Jasmine laughed as she brushed snow out of his hair, half of which had come loose. “Well, that was a pretty dramatic crash. Total yard sale,” she grinned.
“Yard sale?”
She gestured up the hill behind him. The snow was littered with his gear—one ski, his goggles, poles and a glove. He pulled his right hand out of the snow and grinned to see the other glove. “Well, I didn’t sell everything. And I’m still wearing my pack.”
“I’m glad you can see the silver lining here, but damn it, Shauss, that was really stupid!” She rolled her eyes, pushing to her feet. “You could have been killed skiing so recklessly. From now on, you stay behind me and do as I say. Is that clear?”
“I think you’re forgetting who’s the Dominant here, aramai.”
“I think you’re forgetting who’s the Terran here, Shauss.” She grimaced. “Former Terran, anyway, and I know this sport and I know this mountain, and I know how to get where I’m going in one piece.”
Groaning, Shauss struggled to his feet on one ski. “I’ll let you get by with the attitude for now, but you’re going to pay for it when we get back to the ship.”
“Promises, promises,” she said lightly.
Turning away, she chastised herself for issuing the subtle challenge. Even if he were inclined to pick it up, now wasn’t the time. But he hadn’t made love to her last night, although Tiber’s ban on sex was lifted, nor had he returned her collar. He hadn’t even kissed her, and it was really starting to worry her. Was he punishing her for her deception, or did he just not want her anymore?
Spying one of his skis, she zipped up to collect it and examined it carefully. It didn’t look like the safety strap had malfunctioned. “Weren’t you wearing the strap?”
“No. I didn’t think I’d need it,” he said dryly. “Live and learn.”
She skied back down, scooping up his other yard sale items on the way.
“No, it’s more like learn and live to tell about it,” she commented as he reassembled himself and adjusted the backpack. He was lucky it hadn’t popped open and distributed all his alien secret-agent equipment.
“Yes ma’am.”
They started off up the hill again and this time Jasmine made sure she kept the lead. When they reached a rock overhang, which was laden with a dangerous cornice of crusty snow, she cut a wide path around it. On the other side, she veered off into the trees. The snow wasn’t so deep along the path, but it was softer since the sun’s light barely penetrated the dense forest of evergreens. They were still moving uphill, and the incline started to become even more challenging.
“This is truly amazing,” Shauss said behind her. His breath was deep and steady, like a machine. The man was a machine. He’d taken that spill without a whimper and barely seemed fazed by it.
“Which part?”
“This…”
When he didn’t continue, Jasmine came to a stop and looked back at him. He’d already stopped and was looking around in wonder.
“I can’t even describe it,” he said hesitantly. “We have nothing on Garathan to compare it to. It’s so cold, and yet the air reeks of life. It’s…vivid. Stark and beautiful.”
Jasmine’s eyes filled with tears. He’d just described himself. “It is, isn’t it? Now do you see why I love this planet so much? I would never do anything to endanger it or those who inhabit it. I have a deep respect for this and every planet—each is precious to its people.”
He sighed as he leaned on his pole and looked at her. “Jasmine, I never believed you could be knowingly involved in the attacks on the military bases. Or in the contamination of the pad or the steripod in Ketrok’s lab, for that matter—even if you had been working to sabotage the ship, you wouldn’t have risked Monica’s safety.”
“Thank you.” Her lip trembled and then the tears slipped out.
Shauss dropped his backpack in the snow. Gliding over beside her, he looped his poles over his wrists and pulled off his gloves and pushed her goggles up over her brow. After plucking off his own and letting them fall to the ground, he took her face between his palms.
“You are an enchanting female, and despite my apparent bent toward erotic sadism, it pained me to respond to your deception as brutally as I did. I derived no enjoyment from tormenting you as an enemy.” He brushed his lips over hers and wiped away the tears that continued to skim down her cheeks with his thumbs. “I need you to trust me and I need to be able to trust you.”
“You can!” Jasmine dropped her poles and hugged his neck, a task that was much easier now that she’d grown so tall. “I love you, Shauss,” she whispered.
“I’m glad to hear it, aramai,” he murmured, squeezing her tight.
Suddenly embarrassed and annoyed and embarrassed about being annoyed, she broke away from him. Why couldn’t she stop saying that to him? It wasn’t like he was ever going to say it back.
“We’d better keep moving.” She picked up her poles and scooted off up the path at high speed, not really caring whether he kept up or not.
“How far are we from the camp?” he asked after a few minutes.
“Not far. It should be just over that rise.”
“Let me go first,” he said.
She continued without slowing down. “Why?”
“It could be dangerous.”
“Shauss,” she threw over her shoulder, “as far as he knows, I’m still laboring under the delusion he’s my father, and I can defend myself. I could probably just—”
Something snagged her pole and she was jerked off balance. Barely managing to avoid a face-plant in the snow bank, Jasmine turned and glared at Shauss, who held the tip of her pole in his hand. She yanked hard, but he didn’t let go.
“Get behind me now or I’ll put you there.” His look was impenetrable.
Knowing she stood no chance against his brute strength, she stepped off the path with an offended glare and swept an arm out. “After you, Master.”
“Ah, now there’s a word I intend to hear from you a lot more often,” he said as he poled by. Although his statement made her tummy twist, she stuck her tongue out at his retreating back as he powered up the trail.
But her eyes were drawn to the tight buttocks, flexing rhythmically beneath his form-fitting suit, and she sighed with longing. Was she ever going to get her hands on that butt again?
* * * * *
Just before he hit the top of the rise, Shauss halted and waved at her to stop several meters behind him. She didn’t look happy about it, but she stopped with a roll of her eyeballs and leaned on her ski poles. Being in her own territory certainly dampened her submissive nature, but rather than irritating him, it made him eager to show her the error of her ways.
She looked sexy as hell in her Terran ski apparel, and if they had more time, he’d pursue making obscene snow angels with her. He’d seen pictures on the internet and thought that would make a tempting image to store for their later enjoyment.
Kicking off his skis and dropping his poles and pack, Shauss did a walking crawl up to the crest of the rise and peered over carefully. The camp appeared to be deserted. No tracks led in or out of any of the structures, and it looked as if it could have been years since anyone had been here. Beyond the four small cabins, he could just see the mine entrance through the scraggly boughs of the trees.
Shauss linked with the server. “Empran, scan for humanoid life forms and electronic surveillance within a thousand meters of our location.”
“None detected.”
Which didn’t mean none existed within the mine’s entrance, but he would take what he could get.
Skidding back down the hill, he picked up his gear. “It looks secure enough for the moment. Stay here until I signal you.”
“Are you sure you trust me out of your sight?” she smarted off.
“You’re really dying for discipline, aren’t you?” The mere idea was sufficient to give him an incredible hard-on.
“Like I said, promises, promises.”
&nb
sp; The jolt of annoyance he felt was out of proportion to her comment and he knew it, but he dropped his gear as quickly as he’d picked it up, his breath ragged with impatience and arousal. He was damn well going to make time for her to take care of the problem she’d created.
“Take the skis off and get on your knees, Jasmine.”
He heard her breath catch. “I don’t think so.”
“I thought you enjoyed performing oral sex on your Dom.”
“Oh, so you’re still my Dom? I thought you’d forgotten.” She tried to look flippant, but he saw the pain and insecurity in her eyes.
“Jasmine.” He pinned her with a stern look. “Allowing you time to fully recover from your transition doesn’t make me any less your Dom and you’d do well to remember it. Now get on your knees. I won’t tell you again.”
Excitement flashed in her eyes, and she licked her lips before whispering his favorite words. “Make me.”
She could have taken off down the path and lost him quickly, but she stood there, steam flowing from her mouth in deep uneven breaths, waiting for him to do just that.
Shauss strode toward her without a word. When he reached her, he knelt to remove her skis and then began tossing her accessories carelessly about.
“Hey!” She moved as if to catch some of them, but he held her in place with his hand gripping her forearm.
Once he’d divested her of her gear, he placed his hands on her shoulders and forced her downward. She fought the pressure but he was too strong for her to hold out against. She fell to her knees and he held her there with the one hand on top of her head while his other hand drew down the zipper of his American-issue parka and then the zipper of his uniform. When his rock-hard cock sprang into the cold air, he immediately pulled her face against it.
“Suck,” he ordered gruffly. “And since I’m giving you the gift of my cock in your mouth, I want you to make sure I enjoy it.”
She whimpered, holding her lips closed for the briefest moment before placing her hands on his thighs and opening to accept his rigid length. The interior of her mouth was hot and humid, a biting contrast to the chill outside. He kept his palm curved over the back of her head for leverage and began thrusting evenly into her mouth, coming into contact with the back of her throat with every push. He spared a fleeting thought for the traumas of the past, but they no longer held any power over him.
Jasmine’s eyes watered as she looked up at Shauss, but she managed to restrain her gag reflex and swallow more of him. Oh Lord, how she’d longed for this!
Shauss spread his feet wider and made sure his zipper was as low as it could go. “Do you have any idea how to find my prostate?”
In response, she clutched at his uniform, shaking her head slightly in a negative response. Although that wasn’t what she’d meant when she wished to get her hands on his butt again, the idea of touching him so intimately sent whispers of excitement over every inch of her skin.
“You’ve got long, slender fingers, so it shouldn’t be hard for you to find it. Just curve it toward you when you’re two to three knuckles in and feel for a knot about the size of a walnut. Rub it hard. That should trigger my ejaculation, and you will swallow every drop.”
He eased his grip enough for her to pull her head back. She sucked her index finger into her mouth and pulled it out dripping with saliva, looking up at him with trepidation.
“Sometime before it freezes would be good, aramai,” he prompted.
Tugging at the opening of his suit with her left hand, Jasmine insinuated her right between his legs, under his scrotum. She watched, thrilled when that ruddy sac tightened. The entrance to his bottom was easy enough to find and the tight muscles there seemed to ease deliberately for her passage.
Letting go of his suit, she wrapped her hand around the base of his cock and took him into her mouth once more, loving him with her lips and her tongue, with the hollows of her cheeks and the back of her throat, while she probed his mysterious heat with her finger. His gasps and deep groans made her bold and she eventually she found the knot of flesh he described.
“That’s it,” he whispered, massaging her head with his strong fingers as she rubbed the knot firmly. “Oh yes, that’s it.”
Heat blazed from his skin and his harsh breathing was startlingly loud in the quiet morning, and Jasmine had never felt her power over him more keenly. She let her gaze travel up his bare, flat stomach, following the arrow of silky black hair over his chest to his face. His head was thrown back, exposing his strong throat, and everything in her melted. Physically, at least, he trusted her.
“Peserin, harder!” he gasped.
Determined now to taste his seed, she obeyed. The rings of muscle in his anus tightened until her finger tingled with numbness but she kneaded him eagerly, and it wasn’t long before he went rigid.
“Now!” He jerked once and she backed up in time to feel the first spurt of his semen hitting her tongue. Growling, he pulled her forward as he thrust again, not stopping until his cock was in the back of her throat. “Swallow it!” he roared.
Unable to do anything else—not that she was inclined to—she went limp in his grasp and swallowed everything he gave her.
Before he’d even stopped pulsing in her mouth, he leaned over and pulled her up into his arms. Breathing in great gusts, he planted an open-mouth kiss on her lips.
“You taste interesting,” he murmured.
“Thank you, Master,” she replied with a cheeky smile.
He smiled back. “No, thank you. That was very well done.” Then he set her away from him and fastened himself back into his gear. “Now you’re going to stay here until I tell you all is well. Is that clear?”
She gave him a grudging nod. While his praise was nice, it wasn’t what she wanted to hear—and neither was the order to cower behind him.
“If I’m not back here in ten minutes, you may assume something has happened to me and it’s not safe for you to come in. In that event, you will return to our landing coordinates and wait for a flare-out. Understood?”
She didn’t like it, but she nodded again.
After he’d disappeared over the rise, she scooted up to watch him descend. His narrow feet didn’t keep him from sinking into the deep snow, but his long, lean legs carried him through it with ease. Although he scanned the area as he descended, he didn’t look back until he’d reached the mine’s entrance. Even from yards away, she could see his scowl when he spotted her, but she didn’t bother ducking out of sight. What was he going to do, come back and spank her?
She sighed as he slipped into the mine, resting her chin on her hands. The camp looked much the same as she remembered it—utilitarian. It wasn’t built for fun, but for work, and she’d rarely enjoyed their stays here. Only one of her “father’s” associates ever brought her children along, and though Jasmine hadn’t minded babysitting sweet little Cara while their parents were powwowing, Mark had been a different story. When he wasn’t giving her dirty looks with his beady brown eyes, he was hiding in the woods or trying to sneak off into the mine. She’d spent plenty of afternoons trudging through the snow after the rat-faced little stick boy, yelling his name until she was hoarse.
Mark.
Jasmine jerked straight up, her heart pounding thickly as the name echoed through her head. Oh no, surely not. There was no way Mark Bonham was that Mark, was there? Camp Mark had been two or three years her junior while Shelley’s Mark was…
She frowned. It was hard to say how old Mark was, but he seemed older. Of course, the fact that he was so much taller than Shelley could have something to do with it, as could the facial hair. And he’d seemed so familiar, though she’d never quite managed to place him.
But if Camp Mark was Narthani, then he couldn’t be Shelley’s Mark because aliens gave Shelley the creeps. She’d said it over and over—if it weren’t for the astronomical signing bonus, she’d never have taken the compound job. She and Mark had plans to build their own house in the Vail Valley after the
babies were born and needed a big cash infusion to afford the down payment.
On the other hand, being married to a Narthani would certainly give Shelley a damn good reason to be creeped out by the Garathani. But why would Mark put his own wife—his own family—in such danger? Why would Shelley?
No, there had to be another explanation. Shelley would never deliberately jeopardize her unborn babies.
Jasmine rubbed her hands over her eyes, worn out from trying to untangle it all. Realization just beyond her reach hammered on her brain. Something Monica had said about spots of infection in the biologic pad…
In her mind’s eye, she saw Mark walking down the corridor in the predawn hours, trailing his fingers along the wall.
And then she heard Shauss’ telling her he never thought she’d contaminated the steripod—
In Ketrok’s lab.
Her eyes popped open. Shit, she hadn’t touched the cube in Ketrok’s lab—Mark had. So which cube had been infected, the one she’d touched or the one Mark had touched?
Damn it, why hadn’t she picked up on that earlier, when she could have asked Shauss about it? The suspense of not knowing was going to kill her.
She peeled back her jacket cuff and glanced at her watch. Almost eight minutes had passed and he hadn’t returned yet. Had something happened to him? What was she going to do if he didn’t come back? Could she really go off and leave him alone? She hadn’t really thought it would be an issue, with his being some kind of deadly assassin, but he was taking an awfully long time.
Two agonizing minutes later Jasmine stood up and brushed the snow off her suit and then secured her gear at the base of a scraggly pine. No way was she skiing off this mountain without Shauss. It would take her almost an hour to get back to the drop-off point and he was in trouble now. She had to get in there and help him if she could—and the commander needed to know what she suspected. If Mark was sabotaging the ship, he had to be stopped before anyone else got hurt.
She scooted over the rise and waded slowly down the hill. Shauss could punish her all he wanted when they were back on the ship, but right now she was going in.
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