Page 156

Chapter Four

S tar

On our way back to our rooms after breakfast, I practically skip in happiness down the metal-lined hallways.

“I think I’m going to have friends! For the first time! This is so exciting!” I never even dreamed of having friends before. All the females were joking with me. Cool beans!

And then there’s Ar’Tok—he feels like more than a friend. Last night felt comforting, and emotional, and sexy. I wish I had more of an understanding of how he feels about me. At least I know his cirr like me.

He’s about to enter his cabin when I say, “It sounded like most of the males were going to the ludus , er . . . gymnasium, to work out. You don’t exercise with them?”

“I work out alone.”

That was cryptic. I don’t have time to think about his mood though, I have to respond to Ergonn, aka E. We’ve done a lot of business over the years. None of the people who employ me ever saw dad or heard his voice, nor have they seen or heard me. We do it all via text-comms.

I’ve got a job for you, he says when we’re connected.

What does it entail?

A vast workaround to keep the Feds away from our operation on a certain planet.

That’s my specialty. Send the specs via our usual channel. I’ll need to know the deadline if there is one.

One problem. You’ll need to be on-planet for the install.

I don’t perform work off-site. You know that.

Everyone has a price. You must come to the planet. I’ve been told you’ll have to be here for Zero-day.

Until this moment, no price could lure this little human female from the safety of her satellite. But I’m not on that satellite. And now I’m friends with over a dozen trained gladiators. I can go to his planet if I have an armed contingent with me.

What planet? I ask.

Paragon.

Paragon. Aka the Pleasure Planet. It’s not exactly a den of iniquity. There are dozens of skeezier planets in the galaxy. But anything a person could want—anything—is for sale there. Ergonn wants me to go there to install a firewall that can’t be detected by the Feds? That will be near impossible. Sounds like my kind of job.

How much? I ask.

One million.

Sweet. That’s a lot of credits! What’s doubly exciting is if he offered a million, he’ll probably be willing to pay two. I take a deep breath and plan my strategy. How do I jack up the price?

No way. I reply, and terminate the comm.

A moment later, I hurry next door without my wrist-comm. If I have it on me, I’ll be tempted to answer when E calls back. He already pinged me twice. I need to let him cool his jets.

I’m so excited I keep knocking until Ar’Tok answers his door—sweating and naked.

“You’ve been working out this whole time?” Crap. His body is like an eye magnet. I try to focus on the ceiling, but I can’t control my urge to steal peeks at all those muscles.

“Yeah. Is something wrong?”

Why would he think that? Maybe because I knocked like my hair was on fire or because my cheeks are flaming in embarrassment.

“Exciting news. I want to run it by you. Could you, uh, put on some clothes?”

“Sure. I forgot. They warned me that Earth women are offended by nudity. Let me take a shower first.”

Luckily, he’s quick in the shower. Ten minutes later, we’re sitting across from each other on his bed, and I’m telling him my exciting news.

“So, how much do you think I can wangle out of him?” I ask.

“I have no idea, but whatever you can do, Aerie can get you more. I watched her in action a while back. She’s an amazing negotiator.”

“I guess we also need to see if Captain Zar will agree to the plan. It would mean going to Paragon, and I’d probably need an armed guard.”

“Let’s go ask.”

As we stand to leave and I’m inches away from Ar’Tok, I can’t keep the image of his naked body out of my thoughts. I’m going to finagle a way to sleep with him again tonight. Maybe we can try some of the things we were talking about right before my oxygen ran out.

When we get to the bridge, I tell the captain about Ergonn’s offer. Zar’s an amazing male. When he looks at me I can tell he’s thinking of nothing other than what I’m saying. He’s thoughtful and respectful as he weighs my words.

“So you want to do this?” he asks.

I nod.

“You have no doubt you can produce what this male is asking of you?”

“None.”

“Did Dr. Drayke relay my offer to you? That you can stay with us? Fly the galaxy with us if you’d like?”

“Yes.”

“Have you made that decision yet?”

“No. It’s only been two days.” I’m surprised he would imagine I could make that big of a decision in such a short amount of time.

“I only ask because I’m concerned for your safety. Once Ergonn knows you’re a female, your identity will not remain a secret in the underworld. As a single female, alone on a satellite, you might be a target for evildoers. I believe this job will put you at risk.”

I hadn’t thought of that. He’s right. But all that money could buy me an in-house team of bodyguards for a decade.

“I’ll take that chance,” I tell him.

He nods for a while, still thinking. “You’re sure? I don’t want you to make this decision lightly.”

“I’m sure.”

“Then let’s negotiate this dracking job to the highest amount we can squeeze out of him,” Zar says with a piratical smile.

I’m told he was born a slave. Somehow in the months since he fought for his freedom, he left that persona in the dust. He’s a born leader.

“You’re doing all the negotiation by comms?” he asks. “Mind if we invite Aerie to help? She has the skills to get us the highest amount possible.”

“If she can get us more money, I’m all for it.”

Aerie and her male Beast live on the Devil’s Playground , which has followed us to these coordinates. She joins us, dressed for battle in a gray pinstripe suit that she must have been abducted in. She looks like she’d be more at home in a Wall Street boardroom than an alien spaceship—except for her flip-flops. They’re an awful eggplant color with chartreuse alien eyes all over them. They look like thrift store rejects.

“You’re eyeing my shoes?” she asks, a smile slashed across her pretty face. “I’m sure you covet them. Who wouldn’t? But don’t even think about it. These are my lucky shoes. When I wear them, I can get your price doubled.”

She asks me lots of questions so she understands what the job might entail. I throw some jargon at her so she can throw it at Ergonn.

“Tell him this is a hundred times more complicated than the firewall he requested. What he needs is a virus, a virus that replicates itself and morphs to avoid detection . It involves polymorphic malware. This is high-level stuff. When I’m done with his system, it will evade the most sophisticated pattern-matching algorithms.”

She gives me an open-eyed look and a shake of her head. “I have to write this down, it’s above my paygrade.” She begins comm’ing back and forth with E, her keystrokes getting faster the longer the negotiations continue.

“How many people are on board these two vessels?” she demands without looking up from her comm.

“Exact?” Zar asks. “We just took on those new gladiators from planet Trent, and I—”

“Never mind. Doesn’t matter,” she says as her fingers fly over the keyboard. “All right.” She breathes a deep sigh and turns to all of us on the bridge: her mate Beast, Captain Zar, Ar’Tok, me, and the silver pilot, Braxxus.

“I’ve got him up to two and a half million and . . .” she pauses as if she’s waiting for a drumroll, “he’s agreed to an all-expense-paid week of accommodations and entertainment on the planet—excluding alcohol and drugs—for every member of our crew. Or three million without the R the look in their eyes told me that.

Growing up isolated, knowing humans weren’t supposed to be anywhere in space, made me very clear on one thing—it would never be safe to leave the Misfit . Therefore, I knew there would be no male in my future.

One night, shortly before mom died, I heard my parents dispassionately discussing if they should buy me a male slave ‘to meet her needs’. I wasn’t certain why they were considering such a thing. I didn’t have any needs. At least I didn’t then. I discovered romance novels a few years ago. The descriptive passages awakened things in me I didn’t know had been slumbering deep inside.

It’s funny, I’ve seen myself in a mirror a million times in my life, but I’ve never really looked before. Now I’m seeing myself through Ar’Tok’s eyes. Does he see a pretty woman? Does he notice the little scar near my eye where a shard of glass cut me? Does he think my lips are too plump?

I turn on my heel and slip into the shower. Most people go through this in their teens; it isn’t healthy for me to fall down this rabbit hole.

A few minutes later, I’m clean and wearing some clothes Brianna loaned me—a t-shirt and leggings. It seems to be the unofficial uniform onboard. Ar’Tok answers his door on my first knock. He’s wearing soft gray sleep pants and is naked from the waist up.

A little smile is playing on his features; his eye sparkles with pleasure. Why was I looking in the mirror and worrying? His face tells me so much more than a piece of shiny metal.

“Did you get a lot done?”

“Yep. I set close to a dozen programs running. There are hundreds of bots creeping their way through a thousand systems on Paragon computers, collecting data for me. Then there will be more programs to write tomorrow. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.”

“I’m not sure what you just said, but I heard the word easy.” His face becomes even more handsome as his smile widens.

“Yes. Easy. Now, how did you do with your homework?” Did I really just say that? I just jumped into the deep end.

He cocks an eyebrow, then says, “My roster of options? I’ve got them all right here.” He taps his temple. “Rather than give you a list, I thought I’d show you,” his voice deepened on those last two words, which made me feel something awaken deep in my belly—no, lower.

He gently grips my shoulders and presses me against the metal door, then peers down at me, his head at a slight angle. He’s looking at me, scrutinizing. His gaze is nothing like how I was looking at myself only a few moments ago. No, he’s not sizing me up or assessing me. He’s memorizing me. Actually, it’s like a predator deciding which part of his prey he wants to eat first.

Kiss me , I command from the privacy of my mind. He dips his head slowly toward me, then veers at the last minute, presses his nose to my neck, and breathes me in. Moving an inch to the right, he does it again. There’s something so primitive, so primal, about his actions it makes my knees weak.

Before he even kisses me, he’s exploring my scent. His nose travels my neck, he breathes deeply in my damp hair, then follows my neckline and stops, his chin between my breasts.

I wonder if I pass his sniff test, then decide I should conduct my own examination. My chin is close to the crown of his head. His horns flank my cheeks. My fingers itch to explore them, and I tentatively trace one finger from his scalp, along the graceful arch, to the tip. It’s hard keratin—I didn’t expect him to even feel it, but he’s still as a statue as I explore.

“You can feel this?” I breathe as my finger circles the tip.

He doesn’t answer with words—just a sexy exhalation, more like a grunt. He doesn’t move. I think he wants more.

I grip both horns firmly, one in each palm, right above the scalp. He rewards me with a deep pant, almost a groan. I follow the curve up and back, noticing every breath and huff. His shoulders stiffen when I increase my pressure. I instinctively know he likes it harder.

But when my fingers reach the slim tips, I trust my urge to lighten my touch. This makes him tremble as he rests his forehead on my chest, giving himself over to the pleasure.

I’m standing, my back against the cool metal door, some of his weight is on me as a purr rumbles from deep in his throat. If he wasn’t standing, I’d call his muscles limp.

I play with the ends of his horns the same way I caress the tips of my breasts when I touch myself in bed late at night. This makes him pant in a soft huffing cadence.

And then I feel his fingers on my face, caressing me, exploring me. But a moment later I realize it’s not his fingers, but his cirr —dozens of them. They slide along my cheekbones, trace the bracket of my ears, and comb through my hair. I want to shake my head in a delicious shiver as they flutter along my eyelashes.

“Ar’Tok.” It’s all I can force my lips to say. I hope it expresses my pleasure. His cirr move to the back of my head, gripping me more forcefully as he stands taller and sears me with a gaze so intense, so blazingly hot, I feel the urge to look away. But I don’t.

We’re still standing. Fully clothed. But I have never felt this aroused, never experienced this level of heat in my life. Desire swirls in my pelvis. I feel my heartbeat not in my chest, but between my legs. The tips of my breasts ache to be touched.

He gives me the slightest smile. On another male it might be a smirk. One side of his mouth quirks in an almost imperceptible movement. But there’s nothing derisive or dismissive about his expression. It’s as articulate as when I just spoke his name. It tells me how much he wants me right now.

And then he speaks eloquently with his actions as his head dips, his lips finally brushing mine.

This is exactly how I imagined my first kiss would be. So gentle. So full of passion. I want to keep my eyes open. I want to see his beautiful face, to watch the passion in his eyes, but my lids shutter closed of their own volition.

Deleting my sight enhances my other senses. My arousal is even more urgent. His cirr hold me tight as he tilts his head, getting a better angle to explore me. And then his slick tongue slides along the seam of my lips. It tickles and arouses and is delightful even as it makes me want more.

I open myself to him and hear him groan with pleasure. He accepts my invitation by piercing into me, his tongue mad with need. It’s as if something unleashed within him.

Now that he’s standing, my hands slide and entangle in his cirr . They grip me, entwining with my fingers. They’re so expressive, so eager to feel my touch and return it.

His tongue is pressing into me, exploring my mouth, savoring me, as I’m savoring him. All my senses overwhelm me. His taste reminds me of the expensive vanilla my mom used to hide in the back of the cupboard for special occasions. He smells like an exotic combination of sweet and spicy. I take an extra breath in through my nose to memorize it, then tuck it into the back of my mind to play back another day.

His huge hands slide along the nape of my neck so gently, as if his cirr weren’t doing a good enough job of holding me tight.

Now I know why species don’t die out unless they’re hunted to extinction—the biological imperative to breed.

For the first time in my life, I feel need . A pressing, pounding need to couple, to connect, to be filled by him. It isn’t that interesting tickle I feel when I lie in bed with one of my books. It’s insistent and driving and compelling.

I want more than his delicious tongue dancing with mine. I want his manhood inside me, to invade me.

I try to disentangle my hand from his cirr, but they hold tight, not wanting to let go. I tug harder so my palms can slide down the hard muscles of his back. What an interesting combination of soft skin pulled tight over sculpted granite.

The taut drawstring at the top of his pants is no match for my determined fingers as they slip beneath the fabric. The globes of his ass are magnificent—strong and hard. I press him closer, aware that he’s kept his hips away from me.

Now’s the first moment I feel the hard rod of his cock against my belly. I gasp, shocked at the feel of his male warmth straining against me. I stretch on my tiptoes to feel him right there . His length now pressing against my clit.

Needing even more of him, I sling my leg around him, dig my heel against the back of his thigh, and urge him even closer as I ride him.

His cirr sneak between our bodies, slide down my neckline, and grip my nipples. My eyes flare open. I need to hold onto Ar’Tok’s gaze as a tether as the waves of an orgasm gush at me like a tsunami.

When my release hits, I bite the cords of Ar’Tok’s neck as I come in a giant blast of bliss. Rolling surges of pleasure spill over and around me causing every muscle in my body to spasm in release.

Afterward, I whimper, sated, too tired to speak, too exhausted to stand. Ar’Tok dips his knees and easily lifts me into his arms.

“Good?” he asks without needing to. He’s smiling. A full-on smile that is radiant. Dear Gods, it looks good on him.

“Bed,” is all I can say. My lips as rubbery as the rest of my body.

He gently sets me down on the bed, as if I’m precious. My hands fly to my face to confirm what I imagined—a giddy grin is spread across my face.

That was amazing and astonishing and so intimate, and we still have our clothes on. Wow.

My dracking comm chooses this moment to announce, loudly I might add, “Trouble on program three. Malfunction needing your attention.”

“Buzzkill!” I shout as I smack my arm against the mattress.

I wish I hadn’t seen the look on his face. He’s already covered it up. But a moment ago, he wore the saddest expression.

“It can wait,” I reassure him. “Let me take care of you.” Not that I know how. But I’m sure he’ll help me figure it out.

“It’s important, right?” he asks with the adorable head-cock that’s becoming his trademark.

“Urgent,” my comm interrupts, “because of program three’s failure, programs four, five, and six have stopped performing.”

“Shit.”

“We have time to finish this later,” he announces, acting as if it’s no big deal.

“This is so whack. Promise me we’ll pick up where we left off.”

He shakes his head, then adds with a smile, “No. We’ll have to start over.”

I reach over to give him a quick kiss, but that doesn’t work. We keep kissing, then our tongues get involved, then his cirr , and my fingers, and within seconds my body is ramping up for a second round. I yank myself away and bound off the bed.

“Yes, this is serious. I need to get those programs running or the project will never get finished on time. I didn’t like what happened in here a moment ago.” His head cocks as his face falls. “I loved it,” I amend quickly. “Those were without a doubt the best moments of my life. Give me a rain check.”

“I don’t know what that is, but I’ll check your rain whenever you want.” He’s smiling again.

“Yes, we’ll check each other’s rain many times,” I say as I slap the palm plate and scurry next door to my cabin.