Page 287 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Arianna

Standing just inside the door to the engine room, I watched as Da’vi accepted the last piece of his engine upgrade from Babbit.

Da’vi had expected those pieces to be lost to the Riho’s stash forever, but the fluffy blue-and-black male had graciously dug them up from the bowels of the ship.

After much debate, Da’vi had agreed with the rest of the gladiators to reinstall the upgrade.

Eoin and he had already done much tweaking to the engine’s build to accommodate the extra power. It was starting to sound as though he had found a stable way to give the Vagabond’s engine a little extra “oomph” during FTL.

I liked watching him work, and now that we were no longer avoiding each other, this had been my steady hangout since the moment the Kertinal ship had left.

I’d sit here and crochet things for the ladies on the ship, especially that adorable baby of Tori’s.

Da’vi would work on fixing the engine, then upgrading it, while we crawled the last portion of the way to the Yengar Space Station.

The Kertinals had left with the understanding that the rotten Allignon was not allowed to approach Da’vi ever again.

That didn’t mean that some other Kertinal General couldn’t get it into their head to come after him, but it was much less likely.

Allignon had only known what Da’vi had done and coveted it because it had happened right under his nose, on the ship he’d captained.

Only Or’tal had known why Allignon was after Da’vi; even his own men hadn’t known a single thing.

Then Or’tal had done a very decent thing, reminding the General that he owed us reparations for the damage he’d caused to our ship.

Suddenly, all the spare parts from the Kertinal vessel had been handed over—including some raw materials—and a stack of credits to make up for the parts they didn’t have.

Abigail had been extremely chuffed ever since, crowing that we could afford to go on a shopping spree at Yengar.

I wasn’t the only one on the ship who was sorely missing some clothing staples, such as underwear.

“It’s done,” Da’vi announced gruffly, standing with his hands on his hips in front of the softly glowing, humming engine.

He turned his head to look at me over his shoulder, and I smiled, adoring the way he looked like that: slightly dirty overalls, his sleeves rolled up to his biceps, the glimmer of his metal hands.

Then there was that heated look in his glowing amethyst eyes.

He’d gifted me with that look every night since we’d made up—every morning too—and it made my toes curl with desire.

“That’s awesome. Does that mean we get to celebrate with sex?

” I asked hopefully, waggling my eyebrows when he grinned.

He started to stalk me across the room, his leanly muscled body that of a panther on the prowl.

All the lines on his skin lit up with his desire.

He was never shy about anything—always bossy and confident—which made my body melt.

It promised me he’d take good care of my body and my heart.

“Oh yeah, it definitely does, my Sunshine,” he said, but he flicked the coms open on his wrist while he stalked me.

It made my skin tingle, and a little uncertainty danced in my belly.

Why was he calling someone if he intended to have his way with me?

“Yeah, Kitan, just updating you: engine upgrades are live. You can jump to FTL whenever you want.”

I didn’t hear what Kitan said in turn. He’d reached me and folded a cool, metal hand around my throat, forcing me to back up against the nearest wall.

My body tightened like a coil, each hard plane of his body pressing against each soft curve of mine.

“I’m going to fuck you right against this wall.

Just nod if you understand,” he said, his voice dropping into the deep registers, vibrating against my chest and making my sensitive nipples ache.

Swallowing to make my mouth work, I licked my lips and watched his eyes track the movement.

Dipping my chin, I nodded once, twice. A growl erupted from his chest, and then I was hoisted into the air, his palms on my ass, pushing my long skirt up.

There was no foreplay, but I was already soaking wet from the anticipation.

He yanked open his pants, and I felt the blunt, thick head of his cock press against my soaked folds.

Its arrow-like tip helped him sink into me the first few inches.

Then the bars of his piercings scraped along my passage, and my back bowed.

I scraped my nails down his back in return, and his hips jerked forward, impaling me on his erection.

I may have screamed at that point, his name, just some kind of indecipherable noise. I didn’t care.

“That’s it. You can take me like this, I know you can, Arianna,” Da’vi said in my ear.

His deep voice calmed any worry I had that he was too big this way.

I trusted him. I’d made that step, first with my body, and then with my heart.

I would follow where he led, and he always led me to someplace amazing.

I relaxed my internal muscles, letting him carry my weight, my legs hooked around his hips.

Then I closed my eyes and just felt—feeling the way he stretched me wide, the ridges above his cock that rubbed against my clit, the piercings providing amazing friction against my G-spot, and the thick veins that covered him for even more texture.

This was heaven, and in less than a minute, I was coming apart in his arms.

The world shifted around me, fracturing, elongating.

My hair lifted around my head with static.

My orgasm felt like it lasted forever, a lifetime.

His cock kicked hard inside me, and then I felt the hot wash of his seed spray my insides, his chest shuddering as he groaned.

“Fuck, that FTL leap… That was good. It was good, right, Sunshine?”

He held me pinned against the wall for a little longer, his cock twitching inside my passage while we caught our breaths.

At first, I could only nod to let him know I was all right, then I started to laugh.

“That was an orgasm during FTL! Chloe would be so freaking jealous…” Not that I was going to tell her about it, that hardly seemed fair; she had to navigate during the jumps, after all.

Da’vi was still shaking his head and chuckling about it after we’d straightened our clothing and started making our way toward the medical bay. We were supposed to meet the doc once the engines were fixed to see what Da’vi and he could do about the stasis pod.

After the power overload had hit Eoin and knocked him unconscious, it had struck the stasis pod as well, since it had been hooked up in the engine room.

They no longer had any hope of retrieving the occupant alive; the pod had cracked across the plex-glass shield, and all systems had been completely fried.

Just as we arrived at the med bay, Ziame spoke over the ship’s intercom.

“We have arrived at the Yengar Space Station. Be prepared for a quick departure: the mercenary vessel Varakartoom is in the docks. Boarding party, assemble at the airlock.” That wasn’t us, at least. I was extremely grateful that Da’vi had no inclination to leave the ship right now.

Maybe later I’d want to explore other places, but I’d skip this one—I’d heard it was a crime-infested place anyway.

Eoin was inside the med bay, bent over the stasis pod with his hands on the seam where it was supposed to open.

“Oh shit, that’s me,” he exclaimed. “Sorry, Doc. You got this, right, Da’vi?

” Of course my mate had this, Da’vi didn’t even deign to answer, just stalked over to trade places so that the younger male could jog away.

“Let’s crack this thing open,” he said, digging his metal fingers between the cracks.

With only the Doc, Noa, and me as witnesses, he heaved with a grunt, and the panel started coming up.

He was using brute force to peel that pod open like it was a tin of sardines.

I expected to be overwhelmed with a horrible stench: a body decomposing.

The thought crossed my mind that this wasn’t actually something I wanted to see, so I started to backpedal out of the med bay. Then I froze in place when I saw the amused glint in Da’vi’s eyes. So, he thought my squeamishness was funny, did he?

In any case, there was no horrible smell, so I was pretty sure that whatever was in that pod was not freshly dead.

The Doc was already holding his handheld scanner out, risking his arm by sticking his hand all the way in through the opened portion.

“Oh boy, I think he’s still alive!” The Doc tossed his handheld to Noa and reached out to grab another portion of the lid, helping Da’vi pull until they’d pried the entire upper part off.

I crept a little closer to peek around Da’vi’s shoulder, and across from me, Noa was doing the exact same thing, peering around Luka with huge eyes.

Then I gasped when my eyes landed on the alien guy stretched out in that pod.

He was the color of a desert sunset, orange and red.

He was also big and muscled, undiminished by his time locked in that pod.

Violet streaks colored his flanks, the outsides of his arms, and when I leaned in a little further, yup, definitely striped all the way down.

He looked human-ish, with two arms, two legs, and a face with pleasing features, from a sharp jaw and high cheekbones to a human-looking nose.

He had no hair, however; instead, two long fleshy tentacles draped from his skull, striped more tightly in violet and deeper, warm colors like ochre and tan.

His brow was prominent and high. Then his eyes flashed open, liquid black filled with thousands of minute pinpricks of white.