Chapter 4

The next day started earlier than had been my recent habit, for the very good reason that I woke up both sober and hang-over free. I enjoyed a cuddle with my brides, and we took turns in the bathroom before heading to the main room for breakfast.

Naltort proved to be quite a competent cook, better than I in fact, and I told him so. Craxill didn't blush, but I thought I recognized the equivalent signs of embarrassment as I praised his efforts.

After breakfast, Naltort volunteered to do my laundry while Tarmant started my tutoring.

"Leave a bunch of dirty socks at home; Tarmant can use them as backup when I'm not available," I told him.

The tutoring session went remarkably well. By the time Tarmant called a break, I was feeling much more confident of passing the course. Coupled with my renewed vigor in studying last night, washing out was looking more and more avoidable. There was still the long-term problem of having to leave my brides behind when I graduated, but the lack of immediacy made that a much less daunting prospect.

Things stayed positive throughout the day, as Naltort took care of a vast array of domestic duties, including his own and Tarmant's laundry, and a major effort at decontaminating the bathroom. Not only was Tarmant going to keep me from flunking out, but Naltort was going to get me my security deposit back.

By the end of the day, Tarmant had me convinced I wasn't going to flunk out if she had anything to say about it. I gave her a big kiss and slobbered all over her cheeks, and I got another chance to see what an embarrassed Craxill looked like as I praised her teaching skills and her mastery of the material.

"You are too kind, lord," she muttered, looking away.

Naltort demonstrated more of his domestic skills by preparing quite a nice meal for us all, blending human meats and vegetables with Craxill spices into a kind of stew. He served mine straight up, and layered his and Tarmant's on a bed of some kind of hard-tack nuggets, giving them the 'crunch' they needed to enjoy their meal, while avoiding the potential for embarrassment at giving me baby food.

"You have a future as a chef, I think," I told him as we ate. "I don't recall anyone combining cuisines in quite this way, not that I've exactly done a survey."

As Tarmant had, Naltort seemed both pleased and embarrassed at the praise. We finished our meal, and Tarmant and I cleaned up. Afterwards, we sat around and cuddled up, while my two brides told me some of the highlights of their personal stories.

Naltort's life to date was relatively typical of his generation. His parents were Old School, of the Poxrill Clan, but had encouraged him to join the New Way culture, and seek a lord and lady to guide him in love. Many of his cousins were in bonded quads by now, but he'd been having a hard time finding the right mates. He was an only child, rare in pre-Contact culture but more common now that humans were considered part of a successful marriage and were still in short supply.

Tarmant's story, on the other hand, was considerably less 'normal.'

"My mother is a drone, which was unheard of when she was born, but is becoming more common as Lord Phoenix's message takes hold. Traditionally, drones were not permitted to breed; they arose as accidents of birth among 'normal' people, and were shuttled off to the outskirts of society. We filled security and ceremonial roles, but we weren't really part of the culture we served.

"In general, when drones have sex, both partners practice birth control, but my father talked my mother out of using it. She said it was the best sex of her life, and she was glad that she had me to remember him by, because a few days after he seduced her, he left, looking for another bed to conquer.

"She never said much about who he was, except one night when we were both a bit tipsy last year, when she let slip that he was a renegade son of one of the drones of Clan Phoenix. I teased her about friends in high places, and she laughed it off, but I did wonder about it when I got the scholarship to attend the University. My test scores were high, but sometimes that doesn't matter, if you're a drone."

I was starting to feel more confident about identifying emotional tones and expressions, and she sounded a little sad with that last phrase, so I decided some emotional support was in order. Being male, and horny, I had just the plan.

I slid my hand down to her ass, and stroked her cheek gently through the thin pants she was wearing.

"I for one don't care if you're Drone or Beta; if you're not 'normal' it's because you're above it, not below it. I love both of you, and I want to show you just how much I do, if you're up to it."

Tarmant looked up at me and said, "Yes, lord. Please."

The three of us swapped kisses and caresses for a while, then I urged Naltort to his feet before lifting Tarmant and carrying her to the bedroom. I gently peeled her clothes from her, and allowed Naltort to undress me. He stripped quickly and joined his mate and lord in our bed.

It was still too damned crowded in there, but we made do. I got my first chance (that I remembered) at tasting Tarmant's vaginal opening, while she deep-throated me with ease. Craxill females don't lubricate; that's the male's job. But there is moisture in there, if you look for it, and I did so with a vengeance. I licked and probed the front with my tongue, and the back with my fingers, and she was soon moaning around my cock as she came.

I felt the occasional incidental contact as Naltort caressed Tarmant. I still didn't know if I was going to bugger him, but kissing and stroking was becoming natural, and I suspected it would happen eventually. I got a sudden image of him on his hands and knees as Tarmant spread his cheeks for me, and I came explosively into Tarmant's throat. Maybe those ex-girlfriends who accused me of being a closet poof because of my anal obsessions hadn't been completely wrong.

As Tarmant cleaned my cock and worked to renew my erection, I redoubled my efforts at pleasing her, and I was rewarded by a series of quick, moderately intense spasms as she came. I didn't let up, and she had several orgasms in a row, enough that she started to leak a new fluid. It had an odd texture, and I suddenly realized it was her semen. In for a penny, in for a pound, I thought, and finished the task of cleaning her.

We shifted positions, and I lay on my back with Tarmant face down on my chest. I'd gotten off, and Tarmant had done so repeatedly, but Naltort hadn't had his turn yet. Time to remedy that.