Read Sparks in Cosmic Dust for Free Online Page B

right it could make us both rich.” After peering round the metal bedroom partition and assuring herself they were alone, she added, “We don’t have much time. This place is run like clockwork, and we may have enjoyed ourselves a bit too much.”
    “Speak for yourself. I only stopped because I had nothing left. It was fucking phenomenal.”
    Yes, while it lasted. She’d have liked a little less buildup, a lot more pelvis action. The guy was big and powerful, and sensational when he got going, but not much in the way of stamina. Not yet anyway.
    “ Sshh. ” She checked again—still no one there. “Stay right where you are. I’m going to fetch our clothes. We’ll have to talk while we’re getting dressed, okay? That way no one will be suspicious if they find us.”
    Solomon shifted to the edge of the bed, his eyes darting between her and the way out. She marched out over the soft purple sand, careful not to look anywhere except at the garments strewn about. The staff access door could fling open at any moment and she’d lose her chance. Arch had to be watching the cameras by now, if remotely from his penthouse. Her window of opportunity to recruit Solomon was shrinking. She hurried, snatched up his clothes and boots and, realizing she couldn’t carry it all in one trip, wrapped everything in the bedsheet instead. If only she’d been smart and taken him into the bedroom first, but the moment had overwhelmed them both.
    “Okay, here it is.” She flung their garbs onto the bed. “I need to get off this asteroid but quick. My contract expires after either twenty losses or, if I don’t reach that figure in a year, five losses after the year elapses. My year is up, and this is my first…loss.” She stepped into her panties. “So, doll, I need you to beat me four more times.”
    A puzzled frown robbed Solomon of his cocky post-sex high. “How’s that? You say you’re gonna let me beat you?”
    Varinia reaffixed her bra and her golden Rapunzel wig, all the while crystallizing the ruse in her mind. If they were smart about this, it had to work. “I won’t lie to you, sugar. You’re a piss-poor card player, and if I were thinking professionally, I’d wait for some rejuved tin man with lifetimes of talent up his sleeve. But the truth is I’m particular about whom I shag, and you’re by far the hottest trick I’ve come across on this rock. No question.” She knew stroking a man’s ego made him susceptible to most things. “And we have the luxury of our plays being invisible. The cameras watch our backs, for security. No one can know how much we suck at cards. If we keep our heads about us we can blaze off Kappa in four days’ time, richer than Croesus. We can split my earnings fifty-fifty, everything I’ve made this year. How about it, sugar?”
    Crap. Had she come on too strong? The poor guy looked shell-shocked, his mouth contorting for speech with nothing coming out. He bent to fasten his fly, magno-lace his boots, all the while his bare shoulders and biceps rippled, making her mouth water. Four sessions with him would be more than worth a cut of her fortune. With a little discipline, he could be dynamite in bed. He’d been a little rough but not too much, and in terms of foreplay, he knew exactly how to pleasure her. She’d chosen well—very well. Strong, proud, considerate, Solomon would make an excellent travel partner. At the very least, no one would want to get on the wrong side of him. His huge shoulders would knock down a hurricane derrick.
    “Why do I get the feeling I’m being set up?” He spied her from the corner of his eye while he fastened his shirt.
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean no one is that lucky. First I get to screw the one woman every sleaze-heaver in the galaxy would give every body part except one to screw. Then she invites me back, free as you like, and pays me for the privilege? Lady, what do I look like? This bullshit has ‘entrapment’ stamped all over