Lucky Strike by Jane Davitt

 

Death’s a heartbeat away, but love is even closer.

 

Flying a traveler to Leap celebrations on the luxury planet Crestal is no problem for intrepid partners Jake and Rill, even if they have to navigate a deadly meteor shower to get there. But their fresh-faced, privileged passenger is carrying more than Leap gifts: Lian has a message to deliver, treachery and murder to avenge, and a killer close on his heels.

 

Lian thought he was ready for independence from his overbearing extended family, but his first solo trip off-planet has landed him in a nightmare of deadly intrigue. Though he’s devastated by betrayal, and no longer able to tell friend from foe, he’s fascinated by the gruff pilot and scorchingly handsome first mate who’ve become his reluctant rescuers.

 

With a dazzling fortune at stake and the fate of the United Protectorate of Planets in their hands, there’s no time for the three men to fall in love. But with their future measured in hours, crew and passenger may have just enough time to discover that three can become one, and that together they are strong enough to beat any odds.

 

Each year, Riptide Publishing releases a holiday collection in support of an LGBTQ charity. Twenty percent of all proceeds from the Share the Love collection  will be donated to the  It Gets Better Project.

This collection would not be possible without the talent and generosity of its authors, who have brought us the following holiday stories:

• Three of Hearts  by Kelly Jamieson (releasing November 17)
• Lucky Strike  by Jane Davitt (releasing November 24)
• Three the Hard Way  by Sydney Croft (releasing December 1)

Jake drew his hand over his chin, rubbing his thumb over the bump where a swung fist had broken his jawbone. One day he’d get the bump smoothed out, but until then it was a reminder he didn’t always have his attention focused where it should be. That punch had landed because he’d gotten his first look at Rill in Mama Rose’s whorehouse and couldn’t look away, not even when he was in the middle of a fight after winning a spaceship off a man who’d thought he had an unbeatable hand.

From Lucky Strike by Jane Davitt

 

Want to see exactly what happened at that first meeting?

 

Lucky at Cards

 

“You’re a cheating, lying, common as spit bastard and no way, no how am I signing over the Skyscraper to you.”

Jake didn’t disagree with every insult Carter Lehane threw at him, but no one called him a cheat that loudly and walked away unchallenged. Word spread he didn’t play fair and he’d be banned from every game in the city. Even if the table gave him the green light, rumors would spread. Maybe already were. The bar at Mama Rose’s was alive with noise, but heads were turning their way, ears waggling. Time to re-establish his reputation. He lunged across the table, chips and holocards flying every which way, and grabbed Carter by the throat.

“I won because you can’t count past ten without taking off your boots and because I got lucky in the last hand. That had to sting a little, me pulling an ace from nowhere, but the cards don’t play favorites. They fall and we weep. Sometimes for joy, sometimes not.” He tightened his grip, ignoring Carter’s flailing arms and garbled protests. “Now unless you want to drip blood out of your eyes instead of tears, I suggest you apologize while we wait for the house to call it.”

A bet this large required verification of every card played, security footage analyzed, and body-monitoring results evaluated. It should’ve taken seconds, but the table surface was dead black instead of glowing green. Jake didn’t know why. He’d played fair. Cheating to win didn’t appeal, even with his future at stake.

A security guard strode over, whip-thin, cold eyes, her hand resting on the stun-stick dangling from her belt. Jake had experienced a jolt from one once and his teeth had ached for a week. That had been set to low. This one wouldn’t be. Mama Rose ran a high-end establishment, her drinks unwatered, her rooms clean, and her whores smiling, but she didn’t tolerate disturbances.

 

Jake released Carter before the guard came in range, smiling over at her. After hours of keeping every emotion off his face, it felt good to snarl and grin. “Just a little misunderstanding. Not looking to cause trouble.”

They’d use that as his epitaph one day.

She arched an eyebrow slashed through with a jagged scar, and leaned against a pillar to watch him, bringing images of birds circling carrion to mind. She wanted a fight, he could tell. Slow night when everyone was behaving and she didn’t get her job through being the peaceable type.

Carter sucked in air and croaked out an entirely predictable threat. “You’ll regret that.”

Jake pressed a button and his chair slid back, giving him room to stand. “Not as much as you’ll regret calling me a cheat. Sign over the ship to me and apologize and I might not piss on everything you own before I toss it out of the airlock. Your choice.”

Shaking his head, Carter rose, hands bunched, jewel-crusted rings glittering in bands across his knuckles. They’d add pain to a punch, no doubt about it. “Not gonna happen. She’s mine and so is your ass.”

“If you fuck the way you gamble, I’ll pass. I like my men with balls.”

Carter snorted derisively. “I’ll rip yours off and watch you choke on them.”

“They’re big enough, I probably would,” Jake agreed. “But I’ve heard a dozen threats along those lines and no one ever follows through. If you want to scare me, tell me my shiny new ship drinks leap like a thirsty man in the desert.”

Carter’s face wasn’t pretty to look at even when it wasn’t contorted with fury. “She’s not your ship!”

“Stakes were deposited before the cards were shuffled,” Jake reminded him. “If I’d lost, would you be refusing to take my money? Don’t see it happening.”

Everyone was watching now, whispers lost in the background music that’d gotten louder in the last few minutes. Jake didn’t take his gaze off Carter but he tried to recall if he had a friend in the room. Rogan had been at the bar earlier, but he’d disappeared with a trio of redheads, two female, one male. Calling him a friend was maybe exaggerating. They’d shared a drink and a bed a few times, that was all. And Rogan liked slow fucks so he was likely still in a room getting his cock sucked smooth.

 

Jake could take Carter, but the man was powerful enough that a click of his fingers and he’d have people at his back, including that guard.

Shitty odds. With a shrug, he moved away from the table and let Carter swing at him. Dodging the punch was easy, burying his fist in Carter’s gut satisfactory as hell, but what he really needed was for the table to authenticate his win. Even Carter couldn’t fix that. Or could he? Was that the cause of the delay?

With a new ship, he could get out in the black again. He craved the freedom of space. He belonged up there and this time he’d be captain, not crew.

He’d risked everything on that final hand and it’d paid off. He wasn’t going to let it be taken from him.

The room blurred around him, his focus on one man. He exchanged punches and kicks, the taste of blood in his mouth and pain flaring in a dozen places. He’d heard people say it only hurt after the fight but that was bullshit. Pain didn’t wait for you to be ready to feel it. Jake had learned to make the pain a motivating force to avoid getting more handed out.

A break in the action came soon, Carter stepping back, winded, ready to call in reinforcements. Jake scanned the room, wishing he had a wall at his back, then found himself staring at perfection in the shape of a half-naked whore.

Slender build, dark curls tumbling over bare shoulders, hair and skin lustrous under a coating of shimmer oil, and the sweetest, tightest ass ever showcased in scarlet leather…

Then the man turned and Jake was lost in lust, captivated by amber eyes, coolly appraising him even as pouting lips curved in an inviting smile.

Nova, had to be, genetically designed to get precisely this reaction. Jake knew he was nova-struck, classic case, but he couldn’t help it. His body yearned to touch, his rising cock more eloquent than his tongue-tied mouth. He’d have surrendered his newly won ship for a night with the man.

That thought was as jarring as the punch that broke his jaw. Enchantment forgotten in agony, he flinched from a blast of heat as a tight-lipped Mama Rose blew a hole through the table with a lasgun and ended the fight.

The table had been a bright, beautiful green when she did it, so he paid for a replacement without complaining.

 

 

Jane Davitt is English, and has been living in Canada with her husband, two children, and two cats, since 1997. Writing and reading are her main occupations but if she ever had any spare time she might spend it gardening, walking, or doing cross stitch. She’s recently taken up yoga and loves discovering her ability to bend.

 

Jane has been writing since 2002 and wishes she’d started earlier. She is a huge fan of SF, fantasy, erotica, and mystery novels and has a tendency to get addicted to TV shows that get cancelled all too soon.

 

She owns over 4,000 books, rarely gives any away, but is happy to loan them, and is of the firm opinion that there is no such thing as ‘too many books’.

 

Every comment on this blog tour enters you in a drawing for a $25 Riptide Publishing store credit. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on December 7. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries.

 

Help us choose a charity!

 

Every year, Riptide Publishing releases a Holiday charity bundle with themed stories by bestselling authors. Twenty percent of the net proceeds of each bundle goes to a charity that serves the LGBTQ population.

 

Royalties from Riptide’s 2013 Home for the Holidays charity collection have raised over $14,000 in nine months for the Ali Forney Center, and continue to yield several hundred dollars per month in royalties donations. Our 2014 Share the Love charity collection will be raising money for the It Gets Better Project, and we hope to report even better results than in 2013.

 

For 2015, the theme will be Holiday Surprises, and we’ll have stories by HelenKay Dimon, Christine d’Abo, and Marie Sexton. But we don’t have a charity yet.

 

We need YOUR help to choose the 2015 charity. Nominate your favorite LGBTQ charity below and Riptide might choose it as the 2015 Holiday bundle charity!

 

The chosen charity for 2015 will immediately receive a $5,000 advance against royalties (paid in 2015 on announcement of the award recipient). The charity will continue to receive 20% of all lifetime net sales income from the 2015 holiday charity collection, in the form of a monthly royalty check.

 

Three honorable mention charities will each receive a $250 donation.

 

Click here to nominate a charity. Both supporters and representatives of a charity can submit a nomination.