you will show him the way away from it just as you did me, my Lady,” he whispered softly to her as he brought his lips to her soft cheek. “You will show him how easy it is to love you. You will teach him all the reasons why you’ve earned my undying loyalty and commitment. And one day, I have no doubt, you will even make him come for you, harder and with far more pleasure than any stimulant ever could manage.”
That made her chuckle softly, her body relaxing as his hands gathered her against him. She felt his large palms sliding down her back and cupping over her bottom briefly as he hugged her tightly to his huge frame. The embrace brought her pelvis to pelvis with him, reminding her instantly of the uncomfortable dissatisfaction of both their unfulfilled bodies. She had been running on an excited high ever since Najir had hurried in and told her of his discovery. She had turned him away then, knowing she would need that frustrated energy to take her through the next few hours…including the interlude she had just left. But as much as she would love to avail herself of Najir’s sexual prowess, she knew that this part of their relationship had drawn to a definitive close the moment he had bought Vejhon for her…and he knew it, too.
“So tell me, my Lady,” he murmured softly into her ear. “What is your next move with our new companion?” Najir continued to cuddle her close, already knowing that, while sex must no longer be a part of their life together, they both refused to change their other intimacies in any other way.
“Mmm…to let him get used to his new limited freedom for a while. Let him digest and deduct from what he has seen and learned.”
“Let him get comfortable before dropping the next bomb on him?”
“No. Not too comfortable.” She hesitated a moment. “I think I will send you in to him as well.”
That made Najir go still for several long beats. “Really?” he questioned her. “You think that’s wise?”
“Are you questioning your Master, you naughty slave?” she asked, her pretty blue eyes sparkling with the tease. “I think I shall have to punish you for that.”
“Mmm, promises promises,” he taunted her. Tempted her. “I only meant…” Najir broke off. “He resents me. He holds me in contempt for what he perceives as my relinquishing all of my independence to you. He sees his nightmare version of his future when he looks at me.”
“Ahh, but you and I know better,” she observed.
“We definitely do. But it will take a lot of time before he comes to understand that.”
“Trust me, dearest.” She hugged him with all of her strength.
“Always, my Lady,” he breathed. “Always.”
5
Vejhon staggered to his feet entirely on principle.
He fell back against the wall that had just spit him out and continued to gasp for breath. His body still quaked with shock and exhaustion, so he gave himself the luxury of a minute to pull himself together.
He had to admit…he had no idea what to think or what to feel. He’d run through every extreme emotion there was in the past hour or so, not to mention being on a nonstop high of hatred and wrath whenever he’d been given the luxury of consciousness these past months. His body felt as though it had been pushed through every military endurance test of his lifetime, except it was as though he’d tackled them back to back to back. He looked down at his wrists first. Oddly enough, he hadn’t seen them bare in months, so there was something extremely surreal about the absence of the imprisoning cuffs. He also hadn’t realized he’d developed both scars and callouses on both of them. Probably his ankles as well. The thigh, chest, and biceps restraints had been used much less frequently once he’d been submerged in stasis, so the damage from them was minimal.
At the moment, however, each of those contact points were bleeding, except there had been no biceps restraints in place here. No doubt so that blue-skinned bitch could collar his arm as if he were a prized pet.
Vejhon reached for the band and examined it, tugging at it even though he already knew it was anchored firmly in place. If there was a trick to it, he’d have to figure it out later. Right then, he needed to wrap his head around a few other things first.
For example, why had he been set free? The room was loaded with windows along one side, some of the glass appearing to be plate. Granted, it was likely to be “unbreakable,” but in his experience, if it had a seam, it had a weakness. Fortified by this prospect, Vejhon tried a few steps across the room. Again, that surreal sensation. Like stepping on solid land after sailing or riding space, it felt queer to move his weight forward without having it instantly restrained.
He made his way to the first window, laying a hand on the smooth surface and looking out at the planet that was trying to claim him. What he saw was a vast sweep of well-tended grounds that led to a fortified wall. Sentries walked the top of the wall and along the lawns, and were stationed at the one gate he could see. Vejhon’s brow furrowed as he tried to figure out if all of that was to keep people in, keep people out, or both. For the time being, he voted on both. After all, it was a slave-driven economy from what he had gathered, and you couldn’t have your assets escaping.
He also could see that House Drakoulous was situated high enough on a hill to afford a spectacular view of the enormous and densely populated city all around it. From what he could see, there were a few big houses up high like this and the size and manner of housing decreased the lower into the city you went.
It never ceased to amaze him how standard things could be from culture to culture, even with vast amounts of stars and black space lying between them. Vejhon had actually never traveled away from Wite until the wars. Into those years he had been forced to concentrate a good deal of experience in xenoculture. It hadn’t been so hard once he had figured out the constants. Most cultures had a class or caste system, most had an economy, and many were populated by humanoids. Upright walking bipedals were a recurring theme no matter how strange the stage.
Though he had to admit, this was the first time he’d been to a culture where everyone was blue. Most of the guards were blue skinned, and from what he could see of the pedestrians walking the city pathways, his captor had been telling the truth when she’d warned him how easily he would stand out.
As Vejhon ran his hand over the glass of the window, inspecting it for a weakness, he tried not to think about Hanna Drakoulous. The things she had said and the things she had done only jumbled up his brain and his emotions, and he needed to focus on basic survival at the moment. Beauty, lust, and treachery could wait for a while.
There was no actual window, he quickly realized. All of the “windows” were made of stone. It was a fascinating piece of engineering and clearly of optical technology. What better way to see the world outside, yet maintain total privacy? Perhaps cameras outside of the windows reflected back the view, because as he moved from window to window the vista was flawless in depth and perspective. He’d never seen anything like it.
Vejhon’s travels along the wall of windows had brought him to the section of the room dedicated to grooming and bathing. The deep oval tub suddenly looked appealing, his wrist and ankle joints whining for some heat and clean water to ease their woes. After all, it had been next to forever since he’d bathed; since he’d done much of anything really. Eat. Sleep a real sleep. See the out-of-doors. Be in the out-of-doors. And since he doubted that last one was going to occur anytime soon, maybe he was best off taking advantage of the opportunity to rest and gather his strength and wits. Gods knew he had to figure out what kind of game it was that Hanna was trying to play
