His by Right (16 page)

            "For how long?" she challenged him. "Look, where are we going?"

            "Going?"

            "Right now, where are we headed?"

            "To the Tars Ambu system."

            "Why?"

            The question amused him. Bajud snorted. "To investigate recent pirate activity."

            She held out her arms. "What does this ship
do?
What are
you?
Some kind of alien police force?"

            The Alcatian thought about it. "I suppose, in a way, you could say we are."

            "All right. I can accept that. So, once we finish here, then where will we go?"

            "It depends on what our orders are."

            "But, at some point, you will get to go home, right? You'll get some vacation time, some down time, to return to Alcatia. Right?"

            "I see where this is leading. You are implying that all of us will eventually get to alleviate our own homesickness by returning to our planet. All except for you."

            She moved closer. "I know Neeveer is worried for me, but I can't get him to understand. I need to see Earth. I need to walk on it. I need to breathe the air and see its beauty. If Neeveer cares anything for me,
anything
, he must allow me to go home."

            She watched as Bajud thought over what she'd said. In the meantime, she discovered the orange sherbet colored light dripped every eleven and a half seconds.

            "Let us say my father agrees to take you back to Earth for a short visit. There remains the question of its location. How can we find it?"

            They were back to square one, without a clue as to the answer.

            "The vanilla light drips every twenty-seven seconds."

            "Merry, why was the length of your mission two years?"

            "I don't know. Why? What are you thinking?"

            "The ship you were on, it provides a service. That means it goes where there is the greatest chance of selling their product."

            She groaned. "That's what I was told I was, what all of us prostitutes were called. A product."

            "What else did they tell you?"

            She shrugged. "Not much else that was important."

            "Were you told why they captured you?"

            "Yeah. Because they had a lot of humanoid clientele that needed servicing."

            "Yet you were the only humanoid product on board?"

            "From what I understood, yes. There were others there, but they were different species." She thought about Pudrith and Veleetee, and Gleeth, and wondered what they were doing at the moment.

            Bajud smiled. "Vessels like that establish a route. It follows a specific timetable. Knowing when the ship will be within range is essential to keeping their regulars coming back."

            Meredith squinted at him. "I get what you're saying. Keep going."

            "They took you from Earth. They said you must serve them for two years. Which means, in two years, their route will have circled back to within range of your world to leave you behind, and perhaps take another woman to fill your place."    

            "But I have no idea how long I'd been on the ship. I had no sense of day or night. There was no way for me to tell time. No. Wait." She remembered the bowl she'd used to studiously keep track of how many clients she'd serviced. "I think I was taken about three weeks ago. Maybe a month."

            "A month, out of two years?" He grinned. "That means you had not been on the ship long. As such, your world can not be too far from where we found you."

            "That's still a whole lot of space to try and track down."

            "That is true." He rubbed his chin, an affectation she'd seen Neeveer do on occasion. "My father offered a lot of money for you. Even after we retrieved you, you said he left more money as a token payment."

            "Yes. That's what he told me. I believe him."

            "Merry, let us assume you are a merchant, and you have come into a product that is in great favor with many of your buyers. In fact, it becomes so popular, one client steals it from you, but leaves behind a payment that more than makes up for your loss. What would you do?"

            His grin was catching. She could almost read his mind.

            "And if I'm not that far from the place where I originally got the product, I would turn right around and go get another one!" Jumping up, she reached out and gave Bajud a quick kiss on the cheek. "That's to thank you for helping me. All that's left is for me to convince him it's possible. Do you think he'll track the whoreship?"

            The Alcatian suddenly became serious. "I do not know. All I am sure of is that if we do not proceed immediately, there is little chance we will be able to come back here in two years to try again. In fact, I can promise you this opportunity will never present itself again."

            "Then I must convince Neeveer now," she stated, and rushed out the door.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Promise

            Either he knew she was looking for him, and deliberately avoided her, or she simply couldn't find him. The ship was bigger than she expected. If someone had asked her which was bigger, the whoreship or the Alcatian cruiser, she couldn't answer truthfully. After a while, she gave up and got directions to the main eating hall where she had another bowl of
oftusel
. From the eating room, she was able to make her way to Neeveer's cabin without any trouble.

            She had been prepared to spend several hours being bored out of her mind. To her surprise, she soon fell asleep. It was the feeling of something nuzzling her breast that awakened her. Partially opening her eyes, she rolled over and reached up for him.

            Warm lips took her nipple and began to suckle. She responded by running her hands through his hair, massaging his scalp with her fingertips. Everything she did to caress him back only increased his ardor, and a low growl of pleasure rumbled in his chest.

            "My one."

            His hands were between her thighs and slowly stroking the soft inner skin. Every so often his thumbs would brush over her lower lips, tickling and arousing her further. When he climbed upon the bed, Meredith stopped him. "No. Let's do it my way this time."

            Neeveer paused. Whenever she said she wanted to do it her way, he had no idea what it entailed until she showed him. The Alcatian either preferred the missionary position, or he was never taught there was another way to copulate. She would put money on the latter.

            Getting onto her stomach, she pulled her knees up to her chest and bent over, presenting him with her buttocks.

            "Ever take a woman from the rear?"

            He didn't hesitate. Swooping over her, he reached under her arms for her breasts. Grasping them, he lightly fondled them, pinching the tips and enjoying the little moans of happiness she uttered. He sniffed her bare back, sometimes kissing it, sometimes licking the smooth skin. "
Ahvahla.
" His breath was a puff of heat that sent shivers through her.

            She loved the way he nibbled her flesh. Mental images of his gleaming white tusks as they brushed along her ribs gave her goose bumps. He had never hurt her with them. He had never bitten or caused injury to her, although there were mornings when she'd felt a bit bruised after a vigorous night of lovemaking that included a lot of oral play.

           
Lovemaking.
Meredith squeezed her eyes shut to prevent the tears from spilling. That was what it all boiled down to. She realized it, as much as it hurt to admit it. Neeveer didn't love her. Yes, she could tell he cared for her, perhaps in the same way an owner would care about a pet, because that's what it all came down to. That's what she was to him. A pet. A human pet. Something he could enjoy at his leisure whenever he had the urge, without having to worry about commitments or consequences.

            A hand reached down between her buttocks, searching for her clit. She whispered to him, "Go lower." The fingers slid further until they found her opening, already wet and ready. One digit touched the hard little nub jutting between the swollen lips and batted it. She couldn't suppress her groan of delight.

            He found her entrance again by touch. The rest of his body remained bowed over her with his face burrowed into the hair gathered at her neck. She sensed him guiding his erection to her and positioning the head.

            "Stay with me, Merry."

            Her eyes flew open in surprise. At the same time, he pushed into her. Not hard or demanding as he normally did, but tenderly, smoothly, pressing through the hot walls of her inner chamber an agonizing inch at a time. He was barely halfway inside when he withdrew nearly all the way.

            "Do not leave."

            His erection slid back into her, this time almost to the entrance of her womb, when the skin contracted around his penis, and the small nodules surfaced. Mr. Bumpy returned, with its swirls of blood vessels that bunched and swelled underneath the velvety skin, and gave his hard-on that rough texture that nearly drove her wild as it rolled over sensitive nerve endings.

            Meredith gasped at the slow, gliding movements filling her with his thickness. One hand continued to play with her nipples, but the other manipulated her clit. She could feel herself beginning to rise.

            Something tickled her anus. In the back of her mind, she dismissed it as pubic hair, until she remembered he had none. He had no body hair anywhere except on his skull. The movements continued to play with her, and Neeveer maintained his rhythmic in and out with long, bold strokes.

            Her hands grasped the hands holding her. With her forehead pressed to the bed, she lifted her hips with each plunge. The heat inside her continued to build and rise, like a water coming to a boil. Simultaneously, Neeveer's thrusts gradually increased in pressure and speed, and she could tell this time she would reach her peak.

           
It's the little muscle.
The revelation clarified in her mind as the protuberance started to drill into her anus, sending a whole new wave of sexual delight pouring through her. She barely had the chance to breathe when her orgasm flashed with bright, burning shards of heat, searing and scalding her with their intensity. She barely heard Neeveer's roar before he clasped her hips in a vise-like grip, and began pounding into her with short, choppy jabs. Her orgasm continued to roll over her, held against infinity while Neeveer fought for his own release.

            The sensation became too much to bear. Pleasure and pain converged into one soul-scraping implosion. She thought she sensed him erupting, and then everything went black.
                                                            * * *

            "Do not go, Merry."

            The words were whispered in her ear. She felt his heat at her back and smelled his cinnamony scent. A hand brushed the hair from her face as he nuzzled her temple.

            "I need to see my home," she murmured. "You have to understand. I cannot survive without returning to it. You get to go to Alcatia. You get to go home. Why can't I?"

            "We are tracking the ship as you suggested." There was a pause. "It was an excellent suggestion. You were right. It left its usual course and is backtracking."

            She rolled over to where she could look up at him. In the light of the pale gold ball that hovered beside the bed, his face reflected the conflict inside him. His orange eyes were the color of dark brass.

           
He's going to miss this, having a willing body at his beck and call.
Even as she silently told herself that, she could feel a part of her heart crumple and die.

            "What about your orders? Your mission?"

            "Once we have obtained a direct link to your world, Bajud will deliver you in one of the smaller survey pods."

            "Why can't you take me?"

            Another look of pain flashed through his eyes. "I am already being questioned for my past actions. I cannot risk losing my job for dereliction of duty."

            Reaching up, she touched his lips with her fingertip. He never kissed her like a human man kissed a woman, although he had licked or suckled every other inch of her body.

            "How long do you think it'll take before we discover something?"

            "I cannot tell you." He paused again, apparently debating his next words. "Will you not reconsider?"

            "I can't."

            He moved away from her, leaving her with the chill of his absence. Unwilling to let things remain as they were, she cuddled next to him, and was relieved when he didn't flinch or draw back.

            "Until the moment comes when I must leave, will you continue to make love to me?"

            Neeveer turned his head to look at her. "What is make love?"

            "What we just did. That's making love. It's when the act is not as important as wanting to make the person receiving it feel wonderful."

            Reaching over to rub the back of his fingers along her cheek and neckline, he responded, "Yes, Merry. I will continue to make love to you until you are no longer within my grasp."

            Meredith gave him a warm smile at the answer and snuggled against him, but not before she thought she caught the faint glimmer of a tear in the corner of his eye.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Return

            As best as she could keep track, Meredith estimated a week went by without any word. She trusted Neeveer to keep his word when he said he would track the whereabouts of the whoreship, to see if it would lead them to discover the location of Earth. All she needed was patience. And this close to the prize, hers was running very thin, leading her to repeat an old saying she'd heard when she was young.