The women cheered his jab at their common nemesis.
“But pirating is a lonely business.”
Mary dug her elbow in Evena’s side.
When Evena darted a glance at her, she saw Mary roll her eyes. She grinned. The pirate was laying it on a little thick. “Mary, what do you think?”
“Are you asking if I trust them? Hell, no.”
“Am I a fool to cooperate?”
“Don’t see as we have much choice. They’re a rough bunch, but so far, no one’s been harmed.”
“If they do free some of the women,” Evena said thoughtfully, “their lives couldn’t get any worse, could they?”
Mary shrugged. “I don’t know. But I do know it’s gonna to be hell keepin’ order. Especially once they’ve made their choices.”
“What about you, Mary? Would you do this?”
“I’m a lifer. And I don’t have a family willing to pay for a pardon. This may be my only chance for freedom.”
“What if you aren’t chosen?”
“What are you talkin’ about? I’m gonna do the choosing.” Mary’s broad white smile flashed. Then she gave Evena a sideways glance. “Looks like you did some choosing of your own, already.”
“Not me. That was just sex. I’m going home.”
Mary shook her head, her expression disbelieving. “Uh-huh? Does Captain Blackbeard know that?”
Evena didn’t answer and turned her gaze back to the pirate captain.
“Along the way,” he continued, “we’ve searched for a home. A place where we could set down roots, self-govern without Dominion interference, and raise families. We’ve found her.”
Evena’s breath caught at the intensity of Adam’s expression. This wasn’t for the benefit of wooing the women to his point of view. He’d revealed his heart.
“There’s a small planet on the edge of the galaxy—beyond Dominion influence. She possesses everything we’ll need to build a new colony. Her atmosphere can sustain human life. The air smells sweet with breezes that carry the scent of a rose-like flower that grows there. There’s plenty of fresh water present in streams and lakes to support the crops we’ll raise. She’s green with trees and with plants we’ve determined are edible, and her seasons are temperate.”
A woman in the group gathered at his feet raised her hand timidly.
“Yes?” Adam smiled, encouraging her to speak.
“Does this planet have a name?”
Adam paused before answering. “I’d thought to let our wives select the name.”
“But your men said they weren’t married. None of your crew is,” another woman from the crowd said.
“’Tis exactly why we’re here.”
Dawning understanding produced faces wreathed with grins.
“How many?” another shouted from the rear of the group.
“About a hundred.”
“How will you choose?” “Will we get to meet the other men?” “Can I bring—”
The questions flew until Adam raised his hand for silence. “My men and I will be here for eight days. We’ll conduct interviews with all the women who wish to leave, determine those eligible, and then have them draw lots.”
“What do you mean by eligible?” the now not-so-timid woman in the front asked.
“Only fertile women in their child-bearing years. We want to raise families. The women must be able to produce children.”
The woman frowned. “Then who will help us with the work?”
“What about those with mid-wifery skills?” another asked.
“I can’t leave my Clara behind. She’s been a mother to me.”
The women’s questions and complaints rose to a crescendo.
“Silence!” Adam bellowed, then added, “please.” His exasperated gaze sought Evena’s.
She walked over to join him in front of the group that was rapidly growing contentious. “He’s offering an opportunity for freedom for a hundred of our sisters,” she shouted.
Sullen expressions grew thoughtful, and the women settled back down.
“Let’s not impede him. I’m sure he’ll deal fairly with you. In the meantime, we’ve guests. Let’s enjoy them while they’re here.”
Adam spread his hands wide. “I’ve brought foods and wine I suspect you haven’t enjoyed in some time. I’ll have the men deliver them to your galley. I propose we have a party to get to know each other.”
Cheers greeted his announcement.
Alarmed, Evena tugged on his sleeve. “Wine? A party? Just how do you suppose we’ll keep order?”
“That, my dear, is your job.”
Chapter Four
‡
Adam congratulated himself. The party was well underway, and although debauchery ruled, violence was absent as a party guest.
He sat amid cushions that festooned the lawn of the atrium, drinking a glass of the precious French wine he’d “acquired” from a freighter a month past. Women pressed food upon him, dangling Arturian berries above his lips to nibble, and offering slices of Samureen cheese, which they fed him with their fingers. Looking around the garden, he could imagine how the sight must appear to the dour Captain McClure. He’d caught glimpses of her and her guards walking through the crowd. They were instantly recognizable, being the only prisoners present who wore their reclamation suits.
The rest of the women had searched their meager stashes for feminine attire and wore odd combinations of clothing—no doubt most of it intended to be worn as underwear. His men thought they looked delightful.
Laughter drew his attention back to his companions. Darak and Ivan reclined nearby. Two women—one a young blonde, the other an older redhead—struggled to strip the shirt from his young science officer.
Ivan groaned as the blonde moved closer to flutter her tongue against his flat brown nipple, while the other traced a path lower, licking her way through the sparse hair on his chest toward his navel.
Abruptly, the women halted and pulled off their clothing. At Ivan’s urging, the blonde straddled his face while the other tore at his pants, pulling them low enough to free his cock. Leaning over him, she opened her mouth wide to clasp him to the root, her cheeks hollowing as she sucked.
The woman with her legs splayed wide above Ivan’s mouth moaned, her head thrown back, her fingers pinching and tugging at her rosy nipples.
The woman working over Ivan’s cock rose to impale herself on him and leaned forward to take the other woman’s breast into her mouth. Together, the women rocked, moaning loudly. Ivan’s body bucked, his hands reached behind his head to grasp the ass of the woman whose pussy he plundered with his tongue.
Adam’s cock rose in his pants. Where the hell was Evena when he wanted her?
The woman next to him slid a hand over him, caressing his dick through his clothing.
Adam closed his fingers over hers to stop her exploration. A glimpse of black in the crowd drew his attention.
Evena stood, her arms crossed in front of her, a look of disgust on her face.
She’d seen the woman’s action and made her own mind up about whether he’d invited it. Anger, swift and righteous, billowed his chest. What right has Evena to judge me? She refused me. He raised one brow and settled back against a woman whose breasts now served as his pillow. What will you do now?
Evena’s expression grew impossibly darker.
Good. He patted the ground beside him, an invitation to join them.
With a scathing look, she turned her back and walked out of sight. She wasn’t immune to his barbs. A fact he’d add to his arsenal of seduction.
“Damn, I didn’t know the boy had it in him,” Darak exclaimed hoarsely, watching Ivan and his small harem. The three women surrounding Darak, who’d been petting his body through his clothing, shrugged out of theirs, giggling.
Amused, Adam watched Darak feverishly push down his pants before flipping the young brunette nearest him onto her stomach.
She quickly came to her knees, her caramel-colore
d, heart-shaped buttocks in the air, as she wagged her ass playfully.
Darak’s large hands reached for a buttock each, squeezing and separating, giving Adam an excellent view of the woman’s open cunt and rosebud anus. Another of the women, forty-ish, big-breasted and blonde, slid beneath the black woman and latched onto her breast with her mouth.
The last woman, an attractive blonde with a thin scar that curved along her cheekbone, rose behind Darak and licked and kissed his back and ass, finally kneeling behind him to separate his buttocks and tongue his asshole. With a roar of pleasure, Darak plunged into the black woman, who squealed her delight.
All around Adam, women surged over the men, and over each other in an orgiastic frenzy. He felt the opening to his own pants give, and his cock bounded out, pointing toward the ceiling. “A moment, ladies,” he tried to protest but was shoved onto his back. A dozen hands divested him of his clothing. Mouths and fingers converged over his cock, licking, squeezing.
“Never saw one so big.”
“That’s not going up me,” another said flatly, but she still tongued the vein that pulsed along the underside of his dick.
“He’ll tickle my tonsils.”
Adam chuckled uneasily. Never having had his cock be the recipient of so much consternation, he was a little taken aback over the avid attention.
“Captain Zingh, may I have a word with you?” Mary’s upside down face appeared above his.
“Yes?” he asked absently, and then realized she’d provided him the perfect excuse. “Yes. Ladies, duty calls,” he said pompously, rising to his feet. “Uh…my clothing?”
The ladies giggled and shrugged, pretending ignorance.
He gave them a narrow-eyed glare, and then turned to Mary.
“Point that thing the other way, please.” She shuddered. “That should be registered as a lethal weapon.”
Amused she’d noticed, and that she wasn’t unimpressed, Adam crossed his arms over his chest. “All right, what was it you wanted to tell me?”
Mary glanced away then her eyes widened. “Damn horn dog,” she exclaimed. She was staring at Darak, who pounded away at the black woman. The younger blonde stood in front of him now, her legs on either side of the black woman. She’d pulled up her cunt lips to expose her clit, and Darak’s face was buried in her pussy.
Mary didn’t appear angry. Her gaze was assessing.
“Mary?”
She dragged back her gaze.
“What was it you wanted to say to me?”
“Oh. Nothing. Just thought you’d like to know Evena left in huff a few minutes ago, heading toward the galley.”
“And you thought I’d want to know?”
“Guess I also thought you were looking a little scared back there. Surrounded by all those women.”
His lips twitched. “Do you think I was afraid for my virtue?
“Nah, I know the pirate’s motto. ‘So little time, so many cunts to plunder.’”
“It’s ships, Mary. Ships. I don’t plunder women—I woo them.”
“And you gotta spread it around, huh?” She nodded toward the crowd of waiting women.
He bent toward her to whisper. “Truthfully, I was afraid they would make a meal of me. Wear it to a nub.”
She laughed, the sound a loud deep rumble. “They’d have a long way to go. And I mean long.”
“Mary, which way did she go?”
She didn’t even pretend not to know which she he meant. “Out that door, second corridor on the right. Galley’s at the end.”
“Thanks. Make sure my men don’t make asses of themselves.”
She snorted, her attention already riveted to Darak’s pumping buttocks. “Mmmm-mmm-mm. That boy’s full of surprises.”
Adam snagged a pair of breeches hanging from a tree limb. After hopping one foot to the other as he shrugged them on, he headed barefoot for the galley.
The noise and boisterous atmosphere of the party had lost its luster the moment Evena stomped out of the room. He wasn’t sure why he’d flaunted the other women—he truly hadn’t been interested in their attentions, but he’d felt a need to assert his primacy. After all, she’d refused him. Irritation swelled his chest.
He was a pirate, dammit. Scourge of seven solar systems. Master of his own destiny. He took what he wanted, no apologies given. Orgies and debauchery were his calling cards.
His shoulders slumped. Actually, although he’d often shared women with his crew, and engaged in gratuitous sex with multiple partners, lately he’d longed for sex involving fewer gymnastics, and for a partner who’d help him shoulder some of the burden of his new world.
Why he pursued the one woman who appeared uninterested in what he could offer puzzled him. Except for sex, that was. He knew she wanted that. The way her gaze had burned as she’d watched the women climb over his body betrayed her desire.
But he needed to know, one way or another, whether she was willing to be his mate. If not, then he’d join the rest of his men in seeking a compatible partner. Although he couldn’t fathom how life aboard a Dominion penitentiary could possibly compare with conquering a new world.
The galley door slid open silently, and he stepped inside. The long, white dining tables and benches gleamed brightly, but the room was empty. A sound from within the kitchen itself alerted him of Evena’s location.
She rooted in one of the large refrigeration units, her back to the door.
Adam stood in the entry, his gaze devouring the rounded buttocks defined by the form-fitting reclamation suit as she knelt to reach inside.
His cock pressed against the placket of his too-small breeches. He hadn’t seen her naked in that position yet, but he vowed he’d take her from behind before the night was over.
She grunted, reached a little farther to the back of the fridge, and then wiggled backward with her prize in her hands.
Adam released the top two fasteners of his borrowed breeches to relieve some of the pressure strangling his cock. Rearranging himself again, he willed his erection to lose some starch. Conversation with Evena was challenging enough without the distraction of a hard-on diverting blood from his brain cells.
She stood, turned with the package in her hands, and gasped when she saw him. Her gaze narrowed immediately, and she looked away, placing the package on a counter. “Did you make a wrong turn? The head’s at the other end of the corridor.”
“I don’t need that kind of relief.”
“Oh, then I’m surprised you aren’t back at the party, enjoying the other kind.”
“Of relief?”
“No, head,” she replied curtly, opening the box and removing a mud-colored nugget from inside.
Frustrated by her anger, he sighed deeply. “Look, what happened before was…nothing. I was waiting for you.”
“Sorry, I don’t perform with an ensemble. Strictly solo.” She plopped the nugget in her mouth and grimaced.
He tried to keep rein on his own temper, but the woman gave the word stubborn a bad name. “I don’t either…um, not anymore, that is.”
“Not since ten minutes ago, huh?” She swallowed another brown lump.
He wished she’d at least look at him when she skewered him. “Look, I didn’t want that. I was just trying to be polite, a good host—”
She rolled her eyes.
“Then things got carried away. There were so many of them.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot. Darak mentioned your motto—’So many women, so many cunts to plunder’,” she said, from around a mouthful of partly consumed mess.
“It’s ships, for fuck’s sake. Ships. And what the hell are you eating?”
“Protein Poo. One of our cook’s own recipes. Mmmm-mmm,” she said with a superior smile and held one out to him. “Cookies. Do you want one?”
“Hell, no. That—that’s disgusting.” He looked into the box and could see why they’d earned their hideous moniker. “If you didn’t want anything to do with me, why the hell didn’t you at least eat the food I
brought aboard?”
She shrugged and popped the one she held into her own mouth. “After you’re gone, I’ll still be eating these tasty little nuggets. I won’t miss what I didn’t have.”
“Will you miss me?”
Her lips tightened, the only evidence he’d scored a direct hit. She busied herself selecting another cookie. Finally, she straightened and looked him in the eye. “Look, I’m not judging you. Nearly four hundred women are aboard this ship. Only a hundred will be lucky enough to leave with you. The least you and your men can do is give those left behind a pleasant memory.”
“I’m not here to service four hundred women. I’m seeking a wife.” He took a deep breath. “I’d gladly take you to wife,” he said starkly.
Her expression grew bleak. “No.”
Something akin to pain burned in his chest. “Why not?”
“Because, I’m going home—to Earth. My family’s arranging my pardon from the Dominion President himself. I’ll get to go back to my own home and my own life.”
“Is there someone waiting? Another man?” Adam hated the man instantly.
Her gaze looked past him, her expression far away. “No. There was, but that bastard’s the one responsible for my being here. I’m going back to find him.”
“To exact revenge?”
“Something like that.” She looked at the nugget in her hand and tossed it back into the box. “My mission in life is to make his a misery. He’s stolen five years from me.”
Adam drew back. Revenge was something he understood. “Will making him pay give you happiness?”
She snorted and her eyes flashed with hatred. “Happiness? I’ll settle for satisfaction. Five stinking years I’ve rotted in jail—first in an Earth penitentiary, now in this rust bucket.” Her voice caught at the last word, and she spun to return the box to the refrigeration unit.
Adam stepped forward, resting a hand on her shoulder to calm her and felt the ragged breaths she drew.
She shrugged away his hand but didn’t turn. The box fell to the floor.
With his mouth close to her ear, he said, “I know about betrayal and anger so strong it twists your gut.” He placed his hands on the cool metal of the fridge on either side of her and leaned against her back. He wouldn’t give her space to pull her defenses around her like a cloak. “Are you afraid to let go of it?”
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