Insurrection: A Space Opera Harem Adventure (The Lost Fleet Book 2), page 12
Personally, I was flipping out because of how unbelievably good she looked wearing it. The short blue skirt barely extended halfway down her thighs, giving me a tantalizing glimpse of her slender, athletic legs. The heels on her matching boots were at least eight centimeters tall, perhaps even ten, but she moved on them as effortlessly as a cat sauntering across the room. Her piercing green eyes seemed even brighter than normal thanks to her carefully applied smokey eyeshadow, and she had tied up her long hair in a high ponytail I suddenly couldn’t wait to use as a handhold…
“Whatcha think?” she asked, smirking as she parked her hands on her waist. “Pretty good, right?”
I nodded, still mesmerized, as I struggled to remember how to speak. “Where…where did you get that?”
“Borrowed it from one of the cadet girls after class,” Ash said, cocking a hip and posing in front of the darkened vid-screen up on the wall as if it were a mirror. “One of the only natties to qualify for the Academy last semester—said they’re takin’ fewer and fewer every year. We’re about the same size, but…damn, I wear it a lot better.”
“You wear everything better,” I breathed as I finally rose from the armchair. “And nothing best of all.”
She flashed me a dry smirk. “Patience, now. When a girl spends this much effort gettin’ dressed up for her man, you gotta let her have some fun before you tear it off her.”
I swallowed, my eyes drifting up the back of her legs and appreciating the sleek curves of her calves. Ash had always been lean, thanks in no small part to her Kreen metabolism, but a month of combat training had toned her muscles. And boy, they looked great.
“Almost wanted to slip it on back at the base,” she snickered as she cocked an arm behind her head and studied her reflection. “Would’a gotten us both in trouble, but it might’a been worth it just to see the jealous looks on the faces of all those jenny girls. Don’t need to be cooked up in a lab to rock a skirt!”
I stepped up behind her, inhaling the heady aroma of her exotic perfume. It would be risky for her to wear that uniform out in the restaurant, too, though I was so horny I was starting to wonder if we’d even make it out of the hotel.
“The fleet really forces women to wear these?” I asked.
“Naw, ’course not,” Ash replied with a chuckle. “But it’s an option. Unless you think I’d look better in slacks…”
“No,” I said before she could even humor the thought. “Absolutely not.”
Ash chuckled as she turned around to face me. “Thought you might feel that way.”
Her green eyes smoldered with desire, and I began to suspect that she hadn’t planned on watching anything tonight, either—or in making it to our dinner reservation. She reached up to cradle my cheeks in her warm hands, and thanks to the extra height from her heels, I only needed to lean down half as far as normal to kiss her.
Her scalding tongue slipped through my lips and hungrily probed my mouth. My powers could protect me, but I made a conscious effort to lower my defenses for the first few seconds. Sometimes, it was nice to feel the full intensity of her body heat, if only to appreciate how dangerous it was—and how even on a Golden World filled with powerful Seraphim, I was still one of the only humans alive who could enjoy the affections of a Kreen girl without getting burned.
And the only man in the whole galaxy who would ever have that privilege with her.
Ash abruptly pulled away, her tongue tracing along her bottom lip as she took a step backward. Her eyes twinkled impishly, their slit pupils thick with excitement.
“You haven’t even seen the best part yet,” she teased.
“Really,” I murmured, yearning for another taste of her heat. “And what’s that?”
“Oh, you’ll see.” Eyes still twinkling, she took another step closer to the couch. “But it’ll be more fun if we’re both dressed for the occasion. Here, let me get your cap for you…”
Turning slowly, deliberately, she leaned down to retrieve my discarded uniform cap. And as she did, her short skirt rode higher and higher up her thighs…
Until it revealed quite decisively that she was not wearing panties.
The fatigue I’d been feeling from the day’s long endurance training instantly evaporated at the sight of her bald quim, and Ash wasn’t particularly subtle in drawing out the pose. She was one of the most graceful creatures I had ever seen, yet her fingers mysteriously kept fumbling with the cap as if she couldn’t quite get a handle on it…
By the stars.
I almost rushed forward and mounted her right then and there. If I weren’t so paralyzed by how good she looked in that uniform, that’s exactly what I would have done. I could have effortlessly bent her over the sofa or even just thrown her down on the carpet. It wouldn’t have been the first time for either, but I was suddenly determined to fuck her as fiercely as if I thought it would be the last.
“There we go,” Ash said demurely as she gradually returned upright. “Don’t know why it was so hard to get a handle on…”
She flicked it over at me, but I didn’t even try to catch it. I was already racing toward her when it bounced off my chest, and she squealed in delight when I grabbed her arms, spun her back around, and shoved her over the arm of the sofa.
“Eep!” she squeaked when I pushed her skirt back up her hips and slapped her bare ass. But despite her mock surprise, she wriggled her feet apart to give me the room I needed to mount her. Almost like this was exactly the reaction she’d been hoping for all along…
Grinning and growling at the same time, I frantically unzipped the fly of my uniform, refusing to waste the extra seconds to remove my pants entirely. My cock was like a caged raag beast straining to be unleashed. I needed to be inside her. Right here, right now.
I placed my bulging tip against her sweltering folds. As expected, she was thoroughly soaked, and I fortified my skin as the scalding heat of her tunnel enveloped me centimeter by centimeter. My hands gripped her hips possessively, holding her in place. Her fingers clutched at the sofa as I pushed, her long, manicured nails digging into the green fabric for leverage. I was so impatient I didn’t stop until she had taken me to the hilt, at which point I pulled back my hips, then slammed into her again and again, one vicious thrust after another. No hesitation, no foreplay, just a quick and brutal conquest of her beautiful molten cunt.
Back on Nirivarr, we’d almost never had to rush. I had learned to take my time with slow kisses and languid strokes, the kind that only ended when I finally overheated and collapsed in exhaustion. But since we’d been here on Praxius, our time together had aways been short, and we’d had to learn how to adapt. Delicately fingering her in the supply closet, surreptitiously getting a blowjob in the auditorium during one of the training holo-vids, ruthlessly fucking her against the wall in the basement maintenance room…
Tonight, with no responsibility and no one around, I could easily have taken my time. And that was exactly what I had been planning to do. But then I’d seen her wearing this damn skirt, and all my carefully laid plans had dissipated in a cloud of unquenchable lust.
I slammed into her again, then slapped her ass even harder than before. Ash cried out in glee as the smack echoed off the walls, but I wasn’t done. While my right hand clutched her waist, my left reached down to grab the long, tight ponytail she had so graciously provided me as a handhold. I jerked it backward, snapping her head upward and triggering a shocked but pleased cry.
“Oh, baby!” Ash practically screamed. “Take me! Take me like a jenny slut!”
It was not the encouragement I’d expected. But for whatever reason, her plea sent a shiver of delight rippling through me. There was just something about her taut little body wrapped in one of these uniforms that made me want to rut her like a feral hog.
And that’s exactly what I did. I surrendered to my lust, fucking her selfishly, brutally, without a single care for her safety or pleasure. Which was, as I’d hoped, the exact attitude that pushed her toward the abyss even faster than me.
“Kal!” she breathed desperately. “Baby, I’m gonna…ngnn!”
I yanked back even more fiercely on her hair as I felt her crest, knowing that manhandling her would send her spiraling even farther over the edge. Ash was an old-fashioned kind of girl in a lot of ways, the kind who loved sweet kisses, romantic walks, and tender lovemaking into the wee hours of the night. But then there were nights like this, when she got off just knowing how irresistible she’d made herself, and when the thought of her man losing control and treating her like a sack of meat could make her cum in no time flat.
“Oh…ngnn!” she blubbered as she convulsed around me.
I wouldn’t have been able to hold out even if I’d wanted to, which I most assuredly did not. I roared as I spent alongside her, pumping two weeks of buildup deep into her Kreen womb just like she wanted. Just like we both needed.
“Shit,” I hissed as I half slumped on top of her, releasing my hold on her ponytail and holding her waist with both hands instead. Even after I’d shot my last load into her, I refused to pull out. I kept my hips churning, grinding within her clinging satin depths, allowing her heat to infuse my entire body. Sooner or later, I would sweat through my uniform. I just didn’t give a damn.
“Guess you were happy to see me, huh?” Ash said, panting and obviously quite pleased with herself.
“Always,” I breathed, slapping her ass again.
She squealed into a giggle. “Still feel like goin’ out?”
“Not really,” I admitted. “You?”
She shook her blond ponytail. “Naw. I messaged the restaurant before you got here, told ’em to just send takeout. Should be here pretty soon.”
I smiled. I should have known better than to underestimate her. She always had a trick up her sleeve, something to surprise me even when it didn’t seem like it should be possible. She was my girl, and there was no force in the galaxy that would ever keep us apart.
“If you’re ready for round two, we could try and finish before the delivery drone gets here,” she teased, bearing down and squeezing me within her. “Whatcha think?”
“I think,” I said, still panting as I kissed the back of her ear, “that sounds like an excellent idea.”
5
Diplomacy
Dominion Space
Present Day
With a tentative truce finally in place, I led our Yarasi guest out of the lounge and into the back of the ship. Velarys claimed that she had commandeered the Wildcat via the engineering console, and I found myself curious how the hell she had pulled that off with the security systems Ash had put in place. Yarasi warriors were renowned for their psionic powers, not for their slicing abilities.
The door to the ship’s small engineering bay—about eight meters away from Ash’s sealed bedroom—was already open. But Velarys came to a sudden halt just before she entered, the serrated lobes of her left ear twitching as if in response to a noise.
“It would appear that one of your females is awake,” she said. “And quite perturbed.”
“Oh?” I asked, glancing down the silent corridor.
“She has realized that the ship is no longer under your control,” Velarys added distantly. “Perhaps you should placate her before—”
Ash’s door abruptly whooshed open, and she rolled into the hall. Her blond hair was a tangled mess, and she hadn’t taken the time to get dressed aside from throwing on one of my oversized shirts. She had grabbed her bow, however, and there was a faint buzz as a string of green energy flashed into existence between the weapon’s limbs. As she drew it back, a similarly colored arrow appeared between her fingertips.
An arrow that was aimed directly at Velarys.
“Stop!” Ash snarled, teeth clenched. “Kal, what the hell is goin’ on?”
“It’s all right,” I soothed, holding up my hands. “Our guest just woke up a bit early.”
Her jaw visibly tightened. “She’s done somethin’ to the ship! I don’t know how, but—”
“We’re about to take care of that,” I interrupted. “We, uh…we worked it out.”
Ash looked at me like I’d lost my mind. Velarys, for her part, seemed transfixed by the bow.
“You have stolen a falkyr,” she murmured, voice a mix of surprise and anger.
“I didn’t steal it!” Ash shot back. “I found it. That makes it mine—just like this ship.”
“You are not Yarasi—therefore, it cannot be yours,” Velarys replied icily. She paused for a fraction of a second, her forehead creasing slightly. “Though you seem to have mastered it.”
“That’s right, I have. And if you don’t fix whatever the hell you did, I’m gonna use it to put you back in sickbay.”
I sighed. “Ash…”
“Falkyr can only be used by those with at least moderate psionic ability,” Velarys went on as if she hadn’t even heard the threat. “I was unaware that the Dominion’s genetic engineers had discovered how to splice human and Kreen DNA at all, let alone while retaining human psionic potential.”
Ash scowled. “The only thing that’s gonna get spliced is your—”
“Enough!” I barked, stepping between them. “Ash, put down the bow. Velarys, fix whatever the hell you did to the ship.”
For a moment, neither woman moved. I didn’t need telepathy to feel Ash’s frustration; she could usually keep her Kreen temper in check, right up until someone threatened her ship. Velarys still didn’t seem the least bit concerned by the threat of violence, though she was now looking at me, an odd expression on her face.
“I already informed you that I would return control of your vessel,” she said. “But allow me to make one thing clear, human: I do not take orders from males.”
Her glowing eyes flashed with an obvious challenge, as if she were goading me to give her another command…or perhaps brawl with her again. Strangely, though, I didn’t sense any anger behind her words. Defiance, certainly, but not anger.
“Then how about you take orders from me?” Ash asked, slowing bringing herself all the way to her feet. “Ya know, the girl with the weapon?”
Velarys kept looking right at me, and I had the bizarre sensation of a predator sizing up her prey. Was that what this was about? Some kind of test of will to go along with the earlier test of strength? My instincts could have been completely wrong, but despite her words, I got the feeling that she wanted me to stand up to her…
“Release control of the ship,” I said, playing the hunch and meeting her eye-to-eye. “Now.”
There was a long pause, the only sound in the corridor the faint buzz of Ash’s energy bow. Then Velarys smiled thinly, as if she were somehow satisfied with the outcome, and her body language seemed to relax.
“I shall do as you wish, human,” she said, “but only because it is what honor demands, not because it is your will.”
I suppressed a snort. Her declaration almost seemed petty, maybe even childish. Not exactly what I would have expected from a member of an ancient race whose people had been traveling the stars when humans were still using stone spears.
But it seemed I’d been right about my hunch—Velarys had wanted me to challenge her, or at least stand up to her. I didn’t quite understand the cultural implications yet, especially considering how contemptuous she seemed to be of men, but then I remembered how she’d looked when I’d had her pinned on the couch—not angry, but excited.
“Justify it however you want,” I said firmly. “Just do it.”
Her smile returned for a fraction of a second before she looked at Ash. “I require access to the engineering console.”
Ash held her aim for a few more seconds, then finally let her fingers go slack on the bowstring, the arrow dissipating as she did so. “How the blazes did you even get in there? I keep that hatch locked!”
“The systems on this vessel are keyed to Yarasi genetics as well our innate psionic gifts,” Velarys said. “There is nothing you could have done to prevent me from assuming control.”
“Wait, what?” I asked. “You didn’t even have to disable the security systems?”
“No,” she replied as if the very notion were absurd. “This vessel belongs to the Yarasi Empire, and it was constructed to heed the call of our warriors.”
I frowned. “You’re saying that any Yarasi could just take control of this ship whenever they wanted to?”
“Not a Yarasi male, of course. Only another female—a true warrior.”
“Right,” I muttered. “Still, that sounds like a pretty big security vulnerability to me.”
“Why would—ah,” Velarys stopped herself mid-sentence and nodded. “I understand your confusion. You are used to the selfish and manipulative culture of humans. My sisters would never violate the Code—to do so would be a grave dishonor.”
“And that’s never backfired?”
“Only a small number of times across many generations—certainly not enough to worry. We trust one another. It is why our society has endured for thousands of years, and why yours suffers endless internal wars and strife.”
A dozen witty retorts popped into my head, each more sarcastic than the last. This girl was definitely going to test my patience, there was no doubt about it. These little jabs of hers were all so weirdly primal, like two Nirivian apes having a stare-down over who deserved the right to lead the family. It wasn’t what I’d expected from her.
But strangely, I already found myself looking forward to our next clash. After all, Miranda had tested my patience when I’d first met her, too, and we’d managed to work things out. Many times, in fact. Perhaps a little bit of culture shock wouldn’t be so bad.
Right at this moment, though, I reminded myself that we weren’t going to accomplish anything here without being diplomatic, and I decided to hold my tongue. Later, perhaps, I could remind her that the Dominion had built an empire three times the size of the Yarasi in about a fiftieth of the time. It would be interesting to see how she responded. I might even have to overpower her again…
