Kate resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Clarke lived by the damned rulebook.
“This particular craft was well inside the boundaries of the ISS Star’s jurisdiction.” But it had been quick enough to dodge out of their legal engagement area when it had become obvious that Kate’s ship was prepared to attempt to capture a privateer ship. “They were blatantly entering GEF protected territories. You do not have to explain Galaxy Elite Fleet rules to me, Clarke, I was brought up on them,” Kate replied, ruthlessly using an oblique reference to her influential family to silence him. “I am going down to inspect our prisoners. Keep your full attention on the salvage dogs that have been circling since our engagement with the privateer vessel. The rulebook is quite clear about the responsibilities of being on watch.”
* * * *
Kate ran her eyes along the line of fifteen captured men. All of them looked like the archetypical Rim pirate—some had obviously been injured as a result of her attack on their ship and worse was to come for them if she did not act quickly. Lomax stalked on the periphery of her vision as she walked down the line.
“Welcome aboard the ISS Star, gentlemen. The people I need to speak to now are your commanding officers.”
There was silence. Kate stared at the prisoners, and the prisoners stared back. Some openly defiant, others blank-faced or resentful. “Oh, come on now, gentlemen, who is in charge?” she asked again, wearily.
Kate sighed at the lack of response and fingered the cuffs she held loosely in her right hand. “Do I need to remind you of the GEF habit of executing random individuals until a commanding officer steps up?”
Kate needed no reminders. It had turned her stomach as a cadet. She had other methods to secure cooperation, but first she needed to get her hands on whoever was in control of that ship.
“You have two minutes, time starts…”
Two men stepped forward, breaking rank.
The first of the two men was slightly taller than his companion, broad shouldered with dark hair that just brushed the collar of his tight-fitting black shirt. With a single look he communicated an air of superiority that annoyed Kate instantly, exuding a confidence that the GEF—and more particularly, Kate—were no threat to either himself or whatever business had brought him to the borders of ISS space despite the fact she had just shot his ship to pieces. The second man was lean and only an inch or so shorter than his arrogant shipmate, but with a shock of mocha coloured hair cut close to his head apart from one preposterous lock that flopped over one eyebrow. He had bright blue eyes that roamed the room continuously, and although he seemed to lack the supreme assurance of his colleague, Kate could not miss the intelligent calculation in his gaze. These two were clearly trouble.
“So, Captain Thorn, I wish I could say it was a pleasure.” The dark-haired one smiled politely but the smile fell short of his incredibly green eyes. Kate observed the expression on his face with a studied measure of detachment, aware that even this sanitised smile had an unwelcome effect on her pulse. “Your reputation precedes you in these parts.”
Kate ignored his words. She knew she had a reputation. She had spent years fostering it.
“And you are?”
“Dom…and”—he turned to his companion—“Ren. We would like to be returned to our ship immediately.”
Kate found herself irritated by the fact he did not even give her a full name, even though he must know she was the commander of the vessel that had just captured his ship. He had also given no rank.
“Our ship’s systems indicate several salvage dogs are already starting to circle our location, Mr Dom. I would not be so keen to return to a crippled ship without the means to repair it if I were you.”
She considered prompting him for a first name but decided against it. Kate was not about to give him further opportunities to be clever at her expense. “Of course you can return to your ship shortly if you tell us your business in the area, and provide us with the relevant key codes so we can check your story against your ship’s logs,” Kate replied crisply. “You may even find us generous enough to offer repairs and assistance.”
The one called Ren gave an unmistakeable snort of disbelief but Dom simply gave a small, humourless smile.
“Both you and I know, Captain Thorn, that I am in no way obliged to comply. I was not in GEF controlled space when you attacked us, so I am perfectly within my rights to refuse you.”
“I pursued you from a controlled zone and have arrested you here because you were in controlled space,” Kate insisted, resisting the urge to raise her voice as she felt a flicker of annoyance lick at his calm intransigence. “Why had you crossed to that position within the border zone at all if not to cross into GEF space directly?”
Dom simply stood with folded arms.
“If you have nothing to hide then you should have no problem with answering any questions we put to you,” Kate persisted.
No answer.
“Mr Ren, have you anything to add to your colleague’s explanation?”
A slow, lazy smile spread across the man’s handsome face as he simply added, “No. Dom’s in charge.”
Kate took a deep breath. Perhaps it was too much to expect to capture a hardened privateer Rim vessel and to gain a full confession from the crew all in one day.
“Then I am sorry to say our conversation ends now unless you are prepared to cooperate with us.” Kate smiled her best professional GEF smile at Dom and looked into his green eyes with what was supposed to be deep and complete sincerity. “We will of course return you to your ship immediately and then signal our intention to leave very clearly to every ship in the immediate area. I give it ten minutes before the salvage dogs are alongside, cutting the metal from your ship as you and your crew sit cowering inside.”
A muscle worked in Dom’s jaw and Kate felt a thrill of triumph. He knew she was telling the truth and if he wanted to save his crew, he was going to have to give her what she wanted. Or so he thought.
“I’ll talk to you in private,” he finally replied.
“Of course you will. You, and your second, will come with me now.”
“No, I do this alone.” His eyes flashed.
How sweet. Captain Dom obviously did not want his second in command to get into trouble.
“No,” Kate refused promptly. “I need you both. Come.”
Both looked every inch the Rim pirate—lean, handsome and dangerously angry. Ironically, Rim privateers were far less of a problem than the individuals that Kate was actually hunting for in this sector because they operated in small groups and lacked the powerful backup of her true quarry. The really dangerous adversaries in this part of GEF space were the Rim political insurgents, operating with the full backup of the incredibly powerful Rim collectives. Kate’s commanders were fighting a losing battle to prevent Prime Worlds on the edge of the GEF-controlled areas from forging political relations with the predatory Rim. Not every resident within the inner galaxy was happy with the old autocratic methods of planetary government, particularly when it was brutally backed up by the more committed members of the Galaxy Elite Fleet. As a member of the Thorn family, Kate was one of the few considered a safe choice to be patrolling such a sensitive part of space.
Kate had managed to find her own way of delivering what the GEF wanted of her, whilst still being able to sleep at night. What she did not do was to return fifteen people, even if they were outside GEF law, to a crippled ship to be butchered by salvage dogs. It was what the GEF expected her to do—indeed, it was an unwritten rule that anyone who crossed the fleet should be made an example of.
“Go in.”
Kate arrived in her cabin after the escort, and signalled the guards to leave, shaking her head when they indicated that the restraints around the prisoner’s wrists be removed. She took the restraint control from the head guard as he left, then leaned against the door once it had shut behind the three of them.
“Alone at last,” she said finally. Truth be told, she always felt
a little queasy at this point, although Kate could not tell if it was due to a fear of being found out or a warped sense of anticipation.
It was important that she do what needed to be done without it being seen as altruistic. Kate also needed to ensure the commanding officers never spoke about what happened in her cabin. She had a fleet-wide reputation for being able to somehow secure the most sensitive and useful data yet only she knew for sure how she did it.
“Strip,” Kate instructed them in an offhand manner. She walked over to a chair in the middle of the room, only to look back and see neither man had budged. “Strip!” she told them again, this time with raised eyebrows.
“And what if we say no?” It was Dom who spoke.
Kate tweaked the restraint control in her pocket briefly.
“Shit!” Dom glared at her, his green eyes blazing. “That hurt, lady!”
“It was meant to.”
“Now look here…”
“Captain,” she reminded him. “Captain Kate Thorn. Now do be good, and strip.”
Kate found her unique approach to be effective. Such was the machismo of the Rim, so precious was a tough man’s reputation that Kate had found the ideal method to ensure silence from the ship’s commanders she’d encountered so far. Her methods also secured enough time to allow the discreet download of as much information as possible from whatever was left of the crippled ship’s servers before the crew were returned. The precious information was then stored on Kate’s own private systems.
“You have a choice.” Would Dom and his second in command be the first to refuse? For a brief moment it wasn’t part of her job. The part she liked least where she had to make sure outlaws would be wary enough of her or the fleet to not cross them again. “Think of it as your only choice today…your chance to save your colleagues, your crew. You choose whether or not you wish to cooperate.” Normally she had very little argument or resistance. Previous participants in her game of risk had been quick to realise they were being presented with an unlikely chance to get into space again without being murdered by Rim scavengers, or imprisoned by the Fleet.
“So you want us to give you information?” Dom asked her. Kate didn’t need them to tell her anything—she had known the moment she returned to her cabin that her own scavenger code was at a critical point in clearing down their abandoned server. One look at the red-green lights flickering on the combox by her chair had told her that. What she needed was time. Kate glanced at the timepiece on the wall. The longer she delayed their eventual departure, the longer her programmes had to dump what looked like the entire contents of their servers onto her own systems. “And if we don’t cooperate?” asked Dom.
“I’ll further incapacitate your ship and leave you and your crew for the salvage dogs,” she lied.
“I wouldn’t expect anything less from a Thorn,” he said. “But I still find it hard to believe you’d do it.”
Kate gave a humourless laugh. “Believe it.” But she didn’t like the look Dom gave her—an almost knowing look. Like he knew what she was up to and was about to blow her secret wide open.
“What are you expecting me to tell you?”
“Tell me?” Kate feigned shocked puzzlement, “I didn’t only bring you here to talk to me. I’m bored today. With the fighting over, the day has gone a trifle…flat. You are two good-looking men. Strip. I want to see you naked and then I’d like to watch as you pleasure each other. If you feel like talking afterwards, then by all means do.” Some did. Kate had been quite taken aback at some of the things she had learnt from her ‘guests’ without any effort on her part to get them to talk.
The sight of their open mouths and look of utter shock made Kate smile despite herself.
“You are joking.” Ren, the blue-eyed one, spoke for the first time since they had entered her cabin, his lip curling into a hesitant sneer of disbelief.
“No,” Kate replied, serious once more. “I’m not. It’s a simple choice. Do it, and you get to be out of here in about two hours and I get something to keep me warm on these long, cold Rim nights.”
Ren said something under his breath that sounded remarkably like a curse but Dom was watching her with narrowed eyes.
“Is that how you do it?” His gaze was so penetrating it was as if he could see inside her head. “Is that how you get such a fearsome reputation? What a time you must have with all the sexually repressed enemies of the GEF. What a blackmail asset to hold… I take it you record it all.” His eyes flicked over the ceiling and walls as if to seek out the hardware she had had discretely located about the cabin.
“The first rule is what happens within these walls, stays here,” Kate assured him, mentally counting the seconds as her precious data started its initial download.
“I bet it does.”
“I never talk. One has to maintain a certain reputation for confidentiality,” she replied, pleasantly surprised she could sound so cool when her heart was pounding so loudly.
“Are you trying to tell me that confidentiality does not have a price, Captain Thorn? And don’t tell me, the second thing, no joining in?” The green gaze was just a little too innocent.
“No,” supplied Kate coolly. “I am all voyeur.”
“A wise business move from your point of view, Captain.”
“Indeed,” Kate agreed. She sat in her chair, her legs crossed at the knees, and wiggled her booted foot. “I’d only spoil things.”
The two men watched her, their gazes now less shocked and rather more calculating than Kate felt comfortable with. She rubbed the restraint control in her pocket, its presence soothing. She was in charge. “Get to it or I will think you have chosen the crippled ship option.”
The blue-eyed second in command gave her a reluctant grin of almost admiration. “Lady, you are one piece of work.” He licked his lips. “So, who does who?”
“I’m not fussy. I simply require some suitable action for my…private records.”
Kate glanced at Dom out of the corner of her eye as she settled herself only to intercept the briefest of glances between the two men. She blinked. What did that look mean?
Dom went first, pulling the black close-fitting shirt over his head. It clung lovingly to his body as he dragged it over his smooth, toned torso, his voice muffled as he said, “I am not about to abandon my crew to the mercy of Rim dogs. If there is the smallest chance of getting out of this mess, I’ll take it.”
Kate was jolted by a wave of pure lust at the sight of so much of him. A curl of pure desire unfolded low in her abdomen. Her thighs became restless and she moved in her chair to re-cross her legs. Kate’s pussy throbbed hungrily at the prospect of what was to come.
Down, girl! Kate told herself with gritty control. Be in charge, stay in charge and you win, she reminded herself.
“How do you expect us to do anything with these on?” Dom asked her, indicating the wrist restraints that allowed him to pull his shirt over his head but not remove his breeches due to the way his hands were confined.
“You’ll manage,” she replied. “But just to help you get started…”
Kate got up from her chair and moved behind Dom to undo his breeches herself. With a practiced flick of her wrist she pulled them down over his lean hips, resisting the urge to run her fingers over his smooth, warm skin. His erection sprang from the confines of his clothing hard and eager despite his show of annoyed reluctance.
“Mmm,” Kate could not resist. “I think you’ll manage rather well.” Kate stepped back a few paces to her chair but did not sit down. “Take him in your mouth,” she instructed Dom’s second in command, aware, as she was subjected to a rebellious gaze, that as bound and as vulnerable as the two men were, somehow, they were still managing to encroach on her control of the situation.
“We are not likely to forget this, Captain.” Ren flicked the long lock of hair from his eyes and looked at her long and hard.
“Neither will I,” Kate replied in an artfully sultry voice that she hardened before
going on to say, “but it is still your choice. I can still simply hand yourselves and your crew over to Lomax and we will put you back on board that heap of twisted metal that we all persist in calling a ship. I’ll resign myself to leaving you there for the scum that prey on the helpless in these parts.”
Dom’s regard was pure ice.
Crap, thought Kate, he’s going to call my bluff. Her hand tightened on the restraint control and without thinking her eyes darted to the commlink. She could just call Lomax and have them taken away. She would have to hope that the data she rescued gave her some suitably obscure information that she could claim was revealed to her by them whilst they were in her cabin. Insurance was proving to be a tricky business.
“An interesting definition of scum, Captain.” Dom suddenly grinned and winked at his companion. Ren rolled his eyes then dropped to his knees, flicked the lock of hair from his eyes and put his mouth to the tip of Dom’s erect cock, giving it an initial swirling lick. Dom exhaled sharply and clenched his buttocks as his hard length then disappeared between Ren’s lips. Kate’s pussy flooded with moisture, her restless limbs once more making her shift from foot to foot in an effort to stem the ache between her legs.
Dom rested his hands on his own head, gently flexing his buttocks to keep his balance as his cock was worked in and out of Ren’s mouth.
Kate clenched the muscles in her abdomen at the sight. Her clitoris felt engorged and sensitive as it sat against the seam of her breeches. Whichever way she stood or sat, Kate could not get comfortable. She suppressed a small groan as Dom’s straining erection bobbed from his blue-eyed companion’s mouth, glistening, before being recaptured. Kate sat in her chair, then got to her feet again, restless and unable to take her eyes from the two men before her, only to sit down once more, still transfixed. It had never affected her like this before. Before, it had always been amusing, occasionally almost laughable, if humiliating for those concerned.
It served its purpose.
This time it was pure torture.
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