Planet Mail (7 page)

She stared at the two moons which hung over the distant Purple Desert. Perhaps it would be better for everyone if she stayed at the spaceport until the rescue ship arrived. She obviously wasn’t meant for a life of pure sexual indulgence. She only wanted one man.
A man capable of being not only a father to Danny, but her best friend and a fantastic lover.
She sighed. Not that she wanted much.
Bron
snorted in his sleep and burrowed even further under the covers. Somehow she didn’t think Marcus would just let her leave. As quietly as she could, Douglass scooped up
Bron’s
tunic and cloak and put them on. If things got rough and she had to make it to the port by herself, her first task was to find a way out of the palace.

It was dark on the lower levels, the lamps extinguished and the paths empty of people. The soft roar of the fountain echoed through the passageways. A hint of dew touched her skin. After a wary glance around, Douglass crept down the stone
stairs,
her bare feet made no sound. Marcus had said the kitchens, storage and guards rooms lay below the fountain level. Surely there would be an unguarded exit somewhere? She shivered as the stairwell narrowed and her fingers brushed cold, wet stone.

At the bottom of the steps, three passages led off into the darkness. Voices rose from both left and right. She sniffed the air and guessed from the savory smells that the kitchens lay to her right. Wishing she had thought to bring a lamp or candle, she decided to follow the central path. Blackness engulfed her and she had to put her hand out to touch the wall to guide her progress.

A sudden waft of fresh air assaulted her. Douglass gasped as she stumbled down into a larger cavern which seemed open to the night. Her eyes were blinded by the sudden light. When she got to her feet she found three men staring at her. All of them were tall and all of them looked delighted to see her. Fear curdled low in her belly. The cavern appeared to be full of food and barrels of ale.

She took a step backward. “I’m sorry, good sirs; I was looking for the kitchen.”

The largest and ugliest of the men strolled toward her. His long black hair was matted and filthy. When he smiled, his teeth matched his hair.

“What’s the hurry, little lady? We don’t get to see many females down here, do we, lads?”

Douglass took another hasty step and her back hit the cave wall. “I must go. My family will be looking for me.”

“I bet they will.
A fine-looking female like you?”
The man rubbed his crotch as he stared at her. “I’ll wager there are a hundred men begging to rut between your thighs every night.”

She didn’t like the way his gaze fixed on her breasts. There was no sense of worship here, only a basic savage need. Before she could run, he grabbed her arm and brought it behind her back.

“Oh no, my pretty.
Black Ivan just wants a look at you. Don’t rush off.”

She kicked his shins as hard as she could, pointless of course without shoes, as he fondled her breast with one dirty hand. The other two men crept closer. Lowering her head to her chest she brought it sharply up under Ivan’s chin. His jaws snapped together with a satisfying crunch. He yelled in pain and slapped his hand over her mouth.

“She’s a feisty little bitch, isn’t she? I suggest we leave our cargo here and take the girl as our wages instead of the paltry sum of money the king’s quartermaster gives us. We could charge every man who wanted to rut with her a gold piece.” He squeezed her breast until she fought a scream. “I reckon she could service thirty men a night at least. We’d be rich in no time at all.”

She closed her eyes at the rancid scent of Black Ivan’s breath as he kissed the top of her head. Why hadn’t she listened to Marcus? He’d warned her to stay upstairs. By ignoring his advice like some stupid heroine in a horror flick, she’d just signed her own death warrant.

“You will have to get through me if you wish to abduct my consort.”

Douglass gasped as she was rotated back toward the entrance to the cave. Marcus stood there, his sword drawn, Sven and
Bron
behind him.

Black Ivan laughed. “And who might you be, the bloody king?”

“Aye, you have that right.” Marcus moved closer, his sword leveled at Ivan’s throat. “Give her up and I will allow you to leave.”

His quiet tone seemed to unnerve her captor who loosened his grip on her mouth. Douglass sank her teeth into his palm and held on like a rabid dog as he tried to shake her loose. She lost her footing and fell to her knees, only then releasing her grip on her abductor’s flesh. When she opened her eyes, Black Ivan was on the ground and Marcus stood over him.

Sven pulled her to her feet, his expression thunderous. He pointed at
Bron
and Harlan who had just arrived at the door. “Go with them until the king is ready to deal with you.”

Normally she would have bristled at his tone but she was so glad to hear his voice that she obeyed him. Without a backward glance, she allowed
Bron
to lead her to the king’s bedchamber. When both men retired to await the king outside the door, she sank to her knees and allowed the fear to overwhelm her.

When Marcus approached his bedchamber,
Bron
stopped him, his expression grave.

“I was at fault, Sire. I allowed your consort to leave the room whilst I slept.” He swallowed hard and stood to attention. “If you decide I am unworthy to serve you, I will willingly step down from my position.”

Marcus sighed. “
Bron
, my consort is not the easiest of people to guard. That is why I have a second man posted on the stairwell. I have been expecting her to try something like this.” He patted
Bron’s
shoulder. “If you learn from this mistake and continue to serve her well, I see no reason to demote you.”

“Thank you, Sire.”
Bron’s
voice wobbled with relief.

With an encouraging nod, Marcus went into his bedchamber. The sight of Douglass going through his possessions revived all his anger. In an effort not to pick her up and shake her, he leaned back against the door.

“What exactly are you doing, my consort?”

She continued to throw the contents of his clothes chest onto the floor.

“I’m looking for some condoms or a vibrator.” She raised her head and he saw the suggestion of tears in her eyes. “I realized that lack of sex was driving me crazy.”

“I don’t understand.”

She stood up, one of his tunics fisted in her hand. “Yes, you do. I can see how much you want to yell at me, well, just go ahead. What I did was stupid and dumb and irresponsible, okay? And the only thing I can come up with, or say in my defense, is my current obsession with sex, or the lack of it.”

His anger dimmed at her frank admission of guilt. “You misunderstand me, consort. That is not what confused me. I don’t know what condoms or vibrators are.” He risked a smile at her. “But I can easily appreciate that lacking me in your bed might drive you crazy.”

“You are such a conceited…bastard.” She threw his tunic at him. He caught it in one hand. It occurred to him that she challenged him in a way no other woman of his world ever would. Despite her short stature, every inch of her radiated defiance.

He dropped the tunic on the floor. “The solution to your problem is easy. Come to bed with me. I promise to keep you well pleasured until you have no thoughts of running away again.”

She sighed. “I wasn’t planning on leaving tonight. I just wanted to make sure I had an escape route if I needed one.”

He unclasped his cloak and drew his tunic over his head. Her eyes widened as they fastened on his erection. He ran his fingers over his shaft and gently squeezed. “Ah, so tonight was more of a scouting expedition.” For some reason, her words lessened the pain that had settled in his gut when he believed she intended to run.

“I didn’t mean to cause all this fuss or put anyone’s life in danger.”

He held her gaze. “The only life in danger was your own. Perhaps you should pay for what you have done.”

She raised her chin a notch. “Are you going to lock me in a dungeon and throw away the key?”

He walked toward her, blood pooling in his groin, desire warming his belly. Up close, he registered the depth of her reaction to the violence she had witnessed, the fine trembling of her limbs, the fear in her eyes. “I have a much better way to deal with you than that. What is that old Earth saying? ‘Make the punishment fit the crime’?”

She swallowed hard as he halted in front of her. “I am truly sorry for behaving like an idiot but you have put me in a difficult position.”

He touched her cheek, rubbed his thumb over her generous lower lip. “Your position is not difficult, consort. You are the one who makes it so.” With one hand he captured her wrists in the small of her back. His cock brushed the fabric of her borrowed tunic. He drew the dagger tucked under the narrow leather strap at the top of his thigh and slit her tunic from top to bottom.

She shivered as the rough cloth fell away to reveal her breasts. His shaft rubbed against her belly, the crown almost between her breasts. Instinct shouted at him to reclaim her and calm her fears in the most basic way possible but he knew she wasn’t ready to respond to him yet.

“If you will not accept my seed, perhaps I will pleasure myself instead.”

He picked her up and dumped her in the center of his bed. As she struggled to right herself, he sat cross-legged, his back to the headboard. He placed his hands around her waist and drew her to sit across his knees facing him, her legs spread wide, giving him an intimate view of her pussy.

He waited until she regained her balance before he removed his hands. “Tell me what a condom is.”

Douglass stared at him, her blue eyes wary. “Are you kidding me?”

He shrugged. “If by that do you mean am I joking, I am not. Why would this thing relieve your sexual tensions?”

“It’s a form of protection against fertilization. A man sprays his penis with
a fast
-setting synthetic foam or uses a ready-made sheath to cover him completely so that when he ejaculates, the sperm cannot escape.”

Marcus stroked his cock with one finger. “This foam works?”

Douglass watched the slow glide of his finger. “In most cases it does. Occasionally it might tear but that’s rare these days.”

“Why would a man not wish to fertilize his woman?”

“Because on Earth, some people have sex without staying together and making a family and other people have sex just for fun.”

He concentrated on massaging his cock and tried to imagine it encased in plastic. He shuddered at the thought. “But sex has a deeper meaning than mere pleasure. It ensures the procreation of the species. It is in everyone’s best interest if a couple stays together to produce and rear a child.”

Douglass sighed
deeply,
her breasts trembled in time making him want to suckle them. “I’m not sure if anyone thinks about that anymore and sometimes it’s simply too painful for a couple to stay together. Although I’m somewhat inclined to agree with you.”

He wrapped his fingers around his shaft and slowly pumped. The slick, wet slide of his pre-come sounded loud in the silence. Douglass licked her lips.

“For me, there is nothing as exciting as the feel of your body yielding to my cock as I first push inside you.” He glanced up at her. “If a man wears one of these condoms, surely he cannot feel the tightness of a woman’s sheath as it grips him?”

“I’ve heard men complain about that.”

Marcus allowed himself a small smile at the breathiness of her reply. She seemed unable to take her eyes away from his still growing rod. “Have you noticed any difference between the feel of my cock and that of a man with a condom?” He encircled his shaft with finger and thumb. “Although, I am reputed to be large, so perhaps there is no comparison.”

She gave a shaky laugh. “You are the biggest man I’ve ever seen.” Her gaze flicked down to her pussy. “I’m amazed that you fit in there at all.” Droplets of her cream slid down her parted thighs and made her curls glisten. He longed to thrust his fingers deep inside her to gauge how wet and ready she was for him. “And yes, it does feel different.”

He held her gaze.
“Better or worse?”

“Better without the condom.”

He smiled and continued to work his shaft.
Enjoying the slow buildup of passion and Douglass watching him.
“And what was the other thing you spoke of?”

“A vibrator?”

He lifted his soaked fingers to her mouth and spread his seed on her lips. “Is that like a condom?”

“No, it’s,” she hesitated as she bit her lip and tasted him. “It’s kind of a mechanical cock.”

He stopped moving his fingers. “Why would any woman need something like that?”

She wriggled restlessly against his thighs. “Because men on Earth are not the greatest lovers and if a woman wants to feel sexually satisfied sometimes she has to take care of it herself.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe I’m having this conversation. I feel like the oldest whore in a brothel breaking in a virgin.”

Laughter shook through him at her exasperated expression. “I am no virgin. This vibrator, is it shaped like a real cock?”

“Usually, although most of them are bigger than the average man.”

He gripped his shaft.
“Bigger than me?”

“No.”

“Good.” He continued to touch himself, slid a hand under his aching balls and gently fingered them. “I can see why women might desire a man as big as me, but surely there is no comparison to a real man thrusting inside a woman?”

“No.”

Her answers had become shorter and shorter. He studied her beneath lowered lashes. She was definitely more relaxed, No hint of fear haunted her eyes. “You seem quiet. Do you not like your punishment, consort?”

Her gaze snapped back to his face. “This is my punishment?”

“Aye, do you not remember? Making the punishment fit the crime. It drove me wild seeing you in that man’s hands. Now I’m going to drive you wild and there is nothing you can do about it either.”