Driven Read online

  His kiss sent a shiver trickling through her and made her nipples perk to life, but she felt disconnected from her body's responses. Linna sighed and relaxed against him. The soft material of his shirt and pants felt luxurious against her bare skin.

  His hands whispered up and down her sides, her waist, and slid up to cup her breasts. One dipped down to circle her erect clit, eliciting another sigh. Her body responded to his caresses, but she still felt...nothing.

  Erystus walked her to the edge of the pallet, turned her, pushed her to side on the edge of the lumpy mattress. Linna blinked again to clear her vision, but the haze in front of her eyes wouldn't go away. She spread her thighs at his urging, and he knelt between them. His hair tickled her legs and thighs as it trailed over his shoulders and caressed her.

  Linna shivered at the sensation, which reminded her of the nanobots that had worked on her during her stay in the surghosp. His hot breath blew against her, and she felt the delicate stroke of his tongue on her sensitive flesh. The man between her legs made love to her with his tongue and lips and fingers with as more skill than any lover or client she'd ever had. Almost any lover.

  Del was better.

  Her body arched beneath Erystus. She shuddered. She felt him tonguing her clit, felt his finger sliding inside her, but her body didn't tumble into the climax she knew was building. His strokes quickened. He licked and sucked her.

  But she didn't come.

  Panting, face pinked from exertion, Erystus sat back on his heels. Linna lifted her head to peer down at him. He was shaking his head.

  "Is your cunt made of metal, too?" he snapped as he got to his feet. "Working on you is like working on a dead woman. I can feel you getting off, but you're not reacting. I know women can fake climax when they don't have it, but are you faking not having one when you are?"

  She struggled to sit and shook her head to clear it. "You were altering my consciousness, weren't you?"

  The arrogant jerk grinned. "It's what I do, sweetheart."

  Linna put a hand between her legs. Her pussy was warm and slick. She felt her own touch, just like she'd felt the pirate's tongue and lips and fingers, but the post-orgasm throbbing wasn't there. Her clit still felt swollen, her cunt tender...but she didn't feel like she'd climaxed.

  She gave him back a grin of her own. "I didn't feel it."

  Erystus sighed. "I could have you killed for this. You're a worthless piece of trash to me, a bad deal. A spoiled bargain. You're not any good to the brothel if you can't have an orgasm with anyone other than that hulking brute over there, and believe me, I know you can have them. I heard you screaming all the way to the bridge."

  Linna crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him defiantly. "If you're going to kill me, do it. Don't just brag about it."

  He leaned so close to her she could see the glitters of violet in his blue eyes. "Do you want me to kill you?"

  Linna didn't answer. Erystus sighed so deeply and took on a look so wounded, Linna had to bite back a laugh. In a gesture rapidly becoming familiar, he smoothed his golden mane away from his face, and huffed. "I have a reputation to keep up."

  Linna suddenly understood something about Erystus. "You don't want to kill me, do you?"

  He frowned. "No. I dearly want to fuck you until you scream my name and beg for more."

  She felt guilty giggling when Del still snored on the floor, but she couldn't help it. "Why?"

  "Because you're beautiful." He reached out to touch her cheek, and she didn't pull away. "Because you have something in you that makes me feel soft inside."

  It was an odd statement, especially coming from a man who'd just moments ago threatened to kill her.

  "You're going to let us go, aren't you?"

  He nodded. "It's easier to do that than to try and get rid of your bodies."

  "You don't mean that."

  His eyes flickered and she caught a glimpse of the harder man, the tyrant. "Don't tempt me. I might still have your sweet taste on my tongue to distract me, but it won't last forever. Neither will my sentimentality."

  Linna bit her lip, stepped toward him, and kissed him thoroughly on the mouth. His hands came around to cup her ass and pull her closer to him. His erection ground against her belly. His tongue darted between her lips and then he pulled away.

  His eyes searched hers. "That felt a little more real."

  "Thank you," she told him.

  "Sure I can't convince you to give me a ride?" Erystus laughed and shook his head as he stepped away from her. "Forget it. You might not be Xanderran, but you're as bound to that man as if you were. Any woman who can resist me is worthless to any other man."

  She didn't tell him it was her enhancements that gave her the ability to close off parts of her mind. He'd asked if the medtechs had partitioned her brain like a hard drive, and they hadn't. They had provided her with additional neural circuitry, though, parts she could control at will.

  "You made my body respond," she told him, to soothe his ego. "Just not my mind."

  "And not your heart," he replied with a laugh. "Not that I have much use for that part of you anyway."

  Linna looked down at Del, who had begun to stir. "No. Not my heart either."

  Erystus sighed loudly and nudged Del with the toe of his extraordinary boot. "He'll wake up soon. I'll have some clothes brought for both of you. And I'll be dropping you off in the next solar cycle."

  She caught him before he could leave the cell. "Dropping us off? Where?"

  Erystus quirked his brow at her again. "Why, on Xanderra, of course."

  The door slid shut behind him, and Linna let herself sink back down onto the bed.

  Of course.

  Del watched Linna and that benizona Sloane put their heads together and giggle, but he didn't let any reaction show on his face. He'd woken, wearing clothes he didn't recognize, on the pallet. Linna had told him Sloane was going to let them both go instead of selling them into slavery. He hadn't asked what magic she'd worked on the pirate to get him to agree, but watching them now, he could guess.

  "I promise," he heard her tell the blond man. Eyes bright, she laughed and touched the pirate's arm. It was a casual touch that told Del a lot about what had happened while he was knocked out. He gritted his teeth and looked away.

  "But I don't think that's likely," Linna continued with a shake of her head.

  Sloane, with a glance at Del, captured her hand and brought it to his lips. He kissed the back of her hand, and Del saw the pink flash of tongue. He looked away.

  "Don't bother thanking me." Sloane appeared in front of him.

  "I wasn't planning on it," Del replied as evenly as he could with a clenched jaw.

  The pirate, who stood tall enough to look him in the eye, captured Del's chin with his hand. "Thank your woman."

  Del knocked the pirate's hand away and kept from following it with a punch to the jaw by self-discipline alone. Sloane laughed in Del's face, then looked over at Linna with a softer expression.

  "She's someone special," the pirate said. He leaned so close Del could smell the bastard's perfume. "And she tastes exquisite."

  Del's fist swung and met the pirate's palm. For a moment, the two men stared each other down. Linna stepped between them.

  "Control yourselves," she scolded. She turned to Sloane. "And you. Quit trying to cause trouble."

  Sloane shrugged and gave an arrogant grin. "Trouble is my job, sweetheart." To Del, he said, "Take good care of her."

  "She's pretty capable of taking care of herself," Del said.

  Linna's head twisted to stare at him when he said that, her expression unreadable. Then, eyes narrowed, she turned back to Sloane and kissed his cheek. "Thanks for this."

  Sloane waved his hands. "Get on that transport before I change my mind."

  Del looked to the hatch, which spiraled open at the pirate's command. Through it, he could see the stark interior of a simple transport pod, designed to hold three people with room for a small load of car