The Siren's Call (Fantasy, Science Fiction, Romance) (FORCED TO SERVE) (27 page)

“Sorry—I have not shared pleasure in many years,” she whispered. “I am very much out of practice. I felt your request and tried to comply.”

“It’s not supposed to be work for you,” he said on laugh, wrapping her tightly and stroking her for a minute or two more.

Then Chiang lay backwards on the pillow and pulled Boca’s much less tense body down on his, moving her legs inside his for comfort as he stroked her back.

Next time he was going to make her take her hair down.

Next time he was going to kiss her endlessly until she begged for completion.

When she started to move off, he gripped her, not able to let her go yet. “Can you just stay where you are on me for a few moments?” he asked. “I wish to hold you.”

Boca nodded and laid still as he requested, her mind now flitting around a reality that surprised her.

“Your energy did not ask to be bound to mine. You shared pleasure with me without needing the commitment,” she said, amazed.

Chiang snorted. “Hardly surprising since I’ve been avoiding all kinds of commitments to females for a very long time. Unlike you, I’ve had a lot of practice at that.”

“Thank you,” Boca said in shock. “I’ve never been with a bonding partner as generous as you.”

Chiang snorted again. “
Nemernici egoiste
,” he spat.

“English please,” Boca said softly, sighing against him. He really was a solid male. She wished for a moment that she could just stay where she was for the rest of the day.

Chiang laughed, shaking them both, which had his hands pressing the female more closely to keep her where she was.

“Sorry, I’ve been more stressed today than I’ve been in a long time. I said your other bonding partners were selfish bastards not to try to please you.”

“Really, I would have said they were just being typical males,” Boca replied sincerely.

“Don’t ruin my afterglow by bashing the males of every species. I promise you I will never seek only my own pleasure with you. It’s not my style. Maybe I’ll change the way you view future males,” Chiang said.

“If you could undo almost a hundred years of my experience, then you would indeed be a powerful healer,” Boca said flatly, closing her eyes in pleasure as Chiang laughed again.

They were silent for a while. Boca scooted down him to lay her head on his stomach, moaning in gratitude when Chiang ran his fingers over her head. After a while, she felt him sigh.

“I’m going with you to Lotharius. Gwen was right. I’m not going to be able to let anyone else have control over you until our connection has faded some,” Chiang said. “I’m committed to making sure no one gets to control you ever again.”

Boca raised her head and climbed off him, scooting to the edge of the bed. “You have discussed our situation with Gwen?”

Chiang grabbed her arm to keep her near. “No. Commander Jet discussed the mission with her lieutenant. I am her pick of who goes with you, not Synar’s. He wants to send Jurek.”

“If you did not discuss us, why were you Gwen’s pick?” Boca demanded.

Chiang let go and watched her stand, knew she was going to flee. But she couldn’t go far. He would see her every day now that they were both assigned to Medical. And he was going with her on the mission—the Creators help them both.

“As part of her mating, Zade gave her some sort of super intuition about personal connections. Gwen knew no one would watch out for you as much as I would,” he admitted finally.

Boca didn’t reply. She couldn’t without revealing her concerns—and her desires.

“I will check on Malachi and Ania before retiring,” she said flatly, walking out of the room.

After Boca left, Chiang stared at the ceiling in his new room thinking of what had passed between them. Now that his lust was momentarily satisfied—even if not as satisfactorily as he would have wished—his energy was at least more clear.

His longing to have Boca in his bed had lessened, only to be replaced by a fiercer longing to heal the wounded female spirit in her. He was convinced now that she had been damaged long before her experience as a captive on Lotharius. What had her Sumerian mate done to her? Chiang had a pretty good idea what the Sumerian male
hadn’t done
—like please Boca in bed, the selfish bastard.

Chiang decided he would pleasure the stoic Sumerian female every chance he got in every way he knew how until Boca Ador would expect to have that kind of pleasure from every male that followed him. And of course, there would be others that followed him.

Eventually.

Gwen had warned him Boca had no intentions of staying on the Liberator. Her next male would probably be some young cadet at the academy or some Siren while she trained on Rylen. The thought that some Siren male might be the next one to pleasure his female, making her look and be as satisfied as Zade had obviously made Gwen, just didn’t sit well at the moment.

So where did that leave him?

He didn’t want her permanently, but he certainly wanted more of her. He would never ask her to stay forever, but he was intending to take her up on the offer to be his temporary mate just so he had a claim to her above all others. It was the only prudent thing to do with the energy connection so strong that neither of them could deny the other physically.

So long as their bonding didn’t set off his Greggor mating urges again, everything should be fine. Their bonding obviously hadn’t set it off in their earlier exchange. Perhaps it was just the initial novelty of their strong connection that had sent his body in the direction of extreme and permanent ownership that one time.

Chapter 18

When Dorian woke, the pillow beneath his head was breathing. It might have been alarming had the smell of the female not been the exact one he’d been craving for many long and lonely weeks.

He lifted his head, having to untangle himself from the meditation robe, which was on over his clothes for some reason. He usually wore nothing under the ceremonial robe and loosely tied it closed.

As his gaze roamed the familiar space, his mind was working to recall the reason he was even in the room. Thinking about it just gave him a headache though. He remembered being abducted. He even remembered being held in a cage prison of Ceruse metal and having no choice but to eat food that was obviously drugged.

Then there was a blank.

And now he was here wearing his robe.

On a more positive note, the female of his every fantasy lay calmly sleeping on the mat. And thankfully, she was not the one Dorian recalled buying him at the auction where he and Sarinnea were sold.

Dorian wasn’t sure why he couldn’t remember being rescued, but he had little doubt who had come to free him. He reached out to run fingertips up his rescuer’s arm, wanting to kiss her but fearing her reaction to being awakened that way.

He had committed the unpardonable act of claiming Gwen against her will again, and done it after promising never to do so. He had planned on wooing her as Sarinnea had suggested, but instead had panicked and sent a full mating cord to her.

For all he knew, Gwen had brought him here in this room seeking a path of trying to undo their connection. The very thought of it made him frown.

“Gwen,” Dorian whispered. “Gwen—wake up.”

Her eyes fluttered open. Once they focused, she smiled.

“Hi. Did you have a nice nap? Mine was great. Now I’m glad I sent everyone else away,” she said, bringing herself up to sit facing him. “So where did you go?”

“Go? What do you mean?” Dorian asked.

“You asked me to bring you here, knelt to meditate, and basically checked out…” Gwen looked at her wrist unit. “Wow, about five hours ago. It really was a long time. I can’t believe I slept so long.”

Dorian ran a hand over his head, his eyes widening at not finding his hair. He didn’t recall it being cut. “What in Helios happened to my hair?”

His sharp words had Gwen’s mouth twitching. “Quick—tell me who you are. Don’t think about it.”

Dorian snorted. “Don’t be ridiculous. Why would you ask me such a question? I’m sure to you I’m the same controlling Siren bastard you have professed to both love and loathe. Why again are we in the meditation room?”

Gwen dropped her head to her chest. “Oh hell—I guess I asked for this. You’ve had freaking amnesia, Zade. I mean, you’ve had severe memory loss since you were rescued.”

“How can that be? I remember the auction, that vile female who bought me, and the cage that was my quarters the entire time I was there. They drugged my food and kept me subdued with some sort of collar.” His hand went automatically to his neck but found nothing. “How did I escape? Did you kill her?”

Gwen shook her head. “Sorry. I probably would have, but I never saw her. You busted yourself out and found me in the middle of my own escape. They captured both me and Ania.”

“I broke myself out?” Zade grabbed his head as he asked the question. “Are you sure of this?”

“Yes. The mating cord helped you find me, but you didn’t know who I was. There was actually a point where I thought you might try to kill me, but you didn’t. You didn’t know your mother either. I had to talk you into going with me to rescue her,” Gwen explained.

Dorian pulled away, shocked at what she was saying. “I refused to rescue my birth parent?”

He sounded so tortured and shocked that she couldn’t stand it. Gwen crawled between his legs, even though she could feel how much her actions shocked him.

“Hey—what’s the freeze for? You’re my mate. I suppose you don’t remember everything else we did this week either,” Gwen demanded, wrapping her arms around him in a reassuring hug—at least she hoped it was reassuring. “You know what. It doesn’t matter, and I don’t care. You’re back for real, and that’s all that matters at the moment. We’ll just have to work everything else out later. I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.”

“Gwen, please stop hugging me. This is torture. I’ve wanted you forever, but I need time to adjust to being okay and no longer captured. I believe I have some trauma. Is Sarinnea okay?” he asked, burying his face in her neck. Raging fires of Helios, she smelled wonderful. His arms were just coming around her when he felt her move.

Gwen eased away, searching Zade’s gaze and finding only sincerity. Looked like they were back to where they were before he got abducted.

Damn it, she thought, laughing at her luck.

Sighing, she backed up and climbed to her feet. Reaching down, she offered a hand, surprising Zade when she pulled him to his feet without so much as a grunt.

“Are you stronger?” he asked, retaining her hand, compelled to do so.

“Yes,” Gwen said. “Thanks for the mating present. I really like being stronger.”

“The cord was a last resort,” Dorian said, head bowing in shame as he sighed. “I could not think of any other way to make sure you could find me—us.”

Gwen squeezed his fingers. “It’s okay. I got over the urge to kill you for it just before I came to get you. Otherwise, we’d both be dead, because whatever they gave you made you a whole different male. I’m probably even going to miss him a little.”

“Why? Why happened?” Zade demanded, halting her with a resistant tug.

The jealousy on his face made Gwen laugh, and she couldn’t resist the torture. “He was really good in bed.”

“We bonded when I couldn’t remember you?” he asked, appalled by the idea. “Why did you allow him—me—such a liberty?”

“
Allow
it?
Oh, that’s a good one,” Gwen snorted, repeating the words of permission that in no way explained how compelled she had been to meet his needs.

Just then the alarm went off her wrist unit. Guess she wouldn’t be needing that today, Gwen decided, looking at the confusion in her mate’s gaze. Damn it, she really was going to miss the unrestrained male who demanded her attention. The thought of never sharing that level of desire with Zade again had her sighing regretfully.

“Let’s go to Medical,” Gwen ordered, walking out and leaving Zade to follow, but she was watching to make sure he did—and that he could walk. She wanted Ania and Malachi to get a look at him, or do a reading, or whatever it was those two did.

“What? Tell me why you are behaving so strangely. And please stop fantasizing—the images in your mind of us bonding are torturous. I am having to exercise all my willpower not to take advantage of our mating connection,” Dorian said, his voice rough.

“Well, don’t strain yourself, Zade. Your evil twin has been having his wicked way with me pretty much since you got back on the Liberator. He and I were damn close to tripling my bonding record for number of times with any other male,” Gwen reported happily.

“You jest to punish me for sending the cord,” Dorian said.

“I never jest like that. Twelve or thirteen times a day for over a week. I’m still not counting that first night in the total score because I wasn’t conscious half the time. I was exhausted. Honestly, I don’t know half what you did to me while I was sleeping,” Gwen said with stark sincerity.

“Why did you not shoot him? Why did you allow him to do that to you?” he demanded.

“
Him?
It was
you
—whether you remember it or not,” Gwen said with laugh.