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  I lost interest in trying to figure it out when he cupped my breasts, massaging them, tweaking my engorged nipples gently with his thumbs and forefingers, closing my eyes to hold the acute sensations to me. After a moment, he skated his hands down my belly, caressed my thighs and then very gently parted my nether lips, exposing the keenly sensitive inner flesh.

  With an effort, I lifted my eyelids. My heart clenched as I looked down at his fingers and then at Jared as Jerico held me, almost in offering. Mesmerized, I watched as Jared leaned close, watched his tongue as he extended it and licked a hot trail along my cleft.

  A jolt went through at the delightful sensation. A harder jolt followed when he covered my clit and sucked the nub gently into his mouth, teasing it with his tongue. I gasped, struggling to catch my breath, to ignore the heat moving through me. When I looked up at Jerico, I saw that his eyes were glazed with desire as he watched Jared pluck at my clit. His gaze mine. Splaying one palm along my cheek, he dipped his head to kiss me, massaging one breast with his free hand as he had before. I became completely lost in sensation then, too torn by the barrage of stimuli from both keenly tender areas to wrap my mind around anything else.

  Despite the confusion of mind and body to so much at once, my body clenched with coiling, rising passion, racing toward culmination. I struggled against it. If felt too deliciously wonderful to end so soon.

  After a moment, Jerico lifted his head. Shifting, he settled me back against the mattress and began to kiss my breasts. A sound of protest escaped me as he suckled one pulsing tip and then the other while Jared countered by teasing my clit until I was mindless. Almost before I realized I’d reached the peak, I fell over it, gasping out sharp cries as my body convulsed in hard spasms of climactic bliss.

  Jared seemed reluctant to stop, or too caught up in his own pleasure. He sucked my clit until I thought I would pass out from the jolts going through me. I was barely conscious when they finally stopped, allowing the spasms to begin to abate, scarcely aware of the hands that stroked me soothingly.

  Before I’d entirely touched down, the caresses became more pointed, stirring the fires once more. I murmured a protest, but I wasn’t reluctant.

  It felt so good to have them both stroking me that I simply basked in it for some moments. The urge grew in me, though, to caress in return, to give pleasure. Opening my eyes with an effort, I sought Jerico and found him sitting beside me. Shifting, I caught his erection in my hand and ran my tongue along the sensitive ridge of the head of his cock. He shuddered, his hand clenching on my shoulder. Encouraged, I covered the head with my mouth, sucking. He moved restlessly, arching up in offering and I took as much of his cock into my mouth as I could. Encompassing him tightly with the muscles of my mouth, I began to move over him in an escalating rhythm, feeling my own body responding as surely to my labors as if his cock was thrusting into my channel.

  The thought had scarcely entered my mind when Jared shifted my hips and placed his mouth over my clit once more, teasing me as he had before. The rhythm of my heart stammered then began to race. I sucked harder, moved faster as my own body began to build toward release again. I was skating the edge when Jared ceased to tease my clit and withdrew. A moment later, he lifted my hips, settling my knees on the mattress and then I felt the head of his cock probing me, gliding through the juices that lubricated my cleft and lodging in the mouth of my passage. I braced myself as he probed deeper, thrusting and retreating until he sank to my depths.

  We moved awkwardly for several moments and then I allowed him to set the rhythm. I could feel Jerico fighting against release as my own body struggled toward it. The realization sent me soaring higher. I sucked him hungrily, greedily, feeding my own desire off of his excitement. Abruptly, his cock jerked in my mouth. It touched off my own climax and I groaned, milking him with my mouth as my body began convulsing around Jared’s cock. He went still for a handful of heartbeats and then began pumping into me harder and faster as his own release caught him.

  I didn’t let go of Jerico’s cock until it ceased to spasm and my own convulsions began to dissipate. Finally, weak with the expenditure of what felt like every ounce of strength in me, I released him and dropped weakly to the mattress, gasping for breath.

  We lay in a tangled heap for some time. Finally, Jerico roused himself and shifted down to align his body with mine and tug at me until I was draped limply across him. Jared shifted, as well, settling snugly against my back and dropping an arm across my waist.

  I supposed it should have felt strange. It didn’t. It felt so right it was downright scary. Dimly, I wondered at Jerico and Jared’s complete comfort in sharing me between them, but I finally decided it must be a twin thing and something I would never completely understand. If it didn’t bother them, I sure as hell wasn’t about to object. The only thing I could think of that could possibly be better than sharing my body with Jerico was being with Jerico and Jared at the same time.

  Just about the time my heart and lungs ceased to labor and regained their normal rhythm, Jerico stirred again. “We should take you home.”

  I grunted. I was in no hurry. It dawned on me that I hadn’t had any of my questions answered, but I found I lacked the energy to care.

  Several moments passed before I realized that both Jerico and Jared were stroking me caressingly. Jared leaned down and placed a nibbling kiss on my shoulder. “We’d be more comfortable there,” he murmured.

  I grunted again. I couldn’t imagine how we could be. It was a little crowded on the bed with three of us, but I didn’t think my bed was any bigger.

  “I arranged it,” Jerico responded lazily, “just in case--although I’d begun to think you wouldn’t come back. We need time to learn each other. In any case, the job here is done. We have a new one coming up, but we’ll have time to ourselves before that.”

  He didn’t wait for a response. Disentangling himself from me, he slid off the bed. Jared came up on his knees behind me, scooped me up and passed me to Jerico. Half asleep, I curled around Jerico, not particularly pleased to be disturbed at the moment since all I really wanted to do was sleep for a little while and then start over.

  Curiosity gained the upper hand as Jerico carried me across the room, however, and the thought occurred to me that the three of us were buck naked. Puzzlement widened my eyes a little when I saw that Jerico had moved to the wall opposite the door we’d come in. I lifted my head and stared at the wall, then glanced up at Jerico. When I looked around for Jared, I saw that he’d come to stand beside us. He leaned forward and placed his palm on the wall.

  Instantly, an area of the wall began to glow and ripple, like water than had been disturbed. Tensing, I tightened my arms around Jerico’s neck and sat straighter. When I glanced at Jerico again, I saw that he was smiling at me. “Welcome,” he murmured, dipping his head to kiss me lightly even as he took a step forward.

  Blackness engulfed me, as if someone had flipped a switch and turned me off like a light.

  Chapter Five

  Awareness came to me slowly, like the mists of deep sleep parting. Warmth surrounded me, though, and I found I was reluctant to relinquish the sense of well being for the cold light of day. As usual, it couldn’t be denied. Thoughts began to gather and tease at me, bringing me more and more alert and taking me further from the comfort of sleep. Finally, reluctantly, I opened one eye a fraction. Jerico was propped on one arm beside me, watching me, a half smile on his lips. I stared at him for several moments, then glanced behind me when I felt a hand skate along my back.

  Jared smiled faintly at my expression.

  I think relief was uppermost, that for once I hadn’t woken alone to wonder if anything I thought had happened had actually happened. He leaned toward me and kissed me briefly. Jerico snatched me away from his brother and kissed just as briefly, then smacked me on the ass. “Are you going to lie in bed all day, or are you ready to explore?”

  I chuckled. “I’m not against laying in bed all day, but I wasn’t t
hinking about sleeping.”

  His eyes gleamed. “Don’t tempt me. I’m weak and need food.”

  I laughed at that. “Who’s cooking?” I teased.

  The brothers exchanged a look. “We’ll go out,” they said almost in unison.

  I looked down at myself. “Like this?”

  “I think we can find something for you to wear,” Jared responded coolly, rolling away from me and climbing out of the bed.

  I looked around the strange room I’d found myself in when Jerico followed suit. Cool colors were perfectly harmonized in the room, which was huge and wreaked of wealth. None of the furniture designs looked the least familiar, but from the gauzy draping that surrounded the bed, to the huge bed, and the chests, chairs and tables scattered about the room, it was tasteful and pleasing to the eye.

  Jared, I saw, reached a panel in one wall that was roughly the size and shape of a door. It opened, so silently I wouldn’t have known it had opened at all if I hadn’t been staring at it at the time.

  Automatic doors?

  “Go on. I’ll join the two of you once I’ve found clothing,” Jerico suggested.

  Shrugging, I crawled across the bed and got out, following Jared, already feeling anticipation at the prospect of showering with the two of them.

  A jolt of surprise went through me when I reached the ‘bathroom’. This was only partly because, like the bedroom, it was enormous. Mostly it was because the furnishings were so ultra modern as to be almost unrecognizable. Relief flooded me when Jared exited a small compartment on the other side.

  I tried not to look desperate as I hurried toward it and went in.

  Need almost abandoned me when the lights came on with the closing of the door and I stared at the potty. There was a hole and seat, however, and my need was too immediate for me to spend much time studying the strange looking thing. There was no paper. Before I could get desperate, warm water bathed my bottom. I jumped, spreading my legs for a look just as a blast of air replaced the fluids. The blast blew my hair back, but it also dried my bottom almost instantly.

  The thing closed like a trap when I got up.

  I didn’t hear a flush, but I heard something.

  When the ‘throne’ opened again it was as pristine as an operating table.

  Bemused, I left the facilities.

  Jared was standing in an enormous, circular depression. Water pelted him from almost every direction.

  There wasn’t a sign of a curtain nor any walls for that matter.

  I walked smack into ‘something’ though, hitting it so hard I fell back several steps. Jerico, who’d entered the bathroom as I crossed toward the shower, grabbed me from behind, steadying me. Holding my shoulders, he guided me to a different position and inside. Still bemused, I lifted my hand and waved it in front of me until it connected with something that felt vaguely solid--but oddly yielding at the same time.

  I began to feel as if the weirdness had caught me up anyway--it was just a different kind of weirdness.

  “You’ll grow accustomed. It isn’t that different,” Jerico said quietly, skating his palms over me in a soothing way.

  Diverted, I allowed myself to enjoy the moment, washing them, basking in their attention as they bathed me. By the time we’d finished, I was ripe for another roll on the bed.

  They had other ideas apparently.

  There were no towels for drying. Instead, Jerico pushed me toward a spot on the floor and warm air rushed over me. Unlike the blow dryers I was familiar with, this actually dried me fairly effectively.

  I would still have preferred a towel, but it seemed pointless to complain. He presented me with a robe like gown when I got out. I looked at it a little doubtfully, but discovered when I’d pulled it on that it fit me reasonably well. I couldn’t picture going out in public in it, especially when they donned very similar robes, but I kept my reservations to myself.

  Jerico slipped an arm around my waist, leading me through the bedroom and out through yet another automatic door. I glanced around the corridor outside, discovering it was more of a landing, or interior balcony, than a hallway and formed almost in a circle which ended in a wide set of spiraling stairs.

  The place was a palace!

  Unnerved, I refrained from gawking the best I could and allowed Jerico to guide me down the stairs and out the front door. I stopped abruptly when we left the ‘house’, feeling suddenly as if I was Alice and I’d just fallen down the rabbit hole.

  The sun had just crested the far horizon, bathing everything in a multicolored glow and very little of what I saw was even vaguely familiar. The sun looked abnormally small. The trees and plants like no vegetation I’d ever seen, with strangely twisting limbs and trunks, bluish green leaves instead of the bright Kelly green I was used to, and as strangely shaped as the trees and shrubs themselves. Things moved in the sky that weren’t planes but looked manmade, beside other things that moved in the sky that weren’t birds.

  I licked my lips, blinking. The strange scene didn’t vanish. “What is this place?”

  “Ren Jtanie,” Jared murmured. “Our home.”

  I glanced at him and then at Jerico. “Your home?”

  “Our home,” Jerico corrected. “It seems strange, I know, but you’ll grow accustomed.”

  “You keep saying that,” I retorted tartly. “I’m just not sure why I need to.”

  Jerico studied me for a long moment. “We are mated. We will live together,” he said a little uneasily.

  “I expected that,” I said at once, unwilling to break the magic and cause him any doubts. “But--what is this place? I have never seen anything like this--the plants are weird--everything is weird and different.”

  The two brothers exchanged a look. “We felt the same, but one grows accustomed to new places. We travel in our work, so we are only here occasionally. Some of the places you will like, others maybe not so much, but we will not have to stay long if you don’t like it--and if you are not happy, you could stay here, or on Earth. But we would far rather have you with us. Even with the gateway, I like to keep traveling to a minimum.”

  Shock traveled through me in a wave that made me dizzy. Gateway? Earth? Ren Jtanie? The strange language. The strange plants. The weirdness of it all. And still I had a hard time accepting the explanation that explained so many of the questions that had been plaguing me for weeks.

  “This is … are you saying this is another … planet?”

  Jerico studied me a moment and gathered me close. I didn’t resist. I really needed comforting at the moment. “Poor tshieda,” he murmured gently. “I told you the service was galactic dates and mates. What did you think I meant?”

  “I didn’t know you really meant galactic!” I complained, trying to fight the urge to give way to hysterics as the full impact settled around me like the collapse of a high rise building. “My boss is going to fire me!”

  He rubbed my back soothingly. “No he won’t. He won’t remember anything you don’t want him to.”

  I pushed away from him far enough to meet his gaze. “How am I going to stay with you two and keep my job?”

  Jared touched my arm, drawing my attention. “These things must be worked out to merge lives. We will find a way so that the three of us can live in harmony.”

  I eyed him skeptically. Job compromise usually meant the woman gave up hers to support her husband’s career. It occurred to me after a moment, however, that I was being a little unreasonable about the situation. True, I’d been to college--twice, for training in two different careers, the last law enforcement, but it wasn’t like education was ever wasted. I hadn’t been with the force long enough to consider it a career that had actually been launched. Furthermore, solving puzzles was my passion and there would be mysteries to be solved anywhere I happened to be. I wouldn’t be ‘giving up’ anything. I would be gaining worlds more to explore.

  I relaxed fractionally.

  It was my second passion, actually. My first was the two aliens standing ne
xt to me, as hard as it was to grasp that they actually were aliens. Life was full of comprises. The important thing to remember was that some were more important and more critical to one’s happiness than others.

  I smiled faintly. No wonder I hadn’t found my soul mate before. They were half way across the galaxy from me--or maybe all the way. I supposed that was why Mrs. Hutchins daughter, Julia, had disappeared and wondered if mama knew just how far away her daughter had moved off. Not that it mattered that I could see. Distance only mattered when it was hard to close and these people had travel down to practically instantaneous.

  The important thing for me to remember was that there was always the gateway if I needed to go back for something or just wanted to for any reason at all.

  Lifting up on my tiptoes, I kissed Jerico, and then Jared. “I love you--both of you. Let’s go. If you don’t feed me I’m going to expire.”

  Chuckling, Jerico draped an arm across my shoulders. Jared settled a hand on my ass and the three of us made out way down the steps toward the strange bullet looking thing I figured must pass as cars on Ren Jtanie. “What does tshieda mean?” I asked curiously.

  Jerico smiled down at me. “Beloved.”