Silver's Captive (6 page)

He started to push inside. The slick evidence of my desire eased his way, parting my flesh with his thick erection. Slowly, so slowly he inched in. My breath caught in my throat as my back arched, my head thrown back at the exquisite feel of him, until he stopped.

I looked down the length of my body to see him frowning and looking back at me, his muscles bunched and straining. There was a look of pain on his face.

“Don’t stop,” I told him, my voice tight with suppressed emotion.

“Tell me you’ve done this before, Tarnee.”

I shook my head at him and watched his eyes close, a slow sweep of his eyelids that shuttered his gaze from mine.

“
Gratck
” rumbled up from his chest, a rolling sound that shimmered through me before his eyes opened. They appeared to be glowing. White hot, they burned into me. All of him appeared to be glowing, the bright light of him blinding me, the heat from his body burning into me.

“Arr!” I cried out.

“I’m sorry if this hurts, Tarnee. If I’d known, I would have prepared you better.”

He thrust into me in one hard push, a momentary pain pulling a cry from my lips before the pleasure of him filling me took over. He felt exquisite stretching me. I couldn’t help the small shudders that clamped my core tight around him.

A deep groan came from him, a sound that ripped from deep in his chest before he started to move. Deep, long drives of his hard cock inside me, his eyes burned into mine until I had to look away, his stare too intense along with the pleasure he was causing in my body.

He was perfect, so strong and powerful. My hands clenched around the covers underneath me, holding me still as he powered into me. Every stroke built the intense sensations rippling through my core. The deep pleasure of his thrusts pushed me towards what I knew would be a soul-destroying climax.

I might have been a virgin, but I’d pleasured myself in the privacy of my own room, in the depth of the night when I knew no one would hear me. When I could think about what my life would have been like if my parents had never disappeared.

My gaze skimmed over the tensing and flexing muscles of his stomach, the bunched muscles of his shoulders and biceps as he drove me upwards, building on the pleasure he’d started with his mouth. His hands gripped my hips, holding me in place as he thrust inside me in deep long strokes. Strokes that drew little mewls from my throat as the exquisite pleasure built, pushing me towards that peak he’d built inside me with his mouth, until I thought I’d shatter apart, until I thought he couldn’t possibly force any more pleasure on me. However, I was wrong, because I crashed headlong over the edge into the most exquisite climax I’d ever experienced. I drowned in the intense feeling of clenching muscles and the hard drive of Tor’Arr’s cock into my sensitive core.

I cried out at the intense sensation swamping me, gripping the covers of the bed in my tightly clenched hands as my back arched, my head thrown back. Sheer bliss rolled through my body with each thrust. Each drive of his shaft inside me dragged more and more sensations through my trembling body.

“
Gratck,
” Tor’Arr growled as he drove into me, the power of his thrusts pushing me up the bed until he thrust in one last time, his head thrown back, his big body shuddering as he found his own slice of pleasure.

Tor’Arr sank down, his weight coming over me, the heat of his body, still high, searing into me where we pressed together. He took my mouth in a scorching kiss that sent my hands grasping at his shoulders to hold him to me.

He drew back, the heat still in his eyes, a white-hot flame burning into me.

“You please me greatly, little bird.”

He traced his fingers gently across my cheek, a gentle touch, a soft caress, before kissing me again. He teased me and tempted me to kiss him back with soft little suckling kisses to my bottom lip.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were a virgin, Tarnee?”

I looked into his silver eyes, looking for anger at what I’d kept from him, but there was nothing there.

“I didn’t think it was important,” I replied.

“You were wrong, little bird. It was very important. Thank you for the gift you gave me. I will cherish it always.”

Heat crept across my cheeks at such sincere words. I hadn’t thought it would mean so much to him, but obviously, I’d been wrong. He pressed another one of those suckling kisses to my lips before pushing up and away from me.

The cool air of his quarters chilled my skin, causing goose bumps to prickle my flesh. He reached down and helped me to a sitting position, his hand warm in mine.

“I need to check on my men, Tarnee. Some of them were hurt. There is a cleanser in the clean room that you may use if you wish.”

Nodding up at him, I watched in fascination as he changed into a form I hadn’t seen before. Long dark hair flowed down his back from a harshly ridged forehead. Heavy slashing eyebrows sat over deeply set eyes. A wide mouth with full lips parted to show sharp teeth with two prominent canines.

“I will be back as soon as I can. I will have someone bring you food,” he said in a harsh voice.

I didn’t think I’d get used to seeing him as different species. It was too strange, too alien. Then he was gone, walking out the door, dressed in clothing that was as alien as his appearance.

It didn’t take me long to work out how to use his cleansing unit. Warm fluid rained down on me from a small square section of the ceiling, fluid that smelled a little strange. There were no cleansing bars or liquids, so I made do with rinsing myself with the blue, tinted fluid. His bathroom was compact. Screens slid out of the walls to contain the splashing of the cleansing unit, while a small sink sat opposite, with a toilet on the far wall opposite the door.

After I’d dried off, using the only towel I could find, I dressed back into my waitress uniform and finger-combed my long hair out. With nothing else to do, I found my thoughts drifting to Tor’Arr and what we’d shared.

I felt even more confused about him than I’d been before we’d been intimate. His gratitude at receiving my virginity showed me a side of him I hadn’t expected him to have. In fact, the way he’d treated me by building my pleasure before he’d taken his own spoke of a man who cared about me even though we barely knew each other. It didn’t line up with the image I had of him as a pirate. Ruthless, dangerous and out to take his own pleasure was what I’d expected of him.

He seemed to have layers, and the more time we spent together, the more those layers peeled away to expose the core of him, the core of who he was. If he hadn’t been a pirate, he would have been a man I would have been interested in getting to know—that was, if my life wasn’t focused on finding my parents.

I’d meant to ask him if he’d search for them, but he’d been hurt, and then, well, then things had happened and I hadn’t had the chance to ask him. Even if I’d signed on with the scientific exploration crew, there was no guarantee that I’d be allowed to go back to the planet my parents had been heading for. The solar system the planet was located in had no habitable planets, or at least they hadn’t found any people on any of the five planets that were located in it. The report I’d read had stated that there were indications of pirate activity, so they hadn’t pursued the energy source my father had discovered, deeming the risk to life too high.

Tor’Arr, though, was perfect. He could search for my parents, and any pirates in the sector would leave him alone. Or so I hoped. If he said
no,
if he said he wouldn’t search for them, I didn’t know what I’d do. I’d be stuck on this ship with him and his crew and my dream, and the last three years of my life would have been wasted. I might as well have taken the job offered to me as a quantum mechanic when I finished my schooling.

The doors opening had me jumping up from the couch, thinking it was Tor’Arr returning, but another man walked in carrying a tray. Dressed in what looked like leather, he had weapons strapped to his thighs and arms. He placed the tray down on the small dining table without saying a word and left, leaving me alone once again.

My hunger propelled me over to the table, looking at what was on the tray. I hadn’t finished the meal Tor’Arr and I had shared, which had been hours ago. My hunger was a gnawing ache in the pit of my belly. The scents coming from the tray had my mouth watering.

Chunks of something were coated in a thick green sauce. A small selection of brightly coloured vegetables of some description and a grain accompanied it. I sat down at the table and started eating. The rich flavour of meat tantalised my taste buds. It was coated in a rich sauce that sent the flavours dancing across my tongue. Holy hell, the woman in the kitchen knew how to cook. Everything I’d tasted so far had been delicious. The flavours combined to round out the meal in a distinct way.

I was about halfway through the meal when I started to feel a little strange. Looking down at the tray, I wondered if there was something in it that didn’t agree with me. I’d eaten a lot of alien food on the station and never had any problems with it, so I thought it odd that something would make me sick, but that was exactly what was happening. My stomach had clenched up into a tight painful ball. I felt queasy, and slightly feverish. Pushing back from the table, I rushed for the bathroom and made it just in time to vomit into the toilet. My head swam as I stood up, and by the time I’d splashed cool liquid on my face from the basin, I felt like I was going to pass out.

I didn’t make it to the bed. The floor rushed up to meet me just outside the bathroom. I curled into a ball on the plush carpet, my stomach a knot of pain. My heart pounded in my ears and I let the darkness overcome me.

Chapter Seven

The lift doors opened on the officer’s floor and Tor’Arr stepped out. Tarnee was waiting for him. He’d been gone longer than he’d expected. There were more injured than he’d thought, but no one was at risk of death. Most injuries were minor, and only a few had to be kept in medical for observation.

He walked down the wide corridor to his door, intent on getting to Tarnee. He wanted to find out if her attitude had changed towards him, and if fucking her had changed how she felt about him. He’d give almost anything to have her stay with him of her own free will. He wanted her to choose him.

He didn’t like having to force her to be with him, but he wasn’t going to let her go, couldn’t let her go. Not now. Not now, since he knew he’d been her first, that no other man had fucked her, that no other man had touched her the way he had or had seen her the way he had, laid out on his bed, so beautiful. She was all soft curves and dark hair, a flush of passion painted across her cheeks, her brown eyes flashing in the soft light of his quarters and lying there waiting for him to take her.

The doors to his quarters slid open, the quiet hiss almost unnoticeable.

“Tarnee?”

He looked all around the room, but couldn’t find her. A tray sat on the table only partially eaten. Maybe she was in the clean room, but the door was open. He stepped further into the room and caught sight of her hair on the floor between the bed and the clean room door.

Rushing forward, he dropped to his knees beside her prone form. Gently, he turned her. She was so pale—too pale. Her dark hair was spread like a curtain all around her, spilling over her shoulders and onto the floor.

He pressed his fingers against the warm skin of her throat. A tiny pulse fluttered in her neck, then relief slammed into him. She was alive.

Tor’Arr gathered Tarnee up in his arms and rushed for the door. She was such a slight weight in his arms. Her head hung limply and her arms hung down. She couldn’t die. She couldn’t leave him. He’d destroy something if she died, because he wouldn’t be able to help himself. To lose her so soon after finding her would kill something inside him. It would destroy the last shred of decency he had.

Manik would know what to do, would be able to figure out what was wrong with her. He had one of the best medical databases in the universe, and some of the most sophisticated equipment. Tor’Arr just had to get her to medical.

The lift was still on his floor and blessedly empty when he rushed through its doors. “Medical,” he told the ship’s main computer.

The lift rocketed down the five floors to the level of the medical unit. Tor’Arr rushed through the doors, down the corridor and burst through the double sliding doors into medical.

“Manik!”

The ship’s medic came barrelling out of his office, “What is it?”

“There’s something wrong with Tarnee. I found her unconscious on the floor of my quarters.”

“Put her on the med bed,” Manik told him.

Tor’Arr turned to the closest bed and put Tarnee down on the waist-high polished metal surface. Manik moved to the head of the bed and started pressing the screen of the control panel. The cover slid up from the end of the bed to cover her in a hard case of metal. A low dome covered her from head to toe.

The bed beeped as it scanned Tarnee’s prone form. Tor’Arr waited impatiently for the device to finish, his hands balled into tightly clenched fists, the sharp claws of his form digging into the tough skin of his palms. The device’s constant beeping made him nervous. He wanted to demand to know what was happening, what the device had found, but he knew Manik wouldn’t answer any of his questions until he had all the information he could get.

The med bed beeped one last time and the cover slid back to reveal Tarnee, looking small and fragile on the hard bed.

“What’s wrong with her?” he demanded of Manik.

Manik looked at him, the look on his face stopping Tor’Arr cold.

“She’s been poisoned.”

Rejection swirled inside him. Anger at what Manik was suggesting made his back straiten, and his claws elongated into dagger-sharp points, the tips piercing the tough skin of his palms.

“Are you saying one of my crew poisoned her?”

His crew was completely loyal. He couldn’t think of one man aboard the ship who could possibly have anything against Tarnee, any reason to hurt her. Most of the crew didn’t even know she was on board.