Page 3 of Offering Herself to Darkness

He also had silver strips of metal that looked almost like scars across both cheekbones and a mechanical arm that looked capable of punching through solid concrete. Nora couldn’t figure either of those things out either, and up until now, she hadn’t tried. She’d just made sure to follow instructions at work to be sure she stayed on her scary boss’s good side—if he even had a good side.

Her boss’s final defining characteristic was his glowing silver eyes that seemed to follow you no matter where you were in the room. Or at least, Nora felt like they were following her when she worked there on the weekends, which was probably just her imagination. Commander Xarex scared her, so she was naturally kind of jumpy around him.

But now she had an idea and it specifically involved her scary boss. Because though Commander Xarex was a Dark Kindred who wasn’t supposed to have emotions, he had a secret—a secret Nora had found out by accident just a few weekends ago.

And she was sure she could use it to blackmail him into marriage.

2

NORA

Nora had found it out by accident when she was looking on her boss’s computer for some reports she needed to file. She dealt with the legal documents that came through the HKR building during the weekend, being sure all the Joining Contracts and the Claiming papers were filed with the human Clerk’s Office according to legal procedure, so none of the Claiming Period rules was invalidated. Following the letter of the law was important to the Kindred—they wanted to be sure their partnership with Earth and their ability to call human brides wasn’t jeopardized in any way.

That was fine with Nora. It was easy work and she got paid an excellent amount to do it. In fact, she’d been hoping that a full-time position at the HKR building might open up. She would be able to live much more easily instead of scraping by paycheck-to-paycheck if she could get one of those.

But so far no one was eager to leave their position and even if they did, there was a waiting list of applicants all eager to work for the Kindred. At this point, Nora had resigned herself to never getting full-time work with them. But part-time was good too—so she’d been thinking as she stepped into Commander Xarex’s office, looking for the latest batch of forms.

She didn’t see them anywhere and she had a deadline to file them. She would have asked her boss, but he had been called away to a meeting aboard the Mother Ship—the huge Kindred spacecraft which was more like an enormous city that orbited the Earth’s moon. There was no way she was going to call him up there and interrupt what was probably a very important meeting.

Then she remembered that there was always an electronic copy of every Joining Contract—they were scanned in the minute both the Kindred warrior and the human woman he was calling as a bride signed them. Then they could go up to the Mother Ship for their Claiming Period—a month to get to know each other and be certain they were a good match.

Nora had heard things about the Claiming Period…rumors abounded about what a Kindred warrior was allowed to do and how he was allowed to touch his new bride in more and more intimate ways. Her friend Samantha had confirmed that this was true, blushing scarlet the whole time. She’d also admitted that the Kindred were hot and giving lovers, preferring to spend hours pleasuring their women before they came themselves.

Nora thought it was likely that Samantha’s new spouse was the only one who fit that description. Her best friend had just happened to win the lottery in the husband department. As for Nora, she’d never been with a man who was determined to give her multiple orgasms before he got his rocks off. Steve had barely been able to last two minutes before he blew his load and she’d usually had to finish herself off with a vibrator after he rolled over and started snoring.

She had no idea what she was thinking these things as she hunted for the Joining Contracts. But it all flew out of her head when her eyes lit on the lighted screen of her boss’s computer.

Normally Nora wouldn’t have gone into Commander Xarex’s private computer, but she knew she was going to get into trouble if she didn’t file those forms with the Clerk’s Office on time. She told herself she was just going to print them out quickly and then walk away and never darken the door of her boss’s office again unless he called for her. She would be in and out in no time—easy-peasy.

Luckily, as a member of the legal staff, she had the master password and was able to get into his computer. The minute Nora got in, she began clicking, hunting for the Joining Contracts. There were two tabs marked “Joining” so she clicked on one at random…and got the surprise of her life.

The “Joining” file she had clicked on had all kinds of joining in it…just not the kind she’d expected. Instead of the dry, sterile contracts, she found what could only be described as porn.

All kinds of porn.

Fascinated despite herself, she began clicking through the various images and vids. One thing became immediately apparent—all the women in the porn that Commander Xarex had saved looked somewhat alike. They all had long brown hair and most of them had brown eyes. All of them were curvy too, with wide behinds, broad, child-bearing hips, and thick thighs. But Nora had long brown hair and brown eyes and a big behind and thick thighs. They all looked like…

“They all look like me,” Nora muttered to herself. Then she clapped a hand over her mouth and looked around. Her heart was pounding guiltily and she expected her tall, imposing Dark Kindred boss to step into the room at any minute.

No, it’s okay, she told herself. He’s not even here right now—he’s up on the Mother Ship. He can’t see you—it’s fine. You’re fine.

She knew she ought to click away immediately and look at the other Joining tab instead for the contracts she needed. Or better yet leave a note for the regular paralegal who worked Monday through Friday that the contracts needed to be printed out again and filed ASAP with the Clerk’s Office. She ought to do anything, in fact, other than scrolling through her scary Dark Kindred boss’s private porn stash.

But somehow she couldn’t make herself look away.

It wasn’t just the fact that every woman she saw resembled her in some way—that might just be a coincidence, she told herself. But it was the kind of porn that Commander Xarex had saved.

Most of it seemed to be BDSM—but not the horrible kind where a woman is basically being tortured. Instead it seemed to mostly concentrate on the woman being bound or tied down in some way so she couldn’t move. In some images and vids the women were blindfolded as well—completely at the mercy of the man who had tied or handcuffed or chained them.

Many of the vids also showed lots of what her friend Samantha called “going downtown.” Nora was surprised to see that. She’d never known a man who fantasized about giving women oral pleasure but apparently, Commander Xarex did. Out of pure fascination, she clicked on one vid of a woman with curvy hips and long brown hair who was bound spread eagle to a bed with a man standing over her.

“Please, what are you going to do to me?” the woman pleaded in a soft, broken voice. “Please, Master—what did I do wrong?”

Despite her protests and the way she was struggling against her bonds, her pussy was wet and swollen with need, Nora saw. Feeling hypnotized, she kept watching.

“You were very naughty, Marissa,” the masked man who was holding a riding crop said sternly. “You disobeyed my orders to spread your legs. That’s why I had to spread them for you.”

“But what—ow!” she gasped because he had given her a sharp slap with the end of the riding crop, leaving a red mark on her inner thigh.

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