Camille's Capture (16 page)

“The
dock’s outer doors are still sealed.”

“Right.”
The warrior moved to the console and keyed in the refueling sequence.

While Jaxon fueled the sorority’s ship, a possibility
—more hope than probability—glimmered through the mists of fury separation from Cami caused. Aegis examined the idea, probing for flaws.

H
e held his breath as he watched the dock’s system display. Gradually the control booth’s indicators lit up with normal readings.

Jaxon’s use of the
fuel system would automatically send a signal to the station’s master console. This time no handy workman explained the change in status. Now the question was, how alert were the enemies monitoring the controls?

Moisture dripped down Aegis’s forehead, stinging his eyes and blurring his vision. He flicked the wet away with his thumbs in an ineffective attempt to clear his sight.

“What’s wrong?” Jaxon asked.

“Nothing.”

“Right, it just looks
as if you’re sweatin’. And you never sweat, bud.”

Aegis shook his head, scattering drops like rain in a high wind. “I am Tethysian. We do not perspire.”

“’Kay.” Jaxon backed up a step. “You’re not sweatin’. Got it. Not a problem. Whatever your not-sweat dampness is, it smells a whole lot better than my sweat.”

Aegis growled. He was
irritable, losing water, and his shaft hard enough to smash syn-steel hulls. Every cursed sign of mating frenzy. Goddess save them.

H
e had to protect Jaxon before his condition stole his mind. He unsheathed the poison coated chimator he kept hidden and proffered the weapon. “Take this.”

Jaxon
wrapped a palm around the carved hilt. “Sweet. What’s it for?”

“Killing demons.”

His friend flipped the blade, reversing it so the handle faced Aegis. “Keep it. I don’t want it.”

“
You need it to kill me when I go berserk.”

“No, I can’t.”
Jaxon rasped, his focus flickered wildly and his breathing shallowed to panting.

His friend’s fear singed Aegis’s sinus, but he could not spare him
the panic. He forced himself to speak with clinical detachment. “You can by acting swiftly. Sever the shoulder tendons first then those behind the knees. This prevents me from fighting or running while you slit the throat and remove the head. After death, be careful to clean the area of all blood. Even a few drops in the wrong hands cause untold suffering.”

“No. I won’t.” Jaxon
shook his head and dropped the chimator, edging farther away from him.

“
We both die if you refuse. I cannot control the frenzy. You must promise stop me before I maim you or others.”

Jaxon
backed against the hull, unswayed by his logic.

“
What if Cami finds us? Would you sacrifice her life as well?”

“You wo
n’t hurt either of us.”

Jaxon’s
absolute conviction humbled him, but did not allay his fear. “I pray you are right. If so then you will have no need of the blade. However, I beg you to keep the weapon for my peace of mind.”

Head bowed, his friend
crouched and reluctantly picked up the knife.

A
egis exhaled his relief and drew a fresh breath. The air had grown rich with Jaxon’s spicy fragrance. Beneath the confining space gear, the seam of his groin pocket parted from relentless pressure.

“Mating frenzy.”
The words grated from between his locked jaw.
Run, Jaxon.

“So what’s the prob?” Jaxon started to move closer
and stopped. “Right, you need to be with Cami.” A flicker of pain glinted in his dark eyes. He quickly covered the expression with a show of pretend pouting, and added in a too-casual drawl. “That smarts, bud. If you don’t watch it, I’m gonna get my feelings hurt.”

“Need sex.” Aegis held
so tight to the syn-steel lip of the console, the metal edge rippled and bent.

Jaxon met his eyes, holding his gaze while he peeled off his bulky space suit and kicked it aside. Wearing only a thin jumpsuit and flimsy boots that offered no protection whatsoever, he prowled across the booth.

The man was pure temptation moving toward him. Jaxon closed the distance separating them. He stopped near enough to see the subtle color spots flaring on the tops of his ears. Within easy reach of Aegis’s lethal talons.

The spice of
his mate’s arousal saturated Aegis’s breathing filters and sucker punched the last of his ragged resistance.
You should have run, my love.

A strong, broad palm settled on Aegis’s chest. “So use me.”

Batting away the warrior’s hand, he bared clenched teeth. “Run.”

Jaxon did not run. He widened his stance. “
Right, that’s a great plan. I run away like a girlie man, and what happens to you?”

Goddess of water, grant him
the sense to run
. His need was so acute he barely formed thoughts, yet he must make Jaxon understand the danger. “Mania. Happening. Now.”

Hope painted Jaxon’s handsome face.
“Breeding prevents you from going berserk. You need to mate. I get that. I’m here. Use me.”

Fresh sweat, more water Aegis couldn’t afford to lose,
rolled down his brow and dripped into his eyes. His ears still worked fine.
Damned reckless fool. Is he right
?
Can Jaxon handle enough sex to keep the mating frenzy from driving me insane?

He shook his head again, knowing h
is control was too frayed to take it slow and careful and unwilling to risk injuring Jaxon.

“Run,” he snarled.

The warrior flinched, and backed up, blinking fast. His voice quavered. “’Kay, I read you. It’s gotta be Cami.”

The wound to Jaxon’s
feelings sliced through Aegis more deeply than the vicious hunger twisting his sac. He needed to correct the warrior’s mistaken assumption. “Any mate will serve.”

The
moment the words left his forked tongue he knew the admission had been a critical error.

An endearing, crooked grin softened Jaxon’s face. “I’m a mate.”

Aegis watched in enthralled horror, Jaxon toed off his boots. He took his time, each movement slow and sensuous. Aegis burned from the erotic compulsion to breed, yet his friend’s reckless courage and wonders of his strong body held him in a trance. The man was as beautiful and—oddly—larger than he remembered.

Lean muscles bunched and flattened as he pushed the boots aside and unfastened the neck of his uniform. Each smooth, economical movement revealed another section of gleaming bronze skin, more of the silky hair bisecting his torso. As the one-piece parted farther, the well-defined muscles of his midsection rippled.

When the last piece of Jaxon’s clothing hit the deck, he straightened. His heavy shaft stood straight out from his body, thick and proud. A drop of excitement glistened at the tip. Already the musky aroma of sex permeated the small room. Without the protection of his clothes, Jaxon’s spicy fragrance grew more potent.

Aegis’s split tongue darted, unable to resist gathering the delicious s
cent. Goddess willing, someday he would have both of his mates in a real bed or, better yet, a secluded pool. Simply not killing Jaxon was enough for now.

Rough words escaped from his throat. “You have grown.”

“Maybe, bud.” Jaxon cupped his own heavy sex. “You mind?”

Aegis opened his mouth to issue another useless warning. Before
he spoke, Jaxon captured his face in both hands and held him in place for a surprisingly gentle kiss.

The man’s
delicious flavor shredded the last strands of Aegis’s control. He had no strength left to resist. Lost in Jaxon’s tender embrace, he drank from his mate’s lips. He slid the forked tip of his
glossa
deep into the man’s mouth, sliding over the thick, masculine edge of his human tongue and slipping beneath to lap from the spicy well.

Jaxon stripped away the layer
s of Aegis’s clothes separating them in seconds, pushed his lover onto the console, and nudged his legs apart.

His strength took Aegis by surprise.
His bold aggression increased Aegis’s arousal into uncharted territory. Desperation made him tremble as he opened the much too cramped protective pocket, freeing his turgid stalk and sac.

Immediately Jaxon grasped his thick
staff in a rough palm and pumped. The confident slide of his hot hand had Aegis hardening still further and growing dizzy with need. His shaft rings rippled and glowed and the glands beneath the crown’s tentacles gushed, coating the warrior’s palm with fragrant essence.

J
axon’s nostrils flared in appreciation as he drew the scent deep.

Gently Aegis teased
the man’s flat nipples with the back of a knuckle, careful to keep his talons away from the thickly muscled torso already scarred by his mark of ownership. His tongue darted, tasting, teasing, and taunting the small, hardened peaks.

The tender nipples responded, beading more tightly. Jaxon shiver
ed as Aegis continued to squeeze and pinch the rigid tips. Something—perhaps the shiver—reminded him of the sweetly submissive Cami. The memory made the ache of losing her flare fresh and sharp.

“Damn, when you do that, it goes straight to my balls.” Jaxon arched closer, offering hi
mself without fear.

The warrior
distracted him with the relief Aegis required to stay sane, and the closeness he craved. He inhaled sharply, breathing his mate’s spicy essence. Aware how much he needed to take the raw edge off his arousal, he hissed, “Suck. Shaft.”

H
e guided the warrior to his pulsing stalk in case his order had been unclear.

Jaxon dropped to his knees in front of him and wrapped one massive fist around
his achy rod. Instead of swallowing his erection, he licked the underside of his tentacle-covered crown, using his abrasive tongue to lap up the aphrodisiac lubricant flowing in response to his tender probes.

A
purr of sheer pleasure escaped Aegis’s parched lips.

When Jaxon
’s mouth covered the top and sucked, he bucked against his face, thrusting deeper into the wet heat of his soft throat. Every tentacle writhed in ecstasy, the embedded rings of his shaft throbbed frantically, and his balls tightened, drawing closer to his stalk. Hot seed gushed out in waves, his sperm flooding deep in the exquisite wet velvet.

T
he powerful release spewed from his erection without weakening the stiff rod and the burning need to mate tortured him as mercilessly as if he had never climaxed. Sexual frustration warred with anger at the inexorable demands of his body and fear for Jaxon. What if he had waited too long and it was already too late? Sex with the warrior might fail to prevent the mania and he would turn into a berserk monster.

So far Jaxon displayed no sign of
injury or distress. He hummed around the thick erection filling his seductive mouth. The sound buzzed through his crown’s tentacles. They twisted excitedly against his mate’s soft palate, stimulating the release of fresh fiery lubricant from the underside of the tender rim.

Wo
rried fascination gripped him while the warrior’s strong throat worked, drinking his essence. The man’s dark, spicy fragrance grew stronger, mixing with the chocolate scent of his own excitement.

Aegis continued to stare, caressing him with his gaze, lingering on the flat pads of his powerful chest muscles, smoothing over the satin
perfection of his rigid abdominals, and stopped at his thick breeding shaft.

Red tinged the deeper bronze of the silken skin wrapping the
titanium-hard erection except for the plump helmet. The smooth, vulnerable head was a darker, more luscious purple-red—the color of star-ripened fruit. So sweet. So juicy. So irresistible.

A cloud of dark, springy curls surrounded the base of Jaxon’s erection and nestled his potent testes.
His stiffened stalk stood at thrumming attention. The heavy sac hanging below the impressive rod tightened against the underside of the root. He longed to touch what his gaze stroked.

Ja
xon continued to suckle and fist his shaft in slow, sensuous strokes.

His
mouth watered to return the favor. He wanted to taste his lover’s erection, wanted to lick the luscious head glistening with a drop of natural lubricant, wanted to draw in the rich spice from where it was strongest—at the base cushioned by his thick nest of curls.

Aegis
let his heavy eyelids close and drifted, lost in a world of sensation between the tender rasp of beard stubble against his scales and the soft friction of his mate’s mouth caressing his sensitive crown.

He opened his eyes and st
illed Jaxon’s head. Once the warrior released his shaft, he slid a careful knuckle under his chin and tilted, forcing him to meet his gaze. He extended a palm, praying he could control the frenzy. “Lie with me.”

* * * * *

Jaxon took the hand Aegis offered him, letting his lover pull him upright. The gravelly voice ordering him around yanked his chain like he’d never imagined.

He stepped closer, wanting a kiss, wanting to rub
himself all over the magnificent green body.

Aegis moved away,
restless he began rearranging their clothes as if searching for something mislaid.

The
casual retreat left Jaxon lonely, although Aegis stood within easy reach, the male was in another world. A sudden chill raised gooseflesh along his limbs. He chafed his arms and glanced over his shoulder. What had the big guy lost? The answer punched his gut, he missed Cami.