The question surprised her. “No. I know better than to resist.”
“Good. Did I?” He shut off the spray of water and warm air blew at them from all directions.
Did he what? Oh. For some unfathomable reason, her face grew warm. A sex slave felt no shame. Yet there she stood, blushing from a simple question.
Simple, yet complex.
“No.” Her voice cracked. “It was no more than I can take.”
He spun her around and shoved the wet hair from her eyes. “Good,” he grunted. “Because I plan on putting my cock in every hole of yours daily until you beg for mercy.”
He must be very foolish if he thought threatening her with sex would frighten her.
“Between beatings, that is.”
Her breath halted.
His hand had dropped to cup her mons, though, middle finger gliding over her slit, spiking her temperature again, confirming her suspicion that this was all a game to him. He didn’t harbor deep resentment; he was enjoying himself.
Stars, how did this male elicit such reactions from her?
She licked her dry lips.
He stared down at her mouth, as if disconcerted to see her tongue. “I’m looking forward to punishing you, Lily.”
There. She’d known it.
“Let’s get your first whipping taken care of. That way you can sleep it off and we can start again in the morning.”
Truthfully, it didn’t frighten her. As a slave, she’d been punished in far worse ways than whipping, and she’d already begun to trust him enough to believe he wouldn’t go too far. In fact, she almost looked forward to submitting to his punishment without a fuss. Would he find her unable to resist again?
Her gaze tangled in his amethyst one, and her breath hitched as all thoughts rushed out of her brain. She became nothing but naked, trembling flesh, a blank canvas for him to paint upon. “I—I don’t know what to call you.”
“Rok.”
She dropped her eyes and dipped a curtsy. “Master Rok,” she murmured submissively.
His posture went rigid. He cupped her chin and lifted it. “Just Rok.” His eyes had returned to dark brown. “I’m not your master, I’m a male exacting punishment in the way he likes best.”
A shiver ran down her spine at the note of sadism. He made everything sound sexual. She remembered the spanking he’d given her the first time they’d met. Measured pain made to arouse. Yes, this male enjoyed blurring the lines between pain and pleasure. Strangely, that ignited far more excitement than fear.
“What species are you?”
Already dry, Rok pulled on his clothes. “Zandian.”
She’d never heard of it.
He bent both her wrists behind her back and pinned them there with one hand. With a push of a button, the door slid open, and he maneuvered her, completely naked, out through his ship.
A good slave would drop her eyes and walk humbly past the crew. But she didn’t think it necessary to pretend. Something about the Zandian made her think he didn’t care about those things. The game he played was his own, and she’d have to learn the rules.
She lifted her chin and stared haughtily back at the crew as they passed. Two Stornigians, the old Venusian she’d seen last time, an Elau, and the thin one—a species she didn’t know. They all gaped as she padded past in bare feet. He shoved open the door to a tiny sleeping compartment.
~.~
What in the stars was he doing? Rok hadn’t meant to barge into the washroom and veck the little human against the aluminum wall.
He’d seen the dead in her eyes back there on Jesel. He’d wanted to kill those vecking human men. She’d been ill-used. Enough that half her soul had fallen away, by the looks of it. But then he’d returned to relieve Jaso of standing guard, and the thought of her, just beyond the door, naked save for droplets of water gliding over her skin, made him mad with desire.