Page 15

S he’s staring out the window-wall, over the panoramic view of city and ocean, her arms wrapped around her legs, her cheek resting on her knees. She looks closed off, pensive, distant, in a way that Kez never is with me. “Are we alone?” she asks.

“Yeah, kitten.” I sit down on the floor in front of her.

Pull one of her feet out of the ball she’s made of herself and start rubbing her toes.

They’re reddened from the pressure of her heels, cold from the water and still a little sandy, despite her walk around the deep pile carpet and whatever she did in the ‘fresher.

She sighs after the first few strokes. “That feels really nice.”

“You don’t wear heels often,” I observe.

“They’re hard to run in.”

Practical kitten. “What’re you thinkin’?”

“I’m wondering how many towels we need.”

No, she ain’t gonna divert me like that. “Three. Now tell me what you’re really thinkin’.”

“How do you get three?”

“Kez,” I growl.

She rolls her eyes. Turns her head so her other cheek is resting against her raised knee, so she’s looking away from me. “I hated what we did to Alb,” she whispers.

“I wasn’t crazy about it, either,” I admit, although it probably bothered her more than me; I don’t like threatening kids. “Sometimes the things I do to keep us safe ain’t nice.”

“Like what you did to the Bale Brothers?”

“Yeah.”

Kez lifts her head so she can look at me. “Were they really going to rape me?”

I take her other foot and begin rubbing it. “They’re dead. What they were or weren’t gonna do don’t matter now. What matters is finding the real threat.”

“And the next one,” she says. “And the one after that. When does it end?”

“When they’re dead.” Maybe that’s the truth of Tyng’s collective paranoia. The threat never really ends. All the more reason we need to get out of the Hex trade and go legit.

“I hate this,” Kez whispers. “I didn’t know it would be like this. From the outside, the lives of rich people, they look perfect.”

“Everyone’s fightin’ their own battle, kitten.” Something I learned long ago. “Don’t matter if you’re rich or poor.”

“I guess.” Kez sighs. “Remember what you offered me, a while back? You said we could just climb on your ship and go? That’s starting to sound really good.”

It’s always sounded good to me.

“Be a tight squeeze to fit your crew and Baby Tyng’s whole family and all their shit on the Infinity . We’d need a bigger ship.”

Kez snorts. “I didn’t know there were any. That thing’s going to attract its own moon soon.”

“Don’t be mean to my baby. She’s sensitive.”

Kez sighs again. “We’d have to leave the rabbits behind.”

She seems to be actually considering cutting and running. The tag must really be bothering her. She stuck it out when Tyng threatened to maim her. She didn’t really consider running when faced with taking over his empire. This is the first time I’ve heard her express the desire to bolt.

If she’s really considering it, she needs to understand all the angles. “And Nev’s baby, assumin’ she keeps it. Newborns can’t survive deep space.”

Kez’s head sinks lower.

“Kitten, you want a word of advice from someone who’s lived with a tag for half a decade?”

She turns her head again so she’s looking at me. “Have you? I thought you were dead. I mean, I thought they thought you were dead.”

“Didn’t stop them from sticking a fifty CeeBee tag on my head. I think outin’ Tol Seng pissed them off.” I pull both of her feet into my lap and look up at her steadily. “Forget it, kitten.”

She lifts an eyebrow. “That’s your advice? Forget about it?”

“Yeah. Spend every minute worrying about whether they’re gonna cash you out, and you’ve done their work for them. You’re already dead. ‘Cause you sure as fuck ain’t livin’.”

“I hadn’t thought of it like that,” she says. She takes a deep breath in, lets it out. A small smile steals across her mouth.

“Be smart. Be careful. But let it go. Get on with what you need to be doin’.”

“What do I need to be doing?” Her smile widens. “Oh, I know.”

Now I get her mischievous grin. How I love that grin.

She uncurls and pulls her little dress off over her head. Tugs her feet free and wiggles out of her leggings. Naked kitten. She turns and flops across the bed, bare ass in the air.

I consider for a moment. She wants to fuck, and I’m definitely not adverse, but I have the feeling we have more to talk about. Maybe it can wait. Maybe she needs the reassurance and comfort of sex. We can talk later.

I push my boots off and shuck off my pants. Wouldn’t want my kitten to be naked all on her lonesome. I nudge my bags closer to the bed, so I don’t have to move too far to retrieve their contents. Then I collect three towels from the bathroom.

I dump the towels on her ass, just to hear her squeak. Fish the lube out of my bag and toss it on top of the towels. Then I grab her ankle and drag her to the edge of the bed. She wants to play; play starts with me asserting my dominance.

I snap the biggest towel out flat, give her a smack on the ass and let her scramble onto the towel.

She stretches out, on her back this time.

She’s lost most of her shyness with me, but she still almost always covers her back or turns it away from me.

She thinks her scar makes her ugly. What she’ll never understand is that, to me, the scar’s just part of her.

Like the spattering of freckles across her shoulders, the three dark moles that make a little constellation under her right breast, or the plum-colored birthmark high on her left ass-cheek.

They’re all just road-signs on the map of her body.

Places to visit, to stroke and kiss and lick and suck, as we navigate towards our ultimate destination.

I put a knee on the bed. Flip her over and bite her ass, gently at first, then hard enough to make her squeak. “Your ass, kitten.”

She twists to look over her shoulder. “What’s wrong with my ass?”

Marked with fading purple from the caning and fresh pink from my teeth, nothing could be more beautiful. I smooth my palms over her cheeks. Enjoy the satin of her skin. “I dream about your ass.”

She giggles. “Really?”

“Yeah.” I put my knee between hers and lie down on her, covering her body. She wriggles under me with delight. “You dream about anythin’ of mine?”

She reaches back, gropes until she finds my neck, and pulls my head down.

I kiss her soft nape. Lick and suck while I listen to her breathing accelerate.

Prop myself on one elbow and trace the delicate line of her vertebra with my fingertips.

Tug the baby hairs trailing down her neck, covering an old, thin scar.

“No? Nothin’ of mine you dream about? I’m wounded, kitten. ”

She wriggles. “I dream about everything of yours. Especially this. Will you hold me down, you know, while we do it?”

“You wanna be restrained?”

“Yes,” she says breathily.

Yeah, I like that idea, too. I reach over, tug one of my bags open and fish out a set of magnecuffs.

They can be locked to any surface, which is convenient given that this bed doesn’t have any poles or rungs.

I push the lock plate against the gargantuan headboard.

Hold it until it adheres. Then I tap Kez’s arm and when she holds her wrists out, lock the cuffs on her.

I made the cuffs; I padded them with kemwar fur so they don’t cut into the soft skin of her wrists. No matter how much she thrashes.

“Turn a little for me, kitten.” I lift off her so she can shift until the cuffs come within range of the lock plate.

I’ve set the cuffs so they have a half-meter range.

That makes the end of the bed a safe zone if Kez needs it at any point in our play.

Not that she has so far, but it’s there if things get too intense for her.

Kez jerks as her wrists come in range of the lock plate. Stretches so her arms are above her head. “Please, lie back down on me,” she pleads. “Please, Hale.”

I love it when she begs. “Why? You want somethin’?”

“In the ass. All the way. You promised.”

I did promise, but that was several days ago.

Then her friend Crank showed up with the news about the tag.

After that, it was all work and no play while we pulled strings to find out where the hit was coming from.

Our original plans for that night, the culmination of a week of working up to full anal sex, got scuppered. “That was a plan, not a promise.”

She glares at me over her shoulder. “Hale!”

“See, kitten,” I lean over her and chuckle into her shoulder. “Thing is, once you’re restrained—” I emphasize the word by caressing her forearms just below the manacles. “If you don’t like how I’m doin’ things, you’re just fuck outta luck.”

She arches so she can rub up against me. Mmm, that ass. “I’ll like whatever you do. But I’d really, really like it if you’d do what you promised .”

Tenacious kitten. I lift enough to tickle her until she giggles and thrashes. “Other problem, once you’re restrained, I can tickle you to death.”

“I’d rather you fuck me to death!” she pants.

“Now where’s the fun in that?” I ask, leaning in to blow a raspberry on the underside of her arm, where I know she’s ticklish. She squeals.

I tickle her for a little longer, enjoying her giggles, and the way she thrashes under me. It’s sexy, her thrashing. All hard breathing, tangled limbs and sweat-dampened skin. Rubbing against her gets me hard. Not that it takes much once Kez is naked or bound.

I slide back between her legs, work my fingers down her side.

Turn the tickle into a caress. Kez responds immediately, her giggle shifting to a moan.

She arches to me, lifting her ass. I shape it with my hands.

Rub my thumbs over that fine, pink-hued skin.

I love the way she flushes when I touch her.

I bet I know somewhere else she’s flushed.

I slide my hand under her, lift her ass until I can see what’s between her thighs.

Her delicate labia are beautifully flushed, flared and glistening.

I rub my fingers up and down those soft folds.

Give her a final tickle before sliding my middle finger into her.

She’s already wet. Instead of giggling, she writhes.

She doesn’t need a ton of foreplay, my kitten.

She’s the only woman I’ve been with who can get off just from penetration.

But I enjoy the foreplay, and tonight, with all the stresses on her, and her insistence on anal sex, a little foreplay can only be a good thing.

I tease her with my finger, curling it inside her, twisting my hand to stimulate her g-spot.

I slide my other hand under her, to help support her hips, but also so I can cup her belly.

Cradling her like this, knowing she’s completely helpless under my hands, wholly dependent on me for satisfaction, is such a turn-on.

My balls are already clenching, and I’m not even inside her yet .

Kez is whimpering sweetly. Her long legs flex, bruised toes curling.

The only down-side of this position, other than I can’t suck her breasts, which I promise myself I’ll do later, is that she won’t be able to wrap her legs around me and dig those little toes into the backs of my thighs while I’m inside her.

One of my favorite things. Although, to be fair, I have a lot of favorite things when it comes to sex with Kez.

I lean over her so I can kiss her shoulders and neck.

Lick her sweet, salty skin. When she lifts her head, twisting her neck, I give her the kiss she’s angling for.

The kiss starts light, but deepens. The more I kiss her, the more I want to.

She finally breaks the kiss, which is unusual, and I realize when she rolls her neck, that the position is uncomfortable for her.

“Turn over, kitten.”

“I thought we were going to do it this way,” she pouts.

Actually, I’m going to spoon her when we fuck.

We’ve tried a couple of positions as we’ve worked up to full anal sex, and spooning’s the best way.

Face-down’s no good the first few times, as I learned with Mouse.

Bearing down on her sphincter with my full weight hurt Mouse, something I realized too late when I caught her muffling her whimpers in the pillow.

I never want Kez to do that. Better to let her control how deep I go and how fast. If the pressure becomes uncomfortable, Kez can move her hips instead of being trapped between me and the mattress.

“We’ll get there. I want to kiss you without breakin’ your neck.”

“Oh.” She grins, her full, mischievous, delighted, incredibly sexy grin, and rolls over.

One of the advantages of the magnecuffs is that they allow her to twist from side to side, even if she can’t get away.

She ends up on her back, with her arms stretched over her head.

I lie next to her, lean over and kiss her, slow and deep, while I trail my fingers down her body.

Cup and stroke and pinch her soft little breasts.

Rub down between her thighs and chuckle when she opens them for me .

“You want somethin’, kitten?”

She tosses her head from side to side. “Put something in me,” she begs.