“That guard who hit me with the shock rod,” Ari said.
Mír pulled her hand out of Ari’s hair. Ari kept her eyes shut as Mír said, “I know you well enough to think you’re not about to demand his execution.”
“Kind of the opposite,” Ari agreed. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes. “I know he was horrible. I hate him, too.” She hadn’t realized it until she said it out loud. “But I don’t want someone to be murdered or tortured because of me. I know that’s why you’d do it. I remember that look on your face.”
It wasn’t hard to remember, considering that Mír’s current expression was similar to it.
“He struck you,” Mír said, voice soft with barely controlled anger. “He hurt you.”
“I lived. It was an accident. Are you mad because he almost hit you, too?”
Mír pursed her lips. “I was trying to get into that control center, you know. No, I am not angry because some fool stumbled into doing his job. But then he struck my—” She hesitated, and though Ari held her breath, she finished with, “It sends a terrible message if I forgive him for that. I would lose the respect of my crew, and then I’d lose everything else.”
“Nobody else knows what happened,” Ari reminded her. “I don’t think he’ll be eager to start spreading the news now.” Shoot, at the first opportunity he got, he’d probably flee to another system and change his name. Then an awful thought occurred to her. “Um…unless you already…”
Mír ground her jaw and shook her head. “He is in custody on the station. I intended to have him brought to the Crown Lily’s brig before we departed.”
Ari gulped. “Does anybody know why?”
“Not unless he’s blabbed.” Mír sighed. “I’ll make you a deal.” When Ari bit her lip and nodded for her to continue, she said, “If he has remained silent on what happened, I’ll send him to the mines, no explanation necessary. If he has not, then I will have him killed swiftly, with no pain or suffering. He cannot—” She held up a hand when Ari made to protest. “He cannot get away with it, Ariana. You’ve bargained for the best mercy he could ever hope for.”
A quick, clean death was mercy in the world of pirates. Ari hung her head and nodded again.
“Ariana,” Mír said quietly, “I don’t compromise for just anyone. Not on matters like this.”
That had to be true. And it was what Ari really wanted: not for Mír to give what it pleased her to give, like palaces and servants, but to show that she could give even when it was hard, even when it went against her own inclinations.
If she was going to demand that of Ari, then she had to be willing to do it, too. Pirate queen or not.
“However,” Mír said, “there’s still one thing that needs to be made very clear.”
Ari fought not to sigh. Had the idea of compromise been too good to be true? “What?”
“You tell me.”
“Huh?”
Mír offered no further clarification. She just kept looking at Ari as if, for once, she wanted Ari to read her thoughts, access the deepest recesses of her mind. That didn’t seem easy. Besides, what was there to clarify? What did she need Ari to make absolutely—
Oh.
Ari closed her eyes and clasped her hands in her lap, hard enough that they wouldn’t shake. She didn’t have to keep her eyes open to see the shape of her future, unexpected, full of shadows and light like the sun coming through a forest canopy.
“I’m choosing you,” she said. “And—and I love you.” She opened her eyes again. The expression on Mír’s face took her breath away, a starving woman hovering over a banquet table. She recovered enough to stammer, “You can’t tell me I don’t. You don’t have any right to say tha—”
Mír reached out, pulled her in close, and kissed her. Hard.
And then, to Ari’s surprise, she rolled over on her back, bringing Ari to lie atop her. A soft, breathless “oh” escaped Ari before she could stop herself.
Mír took Ari’s hand and guided it upwards until Ari’s knuckles were brushing Mír’s cheek, and then her throat. Ari gasped, and felt her body flood with heat yet again as she realized what was happening.
“Well. Speaking of giving you what you want.” The faint tremble in her voice belied her cool tone. She amended, “What we both want.”
“Why wouldn’t you let me before?” Ari whispered, her eyes fluttering shut as she slid her hand down the side of Mír’s throat.
Mír shivered, reached up, and unhooked the straps of her own gown.
Ari heard the ping of the clasps releasing, and the slither of silk falling loose, unveiling the skin beneath to the waist. Her face caught fire. She couldn’t help staring at Mír’s pale breasts, bared to her for the first time, tipped with pink nipples and larger than Ari’s own. Her head swam with all the possibilities. Ari was about to have everything she’d dreamed of—all those kisses and touches she’d longed to bestow. That was something else worth more than palaces or thrones.
“You were more right than you knew.” Mír’s voice recalled Ari to the present, made her jerk her head upward to meet Mír’s blue eyes. “I never feared you, but I was hardly in charge of my situation. In bed, I could make you react—I could watch you lose yourself in pleasure.”
Ari thought about it for a second. “You could watch me lose control.”
“Believe me, it was sublime. But—” Mír set her jaw. “I couldn’t allow myself to—”
“You think I could have made you do the same?” That didn’t seem possible. Ari would have had no idea what she was doing. She’d thought, in fact, that she’d have to rely on Mír for guidance. Surely, she couldn’t have made anybody, much less a woman like Mír, lose control in bed.
“I’m sure of it,” Mír said hoarsely. She touched Ari’s cheek. “You’re a scientist,” she said. “Show me what you’ve learned by observation.”
Ari should be smooth, subtle, and take her time. But that idea was insubstantial and unimportant as she bent down and kissed Mír’s left breast, feeling the nipple harden beneath her tongue with a dizzy sense of wonder.
“Oh,” Mír cried out, and arched up.
Ari had already figured out that she wanted to do this a whole lot more. She moved her tongue again, and Mír actually whimpered; she began to suck, trying to be gentle, and Mír moaned and grabbed Ari’s hair.
Wow. Oh, wow. “Is this,” Ari panted against her, “I mean, do you…”
“Oh,” Mír rasped, and shuddered. “You’re…a quick study—”
“I’ve been thinking about it a long time,” Ari said, suddenly shy. She brushed her lips again over Mír’s soft skin. She let her hand wander down lower, over Mír’s ribs and abdomen—and paused when her fingertips encountered a thin, smooth line.
A scar. She paused.
“That’s not the only one,” Mír said. “You’ll see them all soon enough.” She did not sound embarrassed or ashamed; quite the contrary. “I wish I could say I got them all doing something heroic.”
“I wish you could say you won’t get any more.” Ari’s fingers trembling as she touched the scar again.
“I assure you, I do my best to avoid it,” Mír said. Then she reached up and dug her fingers into the hair near the back of Ari’s neck. It hurt a little.
“Stay with me,” she said. “Stay.”
Ari shivered, bent down, pressed her forehead against Mír’s. “Yes,” she whispered. “I said I would. Do you need me to say it again?” She would say it as many times as Mír needed to hear it—needed to hear that Ari chose to stay with her, chose not to leave because she loved and was loved.
She hadn’t quite realized how tense Mír had been until she relaxed beneath Ari. “That’s enough.” A pause. “For now.”
They stayed like that, breathing together, for a long, silent moment. Then Mír shifted impatiently. “So,” she said, “were you planning to call it a night?”
“Oh!” Ari said, and blushed. “No, not yet.” Definitely not yet. She bent and kissed
Mír’s throat again, very gently, until Mír trembled, too. “You…you have to tell me what to do,” Ari added.
Mír sat up, and with a shuff of silk, tossed her dress cleanly off the bed. Then she pulled Ari close, and Ari’s mind went completely blank as she was pressed up against another person’s naked body for the first time in her life. Their breasts rubbed together. She gasped.
“Why don’t I just show you,” Mír whispered, and kissed her again.
When Ari came up for air, she managed, “Oh, yes,” and sat up so she could see her lover. As Mír must have known they would, her eyes automatically tracked to the scars: a raised, white slice beneath her ribs, a longer one on her right thigh. Ari bit her lip.
Without a word, Mír rolled over onto her stomach, presenting Ari with her naked back. Ari gasped again, but with the farthest thing from delight. Mír’s back was crisscrossed with scars in an unmistakable pattern.
“You were whipped.” Tears came to Ari’s eyes. That must have felt even worse than a shock rod, which left no lasting marks.
“I was.” Mír looked at Ari over her shoulder. “And worse.”
Ari didn’t even want to think about it. She blinked back her tears, pressed her lips together, and looked back at Mír, who eventually sighed. “How else would I know how much a fleet needed reform if I hadn’t suffered its excesses? We have to live in the world before we can change it, Ariana.”
“True,” Ari said slowly. It sounded trite, but she was in bed with someone who was in a position to change the world—worlds, plural. If everything went like Mír planned, then so many things could be different—over time, so many things could be changed.
Even slavery. If Ari could get Mír’s ear on that, remind her how degrading and dehumanizing it was, talk about finding a better way…
Best to start small. Whatever happened next had to begin with them being together, becoming fully themselves before they could change anything else. For now, Ari stuck with a simple truth: “You’re amazing.” She trailed her fingertips over the network of scars. “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be.” Mír rolled over again, her cheeks a little pink as she presented Ari with a far more appealing view. Ari gave herself a few moments to ogle those beautiful breasts again, because now she didn’t have to pretend she didn’t want to, before her gaze traveled down the rest of Mír’s body. Now that she’d seen the scars, she was more able to focus on the belly with a smattering of freckles just above the navel, the hips, and the patch of fine, dark hair between two muscular legs.
“Beautiful,” she breathed.
Mír obviously wasn’t inclined to throw off compliments like Ari often did. She seemed quite pleased as she said, “Thank you.”
Ari grinned, took a deep breath, and passed her fingertips over Mír’s belly, just brushing against the black thatch of hair. Her five senses were working overtime; she listened to Mír’s breathing grow rougher as Ari continued to caress her. She watched the flush rise in Mír’s cheeks. She smelled the warm scent of their bodies together, she tasted their kisses in her mouth. She touched Mír’s body, and that was the best of all.
No wonder Mír had become addicted to touching her, she thought dizzily as she bent to place a soft kiss on one strong shoulder. It was so powerful. When you touched someone like this, her body changed for you. Ari’s hands could make Mír’s skin flush or prickle with goosebumps. Her mouth could make Mír gasp and sigh. And all of it together could make Mír slick between her magnificent thighs. In fact, Mír was in no shape to give instructions, so Ari just did whatever she wanted, and it seemed to be going great so far.
Maybe, Ari thought as she nuzzled beneath Mír’s right ear, they could alter the whole conquest schedule and spend the next year or so doing nothing but this.
She kissed Mír, kissed and kissed her, until Mír finally made an impatient sound and took hold of Ari’s hand, guiding it between their bodies, between her legs. “In,” she growled. “Now, Ariana, inside me.”
“Yes,” Ari gasped, and placed two fingertips against Mír’s soaked entrance. She hardly had to use any pressure at all before she was sliding in, sliding home. The wet heat around her fingers made the edges of her vision go gray for a moment. She hadn’t been prepared for that at all—how could it make her ache as much as if Mír was doing it to her? It was so tight and hot, with slick surfaces Ari already wanted to spend eons exploring.
“Is this good?” She kissed Mír’s panting mouth.
“Oh—yes—” Mír arched back, her pale throat covered by a flush. She quivered around Ari’s fingers, and Ari recognized the signs from last time. She was close. She was going to come on Ari’s hand.
“Do it,” Ari moaned, beyond either the ability or the desire to control her words. “Oh yes, do it, let me see.”
But Mír didn’t. She opened her eyes with a gasp, pushed at Ari’s wrist until Ari withdrew her fingers in dismay, and wrapped her legs around Ari’s waist. Her heat pressed against Ari’s body, her wet flesh rubbed against Ari’s own, and the contact made Ari grab at the sheets with newly sticky fingers.
“No, please! What do you want?” Ari gasped. “Don’t make me stop. Tell me what you want. I’ll do it.”
Mír groaned and rubbed her nose in the sweaty hair stuck to Ari’s temple. “You will?”
“Yes!” Calm down, Ari told herself helplessly, this is for her. “I will, I will.”
“If I ask you to touch me?”
“Oh—yes—” Ari could imagine Mír’s heat around her fingers again, clenching in ecstasy.
“Or to please me with your mouth?”
Ari’s eyes fell shut and she hid her face against Mír’s neck. She’d thought about that, too, doing for Mír what Mír had so often done for her. Learning as she went how to bring such pleasure. Just the thought made her even wetter. “Y-yeah—”
“Or what about my mouth?” Mír kept her legs around Ari as she began to smooth her hands up and down Ari’s sweaty back. Ari was shaking all over now, fighting not to grind down and get the pressure she needed so badly. “Imagine sitting on my face, feeling my tongue against you…”
“Um—” It’s for her, it’s for her, oh no— “Wait a second. I’m…I’m…”
Mír cupped Ari’s buttocks and began to rock against her more urgently. “Feel me licking you all over while I finger myself, taking us both over the edge.”
Too close. Ari was too close. She wasn’t going to be able to stop, and this was her turn! No way was Mír taking control now, right when they were almost…
“Do you still want to tie me up?” she whispered in Mír’s ear.
Mír’s words died in a gasp, which gave Ari just enough time to slide a hand between them and push one finger inside her. And although Ari wasn’t the most experienced lover in the universe, it worked. Mír cried out and trembled in climax, her voice broken with pleasure, and it was all because of Ari’s hands and mouth.
That was more than Ari needed, and she tumbled over the edge after Mír with a groan that seemed to come all the way up from her toes.
She barely managed not to collapse on top of her, too. They lay together in the gigantic bed, winded and damp with sweat.
After a few moments, Mír managed, “What are you thinking?”
“Hmm.” Ari paused in the middle of licking her fingers. “That you taste good.”
Mír’s eyes widened. “Good God, Lady Ariana. You’ll be the scandal of the Empire.”
Ari couldn’t help a smile as she pushed her face against Mír’s throat. All eyes were on the fabled pirate queen; who would pay any mind to the love-struck botanist in her shadow? Ari would settle for being scandalous in private. “I doubt it,” she said.
“So do I.” Mír kissed her cheek. “Especially if we both die of thirst before you get the chance.”
Mír’s words called Ari’s attention to her parched mouth. She smacked her lips and swallowed, feeling the effort it took. “Gosh. Yeah. Can we fix that?”
“It�
�s fixable. What do you want?”
Everything I already have, Ari didn’t tell her. The only thing she could think to say out loud was, “Not grog.”
Mír’s eyes lit up, and it was her turn to laugh. “Certainly not tonight. I can think of better drinks for celebrating.”
“If you get me too tipsy, I bet I’ll start reciting poetry,” Ari warned, already feeling merry and foolish.
Mír’s shudder might not have been totally theatrical. “Stars preserve us all. I’d rather talk about gardening.”
“I can do that, too.”
“You can do all kinds of things.” Mír cupped Ari’s cheek. Her gaze softened. “And you always surprise me.”
“No telling what I’ll say next,” Ari agreed, and then recalled something—the most recent time Mír had admitted to being surprised by Ari. She sat up too as her eyes widened. “Oh gosh! I just remembered. Hummingbirds love lilies. Well, certain varietals, anyway. Those are your favorite flower, right? Obviously, it’s not a top priority, or even close, but maybe when things are a little bit quieter I can look into getting—you know what? I’ll make a list. Especially if we’re bringing some of my plants over from Nahtal. And then—”
The warm press of Mír’s lips on her forehead stopped her, and seconds later, the curve of those lips into a smile made Ari melt all over again.
“Still chirping, huh?” she offered.
“Always,” Mír whispered, and kissed her again.
EPILOGUE
EIGHT YEARS LATER
Ambassador Bors relaxed back in his seat with a feeling of wary approval. The negotiations had been a success, and the Empress had not been as entirely unreasonable as her predecessor. Which was good—neither was she as vulnerable. Had she wished to pursue war instead of peace, the Kazir would have had a more difficult time of it than Bors liked to think.
“A drink?” the Empress asked, and when Bors inclined his head, she gestured at a servant. She kept no slaves at her court—one of her many eccentricities. The man who filled Bors’s goblet was paid to do so. Kazir intelligence had even picked up word that an initiative, still in its infancy, was underway to abolish slavery throughout the Empire. At the beginning of Mír’s reign, that would have been unthinkable—it would have destabilized her regime before she’d even begun—but now she was turning preference into policy.
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