by Myla Jackson
“Damn!” he cursed, tugging against the shirt. “Then relieve me before I explode, woman!”
Mayla smiled a smile of one in charge. Her fingers gripped the zip on her jumpsuit and in one fluid movement she exposed a slim column of naked skin from her neck to the curly hairs shadowing her...
Khetan groaned. “You’re killing me, Princess. Let me loose so I can play.”
“Why should I let you loose? Tell me what would you do?” Mayla, ran a hand up her sides again, stopping to cup a breast, squeezing slightly.
“Let me go and I’ll show you.”
“No, tell me.”
Her voice flowed over him, oozing into his skin, and setting his body on fire. “I’d run my hand along the curve of your neck into your golden hair. I’d tug your hair hard enough to tilt your head back and expose your throat.”
Mayla’s head tilted back, her hands ran down her body and clenched around her cunt. “Oh, yes. Don’t stop.”
“I’d nip at the tender skin behind your ear and tongue my way lower because I couldn’t wait to latch onto one of those beautiful breasts. Then I’d suck hard and make you beg me to take the other.”
“Oh, yes. Beg.” Mayla stood with her eyes closed, her breath coming in ragged pants. Her hand slipped inside her jumpsuit pinching her nipple, squeezing the flesh.
“Let me go, Mayla. Let me show you what I’d do.” Khetan didn’t know how much more he could take.
“No.” Mayla opened her eyes and looked down at him. Her brows rose when her glance landed on his penis poking straight out of his trousers. Her tongue darted out to moisten her lips. “What would you do next?” Her voice rasped in a hoarse whisper.
He wanted to see her come. He wanted to feel her juices flowing over his fingers. “Damn it, let me go.”
“No, I can’t trust you.”
“Then play your game with someone else,” he said sharply.
Mayla paused for a moment, her eyes widened. Then she pushed her jumpsuit off her shoulders and let it fall to her hips. “You don’t want to play with me?”
Khetan uttered another curse and squeezed his eyes shut to the beauty of her full breasts glowing in the sunlight. “No.”
When she didn’t respond, he peeked through his eyelid. She stood before him, proud and absolutely naked.
Khetan groaned and strained at his bindings.
“Well, I want to play with you.” Mayla knelt beside him and reached out to wrap her hands around his pulsing penis.
Khetan bucked beneath her hands, moaning at the exquisite torture her touch caused. He bit hard on his tongue to keep from screaming out her name and begging her for more.
His prayers were answered when she leaned forward and touched her tongue to the tip of his member, flicking and licking, teasing him into a frenzy.
“Pride be damned!” he yelled out. “Suck me, Mayla, suck my cock, please!”
Mayla withdrew her tongue and a smile curved the ends of her mouth. Then she slipped his cock full into her mouth until it bumped the back of her throat.
Khetan stiffened, holding back his desire to come in her mouth. The effort strained his control.
Mayla shifted and pulled back until her mouth only encompassed the tip of his penis. She reached around to fondle his scrotum and pushed him back into her mouth. She repeated this two more times, then shifted to straddle his head. One knee on either side of his ears. The evidence of her desire glistened on her folds and he lifted his head to lick her juices. But she was too high for him to reach.
Spreading her legs further, she lowered over him until her pussy was full in his face and he could eat his fill.
Khetan ministered to her needs, licking and sucking at her clit until she squirmed and moaned. The he dipped into her cunt and back out to tongue her until she stiffened and shoved his penis full into her mouth while she spasmed in release.
After he licked her once more, he rubbed his face in her pubic hairs and said, “I’m going to explode, Princess.”
Mayla dragged her lips up his swollen cock, flicked the tip and asked, “What do you want me to do?”
“Fuck me, Mayla, and I’ll be yours for eternity.”
“I bet you say that to all your women, pirate.” Mayla turned her body around and straddled his hips. “Any last words before I fuck your brains out?”
“Hurry. I’m a dying man,” he said, pushing upward desperate to plunge into her.
“If you’re a dying man, impale me so I might die with you.” Mayla leaned forward to kiss his lips and lowered to accept him full inside of her. He filled her completely. She was so tight and wet, as he knew she would be.
Rubbing her breasts against his chest, she moved to the rhythm of all time. In and out, his cock thick and stiff, sliding against the moistened corridor of her sex.
Tension built with her moans until he erupted inside and cried out, “Mayla!”
She rode him hard her head thrown back, her face free of worry, yet suffused with the ecstasy of release. She collapsed over him, her body warm and soft, her breathing rapid gasps, stirring the hairs on his chest.
After a while, she pushed against his chest, still straddling him, still connected in the most intimate way and stared down into his eyes with a smile tilting her lips. “If I untie you, will you behave yourself?”
He laughed out loud. “Sweet thing, if you promise to do that again, you don’t have to tie me up. You could lead me around by the balls as your sex slave.”
Her smile froze and she rose to her feet.
Khetan’s penis slipped from her moist warmth and plopped against his belly. He looked up into her face and Khetan swore the air grew cooler.
She’d gone from soft and sexy to cold and hard. What had he said?
“I would never make a man my sex slave. But there are others who would take advantage of my people for just such a purpose.”
“Untie me and I’ll show you how willingly I’d volunteer for the position. Any position, for that matter.”
When she hesitated, he pushed his point. “Untie me or it would appear you are taking advantage of my imprisonment.”
She flinched, her brows drawing down over her eyes. Wordlessly, she stepped into her jumpsuit and zipped it before moving to untie one of his hands. “Don’t try anything or I’ll shoot you.”
“Where’s your sense of gratitude, Princess? I give you the best sex you’ve ever had, with my hands tied. Imagine what we could do with both hands loose? Shall we go for round two, this time with hands?”
She stepped away from him having only untied the one hand. “No. We have to get back to the others. The second shuttle will be here soon. I want to be ready and waiting.”
Pulling the shirt around the tree, Khetan sat up and worked at the knot around the other wrist. “You’re right. We need to get off this planet quickly. I don’t know what got into me.”
“Perhaps your inflated opinion of yourself--”
Mayla pitched forward, slammed to the ground by some unseen force. She pushed upward against her unknown enemy, rolling and struggling to be free.
“Help me!” she yelled, her hands grappling with the invisible creature. The sleeve of her jumpsuit tore open and a bright red stream of blood oozed from her skin. All this within the space of a second.
Khetan leaped to his feet and scooped the laser pistol from the ground.
“Shoot me!” Mayla screamed.
Khetan raised the pistol and aimed at her, unable to see the beast attacking her. He hesitated. He didn’t want to kill her, but something had to be done or whatever had her would do the job.
“Chassat, pirate, have you no balls?” she gasped. “Shoot me!”
A scream rent the air unlike any scream Khetan had heard before. Aiming at the Shandalan Princess’s chest, he fired the weapon.
Mayla’s frantic movements stilled.
Khetan almost passed out when Mayla grunted and hefted her attacker to the side. The stench of singed animal fur and flesh filled the air
. Blood spread from the animal’s wound revealing the creature’s shape. A cat the size of Earth’s Puma appeared with a hole burned into its body. It clawed the air once then grew limp.
“Are you alright?” Khetan dropped to his knees beside her. His heart pounded in his chest, as he checked her wounds and bones for injuries.
She nodded and smiled tremulously.
Khetan dropped the weapon, pulled her into his arms and held her tight, shaking as the shock of what had almost occurred rocked his world.
“You saved me,” Mayla whispered into his neck, tears flowing over her cheeks.
“It was nothing.” His words belied his shaking knees and he clutched her tighter.
“No, you could have killed me too and been free to return to your ship.”
“Sweet thing, I could have returned to my ship long ago. We just happen to want the same thing, your people on my ship. Why fight it?”
Mayla pushed him far enough away to look into his eyes. “Why are you helping us? What’s in it for you?”
“A lot more than I thought,” he muttered. “Let’s just say, I don’t like it when people take advantage of a situation.”
As she nestled against his chest, she tilted her face up to his. “Can I trust you, pirate?”
Khetan stared down into her face. Her gaze was so full of hope and fear. How could he deny her anything? Was it the Shandalan Effect swaying him with hormonal emotions, or just a woman in need? A woman who bore the weight of a nation on her beautiful shoulders.
He’d never felt the need to protect a woman more than this princess whose strength and beauty made him glad to be male. Against his better judgment, yet knowing he couldn’t do otherwise, he said, “I give you my pledge to help and protect your people.”
“I’ve trusted before and been wrong. Many of my people died because of my mistake.”
“You only have my word. It’s not much, but I always keep it.”
Mayla stared into his eyes for a long moment, then she nodded slowly. “Don’t let me down pirate. I take no prisoners with those who betray me.”
“I’ll consider myself warned.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Mayla shoved the laser pistol into the pocket of her jumper and returned to the cave with Khetan at her side. Instead of an orderly group of women and men waiting to take leave of a planet, she found the remaining men surround by naked women all fighting to be next in line for relief.
“Shandalans!” Mayla shouted above the cacophony of arguments and passion-filled screaming.
The noise level died down with a few grunts from the participants on the floor. When the women parted, Mayla covered her mouth to keep from laughing out loud. The three men left behind didn’t have a chance with the remaining twenty-five women.
“Khetan, Captain, Sir!” One of the men attempted to rise, but his legs wobbled a couple of times and he collapsed to the floor. He shrugged and looked up. “We tried to escape, but they attacked and had their way with us. Thank the stars you’re here to save us.”
“Looks like none too soon. Perhaps you should all get dressed for the trip home. Unless, of course you plan to arrive as you are.” Khetan raised an eyebrow and raked his gaze over the men.
“Where are my clothes?”
“I don’t know, I’m looking for mine.”
Five women stepped forward with the missing items and helped the men into them with more fondling than assistance.
A Shandalan woman stepped forward, her body naked and glistening with perspiration, her face contrite. “Princess, we tried to resist, but you know what happened...”
Mayla’s frown eased and she nodded. “I know...the Effect.” She looked over at Khetan and smiled weakly. “You see the mess we’re in?”
“Oh yes. I see clearly. I only wonder what’s happening with the women on board my ship. I wouldn’t be surprised if it comes crashing down from orbit anytime now.”
Mayla smiled at him. She turned a more serious face to the people in the cave and clapped her hands sharply. “If we want to live, we need to leave now. The second shuttle should be at the clearing by the time we get there. And Shandalans, the storm is approaching, we don’t have much time. We’ll have to trust the captain and his men. And put your weapons aside. They won’t be necessary.”
“Should we give them back their pistols?” asked one of her engineers.
“I trust them, but I’m not stupid. No. We’ll keep them for insurance.” Mayla shot a glance at Khetan, daring him to disagree.
He shrugged, apparently unconcerned.
Once fully clothed, the group of men and women hurried along the trail after Mayla and Khetan.
Orange clouds swirled closer in the sky and thunder roared in the distance. The deadly storm pushed closer.
Mayla glanced upward every other step, occasionally bumping into Khetan as they covered the distance to the landing site.
When they arrived, the occasional booming sound increased into a steady rumble. As the noise grew louder, Mayla wavered on the verge of telling everyone to run for the caves. About the time she opened her mouth to shout for everyone to take cover, the shuttle appeared above them and lowered to the ground.
As soon as the hatch dropped, she shoved women up the ramp. “Hurry! The storms have arrived!”
Lightning slashed at a nearby tree. Another pierced the hull of the fallen Durakee ship.
Mayla jumped, several women screamed and the loading took on a new fervor.
The communication device on Khetan’s collar beeped for attention. The shuttle pilot’s voice could be heard through the static, “We can’t wait, Captain, we have to close the hatch and lift off now or we’ll all be killed.”
“Get in there!” Khetan shouted. He grabbed Mayla’s arm and pushed her toward the ramp.
Mayla planted her feet into the earth. “Not until all my people are on board.”
The last four women and Khetan’s men scrambled up the rising ramp.
“Okay, now they’re on, it’s your turn.”
Mayla’s feet flew out from under her and she was tossed onto the rising ramp. Khetan pulled himself up and over the edge just before the ramp closed and sealed.
Before she could get her feet under her, Mayla felt the weight of gravity pressing her to the hard metal of the floor. Realizing the futility of moving now, she remained on her stomach until the gravity stabilizers kicked in.
The shuttle rocked from the glancing blows of the killer lightning. The frightened crew and passengers plunged through turbulent clouds to shoot out into orbit around the violent planet of Tatama.
Silence descended in the shuttle. The passengers echoed the sudden quiet as if each person hesitated to breathe fearing it was too soon.
When the shuttle stabilized, the pilot announced over the loud speaker, “Anybody want to go back for another ride like that one?”
A resounding “No!” filled the air.
Laughter followed and everyone talked at once. Mayla smiled at the atmosphere of joviality and celebration, the weight of her responsibilities lifted. Her people were safely off Tatama. She closed her eyes, allowing the freedom of fear to wash over her.
“What are you thinking, Princess?”
Khetan’s whisper, stirred the loose tendrils next to her ear, sending delightful shivers down her spine. Even surrounded by people, she couldn’t hold back the surge of the Effect, threatening to erupt into a full-scale attack on her body. “Back off, Earthling, I don’t know if I can control the Effect when you are near. I must keep my wits about me until my people are safely aboard your ship.”
“Then I’ll leave you to your thoughts, hoping I’m one of them.”
Again, the whispered words ignited desires best left dormant. Hormones shot into her veins, setting her body on fire. “Chassat! Would you go away?”
Khetan chuckled and moved to the front of the shuttle to speak with the pilot and co-pilot.
“I should have left him on Tatama,” Mayla muttered beneath her
breath, knowing she couldn’t have left him. Now that the Effect had been unleashed, she needed Khetan like the air she breathed. She also knew he owed her no allegiance other than his word to protect her people. Beyond his promise, she had no hold on him.
The thought of losing him doused the flame pulsing through her system, leaving her weak and lethargic. Thus was the curse of the Effect. If she didn’t receive a constant flow of the hormone, her body would weaken to the point she would be ineffective as a leader.
When a Shandalan female lost all connection to the Effect, she became lethargic. If she didn’t overcome the lethargy, her body would waste away and she’d eventually die. If she managed to survive the draining of the hormone, she would eventually be able to return to a less-than-normal life. She could eat, breathe, and function throughout her daily activities, but she’d never be able to have children or experience the Effect again. Once lost, it was gone for good.
Mayla risked a glance at Khetan. Why had the Effect chosen him as her life mate? He was a pirate, a loner and a drifter.
But he was strong, sexy and courageous. And he’d known the same disappointments of misplaced trust.
How could she face a life with him and leave her people to fend for themselves? Then again, how could she face a life without him and shrivel up and die, anyway? Could she overcome the draining and return to lead her people into a new life? Or would she die and leave her people as alone as if she’d gone with Khetan?
The relief of emerging alive from Tatama seemed more of a curse. When she and Khetan were trapped on the planet, she was at least assured of a continued feeding of the Effect. Now, she didn’t have any idea what was in store for her future.
* * * * *
Although he’d rather spend every breathing minute with the beautiful Shandalan Princess, Khetan had other worries he had to deal with. For one, how was he going to dissuade the Durakee from claiming their cargo without starting an intergalactic war?
If a war was what it took, he knew he’d do it. The Shandalans had suffered enough for a lifetime and the concept of disappointing Mayla was not an option. Mayla had misplaced her trust only to be betrayed, but Khetan couldn't let someone betray her again.
