by Reagan Woods
When the programmed environment had completely faded away, Arianna realized Jorkan stood close to her on the platform. A little too close.
“That was my home world of Doranos Prime,” his voice held a wistful note.
He rested his pale hand on her exposed shoulder.
“Well, I don’t think I can beat the sandugi level without getting creative,” Ariana edged off the platform and went to collect her bottle of gross electrolytes and bar of ull from the General’s kitchenette.
Jorkan didn’t seem to notice her return to the room. He fiddled with the controls of the hologym and then walked over to the reconditioner to punch in a long series of command codes.
Unusually uncomfortable with the silence, Arianna squared her shoulders and cleared her throat.
“I have some questions for you today, if you don’t mind?”
“Of course I don’t mind. Go ahead,” Jorkan guided her to the conversation area.
With an icy hand on her low back he indicated that she should take a chair. Rather than sitting across from her, he perched on the arm of the chair she chose. He ran his fingertips gingerly over the soft curl that tumbled loose from the high bun on top of her head.
“What exactly is my function as the General’s captive?” She hurriedly shoved the question out hoping to startle him out of this creepy behavior.
“I don’t understand the question,” he murmured continuing to test the texture of her hair. His light pink eyes glazed over and a bizarre smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. His expression sent a foreboding chill through her body.
“Am I a personal servant to the general? What is my job?” She cleared her throat loudly. He needed to take the hint and back off.
“You are a servant. Of a sort,” he agreed snatching his hand back.
Relief flooded her as he quickly moved to take the chair across from her. Hopefully, it was a sign that he remembered she wasn’t his to play with, otherwise, she was in trouble.
“Well?” she prompted. “What does that mean?”
He continued his intent study of her features. She found his stare unsettling so she stood and paced away from him. She didn’t want to encourage him on the track his mind seemed to be taking, yet he was her best source of information. Heaven knew, the General never spoke to her aside from issuing the odd command. Though, at night, she often dreamed that he whispered words of comfort, driving away the terrors that plagued her.
“Arianna, come back and sit,” Jorkan demanded harshly.
She crossed back and sat, firmly biting the tip of her tongue to dissuade herself from telling him exactly where he could stick his bossy order.
“If General Darvan so chooses, he can keep you as a type of servant indefinitely.”
After a long moment he added, “But I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that.”
Alarm bells clanged loudly in her head.
“Oh?” she kept her tone mildly interested and pretended to study her fingernails.
“He is a high ranking officer. He can return to the Corian System and have his choice of females. I’m sure you recall from your lessons, over eighty percent of Corians are male. Mating with a Corian female is a coveted prize for a Corian male. Most certainly, such a pampered female would never allow the General to keep a delectable beauty like you,” he stopped and she thought he wouldn’t elaborate. A glance at his pale face revealed that he was enjoying stringing this conversation out.
She attacked her cuticles, viciously pushing them back on her nails, hoping he would buy her disinterested act. He was obviously trying to elicit an emotional response from her but she refused to give him the satisfaction.
“Of course, he would choose a new owner to gift you to. Completely at his discretion, you understand. Unless….” He trailed off provokingly.
She decided to take the bait. “Unless what?”
His little game was pushing all her panic buttons. And he knew it.
“If you gave yourself to another while under his protection, the General would have to offer that male the Right of First Refusal before he could gift you to someone else,” he purred suggestively.
“I don’t understand. How can I give myself to another when I belong…?” Then it dawned on her. “No. Oh, I don’t think so.”
So not happening. She suppressed the urge to shudder in revulsion. Now she was desperately sorry she’d initiated this conversation.
“Think about it, Arianna. There are other ways back to Earth, back to your precious Peter,” he said angrily.
Arianna froze at the mention of Peter’s name.
Jorkan seemed to know he’d gone too far. He made a visible effort to calm himself, “General Darvan isn’t the only male who would be……good to you.”
Before she could ask him exactly what he meant by that and how he knew about Peter, he continued, “I know you have questions. I can’t answer them right now. But I could help you, Arianna.”
The bizarre conversation left her head spinning and her heart hurting. She’d realized at some point during his tirade that Jorkan must have gained access to the information the reconditioner dreged from her memories. That had to be the reason for his knowledge of Peter. She tried not to ever mention his name or think about those wondrous days of early infatuation. As much as she tried to focus on the here and now, those memories haunted her dreams nightly.
“Don’t I have another session to clock in the reconditioner?” she changed the subject. She wanted him to leave her alone. Invading the privacy of her memories was a heinous transgression. Using the information he’d gained to attempt to influence her behavior was unforgivable.
He swore forcefully in, what she assumed was, Doranese. Switching to Corian Standard, he said, “Yes. You need to finish your time today.”
If she were smart, she’d think of a way to use Jorkan’s attraction to her advantage. But first, she needed to let her emotions cool down.
Chapter Thirteen
“Lights fifteen percent,” Arianna said in a barely audible voice.
This close, the General’s sleeping form looked like a statue of carved granite. Slumber didn’t soften the harsh lines of his face but with his intense eyes closed, he seemed less intimidating. Without his predatory gaze weighing her every action, she could look at him objectively.
He was the most handsome man she’d ever seen up close. Peter had been almost pretty. Though she knew it wasn’t fair to compare the two, the General was much more masculine. The dark hair waving slightly over his forehead matched the black slashes of his brows. His high cheek bones, straight nose and firm lips perfectly complimented the square, masculine jawline. In spite of his immense size, he was proportionate everywhere, she remembered, a shudder of apprehension skittered down her spine.
She wondered if he really would give her away to a stranger. Was it permissible to ask him his plans for her? She had to know. If he intended to give her away, it was even more imperative for her to escape soon. On the other hand, she hated to disappoint him by asking what he intended to do with her. Her thoughts swam in contradiction. Somewhere, she was missing a vital piece of information.
Sliding from the sleep platform to the pallet, Arianna knelt smoothly next to the bed.
“General, it’s time to wake.”
“I hope you slept well,” he fixed his copper gaze on her, instantly awake. One of his large hands snaked out to grab her and dragged her back into his arms. She knew these warriors moved quickly but the speed with which he had her pressed up against him was a sharp, frightening reminder of their differences.
“General?” She tried not to panic but, obviously, something had changed. She pushed tentatively against his muscular chest to no avail. Succumbing to her fear, she struggled against him, fighting against the unexpected rush of desire as much as she fought his hold.
“Arianna, be still,” his authoritative voice demanded.
Realizing how ridiculous it was to battle his superior strength, she stopped resist
ing his grip. Holding her body stiff, ready to jump away from him at a moment’s notice, her alarmed mind took stock of the situation. She knew it was futile to fight him, to run. There was no place to go even if she could escape him. And he wasn’t hurting her, though his arms were virtual bands of steel, keeping her in place.
Lethargy stole slowly into her stiff limbs, relaxing her more and more the longer she lay there inhaling his intoxicating musk. Breasts mashed up against the hard plane of his torso, he branded her with the heat from his skin.
He brought a hand up to cradle her face, forcing her to meet his inscrutable eyes.
“I like having you near,” he said swiping his thumb gently across her lower lip. His touch sent a sharp jolt of desire to her most intimate places, tightening her nipples against his chest, making her shift her legs restlessly where they tangled with his.
“I don’t understand,” she couldn’t look away from his firm lips, the way his mouth formed his words. She wanted that mouth on hers, on her.
He turned to lay on his back, pulling her with him to sprawl across his massive chest. One strong arm pillowed his head, his other hand played idly with the strands of hair the spilled over her shoulders, each gentle stroke lighting a fire of need inside her.
“Are you attracted to me?” he all but purred the question trailing his fingertips from her hair to drag them up and down her spine in a familiar soothing motion. Today, the effect was anything but calming.
She was instantly reminded of her initial impression of him. He was just like a powerful, predatory cat, and she was his prey.
“No. Yes. I don’t know, maybe,” she yelped when he lightly smacked her bare bottom.
Resting his open palm across her bum, he chuckled when she braced for another stinging slap.
“Well? Which is it?”
“Sometimes,” she hurried to answer.
Caressing her still sensitive cheeks, his fingers delicately skirted down along her crease to the juncture of her parted thighs. He reached forward between thighs that parted of their own volition, his fingertips playing in the telling moisture he found.
Rolling her onto her back, he braced himself on one forearm, looming over her.
“How about now?” A devilish gleam lit his eyes as his free hand found and parted her folds. He slid a finger up to toy with her sensitive clit.
Biting back a moan, Arianna answered him truthfully. “I’ve never been this attracted to anyone before. What is happening to me?”
She’d experienced sexual chemistry with Peter but it was nothing compared to the lust burning through her blood now.
“Your body is telling you that we’re sexually compatible.” His massaging finger increased the pressure on her aching bundle of nerves.
“What?” she asked through the haze clouding her mind. “How could we possibly be…well, you know? We’re different species.”
“Different species? Definitely not, but that is, perhaps, a conversation for another time.”
Arianna didn’t know what to think of his cryptic words. When he touched her like this, she didn’t want to think. She only wanted to feel.
Abandoning her pleasure point, his long, thick digit found her open nether-lips and dipped into the moisture pooling at her entrance. Teasingly inserting the tip of his finger only to bring it back out to circle her needy clit, he answered, “Enough time in my presence was bound to have this effect on you. Frankly, I’m surprised it took your body so long to recognize my pheromones.”
As his words began to click into place, his teasing finger became more serious, making it difficult for her to care about anything else. “So this isn’t real?” she panted before burying her face against his strong shoulder to muffle her moan.
“Oh, I don’t know. This feels real to me.” Never breaking eye contact, he carefully slid two fingers through her moisture, coating them in her juices before slowly penetrating her.
Reflexively clenching the invading fingers, she moaned in shocked pleasure. He needed no further encouragement. His questing probe went unerringly to the rough patch of nerves on the wall of her channel.
“Doesn’t it feel real to you?”
A strangled moan was her only answer.
He chuckled softly before dropping his lips to hers. Their kiss started tenderly enough but quickly morphed into a voracious, greedy meeting of teeth, tongues and mouths. Arianna’s lips parted, her tongue dueling playfully with his as it plunged into her mouth in tandem with his pistoning digits.
Working her flesh with precision, he accepted the offering of her bowed body, teething and kissing his way along the line of her jaw and down her sensitive neck. Peppering ticklish kisses along her collar bone, he bit the tender flesh where her neck and shoulder met causing a shudder of pleasure to ripple straight to her clenching channel. He moaned, increasing the speed of his thrusting.
Yes, yes, yes! Her traitorous body shouted with abandon.
She was so far gone in the pleasure of his touch that the suckling mouth at her breast wrenched a surprising orgasm from her. Clamping her inner muscles around his thick fingers, she threw her head back and rode the wave of pleasure.
“So beautiful,” he murmured brushing light kisses over her shoulders and neck.
Gingerly retracting his finger, he gave her sensitive clit a playful swirl. He turned her gently on her side and moved to lay behind her. Cradling her with one arm under her breasts, he brought her body back into his, spooning against her. He thrust the incredible length and girth of his arousal forward to rest between her upper thighs.
She braced for an attempt to force his way into her with that monster. Instead, he smoothed her long hair over her shoulder and adjusted both of their arms so he could fondle her breasts lightly.
Her body felt like jelly. Arianna couldn’t remember a time when she’d come that hard. Maybe she never had. She’d think about the fact that the most mind numbing orgasm of her life came at the hands of her alien captor later. She wouldn’t wonder what kind of a Stockholm syndrome induced nympho she’d become. No. Right now, she’d put this in a mental box with her other sins, slam it shut and padlock the lid. Some things didn’t bare examining too closely.
“You peaked,” he stated quietly from behind her. “Yet you are unhappy. Why?”
“Um? Don’t you want me to start on your first meal, General?” She wriggled against his grip. He’d all but told her she was experiencing a mere chemical reaction to his nearness. Instead of getting a grip on herself, she’d abandoned her sanity like a capsizing ship, jumping into the swelling waves of lust without even a life jacket. Cheeks burning in shame, she prayed that he’d just let her go about her daily routine now.
Do not think. Do NOT panic. Do not analyze. Do not. Do not. Do not.
He lifted himself up and reached for her face. Gently forcing her to meet his eyes he said, “Whenever we are alone in our quarters you may address me as either General or Darvan. In front of others, you will continue to behave as a captive. Here in our sleep chamber, you will call me Darvan. Do you understand?”
“Yes?” No. She didn’t understand at all. Since when was anything ours?
“Now. You will tell me what is wrong,” it was a command.
She was sick and tired of being manipulated and ordered about. Her hormones were raging and not nearly satisfied. Her emotions felt too close to the surface. And he wanted answers. Fine. She’d give them to him, consequences be damned.
“I just came harder than I’ve ever come in my whole life. With a virtual stranger who thinks he owns me, for the love of God,” the last bit came out slightly hysterical.
His firm, kissable mouth took on the lines of an arrogant smirk. Damn him.
“I am pleased to have pleased you so well.”
Trust a man, no matter the species, to zero in on his sexual prowess.
“I think you missed my point,” she stated dryly.
His fascinating eyes took on a strange light. His expression hardened into the impl
acable, merciless mask he wore when commanding his warriors.
“I do own you. I will always own you. I will not always be a stranger to you. I think we’re making great strides in learning one another,” his confident words belied the distance she felt growing between them.
“I don’t understand.” Her thoughts whirled. Was he saying that he didn’t have any plans to give her away?
“Obviously. Your understanding is not required,” he indicated that he was finished with the discussion.
Against her better judgement, she wanted him. That confused her enough as it was. Furthermore, she didn’t trust him. He might not require her to think for herself but she wouldn’t allow blind lust to make her complacent. She still had plans to make.
Chapter Fourteen
Darvan knew he shouldn’t make promises to his little captive, but, as the words escaped his mouth, it was very clear to him that he would do what he had to in order to bind her to him. He’d keep her in his possession no matter the cost, regardless of what his family or the High Council thought.
Contemplating his next move, he nearly missed it when she changed the subject.
“Jorkan says there are others like me. Earthers,” she qualified at his inquiring look.
“Yes.”
“I would like to see them, please.”
“Why?” Jealousy, an unfamiliar emotion, roared through him.
He studied her through narrowed eyes. Did she still harbor hope of being reunited with her lover? He would never allow such a thing. She was his and he would never let her go.
“Until I was captured, I hadn’t seen another Earther for a very long time. I didn’t even know if there were any of us left.”
He made no promises, mollified by her answer. He nuzzled a quick kiss onto her mouth before releasing her.
Darvan levered himself up and stalked to the bathing room, unwilling to discuss her request further. Once he was more certain of her, he would consider arranging a visit with one of the other Earthers on-ship. Until then, their routine would remain the same.