by Marie Harte
“So…?”
“So, someone had to put Tara through school and stake Susanna for her boat. Between the three of us, I find money where there’s little to be found. I mean, my sisters worked hard, but I was the one who managed our funds and brought in the extra income we needed to not just survive, but plan for the future.”
He could only imagine the expenses she’d had to pay. Medical school tuition had become astronomically high. And an ocean freighter could cost upward of a quarter million in currency. “How did you do it?”
“I found odd jobs, nothing illegal. It’s a knack, really. I just know what will give me the best payout. Had a few investments that paid big. I was good at day trading after I’d earned enough to buy in.” She snorted. “Nothing you assigned me for Talson Shipping was anything I hadn’t done before.” Her smile faded. “I was almost out of debt—Susanna’s ship paid, Tara’s schooling through, when my parents found us again.”
“What did they do?” He didn’t like the worry and stress coursing through her. Uncomfortable sensing emotions not his own, he was even more disturbed that she’d been hurt. He had the insane urge to find her parents and—
She put a hand on his chest. “It’s okay, Roarke. That part of my life is over.”
Strangely calmed, he blinked and clasped her hand over his heart. “Tell me the rest.”
“My sisters and I had moved away from home years ago. I hadn’t seen my mother or father since I turned sixteen. Then, on the day of Tara’s graduation, they appeared. Smiling, hugging, ranting about what big girls we’d grown to be.” She huffed. “Like I’d fall for that. But Tara and Susanna were younger when Mom and Dad left. They never knew them for the bad things they’d done.”
“Why didn’t you tell them?” But he knew. Jamie wouldn’t want to hurt her sisters with the truth. Protective, loving, responsible. Was it any wonder he’d wanted her from the very beginning?
“How do you tell your sisters your parents are terrible people? It was hard enough I knew.”
“But didn’t they ask questions growing up?”
“I told them Mom and Dad had gotten sick and had to move away. They never asked much after that, and I never offered any information. I was all they needed. Then my parents burst into their lives and insinuated themselves into our ‘family’.” She frowned. “It was only a matter of time before they leeched away Tara’s success and spent all Susanna’s money.”
He could see where this was going. “So you decided to intervene. Why not send your parents away empty-handed?”
She smiled through her teeth. “I did. But they knew just what strings to pull to land me in debtor’s hell while they took off with over fifty thousand in credits.”
He stroked her soft skin, wanting to provide comfort. “It wasn’t about the money though, was it?” he asked in a gentle voice, understanding so much more. “You loved them, and they didn’t deserve it.”
“I seem to have that problem.” The look she gave him threw him for a loop. Was she saying what he thought she was? Could she love him, after all he’d done to her? Hell, he’d worked her ass off for a solid year, treating her like a lowdown slave. At first because he’d thought her a lazy, shiftless scavenger, like most of the rotters in debtor’s hell. Later, he’d done it to break the contract, to finally get between those luscious thighs.
No way she could feel anything for him but reluctance, or worse, scorn. How the hell could he convince her to take a chance on him after he’d treated her no better than a slave? He looked into her eyes, seeing the courageous woman beneath the beauty in bed, and the answer came to him. Simple. He wouldn’t let her leave. He’d keep her any way, anyhow, until he could convince her he loved her.
“Roarke?” She scooted back. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“How am I looking at you?”
“Like you want to beat me.”
He laughed out loud, more than amused at the image she’d painted. He did want to beat her, but not the way she imagined. Some spanking, pounding into her with his dick…
“What’s so funny about that?” she grumbled.
“Have I ever laid a hand on you? Honestly. Were you ever scared I might hurt you, even from that first day?”
She opened her mouth to respond and closed it. “Um, no. Not really.”
“Why?”
“Well, I’m not sure.” She looked at him, searching for what her heart already knew. He was a man she could always trust. A part of her must have sensed it when they’d met. That same part that drew his alien nature out from its shell. Jamie didn’t realize it, but she had some sort of psychic ability. He wondered about it for half a second, until she shifted and plumped her breasts. He licked his lips, his attention diverted.
“I know why you weren’t afraid. It’s because you recognized me.”
She scoffed. “I’d never seen you before in my life. Trust me, I’d remember you.”
“Oh?” He pushed her hair back behind her ear, moving it so he could better see her rose-colored nipples.
“Come on, Roarke. You know the effect you have on people.”
He smiled. “So you wanted me then too, eh?”
“Please. You’re a bully. A domineering assho—”
“Careful, Jamie. Or I’ll think you don’t like me.” He leaned forward and took her nipple between his lips. He sucked, licking and teasing. He pinched the other one, wanting her hard and aroused, needing him.
“And a tease,” she added, breathless. “Admit it. You like playing with me.”
“I do. Oh I do.” He gave attention to her other breast until she was gripping his head to her. He’d never had a woman respond to him like Jamie did. Just further evidence she belonged to him.
“Roarke, please.”
“You’re mine now, aren’t you?” Her tits fascinated him. So soft and full. He could spend a lifetime sucking her breasts, enthralled with her sensitivity there. He wondered if she might orgasm from the stimulation alone.
“Yours… How…?” she asked on a moan when he thrust his leg between her knees, pressing up into her pussy.
She was wet against him. The feel of her arousal made him ache.
“I need to fuck you again. To spill inside that wet cunt. My cunt.” He nipped her breast, leaving love bites along her milky flesh. “You’re all mine. Even that tight little ass, hmm?”
She moaned and ground against him.
“Lay back and push your breasts together.” He shoved himself inside her and thrust a few times, getting himself nice and slick. “I need to fuck your tits. I want to come all over you.” Just the thought had him ready to spew. Something about Jamie pushed him to possess her. He wanted to mark her, his scent in her and on her.
She looked at him through shuttered eyes. “Do it. Come on me. Show me what you need.”
I need you. “That’s it.” He ground against her clit, relishing her moans for more. Then he pulled out and straddled her. He positioned his cock between her tits and slid between them. Watching himself push between those fleshy mounds was too much. “Fuck, that’s good. I love your breasts. So soft, so full.” He groaned as he moved faster, his balls dragging over her warm skin. He needed to come, to let go all over her.
“Do it. Come,” she whispered, her voice husky, her eyes glazed with lust. “I want to feel you all over me.”
He pulled back and took himself in hand. “Fuck. Here it comes. All over those pretty tits.” He gripped his cock hard, feeling the blaze of orgasm pushing past his flesh. His balls hardened and he swore as he came in streams over her nipples and chest. The relief was overpowering, and just as good as seeing himself mark her like a primitive beast.
She rubbed it in, her eyes glued to his as he continued to pull the last bits of cum from his cock.
“You’re warm,” she purred and cupped his balls.
“And you’re still frustrated.” He smiled, feeling hungry again. “Time for seconds.”
“What—”
He slid down her body and clamped his mouth around her clit, holding her thighs wide as he ate her out.
Such a sultry lover, she met him jolt for jolt, so wet and willing for anything he wanted.
Dragging his fingers closer, he speared her pussy and fucked her with first one finger then two. Her entire body quivered, and he knew she neared her release. He slid his pinkie into her ass and pushed, satisfied at the tight fit.
She cried out and came hard.
He stroked her down, easing the pressure of his tongue and fingers. He gradually withdrew his hand and kissed his way back up her body.
“You taste good, honey.” He kissed her lips and slid his tongue inside her mouth, comforted that though he wanted to, he finally didn’t have it in him to fuck her again without a good break and some food. “Now it’s time to clean up and get something to eat. We can’t have sex the entire way to Glasser Bay, can we?”
“Glasser Bay?”
“I have a house there. Don’t worry, it’s all set up for us. Just you and me, and nothing but time to talk about the future.”
* * * * *
Jamie sat across from the Roarke she thought she knew. The moment they’d left her small stateroom, he’d changed. The intimate lover had once again become a distant stranger. Her boss, now her captor, she supposed. But none of that detracted from thoughts about what he’d done with his body…and tongue.
“I’d just love to know what you’re thinking,” he murmured as they ate their morning meal.
“I thought you preferred a mindless slave. One who doesn’t argue with you all the time.”
He gave her an odd look. “You’d think I would, wouldn’t you? But in all the time you’ve been with me, you’ve never once been easy or convenient. A pain in the ass from day one.”
“Me?” She stared at him. “You’re the arrogant, overbearing boss with a god complex.”
His eyes glinted with mischief. “Now, Jamie. Just because you called me a god in bed doesn’t make me one. Though ‘Oh God, Oh God’ has a nice ring to it.” The jerk’s voice rose, attracting attention she didn’t want.
“Shut up.” To her annoyance, several female passengers eyed her boss—her lover—like bitches in heat. She glared at them, even more aggravated when Roarke caught her doing it.
To her relief, he didn’t remark on it. Instead, he devoured another forkful of steak and eggs and sighed. “I really worked up an appetite. You too. Eat.”
She wanted to abstain just to irritate him, but he was right. She felt as if she could eat a whole cow by herself.
“You’re going to need your strength later.” He winked.
“Why? You going to have me flogged and brought back to the Block?” The flip rejoinder slipped out before she could stop it.
His smile faded. “I’d never do that to you. Regardless of what you think of me, I value our time together.”
She didn’t know how to respond to that, so she changed the subject. “Is Gregory all right then?”
He nodded. “My brother picked him up on Werfal 7 and escorted him to his friend standing by. Don’t worry about Gregory. He’ll be just fine now that he’s away from Earth.” He paused. “So was it worth it, helping him out of an arranged marriage?”
The tense expression on his face surprised her. “What? You’re telling me you wouldn’t do anything you could to save your family?”
“Gregory’s a part of your family?”
“No. But my idiot sister Susanna is. If I hadn’t helped Gregory, she would have tried. And trust me, she would have been busted long before I was.”
He looked relieved. “Well, don’t beat yourself up too badly. I knew something was up with that crate, but only because I’m not your typical manager.”
“Yeah, I get that.” She was dying to know more about him.
“Go ahead and ask.”
She looked around them, conscious that though many didn’t care about alien status, there were too many prejudices alive and well when it came to the Otra. She leaned closer to him. “So you’re special, then.”
“Special?”
“Otra,” she mouthed.
“Ah, right. Special. Only half.” His lips quirked and he glanced down at his crotch. “The best half, hmm?”
“Roarke, really.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, I’m special. My father is, and my three older brothers are as well. If it were up to me, I’d have been up-front with the truth from the beginning, but my father didn’t want to worry about me down here by myself. He put out the word a long time ago that I’m no one but a burden, a leftover from his human wife’s past.”
She frowned. “That’s terrible. I’d heard your mother married Rhenec Talson after her first husband died, but there’s been a lot of speculation you might be Rhenec’s son. Now I know.”
“Now you know.”
“But why the lies?”
“To protect me. I grew up shunned on Earth because I might be Otra, but trust me, the Otra aren’t all goodness and light either. They don’t like my human half. To them I’m a dilution of their superior race.” He took a long sip of water. “My family loves me, and I love them. We’re all loyal. If my father wants to keep my parentage a secret to save myself and Talson Shipping a lot of hassle, I’m fine with that. The people who need to know the truth already do.”
The knowing smile he gave her confused her. “What?”
“You know one of my deepest secrets. Now I really need to keep a close eye on you.” He glanced down at her half-eaten plate of food and frowned. “Finish your breakfast.”
“Yes, Dad.”
“I’m not your father, but if you want to call me daddy, I’m game.” He grinned, and a bolt of heat blazed between her legs. “Hell. I have a hard time thinking when you look like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like you need to be fucked hard.” He groaned and closed his eyes. “I spent a good portion of this past year taking cold showers—which don’t work—and beating off.”
She blinked. “Really?”
“Yes, really. Why do you think I was sitting in most of our meetings? I didn’t want you to see the effect you have on me.”
The smile on his face made her suspicious. He hadn’t called the law on her. He’d given her multiple orgasms and he was being nice after all she’d done.
“What’s going on?”
“About what?”
“Why are you being so nice? Is this so I won’t try to think about what’s coming to me?” She groaned at the thought of all she’d sacrificed. Sure, sex with Roarke was amazing, but it had to end sometime. He’d get tired of her, and her lovesick ass would end up back on the Block or worse, trapped in a slaver camp, stuck servicing men.
“You have no idea what’s coming to you.” His voice turned very quiet, and very cold. “Now finish up your meal. We have things to do today before we pull into port.”
Chapter Six
“Things to do today” equated to two more sessions of intense fucking. Roarke took her once from behind and the next time spent in her mouth before letting her dress again. He shouldn’t have had so much stamina. For that matter, neither should she.
Jamie didn’t know why, but each time they had sex, even as brutal and wild as he could be, she felt them making love instead. Masculine satisfaction, pride and affection threaded through her thoughts and feelings, yet she knew the alien emotions for what they were. Those belonging to him.
She glanced at him as they sat in the back of a piloted hovercraft speeding toward his home in Glasser Bay. Off Whidbey Island, Glasser Bay was the predominant play area for the rich and famous wanting privacy on the coast. That Roarke had a home out here illustrated once again how far apart they were on every spectrum.
“What’s wrong?” He held her hand and rubbed her palm with his thumb, making her stomach do somersaults the entire drive to his house.
“I don’t like not knowing what’s going to happen to me. You were angry when I questioned you before, but
Roarke, it’s my life we’re talking about.”
“And what would you do if you had your freedom? If your three years of service ended tomorrow, where would you go? What would you do?”
She hadn’t thought that far ahead. “Do? I’d visit my sisters.”
“And then?”
“And then…” What would she do? She’d worked so hard for so long to be free, she’d never thought about what she might do once she had her freedom.
“Then what, Jamie?” His low voice caught her and she looked up into eyes full of compassion. Understanding. Love?
A wash of desire and affection flowed through her, taking her breath away.
“I—I—” She took a deep breath, not sure what she felt. Dammit, was that Roarke again, or had she been imagining all of it? Did loving him make her weak or strong? How could a man like him, a man with so much, ever feel the same about her?
“Hold that thought. We’re here.” He eased down the window.
She looked out at a glass palace overlooking the water. A modern structure made of what looked like mirrors crossed with amalgam steel and wooden beams, a house crafted in the new Otra-style, that had recently become popular in the States.
“Oh, wow.”
“It’s actually the family beach house. Not really mine. My mother designed it.” He helped her out of the vehicle and walked her to the front door. She heard the crashing waves against the cliff behind the house. Talk about a view to die for.
He took her through the front hallway into the living areas, past teak furnishings and platinum viewers, past greenery and feminine touches that showed a woman had indeed had a hand in decorating. The colorful pillows, throws and artwork softened the practical angles and modern furniture.
“And the view. What my father paid handsomely for twenty years ago.” Roarke nodded to the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the ocean. “You can see out, but no one can see in unless I press that.” He pointed to a switch on the wall. “We have a few nosey neighbors who like to comb the beach. If the sun hits the house just right, you can see right inside unless the refractor setting is on.”
“Great views, unless you’re not into having an audience.”