VANESSA

Avren had given me the best orgasm of my life. I had never felt anything like that before. The past few weeks together in the lab had been like foreplay. I hadn’t been with a guy for months — I was more than a little ready to go.

Even considering my near-celibate state and how wound up I had been since he had appeared on my doorstep, Avren was a better lover than I remembered. All I wanted was to wrap my mouth around him.

I was a bit of a goody two-shoes, but I loved giving a man a blowjob. I stood up, feeling languid and good all over.

“What do you mean?” Avren couldn’t believe I was determined to give him as much pleasure as he had given me.

“Sex is both give and take, Avren. It’s my turn to give.” I looked at him with the sexiest stare I could manage. “Undo your pants.” His Adam’s apple bobbed as his hands obeyed me. Soon he was sitting on the couch with his pants and underwear pushed down. His cock stood up, big, beautiful, and hard.

I wanted to taste him.

I knelt between his legs, not bothering to button up my shirt. It felt good to have my nipples rub against his inner thighs. I grabbed the base of his cock with one hand and gently fondled his balls with the other. My mouth watered as I leaned forward to lick him. When my tongue touched the shiny tip, he let out a guttural sound that made me wet again.

“Take it.” Avren pushed his hips toward me.

I happily complied. I liked hearing Avren take charge and order me around — he had never done that before. I swirled my tongue around before taking as much of him as I could. It felt good to have him fill my mouth.

After a minute, I pulled off. “You can hold my head if you want.”

“What?” Having my mouth on his cock must have muddled his brain.

“Hold my head and fuck my mouth.”

He swallowed hard again. “You’d let me do that?”

I nodded. “You have to be gentle, though.”

Avren was panting in anticipation. He carefully threaded his fingers through my hair and held my head still before beginning to pump his cock into my mouth.

I moaned. It was sexy, and I loved it. I dropped my hand to my clit and rubbed it, needing to come again quickly.

“You’re touching yourself.” His hips sped up. I rubbed myself in tight, quick circles as his cock moved in and out of my mouth. “It’s too hot. I can’t...”

Avren thrust into me four or five times. His cock hit the back of my throat, and I felt the orgasm building deep inside me. He stiffened and exploded in my mouth. I came again, moaning around his cock as he spent himself between my lips. I swallowed and sucked out every drop, releasing him with a quiet pop.

I was pleased with myself. Avren lay back on the couch, eyes closed, looking spent. Without opening his eyes, he pulled me up to sit beside him, kissing me softly until I pulled away from his lips and laid my head on his shoulder. Neither of us spoke a word.

Where were we going to go from here?

* * *

AVREN

The next day, I stood beside Vanessa as we waited for my family to emerge from their shuttle. Anders was piloting, as he always did. Gwen had left with him. Vanessa and I were by ourselves, waiting for them to arrive.

I wished there was something that would make us more comfortable around each other. “Thank you for the best blow-job I’ve ever had” didn’t seem to be the right thing to say. Neither was “Will you marry me?” or “Please don’t touch me anymore because I can’t get you out of my head and I think I’m going to go crazy if I can’t have you.”

Vanessa and I hadn’t seen each other after I awkwardly left her place. If I hadn’t run away, I was sure we would have bonded by now. I wasn’t going to take Allex’s road to marriage. It had worked for him and Priya, but it wasn’t my thing. I followed the rules.

Except for last night. I had let my lust get away from me, and we had a fantastic time together. I just didn’t know what to do — we still had to work together.

We needed to talk about it, but neither one of us wanted to break the silence.

“Madellan, I don’t want this to be awkward.”

I loved it when she called me by my last name. It made my heart pound. “I think it’s too late for that.” I shook my head.

She sighed. “Okay, maybe you have a point. Can we turn the clock back to—”

I cut her off with a sharp motion of my hand. “There’s no going back after what we did last night.” Her cheeks turned pink, but she didn’t look embarrassed. Was she getting turned on?

“I suppose not. But what are we going to do?”

“I have no idea, Vanessa.”

“We can call ourselves by the same labels we were using before it happened. We’re friends, right? Colleagues?”

I watched as Anders expertly set the shuttlecraft down in the middle of the landing pad. I didn’t look at her. “What we are is lovers.”

“Right. Er...couldn’t we do all three?”

“Friends, colleagues, and lovers?”

“Kind of a friends plus thing. On Earth, there’s a thing called friends with benefits.” She looked hopeful.

“We’re on Auxem, Vanessa.”

“Fine. But we’re not dating.”

“Colleagues, who fuck?”

“You make it sound weird.” She paused, searching for the right word. “It’s a little clinical.”

“Shouldn’t it be?” The shuttle door slid open. “We’re two scientists who don’t want to get their hearts broken again? We’re meant to be detached.”

“Do you think we can do it?” Vanessa turned away from me to face the crowd emerging from the shuttlecraft and pasted on a smile.

Arnon and Jayne came first, each carrying a baby. Elle had a huge belly, and Ayrie insisted on helping her when she didn’t need his assistance. Allex and Priya came next, followed by Gwen and Anders.

I spoke out of the side of my mouth as we moved toward my family. “I think we have to. What could possibly go wrong? We can’t seem to keep our hands off each other.”

“I can refrain. I think you mean we don’t want to keep our hands off each other.”

“Since we are not getting back together, it has to be sex with no strings attached.”

“That’s good enough for me, Avren.”

We went forward to greet my family.

* * *

VANESSA

The dull roar of conversation was overwhelming. After greetings and some shocking insults between the brothers, we made our way to Arnon and Jayne’s opulent place which the staff had carefully prepared for us.

A magnificent display of food was on the table, and I was afraid everyone would pair off. Avren and I were certainly not a couple, but we were off the hook because they separated into groups of men and women. Jayne walked off by herself, taking a tour of the place, and the other women followed her. The boys congregated in the kitchen, standing around while Arnon passed around Auxem alcohol.

I stood by myself, feeling like I wasn’t part of the group. What was I doing here?

Avren was engrossed with his family, which was how it should be, but I clearly wasn’t a part it. I needed to get back to work. I should never have set foot in the room. I turned to let myself quietly out the door, knowing I didn’t belong when I heard Gwen’s voice echoing across the house.

“Where is the other ginger hiding? Vanessa, come over here.” I turned toward the sound of her voice. Gwen appeared in the hallway and beckoned to me. “Where you think you’re going, girl? You don’t want to be left alone when the Madellan brothers are catching up. Make sure you bring both of your X chromosomes with you. We have a lot to talk about.”

I blinked, overcome by her kindness and unrestrained warmth in front of the Auxem princes.

Anders called out to her. “Take your two X chromosomes and get out of here, Gwen. I’ll deal with you later.”

Gwen winked at him and nodded at me, indicating we should proceed down the passageway. We walked toward the sound of chattering women.

“Is there somewhere you needed to be tonight?” She looked at me curiously.

I shrugged. “Avren and I aren’t married. I could never do what you do, behaving casually in front of famous people.”

Gwen burst out laughing uncontrollably, and I watched her, feeling bewildered. Had I said something funny? She laughed so long and so hard that she ended up clutching her belly and needing to use the bathroom.

“Thanks, Vanessa. I needed a laugh. I’ve been stressed lately, and that’s not safe for the baby.”

“I still don’t understand what I said that was so humorous.”

“A while ago, I couldn’t even talk to them. I started sweating if I knew I was going to be in the same room as one of them. I couldn’t speak. They probably thought I was an idiot.”

“That sounds completely unbelievable. You’re just saying something to make me feel better.”

I knew I had offended her immediately.

“I would never tell a lie. Come here. Let me show you something.” Gwen grabbed my arm and dragged me out onto the beautiful terrace at the back of their suite. The ground was cement and ended in some perfectly manicured grass. Lamps that looked like torches surrounded the sitting area. A complete set of comfortable living room furniture filled the space. Off in the courtyard were trees, fountains, and benches.

But my attention wasn’t on the surroundings.

“Girls, please tell Vanessa how I used to behave around your husbands.” Elle made a dismayed face. Jayne laughed, then covered her mouth. Priya grinned. “Come on, don’t be shy. She doesn’t believe me.”

Elle shook her head. “I can hardly believe it myself. Vanessa, she only started talking to the guys recently.”

Priya spoke up. “She used to tell Anders he wasn’t a prince, and he was just a pilot. She made him feel like she only loved part of him.”

“I couldn’t handle it, Vanessa. I had a weird phobia. It was funny because Anders, the prince, never made me feel nervous at all. We were together all the time.”

“You really wouldn’t say a word when they were around?”

Gwen nodded her head. “What do you mean, you don’t belong?”

“You’re all the wives of princes. Doesn’t that make you princesses?”

Four disgusted faces in front of me forced me to start laughing.

“We’re women from Earth, just like you.” Priya stood up and ran her hands up and down her body. “None of us are princesses at heart, no matter what our official titles might be.”

“Vanessa, what’s up with you and Avren?” Jayne spoke sweetly and innocently, but I couldn’t help feeling she wasn’t quite as wholesome as she looked.

“We’re researching the cause of Auxem wing pain.” I frowned. “I thought you all knew about it. We’ve isolated the gene, and we’re trying to alter it to remove the agony...”

I trailed off. Everyone looked like they had more questions for me.

“I’m not as polite as Jayne.” Elle seemed like a shark out for blood. She had brown hair in a short pixie cut. “Are you two together or what?”

“Avren and I?” Against my will, I started nervously thinking about what we had done last night. “Why would you ask me such an embarrassing question?”

Gwen’s eyes lit up, and she grinned at Priya, who smiled back. “Did you notice she didn’t answer the question?” Gwen sounded like she had heard something funny.

“Rumor has it you and Avren dated before, but it ended badly.” Jayne frowned at Gwen and Priya.

“Yes, that’s about right. How do you know so much about me?” I was unwilling to share any further details. Everyone seemed nice, but I didn’t know them. “There’s nothing between us now. We’re colleagues.”

All the women around me had a look of disbelief on their face. The baby had been squirming around in Jayne’s arms. Jayne put her down on the floor, and the little girl crawled around before finding a chair to pull herself up on.

“We don’t want to be pushy, Vanessa.” Gwen frowned thoughtfully. “Well, I do. They don’t.” She waved a hand at her sisters-in-law. “But you two look like a little more than colleagues.”

I decided to try another approach. “Would you believe we’re old friends?”

“Maybe, if that was only the beginning of the description. Is there a ‘with benefits’ tacked on at the end?” Gwen waggled her eyebrows at me.

I sighed and sat down in one of the chairs. “We were trying to keep our relationship professional. I was, at least. But things happened.”

The women started cheering and only stopped when Gwen forced them to quiet down. “And...” she prompted. “Last night you got your groove on, didn’t you? I can see why. Avren is cute. Not as cute as Anders, of course, but there’s something about him.”

Her comments touched off a spirited discussion about which Madellan brother was the cutest. In the end, the consensus seemed to be that Ayrie was gorgeous, Arnon distinguished, Anders devilishly handsome, Allex just plain hot, and Avren was cute in a bookish sort of way.

I agreed and appreciated the heat getting off my back for a few minutes.

“Here’s the thing, Vanessa.” Gwen reached out to take my hands. “You seem to be a terrific person, but Avren is part of our family. We don’t want to see him get hurt.”

I looked around, and everyone had a similar solemn look on their face. Some were nodding in agreement.

“We heard you broke his heart the last time you were together.”

“Who told you that?”

“Does it matter, Vanessa? All we want to know is if it’s true.”

“I think we hurt each other. We were much younger back then.”

Priya nodded, looking sympathetic. “Avren said it was pretty complicated.”

“It was. But neither of us is going to have problems this time. It’s just sex.” I could see doubt emanating from their bodies. “We’re not getting involved. We’re hooking up.”

“Does Avren feel the same way you do?” Gwen had a concerned look on her face.

“Of course he does. Why do you ask?”

Gwen looked around at the others for support, and they nodded. “When he looks at you, there’s a lot more than lust in his eyes.”