DarkRevenge (21 page)

“What does that mean?” The imprint of her thoughts? How
deeply had he read her?

“The way you arrange your thoughts, your habit of
processing, all adds to how you play the game of Fist,” he told her and he
shuffled the cards. “From reading you, I can tell which cards you are drawn to
and your way of discarding.”

“How deeply have you read my thoughts?” she asked.

Jezar raised his eyes and met hers. “Not as deeply as I
would like.”

She blinked. What he doing? Hitting on her? Ridiculous. She
was mated to Tory and nothing, not even Tory’s anger with her, was going to
change that. She wasn’t sure she understood anything about this man. “I’m not
sure I know what you mean.”

He arranged his cards, his attention on them, not her. “Tory
saved my life.”

That seemed like a change in subjects. “Oh?”

He laid his first card down. “I don’t want anything to
threaten him.”

Alex remembered the vision the Judge of Light had shown her
where she shot Tory and nodded. “I understand that.” She laid her cards face
down and clasped her hands together. “How deep do you need to go?”

He blinked and met her steady stare. “You’re…willing to
allow me access?”

She took a deep breath. “Tory saved my life too.”

His head cocked to the side. “You realize that?”

“I saw it. When we bridged.”

Jezar nodded. “I promise to respect your boundaries.”

“Do what you have to do.” She braced herself. Having Tory in
her head seemed…right. Allowing Jezar in was completely different.

Again, the shift in focus threw her off and her vision
blurred. Jezar’s touch was completely different than being linked to Tory. More
aggressive, probing and much less careful of her hidden places. Tory had been
single-minded, only accessing bits and pieces of her thoughts and feelings.
Sharing the same mental space had been revealing and enlightening.

With Jezar, sharing the space was uncomfortable. He pillaged
her mind, upending her thoughts like a raid on her ship. It took effort not to
defend against his invasion, and try to block him. Instead, she mentally
stepped aside, allowing him in, hiding nothing. The result surprised her. She
dipped into his thoughts, what he searched for and why.

A traitor.

Jezar knew someone close to Tory, someone he cared about was
going to betray him. It wasn’t the vision of the shuttle bay that slammed into
her, but something worse.

The Ardasian had seen a vision of Tory stranded on a
plague-ravaged Teran One with its inhabitants tearing flesh from those who
weren’t infected. The sight of her mate being torn to bloody shreds by a
hundred seeking hands and mouths made Alex cry out. Her heart cracked and
shattered. She couldn’t breathe. It couldn’t happen. She had to stop it.

What the hell are you doing to her, Jezar?
Tory’s
mental voice sounded enraged.

I never intended to show her. She… I’m sorry, Tory
.
Jezar backed away from her mind slowly.

She held onto his connection.
Wait! Did you find
anything? Am I the one who does this thing?
She’d rather slit her own
wrists than be responsible for Tory ending up ripped to pieces by those
zombies.

No. It’s not you.
And he was gone.

When she opened her eyes, Jezar was on his feet and Tory
stood in the doorway, his blue eyes blazing and his fists clenched. “What did
you do to her?” He spat the words out and Alex realized Tory was about use a
laser pistol on Jezar.

She jumped between them. “I asked him to do it.”

Tory glared at her. “He bridged you, read you deep. I felt
it.”

“You know the vision he sees,” she said, resting her hand on
his arm.

His shoulder lifted. “Yes. So what?”

She wanted to shake him. “So, there’s a traitor, someone who
betrays you. Someone who leaves you to be—” The blood, the gore, the horror of
it, choked her.

“Damn it, Tory, you need to know who it is.”

“It’s not her.” Jezar had stood absolutely still, as if he
would accept whatever Tory decided to do to him.

“You didn’t have to—”

“Yes, he did.” She gripped both his arms with shaking hands.
“You know the vision the Judge of Light showed me. We both have to know it
wouldn’t be me.”

He blinked. “You left. You were going to get yourself
killed. I knew it wasn’t you.”

“I didn’t,” she said firmly. He had to understand. After all
she’d seen and learned, she had to know. Jezar knew that.

“She trusts you. She doesn’t trust herself.” Jezar folded
his body into the chair and dealt three hands.

Tory’s lips tightened. “Trusts me? I don’t think you read
her deep enough.” His tone was so bitter that Alex winced. She dropped her
hands. How could she convince him that she’d gone after her sister because she
had to?

“I read her deep enough,” Jezar told him. “But she didn’t
pay attention to what she read in my thoughts or she’d know when you saved
Celeste.”

Alex’s brow wrinkled and she stared at Tory. He was going to
make her drag it out of him. “Care to let me in on this?”

“Tell her when.” Jezar calmly rearranged his cards.

Tory cleared his throat. “I made sure Celeste was
underground when I found out what you were transporting on that shuttle.”

“How?”

“I have contacts on Teran One. I told them to get her
underground, to hide her. They convinced her that she was threatened. She’s
still with them. I checked.”

She blinked. “You did this before we were mated?”

“Yes.”

Idiot. Why hadn’t he just told her? She flung her arms
around his neck and pressed her lips to his. He barely caught her and returned
the kiss before she leaned back. “Thank you.”

She almost giggled at the way his mouth dropped open and his
eyes widened. “You’re welcome.”

“Now, can we play some cards?” Jezar asked them, a smirk on
his face.

“I hate playing cards with you. You always win.”

“There’s always a first time.”

Tory groaned and Alex grinned. She shifted in her seat and
said, “While we’re playing, you can tell me what you know about Celeste’s
situation since I’ve been gone.”

Her mate rolled his eyes and sat down with bad grace at the
table. It occurred to Alex that she had to add the life of her sister to the
list of her debts to Tory. How was she ever going to pay him back?

One wicked thought of just how she could repay him was followed
by several others until she didn’t want to play Fist anymore. She wanted Jezar
to go away.

The Ardansian’s gaze met hers and his lips twitched. “I
think we can save the game for another time. Perhaps you’ll explain better
alone.”

She bit her lip to keep from grinning. She made sure to
think about being grateful so he’d catch it. Jezar nodded toward her and
started for the door.

Tory stopped him. “Jezar—”

Jezar stared at his friend and smiled. “No need, my friend.”
He shot a glance at Alex. “I completely understand.”

Tory’s shoulders relaxed. “Thank you.”

Chapter Sixteen

After Jezar left, Alex didn’t know what to say or how to
start. She knew exactly what she wanted. But she was no practiced seducer or
knowledgeable lover. She was a military commander.

A military commander who liked being hung on a rack and
spanked.

Well, there was no other way to make him understand. She’d
been wrong about him. He had already taken care of her family long before he
had any reason to.

Determined to take whatever he had to dish out, she
remembered his comment in their first violent encounter here in this room.
I
like my sex rough and my women restrained.

She stood and strode to the console on the wall. One firm
push and the rack dropped down. Tory, still seated, watched her with hooded
eyes. She removed her uniform and stepped, naked, into the restraints. The feel
of the metal against her skin reminded her of the other times she’d been in the
rack. Her pussy throbbed and her skin flushed at the thought. Yes, this was what
she needed.

“I was wrong to doubt you. I thought I had burdened you
enough, so I went after my sister alone.”

Tory’s blue eyes glittered. So, he was still pissed. This
might be a severe punishment. She still had her safeword.

His gaze swept over her naked body. When he spoke, his voice
was rough. “You made me worry.”

“I’m sorry.” And she was. She knew how she’d feel if he went
off on a life-threatening mission without her.

“I’m going to have to punish you,” he said, his tone no
longer hard but seductive and hot. He slowly approached her, heat emanating
from his body and she could feel it as he got closer.

She shivered. “I know.” She lifted her chin. She could take
whatever he could dish out.

He slapped a button on the console. Three items were in the
small opening. She didn’t recognize any of them.

One was a short, stubby phallic device with a button on one
end and a rounded tip. One was a glove with small, blunt needles protruding
from the material. The last item was a long stick with several controls on the
side of it.

Tory’s face was set in stone. This was going to be both
painful and pleasurable. He clicked the wrist restraints in place but left her
ankles free. Her breasts felt heavy, needy, her nipples tightening under his
severe perusal. The scent of her own arousal reached her nostrils and she
gasped. Just the way he looked at her made her senses go crazy.

He didn’t touch the items in the drawer at first. Instead,
he slid a finger from the line of her neck down to her right nipple. His
fingers captured the stiffened flesh and he twisted it as his gaze met hers. An
electric shock of pain and need shot through her. It should have hurt. But it
felt so good. He twisted her nipple again and her pussy ached. Her nerves were
taut, ready, wanting more.

Both his hands were on her breasts, his thumbs and
forefingers rolling her nipples in a painful, sweet twist. God, she couldn’t
wait. She wanted his mouth on her, his dick inside her, his hands everywhere.
She moaned as he stepped closer, the smell of his sweat filling her senses.
That unique scent of Tory. It reminded her of the many times they’d been close
together, inches apart physically, but miles apart in every other way. But now?
Now they were together in every way that mattered. Her back arched and she lifted
one leg to try to pull him closer.

One of his hands dropped from her breast and slapped her ass
with a sharp, painful crack. She only moaned again. Her system sizzled, every
inch of her skin hot and flushed. The pain of the pull on her nipples and the fire
from his strike on her buttocks made her tremble.
More
. She wanted more.

She closed her eyes and let the sensations rocket through
her. Then, pinpricks slid across her ass and her breasts. Her eyes flew open.
Tory had the glove with metal needles and he ran it over her flushed skin,
leaving a trail of reddened flesh and intensified nerves. He kept twisting her
nipple as the other hand stimulated every inch of her torso with his gloved
hand.

When the little needles scraped lower, near her clit, she
held her breath, waiting. Finally, his hand brushed her pussy with the pins and
she cried out. Stars, just that gentle touch and she wanted more, harder,
faster. The protrusions on the glove dug into her flesh and her blood sprang to
the surface of her skin, heating it like a hundred tiny brands. Her breath came
in pants and her heart pounded in her ears. Even though she’d known he would
punish her, she had no idea how much she would like it. It wasn’t just her
senses being overloaded with pleasure and pain, but her heart clenched with the
need to be with him, to take all he would give her no matter what it might do
to her.

“Do you know when I bought this rack and these toys,
Alexandra?” Tory’s voice barely penetrated the sexual haze that fogged her
mind.

She opened her mouth but a whimper escaped instead of words
as he slid the tiny needles lightly over her clit. Too lightly.

“I bought everything when I’d made the decision I was coming
after you. Finding the information that you were heading for a trap was just dumb
luck.”

Alex opened her eyes. Tory’s stare focused on the stripes
across her belly, her breasts and her thighs. He moved the glove over her
sensitive flesh and she barely managed to form the question. “Why?”

He raised his eyes to meet hers. The desire, the need, the
naked lust there made her feel like she had fallen into a lake of fire. Her
whole body responded to his glance, nipples tightened, and her pulse
accelerated as her pussy became drenched. His voice rippled over her like an
unstoppable wave. “Because I knew you would be like this, my
Saria
. I
lived for the day I would have you here.” He brushed the glove over her
distended nipples and she shuddered, the pain mixing with intense pleasure.
“Would you like to see what else I have for you?”

She didn’t have any air in her lungs to answer, so she
nodded. He smiled and removed his hand from her reddened skin to drop the glove
back in the drawer. He picked up the stubby, phallic object and the long stick.
With the handle of the long stick, he pressed another button. Suddenly, a bench
slid out from the wall just in front of her. Then, he pressed another dial and
the rack lowered slowly until she was on her knees, her arms still suspended
over her head, her ass exposed.

Something about the way all the items moved slowly, without
her control and totally under his, made her shiver, anticipating his next
wicked move. What were those items he’d gotten from the drawer? Her ass was on
display, helpless when he caressed it with a firm hand. She hoped he would spank
her. He didn’t. Instead, she felt the stick against the back of her thighs and
he drew it over her buttocks, along the crack, and pressed on her clit.