Chapter 11 Nocturne’s Edge, Rafe
NOCTURNE'S EDGE, RAFE
I open the file the instant the notification pings my console. Something was added to my human receptionist’s record.
Orgasm from a doctor on her first day. And now this. A human pet between her legs. She’s sex-crazed.
I have full access to the Igo surveillance files, so I open the footage. It is silent, but her body tells the story.
Eve leans back against the sofa, her lips parted and her eyes glassy.
The human companion Lyric kneels between her thighs. His movements are slow and practiced, and she doesn’t resist; in fact, she opens wider for him like it’s instinct.
And then I watch her slowly unfasten her shirt one button at a time, like she’s enjoying giving those officers a show, then her large human breasts spill free and she cups them in her hands, pinches her pink nipples and plays with them under Sor’s orders while his men watch.
Finally, she rides out her orgasm with an expression of erotism her personnel files never captured.
Then, I notice a glass of amber liquid rests near her hand, half-empty, and the ambient lighting glows with that telltale blue haze. I check the atmospheric logs.
I shake my head. She wasn’t fully in control, but it doesn’t matter. She obeyed, spread her legs, bared her breasts, and climaxed for an all-male Imperial audience.
I close the file. Sor let her drink, let her breathe the doctored air, let her strip for him and every officer in that lounge. He’ll argue it was legal, standard procedure, and nothing to discipline.
But it is not nothing to me.
Eve is my human hire. My responsibility. And I will not have her reduced to performance stock before she even sets foot in the Spire.
Lorian’s ship hovers a few kilometers beyond the Reima Two Space Station—Nocturne’s Edge, all dark hull and aristocratic menace. When I step into his lounge, it’s warm, and I can smell incense and fresh flowers. He has a woman here. Women from the planet require warmer temperatures.
My brother is sprawled across an obsidian divan, loose robes sliding off one shoulder, and a glass of Arcus Flare in his hand. Beside him, half-kneeling in a pose that is almost casual, is a woman.
She’s a high-born lady from Reima Two. I recognize the jewels braided into her hair, House Irel, one of Alba’s most powerful families. Her stunning bare breasts are accentuated by the glittering jewels that rest between them.
Lorian doesn’t move when he sees me. “Good morning, Brother. What brings you here so early and unannounced?”
I remain standing. “The Octopod Syndicate lost another shipment near the Heme Drift. Pirates, they claim. It's sloppy and insulting. Retrieve it. Make sure they understand our displeasure.”
His lips curve into a predatory smile. “Naturally. But that's not why you interrupted my morning’s entertainment, unless you came to indulge…”
“Sovereign Director,” the woman next to him purrs. “If you’re not here for pleasure, you should be.” She stands and walks toward me slowly and seductively, and when she reaches me, I let her fingers brush the side of my neck.
“Quite right, Rafe. It’s been too long since we shared a woman.”
“I would be honored,” the Reima Two woman says. Her words are elegant, practiced, and completely expected.
“Not today.”
Her lips twitch. “You’ve become disciplined in the wrong direction, Rafe. There are still stories about how you and Lorian…”
I interrupt her. “I’m working.”
She continues, unbothered by my statement. “I heard you tie up some of your lovers as you worship their bodies, again and again, and again.” She runs a hand suggestively down her trim grey body.
I swallow. My mind is already envisioning sharing her with Lorian, right here, right now, but I can’t. We can’t. We have work to do.
“They say you always enter a woman first, Rafe. First born, first to re-enter.”
“Stories grow,” I say.
“So does anticipation,” she says, and cups each one of her breasts.
“Sorry to disappoint you this time,” I reply.
Her eyes narrow slightly, not offended but registering the power dynamic. She’s not used to rejection from a man. But we aren’t on Reima Two. So, I don’t have to keep the same level of politeness just because she’s a woman.
“Always the colder twin,” she comments, echoing society gossip. “You really enjoy being off-planet, don’t you? I’d love to see you both try to dominate me in the bedroom. Doesn’t that challenge entice you, Rafe?”
“He’s thinking about someone else,” Lorian says, giving me a way out without being rude.
“Lorian and I have business to discuss.”
The woman walks away from us with the graceful fluidity of Reima Two’s elite.
“Then I’ll leave you to your little conversation,” she says condescendingly.
“I need to be back in Alba, anyway.” She puts her dress over her head and then adjusts her cloak of charcoal silk embroidered with the insignia of House Irel.
Finally, she bends to kiss Lorian’s temple.
“Don’t get too serious; it can damage men’s brains, you know.
” Then we both watch as she walks out, taking her perfumed scent with her.
Lorian swirls his drink. “You could’ve said yes; she wouldn’t have minded.”
“I mind,” I say, and toss a datapad onto the low table. It lights up, showing the personnel file, the playback thumbnail frozen on Eve’s parted lips mid-orgasm. “Commander Sor authorized a human companion by the name of Lyric for a performance session last night, and Eve Eden accepted.”
“You sound jealous.”
“I sound concerned.”
“You sound like a man who’s human moaned for someone else.”
“She didn’t moan. She submitted.”
Lorian laughs and sets his drink down. “Is that better or worse, Rafe?”
I don’t answer.
“She’s not even at the Spire yet, and already she’s been stimulated by a doctor; what was it, two-point-eight minutes? And now, a human pet. So you came here to ruin my morning because a pet licked our precious new employee?”
“Yes, I expected her to show restraint.”
“She’s a fucking human. She’s wired for sex, Rafe.”
“I know what she is,” I snap.
He sits up straight and gives me his full attention now. “So why are you here?”
“I’m altering our plan. I’m putting a Venus Lock on Eve Eden with full access, monitoring, hormonal tracking, and arousal regulation. It’ll be the only way to train her.”
“Ah. The chastity route.” Lorian grins.
“It’s a precaution given her activities over the last six days. We can’t risk another Yasmin or Denise. We can’t have her willing to fuck anyone and everything.”
His smile fades. Denise’s name always cuts deeper than he lets on.
“I want real-time data,” I continue. “I want to know when she thinks about sex and what her greatest weaknesses are. Even in her dreams, I want to know who is fucking her.”
“And will it please you when she dreams of you? She will, you know. Once that lock’s in place, the only source of release will come through you.”
“She won’t get release. Not right away, she’ll need to earn it through hard work, maybe at the end of the year.”
“It doesn’t sound like you want her to be obedient. It sounds like you want her to be starving for sex.”
“It’s an effective method.”
“It’s cruel and sadistic, even for you, Rafe.”
“It’s necessary.”
Lorian stands, crossing to the bar. “It’s too much. Put me on the release code as well. It only makes sense we both train our new human employee. I’ve been thinking that that could have been what went wrong last time. I put in too much, too late, with Denise.”
I walk to the viewport and watch the stars shift beyond the glass. “You promise you won’t make her into a mindless pet?”
“No, don’t put all of that on me. Denise wanted me to tell her what to do.
That’s why she’s happy now with Kamos. I can’t control who people are; I can only control my reaction to them.
Just put me on the release codes. Everything we work on together is always a success.
Let me take half of this burden with our new employee, and she will be a success too. ”
I think about it for a moment and decide that either way he’s going to influence her, so I might as well know what he’s thinking about as he does it. “Fine,” I agree.
As I turn to leave, I glance back at my twin, already settling back into his indulgent pose. “Make sure the Octopods understand our message clearly. I'll wait for you at the Spire. We’ll both train Eve Eden together to ensure there are no mistakes this year.”
“She dreams, you know,” he calls after me. “I checked her REM scans. She had an orgasm in her sleep last night. Alone. No stim. No bed functions, probably still thinking of Lyric.”
I pause at the door.
“Next time,” he continues, “it’ll be us she dreams of after she finds out we hold the release codes for her chastity belt.”
I don’t respond. The door closes behind me. The hallway’s colder. Better. Just talking about Eve Eden makes me anxious.
Will we be able to train her?
I have already failed with two human women.
The Venus Lock will be fitted the moment she arrives. If I’ve learned anything in my life, it’s that fortune favors those who maintain control. And I will have control over my new human employee.