Lurin's Surrender (3 page)

Mara blinked in surprise. She hadn’t been given that information, only that Lurin Vez had somehow gotten access to the grounds before perpetrating his ruthless crimes.

“I teased Denal about the age difference between him and his young betrothed, but he laughed it away, falling on the old adage that true love conquers all. Well, it certainly conquered him,” he said bitterly. “While he and I were walking through the nobless’s grounds, we stumbled upon the
virginal
Sara engaged in a bit of sexual roughhousing.”

“Sara?” Mara’s voice rose in surprise, but she quickly tempered her reaction, determined not to react to his story. Still, she heard a ring of truth in what he said, something in his voice that correlated with her own earlier speculations on the girl. “You’re sure it was Sara?”

He stared directly into her eyes. “I’m positive. Sara faced us while a man fucked her roughly from behind. If that wasn’t enough, another man joined her intimate party and quickly blocked our view.” He paused, as if gauging Mara’s response. “He shoved his cock in her mouth.”

“Maybe they forced her into it,” Nu offered.

“Denal and I thought the same until she laughed and moaned, begging for more, for pain and—” His face twisted with revulsion, and he shook his head. “The things she had them do… We stood there for quite some time. Suffice it to say, the girl was insatiable.”

Staring into Vez’s bright eyes, Mara saw the truth for herself. She didn’t understand how, but she pictured the reprehensible scene clearly in her mind’s eye. After a moment, she glanced at Nu but could see nothing in his expressionless face.

“That wasn’t the worst of it,” Vez continued, his voice rough. “After we watched it all in silence, we returned to the palace. Denal demanded an immediate dialogue with Nobless Cari. I was not privy to the conversation, but I know Denal’s intent was to break the engagement.

“Unfortunately, I never saw him again. The next day, I heard along with everyone else that his body had been found in the woods, at the very site where he and I had come upon Sara the day before.”

“So you have no idea of what Denal actually said to Nobless Cari?”

“None. Denal was like a brother to me.” His eyes softened, and Mara found herself drawn into his pain. “I hadn’t liked Sara prior to their betrothal, but she made him happy; so I was happy for him. But when they found him dead, I knew Sara and her mother had killed him.

“Sara’s seemingly overwhelming grief felt contrived. I cast my suspicions to the local law, and soon after found myself under house arrest. I barely managed to escape. And now, here I am.” He sighed and ran a hand through his thick hair.

Mara desperately wanted to side with him, and that in itself made her cautious. That blasted dream had skewed her judgment.
A prisoner declares an unbelievable story to be true, and I’m falling for it.
Instead of remaining unbiased, Mara couldn’t help remembering the taste of his mouth, the feel of his shaft pulsing in her hands.

He’d shot her impartiality all to hell. And she didn’t like it.

“A pretty story, captive Vez,” Mara murmured.

He shot to his feet and his eyes gleamed with frustration. Sensing that he was not in control of himself, she stood and stepped back out of reach.

Nu inserted himself between them, a stun phaser suddenly in his hand directed at the prisoner’s chest. Vez’s sapphire gaze met the Ragga’s at eye level, an odd occurrence for Nu, who normally towered over their prisoners.

Needing to defuse the situation, Mara tried the truth. “I’m not sure I believe you. I admit I don’t completely believe Nobless Cari’s story, but I’m not the law. I’m just a bounty hunter.”

Though she didn’t often delve into the details of her captives’ crimes, Mara had faith in the legitimacy of the law’s claims. Her other jobs had felt right. This one didn’t. And it bothered her. But no need to let her prisoner know he’d succeeded in raising her suspicions.

“You don’t care that you’re sending an innocent man to his death?” Vez crossed his arms, his biceps clenched as if he held himself back through sheer will alone.

“Come what may.” Mara shrugged. She refrained from shrinking under the force behind his scowl. “I didn’t say I’m not interested in what really happened. I might look into things, for my own satisfaction and nothing more.”

Instead of settling him, her words seemed to aggravate him more. “I don’t think that wise, Captain. You don’t know what trouble you’d be courting. Nobless Cari’s influence knows no bounds,” he warned. He must not have liked the look on her face for he cursed. Then the tension seemed to leave him and he sat back on his bed with a sigh.

Mara frowned down at him, wondering what game he played now. He’d tried to convince her of his innocence, but he hadn’t succeeded completely. She said she’d look into it. The man wanted complete absolution or nothing? The hell with that. She hadn’t lived twenty-five years in the System without a shell of caution to keep her alive.

“Nu, take our captive to the lav. Get him cleaned up and exercised,” she ordered.

Nu yanked Vez to his feet.

In the blink of an eye, Vez stood before her. He reached out and grazed her cheek. The contact had her heart racing, the feeling of intimacy between them strong. Then Nu was cursing, shoving her prisoner to the floor onto his stomach and reapplying the shackles.

“Oh, Captain Mara, you do please me,” Vez whispered in a voice that should have been too soft to be heard, but Mara heard it all the same.

She watched Nu take Vez away and tried to rid herself of the odd sensations coursing through her body. The mere touch of his hand on her cheek had sent her blood pounding, her sex throbbing with need. She didn’t understand. Never before had Mara fallen prey to the odd lustfulness that plagued her men. So why now? And why with him?

She contemplated her new feelings as she returned to the bridge. Set sat at the controls and nodded a greeting.

“Confirm course for the nearest pleasure point,” she ordered, aware of the anticipation blooming on his face. Like Nu, Set didn’t practise much in the art of subtlety. The brothers possessed insatiable sexual appetites, or so had been alleged in the many pleasure clubs where she’d waited for her crew. The Fas brothers were close to legend.

“Almost Thesha,” she murmured.

“Captain?” Set’s concern irritated her.

“Talking to myself. Damn. Ignore me, Set. It’s been a long trip.”
And getting longer each day.
Turning to the current news on the info sector, she concentrated on future bounties, determined to relegate Lurin Vez to ‘mission complete’ status.

* * * *

Lurin closed his eyes and relaxed as the solar bath cleaned him of grime, a conglomeration of dirt, sweat and semen that had accumulated on his body over the past two days. The semen he hadn’t minded so much, he thought, remembering Mara’s naked body.

After a few moments, he stepped out of the bath. The large man watching him hadn’t stopped frowning since they’d left Mara’s company.

“The captain is to be respected,” Nu said firmly, his disapproval apparent. Nu’s phaser didn’t waver from Lurin’s chest, the weapon an effective deterrent to the escape plans Lurin had concocted.

He looked around for his clothes but couldn’t find them. Then his large guard threw a pair of rough trousers and a shirt at him, an outfit similar to the one Nu wore.

“It will fit, though you’re not as large in your upper body as a Ragga.” Nu grunted and flexed his behemoth shoulders as he noted Lurin’s form. Lurin could only hope the Ragga hadn’t paid too much attention to the area above his groin, where an oddly shaped mark resided. To Lurin’s relief, Nu didn’t appear overly interested in his body.

Thanking his stars that, for all their roughness, Mara’s crew had been decidedly decent about his captivity, Lurin finished dressing and turned to Nu with a question.

“Your captain,” he began and watched the man tense. “How does a woman who looks like that run two Raggas and a Mardu?”

Nu grinned, showing bright white teeth. “She’s not as fragile as she looks,” he said with pride. “Mara’s the best damned captain I’ve ever had. She knows just when to give us leave.” The minute the words left his mouth, he clenched his jaw, as if he’d said too much.

Nu walked Lurin back to his cell in silence and left him alone with his thoughts. Twice more during the day, Set brought him food and left him alone. Lurin listened carefully but could hear nothing in the corridor. To his disappointment, the captain hadn’t returned to visit him since their early hour meeting.

He didn’t like the fact that he missed her. Since when did a female control a Thesha’s emotions? His blood hummed as he recalled Mara’s delicious reaction to his sensual mind probe last night. And the physical touch he’d managed today, grazing her cheek, had only strengthened their bond.

She should have believed everything he’d told her today without question, but she hadn’t. Never before had his abilities failed. Despite not being able to make her trust him, he’d told her the honest truth. And she hadn’t believed him. Worse, her decision to dig around for more answers worried the hell out of him. If she asked the right questions of the wrong person, she could end up in real trouble.

And so what?
he asked himself. She was his jailer. He shouldn’t care if she fell into trouble because of him. But he did. He didn’t want to see her in a cell like this, at the mercy of the perverse nobless and her daughter. He flinched recalling what he hadn’t told Mara.

After he’d informed the law of his suspicions, Lurin had expected a thorough investigation. Thinking he was going to see justice done, Lurin had accompanied the peacekeeper back to the nobless’s palace, only to be bound and gagged, and forced to watch Nobless Cari rape the lawman, sucking him into oblivion.

Like a bitch in heat, she’d wrung unwilling groans of ecstasy from the man, who’d responded to her like a puppet on strings. After threatening him with torture, imprisonment and even death, she’d made the peacemaker come several times before succumbing to her own orgasm. And all the while, her eyes had remained fixed on Lurin.

In that instant, Lurin had seen the beauty of sex debased to its ugliest form.

But that had not been the worst of it. Tied down in restraints, Lurin had been stripped and examined, inch by inch, by Cari and her daughter. As they studied him, Sara slyly confessed about her spying hole, which gave her a perfect view into the guest bathing chamber Lurin had been directed to use. Somehow, she and her mother had identified Lurin as Thesha. But how could these women know of the Theshan mark, a carefully guarded secret?

Normally unmindful of his body, he’d felt violated at the thought of the craven mother and daughter planning to exploit his sexuality. They’d done more than merely dissect him with their eyes. He shuddered as he remembered their coarse petting, the feel of their wet mouths and greedy little hands, of the darkness of their desire. He’d escaped by putting them off with promises of Theshan bliss after some much needed recovery time.

He’d used his Theshan background to get away once, but he had no plans to reveal his Theshan nature to this crew. How then to make the captain do his bidding? He didn’t relish another binding lovemaking session in an astral projection. It had been too much for him, too draining and, oddly enough, too exhilarating.

The feel of Mara under him, simulated though it had been, had been decidedly addicting. She had a control over his body that no female had ever before possessed, and she was completely unaware of it. No, Lurin had to exorcise the woman from his mind once and for all--by pleasuring her physically.

Physical contact could sever a Theshan mental link. And time was running out for Lurin. He had only a few more days at most before Jaron neared.

As he pondered his situation, several male voices drifted along the corridor.

Finally, something to break the monotony of his thoughts.

“I for one am not going to question the captain’s orders to find a pleasurer.” Nu Fas. “Nebe6, here I come.”

“I agree,” Set said. “But,” he paused and lowered his voice, alerting Lurin to pay close attention, “I don’t like the thought of leaving her here alone.”

Alone? Mara and me, together on the ship?

“Perhaps I should stay,” Catam said softly.

“No, Catam. You need to go.” Nu’s voice was firm. “If anyone should stay, it should be me.”

“Nonsense,” came a sultry voice. Lurin’s body tightened at the sound of it. “You’ll all go. The day I can’t contain a prisoner, in the security of his own cell, is the day you fire me as your captain.”

Lurin heard laughter.

“Are you sure, Cap?” Nu asked. “I don’t like the way he looks at you.”

“Looks at me? He’s just trying to wrest control of a bad situation. It’s nothing more than a power play.” She sounded extremely naïve, a condition that didn’t fit with her tough-as-nails exterior. Lurin could picture the unease on her crews’ faces. Everyone but Mara could see her as a desirable woman, not merely the ‘captain’. At least her crew had some common sense. “Don’t worry. I can handle captive Vez.”

Lurin gritted his teeth. If she called him captive one more time…

“Now go,” she ordered. “I’ll expect you back here tomorrow at first light. Enjoy. And Catam? Make sure you’re satisfied. There’s nothing worse than a Mardu on the prowl.” She chuckled and the men laughed louder.