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They stopped just past the Drucian border at a little town with two cantinas holding a face-off from opposite ends of the twisty main street. Nyx would have spun a knife to pick, but Anneke overruled her. Only one had rooms to let, and they'd just driven through the night.
"Don't fancy another night in the bakkie, boss," Anneke said, jangling a pair of keys in her hand. "Gonna go upstairs and catch some sleep."
"Ain't night," Nyx pointed out. "But go on. You always were as lazy as a cat."
Anneke snorted. "Says the one who was snoring in the shotgun seat."
"So I'll drive, next time, and you can just bite your tongue instead of moaning about the transmission every time I hit a pothole. Right now, I'm gonna wash the desert dust out of my throat."
Nyx watched Anneke trot up the rickety stairs, then went looking for a glass of whiskey with her name on it. The bartender was willing enough once he'd seen her notes, though it wasn't yet noon. She held the glass up to the window and squinted through it at the mountains. It made them a proper golden color, like great oversized sand dunes.
Last bit of desert dust I'll taste for a while, she thought, and knocked the glass back. Enough maudlin thoughts. She waved for the bartender's attention, held up two fingers. Might as well celebrate her arrival in Druce properly.
Three drinks turned into four, turned into five. Rhys wouldn't approve, she thought. Fuck. She was supposed to be putting those thoughts behind her, thinking ahead. Whole new country to explore. Except she'd never wanted to leave Nasheen, not really. Well, think about Fatima, then. Think about getting cleared, about going back. About having her license in hand again at last. And she'd keep it, this time, she'd clench it tight as some Chenjan girl's cunt. Wasn't much good at keeping people, but she could hang onto that, at least.
Her glass was empty. She picked it up anyway, turned it side to side, dropped it neatly on top of a thumbnail-sized beetle crawling on the bar. Not so drunk after all. Maybe it was time for another one. But the bartender was busy with the first other customer of the day, and she let him be, staring instead at the bug as it buzzed and flopped and tried to get away.
"Boss?" Anneke asked from behind her. She reached out and touched Nyx's shoulder, though Nyx noticed she waited until she was good and sure Nyx knew it was her before she did it. It was nice to know someone was still afraid of her.
"Thought you were sleeping."
"Did that, got bored. Thought you said you were just washing the dust out."
"Did that, kept going."
"Can see that," Anneke said dryly. "Think maybe it's time you came up and got your own sleep."
"Don't need a fucking nursemaid."
"Not what you said when I rolled up back on the other side of the border. Come on, up you go."
Nyx shoved off Anneke's efforts to help her rise. She could stand well enough, could even walk straight. But maybe Anneke was right. The drinks sure weren't helping her get any less maudlin.
The room upstairs was plain and clean. Two chairs, little spindly table that looked like it'd collapse under the weight of a good gun, and a single bed with the covers all mussed.
"Just as well we're sleeping in shifts," Nyx said. She sat down heavily, felt the chair creak under her weight, and started yanking at her boot laces. Damn things seemed to have twice the knots she'd put in them.
"Mm. Here, lemme get that." Anneke dropped gracefully to the floor, pushed Nyx's hands away, and started picking at the laces with gun-calloused fingers.
"I can get my own damn boots."
"Didn't say you couldn't." She moved Nyx's hands away again, fingers lingering slightly before she went back to work. Nyx squinted at her, suddenly more alert.
"This your plan? Get me drunk and then seduce me?"
"You got your own damn self drunk," Anneke pointed out. "Wasn't in my plans at all."
Nyx pulled her feet back nearly under the chair, out of Anneke's reach. "I don't sleep with people on my team. That's a rule."
"Don't seem to me that sleeping with people on your team is what gets you in trouble. Less you're telling me you slept with Rhys?"
"No," Nyx said flatly. "Don't."
"Don't what, talk about him? Rhys, Rhys, Rhys. Pretty enough, but boss, mooning over that man never got you nothing but trouble. And don't tell me you weren't mooning over him down there at the bar. I know that look on your face." Nyx said nothing. Anneke scooted forward, started working on the laces again. "Seems to me you could use a distraction. Anyway, you haven't got a team no more, boss, or didn't you notice? I'm a free agent now."
Something about that last bit didn't make sense. But Anneke had finished with the laces and was moving her hands up Nyx's calves, squeezing. It felt good. Shit, maybe she was right. Maybe Nyx needed a good fuck to get Rhys out of her head.
"All right," she said. Anneke stood up, and Nyx stood with her, wrapped her arms around the smaller woman's waist, and threw her on the bed.
"Wasn't quite what I had in mind," Anneke observed as Nyx crouched over her.
"What, you thought I was too drunk to do anything but lay there? Just meant to take advantage of me?" Nyx tugged at Anneke's shirt, and Anneke obligingly lifted her shoulders so she could pull it over her head.
"Something like that," Anneke said. "Hey, I ain't complaining."
"Then stop talking," Nyx suggested, and bent down to suck Anneke's hard little nipple.
Anneke hissed in a long breath. "Whatever you say, boss."
Nyx rolled her eyes, kept sucking, and reached out to flick Anneke's other nipple sharply with her thumb and forefinger. Anneke squeaked like a woman half her age.
"You gone soft, out on the coast," Nyx observed, pulling her head back. "All those kids, think you'd be used to someone chewing on your breast."
"Got bottles for that. Ain't no one touched those like that in, hm, least a year or two. Mmmm, yeah, like that."
Nyx rolled the nipple she'd been sucking back and forth between her fingers, watched Anneke's eyelids flutter shut and her nostrils flare. She propped herself up on one elbow and reached down with her other hand to tug at the drawstrings of Anneke's trousers.
"Wiggle those scrawny little hips of yours," Nyx advised when she'd got the knot undone. It was easier than her bootlaces, somehow. More reason to want it open, maybe.
"Wouldn't be calling them scrawny if you'd seen what I've squeezed out of them," Anneke objected, but she wriggled and turned, working the trousers down over her ass. She wasn't wearing anything else under there, just the tight, black curls God had given her. They were already wet.
Nyx tightened her fingers on Anneke's nipple and watched it stretch back and forth with each twist of Anneke's body while she finished getting the trousers off. She kept her hand there as she slid down to nibble at the hard line of Anneke's pelvic bone. The woman always had been too skinny. Bones shouldn't stick out that way, shouldn't be easy to find just beneath the skin. But it seemed to be good for something. Anneke moaned slightly, thrust her hips up at the air.
Nyx took her time, working her way around one side and then the other, then moving down to Anneke's inner thighs. She liked the little sighing sound Anneke made every time she sucked the soft skin past her teeth.
"Come on, boss," Anneke whined.
Nyx took her time finishing the bite she was giving, though no one was going to see the mark on Anneke's Chenjan-dark skin. She let go of Anneke's nipple, moved her arm across Anneke's hips to hold her in place. Then she pushed her face between Anneke's hips and sucked, hard, on her clit. Didn't make much effort to keep her teeth out of the way, neither.
Anneke gave a gratifying shriek and jerked upward against Nyx's arm.
"What you get for being impatient," Nyx said, slightly muffled. She eased off, flicked her tongue back and forth over the tender bit of flesh. Anneke settled back into the bed, though Nyx could feel her thigh muscles flex and tense. Flex and tense, flick, flex and tense, flick. There was a pattern to this. Nyx had been good at it, once. Was still good at it. She listened to the changing pitch of Anneke's moans and moved her head to one side, giving space for her hand to slip between Anneke's thighs, for one finger to slide into Anneke's soaking cunt. Crooked her finger upward, worked it back and forth.
"Told you," Anneke said, sounding slightly strangled. "Should've seen what I've squeezed out of there. C'mon, boss, I can take more."
"You never do learn," Nyx said. She ran her tongue once in a full circle around Anneke's clit, pulled her finger out, and pushed all four back in.
Anneke gasped and ground upward. Nyx moved her hand back and forth with Anneke's movements, pulling away when she felt the woman's thighs trembling, pushing in when Anneke's breath eased. Building it, slowly.
Then Anneke's breath was getting nothing but faster, her thighs shaking, and Nyx drove her hand in hard and flicked her tongue in short, sharp licks. Four, five, six, and Anneke was coming, clenching and shaking around her hand.
Nyx pulled her hand out and rolled away, letting Anneke get control of herself again. She tugged at the strings of her own trousers while she waited, let them fall onto the floor.
"Not bad, boss," Anneke managed, finally. She turned to face Nyx and raised an eyebrow at the sight. "Now who's impatient? C'mon, your turn."
"Shouldn't take much," Nyx said, and scooted up the bed, rolling onto her side.
"Good, 'cause I ain't got the energy. Maybe in the morning."
Anneke leaned in, like she meant to kiss her, and Nyx dodged out of the way. It didn't seem to bother Anneke any. She let her lips settle on Nyx's neck, nuzzled a line around her throat. And oh, that felt good. Better was Anneke moving her hand down, squeezing one breast as she went, and sliding two fingers into Nyx's cunt. Her thumb settled onto Nyx's clit, rubbing back and forth.
"Harder," Nyx ground out, and Anneke obliged. Her body was hot against Nyx's chest, her mouth wet on Nyx's neck, her calloused fingers rough and fast and oh so good. Nyx clenched her legs tight, trapping Anneke's hand between them, and rode out the orgasm. Short and sweet, just the way she liked it. She kept Anneke's hand pinned a moment longer, just because she could, and then flopped back onto the bed.
"Guess we don't have to sleep in shifts after all," Anneke observed. Nyx kicked her, but without malice.
"That the idea? You just didn't want to sleep on the floor?"
"Who said it'd be me sleeping on the floor? I told you, boss, you needed a distraction."
"Mmm." Nyx settled back against the pillow and didn't even object when Anneke brought her hand up and rested it on her thigh. She'd never been much for cuddling, but saying anything seemed like too much effort. Anyway, the contrast was pretty--not as sharp as it would have been, back when Nyx had her own skin, but Anneke's darker hand still stood out. Made her think about the way another hand, the same Chenjan shade, would look. Except he didn't have those hands any more, did he? Fuck.
"Stop thinking about him," Anneke said to the ceiling, though Nyx was pretty sure she hadn't so much as sighed. "That man makes you crazy."
"Jealous?" Nyx asked. If there was one thing for sure, it was that she didn't want to talk about her feelings. "What, you in love with me or something? That why you came all this way?"
"No," Anneke said, in a flat tone that meant, you think highly of yourself. There was a faint slapping sound as she reached out and flicked the glow globe with her fingers. Obligingly, the bugs inside it began to fade. The light coming through the window was already faint. Sunset came quickly, this late in the year.
"Why, then? And don't give me shit about distractions. Why'd you come pull me out of the mess I made?" Nyx asked the dark room. There was a long silence. She didn't really expect Anneke to answer.
"God favors those who look after the mad," Anneke said. "Figure I can use some blessings, all the other shit I've done. Now shut up and let me sleep. We've got a long drive tomorrow, less you want to stay on the border. Further away from Nasheen we get, the better."
Nyx wasn't so sure about that. Wasn't sure how far she could get from Nasheen, the way she kept dragging it with her. But she left Anneke with her illusions and lay real quiet, watching the room go dark.