Chapter Four

 

 

 

Levy kissed me as soon as we arrived at his stateroom. The doors weren’t even closed yet when he seized me with urgency and mauled my lips hungrily. His tongue stroked deep into the cavern of my mouth as he tightened his grip on my arms. I melted under his kiss. Melted like goo. My pussy throbbed with need. My nipples ached. My blood boiled as he burned my sanity to cinder.

When he finally stopped kissing me, I wanted to faint on the floor. Levy didn’t give me that chance. With one arm curled around my waist, he ripped my clothes until there wasn’t a single thread on my body. I was naked, except for the pair of stilettos I was wearing.

“Leave those on,” he said when I wanted to slip them off. “You look so beautiful in them.”

I wanted to roll my eyes, but I was too horny. Typical male fantasy. Naked chick with high-heeled shoes. What was up with that?

He released his arm and ordered me to stay still. His eyes raked over my nakedness as if he was feasting over his conquest. He probably thought of me that way, his conquest, and after lusting after me for a few days, he’d finally gotten me naked and willing…

Then, he touched me.

Tenderly. The tip of his fingers seared my skin, delivering sparks of pleasure down my spine. I trembled, anticipating what he’d do next. We hadn’t talked much during the limo ride from the Ball to Orient Fevre. The tension between us had loomed like a highly strung cello string waiting to snap. He hadn’t come when he’d fucked me on the balcony, and the impressive bulge in his pants looked…intimidating. Levy appeared as if he had restrained himself a great deal. Maybe he wanted to make the night last. Driving me ragged. Fucking me to oblivion.

Shit. I began to look forward to it.

Levy lowered his head, cupped my face and breathed on my lips. “You’re so beautiful, Violet. You’re everything I’ve ever wanted in a woman.”

I shivered even more. He didn’t speak with his usual princely arrogant tone. He sounded as if he was confiding his deepest, truest feelings to me. And I couldn’t help but be touched by it.

“Levy…”

He purred. Then kissed me. He licked the side of my jaw, tasting my skin. “Mine,” he whispered on my ear.

He felt me, one hand kneading my breast. His fingers plucked and pinched my nipple. God. The ache in my pussy worsened. I creamed. My cunt clenched. I touched him back, my hands settling on his hair. I fisted his silky strands as he kissed my breasts and sucked my nipple.

“Mine.” He declared it with a sheer dominance, like a beast upon his prey.

My heart drummed wildly when he squeezed my ass and continued kissing me down to my belly. He knelt. The trail of his kiss burned my skin as his lips brushed my mons.

He looked at me and whispered, “Mine.”

I indulged myself in a scream when his mouth found my pussy. Instinctively, I dug my nails on his scalp as his agile, treacherous tongue unearthed my deepest secret. He licked my pussy lips. He licked my clitoris. He licked my opening and thrust his tongue as deeply as he could muster. Holy God in heaven. I shook with desire. He ate, sucked, and devoured me until I saw the shades of pleasure painted before my eyes.

White when he circled my clit with the tip of his tongue.

Blue when he bit my pussy lips and suckled me as if I were a delicious fruit.

Pure red when he fucked me with his tongue as rough as when he used his cock.

I writhed. My breaths came in a fevered beat. The pleasure was unbelievably sinful. When he growled and swirled his tongue inside me, I came so hard the world faded away from my vision for a long moment. My legs couldn’t support my own weight. I collapsed on the floor, sobbing from the intensity.

Levy watched my reaction with delight. He got up and undressed.

I watched him with hunger, unconsciously swallowing my saliva. Naked, he looked as delicious as that night in his penthouse. Luscious skin. Muscled body. A fine example of male perfection. Levy shed his clothes leisurely as if we had all time in the world and his eyes never left mine the whole time. His cock sprang free. Hard and ready. He kicked off his shoes and motioned me to come closer.

He stroked his engorged cock until a droplet of pre-cum leaked from the tip. “Suck me. I’m dying to fuck your mouth.”

His words made me frisky. Thinking about it, I’d never had a chance to sample his gorgeous cock. I licked my lips and knelt in front of him. I touched him, clasping my hands around his shaft. I squeezed him. Gently, then hard. He made some urgent murmurs, his breath laboured. His cock pulsed in my palms. Hot. Throbbing. So wickedly male. I lapped at his enormous tip. A strained sigh escaped his throat. He shuddered. Salty, brackish flavour flooded my mouth. God, I loved the way he tasted. Creamy—just scrumptiously creamy. I stretched my jaws as widely as I could to accommodate his girth and sucked his huge cockhead.

Levy cursed, in a good way. He held my head, angling his cock deeper to fuck my mouth and throat. I obliged him. I arranged my breath and took him deeply. His cock slid past the back of my mouth and down my throat. He groaned with disbelief. Deep throat was one of my girlie skills.

I sucked him hard as if my life depended on it. Levy started to bawl. Grunts and half-formed words rasped between his shouts. His face flushed red. His cock and balls darkened even more. I squeezed his balls as I deepened my sucks. Suddenly, I felt ravenous. I wanted to reap my reward, his hot cream. Levy’s face contorted into a mask of ecstasy, looking as if he was trying hard not to come. I wouldn’t allow that to happen, so I sucked harder. Levy let out feral growl. He seized my face and suddenly yanked his cock out of my mouth.

“Hey!” I protested. “I’m not finished.”

“Forget it,” he barked back. His eyes blazed with fire. “On all fours. I want to fuck you from behind.”

“Cream first, then fuck.”

Levy growled again. He swept me and arranged me in the position he wanted. Before I could shout another protest, he penetrated me in one, long, savage thrust. I clawed the carpet and yowled. He speared me open with his thick cock and slammed home until his balls grazed my clitoris. I shuddered. He shuddered, too, from the way our bodies became one. My cunt clasped around his rock-hard shaft. God. Pleasure left me speechless for seconds, especially when he started fucking me like a demented man. He grabbed my shoulders and rode me as if he was trying to tame a wild stallion. His cock battered my pussy. Each grind, each thrust, dragged me deeper into ecstasy. I braced myself against the wild torrent of his fucks. Faster. Deeper. Rougher. Short, rapid bunny fucks. I opened my mouth to inhale more air, but instead, a sudden climax seized me unmercifully. I bawled. I felt as if I was dying.

But he didn’t stop. He kept fucking me and fucking me through the night. He fucked me standing up. He fucked me in the bed. He fucked me in the chair. He even fucked me in front of a mirror, forcing me to watch the way his cock ravaged my pussy.

God, I loved it. Maybe I was a bit voyeuristic, but there was something incredibly erotic about watching my lover sink his cock into me. He pounded, yanked, hammered, pummelled until we both couldn’t hold out any longer. I came hard. He came even harder. Levy shouted as his cock spurted his cum inside me. We both shuddered until the last wave of ecstasy ebbed away, and we slumped on the floor. We touched. We kissed.

We loved.

Levy cupped my face and whispered, “I wish I could show you what I really feel about you. And how strong our bond is…”

I started to open my mouth to argue but he silenced me with a kiss.

“Hush, kitty-cat. For once in your life, would you listen to your heart?”

He drew me into his embrace and wrapped me with his strong arms. I clammed my mouth shut and surrendered. I closed my eyes, listening to his heartbeat. Levy made me calm, made me feel protected. No man I’d been with had ever made me feel that way. I wondered if what he said was true? That soul mates did exist?

I sighed. I’d never been so confused in my life.

 

* * * *

 

There was nothing like waking up in the morning after a good night’s fuck. I was happily sore in all the right places, beat, but feeling strangely relaxed at the same time. Levy was still sleeping when I got up. As a VIP passenger, the bed in his stateroom was as big and comfy as those in the luxury hotel. He didn’t stir as I crawled off his bed. I collected my clothes, got dressed in a hurry and tiptoed out. One of his bodyguards saw me exit the stateroom. The man flashed me a grin.

“He’s all yours,” I told him. “My shift is over.”

He tipped his head in my direction and made a tiny gesture with his hand. He didn’t say a word, but I felt his gaze burn my back as I flounced to the main deck. I went back to my cabin and showered. I’d just finished changing into a fresh uniform when Captain Hawk called me via the holocom.

“We have a problem,” he barked. “My office, now.”

Captain Hawk was in a foul mood when I arrived at his office minutes later.

He pointed to a stack of hardcopies on his desk. “Take a look at that. We have a security leak.”

I sat down and read the file. What I saw made me numb. The security bot had compiled the report during the last data sweep. It said that someone had hacked into our system, mined our data and relayed it to an encrypted source. Azhari, our Senior Cryptographer, had decoded the destination. It had turned out to be an office in the Froste Intelligence Agency. As the Chief Mate of Orient Fevre, this came as a hard blow for me since it had happened right under my nose. Only the captain and I owned the verification code to access the data vault. Truthfully, Orient Fevre wasn’t merely a commercial transport ship. It was also an intergalactic security company, commissioned to deliver classified information from many countries in the Pegasus Arms.

“How did this happen, Cross?”

I cleared my throat. “We need a lockdown.”

“Did that.” Captain Hawk sank in his chair. “I just spoke to the Chereshaz-X Station Master and requested a continuation docking permit until we sort our problem out. He gave us three standard days since this space station is fully booked. We can’t board until we find out who our mole is. Do you have any idea who’s behind this?”

I felt choked because I had an idea who’d stolen that code from me. But I didn’t feel like sharing it with the captain yet, not until I could prove my suspicion. “Give me half an hour to run a cross-data check.”

“You do that.”

“By your leave, sir.”

“Granted.”

I exited the captain’s office semi-running. My mind kicked into high gear as I started to see connections I’d been too blind to see these past months. I went to the aft of the ship where the senior officer cabins were located and headed right to Mac’s. Even though we’d been engaged, we’d still maintained separate living quarters. I punched Mac’s code on the keypad and the door whispered open.

Mac’s room was empty. Like any of the senior officers in the ship, his cabin consisted of one bedroom, a small kitchen, and a common room. I headed straight to his bedroom and started looking for clues. About three standard weeks ago, after he’d misplaced our nuptial agreement documents, Mac had suggested we share a personal vault to store our precious belongings, important papers, money, and work-related data disks. Mac was unorganised when it came to his personal matters. But I should have known. His forgetfulness had only been a cover so he could access my personal vault and steal my secret codes and keys.

The first thing I opened was his wardrobe closet. All of his clothes were still there—his shoes, his personal belonging and his duffel bags. It seemed he hadn’t planned on leaving yet. But I could have been wrong. I tore his closet apart, then his bed and drawers to see if I could find any device he might have used to communicate with the Froste Intelligence Agency. I found nothing. I was in the middle of dismantling the lavatory’s ceilings when I heard somebody come behind me. It was Mac.

“Looking for something, Violet?” he asked me icily.

I jumped down from the sink and stared him straight in the eyes. “Tell me you didn’t steal that code from me, Mac.”

He didn’t answer, only stared at me with a sullen look. He pulled out a plasma rifle and swung his arm, hitting me across the head. The world around me blackened.

 

* * * *

 

I woke up with a bitchy headache and a dull throbbing in my temples. I could feel there was a gash where he’d butted me with his plasma rifle, but the blood that had dripped on my cheek had started to coagulate.

“Don’t even think of shifting,” Mac warned me when he saw me stirring. “See what you’re wearing?”

I looked down and saw he’d fitted me with a ballistic vest. Only I knew better. The vest was rigged with explosives. “What the fuck?”

“That’s right, babe. If you try one of your heroism monkeyshines again, I’ll blow you to pieces.”

I couldn’t believe he would do that to me. Mac, the man I almost married. The man I thought was the one I would spend the rest of my life with. I felt numb. The revelation shocked me more than when I’d found him banging his own assistant. How could I have been so blind?

Sharp pain sliced through my heart. Betrayal hurt more than salt to a wound. “Tell me the truth, was it all lies, all this time we’ve been together?”

“No hard feelings, cupcake. It was only business.”

“You seduced me, asked me to marry you just so you could get access to the vault? That’s fucking low, Mac.”

“No, it’s a standard practice in espionage.”

I crossed my arms in front of my chest. I felt cold all of a sudden. Chilled to the bone. “Are you a Froste agent?”

“I’m a freelancer, selling to the highest bidder.” Mac motioned me to get up from the floor.

I scrambled up half-heartedly.

“You’re going to get me out of here. No one is allowed to leave Orient Fevre during the lockdown, except you and Captain Hawk.”

“Forget it, Mac. I don’t care if you blow me up. I’ll make sure you die with me. Then I’ll haunt you to eternity.”

Mac snarled. “You don’t understand the gravity of our situation, do you? I must get to the Froste system in forty-eight standard hours. I’ve rigged one gigaton of explosives from the last transit in Ernye for an occasion like this. I’ll blow up the ship if you don’t do what I tell you. More than a thousand people will die with us. Your choice, darling.”

“You’re a two-timing, sick bastard.”

“It’s leverage.” Mac threw a small towel at me.

I caught it.

“Wipe your face and let’s go.”

I dabbed my gash with the towel. My headache was getting worse. I weighed my options, but didn’t see a way out of it. Yet. Mac had total control of our situation, and I had no other choice, but to follow his orders.

We walked through the maintenance passageway and rode the elevator down to the engine room. In the event of a lockdown, the only accessible part of Orient Fevre that allowed us to get out was in the ventilator shafts, where the hatch of the shafts could be opened without Captain Hawk and I entering the codes at the same time. Mac wanted me to override the lockdown commands from there. The loophole, from what was otherwise a solid security preventive programme, was designed for emergency use…in case of fire. Because Orient Fevre was one of those thruster-V hyperdrive model ships, she didn’t have internal ventilator shafts in her cooling system. A flaw in her design, I had to say, but not many knew about it. Mac certainly had a knack to using it for his own benefits.

I leant my back against the wall as the elevator slowly dragged us into the belly of the ship. The ballistic vest felt heavy on my chest. I made a quick assessment on how much damage Orient Fevre would endure if I kicked Mac’s ass and we departed from this mortal world in a form of fine chucks of meat tidbits. Judging from the explosives Mac had packed into the vest, I didn’t think Orient Fevre would suffer much. Mac knew it, and that was why he had a backup plan—one gigaton of explosives rigged to the ship. The impact wouldn’t only pulverise Orient Fevre into pieces, it would also blow up one-third of the Chereshaz-X space station, along with a dozen other ships. Mac had covered all the bases. He was one crafty son of a bitch.

“How did you smuggle that many explosives onto Orient Fevre?” I ventured. “Did you bribe one of the logistics people, too?”

Mac gave me a thin smile. The smile that used to make me swoon to my knees and my heart throb. Mackenzie was one of the most coveted men on Orient Fevre. He was a Herculean tall human with a sympathetic smile and a straightforward demeanour. A picture-perfect hero from the V-net comic books. Only he was no hero at all, now that I knew what lay behind his deception. He was a villainous asshole.

“What’s the matter, Violet? Is the cat curious? Do you really think I’d blab my secrets so you can find a way to spoil my plans? C’mon, you aren’t that thick.”

“Fine, if you don’t want to talk about your “imaginary” explosives, what about that blonde bitch you fucked in a storage room? Is she your lover? Was it your first time or have you been fucking her the whole time we’ve been together?”

“Curiosity killed the cat. You shouldn’t be asking too many questions.”

“Damn it. I almost married you! I’m entitled to have a lot of questions.”

“Oh yeah? I have a lot of questions, too. What motivated you to throw yourself on your prince boy-toy’s feet? If you really loved me, you wouldn’t have married that pompous prick.”

I gritted my teeth. “The marriage was an accident and I fucked him to get even with you. You’re the prick!”

Mac smirked. The elevator screen flashed a message that we were now in sector five of the engine room. The door slid open.

He narrowed his eyes and motioned me to move on. “If you’re so curious, Violet, let’s just say, I’m not content fucking a hybrid. Does that quench your curiosity, kitty-cat?”

I froze. His words blew my mind. I’d never thought Mac was a racist. I wanted to let my cat nails go and scratch some nice gashes on his smug face just to show him what kind of damage a cat could do.

“Come on!” Mac barked. “We haven’t got too much time.”

I trudged to the end of sector five to where the ventilator shafts were located. We climbed down one story into the shaft landing. Mac nudged my back with the muzzle of his plasma rifle, pushing me towards the ID reader pad.

I didn’t follow his orders. “How do I know you really have a gigaton of explosives rigged in this ship? As far as I know, you could be bluffing.”

Mac made a theatrical sigh. “I lied about the reactor core not running as it’s supposed too. We didn’t need fuel buster. Do you remember when you signed an approval for an additional cryofuel shipment? Well, guess what, it wasn’t cryofuel, darling. It was a hydrogen bomb. And do you know what happens when that puppy is released into the core reactor?” He mouthed ka-boom.

“I don’t believe you,” I persisted.

“Do you really want to take that risk?”

“I have to see it to believe it.”

“Do you think I’m stupid? I’m not going to fall into your stalling game. Now, open the hatch.”

“Then what? If you I let you go, you could still blow us up.”

Mac chuckled. “I knew you’d drive a hard bargain, Violet. I’ll hand you over the detonator as soon as you open the hatch.”

“How do I know you won’t trick me?”

“You don’t. You have to do it my way. You have no choice.”

I was sick of not having choices. For the last several days, I’d been bullied by Levy and Hayworth, and I was seriously sick of always surrendering to other people’s wishes. And now Mac wanted to pull the same game, too? I didn’t think so. Na-ah. No freaking way.

I pretended I was going along with Mac’s threat. I entered my personal ID code and gained access into Orient Fevre’s computer mainframe. The Artificial Intelligence roused from its semi-stasis condition because of the lockdown mode and asked me what I wanted to do. I said I wanted to open the ventilator hatch. It asked me the override code. I punched the seventeen-digit emergency override code and paused just before the last one.

I looked at Mac.“ Where’s the detonator?”

He growled with impatience. “The deal is you open this fucking hatch and I’ll give you the fucking detonator.”

“I need to see that fucking detonator first, you fucking asshole!”

Mac retaliated by swinging the butt of his plasma rifle at my head. Only, I’d anticipated his move this time. I ducked and the rifle swung past me and smashed into the reader pad. It cracked with a small electric explosion. Totally fried.

Mac flipped out.“ Look what you did, you cunt! Now I’m going to kill you.”

I shifted into my animal form before he could assault me some more. I didn’t care if he blew me up. Orient Fevre wouldn’t suffer much if he ignited the explosive-rigged vest I wore. But Mac was so worked up with his rifle, he didn’t have the chance to blow the vest up. It fell into the steel-grid flooring system with a loud thud. So did my clothes. Hybrids didn’t magically convert clothes into their animal form when they shifted.

I leapt onto the railing as Mac blasted his rifle at me. I cat-walked on the pipe before I jumped in his direction, and partially shifted back. I clawed his face. Nice and sweet.

He howled in rage. His rifle fired wildly before he stopped to inspect the damage I’d caused him. I seized the golden opportunity to sink my fist into his face. That one was for breaking my heart, cheating on me with some skank, and for all the lies he’d shoved down my throat. A sick crunching sound echoed in the cluttered space. Blood splattered my face and arm. I growled and lunged at him, knocking both of us onto the hatch’s landing. His plasma rifle fell from his hand as I put my knee on his stomach. He heaved for air. One of his hands grabbed my hair and smashed my head against the railings.

I shouted. Red and white sparks blinded my peripheral vision. Sometimes, I forgot how strong Mac was. He might not have been a hybrid, but he was a man. Naturally, men were stronger than women.

He grabbed my throat and choked me until the air around me started thinning. I gurgled, unable to breathe. A flash of panic flared across my mind before my old combat instinct kicked in.

“How d’you like this, bitch? You like playing rough? Is this the kink you’ve always wanted?”

He tightened his grip and I started to get light-headed. The world gathered to darkness. I made a split-second decision on a counter-assault and blindly plunged two fingers in the direction of his face. I hit a soft target—his eye—and I drove my fingers onward until I heard something sickening—a popping sound. I kept digging until he let go of his chokehold on me.

He staggered backward, his shrieks storming the engine room. I gasped for air, coughing my guts out. Luckily, he hadn’t crushed my larynx because I could still breathe and make sounds. I crawled to get his rifle. Before I could reach it, he lunged at me with a knife in his hand. I grabbed the blade before it speared into my heart.

“Die, bitch, die!”

I struggled to keep the knife away from my chest. The sharp edge cut through my palms and fingers. Blood trailed to my arms and chest like rivulets of red rain. The knife inched closer to my chest. I was losing the battle. Even if I shifted, I still couldn’t get out of the knife range before Mac speared me with all seven inches.

I persevered, though deep in my mind I knew I was going to die, but I wasn’t going to make it easy for him. Just when the tip of the knife pierced my skin, something dark flashed behind Mac.

Maybe I was delirious, but I thought I saw Levy.

Mac’s body left the ground, flying away. I heard his scream echo as he fell onto the bottom landing. I mumbled in disbelief as I let go of the knife. Pain seared my nerve endings, but I ignored it, my attention riveted to the unbelievable sight two stories below.

I saw a dragon. The black majestic beast unfurled its forty-foot wingspan and advanced in Mac’s direction. Mac cursed and tried to get to his feet, but his attempt was futile when the dragon swished its tail. I looked away. I didn’t want to watch. Shrieks of agony filled the room for what seemed like the longest minutes in my life. My accidental husband Levy was finishing the job for me.

I cried, laying on the cold surface of the steel flooring. My body felt cold, numb. The part of me that still loved Mac, even though he’d tricked me, lied to me, and almost killed me, died away as he met his own comeuppance. Female stupidity? Maybe. I’d almost married that son of a bitch. My body shook as the screams died away, replaced by the sounds of hurried footsteps reverberating through the engine room’s ceilings.

My body trembled as I felt a gush of wind blow in my direction. The dragon perched on the railings before morphing into the man I’d come to know too damn well in the past few days. Levy stared at me, anguished.

“Violet, you’re hurt.”

I jumped into his arms, burying my face against the hollow of his throat. His body was warm, as naked as mine, and slicked with blood and sweat, but I’d never felt so calm in my life. I heard shouting from people, and I might have heard Captain Hawk’s voice, too. I ignored my surroundings and tightened my arms around Levy’s neck. He patted me, giving me comfort as I cried my head off for no reason—for every reason. But I knew when I stopped crying, I’d be okay.

The storm was over.