by Smith, S. E.
“Shall we join that fourth time, now?” she asked.
He laughed and flipped her onto her back. He held her gaze as he trailed his mouth down her body, hands skimming over her sides.
“What are you doing?” she asked as his lips neared her slit.
“Ensuring my mate is the best-loved female in the sea.”
Rhea gasped, and all thought fled her mind except the pleasure of Randall’s tongue. Her cries ensured everyone in the Facility knew just how well loved she was.
Also by Tiffany Roberts
Treasure of the Abyss (The Kraken #1)
Jewel of the Sea (The Kraken #2)
Heart of the Deep (The Kraken #4)
Make Me Burn (Isle of the Forgotten Series)
Make Me Hunger (Isle of the Forgotten Series)
Make Me Whole (Isle of the Forgotten Series)
Make Me Yours (Isle of the Forgotten Series)
Dustwalker
Ice Bound
About Tiffany Roberts
Tiffany Roberts is the pseudonym for Tiffany and Robert Freund, a husband and wife writing duo. Tiffany was born and bred in Idaho, and Robert was a native of New York City before moving across the country to be with her. The two have always shared a passion for reading and writing, and it is their dream to combine their mighty powers to create the sorts of books they want to read. They live in southwestern Idaho with their three children, where they are now actively pursuing their dream.
Learn more about her books on her website.
Starway
1
It had an inevitable familiarity, because no matter what starport she stayed in, every transit hotel room was alike. At the same time, and equally inevitably, it was unfamiliar. From starport to starport rooms like this one all had a slightly different layout, making it easy to run into a wall and hard to find a door with the lights out. It was depressingly ordinary, furnished with a blocky bed and chair, thick white window curtain, and little else. And yet it was extraordinary, because this room for starliner crews between flights was within the interstellar hotel called Starway.
Nikka pulled back the thick curtain. Through a glass window, she looked down at the busy boarding area for Gate Seven in the starport terminal. She’d brought a starliner to that gate yesterday. She would pilot a liner away from it tomorrow. In the meantime, she had twenty hours ahead of her in Starway. Even better, although her own body clock had the vague idea that it was early morning, which it would have been had she stayed at the planet named Moira, five days and a hundred stars away, here it was midday, with Starway at its broad-daylight busiest and most interesting.
Refreshed with enough sleep, free until tomorrow, she stretched, stripped off her sleeping tunic, and sighed because, unfortunately, she didn’t know anyone here. The rest of the starliner crew she’d come in with had been reassigned to a quick turnaround in another starliner to back up a crew going to Faxe, the capitol planet of the Faxen Union. By now they’d already left. She was still scheduled to take her original starliner to the more distant planet Goya tomorrow morning. Inconvenient and inexplicable scheduling wasn’t unprecedented, since the Union Starline Company did that all the time, but it was very unwelcome. It left her unexpectedly alone in Starway.
Her skin felt cold. Her arms felt empty. She had a restless energy without an outlet. What she really wanted wasn’t just company while playing tourist. She wanted (and as long as she was having wishful thinking, she might as well wish for the impossible)—a sexy, eager and familiar lover. She often felt this way after long and grueling trips like the one she’d just made. She’d be first relieved to reach the destination, then exhausted enough for oblivious sleep, and when she woke up she’d yearn for warm embraces leading to hot sex.
You can always get a lay in Starway went the saying among her colleagues in the Union Starlines. In point of fact, you could get a lay of whatever sort you wanted, and at whatever price point you could afford. She’d never been the type to seek a Starway lay. Today, though, the idea tempted her to a degree that surprised her. She was mid-age, mid-career, out of phase with day and night anywhere and, quite possibly, in mid-years crisis. Climbing in her career, though successful—she’d reached the rank of Pilot for the Faxen Union’s flagship starline—had doomed her intimate relationships to date. She’d always held out for someone attractive, intelligent, and unperturbed by her long and erratic absences. Maybe she’d set that bar too high. . . .
In the midst of the swirling crowd below, she suddenly recognized a familiar walk. Could that be Danyel Perry? He often traveled (First Class) with his employer or on his employer’s behalf. The familiar-looking passenger was a tall young man with curly dark hair and a limber way of moving. As though sensing her attention on him, he looked up and smiled. Oh, that was Danyel’s smile and no one else’s. Her heart raced with excitement.
They’d met years ago and since then crossed paths at various ports. Over the course of their coincidental encounters, he’d become a valued friend in her nomadic life. He was brilliantly intelligent—a quality more rare than simple sexual interest. He had figured into some of her most exciting erotic fantasies—several of which threatened to tumble into her imagination right now, starting with what he could do with those beautifully curved, smiling lips of his.
Stop that, she told herself. He’s taken. Taken in every sense of the word—including taken for a fool!—and OFF LIMITS.
Danyel was swept away by the press of passengers going to the other gates, their hotel rooms, or another goal. Starway offered everything interstellar travelers might want, starting with food. Some arriving travelers were sure to be hungry. For that matter, so was she, so exhausted last night that she just collapsed into the blocky bed.
The Food Courtyard was on the hotel’s lower level. The last time she’d been in Starway when Danyel had passed through too, they’d had lunch there. She wondered if he would remember that. If so, would he think what she was thinking?
It was really too much to hope for. But she was famished.
* * *
Danyel shrugged his heavy travel pack off into a storage locker. He shrugged off the grim anticipation weighing on his mind too. He had an awkward reunion coming later in the day. It shouldn’t be anything he couldn’t handle—half a day of unpleasantness until he could cajole Merdis back into a good mood with sex made to order for her. For some reason, though, the anticipation was remarkably burdensome. He was glad to put it aside for now.
He took an elevator down past the many levels of hotel rooms to the lavish lobby with four elegant arches. The arches opened into Game Street, Pleasure Palace, Market Place, and the Food Courtyard. As he glanced through the arch into Pleasure Palace, he recognized a small white dog sitting in front of a door. The door had an ornate, hinged glass window. He went to the dog. “Hello, Star.” He scratched behind her silky, folded ear. “If you’re out here, does that mean Koi has a client who doesn’t like dogs?”
Star regarded him with bright black eyes. She was a delicately built creature with an abundance of white fur. She wagged her tail but remained sitting.
“Good dog. You know what stay is, don’t you?”
She gave a civil little yip as if in agreement.
Starway belonged to the interstellar city-state of Wendis, where Danyel had just come from. Wendis was an unusual place, with its interior carved into homes and offices, parks, and playing fields. Where a planetside city might have streets, or boulevards, in Wendis the thoroughfares were called Ways. Starway could be considered the most remote Way of Wendis, according to what his Wendisan acquaintances told him. He’d gotten the impression that there were very significant considerations that they weren’t disclosing. At any rate, Starway was run by Wendis (with a web of contractual agreements with other governments and commercial concerns), and Danyel had long since realized that the Wendisans staffing Starway were not just menial citizens, as much as interstellar passengers might take them for that. Star’s owner, for example, seemed
to be an important person in ways not obvious to outsiders. He was also a real friend, and so was Star. Maybe he would have time to come back to visit them later. That was a real possibility if Merdis was mad enough to lock him out of the hotel room tonight.
From the Food Courtyard came the appetizing smell of curry and tempura. Danyel looked in hopefully and saw that he’d been right. Nikka was here. Lucky for him, starliner pilots were creatures of habit. To approach her, he hid behind a large wide customer going that way. When he finally stepped right in front of her, she laughed with delight.
He laughed too. It was much better to feel delighted than to dread trouble.
The Courtyard featured a long wall with niches for different kinds of food behind glass windows that you lifted up to claim your selection. They worked their way down the wall. He beat her to the payment kiosk then claimed a small table for the two of them.
She gave a contented sigh. “I like the Food Courtyard.”
“More than you like a restaurant?” He wondered how he could get her into Pavilion, the best restaurant in Starway. She’d look good against the textured wallpaper, with starlight playing on her face. She had elegantly spare features, intelligent eyes, and soft black hair.
“Starflight isn’t as straightforward as it looks. The machine Intelligence draws it in a straight line, but a starliner actually jumps from point to point, always optimizing the time it takes for more, lower-energy jumps against fewer, higher-energy jumps. There’s always a chance of a jump point turning bad on short notice. Or an alternate jump being better than the usual one. A starliner pilot has to make a cascade of decisions in real time.”
Her eyes shone with the intelligence it took to do what she was describing. That was why he liked smart women. From looking at their eyes, you could tell that there was somebody home.
“After a star run, when it’s been hours of decisions like that, it’s easier to for me to pick food out of the wall than decide with a restaurant menu.”
He nodded. “I remember that kind of mental fatigue in my previous career.”
“Planetary survey on Faxe. You were a sky pilot.”
He was glad she remembered. “The grid had to be mapped on schedule, so there was always pressure to keep it going, but without making a mistake that resulted in a crash. The atmosphere on Faxe is turbulent and the weather deteriorates on short notice. The vegetation on Faxe is electric and interacts with storms. While I was in the Survey, I had friends who died—not just pilots. I knew two ground-survey geologists who died in the field the same day. In the end, though, I gained my new job.”
She nodded. “You worked for the resource exploitation company her family owns, and now you’re her traveling agent. If you’re here is Merdis here too?”
“Resource exploration,” he corrected. “She arrives later today.” He toyed with a curry bun. It was not going to be a glad reunion, but he knew how to handle Merdis. Some things would change, but it would turn out all right. They were not only employer and employee, but lover and lover, and he loved her a great deal. And the doctors had given him a very clear set of guidelines. One of which was, eat less. Don’t wait too long to start, either, or you’ll get fat. “I just got in from Wendis.” He noticed Nikka’s plate already clean and plopped the curry bun on it.
“I’ve only been in the Port of Wendis, not the rest of the city. Starliner crew have to have an officially issued shore pass even to leave the transit hotel there. I’ve think I’ve seen every starport everywhere, but not much of what’s behind them.” She sounded wistful. “Especially not now. I wish we didn’t have the extra security restrictions.”
“Disunion terrorists brought down the transit ring around Faxe,” he said severely. It had been an appalling act of destruction to disrupt the artificial ring around the world. “They wouldn’t hesitate at a starliner hijacking.”
“Some of the security measures are silly.” It sounded like a retort, but might not have been meant that way. Maybe he was just thin-skinned today. “A lot of the so-called security is more for show than to keep crews and liners safe. And the whole Disunion situation calls for diplomacy, not just force and fear.” She waved a piece of tempura at him.
If he wanted to argue, he could get that with Merdis. “Let’s change the subject. I always enjoy talking to you.”
“Likewise. Except you’re making me feel old. You don’t look any older than six years ago.”
She was looking older, and it made her more attractive to him than ever. When a woman ages, her facial baby fat gives way to sculpted planes; her movements become assured; she becomes more striking. Nikka was all of that. Her candor was attractive too. He replied in kind. “I’ve been getting rejuvenations.”
She’d picked up the curry bun with her fingers, but it froze halfway to her mouth. “How old are you really?”
“Forty Faxe-Standard years.”
She blinked. “That’s my age. You look half that. Well, no, you have faint wrinkles at the corners of your eyes and a few strands of gray hair that you didn’t have before.”
“If rejuvenation isn’t refreshed, signs of one’s true age return rapidly. I went to Wendis for another round of rejuvenation. But the protocols have changed. Depending on the physiology of the subject, there are limits to the allowed number of rejuvenations. And I’ve run out. I guess that means I’ll have to grow up.”
She gave him a long, thoughtful look. “Wasn’t there an ancient myth like that?” she asked quizzically. “About a boy who never grew up until he finally did—Peter Pan?”
Before he could think up an answer, the notebook in her pocket chimed. She pulled it out. Her eyebrows went up. “Oh no. A new security mandate just came in. All crew members are supposed to stay in secured areas, meaning the Terminal. We get a mandate like that when crime in a starport is on the upswing or there’s fear of local unrest.”
He stood. “I’ll see you safely back.”
They made their way toward the central bank of elevators. She was a tall woman and their strides matched. That would have made it nice and almost effortless to hold hands.
“I hate restrictions like this,” she fumed. “The secure areas are boring, and my transit hotel room is ugly, with a door that’s not all that secure! If they really want me to be safe they should give me a room in the regular levels of Starway, not that transit hotel.”
“Wait. What do you mean not secure?”
“The door takes several tries to lock and unlock. It’s probably a substandard maintenance contract. The Company shaves the costs of maintaining transit facilities. An occasional crew member who loses sleep because of noisy air ducts is an acceptable loss against profits. I heard of a starliner crewwoman who was murdered in a transit hotel, though, when an intruder got in.”
He frowned. “What kind of key is it?”
She showed him the room key, a metal disk with a scored surface.
He examined it. “This kind is hard to duplicate, which is good, but it’s easily compromised by wear and tear.” Or sabotage, but Nikka didn’t need to hear that. “I can probably fix it.”
“How would you know how?”
“Surveyors in the field on Faxe learn a lot about making things work right. Can I go with you to see how well it matches the lock in your door?”
She hesitated, but only for a moment. “Please do.”
Going to a woman’s hotel room could be considered courting temptation. But as a traveling agent for Merdis Gole, he’d resisted temptation often before. He loved Merdis with his whole heart and Merdis loved him in her own way. The hard times with her were hard and getting harder, though. Earlier in their relationship, she’d been less hostile when she didn’t get her way than she tended to be now.
According to the talk of Wendisans and interstellar travelers, the government of Faxe used to be less aggressive when it didn’t get its way. It was above Danyel’s pay grade to understand politics. The hotel room key was a different issue. He still had the disk in his hand. He ran h
is fingernail over the surface of it. Nothing flaked off that shouldn’t have been there. A strange little scratch, though, suggested that the lock mechanism in the door might be in disrepair. “Do you have any tools in your personal effects?”
“Standard issue pilot kit.”
“Good. I might be able to make your door really secure.” That offer implied the possibility of at least briefly being with Nikka behind that door with no one else knowing where he was. Unbidden, something he’d heard more than once came to mind. What happens in Starway stays in Starway. “Did you say the room was ugly?”
“Well, it’s utterly ordinary. No frills.”
They had reached the elevator lobby. “Wait here a moment.” Not far inside Market Place was a Wendisan flower shop. And he had a few Wendisan yen left over from the recent visit. Perfect. The proprietor sold him a sun-gold daylily, with the explanation that in the Wendisan flower code a yellow daylily meant a feeling of a pure kind of love with exacting respect for the wishes of the potential lover. The proprietor smiled when Danyel ended the transaction with a correct Wendisan bow.
When he got back to the elevator lobby Nikka was gone.
He looked around. Was there a public restroom here? He didn’t see one. For holding a flower in his hand while obviously looking around for someone, he got a smirk from a well-dressed traveler passing by. The traveler thought he’d been stood up. But Danyel didn’t think so. He hadn’t taken long buying the daylily. Nikka could have easily found him in the flower shop to say she really needed to be on her way.
Sharp fear punctured his happiness, which sputtered and collapsed like a pricked balloon. He’d heard about dire things happening in Starway. He’d not heard about those things from ignorant travelers, either, but rather from Wendisans—the merchants and service personnel who really knew what went on behind the scenes. He’d heard a disconcerting saying. Anyone who disappears in Starway is never seen again.
