Marked 2: Marked for Desire

by Jennifer Leeland

  The strike of the cane made her yelp and lift her head. She growled at the man. Most dominants gave some kind of warning. But the sting rippled along her nerves, and her pussy throbbed for more.

  “Bad little girl,” Shaun said and shook his head. “You’ll have to be punished.”

  Her eyes narrowed while she observed him retrieve something from a drawer. A scarf. Was he going to blindfold her?

  Before she knew what he was doing, he stuffed the thing in her mouth, and she choked a little. He tied the ends behind her head, catching strands of her hair and tightening the material on her lips. She glared at him. How the hell was she supposed to say her safe word if he gagged her? She bit and clawed, but the man captured her hands. “I’ll let you raise two fingers if you want to call it quits. But I don’t want to hear a sound from you.” His voice hardened. “Get your face back on the floor.”

  She scrambled to comply. His voice, his roughness made her head spin and her nerves sizzle. Her cheeks burned, her ass throbbed, and her breath came in gasps. “Now I’m going to give you what you asked for.”

  Her brain whirled. What had she asked for? Oh. Marks. Bruises. She needed to feel something, anything. When the cane whistled through the air, it stung her backside. The second strike hurt more. The third made her bite the scarf and tears leak from her eyes. Still she wouldn’t raise her hand. It hurt. God, it hurt.

  “Princess,” Leo said in a warning tone.

  She didn’t glance at him or lift her head. This was her punishment, her payment for failure. The pain was her pleasure. The sting of the cane dulled to a throb, and Shaun aimed lower, hitting the junction between her thighs. She jumped when it whacked her pussy. Then she moaned as desire, excitement, and need flooded her senses.

  Shaun stopped and thrust three fingers inside her pussy. She pressed back, deepening the penetration, desperate for relief. His other hand connected with the sensitive skin of her ass. “Hold still.”

  Tears dripped down her nose. He gave her no respite but speared her with his fingers and refused to send her over the edge. The urge to move, to take back control was so strong, Sera thought she might die from it. She remained still, her thoughts on Leo’s gaze. It intoxicated her, the thought that he stared at her while this other man aroused her.

  When Shaun removed his fingers, she bit back a moan of protest. The scarf showed teeth marks when he untied it and took it from her mouth.

  He tipped her chin to force her gaze to meet his, and she noticed his eyes glittered. “On the bed,” he ordered.

  Her legs shook when she stumbled to her feet. She shot a glance at Leo. His cock was hard and made her mouth water. Why him? Why did he have to attract her even more than this handsome dominant who was going to fuck her?

  She lay down on the bed, and Shaun gripped her hands to shackle them to the headboard. Her ass burned, bruised from the strikes with the cane. Tears clogged her throat. Helpless, she cast another glance at Leo. His heated gaze studied her from head to toe, missing nothing, clearly aroused by her position. She wanted his hands on her, his fingers inside her. Even when Shaun stripped her of all her resistance, she only thought of Leo and his hot gaze on her, not the hard hazel eyes of the man who’d caned her.

  Shaun had crossed the room to a bag he must have brought with him. What would he use? A flogger? A dildo? Something else?

  She froze when she watched him produce a disintegrator. Leo shot to his feet, but Shaun aimed the weapon at him. “Sit down,” Shaun ordered.

  A muscle jumped in Leo’s cheek, but to Sera’s shock, he sat. Shaun’s lips curved. “So easy. She always thinks she has the upper hand.” The man crossed to the table and took the disintegrator Leo had set on the table, while keeping his weapon constantly aimed at her. He gestured to Leo’s hip. “You’re marked, so you know she’s a challenge. But she won’t live long enough to find out what she’s missing.”

  “You’re wrong,” Leo answered.

  “No, she’ll die,” Shaun said confidently. He gazed at her. She started to cross her legs, then stopped and glared at him. She refused to be ashamed. That she sought a little kinky sex was her business. It might get her killed, but it wasn’t wrong.

  Shaun kept the disintegrator on Leo. Why didn’t he just kill her? Because he couldn’t kill them both. He was waiting for the rest of his team. “Princess, I wonder if you know who your bodyguard really is. That mark on his hip. You see how it’s a small knot?” His smile was razor thin. “On Nylar, a small mate mark means a lack of passion. You see it with arranged marriages and puppy love.” Shaun’s eyebrows rose. “Which was it, Leo Eyler? For such a small mark, she must have been less to you than a sister.”

  Leo roared, then shot across the room. Sera thought he was dead. But the disintegrator blast missed him somehow, and Leo plowed into the man. A desperate struggle commenced. She yanked on the restraints. She called out to the watching eyes that were everywhere in this place. “Help!”

  The door opened, and Barrett crashed into the room. She’d never been so relieved to see the big lug in her whole life. He had just released her restraints when Tony stumbled into the room, blood pouring from his eyes.

  Sera screamed, her throat sore, her gaze riveted on the dying man.

  Barrett cursed, and Leo, distracted by her scream, took a fist to the gut, doubled over, and released his hold on Shaun.

  Shaun aimed the disintegrator at Leo, but Barrett launched in front of the blast.

  When the dust from Barrett’s body fell to the floor, Sera’s vision turned black, blurry, and then, nothing.

  * * *

  When she came to, Leo was carrying her out of the suite hurriedly. Guilt, anguish, and frustration all ate at Sera. With Leo’s bloody lip, his white face, and pinched eyes, he looked like a man on the edge. She didn’t fight him.

  Her fault. Those men had died because she hadn’t believed the Brotherhood really wanted her dead. Why should they? Whatever power she held was so dangerous and unpredictable, it wasn’t any use to anyone. But her reckless behavior may have cost two men their lives.

  For the next few hours, she just existed. They had to give statements to the authorities. The man known as Shaun Reynald had escaped, though that hadn’t been his real name. It seemed like an eternity before they were able to leave.

  Leo put his foot down and forbade the appearance at the Central Arena. Sera had been too heartsick to argue. Barrett and Tony had been with her only a few months, but she had liked them. They were nice men, dependable, sweet.

  Dead.

  Leo herded her through the process of getting her out of the Sethos Five police station and back to her shuttle. “Stop pushing me,” she snapped as he shoved her into the shuttle bay.

  “Stop fighting me.”

  “I’m not fighting you. Just don’t touch me.” She jerked away from him, and he gripped her arm.

  “I’m not going to take my hands off you until I know you’re safe.” And he didn’t. Through the shuttle bay and onto the ship itself, he kept a hand around her arm. No matter how hard she tried to pull away, he kept her close.

  On the ship, he made her wait while he checked every nook and cranny to make sure there was no danger. She didn’t care. Maybe she should have just let them kill her and be done with it. What difference did it make? The vision of Tony’s bloody corpse swam before her, haunting her.

  In the whirl of the last few hours, she’d heard Leo tell the Sethos Five authorities that she’d fainted after Barrett died, that Tony had killed two assassins before his death, that Leo had dispatched two more.

  “I’m safe,” she snapped when they stepped onto the shuttle. “Now get your fucking hands off me.”

  “You won’t be safe until we’re far away from here.”

  She hated him. He was so calm, so controlled in the face of all that blood and death. “You’re inhuman,” she shouted at him.

  A muscle moved in his jaw. “Because I’m not hysterical?”

  “You don’t feel anythi
ng.”

  He said nothing to that but started to brush past her toward the cockpit. She grabbed his arm. “Is that why your mate mark is so small, Dom Boy? Because you can’t feel anything?” Taunting him, as the assassin had, wasn’t very smart or very kind. She was out of control, and she wanted to lash out at someone.

  “I loved Shanie,” he said in a low, tight tone.

  “Really? I think it’s hilarious that I’m depending on a man who let his mate be killed by a Brotherhood assassin. Kind of ironic, isn’t it?” The way he winced, the way the pain jerked across his face should have made her feel triumph. Instead she felt horrible. Rather than meet his gaze, she turned away and sat in the pilot’s chair. But he whipped the chair around to face him, his hands on the armrests.

  “I’m not the man who was mated to Shanie Tao, Princess.” His face had a dark, hard expression. “I’ve had three years to become a lot more dangerous. That man is dead.”

  Something in the way he’d said it, something in the way his mouth twisted told her she’d succeeded in wounding him. “Leo—”

  Her stomach hurt. Hunted, there was no place safe for her. Her lower lips trembled. She wanted to cry, but she didn’t. A block of ice lay heavy in her chest, frozen, unmoving.

  She wanted to touch him, reach out to him, but he flung away from her and flicked her chair forward. “Fly this bucket, Princess,” Leo ordered.

  She glared at him as he flopped down beside her in the copilot’s chair. “I can’t. I can’t fly. I can’t feel. I can’t hide.” Her hands started to shake. Cold. She was so cold.

  “You can, and you will,” Leo snapped. “Do it.”

  Her hands flew to the controls, and she automatically did a systems check. Her subconscious went through all the motions and fired up the engines. Why she did it was a mystery to her. Perhaps it was the way the man ordered her to do it. Perhaps it was because he was completely unmoved.

  It wasn’t until they careened out of Sethos Five’s orbit that she began to cry.

  The cold that encased her heart melted, and a flood poured out.

  Leo clicked on the autopilot and yanked her into his lap. He was warm where she was cold. He was hard where she’d given way. Her throat closed, but the tears wouldn’t stop. She sobbed for the two men who were dead. She cried for her mother, who’d died a horrific death before her eyes. She cried for her people, who were spread all over the galaxy. She cried for her freedom, which she’d never have again as long as the Brotherhood sought to kill her.

  How long she buried her face in Leo’s chest, she didn’t know. Long enough for the knot in her belly to unravel and the block of ice in her chest to wash away. His hand stroked her hair, and he murmured, “Shh, Princess. It’s all right. You’re all right.”

  Exhausted, she stayed curled up in Leo’s lap. At some point, he stood up with her in his arms, then laid her down on the small bench in the back of the shuttle. He covered her with his flight jacket and swept her hair away from her face.

  For a moment, she wondered why he was being so nice. Then she dropped off to sleep, not even knowing where they were going.

  * * *

  While Princess Sera slept, Leo wracked his brain to find a location that would be safe. Her home was a high-rise apartment complex on Teran Five, which as far as he could tell, she hadn’t been to in months.

  Like her people, she was a wanderer, a sovereign without a home. And she was alone.

  He’d seen members of old Placidian families pay homage to her. They all wanted a piece of Princess Sera. Mostly they wanted pictures with her or to talk to her. She was popular despite her reputation as a bad girl. Where would she be safe?

  Leo’s experience with the Brotherhood had taught him that they didn’t give up. Whoever wanted her dead wasn’t going to stop until she was. His lips tightened. His time under Sethos Prime’s General Ancred had taught him many things. The Primarian soldiers liked to torture people, torment them, test their limits. To stay undercover, he’d tortured men, used sex as a weapon, killed the helpless.

  Like the slave woman from Teran Five. Granted, she’d been a Primarian spy who had probably got thousands of people killed, but when she failed during her mission, it had become Leo’s job to punish her. And he had. Slowly.

  Part of him had enjoyed it.

  The man who had loved Shanie Tao was long gone. The princess didn’t need that man. She needed Leo Eyler, who had worked closely with one of the most vicious assassins in the universe.

  What would they do now? The cell on Sethos Five had failed but was still intact. Leo knew killing a few of the cell members wouldn’t stop them. Replacements were easy to find. And the ones who failed would have more reason to succeed. Failure was rewarded with death—or worse—by the Brotherhood.

  He set the navigation toward Nylar. The princess had no stable home, no safe place, but Leo’s home would be safe for her, he hoped.

  It didn’t surprise him that she’d lashed out at him. In the weeks he’d been by her side, she’d kept the perfect, cool facade the rest of the universe knew well. But the mask had crumbled under the weight of sorrow. Her mother had died only a year earlier. Her father was absent. She had no siblings. And he’d pushed her. By seeking control, by forcing her to give in to him, he’d opened up the cracks he had instinctively known were there.

  Hadn’t he kept his distance for a reason? He was well aware that his attraction for her went beyond getting into her pants. He was attracted to the core of strength he knew was underneath the persona she assumed for the public. He was drawn to the submissive with a stubborn streak.

  When he’d been young, a challenging submissive wouldn’t have interested him. But after being undercover, he’d become harder, rougher. A submissive who didn’t challenge him would be devoured by him, wounded by him. But one that fought him—

  He was a fool. The princess wasn’t a Nyral female looking for a dom. She was a public figure with responsibilities. Still, a huge part of him wanted to explore their connection, the way she could reach beyond his hard shell and wound him. For years he’d kept his pain about Shanie hidden, encased behind a wall of ice. Yet around the princess, he lost his temper, experienced the pain of loss, and felt the pang of loneliness. No one had been able to do that in years.

  She appeared in the doorway of the cockpit, and Leo only glanced her way. It took an effort not to stare. Sleepy, disheveled, she was a red-haired, sexy witch. He imagined she would look just this way if he spent the night touching her, fucking her. That thought led to another, and he pictured her beneath him, his hands buried in her hair, his teeth sunk in the soft curve of her shoulder. His cock hardened, and he gritted his teeth. Damn it. Why did he have to respond to her presence, her scent? He took a deep breath. “Did you get enough sleep?”

  “Yes, I think so.” Her voice was husky from sleep. “Where are we going?”

  “Nylar.”

  She jerked the captain’s chair around. “What?” Her eyes were narrowed to slits, and her hair was wild around her face. If the drowsy expression had created a haze of lust, the fire that lit her eyes now increased his desire a hundredfold. Her challenge brought out his need to be in charge.

  He raised an eyebrow and met her gaze. “It’s the safest place I could think of.”

  “No. Take me home.” She crossed her arms and glared at him.

  “No. It’s not safe.” He swiveled back to the console.

  “It’s one thing to go to a club and play around with that kinky stuff. I’m not going to some deviant planet just to suit you.”

  He clenched his jaw and said nothing. Okay. It stung. His culture was misunderstood by most people, but he hadn’t thought she would be one of them.

  She yanked his chair around again and leaned down to get into his face. “Take. Me. Home.”

  His pulse pounded; his hands itched to drag her into his arms and kiss her. “What are you afraid of? That you’ll like it?”

  She lurched back with a gasp, and her hand shot out s
o fast, he didn’t have time to stop it. His cheek burned where she’d struck him.

  He rose to his feet, his blood burning and his muscles bunched. She covered her mouth, her eyes wide. He narrowed his gaze on her face. Yes, she knew she’d stepped over the line. Perhaps it had been inevitable.

  If she wanted to play this game, she was going to have to learn the rules.

  He grasped her wrists and jerked them behind her back, mashing her breasts against his chest. Her breath came fast, and she bit her lip. In her eyes, he noted a mixture of fear and excitement. Her pupils dilated, and her nipples hardened. It captivated him, spurred him to tighten his hold.

  Harder than he’d been in years, he shifted to press his cock against her thigh. When her teeth worried her lip, he smiled. “Shall we find out if you’ll like it?”

  * * *

  Leo’s smile sent a cold chill along Sera’s spine. All of a sudden, she wasn’t so confident. The hands that held her wrists were like steel. She struggled, using her feet to try and free herself from his punishing grip. She’d asked for it; she’d take whatever he dished out. But she wasn’t going to be afraid. Her chin tipped, and she held his gaze.

  He yanked her around and pushed her into the back of the shuttle. When she lost her balance, he didn’t catch her. She hit the floor. Hard.

  Facedown, her pulse pounded, her mouth dry. This was it. She’d finally pushed her luck too far. Men had always been within her control, even when she played the part of a submissive. Like the club on Arris, she tempted but rarely delivered. Even when she surrendered and let a man fuck her, she remained the one in charge. She’d skirted close to the edge but always kept the reins in her hands.

  Not with Leo. She heard a clink, and cold metal slid along her wrists. The snick sounded familiar. The fucker had cuffed her. She rolled away, her hands shackled behind her, and kicked out. He avoided her feet easily. He gripped her arm and jerked her up. “On your knees, Princess.”

  Her nostrils flared. “Asshole,” she spat at him.