Captured Rapture: 3 (Mercy) (4 page)

I pushed my jet cycle to its
limits. I had no real idea where I would find Torr, but I figured where he
crashed me to the ground was a good place to start.

Find Torr?
You won’t need
to find Torr. He will find you.

The knot in the pit of my belly was
now so intricate I wondered if it would ever untangle. I tried to muster my
previous, angry bravado—
shyte
, I was a cop, for fuck’s sake. What was I
doing being apprehensive about an interrogation? But my angry bravado wasn’t
playing ball. My chest was tight, my breathing shallow, my nipples hard and,
just for fun, my pussy clenched. Oh man, I was in trouble.

The moon’s surface blurred beneath
me, a dull, rusty-red carpet of coarse grit and rocks. Not the typical home of
a dragon shapeshifter ghost, if I were to believe Echo brother number-whatever.

Wyvernian.

The name whispered through my head
and I squeezed the throttle of my jet cycle, spurring it forward even faster.
An itch began at the base of my spine. A hot itch I recognized all too well.

Torr had found me.

I resisted the urge to throttle
back. In fact, if my jet cycle were capable of warp speeds, I would have
knocked it up a notch. Something told me Torr would still be able to keep up. The
heat between my thighs growing wetter, I fixed my stare hard on the horizon. I
wanted him to come after me. I wanted him to hunt me.

I wanted him to—

Claim you. Fuck you. Possess
you.

The thoughts exploded in my mind, a
silent roar of incomparable command and power. I hissed in a sharp breath,
fighting to keep control of my jet cycle, and if I didn’t know any better I
would have sworn blind I was close to orgasming that very second. My knuckles
popped as I banked to the left, my body screaming from the G-forces I was
torturing it with.

The itch tickling the base of my
spine spread. Up my back. My scalp prickled, the wild wind tugging my hair
doing nothing to lessen the sensation. My nipples pinched into hard tips.

Claim you.

The silent roar smashed into me and
I gasped, the throb between my thighs a constricting tension.

Fuck you.

My cunt squeezed tight. I gasped
again.

Possess you.

My head swam as the orgasm I
shouldn’t have been experiencing rocked through my body. I sucked in another
breath, the feel of my vest against my hard nipples torturous bliss, the
thrumming vibration of my jet cycle between my legs blissful torture. I cried
out, once, the same name I’d cried with every release I’d experienced in my
dreams, and was suddenly snatched from my transport. Lifted from its seat and
carried straight up.

Fast. So fast, my swimming head
spun.

And everything I saw turned to
black.

* * * * *

Let me make this very clear. I’m
not afraid of heights. I don’t pass out under extreme Gs. Excessive speed does
not worry me.

What I hate, with a passion, is
being trapped in the dark.

Too many hours spent confined to Galactic
Union-approved “timeout rooms” while growing up, I guess. Too many hours
punished for my “disrespectful insubordination and naughtiness” by those who
ran the GU orphanages. So when I opened my eyes and saw nothing but darkness,
well…I kinda freaked out.

And in freaking out, I realized I
was naked. And chained. Which of course made me freak out even more.

“Let me go, you crazy grutt-fucking
bastard!” I screeched, thrashing against the io-cuffed chains stretching my
arms above my head and my legs wide. “Turn on the fucking lights and let me—”

The inky, suffocating darkness
disappeared in an instant, replaced by a flickering yellow glow that should
have hurt my light-deprived eyes. Should have.

Instead, my eyes adapted
immediately and I saw the bane of my existence—naked from the waist up, leaning
against a wall that looked as if it were carved from granite, his muscled arms
crossed over a chest that seemed carved from the same. Gray eyes never left my
face. “Are you ready to burn,
Rai’nia
?”

Apparently, and without prior
discussion with me, my body had decided it was, because the moment his deep,
rumbling voice caressed my ears, my heart leapt into frantic flight, my mouth
went dry and my sex contracted with eager greed. “Let me go,” I demanded
through gritted teeth, rattling the chains that held me captive in the middle
of the cavernous space.

My captor chuckled and the arrogant
sound made my already heavy sex weep. “I can smell your desire from here, Raina
Mynn. It pools between your legs and wets your thighs.” His nostrils flared,
the only movement he’d made since the warm yellow light replaced the dark. “It
calls to my tongue. Whets my appetite for your heat.”

I wanted to say something menacing,
dangerous. Something so threatening, Torr would flinch and realize how
monumentally erroneous chaining me up was. Instead, all I could do was think
about his tongue lapping at my sodden folds. A low moan sounded in my throat.

The corner of Torr’s mouth curled
into a crooked grin, and I moaned again. That grin was the definition of
menacing and dangerous, and it made my heart thump hard and—God, help me—my
pussy throb harder. “How did I get here?” I managed to croak. There seemed to
be a swarm of butterflies attacking my core.

Torr’s grin stretched a little
wider. “I brought you here.”

“How?” I was asking lame questions,
I know. I should have been demanding he release me, but my head just didn’t
want to work.

“I lifted you from your transport.”

I didn’t want to ask how again. I
suspected what Torr’s answer might be.

Torr cocked one dark eyebrow.
“Astute,” he murmured.

I ground my teeth. He was in my
head again. Reading my thoughts. “Stop doing that.”

He chuckled, unfolding his arms as
he began to walk toward me. No, walk isn’t the correct word. Stalk? No, that’s
not right either. He moved toward me with such confident certainty and
conviction, such obvious purpose and intent, every nerve ending in my body
began to tingle.

“I cannot stop doing ‘that’, Raina
Mynn,” he said, his stare locked on mine. “The second your flesh touched mine,
our minds recognized each other.” He stopped but a mere inch before me and
looked down into my face. “I can hear your very soul.” He lifted his right hand
and skimmed it down the length of my torso, from the side of my left breast to
the curve of my hip. “And you can hear mine.”

I glared at him, determined to
regain some ground. Hard when you’re chained spread-eagle and as naked as the
day you were born, I know, but I’ve never been a quitter. “I can’t hear
diddly-squat.”

His answering laugh set my nerves
on edge. And made my pulse quicken. “Oh, Rai’nia.” He brushed the back of his
knuckles against the side of my breast and I practically had to bite my lip to
stop myself whimpering with pleasure. What the hell was wrong with me? “I know
you have heard my soul. Your body tells me it is so.”

He moved closer. So close his hard,
broad chest brushed the tips of my nipples, and I sank my teeth into my lip
again. Gods, even this barely-there contact made me want to moan.

He stared at my face, his eyes
unblinking, his massive body as still as a statue, and brushed his knuckles
along the curve of my breast again.

Mine to claim.

The thought slammed through my
head. Powerful and undeniable.

Torr’s
thought. The same
arousing, terrifying thought I’d been hearing since escaping him before.

I gasped, my nipples pinching hard,
and Torr’s crooked grin disappeared. “Finish it,” he said, his voice a low
rumble of barely restrained hunger.

I shook my head. I wouldn’t. If I
did, it meant he was right, and if he was right, it meant I was—

“Finish it,” he ordered on a growl.

I clenched my jaw, my sex
throbbing, my heart pounding. “No.”

He stepped closer again, destroying
what infinitesimal space there’d been between us, pressing his body against
mine with dominating conceit as he snaked his hand into my hair and grabbed a
fistful. “Finish it, Rai’nia.”

Wanton pleasure flowed through my
body. My thighs grew wet with my juices, my breath became shallow, rapid. And
still I refused to obey him. I couldn’t. I was scared of what it would mean if
I did. What it meant that I could do what he commanded. “Fuck you.”

His gray eyes shimmered with an
iridescent green fire. “Oh, that will come later, my
chyre
.” He tugged
harder on my hair, forcing my head back until I could look nowhere but up into
his eyes. “Now,” he whispered, his breath fanning my lips like the softest of
kisses, “finish my thought.”

Mine to claim.

“Mine to fuck.”

The words fell from my lips. I
couldn’t stop them. And the second they did, Torr’s eyes shimmered green fire
again. “Mine to…”

He didn’t finish. At least not
aloud, and if he finished the statement in his head I didn’t hear it. How could
I, when his mouth crushed mine with such brutal ownership?

His tongue lashed at my lips, my
teeth. Forced its way into my mouth, and as before, my battle against that
invasion didn’t last long. It was as if every molecule in my body recognized
every molecule in his. As if my complete surrender to this mysterious,
arrogant, annoying man was a given, and the second his mouth claimed mine, all
will to fight him vanished.

It made me furious.

It made me wet and hot and friggin’
horny.

And furious.

I squirmed, doing everything I
could to fight him
and
myself. I couldn’t surrender. I never
surrendered. I
wouldn’t
surrender. He’d chained me, for gods’ sake.
Stripped me naked and chained me. Where the fuck were my blades?
Shyte
,
where the fuck was Fraz’s blade? My partner was going—

“He will not kill you.” Torr’s tongue
brushed my lips, his hands knotted in my hair, holding my head still. “You are
mine. Your past life is no more.”

The finality of the statement
should have ignited more fury, but all it did was make my cunt throb harder.
Hard enough for me to squirm again and press my hips forward. I wanted Torr to
touch me there, between my legs. I wanted him to bury his fingers in my folds
and stroke my cream-drenched walls until I—

“Scream.” The single syllable was
but a growled breath low in Torr’s throat, but its meaning made me shiver. He
assaulted my mouth again, his tongue exploring its depth with savage greed. He
sucked at my bottom lip, bit it, sucked again. I whimpered, trying to pull
away, thrusting my hips forward. His thick, hard cock ground against my belly,
its frightening size trapped by the leather of his trousers.

His fists tightened in my hair and
he jerked my head backward, bowing my neck. He dragged his mouth from my lips,
scoring a path down my chin to my throat. I moaned, the feel of his teeth
scraping my skin a sensation I never thought I would crave. His wild power and
absolute control of my body’s responses frightened me and I moaned again,
desperate for his assault to continue even as I willed it to end.

“You will lose the fight, Rai’nia.”
Torr’s statement was a whisper against my neck. He lifted his head and gazed
into my eyes. “The end result has already been decided.”

I bristled. His smug arrogance
provoked me, despite the smoldering fire in my core. “The end result isn’t
decided until the fat lady has sung.” I’m pretty certain I screwed up the New
Earth saying, but I didn’t care. Torr was right. I was losing the fight and I
didn’t want to be. I glared at him, doing my best to ignore the wanton ache
between my spread thighs. “And why the fuck do you keep calling me ‘Rai’nia’?”

Torr chuckled, stroking the back of
his knuckles along the line of my jaw. “It is your true name.” His eyes shimmered
that freaky and yet way too sexy green light. “And soon you will know your true
self.”

“My true self is going to kick your
ass when you let me out of these chains,” I snarled, desperate to regain some
of my former barb. “Y’know that, don’t you?”

He chuckled again, a genuinely
humored laugh that sent little licks of warm delight into my chest.

I froze, the blood draining from my
face.

Oh no. This wasn’t good. My breath
caught in my throat. It was one thing to be aroused by the lunatic—it was
another thing to start enjoying his company. No. This wasn’t happening. This
couldn’t be happening.

With a gentleness I didn’t think he
possessed, Torr cupped my face in one strong hand and held my gaze with his.
“Your destiny is not a future to fear, Rai’nia.”

I stood motionless, imprisoned by
his presence as much as his chains. I didn’t know how to react. He’d uttered
the “D” word again, and I should be spitting chips and gnawing off my own arm
to get free so I could beat the crap out of him. Yet, all I wanted to do was
stare into his face and let the fire in my center spread through my body. A
fire spreading so quickly, so hungrily, I could feel the tops of my thighs grow
wetter with liquid heat, branding my flesh with a pleasure beyond my
understanding. Stirring something deep within that petrified me to no end.

Wyvernian. Mating cycle.
Prepared to burn.

The Urid’ii’s words came to me and
I frowned, searching Torr’s unreadable eyes for an answer I needed to know.

“What am I?” I whispered. “What are
you
?”

Torr skimmed his hands down my
shoulders, my back, my hips. “Are you prepared to burn, Raina Mynn?”

I stared into his face. And—mouth
dry, pulse pounding, nipples so tight they hurt, sex so heavy I felt on the
cusp of climax—I nodded.

Torr’s nostrils flared and his gray
eyes turned iridescent green. “Then burn.”