Seeing Stars Read online

  The world flickered as pleasure poured through her. Something tugged at her insides, like a trapped animal trying to break free. But matter held her fast. Alyn continued to lick her as the trembling faded, and she started to climb again.

  Meanwhile, Zed bent over her prone form, plunging his tongue into her mouth while teasing her nipples into aching peaks. She was on fire even before he transferred his mouth to her breasts. His teeth closed on the swollen nubs at the same instant Alyn nipped at her rigid clit. Pain morphed into unbearable delight.

  Alyn brushed a fingertip across her anus. The knot in her belly coiled tighter. He wriggled inside. The lewd intrusion triggered a wave of bliss. Everything unravelled, whipping her into a glorious new crisis.

  Light cradled her, but only for an instant. Her body was fighting back, unwilling to release her. She moaned in frustration.

  A drop of liquid touched her lips. “Open,” Zed murmured, his magnificent cock inches from her face. She pursed her lips around the bulb, licking off the fluid that gathered there, then yielded to his pressure and swallowed the rigid stalk of flesh. He tasted of salt, sweat and dried cum. He tasted human. His thrusts were firm but measured, giving her time to appreciate the velvet texture of his cock-skin and the inexorable hardness underneath.

  She fondled Zed’s balls while he ploughed her mouth. Meanwhile, Alyn was busy below her waist. With uncharacteristic force, he hauled her to the edge of the seat and pressed her thighs back towards her shoulders. He held her there for long moments, open and exposed. She felt the tension build. Juices trickled from her cleft down to her tingling rear hole. The round knob of Alyn’s cock rubbed against her sphincter and she braced herself for penetration. At the last minute, though, he seemed to change his mind. Pulling back, he sank his cock deep into her soaked pussy.

  Ah! She moaned around Zed’s cock. He took that as a signal to pump harder. Christine didn’t mind. She sucked with all her might, wanting to taste his cum, aware in some corner of her mind that this might be her last chance to do so.

  Alyn drove into her in a strong, even rhythm. His cock danced inside her, waking every nerve. Christine clenched her muscles around his hardness. He swelled in response. Pleasure rippled through her as she was filled and emptied, above and below. She had come twice already but that didn’t seem to matter. Her body was hungry for more.

  Every thrust pushed Christine closer to the edge. She couldn’t reach it, though. She wanted it too much—not just the pleasure but the freedom they’d promised her. What if she couldn’t do it, couldn’t break loose the way she had before? She didn’t care about dying, not much anyway. The thought of losing them, though, was a pain she could scarcely bear.

  “Don’t worry, Christine.” Zed’s golden voice sliced through her anxious fog. “Relax, sweet. We love you. We’re not going to let you go.” He hadn’t actually spoken, but she’d heard him loud and clear.

  “We are with you. All will be well.” Alyn’s silver tones sang in her mind, calming, soothing, even as he grunted between her legs. “We belong together, Christine.”

  She let the tension flow out of her body. I love you, she broadcast, her mouth full of cock-flesh. I trust you. Take me where I need to go.

  Their bodies answered. Both men quickened their pace. Her hands gripped Zed’s thighs as he drove his cock down her throat. When his muscles tensed, her spirit soared. Come, my love, she telegraphed. Please come.

  He shuddered. His rod jerked against her tongue, then he exploded, flooding her with his bitter fluid. She swallowed hungrily, eager for every drop.

  Zed was still spurting when Alyn yelled and buried himself to the hilt in her pussy. She felt the pulse in his cock as he emptied himself into her depths. Yes, she exulted, her mouth still busy with her other lover. Yes, my darling.

  Joy swelled in her chest until she thought she’d burst. She didn’t care what happened next. They were together now. Zed and Alyn had given her everything they had. Nothing else mattered.

  All at once, without warning, she was tumbling into climax herself. Pleasure welled up from deep within, in shimmering waves that crested and broke and crested again. Rainbow veils danced before her eyes. Her body was liquid, molten, surging with each new eruption of bliss. The world dissolved, leaving her spinning in a whirlwind of ecstasy.

  Through it all, she felt Zed and Alyn holding her close, keeping her safe. She might have been terrified by the intensity, but as sensation racked her, she knew she was not alone.

  Silence. Stillness. Peace. Blackness surrounded and cradled her. She was not afraid.

  Zed sang to her, flashing copper and gold through the dark. She laughed. Alyn wound around her, through her, a strand of glittering crystal. The three of them circled each other, spiralling higher, in an endless dance of love.

  Christine hung in space. Alyn and Zed were with her, as they would always be from now on. Below them, the Archimedes disintegrated in graceful slow motion. A crack opened along the top. Gases swirled out, freezing into icy clouds on contact with the frigid vacuum. A hunk of debris fell away, spinning lazily into the void.

  “Let’s not watch anymore,” Christine said. “You’ve already seen one world destroyed.”

  “Where should we go?” Zed asked. “Back to Earth?”

  “No, there’s nothing left there for us. But I know another planet, in the Sirius B system. We could settle there for a while.”

  “You want a new body.” Alyn laughed in her mind. “You miss being material.”

  “Perhaps a bit. But, mostly, I want us to have children. We can’t do that as bodies of light. I want to people a new world and teach our children how to care for it.”

  “We can’t unmake the past.” Christine caught the sombre note in Zed’s thoughts.

  “Of course not. But we can create any number of brilliant futures.”

  She summoned the images from her memory to show them. “The planet is here.”

  They slipped into a crack between dimensions. Joined.

  About the Author

  I became addicted to words at an early age. I began reading when I was four. I wrote my first story at five years old and my first poem at seven. Since then, I’ve written plays, tutorials, marketing brochures, software specifications, self-help books, press releases, a five-hundred page dissertation, and of course, erotica and erotic romance. I’m the author of six erotic novels and three short story collections, as well as dozens of shorter works. I also edited the ground breaking anthology SACRED EXCHANGE, which explores the spiritual aspects of BDSM relationships, and the massive collection CREAM: THE BEST OF THE EROTIC READERS AND WRITERS ASSOCIATION. I am responsible for editing the charity erotica series COMING TOGETHER PRESENTS. I also review books and films for the Erotica Readers and Writers Association and Erotica Revealed, and feature as a Celebrity Author at Custom Erotica Source.

  My lifelong interests in sex and the written word became serendipitously entwined about a decade ago when I read my first Black Lace book by Portia da Costa. Her work inspired me to take my fantasies out of the closet (and the private email files) and expose them to the world. The rest, as they say, is history (although granted, no more than a minor footnote!)

  I’ve always loved travelling; my husband seduced me in a Burmese restaurant by telling me tales of his foreign adventures. Since then I have visited every continent except Australia, although I still have a long travel wish list. Currently I live with him and our two exceptional felines in Southeast Asia, where I pursue an alternative career that is completely unrelated to my creative writing.

  Email: [email protected]

  Lisabet loves to hear from readers. You can find her contact information, website and author biography at http://www.total-e-bound.com.

  Also by Lisabet Sarai

  Fire in the Blood

  Necessary Madness

  Truce of Trust

  Serpent’s Kiss

  Incognito

  Raw Silk

  Yule Be Mine: Almos
t Home

  Master Me: The Understudy

  Gaymes: Crossed Hearts

  Christmas Spirits: Tomorrow’s Gifts

  Brits in Time: Shortest Night

  Brit Party: Monsoon Fever

  Bound Brits: Getaway Girl

  Halloween Heart-throb: Rendezvous

  THE SEVARIAN WAY

  Justine Elyot

  Dedication

  To lovers of space exploration and BDSM everywhere, especially Tricia

  Chapter One

  It wasn’t the danger Suka had a problem with, nor was it the workload. She was easily bright enough to handle the multiple data streams that poured into her Communicatex every parsec of every timeslice. In fact, she had graduated at the top of her class in the Academy, which had greatly contributed towards her selection for the crew of the Ulysses IV.

  No, what Suka struggled with was the rules. Endless, relentless regulations to follow and obey, seemingly pointless, in many cases. There were rules about bedtimes, rules about how much to eat, rules about uniform, rules about socialising, rules about how to address officers of various ranks within the starship. Suka had always been one for following the spirit, rather than the letter, of the law, and this tendency was making the voyage one of low-level misery rather than exciting discovery for her.

  Even more galling than the rules themselves was their enforcement by one Commander Azed Paul, a man with whom the toss was impossible to argue. Commander Paul was accustomed, over several turbulent years in the outer rim of the Spaelian Galaxies, to running the tightest of ships. One speck of lint on an officer’s skintight dermolex trousers would be noted and remarked upon. He had found and destroyed Suka’s box of contraband sugarfizz within one hour of her embarkation. His motto was ‘discipline or doom’. Suka was inclined to favour doom just now.

  She crouched low over her monitor, hoping that her apparent commitment to it would make her invisible to Commander Paul. Her hair, tightly braided now after an earlier contretemps over ‘professionally appropriate styles’, pulled at the skin above her ears and temples every time she hunched a little further down. She knew he was going to mention her confiscated glowstick at some point, but she really didn’t see what was so wrong with a bit of reading in bed. Was she supposed to abandon all her extraneous interests in life, sacrifices to the efficient running of the ship? It was too big a thing to expect of a twenty-two-year-old woman.

  Paul was busy, bent over the shoulder of another ensign, her friend Callil, checking that every machine powering this heap of junk was correctly calibrated. From across the bridge, his backside in the figure-hugging uniform pants drew her eye in an irritatingly irresistible fashion. Whatever else she might think of him, she couldn’t deny he had one of the finest arses in the Quadrant.

  Suddenly, he straightened up and spun on his boot heel, catching her in her mildly lustful musings. Suka’s head dropped so swiftly she almost banged her forehead on the screen, but it was too late. His keen blue-glass eyes had registered her interest, and he smiled his broad, sharky grin before addressing her.

  “Ensign Demontel, we need to discuss your reading habits,” he proclaimed, crossing past the banks of flashing hardware towards her station.

  Immediately, she raised her chin in stubborn challenge, preparing to defend her position.

  “Is reading against the rules now? I’m an anthropologist—if you expect me to abandon study of the very reason I’m on this voyage, then…” She broke off, unable to finish the sentence, fearfully reluctant to take it to its logical conclusion of ‘you’re a stupid bastard’.

  “You know very well that reading isn’t against the rules. Reading after Lights Out is against the rules,” said Paul, his voice teasingly light. “As for anthropology, you have studied it for six years, and now you have the chance to put your knowledge into practice in the field. It’s why you’re here, isn’t it, Suka, or am I mistaken?”

  “Yes, no, yes, when we’re cataloguing and analysing the new planets, that’s great. But all this in-between time…just drifting around in the vessel…it’s boring.”

  Commander Paul stared for an uncomfortably lengthy few seconds.

  “Boring, Ensign Demontel?” he said eventually. “Well, I’m so sorry not to provide you with the non-stop circus you evidently crave, but I thought you might have been prepared for the fact that space exploration requires a great deal of time in space. What do they teach you at the Academy these days?” He shook his head sadly before snapping into grim disciplinary mode. Suka always identified this by a locking of his jaw and a narrowing of his eyes. She swallowed, aware of her hair prickling her skin. “You won’t be seeing the glowstick until we return to port. And, for the remainder of this shift period, you will catch up on lost sleep by going to bed at the start of Association Time.”

  “Oh, don’t make me miss Association Time!” wailed Suka, embarrassingly aware of how bratty and pathetic she sounded. “It’s the only thing to look forward to most days.”

  “You can sulk all you like, Ensign,” said Paul briskly. “I won’t have deliberate rule-breaking in my crew, and the sooner you process that lesson, the better for you. I had such high hopes for you when I read your reference from the Academy, and I don’t take disappointment well.”

  “Neither do I,” whispered Suka, half-hoping Paul wouldn’t hear her. The half-hope was in vain.

  “I beg your pardon?” He turned back from the move towards the bridge front he had been beginning and fixed her eyes uncompromisingly with his.

  “Nothing. Doesn’t matter,” she muttered.

  “Yes, it does,” he said, deceptively gently. “What my crew thinks matters very much to me. Tell me.”

  “It’s just, well, I thought I was joining an elite crew of enlightened intelligent explorers. I wasn’t prepared for Sparta in space.”

  For a moment, Suka had the impression Paul was about to strike her. Her palms grew slippery and her breath retreated into indefinite suspension. The Commander, pale and impassive, seemed to be calculating how hard he should slap her. She had never seen him actually rattled before, and it unnerved her more than she could express.

  The monitor began to bleep and flash, precipitating a huge exhalation from Suka. She put her trembling fingers to the keyboard.

  “Paladium Three, Sir,” she managed to say, when speech was possible. “It’s within teleportation range now.”

  His skin flushed back to a more normal shade and his eyes lost their glaze as he swung around the side of the monitor and crouched over the back of her chair, scanning the screen eagerly.

  “Right. Paladium Three. Callil, the environmental checks have been run?”

  “Yes, Sir. You’ll need an oxygen patch, mid-grade. As we know, all denizens are dead, so you won’t need diplomacy tools. Superficial check shows no active airborne threat to humans. I’m just running the full scan, Sir.”

  Paul’s face drew closer to Suka’s, his breath fanning her cheek as he watched the satellite swoop lower, picking out sharp, focused images of the planet’s surface.

  “It’s a recent ruin,” he commented. “Most of the buildings intact. You know what killed them, I take it?”

  “Yep. Those hoodlums from the Chavian Belt, dropping toxic waste from their illegal dumper ships. Outrageous. They need sorting out.”

  “Well, the Federation is doing its best, I gather. They aren’t an easy species to deal with. Out and out hedonists, no values, no discipline.”

  His breath puffed against Suka’s skin, making it prickle and inducing a strange clenching between her thighs. Spoken so close to her ear like that, the word was irresistibly erotic to her. But Paul wasn’t to know that!

  She straightened her stance in an effort to force him back. It didn’t work.

  “Fascinating people, the Paladians. Did you study them at the Academy?”

  “No,” admitted Suka. “I’ve read a little, though, recreationally.” She emphasised the last word, still angry at what struck her as heavy-handed
punishment for a bit of light studying.

  “Good.” Paul stood up, finally releasing her from the strange half-arousal his nearness had locked her into. “Because you’re coming down to surface level with me.”

  Suka swivelled her chair around so quickly she almost knocked Paul off his feet.

  “What?” she squeaked. “Are you serious?” Her breath gathered at the top of her lungs. All her life she had dreamed of surface-level exploration, but she knew it would be at least three years of slaving over hot monitors before she would get the opportunity.

  “I need to make a decision on you,” explained Commander Paul. “Whether to keep you or let you go at the next port.”

  “Oh.” Suka’s lungs collapsed. Was it really that serious? A tiny bit of stupid rule-breaking?

  “If you can prove yourself down there, I’ll reconsider my opinion. You’ll need to show that you can demonstrate good space sense, intelligence and obedience. You’ll have to follow my orders without question. Is that clear?”

  “Yes, yes, I’ll do it, you won’t regret it, I promise.”

  Commander Paul chewed his lip assessingly. Suka didn’t realise until he spoke again that she had been clenching her fists so hard she had made half-moons in her palms.

  “Right. Come on then. Let’s get saddled up and ready.”

  Suka couldn’t resist a shining-eyed grin over at Callil on the way out of the bridge. She must be dying of jealousy! They had spent so many Association Times bemoaning the three-year rule. And now Paul—the ultimate Rule Freak—was breaking it. For her! It was unbelievable, but she wasn’t about to pinch herself. She was too excited for that.

  “I’ve never been in here,” she chattered breathlessly as the Commander led her along the Prep Corridor to the Teleportation Suite.

  “Of course not,” he said, with a sidelong smile at her visible giddiness. “You won’t need too much in the way of preparation. Aside from an oxygen patch, we don’t need special equipment for this environment. No masks or skin protection. They have a mild, Earth Sector III-like climate and it’s their equivalent of early autumn, so what we’re wearing now should be fine.”