“As if I’d bring her anywhere near your stinking cell,” Need sneered. “Go in your room and leave me alone—I’m not here to talk to you.”
“You’ll want to talk to me soon enough—when her Ripening starts. So you will,” Drung predicted, and let out a squealing laugh. “But when you do decide you want a look at her file, there’s going to be a price, so there is.”
“Fuck you and your file,” Need snapped. “I don’t believe you have any such thing.”
“Oh no? Then what’s this?” Opening the door to his room—and letting out a gust of foul-smelling air that nearly made Lan’ara gag—he reached inside and grabbed for something.
He brought out a thin liquid crystal tablet with black edges that Lan’ara recognized at once. Hadn’t she seen the school nurse tapping away on it often enough whenever she conducted Lan’ara’s monthly physical?
Oh my Gods and Goddesses—he really does have my medical file, she thought unsteadily. What could possibly be in there? Maybe something about the shots she had been given on her last night at the academy—the shots that were supposed to make her irresistible to her husband-to-be?
But if Need was as curious as she was, he certainly didn’t show it.
“Get out of here and stop waving that thing in my face,” he growled. “I know good and well you’re bluffing, Trollox. Just steer clear of me and the girl from now on.”
“Bluffing, am I?” An ugly sneer appeared on the piggish face of the middle head. “We’ll see whose bluffing once the girly enters her Ripening, so we will.”
Then he went into his room and slammed the heavy metal door behind him with a reverberating whump that seemed to shake the entire ship.
“Good.” Need breathed a sigh of relief. “At least he didn’t know you were here. Do you see now why you can never come down here without me?”
“Yes, my Lord,” Lan’ara assured him through numb lips. She certainly had no intention of getting anywhere near the huge Trollox’s living quarters on her own—not when it was so very clear he still wanted her.
“Good then.” He turned to her. “All right—what are you waiting for? Strip,” he ordered.
“My Lord?” she asked, looking at him uncertainly.
“I said, how can you take a shower with your clothes on? Or in this case, my clothes on?” he asked impatiently. “Strip, girl.”
“Oh…oh, of course, my Lord.”
She untied the black neck cloth from around her waist and started to unbutton the bronze uniform shirt which she now wore as a dress. Need watched her as though mesmerized by the sight. But when her bare breasts came into view, he abruptly turned, putting his broad back to her.
Lan’ara knew she ought to be grateful for the fact that he was giving her privacy but somehow she didn’t want it. She found she liked the feeling of those warm bronze eyes on her naked flesh—liked it a lot and missed it when he wasn’t looking.
So as soon as she had slipped the shirtdress off and hung it and the sash on a hook embedded in the tiled wall, she tapped him on one broad shoulder.
“Yes, girl? What is it?” He half turned his head to look at her.
“My Lord,” Lan’ara said hesitantly, making no move to cover herself, though his eyes flicked rapidly over her naked body. “I have never had a sonic shower before. I don’t know how…how to work the controls.”
“Oh. Of course.” He frowned and nodded. “Here—I’ll show you.”
He reached into the shower stall with her and began manipulating the metal buttons and lever imbedded in the tile wall.
“See, you have to do it this way…”
Lan’ara nodded her head and made noises of agreement as he explained and showed her, but she wasn’t paying a bit of attention. Instead, she was concentrating on the warmth of his skin so tantalizingly close to her own. Slowly she crept closer, bending over a little as though trying to look at the controls and understand what he was talking about. But in reality, all she wanted was to press her bare breasts against his arm and feel the skin-to-skin contact of his flesh against hers.
She got what she wanted and had to bite her lip to keep from moaning when she felt the hard tips of her nipples rubbing against his muscular forearm. Gods and Goddesses, that felt so good. She couldn’t help remembering the way he’s sucked her nipples earlier—well, the right one, anyway. It had felt amazing to have his hot mouth surrounding her tender peak, his tongue gliding gently over her aching flesh…
She became aware that Need had stopped talking and was just standing there staring at her.
“Um…my Lord?” she asked, her thoughts fuzzy with lust.
He looked right at the place where her bare breasts were pressed against him but only shook his head.