BOOTY HUNTER Read online

  The low-level lights continue in the bedroom.

  Lyra is on the far side of the bed, sprawled out face down, eyes closed, breathing lightly.

  I stare at her for a few moments. Her hair is light now. Very light compared to when I first saw her this morning. Her body is under the covers but only haphazardly. One leg sticking out, bent at the knee, so I can see the smooth creamy skin of her thigh.

  I take off my shirt, throw it on the floor, then sit down on the bed and start messing with the tabs on my boots. My leg aching again, reminding me that I still need to see a medical pod.

  She doesn’t move or say anything, but I know she’s awake.

  I kick off my boots, stand again, then take off my pants, get in bed, and lie back.

  “You didn’t leave,” I say, staring up at the ceiling for a few moments. Then I turn over on my stomach, cheek flat on the mattress, and look at her.

  Her eyes are open now. And even in the dim, hazy light, I can see the pink. She’s not glowing. Just staring at me. Blinking every few seconds. Like she’s thinking.

  “I’m locked in, right? So I figure… fuck it. Ya know?”

  “Fuck it,” I whisper back.

  “You came home,” she says.

  I nod, sorta. As well as one can nod with their face pressed against a mattress. “I had a pretty bad day today.”

  She does her version of a nod. “Me too.”

  “Yeah?” I say, wondering what that looks like. “How’d it start?”

  She inhales, holds it, then lets her breath out with a sigh. “I was kidnapped from Bull Station. Frozen in a cryopod, woke up in a medical facility on Harem Station, then subjected to humiliating royal tests.”

  “That it?” I ask.

  “Then I was sold to a handsome jerk”—I smile. Can’t help it—“pierced three times by a deranged nanny bot, and my best-laid plans for getting my life back on track slipped away when my inhibitor failed and I had to beg said handsome jerk to fuck me back to health.”

  “That all you got?”

  “Not enough?” She tsks her tongue. “OK, bad boy. You want more? I’ll give you more. How about this? I had this insane plan to restart my glow inhibitor. Wanna hear it?”

  “Sure,” I say, kinda smiling.

  “I needed specific ingredients to mix up more inhibitor, so I was going to defile your ship to get the palladium, steal a xenon laser from the doctor’s office, and then use the passion limes to start the reaction.”

  “So that’s why you needed to go to the doctor.”

  “Mmmm-hmmm,” she says, kinda sleepily. “That was my grand scheme. And none of it worked.”

  “Bummer,” I say. “But…” I grin. Big. “You did get a double serving of Akeelian magic for your troubles.”

  She shakes her head, blushing. Then turns away.

  “Well…” I say. “I think my day was worse.”

  “Oh, yeah?” she says, turning back to face me.

  “Yeah,” I say. “I stole something I shouldn’t have this morning. My brother got killed while we were making our escape, my favorite bot got blown to bits, and my ship is now infected with a virus that’s turned her insane.”

  “Oh,” she says, frowning. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

  Which just makes me sadder. Because I should’ve said ‘I’m sorry’ first and it’s too late now. Just another fuck-up in a long line of fuck-ups today.

  I stretch my hand across the huge gulf of space between us. She stares at it for a moment, then trains her eyes on me.

  I wiggle my fingertips, beckoning her.

  She just looks at them and closes her eyes.

  “Come here,” I whisper.

  “Why?”

  “Because you know what?”

  “What?” she asks, opening her eyes again.

  “You’re the best thing that’s happened to me today.”

  She attempts a smile but doesn’t quite make it. “Today’s my birthday.”

  Well, shit.

  I frown and say, “You win.”

  She nods, eyes closing again. Then opens them and shakes her head. “No. No one won today.”

  I wiggle my fingers again and this time she slides over, turning her back to me as I wrap my arm around her waist and tug her into my chest.

  “Do you think tomorrow will be any better?” she whispers.

  “No,” I say, thinking about my brothers coming home for Draden’s memorial service.

  “Me either.”

  We lie like that for a little while. Our breathing becomes matched. And I think about trying to kiss her. Or slip my fingers between her legs to see if I can get her excited.

  And even though all that sounds pretty good… I don’t. I don’t move at all and neither does she.

  I just replay Draden’s voice coming through Booty’s interface as I wonder where ALCOR, Crux, and Tray went. Wonder what they’re doing and why it’s a secret.

  Wonder how yesterday I had no girl and tonight I do.

  Wonder if she’ll be here when I wake up.

  Wonder if anything will ever be the same again and decide…

  It won’t.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN - LYRA

  Lying next to Serpint, all pulled into his protective embrace, is kind of driving me crazy. My glow spot between my legs is throbbing and even though I’m doing my best to ignore it, he’s getting hard behind me.

  “Sorry,” he says, when I move away from his growing cock. “It’s just… I can’t help it. Whenever Akeelians fall asleep we get hard.”

  I open my eyes wide, thankful he can’t see me. “All night?” I ask.

  “Yup. All night.”

  “Doesn’t that drive you crazy?”

  “I think that’s the point. We have an innate circadian breeding urge that gets a little… overwhelming at night. Especially if we sleep next to a woman. Especially a Cygnian woman. Which is why we tend to stay away from them ourselves.”

  Oh, sun. Help me.

  “Do you want me to sleep somewhere else?” he asks.

  “No,” I say, trying to make my voice sound nonchalant.

  He sighs, and relaxes a little.

  “Can you control it?”

  He huffs. “I’m not going to rape you, if that’s your question.”

  “No,” I say, turning over to face him. “I didn’t mean it that way.” God, my glow spot is practically pounding now. “I just meant… does it take over and make you… want to…”

  “Have sex with you?” He laughs. “Well, sure. But we learn how to control the urges in puberty. And believe me, I had a lot of practice, so I can handle it.”

  I close my eyes and pretend I’m going to sleep. But I highly doubt there’s going to be much sleep in my future. Once my glow spot gets excited it needs what it needs. I just don’t want to embarrass myself the way I did earlier. That was humiliating.

  “Can I ask you something?” Serpint says.

  I open my eyes and look at him. Why does he have to be so damn handsome? “Sure,” I say.

  “I know you don’t want to talk about it, but… that glow in the doctor’s office…”

  “Yeah?” I ask, really not wanting to talk about it.

  “Is that normal?”

  I let out a long breath of air. “Sorta,” I say.

  “What’s that mean?”

  “It means… I knew it could happen, it’s just never happened to me. So I was as surprised as you were.”

  “Hmm,” he says. “How come I’ve never seen that before? I mean, I’ve lived on this station for twenty years. Have seen Crux’s princesses glow in pretty much every possible way. But I’ve never seen that.”

  “Well,” I say. “Um…” Oh, sun. I do not want to tell him why I think that happened.

  “Is it bad?” he asks.

  “Nnnn-ooooooo,” I say, drawing out the word into two syllables.

  “Then what?” He squints his eyes at me in the dim light “Are you… glowing right now?”

  Oh,
shit. “Am I?” I say, looking at my hand. “I don’t see any glow.”

  “No, just your… eyes,” he says. “It’s not bright, but it’s there. What’s up with all this flux capacitor stuff anyway?”

  OK, I have to say something. One part truth, two parts lie. That’s how this needs to go. “It’s called luminous flux,” I say. “I don’t even know what a flux capacitor is. And the glow is… well, it’s emotional. Strong feelings make us light up. So naturally, when we… erm… you know, climax”—I roll my eyes at myself—“we glow. Because it feels good. But we glow when we feel bad too,” I add quickly. “And sometimes we glow for no reason.” Lie. “Lots of times, actually.” Another lie.

  “OK,” he says. “So what’s faintly glowing eyes signify?” I grow hot and he says, “Oh, shit. It’s getting brighter.”

  “It’s… blushing,” I say. And then I blush harder and the glow is bright enough for me to see a shine reflecting in his eyes.

  “You’re blushing?” He laughs. “Because my cock is gonna be hard all night?”

  “No,” I say too fast.

  “Oh, hell.” He laughs. “You’re gonna light up the room if you blush any harder.”

  “Just… just… shut up, OK? God. And that’s not why I’m blushing, anyway.”

  He thinks about that for a moment. “OK. We have two things happening here, I think.”

  Great. Just my luck to get a smart one.

  “First, we have the freaky light show back in the doctor’s office. And second, we have you blushing. And they’re related, but not because I’m hard.”

  I just stare at him.

  “How am I doing?”

  I sigh.

  “I’ll take that as on the right track. OK. So. You glowed up like crazy in the doctor’s office because… you’re in love with me.” Then he winks at his joke.

  I close my eyes and shake my head.

  “Holy shit!” he exclaims.

  And when I open my eyes to see what’s got him so excited—I’m lit up like the sun.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN - SERPINT

  “I was just kidding,” I say, mesmerized by the yellow-pink light emanating from every inch of her body.

  “Can we stop talking about this now?” She turns over, but I can’t take my eyes off her. She’s so beautiful all lit up. Like a fucking goddess.

  “Wait.” I laugh. “Lyra, what’s going on? Are you in love—”

  “No,” she yells. “No. That’s stupid.”

  “Then why is this happening?”

  “I don’t know, OK? I don’t know.”

  I inhale deeply, just staring at how the light curves around her shoulder and peeks out from under the neck and sleeve of her t-shirt. My t-shirt, I remind myself.

  “You don’t know,” I repeat. “But you have an idea. So what’s your idea?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it.” She peeks at me from over her shoulder. But now something else is different. Her eyes have stopped glowing and they are just the normal golden-pink they were before she started blushing.

  “You’re hiding something.”

  “I’m hiding lots of things.” She huffs.

  “You feel something for me.”

  “Well… just… I’m sorry I don’t control my innate sexual urges as well as you, OK? I just… didn’t have a lot of practice back home.”

  “Because you didn’t have a lot of sex?” I ask.

  “For sun’s sake! Can you just shut up and go to sleep?”

  “So you did have a lot of sex,” I say, ignoring her command. “But not sex like this.”

  “Congratulations, genius. You win a cookie.”

  “Why are you so upset? There’s nothing to be ashamed of. I’m just good at it, Lyra.”

  She guffaws and turns over so I can’t see her face. “And arrogant too.”

  “Guilty,” I say. “But you didn’t really answer my question. Why did you glow that way in the doctor’s office? And I don’t care if you don’t want to talk about it. Because it’s got something to do with me and I want to know what that is.”

  She sighs. Loudly. Like she’s fed up with me. “Fine,” she says, turning back over to face me. “I’ll tell you.”

  And again, her body is still lit up, but her eyes are not. It’s exhilarating to look at her glow and be able to see deep into the soul of her eyes at the same time.

  “Tell me then,” I whisper.

  “We have a myth about… fated mates.”

  “What?” I say, laughing.

  “You know. The one? Soulmates? Stupid shit like that?”

  “I’m your soulmate?”

  And then I guffaw so loud, she sits up, slaps my face, and scrambles to get out of my bed.

  I catch her by the foot and pull her back as she screams, “Let go!” and kicks. “I said let go!”

  But I’m too fast. I’ve stolen a lot of reluctant princesses over the years and I’ve got a tried-and-true technique. They don’t call me Booty Hunter for nothing.

  I wrap my arms around her tight, then flip her over so she’s on her back, then climb on top of her.

  “Calm down,” I say. “And stay put while I’m talking to you.”

  “Get off of me,” she growls.

  “I will. Once you answer my questions.”

  “I already did. And you laughed!”

  “I’m sorry,” I say, laughing again. “It’s just… fated mates?”

  “It’s a myth, OK? I didn’t make it up. You asked so I told you. Now let me go.”

  “Hold on,” I say, rearranging myself so I can grip her wrists and press them into the mattress. “A myth?”

  “Yes. It’s just a myth. It’s ridiculous, so just forget about it. We’re not soulmates.”

  I think about this for a moment. “But you’ve never seen it before?”

  “No,” she snaps. “Get off of me.” She wiggles furiously, but all that does is get my already hard cock more excited as it bumps up against her stomach.

  “It was fake,” I say. “Until today.”

  “Oh, my God. Just…”

  “Just tell me, Lyra. I want to know because…”

  But I don’t finish. I’m too busy thinking the rest of that sentence through.

  “Because what?” she asks.

  “Because we have a myth like that too.”

  “Like what?” she asks, calming down a little.

  “Fated mates,” I say, absently. “But I’ve never heard of it being real, either.”

  She squints her eyes at me. They are so lovely I get lost in them for a second and have to shake myself out of her spell. But then she gives in and stops fighting. Just melts into the mattress under the weight of my body and suddenly my second cock gets hard.

  What the hell?

  That’s not supposed to happen until after we have sex. It’s an every-other-time deal. Has been that way ever since I got my first boner and learned to masturbate.

  “What the hell is that?” she exclaims, feeling my second cock grow hard and thick along her stomach.

  I smile. Weakly. And say, “Surprise. I guess we’re both learning something new today.”

  “Is that your—”

  “Yup.”

  “Oh.” She pauses. Looking me in the eyes. “Oh,” she says again, now looking away. “But I thought—”

  “Yup.”

  “So—”

  “Uh-huh. Something’s going on here.”

  “Hmmm,” she says, glowing brighter.

  “Does that make you blush, Princess Lyra?”

  She turns her head, trying to hide her face in the muscle of my forearm. “So… I glow weird when we… you know. Do it. And your second… ding-a-ling—” I laugh so loud she startles. “What?”

  “They’ve got names, ya know. And neither one of them is called ding-a-ling.”

  She starts chuckling. Which makes her breasts bounce against my chest. Which makes both my manly appendages even more excited than they already were.

  “Wh
at do you call them?” she says.

  “Never mind that. We might have a situation here.”

  “How do you figure?”

  “Well, something’s obviously happening between us, Lyra. Something weird.”

  “Maybe we’re just horny?”

  “Maybe,” I say, unable to hide my smile. “But maybe not.”

  “Well,” she huffs. “If you’re suggesting we’re this… this… stupid fated mates thing, no. I refuse to believe that.”

  “Why?”

  “Why? Because you’re… you. And I’m… me. That’s why.”

  “So I’m not good enough for you? I’m just some no-good Akeelian booty hunter and you’re a special princess who’s supposed to marry her father.”

  “I’m not going to marry him. And I’m not saying that. I’m just saying…” She sighs. “Well, I didn’t run away, risk everything to get out, just to end up soulmated to an Akeelian on Harem Station. I mean, I have plans.”

  “What kind of plans?” I ask.

  “Can you get off me while we discuss this? Because your ding-a-lings are distracting my flux capacitor.”

  Oh, she is too cute. Too fucking cute. I squirm a little on top of her, making sure to maneuver both my giant, hard ding-a-lings right between her legs.

  “Stop it, Serpint. I’m serious.” She wriggles her wrists, still in my firm grip, and tries to get away.

  “I am too,” I say. “Totally fucking serious.”

  She looks me straight in the eyes and says, “I’m telling you no, OK? So do whatever you want with that.”

  I groan and roll off of her. Turn my whole body the complete opposite direction and say, “Fine. Whatever. Go to sleep then.”

  “Good, I will.”

  “And stay on your side,” I growl. “That’s an order.”

  She scoots all the way over to the other side of the bed and says, “I will. Watch me.”

  “Good.”

  “Good.”

  Except it’s not good. It’s not good at all. Because both my cocks are still hard and this is not normal. I don’t think I can sleep with both of them hard. It’s very distracting. I always have sex or jerk off twice in a row to take care of this little problem. And even though I didn’t this morning, there were extenuating circumstances to keep my mind off the fact that I didn’t finish.