Learning to Blush (19 page)

Vua looked down at his new trinket. “Do you mean MY comlink?” He curled his fingers around it. “No. No use. No have-back. You will take it and then you will go. I have lived here all my life. You no think I’m smarter than that? You go now, funny man,” Vua said, and slapped a rolled up map into Thorton's palm.

Thorton growled, realizing that he should have made the ride part of the deal.

Thorton figured he could make good time after he left. After all, at least he had a game-plan now. Get to Yule Veet's tavern and save Penny from being raped or killed, drag her out of that place by her ear, and then whip her ass all the way home with a good switch! Of which there was many good switches to be had—the jungle of the planet surrounded the city.

But then he remembered that making good time could not be done on this planet. The high piers that the city was built on very, very gradually sank to the ground level. Getting to the jungle floor required walking a steep, endless stairway, and it took hours to even reach the bottom where he could finally start his real trek.

And then the air at the surface of the planet was thick—it was so humid it hurt his lungs just to breathe it in. The hike was grueling and even painful. He wondered if he was going to die of exhaustion before he had a chance to kill that horrible little half-breed!

It was the most rotten ten miles he'd ever marched, and reaching Yule's tavern down the path gave him no elation. Quite the opposite.

“Oh, come
on
!” Thorton cried, looking at the long, long stairway leading up toward Yule’s tavern. The stairs climbed into the
sky
. He started up them, muttering, “This has GOT to be some sort of joke…From
life
.”

* * *

Yule’s thick fingers dug into Penny’s exposed thigh. She bit her lip and tried to adjust before Yule’s fingers dug bruises into her. She wasn’t sure if he was stronger than he thought he was, or if he
was exactly as strong as he thought he was, and just liked to hurt her.

She had heard of sadistic men like that—well, human men like that. Yule wasn’t human; the horns were a dead give-away, as were the completely dark eyes that appeared more like a bull's than a man's, since they had no trace of white in them.

She reviewed how easily she had gotten into this position; sitting on a scary guy like Yule’s lap while he played a strip card-and-dice game. He had been using her as his doll to undress when he was unlucky. There were other girls around the table sitting on the other three men’s laps, and Penny was certain that every single one of them was trying his best to lose the game.

She decided that her first wrong move was that beer she had in a bar nearby Graham's ship. The owners of the bar she had walked into were unimpressed with the meager bills she had taken from Ellie, but it scored her a cold beer, at least, which was all she wanted. Well, at least she
thought
it was a beer. It worked more like a cross between speed and ecstasy than like alcohol. After drinking it, everything had seemed like a great idea, no distance was too small, nothing was insurmountable.

That drink had made her forget what got her to the planet, who she was, that she had family waiting on her somewhere.

A sudden, sobering thought of Thorton had flashed through her mind while she had Yule’s finger hooking into her cunny—which he had started doing the moment after he had talked her into coming to see ‘his place’. She had a startling moment of clarity; one that horrified her.

She couldn’t believe what she was doing, what she was letting happen, what she had done. She pushed Yule off of her, who offered her another one of these “beers” rather than becoming angry at first. But when she had refused it, he growled, “Drink it, or you will lose my protection. Do you know how much I can sell humans for on the open market? Do you have any idea what you’re worth?”

Penny had shuddered then, and found that there wasn’t any way she could get away from Yule. He was too quick, too smart, and too strong to fool or outrun… Especially when she was high.

Despite her orders, she had only been sipping on the drug, spitting it out when she was sure Yule wasn’t looking; even trying to press her fingers down her throat when she could to attempt to gag it up. She had to get back to her family.

But had they noticed she was gone? She had run away a few separate times in life and only her brothers, Mike, and Ellie had even noticed. Her mother and father certainly hadn’t. She’d been gone for a week at a time and not gotten any trouble from them about it.

But now all she had was Tim, Tom, Ellie and Mike. She liked to think that they would have noticed her absence. They wouldn’t leave the planet without her, would they? She would have killed for a phone, or some way to text Tim and let him know where she was…

Or else how could she ever even be found if she couldn’t get away?

“I said ‘take off your shirt’, Woman,” Yule growled into her ear.

She tilted up her shoulder to press herself away from his lips, but then she smiled sensually at him. “I’m sorry, I don’t know the rules.”

“You don’t have to know the rules, my sweet. Just show those beautiful breasts you have,” Yule rumbled with a laugh in his voice. He turned to the men at the table. “You must see her nipples. They look like little pink pearls.”

Trying not to swallow too hard, she slowly pulled off her shirt. Yule quickly unfastened her bra, tugged it off of her shoulders and arms, and discarded both the shirt and bra onto the floor.

She used to read naughty stories about women who were forced to bare themselves in public; she had thought they were hot then. Her own experiences hadn't been as 'hot'. She hated how his fingers groped her bare breasts as the room looked on.

It wasn’t just the table they were sitting at—it was the whole tavern who kept whispering to each other about her, about her ‘spots’, her long red hair, her pale blue eyes… Everyone was looking. Everyone was able to see her being groped.

The men laughed and Yule adjusted her on his knee as he continued to play with her. The game resumed while she was thinking up an escape plan, glancing at windows and doors, remembering what Yule’s bedchamber looked like… Was there a way to escape from one of those windows? How far away could she get on-foot?

Her attention snapped back as one of the men at the table said, “I heard humans use their mouths like special pussies. I heard they can create pleasure with only their tongues that is so great, men have died.” He smirked and looked over at Penny. “Have you used your mouth on a man?”

“No,” she quickly said, wishing it was true. She was certain she never wanted to see a penis ever again; the idea of Yule whipping out his was enough to make her gag. She had already done far, far too much with Yule. “That’s a lie. We don’t… we don’t do that. Ever.”

“Am
I
lying or are
you
?” the pirate asked snidely. “I think I would like to see. Yule—I will let you take my wench for three nights, but if I win, I want your human’s mouth for five
minutes
,” he wagered, then went back to smirking that shit-eating grin at Penny.

“I’ll die before I’ll suck
your
cheesy dick,” Penny snapped, suddenly exposing her fierceness, her desperation. She hadn’t meant to; she had been trying to keep Yule pleased so that he would trust her… And when he did, she would definitely abuse that trust.

“Shut up,
Whore
,” Yule snapped, and twisted his fingers around her nipple until she let out a yelp. Yule looked forward and then appraised the pirate’s own bare-breasted wench. “That is acceptable. I will take that bet.”

Penny paled. “No, no—no, please don’t!” she begged Yule, again desperate.

Yule ignored her, laid three cards on the table and rolled his dice. Penny shivered, holding her breath as she watched this round. She looked up at the other girl—the one who was promised to Yule. She didn’t have horns, but her eyes were the same as Yule’s; dark and uncaring. Her expression didn’t even change. She must have been used like this for quite some time. She had been broken long before now.

Penny didn't want to be broken like that. She didn't ever want to not care.

Penny had no problem praying that Yule would win. But, just like so many times before, her prayers were fruitless. With horror, she watched the pirate slap down his winning cards. Her eyes widened with horror. She looked over at Yule, who merely shrugged off the loss and began pushing her off of his lap. “No, no! Yule, please! You can’t use me like this! I just want to go home! I’m begging you!”

All Yule did was take her firmly by her red braid and, with a hard yank, he pushed her to her knees and raised up her chin. “Don’t you dare tell me what to do, little red whore. This is your home now, and you're my slut. I can do whatever the fuck I wish.”

The pirate sauntered up with a grin now, freeing his cock from his pants. It was the most grotesque thing she had ever seen; it was so thin with such a thick, purple head. Veiny to the extreme and long. A red, blood-like substance oozed from the tip. The smell of it was strong, like ammonia. She felt like she was gagging already.

“I’ll bite it off,” she promised him with loathing.

Her threat was only rewarded by him putting a knife to her temple. “The moment I feel teeth, Human, you’ll feel
this
.” Her lip trembled in response. “Now open your mouth.”

Yule yanked her hair again and she slowly opened her mouth. There was nothing to do. This was going to happen.

Tears streamed down her face, and she squinted her eyes shut.

Suddenly there was an electronic whir of a blaster powering on above her. “Anything you do to her, I will do to you, only I’ll be much more
thorough
,” a familiar voice growled.

“Thorton!” she cried before she was able to look to the side enough to see Thorton, who was behind the pirate. The tip of his very large knife was poised to jab into the pirate’s neck by his shoulder, and Thorton’s blaster was pointed at Yule.

“Who the fuck are you?” Yule demanded, spitting with anger.

“The man who’s going to kill you if you don’t take two very, very large steps away from my girl,” Thorton said with gritted teeth. “Right now.”

Thorton sounded very serious, which is probably why Yule checked his tone and started to plead. “If you want her, you can have her all afternoon, Swarii. Free of charge!”

“I’m going to kill you first,” the pirate hissed, not sharing Yule’s worry.

He moved so quickly that Penny didn’t see what had happened, she only felt the knife by her head instantly drop out of the pirate's fingers. Thorton had driven his knife down into the pirate’s neck, skewering him. The man stood perfectly still for a moment, the life fading from his eyes.

Thorton pulled a second blaster out of his satchel and pointed it at another pirate who had stood up from the table about the time the first finally fell to his knees before the rest of his body hit the floor in front of Penny, dead.

Penny gasped, but Yule stepped back, her hair still tightly locked in his grip. He pulled out a knife and put it to Penny’s throat, so when Thorton had killed everyone else at the table (save the women who were now shrieking and trying to cover themselves) and looked in Yule’s direction, Penny had been taken hostage.

“I meant take two steps away
without her
,” Thorton replied impatiently. “Drop your knife, right now. Nobody else has to get hurt.”

“If you think I’ll let some stupid-fuck Swarii threaten me, then think again! You can take her out of my cold dead hands—urgh!” Two quick blaster ‘zaps’ rung by Penny’s ears, the first shooting through Yule’s elbow, causing him to fling the knife backwards. The other zap went through his eye.

Yule fell backwards behind her. Penny felt a rush of blood to her head, and a scream was in her throat.

About ten men in the tavern began to launch towards Thorton, all drawing their own guns. Penny turned on her knees, paralyzed with fear.

“Get
down
, Babygirl,” Thorton instructed calmly, raising the blasters in his hands and taking aim.

Penny heard more blaster shots, closed her eyes and pressed her cheek to the floor in front of her, lying as flat as she could on the ground and covering her head with her hands and arms, expecting to get shot by stray blaster fire any moment.

She couldn’t see what was going on. She could smell smoke and blood and burning flesh, she could hear screams, shouts and pain-filled yelps. When the sounds stopped, she mustered the courage to look up.

Thorton was holstering his blasters on his sides, looking around for anyone else who was interested in attacking him.

He looked over at the guests that had nothing to do with the fight, who had mostly stood up from their tables and backed away with horrified expressions. “What're you looking at?” he asked one table defensively. They carefully sat down.

Penny’s heart felt like it was going to beat out of her chest. She watched Thorton's eyes settle on hers, and then he walked up to her, putting gloves on his hands and zipping up his long-sleeved jacket.

Thorton was alive! He was alive, and he had saved her and… he was
amazing
! She was certain that she had never felt so happy in her life. When he got to her, he offered her his filthy glove to help her up. She took it, and in the next second she was staring up at him dreamily, forgetting that she was half-naked.

She wanted Thorton more than ever—her blood boiled to have him deep within her. He was her greatest fantasy; her own Indiana Jones!

His eyes were dark as he examined the spot on her neck where Yule had touched her with the blade. He carefully traced his thumb over it, but then he continued looking over her for other scratches. “Are you hurt at all?” he asked her firmly.

She shook her head and said with overwhelming gratitude, “No.”

“Good.”

He suddenly grabbed her wrist, wheeled her around to a table, and yanked her own belt through the loops of her shorts with a quick, muffled,
whoosh
. “Then there’s no time like the present.”