KIKO (MC Bear Mates Book 3)

by Becca Fanning

  “I’m saying it’s a bad idea.”

  “Why is it a bad idea?” she asked, taking a step closer.

  “Lots of reasons,” Custer replied, swaying back but not moving. “Why do you think it’s a good one?”

  “I like you,” she told him, looking into his liquid gold eyes. “And I want you.”

  “Back at you,” he said, amused. “That said, you were our prisoner and also employed by the shadiest company I’ve ever come across until very recently. I don’t want you to be rushing into this.”

  Of course she was rushing into this. She was running out of time.

  She smiled at him. “I don’t see the point in waiting around. I know what I want, and it’s you. Don’t worry, I’m not going to go insane and try to murder you if you don’t want me back.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t say I don’t want you back,” he murmured, eyes running over her body.

  “In that case, I’d very much like to get out of these clothes,” she told him primly. “Think you can be a gentleman and help?”

  There was a brief flash of emotion in Custer’s eyes before a wolfish grin took over his face.

  “Oh, I don’t plan to be a gentleman about it,” he said, voice low. He took a step forward and pressed his lips to Delphine’s.

  This, she thought drunkenly, is worth dying for.

  She pressed her tongue to the seam of his lips. His mouth opened with what sounded a bit like a laugh and a bit like a sigh and then it was all wet heat. Fisting her hands in his shirt, she pressed even closer to him.

  “Mmm, get naked,” she sighed into his mouth. In another world, she would have hours to draw this out. In this one, the knowledge that at any moment this could all be ripped away pressed into her mind.

  “Impatient, aren’t you?” Custer chuckled as he obeyed.

  “I’m plenty patient,” Delphine informed him as she undid the buttons on her own shirt. “I’ve waited this long, haven’t I?”

  “Fair enough,” he said, stalling as his eyes ran over her exposed skin. Her body felt like it was about to burst into flames, and all he was doing was looking at her.

  “Keep going,” she told him. Custer quirked an eyebrow at her and then, with surprising efficiency, stripped off the rest of his clothing and stepped forward. He cupped her chin in his hands, tilting it up to kiss her again. She leaned into it, caught between wanting to get the rest of her clothes off and wanting to never stop kissing him. After a few moments, the desire to go further than a lip-lock won out.

  “I can’t undress if you’re standing right there,” she told him. He took a step back. Delphine ignored the fact that everywhere he had touched now felt cold.

  “Don’t let me interrupt you,” he said teasingly and walked to his bed, sprawling out on it. Delphine’s mouth went dry looking at him, the sharp jut of his hipbones, the defined muscle of his chest… she shook herself and went back to the task at hand.

  She undressed as gracefully as she could, as aware as ever of his eyes on her. Looking down at her arm, she pondered over whether or not to leave the bracelet on. She decided it couldn’t hurt and walked over to the bed, begging her knees not to give out before she reached it. Once she was close enough, she ran her fingers down his chest and stomach, the way the muscles contracted under her touch sending sparks through her.

  “My eyes are up here,” he joked breathlessly. Delphine smiled at him, looking up.

  “I know,” she told him, slinging one leg over his body so she could straddle him. “The view’s better down here though.”

  She leaned down to kiss him again. He wrapped one arm around her waist as best he could, the other coming up to cup the back of her skull. The kiss was filthy and intense. It was already the best sex Delphine had ever had, and they hadn’t even gotten to the main course yet.

  “Do you have…” her voice trailed off, unsure how to ask without damaging the mood. Luckily, Custer knew exactly what she was asking.

  “Yeah, just a sec,” Custer said and she rolled off him enough to let him reach over and rifle through the drawer of his bedside stand. He pulled out a foil packet and had it opened and the condom on in record time.

  “Better?” he asked.

  “Much,” Delphine said, leaning in to press a quick kiss to his lips. She slid a hand between her legs and ran a finger over her sensitive flesh. Though she was still wet from what she’d been imagining in the shower, Custer wasn’t small by any stretch of the imagination. Deciding it was good enough, she moved back on top of him. He grabbed her thighs.

  “If you want to stop,” he told her, his face flushed but serious, “at any time—”

  “I have twice your base strength and claws. If I want to stop, you’ll know,” Delphine told him. “I doubt I’ll want to, though.”

  “Good to know,” Custer said, then moaned as Delphine lowered herself onto him.

  The initial stretch punched the air out of her lungs, and she knew she’d be feeling it the next day. She held herself still for a moment, adjusting, before rolling her hips experimentally. Custer groaned, his hands latching onto her hips, and she repeated the motion.

  She had thought, distantly, that this would be a graceful, coordinated thing. It was not. Delphine leaned forward, grabbing the headboard to brace herself, as she ground down on him. The gasps and moans punched out of her would have been embarrassing if she didn’t feel so good. One of Custer’s hands was in a bruising grip on her hip, the other slid down to rub his thumb in small circles against her sensitive flesh, setting her blood on fire. Any second now, she thought as the pleasure began to collect like raindrops in her stomach, she would burst into flame.

  Custer, for his part, looked just as wrecked. There was none of his trademark mania in him now, or the seriousness Delphine had grown used to. He looked wrecked, his pupils blown and a flush spread over his face and down to his chest. His stomach muscles flexed as he thrust his hips up to meet her.

  “God, Delphine,” he groaned.

  Delphine tried to think of something clever to say, but then he did something particularly clever with his finger and she clapped a hand over her mouth to muffle a shriek. The heat inside her was steadily building to an inferno and, from the looks of it, Custer wasn’t going to last much longer either. She was seeing stars, almost as bright as Custer’s eyes, and her breathing was ragged. It only took a few more thrusts before she shattered apart.

  Her vision whited out as she came, her body shuddering through the waves of pleasure that crashed over her. Slowly, the world returned to her. Under her, she could hear Custer moaning, both his hands now on her waist.

  The pieces of her reassembled themselves slowly, although they fit together differently than before. Delphine felt, as she tumbled to the bed beside Custer, newer and more comfortable in her own skin than ever before. The same person, but better.

  They lay there, panting. After a moment, Delphine began laughing. Custer rose up on one elbow, looking affronted.

  “No, no,” she told him in between giggles, “it’s just, now we have to shower again.”

  Custer’s face morphed into a leer. “You want a hand with that?”

  Delphine was about to reply when the intercom above his bed went off.

  “Custer, I need you to get Delphine and come to the kitchen. Family meeting time.”

  Custer reached up to press the reply button. “On it. Um, but…” He looked over Delphine’s body. “Can Annie bring her another change of clothes?”

  There was a very loud silence, followed by the captain saying, “I honestly don’t know what I was expecting. I honestly do not know how I asked you to look after the woman who, due to admittedly terrible circumstances, tried to kill and didn’t think once it would end up like this. Yes, I’ll have Annie bring the poor girl some clothes.”

  Delphine covered her mouth with her hand to stifle her giggles but her eyes sparkled with mirth.

  “Thank you, Captain, and I apologize for not following your admirable lead of sleeping
with a random girl we find on a planet and then have to kill a warlord for. Truly, I see the error of my ways.” He released the button to lean over and kiss Delphine as the captain squeaked indignantly.

  They lay there, just kissing, until a knock sounded at the door. Custer groaned quietly and rolled over. He grabbed his pants and swiftly hopped into them before opening the door. Delphine pulled the covers up to her armpits.

  Annie’s face looked to be about half amusement, half resigned irritation.

  “We are going to have a talk later,” she informed Custer, thrusting a bundle of cloth at him and peering around him. “Same goes to you, Delphine.”

  Delphine suddenly felt awkward. “Thank you for the clothes.”

  “Not a problem,” Annie sighed. “We’ll need to take you shopping sooner rather than later, though.”

  Delphine frowned, sitting up. “What?”

  “Like Leo said. Family meeting, ASAP.” Annie nodded at them both, then walked back into the hall.

  “Do you know what’s going on?” Delphine asked as Custer set the clothes on the bed.

  “How would I?”

  Delphine shrugged, still frowning, and reached for the pants. Some crises were best dealt with clothed.

  “Have you ever heard of Helen of Sparta?” Custer asked as she tugged on the borrowed clothing.

  “I… no, I don’t think so,” she said, wracking her brain.

  “Old Earth Greek legend. Apparently, she was the most beautiful woman in the world so all the men wanted to have her. They all gathered and let her choose, and promised that they’d all respect her choice and help her chosen husband if anything happened to her. Anyways, she chooses this one man, but the Trojan prince asks the love goddess, Aphrodite, to help him kidnap her, knowing it’ll start a war.”

  Delphine nodded, waiting for Custer to reveal why this was relevant.

  “All I’m saying is, he started a lot of shit with a lot of dangerous people for a girl he never spoke to, he just thought she was beautiful. And I think you’re beautiful, and having spoken to you I am cripplingly fond of you, and so whatever happens in the meeting I just want you to remember that wars have been fought for less than what I feel for you.”

  Delphine’s throat closed. The galaxy’s worst soldier and a weapon who was trying to be something more. What a perfect pair they made.

  “Well, now that the afterglow’s officially ruined, I say we go see what Leo wants,” Custer said with significantly more cheer than he’d had mere seconds prior. Delphine allowed her mood to be lifted and nodded with a slight smile.

  The trip to the kitchen was short enough that Delphine’s worries didn’t have time to take over her mind but long enough that they still planted seeds of doubt and panic. Everyone else was already seated at the table, their expressions containing various levels of exasperation.

  “I just want to say before we get started,” Hyde said, “that the fact that none of us realized that this was going to happen is, in hindsight, frankly embarrassing. I would also like to add that under no circumstances are the two of you allowed to procreate while I’m alive.”

  Dominic nodded seriously.

  “Duly noted,” Custer said with his trademark smile. “We’ll be sure to murder you before starting a family. Don’t worry, it’ll be quick.”

  “If you’re done,” the captain cut in with a glare, “we need to have a serious conversation.”

  “We managed to get ahold of the Rabblerouser fairly quickly,” Annie said. “The mercenaries that went after Custer and Delphine must have tipped them off. They were wary, but willing to negotiate once we made it clear we meant them no harm. They agreed, and Zosha’s friend gave the Mason executives a very convincing show. They aren’t stupid enough to risk a multi-billion credit business over this. As long as we have Delphine and the Rabblerouser crew is willing to admit to smuggling U4 for them—that is, of course, as long as they don’t run the risk of getting arrested—Mason can’t move forward without taking a huge leap back.”

  “And that’s what we need to discuss. The Rabblerouser’s captain wants Delphine,” the captain informed the room.

  Custer stiffened, his smile suddenly cold. “And what did you tell them?”

  “That it was a no-go. It’s understandable. We need their help to get Mason to stop sending people after us, but if we turn Delphine loose she could disappear—or worse, go back to Mason—and then they’re on the hook for being willing to testify against them and in the same position we are. I explained that we couldn’t risk giving Delphine to them in case they decided to try and garner loyalty with Mason. We agreed that, as long as we keep Delphine on a proverbial leash, they’d be willing to testify. The problem with our job is that the only reliable way to do that is keep you on the ship, which means you’d have to work for us. We don’t have the resources or, frankly, the inclination to take care of someone who isn’t contributing. Thoughts?”

  “I…” Delphine shook her head, stunned. “I don’t understand.”

  “The problem,” Ingram said, “is that you were raised to believe that Mason Corporation was omnipotent and infallible. In reality, neither are true and no one knows it better than the people who run it. The fact that we may or may not be able to cause an investigation is too dangerous. They’re backing off, at least for now. So the question remains. What do you want to do?”

  “You’re really asking my opinion?” Delphine asked, carefully rearranging her understanding of her life.

  “Of course,” the captain said. “We’ve already told you that we’re not willing to keep prisoners. Again, we don’t have the resources, and if you chose to you could make our lives very difficult. As it stands, we need you here, willingly, or we need to work out an acceptable alternative.”

  Delphine looked at Custer, feeling truly, utterly helpless for the first time in her life. She would have been happy to die for him. The thought that she might get to live with him filled her with a terrifyingly intense whirl of emotions.

  “Whatever you want,” Custer said softly, and Delphine knew he meant it.

  She took a deep breath and smiled, small but true.

  “I want to stay.”

  Breakwater: Hyde

  Star Bears IV

  by

  Becca Fanning

  Thalia Addams pulled her shirt down to get the wrinkles out, adjusted her glasses, pulled her shirt back up to preserve her modesty, made sure she had everything she needed in her bag, and, after careful consideration, pulled her shirt back down to show some cleavage. She had a feeling this job wasn’t going to go smoothly.

  “Okay,” she told herself. “Either you can do this or you can’t, but you’re not going to find out by hiding in the ladies’ room. Now, get in, ask questions, get answers, and write an award-winning article.”

  Taking a deep breath, she opened the door to step back into the club. The dull thrum of the music escalated into a slightly fuzzy-sounding cacophony as she walked back dim room lit by neon and made her way to the bar. She had to shove through a few sweaty, gyrating bodies belonging to giggling drunks to get there, but she chalked it up to an occupational hazard. Finally, she reached her destination and immediately caught sight of her target.

  Hyde Jones. Formerly a stand-up member of the Red Quarter’s guard on Serkot, currently a smuggler aboard the ITC Breakwater with a rather impressive resume for destruction, and, most importantly, the subject of Thalia’s next article.

  Thalia took a moment to study him, partially out of academic interest and partially because the holos she had of him did him no justice. There appeared to be a hint of silver shading his temples, though his dark skin was smooth. His dreadlocks hung loose around his shoulders and the vividly blue eyepatch covering his right eye—bar fight on Taldor, Thalia’s brain supplied—occasionally caught the dull light of the bar. Plastering a smile on her face, Thalia slid over to him.