She stroked his square jaw. “I appreciate this so much, Venom. I recognize what a huge compromise this is for you. In the spirit of compromise I’ll agree to confine my work hours to the times that you’re at work. When you’re home I’m all yours.”
“Thank you.” Venom’s fingertips trailed along her cheek. “I don’t want your dreams to end simply because I Grabbed you.”
“They haven’t ended.” She gazed into the bright blue of his eyes. It was quickly becoming her favorite color. “They’re expanding and growing and changing. Now I don’t simply dream of what I can build if I work hard. I’m dreaming of what we can build together.”
“Dizzy…” Venom seemed to choke up. Unable to find the right words, he captured her mouth in a kiss filled with the promise of their future. A future she couldn’t wait to meet hand in hand with him.
Chapter Nineteen
Later that evening, Dizzy tidied up after dinner. She was finally getting used to the lights around their quarters that operated on a timer to mimic a day of natural sunlight and darkness. She hadn’t quite worked up the courage to visit the observation deck for a peek at the vast emptiness of space but so far living off-planet wasn’t too bad.
When the doorbell chime sounded, she stepped out of the kitchen. “Venom?”
“I’ll get it.” He exited their bedroom still pulling on his shirt. After dinner he had disappeared to take a shower. He had that wicked gleam in his eye that promised her a night bound up in his ropes and completely at his mercy.
But the sound of Raze’s deep, gruff voice echoing off the walls of their quarters meant a delay to whatever delightfully kinky plans Venom had in store for her. With a disappointed sigh, she finished scraping the last bits of food into the trash compartment and hit the button that swooshed it away to heaven only knew where. She loaded the dishes into the cleaning unit and pressed a few buttons to make it start.
Turning off the lights, she left the kitchen—but stopped short when she heard Venom and Raze talking. She hesitated, uncertain whether she should cross the hallway where they were discussing something in serious tones or return to the kitchen so they could have their privacy.
“Are we okay?” Raze sounded hopeful.
“We’re fine. I shouldn’t have pushed so hard on the mating thing.”
“Sure, but I shouldn’t have talked to you like that. It was totally wrong of me to insinuate that Dizzy is afraid of you or that you would harm her.”
“It’s water under the bridge.”
“You’re sure?”
“Raze, we’ve been friends since we were five. I think I can forgive this.”
“Good. I’m glad.” Raze cleared his throat. “I should go. It’s late and I’m sure you two have plans.”
“As a matter of fact,” Venom replied, displaying his comfort with being open about their sex life with his friend.
Raze laughed, the sound growing softer as he moved toward the entrance of their quarters. “You two about to practice for demonstration night?”
Demonstration night? Dizzy didn’t like the sound of that at all.
“Shit.” Venom swore with frustration. “I signed up to teach that rope class almost two months ago. It completely slipped my mind.”
“You’ve got time to put something together. You think she’ll enjoy it?”
“We’re not going to find out. It’s too soon for her. I’ll just use one of the poppies.”
Poppies? Something told her Venom wasn’t talking about the pretty red flowers that her ancestors had brought from Earth and nurtured into a wild crop on Calyx. She slipped back into the living room and grabbed her tablet off the coffee table. While Venom and Raze finished up their talk, she opened the search browser and typed in demonstration night. The ship’s calendar was the first result so she double-tapped it.
Her eyes nearly popped out of her head as she read the description. At the wives’ meeting, she had heard the officers’ club mentioned in passing. The hushed whispers and gossipy remarks about the place had given her a certain feeling about it. Now she understood what it really was—and what Venom was planning to do there.
Without her.
“You all right, sugar?” Used to operating with stealth, Venom had come into the living room without garnering her attention.
Peering at his handsome, kind face, Dizzy refused to believe what she had heard. Surely she had misunderstood. “What is demonstration night?”
“Oh. That. You know about the officers’ club?”
“Sort of.”
“It’s basically a social club open to officers. Most nights of the week it’s only open for drinks or dinner. A few nights a month it’s open as an adult playground.”
“Playground?”
“Men who are mated take their wives there to explore and enjoy the sensual side of our lifestyle. Men who are unmated come there to learn and practice. Remember how I told you some couples like to share? Well—that’s where it often happens.”
“And you’re going to teach a class there?” She tried to slow her racing heart as she tried very hard not to imagine the very worst thing happening.
“It’s hardly as salacious as it sounds. It will be an introductory course. It’s not that big of a deal.”
“How long will the class last?”
“An hour or two, depending on what types of ties or bondage the students want to see.” He shrugged as if it were no big thing. “I’ll be home before you finish a movie.”
She blinked at him and tried to decide if he was really that clueless. “You’re not taking me?”
His face hardened. “No. You’re not ready for the intensity of that place.”
“But how am I supposed to get used to a place like that if you don’t take me?”
“I’ll take you when I think you’re ready.”
She swallowed hard. “And just who will you be practicing the rope bondage on?”
“I’ll use a poppy.”
“What is a poppy?” Knowing the sort of place he was going, they probably had fake women made out of gleaming plastic for demonstrations.
“P-O-P,” he spelled it out. “It stands for Property Of Prison. It’s the nickname for the paid pleasure women who service events like these and the sky brothels.”
Dizzy’s mouth gaped. “You mean they’re prostitutes?”
His expression turned distasteful. “It’s not the same thing in our world as it is in yours. Poppies are very highly paid and skilled. Most of them were born inside the prison system, usually from illicit assignations between guards and female inmates. Going into pleasure work is a way for them to make a place for themselves in society. Most of them retire in their early thirties and are very wealthy. It’s not—”
“Stop.” Dizzy held up her hand. She couldn’t listen to another second of him talking about prostitution as though it was a godsend. “Can you hear yourself? You’re talking about women who have to choose between escaping prisons or letting dirty, panting soldiers paw all over them for money.”
Venom’s lips thinned with irritation. “I told you. It’s not like that in my world. To us the women who work in the sky brothels are to be respected. They serve a vital need, especially since it takes so many valor points to earn the right to a mate and a family. Most of us haven’t seen home in decades. In case you haven’t noticed, there aren’t a lot of women in space. It’s the poppies—or nothing.”
Dizzy didn’t know what to say to that. Maybe he was right. Maybe in Venom’s world being a prostitute wasn’t as shameful and exploitative as it was in The City.
“Are you angry with me?”
She gawked at him. “Yes!”
“Because I’ve slept with prostitutes in the past?”
“What? No.” She huffed at him. “I’m not thrilled by the idea—but I understand that your culture does things differently than mine. I get that you guys have…needs. If satisfying them with paid pleasure women is your way…well…whatever. It was before me.”
“Yes, it was.” Venom took a cautious step toward her. “Please don’t ever think that the brief moments I shared with any of those women compares to anything we’ve shared. With them, it was a business transaction. With you—it’s real.”
“If what you’ve shared with me is so fantastic why aren’t you taking me to the demonstration night?”
Venom exhaled roughly. She sensed his patience was thinning. “I’ve already told you, Dizzy. You aren’t ready.”
She decided she was done arguing with him. Lifting her chin, she declared, “I’m going with you.”
“No,” he said sternly. “You. Are. Not.”
Dizzy gritted her teeth and stared at him. She had so many ugly things burning the tip of her tongue but she refused to make this situation any worse than it already was.
Overcome with anger and disappointment, she headed for their bedroom, giving Venom a very wide berth in the process. She stopped in the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash her face before changing into a nightgown. The thought of sleeping in their bed made her stomach churn.