Seriana Found

by Marie Harte

  They passed antiques from the arneo-classic period worth as much as his first ship, and he saw grudging admiration for the home reflected in Seriana’s wide, violet gaze.

  “Stars! You must have stolen from half the System’s quadrants to afford this place.”

  What little she knew of his business pursuits. He ignored her poor opinion of him and guided her into a seat at a long, wide table. “I trust I won’t have to tie you down to prevent further escape?”

  She sat mutinously silent.

  “Seriana.” He sat next to her at the large dining table. Abjon truly enjoyed having her at his mercy. Just knowing she was here, that she was his, made his blood hum. “Running again wouldn’t be the smartest thing to do. And though your father thinks you beyond intelligent, I’d have to disagree with him.”

  Her eyes flashed. “Don’t talk about my father to me. If Rover Blue truly cared about me he wouldn’t have thrown me at you. How can he be so blind?”

  “Your father loves you, and he’s one of the strongest men I know,” he said with quiet deliberation. “He has an open mind. He isn’t so childish as to run from passion when it presents itself.”

  “Childish? You think it’s childish that I want to live my own life? That I want more than stealing and killing and running from System law, always looking over my shoulder?”

  He’d promised himself he’d maintain control. He refused to let her goad him and redirect the situation. Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to answer evenly. “I was ever willing to discuss your needs and your wants, Seriana. Yet in all the years we’ve known each other, this is the first you’ve shared them with me.”

  “You wouldn’t understand,” she muttered and looked away.

  “Why? Because I’m a man? Or because I’m Ragga?” He couldn’t help the frustration lining his words. “Just because I can take by force doesn’t mean I always will.”

  Her eyes shifted to his so fast he thought she’d give herself a headache.

  He amended, “Unless of course, I’m pushed to violence by a very stubborn, wilful fire maiden.”

  She frowned. “My life is not your concern.”

  “Of course it is. I promised your father I would always look out for you.”

  “Oh, so it’s my father you’re trying to impress by hunting me down like a skipped bounty? Did my father tell you to fuck me, too?”

  She wasn’t ready to hear the truth, so he pressed the controller in his pocket and food suddenly appeared on the table before them. Deliberately changing the subject, he said matter-of-factly, “You must be hungry. I know you haven’t been eating well.” He peered at her, seeing the defined cheeks and thinner waist that only emphasised her curves, making her look all the more luscious.

  “I don’t need food.” She pushed her plate aside and gazed at him with a sober look on her face. “I’m sorry you’re taking this the wrong way, Abjon. But we’re not meant to be together. I wish you would understand that.”

  He waited, wondering where she thought to go with this new tactic. Anger hadn’t worked, so what now, passive persuasion?

  “Make me understand,” he murmured, envisioning her in a lavender silk shift he’d brought from home. Then he imagined pushing her belly over the table, pushing up the dress to bare her ass, then sliding his cock between those delectable cheeks.

  “You’re a man used to taking charge, to getting what he wants. But I’m a simple woman.” He wanted to scoff. “I don’t need riches and perfection. I don’t need a man to make my life complete. I only need myself, to be true to a life of peace and understanding with the System.”

  Did she really believe the Xen tripe she was spouting? He knew she’d spent time on planet Jaron, but she quoted their mantra almost verbatim. “Understanding with the System” my ass. He watched her carefully, reluctantly impressed at her ability to appear so earnest when he could feel the static of bullshit in the air.

  He nodded, feigning sympathy, and decided to alter his grandiose plans for making her see reason. With Seriana, action meant more than words. He chose his words carefully.

  “It really is about what you need.” He saw her eyes narrow at his tone, and he could see her weighing the decision to believe his sincerity. “I’m sorry, Seriana. I should have considered this before.”

  He stood up and helped her to her feet, then cleared a place on the table and gently sat her where her plate had been. Stepping between her thighs, he took her face in his hands. He allowed a show of remorse on his face, a look he’d been practicing to appear authentic, and surprised her into silence.

  “I’ve been selfish, placing my wants above your own.”

  She nodded.

  “My hungers.” He looked to the food around them.

  She nodded again, as if in a daze.

  “When all along I should have been considering your needs.”

  He kissed her softly on the forehead and swore he heard her sigh of relief. “I’m not so big a man I can’t change.”

  “I’m so glad to hear that.” She graced him with a smile.

  He smiled back and could see that the tightness of his expression alarmed her.

  “Since it’s your needs we’re discussing, let’s lay it out on the table, so to speak.” He glanced at her position on said table and grinned.

  “Abjon?”

  “What you need, Seriana, is a good fuck.”

  He swallowed her cry of indignation, conscious of the sultry taste and feel of her. Silken limbs pushed at him, her mouth fought to be free, then she sighed, leaning into him. Like magic, their sensual magnetism flared to life, capturing them both within its web.

  Abjon needed her like he needed breath. He wanted to brand himself on her, to make her realise she should never run again. Hardening his resolve to do it right, he willed himself to be strong. If this didn’t cement the foundation for their future, he didn’t know what would.

  Chapter Four

  Seriana couldn’t breathe. The sneaky, sexy bastard had seen through her double-talk. She’d wanted to deal with him honestly, to see where their passion might lead, but he was so damned controlling. The entire boat ride to the island she’d argued with herself and had finally realised there could never be a ‘them’ because there was too much of him.

  Yet now, with Abjon’s mouth covering hers, with the scorching passion in the tightly coiled body holding her, she hopelessly surrendered to the desire riding her hard.

  Groaning under his onslaught, she was barely aware of his hands removing her clothing. His callused palms slid down her cheeks to her neck while he stroked his tongue inside her mouth. Stars, but he tasted like sex, and she couldn’t help remembering how his cum had tasted, salty and surprisingly sweet, like the man himself.

  He licked at the roof of her mouth, twining his tongue with hers as his hands covered her breasts, weighing them before pinching her nipples with painful bursts of pleasure.

  “Abjon, please,” she gasped when she could tear her mouth free.

  “Please what?” His voice was husky, his hands constantly roving, stirring her flesh with their heat. “Please more? Please touch me, here?” He plumped her white globes, fondling and caressing her to the point of madness.

  She lost all thought when his mouth trailed the path his hands had taken, sweeping her breast into a hot, moist well of delight. The sensation was powerfully erotic, but when coupled with his roving hand, she drew perilously close to demanding he finish her. Moving lower, tempting her to mould her body to his, his left hand caressed her stomach, then reached her tight black curls, grazing them ever so softly.

  The pull of his lips on her nipple tugged at her womb and made her deliciously wet. When he finally delved into her folds, she groaned and whispered his name like a prayer.

  She pressed as close to his hand as she was able, conscious that as he suckled her breast, he lowered her back to the table. Breaking away from her chest, he continued to trail kisses down her body, until his mouth rested a breath from her moun
d.

  Settling his chin in her black curls, he rubbed back and forth, as if waiting for something from her. When she raised her head to look down at him, she saw male satisfaction blazing, along with something she couldn’t quite name.

  “You see, love, you only needed me.”

  Before she could respond, he spread her thighs wide and kissed her. The heat of his mouth fairly undid her, making her arch into his touch, unable to be still.

  She writhed and moaned, in shock and awe that he had the power to make her feel with such intensity.

  He laved her with aggressive strokes, his tongue and teeth nipping and sucking with an expertise that bespoke practice. But just as the niggle of jealousy wormed its way into her thoughts, it quickly disappeared when his tongue shot into her channel.

  “Oh, Abjon,” she moaned, needing a release for the building tension shaking her very being. She had never felt so much sensation, and it was almost too much to bear.

  “What is it you want, Seriana?” he asked thickly, his mouth shiny with her juices, his eyes a vibrant golden yellow, bright with desire.

  “You, I want you,” she freely admitted, gratified by his harsh breathing and the mouth he readily returned to her clit.

  He sucked on her nub and thrust two fingers inside her, pushing her to the edge. As if he could sense it, he began pumping his fingers in and out, all the while toying with her clit, sucking and biting, until she could feel her arousal pulsing like a living thing in her mind.

  “Please, Abjon, please,” she cried, needing more, needing…him.

  He thrust his fingers harder, his breathing as heavy as hers. Then he changed the slant of his mouth, his tongue bearing down with sharp licks that made her already hard clit almost overly sensitised. He drew back and blew warm breath over her flesh, and the tremor of climax was upon her. Bringing his mouth back down, he drew hard on her taut clit, rocking her into an explosion of desire that brought the world to its end.

  Rapture pulsed through her, shaking her with its force. On and on the pleasure flowed, until finally she sank against the table, her eyes closed in bliss, her body trembling with the aftershocks.

  A warm kiss pressed her mouth, and she tasted herself on his lips, an erotic reminder of who had brought her to such peaks. She opened her eyes.

  “You have no idea what you need,” he said in a gritty voice.

  Glancing down, she saw him raging hard. Though she had little energy, she thought to give him the respite he so richly deserved and reached out to him.

  “No.” His rejection hurt, especially after the incredible attention he’d just lavished on her body. He’d put so much care into his lovemaking. Or had she only imagined the affection, caught in passion’s snare?

  “You think too much. And you aren’t ready yet, not for what I have to show you. Now eat.”

  She sat, naked since he refused to allow her to dress again, and stared at her plate. To her surprise, her appetite returned and she devoured her meal in less time than it had taken her to climax.

  Abjon said nothing, nor did he eat anything in front of him. Once she finished, he hoisted her off from her seat and over his shoulder, like the barbarian she’d always claimed him to be.

  * * * *

  Four days later she remained tied to the large, four-poster bed in his bedroom. The bastard had stunned her by giving her such bliss, feeding her, and carrying her like a possession. Then he’d tied her arms and legs to the bedposts of his bed and left her here, all alone.

  He showed only to feed her and allow her visits to the lav. He refused to speak with her but always treated her with an off-putting tenderness, never as rough or harsh as he’d been that first day.

  On his visits he was in control, subdued and silent. At first alarmed, she quickly disregarded any notion he might harm her. He might scare the rest of the System, but Abjon Afier had never hurt her physically. And after their first night here on Fidei, she thought he had some twisted sense of wanting to please her.

  Unfortunately, the arrogant pirate refused to be sensible. He wouldn’t talk to her. At least she could respect him for not believing her Jaron line about ‘oneness’. She’d never understood the alien concept of withdrawing into oneself, especially when she wanted so much to be a part of the rest of the world.

  He hadn’t believed her story, but had he listened to what else she’d said? She wanted more from life than the shady world of thievery to which he and her father belonged. She knew very little about the other side of life, the side where it was okay to trust in another.

  She tugged at the silk scarves securing her limbs. Funny, but until now she hadn’t really questioned her father’s bond with Abjon. Talk about trust. The two were thick as thieves, literally. For a man not prone to reliance, her father depended an awful lot on a Ragga, more stone warrior than mortal man.

  She’d always sensed more from Abjon than he’d shown others. He saw with more perception, thought with more tolerance, and acted with more decisiveness than anyone she’d ever met. Incredibly, he’d risen from the ranks as a lowly miner, to her father’s Second in Command, to leader in his own right in just over ten years. And in all that time he’d maintained a watchful eye over her.

  From the first she’d been drawn to him. True, she’d been impressed by his Ragga strength and flame-coloured eyes. But more, she could feel something within him that called to her.

  Uncomfortable with the notion, she yanked at her bonds again, shivering in the cool air that met her skin where the blanket had fallen.

  Seriana still had a hard time believing the intense pirate who’d beleaguered her for years was the same man who’d made her beg him to take her. By Aphra’s breast, the man could kiss. She could still feel his lips over her clit, could readily see his shiny black hair buried between her thighs, the thin braid at his temple trailing over her skin.

  She grew wet thinking about it and wished she could press her legs closed. Tied as they were to the bedposts, she had no way of bringing them together. Sighing, she pondered her options in dealing with this situation.

  Would it really be so bad to try to get to know him? Except for his obvious heritage and time spent since joining her father, she knew little about him. Learning all she could about Abjon only made sense. Perhaps his history would explain his allure. Conceding her curiosity didn’t necessarily mean she had to give up what she wanted out of life. As long as I don’t become too obsessed with the startlingly sensual man.

  The doorway opened suddenly, startling her out of her introspection. Abjon entered with a tray of food. She eyed him hungrily, but not for sustenance. Instead, her gaze travelled over the broad width of his chest, partially exposed by his unbuttoned shirt. His coppery skin seemed to glow in the dim light of morning shining through the windows.

  She’d always been partial to the smoothness of his skin, the lack of hair on his chest and legs she’d studied when he hadn’t been looking. Now, bound as she was with no more excuses to avoid him, she was free to look her fill.

  “Problem?” he asked as he placed her tray near the bed. He stood with his arms akimbo, and her gaze flew to his powerful neck, that on any other man would be a spot of vulnerability, but on Abjon looked like muscle-corded armour.

  “No problem,” she answered with a rusty tongue.

  Sensing her need, he brought a cup of water forward.

  “I could drink easier without these.” She shook her wrists in their restraints.

  “I’m sure you could.” He tipped her head back and allowed her to swallow the water in small sips. She pondered the subtle change she sensed in him. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but he seemed warmer, more connected to her than he’d been the past four days.

  With her thirst assuaged, she glanced up into his face only to see a blazing furnace of heat in his eyes. Cool air trickled over her breasts, and she realised what had caught his gaze. Unable to stop the blush scalding her cheeks, she glared at him.

  He chuckled. “Sorry, sweet, but
you can’t expect a man not to look away from such perfect fruits.” Leaning down, he kissed each nipple with deliberate softness, making her nubs tighten with arousal. “I could feast here for days,” he murmured.

  “Abjon,” she gasped. “What are you…” She lost her train of thought when he tugged at one nipple. “When will you let me go?”

  His lips quirked.

  “You can’t keep me like this forever,” she said in a breathy voice, unnerved by the idea that she might not mind being tied up as long as he was there to tend her.

  “Hmm.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means you and I have some talking to do.” He began feeding her small bites of succulent coya fruit, and she was too hungry to care about her bonds as she ate.

  His eyes seemed overly intense as he watched her, his gaze alternating between her mouth and her breasts.

  “Aren’t you going to eat?” she asked, conscious that since he’d entered he’d lavished his attention on her appetite.

  “I already ate.” He grinned, showing strong white teeth. “Now we’re going to play a little game. We’re going to ask each other some questions. If I like your answers, I’ll set you free.”

  “If you don’t like the answers?”

  “I’ll keep you like this—”

  “You’ve got to be kidding.”

  “—forever,” he taunted, or at least she hoped he was.

  Chapter Five

  After he allowed Seriana a respite to the lav, during which time she made use of the facilities and cleaned in the luxurious solar shower, Abjon retied her to the bed.

  She thought to fight him, but by the look in his eyes decided not to. It wasn’t as if she had the strength to overpower him. As it was, the only sway she seemed to hold over him was their intense, unexplainable attraction.

  He restrained her limbs to the posts, leaving her naked and spread open for his perusal. She studied him, wondering just what he hoped to gain from all this. Surprisingly, she felt no fear or anger. Just arousal and curiosity, both of which threatened to consume her.