Her Consort Read online

  Every nerve in her body was doing the most amazing impersonation of an ocean wave, rolling up her one way and down the other, lingering in places she really, really wished weren’t responding. To him, of all people. He wasn’t even people. He was a big, hairy Neanderthal of an alien who had been the biggest pain in her ass for two very long years. One would think on a salvage ship the size of a small city, if she didn’t want to see someone then she wouldn’t have to. It was amazing how many times she ran into Kogan in the halls, more often than not, fresh from the showers and wrapped only in a towel.

  Sometimes, not even a towel.

  Great. Now she had that in her mind as well.

  Having retrieved the cutters, Kogan pulled out from under the missing floor panel, but not all the way. He shone his wrist-light through the crawlspace to the next panel. “I think we’ll encounter fewer traps if we went under the floor.”

  That killed some of the pulse in her nethers. But only some.

  “I get so much as one spider in my suit and I’m going to climb all over you.”

  He perked.

  “To get back out of there,” she snapped when he opened his mouth. “What’s wrong with you? We don’t even get along!”

  Rising slowly, he looked at her. He wasn’t much taller than she was, but as the corner of his mouth curled, the sheer closeness of his powerful physique began to do weird things in the pit of her stomach.

  “No, we don’t,” he agreed, but with a glitter in his stare that made the tiny hairs on her arms stand up and her nipples tighten into peaks. “No. We sure don’t.”

  Chapter Two

  It took four hours to crawl the remaining twenty-or-so feet that separated their hatch from the end of that one short corridor. It was hot. Her head was swimming, she was sweaty, and the inside of her suit now stuck to her everywhere it came in contact with her skin. She itched. Itched like a mad bastard because while the suit was impermeable to the withered and dried-out ivy vines that some past sadist had filled the subfloor confines with, her brain refused to believe those were tickles of sweat making her miserable in her suit. If she wasn’t in hives by the time she finally got to the showers, she’d be amazed.

  And where was Kogan through all this? Why, walking sedately on the panels above and behind her, because ol’ Neanderthal Shoulders up there was too thick around to squeeze between the gaping jaw-like subfloor joists. Every now and then the headset speakers in her helmet crackled and there he’d be, cheerfully running through his mental database of stories about people she didn’t know and activities that only another Hoggy-whatever-ian could possibly care about. At least one of them was having a good time.

  “So then I said to him,” Kogan chuckled, deep rumbles of remembered mirth while phantom itching ivy tickled at the backs of her legs and the underside of both arms, and beads of sweat rolled between her breasts and dripped from her forehead into her burning eyes. “I said, but Gurgun… that’s not a woman, it’s a billiflix!”

  He laughed. If only she got the context, she might have laughed too. Instead, miserable beyond her abilities to keep locked behind tightly gritted teeth, she lost it. “Would you just shut up? For one minute, please!”

  He stopped laughing.

  Instead of calming her, for some reason the crackling silence made the misery worse. The itching amplified; the heat grew smothering and there were still two more mines to disarm in the six remaining feet of this first hallway and she could already see the poorly lit bump and protruding wire nests of more leading off to both the left and right of the adjacent corridor ahead. God, she would be doing this forever! Crawling around in all this itching ivy, muttering under her breath while that lazy shiftless good-for-nothing strolled so comfortably along on the panel above her…

  “I am neither shiftless, nor lazy, nor good for nothing.” Kogan’s voice crackled over the speakers, somber and without a trace of his earlier humor. “It’s not my fault that I don’t fit under the floor.”

  She ground her teeth. Sweat was stinging her eyes. “I didn’t mean to say that out loud.”

  “I fail to see how thinking such things quietly to yourself is any better.”

  “I’ll not be chided,” she snapped, “and certainly not by you.”

  “Fine, but I reserve the right to debate what you do or don’t need at a later date.”

  She didn’t just grit her teeth. Now, she ground them. “I swear to God,” she breathed, “if you bring up that time in Topoe when I accidentally fell in your lap, I am gonna—”

  “I actually wasn’t going to, but since you brought it up—”

  “Ugh!” The faceplate of her helmet smacked into a pillow of itching ivy as she dropped her head to the floor and Kogan launched into yet another of his cheerful and one-sided debates.

  “—I’ve always found two problems with the way you tell that story. Would you like to know what they are?”

  “No!” She stabbed the cutters into the nest of wires on the next bomb and snipped. At this point, if she cut the wrong one, blowing up would be a mercy.

  “First, your definition of accident; you were drunk—”

  “I was not… you’re always… for fuck’s sake, it was one bottle of beer!” she roared, grabbing the floor with both hands and kicking it, she was so aggravated.

  “It was one bottle,” he agreed. “It was also two-hundred-proof beer and you didn’t fall so much as you straddled my lap—”

  “Oh, here we go with the exaggerations,” she growled.

  “—whipped your shirt off over your head—”

  “It was hot! The temperature controls were wonky. It was one hundred and eight degrees.”

  “—whooping and yelling and gyrating about.”

  “We were in an asteroid belt and you were flying bumpy,” she accused. Hand over hand, she crawled her way to the next explosive.

  “I could barely see over you to the controls. Which brings us to the second point—”

  She paused mid-crawl, dropping her head on top of her arms again and strangling out another sigh.

  “—Why, when you retell this story, do you never mention what you said?”

  “Because I didn’t say anything.”

  “That’s the two-hundred-proof talking. You probably forgot; let me remind you.”

  “Oh, my God,” she seethed, eyes squeezed shut. “I’m done talking about this. If you’re not going to be useful—”

  “‘Woo hoo,’” Kogan calmly recited. “‘Save a horse, ride a Neanderthal.’”

  If she wasn’t already hot, mad, and miserable, she would have blushed. As it was, all she wanted was to get out from under the floor, wrap her hands around his neck, and choke him down to her diminutive five-foot-two level. “I’m done.”

  “Now, I don’t know what that means, as of yet, but I have consulted some of the finest literature—”

  “Porno mags do not constitute ‘fine literature’!”

  “Have you even looked at the articles? The things about human behavior I have learned!” She could practically hear him counting off on his fingers. “Ten Things to Do Instead When Aunt Flow Comes to Visit. Don’t Argue, Be Authoritative. How to Spank For Fun and For Discipline. She Won’t Put Out If You Won’t Listen…”

  Her whole body underwent a spastic wriggle of absolute frustration that ended when she whacked her helmet on the subfloor ceiling and her head on her helmet. “Oh, my God, I don’t care! I’m fucking done! Get me the hell out of here!”

  It took him ten minutes to clear enough crap off the panel above her, then pry it up. Piper fumed the entire time. She was stifling hot. With every drop of sweat she could feel puddling in the small of her back, trickling down between her thighs, tickling her already itching skin, she only got madder. It was a relief when she heard the jab of the pry bar and the metal above her finally let out a squeal of complaint. Light infiltrated the gloom of the crawl space that imprisoned her. She was scrambling to get out before Kogan got the panel fully upright and safely leaned against the wall.

  “Look at all the bombs,” he said, ducking to peek at the thoroughly booby-trapped corridor ahead. “Somebody sure wanted to discourage trespassers.”

  “You are such an idiot!” Piper exploded. Desperate to get out of this damned suit, already ripping at the fastenings on her arms, legs, and especially her neck, she stormed back toward her own ship.

  Kogan’s hand at the small of her back shoved, all but throwing her the last few feet through glowing amber light of the field that divided the open hatchways, protecting her side from whatever potential toxins might be floating in the dead ship’s non-circulating air. She wasn’t even fully sure Ocymit breathed air, but that didn’t stop her from ripping the helmet from her damp head as fast as she could get her hands free. His shove was the only reason her first harsh gasp filled her lungs with cool, filtered oxygen.

  “What is wrong with you?” he demanded, ripping his own helmet off.

  “Me?” She rounded on him. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

  Kogan took a startled step back. He blinked twice before his eyes narrowed. “What is wrong with you?”

  “You!” she shouted, getting right up in his big Neanderthal face. “Don’t you ever stop talking?”

  He canted his head, looking from her right eye to her left and studying all the parts of her face in turn.

  The coolness of the environmental controls kissed the sweat from her face, but only until that secondary wave of pure fury burst up through the core of her. It scalded behind her stinging eyes, but no matter how she swiped and slapped to clear her vision, her hands were still in her suit gloves and they did not absorb. She was only smearing her misery around, making her eyes sting even more. They were tearing now. Great. The last thing she needed was for
Kogan to think she was crying. And what the hell was on her suit? She stared at her hands and arms, the silver-gray fabric so coated in fine amber-colored powder that it looked damn near orange.

  Frowning, Kogan drew himself up to his full height. “I was trying to distract you from the unpleasantness, but—”

  “The only thing you’re trying to do is piss me off! Well, congratulations, buster. It—” she reared back, “—worked!” And shoved, slamming both hands into his chest with all her furious might.

  A huge puff of amber powder exploded off her suit, enveloping them both in a hazy, stinging cloud.

  Kogan fell back into the bulkhead wall. Angry as she was, she almost didn’t notice how his whole body stiffened, how his nostrils flared, and his dark eyes dilated as he sucked a startled breath. He looked at her, pupils steadily shrinking. Stepping back, breathing hard, Piper clenched her fists. She glared, daring him to get up. To say something, anything. To fucking even breathe.

  Kogan cracked his neck. First one way, then the other. Slowly, he pushed back off the wall. Closing the distance between them with a single step—only a few inches taller or not—he loomed over her. Just as slowly, he also smiled. “Finally.”

  Another cloud of amber dust erupted between them when he grabbed her, yanking her around and slamming her up against the bulkhead where he had just been. He gave her no time to react. She barely had time even to draw a startled breath before his mouth slanted over hers. It was a kiss, hard and unexpected, one that crushed her lips against her teeth and made her just want to bite him.

  Yeah, sure she wanted to bite him. That was why she was kissing him back, again and again in open, hungry consummation. God, how she loved it when he pushed in, shoving her right up against the steel-gray bulkhead, his mouth in constant demand of hers. Her back arched, aching to feel the crush of his chest against her heavy breasts through this miserable spacesuit. Her belly ran molten, a flood of wanton heat trickling down through the heady need already pulsing through her sex.

  What was she doing?

  Planting her hands again his shoulders, Piper shoved him with all her might. She knocked him back, but only far enough for their lips to break contact. “Get off me!” she snarled. “I don’t even like you!”

  “I know,” Kogan breathed. “Isn’t it exhilarating?”

  Who kissed whom next, Piper honestly didn’t know. She was barely aware of how she grabbed the front of his spacesuit. Later when her head cleared, she would tell herself she was trying to push him away, but her arms were definitely not pushing when she yanked him back to her hungry mouth. She bit his bottom lip. That had been an accident, but his resulting growl rumbled through her on the most enchanting vibration. It trembled in her nipples and in her clit. It shivered straight on down through the molten, burning core of her, which only burned hotter still when he seized hold of her suit and literally ripped straight through both it and the blue jumper she wore underneath, from collar to crotch in two swift jerks.

  The sudden caress of cooling air shocked her sweat-kissed skin. She gasped, her nipples tightening into beads as he stripped her arms out of both sets of sleeves, dropping the ruined halves as soon as she was freed.

  Powder engulfed them in another cloud as he seized her ass, squeezing and slapping, shoving to continue peeling her out of her ruined clothes until both suit and jumper lay in puddles of blue and amber-coated silver-gray on the floor around her feet. She wore the tatters like booties, but she didn’t care. No one had ever ripped her clothes off her before. She still had her underwear and bra on, but already his fingers had closed around the front, gripping it between her breasts. The elastic scoured her skin as he ripped upward. The cool air kissed her nipples now too, and Kogan smiled, dark eyes glittering as he paused to admire the view.

  Her mouth felt plundered. Her tingling breasts ached to be, too. It was more than Piper knew how to handle, especially when more than anything else, she knew what she ought to be was angry, not breathless for his next touch, his next kiss.

  She probably ought to slap him. Confused, Piper tried, but he caught her wrist before her hand connected with his cheek.

  His smile grew teeth. “Maybe we should decide on a safeword?” He pretended to think about it. “How about, ‘Piper’s been a bad girl. Piper needs a spanking.’ Try it once or twice. I want to hear how it sounds when you say it somewhere other than in my fantasies.”

  That pulsing heat between her legs thumped once, harder than before, flooding her nethers with a river of warm desire. “Get bent,” she growled, unable to think such a phrase, much less say it.

  Desire flaring hot in the dark depths, his pupils dilated even more. “That’s my girl.”

  Yanking her back off the bulkhead, Kogan spun her around and slammed her up against it face-first. She slapped back, but he caught her wrists and pinned them, one at a time so far up her back that her shoulders felt the strain. She stopped fighting with her cheek pressed to the cool metal of the wall and Kogan pressed even harder up against her back. She should have been scared, but she wasn’t. She was aroused.

  “Who gets to be the asshat now?” He nipped at her shoulder and the back of her neck, and then he dropped to his knees, relieving the pressure on her arms to grab her hips. As if they were a treasure he’d been waiting for months to get his hands on, he nuzzled the small of her back, licked and nipped, and then peeled her out of her panties.

  Her legs were too widely spread for him to take them completely off. Hard as he pulled, he only got them midway down her thighs before they would go no further. But midway down was still far enough to bare her ass, and his groan as he caught both halves of her buttocks in his massive hands, squeezing and molding them to his palms, was so intoxicatingly pleasurable that Piper almost forgot she wasn’t pinned anymore. She forgot everything except the sharpness of his teeth and the unexpected pleasure as he bit her, first her right buttock and then her left.

  Her head would not stop swimming.

  This was too crazy. She couldn’t do this; she couldn’t even think about doing this. Not with short, squat, six-pack-abs on top of six-pack-abs Kogan the frickin’ Third, consort of Blah-Blah-Blah.

  Her panties dampened. Her belly quivered.

  She tried to turn around, but he rose back to his feet so close behind her that all the length of his body scraped up the length of hers. And once he was fully standing again, the most prominent thing she could feel was the bulge of his cock pressing hard into her naked buttocks.

  “Say ‘Piper has been a bad girl,’” he coaxed, shivering her with the heat of his breath. The flick of his tongue and the nibble of his teeth played with the shell of her ear. “‘Piper needs a spanking.’”

  “I keep telling you,” she said, refusing to acknowledge how badly her voice was trembling. Or the rest of her, for that matter. “Porn mags are not fine literature. I don’t know which one you got this from, but it was really bad advice.”

  “Is it?”

  She more felt than saw it when he shifted his body, drawing back his hand before letting a single, solid swat flatten the whole of her right buttock. The sting was incredible. It buckled her knees, but she caught herself against the wall, holding on for dear life as he cupped and squeezed all over again, then soothed the glorious hurt with a sinful caress. She melted.

  “I once had a teacher tell me fine literature is any written word that evokes a reaction.”

  Her knees buckled all over again when his soothing hand followed the curve of her ass down between her legs. Her breath faltered as he caressed her there now too, gliding into wetness, growling under his breath as he luxuriated in her heat. Bringing his hand back up, he showed her the glistening moisture that coated his fingers.

  “Is that,” he asked, “or is that not a reaction?” He let her feel the points of his teeth against the back of her neck. “For the last year now, Piper, you have teased me.”

  Her throat tightened. Her heart pounded.

  “You have toyed with me, taunted me with all the parts of you I could not have. But I persisted. You cannot know all the hours I spent plotting how best to argue with you and annoy, and now, at last, my efforts have found their reward.” He brought his fingers to his nose, savoring the scent of her before sampling a taste. “Mm,” he rumbled again. “Very nice. Don’t worry. You led me a thrilling chase, but now that I have caught you, I promise I have studied all the ways in which your people and mine match most closely. Spread your legs for me. It will be my honor to make you enjoy every bit of this.”