Stark Pleasure; the Space Magnate's Mistress (The LodeStar Series) (33 page)

Kiri waved her hand at the array of plump, crisp cookies on the trays. “Try one. My first batch.”

He picked one up, took a bit and nodded. “Almost as good as yours, Natan.”

Natan smiled smugly.
 

“I doubt they’ll ever match Natan’s,” Kiri admitted. “But my coffee’s better.”

The chef nodded graciously. “It is indeed.”

She grinned. Hard to stay mad at a Pangaean. They were too darn diplomatic.

“All right,” Rak swallowed his bite of cookie and grabbed another. “Time for your self-defense lesson.”

Kiri hurried to change and meet the pilot back in the small gym.

Soon Kiri was not only perspiring, she was rubbing a new bruise on her thigh.

“All right, let’s try that one again,” Rak said.

“I’ll need to go to the space port after lunch,” she said. She still had a business to run.

“You should stay put. Things are bad on the streets.” He frowned at her.

She frowned back. “Stark doesn’t stay home just because things are bad.”

“Y’know, he’s just looking after your personal safety.” He moved into a new attack pose, and Kiri watched him carefully.

“I know,” she said. “So sweet of him.”

Rak gave her a look that said he didn’t trust her compliance, but he merely showed her how to repel an attack from the rear. After the third time, Kiri succeeded in slipping free. She whooped in triumph.
 

“If I’d had a blade or a shocker, you’d be down and out,” he told her sourly.

She took a deep breath and faced him, ignoring the weariness tugging at her. “So show me how to avoid that next.”

“The most important thing is to always be aware. Who’s around. Some of the races are too big to fight, and some are too fast. A Serp can have you tied in a knot before you blink. Better have a laser ready for one o’ them. Now, that ganger that shoved you into the sex room? She was human and smaller than you, but she got the drop on you because you weren’t expecting trouble.”

“Next time I will be,” Kiri gritted. That bitch was going down if Kiri even saw her again.

“Uh-huh. Which brings me to the number one rule for personal safety. Stay out of areas where trouble lurks. And in this damn city, it’s everywhere. Slavers, druggers looking for their next fix, and all the rest of the port garbage.”

Kiri nodded respectfully. That was the truth. The concourse where she worked was safe during the busy hours, but the gambler had been murdered in the service passage behind his business. But she had the shocker now.
 

She showered and Rak flew her to the space port. Kiri looked around as the hoverway carried her through the space port. Her heart gave a thump of excitement as she spotted an empty kiosk on a busy corner with a neat holovid sign that read ‘For Lease’. She’d talk to Stark about that this evening.

She spent the afternoon working beside Maury and then turned the stand over to her niece for the evening. Rak picked her up and they flew to Stark’s penthouse.

He was in his office, the door closed, so she smiled at Natan who was bringing a tray with a carafe and single cup and a glass of blush wine from the galley. Stark, she had learned, could and did drink coffee at any hour of the day or evening. Natan smiled back, handed her the glass of wine and carried his tray into Stark’s office.

In her room, she found a set of beautiful luggage waiting, cream with silver fittings. There were two big cases and one smaller one, which she opened to find cosmetic and jewelry cases. She fingered them. Holy quark, she was really going to travel with Logan. Her hand shook and she took another hasty drink of wine before she spilled it. Her, in deep space? She wondered if ships doctors administered sedatives to travelers who were scared out of their wits?
 

She showered, changed into a poppy-red sweater and leggings, draining her wine as she applied light cosmetics, then hurried through the penthouse to Stark’s office. Natan had left the door cracked and she could hear Stark’s voice inside.

 
She peered through the crack in the door. He sat in his big office chair, his back to the door and two holovids open before him. She wouldn’t bother him if he was involved in business. Maybe she’d just go get another glass of wine to calm her nerves. But Stark’s tone held her there.

“I don’t care if they think I’m playing favorites,” he was saying, a bite in his voice. “Masterson understands family comes first, the rest of them will just have to fall in line. I’ll be on Frontiera in two weeks. We’ll discuss the deal in more detail when we tour the site.”

On the left, a lean, hawk-faced man with burnished blond hair sat somewhere with a bowl of blue behind him and bright light on his face. A clear sky and sunlight on snowcapped mountains. Frontiera, and these would be his brothers. That must be Creed, the precious metals miner.

In the other holovid, a man lounged against a backdrop of woven fabric. His long hair was the darkest auburn Kiri had ever seen. Joran’s eyes were Stark’s, his face similar enough to tell they were brothers, but subtly different. His skin was deeply tanned.

Kiri meant to announce her presence, but she was too fascinated with this glimpse into Stark’s two closest relationships.

Joran was grinning at Stark. “So you’re bringing your latest woman with you? This one must be special, if you think you can abide her company for nearly a month of traveling.”

The blond man cocked his head, looking cautiously hopeful. “Saw the two of you in the latest news from Earth II. She special?”

Kiri waited, biting back a smile of pure glee. Stark’s brothers were teasing him about her. She held her breath, waiting for his response.

What she heard pricked her buoyant mood like the slash of a cutter.
 

Stark shook his head, his voice calm, even cold. “She’s lovely, she doesn’t bore me and she’s half-Tygean, which I believe says it all, hmm?”
 

Kiri’s smile slipped away. She let out a huff of breath, pain striking her belly as if he’d punched her.
 

Joran laughed. “Purrs for you, does she?”

Creed frowned. “Thought maybe this one—”

Stark cut him off. “Creed. She’s no one special, so don’t start spinning moon dreams. You know my requirements in a woman are simple. A sweet cunt and not too much irritation.”

Joran shook his head, grinning. Stark grunted, clearly done. He asked his brother a question and Joran answered, but Kiri noticed only peripherally.

She stepped back very carefully from the doorway and then turned and walked back to her room. She sank onto the side of her bed. Her stomach knotted, and she felt chilled despite the warmth of the room.
 

 
‘A sweet cunt and not too much irritation’. That’s all she was to him? Last night, the way she’d shared with him … had his reassurance just been to calm her down so she’d relax and go to sleep?

Her bitter laugh broke on a sob. He’d warned her. He’d told her that very first time not to read anymore into this than sex play. But without even noticing, she’d done it anyway. Begun to think of herself as part of his life, as someone important to him.
 

God, she was so
stupid
. Like a stray cat, rubbing up against anyone who threw some good scraps her way, thinking that meant she belonged.

She didn’t … not here.

Chapter 28

Kiri’s comlink chimed, jerking her from her bitter reverie. She glared at the hovertray which waited at her side. She had to clench her fists to resist the urge to throw the whole thing against the wall. Unfortunately, the wine would stain the pretty walls, and comlinks were practically indestructible, so she ignored it, turning away to pace across the room, swallowing the tears of fury that wanted to erupt.
 

She was tougher than this. She was not some stupid little twit who’d sit around and whine over a man. So what if Stark was using her for sex? So, she’d use him too. For credit. As soon as she had enough she was out of here. And if that made her a whore, she guessed she’d learn to live with that. Couldn’t hurt anymore than his words.

She was alone again, all the warm certainty of the night before swept away with one careless wave of his hand. Stark reality—for her, that meant depending on no one else. Just like always.

The waiting link chimed again. She swept up her comlink, ready to throw it this time.

Tal smirked at her from the screen, a twilight figure with his black braids and bold tattoos. She hadn’t planned to have any more to do with the ganger. Stark certainly wouldn’t like it. Which was reason enough in itself. Her jaw set, she opened the link.
 

“Hey, star baby,” Tal said lazily. He was leaning against a dark wall, wind swirling around him. His braids and the skirt of his leather duster stirred. He was chewing something—licorice gum, probably.
 

“What do you want?”

His crystalline gaze slipped over her, and his eyes narrowed. “Drinking alone? I could fix that.”

“Maybe I like to drink alone.” She picked up the wine and took a long swallow. It tasted sour on her tongue, but she forced it down.

He continued to watch her with the alertness of a predator. “Shame, a starry babe like you drinking alone. Your man leave you home while he’s off cruising and bruising?”

She rolled her eyes. “That sounds like you, Tal Darkrunner. Stark is more likely to be flying and buying. Or soaring and whoring.” Actually he could do that right here—with her.

He chuckled, that whisper of sound characteristic of his dark humor. “How I keep my associates in line. Him, now—he should not be out whoring, not with you waiting alone at home.” Temper edged these last words.

Kiri took another drink of her wine, ignoring this hint that he would treat her differently. “And again, what do you want with me?”

“Told you I have something of yours.”

The hair on the back of her neck stood up. “Something of mine?” He couldn’t. The fire had completely destroyed her apartment.

He held up a small rectangular object, smirking at her.
 

“My box?” she breathed. She was shaking, her mind popping with fizzes like Stark’s sex balls. “You have my strongbox?” She’d been so sure it was destroyed in the explosion, she hadn’t even bothered to ask if anything had been found in the rubble.

He nodded once.

“How—how did you get it?”

He gave her a look. “Don’t ask. Plenty of looting went on before the fire. Point is, you want it back, come and get it.”

“Wait.” She raked her fingers through her short curls. “I can’t come to your place. Will you meet me somewhere? Like at a club? Please?”
 

“The Flash. Wear something sexy.”

She started to nod and then groaned. “Wait, wait. He’s here tonight. Can we meet tomorrow?”

He gave her a knowing smirk. “Gonna sneak around behind his back?”

She mimicked his smirk, narrowing her eyes at him. “Don’t worry about me.”

“Not tomorrow, I got a deal going down. Has to be tonight.” His smile disappeared, leaving behind a dangerous man. “You make me wait, gonna cost you more, baby.”

The link winked out, and Kiri blew out a shaky breath. By cost, she knew he didn’t mean credit.
 

Okay, she had to stay calm. She’d worry about his price later. Right now she had to figure out how to meet him. She was under no illusions as to what Stark would think of her meeting a ganger. Although she wasn’t sure why she cared what Stark thought anymore.
 

Her hand shaking, she drained her wineglass. If Tal had linked her even an hour ago, she would have asked for Stark’s protection, his help. Her face crumpled, and she dropped the empty wineglass, hands to her face.
 

His words echoed in her head. ‘She’s no one special … half-Tygean, that says it all.’ Because it amused him to make her purr for him?

Damn him to the seven hells. She’d rather choke than ask him for help. And she wouldn’t ask Rak to go with her, because he and Natan had been with Stark for a while. They probably saw her the way Stark did, just another throw-away sex-companion.
 

No, it would have to be someone outside his household. Illyria? No, Taara. She’d pretend she just wanted that girls’ night in.

That box was too important to lose. She’d do whatever it took to get it back, and Stark be damned. And if that was foolish pride, well, her pride was all that was holding her together. And it would have to keep her warm as well, for the foreseeable future.

***

Stark gave Kiri a quizzical look across the dinner table. “Nervous about our voyage?”

“Hmm? Why?” She looked up from her plate in polite inquiry.

He looked pointedly at the food she was pushing around. “You’ve drunk a glass of wine but scarcely touched your food.”

“Oh, yeah,” she said. “You’re right. I’m really nervous.”

“The
Orion
is state of the art,” he reminded her. “With the best captain and crew available. Should anything go wrong, there are other Alliance ships within com distance for the entire journey. But in five voyages, she’s had no trouble.”