Page 52 of Warped

Only a dream, I tell myself. Only a dream.

It was so vivid, though. Far more vivid than any dream I’ve ever had before. Especially that creepy voice echoing inside my head—I’m coming to get you, Bianca, I’m coming to get you—and that awful baying of the hound. The memory makes me shudder.

Only a dream.

When I fell asleep, I was naked, and I still am, but now my body is at least covered by the satin bedsheets. Another body is lying next to mine, big and warm and masculine. Instinctively, I nestle myself against it for comfort.

Rek.

Even in the darkness, I can tell it’s him just by the shape of his body and the sound of his breath. He is sleeping, and judging by the stiffness of his cock, his dreams are more pleasant than mine. I wrap my fingers around him and stroke him gently, taking care not to rouse him from his slumber.

I remember the game we played last night, and all the pleasure Rek and Traven gave me. Pleasure like I’ve never experienced before. I lean in close and press a kiss to the sleeping warper’s lips. Then I turn over to give Traven a kiss too, but his side of the bed is empty. He got up early to cook breakfast, I bet. What time is it, anyway?

I sit up and look around the bedroom, but it’s too dark to see anything.

“Nomad,” I whisper. “Increase bedroom lights ten percent.”

A faint glow suffuses the space, providing just enough light to see by. I throw off the sheet and start to climb toward the edge of the bed when a voice from the side of the room almost startles me out of my skin.

“You’re awake. Good.”

I let out a sharp squeal and spin to face the voice.

Traven is lounging in a padded chair by the wall. The same one he used when he watched me and Rek have sex for the first time.He is naked, with one leg flung casually over the arm of the chair, and his manhood is on full display, hard and throbbing with desire. My mouth waters at the sight of him. My heart leaps.

Then I see what he’s holding in his right hand, and my blood goes cold.

It’s my datastick.

PART THREE:

NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED

CHAPTER 22: TRAVEN

Binx’s eyes tell me everything I need to know.

Okay, maybe noteverything, but enough to know that I’m on the right track.

As soon as she sees the datastick in my hand, those blue eyes go wide, and her mouth drops open in a pretty pink O of surprise. Under other circumstances, that sight would make my dick rock hard. Well… harder than it already is after watching her sleep for the past several minutes. But right now, sex is the last thing on my mind.

I want to know what secret Binx has been hiding, and I intend to find out, one way or another.

“Where did you get that?” she asks, staring at the datastick.

“Where do you think?” I gesture toward the walk-in closet on the other side of the room. “In the pocket of your coat.”

Binx’s expression shifts. Her face, which a moment ago was blanched with shock at seeing the datastick in my hand, now takes on a rosy hue of anger, and the fear in her eyes makes way for that look of hot defiance that never fails to make my nuts throb with desire.

“You can’t just go through my stuff like that!” she shouts.

“I can,” I tell her, “and I did.”

I rise from the chair and walk over to the edge of the bed. Binx does her best to hold my gaze, but she lets her eyes drop briefly to my hard cock jutting out in front of me as I stride toward her.She swallows nervously, then she recovers and meets my gaze again.

“This is an invasion of my privacy,” she says.

“Privacy? I thought we’d already been through all that. As long as you’re companioning aboardthe Nomad, you’re considered a member of the crew, and the crew doesn’t get any privacy. This is my ship, and—”

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