Page 37 of No Strings Attached

He turned to her and said, “Hold on to me and I will swim us over.” He bent his head down so that she could wrap her arms around his neck.

Instead, she placed her hands on the sides of his face and rose up to kiss him lightly on the mouth, “I’m sorry that we didn’t get our ‘next time’ today, Bobby, although I am kind of relieved that we aren’t going to die in here.”

“I am too, Vi,” he said, returning her kiss with a little more insistence, “but we promised not to tie strings on each other, and I won’t.”

Vi let out a short laugh at the butchered, but still surprisingly accurate, phrase, then wrapped her arms and legs around him and found his body going immediately rigid. He let go of her legs and leaned back down to indicate she should let go. She did, and he turned around.

“I think you better travel on my back this time. I’m right on the edge of readiness.”

Vi flushed a little, then went to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his strong, muscular back. Her over-sensitized pussy was nestled right on top of the base of his very thick tail. She suppressed a groan as she felt the first rub against it.

He said, “You can sit up once we’re in the water,” as if he had heard the groan that she hadn’t made, “that way the water won’t be going over your face as I swim. I can stay underwater until we get to the other side.”

She was relieved once they were underway and she was sitting astride him, that she wouldn’t be grinding against his tail the whole way. If she had been, who knew what state she’d be in when they reached Acken? And since when had she become so fucking insatiable? She’d already had four utterly mind-blowing orgasms in the space of a few hours. Her previous lovers had been doing great to even approach that number in a month.

And as they reached the far side, with Acken reaching down to pull her up through the doorway, Vi looked back at her and Bobby’s temporary, but wonderful, little sex paradise and feltthe most profound sense of loss she had experienced since losing her parents.

Now she sat in the strange little lounge slash bridge on Qlu’s ship with Acken, Caussus, and Malachite. Qlu had outfitted his ship so that a large number of people could sit idly on sofas in the lounge area and watch bridge operations, for which very little room had been allocated. Thankfully, Acken had confirmed, much of the controls were set to run on auto, so he had just plugged in the coordinates of the meeting point with the ship from Dim and they were on cruise control. Vi had asked that Acken turn on the view screen so she could have her first visual experience of traveling through space. It wasn’t nearly as exciting as she thought it would be.

There had been a whirlwind of activity on the asteroid following Vi and Bobby’s rescue. Acken had promptly informed her that Malachite had been in contact with his planet and they were on their way to retrieve him. Acken had been unwilling to provide the coordinates of the asteroid to anyone, so they had arranged to meet as far away from the asteroid as Acken felt prudent, and it was necessary to leave within the hour. Acken had shown her the written communications exchanged in some kind of galactic standard notation on a little computer tablet, but it had been meaningless to her. He had indicated a series of symbols whichexpressed their specific desire to meet, and thank, the person who had delivered Malachite from his fate—meaning she needed to come along. How long would they be gone? Three days.

Vi had grabbed Caussus and asked him to find her some clean clothes, as well as prepare to come along with them. She wanted to have some time to talk with Acken and Caussus about what came next. Then, she had asked Bobby to find Trak and both come back to her. The three of them discussed what to do about the incoming cargo ships and, in the end, Bobby had had the best idea. Why not let them land, disembark, unload, then head to the bunk room as usual? At the bunk room, they could be secured, and the situation explained to them.

They had called snake guy and Mister Beastly over to explain and ask them to serve as security backup for Trak and Bobby, who both also believed that the kitchen and security system Trallians would be happy to help out. Those Trallians had apparently slept in the garden last night, then meticulously cleaned up from the feast and promptly started cooking a morning meal for everyone. One of them had even tended to Qlu, giving him water and feeding him all the kibble he wanted, which apparently wasn’t very much. Vi had laughed, then asked them to see that Qlu was taken to the cage room—her cage, fed regularly, and relieved of his dildo gag, adding, “But go ahead and toss it in the cage with him in case he gets bored or lonely.”

Someone had brought her a big plate of food, causing her stomach to rumble loudly, but she had asked them to send all the extras from the morning meal to the ship. She could eat then when there wasn’t as much to do.

She had found the security system Trallians and asked them if they handled Qlu’s buyer communications. They did. She told them to prepare a message, and make it sound like Qlu, stating that a major new buyer had purchased all of his merchandise in one lot at 10 times the value he had hoped to earn sellingthem singly, so he—regretfully—was cancelling the auction. She hoped that it would turn away at least half the buyers. The security system team informed her that the first buyers weren’t due for another couple of weeks, so it was something she could continue to deal with when they returned from the rendezvous with the ship from Dim. She had also given them a special, secret assignment.

As the four of them had prepared to leave, Vi had not been able to stop her gaze from sweeping around the room to find Bobby. There he was, back in a coverall and hands in his pockets, eyes fixed on her. She had felt a smile come to her lips when their eyes met and a zing shot through her body at his answering smile.

Now, her little crew lounged in comfortable silence as they made their way from the asteroid. Caussus had found her a beautiful piece of fabric and skillfully wrapped it around her into a surprisingly comfortable and secure toga dress.

Vi asked Caussus how he had broken it to Friend that he needed to stay behind.

“I put him in charge of Kompi, madam…Vi…Madam Vi. I told him he was responsible for making sure that Kompi ate, and slept, and relieved himself in appropriate places.”

Vi laughed, grateful that Kompi had been seen to.

Caussus smiled, “I also gave Kompi a ball and taught him how to throw it for Friend. I believe it could be satisfactorily considered a win-win for both parties in that relationship. I don’t think Kompi will ever tire of throwing that ball, nor Friend of retrieving it.”

Acken slapped Caussus on the back, companionably, but Caussus was nearly knocked off the sofa. Acken helped him back up and looked a little sheepish.

They were sitting on one of Qlu’s ubiquitous horseshoe sofas, Malachite and Vi on one side, Acken and Caussus on the other.

Vi turned to Malachite, “I’m glad that you’re able to go home, Malachite. I just wish that we had been able to communicate more with each other. I would love to know more about your species and planet.”

Malachite pulsed a steady, green light.

Acken cleared his throat and said, “On the subject of going home…”

Vi shook her head. “Bobby and I talked about it. He made it clear to me that there wasn’t going to be any way to locate my planet without getting the coordinates from someone who has already been there.”

“The Ulus,” Acken mused.

“Yeah, the Ulus should know. But…that conversation with Bobby also led me to realize something. I’m…I’m not sure that I have anything that I need to go home for. I certainly don’t have anybody waiting for me. I guess that getting home to Earth was just something I had in my mind as a given. You know? Like, of course I would go home—there’s no place for me out here.” She watched Caussus look down into his lap, then continued, “Then I realized that might be the case for this whole little band of misfits, right?”

Caussus looked up and Acken grinned at her, “So you will be our queen, then?”

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