by Zoey Draven
His hearts filled to the brim at her words.
“You know I love you,” she whispered, those damn tears filling her vision again. “I love you in every way possible.”
“Val,” he murmured, his grip tightening on her.
“And I know you love me too,” she said. “But I didn’t know in what way. And that day, I thought that our friendship would be changed. A part of me couldn’t deal with that because—because...”
Dravka murmured soft words to her in Keriv’i, telling her she was beautiful and perfect, while she shivered in his arms.
Her fingers clutched at his sides and she buried her face into his chest, until he could feel the wetness of her tears.
“So yes, you’re right,” she whispered. “Sex would’ve changed everything. I wasn’t certain I was ready for it.”
She lifted her face.
Her eyes were so vauking beautiful. Though there was a sadness in them that made him want to bellow in frustration.
“So, I’m sorry for pawing at you just now,” she said, trying to smile a bit. “I know I shouldn’t have—”
He cut off her words with a growl and then he was pulling her forward to kiss her, to silence her, to taste her, to feel her.
Valerie let out a shuddering gasp but then her lips were soft and tentative against his own. She shifted in his lap, making him aware that he still had a raging erection that had refused to die down and that his pants were soaked in pre-cum like an untried youth.
“Sometimes,” he rasped, breaking their kiss, pressing his forehead against her as she let out little pants and gasps, “sex can change everything for the better.”
And Dravka knew that when—not if—they had sex…it would be life-altering. Dravka had known his feelings for her since he first laid eyes on her. Sex wouldn’t destroy them. It would lift them to where they were always meant to be with one another.
Tie them to one another, for the rest of their lives.
The nuvur’u drava. The linking. Just like Dravka had always sensed, always known.
Her eyes were shy as she absorbed his words.
“Yeah?” she whispered.
Dravka almost groaned at the curiosity in her gaze.
He shook his head, knowing that if he didn’t act now, he would end the night buried between her thighs—a place he’d always meant to be.
But he didn’t want that.
“When we have sex for the first time, mellkia,” Dravka told her, feeling his chest fill with sweet anticipation and determination and purpose, “it won’t be on Everton.”
Valerie’s eyes widened.
“Dravka—”
“And it certainly won’t be in this room, or any other room in this building, in this demav-forsaken place,” he told her.
Not in the place where he’d fucked hundreds of women in the years he’d been there. The mere thought of having sex with Valerie in the brothel, within these walls, made him feel restless.
He pressed a kiss to her nose, across her cheek.
“Pax?” he whispered, needing her to understand.
When he met her eyes, his belly dropped. She was wearing a soft, sad smile. And her gaze was…disappointed.
“Val?”
She was quiet for a long while and then she sighed, leaning into him, pressing her forehead into the crook beneath his jaw. Dravka marveled at how right it felt, holding her like this, her bare flesh pressed into his.
Then she said, “I’m getting married in a few weeks, Dravka.”
He tensed, just the mere thought unleashing fury and panic inside him. They were running out of time.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be rid of Everton.”
She pressed the words into his skin like a brand, her lips soft on his neck.
“You won’t be marrying him, Valerie,” was what Dravka replied.
She only sighed.
Then she asked, “Can I sleep here tonight? With you?”
He growled and maneuvered her so that she met his eyes. He cradled her face in his palms.
“I’m serious, Val,” he said, his tone soft and even. Certain. “We’ll take care of everything. You don’t need to worry.”
“We?” she asked, frowning.
His jaw ticked. “I told Tavak and Ravu.”
She pressed her lips together. “I thought you might.”
“We have credits, Val,” he said. “Maybe not as many as we are owed, what we were promised, but she did pay us.”
“A credit a night,” Valerie said, her jaw tensing. “That’s hardly payment.”
“Regardless,” he said, “I’ve been saving mine. So have Tavak and Ravu. With the 2700 credits that Khiva and Eve gave us, with the money from the townhouse and the collections…we have enough, Val. To get passage off Everton, to start over somewhere. Together.”
The longing was evident on her features.
He paused and said, “Maybe even on Dumera.”
“Dravka,” Val said, shaking her head.
“Khiva and Eve are there. We heard that he started creating firestones again.”
“Firestones?”
“I’ll tell you all about them sometime,” he promised her. “But if they are in circulation again, then he will need workers. Many of them if he wants to expand. He would hire all of us. You know that. And then we could have our home, Val. The one I said I’d give you. The one with—”
“Dravka, stop,” Valerie whispered. “Please.”
He took a deep breath but she pressed her fingers to his lips.
“You know how powerful she is. How many connections she has. She won’t let me go,” she whispered. “You know she won’t. Not when she needs me this much. She can and will find me anywhere in the universe if I try to leave.”
“I’ll take care of this, of you,” he continued, shaking his head. “You don’t need to worry. And you certainly don’t have to worry about Gabriel Larchmont.”
Celine Larchmont was one of Ravu’s clients. One who had a booking with him in two days’ time. They had a plan. Because sometimes, Celine Larchmont only visited Ravu to talk, according to him. He cared for her and he believed she cared for him. Ravu even believed them to be friends. He believed she had reason to help them, that she would help them if he asked.
“You don’t believe me,” he murmured, though a small smile quirked the edges of his lips. “But in time, I’ll show you that I am a male of my word. And I promise that I will make everything right. Pax?”
Valerie pressed a small kiss to his jawline. She gave him a small smile and Dravka hated the doubt in her eyes.
“Will you hold me tonight?” she asked softly, the words so sweet in his ears.
He inhaled a deep, long breath.
Then he maneuvered them on the bed, placing both of them underneath the blanket on his small bed and stretching out next to her.
He reached under the covers and slid out of his still-wet pants, using the material to clean the remaining pre-cum from his cock before he tossed the bundle to the floor.
Valerie was watching him in the darkness and he swore he caught her small blush. Now she knew he was naked—and she only wore that little patch of material between her thighs.
His hand slid across, pulling her into him. His palm rested on the swell of her ass, squeezing softly, eliciting a small gasp from Val. He tucked her close, as she’d requested, threading his arms around her.
Cold hands rested on his chest, which he quickly warmed. She sighed, a puff of hot air blowing across his neck, and she buried her face there.
They lay in silence for a brief moment. Her breath was beginning to even out, her heartbeat beginning to slow.
At least until he said, “And when we are settled on Dumera, in our little house with your garden…”
He felt the way her lips parted against his neck.
“I’ll hold you like this every night. Only, on Dumera, it’ll be after I’ve mated you thoroughly and filled you with my teela. I’ll hold you through your orgasm
s. Just like this. Every night.”
He grinned when he felt her heartbeat double in pace against his chest.
“The wicked things I’ll do to you there, mellkia. I can hardly wait,” he rasped into her ear, rubbing the little tip of it with his chin. “Now, sleep.”
Dravka heard her swallow. For long moments, her heartbeat never slowed.
Then she asked, “What does mellkia mean?”
He clutched her closer. He’d wondered when she would ask. He’d called her mellkia for years now.
“It means,” Dravka told her, “my love.”
Her heart sped even more.
Chapter Seventeen
45341.
Valerie repeated the numbers in her mind, numbers she’d memorized the moment Eve Tesler had told her them.
Winding through the Downtown District, she dodged a group of businessmen on their lunch break. A couple of their heads turned to regard her, one even smiling. But Valerie paid them no mind, continuing on her way on the busy street.
Driverless cars slid past in endless lines. Shouting and boisterous laughter from the seemingly hundreds of people on the streets at that time made her feel antsy and jittery. Her heart was pounding, short gasps escaping her.
She hated this part of town.
45341.
It was the patch number for Eve Tesler’s friend on Dumera. A male named Gorkan, who had helped Eve and Khiva get off Everton. He was the one who had helped find them a home there.
However, universal patch numbers could only be accessed through the main Coms building in the Downtown District.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the towering building to her left called The Plaza. Luxury homes and flats. Madame Allegria owned the top floor of it. Valerie had never seen it in person, but she’d seen pictures of it in an article spread, run by a magazine that highlighted ‘luxury living’ throughout the New Earth colonies.
So, Valerie knew that it was a large penthouse, with glass windows on all sides, spanning over three floors. It had five bedrooms and six bathrooms—though Valerie didn’t know why anyone would need that many. It boasted a heated pool, the largest closet in existence on all of Everton, and it was staffed by two personal butlers.
Valerie’s lips pressed together as she eyed the top of the building. It made her sick, knowing that some of the credits Madame Allegria had stolen from the Keriv’i males had helped pay for it—credits that were rightfully theirs.
She had a similar home on Genesis too.
Valerie rubbed the back of her shoulder through the thin, plain top she wore. She’d chosen this hour to sneak to the Coms building because she knew that every afternoon, Madame Allegria had lunch with her socialite friends. Every afternoon, without fail. She wouldn’t even think to track Valerie’s whereabouts, or at least she hoped she would be too preoccupied to.
Regardless, it was a risk she would take.
The Coms building loomed overhead and Valerie hurried towards it, feeling a warm breeze brush over her bare arms, just another reminder that summer was approaching fast.
Once she stepped inside the Coms building, however, Valerie wished she’d dressed in something thicker and warmer. It was freezing inside, no doubt to keep the expensive equipment and wiring cool.
There was a receptionist at the greeting desk and Valerie got in line, waiting for her turn. Overhead, there was a projection of a looped commercial for Bell Tech—the company that owned and ran and oversaw all the Coms.
When it was her turn, the girl behind the front desk greeted her.
“I need to make a universal call,” she told the girl, whose name plate read ‘Sienna.’
“To which Quadrant?” Sienna asked, typing on her Nu device, not looking up.
“The Second, I believe,” Valerie replied.
“Calls to the Second Quadrant will be 50 credits each,” Sienna informed her, finally looking up. “Or would you like to rent the box per hour? If you do, then the calls are free and unlimited.”
Of course. Because universal patch numbers were dodgy and unpredictable at best. And the call would only go through if Gorkan happened to be at his patch line at that very moment and saw the signal coming through.
“How much to rent?” she asked, smoothing her fingers over the loaded credit card in her pocket. From the account she’d set up for the Keriv’i. Half the credits from the townhome had already come in.
“150 credits per hour.”
She sighed. The newly acquired credits were all she could use. Madame Allegria didn’t pay her. At all. Her ‘Krave’ got one credit per night, but Valerie didn’t have any money of her own.
“I’ll rent then,” she said, sliding her credit card over the scanner.
“Great,” Sienna chirped, though she didn’t smile. “Box 245. You can take the lift to the second floor.”
Valerie nodded, taking the key that Sienna slid over the desk, and then turned towards the hallway of elevators.
She took the lift up one floor, following the glowing placards on the walls to her assigned box for the afternoon. When she found the correct room, she slid her key inside and then stepped in.
Box was right. It was tiny and narrow. A basic Coms unit was set up at a small table, a single chair next to it. A fake plant was in the corner, limp and faded. A fan palm was what she believed it was called.
There were instructions for how to use the unit, ones Valerie read carefully. Then she smoothed her sweating palms down her thighs and dialed the patch number, using the correct prefix code for the Second Quadrant.
X94X567-45341.
She held the receiver to her ear, waiting for the line to signal that it had connected.
Her breath hitched when she heard the computerized chirping sound, to indicate it had located the patch…but then a moment later, it dropped.
Great.
Valerie blew out a breath, charging the receiver back up and inputting the patch number again.
Again, it chirped a few times…then dropped.
It was going to be a long afternoon, she knew.
An hour dragged by, given the timed clock on the door, which had activated the moment it had been unlocked. Valerie had tried the patch number over fifty times in that hour with no luck, a little under a call a minute.
And as the time dragged, her mind began to wander. She’d long memorized the full patch code and she dialed it on autopilot, all while she thought of Dravka.
That morning, she’d woken in his arms. It had been just before dawn and he’d still been asleep.
Valerie had been very careful not to move a single inch in his arms, wanting to prolong the sensation until she couldn’t any longer. Her head had been using his forearm as a pillow. Their thighs had been entangled with one another, his still-erect cock had been pressing low on her exposed belly.
His scent had been all around her as she remembered the night before—as she remembered his promise to her, that he would take care of her, that she didn’t need to worry anymore.
And wouldn’t that be wonderful? He’d sounded so sure, so certain and determined, that a part of Valerie had begun to believe him.
It had felt so right, lying in his arms that peaceful, quiet morning, watching his eyes flicker behind his lids in sleep. Valerie wondered if Dravka had watched her during the night as she slept, since she knew Keriv’i didn’t need as much as humans did. So, when had he fallen asleep?
It had felt intimate and warm and wonderful.
And it had needed to come to an end all too soon.
Valerie rubbed at her tired eyes, recharging the receiver as she typed in the patch number for seemingly the hundredth time. She’d somehow managed to sneak out of Dravka’s arms without waking him. Quietly, she’d snuck a fresh tunic from his drawers, dressed, and left his room in the early hours of morning. Waking up with him, seeing his beautiful eyes lit by sunlight, would’ve been too painful.
Last night had been a series of highs and lows for her, starting with the dinner at the L
archmonts. Despite sleeping a good portion of the night, Valerie was exhausted—but she needed to do this.
She was still so lost in thought in that second hour that she didn’t realize when the chirping of the patch connection went on a little longer than usual.
And she almost hung up the receiver unconsciously.
Except a crackling, husky sound—a word, in another language, she realized—came over the line.
A gasp tumbled from her lips and she straightened in her chair, her back aching in protest.
“Hello?” Valerie asked, her voice sounding breathless. “Hello, is someone there?”
A pause. A static-filled pause.
“Who is this?” came that same voice, except this time it was in the universal tongue.
“I’m—I’m Valerie. I’m a friend of Eve Tesler. And Khiva,” she said quickly, fearing that the connection would drop. “Is this—are you Gorkan?”
“Yes, I am Gorkan,” came the staticky voice. “You know Eve?”
“Yes,” she said excitedly. “She gave me your patch number before she left Everton. I’m trying to get in touch with her. Do you know how I can reach her?”
Her heart was pounding in her breast and she laid a palm over it.
A long pause came and then the voice said, “You are in luck. She happens to be right next to me.”
Valerie’s breath hitched.
Then she heard a familiar, shocked voice come over the line.
“Valerie? Oh my god, is that really you?”
Eve.
Chapter Eighteen
When Dravka blinked his eyes open to late morning light, he was momentarily bewildered.
But then he scented Valerie, dragging her into his lungs, a low groan tumbling out of his throat. When he looked next to him, however, he found his bed was empty, the sheets cool where she’d lain throughout the night.
Dravka sat up, feeling half-drunk on sleep and Valerie’s scent. He didn’t remember the last time he’d slept this long but he felt refreshed. Though, he strongly suspected that sleeping next to his female—feeling her warmth against him and her even breaths drifting across his chest and her soft belly pressed into his aching cock—had something to do with that.