The Bid by Jax

the light from the other room was cut off from them. Najir felt Hanna touch him through the material of his shirt, her fingertips stroking over his pectoral muscle as she sidled up close to him. His heartbeat jumped up in speed as her lush figure snuggled up along his side and her mouth reached to brush his neck.
    “Weren’t you holding a thought for me?” she asked, her whisper sultry sweet against his skin.
    Najir smiled into the dimness above her head.
    “Tart,” he taunted her. “You’re just horny because you got a good feel of that impressive cock of his.”
    “So?” she asked, shamelessly shrugging a shoulder. “Are you telling me you didn’t get hard just watching me stroke that impressive cock?”
    She had him there, and she knew it. Unlike Vejhon, Najir knew her intimate touch had been meant as a lesson and not a violation. Watching her bestow her caresses had triggered a flurry of sensory memory and longing. Hanna followed up her speculation with a foray of fingertips down along the front of his pants, easily encountering his quickly developing erection. She chuckled wickedly when he snapped his tongue at her in a silent scold for her audacious manipulations.
    “You are shameless and insatiable,” he accused in a growl against her ear that sent shivers of delight down her body.
    “And horny,” she reminded him huskily. “My pussy is soaked just from the feel of him.”
    “Not because he came so hard for you?”
    “No!” She jerked back harshly, seeking his dark eyes with an expression of disbelief. “Do you honestly think I would get any pleasure from degrading another human being like that?”
    “No. Of course not,” he soothed her gently, his fingers reaching to smooth the creases of fury from her forehead. “I don’t know why I said that.”
    “And he didn’t come for me,” she continued bitterly. “He ejaculated because a drug forced it on him. It could’ve been anyone in that room.”
    “Shh, I know. I know,” he said, his regret and sorrow radiating through the gentle touch of his hands. “I’m sorry, Hanna. It just touched so close to my memories. I must have gone through every single emotion he was feeling, right along with him. It was like stepping back in time and…I-I’m still not thinking clearly.”
    “I knew you shouldn’t watch,” she whispered painfully, turning away from him to press her forehead against the cold stone they could no longer see through. “I don’t know why I let you talk me into it.”
    “Because you didn’t want to do it alone, Hanna. You borrowed from me to make your point, bringing him in to that experience you and I shared so long ago. It was key in bringing us together, and it is crucial to keeping all of us safe. Now, he will forever be part of a terrible knowledge, but he will need it if he is to join us on our journey into the future. I don’t think I would ever have trusted him otherwise.”
    “Neither would I, Najir.” She picked up the tail of her hair, toying with the end of it in a familiar nervous habit she had. She brushed the thick bottom of it back and forth over her palm a dozen times or more as she thought. “I feel evil,” she confessed suddenly.
    “No! Never!”
    “Well, selfish then! To do this just because we need him so badly…”
    “Stop!” he commanded her harshly. “That is not the reason why and you need to remember that. At least, not the only reason why. Yes, he is perfect for us. The first in a decade to come along who could come this much closer to perfect. But you were right when you told him what would have become of him had you not intervened.”
    “Had you not,” she corrected.
    “Had we not, then,” he acquiesced. “Had we not intervened he would be in Majum’s household this very instant, Hanna, being mauled and raped and worse.”
    “So much worse,” she murmured.
    “Yes. This is all a means to an end. Remember that. You have never quailed when handling unpleasant tasks before, so why