The Bid (9 page)

“Except you can give the command to release yourself whenever you like,” he said automatically, although his voice was a bit numb with continuing disbelief over what she was trying to offer him.

“Voiceprint restraint release, Vejhon Mach.” There was a responding beep. She cocked that brow again, the challenge ringing so clear now. “Speak your name and you will have control over the restraint release.”

“Vejhon Mach,” he said, unable to help the impetus of the moment and the opportunity for payback it was offering.

There was an answering beep, and without missing a beat she gave another command. “Delete restraint access for Hanna Drakoulous.”

“Warning,” a disembodied voice replied. “Access deletion is for primary authority. Restoration of access can only be restored at central workstation. Are you sure you wish to delete primary authority access for restraints?”

“Correct. Delete primary authority access to restraints.”

“Deleted.” The response was punctuated with a last beep. Hanna turned her sharp blue eyes onto Vejhon.

“The central workstation is upstairs. You now have total control over the restraints. There is nothing I can do. You have the ring as well.”

“I also have a band around my arm, if you recall,” Vejhon retorted.

“That prevents you doing violence to me. This isn’t violence. Do nothing with the intent to cause me dangerous harm and you will suffer no feedback. Fortunately for you, this is only a violation. Would you care to continue?”

Jhon couldn’t believe she had done this. It was certainly too good to be true. The ruthless militant in him seethed with exultation at the commanding advantage and the opportunity to counterstrike. On the other hand, the part of him that had so recently been a victim sent a twinge of distaste running through him.

He stood there, taking the time to absorb everything. He looked at her and really saw her for the first time since she’d stripped herself bare. She was, in a word, stunning. He had been convinced that bodies that incredibly fit and sexy existed only in a man’s imagination. She was tall and lean, her muscles accented by her outstretched position and the tension she no doubt felt for her subservient position. As he had thought, her skin was a slightly darker shade of blue as it ran down over her full, healthy breasts. And like her wickedly dark lips, her nipples were deep purple and scarlet berries, pulled into fat peaks by the chill of the wall at her back. Her belly was taut and flat, abdominal muscles etched ever so lightly under her skin. Her navel made him smile for some reason as it stood out a cobalt blue from the rest of her.

Below that…

The killer legs and fabulous hips he’d already known about. Not that they were easy to dismiss, because they weren’t. Like before, he had to acknowledge that it had been a long time since…

Dark. And darker. That was the only way to describe the way her skin colored as it traveled from the bottom of her navel to the curve of her genitals. He could see the violet shadows of her labia even from where he stood. Unexpectedly, his entire throat and mouth went dry, even while his heart began to drum a resonant beat, as though it were keeping time for the whole planet.

“Why are you doing this?” he asked, walking up to her as their eyes finally met.

“Because you need me to. Because, Jhon,” she said with soft intensity, “I will do anything to get you to trust me.”

“And what if I said that it’s impossible? I trust no one. I never have. I likely never will.”

“It doesn’t change the fact that I have to try. Or that I owe you this. This is as much for me as it is for you. I hated doing what I did to you. And the only way you will come to understand that is by doing it yourself. Just understand, as much as I hated what I had to become to distribute that lesson to you, that is how very important the lesson was. Do you understand?”

“Not yet,” he said with clear and quiet purpose, “but I will.”

S
he wasn’t afraid.

Hanna hadn’t been lying when she had said that. Oh, she was taking a great risk stripping herself before him, but she only needed to maneuver with care to pull it off. What she truly hid was the rush of excitement that had her skin bubbling with gooseflesh. Her advantage in this scenario was that she knew what would be coming, and she wasn’t resistant to it.

Vejhon knew this, too. He toyed with the ring he held for a long minute as he thought about how to best take advantage of the situation without hurting her, and thereby himself, in the process. He had to give her credit…either for guts or stupidity. The jury was still out on that one. She had handed herself into total helplessness, and this only minutes after he had made an attempt on her life. Since he already knew how shrewd and calculating she was, it forced him to reconsider all of her motives. That she was willing to go so far to earn his forgiveness and his trust either made her desperate or extremely considerate of his feelings about all of this. For that, he was going to opt for a little bit of both. Only, what was it that could make so powerful a woman desperate for help from what was, from her perspective, a bought slave?

He moved up closer to her, as close as she had been to him when she had begun touching him. Their gazes held, that clarity in hers so frank and so damn honest. Unable to curb the impulse, he reached out and traced a finger over one of those mocking little brows of hers. His fingertip slid until the tail of her eyebrow ended in a point, leaving him with a choice to stop or continue on to her skin. The lure was incredibly tempting, the curves of blue so fair and fascinating. Fighting the urge, he stepped back and raked his eyes down her body, forcing himself back to the familiarity of lust and sex appeal, rather than the unnerving sense of…of something else. Something he couldn’t and wouldn’t immediately define.

It was so intriguing to see her dressed only in the drape of her hair. The way she watched him so steadily, so fearlessly, while naked and vulnerable to his desires. He’d never imagined how powerful a feeling it could be, to be in this position. Yet, it carried enormous weight. He was used to being responsible for the well-being of others, but this was total dependence, wasn’t it? Like a child who survives only by your care of it, or someone who is ill or wounded who has no recourse but to trust you to aid them.

“You left knives and other stabbing implements on the table,” he remarked, testing her trust, although the comment was disembodied from his actual thoughts. “I can hurt you without ever touching you. I can throw every weapon I’ve ever held with deadly accuracy.”

“I told you, I am not afraid of pain or death, if that is what you truly must do to draw equal with me.”

But she knew he wouldn’t. He was a warrior and a killer, but Hanna could see in him that he needed lawful justification to merit the murdering he did. Did what she had done justify murder? She could tell even he did not think so. Very casually, she flicked lazy eyes to the wall behind him. Najir was not observing. She had purposely chosen to come while he was in the training yards. Not that he wouldn’t obey her wishes had she asked him not to watch, but she had wanted the time alone with Jhon without having to follow up with an allocution of what had transpired afterward. She didn’t want to share everything with Najir. Not until she knew it wouldn’t be like throwing citrus juice on a deep wound. She despised the idea of causing him any pain. He didn’t deserve that.

But should he return and decide to check up on her, there could be trouble. Najir would never tolerate the scene that was unfolding. He didn’t trust Vejhon yet. Hanna had no choice but to invest trust…because everything hinged on her gaining it in return.

Vejhon realized there was a wealth of possibilities before him. He slid the ring onto his smallest finger, turning it so he could inspect it.

“I could inject you with the stim, I suppose. But only once. Leave you needing more.” He looked at her and dropped his touch onto her mouth, the contrast of his skin against her lips reminding him too easily how she’d already stirred him up once just by licking her lips. Just when had she become so damn attractive to him? he wondered with surprise.

Probably about five minutes ago, he answered himself, when she’d thrown herself on his mercy just to gain a good opinion from him.

Curiosity defeated him, and he moved forward until he was replacing his fingers with his mouth, kissing her just softly enough to feel her. Jhon knew it was a mistake the moment he felt the unexpected intimacy of it, the warmth and softness of the damp connection striking up a strange and fearful sense of fitting perfectly with her. She was holding her breath, eyes wide open and surprised at his gesture of gentility. So damn ingenuous. So unbelievably unique.

He reached to touch a thumb to her chin, pulling down gently to guide her mouth open beneath his. She drew breath, held it deep, again in expectation, and made it too damn hard to pull away and leave her unfulfilled. Besides, he had a craving to know what she tasted like. Jhon’s tongue darted into her mouth to relay that information back to himself, but an instant flashed past and it no longer seemed to matter. Or rather, it seemed to be all that mattered.

Her kiss struck him like lightning, jagged and hot, a bolt of pure power coming from nowhere to singe and electrify. That was how he went from a light caress to sealing himself to her and diving for her tongue with hunger and intensity. Hanna might be restrained, but it didn’t stop her from matching his sudden aggression. She opened to him, drew him in deep with a sound of appetite and the slink of her talented tongue. Her powerful confidence and the sheer skill she used to engage him and draw him in was astounding. As worldly as he was, or thought he was, he’d never encountered a woman who could kiss with such…power. He couldn’t explain it, but it was as though she were bleeding raw need into him. Hunger. He felt her torso straining toward him, pulling against the stiff restraints, her soft breasts touching his bare chest lightly, so that he felt the firmness of their erect tips drawing against him.

Jhon reached up suddenly, wrapping his hand around her throat and tearing back away from her as he pushed her flat to the wall. He pulled for breath in deep, disbelieving draws and licked the flavor of her from his lips. She relaxed into his will, although she, too, was breathing hard as she studied him with sensually hooded eyes.

“Too bad you’re standing,” he rasped. “With a mouth like that, I can think of excellent ways of employing it.” The crudeness was unwarranted and purposeful, a knee-jerk reaction to force distance because distance was so badly needed.

“You could always free me,” she suggested.

Vejhon went suddenly still at that. She didn’t want her freedom. He knew instantly that wasn’t what she wanted by making the request. She wanted…

“Thinking about it?” she coaxed, tilting her head and licking her lips slowly.

“You would do that?” he asked, unable to completely hide his confusion and shock. “You would get down on your knees for a total stranger?”

“You would allow a total stranger to take you into her mouth?” she countered.

Well, hell, if she was going to be all logical about it…Yeah, if the stranger had lips like that and a tongue as carnal as hers, he most likely wouldn’t hesitate. “So, I free you,” he speculated, “you take me into your mouth and suck and stroke me until I climax…then what?”

“You mean besides swallowing, I take it?”

Vejhon choked out a laugh, her quirky brow teasing it out of him. She smiled slyly.

“Ask a stupid question…”

“I didn’t say it was stupid,” she argued lightly. “But the ‘then what’ is really up to you. You are looking for a way to humiliate me? It will take more than treating me like a whore, honestly. I think I’m too naturally inclined toward sex for you to shock me with it. So are you, for that matter. You’re a soldier. Typically people in life-threatening, on-the-edge careers express their sexual needs with frequency and tend to do it without remorse.”

“Yeah,” he agreed absently. He reached out to run the tips of his fingernails down her side, no longer even trying to curb his impulses. He started beneath her armpit and slid down to her hip, riding every contour of every rib and curve along the way. She barely squirmed, but he watched with satisfied fascination as chills raced along her skin in sheets of little blue bumps that were chasing each other in waves. She had responded openly to his kiss, yes, but this reaction was far more telling to him, even a little equalizing.

Jhon was hooked and he knew it. He already knew, deep inside of his own mind, that he had no cause for vengeance anymore. He hadn’t since the moment she’d deflated his every preconceived notion about her by throwing herself down like a gauntlet. Still, that didn’t mean he wasn’t beyond considering an alternate challenge. It was like seeing a wild creature tethered but not tamed. Men had wanted to tame the wild things since all the worlds were young. It was probably in their blood, their very genes, to be lured by such deadly, beautiful passion. So proud and powerful in her own right, who could earn the right to keep her? How did one take possession of a woman who owned everything…including him? This was what he thought as he let his hand slide over her hip, stroking toward the soft swell of her backside.

“Don’t forget—!” She gasped, cutting herself off and jerking slightly in the manacles. He watched her eyes widen, her lips parting in slight surprise. Jhon froze the instant he realized the mistake he had just made.

“Oh, damn,” he swore softly, pulling his hand away to glare at the ring around his finger. He hadn’t meant to do it. He’d forgotten about the damn thing completely. Jerking it from his finger, he threw it across the room so it rang and skipped over distant stone. He reached to cup her face in between his hands, pulling her gaze up to his. “Hanna, I didn’t mean to do that!”

“It’s okay,” she said on a breathless exhale.

“No. You don’t understand.” He drew back and slapped a furious hand against the wall near her head. “It’s enough that you offered this! Don’t you see? I can’t think of a way to exact revenge because the minute you did this I knew you never meant me any harm. How can I claim vengeance on someone who meant no harm?”

“Harm was done,” she said softly, her chest rising and falling quickly as a soft lavender hue tinged her cheeks. “Intention doesn’t matter if
you
feel harm was done.” For the first time, she put her head back and closed her eyes, visibly trying to ride the upsurge the stimulant was pummeling her body with. “Jhon…”

“How do I stop this, Hanna?”

She shook her head silently.

“Bullshit! You have an antidote. I don’t want this, Hanna!”

When her eyes flew open, Jhon caught hold of his breath. Her pupils were so wide that there was barely a trace of blue to be found around the black voids. A low sound rumbled up out of her throat, a small cry or groan that sounded much like a purr.

“Touch me.”

He couldn’t react. For the first time in his life he couldn’t make himself take action. He just stared at her as he stood tensely before her, watching the flush of color rising along her skin, seeing the soft sheen of perspiration breaking all over her. She was lashed down tight, but her body managed to arch and squirm provocatively all the same. He knew that feeling, knew how hot her blood was at this very moment. Knew exactly where it was all rushing to.

“Step away, then!” she cried out suddenly. “If this is the torture you choose, then step away and let me suffer it! I can’t bear the scent of you….” She groaned, knowing such a statement was playing right into his hands, if indeed he was doing this on purpose. How would he ever have known how easy it was for her to smell the tantalizing potion that was his pheromones? Testosterone and soap…and the scent that was his and only his. Together they all blended and teased her mercilessly. And that was
before
the stimulant. Would he ever realize what agony he was about to dish up to her?

Hanna’s body locked up in a fit of need, the signals beneath her skin all screaming at her at once. It robbed her of sense and breath in a way she had never experienced before. Everything burned! Why? It shouldn’t be this way. This unbearable! Not with only one injection!

She had made a critical misjudgment, she realized with dismay. In her haste to level the playing field between them, she had forgotten to take her biochemistry into account…not to mention the fact that the ring was meant to dose a male. A large male.

“No, no…” she panted softly as her muscles seized, a hysterical panic lacing her voice as she laughed at how beautifully she had set herself up for him. Whether he wanted it or not, he was about to have all the vengeance he could possibly stomach.

“Release the restraints!”

Like a charm, the manacles retracted, and Hanna fell forward against him. She tried to draw back, crying out as his rough hands swept her too-sensitive skin and her naked torso connected with his.

Divinity!

The feel of his flesh, hot and vital against her own was like living in joy with gods. She couldn’t hope to show restraint as she threw her arms around his neck and hauled herself completely flush to his body, her leg snaking around his hip and thigh. Her mouth sought his and found it with perfection. Tears of relief leapt into her eyes when he allowed her the kiss she demanded, his hands grasping her shoulders to steady her squirming body as he thrust for her starving tongue.

He had to be out of his mind. Gods! It was like being wrapped up in a dream to have this flawless creature clinging to him with every ounce of enthusiasm she possessed. Her nails bit at his shoulders as she struggled to get inside his skin or better. She sucked and toyed with his mouth as though she were starved, and he the only sustenance. She tore away from his mouth and suddenly her lips were on his skin, his throat, his shoulders, and his chest. She overwhelmed with her uncanny ability to arouse and seduce, his entire body pulsing hard with abrupt need, and his half-dormant penis responding to the onrush of heat that flooded it.