by Jet Mykles
She growled. “You’re trying to drive me insane.”
He chuckled, his fingertips again playing lightly over her folds. “How could I drive you insane, Fox? You don’t want me.”
“How in blazing stars am I supposed to think with you doing that?”
“You mean you like it?”
She stared up at the ceiling, grunting in frustration. Wasn’t it obvious? But she refused to say the words. Refused to give him the satisfaction. What had they been talking about? Government. Planetside. Emirate. Oh, right. “So you’re trying to say that you’re a vigilante?”
He laughed, gusting warm air over her pulsing sex. His fingertip delved into her entrance again. “Something like that, yes.”
“And you’re a hero?”
“Yes, I am.”
“To who?”
“The people who get the goods that I’ve stolen.” His tongue batted at her clit.
She hissed. Her hips rocked, but he held her mostly still. “You just give everything away?”
“No. I couldn’t earn a living that way. But my price is better than the black market or the Emirate.”
His tongue swirled around her clit, and she stared at the ceiling, trying to keep her wits about her. She lost the thread when he sucked in her clit again, this time slowly fucking her with two long fingers. Again the orgasm ramped, the bubble in her spine growing to a boil. She tucked her face against her shoulder, biting her lip to keep from crying out as --
He stopped again.
She went ahead and screamed.
Which only made him laugh.
“You’re going to keep doing that, aren’t you?”
“Doing what?”
“Making me almost come.”
“Did you almost come? Nah, that’d mean that you want me.”
“I don’t want you, but I can hardly deny what you’re doing, can I?”
He twisted his neck so that he could peer up at her. It was a ridiculously erotic sight, his sparkling green eyes and orange hair nestled between her brown thighs. “Do you want to come, Fox?”
“I want you to let me go.”
“Eventually I will. But right now, do you want to come?”
“No.”
He arched a brow and studied her for a moment. Then in one movement, he pulled all touch away from her body, rolling up to sit on his heels.
She couldn’t help looking down and gasped at the sight of his erection, jutting bold as you please from his groin. The blushing head was shining with pre-cum. She licked her lips.
He reached over to the ledge to grab a bottle. He popped the top, then held it over the space between her breasts.
Her eyebrows flew up when he dribbled clear, cool liquid on her skin. “What are you doing?”
He didn’t answer. Just clicked the cap back on the bottle and tossed it onto the mattress at her side. Then he crawled, bringing that big body up until those powerful thighs bracketed her ribcage. Smiling darkly, he reached down to smear the liquid into her cleavage and the inside curves of her breasts. “You may not want to come, but I do.”
She gaped as he positioned himself with those heavy, nearly hairless balls pressed against her diaphragm and his shaft, hard and quivering, lying between her breasts.
“You’re not ...?”
But he was. He gathered her breasts with both hands and squeezed them together, encasing his cock between them. “Oh, yeah,” he groaned, dragging his hips back slowly so the pink tip of his cock disappeared between the dark globes. The thumb and forefinger of one hand pinched the nipple nearest them as he slowly pushed his hips forward.
She stared, mesmerized. No other lover had ever done this to her, certainly not one as visually pleasing as this man. She drank in the sight of his abdominal muscles clenching and releasing as his hips rocked. The dragon’s tail etched on them swayed with the movement. His cock felt like a velvet-clad rod of steel rubbing her flesh.
“Say the word and I’ll fuck your pussy, Fox,” he groaned.
She tore her gaze up to look at him, and the sight of the pure lust on his face was nearly as amazing as that of his cock fucking her breasts.
“Your pussy’s wet and dripping, isn’t it?” he murmured, eyes locked with hers as his hips kept rocking. His body was like a force of nature, muscles stretching and contracting as naturally as a fucking tide. “Wants my cock to fill it up. You want me to fuck you hard, fuck you raw, Fox. Say the words.”
She gaped, transfixed by his words and the sinuous movement of his body. Stubbornly, she kept her mouth shut, but she could neither stop the moisture that oozed from her weeping sex nor could she stop watching the flushed tip of his cock appearing and disappearing in her cleavage.
His flow of words degenerated into moans and grunts. His hips picked up speed.
He’s going to come!
She observed in awe, aware that she’d never really watched a man come before now. Even the few times she’d given oral sex, she’d stopped before the final shot. This was amazing. She licked her lips, shocked to discover that she wanted to taste it. She wanted to lap at the dribbles of pre-cum that coated the tip. She wanted to hold her own breasts for him as he took his pleasure. To her horror, she anxiously awaited the spurts of cum that were about to bathe her skin.
“Stars, Beth!” he grunted.
She shuddered at the sound of his voice, a pure, primal growl as white streams of cum spurted from his cock. Most of it splattered her chest and neck. Some landed on her chin and lips, and she was lapping it up before she could stop herself.
Guiltily, she glanced up.
His eyes were open, his smile dark. He’d seen what she’d done.
Blast it!
Chapter Nineteen
He picked up her empty tray and tossed ten slim datasheets onto the mattress beside her. “Here.”
Fox picked up the datasheets as he crunched the small plastic tray and tossed it into the waste recycler. Naked except for the wrist and ankle restraints, she sat with a pillow tucked in her lap as a paltry excuse for a covering. He felt his cock stir inside the drawstring lounge pants he wore. Blast! He hadn’t been so turned on by the mere sight of a woman in years.
“What are these?” She picked up one sheet and scanned the text. Mild surprise showed in her raised eyebrows.
“That’s everything I know about your smuggling ring.” He watched her brows crouch over her eyes as she continued to read. “A few of the others have everything I’ve found that links Werner to them.”
She glanced up at him, scowling, one black eyebrow arched in question.
He grabbed a bottle of water from the small refrigerated box in the corner of the room and brought it to her. “The last two sheets have everything I could find from the recent news feeds about your disappearance.”
Eyes locked on his face, she took the bottle. “Why are you giving me these?”
Such gorgeous eyes. He wanted to drown in them. And he was damn sick of seeing them scowl at him. “So you’ll believe me.” He pointed at the datasheets. “Yes, I could have faked them. I can only tell you that I didn’t and hope you’ll see enough to convince you it’s true. I wish I could just give you a portal and let you search yourself, but --” He smiled. “-- we both know you’d use the time in trying to escape.”
She studied him silently, but she didn’t frown at his jab.
He kept his grin sardonic, wondering again if he should just open up. The truth was that he’d fallen in love with her. Or, rather, he’d finally admitted it to himself. He’d taken the job to save her life because he couldn’t bear the thought of her life in danger. He’d made arrangements for her safety on Isalia because he knew that her life, as she’d known it, was over. He’d had sex with her repeatedly over the last few days in a vain effort to get his fill of her, figuring if he did that, then he wouldn’t miss her when she was gone. But as the time drew closer, the thought of letting her go grew alarmingly more painful. He wasn’t getting his fill of her sexually. He wasn’t s
ure he ever could. Each time they were together only whetted his appetite for the next. The fact that she was bound had started off as thrilling, and it still was, but he found himself wanting to let her go. He wanted to feel her arms around him, feel those muscular legs wrap around his hips.
He swallowed, trying to tamp down the ache that rose as he thought about losing her. “I’m still putting together the data about Isalia and the people I’ve arranged for you to stay with.” Without giving her a chance to respond, he turned and left the room.
He took a deep, steadying breath as he stepped into the hallway. Did she realize how hard it was for him not to touch her? Did she realize that he hadn’t touched her since the previous day? Had she really been sleeping after that last time they’d been together, when he’d hugged her into the curve of his body, buried his face in her neck, and just lay there absorbing her heat?
With another breath, he headed back up to the cockpit and the computers there. He wasn’t sure what he expected after she read the data. Wasn’t sure if she’d believe a word of it. But he wanted to give her a chance to take it in, and that meant being away from her.
Multiple headlines proclaimed her to be a master thief and a smooth operator. Reports indicated that if she was still alive, she’d certainly be in a maximum security prison station by now. Werner was acclaimed for uncovering her subterfuge. The near-fatal accidents which had befallen her for the previous years, as well as her failure to catch the Dragon, had all been used as proof that she was not all that she had seemed. If she believed what she read, the plan had been to make her disappear and tag her as the kingpin of the smuggling ring.
Drake’s evidence about Werner outside of the headlines was, as he’d said, sketchy. Any of it alone wouldn’t hold much weight, but all of it together was rather overwhelming. He had all the right connections, was in all the right places, and had a high enough position to be the person in charge.
Beth stared at the datasheets spread across the mattress around her. She’d read them all. Some of them twice. It was difficult not to believe the plain text. If Drake had manufactured all of it, then he’d worked hard on it, must have been working on it for years.
She scraped a hand over her forehead. But how could she believe that Werner had set her up? He’d always been the best of superior officers. He was attentive and intelligent. He knew everyone. He was charming. He was personable. He’d supported her in many decisions that weren’t very popular. But every one of those facts also meant that he could get closer to her. He could betray her because she trusted him. Almost everyone trusted him.
She nudged the datasheets toward the edge of the bed, then lay down on her side, clutching a pillow to her chest. Most of her adult life had been a lie? No, most of her adult life she’d been led by the nose by a consummate liar. He’d used Drake years ago as a decoy, and now he’d used her as a scapegoat. She wondered how many other people had paid the price for his crimes. How many people had she brought to “justice” under the pretext of his lies? The possibilities were staggering.
Chapter Twenty
“We’ll reach Isalia by oh-two hundred tomorrow.”
She took the warm tray of rehydrated food from him and glanced at a fresh set of datasheets that he dropped onto the bed.
He didn’t meet her eyes, just stepped away and turned toward one of the tall wall panels. He pulled out a folded silver bundle and tossed it beside her on the bed. “That should fit you. If not, let me know. I have another two sizes larger.”
She set down the tray and picked up the fabric. It was a short flightsuit, with arms that’d end above her elbow and legs that would end above her knees.
“Your other flightsuit was ruined,” he said as he knelt, rummaging in the bottom of the closet, “but your boots are still good. I didn’t manage to save your blaster, but I did get your knives and sheaths.” He pulled out a mid-sized duffel and opened it toward her. Inside, she could see the weapons he spoke of sitting atop what looked like clothing. “If that flightsuit fits you, then I’ve got a few others in here the same size.”
He stood, leaving the duffel on the floor. He pointed at the new datasheets. “Those have some basic information about Isalia, as well as the country.” He smiled a little, still not meeting her gaze. “It’s called Tortuga. If you know anything about ancient Earth pirates, that might amuse you. You’ll be happy to know that it’s not nearly that bad.”
So he’s done with me. Beth cradled the flightsuit in her lap, eyes darting from the datasheets to the duffel and back. She noted that he didn’t ask her what she thought about his first set of datasheets. He didn’t grill her on what she’d read. He didn’t even seem to care if she had read them.
She glanced at the time readout on the wall above the pilot’s console. It was eighteen hundred now. “Are we early?” she heard herself ask.
He was startled enough to look at her, finally. “What?”
“It only took six days.”
“Isalia’s parent planet’s rotation is closer this time of year.”
“Oh.”
“It’s actually not a bad place, Fox. And you and Hannah should get along fine if you can get over the fact that she’s a Krystanni pirate.”
“Hannah?”
“She’s a friend of mine. She’s always in need of a good pilot, so I’ve suggested you.”
Probably a former lover.
He waited, watching her, but she just stared thoughtfully at her food. He turned to go.
“I don’t think I could have killed you.” She couldn’t let him go without making the small confession. More and more, she believed that he really had saved her life, and she couldn’t bear the thought that he might think she remained a threat to his.
It stopped him. She heard him turn at the door, but didn’t look up.
“Excuse me?”
“For the record, I just wanted you to know that I don’t think I could have killed you. Before. When I was chasing you.”
He returned to the edge of the bed. She could see the faded red of his lounge pants. “You certainly seemed to try.”
She shook her head. “I never really wanted you dead, either.” She mustered a scowl to turn up at him. “But I did want to arrest you.”
The look he gave her stopped her heart. A smile. A genuine smile with no wry twist and no sardonic humor. Just happiness, even if there was a shadow of sadness to it. “Thank you for that. For the record, I’ve never held your doing your job against you.”
“You knew all along? About Werner?”
“Not all along. It took me about a year to dig it up.”
She sighed, a defeated sound. “Just a year?”
“Don’t feel bad, Fox. You had to be on the outside to really see it. It couldn’t have been that obvious inside the Emirate.”
She nodded, her gaze falling on the first set of datasheets. “Why’d you give me this information?”
“So you’d be prepared when I let you go.”
“What if I don’t believe it?”
“There’s nothing I can do about that. I can only hope that you do.”
“Why prepare me at all?”
“If I let you go and you didn’t know, then you’d probably head straight back to Rainier or the nearest Emirate holding. They’d have you locked up before they ever explained why, and I don’t think they’d believe what’s happened the last week.”
“I don’t believe what’s happened this last week.” She eyed the second set of datasheets, those with information about her future. Information he’d provided. Information about what he’d set up, about the place that he’d prepared for her so that she wouldn’t be completely adrift. Her fingers tightened on the stretchy fabric of the flightsuit in her lap. “Why do you care?” She met his gaze again, unable to read behind the careful calm she saw there now. “I can understand the kidnap and rape to a certain extent --”
“I didn’t rape you,” he insisted quietly.
“-- but I can’t understand why you c
are. Why save my life? Why let me go? Why go to the trouble of finding a place to leave me? Why not just dump me and go?”
Sad resignation spilled a sigh from his lips. “I can’t do that.”
“Why?”
He speared a hand through the long bangs covering his forehead, staring at the wall behind her. “I care about you.”
“Why? You hardly know me.”
“Oh, I know you.”
“Yes, yes, you’ve kept track of me. But this is insane. You knew me marginally while you were training for the elite, and you’ve known me this last week. Nothing else. There’s no sane reason for you to care about me or even like me.”
“Love’s a strange thing, isn’t it?”
She froze. “What?”
He shrugged. Why not admit it? “I realized it a year or so ago. Believe me, I wasn’t any happier about it than you are. Seemed stupid to fall in love with a woman chasing me to either arrest or kill me. But everything I did kept coming back to you. I think it was when they lost track of you for a few days after that meteor strike a year ago that I realized that I had to get closer to you, at least for a while. I had to find out if these feelings were true because, stars, your being missing scared the hell out of me.” He laughed; there was a bitter note in it. “I actually got off on your chasing me.”
“That’s insane.”
“I never claimed to be in full possession of my mental faculties.”
“How am I supposed to believe that you’re in love with me?”
He shrugged again. “I don’t expect you to believe it. But if I was playing you, it’d be a pretty good game, wouldn’t it? I can’t even figure out what I’d gain from it.”
The look on her face told him all he needed to know. In the last week, he’d thawed a lot of that icy resolve that held her together and made her hard to read. In the last day or so, though, she was easy. She was pissed and confused, which only pissed her off more.
He pointed at the tray she was perilously close to mangling. “You should eat.” He turned toward the door.
