by Fox, Jaide
The two men looked at her in silence.
“Your brother, the king, certainly has enough sex drive to make me go insane. I don’t think—”
With that, Fallon and Damon walked on either side of her and led her into one of the rooms, closing the door behind them.
Ebony went with them without protest. She knew it would be no use. Once inside, she saw a room with two fair-sized beds inside. The same white-blue lights lined the ceiling and the floor, revealing a sparsely furnished room that included a table and two chairs, the beds, and a rack of clothing along one wall.
Fallon walked to the rack and pulled down a pale blue shirt and pants with a drawstring. They looked like hospital scrubs. He tossed them to her. “Here. Put these on. And these, too.” A pair of ankle-high brown leather slippers followed the scrubs.
Rather than argue about them leaving, which she figured they weren’t about to do, Ebony shrugged and pulled off ragged sari top and thin brassiere, dropping both to the floor as her breasts spilled out and bobbled against her chest. She pulled the large shirt over her head and slipped her arms through the sleeves.
“Don’t worry,” she called to the men. “I’ve had to undress in front of a crowd often enough that I’ve lost the embarrassment I normally reserve for such occasions.”
As she rolled up the long sleeves to her elbows, she noticed she’d attracted both men’s attention. Fallon looked stone faced at her. Damon’s mouth was slightly agape. Both seemed riveted to what she’d do next.
Amusement filled her.
Testing the boundaries of their interest, Ebony slowly shimmied out of the remains of her dirty, shredded red skirt, allowing it to drop sensuously to the floor and, for the briefest moment, reveal the apex of her sex. No doubt Fallon was remembering the moment not long ago when he’d torn away her panties. Either way, the mere glimpse was enough to rouse their attention. Damon sucked in a sharp breath while Fallon audibly swallowed.
Interesting. Very interesting.
She wondered if she could somehow use this to her advantage. She needed to take stock of her priorities and what she wanted to accomplish.
As she pulled the blue drawstring pants up around her waist, there was a knock on the frame of the door. Ebony glanced up to see a guardsmen seeking permission to enter.
The man spoke to Fallon. “We’ve found another vein. This one appears richer than any we’ve struck before, but we’re having a hard time getting to it. We’ll have to engage the rock crushers.”
Fallon nodded. “Do what you must. We need as much as can be gathered. I’ll come to see what progress has been made in our absence. Damon, you watch the woman while I’m gone.”
“I won’t take my eyes off her,” Damon said, regarding Ebony with a look that sent a surprising shudder through her.
Fallon narrowed his eyes at Ebony. “See that you don’t.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Damn if I don’t finally get to wear clothes and I just have to take them off again,” Ebony grumbled.
Standing in the middle of the small bedroom, she pulled off the blue hospital-scrub top and drawstring pants, wadded them up, and threw them unceremoniously in a far corner. “There. Now what?”
Damon stood in another corner of the room, just behind the man he’d brought in with him--Dr. Zoran. The good doctor looked a little embarrassed, but Ebony had had enough of being ordered around and was not about to spare anyone’s feelings. “Ah--lie down on the bed, please. The examination will not take long.”
Exasperated, Ebony stretched out in the middle of the bed and pulled her knees up. “I told you, both of you--every woman in the harem gets checked every week for pregnancy. We were all tested not three or four days ago. There’s no reason to do this.”
Damon crossed his arms over his chest, leaning his back against the wall. “Fallon has ordered it. We have to be sure of your condition before we begin bargaining with Kore. The doctor is here to examine every one of you, both for pregnancy and for general condition.”
“Yeah, well, right now my general condition is generally cold, dirty, hungry, and bitchy,” she stated. “I don’t need a doctor to tell me that. And you can be sure that all the other girls are feeling exactly the same way.”
He remained as silent as a stone, so Ebony merely sighed, lay back, and shut her eyes. “Yeah, go ahead, Doc.” She tapped her fingers as he applied some lubricant and gently inserted two fingers, and then pressed down on her lower abdomen. “Geez, is that all you got? You didn’t even need any lube for that. You wouldn’t believe what we go through in the harem.”
“Actually, I would,” the doctor said, withdrawing his fingers. “And I’m sorry such things have happened to you.” He walked over, picked up her discarded clothes, and handed them to her. “Please get dressed. You are not pregnant. You will be fine with some good food and some rest. You are a very strong woman. Good day to you.”
Slowly, Ebony took the clothes from him. “Thank you,” she said, and turned around to get dressed as Damon let the doctor out of the room.
Once she was back in the scrubs, she began to realize how exhausted she really was from walking for so long. The temptation to lie down on the bed with its soft, warm, clean blankets and pillows, and take a very long nap, nearly overwhelmed her. But she didn’t like the look she’d caught in Damon’s eyes, or the effect it had on her. He was a pompous ass, just as Fallon and the king and all the men seemed to be on this planet, and she’d better not forget that--no matter how sexually attractive she might find one or two of them to be.
A grim determination to remain aloof and keep her objective in mind came to her. Ebony knew that her sister, Adrienne, was in good hands with her mate, Captain Zeta; but the desire to remain close to the only family she had could not be ignored. She looked at Damon again and kept focused on her goal: getting home.
“You and Fallon mentioned trading all of us women. Trade us for what? If we are to be ransomed, why take us so far away from the city?” she asked.
Damon looked at her a long moment, as if trying to decide whether to ignore her or answer her question--and to determine what sort of trouble he might bring on himself from Fallon if he humored her. Then again, maybe she was reading too much into him. He might be an absolute idiot and not have one clear thought in his head.
“I shouldn’t be talking to you,” he said finally, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.
“Aren’t you tired from traveling? You should sit down and take a breather. Maybe even a nap.”
He eyed her. “You’re on my bed.”
Her eyes widened and she thought about standing up, but resisted the urge. “Oh! Well, you’ve got it really broken in.” She patted the mattress and bounced on it a little, ignoring the way her breasts bounced along with her.
His eyes followed the movement of her chest. “Don’t tempt me,” he said.
She shrugged and stretched, feeling her nipples poke against the fabric enticingly. “I wouldn’t dream of it. I can tell just by looking at you that you’re made of stone.”
He grunted.
“What’s that for? I recognize disdain when I see it,” she said, narrowing her eyes at him.
“Women.” He moved into the room and took a seat at the table, but kept his eyes on her as he leaned back in the chair and two of the legs lifted off the floor. His legs were very long and muscular, if the tightness of his black pants against their length were any indication.
His long, silvered black hair flowed around his shoulders, and one strand caught in the corner of a set of lips that were full and sensual. He brushed his hair back as if annoyed at the tickle against his skin.
Ebony remembered how soft it was. She’d had a thing for long haired rockers back in the day and had always envisioned rolling around in their hair and playing with it. Okay, so I’ve got a hair fetish. Nothing wrong with looking.
“I don’t like the way you say that. You got a problem with women?”
“No. Just the
way they try to manipulate men.”
Ebony looked affronted and crossed her arms over her chest. “I wouldn’t have thought you had much experience with that.”
He looked at her, rubbing a thumb against the edge of the table as he regarded her with a cool gaze. Even his eyebrows were silver. Fascinating…. “I’ve had enough--enough to recognize when one is trying to get under my skin.”
She lifted her chin and crossed her arms over her chest. “I have no intention or desire to get under your skin or anyone else’s. I’m bored. I wanted to talk. I thought it was better than just staring at the wall.”
He stopped his movement. “I think you’ll find yourself under someone sooner or later, like it or not.”
“You know what? I don’t think I like you.”
He laughed, a bark of sound that grated on her nerves. “The feeling is mutual. I wouldn’t have any of you here, if it was up to me. This is Fallon’s plan, not my own.”
It was nice he’d brought the conversation back around to where she wanted it. “And you have a problem with that? Why, exactly? You got away from the palace with eight of us, with no problem at all.”
“The king will never barter for you, no matter how tempting you might be. Why would he have such a large harem if not for the fact that his heart is not engaged with any of you?”
“Why?” Ebony looked at Damon, and then laughed out loud. “Because he’s a man, that’s why! What man wouldn’t take a palace full of women and bang them three times a day if he could get away with it? Love’s got nothing to do with any of it, thankfully. I think I’d die if I thought he loved me--the pig.”
“You did not want the king’s love? With his love comes riches. That is something hard to come by and harder to resist.”
She sniffed. “I like money and nice things the same as everyone, but it’s not enough to make up for suffering with a sour disposition. I’d rather have nothing and be with someone who makes me happy. I’m not as materialistic as you think I am.”
He leaned forward, resting the legs of the chair back on the floor as he watched her steadily. “So. You would give up everything for love?”
Ebony blinked. “Of course. Most people would. Or maybe I should say: Most women would.”
Fallon chose that moment to return to the room. Damon nodded at his entry.
“I can take over here if you want to get yourself cleaned up and get something to eat,” Fallon said to Damon.
Damon gave her a long look, then took his leave.
“I heard you two talking as I approached,” Fallon said to her.
“Oh?”
“Damon has a problem with nosy women.”
“I’m not nosy,” she said, looking as insulted as she felt.
Fallon chuckled. “Oh, but you are.”
“Yeah, well, maybe I am--but you just mentioned food. What I really want to know is when we mere females get some real food around here. I am starved half to death and there’s no doubt the other women are, too.”
“All right. We could all do with a decent meal. It should be ready by now. Come with me. We’ll get the others. I’ll show you.”
Fallon held the door open for her, and Ebony walked out into the corridor. He began knocking on the row of doors, and one at a time they opened and she saw one of her harem sisters inside each one--and each of them was still with one of Fallon’s men, just as before. Ebony rolled her eyes, but was far too hungry to protest anything right now.
They all followed Fallon down the corridor, following the bright dots of light outlining the boundaries of the ceiling. Ebony noted that all the women were now wearing the same kind of scrubs that she had, though each in a different color. “Nice to wear clothes again, isn’t it?” she said to Cassie. “But how did you get to be the one wearing red this time?”
Cassie just laughed. “I’d wear the ugliest color on this planet if it would just get me some decent food!”
“Yeah, me too. Hey, it’s starting to smell pretty good. Let’s go see.”
The men pushed open a pair of metal double doors, and Ebony almost laughed in delight as they walked inside of what looked like a school cafeteria back on Earth. Damon was already there, feasting on something that smelled delicious. They all sat down at a couple of long tables beside him and in a moment a couple of workers silently brought them each a tray loaded with food.
Ebony found a plate holding a very large, crusty bread bowl filled with steaming soup. The soup was made of vegetables with chunks of white meat floating in the broth. She reached for the wooden spoon that rested on the plate beside the bread bowl and dug in. The soup was hot and delicious, and the bread as good as any she’d ever had back on Earth.
The only thing that could top it off was cheese. Lord, how she missed cheese!
“You eat as though you haven’t eaten in days,” said Fallon, as he and Damon devoured their own food.
“That’s because I haven’t,” Ebony answered, her voice muffled by a huge mouthful of hot fresh bread. She glanced over at Damon’s plate and saw a small crust still left. “Hey, are you going to eat that?”
He tossed her the crust. “Finish up,” Damon said. “It’s time for sleep. We’ve got plans for you--for all of you.”
She stopped eating. “What plans? Do they include getting a bath?”
“Perhaps that can be arranged. As for the other, in the morning, Ebony,” Fallon said. “We will know more in the morning.”
Ebony rolled her eyes. “Oh, yeah, later with the information, always later. I’m sorry I asked.” The soup was gone and she continued to pull of hunks of bread from the round loaf that had served as the soup bowl. She looked up at the workers and caught the eye of one of them. “Hey, bring me a couple more of these, okay?” In a moment, the silent worker did just that, and Ebony dug in again--as content as she had been on this world in a very long time.
***
Damon disappeared after he had finished eating. The other men and women eventually wandered out of the cafeteria and, Ebony presumed, went back to their rooms. Fallon and Ebony were soon walking along the enormous corridor once again.
Ebony crossed her arms over her chest and gave Fallon a look. “All right, then. Tell me about this ore of yours and about the mining--since I’m so nosy.”
“You merely prove my point, but I will indulge you--now that your belly is full and you are not so likely to be irritable.” He took a deep breath, and looked up at the lights on the corridor ceiling.
“Well, now. The ore--chalcedonite--is used in the construction of spaceships. It is able to withstand the harshest of temperatures, from the deep cold of space to reflecting the heat of the sun. Many would die to control the mining of it, for with this ore comes great power and wealth.”
“Yeah, I got that. Is that why we’re down here in this old mine?”
Fallon went striding out ahead of her and moved to the wall. As his long legs stretched out to cover the distance, Ebony admired the muscles beneath the tight material covering them and then wondered if she was developing a wild case of Stockholm syndrome.
He pressed a panel set into the stone, and then more lights appeared in the ceiling farther down the corridor. “It is part of the reason,” he said, walking back to her. “It was thought that all the veins of chalcedonite in this mine had been removed--but when we took shelter here after the rebellion, we discovered something the king’s miners had missed.”
“I’d like to see it.”
He looked at her suspiciously. “This isn’t a ploy to get away again, is it?”
Ebony rolled her eyes. “Oh, no. I’m done with trying to control my own fate. I’m perfectly happy letting men decide what to do with me.”
Fallon smiled. “Come with me. I will show you what my people are willing to die to protect.”
Ebony was surprised when Fallon took her arm and placed it in the crook of his own. The warmth of his body, so close, felt good in the cool air of the underground.
It was almost as goo
d as wearing real clothes and shoes again.
He said nothing as he led her through the hallway, taking both of them deeper into the mine. The hallway narrowed and the tracks along the floor and the lighting along the walls eventually petered out. Ebony hesitated, but Fallon took a palm light out of his pocket and shone it on the path ahead of them to light the way.
The smooth man-made corridor grew into the rougher-hewn path of nature. Rock outcroppings littered the way, but, for the most part, the outcroppings had been smashed and removed to the edges to make room for carts. She could see the tracks of the carts in the dust on the floor along with the footprints of booted feet.