Mercenaries (5 page)

“Aye, Captain.”
There was a note of knowing laughter in Cassidy's voice.
“Vika out.”

Sebastian by his side, Nathan followed Trinity down the narrow sidewalk toward the gates of the landing pad. She seemed to radiate a combination of nerves and determination that perversely intensified his appetite. He couldn't wait to . . .

“Trinity! Trinity Yeager, where are you going?” a man called in a grating nasal whine.

Trin didn't even break step, even when a short, fat little male scurried around Nathan to grab her by one wrist. She sent the intruder a coldly contemptuous look he totally ignored.

“I demand to know where you're going with this infidel trash!”

“None of your business, Gordon.” She tried to jerk free, but he clamped down on her wrist so hard, the skin dimpled under his sausage fingers.

Nathan's temper began to steam. He took a step forward.

“You can't leave with them!” the man stormed. “I forbid it!”

Before Nathan could put the fat bastard into orbit, Trinity lifted her lip in a snarl. “You can't forbid me
anything,
Gordon. You're not my father, and you're not my husband. And you never will be.”

“The auction . . .”

“Is next week!” In a surprisingly skillful move, she hooked one foot behind the colonist's ankle and drove a shoulder into his pudgy chest, sending him sprawling. She danced clear as he hit the ground with an outraged
whoof
.

Trinity leaned over him, bracing both hands on her knees as he blinked at her in shocked outrage. “And in the meantime, do you know what I'm going to do?” she growled, her voice low and deadly. “I'm going to
fuck
these mercenaries, Gordon. I'm going to fuck both of them! And I'm going to enjoy it a great deal more than I'd ever enjoy
anything
having to do with you!”

Straightening, she whirled and stalked toward the landing strip gate.

“You . . . You . . . I'll call the sheriff!” the little man howled as Nathan and Sebastian followed her.

“Call him!” she snarled back.

“That muffled explosion you just heard,”
Sebastian commed as they followed her,
“was the sound of our little friend blowing all her bridges to quarks.”

“Did sound that way, didn't it?”
She'd handled that well.
“The question is, will she want to rebuild them after she finds out what she's in for?”

TRINITY'S outrage sustained her all the way across the landing pad to the mercs' shuttle, a long, low-slung predator of a craft bristling with gun ports. Several faint burn marks along her sides suggested she'd seen recent combat. The sight of her brought reality crashing home.

Trin was about to sleep with men who had a battleship.
Two
men who had a battleship.

Though her thoughts skittered wildly, Trin kept her face expressionless. She couldn't afford to show her fear. Who'd want to go into battle with somebody scared out of her wits at the thought of just having sex with a couple of mercs?

A couple of very large, very muscular, very exotic mercs. One of whom was watching her like he'd like to eat her.

In one big bite.

Nathan August was the most intimidating human being she'd ever met, including the sheriff and Andrew. It had been all she could do to hang on to her wits while he'd been giving her that
look
back in the bar.

His eyes were truly beautiful—a shimmering, cobalt blue—but they alternated between hot and predatory and cold and dismissive. Either expression unnerved the hell out of her.

On the other hand Sebastian seemed perpetually amused, though there was a shimmer of amorous interest in his gaze, too.

They wanted to have sex with her. Not only that, but the captain wanted to make her their pleasure toy for the next six months. It was a humiliating offer, but it wasn't as if she could afford to stand on pride.

Despite the dictates of common sense, Trin was disappointed in him, if not particularly surprised. She should have known a mercenary wouldn't be willing to save her out of the goodness of his heart.

There was also the troubling possibility she was leaping straight from the frying pan into the fire. Still, August had specified six months. Six months as sex toy for two mercs was infinitely preferable to a lifetime of abuse with Andy Makerson. For one thing, she doubted the mercs would beat her to death. She was pretty sure she could take whatever else they could dish out.

Paradise had taught her to be tough.

Whatever he had in mind, the captain was eager to get started. As soon as they boarded the shuttle, August dropped into the pilot's seat and powered systems up. Trin settled into one of the passenger seats while Sebastian took the copilot's spot. He and August started drawling techspeak at each other; she caught one word in five.

As she watched, August stroked his hands through the glowing trid control displays, ticking through his takeoff checklist with the ease and rapidity of long practice. The shuttle's engines began to rumble, a low, subsonic growl felt more in the bones than anything else. The craft didn't even rock as it lifted off its wheels, slipping skyward as weightlessly as a plume of smoke.

Then what felt like a fist crushed down on Trinity's chest, and they blasted for orbit so hard and fast, she barely had time to gasp.

August flew the shuttle like the combat pilot he probably was—all skillful, reckless insouciance. Trin managed not to shut her eyes and pray.

To distract herself from her fear, she stared out the viewport, watching the pink sky darken to purple with the shuttle's rapid ascent. In minutes it was a deep, flat black. The curve of Paradise spread below, its seas a shining blue, the land red everywhere it wasn't purple with vegetation.

A white, shining point rose over the horizon. As she watched, half-hypnotized, it zoomed toward them like a meteor.

“The
Starrunner,
” Nathan said over his shoulder, pride in his voice.

She was an impressive vessel, Trinity saw as they approached. Lean and sleek, the battleship was designed to withstand the stresses of slipping into the alternate universe where faster-than-light travel was possible.

Judging by all those weapons' ports, she could have reduced Orville's Paradise to chunks of rubble in about an hour and a half.

As Trin watched, a black opening appeared in the
Starrunner
's gleaming side—one of its landing bays. August ran through the docking procedure, his hands playing over the trid controls, creating a symphony of grav and antigrav forces that skillfully deposited the shuttle on the deck. The great double doors closed behind them.

Trin's heart was still pounding from the ride when the captain rose from the pilot's seat to give her a feral male grin. “Welcome to the
Starrunner,
” he purred, in the exact same tone of menacing anticipation the devil might have used greeting a sinner in hell.

Trin gave him her best undaunted smile. “Why, thank you, Captain August.”

“Believe me,” he said, his eyes dropping to her breasts, “the pleasure's all mine.”

Sebastian's grin was equally wicked. “Well, not
all
his.”

What have I gotten myself into?
moaned a sane fragment of her mind. She ignored it.

This was one test she had no intention of failing.

W
HATEVER Trin had expected a battleship to be, the
Starrunner
wasn't it. The gently curving corridors were wide and bright, filled with bustling, determined people who looked more like the trids she'd seen of corporate professionals than the hardened killers she knew them to be.

As they walked, the captain played genial tour guide, pointing out the ship's mess, sickbay, and crew quarters. He didn't mention the bridge or the ship's weapons systems. Either they were on another deck, or it was information he didn't want her to have. Probably both.

But as they turned off one particular corridor, she noticed both men losing the geniality in dark anticipation. Finally the captain stopped before one of the doors and murmured, “August.”

The door obediently opened. He turned and stepped back, extending a hand to gesture her through. “Home, sweet home.” His smile seem to sizzle down her spine as she entered.

Nathan's quarters were just as welcoming as the rest of the ship—a spacious suite filled with colorful artwork and intriguing souvenirs of his travels. There was an office with an imposing cyberconsole that looked as if he could have piloted the
Starrunner
from its massive chair. Adjoining the office was a sitting area with a couch and chairs on one side and a breakfast nook on the other. It was all surprisingly homey.

At least, until Nathan ushered them to his bedroom.

A huge tridscreen surrounded a bed more than big enough for all three of them. Dry-mouthed, she stared at the gently undulating gel mattress, wondering if he threw orgies often.

Before her overstimulated brain could produce any really Byzantine fantasies, Nathan turned to her and drawled, “Strip.”

“Now?” She blinked, startled.

“Now.” He bared his teeth in that white wolf grin. “I want to see what I'm getting.”

Sebastian looked surprised, as if the obnoxious snap in the captain's voice was unusual.

Whether it was or not, though, the hot blue glitter of Nathan's eyes made it clear he'd meant every word. Trin licked her lips. Could she really do this?

“Backing out already?” His challenging gaze cooled.

“No, of course not.” She reached for buttons of her unisuit.

It was tricky managing the tiny disks with her nervous fingers, and Trin silently cursed the Orvillian dogma that insisted modern suit seals would lead the faithful into sin. You could sin just as much with buttons. It just took longer.

When she finally had the suit open to the crotch, Trin looked up to find both men staring at her with molten anticipation.

“What are you waiting for?” August demanded, his voice a low, rasping growl. “I want you naked.”

Trin wanted to get angry, but the hunger in the captain's eyes made outrage impossible. She grabbed the shoulders of her suit and started wiggling out of it. Her breasts bounced as she bared them, nipples hardened to tight, pink buds.

One of the men made a low sound, rumbling, male and ravenous.

Her gaze flew to the captain. He was standing in an elaborately casual pose, brawny arms folded, one powerful shoulder propped against one bulkhead. But below his half-armor, his tight uniform pants bulged around the outline of a massive erection.

Beside him, his handsome second-in-command watched her with a lupine half-smile. Meeting her gaze, Sebastian wet his full lower lip with his tongue and dipped an eyelid in a wink. His cock was just as hard as August's.

Her heart in her throat, Trin pushed the suit down her legs.

“OH, God,”
Sebastian moaned into his com unit,
“she's a natural redhead.”

And she was. Her bush was as fiery as the mane on her head. Her deliciously full, up-tilted breasts bounced as she kicked her unisuit aside with one slender foot. She was blushing so brightly, Nathan half expected her to grab the suit and dive for the door.

Instead she braced her fists on her hips and lifted her chin with a cool smile that made him want to applaud. “I hope I meet with your approval.”

Nathan pasted on a suitably mocking smile. “Not bad. I've had better. . . .”

“Not lately,”
Sebastian commed.

“. . . But not bad. I don't suppose you're a virgin?” He displayed his teeth. “I like virgins.”