What the hellitude was going on here? She gazed dumbly at each man.
“Inside, now,” Henri ordered all of them. “This isn’t a conversation I choose to have in the public domain.”
They shuffled into the pod and stood awkwardly in the space that suddenly felt much too small for the four of them. Crystal glanced around and noticed a rolled up mattress in the far corner. Was that where Henri was sleeping if Stepho was sharing the berth with Fisher?
“Stepho, mix up a nutrishake for Crystal,” Henri instructed. “She looks underfed.”
She shook her head. “No, I can’t stomach them.”
“Chew these.” Stepho handed Crystal some pointy-edged leaves on a thin green stem he picked from a pot on the corner shelf.
She pinched one leaf between her fingers and inhaled the spicy aroma. “What is this? It smells so good.” She put a leaf in her mouth, chewed, and swallowed, almost instantly her stomach felt more settled.
“It’s mint,” Stepho explained. “One of my herbs. Eat a few more, then you can have some berries.”
“From the plants you took from Fourth Quadrant? You got them to bear fruit here?”
“Yes.” He flashed her a bright, proud smile, and for the first time in over a week, she felt her appetite returning.
“
Now, sit, Crystal,” Henri said. “You look like you’re going to fall over.”
“Well, thanks a lot for the profuse compliments, Henri.” She sat on the edge of the berth and stared up at him. “I’ve never heard you so short before.” Certainly, he used these types of commands with her when they were role-playing, but in everyday interactions with him, he wasn’t normally like this.
“You’ve kept yourself from us,” he said in a softer tone, and for the first time, she could see how much it had hurt him.
“I’m sorry.” She reached out to him.
He took her hand and knelt at her feet. “Do you promise not to leave us again?”
She palmed his cheek, so wanting to make the promise to him and Stepho and Fisher, but she couldn’t—not until she found out what had happened this week between the three men.
She looked up at Fisher. “Are you really okay?”
He took a seat on the bench across from her. His movements were slow, and he definitely favored his left leg, but he was getting around on his own power. “I’ve been better, but the guys have taken good care of me.”
“The guys?” The last time she’d talked to Fisher, he hadn’t been able to refer to Henri and Stepho as anything other than goobers or dweebs.
Stepho took a seat on the berth next to her. “We’ve had time to sort things out.”
“Really? How’s it look all sorted out?” She heard a touch of Fisher’s old sarcasm in her own tone, but she was a little pissed they seemed to have come up with some kind of solution without her input.
Henri squeezed her hand, drawing her gaze back to him on the floor before her. “We’ve discussed the different kinds of relationships we have with you.”
“Oh, stars. You didn’t.” She cast her eyes from Henri to Stepho, and finally, to Fisher. “That must have been…difficult.”
Fisher nodded. “Yeah, not one of my favorite conversations.”
“But it was necessary,” Stepho added.
“After all that discussing, what conclusions did you reach?” she asked, looking at Henri.
“As we talked, we could see you express a different piece of yourself with each of us, and we realized you should be in relationship with all three of us, so you can be completely you.”
Emotion swelled in her throat. “You do?” she croaked out.
“Yes, Starlight. We do,” Henri said in a quiet voice.
“We all want to be your mates.” Stepho wrapped an arm around her and hugged her to his side.
“All three of you?” She looked at Fisher across the room.
He nodded. “All three of us with you, and that new little life you carry.” He gestured to her belly.
“I didn’t think you wanted a child,” she confessed.
“What made you think that?” he asked.
“You didn’t want to talk about it.”
“That’s when I was consumed by resentment. I never expected there’d be a chance the baby was mine, and I didn’t want to hear how happy you were going to be with your other two intimate partners.”
“Lovers,” she said.
“What?” He frowned.
“They’re my lovers,” she explained, using the word for the first time.
“Thanks. That’s a big help.” The sarcasm was back in Fisher’s words.
“And so are you, Fisher,” she finished, hoping the strength of his jealousy was an indication of how much he cared for her, too.
“Your lover?” he repeated, his tone suggesting no hints of contempt. In fact, he sounded a little choked up.
“My lover,” she stated unequivocally.
He levered himself up from the bench and limped toward her. “Then, let’s figure out the mechanics of this relationship.”
“Now?” She gulped, suddenly nervous amidst all three of them at once. “Aren’t you in too much pain for physical exertion?”
“Who says I’m going to do any of the work?” He grinned at her. “I figure there’s enough of us here I should be able to lay back and enjoy.”
She let out a deep breath, not realizing she’d been breathing so shallowly since she entered the pod. Thank the stars. Her cocky Fisher was still in there, just a little mellowed.
When he reached the side of the berth, he pulled his tunic over his head, giving her a good look at the scrapes and bruises on his body. His ribs looked particularly bad with the purple, blue, red, green, and yellow bruising across his chest and side.
“I don’t think this is such a good idea,” she said.
“Are you denying you want to be with us?” Henri asked.
“No! No. I just don’t think it would be good for Fisher’s health to get intimate right now. Look at him! He’s a rainbow of bruises.”
“I’m fine. Ask the Doc,” Fisher insisted, pointing at Stepho.
Crystal felt her eyebrows shoot up her forehead. Doc? Now Fisher was using respectful nicknames for the “intelligentsia goobers”? She felt like she’d missed something significant this week between the men. She glanced at Stepho who nodded.
“If we’re careful about positioning, he should be fine.”
Fisher clapped his hands together once. “Great. Let’s get started.” He dropped his trousers to show he was definitely ready for some action.
She studied his face. How the hellitude had he become so comfortable with Henri and Stepho? “What happened here this week?”
“We told you. We had a discussion,” Henri said.
“Nope. There’s something more that you’re not telling me.”
The men made a show of looking at each other with blank confusion on their faces.
“That was it, Crystal. Honestly,” Stepho said.
She looked into his soulful brown eyes and could see no signs of deceit. “Okay, but it must have been one hellitude of a bonding talk. I feel like the odd woman out here.”
“Not at all.” Henri stroked her thighs over her trousers. “You’re the entire reason we’re all here together.”
“We are your three chosen mates, Crystal,” Stepho spoke in his deep, soft voice. “Let us make love to you.”
“Oh, stars,” she whispered as she realized her fantasy really was coming true.
“Stand up, Starlight,” Henri said. “So, we can get you out of your clothes.”
Crystal followed his orders and helped the men to remove her uniform. Had they already discussed who would take which position in the mating? Would the structure of a traditional mating even pertain in this relationship? Just as the Pro-Freedom Movement was establishing a new government, she and her three men could establish a new organizational arrangement for their relationship.
When she was naked, Henri had her lay on the middle of the mattress. Fisher crept up the other side of the berth to lie at her right.
Blasters, he looked like he was in a lot of pain.
“You sure you don’t want to wait until you’re healed more?” she asked him.
“No, we’ve waited long enough for you to come to us. We’re not waiting any longer, unless you don’t think you can handle all three.” He winked at her, and she recognized his usual mode of operating around her resistance. He knew she’d never step away from a challenge.
“I’m ready to handle anything you can give me,” she responded with more bravado than she really felt. The new dynamics in the room were throwing her off balance.
Henri and Stepho stripped off their uniforms and joined Crystal and Fisher on the bed, kneeling at her left side.
Damn, she couldn’t remember ever feeling this tense in bed before. Where were the fiery tingles of arousal?
Then she looked at the faces of her three
chosen
mates. These were the men she loved, who she wanted to spend the rest of her days with, the men with whom she wanted to raise the child she grew in her body.
She held her arms out. “Hold me,” she whispered.
Fisher moved in closer at her right side, Stepho at her left, and Henri lowered himself over the top of her body, until she was completely surrounded by masculine heat.
She turned to Stepho and kissed his thick, soft lips, building her heat slowly, yet with strength. She ended her kiss with Stepho with a lick of his bottom lip. Then she turned to Fisher. His kiss was filled with the same kind of challenge she’d grown accustomed to in their intimate relations.
He teased her tongue with his, and nipped and licked at her lower lip until she was breathing hard. He slipped his hand between her and Henri, and tweaked her right nipple. When she gasped, he moved away from their kiss.
“Henri’s turn,” he said hoarsely.
She faced Henri and waited for his move.
He bent down and nuzzled her neck. “You look so beautiful. You’re glowing.”
She laughed softly. “That’s a hellitude better than your earlier compliments.”
He bit her neck gently. “You’re still too thin and tired looking. When we finish this mating, you will sleep. Then, we will get something for you to eat from the kitchen.”
“Yes, Sir,” she whispered adoringly.
He covered her mouth with his, delving deeply with his tongue, taking away her breath. His mastery of her fed her burning need until she was wiggling under his weight, desperate for stimulation on other body parts.
As if in answer to her silent plea, Stepho placed his hand on her left breast. Together, he and Fisher teased her nipples into stiff peaks with light pinches and pulls that she felt all the way down into her core.
Relaxing into the sensations, she let go of her doubts and accepted this new reality with her three chosen mates.
When Henri broke his hold on Crystal’s mouth to slide down between her legs, Fisher took the other man’s place at Crystal’s lips. He caught the essence of Henri and Stepho on her skin. Instead of inciting his jealousy, he found it increased his need for Crystal.
During his conversations with Henri and Stepho over the past week, they hadn’t dismissed Fisher’s deeply rooted urge toward jealousy, rather they had shown respect for his emotions. They had agreed to abstain from intimate relations with Crystal unless Fisher was present. The men also agreed Henri and Stepho were free to get together as they wished without Crystal and Fisher, just as he and Crystal were welcome to get intimate without Henri and Stepho. Their mating would consist of two primary couple relationships and one quad relationship.
Crystal moaned under Fisher’s mouth as Stepho and Henri stimulated various parts of her body. Together, the men worked as a team to bring the woman they all desired to completion in all facets of her life.
This team differed from any team Fisher had belonged to in his past. This one would show him what a family was supposed to feel like. Coming from a trio of abusive fathers, he’d never experienced this sense of deep connection and mutual respect in a personal relationship with other men.
Through their caring this past week, they’d shown a level of compassion that was new to him. They’d made a place for him in their lives, accepting him, yet also letting him know they expected more from him than his usual contemptuous attitude.
With something that Fisher would almost describe as paternal affection, Henri had made clear that he wouldn’t put up with Fisher’s derisive behavior. That to belong in this new family they were creating—with a baby on the way—Fisher would have to make some adjustments. Surprisingly, Fisher had found himself responding in a positive way to Henri.
Under Fisher’s touch, Crystal stiffened and trembled as her first orgasm swept through her.
He eased back to watch the play of emotions across her face. Damn, she was beautiful. He couldn’t imagine ever getting enough of her.
Her blue eyes flicked open, and she grinned at him with that satisfied smile.
“Oh, darling,” he drawled. “We’re not nearly done yet.”
She chuckled softly. “I was counting on that.”
Henri rose to his knees at the foot of the bed and gave Fisher a nod.
Fisher pulled Crystal over his body. “Come to me, darling.”