Virgin (10 page)

Ava didn’t think this made any sense at all, but Dax’s shuttered expression kept her from saying so. “A little of it would go a long way,” she said. “But I’m not surprised you’d want something more substantial.”

Waroun cackled but made no further comment.

Ava tackled her sandwich again, and nobody said much for a while.

“Where will we be stopping first?” Quinn asked, breaking the silence. “You never said.”

“Not sure,” Dax replied. “We’ll probably pick up a few more passengers before we drop anyone off.”

Dax’s voice echoed through Ava’s skull, sending out long feathers of warmth to tickle her erogenous zones. Swallowing with some difficulty, she glanced over at him, hoping to discover the reason.

Her mouth watered at the sight of him, and it was all she could do to keep from grabbing him by the hair and dragging him into her lap. The answer to her unspoken question came to her instantly.
No wonder that cream is so expensive! It’s an aphrodisiac!
Doing her best to ignore the overwhelming urge to pounce on him, she ate a bite of her pickle instead, which helped some, but she still couldn’t take her eyes off Dax.

“Hey, Dax,” Waroun said from somewhere to her left. “These peaches smell really good. Here, take a whiff.”

Dax turned to face Waroun and drew in a deep breath to say something, but the words never came out as his gaze fastened on Ava. His eyes widened as he sucked in another lungful of air. For a moment, he looked like he was going to have a full-blown panic attack, but against all odds, he began purring instead.

If Ava had melted from looking into Dax’s eyes once before, this time she was evaporating. She was vaguely aware of conversation between the others but had no idea what they were saying. His glowing, catlike eyes mesmerized her, and his purring drowned out every other sound.

Except for that incessant beeping. “What
is
that?” Ava said distractedly as Kots returned.

“It’s a hail coming in,” Waroun replied. “Priority message for you-know-who.”

“I’ll take it in my ready room,” Dax told Kots, who was prodding him with a spoon.

Ava gazed longingly at Dax’s back as he strode from the dining hall.
I had one bite of that stuff. Imagine what would happen if I ate a whole bowlful of it!
Someone should have warned her—Dax, if no one else—but none of them had said a word about the possible effect. Perhaps it was something that only affected Terrans or Aquereis, and the others didn’t know it for what it was. It couldn’t possibly have had the same effect on Dax; after all, he’d eaten a full serving and hadn’t—

Then she remembered. He’d been staring at her like that at breakfast—purring, too. And then there was Waroun’s comment about the Great Virgin being hooked. Maybe it
did
work on him, though surely not to the same extent, because if it did, Dax must have had the mental equivalent of a cast-iron chastity belt on his libido.

***

Now that Dax had found Ava and knew what she could do to him, it had taken every ounce of his willpower not to ravish her right there on the table. A woman had once teased him that when it finally happened, he was going to fall like a ton of bricks. By God, she was right. It had begun almost at first sight, and though the Sholerian cream probably helped a little, his cock was so hard it hurt, and his coronal fluid was already soaking into his pants. Her scent was beginning to fade, and his erection along with it, but if his mind hadn’t been in such turmoil, he’d have done a little happy dance right there in the passageway.

She wanted him!
He was sure of it now. Ava had to have felt some desire for him, or he wouldn’t have smelled it on her—and the fact that she hadn’t aroused him when she’d spoken with him earlier disproved the Terran/Aquerei mixed-blood theory. The Sholerian cream probably wasn’t responsible either, because there hadn’t been any aphrodisiacs involved when he’d gazed into her eyes out on the street in Luxton City. Yeah. She wanted him—wasn’t acting like she did, but scents didn’t lie.

Dax ran the rest of the way to the bridge, hoping the message was from Threldigan. He
really
needed some advice now.

***

Threldigan’s handsome, dark-skinned face filled the viewscreen as he leaned forward to adjust the settings. “What’s new, pussycat?”

“How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that?” Dax shot back.

“A few more,” Threldigan said with a chuckle. “I don’t hear from you in ages, and now, all of a sudden, I get this urgent hail. What’s going on? You need more of my gadgets?”

“No, I’ve got plenty of those.”

“Well, then,” Threldigan said wisely, “you must be having woman trouble.”

“Sort of,” Dax began, not bothering to dissemble. “You see, I’ve finally found one I want, but I’m not sure what to do next.”

“What are you worried about? Women practically fall at your feet!”

“Not this time, Threld. In fact, I’m not even sure she likes me—thinks I’m trying to cheat her or something.”

“Imagine that,” Threldigan said dryly. “Knowing how charming you can be…”

“Very funny,” Dax grumbled. “I don’t need sarcasm, I need pointers.”

“On how to charm a woman?”

“Yeah, something like that.”

“You’ve seen me do it a hundred times. Weren’t you paying attention?”

“Well, no. I wasn’t,” Dax admitted. “To be honest, I never thought I’d need it.”

“My God, this is funny!” Threldigan chortled. “They crawl all over you and you ignore them, and then the one you finally want ignores you!”

“I’m not sure she’s
ignoring
me,” Dax said after giving it some thought. “It’s just that she’s had some bad experiences with her last boyfriend, and she wants to go back to the man she left behind on Rutara. Says he was a good man and she shouldn’t have left him.”

“Which means she wouldn’t want a reprobate like you?”

“I’m not a reprobate!” Dax exclaimed. “Why would you say that?”

Threldigan regarded him with a raised brow. “You’re certainly trying to look the part—and you act it sometimes. I’ve seen you with women. You tell them all sorts of horror stories to get rid of them. It could be that your reputation has come back to haunt you, my friend.”

“I’ve never told anyone any horror stories! I just tell them that if they want me, they have to do Waroun first.”

“And if that’s not a horror story, I’ve never heard one,” Threldigan replied. “You make your bed and you lie in it…”

“So, what do I do now?”

“I think you’d better come and pick me up.” Threldigan shook his head. “It’s time I moved on anyway. I’ve always had a hankering to visit Rutara. Perhaps I should come along for the ride.”

“Where are you?”

“Rhylos,” Threldigan replied with a barely suppressed smile.

Dax winced. Rhylos had the virtue of being in a nearby star system, but that was about the only advantage to Threldigan being on that particular planet. “Think you could meet me at the spaceport?”

Threldigan threw back his head, laughing. “What’s the matter? Afraid those two Davordian hookers still want your head on a platter—or, should I say, your dick?”

“As I recall, it was my balls they were after,” Dax said ruefully. “The only girls who ever took me up on the deal.”

“Yeah, they fucked Waroun, and you still wouldn’t do them.”

“I never said I
would
, just that if I ever
was
to do it, they had to do Waroun first.”

Threldigan grinned. “They were really pissed.”

“Tell me about it.” The two women had come after him with knives, swearing they’d castrate him if they ever caught up with him. Fortunately, Dax had been able to outrun them and had since made a point of never staying on Rhylos for very long, nor did he advertise his visits. “Waroun was pleased, though. He still talks about it.”

“I’ll bet he does. How soon can you get here?”

“In about… twenty-nine standard hours,” Dax replied, consulting his charts. “We’re not far from there, and it’s on the way.”

“How fortunate,” Threldigan said pleasantly. “Should I spread the news?”

Dax gave him a sickly smile. “Not if you ever want to hitch a ride with me again.”

“I won’t say a word,” Threldigan promised. “But you know how unscrupulous those spaceport officials can be.”

“I’ll wear body armor.”

“You do that,” Threldigan said. “I’ll be waiting for your hail. In the meantime, don’t do anything stupid to alienate this woman. You
know
how you are.”

Dax sighed. “Yeah, I know. See you soon.”

Dax terminated the link and leaned back in his chair. This could either be the best idea he’d ever had or one of the worst. Time would tell…

***

“If she’s on Rutara,” Vandig reported, “no one has seen her. Her mother hasn’t heard from her in six months, and Russ, well, he’s very happy without her. Said she had a bit of a temper.”

Eantle chuckled softly. Apparently Sliv’s daughter was a lot like her dad. Easy enough to get along with most of the time, but
sometimes
… Eantle missed his old friend—had dreamed of watching the New Age begin at his side, but since that wasn’t meant to be, it was up to him to see to it that Sliv’s death hadn’t been in vain.

“The port authority had him taking off with two Kitnocks and a Drell,” Vandig went on, “but the ship hasn’t landed on those worlds either.”

“They haven’t had much time,” Eantle mused. “And he could easily have made a side trip to pick up someone else. It’s probably worth checking out the surrounding systems, just in case.”

“You make it sound like there are millions of us out there looking,” Vandig said with a snort.

“True, but they apparently aren’t trying to hide, either. That Dax Vandilorsk—the best I can tell, he might take you anywhere you want to go, no questions asked, but he’s always followed the regulations and files a flight plan. He was going to the Kitnock and Drell homeworlds, and then on to Rutara. No mention of Aquerei.”

“Which would’ve saved us a lot of trouble. She must’ve changed her mind.”

Eantle thought for a moment before making a decision. “Keep someone in the spaceport of all of those worlds. They’ve got to go somewhere.”

“What about Rhylos? It’s not far from Luxaria.”

“Put someone there too. We’ll find them.”

Chapter 7

Having no intention of losing his balls just when he might have found a use for them, Dax figured he’d send Waroun to meet Threldigan when the time came. He was on his way back to his quarters when he passed Waroun, who, not surprisingly, was thrilled at the prospect.

“I’ll reset the course to Rhylos right away,” Waroun said. Sighing, he licked his lips. “I can still taste those Davordian girls. Do you think you could—?”

“Absolutely not.” Dax knew precisely what Waroun had in mind. “I’m not going anywhere near that brothel. If you want to look them up, you have my blessing, but something tells me they might go after your nuts too.”

“If they can find them,” Waroun said with a smirk.

The location of Waroun’s gonads wasn’t obvious to the casual observer, and though it wasn’t information Dax had ever sought, he was well-versed in Norludian anatomy—an unfortunate hazard of spending time with one of the more garrulous members of the species. “They may find slitting your throat appealing,” he warned. “I wouldn’t risk it if I were you.”

“Well, you aren’t me, are you? The single most perfect moment of my life—until you had to go and blow it by getting nasty.”

“I wasn’t nasty,” Dax protested. “I simply said I wasn’t interested in any woman who’d just finished with someone else.”

Waroun rolled his bulbous eyes. “Which is to say all hookers. You know what they say about a woman scorned. For the love of Leon, couldn’t you have just lied and said your dick was broken?”

Dax could have used this excuse, though technically it wouldn’t have been a lie. Davordians had never smelled right to him and therefore… “Just forget it, Waroun. We’ve been over this a million times. I’m sick of it.”

“You always say that,” Waroun grumbled. “So where does Threldy want to go?”

“Rutara,” Dax replied.

“Well, now, isn’t
that
convenient?”

“Sarcasm doesn’t become you, Waroun.”

“Nothing becomes a Norludian. Why do you think no one likes us?”

“Because you’re weird little—”

“Don’t get personal, now,” Waroun said, cutting him off. “We can’t help it if—oh, hel-
lo, Ava
.” His voice was now soft as silk. “How
are
you this afternoon? Is there anything we can help you with?”