Luxi grabbed onto his shoulders and moaned as the phantom cock within her shifted. She wasn’t sure she wanted to feed his ghost with her orgasm, but her body didn’t seem to care. It was tight with erotic tension and it wanted release. She glanced over at the exhausted trio.
Bel and his fems were cuddled in half-naked, sweaty splendor, gently kissing and cuddling in his lap.
Luxi nibbled on her lip. They didn’t look at all like they had been harmed.
“Luxi ...”
She turned to Leto, only to have her mouth captured in a searing and aggressive kiss. His arms closed tight around her and he pulled her hard against him, bare chest to bare breast.
She shivered and kissed him back. Fuck it. They weren’t hurt; I’ll be fine. She moaned softly and grabbed the shoulders of his suit. Damn it, she wanted to come!
He thrust up into her and moaned into her mouth. He thrust again, then again...
Luxi closed her eyes tight and whimpered in reply. Sitting this way, his cock went deep, and he was big, and hard, and delicious ... Heat pooled, rose, and boiled in her core.
Leto groaned and slid his hand down to cup her ass, lifting her, then pushing her down onto his strokes.
She moaned and rocked against him. His cock, phantom or not, struck something electric within her that jolted her toward orgasm with every hard thrust.
Abruptly, he locked his arm around her to hold her still. He tipped her back and his mouth took her nipple. He bit down on the tender peak, then licked away the sting. His hand moved between them, jerking at his suit.
Luxi arched and gasped as his mouth tenderly tortured her nipple.
Leto suddenly lifted her off of his cock and reached between them to bunch the crotch of her panties to one side.
He was moving her panties? The hair on Luxi’s neck lifted. “Leto?”
“Not now.” He repositioned, and let her fall onto him, shoving back into her wet core. He threw his head back and shuddered. “Fuck!”
Luxi’s breath exploded from her lungs. “Leto!” His physical cock was in her. She could feel them both simultaneously filling her.
He groaned and thrust, and thrust ... “I’m already ... fucking you.” His panting breaths cut into his speech. “I‘d rather ... come ... in a nice warm ... body ... instead of ... my pants.” He ground up into her. “God, you feel good.” He lifted her against his chest and began to power-thrust hard.
Luxi writhed on the incredible sensation of fullness as he hammered up into her more-than-willing body. “You said ... you ... wouldn’t!”
He bared his teeth, his jaw tight as he thrust. “Sometimes ... I lie.” He gasped. “You obviously like it. You’re dripping ... down my balls.”
Luxi could only hold on as she was thoroughly and mercilessly fucked. “You’re ... a beast!”
“Sometimes.” He leaned closer to nibble on her throat. “Shouldn’t you be ... screaming and trying to ... escape?”
She shivered under his lips and tilted her head back to give his mouth better access. “Do you want me to?”
His hands closed tight on her ass. “I’d prefer if you didn’t.”
Luxi groaned and twisted. “Would you stop?”
“Nope.” He shuddered, and thrust faster. “Too close ... to coming ... to stop.”
Luxi bit back her building shriek. “Me, too.”
“That’s my girl!” Leto grinned. “You’re about to come.”
“Yes,” she whimpered. “Glory, yes!”
Leto covered her mouth with his, stealing her breath in a ruthless kiss.
Tension broke within her and pleasure exploded in waves of lightning that rampaged through her, leaving violent tremors in their wake. Luxi gasped her frantic cries into Leto’s mouth and bucked hard.
His gaze caught hers -- and pulled.
Within her heart, something broke free and found a place in his hungry soul. And she didn’t care.
She collapsed against his shoulder, panting with repletion. She had never come harder in her life.
Leto held her, his hand sweeping down her spine. “That was phenomenal.”
She smiled into his shoulder. “I bet you say that to everybody.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Good.” Luxi moaned and lifted to pull away. “Time to get up.”
“Not just yet.” Leto locked his arms around her hips, holding her tight onto him. “I’m still ejaculating.”
Luxi leaned back to look at his face. “What? But, you’re a cyborg!”
Leto smiled tiredly. “I was once completely biological. The nanotech just replaced what was already there.” He rolled his hips under her and groaned. “So I still come. Thank fate!”
Luxi sucked in a breath. She could feel him pulsing within her. “But you’re not biological, so what are you putting in me?”
Leto pursed his lips. “Not quite sure.”
Luxi raised her brow. “You don’t know?”
He rolled his eyes at her. “The composition of my ejaculate is not something I bothered to have examined.” He groaned and lowered his arms, releasing her. “Okay, now my balls are empty.”
“Gee, thanks.” Luxi rose up and lifted her leg over him, dismounting to stand on trembling legs in the aisle. A clear, viscous liquid slithered down her thighs.
Grinning broadly, Faro held out a moist towelette.
Luxi shot Leto a sour look as she used the towelette to clean up the mess.
He grinned. “We definitely have to do this again sometime soon.”
Luxi started fastening her suit, her eyes tight on her fingers rather than the view out the window or the smug cyborg. “We weren’t supposed to do it in the first place, remember?”
Leto rose from the bench to fasten his suit. “Oh come on, you enjoyed the hell out of it!”
Luxi winced in guilt. He was right. She hadn’t done a whole lot to put a stop to it. In fact, she had been very willing at the end. She sighed. “Look, it doesn’t matter, I can’t see you again.” A stab of regret shot through her.
His mouth tightened. “Why not?”
Luxi shook her head. “I’m only here on layover. I leave in less than thirty hours.” To go to a job she was going to loathe.
Leto folded his arms stiffly across his chest. “Don’t you want to see me again?” His jaw tightened.
Luxi bit back a smile. He seemed so disappointed. “What? So you can trick me into sex again?”
He gave her a tight smile. “Well, yeah.”
She shook her head. “One-track mind, and it’s all in the commode.”
He raised a brow and gave her a feral grin. “I’m male. Sue me.”
The tram suddenly pulled into a station and halted.
Bel and his fems rose from the bench, once again fully dressed, and fully armed. They strode up the aisle toward the exit.
Luxi lifted her head. The tram was supposed to stop every five minutes, but it hadn’t. Now that they had ... finished, it stopped. She frowned. “Why didn’t the tram stop before?”
Leto nodded toward the exit. “His Imperial lordship didn’t want the tram to halt, so it didn’t. He has the access codes in his array.” He tapped a finger against his brow.
Luxi’s mouth fell open. “Bel really is a lord?” She reached down to collect her bag from under the bench.
“You didn’t know?”
“I wasn’t sure. I’ve never seen an Imperial lord before.” She frowned. “He looked really young.”
“That’s because he had really good genetic engineering.” Leto grinned. “He’s about twice your age.”
She frowned. “You never did tell me what he said, from before.”
Leto bit back a smile. “He saw the way you were watching me and asked me ...” He took a breath and released it. “If I thought I could seduce you.”
Luxi stilled. “And then we kissed.”
Leto’s brow lifted. “And then you kissed me.”
Luxi felt the hair stand on the back of her neck. “Then you
meant to ... to fuck me the whole time?”
He shrugged. “Well, yeah. That’s what seduction generally means.”
She sucked in a sharp breath and her cheeks flushed with heat. It had been a trick from beginning to end. “Goodbye, Leto.” She turned and fled the tram.
Luxi strode across the tram station deck toward the lifts on the far wall, moving buoyantly through the low gravity as though through water. She shook her head in painful humiliation. She couldn’t believe she had been tricked so easily!
“Luxi!”
Oh, glory, he’s yelling for me. Luxi hurried as much as the low gravity would allow. If she could get to the lifts, it would be easy to disappear; this was a big station ...
She was jerked to a halt by a hand gripping her wrist. Shit.
“Luxi.”
She turned to look up at Leto. “What now?”
Leto caught her face in his palms and took her mouth in a swift kiss.
She hesitated, he tasted so good ... She jerked her mouth from his and stepped back. “What was that for?”
Leto licked his lips and his mouth set in a hard smile. “You do want me.”
Her cheeks heated painfully. “So? Why do you care? You already got what you were after.”
Leto set his hands on his hips. “I want more.”
“Too bad for you! I’m leaving, remember?” Her knuckles whitened on her bag’s tow-handle.
“Not immediately, we still have time ...”
“No. Absolutely not.”
Leto’s lips lifted in a sly smile. “I seduced you once; I can do it again.”
She jabbed her finger at him. “You are a beast! A sneaky, conniving, lying beast!”
“You know me so well!” He grinned shamelessly.
Luxi turned on her heel and stomped into the open lift.
His laughter burned in her ears.
* * * * *
Luxi stepped out of the lift and into gravity, feeling exhausted. The broad green bands on the walls told her that she had finally reached the hallways in the Garden District. It took her several minutes of walking before she was used to moving in real gravity again. Sticky, sweaty, and tired, she stopped at the first fully equipped facility she found. Luckily, it was only a few minutes’ walk away from the lift.
She shoved through the door with a groan of relief. The tastefully appointed, scrupulously clean facility was huge. There was an entire wall of commode stalls and another whole wall of proper water sinks. It was also completely empty. Apparently, this facility didn’t see very many people. A door at the far end led to the bathing part of the facility. The long room was lined with small single-occupant vibro-shower stalls.
In one of the small private cubicles, Luxi stripped out of her clothes, leaving them draped over the low bench against the wall. With a heavy sigh, she activated the sonic projection in the stall and the antibacterial lighting winked on. She left the small stall no longer sweaty and sticky, but somehow, she just didn’t feel clean. She knew she was cleaner than any water shower could get her, but she never felt clean without water.
She shoved her soiled clothes into her bag, stepped into fresh panties and then her dark green jumpsuit. She was going to have to find a laundry facility sometime soon. She only had three ship-suits, and the green one was her last clean one. She fastened the suit closed and pulled out her brush to do battle with the snarls in her red mane.
Everything that had happened since she woke up this morning had really taken a toll on her hair. The shuttle flight in zero-g, the tram station’s low gravity, the tram -- the sex ... A flash of heat stirred in her belly.
Leto’s handsome face suddenly filled her thoughts. His kisses had tasted so clean. His ghost had felt so warm and firm, yet oddly like velvet under her fingers. And the way it felt when he’d touched her, exciting her to the breaking point and, finally, taken her ...
She was not going to see him again. Regret stabbed through her heart.
Luxi took a deep steadying breath and focused on her snarled curls. Pay attention to what you have to do, not on what you can’t have. Still, she was glad that she had shared that with him. If she failed to find the future she was looking for, and actually reached her final destination, Leto’s kisses were going to be the only brightness in a very long and lonely life.
But her talent for reading the future had led her straight to him.
She frowned. Was it possible that he was actually part of her future? She sighed heavily. She didn’t see how. He was not the type that worked anywhere near an office.
The image of the cyborg in a business suit suddenly came to mind.
She smiled and shook her head. Not a chance. He was ... what he was, and she was a receptionist in need of a job. It just wasn’t possible that he was a part of her future.
After a long and frustrating struggle, she was finally able to twist the wavy mass up into a tight coil and fasten it with her silver clip. Neat and tidy at last, she stepped into her half-boots and closed her bag. It was time to find that kafé.
And her next appointment with the future.
Chapter Six
Luxi pushed through smoked-glass doors and came out of the green-banded corridors onto a railed walkway that bordered on a living forest. Full-sized Terran maple trees arched over the walkway. They grew from rich earth beds only one story straight down. Live birds called and flew among the branches.
She turned left, heading station south, alongside the forest, towing her bag. Forests, gardens, and fields of crops filled the station’s distant, curving sides, then climbed up and over the arching ceiling, held firmly rooted by the station’s spin-generated gravity. Thin streaks of cloud and passenger shuttles flew upside down across a forest four kilometers away and directly over her head.
A catwalk opened up on her right, leading right through the forest’s heart. A posted sign indicated that the concourse was located at the other end. According to the station flyer, most of the kafés could be found in the concourse area.
Perfect. She smiled and headed down the catwalk through the arching trees, completely enchanted.
The concourse was like any other interstellar shopping mall, with rows of exotic shops along a thoroughfare and potted trees and decorative benches scattered everywhere. There wasn’t an enormous amount of foot traffic, but what there was, was very colorful. She spotted dozens of different alien races shopping, eating, and chatting along with various human races from all over the Imperium.
Mixed among the shops were a number of crowded kafés, but according to her talent, none of them were where she was supposed to be. With a heavy sigh, Luxi kept walking.
As she reached the far end of the concourse, the station lights dimmed into station sunset, and then station night. Tall, archaic lamp posts of black iron winked on to provide lighting. Overhead, thousands of tiny lights flickered to life, acting as stars in the completely contained world.
The Pouting Mermaid Kafé sat on the very edge of the upper gallery overlooking the formal gardens two stories below. The shop itself was little more than a fancifully nautical roofed counter framed by a pair of potted dwarf-oaks.
A dozen or so small round tables were scattered by the balcony for relaxing patrons, of which there was only one. A young man in a steel-gray, floor-length informal coat lounged casually at one of the tables under the golden glow of a lamppost. He held a cup in one gloved hand and a small fiction-reader in the other.
Within her, chance entwined with opportunity. She had arrived at the right place.
Luxi approached the counter and pulled out her data card. She was simply dying for a cup of kaffa.
The young man behind the counter was busily cleaning one of the antique kaffa brewers that lined the back wall. Artistic cups and mugs perched in nooks on the side walls. He glanced up and smiled. “Hi, I’m Brett. What can I get you?” He was perfectly ordinary. Brown hair, brown eyes, and a slightly rumpled green apron covered his black shirt and trousers.
“Hi, Brett, I
’m Luxi.” She grinned and gave him her order.
Brett grabbed a huge green mug from the wall and started his machines. “So, Luxi, what brings you to Port Destiny?”
Luxi shook her head. “Just passing through. But I was wondering, would you mind if I borrowed one of your tables to do some fortune-telling?”
Brett glanced over at her, his eyes wide. “Fortune-telling? Here?”
Luxi’s brows lifted. “Is there a rule against it?”
Brett curled his lip sourly. “No, it’s just that most of the other fortune-tellers hit the kafés closer to the middle of the concourse.” He poured a liberal amount of cream into the green mug, then filled it with freshly brewed black kaffa. “You any good?”
Luxi grinned. “Better than most.”
Brett handed her the steaming mug and lifted his brow. “Sure about that, are you?”
Luxi took the cup in both hands. The hot brew smelled heavenly. “Let’s put it this way -- my talent got me fired from my last job as an information leak, and I was only the receptionist.”
“Whoa ...” Brett blinked. “You must be a major talent.”
Luxi shrugged. “I have no idea. Unlike normal psi-talents, this one doesn’t show up under testing.” She smiled. “Want to test it yourself?”
Brett’s mouth fell open. “Me? Oh, hell yeah!”
“Pardon me.”
“Huh?” Luxi turned and nearly dropped her cup. The young man in the long gray coat stood by her left elbow with his hands tucked behind him. His eyes were as green as the leaves on the trees and seemed brilliant against the deep auburn of his tightly bound hair. The long tail falling over his breast and nearly to his waist was bound in steel-gray ribbon nearly to the end, as though to hide the deep, fiery color. His face was strongly but arrestingly carved, though he seemed young. And his mouth ... He had the fullest, most kissable lips Luxi had ever seen.
He quirked up a dark red brow and smiled at Luxi. “May I observe your work?”
Luxi nearly staggered from the effect. Whoa, that smile should have a warning label. She swallowed to get her voice back. “That’s up to Brett; it’s his fortune.”
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