Stripper: The Fringe, Book 4 (5 page)

“I didn’t pay you in credits. I want my money back in script. The only way to travel without leaving a trail is to use script, and you know it.”

“You are deliberately being obstinate.” The more she kept him talking, the more the heat between them drained away, allowing her to think clearly.

“What makes you think I have an account? I’m second to Michael ‘Overlord’ Parker. Do you honestly think there’s a bank on Windmere?”

She hadn’t considered that. Of course there wasn’t a bank on Windmere, the only independent world in the whole Void. Banks and credits were products of the IWOG and WAG. However, to be a Fringe player, Michael must have some tap into the banking industry, which meant Duster did too. No way did they pay for everything in script, which meant Duster could take credits if he wanted to. But arguing the point with Duster was clearly a waste of time.

“I promise, I’ll pay you back what you paid to be stripped.”

“You got that right. If you can’t pay me in script, you’ll pay me in service.” He kissed her and thrust between her legs.

She realized he didn’t want money nearly as much as he wanted her to be his whore. Flattered and furious, she couldn’t believe she actually wanted the same thing. But she couldn’t just think about herself.

His massive body felt so good she actually rocked back with as much vigor as he gave. On the verge of climax, she struggled to push him away. She refused to fall into this trap again. But it seemed the more she resisted, the harder he held her, almost as if her refusal fueled his need to master her. Worse, his domineering fueled her need to submit.

Breaking from his kiss, she turned her head away. “If you hate me as much as you obviously do, why in the Void would you want to fuck me?”

He laughed, drawing her attention to him. “There’s a fine line between passion and fury. I’m willing to pay 7Mil to explore it. Seems to me you don’t have much of a choice but to let me.”

“I—”

He cut her off by forcing her to accept another blistering kiss. She couldn’t think, could barely breathe, and she wanted him inside her so badly she shook. Precariously balanced on the edge of madness, she spread her legs wide below him, alternately damning and praising the bedcover that kept them separated. A part of her wanted him to stop, but not as much as that other part of her, that wanton part of her, wanted him to continue.

“What’s the going rate for a fancy whore, a thousand a night? Makes you mine for seven thousand nights.”

To distract herself, she considered how long that would be. Running the numbers gave her respite from her yearning. Too quickly, she realized seven thousand nights was over nineteen standard years.

“Let’s say I find you so valuable I go for 10K a night. Still makes you mine for seven hundred nights. Two years, give or take.” He growled as he rocked slowly. “Just think of what I can do to you in two years.”

Fighting against the erotic pull of his body, his voice, his suggestive words, she barely resisted the urge to undulate beneath him. Two years of being his thrall seemed more than fair for what she’d done to him. But she couldn’t just consider her own carnal needs. If she could, she would gladly give herself to him, but she couldn’t.

“I’m not a whore,” she reminded him, knowing that her protests were falling on deaf ears.

“So you keep saying.” Duster licked her lips. “Yet here you are, the only woman on a registered courtesan ship.”

His breath became labored as he pressed between her legs. She realized he was as close to climax as she was. That realization excited her, and she instinctively undulated her body below the insistence of his, which only aggravated both their needs. She noticed he was careful not to pin her with his full weight. He used just enough pressure to make her crazy. His hard penis forced his zippered trousers to make a blatant promise across her silk-covered clit. As good as he felt, she had to find a way to make him stop.

“
Den of Iniquity
and my status as a courtesan are only a cover.”

“For your stripping work?”

“Yes.” Her breathless voice conveyed not only the truth but also the depth of her hunger for him. She loved what she did as a stripper. So many minds she had touched and healed. But she wanted to help everyone, regardless of their ability to pay. That did not bode well with the upper echelon at the network. They wanted high-paying clients only, which made Diane feel like the whore she pretended to be.

“Did you know that long ago, strippers took off their clothes to earn a living?” Duster built her hunger by rolling his hips as he thrust, his movements yanking the cover up and down and back and forth. With just a bit more pressure, she’d climax.

“Yes.” She could barely whisper-hiss the word. As much as she tried not to writhe against him, she did anyway. The more she tried to control herself, the more out of control she became. At the moment, all she cared about was her own selfish physical needs. She bit her lips to refrain from begging him to take her with the full power of his body spurred on by his anger and frustration. In the past, she’d seen glimpses of him in a primal male state, but nothing like what he could do to her now. Duster was so much bigger and stronger. He’d be relentless in his drive to climax.

“I think I will have you do that for me.” Mossy-green eyes peered deeply into her eyes. “Since you won’t strip me, I’ll have you strip
for
me.”

The idea of him watching her seductively remove her clothes was oddly exciting.

“You like that idea, don’t you?”

Rather than answer that question, she asked, “You can’t seriously expect me to work off 7Mil with sexual favors?”

“Make me a better offer.” He hushed her by pressing his lips to hers for a moment. “Something better besides your idea that I wait like an idiot for you to go planetside, then return with my money.”

“I’ll treat you,” she offered, desperate to reach an agreement that would get her some distance from him.

“Treat me to what? Ice cream? Sex? Another round of betrayal?” He bit and marked her neck again with another pulling kiss.

“I’ll treat you professionally. I’ll help you reconcile the memories you want to strip.”

“Let’s cut the crap right now.” Duster extended his arms, rising above her.

She couldn’t decide if she felt disappointed or relieved not to have him rocking against her anymore.

“
You
are the memory I wanted stripped, Diane. I wanted you out of my mind and out of my life forever. I go through a year of negotiations to discover I have, in fact, hired the very woman I want to forget. How you managed all of this, I don’t know. Why you went to all this trouble, I can’t even edge around unpacking. All I know is you have once again cost me everything I have.”

“I didn’t know it was you!”

“You lie.” Duster practically spat the words in her face as he glared down at her.

“I didn’t know it was you as surely as you didn’t know it was me.” Knowing he was alive changed everything, but how could she tell him the truth when he hated her so much? Telling him about Scott would only make matters worse.

“Why is it that I don’t believe you? Oh, wait, don’t tell me, I know. It’s the fact you betrayed me once before.”

“If you’d only let me—”

“Fill my head with another pack of lies? Gee, let me think about it.” He pulled away, nodding as if he genuinely considered her request.

“Duster—”

In a flash, he pressed intimately close. “I’m thinking you have better odds of winning the lottery than of ever getting me to trust you again.”

She was exhausted and sick of going around in circles with him. “Then what are you going to do with me?” Obviously, his hatred ran too deep to ever be repaired. Perhaps she would be better off letting him punish her then escaping when he was worn out. Sadly, that was exactly what she had done to him the last time—screwed him senseless, then taken off—but he wasn’t giving her any other option.

“I already made that real clear.” In a slow, inexorable wave, he thrust up between her legs. “Since you won’t strip me or return my money, I’m going to make you my whore for somewhere between seven thousand and seven hundred nights.”

As her body longed to succumb to him, her mind fought with sharp clarity. “I’m willing to return your money if only—”

“I let you go planetside. No way, my princess.”

“Stop calling me that.”

“My princess? Isn’t that what you are? My own personal damsel in distress, forever waiting for her prince? I got news for you, Diane, I’m not real keen on playing the hero anymore.” His voice went from hot to cold so fast goose bumps washed over her.

“That’s fine, because I’m not real keen on playing the victim.” She’d never considered herself a victim and wasn’t about to start now.

“Good. Then we’re even. Sadly, we’re still at odds. You’re lucky I haven’t killed you.”

Swallowing down a burst of fear, she laughed coldly. “Yes, what luck. You haven’t killed me, but you demand I become your slave.”

“That’s what you were seven years ago.” His face tightened with resolve. “And, just my luck, seven years later, I find you alone in a whore ship. Guess who’s captain now?”

“I didn’t know you had such a thirst for power. It must have been difficult to hide in Michael’s shadow for seven years.” She wasn’t sure if Duster had stayed with Michael all these years, but she had a gut feeling he had. He’d said he was second to Michael, so that would explain how he’d amassed 7Mil without living a life of crime. Judging by his obvious good health, he wasn’t a criminal foraging in the dark recesses of the Fringe.

Duster deflected her insult with a smirk. “Fame and fortune have never been my goals. I wanted a safe place to live my life, and I helped build that kind of world. The very first independent world. I devoted my life to Windmere, and then I willingly gave it all up because I couldn’t trust. Not after you. If that was your goal, Diane, you succeeded admirably. You ruined me for other women.”

His honesty shocked her. “What about the woman three years ago?” More than wanting to help him, she wanted to know for her own curious heart. Diane had never known any man but Duster. She didn’t know about him, but she still held to the vow they’d sworn to long ago.

“Pat yourself on the back; you ruined that for me too. Happy?” His voice held a bitterness that was so strong it almost made her mouth pucker.

“You think your misery makes me happy?” Just how twisted did he think she was?

“It must. Why else would you do this to me? Once, okay, you betrayed me once, but why go out of your way to do it twice?”
 

She wanted to deny his accusations, but she had betrayed him. For years she thought she’d killed him, then rejoiced when she found him alive. He’d never believe the contract was a bizarre coincidence. No matter what she said, Duster would think she’d planned the entire affair from the beginning just to hurt him. A part of her long-sheltered heart broke. That he honestly believed all she wanted to do was hurt him, when all she wanted to do was heal him, made her fumble her hand to her chest, seeking the comfort of her chain-bound ring.

He pinned her wrist to the shuttle bed. “Where do you think you’re going?”

She realized her ring had slipped on the chain and fallen behind her. “I’m obviously going wherever you want me to, Captain Jennings.”

“Given our intimate history, you can call me Duster.”

“Are you certain you wouldn’t prefer captain? Perhaps overlord?” Diane fell back on cutting comments, knowing they likely wouldn’t work on Duster, but she had to try to keep some emotional distance from him. In a most curious way, she still loved him, and yet she knew nothing about him. But she knew he was no longer a slaver. Not if he was still with Michael, who had a reputation as being thoroughly against slavery.

“Captain may be apt, for I have commandeered your vessel, but overlord? Only if you dream of having Michael between your legs.” Duster paused. “If he’s your goal, you’ll find me eager to deliver you to him.
After
I’ve had my fill.”

Duster thrust once, good and hard, between her legs, almost catapulting her to orgasm. She’d never been so close and yet so far from release. And she didn’t want Michael, had never thought of him in that way, because as soon as she’d seen Duster seven years ago, she’d known he was her destiny.

“If you think Michael will fall for your charms even once, Diane, you are sadly mistaken. If you were the last woman in the whole Void, I do believe Michael would murder you rather than mate with you.”

“Mate with me?” Defiantly, she lifted her chin. “Isn’t that what you did seven years ago? You say you want me as a courtesan when you really still want me as your wife.”

Duster pressed close enough to kiss her, but he only spoke low and slow against her lips. “Courtesan is just a fancy name for whore.”

“Wife is just a polite name for it.”

“Not my wife.”

Duster took possession of her mouth, thrusting his tongue with the same intensity as his hips.

Diane responded by opening her mouth and allowing him full access. As he worked his body against hers, she wondered if, deep down, he still thought of her as his wife. Not that it mattered, because no matter what, she still thought of him as her husband.