by Cathryn Cade
He looked to the IGSF commander. “Where’s the rescued slave, the man who was with Slidi?”
“His name is Kai te Nawa,” Logan added.
“He’s here at base, resting.”
“Bring him up here.”
When he arrived in the conference room, Kai te Nawa looked more…normal. Although even in a dark business suit, his ornate slave collar gone, he still didn’t look like an average citizen. With his dramatic beauty, and aura of smoldering intensity, he looked more like a musician, Chaz Jaguari style, or even a fashion model that bots might be patterned after for a fashion or scent campaign.
He walked into the room, and set the gold collar on the table before him before he sat.
“You’re here to clear up a bit of a mystery,” Joran told him. “You’re a free man now. Hope you’ll begin that life by helping the law.”
Kai raised his brows in a silent question.
“Yeah, you know what I’m talking about,” Joran said. “Where is it? What’d you do with Vadyal’s credit? You told Slidi you had the codes.”
Kai shoved the slave collar forward with one finger. It lay coiled on the edge of the command center like a small but vile snake. “The code is here. The key lies elsewhere. A failsafe, in case anyone discovered I had the data.”
Joran nodded. “And where’s the key?”
Kai smiled faintly for the first time. “Why in the safest place I could find. In the possession of a woman of honesty and virtue.”
Joran’s chest tightened and the hair stood up on the back of his neck. “Zaë?”
Kai nodded.
Joran shot out of his chair, and leaned over the table, barely able to contain his fury. Logan moved to forestall him, but Joran ignored him for once.
“Why did you choose her?” he demanded. “Of all the slaves there, why did you choose Lady Elliane to put in this kind of danger?”
“Because,” Kai said. “I knew at once who she was.”
His face paled as he clearly saw Joran’s rage go supernova, but he went on. “I recognized her. And I knew her parents were the sort of beings who would support my efforts to bring down a slave gang, even if it meant delaying their reunion with their daughter. I hoped she was also that kind of person.”
“You sent her off with a buyer,” Joran accused, his voice quiet and deadly. “Knowing that likely she’d be raped as soon as she was out of that auction ring. You let her go to that fate? That makes you as bad as Slidi and Vadyal.”
Kai shook his head stiffly. “No,” he said, meeting Joran’s gaze. “Because you see, I knew who you were, too. A Stark. That meant you were ruthless, but also a man of honor.”
Joran stared at him. Then he shook his head, some of his fury dissipating, though not all of it, because it could so easily have gone wrong for his woman. “Luckily for you, I believe you. Otherwise, there’d be no safe haven for you on this planet.”
Kai bowed to him. “I would expect nothing less.”
“Where is it?” Logan asked.
“It is on her comlink. She has three pearls embedded in the shell covering. I added a fourth, a black one. Inside is a microchip with the key to the information here.”
“I will take that,” Xen Sou said, beckoning for the necklace.
One of the IGSF officers slid it along the table to him, and he opened his attaché case and placed the collar inside, then snapped it shut.
“Retrieve the key,” he ordered. “Commander Brace will take charge of it. This is a vast amount of credit, some of which will now flow into a Frontieran governmental treasury, while a portion will be used to search for other victims of the slavers, throughout the galaxy. There must be no question of corruption here.”
Kai didn’t look upset at all to be giving up enough credit to buy a small world. Joran met Logan’s gaze and smiled to himself. He’d bet not all of Vadyal’s fortune would be going to the places stated by Xen Sou. And that was fine with him. If anyone deserved a share, it was a man who’d been kidnapped as a young boy, and was only now resurfacing, free at last.
***
“Great God,” Joran muttered to Logan as they waited outside to board the IGSF cruiser. “Glad that’s done.”
Logan nodded, but he was watching Kai, who stood a little ways away, the morning wind ruffling his dark hair as he gazed out over the jagged, white-capped mountains.
“You headed back to F City after this?” Joran asked.
Logan blinked slowly, and focused on Joran. “Yes.” He smiled faintly. “I have a very special delivery I wish to make in person.”
“Taking Kai to meet his sister,” Joran filled in.
Logan nodded. “Kiri’s been waiting a very long time for this.”
“You tell her yet?”
“I linked her last night.” Logan’s gaze softened at the memory. “She’s a tough woman. This was only the second time I’ve seen her weep.”
“Glad you’re able to give her that,” Joran said. “Maybe this can be a gesture that lets you start to heal whatever went wrong between the two of you.”
“I don’t know,” Logan said. “But I certainly mean to try.”
Joran smiled, knowing that meant it would happen, it was just a matter of how long it took. All indications said Kiri te Nawa was as stubborn as Logan himself. Should be a hell of a show.
“Think he’ll manage to assimilate, though?” Joran asked quietly, gaze on Kai. “He’s nearly feral in some ways. Can only imagine the shit he’s been through. Not a big fan of poking around in minds, but maybe it would do him some good. We could take him to Indigo with us.”
“We’ll leave that to him and Kiri,” Logan said.
Joran’s brows flew up at this, and Logan grimaced. “I’m trying.”
“Big step for you,” Joran said. “But I know you’ll become an expert at backing off, just like you are at everything else you set your mind to.”
“Quiet,” Logan warned. “I’m still your older brother, and don’t forget it.”
Joran merely grinned.
“But,” Logan went on, “I would like to invite you and Lady Elliane and her parents to travel as my guests, aboard Orion. She’s due in here next week, next stop Indigo. The voyage would give you some down time with Lady Elliane before her treatment.”
“Thanks, we’ll take you up on that. I do like flying LodeStar, all the luxuries of home, and then some.”
They exchanged a wry look that acknowledged that the luxuries they now enjoyed were far, far beyond the ‘home’ they’d known as boys on the mean streets of New Seattle, Earth II.
“Now,” Joran said, “Let’s go get that data. I want it off of my woman.”
***
Back in Adamant, they all trooped up to the Bravelings’ suite, where they were greeted by Zaë’s parents with looks that said, ‘What more can there be to this drama?’
When Joran explained why they were there, Zaë gaped at him, then at Kai, who gave her a small, wary smile.
“You mean to tell me I’ve been walking around with the key to a huge amount of credit on my comlink?” she asked, her blue eyes wide with disbelief and an edge of horrified mirth.
“Afraid so, bunny. Sit tight, and let Kai remove the pearl, okay? The commander here wants to get the data locked down.”
She perched on the arm of a chair, and tipped her head up for Kai. “Okay, come on. Do your thing.”
“Thank you,” he murmured.
She winced as he clicked a small device near her ear, and then reached up to finger the comlink. “I wondered where that black pearl came from. It didn’t look right.”
“I am sorry to have tampered with your implant. And your safety. I hope you understand why it seemed necessary.”
“I get why you did it. But what a risk—I mean for the data! What would you have done if Joran hadn’t purchased me?”
Kai handed the device to Commander Qale, and faced Zaë, his face set stoically. “I would have stolen a cruiser, followed you and killed whoever bought
you. Then I would have taken you away with me somewhere.”
“Whoa. And then worked to bring down Vadyal.”
He nodded.
She rose and faced him, her expression gentle. “I’m okay with all that, Kai. You don’t have to apologize to me. I know it could have been bad, at least until you got there, but I also know that you…”
His expression shifted yet again, closing off hard and fast. Her voice trailed off. Then she put out her hands, and waited until he slowly lifted his to take them.
“You’re free now,” she said to him, as if they were alone in the room. “You get to go and meet your sister. I hear she’s pretty excited to get you back. And then, you have the rest of your life to dream and do whatever you wish. And you’re doing so not as a victim, but as a hero, Kai te Nawa.”
He bowed, as if she’d bestowed a benediction, which in a way Joran guessed she had. “Thank you, Lady Elliane.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Please, call me Elle. We’re friends now.”
He looked startled, but slowly nodded. “Friends.”
Joran had never been so proud of a woman. His woman. He looked over and met Logan’s gaze. His brother smiled at him in perfect understanding.
***
It was over. Joran could hardly believe it.
The slavers, at least this bunch, had been captured and put out of business. He and his crew were safe, both from Cerul and the vengeful Slidi. He had a new calling, one that he found himself damn pleased with. He’d chase pirates, this time with the full backing of the law behind him.
And if he occasionally longed to go wild again, well, he could always visit the crew. Or go wild in his lady’s arms.
And she had her life back and soon would have her memories. He’d see to that.But no matter what happened, they’d be together. In all ways.
Now he couldn’t wait to get back here and have her again. Of course they were meeting her parents for breakfast. But that wasn’t for nearly an hour.
Come to think of it, he had time, if he hurried…
Back in their room, he slipped into their bed, and set about waking her with soft kisses on her bare shoulder, and his fingers between her thighs. She woke with a little sound that was half-grumpy, half-needy and then turned to blink up at him, her soft arms sliding up around his bare back.
“Is it time to get up?” she asked sleepily.
“Only for me,” he told her, already stroking her into readiness for his cock.
She giggled, and then gasped as he thrust slowly into her. “Oh, Joran. I do love your cock.”
“Good,” he said, kissing her, and trying to keep from coming right then and there at the perfect caress of her soft, tight depths on his sensitive shaft. “Then you won’t mind if I use it for a bit.”
“No,” she whimpered. “I don’t mind.” In fact, if her soft cries and the incredibly tight, demanding clasp of her pussy around his cock were any indication, she loved it. So did he. He managed to hold out until she went wild under him, her eyes wide and shocked as she came. Then he locked his mouth with hers and drove home one final time before pumping himself into her depths. His.
He held himself up on his elbows, not wanting to crush her, but unwilling to leave the hot clasp of her pussy, the softness of her breasts pillowing his chest, the twining embrace of her legs and arms around him.
Nuzzling her face, he drank in her sighs like the finest moonbrandy, and felt the sweet heat of certainty settle deep inside him, as if she’d reached deep into his chest and wrapped one of her hands right around his heart.
“Not lettin’ you go, my Zaë,” he whispered, his forehead tipped against hers, their mouths brushing. “I’ll give you time with your folks, I’ll take you where you need to go to get treatment, get your past back if you can. But even if that never happens, you are mine.”
Her long lashes swept up, and he looked into the blue depths of her eyes and saw wonder and happiness.
“Are you sure?” she whispered. “I may never get all of me back—“
“You will,” he insisted. “Enough, anyway. You’re you. You’re Elliane, and you’re Zaë, and you’re my bunny, all in one package. They may have stolen you and drugged you out of your mind, but they couldn’t destroy the heart of you. A person has to let someone else do that, and you didn’t. You fought back with all that you are—all the courage and humor and sweetness. You didn’t let them destroy that.”
Tears filled her eyes, and then she blushed.
“What?” he asked, his own face heating as he realized he was practically spouting fucking poetry at her. Maybe she didn’t want to hear that from him.
She wrinkled her nose. “You’re—you’re saying all these wonderful things, and you’re…inside me.”
Since she finished on a strangled whisper that said she could barely get the words out, Joran could not help himself.
He burst out laughing, long and deep. Then he slid his arms around her and rolled, taking her with him so she ended up lying draped over him, their bodies still locked in the most intimate of embraces.
“Yeah, I am. Like being inside you—love being inside you, my Zaë. Love your sweet pussy, love everything about you.”
Her face was a deep pink, but she smiled at him, her eyes filling with tears. “You do? Really, Joran?”
“I do,” he said, and kissed her again.
“I love your cock,” she whispered when their mouths finally parted. “And everything else about you, too.”
He groaned with pleasure. “Ah, baby. You’re giving it all to me…don’t deserve it, but fair warning, I’m never lettin’ go.”
“The same goes for me,” she said. “And fair warning, if any of those other women try to get close to you again, I know how to take them down.”
Joran grinned at her. “What other women? They all just disappeared off my satcom. Only one left, and she’s a beauty. It’s going to take all my time and energy keepin’ her happy. Forever.”
The End
Thank you!
Thanks for reading Captive of Pleasure. I hope you enjoyed it!
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For an excerpt from LodeStar Book 4; Stark’s Honor; the Space Magnate’s Bride, please keep reading.
best,
Cathryn
The LodeStar Series
Book Four,
Stark’s Honor; the Space Magnate’s Bride
Here’s an excerpt …
“Come and lie down with me,” he said.
“All right.”Just a little more time, that’s all she wanted.
Logan Stark lay back on the bed, and Kiri te Nawa curled against his side as she had when they were together. And just for now, lying with his heart beating under her ear, she let herself believe it could work.
She stroked his warm, hard abdomen, sliding her fingers up to tangle in the sparse curls on his broad chest.
“Do you want to talk about what’s bothering you?” she asked.
He tensed under her touch, and his arm tightened on her. “No.”
That hurt. He was shutting her out, but then what had she expected? He always played his games in solitude, manipulating those around him, only letting them see as much as he chose.
She took a shaky breath, and blinked back the tears that threatened. “Well, then, thank you for bringing Kai back to me.”
She lifted her head, and pushed away from him. He held onto her, his eyes opening. “Where are you going?”
“It seems we’re done here,” she answered, proud that her voice was nearly steady. “You can go back to your—”
“Not yet,” he said.He touched her face. “Just...lie with me for a little. Then I’ll go.”
Torture herself wi
th the joy of being held close to his heat and strength, when he wasn’t really hers to keep?
Oh, why the hells not? Kai had gone out for the evening, and she wasn’t about to suffocate him by waiting up for him, asking where he’d been and if he was all right.
And besides, she wanted this, needed it almost more than she needed the air she breathed.
She curled against Logan’s long, lean frame, nearly purring with the pleasure of holding him again. His arm heavy on her waist, he turned his face into her hair, and held her silently.
Inevitably, worn out by the emotion of the past days and by two rounds of Logan Stark style sex, she slept.
***
The man woke swiftly, his heart pounding, his body tight, ready for fight or flight, in the way he’d become accustomed over the last several nights. He frowned at the darkness of the unfamiliar bedroom, but then he smelled that wonderful, feminine scent. He was in a woman’s bed.
Turning his head, he looked at her.
In the warmth of the night, she lay naked on her back, one slim arm flung over her head, her face turned toward him. She’d pushed the covers down to her waist. Her bare breasts were like halves of a peach, small nipples riding their soft swells, rising and falling gently with her breath.
She was lovely and he’d had her.
She was so small, and delicate in her sleep, all that verve and will and passion muted. He could take her with him. Keep her. Although the particulars of their sexual union had slipped into the folds of darkness in his mind, the languor of his body told him he was well sated.
It had been good with her.
He could keep her at his side, keep her safe, keep her for his own. But she might say no. And although he was fumbling mentally and emotionally in the dark, like a blind man, he knew one thing about himself. He could force her to go, but...he wouldn’t.
Also, another, darker more cunning side of his consciousness was unfolding, reminding him that if she did refuse him, then she’d be awake, aware. She’d see him leaving. He had to get away in secret, until he could remember, could assess all threats looming in the blackness. If she saw him go, she’d be a threat.