Reader Abduction (Alien Abduction Book 7) (11 page)

A
wakening
in splendor didn’t remove the trepidation.

Where am I?

The where proved to be Phyr’s planet. They’d made it with the help of a god, or so those around her muttered.

What Murphy didn’t save her from was her purpose. Despite what she’d shared with Phyr on his ship, it seemed she was still to be auctioned to the highest bidder. Before the end of the day, she would be someone’s wife.

Eep.

Not that she had much time to dwell on that fact. Brigitte barely had a chance to breathe as gloved hands belonging to short, cloaked figures pampered her head to toe. Her exfoliated skin shone with health. Her hair possessed a healthy sheen and tickled like silk across her partially bared shoulders. The attendants eschewed the use of makeup because, as one scary purple lady claimed, “The buyer must know what they are getting.”

I’m being sold.
The very idea had her stomach knotting.

When the crew finally departed, leaving her alone for a few moments until it was her turn, she couldn’t help but pace. The filmy fabric of the gown she wore swished, the skirt down to her ankles but split up each thigh. It hugged her curves and dipped low in front, the cowl neck revealing her cleavage, which didn’t require the use of a bra, not with the two anti-gravitational patches they placed under her breasts. It sure beat wires holding her babies in place, but while she celebrated the lack of brassiere, she really wished they’d given her panties. She wasn’t convinced that a wide stride wouldn’t reveal her girly parts to everyone.

At the sound of the door swishing open, she whirled, heart hammering, fear gripping her as she wondered if her time had come.

Instead, hope walked through the opening, looking as swashbuckling and purple as ever.

“Phyr! Thank God. Please tell me you’ve come to take me away.” She couldn’t help the hopeful lilt in her words.

For a moment, as his gaze took in her appearance, relief sparked in his eyes, even joy. Then it faded. “I cannot stop the auction. I merely came to see if you emerged unscathed from our journey.”

“If you call having almost every hair on my body plucked unscathed, then I guess,” she said with a shrug. “So this is really going to happen. You’re going to let them auction me off? I guess it was too much to hope you might want to keep me.” She couldn’t help the snub. For a moment, especially after he’d come for her, she’d truly thought she meant something to him. So wrong.

“I—” His mouth opened and closed. “I—”

Whatever he meant to say didn’t emerge, and the doorway behind him suddenly filled with a few people. Women to be exact, the one with the translucent tablet announcing, “It is her turn, Your Majesty.”

“Majesty?” She could only blink at Phyr as they gripped her arms and tugged her past. No wonder he didn’t want her. He was some kind of royalty. How foolish of her to even think for a second that someone of his stature would stoop to falling for, as he called her, a barbarian human female.

Still, knowing his position prevented him from probably keeping her didn’t mean she could stop the pain from squishing her heart, from unshed tears brightening her eyes.

As she found herself thrust onto a brilliant stage, the light bright and blinding her to the eyes that surely perused her, she could only pray that whoever bought her today would treat her right.

But she feared a certain purple hunk already had her heart.

And now a stranger would own her body.

A part of her wanted to crumple in a ball and have a good sniffle. But that would mean showing him he’d hurt her. She still had some pride, and that pride meant she held her head high, even if she trembled inside.

T
hey took
Brigitte away from him. Took her as she cast her gaze down, the pain in her eyes unmistakable. A pain he’d caused because he did nothing to stop them.

But he wanted to act. He wanted to rip those around her away and clasp her to him.

Frozen, he watched them take her away, and he couldn’t help but follow. He spied on them as they ushered her out onto the stage, alone in her red gown, vulnerable and beautiful.

She held her head high. Her hair lay in shining waves down her back. No artifice enhanced it. No face paint highlighted her already perfect features. Not at this auction. The matrons and their agents shopped for a daughter-in-law, not a mistress. They would choose a female to bear the next generation for their sons. They wanted to see what they were getting, even if the genetic profile was in the files they’d loaded and perused beforehand.

The simple gown hugged Brigitte’s impressive bosom and flared at her wide hips. Through the monitors that listened to the crowd, he heard more than one veiled matron mutter, “those hips were made for bearing big warrior babies.”

Those hips were made to welcome his body. He’d just never gotten a chance.

The bidding began low but quickly rocketed, especially once Brigitte tilted her head at an imperial angle and stared coldly out at the sea of masked females.

When he’d first encountered his Earthling barbarian, she’d lacked some of the confidence she showed now. Her journey with him had caused her to blossom, much like the desert dhalya that had to grow strong to survive the more adversity it faced.

The auctioneer regaled them in between bids with Brigitte’s assets. He failed to mention her fiery temperament. Her passionate nature. The fact that she enchanted him.

From backstage, Phyr watched and simmered as Brigitte stood before a crowd of cloaked bidders, waiting to see who would claim her.

Already the sum for her had passed expectation. It seemed a bidding war took place over Brigitte. Someone wanted her badly.

I want her badly.

In that moment, he realized he didn’t care about mating for prestige or pleasing his difficult mother. He couldn’t help but covet, want,
need
the female on stage. A female who someone was about to steal from him.

Frukx no.

Brigitte belongs to me
. Not whoever paid the most.
Mine.
In his world, laws were made to be broken, and wasn’t abduction a time-honored tradition?

Pulling his weapon from his holster, he set it to stun. In his ear, the communicator he wore when away from his ship spoke for the first time. “Commander, my sensors indicate great agitation in your bio system and that you have armed your weapon. Do you require assistance?”

“I thought that earpiece only provided one-way communication for me to give you orders?”

“It works two ways, commander.”

Apparently. It should have irritated him more to realize that, over the course of his travels, his ship had attained a certain level of sentience. “Listen carefully, Ju’el. I want you to keep a lock on my body. Is the warp rip drive functioning again?”

“Engineers have been working on my various components since our arrival. I can open a portal.”

“Excellent. You will activate on my order.”

“Are you going to do something to antagonize your mother, commander?”

“Most definitely.” What he planned would shock a great many of his people. He didn’t care. This was something he had to do.

The bid for Brigitte had gone into stupendous territory, as two factions appeared determined to outperform the other. He couldn’t tell who wanted Brigitte so badly. The crowd wore identity-hiding cloaks. They showed their intent to bid by pressing a button on a handheld remote given to them at the start of the auction.

Not that he cared who wanted Brigitte. He was about to take her off the market. Permanently.

Raising his gun, Phyr said not a word as he stunned the entire backstage crew. One by one they fell, and even before their limp bodies hit the floor, he strode through the wings onto the stage, causing a collective gasp and a stuttering halt to the auctioneer’s spiel.

“Your Majesty, might we help you?” asked the rather large male with tentacle eyes on waving stalks.

“I will help myself, to her.” Brigitte’s eyes widened as he reached for her. She didn’t struggle or say a word as he tossed her onto his shoulder, his weapon aimed at anyone who thought to get in his way.

Nobody dared, but he could hear the excited titters and murmurs of the crowd.

“What is the prince doing?”

“Look at him breaking the rules and doing our queen proud.”

And, from a human on the other side of the stage, waiting her turn at auction, “How romantic.”

Never romantic. He saw it as necessity. He needed Brigitte. He could have bought Brigitte, but being a good mercenary prince, he took Brigitte.

With her over his shoulder, he shouted, “Now, Ju’el.”

The air in front of him sliced open, the hum of the portal drawing him forward before anyone could get in his way.

He landed on the deck of his ship and immediately barked out orders. “Get us out of orbit, Ju’el.”

“The repairs on my warp drive are still pending, commander, but I know where I can hide us for the moment.”

“Do it.”

He strutted from the receiving bay to his quarters, wondering at the fact that Brigitte hadn’t said anything. Was she pleased at his actions? Angry he’d taken her from what was obviously a wealthy family?

He didn’t care.
She’s mine now.
And he’d kill anyone who tried to take her back.

Setting her on her feet in his room, he stepped back and perused her features.

The smile stunned him.

As did her faith. “I knew you’d come for me.”

T
he surprise
on his face made Brigitte laugh. “Oh, I’ll admit, I kind of wondered when you let me out on that stage. But then, I thought, why did you come to me? Anyone could have told you I was fine.”

“I needed to see you for myself.”

“And then you stole me. Again.” She giggled. “I’ll bet that caused a bit of commotion.”

“I don’t care. I couldn’t let you mate with another.”

She took a step toward him, seeing how he struggled to admit his feelings. This proud warrior, this uncertain man. “I’m glad you acted because you’re the only one I want to be with.”

Those words freed him from his tense paralysis. He drew her into his arms, his lips hungry. She returned the same passion.

She was done wasting time. Done pretending. Did he love her? Maybe not yet. But he felt something, just as she felt something. A wondrous new beginning, together.

Starting now.

With fewer clothes.

She couldn’t stifle a gasp as the sound of ripping fabric filled the air. “What are you doing?”

“I want you naked.”

“I could have stripped.”

The slow smile he bestowed on her brought moist heat to her sex. “But that would have been less fun. And this was faster.”

“Do you want me?” She couldn’t help the coy query or smile. Brazen of her to ask, yet, when he hissed, “Yes,” she’d never felt more desirable. Sexy.

Phyr wanted her as she was. Curvy. Human. And two-breasted.

He palmed her globes, his rough thumbs rubbing over the already erect peaks. She couldn’t help but moan as her head angled back. He took that as invitation to dip and taste, his mouth latching around a nipple and sucking. Then tugging. Even biting.

Each sensation erotic overload on her senses. Her knees threatened to buckle, so he clasped her to him and managed to get them both on the bed.

On her back, she peered up at him, loving the wide strength of him. He braced himself on his forearms as his lower body nestled between her thighs.

“You’re mine,” he growled.

“Then take me.” She reached for him, arms outstretched and clasping his hot skin, drawing him down to her. He covered her with his body, his lips once again finding hers for a torrid embrace that saw their hot breaths melding.

The tip of him pushed at her sex, the swollen head of his cock parting her damp lips. In he pushed, wide, hard, so welcome. She wrapped her legs around his waist, pulling him closer to her, wanting him inside.

He thrust in, slowly, his fat shaft stretching her so perfectly. She clasped his shoulders as she arched under him, her body clamoring for him to go deeper.

Deeper. Deeper still. He filled her entirely. Her channel fisted him. How perfect he fit.

His rhythmic motion was easy to match, the sound in the room of panting breaths and flesh slapping.

Blissful tension built inside her, humming along her nerve endings, stealing her voice. Her nails dug into him. And he pushed deeper, harder, grinding his lower body against hers and tipping her over that orgasmic edge.

“Phyr!” She couldn’t help but scream his name as she came. The moment was too perfect. Too intense. In that instance, she could have sworn something deep inside them touched, something on a whole other level.

And he must have felt it, too, because he murmured her name, “Brigitte. My mate,” before biting her.

He claimed me.
So, in the spirit of the moment, she claimed him back.

Now he’s mine.