Captive of Pleasure; the Space Pirate's Woman (The LodeStar Series) (40 page)

He walked over to grab a small unit from a shelf, and hand it to her. “It’s a holo unit. Press that button there.”

She did, and then started as their reflections sprang up across the room, looking back at them. “Holy quark,” she breathed, pleasure lighting her face. “That’s good.”

He grinned. “Yeah. Stole it off the Pleasure Palace, Ilya and I adapted it.”

“The holovid greeters,” she said admiringly.
 

“Yeah. This can send for a longer distance now. Make it look like you’re way ahead of yourself. Thought it might come in handy sometime.”

“I’ll say.” She looked up at him. “Thanks. But, you kept one for yourself, right?”

“Yeah.” At least Ilya had promised to have another by tomorrow.
 

“Thanks. It’s starry.” They stood for a moment, and then she stepped back, her gaze skittering away. “I, ah, I should go.”

“Wait.” He put his hands out, grabbed her shoulders, so slim and strong. “One more thing.”

Ducking in, he kissed her. His mouth landed partly on her cheek, but hells, he didn’t care. It was enough just to get his mouth on her skin, to drag in a deep breath of her sweet, womanly scent, feel the slight quiver of her lips against the corner of his.
 

But then he had to have more. He went after it, cocking his head and opening his eyes to find her mouth with his.

She was still for about a half sec and then she went molten in his arms, grabbing him and jolting up against him, her mouth opening so her sweet, eager little tongue could lick into his mouth and find his. She tasted of coffee and possibly heaven.

Finally
. The relief of finally tasting her was so intense it nearly drove him to his knees.
 

Then, when she kissed him back, he gave up thinking in favor of getting his clothes and hers off as fast as physically possible, and getting her on his bed. They didn’t quite make it before she was wrapped around him like a vine and he was reeling to fall with a groan, her incredibly soft, slick heat enveloping his cock.
 

He landed on his back, holding her tight, his tongue in her mouth and his hands full of her tight little ass and her surprisingly slender back.

She rode him like a mating cata, and he let her, moaning as his orgasm blasted up through him like a laser charge. When she convulsed around him, he let go and came so hard he saw a supernova behind his closed eyelids.
 

Afterward, they lay on the edge of the bed, both gasping for air. Finally she moved. His arms tightened, although he couldn’t quite manage to get his eyes open.
 

“Oh, no,” he husked. “You’re not getting away yet. Been waiting too long for this.”

She lifted her head, and he felt her studying him. He smiled like a fool.

“You have?” she sounded puzzled.
 

Haro couldn’t help it—he started to laugh. Which predictably pissed her off, and then he had to wrestle her for dominance. Being larger and stronger, though wary of her knees, and since she wasn’t willing to hurt him, he got her on her back in the middle of his bed, where he tipped his forehead against hers.

“Yeah. I have. You’re the only one in this end of the galaxy who hasn’t noticed.”

She looked away, an extra edge of color flushing her already pink cheeks. He kissed her blush, because it was so close and he wanted to spend hours doing just this, holding her and learning her all over, then nuzzled her ear and moved, nudging himself inside her again. He slid home, all the way to his version of heaven.

She gasped, and her hands tightened on his bare back. “You’re…still hard. Oh, quark, that feels good.”

“Hard again,” he corrected her. He nipped at her ear and continued to move. “Nearly always am around you. Gonna make you come twice, this time. Maybe three times.”

She grabbed his ass and squeezed. “You’re welcome to try.” 

***

Zaë was done being a victim. She was done waiting passively for her fate to be decided by others.

Having Joran make love to her—because his tenderness, his care that she enjoy what they did, felt like so much more than sex—and then walk away, avoiding her gaze and further discussion of what they’d done…it hurt. Lodged somewhere in the region of her heart and lay there like a burning chunk of wood from the camp fire pit.

Fine, if he could walk away, so could she. But first, she had to know where to go.

She began her campaign for independence by convening her own troops for support. She invited Ringi and Dano to Stark’s tont for coffee.
 

Then, because she was as nervous as the mawwr around the catamounts, and it felt natural to pour her nerves into a physical task, she spent time setting up the coffee service with supplies from the new shipment of stores—creamer, crispies and even chocolate wafers arranged on a hovertray covered with a silk cloth.
 

She sampled one, but the treat was dry as ashes in her mouth. She swallowed it with a drink of hot coffee, and then set her cup down to face her two new friends.

“I’ve been a victim,” she announced to both of them. “But I’m done with that. As of now, today. Will you help me?”

Two pairs of brows flew up. “Uh, how?” Ringi asked.

“First,” Zaë said, bringing out the laser weapon, “I need to learn to fire this. I think I know, but I want to be safe.”

She looked up, and found the two leaning away from her, faces set in alarm. Dano lifted one hand, palm out. “Careful with that, girlfriend. Um, just put it down, slowly.”

Zaë bit back a smile. “I told you, I think I know how to use it. I need you to show me if I’m right, or not.”

She lifted it again, and aimed it at the galley, then sighed with exasperation as the two ducked below the edge of the divan. “Oh, come out, will you? I’m not going to fire.”

“We’d better do as she asks,” Ringi said, her voice muffled behind the divan. “Before someone gets lasered.”

Dano waved his hand above the divan. “All right, all right. But if you hurt me, Orson will make you sorry.”

“I believe you,” Zaë said sincerely.

Dano emerged, and watched closely as she showed him she knew how to squeeze and stroke her grip up the handle of the sleek weapon to remove the safety control. Then she mimed squeezing again to fire, with her fingers safely away from the trigger.
 

“You got it,” he said quickly. “Safety back on, please.”

Ringi breathed a sigh of relief when Zaë placed the weapon back in Stark’s cabinet. “Glad that’s over. None of the rest of this has to do with weapons, does it?”

“You’re certainly squeamish for the wife of a pirate warrior,” Zaë said, and then grinned at her friend’s indignant scowl. She felt lighter, somehow, knowing that she wasn’t entirely defenseless. She could use a weapon and she knew at least one self-defense move.
 

“Next,” she said to Dano, giving him what she hoped was an ingratiating smile, “I’d like to practice more fighting moves.”

He eyed her, and nodded. “Okay. I guess you can’t hurt me.”

Five minutes later, he lay on the floor, staring up at her as he struggled for breath. “I take it back,” he groaned. “You can hurt me.”

Zaë hovered over him, shame and triumph warring inside her. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. You can flip me next time.”

He glared at her as he pushed up off the floor. “Oh, believe me, I intend to.”

Twenty minutes later, both of them lay gasping side by side on the floor, while Ringi looked down at them, shaking her head. “Well, Zaë, you sure know some moves. And Dano, you too. I’d say that was a draw.”
 

“Where’d you learn that flip thing?” Dano asked Zaë, rubbing his hip. “I think that’s a Serpentian fighting move.”

“I don’t know,” she said uneasily. “That’s the next stage of this—how you’re going to help me, I mean. I need to know—and I need to know
now
—who I am.”

“Uh-oh,” he muttered.

Ringi gave her a wise look. “Because of the Storm, yes?”

Zaë blushed. “Yes, partly. Because—what if there’s someone else?”

Ringi gave her an odd look, her brows together, mouth scrunched to one side. “Uh, Zaë. There may or may not be someone else for you. But for Stark, there are lots of someone elses. He’s sampled every attractive, unattached woman in this camp, honey, and plenty more. He’s never shown any sign that’s gonna change.”

Dano frowned and Ringi flung out her hands. “What? It’s true. I don’t want Zaë here to get any ideas just because the man can charm the panties off any female alive.”

Zaë rubbed her throat, where the collar suddenly felt too tight. Ringi was telling the truth. She’d witnessed Stark’s sexual activity in this very room.
 

“Maybe
I
want to sample
him
,” she said, her jaw set. “And—and then move on. I never said anything about giving myself exclusively to him.”

“My, you are revealing unexpected depths,” Dano said, widening his eyes at her. “First the fighting moves, and now sexual emancipation. I’m all for it.”

Ringi sighed. “Right. Not sure I want to be around when you tell Stark you’re ready to move on. Because he is different with you. That collar, for one. Not only is it gorgeous and probably worth enough to fund a new cruiser, but I witnessed the effects on you.”

“What?” Dano demanded, leaning in. He stuffed a crispie in his mouth and crunched.

Ringi giggled. “He reeled her in like a cata. For sex play, if I’m not mistaken.”

Zaë’s face heated so swiftly she felt as if her skin would combust.She looked away. “Um, no. You’re not mistaken. But he says he won’t, um, have me until he knows for certain I’m not with another man. And I want to have sex, so I need to know.”
 

Dano’s gaze melted. “Aw, that is so hot. Girl, we’ve got to get you straightened out, no time to waste.”

Zaë nodded. Because on top of all of this, there’d been Joran’s odd behavior this morning, his refusal to look at her. Perhaps he didn’t want her anymore. And in that case, she would be on her own soon. Not that he would desert her, he wasn’t that kind of man, but she couldn’t stand to be around him a day longer and not be with him.
 

She either had to have him, or get away. And to do that, she needed to know who she was and where she was going.

“Also,” she said, “Stark says there is a battle coming, some kind of big confrontation. I want to be useful. You all have your roles, but I am as useless as a—a mawwr.” Which wasn’t really fair to mawwrs, because hers had been a comfort and reassurance in her darkest moments here.

Ringi was still unconvinced. “But doesn’t it hurt when you try to remember? I don’t know that we should mess around with things we don’t understand. What drugs did they give you? What exactly are they doing inside your brain? Not to scare you, but what if you trip something worse by fighting the effects?”

Zaë and Dano stared at her. Ringi held up her hands. “Well, we don’t know. If they conceived of something this evil, who’s to say there’s not some failsafe in place. They do
not
want their victims remembering.”

“I’m willing to risk it,” Zaë said, even though Ringi’s warnings sent fear racing through her. It was a good thing she was seated now, because her legs were weak.

“But it hurts you,” Ringi repeated. “I get headaches sometimes. Yours are worse—migraine status.”

This was true. Zaë pulled forth another smaller tray, this one with several packets of gesics. “I have these from Joran’s lav. If it gets too bad, one of you can give me a gesic—or two.”

“I’ll do it,” Dano said. “I’ll help you, Zaë. Nobody should be helpless. You escaped slavery, now we’ve got to help you get out of here.” He touched her forehead with warm fingers.

Ringi finally nodded. “All right, but under one condition. If Dano or I think you’ve gone too far, I’m linking Riley. We don’t want to mess up your mind.”

“My mind is messed up,” Zaë reminded her quietly. “I’ve lost
me
. I want my self back. I have a right to that. What if you couldn’t remember your own family? Or if they’re out there somewhere worrying about you?”

“All right, all right. That’s true.” Ringi shuddered. “I can’t imagine not knowing Pede or Elliane. So, what do we do?”

After a short discussion, Zaë sat on the divan, with her two friends arrayed on either side of her. Dano held the gesics, while Ringi held Zaë’s hand. Zaë took a deep breath, and then closed her eyes.
 

“Yesterday, I remembered a man,” she said, thinking out loud. “He was laughing about a primitive tribe. One we were visiting.” And she’d been...irritated with him.

 
She cast her mind back over the short sequence she could recall, and then searched for more.
 

***

From the darkness, the man’s voice emerged once again, much lighter than Stark’s, and accented with clipped tones, as if he spoke from the roof of his mouth.
 

‘
You should come with me,” he urged. His hand was hot and sweaty on hers, holding it too tightly. ‘You know I want to marry you. Ask your parents.’