The Price of Pleasure (Saurellian Federation 1)

She struggled against him like a wild woman, lashing out with her fingernails and teeth. She had to get away! Jax was too strong for her, though. Within seconds he had her pinned to the ground. One leg was thrown across hers, and both wrists were bound firmly by his hands. He loomed over her in the moonlight, his face shadowed. Against her belly she could feel the hard length of his arousal, and she shivered with fear.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” he whispered harshly. “But I’m not going to let you run up there and ruin things for Seth.”

“He’s here, at the hostel?” she asked in a tremulous voice. “Jax, I have to protect my children! They aren’t safe.”

“Of course your children are safe,” Jax said. “Seth has no interest in your children. He’s come for Calla.”

“What is he going to do to her?” Sarai asked. “You have to make him understand, it wasn’t all her fault.

I made her do it.”

Jax laughed harshly. “He isn’t going to do anything to her,” he said. “Seth loves her. She’s his life mate.

He’s going to take her to Saurellia and marry her.”

“And what are you doing here?” Sarai asked suspiciously. “Why did you check in to the hostel this morning?”

“I was scouting things out for him,” Jax replied. “He didn’t want to scare the two of you off before he had a chance to talk to Calla, so he sent me to make sure we’d found the right women.”

Sarai was filled with understanding. Jax had tried to seduce her that afternoon, and successfully completed his task at the most crucial moment, while Seth had come for Calla. She was a fool. He’d used her to get to Calla, then distracted her while her friend needed her most. To her horror, tears started welling in her eyes. This was too much, too cold-blooded. She had to get away from this man.

“Let me go,” she said. “I’m not going to do anything, I promise.”

“Why would I believe that,” Jax said. “I’m staying with you for the rest of the night, whether you like it or not. How we spend that time is up to you, but I won’t let you interrupt Seth and Calla.”

Sarai tried to think what her options were. They seemed limited. Even if she could somehow overpower him and escape, he would be able to easily catch her. She was beaten, at least for now. She hated being manipulated by a man. It was like being with Calvin all over again…

“If you let me up, we can go back to my room,” she said finally. Her voice was cold with anger. “We can’t stay out here. The children almost always play in the garden before the rest of us wake up in the morning. I can’t have them finding us like this. I won’t have sex with you again, though, so you can just keep that out of your mind. Unless you feel like rape?”

“If I want a woman, I don’t need to rape her,” Jax said, his voice equally cold. “Next time we do this, I’ll make you beg for it. And you will.”

He rolled off her, and they stood up. Sarai led the way to her room with dignity, refusing to give him the pleasure of seeing how upset she was. As far as she was concerned, Jax could go straight to hell. She was determined that there would not be a next time.

Chapter 17

Calla came awake slowly. She felt wonderful, but something was different. She could smell Seth, male and slightly spicy. He was with her, his arms holding her. What had happened? Memory flooded back to her, and she realized he still in her bed. She sat up, leaning on one elbow, and examined his face.

He was smiling in his sleep, but around his eyes were new wrinkles. The night before they had been in shadow, but now she could see that on one side of his face was a fine web of newly-healed scars. A similar grouping of scars covered his shoulder, and spread across his chest. A wave of sadness and guilt swept over her as she realized that she might have been the cause of that pain. Would he have been injured if she hadn’t left him on that asteroid?

She looked back up at his face to find his eyes following her.

“Good morning,” he whispered.

“Good morning,” she replied. “I thought last night was a dream at first, but it was real, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, it was,” he said. “Now that you realize it wasn’t a dream, do you still want to go with me to Saurellia?”

“More than anything in the world,” she replied, kissing him softly. He returned the kiss, pulling her over his body and rubbing against her sensuously.

“You may already be pregnant with my child,” he said with satisfaction, once they surfaced for air. “How do you feel about that?”

“There is nothing I would love more,” she said. Her hair had fallen forward in her face, and she pushed it back impatiently with one hand. “Although right now I would definitely enjoy a shower. Care to join me?”

Seth didn’t need to be asked twice. Together, they jumped out of bed and moved into the small fresher room attached to Calla’s room. Calla flicked on the warm water and stepped in. Before she could even turn around, Seth was with her, kissing the back of her neck. He reached both hands around her body to grasp her br**sts, then pulled her back against him. His erection, already fierce, pressed against her backside as she wiggled against him and giggled. She pretended to try and escape, and he growled fiercely at her.

Turning in the circle of his arms, she reached up on her toes and kissed him. He responded by gripping her butt with both hands and lifting her. Then he slid her down over his rampant sex, bracing her against the wall of the shower. She wrapped him with both arms and both legs, then their mouths met again.

Starting slowly, he thrust in and out of her warm flesh. After a minute she stopped kissing him, too enthralled in the sensations between her legs to focus. He thrust faster and faster, until both of them were panting with exertion. She grunted rhythmically, then bit at his shoulder. The slight pain seemed to set him off, because he went wild, slamming into her again and again, until she thought she would explode.

Finally she did explode, a thousand stars breaking apart inside of her aching sex. She clawed at his back in ecstasy, and he groaned in response. Then he came too, pinning her against the wall with all of his weight as he shot load after load of hot, potent seed into her waiting flesh.

He allowed her legs to slide down his body, and she stood shakily on her own. He continued to stand above her, bracing his arms against the wall on either side of her. Gasping, he dropped his chin against the top of her head. They both stood for several minutes, then he shoved himself back and stood, facing her.