Creed of Pleasure; the Space Miner's Concubine (The LodeStar Series) (20 page)

Noni gasped, and then turned her head to glare at Taara, her full mouth tight. “You’re trying to scare me. But you’ll be sorry for being so mean.”

Taara shook her head in disgust as she flew along the riverbank, the big house and rock wall of the compound waiting on the mountainside above. “You need to grow up. You put yourself in danger by coming out here alone and by swimming without a lookout.”
 

She’d been a city girl herself for several years, but she still knew better than to give the wild creatures a defenseless target. The hovie was small but it was fast enough to make it back to the compound in a hurry. On foot, Noni would be vulnerable to skrog and to those huge hawks if they decided they were hungry enough to attack a creature so large.

Noni snorted. “I’m plenty grown up. And I don’t have to listen to you. I heard my auntie telling why you came here. You’re just a whore from the city.”

Outrage blazing so hot she feared her skin would burst into flames, Taara yanked back on the controls, and kept her mouth closed only with an effort.
 

She flew over the rock walls that protected the compound, brought the craft down on the landing pad, opened the hatch and turned on Noni.

“
Get. Out.
And, you sly little bitch, you’d better listen to this—unless you want to find that river serpent or another like it in your bed one night, don’t give me any more of your mouth.” Not that Taara was going to follow through, but this girl needn’t know that.
 

Noni shrank back, apparently realizing she’d gone too far, then tried to bluster her way out. “What? You can’t threaten me like this. I’m telling Creed.”

“You do that. Interrupt his work to complain about me. That will make him happy. Better plan would be to mind your business and stay close to your aunt. Let her keep you out of trouble. Perhaps you could even help her do some of her work.”

Her lip thrust out, the girl scrambled out of the hovie. Taara waited only until she’d cleared before scooting the craft into the hangar.

She made sure the craft was correctly powered down and closed up before stalking back into the house. She had reached the pool area before she could calm down enough to think about what she was doing. She stripped off her sleeveless top and skirt, toed off her flats and dove into the pool, swimming across its width under the water before surfacing. She settled into a swift stroke, propelling herself through the water the length of the long pool.

She swam several lengths before she’d calmed sufficiently to think instead of feel. Noni had called her a whore. And wasn’t that what she was, at this point? Logan Stark had sent her here to seduce his brother. She’d done so, and was having sexual relations with him. In doing so, she was being paid by Stark’s bringing her and Daanel to Frontiera and in sponsoring Daanel’s setting up shop in Frontiera City.

Now as she stroked through the water, she considered the irony that another crisis in her life had brought her to this point, where she must pay a price with her body, or risk losing someone she loved. Not that Daniel had been held at laser-point or anything, but the threats had been escalating toward that. And she’d been attacked—lucky they’d just wanted to make their point, not rape her and toss her body on the trash heap.
 

And it wasn’t even so much that she was profiting by coming here, by having sex with Creed. It was that he thought this was sex, pure and simple. He had no idea she’d been forced into it. And she couldn’t tell him the truth. If she did, she risked losing everything she and Daniel had gained.
 

And if she had come to care for Creed too, she had to hold that inside. He wanted her to trust him, but he certainly hadn’t said anything about love. She was infatuated with him, for sure. When she was with him, she glowed inside, and when he was gone she wanted to know where he was, what he was doing, if he was thinking of her. Oh, please goddess don’t let it be love that had her longing for him.
 

Pausing at the lip of the pool, she rested her forearms on the smooth stone, and leaned her head on them. Hot tears splashed down to mingle with the cooler water of the pool.
 

She was so tired of holding everything inside, of being alone, with no one to confide in, no one to share her fear, her turmoil, even her cautious joy in her relationship with Creed. Stark had forbidden her to confide in anyone, including Kiri, and she certainly couldn’t tell Daanel the truth. He’d be furious with her for doing this without consulting him.
 

And as for confiding in Creed himself, no. Today she’d discovered he was as hard and ruthless as his brother, in his way. She got that he was the boss and he had to be firm, also that he had been a Zhen warrior, but surely that only made his views of right and wrong more rigid.
 

And besides, she wanted him to go on looking at her as if she were a rare and precious being that had dropped into his world. She wanted to bask in that look, and in the heat of his big body, not quail from his disgust.
 

She was trapped, and she’d helped lock her own cage. Angst enveloped her, and before she knew it, she was weeping helplessly, her body shaking with the force of her sobs.

Although muffled by the mist, the sounds reached the man walking into the house, his comlink tuned in to the security system.
 

Creed stopped short in the passageway, his tired body tensing in instant response. Then he went into action, jogging through the house and around the corner to the pool room. His woman was hurt. Inside the doorway, he scanned for trouble, saw only her. Scowling, he stripped off his clothing and boots, padded silently across the floor, and slid into the pool. He paused only to duck under the water and rinse a bit of the sweat and dirt from his face before swimming across the pool.

Taara was a huddled bundle of misery, still clinging to the edge of the pool, her sobs now softer but still penetrating like the twist of a cutter in his chest.

 
“Hey,” he said, standing behind her and reaching for her. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

She flinched, and then turned into his arms like a homing bird, her face against his throat, her arm around his neck, legs coming up to bracket him. She was soft and cool and wet against him, her curves sliding into place against his like two sides of a locking fastener.
 

Creed wrapped his arms around her and lay back, letting the water cradle them both. He crooked his head to peer into her face. “Whatever it is,” he told her, the words coming straight from his heart, “it’s okay. I’ll take care of it.”

She held on more tightly and sobbed louder.
 

Creed had no clue what to do, he only knew he wasn’t letting go of her. So he used his feet to steady them on the bottom and stroked one hand up and down over the strong but delicate curve of her back.
 

Finally she calmed and lifted one hand to swipe at her face. “I’m sorry,” she said, her voice thick. “For weeping all over you.”

He shook his head, lifted one hand to cup the back of her head. “No, none of that now. You’re upset, you gotta get it out. You and Noni have another spat?”

She shrugged. “Nothing new there. She didn’t like me being the one to pick her up.”

“That girl’s a brat, no two ways about it,” he muttered. “Wanna tell me why that’s got you so upset?”

She sniffled again and gave him a wary look. Her eyes were very green in her pink face. “No,” she said in a small voice.
 

He lifted his brows at that. “O-kay.” That stung, but he guessed she had a right to privacy. They were fucking, didn’t mean they were more.

She wriggled, pulling her legs free. “I need to wash my face.”

“Need to wash my whole body,” he pointed out dryly. “Probably don’t smell very good. Come on.”

He towed her with him as he swam back into the mist and under the spray of the miniature waterfall. This, he could do for her, even if she wouldn’t let him share whatever problem had her weeping as if she’d lost her last hope. Later, he’d get back to that. If it was Noni, she’d be gone tomorrow morning.

For now, he kept a container of gel cleanser on a shelf under the falls and this was his favorite place to wash. Maybe she’d let him wash her, too.
 

She did. And although it began as him comforting her with his touch, an armful of wet, slippery woman led predictably to his arousal. Which he would have ignored if she hadn’t wrapped her fingers around his cock and wriggled her other hand between his legs, her fingers slick with gel soap. When she bent her head to suckle at his nipple, he shuddered with pleasure.

After teasing him until he was ready to come in her hands, she wrapped one slender leg around him and invited him inside. Creed fell back blindly on the ledge under the spray. Surrounded by the constant splash of water, they were enclosed in a pocket of dim, wet warmth, nothing but touch to guide them. He lifted her onto his thighs and drove into her clinging heat with a groan of relief. Then, holding her close, he found her mouth with his and kissed her as they rocked together.
 

He’d try and wait for her, but wasn’t sure he could this time. Just when he was about to lose it, come his brains out, her pussy began to squeeze around his cock and the secret caress drove him over the edge into ecstasy. Down that long, dark, sweet tunnel to the core of her where he could let himself go, let his pleasure explode in her and know they fell together.
 

When he could move, he swam out into the open air, towing her with him. He turned to float with her on his chest, his hand moving lazily on her back. “Best shower I ever had.”

She hmmed with pleasure and lifted her head to smile shyly. “Me too.”

Gazing into her green eyes, still pink from her weeping, her face and hair sleeked with water, Creed felt his heart give an odd clench. A kind of pleasure pain. He tipped his forehead against hers, unable to formulate words. What was happening here? Something.
 

Something important.

Chapter Thirteen

Creed watched as the spaceship crew battled the giant Alzertian space leech, which had been placed on their craft by an enemy hoping to steal the ship. They were down to only two crew members; the captain and the cook, a lovely woman whose enhanced breasts had burst free from the remains of her snug spacesuit early in the fight. Blood and slime streaked her sculpted cheekbones, and one shoulder. The captain, a muscular fellow with a dashing grin, was similarly marked, although neither of them had any visible wounds.

With a horrible sucking sound, the space slug writhed further into the nav center, baring concentric rows of sharp, curving teeth, covered in the blood of dead crew members. The image was up close and life-size, as Creed had an excellent holovid setup.

“Get behind me,” the captain ordered, laser at the ready.

“Quark that,” the woman retorted. “If I’m going to die, I’ll do it at your side, not cowering behind you like a child.”

The captain gave her an appreciative grin.
 

Creed moved restively in the comfortable cushions of his deep sofa. “Shut up and laser the quarking leech,” he muttered.

The captain finally raised his weapon.

Behind Creed, a piercing scream sliced through the room, followed by a loud crash and the clatter of serving ware. Creed shot off the sofa, whirling, ready to fight whatever menaced his home and his woman. Or chase off the mawwr again.

Taara stood in the open doorway of his study, a serving tray vertical in her hands. The floor around her was littered with bowls, napkins, two carafes and spilled popped grains. His favorite, caramel and cheese mix, he noted peripherally, even as he relaxed, straightening from his fighting stance. She was frozen in disgust and horror, but she was staring at the holovid, not some intruder.

He’d left her sleeping in his bed, after fucking her until she called his name not once, but twice. He’d come with her the second time. He’d rolled onto his back feeling as good as if he’d conquered a whole nest of pirates single-handedly. Like some kind of hero.
 

After waiting for her to wake, though, he got restless and decided to watch a holovid.

Now he grabbed his com and broke the hololink. The holovid winked out, along with the loud, slimy death throes of the space leech.

“Wh-what was that?” she breathed, her face still wrinkled in revulsion. “I knew you had a holovid on, but I thought it was just an adventure vid.”

Creed grinned. “That? An Alzertian space leech. And it was an adventure vid.”

She shuddered, her look now beseeching. “How can you watch that kind of thing? Please tell me there are really not creatures like that in the galaxy.”

He considered this. “Don’t think so. Could be, I suppose.” It was a big galaxy.”What’s this?”
 

She looked down, her mouth drooping. “Oh. I brought you a snack, since we missed dinner.”

“No, I ate. Didn’t want to wake you, you were sleeping so deeply.”
 

He gave her a smug look, remembering why she’d been so worn out. Her cheeks pink, she looked away, but she was smiling.

Levering himself over the back of the sofa, he squatted to begin cleaning up the remains of what looked like a great snack. There were even two hot drink carafes, luckily lidded as they now lay on their sides. He scooped up a handful of the grains. They smelled good. The floor was pretty clean, as the cleaning droid went through every afternoon.