Well, it could be worse. From the feel of the bed, at least Brentan hadn’t thrown her into the dungeons.
She reached up to rub her temple only to feel a tug on her wrist. Opening her eyes she saw the thin ropes binding her wrists to the bed. A quick check revealed that her knife was gone as well. What was it with men disarming women and tying them up?
As best she could she sat up in the bed, fighting the pain in her head. A quick look around confirmed that she was in some sort of personal quarters on the Natarn ship. Luxurious quarters with a masculine touch, highly visible viewscreens, images of half-dressed women, and exotic weapons secured to the wall. She lay back down and stifled a groan. No doubt she was in Brentan’s rooms, tied to his bed, and awaiting his pleasure.
She eyed one of the sharpened blades near her on the wall and smiled grimly. It was out of reach now, but if she could get to it, Brentan would experience something from her other than pleasure.
“Oh good. You’re awake.”
The familiar voice forced Lija’s gaze away from the knife to glare at her captor. Two meters tall, black hair, and a brutally handsome face. Once she’d thought he was at least somewhat attractive. Now her stomach roiled at the idea of him being too close to her.
Her sick look must have registered with him. A look that could have actually been concern crossed his face. “How are you feeling? When we found you one of your captors was restraining you. Did he hurt you?”
Lija narrowed her eyes at him. Gehon had been trying to protect her from falling on her head as she passed out. “I have a splitting headache. And no the Zelion didn’t hurt me. Neither of them hurt me. I wasn’t their prisoner, Brentan, I was a guest.” She nodded her head meaningfully at the rope around her wrist. “Unlike here.”
“Oh, yes, the restraints.” He moved to unfasten her and then fetched a clear liquid that reduced the pain in her head to a dull roar. As he held it to her lips, she got a strong whiff of the strong body scent he used. Some time ago she would have simply called it unpleasant. Now it was almost sickening and she nearly gagged on the medicine.
“There now,” he said when she seemed recovered. “Tell me how you came to be in the clutches of the Zelion ruffians.”
She rubbed her wrist with exaggerated concern. No point in letting Brentan know that she wasn’t really hurt. He might associate an injured wrist with helplessness. “They aren’t ruffians and I wasn’t in their clutches.”
Brentan frowned. “They took you from Dingalus Three. We found your microshuttle there, so they clearly hadn’t planned to let you go.”
“My shuttle? Where is it now?”
“It’s safe in my hanger bay. I knew you’d want it so I brought it with me.”
It was more likely he knew she would be less able to get away from him if he held her shuttle. “What were you doing looking for me on Dingalus Three?”
“After you took off from the negotiations, I got worried about you. That’s why we followed you there. Then we discovered you’d been taken onto the Zelion ship and we went after them.”
“You had no business stopping The Traveler. The Zelions won’t take kindly to it.”
Brentan took a menacing pose. “I don’t take kindly to men raping my woman.”
“I’m not your woman and they didn’t rape me.”
“One of them had sex with you. I had the medic examine you as soon as we got you on board, and he said…”
His voice broke off when she stood up, her fists clenched and fury burning through her. He almost seemed to cower before her. The arrogance of this man. She wasn’t his property to poke at.
“You had no right to do that. You don’t own me, Brentan, and whatever I did with Gehon and Jackon was my business not yours.”
“You’re my wife, Lija…”
“That’s another thing. I am not your wife.”
“I posted the banns for us already. According to my people, that makes you my wife.”
“According to my people, that’s not enough.” She held up her braid, “so long as I wear this I’m a free woman. I never said I’d marry you and it’s my decision to make.”
“Your father…”
“…had no business offering me in the first place!”
Her anger finally shut him up. Brentan took a step back, and she felt his temper rise to match hers. “So, you liked one of the Zelions better than me? Which one?”
Both of them although she doubted she should tell him that… “They each had a different appeal,” she said instead.
Brentan leaned against the wall. He looked relaxed, but she knew differently. “I suppose you know that you couldn’t marry one of them unless you were his true.” He smiled when she stiffened. “Yes, I know about the Zelions and their true mates. So, which one told you that you’re his match?”
When she didn’t answer, he chuckled. “Won’t tell me, huh? Well, I know something else. Once a Zelion has been with his true, he can’t make love to another woman.” He nodded at her wide-eyed gasp. “I see you’ve heard that, too. So, I decided to test it out by having your friends entertained.”
Crossing to a viewscreen, he activated it, using the remote to switch the scene to what looked to be an interrogation room probably somewhere on the ship. Brentan beckoned to her. “Here, come watch.”
Afraid of what she’d see, Lija moved slowly forward. What kind of torture had this monster conjured for her lovers? A familiar sounding groan from the screen pulled her closer.
Two men lay on their backs fastened wrists and ankles by chains to the narrow cots under them. She tried to see their features, but red and blond hair that had fallen across their faces and obscured them. All she could see were their mouths as each man gasped and moaned as if in agony.
Lija gasped herself when she saw the reason. The men moaned because each of them had a woman energetically sucking on his very aroused cock!
She couldn’t believe it. Gehon and Jackon had lied to her? So much for the pair being eunuchs without her. Fighting her tears, Lija sat down heavily on a nearby chair. She’d trusted them, believed what they’d told her. It hurt, far worse than she’d expected.
Probably the men had been playing with her, just as she’d done with them. They’d probably intended all along to have a threesome and she’d walked right into it.
“I can see this is quite a shock to you. I was surprised to see how fast they responded, but my ladies are very talented in this area. Surely you can admire their expertise. What man wouldn’t enjoy their efforts?”
She glanced up at the screen again. The woman working on Jackon leaned back, exposing his cock to the viewer in the room. Lija froze, watching her stroke the length with her hand.
Standing, Lija moved closer and silently took the remote from Brentan, using it to focus closer.
“Yes, I can see her technique very well. I wonder how the other one is.” Under her control, the viewer moved, directed at the other bed and the woman working on Gehon. Again she focused on his cock.
Lija shut off the viewscreen and tossed the remote aside.
Brentan smiled at her. “So, now that you’ve seen your friends in action, you still want to marry one of them?”
“I’ve made my mind up about that at least. I couldn’t possibly marry a man who’d deceived me.” Lija gave Brentan a curious look. “Do you know much about my people’s marriage ceremony?”
“I know it has something to do with that braid of yours.” He leered at her. “What about it?”
Lija leaned toward him stroking her braid suggestively. “It’s part of our traditions. On my wedding day I cut it off and bind my husband’s hands with it.”
“You’d bind my hands? Kinky.” He stared at the long black braid in her hand and licked his lips. “What do you need to do it?”
Lija stepped toward him, letting her hips sway suggestively. “I need you to get on the bed. I’ll bind you there.”
Brentan scampered over to the bed. “Should I take my clothes off?”
Interest at that promise firing his eyes, Brentan lay down and stretched his hands over his head. “Do we need a witness? I could use the comm to get someone in here.”
“Maybe later.” Lija pulled one of the long knives off the wall. At Brentan’s startled look, she smiled. “I need it to cut the braid.”
He relaxed. “I see. And then you’ll be my wife?”
“As soon as I wrap it around your wrist.” She kept one hand on the braid and the other on the knife, moving toward him. Reaching the bed, she straddled his chest and gazed down at him. She smiled. “Ready?”
At his nod, Lija dropped her braid and grabbed the ropes that had bound her and wrapped it around Brentan’s wrists, securing his arms to the bed. He yelled, but silenced as soon as she put the sharp blade of the knife against his neck.
“What…what’s going on?” he stammered.
“I told you I wouldn’t marry a man who lied to me.”
“What lie?”
“Those weren’t the Zelions in that chamber. You put doubles in for them.” She pressed harder with the blade and a thin streak of blood bubbled against the edge.
“How did you know?” he gasped.
“Well, it wasn’t that hard to tell. Jackon’s cock is completely straight, while the double you used had a definite bend to his. And Gehon’s has freckles, especially along the shaft.”
“How would you recognize…” Realization set in and he stared at her in disgust. “You slept with both of them? You little whore!” he snarled.
“Careful, Brentan. I’m the one with the blade and I don’t like being called names.” He stilled as the edge cut deeper into his throat.
“What do you want?”
“Freedom, for the Zelions and myself.”
“I don’t like threats, woman.”
“Well, that’s at least one thing we have in common.”
A sinister snarl crossed his lips. “Perhaps. But you are still on my ship which I control, and if those aren’t your friends on the screen, then you might wonder what is happening to them.”
Brentan’s eyes showed more danger now than she’d seen in them before, and Lija worried about what that meant. If she hadn’t already made up her mind to have nothing more to do with him, she would have at that moment. She had no interest in being married to a man whose idea of courting was to hijack a ship she was a passenger on, and threaten harm to her friends.
Besides, if a man like that was in control of Axona…
Behind her the door to Brentan’s quarters opened with a near silent snick.
“Your grace?”
Lija tilted her head to see a tall dark-haired woman enter. The newcomer took in Lija’s position on top of Brentan and started to back out. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t know you were occupied.”
“Wait!” Lija said. “Come in here.”
Cautiously the woman closed the door behind her and moved slowly to the bed. Her eyes widened when she spied the knife Lija held to Brentan’s neck.
“Do you care what happens to him?” Lija asked, hoping the answer would be yes. She cut deeper into his neck for emphasis and a thin trail of blood flowed from the wound, staining the pillow his head rested on.
Staring at the blood, the woman paled, but nodded.
“Very well,” Lija said, “come over here. I need to secure him and it’s either going to be with ropes, or by cutting his throat.”
She ran to the bed and under Lija’s direction found additional restraints to use to bind Brentan to the bed. He twisted and complained loudly until she produced a gag from a drawer near the bed and applied it.
Her knowledge and efficiency told Lija a lot about Brentan and how he used his retainers. In particular this woman with her downcast eyes knew much about the prince’s desires.
Once he was secured, Lija climbed off Brentan’s chest and dragged the woman to a corner. She held the knife under the woman’s chin, although something told her that was unnecessary and that this woman would do as she wanted without threats.
“What’s your name?”
“Alsia,” she said.
“All right, Alsia. All I want is to get off this ship and take my friends with me. Do you know where the Zelions were taken?”
After a quick glance at Brentan who glared at them from the bed, Alsia nodded.
Relief passed through Lija. “Take me to them.”
Silently the woman led her into an adjacent sitting room and then into the corridor. Lija followed, the knife hidden in the folds of her fatigues as they passed through the ship. For a moment she wondered why she knew she could trust Alsia. Why would a woman loyal to Brentan help her to escape? Unless…
When they were in a quiet corridor, Lija pulled the dark-haired woman to the wall. “What is your relationship with the prince?”
“I…I’m his pleasure slave.” Alsia’s voice stammered.
“The Coalition doesn’t permit slavery. What would he call you?”
Some inner strength passed through her and she raised her head proudly. “It doesn’t matter what Prince Brentan calls me. I know what I am to him.”
Lija let her go and relaxed against the wall. “You really do care for him, don’t you?”
“He’s my prince.”
“And your lover,” Lija guessed and knew she was right by the blush in the other woman’s cheeks. “I suspect you care a great deal for him, too. I doubt you’d want to see him take a wife.”
Alsia’s eyes turned dark with anger. “He doesn’t need someone to be his wife.”
Lija could have burst out laughing but restrained herself. So, Brentan’s current woman didn’t like the idea of the prince marrying. Probably that’s why she’d been so cooperative so far in helping her escape. “I agree he doesn’t need me. And I don’t want to be in his life—or in your way. I just want to go home with my friends. You help us get free, and I can promise Brentan won’t even think about marrying me.”
After a moment’s hesitation Alsia nodded. “I think we understand each other. Once we free your friends I’ll take you to where your microshuttle is stored. That would be the fastest way to get back to the Zelion ship.” She looked Lija over and smiled. “The way you are dressed, you will stand out too much on the route we need to take. Come with me.”
She led the way to the ship’s women’s quarters.
Chapter Ten
Ten minutes later they were headed toward the ship’s brig. Lija was now dressed as Alsia was, in thin pink gauzy pants and a form-fitting maroon top that revealed her cleavage. The Natarn woman had insisted that this was what a woman on Brentan’s ship would be expected to wear.
Secretly Lija fumed over the clothes, thanking providence that she’d discovered how incompatible she’d have been with the prince prior to becoming his wife. She’d have hated to have been forced to divorce him—or failing that, arrange an unfortunate but carefully planned death for him.
Lija followed Alsia down a set of darkened corridors. The occasional crewman they met looked the women up and down in a way that left Lija feeling unclean, but they didn’t do more than that.
Finally they stopped at a guard station. Alsia leaned over the desk toward the two men on duty, letting them have a good look at her breasts.
“We’re here to see the Zelion prisoners,” she told them, her voice taking on a husky quality.
The men paid more attention to her cleavage than her words. “There are a couple women in there already. Why not stay out here with us?” one asked.
Alsia chuckled. “I was told they needed some help so they sent us.” She shrugged. “Maybe if we have time later, we can work something in,” she said suggestively.
With a grin, the guards waved them through, telling them which cell held the prisoners, and giving them the code for the door.
Once outside the cell, Lija nervously waited for Alsia to open the door, using the keypad next to it. What
was happening to Gehon and Jackon? Brentan had implied he was having them tortured. Were they all right?
As the door opened she heard a low moan, and rushed inside, reaching for her stolen knife, ready to pull it from its hiding place inside her sleeve.
The scene inside the cell was nearly the same as the one she’d seen in Brentan’s room, the two beds in the narrow cell, two men tied to the beds, two women energetically giving them oral sex. Even the groans were similar.
There were two changes. The first was that this time the men were definitely Gehon and Jackon, their faces not hidden by hair or odd viewer angles.
The second was that in spite of the efforts of the women sucking on their cocks, neither man showed even the slightest hint of an erection.
“Stars below, woman,” Gehon growled. “Would you leave off with that? I’m getting sore.”
The dark-haired beauty at his crotch dropped his flaccid cock and gave him a helpless look. “Perhaps you’d like to suck on my breasts?” she asked hopefully. “Would that help?”
He lay back with a sigh. “Nice of you to offer, but I’d really rather not.”
Things weren’t going any better on the other bed.
“And to think I used to enjoy this,” Jackon moaned. “It’s just not the same when you don’t want it.”
The woman working on him sat back and glared at him. “You could try to be a little more appreciative. I’m one of the best there is at this.”
“I’m sure you are, but it isn’t you I want.”
She played with his limp member. “Maybe you need a man to do this for you. I could see if one of the guards is available.”
“Stars, no!” Jackon leaned his head to glare at her and caught sight of the pair at the door. Lija moved toward him and in the smallness of the room, her scent drifted over to him. He breathed deeply, closing his eyes.
Under the woman’s hand his cock rose majestically into full mast. She startled and licked her lips.
“That’s more like it,” she said with obvious enthusiasm, leaning over to take him into her mouth. Jackon moaned again, this time showing some appreciation at her efforts.
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