Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 58483 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 292(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58483 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 292(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
“Veck.” I remember that I left her there after I… veck. “Send in someone to give her food and—”
No, wait.
I can’t stand the thought of another Zandian going in there and seeing her. Is her ass still bare? Did I cover her properly? I’m not sure I did. Guilt and something else ricochets through me.
Jealousy.
It’s not an emotion I’m accustomed to feeling. Curse the humans and their strange capacity to awaken the Zandian emotions!
I look at my screen—we’re on course, stable. “Nevermind. I will attend to the human. I will return in a few moments.” I get up and stride out.
I take a breath as I near the door. Stand straighter before I open it.
She’s moaning. When she looks up at me, her eyes are wild, as if she’s seeing something else.
This was how she looked when she stabbed me with her syringe.
“Get away, don’t touch me!” She cries out and shrinks back. “Please.” Her voice catches.
“Leave.” I dismiss the guard. He nods and turns on his heel, and I enter the room, letting the pneumo door hiss shut and click behind me.
“Taisha.” I sit beside her. “You’re hallucinating.”
She doesn’t acknowledge me, and I grab both her wrists, just above the cuffs. Speak into her ear, letting my lips nearly touch her skin. “You. Are. Safe. Breathe.”
She immediately stills, then blinks, her eyes coming into focus. Slowly, her taut body relaxes. I sit beside her, pull her onto my lap and wrap my arms around her, where she collapses into my shoulder. She still trembles. It’s not exactly erotic, but neither is it platonic. I’m mesmerized by the feel of her curly hair on my cheek when I bend my head down. She smells of blossoms. I would like to stay here for eons, but we are out of time. I clear my throat, and she opens her screwed-up eyes and blinks back the water, then looks up at me.
“Where am I? I’m—oh. On the ship.” She looks down at her cuffs, then her body. “We, ah, I. Yes.”
I slide her from my lap and hand her clothing to her, embarrassed at my show of tenderness.
“Your trauma is affecting your reason,” I observe. I know humans are emotional creatures, but it seems this one has become unstable. Still, that doesn’t stop the fierce spike of protectiveness I have for her. If anything, it increases it.
“We’ve been diverted on a mission before we go to Zandia.” I consider telling her what it is. After all, she is an escaped slave. She might have some information to offer to help us steal these slave records. “The human mate of one of the king’s top advisors is searching for her young. They were taken from her at birth. We have an opportunity to extract the data necessary to locate the young.”
Taisha’s eyes round.
“You requested asylum on Zandia. Are you willing to assist and serve our species?”
She swallows and I watch, entranced, at her delicate tendons and slim neck. Her cheekbones are high and slanted, and her eyes appear extra luminous now. Stars, she’s pretty. “Yes, Master,” she replies.
I stand up. “Then I need you to sit in the control room and answer questions about Ocretion slave-keepers. We may need that information for our mission.”
My voice is stern, but my body—veck, how I want her.
She nods. “Of course, Master.”
My cock thickens. I should tell her not to call me lord or master, but I like it too well.
I keep the cuffs on for now. She’s still our prisoner, and I don’t trust her. “This is a chance for you to prove your loyalty to us.” I help her stand. “It will all come into account when we finally get to Zandia.” I look at my arm. “Since our first meeting did not go well.”
She glances at my arm, which is fully healed by now. “I said I’m sorry about that.”
I have to force my lips from quirking into a grin, although I’m not sure why I’m smiling. I think I like her being sorry far too well. “So I heard. Time will prove it. And you can start the process now. Come.”
I slip my palm around the soft curve of her elbow. Her scent fills my nostrils, nearly throwing me off balance. Veck, I want to throw her down on the bench and veck her until she cries out in pleasure.
Not now.
Definitely not now.
I pull myself together and escort her down the hallway to the consoles, and point her to seat near mine, a bit off to the side.
“Do not touch anything,” I warn her. “Do not interfere with anything.” To be sure, I take one of her cuffs and lock it to the seat, which ensures she can’t leave and approach the control consoles.
She just nods. She’s wide-eyed, looking all around her, half amazed, half nervous.