Page 18 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Jasmin

As soon as the hatch signaled that it was closed, I eyed the straps that secured the kid to the nav chair.

Still good. I didn’t know if one or both of the guys had managed to get aboard.

I just knew that I could maintain that position longer than that.

I’d seen the massive sphere of energy barreling down on our position.

Getting hit by that would have fried Bev’s systems.

With my heart pounding in my throat, scared that Yashan somehow hadn’t made it, I send Bev away from Drameil’s compound and the small town beyond the airstrip that supplied it.

With the emerald green of the tropical forest a blur beneath our hull, I dared a look over my shoulder into the corridor toward the hatch.

I could only just make out the toes of a red foot.

A shuddering sigh left my body. He’d made it! He’d managed to get aboard the ship. You’d both better have made it, there’s no going back now. I lifted Bev’s nose to the sky, breaking out of the atmosphere. Everything went weightless for a few seconds as the gravity generator struggled to kick in.

The kid next to me looked alive for the first time. Floating in his straps, he was grinning, eyes wide and excited but no longer scared. “Yeah, I always love this part too,” I said to him, grinning widely back.

There was no resistance in space, no enemy ships to dodge and outmaneuver.

I was almost disappointed by that. Now, I had the task of setting the autopilot to navigate us back along our previous route—back to the Strewn shipyard, where I’d picked up my last cargo.

I was still working with the computer, struggling with the difficult navigational calculations, when Yashan stepped onto the bridge.

I paused what I was doing to look at him, noting that his nearly naked body was covered in smears of mud and blood.

His red skin gleamed bright in some places and had turned dark purple to black in others, bruises, likely.

His spiky black hair was flattened to his skull, and his dots had turned dark blue, edged with white.

I knew without asking that the expression on his face meant we’d left the Beast behind.

“I’m so sorry, Yashan,” I said, abandoning the navigation problems for a moment and rushing out of my chair to toss myself into his arms. Only three arms came to curl around me, the upper right one hanging limply at his side.

It was one of the best hugs I’d ever received, anyway—tight, full of unspoken words, comforting.

When we pulled apart, his silver eyes settled on the youth still curled up in my navigator’s chair.

“Beast spoke, at the last moment when only I could hear him. He said we should find happiness together and take care of that one…” I knew it!

That guy had totally played the guards into thinking he was just a beast. I felt infinitely better knowing that.

It was so clever that I had no doubt he’d manage another escape attempt.

I said as much to Yashan, and he offered a smile. “You are right. And in the meantime, we’ll do as he said—be happy together and help this kid.”

Hours later, I’d gotten us going toward Strewn, a journey of about three months without FTL jumps.

Yashan had taken the kid with him into the crew quarters once occupied by Okar.

They’d taken turns washing up and picking clothes from the pile of things Okar had left behind.

We had yet to coax the youth into speaking, but he’d crashed in Okar’s old bunk after stuffing himself on ration bars.

Now, I was sitting in Yashan’s lap as we gazed out the viewscreen on Bev’s bridge.

I’d tucked my head beneath his chin, and he was softly stroking three of his palms all over my body, the gestures more affectionate than sensual at the moment.

“I’m sorry the medkit couldn’t do more for your shoulder,” I told him, as I stroked my own palm over his upper right shoulder, feeling the heat coming off the joint that indicated inflammation.

“It will heal, and now it might actually get a chance to recover further,” he said in that low baritone I loved. I snuggled closer. Despite everything we’d been through, I’d lucked out meeting this guy. “I have credits; we’ll look into the right treatments and get them for you.”

He tightened his arms around me. “Does your ship have room for this ex-gladiator?” What he was really asking was if I had room for him—and that answer was, wholeheartedly, yes.

I turned in his lap so I was straddling him again, the position reminding us both of that intimate moment we’d shared in that cell. “Don’t you wish to go home?”

His silver eyes turned sad, the spots on his cheeks mirroring the emotion in pale blues.

“My tribe is all gone. While I do think I’d love to see the great trees of Pretor again someday…

I’d rather make my home here, with you.” Those spots were sliding from blue into pink now, and I knew what that meant.

My own cheeks were heating up, how brave of him to lay that out there for me, to make himself vulnerable after all he’d been through.

Leaning forward, I pressed my forehead to his.

“I’d love to make this ship our home together, Yashan.

You’re a good man—my good man.” He made a low groaning sound in his throat, hands gliding over my back.

One hand tangled into my hair, gripping me so he could dominate my mouth with a scorching-hot kiss.

Another curled around my ass, grinding me into his growing erection.

Then a third slid up to cup a breast, thumbing my aching peak. So many hands. Perfect.

He had me up and out of the seat, carrying me in his arms to my own bunk, which was the biggest aboard the ship.

Soon, we were stripping off clothes, pausing our kiss only when my tank top had to be lifted over my head.

“Yes, finally,” Yashan growled against my breasts as he licked at my skin and suckled one peak.

“I’ve been craving this since the moment you bared yourself for me. ”

Pleasure lanced through my body from that hot, wet point of contact.

He had himself braced over me on one arm, bicep flexing beside my head.

One hand had already slid down between my thighs and was now expertly flicking against my clit, rubbing in maddening circles before dipping lower to slide two thick digits into my wet channel.

God, that felt so good. But I needed more.

With my hands, I searched out the thick bar of his cock, the finger-like tendrils at the base and the top eagerly brushing against my hand this time.

“Take me, Yashan,” I ordered on a husky moan, pulling him closer to me.

His dots had turned as wine red as the rest of his skin, indicating the intense state of his arousal.

His eyes glittered in warning. “Not yet.”

Then he was pulling his fingers free and sliding down between my thighs, his eyes rolling back into his head in pleasure as he inhaled.

“Smells so good,” he moaned, gliding his tongue along my slit in one smooth move, then dipping it lower so he could press it into the well directly and lap up all of my juices.

I nearly came off the bed from the intense sensations, only pinned in place by a firm arm across my hips.

I learned just how handy he was when two hands slid up to cup my breasts and played with the sensitive peaks.

A third added to the pleasure his tongue was inflicting on me when he pushed two fingers back into my channel, rubbing a thumb lightly along my back entrance and absolutely overwhelming me with sensations.

My orgasm rolled over me like a tidal wave, and I was sure I yelled loudly, loud enough, perhaps, to wake our passenger. I didn’t care; I had no room for thoughts in my head, only for the sensations wracking through me, for beautiful Yashan between my quivering thighs.

I wanted him inside me. I even told him as much, pulling on his hair and urging him to cover me with his big body. But he just sent me a sly grin and ducked down to suckle at me again. “No, not until I’ve had my fill.”

It wasn’t until he’d coaxed me through two more orgasms that he finally sat back on his haunches.

Palming the thick cock in his hand, he gave it a few strokes, his silver eyes avidly fixed on my flushed and glistening nether regions.

That was hot, I was just as fixated on looking at him as he was on me.

The sharp contrast of that luscious wine-red skin against the honey tone of my own was mesmerizing.

“Fuck me, Yashan, now,” I demanded. I felt love for him surge through me at the sight of the most devastatingly sexy smile—happy, loving. I loved that look on him.