Chapter 51
Trove
It was not the first time Trove had woken up in chains.
It was not the first time he had woken up chained to a bed.
It was also not the first time he had woken up chained to a bed with a lusty eyed female gazing at him from the darkness.
“Feels like home,” he said carelessly, looking around lazily.
Rinnicks, seated just past the foot of his bed, puffing on her long, thin pipe, looked confused.
“What?”
“I’ll admit though, the bed is nicer,” he said, gazing down at his nude lap.
He was naked. Of course, he was. He couldn’t imagine anyone would have allowed him to keep his clothes or any potential weapons they might carry when he was being kidnapped.
At least someone had done him the decency of covering him in one of Rinnicks fabulous, black silk sheets.
It was far better quality than the silk the brothel ladies used.
“Flower silk?” He asked conversationally, running his foot along it. “Feels like genuine flower silk. Though, I imagine a sheet this size made of pure flower silk must have cost you a tidy amount of credz. I guess it’s not a worry for you though.”
Rinnicks stared at him like he had lost his mind. He couldn’t blame her. He probably sounded like an insane person, babbling about nothing. Completely unafraid.
But there were only so many times he could wake like this and still be shocked by it. Sure, it hadn’t happened in years, but he’d carried moments like this in his dreams for as long as he could remember, so it never seemed that far away.
“Did those drugs rattle your brain?” She asked, sneering. Like he would be completely useless to her if he was a fool.
He probably would be, if he understood what she wanted him for.
And it wasn’t exactly a hard guess.
Trove wouldn’t say he was afraid. He certainly wasn’t comfortable. Not because anything here was uncomfortable though.
The bed was large, plush, and roomy. The sheets were impossibly soft.
The air was cool and heavily scented with a thick, musky perfume that made him want to sneeze.
He was in a seated position, partially reclined, his arms in shackles held up over his head.
They were well supported by the large cushions at his back, so they didn’t hurt, but the magcuffs held him trapped to the bed frame.
He wouldn’t be able to move very far even if he tried.
A comfortable and lavish prison. Much nicer than the basement to be sure, but not at all that different beyond the surface shine.
The room itself wasn’t anything special. It wasn’t the same bedroom he met her in back on Heava Yu, though the design was very similar. Dark, dim, heavily perfumed, and opulent – that was more a call to her personal tastes than the mark of a specific place.
But he didn’t hear the soft, telltale hum of a starship engine.
He supposed she could have really good soundproofing for her room, but in his experience, doing such a thing was pointless.
All starships came with that same soft, distant hum.
It existed in the very walls, the floor, the air itself.
Getting rid of it was nearly impossible.
It could be done, but the cost and process were both exceedingly impractical, so he doubted that was it.
So, he didn’t think he was on a starship.
However, he could still be on a space station.
He could also be on a moon, a planet, even an asteroid.
He didn’t have enough information to figure that out.
There was one window here, filled with red glass that shimmered like gemstones, but it was opaque.
It let it light, but he couldn’t actually see through it.
It might very well just be a light, shaped like a window.
Either way, it didn’t help him figure out where he was.
There was only a single door in here, partially concealed behind elegant drapes along the wall. Which he fully expected of a prison.
After finishing his look around, he focused back on Rinnicks. She was already glaring at him, irritated that he wasn’t paying attention to her.
And that’s all it was.
She expected a certain reaction from him.
That’s why she had him here, like this. Sitting up, nude and therefore – theoretically – vulnerable.
She had put herself in a seat of power, wearing a slinky, silky silver dress – the brightest thing in the room – right in his field of view.
There could be no way he would miss her the moment he opened her eyes.
He was meant to be surprised. Scared. Confused. She was supposed to be taking control from him immediately upon his return to consciousness.
But instead, he had spouted nonsense she didn’t understand, then set to ignoring her as he looked around the room like she was the most unimportant thing in it.
And as far as he was concerned, she was.
Except that he was rather sure she would have the remote for his mag cuffs somewhere on her. Or, if not, it would be nearby. They would be used to control him, after all, and he couldn’t service or pleasure her if he was strung up like this.
He just had to find where she had it. Certainly not under that skin tight dress. There was nothing at all that would allow for any kind of storage without leading to some kind of bump. It was stuck to her like a second skin, highlighting all the long, elegant angles of her green body.
Objectively beautiful.
Absolutely unappealing.
Trove gave her the kind, open smile he reserved for the prostitutes that came to him full of disbelief of the things the others promised he could do.
The ones who were certain they’d be the ones to ‘break’ him and conquer the unconquerable.
It was a smile that was completely harmless, totally guileless, open and innocent.
He met their challenge with softness. With ease. Without fear. Without confrontation.
And upset their balance then as certainly as he upset Rinnicks’ now.
“I must say, I’m impressed,” he opened, deliberately ignoring her earlier question, behaving as though he really were praising her. “How did you get me here?”
To her credit, Rinnicks regained her composure quickly. She returned to reclining on her throne, bringing her pipe to her lips.
“Don’t flatter yourself. It’s not as though it’s hard to get ahold of a simple delivery person. You all might be well trained, but you’re still just another delivery company. It’s not difficult to get males like you right where I want you.”
“Ah,” Trove said, understanding in an instant. “Indeed. No ordinary delivery company could stand against you.”
For all of her wealth and power, she wasn’t able to see past their false identities. She didn’t realize who she was provoking.
Lately, it seemed like their enemies had all figured out who they were and what they had done, and so they were cautious against them. It was refreshing to come up against someone who took what they saw at face value.
Disappointing, but a little refreshing.
“I paid someone to get you alone on that station and bring you to me,” Rinnicks continued, so high on her own victory, she hadn’t heard the sarcasm in his easy tone.
She saw only what she wanted to see – subservience and well-deserved flattery.
“He did his job well and was compensated for it. I am a fair and honest businessperson, you see. I treat my employees well, and I pay them what they deserve. And I always get what I want.”
The words she had once tossed at him, a threat before, were a smug fulfillment of a promise now.
“I’m not so prideful that I can’t admit when I’ve been bested,” Trove agreed easily.
“Indeed.” Rinnicks used her hands to push herself to her feet. Slow and sensuous. Making sure to show off her entire body as she did so. And she was lovely.
But Trove’s cock remained as soft and uninterested as it ever was.
He had never desired a females’ touch in the past. Now that he had his mate, even with their bond unfinished, he was more turned off than ever.
His smile was unchanged, but his skin crawled as Rinnicks began to move over him, on all fours, crawling closer with a familiar look of hunger in her eyes.
“If you had just done as I asked before, I wouldn’t have had to do this,” she said, placing herself in his lap, straddling him in a way that made his stomach turn.
Her touch, her scent, her heat – he hated all of it.
And only careful practice, years of training at the painful hands of females more terrifying than her, kept him from being sick all over her now.
That would, unfortunately, be detrimental at the moment. He needed more information, and he needed to find where that magcuff control was.
But if he had no other way of getting her off him, it was certainly an option.
Though, it did come with the horrible possibility of her being into that. It was not likely, but he knew very well that the more extreme people became in their search for pleasure, the more extreme the things they tended to like became.
He kept himself under control, his happy smile perfect and unaffected, as Rinnicks ran her hands up his arms. She locked them around his wrists, just under the magcuffs. Another layer of binding that made her smile as she felt her control over him.
“You and I could have enjoyed ourselves,” she purred, rolling her body over his. “We could have had such fun, and you would have walked away a wealthy male for your efforts. But you had to be stubborn, didn’t you?”
“I beg your forgiveness,” he responded evenly, his tone bright and not at all matching her deep, husky voice. “I do have a reason however. I’m sure you would understand if I told you that I am a mated male.”
That obviously surprised her. She leaned back, blinking rapidly.
“Mated?” She repeated, then scowled. “Now you lie to me? You are not mated. You are a domini. Your cock would not work for any female but yours if you were mated.”
“Admittedly, it is a very new mating. I only just met her recently, and I haven’t visited a single brothel since I laid eyes on her.”