Page 51 of The Captain's Bounty
“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 hasit, 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.
