Kaitlyn O'Connor (13 page)

* * * *

For nearly a week everyone, including Loren, felt as if their fate was hanging by a thread.

She didn
‟
t think it was her imagination either. Every day, Lecur made his way to the basement and studied his slaves assessingly and she knew he was trying to decide which of his slaves to keep and which to replace or, in her and the other women
‟
s case, to simply dispose of. She was terrified every time he got to her cell and stood at the bars studying her that he would decide that it hadn
‟
t been a good idea to purchase the women to excite the men
‟
s aggressions and decide to sell them off to one of the many brothels on the space station.

60

That
wouldn
‟
t have occurred to her except that Lecur was either prone to thinking out loud or he
‟
d made sure she knew that fate was a strong possibility for her. The men that were assessed as being too damaged to fight again were removed about mid-week. No one had any idea of what he did with them, but they speculated that they
‟
d been sold as laborers. Loren didn
‟
t know how likely that was, but she hoped that was the case. The alternative didn
‟
t bear thinking on.

Lecur decided about half of the gladiators were ready to start working out again toward the end of the week. To Loren
‟
s vast relief, the Hirachi were among them. None of the men, including Kael, Dakaar, and Balen, had been near her cell and she
‟
d had no idea how they were faring after the beating until then. Right or wrong, she thought that must mean that they were recovered enough to fight again.

Apparently Lecur was in a far better mood once he
‟
d watched the men at practice. He informed them that if they continued to improve and were doing well enough to put on another fighting exhibition in three weeks time, they wouldall be allowed a chance to fuck the women.

Dismay didn
‟
t begin to describe how Loren felt about it and she thought Karen and Shara probably shared her sentiments. Selling them to the brothel would hardly have been worse…might not even have been as bad. She didn
‟
t doubt that his motives were twofold—to encourage the men to fight harder and to punish the Hirachi, but she was far more afraid than she had been when she
‟
d been facing the prospect of „servicing
‟
the winners. At least then she
‟
d known the winners would boil down to only a handful and they
‟
d be divided between three women. Fifty odd fighters—for Lecur had already brought in some of the replacements—divided by three were still very bad odds, especially considering the size and aggression of the „men
‟
he was talking about. To make matters worse, she had a bad feeling he wasn
‟
t talking about any sort of rotation plan. She thought he fully intended to simply pitch her, Karen, and Shara to the men and let them do what they would.

It magnified her desperation to escape tenfold. Unfortunately, the fear wasn
‟
t enough to produce a way to do it. Lecur had tightened security since the riot. He
‟
d kept all of the men locked in their cells since then for most of the day and she suspected that also meant that he
‟
d tightened security regarding his living quarters.

After he
‟
d made that announcement, he relented to a degree, allowing most of the fighters to roam the basement as they pleased as he had before—except for the Hirachi. She knew that had to be the case, because although the other men began to wander to her cell to stare at her through the bars again, neither Kael, Dakaar, or Balen came.

And they would have, she told herself, if they could. She knew they would. She refused to give the niggling doubts in her mind a chance to take root and grow.

Despite that, when she finally looked up one evening and saw them, the doubts she thought she
‟
d dismissed swarmed to the forefront of her mind and she eyed them warily for several moments before she got up and moved closer. They studied her piercingly and she wasn
‟
t quite sure why.

She saw Kael
‟
s Adam
‟
s apple work as he swallowed. “I hurt you,
shimone
?”

Not unless one counted the fact that her pussy had felt like someone had beat her there and the little tears that had added to the soreness! Truthfully, though, she
‟
d had sex rough enough to leave her feeling bruised and create little tears before and she certainly didn
‟
t think any of them had intentionally hurt her. Still, the question resurrected the incident pretty forcefully and it was also true that they
‟
d nearly scared her to death and she wasn
‟
t at all sure she entirely trusted them anymore. She could see worry in eyes, though, and she couldn
‟
t add to that after what they
‟
d 61

endured.

Maybe it was their own fault, but she still felt guilty about it if no other reason than the fact that she
‟
d allowed them to tease themselves.

“No,” she said finally.

“Make afraid,” he said and that time it wasn
‟
t a question. He could see the uneasiness in her eyes.

She chewed her lower lip.
Was
she really afraid of them now? There was no getting around the fact that the incident had scared the piss out of her, but they hadn
‟
t hurt for all that—not beyond the rough sex. They
‟
d seem pretty set on hurting anybody that got in their way, but not her. Would they have hurt her, though, if she hadn
‟
t been too stunned to fight?

She shook the thought off and closed the distance between them. Relief flickered in Kael
‟
s eyes as he reached for her and dragged her closer. “Sorry I hurt, Lau-ren. Not mean to,” he murmured gruffly against her hair.

“Was de spawning,” Dakaar said. “Fever gone now.”

Loren eased away from Kael and glanced at him when he spoke, meeting his gaze for a long moment and then Kael
‟
s and Balen
‟
s.They were done, she thought in dismay? That wham-bam-thank-you-ma
‟
am was all she was going to get?

Not that it hadn
‟
t been good—in fact it had been pretty fantastic sex—but that was
all
?

“You don
‟
t want to be my lovers anymore?” she asked in dismay.

Hunger blazed in Kael
‟
s eyes. “Still welcome?”

She breathed a sigh of relief. “Yes.”

He dragged her upwards for a kiss, but it was woefully brief, especially when it had been so long! She was about to protest when he set her on her feet again but even as she looked up at him, he glanced around and then grasped the bars in front of his face. She saw the muscles in his hands, forearms and upper arms bulge, saw a faint tremor run through them—and then the bars buckled beneath the pressure, bending!

Her jaw dropped. Grasping her around the waist, he lifted her again. That time he managed a far more satisfying connection. Her shock crumbled to dust almost as instantaneously as the heat inside her roared to life. She shoved her arms between the bars and curled them around his neck, holding him, enjoying the play of his tongue along hers, luxuriating in his taste and scent.

Unfortunately, she still couldn
‟
t coil her legs around him because she could only get her legs through the bars up to the knees. He shifted his hold to her buttocks and then one arm to free a hand for exploration.

Loren
‟
s mind leapt from the kiss to an even more satisfying connection as he massaged her breasts and stroked her belly and cleft but reality intruded. There was no way they could have sex through the damned bars—not unless he took them down!It was unnerving enough that he
‟
d bent them to reach her to kiss her, though. Considering the rage Lecur had been in, she didn
‟
t want him to show up and discover Kael had the strength to bend the bars! He
would
freak then!

When he broke the kiss and gnawed a path down her throat to her breasts, her flesh pebbled, her nipples hardened, her mind began a feverish search for some way to finish what they
‟
d started. Unfortunately, the only position she could think of that even
might
have some potential was doggy and she was pretty sure the length of his thighs compared to hers would make that a lot more difficult with him than it had been with her last boyfriend.

62

Maybe if she stood up and bent over?

He began shaking. She couldn
‟
t decide if it was the strain of holding her or arousal, but it made her heart beat faster. “We could try it though the bars,” she whispered.

He paused, lifting his head to look at her for a long moment. Releasing a shaky breath, he pulled her close and began stroking her back soothingly. She knew even as he leaned away enough to find her lips again that he wasn
‟
t going to try it and her heart sank with disappointment.

He didn
‟
t release her when he
‟
d finally set her on her feet. He seemed to be wrestling with something. “I bring a collar, you tink you can break?” he asked after a moment.

The question swept all thoughts of sex from her mind instantly. She gripped his hand. “It
‟
s too dangerous! Especially after….”

His expression tightened. “Too dangerous stay now,” he said. “See in Lecur
‟
s eyes.” He shook his head. “No let udders touch, little ting, mine
shimone
. Promised. Dis only way. Must go soon.”

Loren licked her lips and glanced at Dakaar and Balen. “I won
‟
t know until I open it,” she said in a low voice. “Maybe, but I can
‟
t be certain.” She hesitated. “Lecur has the control somewhere in his quarters. I know he must. If he carried it with him, he would
‟
ve used it that day.”

Kael studied her for a long moment and finally nodded. “I tink „bout dat. Maybe better, maybe not. You tink, we get you out, you can make machine go?”

Loren felt like weeping with hopelessness. “I don
‟
t know! I studied some alien technology, and I think I might be able to figure it out, but I can
‟
t promise. I can try. That
‟
s all I could do.”

He nodded again. “We get out, you try very hard,” he said, smiling faintly. “Not free long udderwise.”

Fear and hope collided inside of her. “I don
‟
t know if I could find my way home even if I can get it to fly,” she confessed. “My people don
‟
t have ships like these. We can
‟
t fly from one solar system to another—or to another galaxy—I don
‟
t even know where we are.”

He pulled her close and stroked her hair soothingly. “Any place better dan here—no place better.” He released an irritated breath. “We stay you no want to go.”

Loren felt like crying then. She knew how much he hated being a slave and yet he was willing to stay if she was afraid to go?

She didn
‟
t want to die adrift in space, but was she really any better off here? Could she survive what Lecur had planned for her? She wasn
‟
t sure she could and she was pretty sure she didn
‟
t want to find out. Even if she did survive, there was no telling what she would have to face next.

And she would be with them, at least. “What about Karen and Shara and the other Hirachi?

Are we all going to try it together?”

His eyes lit. “If dey want come, yes,
shimone
. We bring dem, too. I find a way.”

Loren was so on edge after they left that she could hardly be still. She paced for a while, trying to think what they might be able to do to gain her enough time to figure out how to control a ship, but she realized very quickly that that wasn
‟
t something she knew how to plan, especially when she didn
‟
t know when or if or how Kael might manage an escape. Sneaking away certainly seemed to her to be the best thing, but she had a bad feeling that would be next to impossible.