Her fingers dug into his tight muscles, and he felt himself relaxing. She was devious all right. She knew that if she went straight to his cock he’d be strong. But this sense of relaxation, this cool peace that washed over him—that was sensuality on a different level. He closed his eyes, trying to think of something else. All he could think of was her touch and how good it felt.
Then she leaned forward over him and he felt a tingle of sensation as her hair brushed against him. Her lips touched his chest and he gasped. She nibbled at him, occasionally letting her tongue flick out to touch him, but mostly nipping him with her lips. She came close to his nipple several times, but always pulled away, teasing him.
His nipples hardened, and he sucked in a deep breath. It wasn’t supposed to be this way—he didn’t want to respond to her. His own weakness disgusted him, but it did nothing to stop his reaction to her touch.
Witch.
She nibbled at him once more, her hands still moving lightly across his muscles.
Finally, after what seemed like hours, she returned to his nipples. This time she touched them, flicking at them with her hot, wet tongue. He shivered, and when she reached down to grasp his cock firmly he couldn’t help but groan.
Damn, he wanted inside her.
Instantly, thoughts of what she felt like leapt into his mind. He’d been with her many, many times. Her mouth was a clever as her tongue, and she knew how to ride a man. A night with her was enough to wring him dry, leaving him breathless. Once upon a time he’d looked forward to seeing her.
Giselle. He tried to think about Giselle, but imagining the buttery white smoothness of her skin didn’t help. If anything, he grew harder. What if it were Giselle who touched him like this?
Celia gave a low, throaty noise as the thought sped through his mind, and he realized his cock was now rock hard and twitching in her hand.
Damn.
She pulled away from him briefly, and then his pants were open. He felt the coolness of the air on his member, and he opened his eyes. He wanted to look at her, to realize that she wasn’t Giselle.
To see her for what she was.
The guards chose that moment to dim the bright light of his cell. She was gone in the darkness, no more than a shadow. For all he knew, she could be Giselle, his traitorous body whispered. He could give in, accept her touch. All he had to do was imagine that she was Giselle, and he’d get his release.
Her head moved lower on his body, and she kissed his belly slowly and deliberately. Her hand began to work up and down his turgid length. He shuddered as the hot, wet opening of her mouth moved lower, approaching his cock. He shivered in anticipation, desperately wanting her to touch him.
If she did, he would be lost.
She touched him.
He gasped, and for the first time thrashed again his bonds, trying to get away from her. Her mouth opened slowly around his length, sucking him like some kind of dreadful beast. He shuddered, lifting his hips and pushing up into her warmth. She moved slowly down his length, and then pulled back up. She was an expert, a professional, and in that instant it became all too clear to him that no matter what he might have thought, Giselle was no professional. When she touched him, it had been with an earnest desire. She hadn’t been polished like Celia.
The thought gave him a new power, a new control over himself. He imagined Giselle again, this time as she looked over dinner. Her cheeks had been flushed, and her nose crinkled in laughter.
Adorable.
It was enough. He felt his desire fading.
“Celia, you can suck on me all you want, but it won’t get you anywhere,” he said softly. “I really don’t have much interest in you.”
She froze over him, and then started moving again. He was still hard, but now he felt no urgency, no desire to release. What she was doing felt good, but it had no meaning. He was in control again.
“Celia, your mouth is going to get sore,” he said. “And so is my cock. Wouldn’t it just be easier to end this now?”
She pulled away from him, stilling in the darkness.
“You’re serious, aren’t you?” she asked softly. “You really don’t want to be with me.”
To his surprise, she sounded almost hurt.
“You love her, don’t you?”
He stayed silent, unwilling to betray himself. She was right. He loved Giselle. How had that happened?
Celia, of course, would report this conversation back to Josiah as soon as she left.
He needed to do something.
“I don’t give a damn about either of you,” he said roughly. “Has it occurred to you that I simply don’t want to fuck a whore like you any more? Goddess only knows what kinds of diseases you have. At least Giselle’s clean. I had her checked before I bought her.”
“She’s your slave?” Celia asked, her tone incredulous.
“No,” he muttered. “I simply contracted with her. An exclusive contract. Now the little bitch is fucking Josiah and doesn’t seem to think she owes me a damn thing. Of course, my credits are already safe in her bank account…”
She didn’t reply, and he held his breath. Did she believe him?
She stood abruptly and knocked on the door.
“Jakab, open the door for me,” she said, her voice angry. There was no answer.
“Jakab, open the damn door. I know you’ve been listening. You’ve probably been watching. Open the damn door now.”
The door slid open and she left. Jerred lay alone in the darkness.
His hands and feet were losing some sensation, but he didn’t think the ties so tight that he was in serious danger. His cock was still out. He imagined it would be embarrassing when they came to let him up. It didn’t matter though, because he had learned something.
He loved Giselle. He smiled in the darkness. Now he just had to figure out how to escape and rescue her.
Chapter Nine
Giselle sat in her room, fuming. The more she thought about what had happened, the angrier she grew. Who was this man to play with people’s lives?
Josiah had her taken to a very nice room, she couldn’t complain about that. But she could complain about the lock on the door and the rather unpalatable choices he wanted her to make. At least she’d learned one thing. He wasn’t interested in her personally. He wanted to use her to hurt Jerred, something that made her even angrier. Sure, the man was insufferable. Hell, he was even an ass sometimes. But something inside her rebelled at the thought of Josiah using her against him. If anyone was going to call him an ass, it should be her, she thought wryly. Josiah was just going to have to wait in line.
Thinking about him made her mad, too. He just assumed she’d dump him if a better prospect came along. He certainly didn’t think that highly of her. Beside that, if Celia was any sign, women weren’t too valued on this station. Despite what everyone seemed to think, she wasn’t a whore; she was a barmaid. Big difference. But even if there were bars on this unfortunate chunk of metal, she had a feeling they wouldn’t be hiring on the kind of terms she liked to see in her employers.
There was nothing else for it; she was going to have break them out of this hunk of junk. The thought make her laugh. After all, guards surrounded her. This was Josiah’s station, and he clearly controlled everyone and everything on it.
But she had a few things going for her, she thought coolly. She was station-born and bred. As a child on Vega, she’d learned all about the little nooks and crannies that filled even the most carefully designed stations. She was still relatively small, and while her hair was noticeable, it wasn’t so bad when she pulled it back in a braid. In fact, unless he had thought to restrict her access to food, she could probably even manage to order something up to color her hair with. If she got the chance to run, she wanted to be ready to take it. She wandered over to the data terminal, hoping against hope that his