Page 11 of Throwing Fire

Much more my style.

Once she finishes admiring me, Kez settles in the pilot’s chair and makes short work of the take-off. She’s learned a lot in the three weeks I’ve been teaching her to fly. Even the transition from my old short-hopper to the big Infinity-class jumper we bought together hasn’t phased her. She flies smart, heading out of the spaceport and immediately turning down the coastline to pick up the lift from the convergence zone. Saving fuel, although the cost of fuel isn’t as much of a concern for us as it used to be, and theInfinityhas a solar sail as well as the heavy-water reactor. Good ship.

While she flies, Kez brings me up to speed on the outcome of Chiara’s afternoon of meetings, which Kez had on live feed the sameway I watched the debriefing. “They’re still playing hard ball about the import tariffs,” Kez tells me. “But at least they’re not closing the water market anymore.”

“Good.” If we shut down the Hex side of the business, water sales will have to make up the loss, so it’s important that not just Kuseros but the whole sector is open for our business.

“And then there were the holodrops,” Kez continues.

“Holodrops?” I can’t immediately connect a holodrop with the water market.

“Chi went from the meetings with the Ykimo delegation to her Crackle planner to look at holodrops. This trip got me out of going with her, but she still wanted me to make a short-list with her. What the hell do I care if she has her Crackle in a fake medieval castle or on a fake mountain-top?”

I have to grin. My kitten has more of a romantic side than her rant would suggest, but the arrangements for Chiara and Ape’s Crackle – personal contract ceremony – only seem to interest the bride herself. I haven’t even seen Ape show any interest. Of course, he is being forced into the contract, so maybe his lack of enthusiasm is understandable.

“I know what you need,” I say.

“Sex?” Kez asks hopefully.

I chuckle. “A vacation.”

“With lots of sex,” Kez mutters. For someone who is delightfully submissive once we get into bed, my kitten is very aggressive about getting there.

“I think I can promise you that.” It’s not like there’s a deficit of sex in our relationship now. But this will be the first time we’ve had several days of uninterrupted time together. We’ll be able to play some serious games. That thought is enough of a turn-on that I shift in my chair. Which reminds me to visit Doc Gray while we’re on the Clouds. Newskin doesn’t work on erectile tissue, and the little monster is fairly chapped just from our normal activities. Particularlyafter last night with the cane. If Kez and I are gonna fuck for five days straight, I really need some salve.

CHAPTER 5

With a great deal less drama than our first trip to the Cloudlands, which landed me in Doc Gray’s chop shop with a fist-sized hole in my shoulder, Kez brings us in for a perfect six-point landing at Tiv’s spaceport. I give her a nod of approval.

She grins. That grin, like the wonder that lights up her eyes when she flies, makes her look a decade younger than her twenty-seven standard. I see the kid she was when Kez flies. It’s a sweet, mischievous, adventurous side that Kez shows me a lot, both in and out of bed. I like her inner kid.

Speaking of kids. “What’d they say about Nev?”

Kez sighs as she climbs out of her chair and retrieves her backpack. “Nothing new. They want to run more tests. She’ll have given birth by the time they finish running all these tests.”

“They talk any more about—” I leave the last word unsaid. Kez knows exactly what I mean. We’ve talked about it several times over the last two weeks. Kez’s best friend is eight months pregnant. She’s also a Hex addict, and Hex fucks up fetal development. While she’sriding the snake, Nev doesn’t care. It’s only when she gets clean thatshe rains guilt all over herself and everyone around her. “Pretty soon, it’ll be too late.”

Kez nods. “Next five-day.”

Could be good timing. I don’t really want to be around to deal with the consequences of Nev’s decision, one way or the other. Hopefully by the time we get back from Yrillo the worst of the drama will be over.

“C’mon, kitten.” I hold my hand out to her. Her grin has faded and the light has gone out of her eyes while we’ve been talking about her fuck-up friend. “Let’s enjoy tonight, just you and me.”

“Just you, me and a couple hundred rats,” she says as she shoulders her backpack, takes my hand and tucks herself against my side. But she’s grinning again. “Think we’ll meet Grace this time?”

“That’ll add spice to the meal,” I say.

“Yeah,” Kez snorts. “Like cyanide.”

The Deep Whites may be heavy Mods, but they manage to fuck up their lives just like everyone else. Acker, the alpha of the rat-pack and the man we’re here to see, has a woman, Tiancha, who he calls his Wisdom. Tiancha’s a tiny, brindled rat-girl with the biggest, blackest eyes of anything, human or animal, I’ve ever seen. Acker must drown in those eyes every time he looks at her.

But Acker also has another woman, Grace. Kez and I haven’t met Grace, but Kez got an earful about her from Tiancha when Acker and Tiancha came over to dinner at my place last week. Acker brought me some hand-rolled cigars as a present, and while he and I were out on my deck smoking them and talking shit about the chances of the Kuseros Kemwars in the Vespers moonocky league, Tiancha was filling Kez in on the love-triangle between Acker, Tiancha, and Grace.

“Question is, if Grace is there, do either of us sit next to her,” I say. “Or are you backin’ the sista?”

Kez blinks her big blues, only a fraction smaller than Tiancha’s eyes, and wraps her arms around my waist. “Why is Tiancha my ‘sista’? Why not Grace? And why do you assume Grace is going to lose?”

“You seemed pretty pally with Tiancha when we were at my place.” I shrug. Slide my hands around her hips to cup her soft ass. Mmm, that ass. We might be late to meet the rats. “An’ I assume that Grace is going to lose for the same reason you do. She’s not a Mod. If Acker wanted normal, he wouldn’t have shot himself up with rat DNA.”

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