Enslaved by a Rebel [Sold! 2] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove)

by Anitra Lynn McLeod

  Using the magnifier on his helmet’s eyepiece, he zoomed in on one of Jarrett’s feet. They were far too thin to stand up to any major distance. He would need shoes. A careful consideration of the inventory on his suit told him he had nothing that would suffice. Ranic berated himself for not thinking of this potential issue, but that was not going to help matters in the slightest.

  All the aliens in the lowest level of the building seemed to be staring at him and his new slave. Perhaps some thought he was mechanical, like a robot, and they wondered why such a thing needed a human. Or maybe they thought he would become enraged and level the building. Now that his blaster was functional again, he could do some pretty serious damage if he wanted to annihilate himself in the process. To outsiders, a Finoc in trooper gear looked like an enormous silver monster straight out of a nightmare. None had ever seen what they looked like underneath their suits. And none ever would. It was the Finoc way to reveal themselves only around their own kind, so technically Ranic would be violating two sacred laws. However, breaking laws only mattered if he got caught.

  To his surprise, his little mental side trip gave him the answer he sought. Since he had no shoes to give his slave, then Ranic had no choice but to pick him up and carry him.

  Chapter 3

  Jarrett was taken from the stage, through the curtain at the back, and unceremoniously dumped out into a long hallway. Invisible hands picked him up, attached a leash to his collar, and then yanked him toward the far end. He couldn’t help but get the impression they weren’t happy with him or his performance on stage. Eventually, the hall opened out into a massive foyer. For the first time since this crazy ordeal started, Jarrett was fully aware that he was naked and totally uncomfortable being so exposed.

  There were all kinds of bizarre creatures milling around. Jarrett wasn’t sure what was going on. He didn’t think he’d been sold to a devil, but maybe to some kind of similar creature. Aliens? They certainly weren’t human. Even at the most extravagant sci-fi convention he’d never seen costumes this elaborate. They were simply too good to be fakes. Some of them even had three eyes that blinked in sync.

  And then his gaze landed on the most startling alien of all. Crafted of gleaming metal and standing at least ten feet tall was the knight in shining armor of his dreams. But he wasn’t a man. Possibly he was a machine. But he was definitely beautiful. Into his hand went the other end of Jarrett’s leash, so now he knew that whatever this stunning creature was, he was his new owner.

  His eyes, or what passed for his eyes, were two blue lasers behind a shield of black. His shoulders spanned four—possibly five—feet. All over his suit were small plastic shields for what appeared to be lights. As he stood there staring, he lost focus on anything but his metallic man. Baffled, he watched as part of his leg opened up and a golden sheet was removed. When he handed it to him, Jarrett realized he was trying to help him cover up. Relieved, he unfolded the blanket and realized it was very thin material that had to be enormous when it was fully unfurled. Keeping most of it folded, he placed it over his shoulders and then stood very quietly staring up at his owner.

  There was a long hesitation, and Jarrett didn’t know if he should say something or not, but then it didn’t matter because his beautiful beast was picking him up and cradling him in his powerful arms. After all this time, to find out his crazy dream of finding a knight in shining armor had come true was nothing short of amazing.

  Turning into his embrace to avoid the cold, Jarrett was shocked at how unforgiving the feel of his savior’s metal was. He wasn’t sure what he expected, but this wasn’t romantic at all. Frankly, it was like being cradled by a refrigerator.

  “Where are you taking me?”

  There was no answer, and Jarrett wondered if they would be able to communicate. Maybe he’d have to learn that computer language that was all zeros and ones. Since he had nothing else to do, he looked around, staggered by the height of the buildings they were moving past. Some were so tall that he couldn’t see the tops. The street they traveled on was really an extremely wide sidewalk to handle an insane amount of foot traffic. Dozens of strange and curious aliens moved past them. In the center of the street there was a train-like conveyance, but Jarrett had a feeling it was for people to get out of the city in a hurry. Apparently, his new owner didn’t want or need the luxury of such transport.

  His metal man walked for a long time. Eventually, the tall buildings fell away, and then they were underground in a long hallway not unlike the one the invisible hands had drawn him through. After some wrangling through what appeared to be a security checkpoint, they were eventually inside what could only be a spaceship. But it wasn’t the spaceship of television shows with rows of gleaming lights and a stout, interracial crew. This was a rust bucket. The floors were filthy with carpet so rundown the center strip was completely gone, showing the metal floor below. Each step his gleaming knight took reverberated through the hull. The walls were bare metal that was nothing short of disgusting. There were smudges, gouges, globs of all kinds of curious items, none of which looked like anything Jarrett recognized.

  He’d been stolen away from a Caribbean cruise for this? Either he had the most screwed-up dreams in the universe, or he’d been bought by a low-budget starman with barely two dimes to rub together. Eventually, his metal man got him where he wanted him, and he lowered Jarrett to his feet. Whatever he was standing on stuck to the bottoms of his feet, and he cringed as he wrapped the golden blanket tightly around him. From what he could see, it was the only clean thing in the entire ship next to his gleaming knight.

  “Why in the hell did you bring me to his shit heap?” Jarrett saw no reason not to let his new owner know he was displeased. Sucking up was for losers who didn’t know how to fight, which Jarrett did. If this was going to be his new home, his master was going to be thoroughly displeased that Jarrett wasn’t going to clean it up.

  Rather than answer, he turned away, walked out the door, then closed it behind him.

  Panicked, Jarrett moved as swiftly to the door as he could without stepping on anything. When he reached it he pounded with his fist. “Where the hell are you taking me?”

  He had a terrible gut feeling that the metal man had only been the messenger. He was hired to buy Jarrett to bring him to another. Oh, God. If whatever bought him couldn’t even afford decent transport, that didn’t bode well for Jarrett having a life of luxury. In his fantasies of his knight, he was always whisked away to a formidable castle high on a cloud-shrouded mountain where any and all of his creature comforts were indulged. No one in their right mind fantasied about being abducted by a guy who lived in a garbage can. Not unless they had a totally unhealthy fascination for Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street.

  Realizing that he wasn’t going to be let out for a while, Jarrett turned and assessed the room. No windows and only the one door made the area seem very small. His fear of enclosed spaces tried to take control of his sanity, but he pushed it away. If he could scuba dive, he could survive in here, too.

  His gaze roamed over what appeared to be random garbage. There were all kinds of empty, crushed containers, but he wasn’t certain what they’d once held. Food? He took a deep breath and smelled musty air, almost like it had been recycled a million times.

  “Oh, God.” His heart hitched, and he took a step back. Behind him, the door felt solid and held him up as raw terror shook his entire body. What if that thing didn’t breathe? They were going to go out into the vacuum of space where a machine would be perfectly fine but Jarrett wouldn’t. He was looking at what would essentially become his coffin. Dying below pristine waters would have been so much better than snuffing it here in a room filled with junk.

  Panic settled into his chest like wet sand that kept getting heavier with each breath. He thought he was going to die below azure-blue waters doing something he loved, but his mind had vomited up this entire bizarre scenario to taunt him with something he’d thought he’d always wanted. Romantic notions died hard,
but this was simply cruel. Why would his brain do this to him?

  But that was the problem, wasn’t it? How could this be some weird brain fantasy when everything seemed so real? He felt the nasty, sticky carpet below his feet, and he smelled a weird, musty tang in the air. He saw nothing but filth filling a room, and then he heard what could only be the sound of an engine gearing up to take him out into the vast reaches of space. This wasn’t a dream, a fantasy, or a near-death experience. This was real. And it was totally terrifying.

  The panic he’d been staving off eventually had its way and infiltrated his every cell. His breathing rate rose so high he had gone beyond panting and he couldn’t get it to slow down. Since he didn’t have a paper bag, he tried breathing into his cupped hands, but that didn’t help. Eventually, he passed out and crumbled to the floor.

  * * * *

  Jarrett woke up, but he kept his eyes closed. He wasn’t looking forward to having his worst fears realized. Dead, alive, or some strange place in between, he’d rather just lay here and not know for a while. But eventually, curiosity got the better of him, and he opened his eyes.

  He wasn’t in the junk room of the spaceship anymore, but he didn’t quite know where he was. Whatever he was lying on was sinfully soft, and the air smelled strangely sweet. Above him there was a roof made of thatch. By turning his head, he saw that there was a sky the color of pink frosting and the clouds were puffy turquoise. Sitting up, he climbed off the lounge and moved to the edge of an open veranda.

  “Now this is an alien world.” Everything was pink, blue, or purple. Delicate creatures that looked like jellyfish floated through the air, their stingers dangling. There was a fence around the place where he was, but there was a walkway that would take him down to what looked like a beach with blue sand and purple water.

  A gigantic bloom was near enough to the porch that he could almost reach out and touch it. Curious, he stretched out his arm, but it wasn’t quite close enough.

  “I wouldn’t do that. It’s probably hungry.”

  Jarrett turned and saw a man made of gold. Everything from his feet to the curve of his bald head was shimmering gold. Once he got over his initial surprise, he realized that his features were strong, angular, and very handsome. He seemed to be uncomfortable, which Jarrett thought was curious given that all of this was his idea.

  “Who are you?”

  “I am Ranic Vaidya.”

  “Are you the man who bought me?” He certainly didn’t look like the metal man who had taken him away, but then Jarrett noticed a heap of gleaming silver in the corner of the room. So, he did have a knight in shining armor. He just was a hell of a lot stranger than anything Jarrett had ever dreamed of.

  “I am.” He lifted his hand to the room behind and around him. “I hope we’ll be comfortable here.”

  Jarrett refrained from commenting on that because as stunning and well appointed as the room seemed to be, there was only one big bed, and the implications of that were pretty clear unless he was supposed to sleep out here on the porch near the hungry flower. Either way, he was certain he wasn’t going to be comfortable with the whole idea of slavery. Even if his owner did turn out to be a total hottie. What really surprised Jarrett was how instant his attraction to this man was. Something about his gleaming appearance and his riveting, laser-blue eyes. He was basically human in shape. The only difference being the color of his skin and his utter lack of hair except for long eyelashes.

  “If you require anything, you have but to let me know.”

  The structure of his English was strange. “How is it that I can understand you and you can understand me when there’s no way we speak the same language?”

  “An implant in your brain. Such is common for slaves.”

  “I’m not a slave.” It was then that Jarrett realized his owner was wearing a swath of fabric that covered his hips while the only thing Jarrett wore was his collar.

  “You are.” Ranic sighed. “But you don’t have to be one the rest of your life.”

  Jarrett sensed a deal was coming, and he had a feeling it wasn’t something he was going to like because if this guy wanted something fun, he wouldn’t have to buy someone to do it for him. Or to let him do it to them. Jarrett remembered the probe sliding up his ass, and he shivered. Anal sex just wasn’t his thing. What irritated him was that he was already considering giving in so that he could be let go. How much, how hard, and how often would he have to take Ranic’s golden cock in order to earn his freedom? The mere thought of that made him feel like some kind of a whore. He shouldn’t have to endure sexual acts to get something back that no one had the right to take away from him in the first place.

  “I don’t know what the hell you’re thinking, but I’m not going to spread for you in the hopes of you setting me free.”

  Ranic tilted his head, considering Jarrett’s words. He had a feeling the translation device had to work overtime whenever he used any type of slang.

  Sighing, Ranic nodded, and then he wrapped one big, beautiful hand around a goblet. With the polished grace of a king, he lifted the cup to his lips, drank, then closed his eyes, savoring the liquid. When he was done, he opened his eyes, pinning Jarrett with the laser-blue orbs. Damn, but he should have been ugly because it would be a lot easier for Jarrett to be all indignant and hold to his freedom-first position if his owner were a hideous blob or something. But no. He had to get a golden-dipped Yul Brynner look-alike complete with the body of an Olympic swimmer.

  “I see there is some confusion already about what I want.”

  Jarrett waited, wondering if he was supposed to guess.

  “I don’t want to fuck you.”

  “No?” Jarrett crossed his arms, waiting for the punch line.

  “No.” Ranic poured two goblets full of the glittering liquid and brought one over to Jarrett. “I want you to fuck me.”

  Chapter 4

  Ranic was prepared to go through a series of ridiculous machinations to get what he wanted from his slave, but he decided at the last moment to simply make him a trade. When they were done, Ranic wouldn’t be able to keep him anyway, so why not simply offer out his freedom if he performed the services Ranic so desperately wanted?

  “You want me to fuck you?” Jarrett accepted the glass of Delutian glimmer wine, but he didn’t drink it. Instead, he washed his gaze all over Ranic’s form, making him acutely aware of how little he was wearing. “Why in the world would a gorgeous man like you have to hire a lover?”

  Flattered, Ranic found that the curious tugging toward this man he’d felt in the slave house was returning in greater force now that he was so near. “I would tell you, if you will sit with me.” He nodded to the table and chairs on the covered veranda. When Jarrett turned and walked that way, Ranic found his gaze drawn to his strong hips. Just watching him walk the short distance was almost hypnotic, probably because Ranic imagined that motion in far more vigorous activities.

  “Um.” Jarrett looked down at the chair and Ranic understood at once that his nudity presented some issues he hadn’t thought of.

  “Here.” From the small amount of goods Ranic had brought with him, he found another loincloth and handed it to Jarrett. Their fingers touched. A flare of attraction flowed up Ranic’s arm and burrowed deep into his brain. How had he been so lucky to find this creature?

  “Thank you.” Jarrett slung the cloth around his hips and then sat down. He pointed to his collar. “Can you take this thing off?”

  Ranic considered.

  “I’m not going to run since I have no idea where we are.” He looked around at the resort and shrugged. “I don’t imagine I’d get far wearing only this cloth around my hips.”

  Ranic set his glass on the table then stepped behind Jarrett. The metal of his collar was warmed by contact with his skin. It came off easily since the lock was keyed to Ranic’s touch. Once it was deactivated, he set it aside on the table. And then he did something he’d always longed to do. He lowered his head near to Jarrett a
nd gently kissed his neck. Unsure what his reaction might be, he was pleasantly surprised when Jarrett tilted his head, giving him greater access. His skin was scented with fear and subtle traces of mustiness from the horrible ship Ranic had rented, but none of that mattered, because when his lips touched his flesh, the jolt of joy that slammed into the pleasure center of his brain had him hard in less than a second. His relief was so profound he had to cling to Jarrett’s shoulders so he didn’t fall to his knees.

  “Your touch is…different.” Jarrett didn’t sound upset, only mildly speculative. “You’re just a bit cooler, temperature-wise, than I am.”

  Ranic pulled away before he lost himself completely. It was unfair for him to place even wordless demands without stating his purpose and assuring himself of Jarrett’s consent. As much as he told himself he would make his slave obey, he found his resolve faltered as soon as he’d seen the kindness in Jarrett’s eyes.

  “I apologize. I simply couldn’t resist.” He moved to the other side of the table and sat so that they were facing one another. For some reason, he felt an entire quadrant away when he clearly wasn’t. The all too brief touch they shared made him famished for more.

  “It was a far cry from the feeling of you touching me while you were wearing your spacesuit.” Jarrett smiled and then peered into his glass of wine.

  “It’s quite safe for you. I had my computer check. I made sure everything here would suit you. If there is danger—like the flowers—I will tell you, but Aeirall is a resort world that is safe for the both of us.” It was also a discreet world where anyone could come and leave no trace of their visit, provided they paid enough money, which Ranic had. “I brought you here so that we wouldn’t have to worry about our surroundings.”

  Jarrett nodded and then took a tentative sip of his glimmer wine. Watching him purse his lips made Ranic wonder what they would feel like pressed against his neck, and then he startled when he thought of their lips touching. That forbidden act would just be a prelude to the others he wished to perform. Would they feel as good as he imagined, or was he only attracted to something illicit?