A Touch of Lilly (4 page)

“
I
just thought it—”

She
sandwiched his face in her hands, her dark eyes boring desperately
into his. “Really, Dallas, a little less thinking and lot more
fucking.”

“
A
knight shouldn’t argue with his lady. Your command is my wish.”

He
pushed the lacy slip of material away from her entrance and guided
the head of his erection to her slit. Hot cream coated his cock as he
pressed it against her opening. Dallas had every intention of
entering slowly, but Lilly grabbed his ass and impaled herself on his
erection, screaming with pleasure as he buried himself to the hilt in
her silken channel.

There
was no control once the velvet fist of her surrounded him. He tipped
his hips back and then forward, slamming into her, his skin slapping
against hers. Lilly’s nails dug into his ass cheeks as she
begged him to fill her harder. Dallas lost himself in the myriad
sensations overtaking him—the fleshy weight of her breasts
crushed against his chest, her nails scraping along his back, the
desperation of her legs wrapped tightly around his hips and the
slurping sounds of their fucking all mixed with her carnal cries and
his ragged breathing.

He
felt her arch, every muscle bowed tight. Lilly threw her head back,
her mouth open with a silent cry of ecstasy trapped in her throat. He
pistoned his hips faster, feeling the tight pressure radiating from
his balls and gathering in his low back. He held off his own climax
until Lilly shattered in his arms, her internal muscles contracting,
releasing more hot cream around his cock. She screamed profanities of
bliss as her muscles trembled with the rapture of her release. Unable
to hold on any longer, Dallas’ orgasm pulsed through him, his
hot seed filling her. Spasms of pleasure radiated out from his
pelvis, boiling his blood and stealing his breath. He gentled his
thrusts, milking the last of their bliss until she fell back limp
against the door, her legs dropping one at a time from his hips.

Still
seated deep inside her, he buried his face in her hair and nipped the
soft flesh behind her ear. He wasn’t sure this one go-round
would be enough to fill the void all the lonely months of
self-imposed celibacy had left in his soul.

“
You
still didn’t ask,” she mumbled.

Confused,
he lifted his head and looked into her heavy-lidded eyes.

“
That’ll
be three thousand credits and cab fare.”

Chapter Two

Dallas
threaded his way through the crowded sidewalk back to the alley. He’d
learned over the past month the residents of this territory on
Garalon Five were night owls. Not that they had a choice. Things
wouldn’t slow down until the first two moons were well below
the horizon and the third just beginning to rise. The lack of
daylight had thrown him when he’d first arrived. Though the
Nebulae Galaxy—a term that grated as it was technically a solar
system—had a major star at its center, the weak light didn’t
reach a good portion of the planets. Heat on the inhabitable planets
came from deep within their crusts.

He
didn’t give a shit about the specifics, just that the
interminable darkness was fraying the ends of his taut nerves.
Another two days, a week tops and this mission would be finished and
Dallas could return to Earth for a much needed vacation with some
human
companionship.

Working
for the government was a lonely business. Lonelier still when he was
out in deep space away from his own species. Five years ago, when
Dallas had graduated from Quantico, he’d envisioned this
life—traveling the stars in search of bad guys and adventures.
But working for QAL wasn’t all the pamphlets had promised. It
seemed even in space, shit happened, people died and no matter how
far he ran, he couldn’t outrun a broken heart.

Dallas
turned the last corner to see the alley he’d left not twenty
minutes ago was now empty. It worried him a little that the Ka’al
wasn’t here and wondered if he’d missed something crucial
in his lust-filled fog. No one knew better than him that spies were
everywhere. He passed the doorway where he’d been buried in
Lilly’s heat and cursed when her honeyed aroma tickled his
nose. Probably nothing more than his horny imagination, but it ate at
him just the same.

He’d
known what Lilly was when he’d spotted her in the tavern—a
two-bit space hooker with a full rack and luscious ass. Though he
shouldn’t expect her to see him as anything more than the
client he’d become, Dallas had thought he’d seen
something in her eyes when they’d been at the bar. He’d
initially wanted nothing more than to get her out of the alien’s
arms, but that sultry voice and kissable mouth had been his undoing.
Like a siren, she’d wrapped him in a spell and seduced him. Not
that his dick needed much encouragement on that front. Dallas
couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen an Earth
female, let alone held one in his arms. There weren’t too many
of them out this far in deep space. He’d lost himself in her
body, forgetting what she was. Still, it had been a major hit to his
ego to pay her the twenty-five hundred credits he’d negotiated
her down to and put her in the luna cab.

Dallas
should be grateful. That slap of reality set him back on track and
refocused him on the mission at hand. He couldn’t afford to
screw this one up. Not when so much was at stake. Skirting around the
Dumpster, he shot another quick glance over his shoulder before
laying his palm on the key pad disguised as one of the stones on the
side of the building. Experiencing the cold wash of energy flowing
over him as the solid stones became gas and surrounded him never
became easier to experience. He was still a little disoriented when
he materialized into the bright room of the temporary QAL
headquarters.

“
Sawyer,
where the hell you been?”

Darren
Bastower stared at him through a hologram of the tavern illuminated
over a control table. Abandoning the plans, his boss strode angrily
toward Dallas, his bare feet slapping the concrete floor. This night
the hulking Braugtot was in the form of a Ka’al. The QAL
lieutenant in charge only took that form when he was really pissed.
Lucky him.

“
We’ve
been looking for you. We’ve got less than one Earth hour to
have everyone in place. It might only be logistics to you, but we’re
treating this as the real thing.” Anger throbbed in the veins
at his temples and neck, turning his mahogany cheeks a bruised shade
of purple. His telltale facial tattoo that marked him as a male
Braugtot pulsed angrily around his left eye.

“
Yes
Sir. I’m aware. It’s not like I’m late. I—”

“
Thaegan’s
been here nearly thirty minutes. He told me you were at the tavern
together and would be right behind him.”

He
shot a look over the lieutenant’s shoulder. The large Ka’al,
who’d been monitoring the alley as a drunkard, acknowledged his
impudent behavior with a one-fingered salute and a shit-eating grin.
That bastard of a partner was supposed to cover his ass, not deliver
it in a sling to his boss.

“
Yeah,
well, I had some business to attend to before I could get back here.”
Dallas headed for his desk. “Since Thaegan’s been here
that long, I assume he’s briefed the team on their positions.”
He bent and pulled the Treljon laser from his boot. Though it was
little, the damn thing radiated heat and sent electrical sparks
tingling down his toes. Everyone told him the sensation was a figment
of his imagination. Since his skin still jumped with the memory of
Lilly’s hands on his body, he just didn’t need anything
real or imaginary to be adding to the twitchy sensation. Dallas would
like to rip the cochlear translator from his ear as well, but knew
his boss wouldn’t like speaking English. “If he’s
got everyone ready, then I guess we can roll.”

For
such a large alien, Thaegan moved around the desks with incredible
grace. “You’re lead on this, Dallas. Wouldn’t want
to step on any toes. We’ve been waiting on you.” He
stepped next to him, lowering his voice. “And you know us
Ka’als, more brawn than brain.” He crossed massive arms
over his muscular chest, lifting an eyebrow with the corner of his
mouth.

“
Oh.
You heard that?”

“
I
wasn’t close enough to catch a whiff of the female. Other than
that…there wasn’t much of your interlude I missed, my
friend.”

“
Sorry
about that.”

“
Who
said I was complaining?”

Thaegan
and Dallas had been partners for nearly five years. A good portion of
it spent chasing
Hij’Rozhod
across the galaxy. They’d
covered each other’s asses in the most dangerous of situations.
Adrenaline highs had even had them sharing a female alien on more
than one occasion. Dallas had brought Lilly to the protected alley
because he’d known he could let down his defenses and live in
the moment. Allowing Thaegan to enjoy the experience as well, just
seemed as natural as breathing.

“
Gamma
team, front and center.” Though he hadn’t needed to,
Bastower hollered across the room.

Dallas’s
ragtag team of five mismatched aliens—one Xerick, a Drikspa, a
Braugtot in Ickbata form, his distinctive facial tattoo swirling
along his snout, Thaegan and the newest addition of a second Drikspa,
returning to QAL after being wounded in the line of duty—had
started to ready themselves when he’d stepped into
headquarters. The six of them plus Bastower circled the table
displaying a hologram of the tavern.

“
Tonight’s
just a dry run,” Bastower continued. “If our intel is
right,
Hij’Rozhod
won’t show until tomorrow night.
But I want Sawyer to walk everyone through this one more time. I
don’t want another FUBAR like Canus Delta.”

Dallas
knew Bastower wasn’t laying the blame of the failed mission at
his feet. Otherwise he wouldn’t have given him the lead in this
assignment. But as he moved his fingers over the panel in front of
him, Dallas couldn’t shake the heavy cloak of guilt weighing on
his shoulders.

One
of his team had died on Canus Delta along with President Orch. Never
mind the fact he’d nearly lost his life as well. The undeniable
reality was that someone had double-crossed QAL and fed their plans
to the enemy, leaving Dallas to doubt his ability as team leader.
This would be his chance to prove he had the
cojones
to
continue in that role, not to QAL, not to his team, not to
Bastower—but to himself.

The
holographic image of the tavern faded and a three-dimensional map of
Garalon Five appeared. “We have credible intel the Znedu alien,
Hij’Rozhod’s
right-hand man, landed on Garalon Five
about six hours ago.” It was understood that time and primary
language would be in terms of the home planet of the team leader.
“Intercepted transmissions have him going by the name of Venair
Grebetz. We suspect this is an alias, but haven’t been able to
determine his true identity.” Another push of the button by
Dallas and a hologram of a small craft landing on a lighted patch of
dirt in the desert appeared. “Last position had him in the
Plaintar Quadrant when the first moon rose.” A gangly, humanoid
alien disembarked from the craft, his thin body covered by a
full-length satin robe, giving him the appearance of a scholarly monk
rather than a cold-blooded killer.

“
As
you all know, when we got wind the Znedu was looking for more men for
his team, we managed a meet-n-greet with Jones here,” Dallas
pointed to the Xerick on his left. “He’s scheduled to
meet Grebetz’s boss tomorrow night at the tavern. We’re
betting the farm it’s
Hij’Rozhod
. We’ll be
in position to take him down at the tavern when he shows for the
interview. But we need to be sure we’re ready for anything.”

Dallas
worked the panel. “We have confirmation the guy’s scoping
out the meeting place tonight, which is why we’re going to be
there. But it’s a dry run.” The desert disappeared and a
schematic of the tavern, the surrounding shops and the street front
popped up again. “Every piece of equipment will be checked and
every possible scenario covered in preparation for tomorrow night.
But we’re staying well back from the action. We don’t
want to spook the Znedu tonight.”

“
We’ll
have eyes on everything from here,” said Bastower. “But
the interplanetary council is counting on you six to bring this
bastard down. Enough people have died at
Hij’Rozhod’s
hands and we don’t want Antonio Tervoss to be next.”

Dallas
walked his team through every miniscule detail of the tavern for the
hundredth time and every possible problem that had come to him in his
nightmares night after night over the past week. He had studied this
mission from every angle. After tonight, he had no doubt they’d
be prepared to take down the asshole and keep him from killing any
more planetary presidents.

When
he finished, Dallas met the eyes of the six men gathered around the
table. “There will be no screw ups this mission. We’re
going in as a team and we’re coming out as a team. Our
attention to detail tonight will guarantee our success tomorrow
night.”

is

But
as they donned their gear and headed through the portal to the
street, Dallas’ gut was screaming loud and clear that he hadn’t
quite planned for
every
contingency.