Not the Man She Thought (27 page)

Kellen chuckled.  “I should have known that was you. No
one else would have the balls to do something like that.”

Though Rade’s grin broadened, he shrugged off the
compliment.  “You guys are the real heroes in all of this.”  He
looked at Dev.  “I don’t know how you did what you did, or how the hell
you even knew what to do in the first place, but remind me to give you a
raise.”

Dev laughed.  “As much as I’d love to take the credit,
because I could really use the raise, I can’t.  It wasn’t me,
Captain.  It was Laken.”

From where she stood behind the men, Laken could see Rade’s
brow furrow in obvious confusion.  “Laken?  What...?”

Grinning, Dev nodded and jerked her head in Laken’s
direction.  As if on cue, Pammay and the rest of the crew took a step back
so that Rade had a clear view of her.

For a moment, Rade just stood there gazing at her as if he
couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing.  Laken wasn’t sure which one of
them took a step toward the other first, but the next thing she knew, she was
in his arms and he was kissing her.

Laken kissed him back, oblivious to the rest of the crew
around them.  God, she had missed him so much.  And from the way his
mouth was taking possession of hers, he had missed her, too.

Lifting his head, Rade gazed down at her, his dark eyes
searching her face as he brushed her hair back.  “What are you doing here,
Laken?  I thought...” He let the words trail off.

She smiled up at him, tears of happiness making her vision
blurry.  “I’ll tell you everything. But can we go to your cabin first?”

For a moment, Rade looked taken aback by the request. 
Then as if just realizing that they were standing in the middle of the hold
with his crew all around them, he gave his head a shake.  “Yeah, of
course.”  He glanced at his first officer.  “Kellen?”

The older man grinned broadly.  “Take all the time you
need. I’ll hold down the fort.”

Taking Laken’s hand, Rade led her across the hold and up the
steps.  As they hurried down the passageway, she glanced over to see the
crew eyeing them with knowing grins, and she couldn’t help but blush.

Once in his cabin, Rade pulled her into his arms for another
long, drugging kiss before he lifted his head to gaze down at her.

“Not that I’m not completely thrilled to see you,
sweetheart, but what are you doing back?” he asked.  “More importantly,
how did you even get here?”

Laken kissed him again.  “Later,” she said against his
mouth.  “Right now, just make love to me.”

She was half afraid Rade would press the issue, but
apparently he decided his curiosity could wait to be satisfied because he slid
his hand into her long hair and covered her mouth with his. Laken moaned as his
tongue found hers.  God, he was intoxicating.

She ran her hand up the front of his shirt, her hands
automatically going to the buttons there.  In her haste to get his clothes
off, she thought she might have ripped off one or two of them, but she couldn’t
be sure.  Rade didn’t seem to care, though.  In fact, he was just as
impatient as she was.  Within moments, her dress was off and lying in a
puddle at her feet.  Her bra and panties quickly followed, leaving her
naked beneath his hungry gaze. With a lusty groan, Rade swung her up in his
arms and set her down on the bed.

Lying back on the pillows, Laken watched from beneath
lowered lashes as Rade’s hands went to his breeches.  He made quick work
of them, tossing the leathers on the floor to join the rest of the
clothes.  Gloriously naked, his cock hard and thick with desire, he
lowered himself on top of her, sliding into her pussy in one smooth motion.
Though Laken was more than ready for him, she gasped as she felt his length
fill her.

Bracing himself with an arm on either side of her head, Rade
bent to capture her mouth with his.  “God, I missed you, Laken,” he
rasped, the words a hoarse whisper against her lips.

She wrapped her arms around him, one hand sliding into his
thick, dark hair.  “I missed you, too. “Don’t ever send me away
again.  Please.”

His breath was hot against her cheek as he trailed kisses
along her jaw.  “I won’t, sweetheart. I promise.”

Laken closed her eyes, letting out a moan as Rade began to
move inside her.  His thrusts were slow and gentle, and she automatically
lifted her hips to meet them.  Until being with Rade, she didn’t know it
was possible for two people to be in such perfect rhythm.  It was as if
the two of them had been made for each other.

But while slow and gentle was nice, Laken wanted more. 
Tightening her legs around him, she quickened her movements.  “Harder,”
she begged.  “Fuck me harder!”

He obeyed, pumping into her faster and harder until she was
crying out in ecstasy.  Laken clutched at his shoulders, her nails digging
into his skin as wave after wave of pleasure rippled through her.

Rade buried his face in her hair with a hoarse groan, and
Laken knew he was coming with her.  Their shared pleasure brought tears of
happiness to her eyes, and she held onto him more tightly as her orgasm continued
to wash over her.

As she lay in Rade’s arms basking in the afterglow of their
lovemaking, Laken knew she was exactly where she belonged, and that she was
never going to leave again.

Chapter Twelve

“You know, it killed me to let you go,” Rade said, his voice
soft and husky in the darkened cabin.

Laken’s heart squeezed in her chest at his words, and she
lifted her head from his shoulder to look at him. “Then why did you make me
leave?”

He reached up to gently brush her hair back from her
face.  “I told myself it was because I wanted to keep you safe, but deep
down, I think it was because I really didn’t feel I had anything to offer you.”

She didn’t know whether to be angry at his stupidity or
touched by how much he cared for her.  “What about your love?” she asked
softly.  “Didn’t you know that would be enough for me?”

He pulled her down into his arms and hugged her
tightly.  “You don’t know how much I’ve wanted to hear you say that. 
But I didn’t think you’d be willing to give up everything to stay with
me.  I didn’t even think it was fair to ask it of you.”

Laken let out a sigh.  “I wish you would have asked
me.  It would have made everything a lot easier. “But I suppose it’s just
as much my fault as it is yours.  When you told me that you wanted me to
leave, I almost begged you to let me stay.  The only reason I didn’t was
because I thought you didn’t want me.”

He smoothed her hair.  “I wanted you from the moment
Finn dragged you up to my ready room after he caught you in the cargo
hold.  But I was too stupid to realize it.”

She lifted her head to look at him.  “And I was too
foolish to see that you weren’t the man I thought you were when we first met.”
She gave him a sheepish smile.  “I admit, it took me a little while, but
eventually, I realized that you weren’t the pirate I took you for.  In
fact,” she added, leaning close to kiss him, “I think you’re the most wonderful
man in the galaxy.”

Rade chuckled.  “There are probably a lot of people who
would disagree with you on that, but I’m glad you think so.”

She reached up to brush his hair back from his
forehead.  “I think that part of me knew it all along, but it didn’t
really hit me until I got to New Ashanti and went to see Mallin.  I took
one look at him and realized I felt absolutely nothing for him.”

Rade was silent for a moment, then, “How did your fiancé
take it when you told him you weren’t going to be staying?”

She shifted on the bed to prop herself up on an elbow. 
“I didn’t tell him,”

Rade frowned.  “Why not?  Did you think he would
hurt you?”

She shook her head.  “It wasn’t that.”  With a
sigh, Laken explained about Mallin mysteriously whisking her off to his
townhouse in the city when she’d first gotten to New Ashanti.  “That night
I decided to tell him I was going to be leaving him and New Ashanti.  I
didn’t know where I was going to go, but I knew I couldn’t marry him when I was
in love with you.  But when I went to his country house to tell him I was
leaving, I stumbled on something that made my confession completely unnecessary.”

“What was that?” Rade asked.

“His wife and children.”

Rade looked incredulous.  “He’s married?”

She nodded.

Rade was silent for a moment as he digested that
information.  “What did you do?”

Laken absently made little circles on his bare chest with
her finger.  “At first, I wasn’t going to do anything. I had already
figured out I didn’t feel anything for him, so I didn’t really see the purpose
in confronting him.  But then I decided I owed it to myself to at least
give him a piece of my mind.  Even though I didn’t care about him, I was
furious he had used me like that.  But while I was waiting to speak to
Mallin, I overheard him and some other merchants talking about the plan they’d
hatched with the Federation to betray Marlon Prime.  The whole battle plan
was just a ruse to draw all of Marlon Prime’s forces into a single, decisive
battle.  A battle the Federation knew they would win.”  She shook her
head.  “When I heard that, all I could think about was warning you. 
So, I left without ever confronting Mallin, found Kavan Durshay back at the
spaceport, and convinced him to bring me to your ship.”  She
shrugged.  “You know the rest.”

“Not quite,” he said.  “How did you come up with that
idea to deceive the Federation’s combat systems like you did?  Getting
them to think the New Ashanti ships were firing at them was pure
brilliance.  How did you pull it off?”

She gave him a small smile.  “Remember the security
codes I found in the computer when we were on the Federation ship?”  He
nodded.  “Well, I had a hunch they would come in handy someday, and I was
right.  When I fed them into the computer, I was able to completely
control everything their sensors told them was happening.  From there, it
wasn’t too hard to make them think the good guys were the bad guys and vice
versa.”

He shook his head.  “Wasn’t too hard?  You’ve got
to be kidding me.  I don’t know anyone who could have done that, but
you.  And then you shut down the cooling generators on the Federation
ships?  How the heck did you think to do that?”

She shrugged again.  “I don’t know.  It just came
to me.”

He chuckled.  “You’re absolutely amazing, you know
that?”

Laken blushed at the compliment.  “Well, I think you’re
pretty amazing yourself,” she said, leaning close to kiss him gently on the
mouth.

Rade slid his hand in her hair, his tongue finding hers as
he ran his other hand down her back and over the curve of her bottom.

“Mmm, I love it when you touch me there,” she said softly.

He lifted a brow, clearly amused.  “Oh really? 
That’s not the impression I got when I spanked you all those times.”

Her face colored again.  “Well, since we’re being
totally honest here, I guess I should confess that I don’t dislike them as much
as I let on.  I mean, I’m not crazy about the spankings you give me when I
do something you don’t like.  But I have to admit, that spanking you gave
me in the barn back on Marlon Prime was very arousing.”

His mouth quirked.  “Is that right? What made that one
different from the others?”

Laken snuggled up against his chest again, finding it easier
to talk about spanking if she wasn’t actually looking at him.  “Well, for
one, you weren’t mad at me.  That’s a big help. But the spanking you gave
me in the barn was slow, sensual, and very sexual.  It still stung, of
course, but the way you caressed my bottom in between the spanks made it
extremely enjoyable.  In fact,” she added, glad he couldn’t see her face,
“when you spanked me like that, I got very turned on.”

 
“You were very
wet and hot, I remember.  When I slid inside you back in that barn, it
took all the control I had not to explode right then.” He ran his fingers up
and down her arm, making goose bumps pop up on her skin. “So, would you
like me to spank you like that again sometime?”

Laken’s pulse quickened, her pussy tingling at his question. 
All she could do was nod her head.

“Would you like me to spank you like that now?”

She thought a moment, then started to nod again, but before
she could, he slipped his fingers under her chin and tilted her face up to look
at him.

“Would you?

Laken lifted her gaze to meet his, and her breath hitched at
the smoldering look in his dark eyes.  “Yes,” she said without hesitation.

Sitting up so that he had his back to the headboard, Rade
took her hand and slowly guided her over his lap.  The other times he had
spanked her, she’d either been draped over his knee or bent over something, but
Laken decided that being stretched out over his lap like this was much more
comfortable.  Not to mention very intimate, she thought as he lightly ran
his hand over her upturned bottom.