Within were piles of soft woven blankets and furs on raised platforms, similar to beds. There was another table laden with a basket of breads and fruit and a drinking flask filled with a clear liquid that I assumed was water. One look at the food and my stomach rolled.
I found a small space where the blankets were folded and appeared unclaimed. I climbed up, pulled the warm covers over me, situated my new leash so the stimulation to my core might stop, and rolled onto my side to face the soft-sided wall.
I shifted carefully, afraid I’d catch the other chain and pull at my nipples, but once settled, I became attuned to other parts of my body. I was wet between my legs, Tark’s seed still seeped from me. I was sore inside, for while I never saw his cock, I knew it had been big. Too big for my barely used body, and now stuffed with metal balls he’d called stimspheres. Then there was my ass. I was sore there, too, for nothing had ever been placed inside, not even a tip of a finger. My bottom stung from his punishment, a glowing heat that hopefully would dissipate soon. My body was still soft and pliant from the orgasms Tark had wrung from me. The fact that I’d responded so readily only made my misery greater.
How could one man bring me both mind-blowing pleasure and heartbreaking disappointment? He’d called for Mara after he’d sent me off to the harem. A harem! God, I was just one of many for the man. He’d said I was his mate, that I belonged to him, but he did not belong to me. Was that the custom here? How could any psychological profile or assessment have identified me as the type of woman who would be happy as one of many women in a single man’s bed? There had to be some kind of mistake.
Not that it mattered. I needed to keep my head about me. There was much I would be forced to endure over the next few weeks, but I also needed to remember that once the trial started, I would be transported back to testify, to return to my life on Earth. Tark would be on the other side of the galaxy. Mara, the bitch, would be on the other side of the galaxy. I just had to survive in the meantime. The prosecutor had said that the trial was scheduled to take place in three months, but the date was never guaranteed.
At least I couldn’t get pregnant before Earth’s criminal justice system sent for me. Thank God. What would happen if I got pregnant before I went home? What would I do with Tark’s child growing in my womb back on Earth? Thankfully, as part of the witness protection program, I had an implant that would prevent pregnancy. Someday, I’d
have it removed. But not here. Not now. I wasn’t a baby machine.
I shuddered beneath the blankets. I was trapped here for a few weeks. Maybe three months. In the meantime, what would happen to me? I was weary, exhausted, and the spheres inside me continued to pulse. I reached between my legs to rub my clit. He’d said they would make me aroused, but not enough to come. Suddenly angry at my predicament, I wanted to test his word, to discover if his claims about the device were true. Besides, I wanted to relieve the ache between my thighs, to sink into mindless pleasure for the length of an orgasm. I circled my clit with the flats of my fingers. I was slick and wet. Tark’s seed was plentiful.
Pressing my heels into the bed, I shifted my hips. I knew just how to make myself come, I’d done it often enough. This time though, I thought about Tark, saw his face in my mind, pretended the vibrating spheres deep inside me were his cock. It was enough to make me gasp in pleasure, make my inner walls clench and squeeze. I worked my clit for several long minutes before I caught my breath and slumped, the spheres continuing to hum. But, as Tark had promised, the programming prevented me from reaching orgasm. I was sticky and sweaty, aroused and completely unfulfilled.
Unfortunately, the added stress of need on my body did nothing to help my weariness. Surely the ache in my chest had been caused by the transfer, and not by a sense of betrayal. I did not care about the man who had claimed me. Fucked me. Used me and abandoned me to these cackling women. The only punishment the gold spheres had provided was humiliation in front of Mara, and now, a deep and painful ache in my core, an ache that longed to be filled. An ache that reminded me that I was nothing to Tark but a machine he planned to use to produce heirs. And Mara? The vile woman was probably coming all over Tark’s cock right now, spread-eagled and tied to that small table, calling him master as he took her from behind.
The image hurt, and it shouldn’t have. Tark was nothing to me. I’d known him a couple of hours. I had to be reasonable. Logical. I tried to distract myself by concentrating on thoughts of home. Walks in the park. Coffee and chocolate. My warm bed in my nice, comfortable apartment.
I would be home soon enough. I just had to survive this until then, and remember that Tark wasn’t going to be mine. Not really. Not forever.
Sure, Mara was a bitch. Tark was deceiving. I didn’t know what to think anymore, nor did I care. I just wanted to escape the only way I could, so I gave in and let sleep take me.
Chapter Five
“She refuses,” Goran said, rising to his full height after coming into my tent.
I turned and my eyes widened. Had I heard him correctly? “Refuses?”
He seemed nervous as he nodded, for no one refused me. Until now.
“Did she give a reason for this disobedience?” I could hear the anger in my voice, but I was calm. Was it the Earth way to defy, or just Evelyn Day’s? Was this her attempt to reject me? Too late for that. She was mine. If she’d suffered a change of heart since her very satisfying fucking, then it was up to me to sway her. Perhaps my punishment had been too severe for her human mind? Was it her diminutive size? I needed to discover what Evelyn Day needed to be happy, and if her bliss would come through punishment or pleasure.
“She did not.”
“She is still with the harem?”
He nodded again.
I stood and went out into the warm air, Goran holding the tent flap open for me. I nodded in greeting to those I passed, but perhaps it was the intent look on my face that kept them from speaking to me.
The guards at the entrance to the harem stood at attention at my arrival. I ducked into the women’s tent. Several women rose and greeted me.
“Where is my mate?” I asked. While two of the women jumped at the sharp tone of my voice, I did not give them much attention. I did not focus on others’ mates. Now, I solely had interest in my own.
One woman pointed toward the secondary room.
There, I found Evelyn Day sitting upon a bed brushing her hair. She looked calm and peaceful, completely unsurprised by my appearance.
“You will come when I send for you,” I said.
She looked up at me and I saw fire in her eyes. Shrugging her shoulders, she put the brush down and began braiding the long length into a single plait. She waited to speak until she tied off her braid. “I’m surprised it matters so much to you, for any one of us is as good as another, right?”
She stood and she was lovelier than I remembered. She wore a slip like the others, but the thin material was snug on her body and did not hide any of her curves. Her hard nipples and the rings that adorned them were clearly outlined, the chain a soft curve beneath the fabric. The material was taut over her wide hips and only fell to mid-thigh. And there, dangling between her thighs was the proof of my will. I had deactivated the stimspheres hours ago. Perhaps she needed another reminder of who was in charge, or perhaps those spheres had been what pushed her too far into defiance. Either way, she was more alluring now than when she was naked.
Her body distracted me and I had to remember her question. I frowned. “Any one of us?”