Knight, Dee S. - Bride of the Pryde (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (16 page)

They docked a mere hundred space miles ahead of the patrol. Adam patted Susan’s hand before taking charge of locking down the smaller craft. Charlie and Erik hustled her off and into the companionway leading to the cargo area.

Dilly met them halfway.

“Glad you got back early. I eluded the troops Jackal sent out after us, but now we have other company coming,” the cyberbot said. His gaze lasered in on Susan. “What’s wrong with her?”

“Small problem,” Erik answered at the same time Charlie said, “The biggest thing to remember, Susan, is to stay still and quiet. If you do those two things, I promise everything will be okay.”

“Can you manage it, Susan?” Erik finally had an inkling of what Charlie planned to do with her but had doubts about whether she could comply in her present state.

“Don’t want to put you in more trouble.” Her face was ashen. She kept twisting her hands, and her eyes never seemed to stay still. If she didn’t jump out and tackle one of the cops, Erik would be surprised. “You should just hand me over. Don’t want anything to happen to you.”

“Don’t worry about us,” Erik said. She nodded but didn’t attempt to speak.

They reached the farthest storage area and Charlie revealed his master plan. Weighted to the floor, chewing a mouthful of hay and looking restful in the warmed, pressurized stall, stood a huge example of cow flesh. Bull flesh, more specifically. Susan looked stunned. Charlie wore a proud, happy grin.

“He’s going to my brother’s ranch. When we finish all this other business,” he explained. “In all the excitement, I’d about forgotten him.”

Charlie positioned Susan by the bull’s back legs, on the side opposite the stall door. The bull stood so many hands high, she didn’t even have to stoop.

“How’s it look, Captain?”

“This will never work in a million years,” Dilly intoned to Erik. “If you’re smart you’ll let me try to outrun them.”

Erik shot Dilly a look that said he half agreed. “Real good, Charlie. I don’t see her at all. Susan, just stay calm, sweetheart, and the cops will be gone before you know it.” He turned and headed back down the corridor. “Let’s go think up plan B,” he muttered to Dilly.

They arrived at the bridge just as Adam led a group of six Intergalactic troopers on board.

“These patrolmen say they’ve been chasing us across space, Captain Erik,” Adam said. “This is Captain Taylor.”

“No kidding.” Erik easily picked out the leader of the group by his arrogant stance and almost bored demeanor. “Why is that, Taylor?”

The man examined the bridge while he spoke. “Before you left Earth’s atmosphere you were advised to return to dock so we could search for a woman wanted for questioning by the DAT. You ignored the order.”

Charlie joined them, giving him a barely noticeable nod. Erik lounged in his captain’s seat. “I don’t respond well to orders. Besides, I had freight to deliver.”

“Still,” the group leader said. “You’ll let us search the ship now, I suppose?” He phrased it as a question, but there was no denying that he fully expected Erik to agree.

“I reported back on Earth that the passenger I’d expected never showed up, but knock yourselves out.”

The group leader flicked a finger toward the corridor and the other five men fanned out. Adam followed casually, Dilly followed a little less slowly. “You’d better not make a mess if you’re not planning to clean it up,” he shouted.

Charlie moved to the copilot’s seat and began to plot a course to C8282.

“What are you doing in this sector?” Captain Taylor wandered the bridge, hands clasped behind his back, craning his neck to look at the ship’s instruments.

“I pay for the fuel, so I guess I can go wherever in space I want to.”

“Were you coming from Heron in your hover craft?”

“Are you out of your fucking mind? I had a run-in with Jackal a year or so ago. You couldn’t get my ass back down there if you promised me a new ship.”

The man chuckled. “Yes, he’s a tough one. Some day the law will catch him out.”

“Oh, I doubt that,” Erik said.

Adam leaned against the doorframe. Dilly bustled onto the bridge behind the other patrolmen. “They didn’t make too much of a mess, Captain Erik.”

“Thanks, Dilly.”

“There’s no one else here, sir,” one of the troopers reported.

“Did you heat sense every space?”

“Yes sir.”

Erik looked to Taylor. “So that’s it.”

“Maybe. I think we’ll hang out a while longer just to be sure.”

Erik missed Charlie’s slow-motion reach to his uniform pocket, but no one missed what happened next. Heron, clearly visible through the viewing screen, exploded in a technographic spectacle. The men had to shield their eyes from the blinding light, and a shock wave hit the ship, making it shudder.

“What the hell was that?” Taylor yelled.

“Hmm. Looks like Heron exploded,” Erik said.

Taylor spun toward his men. “Get out of here and see what the fuck just happened!” In seconds they were off
Erik’s Pryde
and speeding toward the partial planet that remained in front of them.

“Jesus, Adam, how much explosive did you set?” Erik demanded.

“Enough, Captain.”

“Let’s get Susan.” Charlie took off down the corridor.

“I can’t believe that worked,” Erik said. “Setting course for C8282.” He’d had enough excitement in the last week to last a lifetime, but now he wondered what came next. Did the end of the excitement mean the end of Susan, too? He hoped to hell not.

Epilogue

The thick head of Erik’s cock glided on the lubricant into her ass. Susan sucked in a deep breath and threw her head back onto his shoulder. At her front, Charlie lifted her leg and fit it over his hip. Gently, he stroked her pussy. He should have known her well enough after the last six months—she was always wet and ready for her men. His unabashed grin showed her that he had discovered for himself that her juices flowed freely. Wasting no more time, he invaded her channel with his long, hard rod, just as Erik pushed forward.

Adam brushed her hair off her face. “Is there anything I can do to enhance your pleasure, my mate?” His thoughts flowed into her mind. Since finding her on Heron and bringing her through her experience with Pheron, their bond had grown stronger. He routinely spoke telepathically. Most of the time she could answer with nothing more than her mind, though when around the others they spoke aloud.

She placed his left hand on one of her breasts. He immediately kneaded the globe of flesh and pinched her nipple softly. She took the middle finger of his right hand between her lips, sucking it up to the knuckle. He bent his mouth to her other breast, licking, sucking, nuzzling until she moaned with delight.

Charlie and Erik fell into a rhythm, pushing, pulling, meeting deep within her.

“Stay with us, Susan. We want to make you feel more,” Adam whispered. He kissed her neck and then ran his tongue along the rim of her ear. Taking his finger from her mouth, he wrapped both hands around her neck, strumming her throat with his thumbs. Leaning in, he took her lips, sinking his tongue into her mouth and stroking her tongue with his.

A growl started low in her diaphragm, not too far from where heat coiled into a tight knot. A knot that threatened to burst at any moment.

I’m trying to hold on,
but you’re making it hard.

Hard is how you make us
, he telepathed back.
Hard is how you love us.

“So true,” she said on a sigh into his mouth. “But, criminy, I’m so close.”

And then she was more than close. Her nerves short-circuited, and the stars of the Omnus galaxy shot against the blackness of her closed eyelids. Without knowing, she clenched her pussy and ass, causing both Charlie and Erik to groan. Adam shifted his mouth to her nipple, lightly biting down and sending ripples of pain combined with shooting desire throughout her trembling body. Would anything ever feel as spectacular as this felt every single time it happened, regardless of which of the men filled her? It seemed inevitable that sooner or later the passion would die, and she couldn’t imagine how empty she would feel then.

“It won’t.” Adam’s voice filled her mind. Belief flowed through her. She trusted no one in the world more than she trusted the crew of
Pryde
. She belonged here. She belonged with them.

She belonged
to
them and they to her.

When the Pheron wore off and they told her who had betrayed her, who had been Jackal’s partner, she at first denied the knowledge. She’d known Buddy Knowlton for years. He’d worked with Lisle, had acted as a friend. But he also had worked for years with Jackal, all the while planting seeds of doubt that the agent who infiltrated Jackal’s organization for the DAT was really on the side of the angels. When he at last discovered who the agent was, it had been an easy matter to slam the trap shut. Having provided incriminating evidence to his DAT bosses, he had hoped to kill her at her hotel or the office and be done with her. He had so infected the opinions of their superiors, the DAT wouldn’t have wasted further inquiry. That pissed Susan off, to find that friends and people she’d trusted with her life had understood her so little.

When she’d stopped running to turn and see if she could help him, she’d wasted a few seconds debating whether to go back. But then he’d waved her off and shouted for her to go. It hurt to know that far from encouraging her to save herself, he’d been spurring on her pursuers instead. Thank God for secrecy. She supposed she had only stayed alive as long as she had because he hadn’t known her assignment.

Aftershocks crashed over her. Charlie came hard, spreading warmth from her pussy into her womb. Erik unleashed his climax with a thundering, throbbing eruption. She came again, harder than before. She thought she might die from the sparks wracking her body. But she hoped she wouldn’t. She and Adam had their time together that night.

“Oh, for Gods’ sake,” Dilly grumbled from the bridge entrance. “Is there any place on this ship you people haven’t flooded with the scent of sex? Just because we’re on our virgin voyage doesn’t mean you have to take the ship’s cherry in every space available.”

Adam steadied her. Charlie lowered Susan’s leg to the floor. His flaccid cock lay at length along his thigh. “I think we really have christened just about every part of the new
Pryde
,” he said, kissing her gently.

Erik popped out of her back door. He nibbled her neck before saying, “There must be some place we’ve missed.”

“My quarters,” Dilly said. “And don’t even think about doing the dirty deed there.”

“Don’t worry, Tin Brain. I wouldn’t dream of sullying your quarters,” Susan assured him.

“Good. As long as we have an understanding.”

“Dillard,” a sweet voice called from the corridor. “Where are you? My pussy is purring for attention.”

If it were possible for a robot to blush, Dilly would have.

“I believe that’s your avatar calling, Dilly.” Amusement laced Erik’s voice.

“I realize that, Captain, though strictly speaking, she’s a cyberbot, not an avatar.” He cast an anxious glance behind him. “I…uh, I’d better go and see what she wants.”

“I think we know what she wants, Dilly,” Susan said. After shooting her a glare, he scurried off. Or as much as a tub of nuts and bolts
could
scurry.

“Who knew Dilly could fall in love?” Susan joined the men in dressing, pulling on her uniform trousers. Charlie had secured her blouse before dressing himself. Now he and Erik studied the controls.