Again, this elicits an almost orgasmic response.
I’m unapologetically staring at her.
“What?” she asks, a little bit of defeat in her normally haughty voice.
“You’re really pretty, you know that?”
She frowns.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been so intrigued by a woman before.”
She sighs.
“So, yeah, Lyra. I’m gonna take you into my bedroom. Bind you to the bed. And make you sleep next to me. But it’s not just because I don’t trust you. It’s because I think… I think I like you, princess. And even though I wasn’t looking for my very own princess when I found you here this morning, I think I might… like you.”
If I was expecting some kind of reciprocal gesture, I’d have been disappointed. Because she just stares at me with a blank face.
But I wasn’t expecting that. Her defenses are on high alert. Her bullshit meter working overtime. She is a lost girl. I can see that now. She has been hurt and fucked over. Maybe a lot. And even though most of that story she told me was just lies, there were little nuggets of truth in there.
That part about the king being one of them.
The part about escaping, another.
Regardless of how she got out, she did it out of desperation. And then, once I realize that… once that manifests in my brain, I see the picture so clearly I almost laugh.
“I’ll get her back for you,” I whisper.
“What?”
“Your sister, Lyra? I can steal her back for you, ya know. That’s what I do. I’m the best booty hunter there is.”
She sucks in a deep breath, lifts her chin up, and says, “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
Gotcha, I think to myself. Found it. Your weakness is on display so fully now, I almost feel embarrassed for taking advantage of it.
Almost.
“ALCOR says Booty will be online by tomorrow and once that happens…” I smile and shake my head. “Well, let’s just say… she and I together can pretty much do whatever the fuck we want. And there ain’t nothin’ no one can do about that. So no, Lyra. This isn’t an empty promise. I can get your sister back no problem.”
“And what do I have to give you in return?”
I almost feel guilty for asking for it. Almost. But not quite. “Sleep with me.”
“You mean fuck you,” she snarls.
“Let me have another go. I was off my game earlier. You kinda took me by surprise, princess. I can do better.”
“You sick pervert—”
“You liked it, right?”
She glares at me. “I was under duress. I won’t like it again.”
I laugh. “Ah, but you’re wrong. Because you haven’t even experienced what the bracelets and piercings can do yet. And even though people think the whole two-cock thing is the icing on the Akeelian cake, it’s not. You only got half the experience.”
She frowns, then looks down at her wrists. I can see the nipple rings underneath her t-shirt. In fact they are pressing against the loose fabric in a way that tells me she just got a chill. Which tells me she’s picturing what my full attention might look like.
“Spectacular,” I say, answering her unasked question. “I am spectacular. Just like you are, Lyra. You and your glow. You and your light. You and that little nub of flux between your legs. You have no idea what we could do together.”
She breathes a little faster but says nothing.
And in my head I say it again.
Gotcha, princess.
CHAPTER TWLEVE – LYRA
I thought I had him. I really did. I thought, Lyra. You got this guy. This stupid, two-cocked Akeelian male who thinks with his junk and sees what I let him see. Our little tryst in the exam room lowered his defenses. Weakened him.
I thought I was playing him.
But I was wrong.
He’s playing me.
The shower was amazing. That thing practically made love to me. I sat on the bench and let the sweet-smelling steam wash over me. It allowed me to think. To formulate a plan.
How I could seduce him. How I could fool him. How I could escape. How this place is filled with ships and stealing ships just happens to be the top skill on my résumé. How stealing guns, and lasers, and plasma rifles is listed right underneath that. How tomorrow I’d be on my way back to Bull Station with a ship armed with SEAR cannons. How I’d liberate Nyleena, torture a few assholes for fun, and then blow that place to bits. How we would then proceed to the farthest reaches of the galaxy and find the one place in this sun-forsaken universe that would accept us for who we really are and not use us like sexual playthings.
How Serpint would buy all the bullshit I was selling because he’s just another sexually-obsessed man and pretty, pink light-shows like me bring out the animal in them. And he might trust me, and let down his guard, and I’d slip away like I was never here.