Rorie Nebula (a Warrior Adventure Scifi Romance) Read online

  Rorie Nebula ©Calista Skye (Lux Xe Story creative/Dev editor) 2015

  All rights reserved.

  Rorie's not accustomed to visiting the lower decks, but she can't resist her best friend's prompting after the first signs of fount-activation leave her yearning for a mental escape. Crossing paths with a rogue, dust rider never factored into the evening's plans, but when it means avoiding a run-in with dastardly aquistioners, she finds herself immensely thankful that the universe has sent her an escape hatch.

  She doesn't count on the near-instant attraction she feels for the rider, or the fact that she'll have to get used to life on the wrong side of the ramps if she's to accept his help.

  Is she ready to live the life of a galactic outlaw? Can she even resist the intensity of her connection with the angelic rider who promises her freedom from the drudgery of official "service" and the wild world among the hidden space dust colonies she's been taught to fear for as long as she can remember?

  A steamy, sci-fi adventure romance redux with a satisfying, happy ending destined for your rereading shelf.

  One

  I've avoided the lower decks for as long as I can remember. Ever the "good girl" I've heeded the warnings. But there I found myself, outfitted in a revealing skin suit that was far too tight to leave anything to the imagination. It wasn't my suit. That one came from Nia's ample stock of man lures, and she had to get a half-bottle of Brinny Wine in me to convince me to squeeze into it.

  I've never been ashamed of my curves, but that suit brought them out in all their glory, making my hips and "glorious rack," as Nia often referred to it, the first thing anyone was ever going to notice about me.

  Fanning myself in the heat of the entry bay, my clinking bracelets drew the attention of the shift sentry, and I smiled nervously at him.

  A self-conscious clench of the gut reminded me of how ridiculous and inappropriate I felt. The attention was kind of nice, though. He was a lumbering brute of a man, but oddly attractive.

  Guys like him weren't usually my type, of course. I tended to think of them as meatheads, but for some reason, I found him sexy. Maybe that was the Brinny Wine thinking for me. I had to give myself 'the internal talk' to stop stealing glances at him as the line inched forward. Mainly because he saw it every time, and when it was finally me standing in front of him waiting to have my hand stamped with a neon door-key, he gave me a knowing look that made me feel just as silly and inexperienced as I actually was.

  His look said he knew I was wearing a space bunny's costume, that he knew I was really just a girl from the upper decks who'd fallen in with the wrong crowd because her best friend decided she was tired of being invisible.

  It was Nia's fault.

  She swore to make sure her adult years were different than the ones she suffered at the academy, absolutely refusing to be invisible this time, someone other than who she'd been for so many years.

  My skin fevered when the bouncer pressed the rubbery bar stamp onto my wrist, and I noticed the emblem of the Draconoid I was now tagged with was the very same as the one on the golden-haired sentry's uniform.

  “Thanks,” I managed to mumble, ever the mannered citizen.

  “Stay out of trouble in there,” came his response, and I knew for sure then that he had spotted me for the fake I was. It was more than slightly embarrassing, but there hadn't been any judgment in the way he'd said it, and it was kind of comforting to receive a warning.

  I actually needed one.

  Nia had a true knack for talking me into exceedingly stupid shit. Where she lacked brains, charm poured from her like a fountain.

  I've never been charming like that.

  I was pretty, really pretty apparently, but not at all socially captivating. I'd learned to live with that in academy, but somewhere in the back of my head, I think hanging out with Nia was sort of a sneaky way of seeing if her social graces might eventually rub off on me.

  “We can't just stand around, Rorie. Come on.”

  Nia.

  Her bright smile lit up the bay to the lower decks as the doors swished open like it illuminated everything, her waterfall hair swishing the ether as she grabbed my arm and turned to pull me along with her. Grumbling, I followed past the rows of wild species gathered in pockets around the space bunny founts.

  Blinking away from the expressions of the resigned women, I suffered the fact that I truly was stuck here for as long as Nia wanted. It might have been fine if the space bunnies weren't being milked so openly. On the upper decks, founts were at least given a modicum of the dignity.

  Not that I relished the idea of becoming one or anything.

  ... Not that I had a choice.

  Drawing close to a free standing column, Nia pulled down its booth lever, calling up a set of seats by the cubes where a set of ridiculously handsome cadets were stationed. A screech sounded off as the metal stools and table rose up from the deck tiles, and I drew a breath as she hit the tender button to get the nearest server's attention. One look at her pretty face and wink won us a free round from the nearest wine tender along with a return wink of the suggestive variety.

  Nia bit her lip flirtatiously with a sort of taunting look that suggested she wasn't sure she wanted more from him than a little bit of oggling, but there was an enchanting hint of possibility in the way she did it. She was very good at that. Promising without actually promising that a guy might get to have a taste if he treated her right.

  Unlike myself, Nia used her slinky, little curves to good effect, and men of all species responded with a sort of feral instinct that tended to win her whatever she could think to want. The clothes in her closet, her jewelry, and spending money, all came from her boyfriends. Most of them never knowing the privilege of pressing their sweaty bodies to hers after they rained their credits down upon her.

  At the academy, she'd have been called a sludge for that. But she wasn't a sludge. Not exactly. She was more like a con artist.

  I watched her strategically adjust her tight, bustier, her breasts pretty much spilling out of it, and traced them to the eyes across the deck that she was now preening them for. One look at the almost translucent man who'd caught her attention gave me a shiver of warning that I didn't tend to get unless there was actual trouble. I looked away in the instant, nudging her with caution.

  “Take it easy, NiNi. Not all these men are lawful.”

  “Oh, hush. He's fucking hot! Is something wrong with your eyes?”

  I drew a breath and suppressed a frown, taking a large gulp of the stinging, Brinny Wine she'd won us. The tender had made it sweet, but it was strong, stronger than anything I was accustomed to drinking.

  I caught him looking at me when I lowered the tube. Grinning, he delivered another drink just that quick. Looking at the vial of dark liquid, I lifted my eyes to him with question and followed his gaze to the group of guys Nia had been teasing.

  “Rounds on them,” he offered, pulling a towel from beneath his hover-bar and tossing it over his back before rolling off to the next booth.

  Nia claimed my attention next.

  “Come on.”

  “Where?”

  Grinning cryptically, she pulled me by my wrist.

  “Credit bags await. Don't forget your drink.”

  Fumbling to grab the drink without spilling it, I slid down from the booth stool and followed behind her with stuttered steps along the faintly, glowing, metal, deck tiles as she tried to slink toward the circle of pale men carefully arranged in the VIP booth toward the back with thinly-veiled intent.

  A burn of warning filled my stomach, but I didn't let my sense of caution reach my face. Better that
these guys didn't suspect I was uneasy. If they actually were a bad sort, the element of surprise was our trump card against the dangers of men.

  I watched carefully as we drew to a stand in front of Nia's fixation, my unease intensifying as the gleaming, red eyes of the expensive-suited pretty boy set on my best friend. Smirking, he patted the spot on the bench beside him. Tilting her head coyly, Nia pulled me with her, ignoring my resistance when I tried to hold my position at the edge of the stools and benches in their booth.

  “You're a pretty one, aren't you?” The expensive looking man asked as she took a seat next to him.

  Avoiding his eyes, I sat beside her, the scent of space dust and musk wreathing my senses. I felt his eyes waft over me, but kept my focus busy with the rest of the deck, glancing over the holo-games where a number of dust riders were gathered, each of them wearing suits with the same Draconoid patches imprinted over the left breast.

  “Something wrong with your drink?” I heard the expensive man ask.

  Shaken from my thoughts, my gut clenched, and I turned my eyes to his. He had the look of someone who would hurt who he had to to get what he wanted, and I raised my drink to my lips cautiously. This was a real asshole move on Nia's part. How was this guy's bad vibes escaping her?

  The drink slid down my throat uneasily, and I cringed a little under the heat of the stares of the expensive group of men watching us. I felt much like the Holiday squealer at the center of the dinner table, but I knew better than to let on just how uncomfortable I was.

  I even forced a smile as I took another sip, and my gaze drifted to the Holo Games again, this time locking with the dark eyes of one of the riders. Everything about him screamed danger, too, but in a different way. His danger didn't threaten me; it had a sort of unnameable ring of honor to it. I was easily fixated by that as I drew another sip.

  Blinking past the oblivion slinking over my vision, I set the thin, wine tube down shakily, realizing my nerves were getting the best of me. I could barely hold the drink now.

  “Easy, Sweetie. Too much all at once, and you won't be awake for the fun.”

  Alarm rang my senses hearing his words, though they seemed to reach me like muddled, sound underwater. Fuck, had these assholes put something in my drink?

  “Get the stack-unit in the back ready,” I heard one of the men whisper to the bleached-blond tender whose bar rolled to a stop by the booth.

  “Doesn't look consensual,” she noted, like she knew what they'd slipped us, and that maybe it was allowed in the lower decks, but only if we'd agreed to it.

  “You're a curious one, aren't you? Get the stack-unit in the back ready. We're responsible sorts. Don't you worry about how we unwind.”

  “We're gonna own you after tonight if we don't take your boss's shiny new deal, yeah? Make us comfortable,” another of the pale men added importantly.

  I drew a panicked breath, fingering the edge of the metal bench. I could barely feel my fingers, but my hormones had gone into overdrive. The thoughts beginning to fill my head... All wrong. I lifted my head, still wanting to avoid the men Nia had brought us over to, and for some reason, I looked out at the Holo Games again. Like I knew what I'd find when I did. Like hope was over there waiting for me to claim it. My body felt leaden now; I could barely move.

  I didn't know what these fuckers had planned, but I surely didn't want to find out. Maybe the riders... Maybe the one...Maybe they'd help.

  Eyelashes fluttering, I strained to keep my eyes focused as they met those of the honorable danger's again. The dark-eyed one. My heart leapt my chest. He was... he was walking towards us.

  He was walking toward me, and I didn't know if we had some sort of woo-woo soul connection, or I was having a psychic friends moment, but I knew, somehow, that he was coming to keep me safe. Something in his eyes told me that. It made the fear spiking my adrenalin ease off a little.

  I bit my lip, my senses woozy but heightened somehow. The lower deck was a hell of a lot hotter than it had been a moment before.

  “Feverish, Babe? Let us take the edge off,” I heard one of the bastards say.

  I recoiled from the brush of his fingertips.

  He laughed in punctuation, and it rippled the air in waves.

  “Shy one, huh? Not at all like you. You were eye-fucking me from across the room.”

  I heard Nia giggle, and my heart dropped to my stomach. What the fuck was she thinking? That this was somehow alright? It fucking wasn't.

  “Everything copasetic over here?”

  I lifted my head up, only realizing in that moment that it had dropped.

  Then the dust rider stepped into my line of vision, his eyes searching mine, and a stoic calm oozed out from him that made everything feel like it was going to be just fine.

  “You okay, Kitten?”

  Butterflies filled my stomach.

  Biting my lip, I ignored the cautious part of me and shook my head.

  Frowning, he gave me a knowing nod.

  “Thought as much.”

  “Listen, assh-”

  “We told you about this shit, Drek. Not on our fucking deck.”

  “I'll buy you three decks. Shut the fuck up, and walk away.”

  “'Fraid I can't do that.”

  I heard a low, sinister chuckle, but kept my focus trained away from its source. I did not want those hot, scarlet eyes staring into me right then. They were the eyes of a predator, and he was showing his teeth now, challenging the one hope I had of getting out of this situation.

  “You want to be here?” The rider asked.

  I could feel his attention on me and my eyes met his again. I all but fell into them. He was ridiculously hot. And apparently, a fucking hero.

  “No.”

  "You don't have to stay.”

  He reached his hand out to me.

  “Know your place,” I heard the red-eyed beast warn him.

  "Fuck off, Drek."

  Two

  Fuck.

  It had all happened so fast, I barely had a chance to catch my breath.

  “Drink this.”

  My eyes questioned the dust rider, but I took the small tube from his hand and downed it. It was heady, but didn't burn like the Brinny Wine. He reclaimed it from my fingers quickly and stuffed it back into one of his hover bike's compartments. My heart plummeted as my eyes met the exit ramps. I'd never braved the lower ramps, but there seemed little choice now.

  “It''ll clear your head. Hop on.”

  His engine revved with dangerous invitation.

  "Thief!” I heard the expensive man, Drek, cry out, and I turned against my better judgment to see a look of unbridled rage in his blood red eyes. He was a mean one. I could only imagine what he had intended for us. That thought led quickly to another that had my gut clenching.

  Nia.

  One of his friends was holding her up as I slid onto the hover bike, and the rider's machine rumbled heartily beneath me, snapping me alert.

  We couldn't leave her.

  “My friend-”

  “I'm getting you out of here first. My brothers will get your friend.”

  When? I didn't ask, but I was uneasy as I turned to see the rich boys heading off to their expensive-looking glider.

  “No one takes what's mine, you little quim. I don't give a fuck who you're affiliated with.”

  “Ignore him.”

  Gesturing my arms around him, my hero kicked the hover bike into gear then, and we shot down the exit ramp with roaring speed. My heart thundered in my chest when I heard the rich boys's glider rumbling out behind us. My hero was fast on his air bike, but those fuckers were driving a luxury glider. I didn't want to place any bets on who would win the race in that moment.

  “Wooo hoo!”

  Fear raged through my system. A quick glance back signaled me to the moneyed meathead who was half emerged from the star-roof hooting excitedly behind us. What kinds of bastards were they? They weren't like any I'd seen around the ship. Most of the rich peop
le I'd encountered were poised, like they'd been trained early to behave in a civilized way. These guys... either weren't trained at all, had rebelled against their conditioning, or their credits were new.

  The fucking bastards were whirring their engine like mad men, and I recoiled at the thought that Nia was in their midst willingly. What the fuck was this Mad Max? I didn't belong to them. Didn't even know who they were.

  My hero caught my hand when my fingers started to slip from around him.

  “Hold tighter.”

  I didn't argue. Wrapping my arms tighter around him, I forced myself to believe he would keep us safe over every bump the hover bike hit along the blue-lit ramp. I couldn't keep my mind off of Nia as my hair whipped around my head, dancing in the ether as he sped us forward. The rumbling hum of more hover bikes in the distance drew closer, and I winced at the sound of screeching thrusters, halting to a stop behind us.

  “Your friend's safe now.”

  That was all he said as he sped ahead, pushing past the exit doors sliding open, ushering us to a destination veiled in unspoken mystery. It wasn't a mystery that bothered me, though. Anything that had my arms around him was alright with me in that moment. It was the strangest thing. I'd been undoubtedly drawn to him in the lower deck, but there was something between us that felt so familiar, I didn't know how to parse it.

  My sister was the sort of romance app junkie who believed in true love, including (and especially) the kind that happens at first sight, but my parent's domestic battlefield had always made me doubt relationships with the opposite sex. Maybe I was a cynic or something.

  After awhile, I settled into the ride along the holo trails, though, and rested my head against my rider's back, realizing how relaxing it was roaring over the open ramps on a hover bike. Pretty fucking cinematic, and sexy as hell having the seat pressed between my thighs like that. And my hero was a complete mystery to me, which was only making me want badly to know more.

  He was ultra cool, intensely masculine, and ruggedly beautiful. His pretty face would have been misleading if I'd taken it as an indication of what was between in the pages of his particular eBook. I had no idea what kind of life he'd led, but he'd obviously come out with a firm grasp on how to handle whatever might come his way.