DarkRevenge (5 page)

“Then whatever it is, it’s really bad,” Alex commented.
“What is Ingle asking for?”

“He’s set up a bidding war.” Darius’ tone was shrill and
desperate, almost panicked. And young.

“Then outbid the others,” she told him. It occurred to Tory
that this wasn’t a new role for her to play. She sounded confident the king
would follow her advice. She must have done it before. How that must have
chapped Pontoon’s ass.

This time, her advice was wrong. She didn’t know what was in
that box, only that Darius needed it back. And she’d failed to deliver it.
Would her advice change if she knew what was in it?

“Alex—” Darius said, his voice pleading. He was asking her
to do something and she knew what it was. Tory heard it. Again, he blessed the
stars he had Jezar listening in on her thoughts. Whatever the Teran One King
wanted his cousin to do, she would do it. It would be her “duty”.

“What does Pontoon say to do?” Her question was sharp, edgy.

“He says to get the box back at any cost.”

Tory could hear Alex thinking. What was it like inside her
head? Did thoughts whirl around like butterflies? Or was her thinking like
everything else about her—straight lines and boxes?

I could show you.
Jezar’s mental tone seemed amused.

Fuck you, Jezar.

You’re not my type, Teran.

Back at you, Ardasian.

A low, rumbling chuckle echoed through his mind and Tory
shook his head.

Darius broke the silence. “Alex, I promise I’ll get you
back.”

Like hell he would. Alex belonged to Tory. She always had.
She just didn’t know it yet.

“I’m his
Saria
, Darius. He chose the mate ceremony.
You know what that means.” Yes, a Teran One King knew exactly what that meant.
After all, the Stender line had created it to save the bloodlines.

Centuries ago, families would wipe each other out, eliminate
entire bloodlines. To stop the carnage, the first Stender King created the
concept of
Saria
, or single revenge. One member of a family could be taken,
owned, to pay for the sins of the bloodline. Murder, slander and other forms of
harm done by a bloodline to another would be appeased by the sacrifice of a
member of the offending family. In this case, Alex paid for her brother.

“He knows your family is dead? All of them?” Darius sounded
shocked. But why? Regardless of what Darius said, she would pay the price. It
was her duty, after all. And Alexandra was all about duty.

Apparently, Tory was still a bit bitter about that.

“Celeste isn’t. If I didn’t accept the contract, he had the
right to claim Celeste. I couldn’t let that happen. To get the box, you’ll have
to negotiate with Ingle. Outbid the other Teran planets. Get Pontoon on some
diplomacy with Teran Five.”

“They’ve cut us off.”

“We’ll need an alliance with them, Darius.” She was giving
him diplomatic advice while she was hanging from cuffs in her enemy’s quarters?
What the hell was wrong with that woman? It infuriated him that she continued
to put that motherfucking planet before everything else.

And why wouldn’t she? Hadn’t she done just that five years
ago?

“I’ll do what I can, Alex. But what about you?”
Yes,
Alex, what about you?
Darius made a good point. Had she written off her own
life?

“I’m not going anywhere. Focus on the problem. Get the box.”
She was lying. She had to be. Jezar would know for sure.

“Alex—”

“Don’t let Pontoon marry Celeste off, okay?” It was the only
favor she asked from her King.

“I won’t.” And the line disconnected.

She’s trying very hard not to cry.

Damn it. Tell me what I want to know, not what I don’t
want to know.

Kyler is someone she asked to watch over Celeste.

Who the hell is he?
Jesus, he sounded like a jealous
piece of shit.

She thinks of him as a relative, someone from her
childhood.

Why hadn’t he ever heard of this guy? It still rankled.
He
should have been the one she turned to, but her brother had made sure that
wouldn’t happen. Five fucking years wasted.

Jezar stayed silent for a moment. And then,
She still has
no idea what she was transporting, but she realizes it must be a weapon. When
King Darius spoke her name at one point, she knew he asked her to destroy this
ship, the box and herself.

It was a relief to know she wasn’t aware of what she carried
on that damn shuttle. Tory clenched his teeth together. Fucking royalty. They
always wanted sacrifices.
And her thoughts on that?

She is…divided.

Explain.

All she knows is her duty to the Royal family on Teran
One. To not do as King Darius asked would be painful, unthinkable even, for
her. But she does not want to hurt you.

Me?
Tory blinked. Why the hell wouldn’t she want to
hurt him?

You are surprised by this?

Hell yes, I am. She hates me
. With good reason. And
considering what he had planned for her, it wasn’t going to get any better. In
fact, he’d rather have her hate. She wasn’t going to give him anything else.
She’d made that crystal clear five years earlier.

You humans are odd.

Is this where I thank you? Okay, you can get out of her
head now. I’m going back to my quarters and it’s private.

Strange that you don’t want to know what she thinks of
what you do to her.

Is it? Well, I don’t. The
Saria
bond is personal,
private.

As you wish.

“Jezar, you have the bridge. Let’s get a little distance
between the Teran system and us, please. Head for the Merian system.” He strode
off the bridge.

“What about the bidding?” Dink asked him.

“When it reaches sixty million leders, call me.”

The doors shut behind him and he walked purposefully toward
his quarters. It was time to make his
Saria
pay for her family’s crimes.

* * * * *

For the first time in Alex’s life, she was both helpless and
confused. Her arms ached from being stretched above her head. Her ankles
throbbed from her earlier struggle in the restraints. Her thoughts were no
better. Tory had every right to claim her for revenge, for mating. Her King
asked her to go against the most basic rules of that claim. To kill Tory, to
kill herself, to destroy them both, left the blot on his line unavenged. But to
disobey Darius was against her nature and her family’s honor—in short,
everything she was.

And then, there were these odd feelings Tory brought out in
her. Her life had always been about being in control. He stripped her of all of
it, paring her down to her truest self. Nothing new there. He always had.

The facts were right in front of her. She’d been wrong. What
rankled most wasn’t that her brother had deceived her. It wasn’t that her
government had wrongly convicted a man. What cut her to the quick was the
knowledge that she’d believed it all, swallowed it all. Five years of doubt now
changed to immediate certainty. He wasn’t a traitor. And she’d been a fool.

The doors opened and she heard a step behind the screen.
Buttons beeped and the screen rose back up to the ceiling.

Tory gazed at her. To her absolute embarrassment, her
nipples hardened under his scrutiny. What the hell was wrong with her? He
stepped closer and instead of flinching away in horror, she wanted to lean
toward him.
Pull yourself together, soldier
.

“Your arms must be sore.” He pressed a button and the restraints
released her. She stumbled forward into his arms. The warmth of him sent heat
shooting through her body. Damn it. She didn’t want to be so weak. But he did
something for her that no one else did.

In response, she tried to fight him, but her muscles wouldn’t
obey. They hurt. She hurt. In so many ways. He laid her on the bed and stood
beside it. “I know what you’re planning.”

Planning? What the fuck was he talking about?

“You plan to try to blow up this ship and the cargo we took
from you.”
Oh. That plan.
How the hell did he know that? Another button
pressed and two soft, silky cords appeared from the bed frame near her hips.
Two more appeared near her feet. “You are mine, Alexandra.”

She shivered when he said her name. Alexandra. He’d called
her that once. When he’d begged her—but she wasn’t going to think about that.
“I’ll never be yours,” she lied. And it was a lie. He owned her.

“You already are.” He tied her wrists with the cords so she
lay immobilized on the bed. Her ankles too. It wasn’t uncomfortable, like the
metal rack, but it held her captive, naked and at his mercy.

“Is that why you have to tie me up? If I was ‘yours’, as you
say, you wouldn’t have to.”

His gaze traveled from her face down over her tightened
nipples and her flushed skin. Why did her body have to betray her like that?
His fingers brushed the inside of her thigh. “What would I find, Alexandra?
Would you be wet? I told you I like my sex rough and my women restrained.” His
finger stroked the folds around her clit. “And having
you
like this is
so satisfying.”

“You aren’t having me,” she managed to choke out. “You’re
taking me.” She gasped on the last word as his finger flicked over her nub.

He chuckled, his smile wide and teasing. “I’m going to have
you. And this time,
Saria
mine, you’re going to take me.”

A shiver of fear and desire shuddered through her. Part of
her fought her desire, her desperate need. Another part of her reveled in his
power over her, the way his deep voice rumbled through her body, the way he
played her like an instrument. To distract her body from the need pouring
through her, she fought the restraints. The bite of the rope in her skin should
have lessened her melting need. Instead, it added fuel to the fire, burning
her, sending her senses into another realm of pain and pleasure.

Between desire and despair, she buffeted back and forth. Her
body responded to the restraints, but she couldn’t deny that part of her was
relieved, grateful that she was physically kept from making a fool out of
herself. Without them, she would probably throw her arms around him and cling
to him. The thought made her chest tight and her lips tremble. She took herself
to task and strengthened her resolve. But it wasn’t just her body that melted
at his touch and she didn’t know how to shore up the walls around her heart.

His finger kept the pressure on her pussy and she jerked
against the restraints. One glance at his face spoke volumes. He liked it when
she fought him. He enjoyed it. He wanted her resistance. She could deny him by
laying there like a rock but it just wasn’t in her not to fight. She tamped
down on her response, kept back the whimpers and moans of pleasure that clogged
in her throat. No matter how she tried to shift away from his wicked hands, he
followed. One hand stroked the sensitive skin of her inner thigh as the other
tormented her clit with quick, firm touches.

She should hate him. He’d forced her to be his mate,
manipulated her body to betray her. But the feelings she had thought were ashes
flared to life and she wanted to give in, to surrender, more than she wanted
just the release of her body. The passion built and her orgasm gathered. When
he thrust two fingers inside her slick channel, she exploded, her body arching
off the bed in humiliating pleasure. Her mind went blank, wiped clean by the
pleasure. Here, there was no revenge, no honor, no duty. There was only
sensation.

When his tongue scraped over her clit in time to his
thrusting fingers, she thought she would die. Her head tossed back and forth.
By the stars, she wanted him to stop. She wanted him to go on forever. Nothing
could be like this. The feel of his mouth on her, the way his fingers delved
deep, the thrill of the restraints sent her over the edge and she screamed. Her
pussy convulsed and she drenched his mouth with the evidence of his success. He
moaned and to her it seemed like a sound of triumph.

He lifted his mouth and met her gaze. His face was blurred
by her tears, but it wasn’t triumph she saw there. Raw passion, need and desire
tightened his features. He didn’t seem like a man who’d won a battle but like a
man in the middle of one. His clothes flew across the room, tossed away as if
he couldn’t wait to get naked.

Her breath left her. Naked, Tory was stunning. His black
hair curled around his head, his face chiseled in determination and his strong
jaw set in a straight line. His broad shoulders and narrow hips only added to
his sexiness, his chest hair light and curled. She wanted to touch him, stroke
him.

When her gaze traveled lower, her gut clenched. His cock,
long and lean like the rest of him, waited, fully erect. Her mouth watered. She
wanted to taste him. She wanted him inside her and she didn’t care where.

He apparently had no patience for slow seduction. He
straddled her on the bed, his cock just outside her entrance. “Say the word and
I’ll stop,
Saria.”
Instead, she groaned and arched her body toward him.

His hands were everywhere—her breasts, her belly, her hips.
His mouth traced a line along her neck and captured one of her ears in his
teeth. He sighed, making her tremble. God, he felt so good, his hands so rough
and hot. The way his touch demanded her response, the way his teeth scraped
along her neck, all added to the huge fire raging inside her.

It shouldn’t be like this. Instead of a gentle slide into
pleasure, she was being consumed, burned away, squeezed by the intensity. No
one had ever breached the walls Alex had erected to protect herself. Now, Tory
sliced through them as if they were paper. She wanted to discount it, ignore
what was happening inside her. But there was no denying that more than her
physical being was being breached.