Daggertail

by Kaitlin Maitland

  Her scent shifted. He couldn’t have said why, but everything about her changed in that instant. Her curves softened. The hands patting her damp hair began to move languidly. She tossed a stray lock of hair behind her back. Her fine-featured face eased into a warm smile, invitation glittering in her brilliant green gaze. She’d gone from uneasy and nervous to blatant sensuality. Her arousal permeated everything in the room, soaking into his very skin and making him burn with an intensity he’d never experienced.

  “Thought you didn’t want a freebie, Mr. Kovuchenko.”

  “Xave,” he said on an exhale, closing the last inches separating their bodies. “Call me Xave.”

  Tavish reached up and released the towel. It puddled at her feet.

  Xave released the air in his lungs. The woman was incredible. Taut, dark, rose-colored nipples hardened into tiny buds before his eyes. Each tipped a beautiful, rounded breast made for pleasure.

  Reaching out, Xave took their perfect weight in his hands, kneading the warm flesh until she arched her back. Lowering his head, Xave took one nipple into his mouth. The soft, salty taste of her sent another stab of lust through his body. Xave tempered the urge to throw her on the bed and mount her without preamble.

  Suckling hard, he drew the heavy weight of her into his mouth until she grasped the back of his neck with her hands and scored his scalp with her nails. Xave growled, laving his tongue into the valley between her breasts and giving equal attention to her other nipple.

  Her clever hands made short work of the buttons preventing his cock from leaping out of his pants. When the heavy length sprang free, she took a tiny step back and glanced down.

  Xave would have been loath to admit it. But her indrawn breath nearly made him come then and there. The idea that she found the mere sight of his erection arousing was incredibly erotic.

  Her knees hit the floor before Xave realized her intention. Both of her soft hands wrapped around the base of his cock. Looking upward, she focused her green-eyed gaze on his face. The crown of his cock disappeared into her mouth.

  Xave hissed, the muscles in the backs of his legs going rigid to keep him upright. Reaching down, he stabbed fingers through her dark red locks and pulled them aside so he could watch her suck his cock.

  She suckled noisily, taking as much of his length into her throat as she could before pulling back and using her saliva-slick hands to pump his shaft. Running her tongue over his length, she tickled the flange and lightly sucked a drop of precum from the hole at the tip.

  Xave groaned, his knees threatening to buckle.

  A smile lit her face, and she ran her tongue along the underside of his cock to his tightly drawn testicles. She took them in her mouth with surprising gentleness. Her tongue flicked across the sensitive skin before popping them from her mouth and swallowing his cock once again.

  Liquid fire seeped through his veins. His buttocks drew tight. Muscles in his back twisted as he forced himself to remain still when he wanted nothing more than to grab her head between both hands and fuck her face until he sprayed the inside of her throat with hot semen.

  “Fuck, Tavish,” he said through gritted teeth. “I can’t take much more of this.”

  The smile she gave him was ancient, the look of a woman who knows everything there is to know about pleasuring a man.

  Without another word spoken, she released his cock and rose gracefully. Pivoting sideways, she leaned over the bed, spread her legs, lifted her ass, and tossed him the most inviting smile over her shoulder.

  Nothing he had done in life had made him deserve this. Xave growled. Still shackled at the ankles by his pants, he turned. He’d never forget the sight before him.

  The smooth line of Tavish’s back ended with the rise of her ass and the cleft at her thighs, where he got a tantalizing glimpse of her wet, pink pussy. Creamy skin and a narrow strip of dark hair parted to reveal vaginal lips flushed a pale pink with arousal. Just beyond lay the darker pink of her slick folds. The welcoming sheen of sweet cream was impossible to resist.

  He rested his hand on the ripe curve of her ass, then slid it into the cleft and spread her pussy wide. With the other hand he delved into her warm heat.

  Her throaty moan notched his desire even higher. She writhed against him, questing for more. Sliding two fingers through her folds, he straddled her clit and gave her a quick rub.

  “Fuck me,” she begged. “I need your cock inside me.”

  Xave trembled but held on to the threads of his control. Sliding his wet fingers inside her ribbed channel, he marveled at the tight resistance he met there. Using his fingers, he spread the walls of her vagina, rubbing steadily against her pussy. She squirmed and moaned, hips gyrating in an invitation Xave found hard to resist.

  “Are you going to come for me, Tavish?”

  “Anything you want. Just give me your cock.”

  Removing his fingers, Xave positioned his cock at the entrance to her dripping-wet pussy. Slowly, one centimeter at a time, he spread her open and penetrated her until his balls rested against her warmth.

  She was unbelievably tight, wet, and welcoming. Her heat enveloped him, wrapping him in the scent and feel of her. He groaned, his hips bucking against her body.

  Lifting her ass, she suddenly took control. He gripped her hips, fighting her, trying to set the pace, but she refused to give in. Twisting her head to lock her green eyes with his, she moved her body. Every motion ground the crown of his cock against her pelvic bone. Each stroke was agony and ecstasy as she forced him into overdrive.

  The muscles in his legs and back cramped as he struggled to stave off his climax. He didn’t understand why she pushed so hard. But he knew only one way to bring her with him.

  Reaching down, Xave found her clit between the soft, wet folds of her pussy. Spreading the sensitive hood, he used two slick fingers to rub in time with their fierce pace.

  The supple line of her back drew taut, and she exhaled a soft cry of surprise. A gush of fresh cream soaked his hand, enticing him to rub harder, faster. The movement of her hips became rougher, jerky, the rhythm erratic.

  Xave smiled. Her channel grew tighter, caressing his cock with increased friction. She notched up the pace, grinding his fingers against her clit, her breasts bouncing against his bed with every stroke.

  He leaned down to whisper in her ear. “Are you close, Tavish? Is your cunt ready to explode? I can feel it. Every stroke gets you closer. Can you tell?”

  She might’ve said something. But it was lost in her cry of release as her pussy contracted and spasmed around his cock. Back arching, he slammed his cock deep inside her cunt and came in a hot spray of thick ejaculate.

  Not wanting to crush her slight form with his weight, he rolled them sideways on the bed. Cradling her against his chest, he sighed into her hair while his heart thundered inside his chest.

  He wondered if their wild coupling had surprised her as much as it had him. He was no amateur, but after spending his adult life getting dressed and leaving the room after sex, he found the urge to linger startling.

  Picking up a long tress of auburn hair in his hand, he smoothed it away from Tavish’s face. She lay unnaturally still. The combined scents of their sex permeated everything, blanketing his senses. He didn’t know much about women, and she was unique anyway. But her silence made him uneasy.

  The urge to breach the silence between them won out. “We need to get moving.”

  He waited several moments, but Tavish still didn’t say anything. The scent of her arousal had started to recede. He noticed a hint in her delectable perfume that reminded him strongly of surprise. Her body began to tremble against him. Rubbing her arms, he tried to chafe some warmth into them as a chill began to creep over their sweat-slicked bodies.

  “Where are we going?”

  Her voice was oddly subdued. Xave wondered if she was experiencing some kind of postsex awkwardness. He’d never have imagined it from someone in her line of work, but then, they weren’t at Louie’s.r />
  “We’re headed back to Janus 5.”

  She leaped out of his arms. “What?”

  Xave rolled to his feet and gave her an uneasy glance while hiking his pants back over his hips and securing his belt. He was at a loss as to exactly what had just happened.

  “You can’t take me back to Janus 5!”

  “That’s where I’m headed, Tavish.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Mendez’s still there. I’ve got an inmate to trap.”

  “But I just fucked you!”

  The pieces of the puzzle snapped into place, and he felt his soul drain from his body. “Are you telling me that this”—he gestured to the bed and then to her—“all this was a bid to keep me from taking you back to Fat Louie’s?”

  She grabbed the towel from the floor and hastily draped it around her nude body. “You said you didn’t want a freebie.”

  The elation and release he’d felt evaporated, along with the strange tenderness that’d overcome him afterward. If he’d thought something unique existed between the two of them, he’d been alone in that delusion. To her, he was just another payday.

  And she never said my name.

  He straightened his clothes and slung his pack over one shoulder. “The Daggertail launches in fifteen minutes. Get your shit and get to the tarmac. If you hang around here any longer, Warrick will sell you to Barbies on Ice.”

  Chapter Five

  She struggled to get a grip on her thoughts and emotions. It was past time for her to think straight and make a plan that would keep her alive. Of course that was easy to say, good intentions and all that. But she had no idea how to explain what had happened between her and Xave.

  Coupled with the fact that she was still reeling from her first orgasm ever, and her head was spinning.

  Yes, she, Tavish, a working girl for more years than she cared to remember, had never had an orgasm, a climax, a grand finale, a peak…a something other than getting paid for doing the job. Never, that is, until a sexy-as-hell bondsman with a bad attitude came bursting into Louie’s.

  She’d been a little surprised when he hadn’t wanted a freebie. Coming on the heels of his announcement that she wouldn’t get work on Hyperion 4, she’d figured he wanted an exchange of some kind. Didn’t all men want an exchange of some kind?

  So where had it gone awry? She wanted to believe that the strange reactions she kept having around Xave had caused her bland professionalism to crumble, but she suspected it was more complex than that. When she’d reminded Xave he’d said no to the freebie, she’d seen the look on his face. She even knew what it meant.

  Neither of them was having any luck with the detached professional approach.

  She made a wrong turn and ran into a dead-end corridor. Grumbling irritably, she backtracked and tried to remember Lola’s instructions. It’d been lucky chance that Lola had knocked on the door only moments after Xave had stormed out of his room. Although she suspected Lola had more extrasensory talent than luck. Extrasensory talents fell into the same category as cyborgs and artificial intelligence, and Tavish had a strict don’t-want-to-know policy regarding those types of things.

  Finally taking the right fork in her route, she emerged outside on the docks. The Daggertail hovered in its robotic cocoon in the bay straight ahead. Xave didn’t seem to be hanging around waiting for her. He hadn’t left without her either, though part of her wondered if it might have been better if he had.

  A tremor slipped down her spine. If Xave ditched her, she would be left to the mercy of Warrick. Not a pleasant thought.

  She froze, thoughts whirling. One man should have been the same as another. Warrick or Xave, they were both just a means to an end—staying away from Fat Louie’s. So why did the niggling thoughts in her head seem to lean toward Xave? That reeked of attachment, and attachments were number one on a whore’s list of bad ideas.

  She managed to stifle a groan. Getting attached to Xave would be the height of stupidity. It would be better to make him need her. He seemed obsessed with getting his hooks into Mendez, so she would help make that happen. All things considered, she’d need to be pretty damned helpful after that disaster in the barracks.

  Xave was a man. He’d get over it. They all thought with their cocks anyway. He was no doubt feeling nice and satisfied. If she could tweak his libido just a little, make him want her, show him what she had to offer, then she’d be fine.

  And the bit of her that wanted to tease his cock until he couldn’t live without her would just have to stay under control.

  Xave being desperate to fuck her was fine. Her reciprocating that desire was not. She was a professional. Surely she could handle a little seduction?

  In these clothes? That’ll be fun.

  They were decent clothes. The sage green shirt might have been dull and plain cut, but it was one of the new, expensive fabrics that Fat Louie never splurged on for the girls. Unfortunately, “fashion challenged” was an apt description as well. The sensible black pants sported plenty of pockets, a novelty to a girl like her. They resembled a smaller version of the pants she’d shoved down to Xave’s ankles less than an hour earlier.

  The boots she liked. She hated high heels. In fact, she could make a convincing argument that heels had been designed by men to keep women from running away. With boots like these she could move faster, and if someone got too close, she’d plant one of the heavy things in their groin. Not that she figured that would work with Xave. He didn’t seem the type to let a woman get away with kicking him in the balls.

  The thought was laughable. The idea of damaging that fine equipment was plain wasteful.

  Tavish sighed. Life had never been simple, but she’d never dreamed the decision to trip Mendez would have such drastic results. Part of her wanted to leap with joy at being away from Louie’s, at being free. Her more practical self was terrified that Xave would dump her right back on Louie’s doorstep. Reaching up, she rubbed at the tiny bar code behind her right ear. She’d had it since the start of her captivity on the slaver’s ship. Truth was, Xave wouldn’t even have to take her to Fat Louie’s. If she got picked up anywhere on Janus 5 by security, the bar code would tell them where to send her. She was still Louie’s property until her slave debt was paid.

  She couldn’t remember any girl living long enough to buy her freedom. That possibility was an interplanetary myth. Shoving her dark thoughts into a far corner of her mind, she tried to concentrate on something else.

  Preoccupied on her last trip through, she hadn’t noticed too many details. Now, craning her head backward and staring up, she realized that Warrick’s docks were an open crater in the midst of tightly packed tenements. The Stone Cold Bondsmen’s base sprawled beneath the festering surface of a city slum.

  Jagged outlines of buildings stretched toward the sky on all sides of the sunken platform. Though she figured it to be daytime, there was little natural light. Sinister fluorescent lights painted the tarmac and equipment in a rusty glow

  “Climb aboard or be left behind.”

  Xave’s terse voice drifted down the tarmac as he strode past her. His pack dangled over one shoulder. Tavish watched him punch a series of buttons on the keypad. There was a certain amount of stiffness in his manner that she’d not seen before.

  Xave’s jaw locked firm, and his icy blue eyes showed not a hint of the softness she had experienced while cradled in his arms on the bed. He had tucked his coarse brown hair behind his ears, and the ends curled against his neck. One renegade strand lay against his forehead. She wanted to reach up and brush it away, but something told her he wouldn’t welcome the familiarity.

  “You coming or not?”

  She shrugged. “I thought you told me I didn’t have a choice.”

  “I told you what your choices were. I was just offering you the chance to come willingly before I asked Warrick his opinion on the topic.”

  She bit back a snappy retort. Now was not the time to aggravate him. She needed Xave in a good mood. A
good mood might keep her away from Fat Louie’s. This whole thing was her fault anyway. She should’ve handled the situation back on the bed a bit more diplomatically. If she had, he’d be hurrying her onto the Daggertail so he could launch the ship and have her wrap her lips around his cock.

  Forcing her expression into total neutrality, she followed Xave up the ramp and into the main cabin of the Daggertail.

  The low lighting made the small cabin inviting. Xave was already ensconced in the captain’s chair, running calculations and punching flight information into the displays.

  She chose a place on the same bank of seats she’d occupied on the ride in. The copilot’s chair sat empty. She eyed the comfortable-looking seat for a few moments before deciding that would be a bad idea. Men were funny about that kind of thing. She needed to find a way to seduce Xave, not piss him off. The key would be finding a way to break down his defenses and fuck her way into his good graces.

  A slow flush crept up her neck. Tavish swallowed. Her throat had gone dry. Just the thought of fucking Xave released a wave of sexual tension. She had unbuttoned more than her fair share of men’s pants; still, the sight of Xave’s huge prick emerging from his had rendered her unable to draw breath.

  Thick as her fist at the base, a shade darker than the rest of his sexy olive-toned skin, and lined with pulsing veins, Xave’s cock fascinated her. Blind instinct had forced her to her knees and induced her to taste the musky essence of Xavier Kovuchenko. He was clean and sweet and male. The salty flavor of his precum still lingered in her mouth.

  She sucked in a breath and shifted in her seat. Achy, damp awareness made her pussy lips plump as blood rushed to her groin. Her clitoris throbbed, longing for the soft touch of Xave’s finger. Was her body going to fling itself into orgasm every time she thought about fucking him?

  Across the small cabin, he shifted in his seat. “I’m not taking you back to Louie.”