He turned from her and speared something on the end of a fork. Her stomach rolled. She’d lost her appetite. “I don’t want to eat anything.”
A slow smile spread across his face. “Oh you’re going to eat. I want you to, remember?”
She shook her head slowly as he stepped in front of her. Her heartbeat kicked up again when she saw the strong set of his jaw. He reached out with his free hand and she jerked back, but he just brushed her wayward curls out of her face.
“Being stubborn won’t help you,” he said.
Still, she refused to open her mouth when he raised the fork holding some sort of fruit she didn’t recognize.
He leaned close and grabbed the back of her head, so she couldn’t turn her face away. He rubbed the bite-sized piece of red fruit across her closed lips. The sweet scent made her mouth water. Juice dribbled down her chin and caught the tip of her breast. And regardless of her best intentions, some of the succulent juice slid through her lips. The sweet flavor burst on her tongue and her lips parted slightly when she gasped.
And the guard shoved the fruit into her mouth.
She should have spit it back into his face. She thought about it for a split second. But her rumbling stomach and her needy tongue overrode her brain. She bit into the morsel and almost sighed with delight as the sugar hit her system.
“Another piece?”
Hanna gave him credit for not sporting a look of triumph. Shame for giving in so quickly made her blush, but she knew she had to eat or she’d be too weak to take advantage of any opportunity to escape that might present itself. She nodded.
He released his grip on her hair and brought another piece of fruit to her lips. She opened her mouth, but he paused before he placed it on her tongue. Instead, he rubbed it along her lips again. More juice ran down her chin and across her breasts before he slipped it past her lips. She barely chewed that piece before she swallowed. “More.” His eyes flashed from her demand and she quickly looked away. “Please.”
“Your stomach is empty. You must eat slowly. I don’t want you getting sick on my watch.” He stepped a little closer to her as he speared a piece of meat. As he turned, his chest brushed against the inside of the arm that was stretched out in front of him. The heat from his body warmed her more than the cooked meat that he fed her next. It was a little chewy, but the sauce was tangy and delicious. Its sharp scent prickled her nostrils. She ran her tongue along her lips to lick off some of the sauce that lingered there. The guard quickly turned away and speared another piece of meat.
As he stood before her, she had a good chance to study him as she chewed the food he slid past her lips. She could tell he was strong and well-trained. His well-sculpted muscles bulged beneath his tight black shirt as he moved. His skin was as dark and shiny as the hortnuts on Vanya. His eyes were nearly black and while she studied them for warmth, she never saw any signs.
His hand were wide, his fingers long and strong. Rough and calloused. He wore a wide leather cuff on his left wrist. She knew he could strangle her if he wanted, but he was almost gentle as he fed her. His musky scent grew stronger than that of the food remaining on the plate.
Finally she was full and told him so. He must have been pleased with the amount of food she’d eaten because he didn’t try to force her to eat any more. He nodded and set the plate aside. He reached for the weapon he’d propped by the door. Hanna realized she didn’t want him to leave. She didn’t want to be all alone in this sterile room, even if her only choice for company was a surly guard.
“How long will it take to get to Noria?” she asked. How long would she be locked up in this room? How soon before she would be delivered to the king of Noria?
Jarrod reluctantly turned around. “Another day and night.” He’d hoped to get away where her scent wouldn’t call to him. Where her chained body didn’t tempt him with dark desires he tried to forget. But one look at her and he knew he couldn’t leave yet.
He’d never fed a woman in chains before and didn’t realize what a mess he’d make.
Trails of sunberry juice ran across her luscious breasts. Her nipples were nearly the same deep shade of pink as the juice. He knew he should get a wet cloth to clean her, but his mouth watered with the need to taste her. To find out if she was as sweet as his favorite fruit.
How would she react if he simply lowered her head and swept his tongue along those full breasts? Hell, she was chained. A slave. He could do anything he wanted and she couldn’t stop him. Arousal surged through him at the thought. He’d lick the juice from her succulent skin. Pop that nipple into his mouth and suck until he had his fill.
But she wasn’t his slave. King Barrus had offered a small fortune to have her snatched and brought to him. No one would be allowed to enjoy this slave without the king’s permission. She wasn’t worth getting his throat slit.
He had to get out of here before he started thinking she was. He’d be safer back on the other side of that solid door where he wouldn’t be tempted by dark pink nipples, long, firm thighs and wide green eyes. His cock wasn’t happy with the thought, aching with its displeasure, but for now his brain had the final say.
He wet a cloth at the sink and slowly approached her. He knew he should release her from her chains and let her take care of the cleanup herself, but selfishly, he knew this might be his only chance to touch her.
“Stand still.”
Her breasts were as firm as he thought they would be. He rubbed the cloth gently across her skin, wiping away the streaks of juice from her pale skin. Stroke after stroke, he traced the contours of her flesh with the soft cloth. Her nipples beaded beneath his touch and he couldn’t resist roughly brushing over them with the edge of the cloth.
Her soft gasp made his already hard cock twitch. Her parted lips were wet and shiny from the fruit he’d rubbed on them. What would they taste like? What would those lips feel like rubbed against his skin? Going down on his throbbing cock?
Her eyes were closed, her head dropped back, her back arched so she pressed her breasts into his hand.
He kneaded the firm flesh of her breasts, not even pretending any longer to be washing her. The cloth may still have been between his skin and hers, but the fruit juice had long since disappeared. He was close to dropping the cloth altogether. Why pretend? His cock was straining against his trousers, beginning to talk louder than the voice in his brain telling him to back off.
Back off? Why would he do that when he had access to this perfect body, spread out for his enjoyment? And hell, she was enjoying it too. If she was this responsive, she’d make a great sex slave. Why did the thought make his stomach clench?
He tossed the cloth into the sink and turned back to her. His cock urged him on.
Just then the door slid open and Leoh strode in. “Shift change, Jarrod.” The brawny bald guard stopped and openly raked his gaze over the princess. “She give you any trouble?”
“No trouble.” Jarrod ground his teeth and he glared at the temptress strung out before him. What had he almost done? He’d almost forgotten his plan. Almost messed up big time. “She just ate, so we can leave her alone for a while. Contemplate her future.”
He grabbed his weapon and opened the door. Leoh went out into the hallway ahead of him.
“Jarrod?” Her soft voice caught him at the door.
Shit, why didn’t Leoh keep his mouth shut? Now she knew his name. Would he never get out of here?
He whirled around, pointing his weapon at her. “What?”
Her eyes grew wide, but it didn’t stop her from putting a little pleading tone in her voice. “Can’t you let me down? My shoulders are aching.”
“Get used to it,” he growled before he stepped out and let the door close behind him.
Chapter Two
When Hanna watched that solid black door slide closed, the breath left her lungs with a whoosh. He’d left her. Alone. Still chained. And aroused. She nearly screamed in frustration.
How could her body have betraye
d her this way? She was in a nightmare. Kidnapped. Chained to a wall on her way to a distant planet to become some king’s sex slave. And yet the gaze, the scent, the touch of her gruff captor had made her body come alive.
She wryly remembered her wishes as she’d danced on Vanya yesterday. Or was it the day before? She’d lost track. Hadn’t she wished to see other worlds, other people? Hadn’t she yearned to experience the touch of a man, the arousal that his touch could ignite?
It appeared she’d gotten her wish. Only not in the way she’d imagined.
But her imagination still ran wild as she leaned back against the cold, hard wall. She’d never realized how exhilarating a man’s touch would truly be. Jarrod’s touch. When he’d kneaded her breasts they seemed to swell beneath his fingers, to fill his hands, to beg for him to squeeze them harder, squeeze them more. And when he rubbed the cloth across her sensitive nipples, she couldn’t help but respond. Sharp tingles of desire had shot straight to the spot between her legs. Had she really arched her back, offering herself to him? Had she really begged for more?
Her sex still throbbed between her thighs. Her legs were stretched too far apart to be able to give herself any relief from the need that didn’t go away, even when the man did. Now that his touch had awakened her body, it refused to go back to sleep.
Hanna tried to wipe the man and his touch from her mind by thinking of other matters. What had King Lars done when he found his daughter and the rest of them missing? Would he have any idea what happened to them? What of the princess and the other women? Were they nearby, perhaps held prisoner in other rooms around her? Was what Jarrod told her true? Did some planets really deal in sex?
Hanna had never felt so out of touch with the rest of the universe as she did right now. She knew nothing of the cosmos, of the people on distant planets and the things they did. The palace had been such an isolated world, nothing should surprise her.
Even her erotic response to a guard on a slave ship.
* * * * *
Jarrod made himself stop at the food hall after he left the princess’s room. He’d suffered too many hungry days and nights to ever pass up a free meal. Not in the mood to be sociable, he sat over in a corner by himself. The meat tasted like rancid yak leather and wasn’t much more tender. It sank like a rock into the pit of his stomach, but he ate every bite before going back to his room.
When he slammed open the door, his roommate, Micah, shot up out of his bunk, his long blond hair sticking out at odd angles. “What the hell?”
“Sorry.” Jarrod flipped on the bright overheads, even though he knew his best friend had been sleeping. He propped up his weapon at the end of his bunk and stripped off his shirt. He’d hit the shower before he went to bed.
“Hey, I have to take the early shift,” Micah grumbled, sinking back down onto the thin mattress. He rested his head in his hands. “I could use a couple more hours.”
Jarrod paced the small room, images of the past days bombarding him. Images of the princess in chains haunting him. “We should have never signed on to a fucking slave ship.”
Micah looked up. “In case you forgot, we were only half a step ahead of Gaylock. Better a guard on a slave ship than to have our own asses chained in the hold.”
Jarrod shuddered at the thought of being captured again by Gaylock. He’d die before he went back in the mines.
“And cheer up,” Micah went on. “With the payoff we’ll get from this cargo, we can get the Galaxy out of the repair shop. We’ll be setting up our trading post on Ceylon 7 before you know it.”
Jarrod scowled. “Looking over our shoulders for the rest of our lives.”
Micah stretched back out on his bunk. “Nah. Gaylock’s lazy. He’d never bother to look for us that far.”
“You hope.”
“I know.”
Jarrod sank down onto the bunk he hadn’t bothered to make since they took off from Noria over a week ago. “Fucking slave ship.”
“Hey, if not them, it could have been us.”
Maybe it would have been better that way. “They have no idea what’s in store for them.”
Micah frowned and stared at him for a moment. “Since when did you get a conscience?”
Since a slender princess with wide green eyes looked to him for help.
He couldn’t stop thinking about her standing there for hours, naked and alone, her skin rubbed raw from the metal cuffs. He hadn’t even gotten her anything to drink. She was probably thirsty.
“Fuck.” He climbed off the bunk instead of getting some sleep like he should have. He grabbed a tube of Marvel Cream from his locker and shut off the lights. “Get some sleep,” he called over his shoulder before he shut the door behind him.
Leoh was dozing in front of the princess’s door, leaned up against the doorjamb, his big bald head nearly resting on his shoulder. Jarrod kicked Leoh’s boot with his own and the big guy jumped to attack mode before he opened his eyes and saw Jarrod standing there.
“Hey! Shift change?” He rubbed his eyes with his stubby fingers.
“Yeah. Go get some sleep.” Jarrod watched Leoh shuffle off down the hall. He’d probably fall into his bunk and not even realize he got a few extra hours of sleep tonight.
Jarrod wouldn’t get any sleep. He paced in front of the door for a moment, the tube of cream in his hands. He didn’t have to go back through that door. He’d be doing more than his job just standing guard outside. Yeah, that’s what he’d do. Just stand out here until morning.
He turned and slapped his palm on the reader. The door slid silently open. Jarrod stood in the doorway so the light from the hallway illuminated the female body across the room. Somehow she’d managed to fall asleep. She was leaning back against the wall, her chin resting on her chest, her arms hanging heavily against the hard metal cuffs.
Good. He didn’t have to be here. He’d leave her to her dreams. Her nightmare would start soon enough.
But before he could step back through the doorway, the princess raised her head and opened her eyes. “Jarrod?” She stood up straight and stepped away from the wall.
Resigned, he entered the room and the door slid shut behind him. He set the cream down and turned on the overheads. She blinked against the bright light. He crossed to the sink and filled a small glass with water. She followed him with her gaze, then cocked her head when he stopped in front of her with the glass.
“You came back to bring me water?” Amusement infiltrated her sleepy tone.
He glared at her. “You want it or not?”
She stared at him for a long moment and his heartbeat kicked up. She slowly nodded. He brought the glass to her lips and she drank eagerly, not stopping until the water was gone.
“Thank you,” she said softly.
Her lips were wet and shiny again and Jarrod strode back over to the sink, refilled the glass and drank, trying to slake his thirst. But when the glass was empty and he turned around to face her, he was just as thirsty as before he drank. Her spicy scent filled the room. His cock hardened and he slowly walked back over in front of her. She appeared wide awake now, her eyes clear, her naked breasts rising and falling with each deep breath.
“Where are the other women?” she asked. “Are they chained up like this?”
He hardened himself against the worry in her voice. “They’re no longer your concern.”
She leaned toward him, so close he could see the long lashes that framed those eyes he would see in his sleep. “Are they all right? You can tell me that.”
He took a step away when all he wanted was to move closer. “I don’t have to tell you anything. Your only concern is to please your Master.” He knew how she could please him. On her knees before him. Her hands cuffed behind her back. Her mouth taking his cock deep. He shuddered as he imagined plunging between her wet lips, holding her head steady to make sure she took him all the way down her throat.
“Why me?”
Her words jarred him away from his forbidden thoughts. “W
hat?”
“Why does the king of Noria want me?”
Jarrod shrugged. “I don’t know, but if I had to guess, I’d say your daddy the king got this other king angry and this was how he decided to fight back.”
He could see a little spark of hope light up her eyes. He knew he had to stomp that down right away. “Even if your father knows Barrus is behind your disappearance, he’ll never be able to get you back.”
She lifted her chin in that stubborn way he couldn’t help but admire. “Why not?”
“Think, Princess.” The crew had discussed this very thing during their briefing before the mission. “Vanya doesn’t have the technology to travel to Noria. We teleported in and out in seconds and were light-years away a few minutes later. It would take Vanyan ships longer than your lifetime to reach Noria.” Somehow he was within arm’s reach of her again. He brushed the backs of his knuckles across her cheek. “Your father should have tried to keep up with technology inside of hiding from it.”
“The king…my father wanted to keep Vanya safe by isolating it. He thought we would avoid trouble that way.”
“It didn’t work, did it? Your father is helpless. As helpless as you are.” And damn if her helplessness didn’t call to the dark need within him. He shouldn’t be so aroused by the sight of her this way. He shouldn’t crave for her to call him Master.
She shook her head sharply and swung against the chains. Her hair fell into her face. “My father will come for me.”
“He has no way to rescue you. By cutting off Vanya from the rest of the worlds, your father has ensured he has no allies to call upon who might have faster ships or trained warriors.” Jarrod brushed her heavy curls away from her face. “You must accept your fate. It is the only way to survive.”
Her eyes were shadowed now. His words had burned out the hope that had started to kindle. He refused to feel guilty. She needed to know the truth.
But perhaps he could give her another kind of hope.
Before he could talk himself out of it, he reached out to test the weight of one of her fine breasts. She stared at him as it rested heavy in his palm. He swept his thumb across the sunberry-red nipple and it beaded tightly from his touch. “It is not a bad life, Princess. You will surely receive your share of pleasure.”
Chains of Desire Page 2
