by Nina Croft
He’d better not touch her. Heat roiled in my belly, rising up until my vision was tinged with red. When I’d bought Ruby, back on the Bhaxian slaver, they’d allowed me to test for virginity—not that I would have known anyway. If they let this guy touch her like that, I was going to rip his hand from his arm and make him eat the fucking thing.
“Calm it, boss.” Creb interrupted my thoughts of revenge. “You can’t save her if you’re dead.”
I slowed my breathing but could do nothing about the red-hot rage rushing through me. I was bouncing on the balls of my feet, holding myself back. Finally the man walked on, and I blew out my breath.
“You know, it’s interesting,” Creb said.
I frowned. I was pretty sure it wasn’t going to be, but I didn’t stop her.
“You like to act all tough and big-bad-space-piraty, but really you’re a softie.”
“No, I’m not.” I growled for effect.
“You have this thing for saving damsels in distress.”
“No, I don’t.”
“You rescued me.”
“You didn’t need rescuing. You were doing an excellent job all on your own. We just joined in the fun.”
“Rubbish. They would have lynched me.”
Probably.
“And then there’s Maria.” Maria was the slave girl I’d bought at the same time as Ruby. Though bought wasn’t really the right word. She’d been used by the crew and was nearly dead by that point. A fact that hadn’t affected my decision in any way. “She was just a bargaining tool.”
“Of course she was. Accept it, boss, you’re a nice guy.”
“No, I’m not. I just…” I didn’t want to put it into words, but some things pressed my buttons, and that made me weak. But Creb was crew, and maybe she needed to understand my weakness just in case it ever came to the point where it killed us all. “I had a sister—we were twins. She died in a brothel when she was eighteen. No one helped her.”
With that memory, the red-hot rage cooled to icy darkness, a familiar feeling and a constant companion in the years after Kara died.
“Sorry.”
“Yeah.” I shrugged. “But that’s not why we’re here. This is a job.”
“So someone’s employing us?”
“No.”
“Are we going to get paid?”
“Probably not.” I thought for a moment. “Okay, make that definitely not.”
“So—”
“Shh,” I said. “They’re starting.”
The first girl was being hustled up to the podium in the center of the square. She was pretty enough with golden skin and long black hair. Tall with small breasts and long legs.
Strangely, while I’d been a slave for eighteen years, I’d never been to a slave market. Born and bred in the asteroid mines, I’d fully expected to die there as well.
A sense of wrongness saturated the place, the air heavy with despair and hopelessness. Slavery was illegal. So why the hell was it allowed to flourish so openly in so many places?
The fucking goddamn Federation, that was why. They were all corrupt. It was time someone went after them. Time for a revolution. But that was for the good guys, the guys with consciences. I just wished they’d fucking hurry up and get on with it.
My attention drifted back to Ruby as the bidding began.
She was chewing on her lower lip, glancing around. She’d told me her people would come and rescue her as soon as she got to her destination. Was she waiting for them to leap in and pull her out of there?
Somehow I doubted that was going to happen.
Something had gone awry with Ruby’s mission. Someone wanted her dead. My bet was on this Rekowski guy she’d told me about, the one who was supposed to come after her.
I’d fucking kill him if he ever turned up.
The next girl was on the stand. Blond and too frail-looking to appeal to the Groths—not the type to last long even if she got someone who’d be gentle. The average Groth male was seven feet tall with a dick to match. And they could be rough. Zak was a great guy, but if I was a woman I wouldn’t want him near my vagina.
Though Ruby had enjoyed herself.
The blonde went quickly, the bidding low, then another girl and another. I was getting antsy. I wanted them to get to Ruby. Once she was sold, we could do something. The inactivity was doing my head in.
Finally, they got to the redhead. She was pretty and had an air of toughness about her despite her obvious youth, and a long slender body and full breasts. The bidding went on a long time, but finally she was led away. She glanced back at Ruby as she left, waggling her fingers and giving a rueful smile.
Then Ruby was up there and the crowd went quiet, clearly recognizing she was something special. She stood up straight, her shoulders back, breasts thrust out. But she shifted as if she didn’t know what to do with her hands and her feet. The guard motioned to her to twirl, and her eyes narrowed, but she did as she was told. Thank God, she wasn’t going to make things worse for herself.
The auctioneer was extolling her virtues. Natural blond, young, hardly touched, responsive—how the hell did they know that? The guard ran a hand up her arm and then cupped one full breast and a growl rose up in my throat. Ruby scowled and swatted the hand away. “Keep your fucking goddamn hands to yourself, asshole.”
A ripple of laughter ran through the crowd. They liked a little spirit. Some for its own sake and some because they enjoyed breaking it. The guard wasn’t impressed. He grabbed both her wrists and cuffed them behind her back so her breasts jutted out. He cupped one in his big green hand then tugged at the chain clamped to her nipple, and she gritted her teeth.
I gritted mine in sympathy and added the guard to my growing list of people who were going to die very soon.
The bidding went on for a long time. She passed the fifty thousand mark, which is what I’d paid for her the first time. Then sixty… She eventually sold at seventy-five, and from the hush of the crowd, that was an impressive price. I was pleased as though it somehow reflected on me.
But then, she was my girl.
I’d never had a girl. Not a real one of my own that I hadn’t paid for, for the night.
Ruby had been bought by the same man who’d purchased the redhead. I nudged Creb. “Do you know who that is?” I asked, pointing at the buyer.
“No, but I’ll go ask around.” She headed into the crowd, and I turned back and watched as Ruby was hustled back into the holding cells, presumably to wait for payments to be cleared.
Creb came back a few minutes later. “I’m not sure whether this is good news or bad.”
“Spit it out, Creb.”
“The guy was the purchaser for the imperial household. So on the good side—we know exactly where she’s going. Plus, Zak knows his way around the imperial palace.”
“Yeah, and on the bad side, we’re going to have to break Ruby out of the most heavily guarded building on the planet.”
Shit.
Chapter Four
Ruby
Well, the smell was better, but for the rest, I was reserving judgement.
I lay spread-eagled on a table, my hands and feet strapped to the corners. It was pretty much how I’d woken on the slaver ship all those weeks ago.
On the plus side, on a table next to me, Sarah was undergoing the same experience. Yay. I had a friend. I hadn’t realized how much of a difference that made until I’d been kept in solitary confinement. Also, at least I knew she was safe. She could be a bit mouthy and would no doubt get herself into trouble at some point. But hopefully I’d be here to pick up the pieces.
She rolled her head toward me and raised a brow.
I gave an almost imperceptible shrug. I had a vague clue where we were—the woman who’d prepared us in the holding cells had taken great delight in informing us we’d been bought by the imperial princess. A lesbian with a taste for the…exotic. She’d given a nasty smile when she said that. But how bad could it be? It was probably best not to ponde
r on that particular question. I’d decided that I just had to do what I was told. It was my best way of surviving this.
And anyway, Rekowski would be here any moment now.
Where the hell was the bastard?
They’d done some sort of internal examination. Not pleasant, but not painful, either. Now they were removing what was left of the hair on my body, and I was just glad it wasn’t hot wax. Maybe they didn’t use that here. They’d covered me in some sort of cream, left it for a while and then wiped it off, leaving me smooth and bare as a… I couldn’t come up with anything suitable. Now someone was inspecting me with a magnifying glass and pulling out any leftover strays. They were nothing if not thorough, but if anyone went near my ass again, I was going to scream.
Hey, that was one good thing about being bought by a lesbian—presumably my ass was safe.
Hallelujah.
Finally, they were done. I was wiped over with a damp cloth and then lotion was rubbed into my skin from head to toe. It was quite pleasant. I even felt a twinge as the deft fingers slipped between the folds of my sex. I wanted to point out that that particular bit really didn’t need moisturizing, but I kept my mouth shut, because I was a good little slave.
The straps at my wrists and ankles were unfastened, and I was rolled onto my front. Strong fingers kneaded my neck, my shoulders, down my back, between the cheeks of my ass, and I locked every muscle. I got a slap for that and I tried to relax. Lotion dribbled between my cheeks and warm fingers massaged it in, only briefly pushing into my clenched hole.
Lesbians do not do anal.
I repeated it over and over in my head, but really, what did I know?
A sigh of relief escaped me as they left my bottom, moving to my thighs, the backs of my knees, my feet. At the same time, someone was slowly brushing out my hair.
Ahhh. Bliss.
I’d come to the conclusion that the way to survive was to keep my mind blank during the bad bits and enjoy the good. And this felt so good. I was almost asleep when a slap to my ass made me jump.
“Up.”
I got up. Blinked. Sarah stood beside her table. Her skin and hair gleamed and she looked beautiful, glowing. A woman was attaching matching nipple clamps and a chain around her hips—I guess we were going in as a pair.
She caught my eye and winked. I scowled in return.
Two male guards appeared at the doorway, dressed in a purple and gold livery that went well with their blue skin. They reminded me a little of Zak—though they weren’t as handsome—and a twinge of loss shot through me.
Time to go.
I tried to pretend I wasn’t naked, but in fact, they avoided looking at the pair of us. Maybe if they did, they’d have their balls chopped off or something.
After leading us a short distance, they halted in front of a set of white gilded double doors guarded by two more men in purple livery. I swallowed and wiped my sweaty palms down my thighs.
Be positive.
Don’t think about what’s to come.
Where the fuck are you, Rekowski?
They opened the doors and we were ushered straight in, through a seating area, beneath an archway, and into a huge bedroom, with a huge bed. With a huge blue woman lounging in the middle.
I don’t know why I’d been expecting a human. Probably because my brain just wasn’t functioning normally. I’d met Zak and been told that, at one point, he’d been the crown prince of Groth. Since he was a seven-foot blue alien, logic would dictate that the rest of the royal family would be the same.
My feet stopped moving all of their own accord, until a hand on my shoulder nudged me forward so I was standing next to Sarah, at the end of the bed. The woman made a twirling motion with her finger and we twirled.
“Very pretty. Tell Jacob he gets his bonus.” She turned to us. “I am Princess Zurian. Do as I say and things should not be too unpleasant.”
Okay, from the sound of that, things were clearly going to be a little bit unpleasant whatever we did. I searched for a family resemblance to Zak, to take my mind off the whole unpleasant thing, but apart from the blue, I could see nothing.
“Now what shall we do with the two of you?” she continued. “I think a little show. And the first one who comes, gets to play with me.”
A show? What sort of show? I couldn’t ask because I was still not supposed to understand. The guard to my left pointed at Sarah then at a raised dais in the center of the room. When she didn’t move, he picked her up and lay her down on her back. He positioned her, as if she were a doll, knees bent, thighs open.
Princess Zurian came up on her elbows to watch, giving her a clear view.
The other guard pushed me in Sarah’s direction. I came to a halt by her head, and peered down.
“I think they want us to…you know…eat each other out,” Sarah muttered.
No kidding?
I was quite aware of what they wanted, and my mind was scrambling for a way out. I looked at Sarah; imagined my mouth between her legs. I liked her, but…hell no.
Beside me, the guard drew a whip from his belt. Sarah’s eyes darted to it and then back to me.
“Come on, Ruby? Haven’t you ever experimented?”
“No. Oh, okay, yes, once, but I didn’t like it.”
“How can you not like someone eating your pussy?”
Actually it was the other way around. I just couldn’t imagine doing that. “No pussy was involved,” I replied primly. “I was only twelve and we kissed—that’s it. But there were tongues, and I didn’t like it.”
She heaved a sigh, her gaze darting to the guard beside me, the guard with the twitchy whip hand. “Well, imagine I’m your space pirate.”
For obvious reasons, that was going to take a whole lot of imagination, but I supposed I could try. I was just about to start when the lash cracked between us. We were taking too long.
I gave a rueful shrug then climbed up on the dais, very inelegantly, straddling Sarah so I faced her feet and tried not to think of the view she was getting. What next?
The lash landed on my back, a streak of flame, and a yelp escaped me. I could do this. I shuffled back a little and leaned in closer, kissed her inner thigh. That was okay. Her skin was soft and she tasted vaguely of lemons and honey, presumably the lotion they’d used. Not too bad. But now her vagina was right in front of me. Closer than I’d ever been to someone else’s vagina before. I couldn’t avoid it. Pink and glistening. I gave it a quick peck.
My first taste of pussy. Sweet and salty. I licked with my tongue, and it sank into something hot and slippery. Ugh. I was inside a vagina. I backed out again fast.
Find the clitoris.
I mean how hard could it be? Then I remembered the fumbling attempts of a few ex-boyfriends and decided it clearly wasn’t that easy to find. I was just rooting about when soft hands slid up my thighs, pulling me closer. And I stopped moving. Then a warm, wet mouth engulfed my sex. I screwed my eyes tight as I tried not to enjoy it.
Unlike me, Sarah clearly knew what she was doing. She parted my sex with one hand and licked long, slow strokes all the way from my ass to my clit. Over and over again.
The lash landed on my shoulders. I was not doing my part. I copied her actions, used one hand to delve between the folds of her sex. I’d never been this close before. Alien territory. But searching among the folds, I found the only thing that could be a clit. I poked it with my tongue and a noise—it might have been a giggle—escaped the woman under me. Hey, I was doing my best.
Sarah was sucking on me now, and oh my God was she good at this! It was most distracting as she sucked and lapped me with her warm wet tongue. But I was so not going to come.
Not. Going. To. Come.
She bit down with her teeth, and the pleasure swelled, expanded, warmth flooded my belly, and pop. I came.
Sometimes I hated my clitoris. I’d told it not to come. And just like the time with the tentacles, it had taken absolutely no notice.
I was still nose deep in
Sarah’s pussy. I suppose I should make some effort to return the favor. She wriggled against me. I sucked and lapped and prayed she wouldn’t take long. Finally, she stiffened beneath me, her hips arching—hallelujah—and I collapsed on top of her.
After a minute, I pushed myself up, peeked through the gap between our bodies. She peered back at me and I narrowed my eyes. She’d goddamned faked it. I felt…betrayed. Better not go there.
I shuffled down her body so my girly bits were no longer shoved in her face, then clambered off the dais, my legs almost giving way. That had actually been a pretty good orgasm. Who would have guessed it?
I glanced up and came into eye contact with the woman on the bed. The woman who owned us now. Hopefully not for long.
“You lost,” she murmured. “Now you get to play with me.”
I glanced at the guy with the whip. Maybe that was a better option, but I’d never been good with pain. And what was one more pussy? I’d lost my pussy-eating virginity. I could do this.
Except…
She reached behind her and dragged something from under the sheets. I stared at the object for long moments, trying to make out what it was. Some instrument of torture? As she strapped it around her waist, it occurred to me what she was holding.
“Oh crap, by all that’s holy…no.” I backed away, slamming into the rock-hard body of one of the guards. I stared at the thing. It was huge and blue. Okay, it was probably no bigger than Zak—maybe normal size for a Groth guy. But I wasn’t a Groth woman.
Princess Zurian raised one eyebrow and nodded toward the guard with the whip. He cracked it, just in case I hadn’t got the meaning.
Pretend it’s Zak. I can do this. I can do this.
I inched forward.
No I can’t.
I shot back.
Princess Sadistic Bitch smiled. “I do like it when they have a little life in them.”
The guard picked me up and tossed me on the bed. I caught a last glimpse of Sarah, still sitting on the dais, eyes wide. “Relax,” she mouthed.
