Piras is put in his proper place in today's excerpt. The ebook releases Friday!
"
* * * *
“Specialist Nath, report to your quarters.”
Hope smirked at Kila’s gruff tone on her com. She was aware her shift, as well as his, had ended nearly an hour ago, but she’d been busy assembling a nanospy program sure to knock her clanmates’ socks off. She was certain it would come in useful on Earth II.
Was she okay when it came to spying on her own people on the Kalquorian Empire’s behalf? Given her history of living in the presence of religious zealots who’d stopped at nothing to hold power, hell yes. She had no problem where keeping tabs on potential dictators was concerned.
“On my way, Captain.” She sat back in her hover chair in her tiny cubicle in Engineering and stretched. Her spine crackled satisfyingly.
She rose and headed for the corridor, waving to the engineering crew as she passed them. Lokmi had already left, excited to celebrate their leaving Bi’is for the last time. Hope was thrilled too, but her program was close to completion.
Another hour, and I bet I would have been done. She sighed wistfully as she stepped into the elevator-like conveyance waiting to bring her mere steps from her clan’s quarters. Oh well, tomorrow was soon enough to finish her latest project, test it, and check it off her list.
Life was good.
Hope entered her clan’s quarters moments later. Three bronze faces swung in her direction, and a thrill shot through her. Elegant Piras, feral Kila, and stunning Lokmi, so different in looks and personalities, but equally exciting. Her heart throbbed overflowing love for the trio who’d saved her father from execution, her sister from being the child bride of a monster, and herself from an uncertain future years before.
“Hi honeys, I’m home.” She beamed at them.
“You took long enough,” Kila groused, but as usual, a smile played at the corner of his lips. “It’s no fun coming in second to a bunch of miniature robots.”
“You never come in second. You just get momentarily delayed. I seem to remember you being late on a few occasions after visiting Engineering too.”
“And me being late because I had to undo what he’d done.” Lokmi joined in, wearing a pretended scowl at Kila. Or maybe it wasn’t pretended. Kila was a born tinkerer, son of a race shuttle team, unable to resist the urge to make his ship faster. Engineering was Lokmi’s domain, however, and the pair locked horns over Kila’s clandestine modifications when they were discovered.
“Okay, okay, we’re all a bunch of workaholics who love what we do. Let’s put duty aside for a few hours and toast to our change of address.” In a dramatic flourish, Piras produced the biggest bottle of leshella Hope had ever seen. She clapped in approval.
“Party time!”
One of the men had picked up dinner from the mess hall and brought it to their cramped quarters. They picnicked on their vast sleeping mat, which took up much of the floor space.
“Pilchok always tastes so decadent. I feel I’m eating dessert ahead of the meal,” Hope said, licking the flaky pastry-like meat off her lips. She swallowed a healthy mouthful of leshella to wash it down. The Plasian wine went down easily, and she was already feeling quite mellow.
Lokmi popped another morsel on her tongue. “I’m a firm believer in decadence. In fact, I request extra helpings. Less work, more play.”
“For you, work is play,” Kila chuckled. “If you don’t have an engine to fuss over, you hate life.”
“I’m sure that’s why you fuck with my ship on an ongoing basis, out of concern for my joy.”
“Your ship?” Kila’s ever-present grin took on its dangerous cast, his teeth gleaming through his dark beard.
“Okay, your ship. But they’re my engines.”
“If they’re part of my ship, then it makes them—”
As they commenced their usual debate, which ignited at least once a week, Piras offered Hope a bite of wedi-sauced niria. “At least no one fights over your nanobots.”
“Good. I’d hate to put any of you in a medi-bed.”
He chuckled, and Hope looked at him in undisguised adoration. The “Terror of the Fleet,” as Piras had been called before his spy activity had made him a pariah among Kalquorians, wasn’t known outside of his clan for smiles. Having given up his home, friends, and an open relationship with his family to save the Kalquorian Empire from the treasonous Dramok Maf, he’d had damned little to be happy about. Hope had made it her mission to give him as much pleasure in life as was in her power.
Fortunately, their pleasures meshed quite satisfactorily.
When he offered her another bite…Kalquorian men traditionally fed their Matara clanmates…Hope brushed his arm aside. She leaned forward to claim a kiss. Piras yielded to her command, his lips parting to invite a deeper embrace. She accepted, kissing him until he was left gasping. She was gratified to spy how his crotch bulged in interest. The spicy scent of his arousal mixed enticingly with the food.
She tapped his wrist, as he still held the fork aloft. He swallowed hard and fed her, hunger for something besides pilchok and niria in his gaze. She patted his thigh and held out her glass to Lokmi, who smirked as he refilled it.
She didn’t dare tease him as she did Piras. He and Kila weren’t to be toyed with, unless she was in the mood to be taken under particular circumstances.
She was, but only after dinner and leshella had been consumed. And maybe Piras, as well.
Life was great.
“Any word on what we’ll find when we reach Earth’s Alpha Station?”
Kila’s question snapped Piras into his in-charge persona. “Rear Admiral Hobato and Admiral Tranis are to meet us there. They’ll be speaking to the station’s commander and the head of Earth’s on-planet security prior to our arrival, to make sure they’re willing to work with me as commanding officer of Earth Space Security.”
“Admiral Tranis, huh?” Kila’s dangerous grin had returned. “His Nobek won’t be there, will he?”
Piras regarded him levelly. “He isn’t part of Fleet Command, so I see no reason why he would be.”
Hope wondered why Kila was so jealous of Piras’ previous relationship with Admiral Tranis’ Nobek. Piras never brought him up, but anytime Admiral Tranis’ name was spoken, Kila immediately mentioned Nobek Lidon.
She’d asked for clarification on their past. Kila wouldn’t answer her questions. He acted as if he didn’t hear her ask them. Piras merely shrugged and said it was ancient history. Lokmi had no idea what had happened except Piras and Lidon had been in a long-term relationship, supposedly once destined for a clanship. Dramok Tranis had shown up, and Lidon had clanned with him instead.
Lokmi opined Kila was territorial when it came to Piras, and somehow saw the other Nobek as a continuing rival.
It was a mystery, and Kila and Piras were determined to keep it so. Hope wondered if she’d get the opportunity to ask Tranis for the story. She wondered if he’d answer her, a stranger and the Matara to his former rival for Nobek Lidon.
Probably not.
Piras’ expression was closed off as he offered Hope a forkful of food. Kila appeared sullen, his smirk more of a snarl. The clan’s celebratory dinner was quickly fading into a pout party. Hope and Lokmi exchanged a glance. His eyes rolled.
“You know what we need?” she suggested brightly. “Or at least, what I need? A naked man. Piras, make me happy.” She pushed his nearly empty plate away.
He blinked at her. A flush crept up from his collar.
“You heard her.” Kila’s voice was a growl. “Strip or get strapped.”
There was a hesitation as Piras weighed whether he wanted punishment or not, then he pulled the resealable seam of his one-piece uniform apart. Hope ogled him as his defined chest came in view, then his shoulders and biceps. He shrugged the top of his formsuit free.
Piras got off the mat to pull the uniform the rest of the way off. Then he stood before them, his twin cocks gleaming wetness and thick from arousal. His head was bowed, but Hope saw the gleam of his purple eyes sneaking a peek at her through the fall of his long, black hair.
She pointed at the surface of bed beside her, aware Kila was chugging the last of the leshella directly from the bottle and Lokmi was clearing the remains of their dinner away. “Kneel. Hands behind your back.”
The most demanding admiral of the fleet, the brute who’d cowed the nastiest Nobeks who’d dared to refute him, was nowhere in evidence. He was a Dramok, a breed that backed down in no way to no one…but Piras was a rarity of his kind when it came to sex. He was as submissive in bed as he was insurmountable everywhere else.
Though he stood around six-and-a-half-feet tall, towering over Hope, he was hers to dominate. She enjoyed doing so as much as she enjoyed surrendering to their clanmates, who were as domineering as Piras was not.
Piras climbed onto the bed again, kneeling next to Hope, his arms behind him. She grasped his secondary and pumped it, looking away as if he barely rated her attention. “So, about my nanobots…”
She spent the next few minutes discussing her new program with Kila and Lokmi, masturbating Piras’ cocks in turn with seeming casual negligence. However, she was tuned to his reactions, subtle and otherwise. He was hot on her palm, his shafts jerking when she squeezed the base of either, where he liked it best. He trembled as the seconds ticked by, growing excited by both his helplessness to evoke his will and her pretended indifference to his increasing arousal. Being treated as a mere plaything was high on Piras’ list of enthralling carnal activities.
After her discussion with Kila and Lokmi, Hope flicked a glance at him. He kept his head down. His gaze through sleek black strands was pleading, as if he didn’t know the night’s trials were only beginning.
* * * *
A new planet. A new enemy. Is the end coming for the Kalquorian Empire?
In the aftermath of the Kalquorian civil war and the defeat of the Bi’is invasion fleet, the empire has enjoyed peace. A new Earth has been born. A Kalquorian leads the Galactic Council of Planets. An era of harmony seems assured.
However, new dangers arrive on the horizon. Governor Stacy Nichols finds herself at odds with powerful opponents who want Earth II to return to the old ways that led to the demise of their original planet. They’ll do anything to stop her, especially when they discover her newfound romance with Clan Rihep of Kalquor.
After five years and a terrifying encounter with an unknown entity, Clan Piras is finally leaving their spy duties in Bi’is space. Now they must face enemies closer to home: the families of those they sacrificed while on a secret mission during the Kalquorian civil war.
A new threat to the
existence of Kalquor and the entire Galactic Council of Planets arrives in the
midst of these challenges, a dark menace unlike anything faced before. One
young, inexperienced spyship ensign is all that stands between the galaxy and
utter destruction. Can he warn the empire in time…or is it already too late?
Dark Empire 1: Shadows Approach releases Friday! Pre-order now at Amazon, Amazon UK, Nook, Smashwords, Kobo, Apple, and print.
No comments:
Post a Comment