Kaitlyn O'Connor (9 page)

* * * *

Adrenaline was pumping through Kael when he returned to his own cubicle and his mind was working as fast as his heart was pumping. Ignoring Dakaar and Balen, he paced the small cell, struggling with the ideas churning in his mind and finally settled on his bed when he realized his agitation might be noted and reported if anyone saw him. Dakaar studied him for a while and finally got up and sat down on Kael
‟
s bed without permission.

“Do you think she actually knows anything about the collars?” he asked quietly.

Kael looked at him sharply but frowned and shook his head. “I do not know the word—engin—eer, but I am guessing she knows machines and she thinks if she can study how it works that she can stop it from working.”

Balen moved closer, settling on his other side. “What are you thinking?”

Again, Kael shook his head. “It would dangerous…for her. Even if we could get our hands on one, we could not chance it being caught in her possession. I do not see how we could make it work.”

“Make what work?” Balen hissed impatiently.

Kael
‟
s lips tightened. “If it could be done, then we would be one step closer to freedom—only one—but I do not see how—not now.”

Dakaar and Balen both stared at each other before turning to look at Kael again. “We could not pass through the space station even without the collars without being instantly recognized.

39

We are the champions. They will know us.”

“Where would we go?” Balen pointed out.

Kael turned to look at him. “If I am right and she understands machines, she might be able to understand how their ships work.”

Excitement lit Dakaar
‟
s and Balen
‟
s faces for several moments before their faces fell.

Dakaar frowned. “She would not know where our world is, would she?”

Kael shook his head. “I do not know. I do not think so else we would have seen her people before. Their machines might, but we would have no way to know which would know the way and which would not. I do not think I care where it might take me so long as I have my freedom and I am away from this place.

“Go—before anyone notices that we are discussing something we do not want overheard. I will think on it and see if I can find a way to do this thing.”

40

After a week and a half, Loren had almost begun to look forward to the gladiator games, even though she was as uneasy about it as she was anxious as soon as she saw how banged up they all were when they came back from practicing. She couldn
‟
t help but worry about the Hirachi, but their practice period was the only time she had complete privacy and didn
‟
t have to endure being stared at as if she was a freak.

It progressed beyond simply being stared at after that first day, however. They didn
‟
t like being ignored and some of them seemed to take it as a personal affront rather than the attempt to protect herself that it was. Some of them would stand at the bars and try to coax her closer.

Others would tell her what they planned to do when they got her—which gave her the shivers and nightmares besides that. She couldn
‟
t decide whether they were
trying
to scare her, or if they had some twisted idea that she was going to find it a turn on.

The Hirachi never came until everyone else had finally tired of taunting her or trying to coax her close enough to grab her.

The first couple of times they
‟
d come, she
‟
d just been pleasantly surprised to see faces she recognized, especially since they didn
‟
t behave like the others. After the day they
‟
d brought her gifts, she
‟
d discovered she looked forward to their visits with an eagerness that belied her determination to convince herself she was merely doing what was necessary to survive. She hadn
‟
t just been comforted by their touch, though, or grown accustomed enough that she wasn
‟
t afraid of them anymore, she enjoyed it. She looked forward to their visits because it was the only contact she had, and she was starting to get pretty damned desperately horny herself, if it came to that.

That was surprising on several levels. Foremost was the fact that the horniness itself was a new experience for her. She
‟
d enjoyed sex. She
‟
d always thought she had a healthy interest in it, but it wasn
‟
t something that crossed her mind when she wasn
‟
t in a relationship. She hadn
‟
t had any real trouble focusing on her work at the facility, despite the lack of male companionship. She hadn
‟
t had any trouble recognizing it for what it was, for all that. She was just surprised and not particularly pleased that she felt it.

The fact that she felt it for
them
was also a little disturbing. She
‟
d been glad that she found them attractive enough that she didn
‟
t absolutely dread having to hold up her end of the bargain, but she hadn
‟
t expected to find herself looking forward to it with so much enthusiasm and she wasn
‟
t happy with the thought that she might be forming any sort of attachment. They were sweet. They were handsome and they clearly knew how to please a woman, but she couldn
‟
t afford to become emotional about it. She
‟
d laid to rest her qualms over the agreement when she
‟
d accepted it as a matter of survival, but she couldn
‟
t afford to dismiss the ultimate objective—freedom. She had to keep her wits about her and search diligently for any opportunity that might present itself and, if it did, she had to seize the chance. She didn
‟
t want to be divided in her heart and mind if she got the chance to escape.

41

Beyond that, she didn
‟
t know how or why she
‟
d gotten horny. It couldn
‟
t be just the fact that she hadn
‟
t had sex in forever. Otherwise, she would
‟
ve been suffering from the drought long before she met them and they hadn
‟
t even
tried
to heat things up. She felt
their
need in the way they touched her and their labored breaths, but not one of the three had done more than pull her as close as they could get and strum their hands over her back, or her hair, or caress her face. As unaccustomed as she was to taking the initiative, as contrary to her nature as it was, it was all she could do not to grab their hands and put them where she wanted them or try to climb up them and get close enough for a kiss.

She
‟
d begun to spend more and more of her time trying to think up some way to entice them to do more without having to actually ask. She
‟
d never actually
had
to do anything like that, though. The options she
‟
d had before were fighting her boyfriends off or letting them have their way. She tried to imagine doing or saying some of the things she
‟
d read in books or seen in movies, but she didn
‟
t think she could carry any of that off.

It wasn
‟
t until she finally gave up on the idea altogether that it simply happened. She
‟
d dashed to her shower to primp for them when she
‟
d decided it should be about time for them to arrive and had just shut the shower off when she heard them. In her rush to get out before they gave up and left, she
‟
d used one end of her blanket/wall to pat herself as dry as she could, grabbed her toga and pulled it on, and then dashed out, still damp and dripping and feeling about as unsexy as she could possibly be.

Apparently, they didn
‟
t agree. They all looked like they
‟
d been turned to stone when she arrived at the bars breathless, with her hair hanging in strings and dripping all over her, and her paper thin toga sticking to her. Their arms were too thick to get more than their forearms between the bars and yet Kael had still managed to grab her and drag her so tightly against the bars that visions of having permanent imprints of the bars danced her head—for a few moments, anyway.

He pulled her clean off her feet, wedged his face between the bars, trapped hers by palming the back of her head, and planted his mouth solidly over hers. The blaze of heat that went through her seemed to melt the bars that separated them. She completely lost awareness of them at any rate. She
‟
d tried to imagine what kissing him would feel like. The thought had warmed her and it still fell far short of reality. The feel of his mouth alone was enough to give her heart palpitations. The invasion of his tongue made her feel faint. A thrill of pleasure raced along her nerve endings as she absorbed the feel of it against her own, tasted him, dragged his scent deeply into her lungs.

She clutched at him awkwardly, trying to get closer, to get more. She banged her ankle bones on the bars as she tried to shove her legs between the bars and loop them around his waist.

The pain jarred her from her euphoria and apparently jolted him back to reality. He broke the kiss, to her vast disappointment and set her on her feet again. Before she could complain, he dropped to his knees and pulled her close again, covering one breast with his mouth.

Not through the damned toga,
she thought as she watched his mouth approach! The moment she felt his mouth, though, she realized just how sheer the material was. Fire scorched through her as if nothing at all separated them and created a furnace in her belly that made the muscles dance frantically as if they were trying to grip something. Her eyes rolled back into her head.

She came around enough when he finally let go to consider the size of their audience and discovered to her relief that Dakaar and Balen had formed a shield with their bulk. Relieved of that worry, she managed to focus completely when Kael caught her other breast in his mouth and 42

sucked it. Her legs began to shake so badly she thought her knees would
‟
ve buckled if he hadn
‟
t been gripping her so tightly. They
did
buckle when he slipped one hand down over her ass and found her cleft. Fortunately, she
‟
d had the presence of mind to grip the bars frantically and he still had a firm grip around her upper back.

The finger he was stroking her cleft with was driving her up the wall. He kept missing the spot she desperately wanted him to find. He seemed to realize that, shifting his attention from her buttocks to her mound. She had to clench her teeth to keep from moaning out loud when he found her clit. Then he passed it and found the mouth of her sex, pushing one long, thick finger inside of her.

She was torn between the urge to ride the finger to happy town and the equal urge to demand he go back to the clit. She didn
‟
t get the chance at either. He seemed to come to himself. Easing his finger out of her, he gripped her tightly for a long moment, pressing his forehead against the bars, and finally looked up at her, his dark brows forming a tent of distress above the bridge of his nose. “Not dis way,
shimone,”
he said hoarsely.“Tomorrow, I fight and den I come for you.”

She stared at him dizzily when he got to his feet, trying to come to grips with the fact that he wasn
‟
t going to bring her off, too focused on her discomfort for many moments to register what he
‟
d said. She tried to grab his hand as he withdrew, but he
‟
d already stepped away before her sluggish motor-functions reacted to her brain
‟
s command.

Dakaar pulled her close, rubbing his hands over her soothingly. They didn
‟
t soothe her, though. The frantic tempo of her heart had abruptly ceased to be about desire and changed to anxiety. “You won
‟
t…be fighting each other, will you?”

He hesitated fractionally. “Nay. Most times dey put us in different contest. Kael best wid de
kinsu
. I fight wid
bolo
and Balen wid
plue
.”

She didn
‟
t have a clue of what any of those things were or even if he was talking about the other fighters rather than weapons, but his hesitancy worried her. Lecur
‟
s concubine had said they refused to kill in the games, but that didn
‟
t mean the others were similarly inclined. In fact, she was very afraid that Lecur had managed to use her and the other two women to build their natural aggression to fever pitch and the „games
‟
would turn into a slaughter.

Abruptly, she was far more worried about them than she was herself. She clutched Dakaar a little more tightly, struggling to think of something to say. “Fight really, really hard,” she said finally, “and watch yourself.”

He pulled away slightly to look down at her in surprise. Abruptly, he grinned. “You like Hirachi woman,” he murmured approvingly. Lifting his hands to cup her face, he drew her close and kissed her. She hadn
‟
t expected it, but she lifted her lips readily when she realized his intent, morefocused on her anxieties at that moment than chasing desire. He sent her into a tailspin regardless, resurrecting the fire Kael
‟
s announcement had banked. She was shaking by the time he broke the kiss, almost felt more needy than she had before because of the anxiety building in her that something would happen to them.

She wanted to cling to Dakaar when he stepped back, but she tamped the urge and turned to Balen. He
‟
d just pulled her close and begun to stroke her when the lights abruptly went out. They both stiffened. “Are you going to be able to find your way back?” Loren whispered.

“Aye.” She heard a quizzical smile in his voice. “You no see?”

“I can
‟
t see anything.”

He hesitated a moment and stroked his hands down her length, grasping the edge of her shift 43

and drawing it up. She lifted her arms for him so that he could pull it off. She heard him move and realized he
‟
d gotten down his knees as Kael had a moment before she felt his lips brushed one nipple. They were still sensitive and it took no more than a tug of his mouth to set her on fire all over again. He stroked his hand over her belly and parted the lips of her sex with his hand.

When he would
‟
ve bypassed her clit as Kael had, however, she caught his wrist and guided his finger to it, rubbing his fingertip against the tiny bud. He caught the motion very quickly and teased it until she was panting for breath. As he moved to her other breast, he slipped his hand further along her cleft and pushed a finger inside of her, rubbing her clit with the heel of his hand as he sawed his finger back and forth along her channel.

She
‟
d begun to anticipate her climax when he released her nipple from captivity and removed his hand. She made a sound of protest and then sucked in a sharp breath as he found the nub with his tongue. She struggled with the urge to moan in pleasure, gripping his head as he gripped her buttocks in both his hands to hold her for his teasing tongue. She couldn
‟
t remember ever feeling anything as glorious in her life. She hit her zenith within moments, gasping as the sharp convulsions rippled through her. It seemed to make the climax all the more powerful that she was forced by circumstances and the lack of privacy to try to hold it inside. It was all she could do to remain on her feet once the spasms finally ceased.