Total pages in book: 175
Estimated words: 166095 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 830(@200wpm)___ 664(@250wpm)___ 554(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 166095 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 830(@200wpm)___ 664(@250wpm)___ 554(@300wpm)
I look around but I don’t see anyone in particular. People are watching us, yes, but they’re watching a bounty hunter with a human on a lead. I don’t know if they’re looking to steal me away from her, or if they’re just enjoying the spectacle of us kissing, but either way, I suddenly feel very on display. “Are we in danger?”
“Oh, I hope so,” Bethiah purrs. “I really, really hope so.”
Her strange answer comes with a subtle movement, her smoothing one of her braids. It makes me realize that I thought we were coming here to meet a business partner, but I could be all wrong. We could be meeting a partner instead. Maybe that’s why Bethiah isn’t interested in kissing me.
She’s already got someone she’s interested in.
The stabbing little ache in my heart is quickly ignored as I straighten. It doesn’t matter if Bethiah is just playing with me. She’s been my friend, and she’s going to teach me how to be independent. I don’t need more than that from her…even if I like the thought of more way too much.
This flirting between us is just a game, a performance. I can’t read more into it than that.
Eleven
JAMEF
Eyes narrowed, I watch the annoying, beguiling, deceitful bounty hunter I’ve been pursuing kiss a pretty little human on the lips and smile at her.
It’s like Bethiah is trying to get under my skin.
She’s succeeding, too.
A female that steals my ship and redecorates it while flirting with me and daring me to capture her should at least be faithful, I should think. She’s said she was interested in me in the past, and yet here I find her pressing mouth-parts to a human in public, flouting every hygiene law possible. There’s an indignant part of me that still wants the law to step in and do something about the flagrant show. I want some station official to come and give her a digital ticket for public lewdness.
No one does, though, and once again, the law disappoints. I should know by now that no one ever enforces the rules that they make.
Drumming my cybernetic fingers against what’s left of my real leg, I watch as Bethiah finishes off her leaves. She chats merrily to the human—who looks a bit less enthusiastic—and gets to her feet.
“Lock onto heat signature of Bethiah and companion,” I murmur.
Immediately, the computer in my eye locks onto them, outlining them in the sea of bodies on the station. They move through the crowds, ducking down a hall, and the sensors in my eye continue to show the red outlines, noting the distance between their current location and mine. I get up to follow them, wondering at Bethiah’s game.
She wants me to chase after her. That much is obvious. She knows that I’m watching the bridge from a remote feed. I know that because she constantly talks to me as if I’m standing on the bridge itself and I can see everything she does. She rubs her ass all over the control screens, deliberately trying to rouse me into showing myself. I know that if I do, I need a solid plan. Last time I approached her, it was equal to equal, male to female. I wanted to talk. I wanted to parlay.
I wanted to get my keffing cock wet. And Bethiah acted like she wanted it, too.
Instead, Bethiah knocked me over the head with a spanner and imprisoned me on my ship. She claimed it as her own, had it revamped into something much uglier, and renamed it from the Doldrum to the Pleasure Spot. I know she’s doing it to get under my skin—everything she does is to get under my skin, it seems—and she acts like this is all a game.
Well, I can play games, too. The next time we meet, it won’t be as equals. She wants to be chased until she’s caught? I’ll catch her, all right. But someone as clever and unpredictable as Bethiah needs bait.
I watch the human she tugs along after her. The female looks reluctant, but she clings to Bethiah, moving as close to her as possible. A bounty, most likely, and one she’s gotten too close to…or this is another game designed to flush me out. To make me jealous so I’ll confront her.
She’ll be expecting me to try and steal her ship. My ship.
I have a better idea.
I’ll steal her little bounty and force her to come to me.
Ducking down a side hall in the busy station, I smile to myself.
DORA
“So where are we going now?”
Bethiah’s movements are quick, her steps much longer than mine so I’m forced to jog after her through the halls of Three Nebulas. She seems to be in a strange mood after kissing me, and I wonder if it’s because I didn’t react with horror. Was she trying to shock me? Because I’m not shocked. I suspect this is just another mood swing in which she decides we’re too friendly and so she pushes me away again.