The Perfect Creation

Chapter Eight

Erin didn’t question him, and the arousal in her eyes excited Rafe unbearably. He rose on his knees and straddled her neck, then leaned forward to better angle his cock. “I’m going to fuck your mouth, and you’re going to swallow it all, aren’t you?” She nodded.

“Say, ‘Yes, Sir.’”

“Yes, Sir.” She quivered, moaning, and he pushed past her lips.

With a harsh groan, Rafe seated himself balls deep, not surprised when Erin took him fully. With a savage cry, he began fucking her, relishing the feel of her tongue over him, of the sight of himself taking what he wanted. He didn’t treat her gently, and the fact that she could take what he doled out and more set him on fire.

The petal soft lips holding him gave delicious friction in addition with the slight rake of her teeth. And when he pulled out, she sucked hard, stimulating nerve endings that threw his entire balance off kilter. What had started out as discipline quickly eroded into carnal need, and it was everything Rafe could do to remember what he wanted and why.

“Open your mouth,” he growled, pulling out. “I’ll be damned if you control this, too.” She panted, staring up at him with a siren’s gaze. The pink flush over her skin sparkled as she forgot to mask her differences. And she made no effort to stifle her scent either. It embraced his lust, swallowing his passion as easily as her mouth surrounded his cock.

Rafe caught himself in hand and took over, stroking to a fevered pitch. “You want to make me come, but you’re not in charge, here, Erin. I am.” She groaned, disappointment shining in the glassy tears threatening to spill from her eyes. “Now apologise for running.”

“I’m sorry.” He waited. “Sir.”

Flor, that sounded so right. “And?” he prodded, rubbing the tip of his cock over her lips.

She licked the pearl of cream from his slit, and he stilled the shudder coursing through his body.

“And I won’t run again, Sir. I’m yours,” she added softly, her genuine remorse both beautiful and arousing.

“Mine to what?” He pushed himself through her lips, fucking her mouth again. “Mine to fuck, to own, to keep.” He couldn’t hold back any more. “Yes, yes. Swallow it all,” he groaned as he spewed, coming hard down her throat. He stroked her hair as he shot, watching her take him. Focusing on her, he was able to stave off the approaching wainu.

Normally he would have welcomed the bliss, but he had a point to prove, and he wasn’t nearly done making it.

“You were ‘created’ just for me,” he rasped, trying to catch his breath. By refusing to welcome wainu, he’d created a ball of energy that had nowhere to go. So he released it back into that part of him wanting Erin all over again.

Pulling out of her mouth, he straddled her torso and slid his cock between her breasts.

Just a whisper of her flesh under his added to the steel of his arousal, and he revelled in this part of himself that he didn’t share with anyone else. He allowed his Xema hungers full reign, challenged by the female he sensed needing all of him.

“You’re still hard,” she marvelled, then cast her eyes down, not maintaining eye contact.

The submissive gesture delighted him, but he wanted her to watch what he did to her.

“Look at me.” She raised her gaze to his. “That’s a good girl. Now stare down at your breasts, at my cock sliding through your valley. I want you to watch me, to see everything I do to you.”

She breathed, “Yes, Sir.” The flush creeping up her breasts and the richness of her scent showed her frustration. His little Creation needed satisfaction. And if her passion matched his, he could only imagine the wait to be excruciating.

“Good. Now spread your thighs wide.” He waited for her to do so. “Have you ever had sex with anyone before me, Erin?” He knew the answer even as she shook her head no. “Ever indulged in sexual play with anyone else?” Again, no. “Then how did you know what to do with me?”

“My sister served our Handler’s needs. She told me things, and I’ve studied procreation through books and vids. Even saw it in the bar where I met Drekk.” The sound of another man’s name on her lips aggravated him. “Did you like watching?”

“A little.” She arched up, forcing his balls to move along her chest, and she groaned.

“But only because it was so different from what I’d imagined.”

He slid his cock between her breasts again, and her pupils dilated. “Explain.” She licked her lips. “From what Anin told me, I expected the act to be rather dry, unfulfiling. But a woman in the bar having sex seemed to like it until her partner ended too soon.” The look she gave him told him she could have as easily been referring to him.

“Like I did, you mean?” Rafe smiled, unaccountably pleased that despite her submissiveness just now, a hint of steel still rung true in Erin.

“Ah, well…” She flushed.

“Truth.” He tweaked her nipple, pinching hard, and reached behind him. His fingers flicked between her folds. There, her cream spilled freely. Apparently, his submissive lover liked a hint of pain.

“Oh yes,” she breathed. “Like you. Rafe, you’re killing me. I’m so very...hungry for your touch. Please, Sir, give me more,” she begged, offering those pretty nipples as she thrust her chest towards his hands.

Rafe pinched her nipples and ground his shaft through the valley between her breasts.

The urge to mark her, to spatter his cum over her skin and rub it in struck him, and he began moving with quicker, firmer strokes.

Erin, however, pleaded with him, needing more with each press of his fingers over her, of his cock gliding over her flesh.

Her beauty in passion caught him to the quick, and as Rafe stared down at her, he wanted nothing more than to take them both to wainu. Now. He’d punished her enough.

Now, they both needed to find that gratification that drew them close.

Cursing, he released her breasts and mounted her. Without pause, he shoved himself hard and deep into her sex, groaning at the perfect fit.

“Please, more,” she groaned, lifting her hips to deepen his penetration.

But Rafe wouldn’t allow it. He slammed into her again and again, using his own strength to hold her in place. “You’ll take what I decide to give you,” he growled, taking her compliance as he ground into her clit with his pelvis.

They moved together, his forceful thrusts delighting the obedient lover he sensed within Erin. Though she moaned and begged for surcease, he could feel her delight with his mastery, and her desire only sparked his own.

He fused his mouth with hers, stealing her breath as she stole his will to do anything but satisfy her. She returned his kisses with equal fervour, whispering her apologies and her need to please him until he could do nothing but ride out the hungers plaguing him.

“Fuck, Erin,” he groaned, his balls hard and hot and aching with the need to release.

“Now, love, come now.”

Erin cried out and tightened around him, her body arched in a bow, completely his to control. The sight of her capitulation undid him, and Rafe came with a low groan. Wainu filled him with bliss, and he caught Erin waiting for him in that peaceful plane.

With a kiss and a hug, he released her from the ground restraint. He caught her to him and rolled over, keeping her on top and still joined with him.

When Rafe could again catch his breath, he sighed and kissed the base of her neck.

“You still need to be punished.”

Erin hummed her agreement. “Yes, I really do, Sir.” Rafe took a minute before looking up at her, pleasantly surprised to see such warmth and open caring in her alien eyes. “You like calling me that, don’t you?” Erin’s smile faded and she flushed, glancing away.

“No, honey, tell me. I want to know everything about you,” Rafe insisted. He stroked her back, willing her to believe his sincerity.

“Yes, I like calling you ‘Sir.’ In the labs, I answered to a Handler.”

“Handler?”

“Synster. He watched over my education and helped Canunn, my Creator, run tests.

My Handler told me what to do all the time. We’re—Creations are built to serve. It’s an ingrained trait.”

“But one you overcame.”

She smiled at the obvious pride in his voice. “It took a very long time, and it was difficult. But yes, I overcame it. Mostly.” She leaned close to kiss him. “I can’t explain it, but when we’re sexually…ah, together, I want to give you everything I have. I want to please you.” She glanced away, as if embarrassed.

Rafe caught her face and turned her to see him. “You do please me, Erin. Don’t look away. I love being inside you, feeling you submit. It arouses me like nothing else.” He deliberately paused, wanting to stir her aggression. Between her submission when underneath him and her dominance when battling, Erin appealed to Rafe’s every fantasy. By Flor’s breast, he couldn’t have imagined another being created more perfectly to fit him. “But I don’t want you to obey my every whim.”

Erin froze, and the frown she gave him pleased him to no end. “Well, that’s good, because don’t think for a minute I’ll submit to you unless we’re… like this.” She flushed.

“I’m not your servant.”

“Good.”

“I won’t let you handle me. I’m done with that life.”

“About time, if you asked me.”

“I didn’t work my entire life to find freedom only to give it up to a…what did you say?” Rafe laughed. “Baby, I like you feisty. I like strong women with intelligence, drive and beauty. Not to mention a body that has me hard from just a look. I want you to trust me, Erin. To really trust me. And quit thinking about yourself as a Creation. You were a prisoner, same as your brother and sister, that Blue Rim experimented on. And that’s Flor’s honest truth. Just keep reminding yourself of that. Because no matter where you came from, you were mistreated and abused, and you didn’t deserve any of it. So forget about Creations and Handlers, because I’m sure as hell not going to tell anyone about your origins, and that you can count on.”

He scowled, not feeling good about lying to his family about her but knowing he needed to, for Erin’s sake. Rafe refused to let her die because of some ancient law. Yes, those Creations had been lawless monsters. Erin, however, was anything but.

“Your sister and brother, are they like you?” He needed to know. He’d hate to have to put down her family, but he couldn’t risk the danger they presented if they weren’t like Erin.

“No. Anin’s much softer, very pliable, dangerously so. Ryen…he’s pretty fierce. I don’t know how else to describe him.”

Rafe rubbed her arms, from her shoulders to her unbound wrists, surprising himself by wanting to instil more discipline in the wilful woman. She was his fantasy made flesh. “Tell me what Blue Rim did to you, Erin. I want to understand. And once you tell me, you’ll never have to tell anyone about it again.” He needed to know about her on a basic level that surprised him for its intensity.

“Four years ago, Canunn produced a viable zygote—me—and two others. Anin and Ryen.”

“Hold on.” Rafe stared in shock. “You’re only four years old?”

“Technically, yes. But my education, physical and emotional maturation actually peg me as a female a few years from her third decade.”

He breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank Flor.”

“I was conceived in the laboratory, born, and with artificial stimulation, matured to adult stasis after one year. The past three years have been filled with tests and more tests to determine my abilities. As far as I know, I’m what they consider the only stable Creation ever developed. With the exception of my involuntary submissiveness to obey my Handler, I function independently, learn at an above-average rate, and possess the inherent skills of many of the System’s strongest races.”

“Which ones are we talking about?”

“You know most species in the System don’t mix. Genetic recombinants normally result in hybrids possessing only the characteristics of the dominant gene-type. But somehow Canunn manufactured a process by which I, and my siblings, possess the best characteristics of all of my contributors. I have the strength of a Ragga, the warring ability of a Zephyran and the physical appeal of a Nebite. And there are a few other factors in my genetic coding as well that my data discs could tell you.”

“Data discs.” Rafe studied her, trying to process it all. “We need to destroy those discs and rescue those prisoners before we take down Blue Rim. That’s why you wanted a techie.” She nodded.

“Where are Anin and Ryen?”

Caution darkened her gaze. “Safe.”

“Good. Don’t worry, baby, I won’t press you for details.” His words eased her tension, and Rafe hugged her tight. “I’m not going to hurt you. I know it’s not easy to believe, considering we just met and all you’ve gone through. But Erin, there’s something between us… You’re new to sex, so you don’t realise how precious our joinings are. My kind don’t experience wainu— that peaceful, rich sensation after sex—with just anyone.

“Erin, you’re special.” My potential mate, he wanted to say, but didn’t want to overload her with something even he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear. “And there’s something else you should know.” He’d reasoned out that confiding in her might make her more liable to trust him. After all, she had nowhere else to go, and she needed to believe she had help. “I’m not Cheltam.”

She stared, her gaze turning from soft to hard in seconds. “Then you look just like him.”

“I do. He’s my brother, the one you put down with Drekk in his study.” Erin’s eyes widened. “I thought your clothes looked different the second time I took you down.” He winced at the remembrance. “You two look completely alike.”

“Mostly. But you need to know that he’s concerned about us. And I wouldn’t be surprised if Drekk is close to finding us. Before your escape through the forest, Gar warned me he was sending him after us. And Drekk’s a damned fine tracker, so if he isn’t already here, he soon will be. But don’t worry, he’s a loyal guy. A friend of mine, actually.” Erin nodded, staring at him with consideration. “So Rafe is your real name, then?”

“Rafe of Mardu, at your service.” He paused. “I’m a peacemaker.” She tensed, and he gentled her.

“I won’t hurt you, Erin. Look, if I’d wanted to take you in before now, I would have. I only want to help, but to do that, you have to trust me completely.” She considered him, and at her hesitant nod, he continued. “I have contacts I can trust. When I tell you we’ll take down Blue Rim, believe me when I say we will. But first we need to wipe out any and all references of your family from their database.” He thought about it. “And I think there’s someone I know to do the job.”

Erin sighed and leaned in to the hand now cupping her cheek. She closed her eyes, and after a moment opened them, her sombre gaze fixed to his stare. “In the labs, I learned to endure,” she said quietly. “No one looked at me or my family as if we were anything more than experiments. They broke bones, injected me with awful chemicals that burned my blood and blistered my skin. I was forced to kill animals with my bare hands, to tolerate poisons and radiation, all to see what I could withstand.

“They forced me to bond to my siblings, who aren’t genetically my siblings, in the truest sense. Another attempt to monitor, to test, to see if a simple Creation could feel affection for another. An experiment that, to their surprise, worked. I love my brother and sister as much as I learned to hate my Creator and Handler. But you, Rafe, are the first person I’ve ever met who wants to help me. You’re the first decent person I’ve met outside of a laboratory, the first one I want to love.”

Rafe felt moisture on his palm from her tears. Dammit, Erin was crying.

“Please don’t destroy my trust. I can handle a lot, and I have. I’m strong, I’m quick, and I can be dangerous. But I’m also a woman with needs; I have deeply seated emotions. So please, don’t kill this wonderful feeling growing for you. I don’t think I could survive that, despite what I’ve already gone through. Even losing my freedom again wouldn’t hurt as much as your betrayal.”

Her honesty cut him to the quick, and he had to clear his throat to speak. Stroking her soft hair he answered. “I won’t betray you, Erin. And I won’t let you down. There’s so much more to life than what you’ve seen. And I’d consider it an honour if you’d let me show it to you once we take care of this mess.”

She relaxed enough to smile, and she chuckled as she blinked through tears at him. “I guess Anin was right. Good sex does have a positive effect on the male mindset.” Rafe laughed with her. “Baby, I hate to break it to you, but it’s not just the sex. I can get a piece of—ah, a woman—wherever and whenever I want it.” The frown of jealousy on her face delighted him. “But the sex has never been as good as it is with you. And no, that’s not the reason I want to help you.” I love you, he wanted to say, but he didn’t feel the timing was right. “What Blue Rim is doing is wrong. They hurt you, and that’s not right. I can’t help wanting to fix what’s wrong in the System. That’s who I am, why I became a peacemaker in the first place.”

She said nothing for a moment, then asked, “But you don’t think I’m a wrong you need to correct?”

“No, baby. You’re the one thing in my life that’s Flor-damned perfect, and I intend to keep it that way.” No matter how many peacemakers, scientists, or brothers he had to overrun to do it.

Gar glared at the com unit he’d just disconnected. If he hadn’t known better, he’d have sworn Drekk was deliberately slowing his progress, which made no sense. Gar knew Drekk better than most. An inheritance that came with Cheltam’s cover, Drekk provided both muscle and invaluable contacts throughout the System. He couldn’t be bought, and he never stopped on a mission. In a way, he reminded Gar of the Xema, and were it not for his large frame and unsettling grey eyes, Drekk might have passed for one.

So why would Drekk intentionally sabotage Gar’s efforts to find Rafe and keep him safe?

“He wouldn’t.” Gar rubbed the back of his neck, tired from his worry and the successive nights of no sleep. The nightmares had returned. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Taika and his son crying out for help. Unfortunately, the dream ended just like his reality had, with his wife and son being blown to bits.

Closing his eyes tightly, Gar willed away the images that refused to fade completely and focused on the family he had that were still alive. He had to trust that Drekk would do his job. As Drekk had said, the man preferred Rafe to Gar anyway. Rafe, the brother who most looked like Gar, but possessed an arsenal of charm that stayed him well in life. Hell, were it not for Rafe, Gar doubted he’d be here today. Only his brother’s dogged persistence, that ever-annoying penchant he had to get his own way, had woken Gar from a grief filled daze long enough to return to the peacemakers.

Sernal’s attitude, on the other hand, Gar could do without. But not permanently, he hastened to add, should fickle Flor be listening close. That fucking Mardu god had an odd sense of humour on Gar’s best day. No sense to exacerbate Sernal’s problems by wishing for something he didn’t really feel. Truth be told, Gar counted on Sernal’s steadfastness. Sernal was like a rock. Good and bad had definite sides, and to his law-loving brother, a grey area between the two didn’t exist.

That attitude had propelled Sernal through the peacekeeper ranks to the head of the organisation. That and his propensity towards an honest living. Little by little, Sernal emptied his forces of the corrupt peacekeepers giving justice a bad name. But the process was slow-going, and Gar thought that maybe this time Sernal had stepped on the wrong toes.

From what Gar had thus far gathered, Sernal had simply disappeared from sight four nights ago. No one had seen or heard from him since, and ugly rumours began spreading that Sernal wasn’t as honest as everyone had thought. Typical peacemaker politics. Without Sernal there to stem the accusations, his career would surely come to a screeching halt. And Gar knew how much Sernal lived for the law. To Sernal, being a peacemaker held the same importance as being Xema.

“Dammit.” Gar shoved the communicator in his belt and grabbed a pistol from his weapons stash. In minutes he found his rover and plotted a course to his nearby landing pad.

As he travelled, he decided he’d put it off long enough. Taking a deep breath, he set the rover on autopilot and checked in with his youngest brother.

Mara’s Light picked up after two short pings.

“What?” The growl belonged to one of the behemoth Raggas, Nu or Set, Catam’s crewmates. Commotion sounded in the background, and then the Ragga cleared his throat.

“Mara’s Light. What can I do for you?”

“Who’s this?” Gar asked, aware he came off as rude. But hell, who had the patience for social niceties?

“Nu Fas. Who the hell is this?”

Gar snorted. So much for Nu’s attempted diplomacy. “Gar. Put Catam on.” Nu cursed loudly enough to be heard three planets away, and then Catam joined the conversation. “Gar, any word on Sernal?”

“Not yet, but I’m working on it. What do you have on Blue Rim?” As Catam relayed his dealings with two of Blue Rim’s underlings, Canunn and Synster, Gar understood that his little brother had come a long way from the aggravating imp he’d once been. No longer was Catam the smaller boy trailing after his brothers. He had a successful career as a bounty hunter, a beautiful wife and two breathtakingly wonderful children. At short moments like these, when envy and pain cleared from his mind, Gar could appreciate his little brother and grasp how much he loved and was proud of him. But the memories always intruded, and eventual heartache wiped away any good feelings resurfacing. Before they could overwhelm him, Gar thanked Catam, promised to keep him up-to-date, and broke the connection.

Breathing hard, Gar wished he could overcome his need to distance himself from the happiness of others. Drekk, fortunately, proved easy enough to work with. The large man rarely spoke, and when he did, it was with rancour or dismissal. Though Drekk worked hard, he didn’t project that loving, familial tone Gar’s brothers did. That need to protect Gar simply didn’t exist for Drekk, and for that Gar was grateful. Oh, he knew he could count on Drekk to watch his back, but Drekk and he operated less on affection than on mission-oriented success. A mutual respect for an end state both men wanted. Nothing more.

Nothing like the seeming affection Drekk held for Rafe, which Gar definitely appreciated considering the circumstances.

Mulling the notion that he didn’t quite fill Rafe’s shoes in this job, Gar decided to make the change he’d been debating for several months. Playing Cheltam had helped free him from a course set on self-destruction, but this job didn’t fit. Rafe needed to come back, just as soon as Drekk pulled his ass from that troublesome Eyran refugee. Flor’s dagger, trust Rafe to land himself next to a fucking Creation.

Gar sighed. Just as soon as he cleared Sernal and settled Rafe once again behind Cheltam’s desk, he planned to pack up and head out, to where he didn’t yet know. But his instincts told him it was time to leave. Already he skirted the law more than Rafe, and definitely Sernal, would be comfortable with. The fact that his lawlessness didn’t bother Gar at all made his existence as a peacemaker a real problem in the organisation Sernal idealized.

No, Gar’s time as a lawman had ended.

Arriving at his landing strip, Gar left the rover and soon piloted his small craft into space, towards Sernal’s last known location—Mornio, a mining planet filled with more criminals than those populating Jintak’s jails. There Gar hoped to find a lead on Sernal, and maybe an idea about what to do with the rest of his pathetic life. But in the meantime, he planned to continue monitoring Drekk’s progress, or lack thereof, because if his shady assistant thought to screw with Gar’s orders, there’d be hell to pay. After all, Gar lived in the grey between right and wrong. And Flor help Drekk if he thought to sabotage any of the Mardu brothers.

Teleporting into the forest had been easy. And from his vantage in the crook of the tree above, Drekk watched Rafe stroke Erin’s full breasts, his motions tender and not at all rough as the marks on Erin’s wrists might have indicated. Listening to their conversation illuminated much about Rafe that Drekk had suspected but never actually witnessed. Drekk respected the hell out of the peacemaker even more, and the fact that Rafe knew about Erin and still planned to help her cemented Drekk’s decision to give them more time alone together; screw Gar’s orders. With Rafe, Erin would be protected. The Mardu would help her and her siblings, no matter what. As would Drekk. And part of that help meant backing off to give Rafe time to claim his new mate.

Because in all the time Drekk and Rafe had worked together, Drekk had never seen the Mardu look at another woman the way he stared at Erin. He had a special look in his eye and an aura pulsating around his body that directly aligned with Erin’s energy—a tell-tale sign the two would soon bond. Drekk had seen it before, a fascinating ritual, but never with a male of Rafe’s particular intensity.

Still, Drekk didn’t want to intrude on what was probably Erin’s first measure of peace in her unfortunate life. Just seeing her in that Flor-forsaken bar had told him who and what she was. And though he’d sensed what she meant to do to him in Cheltam’s office, he couldn’t blithely hand her over to Gar to use as bait, no matter how much she might have helped them take down Blue Rim.

Drekk had been waiting for years to destroy that particular laboratory on Eyra. And with Erin’s help, he planned to do just that. But not for the peacemakers, or because it was the law. He’d take Blue Rim apart for all the ones that had come before, and would no doubt come again if someone didn’t put an end to the evil Creators and Handlers tinkering with god-skills.

Erin moaned, distracting him, and Drekk watching with interest as Rafe moved her off his torso and propped her up on her hands and knees in front of him. The Mardu spanked her hard, several times, and Erin bowed her head and groaned with pleasure, her pheromones reaching Drekk even up in the tree. No, now was definitely not the time to be worrying about Blue Rim, not with two beautiful forms engaging in the carnality of pain and pleasure.

Drekk rubbed his rock-hard cock, amused and aroused at Rafe’s prowess with the female sex. Though the decent thing would have been to give the couple their privacy, Drekk had never claimed to be anything approaching respectable. He wanted to watch, to see if the Mardu lived up to his reputation, and to see if Erin would live up to the promise of her incredible beauty. By the way Erin continued to shiver under her lover’s touch, Drekk figured he was in for quite a show.