Captive Space (5 page)

“Thank you.” She hugged him. “It’s not that he… I don’t know. I guess it’s just that I can tell he doesn’t really give a good farden frig about me.”

The truth was Leanderus didn’t give a good farden frig about anybody but himself. “Don’t worry, my
Tesra
. I care about you enough for both Leanderus and myself.”

“That’s sweet.”

Joseferus chuckled. He wanted to hear her pledge. He wanted to hear her tell him she cared about him more than Leanderus or anything else.

Giving them a moment to allow their respirations to return to normal, he sighed. Responsibility encroached on the moment. “I need to return to my duties.”

“Sorry.”

“Stay here until I have a chance to talk to Leanderus.”

“Okay.”

He kissed her soundly.
Until later, my
Tesra.
He eased her off his cock. Tucking a wayward dark lock of hair behind her ear, he squared his shoulders. For the first time in years, he felt the walls he’d constructed around his heart begin to crack.

Chapter Three

It’s always darkest before the dawn.

“Leanderus,” Joseferus ordered over the com-link imbedded in his arm. “Join me in my war room.” He was spitting mad at the junior officer. Leanderus’ tender age wasn’t an excuse for the way he’d treated Shar’ia since yesterday. In Joseferus’ opinion, which was shared by all the supreme commanders of the immense Nebula Class star cruisers they commanded, Leanderus knew better.

“Aye, Supreme Commander.” The voice rang in Joseferus’ head.

The few cultures the Navorains had stumbled across who weren’t familiar with their technology thought they were something called schizophrenic. It was a ridiculous charge, and once the truth was explained to them, that the technology far outreached most others, the people they met would barter nearly everything they had to own just one of their gizmos.

Joseferus, like all Navorains, didn’t have the patience for naive innocence or greedy immature races.

They had a mission.

Preserve their race or a facsimile of it for posterity.

He bit back on the growl rising in his throat. His ire built. Striding across the bridge, Joseferus nodded to several crewmembers as he passed them. His ire rose like an inferno in his chest. The memory of Leanderus treating Shar’ia poorly plagued his thoughts.

“You wanted to see me?”

“Aye.” Joseferus fairly growled. His chest heaved as his junior officer swaggered into his war room. He didn’t say a word until Leanderus stood opposite him. “By Oblivion, what were you thinking?” There shouldn’t have been any question as to what Joseferus was asking.

“Sir?” Leanderus posed his question with an arrogant smile.

“Don’t tempt me,” Joseferus snarled.

The superior grin disintegrated, and Leanderus’ expression soured. “She’s a thief.”

“She’s your second wife.” Joseferus pointed out the obvious. He slammed his hand down on his desk. The rage grew exponentially.

“Unfortunately.”

Putting an iron-willed lid on his rage, Joseferus took Leanderus in. What the sand has brought together, it can also rent asunder,
Joseferus mused. Not normally for a
Tesra
and her warrior, but for a second partner, it wasn’t an uncommon occurrence for the sand to finally let off the match after a period of time. Every warrior understood the mystic dust’s intentions were noble, wishing to provide the uneducated warrior with a learning experience that few species were allowed. “She didn’t steal from your clan but mine.”

“Makes no difference to me. She’s as low class as a Nerubian concubine and as dumb as an amoeba.”

How Leanderus had come to that conclusion was beyond Joseferus. Shar’ia might be many things, but she wasn’t classless or stupid. “So, it’s a matter of you thinking you deserve better.” Which wasn’t unusual for Leanderus’ clan. The Fis Marran were all arrogant sons-of-bitches who’d grown up in the fertile valley area of Navora. They weren’t great warriors like the Fis Tuldens or great hunters like the Fis Cands or great thinkers like the Fis Daemos. The Fis Marrans were gardeners. They nurtured beautiful plants and grew the crops that had once sustained Navora. The truth was that they were basically useless in the cold darkness of space.

“I do deserve better.”

There wasn’t much Joseferus could do about Leanderus’ animosity except beat the young warrior into submission or get him the farden frig off his ship. “I’ll arrange for your transfer to the
Vor Marran
.”

“Thank you, Supreme Commander,” Leanderus responded snidely. “Bah, even you’re too good for her,” he muttered under his breath but loud enough for Joseferus to hear.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” A warning sat on the tip of Joseferus’ tongue. He fisted his hands at his sides. The anger he valiantly tried to keep in check was a single word from exploding. “Speak, Leanderus.”

“Permission to speak freely.”

What have you been doing up to now?
“Granted.”

“She’s a whore. Trained to lie down for any man with coin in his pocket or intergalactic credits in his account.” Leanderus thrust his hand out and waved at the floor-to-ceiling windows in Joseferus’ war room. He dropped his tone to an ominous whisper, one that Joseferus was intimately familiar with, for it had been the same hushed voices that trailed Ahlantra. “She’s worthless to the Navorain people. She’s the last thing we should want as an eighth wife let alone a first wife. Shar’ia isn’t fit to spit on your feet.”

In the old days, when their home planet still took up space in the cosmos, Joseferus would have understood Leanderus’ attitude. Not that he would have agreed with the green-as-new-grass officer. Still, now, they couldn’t be so choosy. And he, himself, wouldn’t have argued who the sand bound him to. Be she a well-used concubine who could seduce any man or a soft-spoken lady of gentle breeding, he’d have accepted her for the wife she would eventually become, not the woman she had been. “You are dismissed.”

“Thank you, Supreme Commander.” Leanderus nodded curtly.

“Stay away from her, Leanderus,” Joseferus remarked, his tone cold and devoid of all emotion. “She’s not your problem anymore.”

“I intend to, Supreme Commander.”

Once alone, Joseferus punched in the code on the console for a direct link to Leanderus’ older half-brother and commander of the
Fis Marran
. “Caleberus, I’m sending him back to you.” Joseferus said this once his friend and confidant’s face appeared on the view screen.

A long sigh broke from Caleberus Fis Marran’s throat. “Thank you for trying, Joseferus. I know he’s an upstart with a vile tongue.”

And so different from you.
Joseferus understood the sympathy emoted from Caleberus was wrought from his mixed blood. He was not only a member of the Fis Marrans but also held allegiance to the Fis Daemos clan through his mother’s parentage.

“I’ll coordinate the transfer from here. We should rendezvous with the
Vor Marran
in two days,” he responded after doing a few calculations on the transcriber pad.
Which might just be two of the longest days of my life since the destruction of Navora.

“Until then.” Caleberus nodded, and the screen went blank.

Flopping down in his chair, Joseferus heaved a sigh. Shaking his head at Leanderus’ prejudice, he steered his gaze to the windows and watched the stars streak by. He inhaled slowly, trying to calm his temper.

He touched his com-link and commanded the officer in charge of the bridge to set an intercept course to meet up with the
Vor Marran.

“Aye, aye, Supreme Commander.”

Once he got rid of Leanderus, the
Vor Cand
would head for the Navorains’ original home world—the desert planet, Lazarus Seven. There, he’d marry Shar’ia in a ceremony that had survived eons.

Rising, Joseferus headed for the door. “I’ll be in my quarters,” he announced to the bridge as a whole after the doors had swished open. He stepped over the threshold and strode toward the turbo-lift.

The mating call engulfed him, calling him back to Shar’ia’s side. Frowning, he fisted his hand.
What are you trying to tell me? That she is the means to end my surly mood, or are you reminding me that I’ve been without a woman for too long?

Whichever intent, the sand was definitely not going to leave him alone until he went another round with his
Tesra.

* * * * *

Shar’ia rolled over in the bed when Joseferus entered her room. A nagging sensation had taken root in her heart after he’d left. It was an emotion she couldn’t shrug off. “Are you all right?” She took him in with a slashing gaze that started at the top of his raven-haired head and went all the way down to his boots.

You don’t seem any worse for wear.
But where Joseferus was concerned, she wasn’t a great judge of his moods. He always came across to her as the existential captain who carried the weight of the universe on his shoulders.

Still, she had a sinking sensation that he was everything but all right. The images of him fucking her returned tenfold and started her heart crashing against her ribs. He was holding her down, taking her hard, making her scream his name as she climaxed.

A shiver raced the length of her spine, and she started to pant. Her pussy throbbed with anticipation as the images kept flitting through her mind’s eye.

She did note Leanderus was not present in the visions. The music rolled and seethed in her head.

“Come here, Shar’ia.”

Wetness clung to her feminine folds, and her nipples tightened to hard buds when she saw the gleam of passion in his quick-silver gaze. Licking her dry lips, she exited the bed and went to stand in front of him. The little bit of training she’d received kicked in. She dropped to her knees. “Yes, my master?”

He brushed his knuckles down her cheek. Lifting his hand, he held it out to her. “Take it, Shar’ia.”

Laying her fingers on his palm, she rose. A flash-in-the-pan vision shot in front of her. She tilted her head to the side. The image showed them playing a sexual game of Chase Some Tail. A frown marred her brow.
Is that what you want?

A small smile broke across his lips. “Yes, Shar’ia, I enjoy that type of play.”

She gulped hard. “I don’t like that you can read my mind.”

“It’s a gift of the sand to the
Tesra
and her warrior.”

“I see.”
This is weird.
Not in a bad way, though. It wasn’t the first time she’d thought telepathy was wacky. Yes, it was a bit disconcerting that he could hear her thoughts, but he wasn’t the first society she’d met who had advanced telepathy. It was how the sand was giving her insight into what he liked she found truly intriguing.

Another snapshot appeared before her. This time, she was laughingly punching at his broad shoulder as he fucked her with his fingers.

She could see herself trying to fight him off, taking part in a game that had few rules but where the payoff was immense. A throb took hold of her pussy, and an ache settled low in her belly.

The music continued to roll and teem. The pounding of drums mingled with fast-paced string instruments.
I wonder if he’ll give me a head start.

True, her strength against his was no contest. The man was about the size of an Andorian bear and probably had the sheer muscle power to match. She smiled when he cocked an eyebrow.

“You have to the count of three to try to get away from me.” His fingers curled around the hand she’d placed on his palm. “Let’s see if you are as brazen as I think you are.”

“Me? Brazen? Surely you jest.” She nearly laughed when his other brow inched up. “Are you daring me?”

“Yes.”

Her passion revved. Her body shook with anticipation. “We’ll see.” His fingers eased their hold on her hand, and she scurried away just as quickly. Hopping over the bed, she decided it was as good as anything to use as a barrier between them.

“One.”

Her breaths turned to sharp intakes of air as he strode to the windows. She grabbed the sheet from the bed and wrapped it around her naked body. Tying the material into a tight knot above her breasts, figuring that at least if she had some semblance of clothing around her, she wouldn’t feel as disadvantaged as she already was, she then gripped the pillow in her left hand.
It’s not much of a weapon, but all’s fair.

“Two.”

“I’ll warn you, it’s unlikely I’ll fight fair.”
Unlikely? It’s out of the farden frigging question.

“I’d have it no other way, my
Tesra,
” Joseferus responded. “Three.”

She squealed when he turned the full power of his stare on her face. Excitement along with a sexual thrill raced through her system. Tossing the pillow at his head, she laughed when he caught it and threw it aside.