Not waiting for his response, Dev ran back to the stern, he didn’t slow down, ran right up, hopped on the railing and dove.
His strong strokes cleaved through the rough waters, keeping his head up he scoured the river for Sveti. When he didn’t see her, he feared she’d gone under. The boat hadn’t been going very fast when she’d jumped, and they were too far from land for her to get to it that quickly, she couldn’t be that far away.
With every stroke he scanned the water, panic rising up his throat threatening to strangle him, then- “Fuck- there-” panting, he saw her head bobbing.
Her arms were flailing, thrashing the water, she wasn’t swimming, she was struggling to keep her head above the water but the rapids crashed over her, throwing water down her throat and pulling her under.
Dev stroked flat out with everything he had over the rushing waves. He raced to her, arms spinning like mad windmills, legs kicking so fast they were invisible but threw out a raging surf behind him like a charging motorboat.
In moments he reached her. He grabbed her hair to hold her from being torn from him by the hurtling water then drew her head up and back to keep her mouth clear of the river. She couldn’t see him, she flailed in panicked terror.
“I’ve got you, Svetiessa,” he said quietly near her ear, but loud enough to hear over the roar of the water. He slid his arm over the front of her. “Don’t move, don’t struggle, you’ll make it harder for me to swim. Just stay limp, honey, can you do that for me?”
Sputtering, she nodded, her teeth chattered. He tightened his hold on her and started to swim for shore. He could see the boat kept moving with the momentum of the river’s current.
It would be some time before Bowie could find a wider stretch to turn it around and come back to look for them. There were too many sharp ground swells to drive backwards.
When his feet touched ground, Dev lifted her into his arms and tramped onto shore.
He strode across the hard packed sand up to a slight bank and set her down to lean back against the firm slope.
She sputtered and coughed, heaved and wiped frantically at her eyes, then her head fell back as she tried to control the sheer panic from the near drowning that gripped her, stealing her breath.
Dev sat back on his haunches, his big chest rising and falling with his heavy panting. Swiping his soaking hair out of the front of his face, the band that held it was long gone. He pushed the heavy locks back, waiting for Sveti to catch her breath and her coughing to ease.
In a minute, she lay quieter. Water clinging to her lashes, she raised dazed eyes to Dev, her damp lips parted as her chest rose and fell shaky but more lightly. She had that same sultry look from when they were dancing; it spun right to his groin.
Without thinking, he leaned to her, set a hand against the sand wall beside her head, cupped the side of her face with his other hand and suddenly thrust his mouth roughly over her parted lips.
Instantly her body started, she put her palms on his chest to push him away. His barbarous kiss struck hard and hungry and fierce, torching their mouths. He pushed her lips wide and forced his tongue inside to sweep her mouth, lick her teeth, he went after her tongue.
He had been compelled to kiss her again since the day on the flashjet. The flavor of her ignited his taste buds, sending spinning shock waves to his head and his groin; it was even more damned transcendent than he had remembered. He felt her hands repelling him, he ignored her resistance.
Flames sparking around them, Dev thought he had imagined how exquisitely she tasted, like velveteen roses, how soft her lips, he could feel her innocence in the kiss and was insanely stirred by it. The essence of her natural floral scent barraged his senses. His mind went blank filling with only intense physical desire and scalding heat, there wasn’t a thought in his head except he wanted more. More of her mouth, more of her body, more of her.
Sveti’s hands pressing against his chest slowly curled into fists as she gripped his shirt, and now responded to his kiss. His head slanted sealing their mouths as he plundered her, tangling then sucking her tongue. At her response, his horns swelled, claws emerged, his fangs descended.
He kept his eyes closed knowing they were turning fierce white and would only frighten her. When her fingers stroked around his neck and she pulled him closer, tighter, her virginal tongue trying to match his potent fury, his body burned, cock hardened and swelled along with his horns.
Suddenly, without separating their mouths, Dev pushed his hands under her and lifted her, moving to lay her down flat. Forcing his claws to stay sheathed, he relentlessly ravished her with his torrid mouth.
He’d only needed a flicker of response from her, it was enough for him to take her.
At her soft whimper, he dragged his palms roughly down over her breasts and kept going to violently tear at the buttons on her jeans. Jerking them apart, he reached for his own belt and yanked at it, shoved his tongue down her throat briefly then growled against her lips, “Svetiessa, you don’t need to consider commitment.”
Shocked, she froze. Pushing at him, she cried, “Get off of me!”
When he leaned back in surprise, she wriggled out from under him and scrambled to her feet. Staggering at first to gather her equilibrium she then stormed off securing her jeans.
Stunned, he called out after her, “Svetiessa? Come back here, what’s wrong?”
Buckling his belt, Dev climbed to his feet and dusted the sand off his pants. His body was on fire and the anger that was now descending on him fueled that fire.
He had to wait for his body to cool, return to normal or he would literally kill the first person that neared him.
His mind disoriented and confused, he tried to ascertain what happened. “Ah,” he thought out loud, “she doesn’t want a goddamned commitment and freaked when I said I wanted it.”
Shaking his head, he shoved hunks of wet hair back, and ground out, “I would never share her with others.” His hands crunched into fists, eyes burned white heat, it enraged him that she would not want to be exclusive with him. That she would desire to be with other men.
He had never cared before if the women he spent time with hopped from man to man, but Svetiessa, Dev shook his head again. He could not bear to picture her with another man’s hands on her, much less between her thighs fucking- a shudder of rage rippled through his pulsating body.
Fire shot up around him. “What the fuck?” he cursed. “Damned humans, women, who can figure the bitches out?” He stomped along the shore following her footprints.
Shunting the guilt of being on the precipice of taking Sveti in her innocence on the shore out in the open, they had been exposed to natives and animals, it was dangerous, Dev had been out of his mind with rampaging desire for her.
If he hadn’t been so shocked and stopped at her sudden departure, he would have taken her, he had been too savagely out of control, too wildly turned on to stop, even if she’d said to. And undoubtedly, in the next few seconds, when she realized how far he was going, she would have tried to resist him. It would have had no effect on him, he was too far gone. Her resistance would have been futile.
Trudging over the packed sand, less than a quarter of a mile he saw the boat anchored near shore. Tomi and Connar had set out a small float boat to the shore to collect Sveti and were already bringing her back on board.
Tomi brought the floater back out for him. Tomi’s big-toothed grin disappeared when he saw the black wrath marring Dev’s already hard face.
“Hey, bro, what hap-” he broke off at the murderous heat in Dev’s still white eyes, flames discharging in an arc spiraled his rigid body. They didn’t speak as they made it back on board the boat, and dragged the floater up on the plastic deck.
The boat traveled for a few miles before heading back to shore. Lukas lowered the anchor, and Bowie maneuvered the ship to a small dock.
After throwing down anchor, and the boat shut down and secured, everyone disembarked.
Tomi addressed the peopl
e, “We have a day of hiking before we reach the starship pickup location.” At the groans and moans he glanced over at Bowie’s grin, and shot him the finger.
Once everyone exited the craft, the civilians collected into loose groups and waited while the warriors and crew gathered up the supply packs.
Half dry, Sveti was standing with Tomi when Dev strode up behind her. She didn’t turn around until she felt her hair lifted and the cold metal clamp around her neck.
Whipping her head around with a gasp, her hands went to the clamp secured around her neck. “What is-”
Holding the end of a chain connected to the clamp in his hand, his voice chilled, Dev said, “I warned you not to try to escape.” His face hard, dark eyes inscrutable he watched scarlet shame climb up her neck and into her cheeks.
The flicker of his lashes warned Tomi against saying anything. The big black man shut his mouth, clenched his teeth, yet he still shot Dev an angry look. Dev had found the clamp and chain in the cabin storage unit.
“Sire, please, don’t do this to me,” her low whisper filled with humiliation was so hushed only Dev and Tomi could hear her. Everyone gawked at her.
“You lied to me, you said you wouldn’t jump because you couldn’t swim.” The intractable gaze and tone brooked no discussion.
Her fingers clutched at the clamp, she said, “I didn’t say I wouldn’t jump, I just said I was a poor swimmer, which you saw was true. Please…”
Keeping his head raised, his lids tapered as he peered down at her, he declared, “You said it deliberately to trick me. It is the second time you used devious methods to trick me. That is two times too many.”
“But I didn’t-”
Dev put his hand around her neck over the clamp and snarled, “Enough. You are not to be trusted, you lie and deceive.” His coarse voice dropped low, “And, you stupid bitch, you would have drowned with your foolish actions.”
Then he snatched her arm up and slapped a clean bandage with ointment on it over the bite, replacing the bandage that had swept away in the river.
“I told you there would be consequences if you tried to escape and I caught you.” His fingers curled around her throat under her jaw. Lifting her chin so she had to look at him, he brought his head low and spoke roughly, “I will always catch you. Remember that.” Damp ebony strands of hair clung to the side of his infuriated face.
The threat clear in his black glare, Sveti only blinked back at him without response. Releasing her, Dev called out to Lukas, “Let’s go, get them moving.”
He kept to the back of the line with Sveti beside him. He didn’t hold the end of the chain, it was enough that it was there. The links lined down her spine, shimmering with her steps.
Keeping his steps even with hers, Dev could hear her sniffing back mortified tears. His anger and resentment at her rejecting him suppressed his guilt about chaining her.
When they stopped for a break he told her to sit against a thicket of trees with Tomi and Connar. His two friends glowering at him for his treatment of Sveti, welcomed her with warm compassion as she knelt gracefully to sit with them.
Dev went off to the side to smoke a cigar. Bowie stalked over to him lacking his normal mischievous expression. Dev unemotionally observed his friend under low lids through a haze of smoke.
“Craw, Dev,” Bowie chastised him, “you can’t chain that girl like she’s a dog. The others already treat her like shit because of Rianna. You are humiliating her beyond belief. Bloody Zues, má bráthair, she’s a damned princess for cripe’s sake. She deserves better than that.”
Taking a long drag, Dev held it then blew the smoke out slowly. “I warned her, told her there would be repercussions if she attempted to escape, and she tried anyway. And almost died.”
His lids lowered callously further at Bowie as he opened his mouth, he said curtly, “Done talking about it.”
Lips firmed in a mutinous grit, Bowie knew when to stop. Shooting a pissed glare at his friend, he snapped under his breath, “She did nothing neither you nor the rest of us wouldn’t have done, except we would have slaughtered everyone here, and then fled.” He stalked from him to join Sveti and his friends.
Bowie plopped down on the ground and smiled cheerfully at her. “Hey Sveti, nice necklace. Expensive?”
Her sad smile wry, she said, “Quite.”
“Yeah,” he murmured, his smile dropped. “I’m sorry. He’s my best friend but he can be a ruthless cruel brute.”
The corner of her lip lifted drily. “That is an understatement.” The men laughed.
She asked Bowie, “Are the females on his planet like him? Do they have horns and his powerful strength?” She shivered thinking about them. “And claws and fangs?”
Shaking his head, Bowie replied, “Nay.”
He explained, “The males are holandric. Those uh, characteristics are inherited exclusively through the male descent. DNA is transmitted through genes located only on the Y chromosome. Of course his kind have a few more chromosomes than most folks.”
He stuck his legs out straight and leaned back on his palms. With a chuckle he said, “Could you imagine a female Dev?” He shuddered and made a face with his tongue out. “Yikes.”
Tomi and Connar laughed. “Thanks for the picture,” Connar remarked, making the same eew face. Sliding a few fingers under the back of his wavy chestnut hair, lifting it out of his collar, he said, “She’d always want to be on top.” The men snickered.
When not shooting arrows of hostility at Sveti and amusement at her humiliation, the females in the group stared with unabashed invitation at the warriors. When they were ignored, the women nudged each other snickering while making fun of the chain around Sveti’s neck.
Rianna called out, “How the mighty fall, huh? Not so princessy now, are ya bitch? Chained like the bitch dog prisoner that you are. Should have been restrained that way from the very start. Criminals like you need to be kept away from good folks like us.”
Shaking his head at their malice, Bowie looked away from the women to his friends. “Aye,” he chuckled. “Picture a tall, huge, heavily muscle-bound female with the harshest bad-assed face you’ve ever seen, baring her fangs at you while she wraps her claws around your dick.”
Turning his back to the brazen, sniping women, Tomi sniggered, “With cyclonic white eyes turning to the purest night black, war braids draping over you, ick.” He shivered with a grin.
“Making love to a female version of Dev with his propensity for ruthless violence would be like mating with a killer shark. Her fierce pussy would clamp down and cut off your dick. I don’t think so.” They all laughed again.
Lukas snickered adding, “Aye, and Connar, she would chow down on all of those other girls you have at every station and planet to eliminate her competition.”
They roared with laughter, then laughed harder at the scowl Dev sent their way.
Chapter Thirteen
After the break, before they prepared to start walking again.
Dev went over and stood in front of Sveti where she was sitting on the ground.
The lieutenants took the hint and got to their feet and rambled off to start the lineup.
Dev crouched and set his forearms on his knees; clasped his hands. “I am going to remove the chain, Svetiessa, do not do anything that will cause me to put it back on.”
Her crystal blues stared unwavering at him. Keeping her back regally straight, she swallowed the humiliation and hurt. Hugging her knees she sat unmoving.
He waited for a response, thinking she would say something like, “Oh, thank you, I swear I’ll never run from you again,” or, “Devilos, I am so sorry I ran from you and almost killed myself, and then spurned you.” But no. She had the nerve to glare angrily at him like he was the one in the wrong.
His brow furrowed in irritation. However, he also felt a pinch of admiration at her stubbornness. Like Bowie had said, if it had been any of them, they would have already tried to escape a dozen times.
But they were seasoned male warriors, not a young, petite female human. One who was still recovering her strength and health from her almost fatal ordeal.
And worse, she had tried to run on a dangerous planet with no way off. A deep sigh strummed from his heavy chest, it was also Bowie who had said the girl needed a strong keeper.
Her rejection pricked his ego. He didn’t recall ever being rejected before, and he was pretty sure it wouldn’t have bothered him in the least if he had. He would have just moved on to the next female, one was pretty much the same as the other.
But, Sveti, he had been so focused on her eyes; sultry fire burning in the innocent blue depths, mesmerized by the plush lips parted in confusion, every part of her was a siren’s song straight to his manhood.
Dev shook his head acknowledging his guilt. So crazed with senseless lust for her, regardless of her objections, he would have pushed her on her back, yanked those jeans and panties off, spread those soft slender thighs, and slammed deep inside her. Again and again, and again.
He had been shocked at her refusing a commitment with him, if she hadn’t startled him and jumped up and stormed off so quickly he would not have let her go.
Ignoring her protests, her struggles, he would have pressed…forced…himself on her, claiming her. He wasn’t raised in, nor did he live in a gentlemen’s world, he took what he wanted, and he wanted her.
He could admit to himself now that if she hadn’t faded away that very first day on the ship he would have kept her there, heedless of her wishes, or her sick brother’s commands for her return.
Her gaze remained level at him, but weariness rippled from her humiliated eyes down her still too thin body.
His eyes narrowed at her frailty, she still hadn’t fully healed or gained weight from the nightmare she had suffered on her little brother’s behalf.
An image suddenly flooded his mind, of Sveti in the dank dark dungeon hanging by her skinny wrists, dress torn to shreds, that bastard guard lifting her skirt to assault her, Dev’s fear she may already be dead.
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