by Paige Tyler
Holding onto her arm with one hand, Finn rapped on the door with his free one. “Captain?”
There was a silence on the other side of the door and for a moment, Laken thought she might get a reprieve, but then a man’s strong voice called out.
“Enter.”
Finn thumbed the button that opened the door, then unceremoniously shoved her inside. With its wood paneling and expensive leather furniture, the room reminded her of her father’s study at home. But even her father would be envious of the computers that covered one whole wall. So was she, for that matter. They had to be worth a small fortune.
Laken’s surprise at seeing the computers was nothing to compared to how stunned she was when the captain turned to face them.
She had expected him to be like all of the others she had seen at the spaceport back on Tellune, which meant middle-aged with a slight paunch and a receding hairline. But this man was nothing like that at all. In fact, with his dark hair, rugged good-looks and well-muscled build, he looked more like he should be a vid-actor or a holo-model. An extremely attractive one at that. The only thing that detracted from the picture was the scowl he was sending her way.
His dark eyes darted to the man behind her. “What the hell is this?”
“I found her hiding in the cargo hold, Captain.”
The captain’s scowl deepened, but he didn’t say anything. After a moment, he nodded to Finn. The red-headed man threw her a glare, then left.
Laken held her breath, waiting for the captain to say something, but instead he turned back to the wall of computers to focus that glower of his on them. She swallowed hard.
“This is all a misunderstanding, Captain. I got lost and boarded your ship by mistake.”
He spun around to pin her with those dark eyes again. “Bullshit! What were you doing? Looking for a bathroom? Lady, this is a cargo ship and you’re a stowaway. That’s a very serious crime, in case you didn’t know.”
Her face colored. “I’m not a stowaway.”
Back on Tellune it was considered inappropriate for a gentleman to raise his voice in a woman’s company, much less swear. But obviously Captain Karsten wasn’t a gentleman. He was a clearly a man who was used to intimidating people with his rank and his gruff manner. She pitied his poor crew.
She lifted her chin. “I came on board to speak with the captain about booking passage on this disgusting vessel, but got turned around and couldn’t find my way out of the cargo hold. The next thing I knew, the ship was taking off.” She gave him a disdainful look. “You really should have more lights in there, you know. Exit signs, too. In fact, I should sue you for putting me in such a dangerous environment.”
“You can cut the load of crap you’re shoveling because I’m not buying it.” He folded his arms across his broad chest and regarded her coldly. “I already know you tried to book passage with my first officer. When that didn’t work, you snuck on board, thinking you could stow away instead.”
She opened her mouth, then closed it again, wondering if she should continue to try to deny it or just admit her was right. When she didn’t answer, he reached out and snatched her purse from her hand.
“What are you doing?” she demanded.
He didn’t answer. Instead, he opened her purse and rummaged through it until he found what he was looking for. Taking out her ident-card, he tossed the purse onto the desk without a word, then turned to his computer. Inserting the slim piece of plastic into the reader, he waited while the computer brought up her personal information.
She folded her arms and glared at his broad back. “You could have just asked me my name, you know.”
“I could have, but you’d probably just lie to me.”
Laken ground her jaw. Bringing up her personal information only took a matter of seconds and in a moment, her picture was gazing back at him from the computer screen. Beside it was all the information he could ever want to know about her. She was twenty-five, had been born on Tellune to a merchant and his wife, both of whom still lived on her home world. She’d been at the finest and most expensive university on the planet, and held a degree in computer technology, but didn’t have a job. He probably thought she’d gone to school to get away from Daddy, but that when it came to actually getting a job and supporting herself, her father’s money had looked a whole lot better.
She fidgeted nervously. “Okay, you’re right. I did stow away. But I had a good reason.”
Karsten turned to look at her, brow arched. “Go on. I can’t wait to hear this.”
She wet her lips. “I...I’m meeting my fiancé on New Ashanti, which is in the Tobagee System.”
“I know where it is,” he said. “What I don’t know is why you snuck on board my ship? You couldn’t find a transport ship going there?”
She lowered her gaze, trying hard to look like the frail female she wanted him to think she was. Standing up to him hadn’t gotten her anywhere, maybe acting submissive would. “I...I couldn’t afford passage on a transport.”
“Why not? Daddy didn’t want to pay for it?”
“He doesn’t know.”
“Oh, I see. So, you’re running away from home to be with the man you love. How romantic.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “What about your fiancé? Is he as penniless as you are?”
She lifted her head. “Of course not.”
“Then why didn’t he pay for your passage?”
She hesitated. “He...he doesn’t know I’m coming.”
“Excuse me.”
“He doesn’t know I’m coming,” she said again. “He left Tellune two months ago on important business and I haven’t been able to get in touch with him. I thought I’d surprise him.”
Karsten chuckled. “He’ll be surprised all right.”
She frowned. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means your fiancé dumped you, sweetheart, and that you’ll only be making a fool of yourself by chasing after him.”
Laken felt her face flush. It wasn’t anything she hadn’t already heard at least a dozen times from her father, and even though she refused to believe that about Mallin, the words hurt more every time she heard them. “My fiancé did not dump me.”
He raised a brow. “Really? Then why haven’t you heard from him?”
Her color deepened. “I never said I hadn’t heard from him. I said I hadn’t been able to get in touch with him. It’s like I told you, my fiancé’s on New Ashanti on very important business.”
Karsten snorted. “If he’s even on New Ashanti at all.”
Laken had to bite her tongue to keep from saying something she shouldn’t. “This was a mistake. I’d like you to turn around and take me back to Tellune!”
“No.”
She blinked. “What do you mean, no?”
He shrugged. “You decided to stow away on board a cargo ship and cargo ships have schedules to keep. Which means I don’t have time to go back to Tellune just because you changed your mind. You’re stuck on here until I can find someplace to dump you off.” He reached out and a button on the computer console. “Dev, I need you to escort our...” he hesitated, glancing over his shoulder at Laken before continuing, “...passenger to her quarters.”
“Sure thing, Captain,” came a woman’s voice.
Laken was incredulous. “You can’t keep me here against my will. That’s kidnapping.”
He turned on her, dark eyes glinting. “Actually, it’s not. I’m the captain of a ship you decided to stow away on, sweetheart, which means I can do anything I damn well please. You should be grateful. If you were a man, I’d treat you like the criminal you are and have you locked up in the hold instead of putting you in a cabin.”
Arrogant bastard. Snatching her purse off the table, she pulled out her com. “My father is a very influential man back on Tellune. When he finds out you’re keeping me prisoner...”
Her tirade came to an abrupt halt as Karsten grabbed the com from her hand and snapped it closed. “Don’t be an idiot.
We’re in deep space, so that communicator won’t do you any good. Not that I’d let you use it anyway.”
She’d never been in deep space before, so she didn’t know if he was lying or not, but she was damn well going to try. Undeterred by his glower, she reached for her communicator, trying to wrestle it from his strong grip. “Give that back to me. It’s mine, dammit.”
One minute, she was struggling with him for possession of her com, the next she had pulled it out of his grasp, only to have the stupid thing slip out of her hand and fall to the floor with a metallic clatter as pieces went everywhere.
Laken stared down at what was left of her com in stunned silence for a moment before she lifted her head to glare at him. “Damn you! Look what you did.”
He clenched his jaw. “I didn’t do anything. You did. Now, stop acting like a brat and start behaving yourself.”
For some reason, she was more furious with him calling her a brat than she was by the fact that he’d broken her com. Her eyes narrowed as she spied something on his desk.
“Fine.” she snapped. “I’ll just use yours, then.”
Laken brushed past him, intending to reach for the communicator on the desk, but he grabbed her arm and spun her around to face him. She struggled to free herself, but his grip was like iron. She had never been manhandled like this in her entire life. She had made men so angry before that they’d turned red in the face, but not one of them had never dared lay a hand on her. “Let go of me!”
“It seems I didn’t make myself clear before.” Karsten’s voice was soft. “While you’re on board my ship, you will do as I tell you, when I tell you.”
She glared up at him. “Is that so? Well, I have a newsflash for you, you arrogant bastard. I’m not one of your crew. That means I don’t take orders for you.”
The muscle in his jaw flexed and for a moment, she thought he might back down, but then the corner of his mouth quirked. “We’ll see about that.”
Before Laken could ask what the hell he meant by that, he turned on his heel and dragged her across the room.
“What are you...?”
The words came out in a rush of breath as he sat down in the chair behind the desk and yanked her over his knee. The position was so humiliating that Laken couldn’t do anything but lay there, her bottom in the air. It didn’t help that she had to put her hands on the floor just to keep her balance. Or that he put a strong hand on her back to hold her in place when she finally tried to push herself upright.
She craned her neck to glare at him over her shoulder. “Let me up right now!”
“Not until we get a few things straight,” he ground out. “First, I’m the captain of this ship, and you’ll treat me as such. Second, as a stowaway, you can and will be punished as I see fit. And third, if you continue to act like a spoiled brat, this spanking will only be the first of many.”
Her eyes went wide. Spanking. He was joking, right? She’d never been spanked in her life and she wasn’t about to get one now. She opened her mouth to tell him to go to hell when his hand came down hard on her ass. She gasped as heat spread across her bottom.
“Owwww!”
She struggled to push herself upright, but it did no good. Thinking it might help if she squirmed instead, she wiggled around, but all that did was make her short skirt to ride up even higher so that the next smack landed on her partially exposed cheek. The sting made her go rigid across his lap.
“Let me up right now, you...”
Another smack interrupted her. It was followed by another and another until she couldn’t think about anything but each stinging spank and the heat that came with it. The embarrassment of knowing he was getting a look at her panty-clad ass was almost as bad as the spanking itself.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew she should be concerned that the crew would hear her protests and be able to figure out exactly what was going on, but the spanks stung so fiercely that she didn’t care. She just wanted it to be over with.
Then, as quickly as it had begun, and much to her relief, it was over and Laken was back on her feet, Captain Karsten towering over her. Face flushed, she glared up at him. She was torn between slapping that smug look off his handsome face and rubbing her freshly spanked ass, but decided giving into the urge to slap him might earn her another trip over his knee, so she reached back to cup her sore bottom instead. She could feel the heat coming from her poor cheek even through the material of the skirt.
“How dare you spank me like I’m a child!”
His dark eyes were hard as flint as he glowered down at her. “Then stop acting like one. I won’t put up with it on my ship, Ms. Andara. You’ll behave yourself while you’re on board, or I’ll do it again.”
Laken opened her mouth to tell him there was no way in hell she was going to let him spank her again when the door abruptly slid open. Startled, she turned to see a pretty, dark-haired woman standing in the doorway. She gave Laken a curious look, her brow furrowing slightly. Suddenly realizing that she was still cupping her bottom, Laken colored and quickly took her hands away. Glancing at the captain, Laken found his gaze on her.
She wasn’t surprised when he didn’t bother with polite introductions. “Devorah will show you to your quarters.”
Laken didn’t reply. Giving him a scathing look, she turned to follow the woman.
“Wait a minute,” Karsten said.
Almost against her will, Laken turned at the command in his voice to see him holding out her purse.
“Don’t forget this,” he said. “And don’t forget to behave yourself, either. I expect you to keep to your quarters and the common areas of the ship. Which means I don’t want to catch you wandering around anywhere else.”
Laken wished could have come up with something sharp and cutting to say, but nothing came to mind. Settling on a glare instead, she snatched the purse out of his hand. As she followed Devorah out of the room, she couldn’t resist glancing over her shoulder at Karsten again. He must have been waiting for her to do just that because he flashed her a mocking grin as the door slid closed.
Chapter Two
Laken tried to ignore her stinging bottom as she walked down the ship’s passageway with the other woman. Devorah was a bit taller than she was, and her figure was a little more on the boyish side, but she looked to be about the same age as Laken.
Though Devorah wasn’t looking at her oddly, Laken couldn’t help but wonder if the other woman had heard her getting spanked. The smacks on her ass had sounded incredibly loud to her. The thought alone of being held down over Karsten’s knee while he punished her poor bottom made her blush. Not to mention angry as hell.
“So, has your captain always been such a people person?” she asked the other woman.
Devorah’s lips curved into a small smile. “You got off easy. He usually puts stowaways out the airlock.” She laughed at the look of horror on Laken’s face. “I’m kidding. You two just got off on the wrong foot. I mean, you are a stowaway, after all. Things will get better once you’ve been on board a while.”
Laken seriously doubted that. From everything she’d seen, the man was a complete ass. It probably wouldn’t be wise to say that to one of his crew, though, so she made no comment as Devorah led her up a set of metal stairs.
“Why did you sneak on board anyway?” the other woman asked as they rounded a corner and walked down another passageway.
Laken tucked her long, red hair behind her ear. She had already told Karsten the reason, so there was no need to hide it from the crew. Not surprisingly, Devorah was much more understanding of her situation than the captain had been. The woman even went so far as to say the whole thing sounded romantic.
“Well, here we are,” Devorah announced with a smile, coming to a halt outside a door. She pushed the button alongside it so that it slid open. “All the comforts of home.”
Laken almost smiled at that as she stepped inside the tiny cabin. Actually, it had none of the comforts of her luxuriously decorated room ba
ck home, but she supposed the narrow bed, small desk along one wall and the wash basin in the corner would have to do while she was on board.
“We take our meals together in the crew’s mess. Just follow this passageway, make two rights, and you’re there,” Devorah said from the doorway. “You’re welcome to join us if you want.”
Laken thought a moment. “Does the captain eat with the rest of you?”