Page 20 of The Captain’s Bounty (The Collectors #2)

Her stomach was melting, the warmth like blossoms that kept opening up inside her only to get caught up in the heat and swirl away, drawn as it dissolved down into her pulsating clit. Her breath catching, she made herself look at him again.

“This is what you do to me,” he told her, easing up on top of both her and the bed. Straddling her legs, he rocked his hips, ever so slightly rubbing the solid bulge of his cock against the soft curve of her ass. “You need to stop now.”

The scrape of his pants pushing into her coupled with his finger, slowly beginning to thrust inside her were beyond wonderful.

She could have closed her eyes, drunk the intoxicating pleasure into her, and happily let him ride her all over again, except for what he said.

She needed to stop? She wasn’t the one grinding on him.

She wasn’t the one with a finger stuck up his ass, either.

She wasn’t doing anything to him except existing in his presence because she had no choice.

She was his captive! He didn’t get to blame her for that!

“I don’t understand.” She looked up and was instantly caught by his gaze, his midnight pupils surrounded by bloody redness instead of white. “What happened to your eyes?”

“You.” His hand in her hair gentled, relaxing as he lowered his face into the soft tresses.

She could feel the expansion of his body as he breathed her in, and caressing strokes as he rubbed her hair against his cheek…

his lips. His voice lowered, growing husky in ways that shivered every eager nerve in her body.

“You do this to me.” His mouth lowered from her hair to the nape of her neck, a kiss that brushed lightly across her skin but shivered through her entire body.

“You need to stop filling the air with your mating scent every time I walk in the room.”

“M-my mating scent?” She’d have rolled over, she was so surprised. “My mating scent? You think I’m aroused by you ?”

His finger was still in her, and she was definitely aroused.

Her face flushed with hot indignation, but there was no squirming away.

Bound as she still was, all she could do was lie where he held her pinned down, his finger in her ass, and his red eyes boring into her from above.

“This isn’t fun for me, no matter what you think,” she told him fiercely and did not concern herself with whether or not it was true.

“You don’t like it, walk away! I’m not a member of your crew, or a stowaway, or a hitchhiker, remember? You kidnapped me!”

He growled, the heat of his breath billowing warmth between her shoulder blades. “I don’t want you,” he said, but grudgingly. As if he were trying to make himself believe it. “Stop compelling me.”

“I don’t want you either,” she spat, angry with herself for feeling this rejected and all while he was heightening her arousal.

With every grind of his cock, every slow thrust of his finger inside her, the shocking jolt of his tongue as he traced up her spine from shoulders to neck.

The sharpness of his teeth nipped and her pussy flowed in response.

Yanking her head all the way back, he caught the lobe of her ear between his sharp teeth, nipping again, winning another gasp from her. “You are making this harder.”

“Says the man with his finger up my ass!” Her protest would have been more believable if only she weren’t panting.

The being inside laughed; Bruwes grudgingly let her go. He almost buried his face in her hair again, but with one last glare aimed at her head, he shoved himself away from her and the bed both.

She regretted the instant separation when his finger left her. She regretted even more when he walked away, disappearing into the bathroom only to re-emerge a minute later, wiping his hands on a towel.

Sitting at the small table, he lay the towel across his thigh.

“Come,” he said tersely, straightening the dishes in front of him. “Eat.”

“With my hands tied behind my back?”

“I’ll feed you.”

“I don’t need you to feed me,” she argued. “In fact, the more I’m near you, the worse your eyes get. Just untie me!”

“You’re too dangerous,” he snapped, dropping the fork he held and bracing his hand on his thigh. He rubbed his red eyes. “Every chance you have, you’ve used your powers to try to harm or escape me.”

She glared at the towel on his lap, shaking her head. “That wasn’t me.”

“No?” He dropped his hand to his thigh, pinning her with a hard glare. “Who was it then?”

As if he’d believe her. She rolled her eyes, then sighed. She couldn’t even think how to explain what had happened or how it came to be inside of her. He’d think she was crazy. “Never mind.”

“Come, sit down right here.” He pointed to the mattress directly in front of his chair. “I will feed you, and then you will have a bath before you go to sleep.”

Swallowing her misgivings, she struggled to push herself up off the foot of the bed without hands for balance.

Righting herself, she came to him. She sat where he pointed, flushing hot all over.

It was beyond humiliating to be naked while he remained clothed, to have him feed her from his plate, from his hand!

The view he had of her—her breasts, her pussy—her entire body made open and vulnerable to whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted it.

Except, he didn’t seem to want her at all anymore. He wasn’t even looking at her as he used the fork to cut a bite of meat and some sort of purplish root vegetable. It looked very squishy, oozing out all its insides through the single slice he’d made.

“Why did you make yourself so easy to capture?” he asked, extending the bite toward her until it was right at her lips.

Smothering another sigh, she gave in to his unspoken command. Leaning forward, she took what he offered her between reluctant teeth, and chewed. It had a savory flavor, but neither tasted like anything she’d before eaten.

“What is this?” she asked, attempting to change the subject.

“So, we’ve all been wondering, ever since we swiped this load from a derelict ship drifting through the Colbear system.

” The next bite he took for himself. “It’s also not going to get you out of answering my question.

You came walking right up to the docking pads as if you weren’t even wanted. What was your plan, to steal a ship?”

“I’m not a pilot,” she admitted. “I can handle a skiff on my own, but nothing as big as this. And I’ve never flown anything in space, not even in-system. To be honest, I didn’t even know about the bounty until you told me.”

He stretched the fork to give her another bite.

“You know,” she hedged. “If you just untie me…”

His pause before he took his next bite was so subtle she almost missed it. But there was no missing the way he dropped the fork on the plate, wiped his mouth on the towel, and then tossed it on the table.

She stomped her bare foot against the hard floor grates, so frustrated she almost growled out loud when he stood up.

“But this is awkward,” she exploded, too late trying to laugh it off when he closed the distance between them in a single stride. “I mean, isn’t this awkward to you? Just uncuff my hands. I won’t do anything or try to escape. I’ll be good. I’ll stop talking about it, if you’ll just untie?—”

“You will stop your mouthing because I tell you to,” he said. “Stand up.”

“Please don’t spank me again,” she groaned. “I can barely sit as it is.”

He looked at her, his dark eyes somewhat narrowed, but the corner of his mouth curling. “And that is my fault, how?”

That felt like such a dangerous question.

She cautiously countered, “Because you’re the one spanking me?”

“Stand, Lissa.” He snapped his fingers and point at a spot on the floor directly between their feet. “Right here. Right now.”

God.

I really like him.

Shut up.

She struggled to keep her balance as she stood up off the edge of the bed. She hated this feeling—having to walk up to him as if she were a disobedient little girl and he were, what… her daddy? She almost laughed out loud.

She found herself eyeing first the table and then the mattress behind her. How was she supposed to bend herself over anything when she couldn’t hold onto anything for balance? She used irritation to help cover how her knees were already trembling and her ass clenching.

“I’m your captive, remember? I’m not supposed to behave.” If she was going to get spanked anyway, she may as well earn it. She kept her eyes down, afraid it would only get worse if he spied the sullenness she couldn’t hide.

He seemed to know it anyway.

He always seemed to know.

His fingers combed up into her hair, taking as much as he could grip in his fist before pulling her head sharply up until she had no choice but to look right at him. His eyes… red, wounded-looking, definitely the worst case of allergies she’d ever seen anyone suffer through in her life.

“Stand up straight,” he calmly ordered. “Shoulders back.”

Her already shallow breaths caught in the back of her throat as she forced herself to obey, straightening her spine. Pushing her shoulders back was harder. It felt too much like she was offering him her breasts.

Her knees shook so badly, she was afraid they might buckle out from under her, but worse was the bloom of fiery lust that spread up out of her core until she could feel it burning in her chest as well as her face.

“I will untie you,” he said as soon as she was in position, “when I am ready, not because you order it of me. Is that understood?”

“Yes.” She tried not to sound sullen when she said it, but the only other option was eagerness. Of the two, the last thing she wanted him to hear was her breathlessly tuning in to the all too wrong but oh so right things he was doing to her. Making her feel. Making her want.

Tipping his head, he regarded her. “Yes, what, Lissa?”