Celestial Beauty (13 page)

“
Did I hurt you? I lost control.”

She found enough breath to laugh. “Not always a bad
thing to lose control, and do I sound hurt?”

He kissed her temple, gathering her into his arms.
“You sound well satisfied. I did well then?”

“
Do you really need your ego stroked?” She cracked an eyelid
to look at him. He was so rumpled, sexy, utterly adorable, and all hers.

“
I’ve never pleasured without my brothers. It is not
possible for a single Demos male to pleasure a single Demos female.”

Celeste warred between feeling insulted and the floaty
feeling of post orgasm.

“
So I keep hearing. It’s no wonder Demos quads value
human women if we’re so easy to please.”

“
You are so much more than just a human female, easy to
pleasure.” He captured her head in his hands, locking eyes. She lost her
insulted feelings instantly. “You have become the heart that beats for all four
of us. We need you. Please never leave us.” The utter vulnerability in his plea
made her wonder.

“
Someone left you, didn’t they? A Demos female hurt you
and your brothers.”

“
Yes, what seems now a lifetime ago, we tried a family
unit, but our chosen
sheraz
was not
faithful.
We were always away on missions. I think it hurt
Zeb more than any of us, as he chose her, half based on family history of
producing strong offspring, and half hoping it would be more.”

Celeste sighed, touching her forehead to his. “My
mother left me when I was a toddler.” She sighed in sadness, the distant
memories lingering in her mind. “I can still remember sitting on the floor, in
the hallway of our home, crying, as she walked out the door and never came
back.” Loc squeezed her tight. “The landlord found me a few days later when he
walked in wanting late rent payment. I was placed in foster care and passed on
from home to home. No one wanted me. Not all the homes and carers were nice. In
my twenties I met Ryan. He promised to love and look after me, so we got
married, but he turned out to be an unfaithful, cruel man. Always telling me
how useless and ugly I was, how nobody would ever want me. He hurt me many
times. When I escaped he came after me, and he beat me for running. The law,
while only half on my side, couldn’t do much other than tell him to stay away.
Justice was never served thanks to a fucked-up human legal system. So I decided
to go far, far away and make a new life for myself. Just when I was starting to
feel safe and recover I was taken by the Jorvals.”

Loc’s hands stroked up and down her back. “I want to
kill your
ex-husband
. You are very
precious. We would never harm you, never be unfaithful. Don’t tell Zeb this,
but you own us, beauty, more than you know. You are our Celestial beauty.”

She chuckled. “I like that, Celestial beauty. Point
is, we now have each other, and I’m happier than I’ve ever been. Away from
Earth, away from the pain, here is my new life, and I’m really enjoying it.”
She kissed his chest. “Thank you.” She yawned sleepily, “You’ve worn me out.
Can I have small a nap in before we take off?”

His chest rumbled with his own soft chuckle. “Of
course, beauty, sleep. I’ll keep you safe in my arms.”

Peace and contentment filled her, knowing she was
safe.
This is love. I love them.
All
shadows chased from her mind. For the first time in her long life, she
understood and felt the true meaning of love.

Chapter Eleven

Celeste screamed, bolting upright. Loc’s arms came
around her, holding her tight. She blinked up at Zeb standing over her and Loc.
A moment of guilt rushed through her body as if she’d been cheating.
No, they are all yours, no matter who makes
love to you.

She relaxed back into Loc’s embrace.

“
Fucking Fire Demons! Stop scaring our
sheraz
, you idiot.” Loc ran soothing
hands over her naked back, and he kissed her temple. “Don’t worry, beauty. It’s
only Zeb. Remember you’re ours now.”

She still couldn’t help the heat infuse her cheeks.

Zeb rolled his eyes at his brother, picked up Loc’s
pants and tossed that at him. “Sorry, beautiful, but fun time is over for now.
As much as I want pleasure you again, it will have to wait.” He glared at Loc.
“We have an issue to deal with. Loc, get dressed. We need to get off this
planet, now!”

Even though Zeb’s tone was calm she felt the urgency.
Loc stiffened beside her as he snatched up his pants and moved off the bed to
pull them on. Zeb then retrieved her clothing, and helped her off the bed,
quickly leaning down to plant a kiss on her lips. “You look delicious,
beautiful, but I need you on the bridge and strapped in for take-off.”

“
What’s wrong? Why the sudden urgency?” She instantly
forgot her nudity as she shook out her outfit and climbed back into it. Zeb
took the invisible zipper and sealed it. He sighed as his gaze was still fixed
on her breasts. She hid her smile. Even in times of crisis, men were men.

“
Don’t worry, we promised to protect you.” He shook his
head and raised his gaze to meet hers.

“
Protect me, what do I need protecting from now?” She
scowled at Zeb.

Loc, now dressed, leaned down and kissed her briefly.
“Have we let you down yet, beauty?”

She shook her head, confident in their abilities, but
it didn’t stop her worrying for their safety as much as her own.

He shot a look at Zeb, who nodded. They were doing
that freaky silent communication thing again. Loc’s whole demeanour changed.
Gone was the passionate and tender lover of before. Now a sharp eyed warrior on
alert, he strode out of the room without looking back.

Zeb captured her hand and tugged her along after him,
following after Loc. They turned left, and Loc went right back into the engine
room.

“
Are you going to tell me what’s going on? You know not
telling me something can be worse than lying.”

Zeb growled, shaking his head but didn’t stop his
stride. “I don’t want you to be afraid.”

“
How can I be afraid if, as you said, you’re all here
to protect me? Please tell me what’s going on?” She added a note of gentle
pleading into her tone.

They reached the stairs, and she jogged up them.
“There are ships coming into orbit over the planet, and if we don’t take off
now we’ll be too easy a target.”

“
Other ships, I take it from your scowl not friendly
ships, if we’re about to be sitting ducks.”

“
I do not know what a sitting duck is.”

She giggled, breathlessly. “It’s the same as what you
said before. The human expression for an easy target is a sitting duck.” She
panted out her explanation.

He shook his head. “Then we don’t want to be ducks. We
must hurry.”

A short time later Celeste’s fingers gripped the arms
of her seat, despite Zeb having firmly strapped her to the seat. The vibration
of the ship’s powerful engines made her bones shake.

“
It’ll be over in a moment.” Zeb glanced over at her from
his command seat. She would have smiled at his reassurance if her jaw wasn’t
already clenched and her teeth gritted.

The swampy ground and horrid planet grew smaller on
the huge curved display screen, and it filled her with a sense of elation. In a
short time, she’d lost everything, yet gained more than she could have ever
dreamed. Stars grew brighter as they moved through the atmosphere out into
space. The rumble of the engines main thrusters cut out, and Celeste heaved a
sigh of relief as her bones stopped rattling.

Zeb, already unbuckled, moved to join Kue, pressing
things on the instrument panel. “Ship has held together quite well. The
Reisin
coupling did the trick, job well
done.” Zeb glanced in her direction. “One problem solved, another to deal with.”
Zeb scratched his chin. He moved over to her seat and undid her straps, a small
smile on his face as he tugged free the black straps. “I like the idea of
this.” He leaned in, keeping his voice in a low, husky whisper. “Tied up and
helpless while my brothers and I pleasure you.”

An erotic chill ran down her spin, and she swallowed
as her body responded to his words, flaring to life. Her mind instantly
imagined the hot wicked things they could do to her, while she was bound and at
their mercy. “Once this is over.”

Zeb sighed and loosened the last strap, freeing her,
his face hardening, and he straightened. “I need to you stand over here for
this next part. I don’t want them to see you unless it’s necessary.”

She snapped back to the reality of their situation.

“
Who are they?”

The screen flickered to life, making Celeste gasp as
she viewed for the first time three menacing and rather large ships.

“
Three Jorval warships against one salvager ship.” Raz
eyeballed the large flickering screen. “Hardly seems fair.” He shot Celeste a
roguish smile. “To them.”

Jorvals
. Her whole body began to tremble. “Are they here for
me?” She raised her head to meet Zeb’s eyes.

He pulled her into his arms. “Beautiful, do you think
we would let them take you from us?”

“
No, but my life isn’t worth yours. I—I’m—”

“
Worth more to us than anything in this whole galaxy.
You belong to us, and we’re not letting you go. Besides, if they’ve scanned the
planet and have updated human bio life signs, they’ll assume there were no
survivors of the crash. With this much firepower converging on one crashed
trader ship, they want to keep their dirty secrets from falling into our
hands.”

He kissed the top of her head and set her away from
him. “Now stay here.”

“
But—”

Celeste bit down on her lip at his reproachful glare.
He sighed, and his expression softened. “I know you haven’t known us long, and
trusting is hard for you, but can you try, this once, for us?”

She nodded, realizing her fear came from the thought
of losing them.
Trust them, trust them.

“
Don’t worry, lovely, we may be retired, but we haven’t
lost any of our skills.” Raz winked.

“
Raz may be an idiot eighty percent of the time, but
he’s correct, you need to trust us,” Kue added.

“
I do.”

Kue smiled. She knew he was trying to reassure her.
Kue and Raz both looked at Zeb.

“
They’re blocking outgoing communications and are
hailing us.” Kue glanced back to his panel.

“
Standard tactics, if they had wanted us dead, they
would have fired by now. Open the communications. We already know what they
want, but it’s good to get their view of they think they want.”

Celeste pressed herself against the bulkhead as the
screen changed to the face of a Jorval. She slapped her hand over her mouth to
stop her gasp from being heard. She saw nightmare images of her capture and
being on that ship, stuffed in cages with nothing but water. The whimpers and
tears of her fellow captives. A hand on her arm made her jump, and she turned
to see Loc standing there, his eyes filled with concern. She hadn’t even
noticed him enter the bridge, but quietly and gently, he pulled her into his
arms, holding her tight against him as she trembled.

“
Shh, beauty, we’ve got you,” he whispered. “They don’t
and never will.”

“
This is Commander Zeb of the salvage ship
Reclaimer
. How can we assist you today?
Do you have any salvage you wish to trade?” Zeb’s tone was calm and even.

“
I am Commander Reedip of the Jorval protector ship
Kiff
. The wreck you salvaged on the
planet below belongs to us. If your lives have worth you will hand it over.”

“
Hellious
intergalactic law states that licensed salvagers have
every right to take unclaimed wrecks. Would you care to see our license,
Reedip?” He even added a slight smile. Celeste watched in utter fascination.
Clearly Zeb would make one heck of a poker player.

“
It is not unclaimed. It is Jorval property. You are
only one salvaging ship, no match for our warships. If you won’t hand over our
property then we will destroy you.”

“
Come now, commander, I doubt there would be any profit
in destroying our precious cargo. You may be interested to know, we salvaged
more than just metal on this useless planet. Tell me, what is a human female
now worth on the underground slave markets?”

Zeb’s gaze slid across to where Loc held her in his
arms, and he nodded at Loc.

“
We do not break intergalactic law. I am well aware
human females are now protected by your kind.”

“
He’s bluffing. Jorvals would sell their own mothers to
turn a profit.” Loc kept up the whispered commentary.

“
I’m as much a trader as you are, and some laws, well,
don’t interest me as much as other, when there is no profit in it.
 
Let us talk and come to a mutual beneficial
agreement.”

“
I don’t need to bargain with you when I can simply
take what I want, or destroy you.” The big eared alien’s creamy skin mottled
green in anger.

“
Oh no, then if you destroy us then you’ll be
destroying thousands in credits. Celeste, come here.” Zeb held out his hand for
her, his eyes meeting hers, pleading silently with her to trust him.

Wow, she actually understood some of his silent
communication thing they did.

“
Play along, beauty. Trust us, this is just for show.
If we can’t prove we have something of value, they’ll simply kill us. We need
to play on their greed.” Loc whispered into her ear before nudging her forward.

She nodded, understanding they needed her to take part
in the poker game. She walked across the bridge and into the viewer’s line of
sight. She placed her hand in Zeb’s. He drew her forward, placing one large
hand around her neck. “I’m sure this cargo is worth more than the photons you’d
need to use to destroy our large ship.”

They faced the Jorval in the shiny uniform who glared
at the two of them. Celeste stood her ground, refusing to let fear control her.
She had her Demos brothers, and these creatures would never get their slimy
hands on her again.

The Jorval commander snorted. “What makes you want to
give up a human female? I hear Demos are collecting them as prized jewels.”

“
Let’s just say we’ve had our value out of her, and the
female is not needed anymore. Besides we have our one true
sheraz
to return to on Galafrax.”

Celeste swallowed. Even knowing this was a cat and
mouse game, it still hurt to hear those words coming out of Zeb’s mouth. They
hadn’t just used her, had they?

I should play
along.
She started struggling in his grip.

“
You son of a bitch! How dare you use me like that! You
can’t just give me back to them!”

“
Silence, female, we can do what we want with you. Loc,
take her and put her back in holding.”

With one shove she was back in Loc’s arms, and he
grinned down at her. “That’s my smart beauty.” He kissed her temple, and she
relaxed, but the game was far from over.

The Jorval scratched his large earlobes, clear greed
gleaming in his eyes. “Human females’ value has increased since your people
made them illegal to sell as slaves. So, here’s the deal, five hundred credits,
the human female, and the wreckage of the ship you salvaged on the planet
below.”

Zeb laughed. “Insulting a Demos, not a wise move,
Commander Reedip. I suggest five thousand credits. The female alone is worth
that and more.”

“
One thousand, no higher.”

“
Four thousand and we conveniently forget about the
human female bodies down on the planet. The information will be completely
erased from our data banks.”

“
Give us a moment to discuss this offer with my fellow
commanders.” The screen went blank.

Zeb swiftly turned. “I’m sorry I had to do that,
Celeste, but you understand it wasn’t real. I would never sell you or betray
your trust.”