Enslaved Read online

  “Kaela.” Since the other woman knew who she was, there wasn’t much point in lying.

  Zoe hoisted herself out of the pool. “Lorcan hasn’t let the whole prime thing go to his head, has he? He has a big enough ego without a woman falling over herself to please him.” She glanced at the two men. Lorcan was frowning in their direction now. “It’s probably good that he has you with him. Keeps him from obsessing about tonight.”

  “Does he normally obsess about closing a deal?”

  Zoe’s expression hardened. “Is that what sentinels call setting things right?”

  Kaela arched a brow, realizing Lorcan had told Zypher more than she realized when he interrupted her escape back at the spaceport. “Lorcan’s not here to do business with Varek?”

  “I doubt Varek would see it that way.” Zoe sounded almost proud of that fact. “Lorcan has made some iffy calls a time or two, but would never intentionally deal with Varek or anyone like him.” She glanced past Kaela and sighed. “Play time is over I’d say.”

  Kaela noticed Lorcan coming their way.

  “Well,” Zoe murmured. “He must like you.”

  “Why would you say that?” The question came out sounding only a little bit strangled. Hell, she might be curious, but did she have to actually sound like it?

  “Otherwise he wouldn’t be worried about what I’m saying to you.” She lifted her hand to her forehead to shield her eyes from the sun. “Hey, stranger. Come to take your slave away?”

  Lorcan glowered at Zoe. “You should have stayed back at the spaceport.”

  “And miss all the excitement?” She waved goodbye to Kaela. “See you tonight.”

  “No, you won’t,” Lorcan growled, helping Kaela up.

  “What is that supposed to mean?” Kaela hissed, snagging her wrap and tying it around her waist.

  Lorcan didn’t answer, his attention wandering over her head as he led her away.

  “You’re staring at Zoe’s ass, aren’t you?” That she made the observation without a trace of jealousy in her voice proved she wasn’t also curious about how well the pair knew one another. No, not at all.

  “I’m not, but somebody sure as hell is.”

  Puzzled by his worried tone, she followed his gaze to Zypher who stood just beyond the edge of the pool.

  Lorcan sighed, quickening his steps as he turned them in the direction of their rooms. She struggled to keep up with him, trying hard to figure out what prompted him to leave the poolside so quickly. At her best guess, there were still a few hours before the gala started tonight, time she’d expected Lorcan to use to prepare for whatever he was involved in.

  The doors slid closed behind them.

  He stopped in the middle of the room. “What did you and Zoe talk about?”

  “Setting things right.”

  His spine snapped straight and he pivoted around.

  She searched his face, wondering if there was any truth to what Zoe said. “Why are you really here?”

  “And tell you so you can add it to my running list of felonies?”

  “No.”

  He crossed his arms. “Then why does it matter?”

  She voiced the nagging doubt she couldn’t silence in her mind. “I don’t like being wrong about people.” It didn’t take a psych consult to know her attraction to Lorcan blurred the lines between her personal life and her mission.

  A first for her, which made figuring out where those lines began and ended her current priority.

  Lorcan snared a hold of her arm, dragging her closer. “And you think you’ve been wrong about me?” He untied her wrap, tossing it to the floor. “I bought you with nothing on my mind than having you anytime I wanted.” His hands molded to her ribs, the heat from his fingers at odds with the chill in his eyes.

  Having excelled at pushing his buttons, she could easily recognize when he sought to push hers. “So I should hate you for wanting me?”

  “Maybe that’s best for both of us.”

  “Why?”

  His fingers tightened, and then he released her. “Because then I won’t have to miss you when you’re gone.” He answered so quietly she barely heard him, and walked out of the room.

  Kaela stared after him, his words rooting her feet to the floor. Miss her?

  Through the doorway, she heard him adjust the water in the bathing pool, half expecting him to call for her. He didn’t. Seconds turned to minutes before she could make her feet move to follow him.

  Lorcan stood with his back to her, his gaze trained on the bank of windows that faced the impressive ridge of red mountains in the distance.

  “Whose cargo did you steal on the Outer Rim?” His fierce denial then, and his accusation days ago that she’d made a wrong call, made her ask.

  A humorless smile clung to his lips when he glanced over his shoulder. “According to Dominion records, it belonged to Varek.”

  Having turned the investigation over to the local Dominion officials at the time, she knew nothing about Varek’s name coming up, least of all in relation to documents tying him to Lorcan’s cargo. Maybe if she hadn’t been so damned determined to get far away from him and an attraction to a law-breaking treasure salvager, she might have speculated about the ex-chancellor’s true involvement.

  “He stole it from you first,” Kaela guessed, and when Lorcan nodded, she added, “And you’re here to reclaim it.”

  “One way or another.”

  She took a frustrated step in his direction. “He’ll kill you if he catches you.” Even she hadn’t been sent here to go up against Varek, and her extensive training made her more suited for the task than Lorcan.

  “It almost sounds like you care, Sentinel.” He faced her, his expression carefully blank.

  She shrugged, her insides anything but indifferent. “It’ll be a lot harder to help you clear your record if you’re dead.”

  Something flickered in his eyes. Curiosity? “Is this another example of your sterling sense of duty?”

  “Let’s just call it setting things right.”

  “Bad idea.”

  Probably. If only because the more he talked, the more she felt herself believing him. “Someone once told me there’s no such thing as a bad idea. Just bad timing.”

  “Someone clearly out of his mind.”

  If she’d questioned her sanity before… “Then he’s in good company.”

  Because then I won’t have to miss you.

  Her stomach tugged nervously, a sensation she wanted to chalk up to being foolishly gullible. Too bad she knew better. Every second she stood watching him—watching those fiercely blue eyes try to figure her out—she felt the moment press in on her, pushing her to make a choice. Pushing her to acknowledge there was no going back now, not when she wanted him—all of him.

  Wanted him at her mercy this time.

  She might be his slave legally, but she’d make him hers, right now, on every level that counted.

  She reached behind her back, unclipping her top and letting it fall to the floor.

  His gaze fell to her breasts, the hand at his side clenching and unclenching. “What are you doing?” The question came out rough around the edges.

  “Having a bath.” Without taking her eyes off him, she peeled off her bottoms. A week ago—hell, three days ago—she would have second-guessed any action that didn’t fit within her planned career goals or objectives. Now, she didn’t want to think or plan or justify anything. “Care to join me?” She walked toward the small sunken pool in the middle of the bedroom.

  “Why?” Arousal lingered beneath his suspicion.

  Kaela closed her eyes at the feel of the warm water rushing over her feet and ankles. “Isn’t a slave expected to bathe her prime before an important event?”

  “I’m not asking you to.”

  She met his gaze. “I know.”

  * * *

  Lorcan didn’t move. Forcing himself not to dive head first into the water, clothes and all, took every ounce of concentration he po
ssessed. She’d used her body once to distract him. Now that they’d both reached their destination, was this merely an attempt to be free of him? A way to lull him into letting his guard down?

  Kaela stood hip-deep, her skin glistening from the drops of water as she moved to the edge of the bathing pool. She pulled the red ribbon from the back of her head, and her long blonde hair trailed down her back.

  He couldn’t drag his gaze away from her.

  “Coming?”

  The seductive inquiry hit him hard in the gut, but he didn’t move. Didn’t trust himself to. Zypher was more right than he probably imagined. Somewhere along the way she’d crawled beneath his skin and he wasn’t sure when the sensation would pass, wasn’t sure he wanted it to.

  But none of that meant he could trust her.

  Understanding dawned on Kaela’s face, and she emerged from the bath. Streaks of water dripped down her skin, beading at the tips of her breasts. His pulse fired like a fusion pistol set on automatic and he swallowed on instinct, thinking of sucking the drops from her nipples.

  She closed the distance between them with sleek and sexy strides, reaching up to loop her arms around his neck. Her wet body soaked his clothing, her proximity dulling his reaction time despite his determination not to underestimate her.

  He covered her hands with his, wanting to pull her arms away, but unable to. Nothing in her eyes betrayed any hidden agenda, probably making him the biggest fool in the galaxy for wanting to believe that.

  Pushing up on her toes, she kissed a hot path along his jaw. “Tell me you won’t run,” she murmured against his mouth.

  Groaning, he caught the side of her face and kissed her. Kissed her until she went limp against him, until his lungs burned in his chest and he knew just how screwed he really was. She felt too good in his arms, her wet body plastered against him, to even consider backing off—assuming she’d let him.

  Her hands fisted in his shirt, and the slow sweep of her tongue seduced him completely. Hell, she could throw him over her shoulder right now and it would have been worth the price of sliding his hands down her back to cup her ass, rocking her hard against him. She whimpered between breaths, tugging at the hem of his shirt. Her fingers slid beneath to rake his stomach.

  He whipped her around and clamped one arm across her waist, holding her to him. “If this is a ploy…” He trailed off, cupping her breast—

  In one smooth motion, she wrenched free and dropped, taking him to the ground with a seamless sweep of her leg. Flat on his back, his brain felt as shell-shocked as the rest of him. Before he drew his next breath, she straddled him.

  “If this was a ploy, you wouldn’t stand a chance.”

  Splaying one hand across her back, he jerked her down, capturing one dark nipple between his lips. She cried out, sinking farther into his mouth. The puckered flesh hardened even more against his tongue, and he pulled at her long and deep, releasing her only long enough to catch the other one.

  He groaned when she pulled away, stopped himself from reaching for her when she shook her head softly.

  “You have too many clothes on.”

  “Good point.” Clothes prevented him from rolling her beneath him and getting between her thighs. He wanted to watch her face, see the same hunger reflected in her eyes when he drove inside her. Heart pounding, gut wrenching, turn-him-inside-out hunger.

  Admitting that he didn’t want to miss her wasn’t nearly as big of a mistake as underestimating how true it was. For a man who thrived on finding and selling rare artifacts, he should have been prepared to let Kaela go the second he found her.

  He started to sit up, reaching only his elbows as Kaela shimmied down his front. The soft slide down the length of his cock made his jaw clench. She undid his pants, working them down just enough to free him. Painfully aroused, he closed his eyes at the soft swirl of her tongue across the head of his shaft. Her fingers closed around him, triggering a wave of searing lust that streamed down his spine.

  He lifted his hips, the tease of her open mouth moving down the side of his cock making it a trial to keep still. Threading his fingers through her hair and holding her in place while he pushed himself between her lips would have worked just fine two days ago. This time he wasn’t demanding anything of her. He wanted her without any expectations standing between them.

  Her warm tongue circled the head of his cock. “Take off your shirt.”

  “Can’t.” That would involve moving, and letting this play out whatever way she intended hinged on him not moving unless he had to.

  She sucked him into her mouth with one long, carnal tug. “Take it off or I stop.”

  He had the damn shirt halfway over his head when she swallowed him deep, the hot walls of her mouth closing around him. By the time he could peel his tongue from the roof of his mouth, she’d backtracked toward the pool.

  The water reached her knees before he managed to strip off the rest of his clothes, to her waist when he reached the pool. From the ledge that ran the perimeter, she retrieved one of the folded cloths then nodded to the edge of the pool.

  “Sit.”

  He did as she asked, watching as she drew the soapy cloth along the inside of his thigh. She pushed his thighs wider, stepping between them, her hair as much of a tease on his skin as the cloth. He opened his mouth to say as much, the words expiring on his tongue as she lathered her hands and then closed both of them around his shaft.

  Lorcan groaned and gripped the stone lip of the pool. The little bit of traction wasn’t enough of an anchor against the soap she used to slide effortlessly from base to tip. Fast and then slow, soft and then ruthlessly, driving him to the edge so damn quick he nearly came.

  “Easy,” she whispered, kissing his chest as she worked him with her hands, one palm cupping his sac.

  There was no such thing as easy when she was wringing pleasure from him with every pump of her fists, and he said as much. She laughed, releasing him to wash away the soap. Determined not to lose control, instead of reaching for her, he closed his eyes and imagined her crawling up into his lap and impaling herself on his cock.

  “Lorcan?”

  The faint whisper forced his eyes open—just in time to watch her take him in her mouth. He flexed his hips, lifting to let her take him deeper. She moaned around his shaft, the sweet vibration more than he could stand.

  “Kaela,” he hissed, sinking his fingers into her hair. She didn’t need any guidance, having figured out when to lick and tease with her tongue, swirling across the head of his cock, and when to pull him between her lips, sucking greedily.

  Her hand closed around the base of his shaft, pumping in time with the savage rhythm of her mouth. Unable to hold back, his hips rocked to meet her mouth each time.

  The grip on his cock eased, and he closed his hand over hers. “Don’t stop,” he growled.

  She flicked her tongue across the head of his shaft with brutal intimacy. “Tell me one thing and I’ll let you come.”

  He ground his jaw at the provocative demand, feeling the fine threads inside him beginning to snap.

  “How long did you think you could keep me?”

  Her question took him by surprise and he searched her face for any sign of anger or frustration. Her beautifully flushed face stared back at him, her green eyes bright with arousal and something else he couldn’t bring himself to put a name to.

  She sucked him into her mouth, releasing her carnal hold just as quickly. Too quickly. “How long?”

  He met her gaze, his voice dark and raw when he answered, “Not long enough.”

  * * *

  An unexpected satisfaction spiraled through her, heating her blood. She didn’t have to climb out of the water to get her hands on more of him, desperate to be closer—he came to her, slipping into the water and hauling her against him. He snapped one arm across her back, keeping her pinned to his chest.

  And then he opened his mouth over hers, and nothing had ever felt so…incredible. Perfect. Right. Explosive ch
emistry and barely restrained passion all wrapped up in a mindless kiss that caught her so off guard, she knew she was one step away from doing something unthinkable.

  Falling for him.

  She shook her head, breaking from the feverish hold he had on her mouth. A smooth hot stroke of his tongue coaxed her back and she forgot all about needing a second to cool the fire flaring through her veins.

  He turned, pressing her against the side of the pool. A wolfish grin clung to his mouth, and he caught her legs, wrapping them around his waist. The first brush of his arousal up her cleft made her moan. She squeezed her legs, drawing him closer. He caught her next moan with his lips, grinding harder, longer. The muscles deep in her sex clutched and ached.

  Water splashed up and over her breasts with every thrust along her folds. She slammed her eyes shut, the hard length of his cock nudging her clit.

  “Bed. Now,” she rasped.

  He smiled against her lips, but didn’t stop rocking. She dug her heels into him, her muscles coiling tighter…tighter…

  She cried out as she came, clinging to him. He continued rubbing against her, the delicate friction, softer now, slower. And not enough.

  “Kaela.” He nuzzled her neck, his mouth like a brand on her skin.

  Afraid she would read into whatever he was about to say, something that wasn’t there, she shook her head to cut him off. “Bath time is over.”

  He looked like he wanted to argue, but carried her from the small pool without complaint. Drops of water rained across the polished stone floor as he strode toward the bed. Setting her in the middle, Lorcan hovered above her, his impressive arousal tucked against the inside of her thigh.

  His blue eyes betrayed his impatience. “And now?”

  “Whatever you want.” And she meant it.

  He shook his head. “This is about what you want, isn’t it?”

  “Right now, all I want is you.” The second the words left her lips, she realized her mistake. A glaring, heart-in-her-throat mistake. Realizing she’d sacrificed more of herself when he hadn’t demanded it, wasn’t nearly as terrifying as knowing she admitted as much out loud.

  Lorcan didn’t give her a second to take it back. He pushed her thighs further apart and thrust inside her, sinking to the hilt. She bowed up to the exquisite invasion, abandoning every rational thought that didn’t revolve around him. Kissing him. Touching him.