“Tabitha, I’m so sorry,” he murmured again. “I’ll never be able to tell you how much.”
“That’s all right, Sir.” With an obvious effort she raised her head and looked back at him, her pale blue eyes suspiciously bright. “Are…are you finished?”
“Oh…yes.” Keer realized he was still buried to the hilt inside her. He tried to pull out of her gently but she made a small, hurt whimpering sound as he withdrew that tore at his heart. He wanted to gather her to him, to pull her close and hold her and comfort her but he knew it was impossible. She would probably want to get as far away from him as she could as soon as this was over. So instead of pulling her close, he untied her arms, rubbing her wrists where the black scarves had left faint red marks. There was only one more thing he had to do and then he would leave her alone to gather her dignity—what little he had left her.
Reaching between her legs, he found a loop of the silvery Drusinian cord and tugged experimentally. Tabitha cried and jerked under him—but the love knots finally came free.
“Easy,” he whispered, pulling it away from her body. They’d had such a hard time getting it off he didn’t want to risk it somehow adhering to her again. As he wound it into a neat loop in his hand, Tabitha turned on her side with her face against the green coverlet. He opened his mouth to ask if she was all right and shut it again. Of course she wasn’t all right—not after what he’d just done to her. He finished gathering the cord and got off the bed. He would leave her in peace. It was the only thing he could do for her now.
Looking down at the limp, silvery cord in his hand, Keer wondered why, even though Tabitha was finally free of the damn love knots, it felt like someone had tied one to his heart.
NINE
Tabitha lay on his bed and felt like crying. God, did he really care so little for her? So little he wanted to leave as soon as he was done?
She knew at the end she’d gotten kind of carried away—all right, a lot carried away but she couldn’t help it. For almost a week she’d been tortured by the constricting love knots, pushed past the point of endurance and yet not allowed to come. Then Keer had touched her and licked her and fucked her—making her come so hard, so intensely. And before she’d even been able to catch her breath, he’d forced her to hold still while he made her worst fears come true.
Only once he’d gotten into her, she could scarcely remember what she’d been afraid of. Because he was gentle—so gentle that she could scarcely believe he was the same man who’d fucked her pussy so savagely. And with just a few strokes inside her, he made her come again. It was the way he rubbed her clit against the pillow as he pushed into her that did it—that and the fact that he was doing something so forbidden, something she had feared for so long that Tabitha could scarcely believe she was able to stand it. Given all that, how could she help coming again? Especially since she was still in love with him.
Well, it was pretty obvious that he didn’t exactly share her feelings, Tabitha thought ruefully, sitting up on the side of the bed to take stock of herself. The Drusinian cords were finally gone—leaving only faint red traces of themselves on her fair skin to remind her of her bondage. She remembered the way he’d sucked and licked her nipple once the first love knot had come free and wanted to cry all over again. There was no point in wishing he would come back and hold her and kiss the red marks left by the cord. Captain Keer was gone and didn’t show any signs of coming back.
Well that’s your own fault, isn’t it? Crying and begging and barely trusting him even when he promised to be gentle. You scared him off with all your gasping and moaning. An emotional display like that is probably repulsive to a Zentorian. After all, they don’t have feelings—or at least, not like the rest of the sentient species in the galaxy.
But what about the pain she’d heard in his voice? What about how she’d been so sure he felt something for her after all? Tabitha pushed the thought away. Clearly she’d been mistaken about that. It was time to stop wishing and leave his quarters for her own. Doubtless he was waiting for her to go. Once she left he could get back to his rigidly controlled life and forget he’d ever had to help out one of his junior officers in such an embarrassingly intimate way.