Page 66 of The Captain's Bounty
“Four,” Bruwes interrupted.”Our water recyclers are still non-functional and we have no food.”
She blinked. “Yes, but we have all those crates of vodka. We’ll be drunk as hell, but it’s liquid. Plus, there’s that really disgusting myth involving drinking our own pee…”
“I have not heard that myth,” he said, looking at her oddly. “Now I give us three days, since I know I will not do that and likely, neither will my crew.”
“You might be surprised what you’d do to survive if you had to.”
“I doubt I’ll ever be that surprised.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Lissa sniffled, staring at the wet sheen on her hands after wiping her eyes. “Ten days, four days… I knowit sounds stupid, but it’s…” She shook her head. “It’s too many days without you.”
He looked at her, for one glorious heartbeat in time his normally impassive face completely unguarded. He was touched. And then, just like this ship, his shields came up. He looked away, the muscles in his jaw clenching furiously as he struggled with how to reply.
“Lissa…”
“It’s fine.” Feeling even worse than before, she backpedaled. “Really, it is. You don’t have to say anything.”
He lay his hand upon her knee, and the blossoms in her stomach tangled with all the awkwardness knotting up her insides. She stared at it, feeling the comfort of that gentle squeeze enveloping her heart too.
“Lissa. I know how you feel.”
When his eyes met hers, she knew. Without awkwardness, without a doubt, she more than just ‘liked’ him. She was more than just falling in love with him too. She’d fallen. She’d fallen hard.
“That’s why I ordered Vullum to kill you,” he went on in the same halting, intense tone, “once he knew there was no further hope.”
Her stomach dropped again. She blinked twice. “Wh-what?”
“I am...” he hesitated and, if anything, his shields came up that much tighter. She could see it in every tensing muscle in his body—his shoulders, his hands, his thighs in that half-second before he erupted off the pile of clothes and the stuffed lizard that had softened their fall. He walked away from her, his balance only slightly off as the ship began to even out again and he made that smooth transition between walking on the wall and being back on the floor again. She was significantly clumsier, almost falling as she dodged the giant lizard again.
Turning, he came back to her. “I am not soft,” he said, his voice as rough as his skin. “My life is not soft. I was raised to rule. I rebelled and was banished by my own father. I believe I was just and I don’t regret my choice, but the bounty on my head will not be going anywhere. In fact, I believe I have just made it worse.”
She looked up. There were no loudspeakers in this room, but she could still hear the drone of his recorded voice, blasting his message not only in the ship, but outside of it. Sending news of Me’Kava’s crime and their location recklessly out to anyone and everyone.
“This is not the kind of betrayal you win forgiveness for,” he said. “Ever. I know that, but again, I believe my decision is right. Me’Kava—the Councils, my father—are all about to learn what it is like to live with a bounty on their heads. They will no longer be able to live in peace while poaching from those who don’t even know danger exists. They will be invaded. Those who can’t run will be conquered. Those who have been imprisoned in an attempt to breed the Rage from our genome, it’s my hope that they’ll be freed and allowed to go wherever they call home, but I’m no fool. There are scars that never heal. But there will never be a time when there isn’t a price on me. I can’t imagine you want to live like that.”
“No, I don’t,” she said honestly. “But the price on me isn’t going anywhere either. The alien is gone, but Corporate doesn’t know that, and likely wouldn’t believe it even if they’d caught everything that happened in the tech bay on camera. They’ll come after me because it was in me and because some part of it is still in me, or changed me, or something., And even if that wasn’t true, they’d never believe that. If they ever catch me, I’ll be nothing but an experiment until they kill me.”
“I won’t allow that,” Bruwes said bluntly.
“You might not be able to stop it,” she replied, just as bluntly.
“No.” He tipped his head, his hand rising until she felt the warmth of his grip settle loosely upon her throat. “I mean, I will not allow it. I liked the way you looked, confined in my room. In my bed. I… liked the way you looked on your knees before me, crying out to me as I took your body with mine. I am not a good man. Given my way, I would keep you that way always.”
Her belly warmed, that old familiar thrum of excitement coming to life between the involuntary tensing of her thighs. “I liked that too.”
He scoffed. “Said the woman who burned through every bond I put her in.”
“I didn’t like being confined, but I liked being bound by you. I liked…” The confession felt guilty and deliciously sinful on her lips. “I liked being helpless in your bed. I liked it when you made me do things.”
They had to be at least three feet apart, and yet no sooner did the hot liquid trickle through her pussy folds, than did his nostrils flare. He moved a step closer.
“I am not gentle, but I will feed you even if I must go hungry. I will give you drink, even if I thirst.”
“I’m not asking for you to—” She fell instantly silent when he put his hand on her throat again, pushing her backwards until suddenly the wall was at her back and she was pinned to it.
“I will be a friend to you, above all others,” he said softly. “I will shelter you from the storm, until all options are exhausted and all avenues of escape have shut. So do I swear to you, Lissa, I will be the one you can trust so you never need fear spending your life in a cage. You will not be Corporate’s experiment, nor anyone else’s. I promise, you may trust me to see to it.”
“You’re promising to kill me if ever we get captured,” she echoed, her heart skipping a beat. It wasn’t exactly a happy feeling, and yet she wasn’t afraid of him either. She should havebeen. He’d just threatened to kill her—admittedly, under a very specific set of circumstances. But still…
