He nodded, a short bow of his head and reached to conclude the vid call when she raised her hand. “Just a moment,” she snapped, and her father’s head jerked up. “Your credentials are called into question.”
There was a delicious satisfaction in watching his jaw drop open and snap shut. “Mine?”
“Yours. I am not convinced you have Earth Central’s best interests in mind since some of your actions have created hostilities. Do you deny that you hired Simon Boular and Adam Feckler?”
Her father’s nostrils flared. “I do.”
She raised her eyebrows and waited. He glared at her and snarled, “You can’t prove I did it.”
“I can prove it.”
Any color he had dropped away from his face, and his hand clutched the table in front of him. “I see. So, acts of war are now going to keep us from the negotiation table?”
She shook her head. “No, but I want to be clear about when this war began.” She cocked her head. “Acts of aggression by you will be attributed to Earth Central. Therefore, Earth Central began this war a year ago with the attempted assassination of Adonis Pasquel by Randall Joel.”
“You can’t do that,” her father shouted.
“I can, and I will,” she said.
She held his stare. Yes, she knew what it meant. By placing the acts of aggression on Earth Central, Asberek was in a better position—the moral high ground. She’d learned from her experience on Mars.
In the end, it was publicity that destroyed the Mars colony. Those who sought to control the natural resources were able to portray the Mars people as aggressive and thoughtless. But Harbold Denny had failed to do the one thing that might have tipped the scales in his favor.
She was still alive.
It gave her immense satisfaction to watch him squirm. This man had tried to murder her, had murdered Zebediah. Now, he would pay the price. The deals he made here would ruin him on Earth. She’d see to it.
“I don’t have a choice, do I?” he said.
Her senses immediately came alert. He was up to something. Terek whispered, “What is it?”
She kept her gaze steadily on his. “No. Perhaps you should know more of my credentials, Father,” she said. “Most of my DNA is the same as Pasquel’s, and none of your Ryser bombs worked on that. Also, anyone who has been exposed to Synthetic Endorphin Xstasy has not succumbed to your biological warfare.” Her voice hardened. “In fact, you can’t kill me in close quarters without destroying yourself. And I know you. You would rather live your pathetic life than give it for a cause you know is doomed.”
Her father’s right eye twitched. “You bitch.”
She bowed her head. “Your daughter.”
For a moment, she thought he might refuse. Instead, he proved her right and snapped, “Where and when.”
“Here and now,” she said. “We will meet you in the shuttle bay of this ship in ten minutes. Don’t be late, Father,” she said calmly.
When his face disappeared, she let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. Terek’s gaze was on her, studying her. “That was difficult for you,” he said, and she nodded.
“I love my father, despite everything he’s done,” she said and sighed.
One side of Terek’s mouth lifted. “I understand this very well,” he said. “You will not need me, but I will sit in with you.”
“Yes, please. Your support will be welcome.” She turned toward the door. “I plan to strip Earth Central from this part of the galaxy, Terek. We don’t want them here.”
* * * *
It took three days, but Fallon did it. Earth Central agreed to several of the agreements and openly acknowledged Asberek’s independence. They were on their own.
Exhausted, Fallon collapsed in the co-pilot chair on the returning shuttle. Terek started the engines for home. “I have spent my life around diplomacy. Your talents are extraordinary.”
She smiled. “I was negotiating with a devil I knew.”
“Your father,” Terek stated.
“I know his ways.” Fallon shrugged. “It helped.”
“Will Earth Central respect the treaty agreements created here?” He sounded doubtful, but Fallon knew Earth Central would follow the new agreements to the last letter.
“They will. We took the precaution of vid streaming the entire proceedings.” Fallon was well aware of the value of public relations. “All the other colonies have seen how it’s done. Earth Central is going to have its hands full.”
“A brilliant maneuver.”
She shook her head. “No. Desperate. If it wasn’t for your people, we would have been destroyed.”
Terek’s gaze swerved away. “It was the least we could do.”
Something there. Fallon stared at him for a moment. “You’ll be looking forward to going home, won’t you?”
A gleam of something brightened all four of the man’s blue eyes. “Yes, I am.”
Fallon raised her eyebrows. “How is Sierra adjusting?”
“She is amazing,” he said softly. The love Fallon heard in his voice warmed her heart. It may have been an arranged mating, but clearly Terek cared for Sierra Pasquel.
Whenever Fallon had negotiated with more than one party, there were clashes. It couldn’t be helped, but Terek and his people never wavered in their support of Asberek. There were no selfish bids for power, only steadfast friendship.
The shuttle slid into Asberek’s hanger and Fallon had a rush of memory of her first landing on the planet. How different things had been then. How different she had been. Then, she’d carried a load of guilty secrets and her father’s burdens. All that had changed. This time, she landed with a sense of satisfaction of a job well done and anticipation of a new life.
When the door creaked open, her gaze sought the small waiting crowd for the one face she wanted to see. But Matthew was nowhere to be found.
Donny Pasquel greeted her with an enthusiastic hug. “You were fantastic, Fallon. No one could have driven that bargain for us but you.”
“Thank you, sir. It helped that my father continually underestimates me,” she said with a grin.
“Something else you have in common with us, Fallon. Welcome home.” He guided her through the crowd while his last two words rattled around in her brain.
Home.
She was home. Asberek had given her a sense of belonging that she didn’t feel anywhere else. She inhaled deeply and sighed. Her face began to hurt from smiling and greeting. Where the hell was Matthew?
Michael Tarune greeted her with a wide grin. “Congratulations. You were brilliant.”
Color flooded her cheeks. People kept saying that. She didn’t feel brilliant. She felt lucky. “Where’s Matthew?”
If anything, Michael’s smile widened. “I knew you’d ask. He’s down at The Asberek Moon.”
What? He was down at the local bar when she was coming home after over a week in space? Her gaze narrowed. “Why didn’t he meet me?” She couldn’t believe it.
“Why don’t you go ask him?” Michael placed his hands on her shoulders and kissed her cheek. Then, he turned her around and shoved her toward the club. “Get going.”
She glared at him over her shoulder. “Don’t tell me what to do,” she snapped.
He lifted his hands. “Heaven forbid. That’s not my job.”
Fuming, she stomped away from him toward The Asberek Moon. Crowds gathered, but she skirted through them, fake smiling, nodding her head, and all the while, she seethed inside. How dare he?
Everyone else thought she was a hero, but he didn’t come to meet her. He was her Claimed. People would notice he hadn’t been there. The more she considered it, the more pissed off she became.
The club was crowded with people celebrating the end of hostilities. Several Dormrela warriors joined the groups, but her gaze flicked over them quickly.
From behind her, someone gripped her wrists. She whirled around and faced Trista Tarune. The woman jerked her wrists together and clicked a pai
r of hand cuffs on her. “What are you doing?”
Trista’s dark gaze held hers until Fallon dropped her glance to the floor. She clenched her jaw. Fuck these dominants. She raised her stare to Trista’s beautiful face and glared. “Take these fucking things off.”
The woman ignored her and gripped her arm in a bruising hold. She marched Fallon to the center of the club’s dance floor. The dancers stopped and ringed the polished black floor. Their silent stares were uncomfortable and exciting.
Then, Matthew strode into the strobe lights, and the crowd parted for him. He was dressed all in leather, his pants hugged his muscular legs, and his arms were bare under the black vest. It was his eyes that captured her attention. His black orbs shone in the light, and they were filled with dark intent.
Someone had turned the music off, and the club was unnaturally quiet. In Matthew’s hand was a black flogger, and he slowly strode in front of her. Her anger rose to the surface, and she tipped her chin. Her silent defiance was met by Matthew’s assessing stare.
“You broke your promise to me once. Then, you risked your safety without discussing it with me first.” Matthew’s voice was hard and unyielding. A murmur rose in the crowd.
Her gaze narrowed, and she tightened her lips, but remained silent. She didn’t defend her actions.
“Do you have anything to say, Fallon?” Matthew asked.
“I did what I had to do.” She held his stare.
The tension in the room stretched and snapped. He glanced around the room. “Punishment will be meted out. Will you all witness?”
A chorus of “Yes” came from the crowd. Fallon blinked and realized her anger had driven her here. Fear replaced defiance. He was going to punish her in front of everyone? When her gaze slid over the crowd, she saw no way out of this.
Part of her wanted this. It reminded her of the pirate’s ship, and that had been just enough to whet her appetite for this kind of play. Punishment. Would he hurt her? But Matthew would never hurt her. He loved her, and she trusted him. Whatever this was, it wasn’t going to break her.
She stood her ground.
Trista approached from behind her and flicked out a huge military issue knife that she held in front of Fallon’s face for a moment. Then, she went to work and shredded Fallon’s clothes.
Naked, Fallon remained defiant. But when Matthew snapped the flogger against his hand, her body jerked in response. He stepped closer. “Kneel.”
For a split second, she hesitated, and Matthew snapped the flogger again. She knelt. Matthew’s booted foot rose and pressed on her back until she was on all fours, her bare ass in the air, her cuffed hands splayed on the floor.
The air of the club thickened, and the crowd’s murmuring added to the atmosphere. She wondered if Matthew was going to flog her now.
Instead, he kicked off his leather boots and ripped open his pants. Her gaze rose to watch him. She couldn’t help it. He was the sexiest man she’d ever known, and when the leather slid down his thighs, she moaned. She wanted him so much, loved him so much.
His cock was hard and thick. She stared hungrily at it and wished she could take him into her mouth. There was nothing in the room but her and Matthew.
When he spoke, he raised his voice loud enough for everyone to hear. “You promised me you wouldn’t leave our home. You left it to risk your precious life to save us all,” he said, and the crowd cheered. “You did not tell me you would risk your safety and your emotional health to negotiate a brilliant peace treaty with Earth Central.” Another cheer rose from the crowd. “You have shown yourself to be defiant. What do you have to say?”
She lifted her head, her gaze meeting his. “I did it because I love you.”
His expression softened, and he whispered. “I love you, too, baby.” Then, he raised his voice again. “This defiance can only be because I have not officially Claimed you.”
Fallon stared at him. This was a Claiming Ceremony. But this wasn’t the way he’d said it would go when he’d explained it to her before. The questions were all there in her eyes, and he smiled. “Punishment and Claiming will be combined. Will you witness?”
The crowd shouted “Yes” this time.
Matthew’s expression hardened, and he glared at her. “Punishment first.”
Trista appeared behind her with a strap-on dildo. The thing was huge, gleaming with lubrication in the strobe light. Matthew snapped his fingers. “Bench,” he called.
Two men brought a bench to the center of the club, and Matthew jerked her to her feet. Trista removed the hand cuffs only to yank her arms behind her back to restrain them again. He made her lie on her back and spread her legs. Her arms hurt, crushed beneath her body and cuffed. Trista gripped her hips and slid her forward.
Matthew stepped to Fallon’s right. He watched, silent, intense, while Trista slid two fingers in Fallon’s pussy. The woman was talented and drove Fallon toward release despite the crowd. Fallon was close, almost flying over the edge, when Trista jerked her hand away.
Fallon’s moan of frustration was followed by the crowd’s murmured approval. Trista twisted Fallon’s nipples sending shards of pain and pleasure cascading through her. There was no escape. Trista and Matthew played her like a violin, each of them vibrating through her. Trista’s hands on her body and Matthew’s gaze sent her arousal higher, hotter.
Trista met Matthew’s gaze, and he nodded. The woman thrust the huge dildo inside Fallon. She grimaced and tried to squirm away. It hurt. The damn thing was splitting her in two, but Trista kept going deeper and deeper. Tears squeezed out of Fallon’s eyes.
Then, Matthew used the flogger.
Fallon had only been flogged on her back, but Matthew wielded the strands like a virtuoso and laid them over her breasts. The wicked slap of the butter soft flogger strings against her nipples made her gasp, not with pain, but with intense pleasure. How could it be? He struck her again, and she arched her back, desperate for more.
The dildo didn’t hurt anymore. The burning pain had changed to something else, something dangerous and needy. Higher and higher they drove her. Wild, she thrashed beneath Trista’s punishing thrusts and Matthew’s blows.
The crowd growled its approval, the air thick with arousal and excitement. But Fallon barely heard them or saw them. Her focus narrowed to the touch of the flogger and the slide of the dildo.
Suddenly, she shattered, her body sent over the edge, her convulsions violent and steady.
Trista thrust harder and kept the ripples going. Then, with a sob, Fallon relaxed, the long orgasm over. Tears had bathed her face, and she was sore everywhere.
“Punishment completed,” Matthew said, his voice sounding hoarse and strained.
Trista slid the dildo out of Fallon’s pussy. Little tremors of pain and pleasure shook her. When she started to rise, Matthew’s hand pressed her down. “Not yet, baby,” he said quietly.
He studied her, his perusal making her breathless, needy, as if she hadn’t just had the most amazing orgasm ever. What was next?
Matthew walked around until he stood between her legs. Naked from the waist down, his cock rested at the entrance of her pussy, and she shifted to engulf him. His hand descended on her ass with a crack that echoed in the room. “Hold still,” he ordered.
He gazed at the crowd. “She is mine,” he announced. “And I am hers. Do you witness?”
The crowd shouted an enthusiastic “Yes”, and Matthew gripped her hips. His gaze was volcanic, burning her. “I Claim you Fallon Denny. You belong to me. Say it.”
Her throat closed, and she blinked. “I belong to you,” she managed to say.
“And I belong to you. Say it.”
She sighed, a long happy sound. “And you belong to me, Matthew,” she said.
For a long moment, he held her gaze, love and desire swirling in their dark depths. Her nipples tightened, and her core melted. He was publicly claiming her as his. Then, he thrust his cock inside her and held it there. “Mine,” he whispered.
/> She closed her eyes and reveled in the sensation of Matthew filling her, owning her. “Yours,” she whispered back.
At her word, he went crazy, thrusting inside her hard and fast. She wrapped her legs around him to deepen his penetration. His hands were everywhere, lighting fires on her skin until she thought she’d spontaneously combust.
Her orgasm caught her by surprise, washing over her like flood waters and drowning her. “Matthew! Matthew! Matthew!” she chanted while she squeezed him.
“Fallon,” he shouted and streamed his release inside her, his hot cum sending her over the edge again until she thought she’d die from the pleasure.
Nothing else mattered but this. All the rest was trivial and unimportant.
When she floated down, she noted with supreme satisfaction that Matthew had collapsed over her, his hot breath blasting over her breast. She wiggled down until she could kiss his hair, his cheeks. He cupped her face and kissed her breath away.
The crowd around them had gone crazy, cheering and clapping. She blinked and stared at them. They were so happy for them, and it didn’t feel perverted or strange to have done the thing she’d done in front of them.
Matthew staggered to his feet and picked her up, cradling her in his arms. Trista stepped forward and removed the hand cuffs.
He carried her out of the bar and down the hall to one of the VFRs, the crowd’s noise dissipating to a dull roar.
He laid her down on a huge bed and kissed every inch of her face. “I love you, Fallon. I couldn’t live without you.”
“I love you, too, Matthew. So much,” she murmured.
And as he slid his cock deep inside her, Fallon marveled at how the tables had turned. She’d come to Asberek to command them to yield to Earth. Instead, she followed Matthew’s command to yield with infinitely more satisfying results.
With him, she had discovered the power of surrender. Her orgasm washed over her as Matthew shouted his release. Her body had understood the true meaning of surrender before her mind, and she no longer had to be commanded to yield to the man she loved.
Commanded to Yield Page 15