Chapter Fifteen
Thanh
I should not have been this fucking horny.
Not because of Jax growling at those two assholes and trying to defend me. And certainly not because all I could think of as we walked past those rooms was the things I wanted to do to Jax’s huge, muscled, god-like body.
But I was horny.
Incredibly, distractedly, painfully horny.
Focus on the job…we have to get…fuck, what are getting?
“This guy to be part of the team to get the engine.”
Right…yep…what’s this douche canoe’s name?
“Sherrod. Dear god, you are out of control! You should’ve rubbed one out before we left.”
I resolutely ignored Tohm-Tohm and attempted to hold onto my self-control. A good Dom did not, under any circumstances, lose control, and that’s what I was at this moment. A good fucking Dom.
I stopped just on the other side of the door we’d stepped through and turned to Jax. He still had flushed skin and the glittering danger of a male who was seconds from ripping someone’s head off.
And my clit gave a quiver.
Fuck, I wanted to make him kneel, peel these shorts down and use his infuriating tongue to make me come. But that was not on the menu for tonight.
“Maybe when we get back. I bet he’s very good with that tongue.”
Not helping.
“Not trying to.”
Instead I bit my bottom lip, thankful for the lip stain being smudge proof, and stepped close to Jax. I snapped my fingers and pointed down. I told myself it was so I could have a conversation with the towering Zorestran, but really, I just wanted to see him on his knees again. When he’d knelt behind me on Narrou, all I could picture was how good he’d look with his mouth against my cunt.
He knelt immediately, head down, hands on his legs, the perfect submissive male. My fingers ran around one gleaming horn and I tried very hard not to think of using it to steer while he ate my pussy.
“Look at me,” I demanded.
He raised his head and the look of pure adoration took my breath away.
“You’re so pretty,” I crooned, unable to stop myself. “Will you obey me in there?”
“Yes, Mistress,” his voice hoarse.
“Will you be alright in there?”
He swallowed, eyes skating over to the doorway over my shoulder.
I snapped my fingers again and his eyes locked back onto mine.
“Answer me, snookums.”
The nickname brought the hint of a smile at the edges of his naughty lips and he nodded.
“Yes, Mistress.”
“Then let’s get this over with.”
He started to get to his feet and I turned.
“Did I tell you to get up?”
His pupils flared, lips parting as he licked them slowly.
“No, Mistress.”
I turned as he followed on his knees, feeling drunk with power. Jax was a huge, impressive male, and I was leading him around with a thin little leash and making him walk on his knees. Hell, if I wanted, I could have him lick my boots and thank me for the privilege. That wasn’t my particular kink, but it was exhilarating to know that I had that kind of power over a male like him.
We entered the only room along this short, dimly lit hall. One entire wall was a one-way window looking out into the seating area with a good view of the bar as well. On the opposite wall sat a St. Andrew’s cross, and a small rack of implements. In a corner was a black semicircular booth where a cyber-enhanced Human male was getting his dick sucked by a Talosian female in nothing but a thong.
He didn’t bother to stop the female as I stood there, arms crossed, Jax behind me. In a few seconds, he finished and the female wiped her mouth as she turned and knelt at his feet, hands on her thighs, head nestled to his leg.
Sherrod tucked himself back into his bright blue pants, a matching vest adorned his chiseled upper body that was covered in tattoos.
“Ah, my special guests,” he said, blue eyes glassy.
He ran a hand through his sandy hair and sat up with a drowsy grin.
“I hope we’re not interrupting,” I said.
“Not at all, just a bit of fun. Isn’t that right, darling?” He petted his submissive and she grinned.
“Yes, Master.”
“Such a good little pet,” he cooed.
Then Sherrod made a show of looking around me and his grin widened.
“Hello there, Jax, long time.”
I could feel Jax stiffen behind me. I’d seen him lose his temper enough to know that he was on edge. He might want to obey me, he might know logically that we were here for something vital. But the death glare he was giving Sherrod told me that his emotions would override all of that, and likely sooner rather than later.
I wanted to get out of this place, which was making Tohm-Tohm, and therefore me, nervous as hell. There was a predatory look in too many of the patrons’ eyes. My back might be covered, but there was still the slightest indication that I had something back there with the way the fabric molded to the metal. I’d been lucky at the station, as much as it pained me to admit. I wasn’t sure Jax and I would be able to fend off attackers here. Especially since I doubted Sherrod would be on our side.
So I turned to Jax, making a decision he wouldn’t like, but that was in his best interest.
“Go to the bar and order me an Earth whiskey and yourself something too. I will meet you there when I’m finished.”
His fingers tightened on his thighs.
“Jax, do you understand?”
His jaw clenched.
I tilted his face up and grazed my mouth across his. It was only meant to reassure him, steady him, but it had the opposite effect on me. I became unmoored the moment his tongue darted out to meet mine. I chose to deepen the kiss, sliding my tongue along his in slow, possessive strokes while my fingernails dug into the beautiful skin on his neck.
When I pulled back we were both flushed, and his eyes were heavy lidded.
“Go to the bar, snookums,” I whispered with a grin.
He relaxed and gave me roguish grin that shot through my body like liquor.
“Yes, Mistress.”
“You may walk there.”
“Thank you, Mistress.”
I watched him walk out of the room, allowing myself the thrill of staring at his ass and powerful legs in those obscenely tight pants. After all, that was the part I was playing, wasn’t it? If I was really his Dom, I would be doing that, right? So it didn’t mean anything, not really.
When I turned back around, Sherrod’s eyes drifted back up to mine as if he were also admiring Jax.
“Keep your eyes off my sub,” I snarled.
Sherrod’s eyes crinkled at the edges as he let out a full throated laugh.
“Dear god, he’s really enchanted you, hasn’t he? I can’t say I blame you. He’s so pretty when he submits.”
The poisoned barb of jealousy struck me in the chest and it took every ounce of control not to punch the smug bastard.
“Let me be clear,” my voice heavy with venom, “I am not here to talk about Jax. I know you two have a history and I can guess why you asked for him specifically. But if you intend on hurting him, or provoking him just for your own sick thrills, I will end you.”
I was used to being the smallest person in the room, and therefore underestimated. So when Sherrod laughed again, I just gave him a hard smile infused with the memory of every victory I’d ever had over men like him. And when his arrogant grin wobbled, I moved on with the power my victory gave me.
I sat on a nearby chair and waved my hands at him.
“I’m here for business, so talk.”
“Right to it, I like that —”
“Blah blah. I am not interested in you, let’s get that out of the way right now. Are you going to work with us or not?”
His charming facade shattered, revealing a shrewd, cruel expression that had me hoping the stiletto I’d put in my hair was securely fastened.
“Go take a nap,” he said to the Talosian.
She stood and he slapped her on the ass, which made her giggle. He stared at her lasciviously as she sashayed out of the room. The moment the door closed behind her, however, Sherrod became a completely different person. Eyes hard, smile gone, all business. It was startling how quickly he switched masks, and I made a mental note to be very careful around him.
Sherrod hit a button on a console tucked into the booth and my ears popped as a security shield made the room soundproof.
“I have the ability to alter and control the codes of the entire security network. Drones. Droid guards. The locks on the doors between hallways. All of it. And I can tell you that since it was leaked that there was a Thalanite engine in the bank, they’ve tightened security even more. The drones are set to kill, no warnings. The droids are also on orders to kill. And they’ve just evacuated all sentient staff, so the only things down there are droids and drones.”
“And you can somehow bypass all of this?”
He grinned at me.
“I can.”
“How do we know that? You could be bullshitting us, especially after what you pulled before with Narrou and Jax.”
“Oh, he told about that did he?”
“He did. And I’m not inclined to allow you to go with us.” I narrowed my eyes, taking in his words, what I could gather of the makes and models of his implants from the way they looked, the sound of his cyber eye as it studied me right back. “You have an advanced neural implant with an advanced chip interface. That’s how you’ll control the computers, right?”
His jaw clenched but he nodded.
“So what’s to stop me from ripping it out of your head?”
He let out a long, deep, mocking laugh and leaned toward me.
“You’d be dead before you could pry open the casing.”
I leaned forward too and gave him a hardened smile.
“Would I?”
Maybe he’d been betting on me flinching, or that I was bluffing, and so he would try a different tack. But I just held his eye contact as if I had a very good, very dangerous secret all my own. After a minute or so, he leaned back and his eyes took on a predatory gleam.
“Jax may be in over his head with you,” he finally said.
“He’s my mate, and I’m officially the Seventh Daughter of Titus,” I showed him the tattoo that I had managed to learn how to hide just an hour ago.
He visibly paled and my grin widened.
“You don’t think they’d just hand out that title to anyone, do you?”
“No, I don’t,” he answered.
“So then do you think my threat was empty?”
He chuckled and spread his hands in front of him in a gesture of surrender.
“Very well, besides my CPU, what assurances can I give?”
“Access to one of your multiple bank accounts, preferably the one with the most amount of credits in it.”
I didn’t know for certain that he did have multiple accounts, but it was a good bet. And from the way his lips thinned I knew I'd found the right safety net. Men like Sherrod valued their coin more than anything else, they thought it gave them security. But it was a vulnerable spot.
“Done. Anything else?”
I tilted my head and studied him. I’d known men like this my whole life. Whether sitting at the dinner table with my father talking business or at the academy, they were always in it for what benefited themselves. So what was Sherrod’s play here?
“What do you get out of this?”
His smile faltered and he flicked invisible lint off his pants.
“Let’s just say there’s something on Daedalus Five that’s worth far more to me than some legendary piece of junk engine.”
“What?”
“Not your business.”
I started to say that it absolutely was when he cut me off.
“It’s got nothing to do with hurting innocents, or endangering the Pirate Federations or your precious GUP. It’s…personal.”
I could tell by the hard set of his mouth, the fists he kept making with his hands, that this was far more than he’d wanted to tell me. And that meant this was incredibly important to him, a possible way to control him.
“Alright,” I said. “I’ll arrange for you to be brought aboard. But if your information is shit, you’ll be floating home, got it?”
“Of course,” he replied, laying on the charm. Then his eyes flicked up to the window showing the bar and dance floor. The grin fled as he leapt to his feet. “What the hell are they doing here?”
I turned around and saw the three he was talking about immediately. They were standing in a clump at the doorway wearing helmets that hid their faces behind a dark blast shield. Their uniforms were dark blue with a strange insignia on the left side of the chest, and they had gloves on. One of them held a silver box out, and wasn’t very subtle about the fact that he was scanning the room. The barest hint of a laser fell on Jax and they nodded to one another.
“Oh, shit,” Sherrod breathed, “you need to get Jax out of here. Now.”
“Who are they? What’s going on?”
“Those are Thalanite time runners, and they’ve chrono-locked Jax.”
“How the hell did they find us? And what’s a chrono-lock?”
“You’ve run into them before?”
“Yeah, right before we came here.”
“Fuck! Okay, listen carefully and do exactly what I say.”
“Why should I trust you?”
“Because if you don’t, those men are going to arrest Jax and lock him away and no one will ever see him again.”
I glanced at the bar, my throat tight, as the group started to work their way through the growing crowd toward Jax, who was oblivious to the three. When I turned back around to Sherrod, I reached up, gripped him by the throat and squeezed.
“If you’re lying to me, I will make sure you die slowly with as much pain as possible.”
“Got it,” he croaked, clutching his throat when I released him. “For the next few hours, they will know every decision he makes in real time, don’t ask me how right now. Whatever you do, make sure that you are making the decisions and doing the exact opposite of whatever he suggests or wants. Otherwise they will know how to capture you both, understand?”
A grin curled over my red painted lips.
Ignore his every suggestion and do whatever I wanted instead?
“Oh yeah, I can do that.”
“It’s like you’ve been training for this moment for the past two years.”
“I’m gonna need a weapon,” I said.
Sherrod went to the wall behind him, pressed his hand to a pane and it opened to reveal a veritable arsenal that I was guessing was very illegal.
“Here.” He handed me a sleek blaster with a small grip and a muzzle that was narrowed to a point. “It has a good range, and next to no kick back, but there is no stun setting. This is a shoot-to-kill weapon that can melt steel cables with one shot, so be careful.”
“Got it.”
“I’ll distract them as long as I can. There’s an underground tunnel to my personal shuttle,” he said, slapping a key card into my hand. “One of them anyway. This is programed to lead you through the tunnels and activate the shuttle. Remember, don’t tell Jax anything or they’ll know it too. I will take a separate shuttle and meet you on Narrou. Now go!”
This sounds like a load of crap.
“Yeah, but I think he’s telling us the truth.”
Okay, I’m trusting you then, not him.
I took the card and ran out. Thankfully Jax was at the end of the bar closest to the private room. I attached the leash and yanked a little harder than I needed.
“Come with me now,” I ordered.
“Did you see —?”
“Yeah, no time to explain, but you need to trust me.”
His eyes widened but he followed me all the same. When we didn’t head toward the exit but further into the club, he swore under his breath.
“Fucking hell, Sherrod got into your head didn’t he?”
“No…not exactly. Don’t worry your pretty little head about it.”
His jaw dropped at my words and a momentary flare of heat lightened his gaze.
I think I know how to keep him off his game long enough for us to get out of here.
“Oh dear…”
We neared the end of the short hallway outside the private room in no time. Behind me, the Damodrids were engaging the Thalanites, but it didn’t sound like it was going well for the Damodrids.
I focused on finding the damn door the 3D map the card was indicating should be here, knowing that we didn’t have the time to argue about this. When I finally found it along the smooth panel, a key pad appeared and I input the code that also popped up.
“You can’t trust him, Thanh,” he hissed at me.
I couldn’t help smiling. Not listening to Jax was going to be way easier than usual.
“Are you listening to me?” he said.
“Yes, and also no. Now get your ass in this elevator.”
“Thanh!”
I shoved him with all my might and added a satisfying smack to his firm ass for good measure. While he was still sputtering I punched the button and doors closed just as screams punctuated the firefight that had suddenly broke out.
“Do you know what the hell you’re doing?” he demanded, eyes blazing.
“I can’t explain it right now, but you’re going to have to trust me, no matter what I do.”
He eyed me and shook his head.
“Thanh, I really don’t like this. You can’t trust — ”
“I know, so trust me. ”
He was struck dumb as he stared at me, lips parted and eyes wide.
“I know it’s a stretch, but…I trusted you on Narrou with the hypo, so can you just do the same and trust me this time?”
“I can try.”
He was definitely going to make things difficult, and there was one way I could take his mind off things in the elevator. It was probably very stupid but he was standing here, with his stupid gorgeous chest in my face, the outline of his sheath in those tight pants and those fucking forearms flexing.
I reached up and seized his face before slamming my lips to his. The pent up frustration of the past few hours, the lust that had been driving me hard since we set foot in this club all erupted. And Jax definitely didn’t have a problem with that.
Without missing a beat, he lifted me up by my ass so my legs could wrap around his waist. When my back connected gently with the wall, his teeth started biting my throat like he was making a meal out of me.
My fingernails raked down his neck and I started dry humping the shit out of him.
“You drive me crazy,” he panted. “I don’t know whether to shoot you or fuck you.”
“You make me do stupid shit,” I countered, licking his neck before biting down on his jaw. “Like this,” I reached into his pants and seized his extruding dick, “during an escape attempt.”
His mouth hung open on a deliciously obscene groan as I worked him with a tight grip.
“Fuck…oh, Ancestors help me… Thanh .”
In the back of my mind I realized that if the Thalanites really could predict what Jax was going to do next, they must be confused as hell right now. But somehow, that wasn’t as important as making Jax fall apart with one touch to his dick.
I ran my thumb across his bulbous tip and smeared his precum.
“You feel…so good,” he sighed.
“Where on my body have you imagined touching me?” I demanded.
His eyes flew open, shocked that I’d both asked and assumed he’d thought of this.
“Everywhere…Mistress,” he admitted with a grin that would’ve made my knees weak if I was standing.
“Show me.”
“With pleasure, Mistress…” He slipped his finger into the leg of my shorts and pushed the thick digit mercilessly inside of me. “Your pussy,” his fingers reached back and pressed on that rosebud, “your ass,” his mouth darted to my breasts and he bit one of them, “slipping my dick between your fucking gorgeous tits and,” then he tongue fucked my mouth with very little care for whether or not our teeth clashed and caused damage, “in your obnoxious mouth.”
My snort turned to a throaty groan as his finger found its way to my clit like he had a homing beacon for it.
“Are you gonna come for me?” His voice was so raw.
“No,” I said, trying very hard not to be a liar. “But you’re going to for me.”
“Not like this.”
I blinked at him, unsure when our roles had switched but somehow it didn’t irk me as it should have.
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because the first time I come in you…I’m going to make sure I’m embedded in your fucking DNA.”
He slid two fingers inside of me, pumping hard and curling them perfectly. All I could do was cling to his shoulders, all capacity for speech was gone as he worked me like a man on a mission.
My shorts were tight enough that, with his fingers in the crotch, the fabric was rubbing against me with each movement of his hand.
“J-Jax…oh…my…”
“When I put my dick inside of you, Thanh Nguyen, I’m going to ruin you for anyone else.” The raw scrape of his voice was the sexiest fucking thing I’d ever heard as he proclaimed his vulgar intentions. “You’ll crave me like a fucking drug.”
I whimpered, afraid that I already did.
“And your body won’t know how to come for anyone else,” he leaned into my ear, his breath hot, “because you’ll be mine .”
How did he know the right way to touch me, the perfect pressure and rough plunge to bring me to the brink faster than anyone ever? And then those words, spoken with exquisite sinfulness to make me explode.
And that’s exactly what I did a few seconds later.
I let out a scream of unhinged pleasure and came all over his fingers. I was still trembling when he pulled them slowly out and, just like last time, sucked them clean like a man obsessed. But this time, I kissed him brutally, shoving my tongue between his lips to taste myself in his mouth. For some reason, that made me want to come all over again, knowing that he couldn’t help but take every part of me in any way he could get it.
I pulled back and looked into his eyes. There was no pretense this time, no excuses. They’d been burned to ash and we both knew it.
He was more naked before me than if he had his pants off. I saw the fear, the longing that took my breath away and called to places inside of me that I’d buried deep. The orgasm, and now seeing him like this, started to shred my own shields, and I suddenly wasn’t sure I could say that I hated Jax Vabaris anymore.
I kissed him again, slower, savoring, when I was reminded of where we were.
The elevator came to an abrupt, unscheduled stop just before heavy boots landed on the ceiling.
“Well that’s a mood killer,” I muttered.