Forbidden World: Ambrax

by Bernadette Gardner

  Mojar grinned. "Then we have an agreement. May I sample her before I go this evening?"

  Damen choked the words out, a muscle beneath his left temple jumping in protest. "Absolutely. As long as I can watch."

  Chapter 4

  * * *

  Lea's stomach churned when Mojar crossed the room to stand before her. How would she get through this? Especially with Damen watching?

  The prospect of having his eyes on her while another man fucked her had her clit tingling. Shame heated her cheeks. Heaven help her, what if she enjoyed it?

  Without comment she rose, keeping her eyes focused on Damen while Mojar opened the front of her shirt and pushed the garment off her shoulders. The cool, conditioned air of the room hit her nipples and they hardened instantly. The heaviness of arousal settled in her womb and her pussy dampened.

  Mojar was not unattractive, though he looked like almost every other Braxan male she'd seen so far. His light hair hung to his shoulders in neatly combed waves, and there were some age lines around his pale eyes attesting to the fact that, though his body was supple and lean, he had a few years on Damen.

  She drew in an even breath when he opened her pants and slid them down her legs. As Damen had instructed her before they landed, she wore no underwear.

  "Follow me. I prefer to be comfortable." His bland instruction held no emotion, but the gleam in his eyes made her angry and--damn it--just a little hot. She hoped he was good, because she didn't trust herself not to make a snide comment if his Braxan cock failed to impress.

  Damen stalked after them toward the small bedroom and took up a position in the doorway, arms crossed over his chest, his expression deliberately blank. The muscles in his arms and his jaw set into hard lines when Mojar led her to the bed and motioned for her to lie down. Only then did she close her eyes, intent on imagining Damen above her.

  She sensed Mojar climbing on the bed immediately after her, fully clothed by the rustle of his stiff clothing. The rough fabric of his dark suit brushed her thighs and her belly as he settled himself between her knees. Curious, she spared him a peek beneath her lashes. Was he planning to dry hump her? She'd probably never get through that with a straight face.

  Unfortunately, Mojar was well prepared. Easy access Braxan clothing allowed him to open the front of his pants, freeing a long, well-shaped cock, fully erect, with dark testicles hanging below.

  Prepared for anything now, Lea transferred her gaze to Damen just as Mojar, without comment or preamble, thrust into her.

  * * * *

  A battle raged in Damen's chest while he watched the Braxan fuck Lea. The sight of her pale thighs spread on each side of Mojar's slim, dark-clad hips had his cock straining. In contrast, the detached expression on her face constricted his lungs. She was neither enjoying it, nor enduring it, merely participating as one would in any other routine activity.

  Memories of the previous night flooded his brain and his gut churned. He wouldn't be able to stand this much longer. He wanted to wrap his hands around Mojar's scrawny throat and strangle the life out of him.

  And he longed to push the older man aside and finish the job properly.

  Lea didn't make a sound, no appreciative moans or sensual purring as she had with him, and that gave him some peace of mind. If she'd cried out in pain or discomfort, he'd have slit Mojar's throat in a heartbeat, and to be ready, his hand sought the hilt of his dagger and remained there until the healer finally grunted his satisfaction and rolled aside.

  Lea lay still, her bland expression still in place, while Mojar closed his pants and adjusted his now flaccid cock. "Thank you," he said as he moved toward the bedroom door, and Damen stepped aside to let him pass. "If you permit me, I'll take care of the necessary arrangements for transport into the jungle. I have access to a portable DNA scanner that may help us locate Mr. Gabriel."

  Damen nodded, but with his jaw muscles clenched so tightly, the movement was painful. "Agreed. We have our own food and water supply. Enough for two days, maximum. If we can't locate Troy in that time, we need to leave. We're racing against the clock with Lorcan."

  Still lying on the bed, Lea reacted to Damen's announcement. Her mouth opened to comment, but he silenced her with a sharp look, then escorted Mojar from the apartment.

  * * * *

  When the men vacated the bedroom, Lea hurried to the adjacent bathroom and turned on the shower. It hadn't been so bad allowing Mojar to fuck her. He'd been quick and efficient, no worse than some of her own former lovers to be honest.

  For some reason, she'd derived pleasure from having Damen watch the "transaction." Deep in her womb, the tiny spark of arousal had begun when her stoic guardian had reached for his dagger. She doubted Mojar had been aware of the movement, but the fact that Damen was ready to attack on her behalf turned her on. Was it possessiveness or actual jealousy? If she'd moaned or pretended to enjoy it, would Damen have slit the arrogant healer's throat?

  That image excited her even more. Surely no one would know if she pleasured herself now, just to ease the tension of the less than satisfying sexual encounter. With her hand snaking toward her mound, she stepped into the lukewarm stream of water just as Damen burst into the room. He leveled a dangerous gaze at her that had her nipples tightening to hard peaks and her clit throbbing to life.

  "Clean him off you." He delivered the command while guiding her under the water. "I don't want any of him left inside you."

  She said nothing. Her tongue seemed thick and stuck against her teeth, and her belly tightened reflexively when he reached down to spread her sticky thighs apart. Roughly, he parted her pussy lips and washed Mojar's cum away in the tepid water. Legs weak, Lea had to brace herself on Damen's broad shoulder while he worked. She bit her lower lip and watched his vest turn dark as the shower spray spread dampness across his back.

  Her knees trembled, and while he rubbed his fingers vigorously over her clit, she fought not to collapse against the slippery shower wall. "I-I'll have to do it again, you know. Mojar is going to enjoy using me. I get the feeling if he can't punish Troy for stealing his woman, he'll take advantage of you to get his revenge."

  "I'm not worried about his motives." Damen stroked her mound, her thighs, then grabbed her ass and pulled her wet body against his. Fumbling with shaking fingers, she opened his pants and freed his massive erection. In a heartbeat, he lifted her up, pressed her back against the shower wall and plunged inside her.

  Lea gasped and turned her face to the spray to cool her burning cheeks while Damen pistoned her slippery body up and down his shaft. "Are you going to fuck me every time Mojar does?" She panted the question in his ear, and in response he increased his rhythm and the depths of his determined thrusts.

  "You're mine. As long as we're here, you're mine. I don't want you or Mojar to forget that."

  Lea nodded, then clenched her inner muscles hard against her rising orgasm. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held on tight. As long as they were on Ambrax she belonged to him, and in this moment, by God, she never wanted to leave.

  With a deep growl, Damen came. His body shuddered and he buried his face against Lea's neck. On the heels of his final pulse, her own orgasm tore through her, curling her up with its force and squeezing his still hard cock like a fist. He thrust once more, twice against her inner spasms, drawing two quick gasps of pleasure from her.

  "Yes...only you can do this to me," she whispered as her legs slid over his hips. Her feet connected with the shower floor and she wobbled for a moment. Damen propped her up, then put his hands on her shoulders and bent to suckle on wet nipple.

  The scrape of his teeth against her areola, the flick of his hot tongue over the tight bud, milked a few more startlingly sharp pulses from her clit. Moaning, Lea held him, urging him to play while the lower half of her body seemed to melt.

  He scowled when he finally released her hyper-sensitive flesh and glanced up at her from under long male lashes. Drops of water clung there and some ran down the planes
of his face. "I don't like losing control like that."

  "To me, it felt like you were in perfect control," she replied, still a little breathless. "I have no complaints."

  He released his grip on her waist and flung himself out of the shower. A trail of water followed him before running toward the drains set into the bathroom floor. "I feel like it's starting already. This isn't me, rutting like an animal, wanting to kill a man for touching a woman I barely know."

  Lea straightened and reached for a towel. Rather than wrap it around herself, though, she approached Damen and began to blot at the beads of water on his arms and neck. Half-soaked, with his trousers hanging open and his fathomless black eyes hooded, he took her breath away--same as he had the first time she'd seen him on Soffran.

  "I won't let it happen. I promise we can leave before it starts to affect you, even if we haven't found Troy."

  Damen held her gaze for a tense moment, then took the towel from her hands and draped it over her shoulders. "I'll hold you to that promise, Lea," he said before he stalked out of the room.

  * * * *

  Mojar arrived early the next morning, sparing Lea a cursory glance when Damen let him into the apartment. "I have a transport ready for us and two guides. They're waiting outside to pack your supplies."

  Damen nodded. He'd said nothing else about Mojar all night and seemed as though he were trying to keep his distance from Lea. They'd slept together, but he hadn't touched her all night. This morning, the tension between them was thick.

  Frustrated, she sat silently, feigning disinterest in the discussion between Mojar and Damen until the healer produced a small, boxy piece of equipment from the pack he carried on his hip.

  "This is a portable DNA scanner," he explained while Damen looked on.

  Lea craned her neck, trying to get a look at the object, which Mojar set on the low table in the center of the sitting room.

  "It can scan life forms from as far away as ten meters and match their DNA to our central database."

  Damen raised a brow. "Without a physical sample?"

  "Yes. Its accuracy is approximately ninety-five percent. If we encounter groups of converts, we'll be able to pick out Mr. Gabriel if he's among them."

  "Do we know for sure that he's still alive?"

  Mojar tilted his head at Damen's question. "Patrols collect the dead on a daily basis. As of yesterday evening, his body has not been recovered. We should go now, and take advantage of the daylight while we have it."

  Damen gestured for Lea to follow him out into the corridor and directed his instructions to Mojar. "Send your men in. All of our supplies are ready to go."

  * * * *

  Damen kept his eye on the two guards Mojar had secured for the trip. Edmun and Tak were both light haired and muscular like all the Braxan men he'd seen so far. Their pale eyes darted over Lea's body as she moved to take the seat Mojar assigned to her in the jungle transport.

  Today, she wore the sheath he'd prepared for her with the ceremonial dagger fitting comfortably along the slender length of her right thigh. Her breasts crowded the plunging neckline of a tan shirt that almost matched her skin tone, making her appear naked above her short, black pants.

  Damen didn't like the way she boldly met the guards' curious stares. While they would likely expect to partake of her body, she didn't need to imply by her flirtatious expressions that she might actually enjoy it.

  He'd pull her aside later and caution her. If she showed too much interest in another man, he might challenge Damen for ownership of her and they just didn't have time for a duel to the death with a Braxan citizen.

  "We'll begin a sweep of the perimeter to the south," Mojar announced when they'd all been seated.

  Edmun took the pilot seat of the transport, which both flew and traveled on land. In seconds they were careening away from the Citadel landing field toward the jewel-green canopy of trees that covered eighty percent of Ambrax's land surface.

  "Troy's been here almost two months. How far do converts usually travel once they leave the Citadel?" Damen asked once the golden sands of the protected zone had fallen away beneath them.

  "Not far. Those that survive their first year tend to migrate in tribal groups. There is a social structure that we've observed. New members live near the protected zone, though, skirting the tree line until they're accepted into groups."

  Damen sighed and shifted in his seat. Under Mojar's suspiciously benign gaze, he rested his hand on Lea's thigh. "Do you mind if I ask how Troy managed to leave the Citadel with a female healer?"

  Annoyance clouded the Braxan's gaze. "He infected her mind with tales of freedom on another world. I was willing to accompany him off world for a fee of course, but Alor, my female, commanded no price. Like so many who come here, he mistook her willingness to service his sexual needs as attraction, perhaps love, and he fancied himself her savior." Mojar's thin lips twisted in disgust. "I assure you she did not flee willingly with him. He must have imagined he could hide in the jungle until I stopped searching for her and then escape in his ship. He underestimated the speed of the transformation."

  Damen ignored Lea's steely gaze. She obviously didn't like the insinuation that her brother-in-law might have developed feelings for another woman. To her credit, though, she said nothing.

  "What will you do to Alor if you find her?"

  Mojar's pale gaze dropped to his hands. His reply was laced with regret that rang of insincerity. "She will need months of medical care and psychological reconditioning before she'll be able to receive punishment for her actions."

  "Punishment?" Lea's outburst drew the attention of both Edmun and Tak, and Mojar's lips lifted in an odd smirk when Damen clamped a commanding hand over her wrist.

  "Quiet."

  "No! You told us Alor didn't leave the Citadel willingly, but you're going to punish her for being kidnapped? What's wrong with you?"

  "Enough." Damen rose, hoping his disapproving stare would be enough to silence her.

  Mojar's expression was bland, but the guards snickered and exchanged furtive glances. Damen's inability to control his property would surely make for interesting gossip when they returned to the Citadel.

  Mojar's smirk made her ball her fists. She ached to deck him. His calm, placating tone, directed at Damen, did nothing to soothe her indignation. "Alor acted inappropriately. She led Troy to believe he had a right or an obligation to rescue her. She knew her actions would lead to disaster. Once she's recovered from the physical ordeal of living with the converts for months, she'll be ready to accept her censure, as any properly trained female would." His last words held weight, obviously meant as a reprimand to Damen for allowing his woman to speak out of turn like this.

  Lea seethed at the pompous response. A sharp reply had already formed on her tongue when Damen rose and tugged on her hand. Reluctantly, she followed him to the back of the transport where a narrow door led to a small storage compartment. As soon as he'd closed the door behind them, she turned to face him. "I'm sorry, but I just can't sit here and--" He clamped a hand over her mouth.

  Her eyes flared, but she sank into his rough embrace. "A Braxan man would have put you on your knees for speaking out like that. They'll see me as weak for not punishing you."

  She nodded and he let his fingers slip down from her lips and trail into her shirt where he pinched a nipple. She gasped and thrust her hips toward him.

  "They might assume you need rough treatment to keep you in line."

  "Do you want to fuck me in front of them to show them I know my place?" The challenge in her eyes made him instantly hard. He pictured it, pulling her back out of the private compartment and stripping her down, taking her while the others watched and showing them not only that she belonged to him, but that she liked being his possession.

  He jammed a hand into the front of her pants and brushed at her clit. She leaned into him, curling forward at the intimate touch. "No. Sex isn't a punishment, but staying in here alone, wanting it until w
e reach a landing site, is."

  She moaned when he withdrew his fingers from her pussy and she pouted. "Damn you."

  He smirked before turning his back and letting himself out of the compartment. "Maybe boredom and frustration will teach you a lesson that a good fuck won't."

  * * * *

  Lea rammed her shoulder against the bulkhead in frustration. She'd promised herself she would play along with the misogynistic mind games that passed for proper social etiquette on Ambrax, but her curiosity was killing her.

  She wanted to know everything about the transformation so she could figure out if she really had a chance to rescue Troy or not. If he'd actually fallen in love with a Braxan woman, it would break Darya's heart, but at least if Mojar cured her, she'd have a heart to break. Seeing her sister in emotional pain would be preferable to watching her soul die by degrees each day until she could do nothing but stare uselessly into space.

  In the windowless compartment, the movement of the transport made Lea a little woozy. After half an hour of restless pacing, she folded herself up on the floor and closed her eyes.

  She hadn't realized she'd drifted off until the door of the compartment swung open. Everything seemed still and the rumble of the engines had ceased.

  Good. Back on terra firma. Did that mean they'd located some converts for Mojar to scan?

  When a blond head peaked around the door, Lea rose. Instinctively, she curled her fingers around the hilt of the dagger Damen had given her.

  "Are you hungry?" The one Mojar had introduced to Damen as Tak stepped into the compartment. He held a small container filled with protein cubes from their off-world supplies in one hand. "I asked Captain Cantor's permission to bring you something. He's gone outside with Mojar to look for converts."

  Suspicious, Lea held her ground, ignoring the stiffness in her limbs and her desire to stretch the kinks out of her back.