The Pleasure
Raiders anthology is a group of three stories about space
pirates. My story "Checkmate" is an intense romp through
several worlds.
Devonne and
Raje are pirates who were once also lovers, until the revelation
of secrets in his past drove them apart. But when they're kidnapped
and forced to compete in a drastic and devastating series of contests,
they need to find a way to work together, or they'll each end
up with a one-way ticket to a slave labor camp.
Reviews:
Five Stars!
"Checkmate is a highly entertaining, erotic, romantic, Gladiator and Survivor meets Temptation Island. Devonne and Reja are both entrepreneurs with different causes. She is doing it for a better life for her people and for herself; while he is to fund his own rebellion. They develop a year long relationship until Devonne finds out that Reja is really Prince Reginald of Gambria. Their relationship is put to the test when they both compete in The Challenge. The storyline is quite fascinating when Devonne and Reja participate in this competition. I couldn’t wait to read how their adventure unravels. I really enjoyed reading the sexual challenge of the competition. WOW! A tastefully and erotically written story that made this reader want to consider being an exhibitionist. Ms. Kingston has written a captivating, seductive, and highly enjoyable tale for fans who love Sci-fi and romance. A definite keeper!"
-- Tallyn Porter, Just Erotic Romance Reviews
Five Angels!
"In Checkmate, we are treated to a trip down memory lane to a time that Raje and Devonne had to work together to survive the ten tasks the Sangari gave them in order to stay alive.
This was an amazing start. The ingeniousness of the tasks and how they needed to complete them was fabulous. I really enjoyed the interaction between Raje and Devonne. This was a well-written story and a continuation of Ms. Kingston’s line of great releases."
--Serena, Fallen Angels Reviews
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Five Stars!
"Checkmate by Katherine Kingston is a quirky little futuristic romance with oodles of appeal. A strong no-nonsense heroine and a good guy disguised as the bad boy hero mix among some wacky interplanetary laws to create a story that will have you glued to the pages. The supporting characters are fantastic in that they add to the hilarity and lend depth to Dev and Raje without distracting one from the meat of the story. Well done, Ms. Kingston."
-- Keely Skillman, eCataRomance.com
* Read Full Review *
Chapter
One
"Captain, we have a problem!"
Devonne sighed. Without taking her eyes
or attention from the viewscreen port, she asked the Personal
Care Droid, "What now?"
"A seam has come loose in your only remaining
dress uniform." The PCD made an annoying huffy sound before adding,
"And the refresher just tore a button off it."
Devonne made a mental note to get the
programming adjusted to remove that huffing noise from the droid's
speech system. "Fix it."
"Captain, I beg your attention. Those
seams have been-"
"Captain?" Another voice cut through the
droid's complaint. The combination of surprise, alarm and doubt
in the single word warned Devonne that fate was about to throw
a monkey wrench into their carefully worked out plans.
Ignoring the PCD, which continued to babble
on about clothes, she turned to face her first mate. Reed stared
at a screen in front of him. "What have you got?" she asked.
He frowned and tugged on his earlobe.
"If I didn't… I swear it looks like someone had the same idea
as us and got to the Denogrenian ship first."
"What?" She spoke so loudly it startled
the two other crewmembers in the room into looking up from their
panels.
Reed pointed to the screen that showed
two blinking blips. Devonne studied the data readouts. "Magnify."
Reed pulled the direct link from his face
and disconnected it from the panel. Devonne repeated her order
to magnify the display.
Sure enough, another smaller blip clearly
approached the large blip that represented their target. A wavery
yellow line shot out between them.
"Damnation!" Devonne clenched her fists
and clamped her lips shut. She wanted to scream her frustration
as she watched the evidence of a tractor beam hauling her prize
toward a rival. When she reclaimed some measure of control, she
said, "Identify secondary target." She already knew but needed
to hear it confirmed anyway.
"Identifying," the computer's soothing
male voice responded. "Target identified as KCS Fool's Quest,
registered out of Kalima, Prox G-04, number 668940435453545435.
No official standing listed."
"What the hell is he doing here? Damn.
Shit! No official standing, indeed."
"Captain?" SueBelle, the newest member
of the crew, looked up at her, eyebrows raised.
"Reginald Jameson Jernigan. Commonly known
as Raje. Or Prince Reginald. The son of a bitch."
"You know him?"
"For my sins."
"How?" Navigation Officer SueBelle asked.
Reed spoke at the same time. "What's he
doing?"
"Beating us to the prize." Devonne's fists
clenched again. "But why? I thought he was out of the game. Unless
he had another fight with his uncle. But even then…"
She needed this cargo. Her exiled clan,
now more than five hundred strong, was hidden in an obscure corner
of an even more obscure planet and rapidly outgrowing their hiding
place. They needed a bargaining chip to finally gain a place where
they could settle permanently. Interstellar piracy had a limited
lifespan and she neared the end of it. This was her grand finale,
her swan song, the move that would end her life of crime and let
her retire in peace. She wasn't about to give it up to an arrogant
jerk who viewed life as a game and stolen cargoes as his ticket
to personal wealth and power.
"I'm not going to let this go. CC, can
you calculate the combined mass of both those ships?"
"Can do, Captain," the ship said.
Reed threw her an incredulous look. "You
can't be thinking of trying to snag both of them?"
"Why can't I?"
"You're going to play chicken with him?"
"Why not?"
The computer came back and gave an answer.
The number wasn't as low as she'd hoped, but it might still be
possible.
"That's why," Reed said. "I know all the
reasons you don't want to lose this one, but still… Why not wait
until he releases…never mind. He can still run faster, can't he?"
"CC, how much acceleration can we generate
if we divert every bit of power to the engines?"
"Including life support systems, Captain?"
"Everything but critical systems."
The rest of her crew, SueBelle, Reed and
Nathan, looked at her as though they feared she'd lost a critical
neural system or two herself.
The computer's answer came a few seconds
later and gave her pause. It might be enough. If… "How long can
we maintain that level and still have enough fuel to get back
to Esketan Station?"
"With present fuel levels, a maximum of
thirty-six hours."
"Captain, you can't mean to try to hold
them both!" Reed challenged.
She gave him her sharpest, sternest look.
"I don't mean to try. I'm going to do it. Reed, take us in just
the way we'd planned. Nathan, prepare to activate tractor beam
as soon as we decloak. SueBelle, fine-tune position coordinates
to give us maximum grapple on both ships."
They trusted her enough to follow her
commands. She'd taken a few strange gambles before and they'd
paid off. She hoped she could do it again one last time.
* * * * *
They'd just decloaked and were preparing
to activate the tractor beam when the computer announced, "Incoming
message. Marked 'Urgent'."
"Source?" SueBelle asked, without looking
at the display or lifting her hands from the controls.
"KCS Fool's Quest."
They all looked up at that.
"Open channel," Devonne said.
"Video link requested," the computer announced.
"Open video link."
A man's face appeared on the screen at
the side of the cockpit. Without greeting or any other polite
pleasantries, he said, "Devonne, what the hell do you think you're
doing?"
She stared at the figure on-screen, looking
for changes wrought by the six months since she'd last seen him.
She didn't find any. His hair was still as black, his face just
as strongly chiseled, his mouth hard and sensual, cheekbones high
and sharp. His eyes were still that strange light yellow-green
color. She expected anger, but instead his expression looked more
amused.
"Greetings to you, too, Raje," she said.
"Or should I say, 'Your Highness'? It's been a while since we
last met."
"Nearly six months," he snapped back.
"And you don't appear to have developed any more sense in the
interim."
"You always did say the nicest things
to me."
"Can it, Dev. What's going on here?"
"You can't guess? You used to be smarter
than that, Raje. And, by the way, why are you here? I thought
you'd gone respectable, Your Highness."
He ignored the last part of her question.
"Okay, it's not the 'what' it's the 'why'?"
"Which part of 'Royal Denogrenian Treasure'
don't you understand?"
He closed his eyes for a moment and shook
his head. "The part where you think you can take it away by holding
both the Denogrenian ship and mine in trac."
"Thirty hours. I can hold it for thirty
hours. About how long it will take a fleet of Denogrenian warships
to get here."
He looked startled. "Then we both go down."
"Right. Want to talk about it? The thing
is, I have nothing left to lose, and you do."
"Ridiculous. If you don't care about your
own life and freedom, what about your crew?"
He had her there and they both knew it.
Amazingly it was SueBelle who spoke up
first. "We're with Captain Devonne all the way." Reed and Nathan
nodded agreement.
"Devonne, this is ridiculous," he said.
"Will you meet me to talk about it?"
"Just talk?"
His black eyebrows rose. "I'm open to
all sorts of…communication. But whatever you want."
She ignored the suggestion in the words.
At least she tried to ignore it. But his deep, sexy voice slipped
past all her defenses and worked its way into her blood, warming
it, making her too aware of him. Worse yet, he was doing it deliberately,
putting in that low gravelly rumble, because he knew what it did
to her. Her body remembered what the rest of her wanted to forget.
The familiar low pressure began to gather. Damn it.
"I want the Denogrenian ship." It came
out a bit sharper than she intended, betraying the emotions roiling
through her.
"Hmmm… That is a bit of a problem. I want
it, too. And I got to it first."
"But I'm getting to it last. And while
you may have it, you're stuck here until I decide to let go."
"But you are as well," he pointed out.
"Stalemate, Devonne. Let's talk about it."
"Permission
to board extended, Your Highness," she said. "But come alone."
"Of course. I figured you'd want me all
to yourself."
"Don't flatter yourself," she growled,
annoyed because her heart was thumping too hard and her hands
were shaking.
"I'll be there in twenty minutes." He
signed off.
"Wowza." SueBelle's stare mixed admiration
with envy. "If you don't want to keep him, can I have him? All
that sexy good-looking man and he's a prince to boot?"
"You don't want him. He's an arrogant
jerk."
SueBelle shrugged. "I'll take my chances."
The PCD droid came over and said, "Captain,
you must dress appropriately to welcome the Gambrian First Heir
and commander of Fool's Quest. Please come and change. I'll have
the seam repaired quickly."
Devonne sighed. The droid was right .
"Go fix the seam. I'll be there in a moment."
She waited a moment to be sure no hitches
would arise, but it appeared the trac hold was stable. She slowly
made her way back to her cabin, unable to contain the memories
Raje brought.
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