“Again? Already?” she managed as he rocked against her, causing another avalanche of sensation.
“Again,” he murmured, nipping at her lower lip with his teeth. “Already. I’m a marine, babe. I got the stamina to do this all night.”
14
Jay wasn’t innocent. Not by any stretch of the imagination. He hadn’t been innocent for many years, not since he’d first worked out what his cock was actually for. But spending the night with Keris… touching her for the first time… he’d felt like a damned youth discovering the wonder of sex all over again.
She’d been willing, welcoming and so gloriously responsive his prick was half hard just thinking about it. Although he’d told her he could go all night—and he could have, his need for her was that great—he’d only taken her three times before letting her sleep.
She was new to sex and he’d been worried about her being sore. Her first time shouldn’t be marred by physical discomfort. He felt bad enough she’d winced that first time. Some men might have weird porn-driven fantasies about virgins crying and then turning into sex kittens up for everything, but Jay lived in the real world. He’d taken his time making sure she was relaxed and ready for him, but there had only been so much he could do, what with her being so tiny and he wasn’t the smallest of guys that way. Instead, he’d held her safely in his arms and thanked whatever gods, human or Lathar, who might be listening for bringing her into his life.
“Lady Kelly not joining us today?” Seren asked, using Keris’s cover name when Jay joined him in the command suite for the day’s working party. They both ignored the plugged in B’Kaar, like silent sentinels around them. It was freaky as fuck but he was pleased to see Berr among them. At least the alien asshole wasn’t free to run around chatting Keris up now.
“No, she’s tired. Didn’t sleep much,” he explained in a low voice.
Seren’s lips split into a slow grin as he studied Jay’s face. “Really now? I wonder what could have kept her awake?”
Jay winked. “Keep telling you. Us humans have the edge when it comes to the ladies.”
Seren blinked. “Holy draanth, I was kidding, but you actually did it. Didn’t you? Finally!”
“Keep your damned voice down!” Jay hissed, looking about quickly. The last thing they needed was any of these assholes working out that he and Keris hadn’t been intimate until now. Fortunately, none of them seemed to be paying the two of them any notice.
“Yes,” he admitted with a grin the size of a solar system. “We did.”
Seren grinned. “Details, brother, details! Some of us are still deprived in the bedroom department.”
Jay ran a hand through his hair, feeling ten feet tall. “A gentleman never kisses and tells. Let’s just say we didn’t get much sleep.”
“As it should be,” Seren nodded. “A male should always ensure his female is well-satisfied so she doesn’t seek fulfillment elsewhere.”
The comment was so out of left field and matter of fact, Jay had to run it through his head again to make sure Seren had said what he thought he had.
“Wait… what?” he turned to face Seren directly. “That’s not seen as a social no-no? For a woman to look for a new partner?”
Seren looked at him like he’d grown another head. “No, why should it be? If a male cannot meet all his female’s needs, why shouldn’t she seek to fill those needs elsewhere?”
His view of the Lathar reset in a heartbeat. They came over as chest-thumping alpha males solely focused on claiming fertile females and their need for procreation. He hadn’t considered their social mores when it came to the rights and treatment of women. Or even that claimed women would have any rights.
To find out that they could leave if the alien who claimed them didn’t give them everything that they needed was mind-blowing.
“I’m sorry to say humans are not like that,” he said in a low voice. “Even in these supposed enlightened times, a woman is usually looked down on if she seeks a different partner while in a relationship, no matter what.”
Seren’s eyebrow winged up. “And that would be why your females would be much better off with Lathar mates. We know how to treat them well.”
Jay grunted—not quite ready to make that last step to agree with the alien warrior just yet—and looked around.
The B’Kaar leader, Risyn, wasn’t here, which made him nervous. He didn’t trust the alien leader as far as he could throw him. For all their size differences, humans and Lathar weren’t all that different.
Jay had met men like him before. They were all civility on the surface and played well in whatever group they found themselves in, but underneath they were lethal and utterly lacked conscience. He usually stayed well away from them. While he was certainly no special snowflake—he’d been in too many warzones for that—he was a marine, and men like that were not team players. If the shit hit the fan, they would absolutely do what they needed to do, regardless of the collateral damage.
So he was thankful the asshole wasn’t around at the moment.
“Well… since we seem to be it for today, shall we head out?” he asked the other male, and together they left the command deck for the hangars that still needed checking.
“So what did you call us in here for?”
Indra’s voice cut through the air before all three women were through the door, her tone clearly expressing her displeasure at the fact they’d been roused from their beds and summoned to the command center. As mate to the highest-ranked warrior in their group, their little trio’s defacto leadership had fallen to her. She’d taken to the role like a natural, looking down her nose at the assembled B’Kaar like the empress herself.
Keris and Gracie crowded in after her as Risyn B’Kaar turned, moving aside to reveal his second in command, Berr, seated at the console in front of him. Neither wore their kasivar, the armored suits standing guard at the back of the room.
“Exactly what we’d like to know,” Jay said, and she turned in relief to find their three males behind them. She smiled up at Jay as he reached her, sliding a protective arm around her waist. She hadn’t seen him since he’d left her in bed this morning, and her body still sang from his possession of her.
“Ahh, my friends,” Risyn was all smiles that didn’t quite reach his pale eyes. “So glad you could join us.”
Nyek inclined his head, coming to stand beside Indra. “You are most welcome. How can we be of assistance?” he asked, the former paladin’s voice polite but wary.
None of them could forget that the B’Kaar were not close allies with the K’Vass, which meant they were all now technically behind enemy lines. It would be easy for the cyberwarriors to vent them to space and tell the empire that the base malfunctioned before they arrived. She shivered and drew closer to Jay.
Risyn’s expression didn’t alter, a pleasant mask Keris didn’t believe for a moment in place as he motioned toward Berr and the holo-screen in front of him. She blinked in surprise. There, rotating gently in front of them, was a strand of human DNA, right next to a Lathar DNA strand.