“Do you want to fuck?”

  She looked up at that cruel smile and tried to gather her wits. “I want you to go to hell.”

  Again a smack. Her cunt throbbed, and she barely contained a moan. What the hell was she doing? Just tell him what he wants and get it over with.

  His wide palms rubbed her butt, fingers probing the crease between. “Is this your way of telling me you want your ass fucked?”

  Oh God. Kara closed her eyes, feeling cream slide down her thighs, humiliation burning her cheeks. Her pussy clenched, aching.

  Just his body fluids, she told herself. I just need his body fluids.

  She licked her lips as an idea lit. “I need you,” she whispered hoarsely. “Please. I need you now.” The desperation in her voice was real enough.

  Duke’s hands circled her waist, and she was spun toward the bed. He sat. A heavy hand on her shoulder forced her onto her knees between his spread legs. His cock, heavy and bulging, sprung toward her and wordlessly she took him into her mouth.

  Salt and musk and male.

  She tasted him, took a long breath to smell him. Sucked lightly on the engorged tip, before running her tongue in light teasing licks along the length of him. Up on the underside, down on the other. She loved the sound of Duke’s groan, and sucked him further into her mouth. His fingers tangled in her hair. His hips rolled forward. She took more of him, deeper, then up, swirling her tongue over the sensitive head of his cock. His grunts made her pussy spasm.

  Just get it over with.

  She sucked, nibbled, and pressed light kisses on his throbbing flesh. His harsh breaths were just a means to an end. Large palms cupped her head, guiding her into a bobbing motion. Kara complied, sunk her mouth onto him, let up, sunk in again. Just come already.

  His body tensed under her. Close. Finish it.

  But the hands on her hair gently tugged, forcing her to lift her head. She met his hooded eyes.

  “It’s not going to work,” he said softly.

  Like hell it wouldn’t. She went for his cock again, laving it with her tongue. The hand wrapped in her hair stopped her.

  “Get up.”

  Before Kara could protest Duke’s hands were on her waist, lifting her, turning her, except he didn’t put her down, but carried her across the room, toward the computer console, and set her down in front of a monitor.

  “What, your friends want a peep show?” She needed to be fucked, now.

  “Close.”

  A few taps and the screens lit up, the main screen reflecting her, the side screens showing side views of her naked body. Her hair, wildly curling, hung around her shoulders. Her lips were pink and swollen. So were her nipples.

  “You’re going to watch.” Duke stood behind her, still clothed, his jutting cock teasing between her buttocks. “Watch yourself begging for my cock.”

  Kara barely had time to think of a reply when he took her breasts in his hands. The monitor showed wide, tanned palms covering both mounds, gently kneading. She had no idea when he’d stepped closer, but she leaned against him, her head resting on his strong shoulder. As if hypnotized, she watched him caress her. Her hands, cuffed behind her back, found the thick length of his cock. As if of their own volition, her fingers curled around it, pumped.

  Thumb and forefinger tweaked each nipple and she watched herself gasp, arch into his touch.

  Again that beautifully cruel smile. “You like that?”

  She wasn’t going to answer that.

  Duke tweaked her nipples again, rougher this time. “Tell me.”

  Just end it. Just end it. “Yes,” she gasped. She wanted his mouth on her. Hated herself for it.

  “Good.” He pushed her gently toward the console and stripped off his shirt. The muscled chest underneath gleamed with sweat, his abs standing out in relief with every rough exhale.

  The shirt was dumped on the console, then he urged her forward over it, laying her on it. One of the smaller screens was directly in front of her. Unable to tear her gaze away, she watched him take her hair and move it aside to uncover the sensitive skin of her neck.

  “Tell me to fuck you.”

  That didn’t deserve an answer.

  She expected another spanking, clenched her ass in anticipation. Instead, Duke’s lips cruised over her spine, pressing gentle kisses over her skin. She shivered, moaned, and his mouth traveled lower, sampling her back, buttocks, thighs, tickling the back of her knees. Long, clever fingers parted the slick folds of her labia, slid easily inside her. Withdrew. Found her clit with light teasing touches.

  She arched, tried to spread her legs wider, needing more.

  Duke stopped. “Beg me to fuck you.” His voice was erotically harsh.

  “No.”

  “Beg me.” For emphasis his finger slid inside her again.

  Moaning, she clenched around him, knowing it wasn’t enough. “Just do it.”

  He stood up, leaned over her and bit her ear. “Beg me to fuck you.”

  “Fine. Fuck me.”

  “Again.”

  “Fuck me, damn you!”

  He filled her slowly, one torturous heartbeat at a time. Kara moaned, squirmed, tried to suck him deeper into her cunt.

  All to no avail. He controlled his penetration, watching her watch him on the monitors.

  Then he stopped.

  She almost cried.

  “Tell me again.”

  “Fuck me!” She watched him grab the restraints of her wrists, anchor himself, and sensuously glide deep into her soaking cunt. He withdrew, rubbing the walls of her pussy with his cock. “Fuck me, damn you!”

  A long creamy stroke. “Say please.” Duke’s face pearled with sweat. Gleaming muscles tensed.

  “You bastard.” It was good, insanely good. If he stopped again she would kill him.

  “Say please.”

  “Please.” God, she needed this. She lowered her head, but the hand wrapped in her hair urged her up.

  “Pretty please,” he crooned, giving her just a bit more.

  “Pretty please!”

  “Pretty please what?” His breathing exploded in her ear. Kara couldn’t help but watch.

  “Pretty please just fuck me! Now!”

  He smiled. Filled her completely. “Your wish,” he ground out between strokes, “is my command.”

  Slowly he plundered her pussy, drawing scream after scream from her hoarse throat. Sliding against her, the deliberate rubs of his cock winding the approaching orgasm tighter. She clenched around him, froze, gasped… exploded. Duke plunged hard, rode her through it, fucking her mercilessly through her climax, deeper, fuller, until she felt him stiffen, press his lips to her neck. Empty into her.

  Chapter Six

  Each breath was a boneless struggle. Above her, covering her, his hand still wrapped in her hair, Duke sounded like he was doing the same. On the monitor Kara saw his face, eyes closed, forehead gleaming. Was she mistaken, or had he just pressed a kiss to a lock of her hair? Then cool air brushed along her bare back as he rose, helping her to do the same.

  She rolled her stiff shoulders. Winced. Felt his hands on her arms.

  “If you don’t pull any stunts, I’ll remove the cuffs.”

  She spoke before she could think, still reeling from an incredible orgasm. “I’d need a few hours to muster up energy.”

  She felt loose, warm. Somehow he seemed the same.

  He chuckled, and to her shock pressed a kiss on her shoulder. “Flattery,” he murmured, “will get you everywhere.”

  His hands slid down to her wrists, pressed a series of keys on the restraints. They loosened until one hung off her wrist like a kinky bracelet. Kara tried to move her arms and didn’t hold back a groan of pain as blood rushed into stiffened muscles. Then Duke’s hands were on her shoulders, kneading, pressing. He took one arm, rotated it, repeated the sequence with her other arm.

  Stepping in front of her, he brought both her arms forward, crossed them, then stretched them. Rubbing warm calloused hands over her, he pressed his lips to her wrist.

  Froze.

  She opened her eyes to see him staring at the healing scars on her palm. Seconds later the restraints clicked back, locking her wrists in front of her. “You said --”

  “I lied. You’re familiar with the concept.” His voice, warm only seconds ago, was ice sharp.

  Trust him to ruin the mood. She firmed her lips together and schooled her features to be blank.

  “I need to make a call. Get out of range unless you want Brenner to see your tits.” He shrugged on his shirt, righted his pants.

  “You’re a real fucker.” She was tired. So tired she could barely put heat behind it.

  “Is that an invitation?”

  She was starting to hate that arched brow. Since he’d already engaged the monitor, she was cut off from the bed or the restroom. So she moved back, wedged herself in a corner by the wall and the console and closed her eyes.

  How could he go from ice to heat then back to ice in just moments?

  Duke loathed her. Sex was pity and rage combined.

  She’d have no more of it.

  Exhausted, mind reeling, Duke reached Brenner.

  “You two done?” Jack’s face was completely bland.

  “In a manner of speaking.” The scars on her palm had snapped him out before he completely lost it. She was a liar. She would do anything and everything to get out of this. He needed to remember that before losing his own fucking head.

  If Brenner noticed anything, he kept it to himself. “I need you up here. Trent isolated the reaction and is rigging up something.” He chuckled. “Lil is not thrilled.”

  “Fine.” Duke tunneled his hands through his hair. From the corner of his eye he saw Kara sitting against a wall, her hair spilling around her shoulders, giving him tempting glimpses of flesh. He needed to get away from her. “When can you spring me?”

  “Lil refuses to leave Trent alone with her equipment. Dinah is coming down to do a final scan on you.”

  “Great. I’m going stir crazy in here.” This was purely for Kara’s benefit. He watched for a reaction -- got none. “I need to program the bioFilters to wrap around anything damageable as soon as blood particles are detected.” Speaking of which, he needed to get the vials out of Kara’s suit so she wouldn’t pull any more stunts.

  “Ask Trent. It will keep him out of Lil’s hair.” Brenner chuckled.

  “Yeah. We still need to finalize the adjustment to the contract --”

  His door beeped. “Dinah’s here. I’ll catch up with you later.”

  Ending transmission, he went to open the door, hearing the scan of the bioFilter. A beep of agreement and the door parted, allowing Dinah entrance.

  Her gaze landed on something beyond his shoulder.

  “You motherfucking asshole!” She shoved past him and made her way half into the room before turning around, as if unsure what to do with the naked female huddled against the wall. “What the hell are you doing? You keep her naked as some sort of --” She searched for the right word. “Some sort of fuck slave?”

  He really wasn’t in the mood to deal. “You jealous, sweetheart?”

  Gold eyes furious, Dinah clenched a small fist. “I’ll show you jealous --”

  Chuckling despite the bone deep weight in his chest, Duke covered her fist with a gentle palm. “Don’t. I won’t fight you and Brenner would kill me if you hurt yourself beating on my sorry ass.”

  “Sorry ass is right.” Eyes blazing, she snatched a sheet off his bed and threw it at Kara. “Here.”

  He watched Kara grab the sheet and cover herself with it. Head bent. Slow. Silent. As if he’d beaten her, for God’s sake.

  “Allow me to make the introductions.” He hardened his voice, when all he wanted to do was lie down, drag her to him and sleep for a few hours.

  “Dinah Burns -- Kara Dillon. Dinah hacked into the NewKremlin mainframe and managed to change Brenner’s and my threat status before they executed us. And this one --” He jerked his chin in Kara’s general direction. “This one is responsible for us ending up there in the first place.”

  A part of him hoped Kara would protest, would start the same song and dance. Her silence somehow weighed on him. “Her manners must have shorted when she tried to blow up the shuttle.”

  Dinah’s eyes hardened, though her face retained a neutral expression. “She gave Kremlin your intel?”

  “The one and only.”

  Duke thought he heard a soft bitter chuckle. A quick glance told him Kara hadn’t moved.

  “All right.” Dinah sighed. “Let’s get you cleared. I can prepare quarters for --”

  “No.”

  “What? Why?”

  Duke curled his lip. “Let’s just say she needs me. She stays here. I’ll passkey the comm unit. Besides, Lil would hate to have another place to decontaminate.”

  “Well, let’s not upset her then.” Sugar-sweet sarcasm dripped. “At least get your friend clothed.”

  “She’s not my friend.” He bit it out, as if the word left a dirty taste in his mouth. “I had to get her out of her suit. She has all sorts of nasty toys in there. Besides, it was torn.”

  “I’m sure. I’ll get her one of mine, and I would prefer it stays untorn.”

  If he wasn’t mistaken, Kara shuddered. So he smiled. “I’m sure she’ll try.”

  Chapter Seven

  “I’d have thought regular sex would improve your disposition.” Lil’s voice, the mocking drawl of it, cut through the general misery of his mood.

  Determined not to give a fuck, Duke slopped more soup. As if that little bitch Kara was doing him a favor by eating.

  “And you think I have regular sex?” he finally asked, keeping his voice bland.

  Lil shrugged. “I heard you have a little love slave chained to your bed.”

  His love slave sat against a wall every time he came in. Every time he asked if she had need of him, he would get a “no thank you” in that chillingly polite tone as if he was offering her tea.

  “Dinah discussing my sex life again?”

  Lil peered into his face long enough for him to be uncomfortable. “There’s bags under your eyes. You haven’t slept. I put two and two together.”

  He hadn’t slept because for the past three nights he would have to physically pick Kara up from whatever corner she’d wedged herself into and drop her on the bed. Did she need him? Of course not. He’d spent each night in his console chair -- horny, frustrated and pissed as all hell.

  “I haven’t been sleeping much. But not from what you’re thinking.” Duke buttered a hunk of bread, adding it to the tray. Maybe Kara would eat it. She’d always liked buttered sweet bread.

  “Your love slave getting tired of you?”

  “Kara,” he emphasized her name, “no longer needs me.”

  “What makes you think that?”

  “Trust me.”

  Lil frowned. “How long since you two --”

  “Really not your business.” He was done discussing it.

  She placed a hand on his arm. “Seriously. She can’t be without your DNA. Not comfortably. Are you sure she doesn’t need… anything?”

  He inhaled, thought back. She had been looking pale. Duke assumed it was because she was too stubborn to eat properly. There were circles under her eyes. He figured she wasn’t getting much sleep either. But… “What would happen?”

  “If she went without?”

  Duke nodded.

  Lil pursed her lips, thinking. “I would imagine it would be very unpleasant. It manifests as a hormonal need. Similar to blue balls in the early stages.”

  “And in the late stage?”

  Lil laid down her plate. “How long?”

  “More than two days.”

  “Idiot.” Leaving everything, Lil headed for the door, Duke at her heels. “Her system could be going into shock.”

  * * *

  Lil and Duke barreled into his quarters at a run. On the bed, Kara was curled into a tight ball, fisted hands pressed against her belly. They rushed toward her, Lil whipping out her scanner, checking her pulse, her eyelids.

  Then laughed softly. “She’s sleeping. Quite deeply.”

  Undisturbed, Kara softly breathed.

  Duke concentrated on slowing the pounding in his chest. He wanted to punch something. He wanted to lift Kara up and shake her and hug her and fuck her until they were both brain-dead.

  Looking down at that sweet face, he blurted out the thing that had been on his mind for the past couple of days. “Scan her knees.” He whispered it, not wanting to wake her. He didn’t want the hurt silence that settled over her every time he came in here.

  “First time you let me in your quarters and you want me to look at her knees?”

  He sighed. Decided not to go into detail. “Can you just do it?”

  Wordlessly Lil shrugged, and ran the scanner over Kara’s legs. Frowned. Did another run. “Looks like there was significant repair work done here. Sloppy too.”

  “Yeah.” Duke didn’t know what to think anymore. “Any idea what caused it?”

  “The injury or the sloppy repair?” Lil shrugged as if saying she didn’t read into the past.

  Determined to not feel like a complete idiot, Duke forced himself to back away. Walking to his scanner, he grabbed the vials of blood -- two fresh ones from himself and Kara, and the three he’d found in her suit. “Might as well take these now that you’re here.”

  Lil’s eyes narrowed as she came toward him, hand outstretched. “Let me see that.” She probed at the tip of one and snorted. Shook her head. “This one yours?”

  Duke frowned at it. Hadn’t he put in a full vial? “Yeah, it’s labeled.”

  “Well, now we know why she’s tired of you, genius.” To add insult to injury, Lil rolled her eyes.

  He had a feeling he wasn’t going to like this at all.

  “See this?” Lil shoved the vial with his blood into his face, pointed at the top. “It’s an injector. I assume you’ve seen one before?”