The Mercenary (The War Chronicles Book 1)

by Petra Landon

  He stopped in mid-stride to contemplate her, his black eyes fathomless.

  “It will happen, little Budheya. Your time will come too.”

  Saakshi felt an unaccustomed emotion unfurl in her as she smiled back at him. He seemed to understand for he studied her silently for a moment before leading her down the corridor they were in. In a few minutes, she was ushered into a spacious chamber that was luxuriously furnished.

  “This is lovely” Saakshi exclaimed spontaneously, gazing around the room with interest.

  “Captain’s privileges” he responded with an amused quirk on his lips.

  “Is there somewhere I can wash up?” she inquired hopefully, glancing ruefully down at her dirt-streaked hands and clothes.

  “You can take a shower if you like” he offered.

  “Shower with real hot water?” she gasped in amazement.

  “As much hot water as you want” he smiled back.

  “Go on” he encouraged as she hesitated. “Take as long as you need. I’ll take mine after you’re done.”

  “There’s a robe in there you can use” he suggested, after a quick glance at the beating her uniform had taken.

  The shower was spacious. Saakshi assumed that it had been customized to fit the massive Hadari’Kor Captain. This was her first hydro shower since way before she’d been picked up by the Ketaari Imperial Forces for suspicion of supporting the resistance. Delayed reaction from facing the Unta-Golar hit Saakshi as the plentiful hot water rained down on her. She had walked away after teetering on the brink of disaster. The Pura had watched over her this evening, she knew. If the Hadari’Kor Captain hadn’t stepped in when he had, she would have been done for. She owed him big for that. The serious implications of the Ketaari’s deployment of her pain implant to break her alarmed Saakshi. He’d gone to a lot of trouble to dig up the details of her status as a prisoner, and the frequency and code unique to her implant. She was afraid that this signified his influence and ability to call in favors and revoke Pik’s contract on her. Saakshi sighed wearily from under the luxury of unlimited hot water. That was a worry she’d need to postpone till tomorrow. Tonight, she needed to please the big male awaiting his turn to shower. She just hoped that she knew how.

  The gigantic robe enveloped her, the ends trailing on the floor. On her, the tie meant to be around the waist fit below the hip. As she walked out slowly, Saakshi made sure to hold the gaping edges of the robe closed at her chest with one hand. The Captain had kicked off his boots to stand barefoot as he read something on a hand-held tablet. His eyes snapped up to look at her, his gaze moving leisurely from her damp hair and scrubbed face to the hand that nervously clutched the enveloping robe, and down to the small feet peeking out from under the robe. When his eyes finally met hers, he let her see the intense hunger in them for just a moment before the heavy lids slid down to hide his thoughts.

  “Are you hungry?” he asked huskily, in his deep, scratchy voice.

  “No, thank you. I ate earlier at Pik’s” she stammered out nervously.

  “Make yourself comfortable. I’ll take a quick shower.”

  Saakshi perched on the edge of the bed, her hand caressing the luxuriously soft piliken coverlet she sat on. The room was divided into various functional sections – someone professional had obviously had a hand at decorating it. There was a Work Section with a heavy table and chair that looked like they had been hand-carved from real tempe wood, a Conversation Section with a plush rug and some intimate seating around a low-slung oval-shaped table, and a Sustenance Section complete with Food Synthesizer, Recycler and dinner table with four chairs. The Rest Section was adjacent to the bathing enclosure, which she knew from experience was spacious with a sink, shower and toilet. The bed she sat on dominated the Rest Section. It was ginormous - easily five times the size of her narrow bed at the dormitory. Plush cushions lay piled high in a colorful jumble over the beautiful piliken coverlet.

  His profession must pay well, she mused, for the Hadari’Kor male certainly managed to live very well. Pik had been correct about her not being able to afford the Captain’s fees. Who knew being a merc could be this lucrative, Saakshi wondered. She’d always assumed that mercenaries led nomadic, peripatetic and hard-scrabble lives, fighting from war to war with little access to luxuries, much like the rebels in the Budheya resistance cell she’d been part of.

  It was time to pay the piper. He had kept his side of the bargain they’d made. Now, it was her turn. Saakshi took a couple of deep breaths to steady herself, his candid words regarding his expectations from her playing through her mind. Somewhat to Saakshi’s surprise, all fear of fulfilling her bargain with the Captain had paled after facing the Unta-Golar earlier tonight. She had come very close to the edge this evening. Or perhaps, it was the Hadari’Kor male himself, something in the way he carried himself and his demeanor towards her, that made Saakshi less anxious.

  She used the voice-activated controls to switch the room lighting to candlelight mode. The subdued lighting softened the room, subtly helping to relax her. The sound of footsteps directed her eyes to the bathing enclosure as the Hadari’Kor male stepped into the room. He was gorgeous, she realized in sudden awe as she stared at him. His black hair lay damp on his nape, and his big gray body gleamed with tiny droplets of moisture. A damp towel hung low over his hips as he stood with feet braced apart and one hand on the towel. He was built on a massive scale – broad at the shoulders with strong arms, tightly muscled all over with nary an ounce of fat on him. It was obvious that the Hadari’Kor male’s body had been honed to peak condition by the rigors of his profession and training. Saakshi found herself gazing at him with unconscious wonder. Unlike the Unta-Golar, whose thick body bulging with muscles repelled her, the Captain’s large body, characterized by power, strength and grace with its lean and smoothly muscled lines, pleased Saakshi.

  She noted that his torso was hairless, his body gloriously covered with colorful tattoos. Every inch of him had been adorned with beautiful works of art. The tattoos she’d occasionally glimpsed at his neck and the back of his palms paled in comparison to the intricate and elaborate designs that covered his chest, arms and what she could see of his legs.

  She walked over to stand before him on shaky legs.

  “You … your tattoos are gorgeous” she blurted out, her eyes tangling with his.

  A slow and very masculine smile lit up his eyes.

  “You like them?” he asked, noticeably pleased by her words.

  “Yes” she flushed, a deep blush surging up her face.

  “Did they hurt a lot?” she inquired hastily to cover up her embarrassment.

  “Not a lot” he responded, still with the smile in his voice.

  “I probably didn’t …. What I mean to say is …” she stopped to take a deep breath before trying again. “Thank you” she acknowledged softly. “For the Unta-Golar tonight.”

  “My pleasure” his voice was equally soft.

  There was a short silence until Saakshi resolutely took another deep breath.

  “I also want to thank you for accepting my offer.”

  “Offer?” he repeated quietly, the smile vanishing from his face.

  “What we talked about yesterday. You take care of the Unta-Golar and I ... umm” she stammered to a halt, deterred by a combination of embarrassment and the expression on his face. His jaw was clenched and his eyes looked furious. In the blink of an eye, he had gone from easygoing companion to furious inscrutable stranger.

  “Did I misunderstand?” she asked anxiously, unnerved by the sudden change in him.

  “No” he bit out, shaking his head. “There’s no misunderstanding. Come, your turn to keep to our unholy bargain.”

  He held out his hand to her, just like he had earlier in the evening after he had punished the Unta-Golar for hurting her. Saakshi placed her hand in his larger palm, her heart pounding so loudly that for a mad moment, she thought he would hear it. He led her over to the bed. Saakshi followed him on
leaden feet, turning to face him as the sweeping folds of her robe brushed against the large bed.

  “Let go” he directed softly, gesturing at the hand clenched nervously on the robe to protect her modesty.

  Saakshi glanced into the implacable eyes, forcing herself to slowly release her tight grip on the robe. He clasped the lapels, not ungently, to part them and the robe gaped open. The momentum caused the heavy robe to start to slide over her slim shoulders. She attempted to raise her arms, instinctively trying to hold the robe in place before it slid down her body. But Saakshi was only partly successful in her endeavor. The robe was heavy and its folds voluminous. It merely slowed its slide at her elbows, trapping her arms in its billowing folds. Saakshi struggled to free her arms, the weight of the robe pulling at her, spurred on by the knowledge that only the fastening at her hip prevented her from being completely bared to his gaze. Before her struggles could spiral into alarm, she was swept cleanly off her feet to be laid carefully on the bed.

  He placed one knee on the bed to reach for her, deftly extricating both of her arms from the folds of the robe that still clung valiantly to her. Before Saakshi could attempt to cover herself, he clasped her wrists to pin them over her head with one large hand. The act caused her supple body to arch up towards him. He leant down over her to brace his free arm on the bed by her shoulder. Her eyes flashed to him, alarm, surprise and anxiety roiling in her. The big body went still, his attention rapt on her, to the exclusion of everything else. Saakshi watched the molten hot eyes rake her body, caressingly slow. For that one moment in time, she felt time stop still. Through the stillness and the silence, amidst the faint shadows cast by the soft illumination, she could only hear their breaths mingle together. His deep breaths seemed to quicken subtly as Saakshi finally let go of the breath she’d been holding. The black eyes glittered fiercely in the soft light, the skin on his face stretched tight. Through the flutter of unease and anxiety at the pit of her stomach, Saakshi felt the slow burn of an unfamiliar excitement ripple through her at the naked hunger in his eyes as he stared down at her, her excitement tempered by wariness but, surprisingly, no fear. Her eyes wandered over the strong face and the thick black hair cropped ruthlessly short before venturing into less familiar territory. The wide chest moved deeply with his quickened breaths. Under Saakshi’s mesmerized eyes, the colorful tattoos on his chest rippled and shimmered with his ragged breathing and the dampness from his recent shower. The tiny beads of moisture danced like pinpricks of bright-colored jewels on his chest and shoulders, the muscles on his arms bunching with tension as he held himself still over her. An air of heavy anticipation now hung over the chamber, enveloping the silent girl and the rapt male on the bed in its haze. Saakshi, in her relative inexperience, ignored the heightened atmosphere, oblivious to the struggle that raged within the Hadari’Kor male. Instead, her enthralled eyes followed a fat droplet of water as it made its sluggish and meandering way down the length of his muscled chest. Each tilt of his breath seemed to make the droplet dance and shimmer on its way down. She watched raptly, unable to tear her eyes away, her breath hitching as the drop of water disappeared down his hard stomach into the towel slung around his hips. That little mini-catch of breath seemed to push him over the edge.

  He bent his head with exquisite slowness, the powerful shoulders bunching, almost as if drawn to her by a nameless and invisible thread he felt powerless to resist. Saakshi felt her heart lurch with that unholy mix of excitement, attraction, wariness and temptation that she was starting to become familiar with. This is what alarmed her about him, more than anything – the complicated and jumbled emotions that churned in her on the rare occasions she allowed her eyes to fleetingly brush against his at the alehouse. It struck Saakshi blindingly in that instant why it was that she tried so hard to steer clear of him at Pik’s, always conscious of him but striving with everything in her to focus on other tasks and customers. More and more, she had been failing in her attempts to ignore his presence, usually succumbing to temptation to sneak surreptitious glances at him.

  A damply abrasive tongue licked exploratively across her nipple, and Saakshi gasped in surprise, all thoughts driven from her mind. The tongue laved at her, tasting her with exquisitely careful strokes. She went rigid, the soft and wet abrasiveness on the sensitized skin holding her in place even as her body quivered. Then, his hot wet mouth was on her, suckling at her breast while his teeth grazed her sensitive skin delicately. This time, a shiver of pleasure shot through her. Saakshi arched her back mutely, unconsciously nudging herself deeper into his mouth. He glanced up from his ministrations to meet gray eyes dazed with pleasure and confusion. The dark eyes held her gaze for a moment before bending down to suckle on her, exploring her thoroughly with his mouth and tongue.

  Saakshi watched in a daze as he reared up slightly to gaze down at her. The light cast mysterious shadows on his face, but there was no hiding the glitter in the dark eyes. They burned with fire, his eyes on her as the powerful upper arms and shoulders flexed with the effort to keep his weight off her while his hard abs brushed against her. Saakshi gasped at the sensation, his skin searing into her as she felt the big body rub delicately against her. The feel of hot, hard, smooth and velvety skin gliding against her felt almost too much to bear. She moved restlessly under him, confusion, passion, shock and desire warring together in her. He swallowed convulsively, the strong muscles of his throat working silently as he gave up the fight, giving in to his own long simmering desires. His mouth swooped down to kiss the soft skin under her ear before trailing down her neck. In the grip of strong fever, Saakshi moved her head to the side, offering him her nape with a soft sigh. He lost no time in claiming his prize, his hot wet mouth leaving a searing trail down her neck and between her breasts, leaving Saakshi quivering again. He ignored her breasts to lick a damp path down her stomach and over the sensitive skin around her belly button until he reached the barrier of the robe. Letting go off her wrists, he sprang fluidly back on his knee to reach for the tie that held the robe to her. Despite the haze of passion that held her in thrall, Saakshi couldn’t prevent an anxious whimper as she felt his hands on the only cover that hid her lower body from his gaze. The hand on the tie stilled immediately, his eyes snapping to her. He shifted slightly to meet her eyes.

  “Don’t be afraid” he said throatily, his voice huskier than usual. The black eyes held a plea as they met her anxious ones. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  He waited patiently, his ragged breaths loud in the room, the dark eyes reassuring as he held her gaze until her eyes gradually lost a little of their anxiety. Through the fog of confusion, pleasure and shock, his gesture reminded Saakshi of the time he had waited patiently for her to make the decision after asking her to trust him to take her safely through the station’s exit sensors.

  “Alright?” he asked her softly, his big body held still as he waited for her answer.

  Saakshi found herself assenting mutely to his question. He moved slowly to undo the tie, slipping the voluminous robe off her cleanly, to drop it casually by the bed. This time, it was her eyes that followed him as he propelled himself gracefully to his feet. He gazed down at her for a moment, the dark eyes fiercely possessive as she lay vulnerable before him, her arms still stretched over her head although no longer held in place by him. He dropped the towel covering his lower body and Saakshi snapped her eyes quickly shut in response. She felt him nudge her thighs apart. When she dared to peer at him again from between her lashes, it was to see him on one knee between her legs, staring down at the curls between the juncture of her thighs. His eyes blazed, his face intent with passionate curiosity while his thumb drew little soothing circles on the upper thigh of her right leg. She caught a glimpse of glittering eyes before he swooped down to place a soft kiss on the brown curls before rocking back on his knee to seat himself comfortably on the bed between her splayed thighs. Saakshi gasped again, taken aback by the gesture. The thumb ceased its soothing motions as his hand s
hifted to encircle her right thigh, the pad of his palm sliding sensuously down her leg while the big calloused thumb caressed the smooth skin along its path. He tugged her leg gently up to encircle it just below her knee, at an angle off the bed. A soothing kiss to the sensitive area behind her knee after he nipped at it with his teeth elicited another soft gasp from her. Her arms moved to splay by her side, grasping handfuls of the piliken coverlet she lay on. His hand slid up the elevated leg until it encircled her ankle delicately. He placed a fleeting kiss on the sensitive skin at the sole of her foot, nuzzling into a dainty foot so much smaller than his.

  The dazed girl on the bed could only watch him, her initial alarm immeasurably soothed. Soon, he turned his attention away from her foot and back to the juncture of her thighs. His hand holding her leg off the bed by the ankle laid her completely open to him. Saakshi squirmed under the burning gaze, drawing his eyes back to her face.

  “Alright?” he asked scratchily, his breathing heavy.

  At her silent nod, his free hand gently clasped her other thigh to spread her intimately open to his avid gaze. He leaned in closer, so close that Saakshi could feel his breath on her sensitized skin. She shivered, her hands tightening on the coverlet. He closed the infinitesimal gap to place his lips on her in an intimate kiss. Saakshi gasped, almost coming off the bed as she felt him lap gently at the core of her femininity in a delicate and bold caress. He took it as an invitation to settle in between her spread thighs, his tongue exploring her thoroughly while she squirmed in his grasp, leveraging his clasp on her right ankle and left thigh to position her body to give him complete access to her feminine secrets. Saakshi shuddered uncontrollably on the bed, waves of pleasure rippling through her as he enjoyed her so intimately, her breath coming in rasps. The dark head between her splayed thighs did not glance up, so intent was he on exploring her with his mouth and tasting her on his tongue even as his large hands positioned her body open for his pleasure.