"You all have never learned a different language, yet you think I should be perfect?"
“I never said I agreed with it,” Rafe defends himself. “You asked a question, and I answered it. Until you learn Imperial properly, people will treat you worse and worse.”
“I saw pets that spoke Imperial perfectly, but they were still human pets. So no, I am not going to put my heart into learning Imperial.”
“And that is exactly what Senator Var is talking about,” Lorian says.
"The IGC needs to see compliance," Rafe adds.
"And what doyouneed to see?"
They exchange one of those twin looks that exclude the rest of the galaxy.
"We need to see you safe," Lorian says finally. "Alive.Here. Not dying in some frozen hell because you couldn't keep your heroic impulses in check."
"Heroic impulses?" The anger rises inside of me, hot and cleansing after so much humiliation. "I saved people. Actual people. A pregnant woman who would have been bred like livestock. A man who'd been enslaved since childhood. How is that an impulse?"
"Because you got caught!" Rafe explodes. "Because you were sloppy and emotional, and now, you're paying the price!"
"We all are paying the price,” Lorian adds coldly. "Our reputation, our business, our future—all compromised because you couldn't resist playing savior."
“No. Neither of you are innocent. You set me up with Terra Ka. You gave me all the skills to feed them the information you wanted me to give them. You wanted me to do it. So, why claim me? Why not let me rot in the mines of Kel Minor?” I demand.
"Because we're in love with you," Rafe says. “And you’re the cleverest woman I’ve ever met.”
"Because you're ours, and no one understands me like you do,” Lorian says at the same time.
"Because despite everything, we can't let you go, Eve,” they say together as if they are one man, not two.
And the admission is so raw and honest it strikes me into silence. Not just at their words, but the way they spoke them together. These two identical men that are identical in no way, but in their appearance. That they would both wantme, no more than that, that they say they would not be able to live without me. The NO CONTACT girl. The woman who betrayed them. The woman who loves them back. I’m overwhelmed with emotion and confusion by all of this.
After a few seconds I say, "I didn't ask you to?—"
Lorian rises, his hair even wilder than usual, making him look even more upset than I think he is. He storms over to me and looks like hemight strike me, but instead his mouth cuts off my words. Hiskiss is vicious and demanding. All the fear and fury of the last days pours into it, and I kiss him back just as hard, letting my own anger at the situation fuel our erotic connection.
Rafe joins us, his hands tangling in my hair, yanking my head back to expose my throat. "Seven years," he says against my skin, teeth grazing just above the collar. "We’re all locked together in these roles for seven years."
"I’m yours," I say, then bite his lip hard enough to draw blood. "And you're mine."
"Owners,” Rafe says.
“On your knees," Lorian commands, his hands already tracing the soft hair visible through the dress's open sides.
"No,” I say. My knees are still aching from dinner.
Lorian’s hand closes on my throat just below the collar, not cutting off air, but asserting control. "I said kneel, Eve."
I drop to my knees between them, looking up at them through my lashes. "Is this what you want? Your pet on her knees?"
Lorian grabs my hair with his other hand. “Don’t get smart with me.”
"Open your mouth," Rafe orders, freeing his large, already erect, ridged cock from his trousers.
I do, but not without dragging my teeth along his length when he pushes inside. His groan is part pleasure, part warning. “Hold her tight and move her head,” Rafe says, and Lorian's hand tightens in my hair, controlling my movements as I take Rafe deeper, the tip of his cock touching the back of my throat.
"Such a good human," Lorian says. "So obedient now that you're collared. Take my brother, that’s it. All the way. This is what humans do."
I pull off Rafe just long enough to say, "I saved people."
