Fox and Dragon

by Jet Mykles

  “Where are you going?”

  Away from you. It hurt too much to be near her and have her suspicious of him all the time. “Back up to the cockpit.”

  “You’re not going to ...?”

  One hand on the door frame, he glanced over his shoulder. “‘To’?”

  She scowled, carefully setting the tray on the mattress before her. “You know.”

  Yeah, he was pretty sure he knew, but he was damn well doing to make her say it. “What?”

  Wide nostrils flared and gorgeous black eyes narrowed. He wondered if she knew that she looked more like a Krystanni saber cat than a fox.

  “You’re not going to ... make use of me for the last bit of time we have together?”

  He squelched down the hope that tried to blossom in his chest. There was a trap in those words, nice as they were to hear. “Nah. I figure you hate me enough as it is. I’ll be all noble and shit now, just to confuse you.”

  Her eyes widened in shock.

  He left her with a laugh that he didn’t think shook.

  It was roughly twenty hundred when he returned to the bedroom. He’d caught a catnap in the pilot’s seat and was still yawning when he walked in the door. “You need to use the head?”

  She sat pretty much where he’d left her. The food tray was empty and sat to one side of the mattress, and the new set of datasheets was neatly stacked beside the first at her side. She looked ... thoughtful. Her eyes met his, and for a moment she just looked. He couldn’t tell what she was thinking behind the calm. Then she nodded.

  Shaking off the last vestiges of sleep, he reached down to shut off the field that kept her penned to the bed. He tensed, ready for an attack. Although she’d loosened her guard considerably in the last few days, he wouldn’t put it past her to try something now. The most dangerous times were when he let her go to the latrine. If she managed to knock him out, she could easily take the ship.

  But she just stood and stalked to the door. He followed, then waited outside the latrine for her. Arms and ankles crossed, he leaned back against the hallway wall and thumped his skull against the smooth steel.

  This noble shit was for the birds, he decided. His cock twitched, agreeing. But, he sighed, he didn’t want to just take her anymore. Oh, it was fun. He’d never guessed that she’d be such a beautiful sub. His kind of sub. He didn’t go for the submissives who gave in. He liked the ones who fought. All of her protesting was frustrating, but damned if it didn’t pump his blood. The thrill of danger and the knowledge that, if he let down his guard, she really could take him out was the best aphrodisiac he’d ever experienced. But he couldn’t keep her restrained forever. Not consistently, like in the last week. As fucking hot as it was, it had gone on long enough. If he thought she returned his feelings and he could give her some freedom, then it’d work. But no. As much as he wanted to, he couldn’t trust her. She didn’t believe him. She was as likely to clock him and arrest him as leave peacefully. He couldn’t let his own feelings go to his head. Tomorrow, when they reached Isalia, he’d put her in the escape pod and send her on her way.

  She emerged from the latrine and froze in the doorway, gazing at him with that speculative look again.

  Instinct had him uncrossing his arms and ankles, ready for an attack, but he stayed casual.

  After a long moment, she turned back into the bedroom.

  He followed, frowning, wondering what was going through her head.

  She halted at the edge of the bed and regarded him over her shoulder. “May I ask a favor?”

  Stars, her back was lovely! All smooth, muscled curves. “You may ask.”

  She crawled onto the bed and turned when she got to the middle of it, sitting on her heels. “Go ahead and turn on the force field, but don’t hold me down with these.” She held up her wrists to indicate the restraints.

  His blood quickened. He quirked a brow. “May I ask why?”

  Her gaze dropped, and she reached for the datasheets. “I want to ride you.”

  His breath stopped. An instant, vivid picture of that dark-skinned glory working over his cock made him suddenly very hard.

  She avoided his gaze by calmly arranging the datasheets in her hands. She primly placed the empty food tray atop them and held it all up for him.

  He eyed her offering warily. “How can I trust you?”

  She met his gaze steadily, then shook her head. “You can’t. I know that. But I can only promise that I won’t do anything to try and hurt you or take over the ship or escape.”

  He narrowed his gaze, wanting very much to believe her. “You using the love thing against me?”

  He expected derision, but should have known better. Bold-faced derision was not her style. She stared at him. “I want to know what it’s like when I’m not bound and you’re not calling all the shots.”

  A fair enough request. “Why?”

  Her gaze remained sharp, but a small smile curved her gorgeous dark lips. “A memory to tide me over after you dump me off?”

  “Careful, Fox, I might think that you want me.”

  She blinked. “Why would you think that?”

  He had to laugh at her completely straight delivery. Trying not to show the tremor in his limbs, he bent down to activate the force field. “All right.” He took the datasheets and tray from her to set on the shelf, then knelt on the bed. “But you’ll understand if I’m cautious?”

  She nodded, her eyes sliding down his torso. His cock twitched. This was the first time she’d boldly looked her fill when she knew full well he was watching.

  “Lie down.” Her voice was lower than usual.

  He stretched out, plumping a pillow beneath his head. This could be a trap, he reminded himself. There were any number of things she could do to cause him pain. True, she’d have difficulty escaping without him to deactivate the force field, but he never liked to depend on certainties.

  She reached out and ran gentle fingers over the dragon blazoned across his chest. She traced the design, the soft touch igniting his blood so that he had to fist his hands in an effort not to reach for her. He wanted to hold her. He wanted to press her into an embrace. But that’s not what she’d asked for, and he was exceedingly curious to know what she had in mind.

  Her eyes locked on his cock, standing at full attention now. She reached for it.

  He grabbed her wrist. “Make no mistake, Fox. I will hurt you if you hurt me.”

  She nodded, frowning a bit. “As well you should.” She thought for a moment.

  Then, quite to his surprise, she crawled around, facing away from him. She swung her leg over his chest and shimmied back until her exposed sex hovered a handspan from his mouth. She pushed up onto extended arms, regarding him over her shoulder. “Fair?”

  He grinned up at her over the beautiful swell of her muscled ass. “Yes. Fair.”

  She nodded, then twisted back around and dropped down.

  An inarticulate cry burst from his throat as her hand wrapped around him, pushing back the foreskin. Her breath caressed the tip just before her lips closed over the head. She swallowed a good portion of him down. He’d dreamed of having those lips around him, and now she was pursing them around the head, licking at him like he was a flavored icicle.

  He dug his fingers into her ass, flexing them as he enjoyed the feel of her mouth on him. But then she wiggled said ass to remind him that he had a succulent treat of his own to devour. He tongued her clit as she tasted him, in rapture to experience the first truly mutual giving of pleasure that they had shared. Her juices smeared his lips and nose as he burrowed in, sucking her clit as it filled and grew hard. Her taste was now his favorite thing, and he lost himself in the smell and feel of her as she nursed on his cock. She gave head with direct gusto. Fingers clawed at his thighs as she tried to swallow him whole. He nearly came just from that.

  With a cry, she released his cock and quickly scrambled down his body. He watched, dazed, as she reared up over his hips, aimed his cock at her entrance, then
slammed down on him in one smooth glide. With a delicious sigh of abandon, she arched, reaching back to brace herself on his chest as she started to grind.

  He groaned, grabbing at her waist as much to steady her as to give himself something to hold. She looked magnificent. The sweet swell of her ass curved into her narrow waist, then flared back out to the graceful curves of her back and shoulders. She flung her arms back, leaning on his chest as she rose up and dropped down. Her head fell back, coal black hair dangling as she fucked him with a fury.

  He braced his feet apart to give himself leverage to pump up into her, unable to resist the primal demand of his hips.

  Wordless cries spilled from her throat, the sounds of abandon coming from her willingly this time. She threw herself forward, bracing on hands set on the mattress between his knees. The position stopped her from pumping as hard, but gave him a better angle to shove up into her. And that seemed to be what she wanted. She wouldn’t say it, but her moans told him what he needed to know.

  He clutched her hips, his thumbs parting her cheeks to expose that dark pucker. Without thinking too hard about it, he wet the middle finger of one hand in his mouth, then reached down to press into her hole.

  “Blast it, Drake!” She sounded angry, but it was mixed with wanting. Enough that he pressed in to the second knuckle.

  She screamed, her back arching sharply. Her entire body contracted. Both her channel and her ass clutched at him, and he fought desperately not to come.

  When her body stopped, her head dropped forward. She shone with a coating of sweat. “You bastard,” she panted. “Not my ass.”

  He laughed, breathing hard himself. He twisted the finger that was still sunk into her. “But it felt good, didn’t it?”

  She wiggled her hips, and they both gasped at the spike of pleasure from their still-connected bodies. “Bastard.”

  He pulled his finger from her body and surged forward. He surprised himself in the fluidity of the move that pushed them both forward until they were on their knees, all without his cock leaving her body. He draped himself over her back, winding one arm around her waist and the other about her shoulders to press her against him as he started his hips to pumping.

  “I’ll take your cunt, your ass, or your mouth. I want it all. But, blast it, you’re going to want it too.”

  She grumbled, pressing back into his thrusts. The slick, sweaty slide of their bodies was amazing.

  “Tell me you want me, Fox. Admit it. Just once.”

  Groans as he picked up the pace, slamming into her hard. She braced her arms on the mattress, her head dangling between her shoulders, rocking in time to his thrusts.

  “Tell me.”

  “Yes, I want you. Stars, you’re fucking incredible.”

  It was more than he’d expected and was the end of his control. Clutching her hard, he rode her to completion. He bit her shoulder just before he came and roared when that triggered a convulsing orgasm in her body that milked him dry.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “Let me stay.”

  She stared up at him helplessly from the single seat of the escape pod. The wrist and thigh restraints banded her limbs, keeping her immobile. He had them rigged on a timer. Just before he closed the pod, he’d set them. By the time they released her, he’d be at least a hyper jump away. Everything was set.

  Now he just had to let her go.

  He shook his head. “I can’t do that.”

  She wiggled as much as she could, grumbling. “Why?”

  She looked so beautiful, dressed scantily in skivvies. A flightsuit was folded up at her feet, available to her when she could move again. “Much as I’d like to, I can’t trust you. I wouldn’t know if this was a ploy to get me off my guard.”

  She met his gaze.

  He smiled. “You can’t blame me for being cautious.”

  Her grin was a nasty one. “You’ll miss me.”

  He laughed. “That I will.”

  “What if I’m serious? What if I want to stay? With you.”

  His heart cracked, and he let her see it. “I really wish I could believe that. Would you believe me if our situations were reversed?”

  “No.”

  He shrugged. “The autopilot will take you into Isalia’s airspace. I’ve entered the coordinates of the docks in Tortuga. Hannah will meet you there.”

  She studied him. He waited for the question of whether he and Hannah had been lovers. They had, far back in their teenage years. But the question never came. “I’ll find you. I always do.”

  He smiled. Taking a chance, he leaned toward her. “When and if you do, I’ll know you’re serious.”

  Much to his surprise, she tilted her head up as he leaned in. He’d intended to kiss her forehead, but gave in to the temptation to kiss her lips. She opened her mouth and demanded entrance for her tongue, coaxing his own out to play.

  It was he who leaned back.

  “Let me stay,” she said again.

  He saw in her eyes that she didn’t believe he’d give in.

  He smiled and reached down to punch the timer code in her wrist restraints. He grabbed the hatch door above her head. “See ya, Fox. Take care of that sweet ass of yours.”

  Resolutely, he closed the hatch, stood, and walked away.

  Tears were in his eyes when he reached the Kitsune’s pilot chair. He let them fall as he jettisoned the escape pod. He watched the small pod until he could see it no longer, then revved up the Kitsune’s jump drive.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Four months later ...

  “Damn fool woman!” Drake growled for the hundredth time. His hand flexed on the Kitsune’s flightstick as he waited impatiently. His eyes and the ship’s monitors were all trained on the one exit from the ancient, ramshackle station. That was where they were due to escape. That was where he’d see her again if Bortrel managed to get her out.

  He hated waiting. He’d wanted to be the one to go on-station and help her, but his associate had convinced him otherwise. He was paying Bortrel good money to help him. It would have been the height of stupidity not to take his advice. If Bortrel could get her out, he would. He had to trust the other man to bring her to him.

  “Stupid, mule-headed woman!” he muttered.

  She’d just had to do it. Not four months after he’d dropped her at Isalia, she’d made her reappearance on the news feeds. The news that she wasn’t dead was overshadowed by the accusations she made against the Emirate in general and Admiral Werner in particular.

  Which was why she now needed to be rescued.

  The Kitsune’s warning beeped mere seconds before a small flighter flashed out of the opening he was watching. Drake snarled when the alarm continued to beep. They’d been followed.

  Cannons set to low, Drake fired on the opening. It hit the top curve and shattered the frame, narrowing the gap. No more ships would be able to emerge, but three had slipped out before he’d fired.

  Gunning the engine, he flipped the Kitsune around to chase after the four ships. When he saw the delicate roll of the lead flighter, he had to smile. Bortrel couldn’t have made that move, which meant Fox had the stick.

  Exuberantly happy with the proof that she’d at least made it off the station alive, Drake barreled after the flighter nearest him while she turned the tables on the two ganging up on her. Cannons blasted and lasers sluiced through space. Drake shot to maim and succeeded with his first target, sending the flighter limping home before his air systems let out on him. Fox had dispatched one of her opponents similarly. She flew circles around the third, and laughing, Drake realized he was jealous on some level. The unknown pilot was taking his dance with his lady.

  He punched open the comm to the airwave he and Bortrel had agreed upon before parting. “Dragon to Fox.”

  Bortrel’s tenor answered, sounding strained. “She’s a little busy, Dragon.”

  Drake heard feminine laughter behind him.

  “Fox, darling, are you going to quit teasing that
poor pilot? You’re going to give your passenger a heart attack.”

  “I thought you might do it for me, Dragon,” came a voice he’d sorely missed.

  He pushed forward with the flightstick. “Whatever you say, Fox.”

  The station’s pilot, caught between Fox’s flighter and the Kitsune, decided to abandon the flight.

  “Coward,” Fox called over the comm.

  “Dragon, she’s crazy.”

  Drake chuckled. “Apparently.” He punched coordinates into his console and sent them. “Fox, take these and I’ll meet you at the jump site.” Without waiting, he took the Kitsune into hyper space, leaving the station and any possible pursuit behind.

  Fox’s flighter popped out of space a few minutes after the Kitsune. He laughed when she flew a smooth orbit around him.

  The connection remained open on their channel. “Having fun?”

  “Now?” she asked, voice laced with a pure joy he wasn’t aware of ever hearing in her voice. “Yes!”

  “Sorry to spoil your fun, but it’s time to let Bortrel go. You’re set for dock on my dorsal fin.”

  “Roger.”

  Now came the wait. It would take at least a half-hour after she docked before she could board the Kitsune. There were dozens of things he wanted to say to her, but he was hard-pressed on what he wanted to say in front of Bortrel. The man was a trusted associate, but Drake wouldn’t call him a close friend.

  Drake kept their conversation to the technicalities of docking. But once the flighter was attached and the decomp procedure had been started, it was just a waiting game.

  “Fox?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What the hell did you think you were doing?”

  She laughed. “When?”

  “Why the hell did you have to come out of hiding? I can’t believe Hannah let you go to the press.”

  “She tried to talk me out of it.”

  “She’s a sensible woman.”

  “Fuck you.”

  He blinked. There had been a laugh laced in the outburst. “What you did was dangerous.”

  “I know.”

  “And it didn’t do a bit of good except to put your life on the line.”