The Commander's Slave (5 page)

“
They’re not fully compatible with Seti matrixes. I’ve had a
bit of a play with them, and they
seem
to work, but I
won’t know for sure until they’re fully installed and I’ve had a
chance to tune them.”

There was a loaded pause.

“
How’s our passenger?”
Daurent asked, a little too casually.

“
Passenger? We don’t
have--oh. You mean Asha.”

“
She has a Seti
name?”

“
No, no of course not. She
can’t remember her real name.”

“
So you gave her
one?”

“
Something like that.”
Tangus shifted.

“
Why?” Daurent seemed
clearly puzzled. “Why not just call her ‘hey you’? Or ‘breeder’?
Or,” he continued carefully, “have you changed your mind about
that?”

Tangus pushed himself from the table.
“I haven’t changed my mind about anything. And you’re starting to
take dangerous liberties, Daurent.” His look would have quelled any
other, but the two men had been through enough together for Daurent
to see beneath the rebuke.

“
She looks too innocent,
Tangus, to be used like this.”

“
You would have us shower
our murderers with flower petals,” Tangus retorted, using a line
from a classic Seti poem.

Daurent’s pale eyes followed the
commander as he paced. “I lost family too, you know.”

That stopped the taller male in his tracks. “And that’s why
I
must
do this. While the Lasc Prein destroyed our
planet, the Fusion stood by and did nothing. We have no women, no
children, no
world
left to us. All we have left to cling
to is our vengeance and our thirst for justice.”

“
Vengeance? On innocents?
Is this what the Seti are reduced to?”

“
Justice through survival,
Daurent. Everything has a plan. We examine her physiology and
compatibility to breed. If compatible, we set her up as a breeder,
one of many to help increase our race again. If not, maybe we can
still use her womb. As a last resort, she can help establish the
new Seti world. Nothing goes to waste.”

“
And you think you can do
this? Use her, then discard her when you’re done?”

“
Do you deny me this?” the
older man countered in a cold voice.

Daurent shook his head.

“
Tangus, I know more than
anybody else what you sacrificed to save even so few of us. I, and
everyone else in the Fleet, owe you our lives. You know that I
don’t begrudge you a thing, least of all a few days of pleasure.
And why not? She is certainly comely, and you’ve denied yourself
for more months than I can count. But you’re not as strong as you
think. The Lasc Prein destroyed much, but they couldn’t destroy
your heart, Tangus. Please. Don’t do something you’ll regret
later.”

“
This is for
us
, Daurent,” he said
softly.

But Daurent remained unconvinced. “If
you say so.”

* * * *

She ached where she didn’t even know
she had muscles. After Tangus left, Asha moved slowly to the
shower-pan and hesitantly ordered a warm, soothing shower. She
tried to clean between her legs but the flesh was tender and
swollen. Eventually she gave up, dried herself and limped to the
bed, collapsing on top of it.

So much had happened that she could
barely take it in.

If only she could remember more than
five days of her life. Who was she? What had caused the ship she
was on to crash on Helson V? Was she running away from something?
Or towards it? And what did her subsequent ‘purchase’
mean?

The thought of being sold at Hell’s
Market inevitably led to her captor, her owner.

Tangus.

With those broad shoulders, slim hips,
and towering height, he was the epitome of masculinity, one that
seemed strangely fascinating to her. Asha’s brow furrowed. Why
should that be? Why this breathless awe whenever she looked at him?
Why this irrepressible urge to mate with him? Surely she had seen
men before?

Maybe not. Maybe there were no men in
her previous life ... no, that wasn’t right. She had a feeling she
was very comfortable around both females and males, but like a wisp
of smoke, further guidance from that insight eluded her mental
grasp.

So she knew men but was a virgin.
Which meant she wasn’t bonded to anyone. But, with what happened
between her and Tangus, did that mean she was bonded
now?

Just thinking of his naked form made
her groan, and despite her discomfort, she could feel her groin
start to throb again.

He had shown no mercy to her virginal
state when he had her strapped into position the first time. He had
roughly brought her to a shuddering climax before rutting her from
behind, and she felt herself stretched more than she thought
possible, the friction of his hard penis rubbing against
her--inside her--despite the juices that drenched her tight pubic
curls and eased his access.

She should have been shocked and
outraged by such carnal behavior, but, she could admit to herself
in the darkness, she was not. There was something about the way he
touched her, the way he moved, that tugged at her heart. She should
be hating him for taking such a precious possession from her, but
instead, all she could do was hunger for the next time.

Three times he had taken her, and
despite her aches, all she could do was hope for a
fourth.

No memory, and now helpless to the man
who owned her.

She was doomed indeed.

* * * *

Tangus stalked back to his quarters,
trying hard not to think. He had spent half the day peering over
his crew’s collective shoulders, desperately searching for some
kind of long-term distraction, but it didn’t work. He had trained
his crew too well.

Now, on their circuitous route back to
home base, all that remained were standard shifts and protocols,
more long-range scanning than anything else. During times like
this, he usually stood the crew down, allowing them to relax,
knowing there was more hard work ahead of them when they reached
their moon refuge.

Normally, he, too, spent some time
reading or playing cards with some of the other officers. Until
now. On this trip, he had a distraction he hadn’t had
before.

Though loath to show it, Daurent’s
words had hit home, and he was determined to prove his adjutant
wrong. He had no heart left. That had been destroyed along with his
planet, the void now filled with a cold fist of icy
revenge.

Daurent thought him incapable of using then discarding a
beautiful woman. He would prove him wrong. And when she was secured
in one of the breeder’s quarters, swollen with the child of another
soldier of the Fleet, Tangus would be able to laugh in Daurent’s
face. But until that time, he had full run of that delectable
golden body, and he intended to make full use of it before they
made
moon fall.

When he stormed through the door, the
first thing he noticed was her golden nakedness.

I should get her some
clothes.

Then anger at his own compassion.
Maybe he could get her something to wear just so he could rip it
off her superior, feminine body?

She turned at the sound of his
entrance, her eyes wide. “Tangus ….”

She got no further. He cleared the
distance between them in two steps, lifting her below her arms and
pinning her against the wall.

“
Not Tangus,” he growled.
“Master. I’m your master now. Say it.”

She was bewildered by his reaction, he
could see that, but he wasn’t in the mood to explain
anything.

“
Say it.”

“
Master,” she
whispered.

Just watching that word leave her full
lips was enough to send his cock into overdrive. Looking around, he
spied a narrower, higher ledge and carried her over to it, laying
her so her legs dangled over the side. He moved between those legs
and unfastened his trousers.

“
I want to fuck you,” he
told her deliberately. “Tell me you want me to do that.” His eyes
were black with passion.

“
Tan--fuck me ...
master.”

He reached into his trousers with an
unsteady hand and pulled out his turgid shaft, the tip already
oozing a drop of clear liquid.

“
Again.”

“
Fuck me,
master.”

He had a moment to notice the redness
at the apex of her open thighs, a twinge of guilt ruthlessly
repressed, before he plunged into her. Even with such little
notice, she was wet and he slid inside her easily. He didn’t care
about her own needs or desires, all he wanted to do was stamp his
ownership on her so that even when she was finally serviced by
other men, she would remember him. But the sudden thought of her
with other men drove him even crazier. He gripped her hips
frantically, ignoring her cries as he kept pounding, not easing
until the waves of orgasm washed over him, making him shudder and
moan.

When he was finished, he withdrew
quickly, turning his back on her as he refastened his
trousers.

“
I’ll get some clothes for
you,” he said, turning his head but still not meeting her gaze.
“Then we’ll continue the lessons.”

But lunch came and went before that
happened. Together with her meal was a small package that Asha
unwrapped to reveal two suits, both made of light material, two
tops and two pairs of pants.

Clothes again, she thought with
delight. She thought she would never see clothing again, had
wondered whether Tangus would keep her naked and bent to his will
for ... well, for as long as he wanted.

Quickly she slipped into the indigo outfit. The top was
short, semi-transparent and caught at her breasts, swaying with
their every movement. And the pants hugged her buttocks and thighs
before flaring out as it reached her feet. Perhaps it was a little
more revealing than what she usually wore--where did
that
thought come from?--but it was still better than
nothing.

Feeling a bit more in command, she
walked to the chamber’s main door and pressed it, but it refused to
open. She searched for a control panel with no luck. Then tried the
same with the door adjoining Tangus’ quarters. No, she was locked
in.

Which left her with time for little
other than thinking.

She should have felt outraged by his
order to call him master and shocked by the way he so fiercely took
her, but something in her yearned to match him thrust for thrust.
She wanted to dig her fingernails into his biceps, claw his back
and bite his shoulder. Wanted to do such things now. Twice he had
taken what he wanted without giving her release, and she was shaken
by the strength of her unfilled desire.

Maybe he was right forcing her to call
him master. The thought sent shudders through her. Never had she
expected to be dominated so completely by another person, much less
find herself meeting such domination with equal
intensity.

Even if their situation was different,
if they had met at a party for example, she was sure her first
thought would have been how it felt to mate with him. There was a
primeval masculinity to his form, to the way he moved his body,
that mesmerized her.

And, as if in answer to her fantasies,
he suddenly appeared at the door leading to his
quarters.

“
I see you found your
clothes,” he commented.

“
Yes,” an imp made her
finish, “master.”

She noticed he started at the term and felt a stab of
satisfaction. So she
could
get under his
skin.

He walked into the room, stretching
out a hand to her. Gracefully, she extended her arm, letting him
pull her to him.

“
I’ve checked and
re-checked the systems,” he whispered into her hair, breathing
deeply of her scent. He nuzzled her neck, nipping gently at the
skin where it met her shoulders. “There’s nothing left to do for
the next several days but relax.”

The tempestuous conqueror of this
morning was gone, replaced by the Tangus she was more familiar
with--stern but focused on their mutual pleasure.

“
Can you suggest, slave,
how we can relax?”

“
I’m sure you have many
more suggestions, master.”

“
True.” He captured her
mouth in a quick, hard kiss. “Perhaps….” He scanned the contents of
the room, his eyes lighting when he spotted her old manacles, now
neatly placed next to a wall. He walked over and picked up a pair,
weighing them in his hands. At least they weren’t too heavy. And
they would only be on her for an hour at the most.

“
Put your hands behind your
back.” She obeyed, and he secured her in a loose but inescapable
hold. Once restrained, he took his time stroking her breasts
through the material of her top, the thin layer of cloth
accentuating the eroticism of his actions. Before too long, he saw
her erect nipples pushing against the gauzy indigo. He skimmed her
body with his hands as he knelt before her and heard her breath
catch in her throat.