Inside Sky Club the windows are tinted and the lights are low. One side of the giant room is a darkened dance floor with strobe lights flashing. I’m always amused by Mars music because it’s like a mix of techno and country. Crazy dance music with the twang of banjo. I’m not even kidding. And it oddly works. My heart is trying to tap dance right out of its rib prison as I scan the room.
“They’re not here yet,” Reesa says. She leads me to the long bar and we sit at the end. Nothing here is made of wood. All of the chairs, bar, and shelves are made of metal, plastic, and glass, so there’s a certain shininess everywhere you look.
The bartender sidles up, leaning on the metal bar. His hair is tiger striped, orange, black, and white, and he’s got piercings along the left side of his face—eyebrow, nose, and bottom lip. He grins. “Earthlings?” Then he narrows his eyes. “Reesa?”
“Yep, it’s me, Match.”
He gives a laughing hoot and literally leaps up on the bar to jump down and hug her.
“Match,” she says, “This is my sister-in-law from Earth, Lanna Lexon.”
“No shite!” He looks blown away. “So, it’s true? You’re…married?” His eyes are bugging out as she smiles and nods.
“You little Earth bitch!” He’s still smiling, shaking his head in disbelief. “And did you really mate with a Hornet?”
“I did.”
“One of them comes in here every night without fail. Rawko?”
My stomach does a split leap through my abdomen and I have to press a hand to it. Reesa and I share a glance, but Match doesn’t seem to notice.
“Wow! Okay, so what are the two of you having? It’s on me.”
“Oh, you don’t have to do that,” Reesa says. “We’ll have two chill pills and two Morphians.”
Chill pills! Morphians! I’m smiling my face off. Chill pills are a type of low grade relaxant made from marijuana and other goodies. Morphian is Mar’s very own alcohol, the only kind distilled on the planet. Mars moonshine. I don’t know what else they put in it, but when he sets the strong pink drinks in front of us next to two green pills, we clink our glasses together and swallow down the drugs. The drink is lightly sweet and tangy, served with a reusable metal straw. Then we laugh because holy crap, we’re partying together on Mars!
Behind us, a female shouts, “Hot flecking supernova! Is that my Reesa?”
We turn to see a petite girl with pixie cut hair colored bright yellow, and glittering makeup around her eyes that make her look like a faerie. Reesa squeals and leaps from her chair to throw her arms around the girl. I can’t help but smile. This must be Sheralyn. Reesa is beaming when she pulls away to introduce us, her eyes wet with happy tears.
Sheralyn and I embrace and she says, “I feel like I know you from all of Rees’s correspondence!”
“Same,” I tell her. “Let’s get you a drink!”
I’m so thankful for the easy friendship that immediately seals the three of us. I suck down my first drink and a buzz hits me hard. I feel my pulse slowing to a measured beat and all the edges of my nervousness soften. I need to be careful with the Mars brew. This shit’s strong.
I blink at the new drink that slides in front of me, courtesy of Sheralyn ordering another round. I’ll just take this one slow.
“Oh, my flecking stars,” Sheralyn says. “I am dying to meet your man. If he’s anything like the other Hornets I’ve met you are one lucky lady.”
Reesa’s eyes widen and my heart pushes out of its relaxing confines a little. Sheralyn keeps going.
“Seriously, the blond was the best lay I ever—”
Reesa lets out a high-pitched laugh, cutting her off. “You should have seen my mother trying to set Lanna up with her doorman!” She continues to laugh as Sheralyn blinks at her in amusement and my stomach clamps down too hard on its dinner.
Sheralyn fucked Hans.
I have zero right to feel jealous. I turn to my drink and ignore my instincts, sucking it down until the straw makes that obnoxious slurping noise. In my peripheral vision I catch Reesa mouthing something to Sheralyn, who nods. An embarrassing sense of shame engulfs me. They want to spare the poor Earth girl’s feelings. I suddenly wish I was back on my super comfortable soft pallet, sleeping until the images of Sheralyn and Hans are erased forever. I knew she was a Nevesta but ugh. It never dawned on me that she might have serviced him. Yuck. I don’t want to hate her.
Oh, God. I finished the drink. I didn’t mean to. The bar is filling with people, voices ringing in my ears. My body is heavy from the drugs, over-relaxed limbs in direct combat with my over-stimulated mind. I shouldn’t have taken that pill. I shouldn’t have come to Mars.
No. I give my head a shake. I’m not going to think like that. I knew Hans was a ladies’ man. A warrior. His past is the past. I can’t be upset about it. And more than anything I know it’s a long shot that he’ll ever be willing to lay a hand on me. Like Reesa said, I shouldn’t get my hopes up.
“Ready for another, earthling?” Match asks.
“No!” I hold up my palm and he chuckles.
“Yeah, you have to build a tolerance.” He winks and his eyes skim down to my cleavage. The flutter of attraction is like a feather against my navel and I smile before turning away. His attention bolsters me a little, boosting my confidence. I’m not a hag. Yet. And Hans has never seen me like this. All I can do is try.
When I turn back to the girls I’m sad to see that they’re both watching me expectantly, almost guiltily. I plaster on a smile, which makes them relax a little. Reesa keeps watching me so I mouth, “I’m fine,” and crinkle my nose teasingly.
It’s at that moment that voices in the bar rise over the music in an excited din, followed by an almost reverent quiet. The three of us turn to the elevators where five giant men enter Sky Bar. They tower over the others, their bodies twice as wide and thick as the lean Mars humana.
My blood pushes its way faster through my veins, which are sloth-like at the moment. I’m holding my breath as the music changes to something harder, faster, a soundtrack to their lethal movements through the crowd. Every eye goes to them in awe or lust. It takes my eyes less than a second to pass over my brother, Tiko, Trip, and Yahni, who never ceases to freak me out.
I stare at Hans Rawko. He looks bigger, like he’s been hitting weights to pass the time here. His hair is still short and blond, waved up in the very front. His jaw is square. His nose, cheekbones, and eyes are set in a way that give him perpetual youth. And even in the dark room I catch a flash of his bright blue eyes in the passing strobe light.
So, so fucking sexy. My body does the same thing it’s done for years when it sees him. My skin and muscles go soft and hot and so very pliable. Just looking at him is like rolling around in soft sheets, rubbing, feeling friction in every nerve. He makes me feel like a cat. A really horny one who wants to have a litter of feral kittens that will run wild and free.
I know Reesa wants to run to the guys—she’s bouncing on her feet—but she stays planted at my side like the loyal friend she is. I feel like I weigh a thousand pounds and cannot move an inch. I don’t know if it’s fear, drugs, or the Mars hooch, but I’m paralyzed.
As the guys near, my heart feels like it’s being stabbed as a woman stops Hans with a pretty hand to his chest. I don’t look away as the other three Hornets get to us, hugs all around, and Hans grabs the woman’s ass, pulling her to his hips as her head falls back in laughter. I glare at her pink, purple, and blue unicorn hair, wanting to pull it out. But when my eyes find Hans’s face again I search for that special thing and don’t see it. His smile. He’s usually wearing it when he enters a room and it pretty much never fades. His easygoing mannerisms are absent, and he looks…blank. Fierce. Lethal masculinity without a trace of humor.
“You’ve met Yahni, right?” I hear Reesa say, bumping my arm.
“Hm?” I turn and jolt back at the half-Keplarian’s nearness, his eyes like icy blue cat slits.
“We have met,” he says w
ithout emotion.
“Yes,” I say, clearing my throat. “Hi, again.” I rub my hands over my arms and he looks back to Reesa. I notice his shoulders loosen as he watches her. There’s an obvious comfort and care between them. Reesa is beaming under the attention of the Hornets. I know things were crazy on their ship. I’d heard about how the other chef ended up being a spy and they’d released him into the atmosphere. Then they’d been attacked twice. I suppose going through that together brought them all really close. Reesa was brave to go on a ship with all those men in the first place.
I peer back through the crowd to find that Hans has moved even farther from us and is now surrounded by three women. He’s throwing back a handful of pills with a shot. Then another shot. Oh, my gosh, he takes five shots. And still no smiles, and though it’s beyond bizarre to see the normally jovial guy without his cute grin, there is something deeply sensual about how serious he appears. His eyes take in everything, which unfortunately means he’s eating those three females with his eyes and they’re all about it.
I press a hand to my stomach. I might be sick.
“Is Rawk not even going to come over and say hi?” Reesa asks the guys.
The Hornets peer over the crowd to where Hans stands across the room.
“Not very social these days,” Tiko says, taking his drink from the bar. “Unless he’s after some ass.”
Yep, definitely feeling sick. “Where’s the bathroom?” I ask.
Reesa points to the back corner of the bar. “I’ll come with you.”
“No, it’s okay,” I insist, walking away before she can try to join me. I don’t want to talk. I need a second to cool down. I use the pristine toilet facilities—I mean, come on, Mars people even pee cleaner than we do!—staying in the stall longer than necessary. After some deep breathing exercises, I pat my face with a cool, damp cloth provided by a nice bathroom attendant wearing a giraffe print pantsuit with her hair in two tiny buns at the top. Like a giraffe.
I give myself a pep talk before stepping back out there. But what I see when I come out makes me stop in my tracks. I must have been in there a long time because Hans has made his way over to this dark hall and is making out with one of the women against the wall. He’s standing there with his head leaned back, eyes closed, and the woman is all over him. I should turn and get away as fast as I can, but I’m transfixed as she does everything I wish I could.
Her hands roam over his shirt and shoulders, down his arms as she kisses his collar bone and side of his neck. Then her hands are at his crotch. That’s when his eyes open, just a crack, so he can look down at her with those hooded eyes. He’s very perceptive, though, because instead of looking at her, his eyes dart to me, like he feels my stare.
My insides quake when our eyes crash together and stick as if there’s velcro in the air between us.
“Holy shit,” he murmurs under his breath. My mouth opens and closes. A woman comes out of the bathroom behind me and giggles when she has to literally slide past me, rubbing against my ass. I still cannot move. What will he do?
“Little Lexon?”
The woman pulls her head back to look at him, then over to me. A flash of surprise crosses her face. Hans never looks away from me as he puts a hand on her arm and gives her a gentle nudge away.
“I’ll be over later,” he tells her.
She glances curiously at me again before nodding and leaving us.
“He really let you come,” Hans says. I’m sure he’s talking about my brother.
I force a smile. “He might control y’all, but he doesn’t control me.”
His jaw sets and I know he wants to argue about being controlled but he knows it’s the truth. The distance between us is starting to feel awkward but since we didn’t immediately greet one another with a hug it feels too late to bridge the space.
“I think Reesa’s disappointed that you haven’t said hello to her yet.”
He shows no reaction. “She’ll be fine.”
Damn. He’s being kind of cold. And then his eyes shimmy down my neck to my chest.
“You still a virgin?”
His rude interest in my experience sends a jolt of desire through me, which I find annoying. I cross my arms, my eyes narrowing. He’s trying to shock me or something. “I’m in my twenties, Hans, so what do you think? I’m not a little kid anymore.”
Slowly, his eyes roam all the way down to my heels, then back up, getting stuck on my chest again before finding their way miraculously to my eyes.
“Yeah. You’re still a kid.”
Heated anger overrides the buzz I had and I step forward, ignoring the people going to and fro behind us. I can tell by the way his eyes slightly droop that he’s feeling the effects of the pills and alcohol now, but his body is as upright and bold as ever. Seeing his eyes like that reminds me of the horrible reasons he feels the need to medicate. I step close enough to touch him, reaching out and sliding my hand into his. My heart races. He stiffens but doesn’t pull away.
I swallow hard and force the soft words out. “I was so sad to hear about Dev. It’s good to see you.”
His hand flies out of mine as if I’d lit a match under his palm, and he runs it through his hair, looking away. It takes a long moment for him to compose his face enough to meet my eye again.
“I gotta go. You take care. And don’t fuck anyone here. Diseases and shit.”
I scoff. “There are, like, no diseases on Mars.”
“Lies,” he says. “STDs are rampant here. Trust me. Mars tries to keep that shit under wraps, but all these dudes are nasty.” He twirls his hand over his head to indicate all the men in the bar. He’s still not smiling. Not even once. Though I’m certain he’s bullshitting about the diseases. I had to go through countless blood tests and get a zillion shots to come here.
“Is that all there is to do here?” I ask. “Get wasted and have sex?”
“Pretty much.”
“And is it enough?”
He looks away, out at the buzzing crowd where the volume is growing even louder.
“No. Nothing is enough.”
My heart squeezes at the lost, broken expression on his face. I step closer.
“Hang out with us tonight.”
He shakes his head. “I’m no fun anymore, little Lexon.”
“I just want to be near you.”
He grits his teeth and he studies me. “That’s not a smart thing to want.”
“Come on, just have one drink with us.”
“No.” His voice is firm enough to make me jump. “I can’t believe you came here. You should have kept your ass on Earth, in Hickville, South Carolina where you belong.”
I open my mouth to retort but he’s stalking away, his arms and back muscles stretching the shirt, and all I can do is stare in shock. What the hell just happened? Rude much? My eyes burn a little as I make my way back to the others.
I used every penny of my savings and traveled the solar system to have one last chance at the guy of my dreams. And just like that, all hope is smashed on my very first day on Mars. Fuck my life.
CHAPTER FOUR
I should give up. My brain knows that, but my heart and body continue to follow his every move through the club as the night goes on. Reesa and Russ are both buzzing and talking with their heads close. Yahni sits at the end of the bar scaring anyone who gets near him with his glacial glares. Tiko is dancing his ass off on the dance floor. And I think Sheralyn is taking pity on me after divulging her time with Hans, because she won’t leave my side and she’s trying really hard to cheer me up.
My fake smile game is strong tonight. I even manage some stiff laughter. I’m in the middle of telling her about Earth clubs—filthy bathrooms and drunk men getting handsy, then calling you a bitch if you turn them down—when a tall guy approaches us. The lights glint off his purple hair and I smile.
“Hey, Hensley!” I say.
“You remember my name!” Ah, a guy who smiles. Nice. He nods at Sheralyn and asks, “How
are you?”
“Doing well,” she says politely. It’s obvious they’ve met and I wonder if they’ve had sex. I’m highly suspicious of every man and woman on Mars. He looks at me again as he pops two pills washing them back with water that he sets on the bar.
Reesa and Russell sidle up, his massive arm over her shoulder.
“I think we’re heading back,” Rees tells me. “Want to go?”
I really do, but I’m not in the mood to lay there and listen to them do it. Something tells me even my earphones won’t help, so I shake my head.
“You go ahead. I’ll leave soon.”
“You have your Mars card?” Russ asks me. I was issued a card on the ship to use for identification and payment.
“Yes,” I answer. “And the address.”
“I’ll make sure she gets to a hover safely,” Sheralyn promises. The two of them kiss on the cheek and then Reesa and my brother leave. I’ll give it one more hour and then I’m out of here.
“I’m about to hit the dance floor,” Hensley says to me. “Care to join?”
Without meaning to, I glance across the bar at where Hans sits on a stool—one woman on his lap, another with a hand on his shoulder, and another facing him—all the females laughing and him staring off with a glazed look. It gives me evil satisfaction that he doesn’t seem to be enjoying their company, though his overall lack of enthusiasm for life is disheartening.
“That’s a great idea,” Sheralyn says, bringing me back to the conversation with a bump of her hip. She smiles at me and inclines her head toward the dance floor. Hensley is still grinning and it softens me.
“Okay, yeah. Let’s dance.”
I let him lead me into the thrall of gyrating bodies, colorful hair, and flickering lights. My body is still overly relaxed from the drug, but my alcohol buzz is gone. I should probably drink more because I’d much rather be napping than dancing.
Out of the Stars (Into the Stars Book 2) Page 3
