Sex or Suffer [Dark Colony 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Read online

  Dark Colony 1

  Sex or Suffer

  Devastated to discover she harbors the SOS virus, medical researcher, Dr. Penelope Drake hires Captain Gray Wyckoff to take her across the galaxy to the cure on Parsec Five. As Penelope fights for a permanent remedy to cure this monstrous disease, the deplorable question in her mind repeats: How did she contract the virus in the first place?

  Captain Gray Wyckoff burns every bridge he's ever built to get Penelope there, only to find she can't deliver the payment she's promised. Serving as her temporary sexual cure along the way only adds to his feelings of betrayal. He thought he loved her. Now he's not sure he can forgive her. Love her? Leave her? The choice between sex or suffering has never been so hard to make.

  Especially when he has to watch her have sex with another man.

  Sensuality Rating: SCORCHING

  Genre: Multiple Partners/Science Fiction

  Length: 71,300 words

  SEX OR SUFFER

  Dark Colony 1

  Lara Santiago

  MENAGE AMOUR

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Ménage Amour Romance

  ABOUT THE E-BOOK VERSION: Your non-refundable purchase of this e-book allows you to one LEGAL copy for your own personal use. It is ILLEGAL to send your copy to someone who did not pay for it. Distribution of this e-book, in whole or in part, online, offline, in print or in any way or any other method currently known or yet to be invented, is forbidden without the prior written permission of both the publisher and the copyright owner of this book.

  SEX OR SUFFER

  Copyright © 2008 by Lara Santiago

  E-book ISBN: 1-60601-237-1

  First E-book Publication: December 2008

  Cover design by Jinger Heaston

  All cover art and logo copyright © 2008 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  DEDICATION

  I’d like to dedicate this book to my fabulous husband. He’s my friend, my soul mate and he never makes me suffer for any reason. After twenty amazing years together I look forward with enthusiasm to the next twenty that we’ll share. Thanks for agreeing to play house with me for all these years, honey.

  Lara Santiago

  December 2008

  SEX OR SUFFER

  Dark Colony 1

  LARA SANTIAGO

  Copyright © 2008

  Chapter 1

  “I just need you to fuck me,” the woman dressed in red screamed. “Don’t you get it? I’m in pain.” She ripped off the silk, scarlet robe she wore revealing her naked body.

  Karl, the man who’d volunteered to help alleviate her anguish, scanned her from face to knees. Zeroing in on her lush breasts, he absently began to unbutton his shirt.

  The woman launched forward, grasped the lapels from his fingers and ripped his shirt wide open. Buttons flew in four different directions. Karl’s eyes widened as she pressed herself against his body. They widened further when her hips began a seductive gyration up and down, back and forth across his groin. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pushed his button-less shirt off of his frame.

  “Okay, I get it. You need sex.” Karl shucked his trousers down where they bunched at his ankles. His fully erect cock sprang free from his loosened pants. He kicked the tangle of fabric at his feet off to one side. The woman grasped his shaft one-handed and stroked his cock up and down vigorously.

  “I need you now.” Her body visibly shook only ten minutes after Karl’s scent triggered her need to copulate. A bead of perspiration pooled at her temple and rolled down her face. She panted wildly, her face a contortion of pain-ridden fear. She pulled Karl flush against her body still gripping his cock in one hand as if he might try to get away.

  Backing up with him clutched in her arms, she fell to the bed as soon as the mattress brushed the backs of her calves. Her legs fell open and without further coaxing, Karl sank his cock deeply inside her body as she bucked and grabbed his ass with both hands as if to propel him to go faster. He pumped inside for several more steady thrusts before he stiffened and grunted.

  The woman mashed her eyes shut still trembling against his stiff body and groaned in audible relief the moment he climaxed. Seconds later, she stopped shaking and slumped against the bed pillow. Karl pulled away with an expression like he wanted to say something tender, but the woman jerked away from the intimate connection, curled into a ball and ignored him.

  Disregarding her very obvious desire to be left alone, Karl asked, “Alice, are you—”

  “Get out,” she uttered between clenched teeth, cutting off whatever tender question Karl was about to ask.

  From the observation booth in the next room, Dr. Penelope Drake watched Karl back away from her patient, Alice. Through the two way mirror, she watched the pain and suffering of the woman carrying the dreaded Sex or Suffer virus.

  Penelope wanted to use the intercom to tell Karl to shut up and get out, but figured it would only make an already horrid situation worse. Alice didn’t need to be reminded she was being watched. She’d already suffered tremendously with this abhorrent illness.

  Eyes wide, Karl tried again to soothe her with another soft query. “Do you feel better—?”

  “I said get out!” She cut off his quiet words as a sob escaped from her throat. Alice clutched the pillow to her chest and buried her face in one corner as tears slipped down her cheeks.

  “I’m sorry.” Karl backed away from her, treading on his discarded pants. He scooped them from the floor and hurriedly drew them on, grabbing his ruined shirt in one fist. After a sorrowful look over his shoulder, Karl left the room now filled with the heartbreaking sounds of Alice’s misery.

  “That was really fast.” Penelope closed the view of the window to the observation room. With the press of a button, the opaque cover slid closed. Still a little embarrassed to have watched the violent sex, Penelope sighed and wished she had a better plan to help Alice conquer this disease.

  “She grabbed his ass. He couldn’t help it. Still, if it had been me, I’d have taken much longer to come.” Damon Kaslan smacked a hand to his chest likely to enforce his foolish point and turned from the now hidden window.

  Penelope resisted the strident urge to thump him in the head. “Well, now taking your time to climax would be cruel, wouldn’t it? Besides I wasn’t referring to Karl’s performance. I was talking about how fast the virus acted. Alice suffered serious pain after only a few minutes of exposure to a man fitting her personal criteria for arousal.”

  Damon shrugged. “It’s not a surprise. The other chick was the same way.”

  Penelope turned sharply and strode towards him. “Yes, until she killed herself.”

  “I still don’t get why she did that.” Cocking his head to one side, Damon’s eyes narrowed as if in speculation as to why a woman wouldn’t love to beg for sex twenty-four hours a day.

  “Quit being such a prick,” Penelope snapped. “You can’t seriously be so dense. A virus that makes a woman burn in pain until she has a man fuck her until ‘he’ climaxes? This isn’t some laughable sex story to be shared in loc
ker room. It’s depraved. And certainly not a positive step for humanity regardless of the attitude to the contrary in this society.”

  Two days after being assigned the case, Penelope was already out of bright ideas as to how to cure this vile disease. Yesterday, they’d tried to administer a shot of semen into Alice’s vaginal tract to sooth the virus, but it hadn’t worked.

  Apparently, the SOS virus tapped into complex cerebral functions associated with the sexual act. As a consequence, the friction of a penis thrusting inside the vagina was required for temporary suppression of the pain and even that method only lasted a few hours. How many hours depended on the individual patient suffering.

  Damon’s expression became instantly contrite. “I’m just saying the one who killed herself should have waited until we tried the cure. She’d only been here a day.”

  His ignoring the fact that the first victim, Cora, had suffered for six weeks prior to her arrival on Bravura pissed Penelope off. She turned away to hide her disgust. “I did try the cure on Cora. It didn’t work. Apparently, it was too late. The virus had incubated in her system for too long. She killed herself because she didn’t think a permanent non-sexual cure was possible. I find it hard to blame her.”

  “You used the last of the cure on the crazy woman who killed herself?” Damon crossed the room and grabbed her shoulder.

  “Her name was Cora. Try saying it once.” Penelope leveled a look that said he better watch what words he uttered next.

  Wheeling her to face him he asked a question instead. “Did you get authorization to give ‘Cora’ the cure?”

  Penelope heaved a deep sigh and shifted her gaze. “No. I didn’t. Besides, it wasn’t the last of it. There’s one more dose left. I plan to use it on Alice. I want to hurry and test the existing cure before it’s too late for her too.”

  “You can’t do that!” Damon’s shock propelled him closer. He breached the arm’s length gap between them, crossing dangerously into her personal space, his open jacket brushing her sleeve.

  “I’m not asking for permission.” Penelope did her best to ignore his close proximity. “I’m in charge.”

  “The Science Group will never approve it. Not if we only have one dose left. They’re already going to fry your ass for using the second to the last dose on the first hopeless case.”

  “Well, I didn’t know it was hopeless, did I? At least I tried.” Penelope backed away from him. “If the cure works on Alice, then we can contact the lab on the Parsec Colony and have them begin manufacturing more.”

  “Parsec Colony is on the other side of the galaxy, for Christ’s sake. Who’s going to pay for more to be made? The SOS virus cure was expensive shit three hundred years ago. Not to mention the cost of a minimum three week round-trip transport to get to the Parsec Colony. That’s expensive too.”

  Penelope crossed her arms and glared. “Are you asking me to do nothing? Dr. Ledreder gave me this case the day before yesterday with instructions to try and find an alternative cure.”

  Damon pursed his lips in an unattractive moue. “It’s an isolated case of two women. The labs on the Parsec Colony won’t manufacture more of this ancient cure unless there is an epidemic. Bureaucratic red tape is the only reason we had the few doses of cure to begin with. They only keep any cure in inventory at all because they weren’t sure what impact the SOS virus had on men. They wanted to be prepared to cure any males afflicted.”

  Penelope snorted. “Or all men are already permanently infected and the reason why most of them are such revolting swine.”

  Damon grinned, but didn’t disagree. “Calm down, Dr. Penny. Your harsh opinion of the male species is very narrow-minded. Maybe you haven’t been with the right man yet.” He took a half step closer. “I could change your mind.”

  Penelope didn’t voice the words, “I seriously doubt it,” out loud, but she wanted to.

  Ignoring his smug, inappropriate attitude and his close proximity, she murmured, “Well, if you’re right, the Parsec Colony must have at least a few doses in stock to protect any afflicted men. I’m going to speak to Dr. Ledreder first thing tomorrow morning to determine if there is any grant money available to research this travesty further. Perhaps given time and some resources we could develop and produce our own cure here on Bravura. That’s my goal.”

  Lifting his hands into the air as if he had a direct line of communications to the heavens above, Damon sighed deeply and added, “There isn’t any money for the SOS virus, Dr. Penny. It’s an ancient virus that nobody cares about. Don’t waste your time and effort on only one remaining unimportant victim.”

  Penelope tightened her hands into fists and silently counted to ten to temper her anger. Assaulting Damon wouldn’t do any good.

  Dr. Ledreder had pulled her off of her regular duties to see to this case. She wasn’t about to throw in the towel on day two. “That’s just it, Damon, what if it happens to more people? No one has discovered how these two women got infected in the first place. Therefore, anyone could breeze in here suffering at any time.”

  “Dr. Lead-ass set us up in this lab to hide away an insignificant problem from the general public. He won’t authorize a single credit unless it becomes a planet-wide epidemic or someone important is stricken. And it won’t. According to the tests we did yesterday when the two women first got here, once the patient is exposed and catches it, she isn’t contagious. The only way to get this strain of virus is direct contact by airborne means or skin contact with the liquid virus from the initial source. The original virus was stored in small encapsulated ampoules. But there aren’t any left.”

  Penelope hated when Damon used unflattering nicknames for their superiors and peers. She wondered briefly what he called her behind her back. “Someone has this virus. And that ‘someone’ gave it to poor Alice and the other victim, Cora.”

  “No one will admit to having this shit. No one even knows if there is any virus ampoule containers left anywhere and they wouldn’t admit it if they did. Didn’t you say this disease was eradicated over three hundred years ago? An old ampoule of virus from forever ago was probably discovered by accident. End of story.”

  “That doesn’t mean we should ignore it. We should work on finding a new cure.”

  “I think you’re wasting your time, Dr. Penny. Alice is the only remaining known case and one case isn’t enough to warrant further new study. Besides there’s already old data to analyze.”

  “Yes. The old data is limited. Except for some initial trials by the barbarians who created the virus, there are no other records of the disease. Hardly a plethora of information.”

  “It’s enough for a single case.” Damon huffed. “No one’s even seen one of these virus ampoules for a couple centuries. Given that it’s supposed to be colorless, odorless and lasts less than ten minutes in open air before disintegrating and becoming inert, means waiting for an epidemic is a lost cause. I don’t know why Dr. Lead-ass put us in charge of this stupid case in the first place.”

  “He didn’t put ‘us’ in charge. He put ‘me’ in charge.” Penelope also hated that Dr. Ledreder put Damon on this case with her. “And regardless of the circumstances of the virus, Alice is not a lost cause. We need to do something for her.”

  “Don’t squander the last dose on her, Penny. You aren’t even sure if she’s past the incubation period and if she is, you will have wasted it.”

  “Do not call me Penny. My name is Dr. Penelope Drake, in case you’ve forgotten. You may call me Dr. Drake. Dr. Ledreder put me in charge of this case with you as my assistant. As the senior medical researcher, I’ll do whatever I think is best for my patient regardless of your piggish thoughts on the matter.”

  “Fine, Dr. Penelope, but if they ask me where the last dose of cure is, I’m telling the truth.”

  “Do whatever you have to, Damon. You always do.”

  Penelope snagged the final dosage out of the climate controlled cabinet and silently dared Damon to stop her. He would learn the hard
way she was not a frail little flower when it came to a fistfight. She knew a few moves to take his ass down if he tried to put a single inappropriate finger on her person.

  Growing up on the outskirts of the Bravura Colony’s golden city, Spectra, with its high walled perimeter taught her how to win a fight or how to damage the opponent and make him wish he hadn’t started one. She didn’t, however, have the nerve to challenge the only son of Bravura’s most decorated hero.

  Penelope exited observation and headed for the quarantine room. Alice was still curled in a ball on the bed.

  “Leave me alone, Dr. Drake,” she called without looking up.

  “How did you know it was me?”

  Alice twisted her head to stare. “I recognized the scent of your soap. Apparently, this cursed disease heightens my sense of smell for everyone, not just the men I need to fuck.”

  “It’s understandable. The virus has an impact on olfactory processes as it relates to attraction of the opposite sex.”

  “Don’t remind me.” Alice sat up clutching her wrinkled, red robe to her breasts. “What do you want now? More blood? Permission to run another sexual experiment? Because the answer is no. I’m finished with tests.”

  “No. I’m here for another reason.” Penelope kept her back to the window in case anyone might catch her and stop what she was about to do. She also angled a shoulder so the camera couldn’t see her actions or that she had the cure. Approaching the bed, Penelope whispered, “I’d like to administer the available cure.”

  Alice squinted. “I thought the only cure you had couldn’t be given unless I’d had the disease for less than three weeks. That’s what Dr. Ledreder told me when I first arrived here yesterday.”