by JAX
While she helped fix her daughter’s hair and makeup, Evie told her about Jace, glossing over the more explicit parts.
Constance was frowning by the end of it. “So you’re mad that he went to go see his father who might be dying?”
Evie huffed out a breath. “No, I’m not that self-centered. I’m mad because he didn’t want me to go with him.”
Constance looked at her as though she’d sprouted a horn. “Yes, he did. He just wanted you to be happy more. Don’t you get it? Jace knew that you wouldn’t truly be happy as long as we were fighting, and that you’d always regret it if you didn’t see me get married.”
Evie sank down on the bed. It was true, all of it. How had she missed that? “I’m such an idiot.”
Constance patted her hand sympathetically. “You didn’t want to see it. You weren’t ready to accept it because you’re so afraid of what happened with Daddy.”
“When did you get so smart?”
Constance made a squeaking sound and dove for her comm. “What shuttle was he leaving on?”
“I don’t know. Why?”
Constance was busy, furiously typing away. “Because there might be a way you can have it all.”
“What the fracking hell is the holdup?” Jace asked the shuttle pilot. He had a long trip ahead of him and the longer it took them to get off the Trist, the more irritable he became. He’d almost gone back to find Evie twice, to shake some sense into her.
“Message from the captain, we’re waiting on a few VIP guests.”
Way to make him feel like a useless lump of crap. Closing his eyes, Jace leaned back against the bulkhead and tried not to think about all the ways this day had sucked.
The sound of running feet up the access ramp made him huff out a relieved breath. “It’s about—”
He cut himself off when he saw David Abernathy, Constance, the captain, and Evie all squeeze on board the shuttle. “What the hell?”
“Launch whenever you are ready,” the captain instructed the pilot. Opening an actual book, what looked to be a bible, he cleared his throat. “All rise.”
“Evie? What’s going on?”
“Ssshh.”
Tugging Jace to his feet, Evie turned to face the captain as he recited, “Love is patient, love is kind—”
This was nuts. “They’re getting married on the shuttle?” “Sorry, Captain. Love might be patient, but the man I love isn’t.”
The captain gave him a grin. “No rush.”
“Jace, I’m sorry I was so difficult earlier. It’s just that I was upset about you not wanting me with you.”
That’s what she’d believed? “I did want you with me.”
“I had to have someone very smart explain it to me.”
“And I owed Mama for being such a pill last night, so David and I decided we’d come with you as far as the Mars station and get married here, so she can be with both of us when we both need her.”
“You did this for me?” His mind, strained from worry, was just catching up. Turning to Evie, he tilted her chin to face him, not daring to breath. “You said the man you love.”
Her smile nearly blinded him. “That would be you, handsome. Forgive me?”
“Always,” he rasped before claiming her lips and kissing her the way he always intended to. With all his heart.
The captain cleared his throat again. “So, should we make it a double wedding?”
“I’m game if you are,” she whispered.
Jace had always been ambitious, and keeping the goddess in his arms for the rest of his days was no exception. He swore to whatever power had decided to bless him that he would do whatever it took to make her happy. “I’m totally game.”
The captain cleared his throat. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
“I love you,” Evie whispered and became his wife.
It wasn’t until sometime later that Jace read the message from his mother, though he already believed it.
Everything is going to be all right.
A Pirate’s Pleasure
CASSIE RYAN
To my wonderful agent, Paige Wheeler, for all that you do
Acknowledgments
To Kayla Janz, author of Sapphire Blue, for brainstorming and support. To Brit Blaise, author of the Cave Creek Cowboy series, for critiques, love, and support during the writing of this story.
* * *
1
Dani McGovern lay on the bunk in her cabin, staring out into the blackness of space as her body hummed with pent-up arousal. Her breasts were heavy with need; her pussy aching and empty. Even the soft friction of her clothes against her skin was a small torture to the heightened awareness of every inch of her body.
“We’re at fourteen minutes now and counting.”
“If you just shut up and stop giving me countdown updates, maybe I could get there!”
Dani needed to take her pleasure probe in for adjustments. The damned thing had started mimicking her snarky voice. Why the hell had she picked the talking model?
What had she been thinking?
Lately there had been way too much work and too little play. Something needed to give soon or she was sure she’d explode—literally. That’s what had prompted her to take a few hours for herself away from the control room and her responsibilities. She was hoping that a little pressure release would return some of her concentration—not to mention her sanity.
She edged the tip of the pleasure probe inside her slit, hoping to fill the emptiness that ached as a very real reminder that it had been too long since her pussy had been filled with a nice, thick cock.
“Partial penetration detected. Would you like to engage the heat setting?”
Dani cursed, then remembered that the pleasure probe often exhibited unpredictable results when all she did was curse at it. Straightforward answers were best if she didn’t want it to suddenly turn ice cold or slimy with space lube. “I want you to shut up and vibrate. Adopt normal body temperature for a human and just shut the fuck up!”
“Fuck mode engaging.”
Dani groaned as the penis-shaped tip of the pleasure probe extended and retracted in rapid succession. Since she didn’t have the probe fully inserted, it didn’t even hit her cervix, which might have pushed her over the edge, and she was afraid she’d end up pinching something tender if she tried full insertion now with the wildly moving tip.
The ship rotated quickly to port, and Dani stared out the viewport wondering what was happening up in the control room.
“Discontinue fuck mode,” she barked at the snarky pleasure probe. Its antics slowed, but it continued to vibrate softly as the newest galaxy medical-grade silicone heated to normal human body temperature.
If only it were attached to a real man who could kiss and caress her … and get her off without giving her five-minute progress reports.
The sight of a small ship through her view screen made her pause. What was such a tiny ship doing way out here? They were a few light-years from the twin Gavin planets and were watching everything on long-range sensors. She considered contacting the control room but was confident that Dahlia, her first officer, was fully capable of running things. And besides, she hadn’t yet accomplished what she’d come to her quarters for.
She returned her attention to the task at hand and figured as soon as she came she could contact Dahlia. The woman would contact her if anything serious happened.
“Pleasure probe, program four.” Program four was the highest vibration setting the unit had, and Dani rarely used such drastic measures, which only further convinced her she’d been working too hard and needed to de-stress.
“Dani, as a safety warning, too much high-powered stimulation against the human clitoris can cause los
s of sensitivity and even nerve damage with long-term use.”
“Oh, for God’s sake. Just turn on program four and shut up.”
“Engaging program four,” the snarky voice informed her. The sudden increase in vibrations against her sensitive clit was like a touch to a live wire against her most sensitive parts, but she refused to change the program just to spite the snarky pleasure probe, so she breathed deep and relaxed into the sensations until her body absorbed them and the steady, high-powered vibrations turned into sweet, warm arousal spilling through her veins like a nice tall shot of Gavin whiskey.
She welcomed the sensations she knew were a precursor to the explosive orgasm she both needed and craved. She eased the pleasure probe deeper inside her slit while still maintaining its contact with her clit and began to grind against it, undulating her hips and sending sharp, sudden spikes of arousal spearing through her entire body.
She was breathing heavy, but the orgasm she craved hovered just out of her reach. With a frustrated sigh, she raised her other hand and lightly pinched her nipple. When she realized the light tweak wasn’t enough to match the heights of the rest of her arousal, she pinched harder and twisted just enough to send a lance of molten lava from the tight bud of her nipple straight to her clit. She didn’t bother to hide the gasp that escaped from her lips. In order to reach her goal, she needed something more, but what?
She allowed her thoughts to wander and lost herself to her fertile imagination. In her mind’s eye, a virile and sexy man stood next to her bunk, his pants tented with one of the most generous erections she’d ever seen.
She kept her eyes closed, even as she gasped, enjoying the self-made vision. She licked her lips as her body reacted to the manufactured anticipation of his touch.
The extra stimulation and the very detailed vision helped, but only edged her closer to climax, not all the way there. What was she going to have to do to get there? Hook up her pleasure probe to the hyperdrive unit?
“Main power cell depleted …” the mechanical voice trailed off and slurred down to a deeper tone of voice as it stretched the last word into several long syllables.
Dani huffed out a breath as her newfound arousal drained away like water in a cracked cup. She considered throwing the pleasure probe across the room, but at the last minute remembered just how many credits she’d shelled out on the thing on their last R&R stop.
“Damn it. I’ll never get to come at this rate.”
The sudden explosion and resulting fireball outside her viewport shattered her anger and chased all thoughts of sex and arousal from her mind. As a slight edge of fear burned though her, she sat up so quickly her head swam for a moment before she breathed deep to regain her equilibrium.
“Boss,” her first officer’s voice came through over the room’s small intercom. “A small arms ship just tried to sneak past us toward the Gavin planets. There were only four life signs on board, one human and three unidentified.”
Relief slid through Dani. She didn’t like killing, and although even a few lives lost bothered her, it could’ve been so much worse.
“They refused to stop, so I sent a warning shot to their cargo hold. I guess their cargo must’ve been flammable since I’m sure you saw the explosion.”
“No explosion detected,” her snarky pleasure probe piped up in its slurred voice thanks to the depleted main power cell. “Orgasm still elusive.”
Dahlia’s snicker was clearly heard over the intercom, and Dani resisted the urge to curse again.
“End program.”
“Still having arguments with your pleasure probe, boss?” The amusement in Dahlia’s voice was obvious.
Dani forcefully returned her thoughts to the situation at hand. “Anything else, D?”
They were used to having ships self-destruct rather than be boarded and captured, but it was relatively rare for them to make one explode with just a simple warning shot to a nonvital area. She shrugged. This would just add to their notoriety, already overblown thanks to her predecessor, but did make it easier to force ships to surrender in some instances. Fear was a powerful motivator.
“Yes,” her first officer’s voice broke back into her thoughts.
“I’ve picked up a large ship headed toward the twin Gavin planets. Shall we move to intercept?”
Dani sighed. “Take us into the system, but keep us out of sight and sensor range. We don’t want to spook our prey before we know what they’re up to. I’ll be up there in five minutes.”
Dani put her clothing to rights and made sure her hair didn’t show any disarray from her time rubbing against the pillow while she’d ground against the pleasure probe. She also took the time to wash her hands and snap the damned pleasure probe into its charging base before she cast one last longing look toward her bunk, stepped outside her cabin, and turned toward the lifts. “Duty calls, Dani,” she chided herself, and headed toward the control room.
Five minutes later, she was sitting in her captain’s chair, her feet propped on the ship’s console in front of her as she scanned the situation forming outside the large view screen. A Galaxy class space cruiser was headed toward Gavin 2, the second planet in this tiny solar system just outside of Earth’s, and would most likely set up a standard orbit to deliver supplies to continue the bloody war that had waged for four generations between the twin planets.
“Oh, no, you don’t,” she admonished, even though only her first officer was in the control room to hear her.
“What do you think, boss? Weapons or supplies?”
Dani pursed her lips as she turned to study her first officer. They had stopped so many ships trying to give aid to Gavin 2 that they’d gotten pretty good at guessing the cargo long before they captured and boarded the ships.
Distaste was still thick on her tongue from the last ship they’d stopped the previous week. It had been filled with children bought and paid for from neighboring solar systems to be raised and trained to be laborers and the lower class on Gavin 2. Heaven forbid the wealthy residents of Gavin 2 use their own citizens to help run the planet. She couldn’t even refer to it as their planet since they’d stolen it from the current residents of Gavin 1. Most likely that’s why Dahlia had told her how many life signs had been on the ship that had just blown up, so she didn’t worry they’d inadvertently blown up a ship full of children. But hopefully Gavin 2 had learned its lesson on that—although she doubted it.
As someone who had grown up on Gavin 1, seeing the war firsthand, Dani’s stomach had turned at the lengths the Gavin 2 populace had gone to in buying children from off-world to act as their common laborers. After all, four generations before, they were the ones who had deported all the lower- and middle-class citizens off of Earth to the twin Gavin planets in the first place. They were the super wealthy on Earth at the time, and after decades of suppressing the lower classes, the mistreated populace had risen up against them. In response, the wealthy upper classes had paid off-world assassins and enforcers to move the unwanted classes of Earth. She supposed she should be thankful they hadn’t simply all been killed, or she wouldn’t be here today, nor would most of the people she’d ever known or loved.
A large sigh from Dahlia reminded her she still hadn’t answered the question. “Sorry, D. Just woolgathering. Although I’d bet on weapons.”
“No,” Dahlia admonished, “you’re dwelling on ancient history again. You’re doing all you can to right the wrongs in this war, so let the rest go or it’s going to eat you alive. And I agree. Definitely weapons.”
Dani huffed out a breath, which fluttered the long chunk of hair that had slipped down across her right eye while she’d been silently stewing. She should’ve pulled her long hair back into a pony tail before leaving her quarters, but her mind had been on other things.
“I know you’re right, D, but I just can’t help thinking that the Gavin 2 residents brought this on themselves. And now since only the propaganda is taught in their schools, their populace will never even know the truth a
bout it.”
“You know history is written by the winners, boss. And even though they haven’t technically won the war yet, they have the resources to buy the opinions of half of the galaxy, so only people like you who saw the plight of Gavin 1 firsthand will be willing to intercede for them since they don’t have the credits Gavin 2 does.”
The Galaxy class space ship chose that moment to take up a far-lying orbit around Gavin 2.
“It’s time, D. Let’s do it.”
Dani punched the ship-wide intercom button. “All right, everyone. We have a Galaxy class space ship setting up orbit around Gavin 2. It looks like a standard cargo ship converted from a pleasure liner, so I doubt they have much, if any, weaponry. Time to go to work and earn your credits. Report to your stations and prepare for boarding.”
Klaxons sounded all over the ship in time with yellow and white flashing lights. Red lights would make it harder for the crew to see the action taking place out in the blackness of space, so when she’d taken over the ship, she’d promptly changed the lights to yellow and white, and had updated the Klaxon to something still attention getting, but slightly less annoying.
Anticipation curled through her veins as it did every time they were about to capture a ship. Part of it was the excitement of never knowing quite what they would find, and part was the knowledge that she was doing a tiny bit to help end the ongoing war between the Gavin planets.
“D, take us in.”
They were several light-years out watching the scene unfold under maximum magnification. All the better to sneak up on unsuspecting ships without letting their prey slip through their fingers, and without letting the small armada on Gavin 2 interfere—although a few good torpedoes would take out the entire armada. Gavin 2 had bought fighters from other worlds, but their loyalty lasted only as long as their paychecks held out, and while the residents of Gavin 2 were extremely rich by the Galaxy’s standards, they were also known as spendthrifts who didn’t like to part with more credits than they needed to for each situation.
