Ransomed by Kashatok

by Tamsin Ley

  She began to quake and shudder. He slammed his fingers into her again and again, his palm now smacking her sex as he lifted himself on his other hand to peer at her flushed face. She arched against the floor, her bared breasts quivering as she rose to meet his thrusts. His cock surged and jolted, demanding its release. But he couldn’t be sure he’d last long enough to finish her, and she deserved pleasure.

  A scream erupted from her panting lips, and her core clamped down around his fingers. He didn’t stop. He continued driving into her until she sagged, her legs relaxing and her shudders easing. His cock was so hard now, so painful, he doubted he could come if he tried.

  She opened her eyes and lifted both hands to reach for him. “I want you.”

  He needed no more encouragement. With a flick of his fingers, his buckle came loose, his fly was open, and his cock sprang free. Her hands helped ease the waistband down around his hips, the air cool on his exposed flesh. He positioned himself at her entrance, eyes closing as the delicious friction of her heat enveloped the blunt head of his cock.

  “Ellam Cua,” he swore again as he slipped centimeter by centimeter inside her.

  She was wet and tight, wrapping him in an embrace he’d never imagined experiencing again. Once he was fully seated inside her, he sighed and remained locked in place a few moments, reveling in her pulsating heat.

  When he opened his eyes, she was looking at him intently, pupils dilated with desire.

  She slid her hand beneath his shirt, caressing up his abs until she reached a nipple. She pinched it lightly, sending rockets of pleasure through his nerve endings. Who knew his nipples could be so sensitive?

  Slowly, tentatively, he began to move. It was nothing like he remembered from his singular previous experience. Joy was perfect. Joy was pure. Joy was his. Her breath washed over him and he took it in, buttocks tightening as he ground against her.

  She gasped his name, clinging to him, their gazes locked in what could only be a melding of souls. He increased his speed, pleased when she matched him. Without warning, he became a rutting beast: a primal thing, pounding into her relentlessly, teeth clenched and muscles taut.

  He could feel her everywhere, not merely on his cock. Her legs around his hips. Her hands on his torso. Her gaze locked with his. A connection solidified between them, something beyond the physical, beyond the mental, and every stroke hardened the bond.

  Even without words, he knew Joy felt it, too. Her eyes were bright with pleasure and love.

  Her mouth gaped in a silent scream and she threw her head back, eyes closing as rapture swept through her

  Fear sank its claws into him one last time. “No,” he gasped. “Look at me.”

  He needed to know she was with him. That she wouldn’t leave him.

  Her lids flew open and she nodded, still spasming around him. He pumped unrelentingly, driving her through her pleasure. She gripped his shoulders and he focused his concentration more than he’d ever done before, willing her to rise even higher. To meet him at the precipice. To push him over the edge.

  When she crested again, he couldn’t stop. He let go, light behind his eyes exploding into pleasure he’d never dreamed possible.

  And in that moment he sent his ionic sense into her mind, piercing through the veil that shrouded her thoughts. In that moment, she was his completely.

  Every synapse in Joy’s mind had seemed to alight at once with her orgasm—or was it his? Her senses were flooded with Kashatok, an essence so pure, she didn’t know where he ended and she began. She could sense his every thought. Every emotion. Right now he was desperate, terrified, full of adrenaline. “Joy, don’t leave me. Joy!”

  Much like when the wave of data had hit her on the Kinship, she was unable to control her body. Her insides still fluttered from the shattering, physical release. But she took comfort from the warm arms around her, relaxed into the heated breath against the crook of her neck, breathed deeply of a sweet yet masculine scent that reminded her of rum.

  Kashatok.

  Slowly, painstakingly, she untangled her thoughts from his, calming her ragged breathing. She opened her eyes, turning her head to meet his gaze. “I’m right here.”

  He sucked in sharply. “Ellam Cua, I thought…”

  He shuddered, then his mouth was on hers, his need more emotional than physical. Breaking the kiss, he rested his forehead against hers. “The nanites worked? Praise Ellam Cua, you’re safe.”

  She smiled, her camera focusing on the thick fringe of his eyelashes dominating her field of vision. She’d assumed that with the nanites gone, her camera would stop functioning. “I can see.”

  “That’s wonderful.” He kissed her again and rolled onto his back, carrying her with him so she rested against his chest. She could hear his dual-beating hearts, strong and sure against her cheek.

  “But the nanites should’ve been destroyed.” She peered inside her mind, concentrating on the microcomputers. They no longer floated free about her system. Every single one of them had aligned, coating the myelin sheaths around each nerve cell like armor. The ones on her optic nerves tingled as they transmitted data from her camera, while others had settled into various dormant positions as if awaiting tasks she had yet to assign. Through it all, every one of them thrummed with awareness of the ionic frequency of the man lying beside her. “They’re still active.”

  He stiffened, the hand that had been stroking her back halting sharply. “How can that be?”

  She shook her head. She had no idea. Except that in the last moments of climax, something had changed. He’d opened up to her, and she’d glimpsed his essence, the core of his being. And at that moment, she’d become more than herself.

  The nanites had changed with her.

  He sat up, keeping her on his lap and holding her shoulders to look deeply into her eyes. “Uminaq, you need a doctor.”

  She placed her hands on either side of his bearded face, heart swelling with love for this gruff, protective pirate captain. She wasn’t afraid. The machines were a part of her now, as much as her breath or her pulse or her soul. Something she couldn’t control yet had become vital to sustaining life. “I don’t think they’re a danger anymore.”

  “They’re fucking Syndicorp tech. We need to destroy them.”

  She licked her lips, giving him a mischievous smile, and stroked a finger down his copper-skinned chest toward his navel. “We could try again.”

  His skin twitched beneath her touch, and from the gap of his open fly, his cock swelled back to life. His pupils dilated as his gaze shifted to her mouth and back to meet her eyes. “I never thought I’d hear a woman say that.”

  She grinned, wiggling her ass against his legs. Her tunic was ripped to shreds, hanging from her shoulders, so she shrugged out of it. Then she lifted his shirt over his head, exposing his broad chest and muscular shoulders. Damn, even sitting, the man had washboard abs, his long beard dangling between his pecs.

  Pushing him back against the deck, she yanked his pants free. His narrow hips and rock-hard thighs reminded her of the ancient Greek statues Mother’d forced her to study after Joy’d professed a desire to be an artist. While the statues had been drool-worthy, Mother’s drive for perfection had nipped Joy’s love of art in the bud.

  Now she regained her appreciation, running her palms up Kashatok’s naked legs, pausing where his groin rose into a massive erection unlike any she’d ever seen on a Greek statue. Her pussy tightened, its soreness reminding her of the Earth-shattering orgasms she’d just experienced. Despite the ache in her core, she wanted another one.

  She lifted a leg and straddled him, continuing to smooth her palms up his chest to his shoulders.

  He grabbed her hips and pulled her down, trapping his erection between them. She tilted her hips and he pulled her tighter, grinding his length against her clit. A shudder raced through her, and she lifted her chin in an involuntary moan of pleasure.

  Sitting up again, he slipped his broad hands around to cup her ass
, fingertips feathering the outer edges of her sex. She was slippery, throbbing, heated. Leaning in, she breathed in his masculine scent. He met her move, biting softly at her bottom lip before claiming her in a kiss that made her nipples harden and her nanites fire with anticipation. Each stroke of his tongue within her mouth built the fire within her higher and hotter, until she was rocking against him, her lower lips embracing his length in tantalizing strokes.

  Lifting her as if she weighed nothing, he settled her back down, spearing her with his cock. She gasped as his thick head pulsed deep inside her. Holy hell, she was going to come again and they’d barely started. Her hips twitched, needing to move, but he ground her firmly against him, his mouth devouring hers. Whatever he was doing was building a pressure deep within her like she’d never experienced, as if his cock was growing in size, stretching her to the fullest.

  When he finally relaxed his hold, allowing a breath of space between them, the delightful friction sent micro-orgasms shuddering through her.

  Then he began to undulate his hips beneath her, rocking side to side. “Kashatok,” she gasped, meeting his rhythm, eyes locked on his.

  He lay back, bringing her with him. The shift deepened his penetration, hitting a spot just below her navel that made her shiver. She rocked her hips, building to a frenzy while bracing herself with both hands against his rock-hard chest.

  He slid a hand between them, thumb circling her clit.

  Jolts of pleasure fired through her, igniting her nanites to new levels of awareness, new levels of pleasure. She settled into a rhythm that drowned out all else, riding him until it felt as if every synapse would explode.

  “Joy,” he grunted, his hands running up her sides to cup her breasts. He pinched her nipples ever so lightly, but the added sensation sent fire through her bloodstream. Every muscle in her body convulsed with her orgasm. His release took him at the same moment, filling her with his heat and leaving her breathless.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Hours later, Kashatok roused as Joy’s warmth left him and she moved to the lavatory. Much as he reveled in watching everything she did, he rolled over, cradling his head on his wadded-up shirt. The elated contentment pulsing through him felt as if his body was trying to catch up on fifteen years of deprivation. It almost masked the hopelessness of the situation they were in.

  Joy returned, shivering in the chill of the pod’s struggling life support system. How long did they have before the energy cells were depleted? He pulled his shirt from beneath his head. “Here, put this on.”

  The hem fell almost to her knees. His cock stirred yet again. He couldn’t get enough of her. “I like you in my clothes.”

  She pursed her lips, fighting back a smile. “Are you warm enough?”

  “Never better.” He held an arm up, inviting her to snuggle against him.

  He wrapped both arms around her, spooning against her while he breathed deeply against her hair. It felt as if he might wake up from a dream at any moment.

  She kissed his forearm. “I’m sorry I got you into this.”

  He could honestly say that if he died now, he’d die content. But the thought of Joy’s life being extinguished was nearly unbearable. “It’s not your fault. I think you merely provided Aleknagik with an excuse to do something he’s wanted to do for years. Finding out you were Mulholland-Aird’s daughter was just something he capitalized on to rally the crew against me.”

  Her hands clenched into fists. “My damn mother.”

  His arms tightened. He’d told her he believed she wasn’t Syndicorp, but how could she not be? “So… how is the CEO’s daughter not with the ‘corp?”

  Joy sighed, her breath tickling his arm before she sat up to face him. She drew her knees inside the shirt and hugged them against her. “Mother and I have never seen eye-to-eye. She wanted me to follow in her footsteps, yet I was never pretty enough, charismatic enough, or even worse, dedicated enough in her opinion. The entire reason I became a reporter was because I thought if I made anchor, she’d have to respect that. She watches the news all the time. She knows more about what’s going on in the Finofan bureaucracy than she does about her own family. She didn’t even realize I was gone until I called her.”

  His stomach did a flip-flop. “You called her?”

  Joy blanched then nodded. “Like I said, this is all my fault.”

  Kashatok sat up to face her. “So you were reporting to her?”

  “No!” Joy’s eyes widened and he felt her blood pressure spike through their lingering ionic connection. “I just… after you said you were a carayak, I couldn’t stomach someone else… destroying the nanites, so I hacked into the Hardship’s comm and called Mother, thinking she would know where to send me for help.”

  Any growing rancor he felt about her subsided. She hadn’t wanted anyone but him. It was one thing to dangle love before him and snatch it away once. But twice? Ellam Cua couldn’t be that cruel. “Any chance your mother’s sending help now?”

  Joy shook her head. “I don’t think she even knows which quadrant I’m in. I cut the connection as soon as she suggested sending troopers. And the emergency beacon is only sending a generic long-range transmission. She has no way to know I’m on board.”

  He waved a hand at the star-studded void outside the small view screen. “For all we know, there’s a space station just out of sensor range.”

  Chewing her lip, Joy stared out the view screen. “We need to boost our signal.” She scooted forward and popped open the compartment below the control panel. “If I up the amperage and integrate the sensors to latch onto any nearby signals, we may be able to increase our range.” She paused and looked over her shoulder at him. “But it will use up all our extra juice. Our life support will be reduced by days. What if no one hears us? Or they do but can’t reach us in time?”

  For a long moment he looked at her, the woman he loved. The future he’d never have. Their chance of surviving was already slim to nothing. Was there a wrong choice in this situation? “I think we should try.”

  She nodded and pointed at the compartment holding the pod’s tools. “Hand me the smallest spanner you can find.”

  After several hours of tinkering, Joy wiped her hands on the rags of her shirt and disengaged the pod’s gravity to save energy. “We’re broadcasting.” Her short hair made a halo around her head as she floated free of the cabin floor. “I’d say we have no more than half a day of power using these levels.”

  Kashatok pulled her close, wrapping both arms around her middle and spinning lazily in the center of the cabin. “I’m not ready for this to end.”

  “I know. Me either.” She grabbed his beard, tugging gently to bring his mouth down to hers. The kiss she gave him lingered long and slow, heating his blood with a soft tenderness they’d not indulged in previously. Breaking the kiss, she looked deeply into his eyes. “Do you believe in an afterlife?”

  Although he knew she could only see him through her camera, she saw the real him. She knew his darkest secret and didn’t shy away. The mate bond—something he’d given up ever hoping could be his—had created a tangible thread between them. “Ellam Cua promises when we find our mates, the bond will be true and after death, we’ll be united to experience new dimensions, new purpose.”

  “That’s a lot to hope for.” She let out a trembling laugh. “Now that you’re not a carayak, you can have your pick of women with nanites. Sure you don’t want to trade me in for a better model if we make the next port?”

  If he hadn’t been so attuned to her, he might’ve mistaken her words for a brush off. “You’re the most beautiful woman in the universe, Joy. My mate. My heart. My everything.”

  Her entire body heated within his embrace, her face lighting with a smile. “I love you, too.”

  He ran one hand up her back and threaded his fingers through her short hair, memorizing her face, enjoying her closeness for what might be the last time. “This has been the happiest time in my entire life.”

  �
�Mine, too.” Joy’s eyes widened abruptly, her gaze drilling past him toward the view screen. “Holy hell, Kashatok, there’s a ship!”

  Kashatok twisted, looking out the port. His breath caught at the oblong module covered in Syndicorp markings. “Troopers.”

  Pawing her way through the air toward the viewport, Joy pressed her face next to his. “We’re saved!”

  Gritting his teeth, he nodded. He was a wanted man, sure to be executed at the next port—if not immediately. Syndicorp gave no quarter to pirates.

  As if sensing his concern, she asked, “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing, my love.” He ran his knuckles along the side of her face. “You’re saved, and that’s all that matters.”

  “Oh, shit.” Her face paled. “You’re a pirate.”

  He nodded, giving her a resigned smile. “I always assumed I’d die in a firefight, not under a Syndicorp executioner’s needle.”

  “That’s not going to happen. You saved me. My mother has to pardon you.” She elbowed him aside and switched on the comm. “Trooper vessel, this is Joy Mulholland-Aird on board the escape pod. Do you copy?”

  Long moments passed with no answer. Outside the view screen, the trooper ship drifted against its background of stars as if oblivious to their presence.

  “Is it possible they don’t know we’re here?” she asked.

  “Try another channel.”

  She cycled through the three distress channels, each with no response. Pulling herself downward to the base of the console, she traced the exposed wiring beneath the control panel. “Everything looks fine here.” She lifted her head and looked out the view screen again. “Maybe they’re having trouble with their sensors? We’re hardly bigger than space dust in this pod. We might be out of visible range.”