Shark Bait (13 page)

* * * *

She let him lead her like a dog back to the boat. His boat. She’d thought it was theirs, but now she wondered. She raised both of her hands still tied together to her eyes and wiped away the tears before Raider could see them. At least now there was no doubt about it. She was well and good kidnapped by a shark-shifter. And she’d be more than happy when a dragon came to save her.

When she hopped back into the Dory and they got into the cabin, Raider pulled closed all the shutters and grabbed her hard around the shoulders, plunging his tongue into her mouth. He growled as he started pulling off her small bikini. Tears fell hard and fast now. If he destroyed that tiny piece of clothing she’d have nothing. The sharks had taken her only dress.

“Sweetheart, I can’t wait to pound you.”

Her breath hitched as she tried to hold back a cry. Sophia couldn’t do this. Panic welled up in her, heat or no, she couldn’t do what they’d done last night. His hand stroked a trail down her body to land on her bottom. He pulled her forward, grinding her into his erection. She stiffened in his grasp.

To her surprise, he pulled is head back from her neck and loosened his hold. “’Sup, sweetheart?”
Her face twisted and her eyes narrowed. “’Sup? Is that all you’re going to say to me after you treated me like a…”
“A dog on a chain?” His voice held a hard edge, and the irony wasn’t lost on her.
His hands began fumbling with her binds, removing the rough ropes from her wrists. “Aw hell.” He noticed the abrasions, where she’d scraped herself struggling. His head lowered, and he placed his lips on the inside of her one wrist, then at the other. Sophia just barely resisted sighing. She hadn’t known that part of her body was so sensitive.
Her lip trembled, but she bit down on it, angry even though she desperately wanted a friend. “I’m not leaving this boat again while we’re here. You can bring me food, and…”
His features hardened, his jaw becoming more prominent. “We had a deal, Sophia. And you will hold up your end of it.”
She flinched at his tone. His cold, flat expression shut her out and she wondered why she ever thought she could keep this beast on a leash. Her voice shook. “I did keep up…”
He cut her off. “I’m on the verge of getting a job here. A job I need to earn money so we can…” He stopped short. The word “we” hung in the air. “All I’m saying is that a gig like this would offer protection. I wouldn’t have to worry about…”
His head lowered as he cut himself off again, and Sophia ducked below him, trying to meet his eyes. “I’m sure you have other options.” She didn’t know why she was suddenly comforting him rather than asking for the apology she deserved, but her hand rose to touch his arm.
He flinched but didn’t pull away. “Sharks don’t have a lot of options.” His words were muttered, and more to himself than to her.
Replies dashed through her head. He could work in the human world…well, not very far inland. He could live among the mere, but they would probably fear him. He could…yes, she supposed working with sharks made the most sense. And if he had to work in this world, it made sense to be in the employ of the highest-ranking Czar. That didn’t mean Sophia had to like it.
Raider’s whole body seemed to deflate. The shoulders that had been thrown back earlier slumped forward. She realized now that he’d been proud, excited, and she’d pierced his ego.
“I’ll do what I can to help, okay?” She wove her arms under his and rested her hands on the dip of his back. “Just…could you not leave me alone with them again?”
Raider leaned into her, smelling her neck. She knew the scent of fear still clung to her. “Yeah. I’ll keep you close from now on.”
A shiver of gratitude rolled over her, and tears welled up again. She’d held it together more when she was mad, but the force of her situation hit her. She was nearing her heat cycle while bound at a shark raft-up. And if an eligible mate failed to rescue her, things could get complicated very fast. “Thanks.”
He lifted his head and nodded. His shoulders, she noticed, squared back again. “And I’m sorry you got scared.” The gruffness in his voice revealed the depth of his regret.
She shrugged. “That’s okay.” Her eyes scanned the tiny cabin. It was still broad daylight outside. “So, um. What’s next?”
She knew it had been the wrong question to ask when his eyes sparked with a naughty gleam. “You know what I want to do.” His lip curled into a half self-deprecating/half predatory smile.
Without meaning to she took a step back, in the direction of the V-berth. He stalked closer, and even though Sophia still wanted to be mad her pulse sped up. “What do you think they think we’re doing in here?” She was babbling but licked her lips.
“What I told them we’d be doing.” He took another step forward, so that his chest was just an inch from hers, but he didn’t touch her, instead looked down on her from his taller height.
Outrage fought with arousal. She tried to sound angry when she said, “You told them?” but it came out as a husky whisper.
The side of his mouth twitched up in an arrogant grin. “I want you to do something.” Heat seemed to radiate off his body. He rested one arm on top of the steering wheel, cornering her at the entrance to the berth, but didn’t touch her. It felt like there was an invisible force field holding them apart, and Sophia wanted to touch him all the more for it.
“What do you want me to do?” Sophia heard the breathy tone in her voice. She half-heartedly scolded herself for being so willing. Yet a treacherous beating of her heart told her she’d never deny him.
“I want you to take my cock in your mouth.” He didn’t move an inch as he said it, just stood still, smiling, teasing her, knowing she’d comply.
Her eyes slid down his body. She saw the faint outline of his physique through his cotton shirt and when her gaze fell below his belt, she saw the arousal straining in his khakis. She looked up at him again and he raised his eyebrows in the smallest gesture of challenge. The rebel thought flit through her mind,
what would it take to make this male lose control?
With that in mind, she slowly lowered herself to her knees, and mimicking his cool expression, flicked open his belt.

* * * *

Tiny brown hands grasped his fly, and he held back his jerk of fear when she unzipped. She placed one hand on either of his hips, grasping his boxers and pants together and yanked them to his thighs. His dick bobbed forward, as if surprised by its sudden exposure.

Raider had spent a lifetime honing his front, but as Sophia calmly assessed his erection it occurred to him that no one held the upper hand when his pants were around his knees.

With one curious finger, Sophia stroked a line of fire from the damp tip to the base and then part of the way down his sac. His hips pressed forward, following her retreating hand. Raider opened his mouth to tell her to stop teasing, but she cut him off.

“Are all human-form males as big as you?”

I fucking love you.
Raider swallowed hard on the panic that welled up and then studied Sophia’s upturned face. Dark pixie features stood in stark relief next to his veiny and multi-hued cock. “No sweetheart. I’m the biggest. Now open your mouth.”

Her eyes closed, and her lips spread wide, revealing her pink tongue and perfect white teeth. She stayed like that, inches from his weeping head, waiting for him to feed it to her. A crinkle in the corner of her eyes told him she knew perfectly well what she was doing. His hand reached out, his knuckles caressing her cheek before easing back through her hair to grip the base of her skull.

She whimpered as he pulled her forward, fitting his glans atop her tongue and pushing into her mouth. He paused, letting her taste. Her innocent tongue swept the underside, and a spasm rose from the base of his spine. Sophia caught his pained expressed and drew her head back, his cock slurping from her mouth.

“Are you okay?”

He was about to shoot his load into mid-air just from her tentative suckle. “Yeah,” Raider cleared his throat, trying to return his voice to a lower pitch. “Yeah, you’re doing great.”

Her face split into a wide grin, sparkling eyes, flashing teeth. Then she leaned forward again and gripped his base, her fingers not curling completely around its girth. She took him between her lips again, bathing him in the hot moisture of her mouth. A moan arose from his throat, and her hand slipped lower, feathering along his testicles, then behind. “Oh fuck, yes, sweetheart.”

Taking his words as permission, Sophia lunged forward sucking him in long, slightly uncoordinated strokes. Her eagerness excited the shit out of him, but her teeth started catching at odd angles.

Raider gripped her hair and pulled her off with a sound like a suction cup being removed. He lifted her under her arms back to standing, and ran his hand down her body, pulling aside the narrow patch of fabric at her crotch and testing her dampness with his fingers. Slick honey coated his digits, but she flinched.

“Um…I’m a little sore. I’m not sure I can have intercourse again so soon.” Sophia looked at him with embarrassment and concern.
Raider lifted his hand to his mouth, sucking her sour candy flavor into his mouth. A moan rose in his chest, a mix of desire and frustration. He gripped her hand and brought it to his cock, showing her how to stroke him. Then he tried to step forward to bring her to the bed and nearly tripped over the pants now trapping his ankles.
“Fuck…Hold that thought.” He reached down and dug through the layers of fabric to reach his shoes.
“Which thought? The thought that I can’t have intercourse or the thought that I’m sore?”
Free of his pants at last, Raider pulled his shirt over his head.
She licked her lips as her gaze trailed down his body. “Well, maybe if…”
The scent of her need for him filled the cabin. He breathed deeper, loving the flavor of her on his tongue, in his nostrils. It was tinged with the smell of fear. He took her cheek in his hand again and he drew her forward. His cock throbbed as it folded tight against the soft flesh of her belly. “Don’t worry sweetheart. I’ll go easy.”

Rhoaver shooed the boys away and flopped back down on his deck chair. He searched through the towel at his feet and pulled out his satellite phone. Damn, he needed to figure out how to get a mobile cell tower at the raft-ups. Satellite was hella slow. His fingers skimmed to Friedson’s number.

“Yes, hello?”

He heard the high-pitched desperation in the scientist’s voice.

With a smirk, he didn’t talk for a moment, letting him stew. “Rhoaver, are you there? Is the shipment almost ready? When can
I expect it?”
“I have something better.”
The voice on the line went silent.
One of his cronies rounded a corner, and Rhoaver gave him the
finger and waved him away. Truth be told, now that he’d found this
treasure, he wasn’t sure he wanted to part with it. A shark who could
walk on land might be worth more to him as crew than as product. If
the deal with Dendric fell through, he didn’t want his crew to suspect
anything.
“I think I found your needle in a haystack.”
Friedson’s ecstatic curse carried over the phone’s lousy
connection.

* * * *

Calloused fingers flitted over her thigh as she lay across his chest. Raider’s leg pressed between her thighs, a show of his domination, his right to be inside her. His hand rested behind his neck, stretching his torso. Sophia traced the path of his mark, starting at his hairline, across his forehead, over his eyelid, then to that pink strip at his top and bottom lip. Her finger skimmed the slash of lightening down his smooth chest to that patch of white-blond hair mixed with the black at his groin. When her touch reached his still-damp penis, Raider’s hand gripped her wrist.

“Too sensitive, sweetheart. Give me a sec to recover.”

A faint pulsing in her chest…he had a weakness, if only a temporary one. “Does it feel any different?”
“My birthmark? Not really. Only in my head, I guess.”
She didn’t push for him to explain any further. Plenty of mere were part shark or part dragon. The servant class tended to get bred with a lot. However, any dragon born of a mere tended to hold a lower status. To dragons, sharks were considered the lowest of the low—scavengers. But even outlaws must have prejudices of their own.
He seemed to read her thoughts. “Mere are like cattle to sharks. Instead of milk, they provide us with stuff to steal close enough to the water we can reach it. And of course, you can eat them, too.”
When her jaw dropped, he laughed. “Sharks hardly ever do that anymore.” His face turned harsh. “Supposedly only the tails were any good.”
Her stomach clenched with nausea. “Ew.”
He lifted his head, propping it in his hand. He rolled his eyes in an uncharacteristic display of emotion. “I grew up among them, so, yeah.”
Sophia shuffled to turn, but he held her bottom in his hand, pressing her close into where his leg met his hip.
“Don’t.”
She relaxed into him, resting her face on his chest.
He settled down onto the thin mattress. His one foot poked through the curtains separating their little cave from the outer cabin. “Raider?”
“Hmmm?” She could tell he was drifting off to sleep, using her as a blanket.
“Why didn’t you swim? Why did you stay on that boat if you could have gotten away?” She traced little circles on his chest, from brown, to pale, and back again. When he didn’t respond she doubted she’d get an answer.
“He would have found me.” He said it quickly, a rush of air across her tingling skin.
Something in the ways he’d said it made her think he didn’t want more questions. But as usual, she couldn’t resist. “Who? The captain?”
His body shifted under hers. “The captain, my father.”
“Do you mean the captain and your father? Or that the captain is your father?” Her lip curled at her tease.
He reached out and delivered a light smack to her rear end. “He is my father, smart aleck. And he would have found me.”
She pressed a little kiss into his chest, comfort for a male she’d now come to think of as her best friend.
“He burned my mother’s village to the ground.” The words were reluctant, and offhand in a way meant to hide how he really felt.
She held back a million questions. When his body stilled and his breathing deepened, Sophia wondered if he had drifted off.
“His boat hovered on the coast for months, trying to get her to give me up, trying to lure me to him. Everyone in the habitat but my mother wanted to serve me up to him, anything to get the sharks to leave. But my mother fought all of them. Said I was better than this life.
“When Crayz left, everyone just thought he’d given up. I mean no one even knew why he cared so much. It’s not like he hadn’t left a dozen other bastards in mere habitats, right?”
She knew his rueful chuckle hid something dark and hurt, something that maybe hadn’t ever seen the light of day. “He hadn’t really left though, had he?” she whispered.
“Nah. He recruited some mercenaries. Mostly mere from what I heard, one or two rogue dragons. They razed the whole town.”
She didn’t even want to ask the question poised at her lips. “And your mother?”
He shrugged. Said nothing. But she felt the aching black hole in him as if it were her own. Since she saw it so clearly, she didn’t even have to ask.