I rub my chin, studying her, trying to determine why she's changed into such a cringing creature. "You and I need to have a discussion before this farce goes on any longer."
She looks as if she's going to vomit. "Okay," she says in the faintest voice, her eyes huge and full of terror.
I get up and start to pace. What am I doing wrong? Is it something I said? Is she only brave in the cantina? Or did Abuar provide her with chemicals of some kind that assisted her mood? She has not smiled at me once—or if she has, it was an act of fear. I remember the way her lips curled as she gyrated in the window, as if she was dancing to entice me. She never looked at me with anything but interest. I glance back at her, wondering if I have somehow acquired the wrong slave. Some mesakkah joke that all humans look alike, but as I study her, it seems to be the same female.
Just a frightened one.
"Do you want me to blow you to take your mind off of things? Take the edge off?" She volunteers it eagerly, even if her expression is not one of excitement. "I can do that, and then we can talk about whatever you want."
I narrow my eyes at her. "Blow me?"
"Put your cock in my mouth."
"Why are you so eager to put my cock into your mouth?" Not that the idea isn't enticing. It actually makes my cock ache with just how much I like that idea. But it feels like a trick of some kind, given that the look on her face is more fright than anything else.
She licks her pink mouth, looking as if she is going to collapse, and then stammers out an answer. "B-because I want to please you. I don't want to go to auction. Please." A little choked sound catches in her throat. "Please."
I pace back toward her and notice that she watches me. Her gaze never strays to my metal parts, and she never looks disgusted. "You think I will send you back?"
"The-the slaver said you could if I made you unhappy."
"I told him no." Her shoulders ease, and I suspect this is what is terrifying her. She doesn't want to be sold in an auction. This, I understand. I have seen them before, and they're awful, disgusting things where slaves are paraded about—and sometimes used—just to entice reluctant buyers. There are some males that go to auctions just to “sample the goods” but rarely buy. If this is what's scaring her, then I can reassure her. "I am keeping you. He will not see you again."
She relaxes, her pretty, delicate face no longer so drawn. "You're sure?"
"I just said I was sure, did I not?"
A real smile crosses her face, wide and relieved. "Thank you. I'll be the best slave ever."
My cock stirs at the sight of her smile, at how her eyes light up this time. This. This is the female that has haunted me, and the hot yearning coils and slides through my system like a fresh influx of gear lubricant. "I'm going to claim you," I warn her bluntly. "I bought you for my bed."
She doesn't bat an eye. Doesn't look horrified or disgusted. "I suspected as much."
"Do you object?"
The look on her face turns puzzled. "I'm a slave. I can't object."
"If you do not want me to touch you, I will not. I recognize that you feel you have no power, so I would make this…transactional." Transactional sounds good. It sounds like I've thought this through logically instead of thinking with my blasted cock and spur. "I propose this: I keep you in my bed until I get you out of my system. It will likely take several weeks. Perhaps a month. Then, once I am done, I will take you to the planet known as Risda III. Are you familiar with it?"
Slowly, she shakes her head.
"It is a place of refuge for human females that have been enslaved. You cannot return to your homeworld, but a lord there has provided for the human refugees that come to him. You will be given a place to live and a way to make an income, and you will be safe there. What do you think of that?"
"What's the way of making income?" she asks. "Whoring?"
Canny little thing to pick up on that. "Farming, actually."
A look of yearning crosses her face. "It…it's a pastoral planet?"
I nod, hating the jealousy that surges through me. I want her to look at me like that. Doesn't matter, I tell myself. I'll have her out of my system soon enough and things can go back to normal. "Yes. It is very sparsely populated, and the majority of females there are human. I know of others that have made their way there and were welcomed. You would be, too."