Chapter Four
Lucy had forgotten just how luxurious her friend Caroline’s private bathroom was. She’d only been in here once before and she’d been impressed by the grandeur. As the alien warrior who’d held her in his arms the whole way back to the house finally set her down on her feet, she took a moment to appreciate the opulence of her surroundings. As water was such an expensive commodity, most people only had a basic shower in their homes, but the Chattertons were an extremely wealthy family and could afford a deep, decadent tub to bathe in.
“You may take a bath,” the alien warrior told her as he began to fill the porcelain tub with water.
The prospect of soaking her aching muscles was enough to make Lucy giddy. She was more excited than a person should be about the simple act of bathing, but she couldn’t help herself. Not only was her bottom sore from the spanking she’d endured, but she was also bruised from clambering over the fence at the park and falling to the ground. A bath was just what she needed. She stood back and watched as the alien added a generous splash of oil to the water. Its beautiful fragrance immediately enlivened her senses. She was impressed. How could he know that this would be soothing for her? Human males were useless when it came to this sort of thing.
He leaned down and swirled his hand in the water, testing the temperature. Clearly satisfied, he shut off the faucets.
“The bath is ready. Remove your clothes,” he instructed.
Lucy’s cheeks reddened. At some point back at that secret room in the post office, she’d mislaid her panties. She had a feeling they’d fallen from around her ankles when the alien scooped her up into his arms, although she hadn’t noticed anything amiss at the time. Knowing that she was completely naked beneath her cotton slip made her blush. She understood that she would have to reveal her body to him sooner or later but, as she had nothing on beneath her shift, there would be no gradual unveiling. Once she took off this garment, she would be utterly exposed to him and the thought of that scared her. If she had her way, she would take things more slowly, especially since she knew nothing about this intimidating warrior.
“Why do you hesitate?” He sounded curious rather than angry.
“Well,” Lucy replied, “I know it’s silly, but this is the second time today you’ve asked me to take off my clothes.”
“Uh-huh?”
“And you haven’t even told me your name,” Lucy said, a little pout forming on her lips.
Unexpectedly, the alien threw back his head and laughed. Lucy was taken aback to see his stern serious façade crumbling when she really couldn’t see what he found so amusing.
“I must apologize,” he said as he recovered himself. “My manners have been lacking. I am Lieutenant Taryn Duff of the Taar-Breckian Interplanetary Forces.”
“Taryn.” Lucy tried out the name and decided that she liked it.
“Does knowing my name make you feel better?”
Lucy nodded. Bizarrely, she did feel slightly more comfortable now. It had been strange thinking of him simply as the alien warrior. Now that she knew his name, it felt as though she had taken the first small step on a path to where some level of intimacy with him might be possible. Allowing this man to take care of her would not be the worst thing, surely? Even if his demands went beyond what she’d thought being a man’s pet would entail, he seemed the honorable type. After all, he had not taken advantage of her obvious arousal when he spanked her. Perhaps she was just trying to cast him in a better light to justify her own undeniable attraction to him.
Before she could lose her nerve, Lucy pulled the straps of her slip down over her shoulders and let it slide to the floor. Taryn walked slowly around her, pausing to stroke the tender flesh of her bottom. Her skin prickled, but she wasn’t afraid. She had no idea why, but she trusted that Taryn was not about to force himself on her.
“Bathing will ease your discomfort,” he said as he picked her up gently and deposited her in the water. She sank back until she was submerged up to her neck. “The oil has a calming effect. It will help when I claim your body for the first time.”
Lucy’s eyes widened at that statement. Although she understood that it was an inevitable part of the as-yet-unresolved relationship between them, she hadn’t realized that he would want to progress things so soon. Even in New Cambridge, there was something of a courtship ritual to follow, albeit a twisted one. As horrifying as the medical inspection of the bride-to-be was, there was still some element of ceremony about it. There were formalities to be undertaken, oaths to declare, before a couple joined their bodies intimately.
Things were moving incredibly quickly with Taryn. Still, she just couldn’t bring herself to get worked up over it. As she lay in the water, she was far too relaxed to worry about Taryn’s plans for her. She had no words to describe how blissful the warm, scented water felt as it lapped over her skin. Inhaling deeply, Lucy closed her eyes.
“You will be safe on your own?” Taryn checked. “You will not fall asleep in the water?”
“No, I won’t fall asleep in the water,” Lucy assured him as she opened one eye to look up at him. “I promise.”
“Very well, then, I will leave you. When you are finished, you will wait for me in the bedroom. I expect to find you kneeling by the bed.”
Enjoying the warmth of the water caressing her skin, Lucy could not summon the energy to protest. Even if she could, she wasn’t sure she really wanted to, so she simply nodded her head in agreement as he turned and left the room. She wanted to make the most out of this tranquility because something told her it was not going to last.
She lay in the calming water until it gradually began to grow cold. Then, with reluctance, she hauled herself up out of the tub and reached for a towel. Given half a chance, she would have soaked in the bath all night. She hadn’t realized it until now, but it was weeks since she’d last felt at peace. The knowledge that the High Council was looking for members of the Hyde Ladies’ Circle, the women’s group she’d belonged to, had dominated her thoughts. Having seen how close her friend Caroline Chatterton had come to disaster, Lucy was afraid of what might happen if she was arrested. There was no way she would be able to stand up for herself against the notoriously ruthless agents of the state as Caroline had done. Lucy knew that she would crack under the pressure of interrogation, that she would die if she was made to stand trial. Hopefully now that Taryn had taken her into his protection, that would never happen.
She stood in front of the full-length mirror in Caroline’s bedroom as she dried herself off and wondered whether her body would be pleasing to Taryn. She thought that she’d seen approval in his eyes as he studied her before, but she couldn’t be sure. Personally, she had never been entirely happy with the way she looked. Her shape was fuller than her friend Victoria’s perfect figure and she was a good deal shorter as well. Her skin was pale in comparison with her friend Elizabeth’s healthy glow. Lucy sometimes worried that she looked a little sickly because of her natural pallor. Her eyes were a nice color, though, and her hair was long and golden. She’d always been led to believe that those were desirable attributes.
As she did her best to dry her hair with the now damp towel, Lucy tried to work out what to expect when Taryn claimed her body. She did, of course, have a basic understanding of the mechanics of the act. It was more the manner he would adopt as he took her for the first time that made her uncertain. In the books she’d read, there were so many different ways a man might behave and not knowing exactly what would happen scared her. If he was rough with her when he took her virginity, she was not sure that she would ever feel at ease with him again. She hoped that he would be gentle. He had already shown some tenderness so, perhaps, it would be alright.
Deciding that her hair was as dry as it was going to get, Lucy returned the towel to the bathroom, folding it neatly and draping it over the side of the bath. Then she went to kneel where Taryn had instructed her to wait. As she got into position, she let out a yawn that seemed to take hold of her entire body. It had been an eventful day and she was exhausted. Sure that she would hear if Taryn returned and be able to move back into position in time, she decided that it would be fine to rest, just for a minute. Laying her head on the bed, she closed her eyes. Now she just had to make sure she didn’t fall asleep.
* * *
As he walked into the basement where he and his men had their control room, Taryn stripped off his shirt and threw it onto a chair. The wound on his arm had stopped bleeding some time ago, but it still needed to be cleaned. The bullet in the gun Lucy used had to be at least three centuries old and he had no idea what germs it might carry. Although his race was generally immune to the sorts of bacteria that made humans ill, he didn’t want to take any chances. Fetching the medical kit, he took a seat next to his colleagues, Jaxon and Bryn as they monitored what was happening in the dark city streets on their bank of security screens.
“I heard she shot you,” Bryn said with an infuriatingly amused grin as he turned toward Taryn.
“It’s nothing,” Taryn growled as Jaxon, who’d obviously told the tale of what had happened, seemed to shrink in his seat. “A mere scratch. I frightened her, and the gun went off, that’s all.”
He wasn’t willing to admit the possibility that she’d intended to hurt him and had missed her target. It seemed unlikely that it had been anything more than an accident. Nothing he had learned about her these past few months suggested she possessed a capacity for violence.
“Where did she get such an ancient weapon in the first place?” Bryn asked.
“Black market, I suppose. You know the commander’s wife had dealings with illegal traders, so she might have got it from her,” Taryn said as he injected some antiseptic serum into the wound on his upper arm. It stung, and he gritted his teeth. “She’s lucky the damned thing didn’t blow up in her face.”
“Perhaps she will not be as easy to control as you imagined,” Jaxon commented. “It seems we may have underestimated these human women. They are less docile than they first appear.”
Taryn scowled at the young man who had clearly forgotten his place. It was not for a subordinate to speak up on such matters. He, and the other men who’d been tasked with taking the human females as their mates, knew quite well that they were not completely passive, that they might present some challenges. Jaxon obviously realized his error in remarking on something that was none of his business as he quickly apologized and scurried from the room.
“That one is too impertinent,” Taryn snarled as though it was somehow Bryn’s fault.
“Relax, my friend,” Bryn said in a placatory tone. “He was simply expressing an opinion.”
“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. The female will soon yield to my command.”
Taryn had not yet encountered a woman he could not master. This little human would not be the exception.
“I imagine she will,” Bryn said. “But Jaxon may have a point. These women are not so easy to control. You’ve seen how Rossingham’s bride works her magic on him to get her way and Allik is already finding his new mate difficult to control.”
“Oh?” Taryn could not imagine any woman daring to defy his friend. Even other warriors quaked in Allik’s presence, so foreboding was the man since he’d returned from captivity in an enemy camp.
“She is running amok on the transport ship. Within minutes of docking, he had to spank her in front of half of the crew. Even after that, she went berserk and smashed up a medical lab. Poor Kyree was knocked to the ground. Allik has no idea what to do with her.”
“What he needs to do is take a firm hand,” Taryn said disapprovingly. He couldn’t understand why Allik was allowing such behavior. It seemed so unlike the man he knew to allow some little female to run rings around him.
“And will you do the same?”
“I will,” Taryn replied resolutely. “Lucy will learn her place and she will learn it quickly. Allik can pussyfoot around his mate as much as he likes. Mine will understand who is master from the start.”
It was his belief that if Lucy was to adjust well to her new life on Taar-Breck, he would have to set strict rules for her and enforce them rigidly. From what he could tell, these human females needed to be treated with firm but loving discipline. Ultimately, she would be happier for it.
“Well,” Bryn said, rising to his feet and crossing the room toward him, “you’re off to a good start, considering she tried to put a bullet between your eyes.”
Taryn bristled as his oldest friend laughed and then smacked him on the shoulder before leaving the room. He knew at that moment that he could not allow others to doubt his ability to take his mate in hand. He was going to show Lucy who was in charge in their relationship and demonstrate to everyone around them that she was completely obedient to him. She needed to learn to do whatever he commanded without question or complaint. Soon, he would embark on a series of diplomatic missions with her by his side and he could not allow her to become a point of weakness that others might try to exploit. Although he had already felt some affection for the young woman, he would have to suppress his urge to coddle her. There might come a time when both their lives depended on it.
Snapping the lid shut, he placed the box containing the medical kit down on his chair as he got to his feet. He had given Lucy plenty of time to prepare herself and now he would claim her, an act that would begin the process of bonding her to him. As he climbed the stairs, he pictured her on her knees waiting for him, her beautiful blonde hair tumbling over her shoulders. His cock ached with the need to take her.
As he walked through the bedroom door, he found a different picture from the one he was expecting to see. Yes, she was in the correct position, on her knees as instructed, but her head was resting on the bed. Her hair fell across her face in a damp mess of tangles. Taryn took a step closer and her gentle snoring confirmed to him that she was asleep. He scrubbed a hand over his face. There was such an air of vulnerability about her that he could not bear to wake her just to take what he wanted from her.
Sighing heavily, he did the only thing that felt right in that moment. With great care so he wouldn’t wake her, he picked Lucy up and put her on the bed. Pulling a warm blanket over her, he smiled to himself as she rolled onto her side, letting out a sigh of contentment. Switching off the light, he turned and left the room. It seemed his plan to claim her would have to wait until morning.