Femme Metal Read online

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  “Wooo, now that’s a nice-looking guy,” Kim quipped from behind Alex. “Can I have him?”

  Alex laughed. “Can you pay me if I extract him for you?”

  Kim pretended to die from a broken heart. Her laugh was too shrill for comfort, but it was genuine.

  The four women had just entered what must have been the rowdiest club in Land’s End. Ebinay’s idea. Music placated any attempt at conversation while lights dazzled the mind. A rhythmic thump-thump vibrated in Alex’s stomach. A pair of barely dressed Narays swayed by, the silver scales of their skin rubbed to a high glimmer, their shiny red hair twisted in thick coils.

  “I’ll be over there,” Kim announced as she zeroed in on the man who did the music from his perch over the crowd. Her white spiky head disappeared amidst the multi-specie throngs.

  Ebinay motioned toward the dance floor and Eva followed. “What about you, Cap’n, no dancing tonight?”

  Alex shook her head. “I’ll just sit, relax and get drunk somewhere on the mezzanine. I’ll save you seats.”

  Adjusting her black latex one-piece, she cleaved a path through the crowd and climbed the stairs. Still buoyed with the recent addition to her ID card of fifteen thousand credits, she felt like having a good time tonight. Dancing wasn’t her idea of a good time. What she meant to do was drink, gaze at people, drink some more and perhaps find a nice man with whom she could spend a few hours in one of the cubicles across the tunnel. Land’s End was more a rock twirling in space than any real station, but what it lacked in geographical detail, it more than made up for in opportunities. Anything could be bought here. Even people. She pushed the image of her recent transaction from her mind. The guy had had the bluest eyes. But he’d be treated well. Her customer always found decent places for the males she brought back.

  After finding a surprisingly deserted table by the mezzanine balustrade, Alex sat at one of the stools and swiped her ID card in the bolted-on decoder. When proof of her credit status reached the bar, a waiter came by with a rectangular tray balanced on his flat head.

  “What can I get you, pretty one?” he asked in perfect English.

  She smiled up at the shiny red face and asked for three Slip Knots. His three little eyes did a quick once-over before he nodded and disappeared. Not many human females, humans at all for that matter, could stomach the alien drink, but she liked its tartness. Plus, one got drunk really fast, really cheap.

  The long blue flutes landed on her table and the Mers bowed deeply before waiting on someone else. He’d get a good tip for his impeccable service but also for calling her “pretty one”. At her age and with her physique, she rarely received compliments on her looks. Not that she was ugly, far from it, but she had a look in her blue eyes that made most people avoid her if they could. She looked mean and used it. Plus the battle scar running from her temple down her jaw never failed to kill the mood. Men were just too damned curious about a woman with a scar. Or too finicky.

  “Don’t know, don’t care.”

  Alex had a good view from her vantage point. Kim’s white hair was clearly visible as she hung over the glass cube separating the DJ from the dancers. He seemed to enjoy her company for he smiled and nodded every once in a while. Good girl, she might get lucky tonight. Alex wondered if Kim realized everyone behind could see her bare ass up the metal skirt. I’d never wear something like that, Alex thought with a grin. No room for a weapon.

  Alex leaned her elbows on the table and sipped at one of the flutes. She coughed. It was even more tart this time around. Maybe she should have stuck to one.

  She let her gaze travel over the beautiful people dancing below her. Shiny bodies, some of them alien, others human, moved and shook and undulated with the pounding rhythm.

  A strange sensation prickled her skin, like someone was blowing on the nape of her neck.

  Surreptitiously putting her hand on the stunner strapped inside her boot, she turned back to the mezzanine and scanned the crowd. Along the wall, leaning against the counter, stood a male Yithian. Her heart skipped a beat. He was tall, even for one of his species. His pale skin shone pearly blue. Hair down in a shiny cascade over his wide shoulders gleamed as liquid silk. He was stunning. And he was staring straight at her.

  Some Yithians were reputed to have certain extrasensory abilities—some even said they were telepaths. The last time she’d seen one this close was during the war. Alex straightened on her stool, patting the stunner in her boot.

  A sardonic grin played on the Yithian’s thin lips. Had he seen her weapon?

  Good. Don’t mess with the lady.

  Stunners were not allowed on the station, though most people ignored the rule. Still, she didn’t want to have a few hundred credits stripped off her ID card paying some stupid fine. He’d seen it, that’s all she wanted.

  As he stared at her from across the mezzanine, Alex had the distinct impression he knew her somehow. Had he been in the war? No matter.

  Again, the feeling someone was blowing on the nape of her neck created a pleasurable ripple across her skin. Sweat beaded under the latex suit. She uncrossed her legs. Shit, it wasn’t sweat collecting high between her thighs.

  Alex gasped. An image flashed in her mind. It went out like a spark but left a shadow of itself behind. The image had been of her and the Yithian male caught in a fiery embrace, both their heads thrown back in the throes of pleasure as he pounded his member into her.

  “What the hell…?”

  To her shock and excitement, he peeled his lean frame from the wall and made a straight line for her table. His head bobbed inches over the tallest there. He must have been, what, seven feet tall? Lights overhead gave his angular face a predatory appearance. The eyes without pupils or irises glimmered like those of animals in the darkness and narrowed to slits as he approached her table.

  She’d fought against hordes of Yithians, stared them down when they spilled out of their too-fast hovercrafts. She’d shot them, bombed them, killed them. Had voted “Yes” in the referendum banning imports from Yith. Yet this lone Yithian male, advancing on her like a prowler sniffing its prey, sent chills of fear and exhilaration along her arms.

  Alexandra Novona, for the first time in her life, sat rooted to the spot with panic.

  His thin lips curled at the corners in a sardonic grin she’d come to quickly associate with him. One long hand reached up to rest on the shoulder of a human female as he passed behind her. The woman opened her mouth in a silent “O” and followed with hungry eyes as the Yithian continued his swath through the massed bodies. People seemed to melt away in front of him.

  Her heartbeat thrumming madly in her ears, Alex turned toward him as he drew nearer. You don’t scare me, she wanted to show to him. She sat up straighter. When he emerged from the crowd and bent slightly at the waist, Alex swore she could have slipped right out of the latex one-piece for all the sweat and happy juices slicking her. He was stunning!

  His face hovered over hers when he leaned and put one long hand on the table. Those big gray pearls for eyes just welded her to the spot. “May I?”

  She nodded, not trusting her throat to come up with anything other than a croak. The chair disappeared under his long jacket. He kept one hand on the table—the tight black glove shining like ink—while his other hand was hidden under the table.

  Alex still had hers against the handle of her stunner, just in case the seven-foot hunk decided he wanted more than just to sit and chat. But as much as she tried to fight it, a yearning began to throb deep in her belly. It’d been a while since she’d tasted a man. And one looking like this, well…

  The Yithian just sat there, staring intently at her, his thin mouth curving up at the corners in a shadow of a smile.

  “So, what do you want?” she blurted out, not willing to let him see just how uneasy he’d made her.

  That sneer again. She’d like to kick it off his face one day. He leaned forward and cocked his head. “You do not look intoxicat
ed.”

  Well, it was a strange pick-up line if she ever heard one. When he saw her expression, he indicated the Slip Knots on the table. Of course, not many humans could drink those and still act as if their brain hadn’t oozed out of their skull.

  “I’m used to them by now.” Yeah, make me sound like a drunk. Good going, Alex. Rich.

  He nodded as if he understood what she’d meant, not what she’d actually said. Maybe he had those special abilities. Alex tried to keep her mind blank, but under the circumstances, all she could think about was how good he’d look naked on her bunk.

  A sparkle of amusement flashed in the pearly orbs. “You are not dancing with your friends?”

  Does it look like I’m dancing? is what she meant to say. Instead, what came out was “How about you?”

  She could’ve cringed. Acting like a schoolgirl. Her crew would laugh.

  “I am alone,” he replied, the last word sounding heavy with meaning. Was he trying to pick her up? Somehow, she felt he’d meant “alone” in every sense of the word, not just as a pitiful come-on. She could relate well. Too well.

  Then suddenly her surroundings changed, became muted, dimmed. Lights weren’t as dazzling anymore, nor did the music stab at her brain. Only the Yithian in front of her stood out against a gray background. He leaned over a corner of the table and came right up against her cheek. His breath stirred strands of his silver hair, which grazed her face and produced a pleasurable ripple along her arm. Her temperature kicked up a notch in her latex suit.

  A mental image flashed in Alex, depicting the stunning alien pressing hard against her as he kissed and caressed her face and neck. Alex felt herself become heavier in her chair, numb almost.

  “What is your ship’s launch code?” she heard him ask in a low voice near her ear.

  She shook her head to clear it but couldn’t. In fact, she wasn’t sure she wanted to, despite the armada of warning flags coming up in her brain. Bells and whistles, too. But she couldn’t tear her gaze from his face, her mind from the gutter.

  Alex barely flinched when she felt under the table one of his hands snaking up along her thigh then inside where her legs met. His long fingers caressed her tight mons softly as he leaned in even closer and murmured something in Yithian. She wasn’t sure she understood the words but she sure caught the meaning.

  He wanted her. Here. Now.

  So did she, but a tiny voice in her head was shouting for her to run, to kick him in his pretty face and run like the devil was after her. Maybe he was. And instead of a red-horned face, he’d changed it for blue.

  Alex gritted her teeth when his fingers pressed against the juncture of her thighs, where her pussy throbbed demandingly. Both hands on the table, she leaned back in her chair and stared hard at him. She should be jumping out of her chair, stunner in hand and pumping him a few good ones. Instead, she was acting like a last-rung bimbo on the dating scene and allowing him to touch her. But the pleasure from the mix of panic and anticipation rooted her to her chair. Some captain.

  Sounds decreased around her and all she could hear was his breathing in her ear. Lights dimmed further until only a thin ray of blue light pierced the gloom and hit both of them at an angle. What the hell was going on? She felt under water, in a dream, a trance of some sort. Her body wouldn’t react—except to his caress.

  His movement became more intense, more vigorous. To her shock, she tilted her hips forward so he could have better access. He knelt beside her, placed his hot palm over her breast and, despite the latex barrier, she could swear she felt his skin on hers. The Yithian then tilted his face until his nose practically touched hers.

  “What is your ship’s launch code?”

  The numbers popped up in her mind but she couldn’t talk. Some last shred of brain activity prevented her from giving the code that would allow him to enter her ship and do only god knew what.

  Between her legs, his fingers worked furiously. Sweat pooled between her shoulder blades, at the nape of her neck. Happy juices slicked her panties under the suit. He kissed her lobe gently then flicked it with his tapered tongue. Good god, she was going to come!

  Trying to stifle a moan, Alex parted her thighs wider, all pretense of dignity gone, and pressed her lower back hard against the chair. His fingers and her suit’s seam rubbed against her clit. On the table, her hands clawed into fists. Then the surroundings changed again.

  They were outside now. Though she’d never been there, she recognized the Yithian home world from intelligence reports she’d seen in the military. Cities of opalescent coral reef rose in spires out of a boiling jade sea while clouds shredded by the wind raced across the midnight sky. They stood along a cliff, leaning against a structure that resembled a giant blue pearl. Standing in front of her the Yithian smiled. He wore a long-sleeve top made of semi-sheer black fabric, which clung to his wiry torso, followed every curve and muscle. Looking down at herself, she discovered she wore the same type of garment, only hers was more like a dress split on each hip and trailing to the ground.

  Alex was past wanting out of this strange daydream. Though her brain was screaming to get the hell out of this mess, it wasn’t in control of her body. Her libido was.

  When he reached out to touch her scarred cheek, Alex noticed a ring on his middle finger. A black pearl the size of a large olive, its core glowed faintly, pulsing, mesmerizing. Heat emanated from it when he touched her skin. Grinning, he wrapped his mouth around that finger. Alex watched as he brought the wet ring out of his mouth and rubbed it along her shoulder, then down her arm, repeating the process when the ring dried. Jesus. Tiny jolts like electricity raced over her skin. She leaned back and let him part her thighs with his knee.

  “Do you want this?” he asked in perfect English.

  She nodded.

  Making his ring wet once more, he twisted it so the pearl faced in instead of out, and rubbed his hand down to her belly, then lower. As soon as he reached it, her bud throbbed its happy little heart out. With his feet he spread hers wider.

  “What is the launch code to your ship?” he murmured in her ear while he rubbed her clit with his heated ring.

  Throwing all caution to the wind, Alex raised her arms up high and arched her back. Searing heat spread all over her belly. She’d be there soon, she was coming. He flicked her lobe with his tapered tongue, rubbed circles around her clit, all the while keeping her feet well apart. Another flick of his tongue.

  “The code.”

  Alex hissed a curse as she came right then and there. As soon as the wave of fire hit, the dance club’s sounds and lights returned a hundredfold. She blinked, sat up straighter. Across from her, the Yithian stared with his head cocked to one side.

  He hadn’t moved! He was still sitting with one hand on the table while his other lay on his lap.

  Alex felt her cheeks flush in embarrassment and confusion. Jesus.

  A chorus of voices erupted from the dance floor. Angry voices, yells, curses. In spite of herself, Alex leaned over the balustrade to see what the fuss was about and spotted Ebinay shoving back a pair of men. Eva’s bright red hair bobbed somewhere beside Ebinay. A foot wearing a black military boot flew high into the face of one of the men. He stumbled back and crashed in a tangle of bodies. Within seconds, a general melée ensued. Ebinay’s booming voice could be heard slinging insults and challenges in an array of languages.

  “Shit,” Alex hissed through her lips. She turned back to her table. “I’m…”

  The Yithian was gone.

  She stood and craned her neck to see over the crowd. No Yithian in sight. She would kick Ebinay in the teeth when she caught up with her!

  Her clit still throbbing with delight, Alex bounded down the steps just as Ebinay and Eva pushed through the crowd. The black woman was clearly intoxicated. She leaned heavily on Eva who chuckled.

  “Hey, Cap’n!”

  “Let’s leave before they slam our asses in the brig.” Alex grabbed Ebinay’s other arm and both women drag
ged and pushed the belligerent woman through the doorway and out into the darkened tunnel.

  Other people stumbled along or walked in pairs and groups under the barely-there potlights carved in the stone ceiling. Alex led the way to the Femme Metal moored to the very last docking station. A large cargo ship took up two stations across from her ship.

  “Wanted a piece of me, Cap’n,” Ebinay said with a pronounced slur. “Well, I gave ’em a piece of me. My boot!”

  Eva laughed but stopped when she spotted Alex’s scowl.

  “I’ll deal with you later, when you’re sober enough to feel pain,” Alex snapped.

  The sound of someone running up behind them had Alex spinning on the spot and raising her stunner.

  “You were leaving without me?” Kim said out of breath, her white spikes glittering.

  She pushed ahead and punched the keys. The Femme Metal’s hatch hissed open and the four women piled inside the airlock. Alex locked it behind them and leaned against the bulkhead.

  Inside, Annabelle came ambling in, a book under her arm and a resigned expression on her wide face.

  “Take her to her cabin. I don’t care if she bumps her head on the way there.” Alex’s heart beat furiously. The memory of the Yithian still fired her senses. Shit. She might have gotten lucky tonight. She didn’t mind screwing a former enemy, especially when they looked that good. Ebinay would scrub the toilet for a week.

  As she picked Ebinay up and tossed her over a shoulder, Annabelle slipped a piece of film out of her pocket and gave it to Alex.

  “What is it?” Eva asked, always the one to speak too much.

  Her patience was a fistful of sand slipping away fast. Alex threw a menacing glare at the redhead.

  “Come,” Kim said, tugging Eva behind her.

  Once alone, Alex read the strip of film and cursed under her breath. “Another one?”

  Her customer wanted another male and had given her coordinates to a cargo ship due to leave Land’s End that very night. The same one moored across the Femme Metal right now. A long sigh escaped Alex. Two jobs in a month, that was a lot. She should turn it down, decided she would. Another quick scan of the film made her eyes flare open. She hadn’t read the payment the first time around. Too many zeroes.