and solo travelers crossing the galaxy.
No, the extremely erotic art decorating the arrivals lobby and the risqué uniforms worn by the staff corrected his assumptions. This was a pleasure ship. It was wall to wall sex and sensual delights. It was the kind of place lovers escaped to when they wanted to dabble in new carnal experiences and wildly illicit parties and games.
This was either going to be the best hasty decision of his life—or the absolute worst.
Chapter Nineteen
A sex ship.
He brought me to a sex ship.
Maisie gawked at their surroundings as Terror led her through the lobby to the bank of elevators. He avoided her questioning gaze as they stepped onto the elevator and kept his focus on the gleaming glass walls as it shot higher and higher. When they stepped off the elevator and onto their floor, she was greeted with yet another outrageously filthy image on the info screen mounted on the wall. It took her a moment to process the image. There were eight arms and eight legs and those were...
Oh. My.
She hadn’t even considered that a woman would want three men at once and wondered at the logistics of deciding who got to put their penis where. Did it happen organically? Did they choreograph their lovemaking before they started?
Why did he bring me here?
Of all the ships available, why had he chosen this one? He had made it abundantly clear that he wanted nothing to do with her in any sexual way, and after witnessing his kiss with Pam, she understood why. Was this just to throw any trackers off their scent? If so, it was extraordinarily cruel to taunt her like this.
Their cabin was at the very end of the hall. Terror used the keycard he had been handed at check-in to unlock it, and he stepped aside for her to enter first. The lights came on as she stepped over the threshold, and she gasped in shock. The only thing in the room that looked even slightly normal was the bed, but upon further inspection, she spotted the cleverly hidden hooks and rings for restraint games. Almost afraid to look up, she glanced toward the ceiling and saw all sorts of strange contraptions that could be pulled down for use.
There were oversized chairs and multiple round and square upholstered stools, everything covered in a fabric that was shiny and easy to clean. She walked toward the bed, pausing every now and then to look at the selection of whips and hitting implements on the wall or the shelf of cuffs and restraints.
Overwhelmed by the room and everything she had been through in the last few days, she flopped down on the bed. A loose chain fell down, slapping onto the blanket beside her hand. She gave it an experimental tug and realized it was retractable as it quickly raced toward the ceiling again. Struck by the way this room looked like a kinky circus, she started laughing hysterically at the absurdity of her situation.
This is so fucked up. Why can’t my life ever just be normal?
She dropped her tired head into her hands and laughed like a lunatic as the stress engulfed her body in a spasm of fight or flight. The laughter turned to sobs. She couldn’t handle much more of this. She was this close to reaching her breaking point.
Terror crouched down in front of her and dragged her hands away from her face to see her better. His face was a mask of concern as he carefully wiped the tears from her cheeks with his thumbs. He had tugged off the knit hat, but he still wore the glasses that enabled him to understand her. “What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?” she repeated incredulously. “Come on! Look at this place!” She gestured wide with her arms. “We’re stuck in this ridiculous sex dungeon for a week!”
“Six days,” he corrected, “and it’s not really that ridiculous.” He glanced up at the trapeze like contraction dangling from the ceiling and shrugged. “Okay. Maybe that is ridiculous.”
She rolled her eyes. “The amount of time we’re stuck together isn’t the point.”
“Then what is the point?” He hadn’t moved his hand from her face, and his thumb was drawing maddeningly gentle circles on her cheek.
Feeling vulnerable but also angry, she said, “The point is that you’re stuck here with me! Me. The woman you clearly do not want to fuck when you could have been here with Pam if I hadn’t screwed up your whole life! You could