All or Nothing

“Thank you, Mr. De-Acker.” Jadon Pierce, Chief of Facility Defense for the intergalactic spa, New Eden, took the pass card from the manager of the ritzy hotel. The cyborg in charge tilted his head to the side. Mr. De-Acker’s eyebrow inched mechanically toward his plasticine hairline as if to say, “You do remember the rules associated with this bonus, don’t you?”

Jadon rolled his eyes. “I promise to be out of the loft by eleven in the morning.” In other words, he wouldn’t overstay his welcome or the bonus he’d been given for finally cleaning up the thievery which had run rampant at New Eden before he’d taken his current position.

“Your compliance is appreciated. The spa is booked far in advance.” The cyborg’s head clicked back into an upright position. “And again, congratulations on receiving your bonus.”

Mr. De-Acker stepped back and turned with precision on the heel of his fashionable dress shoe.
Would have been nice if I’d gotten a raise, too.
Still, the idea of spending a night in a posh space loft complete with all the cable vidi-channels he could watch and room service at his beck and call was a welcome respite. A smile crossed his features.
Almost as good as a raise.

“Are they letting you off early, too?” Karen Michaels, his coworker, asked.

Blowing out a breath, he walked back into the def-ops area. He took in the multitude of monitors affixed to the walls with the slash of his gaze. “We work for the Vacation Counsel. The chance of us taking two minutes off requires divine intervention.”

“Yeah, and a note from God,” Karen said on a giggle. She inhaled deeply, then exhaled slowly. Swiveling her chair around, she eyed him. “I gotta ask; are you taking someone with you to the quote-unquote Paradise Found Loft tonight?”

If Karen wasn’t so in love with her husband that seeing the two of them together made him physically ill, he’d have thought she was making a pass at him. Jadon chuckled. “As a matter of fact, I do have a date.” Gazing at the monitors one more time, he shifted his eyes to the clock.
Fifteen more minutes.

“Couldn’t be that really cute Torellian you’ve been seeing on the sly,” Karen responded with a broad grin. “Don’t worry.” She held up her left hand when he leveled his glare on her. “Your secret is safe with me. Personally, I think the rules regarding the sentient workers of New Eden Space Hotel and Spa not dating are stupid.”

“Tell me something I don’t already know.” In the employee script, it said this was to protect the hotel from potentially damaging and costly sexual harassment lawsuits. It was a joke, and even the cyborg in charge knew it deep down in his servo-processor. It was to keep the sentient beings working at New Eden constantly on their toes and keep their minds on their jobs.

Cyborgs weren’t programmed to understand that sentient life forms needed to have contact with others of their kind. Jadon shook his head. “Let’s hope tonight is quiet.”
Cause I’m tired of copping feels with Ta’Sha and having quickie sex in the maintenance closet.

God, he had to have her for more than a few minutes. He frowned at his cock’s reaction to the notion he was going to have eight hours with the petite Trollian. The crotch of his pants grew tight, and he fisted his hands.

He intended to explore every inch of her body with his hands and mouth.

The one thing the lack of privacy and time had provided them was he knew Ta’Sha better than any other woman he’d ever fucked. Their clandestine meetings involved something Torrelians put great stock in: sharing private fantasies with their partner. At first, despite his embarrassment, he’d given her credit for her imagination and all the lewd little dreams she whispered to him.

Tonight, he intended to play one out with her. “God, please, no trouble tonight.”

“I’m not expecting any problems.” Karen swiveled her chair back around and pulled up the occupancy report on the console. “Lots of Earthlings celebrating Valentine’s Day seems to be the majority of guests.” She flashed a smile. “They’ll probably have dinner, and then go to their room for a nightcap and you know.” She waggled her eyebrows. “Not a lot of risk with this group.”

“That’s good news.” Jadon peeked at the clock again. Gritting his teeth, he forced the tension from his frame. “I’m leaving the loft docked to the mother ship so if there is any problem…”

“Nah, enjoy your bonus. Drift out into space and make it one hell of a night for you and Ta’Sha.” She heaved a dramatic sigh. “Sheesh, men,” she muttered under her breath. “Don’t know when to romance a woman and when not to.”

Jadon chuckled at his coworker. Tonight he was determined to romance Ta’Sha until she screamed his name. “Thanks, Karen—I owe you one.” He’d owe her even more if she switched off the cameras in the space loft.

T-minus ten minutes and counting.

* * * * *

Ta’Sha Valor had it all planned out in her head. The buzz of an incoming call interrupted her thoughts before she could get revved up. Punching the button to connect the com-link, she didn’t have to wait more than a few tics for the call to come through. “Good Evening, New Eden Hotel and Spa, how may I direct your call?”

“Ta’Sha, this is your maternal unit. When are you going to mate?” A long, harassed sigh stroked through the earbug Ta’Sha wore. “The Council on Reproduction called today. Do I have to remind you how you are not getting any younger? They want to know when you will make an appointment with Counselor Macko. If you can’t face the truth that you are of mating age, then I am sure he will make it clear to you that it is your civic duty to reproduce.”

“Soon, maternal unit.” Regretting the harsh edge to her statement, Ta’Sha willed another call to ring in. When none did, she played the only trick she had in her arsenal—she lied, something no Trollian would do to their parental unit. “Maternal unit, I am needed to take a confidential call from the Vacation Counsel. I will contact you later in the week to discuss my appointment.”
Not that I have any leave coming up, so it’s a non-issue anyway.

“You cannot put them off any longer, daughter unit.”

“I am aware,” she whispered. Clearing her throat, taking in the rest of the call center, she licked her dry lips. Glad she was alone in the tiny area off the main reception hall, she considered coming up with another lame excuse as to why she was very late complying with the order to have her basic nature analyzed, and then be matched with an appropriate mate. “Please give them my deep respect and humble apologies.”
What am I going to say? So sorry but I fell in love with an Earthling? I’ll be laughed right out of Central City.
“If you would, maternal unit?”

She opened her mouth to say more but was cut off.

“I will. Good-bye, Ta’Sha.”

Deflated, she closed her eyes and said a quick prayer to the Great Goddess for personal fortitude and another for serene patience with her maternal unit. Her lips moved silently as she begged the supreme deity for Jadon’s understanding when he brought up what he called “taking their relationship to the next level.”

In truth, what could she say? She loved him but couldn’t ever have a life-relationship with him unless she entered self-imposed exile?

Was she willing to go to that extreme?

It would depend on tonight, she supposed.

“Deepest regrets for my near tardiness, Trollian female Ta’Sha Valor,” The cyborg who manned the console during the late-night shift stated as she strode into the call center.

No further explanation came from the cyborg. “No worries, Cyborg 2331.” Ta’Sha rose from her chair, and once the artificial intelligence unit placed her earbug around her ear, she nodded. “Have a gentle eve.” The device she wore for ten hours every day landed in its compartment.

“To you as well,” the cyborg said in its mechanically tinny voice.

Ta’Sha smiled. If she had her way, tonight would be everything but gentle. Picking up her bag with all the goodies she’d acquired, she slung the straps over her shoulder. She headed for the door. “You can contact me on my private com-device should an angry patron require assistance from a sentient being.”

Cyborg 2331 nodded.

Having a discussion with you is about as good as talking to a bulkhead.
It also provided her with job security which wasn’t a bad thing. Ill-suited for following in her maternal units footsteps of being a concubine, the spa had given her an option allotted very few females coming from the dark planet Trollia—that of being independent from their home planet.

Ta’Sha strode out of the room and headed for the designated rendezvous point with Jadon. Tremors of desire tripped up her inner thighs to tickle her femininity. Her nipples turned to hard buds when she envisioned mating with him for more than a few brief stolen moments of passion.

Walking to the freight elevator which rounded the exterior wall of the floating five-star hotel, she greeted Jadon with a smile. Her fingers itched to strip his clothes from his strong body and touch him, prove to him the Trollian’s reputation of being the best sexual partners in their quadrant of space was not an exaggeration or an understatement.

“Ready?” His voice was like a caress.

Goosebumps slipped up her arms. She quelled the urge to hug him tight. The deep-seated need to feel his arms around her took control of her psyche. “Yes,” she responded in a barely audible whisper.
More than.

“Do you know what I look forward to the most tonight?”

A shiver shook down her spine. It wasn’t so much what he said but how he said it. “Unlimited cable vidis and an open bar.”

His chuckle did amazing things to her blood pressure. “No. Fucking you until you scream my name.” He leveled his hand on the small of her back. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Surreptitiously, he slid his palm across her cloth-covered ass. “Me pounding into you until there is only the two of us, joined together, climaxing together.”

“Have you been studying Trollian mating rituals?”
This is bad. This is very bad. Is that what it means—taking the relationship to the next level.
She wasn’t exactly sure.

“With our schedules being opposite right now, I had to find something to occupy my free time.” His firm grip curled around her hip and pulled her inconspicuously back. Liquid heat gathered in her panties. “It’s quite interesting, Ta’Sha.” His fingers slid closer to her aching core. “I didn’t know it was so simple for your kind.”

“You’ve never seen a Trollian female when they are at the height of their mating cycle. We can shoot off in seconds or it can take hours. The men of our species often find this difficult because they must then predict the female’s orgasm.”

“Actually, I think it’s easy.” His warm breath tickled the sensitive shell of her ear.

“Really?” He was either arrogant or a simpleton. Maybe he was both.

“I command your orgasm.”

“I beg your pardon.”

“You can’t come until I tell you that you can.”

She’d never heard of the likes. “What?” The question slipped from her lips. “I don’t know how you expect to achieve such a feat.” Considering this was unheard of on Trollia, she contemplated him taking absolute control of her. A fresh trickle of moisture moistened her pussy. The throb clenching her soft feminine walls turned to a driving pulse racing down from her core. For a split tic, she leaned her head against the strong wall of his chest before she recalled the camera planted in the corner of the freight elevator. Her head snapped back up.

“I’ll show you once we enter the loft.”

He sounded so certain of himself. Her mother’s voice chimed in her head
. “The Reproduction Council needs to see you.” “You aren’t getting any younger.”
In other words, get your ass back here and produce a grandchild unit for me to pick on.

Her lust and her mood disintegrated that fast. “Let’s not ruin your bonus with expectations or anything else.” She turned around to face him as the freight elevator came to a stop at their room.

His intense blue eyes glared at her. “Let me guess? Your mother is being a bitch again.”

“She wants grandchildren units. You can’t blame her, Jadon. It’s a big part of our culture.” This was the last discussion she wanted to have with him.
Pigheaded Earthling, why can’t you just give it up? We don’t have a future together.

“What about your happiness? Does that figure into her master plan?” The doors slid open with a
whoosh
. He grabbed her wrist and dragged her into the room. “Is being in love less important to her than telling her friends she’s going to have a grandbaby?”

To her maternal unit, yes, sadly it was. Her bag fell from her shoulder with a hard thud. “I…”

“For better or worse, Ta’Sha, we’re going to do this, and you are going to enjoy it.” He scowled. “What part of I-fucking-want-you-in-my-life-permanently doesn’t she understand?” He raked his hand through his hair.

Could be because I’ve never told her about you.
His words suddenly registered in her passion-hazed brain.
He wants us to be together as mates.
Think, her mind ordered her. “Let’s enjoy this time together and let off all other worries until tomorrow.” His expression informed her he wasn’t about to stop his rant. “Please, Jadon, she’s old and set in her ways.”
And I don’t have the courage to tell her that I love you.

He strode to the bar and poured two fingers of an amber-colored liquid into a snifter. His gaze never left her as he brought the glass to her. “Drink it.”

She shook her head and took a step toward the door. “I’m not thirsty.”

“Drink it.”

Taking the glass from his hand, she took a tiny sip. The liquid burned a hot path down her throat. A fuzzy warm feeling infused her limbs. “Wow. It’s potent.”

“It ought to be. It’s century-old brandy.” He took the glass from her hand and drained the contents. Setting the fine crystal snifter down on an end table, he wrapped his free arm around her waist. “Say, yes,” he commanded. He waltzed them to the control panel and slid the passcard into the slot.

“Yes.” The word slipped from her numb lips. Her palms came to a rest on his broad shoulders. Her fingers clutched the soft wool of his uniform as the feel of the docking clamps releasing from the base of the loft shuddered through the room. “Yes.” The word came out as a sigh just before he dipped his head and took her lips in a deep, drugging kiss. “By the Goddess, yes.”

He massaged the bunched muscles of her back through her clothes. His lips slashed over hers again and again until she shook with lust.

Lifting his head, he brushed his hand over her hair. “Trust me.”

She didn’t think twice before she answered him. “I do.” Heat filtered through her entire system.

He lifted her in his brawny arms and carried her to the bedroom. He placed her in the middle of the enormous bed and followed her down. Rolling onto his side, he traced the tip of his index finger down her cheek and along the soft skin of her neck. “It’s all or nothing, Ta’Sha. I won’t accept this half-assed we-get-off-on-the-quickie-fucking we’ve enjoyed up until now.” He laid a kiss to her cheek. “I want more.”

If she’d been in her right mind, she’d have told him they didn’t have a snowball’s chance on the sun of having a relationship. His fingers pulled the zipper down on her jacket to expose her skimpy tank top to his gaze, robbing her of cognizant thought.

Her hands fisted in the coverlet as he peeled her jacket open and pulled her tank from the waistband of her pants.

“Undress for me.” He helped her to her feet. He slipped his shirt over his head and tossed it on the foot of the bed.

Damn, the man was too gorgeous for words. Her fingers itched to caress his skin, to trace the ridged muscles of his stomach. Absently she did as she was told. He stood, and for every article of clothing she removed, he followed suit until they were naked.

“Very nice,” he commented. Without warning, he pulled her against him. Sparks of pure lust jolted her. Warmth radiated off his chest and through her. The feel of his hands caressing her bottom had her shaking. “Are you wet for me?”

Audibly swallowing, she nodded. It took every ounce of her self-discipline to keep herself from begging him to ride her hard.

“The rules are easy, Ta’Sha. We get naked and see how this goes.” He lifted her in his arms so they were eye to eye. “Most importantly, you do not come until I tell you that you can.” He laid a kiss to her forehead. “Understand?”

“Yes,” she managed to croak.

“Excellent,” he said. He took her mouth in a blistering kiss that curled her toes. His tongue slid between her parted lips to play against hers. A soft mewl of pleasure escaped her mouth.

He shifted his hands to cup her ass. His fingers gripped her tender flesh an inch from her pussy. “Please.”

“Please what?” he growled.

Forced to cling to him, she rested her forehead on his shoulder. He stroked his fingers across her slick folds. She wiggled her hips, trying to get closer to him. “By the Goddess.”

“Tell me what you want, Ta’Sha.”

“Your fingers in me,” she blurted out. In the back of her mind she recognized he was following the Trollian mating ritual to the letter. “Fuck me with your fingers.”

“Fuck you how?”

“Hard. I want it hard.” Tears of frustration filled her eyes when he continued to tease her cleft. “For the love of the Goddess, help me.”

“That’s my intention, Ta’Sha.” He slammed her body down on two of his fingers. His index finger teased her anus. “Do you like this?”

“Yes,” she rasped. He set a punishing pace. The first twinges of her orgasm were building in her womb when he suddenly stopped. “No!” She slapped him. “Don’t stop.”

“Easy,” he soothed her. Laying her on the bed, he skimmed his hand down her belly. “Spread your legs wider.”

Doing as she was told, she gasped when he eased his thick cock into her soaked channel. He stretched her until she felt filled to the max. His initial thrusts were slow, measured. She met his plunges stroke for stroke.