Seeing Stars Read online

  “I’m going to Selkca.”

  He hadn’t pegged her for a Homesteader. “Yeah?”

  Milla smiled, the first she’d given him. Jarden would never cease to be amazed at the power of a woman’s smile. He wouldn’t have minded hearing her laugh either.

  “Yes. This cruise is my passage there. I figured…I’ve got a long time to be alone. I might as well have some fun on the way.”

  “But you didn’t.” Jarden watched her carefully. He’d been trained to find the signs of arousal. Bright eyes, flushed skin. Just like he’d been trained in a hundred ways to bring a woman to orgasm.

  If there was power in a woman’s smile, her frown had strength too. A Pleasurebot wouldn’t want to take a woman in its arms and take away whatever was troubling her. Jarden, on the other hand, couldn’t stop himself from wanting to.

  When he got up and pulled her against him, Milla looked startled. “What are you doing?”

  Jarden rubbed her upper arms gently. “I owe you two cred-hours.”

  She shook her head. “No. I told you, I don’t want them.”

  He didn’t let her go. He slipped a hand inside her robe to cup her breast. The nipple perked at once against his palm. He rolled a thumb over it and watched her mouth part.

  “I think you do, Milla.”

  She closed her eyes, and the glimmer of tears on her lashes punched him in the gut. “I can’t. Didn’t you figure that out yet?”

  Jarden moved his hand lower, over her belly. Tiny muscles leapt under his fingertips. Lower he moved, over the smooth mound of her pubis to the delicate pearl of her clit. He pressed it and it throbbed. She was turned on, no question of that, and not just from the Arous-All.

  “I think you can.”

  She shook her head again, harder. “No. I can’t. Maybe with a Pleasurebot—”

  “You think a ’bot could do what I can’t?” He really wanted to know. His fingertip pressed against her gently, and her legs parted a bit more. “Why?”

  She looked at him then, her cheeks flushed and eyes bright. “Being with a ’bot wouldn’t be much different from being with myself, would it? A ’bot’s just like a big vibrator, only I don’t have to operate it.”

  He slid his finger lower, along her folds. She was still slick. Hot. His cock thickened at the sensation of the wet heat on his finger. He parted her gently and found her entrance, but didn’t push inside.

  “A real…man…” She paused to take a breath and her eyelashes fluttered. “…expects…things.”

  “What sort of things?” he murmured, watching her.

  Her eyes opened and she pushed out of his arms. “Things in return.” Her voice shook. “Payback. A ’bot’s reward is his orgasm, and he’ll have one no matter what.”

  “Even if you have scars?” Jarden asked.

  Milla turned from him. “Yes. Even then.”

  Someone must have hurt her, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out how. “Who was he?”

  Her shoulders straightened. “My union partner. His name was Derek. It was an arranged union.”

  The term, union partner, told him a lot about her. “You’re from Nidar?”

  She nodded. “Yes. Where women are only as good as the men who unite with them.”

  A few moments earlier Jarden had wanted to hear her laugh, but hearing it now wasn’t what he’d imagined. “So you left. Lots of Nidar women do, I’ve heard.”

  She threw him a wry look. “I didn’t want to leave. I loved him, even though I hadn’t chosen him. He was so handsome. He was so smart. It hurt, how much I loved him, Jarden. I was foolish. I was just a girl. But Derek was all I’d ever believed I wanted.”

  She didn’t look like much more than a girl now. “So what happened?”

  She held out her wrist. “This.”

  Jarden took her arm and studied the faint, barely discernable line at the base of her wrist. “What is it?”

  “I was shopping for union gifts for Derek’s family. I needed to find something special. His family had much higher status than mine, you see. While I was at the market, there was an attack.”

  She pulled her wrist gently back. “I understand the ideals of the group that did it. They call themselves Imperfectionists. They cut a lot of the women in the market. Marking them. I was lucky. They only managed a slice before they were gassed. I had the wound repaired, of course, right away. The best surgeons. But that white line remained. And on my union night, Derek couldn’t stop looking at it. Every time we made love, he made me hide it. He said it disgusted him. After three weeks, he said he could no longer bear to make love to me. We had a barren union.”

  As a Nidarian woman, she’d have been a virgin when she united, that much Jarden knew. But what she said next surprised him.

  “I had an affair with Derek’s business partner. His name was Stephal. He came to our house often while Derek was away. I had many affairs.”

  Jarden had heard stories of Nidar’s unequal treatment of genders. “And what happened?”

  “None of those men could make me climax,” she told him bluntly. “I’d discovered I could have orgasms very well on my own. Masturbation for women is forbidden, of course, but every woman I knew did it. Pleasurebots are illegal for women too, though men can use them. I knew I could come by myself. I knew I could come with a woman too.”

  The image of Milla, legs spread beneath a woman’s tongue, two soft and curved bodies writhing in pleasure, filled Jarden’s cock a bit more. “You slept with women?”

  Milla waved a derisive hand. “In Nidar, all women fuck each other. It’s often the only way we have to get any pleasure. And I like women, Jarden, but they can be hard work. Women fall in love too easily. It can be…awkward.”

  Her eyes flashed. The folds of her robe had stayed open after he’d parted them with his hand. He glimpsed her breasts and sweet pink nipples. She’d tasted good.

  “One of my lovers didn’t understand the need for discretion. She fell in love with me.” Milla paused, voice low. “But I didn’t love her. She went to my union partner.”

  “What happened?” His voice was a little hoarse from the memory of her flavor.

  “Derek dissolved our union. I was lucky he didn’t have me put in prison for defiling our union, but when I told him about all the men—his friends and business partners—who’d also violated the union with me, he relented. The laws are more lenient for men, but the scandal would have been very bad for Derek and his family. I took the dissolution settlement and used it for a deposit on a plot on Selkca and this trip. I wanted to fuck,” Milla said with a lift of her chin. “I wanted to come with a cock inside me and hands on me that weren’t my own. I wanted to just take care of my own pleasure without worrying about what my partner wanted.”

  “You wanted a ’bot.”

  She nodded. “Yes. And I got you, instead. And you see? I couldn’t come, even with you.”

  Jarden thought of how confident she’d sounded when she’d told him to get on his knees for her. How her pussy had slicked beneath his mouth and hands, and how she’d responded. There was no problem with her being able to reach arousal.

  “Because I’m not a robot?” he asked, amused despite himself. “Milla, I’m more metal and plaz than I am anything else.”

  “But your mind’s not a hard drive,” she told him with a small smile. “You’re still a man.”

  “You don’t like men?” He wouldn’t have blamed her after hearing her experience.

  “I love men,” Milla said. “I love everything about them. I love hard, thick erections and long legs and tight bellies. I love hairy legs and arms and chests. I love the way a man feels on top of me.” Her breath hitched.

  “But you can’t come with one.” Jarden thought of how she’d arched beneath him as if by instinct. How good she’d felt. “You’re beautiful, you know.”

  Milla frowned. “Stop. You don’t have to.”

  Jarden made a show of looking around. “What else do we have to do?” It was th
e wrong thing to say, and he knew it at once. “I’m sorry, Milla. I didn’t mean it that way.”

  She’d drawn the robe closed, tight at her neck. “No matter what you say, I know it’s because you’re paid to say it. So don’t bother. We tried. It didn’t work.”

  “You really think a Pleasurebot could get you off better than a man can?”

  She nodded, rougher this time. “Why not?”

  Good question. Pleasurebots were built to provide orgasms with no strings. She might be right about a COK or a DIK being able to bring her off, if only because she thought so.

  “I’d like to watch you come.” Jarden smiled.

  Milla eyed him warily. “I told you—”

  “No. Let me watch you. I won’t do anything but watch.”

  She laughed, tipping her head back. This time the genuine humor in it was just how he’d thought it would be. “Why? And why would I want you to watch? I can make myself come anytime I want.”

  “Do you want to now?” He moved close enough to feel a flush of heat from her, but he didn’t touch her. “I know you must want to. I could tell how turned on you were.”

  She shivered minutely, but he saw it. “It was the Arous-All. It’ll wear off.”

  “Why let it?” he murmured. “Touch yourself. You know what you like and what you want.”

  She looked at him. “What’s in it for you?”

  He shrugged and held out his hands, open-palmed. “Nothing.”

  “Right.”

  He much preferred her smile.

  “You’ll just watch. You won’t expect a blowjob or anything after?”

  Jarden grinned. “I can’t say I would turn one down, sweetheart, but I’m not paid to get what I want. I’m paid to give you what you want. Anything you want. And I think you really, really want to finish yourself.”

  He was sure he’d lost her. That she’d turn away again or yell. At the very least, ignore him. But Milla sighed, her eyes closing briefly for a moment before she looked at him.

  “Oh, I do,” she whispered. “I really do.”

  “So do it,” Jarden murmured.

  With one smooth, graceful motion, Milla dropped the robe from her shoulders. Naked, she went to the bed and settled herself against the pillows. Her pale hair fanned over the deep blue of the sheets. Her legs parted, giving him a glimpse of pink.

  When she licked her finger and centered it directly on her clit, it was as if she’d licked him from balls to tip. His cock jerked, growing, but Jarden made no move toward her. He sat, instead, in the plush chair and watched her on the bed.

  He’d seen women pleasure themselves before. Most of them did it with single-minded focus of the sort that left no doubt how necessary men really weren’t. Milla, though, didn’t touch herself like she was challenging him. She slipped a finger down inside herself and arched with a sigh, then drew it up to circle her clit.

  With her other hand, she pulled gently on her nipples. When they were erect, she used two fingers of that hand to push inside herself as she continued rubbing her clitoris. Jarden watched, his cock getting harder by the second, as her fingers fucked in and out. They glistened now from her juices. Her pussy bloomed with color as her arousal grew. The dusky pink darkened the same way his erection was changing color as the blood rushed in.

  Her moan shot straight to the base of his cock and pushed his hips forward, though his hands stayed gripped on the arms of the chair. Sweat gathered in his hairline as he watched her rock her cunt against her hands.

  Any other time he’d have been on her by now, feasting on her clit and lapping up her sweetness. Sinking into her. Instead he stayed perfectly still. He could smell the musky odor of her arousal and he wanted to bury his face between her legs and drink in her essence.

  There was no more powerful aphrodisiac to Jarden than a woman’s flavor as she neared orgasm, and the sound of her breathing when she came. He wanted to hear Milla moan. Fuck, he wanted to hear her scream. He wanted to be the one to give her that, but he forced himself not to move. Not even to fist his prick and pump, though he was so turned on even fucking into the air was getting him close.

  “Come closer,” she said suddenly, her voice raw with need. “Watch me come, Jarden. I want you to see me.”

  He moved fast, in two steps reaching the bed where he knelt between her parted legs. Her pussy had opened, beckoning him. Her fingers slid in and out of the slick channel. She pushed upward, giving him a glimpse of the rosebud of her anus. Her clit had grown, her rubbing fingers obscuring and revealing the engorged button beneath its hood of flesh.

  Jarden’s cock strained, aching, his balls heavy with the need for release. Still, he did nothing but watch. The blanket bunched between his thighs teased his balls, and he fought to keep from fucking against the material.

  “I see you’re so close,” he told her.

  She moaned, her fingers slowing. She withdrew her hand from her entrance and used her slick fingers to glide over her clitoris. She paused, rubbed, paused again. She stopped touching herself and put her hands on her thighs, giving him a clear view. She rocked slightly, and Jarden could see the small clutch and release of her inner muscles.

  He imagined being inside her, how it would feel to have her milk him with those muscles. How she’d pull and tighten on his prick when she came. He groaned. Her eyes opened, and she looked at him.

  “You want to fuck me,” she whispered.

  “God-of-choice, yes, I do.” Jarden didn’t move.

  She closed her eyes again, tilting her pelvis upward, just a little. Her bare cunt had nothing to hide it. Her clit peeked out from beneath its hood, begging for his tongue to stroke it.

  “Go ahead, then,” she said.

  He shook his head. “No. I want to watch you come first. Make yourself come.”

  She let out a small, sobbing cry. “I can’t!”

  “You can. I’m only watching.”

  Her hand shifted on her thighs, but she didn’t resume touching herself. “I’m so close, Jarden…”

  “I know you are, sweetheart,” he breathed. “I can see how close you are. Tip over the edge. You know how good it will feel.”

  “You want me to come for you.” She moaned the words.

  “No,” Jared told her. He took her hand and put it on her clit. He moved it gently, in the rhythm she’d set for herself. “I want you to come for yourself.”

  Milla shuddered on the verge of orgasm, but didn’t go over. Jarden’s hand covered hers, and he moved it slowly. Every shift was a pure pleasure-pain she recognized. She was so close, and yet so far.

  “I want you to come for yourself,” he said.

  She opened her eyes and looked at him. His gaze burned into her. His fingers moved hers. Slow, slow, barely moving. Her thighs trembled.

  He smiled, encouraging her. Milla arched, her eyes closing, and lost herself in the waves of desire sweeping over her. She let her body move the way it wanted to. She gave in to the familiar feeling of her hand on her clit, the way it had been so many times before. She swam closer and closer to climax and gasped with it.

  The sheets bunched under her fingers as she clutched them. With both hands. Both of her hands fisted in the blankets, twisting, as the pressure on her clit continued, just the way she liked it. Just the way she needed it.

  “Oh,” she said, her eyes opening. She looked down her body, to Jarden’s hand on her. To her body, responding to his touch. “Oh!”

  At last, the stars came. One by one they exploded in her vision as her orgasm filled her. She’d teased her body so long not even fear could stop it. Jarden’s touch tipped her over the edge, at last. His touch the same as hers had been. She came and came, gasping, until the stars faded from behind her eyes and she opened them.

  She looked at him, still kneeling next to her. He cupped her cunt against his palm, holding her. She throbbed, each spasm lessening. He smiled without looking smug, and Milla laughed, suddenly euphoric.

  Jarden stroked her pussy and wi
thdrew, sitting back on his heels. His cock rose from between his thighs, thick and hard. Milla waited for him to nudge it toward her, or to look at her mouth in the way that meant he wanted her to use it, or even to take himself in his hand and spurt his pleasure all over her. Jarden did none of those things. He just smiled.

  “Beautiful,” he said, and she believed him.

  “Jarden, make love to me.”

  He shook his head a little. “I told you, Milla. That was for you. It’s okay.”

  “No, it’s not.” She sat, then knelt and put her hand on his shoulder, while other sought his erection. “I was wrong.”

  He drew in a quick, ragged breath when she gripped him. “Milla—”

  She shook her head. “I was wrong. Fucking a Pleasurebot might have been good. I might have come. But you’re not a ’bot. And I want you to feel good too.”

  He groaned as she stroked him. His hands came up to take her by the shoulders, holding her still. “I don’t want you to think you have to.”

  “You said you’d do anything I want,” she said. “I want you inside me again.”

  She didn’t wait for him to move. Instead, she pushed and shifted until he sat on the bed and she was astride him. His prick filled her in a second. Their bodies pressed together as she wrapped her legs around his waist and his hands shifted to grab her butt. She put her arms around his neck. Face to face, she moved on him. They rocked. He was so hard inside her it almost hurt…but not quite.

  She didn’t expect to have another orgasm. Her body had not yet come down from the first. Her cunt and clit throbbed, still sensitive, as she moved on Jarden’s cock. She looked into his eyes. She’d long known how giving another person pleasure could enhance her own. This time, however, Jarden had given her pleasure. She hoped it would increase his.

  They moved together for only a few moments before his face twisted and his hands clutched her. His cock throbbed inside her. He thrust, hard, and let out a low, final groan. He gathered her close and buried his face in her neck as he pulsed with climax.

  Silent, she let him hold her. Her body felt stretched. A little sore. And yet there was a promise in that feeling, a hint of possibility of further pleasure.