Chapter 1
My heart stops, and I immediately close the book. Then I open it again. I run my fingers over the writing.
How?
When?
How many people are involved with Terra Ka? Obviously, Ambassador Tiro.
My breathing has woken up Lorian, and he sits up murmuring against my hip, “Are you okay?”
"Just thinking." I put the book back on Rafe’s bedside table and face Lorian. "About healing. I overheard staff whispering in the hall—something about Tribune Jin Kol’s death at a place called Ariel. I thought you said it was legal.”
“It was completely legal, but—”
“The system is working as intended,” Rafe says sleepily, but still sitting up to look at me. “Be content that womb-burner breathes no more.” Then Rafe runs a hand through my hair in a way that’s more than just comforting. It’s nuanced with arousal.
And I can’t deny that something primal in me wants to celebrate everything that has happened in the last few days by having mind-blowing sex with my husbands.
I’m just scared.
"Eve—" Lorian starts, but I press my fingers to his lips.
"I want to have sex with you both so much, but I'm afraid that when we make love, I'll disappear. That the pleasure of this fantasy—that you came back for me and wanted me—will shatter, and I’ll discover it’s none of this is real. That I’m still at your father’s house, or even worse, that I’m still on Earth and this was just a romance novel I read last night. "
"Then we won't—" Rafe begins, but I turn to catch his lips with mine, silencing his protest with the first real kiss I've given either of them for a long time.
Rafe freezes, then melts against me with a sound that's part relief and part desperate sexual need. I can feel all his emotion and desire being poured into this kiss and his hands shaking where they touch my waist. Like he might break me.
"I need you," I breathe when we part. "Both of you; I want you, but I need you to reassure me this is all real. That I won’t wake up in my tiny, cold, human apartment back on Earth.”
Lorian cups my face with tenderness. “Nothing is as real as this, Eve. You’re ours, and we’re yours. No amount of pleasure or pain is going to change that.”
“Eve, wherever you are, we will be there too,” Rafe says.
"You are my home." Silent tears slip down my cheeks. "And I want to come home. Completely. I’m just so scared that this is too good to be true.”
They exchange one of their twin looks, an entire conversation in a glance.
"We can wait. We'll wait forever if—" Rafe says, and I cut him off.
“I don’t want to wait.” I touch my chest. “I need you both. I need to be as close to you as possible. To push our relationship and our bond to its full extent to be able to move forward. To know whether this is a dream or reality. But I’m still terrified of losing this, if it is a fantasy.”
“You’ve always wanted the truth,” Lorian says. “Even when it hurts.” Then, he takes my hands and turns them palms up, revealing the cuts from our wedding. “This is proof. I doubt your fantasy would have included this.”
“I guess …”
“Let us make love to you as your husbands,” Rafe says.
“Both at once. Both pleasure and pain. Then you will know it’s real. It’s no fantasy you would imagine,” Lorian suggests.
A momentary fear passes through me. I know how rough they can be. “You mean you want me at once? Not holding back?” I ask trying to clarify.
Lorian takes my chin in his hand. “Not holding back at all. Taking you in all the ways we’ve fantasized about. Then you will know it’s real.”
“And you won’t be hurt. Dr. Veil can repair your body,” Rafe adds.
I swallow hard. “Tell me what you want to do to me, as my husbands.”
Lorian shakes his head, and Rafe says, “It’ll be more authentic if we show you. Don’t you trust us?”
Do I trust them not to kill me? Do I trust them not to hurt me too much? Do I want them to fuck me until I’m sure this is all real? That is the only question that really matters. They’re willing to do it, so why am I so afraid?
Because it’s their fantasy, not mine, and I don’t know how dark and terrible their fantasy might be.
“I want you to prove to me that this is all real.” I shift between them, feeling their muscular bodies respond to mine and seeing their eyes darken at my words.
"Say it again," Rafe commands, his voice dropping into that tone that reminds me of my first lesson with him. "Say it with your identification necklace against your throat."
I reach for the silver medallion that marks me as their wife, employee, and prisoner. The symbol that once felt like a brand but now feels like belonging. I press it against my skin. "I want you both to prove to me this is real,” I repeat louder.
"Our choice sinner needs proof,” Lorian says softly, his fingers sliding into my hair, gripping it just hard enough to send heat racing through me.
"Help me break free. Prove to me it won’t end." I spread my legs open and touch myself.
“You want us to break you free of your thoughts, or break you open to make sure you’re really alive?” Rafe asks.
The question makes me both scared and horny. "Both,” I say confidently. “I want you to make me forget why I even questioned this. Punish me for not believing I deserved this or you both.”
“As you wish,” Lorian says, and then they both begin to worship my naked body like I'm sacred. Their hands and mouths running all over me, licking, kissing, teasing, and occasionally biting.
“Tell me what you dreamed of on Alba," Lorian says, as his mouth travels down my throat. "When you hated us the most. When you thought we had betrayed you."
The question should horrify me, but instead it liberates something inside me. "I dreamed of this," I confess. "Of belonging to you again. Despite everything, I couldn’t believe in my heart that you were really hurting me."
"And now that you know the truth, what do you think?" Rafe asks, his hand sliding down my stomach, pausing just above where I need him most. The Venus Lock is long gone, but sometimes I swear, I can still feel it, a phantom sensation of control and denial.
"Now I know I should have always trusted my instincts, and I just want to be yours again. Completely. Without fear. And without the disgust I felt during the Grand Championships."
"And what about the next Championships?" Lorian asks, circling one of my pierced nipples. "When you'll stand beside us as our human liaison?”
I meet his gaze steadily, and I purposely dig my nails into his shoulder. "I won’t stand there thinking you condone what’s happening. Because now I know you don’t, and the galaxy does too.”
Rafe pinches my clit, and I jump. “The galaxy knows nothing. They think this is a gimmick to punish the trainers and make more credits. But you know the truth. And we will allow you to operate as you see fit.”
"Just don’t get caught this year," Lorian says, pressing his lips to my collarbone.
I push both of their heads back so that they both are looking at me. “You mean you expect me to betray you?”
“I would be disappointed if you didn’t try,” Lorian says. “You’re human after all.”
“We may not be as clever as you, Wife. But we aren’t fools,” Rafe adds.
I’m dumbfounded. “Then why did you marry me and agree to this?”
“Because we love you,” Lorian says.
“And when in love, logic and facts don’t matter,” Rafe adds.
“No more talking,” Lorian says, and proceeds to suck on my left breast, and then Rafe my right.
I put my hands on top of each of their heads, letting the information sink in while passion ignites inside of me.
They both then begin to work my body with devastating precision.
Rafe’s fingers trace my body with the same meticulous attention he gives to everything, finding every weak point, every vulnerability, and exploiting it. "What are you?" he demands.
"Yours," I breathe. "Your wife and your prisoner."
"And what am I?" His teeth graze my ear, sending shockwaves through me.
"My jailer. My husband. Mine."
Rafe circles my clit with the pad of his thumb, slow and maddening. Just enough pressure to make my thighs tremble, but never enough to give release.
Lorian dips two fingers inside me and watches my face as he moves them in and out, adjusting his rhythm based on the way my body responds.
“Still so tight,” Lorian says, pulling his fingers free, and putting them in front of my mouth. “Clean them with your tongue.”
I begin licking his wet fingers with my tongue, tasting myself, realizing now they are settling into their fantasy.
Lorian hungrily watches my tongue wrap around his large knuckles, his silver eyes darkening. “Good,” he says softly. “Obedience suits you.”
Then Lorian moves lower, mouth replacing fingers, tongue flicking cruel patterns over my clit until I’m arching off the sheets. He easily pins my hips with one hand and slides the other under my ass, lifting me, exposing everything.
“Don’t come,” he says, right as his tongue plunges deep into me.
I cry out, gripping the silk sheets. My legs shake, my body begging to disobey. But I don’t. It takes all my strength, but I hold the tension inside me.
Rafe pulls on my nipple piercings as Lorain pulls away from my pussy, eyes gleaming with restrained cruelty, and says, “Say we own your orgasm.”
“You do. You both do. You always have.” And this is true. Since I entered the Celestial Spire, for the most part, they alone have been in control of that part of my physical body, and what I first saw as a punishment, I now see as a turn-on.
“Then earn your release, Eve,” Lorian says.
“Touch yourself for us,” Rafe commands. “Let us see what our wife looks like when she’s desperate.”
My fingers move quickly between my thighs; the hair there is drenched with desire, and my clit is aching. I grind against my fingers, moaning, keeping my gaze between them, my husbands, my jailers, my lovers.
“Is this what you want?” I ask them teasingly.
Rafe grabs my hand away. “Stop talking.”