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No extra tip was worth what he’d do to her.
He waved her off and rose. Bare feet slapped the floor as he donned a black robe hanging on the wall, tying it with the sash around his waist.
Orion transmitted a message to Boris as he took the lift back up to the residential quarters above ground, instructing him to meet there. He squinted a little as the bright rays of the artificial sun stung his eyes through the hallway.
He often felt like an ant in here. Ants were small six-legged insects he’d learned about when he was young back onColossal. They worked in groups and lived underground, in elaborate mazes of their own making in service to their queen. That was Mars: an elaborate maze, partly underground and partly up on the surface. Only here, there was no queen. Hisqueenwas his mother, light years away in an anthill of her own, looking for fucking who knows what. Her New Earth. And now this queen demanded his presence.
Boris was already in Orion’s quarters when he entered, lounging on the cushion filled with light plastic pellets, his favorite spot.
“She’s here,” he mouthed, throwing a glance at the shower cubicle positioned off the main room. As if on cue, the plastic door opened, revealing Ajsa with a fluffy towel on her head and another wrapped around her chest, barely covering her cunt.
Orion pinched the bridge of his nose, rubbing the spot between his eyes. Just as he extricated himself from one needy bitch, he was faced with another. She waltzed over to Orion and stood on her bare toes, twining her hands together behind his neck. The motion dragged the towel up her thighs, revealing rows of red welts winking out from underneath.
“What took you so long?” She purred in his ear as he was extricating himself from her grasp, fingers curling over fresh bruises to pry her arms away. Her split-second wince turned into a grin.
Ajsa was the opposite of the spa girl. Not enough fat, but plenty of muscle rippling under her skin. She was the genuine article—got off on the fight. They’d only fucked twice, and it was stupid. The risk of chemical dependency to his exorin was significant. An addicted pain-slut could be a major pain in his ass.
He shot a look at Boris behind her, who gave him a helpless shrug.
“How long have you been here?” Orion asked her.
“All day, babe. I thought you’d be back from the spa and we’d grab lunch together, but then…” She closed her eyes momentarily, lashes fluttering side to side. “It’s almost dinnertime. Shall I get dressed?”
“No,” he said flatly. He let his robe fall to the floor and approached the hydra station built into the side of the wall. He instructed it to produce a cup of hot water through the interface of his Neurosync. He grabbed a sachet of vegetable flavoring from the container on the side and poured it into the steaming cup, stirring with a synthwood spoon.
The pout on her face made him want to stick something in it, but he refrained. He was playing in dangerous territory. He’d kept her around too long. She was getting attached.
“I’m busy. You need to go.”
Ajsa gnawed the inside of her mouth, a habit Orion was angry at himself for having noticed. Her gaze, leveled on him, was a knowing one. Like the bitch had him all figured out. A moment later Ajsa was pulling on her dress and flats. He got a good view of the bruises lining the side of her tits when she bent over to pull the fabric over her hips, and wondered if she enjoyed seeing his fingerprints there as much as he did.
She worked the towel from her hair and ran long gold-tipped fingers through the wet waves.
“Figured.” Orion narrowed his eyes at the ice in her voice. He sipped his soup as she gathered her shit. Ajsa was not taking this like the others normally did. But then she wasn’t a fucking moron, and maybe that’s why he’d kept her around for so long.
“Well…” Ajsa shot him a wry smile, pausing at the door. “Nice while it lasted, gentlemen.”
She waltzed out of the room, granting Orion a last glimpse of her swaying hips before the door hissed shut behind her. Orion stared.
How dare she be so callous about being rejected? Just leave like that, likeshewas the one rejectinghim? Like she didn’t even care.
Orion resisted the urge to follow, drag her back there, and teach her a goddamn lesson.
Boris was watching him closely, and Orion shook the thought from his head.
“My mother called.” Orion settled on a cushion across from Boris.
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
Orion got progressively more animated as he provided the gist of the conversation to the one man he would call a “friend” these days. Boris was a Martian, bred and born. They had met in the rec center five years ago, where Orion was hiding from his philosophy instructor by beating the shit out of a punching bag. They’d bonded over weight lifting and Boris’s uncanny ability to not want anything from Orion, and not judge him for his predispositions or his hatred of colony life. Others thought of him as a spoiled asshole. Not Boris. Well, if he did, he didn’t show it, and that was good enough.
After hearing the full story, Boris leaned forward, arms on his knees.
“So this doesn’t sound like something you can get out of…”
“Don’t tell me that,” Orion snapped. He didn’t need another person’s confirmation that he was fucked. There had to be a way out.
