“You can’t!” Kaylee struggled as hard as she could but the huge male slave was already pushing her to the hard tile floor. Lyra’s answer was a nasty laugh.

  “Let’s see how well you like being penetrated now, shall we?” she snapped. “Geemus has quite a prodigiously large shaft and I haven’t let him breed a female in ages.”

  The huge, sweaty slave loomed over Kaylee, a leer on his brutish face. His meaty hands closed over her wrists and a thick thigh parted her own. Kaylee kicked out, but her bare feet were no match for his brawn. He only laughed at her, a deep guffawing sound that made her think he wasn’t completely sane.

  “Enough of that now, mistress.” He had a voice like someone gargling with gravel. He transferred both her wrists to one hand and with the other, he grabbed her throat.

  Kaylee gasped for breath, her airway narrowed to a tiny thread. But still she fought, though her kicking and struggling was having no effect at all. A horrible realization came to her—she was trapped and probably going to die. As the slave’s huge, sweaty face loomed in her vision like a pockmarked moon, Kaylee closed her eyes tightly, not wanting to see her fate. Please, Goddess, let it be over quickly. If I’m going to die, don’t let it take long or hurt too much!

  The massive slaved pressed his bulk against her, his foul breath blowing in her face, the stick of his sweat stinging her nostrils. Kaylee wanted to shy away from him but she was too weak…she could not longer get enough air to fight. She could feel herself fading…

  Suddenly the heavy weight was dragged off her and she could breathe again. She drew in a choking breath and coughed it back out again. Who…?

  “Fucking scum!” a deep, familiar voice growled. “Don’t you fucking touch her!”

  Kaylee opened her eyes and looked up to see Solar standing behind the slave who had been attacking her, his long fingers wrapped around the other male’s throat. Geemus was already turning reddish-purple in the face and he clawed desperately at the fingers cutting off his air supply.

  “Solar?” she whispered hoarsely, scarcely daring to believe it.

  “Got it in one, sweetheart.” He was squeezing even tighter now, choking the massive slave from behind until Geemus’s entire face went dark with congested blood. Kaylee wondered if she’d looked like that a minute ago when the slave had his fingers wrapped around her throat.

  “But…but what are you doing here?” she couldn’t help asking.

  Solar gave her a swift glance. “Saving your ass, apparently.”

  At that moment, Geemus broke Solar’s hold around his neck and swung around to grapple with him face to face.

  Kaylee gasped and jumped back as the punches flew. Beside her, Lyra did the same. At the same time, she was pulling something out of her designer bag—some kind of projectile weapon. To Kaylee’s horror, she raised the muzzle and pointed it at Solar.

  “No—you can’t!” Without thinking Kaylee leapt forward and tried to knock the gun out of Lyra’s hand. She succeeded but not before her former “friend” got off a shot. The blast went wild, a beam of blue light grazing Kaylee’s arm, which immediately went numb, then hitting the huge, bald Geemus squarely in the center of his oily chest.

  Geemus grunted and dropped like a sack of stones to the tile floor, his eyes rolling up to show the whites.

  “Now, look what you’ve done!” raged Lyra. “He was on loan from my sister. If you’ve damaged him there’ll be hell to pay.”

  “Oh my Goddess, Is he dead?” Kaylee ran forward, her left arm hanging limp against her side.

  “No, just stunned,” Solar said grimly, bending over the other male, He rose slowly, wiping blood from his mouth. “He should be out for a good long time.” He glared at Lyra. “Long enough to take care of you, anyway.”

  “Stay away.” Lyra was already backing up, trying to keep an eye on Solar as she also searched the floor frantically for her dropped weapon.

  “Looking for this?” Solar stooped and scooped it up, holding the small silver projectile in the palm of his large hand.

  “Give it to me! At once, slave!” Lyra demanded imperiously.

  Solar’s face grew dark.

  “I’m not your fucking slave,” he growled. “And I’m not putting up with your shit anymore.” He did something to the settings on the silver weapon and then pointed it at Lyra and shot her point blank in the chest.

  Chapter Nine

  Kaylee gave a strangled little scream as the other female crumpled to a heap on the floor. She took a step back from Solar, her eyes going wide.

  “Don’t worry.” He turned to her quickly and lay the gun down on the floor at his feet. “She’s just stunned. Look—see? I’m putting it down.”

  “Just stunned?” She looked over and saw that Lyra’s chest was still rising and falling. “Not…”

  “Dead? No. I could never bring myself to kill a female. Not even a sadistic one like your friend Lyra,” he said roughly.

  “She’s not my friend,” Kaylee said in a choked voice. “She never was. I know that now.”

  The angry look in his green and gold eyes softened somewhat.

  “Sorry you had to find that out the hard way.”

  “Thanks for helping me,” Kaylee said. “But…why did you come back?”

  “I heard what she was planning to do before I left,” he said gruffly. “Or at least I heard that she was counting on me to kill you so she could get her hands on your inheritance after she discredited you.”

  Suddenly Kaylee understood.

  “It was you—you changed the images on her Communi-K.”

  Solar smiled grimly.

  “Guilty as charged. I’m the tech officer for my ship as well as the navigator and first mate. Image manipulation is kind of a hobby of mine.”

  “Well you did a really good job,” Kaylee said. “I mean, nobody would have ever guessed that was me instead of Lyra. Nobody who didn’t know what my, uh…what that part of my anatomy looked like, anyway.”

  The thought of someone else knowing what her pussy looked like and the memory of what she and Solar had done together made her feel hot all over. Suddenly she realized that she was standing there completely nude, talking to him as though it was no big deal. She tried to cover herself with her arms, only to find that the left one was completely dead—she couldn’t move it a bit.

  Solar noticed her struggle to move her arm and came forward, a concerned look on his face.

  “Hey, did Lyra hit you with the stun beam?” he asked, reaching for her numb arm.

  “I think so. She was aiming it at you and I tried to knock it out of the way but I think part of the beam hit my arm.” Kaylee took a step and almost fell as her left leg tried to give way. She looked up at Solar with wide eyes. “What’s happening? I know she didn’t hit my leg—why is it going numb?”

  “The effects are spreading,” he said grimly. “You need to counteract them at once. Here.”

  He toed off his boots and began to strip out of the black leather trousers and green shirt he was wearing.

  “What are you doing?” Kaylee asked, confused and worried.

  “Need to get you in the warm bubble pool ASAP,” he growled. “The heat will counteract the effects of the stun beam.”

  “Well, I can go in myself,” she protested, feeling suddenly shy as his tan, muscular body was revealed.

  “Get into a deep pool of liquid by yourself with half your body numb? I don’t think so,” Solar growled, frowning. “I’m getting in with you. But these are the only clothes I have and I went through a hell of a lot to get them. I’m not soaking them in pink bubble bath—not when I might have to make a quick get away. Now, come here, sweetheart.” He was completely nude now and he swept her into his arms, making her gasp.

  “Oh!”

  “It’s all right.” He was already walking down the broad steps of the bubble pool, carrying her as easily as if she was a child. “You’ll be fine in a minute.”

  Kaylee bit her lip as he walked deeper into the w
arm, bubbling liquid.

  “Okay, I guess…guess that’s good.”

  “More than good. Can you feel this?” He set her gently on her feet and began massaging her numb arm under the pink liquid.

  “Some,” Kaylee admitted. “It…tingles.” Or maybe the tingling she was feeling was from having his big, warm hands on her again. Even in the heated water she could still feel him radiating warmth against her skin as he touched her.

  “Good. That’s a good sign.” He nodded looking relieved. “Lyra had that damn thing set high enough to stun a charging vranna. If it’d hit you full force it might have stopped your heart.”

  “Thank you for saving me,” Kaylee said in a small voice. “But you never really told me why you came back? I mean, you’d already doctored the files on her Communi-K. Did you hear her saying she was going to try this too—to bring some…some goon to attack me?”

  Solar shook his head. “No, but I’ve known people like her before. Once she had your inheritance in her sights, I knew she’d stop at nothing to get it.”

  “So you came back just to protect me? On the off chance she’d try to come after me again?”

  He nodded reluctantly.

  “Yeah, I guess so.”

  “But why?” Kaylee couldn’t help asking again. “I mean, you don’t owe me anything. If anything, you ought to hate me. After the way I hurt you, I mean,” she ended in a low voice.

  “You didn’t hurt me,” he said roughly. “Touching me and rubbing your sweet little naked body against me wasn’t exactly the worst torture I’ve ever endured.”

  “You know what I mean,” Kaylee said softly. “Pain doesn’t have to be physical—that wasn’t what I was apologizing for. I…hurt you with my reaction to your questions. Before you left.”

  “You mean when I asked if you were willing to deal with the consequences if we finished making love?” He cocked one eyebrow at her.

  Kaylee bit her lip and nodded.

  “Don’t give it another thought,” Solar said, rubbing her arm briskly. “I was just trying to warn you about what might happen if I finished inside you with no barrier between us.”

  “I understand.” Kaylee looked away. “So…you were just being nice.”

  “More like protective,” he growled. “I tried to fly away—I tried like hell, sweetheart. But I couldn’t leave until I knew you were safe.”

  “That was really…really kind of you,” she whispered, not sure what else to say.

  He sighed. “Really kind and really stupid. I mean, I know the score here. I know what your people think of males. But I had to make sure you were okay. Just like I have to make sure you’re over the effects of that stun blast before I go.”

  Before I go. He was leaving then. He’d only come to be sure she was safe and then he would be on his way. The knowledge felt like a stone lodged in her heart but Kaylee tried not to show it.

  “Thank you,” she murmured, looking down at his big hands on her arm. She tried to wiggle her fingers. To her relief, she found her hand had almost returned to normal. “Oh, it’s really working! I can move again.”

  “Good—no lasting damage done to your arm then. But what about here?” He touched her throat gently, letting his fingers trail over the place where the huge slave had choked her. “Fucking bastard,” he muttered, his eyes going dark. “I’m sorry I didn’t stop him before he did that.”

  “It’s okay…I mean, I’m okay. Just a little hoarse.” His light touch over her bruised flesh sent a shiver through Kaylee.

  “It looks painful though. Poor little mistress,” he murmured, pulling her closer to his broad, bare chest.

  “I…I’m not your mistress,” Kaylee said breathlessly. “I never was—not really. What…what are you doing?” she asked as he leaned down to place a gentle kiss on her bruised collar bone.

  “Kissing it better. And making sure you’re over the effects of the stun ray.” He looked into her eyes and she found herself falling into that deep green and gold gaze, getting lost in it as she had before. His warm scent was filling her senses, making her feel slightly drunk. “Do you mind?”

  “No, I…I guess not,” Kaylee whispered. Her heart was beating so hard it felt like it was shaking her entire body and she couldn’t get a deep enough breath but she didn’t want him to stop.

  “Good,” he growled softly. “So can you feel this?” He kissed her lightly again.

  “Y-yes,” Kaylee whispered, daring to press closer to him so that her nipples rubbed against the broad planes of his chest. Goddess, of course she could feel it! Everywhere he touched her it was like warm fire running through her veins.

  “What about here?” One big hand drifted down to cup her breast and she moaned softly as he thumbed her nipple.

  “Yes,” she gasped, fighting the urge to push her breast more fully into his palm.

  “And here?” the hand strayed even further, finding its way under the pink foaming surface of the pool to cup her aching pussy. “I know you said your leg was going numb.”

  “Goddess…” Kaylee moaned breathlessly. “Yes, I…I can feel that. Feel your hand on me there.”

  “Good.” Solar’s eyes were warm and half-lidded with need. “Just want to make sure you don’t have any impaired function. Do you mind if I test to make sure?”

  “How…how would you do that?” Kaylee murmured. She could feel his fingers pressing lightly against her outer pussy lips and she thought she knew what he was going to say but she wanted to hear him say it anyway.

  “I’d have to touch inside you. Penetrate you,” Solar growled softly. “And then you’d see if you could squeeze me. That ought to prove that you’re okay.”

  “All right,” Kaylee whispered almost at once. She knew it was wrong to want this—wrong to want to have him inside her again, even his fingers. But she couldn’t help it—she felt like an addict who had been offered a taste of her favorite drug. She just couldn’t turn it down.

  “That’s good then,” Solar murmured. “I’ll go slow, sweetheart—don’t worry.”

  Gently he parted her pussy lips and she moaned softly as the warm, bubbly liquid rushed in, tickling the tender bud of her exposed clit. The touch of the bubbles was light and teasing but Solar’s fingers as he slipped them into her inner folds were firm and knowing. Kaylee moaned again as he began to circle her swollen clit with one fingertip.

  “Can you feel that, sweetheart?” he murmured softly. “Feel me fingering your sweet little pussy?”

  “Yes,” she whispered, spreading her legs a little wider. “Goddess, yes, Solar.”

  “And are you ready for me to test a little more? To penetrate you?”

  In answer, she clutched his arm and looked up at him.

  “Please, yes,” she said softly. “I…I want you to.”

  “Gods…” His eyes blazed with lust. “All right then—slowly, sweetheart.” As he spoke two long, strong fingers found the entrance to her pussy and slipped deep into her core.

  “Ahh!” Kaylee threw back her head and moaned. Goddess, it felt so good…so right to feel him in her again. She only wished he was penetrating her with something besides his fingers. But she would take what she could get.

  “You can feel it all right?” he growled softly, raising an eyebrow at her.

  Kaylee nodded. “I…yes. More than all right,” she answered breathlessly.

  “Then squeeze for me, sweetheart. Let me feel you squeeze me tight while I fingerfuck that sweet little pussy.”

  Kaylee obeyed his command without question, using her inner muscles to squeeze as tightly as she could.

  Solar groaned. “Gods, I can feel that all right—you’re so tight, sweetheart.”

  I’d be tighter with your shaft inside me. The words almost came out but she managed to clamp down on them at the last instant. What would he think if she blurted something like that out?

  “Well…” He sighed. “I guess this proves you’re over the effects of the stun ray.”

  “I gues
s,” Kaylee murmured as he slowly withdrew his fingers. Goddess, she felt so empty without him in her. “Except…”

  “Except what?” He raised an eyebrow.

  “Except what if I’m not over the effects?” Kaylee blurted. “I mean, it’s hard to tell with just…just your fingers in me. You might miss something that way. I think you ought to be sure.”

  “Oh?” His deep voice was a lazy, lustful drawl. “And how do you think I should do that?”

  “You should…should fill me all the way. With something besides your fingers. Something bigger.” She couldn’t believe she was saying this but somehow the words just came out.

  “Something like this you mean?” Taking her hand in his, Solar led her seeking fingers to his shaft.

  “Yes, exactly like that,” Kaylee breathed, wrapping her fingers around the thick ridge of flesh. “I…I think it’s the only way to be sure I’m completely, uh, functional again. That there’s no further danger from the blast I took from the stun ray.”

  “Is that right?” he growled softly.

  “Yes, that’s right.”

  "You shouldn't tempt me like this you know--I thought your people frowned on males penetrating females."

  "We do...." Daringly, she turned away from him and propped her arms against the rounded side of the pool. Then she spread her legs and looked over her shoulder at him. It was a pose she’d seen in one of Aunt Jamelda’s porn vids and it had made her incredibly hot to watch it. She’d replayed the scene over and over, watching as the male took the female from behind, cupping her breasts in his big hands as he pumped between her spread thighs. “Well?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at Solar.

  “Gods, sweetheart…I shouldn’t.” But despite his words, he stepped forward, his thick shaft in one hand, and rubbed between her open thighs. Kaylee moaned as she felt the broad head of his cock coupled with the bubbles of the pool caressing her open pussy.

  “Please, Solar,” she whispered, not caring if she was begging. “Please…fill me one more time before you go.”