Still, my overall objective was to put this female into a willing frame of mind to breed her. It didn’t take the skills of an Archon to see that this method wasn’t achieving the desired result. I decided to use a different tactic.
The next time I smacked her ass, I followed up by tracing slow, sensuous circles on her hot skin with my fingers. Her curse ended mid-stream.
“You son of a…aaah!”
I smacked her again. Not hard, but firmly. “Say ‘I’m sorry I was rude to you, Master.’” This time, before she could respond, I slid a finger between the taut cheeks of her ass. The cybellus was still working because she instinctively opened her legs.
I ran my finger over the seasprite pink folds between her legs and it came away wet with the slick juices of her arousal. Interesting. I’d been so focused on listening to her shrill curses that I hadn’t opened myself to sensing her body’s reaction to the punishment. It seemed Dylos was right. Though they fought against it, these Terran females became aroused by a spanking.
I nudged her legs farther apart. Running my palm up the insides of her thighs, I coated it with a film of the cybellus I’d spread there then delivered another smack to her ass. I knew the substance would intensify the sensuousness of the spanking, turning it from a burning ache on the backside into a spicy sting that would send a blast of heat rocketing straight to her core. A blast of heat I stoked by working one finger between the slick folds and up into her pussy.
Gods, she was hot! Hot and tight. She wiggled her ass, and I slid it in farther. “Say ‘I’m sorry I was rude to you, Master.’”
Her response was a tiny wordless cry. I pulled my finger out, spanked her again then slid it back in. Deeper.
“Oh yeah, give it to me,” she breathed, rocking her hips up to take it in.
I smacked her ass, harder this time. “Rule number two. Do not tell me what to do.”
Instead of cursing at me, she whimpered. I counted it as a victory and gave her a little taste of what she could have. Stroking her slick folds then easing my finger in again, pumping in and out a few times. Teasing. Tempting.
She was panting when I stopped.
“Say it.”
She ground her hips against my hand. Desperate. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled, sounding anything but.
I spanked her again. A volley of hard swats this time. She let out a shriek.
“Do it properly this time. And call me Master.”
“I’m sorry I was ru…rude to you, Master.” She was shaking all over. Her voice broke, but she managed to get the words out before dissolving into tears.
I’d stayed out of her mind the entire time, afraid that if I employed my skills as an empath, I might not deliver her punishment with the stern demeanor it needed to be effective. But her distress moved me. I ran my palm over her back, soothing her with my touch. Then I took a cleansing breath, closed my eyes, and opened to her.
Wham! Thoughts, feelings, images swirled through me like a whirlwind. All jumbled together. I needn’t have worried about my ability to connect with the alien. Apparently, her species had never encountered an Archon so, unlike the people of my race, she hadn’t learned to erect any barriers to my abilities. Her mind, her senses, her emotions—all were laid bare.
I understood so much in an instant. The veneer of toughness she wore like a shield guarded a fragile heart. From the time she was a child, she’d learned to act strong because she’d never had anyone to protect her. Calling someone Master went against everything she’d fought so hard for. It threatened her carefully crafted self-image, her belief that she could stand up to anyone without crumbling into pieces.
Disgusted with myself, I waved a hand and disengaged The Controller. Then I lay down next to her and gathered her trembling body in my arms. If this was the way an Archon acted, maybe it was for the best that I’d be the last of my kind. I’d been so caught up with my own feelings—anxiety over my ability to perform with a female after going for so long without one, needing to establish my dominance over an unfamiliar species—that I’d failed at my primary task. Acknowledging the universal rights of another sentient being, whether Arythian or alien. The right to be treated with dignity and respect, the right to feel and express honest emotions. The right to be accepted as an equal by all other sentient beings.
“Sssh… It’s all right. Don’t cry, little human.” I stroked her hair. “I’m the one who owes you an apology. I acted like a tarazza.”
I wasn’t sure she even heard me. Gradually her sobs died away, and I felt her putting the shields back up that she’d always used for protection. Her body tensed, pulling away a fraction, no longer relaxed under my touch.
“What’s a tarazza?”
It was the last thing I expected to hear. I tilted her head up and met her eyes. “It’s a wild creature from my world that goes into a frenzy when its mating time nears. A tarazza can’t be caged because it mows down any barrier between it and a potential mate. Not caring whether any creature is injured along the way—including itself or the potential mate.”
“Kind of like somebody with his head shoved up his ass,” she replied.
This time the image I picked up was so vivid—and so appropriate—I burst out laughing. “Exactly like that. Now that I’ve taken my head out of my ass, will you forgive me for the way I’ve treated you?”
She stared at me, wide-eyed. “No one ever asked me to forgive them before.”
The depth of pain behind those words took my breath away. On the surface, the little human seemed so self-assured, but she hadn’t been treated with much kindness or gentleness in her life.
If I was serious about treating her with respect, I couldn’t keep calling her “little human,” not even in my mind. I needed to make amends properly. “What is your name?”
“Aja. My name is Aja.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Aja,” I replied solemnly. “My name is Vyraz.”
I let go of her then. Slipped out of bed and got down on my knees. “Well, Aja, I’ll be your first.”
She swiped a hand over her eyes and sat up. My vision come to life, in my bed. A goddess with silky smooth skin as black as the rare crystals treasured by our people. My cockheads swelled at the sight of those shocking-pink nipples and her lush full breasts, straining against the fabric of my trousers. I’ll be your first, all right. And I’ll be your second. And your third. And your…
“Shut up, you guys,” I muttered under my breath. “This is important.”
“What did you say?”
“I said it’s important to me that I be the first one in your life to do this.” I took her hand. Bowed my head.
“I, Vyraz of Arythia, am deeply sorry for the way I’ve treated you, Aja. I haven’t shown you the honor or respect befitting another sentient being. I am ashamed of myself, and I apologize for my behavior. I promise I will do better in the future. Will you forgive me?”
Chapter Six
Aja
My skin burned and itched, my craving for anything to battle the salve making it hard to think. Hard to keep to the plan. Give in, build confidence, and run away as soon as possible. But the goal kept melting away like that gray stuff did on my skin, leaving only a raging desire. What the hell? If Ravensworth ever got his hands on this, he’d be even more dangerous than he already was.
And if that wasn’t enough to deal with, I was facing the mind-blowing sight of my “Master,” down on his knees, begging my forgiveness and speaking to me in a way no man, including my father, ever had. “Please stop.” Because I had no idea where to go with this. I’d run right down the rabbit hole, and I didn’t think I wanted out.
“I cannot unless you forgive me.” He spoke into my hand, the one he held in his. “I’ve never treated anyone, male or female, in such a shameful manner. And the future mother of my children deserves better.”
The future… “So let me get this straight.” It wasn’t easy to push past the sensual fog of the cybellus, as I thought he’d called it,
but I had to. “You’re apologizing, saying you behaved badly, but you’re still planning to do me?”
“Do you?” He lifted his face, puzzlement in his eyes.
“Fuck me. So you’re sorry but you’re going to breed me anyway, right? Impregnate me?”
“Yes.” His voice held sorrow. “I must do my part to restore our race; all our females were wiped out by the Rydek, also all our children and everyone else on the face of my world. Only the men in these few remaining ships were off-planet at the time and none of the women. We’d thought maybe one survived…but it seems we were wrong. So, although I had been prepared to spend my remaining days in restoring the precious historical scrolls of our world, scrolls also destroyed by the enemy, Captain Mantsk has assigned me to sire children on your body.”
I was nearly speechless. “But if you’re sorry, how can you coerce me? Force me to have sex with you and have children I might not even want.”
He blinked at me. “You don’t want young? You don’t like them?” He was so appalled, it poured over me like a scent. Acrid and hot.
“Well…no. I don’t have anything against them. But I’m an only child myself, and my mother was gone when I was so little I don’t remember her.” Why was I explaining myself to him like this?
“So, do you want young?”
I honestly didn’t have a good answer, but I tried. I couldn’t stand that he was looking at me like I had two heads and both of them were spewing insanity. Which sort of fit the mode of this conversation, but somehow I couldn’t stand that he thought less of me. “I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it.”
He stood, crossed the room and came back with a stool, which he placed in front of me then sat on. Every time the conversation lapsed, the cybellus kicked in again, so by the time he was sitting in front of me, obviously ready to listen, I was squirming.
“Can’t you just do it first, then we can talk? I can’t stand this…this much longer.”
He rested a hand on my knee, and flames lit in my already burning core. I’d never felt a lick of desire for any of those men my father paraded past me. Was it just the paste, or was there something more? Despite his unusual coloring, he was handsome, and even though he did appear older than me, probably by quite a bit, he didn’t repel me like the others, my suitors, had. “Aja, tell me the truth. I must get young on you, I have been ordered, but if you don’t like them, if you don’t find it in you to be maternal, we can make other arrangements for their raising. It’s never been done that I know of on Arythios, but I accept that Earth females may be different.
“You are the first one I’ve ever known.”
With every word, my outrage grew, until I slapped his hand off me and leapt to my feet, pacing back and forth across the cabin. I spluttered and fumed, almost but not quite forgetting my nudity, until I came to rest in front of him. “Listen to me, Master, and listen well. You may be the boss of your females, women, wives, whatever, where you come from, and I am at your mercy here on this ship, but hell will freeze over before one of those other womansicles is thawed out to raise my child. How do I know how they would take care of it? They might forget to feed it or lose it on this ship somewhere.”
“Solport.”
“What?”
He grasped my hand, stopping me as I started to pace again. “This is technically our solport. It is larger than the other vessels and, if we had no choice, we could live on it for generations. It can produce most resources, including energy, plant matter, and textiles, as well as atmosphere and water indefinitely.”
I was panting. Between anger, lust, and feeling completely out of control, I was two seconds from throwing myself on the floor and having a toddler-worthy tantrum. “Okay, then no bitch on this solport is going to take over raising my—”
“Our,” he cut in in that same calm tone.
“Oh my god. But okay. No bitch on this solport is taking over raising our child. Did I say it right, Master?” I seethed.
“All right. We’ll rear the children together. I’m glad we got that settled.” He gave a tug, and I fell into his lap, straddling his big, muscular thighs.. “But I think you’ll need lessons in pleasure before we actually get the baby started. Let’s begin now.”
I parted my lips to protest, but that damn salve was still working, and the heat of his body, even through his suit, burned into my skin. His lips descended, caressing, cajoling, and taking full advantage of the opening to slip his tongue into my mouth and explore. I clung to his arms, my bottom against his substantial bulge, and learned how to kiss.
I still twitched, anxious for more, but his hands caressed my body, touching me as if I were precious to him rather than booty. In my sheltered existence, I’d never experienced anything like it. My father was not one to show affection and, since I was his prized possession, he’d certainly not let anyone else touch me. I might have been devalued. Gotten fingerprints.
I pushed these thoughts aside, drinking in the contact, hungry for physical attention in a way I’d never realized could even happen. He caressed my arms, down to my fingers then back up to my shoulders. “Your skin is so soft,” he murmured, lips leaving mine, palm flat on my upper chest. “Does it never change color, beauty?”
“What?” I opened my eyes, which had at some point drifted closed. “Change?”
He held his hand in front of my face. Instead of gray, it was a dark lavender. “Like us. It shows our moods, our emotions, our health.”
“And what does this color mean?”
“It means I am showing every bit of restraint in my arsenal to take you slowly into pleasure. We were given to understand that most women on your planet were initiated early, had many sexual partners. By your age, at least six or seven, maybe quite a few more.”
Now I gaped. “Is this what is said about the galaxy? That Earth women are sluts?”
“No. Just that they have freedom. To do with their bodies what they will.” As he spoke, he toyed with my breast, rubbing his thumb over the nipple in a slow maddening circle. He switched to the other one.
“Oh.” I thought a moment. “But if that is what is said of us, why would you feel that you could steal that autonomy?”
He left off his caress and tipped my chin up to meet my gaze. “We have no other option. Your government made the choice to send you to us, but we accepted because without you we have no future.”
His eyes held endless pain, and I wanted to fix it. From the depths of my soul, I wanted to make him stop hurting. And my ultimate treachery, the fact I planned to make a run for it as soon as possible, would make it so much worse. Because I planned to give him my virginity, to take that value away from my father or anyone wherever I landed in the galaxy, I might very well be pregnant when I left.
I’d be stealing his child.
No, I wouldn’t. I’d be taking back my life.
He continued to search my gaze, as if he could see my thoughts. Did he know I’d run? Did he know I’d jump ship onto any passing freighter or fighter? But wouldn’t that be jumping from the frying pan into the fire? I might be in a much worse situation than lying cradled on the lap of an alien with a tender heart and a body worthy of a magazine cover. It could be worse.
But I never wanted someone else to control me again. Not even the man who’d gone back to stroking my breast with feather touches that stole my breath.
Not even him.
Chapter Seven
Vyraz
She was planning to leave.
Even as I stroked her breasts, seduced her with the softest of kisses, one part of her mind had disengaged. Vowing never to be controlled by a male again. Plotting her escape.
The little fool. Didn’t she realize that stowing away on a passing transport ship would be far more dangerous than staying with me? She wouldn’t be running away to freedom. When they found her, they’d head for the nearest outpost and sell her as a slave to the highest bidder. Or they’d keep her, passing her from one crew member to another until they tired
of her or wore her body out then leave her to spend her last months as the lowest kind of sex slave. We frequented the Pleasure Domes, where the sex workers were there by choice. Not true of where she’d be sold. There were far worse treatments than cybellus, drugs that could turn a female into a mindless cum slut, willing to do anything for her next fuck.
My mind filled with images of my ebony goddess being gang raped by reptilian space pirates. Rocked by a totally unaccustomed blast of rage, I let out a menacing growl. A sound I’d never made before.
“Oooh!”
“Gods, I’m sorry.” Lost in the fog of lust-driven anger, I’d gone from gently stroking her breast to squeezing it. Hard.
I relaxed my fingers, seeing the prints left behind.
“Don’t be sorry,” she said. “I like it when you do that.”
Hmmm. Interesting response. “Do you?” I cupped her breast again, rolling her nipple between my finger and thumb. Then I pinched it until the tip drew up into a tight peak. She gasped. “Do you like that, too?”
“Yes,” she breathed.
I bent my head, fastened my lips around her nipple, and drew the hard nub into my mouth. Sucking then flicking my tongue across it before nipping it with my teeth. She moaned, squirming on my lap. My cockheads writhed, desperate to delve into her sweet heat.
I ignored them and did a quick scan of her mind. There were no more thoughts in it of how to deal with the problem of unwanted children. Or of how to escape. Her desperate need for gratification had driven them away.
Instead, I saw a parade of wild images, naughty sexual fantasies I would be more than happy to bring to life. She may have been a virgin, but in her imagination she had a wickedly erotic sex life. And despite her claim that she didn’t want anyone to control her, all the scenes flashing through her mind were scenes of her being dominated. By a faceless male figure.
I could have inserted myself into the scenes right then. Slipped into her head and replaced the faceless male with a seven foot tall alien whose skin had a lavender hue. But my pride would not allow it. In time, I’d become the star of all her fantasies, and she’d have no desire to escape. But I’d do it through my skills as a lover, not with some mystical Archon illusion implanted in her head. I vowed if I wasn’t man enough to seduce a virgin with a very naughty imagination, I’d help her run away myself.
Conquered Page 4
