Page 7 of Destinies of Diamond
The frustration in my tone snapped them out of their trance. “It’s nothing,” August said quickly. “We’re just a little worried, that’s all.”
“Worried? About what?”
“I just noticed some strange behavior from Commander Trevor,” Brendan explained. “I admit it’s nothing specific I can identify and I dislike making unfounded accusations like that. But in this particular situation, it’s better to be on your guard. It’s not paranoia if they’re really out to get you.”
I bit my lower lip, musing over Brendan’s words with care. I hadn’t noticed anything different about Commander Trevor and I’d have chalked Brendan’s attitude up to overprotectiveness. But it would be stupid to not consider at least the small possibility that a teacher at the school might have a secondary agenda.
“What do you propose? It’s not like I can skip the assignment.”
“Maybe not,” Pollux agreed, “but at least be careful. And talk to your mother when you see her again. We can’t trust a medic here to monitor your pregnancy. We’ll have to rely on her to make sure nothing goes wrong.”
I’d already planned on doing that, but it still meant a lot that he’d said those words.
“All right,” I replied. “I promise I’ll be careful. But I’m not the only one at risk here. Personally, I find it very suspicious that Dean Chimera would want to take August under his wing.”
August was an excellent fighter and under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have questioned the choice. But now that we knew August was part apsid, we had to assume that a lot of our leaders’ choices were related to that, at least to a certain extent.
“I’m not too concerned.” August shrugged. “They’ve known I’m an apsid for decades and nothing’s happened.”
“Things change, August. The attack at the tournament targeted you in specific. I can’t imagine that’s a coincidence.”
“That may be true, Selene, but I’m not the priority right now. You are.”
Looking into August’s fierce eyes, I realized he completely meant the words. It wasn’t that he didn’t realize the fact that he was at risk. He simply didn’t care about it as much as he cared about me. And the others were no different. They’d cared about one another very much before I’d shown up and that hadn’t changed. And yet, their relationship had obviously been affected. They were throwing themselves into their connection with me, even if I couldn’t help but put a barrier between us.
Was it just guilt over the incident with Jared? Was it another side-effect of the battle against the apsids? I didn’t know. Either way, I wanted them to stop. My emotions were still all over the place and they weren’t helping with their insistence to indulge me like this.
Things were made worse by the constant sexual tension between us. I still lived with them, so it wasn’t like I could avoid looking at them while they changed. And then, there were the showers.
As if reading my mind, Knox waved away his hologram and got up. “It’s getting late. We’re due at the showers.”
I nodded and mimicked him, wordlessly shutting down my own device. We all grabbed our toiletries and left our quarters together. The tension between us was so thick it rivaled a cloud of tachyon emissions.
By the time we got to the bathing room, the Harpy Squad was already present. Today, they decided not to taunt us, which was a nice change, if suspicious. I tried to not let it get to me. Maybe they were just focusing on their assignments too and had no time for petty conflicts.
When we headed into the lockers, I went through the regular motions, ignoring all the men around me as I took my clothes off. By now, I was nowhere near as shy as I’d been when I’d started the academy and I didn’t really care if they stared. Because they all still stared and still got erections. It wasn’t as bad as it had been in the beginning, though, and no one made any unpleasant or lecherous comments.
The real problem showed up when we were in the actual showers. I was no longer comfortable having my lovers shield me from view, but it was worse to just stand there and wash myself while everyone was staring. And if I started acting differently, the Harpy Squad tamers would catch on, just like Argyle had in the mess hall.
Well, there was nothing I could do but go along with it. Studiously trying to not steal a peek at my lovers’ naked bodies, I waited for the showers to start. When the familiar robotic voice announced the beginning of the washing cycle, I relaxed. I just needed to focus on the process and everything would be all right.
It wasn’t. The moment the water began to fall, I knew something was wrong. As the liquid trickled over my body, my stomach did a funny leap. My nipples felt so sensitive, far more than before. My head started spinning and every inch of me began to vibrate.
I swayed and ended up leaning against Knox. “Selene?” he whispered against my hair. “Are you all right?”
“Mmm… Never better,” I muttered as I rubbed my face against his naked chest.
He was so warm, his virile strength so comforting. Why had I ever been mad at him? I couldn’t remember. It was such a waste to stay mad, when we could do far more interesting things with our time.
My pussy throbbed with the need to be filled, but when I felt Knox’s shaft nudging my hip, I decided against taking what I wanted.
He was only half-hard. That was unacceptable. When I was naked in his presence, he needed to be fully erect. Unless we were coming off five orgasms, of course, but today, that wasn’t the case. I couldn’t excuse him.
With the corner of my eye, I stole a look at my other lovers. They were all frowning and didn’t seem to be paying attention to my breasts at all. Why? This was all wrong. They’d always liked my breasts. Was some other Terran sliding her way into their affections? Or worse, had they found a Chimera noble to take my place in their bed? That Penelope Welton bitch had seemed awfully interested in Brendan and lately, she had been more cooperative than before.
Torn between frustration and arousal, I dropped to my knees and took Knox’s cock in my mouth. He released a choked sound of surprise and desire. “Selene, what…?”
The words were barely comprehensible, but he’d managed to utter them, which again, was unacceptable. I squeezed his balls and he forgot all about whatever he’d been trying to say. Grunting, he buried his fingers in my wet hair and started to fuck my mouth.
