Strength in Numbers (5 page)

Pataryio
panted and pushed back, shaking his
head. “Let me up. Quickly!”

Eterin
did, just as
Pataryio
splashed seed upon
Sempia’s
stomach. The look of
rapture on her face said she too had found bliss in it all. She reached up,
first touching
Pataryio’s
lips and then
Eterin’s
. “Can we do that again, very soon, but switch?”

Laughter
erupted from the men.

“Your wench is
saucy and demanding,”
Pataryio
said, tracing a finger
through his cum upon her stomach.

“That she is,”
Eterin
admitted, nodding his head toward the bathing
chambers aboard the vessel. “Let us clean ourselves.”

Sempia
pulled a cloth toward her and used
it to wipe her stomach clean. “Yes, but can we first lie together and hold one
another?”

Eterin
and
Pataryio
groaned.

She huffed.
“Men.”

Shrugging,
Eterin
nodded. He took one side of her and
Pataryio
took the other. They embraced her, sandwiching her
in. “There. Better?”

“Much,” she
said.

Sempia
put her hands out to the men as
they stood in the oversized particle shower, awaiting her. She’d heard talk of
showers that didn’t use actual water but rather had simulated water that
adhered to tiny cleansing beads.
Eterin
and
Pataryio
glanced at one another before
Pataryio
tipped his head. “I’m not sure she’s actually going to get in. You better just
grab her.”

Her eyes widened
as
Eterin
did just that. He lifted her, chuckling as
he set her between him and
Pataryio
. “There. Much
better.”

She touched
each of their chests. “Will it hurt?”

“Will what
hurt, beauty?”
Pataryio
asked.

“The particle
stream,” she supplied.

They shared yet
another look and she blushed, feeling very sheltered in comparison to them.
They’d no doubt seen the universe. She’d seen her home planet and then the moon
on which she’d trained to be a sexual servant. Nothing more.

Eterin
put a finger under her chin and
tilted her head upward. “It will feel no different from the showers or baths
you are accustomed to. You have my word.”

Relief moved
over her and she nodded, still embarrassed at her reaction to something new.

Pataryio
put his chin to her shoulder. “Beauty,
the first time I saw an actual body of water on a planet, I ran the other way,
convinced some giant sea beast was going to come lurching out of it and eat me
alive. There was much about the various planets that amazed me. I’d been born
aboard a space station and had lived there until I was in my early teens. So
you see, I very much understand what it feels like to be out of your element.”

She relaxed, a
smile touching her lips.

Eterin
seemed pleased with his friend as
well. He nodded and then set his sights upon her. He pushed several buttons
within the shower and water that was the perfect temperature shot out of
various sprayers, soaking them all. She squealed and moved against
Eterin’s
chest as one nozzle sprayed directly in her face.

Eterin
grunted and adjusted it quickly,
moving it lower for her. “Sorry. You are smaller than we are.”

Pataryio
chuckled, sliding up against her
back. “Now, let us clean our woman. Um, I mean…”

“Yes, let’s
clean her,”
Eterin
said.

Sempia
was surprised an argument didn’t
break out.

Pataryio
began caressing her back, gathering
a good lather with soap from the dispenser.
Eterin
followed his lead, doing the same to her, washing her front gently. They took their
time with her, rubbing her body tenderly as they inched their way down it and
back up again.
Pataryio
reached around and tweaked
her soapy nipples while
Eterin
dipped a finger in her
wet cunt.

She moaned and
tipped her head back.
Eterin
kissed her neck and
Pataryio
did the same to her temple. It was as if hands
were everywhere on her body, all at once. Pleasure rippled through her and she
closed her eyes, losing herself in the moment. She squirmed on
Eterin’s
finger, her pulse racing.

Pataryio
pinched her nipples, tugging
lightly on them. Each pull caused her lower abdomen to spasm with need. Her
body should have been
sated
for weeks. Somehow, they
made her want more.

“
Mmm
, how does it feel, beauty?”

“Good,” she
murmured. “So good.”

Pataryio
chuckled deeply in her ear.

Eterin
rubbed her clit with his thumb as
he continued to thrust a finger in and out of her. She rode it slowly, wringing
pleasure from the act. Neither man seemed to tire of tending to her. She felt
pampered like a princess rather than the slave she was born to be.

Eterin
eased closer to her, his warm
breath skating over her neck and cheek. “
Sempia
.”

“Yes?”

“Scream for
me,” he said, increasing the speed in which he finger-fucked her.

Panting, she
arched her back to him, roaming her hands over his chest. She reached back,
grabbing for
Pataryio
, but she couldn’t quite reach.

He laughed
softly. “No, beauty. This is for you. This is our thank you for allowing us the
pleasures of your body. Let us care for you.”

Tears came to
her eyes but she held them in. No one had tended to her or cared for her in her
life. To have two men show up and give her freedom and affection was somewhat
overwhelming.

Eterin
took hold of the back of her head
and jerked her to him, covering her mouth with his. His kiss was so sweet, so
thoughtful and tender that she lost her battle with her tears. He rubbed her
clit more, tweaking it just so to the point she reached culmination. She cried
out, gifting
Eterin
the scream he’d so desired. Her
entire body shook and her pussy clenched around his finger.
Pataryio
played with her sensitive nipples, riding out the orgasm with her as
Eterin’s
tongue laced around hers. When it was all said and
done, she was left panting, held up only by them. They pushed tight against
her, covering her in tiny kisses, and she knew she was where she belonged.

Sempia
stared out at the darkened sky. It was so different seeing it from this vantage
point rather than from planet-side. She leaned in the
copilot’s
seat, swivelling to gain a better view of the gasses among space.

Eterin
glanced over at her, appearing
amused. “You enjoy this?”

“Greatly. It is
beautiful.”

“Yet it does
not compare to you,” he said, piloting the vessel.

“Where shall we
go?” she questioned. “Will this vessel be our home?”

“Would it be so
bad?”

She stared at
him. “No. It’s a fine vessel,
Eterin
. Very fine
indeed. Though, the only other I’ve ever been aboard was the one that took me
from our home planet when I was but a child. I was afforded no view of the
stars, only metal walls.”

“I hate that I
couldn’t protect you then,” he said calmly, facing forward.

She remained in
her seat, bringing her knees to her chest. “You were but a child yourself and
born of the same station. The fact you have come this far, done this much is
amazing.” And it was. Most of the males of her tribe were sent off to work in
mines or serve in the armies as warriors of low ranks, grunts for the
slaughter.
Eterin
had moved past all that somehow.
She wasn’t sure how, and she guessed it probably wasn’t legal, but he’d done it
all the same. “If we are going to go down this path, let me say that you
suffered greatly as well. You can try to tell me otherwise, but the proof of my
statement is upon your chest.”

His gaze
flickered to his scars and then back out into space once more. “The pain was
fleeting. I am above it now.”

“
Eterin
, what became of you?” she asked in earnest. “I
noticed you wear the marks of the elite warriors. Were you among them?”

“I was.”

She sighed.
“You wish to speak of this no more with me?”

He eased his
grip on the steering column. “In truth, I know not how to speak of this to you.
How does one tell another of times so dark, so indescribably horrid that simply
thinking on them can bring the nightmares to life?”

She hugged her
legs tighter. “One does not speak of them.”

“One should to
the one they love, yes?”

She stilled,
her gaze frozen upon him. “
Eterin
?”

“Yes?”

“Nothing,” she
said, turning her chair in the other direction, too much a coward to ask him if
he loved her.

I do
, his voice came in her head.

She jerked
around, her eyes wide. “How is it you do such a thing?”

He laughed.
“You are more concerned with the ability to speak telepathically than you are
with the fact I love you?”

She snapped her
mouth shut, her eyes wide.

He laughed
more.

Pataryio
entered the bridge. “What is so
funny?”

“He loves me,”
she blurted.

He too laughed.
“And this, my beauty, you are surprised by? I have known him many years, and
you are all he speaks of. You should know he has great plans for your life
together.”

“
Pataryio
,”
Eterin
said sternly.

Sempia
noticed the sadness hiding in the
depths of
Pataryio’s
gaze. She exhaled slowly. “And
what of you,
Pataryio
? What of your future with us?”

Both men eyed
her.

She shrugged.
“It was a good question. I can see there is something between the two of you. I
would never ask you to forgo your feelings for each other on my account.”

“My beauty,
your heart is big, but others would not understand. Their views are not as open
as yours.”

She jutted out her
chin. “Not true. Many, many different types of lovers passed through my
training facility. Some were made up of only women, others only men and some
varying numbers of each.”

“Warriors take
a wife,”
Eterin
said as if that was the final say on
the matter.

“Says the very
body of leaders you will speak not of?” she questioned, knowing she was
overstepping her bounds. “Correct me if I am wrong, but these are the same
leaders you defected from, refusing to be a warrior for any longer, yes?”

Pataryio
flashed a smile. “She has a point.”

“And what would
be your answer to this,
Pataryio
?”
Eterin
demanded. “Would you have us live as three? Would
you ask me to share my wife?”

“Wife?”
Sempia
asked.

“You will wed
me,” he stated, his patience short as he glanced to his friend. “Would you ask
that of me?”

“No,”
Pataryio
said, lowering his gaze.

“Why not?”
Eterin
questioned, as if he were angered by the response
he’d received.

Sempia
hid her smile. Such proud men. How
long would it take them to realize love sparked between them and that, with
time, she too could grow to love
Pataryio
as
Eterin
did?

Eterin
whipped his head around and stared
at her with shock upon his face. “
Sempia
?”

“What?”

Pataryio
leaned close to her. “One of the
gifts the IFP forced upon him was the gift of telepathy. My guess, he just read
your mind.”

She gasped. “
Eterin
!”

“How else am I
to know what you are thinking?” he said, trying to appear innocent. “It is not
as if you openly tell me these things.”

“What things?”
Pataryio
asked.