Captivated (3 page)

“Are you saying I’d hurt her?” The soldier’s features broadcast just what he thought of that accusation.

Vincenz batted it away just as angrily. “No. I’m saying I’m not going to let you make it worse. I made a promise to her and I don’t break my promises. I’m staying because she wants it that way, not because I think you’d molest her in some way.”

With a glare, the soldier took up his medical bag and got to work. Vincenz moved to the doorway, watching, his side touching Julian’s.

“Hey.” Julian wanted to kiss Vincenz just then. But they were on duty. But after … when the soldiers left, then he’d get that kiss and more.

Vincenz gave him a smile and Julian forgot some of his troubles. “I’m glad you’re here. When did you get back?”

“Daybreak.” And then he’d sat in the shower, hoping he could wash it all away. The water had gone cold and he still couldn’t get the
stench out of his nostrils. “What happened?” He tipped his chin toward the woman on the bed.

“Andrei and Piper are on their way to the Center. Kenner … her brother Kenner is dead. He was killed on the roof of the lab where I found Hannah.”

Both men looked toward the woman on the bed and the soldier who’d slid her shirt open, carefully using his diagnostics on her. “A year?”

Vincenz nodded. “When I found her she was in a corner, rocking. Not quite filthy, but it was clear she had to make due with wet cloths. Though, that she took the care to try to stay clean speaks to how strong she is. She wouldn’t let go of me, but even in the middle of a firefight she held it together. She’s a survivor.”

Julian looked at the curve of her cheeks. Pretty. Too thin, but with some time to recuperate, she’d be better. He hoped. Then again, he wasn’t sure there was such a thing as recuperation anymore.

“What happened to her hands?”

Vincenz huffed a sigh. “I told them to back off, but they persisted. They wanted to interview her right there at the portal station. Gods. She was holding on to me and then sort of wrapped her hands up in the straps of my pack. They pulled at her. She screamed.” His voice broke. “She screamed and screamed and screamed as they pulled at her. I kept telling them to stop. Finally they used a sedative and before she went under she looked at me like I’d done it to her. Her hands were bloody from where she’d tried to hang on.” He scrubbed his hands over his face and Julian heard the ache in his voice.

They watched as the soldier did his diagnostics and turned back to them.

“She’s underweight considerably. Dehydrated.” He held up an IV bag. “She’ll be out for several more hours so I’m going to at least get her hooked up to a drip. It’ll help.”

Vincenz paused, but after a few moments he nodded. “Just be sure not to strap her down.”

“If she moves, she could tear the IV out. It’s not to hold her, but to keep her from doing that.”

“I know. But this woman was tortured for a long time. She was kept prisoner. You will not strap her down, not even her arm. I won’t have her waking up and thinking she’s back on Parron. She’s had enough trauma for the day.”

The soldier nodded and set the bag up and got it going, taping over the needle in the back of her hand. “She’s got some scarring here and there. Consistent with beatings. I took some blood samples and I’ll run them at HQ to run some tests. I need to get some internal film. She could have any number of health issues we can’t see.”

“When she’s ready I’ll bring her in. But you’ll leave her for now.”

“We have programs to help victims, Operative Cuomo. We’re not the monsters who did this to her.”

“I understand that, soldier. But this woman was used and abused. Today she deserves some fucking peace from that. You will
not
haul her off to a hospital and strap her down while you take diagnostics. Not unless there’s an urgent problem, which we now know there isn’t as you’ve given her a checkup.”

Julian held a hand up to stay the soldier from speaking again. “It’s not optimal, we understand. But you’re not taking her anywhere. If you need verification from Comandante Ellis, I can get that for you.”

The soldier paled and Julian wanted to pat the boy’s shoulder and assure him that many people had the same reaction when Wilhelm Ellis’s name came up. But it made the point, and after the soldier left some tonics and instructions on what she could eat for the time being, he was gone, leaving the place quiet as they moved back to watching her sleep.

“Thanks for the backup.”

Julian put his head on Vincenz’s shoulder. “I’m sorry you had to see it. Sorry she had to go through it.”

“She needs us to protect her. You know how this’ll work. They’ll want to study her and take her in for debriefing. I don’t know if she can stand it just now.”

Julian looked at her again, his heart aching for a woman he didn’t know. Aching because through Vincenz, he’d also taken on protective feelings for her. “We’ll do everything we can to keep her safe. She can stay here with us if she doesn’t want to go to the hospital or back to the Center.”

“We’ll take it a step at a time. Today’s been … well, I’m sure for you too.” He turned and Julian’s arms slid around Vincenz’s shoulders and Vincenz’s around Julian’s waist.

“Not my favorite thing, no. But we got the info we needed.”

Vincenz looked into Julian’s face and, Julian knew, saw everything. “I’m sorry.”

Julian had to close his eyes a moment. “You can make it better.”

Vincenz’s expression changed and he got that little smile. That smile drove Julian to distraction. So fucking sexy.

“Give me five minutes to finish up.”

“You’ve got three.”

“Oh, it’s that way? A challenge, hmm? All right, you’re on.”

Julian needed him. He watched Vincenz move, loving the ease of his muscles as he did. His hair had been standing on end, most likely because when Vincenz worked or thought things over he tended to pull at it.

Vincenz looked up, as if he heard the whispers in Julian’s head. Their gazes locked and that was all there was to it. In three steps Julian had his fingers in that hair, tugging to angle Vincenz’s head back so he could get at the long line of his throat.

Vincenz sighed roughly, and his hands slid under the hem of Julian’s shirt and over the bare flesh beneath.

More
. Julian needed more. He pushed Vincenz back until he hit the wall nearby. The sound he gave in response was threaded with need, shooting straight to Julian’s cock.

“Gods, you’re so hard,” Vincenz murmured as he slid a hand into the front of Julian’s pants and found his cock. Julian arched into that fist and then his teeth raked over Vincenz’s throat. Tasted salt and skin.

“I’ve been hard just thinking about you. All day long as I headed back here all I could think about was this.” These quiet, stolen moments when he didn’t have to think about the war, or the things he’d had to do back on Ceres to get the much-needed answers. When he didn’t have to think about all those they’d lost. In this place, with his hands and mouth all over Vincenz, there was nothing but that pleasure and comfort.

“I’m here now. You’re here now.” Vincenz unzipped Julian’s pants to get at his cock better. He licked his lips as he looked down between them and Julian had to seek patience to not come just from that.

Vincenz pushed at Julian a little. “Turn around. Let’s switch places.”

Julian had no idea what he was about until Vincenz dropped to his knees as Julian leaned back against the wall.

“Yes.”

A smug smile marked Vincenz’s lips as he pulled Julian’s cock free. And then he licked across the head and amusement was the last thing on Julian’s mind.

“That’s the way. Deeper. Suck my cock, Vincenz. Suck me so I can blow down your throat.”

Vincenz shivered but Julian was helpless to do anything but
watch, fascinated, as Vincenz slowly took Julian’s cock into his mouth, swirling his tongue around the head over and over.

There was affection as well as titillation when his fingers slid through all that golden hair. Soft, long enough to tug to get more of what Vincenz offered.

“You can take your cock out. Fuck your fist while you suck me. But don’t come. Not yet.”

Vincenz rolled his eyes up to meet Julian’s. They had this delicious sort of push and pull, a struggle of two dominant men who expressed that dominance in totally different ways. It made for incredibly hot sex.

Julian didn’t miss the sound of the teeth of Vincenz’s zipper.
Click-click-click-click
as he took it down. The schuss of clothes and then the moan around Julian’s cock as he got his own out.

And yet he didn’t lose focus on sucking Julian’s cock. “Such a brilliant multitasker.” Julian didn’t quite close his eyes, but he let the lids droop as he leaned back and simply took in the carnal beauty of Vincenz there on his knees, Julian’s cock in his mouth, his balls in Vincenz’s palm.

Julian waited, tense, knowing Vincenz had more planned. The man was brilliant at sucking cock. He pressed the pads of his fingers against that sweet spot just behind Julian’s balls.

He widened his stance as Vincenz slid his fingertips over Julian’s asshole. Caressed. Stroked. All the while keeping Julian’s cock wet and hot as he took it so deep Julian grunted each time.

“Oh, baby, you’re so good at this,” Julian murmured.

Vincenz smiled and hummed his pleasure around Julian’s cock.

“Are you hard?”

Vincenz moaned again and Julian leaned around to watch Vincenz fist his cock a few times in a rhythm with his mouth on Julian.
There was something so scorching hot about the way Vincenz had sex. So unabashed. In a man who was normally buttoned up tight and ultra calm, that wildness and burning intensity when it came to fucking felled Julian.

The hand on Julian’s balls disappeared and then came back, slick from Vincenz’s mouth. And this time those stroking, caressing fingers pressed in and sent the breath gusting from Julian’s lips in response.

“Yes, yes, yes,” he whispered.

Deeper those fingers quested until they found his sweet spot, stroking in time with the sucking. His vision seemed to gray at the edges it felt so good. He only barely resisted fucking Vincenz’s face. Only barely.

But Vincenz took his cock so deep it tapped the back of his throat. So deep, and so in time with his fingers in Julian’s ass it was a quicksilver, teeth-numbing rush into climax as the waves of it hit him over and over until he was weak with it.

Vincenz pulled away, gazing up at Julian, that smile on his lips.

“Don’t you make yourself come, Vincenz. That’s my job now.” He jerked his head toward their room, which was just across from where Hannah lay sleeping. They’d be close enough to hear if she woke.

Tearing clothes off as they went, Julian grabbed the lube before he shoved Vincenz back on the bed. He straddled Vincenz’s thighs, pouring the lube, which heated to his touch, over his own cock as well as Vincenz’s.

“Is this what you want?” He held his cock along with Vincenz’s, brushing them together as he fucked them with his hand.

Vincenz stuttered a breath.

“Hands on the headboard. Don’t let go. This is mine.”

That a man like Vincenz would submit to him was part of the allure. It wasn’t always this quiet or this easy. Sometimes it got darker, rougher, with teeth and that was good too. Julian had only been with
a man once before, so it wasn’t as if he was an expert on all the hows. But he had a cock and he knew what felt good. And Vincenz had taught him a great deal about how to pleasure a partner with a cock as well.

He undulated his hips, mimicking the thrust of a good, hard fuck. Slippery cock to slippery cock. Before long, he was fully hard again and shivering as his balls brushed against Vincenz’s.

Sweat glistened on Vincenz’s chest as the pulse at his throat hammered, visible to Julian’s gaze.

“Yes, baby. Give it to me.”

Vincenz met his eyes. “Take it.”

So he did. Tightening his grip and the speed of the thrusts. Hard breathing, the arch of backs. Gasps. And then the warm, silky rush of seed as Vincenz came hard. Julian followed, surprised he could so soon after the last time.

After they got their breath back, Julian tossed Vincenz a nearby cloth. “I’ll watch her while you shower.”

“Thank you. I’m glad you’re back.”

He was glad as all seven hells to
be
back.

F
ear jolted her awake. She stayed still as she swam to full consciousness. Old habits that had kept her alive. She remembered the day before. The lab. Vincenz. The portal station where they’d pulled at her, drugged her.

Anger washed through her as she slowly opened her eyes. Where was this place? A hospital? No.

She sat up, fighting the nausea. The needle in her hand attached to the drip brought consternation. Were they still drugging her? She pulled it out, biting back the whimper her body wanted to give up.

“You’re awake.” Vincenz came in slowly, carefully. He tipped his chin toward the IV. “You should have left it in. You’re dehydrated. I just gave you a new bag about two hours ago.”

Remaining silent, she watched him through wary eyes.

“There’s no need to be afraid. This is my home and a headquarters of sorts for my … group. It’s well defended. No one can get to you here.”

She studied him. He was beautiful. The kind of man people would look at because how could they not? But he’d helped them drug her. She squeezed her hands into fists a few times, wincing.

He was there, at her side in a breath. “Shh. Don’t do that. The doctor cleaned them up again when we brought you in last night. You got some abrasions from the straps of my pack. I’m sorry. I … say something, Hannah.”

He looked so worried she forgot her anger for a moment. And then remembered it. “Never.” She paused to clear her throat and to grasp the words she needed. “Never again.”

He blinked. “You’re never speaking again?”

She shook her head, frustrated that her words were fine in her head, but she couldn’t manage to always put them into coherent sentences. “
They
drugged me.”

He sat on the very edge of her bed. “I didn’t. I know you didn’t see everything and you were scared, but I didn’t drug you. And they didn’t do it the way the Imperialists did either. You were panicked; they were concerned you’d hurt yourself.”