Deadly Pleasure: 2 (Mercy)

by Lexxie Couper

  The Doirnn flicked a dismissive look her way—and then looked again, lips stretching into a wide smile as he swiveled his seat to face her. “Always,” he answered, leaning slightly toward her, bright orange eyes skimming over her body in obvious approval. “They come for the booze and stay for the entertainment.”

  Falynn lifted her drink to her mouth, touching the rim of the glass with the tip of her tongue in a slight caress. “The Felinia?”

  The Doirnn’s stare jerked from her mouth to her eyes, his own tongue wetting his lips with a quick lick. “That, and the show that usually takes place later in the night. There’s a running bet between the regulars on how many ribs my boss will break on the first problem customer he deals with.”

  Pulse quickening, Falynn shifted slightly in her seat, leaning closer to her new chatty friend. She placed her fingers indecently high up on his leg, skimming the bulge between his thighs with her fingernails. “Your boss?”

  The Doirnn nodded, nostrils flaring slightly. “The head bouncer.”

  “And when does that show begin?”

  He chuckled, repositioning his legs so his knees framed hers. “Depends on Jareth’s mood. If someone’s stupid enough to piss him off when he first starts his shift, it could be within the next twenty minutes.”

  Falynn suppressed a cold grin. Kiirs was smiling on her tonight. If all went well, she and Forty-Two could be back on The Wisp within the hour.

  “He’s that nasty, is he?” She slid forward slightly, pressing her thighs more firmly against the man’s knees. She took another sip of rum, gazing at her newfound source of intel with feigned rapt attention over the rim of her glass. Tell me more, her eyes said. You are so fascinating and I want to sleep with you.

  The Doirnn shook his head, his hands finding their way to her hips, then her ass a second later. “Not nasty. Just fast. And big. And strong. No one fucks with Jareth.” He grinned, tugging her closer to his crotch. “All his team is the same. Strong. And big. Real big.” He gave her ass a squeeze. “Not all of us are opposed to being fucked with though…if you get my meaning.”

  Falynn trailed her fingertips over the bunched curve of his thigh, nibbling on her bottom lip with her teeth as she pushed her breasts closer. “Oh, I want to know more. When do you finish?”

  The bouncer’s nostrils flared wider. “As soon as the boss lets me.”

  Falynn pouted, sliding her hand from his leg even as she thrust her breasts farther forward. “And when will that be?”

  “How ’bout I ask him?” He looked at something—someone—standing behind her. “Can I finish early today, Boss?”

  “No, Diirch,” a very familiar voice rumbled. “You can’t.”

  Falynn’s throat slammed shut. Her eyes widened, every muscle in her body locking tight. She stared at Diirch, telling herself she’d heard wrong. It wasn’t him. It couldn’t be.

  Of course it is. How could you ever mistake his voice?

  Diirch pulled a face then turned back to Falynn, straightening from his stool to give her ass one last fondle. “Maybe later.” He shot his boss—Jareth?—a look almost bordering on reverence. “I’m on the door, Boss.”

  With one last regretful inspection of Falynn’s body, the Doirnn pushed his way into the crowd, heading in the direction of The Steam’s entry.

  Falynn watched him go from the corner of her eye, unable to move. She felt the bar’s head bouncer standing behind her. Close. She knew who it was. She felt him. In her gut. In her sex.

  In her heart. The one she always swore she didn’t have.

  “I’m not surprised UZ sent you.”

  Unit Zero Agent Thanatos’ smooth voice slipped into her ears, a smoky caress of her senses. Her nipples pinched hard, her breath caught in her throat. She swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry, and gazed blankly at the empty stool before her, the noise of The Steam fading…fading…until all she could hear was the sound of Thanatos’ slow, even breaths and the deafening beat of her heart.

  Kiirs. What the fuck did she do now?

  You turn around and look at him.

  Forcing a calm expression on her face, she pivoted on her stool, fixing the man towering over her with an indifferent glare. He hadn’t changed. He was still as menacing and gorgeous as the last time she’d seen him. “Well, I am the best assassin the GU has.”

  A sardonic, barely perceptible grin played with the corners of his mouth. A mouth she felt every night in her dreams and cursed every morning she awoke. “Second best.”

  With the force of an exploding quasar, every second of worry, despair and misery she’d felt since Thanatos’ disappearance three years ago smashed through her. She leapt to her feet, her concealed gutting blade in her right hand before the soles of her boots hit the floor.

  Or at least, it should have been.

  Instead, in a blur, Thanatos gripped her wrist, pinning her hand to her thigh. His silver stare locked onto her eyes, his hard, massive frame pressed to her body. Immobilizing her. He shook his head, a slow, condescending and altogether smug motion that never broke their eye contact. “Now, now, Proserpina.” His voice caressed her senses. “I thought I taught you to control your emotions.”

  Falynn stared at him. Hate roared through her. Hate and lust and unending rage.

  He wasn’t dead. After all this time, he wasn’t dead.

  Sucking in a silent, steadying breath, she lifted her chin, letting a mask of bored disdain fall over her face. “Perhaps you’re not as good as you thought.”

  His gaze dropped to her lips, an arrogant smile curling his. “I am.”

  A rush of memories consumed Falynn, too powerful to suppress. His hands on her body, his lips and teeth and tongue pushing her toward a sexual precipice, his thrusting cock sending her over in a screaming, moaning climax. She sucked in a short breath, red heat filling her cheeks, wet heat flooding her sex.

  By Kiirs, she wanted to kill him.

  Isn’t that the idea?

  As if knowing exactly what was going through her head, Thanatos drew closer, holding her gaze, his breath a warm kiss on her lips. “Go back to UZ. Tell them you couldn’t find the target. Tell them their intel was wrong. Tell them Corvan Jareth doesn’t exist.”

  She stared at him, the distinct scent of his body seeping into her very being. “And if I don’t?”

  His eyes grew cold. “I will kill you. And then disassemble the outdated R42 currently standing behind me who thinks he’s your protector.”

  Falynn gasped, snapping her stare from Thanatos’ face to the ’droid behind him. Forty-Two’s eyes burned bright red, murderous rage etching his chiseled face. He reached for her ex-mentor, hands a blur of bio-mechanical speed.

  But Thanatos moved quicker. So fast he seemed to be in two places at once—standing between her and Forty-Two, gaze fixed on Falynn, but also standing behind the ’droid, fingers of his right hand behind her companion’s ear.

  “Don’t!” Falynn yelled, just as Thanatos flicked his wrist. There was a soft click, so low it was almost inaudible, and Forty-Two’s blazing red eyes turned black. Devoid of any light at all.

  He slumped forward from the waist, his massive body lifeless. Deactivated.

  She tore her stare from the motionless ’droid, ripping her neuron destabilizer from its hidden holster, searching the crowded bar for her former teacher.

  Nowhere.

  She stood still, too stunned to move. Kiirs, how could he get away from her so—

  A glimpse of someone tall, almost as tall as Forty-Two, with short, dirty-blonde hair and broad shoulders moving with obvious haste through The Steam’s entryway grabbed her attention. She bolted, shoving her way through the throng, destabilizer still drawn, mindless of the indignant shouts and insults.

  Bursting from the bar, she scanned the immediate area, wishing to Kiirs she had Forty-Two’s bio-rhythms reader. Being able to zero in on Thanatos’ specific heat waves amongst all the others on the thoroughfare would make it easier to track him.

  Falyn
n ground her teeth. Fuck. Where was he?

  Taking a guess, she took off down the port passageway. She had to find him. If she didn’t, he’d disappear again. Or worse still, come after her. She wasn’t ready to die. Not yet.

  Heart thumping, mouth dry, she sprinted along the walkway, desperate to catch another glimpse of his towering form in the spaceport’s eclectic multitude. The passageway led her deeper along Level 7, past the row of Slessorian hookers offering their mouths to whoever had the credits to pay, past the slavers hawking their “product” outside the slave auctions. Deeper into the spaceport—with no sign she was running in the right direction.

  “Fuck.” Falynn ground to a halt, sucking in a ragged breath as she searched the crowd streaming past her. He could be anywhere. For all she knew, he’d ducked into one of the small sex-den rentals lining the passage.

  Kiirs. For all she knew, he could be on a completely different level. She shook her head, disgust and contempt boiling through her veins. “Fuck,” she spat again.

  “Gladly,” a passing human dressed in Master Merchant’s robes answered. “How much?”

  “You couldn’t afford her, Echo.” Thanatos materialized from the masses, intense stare locked on her face. He stopped directly in front of her, thighs brushing hers, his heat wrapping around her like a hungry mist. “Besides,” he continued, expression devoid of any humor, “she’s taken.”

  The merchant raised his eyebrows before shooting Thanatos a nervous look. “Sorry, Mister Jareth.” He dropped his attention to his feet, scampering away with haste.

  Falynn gazed at her one-time lover, the slight contact of his thighs making her blood hot and her pussy damp. Kiirs, she couldn’t help it. She wanted to fuck him. She wanted to be fucked by him. Needed it. More than she needed breath in her lungs. “Am I taken?”

  Thanatos’ eyes flared silver fire. “You’re about to be.”

  And with that, he grabbed her ass and yanked her against his body, crushing her mouth with his.

  Chapter Four

  She tasted like ambrosia. Like sin and heaven and pure pleasure all at once. He drove his tongue past her open lips, deepening his possession of her mouth. Fri’ac, she tasted good. As good as he remembered.

  Sinking his fingers into her butt cheeks, he jerked her closer, wanting her to feel the rigid pole his cock had become. She was going to try to kill him later, of that he had no doubt, but that didn’t stop his body reacting to her. He’d spent years hungering for her, every moment of every training session, every second of every job they’d shared. To expect his body to behave itself now? With her pussy grinding against his cock? Her tongue in his mouth?

  Take this opportunity, Corvan. Fuck her out of your system and then fix the problem she presents once and for all.

  The thought surged through him, turning the lust in his veins to something darker. Bitter. More potent.

  He growled, tearing his mouth free of their kiss to stare into her face. “I’m giving you one last chance, Proserpina. Leave Port Mercy. Now.”

  Falynn shook her head. “No.”

  Corvan felt his heart thump in his chest. “Very well,” he said. Low. Completely calm.

  Before she could move, he snatched the backs of her thighs and hauled her feet off the ground, wrapping her legs around his hips and slamming her groin to his.

  He spun about, the speed impacting their center of gravity to grind her cunt harder to his cock. Falynn’s nails sank into his shoulder as she clung to him, bruising his flesh through the leather of his jacket. White pain licked through his body, a pleasurable sting that pumped fresh, hungry blood into his rigid shaft.

  “Kiirs, Thanatos,” Falynn gasped, wriggling in his hold. The soft junction of her thighs rubbed his erection, her excitement already dampening the crotch of the red suit she wore. “What are you doing?”

  Corvan gave her a cold grin. “This.”

  Mindless to the startled stares of those surrounding them, he crossed the passageway, struck his boot against the control panel of the nearest sex-den to activate the opening mechanism and carried her through the doorway into the dark room beyond. “Lock,” he said, two steps in.

  A sharp hiss cut the air, followed by a sharper click as the door slid shut behind him and a dim light flickered into existence. It illuminated the wide bed dominating the small room, and all the sanitized apparatus in sealed display units on the walls.

  Without preamble or ceremony, Corvan threw his former student onto the bed.

  She landed on her ass, arms and legs flailing as she fought for balance. In a heartbeat, she found it, springing back to her feet to glare at him, sharp blue eyes burning with indignant anger and base desire. She wanted him. Just as much as he wanted her. And it annoyed the hell out of her. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

  Corvan chuckled soundlessly. Fri’ac, she was beautiful. Even pissed off, she was the most gorgeous female he’d ever encountered. What a shame she was here to kill him.

  Turning his back on her, he crossed to the den’s control panel beside the door, withdrawing his credit chip from a pocket in his jacket and swiping it across the scanner. “Full service.”

  A rapid series of chirps followed his instruction, the only sounds to be heard as the sex-den’s processor deducted the appropriate credit charge from his chip and produced a receipt.

  Corvan pocketed both. Then spun around and grabbed Falynn’s right wrist just as she was about to bury a hooked blade into his ear.

  He shook his head, reaching up to unfurl her fingers from the weapon’s curved hilt. “Tsk, tsk, Proserpina.” He gazed into her turbulent stare. He removed the dagger from her grip and tossed it aside, uncaring where it landed. “Very amateurish. Perhaps I need to refresh your training.”

  Falynn’s eyes narrowed, her nostrils flaring slightly as she drew in a slow, even breath, the bones of her wrist twitching under his palm as she clenched her fist. “Fuck you.”

  “Yes. That is the plan.”

  He flicked his wrist, spinning her around. Whipping his free arm around her torso, he flattened his hand against the firm plane of her stomach and yanked, smashing her back against his chest.

  His throbbing cock nestled perfectly in the crevice of her ass cheeks, the second-skin suit she wore leaving little barrier. Even through the leather of his trousers he could feel the toned curve of each cheek hug his erection. A wave of hungry desire rolled through him and he smoothed the hand on her belly upward, closing his fingers around her left breast, taking possession of its swollen weight, her nipple a rock-hard point under his palm.

  Corvan pulled in a breath, the distinct scent of her arousal filling his nostrils, his being. His head swam for a split second. Fuck, he could never forget the perfume of her desire. He’d taken it into his body every training session in the holo-dojo, a soft, subtle, intoxicating muskiness he’d grown addicted to. She’d lusted after him from the very first moment, just as he had her. It had taken all his control to not throw her onto the nearest surface and bury himself up to the balls in her tight wetness every time he was near her.

  Falynn arched into his hold, thrusting her breasts forward and her ass backward, grinding against his cock as she placed her free hand on top of his. She guided his caress on her breast, making him cup and squeeze the heavy swell. Making him massage its full form in slow, deliberate circles that sent ribbons of delicious heat through his body down into his groin.

  “You always were an arrogant SOB,” she stated, her fingers threading through his, her ass sliding up and down the length of his clothed shaft in a rhythm mimicking the one she set with the hand on her breast.

  He dragged in another deep breath, heat flooding his balls—and almost lost his grip on Falynn’s wrist when she hooked her nails into the pressure point in his palm and twisted in his hold.

  She spun about, the arm he’d pinned behind her back now skewed out to the side, her other arm locked straight as she gripped his wrist in a fierce hold and stared straight at him
. “But I’ve come a long way since you disappeared.”

  With a speed he couldn’t help but admire, she lifted her right leg and smashed her booted foot against his chest, launching herself back and upward, flipping head over heels. The fluid motion tore their grips free, and Corvan leapt forward, driving his shoulder into Falynn’s gut the second she landed, feet perfectly steady, on the floor.

  He drove her across the room, smashing her against the wall with brutal force. Her teeth clicked together and he captured the sound with his mouth, crushing her lips under his with a savage kiss. Her hands knotted in his hair, forcing his head still as she drove her tongue into his mouth, meeting the kiss with her own, demanding more. Lashing his teeth with her tongue before biting down on his bottom lip.

  He hissed in a breath and jerked his head free, backing up a step, the coppery tang of blood filling his mouth. Lifting his fingers to his lip, he gave Falynn a quick grin. “I should have remembered you bite.”

  “Of course you should have,” she replied, breasts heaving, cheeks pink. “You taught me to.”

  A snort rumbled up Corvan’s throat, the sound suddenly lost in his own grunt as she lunged and smashed her knee into his solar plexus. Pain erupted in his chest, stealing his breath. He snapped straight, snatching her right wrist before she could strike him, yanking it down as he swiped his foot in a swift, hard arc against her ankle.

  She stumbled, falling sideways before flexing her arms and throwing herself into the fall, executing a graceful cartwheel that threw him completely off balance. His face hit the floor first, followed by his shoulder, a shudder rocking his body as he came to rest facedown.

  Before he could move, Falynn rammed her boot heel into his back, right between his shoulder blades, and he bit back a cry of surprise. “You fucking left me.” She panted, spiked heel pushing harder into his back. “You took me to the nine levels of sexual heaven then vanished. Not a fucking word. I thought you were dead.”