by Cathryn Cade
Her tongue, of its own volition, tasted his calloused thumb and curled around it, feeling the whorls on the pad. She found herself wanting to draw him further into her mouth, suck on him.
He watched, his eyes blue flame.
“I’m going to do what I should have done from the start,” he said. “Claim you as mine.”
He tipped her head back and bent his head to her, murmuring in her ear as his thumb slipped further into her mouth, stroking her tongue, her inner lip.
“You’ll give yourself, time after time, just as you planned,” he growled, nipping at the tender lobe of her ear. “But it will be to me, every…single…time.” He punctuated his words with slow thrusts of his hips into the vee of her legs, raking her mons with his cock, massively erect.
Tessa shuddered with arousal, even as she fought to control her response to him. The bastard! He could not just expect to slide back into her arms after the way he had behaved—so cold, so remote.
“I will not,” she protested breathlessly, pushing at him, hunching her neck to hide her sensitive ear from his caresses.
“Yes, you will,” he said, his voice so confident she wanted to slap him. “You see, I know you, sweetheart. You gave yourself to me with such generosity. You will again.”
“I will not!”
What was he doing? She grasped his hand indignantly as he pulled down the zipper that fastened her soft jacket, but he only smiled at her, his eyes dancing with mischief now. Oh, that look was so enticing. No, she was furious at him. She must remember that.
“Stop!” she hissed, batting at his warm hands as they slipped inside the now open jacket, pushing it back off her shoulders and down her arms. Strangely, not a one of the many close combat moves she knew even crossed her mind.
“Mmm, I like your pretty top,” he said, tracing the back of his knuckles over one breast. The thin, slippery lii leaf fabric intensified the caress, so that her nipple peaked immediately. He flicked the other nipple with his fingertip, and she gasped.
He kissed her, soft sipping kisses that so entranced her she tried to lift her arms to him, only to let out a hiss of outrage when she discovered he had tied her sleeves together around her under her breasts, so that she could not lift her arms. She glared at him, opening her mouth to lambaste him.
Instead she gasped again as he shoved her pants down and lifted her to the countertop behind her, in one masterful move. He stepped between her bare thighs and pulled her firmly against his groin. The countertop was cold and smooth under her bare bottom, his uniform silky smooth against her front, his hands hard and hot on her bare skin.
“You scheming fang-lizard!” she hissed, trying to wriggle away. She dug her fingers into his sides and he cursed, flinching.
“Little viper! You have fangs yourself, sweetheart.”
He pulled her hands behind her back and held them with one hand, pulling something off his uniform belt with the other. Then he bent over her, her face against his shoulder as he fastened something soft, but immutable around her wrists. He had used his restraints on her!
He straightened and tipped her head back with one hand, stroking his fingers gently through her tousled curls as she glared at him. She was vibrating with rage and embarrassment, and…something else. Excitement.
He leaned back, his gaze wandering appreciatively over her bare shoulders, her breasts, the shimmering lii fabric quivering with her panting breaths. He reached down and untied the sleeves of her jacket, letting it fall behind her. Then he looked over the slight jut of her rib cage, the narrow waist, and her slender, open thighs, red-gold curls framing the damp pink of her labia.
“I’ll get you for this, commander or not,” she promised vengefully, even as she felt her body thrill, ripen at the hot appreciation in his gaze.
“You already have,” he reminded her. “Dropped me like a raw recruit. Now it’s my turn.”
“This is what you will do to get a female? Such a big, strong male, you have to tie me up.”
“We both know I won’t hurt you. And we both know that if you don’t want this…you will stop it.”
Her back arched as he stroked his hands lightly down over her, from her throat to the sides of her breasts. He cupped them, stroking the slippery fabric taut over her skin, the nipples like hard buds between his thumb and forefingers.
“How?” she managed. “You do not listen to me—”
He bent his head to her breast. “You know how, Tessa,” he said chidingly, licked one of her nipples firmly into his mouth and began to suckle her through the thin fabric, his cheeks bowing in with effort. His eyes gleamed like hot, blue diamonds.
She watched him, entranced by the sight and the deep, wet tugging of his mouth.
He cupped one big hand over her mons as he suckled her, playing first one breast and then the other. His fingertips stroked up and down, tracing her labia until her hips began to follow him helplessly. She bit her lip hard to keep from begging him to do more.
“Tessa,” he murmured, pressing soft wet kisses in the sensitive place where her shoulder joined her throat. He bit her gently there and began to suck. “What do you want?”
She groaned with frustration and then broke. She could not bear this sweet torture one more second. She wanted him—every infuriating, maddening inch of his six feet plus.
“Touch me,” she demanded, her voice husky. “Put your fingers in me.”
He kissed her, and then watched her as he worked two big, calloused fingers deep inside her wet, swollen pussy. She whimpered with helpless pleasure as he pressed his fingers up against that magic spot that only he had found and swirled her clitoris firmly with his thumb.
“That’s it, baby,” he urged. “Let me watch you, while I show you how good it’s going to be. Give yourself to me. Let me feel your hot little slit having my fingers, squeezing them.”
“Yesss,” she moaned, as the pleasure of his touch tightened and tightened, until she would have done anything to keep it there, and she convulsed, her head arching back, her thighs tightening around his hips as she came.
He kissed her, and held her against him, stroking her hair, until at last she forced herself to look at him, abashed. He gazed into her eyes as he slowly pulled his fingers out of her.
“You’re so lovely when you come,” he told her. “I want to see it again, with my cock deep inside you. Yes?”
She opened her mouth to answer him, and his com-link buzzed.
“Damn it!” He grabbed the link, and looked at the readout, still holding her close in his other arm. “Seven hells! It’s Navos—he knows exactly where I am, and he won’t hesitate to come after me.”
He activated the link. “Craig here.”
Tessa tugged impatiently at the restraints on her wrist, and he unfastened them as he listened, then rubbed her wrists gently with his big hands.
“Yes,” he said. “Yes. All right, I’m on my way.”
He scowled ruefully as he broke the link.
“I have to go—Navos has an important report for me. We’ll finish this later.”
She pouted as she picked up her jacket, and held it before her, pressing her thighs together primly as he stepped back.
“If you say so, Commander.”
Instead of taking insult, as she had intended, he reached out and caught her chin in a firm grip.
“I am your commander,” he said, his eyes heated and implacable. “I will give you hard proof when next we meet.”
And then he was gone, leaving her to dress and tidy herself in the tiny lavatory. She looked sheepishly at her flushed face and heavy eyes in the mirror, and then snickered, pressing her hands to her hot cheeks. That had been…cataclysmic. She had submitted to his commands, and she had enjoyed every second of it.
And she had known the whole time that all she had to do to stop him was speak the universal command to stop—“No”.
Chapter Fourteen
The warm glow of Craig’s heated attentions lasted only until she met Scala
in the passageway. The other woman’s gaze slid over her, then sharpened.
“You’ve been with someone,” she guessed, turning to saunter alongside Tessa as she headed for her room. “The captain?”
Tessa tried to ignore her, but she could feel her cheeks flush. Curse her human side, with all its emotional traps.
“He must be very good,” Scala murmured. “For you to be willing to be his flavor of the voyage.”
“My relationship with the captain is no one’s business,” Tessa hissed, her fists clenching as Scala voiced her own fears.
“I know.” Scala sighed. “That’s what I tried to tell the others. It’s just a rite of passage for our young cadet, I told them. He will end it when we land on Earth II, and our Tessa will be on to the next male. No need to gossip and sneer.”
“Sneer?” Tessa regretted her outburst at once, for Scala’s eyes glowed. Was it sympathy, or malice?
“Oh, you know how it is,” the older girl said smoothly. “When a Serpentian female is told she is a male’s private property, there’s bound to be talk. None of the rest of us would put up with a male laying down the law that way.”
“It’s not like that,” Tessa protested, but her insides crumbled. Those she admired and emulated were laughing at her behind her back? Mocking the way Craig had told her she was off-limits to any other male but him? Was she a naïve fool to believe that his proprietary attitude meant he wanted a permanent, Earth relationship with her?
As if she had read Tessa’s thoughts, Scala went on. “You’re a baby desert bunny to believe he’ll stay with you. He’s just looking for a quick shipboard fling with a Serpentian. We are legendary, after all. In fact, if I were you, I’d be applying for a permanent post on another ship. Human males don’t really like reminders around afterward.”
Tessa wanted to hiss at her—to scream that Scala was wrong, that Craig felt about her the same way she—
She stopped in her tracks, swaying a little as the blood drained from her head. The way she felt about him… Oh, goddess, she loved him. She had fallen in love with Steven Craig.
This was why she’d been so heartbroken when he told her they were through after one heavenly night—why she had wanted to maim him at the same time she wanted him to sweep her into his arms and override all her protests. This was why the sound of his deep voice was the sweetest music she had ever heard. It had happened so fast, probably the first time she saw him. She had heard of it happening this way, but never thought that she would be so vulnerable.
She came back to herself to realize that Scala was talking to her, staring at her as if she were a new life form.
“Orion to Tessa,” Scala said. “You in there? Snake eyes, little one, don’t take it so hard. Craig will move on to another female, and you’ll move on, too. There are plenty of potent males who would give a pay chit to have you. Ssaar, for example.”
Tessa shook her head. She just wanted to get rid of the other girl and be alone with her new discovery. She would face the hurtful things Scala had said later.
“Ssaar!” she grimaced. “I would never go with Ssaar, even if—well, I just wouldn’t. He frightens me. I don’t think he really likes females. He just wants to dominate.”
“That can be fun.” Scala flicked her tongue.
“Not with him,” Tessa said, and then blushed as she recalled how she had allowed Craig to command her, and loved every moment of it. But with Ssaar—ugh!
Scala shrugged, as if she had lost interest in the subject.
“Come and have a drink,” she offered. “You can begin now to show the others you aren’t about to be Craig’s plaything.”
“No, thanks,” Tessa said. “I have some things to do before dinner.”
“Well, if you change your mind, come and find us. After all, they can’t gossip about you if you’re there, right?”
With this final barb, Scala sauntered away.
Craig was equally unhappy with the conversation he was having with Navos. He had entered his second-in-command’s office in a mood of banked anticipation. As soon as he and Navos were through, he was going to speak to one of the chef-techs and request a supper for two in his quarters this evening. He intended to teach the cadet just where and how to use that sweet tongue on him.
Now all such thoughts were gone, swept away like so much debris.
“What do you mean, it’s not one of the Pangaeans?” he demanded.
Navos leaned back in his chair. “I mean that I have finished my mind scan testing of all Pangaean crew, and none of them exhibit anything but benign thought patterns.”
Craig stared at him. He wanted to put his fist through Navos’s clear desk. But the Indigon looked exhausted, his complexion grey. The mind scans were taxing even his formidable psychic powers.
Craig unclenched his hands with a conscious effort and paced over to the large holo-vid display on one wall. He stared unseeingly at the complex tessellating patterns in shades of deep indigo.
“This means one of our guards—” He couldn’t bring himself to say it.
“Yes, Captain,” said Navos quietly. “It means that one of our Serpentian guards is either dangerously angry or…corrupt.”
“Damn it to the seven hells!” Craig bowed his head for a moment and then turned back to Navos. “You’d better step up your testing. I want this taken care of before we land on Bartis tomorrow night.”
“I agree.” Navos nodded regally. “I should be able to finish with all the guards well before we land, provided they cooperate.”
“Oh, they’ll cooperate,” Craig said softly. “Any who do not will disembark on Bartis at the point of my laser stunner and await the next transport out.”
He turned to go, and then stopped. “Oh, and Daron? I want Tessa Alligon in the first group called in tomorrow morning.”
Navos nodded. “I will apprise you of her results immediately.”
Craig went directly from Navos’s quarters to the command deck, where he met with Sirena and Slyde Stone.
“I cannot believe this,” Sirena hissed, pacing back and forth, sparks flashing from her beautiful eyes. “We have chosen the finest guards in the galaxy. And now this!”
“Will you alert the other commanders?” Stone asked.
Craig shook his head grimly. “No one must know except us. Unless you want crew barricading themselves in their quarters. The idea that one of your people might be a rogue—it would be terrifying. So far, everyone has been pretty certain it would turn out to be one of the Pangaeans, since the saboteur on the last voyage was Pangaean. Hard on them, but safer than panic.”
“Why can Commander Navos not continue the testing tonight?” Sirena demanded. “I want this over.”
“He’s exhausted,” Craig said. “The process drains him.”
She paused, and then nodded. “I suppose it must be very tiring. Very well, Captain. I myself will not sleep tonight. If you need me…”
“I, too, will be on guard,” Stone said, rising.
Craig stood, holding out his hand to each of them in turn. “We will get through this,” he said. “I have faith in you, and in the rest of our crew.”
After the two of them left, he narrowed his eyes in thought and then spoke into his com-link once again.
“Mr. Halix.”
“Yes, Captain?”
“Will you join me in the command deck? There’s something I need you to do for me.”
He drummed his fingers on the edge of the holo-vid table, and then nodded once. Yes, it was the only way.
That evening, Tessa walked along the passageway to Craig’s quarters, outwardly cool, but inside she was in turmoil. As if her new realization about her love for Craig was not enough, now she had to deal with the upcoming mind scan.
She felt an uneasy respect for the elegant Commander Navos. Those deep blue eyes were so cold, and yet hypnotic. She was glad that he was a member of the Orion’s crew, there to help and protect, but as one who was more comfortable using her body and her instin
cts to resolve a problem, she was uneasy and suspicious of another being probing her mind. It was simply not right, having someone peer into her thoughts.
Especially now that so many of them were of Craig and the things they had done together. She moaned inwardly at the image of Commander Navos gazing at her in cold disgust as he plumbed memories of Craig holding her in his arms, murmuring hot, blue words as he thrust inside her.
Her reaction was mild compared to some of the guard. She shivered as she recalled the hissing fury Ssaar had displayed at the news. She had heard muttering from some of the others, too. Even Scala had looked ready to kill someone.
Craig had ordered the mind scans. She was hurt and angry at his willingness to suspect them all—suspect her. If he thought he was going to make love to her now…
Ahead of her loomed Craig’s door. She hesitated a moment, and spoke. “Captain Craig. Are you there?”
There was no answer, but she knew he was there. She had seen him on the surveillance holo-vid, headed this way. For a moment she thought of using the code to open the door, but pride surfaced. She would not pursue him.
“Scampering horned toad, hiding under a rock,” she muttered, her foot quivering to kick the smooth surface. With a glare at the door, she turned away.
Striding back toward the elevator, she heard a sound behind her. Stunner in her hands, she whirled, moving seamlessly into the firing stance. Only to discover that the red dot of her laser sight was centered on a familiar broad chest. Craig leaned against the doorframe, his ice blue gaze fastened on hers. His gaze dropped to her cocked stunner.
“You wanted me, Cadet? Dead, or alive?”
Despite the flush heating her face, she held his gaze as she holstered the small, deadly weapon.
“I’m on edge, Captain, as everyone is. However, I wished to speak with you, not shoot you.”
“You’re sure?” he asked politely. She flushed, remembering the kick. She nodded.
Finally he stepped back, holding the door open. “Come in.”