by Olivia Myers
When his tongue slid between her lips, Jessa wrapped her legs around his waist and rolled her hips, taking him in.
Mack made a noise in the back of his throat, half shout, half groan, as his cock sank into her. Jessa gasped at the sweet, burning stretch. He was bigger than she was used to, both longer and thicker, but it was so, so good.
For a long, breathless moment, they both lay still, soaking in the sensation of their joined flesh.
Then, Mack began to move.
He drew out of her with excruciating, exquisite slowness. Jessa could swear she felt each inch, each vein, as he moved.
Warm satin lips brushed hers just before he plunged back in. The strength of his thrust drove the air from her lungs as pleasure swelled within her. Jessa clung to him, her thigh muscles aching, her nails digging into his skin until she was sure they’d leave welts. At least he healed fast.
Mack didn’t seem to care either, rearing when she scratched at him and pistoning deeper. He took her mouth in kiss after kiss, ravaging her lips.
The power of his body, those steel-synth muscles, was evident in every rolling thrust of his hips and thighs, every flex of the firm buttocks against Jessa’s calves. That power was made even more evident as he rolled suddenly, flipping them so quickly Jessa’s already spinning head couldn’t follow the movement.
One moment, she was pressed into the bunk, Mack’s glorious weight on top of her, enjoying the pounding of her life, and the next she was riding him, the slightly rough cotton sheets abrading her knees.
Mack’s hands urged her on, gripping her ass as she rose and fell, circling her hips on every upward push and rocking them back and forth on every downward lunge. She ground her clit against the base of his shaft, sending sharp sparks of pleasure up her spine.
Hot silver eyes slid from her face down to the bouncing mounds of her breasts. Jessa reached back, wrapped her fingers around his wrists, and tugged them up to her chest. He caught on quickly, kneading the soft, heavy flesh and rolling the hard tips between his talented fingers.
Their bodies slid together, hot and slick, as Jessa rode Mack.
He met her thrust for thrust, the muscles of his belly rippling with the effort to bury his cock deep within her tight, wet passage. Jessa braced herself on his sculpted chest, working her hips faster. Her muscles were feeling the strain, but the burgeoning bubble of pleasure beneath her skin was all-encompassing.
“You feel so good inside me,” Jessa told Mack, remembering his earlier questions. “Very, very — oh!”
Her second orgasm took her by surprise, slamming into her and rocketing through her body. Her fingernails cut into Mack’s skin as her hands spasmed. Her inner muscles clamped down hard on the thick, throbbing length within her.
Jessa threw back her head and moaned, loud, low, and long. Her toes curled. It felt as if the pleasure started there and rose up through her and out her mouth, pouring out, going on and on.
She bucked wildly on top of Mack and probably would have fallen if not for the grip of his hands on her body.
Through her lashes, she saw his face, wracked with the same pleasure she was feeling.
“Jessa!” His hips punched upward, burying every inch of his rock hard flesh within her. Jessa felt that thick length throb and pulse, and then the hot spill of his seed inside her.
With a cry, she collapsed against him.
Mack’s arms wrapped around her, holding her to his heaving chest. Jessa rested there, heedless of the sweat sticking them together, enjoying the feel of post-coital bliss. Every inch of her felt good. Even her hair seemed to tingle with the remnants of her orgasms.
Her mouth was curved in what was no doubt a goofy grin, but she didn’t care. No one but Mack could see it, and she didn’t mind that at all. His heart thumped loudly beneath her ear, slowing but not yet back to normal.
“God was right,” he said suddenly. “That was like nothing I ever could have imagined.”
Jessa took a deep breath so she could laugh.
“You asked Godfrey about…? No, never mind. Of course you did.”
She shook her head. There was no other way he could have gotten the requisite parts. The tech was, pun definitely intended, a cocky bastard. Jessa shoved any thoughts of the annoying genius from her mind and idly stroked a hand down Mack’s side.
“So, I’m going to need to take another shower.”
Mack’s lips pressed briefly against her damp, tangled hair.
“Yes.”
She lifted her head, meeting gray eyes still hazy with his own pleasure. She imagined all that sculpted muscle beneath the water and smiled.
“During the ridiculous amount of research I am quite sure you did, did you encounter the definition of a blow job?”
Mack swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat. Between her legs, Jessa felt his softening cock twitch. It was no surprise when he nodded.
She pulled gently away from him and climbed to her feet, extending a hand. He didn’t need her help to rise, but he took it anyway.
“Let’s go,” Jessa said. “Research is all well and good, but I’m sure you can appreciate the merits of hands — and mouth — on demonstrations.”
His deep, husky laugh rolled through their rooms, making her smile as she led him into the shower stall.
***
Mack frowned at the readings on the display in front of him. So far, there was no sign of the pirate’s ship. After the attack on the Oubliette and the attempt on Lyra, Cantra Corp had wanted to hit the thieves back instead of just waiting for the next incursion.
It was Jessa who had come up with the plan. His brilliant, sexy partner.
Unable to keep his eyes from drifting to her, he took in the golden glow of her hair, the soft line of her jaw, the curl of her ear. She was intent on her own readings, forehead furrowed.
He wanted to kiss her frown away.
Godfrey had not warned him how powerful the feelings that came with sexual contact would be. Since the first moment Mack had touched Jessa’s silky, honey-colored skin, the second she’d kissed him, he’d been changed.
It was as if the press of her lips against his had rewritten his core programming.
He couldn’t get enough of touching her, kissing her, being inside her. Jessa seemed just as affected, her hands seeking his flesh just as often as he sought hers. Whenever they weren’t on shift, they were naked, pressed together.
The night before, Mack had held her in his arms and kissed every single inch of her body. He already wanted to do it all over again.
“Got anything over there?”
Jessa’s voice, calmly professional, cut through his wandering thoughts. Mack switched his attention back to his display, thankful his BCI had continued monitoring while he daydreamed about the feel of Jessa’s sweet lips wrapping around his cock and sucking him deep.
“Nothing.”
Beside him, Jessa cursed. “Where the fuck are they?”
Frustration tightened her shoulders. Mack reached out and kneaded the tense muscle with his fingers.
“Hey. We’ll get them.”
Mack believed they would. Jessa’s plan was a good one. They, along with an entire contingent of Cantra Corp security officers, were packed inside the mid-size trawler Ticonderoga, which was scheduled to deliver supplies to Sirius Station.
Based on his calculations, Sirius was the most likely next target, given that it had been over a year since they’d last been hit and the currently scheduled delivery was a large one.
But they were nearing the docking platform, and there was still no sign of any ships.
In front of them, Sirius Station loomed enormous and dark, the twinkling lights of their artificial daylight like orderly rows of stars.
“There!”
One of the other officers shouted the warning just as the proximity sensors sounded, but it was too late. The Bug slammed into Ticonderoga’s side, throwing them all hard against their harnesses.
There was a long
, grinding screech as metal peeled away from the hull, then a punching noise.
The ship shook. Mack tore at the belt holding him to his seat. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Jessa doing the same. He ran a quick diagnostic scan, his breath coming easier when it came up all green.
She wasn’t hurt.
It had always mattered to him whether or not his partners sustained injury, but the sharp twist in his gut this time was new. Fear, he realized. He tamped it down and vaulted over an unconscious-but-alive officer, racing for the cargo doors.
Pirates poured in, more than last time, dozens upon dozens, screaming. They met the tide of security officers with no fear, firing wildly.
Mack felt Jessa at his back. Her hand pressed against his shoulder, fingernails digging into his body armor.
“Get down.”
He pulled his weapon from his holster and began to shoot.
***
There were more than they’d estimated. That was Jessa’s first thought as she unfastened her safety belt and scrambled after Mack. Pirates, more than she could count, boiled through the breached cargo doors.
She knew they had people too, trained and battle-tested, but it didn’t seem like enough in that moment. Many had been injured when the ships collided. Despite all Godfrey’s special sensors, they’d been taken unaware.
Jessa cursed under her breath and dodged around a stumbling officer. His head was bleeding. She couldn’t worry about that now. This was her plan, and if it went wrong…
Well, she didn’t want to think about what would happen if it went wrong.
Mack reached the cargo area and slid to a halt, automatically widening his stance to brace himself. The pirates were crawling over the first wave of officers like tube-rats on a beef carcass.
Her stomach rolled. She braced herself against Mack’s shoulder, taking comfort from the solid warmth of him.
“Get down,” he said as he pulled his weapon from his hip.
Jessa dropped, taking the same position she had in the bay on Lyra, using her low angle to take advantage of the disorganized pirates. Others were fighting too, mostly with weapons, but some hand-to-hand.
She caught a glimpse of TSE-938, her pretty face grim as she twisted a man’s neck until his spine snapped.
Jessa lost her in the crowd again. Everything was noise and blood and chaos. She kept firing, bracing her shoulder against Mack’s hip, keeping most of her body behind the bulk of his.
Her cy’s aim was deadly, dropping foes one after another faster than her eye could follow. But more and more seemed to spill from through the doors.
It seemed like hours, but was probably minutes, that she crouched there, shooting anyone in the pale strips of cloth the pirates wore. Her ears rang with the sound of shouts and shots. Her shoulders ached from holding her weapon up, but she didn’t waver.
Above her head, Mack’s voice was a deep rumble. “Cover me.”
“I’ve got you.”
A magazine dropped in front of her, smoking slightly from the speed with which he’d been firing. She heard the tear of him pulling a new magazine free but he didn’t immediately slam it home. Without looking, she didn’t know why, but she kept her eyes on the thinning crowd in front of her, taking out a scrawny man who clung to the back of an officer’s uniform and stabbed at him with a piece of broken pipe.
One of the pirates noticed Mack’s dilemma — whatever it was — and raised his weapon, aiming straight for her cy’s chest.
Jessa put her bead right between his eyes and squeezed the trigger.
Nothing happened. The dry click of an empty magazine pierced her like a shot of its own. Time seemed to slow as a feral grin spread across the pirate’s mouth, revealing sharp, white teeth.
She didn’t think, she just acted.
Pushing as hard as she could with her thighs, Jessa launched herself upwards and forwards, springing sideways across Mack’s broad body. She heard his startled, “Jessa, what —” before pain slammed into her chest and she crumpled to the floor.
Jessa had a moment to contemplate just how much trouble she might get in for disobeying Directive #97 before the blackness swallowed her.
***
There was a fire burning under her ribs. A warm little blaze. It sort of hurt, but also… tickled a little.
Jessa took a deep breath, and the fire flared. She groaned. The sound raked at her dry throat. Her body felt heavy, too heavy. She could barely move her fingers. When she tried to open her eyes, her lids only flickered.
Bright panic swelled in her skull, thumping like a hammer. Then a deep, soothing voice washed over her.
“Shhh. It’s all right, Jessa. Relax.”
She did, sinking back against what she now realized were very soft sheets. Where was she?
“You’re in the infirmary,” the rumbling bass told her.
A smile curved Jessa’s lips. She felt it. Mack. Her cy. He was the only one who knew how to answer questions she hadn’t yet asked.
Memories of the attack on the Ticonderoga flooded back. She groaned again. That explained the itchy, tickly pain in her chest then. She’d gotten shot, damn it. At least she’d managed to protect Mack, though.
That thought gave her the strength to pry her eyelids open.
Bright light blinded her, making her wince and intensifying the pounding in her head — which wasn’t panic but just a garden variety headache. She blinked rapidly as her eyes watered.
Slowly, her vision cleared. The first thing she saw was Mack’s intimidatingly perfect scowl. She laughed, the huff of breath making her ribs ache.
“Hey, gorgeous.”
“You violated Directive #97,” he said, lips twisting.
Jessa nodded. “I know.”
Mack’s hand covered hers, careful of the IV poking out of the back of it. “You could have died, Jessa.”
She laced her fingers through his. “I’m gathering that, from your thunderous scowl.”
It took some effort but she managed to lift her other hand and smooth it over his wrinkled forehead. Unsurprisingly, the creases immediately returned. She guessed he was probably going to be pretty ticked at her for awhile, but that was all right. She didn’t mind.
“I would have been fine.” He thumped his own chest with his other hand, as if to prove how impenetrable it was.
“Maybe,” she replied. “I didn’t want to take the chance. Now, tell me what happened after I passed out.”
“There was no chance,” he grumbled, but the corner of that sinful mouth twitched. “We got them all, including the ringleader behind all the inner station raids.”
Jessa sighed and shifted her shoulders against the pillows behind her. The quality of care in this infirmary was top notch.
“My plan worked, then.”
Mack nodded, his broad thumb rubbing over her knuckles. “Your plan worked. We lost some officers, unfortunately.” The scowl returned. “And you lost a lobe of your left lung.”
She flinched and rubbed her palm against her side.
“Is that what it was? Ouch.”
“You will promise me you are never going to do anything like that again.”
Jessa met Mack’s intense silver gaze and smiled. “I will not.”
Mack tilted his head, lips pursed. “You mean you will not promise me, not that you will not do any such thing again.”
With another semi-painful laugh, Jessa lifted his hand and pressed it to her mouth. She spoke against his skin.
“You know me so well.”
Her cy leaned over her, his mouth warm and sweet on hers as he kissed her. The pain melted away, filling her with tingling pleasure as his tongue slid against hers. She fisted her fingers into the fabric of his shirt and attempted to tug him up onto the bed with her, but the stubborn man remained as he was.
Growling into his mouth, Jessa nibbled his lower lip instead, enjoying the pleasant heat of arousal washing through her.
The sharp bark of laughter that interrupted a m
oment later was like a bucket of water over her head. She jerked away from Mack, who sank back into his chair, and scowled at the newcomer.
“Godfrey, what are you doing here?”
It was Jessa’s turn to scowl as the wiry mech tech waggled his eyebrows. He rubbed his hands together.
“You mean Mack hasn’t told you yet?”
Jessa’s gaze flicked between the two men.
“Told me what?”
“She’s only just woken up,” Mack said, taking her hand again.
Godfrey waved this explanation away. “She’s up enough for you to tickle her tonsils.”
She was surprised to feel the heat of blush in her cheeks and turned her face away from the annoying tinkerer. Which is when she became aware that there was a window across from her, through which was streaming bright, yellow sunlight.
Sunlight.
“Are… are we back on Earth?”
Mack squeezed her hand. Godfrey lifted one long finger.
“Point the first, you are back on Earth.” He lifted a second finger. “Point the second, you were fired for violating Directive #97 and nearly getting killed.”
“What? Fired?!”
That seemed a bit extreme to her, but Godfrey just shook his head and lifted a third finger.
“Point the —”
“Knock it off, God.” Mack’s voice was a deep, warning rumble. God huffed and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Fine, fine. Anyway. The long and short of it is, I negotiated a bit of a deal with good ol’ Cantra Corp for a new state-of-the-art lab here on Earth, to be headed by yours truly, and requested as my personal security two slightly defective units.”
He waggled his brows again.
“I am not defective. Nor am I a cy.”
The tech waved his hand as if this was of no consequence, and laughed. “Your boyfriend is. And he’s quite an interesting one, at that. But then, you know that, don’t you?”
Jessa refused to blush again. She lifted her chin and squeezed Mack’s hand.
“He’s much more than just an interesting unit to me,” she said, her voice acerbic.
Godfrey snorted and rolled his eyes. “Of course, of course. I’ll leave you two lovebirds to celebrate. You’re welcome, by the way.”
