Chapter 3

Rikki

I was an idiot who’d probably just messed up even worse. I didn’t know this guy from Adam and he’d leaped at the opportunity to rescue me for sex; that was a really bad sign. Then I eyed the faded red lights above a door, an alien script I couldn’t read. Now that was a bad sign. I was pretty sure we’d just walked into some sleazebag motel.

My stomach cramped painfully, even though I had to admit that dangling over his hard shoulder wasn’t all that bad. This guy smelled good, really good. Like cardamon or something, and maybe even a hint of lemon. Human Earth smells that reminded me of home. The hotel was bad news though, there would be beds. This was when he expected me to pay him for that rescue.

I’d screwed this up. Now he had me, and I was still stuck in that collar. Who was to say he wasn’t going to just keep me for himself? Or sell me? And even if he did free me after he fucked me, I’d be stuck on this horrible space station with all kinds of aliens who wouldn’t hesitate to capture me again. Considering how easy it was for my mercenary to snatch me away, it wouldn’t be hard at all.

I was a sweaty, nervous mess as I dangled there, my legs pinned to his chest by one muscled arm. My ass up in the air for everyone to see and that stupid suit rode into my crack like it was nobody’s business. It was horribly humiliating, but I still would have taken another leisurely stroll like that over ending up alone with him in a hotel room.

He tossed me down onto the bed, which was hard and lumpy. I bounced once, my tailbone aching from the rough landing. Yeah, here we went. Was he going to rip off my clothes first or start with his own? My eyes were naturally drawn to his crotch when I realized something I hadn’t even considered. What if we weren’t physically compatible? He looked human-shaped, but that didn’t mean he had anything close to resembling a cock down there.

I bit my lip so hard that I drew blood, staring at his huge, foreign shape as he towered over me with his hands on his hips. He was swishing that tail around again. A sharp metal blade glinting from the very tip, which was shaped like an arrowhead. That motion kept reminding me of an angry cat, a cat about to leap with all his claws out. Which was just the weirdest thing to compare him to because his horns were more like those of a great Saga Antelope.

“Breathe, female,” he barked out, his voice resonating deeply in two bass tones that I could feel in my belly. He reached for his belt and I flinched back; I didn’t mean to. It was a reflex. His mouth went tight as a bow, his lips thinning. Then he held up something he’d pulled from a pouch at his hip, a shiny silver little thing.

He flicked his thumb over it and with a click, the collar around my neck released and slid down my chest. I flung it away from me like it was a deadly snake. My skin was covered in goosebumps, and my heart started up with a hopeful beat. He’d freed me, really freed me! But that freedom would only last as long as he was at my side. I needed to make another deal.

When he came closer and leaned his knee on the edge of the mattress, the entire bed dipped. I fought the urge to scoot back, gritting my teeth so I could stare him fiercely in the face instead. “I want to amend our terms!” I declared. Not that we’d ever settled on any kind of precise terms. I’d implied I’d pay him with my body, but for how long, or how often. I had no idea what he was thinking, and if he’d be willing to play ball.

He tilted his head, which I took to mean that I should keep talking. I would have anyway, the words spilling from my mouth in a frantic, tremulous babble that was nothing like how coolly I’d played it earlier in the bar. “I want you to take me to a planet or place that outlaws slavery. I want you to take me somewhere I’d be safe.”

If such a place even existed in this crazy, scary galaxy. I didn’t even bother to ask if there was a way to go home. The auction house owner had spelled that one out to me very precisely. They had stolen me from earth hundreds of years ago and I was millions of light years away from the planet. There was no home to return to.

His knee was pressing on the stupid mattress, denting it and making my body slide toward him. Before I realized it, my ankle was pressed against the black, strange weave of fabric over his leg, and heat washed through me at the point of contact. I yanked my leg back before I could think better of it and shivered as his expression seemed to darken.

“And still no money,” he said dryly. At least, I suspected that the tone was meant to be dry and kind of mocking; it sounded very alien when it filtered into my ear in two tones. His face really was very pretty, and his hair looked more like a lion’s mane. Only the strands were black and blue, bright streaks that matched his eyes and skin woven through the strands. I had the feeling all those colors were entirely natural.

I was angry at his implication, this was fucked up. My voice was snappy and fierce when I spoke, “You know what was on offer before! You were fine with it then! You can use me for a few more days; just get me to safety. I already know I can’t go home. Surely you know of a place where humans can live in peace?” My mouth went dry as the last words crashed out of me. What if there was no safe place for a human?

He moved, his leg retreating from the bed while he spun around and stalked across the small room in two big steps. Then he turned and did the same in the other direction, pacing. His tail was a long agile thing that swished behind him, the arrow-shaped tip glinting silver.

“Do you have any idea what passage on a ship costs?” he snarled, baring his teeth at me and snapping them sharply together when I shook my head. “You think you are so special in bed that someone would just cough up that kind of money for you?” He seemed especially enraged by that thought, and I was struggling to understand. Did he feel like I was trying to screw him over? Did he want more?

I climbed to my knees on the bed, then actually just to my feet to level the height difference between us. “You didn’t seem to have a problem with that kind of payment before! What’s the difference? So it takes a little longer to pay you off? What choice do I have?” It didn’t look like I had any; I was shit out of luck. I doubted there was a police force around that would be willing to help in a place like this. There was no way for me to go home, and I had nobody I could trust. Paying some immoral mercenary to get me out of here was my best bet, and it fucking sucked.

He took one step toward the bed, so close that my finger tapped his chest and we were face to face. I could smell his cardamon and lemon scent and feel the warmth pumping from his skin. “Why are you so eager to bargain away your body like a cheap whore?!” he snarled in my face, eyes flashing, the blue lines on his body lighting up with an even fiercer glow.

What? What did he just say to me? First, I thought he might have insulted me by comparing me to a whore, even if that was basically exactly what the circumstances had reduced me to. But that wasn’t it. He was angry, that much was obvious, but it appeared he was angry about the very fact that I tried to pay him with my flesh.

“You’re the one who brought up payment and money… You know I have nothing,” I said. “I figured sex with you one night was better than being some guy’s toy for the rest of my life.” I still found him scary, but he was attractive in a very alien way as well. If our bodies were somehow compatible, I could make it work. I could.

The laugh that escaped him was harsh and rough, his tail swinging behind him so wildly that it slapped the wall with a clang. “I sure hope so. Maybe I’ll prove it to you someday.” My stomach dropped. What was he saying? That sounded a lot like he wasn’t planning to have sex with me at all, not now, at least.

Confused, I sank down on the bed. All the fight left me in a rush and now I just felt exhausted. There wasn’t room for any other feelings right now. I’d been running on fear and adrenaline for hours and with this hint of something new, something that might actually mean safety, I just collapsed.

My voice sounded tiny and small when I asked, “If you weren’t getting me out there because you thought I’d pay you with sex, then why?” Why would he rescue me if he wasn’t getting anything out of it? That was such a decent thing to do, and from how the rhino dude had reacted to the sight of them. His mercenary status hardly proclaimed him to be a decent person.

He seemed quieter too, less angry and agitated. Turning away from me meant I couldn’t see his face, but his shoulders seemed lower now, his tail curling down in a relaxed curve instead of that angry swaying. “Because it was the right thing to do,” he said, the words said in a softer rumble that I almost didn’t catch.

That hopeful pounding of my heart from earlier seemed to explode into a riot now. Had I just found the one decent person on this entire space station? Could I really be that lucky? I almost didn’t want to ask what was going to happen, afraid I’d jinx this moment somehow. But I had to know. “You’re a mercenary, a sword for hire. Your friends sure didn’t care.”

“That lot is psycho, but most men on the Varakartoom are good, honest males,” he immediately responded, and then he tilted his head over his shoulder and shot me this devastating little grin. My heart started racing for an entirely different reason. With all the expectations gone from before, I could finally allow myself to really notice that I liked it.

“I will take you to Strewn. They don’t allow slavery there,” he said, and I felt so relieved I nearly burst into tears. Thankfully, the offer of a shower, alone, and a clean shirt of his to wear were exactly the excuse I needed to get a moment to myself.