It hit him like an explosion. The scintillating pleasure shot through Dan Wirth’s pelvis, up his backbone, and tingled the bottoms of his feet. He gasped, crying out as Allison’s practiced muscles tightened and she rocked her hips. Rode his orgasm for every delicious instant of it.
Panting, Wirth rolled off of her, leaving his arm to drape over Allison’s chest. “Wow,” he rasped as the tingle faded. He blinked up at the ceiling. He’d had Hofer’s best man hand-plaster the bedroom. Like Allison, there was nothing to match it on the entire planet.
“No complaints?” Allison asked, reaching for a cloth to mop up.
“You do that for all of the marks?”
“Of course. But you’re the only one that gets it on demand and for free.”
“Lucky me, eh?”
She was watching him with those calculating eyes. He missed the old Allison. The innocent one with the wounded-bird expression and hesitant, almost desperate approach toward life.
“You’ve been preoccupied.” She tossed the cloth to the side.
“What’s your take on Taglioni?”
“Not sure. He’s different. I’ve given him the eye, he just nods. Has that strange smile like he knows and understands, is actually appreciative, but not interested.”
“Think he’s into men?”
“No. Definitely heterosexual, just not into a casual fuck.” She shifted. “You remember, don’t you, that we promised Aguila we wouldn’t take him down.”
“He says he can fix it. Make it so that I can go back. Live like a fucking Boardmember and lord it among all those high and mighty cocksucking assholes in Transluna. The slate wiped clean. A whole new life for Dan Wirth.”
He waggled a cautionary finger. “All for ten percent and expenses. You know, the unsavory bribes for the Board and the rest of the ass-fucking bureaucrats. Now, why do I smell a quetzal in the bushes? What’s wrong with this picture?”
“He say why he’d do it?”
“As a fuck-you to his cousin who’s on the Board. And I’m supposed to believe that?”
Allison raised a pale shoulder in a shrug. “What else did he say?”
“That he’s staying here. That he’s not going back. And I’m supposed to believe that a child of that kind of wealth and privilege just lets it all go?”
“Depends on what happened on Ashanti. From the crew I heard that he scrubbed toilets. Lived with them, worked with them, no job too tough. Their story is that he changed when they all thought they were going to die. Maybe he doesn’t want to chance that again. Aguila didn’t. Not after Freelander showed up.”
“So I trust the fancy prick?”
Allison reached out, turned his head to face hers. “You’ve been getting moody. You’ve got an anger building inside. Then, after you talked to Taglioni, you’ve been more like the old Dan. Like you’re plotting and planning again. So tell me. The truth. What do you want?”
“I’m the richest man on the fucking planet.”
“You are.”
“I had to trade a bedroom addition for a toilet-sucking scarf. Those two safes. They’re bursting. That’s real wealth. Not on paper, or a line of credit. The triumvirate or Aguila need something, they come to me. I own half of this miserable planet. So, what’s the point?”
She considered, the ghost of a smile molding her lips. “Wondered if that wasn’t the trouble.”
“Hmm?”
“He dangled the carrot, and you can’t help but bite at it, hoping it’s for real.” A beat. “Might be. If it is, you’d go back?”
“To play in the big game? Baby cakes, I’d go in a second.”
“So, he’s offered you the chance to go back on Ashanti? Is that the fool’s play? Or is it the lucky draw? How do you tell if it’s real, or a sucker’s bet on red twenty-two?”
“Oh, I don’t trust the fucker for an instant. I think he’s playing me. Wants to use my wealth to bitch-slap that cousin of his. Now, knowing that, am I smart enough to sidestep the landmines before they blow my fucking foot off?”
“Are you?”
He made a face. “See, that’s the gamble. Those Corporate cocksuckers play a rigged game. But tell me, who knows more about rigged games than me, huh?”
“You got any insurance that good old Dek won’t have you arrested the moment you step off Ashanti? Then he gets all the plunder, and you’re fucked.”
“Oh, angel, you have no idea how that very thought rolls around inside my head. But, no. Sometimes you’ve got to go with instincts. Rather than making a fast fortune, I think he’s playing a long game. Wants to use me as a pawn on the Corporate chessboard.”
“Pawns get sacrificed.”
“Uh-huh. And if they make it all the way across the board, they get turned into queens who can really kick ass.”
She shifted, stared at him with an uncommon intensity. “You’re seriously thinking about going, aren’t you? Even knowing the risks.”
He smiled, slapped a hand to her toned stomach. “What about you? Want to go with me?”
“Not for the time being.”
“Oh?”
“Like you, I’m willing to play the long game.” A pause. “What happens with The Jewel? This house? Your interests here?”
He gave her his coldest, threatening look. “You asked for forty-nine percent once. I’ll give you half of everything. Anything you establish from here on out, that’s yours. But don’t fuck with my half.”
“What about the house here?”
“Yours. But in return, you fucking damn well better be sending plunder back in my name. You see, Dek’s right about one thing: If Ashanti makes it back to Solar System, they will be sending more ships. If my share of the plunder isn’t on board, I’ll still be rich enough to hire some nasty shit-sucker to pay you a visit.”
“I’m smarter than that.”
“Yeah. I think you are. You got the balls to do what has to be done?”
She gave him a taunting smile. “Only one possible problem.”
“What’s that?”
“Your good Mister Taglioni? He’s out in the bush at the Briggs place. Odds are better than forty to one the silly son of a bitch is going to get himself killed before he can do either one of us any good.”