Read Brought the Stars to You Online
Authors: J. E. Keep,M. Keep
Brought the Stars to You
J.E. AND M. KEEP
This book is intended for sale to Adult Audiences only. It
contains sexually explicit scenes and graphic language. All sexually
active characters in this work are of legal age. Over 30,000 words.
If you require
content warnings:
this particular story
contains sexual slavery, and potentially upsetting scenes of abuse and non-sexual torture.
There is no consummated sex in this story.
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To our friends who didn’t judge, readers
of
The Keep
back when we were
first starting out, and
Darknest
Fantasy Erotica
who encouraged us to keep going.
Ardanna never knew a life outside the seedy strip club until Kieren walked into her world.
He was dedicated and had trained since childhood to master his skills, and so had she. Where he had calm and serenity, she had wisdom and grace. Her body was so alien to him with her blue skin and the sleek tendrils that replaced her hair, yet she was beautiful.
Inside one another they find a missing part to the puzzle, something that completes them both, yet she belongs to the club. The sweet love that blossomed in the club’s hidden back rooms could never bloom under the watchful gaze of the mob, yet they both know they can’t live without the other. Not anymore.
This sweet, romantic sci-fi contains smoldering, denied sex and drips sensuality and longing. 30k words.
Chapter 1
Moving through the streets of the seedy city, Kieren kept his head
down and hood up. He was young for his status in the
Fiato
–
the Knights of Balance – but he was wise beyond his years. He
was in tune with himself, and had a strong pull with the Balance, the
force that the Fiato believed bonded the universe together. He was in
his mid-twenties, yet already he was an independent Fiato master,
elevated when his old teacher passed on in the turmoil of the Eternal
Conflict.
The order was desperate for new knights to keep the peace and
stand up to the challenge, but Kieren liked to think his rise in rank
was not a mere happenstance, and he was deserving of it all the same.
With tan, smooth skin, and black hair that swept across his forehead,
he looked more youthful than he truly was, and it made him an ideal
candidate for the search and investigation ahead.
Tracking the agent hadn't been easy, but his first big
breakthrough came with the interrogation that led him to this place,
the rather elaborate strip club. Having spent the bulk of his life
with the Knights, he had been sheltered from such things even through
the tumultuous teenage years, and so as he stepped in, and the
bizarre neon lighting caressed the bare or nearly bare dancers, he
was taken aback.
With his robe's long sleeves hiding all but his fingertips, he
gawked about the room, his normally narrow eyes wide as he took in
the bright sights and loud, booming sounds. It took him awhile to
bring order back to his conscious mind. Though he called on the
Knights teachings, it wasn't that he felt a great deal of passion for
such sights of nude, gyrating women; he was far from naive and felt
no draw to it at all. Instead, there was a confused curiousness
followed by disgust, instilled in him after learning it for so long.
The repulsion hid behind his gaze in the neon lit club, owned by
some cretin on that filthy planet and filled with the nastiest sorts
of businessmen and dealers.
The band didn't stop for more than a quick swallow of liquid
between songs, and it was high hour for the club. Everyone had a few
drinks in them, the dancers had gotten over their petty bickering
from earlier in the night, and money was exchanging hands quickly.
A short blue Phhia stood at the bar, seeming impatient as she
tried to get the bartenders attention with snapping fingers and
exhausted sighs to no avail. The Phhia were a modified inhuman race,
she had smooth blue skin and four long tentacles instead of hair –
tentils
, they were nicknamed. She was dressed much like the rest, a
simple bikini top and bottom, a nice navy colour outlined in gold
that accentuated her curves, her behind much heavier than her top,
golden sandals strapped to her feet and ankles.
Seeing Kieren step in, the alien dancer gave him a once over
before deciding that he'd need some liquor in him before being
comfortable; he was still rather well covered, after all. He hadn't
loosened up at all. She went over to a rather loud male, touching his
shoulder gently and smiling before she quickly beguiled him into a
dance, right there in the middle of the floor.
Kieren hadn't seen her, not yet, despite the fact that her eyes
kept upon him. Calming himself, Kieren took control of the moment and
reached up, pulling back his hood. As much as it might seem
proficient to cover his face, he doubted anyone would be able to
pinpoint such a new Fiato master as himself, and looking all dingy
and cloak-and-shadowy would be more likely to draw attention to him
than otherwise, he figured.
He revealed his smooth, tan face, and rubbed over his chin,
looking about the place to see where patrons gathered and what sort
of activities seemed the norm. Not wanting to move out of sight of
the bulk of the place, he made his way to a spare seat in a corner
somewhere, easing himself down in it. Or, at least, he tried to be at
ease. The display all around him induced conflicted emotions, and he
sat, stewing over the thoughts of teachings, and how emotion did
ultimately lead even great Fiato masters down poor paths. To
surrender to emotion was to be an animal, the masters had taught him.
Human's rise above. A Fiato was a human above all else.
His arms folded over his chest, his hand rubbing at his smooth
chin in contemplation a while, he couldn't make out much of anything
in the din of people and voices.
It was a busy night, certainly, much busier than most, so there
was an excited bubble in the air. The girls were in top form and as
the blue Phhia moved towards Kieren, she was stopped a few more times
for dances. He didn't order a drink, but the alien dancer took it to
mean he was here for one thing - women. Her.
When she finally got to him, she had a pleasant sheen to her, a
heady glow. She touched his shoulder, leaning down and showing off
her modest cleavage, "You stand out like a sore thumb, even when
you're hiding," she grinned, her eyes sparkling at her own
cleverness.
Having been keenly watching the floor of the club, he had been
aware of her approach, but only in a general sense of his awareness
of all the activities around him as a true master would. No, instead
of seeing her--or anyone really--he was merely scanning the people
for the one he sought, and so when she came up to him and touched him
it was with some reluctance he tore his gaze away and looked to her.
Though once he did so, he found it hard to tear his gaze away. The
blue skinned inhuman, with neon lights reflecting off her smooth,
slightly glistening flesh, was quite ravishing. No, he would've
thought to himself--could he think so coherently then--ravishing
wasn't enough of a word.
A shiver passed through him as he looked to her, eyes wide and
boyishly smitten before her words sunk in. Stand out? Hiding? What'd
she know?
He tried to speak, his lips parting but they were dry, and instead
of a response he gave a choked, "I..." Swallowing and
clearing his throat, he murmured, "What do you recommend then?"
She was beautiful. There wasn't a doubt in his mind that she was
beautiful. She wasn't like anything he'd seen before with her pale
azure skin and large, expressive eyes. Freckles speckled her cheeks,
and the tight navy bikini highlighted her curves. He had to swallow
as he looked to her, felt her hand against his shoulder.
In the bizarre neon lighting, he stared at her, over her long
tentacles that replaced human hair, over her smooth, delicate
features, and a shiver passed through him. He was still young, and
though he hadn't felt desire when he stepped in, he looked smitten.
She smiled, a master at noting reactions and finding pleasure in
his as she rubbed her hand along his back and tilted her head to look
at the crowd, then back to him in a slow, careful movement. It
exhibited her body to him in such a planned manner that his eyes were
drawn over her flesh while she glanced away, "Some of the rowdy
folks prefer dances down here," she said in her lightly accented
voice, "but in back, we have a way for men to truly be unseen.
Your boss won't find you back there, I promise," she smiled, her
eyes twinkling, her mouth pulled up in such a seductive manner.
Moistening his lips he responded with a slight twinge of his
brows, "I'm supposed to wait for someone," he paused,
looking to her eyes--though he did help himself to another
unknowingly longing gaze over her flesh in the moment she took to
glance away, "somewhere I can see him enter, so..." he
stammered, a bit overwhelmed as he tried to go by his prepared
excuses, "he doesn't have to spend much time looking for me."
Kieren had begun training in the days before the Knights of
Balance became desperate, and throughout his early days at the
academy he hadn't encountered many inhuman women, certainly none so
striking. The proceeding years were all on the move, much in the
wilds and in deep training, and it left him very susceptible to such
exotic grace.
Her hand rubbed along his back, over the thick robe, finding
warmth between it and the heavy hood. Her body was posed for him, his
gaze drawn over her flesh, "Well, we can do it here, if you
like," she giggled, coaxing him towards the idea whether he knew
it or not, "That way, I can keep an eye on the door and you can
keep both eyes on me. What does he look like?"
Kieren was boyish with his exuberance as he warped the situation
to his needs, to the lust that she stirred within him. "You
might already know him... he's bald. A human, like myself..." he
said, finding himself pausing periodically as he tried to communicate
with the stunning beauty, "but with mechanical augmentations"
he pointed to his own face in demonstration, "along his jawline.
A big man. Hard. You know him?" He looked at her with a growing
curiosity, intrigued by the strange woman who was so very eye
catching.
The inhuman stripper--of that modified human strain--leaned in and
let the intoxicating scent of her perfume reach him, a mixture of
flowers and sweet, decadent treats, combining into an exotic, faraway
scent, "I don't know. We have a few people in and around..."
she paused, "but I'll keep an eye for him while I dance for you,
yes?" She nodded her head again.
He responded as if in a trance, "Please do. I am Kieren by
the way," he offered his hand, her tiny fingers pressing against
his flesh, his thumb trailing over her knuckles affectionately. If he
was disappointed she hadn't seen his 'friend', he didn't show it,
only watching curiously in anticipation of this seductive woman's
next move, each step of the way.
"It's a pleasure to meet you," she said, and the way
that the words rolled off her tongue were so enticing. Her hands
moved to his shoulder as she leaned in, "I can touch you, but to
touch me we need go somewhere more private, so hands to yourself
until we find your friend."
"I understand. I'll refrain from such."
She began the dance slowly, as though she knew that she had to
ease him into it, to introduce him to each move, each body part, each
little bit of her as she rubbed along his shoulders and back, her
head tilting this way and that as the band's up tempo beat contrasted
with the slowness of her movements.
She had his undivided attention. Despite her words, or likely
because of them, he found himself tempted to reach out and touch her
light blue skin, to graze over the soft mounds and valleys of her
body. Never did he act, but the desire was strong, and he watched
with wide, glassy eyes, entranced by the seductive sway and motion.
The shimmy of her form, the way the small triangles that passed
for a top clung to her small chest, the way her ample hips offset the
balance, it was all very manipulative in its seduction. True to her
word, she did check the door a time or two, but she wasn't very
interested in finding his friend. She just wanted him to pay his
undivided attention to her.