Page 10 of Black Star

When she moaned and tilted her head back, something inside him snapped. His other arm went around her to grasp her ass, and he pulled her pelvis into him. His cock had gone rock hard, and he ground it into the soft flesh of her belly. The form-fitting outfit offered only a scant barrier between them. The heat from her flesh seared him.

After a brief hesitation, Nadira kissed him back. Her touch was tentative at first, but before long she kissed him with as much vigor as he kissed her. Wrapping one leg around his hip, she struggled to find a position that gave her some relief. Mikiel knew what she wanted and pressed his thigh between her legs. When Nadira made contact with him, she cried out yet again and began to ride him rapidly. She ground herself onto his leg, obviously hitting her clit with the friction she needed.

It wasn’t long before her breathing became erratic and her cries louder and more frantic. Within moments, she tore her mouth away from his, threw her head back, and screamed out her climax. When she fused her mouth to his once again, Mikiel was startled when she bit him, actually drawing blood. He pulled her back with a fist clenched tightly in her hair close to her scalp. The fierceness in her eyes, the unadulterated lust, called to his own baser nature. She might be a virgin, but she certainly knew what she wanted and went after it as aggressively as she flew ships.

With that thought, a realization of what he was about to do came crashing down on him. He shoved Nadira away from him a little harder than he should have, and she stumbled and fell. Her face hit the edge of his desk. Mikiel resisted the almost overpowering urge to help her to her feet, but he was afraid that if he touched her just then, he’d rip the uniform from her delectable body and fuck her until they both collapsed. Even so, when she turned back to him, tears trickling down her face -- he could see from the look in her eyes it was from the shock of the blow as much as from the pain -- he almost went to her, anyway.

Nadira touched the injury gingerly with her fingertips. “I guess I’ll have matching bruises.” She gave him a deprecating smile. “I supposed I deserved that.”

Mikiel wiped a trail of blood from his chin where it had dripped from his lip. “No woman deserves that, Nadira. We don’t treat our woman like that, slaves or not.”

“So you said once before.” She got shakily to her feet and almost fell. Mikiel couldn’t stop himself this time. He did reach out to her. When she flinched, he thought he’d throw up. He wanted -- needed -- to keep his distance from her emotionally, but he didn’t want her to fear for her safety. She was needed as a pilot. Anything else would have to be her choice and not like this. She had to make a rational decision, not one made as a result of stress and sexual tension. Mikiel had never taken advantage of a slave -- or any other woman for that matter. He didn’t intend to start now.

“Nadira --”

“No.” She held up a hand and looked away from him, as if she couldn’t bear the sight of him. “I don’t want to hear how sorry you are, or how ‘if only we’d met in another lifetime’ or some other shit. You don’t want me. That’s all I need to know. I’ll never do that again.”

That statement enraged him and he wasn’t really sure why. It was what he wanted, wasn’t it? Why did he feel so strongly for this woman out of the blue? The thought that she would never seek him out was almost as troubling as the thought that she believed he didn’t want her. He took a few deep breaths, hoping it might slow his pounding heart and get the blood flowing to his brain instead of his cock.

When he had better control of himself, he spoke with more conviction than he had ever felt about anything in his life -- up to this point. “Youwilldo that again. Once you’ve bonded with this ship and learned her as you knew theBlack Star, you will come to me on your own.”

“What makes you so sure of that? What makes you think I won’t escape and spill all your secrets to the Coalition once I learn them?”

“Because I don’t believe you can share that kind of bond with this ship only to betray her in such a manner.”

She looked helpless and afraid for a moment before she schooled her emotions and blanked her face. “I will not pursue a man who does not want me. I won’t lower myself.”

He advanced on her again and almost pulled her into his arms to show her how very wrong she was. “There’s a difference in not wanting a woman and not wanting to take her before she’s ready.” He pointed his finger at her, bringing it inches from her face. “You need to learn the difference. When you do, then you’ll come to me.”

Mikiel watched Nadira for a few moments, purposefully letting his lust for her show on his face. She would come to him, and when she did he would prove to her how very much he wanted her. Nadira gasped and would have taken a step back if she had been a lesser woman. She might look young and fragile, but she had the heart of a warrior.

Satisfied he’d gotten his point across, Mikiel turned and left the room. His life was going to be hell for a good long while.

Chapter Six

Nadira thought about his words as the days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months. She never did get her own cabin, and the one time she asked about it Mikiel snapped at her, “I’ll get to it when I have time!” She got the impression he wasn’t one to yell, but he seemed to have no patience where she was concerned.

Their time together grew more and more strained, and it confused Nadira as much as it hurt her. To make matters worse, the sexual tension between them was almost palpable. He never touched her -- he’d promised he wouldn’t -- but that didn’t stop the smoldering looks he gave her. Unfortunately, with all the time that had passed, she wasn’t sure if those looks were looks of lust or anger and resentment. In her quest to master theSword Breaker, she had done her best to ignore him and even though this was what he expected her to do, she was afraid he had grown to hate her for it.

For her part, she’d gotten to the point where she couldn’t concentrate when he was around. Any link she might have been able to form went out the window every time Mikiel walked into the room. She could sense the ship’s impatience with her, which was also frustrating, but it wasn’t a sensation new to her. Nadira had often sensed the same emotion from theBlack Star. That combined with her constant sexual awareness of Mikiel made concentration impossible.

Now she sat at the pilot’s station performing one mindless hyperspace maneuver after another. Mikiel sat behind her and to the left. She could almost feel the burning sensation at the back of her neck, knowing he was as focused on her as she was on him.

Without warning, there was a tremendous lurch. The ship made an emergency rapid descent into normal space. The only possible cause for that kind of immediate descent was a near collision with something that wasn’t supposed to be there. Claxons blared, lights flashed, and she expected pandemonium to engulf her. But all noise from the other officers in the control room ceased and everyone concentrated on their respective panels. A stream of information flooded her console.

Immediately, she began to process, as a stream of data was force-fed into her brain. It was uncomfortable, and totally unexpected, but she managed and was amazed when she realized she actually understood most of what was being given to her -- information that would have taken her several minutes at best to process in any other manner.

“It’s theBlack Star, Sir.” Hers was the only voice all around them. “And it’s directly in our path.”

“I’m aware of that,” he snapped, and waved her to silence. Apparently she had made some breach in protocol but she’d be damned if she knew what it was. Her face heated and she knew it must be as red as a Drazilian Firebush.

Without another word, she turned to the information streaming into her head. TheBlack Starseemed unaware of their presence, but Nadira had no doubt they were looking for her. Apparently her father wasn’t willing to let her go so easily. Not only were theBlack Star’s defenses on minimal only, but there was no indication she was ready to fire, which meant they had time to capture her old ship without firing a shot.

Her heart raced. What should she do? This was her one chance to get out of this, but if she did anything to give them away, she might lose any possibility of linking with a cyborg intelligent ship.

And she might get them all killed.

Nadira sat motionless at her console. Apparently, the rest of the crew were communicating by some means other than what she was used to, so she concentrated on processing the data stream. The only clear order she could make out from the conversation withinSword Breaker’s master internal comm system was to stand down and not make a move. There was simply too much information for her to pick out anything else.

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