by Megan Alban
He grinned, and the tunic she’d been wearing blinked out of existence, leaving her utterly exposed to his gaze.
She blinked. “What the—“
“It’s all virtual here, honey. We only see what we want.” His broad hands covered her breasts again, kneading them lightly at first, then harder as she writhed beneath him. “And that’s what I wanted to see.”
The sensations robbed her of speech, so she could only reach for him, fumble with the buttons of his own tunic. “Not fair,” she gasped.
“Easy enough.” And with another blink his tunic disappeared, revealing his muscled chest. She ran her hands over him, desperate to feel his skin, to touch him everywhere.
Her hands encountered fabric and she frowned. His pants were still in place. “Still not fair,” she pouted, then gasped as Kordiss lowered his mouth to her breasts. Sucking, nibbling, teasing, she couldn’t separate the sensations from the wave of heat that threatened to overcome her.
His hand left her other breast and she nearly sobbed with the absence until a flick against her nether lips made her hips buck. Another flick, and she wrapped her fingers through his short hair, needing to hold on, needing him, needing something she didn’t have words for.
He raised his head from her breast and crushed her lips with his own again. When one thick finger slid between her slick folds, his mouth captured all sound.
He paused, letting her get accustomed to the feeling, then started to move within her.
Sharla froze, her senses on overload.
Kordiss licked the edge of her ear, and she melted against him again. “You’re doing great, sweetheart. Nothing’s going to hurt you.” Another finger slid inside her, the pumping motion filling her, pushing all thoughts from her mind as she squirmed under his ministration.
A third finger entered her, filling her completely. “Too much, too much,” she groaned, eyes fluttering closed.
“Look at me,” he commanded, the rhythm of his hand against her never slowing. “Open your eyes.”
His face was inches above her, lust darkening his eyes. “Do you trust me?”
She nodded, unable to speak.
“This is going to be good for you, I promise.”
The heel of his hand began to grind against her mound, and she exploded. Fireworks lit inside of her, and she spasmed beneath him, drumming her hands against his chest. As her breath slowed, his fingers stilled within her.
She looked aside, shame flooding her as surely as desire had moments before.
He turned her to face him. “What’s wrong?”
“I’ve never-- and it seems like it was so fast, and I wanted this to be about you, not just me.”
He chuckled and kissed her lightly. “I enjoyed that, entirely. Knowing your pleasure came from my hands, feeling you beneath me…” He kissed her again, deeper this time, and she felt herself stirring again. “And I’m going to enjoy this as well.”
Sharla gasped as he straightened up from her, and then pulled her spread legs up, resting them on his thighs. He wrapped his arms under them and pulled her up still further, until only the top of her back rested on the bench.
With only a devilish grin as warning he lowered his face to her. His tongue dragged across her slit, teeth lightly nibbling at her engorged lips. She struggled in his arms, but he refused to release her, instead piercing her with his tongue.
“Stop!”
He immediately pulled back, concern and confusion on his face. “Did that hurt you?”
“No, but…”
His eyes cleared as he understood. “You think I don’t want to do this?” He placed a butterfly kiss on her clit, then lapped at her as she twitched. “You taste of starshine.” He licked her again, long and slow. “I may never stop.”
She relaxed into his arms, the driving pressure of his tongue pushing her further into this madness. She didn’t know what was happening, didn’t care, didn’t want to know. Just for him to keep touching her, making her feel this way, as if she were the most precious gift, and he would relish it, even as he devoured her.
Her head lolled loose, lost in the pleasure, and her eyes shut against the waves of desire. The fireworks began again, lifting her slowly this time, promising an intensity that almost scared her. “Kordiss,” she stuttered, as her hips began to buck.
He didn’t pause, rather increased the pressure, the depth that his tongue explored her, his fingers tightened on her hips.
A red haze filtered through her closed lids, pulsing, incessant. She opened her eyes, and to her surprise the fog filled lake scene had vanished, only the bench they lay upon remaining.
Intent on the feast before him, Kordiss had noticed nothing, and began to suck on her swollen clit.
Sharla pushed the pleasure away. Something was really wrong this time.
“Kordiss, stop. Really, something’s happening.”
He raised his head. “You’ve got to trust—“ He blinked at the scene, or lack of one, around them. “Demon’s Deep. The sensors.”
He helped her upright, and held her to his chest again. He dropped a kiss on the top of her hair. “Time to rejoin the real world, sweetheart.”
He reached for something she couldn’t see and then they were back in the stimchair, in the recreation room of his ship.
Sharla blinked. She was fully dressed but she could still feel his hands and mouth on her body. She looked up at him, and he kissed her, filled with promises.
“We’ll have to play later.” He looked over her hands. “A little boost to your circulation doesn’t seem to have impaired the healing at all.”
He lifted her to her feet, and she swatted him. “It wasn’t just a little boost, and you know it.”
He grinned, but the flashing red light on the recreation room wall sobered him.
“What is that, anyway?”
“An alarm. Earlier I made adjustment, tried to expand our sensor range as far as possible.” He headed out of the room, and she followed through the corridors.
“And…”
“And the Nargest are on our tail.”
She stopped, shocked back into reality.
Kordiss continued a few steps without her, then realized she was no longer behind him. He returned to her side and stroked her face. “It’s going to be alright. The sensors are at the fullest. We have a day, maybe two days lead on them.”
She shivered, wrapping her arms around herself.
He wrapped his arms around her, encasing her in his strength. “I won’t let them take you, promise.”
They continued to the bridge, her thoughts flying.
“How are you going to hide me?”
Kordiss paused before answering. “There’s a couple of options. We can keep heading back to Earth, and hope they lose you there.” He brushed the edge of her ear. “But first, we should take out the translation patch – if they’re smart, they may be tracking you with it.”
She shook her head. “But then how will I talk with you?”
“I’ll still understand you. And,” his jaw tightened. “You’ll have to trust me.”
Trust him. The fear, the terror of her time in that cell, the Nargest, had faded away with his touch.
She nodded. “I can do that.”
He grabbed a black case like the one he’d used when she burned herself.
She raised her eyebrow. “Are you clumsy, or were you planning for me?”
“Even alone on a ship, it would be stupid not to have a medical kit in all rooms.”
He found what he needed inside, then pulled her into his lap. “Before we start…” He pulled her tight against him. “I think we have a better chance if we change course.”
Her eyes widened. “But to where?”
“There’s a trading station not far from here. Lots of different species use it, and there’s plenty of traffic in and out. If they are tracking you by the implant, they’ll lose the signal when we jettison it from the ship. But they might guess we’re still taking you home. We h
ave a better chance if we change course.”
Tears threatened to overwhelm her, and she sagged against his chest. “I trust you. Just don’t let them have me.”
He forced the wave of fury down before he answered her. “Never.”
6
A day later, Kordiss’ words mocked him as he stabbed the buttons of the control panel. Never, he’d promised her. The red rage pushed against him, threatening his control, but he pushed it aside with practiced ease.
Not until he found her again. His Sharla. Not until she was safe in his arms. Then he’d release his fury on them, and leave a pile of corpses as a memorial to the insult. And if she were harmed, there would be no end to his vengeance.
The trip to the station had started so well. A gentle bump had announced their docking. Sharla looked up at him with wide eyes. “Are we there?”
He nodded. Since his removal of her language implant, they’d kept communications to yes and no questions. So far, so good.
After a brief stop at station security, they’d been swept away in the crowd. Even better than he’d hoped, it seemed the station inhabitant were celebrating the Thriusian holiday of Divarii. He didn’t know the details of the festival, but everyone was in a good mood, laughing behind their masks.
A brief stop at the first infoscreen gave him the address of the nearest medic. They both wanted a new implant, as soon as possible.
Sharla stayed pressed to his side, eyes open in wonder. Despite the danger, he smiled. She was irrepressibly curious about this new world, and as soon as her new implant was in, he planned to show everything to her. She grinned up at him.
“Did you find the doctor?”
He nodded, and wrapped his arm around her shoulders to guide her through the throng.
It was at the medic bay that things had started to go wrong.
“I’m sorry, no one is on duty at this station until 2800 hours,” the greeting drone repeated. Kordiss grit his teeth. This was not part of the plan.
“What’s wrong?” Sharla asked, then shook her head. “And, you can’t tell me, can you?”
Kordiss looked down at her, his frustration at the situation rising.
“Is the doctor there?”
He shook his head.
“Is he coming back?”
He nodded.
“Can we wait?”
He nodded, slowly, looking around. The neighborhood wasn’t bad, but he still felt exposed, vulnerable off the ship.
“Should we go back to the ship to wait?”
He shook his head. No telling how long it would take to fight through the holiday crowd back to the dock, and then back here.
Her shoulders slumped. “I’m a little tired. Is there anywhere else we can go?”
He nodded. There had been a small hotel catering to spacers needing downtime between trips, just a few streets down. Once she was safely inside, he could relax, and wait for the medic to reopen.
As the door slid shut behind them, she stared around at the capsule room. A bed took up most of the space, and an opening in the wall revealed a tiny wash room. Everything needed for a few hours downtime.
She grinned up at him. “Not what I had in mind, but an excellent way to kill time.” She fell back on the bed, tugging his hand so that he followed her.
“No, this is just to get us out of the open,” he said, but this time she shook her head in response.
“Can’t understand a word you’re saying,” she said, with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. “I suppose that means I can just do whatever I want, right?”
She rolled on top of him, holding his wrists down with her hands. Kordiss fought down a laugh at the idea of her restraining him, then shuddered. She’d slid her body over his own, so that he could feel the heat of the core of her, through the fabric of her skirt, through his trousers.
This wasn’t what he had in mind, either, but darkness take it, she felt good.
He took in a sharp breath as she wiggled against him.
“You enjoyed pleasuring me before, by the lake,” she murmured. “I think I’m beginning to understand how that works.”
She swung around so that she perched across his chest, her back to him, freeing her hands. He could have easily lifted her away, but a gentle stroke across his quickly tenting pants drove every thought from him.
And that had been the final mistake.
She’d figured out the fastening and eased his length free. Her soft hands against him, tentatively bringing him to her lips, his hands locking around her waist, heedless of anything but her touch.
Even the memory made him stiffen.
And when the door had burst open, when the masked and robed Nargest had pulled her from him, screaming, he’d been a fraction too slow.
The one in the lead had dropped down, and his follower shot Kordiss full in the chest.
He rubbed the healing wound, grateful for the pain, for the reminder of his failure.
Not lethal of course, just enough to stun him for an hour, maybe two. Kidnap and enslavement of a person from non-treaty planet was risky enough. Murder of a full citizen would bring the full weight of the law against them.
His eyes narrowed as he traced the faint signal and laid in his flight plan.
They should have chosen the law’s wrath, and killed him.
Now they faced his.
7
Sharla had stopped crying not long after she woke up.
She found herself in a translucent purple dress, sleeveless, and ending so far above her knees it was more likely to be a shirt. Except there wasn’t any other part to the outfit, so dress it was.
Unlike the cell on the Nargest ship, this room was decorated in shades of white and cream. Low, plush furniture scattered about, soft lights from a source she couldn’t determine.
It looked like an upscale resort, if you ignored the lack of windows, and that she was here against her will.
Kordiss. The time with him had been like a dream, an escape from this, the new reality. And because of her, because he’d tried to protect her, he was gone. Not gone, dead, a tiny voice in her head whispered.
She wrapped her arms around herself, willed herself to figure it out. What to do, how to survive in a universe that suddenly seemed very empty and cold, even with all the unexpected life forms.
I’m not going to cry.
And that was all the time she had to think about it, because a door she hadn’t noticed in the far wall slid open, and a… thing…lumbered through.
A dark green lump waddled towards her. His head was just a suggestion, a low dome above sloped shoulders, and, oh god, were those tentacles?
How is this even going to work? Without the translator I’m not even going to be able to understand him.
“Um, hello?” The blob waved a tentacle, then another one, looking for all the world like a squat version of those wind dancer things at used car lots.
She sat in shock, then understood. When she’d been unconscious, when they’d redressed her in this frilly nightie, they must have re-inserted a translator.
She scooted back from it, but it just stood there, waving aimlessly.
“My spawn parent said you were new, and different, and I should enjoy training you, but, he shuddered, no offense, but you’re pink, and weird, and I don’t even know what those lumps on your chest are.” Slimy tracks oozed from its eyes. “Can I hide here, and then later we’ll tell them we did the things?” The dark green color rose higher on the blob’s top lump. “Will you tell me what the things we’re supposed to do are?”
Sharla blinked. This… wasn’t what she expected. At all.
“Are you just visiting?”
He sounded like a teenaged boy, pushed into something he didn’t want to do by an overeager parent. Helicopter parenting in the stars. Maybe some things never changed.
“The dealer said you were new. My spawn parent thought it would be a good challenge for me.” If possible, the blob slumped further towards the floor.
Look, why don’t you just come over and tell me about yourself?
He narrowed a bulging eye at her. “Really?”
She pointed to a chair facing the bed she’d crouched on. “You can sit over there. You don’t have to touch me, or anything.”
He moved reluctantly to the proffered surface.
“What’s your name?” she asked, wondering how this day could get any weirder.
“Zorf,” he mumbled.
“And if you weren’t here, what would you rather be doing? What would your perfect day be?”
His spongy face showed animation for the first time. “I’d be finishing up my model of the Zarian Fury! It’s a class three warship. I have almost the entire rest of the fleet done. Two more, and I’ll be able to do a full scale reenactment of the colonization of the Beta 9 Sector!”
Glad he gets excited about something, Sharla thought wryly.
She’d almost relaxed, listening to Zorf ramble on about his models, when the room shook.
The door Zorf had come through blew open, and in the smoke filling the wrecked hallway beyond Sharla saw a familiar shape. She rose to her feet, unable to believe her eyes when Kordiss entered the room.
“Kordiss!” she shouted, knees weak with relief and shock. She started to run to him, but then stopped. This wasn’t her Kordiss. He’d redressed in the gray armored suit he’d worn when he attacked the Nargest ship, all but the helmet.
And she could see the rage in his eyes. All traces of the gentle man she’d known had been burned away in that white hot fire.
“Sharla, come over here,” he ordered, his voice flat.
He trained the long weapon in his hand on Zorf. “One more quick task and we’re out of here. I’m taking you home.”
“But, he didn’t do anything,” Sharla exclaimed. “Nothing happened!”
Kordiss didn’t blink, didn’t flinch, and Sharla didn’t think he even heard her words. She had no idea how the weapon in his hand worked but she could hear it start to make a high-pitched noise as if beginning a power up cycle.
“No!” she shouted. Sharla ran in front of the chair where the quivering Zorf still crouched, tentacles curled protectively about himself.
With a start Kordiss registered her presence. “Sharla, what are you doing?”
