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His eyes widen at the touch of my hand…

…and then he angrily slaps my hand away from him.

He's so fucking huge that swatting my hand away – as if I’m nothing but a fly – sends a powerful jolt of pain through my arm. I stifle a cry.

Kitos stiffens at the sound. For a moment he stares at me – like a child worried he’s broken one of his parent’s vases…

…then he shakes his head, murmuring: "I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to..."

I give the towering Aurelian my most charming smile – one that feels different to the forced grin I use when trying to seduce money out of clients at Spur's joint.

I’ve had plenty of experience in what men want... and I have plenty of experience in what Aurelianscrave. Their species is dominance incarnate. When a woman submits to their power, it's a thrill to them like nothing else…

Yes, I know what these Aurelians crave – and I knowexactlyhow to make them bend with that knowledge...

Bend… and eventuallybreak.

My stomach is still lurching – feeling the pressure as the Reaver lifts off into space. One thing is for sure – my go-bag, and everything else I owned, is now in the past; left on the planet below.

I’m on my own now – alone except for these three Aurelians.

As I’ve always done, I need to use everything I have to my advantage.

I see the concern on Kitos’ face, and I realize this is my first chance.

"It's… It’s okay,” I murmur to him. “It’s okay, Kitos. You didn’t hurt me."

Then, I lean up for a kiss...

Slam!

…and he throws me into the brig.

Fuck!

I mean, I knew he would – and Kitos could have tossed me in there so hard that I’d have hit the other wall. Instead, he gave me the equivalent of a light push. It does the trick though – and he slams his palm against the button to seal the doors behind me with a hiss.

So, this is it.

The punishment brig.

I turn and examine the chamber I’ve been locked inside.

It's a room barely long enough to lie down in. There's a small bed in here – with the world's thinnest mattress on it. Sadly, though, this isn't much of a step down from my apartment back on the planet we’ve just left. When you spend all your income on plotting to escape, you don't have anything left over to spend on creature comforts. Sometimes I even sacrificed food to save more money.

I gently cross my arms, and a smile comes to my face.

Things look bleak – but maybe they onlylookthat way.

Most people would be hopeless right now – but I’m not most people.

Okay, so I’m trapped on a spaceship with three huge, dominant aliens – and I’m facing twenty years in prison if they get me to their planet. If they succeed, I'll be a middle-aged woman by the time I get out. I'll have spent my entire youth, and my best adult years, inside a jail cell with other criminals.

But that’s not going to be an option.

I just need time. If I can get enough time, I know I can make these aliens break. The only problem? Thanks to the otherworldly technology of the Orb-Drive, it’ll take just days to get to the Aurelian home world of Colossus. What can I do to either delay this voyage – or accelerate my plan to break this triad?

I’ve got a trick under my sleeve, but I don’t know how to deploy it without being caught. I prepared for this exact moment, and everything hangs in the balance of a blackmarket augmentation surgeon who took a month of my wages and nearly killed me.