by Linda Gayle
A muscle in Kels’s jaw ticked; then he tossed him another injector. “Give her the jack.”
Elion caught it but held it. “You don’t know what it’ll do to her. It might make the poison accelerate.”
“I don’t think so.” Pulling his lip thoughtfully, Kels said, “It’s not the tat that’s ailing her.”
“How…? What else would it be?”
“Trust me on this one.”
Elion hesitated. What if it killed her? Her small, limp hands curled in her lap. So fragile. So vulnerable…
“Do it,” Kels snapped.
Elion pressed the injector against the side of her throat. For a few seconds, the only sound in the universe was the pounding of his heartbeat. Her head rolled off his shoulder, and Elion’s heart stopped altogether. But then she lifted her face and said groggily, “Kels? Elion? What happened?”
While Elion cooed and murmured to the girl, Kels watched. The expected jack headache bit around the edges of his brain. That could be just as bad as the farkin’ jarouki, so he dug around a bit more and found an injection of painkiller. The combination of lingering toxin, jack, and Dimextrin made his head feel as if it were a balloon rising from his shoulders on a very thin string, but the sensation lasted only a few moments.
He reached for another Dimextrin for Sayal. The small yellow injector lay at his fingertips. He considered, hesitated, then brushed past it and picked up a blue injector of Solactate. “Give her this, then let’s get the Nova to the boarding docks before Ulvik changes his mind.”
Elion caught the injector midair and explained its purpose to Sayal, his voice infinitely gentle. The poor bird looked like she could barely keep her eyes open, despite the jack.
“Wait, El,” Kels said. “Take her to my quarters first, get her settled in, then give her the Sol. Meet me up front.”
“Yes, Captain.”
El could never shake the military from his system. He’d been born into it, into the massive, voracious military complex, unlike Kels. Kels didn’t mind the formality, though he noticed Elion slipped into it more when he was under stress. His mate moved past him with the girl close against his side, his arm around her. Kels went to take his rightful place at the helm.
He trailed his hands along the cool, clean walls of his ship as he walked. Saints below, he loved this darling machine. She was like a second skin to him. He could practically feel her breathing. “Did you miss me, luv?” he whispered.
What the Nova lacked in size, she made up for in speed and maneuverability, an ideal ship for smuggling. She slipped in and out of space lines like a greased needle. On the main deck, he dropped into his captain’s chair and took a moment to admire the display panel he’d custom designed and constructed over the several years he’d owned the Nova. One man could fly her, but with two, especially two synced like he and Elion were, it was glorious.
He punched on the engines. If Ulvik had messed with her, he and El would be in a race to see who would have the inkman’s head on a pike first, but the Nova’s powerful engines purred to life, thrumming beneath his boots, the panel lights aglow.
“Couldn’t wait for me, could you?” Elion, grinning, threw himself into his chair beside Kels’s.
“By the seven hells, I missed this.”
“It was only a couple of weeks, Captain.”
“Seemed like an eternity.”
“If I didn’t know better,” his mate drawled, “I’d think you were developing a small crush on our means of transportation.”
Kels laughed. “It’s full-blown lust. The one bird who’ll never let me down.”
Elion activated the code that would open the hatch and let them fly the Nova around to the loading docks. It was a short flight, but as the antigrav thrusters powered on, Kels knew the joy that flying the Nova always brought. He’d never tire of her.
And he supposed he owed winning her back to their houseguest.
“How’s our patient?” he asked Elion.
“Sleeping. I gave her the Sol, and she just faded away in my arms, but her color’s much better. Never knew Sol to act that way on anyone, but I think she must have been exhausted. She was real concerned about you, Kels, during the game.”
“Yeah.” He rubbed his upper lip and gazed out at the lights of Aleut Station.
“Guess that patch worked, eh?”
“Hm? Yeah. Lucky she came along with it.”
“You took a shitload of toxin. Even now, and I’m looking at you, I can hardly believe you’re up and about.” Elion tapped in commands, and the ship banked and rolled like the thoroughbred she was.
He watched his mate from the edge of his vision. Elion seemed much recovered and happier as well, now that Sayal was safe. Kels took a breath and said, “It’s good she’s sleeping. She’ll need her strength for tomorrow.”
El glanced at him. “Oh yeah. The games.”
“Hope she’s still up for it after tonight. I’m really looking forward to fucking her brains out.”
“Saints, Kels, do you have to be so blunt about it?”
He leaned back in his comfortable chair, stretching his legs out before him and lacing his hands over his stomach. “I’ve been giving it some thought. You think she’d like to try that swing? If I spread her legs just right—”
“No.” His mate stabbed a hot glare at him, then snapped it back to the job at hand. “I don’t think she’d like the fucking swing.”
Dear, oh, dear. “The offer stands, El.” He rolled his gaze toward his mate, whose jaw muscles bunched.
“Which offer?” Elion huffed.
True, there had been two. “I won’t fuck her if you say so.”
“What’s it matter?” his friend snapped. “Why’s my opinion so important all of a sudden? You never asked with any of the other birds.”
“This one’s different.”
“Different how? Because she sucked me off? Don’t be wonky. I don’t care if you…fuck her.”
But he did obviously. Kels was almost disappointed his mate didn’t demand Sayal for himself, but if he wasn’t ready, he wasn’t ready. And Kels was more than ready. He actually had put thought into the morrow, and now Elion couldn’t or wouldn’t be part of it.
“All right, then,” he said as the enormous black doors to the loading area spread open before them. “I have to ask you to do something for me.”
“What?” Elion asked tightly.
“Keep off her tomorrow. No hugs, no hand-holding, no kisses. Certainly no blowjobs. It’ll only confuse her, having two of us on her when you’re not going in the arena with her. It’s her first time; she’ll need to focus.”
Elion hesitated, busying himself with landing the ship, even though he could set down the Nova in a hurricane on an uncharted planet, blindfolded. Kels cracked his knuckles while he waited. Finally the ship’s landing braces set down, and Elion muttered, “Yeah. I can see that. No worries, I’ll keep my hands to myself.” He flipped the ship’s power down and stared out the window. “You don’t think I muddied the waters already, do you?”
“Nah.” Kels shook his head. If anything, he’d gotten her hotter than ever, something Kels fully intended to take advantage of tomorrow. “You’ve been good to her. You took care of her for me. I do appreciate it. You’ve never let me down.”
His mate turned to stare at him, his gaze sliding down and away, then his focus turned inward while his fisted hands opened slowly.
Other than beating it out of him, Kels was at a loss as how to get his friend to face his budding feelings for the girl. So he said, “When’s our client bringing the goods?”
“Tomorrow, ten-hour. I told him I’d meet him here; we’d load up while you and Sayal… Then we’d be ready to take off as soon as the games were done.”
“Excellent. Good work as always.” He rose and considered patting Elion on the shoulder, but he didn’t think he’d take it the right way. “I’m sleeping on the ship tonight. I don’t know about you.”
Another pause as El
ion no doubt processed that that meant Kels would be sleeping with Sayal in his bed. “I’ve got things to pack up in my cube. Want me to get your shit as well?” His blue eyes were carefully neutral.
Kels nodded. “That’d be grand.”
Without another word, his mate got up, went and pressed his thumb into the ramp panel, and walked off into the station, hands in pockets. Kels followed and closed up the ramp. The silence of the ship pulled in around him, and he stood for a while, staring at the floor grids. Finally he thunked his fist against the wall. “Fuck, Elion,” he ground out, then sighed.
Life had been simpler before Sayal, for certain. She was a complicated girl who brought complications with her.
He had to wonder who—or what—she truly was.
Sayal woke to wonderful, sleepy warmth. She lay with her eyes closed, drifting to her present reality in stages. Soft breathing. A softer bed. Thick sheets. A pillow beneath her cheek. A scent of soap and steel, not at all unpleasant. And radiating that lovely heat, a man’s body beside her.
A naked body.
Kels’s broad back met her gaze. He lay on his side, the blankets pulled up to his shoulders. His thick, dark hair curled at his nape, and she touched it gently. They were on his ship; she remembered now. These must be his quarters. Walls of burnished steel, glow lamps, few decorations beyond star maps hanging. Simple and masculine. Everything came back to her in a rush—the game, the inkman, the crippling sickness that had seized her as she absorbed the effects of the toxin from Kels. Elion taking care of her. The only thing she didn’t remember was Kels undressing her. Unless Elion had done that, but she doubted it. Seemed like a Kels sort of thing to do.
She thought of Elion and wondered where he might be. She’d had to use him the past evening too, to siphon off the toxin’s quease. If something had happened to his mate, the captain wouldn’t be lying here with her now. Elion must be well. Perhaps he slept in the ship, not far from them. Had she been disappointed to see dark hair instead of blond upon waking? No… But their bond had broadened during the rigors of the game, and it seemed like something was missing with just her and Kels in the bed.
Though her touch was light, it must have roused him. He rolled onto his back, one arm bent above him on the pillow; then he turned and his hazel eyes barely slid open. “Morning, princess,” he murmured.
He found her under the covers, his hand slipping over her thigh. His morning erection wanted attention. She didn’t have to see it for herself. The ripples of sexual longing began to lap at her as soon as he touched her, washing through their connection. She shifted onto her side to face him, tucking her hands beneath her cheek.
“I’m naked,” she whispered.
“Me too,” he whispered back. He rolled toward her, his greater weight sagging the mattress, and he slid down so the blankets came up farther over his shoulder while his palm curved over her hip and moved down the dip in her waist. “Who do you suppose stole our clothes?”
She smiled at his little joke, then said, “We won. You got your ship back.”
“Yes, thanks in large part to you.”
“Are you all right? And Elion?”
“Right as raisins,” he murmured. “He’s packing up, finishing business. You seemed a bit foggy yourself after the game. Well recovered?”
She stretched experimentally, slipping her foot along his hairy shin and calf. “Yes.”
“Good.” He traced the rise of her hip again, his eyes heavy-lidded. “I believe you and I have business to attend to as well.”
A small jolt went through her. The games, today… Nerves, excitement, anticipation, fear collided in her. Suddenly she felt quite wide awake. And this was the man who’d be fucking her.
Sayal touched his chest beneath the blankets and ran her hand over his biceps. He was all hard contours, hills and valleys of muscle. Deep-space flyers had to stay fit, lest variations in gravity wreck their bones, and Kels clearly did not neglect his duties in this regard. His cheeks were dark with stubble, and his lips—his lips needed kissing.
She didn’t fight the desire rolling through her; she welcomed it, waded in it. He cupped her bare breast and rubbed his thumb around her areola. Slippery, sensual heat welled between her thighs. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion—her breathing, his stroking, her heartbeat, his kiss as he leaned into her and brushed his mouth over hers. Now his erection pressed against her thigh, and she couldn’t resist sliding her fingers between their bodies to grasp the steely length. No disappointments there. She’d seen him, of course, with that other woman, but nothing compared to having the instrument itself burning against her palm.
They could have had no connection at all, and she would have desired him still.
He must have cleansed recently, for the smell of the soap clung to him and his breath was sweet. His hand coasted away from her breast, over her side, over her pussy. Sayal’s thighs relaxed open invitingly, and she coaxed him on with soft, low moans as his tongue slid over hers. His palm came to rest atop her mound, his middle finger lying over her clit. But he did nothing else.
He kissed her once more, then lifted his head. “Breakfast, princess?”
Unless she’d be feasting on his cock, then no. He couldn’t mean to stop now. “Kels…?”
He moved his hand from her mound to her belly, and he propped up on an elbow. “Now, luv. You’ve got to be patient and trust me. You don’t want to go into the arena on an empty stomach.” He rolled away from her, and she grabbed up the sheets and bunched them under her chin before he took them all with him. He pressed an indent on a wall panel, and a platform slid out of a small refrigerated cupboard carrying what looked like slices and chunks of various fruits.
“I hope you don’t mind,” he said, lifting the tray and moving back to set it between them. “I took the liberty of putting this together last night before I joined you in bed. I figured you’d be peckish after our ordeal.”
In actuality, she remembered little of the night. Once the toxin had flooded Kels’s system, she’d had to give all her attention to controlling the effects. Chills, nausea, weakness had racked her. “I remember…feeling very sick. And Elion giving me a shot of something.”
“Jack,” he said, lifting a juicy bit of fruit from the tray. “Try this.” He slipped it between her lips.
“Mm, delicious.”
“Nice thing about these stations, they usually have a variety of exotic food for their exotic clientele.”
The soft fruit melted on her tongue, sweet at first, followed by a slightly peppery afterbite.
“What’s jack?” she asked, licking her lips, which tingled.
“Stimulant,” he said.
Her breath caught as she abruptly recalled their first meeting. Hadn’t he asked her if she’d used jack to sober him up? By the Fates… Lust muddled her brain.
“Oh, of course,” she said. “I hardly ever use it.”
“Well”—he popped another morsel into her mouth, something red and tangy—“it’s illegal in most of the SenVerse because it’s toxic to a lot of alien species.”
Her heart skipped. “Really?” She tried to sound neutral. “Which ones?”
“Lowliens mostly, some midliens. They don’t have much resistance to it. Instead of pepping them up, it puts them under, sometimes permanently, I’ve heard. Don’t know about high aliens.”
She swallowed the fruit, pondering his words and hardly tasting it, but a flush of heat rising under her skin brought her eyes to his. “Oh… What was that? It’s making me hot.”
“It’s got different names on different worlds. Round here they call it velvet fruit.”
He gave her another piece, and she sucked the juices from his fingers as the heat flowed into her nipples and her pussy. “Mm. Never had that before.”
He sucked the same fingers into his mouth and sloped a secret smile. “Try this one.”
He placed a firm white cube onto her tongue, and she closed her eyes with delight as a rich nectar expan
ded over her palate. “Wonderful. It’s like…walking through a garden when everything’s in bloom.”
He huffed softly. “It’s been so long since I’ve set foot on a grass planet, I’ve forgotten what that might be like.”
She lay down, her cheek against her arm, and gazed at him. “On the liner where I grew up, there were beautiful gardens. My—the ship’s owner—grew exotic plants from all over the SenVerse. He experimented, interbreeding them, genetically altering them to make them bigger or stronger, more productive or more fragrant. My favorite place was the level where he grew Earth flowers. I spent hours walking between perfumed rows of rioting colors. I wore my tutor’s patience thin asking him all the names.”
Choosing the next bite, he said, “Tutors and ship gardens… Hmm. I had a feeling you were a richer when I first met you.”
“The owner was, not me.”
“The same man who coerced you into fucking?”
She hesitated, her lips around his fingers as she tasted the next bit of juicy fruit. She gazed into his eyes as she chewed thoughtfully. Something was on his mind. “Yes.” Sinking into their bond, she tried to sort out his emotions but found nothing but an unrelenting wall of lust.
Another peppery bite that made her lips burn. She sank her teeth into them. They felt swollen, and she touched them with her fingertips. A small fire glowed in her belly. “What is this you’re feeding me, Kels?”
“Natural aphros,” he said with a wink, lapping pulpy velvet fruit from his fingers.
“Do you think we’ll need them?” Even the sheets abraded, her skin had become so sensitized. Did he feel the same sensation in his lips, in his cock? She rubbed her thighs together, thinking of smearing velvet fruit over his shaft and sucking it off again.
“Nah.” He leaned over the plate to kiss her, his lips burning against hers, drawing a throaty moan from her. She tasted the fruit on his tongue. Disappointingly, he eased back again. “‘Sides, the effects won’t last long. Just a little something to get our minds moving in the right direction.”
