The Breed (5 page)

“What’s so beautiful about being in pain all
the time?” I demanded. “What’s so beautiful about
this?”
I
nodded down at my breasts where the wet, sticky patches had grown
considerably larger.

“That’s my fault,” Lukas said in a low voice.
“I should have come to you sooner. But I wanted to be sure the
drugs had plenty of time to get out of your system. I was hoping
you’d either stop drinking the tea or run out—and I knew you
couldn’t get any more. Mom was the only one with the
connection.”

“I stopped drinking it because it made me sad
to drink it without her.” I looked down at my hands. “But there’s
no way I could run out—there’s tons of the stuff. A whole pantry
full, in fact.”

Lukas looked grim. “She really never wanted
you to have a normal life. To have desire, love,
passion
.”

I held up a hand to stop him. “I’m not so
sure I’m ready to have all those things either. Especially not with
you. Like I said, I still…still think of you as a brother.”

“That’s understandable,” he said, nodding.
“But I’m afraid you’re going to have to get over that—at least a
little.” He arched an eyebrow at me. “Unless you want to let that
boring fiancé of yours, Richlow, suck the nectar from your
breasts?”

I shivered involuntarily. I never had any
physical desire for Richlow Farnsworth even at the best of times.
But now the idea of letting him touch me, especially intimately,
seemed especially repugnant.

Lukas nodded. “I didn’t think so. Your body
is attuned to mine now, Lexie. The same way mine is attuned to
yours. You’re going to need me in the next few days and not just to
relieve the pressure in your breasts.”

His words and the hot way he was looking at
me scared me half to death. “What are you talking about?” I
demanded, pushing away from him. “What exactly are you expecting us
to do?”

“What do you think?” he said, his voice a
soft growl. “You’re in heat, Lexie. What usually happens when a
female goes into heat? She has to be bred.
Fucked.
”

“No!” I was up on my feet before he could
stop me. “I won’t,” I said, my voice trembling. “I know I let you
suck me—suck my nipples—but I won’t go that far. I
can’t.”

“You can and you will,” he said quietly. “Or
the pain—the
need—
will only get worse. The nectar flowing
from your nipples—that’s only the first part, Lexie. The tip of the
iceberg. Things are going to get worse—much worse—before they get
better.”

“I don’t accept that,” I said, raising my
chin. “And I don’t care what you say we are—I’m not going to let
any of this Breeder crap scare me into sleeping with my
own
brother
.”

“So we’re back to that, are we?” He laughed
softly but not very happily. “You’re afraid to let me fuck you
because we grew up in the same house? Because we have the same last
name?”

“I don’t want to let you…do
that
because you’re my
brother
,” I insisted. “I can’t, Lukas, try
to understand.”

Sighing, he rose. “All right, have it your
way. But don’t blame me if the pain gets worse—so bad you can
hardly stand it.”

It was already pretty bad. I could feel the
fullness in my breasts, the aching in my nipples just as though
Lukas had never sucked them just an hour before. But I wasn’t about
to give him the satisfaction of knowing that.

“I’ll be fine,” I said, lifting my chin. “And
now I think you’d better leave.”

“Are you sure?” He took a step toward me and
cupped my cheek in his hand. “Let me stay with you tonight, Lexie,”
he said softly. “Just let me ease your pain. I’ll hold you all
night and suck you whenever your breasts get too full. We don’t
have to do anything else if you don’t want to.”

For a moment I wavered. The look in his eyes
was meltingly sincere and part of me knew that he really
did
care that I was hurting. But I was afraid—scared to death—that we
would go further. That I would let him do more than ease my pain.
It was dangerous to let him stay—far too dangerous to even
consider.

“No,” I said, trying to sound firm. “No,
Lukas. I’m sorry but I think you should go.”

He sighed. “All right. I’ll come back later
to check on you.”

“Don’t,” I said. “I don’t want you to.”

“You think that now,” he said darkly. “But
just wait until your heat really begins. Then you may reconsider
letting your
brother
fuck you.”

His words left me speechless and I watched
silently as he walked out the door. But I couldn’t help wondering,
as I watched him go, if he was telling the truth.

And if so, what in the world was I going to
do about it?

After Lukas left I took a long, hot shower
and washed away as much of him as I could. But try as I might, I
couldn’t wash away the memory of what we’d done. The sensation of
his mouth on my nipples was indelibly etched on my memory. God,
what was wrong with me? Why had I allowed him to do that? To go so
far?

His words echoed in my head,
You need me.
Your body needs mine…
Could that actually be true? Was that why
I was having so much trouble saying no to things that were clearly
wrong? I had to know.

Getting out of the shower I toweled off and
went to look up some information on the Internet. But Breeders
really weren’t big news any more. All I got was either wild tabloid
speculation or academic articles so thick with intellectual double
talk I couldn’t make heads or tails of them. Finally I gave up and
called Sylvia.

“Lexie.” Clearly she was surprised to hear
from me. We weren’t the kind of friends who called each other just
to chat. If one of us picked up the phone, something was wrong.
“Are you all right?” she asked, sounding concerned.

“No,” I said. “But it’s nothing I can tell
you about—not now, anyway. I have a favor to ask you though.”

“Name it,” she said at once. “Anything I can
do.”

I couldn’t help smiling at her response. Now
that’s
true
friendship.

“It’s going to sound weird,” I said. “But I
need to know everything I can about Breeders—especially their
mating habits and reproductive cycle. Can you help me out?”

“Well, Xenobiology isn’t really my field,”
she said slowly. “But I
do
have a colleague who did his
thesis on Breeder physiology. Do you want me to get it and send you
a copy?”

“Honestly, I just really can’t…concentrate
right now.” I took a deep breath. “I know you’re busy but if you
could maybe skim it and give me the quick version I’d be forever
grateful.”

“All right, certainly.” She still sounded
concerned. “Lexie, does this have anything to do with your…other
problem?”

I had so many problems at the moment that it
actually took me a minute to figure out what she meant. Then it
clicked. “Oh, you mean the, uh, leakage. Yes and no,” I said. “I
wish I could tell you more but…” But I just couldn’t bear to tell
my best friend exactly how far I’d gone with my own brother. Sylvia
was cool and logical but I could imagine the look of disgust in her
eyes if I let her know what Lukas and I had been doing for most of
the afternoon.

“I understand,” Sylvia said when I found
myself incapable of finishing the sentence. “And it’s all right,
Lexie. I’ll try to get the information you need and call you back.
But we’re in the middle of finals right now so it might take a
little while—is that all right?”

I wanted the information yesterday but I knew
I couldn’t ask her to drop her entire life just to do some research
for me. “Of course,” I made myself say. “Just whenever you have the
time.”

“I’ll get to it as soon as I possibly can,”
Sylvia promised and I knew that she meant it.

“Thanks, Sylvia.” I tried to hold back a
sigh. “Well, I’ll see you later.”

“Will you be able to make it at our regular
time next week?” she asked. “I’m sure I can have the information
you’re looking for then.”

“Of course,” I said automatically. “I’ll be
there, no problem.”

“Good.” She seemed about to say something
else but then she just said goodbye and hung up.

I sat there staring at the phone blankly,
wondering if I could make it through the next few days. If I could
wait to see exactly what was going on with me before my body
betrayed me again.

The pain was so bad the next day I couldn’t
concentrate on anything. We had a multi-million deal on the table
and all I could think about was my aching breasts. Worse, my pussy
had now joined the rising chorus. Before it had been sensitive in
the extreme but now that sensitivity verged on pain. I felt swollen
and hot to the touch—it hurt to cross my legs. And I was starting
to produce nectar there as well. Three times I had to run to the
executive washroom to be certain I wasn’t leaking down the inside
of my leg.

Finally, I gave up.

Though I was known for keeping an iron grip
on the company reigns, just as Dad had before me, I decided to
leave the lucrative deal to our acting CEO and go home to the
penthouse. I didn’t know what I could do once I got there but I had
a vague notion that maybe a warm bath would help. At any rate, I
just wanted to be somewhere I could get naked. Though my bra and
panties were made of the softest real silk, they felt as coarse as
burlap scratching over my sensitive nipples and pussy. I wanted to
get the irritating underwear
off
and just feel free.

I heard the staff talking behind my back as I
left the office but I didn’t even care. By the time I got home to
the penthouse, there were tears in my eyes and my hands were
shaking so badly I could barely key in the security sequence.
Oh
God, it hurts! It
hurts!
I was certain that
wherever Lukas was right now, he was having a good laugh at my
expense.

But when I looked up and saw him sitting on
the loveseat, waiting for me, he wasn’t laughing at all.

“Lukas,” I said faintly, trying to blink away
the tears that threatened to spill over my lids and betray me.
“What are you doing here? How did you get the code?”

“I’ve always known it,” he murmured. “It’s
just your birthday backwards—you really should change it, you know.
And as for what I’m doing here—I’m waiting for you.”

“You came to gloat?” I walked over to him
stiffly because my panties still felt like a medieval torture
device.

“I came to help,” he said softly. “If you’ll
let me.”

“I don’t think…” I began but then the pain
got to be too much for me. “God,” I whispered brokenly, tears
spilling from my eyes. “It hurts, Lukas. It’s ten times worse than
it was yesterday. Why is that?”

“You’re heat’s escalating,” he said grimly.
“Here, let me.” I had been fumbling with the buttons on my blouse
but he pushed my hands away gently but firmly and unbuttoned them
himself. “It’s all right,” he whispered when I hissed with pain as
he pealed back my bra, exposing my burgundy nipples, sticky with my
nectar. “Everything’s going to be okay in a minute,
sweetheart.”

“Are you sure?” I said, my voice shaky with
pain. “They feel so
tight.
So
swollen.”

“That’s just because you need to be sucked.”
Cupping my cheek, he wiped my tears away with his thumb. “Come
here,” he murmured and drew me down on his lap.

I was in so much pain I was certain the touch
of his mouth on my nipples would be agony but in fact, it was the
exact opposite. The minute he drew my first tight bud carefully
between his lips, it was as though some kind person had spread a
soothing salve on a part of me that was on fire. I sighed in relief
as he drew rhythmically at my breast, taking as much as he could,
releasing the pressure that had been building up all day.

Of course, with the cessation of pain, came
the inevitable pleasure. I felt my swollen pussy getting even
hotter and wetter than it already was. The urge came over me to put
my hand down the front of my skirt and touch it. To spread my pussy
lips wide, baring my sensitive inner folds and stroke my throbbing
clit. I had never done it before but I had a feeling that even the
lightest touch would do…
something
. What I wasn’t sure. Maybe
make me come? It was hard to say since I’d never had an orgasm
before. But this feeling of anticipation building in the pit of my
stomach and the spot between my legs seemed like the precursor to
something big—something
huge.
If I could just touch myself,
just a little…

I can’t,
I thought, my heart pounding.
Can’t be so low class…so vulgar.
Those were the words my
mother had used to describe “self gratification” as she put it
during the one stilted sex talk she’d given me after I started my
period. Proper behavior had been impressed on me at an early age.
“Good breeding always shows,” she liked to say and touching myself
was most definitely
not
good breeding. But at the same time
I was feeling like I might explode if I didn’t get some relief. If
only Lukas would finish so I could go in the bathroom and take care
of this problem…

“You all right?” Lukas arched an eyebrow at
me and I realized with relief that he had stopped and my breasts
didn’t hurt any more.

“Much better, thanks,” I said softly. “You’re
really, uh, good at that. It didn’t hurt a bit.”

“I was made to do it,” he said simply. “No,
really, Lexie,” he continued when I rolled my eyes. “Our bodies
were made to fit together exactly. My mouth is specially shaped to
fit your nipples…and other places.”

“What…what are you talking about?” I started
to cross my legs nervously and then let out a yelp as the motion
sent a sharp pain through my swollen pussy.

“I’ll tell you,” Lukas said. “There’s a lot
you don’t know about our physiology and birth culture. But before
we talk any more, I want you to put on these.” He picked up a stack
of what looked like folded leather cloths and handed them to
me.