Not the Man She Thought (12 page)

Back on his ship, he went directly to the bridge to find
Kellen talking to the pilot. Kam already had the engines running and was doing
his pre-flight checks. The crew knew he liked to take off on time, so he didn’t
expect any of them to be late getting back on the ship.

“Just about ready, Captain,” Kam said.

Rade nodded. He knew his crew would liked to have stayed on
Konteline longer, but they had a schedule to keep.

Kam was just leaning forward to take the controls when Dev
burst into the room. “We’re not leaving yet, are we?” she said breathlessly.

Rade lifted a brow. “Is there some reason why we shouldn’t?”

“Laken’s not back yet.”

He frowned. “Didn’t she come back with you?”

Dev shook her head. “No. I saw her dancing with you and I
assumed...”

Rade ignored the sharp look Kellen gave him as Dev’s voice
trailed off.

The dark-haired woman sighed. “I assumed she would come back
with you, but a little while later I saw her leaving with some guy.”

Rade felt a small stab of concern. Had that asshole come
back after he’d left? “What did the guy look like?”

Dev shrugged. “Tall, good looking, well dressed.”

That definitely didn’t describe the guy who had been
bothering Laken, but it could have been one of his friends. Rade hadn’t really
paid much attention to them. “Did he force her to leave with him?”

Dev thought a moment. “Well, no, but...”

Rade’s mouth tightened. He knew Laken didn’t like being on
his ship, but he hadn’t expected her to actually go so far as to catch a ride
with someone else. Apparently, she must have been able to work a deal with the
small amount of credit he had given her. Well, that was her business. Still, it
bothered him she hadn’t told Dev what she was doing. He’d thought they were
friends. Laken was a big girl, though. She could do whatever she wanted.

  
“Then I
don’t see the problem,” he said.

  
Dev
frowned. “Aren’t you at least going to wait for her?”

“Laken knew when we were leaving and she knew to be back on
time. She wanted off this ship from the moment she stepped foot on it. She obviously
found another way to get to New Ashanti.” He look at the pilot. “Get us out of
here as soon as you get port clearance, Kam.”

Dev hurried after him as he walked out the door and down the
passageway. “But Captain, Laken could be in trouble.”

Rade stopped walking to look at her, his eyes hard. “Laken
Andara is not a member of this crew, Dev, which makes her none of my concern.”

“Not even if she’s in trouble?” Dev demanded. “Laken might
have left willingly with that guy, but you know how naïve she is about the real
world. She could be walking into trouble and not even know it. We should at
least go look for her.”

He clenched his jaw. Dev was right about Laken. She was
naïve. He’d figured out that much out when the little fool had gone off by
herself on Seguu. But he wasn’t her boyfriend or her husband.
 
“She’s made her decision, Dev, and I’ve
made mine. Whatever trouble she’s gotten herself into, she’s on her own.”

Turning on his heel, he strode down the passageway.

* * * * *

“I thought we were going to the Federation Office,” Laken
said as Brantly Vlanders led her up a cobblestone walkway toward a house.

Taking out a set of keys from his pocket, Brantly fit one
into the lock. “The Federation Offices have already closed for the evening, so
we won’t be able to speak to anyone until morning. In the meantime, you can
spend the night here. I’m sure you’ll find the guest room much more preferable
to the cabin you were using on Rade Karsten’s ship.”

Laken wasn’t very comfortable staying in the home of a man she
didn’t know, but asking him to put her up in a hotel would be rude considering
he was offering to pay for her passage to Marlon Prime. Taking a deep breath,
she stepped into the foyer. Decorated in white and gold, it was a little too
ostentatious for her taste, but her upbringing forced her to smile and
compliment him on his home anyway.

“Thank you.” He closed the door. “ You must be tired. Come,
let me show you to your room.”

Laken followed him up the curving staircase and down the
hallway to the guest room. It was decorated in the same ornate fashion as the
rest of the house, she noticed.

“It’s lovely,” she said. “Thank you.”

He inclined his head. “Of course. If there’s anything you
need, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

 
Laken smiled
and assured him she would. As the door closed behind him, she looked around the
room. Although not nearly as big as her bedroom suite at home, the cabin on
Rade’s ship still would have fit inside it ten times over. The bed looked like
it was way more comfortable, too.

  
Then why
was there this terrible feeling in the pit of her stomach? Maybe because in
retrospect, taking Brantly Vlanders up on his offer had been a really dumb
idea. She didn’t know anything about him other than that he was well-educated
and owned an expensive home. Admittedly, she didn’t have a lot of experience in
the ways of the world, but she didn’t know many people who would pay for
another person’s passage on a ship without asking something in return. If she
hadn’t been so damn eager to get away from Rade, she would have thought about
that before she’d agreed to go off with the first smooth talking guy she met.

  
She
glanced at her watch and was relieved when she saw it would be another hour
before Rade’s ship left port. If she hurried, she could get there before they
took off.

Going over to the door, she grasped the knob and gave it a
turn, but it wouldn’t budge. Frowning, she tried again with the same results.
She tugged on it a third time, even harder. Nothing. Her heart began to pound,
the terrible feeling her stomach making her feel even more sick. She was locked
in.

Chapter Six

Rade swore softly under his breath as he poured himself a
whiskey. But he didn’t drink it. Whiskey couldn’t help him figure out what the
hell to do. Part of him wanted to give the order to turn the ship around and go
back to Konteline, but another, more rational part knew it would only be a
waste of time. Even if he could manage to find Laken, what was he going to do,
drag her back to the ship against her will?

Swearing under his breath again, Rade pulled off his boots,
then stripped off his shirt and breeches. Naked, he padded barefoot into the
bathroom and turned on the shower. Arms stretched in front of him, he leaned
against the wall and let the water pour over his shoulders.

Laken had been trouble, that was a fact. The kind of trouble
he didn’t need in his life right now. Besides, she was engaged to another man.
Why the hell was he even giving her a second thought? And when the hell had she
gone from being a pain in the ass to the subject of his late-night fantasies?

When he had kissed her.

  
He had
kissed women before, plenty of them, but he couldn’t remember them affecting
him like she did. She was like a drug, one he could easily get addicted to.

With a groan, he closed his eyes and let himself imagine
what they would be doing right now had Laken allowed that kiss in the club to
happen. They would be together in the shower right now, his hard cock pressed
against her while his hands roamed over her body. In his fantasy, she turned
around and leaned forward, pushing her cute, little ass toward him as she gave
him a saucy look over her shoulder.

His cock went hard at the thought of spanking her. Only this
spanking wouldn’t be like the others he’d given her. Instead, it would be an
erotic experience for both of them.

Rade let out another groan as he imagined running his hand
over her gorgeous ass while the water from the shower streamed over them. Laken
would sigh with pleasure as he caressed her bottom, begging him to spank her in
that husky voice of hers.

He’d start out gently at first, his hand coming down first
on one wet cheek, then the other. Every so often, he’d stop to caress her ass
in between spanks, and she would moan in pleasure. Once she was warmed up, he’d
spank her harder, eliciting little squeals of protest that would echo around
them. He pictured her dancing from foot to foot, one hand balanced against the
wall of the shower, the other firmly clutching his leg. Then, just when he knew
the spanks were really starting to sting, he would stop and caress her ass
again.

Rade let his fantasy continue to play, imagining what it
would be like to slide his hand between Laken’s legs and touch her pussy, which
by this time, would be very, very wet. So wet that he wouldn’t be able to
resist sliding his finger inside.

He imagined Laken moaning, imagined her thrusting back
against his hand as he moved his finger inside her wetness. She would look over
her shoulder at him, her eyes a mix of fire and innocence as they told him how
much she wanted him inside of her.

  
He
wrapped his hand around his cock, pretending it was her pussy squeezing him
tight.

“Captain, are you in your cabin? The port official needs to
talk to you.” A pause. “Captain?”

Rade swore under his breath. He turned off the shower and
leaned his head out. “I heard you, Kam. I’m coming.”

  
Or he
would have, if he hadn’t gotten interrupted, he thought with a scowl.

Although Rade tried to keep his mind off Laken for the
evening, he couldn’t get the red-haired vixen out of his head. As a result, he
didn’t sleep at all that night. Instead, he’d lain in bed staring up at the
ceiling and wondering if she was in trouble. Going back to Konteline to check
would almost certainly be a waste of everyone’s time. Even worse, their
scheduled rendezvous on Marlon Prime was getting closer. If they dicked around
too long looking for Laken, they would miss it.

He pushed his eggs around on his plate the next morning,
weighing the pros and cons of returning for Laken. Finally, he gave up. This
wasn’t a situation that could be calmly rationalized. This was just something
that had to be done.

“Kam,” he said abruptly. “Turn the ship around. We’re going
back to Konteline.”

Though the rest of the crew looked at him in disbelief, Kellen
didn’t seem surprised at all by Rade’s decision. The man only stood up and
followed Kam out of the room, muttering, “About damn time.”

“What made you change your mind, Captain?” Dev asked.

I wasn’t going to get any sleep if I didn’t. “I thought
about what you said about this guy being shady. Your instincts are usually good
about stuff, so I figured we should go back and check him out. Think you can
hack into the club’s surveillance system and seeing if you can get an ID on
this guy?”

She pushed back her chair. “I’ll get on it right away.”

* * * * *

Laken awoke to the sound of a key being turned in the lock.
Surprised she had even managed to fall asleep at all, she jumped off the bed
just as the door swung open and Brantly Vlanders walked in.

“Why did you lock me in here?” she demanded.

The smile he gave her was almost charming. “Like I told you
last night, I’m a businessman. And business required you to stay put.”

She took a wary step back, suddenly even more frightened
than she had been last night. “What do you want with me?”

He raised a brow. “What do I want with you? Absolutely
nothing. I’m only the middle man in this transaction.”

She frowned. What transaction? Before she could ask, though,
the door opened again and a man stepped inside. Her eyes went wide as she
recognized him as the jerk who had been bothering her at the club the night
before.

“He’s here,” the man said to Brantly.

Brantly didn’t take his gaze from Laken as he answered.
“Show him in.”

Laken watched the other man go, confused.

“I see you remember my associate from the club,” Brantly
said.

“Y-your associate?”

Brantly grinned. “We work together. He harasses the girls
and I come to their rescue. We rarely stumble upon a jewel like you, but when
we do, there’s always a buyer willing to pay for such beauty. Karsten almost
blew the whole thing by showing up, though. I couldn’t believe my luck when you
actually blew him off.”

Laken felt like a fool. A man she had never met had been
able to take advantage of her simply because he’d acted high class. She’d been
so eager to get to Mallin that she had played right into this scum’s hands. If
only she had just stayed with Rade. He was a brute, but at least she knew she
would have been safe with him. Now, she didn’t know what was going to happen to
her.