by Marie Harte
Lurin slowed and reached one hand past her waist, down over her mound. His fingers quested for her plump nub, and when he found it, he pinched and toyed with her until she trembled with the need to release.
“You’re so wet. I want you to come all over me when I explode in you,” he rasped. Suddenly he stopped and, keeping the connection, pulled her up onto her hands and knees. “Much better.”
She silently agreed. He returned to fondling her clit, but this time instead of thrusting hard into her, he slowly slid all the way in before pulling out one inch at a time. He continued to thrust with excruciating slowness while he rolled her clitoris.
“Lurin, you’re torturing me.” She tried but couldn’t get him to move any faster. The knot of tension spread out from her core, consuming her in a burning fire that grew brighter and hotter.
Reaching through her legs, she urged his hand to move quicker, fitting his fingers over her clit with more pressure.
“Is that what you need?” he asked, his voice gritty with pleasure.
“Yes,” she hissed, and reaching past his hand, she fondled his sac, feeling the taut globes tight with desire. At her touch, his thrusts increased. No longer slow, they were fast, hard and deep.
The pounding of his cock and the pinching of her clit were too much. Soon, she cried out his name as she climaxed, gripping him within her body.
He continued to pump, his thrusts prolonging the rapture, until he too shuddered. With a deep, final push, he shot inside her, murmuring her name as he came hard.
Moments later, they remained joined. Mara could feel Lurin’s large hands fondling her buttocks as his still hard cock flexed inside her.
Amazed, she glanced over her shoulder. “Lurin?” Though she’d never experienced sex with anyone but Lurin, she had heard enough to know men didn’t normally have his stamina.
“I can’t help it, Mara.” He began thrusting again, and to her surprise, her body responded. “With you, I can’t stop wanting.”
He paused, withdrew, and flipped her onto her back. Then he mounted her and rode her fast, coming within her moments before she exploded a second time.
Limp now, Mara could only stare up at him in wonder. As before, sex between them stirred something in her that made her question everything. Like a weakness invading her mind, thoughts of Lurin consumed her.
“Who are you, Lurin?” she couldn’t help but ask.
He stared down at her, his eyes enshrouded in mystery. The intense blue of his gaze reminded her of the electric bursts on Mardu, ruptures of energy that blazed so brightly they lit up the sky for miles.
“I think the question is, who are you, Mara Seni?” Lurin asked, his mood sobering under her regard.
Not wanting to but feeling the need for some distance, Lurin withdrew from her warmth and immediately knew a sense of loss. Steeling himself against the urge to sink back into her body, to burrow deeper and deeper until he reached her soul, Lurin searched for his answer in her eyes.
Dark and fathomless, Mara’s gaze possessed as many secrets as he himself held. Shocked at the thought, Lurin belatedly realised he hadn’t thought to use his abilities to allow Mara to orgasm with such frequency. The little vixen had responded to him well enough on her own. And the ties between them grew stronger.
“What?” Mara levered up on her elbows and leaned away. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Like what?”
“Like I’m some kind of alien species you’re trying to figure out. I’m a woman. And it’s called sex, Lurin.” Her derisive tone made her sound every inch the imperious captain. “Now it’s over. So get up and get dressed.”
Lurin scowled. “You want to play captain now? Orders in bed are all well and good, love. But it’s a little late to chain me back up, don’t you think? Especially since you’re no longer a shy maiden. Now you’re a woman, and full of my seed.” The reminder both satisfied him and made him that much more annoyed. Mara had been a damned virgin, and the best sex he’d ever had. How was that possible?
She scowled at him, and he felt the closeness between them vanished as if it had never been.
His cock stirred, the unruly beast, and Lurin had to fight from fucking her again. This time it would be hard and possessive, to establish dominance. As much as he knew he could make her want him, he couldn’t—wouldn’t—take her that way.
Mara had to want him freely or the sex would be empty, the way it normally was. Just another hunger to be sated. As it should be, his conscience corrected. Meaningless sex was what he did best, and it kept him safe from the predators System-wide. Why should he care what Mara thought and felt?
He glared down at her. I have enough problems to deal with, I don’t need her, too.
“Problems? Excuse me?” Mara’s anger flared, and he realised he’d spoken the thought out loud.
“Oh hell, never mind.” He rolled off the bed and searched for his trousers. In the midst of donning his pants, he looked up to see Mara dressed in a large shirt, holding a phaser pointed directly at his heart.
Damned if she wasn’t the sexiest thing he’d ever seen.
“I have several questions you’re going to answer. First though, I’d like you to explain that last comment, prisoner Vez.” Her voice sounded even, though her glare looked hot enough to melt steel.
“Prisoner?” Ignoring her weapon, he advanced until the phaser kissed his chest. “I can imprison you with the whisper of a promise.” As he concentrated on the threads of her particular energy, he connected with her on another plane and gloried in his power. The psychic need to control her soothed a hungry part of him.
Mara swayed and dropped her phaser to the floor.
“No, sweet.” He kissed her, ravaging her mouth and invading her essence with his own. “You belong to me. You’re my prisoner.”
Lost in his gaze, Mara was forced to recognise his authority. She yielded while trying to sever the odd link between them, but she could gain no foothold on her ability to hold a straight thought that didn’t include him. Images, scents, and the feel of Lurin saturated her mind, both frightening and exciting her.
“Kiss me,” she demanded, and wondered at her words. She wanted to punch him, not kiss him. But Mara no longer controlled her own actions.
The cold expression on his face scared her. And when he kissed her, the heat of his touch in contrast with his calculated seduction frightened the hell out of her…because she couldn’t think of anything she wanted more than him.
“Don’t you like it, Mara?” He devoured her until she couldn’t think. Lurin’s touch stirred her into a frenzy of desire. Wet and wanting, she couldn’t help herself as his kisses turned harder, punishing. She accepted him and desperately craved all of him. Snaking a hand down his front, she reached for his erection.
He broke away and swore. “Hell, I don’t like it.”
No longer in physical contact with him, Mara could again think for herself. The compulsion to make love to Lurin faded, but her desire remained.
He thrust his hands through his hair, looking frustrated, probably due to his obvious arousal. Seeing him hurting, she grew even wetter, ready to slake his needs. By rights, she should have thrown him back into his cell. Instead, she wanted to feel him inside her again.
Stars, but they’d made love enough times that the man should have been unable to get hard. “How is that possible?” she couldn’t help but ask, pointing to his groin.
“You don’t want to know.” He gave her a dark look and stalked to the portal showing deep space and a glimpse of Nebe6. “When will your crew return?”
Mara blinked at the change in subject. She looked around for her trousers, needing to cover herself and feel less vulnerable around him. “They should be back in another few hours.”
He glanced at her with surprise, and Mara cursed her stupidity for telling the truth.
“Really? Then I suppose we have some time to kill. What will we do to wear away the hours?” His words were suggestive, bu
t the glint in his eyes told her he didn’t intend another seduction.
She took the bait, anger clouding her better sense. “I don’t know what you did to me, but it’s not going to happen again. The sex was good, but it’s done.” Who am I kidding?
His lips tightened into a grim line. “Good? Come now, Mara. You can admit the sex was spectacular. That’s one particular area I’ve never had any problem with.”
Captain of her own ship, a professional bounty hunter, and angry as a raider. And she blushed. Mara Seni never blushed.
He laughed when he saw it, and the darkness clouding his expression eased. “Finally. For a minute there I wondered where the woman in Captain Mara had gone.”
“She’s right here,” she said through clenched teeth. How had this man, this irritating clod, made her lose her mind to passion? She’d never heard of a telepath having such skills. It defied explanation, unless he was…Thesha? Twice in the span of a few days, she’d had the odd notion he might be one of those mythic people. But she dismissed it as she stared at him.
The Thesha didn’t exist. The mind trick he’d just pulled, getting her to free him from his cell, those were stunts a clever telepath might know. If he were Thesha, according to legend, he’d be able to control everything she said and did. And despite what had just occurred, Mara desired Lurin. A chemical reaction, surely, but she knew her own mind. Just the thought of being so powerless sent a chill through her blood.
Lurin continued to stare at her, his gaze shuttered. “So what now, Captain Mara? You don’t honestly expect me to go back to my cell in shackles to await Nobless Cari’s brand of justice, do you?”
Mara sank onto the bed and kept a cautious eye on Lurin. “No, I don’t. But I don’t plan on setting you free, either.”
He eyed the phaser she’d dropped on the floor near the bed. Spectacular sex or no, Mara commanded everyone on board her vessel. And technically, Lurin was still her prisoner.
She eyed her phaser then Lurin. “Don’t even think about it.”
“I’m not.” He scowled and sank into a nearby chair. After a moment of silence, Lurin stared at her with an intensity she found unnerving. “What do you want from me, Mara?” Strangely enough, he looked as puzzled and put out about the whole situation as she felt.
“I’m not sure,” she paused, searching for an answer. I want you to make love to me. I want you to fill the empty spaces within me. Make me into the sensual, loving woman I know I can be. Ignoring her innermost desires as she had for most of her life, she fell back on the job. It was so much safer. “Why don’t we focus on your case with Nobless Cari?”
He shrugged, and she could tell that, though he’d asked the question, he too wanted to avoid discussing what existed between them.
“What possible reason could the nobless have for putting a bounty on your head? Jaron law took responsibility for you the moment you killed—allegedly killed—” she said to forestall his interruption, “Master Denal. No matter what you saw in the woods, your word won’t stand up to that of the nobless, not on Elaran land, not in that part of the planet. So why did she hire me to capture you?”
“I don’t know why she hired you.” He seemed confused, but Mara sensed something off with his answer.
“She’s offering me a great deal of currency for you.”
Lurin shrugged, and she knew he held back from telling her the whole truth.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
“What? You want a more detailed accounting of Sara’s rendezvous in the woods? Why don’t I show you instead?” he suggested and nodded at his groin. “I’m ready for it if you are.”
And that was another problem. She responded to his desire as if programmed. Clenching her thighs together was a mistake because Lurin noticed. He rubbed his crotch, and his unashamed need only increased her desire.
“Come, Mara. Our little argument’s made me hungry again.” He stroked himself through his trousers and smiled, his gaze probing.
Determined to remain aloof, to prove that she didn’t want or need him, Mara shook her head and prayed he couldn’t see her stiff nipples through the overshirt she wore.
Lurin stood and approached her. She remained seated on the bed, forcing herself not to lean towards him. But when he stopped in front of her, his groin rested at eye level. He cupped himself, his movement slow, captivating. When he pushed his trousers down and exposed that gloriously hard cock, she couldn’t look away.
Mara’s mouth watered and she licked her lips, wanting to taste the slick tip beading with desire.
“So we’re not going to do this again? You feel nothing for your prisoner, hmm?”
He pumped himself right in front of her face. He stands close enough to taste, came the traitorous thought, and she parted her lips, wondering what he’d feel like under her tongue.
He groaned and worked faster, teasing her.
“You know you want this,” he said thickly. “I can smell your need. Go ahead, touch yourself. Tell me you aren’t wet, drowning for me.”
Clutching his cock with one hand, he used his other to force her hand down between her thighs. Unable to resist, she shoved her hand beneath her trousers and sought her core. The minute her fingers brushed her clit, she sighed with need. She began rubbing herself, smoothing through the thick folds of her sex.
“That’s it, sweet,” he urged breathlessly, his cock impossibly hard. He removed his hand so she could see his throbbing rod waving in front of her, begging her to taste. “Put your finger inside your slick pussy.”
She did and his cock seemed to swell. A slick fluid covered his cockhead, and more beaded at the tip. Would he taste sweet? Salty?
“I’m going to come all over you,” he whispered. “But it won’t be as good as when I come in you.” Staring at her mouth, he seemed to read her mind. “Want a little taste?”
He looked impossibly large, swollen and thick, but Mara needed to know. He guided his cock to her lips. To her surprise, she saw him tremble.
Pleased to feel a hint of power over the male, she licked his shaft from base to tip, amazed to find she liked his taste. So male, so strong. So Lurin.
“I want to fuck your mouth and come down your throat,” he groaned and held his cock out as she licked him. She drew out the contact and he shuddered.
“No more,” he rasped. “I can’t— Mara.”
Taking him as deep into her mouth as she could, Mara was beside herself. She didn’t have even half of him inside her mouth, but the fleshy head of his shaft demanded she give it her attention. Taking care to stroke with her tongue and suck with her mouth, she brought him to the edge, exciting herself as well.
Her finger moved faster and faster over her clit, while she sucked the sweet cream from his cock.
“Stars, Mara. I want you so much,” Lurin growled, his fingers threaded through her hair as he shoved into her mouth in short bursts. She could feel his efforts to restrain himself in the trembling of his thighs, and she moaned around him, glad to be in charge once more. “Oh fuck, I can’t stop. Now, I’m coming now.” He tensed and filled her mouth with cream, repeating her name like a litany as he spilled.
His orgasm triggered hers. She clamped her mouth around him as she swallowed her own cries around his seed. Ecstasy crashed through her, an almost alien sense of what Lurin felt in addition to her orgasm, which couldn’t possibly be real.
Lurin finally withdrew and stood over her, breathing hard.
Removing her hand from between her legs, Mara flushed, feeling his gaze on her.
“It felt good, having that power, didn’t it?” he said softly. “What it feels like to me all the time. But never as grand as it was today. So different with you,” he murmured and coiled a lock of her hair around his finger.
Catching her breath, she watched as his cock slowly went limp. He leaned back and reaching down to pull up and fasten his trousers.
He said nothing more, but she could feel his scrutiny as she changed into clean clothes bef
itting a ship’s captain—an undertunic, work shirt, trousers and boots. She kept her phaser close and tucked it into her belt when fully dressed. Still, Lurin said nothing.
Uncomfortable under his knowing gaze, Mara decided to confront him about everything when a sudden jarring knocked both Lurin and her forward.
“What the hell was that?” Lurin stared at her in shock.
Feeling just as surprised, she raced to the portal and looked out. Then she gripped her phaser and moved to the door.
“We’re being boarded, and it’s not my crew.”
Chapter Seven
Conscious that Lurin wore a pair of trousers and nothing more, Mara sent him to Nu’s room, where she knew he’d find clothes to fit. Without waiting for him, she hurried to the bridge, knowing she had little time.
“Who do you think they are?” Lurin asked when he caught up with her.
“I don’t know. They’re too quiet for pirates, and if they were law, they’d have signalled first.” She ran a quick scan on the docking vessel. “Standard warship,” she muttered in frustration.
A grating whine, the sound of metal hulls scraping together, alerted them both to the impending boarding of what she had to consider an unknown enemy.
“It’s got to be Nobless Cari.” Lurin glared at the console outlining the warship.
“That makes no sense.” Mara fought impatience. “As far as she knows, I’m just a few short days from delivering you into her keeping. Why would she interfere now?”
“To get out of her fee, maybe?”
“No.” Mara clutched her weapon. “But we can reason the who’s and why’s later. Right now we have to prepare for a fight.”
“A fight?” Lurin stared incredulously from Mara’s determined gaze to the console. “You’re kidding, right? It’s the two of us against a warship carrying any number of warriors. And you don’t even trust me with a weapon.”
Mara wanted to argue but couldn’t refute his logic. “Good point.” She handed him her phaser.
Her skin tingled and her blood pounded through her veins. She could feel the adrenaline kicking into high gear at thoughts of the upcoming battle, as well as a rush of nerves. Reminding herself not to glory in the adrenaline high, she focused on calm and reason.