“That you let a male fuck you?” His face hardened. “So you’re all right with letting a male penetrate you as long as no one knows about it. But the minute you think someone in your precious Yonnie Six high society might find out you’re a nervous wreck.”
“I…I didn’t mean…” she began but he was already shaking his head and pulling out…pulling away from her.
“Never mind. I know exactly what you mean, Mistress.” He made the word a curse. “I’m leaving now—going back to where I belong. I don’t recommend you try to stop me or send anyone after me.”
“But…” Kaylee sat up, feeling cold and empty and unfulfilled. What had just happened? Why was he so angry? So…hurt? Had she hurt him? She didn’t know what he was feeling exactly—his face was a closed book. But still, it seemed that she’d offended him deeply.
“Good bye.” He had finished pulling up the too-tight leather trousers and was already heading to the door. It was still locked.
“You can’t get out,” Kaylee said. Her throat felt tight and she didn’t know why. “I tried, remember?”
“Didn’t try hard enough.” With a swift jab of his huge fist, he smashed the black glass over the door’s control panel. There was a brief shower of sparks and then the red leather panel slid open silently.
“Wait!” Kaylee couldn’t just watch him go. She slid out of the stirrups and jumped down off the padded black table. “Wait, please. You can’t just…just go like that.”
“Can’t I?” Solar turned to face her one last time. “Goodbye, Kaylee. Have a nice life.”
His use of her name—a thing so simple and yet so forbidden for a slave—made a lump rise in her throat. She wanted to call him back—wanted to say it was all a mistake, that she felt…felt…what did she feel for him? Kaylee didn’t even know, only that it was intense and hurtful. Her breath seemed to catch on something jagged every time she inhaled and when she put her hand to her cheeks, she found she was crying.
Don’t be stupid, whispered a little voice in her head as she watched his broad, bare back disappear through the open doorway. Why are you crying over a male? Over a slave?
Kaylee didn’t know. She only knew that once started, the tears wouldn't stop.
Chapter Six
Stupid, staying so long. Penetrating her—making love to her. Almost fucking bonding with her. Stupid, Solar—very stupid!
Solar berated himself as he moved quickly and quietly down the corridor. He could hear Kaylee sobbing behind him and the sound seemed to go directly to his gut. He felt tied in knots inside, clenched tight as a fist. Part of him—a large and stupid part—wanted to go back and console her. Wanted to hold her and tell her everything would be all right.
But how would it be all right? If he stayed, he’d be arrested and taken to wherever it was they took escaped slaves around here. Solar was sure it was nowhere nice. And there was no way he was asking her to go with him. He’d thought for a while that she had changed her ideas, that she no longer viewed him as a lower form of life.
He’d been wrong.
The absolute horror on her face when she’d thought she might conceive a child by him—a son no less—let him know he had done the right thing by pulling out. If he’d spilled his seed inside her and bonded her to him, he would have had to contend with that attitude for the rest of his life.
He made his way down the hall to the mirrored elevator and stopped there, frowning. Better not risk it. There was a stairwell right beside it. He took the stairs, going down quickly and quietly in his bare feet.
He poked his head around the corner when he got to the bottom floor. Thank all the Gods that ever were there didn’t appear to be any servants or other slaves around. Maybe Kaylee hadn’t had time to get any. She had said he was the first slave she’d ever bought.
Probably won’t be her last though. It’d take an army of slaves to keep this place up. Not that he cared. Let her stay here in the lap of luxury on this screwed-up planet and buy a whole battalion of slaves. Solar didn’t give a damn as long as he wasn’t one of them.
Besides the absence of any house staff, he hadn’t seen the sadistic Lyra anywhere either. Which was just as well for her. He had never harmed a female in his life but he was minus the pain collar now and without the threat of its electrifying shocks, he might forget himself if he saw her snub-nosed face again.
He was edging along the perimeter of a richly furnished living area as he thought this. Suddenly, as if his thoughts had summoned her, he heard Lyra’s high-pitched, nasal voice coming from the next room.
“No, I told you—it’s perfect. I got the most dangerous slave I could find,” she was saying. “Well, no—there was one who looked scarier. A big Havoc male with blue-black hair and these weird almost white eyes. He was huge—even bigger than the one we got and believe me, this one’s not small.”
Solar’s ears pricked up and he moved closer to the doorway Lyra’s voice was drifting through. Thrace—she has to be talking about Thrace! He wondered what had happened to hia captain. Did Lyra know his whereabouts?
“I wanted him but some other girl got him—some dowdy pilot-looking little thing from Zetta Prime, I think,” she was saying. “She could have been quite striking—she had this creamy brown skin tone, I’ve never seen anything like it before—and long black hair. But she was wearing this awful black jumpsuit thing. I tell you, Chia, it just ruined the look.”
Solar didn’t give a damn what the girl who had bought Thrace had been wearing but he was glad to hear the other details. A female from Zetta Prime with light brown skin and long black hair. That might help narrow down his search for the captain—although he was pretty sure Zetta Prime was another planet where males were treated little better than animals.
He was about to move on and complete his escape—he was certain he could hotwire the little ship they’d brought him here in and be off planet before anyone was the wiser—when he heard Lyra speaking again.
“Anyway, I’m about to go check on her in a moment. No, don’t worry—I’ve got a stun-ray hand-cannon, he won’t get far. They’re locked in the dungeon together and I’m certain he’s finished her by now—it shouldn’t have taken long the moment I turned his pain collar off.”
Solar grimaced and put a hand to his throat. So the pain collar switching off hadn’t been an accident or a short in its complicated circuitry, as he’d half suspected. Lyra had turned it off on purpose hoping he would…would what? Kill Kaylee the moment they were alone together?
He looked cautiously around the corner and saw Lyra pacing a large and well appointed food prep area. She had a tall, frosted glass with some kind of alcohol in one hand and she was talking into a tiny device plugged into her ear.
“He’s a complete savage like all males and I made sure to antagonize him beforehand. I’ll probably find her raped and torn to little pieces,” Lyra went on in a tone so cold it chilled his blood.
That bitch, he thought, feeling sick to his stomach. How could she think I’d do such a thing? Oh, right—because all males are savages. But he would never hurt Kaylee. Just because that evil witch Lyra thought he was an animalistic brute didn’t mean he’d act like one.
Lyra had paused for a moment to listen to the person on the other end. She had her back to him and was tapping with her long, claw-like nails on the food prep counter. Now she let loose with a loud, nasal laugh which dragged him out of his angry thoughts.
“No, that’s the best part! I snuck the last will and testament docs into the slave papers when we were buying the Havoc male. She signed them all without question and they’re already hidden in her file case. Of course, no one will be more surprised than me when they’re found.” She turned to the side and Solar saw her practicing a shocked look as she studied her snub-nosed face in the mirrored surface of the cooking panel. “Me? She left it all to me? Well, I guess I was her only friend…”
Fucking disgusting, Solar thought angrily. She must have planned this from the start.
&
nbsp; “But just think how it’ll look,” Lyra continued. “A poor lonely girl…a country rube who didn’t know anything about the big city…befriended by a nice city mistress who tries to show her the ropes and teach her how to behave. But poor little Miss Stupid just can’t get the hang of it. She insists on buying a slave that’s too much for her to handle and then she lets him actually penetrate her…well, she got what was coming to her, didn’t she? And no one will be sorry to see the little idiot go. She doesn’t fit in anywhere. Honestly, it’s embarrassing.” She laughed nastily. “What’s that? Oh my yes, I have proof of penetration—it’s on my personal Communi-K.”
She tapped the small flat device Solar had seen her using earlier. Now he understood why she’d been recording their interactions in the dungeon. Lyra had been planning to discredit Kaylee—to make it look like her death at the hands of her new slave was entirely her own fault.
Won’t she be surprised to find Kaylee alive and completely unharmed, he thought grimly. It’s sure as hell going to put a kink in her little plan.
Except he’d known people like Lyra before. A kink in the plan didn’t mean she would abandon it completely. She might be a respectable mistress of Yonnie Six on the outside but inside Lyra was a cold-hearted criminal. She meant to shame and possibly kill the innocent Kaylee and get the other girl’s inheritance for herself. And just because she’d failed once, didn’t mean she wouldn’t try again.
That’s not my problem, he thought uneasily. I need to go now—need to get the Seven Hells out of this place and find Thrace!
“I can just see it now.” Lyra had picked up her tall glass of alcohol once more and was moving from the food prep area into the adjoining dining area. The recording device she left lying on the counter. “When the Ruling Body approaches me—they’ll be an inquiry of course—there always is when such a big and dangerous slave escapes. Anyway, I know just what I’ll say. ‘Why your Eminence, I tried to stop her from buying him but she just wouldn’t listen to me. So headstrong and lustful! And then when she started trying to get him to penetrate her—well, I had to leave. I just couldn’t stand it anymore. But I have no idea how he got loose of his pain collar—she must have let him go herself. I think she had some idea that she loved him. Loving a slave—can you imagine?’” She paused a moment for a breath. “And then I can reluctantly show them the vid I captured on my Communi-K. And then…”
Her sharp, nasal voice trailed off as she finally went all the way into the dining area, still carrying her drink with her. Now was the perfect time to escape. Solar started to go…and stopped.
Not my problem, he reminded himself again. After all, Kaylee had bought his body, not his heart. And it wasn’t his fault she’d gotten herself mixed up with a con-woman like Lyra. She’d made it clear she only wanted him for the novelty of letting a male penetrate her—she didn’t think of him as a person, just an object to be used and tossed away. Still…
Solar eyed the forgotten recording device. He was extremely good with such gadgets as he doubled as the technical officer as well as the navigator aboard The Empress. Maybe there was a little something he could do before he left. But he would have to be quick.
Damn quick, he told himself. And then I’m off this hell hole of a world to go look for Thrace.
Chapter Seven
“But why does there have to be an inquiry? Surely I’m not the first person…er mistress to have a slave escape,” Kaylee protested as Lyra dragged her down the long hallway to the room where the heads of the Ruling Body of Yonnie Six held court.
“No you’re not but there’s always an inquest when a slave escapes. Don’t worry.” Lyra patted her arm. “They’ll see it wasn’t your fault. It was a combination of things—that shoddy pain collar the slaver sold us for one. I can’t believe it just quit on you like that—and at such a critical juncture!”
“It wouldn’t have done me much good anyway since you’d taken the remote with you,” Kaylee pointed out, frowning. Since the moment when Lyra had walked back in the dungeon and found her alone with Solar long gone, she and the other girl weren’t quite such good friends.
Lyra had seemed almost upset to see Kaylee still alive, though she covered the emotion quickly with shock and concern. But not quickly enough—Kaylee had seen the irritated look on her face when she’d explained how Solar had gotten away. It was almost as though some plan she’d made had been thwarted. But that was crazy, wasn’t it, Kaylee asked herself uneasily. She must be imagining things. She hoped, anyway. Still, something about Lyra’s behavior just felt wrong.
“I told you, I didn’t even realize I had the remote in my hand,” Lyra protested. “And then who knew your aunt’s dungeon had automatic locks? That feature of the domicile certainly should have been explained to you during the initial hearing when the law reps told you about your inheritance. The fact that they didn’t tell you is negligence—criminal negligence. Why, you might have gotten injured or even killed.”
“Right.” Kaylee remained unconvinced by her friend’s apparent shock and horror at the idea. But she didn’t feel she had any other choice than to stick with Lyra, at least for the present. After all, she was the only one who could testify that Solar’s escape had been accidental and not intentional. Lyra had hinted darkly that if the Ruling Body thought she had set a dangerous slave free on purpose, there could be heavy fines or even prison time involved. Kaylee had no wish to go to jail—even at a cushy facility like the one the upper class mistresses were imprisoned in on Yonnie Six when they were convicted of a crime.
They came to a sliding glass panel door and Kaylee straightened her clothing nervously. She was wearing what the upper crust of Yonnie Six deemed a dull outfit—a dark blue dress that buttoned in the front and had a long, sweeping train that fell to her ankles. But even so, it still scooped low to show plenty of cleavage and it was cut high enough to nearly reveal the blue lace panties that went with it. Lyra was dressed much the same though her own outfit was a bright yellow that made her skin look positively orange, not that Kaylee would tell her so.
“Take a deep breath and just relax,” Lyra whispered. “Let me do the talking. Lady Minora is presiding—she’s the head of the Disciplinary Committee of the Ruling Body—I know her.” Then she waved her hand over the door panel and the frosted glass slid silently to one side, revealing an opulently furnished sitting room complete with plush couches and a sideboard filled with crystal liqueur bottles. An older woman with upswept hair in every imaginable shade of pink and purple and wearing an elaborate crushed velveteen gown that matched it exactly was frowning at them.
“Come in,” she said sternly, not bothering to rise from the elevated chase lounge she was draped across. It was so high that Kaylee had to look up to meet her eyes—and once she did she wished she hadn’t. The steely gray eyes of the other female bored into her as though she had already been proven guilty.
“Hello, your Eminence,” Lyra murmured, dropping an elaborate curtsy which seemed to involve spreading her skirts out as far as possible to either side and bowing her head low until the tip of her nose almost touched the polished borra wood floor. Kaylee tried to follow her lead without much success.
“We may dispense with the formalities,” the older female snapped. “Kaylee, is it? The heir to my good friend Jamelda who died so tragically?”
“Yes, your Eminence,” Kaylee rose from the convoluted pose as gracefully as she could.
“I understand you allowed a large and very dangerous male slave to escape your care yesterday,” Lady Minora said sternly.
“Not on purpose,” Kaylee said quickly. “I just—”
“I told her the slave was too much for her, your Eminence,” Lyra butted in. “He was a Havoc—a wild savage. He would have been too much for an experienced mistress, let alone one who had never had any experience being a slave owner before.”
“I…you…” Kaylee was at a loss for words. What was Lyra saying? And why was she saying it? “You said you’d teach me how to
train him,” she got out at last, looking at her supposed friend.
“I told you I’d try.” Lyra shook her head regretfully. “It’s not surprising he got loose, really. What is surprising is that he didn’t maim and dismember both of us in the process.”
Kaylee stiffened. “Solar never would have hurt us. Well, not me anyway. You were the one who kept shocking him with the pain collar even though he hadn’t done anything to deserve it.”
“Solar, is it?” Lady Minora frowned at Kaylee.
“Yes.” Kaylee could feel her cheeks getting hot but she went on anyway. “He told me his name after he got…got free. We…talked for a little. He wasn’t raised a slave as the slaver who sold him claimed. He was a free male—the navigator on a star cruiser, I think. I…I didn’t blame him for wanting to go free. He should never have been enslaved in the first place.”
“All males need to be enslaved,” Lady Minora said severely. “It is their natural place. But this…Solar…it sounds to me like you started having feelings for him? Thinking of him as an actual person?”
“He is an actual person,” Kaylee snapped. “He was kind and gentle and sweet and he didn’t hurt me. But I couldn’t hold him once he was free—it wouldn’t have been right. And anyway, I wasn’t strong enough once the pain collar was gone.”
“It was gone?” The older female raised one pink and purple eyebrow. “Just gone? Where, pray tell, did it go?”
“Thank the Goddess I was already locked in the fresher in another part of the domicile when you let him take it off,” Lyra said before Kaylee could answer.
“Before I let him take it off?” Kaylee said.
“Why were you locked away in the fresher?” Lady Minora asked, frowning at Lyra and ignoring Kaylee.
“Well, once she started letting him penetrate her…” Lyra’s hand flew to her mouth. “Oh my Goddess, I didn’t mean to say that. Forgive me, your Eminence!”
“She what?” Lady Minora was scowling at Kaylee now as though she was some kind of scum she’d found on the bottom of her dainty high-heeled slipper.
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