Page 86 of Auctioned to the Convicts
His Hannah.
Hell, he really shouldn’t think of her in those terms. Not until he knew for sure if she had any feelings for him. She’d given herself to him in the bedroom and the kitchen, and both times it felt like she gave in to his demands, his needs, simply to bind him to the damn unit.
During third meal last night, Vaughn had sensed a shift in her. He had taken Hannah’s hand to keep her from squeezing her fingers, a habit she had when she became anxious. Seeing her upset tore at him. The woman deserved better than being stuck on this hell-hole of a planet. They all did, but Hannah in particular. She was special, sweet. . . too sweet for the criminals here. He hoped Narkos wouldn’t change her, as it had many of the men.
As it had him.
Ren had changed over the years. By the time Vaughn had arrived on Narkos, four years after Ren, the engineer had already been full of anger. But not as much as the last two or three years. Narkos had a way of breaking a man, slowly in some cases, but surely. Narkos had broken Vaughn as well, faster than Ren. That’s partly why Vaughn worried about Hannah so much. That, and the man who had attacked her. Maybe when she trusted the men in her unit, the men who’d come to care about her, she’d divulge her attacker’s name.
“You’re deep in thought,” Hannah casually remarked as she entered the kitchen to eat first meal.
“Thinking about third meal last night.”
Hannah sat down next to him, lacing her fingers with his. Those long, graceful fingers fit so perfectly against his, as her body had in her bedroom. Every time he touched her, he felt a little more alive.
“You seem to know when I’m stressed,” she said. “Your hand on my thigh last night helped. A lot. It made me feel less alone, you know? I mean, I never had much choice growing up. There was a lot of fighting when Holden joined the family, more than usual, but even before that my mom preferred spending most of her time with my dads. And with Amelia always sick or in trouble. . .”
Her voice trailed off. Anytime she spoke of her sister, which wasn’t often, Hannah shut down. He got it. They all had pasts they’d prefer to forget, or at least parts of them, anyway. Fucking Vance.
She got up to retrieve a piece of fruit from the counter. As she returned to her seat, he swung her onto his lap.
“What’s this about?”
“You won the bet yesterday. It’s your seat.”
“Ren’s my seat.”
“He’s not here. I have his proxy.”
Just remembering how wet she’d been for him last night as he fingered her while the other men ate, went right to his cock. He enjoyed surprising her, especially watching how she never gave in to him, not easily. She was a fighter, his Hannah. Maybe, just maybe, he could keep her from bending to the pressures of Narkos. He didn’t want to see Dresden break her as the manager had broken him.
“I mean to finish what I started last night,” Vaughn added, liking the idea the more he thought of it. Except they were alone. He could do much more than get her off with his fingers.
Hannah lifted a brow. “Is that so?”
“I would have continued,” he said as he smoothed his fingers over the firm, soft flesh of her thighs.
Her breath hitched, making his cock harden at the thought of taking her here in the kitchen.
As he pulled her panties to the side, she wiggled her ass on his lap. “How comfortable do you think this will be while you eat?”
“Done eating. First meal, that is,” he said, grinning.
“Well, I’m starved,” she said, in that innocent way of hers. She had no idea the effect she had on him, how hard it was to think about anything else when she was near. Even when she wasn’t near.
He’d had trouble focusing in the med-center yesterday, his thoughts constantly returning to her, to their first time together. He regretted how he’d treated her, and yet she didn’t seem to have held any of it against him. She had a great capacity to forgive, more than he deserved.
* * *
HANNAH
Hannah wasn’t quite sure what Vaughn was up to beyond driving her wild. He could just as easily come to her bedroom since she slept in Ren’s old bedroom alone. Ky’Li had moved in with Sersie in the middle bedroom, leaving Vaughn and Ren in the smallest bedroom, but she was learning to go with the flow when it came to Vaughn. It was the only way he’d let her see the man he hid from everyone, the one he didn’t trust to release.
She squirmed, trying to tease him and maybe beat him at his own game. “Are you sure you want me sitting here? I’m not exactly a lightweight and there are four empty seats.”
His hand slipped into her panties, sending a shiver down her spine.
“The day I complain about having you on top of me will be the day I need to be buried. If you’re eating first meal, Hannah, you’ll do so on my lap. Stop protesting and let me enjoy the view.”
