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  Calla paused in her squirming, unsure of what he planned to do next.

  Seth intensified his efforts, sucking her entire clit into his mouth and working it viciously with his tongue. Her gasp was audible, and he felt her orgasm starting to build again. A still wet finger pressed against her nether opening, even as his hand and mouth continued to stimulate her front.

  The unfamiliar feeling caused her to jerk her hips up slightly, right into Seth’s mouth. Her breath whooshed out in a gasp as her hips fell back down on his finger, and the tip of it slipped effortlessly inside her previously untouched rear entrance.

  It burned slightly, but the pain was exquisite. He wiggled his finger slightly and she moaned. Then he stopped working her clit.

  “Tell me what you want,” he whispered harshly, staring up across her heaving chest with dark eyes.

  “I want you to fuck me,” she managed to gasp out. He wiggled his finger again; she moaned in response.

  “Who do you want?”

  “You,” she said. “I want you, Seth. Please.”

  He laughed triumphantly, then attacked her swollen clit with renewed vigor.

  Calla gasped against the sensation, more stimulated than she’d ever been before. It was almost unbearable. Her body was tensing, preparing for her release, and she strained against the belt holding her down.

  Seth sucked her fully into his mouth, and pushed almost viciously into her cunt with his fingers.

  Gasping for air, Calla felt every bit of energy in her body building, and then Seth abruptly thrust the rest of his finger up her ass. The feeling pushed her over the edge and she exploded, every muscle in her body rock hard from the strain.

  * * * * *

  Seth stood up slowly, watching as Devora came back to herself. Her body was glorious in its arousal. Her small, freckled breasts heaved with every breath, and her nipples were tight and hard from his sucking. He noticed that her breasts had flushed red from the slight scratch of his beard, and one was slightly bruised. He liked the looks of his marks on her; she was his. He silently acknowledged that he could never let her go. For some reason, this small woman was his life mate, or as close as he would ever experience. He didn’t understand how or why he needed her so much, and he didn’t care. All he knew was that he would be keeping her by his side as long as he could hold her.

  Seth watched as Devora opened her eyes and stared up at him, a small, satisfied smile playing around the corners of her lips. Deliberately meeting her gaze, he reached down and slowly pulled his own shirt off, exposing his bare chest to her view. Her eyes followed him appreciatively. He stretched in front of her, deliberately giving her a long, slow view of his rippling chest muscles. Then he dropped his hands down to his pants, where his cock still stood out from his body, surrounded by his open pants. He cupped its solid length and squeezed slightly, allowing his head to tilt back in pleasure at the sensation. A small bead of sweat started making its way across his forehead.

  Opening his pants further, he allowed his full sacs to spring free. His swollen cock was flushed red with arousal, the head nearly purple. A small bead of moisture welled up at the tip. Reaching down with one hand, Seth grasped his own length and started to stroke it up and down while staring directly into her eyes.

  “Do you know how much I want you, Devora?” he asked with dark intensity. “Do you have any idea how much I want to fuck you right now?”

  The woman splayed in front of him shook her head, mesmerized.

  “Did you know that the week I waited for you back at Discovery station I had to do this every day?” he continued, deliberately moving his hand over his cock head, then rubbing his fluid down his length. “Every night I thought about you, dreamed about you, and I did this a hundred times. I couldn’t wait to fuck you.”

  Calla’s eyes widened at his revelation.

  “Do you want me now? Do you want this?” he asked, smoothly caressing his own flesh. “Now that you’ve had your pleasure, do you want to give me pleasure?”

  “Yes,” she whispered quietly.

  “Not just because I’m paying for it?”

  “No, I’d want you no matter what,” she said. And a surge of triumph washed through him. She wasn’t lying, no one could fake the look on her face. She was truly his. When this mission was over, he’d take her away somewhere and never let her out again. He’d spend the rest of his life making love to her… there would be no children, of course, but they’d make due. It was more than he’d ever dreamed he’d find.

  Smiling at his thoughts, Seth stepped forward between her legs, leaned over, and untied her hands. Devora raised her arms and wrapped them tightly around his neck. Their mouths met fiercely, his tongue thrusting in and claiming her. He lifted her body, fitting the tip of his cock against her moist lips, and plunged into her in one smooth motion. Devora gasped against his mouth.

  Seth rose, then carried her back to the pilot’s chair and sat down heavily. Devora, still astride him, started moving quickly, and his body tensed at the hot, tight fit of her. She squeezed him, milking him with her inner muscles. She threw her head back, breasts bouncing in time to her motions, and Seth groaned.

  Abruptly she stopped moving, and with a wicked smile placed one finger across his lips. Shhhhhh,” she said in mocking imitation of his own words earlier. “We don’t want to wake up Calvin and Sarai.”

  Seth glared at her as she laughed softly. Grasping her waist with both hands, Seth lifted her and plunged her back down on his length. Devora took the hint, and started riding him again. The pleasure built in him, then—when it seemed like he could take no more—his hips jerked spasmodically and he came, grinding himself against his small woman. She kissed him deeply as he sat back, massaging him with her inner muscles as his erection started to fade.

  “Thank you,” he said after a minute, grasping her head in both hands. He kissed her again, then she responded.

  “Thank you,” she whispered back, dropping a kiss on his nose. “I have to say, that wasn’t half bad.”

  She burst out laughing at the look indignant look Seth gave her.

  “All right,” she said, still giggling. “It was pretty damn good. So, do you think they heard us?”

  “Probably,” he said. “Do you care?”

  “No,” she replied, sobering. “I don’t really care at all. Being with you is too good to worry about things like that.” After a brief pause, she looked over at the star maps he’d pushed aside earlier. “You said we’re going to Bethesda base. Where is that?”

  “It’s further into the belt,” he replied. “We’re about a third of the way around the belt from the main station’s orbit. Bethesda is actually just about as far from Discovery station as you can get and still be in the asteroid belt. It’s actually on the opposite side of the sun. Calvin won’t tell me exactly where, he says he’ll help guide us in when the time comes.”

  “And you actually trust this man?”

  “I know what I’m doing,” he said with finality, not really answering her question. He wished he could explain what was going on, but it wasn’t worth the potential risk. He would explain everything to her later. Too much was at stake to take to tell her right now, he thought morbidly. He didn’t think she would deliberately betray him, but it would be so easy to say the wrong thing to Sarai or one of the children…

  “I guess we keep coming back to the issue of me trusting you without you trusting me,” she said, gazing into his eyes searchingly. “Of course, I’m just your employee. I need to remember that, right?”

  “You’re more than that to me,” he replied. “I’d think you would have realized that by now. Haven’t I treated you well? I know I was an ass earlier, but I haven’t forced you to do anything.”

  “No, you haven’t,” she replied with a sigh. “I can’t fault you for that. We should probably get some sleep. I have a feeling that as long as Calvin’s on board, things aren’t going to be very restful. You will protect Sarai and the children, won’t you?”
r />   “I said he wouldn’t harm them on my ship, and I meant it,” he said. “But don’t provoke him. I need this man to finish my business deal. It’s very important.”

  “I guess I never thought of you as a dealer in explosives.”

  “Well, there’s a lot you don’t know about me,” Seth gritted out, wishing she’d just drop the subject. He wanted to go to bed and hold her warm body close to his through the night. He didn’t want her analyzing his actions. He was well aware how bad he must look to her right now.

  “I’m realizing that,” she said quietly. “Let’s go to bed.”

  Chapter Eight

  It would take them a little over a week to reached Bethesda base, but by the fourth day Calla was ready to strangle Calvin with her bare hands. He complained constantly, berating Sarai and glaring at Calla. He’d discovered she and Seth weren’t married shortly after he’d arrived, and made it clear he didn’t approve. He was just like Jenner, Calla thought. A hypocrite, through and through. He had no problem beating and starving his own wife, but he condemned her as a loose woman. It was sickening.

  Equally sickening was Seth’s refusal to do something about the man. Every night they would drink bakrah and talk for hours, laughing and making crude jokes. He had even asked Calvin to explain his religion further, and seemed fascinated by the teachings of the “Celestial Pilgrim” who had founded the sect. Yet he was tender with Calla, and somehow managed to deflect Calvin whenever it seemed like he might hit his wife or children. His behavior was truly puzzling, she thought.

  They had developed a new routine. Each day, she and Sarai would rise and prepare the morning meal for the men. Seth and Calvin would eat, then retire to the cockpit to discuss their “business” and look at maps of the mining belt. She and Sarai would clean up, then play quietly with the children.

  The first day or two, Sarai, Mali and Able seemed afraid of Calla. She tried to find some vids for them in the ship’s digital library, but Calvin had burst into an angry diatribe the first time she turned one on. He didn’t want his children and wife “corrupted” by the outside world.

  Instead she started reading to them during the day. Calvin didn’t seem to notice as long as they were quiet, and every time he came down from the cockpit she would stop, hiding the book behind her pantsuit. First she read them nursery rhymes and myths of past civilizations. Then they moved on to tales of the Emperor’s harem and stories written by a woman who had grown up in an early space colony. The children sat in fascinated silence, eyes widening at her tales. Sarai would busy herself with small tasks, but Calla knew she listened, too.

  One evening, as they prepared dinner for the men, Calla asked her how she had come to be with Calvin.

  “My father arranged it,” Sarai said shyly, not meeting Calla’s eyes. Now that she was clean, with her light blond hair held back in a thick braid, she looked rather pretty and very young. She had tendency to blush, adding color to her pale face. “We were married when I was fourteen.”

  “Did you grow up in the asteroid belt?”

  “Yes, I was born here,” she said. “My parents lived at Bethesda base. They’re dead now, though. Their transport decompressed and they were killed. It was after Able was born.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Calla murmured. Perhaps there were some advantages to never having had parents. At least she only had Jess to lose … and Seth, of course. But he hadn’t ever really been hers in the first place, she thought morbidly.

  “It’s all right,” Sarai said, flashing her a quick smile. “It’s been a long time. I think it was kind of a blessing for mama, anyway. My little sister was with them. She was supposed to marry a man who was not… kind. Sometimes I almost think she was lucky to go the way she did, quickly and without pain before she got married.”

  “You aren’t happy with Calvin, are you?” Calla said, her heart melting at Sarai’s story. “Have you ever considered leaving him?”

  Sarai stopped working, and Calla realized she was trying to control her emotions.

  “I could never leave him,” she said finally, her smile faded. “I used to think about it, but there is no way. This is the first time I’ve been off the rock since we got married, you know. The children have never left before now. There’s no way I could get away from him. I don’t have any money, I don’t have anywhere to go and I’ve only ever been to Bethesda base and the rock. There’s no place for someone like me out there, and I have my children to think about.”

  Calla cast a glance over toward the children. They sat at the table, drawing pictures with an unnatural quiet. Both had been eating heartily, but were still painfully thin. Mali’s skin looked like white parchment stretched across her pale face. Able was delicate too, although he seemed tougher than his sister. Calla had noticed how protective he was of the little girl. Just like Jess was with me, she thought longing.

  “What if you could leave?” she asked Sarai finally. “What would you do then?”

  “Then I would leave,” the woman replied in a faint voice. “I would leave and take my children somewhere else. He’s already started talking to some of his friends about Mali. They’re going to marry her off, and I’ll never see her again… It will be another six or seven years before they do it, but I think about it all the time.”

  “Maybe you’ll have a chance someday,” Calla said after a long pause.

  “I doubt it,” Sarai answered. She looked at Calla with haunted eyes. “He’ll kill me before he lets me go, and no one will stand in his way. I’ve come to accept that.”

  Turning away from Calla abruptly, Sarai walked across the room to the fresher. Calla moved over to the table and sat down next to Mali. The little girl had drawn a picture of four people standing together, holding hands. Two adults and two children. Mali looked up at her and smiled, the expression transforming her small, thin face.

  “This is mama and me and Able and you,” she said. “We’re going to the palace to visit the emperor’s harem. When we get there, we’re going to have roast baka bird and eat candy all day long!”

  “Don’t be silly,” Able said, looking at her scornfully. “We’re not going there. We’re going to Bethesda base, and then we’ll head back to the Rock. That’s what daddy says.”

  “I want to go to the palace,” Mali said. “I hate the Rock, I don’t want to go back there.”

  “It’s not about what we want,” Able said. “Isn’t that right, Devora? We gotta do what the men say. That’s the way things work.”

  “Yes,” Calla said softly, her heart aching for them. “Unfortunately, that’s the way things seem to work.”

  * * * * *

  Seth kept a close eye on Calvin as they approached Bethesda base, just as carefully as he’d watched the man all week. He wouldn’t put it past the man to attack him when they landed. He’d been eyeing the ship since they’d first arrived at his camp. Seth had done everything in his power to convince the crazed fool that he was sympathetic to the Pilgrim cause, but there was no way to know if he’d fallen for it or not. Seth wanted to get as much information as possible out of him before his cover was blown. Calvin was his key to finding the rest of the Pilgrims.

  “It don’t look right,” Calvin said as they got closer, pointing toward the asteroid’s surface. “I told you them Sarelins took ‘em out. See that?”

  Seth did see. On the surface was a small cluster of habitation domes. Two of the three had been blown open. The third appeared to be intact, but there were no signs of life. No activity, no moving vehicles, no lights. The landing field was completely empty of ships. Seth cautiously double-checked to make sure their shields were at their highest setting; he wanted to take as many precautions as possible before landing.

  Calvin worked the radio, trying a variety of frequencies and codes. There was no response. By the time they’d landed, the man’s expression had grown ugly. Making his way down out of the cockpit, Seth thought through his options carefully. He hadn’t been able to detect any signs of life using his scann
ing equipment, but there were ways to fool a scanner. It would be best to leave the women on board. He would set the autopilot to take the ship back to the main base, so that if something happened to him, Devora, Sarai and the children would escape. He’d have to keep an even closer watch over Calvin. He seemed so unsettled by what had happened at Bethesda that Seth believed he might snap.

  “We’re going to try to figure out what happened here,” Seth said as soon as he was off the ladder and in the main room. The women and children watched him anxiously, Devora’s eyes full of questions.

  “What did you see?” she asked quickly.

  “Two of the domes have been blown open,” Seth replied, moving quickly toward the airlock. “The third seems to be intact, but we don’t know if there are any survivors. We’ll be back soon. If anything happens, or anyone approaches the ship, you can call us on the com. I’ll leave the feed open so you can hear us.”

  “But don’t call us with your stupid women’s crap,” Calvin muttered as he entered the room. He paused to give them a harsh glare. “We’ve got more important things to do.”

  Quickly pulling on their pressure suits Seth and Calvin went through the airlock He had strapped his blaster onto the side of his hip. The slow cycle seemed to take forever as Seth peered out the small porthole toward the base. Something just seemed wrong. When the light flicked green, he and Calvin stepped through the door and descended to the surface. There were still no signs of life. Seth motioned his companion toward the still-intact dome, and they started lumbering their way across the uneven surface. It was as if someone had gone so far as to try to destroy any hope of repairing the base by attacking the rock itself. All around them, the landing field was pitted with craters.

  As they came closer, there were more signs of violence. A pressure suit glove, spent energy blaster casings and scorch marks littered the surface. The main entrance to the dome was directly ahead of them, but Seth noticed a large, blackened pile off to the left. Telling Calvin to wait for him through the com patch in his suit, Seth moved closer to investigate. It looked as if some had used a proton gun to try to destroy whatever it was in the pile. Kicking aside some of the debris with his foot, Seth made a discovery that sent him stumbling back.