Abducted Page 2

  “Hush,” Aidan growled to his friend. He concentrated on the image before him, of the young woman they’d appropriated, her long, lean limbs. Her breasts jutted from her chest, full, topped with wide cherry nipples. He let his gaze trail over her flat, unadorned abdomen, down to the tangle of auburn curls at the juncture of her thighs. The women of his world shaved, and Aidan thought this untamed beauty alluring. Her finger, wet with her own juices, slid in and out of her pussy, and from the breathy sounds the audio receivers picked up, she enjoyed herself.

  The mist was supposed to calm her, put her to sleep. It seemed that in this human, the mist provided arousal as well. He made a mental note.

  His cock started to tent the front of his robe, and with a brief mental thought to subcommand routine 283p, Aidan made his mechanical body behave. This woman masturbating in the room had to be the one who would keep him alive. He risked a glance at Linu, noticing his friend’s arousal. Judging by his parted lips, he enjoyed the show just as much as Aidan, probably more so since Linu was a true-born, a real human.

  The thought angered him. This woman was his mate, his alone. Savagely, Aidan reached forward. He turned off the surveillance camera just as the woman peaked. Her harsh cry echoed in the room, and Aidan forced extra resources to his self-control subroutines to keep from marching into the room and taking her right there. He was a domanin, a mechanical man, and he had once been considered a god. The hell with the archaic traditions still in place. They don’t understand we have feelings now. We’ve evolved into more than just the service androids we once were.

  Linu looked at him but said nothing. He raised an eyebrow at Aidan.

  “What?” Aidan bellowed. He stood, hands on his hips, glaring at his true-born friend.

  “About time someone shook you up,” Linu replied with a wry grin.

  Aidan stepped forward. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “It means that we were afraid we’d lose you when Deactivation Night came around, Lord Starsek.”

  Linu’s words touched him. “Thanks. I better make sure that the lady is doing all right.”

  “She looked—”

  Aidan silenced his friend with a harsh glare. “That is your future lady you’re talking about. I suggest you treat her with respect.”

  “Only if she falls in love with you,” Linu replied. He grinned impishly. “There might be one maid in the universe who can withstand your charms.”

  Aidan snorted. “Not likely, my friend. Not likely.” With a chuckle, he turned and started toward the lady’s chambers.

  * * * *

  Jacey sat on the bed, feet tucked beneath her. She stared at the white wall. A delicious lethargy brought on by her orgasms filled her bones, warring with the anger that not only had she been captured, but drugged as well. As far as Jacey was concerned, the lack of a door only cemented the fact she remained in some sort of alien prison.

  Her stomach rumbled. How long had it been since she’d eaten? She’d had a handful of peanuts at the bar, had been on the verge of ordering an appetizer when she had questioned her sanity at being in the bar in the first place and decided to go home. I’d only been there because of Ebony, because she kept telling me to get out more, meet more people. See where that got me.

  Anger spiked through her. Jacey leaned forward, planting her feet firmly on the floor. How dare these creatures take her? How dare they take her against her will? It mattered not one bit that she had a shitty life to return to on Earth, the matter was that they took her. Her, damn it, her!

  Jacey rose to her feet. She stepped forward. Adrenaline pulsed through her veins. She wanted to do something, anything, to free herself.

  A portion of the wall swung open.

  Jacey watched the material part. A very human hand reached through the fabric as he stepped into the room. Jacey watched the man enter. He wore a long white robe that appeared to be made out of the same material as her gown and the wall coverings. Low, soft boots covered his feet. Jacey forced her gaze back to his face.

  She sucked in a harsh breath. Dark mahogany waves of hair fell over his shoulders, the loose strands making her fingers itch to touch them. His eyes, the deepest shade of green she’d ever seen on a man, were fringed by long, thick lashes. With high cheekbones and a broad chest, he looked like a sexy dream come to life. Jacey licked her lips, and she noticed that the man’s gaze followed the movement.

  “Who are you? Why am I here? What did you do to me?” She was torn between walking forward and pounding her fists at this man, demanding her release, and seeing if everything about him was as inviting as what she’d seen so far. She shot questions at him in an attempt to distract herself from the man’s handsome looks. “Where am I? Why did you take me? When can I go home?” Jacey crossed her arms over her chest.

  The man stepped forward. He appraised her, his gaze lingering on the thrust of her breasts against the thin material of the gown, then down over her abdomen and legs. Awareness fluttered deep inside Jacey, and her pussy grew damp from his gaze. She wondered if he had seen her masturbate, then didn’t care. She’d do anything, anything at all, if it meant he would take her back home.

  “Answer my questions,” she demanded.

  He pulled his gaze away from her body, back toward her face. “I think you’ll do nicely,” he said.

  “Do for what?” Jacey asked. Belatedly, she realized that although his lips didn’t form English words, she’d understood every word he said. She shivered and wrapped her arms more tightly against herself. “Who are you?” This time when she spoke, she paid attention to the patterns her lips were making, and once again, she heard herself speak English, but her lips spoke another language. “And what did you do to me?” She clamped her lips closed, unnerved by the strange sensation. The gas. It has to be some strange effect of the gas.

  “I am Aidan Starsek, Lord of Balladarde, and you are going to be my wife.”

  Before Jacey had a chance to react to his words, Aidan stepped forward and kissed her hard on the lips.

  Chapter Two

  Jacey swayed against Aidan as his lips slanted across hers. She gasped, startled by his sudden move. His tongue plunged into her mouth and heat filled her. Jacey welcomed the invasion. Curling her hands around his biceps, she clung to him. His tongue stroked the deepest parts of her mouth, and sparks of fire shot through her veins. Aidan stepped closer. He slid one rock-hard thigh between hers, and Jacey grew wetter.

  She pulled her lips away with a soft sigh of contentment. Her hand slid down over his chest to where his heart was. Instead of a steady pulse, a tiny whirring vibrated her palm. It felt like the vibrations of a motor.

  “What are—”

  Aidan silenced her with another kiss. He slid his hands down to her ass, drawing her roughly against his hard cock. The ridge pressing against her stomach certainly seemed real enough, as did the electric caress of his tongue against hers.

  His hand skimmed her ribs on an unerring course to her breast. Whatever women Aidan was used to kissing, they certainly had to be humanoid, for his palm settled over the tight bud of one nipple as if it belonged there. Heat suffused her limbs. Another gush of moisture filled her cunt, and Jacey moaned into Aidan’s mouth. She rubbed her hips against his hard cock. His touch made all thoughts of her capture flee.

  Aidan rotated his hand against her breast, his fingers kneading her sensitive flesh. Too much fabric separated her from his skin, and she reached up to unfasten his robe. Her fingers searched for seams, trailing a path over his chest. Fingertips skimmed over the soft fabric, seductive over hard muscle. She found his nipple and spent long moments circling her fingers around the tight bud. Aidan pulled his lips away. His moan rumbled through his chest.

  She wanted him. The strength of her need rocked her back to reality. Her hand flattened against his chest, and once more, she felt the whirring of something beneath his sternum. Wife. He had said she was to be his wife.

  Jacey stared at him. His green eyes looked unearthly. �
��What the hell are you?” She stepped backward. Her legs bumped against the bed, and she tottered for a moment, refusing to sit.

  She stepped around the bed and looked for somewhere safer. It would be easy, too easy, to give in to her carnal desires and fuck this man. She wouldn’t. She couldn’t. She had to find a way back home. And he wasn’t a man. He was an alien. My body’s response is just some crazy aftereffect of their gas. It has to be.

  As she backed away, Aidan followed her, his gaze never leaving her body. He stared at her breasts, her nipples visible through the thin material of her gown, and Jacey couldn’t help but shiver at his intense gaze.

  “I asked you who the hell you are?” Jacey demanded.

  “I am Aidan Starsek, Lord of Balladarde,” he said in a condescending voice. “Do you not remember?”

  “I remember,” she growled. “What do you want with me?”

  “You will be my wife.”

  “Never,” she growled.

  Aidan stepped forward. He gave a low chuckle and slid the backs of his knuckles over her cheek. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, adari,” he said with a sly grin. “All your questions will be answered in time. Just know that on my world, I am considered a god, and it is an honor for you to be chosen.” His hand lingered against her chin.

  Aidan’s touch shook her more than she cared to admit. The low caress of his voice sent shivers down her spine, and she almost wished he’d slide that hand down to her breast again. “I want to go home,” she said.

  “I can’t let you.” His voice held so much regret that for a moment, Jacey started to like him.

  “Why?”

  “Because if you will not consent to be my wife, then on Deactivation Night, I will die.”

  He said the words so plainly that Jacey thought about laughing in his face. His pick-up line was original; she had to give him credit. Her lips had grown more accustomed to speaking the strange tongue, even if her mind had translated it into English. “And I care why?”

  The man visibly recoiled at her sharp words. “You could prevent a death, and yet you do nothing to stop it?”

  I could have prevented a death, and yet I didn’t object when Ebony drove home that night in the storm. She could have stayed at my house. She kept clothes there just in case a late-night planning session went too long. Instead, I watched my friend go. And she died. Jacey sniffed back the tears stinging her eyes. “I—” She stopped, unsure how to answer this man. “Look,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest, “I’ve apparently been kidnapped from Earth. You’re an alien. This is all alien. And now I have to marry you to keep you alive? I don’t even know you.” She took a deep breath to calm herself. “And you gassed me, did something to me before. I don’t know what you want with me, but you picked a hell of a way to go about getting it.”

  Aidan stepped forward. He cupped her cheek in his hand and brushed his thumb across her parted lips. Jacey cursed her body’s reaction, even as her eyelids fluttered closed. Her tongue slipped between her lips to caress his digit. “In all the universe, I have never met a woman as beguiling as you. From the first moment I saw you, I knew you were the one. Tell me your name, dear lady, and I will make you believe that you must save me.”

  “Jacey,” she breathed. “Jacey Cassidy.” The way he spoke, his actions could have made him her knight in shining armor, only she didn’t believe in such things anymore, and from what she’d seen he certainly wasn’t chivalrous. “From the moment you saw me?”

  Aidan nodded. “I saw you two of your Earth days ago. You were sitting alone drinking a beverage. I believe you call such place a bar.”

  Her eyes widened. If he’d seen her two days ago, then she had to have been out much longer after her accident than she thought. She hadn’t been out to drink alone, not for several weeks, which meant he had to have seen her the night of her accident. “Turn around,” she ordered. There’d been something about the man at the bar. It was a small place and most of the patrons were regulars. The man in jeans didn’t seem to fit in with the crowd. A sinking feeling filled her.

  Aidan stepped away without question. He turned around and dropped his hands to his sides. The loose folds of his robe did little to conceal the taut globes of his ass and the long, lean legs beneath. The man in jeans across the room, the ass she’d thought looked so delicious. “I saw you there,” she whispered. “In jeans.”

  Aidan turned around. “If that is what those trousers were called, then yes, you saw me in the bar. Please, Jacey, please don’t deny me.”

  “Why?” Jacey sank to the bed, the strength suddenly gone from her limbs. She’d been abducted by an alien who had watched her beforehand. Way too much for her to deal with right now. Grief over Ebony’s recent death still tore raw wounds through her heart. Without her friend and business partner, she had lost her business and had sunk so low as to do contract work for a help desk. A warm body, that was all she was at her job, and after steering her own destiny, the blow stung. She had longed to leave that life, but for something better, not because she had no choice.

  “Because I’ve searched galaxies looking for the right female.” Aidan knelt beside her. He rested his large hand on her knee, subtle warmth filling her at his touch. “You cannot go back to Earth, Jacey, but after seeing the wonders of my planet, BelaZed, you will not want to.”

  He spoke so passionately that Jacey almost believed him. It would be far too easy for her peace of mind to throw all her troubles onto Aidan’s broad shoulders and let him handle everything. Not return to Earth? Well, that would fix the problem of her crappy job and even crappier life right there. She wouldn’t have one. Taking a deep breath, she reached out and brushed a lock of hair from Aidan’s forehead. His skin felt smooth and warm to the touch, his hair silky.

  “No,” she said softly. “You want to march in and bundle me off to your world like a good little wife. I’m not that kind of woman, Aidan. You cannot make me love you. I don’t even know you.” She slid her hand back down over his chest, where the whirring still vibrated against her palm. “I don’t even think you’re human.”

  Aidan gently clasped her hand and pulled it away from his chest. “I’m not a true-born,” he said. “I’m a domanin.” He stood, pulling her to her feet beside him. “Let me show you the wonders of my world.” Without waiting for a reply, he led her toward the curtained wall.

  “Wait. A domanin? What’s that?” Jacey dug in her heels and made him stop.

  “An android.”

  “Like Data on Star Trek?” Jacey stared at Aidan with wide eyes. “Fully functional and all?” She laughed. She couldn’t help it and hated feeling as if she were laughing at him, but the idea seemed so silly. Even Data had looked different, not quite human. Aidan could have passed for any human and probably had when he’d come to the bar.

  He looked at her quizzically. “You find what I am funny?”

  Jacey tried to stifle the laughter. “I’m sorry. There was this television program with this android.” She shook her head, knowing he had no concept of Earth’s television programming, let alone the shows she’d watched. She sighed.

  Aidan shook his head. “There is no television on BelaZed. Come, let me show you.” He propelled her forward.

  She tried not to dwell on the reality of a world without television. Of course, when you’re living like something out of a science fiction novel, I guess you wouldn’t need television. It couldn’t hurt to see his world. I have options. He can’t refuse to take me back to Earth. If he came there to abduct me, then he can go back. I may just have to make him see that. Lost in her thoughts, she didn’t see how he parted the curtains, nor found and opened the door that led from her chambers.

  White light filled the hallway, though none of the fabric muffled the walls. Along her right, the gleaming silver expanse of what must be the inner hull of the ship seemed to stretch into infinity. On her left, blue disks dotted the wall at odd intervals. Door handles, she wondered, then tried to imagine how a door would
fit so snugly as to leave no marks.

  Jacey craned her neck to try and see, and she caught Aidan smiling at her out of the corners of her eyes.

  He turned a corner, and here, doors lined both sides of the silver hallway, lending credence to her theory that the one wall must have been the outer edge of the ship. The craft seemed enormous. Nearly a dozen steps later, Aidan stopped in front of a blue disk to his right.

  He touched it with his fingers. Sparks flew from his fingers to the disk, and she wondered again what his being a domanin meant aside from the obvious. He hadn’t shocked her when he touched her, and she worried her lower lip as she watched him twist his fingers against the blue disk. A soft hiss filled the air, and then the door slid into the wall.

  He led her into the room. The large chamber looked like a big silver dome. The walls, ceiling, even the floor, were patterned in interlocking octagons of some silver metal.

  “You said you were going to show me the wonders of your planet,” she said. She slid her fingers from his, suddenly upset at herself for not trying to get away sooner.

  “I am,” he said with a grin. “Trust me.”

  “Trust you?” she questioned as Aidan turned from her. He tapped against a panel in the wall, and a small console slid out. He keyed in a few commands, and the silver walls faded away. Momentary blackness surrounded her before she heard the sounds of birdsong. The air shimmered. Suddenly, she stood in a lush park.

  The change in scenery disorientated her, and she reached for a nearby tree. Her fingers closed around the trunk, and she gave a gasp of surprise. “Where are we?” she asked as Aidan threaded his way through the trees, though he only walked across the room to stand at her side once more.

  “On my palatial grounds.”

  Jacey stared at her hand around the tree trunk, squeezing with her fingers. “It’s real,” she breathed.