Page 5 of Sloane

I take the trinket from her, finding the small notch on the side that gives me access to changing the color. I click through all of them, noting that it turns off after red. I click it once more, turning it back to green. Alik and Jovi's eyes stay glued to the pendant like they're waiting to watch it change colors again. I ignore the obvious intrigue from them and turn to Essa.

"Can I make the chain longer? I like longer necklaces."

"Oh, right here."

Essa presses on a different notch, and more of the chain seems to unwind from inside the pendant. She presses it down until it's at its maximum length. I hold it up, checking to make sure I like it. Since I wore something revealing in the cleavage department, the pendant should fall right between my boobs, which is exactly what I want. Especially if these are males that enjoy a woman with a bigger chest. I'm here to pleasure, and I'm going to be the best pleasure crew these guys have ever had.

"Does that look good?" I ask Essa as I slip the chain over my head, letting the pendant and the green glow it emits settle right between my breasts.

Essa doesn't hide her smile or the knowing look she gives me as she shakes her head in disbelief. I take that as a good sign and turn back to face Jovi and Alik, who are both now piercing my tits with their gaze. I lean forward, pressing my breasts together a bit more. The pendant is pinched between them as I lean over.

"Is that an okay placement?"

Alik and Jovi both wrench their eyes from where they were glued as soon as they realize they've been caught. Not that I'm even sure they were trying to be sneaky in the first place, but if the deep purple on their chest is any indicator, they're plenty embarrassed.

Jovi is the one who answers me. One of his hands rubs the back of his head, then grabs the ends of his shaggy white hair and gives it a soft tug. "Yes, that's a fine placement." He shifts uncomfortably in his seat, his eyes flickering down to it again before tilting his head to the side.

"Okay, the last thing." Essa looks over at me, making it clear this next part is for me. "You're given three days to adjust to your new room and get over any space sickness you might have when we first take off. Neither of them will pester you for intercourse or anything else sexual. After the three days, we like to make sure they're taken care of because they get irritable. Does that sound good to you?"

"Three days." I grab the pendant and click it back to red, showing that I'm not down for sex. I mean, I definitely am, but if they're used to waiting the three days, there's no reason to rock the boat just yet.

"Anything else we need to go over?" I ask, noticing the tension in the air getting thicker the longer we're all sitting in here.

Alik and Jovi's eyes kept dipping down to the pendant's green glow. Now that it's red, they aren't even looking in my general direction. Instead, their eyes dance over other areas of the room. My brows furrow at losing their attention. I really enjoy having it.

"I don't think so," Essa says, her eyes glancing down at the pendant and frowning. "You?"

"I think we're good," I try to keep my voice light, but now I'm feeling a bit self-conscious about how awkward everything is getting.

Essa eyes me for a moment, staring at the red pendant and then chewing on her lip. I turn toward Jovi and Alik, not liking how everything seems awkward now. I mean, I know it's going to be awkward while I adjust to everyone knowing my one job on this ship is to get fucked, but the rest of them should be used tothis since I'm not the first pleasure crew member to be on this ship.

"We're good, right?" I ask the two males, hoping to diffuse some of the tension or maybe figure out why it's so tense now that I've changed it to red.

"Right," Jovi and Alik both answer quietly. Their eyes fall back to the pendant before they give Essa a confused look.

I make a mental note to ask Essa in private why they're being so weird now. It was one thing when they were staring at my cleavage and the green of the pendant because I knew they were curious and aroused. Now, they're still horny. At least the bulge in each of their pants makes it seem that way. But they're trying very hard not to even look at me now.

"I'll show you to your room then," Essa says, not moving to get from the couch at all.

Her eyes flick down to the pendant once more before she pulls out her comm tablet and flips through a few pages of what I can see is the pleasure crew handbook. I've spent the last couple of weeks studying it front to back with Via. I would know its formatting and color scheme anywhere.

"What are you looking for?" I ask, peering over the top of her comm and noticing she's reading the part about the color of the pendant. "Oh, do I have it set to the wrong thing? I figured if they couldn't have sex with me for three days, I should put it on red."

Essa eyes me, tilting her comm tablet a bit more in my direction so I can read it easier. I'm glad she didn't take it as rude or snooping, even though that's exactly what I was doing.

I tuck some of my dark hair behind my ear, shuffle closer to her on the couch, and read over the section she's on. Jovi and Alik are still sitting, facing us, but casting their eyes away when they notice me looking at them. The dark purple of their chest never fades, and I chew on my bottom lip to keep from smiling.

"Right here, it says red means you don't want any contact with us." Essa points at a paragraph on her tablet. "Normally, this is fine. We don't bother the pleasure crew when she has her pendant set to red, but you keep speaking with me, so I thought maybe I misinterpreted the handbook."

"Hm." I chew on my thumb, narrowing my eyes at the text and reading back over it for probably the hundredth time. "No, that's what it says."

I frown, my brows drawing together. I don't want the crew to ignore me the entire time I'm here. That'll make for a very boring trip into space. Plus, it won't win me any points on getting signed up for another tour, so I don't have to go back to Earth.

"Those are the only four colors, right?"

Essa flips the pages back and forth, making sure we haven't mysteriously missed a fifth color being added to the pendant and handbook in the ten seconds since we last looked. "It would seem those are our options."

"Okay, but I want to talk to you guys," I say, adding a bit of a pout in my words that has Jovi and Alik both stiffening again. Their eyes find me this time, and when I look at them, they don't look away. "I mean, if you guys don't mind."

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