Page 26 of The Captain’s Bounty (The Collectors #2)

“This happened on the bridge?” he asked, doing his best to keep his displeasure at her behavior to himself. He supposed his own behavior hadn’t been quite so stellar. He wasn’t used to having to modify himself for the approval of others.

She was different though. She wasn’t one of his crew.

She was his bounty.

“When it melted the cuffs links,” she admitted, for the first time without a trace of combativeness in her tone.

That helped him to soften even more.

“It?”

“I don’t know if it’s male or female. Female, I think.

” Her mouth flattened again. “ I stand corrected. Their race has long evolved beyond our primitive concepts of gender and to explain their…” She paused, her brow furrowing and head tipping ever so slightly, as if she were indeed listening to someone else.

It would have convinced him, if he’d needed convincing.

For some reason, he realized he didn’t doubt her unbelievable story for a moment.

“Okay, he’s right. That would take too much explanation and probably a flowchart.

Point is, if he had a gender as humans understood it, he would be biologically male, but it’s all vestigial and anyway, he’s in—I’m sorry, it’s in astral form, so all titles derived by physicality are no longer applicable. ”

“And this… chatty ghost is the source of your power?”

She sighed. “And the reason Corporate wants to pay you so much money for me. I guess they think they can use it as a weapon.” She almost rolled her eyes, sighing. “A very powerful weapon. My God, the ego. The two of you have so much in common.”

That didn’t sound like a compliment, but Bruwes let it go without comment. “How did this very powerful being get inside you?”

“I stumbled upon its prison, buried in the sand on Cutirut I. I guess I ran into it. We just… melded.”

“And now it’s inside you.” He drew her hands out of the gel. The blistering was already diminishing, though her fingertips would surely peel and be raw for days.

“He says if you want to stop this from happening again, then don’t put me back in chains.”

He snorted. “How then shall I ensure you don’t try to escape or cause more damage to my ship?”

“I could give you my word that I’ll be perfectly well behaved for as long as we’re together?”

He snorted. Having dealt with two human women now, he knew better than to fall for that. “Unfortunately for you, I’ve known too many humans.”

“Have they all been humans you’ve held captive?” she challenged.

He didn’t like that challenge.

Her stomach rumbled again.

Placing her fingers back in the gel, he said, “Do not move from this spot.”

Her glare followed him from the room, but he didn’t look back. She would either obey, or he would hunt her down to face the consequences.

Marching to the galley, fully aware he made a far better cook than he did a doctor–albeit only marginally–he fixed food.

Most of what they had were packets that needed only to be rehydrated and heated.

He had no idea where the packets were from.

They had cargo crates of packets hailing from dozens of different species, most of which were black market fare and so were unmarked.

Anymore, he’d come to think of his meals as supper surprise.

Tonight’s surprise looked spicy,orange-red and had clumps of what looked like red meat and some form of bland root to give the soup bulk.

He served it over oats he hoped weren’t pre-sweetened and took it back to the Medibay where he found supper surprise number two: Lissa was still sitting where he’d left her, waiting on his return.

“Consider it a token of good faith, cheerfully deposited into my obedience piggy bank,” she said.

He was pleased, but not stupid. “And still, I’ve known too many humans.”

She tsked, taking her hands out of the gel and giving them a gentle shake to dislodge the excess bactalplast.

“You are not done healing.”

“I can’t eat with my toes, either.”

He cocked an eyebrow, the quills on his head rising slightly.

She caved first, tsking with an annoyance belied by the pink flush of a blush creeping into her cheeks.

He caught the most subtle hint of her arousal scent when he came to stand before her.

Dishing up a modest spoonful of food, he tried to ignore the embarrassment as he brought it to her lips.

From captain to caretaker. He didn’t want to enjoy this unfamiliar softening of his well-honed character as he fed her.

She got two chews into it. “Oh my God!”

Snapping her face aside, she covered her mouth with her wrist, eyes tightly closed.

“You do not like the taste, I take it.”

“Oh my God,” she said again, hurriedly swallowing. “It’s horrible.” She opened her mouth. “More. Hurry. Before I change my mind. I’m so hungry.”

“Fingers,” he reminded, shoveling an even bigger spoonful into her mouth.

She obeyed, shuddering and choking as she chewed.

That was almost adorable, how quickly she snacked each bite off the spoon, sometimes groaning, sometimes gagging, but always swallowing just as fast as she could.

“Don’t choke.”

“Not on this, God.” She took the next bite. “Not when there’s so much more pleasant things to cho?—”

She said it like a joke, but the way she caught herself and stared at him, that flush of pink flooding her face, perked his attention before the meaning of her words did.

“More pleasant things to choke on?” He watched her blush darken to red.

“To eat,” she corrected, not meeting his gaze. “Maybe not on this ship, but I have had better. Even when it was terrible. So has it , or so he claims.”

That wasn’t what she meant and no amount of protesting would make him believe it. And like her blush, her scent was getting stronger.

He gave her the last bite and politely changed the subject. “Do you find me sexually attractive?”

She choked midway through swallowing. She almost turned all the way around in her bid to look away, coughing into her elbow until she couldn’t breathe. He didn’t think for a second she was that red because she couldn’t swallow.

“Oh my God,” she said again. Much softer, almost under her breath.

“I can smell your arousal.”

So, there was no point in lying, not that it stopped her from trying.

“Um, no. No, I don’t find you–why would you even ask such a thing?”

He set the bowl on the table behind her, an excellent excuse for moving in a little closer. “I think you are lying. I think you enjoy choking on my cock.”

She scoffed, looking everywhere but at him. “I’ve been bouncing from dig site to dig site for a while, so…”

He looked pointedly down at the shirt she wore.

His uniform shirt, back when he’d been a collector and was required to wear them.

He waited until her self-consciousness got the better of her.

When she looked down too, he took hold of the front and ripped it open from collar to hem.

It took two strong yanks to accomplish it.

Her nipples crowned into stiff dusky brown peaks for his viewing pleasure.

He let his gaze find hers. The brilliant green of her eyes was turning smoky. Her breaths were shallow and quick.

“Why did you do that?”

“Because I desire you, and you appeal to me more when you are kept thus.” She’d look even better with her hands bound behind her, but he kept that to himself. He saw no need to make himself completely vulnerable with needless confessions, or to rile the power of this “ it ” inside her.

Some of the heat left her eyes. “If that were true, you wouldn’t still be planning to sell me.”

“If not me, someone else.”

“They’d have to catch me first.” Her chin hiked.

“It took me all of three hours.”

Her chin hiked a little higher. “I’m not trapped on a planet without a ship anymore. Also, I’m not defenseless. I have help.”

“Me,” he surmised.

A little more of the delicious desire left her gaze. It was gone now.

“No,” she admitted.

He could see the truth of it in her face. She meant it. The being inside her.

He should not have found this upsetting. He was as far from being anyone’s rescuing savior as a Me’Kavian could be. But still, he felt stung.

He worked hard not to show it.

A sudden rumbling vibration shook the ship all around them as the Medibay lights came back on. Air hissed from the ventilation duct, making stray wisps of her brown hair move in the artificial breeze.

The data-comm beeped. “Bruwes, do you want the good news or bad news?”

He sighed. This would have to wait. He didn’t know how to proceed with her anyway. He hit the comm. “Good news.”

Again, he needed it.

“We fixed the life support, although the engines are still offline and the thrusters are at seventeen percent. Turns out they’re not recommended for prolonged used or evasive maneuvers.”

“Can we squeeze them enough to get planetside?”

“One of life’s great unanswered questions, I guess,” Aldar said in a distant tone.

The entire ship reverberated with the metal clang of docking clamps latching onto them.

The data-comm beeped again as Aldar drawled, “We’re about to get boarded.”