Broken (14 page)

Read Broken Online

Authors: Erin M. Leaf

The
girl sighed. “No, I suck, actually. But
Zoen
says I
have to practice.”

“Practice
makes perfect,” Sky agreed. She eased away and handed Cori the turkey. “Here,
your dinner.”

“Oh, yum!
Thanks,” Cori said excitedly.

“You
took more than two hours to arrive, woman,”
Jaxt
said
from the doorway of the cabin.

Sky
wrinkled her forehead at him. “So?”

“You
said you would only be an hour.”

“I
needed some alone time,” she said, walking up to him and hugging his stiff
torso.

He
grumbled, then relented and hugged her back. “
Zoen
missed you.”

Sky
grinned against the soft leather of his shirt. “Oh, he did, huh?”

“He
wishes to go back home now.”
Jaxt
kissed the top of
her head and stepped back.

“Let
me say hello to Alice and Louisa, then we can go.”

****

A
few hours later the three of them were hiking the familiar trail back to the
cave system. Since they’d bonded, their energy levels had spiked. What once
used to be a half-day’s travel had shortened to a couple of hours.

“Almost
home,” Sky said, smiling. The landscape was just as dusty and desolate as she
remembered,
the rainfall just as non-existent as it had been
before her space adventure, but every rock and stone around her was familiar
and comforting. And her secret spring, tucked deep in the cave system where
they lived still had plenty of water.
Enough for us to
survive on, comfortably.
She thought about the seedlings she’d
planted in a protected clearing.
Jaxt
had managed to
construct an elaborate irrigation system, and they already had fresh cucumbers
and tomatoes to eat.
No more
cactus
!

“I
am glad, because I would like to clear the dust from my nostrils,”
Zoen
said, speeding up the last part of the trail.

“I
can’t argue with that,” Sky murmured as she followed him to the mouth of their
cave. She paused just inside, looking over their improvements: a well-built
weapons rack, a better cooking grill for the fire, and most importantly, a huge
sleeping area. She
loved
their new bed. They’d dug out part of the floor
of the cave and lined it with padding. She walked in, stripping off her weapons
absently and dropping them into their slots on the rack. She paused when she
unbuckled the golden knife
Zoen
had given her so many
months ago, sliding her finger along its gleaming length. Who could have
predicted her life would someday encompass two
Xyran
bondmates
?

“Do
you regret accepting our bond?”
Zoen
asked Sky.

She
shook her head. “No. I mean, I was kind of pissed for a while there, but I
realized pretty quickly that I had to roll with what happened. I figured out how
to deal with crappy stuff in life a long time ago, but I never learned how to
handle being happy.”

He
drew her into his arms. “I am honored to be your blood-kin.”

She
went on tiptoe to kiss him. He responded hungrily, devouring her mouth as if it
were the last time he would get to touch her. She laughed, backing off,
then
began to undo her vest.

He
put his hands on hers. “Not here.”

She
blinked. He
never
turned down sex.

“
Jaxt
is already in the water.”
Zoen
smiled, and his golden eyes glowed like gems in the dim light.

“Oh, yeah.
That sounds like a good plan,” Sky said. She toed off her boots and followed
Zoen
to the tunnel. She stopped short just at the entrance
to the water cave.
Jaxt
stood in the larger
waterfall, his perfect body highlighted by a shaft of sunlight that gleamed
down through a fissure in the cave system. The gems in his chest reflected the
light across the walls.

“Wow,”
Sky murmured, hurriedly stripping off the rest of her clothes.

Jaxt
turned his head and saw them. He
smiled,
his face easy
and relaxed as it was nowhere else, and Sky caught her breath. How had she ever
thought him an asshole?

“Come.
Let us not keep him waiting,”
Zoen
said, lifting her
into his arms.

She
squeaked, startled. “Put me down!”

He
smacked her on her bare butt. “No.”

She
squirmed, wrapping her arms around his neck as he walked into the shallow pool.
The gems in his skin rubbed against her breasts, making her nipples pucker. “I
hate when you pick me up.”

“That
is why he does it, Sky.”
Jaxt
cupped water and poured
it over her body.

She
gasped as the water cooled her sweaty, dusty skin. “I still don’t like it,” she
complained, even as she arched her back and wrapped her legs around
Zoen’s
waist.

“Stop
complaining, woman,”
Jaxt
said, pouring more water
over her and
Zoen
.

“The
day she stops complaining is the day I fear for her sanity,”
Zoen
said, nibbling down her neck.

“Hey,
not cool,” Sky muttered, but then
Zoen
kissed her and
she forgot the rest of her words. He groaned, walking forward until her back
pressed against
Jaxt
. Cool water cascaded down over
the three of them.

Sky
reveled in the water and her
bondmates
. Their skin
slid over hers, hot and delicious. She squirmed some more, wiggling until
Zoen
had to put her down. She went to her knees and grasped
their cocks, licking her lips as she urged them closer together.

Jaxt
groaned softly as his erection touched
Zoen’s
, then
groaned louder when she took them both into her mouth, going from one to the
other.
Zoen
trembled in her hands, and she slid her
fingers down to cup his balls.

He
bit off a curse, and she smiled,
then
used her teeth
on the tip. Both of them liked that. Her fingers trailed further back to tease
at their holes, and she sucked one strongly, then the other, letting the heat
grow between them until she couldn’t think clearly anymore.

When
Jaxt
growled and yanked her up, she knew she’d driven
him past control. He picked her up and plunged into her, pressing her against
the cave wall. Water cascaded around them, and she threw her head back as the
heat of his cock pressed against her clit again and again. Then
Zoen
moved up behind her and slung his cock between her
legs, bumping into
Jaxt
as he
thrust,
the three of them moving together.

“Bite
me,” she gasped, close to the edge. She just needed a little more to tip her
over.

Zoen
bent
his head down to her neck and licked her.

“Don’t
tease me, dammit,
Zoen
,” she begged. “
Jaxt
, tell him.”

Jaxt
grinned at her, then leaned close and put his teeth on the other side of her
neck. In unison, they bit down. Sky arched her back and screamed as the energy
rushed through them. Wave after wave of pleasure crashed through her as their
bond crackled. The water sparkled as it poured over them, intensifying their
climax until Sky thought she’d pass out from it. She held on, only dimly
noticing that
Jaxt
and
Zoen
had slid to the floor with her. When the last bit of pleasure finally slid out
of them, she sighed and relaxed against her blood-kin, totally content.

Well,
totally content except my fingers are getting all
pruny
,
she thought, grinning like an idiot.

“I
fear I will drown,”
Zoen
said in a serious tone.

Sky
cracked up.
Jaxt
heaved her to her feet with
Zoen
helping, and the three of them fell onto the fluffy
towels she kept on a stone ledge near the pool.

“Okay,
maybe we shouldn’t do that in the water anymore.” She was still
giggling,
even as
Jaxt
dried her
hair with the brisk strokes he was so fond of using. She fended him off before
he knotted her hair beyond repair, grabbing the towel to wipe her eyes.

“I
believe I swallowed more water than is good for me,”
Jaxt
said, wiping his chest with another towel.

“You’re
such a baby,” Sky said, rolling her eyes.

“The
child is well?”
Zoen
asked, putting a hand on her
slightly rounded stomach.

“The
kid’s fine. I’m the one about to pass out,” she said, leaning back against his
warm skin. She yawned. She was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to
cuddle, and possibly go to sleep for three days.

“Sleep,
Sweet Sky,”
Jaxt
murmured, stroking a finger down her
arm. “All is well.”

She
snuggled in closer. He felt really nice. They both did.

“We
will guard you and the child from harm,”
Zoen
added.

“Love
you both,” she murmured tiredly, one of the few times she said the words aloud.
She didn’t see the startled glance the two
Xyrans
exchanged. All she knew was that she was safe, content, and not alone. Nothing
else mattered.

The End

www.erinmleaf.com

Other Books by Erin M. Leaf:

www.evernightpublishing.com/erin-m-leaf