by Kim Knox
Fade fought to breathe and sagged against Iasion, her body spent and the urge to do no more than curl up and sleep pressed between two bodies washing over her. Stheno stroked warm, heavy hands down her back and eased free of her body.
“We have them, their minds are buried, but we still lack strength to hold them longer.” Iasion knelt before her bed and pulled away. His eyes closed briefly and a wry smile lifted his mouth. “The irony being that if we could stay, could take you,” his hand brushed her jaw and she leaned into his touch, “over and over, then we would have the power to keep these men because you did like this flesh, didn’t you, Fade?”
Her face grew hot and it was hard to hold his silver-cut gaze. She’d had incredible, incredible sex with two complete strangers, held in the thrall of some unknown being and not once had guilt twisted her. Not once. Now it hit her in full force. She’d betrayed Foster.
“A man who spurns you,” Steno murmured, an edge to his voice. He ran his fingers over the pyramid set on the table again, the stream of light slipping in smooth flows to its surface. A weariness sank his sharp face, his skin grayed and he let his head drop. “Stheno is resurfacing.”
Panic shot Fade off the bed. She had to dress, grab her things and run. The club would be the safest place. She had money. Enough to get her off-planet…but not as someone else. And they’d broken her Fadeyka cover. Shit.
The transport would be public, would expose her to more hunters like these. A bitter laugh escaped her as she dragged on underwear over her sticky thighs. She doubted she could fuck all of them. She closed her eyes, heat rising in her face. Having sex had bought a few precious minutes.
“Take this.” Iasion handed her the pyramid. “You have to keep it with you now.” He stroked her cheek again and the flicker of silver sank in a sweet rush under her skin. “You need it.”
Fade blinked. “I need it?”
“Our energies are merging.”
They were what? What kind of insanity swept over her now? “Do I get any say in this?”
His smile was dark. “No more than we do, but there are…benefits to our association, are there not?”
Face scrubbed at her damp face and pushed the pyramid into the holdall, stuffing it between her few clothes. She had little to bolt with. All her money went to rent and food. Iasion sank onto her bed, his skin graying as Stheno’s had. “You’re losing?”
He nodded and toppled sideways, his heavy frame thudding into the thin mattress. “They will sleep. For a…short time. Run, Fade.”
She pushed her fingers though her hair again. She had everything she owned stuffed into a black bag. In a few panicked heartbeats, she threw on her clothes and stamped into her boots. With her coat on, the hood up and her atmos.mask protecting her face from the smog, she grabbed her bag.
She glanced back to the silent men. Stheno naked at the table and Iasion slumped on her bed, his trousers loose and his dick flaccid and glistening against his leg. A snort broke from her. “It’s going to be interesting explaining this to yourselves when you wake up.”
“Try explaining it to me.”
Heat bloomed in her chest and she stared at the dark figure standing at her door. Her hand shook as she pulled away her mask. “Foster?”
Chapter Four
Foster grabbed her bag. “This your hobby?” He pointed a gun at Stheno and his hand flexed around the black grip. “What you do on your night off?”
Fade pressed her fist to her chest to stop the fast thud of her heart. “Why…why do you have a gun?” His words sank in and her belly grew hollow. “I didn’t invite them. They came…” She paused. Foster didn’t know about her former life, or why she was hiding out on Theta-Scorpii-3. She swallowed. “They came to kill me.”
An eyebrow lifted. “So you fucked them into submission. You’ve missed your calling, Fadeyka.” He stood back and waved her to the door. “Out now. I have a transport waiting.”
“You’re not surprised.”
“About this. Yes, I am. Believe me. Now move.”
She stumbled forward. “No, about them being here to kill me.”
He rubbed the back of his hand across his mouth and his blue gaze narrowed on the two men. “Not here.” He aimed his gun, his mouth thinned. He couldn’t be about to… A silent flash of white light hit Stheno and a heartbeat later, Iasion. “Get out, Fadeyka.”
“You…” Her feet were frozen, her heart in her mouth. “They’re dead?”
Foster holstered his weapon and took her arm. “We don’t need to be followed.”
Fade hastily pulled her mask over her mouth and nose as the wild winds and smog rushed over her face. Two transports blocked the front of her tenement, both sleek and black, powerful, expensive machines. The door to the second vehicle opened and Foster pushed her inside. Belts wrapped over her and the door clunked shut. Heavy, filtered darkness settled and she yanked the mask from her face, but she couldn’t look at Foster as he climbed in beside her.
He’d killed them. She knew, deep down, it made sense. Without Athanasios taking over their minds—as insane as that sounded—they would’ve tortured and killed her. She knew that. But still… Their flesh had just given her the most incredible experience of her life.
“We saw what they had planned. Don’t mourn them.” Athanasios’ stark voice with its strange echo—as if a multitude of voices spoke as one—touched her thoughts. “You made love to us, Fadeyka. We gave you that pleasure. Not those…creatures.”
She closed her eyes and pressed the heels of her hands against them. “Where are we going?”
“My place.”
The transport rose effortlessly and silent into the air and wove into the stream of traffic moving between the living blocks. Fade let her heart settle and rubbed her cold hands together. She was alive and she was with Foster. Two impossible things together. “How did you know?”
“I’ve known for a while that you were hiding something.” He glanced at her, the light from the surrounding towers cutting across his face. “You act hunted.”
Fade fidgeted in her seat, the belt biting into her neck. “Yeah, well, I’m not the mysterious and taciturn ex-military man, am I?”
He flashed her one of his rare grins and Fade’s stomach flip-flopped. His attention turned back to the thick line of traffic. “True, that role is taken.” The smile faded. “Putting you in the Cage was Mercer’s way to get to me.”
That had been obvious from the beginning. Mercer saw her as Foster’s pet, but she wasn’t going to apologize. “I needed the money.”
Foster’s long fingers gripped the wheel and his knuckles strained. “You could have come to me.”
“We don’t have that sort of…” She was about to say relationship. But that wasn’t what they had. There was her attraction—an ache that ate at her—and his cool disinterest, touched with little sparks of possessiveness that completely confused her. “I work for you. Employer, employee. It wouldn’t have been…appropriate.”
There was an edge to her voice, she couldn’t help it. He’d refused her. And now here he was, running in trying to save her. She pulled in a slow, steadying breath, the clean air of the cabin sliding deep into her lungs.
He was silent, his attention fixed on the heavy flow surrounding them and Fade allowed herself to look at him. The familiar, sharp profile that had cut through her dreams and starred in more of her fantasies than she wanted to admit. Her attention drifted to his hands—unusually without gloves—and the need in her flesh caught her by surprise. He always wore them. Always. Fuck. The thought of his fingertips tracing lines against her skin was her strongest fantasy. She pressed her thighs together, the tight seam to her trousers intensifying the deep throb in her pussy.
“What are you doing to me?”
Her plea was ragged, desperate…and met with low, echoing laughter. “Not us, Fade. You want him. Our touch, through us and others, builds need. Desire. It’s made all the more delicious by the fact that you can’t have him. That he’s fo
rbidden.” There was a long pause and Fade bit her lip, her hands fists against the thick padding of the chair. She fought not to make a sound. “Close your eyes. Imagine him. He’s angry. There’s that muscle jump under his left eye. You know the one. Those men touched you, fucked you and he hasn’t. He’s not had one single taste.”
There was a bitterness to the mingled voices that stopped her eyes from drifting shut. Foster had kept her, her specifically, from finding Athanasios. “Why didn’t he want me to go into the Cage?”
“As soon as he can he’ll slam you up against the nearest wall. Tear your clothes. Expose your sweet pussy.”
Her breath hitched, her heart a drum in her chest. The bitter hint of coal teased the tip of her tongue, the sign of her interaction with Athanasios…but that was all. There was no slide of him, them against her skin, just words burning into her. Pain sliced along her lip as she bit into it, trying to deny the wild need coursing through her body.
She shut her eyes, feeling Foster, the drive of him, deep and hard, taking her, finally making her his.
“Fadeyka?”
Lights danced across her closed eyelids. Close. She was so close…
The illicit stroke of those strong hands, the press of him against her, pinning her to the wall, the floor…anywhere. A shiver shook her, followed by a tremble through her flesh that she couldn’t contain. He would see her come. Watch her fall apart from the mere thought of him.
“Fadeyka!
He touched her cheek, the light press of his fingers against her skin spiraling fire. She gasped, her eyes suddenly open wide. He leaned in, the scent of him wrapping around her, warmth and musk and his mouth, his lips simply…there.
The orgasm flared, quick and tight and sudden. Fade arched against the heavy seat, a cry breaking from her, her flesh alive with fire and wild joy. But it wasn’t enough, not nearly enough. She grabbed the collar of his coat and yanked her to him, her mouth finding his.
Fade groaned. His lips were hot and sweet, the barest hint of his tongue deepening the wild thrum still holding her body. If he would only return her kiss…but he drew back and wiped a hand across his mouth.
His gaze was hard, dark. “You’re fine.”
Fade blinked, the pleasure in her flesh falling to ashes. She turned in her seat, turned away from him to stare out the transport window. They waited in the thick flow of traffic beside a busy platform, the entrance to a club gaudy with vari-colored lights and images of the workers within. She held back a bone-deep sigh. He’d rejected her. Again. So much for Athanasios pushing the idea of him being jealous of the men the Yalene had worn to fuck her.
A wry smile touched her mouth. And of course, they were silent too.
Fade focused on her breathing and fought to ignore the tension that thickened the cramped space of the transport. She couldn’t look at Foster. She’d kissed him and she denied her fingers the need to touch her mouth. The ghost of his lips against hers still lingered. And of course, she’d come in front of him.
Her face burned. And he probably thought she was having some form of seizure.
The transport climbed, moving up the slip lanes. Foster lived out on the more exclusive peaks of the barren rock. His employers paid him well. He turned the craft toward one of the wide monoliths and eased onto a narrow platform. The engines grew quiet and Foster flexed his fingers around the levers.
Fade risked a look to his face and found his lips thinned and his shoulders still tight. The muscle was ticking in his jaw. The slight shudder of the transport said the platform was retracting, drawing them into the living block. A solid gate dropped down behind them.
“Stay here.” Foster held up his finger as she opened her mouth to argue. Anger burned in his dark gaze. “I said stay.” He pulled out his weapon, checking the charge in the dim light of the transport, before he slipped out and secured the vehicle.
Fade wiped a trembling hand over her face. Her life used to be so staid and ordinary. One decrypted message had shoved her into endless trouble. And here she was stuck on a rock, running for her life, with a man who twisted her heart inside out on a daily basis.
The locks to the transport clunked and her door opened. Foster, his breathing quickened, holstered his weapon. “It’s clear.” He grabbed her bag and waited for her to climb out.
“What happens now?”
Foster put his hand to her back and urged her forward. “I sort out this mess.”
“How?”
A panel scanned him and a door opened in the blankness of the wall. He pushed her through and she found herself in a corridor leading to a wide room. A vast window looked down onto the city, the weaving traffic a flow of brilliant light against the living blocks and jagged crystal peaks.
With the filtered air of his apartment and shielding deadening the noise of the outside world, Fade could forget for a moment why she was in his space.
Foster shrugged off his coat and threw it over the back of the nearest chair. In the low light, the shine of the weapon strapped to his body tightened her nerves. She wasn’t in his home because he wanted her there. She was hiding out.
“The bathroom’s through there.” He pointed down a corridor. “Wash.”
“I just—”
“Wash.” His dark gaze narrowed on her and she shivered. His anger was almost palpable. “Now.”
Fade pressed her lips together, turned and headed down the narrow corridor. She didn’t look back. No doubt Foster would be cursing her. The door opened before her to a brightly lit, stone-lined room and closed just as softly behind her. She fell back against the door and scrubbed her face with both hands. What little fantasy she could have about Foster had been crushed.
She pushed out a hot breath and tugged at her jacket. She stripped the rest of her clothes quickly, hanging them on hooks. Her image caught in a mirror and Fade stared at a stranger with tangled hair and bruises and bites staining pale skin. Her fingers skimmed the bite on her shoulder and she hissed against the pain.
The memory of what she had done, what Athanasios had shared with her chased the pain through her skin with heat. What did the creature want with her? Her and Foster?
She stepped into the wide square and waved her hand. Warm water splashed across her body and she gasped, her fingers rubbing against her skin to form lather. Mint and eucalyptus surrounded her. She breathed them in, the scents pure Foster, and her eyes burned. She fought back the sudden tears, her throat and chest tight. She’d screwed everything up. Everything.
Waving off the water, she grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her body. Nerves cramped her gut. She didn’t want to face Foster. He’d caught her with two men, watched her come…and told her to wash it all off her body.
A rough laugh broke from her. Had she imagined his interest? Had it been something she’d constructed, something to hang on to as her life went completely to shit?
Fade gripped the sink she stood before, the mirror reflecting the flush to her skin. At least Athanasios had left her alone whilst she showered. She could imagine Foster’s disgust at hearing her moans of pleasure.
Fade closed her eyes and denied more tears. A sob almost escaped as a hot mouth kissed her shoulder. “Athanasios…” A warm, male body surrounded her, his arms against hers, his chest hard to her spine. “I don’t think…” Her thoughts trailed away. It wasn’t the feel of bare skin, but smooth, warm fabric and the scent surrounding her was still pure mint and eucalyptus. Not a hint of coal.
Her eyes shot open and she stared in the mirror at the man behind her. “Foster?”
He didn’t smile, offered her no warmth, but the dark heat in his eyes caught her breath. “You belong to me. Not them. Not…it.” He licked a droplet of water from the line of her shoulder. “Me.”
He tugged her towel free and let it fall to the floor, his fingers trailing down her spine. His bare fingers. Fade’s eyes flickered shut at the illicit sensation of his fingertips on her skin.
“Eyes open.” His words were a low growl a
gainst the shell of her ear. “You want this? You watch.”
Fade had to obey and met his gaze in the mirror. The darkness she found there was something from her fantasies and she bit her lip as he grazed the bite on her shoulder.
“Did you enjoy them?”
There was an edge to his question that fired heat low into her belly. She ached to press back against him, but he had her trapped between the rough material of his trousers and the cool stone of the sink. “They were going to kill me.”
His gaze narrowed and his teeth scraped her bruised flesh for a brief, heart-tightening moment. The pain slipped into pleasure as he licked and kissed the freshened bite. “Not my question. Did you enjoy them?”
She couldn’t look at him. “Yes.”
“And the beast?”
Fade sucked in a breath. “Yes.”
“They left the marks on your body so I would see them.” His hand, cool from the stone sink, curved around her hip. He dipped down, his fingers playing across the crease of her thigh and achingly close to her mons. “Why do you need me?” His voice burned against her skin and he teased her earlobe with his teeth. Fade exposed her neck, desperate for his mouth on her skin. “Say it.”
His fingers dipped to stroke across her clit and a shock of fire flared through her flesh. “I want you.” It came out in a rush. “I’ve always…”
“And yet…” His clever, clever finger curled and little spots of light filled her vision, her spine arching involuntarily. “You took Mercer’s money and went into the Cage.”
Fade held his gaze, the anger and desire for her blatant. Did he want her to apologize? He still played her, even now. She pressed her hand to his, urging his finger deeper, faster. “I’m not going to say sorry.”
“You wanted me to watch.”
Her face flushed, the stain of it spreading down her neck. Before Athanasios she would have denied it. Denied it to herself and everyone. But now? “Yes.”
“Why?” His breath burned against her neck, his teeth drawing lines into her skin. He licked the marks. “What would I have seen?”
