“They told me just last week, you know. So that it’d be too late for me to find my way out of this mess.” Jack stood in his room, an opulent extravagance he could more than afford. “Why the hell are my parents forcing this, Mark? You know as well as I do that Wright Transport is sitting pretty. We don’t need the money.”

“True. But you have to admit, a merger between Wright Transport and Merritt Industrial would more than set you up for life. No more worries about where to find raw materials. And you get a wife to boot. What luck!” Mark said with false cheer. “I’m making light of it, but the truth is, there’s no way to back out of this now, not without hurting your parents and your stockholders. Come on, Jack. Think positive. No matter how much of an ice bitch this Merritt woman may be, you can charm her if you put your mind to it. Hell, remember Professor Chavez? Totally hot and totally frigid. Yet you not only scored an A in her class but had her out of her dress by the end of the our time at university.”

Jack shook his head, reluctantly smiling at the memory of the sexy Julia Chavez in nothing but garters and high heels.

“It’s been so long since you’ve had sex, you’re bound to be cranky. What you need, my friend, is to get laid.” Mark rubbed his hands together. “Now it just so happens we received an invite to The Suns by a very sexy lady.”

“Oh?”

“Trust me.” Mark thumped his back with a blow hard enough to fell a tree. “Our fees are covered—my gift to you on these auspicious days before the big event. Consider this your bachelor party.” At Jack’s grimace, he hurriedly continued. “Look, the place is a feast for anything you could possibly want. And the women we’ll be meeting, well, just remember to thank me later. Even in Fertu, these two stand out. They’re sexy enough to blow your mind…among other things, one can hope.”

“Two of them?”

“Sorry. You only get one. The redhead’s mine. But the blonde, she’s yours.”

“A blonde, he?”

“More like a honey blonde with gold streaks through her hair that make you want to run you fingers through it. A mouth that…ah, never mind. Look, I’ll show you the woman I’m talking about, and you can tell me what you think.”

An hour later, Jack drained another glass of Preeyo, the slow burn passing his throat to warm his belly. His senses hopped around in a puzzling circus of energy, making him wonder just what Mark had in store. Though Jack was no stranger to human women, he preferred Tergonians. Long and lean, they liked their sex rough, honest, and without emotional attachment. A quick, satisfying fuck and a good bye.

Movement coming toward him caught his attention, and he turned to see Mark walking with a wide grin on his face.

“I finally found her,” Mark shouted after threading his way through the very crowded floor, a hot little redhead following in trace. “She’s upstairs in The Loft.” He leaned closer, trying for what passed for a whisper in this place. “You know that’s the area where anything goes, right? And did I mention she has really full tits, a great ass, and legs that go from here to the moons?”

Jack grinned, his mood pleasantly buzzed. “No, you didn’t. But I’m glad you did.”

“She’s under curtain A.”