Neeri's Need: How to Crash a Party (4 page)

Sasha shifted, her features coloring. “What does that mean, mate-thralled?”

Ocen answered for her.
It is a Lyomedrin term. It means they become monogamous to one mate, usually for life.

Neeri smirked, glancing at the reclined and occupied Ophidian. “Doesn’t happen a
lot, as you can probably guess. We’re not much for limiting ourselves. Fun and frolic in all forms, that’s the Lyo way. Speaking of, if you’re not gonna play with me, little Red, why don’t you squeeze in there with him? Watching you two frolic was ever
so
much fun the first time.”

Sasha’s face turned an even darker shade of red, but she only rol
led her eyes and huffed a sigh. “You are an enormous slut, Neeri,” she said in a resigned sort of way.

“Thanks for noticing.
And I’m just what an uptight, naive human like you needs. Want me to give you some pointers?”

“I’d rather have major surgery,” Sasha said dryly and glanced past Neeri at the still writhing Ridge. “I’v
e learned more than I wanted already today.”

“That?” Neeri scoffed, waving a dismissive hand. “I was rushed.
I’d do a much better job on you, honey. A harness, I think. Feathers and a nice hard paddle. Mmm, what I could teach you…”

“Oh my
god,
would you shut up.”

Neeri laughed softly. “
I haven’t seen your face that red since Ocen had you under him and you were coming so hard—”

“Neeri!”

“It’s because he’s a different species, isn’t it?”

Sasha buried her face in her hands with a strangled sound. “It’s because I don’t
know
him yet!” she said in a muffled shout. Then she dropped her hands and glared at Neeri. “Maybe it’s a human thing,” she snapped. “But I like to get to know a guy, find out who he is inside, before I fuck him blind. Especially—” She sent Ocen an uncomfortable look and squirmed a little. “Especially if I’m interested in him for more than just a quick screw.” Ocen turned his head toward her, and though his pilot’s helm obscured his eyes, his delighted smile was clearly visible.

Neeri
chewed on the inside of her cheek, trying to keep her lips from curling up. Sasha’s answer was oddly satisfying. What did she care anyway if these two stayed together? Coughing a little and rubbing a finger along the bridge of her nose, she decided it was time to change the subject. “So we need a plan for getting into the facility. I brought Ridge along to give us access to the security net around the moon, but I need a way to convince the guy in charge to open the front door once we land. Pretty sure he’d open wide for new meat. Or reusable meat as the case may be,” she murmured, meeting Sasha’s pretty eyes with a raised eyebrow.

“What? Wait…you want to take me back in there? Use me for
bait?”

No!
Ocen bellowed, loud enough to make Neeri wince. He twisted in the seat, shoving the helm off his head to fix a fierce and vibrant stare on Neeri.
She is
not
going in there!

“Easy, tiger,” Neeri grumbled, rubbing fingertips against her aching temple. “She’d be safe enough with me—”

Sasha scoffed in disbelief and Ocen said even louder,
NO! You said these people were dangerous. I will not put her in their hands again.

Neeri slammed a hand against the wall with a snarl of pained fury, pointing an extended claw at Ocen. “Moderate your damned tone, Scales!
And pilot this skinny ship before we crash in a sun or trip over a motherfucking planet. She won’t go
in.
She’s just the show I need to get Big O to open the front cocksucking
door!
Do you want your brother or not?”

He stared her down for a moment longer with an ominous hiss. Then he reclined again and jammed the helm over his eyes.
Think of another way. Use me instead.

Neeri barked a sour laugh. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, but Big O will never believe I overpowered and captured you. And I can’t use Ridge or he’d get s
uspicious. I’m not enough by myself. He’d just brush me off. But I can lure him with Sasha, especially if I tell him you and she weren’t really true mates. He’ll want to know why, get more data for the program.”

“The guy who runs the place is called Big O?” Sasha asked with a dubious look.

“He’s an AI, the orchestrator of the program. I call him Big O because he wouldn’t know an orgasm if it sat on his face. And that shit’s just funny, since he’s in charge of a sex study. I need your help with him, Red. He doesn’t think much of me, so he won’t see this coming.”

Sasha shifted, cupping her elbows and curling her legs in closer. “I don’t know…can’t you just jimmy the door or something?
Maybe find a back way in?”

“There’s only one way in and out of the place. And it can only be controlled from the inside. Security precaution. Only O can open it.
” Sasha frowned at her. Neeri shrugged. “What can I say? They’re a bunch of paranoid bastards.”

“Fine, I’ll do it.”

No!
Ocen snarled again.
Find another way, Lyo.

Sasha shook her head. “Ocen, is she telling the truth about the door and the orchestrator?”

He hesitated, long body flexing with tension.
Yes.

“Then I don’t really see another way. Unless you want to try blasting it open—”

My vessel does not have ordinance.

“And that might be dangerous for everybody inside anyway,” Neeri added with a grimace. “So is it settled, then?”

“What are you going to do once you get the front door open?”

“Oh, I’ll improvise,” Neeri murmured.

I will go with you,
Ocen stated with a hard edge, as if daring her to contradict him.

Neeri adored dares. She
smiled sweetly, though he couldn’t see it. “No, you won’t. I brought you along to pilot, not screw up a perfectly good snatch and grab. Ridge is my security keycard, Sasha’s my bait, and you are my getaway ship.”

Unacceptable. I do not trust you with my brother’s life.

“I don’t need your trust. I just need you to fly the fucking ship.”

“Just wait a second,” Sasha said, holding up a hand and looking between them like a referee at a cage match. “
Neeri, seriously. What are you going to do once you get inside? Maybe we can help.”

Neeri raked impatient fingers through her hair. This is what irritated her about
working with and relying on others. They never just did what she told them to do. “The system is mostly automated. No live guards, just a bunch of bots I can’t reason with or fuck into submission. I have to take out Big O first or I don’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of getting through that place. Once he goes down, though, a remote distress starts tattling on us and some auto protections kick in. I won’t have a lot of time to get to Adin before the big boys come calling, or maybe they’ll just hit the delete button from wherever the hell they are.”

Sasha blanched, warm brown eyes darkening with horror. “They would do that? Just kill everybody?”

“I don’t think that’s plan A, but imploding the place is one of their contingencies. Not that I was supposed to know about it, but I’m a curious kitty.”

Sasha framed her own face with trembling hands, eyes wide. “
If you’re right and these people are as scary as you say…what the hell made you think you could take them on? Why are we
doing
this?”

“Did you hit your head or something? Forget Adin already?” Neeri
growled, ready to shake some sense into the little human.

“
But…” Sasha rubbed her eyes, shuddering a little. “They let Ocen and I go. Why not just wait and see if they’d let him go, too?”

“Some of the more int
eresting subjects have been in there for years. And they liked Ocen a
lot
before he met you and stopped playing. How long you suppose we should wait?”

Sasha chewed on her lower lip, sending Ocen a glance full of warm concern. “Okay, fine. We’re going in. But I still don’t get why you’re doing this, Neeri. You’re not exactly the selfless hero type. What’s in it for you?”

“Payback. They tried to wipe my memory and dump my ass like I was a cheap, used-up whore. Pisses me off a bit.”

Sasha blinked. “You’re risking your life because you’re a bit pissed off? You know that’s insane, right?”

Neeri grinned, but Ocen interrupted before she could respond.
We will be in range soon. I need to know how you plan to get my brother out before the people in charge react.

“I told you, I’ll improvise.”

Not good enough. Are you at least certain you can reach and disable this orchestrator?

“Oh, yeah. Big O won’t know what hit him.”

Can you disable the distress and defenses?

“
Maybe, but why take the chance? If I can’t do it, then I probably won’t have time to get Adin out.”

I will get him
out. After you disable the orchestrator, I will retrieve Adin while you attempt to control the system.

Neeri pinched the bridge of her nose and cursed through clenched teeth.
“Scales, you’re making me nuts. I’m the only one who should go in there because I’m the only one who knows the layout. You start wandering around and I’ll just have to rescue your sweet ass, too.”

“But what about all the other people?”

Neeri glanced at Sasha with a raised eyebrow. “What about them?”

“Well, we have to help them, too. If you don’
t try to kill the fireworks, the place could implode. Everybody in there dies. So I’m with Ocen—you crash the system, he gets Adin. I know we can’t fit everybody on this ship, but we can call in help for the rest of them.”

Neeri stared at her in baffled disgust. “What is this, some weird human martyr thing?
What do you care? You don’t know them.”

Sasha stared back with narrowed eyes. “
And you apparently don’t know right from wrong. We’re doing this, Neeri. We can save a bunch of people and expose their fucked up program. Wouldn’t that be bigger payback?”

“Hmm. Good point.
And I suppose I can talk Scales through the place. But if either of you screw this up, I’m going to stop playing nice.”

Sasha made a rude noise.
“This
is nice?”

Neeri chuckled. The red-head really was growing on her. “I’
ll work on Ridge for a little bit, prime him for the big event. The security net has an access code keyed to his voice print. If he balks, we don’t get in and all hell breaks loose.”

“Couldn’t you have recorded it before? Then he wouldn’t be here
, and I wouldn’t have to watch him do
that.”
Sasha pointed with a grimace.

Neeri glanced over her shoulder. Ridge had arched his body, pressing himself
into the netting so hard it was making furrows in his flesh. His hips pumped fast and furiously, gouging the straps across his cock with every hard snap of his pelvis. A guttural sound like a rutting animal burst repeatedly from his throat.

“Uh-oh. Looks like someone’s having a little too much fun,” Neeri murmured. Stalking over, she shoved his hips against the wall to hold him still and growled in his ear, “
Bad boy. No coming yet.”

He sobbed and thrashed in her hold, his eyes blood-shot and blind.
“Please!
Oh, please, Mistress…I’ll do…anything. L-let me…chew your nipples…tongue your holes…s-suck your clit. Please, ride my face, Mistress…”

M
ildly tempting. But the memory of Adin’s tongue driving and swirling inside her, black, nimble, and ruthless, stole her breath and sent fire flicking out from her suddenly throbbing clit to her extremities. She suspected Ridge’s wildest efforts would be boring by comparison. “That’s not what I want, Ridge. But if you tell me what I want to hear, real loud and clear, I’ll put my claws on you and let you cum like a rocket. Sound good?”

“W-what…do you w-want…to hear?” he gasped, whimpering and twitching his hips in her hard grip.

“The access code for the facility’s security net.”

“I…they’ll k-kill me,” he moaned, beads of sweat rolling down his face.

“They’ll have to catch you first. You’re a slippery little bastard. I have faith you can outrun them. You’ll have to anyway when they find out you fucked up and didn’t wipe me. Job’s over; time to move on, Ridge.” She leaned in and squirmed against him, just to keep him fired up.

He bucked and moaned so loud she winced.
“Yes!
Yes, Mistress, anything…”

“Good boy. Don’t move, now. You don’
t cum until I tell you to.” She shifted away, ignoring his torrid agreement and looking toward the pilot’s den. “Are we close, Scales?”

Yes. A few moments only.

“Patch that security transmission back here, then.” Neeri briskly undid Ridge’s pants, peeling them away from his violently engorged rod. Then she waited with a rather disturbing detachment. This should be exciting her, arousing her, forcing this asshole to cum on her command. On any normal day, she’d be playing him like a harp. Instead, she couldn’t wait to get it over with and get back into the facility. She couldn’t wait to see Adin again.