Courtesans and Lovers (The Space Courtesans Saga Book 2) Page 5

  Astonishment washed through me like a blast of glacial air. In the short weeks I’d known the mech tech, I’d never seen Jace outright ignore an invitation to share in the heat of joining. Usually his cock was primed and ready to go at a moment’s notice.

  And I was always accommodating to his needs – usually. The blatant refusal now grated on already frayed and frozen nerves.

  Water splashed as I jerked my foot from his lap and plunked it back into the tub. “I can’t very well purchase boots after your fines nearly wiped me out.”

  He flinched and ran a wet and oily hand through his hair. “I’ll pay you back.”

  “Damn right, you’ll pay me back,” I muttered.

  “It just might take a little bit.”

  My vision narrowed. “How long is a little bit?”

  “Umm…until I figure out a way to make some.”

  All thoughts of his kind and tender attentions dissipated. The desire to join evaporated like precious water, and I threw off the blanket from around my shoulders then grabbed a towel to swipe at my feet before stumbling to them. It felt like a thousand needles jabbed repeatedly into the pads of my feet as blood flow rushed down in mere seconds.

  I leaned against the bathing vessel to steady myself as black dots swam along the edges of my vision. “Are you telling me you have absolutely zero credits to your name?”

  “Not zero,” he hedged. “More like somewhere between…five and ten.”

  To my dismay, he came alongside and gripped my waist to keep me from pitching headlong into the standing water. “Leave me alone, Jace.”

  He punched the release to drain the vessel, then lifted me in his strong arms. “Not going to happen.”

  “You’ve been nothing but a distraction…a headache since you came aboard,” I said, slapping at his bare chest.

  “You need me,” he countered, dropping me to the bed and sliding me from my dress in one fluid motion. “This ship would’ve never made it here without me.”

  “I’d have managed somehow.” His cock sprang to the ready the moment the pants fell from his frame. Hunger roared through my veins and sent streams of hot juices thundering to my core.

  He crawled over me, bracketing his arms and legs on either side, yet leaving a yawning gap between our bodies I longed to reduce. Even so, heat radiated off his skin and warmed me like no water or steaming oil ever could.

  The only place he allowed our bodies to touch was when he lowered his forehead to mine. Emerald eyes locked on my gaze.

  “Bullshit.”

  Passion had replaced reason, and I forgot what he was responding to with the exclamation. “What?”

  “This ship would’ve never made it from Flint to Lyandra if I hadn’t been here to keep her flying.”

  His lips captured mine, sending flames coursing beneath the surface of my skin that drove away any remaining chill. With a moan of pure desire, I opened to his probing tongue and intertwined mine with his. He thrust deep into my mouth when all the while I wanted his cock thrust deep between my thighs. But when I reached to wrap my arms around his back and close the distance between us, he pulled away and clamped my arms against the bed on either side.

  “Say it, Dahlia.” His breathing was already coming hard and fast. A rising flush colored his chest crimson.

  “Say what?” I gasped in frustration, wondering if he was returning to the demand to get me to say his favorite word.

  “Say you need me.” His voice came out rasped and thready.

  I couldn’t think beyond the pleasure of warmth that coated every inch of my sheath. Pulsed and throbbed with a pain between my thighs that was worse than anything my cold feet had experienced – and yet so much better. I knew of only one thing that would bring an end to the ache in my belly. And I’d say almost anything to achieve it. To experience the joy of fullness as he slid his hardness into me.

  “I need you…’re cock, Jace.”

  He hissed against my lips and dipped his cock to graze the tip against my belly button. “Tell me how much you want my cock.”

  “I want to feel your heat buried deep inside me,” I purred, opening my thighs and raising my hips toward his.

  “Then say it, Dahlia.” He released one of my arms to grip his cock, swirling the velvety tip against my eager clit as he leaned forward to whisper delicious trills of pleasure across my ear. “Say you need me to fuck you.”

  I pressed my clit harder against him as he stroked and swirled faster. Our gasps merged into one breath as I threaded my now free hand through his tousled, blond tresses and sought his lips against mine again.

  Oily sweat dripped from his body like the refreshing rains on Andurea, caressing my naked skin – but doing nothing to quench the building fire. “Jace…”

  “Say you need me….” His groan hissed out through gritted teeth as he slid the head of his cock through my drenched seam. “…to fuck you senseless.”

  “Oh…Jace,” I cried, throwing my head back and bucking my hips to urge his cock closer to my quivering entrance as the orgasm swelled closer to the surface. “Join with me…now!”

  His sweat-covered body melded with mine as his hard, swollen cock sheathed deep inside my moist heat. Penetrating. Thrusting. Unravelling me. Thoughts of need and want, cold and credits were obliterated as every inch of him filled every inch of me, pistoning us into sweet and utter oblivion.

  The scent of musk grew heady. The suckling and sliding sounds of our joining like a sweet refrain without end.

  Oh yes, how he fucked me. Fucked me completely senseless. I couldn’t help but love every moment of our union.

  But I’d never tell him that.

  Chapter Nine

  I was no longer cold but toasty warm as I nestled in Jace’s arms with my head upon his chest. The rapid staccato of his heartbeat gradually slowed into a more normal rhythm after our frenzied joining. A haze of satisfied serenity settled over me as I lazily trailed my fingers over the peaks and valleys of his muscled chest, broken only by a scattering of soft curls.

  And ruined by his declaration. “I will find a way to pay you back, Dahlia. Just as soon as I can.”

  It all came flooding back like a towering wave. The dank and dirty precinct. The near emptying of my account. The charges against Jace glowing crisp and bright on the enforcement official’s holoscreen. The girl.

  Was she the one Jace had been discovered with? Was that her father come to rescue her, even though her pale features looked nothing like his dark ones?

  The icy chill threaded its way up my spine before I pulled away to search the eyes of my mech tech. “Did you do it?”

  The brow furrow of earlier returned. “I don’t…”

  “Did you pick up an underage passagewalker and assault her?”

  Instead of fear, anger radiated from him as he bolted upright. “Is that what they said?”

  “They didn’t have to say it. I saw it highlighted in bright blue on the precinct holoscreen.” I pegged him with my stare, watching for signs of his truthfulness – or lies. “Did…you…do…it?”

  “No!”

  The bark of his denial echoed in the muted stillness of the sanctuary. I wanted to believe him. Dammit, I truly did. But what did I really know about Jace Wylder, except the fact that without a doubt he had a strong libido? A very strong libido.

  “Tell me exactly what happened after you left this ship last night,” I demanded. “Every, single detail.”

  “I…some things are still fuzzy,” he admitted.

  “Start at the beginning of what you can remember clearly then.”

  “I uh,” he started, squinting as if searching his memory. “I took the public transport shaft down to the tavern district. Figured I’d get a cheap room and something to eat. Something to eat turned into a few drinks, and next thing I knew, I was frozen in an alley and being hauled up to the precinct for assault and…and…”

  “Sex with a minor,” I finished for him.

  “Never happened,” he vehem
ently denied again, dark anger sharpening his features. “And before you say it, yes I like to fuck.”

  His penetrating and glinting stare never wavered. It was as if he’d read my earlier thoughts.

  “But I like to fuck with women,” he clarified, waving a hand at my nude body. “Real women. Women with nice, big tits and a wet, willing pussy. Not kids. Never a kid.”

  “But as you said, everything is a bit fuzzy,” I returned, playing devil’s advocate. “I’ve seen all too often what an overabundance of wine or spirits can do to a man’s inhibitions.”

  “That’s just it.” He launched out from the bed and paced in all his glorious, naked form. “I’ve got a high tolerance. It takes more than three drinks for me to even start to feel affected. Much more.”

  I sat on the edge of the bed. “And you know this how?”

  He stopped. “Let’s just say I won quite a few drinking games before they booted my ass out of the Academy.”

  And we were back to the story I found even more difficult to believe – how a nobody mech tech way out here near the Rim gained entrance into the Galactic Academy. Into the officer’s pilot program, no less.

  When he’d shared that story before we’d left Port Flint, it had appeared all in jest. The grin. The twinkle in his eyes. This time? There was no joking in his words or manner.

  Still I challenged him. “Yet, I’m aware of stories…rumors, you might say…of men and women who have such appetites for young flesh.”

  I shivered with the very idea as I realized how close I’d been to potentially becoming one of those poor souls. If it hadn’t been for my rescue and Lily taking me in at the tender age of five, that very well could’ve been my reality.

  “Well, I’m not one of them.” Disgust dripped from his words as truth flashed in those jewel-toned eyes.

  I laid on my side and propped my head against the rumpled pillows and cushions to disengage slightly from the rage of emotion rolling off of Jace like a poisonous vapor. I had to see this situation clearly. To approach the little information we had from a position of logic.

  “So you went into the city, checked into a tavern, ate a meal, and then had three drinks? Is that all you remember before waking in the alley?”

  The air was punctuated by an extended pause. I finally glanced over to see his face scrunched up. But instead of in thought, it was dismay.

  “There may’ve been a couple of hands played.”

  “Hands? As in gambling?”

  He nodded. “That’s where the three drinks entered the picture.”

  “And where your credits went, I assume?”

  “Most likely.”

  I sighed. “How many of them?”

  “Just two other guys. Older. One had at least ten cycles on me. The other probably closer to twenty. They were playing at the next table over and asked me to join them when they saw me watching.”

  Which put them somewhere in their mid-thirties and forties. “And they proceeded to clean you out of credits.”

  “That’s the other thing I don’t understand.” The edge of the bed dipped as Jace returned and rested his hand on my bare hip. Nonchalantly. Without grabbing in want or need. “I was way up on ‘em.”

  The warmth of connection stirred me yet again. “Then what happened?”

  “That’s where things started getting fuzzy.”

  “Hmm.” I crawled across the mussed sheets and straddled Jace’s lap.

  His eyes widened in surprise as I cupped his grizzled chin in my hands and drew him in for a kiss. After the care he’d shown me these last weeks, and the gentle attentions he’d given my frozen feet even after being released from a dark hell-hole, I couldn’t imagine him doing something as heinous as taking advantage of a child.

  He pulled away and stared into my eyes. “Does this mean you believe me?”

  I sat back on his firm thighs. “Do you remember when I told you how old I was when I first arrived on Andurea?”

  “Yeah…like five or something.”

  I nodded. “And do you remember how you responded when you mistakenly thought that’s when I went into service as a courtesan?”

  He snorted and rolled his eyes in renewed disgust. “I thought that was fucking sick.”

  I stroked my fingertips across his full and swollen lips. “I believe it’s safe to say the only thing you are guilty of is being duped.”

  His rarely flaccid cock stirred beneath me as I leaned in to feather his lips with my own. “Duped?” he muttered against my lips.

  I traced a path of kisses along his jaw toward his ear before dipping my tongue in for a taste. “And likely drugged.”

  The warmth of his arms encircled me, and he pressed my breasts harder against his chest. “Drugged, huh? Is that why I had such a headache and ringing in my ears when I woke up?”

  “Mmm-hmm,” I hummed, suckling his earlobe before sliding my teeth over it until he groaned. “I’ve heard similar confessions from many a wealthy client who learned such lessons during the Galactic Games…the hard way.”

  “Hard, huh?” Strong hands raked up and down my sides, tickling my breasts as they passed, until he stopped to grasp the cheeks of my ass and grind my growing wetness against his lengthening hardness. “But why me? I didn’t have a lot of credits to begin with.”

  “Maybe they were bored.” His mouth landed on the hollow at my throat, his tongue stroking lower and lower as I arched away until his lips locked around to lave a nipple to an impressive peak. I gasped. “Or you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  But oh, he was definitely doing something right this time. So very right. My pulse rose with each stroke of his tongue.

  He came up for air, reaching between us to position his cock at my weeping entrance. “But why the trumped up charges then?”

  “Since we’re stuck planetside until your enquiry, it gives us time to figure that out.” I wiggled until the firm, velvety tip slipped inside my heat. Both of our breaths hitched as I grabbed his face between my hands. “Now get your hand out of the way, Jace Wylder, and make me beg for mercy.”

  He face brightened with a beaming grin right before he impaled me with that beautiful, delectable cock, driving up deep inside as if reaching to pierce a heart that had shattered long ago.

  Chapter Ten

  My fist ached as I rapped harder against the metalloid door of Jace’s personal chamber pod.

  “The ambassador is waiting for us,” I yelled through the plating. “A courtesan absolutely cannot arrive late to a client’s invitation.”

  Though a space courtesan set her own rules, as I had come to realize. Clients rarely invited a courtesan to a special event, and I wasn’t about to waste the opportunity to schedule others while we were stuck on this ice cube of a planet.

  But taking the mech tech to a formal gathering was a giant risk. “Hold your thrusters,” Jace’s muffled voice returned.

  I fussed nervously again with the hood of my gossamer. Maybe his accusations from a few days ago were more on target than I’d realized. Perhaps my prior insistence that we participate in the courtesan ceremonies before joining were a subconscious attempt to make him more refined. Acceptable in the eyes of my peers.

  Having Jace beside me – even in the same room – made me feel safer than I had in three cycles. I wasn’t ready to give that up for tonight’s soirée, especially when Trina had urged me to bring him so she could inspect the man who had caused such trouble during our night together.

  Before I responded again, the door slid aside to reveal my mech tech as I’d never seen him. His usually unruly mop was smoothed back with something other than dirty, oily slicks, his fair hair gleaming like a golden halo wreathed it.

  A sharp, crisp uniform hugged his body, the deep blue and cream revealing every sinew and bulge of muscle graduating to narrow hips. The matching belted trousers hung in just the right places, revealing a tight, firm ass as he grabbed a formal cap and tucked it in his arm.

  I blinked.
Then blinked again. “Where in the galaxy did you get this?”

  The grin turned into a full beam that glimmered all the way into those emerald green eyes. “It was my Academy uniform.” He extended an elbow. “Shall we?”

  Clean. Smartly dressed. Mannerly. Who was this creature? If it hadn’t been for the fact I’d had to nearly pay out my last credit to spring him from the precinct, I’d swear we’d fallen through a warp fold or black hole on our way to Lyandra. That was the only thing that would explain such a dramatic change in my mech tech.

  Slowly I curled my arm through his then allowed him to escort me down the passageway. “When I asked if you had something appropriate to wear, I didn’t imagine you’d scrounge up something so…so…”

  “Manly?”

  “I was thinking more along the lines of ostentatious.”

  “But it’s an honor to wear the Academy uniform.” He smoothed a palm down the front. “I just wasn’t sure if it’d still fit.”

  “But an officer?” I glanced at him with a huff. “Really, Jace. Did you trade services on Port Flint with some poor soul for that?”

  “It’s mine…from my time in the Academy.” He pressed the cap firmly on his head before reaching for the door. “I’ve just filled out a little since then.”

  I didn’t even bother hiding the eye roll. “Of course.”

  Last night it’d been so easy to determine his innocence of the charges that had landed him in a cell. Yet every time Jace talked earnestly about having been a cadet at the Galactic Academy, it was apparent he pulled my leg. From the ornery gleam in his eyes to the ill-fitting uniform, it was easy to detect his subterfuge in this area.

  He must’ve practiced the erect bearing he now displayed. The manners and mannerisms of a gentleman with a lady on his arm were also well-rehearsed. At least he wouldn’t embarrass me tonight – if he could keep up this façade for very long, that is.

  The cold air rippled through my attire as the ship’s door opened. At least the snowfall had stopped. We made quick work across the mostly ice-free walkway and into the rather gloomy antechamber of the ambassador’s suite.