Daggertail

by Kaitlin Maitland

  The lift doors slid open. The thirtieth floor stretched before them. Darting around Xave’s bulk, she slammed her hand against the control panel to close the door and send the lift rocketing to the fiftieth floor.

  Her rash action finally gained his full attention. “What are you doing?”

  “I can’t die without telling you something.”

  A muscle jumped in his jaw. “You’re not going to die.”

  “We’re both going to die eventually. And with our luck it could be within the next ten minutes.”

  His scowl deepened.

  “I’m sorry.” She twisted her hands together in agitation. “I shouldn’t have said those things or treated you the way I did. I was stupid, and running off was worse. The only thing it did was fuck up your mission.”

  He shrugged. “You’re entitled to your opinions.”

  “Sometimes things change. You aren’t a machine.”

  “You thought I was insane when I told you about my past, about where I’d come from. Are you telling me you’ve changed your mind?”

  “You’re more human than any other man I’ve known. How could I not change my mind?”

  The corner of his mouth twisted upward. “Not necessarily a stellar recommendation considering the lowlifes you have for comparison purposes.”

  She bristled, stepping toe-to-toe with Xave and glaring up into his face. “Mine’s the only opinion that should matter.”

  “And why is that?”

  “Because I’m the one who loves you.”

  He didn’t believe her at first, but he wanted to. She could see it in the expressions warring for dominance on his face. He didn’t know what to think or what to say. Deciding to sway the scales in her favor, she placed her hands on his chest and sent him a scorching look from beneath her eyelashes.

  “Tavish, we can’t. The cameras…”

  “You think they haven’t seen this before?”

  She didn’t wait for an answer. Launching herself at him, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her open mouth to his. He responded immediately, his arms sliding beneath her legs to pull her closer before he took violent possession of the kiss.

  “This is insane.”

  She pulled away long enough to press her lips to his ear. “I need you.”

  Her words seemed to unleash something inside him. A guttural growl filled the lift. He yanked her legs around his waist and slammed her against the smooth metal wall. The cool surface contrasted the heat of the man between her legs. A soft cry of desire escaped her throat.

  Her pussy ached with heat. Blood rushed into her labia, and they grew slick with fluid. She bucked her hips in silent desperation, trying to gain friction against the erection bulging behind the fabric of his pants.

  He slung her dress out of the way to gain better access. His touch was cool against her naked skin, and his hands were gentle, despite his obvious lust.

  His expression was pleasure laced with pain as his erection strained against his fly. He fumbled the opening of his pants, releasing his cock. The weight of its fullness pressed against the inside of her leg. She squirmed, wanting it closer, wanting it inside her.

  “Please, Xave, don’t make me wait.”

  A wicked smile curved one side of his mouth, and then it descended upon hers. He gave her a long, intense kiss, and before their lips parted, he slid the length of his cock inside her tight sheath.

  Every inch rubbed a delicious path over her vaginal muscles. Her body both resisted and welcomed his abrupt invasion. She reveled in the fullness, cherishing each place where the unbearable friction sent fissures of pleasure lancing through her.

  Finally fully seated inside her, he ground his pelvis against hers. The splayed hood of her clit ground against him. She moaned and her head lolled to one side, her eyes sliding shut as the sensations flooded her body.

  Again and again he pressed into her, pushing her against the unforgiving wall of the lift, his arms beneath her legs. His cock grew harder. The crown bounced steadily against her G-spot until her nerve endings thrummed. Heat pooled in her spine and trickled down the backs of her legs.

  Her pussy contracted, drawing him farther in. He groaned and his hips bucked. He pushed his throbbing cock once more into her heat and then convulsed into ejaculation.

  The sensation of his hot semen pulsating into her body was too much. She came on a soft cry of release, her ribbed pussy milking his cock as he poured his seed into her depths.

  He pressed a kiss to the sensitive skin beside her ear. “Don’t look at the cameras.”

  She didn’t argue. She had no doubt that the casino’s security employees had seen such displays of wanton behavior on the lifts before. But by now they had to have gained an audience. Giving away their identities wouldn’t be wise.

  His cock made a wet sound when it slid from her pussy. Lowering her to the floor, he waited until she’d regained her sense of equilibrium before refastening his pants.

  Tavish settled her dress back around her legs. Her thighs were damp with the mixed results of their coupling. She didn’t want to stop. A few stolen minutes spent fucking Xave wasn’t enough. Instinct told her he felt the same way.

  “If we keep this up, I’ll be wearing you like a perfume,” Tavish mused.

  Eyes still glued to the floor, Xave grunted.

  “I won’t have many customers if I smell like another man.”

  She didn’t know where the words had come from. It was an inane thought, the rambling product of a busy feminine mind, that ended with disastrous results.

  Xave froze. His big body went rigid. His expression darkened, eyes sparking in anger. When he reached out to grab her, his quickness startled a little gasp from her throat.

  “You’re not a whore.”

  “I can’t change what I am.”

  “I can.”

  A knot formed in the pit of her belly.

  “No one else will ever touch you again. I won’t allow it.”

  The lift chose that moment to slide the doors wide open on the fiftieth floor. Tavish wordlessly pressed the correct button and stared fixedly at the wall. The awkward silence stretched until the door finally swished open on thirty.

  Still reeling from Xave’s forceful declaration regarding her future, she caught the heel of her shoe on the plush rug and stumbled forward.

  Without another word, he headed down the wide corridor. She wanted to scream. How could he say something like that and then ignore it? He’d assumed control of her destiny. Did it matter so little to him that it required no discussion at all?

  Wasn’t that what she really wanted anyway?

  She was disgusted with herself. It shouldn’t matter that she couldn’t imagine her life as a working girl any longer. The fact that she’d be hard-pressed to tolerate another man’s touch long enough to earn a single credit wasn’t the issue. Xave shouldn’t be making assumptions about her. He had no right!

  “Stupid, autocratic machine,” she muttered.

  “Remember what I told you,” he said in a clipped voice. “There’s a vid cam over the door, so I’ll stay right here.”

  She wasn’t about to admit that she’d gotten distracted in the lift and hadn’t heard the plan. She’d been too outraged over his apparent takeover of her life to pay attention.

  Keeping her face averted to avoid being recognized in the vid cam, she reached out and buzzed the comm button on the door.

  Mendez’s whine grated on her frayed nerves. “What do you want?”

  “Open up. The party’s just starting.”

  “I didn’t order any entertainment.”

  “Honey,” she said with a chuckle, “I’m not on the menu.” That soft feminine laugh had coaxed plenty of nervous johns into line. Keeping her back to the door, she eased into a posture guaranteed to get Mendez thinking with his cock instead of his brain.

  The sound of his breath hitching could be heard over the comm. Turning it up a notch, she reached up and pulled the pins from he
r hair, letting the long mass trickle down her spine. Running her hands through the silky locks, she swirled into a sinuous dance right there in the hallway. Her palms slid down the curve of her hips, settling on her rounded backside and hitching her skirt upward until it rested just above her naked cheeks.

  “Yeah, take it off,” Mendez urged in a voice tight with lust.

  From a short distance down the hallway, Xave’s gaze bored holes into her. She could feel his anger rising. So he thought he could order her around?

  Think again, asshole.

  Tavish picked up the narrow straps of her slinky dress and let it fall from her shoulders into a pool on the floor. Spreading her legs, she arched her back and wiggled before giving her ass a light slap with one hand.

  Somewhere in the shadows, Xave muffled a roar. Behind her on the comm, Mendez gave a shriek.

  “The door’s open, baby. Come inside and I’ll fuck you so good you won’t be able to walk straight.”

  Keeping her face lowered on the pretext of picking up her dress, Tavish rolled her eyes and muffled a laugh. Men were so predictable.

  She reached out and swung the door open as soon as she heard it click.

  Before she could enter, Xave swept past her into the room. Mendez didn’t have time to shout. By the time she made it into the room and closed the door behind her, he sprawled unconscious on the bed. Xave held an empty hypodermic syringe in one hand.

  Xave picked up Mendez and slung him across his shoulders without a word. He stalked across the opulent suite and flung open a mirrored closet door, chucked the unconscious man inside, and slammed the door shut.

  Then he turned his attention to Tavish.

  Deciding to try and get a feel for just how angry he was, she pasted a bright smile on her face and injected cheer into her voice. “He didn’t give us too much trouble about opening the door.”

  Xave stopped and crossed his massive arms over his broad chest. “I can’t imagine a man who wouldn’t open the door for a beautiful, naked woman.”

  “Glad I thought of that, then.”

  His expression soured even more. She fought the urge to back away as he moved toward her. She had no reason to be ashamed. She hadn’t done anything wrong. She’d gotten Mendez to open the door. For the first time in forever, she’d made an informed choice about how and why her body was used. Just because it hadn’t been Xave sanctioned, he was pitching a fit. But it wasn’t his decision. It was hers. And she was tired of men telling her what to do with her body.

  “What possessed you to do that?”

  “Possessed me? It’s what I do! Why is that so hard for you to understand? I’ve danced and stripped, got down on my knees and been flat on my back for more men than I can count! Why does it matter what I do? I’m a whore!”

  A frigid layer of ice descended over his blue gaze. His fists clenched so hard at his sides that the veins bulged out of his arms. She thought he might be in danger of explosion.

  “Whore,” he repeated.

  She nodded, her voice trapped inside her body. Why did he have the power to make her feel like this? After all this time accepting who she was, why did he make her feel like the cheapest woman ever to wear high heels? It was the truth that ate her soul and burned her into a dry, brittle husk a little at a time, day by day. Tears prickled in the corners of her eyes.

  His big hands descended from nowhere in a harsh and angry grip. He dragged her to a bed draped in imported silk and strewn with tasseled pillows before flinging her hard against the edge of the mattress and bending her at the waist. Disbelief warred with desire as she began to realize where this was going.

  “You want to be treated like a whore?” His voice was brutal, and his hands were rough. “I’ll treat you like one.”

  Instinct washed over Tavish, spiking her adrenaline and making her fight like a cornered animal. She struggled against his overwhelming strength, hissing and spitting while trying to sink her teeth into his arms.

  He pressed her into the soft mattress with one hand, using the other to shove her dress above her waist. She gave a muffled shout and lurched forward, trying to get her legs free.

  He leaned down, mouth beside her ear. “I like my whores nice and cooperative.”

  She struggled harder until a stinging slap on her ass echoed throughout the room. Dazed, she went limp.

  “Good girl,” he crooned, smoothing his palm over the burning skin he’d slapped moments earlier.

  She should’ve hated him. But the oddest part of the whole surreal incident was that she didn’t. Instead, a rising wave of longing overtook everything else. Desire curled inside her belly, and her pussy answered with a rush of cream that dampened her thighs.

  He spread her cheeks, delving into the cleft until his fingers sank into the evidence of her arousal. He stilled. She knew he reached out with his heightened senses, testing, tasting, and smelling the truth she could not hide.

  She heard him fumble with his pants bare seconds before his shaft impaled her in one long thrust. Intense pleasure hit her so hard, she thought her spine might snap. Her back arched, ass lifting to increase his penetration as Xave pulled out only long enough to slide back in.

  He groaned, bracing his weight on his hands and setting a fearsome pace. The wet slapping sounds of his pelvis striking her ass filled the room. Her pussy clenched, drawing him in and fighting his retreat as he pounded her cunt. Her breath came in gasps, a tiny cry escaping every time he seated his hard cock inside her channel.

  “Fuck,” he ground out. “You’re so sweet. My cunt, my woman, mine.”

  “Xave…I’m…coming.”

  She hardly managed the words before realizing their truth. An orgasm ripped through her pussy, sending undulating waves of pleasure over both of them. Still he fucked her, gritting his teeth and pounding her pussy through the tension rocking her muscles. Her desire notched higher, drawing her body tight on a rack.

  Her breasts bounced against the mattress, her hips slamming against the edge of the bed with each stroke. Xave’s taut arms bracketed her body, bound her closer to him as he rode her to his own release.

  “Take my cock, Tav. Take my cum.”

  “Please, Xave!” she begged, not knowing what she needed.

  “Come with me,” he ordered.

  She’d not have thought it possible, but his cock pulsed once, twice, and when the third wave crested with his throbbing ejaculate, she convulsed into orgasm a second time. Xave’s body went taut as he strained against her, emptying his seed deep inside her channel.

  He pulled out immediately, hiking his pants over his hips and turning away. Uncertain, Tavish gained her feet, her dress falling obediently around her legs.

  His expression turned stoic, unreadable, and his body language was mute. She wished she had his senses, able to smell emotion and gauge body heat to see the truth behind the barrier.

  “Xave?”

  “Are you all right?”

  The question took her by surprise. “Of course.”

  “You’re not hurt?”

  She frowned. “No, why would I be?”

  He turned, and she was stunned by the desolation on his handsome face. “Xave, what’s wrong?”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “For what?”

  He fidgeted in agitation before gesturing toward the bed. “For that.”

  Was he actually apologizing for fucking her? That was insane. The argument. This had to be about the argument.

  In that moment she stood upon a precipice. Her response to Xave’s apology would define the future of their relationship. Once said, her words would shape everything that came after.

  The thought made her light-headed.

  On one side, this incredible man had turned her entire world inside out. He’d touched her in a way that went beyond the stunning physical satisfaction. She wanted desperately to imagine a future for them, some miraculous circumstance that would allow them to remain together, stay alive, and have a fairy-tale ending.


  But there were no fairy tales, not for working girls. She knew how this would end. If their relationship survived the clash of wills and the power struggles, she would get just long enough to become attached before he traded up and moved on.

  On the other side existed her old life with its emotionally barren existence. She could never go back to Louie’s. But there were other brothels on other worlds, other ways to make enough credits to get by. And while she would have to do without the stunning physical aspect of a life with Xave, she’d have ultimate control of her destiny, and her heart would be safe. What was the value of a heart intact?

  Intact or icy?

  There were a thousand things she could’ve said. Yet only one smart-assed comment left her mouth.

  “Don’t worry about it,” she said, her voice cool and unaffected. “You can take the whore out of the brothel, but you can’t take the brothel out of the whore.”

  He turned his back. “Now that we’ve cleared that up, I suggest we search this room for any information that might be useful.”

  Watching Xave ruffle his way through the papers on the antique desk, she felt cold inside. It had been her choice. She could’ve said anything. She could’ve told him that he hadn’t forced himself on her, that she’d cherished every moment of their wild coupling. But instead, she’d decided to snuff out the possibility of more.

  So why did she feel so cold inside?

  Chapter Sixteen

  Xave rifled through the room without seeing the contents. He didn’t need to find anything. Mendez was alive and in custody. Warrick would squeeze him for information, and Xave would have the proof he’d waited his whole life to find. He had nothing else to do, no need to dig for more information. Yet he continued, tossing aside holo-flyers advertising private lap dances and random bits of wire and hyperplastic odds and ends from Mendez’s technical gadgets. It was a distraction. It was all a distraction, anything to keep his eyes away from Tavish.