Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 85794 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 429(@200wpm)___ 343(@250wpm)___ 286(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85794 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 429(@200wpm)___ 343(@250wpm)___ 286(@300wpm)
“No, nothing.” He shook his head, trying to push the scene with his uncle away, but it still felt as though someone had clenched his heart in an iron fist and was squeezing tighter and tighter. It was surprising how much the old memory still bothered him.
He’d spent a lifetime refusing to give in to his Scourge half—which meant that he could never Claim a bride because he didn’t trust himself. The Kindred half of him wanted to be gentle and caring—to find a woman he could love, one who would let him spend hours between her thighs tasting her and pleasuring her with his tongue. But the Scourge part wanted to tie her up and punish her—to dominate her and make her obey.
He’d been stepping too close to that line already with Phoebe, he acknowledged to himself. She had asked him, during that last part of her training, to teach her what to do if she was in a hostile situation and her captor tied her up. Sirex had agreed to teach her how to get free of her bonds, but he had enjoyed tying her to the chair much too much.
She seemed to enjoy it too—if her scent and the way the blood rushed to the sensitive areas of her body was any indication, whispered a little voice in his head.
An image flashed in his mind—the memory of Phoebe with her hands tied behind her back and her ankles tied to the legs of a chair. The position she was in pushed her breasts out, making the tight points of her nipples pressing against the red fabric of her uniform shirt clearly visible.
“Oh, Sir!” she was panting—nearly moaning actually as she struggled with the rope. “Oh, I can’t…can’t get loose!”
The warm feminine scent of her desire had been rising to tickle his nose and her erogenous zones had been hot with all the blood rushing to them…
No—stop thinking of that!
Sirex pushed the memory away. He was not going down that road with Phoebe. She was ten years younger than him and far too innocent to understand his depraved desires.
There was no way she could have enjoyed being tied that way—he was fooling himself. He had to be vigilant against the half of himself that wanted to tie her up again…and do more to her this time. The part of him that wanted to dominate her completely.
This mission had better not take too long then, whispered a little voice in his head. You need to get to Salacious Prime, buy or steal The Goddess’s Finger, and get out as soon as possible. Don’t give yourself time to get used to the role you’ll be playing…or it may cease to be fiction and become reality instead.
That was what Sirex feared the most—that acting like a sexual dominant would make him some kind of predator. He must not let that happen, he thought, casting a sidelong glance at his protégé. He must remember his Uncle Gelden’s advice and keep the Scourge side of himself that he’d been suppressing all his life at bay.
No matter how desperately he longed to give in to it.
10
PHOEBE
“How do I look?” Phoebe couldn’t quite keep the nervousness out of her voice as she emerged from the back of the long-range shuttle to show Sirex her “sexy slave girl outfit” as Kat had called it. They were in orbit around Salacious Prime and it was nearly time to land.
“Are you sure I have to wear this?” Phoebe had asked Kat, when she first tried it on. The top—if it could be called that—was electric green which contrasted nicely with her light brown skin. A fact which was obvious because it showed a lot of skin.
The top was a wide band that wrapped around her chest, just above her breasts. The band had many long strands hanging down from it. Some were made of the same shiny green fabric as the band but others were strands of golden beads and still others were made of some light, fluffy green and gold feathers.
It was this last type that worried Phoebe. The strips of fabric and strands of gold beads hung down and covered her fairly well. But the feather strands—and there were a lot of them—kept blowing around whenever she moved, showing flashes of her bra.
“Yes, you do, doll, but you’ll have to lose the bra,” Kat had told her.
“What? But then everything will show!” Phoebe protested. “Besides, I’m a triple D cup—I can’t go running around without a bra on!”
“I’ll give you some float dots to wear,” Kat had promised her. “And don’t worry about showing a little skin—this is actually one of the more modest fashions on Salacious Prime right now. I know—I did the research. Now, here…go put these on. And put on the skirt too.”
And she had pressed a small box with the float dots —tiny antigravity devices that looked like ruby teardrops—into Phoebe’s hand. The float dots, when worn under the breast, lifted it and caused it to float. They made even the largest breasts look positively perky and eliminated the need to wear a bra.