2
NORA
Nora had found it out by accident when she was looking on her boss’s computer for some reports she needed to file. She dealt with the legal documents that came through the HKR building during the weekend, being sure all the Joining Contracts and the Claiming papers were filed with the human Clerk’s Office according to legal procedure, so none of the Claiming Period rules was invalidated. Following the letter of the law was important to the Kindred —they wanted to be sure their partnership with Earth and their ability to call human brides wasn’t jeopardized in any way.
That was fine with Nora . It was easy work and she got paid an excellent amount to do it. In fact, she’d been hoping that a full-time position at the HKR building might open up. She would be able to live much more easily instead of scraping by paycheck-to-paycheck if she could get one of those.
But so far no one was eager to leave their position and even if they did, there was a waiting list of applicants all eager to work for the Kindred . At this point, Nora had resigned herself to never getting full-time work with them. But part-time was good too—so she’d been thinking as she stepped into Commander Xarex’s office, looking for the latest batch of forms.
She didn’t see them anywhere and she had a deadline to file them. She would have asked her boss, but he had been called away to a meeting aboard the Mother Ship —the huge Kindred spacecraft which was more like an enormous city that orbited the Earth’s moon. There was no way she was going to call him up there and interrupt what was probably a very important meeting.
Then she remembered that there was always an electronic copy of every Joining Contract —they were scanned in the minute both the Kindred warrior and the human woman he was calling as a bride signed them. Then they could go up to the Mother Ship for their Claiming Period —a month to get to know each other and be certain they were a good match.
Nora had heard things about the Claiming Period …rumors abounded about what a Kindred warrior was allowed to do and how he was allowed to touch his new bride in more and more intimate ways. Her friend Samantha had confirmed that this was true, blushing scarlet the whole time. She’d also admitted that the Kindred were hot and giving lovers, preferring to spend hours pleasuring their women before they came themselves.
Nora thought it was likely that Samantha’s new spouse was the only one who fit that description. Her best friend had just happened to win the lottery in the husband department. As for Nora , she’d never been with a man who was determined to give her multiple orgasms before he got his rocks off. Steve had barely been able to last two minutes before he blew his load and she’d usually had to finish herself off with a vibrator after he rolled over and started snoring.
She had no idea what she was thinking these things as she hunted for the Joining Contracts . But it all flew out of her head when her eyes lit on the lighted screen of her boss’s computer.
Normally Nora wouldn’t have gone into Commander Xarex’s private computer, but she knew she was going to get into trouble if she didn’t file those forms with the Clerk’s Office on time. She told herself she was just going to print them out quickly and then walk away and never darken the door of her boss’s office again unless he called for her. She would be in and out in no time—easy-peasy.
Luckily, as a member of the legal staff, she had the master password and was able to get into his computer. The minute Nora got in, she began clicking, hunting for the Joining Contracts . There were two tabs marked “ Joining ” so she clicked on one at random…and got the surprise of her life.
The “ Joining ” file she had clicked on had all kinds of joining in it…just not the kind she’d expected. Instead of the dry, sterile contracts, she found what could only be described as porn.
All kinds of porn.
Fascinated despite herself, she began clicking through the various images and vids. One thing became immediately apparent—all the women in the porn that Commander Xarex had saved looked somewhat alike. They all had long brown hair and most of them had brown eyes. All of them were curvy too, with wide behinds, broad, child-bearing hips, and thick thighs. But Nora had long brown hair and brown eyes and a big behind and thick thighs. They all looked like…
“They all look like me,” Nora muttered to herself. Then she clapped a hand over her mouth and looked around. Her heart was pounding guiltily and she expected her tall, imposing Dark Kindred boss to step into the room at any minute.
No, it’s okay, she told herself. He’s not even here right now—he’s up on the Mother Ship . He can’t see you—it’s fine. You’re fine .
She knew she ought to click away immediately and look at the other Joining tab instead for the contracts she needed. Or better yet leave a note for the regular paralegal who worked Monday through Friday that the contracts needed to be printed out again and filed ASAP with the Clerk’s Office . She ought to do anything, in fact, other than scrolling through her scary Dark Kindred boss’s private porn stash.
But somehow she couldn’t make herself look away.
It wasn’t just the fact that every woman she saw resembled her in some way—that might just be a coincidence, she told herself. But it was the kind of porn that Commander Xarex had saved.
Most of it seemed to be BDSM —but not the horrible kind where a woman is basically being tortured. Instead it seemed to mostly concentrate on the woman being bound or tied down in some way so she couldn’t move. In some images and vids the women were blindfolded as well—completely at the mercy of the man who had tied or handcuffed or chained them.
Many of the vids also showed lots of what her friend Samantha called “going downtown.” Nora was surprised to see that. She’d never known a man who fantasized about giving women oral pleasure but apparently, Commander Xarex did. Out of pure fascination, she clicked on one vid of a woman with curvy hips and long brown hair who was bound spread eagle to a bed with a man standing over her.
“Please, what are you going to do to me?” the woman pleaded in a soft, broken voice. “ Please , Master —what did I do wrong?”
Despite her protests and the way she was struggling against her bonds, her pussy was wet and swollen with need, Nora saw. Feeling hypnotized, she kept watching.
“You were very naughty , Marissa ,” the masked man who was holding a riding crop said sternly. “ You disobeyed my orders to spread your legs. That’s why I had to spread them for you.”
“But what— ow!” she gasped because he had given her a sharp slap with the end of the riding crop, leaving a red mark on her inner thigh.
“That’s for being disobedient,” he growled, frowning down at her. “ And now for the second part of your punishment, you’re going to hold still while I eat your pussy. And you’re not allowed to come until I tell you to.”
He climbed between the woman’s legs and Nora watched with a fast-beating heart as he ducked his head and began to lick between her thighs. The curvy brunette moaned and writhed in her bonds but she was unable to close her legs because her ankles were tied to the bedposts. The man stopped several times to admonish her and whip her with the riding crop but it was clear his main focus was on eating her out.
Nora became aware that she had been staring at the screen for who knew how long and that her heart was pounding. Her breath was coming short and her hands were clammy and damp with perspiration. What the Hell was wrong with her?
Numbly, she clicked off the video and scrolled down some more. Over and over she saw the same kind of thing—a curvy woman with long brown hair bound or restrained while a man tasted her or pleasured her in some way.
“There must be hundreds of these!” she muttered to herself. How long had Commander Xarex been collecting porn and why in the world would he keep it on his work computer? It just didn’t make sense. But it also didn’t make sense that all of the women in some way resembled Nora herself.
She pushed that second thought away. Surely it was just a coincidence that the women in her boss’s porn looked like her. He had never been anything but coldly polite to her before and if his silver eyes seemed to follow her wherever she went, well, she was sure he was just watching to be sure she did her job correctly.
Nora had closed the file guiltily and hadn’t even clicked on the other “ Joining ” tab. She shut down the computer and left the office in a hurry, looking over her shoulder to be certain that no one had seen her. Then , for the next several weeks, she tried desperately to tell herself she hadn’t seen what she had seen.
But now she was going to use the illicit information to her benefit, she thought, lifting her chin as she strolled into the HKR building for her regular Saturday shift. She was certain that Commander Xarex wouldn’t want his immediate supervisor to know that he was viewing porn at work—especially kinky BDSM porn. She would wait until she could get her boss alone and then let him know—very calmly and coolly—that she knew what he was hiding and that she was prepared to reveal his sick little secret unless he agreed to marry her so she could get lifesaving treatment for Anna .
It was a plan she never would have come up with unless she was absolutely desperate. Commander Xarex was extremely frightening—despite the fact that he was supposed to have no emotions he had a menacing air about him and he was so tall that her head didn’t even come up to his biceps.
But Nora would do anything for her niece—her daughter—anything at all. Dr . Patel had given Anna only six months to live—the clock was ticking and she needed to be seen by a Kindred specialist right away. So even though it made her stomach feel like she’d swallowed a pound of ice cubes that refused to melt, Nora was determined to go through with it.
She was going to get Anna her treatment no matter what she had to do to get it!