Not the Man She Thought (16 page)

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Laken eyes narrowed at Rade’s words. She supposed that was
his way of saying he was going to spank her when they got back to the ship.
When he’d burst into the room a few minutes ago, all she wanted to do was throw
herself into his arms. Now, she wanted to slap him. She probably would have,
too, if he hadn’t taken her arm and hustled her out of the room the moment the
officer handed her over to him.

Keir and Vance were waiting for them in the hallway, and the
two men followed her and Rade out of the building. Laken was surprised to see
Pammay standing with Finn and Jorn beside the transport vehicle. She gave Rade
a questioning look, but he didn’t say anything.

Rade and the other men checked behind them more than once on
the ride to the ship, but fortunately, no one had followed them. Once they were
safely back on the ship, Rade immediately gave the order to take off, then
asked Dev to get Pammay settled before hustling Laken up the stairs and through
the warren of passageways to his cabin. When it slid open, he urged her inside.

Laken whirled on him the moment he closed the door, sure he
was going to grab her and drag her over his knee, but all he did was reach out
to gently brush her hair back from her face.

  
“Did
Enak hurt you?” he asked.

  
She
shook her head. “No.”

  
He
nodded, relief clear on his face.

  
“How did
you find me?” she asked.

  
He
shrugged. “Dev saw you leave with that asshole at the club and thought you
might be in trouble. When I learned he’d done time for slave trading, I figured
she was right.”

  
She
chewed on her lower lip. She waited for him to tell her how stupid she had been
to leave with some guy she didn’t even know, but to her surprise, he didn’t.
“You said you wouldn’t come after me if I ran off again. Why did you?”

  
“Because
I was worried about something awful happening to you. And because I couldn’t
live with myself if it did.” He cupped her cheek. “When I saw them holding that
branding iron, I…” He shook his head, his voice suddenly hoarse. “I should put
you over my knee for doing something so foolish, but all I want to do right now
is kiss you.”
 
Laken felt her
breath hitch at the suddenly tender look that came into his dark eyes. The
thought of him kissing her again made her feel warm all over. Which was all the
more reason for her to run out of his cabin and lock herself in her own. But
instead, she took a step closer to him.

  
“Then
what are you waiting for?” she asked softly. Surprise flickered in Rade’s eyes.
With a groan, he slid his hand in her hair and covered her mouth with his. She
swayed against him, parting her lips for his questing tongue even as she
gripped his shirtfront to pull him closer. She ran her hands over the hard wall
of his chest, lingering over each and every muscle hidden beneath the material.

Rade dragged his mouth away from hers, his breathing ragged.
“If you want to stop, now would be a good time to tell me, sweetheart.”

Laken knew they should stop, but she couldn’t. It was like a
dam had burst inside her and all she wanted to do was let it carry her away.

Not trusting herself to speak, she wrapped her hand around
the back of Rade’s head and she pulled him in for another kiss. His mouth
closed over hers even more hungrily than before, and she moaned with pleasure
as his tongue found hers again.

Rade’s hands were all over her, arousing parts of her body
she barely knew existed. He trailed them over her arms, then down her back,
before moving up her midriff to cup her breasts. She gasped, arching against him,
yearning for more. His thumbs found her nipples through the thin fabric of her
dress, and Laken let out a moan as the sensitive peaks hardened beneath his
touch. Suddenly desperate to have his hands on her naked body, she reached up
to slide the straps of the dress from her shoulders, but he was already doing
it for her.

The garment offered him little resistance, sliding down her
breasts and over her hips to fall at her feet, leaving her clad only in her bra
and panties.

Rade gazed down at her, his dark eyes smoldering with
desire. “God, you’re beautiful.”

Laken blushed and would have thanked him, but Rade was
already bending his head to kiss her again. As his hands explored her body, her
bra and panties magically fell to the floor, and soon she was naked against
him. There was something very erotic about being completely naked while he was
still fully clothed. The urge to see him naked was too much, though, and she
reached for the buttons on his shirt. Rade didn’t let her get more than half of
them undone before he swung her up in his arms and gently set her down on the
bed. Gazing down at her hotly, he finished what she’d started, stripping off
his shirt and breeches, and she found herself watching eagerly as his
magnificent body was slowly exposed to her gaze.

She’d known he was well built, but he was more gorgeous than
any man she had ever seen. She took in his broad, well-muscled chest and
washboard stomach, then moved down to where his thick, hard cock was nestled
between his thighs. He was absolutely perfect.

She would have reached out to run her hands all over him,
but he climbed into bed before she could move. He pulled her into his arms,
cupping her breasts as he trailed hot kisses along her jaw line and down her
neck. She arched against him, clutching at his shoulders as his mouth closed
over her breast. He swirled his tongue over her nipple, sending shivers down
her body, and she gasped.

Still teasing her nipple, Rade ran his hand over the curve
of her hip and down her bare leg, then up again to cup her ass and give it a
squeeze. Laken moaned, surprised at how much she liked it. After all the
spankings he’d given her, she hadn’t thought she’d want those hands of his
anywhere near her bottom, but what he was doing now felt delicious.

He released the nipple he’d been sucking on to do the same
to the other, his hand sliding his hand down her thigh again. This time, his
hand came up between her legs, gently parting them as he did so. Laken’s pulse
quickened as heat pooled there. He slowly ran his hand up the silky skin of her
inner thigh, his fingers brushing her downy curls.

  
“Rade…”

Laken caught her breath as he slid his finger along her
slick folds, only to moan in pleasure as his found her clit and began to make
slow, lazy circles. Her hands tightened on his shoulders. She’d been touched
there before, but not like this. A sensation so intense and unlike anything
she’d ever felt rippled through her, and she cried out in pleasure.

When she finally came back down to earth, Rade slid his hand
around to cup her ass cheek again, pulling her closer. His cock was hot and
heavy against her thigh and she had an uncontrollable urge to slide her hand
down and wrap her fingers around him, but Rade moved before she could.
Tightening his hold on her ass, he rolled onto his back, taking her with him.
Grasping her hips in both hands, he lifted her up and slowly lowered her down
on his shaft until his entire length was inside her.

Laken gasped. He filled her so completely it was like he was
just made for her. Right then, she wanted to believe he had been.

She looked down at Rade to find him gazing up at her with
what could only be called awe in his dark eyes. Did he feel like she was made
for him, too?

  
Leaning
forward, she kissed him long and lingeringly as she rode up and down. A groan
rumbled from somewhere deep in his chest, and she sighed against his mouth,
thrilled to know she was bringing him as much pleasure as he brought her.

She waited for her orgasm to peak and come crashing over her
like a wave, but it didn’t. Instead, it continued to build as Rade thrust
faster and faster. “Harder,” she demanded. “Take me harder!”

  
Tearing
her mouth away from his, she buried her face into the curve of his neck and
clung to him. He gripped her hips more tightly and pumped into her harder.

The wave she had been waiting for crested then, washing over
her without warning and bringing with it a rush pleasure so intense that she
had to bite down on his shoulder to keep from screaming loud enough for the
whole ship to hear. He groaned with his own release, the sound long and low.
The knowledge that he was coming with her only made her orgasm all the more
intense.

Afterward, they laid there together, her head on his
shoulder, his arms around her, neither one of them saying anything. As much as
she didn’t want to think about Mallin right then, he was the first thing that
came to mind. She had never experienced anything so amazing with any other man,
not even her fiancé. It was like she and Rade had connected on some other
level,
 
she was afraid to wonder
what that meant.

Chapter Eight

Laken
woke up the next morning the moment the ship’s computer turned on the lights in
the cabin to simulate sunrise. According to Dev, it helped to keep the
body’s natural rhythms, but she just found it be annoying. Pulling the blanket
up more tightly around her shoulders, she snuggled back into the pillow and
closed her eyes, only to jerk awake as the memory of last night came rushing
back to her. Oh God, it hadn’t been a dream. She’d slept with Rade
Karsten. She had betrayed her beloved Mallin with another man. Not
just any man, either, but one she didn’t even like. And she was still in his
bed. Clutching the blanket to her breasts, she sat up and looked around for
Rade, but he was nowhere to be found.

Flopping back on the bed, she yanked the blanket over her
head with a groan. Oh God, what had she done? She’d thought that
Mallin would be the only man she would ever make love to, but she’d slept with
without even giving her fiancé a second thought. The most upsetting part was
that it had been the most passionate and glorious thing she had ever
experienced in her life. Of course, she didn’t really have much to compare it
to. She’d had very little experience with men before she’d met Mallin, and as
she’d already figured out from her conversation with Dev, her fiancé wasn’t
that passionate in bed. Compared to Rade, Mallin’s lovemaking had seemed almost
mechanical. She clenched her fists. What was she doing comparing her
genteel Mallin to a brute like Rade? The man was a pirate, for heaven’s
sake. There was no comparison.

No matter how good the sex with Rade had been, she couldn’t
escape the fact that she’d cheated on her fiancé. As much as Laken would
like to blame Rade entirely for what had happened the night before, she knew it
was as much her doing as it was his. He had given her the opportunity to put a
stop to things before they went too far, but God help her, she’d wanted Rade
more than she could ever have imagined wanting a man. Even now, the memory of
his hard, naked body intertwined with her own brought a rush of desire to her
that made her tingle all over. What was it about Rade that had her
forgetting all about her fiancé and giving herself to a man she hardly knew,
and didn’t even like? She didn’t know. All she knew was that she couldn’t
do it again.

Could she trust herself enough to keep it from happening
again, though? If Rade came walking back into the room right then and
pulled her into his arms, would she be able to resist him? She wanted to
think she could, but she didn’t know for sure.  She had to get off his
ship before she did something that would completely and irrevocably destroy her
relationship with Mallin.

As reluctant as she was to face Rade after they had slept
together, Laken knew she would have to sooner or later, especially if she
wanted off his ship. Deciding that sooner would be better, she pushed back
the blankets and got out of bed. Naked, she scooped up her dress and
undergarments from where they lay, then hurried into the adjoining bathroom to
shower and get dressed.

Laken didn’t waste any time getting ready. While it was
tempting to stand beneath the spray of warm water, she didn’t dare.  She
wanted to be gone from the cabin before Rade came back.  Being in such
close confines with him, particularly when the bed was so near, would just be
asking for trouble.

Going into the main part of the cabin, Laken hurried over to
the door and waited impatiently for it to open.  When it did, she quickly
stepped outside, only to come to an abrupt halt when she spotted Keir coming
down the passageway.  Her first instinct was to duck back into Rade’s
cabin, but it was too late.  The blond-haired crewman had already seen
her.  Maybe if she acted naturally, then he wouldn’t suspect anything.

He flashed her a grin.  “How’re you doing this
morning?”

Laken smoothed her dress in a self-conscious gesture. 
“Fine, thank you. I, uh, was looking for Captain Karsten. Do you know
where he is?”