by Calista Skye
That alone made me feel safe with him.
I almost forgot the troubles awaiting me in the near future, until a Food Cube set off from the holo limits loomed ahead, and he lowered the bike into a parking ramp. At his prompting, I slid down from the hover bike as its thunder roared to a low rumble. Fingers flitting over its controls, he shut it down completely and grabbed my hand.
“You need to eat.”
Woah. Nurturer much?
Not knowing how to take this out-of-stereotype version of a dust-rider, I shrugged and let him lead me, realizing as we drew close to the Food Cube that it might not even be open. Answering my curiosity, the rider produced a key and promptly released my fingers.
Then the entry door slid open with a blinking flash of red light, and he turned, looking to notice my pause before gesturing me in.
“I won't bite.”
A grin ticked my mouth. Was it wrong that I wanted him to?
~
For a dust rider, this one was a gentleman through and through. I've heard a lot of stories about them, and none of them matched up to this guy.
“Sorry, I couldn't make a proper introduction. The name's Arc.”
“Rorie. Rorie Nebula.”
“Pretty name for a pretty girl.”
“Woman.”
Arc's eyes sparked with mischief and something like electric sugar tickled my gut. Part of it was inspired by him mentioning that he found me pretty.
“Well, come on, Woman. Have a seat.”
He gestured me to a small booth on the side of the service counter. There were a few folded up in rows behind me, like they were attached to the cube and rolled out the back of the it for paying customers during business hours.
“How're you feeling now? A little more clear?” He asked, pulling a water tube out of the small chiller under the counter.
“Little better now.”
Placing the bottle in front of me, he turned back to the cooking module.
“Good.”
“What was...”My words trailed off as I gulped down heavenly ice-water, like I'd just walked three days through the Debian deserts for it.
“Those jokers? Acquisitioners. They think they own the lower decks.”
My stomach plummeted, but I tried to keep it from showing in my expression. Acquistioners activated unsanctioned founts, making space bunnies even the lower decks wouldn't harbor. Highly illegal shit.
It made the prospect of becoming a sanctioned fount less daunting.
“Why not ban them?”
He turned a contemplative eye on me, seeming to weigh his words before speaking. Stars, he was beautiful.
“We made a bad deal with them, and they're tricky. We're not finished with negotiations, yet.”
“Ah.”
Maybe I was better off not knowing anymore than that. Acquisitioners. That explained the funny way their "comped" drink made me feel. By the look of them, they probably made those glamor drugs that passed in and out of fashion. I choked on my water when I realized I'd ingested some.
“Did they-”
“Drug you with their stash? Yeah. They know they're not supposed to do that in our territory, but they get out of hand sometimes. Ravi will hand them their asses. Drek will sober up, and we'll have to go back to the negotiating table. Again.”
My brow creaked.
“Why would-”
“I told you. They're tricky. By the time we knew what we were getting into, we were already in it.”
“So they can just... go around drugging girls?”
“They, uh... reserve that for girls they find exceptionally attractive. Drek likes to make videos with the bunnies he makes, and he likes his girls lusty. What he slipped you is like Spanish Fly on steroids.”I let his words sit with me before saying anything else, taking several more gulps of water as the minutes ticked between us. I hadn't been at all willing. I don't know what that last aspect of the night's horrors meant. After a minute passed, Arc slipped a glowing menu tab in front of me and pulled several containers out of the chiller.
“Our specialty here is All-In Subs and Pockets. Pick one.”
A grin ticked my cheek. A cook, too. How sweetly fancy. Running my eyes over the gleaming options on the menu, I scanned the different variations of subs and pockets.
After thorough consideration, I settled on #4: The Onion and Mushroom Fiesta.
A grin slinked up his cheek.
“Coming right up.”
Stars, he was sexy.
I tried not to make it obvious that I was already so taken with him, and settled on stealing quick peeks at him as he took off his hover vest, bearing an impressive set of abs in a way that was unusually humble. Most guys would flaunt a body like his, but I could tell he'd only taken off his shirt because he was about to turn on the flares.
“You like your onions fried?”
“Yeah,” I managed meekly, suddenly feeling like my old academy girl self, complete with crush. I might not be on Nia's level, but I wanted to leave that girl behind. I at least wanted to approach my life with a semblance of confidence that wasn't dependent on men, if it could be managed.
Swigging and capping my water intermittently, I tried to appear as casual as possible as I stole glances at his physique, secretly admiring the way the green overhead glow caught the perfect cut of his musculature. He was tightly corded in a way that made it clear how accustomed to body work he was, but he was lithe, and his muscles didn't over-power his frame.
They accented it.
He must have felt my eyes because he glanced my way, and I flushed instantly, answering any questions he might have had about the reason my eyes were on him. Averting my gaze, I took another sip of water and settled my attention out the window-panel of the Food Cube.
There wasn't a great deal to look at out there, but the quiet of simulated night settled my mind pretty quickly. There'd never been much property by the holo limits. I'd been through here a few times as a girl when my sister brought me to the brooks on the sanctioned ramps, maybe even bought something from this very Food Cube. That was when Sienna was doing better. I used to treasure my time with my big Sis, but since she fell in with the wrong crowd everything had changed.
I steeled against the memory of her.
She'd made me promise to make it through the higher academy when she started dancing in the lower lounges, made me promise to cash the credits she sent me. I hated it, as much as I needed the money, but a promise was a promise, and it inflated her with a sense of needed pride to provide for me.
Sienna blamed herself for what happened to our father, but it wasn't her fault. He made his own path, and if you asked me, he got off easy. I would never say that to her, though. She'd defend him to the death.
Her heart was a little too good.
At the sound of a tin plate set down in front of me, I snapped out of my daze to find Arc's warm eyes searching me. The delectable scent of expertly made junk food circled the air in a curl of steam around his offering, and my body took over from there.
“Bon appetit.”
“Mm,” I managed before lifting the stuffed pocket and tearing into it ravenously. Heaven, I tell you.
Arc wasn't a hero, he was a god.
“You like?” He asked it with a grin, sitting down before me with a matching entree.
“Mm Hm.”
It was several minutes before we lifted our heads from our plates, and when we did, we shared a satisfied smile between us.
“Where in the hells did you learn to cook like that?”
“It's a family thing,” he confided with a wink.
Grinning with approval, I sat back and stretched my hands over my head with the satisfaction of a star cat.
“Glad I could take the edge off the night. I hate the shit Drek is pulling. Seems like he's getting worse and-”
The buzzing of the cube phone cut him off, and I noticed him tense a little. I followed his eyes to the wall unit and realized I was holding my breath when he got u
p to answer it.
“Yeah?”
His eyes flicked to me and then quickly away as he leaned against the counter.
“I don't see why that's-”
His eyes darkened as he listened to whatever was said to him on the other line.
“Yeah. Yeah, fine, but I can glide her home. It's not-”
His jaw clenched.
“Yep. Fine.”
He set the reciever down with more force than necessary, and I watched his hands clench to fists before he seemed to gain his bearings enough to make his way over to me. There was an undeniable tension in the air, and I kept my mouth from spilling questions by downing the rest of my water.
Capping it, I averted my eyes uneasily as he sat down.
“Everything alright?”
Dammit, Rorie. Shut up!
I've never been too adept at biting my tongue.
“The, uh, the pres wants to speak with you about what happened tonight. Liabilities and all. Loose ends...”
Loose ends? Was I suddenly in a mafia app? How criminally invested were these guys that they needed to worry about loose ends?
“Alright.”
It was all I could manage to get out.
With the brilliant meal he'd whipped up pleasantly digesting in my belly, there was really little reason for us to linger now, and I got the feeling it was better for us to get these 'loose ends' tied sooner than later.
Plus, I didn't really want my alone time with Arc to end, just yet.
He was pleasant in a smoldering sort of way. It made me want to understand him, though I wasn't at all sure he planned on ever letting things get that far.
Snatching up our plates and the drained water tube, Arc chucked the container into the remolding vat and inserted the plates into its side panel. When his eyes met mine again, a flurry of nerves surged through me.
“Let's get this over with, and get you to your home unit.”
Three
The head rider of the dust pack had a commanding air about him that made you instantly straighten up. I'd found myself shifting a little when we made it back to their tiered, stack-unit, and Arc led me through the crowd of gyrating females and drunken riders groping them. I could see how embarrassed he was as he pulled me behind him, not knowing I wasn't judging him.
It's not like I was five. I'd seen people having sex before; I was enrolled in the high academy for stars' sake.
When we stepped into the head rider's office, the wide-eyed brunette on his lap followed his eyes and straightened up her body suit, all but leaping off of him.
“Get you a Brinny, Babe?”
“Yeah, sure.”
Great. Another one who employed clipped sentences.
I tried to force the tension from my muscles, not knowing what to expect from the brute. He was different than Arc, somehow, harder at the edges, even if he did have the eyes of a seraphim. Swallowing my nerves when his gaze settled onto me, I reminded myself that I hadn't done anything wrong. There shouldn't be anything to worry over. This was probably just a formality.
Maybe he just wanted to be sure I was alright.
“You ought to watch the company you keep.”
Some greeting.
The brutish rider's eyes sized me as he said it, and I had to fight off a flicker of fury in my gut. It's not as if I'd wanted to go drink with those assholes. That had been Nia's non-bright idea. Company I keep. I mean, I didn't even know those guys. What did he know about the company I... Right.
Nia.
I could tell by the way he was looking at me that he meant her. He was smarter than his clipped phrasing let on. He'd probably made her the moment she'd walked into the lower deck. Probably sized me then, too. I couldn't help but wonder what he saw when he had. Alpha males had a way of making you wonder if you measured up well in their view. I was smarter than stereotypes, but I was falling into this one, all the same.
There was no helping it.
The head rider was undeniably captivating, commanding the air in the ether effortlessly. The ether, in this room especially, was charged with his masculinity. Unlike Arc's, it wasn't subdued. It was more like... reined in. He was definitely upset about something. I couldn't be sure what exactly, but he was just a hair below fuming.
“Got nothing to say for yourself?”
It took an enormous amount of restraint for me to articulate my thoughts with a semblance of respectability.
“Should I be ashamed of something?”
His eyes drew down, glancing over my attire suggestively.
“You're not exactly dressed for a night at the app club.”
I scoffed, irritation looming.
“Yeah, maybe not tonight, but you don't really know me. So don't judge me.”
“You know what that is?”
“What?”
“Dressing like that. You know what it is?”
Ah, he was one of those guys, the type who want to feed you their philosophy and show you what deep thinkers they are. Really, he could save it. He was hot enough for people to consider him dumb as a rock where apps are concerned and still give him whatever he asked for on a glowing platter.
“Illuminate me.”
I felt a sliver of tension charge the air and knew instantly that my words had set Arc on guard. He knew his boss, after all, and I'm sure he was concerned about the hairline cracks snaking their way into the rapidly thinning ice I was standing on.
As the head rider glared at me, I folded my arms over my chest, fearlessly glaring back. A knock at the door threw us both off of our game.
“Yeah?”
“Got your Brinny, Babe.”
“Bring it in.”
I eased back a little when the door cricked open, and the spike-haired brunette stepped in, all breast and waist in her suggestively cut body suit. Snatching a glance at me, she swept past and set a frosted tube of Brinny Wine on the top of the rider's booth top.
A grin ticked the rider's cheek, and he pat his knee, beckoning her back over.
He turned his attention toward me again then, and his hand covered one of his plaything's gargantuan tits.
“It's advertising, foolish girl. You're marketing sex, and you're not even the type.”
My words caught in my throat.
What in the hell made him think he knew me so fucking well? How could he possibly know I wasn't the type? What a rankly, smug bastard?!
His presumption set my head on fire, and defiantly, I bit back my words, refusing to give him another one. Looking me over a moment, he lifted his tube and downed a large draught of its contents before setting it back down.
“You only dress like Ione here when you know what you want to do with a man, let alone have the experience to handle him.”
That last sentence made me want to throw glass, but I settled for clenching my fists.
He grinned at that.
“Good to see you have a little fire in you. Maybe you'd have even gotten away from those skin peddlers if hero here didn't swoop in to save your ass.”
I felt Arc behind me and scowled.
“Don't count on that happening again. You've become an expensive problem, and I don't appreciate having to put out the little fire you and your friend have ignited.”
The fire we ignited?
Jerk.
His eyes ran me over like he smelled something rank wafting off of me, and I grit my teeth in reaction.
“Ione and I have some business to attend to. You can run along now. I'm sure loverboy here will see to your glide, up-deck.”
Enraged, I turned without another word, averting Arc's gaze when the exit slid open, and he waited for me to exit the cramped office first. Of all the scenarios I'd imagined, this one had me completely side-swiped. The head rider might be a dreamy-looking slice of premium, but he was a complete dick. I was completely unsurprised that he'd made it to the top of the ranks of his dust pack.
“Drive safe,” he shouted after us, just before the door slid closed behind us.
I bristled.
“Come on, let's get you home.”
Arc's hands on my shoulders set me at ease, and oddly enough, all of the tension building up inside of me faded from me in the instant. The soft, warmth of his hands sent a gentle fever under the surface of my skin, and my eyes slipped closed as I relaxed into it. There was magic in his touch.
I'd never been more aware of how much I wanted to know more of a man's touch than in that moment, but somehow, I wasn't sure I'd be granted more time alone with him.
I didn't know his position in the dust pack, but he wasn't the one who called the shots.
“Arc,” a voice called out, and looking up, I saw someone hailing him from across the dull tiles of the stack unit, the big guy sentry from earlier, set just off from the crowd of riders.
“Fuck,” I heard Arc whisper. “It never fucking ends. Give me a minute.”
Four
He'd brushed past me so fast, I had no choice but to wait on the sidelines, staring out into the crowd of gathered riders and their... entertainment. Something in me recoiled at the sight, and I turned from some of the more brazen shows of affection to find myself bumping smack into Ravi.
The head rider was the last person I wanted to see in that moment, and I averted my eyes immediately. Not in a show of cowardice, but rather one of caution. There was something crackling in the air between us that I didn't like at all, even if some dumb, stereotypical girl hormone inside of me was stupidly responding to him.
“Duck down!”
The crackle of pellet blasts shot into the air outside the stack unit punctuated the warning immediately, and I felt myself being lowered, almost slammed to the ground. Hands covering my head, I burrowed into the embrace without thinking, immediately realizing the uber masculine scent of engine oil and musk and wasn't Arc's. Before I could register the fact, the tinny clang of metal hitting the tiles followed by a slow hiss that leaked a fog of gods-knew-what froze me in place.