Chapter Text
She usually preferred the dim, and was glad for it now.
The sole source of light in Ryder’s apartment on the Nexus had been reduced to a single lit tree in the living quarters. It was smaller and less ornate than its cousins at the holiday party, but strong enough to cast a low, inviting glow in its radius. On the nearby sofa, Ryder admired the silhouetted curve of Evfra’s lounging form as her feet explored his lap.
“Thirty seconds,” she said as her timer counted down to the hour. “Any last questions?”
“No.” He pressed his thumb into the arch of her foot, and she drew in a harsh breath.
“SAM,” she instructed, “unlock the door.”
Twenty. Nineteen. Eighteen.
The familiar beep of her door panel alerted them both to Jaal’s arrival, and Evfra lifted his chin.
“Early,” he said in a low voice. “He’s eager.”
“Good.” Ryder smiled as she heard her door close and lock, then the shuffling and clicking she recognized as Jaal undoing the latches on his boots and removing them at her entryway, something she insisted upon and he never questioned. She wondered when he would begin to see this as his apartment as well; perhaps she should remind him explicitly later.
She listened to his footsteps as he made his way through the kitchen and turned the corner - and then there he was.
They had offered, and he had come.
Ryder turned to greet him with a warm smile, stretching lazily in a way she knew drove his hands mad for contact. “Jaal. Good timing. I’ve been keeping Evfra entertained and given him some vital debriefing.”
“I can imagine,” Jaal chuckled, soon within arm’s length. Ryder rolled up to her knees on the cushions to better face him, and the moment space allowed, she reached over the back of the sofa and tugged him over by his rofjinn until his hips pressed into the upholstery between them. There was hesitation in his hands as they settled on her hips, though her mouth on his throat and the moan it elicited seemed to steady them as his grip tightened.
“You’re both sure, then,” he asked, glancing at Evfra.
“I am… intrigued,” his former commander said. “I do nothing I don’t want to. You should know that better than anyone.”
Jaal’s attention turned back to Ryder. “And you, taoshay? ”
“I want to fuck him.” She thumbed toward the other side of the sofa. “And between the two of us, we’re pretty sure we can break you.”
That caught him off-guard, and Ryder felt his hips go slack as he nearly lost his balance. Watching, Evfra smirked, and Ryder got the distinct impression that that smirk had undone Jaal before.
“What have I done,” Jaal murmured against her, “to deserve two such lovers?”
She was aware of Evfra shifting to the right, and she moved to accommodate as his hand began scaling Jaal’s thigh. Her own mirrored the same motions, sliding up over Jaal’s chest and under his rofjinn to settle in the intimate dip of his shoulder.
“But you’re here because you want to be.” She ducked her head to catch his gaze. “Otherwise we can stop.”
He took a deep, shuddering breath, and his gloved hands reached to desperately grasp each of theirs on his body.
“There isn’t a word in either of our tongues,” he managed, “for how much I want this . ”
That was all the ‘yes’ Ryder needed as she and Evfra yanked him down onto the sofa like they were underwater and pulling him in with them to drown.
It was an apt comparison, given how little breath any of them took. Ryder’s mouth claimed Jaal’s as Evfra’s teeth traced his shoulder and his hands expertly undid the buckles on Jaal’s oversuit. She felt the snap of them opening, millimeters and thin layers ever closer to skin, and released Jaal to shuck the gloves from his wrists. In her absence Evfra took her place, and watching Jaal kiss him for the first time in years gave Ryder the visual she never thought she’d have of what Jaal must have looked like as a horny Angaran teenager.
He moaned as she settled onto his lap, and she could only hope that he could tap into that youthful stamina again.
“Fuck,” she murmured against Jaal’s throat, deft fingers bunching and pulling and peeling away the thick fabric. “I might just watch you two.”
“Don’t you dare.” Jaal’s hands - or Evfra’s, she couldn’t tell and she couldn’t care - were at her fastenings, shuffling her clothes loose to expose her, and a third was hungrily delving into the ass of her leggings and drawing her upward so that they might easier overcome the obstacle of her hips. In an effort to be cooperative, Ryder lifted her weight off of one leg -
- only to go tumbling sideways against Evfra’s chest, rolling tits-up onto his thighs as Jaal struggled with her pants, clumsy in his haste.
“Far too tight ,” he huffed as he tried to wrench the bunched-up garment from her knees, and Ryder laughed deeply and affectionately from the same place in her core that had goaded her into this situation.
“You never complained before,” she reminded him, lifting her legs across his lap obligingly. “Side zipper.”
“Ah, yes. Thank you.”
The smile didn’t leave her face as Evfra palmed her breasts through the open neck of her shirt, dragging his thick fingertips roughly up over her ribcage. She exhaled low and deep as she arched her back to meet his exploration. The angle allowed her a better path to the catches on his suit, and she relished the cool air across the skin of her freed legs and waist and lower chest while her fingers made short work of any impediments to getting the owner of the hard-on pressing into her shoulder naked.
She pulled herself up to sitting knowing full well how much the muscles in her stomach drew Jaal’s attention. So did her ass, and that was what she presented to him as she turned to finish her handiwork at Evfra’s shoulders. His holster straps came loose with a satisfying snap - Jaal’s mouth on her lower back and fused digits pressing through the ‘fuck me’ panties she’d changed into nearly made her miss it - but she hesitated at the grey bands holding his cowl in place.
She’d never taken off another Angara’s rofjinn before. It had been meaningful for Jaal, another first time filled with intimacy and learning, but she hadn’t thought to ask this far ahead.
“Hey,” she said, hand lingering on the first clasp. “Is it okay if I take this off?”
He let her shirt drop to the floor. “I don’t need to take it off to do this.”
Ryder froze. “Is that a thing for Angara,” she asked in a moment of retrospective panic, and Evfra smirked.
“No.”
Groaning, Ryder ignored the vibrations of a chuckle coming from the general area of her backside and shoved him lightly. “Oh, fuck y-”
He interrupted her with his mouth, one hand fisting itself in her hair to pull her in close and angle her head to allow him better access. Right , she remembered as she sucked in a gasp, she had told him about that.
“Thank you for asking,” he said sincerely, and closed the gap between them again.
Now that she finally, finally had the chance, she used her fingertips to guide her tongue to the scar on his lip and gently sink her teeth into the soft flesh surrounding it. Evfra groaned against her, body briefly stiffening before his hands abandoned her to hastily see to his own remaining clothing.
She released him to allow him freedom of movement, though Jaal seemed loath to give up his hold on her hip.
“Jaal,” she called from balancing on her elbows.
“Yes, darling one?” His thumb stroked long lines along the soaked fabric covering her crotch, and she turned to grin at him over her shoulder.
“Evfra likes biting.”
His thumb brushed against her clit, and she bucked back sharply.
“I know,” he rumbled. “And watching you discover him is mesmerizing .”
Jaal knew just how to touch her, how to pinpoint the smallest, most vulnerable targets to tease at her self-control. As he began to press slow, firm circles just around the bundle of nerves he so often doted upon, Ryder pressed her face into the cushions and let loose a muffled whine. Jaal loved those panties. She hated them right now.
“Jaal.” Evfra’s voice came from above her, and she felt an unfamiliar hand - though boldly confident - glide down her spine and across the satin that stretched taut across the curve of her ass.
“Strip,” he issued, and Ryder snickered despite herself.
“Seconded.”
She felt Jaal withdraw at her feet and Evfra’s knee sink into the cushions by her head, the creak of Jaal’s oversuit dulled by the thundering of the blood in her ears as Evfra’s bare thigh brushed her cheek.
“Two commanders is too much for him to defy,” he observed, and it occurred to Ryder that that could be something for the three of them to save for the future. For now, she rocked back onto her heels, breaking contact with Evfra and shifting to the floor to assist Jaal with the lower half of his suit. Having her kneel at that height was clearly the borderline of restraint for him, and she saw the muscles in his abdomen and thighs twitch as her breath ghosted over the heat of his cock.
“Darling one,” he managed, caressing her cheek as she tossed his lower ensemble aside. “I - ah !”
She took him into her mouth, half his length for half a second and half a breath and just that was enough to curl him in on himself in surrender.
“Couch,” she told him, hands pushing firmly on his thighs. “You won’t make it standing.”
“I’ll be very surprised if I make it through alive ,” he countered, but did as he was told. Evfra was waiting for him and pulled Jaal down against the plush fabric to run his tongue over his former lieutenant’s ulena and throat. Beaming, Ryder looped her folded arms across the meeting of their thighs to watch the visceral way her lover’s body writhed and yearned and responded to the touch of another Angara.
Another Angara.
Her gaze immediately sought out Evfra’s lap, knees spread to accommodate the anatomy of his legs on her human furniture. He’d given her carte blanche , and damned if she wasn’t going to take it. For research , she reassured herself as she craned her neck to get a better view, but a Pathfinder’s curiosity was prized above all else and she was damn good at her job.
Evfra’s arousal was on full display, nearly identical to Jaal’s in rough size and shape. One major and minor flare thickened the head, and the top was lined with a row of regular, distinct ridges that widened the closer they came to the hilt. She could see the sheen of the thin overskin, even in the low light, but most importantly of all, it was -
“Blue!”
With a frown, Evfra pulled his attention away from making Jaal dissolve into a puddle of saliva and skin on her sofa and stared down at Ryder.
“What?”
“Your dick. The color’s amazing.”
She wasn’t exaggerating - the same pale blue of his skin graded into a deep, almost black ultramarine at the tip and at the crest of each ridge, though she never grew tired of Jaal’s handsome blush-to-purple hues, either.
“It’s beautiful,” she insisted, and Evfra’s brow furrowed just as Jaal laughed and pressed a kiss to the unmarked side of his face.
“She told me the same,” he said. “You get used to it.”
With a noise in his throat, Evfra relaxed back into the upholstery. “All this, and you’re happy just to look .”
“No, once I touch you, I’m not stopping until you come.” She bit the exposed skin of his thigh, locking eyes with him over the flash of her teeth as he groaned. “So show me how it’s done.”
He moved to take himself in hand, but Ryder interrupted - as fucking gorgeous a visual as that was, she had other plans.
“Show me on Jaal,” she prompted, moving a few feet over to settle herself between her lover’s knees. “No one gets themselves off tonight.”
There was no argument to that, and she had the best seats in the house as Jaal opened his mouth against Evfra’s, whispering endearments in Shelesh as the latter’s hand slid over the lines of his groin.
“Ah,” he managed as fingers pressed into the underside of his cock before wrapping around the length of him. “ Evfra. ”
Ryder tried to remember that this was an opportunity to learn new techniques, but the way Jaal’s hips moved in shallow, staggering thrusts was captivating. His skin was flushed, light charges traveling through his body and pulsing with each adjustment of Evfra’s skilled fingers, never more beautiful to her than when his body was as honest and open as his heart.
Before long, Evfra began artfully thumbing the deepest folds of his ridges, and Jaal immediately let out a loud moan and arched back into the cushions. His hand grasped at the sofa’s edge, and Ryder caught it in hers.
“ Interesting, ” she murmured, squeezing. “ That’s new.” Smirking, she leaned her head closer in on Jaal’s thigh. “Do it again.”
Evfra complied, eliciting another gasp from his mark. And another.
“Again,” she instructed, but Evfra’s hand shifted to long, lazy strokes that teased at the flared head.
“Too much friction,” he said.
That was a problem Ryder could solve.
She tugged his hand free from Jaal’s cock, ignoring the tight exhale of frustration that it earned her. Instead, she brought the thick band of fused digits into her mouth, rolling them around in her tongue and coating them thickly in saliva. When she moved onto his index finger, she was able to bring him in to the base knuckle, earning her an appreciative hum from the hand’s owner.
The motion wasn’t lost on Jaal, who had regained his bearings enough to level a ravenous stare at the motion of her lips around Evfra’s fingers.
“Enjoying the show,” she teased, and he very nearly crushed the hand that still held his.
“ Yes. ”
When she was satisfied, Evfra resumed his earlier work, and the difference that lubrication made was immediate. If Jaal had been a mess before, now he was a full-blown wreck , and within seconds of being touched again was bucking up frantically into Evfra’s grasp.
“I imagine,” Ryder murmured quietly against him, “that that’s the place that gets you off when you fuck me.”
She knew from experience the effect words could have on him, and Jaal immediately let out a low groan and spilled himself into his commander’s hand, trembling and spasming in every inch of muscle throughout his body. The bioelectricity that had been building within him discharged, rippling against her biotics like wake from a passing ship.
“ That did you in?” Ryder nipped at him affectionately as he slowly came down and she handed Evfra a towel.
Head thrown back, Jaal chuckled weakly. “Have you forgotten what you two have been up to for the last several hours?”
“Fair.” She stretched up to kiss him, and he met her with a contented noise.
“Now I can enjoy you both with less… urgency.”
“Speaking of which.” Ryder shifted, waiting patiently as Evfra finished cleaning up. “Now that I’ve seen how effective that particular technique is, I want to try it myself.”
“Typical human,” Evfra snorted.
“With my mouth.”
That got his attention, and he lay the towel aside to regard her curiously. “Mouths lack the strength,” he told her, but she was undeterred.
“ Yours might,” she pointed out. “But humans have much better jaw and tongue strength.”
Jaal rumbled an agreement. “They do, Evfra, they really do.”
“I see.” Adjusting his posture, Evfra leaned his head against one hand and stared down at Ryder smugly. “Then by all means.”
The invitation was one she had been waiting for since the moment he stepped through her door. Relishing the opportunity, Ryder slid her palms up his thighs, up the planes of his abdomen, breasts pushing over the sofa’s edge and onto the cushions as she came back down to center. There was no hesitation as she stroked him with her tongue once, twice before enveloping him in the heat of her mouth.
She felt him suck in a long, silent inhale as he hit the roof of her mouth and her lips brushed the formative ridges that had proved to be so interesting. She’d paid attention and they had all night; she could take her time and relish this.
A year ago, he had threatened to kill her while his men kept their rifles trained at her head. Now she had his dick in her mouth.
Heleus was a weird fucking place.
His body relaxed as she worked him slowly and deliberately, taking him in to the hilt every so often and lightly dragging her teeth against the protective outer layer of overskin until it was taut and sensitive.
Evfra smirked, shallowly thrusting to meet her on one such pass. “Silent is a good look for you.”
With a glare, Ryder built up a minor biotic charge in her mouth and pulled back to the head.
Three. Two.
She let it loose as she sank her lips to his base, earning her a sharp moan as Evfra came up off of his hand and buckled inward around her.
“ Human ,” he swore, and Ryder could hear Jaal’s chuckle from beside them.
The ridges, swollen and wet from her attentions, were primed and deeply satisfying to travel over. Evfra’s irritation transformed in an instant, though the intensity with which he was watching her never waivered - especially when her mouth found the dips between each ridge, tracing the same practiced patterns with her tongue as he had with his hand. His breath was haggard, his fingers digging into her Initiative-approved upholstery.
“Yes,” he managed. “Like that.”
Evfra’s eyes were electric blue in a sea of black sclera. They had never failed to put her off-guard; now they were following each movement with a heat that made her shiver every time the fabric covering her crotch so much as shifted. And she wasn’t the only one.
“ Stars,” Jaal murmured, and Ryder caught a glimpse of him as he admired them, hard again and engrossed in every aspect of the exchange before him. “If you hadn’t already, this would have undone me.”
Bless that nonexistent Angaran refractory period; Ryder had met drive cores with more charge time. His fingers found her hair, settling affectionately as his mouth began to trace a path from Evfra’s shoulder to jaw.
“Darling one,” he murmured, “he is close.”
That was fine by Ryder, and Evfra was growling something unintelligible as she teased and lathed at the precise points she now knew to be his weakness. The hum of his bioelectricity traveled through her tongue and into her teeth and ears, an almost exact channel for divining the second he would peak.
“If you stop,” he rasped, “I swear on every life on Aya that I will find you and - “
That was her cue, and she hummed around him as she focused all of her attention on her newest discovery. Pressure, speed, vibration -
With a guttural moan and the snap of his hips, Evfra came in her mouth, and the world went temporarily muted as his bioelectricity hit her eardrums and rendered everything delightfully fuzzy. She was glad she had gone down on Jaal before; the immediate side effects would have been very disconcerting otherwise.
Unlike Jaal, however, there was no period of blissful repose - his hands were suddenly on her body, insistent on ridding her of the last remaining bits of clothing that hid her most intimate parts from view, from touch, from exploration. His immediate response to something new was a counterattack, and while Ryder couldn’t fault such an instinct, she needed a moment to catch up.
Ryder fell back against the bed, SAM briefly resurfacing to speed the righting of her senses along. Jaal’s hands were there to guide her, lifting at the small of her waist as she struggled to seat herself on the mattress.
Evfra had never had to make accommodations for a human partner - she was grateful for Jaal’s role as a go-between even as one of her simultaneous goals was to render him a stammering mess.
The solid quality of Jaal’s arm - wrapped around her ribs to steady her - was easy to focus on, and Ryder leaned forward into it with a smirk as she felt his free hand unhook her bra. And while Jaal traced his mouth up to her ear, checking in quietly, Evfra moved ever downward. The bra fell to the floor, abandoned the instant Evfra finally had full access to her breasts, and Ryder lifted her hips to assist in getting the matching panties to follow suit.
She was fully exposed now, Evfra kneeling on the floor in front of her and in prime position to retaliate for her little biotic stunt earlier.
Ryder arched and let out a soundless gasp as lips and teeth found one nipple and Evfra’s hands encouraged her thighs to spread.
“Darling one,” Jaal breathed, “lay back. I want to see this.”
Ryder didn’t need much incentive to comply - all of the core strength she’d conditioned and trained for was useless in the face of having her tits bitten, and one arm shot up to clutch at her lover as she collapsed against him.
Evfra’s amused snort cooled the saliva left over her angry skin. “Well done,” he said as one hand rested on her inner thigh, the other holding her waist in place when she instinctively bucked away. “When you said to be rough, I thought you were bluffing.”
“I meant it,” she managed, gritting her teeth and arching her back to allow his mouth better access to the tender underside of her breasts. “I don’t- ah , f- I don’t see the point in being shy.”
“Appreciated.” His attention moved south, and a low whine set in Ryder’s chest the moment his fingers found her outer lips. Slow, testing strokes pulled them apart, and each brush against the side of her clit sent a warm shiver radially outwards.
Jaal knew that shiver all too well.
“There’s a nerve complex,” he told Evfra. “In the center, just above -”
“Show me.”
His free hand traveled the length of her body down, anticipation setting her nerves singing as his skilled fingertips found her clit and pulled inward, displaying it swollen and wet and -
The sudden heat of Evfra’s mouth was enough to startle a sob from her chest, Jaal’s fingers indirectly included in the attentions from his tongue. Ryder felt him stiffen against her back, the arms supporting her suddenly tightening as his breathing stuttered.
“ Yes,” he exhaled, and he groaned as Ryder rolled her hips against Evra’s jaw, inadvertently pushing back against Jaal’s cock with every movement. Angaran tongues were built for this, flat and flexible and just fucking magical. Evfra, especially, was quick to learn and adapt, and he easily interpreted the mewls and hums that resulted from each stroke, firmness, speed. Ryder ran a hand over his head, dragging her fingernails lightly over each ridge formation. She’d brought towels out so that she wouldn’t have to change the sheets. They were long forgotten, and this edge was going to be soaked and it would all be so very worth it.
“You are beautiful together, more than I had ever thought I deserved to see,” Jaal murmured. “Stars, how I would love to see him inside of you.”
“That can be arranged,” Evfra replied dryly, less one for poetry and more for fucking. “Ryder?”
“Internal’s good for humans, too,” she said, feeling very much the same. He sat back, and she closed her eyes to let out a slow exhale and enjoy the way his thick finger stretched her beautifully. “Fuck, Evfra. That - hnng - oh, fuck. ”
“Apologies,” he snorted. “Translator didn’t catch that.”
“Fuck you. That better?”
His hand stilled, and she whimpered.
“Try again,” he issued in that Voeld-tinted accent, and the fight drained from Ryder’s voice as she pressed her face into Jaal’s shoulder.
“Fuck me,” she begged, “ please, ” and she was immediately rewarded. His wrist curled, pace quicker than it had been and hitting a pleasant spot a bit deeper. She clenched around him, sinking to meet his thrusts and angling to widen her hips. It was good, so damn good. The tension in her stomach was building rapidly, and she wasn’t sure if it was the result of his hands or his tone. They’d have to play with that again, sometime.
Suddenly, a second hand - experienced, loving - joined Evfra’s, this one rubbing jerky, quick circles across the hood of her clit.
“Jaal,” she rasped. “If you do that, I’ll -”
“Come? Good.” Evfra sped up, and Ryder curled her fist into the blanket beside her.
“Revenge,” Jaal chuckled warmly against her, nipping at her earlobe. “For the last three hours.”
And between the two of them, her orgasm slammed into her within seconds. Tremors through her body squeezed every inch of breath from her lungs, and a blinding heat washed over her in white, electric waves. It was everything she could do not to slip forward from the safety of the bed, entire core contorting around the source and silencing the rest of her senses except that one.
It was only as the trembling subsided and their hands slowed that she found words again.
“I…” she managed, “can’t remember coming that fast in my life.”
Evfra laughed - there it was again, that sharp sound - and moved to support her, joining both her and Jaal onto the bed. “Is that normal for humans?”
She smiled drowsily, pulling him in for a kiss and tasting herself on his mouth. “Jaal played dirty.”
“Never,” Jaal protested from laying prone behind her. “Creative, perhaps. But never dirty.”
“I was there ,” Ryder said, banter returning her strength incrementally. “Evfra, shut him up.”
“Thought you’d never ask.” Evfra stepped off the bed and circled to Jaal, thumbing his former ensign’s lower lip with a feral smirk while the other hand held his cock.
“You heard the order,” Evfra said, and was granted access to Jaal’s eager mouth.
Ryder sat upright. Now this was almost better than coming, she thought as she crawled over to straddle Jaal’s thighs. Watching Evfra’s dick disappear inch by inch past Jaal’s lips was beyond description, and her pulse thundered in time with the throbbing between her legs.
Evfra reached out one hand to rest on the back of Jaal’s head, a low groan rumbling in his chest as Jaal’s pale tongue wrapped around him on one pass. “This isn’t much of a punishment,” he said, electric blue gaze briefly flicking to Ryder. “He always liked doing this.”
“And I like watching,” she replied. “One of these days, you’ll have to come on his face for me.”
Jaal moaned beneath her, cock twitching, and Ryder laughed.
“It’s a thing some humans are into,” she said as she shifted forward enough that her slick folds brushed up just against his hard-on. His hips arched instinctively, and his subsequent groan of frustration was muffled by Evfra’s inward thrust.
“Interesting.” Evfra shuddered out a breath. “Not something we ever did, but clearly - mnn - Jaal doesn’t object.”
Ryder lifted her hips a bit, dragging hot, wet friction against the underside of Jaal’s cock as she slid back down. He moaned again, the vibration carrying through to Evfra, who let out a low growl and pressed his hips further.
“More,” he issued flatly. “I know you can.”
Ryder bit her lip as Jaal obediently shifted the angle of his chin, slowly taking his former commander in to the hilt. Six hundred years of missed birthdays made up for in one night - and the idea that he was getting off on this just as much as she was was perfect. Leaning in, she affectionately spread her fingers and palm across his abdomen, traveling up to the hollow formation of his chest and resting it there. His hand reached up to cover hers instinctively, squeezing as she ran her thumb in idle circles.
She briefly wondered if Evfra had ever been blown in his office on Aya, and if not, what it would take to make that happen.
With a wet pop , Evfra pulled his cock free and moved to the foot of the bed. “Keep him distracted,” he instructed Ryder as he passed, palming a bottle from her nightstand, and she gave a mock salute.
“I can do that,” she said, and reached down to better angle Jaal against her entrance. Slowly, she sank her hips, and his long, low sigh as he seated himself inside of her was a treasure.
“Darling one,” he murmured, “you feel incredible. ”
Ryder shifted her hips in a slow, wide figure-eight, and Jaal melted back into the bed with a moan.
“Well,” she said matter-of-factly, “it turns out that you and I both get off on Evfra mouthfucking you.”
Both Angara laughed, and Jaal pressed one hand to his face, the other resting affectionately on her knee.
“You are being especially vulgar tonight,” he chuckled. “What must Evfra think?”
“I like it,” Evfra replied. “ ‘Mouth-fuck,’ that’s a new one.”
Suddenly, Ryder felt both she and Jaal yanked backward, pulled several feet closer to the foot of the bed. Fuck , Evfra was strong. But he had said to keep Jaal distracted - which was very easy to do from her current position.
“Hey,” she called softly, raising herself nearly entirely off. “Had you thought about this before?” She slid back down, and Jaal groaned.
“Taoshay-”
“Being with both of us?” She rose and fell again, slowly, slowly, aware of Jaal’s legs behind lifted behind her as his thighs pressed up against the swell of her backside.
“I sometimes thought - ah - that the two of you would enjoy one another,” he said, large hands sliding up over her knees.
“And by ‘thought,’ you mean…?”
If possible, his throat was even more flushed now, and his bioelectricity tinged purple with embarrassment. Of course he did. But she wanted him to say it.
“Jaal,” she said again, hands bracing on his alien hipbones to prevent him from thrusting up. “Did you get yourself off imagining Evfra and I together?”
“Yes,” he admitted, and let out a gasp when she tightened her muscles around him. “But I never dreamed that we would -”
His expression shifted, eyes unfocused, and Ryder knew precisely what Evfra must have been doing to Jaal behind her. She only wished she could see it; her imagination was almost certainly doing it no justice.
“So,” she continued, rocking her hips in shallow ovals, “when it was right in front of you at the party -”
“I could think of nothing else.” His grip on her thighs became painful, his breathing sharp and desperate. “Holding my feelings back was torture, even the memory of it - taoshay , please - ”
He was getting close again, and Evfra’s hand on her waist stilled her. Despite Jaal’s immediate cry of frustration, Ryder complied, relishing the warmth of Evfra’s chest against her back as he positioned himself between Jaal’s legs. She turned to wrap one arm around his neck, presenting her throat for his attentions as he pushed forward.
Jaal’s body trembled beautifully beneath her.
“ Ah,” he managed, eyes fixed glassily on the ceiling. “Oh, Evfra. ”
Evfra withdrew gradually, Jaal exhaling with every inch, then reseated himself at the same languid pace. This time, however, he stayed flush, nudging her head aside to better expose her shoulder. Ryder felt one hand slide around the curve of her waist and settle at the junction of her thighs just above where Jaal sat within her.
As he mimicked Jaal’s earlier slow, firm circles across her clit, Ryder sucked in a rough gasp. The arm around him tightened, hand awkwardly grasping at air, and she bucked into his fingers.
“ Fuck are you a fast learner,” she muttered, and a warm shiver washed down her spine as she felt a hot rush of her own fluids spread over Jaal’s cock inside her. Every muscle from toes to jaw tightened, pulling inward as the intensity of the sensation built.
“Jaal,” she murmured at his moan, “can you feel this?”
Evfra chuckled. “He does. I can tell from here.” He set his mouth, wide and open, at the junction of her shoulder, and his grip on her shifted. Suddenly, his thumb and index finger were working in tandem on either side of her hood, and the rapid jerk-and-curl movements very nearly sucked every ounce of strength from her limbs.
The hand dangling uselessly around Evfra’s neck spasmed as she let loose an incomprehensible string of expletives, the other digging blunted fingernails into the back of the hand working her so ruthlessly.
“What,” she choked, “in the hell -”
“Trigger finger,” he smirked against her.
Ryder slapped the side of his face lightly for being smug -
- and cried out as his teeth sank into her earlobe.
If it was meant as punishment for raising a hand against him, it was a poor one - she had told him about her ears herself. Piercing heat slammed through her core, enough to push Jaal over the edge he had been on for too long and he grasped her tightly as he came. His bioelectricity spread through her hips and stomach, webbing outward as he stammered endearments and ground himself upward to meet her frantic grinding. It was too much and just enough and fucking perfect and deep and fast -
Evfra’s hold on her, firm and unyielding, was an anchor as she stifled a half-sob and let her orgasm wash over her. Both her ear and crotch pulsed with heat, each tremor filling them with blood and sensation and nerves that would have screamed at the slightest touch.
By the time she came down, Jaal was waiting for her, still hard and entranced as he watched her face while trailing loving and light touch across the planes of her stomach. Evfra’s hand withdrew, shifting instead to wrap around both of Jaal’s thighs, and Ryder smiled as Jaal’s gaze snapped to hers.
I love you , she mouthed as Evfra began to fuck him in earnest.
None of them were capable of restraint at that point, every movement hard and desperate. Jaal’s grasp held on for life itself as Ryder’s translator failed to pick up anything he managed that resembled language. She had the best seat in the house to watch him writhe, arching his back and pushing down against the snap of Evfra’s hips, and Ryder leaned forward to support herself, feeling the reverberations in her breasts every time Evfra slammed against her ass. He set the rhythm, the force of his thrusts more than enough to carry into her hips and roll her over Jaal’s cock.
And god, the noises coming out of Evfra’s throat were enough to soak Ryder through. If she was missing something in her human hearing, she didn’t care; his shuddered grunts and low, ever-constant current grounded her in both of them. With each almost-painful bounce of her tits, she simultaneously prayed for him never to stop and questioned how much more her body could take.
She felt his breath on her back, the heat of his skin a point of connection as his forehead rested against her.
“It’s been a long time,” he muttered between thrusts. “I can’t - I’m close.”
One of Jaal’s hands reached down to grasp his commander’s, and he squeezed with what strength he had.
“I want to feel you,” he murmured. “Evfra, come. ”
That was that, and it wasn’t long before Evfra hit full-tilt. Ryder could sense his peak coming, bracing herself and meeting him with every ounce of her energy left in reserve. Jaal lost himself in them, drowned in sensation and bedsheets between the combined force of his two lovers fucking him together .
A growl set in Evfra’s chest, his pace violent, erratic -
- and moments later, Ryder’s world caught light.
With a hoarse cry, Evfra hit his climax and spilled into Jaal, bioelectrics discharging in a cascade that set off Jaal, and Ryder in turn. Nothing human could have prepared her for the phenomenon charging through her flesh, waves and waves of overwhelming sensation that blanketed her in a pleasure that was altogether new and very vivid and fuck if she ever would be able to feel anything else ever again. If she didn’t know any better, she would have said that she could taste her orgasm in her mouth as it burned across her tongue and escaped as a strangled whine.
Everything seemed to stop around them, and Ryder wasn’t sure if the world had fallen into silence or if her hearing had just been knocked off-course, but she couldn’t be bothered to care. Not a millimeter of her wasn’t on fire, sensitive and practically vibrating like a high that made all of her hair stand on end. Coming down from it would undoubtedly be jarring, but until then, this was heaven and the afterglow was her goddamn halo. The rest of the galaxy could wait.
Evfra was leaning against her still, spent and showing identical tremors coursing through him. A gasp wrenched itself from Ryder’s chest - she hadn’t realized she wasn’t breathing - and a light brush of pins and needles burned for a moment in her palms. She leaned down to press a kiss to Jaal’s chest, and one of his hands weakly found her hair.
SAM’s visual spectrum filter cast their bioelectricity in a rich, vibrant hue of a color Ryder could only describe as ‘holy shit.’
So this was what the Angara could do.
Humans, she thought to herself with a smirk, were ruined for her forever.
It was only later, after strength had returned to their limbs and they managed to extricate themselves, hydrate, and clean up somewhat (in that order), that Ryder felt the sensation in her legs returning. She ran her hands along them, stretching and wiggling her toes experimentally.
“A good sign,” Evfra offered, and she agreed as she sipped her water. The two of them sat propped up against her headboard, pillows artfully re-purposed for comfort. They had both since gathered themselves up enough to tidy somewhat, the soft glow from the tree’s lights more than enough for towels and bathrobes.
Jaal was another story.
“Jaal?”
He lay practically nonverbal, sprawled gracelessly and nude across the lower half of the bed. When he managed an acknowledging huff, Ryder smiled over the rim of her cup.
“Sweetheart, you need your sunlamp?”
He grunted.
“Perhaps,” came the muffled reply.
Snickering, Ryder leaned back against the makeshift cushioning, looking to Evfra in turn. “Let me know if you want it,” she said. “It’s compact, but meets standard emission levels.”
“No, thank you.”
He took a long, slow swallow from his glass, and Ryder shifted onto her hip to better watch him. Places on his ulena were mottled, swollen-looking - no doubt from being assaulted by two mouths - but this was the most relaxed she could ever remember seeing the commander. To her surprise, their intimacy seemed to come easily and comfortably to them both, and she wondered whether it was a natural inclination for him as an Angara or due to their congruent similarities.
Either way, it was though a wall had suddenly dropped between them and their ease of interaction was that much more effortless.
He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. “You’re staring. Again. ”
“Yep.” Water abandoned on the end table, she propped her head up on one arm. “I learned a lot today.”
“As did I.” The corner of his mouth tugged up into a smirk. “Is this how all festivals end for humans?”
Ryder laughed, yet-unrecovered stomach muscles aching in protest. “Honestly,” she admitted, “this is the best Christmas I can remember having as an adult, in a lot of ways.” Her smile was warm and genuine, and she stretched out to nudge him with her foot. “Thank you, Evfra.”
A purplish tinge of embarrassment flickered across the filter, and he made a noncommittal noise in his throat. “Save your thanks. Sleeping with you was hardly taxing.”
Ryder bit her tongue lightly, but the implication of that statement was too much to let pass. “Come to think of it,” she mused aloud, “it didn’t take much discussion before we were both on board for this. When did you become interested - or rather, aware of me - before tonight?”
“You were the same,” he pointed out, and she agreed.
“I’d been more conscious of you for a while now. This progression wasn’t difficult.”
That caught his curiosity, and he turned to regard her with interest. “Were you?”
“Mm. Not attraction , necessarily, but...” She searched for the memory, brow slightly furrowed. “The day you showed up to one of our meetings injured, and you let me apply the ointment for you - we were alone in your office, and we were interacting both skin-to-skin and talking about things outside of the command. Common ground, and touch? Something shifted.”
“I remember,” he said. “You flirted with me.”
“And you were up for it.” She adjusted her weight against the pillows. “So, when was it for you?”
He was silent as he considered his answer, eyes narrowed and focused past her on the far wall.
“Eos,” he informed her. “I watched you throw four Kett into an acid pool at once without so much as a weapon.”
Ryder choked out a laugh in disbelief. “And that was a turn-on for you?”
“It wasn’t that simple .” He frowned. “But that was the day things changed. A lot of things. Especially how I saw you, knew you.”
As much as she wanted more information, more detail, Ryder contented herself with his answer. It did, however, raise one interesting question.
“So if you’re so interested in my power,” she offered, “how would you feel about something similar to tonight, except I let you put me in restraints?”
The expression on his face and bright, warm pink lighting up his bioelectricity were all the answer Ryder needed. Laughing, she pressed a kiss to his cheek.
“We should do this again. Maybe in your office next time."
He snorted, but did not move away from the gesture. “Yes. And no .”
"Do you want to stay over?"
There was a moment of hesitation, of a tight jaw and what was undoubtedly an intimacy he hadn’t thought would be offered.
“I will,” he conceded, “if Jaal showers.”
A chuckle rose up from the foot of the bed.
“Such a taskmaster,” Jaal murmured.