Enslaved Read online

  “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.”

  “That’s not the reason we don’t bond,” Thrace said, glad to change the subject. “The real reason has to do with our history—our heritage. We actually were Kindred at one time—the father of our race was, anyway. Until he changed his DNA.”

  “He what?” Trin settled on the side of his cot, her eyes wide with interest. “Why would he do that?”

  “He was trying to eradicate his need to bond with a female.” Thrace was glad to tell her—glad to talk about anything but his past. “You see, his bride had left him for another and he was bitter and angry about it.”

  “What? But if they were bonded—”

  “She was one of the unbondable—a Y’lyn. They are females of surpassing beauty but they’re half demon and have no soul. You can’t form a soul-bond with a being who has nothing to bond with. So when she tired of him, she left. And Havoc—that was his name— Kern Havoc—swore to rid himself and all his descendants of the need to bond with a female which is the Kindred’s most singular trait.”

  “And did he?” Trin was hanging on his words, plainly very interested.

  “Not completely,” Thrace admitted. “He managed to wipe out our ability to dream share—that is, for our minds to align with the female who is supposedly perfect for us. The one who is chosen by the ‘Goddess.’” He sneered at the idea.

  Picking up on his tone, Trin frowned.

  “You talk about the Goddess as though you don’t believe in her. My people certainly do.”

  “I don’t,” Thrace said grimly. “After the life I’ve led…the things that have happened…if there is an all powerful Goddess somewhere controlling things, she’s got a hell of a lot to answer for.”

  “So now you and all the other descendants of Kern Havoc stay away from females unless you have the urge to mate?” She nodded at his shaft, which had gone down some as they talked of other things. “Like animals?”

  Thrace gave her a fierce grin.

  “Exactly like animals. Does that make you feel better about chaining me up like a naughty pet?”

  Trin stiffened and sat up straighter.

  “I didn’t chain you up for piddling on the carpet or tearing up the furniture. I chained you up because you proved yourself