by Allie Ritch
Massaging his temples, he pulled up his messages to see who else had called. The sight of Benni’s face filling the screen melted his stress.
“Hey, stranger,” she said in the recording. “No problem changing our plans to Friday. You know I’m flexible, ha-ha. I’m working, so I need to bump things up until 10:30, though. The arcade is open until midnight. That work for you?”
Glancing at the time indicator in the corner of the screen, he realized she’d left this message last night, before he’d run into her today and pretended not to know her. Actually, she’d called at the exact same time he’d been whacking off to thoughts of her in the shower. Would she still want to meet with him? And would he be enjoying her limber body again anytime soon?
* * * *
Benni watched Varion as he walked through the front door to the laser arcade the next evening. She didn’t know how anyone could ever mistake him. As far as she was concerned, his smooth, casual stride was a dead giveaway. Tonight, his skin was flawless ebony, his eyes black as collapsed stars, and his head totally bald. The man beneath the façade, however, hadn’t changed.
“I wasn’t sure you’d show up tonight.” She had to look up at him when he drew closer.
His nearly invisible eyebrows shot up in surprise. “And here I was worried you wouldn’t show. Why would you think I’d stand you up?”
Benni crossed her arms. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because you totally refused to acknowledge me in public yesterday and acted like you were someone else. I don’t know why that would raise some doubts.”
At least he had the decency to look sheepish. “Yeah, I’m sorry about that. I rarely run into someone who knows me personally when I’m on the job, and even then they never recognize me after I shift. You sort of threw me for a loop. You almost blew my cover.”
“Cover?” Benni felt her heart skitter in excitement. “You were working undercover?”
He nodded.
“You’re in code enforcement?”
“No.”
Who else ever worked in disguise? “A secret government agent?”
He answered slowly. “Not exactly. Let’s just say I can’t have anyone who knows me as Rion Nach finding out my real identity. It would cause some serious trouble.”
Awed and more than a little intrigued, Benni just stared at him for a moment. He’d said he wasn’t exactly a secret government agent, not that he wasn’t a secret agent at all. Whom did he work for? What kind of assignment was he on? And wait a second—his real identity?
“Is Varion your real name? Did you tell the truth about that?”
Benni was all for a good time, but she at least wanted to know the name of the man she’d been sleeping with.
To her relief he nodded. “Aside from our little run-in yesterday, I’ve never been dishonest with you.” Stepping closer, he leaned in and gave her a quick kiss. “Don’t let my work be an issue. It’s just a job. Right now, I’m looking to play.”
His smile was pure boyish enthusiasm.
Pleasantly distracted, she let the issue drop—for now—and struck a challenging pose by planting her hands on her hips. “You think you have what it takes to compete in full-out, zero-g, virtual reality laser tag?”
“I could blast you out of orbit with one shot, little girl. Team up with me, and I’ll tag all our opponents before you even get a shot off.”
“Ha! In your dreams.” Rolling onto the balls of her feet, she shot him a challenging grin. “I’m fast, I’m wily, and I’ll race you to the counter.”
She threw the last word over her shoulder as she turned and sprinted for the admission desk. Behind her, he grumbled something about fair play before sprinting after her.
Minutes after her small footrace victory, they were geared up and standing in line with four other people to get into one of the gaming rooms. The lightweight jumpsuits they wore looked like black combat fatigues and would register even a glancing shot to a player’s head, toe, or anything in between. Every player went in with three lives, and the scoreboard near the entrance to the room recorded each strike and fatality as well as tags against opponents. Tonight everyone was playing as partners, so it was her and Varion against two teams of two.
“Ready?” Varion pointed the firing end of his laser pistol toward the floor as if it were a real weapon.
“You bet,” she said confidently, palming her own gun. “Just try not to get shot right away, big guy. You’re a much bigger target than I am.”
He scoffed. “But I’m harder to see, carrot-top.”
She gave him that one. With his dark skin, he was blacked out from head to toe. Considering they were about to play the Asteroid Belt sim—a space scenario—that was a major advantage.
Before they could exchange more banter, a computerized voice invited them forward, and they walked into a spacious holo-room. Unactivated, the walls were dark gray, and the place was at least three stories high and more than twice as deep.
“Players,” the voice said, “please move to the starting squares for team assignment. Play will commence in fifteen seconds.”
There were red, yellow, and blue squares projected on the floor along the walls. Benni strolled over to the blue area and stepped inside the box with Varion. Immediately, an armband lit up with a dull cerulean glow on each of their jumpsuits. Hers had the number one inscribed in the center, while his had a number two to differentiate them on the scoreboard.
“Here we go.” Varion flashed her a smile.
His teeth looked extra white against his dark skin, especially since the lights were dimming.
The voice started a countdown. “Ten, nine, eight…”
“Have I mentioned you look sexy in a one-piece,” he teased her.
“…seven, six, five…”
“And you look pretty hot holding your … gun,” she told him. “You’d better stay really close to me so I don’t lose you in the dark.”
“…four, three, two…”
He wrapped his arm around her and leaned down to whisper. “There won’t be a sliver of starlight between us.”
His breath tickled the hair behind her ear, and his promise caused a hot shiver to run down her spine.
“One,” the voice announced.
The floor dropped away beneath Benni’s feet as they lost gravity and Varion pushed off hard with both legs. Instead of a tall, rectangular room, they were suddenly soaring through open space, completely weightless. Stars glittered in the distance, and large asteroids peppered the blackness, providing the only cover for them to hide behind. The game had begun.
When they reached the first large chunk of rock, Benni caught a crag to stop their momentum. A pinging sound came from diagonally in front of them and to their right when someone fired the first shot. Thinking to head that way, she started to shift and push off, but Varion didn’t let her go. His arm formed a solid band around her waist.
“They’re over there,” she murmured, giving him a nudge.
His lips fluttered against her ear as he spoke. “Patience. Let them come to us first. Their movement will give them away.”
He sounded so sure of himself she didn’t bother to argue. Benni wondered where he’d learned that kind of strategy. Was this part of his mysterious work, too? He certainly seemed very comfortable holding that laser pistol.
Varion gave her an extra squeeze. “Don’t worry. I’ll protect you.” Which seemed like exactly the sort of thing a secret agent might say.
Opening her mouth to tell him so, Benni barely drew breath before his lips covered hers. Her wits scattered to the four corners of the universe as his tongue swept inside. He slid his arm around her lower back downward so he could cup her butt. Then he pulled her flush against him, and she felt the hard ridge of his erection against her belly. Oh gods, he was getting off on this scenario. Did danger—real danger, not pretend—do this to him?
Her body certainly seemed to like it. A hot rush of moisture pooled between her legs, setting off an ache deep inside. Not
one to be outdone, she speared her tongue between his lips, licking and tasting him as their breath mingled.
Bam! The zing of his pistol startled her a split second before someone cursed below them. Although he’d seemed just as lost in the kiss as she’d been, Varion obviously hadn’t let down his guard. He’d just tagged one of their opponents. Considering how far away that voice sounded, it must have been a hell of a shot.
Still clutching the asteroid with one hand, he sent them flying up and over the top of it to hide. Benni expected blood to rush to her head, but in zero-g she felt no difference when he positioned them upside down in a handstand. Out of the corner of her eye, she glimpsed movement in the distance to their left. It looked like someone else was sitting on one of the asteroids, and the chunk of rock in question was suspended a few feet higher than theirs. Whoever it was hadn’t spotted her and Varion yet, but it was only a matter of time.
Tapping his hand to get him to loosen his grip, Benni executed a quick cartwheel to bring her right side up again. This placed her face-to-crotch with Varion’s erection, which didn’t appear to be diminishing in the least. In fact, despite the darkness, she was pretty sure the bulge swelled further under her gaze. Deliberately, she rubbed her body along the front of his as she grabbed his leg and pulled herself upward. When she had the height she needed, she wrapped her legs around his hips, holding him groin to groin, and used his body as a sniper stand.
The new vantage point was exactly what she needed. Taking aim, she depressed the trigger and tagged the woman on the red team dead center of her back. It was a killing shot—worth a thousand points—and it left the other female stunned long enough for Benni and her partner to shift position again.
Varion scored a glancing blow against someone below them and flipped upright. Taking hold of her, he pushed off just in time to avoid a laser blast from a man on the yellow team. Benni aimed over his shoulder and caught the guy in the arm. He must have been totally spastic because he let go of his laser pistol, and she was able to deliver a killing shot before he snagged it out of the air again.
She and Varion drifted almost to the ceiling before he fired his next shot. The other member of the red team had wedged herself in the corner of the room. Although Varion hit his mark, Benni felt a hard vibration as the woman’s last blast tagged her in her left leg. Grunting in irritation, she shot the other female in the boob. Unlike Benni’s, it presented a sizeable target.
“Grab on,” Varion told her.
It was all the heads up she got before he snagged a passing comet. She caught it just in time, and the glittering, long-tailed projectile propelled them rapidly across the room. Training her weapon on the dark spaces between asteroids, Benni delivered a lethal hit to the second member of the yellow team and a glancing blow to the female red she’d hit earlier. The sound of Varion’s weapon discharging told her he was meeting with similar success on his side.
Once they reached the far wall, the comet disappeared, and they were left with a clear view of the scoreboard. They could also see a member of the yellow team standing on a square beneath it.
“Yellow One is out,” Benni said, recognizing the guy who’d dropped his pistol. She looked at the board. “Yellow Two only has one life yet. Red One has two lives, and Red Two has another life. We just have to—”
A full strike to the chest cut off the rest of her sentence. Varion fired a few rounds in vengeance, but Red One ducked behind an asteroid too quickly.
“Okay, no talking,” Benni grumbled.
Varion’s smile shone briefly through the darkness. Which was apparently enough to earn him a blow to his shoulder from the elusive Red One.
Reaching out to clutch his belt, Benni used an overhead asteroid for leverage to send them down. They’d already tried taking the high ground, so now they’d attempt a sneak attack from underneath. Once they hit the bottom of the room, she pulled him horizontal with her so that they were parallel to the floor. He wound up on top of her, floating weightlessly only millimeters above her body. His potent heat suffused her from head to toe, and she couldn’t resist running her palm over that smooth, black, bald head of his before pulling him down for a kiss. There was more than one game being played here, but this one wouldn’t end until they got some privacy.
“Damn, woman.” Varion sighed when their lips parted. “You’re going to get us killed.”
“But what a way to go,” she quipped.
She felt his chest shake with a silent chuckle.
Rolling so that he was on his back beside her, he glanced over and gave her a nod. With the wall as a launching pad, they pushed off with their feet and skimmed over the floor like hovercraft, gazing up at the ceiling as they coasted. Above them, Red Two rounded an asteroid and pegged Yellow Two in the back, removing that team from the game. Red Two was so busy doing a floating victory dance she didn’t notice them until Varion killed her off with a clean shot. That left Red One.
“She’s on the other side of the room,” he whispered.
“What?” Benni didn’t understand how he could know that.
“Red One thought she had us pinned down over there,” he explained. “It’ll take her a minute to figure out where we went, and then she has to cross the room to follow us. Assuming she doesn’t just sit over there and wait for us to stick our heads out.”
With one arm stretched over their heads, they caught themselves against the far wall. Looking at her partner, Benni got the urge to up the ante on their other game.
“Let her wait.”
Walking her body around with her hands, she rotated so that she was the one hovering full-length over him. Instead of closing the distance, she left that tiny sliver of space between them.
“These jumpsuits only open in the back,” she said with a pout.
“True.” There was a smile in his voice.
“I guess we’ll have to work with what we’ve got.”
Reaching down, she cupped him through the suit. At some point, his cock had relaxed into a state of semi-arousal, but she was pleased to feel it leap to attention beneath her palm. She let go of the wall so that only her grip on his cock—that one point of contact between them—kept them together. All kinds of taunts and naughty talk filled her head, but she bit her lip. Just like in the bathroom at the club, they had to keep quiet. Except now he was the one who’d have to smother sounds of pleasure.
Blindly, Benni found the head of his erection. Cradled in her palm, the hard crown was an indistinct knob beneath the thick material of his suit. Using two fingers, she then traced the length of his shaft until she found the bloated bulge of his balls underneath. She gave them a good squeeze.
“Benni.” He hissed her name in warning.
Something wicked and sweet infused her, like drowning in dark chocolate. Turnabout was fair play, so she went with her impulse. Pressing her laser pistol to his lips like a silencing finger, she hushed him as she stroked back up his cock. The whites of his eyes cut through the darkness.
Although she desperately wanted to touch his naked skin and encircle all that virile male flesh in her bare hand, she did what she could to torment him. Benni massaged and pumped his dick up and down through the cloth, raking her nails over the fabric like she’d tear him apart. Beneath her, Varion choked out a moan and bucked his hips. Sensing the tension in his body, she knew it wouldn’t take much more to have him coming in his pants in long, hot, forbidden pulses. She was tempted, oh so tempted, to do just that. Then his eyes widened with what looked like surprise, and she realized she’d missed her chance.
He grunted when she used his stiff member as a springboard, and his first shot missed the mark. Pushing into a spin, though, Benni flipped herself over and tagged Red One in the same instant Varion took a fatal blow. Their opponent tried to dodge behind an asteroid the second she recovered, but it was too late. While Benni’s next shot only grazed the woman’s thigh, Varion’s aim was perfect. With that last blast, he took out Red One, making them the winners.
> Laughing in triumph, Benni gave him a smack on the lips just as the asteroid belt dissolved and they were lowered gently to the floor by the restored gravity.
“Nice shot.” Again she wondered where he’d learned to shoot like that. There was so much about her Multan she didn’t know—so much she wanted to know.
The two of them definitely had some unfinished business to attend to.
Chapter 3
Celebration
When they got back to his place, Varion practically tripped over his erection getting through the front door of his apartment. After all the sexual teasing at the tag game, he needed inside Benni, and he needed inside her now. He couldn’t even wait long enough to make it up to the bed in the loft. Kicking the door closed behind them, he dragged her back into his arms so that the top of her buttocks nestled his erection.
“Crazy woman.” He stripped her blouse open and popped her bra. “You get me so hot.”
His dark hands contrasted sharply with her milky skin when he filled both palms with her firm breasts. While he kneaded those perky mounds, he nibbled on the delicacy of her neck, tasting the rainbow of freckles that spangled her. They were like a dotted line leading him right to her pulse point. Feeling her tightly budded nipples and the shiver that shimmied down her spine, he was sure she was right there in the inferno with him.
Impatient, he released her breasts long enough to unseal her pants and shove them and her underwear toward the floor. The sight of her lean, muscled legs and bare bottom sent another kick of lust to his balls. She slipped out of her shoes and kicked her clothes away, leaving her in nothing but her shirt, which still gaped open in front. With hands turned awkward with urgency, Varion reached down to undo his pants.
“Bend over,” he ordered her. “Grab your ankles.”
She tilted her chin over one shoulder and arched her eyebrow at him.
“Please,” he added, ready to beg.
Varion dropped his pants, and his erection sprang free. He hadn’t bothered to wear any underwear. Precum already dribbled out of the tip of his penis, and the moisture beaded faster when her hungry gaze lowered to his aching member. The sultry smile she sent him made his blood pressure soar even higher. Then she obeyed his command, and he nearly went through the roof.
