DarkRevenge (6 page)

Finally, his mouth plundered hers and she could barely
breathe. His tongue swept in, dominating her, taking her to new heights. One of
his hands wrapped around her hair and angled her head. Deeper. He dove deeper.

Then, his cock slid inside her and she couldn’t breathe at
all. She moaned in his mouth and he echoed her in response. He stopped buried
inside her, the tip of his penis on a spot that sent shockwaves rocking through
her. She tensed, her body out of control, her hips frantically thrusting
upward.

His hand clenched in her hair and pinpricks of pain dotted
her scalp. His other hand roughly grabbed her hip. He jammed his cock inside
her harder, faster. His tongue demanded a response and got it.

He released her mouth to meet her gaze. “Open your eyes and
keep them open,” he demanded in a hoarse voice.

She did as he told her. The need, the tension in his face
was an aphrodisiac. Her body liquefied to molten desire. She lost her mind and
words began to tumble from her mouth. “Oh God, do it. Tory, fuck me. Fuck me.
Harder.”

He obliged her, his hips bruising as they slapped into hers.
The collision was raw and violent. He jerked her head by the hair to stare deep
into her eyes. “You want me. Say it.”

“I want you,” she sobbed. Her whole body shattered and she
milked him, sucked him in, wanting him deeper inside her until there was no
“him” and “her”. Only this.

He tossed his head back and his cock exploded inside her
pussy. She drowned in the sensation, which sent her into an extended orgasm
that left her weak and throbbing. It shook her, shattered her into a million
pieces, leaving her unsure she’d be able to reassemble herself again.

He belonged to her.

Where did that thought come from? It had to be some residual
effect from mind-blowing pleasure. But with his cock buried deep inside her,
his breath hot in her ear and his arms trembling, she couldn’t help the feeling
that he was hers, that as much as she had been bound to him, he was tied to
her.

That was ridiculous, wasn’t it?

She expected him to collapse on top of her, dismount her
like she was an animal. She wasn’t prepared for the gentle kiss, the drugging
touches and the sweet murmurs. He wasn’t abusing her. He didn’t “take” anything
she hadn’t given him. And while she didn’t like what that said about her, she
realized she’d been wrong about him.

“Please, Tory.” She didn’t even know what she was asking him
for.

“You should have come with me, Alexandra.” He raised his
head and stared at her.

“You were under Tribunal arrest,” she protested. “What you
asked was too much.”

His eyes flickered, hardened, something bitter and ugly back
in his face. “I suppose it was. I should have known you would always choose
Teran One over anything real.”

“Teran One is my home.”

“And I was a disgraced Commander with a nothing bloodline.”
His cock, still buried inside her, twitched. “But now, you have no one but me.”
He lengthened, hardened. “You see, they sold you out. I claimed you. They
rejected you.”

“No!” She knew he was right. But it made everything she’d
ever believed pointless, worthless.

“Yes!” He gripped her hair tighter until she cried out.
Stars, it hurt, but not as much as the possibility that she could have had
something special, something real, with this man and had thrown it away for
nothing. For a king who had sold her out. For a planet that wanted her dead.
For a brother who betrayed her.

“Betrayed!” She shouted the safeword at him.

The tears she’d cried for the last twenty-four hours dried
up and she was numb. It didn’t matter what he did to her. It didn’t matter.
Nothing did.

Immediately, he slid his cock out of her and released her
hair. But he didn’t leave her. Gently, he stroked her hair, his body still
naked on hers. “Shhh, little Alexandra. You will find my revenge more
pleasurable than your duty.”

He slipped away from her and pulled on his clothes. “Until
you are willing to give yourself to me completely, I will keep you restrained.”

What the hell did he mean? She had given herself to him.
Didn’t he realize that? He gazed down at her, his finger slid along her
tear-stained cheek. “I don’t just want your body, Commander Zeerah. I want your
loyalty. I want your ‘duty’ to be only to me.”

“Then you’ll have to leave me tied up forever,” she said
bitterly. She would never shirk her duty to her planet for sex. Never.

He shrugged. “That’s no hardship for me.”

She opened her mouth to berate him, but he was gone before
she had a chance. He left her thoughts of the past swirling through her brain.

Chapter Four

“Pacing will not make the information come faster,” Jezar
informed Tory. As if he didn’t know that. Years of careful cultivation, of
money spread in the right places, wouldn’t be rushed because he was in a hurry.
His sources on Teran One were questionable and their verifying information took
time. Alex probably thought he’d walked away from Teran One, hurt and vengeful.
The truth was more complicated.

Part of his vengeance meant cheating Teran One merchants,
especially those with government contracts. That required sources and agents on
the planet. Yes, he’d stayed in touch these past few years. He’d planned his
revenge on Alexandra for a long time.

Now, he needed real-time news. His sources were transitory
and on the move. Chaos had taken over on Teran One.

His new mate had no idea of what events had transpired while
she had attempted to carry that cargo.

Essentially, if his informants weren’t a bunch of liars, a
civil war was brewing and the two sides were not the ones Alex thought they
were. On one side, the Royal Family. On the other side, the hungry First
Families all vying to take over. So far, the ruling family had maintained
control. But not King Darius. He was finished. Pontoon ran the government now.
Darius sat on the throne but he had no power. Did Alex know her cousin
essentially ruled with an empty hand?

Her fear for her sister seemed justified now. She hadn’t
asked
Darius
not to marry Celeste off. She’d asked Darius not to let
Pontoon
marry her off. Perhaps Alex had figured out her cousin was king in name
only.

“Keeping up with your thoughts is like chasing a star
speeder,” Jezar commented.

“Then get out of my head,” Tory snapped.

“They cannot kill her while she is with you.” Jezar gazed at
him with those eerie green eyes.

“If someone hadn’t tipped me off about her cargo, she’d be
dead.” Just the idea made his blood run cold.

It all seemed convoluted, the way Teran One politics often
did. Two thoughts kept him pacing. One, the person who tipped him off must have
hoped Tory would kill her. Perhaps if Tory had been a different kind of man and
Alex hadn’t been, well, Alex, that might have worked. The cargo alone warranted
her death. And most people wouldn’t have questioned whether the Commander knew
what was in her cargo hold.

The second thought was someone was trying to kill massive
numbers of people. The fact that Alex’s bloodline, his bloodline and several
others on Teran One were near extinction. Why?

His head throbbed. Tory was no historian. Some people were good
at keeping all the bloodlines straight. He wasn’t.

But Alex was.

Did she realize what was at stake here? Both of their lines
were close to being eliminated. To fight back, he had taken her as his
Saria,
as his mate. The only way to survive was to fight to together to save their
bloodlines.

Genetics were always the key on Teran One. Matings were
often arranged and planned a generation in advance. As Alex had said, fucking
her wouldn’t make his pedigree better. But their children would have the rights
of one of the First Families and the vibrancy of alien blood. Even if he’d
mated to one of the minor families, he would have had influence and could have
negotiated a mating for his children from a better position.

Bloodlines were all about time. The longer a family lived on
their lands, breathed Teran One air and fought against the planet’s enemies,
the more influence a bloodline would have, the more valuable a bloodline would
be.

Tory had always blithely ignored the constraints of
bloodline etiquette. The corps had taught him that everyone’s blood was red on
the battlefield and it didn’t matter what your last name was or who your
grandfather might have been.

But when he’d been exiled and his brother was killed, it
left him as the last heir to Ingle land, Ingle rights. Suddenly, the things
that he had ignored and rejected became his legacy. He wasn’t going to let the
things his father and his grandfather had fought for disappear. It became more
important to mate than ever. A child would have solidified his place on Teran
One.

The only mate he wanted was Alexandra Zeerah. He had fought
and plotted and planned to win her. What he hadn’t counted on was his
gut-wrenching need for her and her rejection of him. Right now, all she did was
work against him. What good did it do for her to surrender in his bed but
nowhere else? Her bitter denial of him during the
Saria
ceremony spoke
volumes.
She
hadn’t spent five years missing him. If all he was going to
get was her sexual surrender, then that’s what he’d get. She treated him like
the enemy, like he was still guilty of the crime that had brought her to his
bed. Even his innocence hadn’t changed that. And how could he ever break down
the wall she’d built between them?

“Teran Four has put in a bid of fifty-eight million leders.”
Dink’s announcement broke into his thoughts.

“Ah.” He glanced at his man at the helm. Blond, big and with
a perpetual frown, Masterson came from Teran Four. “What do they want to do
with it, Bud?”

Bud’s frown deepened, grooves appearing beside his mouth and
eyes. “What they always want with anything, Commander. Domination.” He shook
his head. “In the end, they want to be in charge with the other Teran planets
subject to them.”

“And they want to create the end?”

The man’s bright blue eyes met his. “Control is their first
priority.”

You don’t trust him.
Jezar’s mental voice intruded.

No, I don’t.

Let me read him. I can tell you.

You know why I won’t.

It amuses me that you are squeamish on my behalf.

I know what it costs you, my friend.

Yet with Alexandra, you were quite willing to “cost me”.

Reading Alex was a pleasure for you. She is incapable of
the dark ugliness that hurts you
.

You are correct. She is incapable of it. Do you want to
know—?

No, I don’t.

Jezar’s dry chuckle in Tory’s mind was annoying.

“Accept the bid and contact the others with the status,”
Tory ordered. “I’m going to get a history lesson.”

“Are you sure that is the lesson you will receive?” Jezar
asked, definitely amused.

“Probably not, but I’ll learn something.” He glared at
Jezar, who only grinned. “You’re in charge, Jezar.”

The Ardasian nodded and sent Tory a quick smile. Yeah, Jezar
knew it wasn’t just history that drew Tory back to his new mate.

When he entered his quarters, he couldn’t help the jump of
his cock. On his bed, Alex’s brown hair fanned out, her curves exposed for his
perusal. The emptiness in her eyes concerned him.

He sat down on his bed. “Are you hungry?”

Her lips tightened and she turned her face away from him. He
sighed. “I’d say you are.” He rose and pressed buttons on his console.

This ship was more luxurious than most vessels. Everything
he needed was here in his quarters. Food, water, air, entertainment…all at his
fingertips. Yet what he really wanted was completely out of his reach.

Oh, clearly he could make his mate scream with pleasure. But
touch her in any other way? Certainly not now that he’d destroyed the pristine
vision she had of her brother and forced her into the
Saria
bond.

The smell of the wolden fowl with a side of root boolers
made his stomach growl. But first, he should take care of his new
responsibility. He set two plates down on a table in one corner of the room. He
caught her gaze following him, but she glanced away when he looked directly at
her. Distrust, fear and resignation all registered on her face, drooped and
tired.

With as little contact as possible, he untied her restraints
and released her. He pressed a button and the restraints on the bed
disappeared. She sat up slowly, her fingers massaging her wrists. He opened a
drawer and removed one of his old uniforms. He handed it to her. “It’s too big
for you, but I didn’t know I was going to be mated this trip.”

“Neither did I.” The bitterness in her voice made him wince.
She dressed quickly, refusing to meet his gaze.

“Have a seat.” He waved a hand at the chair opposite.

She slid into the chair, her gaze fixed on the top of the
table. He sighed. “Alex, I need your help.”

Her head shot up and she glared at him. “And why would I
help you? You—you…raped me!”

His jaw clenched. Did she really see it that way? Suddenly,
he didn’t want his food anymore. It hurt. Damn it. She’d
wanted
him. He
felt old and tired. Why was he bothering to save his bloodline? He shoved his
plate away and his fist closed. He took a deep breath. If that was how she was
going to see their time in bed, he couldn’t change her mind.

“As much as I need your help, you need mine. Celeste’s life
may be at stake.” He tried to keep his voice steady. Considering the geyser of
emotion inside him, he thought he did pretty well.

“Celeste is fine,” she spat. “King Darius will protect her.”

“King Darius has lost his throne. He is king in name only,”
he said as he studied her expression. “Celeste is a danger to both sides of an
upcoming civil war. A civil war you’ve helped along with your blind duty.”