Hold

by Zannie Adams

  He was doing his best to restrain his need to thrust, but occasionally his hips would give an erratic jerk. Riana didn’t mind. She loved every sign that she was pleasing him. And so she worked his firm, warm flesh with her mouth as she breathed through her nose and bobbed her head.

  When she reached down below her head to gently squeeze his balls, Cain gave a barely controlled thrust into her mouth. She slid her mouth back up his cock automatically, trying to avoid choking on his erection.

  “Sorry,” he gritted out, his skin starting to glisten with perspiration as the muscles of his arms and belly rippled from holding himself rigidly in check.

  She smiled around his cock and hummed an encouraging response. Then she held on to his cock firmly with one hand and took more of it in her mouth.

  When she’d established her rhythm once more, she began to fondle his balls again. Her pussy was so wet now that she could feel the moisture leaking out and she only got wetter as she saw how viscerally Cain responded to her ministrations.

  She was completely focused on Cain, and so she barely registered the commentary that began from outside the bars of their cell. Vulgar comments, as usual, about her body, her position and what she was doing to Cain.

  She ignored them. By now, onlookers rarely fazed her and what was more important was pleasing Cain.

  But she sensed something change about Cain’s mood. And when she shifted her eyes up, she saw he was snarling slightly.

  Afraid he was getting distracted and wouldn’t enjoy his birthday blowjob, she moved her free hand from his balls so she could rub little circles against the sensitive spot just behind his sac.

  His whole body jerked and he released a thick grunt.

  She smiled again around his cock at her success.

  Then she gasped in surprise when Cain leaned up, stretching his arms down on either side of her body. It took her several seconds to realize what he was doing.

  He was pulling the covers back up over her, shielding her body from any oglers.

  Riana fell out of rhythm for a minute, so surprised was she by his action. He’d never done anything like that before. He’d always ignored other prisoners who’d lurked at the bars—except for the first night when he’d told them to leave. She knew it was part of the power play. Acting like they bothered him—letting them bother him—only gave them power over him.

  But now he’d made an obvious gesture. Hiding her from everyone else. Blocking their sight of how she was pleasuring him.

  With the simple act, he’d made their coupling private. Somehow intimate in a very public place.

  His eyes never left her face, never strayed from the sight of his cock sliding in and out of her mouth. The sudden intimacy made Riana even more aroused, and she found herself unconsciously rocking her hips in a humping motion as she bobbed her head over his cock.

  She massaged him with her finger and sucked as hard as she could.

  Cain clutched at the bedding beneath him as his face twisted with effort and pleasure.

  Then he came. He groaned out a hoarse exclamation—one that sounded like it was ripped out of him—and his pelvis convulsed beneath her mouth. She could feel the spasms of his climax in his cock and prepared herself for his release, swallowing as much of it as she could.

  Only a little dribbled out of the corner of her mouth as she gave his sated cock a few last, slow sucks.

  Then she let it slide out of her lips as she hauled herself up and stretched out beside him, making sure to pull the covers up with her.

  “Happy birthday,” she murmured, kissing him leisurely on the lips, letting him taste himself there.

  He smiled, even as he kissed her and his big hands slid down her back until they were cupping her ass. When their lips parted, he murmured, “Maybe my birthday was tomorrow.”

  She giggled appreciatively and rubbed herself against his body, feeling needy and incredibly turned on.

  But it was his birthday. And the blowjob had been a gift. She wasn’t going to demand anything in return.

  “That was incredible,” he said, his voice deliciously deep and gravelly. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.” Her clit was getting some good friction against his thigh and she couldn’t help but grind her pussy against it a little.

  Before she could get anywhere in riding his thigh, he’d turned her over bodily. She was on her stomach now, and he was on top of her, his weight pushing her into the mattress.

  She had no objections at all to this arrangement. In fact, she loved the feel of his hot, heavy body on top of her. But she squirmed beneath him and complained, “Hey, who told you to do that?”

  Cain just chuckled, one of his hands squeezing under her body until he could rub her swollen, aching clit. “You looked like you wanted a hump. I’ll stop if you want me to.”

  “Don’t you dare stop,” she whimpered, rocking her bottom to develop a good rhythm of her clit against his hand.

  He rocked with her, his groin pressed into her ass and their bodies moving together under the covers. Riana gasped as the rhythm and the weight of his body mingled with the pressure of his fingers on her clit.

  Soon, the pressure at her center had deepened to such an extent that she writhed helplessly and made mewling sounds against the mattress.

  She came, her hips riding out the pleasure between his pelvis and his hand.

  He was starting to harden against her bottom already, so she kept pushing back against his groin.

  After a minute, Cain grunted and lifted her by the hips so that her ass was higher than the rest of her. His legs on either side of hers, he parted her thighs enough to expose her slippery pussy.

  Then he slid his newly hardened cock inside her.

  Her chest and cheek still pressed down into the mattress, Riana gasped as Cain started to thrust, using the same rhythm they’d been mirroring before.

  She whimpered as the erotic pressure kept rising inside her. And soon she buried her face in the bed so she could muffle her cries of pleasure.

  Cain panted just beside her ear, supporting himself with his elbows and forearms, as he pushed into her in fast, hard thrusts.

  Then Riana fell out of rhythm as the tension shattered inside her. She screamed into the mattress as the sensations sliced through her and her pussy contracted around Cain’s cock.

  He grunted in response. Then he gritted out, “Fuck, baby, so good.”

  Then his pelvis pistoned against her bottom and he lost the rhythm too, groaning out another hard climax.

  They collapsed together onto the bed in a tangle of hot, sweaty flesh.

  Cain didn’t roll off her immediately and she didn’t want him to. She loved how it felt when he held on to her this way.

  “That was a very good morning,” Cain murmured at last, sounding hoarse and pleased and lazy.

  “Yeah.” Then Riana giggled.

  “What?” Cain demanded, pushing her hair out of her face so he could see a little more of it.

  “I was just thinking,” she admitted sheepishly. “It kind of felt like my birthday too.”

  * * * * *

  Other than their extended lovemaking first thing, the morning passed as nearly all their mornings did. On their midmorning run, however, something about Cain’s demeanor struck her as different.

  He usually ran with absolute focus, his eyes straight ahead, as if he were channeling all of his angst and energy into the motion of his body. But this morning, although he ran as hard as he ever did, he seemed watchful. And more than once she saw him studying various parts of the Hold.

  It wasn’t like he was on the hunt for an object to use for his device. But he had something on his mind—something other than exercise.

  When she’d worn herself out, he locked her into their cell and took off at a run again. Breathless and bright red from her exertion, Riana splashed water on her face and then took off her sweat-soaked camisole, keeping her back to the bars of the cell so she didn’t unnecessarily flash whomever m
ight be passing by.

  She’d done what she could to repair her outer shirt, but she mostly just wore her camisole now. It was on its last legs and once it became too worn to wear she wasn’t sure what she would do.

  Cain would find her something—she assumed. But she didn’t like the idea of it.

  When she’d washed up as best she could, she pulled on her button-up shirt so she could rinse out her camisole. She was gentle as she wrung the water out, wanting the fabric to last as long as possible.

  When she left it to dry, she found her piece of a comb and started picking at her hair with it. She worked on it every day and had basically gotten it to the point where it didn’t feel so much like a rat’s nest.

  She ignored a random man who passed by the cell and started giving her a hard time about being a whore. But the man was still there when Cain returned from his run.

  Cain calmly smashed his fist into the man’s face before he unlocked and entered the cell.

  Riana blinked in surprise. “That was unnecessarily violent. He wasn’t doing anything unusual.”

  Cain’s lip curled up in a snarl but he didn’t say anything as he walked over to the sink to clean up.

  His softer, more tender mood from this morning had clearly vanished completely. He was back to being stoic and grumpy.

  Riana wasn’t surprised—Cain would never be a soft man—but she was a little disappointed. At times, she thought he was starting to open up to her more. That he was starting to think of her as a real companion, as a partner.

  But she was continually reminded that he kept far more from her than he shared. And didn’t treat her like a lover or even a friend—at least not all of the time.

  He was a very confusing man. And she wondered if he’d be so tight-lipped in different circumstances.

  She was pretty sure he liked her, cared for her at least to a certain extent. After that day a month ago when she’d almost been raped, she’d come to understand that much. He needed her. If not to survive, then at least to soften the stark, bleak lines of his life here.

  But she wanted him to like her for real, to need her simply for who she was.

  Not just because she was the only one he had.

  When he’d washed up, he went back to his device, and she lay on the bed as she always did and watched.

  He worked for about an hour, until Riana started getting drowsy. She was about to drift off to sleep when she noticed something odd about Cain’s manner.

  He’d sat back on his heels and was just staring at the crude, ungainly machine. Sometimes he did that when he was trying to decide what kind of part he needed or when he was trying to work through how to design a certain section of it.

  But he never sat back like this for so long. And he never had this particular expression on his face. He didn’t look thoughtful or frustrated or impatient.

  He looked watchful again—like he had earlier on his run. He looked quiet and almost wary.

  Suddenly, Riana wondered if he was done.

  She turned her gaze to the device but it didn’t look significantly different from how it had before. He’d added a lot of new parts over the last two months, but they had all been small and hadn’t made a significant difference in the appearance.

  If it was done, though, why didn’t he turn it on and test it out?

  Maybe it couldn’t perform its function in this cell. Maybe he didn’t want any other prisoners to see what he’d made.

  Or maybe he didn’t want her to know he was done.

  As if in response to that thought, Cain glanced back at where she was sprawled out. She gave him a groggy smile and half closed her eyes. This seemed to reassure him because he turned back to stare at his machine.

  Her suspicions roused even further at this sign that he wanted to keep her unaware of whatever was going on here, Riana’s gut churned and her heart started to hammer.

  He hadn’t responded a month ago when she’d begged him not to leave her when he managed to escape. At the time, she hadn’t been surprised or particularly worried. She hadn’t really expected an answer to her plea.

  But now she started to wonder if that should have been a warning.

  He wouldn’t leave her out of viciousness or cruelty. But maybe his escape plan would only work for one.

  Maybe that was why he’d never let himself get truly close to her.

  Because he’d always known he was going to have to leave her behind.

  Cain stared at the machine for a long time while Riana pretended to doze.

  But she was brutally on edge and, even though her eyes were closed, she knew when he stood up.

  She could sense him looking at her for a several seconds and she wondered if he knew she wasn’t asleep. He didn’t say anything, though. And soon she heard him moving in the cell. She heard a scraping sound and knew exactly what it was.

  He was moving the device.

  That did it. She jumped up from the bed, unconsciously smoothing out her disarranged shirt. “Going on the hunt?” she asked cheerily, when Cain’s head jerked up to stare at her.

  He’d moved the machine over to the door of the cell.

  Swallowing over the lump of fear in her throat, she continued, “I’ll come too.”

  Cain shook his head, a tight, unreadable expression on his face. “No. Why don’t you stay here this afternoon?”

  Riana’s hands fisted at her sides. “I don’t want to stay here. I always get to go with you. Why can’t I go today?”

  “I’ve got something to do,” he bit out. “You can’t come.” He turned his back to her, as if his words had settled the question.

  A wave of terror and rage slammed into Riana and she acted on instinct and panic rather than any sane reason or sense. She strode over and grabbed him by the arm, holding on as hard as she could. “I’m going to come. I’m not going to stay here!”

  Cain turned back around and stared at her. But he didn’t look as astonished by her intensity as torn. He pulled his arm away from her grip and reached out to hold her by the upper arms. “You have to stay here. There’s no argument here.”

  His tone was even and filled with absolute authority.

  All of it was only assuring Riana that he was about to leave her. That he was going to make his escape. Without her.

  She struggled in his grip, trying to pull away so she could hit him, pound on his chest, somehow express the panic, rage and betrayal she was feeling.

  “Riana,” Cain gritted out, his hands like iron, utterly unbreakable. “Stop it. What’s gotten into you?”

  “Don’t do it,” she choked, the one thread of her mind that could still think rationally telling her to keep her voice down so no one else could hear. “Don’t leave me, Cain. You know I’ll die here without you. You can’t just leave me behind!”

  Something tightened on his handsome, stoic face. “What?”

  “I know you’re done. I’m not stupid. I know you’re taking it to do whatever it does.” She nodded helplessly down at the device. She was practically sobbing now, but without tears. She was far too horrified to cry. “And now you’re leaving without me. After everything, how can you—”

  “Riana!” The one word was as sharp as the bite of a blade. He shook her a little to get her attention.

  She fell silent, his face blurring in front of her eyes.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you?” He sounded furious. Impatient. Almost disgusted. And for some reason the very human tone from him comforted her. “I’m not going to leave you behind.”

  Her mouth dropped open and she stared at him, too dazed to take it all in.

  If possible, Cain looked even angrier. “Stop looking like you can’t believe it. What the fuck kind of monster do you think I am? I’m not going to leave you here.”

  “You’re not?” She sounded like an idiot—even to her own ears.

  “Of course not.” He shook her a little more, although not nearly hard enough to hurt. “Of course, you’re coming too.”


  The knot of panic was finally relaxing inside her—leaving an overwhelming flood of warmth and relief. “Oh.”

  Still looking annoyed with her, Cain explained in a low voice, “I am finished with it. I think it will work. But I need to take it to where it can…it can do its job.”

  Riana frowned as her hazy mind tried to keep up. “But—”

  “Unfortunately, it’s not a spaceship to fly us out of here.” His voice was dry and sharp now, and she understood why. Obviously, it wasn’t a spaceship. The jumbled parts barely looked like a working machine. “I’ve got to get it in place. And I can’t carry it and avoid everyone else if I have to worry about keeping you safe.”

  “Oh.” She squirmed with sudden embarrassment. “Sorry. I guess I was stupid.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Indeed.”

  “Well, you don’t need to be snotty. I was scared. And you’re always going around keeping secrets. I didn’t know.”

  Something colder than impatience flickered in his eyes. “You should have known. Unless you genuinely think I am a monster.”

  “I don’t,” she assured him, reaching out to touch his chest, worried she’d actually hurt him and that’s what triggered his coldness. “But we’re all on survival instincts here. And if your escape plan could only handle one…” Her voice trailed off as she remembered her intense terror of losing him.

  His face softened unexpectedly and he stroked her cheek with his knuckle. “I see. My escape plan will work with two.”

  Riana managed a shaky smile at him. “Good.” They held the look for several seconds, and it felt like they shared something in the gaze.

  Then Riana glanced down at his precious device. “Where are you going to put that? And how are you going to get that in place without anyone else seeing?”

  “I think I’ve figured something out. Stay here. I’ll be back soon and explain.”

  She wanted to know right now but she just nodded and stepped back, recognizing that this was important and she couldn’t get in his way.

  He locked the door behind him and disappeared out of sight.

  A few minutes later, she heard an uproar in the Hold. Maybe a fight. Maybe something else. She couldn’t really tell by the nature of the noise. She assumed it was Cain’s doing. He must have shaped some sort of distraction so he could plant his device.