Dark Paradise (5 page)

Chapter Five

“Wake up, Cin. It’s time to go.”

She awakened quickly at Elder’s voice, and accustomed to danger, let her senses investigate the area and her circumstances before she opened her eyes. She must have only slept for a couple of hours, because the sun still shone. The warmth of it caressed her body. A slight, cooling breeze drifted lazily over her bare skin, and she sighed as her nipples hardened.

Elder came to kneel by her side, a knife in one of his hands and a flask of water in the other. He placed the knife by her bound wrists, then lifted her head so she could drink.

The cool water spilled down her raw throat in a rush of soothing wetness, and she moaned. When he took the flask away, she pulled at the ropes. “Untie me.
Now
.”

Mach walked over when she spoke, and stared down at her with an interested gaze. He looked at her breasts, then smiled. “Greedy girl.”

His smile wasn’t the smile of a human. She shivered, knowing she was completely at his mercy, and he could do with her as he pleased. And probably would.

As though he’d heard her thoughts, he leaned over and with a frown of concentration, pulled her legs apart. He didn’t touch her, but examined her pussy with an intense stare.

Beneath his regard, her clit began to throb, and threads of pleasure danced inside her. “Damn you,” she muttered.

Elder laughed, stood, and began gathering their things. “Untie her, Mach. We have to move.”

She was offended by Elder’s apparent disinterest, then disgusted at being offended. But Elder didn’t leave her to wonder for long.

When Mach continued to peruse her pussy like a man with a dirty magazine, Elder shrugged on his pack, then walked over to stand beside him. Two interested gazes wandered over her body, and at last, Elder met her gaze.

His was so full of heat she nearly gasped.

As she watched, Mach reached casually to grasp the front of Elder’s pants and began squeezing and rubbing through Elder’s clothes, massaging until Elder closed his eyes and groaned.

Quickly, Mach unfastened Elder’s pants and let his cock spring free, hard and glistening, and then it was Cin’s turn to groan.

Elder stood with his eyes closed and his head thrown back as Mach enclosed his erection in a huge fist and ran it up and down the long length, his other hand finding Cin’s clit and rubbing it, hard, furiously, fast.

“Oh god,” she cried. “You talented
fuck
!” Much later, she would recall that sentence and the earnestness with which she’d yelled it and would laugh. But that would be much later.

Mach knelt between them, her on the ground and Elder standing, his arms stretched out, hands playing over them. Like a maestro of touch, he pleasured them.

She and Elder cried out their orgasms at the same time. She came with the vision of Elder’s hard, slick cock in Mach’s hand and wished for him to fuck her, wished for it so intensely she nearly begged for it.

But she ground her teeth until her orgasm faded, then kicked Mach away from her. “Stop.”

He pinched her clit once more, hard, then climbed to his feet. He left Elder to clean himself up and her to lie fuming on the ground. He couldn’t be bothered to untie her, and she shouted after him. “Cut me loose! Son of a
bitch
!” And wondered even as she shouted when he would get his release.

Elder cut her loose. “We’ll make the post by tomorrow afternoon if we waste no more time. Get dressed, Cin.”

Like it was her fault they’d wasted a couple hours.

“Asshole.”

He ignored her and quickly prepared to leave camp, and she forgot to be angry when she gathered Saint and Satan to her. She realized part of her had been afraid the knives wouldn’t be returned to her. They were old friends, huge comforts, and she could have kissed them. Probably would have, had Mach and Elder not been watching.

She held her bundle of clothes and her pack to her nude body and hastened behind some bushes to dress, then buckled the holsters around her hips and slid her knives into them with a feeling of deep relief.

There was a slight ache between her legs, an unfamiliar soreness that made her stomach clench with desire and shame at the same time. Damn them.

She went out to meet them, fully dressed, glare firmly in place. When Mach started toward her, she pointed a finger at him.

“Stay the fuck away from me, animal.”

He halted, his face freezing into a cold mask, his eyes like chips of ice. He sneered at her, then turned his back and walked away. No words were spoken, but none were needed.

For a brief second, with Elder’s considering gaze upon her, she felt a spark of regret. She shook it off. She hadn’t asked for them. They should have left her alone.

This time when they traveled, she wasn’t afraid of them. Glad to have the company, for once, but she’d have died before she admitted it to them.

She’d always hated entering the trading post alone. Because the Gamlogi couldn’t breathe on most of the mining colonies, they hired Zathmanians to run the posts. The Zathmanians were cruel troll-like beings who spoke not a word of English or any other Earth language, to her knowledge. They were a bitch to bargain with.

Always terrified they’d steal Saint and Satan, she’d been forced to hide the knives or bury them until she took care of business. That left her pretty much helpless.

But now, thanks to her new companions, she’d take her knives in and not worry. She wouldn’t have to face the bastard trolls alone.

She kicked a rock with her dusty, booted foot and felt an uplifting of her spirits. She’d get to paradise yet.

“How many shrube do you have?” she asked the men, dying to know.

Mach led them, and though he hesitated at her voice, he didn’t look back. He strode on, taking them ever closer to the trading post.

Elder walked beside her, deliberately pacing his stride with hers. “I have five.”

“Hmm. How long you been in for?”

“Five years.” He glanced at her, smiling.

“Fuck me! Five years! You’ve found only one shrube a year?” She stared at him, stunned. If he and Mach were only able to find such a small number of shrube, she hadn’t a chance.

“Mach has fourteen,” he told her.

Her mouth fell open, and she stumbled. “What?”

He lifted the corner of his mouth in a half smile, but his eyes were serious. “He could have left long ago.”

“Why didn’t he? Why doesn’t he?”

“Why do you think?”

“He won’t leave you.”

“When we have one more shrube, we’ll leave together.”

She felt a curious fear, a sharp pain deep in her belly at the thought of them leaving her here, to wander the planet once more alone. And on the heels of that came a deeper, more insidious fear. She had a shrube, and they knew it. All they needed was one more.

She could barely breathe. She hadn’t bothered to check her pack for her precious shrube and now cursed her stupidity. If they had taken it, they’d leave, and she’d be alone, with not one single shrube to give her hope.

The small group fell into an uneasy silence, walking on even as they munched their food. Still able to go on just the poe, she nonetheless accepted Elder’s offer of a small packet of dried berries and dehydrated meat and washed the meal down with water.

Hours later, when the day had faded and night swept toward them in a blue-black curtain, Mach paused. Elder had left her side for Mach’s after they’d eaten, and the two men stood at the top of the hill they’d just climbed, staring out over the barren reach, talking quietly.

She walked to stand beside them, taking in the sparse black land of silver rocks and dust that they must walk across in order to find the trading post. The reach was a dark place full of creatures who at times attempted to waylay and rob the travelers before they made it to the post. And sometimes after, depending on which way you came and went.

The moon rose into the sky, painting the valley with a brush dipped in red paint, lending an eerie glow to the black of the barren land below.

“We could go around,” Elder said.

“Why? Because of me?”

They looked at her, and she knew they were thinking she would be unable to make the trek. “It’s a rough land,” Elder said.

“No shit. I’ve walked it before.
Alone
.” She resented the hell out of them thinking that because she was female she was weak. “If you two want to go around and add another week to your trip, feel free. I’m cutting through the reach.”

Elder pursed his lips, watching her, and Mach turned to stare down into the black valley below. His long hair lay to his hips in fine black strands. His huge shoulders bulged as he adjusted his old olive-colored pack, and she couldn’t stop her eyes from making a quick trip down his body, from his strong brown forearms to his dusty boots.

She realized Elder was speaking to her, and slightly dazed, turned her gaze from Mach to him. “What?”

“Why don’t you look at me like that?”

Heat climbed her throat and bathed her face. She did look at him like that—he just didn’t see her doing it. She put her nose into the air and started down the crooked path to the reach. They’d either follow or they wouldn’t.

But she knew they would.

Chapter Six

At the bottom of their descent, in a clearing at the bottom of the hill, Mach insisted they make camp for the night. It was only smart, and she had to agree. Tomorrow at first light, they’d start again and would make the post by afternoon, just as Elder had said.

If they made it through the reach, that was. And she felt a new sort of confidence with the two men along. They’d make the post, she’d outfit herself for the trip to the mountains, and maybe, if they hadn’t already taken her one shrube, they’d go with her.

Her plan was to stay in the mountains until winter. By then, she hoped to have found a couple more shrube and a few items to trade to last through the cold weather.

With a quick movement, her eyes found Mach’s pack. He’d set it beside him as he built up a fire. If she could steal his shrube, she’d make haste out of the reach and to the doors of paradise, and put this all behind her.

“You wouldn’t get far,” Elder told her, his voice quiet in the darkness.

She snapped her head around to find him watching her, his eyes gleaming in the darkness. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. And will you please stop staring at me?”

“Just don’t do what you were thinking, honey. If Mach didn’t end you for it, I would.” His voice was grimly honest.

Her breath stuck in her throat. “I wouldn’t steal from either of you.”

“I’d
hope
you wouldn’t be that foolish.” He lay back, using his pack for a pillow, and crossed a forearm over his eyes.

She pulled her pack to her, and her fingers quickly found the cloth-wrapped shrube. They hadn’t taken it, even though they could have. Probably
should
have. It would have bought them an entry to paradise, and the one shrube really wasn’t going to do her a lot of good.

She squeezed it in her hand and tried to forget Elder’s voice as he’d spoken about what he’d seen in her eyes. The truth. She
had
been thinking about stealing their shrube.

Big deal. It was a hard world.

On Ripindal there was no law, not really. If she stole from someone, it was their prerogative to, as Elder put it, end her. If she stole from someone and got caught, it was her own damn fault.

Having freaky sex with two strangers was one thing. These were desperate times in which normal rules didn’t apply. But you didn’t steal. That made you lower than a worm.

She squirmed in shame.
Dammit
. “I’m sorry.” The words were out almost before she realized she’d thought them.

Elder moved his forearm off his eyes, slowly, and sat up. He nodded. “All right, then.”

She stared straight ahead and glared, but he wrapped a long strand of her hair around his calloused, sun-kissed finger and tugged, making her look at him. The blonde of her hair shone in the combination of the firelight and moonlight, and he wound it bit by bit until she was forced to move closer to him or bear the pain of her hair being ripped out at the roots.

Mach’s footsteps faded as he walked away, and she couldn’t help but try to look after him. She found it strange that he would leave.

But Elder tugged her hair. Hard. “No, Cin. Right now there’s just me.”

She swallowed. “I never agreed to…”

His grin was slow and wide, baring his gleaming white teeth. “Nope, you didn’t.”

She reached up to bury her hands in his hair, the color of which was only slightly darker than her own. “You know what that makes you and Mach?”

He nodded and his head moved against her palms. “That makes us men who understand you.” He freed her hair from his finger and cupped her face, gently. “Lucky little bitch.”

She didn’t look away or deny his words. “I was never able to relax with any of the others I’ve met here.”

“I think that was because you never gave anyone else a chance, honey. You wouldn’t be with us right now if we hadn’t…insisted.”

She chewed at the inside of her bottom lip, an old habit she’d not yet been able to shake. “Maybe it was just the right time.”

He tilted his head, rubbing against her hand. “Maybe.”

You had to get to know folks fast on Ripindal. She leaned toward him and moved her lips against his, then slid the tip of her tongue into his mouth for a slow, gentle taste.

He was so warm, so alive. She pulled back, regretfully, to ask, “Who are you, Elder?”

He smiled, a tiny, sad smile in the darkness. “In another life I was a surgeon with a beautiful wife, two children, and a golden retriever named Hank.”

“What happened? Why’d you get sent here?”

He shook his head, his entire body stiffening. “I fucked up,” he said, simply. And before she could ask another question, he pushed her to her back and slid on top of her.

She let it go. She knew as well as anyone that bringing up the past did no good, and that who you were in the before was not who you were in this world. Ripindal saw to that. But sometimes, she couldn’t help remembering her own life. Sometimes it slid in like an insidious, hateful shadow, reminding her of all she’d been and all she’d lost. Reminding her of everything she’d never be again.