That thought alone was enough to make her consider Sherin’s position, setting her own desires aside for the moment. Once they reached Electra, assuming it had some kind of legal link to the United Systems, Vahn might not be content with locking up his former employee for the trip back. He could bring charges against her either on Electra itself or have her sent back to Kyrin.
If Sherin had an industrial espionage charge in her corp record, it would be the end of corp employment for her. Such a charge carried with it fines, sometimes imprisonment and indentures. TiCara hated to think of the other woman helpless, vulnerable to someone like Zig, regardless of everything she had done. She shivered at the direction her thoughts were taking.
The memory of Zig reminded her to scan again for the corp ship. She watched the external sensors warily, looking for any sign that would tell her that the corp ship and the pirates were still out there, waiting. But there was nothing but asteroids and space, the residue from the comet and the distant glow of the star and she breathed a sigh of relief.
It didn’t last long. There was a bright glow, as if something had exploded out on the edge of the belt. It looked like pulsar cannon fire and she wondered if it was from the corp ship or the pirates. She hoped it was the latter and that they succeeded in blowing up the corp ship. Especially if Zig was on board.
Fighting the corp shop would keep the pirates occupied, at least for a little while. Zig’s death, if the pirates won, would make her the happiest medusa pilot in the twenty systems, even better than serving as a distraction. All she wanted to know was that he was truly gone, that she would never stumble across him in a spacer bar or anywhere else. She sent a fervent hope out through her implants that she would get at least this one wish.
Then she added a second one that she would get Sherin too. It was greedy, but she could live with that. Especially if it all came true. TiCara grinned at her reflection in one of the peripheral computer screens, then turned that smile on Erol as he came up the ladder behind her.
Good tell, Captain? That’s the happiest you’ve looked this trip. Her Second took his seat in the auxiliary pilot’s chair and turned on the autopilot function. His lips quirked in a small smile as TiCara unplugged from the ship with a sigh.
Think this plan will work, Second. Just feeling good about this job for a change. I’ll leave you to keep an eye on things. Vahn says these are the real coordinates, that there hasn’t been any more tampering, but we’ll see once we get closer. Got a whole system to cross first. Fly like a rock for now, Second. She patted his shoulder and dropped down the ladder to the next level with only the briefest touch on the rails to slow her descent.
It was only when she was down at the level of her quarters that she remembered that there had been something that Erol wanted to tell her, back before everything blackholed. For a brief instant, she thought about going back up or comming him, but the thought of Sherin waiting for her in her room was too enticing. He hadn’t said anything before she left, so it must not be so very important. She would ask him again at the next shift change.
Thinking about Sherin in her quarters made her desperate to believe the rep’s story, crazy as it was. Was it so improbable that Elia was behind the tracker as well as Sherin’s presumably abortive betrayal? She wasn’t sure. Her former mentor had had a fine head for strategy and planning back when they were still running corp jobs. Perhaps the older pilot had found a way to use her skills in a different way now that she was retired.
Something told TiCara that if she spent more time with Sherin, she might learn enough for reassurance. And she wanted that time and more, trust or no trust. They were nearly at their destination and she was done delaying gratification. If she was wrong about the rep, either way, then she’d pay whatever price she had to once they
arrived.
That thought lent wings to her heels, even more than the Astra’s lower than planet normal gravity. She didn’t hesitate when she reached her quarters, not even to send out a medusa to check a cam and see if Sherin was inside waiting for her. Even she could learn to like some surprises.
The door slid open to reveal Sherin lying on the bed, eyes closed and apparently asleep. But her eyes shot open, startled and fearful, when she heard the sound of the opening door, then crinkled at the edges as she gave the pilot a tentative smile. When TiCara dropped onto the bed above her, she reached up to touch the pilot’s cheek, Any signals?
Not yet, but I’ve got the scanners set. She bent down to kiss the rep softly on the lips. Then she turned her face to Sherin’s hand on her cheek. A dim memory of an old vizhistory on sex that she had seen before she got wired reminded her that the hands could be an erogenous zone. It was time to start experimenting, if she wanted to continue to pleasure Sherin without using her medusas.
Slowly and carefully, she sucked on each of Sherin’s fingers in turn, letting her tongue caress Sherin’s skin. She licked the other woman’s palm, pleased to hear a soft gasp of pleasure, to feel Sherin’s body rock a little against hers. TiCara ran her tongue from Sherin’s hand down her arm to her shoulder, pausing to nip at the delicate skin of her elbow joint and showering kisses on her goose-bumped flesh.
Speaking of triggers, I’ve been plugged in for whole cycles now, thinking about you, starshine girl. I want to be done just thinking. She lowered her mouth to Sherin’s kissable mouth, coaxing her tongue between the other woman’s lips. Sherin’s warm arms slid up around her neck, pulling her down onto the narrow bed.
She sank into the silken touch of Sherin’s skin and reveled in the scent of desire that now filled the room. Shifting her body around, she braced one of her legs between Sherin’s and pushed gently to part her thighs. The rep complied with gratifying speed and she grinned into their kiss.
TiCara dropped her free hand down to Sherin’s bare thigh and stroked upward. Sherin met her touch with a slight arching of her back and a soft groan. TiCara let her fingers play over the rep"s crotch, not entering her, not yet. She wanted to savor this moment of longing.
Sherin unfastened her suit, her hands surer than they had been earlier, despite her still healing injury. She kissed her way over TiCara’s exposed shoulder and collarbone as together they pulled the pilot’s blacksuit down. Then Sherin twisted around to take one of TiCara’s nipples in her mouth. TiCara growled as the rep tongued her hardened flesh against her teeth, the sensation sending waves of heat through her.
Their free hands were occupied in peeling off the suit now, yanking it down so that TiCara’s boots trapped it. The pilot pulled free of Sherin’s mouth with an effort and stood up to pull her suit and boots off, tossing the suit into the closet so the ship could clean it. Once that distraction was addressed, she took a moment to savor the sight of Sherin’s beautiful body, the sleepy desire-filled tilt of her dark eyes, the rapid rise and fall of her full breasts.
TiCara growled softly, savoring the wave of desire that rode her every nerve ending. She dropped back down on the foot of the bed, taking one of Sherin’s feet in her hands. The rep giggled softly as TiCara hit a ticklish spot, then moaned as the pilot caressed her shin with a swipe of her tongue, working her way upwards, dragging her hot mouth over the sensitive skin behind Sherin’s knee. Then she started licking her way up Sherin’s legs.
Sherin’s hips rocked up to meet TiCara’s mouth when she reached her destination between the rep’s thighs, distrust forgotten in the rush of longing and sensations. TiCara parted Sherin’s legs with her hand and blew along the length of her wet slit, listening with delight as Sherin uttered a deep, body-shaking groan. She followed that up by running her finger over the rep’s wet skin, savoring the pleading tone of Sherin’s whispered, Please...
She caught herself an instant later sending down a medusa to explore the other woman’s yearning flesh. Not yet, not now. She would have to do this without her implants or not at all. And not at all was no longer an option.
Instead, she drove into Sherin first with one finger, then two, letting her tongue j
oin them in Sherin’s salty wetness. Her lover was bucking against her mouth, legs spread wide and heels dug into the bed. The noises coming from her mouth were wanton and urgent, nothing like the dignified corporate rep that TiCara had met in visits to Vahn’s office. She found that she liked this version much, much better.
The sounds were enough to drive TiCara to press harder, lick harder, as if she didn’t want Sherin desperately already. Her fingers were buried inside Sherin now, thrusting and pushing her way further in until her entire hand fit inside. Sherin’s walls were tight around her fingers and the rep clutched at the bed’s memfoam as her hips
heaved and rocked against TiCara’s mouth, TiCara’s hand. TiCara’s own pussy was aching with thwarted desire as she coaxed Sherin to come and come again for her. But it was a happy ache. This, this was what she had waited so long for and it was shaping up to be everything she’d dreamed of. It pleased more than she could have imagined.
Sherin collapsed against the bed and wriggled slightly to loosen TiCara’s hand. Taking the hint, the pilot slipped her hand out with a slighting popping noise and gently kissed her way over the rep’s torso to one of her breasts, then the other, sucking frantically at each to coax out the last of the tremors from Sherin’s body.
Sherin grabbed her, pulling her face up for a fierce kiss, devouring her tongue and licking off the taste of her own pussy from TiCara’s face. And for the first time, TiCara shuddered as Sherin’s fingers attentively, cautiously, twined their way into her medusas. The sensation traveled from her scalp to the soles of her feet, lighting an even brighter fire in their wake.
Sherin’s mouth was on her neck, her thigh thrusting its way between TiCara’s before the pilot had time to register that she had slipped her hand out of her implants, and was now resting it on her mons. Then Sherin’s mouth and tongue and hands were everywhere, a sharp bite followed by a soothing kiss, hot and wet desire overpowering every other impulse until TiCara couldn’t respond to all of them at once.
But she tried, oh, she tried! She wanted to savor all of it, every instant and touch and taste and smell. It might not last, and then what would she do? She tried to push that foreboding thought aside and bury it. That was the moment when Sherin’s tongue and fingers entered her at the same time, and she lost herself in a bucking, bed clutching, convulsing response of her own.
Sherin rode her out, using her mouth and hands to call forth every desire that TiCara had until she was spent and collapsed underneath her. Only then did she let herself be pulled up to the pilot’s face for a long kiss. Only then did she begin to sing softly in TiCara’s ear, the haunting and lovely sound filling the room and taking them both back to the spacer bars when they first saw each other.
She even sang one of TiCara’s favorite songs, an old spacer ballad about being lost in the stars. Sherin followed that up with a love song, something which TiCara tried and failed utterly to not find significant. Then she sang them a lullaby as they both slipped into exhausted, sated sleep.
TiCara woke up three machrons later and checked the time. She wasn’t needed on the Bridge to relieve Erol, not yet. There was time to savor the new sensation of waking up to Sherin, of watching her while she still slept. TiCara drank in the other woman’s face as it rested on her shoulder, admiring the curve of her cheek, the luxurious sweep of the dark lashes on her closed eyes, her long straight nose and those blackberry lips. Perhaps she did believe in Erol’s fortune, at least a little.
But her thoughts soon turned to Electra and what had happened to Sherin in the labs. Was there another way to get her rewired without the credits from Elia and Zig? Her thoughts swirled and wandered, but came back with nothing.
It frustrated her, this new inability to find ready solutions to her problems. If it weren’t for Vahn, she would have turned the ship around and flown back out of the system. Going back to Kyrin or one of the other big ports would give her time to ask around, to research. To take another job or three that might generate enough credits. Or at least, get Sherin away from temptation and further potential betrayals.
But most shadow trade jobs would not pay as well as this one. Vahn had known what he was doing when he made his offer. This job would be worth any three that she could find on her own. TiCara sighed quietly and Sherin stirred restlessly at her side, eyes opening slowly in a startled expression.
They kissed gently, all urgency gone for the moment, then lay still, each listening to the other’s even breathing. Finally, Sherin broke the silence with the last question that TiCara wanted to answer. Why do you hate the Ears so much? What did they do to you?
TiCara shuddered and began to pull away, only to be held tight in Sherin’s arms. You can trust me. Tell me whatever you want to tell me. Her voice was soft and reassuring, but TiCara knew that she wouldn’t be released until she told the other woman something.
She thought of, then discarded, several somethings, before settling on the truth. I spent two years as a bond slave in one of the Ear dormitories. The one where Zig was in training. An uncontrollable shiver started in her middle, then radiated outward to her limbs, and Sherin held her closer. She slowly regained some control at the comfort of the other woman’s touch, letting it put distance between her mind and those memories she never wanted to revisit.
But if she was going to believe in Sherin, Sherin had to believe in her. She had to give the other woman something in exchange for her truth. As it stood, there were still too many barriers between them, and those barriers would come back to haunt any chance they had at being together. And she wanted that possibility, wanted that so very badly, that she was prepared to revisit her own personal hell to do it.
She forced her words out. He used to do...things to me. Painful things, humiliating things. He’d get the other Ears to do them, too. And I couldn’t say no, not unless it would result in death or permanent injury. It’s part of the contract that the bondslaves sign with the Ears.
Sherin shivered against her, but was quiet, letting her continue. TiCara wondered what would happen if she didn’t say anything else and just stopped there. But now that she was talking, she could feel all of it, all the stories she hadn’t told anyone except Elia, welling up inside her and starting to spill out, like a meteor shower.
She talked for what seemed like forever, her eyes screwed tightly shut against her tears, until her trembling settled down into a quiet numbness. Then TiCara was silent while she waited for Sherin to withdraw, to be repulsed by the stories that she had told. She didn’t think that she would want to stay with someone as damaged as she was and she couldn’t imagine Sherin feeling the same about her, not now. She braced herself to feel nothing when Sherin finally spoke.
But instead of saying anything, Sherin hugged her closer, kissing her gently. TiCara couldn’t hold back her tears any more and they soon gave way to choking sobs. And through it all, Sherin held her, stroking her shoulders and very tentatively, her implants. Her touch was gentle, careful, and it reassured TiCara more than any words.
Finally, she ran out of tears that she needed to shed. She accepted a wipe that Sherin offered her and used it on her face, letting its cool pressure restore her, calm her to the extent she could be calmed. For the first time that she could remember, that calm extended inside her as well as out. She smiled her gratitude at Sherin and kissed her back.
Sherin stroked her face. I’ll get us something to eat? At TiCara’s nod, she put on her clothes and slipped out. A few moments later, she was back with a couple of containers that she set down on the shelf across from the bed. Drink this. She held out a cup and TiCara took it and gave it an experimental sip. A warm spicy aroma filled her nose and she took a second gulp.
It’s good. She opened the lid and took a deep whiff of its contents. This from New Chindai too? I think I need to make a jump to that quadrant.
Sherin smiled. I’m not sure New Chindai is ready for you. But the food always makes me feel better. I hoped it would work for you, too. They ate in companionable silen
ce for a few moments.
TiCara was surprised at how right it felt. She had never had this kind of time before with any of her other lovers; there had always been a ship to fly or a job to complete, not this relaxed quiet over a good meal, after glorious meatspace sex, with no help from her implants. The novelty was almost too much to process.
Sherin finished her food and reached out for TiCara’s hand. She looked down at their twined fingers and said, I have some more tell about Electra. It wasn’t as accidental as I made it sound. The part where I lost my...my medusas was, of course. But I was in the lab to see what I could find. I was curious and I wanted to know what they were doing there, maybe learn some tell I could use later. She looked away, as if she couldn’t bring herself to look at TiCara. I was stupid and unlucky.
TiCara kissed her hands. Signing on as a bondslave to the Ears wasn’t my best decision, either. But here we are. She turned Sherin’s face toward hers as the alarm on her handheld chimed. It was time for her to get dressed and go to relieve Erol. Wait here for me. I’ll come back when my shift is done. She leaned over and kissed Sherin again, putting all gratitude and desire that she felt into the pressure of her lips and tongue. When she left, she looked back over her shoulder and Sherin blew her a kiss as the door slid closed, sending her out with a happy warm glow.
Chapter 21
The door slid shut behind TiCara and Sherin stood up and stretched slowly. She checked the time on TiCara’s computer display. Zig would be waiting for her tell. She wondered what he would do when he didn’t hear from her.
But then she suspected that she already knew the answer to that. He had someone else on board this ship, someone else to give him the information if she failed to provide it. She stepped into the shower and let the pressure relax her while she cataloged everyone on the ship, considering, then discarding the possibilities.
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