Yes. I will listen to her thoughts and give you access to her room.
Thank you, Jezar.
It’s interesting how you violate some of her boundaries, but respect others. She has no idea how you feel, does she?
I’m sending the call through. He didn’t answer Jezar’s question. He wasn’t going to. Not even in his thoughts. Around Jezar, that was the same thing anyway.
He depressed the button and his vision blurred slightly when Jezar connected with his mind so he could hear what Alex could hear. Jezar kept Alex’s thoughts away from Tory’s and Tory was grateful for that. Jezar had been known for ignoring Tory’s requests at the oddest times.
“Alex?” That was not the Deputy Director.
“Darius? What are you doing on an open channel?” The military precision of her tone gave no indication of her physical state. And her first thought seemed to be protecting her king.
“Is the box contained?” The king’s voice edged on panic, nothing like the gentle tones Tory had always heard from him.
“I don’t know.” The despair in Alex’s answer bit deep in Tory’s emotional armor. “Darius, what the fuck is in that box?” She didn’t know then.
“Something important to us, Alex. We have to get it back. Can you escape?” Apparently, King Darius thought Alex was some sort of magician.
“I’m Tory Ingle’s Saria.” She spoke calmly. “He proved it to a Judge of Light. My family ruined his career and banned him from Teran One. It’s his right.”
“I take it Ingle doesn’t know you defended him.” Darius didn’t dispute Tory’s right, but his revelation had some meaning. Tory blinked and tried as hard to remember as he’d tried to forget in the past. The day of his judgment, Alex didn’t talk to him or look at him. Tory had assumed she believed her brother and condemned him to the Tribunal. Had he been wrong?
“I told the truth at the tribunal,” Alex said. What had she told the Tribunal? Tory would make it his business to find out. That was probably Darius’ intention. Alex didn’t intend to be distracted either. “And all that doesn’t matter. What game are you playing here?”
The king didn’t speak for a moment. Then, “Kyler’s missing.”
Who the hell was Kyler? Tory had a lot of digging to do when this illuminating conversation was over.
“And Celeste?”
“I’ve ordered her to the palace but—” Clearly the king wanted to say more, but wouldn’t as long as Tory was listening. The little prick.
When Alexandra spoke, she sounded tired, older than her twenty-nine years. “Darius, why didn’t you tell me what was in that box?”
Tory noticed she didn’t again ask what was in the box. Still protective, she must not have wanted Darius to announce anything damaging over an open channel.
“I didn’t think you’d take it if I did,” the man admitted. On an open channel. She could have no doubt Darius had known what she was transporting before she left Teran One. What was he really saying to Alex? She’d been his personal bodyguard for three years before she left to head his military. What was their relationship? They were first cousins, but how loyal did the blood tie make her? The temptation to change the stakes, have Jezar connect him directly to Alex, almost overwhelmed him. But he fought it.
“Then whatever it is, it’s really bad,” Alex commented. “What is Ingle asking for?”
“He’s set up a bidding war.” Darius’ tone was shrill and desperate, almost panicked. And young.
“Then outbid the others,” she told him. It occurred to Tory that this wasn’t a new role for her to play. She sounded confident the king would follow her advice. She must have done it before. How that must have chapped Pontoon’s ass.
This time, her advice was wrong. She didn’t know what was in that box, only that Darius needed it back. And she’d failed to deliver it. Would her advice change if she knew what was in it?
“Alex—” Darius said, his voice pleading. He was asking her to do something and she knew what it was. Tory heard it. Again, he blessed the stars he had Jezar listening in on her thoughts. Whatever the Teran One King wanted his cousin to do, she would do it. It would be her “duty”.
“What does Pontoon say to do?” Her question was sharp, edgy.
“He says to get the box back at any cost.”
Tory could hear Alex thinking. What was it like inside her head? Did thoughts whirl around like butterflies? Or was her thinking like everything else about her—straight lines and boxes?
I could show you. Jezar’s mental tone seemed amused.
Fuck you, Jezar.
You’re not my type, Teran.
Back at you, Ardasian.
A low, rumbling chuckle echoed through his mind and Tory shook his head.
Darius broke the silence. “Alex, I promise I’ll get you back.”
Like hell he would. Alex belonged to Tory. She always had. She just didn’t know it yet.
“I’m his Saria, Darius. He chose the mate ceremony. You know what that means.” Yes, a Teran One King knew exactly what that meant. After all, the Stender line had created it to save the bloodlines.
Centuries ago, families would wipe each other out, eliminate entire bloodlines. To stop the carnage, the first Stender King created the concept of Saria, or single revenge. One member of a family could be taken, owned, to pay for the sins of the bloodline. Murder, slander and other forms of harm done by a bloodline to another would be appeased by the sacrifice of a member of the offending family. In this case, Alex paid for her brother.
“He knows your family is dead? All of them?” Darius sounded shocked. But why? Regardless of what Darius said, she would pay the price. It was her duty, after all. And Alexandra was all about duty.
Apparently, Tory was still a bit bitter about that.
“Celeste isn’t. If I didn’t accept the contract, he had the right to claim Celeste. I couldn’t let that happen. To get the box, you’ll have to negotiate with Ingle. Outbid the other Teran planets. Get Pontoon on some diplomacy with Teran Five.”
“They’ve cut us off.”
“We’ll need an alliance with them, Darius.” She was giving him diplomatic advice while she was hanging from cuffs in her enemy’s quarters? What the hell was wrong with that woman? It infuriated him that she continued to put that motherfucking planet before everything else.
And why wouldn’t she? Hadn’t she done just that five years ago?
“I’ll do what I can, Alex. But what about you?” Yes, Alex, what about you? Darius made a good point. Had she written off her own life?
“I’m not going anywhere. Focus on the problem. Get the box.” She was lying. She had to be. Jezar would know for sure.
“Alex—”
“Don’t let Pontoon marry Celeste off, okay?” It was the only favor she asked from her King.
“I won’t.” And the line disconnected.
She’s trying very hard not to cry.
Damn it. Tell me what I want to know, not what I don’t want to know.
Kyler is someone she asked to watch over Celeste.
Who the hell is he? Jesus, he sounded like a jealous piece of shit.
She thinks of him as a relative, someone from her childhood.
Why hadn’t he ever heard of this guy? It still rankled. He should have been the one she turned to, but her brother had made sure that wouldn’t happen. Five fucking years wasted.
Jezar stayed silent for a moment. And then, She still has no idea what she was transporting, but she realizes it must be a weapon. When King Darius spoke her name at one point, she knew he asked her to destroy this ship, the box and herself.
It was a relief to know she wasn’t aware of what she carried on that damn shuttle. Tory clenched his teeth together. Fucking royalty. They always wanted sacrifices. And her thoughts on that?
She is…divided.
Explain.
All she knows is her duty to the Royal family on Teran One. To not do as King Darius asked would be painful, unthinkable
even, for her. But she does not want to hurt you.
Me? Tory blinked. Why the hell wouldn’t she want to hurt him?
You are surprised by this?
Hell yes, I am. She hates me. With good reason. And considering what he had planned for her, it wasn’t going to get any better. In fact, he’d rather have her hate. She wasn’t going to give him anything else. She’d made that crystal clear five years earlier.
You humans are odd.
Is this where I thank you? Okay, you can get out of her head now. I’m going back to my quarters and it’s private.
Strange that you don’t want to know what she thinks of what you do to her.
Is it? Well, I don’t. The Saria bond is personal, private.
As you wish.
“Jezar, you have the bridge. Let’s get a little distance between the Teran system and us, please. Head for the Merian system.” He strode off the bridge.
“What about the bidding?” Dink asked him.
“When it reaches sixty million leders, call me.”
The doors shut behind him and he walked purposefully toward his quarters. It was time to make his Saria pay for her family’s crimes.
* * * * *
For the first time in Alex’s life, she was both helpless and confused. Her arms ached from being stretched above her head. Her ankles throbbed from her earlier struggle in the restraints. Her thoughts were no better. Tory had every right to claim her for revenge, for mating. Her King asked her to go against the most basic rules of that claim. To kill Tory, to kill herself, to destroy them both, left the blot on his line unavenged. But to disobey Darius was against her nature and her family’s honor—in short, everything she was.
And then, there were these odd feelings Tory brought out in her. Her life had always been about being in control. He stripped her of all of it, paring her down to her truest self. Nothing new there. He always had.
The facts were right in front of her. She’d been wrong. What rankled most wasn’t that her brother had deceived her. It wasn’t that her government had wrongly convicted a man. What cut her to the quick was the knowledge that she’d believed it all, swallowed it all. Five years of doubt now changed to immediate certainty. He wasn’t a traitor. And she’d been a fool.
The doors opened and she heard a step behind the screen. Buttons beeped and the screen rose back up to the ceiling.
Tory gazed at her. To her absolute embarrassment, her nipples hardened under his scrutiny. What the hell was wrong with her? He stepped closer and instead of flinching away in horror, she wanted to lean toward him. Pull yourself together, soldier.
“Your arms must be sore.” He pressed a button and the restraints released her. She stumbled forward into his arms. The warmth of him sent heat shooting through her body. Damn it. She didn’t want to be so weak. But he did something for her that no one else did.
In response, she tried to fight him, but her muscles wouldn’t obey. They hurt. She hurt. In so many ways. He laid her on the bed and stood beside it. “I know what you’re planning.”
Planning? What the fuck was he talking about?
“You plan to try to blow up this ship and the cargo we took from you.” Oh. That plan. How the hell did he know that? Another button pressed and two soft, silky cords appeared from the bed frame near her hips. Two more appeared near her feet. “You are mine, Alexandra.”
She shivered when he said her name. Alexandra. He’d called her that once. When he’d begged her—but she wasn’t going to think about that. “I’ll never be yours,” she lied. And it was a lie. He owned her.
“You already are.” He tied her wrists with the cords so she lay immobilized on the bed. Her ankles too. It wasn’t uncomfortable, like the metal rack, but it held her captive, naked and at his mercy.
“Is that why you have to tie me up? If I was ‘yours’, as you say, you wouldn’t have to.”
His gaze traveled from her face down over her tightened nipples and her flushed skin. Why did her body have to betray her like that? His fingers brushed the inside of her thigh. “What would I find, Alexandra? Would you be wet? I told you I like my sex rough and my women restrained.” His finger stroked the folds around her clit. “And having you like this is so satisfying.”
“You aren’t having me,” she managed to choke out. “You’re taking me.” She gasped on the last word as his finger flicked over her nub.
He chuckled, his smile wide and teasing. “I’m going to have you. And this time, Saria mine, you’re going to take me.”
A shiver of fear and desire shuddered through her. Part of her fought her desire, her desperate need. Another part of her reveled in his power over her, the way his deep voice rumbled through her body, the way he played her like an instrument. To distract her body from the need pouring through her, she fought the restraints. The bite of the rope in her skin should have lessened her melting need. Instead, it added fuel to the fire, burning her, sending her senses into another realm of pain and pleasure.
Between desire and despair, she buffeted back and forth. Her body responded to the restraints, but she couldn’t deny that part of her was relieved, grateful that she was physically kept from making a fool out of herself. Without them, she would probably throw her arms around him and cling to him. The thought made her chest tight and her lips tremble. She took herself to task and strengthened her resolve. But it wasn’t just her body that melted at his touch and she didn’t know how to shore up the walls around her heart.
His finger kept the pressure on her pussy and she jerked against the restraints. One glance at his face spoke volumes. He liked it when she fought him. He enjoyed it. He wanted her resistance. She could deny him by laying there like a rock but it just wasn’t in her not to fight. She tamped down on her response, kept back the whimpers and moans of pleasure that clogged in her throat. No matter how she tried to shift away from his wicked hands, he followed. One hand stroked the sensitive skin of her inner thigh as the other tormented her clit with quick, firm touches.
She should hate him. He’d forced her to be his mate, manipulated her body to betray her. But the feelings she had thought were ashes flared to life and she wanted to give in, to surrender, more than she wanted just the release of her body. The passion built and her orgasm gathered. When he thrust two fingers inside her slick channel, she exploded, her body arching off the bed in humiliating pleasure. Her mind went blank, wiped clean by the pleasure. Here, there was no revenge, no honor, no duty. There was only sensation.
When his tongue scraped over her clit in time to his thrusting fingers, she thought she would die. Her head tossed back and forth. By the stars, she wanted him to stop. She wanted him to go on forever. Nothing could be like this. The feel of his mouth on her, the way his fingers delved deep, the thrill of the restraints sent her over the edge and she screamed. Her pussy convulsed and she drenched his mouth with the evidence of his success. He moaned and to her it seemed like a sound of triumph.
He lifted his mouth and met her gaze. His face was blurred by her tears, but it wasn’t triumph she saw there. Raw passion, need and desire tightened his features. He didn’t seem like a man who’d won a battle but like a man in the middle of one. His clothes flew across the room, tossed away as if he couldn’t wait to get naked.
Her breath left her. Naked, Tory was stunning. His black hair curled around his head, his face chiseled in determination and his strong jaw set in a straight line. His broad shoulders and narrow hips only added to his sexiness, his chest hair light and curled. She wanted to touch him, stroke him.
When her gaze traveled lower, her gut clenched. His cock, long and lean like the rest of him, waited, fully erect. Her mouth watered. She wanted to taste him. She wanted him inside her and she didn’t care where.
He apparently had no patience for slow seduction. He straddled her on the bed, his cock just outside her entrance. “Say the word and I’ll stop, Saria.” Instead, she groaned and arched her body toward him.
His hands were everywhere—h
er breasts, her belly, her hips. His mouth traced a line along her neck and captured one of her ears in his teeth. He sighed, making her tremble. God, he felt so good, his hands so rough and hot. The way his touch demanded her response, the way his teeth scraped along her neck, all added to the huge fire raging inside her.
It shouldn’t be like this. Instead of a gentle slide into pleasure, she was being consumed, burned away, squeezed by the intensity. No one had ever breached the walls Alex had erected to protect herself. Now, Tory sliced through them as if they were paper. She wanted to discount it, ignore what was happening inside her. But there was no denying that more than her physical being was being breached.
Finally, his mouth plundered hers and she could barely breathe. His tongue swept in, dominating her, taking her to new heights. One of his hands wrapped around her hair and angled her head. Deeper. He dove deeper.
Then, his cock slid inside her and she couldn’t breathe at all. She moaned in his mouth and he echoed her in response. He stopped buried inside her, the tip of his penis on a spot that sent shockwaves rocking through her. She tensed, her body out of control, her hips frantically thrusting upward.
His hand clenched in her hair and pinpricks of pain dotted her scalp. His other hand roughly grabbed her hip. He jammed his cock inside her harder, faster. His tongue demanded a response and got it.
He released her mouth to meet her gaze. “Open your eyes and keep them open,” he demanded in a hoarse voice.
She did as he told her. The need, the tension in his face was an aphrodisiac. Her body liquefied to molten desire. She lost her mind and words began to tumble from her mouth. “Oh God, do it. Tory, fuck me. Fuck me. Harder.”
He obliged her, his hips bruising as they slapped into hers. The collision was raw and violent. He jerked her head by the hair to stare deep into her eyes. “You want me. Say it.”
“I want you,” she sobbed. Her whole body shattered and she milked him, sucked him in, wanting him deeper inside her until there was no “him” and “her”. Only this.
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