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 hug her tightly. “Thank you, my friend. This is the best gift ever.”
“The best gift for now,” she says, and then covers her mouth with one hand, giggling. “Wait until you see the others I have for you.”
“More gifts? I’m overwhelmed.”
“Good gifts,” she says slyly. “Gifts that women give other women for when their husbands are occupied.”
“I…okay?” Do I even want to know?
Hazza grabs my hand and tugs me after her, giggling. I laugh at her happy mood, letting her pull me along, the little pod with its seed tucked carefully into my hand. “Come, come,” she says. “We will get you all set up to please both of your mates before you leave. A male is happy easily but females are sometimes more work. So I know just the thing.”
She pulls me into the women’s quarters and races over to her bunk. Hazza’s particular half of the room that she shares with another woman is cluttered and messy, and I get the impression that Hazza always has a lot of projects to keep her busy. There’s all kinds of crafting supplies, along with a pile of mechanical-looking junk and an artificial light over a row of even more seed pods. Maybe she’s giving me some sort of craft stuff? I don’t know if I’m particularly creative. I’m not sure I have memories of anything along those lines.
Hazza pulls an item out triumphantly. “Here you go! Never been used! I have a favorite already and this one is too small for Hazza’s thick hips.” She chuckles and holds it out to me. “Perfect for my small human friend.”
Oh.
Oh my goodness.
Hazza holds a belt and what looks like a hip rig of some kind out to me. It isn’t until my gaze falls on the big blue synthetic penis dangling on one end that I realize what the heck this is.
She’s giving me a strap-on.
I stare…and then I giggle wickedly too. Now this is quite the gift. “Amazing. You are an excellent friend, Hazza.”
“Oh, I know.” She laughs with delight.
Seventy
JAMEF
“Good morning, little one,” I say to Bethiah as I cross her on board the Pleasure Spot. Somehow, I’m not surprised to find her hiding up, elbow-deep in the control room wiring instead of saying her goodbyes to the others on base.
She turns and snarls at me, her expression downright surly. “Is it a good morning? Because they changed out all the flash-transistors and there was one that needs a lower frequency than the others, and I have to figure out which one it is all over again.”
“It’s fine,” I tell her. “Kaatir’s wives know what they’re doing.”
“So you say. Where will Kaatir’s wives be when we’re stranded in an asteroid belt? Hm?”
I ignore her grumpy mood. I’m starting to expect it now. She wakes up, feels vulnerable, attacks and hisses for a short time just to remind us that yes, we really should dislike her, and then settles in. I slide my tail next to hers as I lean on the counter, giving it a light brush. “Did you not sleep well? Should I tell Dora she has to sleep in the middle now?”
Bethiah gives me another scathing look, but she doesn’t bat my tail away. After a moment, she twines hers with mine while she pulls out another flash-transistor and holds it up to the light. “I just don’t trust anyone but my cousin Jerrok to work on things, I guess. If we get stranded, someone’s going to think we’re easy pickings, and I don’t want to put Dora in danger. She’s vulnerable, you know.”
“I know.” I slide to her side and put a hand on her hip. “She has two of us to protect her, though.”
“Mmm. Even though we’re bounty hunters and our jobs mean we have to be in danger?”
“What, did you want to retire and go farm somewhere? Maybe run a little repair shop on a station? I can fix things and you can handle the counter at the front and run everyone off. Dora will be our go-between. What do you think?”
“Sounds awful.”
I grin, because I figured it did. Bethiah isn’t the type to stay in one place for long. “So quit worrying over our jobs. We’ll just be more careful with the types of bounties we snag, if you’re truly worried.”
“I…just don’t want to disappoint her. Or you.” She doesn’t look me in the eye, focusing intently on the wiring. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not good with relationships.”
I squeeze her hip. “You think I am? You think Dora is? We’re all figuring this out together.”
“Mm, that does explain how keffing bad you both are at giving me space.” She glances over her shoulder at me, smirking to take the sting out of her words. She pauses for a moment, and then studies my face. “Which station are we going to next?”