A Touch of Lilly
Authors: Nina Pierce
A
Touch of Lilly
Nina Pierce
Copyright © 2013 by Nina
Pierce
Smashwords Edition
Published by Nina Pierce of
Maine. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. No
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(
www.NinaPierce.com
)
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Cover Artist
Dar Albert
This is a work of fiction. The
characters, incidents and dialogues in this book are of the author’s
imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to
actual events or persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental.
A TOUCH OF LILLY
Ex-Chicago detective LILLY
D’ANGELO has a secret she doesn’t share with anyone. A
master of the one night stand, she’s given up ever finding a
soul mate and thrown herself head first into her career. That is,
until she captures the wrong alien. Kidnapped and sold into the sex
slave trade, she’s shipped into deep space. Barely escaping
with her life, Lilly now travels the galaxy working as a bounty
hunter using her secret talents to bring down criminals and seeking
revenge on the one male who ruined her life.
Agent DALLAS SAWYER works for
deep space’s version of the FBI. After a disastrous mission
that left several of his team members murdered, a president executed,
and Dallas near death, he’s determined to take down the
assassin targeting government officials. When a sexy human female
gets between him and his goal, Dallas and his alien partner find
themselves on the receiving end of a passionate night they won’t
soon forget and a proposition that may very well blow up in their
faces.
Because in deep space…true
love can happen with just a touch.
§
* Praise for A
TOUCH OF LILLY *
5 STARS and a TOP PICK Night
Owl Reviews
~ A
n excellent combination of
Sci-Fi/Fantasy and Erotica … I didn’t want to put this
book down.
5 STARS Siren
Book Reviews
~
Nina
Pierce
did a great job of creating new
futuristic worlds with new creatures and weapons…The plot
twists keep the pages turning.
If
you like your stories with some science fiction and romance mixed
together then this is a must read.
§
* Praise for NINA
PIERCE *
The
Romance Studio
~
Nina Pierce
writes a scorcher…I will absolutely be picking up another and
another and another. There is romance, intrigue, mystery…
Amazon
Reader
~
I
love this author! I can't wait for next book by her. She never
disappoints.
Amazon
Reader
~
Great book and this is one of the
reasons I love the author!!!!! Can't wait to read another one by her!
Dedication
To Alan, my husband and soul
mate, whose belief in my dreams keeps me going even when I can’t
remember how important dreams can be.
I love you with all my heart.
Chapter One
Lilly
D’Angelo wasn’t expecting a trip down memory lane when
she sauntered into the dingy tavern, but the acrid stench and gruff
hum of the Friday night crowd carried her back to one of the seedier
establishments on Chicago’s south side nonetheless. Except for
the clientele, the owner had managed to replicate nearly every detail
right down to the blue haze of cigarette smoke and the soft crooning
of a jazz band on the corner stage.
Pushing
the sour thoughts of home from her mind and focusing on the job at
hand, Lilly morphed her features into her sexiest vixen pout and
moved gracefully toward the long bar on the other side of the room.
Her voluptuous breasts, spilling temptingly from her silk blouse, led
the way. The eyes watching her leather-clad ass sashay around the
battered tables were clustered on various life forms—none of
them human.
Yeah,
definitely
not
Chicago. Hell, this wasn’t even Earth for
goodness’ sake.
“
Regent’s
ale, straight up, hold the brenic.” Lilly ordered the local
brew in English, hoping the two-headed alien behind the bar had a
cochlear translator in one of those eight holes that passed for ears.
Satisfied when one head nodded, she settled on a stool, making sure
her fur jacket and blouse parted just enough to offer a seductive
view of her cleavage. She shifted, allowing the black leather skirt
to ride up her thigh and expose a little more silky real estate. The
reflection she saw in the mirror behind the liquor bottles was every
inch a working woman on the prowl. She wasn’t trying to attract
anyone in particular, just hoping to mislead the locals into thinking
she was some female making a living with her body—which was
true—just not as the human streetwalker she impersonated.
Undercover
work was what kept food in her belly and a roof over her head. But it
was the cold-hearted need for revenge that had driven her to flaunt
her feminine wares on distant planets. Walking among low-life
criminals—most of them of the non-human variety—was a
small price to pay for the opportunity to avenge the calamity that
had become her life.
Lilly
wasn’t a xenophobic bigot by any stretch of the imagination.
It’s just that six months in deep space, working as a bounty
hunter in these kinds of joints, wasn’t really long enough to
become accustomed to the scenery. The Nebulae Galaxy’s
spaceports overflowed with aliens of all sizes and genders; from
two-headed Xericks, like the bartender, to the gangly-limbed Znedus
and oversized Ka’al with their mahogany skin and flat noses.
The twelve planets of this galaxy had become a melting pot of sorts
for all types of aliens.
Only
that wasn’t really a fair term here in deep space.
Alien
inferred the life forms didn’t belong. On the contrary, it was
humans who were invading
their
territory. The treaties of
2253, signed well over forty years ago, had guaranteed the safe
travel of humans in deep space. After the snafu of ‘34, which
saw the first major battle over territories since light travel had
been achieved, humans had insisted on protection for their species.
They’d formed some bullshit board of security, guaranteeing
humans could run roughshod over the universe like everywhere else.
Though they were technically called
Q’orstan
Aerlheit Lunivarsium
, most people referred
to them as
QAL. Lilly nicknamed them the alphabet mafia. At
one point in time, she’d actually considered working for them.
Then they’d discovered who she was—or more specifically
what
she was—and she’d had to detour from that
career path. It didn’t matter. They could all go take a flying
leap into the lava pits of Beta Mrenn for all she cared. Just because
they didn’t appreciate her
gift
, didn’t mean Lilly
couldn’t use her talents to bring down the bad guys.
Of
course in deep space,
bad
was a relative term.
There
was the kind of bad that got a person lost on the polar ice caps of
Dallas Eight without a backup plan. Or the bad that forced someone to
stow away in the engine room of a Drikspa alien tanker bound for
unknown destinations, praying not to get caught. Or the bad that got
a human female imprisoned as a sex slave on the mining colonies of
Krystallos Three, hidden from even the long arm of the QAL. Lilly
shivered at that one. Even
her
talents wouldn’t free her
from that kind of torture.
She
was just happy to be here on Garalon Five where bad meant nothing
more than crossing paths with every brand of space pirate, ex-con or
fugitive looking for a new start. As one of the more recent colonies
in the Nebulae Galaxy, the G-5 government turned their collective
back on past offenses on other planets and allowed anyone to start a
legitimate business. It’s what had actually brought her here to
the dark planet.
Well,
that and the incident on Reigis Alpha. That spaceport had netted her
a broken arm, three bruised ribs, a close encounter with a Treljon
laser, her first big payoff and one hell of a lesson. She flexed her
fingers around the foaming stein the bartender dropped in front of
her and sipped thoughtfully. Thank goodness for modern medicine.
They’d fixed her up in less than two weeks and sent her on her
way.
With
a couple of hours to kill and nothing to do but wait, Lilly savored a
long swallow of the cool brew and turned her attention to one of the
televids on the wall. Nearly everyone in the tavern ignored the news
feed of the new Commander-elect, Ambassador Antonio Tervoss. Few
species believed the human’s campaign promises for a safer
galaxy would change anything in deep space.
Besides,
it seemed aliens preferred making their deals on the shady underbelly
of corruption. They’d been living that way for too many
centuries to see regulation of trade as being advantageous. But it
had been Tervoss’ strong commitment to race equality that had
finally tipped the scales for enough voters, alien and human alike,
including Lilly, to get the man where he was today.
In
a little over a week, Antonio Tervoss would be inaugurated as the
first human to become Premier Commander of the Nebulae Galaxy.
Overseeing twelve planets, nine presidents and countless government
officials was nothing compared to regulating the forty-seven luna
crystal mines on Krystallos Three. The mines not only supplied both
energy and clean water to all ninety-eight trillion life forms
scattered throughout the galaxy, they also supported the largest
underground sex slave trade in the known universe.
No
ambassador had attempted to clean up that caustic nightmare.
“
Yeah,
good luck with that task, buddy!” Lilly lifted her stein in
mock salute to the man.
“
Happy
you make with human leader?”
Lilly
wanted to laugh at the ridiculous interpretation the translator had
made of the alien’s come-on line clicking and popping in her
ear. She smiled over at the Ickbata’s hopeful expression as he
slid onto the stool beside her. They weren’t bad little aliens
if one didn’t mind the smell of leather.
In
her relaxed state, her energy had filled the air. And though she
wasn’t looking to hook up, especially with an Ickbata, she
could use a little distraction and the televid certainly wasn’t
providing it. “
Kal auct ral tsk, pa?
”
Buy me a
drink, stranger?
It was a question she could ask in the sixteen
most common languages of the Nebulae Galaxy.