Not the Man She Thought (7 page)

Laken bristled at his tone. “I wanted to come into town.”

His face hardened. “To do some shopping, wasn’t it? More
like get yourself into trouble.”

She glared up at him. “I can take care of myself.”

He snorted. “So I saw. Let’s go.”

She hung back, digging her heels into the floor. “No.” It
was a stupid thing to say, especially since she really was grateful he’d come
to her rescue, but he had a way of bringing out her stubborn streak.

His eyes narrowed. “What did you say?”

Laken lifted her chin. “You heard me. I’m not going with
you.”

Even as the words left her mouth, she knew how foolish they
sounded, but before she could say anything else, the man who had been pawing
her earlier interrupted.

“I don’t think the lady wants to go with you, buddy.” He
took a step toward them. “Why don’t you just turn around and leave nice and
quiet like.”

Laken’s stomach lurched as the two men sized each other up.
The local who had been bothering her might be as tall as Rade Karsten, but he
owed his size to fat, while the captain of the cargo ship was all muscle. If
there was a fight, she was confident Karsten would easily win.

Beside her, Rade inclined his head. “My wife and I just had
a little misunderstanding back on our ship, that’s all. We don’t want any
trouble.”

The other man smirked and looked around the room ay the rest
of the tavern’s patrons. “Hear that? This outsider says he don’t want no
trouble.” He turned his attention back to Karsten. “Then you shouldn’t have
brought a pretty thing like her here.”

He didn’t wait for a reply, but instead launched himself at
Karsten. Laken opened her mouth to warn him, but Rade moved faster than she
would have thought possible. One minute the big man’s fist was hurling toward
Rade and the next he was on the ground cradling his jaw and glaring up at the
captain of the cargo ship.

That was when all hell broke loose. The thinner guy with the
yellow teeth who had offered her the fifty credits earlier smashed a bottle
against the edge of the bar and advanced on her and Rade from one direction
while at least half a dozen of the tavern’s other patrons closed in on them
from the other.

  
Laken
took a step closer to Rade. He might have knocked one guy out, but there was no
way he could take on the entire tavern. He didn’t look at her, but just drew
the pistol from the holster at his hip and leveled it at the man with the
bottle. Up against something more deadly now, the man halted in his tracks,
eyeing the weapon warily. The rest of the group men did the same.

“Like I told him,” Rade said, gesturing toward the big man on
the floor. “We don’t want any trouble. You just let us walk out of here and
there won’t be any.”

Laken wet her suddenly dry lips, wondering what she and Rade
would do if the other men pulled out weapons of their own. But Rade didn’t
hesitate long enough to find out. Keeping his pistol trained on the room, he
took her hand in his free one and slowly backed them out of the tavern.
Outside, he quickly led her over to the waiting personal transport vehicle.

“Get in,” he ordered tersely, giving her a little shove.

Still too shaken to bristle at the curtly spoken command,
Laken did as she was told, quickly climbing into the front seat. Rade followed,
holstering his weapon as he did so. A moment later, they were speeding down the
dirt road toward the ship.

Rade gave her a sidelong glance. “We’re not being followed
are we?”

Laken looked at him in confusion. “Wh-what?”

His mouth tightened. “Followed! Are we being followed?”

She half turned in her seat to glance over her shoulder,
expecting to see a horde of angry locals chasing after them, but there was no
one in sight. “No.”

Rade visibly relaxed at that, but he didn’t say anything. It
was obvious from the tight set of his jaw that he was furious with her. Knowing
from experience that a confrontation with him would only end with her over his
knee again, Laken ignored the voice in her head that told her to stand up to
him, and instead jumped out of the transport the moment he pulled the vehicle
to a stop inside the ship.

Ignoring the curious looks she got from the crew, Laken
hurried up the steps and ran to her cabin. She was frantically trying to lock
the door when it slid open and Rade strode into the small room. Seeing the dark
look on his face, she quickly backed away, stumbling a little as the ship took
off.

“Get out,” she told him.

“Not until you and I have a little talk.”

Laken backed into the desk behind her. “I have nothing to
say to you.”

His raised a brow. “Not even a simple ‘thank you’ for coming
to your rescue back there?”

She lifted her chin. “I told you, I can take care of
myself.”

“Like hell,” he growled. “If I hadn’t come looking for you,
you’d have had half the men in the saloon between your legs by now, with the
other half waiting to take their turn.”

She knew he was right, but he didn’t have to be so vulgar
about it. “You’re disgusting.”

“I’m honest.” He swore under his breath. “None of that would
have happened if you’d just stayed on the damn ship like I told you.”

She glared up at him. “I don’t take orders from you.”

His jaw clenched. “Well, you’d better damn well start taking
them.”

“I’ll do what I damn well please, and neither you nor anyone
else is going to stop me!”

  
The
words were out of her mouth before she even realized it, and she could tell by
the dangerous glint in Rade’s eyes that she’d pissed him off even more. Dammit,
why couldn’t she ever learn to keep her mouth shut?

Trapped against the desk, it was impossible for her to evade
him, and he easily grabbed her arm and dragged her over to the bed. She
desperately tried to yank free, but his fingers were like a vice around her
wrist and she was powerless against him.

“Don’t you dare!” she shrieked, but the words was lost in a
whoosh of breath as a sharp tug on her arm sent her tumbling over his knee. She
immediately tried to push herself upright, but the arm he wrapped around her
waist held her firmly in place, and she let out a cry of frustration. “Let me
go, damn you!”

But Rade ignored her, instead bringing his hand down on her
upturned ass with a hard smack.

“You have got to be the most stubborn, infuriating woman I
have ever met in my life.” He punctuated each word with a spank, each of them
harder than the one before. “You deliberately went into a place like that just
to spite me, didn’t you?”

She squirmed as heat spread over her bottom. “Spite you? You
really think a lot of yourself don’t you? I didn’t do it to spite you, you
arrogant
 
bastard. I went in there
because I wanted to.”

Laken didn’t care that the words would probably earn her
some extra smacks. She was going to have her say, dammit!

  
But to
her surprise, the spanking stopped. Laken sighed, thinking her was done, but
then she felt him push up her skirt. She went rigid across his lap as she
remembered him telling her that the next time he spanked her, it would be on
her bare ass.

“Don’t...” she cried, but he had already yanked her skimpy
panties halfway down her thighs.

Her face went red at the thought of him seeing her half
naked. All embarrassment quickly faded as he began spanking her again, though.
Sharp, stinging smacks, they covered every inch of her exposed derriere until
her ass cheeks felt like they were burning. She struggled wildly against him,
kicking her legs so frantically that her panties slid down her legs and went
flying. But she didn’t care. All she could focus on was his hand as it came
down over and over again on her poor bottom.

When he finally stopped Laken didn’t wait for him to pull
her to her feet, but quickly pushed herself off his lap, afraid if she didn’t,
he might spank her some more. She cupped her red-hot ass with her hands and
glared up at him as he got to his feet. She wanted to tell him to get the hell
out of her cabin, but all she could seem to do was stand there. Maybe he’d read
her mind and leave on his own.

But Rade didn’t leave. Instead, he stood there gazing down
at her with those smoldering dark eyes of his. All at once, she caught her
breath at the funny, little flutter in her tummy.

She should take a step back. Or better yet, run into the
bathroom and stay there until he left. But she couldn’t make herself move. Then
it was too late. Because in the next breath, he bent his head and kissed her.

For a moment, Laken was too startled to do anything more
than stand there. But then, very slowly, her eyes fluttered closed and her lips
parted under his, and she was kissing him back. At her response, Rade’s kiss
became more demanding, his tongue finding hers and tangling with it, and she
moaned softly as he slid his hand in her hair.

  
Her eyes
flew open. What was the matter with her? The brute had just spanked her. She
should be slapping his face, not kissing him!

Lifting her hands to his chest, she shoved him away as hard
has she could. “What do you think you’re doing?”

His mouth quirked. “Kissing you. I thought that would have
been obvious since you were kissing me back.”

Her face reddened. “I was not.”

He chuckled. “I know it when a woman kisses me, sweetheart,
and you were definitely kissing me back.”

Her color deepening, she took a step back, then another.
“You bastard. Get the hell out.”

His eyes narrowed, and for one moment she thought he might
try to kiss her again, but then he spun on his heel and strode toward the door.
As it slid open, he turned to face her. “Don’t go wandering off again on the
next planet we dock on, Ms. Andara.”

Laken lifted her chin defiantly. “Or you’ll spank me again,
I suppose?”

Rade’s eyes were hard as he studied her. “No. The next time,
I won’t come to your rescue.”

Chapter Four

Laken watched Rade, his parting shot still echoing in her
ears. Don’t go wandering off on the next planet we dock on because I won’t come
to your rescue. Arrogant bastard. He thought he was oh-so-heroic, saving her
from evil villains, but he was no better than the thugs he had rescued her
from. She couldn’t believe he had the nerve to kiss her. And after he spanked
her, too. Like he had expected her to swoon into his arms in gratitude for
rescuing her. Well, that was never going to happen.

Then why had she kissed him back? Maybe she had simply been
surprised by the fact that he’d done it. Or maybe she just hadn’t been thinking
clearly. He had just spanked her again, after all. But just because she had an
excuse didn’t mean that Rade did. He had clearly tried to take advantage of
her. It obviously didn’t to matter to him that she was engaged to another man.
If anything, that just showed how low he really was.

She reached back to massage her stinging bottom, frowning at
how tender it was. She didn’t know if she was more furious at him for kissing
her or for pulling down her panties. Her gaze went to the tiny scrap of
material on the floor and her face colored. As mad as she at him for kissing
her, she was definitely more angry at him for spanking her on the bare bottom.
It had been humiliating. Not to mention stung like hell.

A knock sounded on the door suddenly, and she jerked her
head up, startled. What if it was Rade? What if he had come back to give her
another spanking? As rude as Karsten was, she doubted he would actually bother
to knock on her door anyway, but it couldn’t hurt to be sure.

“Who is it?” she called.

“It’s Dev.”

Letting out a sigh of relief, Laken opened her mouth to tell
the other girl to come in when she suddenly remembered her panties were still
on the floor.

“Just a minute.”

Blushing furiously, she bent down and snatched her panties
off the floor, then stuffed them in one of the dresser drawers.

“Okay,” she called. “You can come in now.”

The door slid open and Dev walked in. “I just wanted to see
how you were. I saw the captain a minute ago and he looked pretty mad. That
usually means he’s been yelling, and I just wanted to make sure you were okay.
He can be kind of a bear when he’s upset.”

Laken’s mouth tightened. “He seems to think that he can boss
around everybody on this ship.”

Dev gave her a wry smile. “Well, he is the captain,” she
said, as if that should explain everything. When Laken frowned, she added,
“Giving orders is what he does.”

Laken folded her arms, her frown deepening into a scowl.
“Well, following them isn’t something I do.”

The other woman laughed. “I’m figuring that out about you.
Unless you enjoy butting heads with the captain, though, you might want to
consider changing the way you do things.”