The Commander's Slave by K. S. Augustin Page B

followed hungrily with his
eyes.
    With deliberation, Asha continued her
finger’s journey, through tight copper curls, and gasped as she
inserted it into herself.
    That was too much for Tangus. No woman
had ever behaved so provocatively in front of him before, displayed
such wanton pleasure, and it was more than he could stand. He
swooped down, grabbed her, and took her to his bed, ripping the
rest of his clothes off in a frenzy before possessing
her.
    “ You’re a siren,” he told
her hoarsely, his hands trembling as he stroked her hair. “There
are legends about them on every planet. Beautiful women who coax
you to your death.”
    Asha thrust her hips towards him,
beginning an insistent rhythm.
    “ No, not yet,” Tangus
gasped, but it was too late. With a violent convulsion, he
orgasmed, crying out into the air while she continued her merciless
gyrations beneath him.
    When he was spent, he looked at her,
his expression sheepish.
    “ I don’t ….”
    She placed a fingertip against his
lips. “I’m not expecting anything from you. Sleep. We can talk
later.”
    It was only when his breathing had
steadied and the first spasm of sleep tightened his hand against
her that Asha said softly, “I love you.”

Chapter
Five
    Tangus awoke early, the comfort of his
bed disturbed by a new sensation. He frowned, wriggling a trapped
hand, before recollection crashed down on him. Startled, he opened
his eyes to see a golden head nestled into the crook of his arm,
long copper tresses fanned over his bare biceps.
    In the middle of the night, he had
woken her and they had mated again. Despite the wordless
communication, he recognized that this time it had been a meeting
of equals, not of master and captive, and he cursed himself for a
hundred types of fool for thinking he could make it anything
else.
    His mind returned to the thought of
finding her people. He had lost his own family in the Lasc Prein
attack on the Seti home-world, but surely Asha must still have
some. Was there a parent or relative searching the galaxy for her?
And what were the chances of him finding them?
    Carefully, he eased himself away from
her and rose, quirking his lips at the discarded clothing that lay
around his quarters. Picking at them, he pulled on a shirt and
trousers and made a brief trip to the bathroom. The smile stayed on
his face until he found himself humming as he regarded his unshaven
reflection, and he was brought back to reality with a
slam.
    What was he thinking? He was Tangus
Xalor, only remaining commander of the Seti Space Corps. He was the
man responsible for the last remnant of the Seti. What was he doing
losing himself in the eyes and body of a golden beauty?
    “ Tangus?” The soft voice
was a bit puzzled.
    He gave himself a long look before
exiting.
    Asha was sitting up in bed. No false
modesty here. She wasn’t holding a sheet against her naked breasts.
Instead, she leaned nonchalantly on one arm, the sheets draped over
her legs. Even without a single artistic bone in his body, Tangus
had the urge to paint her just so he could always remember her like
this.
    “ I was wondering where you
were,” she teased, her voice still husky with sleep. “Will you come
back to bed?”
    And Tangus had several flashbacks. He
remembered the time, as a young and stupid officer graduate, he had
picked a fight with a pair of Toldah mercenaries adventuring far
from home. He had come off second-best in that altercation, only
the timely intervention of four other friends saving him from a
thorough skewering.
    He remembered the tense stand-off with
a ship from the Flow-Stick Cluster, a notorious smuggler species
famous for their weaponry-heavy space runners and how he had
bluffed his way into capturing them.
    He remembered his last desperate
gambits as he extracted as many survivors as possible from the
marauding Lasc Prein before he and his decimated fleet beat a hasty
retreat.
    But, as he stared at her long flowing
hair, perfect features, and