need? Are you truly that afraid of me that you need to manipulate an already helpless man?”
“Actually, I am not afraid of you at all, Jhon.”
He would have laughed in her face at that obvious lie, only her eyes were so serene and seemed so believably honest. She gave off no clue that she harbored any fear of him, and that was simply something he wasn’t used to. Everyone feared him. His enemies, his troops—every one of those bastards who had traded him from ship to ship until they had brought him to this end. Even though he’d been caged and bound, he had seen the fear behind the greedy excitement in their eyes. He had seen how they had stood back from the force fields separating him from them even though there was no way he could possibly approach.
But she did not fear him.
Hanna reached to touch him again, this time laying a gentle hand against his chest.
“I am going to give you an opportunity, Jhon, to appreciate the difference between what you will find in this House and what you would have found in another. Unfortunately, this means I must play both roles, so that you may come to this understanding. But we will keep this between only you and me if you allow it. If you give me too much trouble, then I will have to include Najir, and I wish to save you that humiliation. Do you understand?”
Hanna watched his jaw tighten until he had developed a furious tic in the muscle of his cheek. He was guaranteed to hate this. To hate her. At least at first. But it couldn’t be helped. He had been so gloriously powerful in his former life, and though he had been in captivity for months, he still clung to that former idea of himself. Hanna would happily cultivate his warrior half in the future, but first he must come to accept the truth of his situation.
And while she disliked the idea of bludgeoning his proudly stubborn will, the end to her means made her heart race with excited anticipation. He was everything she needed, everything Najir had promised her he would be. She stood back to look him over once again, her amazed eyes still trying to accept the fabulous concept of the perfect treasure that he was. Najir was going to be vastly rewarded for this. Besides the perfection of his white platinum hair and those cat-green eyes, Vejhon was a masterpiece of flesh and muscle. His skin was tanned dark, especially above his waistline, no doubt because he had spent time working his body while shirtless in the sun of his homeworld. She could feel the strength in him radiating in great waves, thrumming into her like a sonic boom whenever his fury spiked. His energy was a flawless symphony, such utter perfection. Strength, stamina, will…and gorgeous looks besides.
Oh yes. He was perfect.
But he was defiant and wild as well, his stubbornness making him dense to the dangers around him in his new life. He saw her as a threat just because he felt his pride was at stake? There were worse dangers in this place and more precious commodities than pride that needed protecting.
“Jhon, do you know what most women of this world buy a slave like you for?”
“Clearly whatever you damn well please,” he snapped.
“That’s true. However, you are special. You see”—she gave him a suggestive little smile as her fingers ran down over the well-defined muscles of his chest, heading to the rocklike hills of his taut stomach—“when you were up for bid on that auction stand, your best assets were put on display so everyone would be very certain of your value.” Hanna lightly scraped her nails past his navel, slowly stroking her way toward his pubic region. She didn’t need to look to know he was stimulated despite his will. His brief reaction to her earlier had notified her that he was attracted to her, regardless of his desire to be otherwise. But that wasn’t the way she wanted to manipulate him. It wasn’t the point she wanted to make.
She drew back from him and returned to her chest of jeweled objects. She withdrew the ring she was looking for and held it up for him to see as she returned.
“Female Masters of High Houses wear these everywhere. They never go anywhere without them.” She slid the ring with its gemstone of clear crystal facets onto her right ring finger. She turned the gem inward, so it was in line with her palm, and reached to touch her fingertips to his chest. “You were in stasis at the time, so I am going to show you what you were so blissfully unaware of, Vejhon, during that common little auction.”
She pressed her palm against him and instantly the sting of injection burned through his muscles. This time he did roar with fury, bucking against his restraints, trying to force her touch away from him. All she did was lean back slightly, keeping away from his gnashing teeth. Then she simply stood back and watched as the stimulant flooded his system.
Vejhon felt the sudden upsurge of adrenaline in his blood almost instantly, the feel of it very familiar to him as a warrior used to seeking its highs. He thought about using it to truly test the strength of his metal bonds, but he’d already injured himself, the tight manacles cutting up his skin and now chafing it raw whenever he moved. It was his own fault. He knew better than to fight metal, but she had pushed him too far beyond reason.
Then, an abrupt heated sensation began to rush through his blood, fluttering along his skin like fast-flying birds skimming insects off of water. The heat quickly became a burn and he became very aware of where that burn was headed. It scorched down his body, down every sensitive nerve in his tissues until it felt like his entire pelvis was in an overdrive of sensation. He watched with a combination of horror and dismay as his penis began to flood with pulsing blood, the sensation perpetuating itself like the stroke of an artful hand as he grew more fully erect. There was nothing he could do. His body, in this respect, was completely out of his control. No thoughts, no amount of anger or disgusting imagery he tried to conjure in his mind could change what was happening to him.
In no time at all he was heavily erect, his cock so hard it was fully parallel to the floor and aching with the fierce throb of his stimulant-laden blood. Humiliated and horrified by the drug she had administered, Vejhon wished an agonizing death on her with his savage eyes and his poisonous thoughts. Again, she seemed unaffected by his glare, but neither was she gloating over her triumphant puppeteering of his sex.
Hanna stepped forward in a way that forced him to focus fully on her eyes. It was close enough that Jhon felt the fabric of her dress against the head of his distended phallus, the rubbing sensation of its silken texture sending feedback up along the shaft in a screaming message of pleasure. Vejhon tried to draw in air to breathe, but all commands to his brain fried under the massive drug-heightened wave of bliss.
“Imagine yourself before a crowd of avaricious women and men,” she made certain to remind him, “and your handler is now going to prove how excellent a prospect you are for being put to stud on a planet where a superior percentage of the populace is infertile. He injects you with stimulants to display your fine equipment, and in your case, to show how easily the stim works on you even while in stasis.” Now she reached between them and slowly touched her soft fingertips to the sensitive skin and nerves along the length of his shaft. A sensation of pure electrocution bolted along every sensory pathway in his body, making him seize with the shocking pleasure, tense muscles distending even farther under the force he used to try and control his reaction.
As though she was stroking a precious thing, she ran her fingers up and down the length of his swollen rod, locking him into being buffeted by sensations too outstanding to be real. She continued her narration. “‘Look, ladies and gentlemen,’ he says, ‘at the fine, thick cock I offer you. Hours of fun for yourself as a private concubine. Certainly fit to fill a room in your brothel where he will be in high demand as a whore. And for those who farm out studs, here is a tool ready to breed. No need to tame him if he proves too contrary; merely lash him down and let the stim do the work.’
“‘Of course,’” she continued relentlessly, “‘he
