“Why me?”
“You—” The hesitation earns her another
spank and she sags against the wall, gasping.
“You’re bald.”
True, but it seems like an odd
qualification. I rub my hand over the hot,
reddened skin of her ass. “Yeah, and—”
“I like – I like bald men.”
Interesting. Shaving my head’s never
gotten me laid before. I chuckle. Stir my
finger inside her. “You don’t say.”
“Please.” She rolls her forehead against
the wall. “Don’t stop.”
I rub in slow circles while I open my fly
with my free hand. Unleash the hardest hard-
on I can ever remember having. I can almost
hear the little monster roar. I press it
between the cheeks of her ass while I push
my finger all the way inside her. She’s tight,
but not so tight I’ll tear her. I pump my finger
in time to my thrusts against her ass. Let her
think I might take her the other way. The way
I am much too big for her. She’s shuddering,
with arousal and a little fear. Not too much –
she’s too wet to be really afraid – just
enough to titillate. I slide my free hand up,
under her top, find an enticingly hard nipple.
Pinch and squeeze and roll it between my
fingers until she’s gasping, each breath a
plea, a prayer. Not quite ready to answer her
prayers, I side my finger out of her, find the
swollen nub of her clit with my first finger
and thumb and pinch.
She cries out, a guttural wail that leaves
no doubt what’s being done to her. I bury my
dark chuckle in the nape of her neck. Her
dreadlocks brush my cheeks, smelling
sweetly of soap. I bite and suck the soft skin
of her neck while I pinch and rub her nipple
and clit in tandem. Grind my cock against her
ass.
Her next cry has words in it. “Please!
Please, God, do it!”
She doesn’t need to ask twice, and in that
moment, no matter how dangerous it is for
me to leave a DNA trail, coming in her is all
that’s going to satisfy me.
I shove her feet apart, hold her open with
the fingers I was tormenting her with, bend
from the knees to thrust up into her. She’s
tight; I have to work it into her. I take it slow
after the first thrust, penetrating her
centimeter by centimeter. Wet and soft and
oh so hot. Feels better than anything I can
remember. She throws her head back, nearly
cracking her skull into my nose. She’s lost in
it. Beautiful. Once I’m all the way in her, I
bite down on her neck to keep her still as I
fuck her, one hand cupped over her mons, the
other wrapped across her, fingers squeezing
her breast. I fuck her hard: deep, powerful
strokes, snapping my hips at the end of each
thrust, taking her weight across my thighs, my
back and ass working as I find my rhythm. A
few minutes of that good hard fucking and
she’s jerking and thrashing in my hold,
swallowing a scream with each thrust. Sweat
slicks the ass she’s madly working against
my groin.
“Is that it, kitten?” I growl into her skin.
“That what you wanted?”
“Yes!” she wails. “Yes, yes!”
I find that perfect rhythm, hard and fast.
Pistoning up into her while I yank her down
into each thrust. She’s shuddering all over,
nearly throwing herself off the wall onto my
dick, her body fisting around mine. I rub the
fingers I’ve got gripping her mons against her
weeping clit and feel her go. Her wail rises
into an orgasmic scream. Her body squeezes
mine frantically. Hands patter up the wall as
though seeking escape from the climax that
draws her whole body taut.
That’s all I need. I pin her hard against
the wall while I shove into her for those last
frenzied thrusts. Balls clenching tight, every
muscle straining, and there and there and I’m
there, emptying into her in bursts of heat and
light and agonizing pleasure that leave me
hollow and for a moment, totally at peace.
I lean against her, covering her body as
she clings to the wall. Hell, I love sex.
“Nice,” I murmur into her hair.
She nods. She’s breathing too hard to
speak.
“C’mere.” I withdraw from her, pull her
off the wall, turn her around. She’s shaking,
limp and saggy like her knees won’t hold her
up. “You okay?”
She nods but won’t meet my eyes. I’m not
sure what to say to her. After that moment of
intense intimacy, we’re back to being two,
half-naked strangers standing in a dirty alley.
She reaches down for her shorts, which
have pooled around the tops of her boots.
Unbalances. I catch her with a hand on her
hip. She grabs onto my shoulder to stay
upright. I like the feeling of her hands on my
skin. I’m not ready to stop touching her.
I pull up her shorts for her. Then I pick
her up and push her back against the wall.
She stiffens. I hold her loosely until she
realizes I’m not demanding anything from
her. Then she wraps her arms around my
shoulders. I lift her with a hand under her
ass; her legs go around my hips naturally.
I could be back inside her in a few
seconds, but for the first time in as long as I
can remember, I’ve got no urge. I’m
completely satisfied. I settle her against the
wall, lean into her until we’re warmly
pressed together, and enjoy the closeness of
her body.
“Was that twenty minutes?” she breathes
finally.
Eighteen and some change, by the chrono
I had implanted in my right eye by a chop-
doc on Cayster. “Close enough.”
She tucks her face into my neck, her
breath a humid patter on my skin. Her fingers
stroke my sweaty neck.
“I wish we’d done this in a bed,” she
whispers.
“Wall too rough for you?”
“No . . . I could sleep . . . for a while.”
Said like someone who doesn’t sleep
easily. Maybe the circles around her eyes
aren’t all kohl.
“Thought you were on the clock.” Two
hours and forty minutes to midnight.
“I am . . . we are. I mean, are we good?
We still have a deal?”
“Yeah, we still gotta deal.” It’s why she
let me fuck her. I know it and it shouldn’t
bother me, but it does. “You ready?”
She nods but doesn’t make any move to
disentangle herself. “After . . . after the run
. . . maybe we could have another twenty
minutes?”
I chuckle, adjust her against the wall.
“Yeah, sure.”
“In a bed.”
“Demanding kitten.”
“I am.” I feel her grin against my neck.
“And it needs to be at least as good as that.”
I pinch her ass and she wriggles. “It gets
better with practice, I’m told.”
“I’m up for some practice,” she
whispers.
“Sounds t’me like another deal comin’
on.”
She’s silent for a moment and I wonder if
I’ve misread her. Then she rolls her cheek
along my collar. “I’ve got another run
coming up. To - to the Cloudlands. I could
use a pilot.”
“Cloudlands, huh?” Too bad they’re so
unfriendly out there. “That’s gonna cost you.”
“Three thousand, hard?” she asks
hopefully.
“Forty minutes.”
She laughs. “Sixty. In a bed.”
“You drive a hard bargain, kitten.”
“I do. And I always get what I want.”
“Yeah?” I rub my hand over her ass-
cheek, warm from the spanking, even through
her shorts. “How you doin’ so far tonight?”
It’s a light probe, which she can deflect or
answer. She seemed to enjoy it – it felt like
she came – but with girls, you never can be
sure. She might have faked it.
“Good. Really good.” She sounds
extremely pleased with herself. “Batting a
thousand.”
I smile into her hair. “It’s unhealthy to get
your own way all the time. Creates false
expectations.”
“Oh.” She lifts her head and looks into
my eyes. I smile at her so she knows I’m
teasing. She smiles back. Pale pink mouth.
Full lower lip. No artificial color. I like that.
I give her a kiss. Gentle, since this isn’t part
of the deal. Giving her time to push me away
if she doesn’t want it. No tongue. Her lips
are soft. She opens her mouth, gives me a
taste. Coconut and curry. No chemicals.
Definitely clean.
I lean into the kiss. Explore her mouth
with slow strokes of my tongue. She kisses
me back with heat but no urgency. Slow,
deep kisses. Fuck, she’s sweet. Her hand
trails down my back, sides under the
loosened waistband of my fatigues. She cups
my ass in her hand, squeezes when I flex my
buttock.
When I break the kiss, she opens her
eyes, sucks her lower lip into her mouth.
Bites down lightly with her little white teeth.
“Mmm.”
Either she liked that or she’s playing me.
Or both. “Tasty, kitten.”
“More,” she breathes.
“Yeah?” I’d be happy to oblige her. The
little monster’s getting heavy and achy again
just from that little bit of kissing. It’s been a
while since I paid for an hour of relief, and I
never get to kiss hookers like this. Slow and
so sweet it makes my teeth ache. But I’m not
gonna be satisfied with twenty minutes this
time, and if we don’t leave soon, we’re not
going to make Kuus by midnight. “Don’t we
gotta be somewhere?”
She licks her lip. Nods. Slowly, she
unwraps her legs from around my hips. Puts
her feet on the ground. I lower her until she’s
bearing her own weight. Keep one arm
around her as I fasten up my pants.
“We need to pick someone up on the
way.”
“Yeah?” She’s rewriting the deal.
Normally I’ve got no patience with that sorta
thing, but I’ll give her a little leeway. Pulling
her up short – or punishing her later – could
be all kinds of fun. “Who ‘n’ where?”
“My brother. He’s in Hemos. He’s got
our gear.”
I don’t ask what gear she needs, but I file
that away for later. “Better get goin’ then.”
She nods. Accepts her jacket when I
scoop it up off the ground and offer it to her.
Brushes the mane of dreadlocks back off her
face and secures them at the nape of her neck
with a black thong. Follows me when I begin
to lead her back through the alleys to the
port.
Chapter 2
After a few steps, her warm hand slips
into mine.
I glance at her. She’s looking up into my
face. Expression open. Seeking approval.
“Yeah?”
“We’ll attract less attention as a couple.”
True. Smart girl. I slow my steps so she’s
not rushing to keep up with me. “So, bein’
bald was the deciding factor, huh?”
She bumps her shoulder against my upper
arm. She’s tall for an unmodified woman but
carries herself in a way that makes her
appear smaller. The carriage of someone
who doesn’t want to be noticed. “I asked
around. You’re good. You don’t turn tail if
things get ugly. And you’re not part of any
crew.”
All true. Smart girl. “Why’d you wait so
long? I coulda had another job tonight.” I’ve
already done one hop today and if her run
takes more than six hours, I’ll be over my
maximum flying time for the period. There
are ways to fiddle it, but I’d rather not if I
don’t have to.
“I, uh.” She glances away, bites her lip.
“I came down last night to ask you but I, um,
I bagged out.”
“Yeah, why’s that?”
“A woman came out after you. The one
with the dark hair? You went back in with
her. I wasn’t sure, you know, who she was.”
running out after me on some pretense.
Dragged me back to her office for the nightly
come-on. That she’s contracted with a passel
of kids doesn’t seem to make any difference
to her. It would to me even if I found her
Second Skin-fits sexy.
“I thought she might be your woman.”
I chuckle. “She’s a little too contracted
for me. Why does it matter if I’ve got a
woman?”
She flinches. If I wasn’t holding her hand,
I wouldn’t have felt it. Certainly wouldn’t
have seen it. She covers pretty well. But she
did flinch. “I guess it doesn’t,” she says.
“You seen a woman in the time you been
watching me?”
“No. But I haven’t seen all that much.
You’re not easy to follow.”
That makes me laugh. I’m not particularly
worried about being followed – to get
anything important, someone tailing me
would have to get within killing distance –
so I wasn’t trying to be evasive. It’s just
habit.
“What’ve you seen, kitten?”
“You spend most of your time on your
ship but you have a place in Nock City.
Down near the river. It’s got good security.”
Which means she couldn’t get in. And that
she tried. Minx. “You picked up dinner from
a
noodle place about two blocks from your
place the night before last. They deliver. I
checked. Why didn’t you have it delivered?”
“Why d’you think?”
“You don’t want anyone to know where
you live.”
Very smart. “Top marks, kitten. Anything
else?” We reach the port gate and I wave her
past the security guard, who nods when I
produce Snow’s Multi. That’s one of the
things that kept me in the Vespers after
escaping that fucking pit on Tol Seng: low
levels of automation. Too expensive, this far
from the Core System, and too unreliable
with the radiation and E.M. flux off
Kuseros’s binary star.
“You went to the Delta after your
noodles. I lost you in there.” There’s a
slightly sulky note to her voice. The Delta is
Nock City’s red light district. I went there to
cash in a favor, but Maier was out of town,
so I did the hop today myself, fucking
garbage run, but there’s no way for her to
know that. I could have gone to find some
paid companionship – I have in the past – but
nothing I’ve found was nearly as satisfying
as what we just did against the alley wall.
“Yeah? You didn’t see me with the
redhead at the Flesh Den? Too bad. You
missed a show.”
She tugs her hand out of mine.
I chuckle and wrap my arm around her
shoulders. “There’s no redhead at the Flesh
Den.”
The Flesh Den’s Pan-Asian, and all the
girls have the black silk hair of their Chinese
and Indian ancestors. At this moment, I find
myself preferring fuzzy blonde dreadlocks.
I’ve never been with a woman with
dreadlocks before. They’re intriguing. How
will they feel against my skin? Are they
stronger than regular hair? Strong enough that
I could tie her to a bed with them? “There
hasn’t been anyone for a long time,” I tell
her. Because for a year after I lost her, every
woman I tried to fuck wore Marin’s face,
and the little monster wasn’t up for
necrophilia. “Why d’you care?”
Maybe she’s looking for a boyfriend as
well as a pilot. Kinda backwards way to go
about it, but maybe the pierced and
dreadlocked generation don’t go in for more
traditional forms of courtship.
“I don’t. I just want to know who I’m
dealing with.”
I stop a few yards away from my ship.
Catch her chin in my hand and tip her face up
to mine. “You got no idea who you’re
dealin’ with, kitten.”