free and I almost fell on my ass.
I was standing under the silver belly of a havoc cruiser, the bottom hatch opened, and its insides exposed. I wiped the sweat from my forehead before studying the tube in my hand. A small hairline crack ran along one silver side and I smiled triumphantly.
“I knew you were the problem,” I said gleefully to the tube. “Wait until Melu sees this. He’s gonna be so pissed that I was right.”
I walked out from under the havoc cruiser, rubbing absently at my thighs. They were sore and my pussy was aching pleasantly from the sex with Galan early this morning. But it still wouldn’t stop me from banging him again tonight.
If he wants to. He didn’t mention anything about sex again with you, did he? Just said goodbye when you snuck out of his room this morning.
“Ellis?”
I glanced up, smiling happily when I saw Inara. “Hey, you. What are you doing here?”
“I came to see if you wanted to have lunch with me in the garden,” Inara said. “Wait… do you even get a lunch break?”
Melu materialized behind Inara, his green skin weirdly dark and his big body tense. I grinned teasingly at him and raised my voice so he could hear it over the din of the docking bay. “Yeah, even as hardass and grumpy as Melu is, he let’s us take a lunch break. Probably because he’s so old he needs a nap at lunch just to keep up with the rest of us.”
Inara rolled her eyes. “You and your old jokes. Seriously, Ellis, he isn’t old and he’s good looking and in, like, amazing shape. I can only hope my future husband has a body like his when he’s his age. I mean, have you taken a good look at Melu’s ass? I bet you could bounce a quarter off that thing, and his chest is -”
“Inara,” I said loudly, “please stop talking.”
“What? Why?” She stared at me in confusion. “All I’m saying is that Melu’s body is crazy hot and…. oh shit, he’s standing right behind me, isn’t he?”
“Yup.”
Inara’s face turned bright red and she yanked on her hair as she slowly turned. Keeping her gaze on Melu’s chest, she said, “Hello, Melu. It’s, um, nice to see you again.”
His tail lashing back and forth, Melu grunted out a hello before staring at me. “Do not be late in returning from your lunch break, human.”
He stalked away, his tail still whipping from side to side.
“Oh my God,” Inara said. “I want to die of embarrassment.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “It probably gave him a stiffy to hear that you think he’s hot. If he can even still get it up at his age.”
“You act like he’s ancient. C’mon, let’s get out of here. I only have an hour for lunch,” Inara said.
After a quick stop at the kitchen to grab some food, we found a quiet spot in the garden to eat. I bit into my piece of poffin bread as Inara ate some warracot.
“How’s your sister doing?” I said.
A pinched look covered Inara’s pretty features. “My parents took her to see my uncle last night.”
“Is that a bad thing?” I said.
“It’s not great. He’s involved in a lot of shady shit. Black market juice shady.”
“Oh,” I said.
Inara brushed some crumbs from her lap. “He made this joke once to my dad about how me and my sister would be worth a lot of juice on the black market.”
“Holy shit,” I said. “He actually said that?”
“Yeah.”
“What did your father say?”
“He just laughed it off. Told me that his brother was always joking around and didn’t mean it.” Inara stared at the warracot on her fork. “Only, he didn’t sound like he was joking. You know?”
“Yeah,” I said. I knew guys like Inara’s uncle. Men who would be willing to do anything to get some of the gallberry juice. They could and would sell it at ridiculous amounts to desperate middles and uppers with sick family members and no breeding compatible females.
Or in some cases, I couldn’t stop the shudder going through my body, they would be willing to help middles trade other things for juice.
Ukana, ukana, ukana.
The disappointment on my parents’ faces, the desperation that oozed from their bodies like a rotting stench that never went away, the paleness of Esther’s sweet face… all of it flashed through my head.
My appetite vanished immediately, and I set the food aside. I could still see Esther’s face and I closed