Forbidden Worlds - Box Set Read Online Free Page B

significance of the accessories struck him, and he found himself picturing her lashed to a bed, spread-eagled, those bands holding her arms and legs immobile while she writhed beneath him.
    Vixen. She played her part too damn well.
    “You catch on quickly. Sit over here.” He directed her to a bench that protruded from the bulkhead and gathered the weapon and sheath he’d chosen for her from his collection.
    “This is actually an arm band,” he explained, lifting one pale thigh in his hands to fit the tooled straps of the sheath in place. “But it should fit your leg comfortably.”
    She accepted his ministrations without comment, though he swore he smelled the musky scent of her arousal when his fingers grazed beneath the scant hem of her shortened pants.
    He could have had her right there, could have slipped his fingers into her pussy and felt the heavenly sensation of her tight passage opening to him, but he didn’t. Instead he forced himself to concentrate on his task. Moving with deliberate attention to detail, he tightened the harness around her and positioned the dagger so she could access it while walking.
    “How does that feel?” His mouth had gone dry and the words seemed to stick in his throat.
    “Fine.” She ran her fingers along the raised Sparthan symbols that covered both the sheath and the hilt of the blade. “Exquisite work. This is a collector’s piece.”
    The hint of a question in her tone amused him. “Yes. I stole it.” Would the confession shock her?
    She seemed unimpressed. “From my Uncle Stanis, I believe. I recognize the security brand under the flap.” A knowing smile creased her lips. “You’ve been in Vargas territory for a while, I gather.”
    “I go where the money is.’
    “Yet you won’t accept triple your rate for this job?”
    “I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of in my life, but I’ve never taken advantage of someone else’s desperation.” Indulging his sudden need to touch her, he brushed a finger along her jaw and raised her chin. “That doesn’t mean I might not pick an opportune time to renegotiate our agreement.”
    “I expected no less.” She met his gaze, and her lower lip trembled, beckoning him. He leaned in, mesmerized by the endless blue of her eyes and the drugging scent of her soft skin.
    When he’d nearly reached her lips, she turned her head. “Damon, I can pay you more than you could dream of asking for, but I can’t afford complications.”
    He pulled back, both disappointed and relieved. Whatever flaw in his character caused him to think kissing her was a good idea, he was grateful that a cooler head prevailed.
    “You can fuck me any way you want, but understand, I have no intention of ever making love with you.”
    He feigned nonchalance as he moved away from her. “Good. Then we understand each other completely.”
     
    * * * *
     
    He’d almost kissed her. What was worse, she’d almost let him.
    That would have been a disaster.
    Now, back in her cabin, Lea set the sheath and dagger he’d given her on the sideboard and lowered herself to the edge of the bed. Something inside her had seemed to come to life when Damon brushed his fingers along her jaw. The touch had been gentle, caring and sensual, not raw and erotic like everything else about the way he moved and spoke.
    She hated herself more for responding to that simple touch than for the full-on female equivalent of a hard-on she’d experienced while going down on him. Sex, she could handle. She’d steeled herself for it, but intimacy was something else entirely, something she had no room for in her wounded heart.
    A quiet knock on the cabin door startled her. He’d just strolled in before, overriding the electronic lock, yet now he knocked? She didn’t like that the terms of their “involvement” seemed to have changed already. She preferred it when he wasn’t careful of her.
    The door opened, but he remained in the hall. “We’ll reach orbit in ten hours. We