The Bid (4 page)

“Very well,” she said with resignation and a sigh. “We shall have to come about this by a more difficult route.”

“Lady, if you thought this was going to be easy, then you aren’t near as smart as I thought you were.”

The insult did not affect her, but it certainly didn’t sit well with her boy toy behind her. The other slave was clearly so inured and enamored of his mistress that he took offense whenever she was insulted and threatened. How had she taken a man of such obvious power and managed to mold him into this disgusting display of obedient loyalty? Vejhon couldn’t escape the tendril of dread working through him that told him that if he didn’t entrench himself against this woman with every last cell of resistance and strength in his body, looking at Najir was as good as looking at himself in the future.

“Najir, you are dismissed.”

T
he directive was soft spoken and almost matter of fact. Yet, Vejhon watched with surprise as Najir hesitated to obey his mistress as instantly as he had been doing up until then. Clearly he feared for her safety and disliked the idea of leaving her alone with a barbarian warrior who insulted her, with one who would not care anything about her health or safety should the opportunity to escape arise.

“Najir?”

A simple name spoken, but the layers of tone and intent within it radiated from the single word. It was a scold and a reassurance all at once. There was even a hint of secrets that flashed between them as she exchanged a long look with him. Finally, he bowed his head in acquiescence and obeyed his Master. He left the room, sealing the door in his wake.

“You haven’t asked me who I am,” she noted as she walked a short distance away and opened a small chest made of wood standing close to the hooks and their strange occupants. As she opened the chest it displayed trays of what looked like jewels and jewelry. The contents of that box could buy him passage and freedom anywhere a dozen times over. “Not my name, or where you are, or anything about the woman who owns you.”

“The only thing I’m interested in is what your neck will sound like when I snap it like a twig.”

She ignored him. “My name is Hanna Drakoulous, Master of House of Drakoulous, one of the most powerful Houses in the political structure of this society. To belong to this House,” she pointed out, “is to be protected by a great and powerful name.”

“Owned, sweetheart,” he bit back caustically. “Call it what it is. ‘To be owned by this House.’ Don’t think for a minute I’m going to let you whitewash that fact from my mind with euphemisms and other delicately put bullshit.”

“I did nothing of the kind. Free or
owned
, those who live here
belong
here,” she said with conviction. “This House is a covenant, Vejhon Mach. One that cannot be broken. One that, once you enter it, you will not want to abandon. You stand on the threshold of a new life. All you need to do is accept it, and it will be yours.”

She withdrew something from the jeweled collection and made her way back to him. He stiffened instinctively at her approach. This time she did smile at the reaction, the expression just a little too wicked for Vejhon’s peace of mind. He let his eyes dart to her hands and the thing that she carried. It was a thick band of platinum or white gold, he couldn’t immediately tell which, and it had the figure of some kind of catlike creature carved into it. Set in the creature’s eyes were two lone gemstones, amethysts of a deep and unusual violet…or a stone very much like them. Jewels and precious metals were the only common currency between the worlds that were part of the spaceways, but no two planets bore all of the same type, making the value of the gems rise and fall between locations. There were a few universals, though, something that could be found most anywhere, and those maintained a steady value. The purple gems in the band appeared rare enough to hold great worth.

She stopped near his left side and reached out to touch his clenched biceps. Her fingers gently ran over the veins and contours of his arm until she reached the manacle at his wrist. Vejhon ought to have protested violently, rattling his bonds with all of his strength and anger, but he knew it was a waste of energy at this point and decided to save it for a more effective opportunity. This woman was going to find her lush backside on the shit side of his list right along with all the others who had brought him to this point. He would satisfy himself with that knowledge and his surety in his ability to eventually escape this nightmare.

She snapped open the band, making him realize it was hinged so cleverly he hadn’t even noticed the utilitarian accent. Reaching for his arm again, she moved to snap the band in place.

“If you put that thing on me, I swear to all the gods I will rip your fucking head off.”

The threat didn’t even make her hesitate.

“No, you will not,” she answered matter-of-factly. “In fact, once this band is in place, you will never be able to hurt me without hurting yourself. It is a safety measure, so you will forgive me if I find it wise to use it, since you take such comfort in threats and in your own wrath.”

She snapped the band on easily, Vejhon helpless to do anything but growl at her with ferocity. Then she pressed both of the gems simultaneously and he felt a series of sharp, needlelike stings zipping into his skin around the entire circumference of the band.

“Gods! You bitch! What did you do?!” he roared, his voice echoing with resonance off of the stone walls.

“I told you. It is to assure that you cannot cause me harm. It does not subvert your will in any other way,” she reassured him. “You can be as angry and violent as you like, so long as you don’t combine it with laying hands on me with the intent to hurt me.”

“I can’t
touch
you, period! You have me chained to the wall like an animal! What more reassurance can you possibly need? Are you truly that afraid of me that you need to manipulate an already helpless man?”

“Actually, I am not afraid of you at all, Jhon.”

He would have laughed in her face at that obvious lie, only her eyes were so serene and seemed so believably honest. She gave off no clue that she harbored any fear of him, and that was simply something he wasn’t used to. Everyone feared him. His enemies, his troops—every one of those bastards who had traded him from ship to ship until they had brought him to this end. Even though he’d been caged and bound, he had seen the fear behind the greedy excitement in their eyes. He had seen how they had stood back from the force fields separating him from them even though there was no way he could possibly approach.

But she did not fear him.

Hanna reached to touch him again, this time laying a gentle hand against his chest.

“I am going to give you an opportunity, Jhon, to appreciate the difference between what you will find in this House and what you would have found in another. Unfortunately, this means I must play both roles, so that you may come to this understanding. But we will keep this between only you and me if you allow it. If you give me too much trouble, then I will have to include Najir, and I wish to save you that humiliation. Do you understand?”

Hanna watched his jaw tighten until he had developed a furious tic in the muscle of his cheek. He was guaranteed to hate this. To hate her. At least at first. But it couldn’t be helped. He had been so gloriously powerful in his former life, and though he had been in captivity for months, he still clung to that former idea of himself. Hanna would happily cultivate his warrior half in the future, but first he must come to accept the truth of his situation.

And while she disliked the idea of bludgeoning his proudly stubborn will, the end to her means made her heart race with excited anticipation. He was everything she needed, everything Najir had promised her he would be. She stood back to look him over once again, her amazed eyes still trying to accept the fabulous concept of the perfect treasure that he was. Najir was going to be vastly rewarded for this. Besides the perfection of his white platinum hair and those cat-green eyes, Vejhon was a masterpiece of flesh and muscle. His skin was tanned dark, especially above his waistline, no doubt because he had spent time working his body while shirtless in the sun of his homeworld. She could feel the strength in him radiating in great waves, thrumming into her like a sonic boom whenever his fury spiked. His energy was a flawless symphony, such utter perfection. Strength, stamina, will…and gorgeous looks besides.

Oh yes. He was perfect.

But he was defiant and wild as well, his stubbornness making him dense to the dangers around him in his new life. He saw her as a threat just because he felt his pride was at stake? There were worse dangers in this place and more precious commodities than pride that needed protecting.

“Jhon, do you know what most women of this world buy a slave like you for?”

“Clearly whatever you damn well please,” he snapped.

“That’s true. However, you are special. You see”—she gave him a suggestive little smile as her fingers ran down over the well-defined muscles of his chest, heading to the rocklike hills of his taut stomach—“when you were up for bid on that auction stand, your best assets were put on display so everyone would be very certain of your value.” Hanna lightly scraped her nails past his navel, slowly stroking her way toward his pubic region. She didn’t need to look to know he was stimulated despite his will. His brief reaction to her earlier had notified her that he was attracted to her, regardless of his desire to be otherwise. But that wasn’t the way she wanted to manipulate him. It wasn’t the point she wanted to make.

She drew back from him and returned to her chest of jeweled objects. She withdrew the ring she was looking for and held it up for him to see as she returned.

“Female Masters of High Houses wear these everywhere. They never go anywhere without them.” She slid the ring with its gemstone of clear crystal facets onto her right ring finger. She turned the gem inward, so it was in line with her palm, and reached to touch her fingertips to his chest. “You were in stasis at the time, so I am going to show you what you were so blissfully unaware of, Vejhon, during that common little auction.”

She pressed her palm against him and instantly the sting of injection burned through his muscles. This time he did roar with fury, bucking against his restraints, trying to force her touch away from him. All she did was lean back slightly, keeping away from his gnashing teeth. Then she simply stood back and watched as the stimulant flooded his system.

Vejhon felt the sudden upsurge of adrenaline in his blood almost instantly, the feel of it very familiar to him as a warrior used to seeking its highs. He thought about using it to truly test the strength of his metal bonds, but he’d already injured himself, the tight manacles cutting up his skin and now chafing it raw whenever he moved. It was his own fault. He knew better than to fight metal, but she had pushed him too far beyond reason.

Then, an abrupt heated sensation began to rush through his blood, fluttering along his skin like fast-flying birds skimming insects off of water. The heat quickly became a burn and he became very aware of where that burn was headed. It scorched down his body, down every sensitive nerve in his tissues until it felt like his entire pelvis was in an overdrive of sensation. He watched with a combination of horror and dismay as his penis began to flood with pulsing blood, the sensation perpetuating itself like the stroke of an artful hand as he grew more fully erect. There was nothing he could do. His body, in this respect, was completely out of his control. No thoughts, no amount of anger or disgusting imagery he tried to conjure in his mind could change what was happening to him.

In no time at all he was heavily erect, his cock so hard it was fully parallel to the floor and aching with the fierce throb of his stimulant-laden blood. Humiliated and horrified by the drug she had administered, Vejhon wished an agonizing death on her with his savage eyes and his poisonous thoughts. Again, she seemed unaffected by his glare, but neither was she gloating over her triumphant puppeteering of his sex.

Hanna stepped forward in a way that forced him to focus fully on her eyes. It was close enough that Jhon felt the fabric of her dress against the head of his distended phallus, the rubbing sensation of its silken texture sending feedback up along the shaft in a screaming message of pleasure. Vejhon tried to draw in air to breathe, but all commands to his brain fried under the massive drug-heightened wave of bliss.

“Imagine yourself before a crowd of avaricious women
and men,
” she made certain to remind him, “and your handler is now going to prove how excellent a prospect you are for being put to stud on a planet where a superior percentage of the populace is infertile. He injects you with stimulants to display your fine equipment, and in your case, to show how easily the stim works on you even while in stasis.” Now she reached between them and slowly touched her soft fingertips to the sensitive skin and nerves along the length of his shaft. A sensation of pure electrocution bolted along every sensory pathway in his body, making him seize with the shocking pleasure, tense muscles distending even farther under the force he used to try and control his reaction.

As though she was stroking a precious thing, she ran her fingers up and down the length of his swollen rod, locking him into being buffeted by sensations too outstanding to be real. She continued her narration. “‘Look, ladies and gentlemen,’ he says, ‘at the fine, thick cock I offer you. Hours of fun for yourself as a private concubine. Certainly fit to fill a room in your brothel where he will be in high demand as a whore. And for those who farm out studs, here is a tool ready to breed. No need to tame him if he proves too contrary; merely lash him down and let the stim do the work.’

“‘Of course,’” she continued relentlessly, “‘he could make a wonderful house slave, where he could service any guests you invite to stay, both in and out of bed, once you have grown bored with him for yourself.’” Hanna knew how sensitive he had to be right then, and she took advantage of it by closing her fist slowly around him. She found herself distracted for an instant as she realized he was so thick that even her long fingers could not wrap fully closed around him. The realization made her a little bit breathless, and she had to force herself back on task. “Perhaps he had a few potential buyers come up to test the feel of the merchandise,” she speculated. “They do that often. Let them touch, stroke…feel for themselves the hardness and sensitivity of their prospective toy.”

Vejhon was rasping for breath in a combination of fury, the hyper-stimulation of drugs, and her obliterating touch. Her stroke felt like a magical relief and torture all at once against his bursting flesh.
Blood of the gods be damned
, he had played with sexual stims before…what man hadn’t? But never with a reaction so frenetic as what he felt under Hanna’s touch. Warm and soft, but sure and firm in a manner that did everything to make a conflagration out of already burning nerves. He hadn’t rushed to the crest of needing to orgasm so quickly in all of his life, not even when he’d been a hypersexed youth first trying to figure it all out.