Thrill-Kinky (16 page)

Not Drax. She liked that about him. And by liked, she meant
found it insanely hot,
as if she wasn’t already dripping down her thighs and ready to burst into flame with need. Really, could this man be a more perfect erotic match for her?

He pleaded, “More.” Carefully, she slipped her finger out, worked it back in with a second finger next to it. She had to ease up on her oral attention as she did, but once he relaxed around her, then gripped again, she went back to sucking and licking, swirling her tongue, using her free hand to alternately play with his balls and stroke his shaft.

She wasn’t even sure if Banjali men had prostates, but she must have hit a magic spot, or found the perfect combination of finger-fucking and sucking. Drax let out a startling, strangely musical roar as he exploded into her mouth.

And the roar was her name. “Rita!” echoed all over the park and probably bounced among the taller buildings of the city and surprised sailors ten kilometers out to sea.

In the quiet that followed, someone let out a stoned, theatrical moan of “Reeeta!” Someone else laughed and took up the cry. Before Rita knew it, a laughter-distorted version of her name was traveling all around the park. Evidently the sound of someone else having amazing sex was hilarious to chillheads.

Honestly, it would have been hilarious to her if she’d been listening in, so soon she was laughing too. Drax followed suit. “I knew people might overhear,” he managed to choke out between roars of laughter. “But I didn’t expect to start a fad.”

“Draxstyle.” It wasn’t really funny, but when you were already laughing, when the night was echoing with people calling your name as if at the height of orgasm, when you could still taste your lover on your lips, and neither of you was planning on shipping out anywhere anytime soon, it didn’t take much to amuse you. Apparently the same was true if you’d just come so hard you’d let everyone in the area know about it.

Drax was still laughing when he scooped Rita up into his strong embrace. “Arms around my neck,” he said helpfully. “Legs around my waist.”

He didn’t say anything about “my cock in your pussy”, just guided himself inside her.

“You’re bigger this time.” It wasn’t a clever thing to say, but it was true. Rita felt stuffed, in the best possible way. Her pussy, wet as it was, yearning as it had been, welcomed the invasion, gripped around it. She rocked her hips, allowing herself to seat him even deeper. His strong hands supported her ass, moved her on his cock.

Her heart hurt from the fullness, not her cunt, but it was the kind of pain that felt as good as the pleasure between her legs. She groaned, tilted her face up to meet his kiss. His lips, his tongue, soothed the happy ache in her heart and stoked it at the same time. Her body was already racing toward orgasm. The kiss pushed her even closer.

And it pushed her over another edge, one she wasn’t expecting but realized, as she fell, that she should have.

She loved Drax Jalricki. Maybe it was insane to be in love with a man she’d known for such a short time, a man with mysteries and secrets, a man from an alien species, which meant they’d confound and confuse each other even more than a human couple would. But insanity was part of their short, but intense shared history. It made sense that for thrill-kinky people like them, people who lived a little harder than most, love would come fast and hard and irrationally, not in some comfortable way that wouldn’t make your friends shake their heads.

She wanted to tell him. Wanted to blurt out the words, just because everyone said not to speak of love for the first time when you were having sex. She couldn’t find her voice, though, and besides, she didn’t want to stop the kiss.

While they were still kissing, Drax rose into the air.

Rita found her voice then, but not her words. All she could say was, “Oh, stars, Drax,” as the ground fell away below them and his wings spread wide to block her view of the sky.

Chapter Seventeen

Rita wrapped her legs even tighter around his slim waist, squeezed herself even closer to his body. His heat surrounded her. The angle of his body in the air increased the pressure on her clit. She hissed through her teeth at the pleasure.

She expected Drax would soar up high, then head out over the water. Instead, still flying low, he turned inland. Rita grinned when she realized what he was doing. “Show-off.”

“Do you like it?”

“It’s chancy. Lots of people will see us.”

“I bet that turns you on.”

“I clenched when you said it. Is that enough of a clue?” She canted her hips, was rewarded by a gasp from Drax. Then something occurred to her, something that should have shut down her arousal, but, predictably, didn’t. “If a lot of people see us, a Banjali and a human flying together, don’t you think…”

“That it might get back to Belesku or the San’balese killer?” Drax’s fingers gripped her ass so hard it should have hurt. At the moment, she didn’t care. “It might. And that way we’d know where they are. I’d rather have the laserpistols aimed at my face than my back.”

“Rather not have laserpistols involved at all, but it’s too late for that.” She thought about it for a second. “And since we’re in this mess, we might as well have fun with it.” Drax swooped closer to the ground. The sudden movement, the drop, and the change in the pressure on her clit all echoed through her nerves. “Gonna come soon.”

“Do it loud, then. Let them know we’re here.”

The first shouts of “Hey, look up!” and “Stars, they’re sexing up there!” rose up from the park. It was all Rita needed. She came with a cry of, “Yes, Drax,” and a convulsion that would have thrown her off Drax’s body if he hadn’t been holding her so tight.

Knowing how easily she could have fallen in that moment when she lost all control, she clenched again, the aftershock shaking her almost as hard as the original orgasm.

“Beautiful,” Drax murmured. “So beautiful. You’re not scared at all, or bothered by our audience. You thrive on it, just like I do.”

“Stars, yes.”

“Then it’s time for some real flying. I enjoy the audience, but I think it’s time for privacy.”

He rose higher, his wings creating a cyclone of air around them as they beat. Rita watched the ground shrink below them. It occurred to her that she should be frightened. That even with her daredevil side, she would have been scared not long ago.

But not with Drax. In the short time they’d known each other, they’d risked far more than this for each other. If she slipped, she knew he’d catch her, or they’d fall together.

The water was dark below them, the hiss and roar of the waves a constant companion to their flight. They were still close to the lights of the city, so only a scattering of stars decorated the black, but all three moons were full and brilliant. Rita wasn’t sated—this was too exciting for one orgasm to finish her—but the edge of urgency was off. She set up a subtle rhythm, rocking her hips, gripping and releasing Drax’s cock with her internal muscles. The pleasure remained a slow burn, finding every empty place inside her, every place she’d ever felt alone or lonely and filling them with heat, and with something else, a conviction that this was real, this was more than the union of two bodies, this could last. Rita had never had that dream before, not even as a girl. She’d reached a point where she figured she just wasn’t wired that way. That because she wanted and needed to be free to fly off at a moment’s notice, she just wasn’t the romantic type.

This might not last. Lots of couples couldn’t make it work, even without people out to kill them and lives so irregular a Xylac screenwriter would think it sounded implausible. But even if it ended in pain—in blood or in old-fashioned heartbreak—it would be worth it just for this moment.

That was when she realized she had to say it. The ultimate risk wasn’t taunting the assassins, wasn’t flying like this when she had no wings of her own. It was saying what was in her heart. She took a deep breath and spoke.

“Drax, I love you. I don’t just think I could love you someday. I love you now.”

At first, Drax couldn’t believe what he’d heard. The moonlight and the ocean, the warm air under his wings and the beautiful, wet woman gripping his cock so passionately, had gone to his head and he was hallucinating. Rita hadn’t just said the words that were on the tip of his tongue, the ones he kept biting back because there was thrill-kinky and then there was taking an idiotic risk, and telling a woman he loved her so soon was the latter.

He gripped her even tighter, but didn’t speak. He couldn’t speak. Words usually came easily to Drax Jalricki. They’d kept him alive more times than he could count, at times when weapons wouldn’t. But now, when he needed them even more, when something that seemed bigger than his life was at stake, they failed him.

Possibly mistaking his silence for rejection, Rita snuggled closer and pressed her lips over his heart without saying another word. Her body seemed heavier in his arms.

Her pussy still clenched and released around his cock, gripping him like a hand, pulling him closer to an abyss he didn’t want to avoid.

Too late to avoid it anyway. He’d fallen before he’d even known the abyss was there.

Then he found the words he needed to say. “I knew I loved you when you fell, that night at the museum. I suspected earlier than that. And when Nitari Belesku was about to kill me, all I could see was your face.”

“That’s nuts. And probably not true.” Rita sounded remarkably good humored about it.

“Nuts, yes. And all right, I saw the skylight I couldn’t reach. But mostly I saw you. I regretted I’d put you and your friends in danger. I was afraid Xia might die even though Belesku had let her go. At the same time, I was glad I’d gotten to spend my last day with you. Once I knew I’d survived, I realized I wanted to spend more than a day with you. More like my whole life.”

Rita looked up at him. He’d never seen anything as glorious as her smiling face illuminated by New Tokyo’s three moons. “You’re crazy,” she said. “Completely insane. It’s too soon to say things like that. I mean, I started it, but I know I’m crazy.”

“So am I. I know my feelings are even more true because it’s too soon and it’s risky. That’s what’s real for us. I love you.” Then he decided that was much too subtle. He shouted to the sky, to the ocean, to anyone who might be listening. “I love Rita Anteres! I love this woman.”

This human woman who deserved a true Banjali finale to their lovemaking. “Hold on tight,” he said, his balls already tightening in anticipation. With a few great beats of his wings, he caught the right air current and flew even higher, until it seemed like he could extend his wings and touch the closest moon.

Then he vee’d his wings back tight against his body and took them into a dive.

Rita screamed in surprise.

Then she laughed with glee.

He brushed the surface of the water before he pulled up. An arc of water droplets gleamed in the moonlight as they drenched him and Rita.

“Come,” he urged, his voice sounding strange to him, huskier than usual, raw with need and emotion. “Come with me, Rita.”

He flexed his hips and pressed deeper into her as he came.

As he exploded, she did too.

Chapter Eighteen

They made it back to the
Malcolm
just past dawn, with Drax’s single suitcase—Rita was astonished to realize that her seemingly smoothstyle lover traveled even lighter than she did—and a rumpled bouquet of Vicarian lilies. They opened the hatch and came in hand in hand, giggling softly.

Only to find everyone but Buck sitting up in the galley waiting for them, for all the world like Rita’s parents when she would try to sneak in past her curfew as a teen. “Where have you been, young lady?” Mik said, his voice gruff, but his eyes smiling. “We’ve been waiting since last night to welcome Drax aboard.”

“We figure you guys can have our old cabin, because it’s bigger, and I’ll take back that little cabin I used when I was a kitten—you know, the one where we stash extra supplies—so I started moving stuff around while we waited. I left you a few little surprises.” Xia giggled, almost like her manic old self. “I think you’ll like them. And don’t worry, I sani-sterilized them. We’ll need to find something bigger for your flowers. And we’ll have to get rid of the top bunk. Otherwise Drax’s poor wings will get beat up when you fool around.”

“Did everyone know Drax was joining the crew except me?” Rita snapped. Well, tried to snap. She couldn’t manage to work up a good steam of annoyance after the night she’d had.

Drax laughed. “I didn’t even know until we saw each other again. I hoped, but there was always the possibility you weren’t interested, or that we’d see each other again and the spark wouldn’t be there.”

“I knew, though,” Xia said. “It was in your eyes, your voice, the way you moved.”

Mik nodded. “When I got the message through your supervisor, I figured you’d want to travel with us for a while even if things didn’t work out with Rita, to try to help out with our little assassin problem. But I know Miss Rita pretty well. When she wants something, she grabs it, and she wanted you.” He grinned at Drax. “By the way, I finally placed why your old boss seemed familiar. I swear one of my friends used to fuck him. And if he’s the same Banjali, tell him he has no right to pretend he’s such a prissy little nashbet all snug in his burrow, because I know about those parties on Delfax. Low-G
and
helium, baby. And a guy with wings being slutty. You do the math.”

That got everyone laughing.

Until Buck burst into the galley. “We’ve got a problem, Captain. I’ve been watching the spaceport surveillance feed. Rita got me tapped in before she went out. A San’balese woman is hanging around, acting way too casual. Can’t tell if it’s the same one who tried to cut Rita and Xia at the hospital on San’bal, but we ain’t seen any other San’balese here, and why else would she be hanging out at the spaceport at this hour? Unless she’s a hooker or a shipping worker, and she’s not dressed like either one.”

Mik sighed elaborately and put his hand on Gan’s. “I’d been hoping to go back to that nice noodle shop we found yesterday, and then get us a couple’s massage. But I guess it’s time for another hasty exit from yet another lovely planet.”

Gan captured Mik’s smaller, dark hand in his immense light one. “I’ll give you a massage. Don’t trust strangers touching you, anyway. So where are we off to now, since we didn’t make it to Lopcak on time for that job?”

Mik shrugged. “Lopcak’s still a go. Job wasn’t time-sensitive and our bid was enough better than the competitors’ that they were willing to wait. Got the flight plan all filed for the day after tomorrow, but it’s easy enough to change the timing.”

Drax cleared his throat. “May I make a suggestion? Two, actually.”

When Mik nodded, Drax said, “Banjal has close ties with Lopcak. Until I find out who in my government is after me, we might want to avoid it. I recommend you cancel the job and file a flight plan to Lysander.”

Gan barked out a laugh. “Yeah, right. I think we’d be shot on sight after the last time we were there. Seems we stole a bit of Lysandrian property, in the form of a few young people who weren’t too keen on staying property anymore. Wasn’t the first time, but that time we got caught.”

“I’m not saying go to that cesspool. Just file a flight plan. There are all sorts of reasons an independent freighter might go to Lysander. Most are immoral and/or illegal, not to mention stomach-turning, but potentially profitable. It fits your apparent profile, if not your actual one. So our assassin friend can enjoy the dubious delights of Lysander while we go elsewhere. With any luck, she’ll find something there to distract her.”

Mik shrugged. “Maybe someone will take a fancy to her as an exotic pet. Not that I’d wish that on anyone, but she was planning on killing us all, not to mention selling out her world to Blemond, so she might almost deserve it.”

“Anyone who tries to kidnap her will get a nasty surprise,” Rita said thoughtfully, “so I hope someone tries. Bad people taking on each other saves us the trouble.”

“So if not Lopcak, then where? Any suggestions?”

“Cibari.” Drax said it like it was no big deal, but Rita shivered at the name. He pulled her a little closer and wrapped his wing around her. She snuggled against him, astonished by the depths of her own reaction. Just hearing Drax say the name in such a cool, calm voice, as if going to one of the most dangerous planets in the galaxy was no big deal, was getting her wet.

Under the cover of his wing, she brushed her hand over Drax’s crotch. He was already stiffening and sprang to attention at the touch.

Thrill-kinky indeed. And they were making each other worse, or depending on how you looked at it, better.

“Did you say Cibari?” Mik questioned. “No one in their right mind goes to Cibari. It’s in the middle of a perpetual civil war, and the closest thing it has to a government is a criminal syndicate.”

Drax rippled his wings and nodded. “Exactly. No one in their right mind would go there, so it’s the last place our assassin friends would think to look. But the syndicate boss happens to be an old friend. Safe as open sky for us, though not a good idea for anyone else—even the galaxy’s best hired killer. Probably especially not for her, since I’m sure she has some professional rivals there.”

“Well,” Mik said slowly, “Mr. Drax, you are going to be a most interesting addition to our crew. Here I was figuring that only Rita would benefit by your presence. But that idea actually makes sense, in an off-kilter way.”

As the rest of the crew started throwing out their varied and loud opinions, Mik grabbed Drax’s arm. “I need details before I make a decision. Assurances you’re not talking out your ass.” He glared at his crew. “And since this isn’t a democracy, Drax and I will be having that discussion privately.” When Gan rose to follow, Mik said, “I’m going to strategize with the man, lover, not fuck him. If I were going to fuck him, you’d be invited.”

“Rita would cut you for touching her man,” Gan said drily, pouring himself another cup of synth-coffee before he sat back down. “Look at her eyes. Rita still may cut you. And I’d laugh.”

Rita was pretty sure she wasn’t glaring—not much, anyway—but Gan certainly was.

Maybe Mik was thrill-kinky too, because why else would you try to get your short-tempered Furagi husband jealous? That was more information than she’d really needed, but it didn’t particularly surprise her.

“I’m not sure …” Drax tried to say.

“Oh be quiet!” Xia stood, hands on her hips. “Dad just wants to be all captainy, so we should let him. And when I’m being the voice of reason around here, it’s time for the rest of you to shut up.”

Rita tried to come up with a way to argue with that, but couldn’t.

“It’s a long trip to Cibari. How do you folks pass the time on long flights?”

Rita stretched up on tiptoes and kissed Drax before saying, “Used to be we played a lot of cards. I read some, and work out and tinker with things.” She grinned. “Speaking of tinkering, I’ve figured out how to adjust the gravity in specific areas.”

“Like our room?”

“Like our room. Of course I haven’t had a chance to check carefully for holo-cams, and Mik and Gan did set the place up with help from Xia.”

Drax laughed and drew her into his arms. “Since we don’t have any jobs lined up, and the bruises have all healed, I have no trouble making a contribution to the ship’s economy. How about you?”

Rita shrugged,touched her nose and turned her head a little to display the unbruised side of her face. “Long as they get my good side, it could be fun. I’ve never made porn before. And if you’re thrill-kinky, you always say yes to new things.”