Chapter Six

 

Mina lay on a rickety cot in a tiny closet of a room, every muscle aching from her first planet rotation of training. She missed Erick’s presence. He’d left her in the training room, and then she found he’d left the training pod altogether—without saying goodbye.

She shouldn’t be so offended. This should be what she wanted. She’d pushed him away, refusing to let him make any claim on her other than their sexual encounters.

And yet she craved his presence at nearly every turn. As much as she enjoyed her training—loved absorbing every bit of knowledge the warriors gave her—she somehow felt Erick should be there to witness it.

After all, he’d been the one to help establish her there. He’d brought her and argued with her father. She had to believe his opinion meant a great deal to her father, or he wouldn’t have given in.

But then, that’s what made Erick such a fine negotiator for Prince Zander. He had the silver-tongued power of persuasion. What would they be like, as a couple? What could she bring to complement his business prowess?

The image of her father’s and Zander’s docile mates floated before her mind, and she shoved it away. If that was being mated, she had no interest. Looking pretty and speaking demurely wasn’t her thing. Not after being forced into a subservient role for so long.

No, she wanted to be out changing the galaxy. She wanted to be at Erick’s side on his next mission. Helping him negotiate or strategize. What skills or traits would she need to join his efforts?

She couldn’t think of any she possessed.

Too bad.

What had he been working on? A shipment of galactacarriers? Something had gone wrong. She remembered his tension when speaking of it. What caused her master stress?

Yes, she liked to think of him as her master. Not in the literal sense. But in the way he held her down and took her roughly. Every time. It was like he couldn’t stop it—his passion for her took over and he couldn’t help but abuse her body until his delicious needs were met.

She brought her fingers between her legs and stroked, not surprised to find her folds plump and wet.

A tap sounded on the door, and she jerked upright, straightening her clothes. “Yes?”

“It’s Lily. I have some equipment for you.”

She pressed her hand to the door and it slid open. She blinked against the lights in corridor.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Were you sleeping?”

She flushed. “Ah, not yet. I’d just laid down.”

“Master Erick left these for you.” She handed her several items, including what seemed to be an animal hide belt.

“What are they? Oh!” A dagger slid out of a hand-stitched sheath. The hilt glittered with Zandian crystal; the blade appeared razor sharp. “Master Erick left this? For me?”

Lily’s lips twisted in a knowing smile. “He seemed reluctant to leave you here, but I don’t think he could justify staying. His job doesn’t require much time here. But he left this so you can communicate with him.” Lily held out a wrist cuff. She’d seen them on many Zandian males. They must serve as communication devices.

“How does it work?”

“He said he programmed it to call him if you press this button.” Lily pointed at a small blue button on the inside of the cuff.

She smiled deliriously. “Wonderful. Thank you.”

Lily winked. “Don’t thank me. Thank him. I’m sure that’s what he’s hoping for.” And with that, she withdrew and walked away, her hips swaying with a confident swing.

Mina grinned. She liked Lily. She looked so similar to Lamira and Leora but had a fire all her own. One Mina hoped to match. She closed the door and turned on the light.

Should she press the button?

Oh, who was she kidding? As if she could wait even another minute to call him. She sank onto the bed and pressed the blue disk on the cuff.

A light beeped several times before a hologram sprang open. She caught her breath as Erick’s image leaped into her tiny chamber. He lay in bed, head and back propped on a fleet of expensive pillows. A broad grin lit his face.

It sent tingles of awareness racing down her inner thighs, curling her toes.

“Erick,” she breathed.

“I was beginning to think you wouldn’t call.”

“Lily just brought me your gifts now. Thank you.”

“Where are you?”

“In my room.” She flashed the cuff around to show him the tiny closet. “They gave me my own space, on my father’s orders.”

“Good,” he growled. “Is the door locked?”

She smiled. “You sound just like him. Yes, it’s locked.”

“Did you like the dagger?”

“I love it. It’s beautiful. Is it yours?”

“It was mine. Now it’s yours. I want you armed at all times, all right, pet?”

“You’re awfully protective for someone who thinks I’d make a good warrior.”

“Just because I know you’d be good at something doesn’t mean I want you at risk. If I hadn’t known how important it was to you to get out and be of use, I never would’ve brought you there.”

Her brows drew together. “How did you know how important it was to me?”

“Mina…” He took a breath, as if gearing up to tell her something he’d rehearsed. “I’m paying attention. I’m trying to show you that you’re more to me than a good veck, but I always end up losing control around you.”

Warmth curled around her ears, in her chest. “So I’ve noticed.” Her voice turned flirty.

“I wanted to stay on Zandian Freedom, just to be near you, but I couldn’t think of any good excuse to justify my presence. And then I thought about leaving you with my cuff, and it seemed like the perfect solution. A way for me to talk to you that doesn’t end in me shoving you up against a hard surface and beating my cock into you until you scream.”

Her pussy clenched at his crude words and the memories they invoked. She leaned back on the bed. “Oh yeah?” Knowing he wanted her gave her confidence a huge boost. She’d always known she was beautiful, she’d even known how to work her body and her beauty as a tool, leverage against Dorhock or his guests to receive better treatment than the other pets. But Erick’s passion meant something altogether different. “You want to know what I was doing before Lily brought your gifts to me?”

His eyes flew wide, as if he knew what she would tell him, and it caused him alarm. “What?” His voice was hoarse.

She lowered her lids. “Lying here, on my back with my hand between my legs. Thinking of you.”

He growled a curse. “No. That pussy belongs to me. No one gets to touch it but me.”

“Too bad you’re not here.”

He sat up straight from the pillows, sweat glistening around his horns. “Listen to me,” he grated. “Don’t you ever vecking touch yourself unless I give you permission. I get to see every orgasm. If I’m not there to squeeze it out of you myself, then I’ll be directing you by hologram. Understand?”

A shiver of excitement went through her, matched by a throb between her legs. She nodded.

He leaned back against the pillows again and squeezed his cock beneath his sleep pants. “Take off your clothes, pet.”

She glanced toward the door, even though she knew it was locked. Somehow, knowing guards might be walking by outside her door made the idea even naughtier.

“Now, Mina.”

Dearest Zandian star, how she loved it when he grew dominant.

She peeled off all her clothing except the cuff, which hung too loose on her arm.

“Prop the cuff away from you so I can see your whole body,” he ordered, and she complied, arranging the cuff on a small wall shelf above the bed.

“Perfect,” Erick groaned, his horns stiff. “What were you thinking about, pet?”

She licked her lips. “About how rough you get.”

He winced. “I’m sorry. Did I hurt you earlier?”

She made a show of dragging her hand down her belly and curling her fingers between her legs. “You always hurt me. And I always like it,” she purred.

He growled. “Spread your legs. Show me what those fingers are doing.”

She obeyed.

“Are they as good as my fingers, pet?”

She shook her head, lust swimming through her veins like a powerful drug. “Remember that planet rotation when you showed up at Prium’s?”

Erick sat forward again. “Yes?”

“Did you see what was happening in the cell across from mine?”

Confusion flitted across his features. “No. I only had eyes for you, beautiful.”

“There was a human slave being whipped by two males.”

His brows slammed down. “Oh no. Do not tell me you want two males at once, pet. I won’t share. I can’t.”

She smiled at his vehemence. “No, I don’t want two. But I wanted to be mastered like that. By a male worthy of my surrender. And then you showed up.”

Erick’s shoulder moved in the hologram, his hand out of sight. She pictured him fisting his cock, pulling it out of his sleep pants. “Are you saying you want me to whip you again, pet?”

Her eyes took a temporary detour, rolling back in her head with pleasure. She pulled up on her fingers and squeezed her thighs together around them. “Yes,” she panted, thrusting her hips against her hand.

Erick groaned, eyes glued to her pussy, his expression pained. She heard the sound of him beating his cock with his fist.

“And then you missed it—back at the palatial pod.”

“What happened, pet?” His breath rasped in and out like he was running.

“Zander assigned Eslyn to be punished and conditioned by three warriors.”

“Again—I’m not sharing.”

She threw her head back on her pillow, fingers undulating between her legs. The heel of her hand pushed against her clit as her middle finger breached her entrance. “Not the sharing part,” she gasped.

“The punishment and reconditioning.” He said it as a statement, not a question. “Little female, I’m going to subject you to the strictest reconditioning possible.”

“Yes, yes.” She arched up, pussy clenching as she reached orgasm. It was a pitifully small one compared to those Erick wrenched from her, but a relief, nonetheless.

“Kneel up,” Erick commanded when she finished. His fist continued to glide up and down his huge cock. “Get on your knees with your face in the pillow, the way I like, beautiful. I need to see that ass I’m going to punish.”

It was her turn to groan. She scrambled to obey him, her fantasy master who seemed to know exactly what she liked.

“Reach back and stroke that pussy for me and imagine I’m painting that ass red with my palm.”

She whimpered as she obeyed. Her pussy dripped with moisture—more than she’d ever felt there.

“And then I’d have to pry those pretty cheeks apart and veck your tight little ass, wouldn’t I?”

“Yes, Master.”

Erick made a choked sound, and she lifted her head, twisting around to look at his hologram. Based on his expression, he was coming.

Warm satisfaction swirled in her chest, made her smile.

“I’m going to need you to record your fantasies, pet,” he said, when he’d caught his breath. “Pick up the cuff.”

She turned and retrieved the cuff, watching as he cleaned himself with a cloth and tucked his cock away.

“If you press the blue button and I don’t answer, you can leave me a hologram to watch later. I want you to record every fantasy, everything you think you want your master to do to you. Even the things that scare you. Understand?”

“Yes, Master.”

“Good pet.” He blinked at her, and the lust began to clear from his face. “Veck,” he muttered and dropped his forehead to his hand.

“What?”

“I was trying to prove to you I’m more than the asshole who wants to shove his cock into your every orifice. But, somehow, I just turned this into the same thing.”

She smiled. “Maybe that’s all I need from you, warrior.”

His lips turned down. “That, my sweet, is my biggest fear.”

 

~.~

 

Erick raked a hand across his face. How had he managed to veck things up with Mina yet again?

Reaching for something—anything—to get them back on stable ground, away from sex talk, he blurted, “I have a big problem I can’t figure my way out of, pet.”

Stupid, stupid, stupid. Now he would appear weak to his female.

She went still. “What is it?”

“Remember those galactacarriers Rok asked for?”

“Yes.”

“I got swindled on the deal. The broker says they were stolen from the manufacturer, but no one has offered to make good on my 750,000 stein investment.”

She whistled. “So that’s what galactacarriers go for these days?”

“That’s half the cost. I would’ve paid the remainder when I picked them up. And like Rok said, we needed them yesterday.”

“So, is the manufacturer making more?”

“No. The broker says he doesn’t have the capital to invest. Even if he did, it would take another nine lunar cycles, and we don’t have that kind of time. I’ve put the word out to every broker in the galaxy, but no one can get me any others—used or new.”

She twisted a lock of hair around her finger, her beautiful face thoughtful. “Do we know who stole them?”

He loved that she said we. Maybe sharing hadn’t been a total fail. She’d aligned herself with him, wanted to be a part of solving it.

“Yes—perhaps. I got a name out of the broker. I have no proof to take to the United Galaxies court, of course. Based on my research, he’s a reclusive, rich collector. He operates outside the law and is considered dangerous. He took the galactacarriers as payment for a debt, not because he needed them.”

“So will he sell them to you?”

“I haven’t had any luck getting an audience with him. Not to mention the fact that Zander doesn’t have a spare 750,000 to make up for what I lost.”

“First of all, you didn’t lose it. Stop blaming yourself. Second, we’ll get them back.”

He blinked at her, unable to repress a grin. “That’s my thought, too. I haven’t told anyone yet because I want to fix it on my own.”

“No. Throw away the on my own part. And you have told someone. Me.” Her infectious smile lifted a weight from his chest. “What’s the collector’s name?”

“Neo Lin.”

Mina stiffened. “I know him.” The openness in her face shuttered, eyes deadened.

“You do?” Foreboding twisted through his gut. “How?” But he didn’t need to ask how. If she knew Neo Lin, it was from her days as a sex slave. The days she wanted to leave behind.

“I may be able to get you an audience with him.”

A chill sluiced through his veins. Whatever she was contemplating, it would involve returning to a world she hated, a role she hated.

“Never mind,” he said. “I don’t want you involved in this.”

Anger flashed over her face. “What—are you my father, now, too?”

“No, but you want to be Tara. You left Mina behind. You’ve told me that, and I have yet to respect it. I’m respecting it, now. I would appreciate any information you can give me about Neo, but I won’t have you involved.”

She shrugged. “We’ll see.” The hologram flicked off.

Growling, he attempted to reconnect, but she didn’t answer.

Veck it all. What had he done?