Page 16 of The Captain's Bounty
What wasthat?the being asked, but Lissa ignored it.
“You!” she breathed, her temper exploding. “Asshole!”
Hands once more resting upon his thighs, Bruwes seemed unbothered. “Option two can be repeated as often as necessary, and it will never again be as brief or as gentle as what you’ve just received.”
It was all Lissa could do to keep her breathing even and her mouth shut, until the being ruined it for her.
“What are my options again?” it asked with her mouth.
“Eat like a lady or get a nutritional enema,” Bruwes said evenly. “And I promise to make it the most humbling experience you’ll ever endure.”
In a gust, Lissa exhaled every molecule of air she didn’t realize she’d been holding in. Immediately, she sucked it all back in again.
Don’t say it.
“You wouldn’t dare,” she seethed.
I do believe he would.
The bounty hunter didn’t even blink. “You have no idea the lengths to which my daring exceeds when it needs to. Now, what will it be?” Picking up the bowl, he once more offered her a spoonful overflowing with greasy blobs and milky sludge.
Her stomach pinched in hard, rumbling loudly.
God. Damn it.
Shaking her head, as furious with herself now as was with them, she opened her mouth and ate the damn soup. Like an infant, dependent upon his every spoonful because her hands were bound behind her back. And the soup wasn’t even terrible, which made her that much madder.
When one spent their life on dig sites located far from the nearest town, one learned very quickly to eat whatever was set in front of them, but this wasn’t bad at all—savory, a little peppery, not too much salt. It was hard to identify the lumps of white meat, but she thought it might be fish. Whatever it was, it had definitely been dehydrated a little too long. But then, she quite familiar with the chewy consistency that deep-space food tended to gain after ten or more years in storage.
Even if it tasted terrible, she doubted she could stop herself from gulping it down. From the moment the first drop of creamy broth hit her tongue, nothing else mattered. It was as if her body had never known food before. Ravenous to the point of pain, she gobbled everything he offered her.
And nobody said a word. For the longest time, the only sounds were the vaguely perceptible hum of ship engines, thescrape of the spoon against the side of the metal bowl, and her, gulping and gasping with every bite.
“Do you need the receptacle?” he asked, once the bowl was empty.
She hadn’t, but now that he mentioned it, peeing was all she could think about.
“Yes.” She swiveled, making it easier for him to reach her hands, but he made no move to uncuff them. Taking her elbow, he pulled her off the side of the bed onto her feet and led her into an adjacent bathroom.
The room was the epitome of function over decoration. The sink was nothing more than a metal bowl attached to the wall. So was the toilet, for that matter. The shower was a cylindrical tube barely big enough for the size of the male who pushed her into the room ahead of him, taking her directly to the toilet.
Then again, considering she’d just spent six weeks in the desert with recycled water and a designated rocky outcrop for a bathroom, this was damn near luxury.
Her breath caught, her belly at once erupting in blossoms of heat and knots of embarrassment as he turned her so her back was to the toilet. His gaze burned into hers, all but daring her to protest as he unfastened her pants. He skinned them down her legs, followed by her underwear, leaving them both tangled around her knees.
His grip held her steady, and even though her shirt wasn’t anywhere near long enough to conceal her from the hips down, his dark eyes never wavered from hers. “Sit.”
She did, but mostly because her knees were starting to quake. If he thought for a second she was going to use this thing in front of him…
Backing up a step, Bruwes leaned against the wall opposite of her, folded his arms across his chest and waited.
He couldn’t be serious.
“I’m not...” she stammered. “Not in front of you...”
Bad enough that she would have to share this moment with an alien…
I promise you, every aspect of your physical being is equally disgusting to me. Empty your bowels, woman. I don’t care.
