Battling Rapture (7 page)

His door opened and Niki walked out in a pale green dress
with clear gems embroidered along the neckline and hem. She ignored what he was
doing and took up a spot in a chair slightly removed from the group of
Ordanians.

Rhine walked over and sat on the arm of her chair. She moved
over, but they still touched. She stiffened and he sensed her displeasure. She
held her tongue and didn’t try to push him off the side. It would have to do
for now.

“We rigged a deterrent system for the door,” Olaf said.

“Will it lock others out?” Rhine asked.

“Yes. It won’t take them long to override it, so the code
will have to be changed frequently. At least we won’t have to worry about leaving
our things unattended,” Gunter replied.

“They won’t leave us alone much longer. We all know what to
do?” Rhine couldn’t say much more. They each nodded.

Bute Chaeen would expect the alarm system. It wasn’t a
secret.

He felt a tug on his sleeve. It startled him that she
touched him voluntarily. He dropped his eyes to her and she maneuvered to her
knees. When she placed her hands on his shoulder and leaned toward his ear, he
realized she wanted to say something. He bent toward her. She smoothed his hair
behind his ear. He shivered.

“Is this low enough?” she whispered.

Her breath on the shell of his ear and the husky tone forced
his eyes closed.

“Lower,” he said softly.

“Should we run reconnaissance? We seem to be alone now,” she
whispered.

It wasn’t a bad idea. He was sure their every move would be
monitored. Bute Chaeen wanted something and he’d gone through some trouble to
invite them to dinner, so to speak. It wouldn’t hurt and they could judge how
close their hidden guard was.

“We walk,” he said to the others. He smiled as he signaled
for them to be alert.

They filed out of the room. Tor and Olaf guarded Bronwyn. He
and Gunter protected Niki, though he didn’t believe she would thank them.

The stone walls were just as blood red inside the fortress
as they were outside. Where the rooms were painted, the corridors were not.
There were four doorways on the corridor and a stairwell. Olaf knocked on the
other three doors. When there was no answer, he, and Gunter opened the doors
and checked the rooms.

“There is no sign that anyone is staying in any of the
rooms,” Gunter said.

“That could change at any moment,” Olaf replied.

That was true.

He, Olaf, Tor and Gunter shielded the women at the same
time. Rhine could hear the sound of many feet on the stairs.

“We have company,” he said for Niki’s benefit.

Seven Contu guards entered the corridor. They were each in a
partial shift where their faces were half humanoid and half canine beast. Sharp
claws protruded from furry human hands. Rhine didn’t like the look of them or
the way they stared at the women.

If he survived this, he would never take another woman
aboard his ship. Ever. Every last one of them was bad luck.

“Bute Chaeen requests your presence at third meal,” the
guard in the very front of the pack said.

Rhine was getting tired of Bute Chaeen’s
requests
.
Unfortunately, his crew was at the mercy of the dictator until they could make
a clean escape. It was time for a little diplomacy, which was normally his job.
He was the Huntu emissary. He handled the delicate situations which his cousin
Venn’s more aggressive nature could or would not.

Rhine stared the beast-man in the eye. “Lead the way.”

They followed. It would be normal for Niki to walk behind
him, but he couldn’t make himself tell her to do so. He held her arm and kept
her where he could see, smell and touch her.

The hall was even more boisterous, and crowded than earlier.
High tables edged the room facing Bute Chaeen’s throne and table. Food and
ornate candelabras crowded each surface. They were led to an empty spot. A
humanoid female with the burnished red skin and long black hair of the Rary
people stood near. She was small and most of her body was bared by a
transparent red draped dress. He noticed the swirling slave brand on her wrist.

“I will take your slave so she may bring drinks to your
table,” the Rarian said.

Rhine narrowed his eyes at the woman. “No. Send another
servant.”

He waved her away. He sat and pulled Niki down on his lap so
she straddled his left leg. She sat stiffly, but did not fight him. Rhine
watched the Rary woman speak to a guard. The guard walked toward Bute Chaeen
and spoke with him.

The dictator clapped and the hall fell quiet. “Sir Rhine, I
understand your slave does not serve.”

Rhine allowed the corners of his mouth to turn up in a
parody of a smile. “She has a specific purpose. She is solely to see to
my
pleasure. She does not fetch. She does not carry. She is to satisfy all of my
senses. That is all.”

Rhine picked up an
ers
fruit from the table and
placed it in her hand. “Eat,” he said quietly.

She lifted the fruit and took a bite. Her feelings were all
over the place. He felt anger and contempt swirling within her. What stabbed
him in the gut was the shame and sadness. He squeezed her waist. After a
moment, she tightened her thighs around his leg and released.

Bute Chaeen continued to stare thoughtfully. “This is a
different concept. So she is your own personal fuckable art?”

Niki gasped and Rhine vowed one day Bute Chaeen would die by
his hands. “If you like,” Rhine replied.

Various slave women of different species walked to the
dictator, distracting him from his failed attempts at philosophy. Chatter
filled the room once more.

Rhine leaned closer to Niki’s ear. “Just hold on.”

“Am I allowed to speak, Sir?” Sarcasm laced her low words.

“Well, hearing is one of my senses and you are a level one.”
He waited.

“Wow,” was all she said. She shook her head, but she did
smile slightly.

“Eat, Niki. We all need our strength.” He whispered the
words against her soft hair.

Hopefully, to anyone looking, it just appeared he enjoyed
holding and speaking to his exotic. When he was sure she would eat what was
offered, he leaned back and turned to Gunter on his right. Rhine was surprised
his cousin could eat as his eyes never seem to look at the table as he scanned
their surroundings.

“Anything,” Rhine said to him.

“Even the servants’ entrance is guarded. We definitely won’t
fight our way out.”

“Do you think it is guarded all the time? Could we try again
during the night?” Niki asked. He was pleased with her calmness. She kept her
eyes ahead and her voice so low he had to make an effort to hear it.

“It couldn’t hurt to try,” Gunter replied.

“How much longer do you all need?” Rhine asked, changing the
subject. They needed the long-range communicator yesterday.

“We’ll know better tomorrow. Our host still hasn’t let us
know why we’re here,” Gunter said.

A screen lowered on the far left wall. There was a great
cheer in the hall. Rhine slid his hand from Niki’s waist and through the slit
in her dress. He held onto her thigh to keep her in place. There was no telling
what would happen next.

The screen flashed and various sexual scenes unfolded. Each
one was of a different species or Contu couple. Niki stiffened and moved to
stand. He held tightly to her thigh.

“Tor,” Rhine said.

Tor was already on his feet. He pulled Bronwyn up with him.
Olaf stood as well. They left the room. Rhine didn’t want the group separated.
It couldn’t be helped. Bronwyn needed to leave to maintain the edela façade. He
wouldn’t be able to pull Niki out just yet.

All around them, groups of two and three were beginning to
grope each other and intertwine carnally on chairs, tables and the floor.
Dinner had just descended into an orgy.

Chapter Four

Niki tried not to gape. All around her, men and women
wrapped themselves around each other. Clothes were discarded. Bute Chaeen was
getting a blowjob from a naked light-blue woman with no hair. There was no
place for her eyes to safely look.

“I don’t do group work.” It was difficult to speak through
clenched teeth.

Gunter chuckled beside her.

“We’ll make our exit momentarily,” Rhine said. “We need a
moment when our host won’t care if we stay or go.”

“He’s getting a pretty enthusiastic blowjob right now.
Shouldn’t he be distracted enough,” she hissed.

“Just a little while longer. I won’t let anything happen to
you, Niki,” Rhine whispered.

She shivered. She did feel safe. That wasn’t the issue. It
was hard not to think about sex when it was all around you. Even if she closed
her eyes, she could still hear moans, and sighs. There was no mistaking the
slap of flesh against flesh. There was a distinctive slurping to her left.

Rhine’s hand was hot against her thigh. At first he squeezed
her leg to get her to remain seated, but now, consciously or not, he caressed
it. His fingers glided right up to the juncture where her mound met her thigh
and back. This happened over and over and her body took notice. She didn’t want
to feel desire. It was as if her body was bare and not covered by the thin
leggings.

In front of their table walked a woman with creamy pale skin
and hair which moved and crackled as though it were a flame. She lay down on
the floor and held up her arms. Three naked Contu men circled around her. The
muscular men each gripped their own cocks and pumped them in their hands. They
were all above average size and Niki wondered if they made an average size cock
in space.

The men knelt down and began removing the woman’s sarong
skirt and bandeau top. She wore no undergarments. The tallest of the three men
pushed her legs open, lay on his belly between her legs and began to lick the
woman in long sure strokes. Another of the men sucked the woman’s nipples as he
kneaded her belly. The flame-haired woman reached for the last man and guided
his dick into her smiling mouth.

Niki couldn’t pull her eyes away. The man at the woman’s
breasts rolled her nipples, and Niki felt it in her own breasts. Her nipples
hardened and she dropped her eyes to where the Contu feasted at the
flame-haired woman’s plump, flushed pussy. At that moment, Rhine’s caressing
hand swept close to Niki’s mound. He touched her briefly. Rhine slid his
fingers along the seam of her thin pants. The light touch sent sparks through
her clit and forced a groan from her lips.

The scene before her unfolded slowly. The men gently helped
the flame-haired woman sit up. She never released the cock in her hand and
mouth. The shifter who’d been between her legs adjusted and lay on his back. He
guided the woman’s legs over his hips and helped her lower her pussy onto his
cock.

The woman shivered and Niki shivered along with her. Rhine’s
fingers pressed more firmly against her now. Rhine had found her clit through
her leggings and was applying a slow circular pressure on her button. She
wanted to protest, but found herself caught by the scene before her.

The flame-haired woman now had a dick in her mouth and her
pussy. The third shifter pushed her forward slightly and lined his cock up with
her anus. Slowly he pushed inside. The woman went completely still at first,
then she began to buck and roll her hips. The shifter grabbed her and held her
still until he was fully inside her ass. They were suspended there for a
moment, then the men worked together, lifting the woman and pulling almost
completely out of her, then bringing her back down on their thrusting cocks.
Every lift pushed her face onto the cock in her mouth and Niki wondered how the
other woman could breathe and moan so loudly at the same time.

The men growled in time with their thrusts and Niki thought
about growling too. Rhine’s fingers moved quickly and forcefully over her clit
now and she had to clutch the edge of the table to keep her upper body still.
She closed her eyes and focused on his fingers on her pussy and controlling the
parts of her others could see. Her toes curled in her slippers and she
tightened her thighs painfully around Rhine’s thigh as she climaxed. She bit
her lower lip, desperate not to call out.

With her eyes closed, she attempted to get herself together.
All around her the sounds of sex and decadence continued and she realized what
she’d done.

“Shit,” she whispered.

Rhine pulled her limp body back against his chest. “Shh, no
one noticed. Gunter has gone to check the corridor.”

Dammit, she’d forgotten Gunter. She would have to face the
man knowing she’d just let his cousin finger her to climax in the middle of a
shifter orgy.

“Oh no.” She brought her hand up to cover her eyes and
groaned. Rhine turned her so she sat sideways in his lap and pressed her face
into his neck.

“He’s been gone for some time, Niki. We should leave as
well. This would be a good moment to sneak out.”

This was a big-girl-panties moment. She pushed away from him
and stood. He crowded her as he got up and she took a step back. They exited
the room the way they’d come. She didn’t miss the two Contu guards who fell
into step behind them. Her face flamed for a moment, knowing the men had been
watching them. Rhine rubbed her arm. It soothed her.

She glared at him. “Half of that was your fault.”

“I was simply trying to help.”

She spotted Gunter leaning against the wall at the end of
the corridor. She felt her face heat again and took another deep breath. There
was a guard standing two feet from him and Gunter looked bored. Gunter pushed
away from the wall as they joined him and headed for the stairs. Niki practiced
keeping her breathing even and her mind blank. She didn’t want to feel anything
the other man might pick up on. She couldn’t tell if it was fortunate or not
that her pussy always seemed to be wet around Rhine so she wouldn’t smell any
different to his cousin. She hoped.

They entered the suite. The others were already there,
sitting and waiting. She walked over to the chair she’d occupied before and
sat. She closed her eyes again.

“No more eating,” she said.

She heard a giggle. Niki opened one of her eyes to see
Bronwyn clutching her stomach and her mouth and trying to force back a laugh.
Niki smiled, closed her eyes again and shook her head.

She knew it was Rhine who pulled her from the chair, sat
down and arranged her on his lap. There wasn’t anyone else in the group as bold
when handling her person. She moved to get up and he tightened his arm around
her waist. She subsided. Niki would have to have a real talk with him later
about manhandling her. It didn’t matter if his stupid bloodhound nose said she
did like it, she shouldn’t.

“Are they still out there?” she whispered.

“No, they’ve gone,” Rhine said.

“We should do this now then,” Tor said.

Niki was startled as Rhine stood and deposited her back in
her seat. She watched as the men each went into Tor’s room. She looked at
Bronwyn, then followed them. She could feel the younger woman behind her. She
opened the door without knocking and passed the door to Bronwyn. The men never
looked up, but Rhine snagged her wrist as she tried to pass by and pulled her
closer.

The jammer was out and running again. The men were working
on another machine. She assumed it was the communicator.

“Won’t they know you’ve sent a message?” she asked.

“We have to chance it,” Olaf said.

“Do you have a secret code? You know, you’re saying, ‘hi,
we’re having a blast in Tuetvon’ when you mean, ‘get us the hell outta here.’”

“That would be nice, but no. They will know we sent out a
signal, but they won’t kill us. They know Venn will be sending help,” Rhine
said.

“If Cam is in the room, I can get her a secret message,” she
said.

“How?” Bronwyn asked.

“Sign language.” She used her hands to sign the words for
send help.

“Camryn understands this sign language?” Rhine asked.

“We’ve used it since we were kids. She said we always should
be able to talk to each other.” The words stung her throat a little.

She hadn’t always kept in touch, but she’d wanted to. It
just hurt sometimes to see Camryn. It hurt to remember her childhood. It hurt
to remember, period.

Strong arms came around her and she recognized Rhine’s
masculine scent. She didn’t want comfort. She certainly didn’t want to get used
to it. She stiffened, but he held on.

“I don’t want to have to hurt you,” she said quietly.

The Ordanians chuckled. Rhine patted her back. He wasn’t
gentle about it either. She scowled at him when he turned her loose.

“Just in case, we will let you send your sign language. Tell
her where we are and that we are in danger. That should be enough.” Rhine went
back to working on the machine.

“We should be done with this in a few hours if we keep
working on it. It would be better to have this done when most are asleep,” Tor
said.

“The jammer will have to go down in one minute,” Gunter
said. “The mini jammer won’t cover every sight and sound.”

In other words, they needed radio silence. “Do you think
they are watching the room? They don’t seem very sophisticated,” Niki said.

“It is the nature of the dictator to be paranoid,” Bronwyn
said.

“That’s right, little one,” Rhine said.

Niki watched as Bronwyn preened under the slight praise.

There was a knock on the outer door. Niki reached for her
gun, then realized she didn’t have one and glared at Rhine.

“Bronwyn and Niki, stay in this room,” he said.

She wanted to curse him, but she’d agreed to be a team
member and he was the lead. It galled her that he understood more about the
culture than she did. She’d seen for herself that Tuetvon was male dominated,
but she had a feeling Ordan was as well.

Rhine and Gunter left the room and closed the door. The
other men placed the semi-completed machinery out of sight. Niki cracked the
door slightly and listened.

“Bute Chaeen requests your presence, Sir Rhine.”

It must have been one of those pesky guards again.

“Where are we to meet him?” Rhine asked.

“He asked only for you and he will see you in the library.”

He better not leave without backup.

“My cousin will accompany me. If this is a business matter,
Sir Gunter has a head for numbers.” Rhine’s voice was quite firm on the matter.

The only other sound was the closing of the door. She opened
the door a little wider and peered out. The large room was empty. Everything in
her urged her to leave and trail them. Rhine could be in trouble and he only
had one cousin to guard his back. But she stayed.

She’d said she would. She didn’t know Olaf and Tor. They
were just as emotionless as Rhine could be sometimes. Tor was also a little
scary. She didn’t want to make him angry. She liked all her limbs just how they
were.

Eventually she couldn’t take it any longer and drifted out
to the larger room. No one tried to stop her and she was grateful. Sitting
still wasn’t her forte.

Why wasn’t he back yet? Surely Bute Chaeen could ask for
whatever he wanted, Rhine would tell him no and that would be the end of it.
Right after they had the talk about unwanted touching, they were going to talk
about leaving her behind when there was danger.

“Niki,” Bronwyn said.

Niki spun around. Either the girl was quiet or Niki was
distracted. She preferred to think it was the former.

“What’s up?”

Bronwyn blinked at her and looked at the ceiling.

“I mean, why did you call me?” She guessed the term didn’t
translate.

“You’re worried,” Bronwyn replied.

“Worried? I’m not worried.” Just because the man hadn’t
returned yet and she’d been waiting

“Would you like to play a game of cards? I have a pack in my
room.” Bronwyn turned and entered one of the side rooms. When she returned, she
held a set of holographic cards.

They sat across from each other at the table.

“You are already familiar with Warrior’s Curse. You want to
try that?” Bronwyn shuffled the cards and began to deal.

Niki supposed her choice was made for her. “Sure.”

How did Bronwyn end up on this little rescue mission? These
guys didn’t strike her as the types to bring their baby female cousin anywhere
she wouldn’t be completely safe. It was uncomfortable not being able to get
answers. She wasn’t even sure the room was being watched. Surely they would
have busted in every time the jammer was on if that was the truth.

Where was Rhine?

* * * * *

Rhine looked around at the dictator’s library. It was more
of a museum. The space was short on books, but big on draped gaudy fabrics, and
ugly statuary. Bute Chaeen was nowhere to be seen, but the room was full of
scantily clad woman. Five beautiful slaves to be exact.

The women loitered, draped over settees and opulent pillows.
The room was full of whatever scented oils they had rubbed on themselves. It
was probably Bute Chaeen’s attempt to hide the scent of all the men they’d lain
with recently.

The same Rary woman who attempted to show Niki how to serve,
offered Gunter and him refreshments, which they declined. Suddenly music began
to play. It was slow, sensual and full of woodwind and string instruments. The
wordless song contained a throbbing undercurrent of percussion. The women began
to dance. They undulated in sexually suggestive movements.

It was a nice show. Maybe if he wasn’t waiting for a knife
in the back, he would have enjoyed it. Tension could be seen in Gunter’s
shoulders as well. Two of the women moved closer and removed their tops. The
tanned one climbed into his lap and rubbed her pert breasts against him. Rhine
gathered the woman shaking her soft fragrant tits in his face by the arms and
set her on her feet away from him.