She bit her lip. She’d purchased an outfit and could probably change there. If she was going to ditch him, he’d be most comfortable on his own turf and easier to surprise anyway. Besides, they were still chopping her ship, and she couldn’t take him back to the docks. “Okay. I need to change anyway. I’m going dancing.”
“Dancing?”
The gravity on the planet was stronger than the Regulator’s home world, or the artificial gravity on his ship, and it appeared to be wearing on him. Ava raised a brow. “You’re not tired, are you?”
“No,” he growled through the mountain of frillies. “Follow me.” He turned on his heel and headed down the street. Ava watched his ass as he stomped down the street, carrying the armload of crap. His backside was quite exceptional, and following him wasn’t so bad. Besides, turnabout was fair play. He’d been staring at her ass all day, so much she wouldn’t be surprised to find scorch marks on her posterior.
After they tromped down the street for a minute or two, he came to a stop in front of a ground-floor rental room, a good choice for anyone staying in New Xiera Port longer than a week. She’d file that information away. Legatus Reynolds planned to stay in town for a while and not on the average weekend port call. What was he up to?
“Well? Are you going to open the door?” she asked.
“I can’t get the chip.”
“Where is it?”
He didn’t say anything, but gave her another dirty look.
“Well, are you going to tell me where it is?”
“My front pocket.”
Ava smiled. She stuffed her hand into his pocket, brushing a very erect cock while she dug for the chip and wiggled her fingers. “Can you shift your hip? I can’t seem to get past….”
“Enough!” His nostrils flared and he dropped her packages, yanking her hand out of his pocket.
She held the chip in her fingers and made a point of holding it up in front of him. “Got it,” she said in an overly chirpy voice Ava knew would irritate him. She gave him a vibrant smile and inserted the chip in the lock-pad. The door slid open and Ava strolled in, leaving him standing outside with the pile of packages at his feet.
He glanced down, snorted, scooped the packages up and stormed in after, dropping her crap inside the door. “I don’t know what you’re hoping to accomplish, but I’ve had enough.”
“So you’ve said.” Ava touched one of his uniforms, freshly pressed and hanging on a bar near the bed. All black, the kind the bad boys of the League wore, something that made women wet with a single glance, she included. “I love a man in uniform.” Military even when he wasn’t on duty. Oh, he’d be fun to break. She traced her finger around the Special Tasks tab. “You’re the one determined to stalk me.”
“I’m merely keeping you in my custody until I can examine your ship. It’s my job.”
“You’re off duty and out of your jurisdiction, so I’d say you’re stalking.” She lifted her chin and found he’d closed the space between them, leaving a scant inch between their bodies, enough for her to feel the warmth of his flesh through his shirt. His eyes glittered in the room’s dim light. Ava’s breath caught in her throat. Perhaps she’d pushed him too far.
“You don’t want me to stalk you, Frost.”
Chapter Three
The way she’d fingered his uniform ignited every cell in his body. She touched it as if she stroked skin, and somehow he’d gotten harder. He held her gaze as he reached around her and snagged his com off a shelf. “I’m never off duty,” he said.
She raised a brow. “Pity. I’d like to know you when you aren’t all business.”
He dropped his gaze to her mouth. Her lips were luscious, her teeth perfectly kept. This woman wasn’t meant to be a smuggler. She was born to warm a man’s bed and heart.
“Is there something you want, Legatus Reynolds?”
Yeah, and she was a micro-moment from finding out. “No.” He grabbed her hand and pressed his com into it. “Contact a shuttle. I’ll escort you to your room. It’s not safe for a woman to travel New Xiera Port at night on this side of the city.”
“The Blue District?” She gave a soft laugh. “I’m half Nexian. If you didn’t notice, it’s a Nexian neighborhood. Now you, on the other hand….” She tossed his com on the bed and slid a hand up his chest. “A big strapping Regulator like yourself might get some second looks, especially dressed like that. Who goes to the beach dressed to work?”
He pushed her hand away. “I’ll escort you.”
The corner of her mouth curled and an impish dimple appeared. “What’s wrong with hanging out here?”
Seth frowned. “This is my room.”
“I see that,” she said, though she hadn’t taken her gaze off him.
“I don’t understand.” She couldn’t be insinuating….
She rose up on her toes and slid her hands into his hair, pulling his face down to hers. “Then let me explain it.” As her mouth made contact with his, jolts of energy shot through his body. Seth didn’t resist. Should’ve. The woman was bad news. If he had any common sense left, he’d throw her against the wall and cuff her, not kiss her. But he couldn’t. He’d fallen victim to Frost’s charms, and he could do nothing but give in and let it happen.
He ran his hands down her back, stroking bare flesh under his fingertips. They traveled over her hips and around to her ass. Ava Frost had a figure. She had flesh and softness to her frame, wasn’t boney and hard like many of the women around this sector. He loved her curves and filled his hands with them in the manner he’d dreamed about for most of the day.
Ava pulled her mouth away and looked him in the eyes. Spontaneous combustion. Nothing could cool the inferno raging inside him…well, almost nothing. Not a good idea. If he buried his cock inside her, the League would bury him. Seth knew better, but his body wasn’t listening. He’d seen that look before and knew what it meant. “This can’t go any further,” he said.
She smiled and shoved him onto the bed, following him down. As he landed on the mattress, she straddled his legs and reached for his buckle. “Let’s get you into something a little more comfortable.” He snagged her wrists, not sure he could let this continue and keep his pride intact. This wouldn’t buy her way out of trouble, or get her off for any crimes she might have committed.
Though it was tempting, Seth had never been that kind of guy. He wouldn’t take advantage of a woman, criminal or not. He believed in what he did and didn’t use his position for his benefit. “Seducing me isn’t going to make me look the other way, Captain Frost.”
“Who said I’m seducing you?” Her eyes glittered like black diamonds. “You don’t need seduction.” She wiggled on his cock, and Seth groaned. No, he didn’t.
“This is what this is all about. You’re hoping I’ll look the other way, give you special consideration.”
She threw her head back and laughed. Ava twisted her hands free and pressed them into the mattress on each side of his head, leaning in, staring, her lips inches from his. “What this is about is getting your pants off and fucking you until I’m exhausted. It’s been a long time, and I’d rather not waste the opportunity, and if you could charge me with something I could be arrested for, I assure you I wouldn’t be here. I’d be halfway across the galaxy. So sit back and enjoy it.” She rocked back and ripped his belt off. She eyed it and gave him a mischievous smile.
“Have you ever been cuffed—restrained?”
“Never have, never will.”
“Too bad. It could be fun.” She tossed the belt over her shoulder. “I’ve lived on this planet a number of years. You pick up all kinds of nifty skills.”
“Which you could use to escape.”
“Always thinking like a Regulator.” She yanked his fly open and released his cock. Her fingers closed around it and then eased as she stroked up and down. “Does it look like I’m trying to escape?” She let go to yank his pants down his thighs.
“This isn’t right.” Seth closed his eyes and gr
itted his teeth. No, not what he should be doing. He tried to force thoughts of responsibility and honor into his head, but like his blood, they all rushed to his dick in one big fucking salute.
“What’s wrong about it?” She took him in hand again, light dancing in her eyes. Her hair brushed his belly as she backed down his legs.
“This.”
“You want to stop?” Warm lips wrapped around the head of his cock and slowly slid down the shaft. She stopped when he reached the back of her throat and then sucked as she reversed direction, pulling back to his head. With a pop, he came free of her lips, but it wasn’t the end of it. Ava nibbled on the tip, swirling her tongue around the hole.
He groaned. Hell no.
“Do you? I’m safe.” He knew what she meant. It didn’t take a degree to decipher what she’d said. Ava had been given a special shot with nanites, designed to prevent pregnancy and disease in Nexian women. He’d thoroughly researched everything he could about her in his ship’s database, and since he was a Regulator, he’d had similar vaccinations for the prevention of diseases, mandatory to make port on New Xiera. Nothing but curled toes and mind-blowing orgasms could result in their time together. “So why not?” asked his pecker, daring him to deny what he wanted.
Not one excuse came to mind, though he was certain a million existed.
“Well…?” she whispered against his cock, giving it a flick with the tip of her tongue.
Seth growled. Bad idea. But gods…. No sane man would stop. He no longer cared who he was with and that they were on the opposite sides of the law. What she was doing with her mouth was indescribable.
“Nothing to say?” She took him in her mouth again and slid up and down. In and out, she fucked him with her lips.
“No. Don’t. Stop.” He could barely spit the words out. Every syllable had been a struggle, stuck on his tongue, and came out more like a groan than anything fluent. He’d heard of oral sex, had never engaged in the questionable practice, and realized how fucking stupid he’d been to lean toward propriety. He’d always led by example and made sure every action, witnessed or not, wasn’t something that would embarrass the League. No respectable Fleet officer would be engaged in this kind of activity, especially with a suspected criminal, and he’d always followed a strict code of conduct.
Idiot.
He’d no idea what he’d missed by listening to them. Until now. “Where did you learn…?” Gods! She sucked harder in response and then lightly scraped his vein with her teeth as she slid up to the head of his cock. He couldn’t take much more. If she didn’t ease up, he’d come in her mouth.
On and on it went. Sucking, swallowing, and killing him an inch at a time. She focused on the head, driving him mad with her lips and tongue. He wanted deeper, needed deeper.
Fuck it. His hands slid into her hair and he arched, driving into her mouth. She took it as some kind of cue to mouth-fuck him harder, and proceeded to do just that. A pressure built in his balls. Tighter, harder. Her hand cupped his sack and massaged while the other stroked up and down.
No one should be able to do this, take him to the edge of a precipice and watch him willingly dive off into oblivion, but she had. He’d lost all control and no matter how bad he wanted to be the one in charge, he’d no strength, or desire, to fight it.
Then she slipped a finger in his ass and stroked his prostrate. Fucking gods! Jolts fired in every direction from his pelvis, shooting to the tips of his fingers and toes. Cum exploded from his cock into the back of her throat. Heat rolled through him in a ball of fire, yet she continued to suck, drinking him in. He fisted the covers and groaned. She didn’t let up. She kept sucking and swallowing until he thought he’d pass out from the pleasure. When she’d drained him, she pulled away and looked up at him. Smiling like the devil.
“Gods, that was incredible.” A little cum trickled down his cock with one final pulse, the only bit that didn’t make it into her mouth.
“Just wait for the encore,” she whispered. The all too familiar sound of a laser powering up, brought him back to reality. He patted his thigh holster, now conveniently empty. “Are you going to shoot me?”
She cocked her head, and swung a pair of his cuffs back and forth, the same pair that had been on his holster next to his laser. “Should I?”
***
Okay, maybe he should have let her shoot him. Seth yanked on the cuffs that linked him to the solid iron headboard. The last thing he was inclined to do was explain to anyone how he’d found himself cuffed to the damned bed, his pants down around his knees, with his ball-sack glued to his thigh by dried cum. And when he didn’t contact his ship for his nightly check-in, they’d come looking. Whoo-hoo for protocol and bio-tags.
The League despised bad publicity. If anyone guessed the activities he’d been engaged in…. Yeah, and like this didn’t say it all, no guessing needed. He eyed his com, only inches from the headboard where she’d set it after calling for a shuttle. He wasn’t flexible enough to get his foot up to push it into reach. His pants bound his legs together, making it twice the challenge. Add the cuffs that kept him from reaching his com, and he wasn’t going anywhere, not until someone freed him.
Idiot. Why the hell did he forget who he was dealing with? Of course, the oral sex had been a distraction, one gigantic, orgasmic distraction. He should have seen this coming and he’d gotten what he deserved for thinking from below his beltline.
Never again.
He glanced at his com. Think. How can you get it? Rock the bed? No, bolted to the floor. Yell for help? With the party going on outside on the street, doubtful anyone would hear him, and did he really want them to see this? Yes. Better than his subordinates. His crew couldn’t, wouldn’t see him like this. He opened his mouth to yell at the top of his lungs.
Beep, beep, beep. Seth turned his head and eyed his com. Fantastic. For once, they were ahead of schedule. When he got free, he’d find her. And when he did….
***
After leaving Seth cuffed to the bed, Ava headed back to her ship, checking her messages upon entry. One had come in an hour before, requesting a meeting after star-fall, when she’d been busy turning the Regulator inside out. From his reaction, she’d bet the blow job was a first. Why would a man like that deny a simple pleasure? Duty? Honor? No doubt he’d be angry when he got free. She turned and looked at the door, wondering if he was still cuffed to the bed. It had been a dirty trick to pull, but she’d needed to escape. Not so much because she thought he’d find her ship, which he would eventually, but something deeper.
Something about him felt right—like they belonged together.
Ava glanced over to a shelf and ran her fingers over a holo-journal. She didn’t have to activate it to see the happy family laughing and playing on the images contained inside. They were ingrained in her memories so deep, they’d follow her soul into the afterlife.
The journal captured a time of little money and food, but one that also saw her family wealthy with freedom and love, a legacy that clung to her, even after her parent’s bones rotted in the ground. She’d fight to the death to preserve what they’d held dear. They had. They’d died for freedom. They’d died for love. Ava closed her eyes, and a smile curled the corner of her mouth as she remembered what that love had felt like.
Marcus Frost tossed his daughter into the air and caught her. She wore secondhand clothes, passed from the child of another revolutionary. Plain brown and woven of coarse fabric, the garments were not what a Nexian aristocrat would wear, but she did. “You’ll break hearts wherever you go,” he said.
Ava giggled before he tossed her again. She squealed as he caught her inches short of the ground. “Just remember you don’t have to answer to any man.”
“She’s too young to understand your speech,” Eri, Ava’s mother, said as she pulled Ava from his arms. “Don’t bring the revolution to her. Let her live her life with the freedom she was born with.”
“She’s a Frost. Wherever she goes, she’ll never be
free unless she fights for it.”
Eri looked up into his eyes. “Someday she’ll be free because we chose to fight. We battle now, so that she can have the peace and happiness denied to our generation.”
He nodded and pulled them both into an embrace. “Perhaps—someday we’ll all be free to live our lives and love the person we want to. Until then, I’ll take up my weapon, because there’s nothing I want more.”
Eri smiled. “Nor I.”
The back room of an abandoned warehouse in a Nexian district of New Xiera, made the perfect place for her father to organize a revolution. To Ava, it had been the only secure home she’d known. They’d bathed her in water heated over the rear thrusters of an old starship engine, reclaimed from the bone-yard, and every night, she’d slept in the docking bay of the ancient vessel, on a gel pad scavenged from the captain’s chair.
Even as a child so young, she knew it wasn’t much, but they were happy. Her parents laughed, talked—were as passionate in their relationship as they were their cause. They weren’t afraid to show it, and even then she’d known how deeply they’d loved.
Ava’s eyes snapped open, and she set the journal down. For the first time in her life, she wanted more. She hungered for something different from the heritage that had haunted her twenty-nine years, following her from planet to planet. And for just once, she wished it would leave her in peace.
“Seth,” she whispered and her stomach fluttered. His taste, his energy, all she craved and should run from. For her parents it had been love at first sight, a soul-match.
For her, it had also been love at first sight. The Regulator pulled on her soul, her body. He touched feelings she’d buried under her duty to her cause and people—emotions she’d sworn to leave alone. That had gotten her parents killed, leaving her an orphan, flying from world to world with her rogue uncle, one port ahead of the Regulators.
Love was not for forgotten Nexian aristocrats with Rebel leader fathers. Love wasn’t for the captain of a ship that smuggled illegal goods for the resistance.
Rebel Souls Page 3