"Joanna Wylde - The Price of Pleasure" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wylde Joanna)

Calla look like the little nothing she was. It was definitely time to seek out the services
of a professional.

Chapter 2


When Calla collapsed, exhausted, onto her pallet in the kitchen that night, she
couldn’t fall asleep. Just thinking about Seth’s hands on her hips, holding her while he
pounded into her from behind, sent little shudders of pleasure through her. She was still
sore from that morning, yet she ached from wanting more. He’d watched her with an
intensity she’d never seen before. When she’d told him she was married, he’d looked
ready to hit something. Or someone. She couldn’t afford to have him find out she’d been
lying to him. For all she knew, he might kill her.
The Saurellians were crazy, everybody said so. They fought hard, they fucked hard
and they were ruthless with their enemies. Without being told, Calla knew that a woman
who lied to their commander would be one of those enemies. Rolling over on her pallet,
she pillowed her head against her arm, willing the pleasurable sensations in her body to
go away. It didn’t matter how much she wanted to go back to his room. It was too
dangerous. Even if he didn’t kill her, Jenner would sell her in a heartbeat if she found
out what Calla had done. Even death would be better than spending the rest of her life
on her back in a mining-camp crib.
Calla slept restlessly and woke up tired. She had plenty of work to do. Even
conquering warriors had to eat, and it was her turn to check on the availability of
supplies at the market. The bulk of their food at the hostel was delivered each week, but
since war had come to their system Mistress Jenner had sent Calla or one of the girls
each day to see what was available on the black market. Supply lines were up and
running now that the Saurellians had occupied the station, but there were still good
deals to be found if you were resourceful enough. Calla was very resourceful.
Slipping out the back of the hostel, Calla pulled a shawl over her head and made her
way down a side corridor toward the central market. It was always safer to go out
covered; she might not be much to look at, but more than one slave woman of even
average appearance had disappeared in the station’s back corridors. It was best not to
take any chances. She was also concerned about running into Seth, but once she thought
about it, she realized she had never seen him before yesterday. He was probably too
important to spend his time on guard duty at the hostel, anyway. Bumping into him
wouldn’t be a problem, she assured herself.
The marketplace was centrally located in the station, making it easy for Calla catch a
ride with one of the small transports that regularly moved through the station’s main
corridors. In less than ten minutes she arrived at the market, where she quickly hit all of
her usual stops and arranged for the deliveries. Jenner gave Calla full bargaining
authority, but no one got their credits until the goods arrived at the hostel. A slave might
be trusted to run errands and negotiate for supplies, Calla thought bitterly, but she
would never be trusted with actual money.
Checking the time, she realized there was at least an hour before she needed to be
back to the hostel, enough time to visit her friend Dani. Dani’s apartment wasn’t far from
the marketplace, although it was on the opposite side of the station from the hostel. That
was fine with Calla, because it made it less likely that Jenner would ever run into her
and Dani together. Dani was a pleasure worker, a profession that Jenner and her fellow
pilgrims despised. According to Jenner, any woman who had sex outside of marriage
was a dirty slut and deserved to be treated as such. In Calla’s opinion, Dani had things