“I’m afraid it can’t be helped but it won’t be for long.” Trin stroked his arm soothingly, as though he was an animal that needed reassurance. “I just have to complete these negotiations for our new shipment and then I’ll be back. Now, let’s get you bathed.”
“You’ve had me chained down for the Gods know how long,” he growled, deciding to revisit the issue later. “I suppose I’m starting to stink.”
“Not really.” Trin frowned as she drew the steaming basin of water closer and dipped in a soft cloth. “Although you do have a very distinctive scent—warm and spicy and…I don’t even know how to describe it. A little bit like the leather saddle I use on my stallion, Swift.”
“You treat your pet horse like you treat me?” Thrace asked as she bent over him, unconsciously showing those full, creamy breasts again. Gods, he could see right down her top to her nipples! “Wash him…” He cleared his throat. “Wash him when he gets dirty?”
“Of course,” she said without a trace of irony as she wiped his chest and shoulders with the warm, damp cloth. “And I rub him down when he’s sore after a long ride. I take care of him because he’s my responsibility.”
“The way you take care of me,” Thrace muttered. Her soft hand on his skin was doing things to him and the sight of her full breasts so close he could almost touch them was maddening. Gods, she was lovely! He shouldn’t want her—shouldn’t want the female who was his captor, his mistress, who had bought him body and soul and had him chained to a bed. But damned if he could help himself when he smelled her sweet scent and felt her touch on his flesh.
“Yes, the way I take care of you.” Trin nodded. “You’re my responsibility, the same way—oh!” she gasped as she unfastened his trousers and his hard shaft sprang free.
Thrace had been able to keep himself from getting completely hard when she handled him before—mostly it was the memories of his past that stopped his desire for her from coming to fruition. But it had been days since he’d had any sexual relief and seeing her dressed as she was and smelling her sweet scent was too much for him. He was hard as a rock and unable to help it.
“I’m your responsibility the same way your other pets are. Is that right?” he growled, finishing her sentence for her. “Only I bet none of your other pets ever had this problem.”
“Is it a problem? What’s wrong?” She looked at him uncertainly with those large, dark eyes.
Thrace groaned. “Damnit, Trin—”
“Captain Trin or Mistress,” she reminded him severely.
“I’m not calling you Mistress because I’m not a fucking slave,” Thrace growled. “And the problem is you’re wearing that little nothing of a nightdress that shows all your sweet flesh and touching me all over. How the hell am I supposed to keep from getting hard?”
“Is it painful?” She looked with concern at his throbbing shaft. “And are you actually saying I caused it? How?”
“Because you’re fucking gorgeous,” Thrace exploded. “And you’re touching me with those soft little hands. I know your people don’t have many dealings with males but that much ought to be obvious.”
“So…you find me attractive?” She looked disturbed. “I thought the Havoc didn’t care for females.”
“We don’t bond with them—doesn’t mean we don’t bed them.” Thrace narrowed his eyes at her. “I haven’t been with a female in months and I can’t even get a hand free to relieve myself. Then you come in here dressed like some kind of a sex goddess and expect me not to react? It’s fucking torture.”
“I…didn’t realize.” Trin put the damp cloth back in the bowl of water and stared at his shaft with concern. “I’m sorry, Thrace—I had no idea you felt this way. Why didn’t you tell me before?”
“Would it have done any good?” he demanded.
“I…don’t know.” She sounded uncertain. “I’m not sure what…but you’re saying that looking at me is what made you, uh, hard?”
“Painfully fucking hard,” Thrace assured her. “You probably don’t know this but males are very visual. Seeing your sweet creamy flesh exposed like this is more than I can stand. I can’t stop thinking about it—about you—even when you’re out of the room.”
“Thinking about me?” She sounded both disturbed and maybe just a touch intrigued. “Thinking of doing what to me?”
“What do you think?” Thrace was beyond exasperated. Could even a female who had never dealt with males before be this oblivious? “I fantasize. Fantasize about caressing your soft skin…tasting those ripe nipples I see pressing against your nightdress…”
“You—” Trin looked down and quickly pulled her robe tighter around herself. Still Thrace couldn’t stop.
“I imagine tasting you lower too. Spreading your thighs and taking my time, lapping your pussy with my tongue until you moan and pull my hair. I want to feel your juices all over my face…want to feel you quivering against my mouth.”
“I…I don’t…I wouldn’t…” She crossed her legs involuntarily.
“And finally,” Thrace continued recklessly. “After you’d come all over my face half a dozen times, I’d take you.”
“Take me?” She frowned. “Take me where? How do you mean?”
“I mean I’d fuck you. Penetrate you.” He was hard as a rock now, nearly crazy with need as he looked at her exposed flesh and spoke aloud what he’d been dreaming of doing for so long. But his final words seemed to shut something down in Trin. Something that might possibly have been growing between them even if it was without her knowledge.
“Impossible,” she said crisply. “I have never been penetrated and I never will be. Especially not by a male.”
“I suppose being penetrated is beneath you, coming from Zetta Prime,” Thrace growled.
“Some daughters of Zetta Prime allow it—but only with each other,” Trin said primly. “But penetration is reserved for one you love so truly and deeply you wish to form a life-bond with her—and swear to never be apart again. And if I did find someone I cared for that way, I can promise you this—I would be the one doing the penetrating. Not the other way around.”
“Well, there’s a scenario I’m not likely to fantasize about,” Thrace growled. “I’m not up for being penetrated either—not even by a female as gorgeous as you.”
“It seems you’ll have to restrict yourself to tamer fantasies,” Trin remarked. “Not that you ought to be…” She cleared her throat and her cheeks flushed a bit. “Ought to be fantasizing about me in the first place.”
“Why? Because I’m your ‘slave’ or because I’m male?” Thrace demanded. “Look, I can’t help what I think—not when you run around half dressed like that. Will you at least uncuff one of my hands so I can take care of myself?”
“So you can…” A deeper blush came into her creamy cheeks. “Oh, I see.”
“Just one hand.” Thrace lowered his voice, coming dangerously close to pleading. “That’s all I need.”
“It only took you one hand to do this.” Trin put her fingertips to the fading bruises around her neck.
“Would it help if I said I was sorry for that? I never meant to hurt you. I was in the grip of a dream—a nightmare. I thought you were—” He stopped abruptly, clamping his jaw shut.
“You thought I was who?” Trin stared at him shrewdly, her lovely eyes narrowed. “Someone who hurt you? Your old Master, perhaps?”
“Never mind,” Thrace said tightly. “Doesn’t matter who I thought you were. What matters is if I knew you were a female, I never would have tried to strangle you. The Havoc don’t hurt females—we’re like the Kindred that way.”
“You’re like them in lots of ways,” she said, letting his nightmare go to Thrace’s great relief. “In fact, I don’t see any difference except the fact that you don’t bond with females. But I can understand why you don’t—the slaver said your kind live longer if you don’t bond.”