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It was pathetic and humiliating.

It had started on the third night. After the first time she swore it wouldn’t happen again. Yet it had. And it was getting worse.

Yesterday she’d spent eight hours straight exercising until she’d collapsed into a heap, certain that this time she would sleep. It had made no difference.

It was as if her body was reminding her of what she’d shared with her alien lover, and what she’d lost.

She was Vahn’s captive in more ways than one.

At least no one was harassing her. As an enemy combatant, she would have expected some unpleasantness from the guards who watched over her. Contemptuous sneers at the very least, or maybe bodily fluids added to her meals. But there was nothing.

She had to hand it to them. They’d been ordered not to mistreat her and they hadn’t. She wasn’t sure a Vraxian prisoner on Earth would have been so lucky.

They’d given her clean clothes, fed her three times a day, and every morning on the dot they took her to a bathroom to wash.

The first time she’d been put into the bare metal cubicle she’d kicked and screamed, convinced she was about to be gassed or shot into space. But when water suddenly sprayed from a nozzle at one end of the cubicle she’d figured it out.

Huh. A shower.

It was the first warm wash she’d had since being stranded on Minerva-6 all those months ago.

There was no soap but the sharp antiseptic smell of the water suggested it contained cleaning agents. Probably really bad for human skin but what the hell. It was better than the stink of sweat she’d been cultivating.

Best of all, the guards had left her on her own while she showered. Obviously they were right outside the door but at least she had privacy.

When the Vraxian she’d kicked came to haul her back to the cell she flinched, convinced he would mete out some punishment for the bruise she’d given him. But again, there was nothing. Not even a snide comment.

Vahn had made it clear he wanted her unharmed and obedience was clearly a thing here. Apart from the daily meals and shower, she was left in peace. It would have been restful if it wasn’t for the small matter of being a captive of the Vraxian Empire.

Now Kara was lying on the narrow bed staring at the ceiling and wondering if she’d ever see Earth again. She thought about her mother. Did the President still think her daughter was dead?

Maybe they’d had a funeral for her. God, she hoped they had. She itched to know if anyone had cried. Perhaps Captain Koenig, though to be fair if her commanding officer had shed any tears it would have been for the Merlin space-fighter she’d destroyed.

The door to the detention wing opened. She heard footsteps approaching but didn’t bother looking round.

“Dinner already? You boys are early.”

There was no response. She glanced over, then stumbled to her feet. Vahn was standing in front of her cell flanked by his two enormous bodyguards.

For a long moment they stared at each other. Kara noted sourly that he looked good.

His long white hair hung sleekly to below his broad shoulders. His clothes were freshly pressed; a silken tunic slashed to the waist, accentuating his muscles. Tight black trousers which molded to his lower body like a second skin. A belt slung round his hips.

Sweet Jesus, he was well-built. It was one of the things she loved – shehadloved about him.

Her eyes rested on his serpetri, the two tentacle-like limbs which grew from his torso. Currently they were curled loosely round his waist. But she knew if he chose, they could deliver a poisonous sting as deadly as a viper’s bite.

Or a touch as soft as a butterfly’s wing.

An X-rated memory of the things he’d done to her with those limbs flitted through her mind and she looked away.

“Come to gawk at me, snake-boy?” she snapped. “I’ve got nothing to say to you.”

He didn’t answer and for the first time she noticed the pallor of his face. Shadows hollowed out his cheekbones and his normally blue scales seemed pale, almost chalky.

The last time she’d seen him like that he’d been sick.

Good,she thought savagely.I hope he’s ill. I hope he’s really suffering. He deserves it.