“Yeah, be sure to let Annie know that she was wrong. Killing our way in totally worked,” Custer snickered. Everyone ignored him.
“Comm me when you’ve rested a bit, Zosha,” Spinner said. “I think you owe me an explanation.”
“Will do,” she said and let Rick pull her out of the room.
The guards they passed looked at them suspiciously but did nothing to hinder them, and soon they were back out in the open air.
Zosha looked around at the devastation in the market and felt the guilt twist in her stomach. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but several stalls were obliterated and bloodstains covered the ground. Zosha didn’t want to think about what had happened to the bodies.
Rick squeezed her hand. “If you want to blame someone for this, blame Lan Doro, or the Rahm brothers. You didn’t know what would happen.”
“That doesn’t make it not my fault,” she said in a quiet voice.
“Think about it like this: more people would have died if the conflict between the Rahm brothers had continued. You all but ending it here stopped that.”
“I know. It doesn’t feel like that, though,” she told him.
They walked in silence. Zosha kept her eyes on the ground and her hand in Rick’s. After a moment, he huffed out a laugh.
“Did I tell you about the time I had to hide in a tree for six hours because Custer pissed off a contact so bad he sent his personal army after us?” he asked.
Zosha felt something warm and fluttery worm its way into her stomach. “No, no you did not.”
By the time he finished the story, Zosha’s smile was small but genuine.
“So, what do you guys usually do after something like this?” she asked.
“Me personally? Get drunk as hell. Why, what did you have in mind?”
“Life-affirming sex,” she told him. “But getting drunk works too.”
Rick stared at her for a moment, then swept her up in a bridal carry. She shrieked with laughter, wrapping her arms around his neck.
“I like your idea better,” he said, walking purposefully towards the ship.
“Glad you see it my way,” Zosha said, giggling.
The door to the cargo hold lowered as they approached, Annie standing at the top of the ramp and waiting for them.
“I’m guessing things went well,” she said.
“Yup,” Rick told her cheerfully as he walked by her. “Sylas Rahm is on board, the captain’s negotiating for work in return for the notebook now, and Zosha’s information broker is Spinner, and yes, I do mean the ‘occasionally crumbles regimes for profit’ Spinner. Also, I’m off duty for at least the next two hours.”
“What?” Annie all but shrieked after them.
“Ask Leo about it!” Rick called back at her, turning down the hallway for his room.
He shifted Zosha to one arm to punch in the access code to his room. She pressed a kiss to the side of his neck, then nipped the spot where her lips had been. Rick moaned and lunged into the room almost before the door was open.
He took three steps forward and then tossed Zosha onto the bed. She bounced once, giggling, and then he was on top of her, sliding his hands under her shirt and pressing open-mouthed kisses down her neck and along her collarbone. She arched up, pressing her breasts against his chest and hissing in pleasure.
“God, I’ve wanted you like this since I first saw you,” he said into the hollow of her neck.
“What, you mean when you found me hiding in your cargo hold with a nutri-pack hanging out of my mouth?” she asked breathlessly.
“I don’t think you realize how you look in that suit,” he said. “God, no wonder you never get caught. They’re too busy staring at you to do anything.”
A laugh bubbled out of her. “It’s just a suit.”
“It’s so tight,” Rick told her, thumb skimming along the underside of her bra. “I just wanted to rip it off of you.”
He slid one hand down and squeezed her ass. Zosha moaned, then tugged at his shirt.
“Okay, naked, we need to be naked right now,” she told him. He pulled away and shucked off his shirt, then went to work on his boots.
Zosha pulled her own clothes off with record speed and had gotten down to her underwear when Rick pushed her back onto the mattress. He kissed her, wet and hot, before sliding down the mattress to take one nipple into his mouth. Zosha let her head fall back with a breathy groan and slid one hand into his thick hair. She wrapped her legs around him and he put one hand on her thigh, the other on her waist.
Zosha relished the warm weight of him pressing her down. She felt deliciously caught, safe in his grip.
Rick tugged at her nipple with his teeth, drawing a gasp out of her, then kissed his way down her body until he reached the band of her panties. He looked up at her, golden eyes bright and cheeks flushed. Thumbing at the elastic over her hip, he raised an eyebrow. She nodded at the tacit question and he lowered his head to mouth at her through the cotton.
Zosha practically squealed at the feeling, gripping his hair with both hands as her legs clamped involuntarily together. Rick pulled back to press a kiss to the inside of her thigh and sucking a bruise into the pale skin there before moving his mouth back to the damp fabric and working Zosha into a babbling mess.
“Rick, please please please, oh my God,” she gasped out, not knowing what she was begging for but knowing she needed it.
Rick moved away to tug her underwear off, then nudged her legs apart and pressed his tongue to her swollen, dripping slit.
Zosha nearly howled at the sensation, her brain whiting out. Her world narrowed to his mouth. Distantly, she realized that the room definitely wasn’t soundproof, but she couldn’t bring herself to care.
Rick ran one finger teasingly over her entrance, then slipped inside her. He flicked his tongue over her hypersensitive flesh and gave her a moment to adjust before adding a second finger and working her open.
Zosha lay back, sobbing for breath already, and taking in the feeling of him on and in her. Stars danced across her visions as her blood turned to fire. She could feel her climax beginning to build and she tugged at his hair until he pulled back to look up at her.
“I’m ready, I want you now,” she told him, somehow managing to get the words out despite the fact her brain had long since turned to mush.
Rick jackknifed up her body, settling between her legs. Zosha gasped as she felt his erection press against her thigh, hot and solid. He kissed her and she opened her mouth to him, tasting herself on his tongue.
“Can I?” he asked her, running a hand up and down her thigh.
She nodded frantically and forced herself to relax as he reached down and lined himself up with her.
The initial stretch of his cock inside her seemed to force all the air out of the room. She stared into his eyes, irises just a golden outline of his pupils, blown huge and dark. He hovered over, muscles tight, letting her adjust. After a moment, she rolled her hips experimentally, making them both moan.
He began to thrust into her, slowly at first and then harder as she locked her ankles at the small of his back.
“You’re so good,” he groaned into her ear. “You feel so good.”
Zosha just whined in response, well past the point of coherent speech. The heat in her stomach had turned to electricity and she could feel her orgasm begin to spark.
Wrapping one arm under Rick’s shoulder and the over his neck, she let herself fall apart under him, pleasure arching her back and pressing her flush against him.
She let her head fall back as a river of white fire swept through her veins, burning through everything that wasn’t the feeling of Rick rutting into her or the heat of his skin.
She came back to herself slowly, sparks of pleasure almost too intense to handle flickering to life as Rick continued to drive himself into her oversensitive body.
“Shit,” Rick muttered as his hips stuttered. He tucked his face into Zosha’s neck as his rhythm broke down, fuck
ing her hard and fast. He pulled out of her with a groan and reached down to stroke himself. Zosha felt something warm splash across her belly and Rick collapsed on the mattress beside her.
They stayed like that for a moment, breathing heavily, sweat gleaming in the artificial light.
“So,” Zosha started when she got enough breath back to speak. “Worth fighting a squad of mercenaries for?”
Rick chuckled and leaned over to press his lips to hers.
She curled into his side and ran her fingers over his stomach, feeling the muscles flex under her touch.
“Come with us,” Rick said. “Leo will let you. You’re a fantastic asset. Annie’s fond of you and the others will get used to it. I don’t want to say goodbye to you yet.”
Zosha considered it. She thought about the asteroid where she’d lived her entire life: all of its flaws and all of its strengths. About the neon lights she’d grown up under. She thought about never seeing the place that held all of her memories again.
She thought about her future in the stars.
“I’m in,” she said softly.
She and Rick stared at each other, grinning like idiots, until the intercom crackled to life.
“So, uh…” the captain’s voice said. “You done in there yet?”
Zosha was too blissed out to be mortified, so she just turned her face towards the pillow and giggled. Rick kissed her cheek and reached over her to press a button on the intercom.
“Just teaching her how to fire a gun, Captain,” he said in a tone that implied he was referencing something. Someone snickered on the other side of the line.
“Well, put it back in the holster, cowboy, some of us are trying to work. And not vomit everywhere. Shut it, Custer,” he added when the cackling grew louder.
“Understood,” Rick said and dropped back down on the bed.
He pulled Zosha to him and wrapped an arm around her waist. She smiled, leaning on his broad chest and tracing her fingers lightly over the seam where the metal of his prosthetic legs met flesh.
“Does it hurt?” she asked him.
“Nope. Feel free to keep groping me,” Rick answered. “So, how does it feel to be an almost-official member of the Breakwater?”
Zosha’s grin threatened to split her face in two. “It feels perfect.”
Adam
Grizzly Groomsmen I
by
Becca Fanning
If she was being honest with herself, Maya wasn't even sure why she was invited in the first place. Glancing around the crowded room, she sighed, and reached for a glass of champagne; she would need it to get through the rest of the night.
At every wedding she'd been to, there'd been at least one guest who no one knew. She just never thought it would be her. As soon as the email had pinged into her inbox, she'd had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach, but she knew she couldn't turn the opportunity down. After all, Dina and her had basically grown up together, well, if you considered growing up those formative years between the start and end of college, which Maya did. They'd lived together for four whole years, before Dina had moved in with her soon to be husband. And now, Maya was here, with a sunset-hued bridesmaids dress in her closet, tossing back champagne, and staring across at her college roommate and her husband-to-be.
Maya was pretty far from a wallflower most of the time, but right now all she wanted to do was finish out the last of this reception, get to bed, and catch her flight home the next day. Because, of course, Dina couldn't resist taking off to some remote tropical island to hold her wedding. Christ, if Maya had known about that, she probably would have found some way to wriggle out of it, Dina might be all grown up and done with her student loans, but Maya certainly wasn't. Hell, that wasn't the only way Maya was pretty far from being an adult. She was still living in the same rent-controlled apartment in the centre of town she had for almost nine years, she was still single, she was still avoiding calls from her mother. Part of her felt like she should have grown up by now, but, as she kept on reminding herself, she was only twenty-eight. She had plenty of time to figure things out, even if watching the girl she used to do tequila slammers with seven years ago with her fiance was freaking the hell out of her. Maya tried to keep her face nonchalant as she watched Dina show off her ring to some member of the family Maya didn't recognize. All of a sudden, it became far too real, Maya stood up, and headed towards the catering table, trying her best to look nonchalant.
She spotted an open but untouched bottle of champagne sitting on the edge of the clothed table, judging by the size and shape, she could easily stash it under her dress and sneak off to the beach for the rest of the night. Glancing around, she thought for a moment that one of the other bridesmaids had caught her in the act, but realized she was just staring off into space in Maya's direction. Grabbing the bottle, Maya slid it under the flowing bustier of her dress and made her way towards the door. She caught Dina's eye, and offered a wave and a smile as she ducked into the cool, heavy evening air.
No one looked twice as Maya hurried down towards the golden sands, pulling the bottle out from her dress as she went. Staring out across the waves, she felt a soft calmness pass across her. Being surrounded by nature always made her feel calmer. There was something so…analogue about the sounds of the waves lapping up over the sand, of birds calling in the distance. She sat herself down in the rich, slightly damp sand, wriggling her toes under the surface, and took a swig from the bottle of champagne. Maybe this wasn't the classiest way to spend the first night of this wedding weekend, but it certainly suited her.
Suddenly, behind her,she heard the crunch of footsteps. It sounded like they were tracing her path down to the beach, so Maya quickly slipped the bottle of champagne under her skirts and tried to look like someone who hadn't just stolen an expensive bottle of booze from a fancy party.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you," A male voice, sounding a little out of breath, drifted over her shoulder. "I just needed a minute."
"No problem!" Maya chirped, hoping that whoever it was couldn't read the guilt on her face. She twisted her head so she could see over her shoulder, and realized that she recognized the source of the voice. Before she had a chance to say anything, he cocked his head and grinned.
"You're one of the bridesmaids, right?" He asked, skittering over the sand towards her. "Sorry, I'm not good on anything other than dirt."
"Yeah. And you're a groomsman?" She nodded, shifting up so that he could sit down next to her. If she was being honest, she had noticed him when she'd arrived. Well, mostly because she had been trying to distract herself with someone to flirt with, and his green-gold eyes had flashed mischievously back at hers when they'd made contact.
"Right. Not sure why, though," He shook his head, pulling out a packet of cigarettes from his pocket and offering one to her. "Smoke?"
"Sure," Maya shrugged. She hadn't smoked since she was in college, but something about the two of them sneaking off from a wedding felt devious and teenage enough to warrant it. She produced the bottle of champagne from under her skirt and held it out towards him. "Drink?"
He spluttered with laughter, reaching over to light Maya's cigarette before getting to his own.
"Did you steal that from the reception?" He demanded, looking at her with mock-seriousness.
"Yeah, you wanna take me in for it?" Maya tilted her chin up and challenged him. God, he was even cuter close up, maybe it was just the suit and tie, or maybe it was that lopsided grin, but this guy was seriously her type.
"I'll hold off if you share with me," he offered, and took the bottle from her. They sat in companionable silence for a minute or so, drinking and smoking and ignoring the distant sound of the reception above them.
Joel (BBW Bear Shifter Wedding Romance) (Grizzly Groomsmen Book 5) Page 31
