Anna and the Three Generals by Suzanne Graham Page A

quite nice.”
    Vadim took the bowl from him and handed it to Kojo. “To your mating,” he repeated.
    Kojo gave the bowl a sniff before drinking. When he’d finished, he handed the bowl to Vadim and said, “To your mating.”
    A look of appreciation shone in Vadim’s blue eyes as Kojo completed the circle, and Vadim took a sip from the bowl. “Let us eat,” he said as he set the bowl on the cart.
    Anna sampled the new foods along with her three men. She’d never seen such variety. In First Quadrant they only supported the growth of green leaves for each evening meal and enough small animals to provide meat once a moon cycle. Here, Vadim was introducing them to fruits and other vegetables that Anna had thought were lost to Profortuna.
    “How did these survive in Fourth Quadrant for so long?” she asked as she popped another small round fruit Vadim called a blueberry into her mouth. “And why don’t we have them in the other quadrants?”
    “You used to have them in other quadrants,” Vadim answered. “I don’t know why they weren’t sustained, but here in the Fourth Quadrant, our ancestors were fiercely independent pioneers. They chose the furthest location from the rest of the settlers on the planet. They prided themselves on their self-sufficiency.”
    Kojo leaned back on his bench seat with his hand over his stomach. “I can’t eat another bite. I don’t think I’ve ever felt this full.”
    Marco mimicked Kojo’s posture. “I should have stopped about ten ticks ago, but those strawberries with that cream are irresistible.”
    “Does your cream come from goats?” Anna asked. She remembered from her history lessons that early First Quadrant settlers had used goats for milk and cheese. Things she’d never tasted until today.
    Vadim shook his head. “We use the milk from our cows for the cream.”
    “You have cows!?” Anna nearly shot to her feet. “How have you sustained cows? Can I see them? Please?”
    That rusty chuckle rumbled from Vadim’s throat again, sending a delicious thrill through Anna’s lower region. “You are excited by large, lumbering beasts?”
    “Oh! I have so much to study about life here in Fourth Quadrant. Why has it developed so differently than the other three? Is your fertility rate as low as theirs? Do you have the same unbalanced ratio of male to female births? And why are all the people I’ve seen here so far so freakishly tall? Is it from your diverse selection of foods? Does everyone here have access to this richness of var—?”
    Vadim leaned over and kissed her, cutting off her questions. He swiped his tongue along the seam of her lips before delving in and claiming her. With an arm under her legs and his other behind her back, he lifted her into his lap as he continued to distract the scientist in her with his demanding kiss.
    She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled her chest tighter to his, rubbing her breasts against his hard pecs.
    He stood with her in his arms and carried her out of the main room. She was vaguely aware of Marco and Kojo following her and Vadim to the bedroom at the far end of all the pod’s extra rooms.
    Vadim laid her on the mattress and stood upright, staring down at her. His eyes weren’t cold this time. Instead, they lit with an internal heat. “Strip,” he ordered, and her girl parts melted.
    Sitting up, she quickly removed her uniform as all three men also undressed before her. Holy shiitake. They were imposing as they stood shoulder to shoulder at the foot of the bed. Their growing erections pointed at her, and she unconsciously inched backwards on the mattress.
    Vadim grabbed her left ankle and dragged her so she was sitting on the edge of the bed.
    Tension and excitement twisted in her belly, making her heart beat faster and her breath come out unevenly.
    Vadim cupped his hand behind her neck and plundered her mouth with another deep kiss. His dominance left her feeling boneless and wet with heat between her legs.