Wicked Captor
Page 18
It had frustrated the hell out of her, so she’d just pushed it out of her mind and tried not to think about it. And having sex with Devix to take her mind off it had certainly helped.
They’d never spoken about it again and throughout the week, he’d filled her with so much cum that Cara wondered how it was physically possible she wasn’t pregnant already. Although…she hadn’t had a period since she’d been abducted by the Krevorags, from stress and lack of nourishment, probably.
“After I finish that last haul of pods,” he murmured then, bringing her back to the present. She was still on top of him and he was still inside her. “I will go hunting. I spotted a pack of beggawi from the ridge earlier. It is a good opportunity. I should not be long. One will be enough for at least a few spans.”
“Okay,” she murmured, tracing the lines of his muscled chest. “Do you want to try what I’ve been working on today before you go?”
“You must ask, female?” he murmured, teasing.
Cara grinned. Devix, like most males, liked to eat. And every single thing she’d made for him that past week, except for the exceptionally delicious pillerva pod dessert she’d made that was a dead ringer for creme brûlée—he’d already warned her that he didn’t have a taste for the pods—Devix had practically vacuumed the food off his plate.
She’d taken it as a compliment, especially when he hovered around the kitchen whenever she was experimenting. Rozun, for obvious reasons, had different flavors, different game, different spices and oils and edible plant life. Some, to her, were unpalatable. Others, delicious. Cara had discovered that Devix preferred liberally peppered red meats, anything that had a bite to it. Yet, Rozun didn’t have what she would consider black peppercorns. Instead, she’d substituted it with a fluid she’d extracted from a yellow-spotted leaf resembling an aloe plant. The fluid was almost an exact match for black pepper, but much more potent.
And so she experimented. Extensively. She wrote down her own versions of recipes on loose sheets of parchment that Devix had given her—which she’d bound together with cord to made a book—and she came up with names for the plants and herbs and game meat that Devix didn’t have a name for. She made sauce reductions from beggawi flank and glazes from the sap of the pillerva trees. When she boiled and strained the sap, it tasted like a tarter version of maple syrup that complimented the milder flavors of the kwarti root they’d bought from the market.
And it went on and on. Some nights, if a string of inspiration hit her, Devix had to entice her away with sex from the kitchen, which had slowly become her own space. It had been bare bones before, but over the week, she’d hung more herbs to dry, she’d stacked and labeled and sorted the spices they’d purchased at the market, and she’d worked at sharpening the knives Devix had given her until they were to her liking.
The ‘stovetop,’ if it could be called that, wasn’t like anything she was used to and she longed for her old gas ranges with a fierceness that surprised her. But she worked with what she had. She was cooking over a controlled open flame, but she maneuvered with it just fine.
Cookware, however, was harder to come by. Devix only had one ‘skillet’ that had seen better days and one pot for boiling that wasn’t nearly as large as she liked for soups and stews and stocks. But they were planning to make another trip to the market in a few days, so Cara would get by until then.
It didn’t change the fact that for the first time in a long time, she felt…right. Inspired. She felt like she was working towards something again, not just sitting on the sidelines.
She felt happy.
And it wasn’t lost on her that Devix had a lot to do with that.
For now, she gave her lover a smile and patted his chest. “Come on. Let me feed you before you go.”
His grip tightened on her waist. “Let me hold you,” he murmured, “a moment longer.”
Cara’s heart melted and it was exactly moments like that when she knew she was falling in love with him. Swiftly. Deeply.
She didn’t second guess it. She just let it happen.
“Okay,” she whispered.
And she let him hold her, but really, she held him.
* * *
Cara waited up for Devix, sitting in the living room, which her alien often called the ‘central hub.’ The fire was lit, warming the home, and Cara watched the flames, wrapping the fur blanket around her tighter, her bare toes flexing into the plush rug. Next to her was her parchment recipe book, filled with her experiments from that week. The ones that weren’t successful had notes scribbled down the margins, hopes for salvaging them or what flavor profiles were required to make them work.
She’d been pouring over it to distract herself but had long given it up. The truth was that Devix had gone hunting twice that past week. And she’d hated every second because she worried about him. Worried that he might get injured, worried that he might not come home.
Logically, she knew she had nothing to fret over. Devix was skilled in many areas, hunting being one of them. And he’d lived on Rozun for over six years, all the way out here. He knew his land and he knew his prey, like the back of his hand.
Cara just had to trust that he’d return.
It didn’t make it any easier.
Her eyes slid to the recipe book lying innocently beside her and she reached out to feel the parchment, which was already stained from splattering juices and spiced oils, just as it should be.
Another truth was that she couldn’t stop thinking about what Devix had suggested to her last week. That she could open up a restaurant, right there on Rozun, the first of its kind.
Opening up a restaurant would be a lot of work. Cara wasn’t a lazy person—the hard work didn’t bother her—and the idea excited her enough that she’d already been daydreaming about segmenting the menus by flavor, depending on what a species preferred, taste-wise. She thought about how big she wanted it to be, how she would solve the lack of gas ranges, how she’d organize the kitchen, whether one of the stall vendors at the market would partner with her so she’d have access to fresh game and vegetables and roots.
But it was more than that…
Opening up a restaurant signified permanence. If she opened up a restaurant…she would be all in. She would be declaring that Rozun was her home, that she wanted to stay. That she wouldn’t be returning to Earth, even if Devix somehow managed to find her passage to the Fourth Quadrant.
And that had been something that she’d been thinking about often that past week.
Was it something she was ready for?
Because the other thing that had been on her mind was picturing a goodbye with Devix.
Simply, she couldn’t imagine it.
If, even at that very moment, he came through the front door and told her that he’d found someone with access to the Fourth Quadrant, or that he had a Luxirian crystal, Cara honestly didn’t know if she’d accept. Ever since her capture, all she’d been dreaming about in her cage was getting back to Earth, her home, her friends, her life.
But she was slowly beginning to realize that a home could be built anywhere in the universe, if the people she cared about also called it home.
Cara ran a hand through her freshly washed hair and sighed.
With a glance at her recipes, she decided right then that she wouldn’t worry about the future, about what might happen. Devix was still worried about his employer finding them, even though he tried to hide it from her. But Cara didn’t want to live constantly looking over her shoulder.
As for the restaurant, she decided that during their trip to the market in a few days, she’d check out if there were any vacant spaces or areas where she could rent or build. She’d place enquiries with some of the vendors for supplies. She’d create a sample menu in the meantime.
And then she’d see where those paths led her.
Outside, she heard a thump and she smiled, relief pulsing through her. Quickly, she made her way to the front door and shouldered it open. Devix stood just beyon
d, clothes slightly bloody from carrying the beggawi from wherever he’d hunted it. He’d already cleaned the carcass from the looks of it.
“I missed you,” she murmured, not caring that her feet were bare as she stepped outside. The blue moss covering the ground was soft enough and it tickled the undersides of her soles.
She went to him, breathing him in, and leaned up for a kiss, which he gave her gladly.
“There is no sweeter welcome than this,” he murmured against her lips and she smiled, before stepping back. Then she watched as he hefted the carcass and opened the hatch to the cellar below the house, which was located along the back wall.
Below, he kept supplies, but there was also a small room for game, which he’d wired to keep cold.
When he reemerged from the cellar, sans beggawi, she led him inside the house and murmured, “Come on. Let’s bathe.”
He purred in response.
And Cara washed and caressed his body as they showered together in the washing tube. It wasn’t long before he had her legs wrapped around his waist, her back against the glass, driving home between her thighs.
“Luxiva, luxiva, luxiva,” he murmured over and over again in her ear.
And as she orgasmed, she couldn’t help but think that it was too perfect, that she was too happy.
She was waiting for the other shoe to drop even as she clutched him tighter.
TWENTY-ONE
It was just a few days later when that other shoe finally dropped.
They’d just returned from a long afternoon at the market, the transport craft loaded down with supplies that Devix had spoiled her with. Throughout the afternoon, she’d kept her eyes peeled for a potential area to open a small restaurant. And she thought she’d found the perfect place.
Her favorite spot had been located towards the quieter edge of the market. An old, run-down, and vacant stall that Devix had told her used to be owned by one of the largest game suppliers on Rozun. When he’d died, however, the stall had shut down and no one had taken it over. Devix told her he thought it was because it wasn’t in a prime location, too far from the bustle of the marketplace where most vendors captured the majority of their customers.
But to Cara it was perfect. A sturdy stall with a large enough overhang for a makeshift roof. She could put tables and chairs just beneath it, like an open patio, a more peaceful place to eat when market-goers needed a reprieve. It would only seat maybe ten, if she could fit the tables just right, but it was small enough for her first venture, just to test out whether her business would be well-received.
All the way back home, she’d thought about that stall. And ideas started swarming her mind so quickly that she’d pulled out her spare parchment and wrote them all down so she wouldn’t forget. By the time they were home, she had five pages of crammed, tiny notes and she was buzzing with excitement.
Now that she had a potential location in mind, it seemed more real to her. Attainable.
And at her first opportunity, once all the supplies were unloaded, she pounced on Devix to show him just how happy she was.
Afterwards, with trembling limbs and tingling from multiple orgasms, she’d lounged in bed with her male and pressed her cheek to his chest to listen to his heartbeat, reassuring and strong. He was purring steadily, stroking his fingertips down her back all the way down to the swell of her ass before venturing upwards.
But something seemed off to her.
“You’ve been quiet,” she murmured.
He’d seemed distracted for most of the afternoon, after he spoke with a tall, broad alien he knew at the marketplace. Cara wondered if it was because he was worried about Sarkon in such a public place or if it was something else.
Devix grunted and turned his head to look at her. She couldn’t count how many times they’d done this, just lying together, being with each other.
“Tell me,” she whispered. “Who did you talk to at the market and what did you talk about?”
Devix stilled. He continued to stroke down her back until his hand paused and then he lifted up on his elbow to look down at her.
Cara watched him carefully, the high of that afternoon slowly fading, dread replacing it.
“He was a trader I have known for many rotations,” Devix murmured. “He lives on Rozun but he has connections off planet.”
“Okay,” she said slowly, waiting.
Devix’s lips tightened briefly but then he said, “I vowed to you on my vessel that I would try to find you passage to Earth, whatever it took, so that you might return to the home you were stolen from. To give you your choice back, which was taken from you.”
“Dev…” Cara trailed off.
“The male knows of another trader who travels to the Fourth Quadrant. This trader comes to Rozun every lunar cycle to deliver fuel. I asked the male to contact me when he does the next drop.”
Cara searched his eyes, his words lodging in her chest like stones. She hadn’t expected the reaction she felt. And she certainly hadn’t expected to want to cry…and not the good kind of tears.
Suddenly, she was questioning everything.
And she couldn’t help but be…hurt.
Because she was now wondering if Devix had always expected her being there to be a temporary arrangement, whether she’d misread the situation between them.
“Cara,” he said, trying to capture her attention.
Jesus, she’d been thinking about opening up a goddamn restaurant all week, making plans in her mind for their future…and Devix, at the first opportunity, had asked an acquaintance about getting her back home.
Did he want to get rid of her that quickly?
It was all too much. And she’d gotten in too deep and she’d realized it too late.
She was lying there in ‘their’ bed, his cum still inside her, his scent all over her body, and she felt like she was the verge of heartbreak at the thought that he might want her gone.
She felt like a fool.
And that was when she realized…she was a pleasure mate to him. Just a pleasure mate. This was exactly how he’d described it to her: a lover with no promises, no expectations.
Well, he’d made her no promises, except that he’d help her search for a way home.
“I—I need some air,” she murmured, sliding out of bed before he could touch her. Quickly, she slipped on her shift dress lying at the base of the bed.
“Luxiva,” Devix said, his feet already on the floor.
“No, please, I just need to think. Alone. I won’t go far,” she said softly, not looking at him, before darting out of the room.
In a daze, she walked out of the house, drawing deep lungfuls of Rozian air, trying to clear her head. Her feet took her in the direction of the valley and she knew the way by heart, since Devix had taken her there almost everyday.
Tears stung her eyes, blurring the path.
What had she truly expected to happen? That she would just live there, on Rozun, happily running her restaurant, doing what she loved, with the male she loved?
The sex had messed with her brain, she decided. And now, she had so many questions, so many doubts.
Just thinking back to earlier that afternoon, when she’d asked Devix about the vacant stall, when she’d actually thought she could build something there…it made her feel so, so stupid.
Cara walked faster, wiping away the tears that fell to her cheeks. How did such a good day take such a dramatic turn?
She was halfway to the valley when she heard the footsteps behind her.
Cara shook her head, staring straight ahead, not breaking her pace. “Devix, I told you I wanted to be alone.”
“Unfortunately, my pet,” a voice rasped from behind her, “you are far from alone.”
She froze, her heart chilling and goosebumps breaking out over her skin at the unrecognizable, hissing, crawling voice. When she whirled around, three alien males were only a couple meters from her.
And she knew who they were.
Azatians.
The Azatian in the middle stepped forward and she gasped, stumbling back against one of the pillerva trees.
His nostrils flared and his slitted eyes narrowed even further. “I see my mercenary has been mating what belongs to me. I did not expect him to succumb to you, but it seems he is not above betrayal, that exiled filth,” he spat, his pupils flaring.
Sarkon.
Cara flinched and felt around the tree, never taking her eyes off of him.
“How did you find us?” she asked, her voice surprisingly steady even though her heart was trying to beat its way out of her chest.
“I sent out my scouts at the bazaar,” he said, tilting his head back to the two Azatians that accompanied him. “We have been searching for spans. One discovered you and alerted me. We followed you here,” Sarkon looked around, his distaste obvious.
“Devix isn’t far,” she told them when they started forward at Sarkon’s beckoning, trying to corral her like a wild animal. Her gaze darted from each one before settling on Sarkon. “He won’t let you take me.”
“We will be quick, my pet. He will not even realize you are gone.”
Run, run, run, her instinct screamed. That was what Devix had taught her. He’d told her there was no shame in running, if it kept her safe. Then her mind remembered…the hatch down to the safe room! It wasn’t far. If she outran them, she’d be able to reach it. She could lock it from the inside.
Sarkon lunged for her without warning, so similar to what Devix had done in the training room on the spaceship. And her body reacted, recognizing the maneuver and she managed to evade him.
It gave her just enough time.
As loud as she possibly could, she screamed, hoping that the sound would carry and echo through the trees towards Devix.
Sarkon bit out something in his language, an ugly word.