parody of dance, weaving in and out of their patterns, melding then separating. They looked lifelike—people shaped. One towered over another, two limbs stretched outwards to encompass the shorter, more slender cloud. That one bent next across the middle and dipped upon imaginary knees, folding across the foot of the larger cloud. Two other tall clouds marched forward, no longer adrift above the ground, quite stilted in their movements but eerily reminiscent of huge males. They joined the other male and surrounded the smaller figure now prostrate on the ground.

The sky behind them boiled and lightening bolts shot daggers downwards, a sudden deluge of black and silver rain veiling the curious images locked together beneath the torrents. Adara couldn’t breathe, her lungs choked with sudden terror. A flash of white wove in and out of the rain—her grimalkin! The sight pulled her from the hallucination. She spun on her heel and was about to run for the sun room before she remembered Thorn’s edict. And she wasn’t stupid. Attempting a rescue of the little cat would be futile and probably kill her as well. The storm’s impact scoured the windows and rattled the entire house.

As suddenly as it had darkened the sky cleared and the three suns beat down from their angle on the other side of the house. Steam boiled up and once it dissipated she saw it—three large dunes of sand molded in the yard, like spokes on a wheel, with a much smaller mound set directly in the middle of the circle. Three intricately shaped men surrounding a finely crafted female filled her stunned gaze.

Adara staggered back, her hand to her mouth, and collapsed on a chair, drawing her knees up and dropping her face upon them. She struggled to disregard the signs—she wasn’t superstitious or even interested in a religion—but first the dream and now that…that sculpture…she was still curled up and shaking when Cenna found her.

Chapter Twelve

“What the fuck happened?” Thorn bellowed his concern, and Cenna merely shook her head.

“Before you go to Adara, look out the great room windows.”

“I need to see her,” he bit off.

“She’s asleep. I gave her a mild sedative and some nectar and she went under like an agni.” That sweet, gentle creature not only provided wool for weaving but also tasty meat, and had a feisty streak hidden behind its façade too—just like Adara. “Go and look out those windows.”

He stormed away, forgetting his boots, and tramped the combination of wet sand and secattor blood throughout the halls. Yanking them off before he walked on the carpet in the great room took more time than he felt he had, but he persisted. Adara wasn’t kneeling in sand again—ever. The sight that greeted him rocked his equilibrium. Kellis and Orion stumbled in to stand beside him, and their sharp intake of air indicated their astonishment. Sandstorms never collided with the rare rain Virile experienced. All their water was underground and replenished through evaporation only rarely.

But the shapes, synonymous with three large beings surrounding a smaller one, could only have come from a collaboration of rain and sandstorm. Thorn was humbled. The prophets spoke in strange and incredible ways. He turned to view Cenna standing in the doorway.

“What did Adara say?”

“Nothing. She was in shock, huddled in a chair when I located her. I saw the sculptures and knew what she’d witnessed. It scared her, but I don’t know why. She let me lead her to her room and put her down. Then I called you.”

Thorn ran to the master bedroom, pulling off his filthy clothes as he went. He hesitated at the side of the bed—his beloved was curled beneath all the bed coverings, her face pale and wan. He heard Kellis and Orion charge in and skid to a stop.

“She’s asleep. We’ll clean up and join her until she wakes.”

They separated and headed for various baths. Thorn hustled through his shower, remembering the terror he’d felt when Cenna called to alert him to Adara’s collapse. Now that he knew what had happened he wasn’t as concerned. She’d have been shocked by what she witnessed, but her strong reaction told him she’d recognized the symbolism. Now it was up to them to convince her that her destiny was on Virile.

****

She woke up crying. Blasted tears. Something tugged at her memory, and she made a huge effort to snag it before it got away. She sat up and called out. Thorn was there in a heartbeat, holding her close, stroking her hair as he murmured soothing words against her temple.

“What did she say?” Orion whispered the question.

“She wants the white grimalkin, the orphaned beast the big cane raised up—you know, the herding cane that mothers anything,” Kellis whispered back.

“So get it for her.”

She finally had the strength to speak coherently. “It got caught up in the—” What to call it? The storm? The apparitions? Magick?

“Did you see the grimalkin when the rain sculpted the sand clouds, agapi mou?”

“Yes.” It was hard to say it loudly. She was still freaked out. The beauty of the storm had mesmerized her but the portent…she wasn’t going to accept that.

“I’ll look, my love. Jurvis knows where all the grimalkins are.”

She stared after Kellis as he paced from the room, sending hopeful thoughts with him, but after what she’d witnessed she was sure the little cat creature would be buried under a ton of sculpted sand.

Accepting a drink of juice from Orion, she gathered her courage. “What did that…that sand shaping mean?”

Thorn didn’t prevaricate. “We’ve insisted that you are ours, Adara, and not for a month. You belong here, and the proph—the planet—apparently agrees.”

“No. That’s crazy. You won me at bastra.”

“And ask yourself why your brother chose Virile of all planets to visit—and how he came to gamble at the very table I was playing. Explain how he just happened to gamble you.”

“Coincidence.”

“That would be a stretch, Adara, even for your resistant mind. But how do you explain your dream in addition to the storm and sand meld? You dreamt of the red cliffs—something offworlders would know nothing about.”

“I can’t explain it!” Her voice rose as her mind protested the illogical sequence of events. If she was destined for them, then why didn’t she feel the same? She didn’t. She liked the twins and Thorn was tolerable, but destined? Not. She’d be with Sammy if this lifestyle was for her.

“Adara, our parents were in a ménage,” Orion offered.

“Like three men and one woman?”

“Yes. They died together while on a brief second honeymoon off planet. The first time they’d taken a trip in years. We can only be away from our home for short periods of time. Thorn was in his early twenties. We were years younger.”

“I’m sorry, Orion. I miss my mom and dad too, but what does your parents’ type of relationship have to do with me?”

“We knew we’d be in a ménage also.”

“But you could have that with anyone—”

Orion cut her off. “Not anyone, Adara. You. Our people fall but once and sometimes never because often we don’t meet our future mates. So while we have submissives in our service we would never marry one unless she was destined.”

“Orion.” Thorn’s voice held a note of warning.

“So the card game, the dream and that storm deal means I’m destined? For you? All of you?”

“Yes.” The two of them spoke as one, and it shook her to her foundations—they were equally adamant.

“We all believe it, my love,” Kellis sauntered in, his arms full of a disgruntled little grimalkin, white fur tainted with grime. Its golden eyes met hers, and it struggled in Kellis’s grasp. “We’ve told you of our feelings.”

Adara flew to him, evading Thorn’s grasping hands, and gently lifted the creature, cuddling it close.

“Watch its claws!” Thorn nearly growled.

As if it understood him, the grimalkin cast him a glance from its golden eyes and its upper lip twisted in a silent snarl—at no time did she feel a hint of those razor sharp weapons tucked behind the pads of its feet.

“Indoor grimalkins usually are declawed, my love.”

“No, Kellis. She can’t be turned outside without being able to protect herself.”

She could hear Thorn muttering about choking the damn thing if it marred her skin, but ignored him and waited the verdict.

“She can stay.” The implication was there—the animal would have to behave itself, but Adara wasn’t worried.

“Come with us to the great room, Adara. We need to finish this conversation.”

“Why can’t we just talk here?” She didn’t want to look at that augury right outside the window.

“Come, Adara.”

Clutching her cat, she joined the somber parade to the great room. She would have chosen a place to sit so as to have her back to the window, but Kellis pulled her into his chair and there it was—right smack in front of her. Anyone with a scrap of imagination would recognize the final product for the message it conveyed, and she’d seen it
form
.
 

Cenna joined them and perched beside her, once again placing a hand on her forehead. “Are you recovered, Mistress?”

Mistress. As in married to Masters Freestar. That Mistress Freestar. Not the
mistress
of the Freestars. She wanted to laugh again, but this time knew she’d be hysterical. Impossible. Not happening. “I’m fine, Cenna. Thank you.”

“You are so polite, Mistress. Would you like anything?”

Oh, what the hell. “I’d like someone to explain to me how this—” she gestured outside and encompassed all of the brothers with a wide sweep of her hand “—is even possible. I’m their toy for this month.”
This month’s flavor.
Gods, she was going to lose it.

“It’s not my place to explain, Mistress, but I meant it when I advised you to trust them with yourself. They all care for you deeply. I know this. I’ve been in their lives for several decades and know them better than even their deceased parents. You belong here, with them.”

“I have family—a life on my world,” she whispered, seeking comfort in the plushness of her grimalkin’s fur. “I can’t just leave it.”

“Your brother can visit, as can your friends,” Thorn pointed out.

“And my lifelong dream of running the family business? Would you leave your farm, Thorn? Would you go to my planet and be willing to stay with near strangers and give up life as you knew it?”

“If we were destined.”

“And if we loved our destiny,” Orion added. Kellis kissed the top of her head.

“I don’t love
you
.” Her statement was bald, and probably cruel—Orion flinched, and Kellis stiffened. Thorn was his impassive self.

“You will come to care, Adara. It is written.”

“Enough, Orion,” interjected Thorn. “Adara needs time to think on this and time with us. We’ll leave this discussion for now. Prepare for dinner, little one, and we will talk more later.”

The grimalkin squirmed to the floor and began to groom itself, hacking and spitting out both hair and sand. Cenna shooed it out of the room, and Adara could hear it grumbling. The other woman exhorted it to go to the kitchen and promised food. With another glance out at the sculpture of her in the intimate embrace of the brothers, Adara clambered from Kellis’s lap and went for a bath. She had no idea who was assigned as lady’s maid but resigned herself to company. In truth she didn’t want to be alone.

****

Begging and pleading didn’t get her anywhere—the sensuous assault on her pussy and breasts continued—and she couldn’t prepare or anticipate because she was blindfolded. They’d been in the playroom for hours, or maybe minutes—she was unable to tell. Orion had made good on his promise to clamp her breasts and suspend the nipples on a chain attached to her wrists that were in turn bound and tied above her head to a hook imbedded in the ceiling.

Balanced on the balls of her feet, her ankles affixed to a spreader bar, she could only feel as someone ate her pussy and took her to the edge, over and over. If she flinched away, her nipples sang with a bite of pain. If she remained in place, her clit suffered the attentions of such a clever tongue, aided by a small vibrator lodged high in her sheath.

Thorn had warmed her up for the current activity, strapped over the spanking chair, her breasts hanging free on either side of the chest support and her ass raised high, legs spread to leave her feeling incredibly vulnerable—and aroused by the kink. When he showed her the fur-covered paddle she’d freaked a little, but the spanking he delivered had none of the unforgiving smacks she experienced when they’d punished her. Nope, that spanking was erotic and stimulated her flesh, making her nerve endings wake up and speak to her in interesting and exciting ways. Her pussy wept with excitement, and he’d played with her in between slaps, driving her higher with patient skill—except he refused to let her fly. And despite the end result, the spanking felt clinical.

Her back channel was lubricated and stretched with his digits, and she couldn’t keep herself from pushing back on him, inviting deeper penetration. Thorn nipped her buttocks, laving the little sting with licks and kisses as he worked her sphincter, arousing her further. Then they secured her to the ceiling. It was all intensely erotic but lacked any of the emotional components they’d offered her before. Before she rebuffed them and told them she didn’t love them.

“You beg so sweetly, Adara.” Kellis tugged the chain, and she shrieked. “You look so beautiful, stretched tall and open for our touch. Like here.” His finger flicked her abused clit, and she screamed with need.

“Come for us, Adara.” He flicked the swollen nub again and she went over, clenching hard on the vibrator and rising to her toes. The orgasm went on and on until she sagged against the enormity of it.

Someone instantly released the chain connected to her nipples because there was no painful tug, although her buds ached with the constriction of the clamps. The spreader bar clattered to the floor as the vibrator was removed and then a long, stiff dick penetrated her, someone yanking her legs up around his waist. Orion, she thought, although he didn’t speak to her.

Suspended from the ceiling, although the pressure on her wrists had diminished as his tall form lifted her higher, she jerked helplessly in his hold as he drove up inside of her, gripping her hips to hold her steady for his fucking. The slap of flesh on flesh filled the air along with wet, slippery sounds. It felt like too much, and she whimpered. A hand pressed between them and unerringly found her clit.