Lunar Exposure (On the Hunt)

by Shona Husk

  If it was Noga and she let him slip past, it would only be a matter of time before he blew something else up. Plus, she didn’t have the luxury of chasing him all over the galaxy. She had to take scalps in locations that fitted with her Haliday cover. She sipped her mocktail without tasting it. She wasn’t afraid of death, but the idea of being discovered and captured chilled her to the core. She knew Yem would pay to get her back.

  She’d have to approach the businessmen and act as though she was hitting them up for donations to her charities. Hopefully she’d be able to confirm it was Noga and then move in. Until then, she’d be all smiles and giggles. While she hated playing dumb, it worked and it suited her cause. No one would think someone so flakey could be the Kingfisher, a faceless, unregistered bounty hunter, growing in reputation. She smiled as she took a seat and ordered another drink. One day, she’d go after Yem.

  Chapter Two

  The Aqua Bar was everything Callen had read about in the brochures. The center of the bar was a spherical tank filled with exotic species of sea creatures that had been donated by the Polpos people. The Polpos were water dwellers who rarely left their homeworld, but they had some of the most advanced communications gear. They had contracts with the APM for all kinds of tech. He still bought Polpos-made tech because he trusted it not to break at a crucial moment.

  The tank and the creatures in it were a reminder to everyone here that the Polpos were part of the Alliance, even if they weren’t space travelers. It was a very pretty statement.

  Decadent Moon was certainly named appropriately. There was no skimping on anything. He’d stuck his head in on one of the shows and seen more glittery flesh than he’d thought possible. If he wasn’t working…he adjusted himself and was glad for the loose clothing. He was feeling a bit like an APM newbie at his first space port. He’d been there, been plied with alcohol and sent off with an alien to lose his interspecies virginity.

  He took another sip of the drink he was nursing and let himself remember the good times instead of the discharge and stripping of rank that had resulted from the failed Solar Bird op. The Avarkian beer turned sweet and cloying on his tongue.

  So far, he’d failed to find Noga or any evidence of the prohibited firemoss—but it would take time to grow and be able to be picked up by heat scans. He’d checked his intel and it was still good. The word was Noga was undertaking business meetings here, looking for backers to help his fight—just not in any of the formal meeting rooms. Of course, if Noga had arrived and used his own name, he’d have been stopped instantly. Which meant fake name and fake face. But he knew the bastard was here somewhere. He wasn’t quite ready to hack the Moon’s systems or alert security yet.

  He checked his plex and watched his firemoss simulation run. He’d made several, but had discounted the rest. This one fitted the time line. Fitted the opened and closing of the dock. Stopping the destruction of the moon was the easy part. Catching Noga was much, much harder. Despite Noga claiming responsibility, no one had ever been able to finger him. He was slippery. Callen shoved his plex back in his pocket and stood. If he had to crawl through every bar, he would.

  Someone in red caught his eye and he let his gaze linger.

  Haliday Fisher looked barely dressed and barely able to stand. It had been a while since he’d been home to Lekithia and the sight of another Phrial gave him an equal shot of homesickness and lust. Who was he kidding? She wouldn’t talk to him. He didn’t have the required chit balance. She took a seat alone and acted as though she was fiddling with her palm-sized plex. No doubt she was updating her status and letting all her followers know what she was up to.

  Getting drunk at the Aqua Bar LOL. Wish u were here XX.

  His gaze traveled down her exposed spine and took in the pattern of her tri-clustered spots. The dimples at the back of her hips were just visible. His tongue darted over his lip as he imagined kissing there. It had been too long between homeports.

  The curve of her cheek was highlighted by the blue lights, her dark eye makeup taking on an exotic look. What would she look like without it? Without the dresses and the makeup and chits, would she be just another face in the crowd? One he wouldn’t look at twice? Who cared, she was hot, she was the same species and right now that made things simple. He liked simple.

  Because she wasn’t watching him, he kept watching her and he realized she was watching someone else. He walked around the curving bench seat to realign his view. Just on the other side of the tank, almost out of view in a dark corner, were an orange-skinned Ortin and a Dooraump. His heart gave a solid thump that felt like a punch to the chest. Noga? How had he missed that table? Easy. Decadent Moon had many dark corners to encourage liaisons. However, the men weren’t even touching.

  Why would Haliday Fisher be watching those men? Chits was the obvious answer.

  He let his gaze drift admiringly over the tank, yet kept the men in his peripheral. Two men talking was nothing, but…a tingle ran down his back, lifting the spines that only the male Phrials had. The Ortins’ homeworld had once been bought, their planet taken for profits, and yet now they were influential and wealthy. They’d turned the situation in their favor and without violence, if history was to be believed. The Ortin man was also a very long way from home. He needed to get a closer look at the Dooraump. What were the odds that there were two Dooraumps on the Moon with separate reasons for being here?

  Haliday got up and glided over to the men, her steps a little wobbly.

  She spoke to both men, giggling and exposing her inner wrists in an obvious sign of sexual interest. Well, obvious to Callen, anyway. Different species had different signals—it did tend to complicate inter-species hookups.

  Callen stood, and on the pretense of admiring the tank from a different angle, moved around so he could listen.

  While most of it was empty flattery and Haliday spruiking her charity, some was important. The Ortin was a merchant banker looking for investments for his firm. Why were the Ortins interested in the plight of the Dooraump? He watched the conversation in the reflection in the glass, careful to make the appropriate noises as fish swam past and crane his neck as if he could see deeper into the coral sanctuary.

  The Dooraump spoke. A few curt words in his own language.

  Noga. It had to be. He edged around slowly so Noga’s face was in view, just for a few milli-trics. He’d had work done. The scar on his forehead was missing, his nose and chin were different, but it was him. No Dooraump would remove the notches from their ear or add extra ones. They were sacred. And Callen had memorized the exact positioning and shape of every notch Noga had. Not DNA, but close enough. He had visual confirmation on the target.

  If he’d been almost anywhere else, he would have walked up, put the pulse gun to the back of Noga’s head and arrested him. However here he couldn’t do that without violating the Moon’s neutral policy. He could bring a weapon on board, but he couldn’t use it. Of course, following Noga and confining him to his quarters until he had either proof that Noga had brought firemoss aboard or the firemoss had grown enough to give out a heat signature was a different matter.

  Haliday giggled again and placed her hand on Noga’s shoulder, the curve of her ass clearly outlined by her barely there dress. Either she was faking attraction to get to their chits or she was actually turned-on by the two aliens. He sniffed, waiting for the scent of arousal to strike him and lift his spines as well as his cock. Nothing. But then, she could be taking pheromone blockers.

  Either way, it was interesting.

  Did she prostitute herself for her charity work?

  He couldn’t deny that she was making a difference to a lot of young lives on Lekithia, but really? He’d been with other species, but there’d always been a mutual attraction—he’d found out later one of them was actually the male of the species, but they’d both gotten off and had fun. How many other species had she tried out for the chits? He watched as she flirted and flashed her wrists again, baring them to the men, who were mis
sing the fuck me signs.

  Her signals weren’t lost on him. They were having a very unsubtle effect. His cock hardened, and while his spines remained flat against his skin, it wouldn’t take much to make them lift. He really wanted to smell her excitement. He wanted a Phrial female to tug on all his senses and make him come hard. He hadn’t taken blockers since leaving the APM and he longed to smell the arousal of his own species.

  Homesickness kicked him in the gut. Callen drew in a breath through gritted teeth. He wasn’t here for sex, even casual sex with a notorious good-time girl. He was here for the man currently giving Haliday the brush off.

  Haliday smiled but drew back a fraction. While Noga was laughing and talking and asking the right questions that a wealthy man might ask about a charity, his eyes were like ice. Colder and darker and deadlier than the planet below. It was no trick of light or his heavy brow ridges. The orange-skinned man, Benth, was more accommodating and interested—but then he was the real businessman.

  “Well, here’s my mark, if you ever want to contact me.” She placed two lilac hexagons on the table. Her name was stamped on them, but all they had to do was press the center and all the info about the charity would pop up, complete with contacts to her fake secretary who dealt with most of the details. It was actually herself, but they didn’t need to know that.

  “Thank you, Haliday.” Benth touched her hand and smiled.

  Oh yeah, he was interested in more than the charity, but he wasn’t her target, and while people made much of her affairs, in fact, there was very little sex going on.

  The Phrial male watching her…now he was thinking sex. She could smell it from here. And he was smelling good, she’d forgotten how good the male of her species could smell when they weren’t on blockers and wanted to fuck. He wasn’t just turned-on, he was primed and ready to fire. The heat returned to her belly and slid between her legs, making her cunt slick. She was sure she’d be seeping pheromones any milli-tric.

  Did she want to be around when that happened? Did she want him to know the effect he was having on her? Life was easier on blockers. Then an idea began to form.

  “I’ll see you around.” With a half-smile on her lips she turned and left the businessmen to talk, knowing that at least one of them would take her mark.

  In exchange, she’d taken a hair from the Dooraump male. She placed it into her modified plex. Then she ordered another drink from the bar to make it look as though she was drinking up a storm and eyed the Phrial male. Brown skin with spots that were almost black. His eyes were more green than yellow and there was a hidden edge that he didn’t bother to hide. Her lips closed around the straw and she sucked, never breaking eye contact with the Phrial male.

  She looked away first when her plex beeped as if she was getting a message.

  Confirmed.

  It was Noga.

  Excellent.

  That didn’t solve her problem of how to get close enough to take him down without weapons in a public place. If she’d been able to get him into a room alone she would have been fine—into a pod would’ve been better. Many men will go anywhere with what they think is a dumb, horny woman. Their bad.

  She glanced at the Phrial male again. Could she use him somehow?

  Maybe she could keep him close, let the media focus on who the new mystery man was while she made a new plan since Noga was immune to her charms.

  A bit of muscle on her side might be just what she needed. She walked around the bar, making sure to look a little tipsy before stopping in front of the male. His tri-clustered spots were tiny on his nose, the clusters gradually getting larger on his forehead before vanishing into his dark hair, which he wore long and pulled tightly back, military style.

  Current or ex-APM?

  It didn’t matter. If he was here, it was for fun. A military man might help her get Noga off the Moon, but she’d have to cook up a story. Worst case, she’d tell Decadent Moon security that a suspected terrorist was on board. The biggest problem with that was she wouldn’t get the bounty.

  No, she had to get to Noga and the chits. Of course, now she knew the fake name he’d used to pass through security. Jura, and it was a very common name on his planet. But given how few Dooraumps came to the Moon, it shouldn’t be too hard to trace where he was staying.

  She smiled at the Phrial man. Where on the Moon was he staying?

  The least she could do was chat him up and keep an eye on Noga while she did. As an added bonus, the other men who had been looking at her would stay back. It seemed like a win/win idea.

  “First time here?” she purred.

  “Sure is.” His gaze skimmed down her dress to the wispy skirt. His nostrils flared and she knew her pheromones had been activated by being this close to a male she found attractive.

  Damn, usually she took blockers, but they were becoming harder and harder to get, so she was trying to only use them while on Lekithia. While it would have seemed odd to be taking them while on Decadent Moon, now she wished she had. Then she would’ve been immune to his scent and he wouldn’t have been able to tell he was having an effect on her. And that was the reason they were pretty much banned on Lekithia now. What had been seen as a step forward had actually destabilized relationships as women went from choosing based on pheromones to choosing based on status or bank balance. Men on blockers tended to fuck anyone—they were even less selective since they weren’t waiting on pheromones to get them going.

  However, she was adjusting to the lack of blockers in her system and she wasn’t a slave to her body’s chemicals. She could walk away, but while paying attention to this man, she had a reason to be in the bar keeping an eye on Noga. If Noga left, she could leave too. Until then, this man would prove a useful, and pleasant, distraction.

  “You?” His voice was deep and slid over her skin, heating the blood beneath.

  It had been awhile since she’d let herself feel natural attraction. She was so used to blockers and faking to get what she wanted and needed that the stab of lust that filled her belly and made her core ache was unexpected. She drew in a breath and tried to focus, but all that did was fill her lungs with more of his scent.

  “A few times.” Her words were huskier than she’d intended.

  Her gaze flicked to the glass of the fish tank. Noga and Benth were still talking. As long as she kept one eye on them, she’d be fine, even have some fun before she took Noga’s scalp. She hadn’t had fun in a long time. She couldn’t think of the last time she’d had sex for pleasure. It had always been a means to an end, or with Yem, something forced on her.

  Haliday glanced at the man. One of her own kind, on Decadent Moon, one night. She took a step closer so his knee was against her thigh. “Got a name?”

  “Callen.” His fingers brushed against her bare leg, the wispy pieces of fabric offering no protection. “I know who you are.”

  She smiled. He thought he did anyway, and that was how she liked it. There was no need for him to know anything more. “Did you come to play with aliens or something to remind you of home?”

  For an answer, his hand slid around her thigh and drew her closer. His knee was between her legs, any closer and she’d be able to rub against that impressive-looking ridge in his pants. Her core contracted at the thought. She was wet. Even when not on blockers, few Phrial men had an effect on her. There was something about Callen’s scent that sparked with hers and made her blood hot.

  His hand traced the back of her thigh and the tips of his fingers swept against the lower curve of her butt. She placed her hands on his chest. Solid muscle was hidden by the loose-fitting clothes, but she hadn’t expected anything less. Her fingers flexed as if she intended to dig her nails in. Maybe later she would and she’d use that little bit of skin to find out who he was and what he did.

  “So what’s so interesting about those guys?” He broke eye contact to glance over her shoulder to where Noga and Benth were sitting.

  “Potential donators to my charity.”

 
; “Ah.” He nodded. “I won’t be donating.”

  “I didn’t ask you to. I just want a fuck from you.” She placed her mouth against his. Maybe it would get that far, maybe it wouldn’t. Her body’s reaction to him was both exhilarating and terrifying. But she liked the effect she was having on him.

  He didn’t pull back or try to avoid the kiss. His tongue swept over her lips and as soon as she opened her mouth, he was there, taking control. The hand on her ass slid higher to cup one bare cheek, then he tugged her closer so she was pressed against his cock. An undignified squeak of delight formed in her throat.

  His teeth raked her lip as he ended the kiss and took a breath. Damn, she hadn’t been kissed like that before. But she couldn’t let him know that. She rolled her body against his, making sure the movement of her leg brushed his shaft.

  Callen grinned. “I can do that.” His fingers followed the cleft of her ass and dipped past the slick lips of her cunt. “No underwear, you came prepared.” He leaned closer, his lips brushing her ear. “I could fuck you here.”

  As if to prove his point, his fingers slid deeper into her core.

  “Just because I like men doesn’t mean I’m a cheap exhibitionist.” That was the truth. She’d never have sex with others watching again. Never for someone else’s entertainment. If she had sex, it would be for her benefit. She drew back a fraction so he’d get the idea.

  “I didn’t say I would. I don’t want to be in public with my pants down.” His fingers eased out of her core and trailed down the back of her leg. She wanted more than his fingers thrusting inside of her.