3013: STOWAWAY (3013: The Series) (7 page)

Deke ground his cock against her thigh, and she reached between them, wrapping her fingers around the hard length of his shaft. He groaned and pumped his hips faster, his tongue tangling with hers.

Trevar was in heaven, or as near to it as he had ever been. Sonja’s sweet pussy felt like it was made to fit him, gripping him tight with every thrust. Her emotions were so close to the surface he couldn’t block them, her joy and her pleasure adding to his own. He sensed the moment Deke’s control finally snapped, and that was enough to break Trevar’s will to send him hurtling into orbit right along with them. He buried his face in the soft cloud of her hair and let himself go, fucking her hard as he worked her clit with his fingers. If he was going to come, then so was she. The three of them writhed and bucked in the middle of the bed, Sonja with her eyes closed and her body open to them both.

“Come for us, kitten. Show us how good we’re making you feel. I want to feel you come before I do…and I am holding on by a thread right now,” Trevar whispered in her ear as he
worked her body to the breaking point, and then beyond it, her cries like music to his ears and her body milking his cock as she rode out her orgasm in his arms. Before she was done, he followed her, burying himself balls deep as a powerful orgasm rolled through him.

Deke watched her face as she came, fascinated by the way her eyes shifted colors as she was carried away on a wave of pleasure. She cried out Trevar’s name, then his own, her fingers releasing his cock at the final moment.

His thoughts raced and primal feelings tore through him, defeating every effort to control or subdue them. He wanted Sonja. Needed her with an urgency that was like nothing he’d ever known before. As if sensing his thoughts, Sonja stirred, untangling herself from Trevar with slow, shaky movements. He should wait. Give her a chance to catch her breath.

He didn’t.

“I need you, sweetheart,” he told her, and she gifted him with a sexy little smile that sent his heart slamming against his ribs like it was trying to break free of his body.

“Good,” she murmured, freeing herself from Trevar’s embrace and stretching out on her back between them.

Trevar chuckled, brushing a quick kiss to her lips before moving away, capturing one of her hands in his as he settled down a few feet away. “You’re insatiable and utterly amazing, kitten.”

Deke was in complete agreement with Trevar. She
was
amazing, and as he moved over her, settling his hips into the cradle of her thighs, Deacon knew that once with her wasn’t going to be enough. Maybe by the time their week was done, he’d have gotten her out of his system, but somehow, he doubted it.

“Be with me, Deacon,” she murmured, lifting her legs to wrap them around his hips.

“Don’t have to ask me twice,” he replied, bracing an arm on either side of her as he arched his hips and plunged his cock into the welcoming heat of her pussy.

Sonja felt him ease into her body, stroking over nerve endings still tingling from her last orgasm. He didn’t stop until he was fully seated inside her, and the heat in his gaze as he stared down at her was enough to rival the sun. His mouth claimed hers, and as it did, she could have sworn he growled a single, possessive word.

“Mine.”

Before she could respond, he began to move, withdrawing nearly completely before surging back into her body. She tightened her legs around his waist on his next thrust, taking him deeper and preventing him from withdrawing quite so far. He retaliated by nipping at her lower lip, breaking their kiss to growl at her.

“You’re not in charge of
me
either, sweetheart.”

She eased her grip a little, grinning up at him as she gave in to the temptation to stroke his bearded cheek. “Says who?”

“I do.” The answer came as he drove himself deep again, pushing her down into the mattress.

Sonj
a arched upward and squeezed her inner walls around his cock, not sure why she was challenging him, but doing it nonetheless. He sealed her lips with another torrid kiss, and then pushed his upper body higher, increasing the angle of his thrusts as he began to drive himself in and out of her body with a power that left her unable to think. She untangled her legs from his waist and he moved even faster, a raw groan of need escaping his lips as she drew her knees up to either side of his hips.

“Fuck, you’re so tight like this. So perfect,” he panted, every muscle in his arms standing out as he drove himself into her again and again. She curled her fingers into the heavy bulk of his shoulder, her nails biting into his skin as the pleasure robbed her of her control. Deke rode her
hard, pushing her to new limits as his own control shattered and she found herself in the arms of a man possessed.

He whispered her name like a chant, the words falling from his lips in time to his lovemaking. When he came, he buried his face in her crook of her neck and groaned, a shudder passing through his big body as he emptied himself inside her. The thickening of his cock and the sound of his pleasure triggered her release, sending her body and her mind soaring.

When she came back to her senses, Deke was still holding her, and Trevar still had her hand captured in his larger one. As she stirred, so did her men, and soon she was tucked in between them, Trevar curled up behind her back and Deke facing her, cuddling her close. For Sonja, it was a more intimate moment that anything else they’d shared that day. No one had ever just held her, offering her the comfort of their presence and nothing more.

She laid one hand on Deke’s chest, over his heart, and reached back to place the other on Trevar’s hip. “Thank you. Both of you. That was so much more than I had ever imagined it would be. Even if they catch me and send me home tomorrow, I’ve already gotten to experience something special.”

Trevar raised himself up on one elbow behind her. “What do you mean, more than you imagined it would be? You’ve done this before, haven’t you?”

Sonja’s cheeks heated and she closed her eyes so she didn’t have to look into Deke’s surprised face as she confessed. “I’m not a virgin, but I’ve never had sex with two men at the same time. Not unless you count holo-programmed lovers.”

Deke groaned. “Sweetheart, are you telling me that we were your first time as a trio?”

“Fuck me. Kitten, you should have told us!”

She finally opened her eyes and turned onto her back to find both of them staring down at her. “Why? What we did was incredible. I wouldn’t want to change a thing.”

Trevar flopped back onto the bed and threw an arm over his face. “I’m glad we didn’t do this back in the lounge…on the counter.”

“Me too. That counter was damned cold!” Sonja closed her eyes again, and wriggled deeper into the sinfully soft bed, ignoring both men’s shocked expressions.

Deke sighed as he snuggled in beside her. “Sweetheart, we’re
going to have to work on your communication skills while you’re aboard.”

***

CHAPTER SEVEN

The last two days had flown past in a blur of laughter, sex, and camaraderie the likes of which Sonja had never known before. Maybe it was because there were no expectations, no chance at a future together, but there had be
en very few awkward moments between the three of them. This was the kind of relationship she’d always dreamed of, and it was bittersweet to finally have it, while knowing it couldn’t last.

None of them spoke of the future. It was as if they had all sworn a silent pact not to bring it up. That hadn’t stopped her from thinking about it, though. What would she do without them? What was she going to
do
, period? Her credits wouldn’t last forever, and she was going to need to eat, not to mention eventually move on from X2, likely to a planet where the tattoo on her face had no meaning.

Helios maybe. They were a matriarchal society so she’d have some protection there. If she could find transportation there. If they would accept her. If her heart didn’t get shattered to atoms the day she had to say goodbye to Trevar and Deke. Caring for them hadn’t been part of the plan. Not that she’d had much of a plan the night she’d bolted. She had really thought there’d be more time to prepare. It wasn’t fair. She’d wasted so many years of her life merely existing, and now that she had things she wanted to do and people she actually wanted to get to know, time was slipping through her fingers like quicksilver.

The electronic babble and chirp of the droid sitting in front her snapped Sonja out of her funk. It had been Deke’s suggestion to do evaluations and repairs to the pair of cargo droids that were aboard the
Arca.
It was something to do to pass the time while she was stuck inside the freighter, waiting. They’d docked at Jikrat Station several hours ago, but it wasn’t safe for her to be seen by the Alliance crew that had come to offload their share of the
Arca
’s cargo. Deke had stayed aboard with her, supervising the cargo transfer while she had stayed tucked away in his quarters. Once they were gone, he’d suggested the distraction of the droids, and she’d eagerly agreed.

The two droids were older models, well maintained, but with extremely basic programming. She was doing what she could to upgrade them, first by installing newer processors and memory out of the ship’s stores, then by tweaking their programs. At least, she called it tweaking. Deke had taken a peek over her shoulder at one point, and then walked away, shaking his head and muttering about programmers deliberately making shit difficult to understand.

Sonja liked working in robotics. It was satisfying to be able to watch as a program and hardware came together and created something that was more than the sum of its parts. Even these droids, as simple as they were, had a spark of life to them. They didn’t look human, but why would they? They had a job to do, and they were designed specifically for it. Two powerful sets of arms, a broad base that allowed them to handle heavy cargo without tipping, treads instead of feet for better purchase, everything about them had been designed with a purpose.

As she worked, Sonja realized that in some ways, she was a lot like the bots. From the moment she had tested as fertile, she’d been programmed to be exactly what an elite was supposed to want. Even her genetics had been tampered with. The Alliance had reprogrammed her on a cellular level, and her parents had done their best to continue the process. The thing was, she wasn’t a droid, and neither was Trevar or Deacon. They were all imperfect people, doing
their best to get along in a system that didn’t fit them properly. Or in Sonja’s case, didn’t fit with the person she wanted to be, and not the person her family had tried to make her into.

Too bad changing the world’s parameters wasn’t as easy as fixing a droid’s.

With that though, she flipped the reset button on the bot and quickly secured the access panel back into place. As the system went through its boot-up cycle of lights and chipper beeps, she took a few steps back. Experience had taught her that it was always best to be out of range of a droid coming back online after being reprogrammed. If anything went wrong, you wanted to be clear of any flailing limbs or other nasty surprises.

“Done already?” Deke asked from across the room. They were in what he had called the workshop, a small space that was lined with perfectly arranged tools and lockers that contained spare parts for damned near every gasket and gizmo that made the
Arca
run. The lockers took up huge amounts of space, leaving very little area to work in, but Sonja understood the necessity. In the depths of space Deke would have to be able to repair or replace anything that failed, or they’d be adrift in the mind bogglingly empty expanse that made up the universe.

“Tic’s finished. Once I’m sure the updates aren’t causing problems, I’ll work on Toc.”

“You named our droids?” He snorted with laughter as he left his workspace to join her to watch Tic reboot. She liked this new side of Deke. The one who laughed sometimes, and even smiled every once in a while.

“They’re part of the
Arca
family, so yeah, I thought they should have names. Besides, they’re no longer identical, or won’t be once I’m done with Toc. I’m giving them harmonized programs, so they’ll work in tandem, but with slightly different abilities.”

Deke’s brow quirked upward. “Explain.”

“Well for a start, Tic is now sort of right handed. He’ll always gravitate to the right side of anything, whether it’s a shuttle, a stack of inventory, or a single cargo container. His default is now right, and Toc’s will be to the left. If the upgrades work like they’re supposed to, the droids will function as a team now, instead of two independent entities.”

“That is a slick bit of programming. Where’d you learn that?” he asked, looking from her to the bot and back again as Tic finished its reboot cycle and activated it’s treads, climbing back down the ramp to the floor of the ship.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you…”

“Try me.”

“I worked on intimate companions, remember? Well, one of the major projects I worked on was getting the damned things to work together for three-ways. This was my solution.”

“Wait. You used sex droid programming on our cargo bots? Are they going to start trolling the corridor at night, offering their services?” Deke asked, his words broken up by bouts of raucous laughter that bounced off the walls. Sonja watched in amazement as he transformed in front of her into a younger, happier version of himself.

“No, smart ass. But if you keep laughing, I might add that to their programming. You could have the sexiest cargo bots in the fleet!”

He threw his hands up in mock surrender. “Please, no. And don’t tell Trevar you can do that or he might take you up on that offer. He’d have Tic and Toc turning tricks if it got us our down payment faster.”

“That’s a little disturbing to consider.”

“Trevar’s a little bit disturbed, or haven’t you noticed?” Deke pointed out, lowering his arms to wipe away a few tears of laughter from his cheek.

“He’s not disturbed. He’s just…alone.” Sonja’s mouth engaged before her filter, and she winced as she heard what should have been an inner thought expressed aloud.

Deke didn’t answer right away. Instead he caught her hand and tugged her into his arms. He held her for a long moment, his face buried in her hair as he held her close. “Not many people notice that about him. They get dazzled by the charm and cocky attitude and miss it.”

Sonja curved her arms around Deke’s waist and dropped her head to his chest. “Do you know why?”

“Some of it, yeah, but not from him. Trevar would rather go walk naked through a gamma storm than talk about what happened.”

“Would you tell me what you’ve heard? I know I’m not here for long, but I’d like to know.”

Deke knew it wasn’t really his story to tell, but if Sonja wanted to know, he’d tell her. He wanted her to be connected to them. It wasn’t logical. Hell, it wasn’t even smart, but there it was. Since she had come on board, nothing had been the same. For
fucks sake, he had actually laughed so hard he’d cried not two minutes ago. He couldn’t remember laughing like that, or smiling so much, or letting his walls down enough to actually connect with someone. It had taken months for him to grow to trust Trevar enough to consider him a friend, but Sonja had commanded that level of trust within minutes.

It was fucking crazy.

“A long time ago, in a star system far away from earth, a wild and reckless pilot by the name of Thunder was flying patrol. He and his navigator, Cory, were in a two man combat vessel, sweeping an area known for marauder raids. They were one of their battle cruiser’s top teams, destined for great things. At least, that’s how the story goes.” It felt strange, telling this story to someone else. Speaking the words out loud made it more real, somehow.

“No one knows how the raiders got the jump on them, but they did. According to the onboard computer, there were three raiders, and Thunder destroyed two of them before the third one managed to blast through his shields and cripple the ship. He took down the third raider, too, but by then his navigator was badly injured and the ship was barely holding together. There was a lot of damage to the cockpit, and Thunder…Trevar, he couldn’t free himself from the safety harness. He was trapped in that chair, only a few feet away, as his best friend died.”

“Oh, stars,” Sonja whispered and tightened her arms around him.

“After that, Trevar changed. He dropped the nickname, started drinking more and caring less.”

“Which is why he’s out here on the
Arca
…with you,” Sonja concluded, her voice soft and her arms still gripping him fiercely.

“That’s about the size of it. We’re both misfits, but we fit pretty well together.”

“Yes, you do. I have one more question, and then I have to get back to work on Toc.”

“What do you want to know, sweetheart? I’ll tell you anything you want.”

“Why Thunder? I haven’t figured out yet how these weird nicknames you guys seem to have get assigned.”

“Well, that’s an easy one. His name is Trevar Storm. T-Storm. Which is an old way of saying thunderstorm.”

“You know, that’s really not fair,” she said and pushed back from him enough she could lift her gaze to his.

“What’s not fair?”

“He got a cool name like Thunder….and you got Deke.”

“Actually, Deke’s not my official nickname.” He couldn’t believe he was telling her this.

“No? So, what’s yours?”

“You can take your pick of either Ice Man or Freak,” he told her, his voice tightening as the word left his mouth. Fuck, he’d hated those names. There were no good memories associated to the early years when he’d been called a freak so often the name had stuck, and Ice Man wasn’t much better.

“Freak is not a nickname, it’s an insult, and Ice Man doesn’t describe you at all, not really. They called you that because you don’t show your feelings much, right?” She was frowning now, her face etched in outrage, and Deke felt something click into place deep inside his soul. She was angry, but not at him. Her anger was for the ones who had tormented him.

“That’s right. Emotions screw up the sync. So they picked kids who were quiet and introverted to start with, and then taught us to lock our feelings down. I guess I learned it a little too well.” Sonja saw him as a man, not a freak. It was hard for him to accept, but the truth was in her eyes. As unnerving as it was to have to deal with the emotional turmoil she seemed to cause inside him, he’d gladly deal with it if it meant she’d always be around to look at him the way she was right now. Bowing his head to drop a kiss to her upturned lips, Deke knew he had to find a way to keep her.

Sonja belonged with him. Better still, she belonged with both of them.

Hearing Trevar’s history made Sonja’s heart heavy, but the pain in Deke’s voice when he told her his nicknames had her furious. “I will never call you that, Deacon Wilde. You are not a cold blooded freak.”

“Many others might disagree with you, sweetheart, but I thank you for saying it anyway.”

“If anyone ever calls you that in my hearing, I swear to the stars above I’ll….I’ll… do something to make them regret it!”

“You are adorable when you’re furious, has anyone ever told you that?”

“Not and lived to tell about it, no. Care to take it back?” she poked a finger into his chest and waggled her brows at him, pleased to see another smile light up his handsome face.

“Hell no, I’m not taking it back. You
are
adorable. Especially when you’re trying to be all intimidating and don’t know that you’ve got smudges of grease on your face that make you look cute as hell instead of scary. I think we should leave Toc alone for now and go get you cleaned up.”

“Why do I need to get cleaned up? It’s not like I’m going anywhere. I’m stuck on board tonight while you two get to go roam the station. At least, I think it’s night. This no sun, no moon thing is very disorienting.”

“It’s late afternoon, ship time. And yes, we’re going out tonight, but you’re coming with us. As long as it’s safe for you, that is. Trevar’s errands include finding you some decent clothes so you can join us on the station for dinner and more shopping.”