Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 105936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
“How can you do this to me?” I whispered, shaking my head. “I’m your little bird—don’t you remember? How can you give me back to be Bound to an ugly old male I don’t love? How can you give me to another man at all when I’m fated to be yours and you’re fated to be mine?”
His lips formed a thin white line and he shook his head.
“I’m not listening to any more of this. You’re going home and that’s all there is to it.”
Then he turned on his heel and left his bedroom, slamming the door shut behind him.
I started to go after him…and then I heard the snick sound of the door locking. So now I was a prisoner in his quarters and there was nothing more to be said—I was going home.
My heart, which had been aching from the start of the conversation, felt like it had burst. Turk wouldn’t believe he was my Fated Mate and even worse, he hated me now. He was angry that I’d made him question his sexuality and furious that I’d lied my way aboard his ship.
Everything was going wrong and there was no way to make it right again! I was headed home to a miserable life of being Bound to an old man who would paw my body whenever he wanted to and probably lock me in a bedroom when he wasn’t using me.
Tears stung my eyes as I realized my life was essentially over and there was nothing I could do about it.
42
TURK
To say I was angry was a fucking understatement. Jessina hadn’t just lied to me—she’d made a fucking fool of me in the process! I winced as I thought of all the excuses I’d made to myself for my feelings for her when I’d thought she was a male. I’d swallowed the idea that she was a Catamite whole and used it to justify letting her suck me. Goddess of the Four Faces, if Slade ever found out what I’d been up to with his little sister he would swear an Oath of Blood Vengeance against me and I wouldn’t blame him!
The thoughts went round and round in my head…but so did her words. She claimed we were Fated Mates, but that couldn’t be true—could it? I knew that Slade believed in the idea of finding the one person the Goddess had fated you to be with—he’d never had a doubt once he found his own mate, Aurora. But I had always regarded it as an outdated idea—one that not many people believed in now.
“It is outdated and I don’t believe it,” I muttered to myself, pacing the Bridge.
“Excuse me, Captain? What’s that you’re saying?” Yorrin asked, looking up from the ship’s controls. He’d had to do some fancy flying a few minutes ago, to get us out of reach of the Salashions’ Orbitary Patrol. Now we were on course for another planet in the Triplex Cluster—one I’d hoped I wouldn’t have to visit. But Jessina had ruined our trade agreement with the Salashions and I knew we’d never be welcome on their home world again.
She didn’t ask to come along to the bargaining, though, a little voice whispered in the back of my head. You insisted on bringing her. If you’d just let her stay in your room like she wanted to, none of this would have happened.
I tried to push the guilty little voice away…and couldn’t quite manage it. Jessina didn’t know anything about Salashion culture or the fact that they could apparently smell what sex a person was. Hell, I hadn’t known that last part myself! So she hadn’t ruined our trade agreement—I had.
I also understood why she’d turned me down as Cass when I had wanted to touch her and make her come. She’d been afraid that my wandering fingers would reveal her secret—which they no doubt would have. Unbidden, the idea of cupping her soft little pussy in my hand rose to my mind. I could imagine sliding my fingers into her wet depths and hearing her moan in my ear as she begged breathlessly for release…
“Captain?” It was Yorrin again and I realized I hadn’t answered him the first time. Also, I must look like a madman, pacing around the Bridge like this and muttering to myself.
“Sorry,” I said and turned to face him. “I was just—”
“Captain Turk, we must turn back!”
Turning, I saw Frux coming up through the Gensen’s Tube.
“What are you talking about?” I asked irritably. Dealing with the irritating Union Rep was the last thing I needed right now.
“I mean, you left a man behind!” He pointed a trembling finger at me dramatically, as though I had done it on purpose with malice aforethought.
“And what man is that?” I asked, frowning.
“Crewman Jerx!” he exclaimed. “He’s still back there, somewhere, on a hostile planet! An alien world! And you left him!”