Lurin's Surrender (7 page)

Captain of her own ship, a professional bounty hunter, and angry as a raider. And she blushed. Mara Seni
never
blushed.

He laughed when he saw it, and the darkness clouding his expression eased. “Finally. For a minute there I wondered where the woman in Captain Mara had gone.”

“She’s right here,” she said through clenched teeth. How had this man, this irritating clod, made her lose her mind to passion? She’d never heard of a telepath having such skills. It defied explanation, unless he was…Thesha? Twice in the span of a few days, she’d had the odd notion he might be one of those mythic people. But she dismissed it as she stared at him.

The Thesha didn’t exist. The mind trick he’d just pulled, getting her to free him from his cell, those were stunts a clever telepath might know. If he were Thesha, according to legend, he’d be able to control everything she said and did. And despite what had just occurred, Mara desired Lurin. A chemical reaction, surely, but she knew her own mind. Just the thought of being so powerless sent a chill through her blood.

Lurin continued to stare at her, his gaze shuttered. “So what now, Captain Mara? You don’t honestly expect me to go back to my cell in shackles to await Nobless Cari’s brand of justice, do you?”

Mara sank onto the bed and kept a cautious eye on Lurin. “No, I don’t. But I don’t plan on setting you free, either.”

He eyed the phaser she’d dropped on the floor near the bed. Spectacular sex or no, Mara commanded everyone on board her vessel. And technically, Lurin was still her prisoner.

She eyed her phaser then Lurin. “Don’t even think about it.”

“I’m not.” He scowled and sank into a nearby chair. After a moment of silence, Lurin stared at her with an intensity she found unnerving. “What do you want from me, Mara?” Strangely enough, he looked as puzzled and put out about the whole situation as she felt.

“I’m not sure,” she paused, searching for an answer.
I want you to make love to me. I want you to fill the empty spaces within me. Make me into the sensual, loving woman I know I can be.
Ignoring her innermost desires as she had for most of her life, she fell back on the job. It was so much safer. “Why don’t we focus on your case with Nobless Cari?”

He shrugged, and she could tell that, though he’d asked the question, he too wanted to avoid discussing what existed between them.

“What possible reason could the nobless have for putting a bounty on your head? Jaron law took responsibility for you the moment you killed--allegedly killed--” she said to forestall his interruption, “Master Denal. No matter what you saw in the woods, your word won’t stand up to that of the nobless, not on Elaran land, not in that part of the planet. So why did she hire me to capture you?”

“I don’t know why she hired you.” He seemed confused, but Mara sensed something off with his answer.

“She’s offering me a great deal of currency for you.”

Lurin shrugged, and she
knew
he held back from telling her the whole truth.

“What aren’t you telling me?”

“What? You want a more detailed accounting of Sara’s rendezvous in the woods? Why don’t I show you instead?” he suggested and nodded at his groin. “I’m ready for it if you are.”

And that was another problem. She responded to his desire as if programmed. Clenching her thighs together was a mistake because Lurin noticed. He rubbed his crotch, and his unashamed need only increased her desire.

“Come, Mara. Our little argument’s made me hungry again.” He stroked himself through his trousers and smiled, his gaze probing.

Determined to remain aloof, to prove that she didn’t want or need him, Mara shook her head and prayed he couldn’t see her stiff nipples through the overshirt she wore.

Lurin stood and approached her. She remained seated on the bed, forcing herself not to lean towards him. But when he stopped in front of her, his groin rested at eye level. He cupped himself, his movement slow, captivating. When he pushed his trousers down and exposed that gloriously hard cock, she couldn’t look away.

Mara’s mouth watered and she licked her lips, wanting to taste the slick tip beading with desire.

“So we’re not going to do this again? You feel nothing for your prisoner, hmm?”

He pumped himself right in front of her face.
He stands close enough to taste
, came the traitorous thought, and she parted her lips, wondering what he’d feel like under her tongue.

He groaned and worked faster, teasing her.

“You know you want this,” he said thickly. “I can smell your need. Go ahead, touch yourself. Tell me you aren’t wet, drowning for me.”

Clutching his cock with one hand, he used his other to force her hand down between her thighs. Unable to resist, she shoved her hand beneath her trousers and sought her core. The minute her fingers brushed her clit, she sighed with need. She began rubbing herself, smoothing through the thick folds of her sex.

“That’s it, sweet,” he urged breathlessly, his cock impossibly hard. He removed his hand so she could see his throbbing rod waving in front of her, begging her to taste. “Put your finger inside your slick pussy.”

She did and his cock seemed to swell. A slick fluid covered his cockhead, and more beaded at the tip. Would he taste sweet? Salty?

“I’m going to come all over you,” he whispered. “But it won’t be as good as when I come in you.” Staring at her mouth, he seemed to read her mind. “Want a little taste?”

He looked impossibly large, swollen and thick, but Mara needed to know. He guided his cock to her lips. To her surprise, she saw him tremble.

Pleased to feel a hint of power over the male, she licked his shaft from base to tip, amazed to find she liked his taste. So male, so strong. So Lurin.

“I want to fuck your mouth and come down your throat,” he groaned and held his cock out as she licked him. She drew out the contact and he shuddered.

“No more,” he rasped. “I can’t—
Mara
.”

Taking him as deep into her mouth as she could, Mara was beside herself. She didn’t have even half of him inside her mouth, but the fleshy head of his shaft demanded she give it her attention. Taking care to stroke with her tongue and suck with her mouth, she brought him to the edge, exciting herself as well.

Her finger moved faster and faster over her clit, while she sucked the sweet cream from his cock.

“Stars, Mara. I want you so much,” Lurin growled, his fingers threaded through her hair as he shoved into her mouth in short bursts. She could feel his efforts to restrain himself in the trembling of his thighs, and she moaned around him, glad to be in charge once more. “Oh fuck, I can’t stop. Now, I’m coming now.” He tensed and filled her mouth with cream, repeating her name like a litany as he spilled.

His orgasm triggered hers. She clamped her mouth around him as she swallowed her own cries around his seed. Ecstasy crashed through her, an almost alien sense of what Lurin felt in addition to her orgasm, which couldn’t possibly be real.

Lurin finally withdrew and stood over her, breathing hard.

Removing her hand from between her legs, Mara flushed, feeling his gaze on her.

“It felt good, having that power, didn’t it?” he said softly. “What it feels like to me all the time. But never as grand as it was today. So different with you,” he murmured and coiled a lock of her hair around his finger.

Catching her breath, she watched as his cock slowly went limp. He leaned back and reaching down to pull up and fasten his trousers.

He said nothing more, but she could feel his scrutiny as she changed into clean clothes befitting a ship’s captain—an undertunic, work shirt, trousers and boots. She kept her phaser close and tucked it into her belt when fully dressed. Still, Lurin said nothing.

Uncomfortable under his knowing gaze, Mara decided to confront him about everything when a sudden jarring knocked both Lurin and her forward.

“What the hell was that?” Lurin stared at her in shock.

Feeling just as surprised, she raced to the portal and looked out. Then she gripped her phaser and moved to the door.

“We’re being boarded, and it’s not my crew.”

Chapter Seven

Conscious that Lurin wore a pair of trousers and nothing more, Mara sent him to Nu’s room, where she knew he’d find clothes to fit. Without waiting for him, she hurried to the bridge, knowing she had little time.

“Who do you think they are?” Lurin asked when he caught up with her.

“I don’t know. They’re too quiet for pirates, and if they were law, they’d have signalled first.” She ran a quick scan on the docking vessel. “Standard warship,” she muttered in frustration.

A grating whine, the sound of metal hulls scraping together, alerted them both to the impending boarding of what she had to consider an unknown enemy.

“It’s got to be Nobless Cari.” Lurin glared at the console outlining the warship.

“That makes no sense.” Mara fought impatience. “As far as she knows, I’m just a few short days from delivering you into her keeping. Why would she interfere now?”

“To get out of her fee, maybe?”

“No.” Mara clutched her weapon. “But we can reason the who’s and why’s later. Right now we have to prepare for a fight.”

“A fight?” Lurin stared incredulously from Mara’s determined gaze to the console. “You’re kidding, right? It’s the two of us against a warship carrying any number of warriors. And you don’t even trust me with a weapon.”

Mara wanted to argue but couldn’t refute his logic. “Good point.” She handed him her phaser.

Her skin tingled and her blood pounded through her veins. She could feel the adrenaline kicking into high gear at thoughts of the upcoming battle, as well as a rush of nerves. Reminding herself not to glory in the adrenaline high, she focused on calm and reason.

Reaching into a concealed weapons stash, she grabbed another phaser and two battle knives. She handed one to Lurin. “Just in case.”

He nodded.

“This is my ship and I’ll be damned if I’ll give her up. We’ll take them out one at time through the stairwell. It’s the only obvious pathway to this deck of the ship. There’s no way they can know about the crew entrance hidden on the port side.”

She ran out of the bridge, figuring they had little time to do more than stage themselves.

“Wait.” Lurin grabbed her shoulder, effectively halting her. She turned impatiently. “A kiss for luck.”

The most incredible thing happened then. He kissed her deeply, and Mara felt a subtle heat infuse her body, a heat curiously different from the sensual haze he usually created.

Her heart felt as if it stuttered, and then began pounding as if she’d just finished a race. She could feel a subtle difference inside her, as if a part of Lurin now dwelled within her blood. She stared up at him, for the first time truly questioning if Lurin Vez was more than the telepath she suspected him to be.

“Be safe,” he ordered. His eyes lit brilliantly before they calmed into a flat, navy blue, a color unlike any he’d worn before.

Astonished, she tore her gaze from him and moved into position. She and Lurin staged themselves at the top of the stairwell, each peering over the ledge to the floor of the deck below. The inner seal of the docking wall had been breached, and already Mara could see several warriors in royal Jaron yellow combing the floor.

She and Lurin lay at an angle to one another, allowing their fields of fire to cover much of the second deck, with Lurin’s attention on the actual stairway and hers on the floor itself.

She prayed they wouldn’t do too much damage to her ship while defending it.

“Here they come,” Lurin murmured.

Mara watched uneasily as a gaggle of warriors approached the stairway in an unbalanced front. They moved without precision or discipline, and she wondered if the uniforms they wore were real or just an artifice to confuse the wary.

Lurin fired first, and a man went down. Return fire immediately ensued. Mara had her hands full protecting her position while firing on the others that appeared from out of nowhere.

Where the hell had those dozen men come from?

She felled another man, suddenly registering that her phaser had been set to high stun. “
Damn it.
”

Lurin continued to fire. “What’s wrong?”

“I’ve been stunning these men. That’s okay as long as they’re not here for more than a few hours.”

“Great.” Lurin swore and fired again. “Have you noticed that men seem to be appearing from out of nowhere?”

“I noticed.” A shot singed her shoulder, and she scowled at the warrior who fired at her. Curiously the wound didn’t hurt, but she was too worried about the disappearing enemy to wonder about it.

“And we’re so glad you noticed,” a deep voice sounded from above her.

Before she could move, a blade pressed against the side of her jaw.

“Freeze or I’ll cut your throat. You too, Vez. One move and she’s dead.”

Odd that the man used a threat against her to stay Lurin. Odder still that the threat worked. Their weapons were kicked away.

“On your feet,” the voice rumbled. “Turn around slowly.”