Tease the Dragon Ch. 02

The question hit me and I flinched, remembering the pain of each lash as his fingers touched it lightly. "I killed him."

"I could see it in your mind, in your dreams last night. You've never let anybody touch you like this."

"What else did you see in there?"

"Enough to know you wouldn't have gone back with Grey no matter how badly it scared you to be half blind in here. The man who did this was like him, like Grey, wasn't he?"

I rolled onto my back and faced him, his hand on my stomach now. "He was my mentor, and my lover. But no, he wasn't like Grey. He was another Copper, the only one I've ever known with the same affinity with technology as me. That was what attracted me to him at first. He taught me everything I needed to know to be a good thief. One day an offer came in that he couldn't refuse -- turn me over to a merchant for enough credit to set him up for life. Only thing was, the merchant wanted both of us. In the end, I think he liked what the merchant made him do to me for entertainment."

"You killed the merchant, too."

"Yes."

"Do you dream about them a lot?"

"Every single night."

"Would you let me help if I told you I could block it out for you? I can't erase the memories, but I can block the dreams from your mind." His hand slid across my stomach to my hip, leaving a wet trail behind.

"How?"

He looked embarrassed when I asked, but he answered, "We would have to be together. The level of connection it takes to block dreams would require you to be completely open to me."

I stared up at him and wondered what it would be like not to dream about the events of those years. Would I miss remembering his touch, and how good it felt to be with another of my own kind? The merchant's face flashed through my mind and I nodded. "Alright. Do it."

Before I even got the whole consent across my lips, a flash of heat at my hip warned me that this may not be just sex. I tried to remember what I knew about mariners, but dream manipulation wasn't something I had heard of in association with them. He bent down and kissed me then, and it was as though he were inside my mind. I could feel a slick wet presence in the back of my mind, but it wasn't imposing. Then those thoughts left me as his soft lips traveled across my cheek and neck to my shoulders. His hand was moving, too, sliding between my thighs to trace fingers along my nether lips. A teasing touch, but one that had a small moan leaving my throat in no time.

His mouth found my nipple just as his fingers opened me and moved over my warmth. I arched my back off the floor, pushing my breasts against his face and opening my legs wide for him. The slick presence in the back of my mind warmed and grew, and it was as though it were buried deep in my body and not in my mind. I heard myself moaning as the motion of his tongue matched his fingers in my depths, and I felt my body tightening around him. He pulsed in my mind and sent waves of sensation ripping through my body as he pulled his fingers from me.

The emptiness left me whimpering on the foam padding, but then the presence took over my mind and left me with nothing but sensation as he moved his head down between my legs. His tongue was hot and felt longer and wider than it should have been as he ran it along the length of my slit. The lips that had looked so soft earlier were firm against my button as he kissed and sucked and licked until I was just a whimpering puddle in front of him. Still, the presence was there, pressing on my mind, wanting to be let in further. With every flick and plunge of his tongue, I felt myself losing my grip on a hold against the slick presence I hadn't even realized I'd had.

With my hands in his hair, holding his mouth against me as I cried out and lifted my shoulders off the floor to watch him, I let go of what I was holding back. I let the presence in just as I came screaming, and he had to hold my thighs down as he continued to lick and suck. When I finally calmed, he lifted his face and began to kiss his way up my thighs and stomach. He paused at my breasts, and I could feel the presence in my mind swelling to fill every last lost space. Then his fingers slid over me again and I was out of my head and back in my body, shuddering and moaning as he pinched my lips and clit until I was left gasping under him.

He slid the rest of the way up my body and kissed me, long and full, leaving the taste of me behind when his mouth left mine. His fingers left me, but were quickly replaced by him at my entrance. I arched my back, sliding over the tip of him and shuddering as the aftershocks of the orgasm washed over me. He was wide, and the stretching was an exquisite pain that had me holding on to his shoulders and wrapping my legs around his waist. The presence was moving in my mind as he started to push more and more of him into my body. When he had gone as far as he could, he reached back and pulled my legs around to his shoulders. I could feel the presence growing in my mind and start to search for something, but just as I was about to try to fight it Gersha began to plow into me. With my legs up around his shoulders and his powerful legs pushing against the foam of the bedding, he was soon sliding in and out of me and bringing cries from me with almost every thrust.

My legs moved down his sides as he moved over me, and I heard him moan as I rolled us over so I was on top. The moment I was over him, though, I could feel the presence in my mind over everything else and I started to fight it. Gersha rolled us again and kissed me as his movements gentled. His hands on the sides of my head brought me back to my body and all the sensations he was awakening in me. The feel of his chest against mine as I clung to him and screamed my pleasure into his shoulder; the heat that radiated from him as he shuddered inside me, trying to stop his own release from happening too soon; it all collided deep in me and broke in one massive orgasm. I felt my body start to shift as I lost control, and then I felt the presence in my mind truly enter my soul.

His movements lost their rhythm then, and we clung to each other as he finally got his release. He slid out of me all at once, and I was empty and alone in my mind once again. The tears that slid down my face were silent as I realized that something that had been broken for a long time had finally begun to heal.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"There's a Galaxy Class cruiser heading to the far end of this arm of the galaxy. The final destination is some resort planet," Grey waved his hand through the air until Lee showed him the screen with the planet's name on it. He pointed to the screen, "That one. We should be able to make a decent living there on our own." He looked at me, "A legitimate living, so we can hide out longer until we figure out what to do with the films. They're used to off-worlders vacationing there, so you and Gersha should be comfortable. Best thing is this cruiser has three morph-berths, like the one this shuttle has but bigger, and last we checked all three were free. We can't buy out two of them, but one should be sufficient for the two of you. Me and Lee will bunk together again, preferably with two beds."

"How long before it arrives here?" Gersha asked from across the table we had taken in the dining hall of the moon base.

"It got here three hours before we did," Lee said. "But it had a messy morph in one of the berths, and a couple Andromedas in the cargo hold. It'll be in dock for the rest of the day and won't leave until 2200 tonight."

"The Andromedas would have been enough to keep it in cleaning until then. Make sure we don't get the messy morph-berth. They try to clean a tank in a few hours when it should be completely drained and refilled. They can't do that on a moon base, so it'll still stink from the last one."

"I procured us enough funds to get us there comfortably," Lee said. "But we'll have to slow it down on that money once we get the tickets lined up. I pulled a little extra for food and clothing -- Anya, no more body suits -- but no fancy furniture or anything until we get to Ryoda."

"Wait," I held a hand up before Lee could continue. "I can't go to Ryoda."

"Why can't you?" It was Grey who asked.

"Because I'm wanted for a major job I did there last year. I thought I got away clean but apparently they had security footage with my face on it around the time of the heist. I'll be taken in as soon as we dock."

"It's a good thing we didn't buy the tickets, then," Lee said and tapped at the vid screen in front of him. Finishing, he slid it over to me, "Is there anywhere on this list that you can go?"

The screen had a list of about twenty systems, five of which I was wanted in. I tapped those to highlight them and slid the screen back to him, "I can't go to any of those."

"Ah," he whined when he looked at the screen. "You're wanted in all the fun systems."

"Figures," I shrugged. "They were the ones with the best security."

"Let me see that," Grey took the screen and started scrolling through the list. He stopped about halfway down and highlighted one before passing it off to Gersha. "Would that one work for you? It's not a resort planet, but there's water."

"Anything works for me," he said, glancing at the screen before sending it sliding across the table to Lee. "What matters is if it will work for all of us."

"Plenty of work to go around on that one," Lee grunted. "And the cruiser will dock there for a day to restock."

"Good," Grey stood. "Book the tickets as soon as you can."

"Hey, I don't get a say in it?"

He looked over his shoulder at me before turning back to head toward the serving slot, "You had a say in where we couldn't go."

*~*~

"He'll get over it, Anya," Gersha said when we got to the morph facilities they had set up on the base. "He's used to getting the women, and his pride is hurt. Until he gets used to the idea that he lost to the mariner in the group," he stopped as though in thought before stripping out of the bulky spacer suit he had been wearing. "I think he would have handled it better had you slept with Lee."

"I don't think that's it," I said, watching as he stepped into the access chamber to the base's tank and motioned for me to keep talking. "I think he's just mad because I'm interdicted in all of the fun systems."

He's been to all those systems. He's not missing much other than a whole lot of temptation to get into a ton of trouble. The alarm sounded as the chamber filled with water and he morphed. We're going to Lomba, it's not going to be hard to find stuff to do there.

"Lomba? Seriously?" I sat on the bench next to the tank, watching the one other wet morph swim along the other side. "What are we supposed to do in Lomba?"

We're supposed to stay straight. Lee and Grey will most likely get jobs in tech security, I snorted at that. I can get a job in regular, old-fashioned physical security. You, I don't know, spaceport electricians are hard to come by and it pays very well.

"Spaceport electrician? Is that an actual job or did you make it up?" The other morph was more fish-like than Gersha, probably from a Sector V planet. Gersha had a powerful flat tail that swept from side to side to help him slice through the water. This other one had what looked like the back half of a fish attached where the back half of his body should have been.

It's an actual profession. And hey, aren't you supposed to be watching me, all star-struck or something? He swam up to the wall of the tank where I was sitting and struck a pose. By the way, how are the dreams?

"I've seen you, though. I've never seen another shifter who changes almost as much as I do," I looked past him and had to resist the urge to smile when he acted as though he was hurt by what I'd said. "You should know how my dreams are now. Thank you, for that."

Most marine morphs don't change that much, or even as much as I do. The Sector V planets are the exception, I glanced sideways at him at the subtle acknowledgement of my guess as to the other morph's origins. None of us change as fully as a Copper, though. So you're unique. Even among the weirder species, you are unique.

I let it go that he had ignored just how much of a bond had been formed between the two of us on that first night. Through that bond I knew it wasn't something he had expected or wanted, but that he tolerated in order to learn more about it. He swam off with easy movements and I turned back to the empty dry morph room.