by Sophie Stern
“You like to be taunted.”
“I’m going to punish you,” I tell her.
“You’ve already punished me enough,” she laughs, biting me again. I grab her hair and pull her mouth up to my own. Kissing her, I pull at her nipples. Then I release her hair and grab her ass, pulling her up and over my body.
“Ride my cock, princess,” I murmur against her mouth, and she sinks down onto me. I groan as her tight pussy wraps around my length. I can’t seem to control myself around her. She’s too fucking wonderful. She’s too fantastic.
Being with Fiona makes me feel like the world isn’t quite so dark, like things aren’t quite as bad as I always think they are. Even when we’re in bed, even when we haven’t made any promises to each other about the future, she makes me comfortable. She makes me relax. She makes me feel like I’m safe, and that’s a very strange feeling.
“Safe” isn’t something I’ve felt in a very long time.
She grinds against my cock, sinking all the way down. Her breasts graze against my chest and her hair falls over my face as we kiss. We’re completely intertwined in this perfect moment, but I want more.
I need more.
I thrust up into her and she makes a surprised little sound when I do.
“Fuck, baby. I love the way your tits bounce when I do this.” I grab her hips as I thrust up into her, holding her firmly in place. She has no choice but to take my dick: all of it. She has no choice but to take everything I’m giving her.
“Quinn,” she groans. “You’re going to make me come.”
“Do it, princess. Come for me. Come now. Come on my cock, baby. Let me feel your tight pussy on my dick while you come. Come.”
She closes her eyes and opens her mouth as the orgasm sweeps over her. She shivers and groans as her pussy clenches around my cock, pulsating. I can feel her coming and it almost makes me lose control.
Almost.
She looks so fucking beautiful.
“That was perfect, baby,” I tell her. “But now it’s my turn to ride you.”
Before she can protest, I flip her onto her belly and climb behind her on the bed. I spread her legs and slide between them, then rub my cock against her wet pussy. She’s dripping now, soaking the blankets, but neither one of us cares. It’s the hottest fucking thing I’ve ever seen and I’m going to make this count.
“Fuck me, Quinn,” she whispers, begging. “Please. I need more of you.”
“Is this what you need?” I tease, pushing forward so only the tip of my cock is in her. I press in and out a few times, but don’t give her my full length.
“More,” she groans.
“Oh, like this?” I push a little bit more in, but don’t give her what she wants. I want her begging hard, needing it. I want her mind blank so the only thing she’s thinking about is my cock in her.
“Please,” she says. “Fuck me hard until you come inside me, Quinn. I need to feel you explode in me. I want your come dripping down my legs all day. Please.”
“Fuck, baby,” I can’t resist that dirty fucking mouth, and I give Fiona my whole cock. I ride her hard until I’m the one coming inside of her, filling her up. My vision goes black as I orgasm harder than I ever have before.
It’s the greatest pleasure I’ve ever known and something deep inside of me knows it’s because it’s with her. It’s because somehow, there’s something different about Fiona than the other women I’ve been with. She has an air of innocence about her despite everything she’s gone through. Somehow, she doesn’t let her pain hold her back.
When she’s with me, she’s free, and that makes me feel free, too.
When we’re together, I’m not thinking about Hayden or LeBlaie or all the bad shit I’ve done in my life.
When we’re together, I’m only thinking about her, and how I can make her happy, and how she puts a smile on my face that’s never there. I never smile.
When I’m with her, I can’t stop smiling.
And to be honest, I kind of fucking love that.
Chapter 17
Fiona
“How are we supposed to find something if we don’t know what it is?” I survey the room in front of me. It’s a storage space that’s completely full of boxes. Somehow, I don’t think this is where we’re going to find Quinn’s mystery treasure.
Or bounty.
Or whatever the hell he’s looking for.
“We’ll know it when we see it,” he insists, and I know I’m going to have to trust him. We spend the afternoon sorting through boxes, stopping only for a quick meal of dried food. The food on his ship is a bit lacking, but it’s better than what I was having in my cell at the auction house, which was nothing. I’ve only been with Quinn a few days, but already I’m starting to feel healthier. There’s something to be said for good company and good sex.
“Another box of parts,” I say. Every box seems to be parts. Parts for what? I don’t know. The ship, I guess. We mark the boxes we’ve gone through and keep going. I’m amazed at how many we get through and I have the feeling that Quinn was doing this on his own for a very long time before I arrived.
Part of me thinks that’s completely boring, while another part of me just thinks it’s sad. How lonely must he have been? How hard must it have been to be locked up here on his own?
“Can I ask you something?” I lift up a box and set it on top of another one I’ve already sorted through.
“Of course,” he’s looking at a box full of screws and nails. “Anything.”
“Were you lonely?” I ask.
“Lonely?” He looks up at me and raises an eyebrow.
“Before I…” Before I weaseled my way into your life, I want to say. Before you saved me. Before I walked into your world and decided I don’t want to look back.
“Yes,” he says. He saves me from having to complete my sentence, and for that, I’m grateful.
Then we keep looking.
We sort boxes for hours in silence. At one point, Quinn turns on some music and I can’t help but dance a little bit at the sound. It’s a song I don’t recognize, one I can’t remember ever hearing before.
“Is this an Earth song?” I ask.
“It’s one from Sapphira,” he tells me.
“Your planet,” I murmur.
“The one and only.”
“Tell me about it?” It’s a question. I’m almost begging. I’m starting to realize just how little I know about the planets surrounding Mirroean. I’m starting to realize just how far away from my home we really are. I thought I knew a little bit about Dreagle, but I was wrong.
What else don’t I know about?
“It’s called the Hidden Planet,” Quinn stops sorting through the box he’s staring at. He’s sitting cross-legged on the floor, and he pushes the box to the side and rests his hands on his legs. I feel like this is about to get serious, so I do the same.
“Why is it called that?” I wonder.
“For a long time, only Sapphirans lived there.”
“No Earthlings?”
“No anyone. No Mirroeans. No Martians. No one. It was only us. Our world was neatly tucked away where no one could find it, hidden among the stars.”
“So what happened? What changed? I mean, obviously, something had to change. You’re here now,” I say. “And I assume you have humans and Martians and Mirroeans on your world now.”
He looks thoughtful as he thinks back, and for a moment, the stress of the day fades from Quinn’s face. How much more handsome must he be when he’s not trying to find things? When he’s not busy capturing and saving people?
“A ship landed. Explorers. They thought they’d discovered an uninhabited planet, but damn, were they surprised to see us there.”
“Where were they from?”
“Mars,” he says. “The Martians had welcomed refugees from Earth as the planet was dying. Their planet was full, though, and they began to scout for other spaces where the humans could go. They’d already secured assistance fr
om several other planets. Then they found Sapphira.”
“And you took in humans?”
“No,” he shakes his head sadly. “We didn’t. We didn’t want to. Didn’t want to share our world. We secured the planet, made sure no one would come close, made sure no one wanted to wander in. We made Sapphira a place that was perfect, but perfectly isolated.”
I shift my position and reach for his hands. Quinn grips them tightly, holding them for a minute. My wounds have healed nicely, thanks to the special ointment Quinn kept putting on me. Now my cuts are covered with thick scabs. No pain there.
He keeps talking.
“We sent those Martian explorers back and vowed never to allow others to the planet, but the younger generation on Sapphira didn’t like that. The younger people thought we should open our borders, open our planet. We thought Sapphira could be made even more incredible.”
“But the older people couldn’t be convinced,” I say.
“There was a war,” he says sadly. “A long-fought war.”
“About whether to let the humans in?” I ask quietly.
“About everything. The world is changing, and the young Sapphirans wanted out. They wanted to explore, to see the other planets. They wanted to open up trade between planets, to open up communication. They wanted to see what was out there.”
“What happened, Quinn?”
“A lot of people died. The side battling for the universe won, of course, but it was at a cost.”
“Did you lose someone?” I ask quietly.
“My father,” he says. “And my mother.”
“I’m so sorry,” I whisper. He lost his family. His parents. The people who loved him the most, the people who were supposed to be there for always. They’re gone.
“It was a long time ago,” he says. “And things are different now.”
“Were you alone?” I ask, reaching for him. This time, I wrap my arms around him and hold him for a minute. He’s stiff at first, but then he relaxes into my hug, and for just a minute, I feel a sense of belonging, of completeness. For just a minute, I feel perfectly at home with Quinn.
For just a minute, I’m not some girl who had something shitty happen to her.
For just a minute, I’m not a victim.
For just a minute, I offer him comfort, and then he pulls away.
“I have a brother and a sister,” he says. “Hayden and Ezra. Our aunt raised us. Luckily, she was willing to take on three little kids,” he chuckles. “We didn’t make her life easy.”
“She sounds like an incredible person,” and it’s true. “I’m an only child. There’s no one left for me,” I shrug. I don’t really want to think about the fact that I have no one to go home to. Even if I do go back to Mirroean, what’s waiting for me there? Nothing. There’s just nothing.”
Quinn is silent for a minute. I wonder what thoughts race through my big alien’s head. Whether it’s fair or not, I really do think of him as my alien now: my alien, my savior, my comforter.
I think of him as the one person I can count on, even if that’s not really true.
It feels true, and that’s enough for me right now.
“If you want to go home, little human, I can get you home,” Quinn finally says. “We will get you your vengeance. I promised you that and I’ll follow through, but I can’t take you yet.”
“We have to find whatever’s hidden,” I say.
“We have to,” he insists. “There’s no other choice.”
“Quinn,” I ask. “Why this ship? What has you so convinced the owner hid something here? And why don’t you like him?”
“The man who owns this ship is an asshole,” Quinn tells me. “And he kidnapped my sister. He’s not going to get away with that, Fiona. He’s going to pay.”
Chapter 18
Quinn
I’ve known he was bad news since I was a teenager, since the first time he looked sideways at Hayden. I’ve known he was bad news ever since Ezra noticed it, too, and told me to watch out.
Only, after my school years ended, I didn’t keep watching out.
I got reckless, and it cost my sister.
“He didn’t kill her,” I tell Fiona. “He just took her.” I don’t know why I’m telling her this. I don’t know why I trust her enough to tell her the story. It doesn’t make any sense. We’ve only just met and no matter what the political state of my planet is in right now, the truth is that Fiona isn’t a Sapphiran. She’s not one of us. She’s a human and humans lie. Aliens lie, too, but humans are especially good at it.
“But why?”
“Why does any man take a woman?” I ask, and let my words sink in for a minute. “When my brother and I finally found her, she was hysterical. Her whole world had ended over the course of a few days. He’d taken her, and hurt her, and she’d managed to escape.” She’d managed to live. Hayden is a fucking badass and in that moment, I knew my little sister was unstoppable.
“Did you go to the authorities?” She asks. Fiona’s eyes are wide and I wonder if she’s thinking about her own recent kidnapping. I wonder if she’s thinking of trying to get the Mirroean police to help her press charges against her parents when she goes home.
“It was my fault she was taken,” I admit. It’s something I don’t want to admit, something I don’t want to talk about.
“It couldn’t have been your fault. You were young.”
“I was 21,” I tell her. “It was years ago, but I was old enough to know better.”
“Tell me,” she whispers.
“Ordinary day. Nothing special. Hector LeBlaie owns most of Diamond, the city we grew up in. Everyone knew who he was. He’s the ultimate businessman. One day, there was an event. A gala. We’d gone as alumni representatives of our school.”
“All three of you?”
“Just me and Hayden.”
“How old was she?”
“Not nearly old enough to survive what she went through. 19. She was 19 and beautiful. Everyone wanted her and she wanted no one. That’s Hayden. She’s tough. Brave. Fierce. Kind of like you,” I add, and Fiona flushes.
I don’t think anyone’s ever complimented her before.
“We were at the gala when Hayden was asked to go meet with Mr. LeBlaie. He wanted to talk with her about the speech she was going to give, or so the messenger said. She thought it was strange and asked me to go with her.”
“What happened?”
“As soon as we stepped into his office, I knew something was wrong. Someone hit me, punched me in the gut. They caught me off guard. I was smaller then, dumber. I wasn’t as aware of my surroundings. I should have known better.”
I feel Fiona’s hands on mine and she whispers gently to me.
“It wasn’t your fault. You couldn’t have known.”
“I was on the ground and saw them haul her away.”
“That must have been terrifying.”
“I passed out from the pain. They hit me on the head and I couldn’t take it. Everything went black. When I came to, the gala was over and I was outside in the streets. I didn’t have anything on me: no money, no wallet. Nothing. I managed to go to the police, but they didn’t believe me. Hector had an alibi. He’d been at the gala the entire time and he didn’t even know who my sister was, or so he said.”
“But you knew,” she says.
“I knew. Ezra believed me. We spent the next few days looking for her. No one helped us. We finally found her on the outskirts of town. She’d managed to escape and she’d had someone call us with her location. Ezra and I went for her right away. We got her. We picked her up and brought her to the police again and she gave a statement. She was brave and she gave them everything she could, but Hector’s got the cops in his pockets. No one believed her. Not without proof.”
“And that’s what you’re looking for,” Fiona says. “You’re looking for proof.”
“I took his ship because he’s a dick,” I admit. “But when he came after me hard and fast, I realized there had
to be more to the spacecraft than what was on the surface.”
There has to be more here.
Why else would he come after me?”
“Now I’m looking for anything to show the intergalactic police, to show the government, that he’s bad news. I’m looking for anything to send him away. It’s been seven years,” I tell Fiona. “Seven years of trying to save my sister. I won’t find proof he took her. That ship has sailed, but I can find proof he’s a monster. That’s what I’m looking for. That’s what this search is about.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” she says again.
“I should have fought harder.”
All the old feelings of helplessness are washing back up and I try to choke them down, but I can’t. I can’t this time. I’m so close to breaking him, to catching him. I’m so close and I’m still so far away. I know my time is limited. I know it’s only a matter of days, maybe even of hours before someone finds me, but I have to keep trying.
“We’ll keep looking,” Fiona whispers.
“We don’t have much time.”
“This is his ship, right?”
“It’s the one he uses most of the time,” I tell her. “I figured that if he’s up to anything illegal involving transport or smuggling, it’ll be here.”
“But we might not be looking for physical things,” she comments. “Maybe he just uses this for illegal business. Maybe he conducts business meetings on the ship.”
“No, we need something physical, and there should be something here. There has to be. The first thing I did was to reprogram the ship to respond to my fingerprints and voice: not his. Then I went through the computers. It took me two damn days, but there’s nothing there.”
“Are you a computer expert?”
“I am.”
“How?” She asks, and I raise an eyebrow.
“Not the time for that story, love.”
“Alright,” Fiona stands up and starts walking around. “So we need physical proof that he’s up to no good. There’s nothing in this room. How many more are there? Where is his main office?”
“Next to the bedroom,” I tell her.
