The Price of Pleasure Read Online Free PDF

mean?”
    “Well, this is going to sound strange, but I think they’re just kind of sexually frustrated and restless all of the time,” Dani replied, laughing a little. “According to Jax, they can only really be satisfied when they get a life mate, and there aren’t enough of them to go around. I guess that only about one female is born for every four or five men in their home system, and while they can mate with human women, they can’t bond with them. Once they bond, they bond for life, but the poor saps that don’t get one of the women are just out of luck. Jax told me that by the time they’re about 25, they pretty much have to leave the home system because they tend to get out of control, even violent.”
    “That’s horrible,” Calla said. “And they can’t bond with anyone outside their home system?”
    “Nope,” Dani said. “They can fuck all they want, but it’s never quite enough.
    According to Jax, most of them won’t live past their 40th birthday. They get into too many fights. When they send a governor to the station, he’ll be bonded and stable, a family man. Otherwise their occupation would never last.”
    Calla licked the last drop of citrus juice from her fingers, then looked longingly at the little clock hanging on Dani’s wall. It was past time for her to go. With a sigh, she pushed herself off the couch and stood up.
    “I need to get going, Dani,” she said. “I’m sure Mistress Jenner’s watching the clock again, just waiting for me to be late.”
    “I hate that old bitch,” Dani said, disgust written all over her lovely face. “She’s such a hypocrite–condemning pleasure workers like me, yet keeping you as a slave and dealing on the black market. I wish I could buy you, but the Guild forbids us to purchase slaves, even to free them. I doubt she’d sell you, anyway.”
    “You’re too good to me,” Calla said, standing up and giving Dani a hug. “You’re right, though, she probably wouldn’t sell me. Unfortunately, she almost seems to like me in some sick way. She’s told me more than once that the only way I’m getting away from her is to die or get sold to a port-side pimp.”
    “Bitch,” Dani hissed with feeling, then sighed heavily. “At the very least, take some of the citrus fruit with you. I know you love it.”
    “Thanks, Dani,” Calla said, pocketing the fruit. She’d share it with the other girls at the hostel later. “I wish I had something to give you.”
    “Oh, I can always buy more citrus fruit,” Dani said gently. “Good friends are harder to find. I count myself lucky that I ran into you in the market that day. You saved me from losing a fortune on that fake jewelry, you know. I still can’t believe I fell for that guy’s spiel.”
    Calla laughed at the memory. She’d seen old Gavin trying to sell Dani some of the same jewelry he usually sold to the drunken miners. Nothing but tin, with a coat of gold paint. Dani had been new to the station, however, and wasn’t used to unregulated trade standards. Calla had stepped in and warned her just in time. They’d been unlikely friends ever since.
    “Take care, and I’ll see you later,” Calla said, then stepped out the door. If she was lucky, she’d get home before Jenner realized she’d taken a side trip. Fortunately Mistress Jenner–while cruel–was not particularly smart.

    * * * * *
    It was nearly the noon hour by the time she arrived at the small, back-corridor door that was the service entrance to the hostel. A tall Saurellian guarded the entryway, and another was seated just inside the door. Both scrutinized her identity chit closely before allowing her to go through to Mistress Jenner’s office, located off the kitchen. They’d seen her before, of course, but it didn’t stop them from thoroughly checking her identity.
    The Saurellians might like to party, Calla thought, but they were all business when it came to security.
    “I’ve gotten all the supplies,” she said when her