by Alana Khan
We do a whirlwind search on the database and decide on a French braid crown, with enough of my thick, brown hair down that some length will still flow down my back. Petra’s fingers fly and we’re done in minutes.
How lucky, I got hair and makeup done without any intrusive questions.
As I help a couple of other women with their dresses, I reflect on the last few days.
At first, I thought Braxx should apologize for his behavior during the massage. He orchestrated that, not Axx, and it ended so badly. I finally decided that running out of the room wasn’t exactly proper adult behavior on my part either, so I quit expecting an apology.
Braxx has made it a point to eat with me every day. He’s been building up his strength. He asked me to walk the halls with him. He’s gotten a lot stronger, but I’m still glad Dax, the handiest guy on the ship, made him a tall wooden staff. Dax said he found the wood in one of the cargo bays. It’s amazing the stuff we’ve found there.
B and I talked a lot about our home planets when we were walking around the ship. He’s shown me pictures of his homeworld. He wasn’t joking when he said he wanted to know everything about me. He actually got me to hum a couple of my favorite songs and tell a few stories. I narrated the plot of the movie Avatar. I thought he’d love it, but it lost something in the translation.
He asked me to go to planet Galgon with him two days ago to watch Aries and Savage’s cestus matches, but I declined. I was afraid I’d see one of them get hurt. Thankfully both males won handily and came back to the Slacker without a scratch.
After six days of meals and walks and singing and stories, I feel comfortable with Braxx. I’m not sure how things will be with Axxios, though. I’m hoping he decides to stay on board at the helm. I even hinted that to Braxx several times today, but I don’t think he took the bait.
“Females and males,” Captain Zar announces over the comm. “I’m happy to tell you we’ve landed on Fairea. My lovely Anya tells me we’re here for what she calls Rest and Relaxation. So be it. As you all know, Aries and Savage won their gladiatorial matches on Galgon and the purses were larger than expected. There are enough credits for each of you to have money to spend on your holiday. This will be dispensed to each of you as you exit the ship.
“Research shows the fair is rife with pickpockets, rigged games of chance, and some of the galaxy’s lowest riff-raff. As a former slave, I don’t give orders lightly, but consider it an order that none of you, male or female, travel alone on Fairea. No one. I hope I make myself clear.
“We all have bounties on our heads. If we see signs of the MarZan cartel we may need to take off in a hurry. Please stay in touch through your wrist comms and check back here every hoara.
“My appreciation to Dr. Drayke and Nova who have volunteered to stay on board and man the comms.”
He pauses a moment. Even though he’s on the bridge and we’re all elsewhere in the ship, he’s probably giving us a moment to chuckle. Drayke and Nova still can’t go an hour without mating. It’s no hardship for them to stay on board. The bridge will probably smell like sex when we return.
“So everyone be safe, have fun, and check back every hoara.” The comm clicks off, then on again. “We leave atmo at 2105. Back on board by 2100 at the latest.”
A moment later I run into A and B near the exit area. I actually get a little weak in the knees. They’re standing at my door in their sexy gladiator regalia. Axxios already had a fancy uniform. He and his brother must have been sewing today because now they’re both wearing the hottest black leather outfits in the entire Procul sector.
I think there are skimpy loincloths cradling the family jewels. Over that, they’re wearing a thick black belt with a strip of black leather hanging down the middle from waist to knee. The strip is about four inches wide, just enough to make you wonder what it’s hiding. They have black sashes from one shoulder to the other side of their waist.
Ohmygod. How can a person go from zero to one hundred on the arousal scale in one freaking second? The black leather slashing across their gold and silver skin? Ah-mazing.
But even cooler than that? The smoldering look they’re giving me. Two sets of turquoise eyes are looking me up and down and up again. Maybe Savannah was right about the boobage I’m showing. My twins are certainly making these twins happy.
“Could you forgive me if just for today I use the b-word, Brianna?” Braxx asks respectfully.
My eyebrows and the corners of my mouth lower.
“Maybe other b-words then? How about breathtaking?”
“Beguiling,” Axx adds.
“Bewitching,” Braxx is making this a game.
“Ravishing.”
“Hey, that’s not a b-word,” I complain.
“It is in our language,” they both tell me at the same time, then laugh.
“Lovely.”
“Stunning.”
“Captivating.”
“Tantalizing.”
“Enough!” I interrupt.
They both bow low to me, then come up smiling.
“You ready?” Axx asks.
I nod. “How’s your back, Braxxus. Let me see.”
He turns around. His entire back is exposed in this outfit, but it’s covered in plas-film. My fingers gently trace some of the worst cuts, but overall it looks much better.
Braxx turns, grabs the wooden staff he’d leaned against the wall, and takes my right hand in his left; Axx grabs my other hand.
After complimenting all the lovely ladies and alpha males queued up in the exit area, our feet touch Fairean soil. The cloudless sky is almost bottle green with its three weak suns shining down from different quadrants of the sky. I assume I’ll get used to the eerie quality of the daylight by the time we leave.
I’ve been to the Renaissance Festival near Denver several times, and this has the same vibe, only it goes on as far as the eye can see in all directions. We get a festival map on an interactive vid card when we pay our entry fee, then move off to the side to plan our strategy.
I let the guys pour over the map as I watch the organized chaos all around me. Our intel was right, we would have felt foolish without our costumes. I even see babies in strollers who are dressed for the fair.
I’ve gotten off the ship on two different planets since I was abducted, so the sheer enormity of seeing dozens, maybe hundreds of different alien species isn’t completely shocking. But it’s still oddly compelling eye candy to see different skin colors, numbers of limbs and digits, and facial configurations.
The reptilian species, of which I’ve counted three already today, give me the skeeves in a deep place in the pit of my stomach. Like seeing mold growing on food, there’s something in my own primitive brain that just shouts “stay away” from something with scaly skin and vertical pupils.
I smell meat cooking on an open fire and hear people hawking their wares. Music is drifting toward me from at least two directions. For the first time since leaving Earth, I hear an alien tune with a pleasing melody; my body hums with pleasure. It reminds me of the type of music I heard at the Ren-Fest back home. The melody lilting toward me from my right sounds like a flute and a stringed instrument. I want to go watch them play. In fact, I want to see everything there is to see before my feet hit the Lazy Slacker’s ramp at 2100.
“Brianna, come give us your opinion,” Braxx calls.
I approach and try to make sense of the vidscreen he hands me. They flank me and show me various exhibitions they think I’ll enjoy. While I hold the screen, first a silver, and then a gold hand point out different locations on the map. They suggest a schedule and a route.
“What do you guys want to see?”
“Whatever pleases you,” they say almost simultaneously.
Oh, I could get used to this—two handsome males who want to cater to my every desire. Yes, please.
“This schedule you’re showing me, you’d enjoy this too, right?”
They nod.
“Then let’s get a move
on.”
The first exhibition we’ll attend sounds like an elaborate mronck show. They say it’s dozens of six-legged horse-like animals being put through their paces while being ridden by people standing on their backs. Sounds fun.
It’s in two hours, so we have plenty of time to stroll through rows and rows of outdoor stands selling arts and crafts and food.
After only ten minutes I’m almost on overload. We’ve seen paintings, leathercraft, beautiful dresses and shawls, interesting things made out of silky ribbons, as well as jewelry of every description. At almost every stall, Braxx finds something he thinks I’ll like and shows it to me.
“Would you like this, Angel?” he shows me a gorgeous pendant of silver, gold, and rose gold intertwined. The shine and patina of both the gold and the silver closely resemble the two handsome guys standing in front of me. With a little imagination, you’d think it was a lovely symbol of the three of us.
“You have a very good eye, B, but I’m sure we can’t afford that, and besides I don’t need it.” Even as I’m saying no, I caress it with my index finger. “It’s really beautiful, though.”
“Just like someone else I know,” he smiles and hands it back to the shopkeeper.
He’s so freaking sweet I just don’t have the heart to keep scolding him about calling me beautiful. I’ll let this personal battle go—for today.
As we walk from shop to shop, Axx stays close, his right hand possessively around my waist. At first, I wanted to push him away, but I have to admit I like his protectiveness. I feel safe with him. I realize I always have.
I’d expected to get a lot of judgy, disapproving looks as we walk along. Two guys escorting one girl. But this seems to be a complete non-issue. First of all, it’s a time-honored part of the Mythrian culture. Second, with the sea of diverse creatures we’re wading through, no one would have time to focus on something as benign as three people enjoying each other’s company.
And I am. I am enjoying both their company.
“Axx, remember the revensell we had when we were here as kids? It’s been almost thirty years and I can still almost taste how delicious it was,” B’s voice is happy and expectant.
“I do remember. Do you recall how huge it seemed? I imagine it wasn’t nearly as big as I remember.”
“If we see a revensell stand, I’m getting one, even if I’m not hungry.” Braxx’s eyes are shining in excitement. It tickles me the way he can be almost childlike in his enthusiasm. Then a picture of the look in his eyes the night of the massage arrows into my brain. He wasn’t so childlike then. My nipples harden; I wonder if they’ll show from under the silky fabric of my dress.
“Are you going to try it, Brianna?” Axx asks.
It takes me a moment to realize he’s not talking about having a sweaty threesome in their big bed. “Something so delicious you’re talking about it decades later? Count me in. What is it?”
“Meat on a bone roasted over a spit. It’s amazing,” Braxx answers. “Take a sniff, that’s probably what you smell.”
“But…” Axxios begins. “When we find a booth, one of us will buy it while you wait with the other.”
“Sure,” I shrug. “Why?”
“You...won’t want to see the beast it comes off of. There will be pictures of the animal prominently displayed. You won’t like them,” Axx explains.
“Look at me,” I motion down my body. “I am not a vegetarian. I’ve seen very cute pictures of all the animals I’ve eaten, and I’ve scarfed the food down anyway, much to the dismay of my vegetarian friends. But cute brown eyes or not, I love steak.”
“Trust me, Angel, you won’t want to see pictures of this one,” Axx says, shaking his head.
Axx just called me Angel. And it made me tingle from the top of my head to the soles of my feet. Especially in the middle. My nether region just flipped the switch from off to on. I can feel my pulse drumming between my legs.
“The animal is too cute?” Frankly, I don’t care. I’m just prolonging this conversation as an excuse to keep looking at him. His skin actually glistens in the sun—he’s beautiful.
“The animal is not cute. Brianna. Trust me on this. You’ll enjoy the revensell way more if you just imagine what it looks like.”
His expression changes from a serious warning look to a warm smile. Axxios is smiling at me! I don’t believe I’ve ever seen him smile like that. It makes my clit tingle. If this keeps up it’s going to be a very long day.
I hadn’t realized, but Braxxus had been scouting ahead. He’s hustling back, barely using the wooden staff in his hand, a wide grin on his face. “Right down this aisle. The revensell looks great and smells fantastic. You were right, Axx, there are huge pictures of the revens at the front and back of the stall. I’ll buy us each one and then let’s check out the next aisle over.”
Now they’ve got my interest piqued. If I don’t see a picture today, I’m getting on the Intergalactic Database when I get home tonight.
Did I just call the Lazy Slacker home? This awareness jolts me. It’s been several months since I was kidnapped from my apartment. Do I really feel like the Slacker is home?
I search myself for a moment. Colorado is far behind me. We’ve all agreed none of us Earth women can go back. At this point, we’ve been gone too long. There are questions we just couldn’t answer. One of us would spill the beans and we’d either become lab rats at some secret, military black ops site, or we’d be locked away in the loony bin for the rest of our lives.
So if Denver isn’t my home, it’s clear that home is where I hang my hat. And that’s the Slacker, with all my friends. We’re like family, a great big slightly dysfunctional family, but a family nonetheless. I know without a doubt that everyone on board cares about me and would try to protect me if I needed it.
They’re all way too much in my business—just like real family. They call us Braxxianna, FFS. But they all want me to be happy. I feel peaceful inside, believing the truth of the statement that the Slacker is home and this is my adopted family.
I glance up at Axx, who’s scanning the crowd protectively while his hand absently caresses my side from hip to below my bust.
He’s not a bad male. I’m having a hard time remembering why I’ve been so angry at him. He’s been nothing but kind. From the first moment I was thrown into his cell, he tried to calm my nerves while never being condescending or sugar-coating the truth. It’s not his fault there’s something in his biology that gives him macho man syndrome.
Braxxus is approaching us. In addition to his staff, he’s trying to juggle three pieces of meat that look like something out of the Flintstones. These things are huge, like turkey legs only triple the size. Each one could feed a family of four for a week.
They both turn their attention to me as Braxxus hands me the haunch-o-brontosaurus. I’m not particularly optimistic even though it looks good and smells so delicious my mouth is watering. I probably should have just taken a look at the damn pictures in the stall. They couldn’t be worse than what I’m imagining in my head.
But I bite into it and the taste is amazing. The meat is so succulent and juicy I reach for the napkin Braxx is already handing me. My mouth is full of the delectable, hot meat and all I can do is nod and make a “yum” noise.
“We told you,” Axx smiles. Braxx says nothing. His mouth is so full, he’s not capable of anything other than chewing.
The guys make a point of making a U-turn so we don’t walk by the pictures they are convinced will offend me. If I can eat ham after seeing pictures of adorable piglets, I’m sure I’ll be able to tolerate seeing a reven.
We explore a little shop run by a wizened old humanoid with a green cast to his leathery skin. He’s making the most attractive shoes out of buttery-soft suede. I’d love a pair. We’ve had the damnedest time finding comfortable footwear in space, but he says he couldn’t possibly get them finished before tomorrow, even after we offer him a bribe.
The guys are entranced by a huge stall th
at specializes in knives. There are knives of every shape, size, and description from every planet in the known galaxy. It’s interesting for a minute, but by now I’m bored out of my mind.
“Guys, I know we’re not supposed to separate, but can I go look at the next couple of shops?” I lean closer and whisper, “I’ll scream if I need help. Promise.”
Axx’s eyes slit suspiciously. “No, Angel, I’ll go with you.”
“That’s sweet, but you’re fascinated here. Look,” I point, “I won’t go farther than that tree. Just a few shops up the path.”
When neither of them agrees, I offer, “I’ll stay in the middle of the path so you can see me at a glance.”