He didn’t know why it bothered him so fucking much but it did, and the longer he had to endure, the angrier he became. Time ran like a never-ending loop in his systems, and the amount of time that had passed since she shut down had been less than twelve cruel Earthian hours.Twelve.He was already an impatient man but what patience he did have was sorely being tested.
Gunner grabbed the bars between them and rested his forehead against them. He hadn’t moved them from her since she had turned her back to him. He knew he should be focusing on breaking down the ship’s systems from within, should be poking at the encryptions that he had yet to break, but he couldn’t take his eyes off her.
The secret was sucking the air out from between them, making it hard to breathe, and making her scurry away like a frightened animal. The canines buried in his gums poked at his current set of teeth, wanting to be released, wanting to hunt down and bury deep into the animal that skirted him. The metal was hot beneath his clenching fingers.
“Ely...” he said, hoping for a twitch, but she gave him nothing. And Gunner had the eyes of half the prisoners leering at his back.
How could they not notice?The more he ignored them, the more interested they became, and the more interested they became, the more he wanted to kill them off so they’d no longer parade at the edge of his thoughts.
Kallan’s intermittent chuckles no longer sounded human to him, nor did the other voices that spoke. The coughs and grunts from the others held no meaning anymore: they did nothing but make his jackal hunger for silence.
“Ely,” Gunner called out to her again. His eyes traced the curves of her frame, taking in the way her short hair fell over her ears, her eyes when he could see them, and the way her legs clamped together and shifted closer to her body whenever he spoke...and the way his jacket fell over her as if in protection... From him.
Fuck!
“Give up already,” Kallan grunted. “My boy here isn’t a talker.”
Gunner had never wanted to strangle the life out of another man so much. The metal bent beneath his grip. Kallan could at least see her face where Gunner could only see the back of her head. Kallan called Ely his boy and Gunner had nothing to call her.
Even the thought that the squirrely, greasy man made a claim to Ely enraged him. She washis. At least for now.
He made his threats, to her no less, and there was only one way for the two of them to go from here. Even if she didn’t realize it, the moment she put his jacket on, he had marked her. His smell, his property, surrounded her and held her captive in a little bubble of his making. His cock jerked in his pants.
“For fuck’s sake, talk to me!” Gunner roared—not caring who overheard—and released the bars before he crushed them. Excitement shot through him when she sat up, startled, and looked his way.
She looked like a frightened animal. Wide-eyed. Heart racing. Fear.
He pressed closer to the bars, as close as he could get. For a moment, he was convinced to give up on the ship—his ship—break into her cell, and take her in front of everyone, especially Kallan, and leave.
Would she follow?They stared at each other and he willed her to turn around and face him. She remained still.
“Would you follow?” he asked, uncaring who heard.
Her face clouded over in confusion. Her brows furrowed and her lips twisted. He had an urge to lick them—to lick the sweat and strain off her features and keep licking until his saliva coated her skin in a wet sheen, until his tongue found her cunt and there were no more barriers between them.
“What?” Ely shuffled to sit upright.
“I could take you,” he said, lowering his voice. She edged closer, head tilted, still confused.
“I could take you...but would you follow?”
The thought made his cock twitch.
A look of comprehension flushed her features, and a toothy grin spread across his face. His nostrils flared as the heady smell of blossoming fear filled the air between them. Her blossoming fear. Ely stopped moving his way and gave him her most vulnerable, horrible expression. The idea of taking her here and now, sweat, dirt, and grime included made him even harder. His cockhead rubbed at his pants, fighting for release.
“Come closer,” he lured.
“No.”
“We need to talk.”
“No, we don’t. Talking to you was a mistake.” She shifted to turn away and he moved to break whatever he needed too to stop her, but the zippingwhooshof the brig door opening stopped both of them.
Two men entered: the new head guard from yesterday morning and another. His attention landed on the new man. He had hawkish features, a hooked nose, a pallor worse than a corpse, but had intelligent eyes—eyes that were downcast and looking at a hologram held in his hand. A hush fell over the brig.
Gunner stood, erection jutting out, and faced the fuckers that constantly interrupted his privacy with Ely.
The guard’s nose twitched but unlike previous days, neither of them backed down from the smell; the androids had done their job well.
