Page 27 of Stolen Slave

I tugged my pants into place and took in her smooth legs, curved flanks, and trim midsection. The cargo bay had never held anything so precious as it did at that moment.

When I started toward the stack of waste, intent on shoveling it into the drop bins, she followed. She watched me work for a second then gestured at the waste.

“Can I touch them?”

I scooped up a handful and placed it in her hands.

“It won’t hurt you,” I promised when she kept looking up at me questioningly.

With a laugh, she scampered off to her drop bin.

And that’s where I found her sleeping an arc later, the mineral waste still clutched in her hands. When I carefully lifted her to carry her back to our sleep bay, I saw she’d stuck a piece of waste into the odd indent she possessed in her midsection.

I glanced at the waste and shrugged to myself. If she liked it, I would set more aside for her.

She nuzzled against my sweat-coated chest, sending another rush of secretions to swell my ambal. Unfortunately, the next scent-marking would need to wait until she woke.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

VYA

I have a fucking ruby in my belly button!

That thought echoed in my head as I slowly woke. The wonder of that novelty faded as I considered the weight of the arm draped over my waist and the events that had led up to my keeper giving me a handful of precious gems.

First, another weird shower that involved way too much handling of my bits. Then seeing him for the first time. He looked different. Very different. But nothing like the other ones, and I was grateful. Was that why I’d wanted him to hold me when I’d started crying? Possibly, considering what this alien had taken me away from.

I hadn’t felt so grateful, though, when he’d made me eat while straddling his lap. He’d been impossibly insistent about it. I still couldn’t believe I’d forgotten myself and lashed out with an elbow.

I’d regretted it the moment I’d reacted and had thought for sure I’d suffer in some way. However, instead of punishing me, he’d comforted me. And then he’d gone right back to pushing my legs apart, wearing me down until he got his way in the end.

I hadn’t liked it. In fact, it had terrified me. I’d been sure his hands would slip between my legs and fondle me like he had in the shower. Or worse, that he would reach for his pants. I sure had been in a perfect position. But he hadn’t done any of that. He’d continued to pet me and comfort me while I ate in an unnecessary and uncomfortably exposing position.

The whole experience had left me shaken. And what had I done when I’d finished eating? I’d leaned into him, looking for another comforting hug.

How messed up was that?

Even now, with him pressed up against me while he wore pants but I wore nothing, I resented him and felt comforted by him. There had to be some kind of weird Stockholm-type condition going on because nothing about how I felt around him made sense.

He made me severely uncomfortable but also comforted me. He wouldn’t give me any clothes but gave me a handful of gems.

And the way I’d reacted after he’d given me the handful of precious gems ranging in size from a quarter of a carat to the size of my damn eyeball worried me. I’d taken my priceless treasures to that big box and alternated between staring at them and staring at him as he shoveled the rest of the gems into other empty boxes with lids.

He wasn’t only big. He was incredibly strong, too. Strong enough to force me to do whatever he wanted. But he didn’t force. He coaxed with a persistence that felt too gentle to call force.

His hand moved over my stomach, his finger tracing around the ruby I’d stuck in my belly button.

Surprised because I’d thought him asleep, I twisted around and was met with those solid blue orbs.

“Good morning?” Without windows, I wasn’t sure if it was day or night. But that wasn’t the reason for the question in my voice. Each time I’d slept, it had been alone so far. I wondered what it meant that he was sleeping next to me now.

He said something back to me, trailing his fingers over my face and down my arms. Then back to my ruby-filled navel.

“I really hope you’re going to let me keep that. It was a perfect fit. Maybe we could go back, and I can pick out some different colors this size?”

I thought of all the other stones I’d sorted through that hadn’t fit and sat up suddenly. I’d fallen asleep on the box and had left?—

The little pile of gems he’d given me waited in one of the otherwise empty cubbies above the bed.

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