Stark Pleasure; the Space Magnate's Mistress (The LodeStar Series) (30 page)

They were served wines and salads and then some kind of strange vegetable in a delicious sauce over fresh pasta, and finally tiny elegant desserts, almost too pretty to eat.
 

Something odd happened then. Haassea’s assistant, Slidi, slithered up to their table arm in arm with an escort. Kiri stiffened. Would the parade of her least favorite beings never end? Maybe Tal was next.

The Serpentian, who wore a striking gown of silver, with iridium and diamonds flashing at her throat and wrists, smiled invitingly at Stark. She ignored Kiri, which was wise, because Kiri did not like the sheer lust in the other woman’s eyes when she looked at Logan. Like she wanted to wrap around him and strangle him in her coils.
 

Glaring, Kiri watched Slidi flick a glance at Haassea and her husband. Slidi smirked, then posed arrogantly as her escort greeted Marc Moon. Moon rose, shaking hands with the man and bowing politely to Slidi. They said a few words and then the two walked away. Or rather the man walked and she undulated.
 

Kiri looked at Stark to make sure he hadn’t been unduly impressed. He was looking at Haassea. The woman looked furious, her slanted eyes glittering, nostrils flared. Her husband was leaning over to speak to her urgently. Stark added something that Kiri couldn’t hear. At least Haassea was classy. She had that same Serpentian walk, but she made it elegant.

A waiter poured a thin stream of coffee into the cup at Kiri’s place. Across the table, Marc Moon watched smugly. No wonder, probably MoonPenny coffee. Kiri plucked the crisp chocolate wafer from the top of her dessert and snapped it in two with her teeth.

Stark put his hand on her leg.

“Who was that man who just spoke to Marc Moon?” Kiri asked.

“Head of his security, I believe. Why?”

“Just wondering who was stupid enough to date that snake,” Kiri said.

Stark shrugged, clearly not interested in Slidi, which made Kiri smile at him.
 

“Now come the boring speeches I warned you about,” he said.

Kiri spooned up a bite of creamy gremel mousse. “I’ll be fine.” She had Stark at her side and rich people to watch. They were no more virtuous than the people who traversed her end of the space port, but they were certainly shinier.

His eyes glittered in the dim light. “But I won’t. I want you to do something for me.”

The hair on the back of her neck rose. She swallowed another mouthful of mousse. “What?”

“Time to use your gift.”

Chapter 25

“Go into the ladies’ lav, and slip the balls into your cunt. Then come back here.”

Kiri stared at Stark in horror. He watched her, stroking her thigh calmly as if he hadn’t just announced he wanted to tease her in public.
 

She started to shake her head, but he nuzzled her ear, his warm breath tickling and arousing. “For me, kitten. You’ll enjoy it, I promise.”

No, she would
not
. She peered furtively at the other couples, but they were all looking toward the lighted stage, where a Pangaean in a suit studded with emeralds was strutting toward the podium, his hair curving up with pride.

Stark trailed his finger down her cheek. “Go. I’ll be waiting.”

And somehow Kiri found herself on her feet, making her way through the tables toward the discreetly lit ladies’ lav. She was full of turmoil. Not shame exactly, but definitely conflicted emotion.
 

Tonight Stark was treating her as his sexual plaything in public, and she was not sure she was ready to play this new game. The balls thumped gently against her thighs as she walked. Her pussy quaked at the thought of putting them inside herself so he could torment her.
 

At least these balls weren’t full of current, like the electroplasm balls. But that had been in the complete privacy of his bedroom. This was in the midst of a huge crowd of New Seattle’s elite. No, she’d use the lav and then go back. She wasn’t his public toy, and that was that.

The women’s lav had a lounge with divans and lighted holomirrors. Kiri met Slidi coming out. They exchanged a mutual glare, although Slidi’s ended in a little smirk as if she knew something Kiri did not.
 

Inside, women primped before the mirrors, conversation humming. It died as Kiri walked in. She smiled, but it was not returned. Huh. She recognized a few of these women—they’d ignored their partners to preen when Stark greeted them.
 

She lifted a haughty brow and stalked through the lounge.

Then one of them spoke just behind her.

“Poor Stark, reduced to searching the slums for a thrill.” Another laughed snidely.

Kiri stopped in her tracks, anger burning in her middle. Bitchiness knew no credit limit, apparently.

Thrown into the rough and tumble of the girls dormitories in the state-run school, she learned that anyone who didn’t stand up to a bully was in for unending trouble. She’d been tripped, shoved and even had food stolen off her tray until she’d lost her temper and gone after the leader of the bullies.

She knew damned well she didn’t look like a slummer in this gown, with her hair and makeup done. Someone had been spreading rumors. Slidi, at a guess.

Setting her hands on her hips, she turned with a swish of her skirt. The speaker was readily apparent, a dark beauty with enhanced breasts bursting out of an ornate gown, her puffy lips smirking while the other women around her watched.

Kiri looked the woman up and down, and smiled back, showing her teeth.
 

“Yes, Stark told me he’d tried the pussy here,” she drawled. “But he found all the enhancement much too artificial for his tastes.”
 

Turning, she sauntered into the lav, hearing a gasp of outrage behind her.

Jealous bitches. He might have been with every woman in the room, but they weren’t with him now. She was the woman he wanted, and she was
not
afraid to do what he asked of her. He might have some twisty ideas, but so far all of them had been for her pleasure as well as his.
 

As long as she remembered it was just sex, she’d be fine. She could play his games with him and come out—or just
come
—smiling.

In one of the private stalls, she used the lav and then dealt with the dangling balls. Being so small, they were easy to insert. When she straightened and let her skirts fall, she could feel the chain riding across her mons.

Her head high, she walked out of the stall, cleansed her hands in the wash-dry basin, and stopped to check that her gold skirts fell straight before walking out of the lav. The balls rolled against each other inside her as she walked. It was strange, and arousing, but they were so small that she was more attuned to the chain stroking her labia. On every other step, it rubbed her clitoris. Wow.

Thus preoccupied, she barely noticed the stares of the other women in the lounge, until she met Haassea in the doorway. The other woman gave her a searching look. “Kiri. Enjoying yourself?”

“Oh, yes,” Kiri returned just as sweetly, brushing past her. “Logan is so … attentive.”

She turned to walk back to their table when she saw a woman rushing toward her, holding her long gown up, blonde curls bouncing. It was Illyria Tate.

They met in the middle of the open space and Illyria’s arms closed around Kiri in a warm hug scented with expensive perfume. “Kiri. How delightful to see you here—in person, for once.”

“Same.” Kiri returned the hug. Illyria’s father kept her so busy she rarely got out of their warehouse offices. “Love your gown.” The blonde wore a black halter completely spangled with tiny beads, the top deeply cut. Jet earrings hung from beneath blonde curls, brushing her plump, pale shoulders.

“Thank you.” The other woman dimpled. “It’s Maitresse, like yours.” She stepped back far enough to eye Kiri’s gown. “I’m so jealous of your figure.”

Kiri grinned. “Yeah, right. Most of the women here paid huge credit to get breasts like yours, which are real.”
 

Illyria dimpled again. “Well, my date certainly seems to like them.” Her gaze sharpened. “Are you here with Stark?”

“I am.”

“Oh, good. He’ll take care of you. I always make sure to attend these things with a reliable escort. They can get pretty wild. Anyone fun at your table?”

Kiri wrinkled her nose. “No, no. Just some boring business people.”

“Why, Ms. te Nawa, I’m hurt,” drawled a deep voice behind her. “Especially since we have an acquaintance in common.”

Kiri stiffened. Illyria aimed a glare over her shoulder that was so hot Kiri was surprised she couldn’t see a laser charge.

“Mr. Moon,” Illyria said through her teeth. “The difference is, Kiri is my friend and you are
not
.”
 

Marc Moon chuckled. “That’s all right. Friends are not what I want to be with you, Illyria.”

Kiri sidled from between the two, looking from one to the other.
 

The two were staring at each other as if they’d forgotten Kiri was even there. The air was between them was full of heat, but it wasn’t just anger. And Illyria might be petite and round and feminine, but her militant stance said she was a match for the coffee magnate.

Still. “You behave,” Kiri said to Marc Moon. “I’ll be watching you.”

He didn’t even look at her. “Now I’m scared.”

Kiri opened her mouth to invoke the power of Stark, but Illyria smiled without looking away from Moon. Her white teeth held a flash of ferocity as well. “I’ll be fine, Kiri. The day I can’t handle an arrogant, conceited fool like this is the day I give up my Maitresse account.”

Moon’s eyes narrowed. “You won’t miss it, baby. I keep an account there, and I’ll buy you anything you want.”

Illyria let out a hiss of outrage and Kiri winced. If the man was wise, he’d quit before he dug himself in deeper.

“Link you tomorrow,” Kiri murmured to her friend and walked away. She was looking forward to hearing who came out on top in this battle of the sexes.

The mayor potentate was speaking, her enhanced voice filling the room. Kiri had to search for Stark in the dark room. She finally spotted him and made her way carefully through the tables. She was almost to her seat when she felt a rush of sensation in her pussy.
 

She stumbled into her seat, staring accusingly at Stark, who sat relaxed, one of his legs crossed over the other, his arm over the back of her chair. He bent his head to her ear, and she felt his lips curve against her skin. “What’s wrong, kitten?”

Kiri sat back very carefully. “They’re—growing,” she hissed. “This is not good.”

He smiled, a rakish flash of white in the lights from the stage. “It’s all right, little cat. They simply adjust to your cunt. They won’t hurt you.”

She whimpered and then pressed her hand to her lips, afraid someone had heard her. But everyone was laughing at a quip from the MP. Stark laid his hand over hers. His other arm encircled her, his hand on her waist.
 

And then he twisted his fingertips in the chain and tugged gently. Kiri gasped as the balls caressed a magical spot inside her, suffusing her with pleasure.
 

“Is it good?” he asked gently, as the MP began to speak again.

Since he was tugging again, sending the balls slipping back and forth against the walls of her pussy, Kiri could only lean her forehead against his chin. This was decadence beyond her experience. He was playing her here in the middle of a social event. Anyone who looked at her closely would see that she was aroused and guess that he was doing something to her.

Stark rimmed the shell of her ear with his tongue in the darkness and worked the chain. “Tell me, little cat.” His warm breath tickled her ear.

“
Yes.
And I hate you.”

He changed the angle of his tugs, and the chain worked her clitoris. Kiri bit back a moan of need as her pussy clenched on the balls, her need so intense she shook.

“No one can see what I’m doing,” he told her, his voice dark velvet in her ear. “They don’t know how aroused you are, little cat.”

His free hand stroked down her thigh. She clasped his hand in both of hers, holding on for dear life as he continued his slow, secret torture. The chain slid over her swollen clitoris, and the balls teased and tormented, rolling against her G-spot.

“They’ll
know
. All they have to do is look at me.”
 

“Mm. Does that excite you?”
 

Kiri shook her head. He nipped her ear. “Truth, kitten.”
 

She nodded helplessly. If he continued, she was going to come right here in public, surrounded by his wealthy friends and associates. And she didn’t care who watched because it was Stark caressing her.

“Eyes open.” He began to tug the chain harder, faster. “Now, kitten.”

Across the table, Marc Moon slid into his seat. His date glared at him and turned away with a flounce. He ignored her.

Over Stark’s shoulder, Haassea’s husband turned his head and looked at her. His eyes narrowed, and he smiled at her. He knew. Somehow he knew. He bent his head and whispered in his wife’s ear, and she turned her head sharply, her gaze cutting toward Kiri. The woman sat perfectly still, her head close to her husband’s, his hand playing on her bare arm, even leaned against him. But Kiri felt strong emotion emanating from her. Envy? Anger?