Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 101280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
I sighed.
“Don’t think I haven’t thought about it, but it’s really not the same. I mean, Vik’tor and I know we can never be together permanently. In fact, he was about to take me back home to Earth when Gumpas captured me a second time using the same kind of technology the Commercians use to kidnap women from Earth.” I winced and put a hand to my head. “Well, not exactly the same kind—it was a lot slower and it gave me a hell of a headache!”
“Tell me about it!” Rylee rubbed her own temples and frowned. “It gave me a headache too. But even worse, it seems to have screwed up my mental connection with my guys.”
“Say what? Your who?” I asked, thinking I must have heard her wrong.
“My guys—my husbands,” Rylee said. “I’m married—well, they call it ‘Joined’—to two men from Denaris. Their names are Drace and Lucian. They’re from two different clans and they’re both Alphas who got accidentally bonded together. When they first bought me, they wanted me to help sever their bond, but it turns out I’m a Binder so…” She shrugged her shoulders. “The three of us wound up Bound together instead. I mean, what can you do?”
“Wait a minute…wait a minute…” I was still struggling to process all this. “You’re saying you have two husbands?”
Rylee shrugged again, as though it was no big deal to be in a permanent three-way.
“Sure. That’s how they do it on Denaris. Although usually it’s an Alpha and a Beta who bond before they go looking for their perfect female mate—not two Alphas.”
“Okay, so all this time you’ve been flying around the galaxy getting it on with two guys at once?” I demanded.
Rylee frowned.
“I wouldn’t exactly put it like that. I’m married to both of them and the three of us are very deeply in love.” She sighed and put a hand to her head. “Which is why it’s so damn upsetting that I can’t reach either of them mentally. I’ve been trying for hours.”
“So…you have a mental connection with both of them? How did that happen?” I asked.
“It happened when we all three made love and Bonded,” Rylee said primly. She raised her eyebrows at me. “You mean to tell me you and your Baron haven’t Bonded yet? Haven’t you, you know, done the deed?”
I could feel my cheeks getting hot. Rylee and I had always been close when we were younger and we had told each other everything about the boys we dated. But when we got a little older, we drifted apart and it had been a while since we had discussed this kind of thing.
But as it turned out, I didn’t need to answer with words—my face said it all.
“You did, didn’t you?” Rylee crowed, looking at me. “You had hot sex with Baron Vik’tor and I bet it was the best sex of your life, right?”
“Well, yes,” I admitted, nodding. “We, uh, did have sex—though we didn’t Bond. At least, I don’t think we did. I mean, I certainly don’t have any kind of mental connection with him.”
“That’s too bad!” Rylee said, frowning. “How could you have sex and not Bond? It’s a thing that all the Twelve Peoples do—well, everyone except us Earthlings,” she added. “But we can bond if we meet the right alien guy. Or guys in my case.”
“Vik’tor thinks we can’t bond because he’s a, uh, half-blood—half Braxian and half Naggian,” I said. I looked down at my hands. “He also seems to think it’s the reason we can’t stay together.”
“What? Of course you can stay together if you love him!” Rylee protested.
I shook my head sadly.
“How I feel doesn’t have anything to do with it. Even if I do love him and even if he is the only man who’s ever, uh, made my body react, if you know what I mean. Vik’tor has a business to run and it’s based on O’nagga Nine, which is just a horrible place—it’s freezing all the time!”
“Is it?” Rylee frowned. “I’ve never been there.”
“It’s like living in the damn Arctic,” I told her. “Besides, I’m homesick and I miss my family. Plus I was almost finished with my PhD when the Commercians took me.”
“Forget all that—the reason Vik’tor made you react is because La-ti-zals often don’t have any sexual feelings until they leave Earth and find the man they’re supposed to be with forever,” Rylee lectured me. “The man you’re supposed to Bond with.”
“I’ve heard that but Vik’tor and I had sex and we didn’t Bond,” I protested.
“Well, maybe you did it wrong,” Rylee said, frowning at me thoughtfully. “I have a friend and former client who’s also married to a half Braxian—maybe she can shed some light on the matter. If we can ever get out of here to see her again,” she added, looking around our cell with a sigh.