Come on Sloane, I chided myself. You aren’t so weak that a few creature comforts would make you abandon your mission and friends. My friends. My mind went to Cassie and Thea. By now, they would definitely know something was wrong. If they weren’t personally searching for me, they would have at least alerted the Valox leadership. All while I was spending my time playing a game and banging an alien warlord.

  “This can’t be so distasteful,” Ronnan said, when we were standing in the water, and he’d turned to face me.

  I realized that I’d been frowning as I’d thought of my disloyal actions. I shook my head, although that didn’t rid me of the uneasy feeling. “I was just thinking that my friends are probably searching for me and worried I’m dead.”

  The Vandar made a humming sound that was half dismissive and half sympathetic. “You shouldn’t think about them now.”

  Easier said than done, although the heat of the water was making it easy for my troubles to slip away. Ronnan took both of my hands and pulled me down so that I was submerged to my chin. Then he tugged me close to him, wrapping my legs around his waist as he backed up until he was sitting on a built-in stone seat on the wall I hadn’t even noticed before.

  I was facing the Vandar, our faces at the same level and the water lapping between our bodies. The hard bar of his cock jutted up behind my bare ass, and I was very aware of it as I straddled him.

  “Once you settle your score with the other Vandar, you won’t need me for leverage anymore, right?”

  The Raas’ brows pressed together, but he grunted what I took as a yes. “But until then, you are mine.”

  My heart raced as his hands slid to grip my hips. Why did the stakes seem higher now than they had when I’d woken with him in bed with me? I’d been fully aware of what I’d been doing then, but somehow this seemed more like playing with fire. Maybe because there was a difference between a one-off fling and something I couldn’t get enough of, even though I knew it was dangerous.

  “What about our deal?” I croaked.

  “This was the deal if you lost. Since neither of us won, this is how you’re settling your wager.”

  “Not that deal.” I met his gaze as I placed my hands on his shoulders. “The one about neither of us falling for the other.”

  Another rough grunt as he pulled me forward so that my breasts brushed his chest. “I am fucking you, not falling for you.”

  I swallowed hard. “Good, because you know I’m not staying.”

  Ronnan threaded one hand in my hair, jerking my head back so he could nip at the exposed skin on my throat. With the other hand, he lifted my body and notched me over the thick head of his cock. “Too much talking.”

  I didn’t have time to respond before he was driving me down on him. I gasped as he impaled my body on his rigid length, my fingers biting into his flesh as he bit my neck. Pleasure and pain shot through me, mingling in a strange dance that sent desire barreling through me.

  I tried to tear myself from his grasp, but the Vandar held me to him. He worked his mouth up until he’d captured mine, opening my lips to him. Our tongues tangled, mine fighting for dominance even as he proved himself to be stronger than me and able to use my body for his pleasure.

  But it wasn’t only his pleasure. I moaned as unwanted pulses of euphoria surged through me, pleasure pounding a relentless drumbeat as Ronnan moved me up and down his thick cock. I was helpless to the sensations he provoked, as much as I wished to fight them and fight him. I should be resisting him, but I was at the mercy of his body’s demands and my own body’s hunger for him.

  My resistance to him—what it was—faded the longer I was in the water, until I could barely remember why I hadn’t wanted this. He filled me like no one ever had, and his dominant desires filled an emptiness I hadn’t known existed.

  My fingers scored his shoulders as I rocked into him, and his kisses became primal and all-consuming. When he ripped his lips from mine, he pinned me with a velvet stare. His rhythm had turned savage, as both of his hands clutched my hips as if they were a lifeline.

  “Why do you have to be so perfect?” He growled, as the water splashed violently around us and our bodies slapped together under the surface.

  I was teetering too close to the edge to speak, my breaths desperate as a torrent of sensations stormed through me.

  “You will always be mine,” the Vandar husked, as he arched his back and thrust up. “Won’t you, Sloane?”

  Heat rolled over me as I nodded.

  “Say it,” he commanded. “Say you belong to me.”

  “I belong to you, Raas,” I cried as my body spasmed around his cock, and he exploded inside me.

  They were only words, but at that moment, they were the most honest thing I’d ever said.

  Chapter

  Twenty-Seven

  Ronnan

  “I can’t walk around in this.” Sloane looked down at the fabric kilt I’d belted around her waist. A loose tunic was tucked into the kilt and the sleeves rolled up, so the material didn’t sag off her small frame. Her own black boots were on her feet, although Vandar battle boots would have looked better.

  “Why not?” I cut my eyes to the bathing chamber behind us where her flight suit lay on the floor in a puddle. Her only clothing had fallen victim to our vigorous splashing.

  “I look like a…a…”

  “A Vandar,” I finished for her, my voice humming with a strange pride that the human did look a bit like a Vandar warrior.

  Her brows peaked and then she frowned. “I look like I’m playing dress-up.”

  Now I cocked my head at her. “Dress-up?”

  She shook her head. “Something little girls play with clothes that are too big for them.”

  “You are hardly a little girl.” She might be smaller than any Vandar, but she’d proven she was no little girl by how well she’d taken me. The thought stirred heat in my core and made me almost forget my promise. “But you could always choose to wear nothing for your tour of the warbird. I would not mind.”

  She shot me a dark look. “No, thank you. I guess I’ll be a mini-Vandar for now.”

  I fought the urge to drag her to my bed, flip her kilt up, and take her from behind. The sight of the feminine human in the traditional Vandar battle garb was more arousing than I’d imagined it could be, and it didn’t help that so much of her long legs were bare. Memories of them hooked over my shoulders made my cock twitch to life, even though I should have been spent after fucking in the bathing pools.

  “Ready to play tour guide?” Sloane asked, snapping me back to reality.

  I tightened my own belt and hooked my battle axe on my waist as I strode to the door with her at my side. “Remember what I told you.”

  She released a breath, not bothering to hide her impatience. “No touching anything. No asking questions of your raiders. No distracting them from their duties.”

  I gave a curt nod to the warriors guarding the door as we passed through it. They appeared slightly startled, either at Sloane’s attire, or the fact that she was leaving with me, but they clicked their heels in salute and said nothing. A Vandar raider would never question their Raas, no matter how crazy they believed his actions to be—and there could be a strong argument that what I was doing was mad.

  Not only was the female the first non-Vandar to come aboard our warbird, she was the only creature to be allowed to see how our ship was constructed and how it worked. The design of our vessels—and our invisibility shielding technology—were closely guarded secrets. To share that with anyone who was not one of us was not done. So, why was I doing it?

  I thought back to our wager over the Zindar board. First, I hadn’t believed for a moment that she would win the bet. Then I’d been so preoccupied by getting what I wanted from the deal—her submitting to my will in the bathing pools—that I hadn’t let myself think about the promise I’d made.

  She’s no threat, I told myself as I led her deeper into the warbird, spiraling down open staircases and jumping from one platform to the other as she held my hand to keep from plummeting into the cavernous core of the vessel. Booming voices and clanging metal echoed around us as we delved into the bowels of the warbird, the temperature rising as we drew closer to the engines.

  Sloane was a member of the resistance fighters who’d fought with the Vandar, I reassured myself. She had no reason to be a threat to us, even if we were not exactly on friendly terms with the Vandar of this sector.

  Besides, she was still my captive. It didn’t matter what she learned of our ship. She would not be telling anyone. Not when she was still under my control. My pulse tripped as I thought of more delicious ways I’d like to exert my control over her.

  Then I thought of my promises to her friends and my ardor cooled. I’d vowed to release her if they brought me a Vandar horde, but would I? Could I turn her over so easily after everything? The idea of her leaving my quarters and my bed and never returning made a knot harden in my gut.

  A blast of steam snapped me from my mental wanderings.

  Sloane held a hand up to her nose as we entered the engineering bay. “What is this place?”

  “You wanted to see everything.” I waved at the chrome machines that whirred and hummed around a central clear cylinder that swirled with vividly colored light. “This is how our horde flies so swiftly and slips through space like wraiths.”

  She blinked rapidly, clearly impressed. “How does it work?”

  I found myself filled with an unusual burst of pride for my vessel. I enjoyed showing her what I commanded, and I was proud of my raiders’ achievements. I was also suddenly aware of the engineering crew emerging from behind their consoles and staring at us. I took Sloane by the elbow and pulled her outside again. “You do not need to know that any more than you need to know how your own ships are built.”

  “I don’t know. If I’d paid more attention to the mechanics of my ship, I might not have been stranded in space for you to find me.”

  I ignored this, grateful that she hadn’t learned more about mechanics. I led her to a lift that was little more than a platform being raised by a creaky pulley system, stepping on and pulling her with me. There was barely enough room for me, so I had to wrap one arm and my tail around her to keep her steady as I held the center beam while we were lifted into the air.

  She buried her face in my chest as the floor dropped away. “This is the most terrifying elevator I’ve ever seen.”

  “It is faster.” I didn’t tell her that I doubted her ability to keep up as we wound our way up the entire span of the ship considering her shorter legs.

  When we’d almost drawn even with a platform, I leapt from the lift, bringing her with me as the pulley continued to move ever higher.

  “Where are we now?” Sloane gave herself a brief shake as I released my tight grip on her and unwound my tail from her legs.

  I proceeded down a suspended walkway that swayed beneath our feet and then through a wide, open archway. Another blast of steam hit me, but this time it carried savory scents with it.

  “The kitchens,” Sloane said before I could tell her.

  The space was probably the most bustling one on the ship with cooks moving between open flames and stirring enormous pots. Trays of bread sat cooling on open racks, filling the air with the yeasty aroma and making my stomach rumble.

  When we entered, the frenetic movement seemed to freeze. Every cook stared at us, their startled gazes shifting from me to Sloane. I plucked a couple of rolls from a rack, nodded at the cooks, and backed us from the room.

  Sloane took the warm bread I proffered. “I’m getting the sense that you don’t have many visitors or give many tours.”

  I grunted as I tore off a bite of bread with my teeth, the pillowy texture almost sensual as I swallowed. “You are the first.”

  We chewed in silence as I led her back down the walkway. “The lift or a climb?” I asked, gesturing first to the pulley system moving toward the top of the warbird and then to a series of winding metal staircases.

  She popped the last bit of bread in her mouth. “Definitely the stairs.”

  “Hold the railings,” I told her as I started up in front of her. Some of the stairs twisted over the open chasm in the middle of the ship, and there was nothing to catch a fall but more steel bars below.

  I tempered my pace, making sure she was behind me with each careful step instead of taking them several steps at a time or with a single leap as I usually did. At the top, I paused and held out my hand. She took it and allowed me to lead her through arched doors that glided open and onto the command deck.

  I’d expected to show her the impressive view of space that my perch afforded, but instead of a vast array of twinkling stars, the view screen was taken up by the faces of the Valox females we’d encountered before.

  “Sloane?” One of the females cried, spotting her before she’d had a chance to react to the sight of them. “You are alive!”

  Sloane dropped my hand and rushed forward, ignoring the Vandar raiders at their posts, and my majak and battle chief gaping at both of us. “Cassie? Thea? How is this possible?”

  The human female with blue hair smiled widely, her eyes glistening. “We’re here to take you back. We did what Raas Ronnan asked us to do to secure your release.”

  Sloane stiffened. I couldn’t see her face, but I could feel her confusion and then her anger as she whirled on me.

  Chapter

  Twenty-Eight

  Sloane

  I spun to face Ronnan, my fingers tingling with fury as I curled them into fists. “You made contact with my friends and didn’t tell me?”

  Every raider on the bridge pivoted to watch what was unfolding, and I could even feel Cassie’s and Thea’s gazes on us from the screen. Aside from the static and beeping of the computers and monitors, the room went quiet.

  The Raas crossed his arms over his broad chest and his expression hardened. Whatever tenderness I’d glimpsed from him before was gone, replaced by the fierce warlord I’d first encountered. “You are a captive of the Vandar. You make no demands here.”

  I should have stopped while I was ahead, but I was too irate to listen to my instincts. “You still consider me a prisoner? After everything?”

  The raider I knew as his first officer stepped closer to Ronnan, tapping his heels together. “Should we continue this discussion in your strategy room, Raas?”

  Ronnan’s pupils flared as he stared me down. He did not want to give even a micron, but he finally glanced at the warrior and grunted. Without a word, he turned on his heel so fast his kilt smacked his thighs and headed toward a smaller door still within the command deck. “Bring her.”

  I didn’t need to be escorted, so when the Vandar who’d first taken me to his torture chamber advanced on me, I sidestepped his grasp. “I can walk by myself, thank you very much.”

  The two Vandar exchanged glances as they followed their Raas and me. The door slid open silently and we all processed inside, with me shooting the other guys dirty looks behind Ronnan’s back. It might not be their fault, but I was sure they’d known about the deal he’d made with Cassie and Thea, so for me, they were all complicit.

  Once the door shut behind us, the Raas swiveled around to face me, his face still stony.

  “You lied to me,” I said before he could open his mouth.

  “I did not lie.”

  Okay, technically he hadn’t lied to me, since I’d never thought to ask him if he’d made contact with my best friends and coerced them to bring a Vandar horde to him in exchange for my freedom. How would that have ever occurred to me?

  I huffed out a breath. “You purposefully omitted information you knew I’d want to know.”

  He tilted his head slowly at me. “You seem to think you aren’t a captive of the Kyrie Vandar anymore. I told you exactly why I’d taken you prisoner and what I wanted from you—leverage so we could entice the Vandar into negotiations.”

  I opened my mouth then closed it again. He was right. He’d been upfront about wanting to use me—first to get information on the location of the Vandar, which I didn’t have, and then as a pawn to lure the Vandar to them. Why had I forgotten that?

  Because you thought things had changed, a small voice whispered in the back of my brain. You thought he wouldn’t use you because you’d become something more to him.

  Which I clearly hadn’t.

  “I’m still nothing but a pawn to you?”

  Ronnan’s gaze softened for a heartbeat then his expression shuttered again. The Raas I thought I’d known was back to being the hard, cold warlord who’d first ordered me to his bed.

  “Have you been mistreated?” He clasped his hands behind his back and walked toward the glass wall. “I think we’ve established that you haven’t been lied to.”

  I pressed my lips together, refusing to answer. If he could be cold and heartless, so could I, especially since my throat was tight, and I was afraid if I tried to speak, I might cry.

  When he reached the glass, he craned his neck to glance at me. I turned my head and refused to meet his gaze. I would not let him see the tears that were threatening to spill from my eyes, even as they stung the backs of my lids.

  “You should be glad you were not turned over to my care,” the other raider growled. “You would not have been so comfortable in my oblek. Or so fully clothed.”

  The first officer made a disapproving noise in the back of his throat. “The fact remains that the Valox have returned, and they claim to have told the Vandar—and that the Vandar have agreed to a rendezvous.”

  “They fulfilled their end of the deal then?” Ronnan asked, his voice not as victorious as it should have been.

  “We haven’t seen the Vandar yet,” the other officer said, crossing his arms and shifting his weight from one leg to the other. “They could be lying.”

 

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