“One that’s not attached to another male,” Drace put in. “You’re not, are you?” he asked, nodding to the far corner of the space station where the blue centipedes had carried Phillip so he could cry and moan in peace.
“Am I still attached to Phillip?” I made a face. “Definitely not. He’s a mistake from the past that came back to haunt me, that’s all.”
“Good,” Lucian and Drace said at the same time. Then they glared at each other. Damn, these two really didn’t want to be together. They reminded me a little of my clients from earlier that day. Only, presumably, there was no Mr. Puppers to fight over.
“So…you think I can separate you?” I asked.
“We know you can,” Lucian said earnestly. “We saw you separate the two males who came to your place of business.”
“You were watching me?” I asked in surprise.
“Of course. We wanted to be sure we found the perfect Pure One to set us free from each other,” Drace said.
I sighed. So even in my dreams I was doing divorces—and this time it was an alien divorce. My subconscious was really trying to tell me something. I needed to get out of this business and find a way to do the wedding planner thing I’d been dreaming of before I went crazy.
“Okay,” I muttered to myself. “I learned my lesson—can I please wake up now?”
Nothing happened. I was still standing in the middle of a spaceship with two huge, muscular aliens looking at me hopefully and my ex crying in the corner surrounded by blue centipedes.
Apparently my subconscious wasn’t ready to let me wake up yet.
“Okay,” I said a little louder, since my dream showed no signs of dissipating. “What you two saw was me helping two guys with their divorce papers because I’m a paralegal. Just a plain paralegal—not some magic ‘Pure One’ or la-ti-da or whatever. Also, those guys didn’t have a psychic bond that was tying them together. All they had was a French bulldog-labradoodle mix named Mr. Puppers and a mutual case of herpes.”
“But you helped them get free of each other,” Drace insisted, a stubborn look on his chiseled features.
“Yes, but helping them ‘get free of each other,’ as you put it, didn’t take any magic on my part. I don’t know what kind of special powers you think I have but I assure you, I’m just an ordinary Earth girl trying to make a living.” I shrugged. “So I really doubt I can help you.”
“Will you not at least try?” Lucian asked quietly. “Please, ma ‘frela—we are desperate. We swear to return you to your home as soon as you free us from each other.”
I didn’t know what ma ‘frela meant but I could see the desperation in both their eyes. Somehow they were stuck together and they really didn’t want to be.
Well, it’s just a dream—might as well try whatever they want, whispered a little voice in my head. Then again, what if what they wanted was some kind of three-way sex ritual? The thought sent a shiver over me which made my nipples hard and the area between my legs feel hot and swollen for some reason. I pressed my thighs together tightly. Even in a dream, I didn’t think I was up to taking on two huge guys at once.
“What do I have to do?” I asked, frowning up at both of them in turn.
“Just touch us,” Drace said, sounding as desperate as Lucian. “The wise woman said that the touch of a Pure One would be enough to free us from our psy-bond to each other.”
“Touch you where, exactly?” I said, wanting some clarification as my earlier worry came back full force. Surfing around on the Internet late one night I’d run across one of those “threesome” porn videos where a girl was jerking off two guys at once. It was called, “The Wild Wankathon.” I had a sudden erotic image of me sitting between the two big aliens, holding their hard shafts in my hands and stroking slowly as they groaned at my touch. Then I pushed the weird fantasy away—I wasn’t up for that mess.
“Anyplace there is bare skin,” Lucian said.
“Okay.” I nodded thoughtfully. That didn’t necessarily have to be sexual. “Would a hand-shake do it?”
“A hand shake?” Drace frowned.
“Like this.” I took a step towards him and held out my hand to him. Hesitantly, he held his out to me and I took it. His fingers were well made, very clean, and callused as though he worked a lot with his hands. His skin was warm and his touch was pleasant but I didn’t feel any kind of magic or mystical power flowing between us.
“I don’t feel anything,” I said.
“Because you have to touch both of us at once,” Lucian said, extending his own hand.
“All right.” I reached somewhat awkwardly for his outstretched hand, crossing my arms to do it since my right hand was already enclosed in Drace’s left.
The minute Lucian’s big hand, (which looked manicured and was softer than Drace’s though no less strong,) enclosed my own hand, something strange happened.
It started as just a tingle—almost a tickle—right in my solar plexus. The tickle turned to a warmth and then a tingling which began to spread through me in a slow wave that radiated out from my midsection to the rest of my body, almost like an electrical current running through me.
“What the…what’s going on?” I tried to free my grip from theirs but Drace and Lucian both held my hands tight.
“Just wait, please, ma ‘frela,” Lucian said earnestly. “I can feel it.”
“Me too—I think it’s working!” Drace sounded excited. “Gods, finally we’ll be free of each other!”
“Finally,” Lucian echoed, his eyes gleaming.
I stopped trying to get free of them but the feeling growing inside me was making me really uncomfortable. The buzzing, tingling feeling was spreading warmth to every part of my body but especially to the more, ahem, sensitive parts, if you know what I mean.
To my discomfort, I felt the tingling growing especially intense in my nipples and the area between my legs. It felt almost as though someone was holding a vibrator—a really good one—to those places, teasing my tender nipples and torturing my suddenly swollen clit. I squeezed my thighs together as tightly as I could but it didn’t do any good, the sensation continued to grow and with it came an unwilling pleasure I couldn’t help feeling.
What’s happening to me? I thought wildly. This is going too far! Is this turning into some kind of a wet dream?
The growing pleasure seemed to indicate that it was. I was beginning to feel closer and closer to coming but I fought the feeling grimly. It would be horribly embarrassing to lose control completely and have an orgasm in front of two complete strangers, even in a dream!
“Please!” I gasped. “Please, this is too…too much!” Fear made my palms sweaty and slippery.
With a final jerk, I was able to pull my hands free of their grip, just as a devastating orgasm hit me and I started coming harder than I ever had in my entire life.
Chapter Six
Rylee
“Ahh!” I gasped, sinking to the ground. I couldn’t remember the last time I had come this hard. My whole body was affected—electrocuted by pleasure. I was panting, my nipples were hard and between my thighs I was slippery and wet and ready. My heart was pounding like it was trying to get out of my chest. And all this was all from holding hands with them for less than a minute.
I was beginning to feel scared—well, as scared as you can be when you’re coming, anyway. What the hell was going on? I had never had such a vivid dream before—and shouldn’t such an incredible orgasm have woken me up?
“Are you all right, baby?” Drace reached to catch me.
At the same time Lucian grabbed for me too. “Forgive us, ma ‘frela, are you injured?”
I wound up cradled between them, both sets of muscular arms supporting me. Luckily, this time they weren’t touching my bare skin—just the gray jacket-like thing Lucian had given me to wear, so there was no repeat of the strange, sexual tingling.
That didn’t mean I wasn’t really freaked out, though.
“Let me go!” I struggled to get away from them and they
set me on my feet. I promptly sank back to my knees. Wow, that orgasm had been strong! My legs still felt like jelly. I didn’t think I could get up if I tried.
“Are you all right?” Drace repeated, crouching down beside me.
Lucian did the same on the other side, looking at me with great concern.
“Did severing our bond wound you in some way?” he asked.
“I don’t…think so.” I took a deep, shuddering breath and tried to push the strange sexual pleasure away. God, that had been weird. “It was just really, uh, intense.” I looked at them. “Did you guys feel anything, um, unusual or is it supposed to feel like that?”
Drace and Lucian exchanged a swift look and I wondered what they were thinking.
“What do you mean by ‘unusual’?” Lucian asked at last.
“I felt…I mean…” I broke off helplessly, feeling my cheeks get hot. I wasn’t about to tell them that holding their hands had given me the strongest orgasm of my life. That was mortifying, even in a dream. Although to be honest, I was beginning to wonder if this was a dream. Why was it so vivid? And why couldn’t I wake up?
“I felt a sexual energy,” Drace said at last, lifting his chin defiantly, as though he was daring Lucian or me to make fun of him. “It made my shaft fuckin’ rock hard.” He shifted uneasily. “I don’t know what it meant—I’ve only ever heard of that kind of thing happening between partners in a really strong Triumvirate.”
“Which we most certainly are not,” Lucian said, frowning. Then he added, reluctantly I thought, “I felt it too. But it can’t be right—I’ve heard of touch-pleasure between Triumvirate partners but only when the bond is extraordinarily powerful. We weren’t even doing anything sexual—just holding hands.”
“Maybe it’s because Rylee is a Pure One,” Drace suggested.
The concern cleared from Lucian’s sharp, handsome features.
“I’m sure you’re right. The desire we all experienced was probably just the by-product of such a powerful severing. There is, after all, deep energy in a psy-bond—it stands to reason that breaking it would release some of that energy.”
“Well, then…” I got up and brushed myself off, carefully avoiding their hands when they tried to help me up. “It sounds like my work here is done.”
“I suppose so.” Drace didn’t sound very happy about it.
“Yes, you’re right, of course, ma ‘frela.” Lucian also didn’t sound too pleased.
“Hey,” I said sharply. “For two guys who were dying to be free of each other and go back to your own lives, you don’t sound very excited. Come on—think about how great it will be to get back home to your own, uh, regions of your planet. The desert and the jungle…” I had already forgotten the weird geographic names they had told me but I did, at least, remember the climates.
“Of course.” Lucian smiled at me, showing those sharp, white teeth again. I remembered that he said he was from the Fang Clan—did those teeth have anything to do with that? Or was it just a coincidence?
Doesn’t matter, I told myself firmly. And it’s none of your business. Whether this is a dream or somehow real (which is completely impossible), it’s about to be over. You’re either going to wake up, or they’ll send you back through the mirror to your apartment. Either way, you never have to think about any of this again.
Not if I wanted to retain my sanity, at least.
Suddenly Drace said, “Shit!” in a low, angry voice.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, turning to him in surprise. He was scowling, his face as dark as a thundercloud.
“What is it?” Lucian asked him.
“Just now, when Rylee said we should be happy to get back to our own homes…”
“Yes?” Lucian prompted impatiently.
“When she said that, I had this sudden urge—the feeling like I couldn’t wait to get back to the city. To Y’brith.” Drace ran a hand through his hair in a gesture of pure frustration. “I’ve never been to that fucking place in my life and I sure as hell don’t want to go there! It’s in the fucking desert, for the Goddess’s sake! My home is the jungle—the trees and plants and—
“The rain,” Lucian finished for him, frowning. “The drenching rains that flood everything, causing new life to grow.” He shook his head. “I just had the deepest desire to go and see the jungle. But…I don’t want to go there—I know I don’t! It’s too wet and humid—my people thrive on the dry heat of the desert.”
“And when you said that I just had an urge to go walk through the fucking sand dunes!” Drace growled. “I’ve never even seen a sand dune—I sure as hell don’t really want to go walking through one!”
“It didn’t work.” Lucian sank slowly to the ground and shook his head. “The severing of our psy-bond—it didn’t work.” He looked at me. “If anything, I think you might have bound us even more closely together.”
“He’s right—I could only feel Lucian’s emotions before—but now I have his longings. His cravings.” Drace shook his head, as though trying to clear it. “Why do I suddenly want talabash stew?”
“Because it’s my favorite dish, probably,” Lucian said dully. “And I’m guessing you enjoy pilnar cakes?”
“My mother used to make them,” Drace admitted. “Gods, we are so fucked.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, feeling put on the defensive. “Sorry if I made your situation worse, somehow. But remember, I told you I don’t have any kind of magic powers! And I only tried this because you begged me to.”
“We aren’t mad at you, baby.” Drace looked surprised that I would think so.
“Drace is right—the fault is ours, ma 'frela,” Lucian agreed. “We simply must have misunderstood what the wise woman said.”
“We need to bring Rylee with us and go back to her!” Drace exclaimed. “Go back to see Tanta Loro. It’s the only way—she needs to see all three of us at once.”
“I think you’re right.” Lucian nodded and then both of them looked at me.
“Oh, no…” I started backing away, shaking my head. “I barely even know you guys—I’m not agreeing to go all the way across the universe with you. My aunt taught me not to get into a car with a strange man—let alone a spaceship!”
Lucian frowned and he and Drace exchanged a look.
“I’m afraid we are not asking you, ma 'frela—we are telling you.”
“He’s right,” Drace growled. “You’re coming with us.”
“What? No—no!” I started backing away again but just then I heard a squeaky little voice behind me like a Disney character sucking helium.
“Is there a problem with your purchase?” it asked.
I whirled around to see the freaky three-foot tall talking centipede glaring at me with its round, bulging eyes on the end of their stalks.
“Crap!” I jumped back away from it—I just could not get used to that freaking thing—and found myself between Drace and Lucian again. Lucian had stood up so both of them towered over me.
“No problem,” Lucian told the centipede coolly. “Just that we have decided to take our chosen female home with us to Denaris after all.”
“And she does not wish to go?” The stalky, bulging eyes studied me dispassionately. “If there is a problem, we have several restraining devices which should work well. Would you care to tie her up? Perhaps to chain her and blindfold her? It is our experience here at the Alien Mate Index that these Earth females are much more compliant when they are bound.”
“What?” I was beginning to get that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach again—that feeling that this wasn’t a dream. “You do this on a regular basis? Kidnap girls from Earth and tie them up and sell them off?”
“But of course.” The blue centipede made a kind of squiggly bow. “It makes us profit—which is all we Commercians truly care about. Why else would we go to the trouble and expense of setting up a transport station in your atmosphere and inundating your planet with translation viruses so that prospective Earth brides can understand
the language of the Alien males who choose them?”
So that was how I could understand their language. This dream was getting less dream-like all the time.
I didn’t like that one damn bit.
“We don’t want to tie her up,” Drace said. “Unless she won’t come any other way.” He looked at me. “But you are coming, baby—I’m sorry but we fuckin’ need you.”
“You…you two big jerks!” I shouted at them. “You promised you would send me back to my apartment if I tried to help you. You lied to me!”
“No, we promised to send you home once you had severed the bond between us,” Lucian said, frowning. “But perhaps we can sweeten the situation a bit.”
“Sweeten it how?” I demanded. “You’re basically kidnapping me to drag me across the universe and do who knows what with me! I don’t see how you can make me feel better about that!”
“Technically it’s only to another quadrant of the galaxy,” Drace said, as though that made it better. “And Lucian’s ship has a fast hyperdrive—it’s barely one solar day’s trip from your planet to ours. We can have you back to Earth in just a few solar weeks.”
“You’re lying,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “Nobody can travel hundreds of light years away and come back in only a few weeks. Not even at the speed of light.”
“We don’t travel at the speed of light,” Lucian explained. “My ship makes a kind of bubble in spacetime which allows us to go faster than that.”
“A bubble in—no,” I interrupted myself, realizing I was actually entertaining the idea. “I don’t care—I still don’t want to go.”
“You won’t be the first of your kind to leave your planet,” Lucian said. His deep, smooth voice sounded coaxing. “Drace and I met a female on our home planet who was also a Pure One and a La-ti-zal. She was traveling with a member of the Imperial Guards.”
“Well goody for her,” I said, frowning. “I’m still not okay with being taken away from my home planet to become your freaking sex-slave!”
“Who said anything about sex?” Drace growled, frowning. “You think we want to take you to our home planet so we can molest you?”