Enslaved Read online

  “—to do with revenge.”

  The tension in her body wrapped around her nerve endings and pulled. His fingers tunneled through her hair, sliding behind her ear—

  She hissed out a breath, unprepared when he ripped away the synthetic sheath she’d flattened behind her ear earlier. He crumbled the fragile transmitter and let it fall to the floor between them.

  “It’s just the two of us now.”

  “And the crowd,” she reminded him, taking a small measure of comfort in that—right up until he grinned.

  A devil-may-care smile that guaranteed she wasn’t remotely ready for what lay ahead. Every training maneuver, every past mission, every ounce of determination that had brought her to this point felt about as useful as a fusion pistol coming up against a crystalline-grade cannon.

  He flicked a glance at the bondskeeper who waited patiently for confirmation of his final approval. “I suppose we should finish this then.”

  The last shred of cool composure she’d been clinging to evaporated the second he smoothed his palm across her abdomen. Her skin grew hot and tight beneath his hand, the need to get some distance between them warring fiercely with the desire to lay him out cold, the latter of which would do nothing to curb her response to his touch.

  He untied the strip of silk at her back, letting it slide through his fingers as he exposed her breasts. Her gaze snapped to his, knowing he was within his rights to assess her worth in whatever fashion he deemed suitable.

  He stepped closer, gripping her hips and hiding her from much of the crowd, though they both knew he didn’t need to. His hands slid upwards, his thumbs catching the sides of her breasts in a lazy caress.

  She bit down, wanting to curse him but not trusting exactly what sound might escape when the pads of his thumbs skimmed back and forth like that.

  “Don’t forget to breathe,” he warned and then lowered his dark head.

  He wouldn’t dare—

  His mouth opened over her nipple, closing soft and slow and tugging her between his lips. Shock made it impossible to push him away.

  An angry, confused shock tangled and shot through with pure, mind-numbing pleasure. The very same she’d felt the day he’d wrestled her to the ground for her weapon and nearly kissed her. Only this time no one rushed in to save her from giving in to the fire licking through her veins. No one stopped her from digging her fingers into his shoulders as his greedy mouth pulled at her.

  He slipped beneath the silk to cup her ass, bringing her closer. Closer to forgetting where she was, the mission at stake and how no man had ever shoved her so quickly to the edge.

  No man until Lorcan.

  Anger crackled just beneath the surface right along with the rest of her sanity, which retreated the moment he put his hands on her. She knew she could stop the wet sweep of his tongue curling around her nipple, pull away from the possessive grip, but she didn’t dare. What little chance she had of salvaging her mission depended on maintaining a submissive nature, even when it left her completely at Lorcan’s mercy.

  A molten mercy that jammed her internal temperature through the roof and made her foolishly wonder what else his mouth could do.

  With a heavy-lidded look that promised this was only the beginning, he let her slide from his lips, her nipple wet and aching for more. His blue eyes burned into hers, and for one incredibly sex-starved moment, she wanted to drag him back to her. To demand more, even beg for it. Whatever it took to feel the slick warmth of his mouth, the quaking need he’d awakened inside of her, for just a second longer.

  As fast as he’d snared her, he backed off and reality came crashing in. A reality that brought Caplan’s face front and center in the crowd. The stern expression on his face said it all.

  Fix this or your career is over.

  Kaela faintly registered Lorcan nodding his approval to the bondskeeper, and the noise from the crowd as they prepared for the next slave to be auctioned off. She scanned the promenade, quickly losing track of Varek’s dealer in the hustle of people moving to and from the stage.

  This wasn’t happening. Ten minutes ago she’d been one obstacle away from landing herself a one-way ticket to Varek’s celebration. And now…

  A firm hand locked around her wrist.

  Now she belonged to Lorcan.

  Unfuckingbelievable.

  “Let’s go.” Lorcan’s earlier pleasure at catching her by surprise vanished under a cold mask she couldn’t decipher. He quickly tied the silk across her breasts, then led her off the stage.

  Cooperating seemed like the best play for the moment and got her out from under her commanding officer’s sharp gaze. Right now she’d take her victories where she could, even if it meant letting Lorcan think he had the upper hand.

  She’d gone into this anticipating the possibility someone other than Varek’s slave dealer might bid and win. The contingency plan for that involved ditching her new prime and getting her ass back to the rendezvous point to regroup. The legalities of reneging on her contract would be sorted out later, preferably before the local magistrate caught up with her and tossed her in the brig.

  Facing Caplan without a backup plan wasn’t going to happen, that was for damn sure. Certainly not after he’d witnessed Lorcan sealing the deal as it were.

  And she was not going to think about that right now. Not about her racing heart or the way her cells felt hot and bunched beneath her skin, and definitely not about the feverish ache that started low in her belly and twisted deeper.

  An impatient jerk on her hand pulled her forward.

  She planted her feet. “Wait.” She needed a minute to figure this out, to wrap her mind around her options and come up with a new plan. One that didn’t include Lorcan having any kind of revenge for what she’d done to him.

  “We don’t have time.” He shoved the heavy cloak over her shoulders, drawing the hood up over her head. A flash of emotion—regret?—crossed his face.

  Having second thoughts, was he? “How much will it take?”

  He arched a brow.

  “To convince you to release me from our contract.”

  He scoffed. “And here I thought you were going to ask me to sell you to the slave dealer you had your eye on.”

  Kaela frowned. She’d been careful not to look directly at Varek’s dealer more than once or twice and yet somehow Lorcan had managed to pick up on it.

  “Will you?” She knew the answer even before she asked, the set-in-stone determination on his face sending a shiver racing up her spine.

  So much for coming up with a new plan first.

  Fine. Ditching her prime it was.

  Something cold and hard replaced Lorcan’s hand and the soft hum of a restraint combination engaging reached her ears. She stared at the dark band secured to her wrist. Normally, restraints were nothing but an inconvenience.

  But normally the matching band wasn’t secured to anyone else—like Lorcan.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Kaela scowled at the restraints, jerking their joined wrists up to eye level. “Don’t feel obligated to lavish me with gifts so soon, Hunt. Might give a girl expectations.” And make it a whole lot harder to maintain a respectable distance between them.

  A satisfied smile caught the corner of his mouth. “I wouldn’t want to lose my slave in the crowd.”

  “I’ll bet.”

  Without warning, he snaked an arm around her, hauling her closer.

  Too close.

  Breathing now meant drawing him in, letting him overwhelm her senses when she was still reeling from the unexpected turn of events. Events that gave him every legal right to drag her around. For now.

  She’d taken the mission knowing the risks, agreed to the terms set forth by the bondskeeper and hadn’t complained, even when the final step meant accepting the mark of an indentured slave on her hip. But she sure as hell wanted to complain now.

  The arm looped around her back felt too tight, the grip too possessive, the man holding her too dangerous, arroga
nt and out of his ever-lovin’ mind. Plastered to his front, the hard planes of his chest made her increasingly aware of how little she wore, and each steady inhale only made the silk bunched between their bodies less noticeable.

  Seeing as how his gaze dropped to her cleavage, which was perilously close to spilling over his hasty tie job, he knew it too.

  “The only expectations you need to worry about,” he growled, “are mine. More specifically, how many ways I’ll want your legs wrapped around me.” His rough voice and the hypnotic sweep of his thumb along her jaw made for a treacherous combination. Made it impossible not to think about it—his body covering hers, his mouth sliding down her throat and her legs anchored around his hips, locking him against her, inside her.

  Which made it pretty damn impressive she could respond at all. “Either they left you in solitary confinement too long, or you’ve always been this deluded.”

  The dig had the desired effect. Lorcan’s expression darkened and he spun around, jerking her after him. Left with barely enough time to suck in a relieved breath, she had no choice but to follow. It was either that or be dragged. Taking a stand against her prime in the middle of the promenade would land her in the brig faster than being caught on the run.

  And that was the best-case scenario.

  She refused to consider the lengths to which some primes went to teach their slaves a lesson in obedience. Kaela hadn’t forgotten the party she’d attended while tracking a Battalian scientist wanted for testing his biological weapons on innocent settlers in the Astral quadrant.

  Right before locating her target in the crowd she’d witnessed a young woman publicly disobey her prime. As punishment, the woman was drugged with some kind of synthetic aphrodisiac and passed among the guests for all manner of sexual favors. When Kaela’s target had lost interest in watching the festivities, she’d made her move and apprehended him without drawing unwanted attention, but that young woman’s fate had stuck with her.

  Lorcan strode away from the promenade, away from Varek’s slave dealer and Caplan. The farther he led her along the spaceport’s winding corridors, the more determined she became to devise a new plan.

  Getting him alone could give her the opportunity to incapacitate him, but wouldn’t solve the problem of disengaging the locking mechanism on the bands joining them. She’d need tools for that. Unfortunately, lugging around an unconscious man until she could track down something to do the job would be a bit too conspicuous.

  All of which left her back at square one.

  He picked up the pace, turning toward the port’s merchant district.

  “Hunt,” she began.

  “I think Master has a much better ring to it, don’t you?”

  “So does fuck y—”

  He turned a corner off the main corridor, one she suspected led to a maintenance shaft, and pivoted to face her. “I think you and I need to come to an understanding.”

  Kaela snorted. “I think you need to let go of me.” She stared at the hand that molded to her upper arm, mentally running down and discarding any maneuver that would involve breaking her own wrist or arm to get him to release her.

  Being Lorcan’s slave didn’t qualify for that kind of extreme measure. Yet.

  “Now that’s the beauty of this arrangement,” he continued. “What you think doesn’t matter.”

  An old anger flared to life inside her, his tone a little too reminiscent of superior officers who’d made it their personal mission to remind her, as often as possible, they didn’t believe she’d earned her position on merit alone. More than once she’d been tempted to point out her mother hadn’t involved herself in Kaela’s life since becoming a quadrant chancellor years ago, let alone pulled any strings where her career was concerned.

  Overtly disagreeing with those ignorant opinions had always landed her the shit assignments. She didn’t doubt that disagreeing with Lorcan now would invite retaliation, one she feared would prove she hadn’t been the right sentinel for this assignment. Not taking into account Lorcan’s unexpected role.

  Stumbling across Hunt outside a trading settlement on the Outer Rim had given her a way to evade the handful of mercenaries looking for her. Escaping them without having obtained her mission objective or positively identifying the Dominion official Varek was suspected of bribing pissed her off more than getting caught.

  She hadn’t expected to find anything on Hunt’s ship when he gave her a ride to the closest spaceport, least of all cargo that didn’t belong to him. “It wasn’t personal.”

  A cold smile hugged his lips. “It was to me.”

  “I was doing my job.”

  “We both know you could have looked the other way.”

  Not when looking the other way meant ignoring the duties and responsibilities she took seriously. Once any Dominion officer started down that path, letting greed compromise their integrity, a one-way trip to Dadelus penal colony lurked right around the corner.

  Lorcan’s eyes narrowed. “You cost me a lot of money.”

  “Here’s a tip. Don’t steal.”

  “You made the wrong call.”

  “Not my problem.”

  He leaned in, his mouth hovering above her ear. “It is now.”

  It took less than a second to realize she’d prefer a fusion pistol jammed against her side when he made that kind of threat. Then she could focus on diffusing the situation and not think about which disturbed her the most—Lorcan’s plans for retribution or the way her pulse rocketed whenever he invaded her personal space.

  “Let’s make a deal,” she suggested, before the hand caging her in one side did more than brush against the silk at her waist.

  “For your freedom, I suppose?”

  She nodded, curbing any hesitation he could interpret as weakness. The man had bought and paid for her. She didn’t suffer from any illusions he wouldn’t exploit whatever advantage he could, starting with any physical reaction she betrayed when it came to his proximity.

  “What could you possibly have to offer?”

  “The Dominion—”

  His laughter cut her off. “Come on, Kaela. Even I know the Dominion isn’t about to reimburse what I paid for you. Not right away.”

  She wanted to disagree but knew the Dominion wouldn’t be in a rush to pay him off, not at the price he’d shelled out for her. She was good but ultimately expendable. All sentinels were.

  With the opportunity to infiltrate Varek’s celebration a shrinking dot on the horizon, she wouldn’t put it past Caplan to abandon her until his temper cooled off. She’d gone over his head to be assigned to the mission and he hadn’t liked it. No more than he’d liked her being assigned to his command post in the beginning. Of course, his bad attitude couldn’t possibly have anything to do with his very brief affair with her mother, Kaela thought wryly.

  She tried again. “They could make your life difficult.”

  “Kind of late for that.” Anger simmered beneath the lazy drawl.

  “What if I made it all go away? Have the grievances expunged from your record?”

  “What about my property that was confiscated?”

  Kaela arched a brow. “Your property?”

  His lips thinned to a flat line.

  “I’m sure something could be worked out.” Provided she could come up with a way to prove to Caplan they hadn’t lost their opportunity to ID whoever Varek was paying off. “If you offer to sell me—”

  “No.”

  “Be reasonable, Hunt. Your lost merchandise and record are more important than carrying through with this insane plan.”

  “Your offer would be worth considering if I actually believed you could pull it off, which I don’t, and if I hadn’t lost my buyer’s interest the second the Dominion got involved.” His emphasis on Dominion, as though he’d swallowed something foul tasting, was anything but reassuring. “Lucky for me I’m walking away with one hell of a consolation prize.”

  “So you just plan on locking me away somewhere indefinitel
y?”

  He searched her face. “I’m pretty sure I’ve made it clear exactly what I plan to do with you.” His free hand ran up her back, his fingers sinking into her skin.

  She glanced away, avoiding the eyes that probed a little too deeply. For a cavalier treasure salvager he didn’t miss much.

  “Driving you crazy, isn’t it?”

  Her spine stiffened, and not in response to the leisurely caress at the small of her back. Definitely not. “What is?”

  He laughed again, softer this time and a little more menacing. “Wondering how long you can pretend you don’t want me.”

  “Right,” she mocked. “Which is why you had to buy me.”

  His jaw tightened. “Turn around.” He didn’t wait for her to comply, trapping one arm behind her back where their hands linked as he pushed her front against the wall. His fingers caught the hem of the silk barely covering the tops of her thighs.

  Her breath caught in her throat as he curved his palm over her hip and down her inner thigh. “What the hell are you doing?”

  * * *

  What the hell, indeed.

  He’d like to think of this as covering his bases. From the sentinel’s near-breathless demand, he had to wonder—no, he knew—something more than curiosity drove him to get closer.

  Much closer.

  He brushed her cloak to one side, hiding his actions from anyone who might notice them off the main corridor.

  “What are you doing?”

  Not as much as he’d like, not with the restraint making one of his hands useless and trapped at her back. He threaded his fingers through hers there, making his possession clear whatever way he could. A move she didn’t appreciate, as she bucked her hips once in defiance.

  He grinned against the back of her shoulder, her skin warm against his lips. “If I kiss you here, will you do that again?”

  She went perfectly still.

  “Too bad,” he said regretfully. More so because every second he wasted, he risked losing more than just his prize sentinel. The Dominion might not pay him to release her from the binding contract, but he wouldn’t put it past them to force his hand using whatever methods they could.