“You know nothing about Elkathan interrogation techniques,” Xelthar commented.
“Elkathan?” I repeated, unsure I’d heard him correctly.
Cair sighed for the third time since I’d woken up in his brig. “This is why I did not want this assignment.” He glared at Xelthar. “You are too minor a runner. And you are wanted for too minor an infraction.”
“Then let me go,” Xelthar suggested.
“Not when Vadhea hired me to bring you in,” Cair reminded the other prisoner before stalking over to him. “But that does not mean I have to continue listening to you.”
“That is because you do not want me to tell the human female about your sexual interrogation techniques.”
“Wait, what?” I asked. My chest tightened, a strange pull tugging at my senses.
“Their species has a history of forced mating and?—”
Whatever else Xelthar planned to tell me was cut off as a glowing ring wrapped around his head, positioned between his lips, silencing him. He offered a slight shrug, despite the restraints, when I met his eyes in horror.
Cair walked the few feet back to stand before me, but my gaze stayed glued on the glowing band around Xelthar’s face, that strange sensation in the air spiking.
Until pressure on my right breast caused my head to whip forward. I stared into Cair’s mesmerizing yellow eyes. “What are you doing?” I whispered as a bolt of desire shot through me from his strong fingers kneading the flesh barely contained within my bra. My stomach clenched with alarm plus something else I didn’t want to name, and I cursed the universe for the peculiar timing of my body’s betrayal. “What did he mean by sexual interrogation techniques?” I left unasked my question aboutforced mating,which sounded uncomfortably close to?—
“I will let you orgasm if you tell me what I want to know.”
Every muscle in my body clenched at once. “What the fuck?”
Chapter Three
“The Brakian,crude though he is, was not incorrect,” Cair explained. His hand had stilled, though remained cupping my breast, the heat from his palm warming my skin through the bra in sharp contrast to the chill of the brig. “Our species, unlike humans, identified a long time ago that pleasure, not pain, is a more effective method for gaining information.”
That sounded better. Pleasure over pain. But. “I don’t understand what that means in terms of, um, o-o-orgasming.” My voice hiccupped on the final word.
Cair nodded. His yellow eyes fixed on my face with such intensity that I dropped my gaze to the fingers that had begun playing with my nipple over the lacy bra. “I will ask questions as I bring your body to the brink of ultimate pleasure. Unrelieved pleasure can become unpleasant enough that prisoners beg for release. Therefore, when I believe you have answered all of my questions honestly, I will allow that release.”
My gaze snapped back up to Cair’s face. A million questions raced through my mind. I caught an important one and blurted it out. “How will you decide that I’m being honest?”
His grip tightened, pressing into my breast as he stepped closer to whisper in my ear. “I will know.”
Holy hell. Despite the absolute non-answer of his answer, the rising need between my legs suggested this would be a short interrogation.
“Do you consent to my interrogation?”
“Shouldn’t you have asked me that before you removed my dress?”
“My apologies. You are correct.”
“You … apologized?”
“Elkathans are no longer barbarians.” He flicked his head toward the gagged alien to my left. “Despite what others would have you believe. Do you consent then?”
“Isn’t my alternative that you’ll bring me to an apparently scary-as-fuck unknown alien who will probably kill me?”
“Yes,” he answered, oblivious to or ignoring my sarcasm.
“Then yes, I consent to your interrogation. I accept your—” My mind searched for the right word to capture this insanity. “—indecent bargain.” Anger built up. It was a much more comfortable emotion than the swirling uncertainty and fear that threatened to buckle my legs.
“Excellent.” Cair’s hand released my bra-covered breast, and his arms encircled my torso. His fingers brushed against my skin as he unhooked the lacy black bra.
“Now what?” I taunted. “How do you plan to remove my bra when you’ve shackled my hands?” I gave my wrists a shake. The glowing ring encircling my wrist failed to rattle, ruining my dramatic moment.
