Saved by Venom: 3 (Grabbed) (26 page)

When he came closer to grab short lengths of rope he had prepared so his students could learn to knot, he reached out and playfully pinched her thigh. It took every ounce of her self-control not to throw her arms around him and tell him what she had just discovered. For now, she allowed herself to smile at him and hoped that he could see just how much he meant to her.

Venom’s expression registered a bit of surprise but he didn’t say anything. This obviously wasn’t the time for him to interrogate her as to what had put that sappy smile on her face. Instead he turned around and started handing out the ropes while talking about bites and loops and all sorts of other bondage-related vocabulary.

As Dizzy gleefully enjoyed the realization that she loved Venom, she looked out over the crowd of students following his instructions. She spotted Raze hovering in the doorway. Though he seemed to have a permanently pissed-off expression on that mean-looking face of his, he showed his lighter side by winking at her. She suspected he was like Venom. Beneath that rough exterior, he was soft and sweet.

While she counted up the attendees, Dizzy realized two more women had appeared. They wore expensive-looking lingerie with lots of lace and ribbon. Bright-yellow bands squeezed their upper arms. She quickly ascertained that these were the paid pleasure women—the poppies—who had been brought in to provide the single officers a chance to enjoy themselves.

Sneaking discreet glances at the poppies, Dizzy decided that Venom’s assertion that his culture treated these women with respect was true. Unlike the scrawny, malnourished women who pandered down in Low Town, these prostitutes looked well-fed and healthy with shiny hair and bright eyes and gorgeous skin. There was none of the haunted sadness in their eyes that Dizzy had witnessed in the hookers who hung around the gritty street corners of The City.

Or maybe these women were simply better actresses. It was probably easier to pretend that you enjoyed your line of work when you had nice housing, clean clothing, adequate food and medical attention provided. These poppies weren’t scrounging for scraps in the garbage or bruising their knees to make grocery money for their babies.

When she first thought of Venom sleeping with other women, her jealousy had flared but the more she thought about it the sadder she became. She thought of the way Venom had described their relationship as being real. How cold and lonely was it for these sky warriors and their pleasure girls?

There were so few choices afforded to them. The men in the military couldn’t have girlfriends or wives unless they survived enough battles to earn the valor points required. They could either arrange a marriage through their families or a matchmaking service or wait for an open Grab slot.

And these women? They had grown up in the harsh environment of the Kovark prison system, a place where most criminals didn’t even survive. Their choices were to stay there forever, marry a guard or go into pleasure work where they could somewhat control their destinies.

For all the internal whining and angst Dizzy had indulged in, she couldn’t deny that she had been given more choices than most women of her generation. When her family had lost everything, she had been able to fall back on a trade that just happened to be her passion. The connections of her childhood had allowed her to build a small but steady income and enjoy independence.

When Venom had been caught in that trap, she had chosen to go back and help him. She had taken the collar he offered her. Yes, her father had put her in an impossible position, but she had been allowed to make the choices that changed her life—for the better.

“Dizzy, get down.” Venom’s firm voice snapped her right out of her thoughts.

“Yes sir.” He hadn’t asked her to use the honorific but Hallie had given her some tips for navigating her first night here. The pleased look on Venom’s face was absolutely priceless as she slid to her feet.

“Strip for me.”

Her fingers shook as she untied the front of the uniform shirt she had altered to be so sexy and peeled out of it. Her belly clenched as she unbuttoned the skirt and slipped it down her legs. Stepping out of her heels, she set them aside with her folded clothing.

Venom held out his hand and she joined him in front of the class. He spun her around to face the students and pulled her back against his hard body. His huge hand flattened against her chest and his fingers covered the swells of her breasts. The lacy push-up bra with pink ribbon accents was the sexiest thing she had packed. Venom seemed to like it just fine.

“Your woman’s body is a blank canvas. You want to adorn her, to make her beautiful and enticing, but you don’t want to harm her.” His hand glided over her skin, leaving a searing path of tingling heat. “I’m sure it seems as if I’m harping on safety but you must remember that she can be seriously injured.”

Dizzy shivered as his fingertips trailed down her arm. He clasped her hand and lifted it to show it to the students. “Look at her wrist. Do you think this dainty little thing could hold up her body weight if she was bound with her arms overhead and one of my knots or ties slipped or a suspension hook gave way?”

He shook his head. “No. Instead of enjoying some fun together, we would be making a trip to the infirmary to have her shoulder put back into place and her wrist braced.” He lowered her hand and kissed the side of her neck. “This is serious business. It’s fun and sexy—but it’s dangerous if you’re not paying attention and planning for the worst scenarios.”

Amid the murmuring, Venom glided his hands along her belly. “It’s not just a fall that will badly hurt your sub. Remember what I said about circulation and avoiding nerve damage?”

She inhaled a shuddery breath as Venom crouched down beside her to point out all the tricky spots on her body where care had to be taken. His warm, strong hands moved over her ankles and knees while he talked. She delighted in his sensual, possessive caress.

With the nitty-gritty details out of the way, Venom picked up four shorter lengths of rope and began to demonstrate simple ankle and wrist cuffs. The single officers who hadn’t paid for time with one of the poppies practiced on each other—which Dizzy couldn’t help but smile at. Raze caught her amusement because he shot her a playful but scolding glance. Rolling her lips under, Dizzy stifled the giggle that threatened to erupt.

Once they had mastered cuffs, Venom walked them through creating the rope bra, once without knots and once with the knots. When a couple of the mated officers ran into problems, Venom helped them redo the rope work—but he never touched their wives. He stood close by and gave pointers but he kept his hands to himself. Whether that was to make her happy or simply a sign of respect for the men and their wives, she couldn’t tell. Dizzy suspected it was both.

“Now that you have this bra part finished, you can carry the rest of the rope down the body to create a corset with or without knots.” Venom stood off to the side as he demonstrated how to make the beautiful diamond-shaped patterns by looping and tucking and weaving the rope.

She studied his handsome face, marveling at his focus and attention to detail. After hearing him discuss all those safety points, she realized how much concern and care he took with her. A few times, his gaze would drift from a knot or a looping motion to her face. She enjoyed the private glances they shared as the class practiced all around them.

“If we’re doing knots, where do we put the one in the crotch area?”

Dizzy didn’t see the man who asked the blunt question. She tried not to show her annoyance that the intimate gaze she had been sharing with Venom had been broken.

Venom seemed to welcome the question. “You have a couple of options.” He moved behind her and framed her hips with his hands. “You can place the knot against her anus or perineum. Some women enjoy having it right against the entrance of their pussy and others like some pressure against their clitoris.”

Dizzy swayed a little as Venom’s fingertips touched all the places he described. She was very glad for the panties he had allowed her to wear tonight. She could feel the throbbing, wet heat between her thighs spreading. She was certain Venom discovered just how aroused she was he ran his fingers over her panties.

Caressing her skin, he said, “This is an incredibly erogenous area so you want to place the knot in a spot that keeps your mate centered in the experience. Keep in mind that erogenous zones means lots of nerve endings so be careful. You want this to be a thrilling experience—not one that’s so painful she’ll never agree to play again.” He tapped the spot right over her pubic bone. “Avoid this area. I’ve seen subs bruised by knots here.”

“What if you plan to suspend your mate? Does that factor into your design?”

Venom stroked her braid. “It does. You have to think about weight distribution and pressure points. Things that look beautiful and feel good when she’s standing might not feel so hot when she’s dangling from the ceiling. If you intend to fuck her while she’s suspended—and I assume you do,” he said amid chuckles, “you’ll want to plan ahead to ensure all the important areas are easily accessible.”

“Will you show us a suspension tonight?”

Dizzy gulped hard. They hadn’t discussed that possibility at all but she trusted Venom’s judgment.

“Not tonight,” Venom said, causing a few of the single officers to grunt with frustration. “We’re nearly out of time. Suspensions shouldn’t be rushed.”

“Will you consider another class soon?”

“Sure.” Venom massaged her neck with his thumbs. “We’ll pick up right here and I’ll make sure that you get to see a proper suspension.” He gave her backside a pop that made her hiss and lift on her tiptoes. As chuckles erupted around them, he asked, “Would you like that, sugar?”

Buzzing with excitement, she glanced over her shoulder. “Yes. Very much.”

Actually she wanted to do that, like,
right now
. This whole class had been foreplay. The white-hot need blossoming in her lower belly wouldn’t be satisfied until Venom consumed her with his dominant, powerful style of lovemaking.

With the demonstration at an end, students filed out of the room. Most of the couples stopped for pointers. Venom stepped away from her side to show one of his fellow officers how to better accentuate his wife’s fuller figure. Enviously eying the other woman’s voluptuous bosom, Dizzy didn’t even notice the single officer who had cozied up close to her until he reached out to flick one of the tiny bows adorning the cup of her bra.

With lightning speed, Venom snatched the officer’s hand in a deadly grip that drove the other man to his knees. “Never touch my mate.” He pushed the grabby man’s finger back toward his wrist, lurching a strangled cry from the other man’s throat. “Apologize.”

“I’m sorry, Captain. I didn’t—”

“Not to me,” he said through gritted teeth. “To my wife.”

The man didn’t look pleased but he did it. “I’m sorry, ma’am.”

“Are you satisfied with that apology, Dizzy?”

She nodded and finally found her voice. “Yes.”

Venom released the other guy’s hand. “You’re lucky she’s so gentle-hearted. Other mates might have requested that you get sent to the wall.”

Dizzy had no idea what that meant but didn’t ask. Still on his knees, the officer with one stripe shaved into his hair rubbed his hand. She had learned to differentiate the land corps from the sky corps by their hairstyles. The pilots seemed to favor those stripes.

Raze gripped the back of the airman’s shirt and dragged him to his feet. “Guess what, flyboy? You just earned yourself a two-month suspension from the club and a chat with the admiral. Say goodbye to some of those valor points.”

Venom gathered her close and soothingly caressed her shoulder. His anger dwarfed her irritation with the unwanted touch. He calmly finished helping the other officer with his question and bid the couple a good night.

When the door closed behind them, Venom turned toward her and gently gripped her shoulders. He bent down to peer into her eyes. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. Honestly I’ve been jostled and touched more intimately than that at the Subterranean.”

“The what?”

“It’s a club underground that a friend of ours—of mine and Ella’s—runs.” When his eyes narrowed, she quickly explained, “A dance club, not one of these kinky clubs like yours.”

“Ah.” He slipped his finger under one of the ropes crisscrossing her body and tugged. “You did very well tonight. Did you like it?”

She drew her initials on his chest. “You know I did.”

As if to confirm his earlier findings, Venom pushed aside the damp fabric guarding her pussy and slipped two fingers between her labia. “Yes, you did.”

She pressed against him. “Take me home.”

“To do what, sugar?”

“You know what I want.” But he was going to make her say it.

“I know what
I
want. I’m only guessing when it comes to you.” His fingers slowly manipulated her throbbing clitoris.

“Bull,” she said with a little snort. “I don’t think you’ve guessed once when it comes to making love to me.” She gazed up at him with such awe. “I think you figured me out that first time you put your hands on me.”

He grinned and started to speak but they were interrupted by a loud knock at the door. Venom removed his hand from her panties just as the door swung open. Raze appeared with such fury burning in his eyes that Dizzy was taken aback. As she tried to figure out what had made him so mad she finally realized that men were running down the hall behind him.

“You’d better get her untied and taken back to your quarters.” The foreboding edge to Raze’s voice filled her with dread. “The Splinters hit one of our cargo ships—and it’s bad.”

Venom didn’t miss a beat. “How many dead?”

“Dozens,” Raze growled. “There will be more, of course. We’ve only just received preliminary reports. They’re not good.”

His instincts as a soldier immediately overwhelmed him. Jerking the knife out of the sheath at his waist, Venom started slitting the ropes decorating Dizzy’s beautiful body. He hated to end things so abruptly but an attack on a cargo ship was serious business. With a mole still running loose on the
Valiant
and that mess with Axis, Venom feared the Splinters might try to attack this battleship as well. A one-two punch if there ever was one.

“Which ship was it, Raze?”

“The
Night Bird
,” he answered solemnly.

Venom’s eyes closed briefly. The escort team with that ship had been the second SRU team off the
Arctis
. Even worse? The
Night Bird
had been scheduled to carry the extremely powerful fuel rods used to power the fleet. “Our guys?”

Raze shook his head. “It doesn’t look promising.”

Dizzy placed a comforting hand against his neck. She surprised him by suppressing her curious nature and asking no questions. The second she was freed from the corset, she grabbed her clothing. The haunted look in her pretty brown eyes caused him such pain. He had promised that he would keep her safe and protect her from the horror and terror she had known back in The City. Now those same terrorists were threatening her life here.

Venom brushed his thumb across her mouth before kissing her forehead. He refused to make empty promises about how safe the
Valiant
was. Despite being a massive warship and a floating fortress surrounded by dozens of guard ships, the
Valiant
was just as vulnerable as every other vessel.

He didn’t bother cleaning up his mess. Grabbing his bag, he put his hand against her back and guided her forward. She carried her high-heeled shoes so she could keep up with his long strides. At the elevator bank he broke away from Raze, who hurried to join the men cramming into the cars that serviced the operations decks instead of the housing wings.

Once inside the elevator Venom tapped the communication screen mounted on the wall to read the up-to-the-minute briefings provided. His gut lurched as he scanned the reports coming in from the
Redemption
, the ship tasked with picking up the rescue pods.

“What does neutralize the ship mean?”

Venom hesitated before answering her because he was certain it would upset her. “It means the
Night Bird
has lost control and is drifting into your planet’s gravitational field. It’s going to fall and it’s going to fall hard. To protect life on Calyx, the ships in the vicinity are ordered to fire at will. The goal is to reduce the ship to the smallest pieces possible so the bulk will burn up during reentry.”

“But…what about the rescue pods? What about the men who might still be trapped on the ship?”

“Collateral damage,” he said gruffly.

“That’s so awful.” She sounded as though she might start crying.

“That’s war, Dizzy.” He hated to be so cold with her but he didn’t have time to coddle her right now.

When they reached their floor, he rushed her out of the elevator and into their quarters. Dropping his bag, he pulled her into his arms and tried to decide what to tell her. The truth was he didn’t know what to expect once they deployed. The mop-up could take days or weeks.

Terror’s warning from their fitting room meetup chilled him. He refused to believe this was the last time he would see her. He’d survived too much to lose it all now. “I’ll be back as soon as possible.”

“I’ll be fine. Please don’t worry about me. Just focus on your work. I’m a big girl, remember? I’ve done this winging-it-on-my-own thing before and made a success of it.”

His stomach clenched painfully. Her urge to protect him by setting his mind at ease made him love her even more.

And he did love her. It wasn’t simple infatuation and lust that made him feel as if his heart were being ripped out of his chest right now. They had been given nearly two weeks of impossibly perfect bliss—he refused to even acknowledge the bumps along the way—and he wanted so much more with her.

But duty called. His brothers-in-arms needed him.

For the first time in his life, he resented his unwavering loyalty to the men who bled with him on the battlefield. He had never before been tempted to say fuck it to an official order…until faced with leaving Dizzy behind.

“You should go.” She must have sensed his warring emotions. Smiling so bravely, she rubbed his chest and lifted up to kiss him. “I’ll be here, waiting for you.”

He met her seeking mouth with much tenderness. Though he wanted nothing more than to lift her up against the nearest wall and make love to her one last time, Venom wrenched free from Dizzy and stalked to the door. He didn’t dare look back after separating from her. Raze and the rest of his team were waiting. He couldn’t let them down—even if every step away from Dizzy tore at him.

Stepping into the elevator, he tapped at the screen. The doors had nearly closed when her smaller hand gripped the metal and prevented it from closing. The door slid back on its track. “Obstruction detected. Please clear.”

Grinning mischievously, Dizzy appeared before him as the authoritative male voice boomed from the speakers. “I’ve been called worse things than an obstruction, I guess.”

“What are you doing?”

“I decided that I had to tell you something.” She gripped the front of his shirt and hauled him down until their noses were nearly touching. “I love you.”

The words he had dreamed of one day hearing washed over him like sunshine, blazing away the gut-wrenching pain of leaving her behind. His own love for her left him trembling and feeling nearly giddy. “I love you so much, Dizzy.”

“Good. I hear it works better when two people in a marriage share that love thing.”

He laughed while his heart felt as if it were doing wild flips in his chest. “Yeah. I’ve heard that too.”

She pressed her lips to his in a lingering kiss. “I love you. I’ll see you soon. Be safe, okay?”

“I will.” He brushed his knuckles down her cheek. “I love you.”

Dizzy stepped back and the elevator door slid slowly closed. He tried to burn the image of her happy, blushing face right into his brain. It was a vision that would sustain him through whatever awaited him on this mission.

When he hit the SRU floor, Venom discovered Raze had already set out his weapon and gear. He swapped his play clothes for his uniform and strapped on his vest and holsters. He entered the briefing room just as Cipher was starting their mic and radio checks.

Taking his place next to Raze, Venom looked over the information flooding the intelligence screens mounted on the wall. He saw that fighter pilots including Zephyr and Blaze had been in hot pursuit of the three Splinter ships that had attacked the
Night Bird
.

“Shit.” Venom watched the radar blips as one of the smaller Splinter craft spiraled toward Calyx after being hit hard by Zephyr. “That’s going to be a hell of an impact.”

“Thankfully most of that backward little planet is uninhabited,” Raze grumbled. “Not that there aren’t a couple of villages down there that wouldn’t be better of being obliterated.”

Venom’s mouth settled into a frown at Raze’s callous remarks. “What are our orders?”

“To aid the Shadow Force in recovering the fuel rods,” Raze answered. “A fighter contingent has boxed in the ship suspected of holding the stolen cargo. They’ve disabled their engines and left them adrift. We’ll breach and board and run a quadrant search.” Raze lifted his voice. “Boys, let’s move out!”

As they filed toward the door, Raze put a hand on his shoulder. Venom met his best friend’s intense stare. “What?”

“Ven, you’re technically still on honeymoon leave. It’s well within your rights to call off on this one and stay behind. None of us would consider you dishonorable for choosing to stay with Dizzy.”

“I know you wouldn’t—but I would.” Venom clapped Raze on the back. “This is my job. She understands that.” He inclined his head toward the door. “Let’s go. We have fuel rods to recover and Splinters to kill.”

On the deployment deck, Risk waited with one of his injection guns. They all groaned but dutifully rolled up their sleeves and bared their necks. The pressurized guns injected anti-radiation pellets under their skin. Venom winced as the painful little bastards were thrust into him.

“You’ve got about seventy-two hours of protection under low-dose exposure,” Risk reminded them. “Make sure your meters are calibrated, Cipher.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Cipher muttered. “It’s my balls on the line.”

Venom snorted at Cipher’s colorful response. Risk clapped him on the back. “Good luck, Ven.”

Certain that Risk would remain onboard the
Valiant
even if further units were deployed, Venom asked, “Will you look in on Dizzy for me? She trusts you and enjoys your company.”

“Yes. Of course. I’ll look after her exactly as you would.”

Venom’s mouth slanted. “Well—maybe not
exactly
as I would.”

Risk chuckled. “Obviously.”

Moments later, as Venom buckled into his seat aboard the waiting strike ship, he touched his mouth. His gloved fingers grazed the still-buzzing spot where Dizzy had kissed him after declaring her love. For the first time in his life, he had a reason greater than the bonds he shared with his teammates to keep him alive.

Come hell or high water, he was going home to Dizzy.