Knight, Dee S. - Bride of the Pryde (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Read Online Free Page B

It’s like having a wet dream right here on the bridge. Maybe later we could tie her down and—”
    Susan snapped her head to glare at the fourth man, the stranger still on the bridge. He regarded her with a leer that the most accomplished letch would envy.
    “Ohh, I struck a nerve.”
    “I forgot to tell you about Dillard,” Charlie explained. “He’s robotic and, despite his diarrhea of the mouth, perfectly harmless. Dilly, mind your manners.”
    “Charlie, I just said what everyone else has been thinking.” Dillard flipped a few switches on the control board. Then he flopped into a seat and buckled himself in.
    “Criminy,” she said.
    “This is going to be a long flight,” Erik muttered. Then he sat in the largest of the four seats and snapped his straps in place.
    Within minutes, Charlie and the other man, Adam, were also in their seats. The floor vibrated beneath her feet as the engines geared up. Erik pushed the throttle stick up and they eased forward.
    “Cleared for exit to inter,” came a disembodied voice from the COMM speakers.
    Susan knew this was just the first step, being allowed into the intermediate takeoff block. She wasn’t away yet. They still had to clear the inter and then the outer gateway before she could breathe.
    Gaining a bit more speed, Erik maneuvered them through the other shuttles in the holding area and into the more organized arena of ships in inter. There they waited again. One by one the other vehicles took off, flying from the well-lighted government-controlled inter area into blackness bracketed with guiding lamps, which outlined the channel of space used for departures and arrivals.
    “We’re up next,” Charlie said, turning his head to reassure her.
    “You are cleared to enter the gateways.”
    Susan began to breathe a bit easier. In less than an hour she should be in deep space and farther away from the authorities. Then she’d retire to her room and try to sort through the day’s tragic events. For a moment she closed her eyes, but all she saw was Lisle’s shoe, half-off.
    When she looked through the front screen once more, they were in darkness, slowly making their way to the appropriate sector where they would catch the portal into space.
    Twenty minutes later, they still hadn’t been given permission to exit. Others had gone around them, and now their sector held only two ships beside them.
    Susan’s muscles tightened. She swore she could feel the acid in her stomach increase. Centuries of medical miracles hadn’t produced anything better than antacids for a tense stomach. Too bad the assholes brilliant enough to create Pheron hadn’t concentrated on something really worthwhile, like a pill that did away with an overabundance of stress.
    “What the fuck is going on?” Erik pounded the arm of his seat. “I’ve never waited this long to get out of this goddamn terminal.”
    He clicked the COMM button. “Tower, this is EP06842, Erik’s Pryde . Can you tell me what the holdup is in exiting to the gateways?”
    He was certainly a master of control. No one would be able to tell from his voice how upset he was.
    “You are cleared as far as we are concerned,” the tower answered, though not in the previously robotic tone, “but these guys request that we hold you until they confirm something about a passenger. You do carry a passenger, don’t you, EP06842? It is noted on your manifest.”
    “Shit,” Erik said, off-COMM. “ These guys? What the hell is this about?” He tapped his seat arm while his crew stared at him. Turning his head, he studied Susan.
    It took a great deal of willpower not to squirm under his assessment, so different from the very male examination he’d made when she boarded. She watched his eyes and knew the moment he decided.
    Would he hand her over? He had absolutely no reason not to. If she were in control, she would go back and hand her over. If it came to the safety of her crew or getting rid of possible trouble, her crew won