“Are you happy now?” Tabitha demanded, still blushing miserably.
“Not yet.” Keer motioned to her. “Step toward me.”
Tabitha opened her mouth to protest again and then apparently decided it wasn’t worth it. Pressing her lips into a thin, tight line, she stepped closer, insinuating herself right between his thighs. As she moved, Keer was surprised to see the scords encircling her nipples contract sharply. It was almost as though an invisible hand had pulled them tight the moment she approached him. But it had to be the cords themselves doing it. He had done some research in the restricted section of the ship’s library, which was closed to all but himself and the two most senior officers under him, and had found out quite a lot about the cords that bound Tabitha. He hadn’t believed all that he had read—that the cords were capable of movement on their own—but now he was beginning to wonder.
“Well? Do you see why I haven’t been anxious to get too near you since we got back from the slave auction, Sir?” Tabitha’s voice cut through his train of thought and Keer looked up to see an expression of mingled pain and pleasure stamped on her lovely face. “Every time I get anywhere near you, this happens,” she continued, gesturing at the cords around her breasts.
“I see.” Keer frowned. “And does the same thing happen…down below as well?”
“You want to see?” Angrily she slipped off her boots and stripped away the rest of her uniform and underwear, leaving it in a puddle of navy blue fabric on the floor at her feet. She kicked it away and stood with her legs spread, letting him look his fill.
Despite his resolve to be professional, Keer couldn’t help catching his breath at the amazingly erotic sight before him. He had seen her naked and bound before, of course—had even held her in his arms that way. But three days in the cords had changed her. The pouting pink lips of her pussy were swollen with need and her cunt was slippery with her juices. Directly in the center of a loop of silver cord, her clit was throbbing with the obvious need for release, like a beautiful, rare pearl. Keer longed to lean forward and suck the tender little bud into his mouth so that he could lave it with his tongue, but he forced himself not to. Not yet.
“It’s like this all the time and worse whenever I’m near you. And no matter what I do, I can’t help myself—I can’t come,” Tabitha continued, the words pouring out. “And now you tell me you’ve had the solvent all this time and you’ve been withholding it, you sick son of a bitch, and…and…” Her voice trailed off into choked sobs and she hid her face in her hands.
“Tabitha, you’re wrong. That’s not what I’ve been doing at all.” Keer put a hand on her slender shoulder and pulled her down into his lap. She was shaking with the force of her sobs and he wanted to comfort her but he didn’t know how. She leaned against him for a moment, utterly consumed by her misery, and he stroked the bare skin of her back. She felt soft and yielding in his arms and her head fit just under his chin. The scent of lavender was coming from her freshly scrubbed skin and he realized she must have been in the shower just before he called her.
Again he had that surge of possessiveness he’d felt at the auction. Mine, whispered a voice inside him as he held her and stroked her waterfall of long blonde hair. Mine. Even though he knew it was wrong and foolish to give in to such emotions, he couldn’t help indulging himself for just a moment and pretending that she really did belong to him.
Finally she sniffed and wiped her eyes. With some effort, she pushed away from him and crossed her arms over her chest again. “Look,” she said in a low voice, not meeting his eyes. “Just…just give me the solvent, please, Sir. I’ll resign my Intergal commission without a fight if you’ll just end this awful punishment.”
“Tabitha.” He raised her chin with one finger and looked down into her pale blue eyes, still swimming with tears. God, she was beautiful and she moved him so deeply. He had the sudden urge to bend down and kiss her tears away but suppressed it fiercely. What was wrong with him? Why did she make him feel so much? “I didn’t withhold the solvent to be cruel or to punish you,” he said, trying to keep his tone professional and aloof and failing completely.
She blinked away tears. “Then why did you do it?”
“I…” He frowned, trying to think how to continue. “I didn’t know how to tell you what…exactly what was required to get the love knots off your body. Did V give you any idea at all while he was holding you?”