I squirmed at his threat, my bottom still sore from its earlier spanking and the plug still filling me. I knew he wasn’t making idle threats. I sighed, and decided I might as well tell him the truth, or at least as much of it as I could. His darkness and the hurt it caused me? I had some pride. That I would keep to myself. “I can’t be your mate, Zane. I’m sorry. I know the computer or whatever matched us, but I can’t do this.”
“You fear our deaths. I can sense your sadness, Hannah, your fear. We’re all going to die, Hannah. Death is part of life. Is it our death you fear, or is it me? Do you wish to test another? Are you invoking your right to claim a new mate?” His voice was soft, deathly quiet, and I heard Dare’s quiet footsteps as he approached from behind, listening to our conversation.
“No. I don’t want another warrior.” His grip loosened slightly and I took a deep breath. “I don’t want to be a bride. I want to go home.” I spoke from the heart, and I knew he’d hear the sincerity of my words. I couldn’t allow myself to fall in love with him. It would be a complete disaster. The idea of a perfect love, of an intense, all-consuming love, was exciting and fun and something every woman on Earth dreamed about. The reality of knowing I’d lose one of them, or both, was too intense, too much for me, especially when I knew Zane was hiding from me, that he wasn’t going to love me in return. I was scared. A chicken. I admitted it, didn’t try to deny it.
The silence grew heavy and thick in the air as I waited for his response. If I gave them everything, and one of them died, I wouldn’t survive it. I’d crumble into a million tiny pieces of dust and drift away on the wind. Faced with the very real possibility of having the kind of man I’d always wanted, the kind I could completely lose myself in, I was terrified. They would own me. Body and soul. I would belong to them, but Zane? I could sense the shadow in him, and it was growing stronger. He would hide forever. I could feel his determination through our link. And he was the commander, the most disciplined warrior in the entire interstellar fleet. If he decided to hold himself apart, there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it. He would never truly belong to me. I couldn’t live with that.
Two beeps filled the air. “Commander.”
Zane stiffened behind me. “Yes,” he said to the room at large.
“You are needed on the command deck.” The room had some kind of ship-wide communication system.
“On my way. Deston out.”
Dare cleared his throat. “Her bath is ready.”
Zane sighed. “We’ll discuss this later, Hannah.” His arms tightened for a brief moment before he turned with me in his arms and handed me off to Dare.
Dare nodded and Zane left the room without another word. I knew I’d hurt him somehow, wounded the most formidable commander in the Prillon fleet. But he’d asked for the truth. The truth that I was petrified to be permanently tied to him and then have him die on me, or live, but never be mine. Either possibility brought me nothing but heartbreak.
“Come, Hannah. There is nowhere for you to go. Let’s set your fears aside for now. Let me help you in the bath.” Dare held out his hand and I took it, allowing him to lead me through the small door I’d glimpsed off to the side of the main room. He was right. Where was I to go? I had no clothes, no way t
o get home. I could tell Dare was trying to soothe me; I was overwhelmed. The conversation wasn’t over. My concerns hadn’t been resolved, but I would wait. A bath did sound good. I was sticky and sore.
It was odd to walk with the plug deep inside me. “Dare,” I said, looking anywhere but at him. “What about… um, well…”
Perhaps he had an idea as to my problem or perhaps he could sense it through the collars.
“The plug stays in. It is a training plug, not a pleasure plug.”
I frowned, for I didn’t know the difference between the two, but I could tell by the look on his face that he would not be swayed. I sighed and took in the bathroom. It wasn’t huge, but it was luxurious, with glowing white fixtures that looked like they were made of fire opals lit from within. A full tub of water awaited me. The bath was huge, large enough to easily fit two, if not all three of us. Dare tugged the sheet from my body and stripped off his uniform to reveal a chest lined with muscles, a broad strong back that tapered to thin hips and powerful legs. His cock hung, still semi-hard between his legs, the sight reminding me of his taste, of the flavor of his cum as it spilled down my throat.
“Stop looking at me like that, Hannah, or I’ll fuck that sweet mouth again.” In one fast motion, he lifted me off my feet and stepped into the warm water, immersing us both up to our shoulders in the scented bath.
Pressed to his naked chest, I could smell him, his scent rising from his skin to soothe me. I’d known him such a short time, but already my body recognized his. I knew the taste of his cock and the scent of his flesh. I craved the taste of his cum, like a drug addict on Earth and the next fix. I was losing it. That was the only explanation.
Dare settled me in front of him in the bath and bathed my entire body with a strange soap that smelled like some exotic fruit as soon as it made contact with my skin. On his hand, it smelled like him, a dark, musky fragrance that made me want to press my face to his chest and just breathe him in and out of my body.
“Lean back, Hannah. I want to wash your hair.” His voice seemed to invade my senses and give me a sense of comfort and safety.
I felt like a child in the swimming pool as he pulled my head back with his hands and pushed my bottom away from him so that I floated on my back in the water. He held me gently as he soaked my hair, then sat me up to massage my scalp. It felt so good I let myself go limp in his arms. I was tired and overwhelmed, and his gentle touch soothed something inside me that I hadn’t realized needing soothing.
I was still trying to wrestle with the idea of two mates, but the idea was not as out of bounds as I’d once thought. Not if my mates were Zane and Dare. However, it wasn’t loving them that scared the hell out of me. No, I was afraid of losing them. But even if I could force myself to face that fear, I had another fear, a darker, much more frightening one—not being loved back, not being enough for my matched mate. It wouldn’t be the first time a man found me lacking.
Dare finished with me and lifted me from the tub to wrap me in a plush gray towel. He dried himself, then tended to my hair with another, squeezing the wet ends until I stopped dripping on the floor.
“Come, Hannah.” He looked like a sexual god with his towel hung low over his waist and I couldn’t stop staring as I placed my small hand in his much larger one. “Are you hungry? We’ll get dressed and I’ll take you to the dining hall.”
“I don’t have any clothes.” I’d worn nothing but a sheet since my arrival. How was I supposed to go out in public like this?
“Trust me.”
I followed him back into the main living quarters and he led me to a small black platform in the far corner. The base was covered with a grid made of green lines. Dare walked to me and leaned down to give me a soft, sweet kiss.
“Take off the towel and stand in the center. The ship will measure you and create whatever you need.”
His soft voice and gentle kiss settled me and I felt like a contented kitten as I allowed him to remove my towel. I stepped naked onto the platform and held still as an array of soft green lights scanned every inch of my body. My collar tingled and buzzed and I froze at the strange sensation. When the lights disappeared, Dare held out his hand and I stepped down with my fingers on my collar. “What was that? It buzzed.”