Mercenaries

A hot flush rode Cassidy’s high cheekbones, and her pupils were dilated so wide they almost swallowed the gem green of her eyes. She gripped Rune’s cock like a slick, breathtaking fist, so tight that every stroke sent blazing ecstacy rolling up his spine. He could feel the tiny contractions of her sex milking him, demonstrating just how close she was to coming herself.

Yet so much defiance blazed in that emerald gaze, he knew that though he might have won over her body, the battle for her heart hadn’t even been joined.

Rune braced his palms beside her shoulders and rolled his hips, using every bit of skill he’d learned on the women’s deck, keeping his thrusts slow and deep.

It wasn’t easy. She felt so slick and delicious that all he wanted to do was ride her hard, grind deep and ruthlessly until he came. And judging from the challenge in her eyes, she expected him to do just that.

But Rune had learned discipline from harsh teachers, so he clamped down hard on his control. He’d damn well bring her before he went over.

As if reading his mind, Cassidy wrapped her endless legs around his waist and began to hunch her hips in short, teasing strokes that tested his control. “How long do you think you can hold it, stud?”

And of course, he loved her lush little body, from those snapping green eyes to those full breasts to the tight, creamy cunt and long, long legs. She was everything he’d ever wanted. And he was damn well going to claim her.

So Rune reared off her, scooped her long legs up, draped her calves over his shoulders, and slid back into her again. Just to make sure she got the full effect, he thrummed his thumb over her hard little clit.

She could see how close he was. She knew she could have forced him over, but in this position, Alrigo was firmly in control.

And he felt like a beamer cannon in her cunt—thick, hard, merciless. Every single stroke maddened her, an effect heightened by his thumb circling her clit. She fought to hold her climax off, determined not to give in until he came.

Then he rose up on his knees, leaned hard against her, and ground. “Come,” he rumbled, with a single devastating stroke across her tight pearl timed at just the right moment.

Her climax came boiling out of nowhere, savage and irresistible. With a cry of mingled ecstacy and frustration, she came, her back arching with the frenzy of her orgasm.

Alrigo threw his head back and slammed his hips against hers, circling hard, pounding deep. Spurring her climax to jolting new heights as he roared and came, the tendons standing rigid on his throat, every muscle in stark relief.

The sweet, dark pleasure was merciless, a luscious firestorm. By the time it retreated, Cassidy felt drained and boneless, sprawled beneath his hot weight in the leaves.

With a groan he dropped her legs and collapsed over her, fists braced on the ground. Panting hard, he grinned into her eyes. “I’ll have you yet.”

DRESSED in his armor again, Rune sat in the cockpit of Cassidy’s fighter and studied the equipment he’d jury-rigged. A dim red light gleamed on the otherwise dark console.

It meant he’d succeeded in deploying the solar collectors on the wings, despite the damage that had forced him to go out and pop them up by hand. Evidently something mechanical had broken somewhere, either during the fight or the landing. In any case, the collectors were recharging the fighter’s battery array now. Barring too much cloud cover, systems should be up and running again in forty-eight hours. Then he’d be able to recharge his beamer pistol and use the fighter’s com system to call the Conquest.

Assuming they hadn’t sent someone to look for him by then. When Rune didn’t report back, his Wing Brothers would start the search even if nobody else did.

Unless the Starrunner and her sister ships won. His stomach sank at the thought. There were more than ten thousand men, women, and children on the Conquest, including the Wing Brothers he’d known since his boyhood on the Invader. If his ship was destroyed, he might as well be dead.

There was, of course, another possibility—that the Conquest had survived, but a search party from Cassidy’s ship would arrive first. If that happened, Rune was finished anyway. His people would expect him to kill as many of the enemy as possible—including Cassidy.

Grimacing, he dragged a hand through his short hair. The idea of hurting her wound a knot of pain in his chest. Despite the demands of duty, he simply didn’t think he could look into those brilliant green eyes and end her.

Suicide would be much easier—and that was just what he’d do, rather than let himself be taken prisoner. A captured warrior was considered shamed beyond redemption.

Bowing his head, Rune sent a quick prayer to the Warrior Goddess. He only hoped she granted him the luck he asked for. He’d need it. There were far too many things that could go wrong.

Too many of them were already doing just that. His own fighter had been so badly damaged, he couldn’t even deploy the solar collectors. He’d been lucky he could figure out how to get Cassidy’s operational.

Despite the situation, Cassidy’s muffled curse lightened his grim mood. Grinning, Rune called, “Are you all right out there, Cassidy?”

He laughed, his spirits lifting. He’d used mag restraints to secure Cassidy’s wrists to one of the fighter’s wing nacelles. She’d been fighting to free herself since he’d climbed into her cockpit; he’d used his sensors to monitor her increasingly frustrated struggles. Strong as she was, she still couldn’t break the cables.

Something thumped hard against the wing—likely her foot. Her string of inventive curses had his brows rising and his lips twitching. She really was everything he’d ever wanted.

CASSIDY hung upside down, both booted feet braced on the underside of the fighter’s starboard wing. Once again, she threw herself against the mag restraints. The muscles in her neck, back, and shoulders howled as she fought to break the magnetic seal that bound her to the wing. Sweat rolled up her forehead, and tendrils of blond hair wafted around her sticky face. Between the fight and the sweaty roll on the ground, her braids were history. And if it hadn’t been for her suit gloves, her wrists would have been in no better shape. The cable would have chewed right through her skin.

With a grunt of frustration Cassidy let up the pressure and allowed her feet to fall back to the ground. Her shoulders ached so savagely, she wondered if she’d torn something.

Panting, wrists bound over her head, she rested a moment and considered her options. Rune was still busy in her cockpit, trying to get the main batteries charging. He’d stopped cursing a half hour ago, which probably meant he’d succeeded.

Cassidy’s stomach chose that moment for a growl. At least between the two fighters, they had enough rations for a few days. Rune had said his stores were intact, and hers had taken no damage. She licked her dry lips and considered abandoning her pride long enough to ask him for something to drink.

And when the hell had she started thinking of him by his first name? Yet another bad sign he was getting under her skin.

She sighed and rolled her aching shoulders. She’d put her armor back on, and now drying sweat was making all kinds of uncomfortable places itch. At least the breeze was relatively cool as it blew into her face, carrying the scent of alien vegetation and . . . something rank.

Her sensors showed several massive life forms advancing toward her in a way that suggested more than casual curiosity.

The colonists call them caravores, the comp responded. Five of them, ranging in weight between five hundred and a thousand kilos. Data suggests a hunting pack consisting of four females and a lone male.

He stuck his head out of the canopy he’d replaced, stared toward the woods, and cursed. Vaulting out of the cockpit, he dropped to the ground beside her as the restraints around her wrists fell away, probably at a command from his computer. He looked in the direction of the advancing predators, no doubt doing a sensor scan. Judging from the way his mouth tightened, he didn’t like the results any better than she did. “I have no desire to take five of those things on with nothing more than a knife. Better get in the fighter. It’s the only shelter we’ve got.”

She jumped for the wing and chinned herself up. “Yeah, well, if you hadn’t triggered that Tach Pulse, we’d have beamers!”

She scrambled for the cockpit as he hoisted himself after her. “Caravores. Apparently they’re something like a cross between a tiger and a bear. Meaner than hell.”

He strode ahead of her and dropped into the cockpit first, then lifted a hand to help her in. “Sit in my lap. We’re going to have to get friendly until they go away.”

Cassidy hesitated a moment, but it wasn’t as if she had a hell of a lot of alternatives. With a sigh she climbed in and settled on top of him while he dragged the canopy closed and activated the mag seal. At least that still worked.

For a moment neither spoke, too busy looking out the canopy as the caravores slipped from the trees and headed toward the fighter.

“Good God,” Cassidy murmured. “Look at the size of those things!” Though easily as big as an old Earth grizzly bear, they moved with a liquid grace that was more feline than anything else. Their bodies were long and sleek, with pointed wolflike muzzles, and their fur ranged from a bloodred striped with slash markings to a black so deep it was almost blue.

One of them stopped to roar, the sound clearly audible even through the canopy. Its gaping jaws revealed a mouth full of teeth that looked like daggers.

Rune and Cassidy exchanged appalled looks. “Oh, God,” she breathed. “If they break open the canopy, we’re dead.”