“Tory knows this? Which one?”
“Tory has not asked me and I will not tell him.”
“Why?”
“Because the traitor still has a part to play.”
Alex glared at him. Fucking Ardasians. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
A bleak look spread over Jezar’s face. “I do too.”
“Is all this why you signed on with Tory?” She played a card and rearranged her hand again.
“Tory’s reputation for having a strict moral code isn’t a good enough reason?” He smiled faintly and laid another card down.
Strict moral code? That’s not what she’d heard. “No. You don’t strike me as a criminal or a rebel.” Most of the men on The Pinnacle were men outside the law in some way. At least, that’s what the vid streamers said. Though Alex didn’t believe everything she’d heard, she knew those stories had to have some truth to them. Tory’s crew was known throughout the system as space Robin Hoods, stealing from the powerful and giving to the downtrodden. But they were still criminals.
“Oh? How do I strike you?”
She stared at him. How many Ardasians did she know? Well, there was Kyler. She’d grown up with him and hadn’t thought of him as a true Ardasian. He had never seemed like one. In her capacity as a Star Commander of Teran One forces she’d met three. One was a Teran Five general with a very sarcastic tongue but a knack for inspiring loyalty in men, human or Ardasian. The second, a Judge of Light who had arbitrated a dispute between Teran One military and Teran Two space merchants. The third had mated her to Tory. What did she really know about Ardasians? “Well, actually, I don’t know that much about Ardasians. I suppose my experience is limited.”
“Our culture is confusing to the uninitiated,” he said casually. “We have a personal code that demands a high price.” He sighed. “It’s better that way. With our power, too many could turn to crime or power plays. Being privy to the thoughts of others is a huge responsibility. Our punishments for small infractions are severe. For example, a child who bridges with another without permission is cut off from contact with other minds for six months.”
“You’ve never had any rebel?” she asked and immediately regretted it when his eyes jerked away from his cards and color dropped from his face. She stammered, “I mean, if your punishments are so strict…” She trailed off. The idea of a human culture that controlled its people who had so much power seemed impossible. A human being would rebel eventually from such a strict code. From the expression on Jezar’s face, she guessed even Ardasians had their rebels.
His answer came slowly. “The cost of rebellion is…substantial.”
“Your history has examples?”
Jezar kept his eyes on his cards. “Yes.”
“What happened?” she said bluntly.
He hesitated. “To know that, you have to understand our whole history. The best example of rebellion was many of us were left behind on Earth and did not follow the wanderers that colonized Ardasia.”
“What do you mean?” She laid another card down. Almost. She was close to a winning hand.
“We were gifted, mentally enhanced, though not as powerful as we are now. Some of our fellow gifted humans stayed behind when we colonized Ardasia.”
Her eyes widened, her cards forgotten. “Earth. You’re talking about Earth.”
“Yes.” Jezar’s lips tightened. “Those left behind did not follow the code. They…used their power to control the ungifted.”
“Us.”
He nodded. “Yes.” He seemed about to say more but clamped his mouth shut.
“They were the alien force that released the plague.”
Jezar frowned at his cards. “The plague is not what you think it is.”
“I don’t understand,” she said and put her cards face down. She wanted answers to this.
“It is a virus, an infection. But it affects the mind, weakening it. Essentially, the victim becomes a mindless zombie.”
“And from the vision, they’re flesh-eating zombies.” She shuddered as the picture Kera showed them replayed in her mind.
“Not flesh-eating, flesh-killing,” he clarified, though Alex wondered if the distinction meant that much.
“And Ardasians are immune.”
“Yes. Those who are genetically descended from those Ardasians who stayed behind, those ‘rebels’, are immune from the virus. The original few who stayed behind on Earth could not control the humans who had their blood. In the end, however, it didn’t matter. Those who survived the virus were killed by those infected.” He glanced at her face. “It’s your turn.”
He meant those who were genetically descended from the alien race that made the virus in the first place. So, that commander she’d seen in the Ardasian museum, Darina Stanton, was descended from those who caused the whole mess in the first place. Alex wondered if Darina had seen the irony.
She played her next card and Jezar played his. In the silence, Alex reviewed what they’d discussed. Jezar wouldn’t talk about all this without a reason. He was preparing her for something. She had no doubt the Ardasian knew something about the future.
Still, the silence was comfortable, relaxing. Soon, the card game took over both her thoughts and their conversation. Gathering together a complete suit, in order, took focus. She lost the game they’d been playing. And the next.
Alex sighed and tossed her cards his way. “If I didn’t know the Ardasian code demanded no cheating, I’d say you were using your mental skills to beat me.”
Jezar’s smile softened his features. She hadn’t really noticed before that he was a very good-looking man, his features strong, his smile reaching his eyes to brighten them. “I’m afraid the imprint of your thoughts does make the game easier to play.”
“What does that mean?” The imprint of her thoughts? How deeply had he read her?
“The way you arrange your thoughts, your habit of processing, all adds to how you play the game of Fist,” he told her and he shuffled the cards. “From reading you, I can tell which cards you are drawn to and your way of discarding.”
“How deeply have you read my thoughts?” she asked.
Jezar raised his eyes and met hers. “Not as deeply as I would like.”
She blinked. What he doing? Hitting on her? Ridiculous. She was mated to Tory and nothing, not even Tory’s anger with her, was going to change that. She wasn’t sure she understood anything about this man. “I’m not sure I know what you mean.”
He arranged his cards, his attention on them, not her. “Tory saved my life.”
That seemed like a change in subjects. “Oh?”
He laid his first card down. “I don’t want anything to threaten him.”
Alex remembered the vision the Judge of Light had shown her where she shot Tory and nodded. “I understand that.” She laid her cards face down and clasped her hands together. “How deep do you need to go?”
He blinked and met her steady stare. “You’re…willing to allow me access?”
She took a deep breath. “Tory saved my life too.”
His head cocked to the side. “You realize that?”
“I saw it. When we bridged.”
Jezar nodded. “I promise to respect your boundaries.”
“Do what you have to do.” She braced herself. Having Tory in her head seemed…right. Allowing Jezar in was completely different.
Again, the shift in focus threw her off and her vision blurred. Jezar’s touch was completely different than being linked to Tory. More aggressive, probing and much less careful of her hidden places. Tory had been single-minded, only accessing bits and pieces of her thoughts and feelings. Sharing the same mental space had been revealing and enlightening.
With Jezar, sharing the space was uncomfortable. He pillaged her mind, upending her thoughts like a raid on her ship. It took effort not to defend against his invasion, and try to block him. Instead, she mentally stepped aside, allowing him in, hiding nothing. The result surprised her. Sh
e dipped into his thoughts, what he searched for and why.
A traitor.
Jezar knew someone close to Tory, someone he cared about was going to betray him. It wasn’t the vision of the shuttle bay that slammed into her, but something worse.
The Ardasian had seen a vision of Tory stranded on a plague-ravaged Teran One with its inhabitants tearing flesh from those who weren’t infected. The sight of her mate being torn to bloody shreds by a hundred seeking hands and mouths made Alex cry out. Her heart cracked and shattered. She couldn’t breathe. It couldn’t happen. She had to stop it.
What the hell are you doing to her, Jezar? Tory’s mental voice sounded enraged.
I never intended to show her. She… I’m sorry, Tory. Jezar backed away from her mind slowly.
She held onto his connection. Wait! Did you find anything? Am I the one who does this thing? She’d rather slit her own wrists than be responsible for Tory ending up ripped to pieces by those zombies.
No. It’s not you. And he was gone.
When she opened her eyes, Jezar was on his feet and Tory stood in the doorway, his blue eyes blazing and his fists clenched. “What did you do to her?” He spat the words out and Alex realized Tory was about use a laser pistol on Jezar.
She jumped between them. “I asked him to do it.”
Tory glared at her. “He bridged you, read you deep. I felt it.”
“You know the vision he sees,” she said, resting her hand on his arm.
His shoulder lifted. “Yes. So what?”
She wanted to shake him. “So, there’s a traitor, someone who betrays you. Someone who leaves you to be—” The blood, the gore, the horror of it, choked her.
“Damn it, Tory, you need to know who it is.”
“It’s not her.” Jezar had stood absolutely still, as if he would accept whatever Tory decided to do to him.
“You didn’t have to—”
“Yes, he did.” She gripped both his arms with shaking hands. “You know the vision the Judge of Light showed me. We both have to know it wouldn’t be me.”
He blinked. “You left. You were going to get yourself killed. I knew it wasn’t you.”
“I didn’t,” she said firmly. He had to understand. After all she’d seen and learned, she had to know. Jezar knew that.
“She trusts you. She doesn’t trust herself.” Jezar folded his body into the chair and dealt three hands.
Tory’s lips tightened. “Trusts me? I don’t think you read her deep enough.” His tone was so bitter that Alex winced. She dropped her hands. How could she convince him that she’d gone after her sister because she had to?
“I read her deep enough,” Jezar told him. “But she didn’t pay attention to what she read in my thoughts or she’d know when you saved Celeste.”
Alex’s brow wrinkled and she stared at Tory. He was going to make her drag it out of him. “Care to let me in on this?”
“Tell her when.” Jezar calmly rearranged his cards.
Tory cleared his throat. “I made sure Celeste was underground when I found out what you were transporting on that shuttle.”
“How?”
“I have contacts on Teran One. I told them to get her underground, to hide her. They convinced her that she was threatened. She’s still with them. I checked.”
She blinked. “You did this before we were mated?”
“Yes.”
Idiot. Why hadn’t he just told her? She flung her arms around his neck and pressed her lips to his. He barely caught her and returned the kiss before she leaned back. “Thank you.”
She almost giggled at the way his mouth dropped open and his eyes widened. “You’re welcome.”
“Now, can we play some cards?” Jezar asked them, a smirk on his face.
“I hate playing cards with you. You always win.”
“There’s always a first time.”
Tory groaned and Alex grinned. She shifted in her seat and said, “While we’re playing, you can tell me what you know about Celeste’s situation since I’ve been gone.”
Her mate rolled his eyes and sat down with bad grace at the table. It occurred to Alex that she had to add the life of her sister to the list of her debts to Tory. How was she ever going to pay him back?
One wicked thought of just how she could repay him was followed by several others until she didn’t want to play Fist anymore. She wanted Jezar to go away.
The Ardansian’s gaze met hers and his lips twitched. “I think we can save the game for another time. Perhaps you’ll explain better alone.”
She bit her lip to keep from grinning. She made sure to think about being grateful so he’d catch it. Jezar nodded toward her and started for the door.
Tory stopped him. “Jezar—”
Jezar stared at his friend and smiled. “No need, my friend.” He shot a glance at Alex. “I completely understand.”
Tory’s shoulders relaxed. “Thank you.”
Chapter Sixteen
After Jezar left, Alex didn’t know what to say or how to start. She knew exactly what she wanted. But she was no practiced seducer or knowledgeable lover. She was a military commander.
A military commander who liked being hung on a rack and spanked.
Well, there was no other way to make him understand. She’d been wrong about him. He had already taken care of her family long before he had any reason to.
Determined to take whatever he had to dish out, she remembered his comment in their first violent encounter here in this room. I like my sex rough and my women restrained.
She stood and strode to the console on the wall. One firm push and the rack dropped down. Tory, still seated, watched her with hooded eyes. She removed her uniform and stepped, naked, into the restraints. The feel of the metal against her skin reminded her of the other times she’d been in the rack. Her pussy throbbed and her skin flushed at the thought. Yes, this was what she needed.
“I was wrong to doubt you. I thought I had burdened you enough, so I went after my sister alone.”
Tory’s blue eyes glittered. So, he was still pissed. This might be a severe punishment. She still had her safeword.
His gaze swept over her naked body. When he spoke, his voice was rough. “You made me worry.”
“I’m sorry.” And she was. She knew how she’d feel if he went off on a life-threatening mission without her.
“I’m going to have to punish you,” he said, his tone no longer hard but seductive and hot. He slowly approached her, heat emanating from his body and she could feel it as he got closer.
She shivered. “I know.” She lifted her chin. She could take whatever he could dish out.
He slapped a button on the console. Three items were in the small opening. She didn’t recognize any of them.
One was a short, stubby phallic device with a button on one end and a rounded tip. One was a glove with small, blunt needles protruding from the material. The last item was a long stick with several controls on the side of it.
Tory’s face was set in stone. This was going to be both painful and pleasurable. He clicked the wrist restraints in place but left her ankles free. Her breasts felt heavy, needy, her nipples tightening under his severe perusal. The scent of her own arousal reached her nostrils and she gasped. Just the way he looked at her made her senses go crazy.
He didn’t touch the items in the drawer at first. Instead, he slid a finger from the line of her neck down to her right nipple. His fingers captured the stiffened flesh and he twisted it as his gaze met hers. An electric shock of pain and need shot through her. It should have hurt. But it felt so good. He twisted her nipple again and her pussy ached. Her nerves were taut, ready, wanting more.
Both his hands were on her breasts, his thumbs and forefingers rolling her nipples in a painful, sweet twist. God, she couldn’t wait. She wanted his mouth on her, his dick inside her, his hands everywhere. She moaned as he stepped closer, the smell of his sweat filling her senses. That unique scent of Tory. It reminded her of the m
any times they’d been close together, inches apart physically, but miles apart in every other way. But now? Now they were together in every way that mattered. Her back arched and she lifted one leg to try to pull him closer.
One of his hands dropped from her breast and slapped her ass with a sharp, painful crack. She only moaned again. Her system sizzled, every inch of her skin hot and flushed. The pain of the pull on her nipples and the fire from his strike on her buttocks made her tremble. More. She wanted more.
She closed her eyes and let the sensations rocket through her. Then, pinpricks slid across her ass and her breasts. Her eyes flew open. Tory had the glove with metal needles and he ran it over her flushed skin, leaving a trail of reddened flesh and intensified nerves. He kept twisting her nipple as the other hand stimulated every inch of her torso with his gloved hand.
When the little needles scraped lower, near her clit, she held her breath, waiting. Finally, his hand brushed her pussy with the pins and she cried out. Stars, just that gentle touch and she wanted more, harder, faster. The protrusions on the glove dug into her flesh and her blood sprang to the surface of her skin, heating it like a hundred tiny brands. Her breath came in pants and her heart pounded in her ears. Even though she’d known he would punish her, she had no idea how much she would like it. It wasn’t just her senses being overloaded with pleasure and pain, but her heart clenched with the need to be with him, to take all he would give her no matter what it might do to her.
“Do you know when I bought this rack and these toys, Alexandra?” Tory’s voice barely penetrated the sexual haze that fogged her mind.
She opened her mouth but a whimper escaped instead of words as he slid the tiny needles lightly over her clit. Too lightly.
“I bought everything when I’d made the decision I was coming after you. Finding the information that you were heading for a trap was just dumb luck.”
Alex opened her eyes. Tory’s stare focused on the stripes across her belly, her breasts and her thighs. He moved the glove over her sensitive flesh and she barely managed to form the question. “Why?”
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