by Megan Hart
They made it down four flights of stairs before he admitted he needed to rest. They hadn't spoken for a while, both needing to concentrate on their journey. Now, Linna led him to a spot in the corridor and helped him sit. He heard the rustle of a wrapper and smelled the protein bar she'd opened.
"Here, have a bite of this."
"You need it more than I do," he said. "Keep yourself fueled."
Linna made a soft, annoyed noise. "We both need to keep up our strength. I have no idea how many more stairs we have to go down, or when we'll get to eat again. Don't argue with me, Del."
He felt something brush his lips and he opened his mouth to take a bite of the protein bar. His lips closed around the food...and the tips of Linna's fingers.
He heard her quick intake of breath. He sucked the crumbs from her fingers before he chewed and swallowed. The taste of her flooded his tongue and sent his cock into full erection.
"That's good," he said, and didn't mean the chalky-tasting bar.
"Have some more."
Her voice had gone low and husky. She brushed the edge of the bar against his mouth again. He opened for it, nibbled the crumbly bar, and licked her fingers.
In the darkness, every sound and smell had become heightened. He heard her soft sigh of arousal and it sent a bolt of desire through him. He should stop. He didn't want to stop. He wanted to taste her, lick her, and kiss her.
"There's only one more bite," Linna said.
This time Del captured her wrist with his hand when she offered the food. He held her fingers to his mouth, bypassing the protein bar entirely, and feasted on her fingers. They were chocolaty from the food and salt-tangy with her essence. He suckled the tips of them all, then let them slide out of his mouth to lick and suck her forefinger. He took it deep in his mouth, his lips caressing the tender space between her fingers.
She shuddered beside him. Her free hand pressed onto his shoulder. He let go of her finger and kissed her palm, traced the contours of her skin with his tongue, nibbled at the soft flesh of her inner wrist.
His cock was on fire...hell, his entire body was on fire. Somehow the darkness made it easier to ignore the danger of what he was doing. He ought to stop, but ah, harah, he didn't want to. He wanted to keep kissing her. He wanted to find her mouth and plunge his tongue into it, the same way he wanted to put it inside her pussy, to put his cock there and fill her. He wanted to feel her contract around him when she climaxed.
Fuck control, he thought. Fuck the wanting and never having. Fuck his solitary pleasure. He wanted Linna, and he wanted her now.
The pain in his ankle was nothing compared to the throb in his crotch. His cock strained against his pants. He was rock hard, hard as concrete, as steel, as titanium.
With a sigh, Linna pulled her hand away from his mouth. He couldn't see her face, so he couldn't tell what she was thinking or feeling. The darkness gave him free rein and made it easy to ignore what he knew was right. Made it easy to pull her close to him, onto his lap, have her straddle him.
His mouth found hers even without benefit of the light, and she was open for him. Ready. She moaned against his lips as his tongue swept inside and stroked hers.
His hands fit just right around her waist. Del pulled Linna closer to him, the heat of her center tangible on his belly through her jumpsuit. Her firm, tight ass nestled against his straining erection, and he moved her gently until she settled on him with an agonizing, wonderful pressure.
Damn, she felt good there. He ran his hands over the curve of her ass, then up her back to find the tangled ends of her hair. He buried his fingers in it, never breaking their kiss. Her breasts crushed against his chest. He wanted to feel them.
He slid his hands from the glory of her hair to the treasure of her breasts. They fit perfectly in his palms, the nipples taut and stiff, and Linna made a low cry when he pinched those tight peaks lightly. He found the front closure of her jumpsuit and opened it, exposing her bare flesh to his mouth and tongue.
She tasted like honey, like smoke, like salt and sweet all at once. His cock throbbed as she ground her ass against it, threw her head back at the touch of his lips on her bare skin. His mouth found the peak of one nipple. On instinct, he suckled the flesh as he'd suckled her fingers. He rolled her nipple gently on his tongue and imagined it as her clit. The thought made his dick leap against her and he groaned.
Her back arched under his hands as he roamed them up and down, up to the soft fall of her hair and down to the wonder of her curves. He settled on her ass and snugged her even tighter as Linna rolled her groin against his belt buckle.
She gave a low murmur, maybe his name, and the sound sent a tremor through his entire body. He'd never been this hard. He thought he might die from the pleasure of her body pressing back and forth against him, or at the very least, explode. He was going to come without even getting his dick out of his pants.
Everything had become the woman in arms, that quivering, sighing, writhing female. He moved his mouth from one nipple to the other, back and forth, his saliva wetting her skin and bringing him the taste of her.
With his hands on her hips, he rocked her against him. He slid her along the trapped bulge of his erection, stroking it with the pressure of her ass and thighs while he pressed his buckle against her clit.
She nuzzled his temple, his face, then her breath puffed into his ear and she licked and nipped his neck. Linna buried her face into the curve of his neck. Her teeth clamped on him through the fabric of his shirt, hard enough to hurt, but Del didn't care. He couldn't care. He was so close to coming bright flashes of light pulsed behind his eyes like fireworks.
She tensed in his arms and her thighs tightened on his waist. The heat between her legs burned against him. Linna gave a low cry, then another, louder. Her body shook. She bit down hard enough to make him cry out. His cock pulsed with need.
She cried out his name and went stiff against him, her body shuddering and bucking as she climaxed. Del groaned against her breasts, unable to do more than that. He couldn't speak. Could barely think beyond the demands of the flesh between his legs insisting on release.
Linna shuddered again, less violently this time, and relaxed. She slid back a little, taking herself away from him. Without realizing quite how he'd done it, Del unbuckled his belt. His cock sprang free from its confines. The softness of her jumpsuit brushed against him, then the tickle of her pubic hair, and he realized he'd pulled her jumpsuit all the way open down the front.
In another moment, he'd slid his hands beneath her ass and lifted her as he moved forward, ignoring the flare of pain in his injured ankle. Then she was on her back and he was on top of her.
Just an inch more, change the angle, and he'd slide inside her. She was hot and wet. He could feel it. She'd be tight, she'd be so hot and wet, his cock would slide right in her all the way to his balls--
"No!"
His sex-fuzzed brain didn't register her protest at first. He felt heat and slickness on the tip of his cock. He tilted his hips, ready to enter her.
"Del, I said no!"
In the next moment, more bright lights exploded in his vision, this time accompanied by the pain of Linna's fist to his jaw. She threw him off her and he rolled to the side, head and ankle both exploding with agony. He let out a curse and got to his hands and knees.
He shook his head to clear it. Shame flooded him. He sat up, pushed himself back into his pants, and buckled the belt. He was an idiot. Worse than that, he'd almost forced himself on Linna. Arousal turned to nausea, cramping his gut. Sweat broke out all over him, and chills made him clamp his teeth closed to prevent them from chattering.
He heard the shuffle of her closing her jumpsuit and another wave of shame washed over him. His cheeks and ears burned with it. Miserably, he pushed himself back against the wall.
Neither of them spoke for a long time. He heard her breathing, still as rapid as his. It gradually slowed. He could smell the tang of her arousal and, he imagined, the bitter sce
nt of her disappointment in him.
"I'm sorry," he said at last, voice gruff, knowing he needed to say it, but not knowing how to be gracious about it.
"I couldn't let you do it," Linna said. "Not when I know the consequences."
Of course she couldn't. Linna was too good a person to want him to bind himself to her forever. She'd feel like she had to stay with him out of guilt. He couldn't do that to her. He couldn't blame her for not wanting him to make love to her.
On Xanderra, the crime of rape was rarely committed, but when it was, the penalty was death. No trial. No jury. No chance of reprieve. Just execution. A man who bound a woman to him by force, or who forced a woman already behsherit was considered the worst sort of criminal.
And he'd almost done it. He'd let his prick take control and let it rule him. He'd being thinking between his legs, not above his shoulders, and the consequences were disgusting to him.
"I'm sorry," he said again. Words couldn't make up for what he'd almost done, but words were all he had to offer.
"Oh, Del." Linna's voice trembled. "Don't say--"
"I think we ought to get moving again, don't you?" He couldn't bear her pity. Del pushed himself to his feet by using the wall as a support. His ankle still hurt, but it had begun to go numb. "We need to get out of this building."
"All right." She paused as though she were going to say more, but sighed instead.
Without another word, she slipped his arm around her shoulders and helped him move through the darkness again.
Chapter 5
Linna didn't like the way the hostel smelled. Or the way Oldcity smelled, for that matter. The entire place reeked of human body odor, cooking oils, garbage and things she couldn't, and didn't want, to identify. The smell had assaulted her as soon as they'd left the building they'd climbed down. She had thought she'd grow accustomed to it, but even now, hours later, the stench still clogged her nose and throat and left her stomach churning.
Her stomach was upset for another reason, too. The silence between her and Del had been broken only with the briefest of conversations. She had followed his lead on the street when he led her unerringly to the first hostel they could find and didn't even haggle with the owner.
They'd bartered the three remaining protein bars for a night's stay. Linna had quickly learned that items she took for granted in Newcity were considered rare luxuries here. The protein bars she'd have passed over for just about any other meal were looked at as delicacies by the delighted hostel owner, who offered them his "finest accommodations" in return.
She looked around the small room with a restrained expression of disgust. She'd thought Newcity could get dirty, but nothing she'd seen there had anything on this place. Grime covered the walls and gathered in the corners. The single bed, a wooden platform with a lumpy mattress, had clean linens on it...but clean by Oldcity standards. They might have once been white, but had become a dirty beige, patched and threadbare.
The room did have a connected bathroom, a luxury that did surprise her, and she was grateful for bringing the protein bars. God-of-Choice only knew what sort of place they'd have ended up in without them to barter.
The toilet was only a bucket filled with disinfectant and a toilet seat on top of it, but the tub worked. The porcelain basin was only large enough for her to sit in, not lay down, but filled with hot artiwater it was still a delicious respite from everything else that was happening.
If she hadn't stopped him, she knew Del would have made love to her back there. Her cunt clenched at the memory of the orgasm she'd had rocking against his belly with his mouth on her breasts. Next thing she knew, she was flat on her back on the dirty corridor floor with Del pressing down on top of her and his cock nudging at her opening. She'd almost given in, too. More than given in. Welcomed him. Urged him on. She'd held herself back from hooking her ankles around his thighs and shoving him deep inside her only by using the same willpower and determination she'd needed after she'd wakened in the hospital, her body a ruin.
So she'd socked him the jaw and pushed him off her, even while her arms wanted nothing more than to pull him closer to her. She couldn't blame him for being angry. She was the worst sort of tease. She'd been on him like artibutter on a hot cob of articorn. It was no wonder he'd almost fucked her.
She couldn't let him, though. Not knowing he'd never be able to have sex with another woman for the rest of his life if he did. It wouldn't be fair to bind him to her. They were friends, and she'd sensed they could be more, but they weren't. Not yet.
Still, she'd dealt with enough men to understand and interpret his silence and the stormy look in his eyes. She'd been hired by many clients who'd been rebuffed by their first choice of human conquest and then turned to a Pleasurebot instead. A guaranteed fuck. She didn't usually mind. Men fueled by anger were usually quick in bed, and most of them didn't take it beyond ugly words like whore and slut. Words that frankly, in a society where people fucked each other with little more introduction than a handshake, held little insult. She didn't mind their words, or their groping hands, or their angry fucking as long as they had the credits to pay for it.
Men who were out of control with lust were a little different. She didn't usually get many of those clients, since they generally hired the more sexed-up Pleasurebots--the XTCs and PSSYs, or the CNTs. Men with raging erections didn't usually seek out a Kompanion model.
Men like Del, for instance. A slow shiver of lust rippled through her. She'd been the lucky one who'd set the match to the tinder, but that was all. She tried to force herself to believe it wasn't anything more than the situation. It would be much easier to resist him if she knew his lust for her was fired by his dick and not actual feelings for her.
If she thought Del felt anything more than friendship for her, she'd melt in his arms and jump his bones, no second thought necessary. She was pathetic. So long without love she was anxious to grab it wherever she could, even if it came from a man who wouldn't have a choice but to stay with her the rest of her life.
She didn't want it that way, did she? She had more pride than that. She splashed at the artiwater and sighed. Didn't she?
"What you got to trade?" The hostel owner's grin showed crooked, rotting teeth. "Information cost you money, big guy."
Deliberately menacing, Del put both hands on the counter and moved his face close to the other man's. "I only want to know where I can find a spacer to take me Offworld."
The hostel owner's gaze flickered and he licked his lips nervously, but didn't budge. "Information is expensive, big guy."
Del bit back a curse. He could reach across the counter and pound the guy, and with the way he felt, he wanted to do it. He held back. "How much?"
The man gave him a sly grin. "How much you got?"
Del stepped back so the man could see his worn and dirty clothes. "What you see is what I got, man."
The hostel owner looked him up and down, settling on the belt buckle. "How 'bout that?"
"My belt?" Del looked down at the square piece of metal. He remembered Linna rocking against it to orgasm, and almost told the man he couldn't have it. Practicality won out over sentimentality, and he slipped the artileather belt out of its loops. "Here."
The man took the belt and ran it through his fingers. "This nice work. This buckle. It's real metal?"
Del had no idea what the buckle was made of, but he had no problem letting the hostel owner believe it was metal. "Sure."
"I know of a spacer heading Offworld tonight. She give you a berth, if you willing to work for it."
"I can work."
The hostel owner gave him a sly grin. "And you lady? What about her?"
"She's not my lady. But yeah, I think she'll agree."
"You Xanderran, right?"
Del nodded. "Yeah."
The hostel owner's grin widened. "And she not your lady? You must have a strong will, big guy. Lady like that in my bed, I'd ride her --"
Del reached across the desk and grabbed the fron
t of the man's grubby shirt, hauled him over and shook him. "Shut up."
"All right, all right," the hostel owner whined, cringing. "Sorry, man!"
Del tossed him back, once again refraining from pounding the man's face the way he wanted to. "Where?"
The man smoothed his clothes and the few strands of hair that had come loose from his bald head. "I'll have my boy take you tonight. Be ready."
Del didn't bother to thank the idiot. He didn't even bother to ask where the spacer was headed. Any place was better than this one and, no matter where they ended up, he'd find a way to get to where he wanted to be.
The question was where did he want to go? For one moment, he let himself think it didn't matter where he went, as long as it was with Linna. Only for a moment. That sort of thinking was dangerous. He'd set himself up for a world of disappointment that way. He could stand physical pain, but he preferred to avoid mental anguish.
Linna was still in the bathroom when he got back to the room. He heard her splashing in the tub, and his groin tightened at the thought of joining her.
"Stupid ass," he cursed himself aloud.
"Del? Is that you?" He heard more splashing and she appeared in the doorless entry to the bathroom. Her towel was so thin it clearly outlined her nipples and so short the bottom fluff of her pubic tuft peeked out at him.
Del turned his back. "Yeah. I found a ship leaving tonight."
"Good. Where's it going?" She laughed. "Never mind. It doesn't matter. Any place is better than here."
The way her words echoed his earlier thoughts made him smile. "That's what I figured."
She crossed in front of him and reached for the jumpsuit she'd flung over a chair. "Do I have time to wash this out?"
Del had arranged to meet the hostel owner's boy when night fell. "Yeah. And to take a nap, too. It might be good idea."
She yawned and covered her mouth. "I think you're right. I'm running on empty."
"You go ahead." He pointed at the bed. "You can take it first."
