by Cathryn Cade
He clenched his teeth and forced himself to concentrate on their task.
They found nothing, but as they neared the corner of the room, Slyde flared his nostrils uneasily. There was something—but where? He could not hone in on it. Then they both sniffed and exchanged a look.
“Here,” said Sirena, reaching for the lock on a large, closely barred cage at the end of the row.
“Wait!” Slyde shot his hand protectively in front of hers, then slipped his weapon off his belt, and aimed it through the bars. A narrow, powerful beam of light shot out, lighting the interior of the cage. With a loud hiss, a hideous specter reared up in the beam of light, swaying from side to side. The mouth gaped open, and sharp-looking frills flared on either side.
They both flinched, and Slyde let out a curse. “It’s a kronos—a false dragon. They are foul, but harmless.”
“Ewww!” Sirena wrinkled her nose. “Why does Azuran want one of these? Not only are they ugly, they stink.”
“Ask him while the two of you are flirting.” Slyde peered down the beam of light he was playing under the squatty, bowed legs of the large lizard. “There’s the reason for her hostility. She’s sitting on a clutch of eggs.”
Sirena leaned over his shoulder to peer along the beam of light. “I count three, no—four eggs. They’re huge.”
He grunted in assent. He couldn’t formulate a coherent response with her silken hair brushing his cheek.
“I don’t suppose anything else would hide in there,” she said, rising to head for the dispenser of sanitizing fog on the wall by the hatchway. “Couldn’t stand it. So she must be the source of the smell we noticed. We’ve checked every other cage. I’m going back to the party.”
Busy training the small micro-scanner on the cage, Slyde grunted. Nothing, just the kronos and the eggs. He hadn’t realized reptilian eggs were so dense. He couldn’t see the young inside.
He looked up sharply as Sirena opened the hatchway, posing for a moment against the opening.
“Enjoy the rest of your evening, Commander Stone. I’m sure the princesses will take very good care of you—if you let them.”
She sauntered gracefully back to the ballroom. His fists clenched, and he felt his dragon self stir and growl. Was she daring him to go to another woman, or even women? It was all he could do not to shift and roar after her. He was aroused and enraged to the edge of his formidable control—with absolutely no outlet. How was it possible for the two of them to work so well together, yet be so at odds in this?
Chapter Twelve
“Commander Stone?”
He whirled at the sound of the soft voice.
It was the cadet, Tawnee, dressed in a tiny fitted evening sheath of plum lii leaf. Her dark blonde hair curled about her head, her slanted eyes gleamed under a coating of cosmetics.
She smiled with pretty shyness as she paused in the doorway. “I saw you leave the party, and I…I wondered if you needed help.”
She walked toward him, her lashes fluttering as she let her gaze drop down his body. Slyde saw her soft lips part, and form a soft “o”. His cheeks reddened. She was looking directly at his erection thrusting against his snug clothing. Her forked tongue flickered out and wet her lips as she stopped before him.
“Oh, Commander,” she crooned. “You do need my help.”
She sank gracefully to her knees, giving him a great view down the front of her little dress. Great serpents—did she mean to…?
Stunned, not sure what was about to happen, his usual iron will hammered to the breaking point by Sirena, Slyde stood frozen as Tawnee reached up, her clever hands unfastening his pants. His cock sprang out, so engorged it slapped his belly, the broad head swollen, even spangled with a drop of arousal. He bit back a groan as she looked at him with obvious delight. Her gaze, the very air, seemed to caress him, tease him.
“Tawnee—” he managed. “This is not right. You should not…”
She looked up at him and smiled, reaching around to cup his ass with her soft hands. And then she licked him into her mouth. Her hot, wet, silky mouth.
A helpless groan rumbled from his chest at the exquisite sensation. Ah, it was nothing like his own hand slicked with gel-soap. Her touch was so delicate and yet so firm. He flinched as she raked him lightly with her teeth.
He was so big she had to stretch her lips over him. She did so eagerly and then, to his astonishment, she took him even deeper until his cock was half buried in her mouth and throat.
One of the reptilian adaptations that Serpentians had received was the lack of any gag reflex. Slyde had seen them win bets in bars with it, swallowing pickled gremel fruits whole, but this was the first time he had ever had a female demonstrate how pleasurable the skill could be for a lucky male.
He groaned again, riveted by the sight as she let his now-glistening phallus slide almost all the way out and then took him in again. Sensation rocketed through his exquisitely sensitive shaft. His balls drew impossibly even tighter as she cupped them in one hand, stroking and squeezing.
Still treating his cock to the amazing suction of her mouth, she looked up at him with knowing blue eyes and moaned deep in her throat, clearly demonstrating how much she enjoyed what she was doing for him.
He felt the surge of ecstasy begin deep inside him and tilted his hips, thrusting himself into her mouth in tense, short strokes. He clamped his hand on the cage next to him, cradled her silky head in the other and surrendered to the sweet suction of her mouth.
It was a sixth sense that made him open his eyes and look toward the door. His blood thundered in his veins; his brother dragon growled and stirred within him.
Sirena stood in the doorway, her gaze riveted on the woman kneeling before him and what she was doing. She was as still as a golden statue. Then her eyes lifted and locked with his. The emerald depths held powerful emotion, but he was too preoccupied to know what it was. All he knew was that she was watching him as another woman serviced him.
The sensation of the soft, wet mouth caressing his cock and Sirena watching him being pleasured by another woman was incredibly arousing. Slyde came so hard he staggered. A deep groan rumbled out of his chest as he felt the girl drinking the spurts of his come.
His eyes slipped shut. When he opened them again, Sirena was gone, as if he had only imagined her.
Only when he was finally still, breathing heavily, did Tawnee let him slide out of her mouth. She smiled up at him, leaning back far enough to show him that she had tugged up her skirt, and was caressing herself, fingers buried in her little mound, slick with her arousal.
“See, Commander?” she crooned breathlessly. “See what you do to me.”
She rubbed her cheek against his now-drooping cock and shuddered with pleasure. She pressed a last kiss to his hot, moist flesh.
“Tawnee—” Slyde looked down at her with mingled tenderness and regret. He broke off as he heard a sudden noise at the door and realized that, incredibly, they had a second fascinated audience. Raile and a pretty blonde stood gaping at them from the hatchway. Oh, great gods and serpents.
As he tensed, Tawnee turned her head to follow his gaze to the newcomers.
“It’s all right,” she said throatily. “We’re finished.”
Slyde closed his eyes and wished fervently that there really was such a thing as molecular beam transportation so he could just disappear.
Raile stood for a moment after the huge guard commander had stalked out of the room, the cadet at his heels. He caught Mina Starline’s eye, and they gazed at each other. Her cheeks were flushed, her breasts quivering with her quick breaths.
“Wow,” she breathed. “Right here, where anyone could catch them.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. “Damn risky. Also… totally hot.”
She nodded, not looking at him. Slowly, casually, he slipped his arm about her waist and drew her a little way along the cages. He dropped to one knee before her and looked up into her eyes. Flicking his forked tongue at her, he curved one hand ar
ound her slender bare leg.
“Lift your skirt for me, sweetheart.”
She caught her breath. “Oh, we can’t… That is, we shouldn’t. What if someone comes in, as we did?”
“Yeah,” he said. “What if someone sees you showing me your pretty pussy?”
Her eyes widened with shock, then excitement. She looked back at the door, then at him. Very slowly, watching his eyes feast on her, she inched her skirt up to her waist. He smiled like a shark-lizard at the tiny white thong guarding her mons.
“That little bit of lace isn’t going to get in my way,” he said. “But if you don’t want it torn, maybe you should take it off.”
“Oh, but—well, just a little,” she said. “In case someone comes.”
She pushed the tiny thong down around her thighs.
“Mm, I like that,” he approved. “And I like your little pussy even more. That ribbon of blonde curls looks like a garter snake with its head buried between your sweet lips. Lucky snake.”
“Oh, Raile!” She let him pull her legs wide apart, grasping the cage behind her for support.
“Hang on, baby. I’m going to show you why the commander was moaning like that.”
He demonstrated his skill with his forked tongue, then he turned her around and bent her over with her skirts hiked high up over her bare ass and took her that way. She screamed this time, waking the animals. Raile laughed against her shoulder as he leaned over her, catching his breath.
The hatchway slid open again, revealing a small Pangaean in the blue livery of the Aquarian retinue, looking harassed. His green hair waved agitatedly about his head.
“Do none of you have anywhere else to go for your sexual liaisons?” he grumbled.
With a shriek of embarrassed laughter, Mina hid her scarlet face against Raile’s chest, yanking her skirt down over her bare bottom.
“We were just leaving,” Raile managed, laughing as he struggled with the fastening of his pants.
Chapter Thirteen
Slyde did not return to the Aquarian party. Reeling from the guilty pleasure of his release and the realization that his ecstasy had sprung as much from Sirena’s voyeurism as from Tawnee’s ministrations, he wanted only to be alone.
He had forsworn his own code of ethics, and not even with the woman of his dreams. Sirena, he realized grimly, was no doubt furious with him. He had done the very thing he had warned her not to do. He wanted nothing more than to go to her, but it was not fair to her to go from another woman’s arms.
Adding to this the shock of discovery by one of his own guard and a passenger, he soon realized he had a third problem. The girl, Tawnee, was going to expect a reciprocal encounter. And she had chosen the one Serpentian in thousands who would refuse to give it her. He had to tell her they would have no further trysts.
This was compounded by the fact that, as a cadet in the guard, she was under his guidance. Even though she had initiated the encounter—hell, she had damn near attacked him—it was still his responsibility. He was her superior officer. He had betrayed not only that responsibility, but his personal code.
He knew he would not sleep that night. He changed and went to the gym to spar with the special robotic dummy he’d had built. It was the only partner on which he could fully unleash his strength—one unguarded blow from his huge fists could kill a normal-sized male.
As he hammered, dodged and kicked, memories of the intense pleasure he had experienced with the cadet gave way to thoughts of Sirena watching him climax in another woman’s mouth. Sirena, the one woman he really wanted kneeling before him. Distracted by this vision, he didn’t see the robot’s arm flash around until he had received a solid blow to his solar plexus.
“Oof!” He staggered back, wincing as lights flashed triumphantly through the robot’s “eyes”.
“Yess,” crowed the robot. “A solid hit.”
Slyde grunted, circling as he planned his next attack.
He had learned something new these last few days—how sweet it was to give in to temptations of the flesh. No wonder other Serpentians did so regularly.
He pictured Sirena kneeling before the Aquarian prince, gazing up at him with sultry promise in those emerald eyes as she opened her mouth to receive his cock. He gave a roar of rage, landing a crashing blow to the dummy that sent it reeling onto the mats, lights flashing and motor whining in protest. He stood over it, panting. There was only one way to remove the prince from the competition. And he would execute it now.
“Stand down,” he commanded breathlessly. “Return to your station.”
“Very well, Commander. Good match.” The robot righted itself with a clank and rolled over to the side of the room.
Slyde headed for the shower-dry and breakfast. Suddenly, he was ravenous.
In the dining hall, which was nearly empty, he ate a huge breakfast of sweet rolls, fruit, bacon and eggs, topped off with a carafe of strong coffee. A few of the younger guards, hanging bleary-eyed over cups of strong coffee, watched with awe and revulsion as he plowed through the platter of food.
“Commander, no offense, but you must have a cast-titanium system,” said the new male cadet, Arde.
“Shh,” hissed Tahh, seated next to him. “We don’t talk about it, but he’s actually a new generation robotic. Like his sparring dummy, but more advanced.”
The others snickered. Their commander merely smiled as he rose from the table. “I am as Serpentian as you,” he said calmly. “I simply refrain from imbibing too many intoxicants the night before an early guard shift. You might keep that in mind the next time the Aquarians throw a party.”
“Yessir.” But as Slyde walked away, Tahh was already regaling the others with the story of his adventures the night before with a certain Aquarian princess.
Enraged by Slyde’s betrayal, Sirena stalked the corridors of the Orion for nearly an hour. She had actually believed him. She had been so sure that Slyde Stone was a Serpentian of honor, a man who would give his word to a woman and keep it.
And to think, she had gone back to the storage room to invite him to come and dance with her. She had felt guilty about taunting him—she, who never felt guilt about her dealings with males.
She wanted to scream, she wanted to weep. It was this which jolted her out of her funk. She did not weep—she got even.
She briefly considered going back to the party and Azuran. She discarded the idea with a shake of her head. He was not a male with whom to trifle, and she did not want a grand passion. She wanted a faceless male to use and discard.
She strolled into the Lido Lounge to find a male for the night, only to discover that nothing and no one pleased her. The lounge was full of silly, inane tourists and macho, posturing space crew. Male after male failed to catch her interest. That one’s shoulders were not broad enough. This one’s eyes were too close together. And so on, until she gave up and went back to her room alone.
She opened a bottle of cremarte, the drink of choice for Serpentians, and nibbled a quantity of charnelle—Serpentian chocolate. It was dark, rich and so spicy that few but Serpentians could eat it without searing their mouths and digestive systems. She finally fell asleep watching a favorite holo-video, but in her dream she searched endlessly for someone.
Chapter Fourteen
Prince Azuran, it turned out, was still awake, and alone, when Slyde was ushered into his suite. Slyde already knew, courtesy of his complete access to the Orion’s security system, that through some miracle Sirena was not there with him. Why not, he didn’t know. He was here to make sure it never happened.
“Commander Stone,” the prince greeted him. He was lounging on a settee, wearing a simple robe of blue-and-silver-figured silk. It hung open to his waist, revealing the sculpted chest and rock hard abdomen of a man who used his body for more than pleasure. A small blue lizard perched on his thigh, and he stroked it idly with one long forefinger.
He gestured to the other settee. “Please, sit down. You will drink a stimulant with me? Tea, or co
ffee?”
“Thank you, but no,” said Slyde, who remained on his feet. “This is not a social call, Azuran.”
The prince raised his arching brows. “No? Then what is it?”
“I have come to issue you a challenge,” Slyde said. “For a lady’s favors.”
“Have you indeed?” Azuran asked softly. Setting the lizard aside, he rose. The two men stood facing each other. They were of a height, although the Aquarian was of a much leaner build. “I suppose I’ve no need to ask which lady?”
“Sirena.”
Azuran gave Slyde a measuring look. “And may I know who offers me this challenge, sir?”
“I am Dragolin.”
“Ah.” Realization dawned in the silver eyes. “I wondered… But, tell me, why is a prince of the Dragolins posing as Commander Stone on the good ship Orion?”
“I have my reasons.”
Azuran’s eyes narrowed. “You are a dangerous creature, Dragolin. But I have gifts of my own.”
“I am aware,” Slyde said, with a slight bow. “I do not underestimate you.”
Azuran nodded, accepting his due. “Then, sir, as much as it pains me, I concede to another prince in his territory. The lady is yours…if she will.”
Slyde felt his cheeks redden. “That is between the lady and me,” he bit out. “Good day, sir.”
The prince bowed gravely, but his eyes held a twinkle that made Slyde long to flatten that arrogant nose with one blow of his fist. Instead, he bowed in return and stalked out of the suite.
As the door closed behind him, the two princesses who had taken a liking to Slyde glided into the room. They were pouting a little.
“Ah, my dears,” Azuran greeted them. “You heard? What d’you say we have a little fun with our fiery dragon prince? Not to mention his siren—she refused me, you know.”