Lords of the Deep (24 page)

She was in her bed when she woke and, not surprisingly, the first thing she noticed was a sore throat. The second thing she noticed was that drinking was a real problem. Her throat closed every time she tried to swallow and a sense of panic washed over her.

Miles sat with her for most of the day, patiently explaining over and over, until she finally grasped that she had to focus on doing something she’d never had to do before—relaxing her throat to allow the liquid to pass before swallowing. By the end of the day she’d managed to master the panic. Solid food, oddly enough, wasn’t as hard to swallow as liquids.

Two days later, Miles introduced her to skin.

She was a little revolted when she realized it actually
was
skin, but it eased the queasiness when she discovered it was ‘grown’ skin. A medical procedure developed for burn victims to replace skin lost.

That struck her as almost bizarre at first, until it dawned her that they had just as much, or nearly as much—maybe
more
potential for fire hazards as there was on the surface. They cooked their food, and they used electronics—a lot.

He would use that, he explained, to make her lower body look more like theirs.

She could see the possibilities, but she wasn’t sure she wanted anything permanent. If it was skin, then it was designed to grow to the body, surely? Once she was reassured that she wouldn’t be wearing it long enough to allow that to happen, even if her body didn’t completely reject it, she was satisfied enough about it.

The hair was still a problem, and since they, apparently, didn’t cut theirs, they didn’t have the tools she needed to remove hers.

She was actually a little stunned to discover they didn’t even shave even though she’d already accepted, she thought, that they didn’t have hair because they didn’t need it, or maybe had never had any evolution-wise. Miles carefully calibrated a laser cutter, though, and tested it.

It took a bit of convincing to wrest the device from him to take care of it herself, but she finally persuaded him to relinquish the thing and went off to ‘de-hair’ herself. She actually didn’t think she would’ve minded him ‘shaving’ her public area since it occurred to her that it was actually sort of erotic, but she had a lot of areas in need of hair removal and she didn’t want him to discover, if he hadn’t noticed already, that, unlike them, she had hair all over the place.

Maybe
he would find it intriguing and not disgusting, but she didn’t like the possibility that he might find it a turn off. He was waiting for her in her bedroom to try out the ‘costume’ he’d made for her when she came out. She studied the top of his head when he crouched on the floor in front of her to fit the ‘leggings’ he’d devised for her.

If they didn’t have hair, what was it, she wondered?

She couldn’t remember whether she’d ever actually explored it. Every time they’d had sex it was so … intense.

Carefully, she touched a lock, allowing it to drift through her fingers, but as carefully as she had, he tipped his head back to look up at her. She saw when she met his gaze that his eyes had darkened with desire. Her throat tightened. “You feel this?” she whispered.

“Yes.”

She touched it lightly. It felt like hair—fine, silky hair. It was hard to accept that it wasn’t. “Does it … hurt when I touch it?” she asked, wondering abruptly just how sensitive it was.

He swallowed audibly. “No,” he said a little hoarsely, lowering his gaze to her denuded mound. Her belly clenched when he stroked his finger lightly over the freshly exposed skin which seemed far more sensitive than it had before. “This didn’t hurt?”

“No.” She didn’t even nick herself, she thought a little wryly.

He seemed almost to drift closer.

She was a little disconcerted, wondering if he was sniffing her.

She shouldn’t
smell
. She’d bathed thoroughly!

A jolt went through her when she felt the heated flick of his tongue along her nether lips, but goose-bumps erupted all over her, too. The touch was almost tentative. She wondered a little dizzily if he was tasting it to see if he liked the taste, and then if he would do more and if she wanted him to.

She didn’t wonder long. He grasped her hips, drawing her tightly to his face and lapped at her more and more feverishly. She braced her hands on his shoulders, feeling her knees go weak, feeling heat flush her sex.

She stopped wondering whether she wanted him to and began wishing she was lying down on the bed, wishing she could spread her legs wide to give him better access.

He was breathing raggedly when he lifted his head to look at her.

She peered down at him from beneath her lashes, her eyelids seemingly too heavy to lift. He surged upward suddenly, lifting her and carrying her to the bed. When he’d settled her on it, he pushed her thighs apart, studied the flushed lips of her sex a moment and lowered his head to her.

She gasped, arching her back, straining to spread her legs wider for him. It felt good—better than good—wonderful!

Opening her eyes slightly as she reached to stroke his head, she saw that Damien had come into the room. His gaze was focused on what Miles was doing to her, his expression taut, his eyes gleaming tumultuously with desire.

She swallowed with an effort, feeling the heat climb higher and higher as Miles found her clit and focused on it, sucking at it until her body seized abruptly, dragging sharp cries of ecstasy from her.

A flicker of surprise wafted across his face as he lifted it to look at her, but he was taut with his own needs, surging over her almost at once. She clutched at his waist as he aligned his body with hers and thrust. She felt the vibrations of his cock as he entered her that time and realized that it was something she’d only noticed dimly before.

She’d felt it, though. Her body had responded to it.

She felt herself climbing toward climax again almost before he’d managed to fill her completely, before his first real stroke. Her body raced toward another culmination even as he began thrusting into her with fierce desperation. He shuddered when he felt the quakes of her release and began to thrust faster, almost as if he was racing to catch up to her.

He did, coming even as her quakes of ecstasy began to subside, burrowing deeply and uttering choked groans as his body convulsed.

She sighed blissfully, stroking his back gratefully.

He gathered himself after a few moments and lifted away to look down at her face. She saw confusion flicker in his eyes … which confused her. He lifted away from her with obvious reluctance, though, and she couldn’t grasp what it was that had caused the flicker of doubt she saw in his eyes.

Damien dropped to his knees the moment Miles moved away and took his place, latching onto her clit with an enthusiasm that forced the air from her lungs. Doubt flickered in her own mind, but he drove all possibility of thought from her. She’d barely touched down from her last climax—hadn’t really touched down. His mouth tugging at her clit sent her spiraling off into culmination again—harder, making her come so intensely that her cry of completion bordered a scream.

She was still struggling to catch her breath when he crawled over her and she felt the head of his cock plow along her cleft and burrow inside of her. The urge hit her to beg off, to tell him she didn’t think she could take it if he made her come again.

She didn’t, though. She gritted her teeth against the exquisite pleasure that ripped through her as he claimed her and began to move rhythmically along her channel, sawing in and out of her while his cock vibrated with his excitement until it touched off yet another climax.

She was the next thing to comatose when her body finally stopped seizing and allowed her to drag in a decent breath. She sprawled limply on the bed beneath him when he stopped, barely able to lift a hand for a single appreciate caress before he moved away from her.

It flashed through her mind that they might fight—now that they’d both fucked her nearly unconscious—but she wasn’t in any state to try her hand at mediating between them.

Later, she thought a little vaguely. If they fought again, she’d try to figure it out later.

Miles and Damien had already flashed each other in warning challenge before it dawned on both of them that they couldn’t take their fight outside.

The fucking enforcer had already made his presence known twice before—twice since their last fight. Damien struggled with his fury, trying to tamp it. At the same time, he searched his mind for some other place to vent his aggression.

Finally, he stalked from the room and headed for the terrium. Miles, after staring at him in baffled anger for a moment, followed him.

Damien had just decided the terrium would do when he spied the fucking enforcer.

That cooled his furious heat as nothing else.

Miles, drawn by Damien’s attention, looked around and saw the enforcer himself.

It cooled him faster. Nodding at the man, he whirled on his heel and stalked back into the domicile.

Both of them were still fuming when they met in the lab, still struggling to contain the aggression they’d never actually tried to control before.

Because they hadn’t had to.

“That gods damned bastard is fucking camping out on your place!” Damien growled. “You should file a suit on the son-of-a-bitch for trespassing!”

Miles, who’d been pacing furiously, stopped abruptly and turned to glare at him. “How the fuck is that going to help? He’s out there now!”

Damien glared at him furiously for several moments and finally looked away, struggling with the urge to punch Miles in the mouth. “The lab’s no place to settle this,” he growled finally.

“It sure as fuck isn’t!” Miles snapped at him. “All my work’s in here! So get the fuck out and let me work!”

Damien lifted his head and stared at him in baffled fury. “You’re going to work—now?”

“Just what the hell do you suggest? Maybe we could go outside and beat the shit out of the enforcer! Would that make you feel better?”

“It would make me feel one hell of a lot better!” Damien snarled at him. “At least until I ended up in fucking jail!”

“Exactly,” Miles spat. “There’s no point in punching at each other anyway! She isn’t in season.”

Damien blinked at him. “You can’t be fucking serious?
Still
?”

Miles shook his head and finally dropped onto his stool. “Not according to the last scan.”

“Well …
what the fuck
? That gods damned machine of yours must be broken!”

“It’s not broken!” Miles snapped. “I did a scan on myself to check it!”

“Then it just doesn’t work on her!”

Miles glared at him, but clamped his lips together, forcing himself to take several calming breaths. “Maybe not, I don’t know any more. It wasn’t
designed
for terra … humans. It was designed for us.”

Damien glared around at the room, as if he was looking for something he could safely vent his frustration on. When he didn’t see anything that looked easily replaced, he finally grabbed a stool and sat down on it, glaring at the floor while he tried to think. “She liked that,” he growled finally. “
I
liked that.”

“You’re certain?” Miles asked a little doubtfully.

“Aren’t you?”

“No. I was too busy enjoying myself to notice, actually. You’re sure?”

“I was busy watching both of you enjoying yourselves,” Damien said dryly. “I’m sure.”

“This confuses the fuck out of me!” Miles said abruptly. “Honest to gods, Damien, I can hardly keep my mind on my work! And it’s not like we have the luxury of a great deal of time here!”

Damien glared at him. “You didn’t watch when I fucked her?” he demanded a little indignantly.

“Of course I did! I was there, wasn’t I?”

“Well, what the fuck did you think she was making all that noise for if she
wasn’t
enjoying it?” Damien demanded.

“Oh.” He shrugged. “I don’t know. It sounded an awful lot like her sonic defense. I thought maybe she was trying to get you to get off of her. Or at least trying to convince you she
wasn’t
enjoying it. You don’t think that’s what it was?”

“Gods
damn it
, Miles!” Damien snapped furiously. “Is that what it seemed like to you? Because I thought she was enjoying it and I’m going to be damned unhappy if you’re right and that’s all it was!” He stood up abruptly. “I’m going to ask her.”

“I wouldn’t,” Miles warned. “In case you haven’t noticed, she
never
allows us to come back for another round … well, hardly ever. She seems dead set on resting in between. And, in any case, according to the scans she
still
isn’t ready.”

“Well, the damned scan obviously isn’t working right on her!” Damien snarled. “
Some
thing isn’t right.”

“Which is exactly why I said I was confused!” Miles said pointedly. “The scanner says she isn’t at peak and she
allows
us to fuck her, then she won’t. Then she decides she will again. It’s enough to drive an okean crazy trying to figure it out—particularly when she
never
flashes … except when it doesn’t have a fucking thing to do with the mating cycle at all!”