The Vestal's Steward

by Ailx Nichols

  I want him to remember this.

  She was hell-bent on giving him a pleasure he would never forget.

  He panted as his erection pulsed against her palate and cheeks, arousing her even more. Sensing he was close, she considered pushing him onto his back and straddling him so they’d come together. But she decided against it.

  She stroked him faster, harder, took him in deeper.

  He made wild, incoherent sounds, his hands gripping her nape, his tip bumping the back of her throat.

  “Mmm…” Haysi fondled her breasts and rubbed her engorged nipples.

  He shivered. “I’ll spill… if you don’t stop now.”

  She looked up at him, her gaze reassuring. That’s all right—I want it.

  It must’ve been that look that drove Iyatt over the edge. Tossing his head back, he let out a deep groan. His throbbing shaft tensed then exploded, spurting load after load of hot seed.

  Haysi wiped her lips with the back of her hand. As she rose to her feet, she gave him a seductive smile befitting her “Lanterns girl” persona. A smile that projected a worldly, uninhibited confidence, which worked magic on certain types of men.

  Inexperienced men?

  No, not really. Experience had nothing to do with it.

  Real men. Men who didn’t feel insecure around her. Even when they lacked experience. Even when they disapproved of her lifestyle.

  What happens now?

  Despite her poise and aplomb, the truth was Haysi had no idea where their night would go from here.

  Would Iyatt thank her, climb between the sheets and fall asleep within seconds, without concerning himself with her pleasure? Somehow, she doubted it.

  Was he a single-shot man or would he soon be ready for more?

  Was he a talker? A hugger? A spooner?

  Smiling, he pulled her into him, and his lips found hers. This kiss was less urgent and tender. Not like the one they’d shared earlier.

  Haysi loved it just as much.

  As they kissed, his strong hands roamed her body. Iyatt plunged them into her hair, stroked her back, squeezed her backside. A greedy, wet need grew once again in Haysi’s lower abdomen, weighing her body down, throbbing and aching.

  She took his hand and brought it down between her legs. “Make me come.”

  Hauling her closer, he rubbed her bud, then dipped two long fingers into her drenched heat.

  She gasped. “Oh, dear Goddess.”

  They stood still for a moment, tense, panting. Haysi’s hunger grew to epic proportions. She needed him to stir his fingers inside her, to move them up and down, to pleasure her with them. Her core clenching, she rose on her toes and then bore down, impaling herself.

  Her eyelids drooped. “Ahh.”

  “So eager,” he said, a happy smile curving his lips upward. “So wet.”

  He thrust his fingers deeper, and soon he was doing exactly what she needed him to do, fast and hard, just the way she wanted it. She was close, so close… But to her endless frustration, he pulled his fingers out and rested his hands on her hips.

  She glowered at him. “You fiend, get those fingers back in there this very—”

  Her voice trailed off when she felt the velvety, hot, thick length of him glide over the groove of her mound. She looked down between them. Iyatt had spread his legs a little and bent his knees to be able to stroke her this way.

  His voice throaty, he inquired, “Still want my fingers? Or would you prefer something… heftier?”

  She rolled her eyes, refusing to answer, but when his slick crown pressed to her entrance without burrowing in, a pleading whimper escaped her lips.

  He grinned. “I’ll take it as a yes.”

  She found herself loving Iyatt’s playful repartee. It wasn’t like him, and yet, on some level, it was.

  She swallowed. “Of course, it’s a yes! But I don’t have protection.”

  “Neither do I.”

  “I’ll take blue cosh tea as soon as we’re back on Hente,” she said. “So, there’ll be no pregnancy.”

  “Good.”

  She chewed on her lip. “But there’s the matter of… the pox.”

  “Are you infected?” His expression was difficult to read.

  “No.”

  “Neither am I.” He cocked his head. “Are you certain?”

  “I am.”

  Haysi peered into his eyes. Does he trust me?

  His touch sure, Iyatt picked her up and settled her on the bed, lowering himself above her.

  Looks like he does.

  Reaching down between them, she adjusted his erection and tilted her hips forward. Squirming with anticipation, she wrapped her legs around his waist.

  And then he was in her.

  Holding her to him with a hand he’d slid under her ass, he drove deep into her core. Her body arched in response. Soon, they were moving together, meeting each other halfway, straining, panting.

  Haysi moved her hands up and down the powerful triangle of his back, feeling his heavy muscles shift under her fingers.

  As he pounded into her, beads of sweat gathered on his forehead and between his pectoral muscles. She whispered dirty, forbidden words, naming his sex and hers, urging him to take more, to give more. She loved how those words drove him wild.

  She squeezed his ass. “Harder.”

  He slammed into her.

  “Yes!” she moaned, her eyes rolling back in her head.

  Another sharp thrust of his hips.

  So deep. So good. She felt she might die from the pleasure.

  “Your body, your sultry talk—” He pushed into her to the hilt. “It makes me crazy.” His hips jerked again. “It makes me lose control.”

  She lifted her head off the pillow. “Good.”

  He slanted his mouth over hers and thrust his tongue past her lips. She sucked it eagerly, reveling in his intensity, his fierceness.

  Aheya help me!

  On the cusp of her release, she took in the dark fire in his eyes and the straining muscles of his face and neck. He slammed into her once again. A tremor began in her legs and spread to her whole body. Haysi shook, orgasming with a force she hadn’t thought possible, falling apart. She thought she was going to burst into a thousand pieces. Instead, a warm, infinitely delicious wave rolled through her core and rippled to every part of her body.

  Another savage thrust, and Iyatt erupted inside her.

  She squeezed him as he came, groaning and tensing.

  When he collapsed atop her, his body warm and spent, she wrapped her arms around his neck. He kissed her lips with a gentleness that was a stark contrast to his earlier fervor. She savored it.

  Slowly, he pulled out of her and turned to lie on his side, propping his head on an elbow. His other hand slid down, nudging her legs apart.

  He can’t possibly be ready for more!

  Turned out, taking her once again hadn’t been his intention, because all he did was look.

  Feeling his seed run out of her, she spread her folds and rubbed it over them. His dark gaze ate up the sight, never wavering. She found that as hot as his lovemaking moments ago.

  For a pious man with strict morals, a man who hadn’t had sex in a decade to remain faithful to his fiancée, Samurai Iyatt Martenn was a formidable lover. The best she’d ever had.

  Later, they snuggled under the blanket.

  “How did you get the idea of becoming a tattoo artist?” he asked, stroking her hip.

  “One of my mother’s friends taught me.” She traced his jawline. “First, I did them for free to disguise some of the girls’ burn scars.”

  He raised his brows in question.

  “There are girls who allow clients to burn or cut them,” she said.

  “I see.” He pursed his mouth.

  “Lately, tattoos became fashionable again.” She ran her thumb over his lips, and he parted them, his jaw relaxing. “Suddenly, everyone wanted to be inked. I started charging. Word of mouth did the rest.”

  For
a while, they just caressed each other. Their desire assuaged, their touch wasn’t sexual anymore, just tender.

  “How did you come to Rateh?” she asked.

  “I learned it in the orphanage.” His gaze grew pensive. “I’d been a disobedient, violent sort, so the vestals made me train with a Rateh master monk. Every morning at dawn, before prayer.”

  “Goodness!”

  “It worked. I learned to control my anger.” He raked his hand through her hair. “While I served my sentence in the quarries, the vestals put together a scholarship so that I could go to the Rateh school on Norbal.”

  “You were lucky.”

  He nodded. “They were much kinder to me than I deserved.”

  Haysi burned to ask him what crime he’d committed but she didn’t dare. Hopefully, he would tell her when he was ready. Hopefully, she’d see more of him.

  Now that Unie was going to stay away for a while, until Derren got to Hente, Iyatt had no objective reason to see Haysi. Would he call on her anyway? Her heart pinched, shocking her at how ardently she hoped he would.

  It’s just his amazing lovemaking, she told herself.

  There was no way she was falling for him.

  “You weren’t faking your enjoyment, were you?” He stared her in the eye. “I’ve heard some women do that so well it’s impossible to tell the difference.”

  She blinked rapidly, descending from her little cloud. “When you say ‘some women,’ do you mean harlots? Is that what you’ve heard?”

  He conceded.

  “Maybe I was,” she said, feeling her elation slip away. “Maybe I wasn’t. Why does it matter?”

  He considered his answer for a moment. “If you didn’t take pleasure in the act we shared, then… I won’t do it again, no matter how much I want it.”

  She perked up at those words. Not only was he saying her enjoyment meant a lot to him, but he was also admitting he wanted to see her again.

  Her expression softened. “If you had more experience with women, you’d know I wasn’t faking it. As a matter of fact, I never have.”

  “Is that your way of telling me you’ve never had sex for money or other favors? That you’re more virtuous than other Lanterns girls?”

  His eyes drilled into hers. His hands stopped stroking her, and his whole body tensed. He waited for her answer, as if it would change everything.

  Really, Iyatt?

  The crease between her eyebrows returned. “Oh Iyatt, I was having such a good time! Tonight, and this whole trip… the time of my life.” She let out a heavy sigh.

  His face fell. “And now I ruined everything.”

  She took in his dismayed expression. Impossible man! He had a knack for vexing her when she was happy, and for mellowing her when she was upset.

  “No, you didn’t ruin it,” she said. “Even though you damn well tried.”

  She rolled onto her other side, facing the wall.

  Behind her, he scooted closer and wrapped a cautious arm around her waist. She let him. Inching closer still, he draped a leg over hers.

  Haysi shut her eyes and breathed in the heady scent of his skin, of his fresh sweat, of their lovemaking. He clutched her to his chest. She smiled privately when he pressed his groin to her ass and curved his body snugly around hers.

  A spooner, then.

  Fifteen

  When Keiron’s private transport took off, Linni sat back and threw him a sidelong glance.

  He looked focused and unaffected by her being within arm’s reach. Keiron… no, Colonel Yaggar—she wasn’t allowed to think of him as Keiron—gave his full and undivided attention to steering his spacecraft as quietly as possible away from LORSS. He was dependable like that. And handsome. And infinitely desirable…

  Stop it, Linni, remember who you are!

  Colonel Yaggar was flying her, the superintendent of the League of Realms, to Vanntor. Right now they were speeding into interstellar space, from where they’d leap to Vanntor. Their final destination was Vanntor 3, one of the inhabited moons orbiting Vanntor, where they were going to hold a secret meeting with Raween Cummills and his aide ahead of the upcoming Assembly of Realms.

  Linni stole another glance at Colonel Yaggar. This time, she caught him staring at her. They averted their eyes immediately like a pair of gawky teenagers.

  It was just the two of them aboard.

  She could’ve dropped her self-aging act and looked her real self—a fresh-faced woman in her mid-thirties with plump lips and glossy hair. Colonel Yaggar had seen her like that.

  Oh, screw understatements!

  He’d made love to her like that. Twice.

  Hence her continued disguise.

  The point of maintaining her “professional” appearance of a fifty-something with gray hair and hollowed cheeks while they were alone was to convey a message. There would not be a third time.

  Unfortunately.

  Before Keiron, Linni had never met a man whom she desired and admired with equal ardor. But she was his boss. He was the head of the Enforcer Corps. They both had enormous responsibilities. Each wielded considerable power. It was vital that they keep their judgment as impartial and uninvolved as possible. A relationship between them would be extremely ill-advised.

  Smoothing her hands over her impeccable hairdo, Linni stared out the viewport, promising herself not to look at the colonel again until they touched down.

  She kept her promise.

  On Vanntor’s third moon, they were met by the hotel staff and led through a glass tunnel directly to the meeting room Raween had booked. Traveling under an assumed identity, Linni found it refreshing not to be fawned over, and not to endure the interminable welcome ceremonies required by the official protocol of most planets.

  When they entered the meeting room, Raween and his younger colleague with a head of untamed hair were already inside. Linni’s mentor embraced her and Colonel Yaggar warmly.

  The colonel pressed his index finger to his lips and swept the room with a device he’d pulled from his pocket.

  Satisfied with the reading, he set the device on the table. “Clear. We can speak now.”

  Raween introduced his colleague as Elmor Honnyd, a polygifted rich-blood and his best analyst within the Circle of the Enlightened.

  The first order of business was Geru Gokk’s report from his time in captivity on Tastassi. The report incriminated Governor Horbell on more than one account. Colonel Yaggar hoped that was enough for LOR to issue an arrest warrant, much the same way Linni would do it with regards to a regular space pirate boss.

  Except Horbell wasn’t a regular space pirate captain. He was an endorsed governor of a planet-realm, with a seat and a vote in the LOR Assembly. Moreover, Horbell had cultivated a network of sidekicks among ambassadors who might or might not be on his payroll.

  Ordering his arrest was outside of Linni’s purview.

  After a heated discussion, the consensus was to gather more proof and to tread carefully. Geru Gokk’s testimony would be challenged at LOR. After all, he’d been declared a traitor and an outlaw in his native realm of Eia on Hente. There was no way the Council of Seven—to say nothing of the Assembly of Realms where Horbell had allies—would favor a criminal’s word over that of a governor.

  The second item on the agenda was the worsening situation on Nekkior.

  That backwater Silver Path planet-realm had deprived thousands of women—in fact, nearly all its women—of freedom and dignity. To Linni, who’d visited it covertly, the place was Thisworld’s version of hell. A realm whose ruling elite were corrupt beyond redemption. A realm that remained a full-fledged, voting member of LOR despite its crimes against women. And whose pompous ambassador never missed a chance to sermonize to others.

  She knew the Assembly would never sanction a military intervention to overthrow the regime and change an unjust social order. The Council of Seven refused to act. But she believed the Assembly could be prevailed upon to give her something smaller, something less drastic, if sh
e presented her case right. That was where Raween’s experience and insights came in handy.

  The final discussion point was Hente.

  Colonel Yaggar found the events unfolding on that Baylian planet increasingly preoccupying.

  “Caretaker Governor Boggond acts like a despot,” he said, “People loathe him, but they have no alternatives. He’s gotten rid of all his potential contenders.”

  “Didn’t Commander Heidd survive the assassination attempt?” Linni asked.

  “He did, but he was charged with treason and had to go into hiding.”

  Elmor looked up from his notes. “That means Heidd can’t run against Boggond, who also controls the press with the exception of one local paper.”

  “Which one?” Linni asked.

  “The Iltaqa Gazette.”

  “Plus the rebel newsletter,” Colonel Yaggar said, “but its impact is limited. The Association doesn’t have the means to print enough copies to compete with the Orogate Daily and other propaganda channels.”

  Raween pointed to his aide. “Elmor here and my other analysts predict that if no game-changing event occurs between now and Late-winter, and if no credible new candidate presents himself, Boggond will win the Endorsement Vote in spring.”

  “It gets worse.” Elmor leaned forward. “We believe Boggond will attack Eia’s neighboring kingdom-realm Teteum as soon as he wins the vote, if not before.”

  “I’m inclined to agree with you,” Colonel Yaggar said.

  Linni looked from him to Elmor. “What led you to that conclusion, Sir Honnyd?”

  “Several concomitant factors.” Elmor raked his hands through his tousled hair. “Here’s one. Boggond has hired a 200-strong hive cyborg squadron. He can’t afford them, and he certainly doesn’t need them to maintain order in Eia.”

  “Are you sure they are modified cyborgs and not regular bionic mercenaries?” she asked.

  Elmor turned to the colonel. “What do your sources on Hente report, sir?”

  “Hive cyborgs,” Colonel Yaggar said.

  Elmor turned back to Linni. “Eia’s still recovering after the war. Boggond’s coffers are empty. His realm depends on LOR’s aid to rebuild. Yet he hires more cyborgs than we have in the Enforcer Corps. To me, that means he wants a war.”