Page 57 of Auctioned to the Convicts
She whimpered at that, then looked up, to see him watching her closely. His thrusts slowed into a gentler pace. “I can’t be trusted,” he said, his voice softer now.
“You won’t let me down. It’s why I chose you.”
“You chose me because you needed a doctor. And I needed a woman to fuck. It was a good deal.”
“There were other doctors in that crowd. I saw something in you, compassion, integrity.”
He laughed, lifted his eyes away from her again until she gripped his head harshly this time, forcing him to face her.
“I need your compassion, Vaughn. I need you to keep me sane when I’m cornered and don’t know what to do. When this place becomes too much for me to handle alone. I’m scared, of the way the men look at me, touch me, the things they say. I‘m scared of the four of you and how easily this pseudo-peace we have will explode one day and tear apart the only people that I can trust to watch my back. I’m scared that you, Ky’Li, Ren, and Sersie will leave me one day, that you’ll tire of me and leave me to the likes of Griggs. But mostly, I’m scared I’ll forget who I am, that I’ll let this planet change me into someone I won’t like.”
“God, you’re so fucking special, Hannah, and you don’t even know it.”
Vaughn captured her mouth, his tongue pushing past her lips, desperate, like a man who hadn’t had a drink in years. His kisses softened as his hand smoothed down her side. His fingers feathered over her with the lightest touch. A new heat, intense and all-consuming, spread through her body with every kiss and touch. As he slid into her again in one gentle yet smooth stroke, she felt the tension leave his muscles.
His thrusts were nothing like earlier. He stroked her, caressed her from within, almost agonizingly slow as if he were savoring the moment. Perhaps he was, for she still felt a fear in him. He didn’t believe she could love him, or worse—Vaughn didn’t believe he deserved to be loved.
“Give me his name. Let me do something good for a change, something that will make you mine.”
“I’m already yours. You’re fucking me, aren’t you?”
“Not because you want it.”
He was wrong. She wanted him, all of him. Every time he touched her, her body sailed, but her heart tightened when she saw the pain in his face or heard it in his voice. She didn’t know how to reach him, how to make him feel as if he deserved anything good in his life.
“Tell me, Hannah.”
“I can’t,” she said, hating herself for not being able to give him this. “I know what Ky’Li will do, and I suspect you would support him.”
“Damn right.”
“That’s not what I want for this unit. For you.” She ran her fingers through his hair, gripping tight. “I don’t know what’s happened to you, but you’re not like the others here, Vaughn.”
His head fell forward, into the crook of her neck and shoulder as he shifted his hips. She wrapped her legs around him, locking him to her. He stopped thrusting as he lifted his head and his eyes connected with hers. She’d surprised him.
Without a single word between them, he pulled out, then slowly slammed back into her, penetrating deep. His eyes remained on her the entire time. One after the next, his strokes hit that one spot within her that made her entire body sing with a pleasure she hadn’t experienced in a long time.
Vaughn’s lips captured hers again, sending her over the edge. Her entire body seized as a delicious, spine-tingling energy flowed through her. Her pussy tightened around his cock, and his moans joined her as he spilled deep inside of her.
Vaughn pushed the hair back from her forehead as he remained inside her, his cock pulsing. “You want us to come together as a unit,” he said, his voice softer than before. “But you’re hiding information we need. The man should be put down.”
Hannah agreed. Max should be put down like the rabid dog he was, except Dresden would ship Vaughn and Ky’Li, maybe her entire unit, off to Veenith where they wouldn’t survive long. It wouldn’t matter who Dresden gave her to then.
“I won’t sacrifice you or the others.”
Vaughn nodded. It was brief and filled with confusion, but he wasn’t fighting her anymore. Maybe, just maybe, she’d broken through to him.
* * *
KY’LI
After two weeks of working in the mine, Ky’Li had come to two conclusions. First, the miners were all low-lifes who deserved to be on Narkos. Griggs and his unit were the top of that list. They went out of their way talking about what they planned to do to Hannah, just to provoke him. They would get the beating they were asking for, but it would be at a time and place of Ky’Li’s choosing, not theirs.
Second, he had been wrong to demand Hannah stay away from the other men in their unit. They were decent males, honorable in their own ways. Even Sersie, who gave in to drugs, had been thinking of Hannah more than himself. He’d taken note of the foods she liked and stocked the kitchen with them, including one Vaughn cautioned against due to an allergy Sersie had. Vaughn watched over Sersie, intent to keep the younger man free of drugs, despite his dislike for the man. Ren had done the same for that matter, though the engineer avoided Ky’Li at all times. The engineer was smarter than Ky’Li had initially thought.
All in all, the men were experts in their fields and commanded respect for their skills. Hannah had chosen well, but in no regard did Ky’Li believe they had a claim on his female. He had fought for her, and she had exchanged names with him. Enough said.
Except Hannah was not from Daraan. She was from Argus, where women took more than one mate due to the shortage of women there and in most of the quadrant. She expected the same to be true of this unit. Ky’Li had a feeling she would continue ignoring him until he changed his position on the matter. That was a problem. He would not accept another male in her bed.
