by Jaye Peaches
She dragged her eye line upward, taking in the bulldog neck and square jaw. His lips were pressed tightly shut, his nose flattened by numerous blows and his cheeks peppered with scars. He had violet eyes, probably iris implants, and they’d fixated on the rise and fall of her bust.
“You’ve nearly finished that drink. Let me get you another. You’re shaking.” He snapped his fingers at the barman, who leapt into action. “Did that bastard scare you?” He spoke softly. “Because he shouldn’t scare pretty girls.”
Jade couldn’t think what to say. His apparent gentleness surprised her. Did she play along, or brush him off? She decided the latter was far too dangerous. She still had her hand in the jacket pocket and the device was cupped in her hand, ready to be activated. He was close, so close it increased the odds of the plan working.
“Thank you,” she managed to say, although her voice was scratchy and weak. She cleared her throat and strengthened her voice. “I’m not scared.”
“Sure looks that way.” He continued to tower over her, his luminescent eyes probing her.
“I’m new here. I didn’t know the guy.” She fumbled with the device in her pocket, trying to tap out the rhythm to activate it. She dropped it into the folds of the pocket lining.
“New, eh. You should introduce yourself. I’m Nyle Curtis. I own Omega as much as any man can.”
“I’m J-ess.” She retrieved the transmitter and tried again.
“Jess.” He leaned down and she shriveled. “I introduce myself to all the new girls and the best way is by fucking them.”
In her pocket the device vibrated. Curtis unfolded his arms and flexed his fingers. The first attempt at scanning had failed. She quickly tried another pattern of taps.
“I’d rather get to know you some other way,” she suggested. Mason would be furious with the way things were going. How long before he risked intervening? She hoped he stayed back, trusting her to do the job, because she feared he might be killed if he attacked Curtis.
“I prefer my way,” he said, grinning so hard the scars on his face deepened into troughs.
She swallowed hard; her throat was dry. The vibrations had stopped. Again, it hadn’t worked. She’d only two more left to try. Perhaps the implant was encrypted or had its own blocker. She’d no way of knowing.
“It doesn’t quite appeal, not yet.” She lifted her voice, hoping Mason would hear and know that she was okay. Curtis hadn’t touched her, at least not yet. “Perhaps I need more drink.” She held the glass to her quivering lips and swallowed a little. The fiery liquid trickled down her throat and she choked—what had he ordered for her?
She blinked a few times. The walls briefly warped and the floor bowed. The drink was drugged—the barman fidgeted with a bottle, avoiding her eye contact. She pushed the glass away. “Perhaps not.”
Concentrating hard, she focused on the next pattern of taps. If she didn’t keep alert, the plan was blown and Mason would be forced to step in to rescue her. She thought of Teesha and the other girls, some of whom might be in the bar, and it helped, knowing she was there for them.
The grin on his face had spread to his ears. “Then let’s go say hello properly.”
“Over there?” She pointed at the dark corner.
“There?” he laughed, a low vibrating rumble. “I’m taking you somewhere special. Somewhere you’ll never forget. There’s this old cell, used by the army when they built this place, and it’s really well equipped. I like toys. You might not, but I don’t care. Move, Jess. We’re going.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder.
Jade felt sick; the vibrations had ended. She’d only one pattern left to try. However, her fingers were trembling too much and she couldn’t get the sequence of taps correct.
Curtis’s unnerving gaze shot to her pocket and he frowned. He’d seen her hand move. “What you’ve got there?” he snarled. “Show me your hand.”
Next to her, the barman was stepping backward, fixated on something happening behind Curtis. She took the device out of her pocket. It was vibrating. She held it out on the palm of her hand.
“It’s my secret,” she whispered. “A little pocket toy, you know.” She winked.
The smile reappeared and he chuckled. “It shouldn’t be in your hand. I’ll make sure it’s shoved somewhere else.” He reached out to snatch her wrist. So fast, faster than her eye could track, he had his fingers locked around her arm, pulling her up. She wrapped her fingers around the device and held onto it. If she dropped it…
The vibrations intensified. The signal had matched his wavelength—the scanner had worked. She pressed the button just as a hand clamped down on Curtis’s shoulder.
“Get your fucking hands off my girl,” Mason snarled.
“I saw you coming, idiot,” Curtis said. “I can see you.” Eyes in the back of his head! “She’s my girl now.”
Jade kept pressing the button. Why hadn’t it worked?
Mason wouldn’t stand a chance. The cyborg would crush him. Curtis let go of her wrist and turned. Halfway around, he halted.
“What the fuck?” He stared at his outstretched arm. “Fucking move,” he shouted at his frozen limb, then he stared at his legs. He’d turned into a statue; only the muscles in his belly and neck could move. He tried to pivot, but instead he lost his balance and fell sideways, his arm out in front of him.
If she wasn’t so scared, Jade might have found the situation comical. Curtis cursing on the floor, his limbs paralyzed, while Mason blasted his temple with the stun gun until his eyes closed and he went quiet.
Satisfied Curtis was contained, Mason held Jade in his arms. “I couldn’t stand back and let him touch you. Are you okay, did he hurt you?” Mason examined her wrist. There was a red mark left by Curtis’s pinching grip.
“I’m fine. A little shaken up.” She held out the device and beamed. “It worked, it actually worked.”
He slipped it into his pocket. “A dangerous weapon.” He winked, a half-hearted attempt at humor, because she could see that he was holding back his emotions—the color was gone from his face and he was breathing heavily.
Behind him, others were moving. Were they going to interfere with the arrest, take Mason down for assaulting Curtis?
The barman leaned over the edge of the bar. “He fucking deserved that, the bastard.” He spoke to Jade. “Sorry. He’d kill me if I didn’t flick a pill in the drink. Let me make it up to you all, free drinks for everyone!”
The mood in the room immediately lightened. The girls scampered from out of the corners and peered down at the peculiar form of the paralyzed Curtis. One gave him a hard kick in the balls and he moaned in his stupor.
“That’s for your damn so-called toys, you evil—”
Mason pressed her back as she aimed for another kick and stopped her mid-flow. “I’m here to take him to Novador. He’ll stand trial for murder, rape, torture, stealing, kidnapping, smuggling weapons, well, everything.”
The girls cheered, the men looked on bemused. The one who’d approached her first opened his mouth and pointed at his missing teeth and eye. “He punched them out. Take him. If you want help carrying him, then I’m happy to drag him. I didn’t realize you were undercover, missy. I wouldn’t have made you do anything, honestly.” The man looked apologetically at Jade.
She hid a smile. He actually thought she was another marshal. It tickled her, because she was a fugitive and supposedly a captive.
Mason thanked him. “Help is appreciated. He’s half-machine and likely to be heavy. Girls, make the most of this. Don’t hang around. Somebody is bound to try to fill his shoes.”
A diminutive woman with crimson hair and a jagged scar down one side of her face stepped forward and grasped Mason’s hand to her lips, giving his knuckles a brief kiss. “Thank you. Both of you.” She had tears in her eyes and she let go of him to brush them away.
“Teesha, thank you. Without your courage, we’d not have had this chance.”
Jade wanted to hug the littl
e woman, but it was obvious Mason was keen to get off the station. He picked up one of Curtis’s legs and started to drag him toward the door. The toothless man helped, then another and before they’d reached the exit, a small crowd had picked up the cyborg and carried him out of the bar.
* * *
Lying on the bed, Jade couldn’t stop shaking. It wasn’t through shock, she decided, it had to be the excitement draining out of her. Seeing Curtis vanquished was immensely satisfying, so was the look of delight on the faces of the women.
Mason had told her to wait in his quarters and keep the door locked, just in case. It seemed to be taking forever to place Curtis in stasis. He was a huge man and without the help of the others, Mason would have struggled to get the paralyzed cyborg on board.
She needed a distraction, something to pass the time. All she wanted was Mason safely back. She hated waiting alone. By the bed, on the little table, was her image cube. She activated it and the pictures, some stills, others moving, projected onto the wall. She dimmed the lights so she could see them clearer: her hometown, the trees, mountains, and her family and friends. Each image lingered for a few seconds before moving on to the next one.
She tensed. She’d not seen that particular image for a while, she’d avoided it, but the cube was on a random display setting.
He was smiling. He always smiled.
“Pause,” she instructed the cube. The picture glued itself to the bare wall and stayed there.
Tears trickled down her face. It was so unfair that he was gone, never to return. She sat on the edge of the bed and wept.
Mason appeared as if by magic. He crouched by her side and held her hands. “Jade, what’s wrong? He didn’t hurt you, did he?”
She shook her head. This wasn’t about Curtis or what happened in the bar. Her attempt at distraction had led her to another place, perhaps a worse one. She hiccoughed. “It’s not that.”
“So what is it?” He joined her on the bed and hooked his arm around her shoulder, drawing her closer. “Who’s the man?”
“Tomas.” It hurt just saying his name, knowing he would never hear her say it.
“If you don’t want to talk about it—”
“He’s my cousin.” She stared into the brown eyes of Tomas and wished they would blink, something to make him more real. Alive.
“I’m assuming something happened to him?” Mason gently probed, squeezing her arm.
“Yes. He was conscripted into the Federal army.” He’d been so excited, because it meant going into space. “You know what it’s like for a young man to go on an adventure.”
“Yes, I do. Where did they send him?”
Jade didn’t want him to go, nor did his parents. They understood the dangers far better than him, but ideals didn’t matter when it was your dream to leave home and see the world, the distant suns. “Dramos, where the Fringe are rebelling.”
The Fringe. Rebels according to the Federation, freedom fighters to those on the outskirts of the sector, who didn’t want to be part of the domineering Federation. Where do the boundaries lie when one side wants to expand and the other wants its independence?
“Dramos. Quite a journey,” remarked Mason.
“His battalion was put in… stasis.” Her voice cracked. “The ship was old, older than this one.”
He sighed. “It failed, the stasis tube?”
She sniffed, wiping away a tear. “Yes. All of them did—the temperature controls set the liquid too cold. The ship was an autopilot and the commander asleep, the alarm didn’t go off. All of them, nearly three hundred soldiers died in that frozen liquid. Tomas was one of them.”
“I’m sorry, Jade. That’s awful. Now I understand your fear.”
“I miss him.” She eased out of his comforting arm and switched off the cube. “It was an accident, seeing his face.”
“One day you’ll be able to look at him and smile back.”
“Not yet. It’s too raw.”
He reached down and began to remove his boots. She knelt down and helped him.
“Thank you,” he said softly. “Was his death the reason why you left Malimor? To make a difference?”
She nodded. “Somehow, I had to make up for his lost soul by saving others. On Kalamar.”
“Kalamar is a problematic planet. The Federation wants to bring order to it. However, I don’t think the answer lies in using Stratums.”
Jade placed his boots under his desk, where he liked to keep them. “Each to their own. Isn’t that what you said?”
He cocked his head to one side. “I did. We’re good, aren’t we? I know in my heart you are my everything, Jade.”
The heat rose into her cheeks and she came to kneel by his feet, resting her hands on his knees. “Yes, I feel the same.”
He smiled. “Good.”
“Curtis?” she asked, wanting to draw a line under the mission.
“Tucked up asleep. I’ve also double-sealed his cryo chamber with an explosive. If he wakes up for any reason, the moment his tube opens, his head will be blown clean off. I’m not taking any chances with him on board.”
She didn’t argue with his safety measures. The idea of Curtis escaping was terrifying.
“Now, sweetheart, let’s review your role in his capture.” He tipped her chin up. “Did I not say don’t engage Curtis?”
She had an answer for that. “I didn’t. He engaged me in conversation. I could hardly tell him to get lost.”
Mason pursed his lips. “True. As for your courage and quick thinking, you impressed me. The device… it would have been impossible without that. I want to show you my gratitude.” He drew her up. The expression of his face told her everything she needed to know—he wanted her.
It was what she needed from him. Give herself to him and let him lead her back to where she felt secure and content. It wasn’t just about the sex, although it was fantastic; it was the surrender, the total release that came with his control.
“Take me,” she said clearly, wondering if he thought she was too upset to do it.
The brightness in his eyes intensified, the shadow on his face lifted—he, too, had been stressed by the last few hours. He cupped her face in his hands and traced his thumbs along her cheekbones. The gentle caress was a prelude of what was to come. She reveled in it and closed eyes, calming her breathing, relaxing her shoulders.
“Good,” he murmured. “Keep doing that, keep letting it all go.”
“I can’t stop this feeling inside of me.” She opened her eyes. “It’s telling me you’re the one. The only one I will forever love.”
He bent down and kissed her lips, pressing his mouth firmly onto hers, and he held her there in a passionate embrace. The warmth of his kiss was an acknowledgement and it meant the world to her, having that connection made real. Easing back, he dropped his hands. The tired lines around his eyes had dissolved away, replaced by a new energy.
When he spoke, the tonal quality was deep, enriched by firmness and delightfully familiar to her ears. “I love you so much. I want you every hour, every day. You’re going to give me access to all of you when I demand it, regardless of what you’re doing. I’m going to pleasure you in ways that your darkest fantasies never touched. Do you want this, Jade? Do you want us to explore those places?”
“Yes. I do.” It was like a marriage vow—a commitment to him and no one else.
“Take off your clothes,” he commanded and she obeyed instantly, making sure she carefully folded each item and placed the bundle to one side.
When she stood before him naked, proudly keeping her hands behind her back so he could see her round breasts and bare mound, he commanded her again. “Undress me.”
He rose to his feet and she carried out the request unhurried, although with her fingers trembling, it was tempting to rip off his clothes. She couldn’t wait to touch him and feel him enter her.
His cock stood to attention, the shaft as thick as her wrist. He sauntered past her, briefly touching her shoulder.
“Kneel on the bed.”
She crawled to the middle and positioned herself as instructed. On the other side of the room, he was retrieving items from a drawer. She couldn’t see them. However, she had a good view when he laid them on the bed.
“Er… why—”
“Don’t worry. I’m not punishing you, far from it. I think you actually like this inflatable butt plug.” He knelt behind her, tracing his fingers along her spine, and multiplying goosebumps tracked his progress.
Like it! How to put words to those contrary emotions she felt whenever she imagined that butt plug. Her introduction to it had been humiliating and erotic. She should despise the way it made her feel, emotionally and physically, but she just couldn’t hate it.
“What are you going to do?” Her voice quavered.
“Those deep, dark fantasies you bury in your mind. Don’t tell me they don’t exist.” He spread his fingers over each of her round lobes and parted her cheeks. “Mmm. Fucking you here, there, and every which way. Don’t fight them, Jade. Work with them. I’ll never hurt you, but don’t deny you want to explore those dark thoughts.”
She gasped as he circled her anus with his thumb. With her elbows bent, she burrowed her head down between them, raising her bottom higher, letting him see her open slit.
Mason didn’t rush. Using the lubricant he’d removed from the drawer, he worked it over both of her holes, using one hand to probe her pussy, the other to dip his fingers inside her bottom.
She moaned and wriggled her ass about. The preparation took forever, it seemed, but he wouldn’t be rushed by her impatient whimpers.
“Tell me what you’re thinking. What you want.” He slid more digits inside her drenched pussy, using the tips to stroke her insides.
“You!” she urged. “Oh, don’t hold back, please, just fuck me.” She rambled on, almost aware of her words. “Sir. Oh, my sir.”
“You’re going to come. Right now. Do it.”
She never thought it possible that two words could cause such an eruption. She cried out as her pussy clenched around his fingers.