BOOTY HUNTER Read online

  And now it’s just… us.

  Me and her.

  Serpint, the bounty hunter, and Lyra, the princess.

  Or is she the future queen?

  I don’t want to think about it so I get up, go into the kitchen, and start making dinner.

  I enjoy cooking. I know it’s old-fashioned and out of style since the auto-cook can print anything I want and it’ll taste the same, but it relaxes me. I’m just kind of a foodie. It’s a cool pastime when you spend most of your days hopping through foreign systems. And to be honest, you learn a lot about people by what they eat.

  Princesses who eat tushberries and passion limes to maintain their glow, for instance. Didn’t know that before today.

  By the time Lyra appears in the doorway to the kitchen, leaning against the wall looking fresh and wearing another cobbled-together outfit from my closet and drawers—which I sorta love, for some reason—dinner is finished.

  “Feel better?” I ask. Because she’s just staring at me.

  She nods, then sighs. “Thanks.”

  “For which part?” I ask. “The part where I put magnetic bracelets and anklets on you? The part where I collared you? The part where you got pierced in three places by an overzealous bot?”

  She just continues to stare.

  “Oh,” I say, pushing past her with our plates of food and setting them on the table in the small dining room. “You mean the part where I made you light up like a sun.”

  I smile, then look over my shoulder to see how she’s taking that.

  She blushes. Her skin is not pale like it was this morning. She got some color back in her cheeks the moment she walked out of that exam room. But now her skin is glowing.

  Not the glow of sex, but the glow of health. Which is better, I think.

  “So that’s what we’ve been missing out on, huh?”

  “What do you mean?” she asks, walking over to the table. I pull out her chair—ALCOR did tell me to be nice to her—and she sits, muttering a small, “Thank you,” which, I admit, feels pretty good to hear.

  “I mean… I’ve never been with a Cygnian princess before.”

  “Get out of here. You own the biggest collection of escaped Cygnians in the galaxy.”

  “I know, but we don’t… partake.”

  I sit down, still watching her. And she laughs as she lifts a fork of pasta and fowl to her mouth. Looks at it dubiously for a moment, then decides she’s too hungry to care what it is and takes a bite. “Pretty good,” she says.

  “Damn right it is,” I say, taking a bite of my own.

  “You have never—”

  “Nope,” I say. “Never. Crux hasn’t either. I mean, we’ve seen you all glow. We do the royal test on everyone. So that I’ve seen many times. But I have to tell you, Lyra. I’ve never seen what you did today. Not the dull one and not the bright one either. I’m gonna assume the dull one was the reason you had that… uh, little problem with your flux capacitor…”

  “Luminous flux.” She laughs.

  “Whatever. So what the hell was that? You had light coming out of your eyes.”

  “I know.” She sighs, looking down at her plate.

  “So what was it? Just… you had repressed it for too long and it just came bursting out? Like a flood, or something?”

  “Maybe,” she says, taking another bite of food.

  “Or maybe not?”

  “Or maybe not.”

  “Hmmm.”

  She puts her fork down and looks me in the eyes. “I don’t really know what happened back there.”

  “You ready to talk about it now?” I ask. “Because you said you weren’t before.”

  “I just don’t understand why I got so…”

  “Horny?”

  She laughs, then looks away, trying to hide her smile with a hand over her mouth. “I think it was the repressor. Had to have been. Because that’s not usually what happens.”

  I nod at her, thinking back to her test this morning. It was dull by most standards. But it wasn’t that different than what I’ve seen in the past.

  This shit in the exam room—light coming out of her eyes, and her pussy, and hell, pouring out of her whole body—not normal.

  “So what aren’t you telling me?”

  She takes a deep breath but says nothing.

  “OK,” I say. “I get it. It’s been a long day. Let’s discuss sleeping arrangements.”

  “I’ll take the couch.”

  I laugh. “Oh, hell no, princess. If you think I’m taking my eyes off you for one picosecond, you’re insane.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Lyra,” I say in my most condescending, yet patient voice. “You’re a lying little minx. Pretty much everything you’ve told me today is just bullshit. We’re sleeping in my bed. Together. In fact, I’m going to tether you to it with the bracelets.”

  “The hell, Serpint?”

  “I don’t trust you. Not one bit. And this whole thing reeks of an imminent attack on the station by a legion of Cygnian soldiers.” I take a bite of food and chew, pointing my fork at her. “And it’s because of you.”

  It’s also because I stole their queen, but that’s just details she doesn’t need to know about.

  “You’re not chaining me to the bed.”

  “Oh, yes, I am. I haven’t talked to Crux yet. But tomorrow you and I are going up there and we’re gonna put you on drugs to drag the whole truth out.”

  I’m making this part up. But we could do that. In fact… we should do that.

  She glares at me and drops her fork onto her plate. “I’m done.”

  But I just smile and get up from the table, saying, “Not quite, princess,” as I grab the tushberry pudding from the fridge and set it in front of her. I pop a cork on a bottle of passion lime sparkling wine, pour her a glass, and say, “You didn’t have dessert yet.”

  She takes in another deep breath. Holds it. Then lets it out. Repeats that three times. Like this is some relaxation technique she learned in a Cygnian military class called How to Get Through a Night of Captivity with an Akeelian Male.

  The whole display just makes me grin.

  “Why are you being such a dick?”

  “I’m not being a dick. I’m being super cool. I made you dinner, I made you dessert, I let you shower and wear my clothes. And now I’m insisting that you sleep in my spectacular bed. With me in it. What more could you want?”

  “How about some privacy? And some clothes that are actually mine?”

  I point to her flute of champagne and say, “Drink up. You need your special nutrients.”

  She eyes the glass of sparkling wine and must come to the same conclusion. Because she lifts it to those fantastic, pouty pink lips and takes a sip.

  And then closes her eyes. Sighs. And relaxes for several second before opening them again and drinking the entire flute in one go.

  Huh. She really did need it.

  “Better?” I ask, taking another bite of my dinner.

  She doesn’t answer, or even look at me. But she does pick up a spoon and eat her pudding.

  Again, this elicits an almost orgasmic response.

  I’m unapologetically staring at her.

  “What?” she asks, a little bit of defeat in her normally haughty voice.

  “You’re really pretty, you know that?”

  She frowns.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever been so intrigued by a woman before.”

  She sighs.

  “So, yeah, Lyra. I’m gonna take you into my bedroom. Bind you to the bed. And make you sleep next to me. But it’s not just because I don’t trust you. It’s because I think… I think I like you, princess. And even though I wasn’t looking for my very own princess when I found you here this morning, I think I might… like you.”

  If I was expecting some kind of reciprocal gesture, I’d have been disappointed. Because she just stares at me with a blank face.

  But I wasn’t expecting that. Her defenses are on hi
gh alert. Her bullshit meter working overtime. She is a lost girl. I can see that now. She has been hurt and fucked over. Maybe a lot. And even though most of that story she told me was just lies, there were little nuggets of truth in there.

  That part about the king being one of them.

  The part about escaping, another.

  Regardless of how she got out, she did it out of desperation. And then, once I realize that… once that manifests in my brain, I see the picture so clearly I almost laugh.

  “I’ll get her back for you,” I whisper.

  “What?”

  “Your sister, Lyra? I can steal her back for you, ya know. That’s what I do. I’m the best booty hunter there is.”

  She sucks in a deep breath, lifts her chin up, and says, “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

  Gotcha, I think to myself. Found it. Your weakness is on display so fully now, I almost feel embarrassed for taking advantage of it.

  Almost.

  “ALCOR says Booty will be online by tomorrow and once that happens…” I smile and shake my head. “Well, let’s just say… she and I together can pretty much do whatever the fuck we want. And there ain’t nothin’ no one can do about that. So no, Lyra. This isn’t an empty promise. I can get your sister back no problem.”

  “And what do I have to give you in return?”

  I almost feel guilty for asking for it. Almost. But not quite. “Sleep with me.”

  “You mean fuck you,” she snarls.

  “Let me have another go. I was off my game earlier. You kinda took me by surprise, princess. I can do better.”

  “You sick pervert—”

  “You liked it, right?”

  She glares at me. “I was under duress. I won’t like it again.”

  I laugh. “Ah, but you’re wrong. Because you haven’t even experienced what the bracelets and piercings can do yet. And even though people think the whole two-cock thing is the icing on the Akeelian cake, it’s not. You only got half the experience.”

  She frowns, then looks down at her wrists. I can see the nipple rings underneath her t-shirt. In fact they are pressing against the loose fabric in a way that tells me she just got a chill. Which tells me she’s picturing what my full attention might look like.

  “Spectacular,” I say, answering her unasked question. “I am spectacular. Just like you are, Lyra. You and your glow. You and your light. You and that little nub of flux between your legs. You have no idea what we could do together.”

  She breathes a little faster but says nothing.

  And in my head I say it again.

  Gotcha, princess.

  CHAPTER TWLEVE - LYRA

  I thought I had him. I really did. I thought, Lyra. You got this guy. This stupid, two-cocked Akeelian male who thinks with his junk and sees what I let him see. Our little tryst in the exam room lowered his defenses. Weakened him.

  I thought I was playing him.

  But I was wrong.

  He’s playing me.

  The shower was amazing. That thing practically made love to me. I sat on the bench and let the sweet-smelling steam wash over me. It allowed me to think. To formulate a plan.

  How I could seduce him. How I could fool him. How I could escape. How this place is filled with ships and stealing ships just happens to be the top skill on my résumé. How stealing guns, and lasers, and plasma rifles is listed right underneath that. How tomorrow I’d be on my way back to Bull Station with a ship armed with SEAR cannons. How I’d liberate Nyleena, torture a few assholes for fun, and then blow that place to bits. How we would then proceed to the farthest reaches of the galaxy and find the one place in this sun-forsaken universe that would accept us for who we really are and not use us like sexual playthings.

  How Serpint would buy all the bullshit I was selling because he’s just another sexually-obsessed man and pretty, pink light-shows like me bring out the animal in them. And he might trust me, and let down his guard, and I’d slip away like I was never here.

  But I got him wrong.

  So, so wrong.

  He is just like them.

  He sees just one thing when he looks at me.

  A prize.

  And for sun’s sake… I want to laugh. So bad. Because I was naive. I am sitting in Harem fucking Station. The one place in the galaxy where no one will ever see me as anything other than a sexy little gift. A piece of property.

  I mean, what did I expect? He’s one of the sun-damned owners of this stupid spinning whorehouse.

  I look over at the table where the stack of paper still lies. Right where he so casually dropped them earlier this morning.

  He owns me.

  He really believes that he owns me.

  I am not seducing him, I realize.

  He is seducing me.

  Because he has a plan as well. Just like I was going to use him to get what I want, he will use me to get what he wants.

  He wants me to like him. Thank him for giving me basic things like food, and a shower. And my sister.

  I can get her back for you.

  I can get her back myself, you arrogant asshole. Just let me go! Just let me leave!

  There is so much anger inside me right now I want to scream. I can feel my eyes filling up with tears, that’s how pissed off I am.

  But I drink more champagne and I eat another spoonful of the stupid pudding. Because it feels good to have my power back.

  It feels amazing to be me again.

  I take a deep breath and say, “Well. You’re right about one thing.”

  “Yeah?” He smiles.

  “I am spectacular. And if you think that little display back in the exam room was all I can do…” I stop to eat another spoonful of pudding, making sure I turn the spoon over in my mouth so I can suck off every last bit of whipped tushberry, and then withdraw the spoon, lick my lips, and say, “Well, you’re sadly mistaken.”

  Because newsflash, you two-pricked jerk: Cygnian princess were genetically engineered to bring males of all species to erotic ecstasy.

  So if he wants to play which-species-has-the-most-powerful-sex-organs, well… that’s the very first game I ever learned to play, my newfound frenemy.

  I’m practically the galactic champion.

  “So… you’re cool with it then?” he asks.

  “Sure,” I say. “I’ve never been with an Akeelian before today. And if you say I’ve only seen half the show, then perhaps I should stick around until the encore?”

  He smiles. Pretty big. Like all his best-laid plans are falling into place.

  Then he lifts his arms up in a stretch, fakes a yawn, and says, “Well, I’m ready for bed. How about you?”

  OK. I can’t take his arrogance one more second.

  So I push my chair away from the table—his eyes locked with mine like he’s a predator and I’m his prey.

  He’s got that backwards, but whatever.

  And then I walk around to his side of the table until I’m directly behind him and he’s craning his neck so he can keep eye contact with me, and slip my hands down the front of his chest.

  “Serpint,” I coo in his ear as I reach down and pop the button on his pants.

  “Princess,” he whispers, leaning back in his chair to give me better access.

  “Why waste time walking to the bedroom when we have a perfectly good table right here?”

  He stands up, making me take a few steps backwards, then rips the tablecloth off the table in one fell swoop.

  Dishes and glasses go careening to the floor. Champagne and pudding hit the wall. And then he’s turned me around, picked me up, and plopped my ass down in front of him.

  I gasp because… holy shit. This guy takes things literally.

  He places his hands on my knees, spreads my legs wide open, eases his body in between them, and presses his hard cock against my tits as his fingertips grab my hair.

  I look up at him and find his eyes glowing. Which makes me squint in confusion.

  “What?”


  “Your eyes are glowing.”

  “So are yours.” He smirks.

  “Yeah, but… are your eyes supposed to glow?”

  He grins wide enough to show me his teeth. “Having second thoughts already, Lyra? Is the big, powerful, two-cocked Akeelian too much for you?”

  “Fuck off,” I say, placing both hands on his chest to push him backwards.

  He doesn’t move. Not even a centimeter. And holy suns, his chest is like a rock. Like a fucking mountain of muscle. I just stare at it for a few seconds. Feel the hardness with my fingertips.

  “I get it.” He laughs. “I’m intimidating.”

  I guffaw at that. “Hardly.”

  “No, really. I understand, Lyra.” He whispers my name as he takes my hands off his chest and pushes them back down to the hard bulge of his pants. “I’m a lot to handle. I get it if you’re afraid—”

  Another guffaw.

  “—but I can be gentle if you can,” he says.

  And then he grabs the collar of my t-shirt and rips it open.

  Right down the middle.

  I gasp, looking down at my breasts, doing a double-take at the new nipple piercings. So odd to see them on my body when just this morning they weren’t there.

  “Shhhh,” he says, petting my hair like I’m a pet. “Don’t worry. I told you, I can be gentle.”

  And then he reaches down, pulls the zipper of his pants apart, and fists his cock, massaging it in his palm for a few strokes before leaning forward and pressing it between my breasts.

  I close my eyes and shake my head.

  Is he for real? Like… do girls fall for this shit?

  “Serpint,” I murmur seductively, tilting my head up so I can look into his glowing violet eyes.

  “Lyra,” he whispers back, looking down into my pink ones with great expectations.

  “It’s not me who should be intimidated right now, it’s you.”

  It’s his turn to laugh. Which he does with a smile. A very stupid grin splashed across his face. “Let’s do this then,” he says.

  “Let’s go.” And then I grab his cock with one hand and squeeze his balls with the other. And I do this hard. I’m talking… this is a ball-busting, down-on-your-knees move that should incapacitate any male, even this guy.