About twenty years later
Kett’s rational brain knew there was no way in hell she was waking up chained to a naked hottie, hanging from the roof of a cave by her wrist. Her rational brain told her it must be a dream.
Her rational brain was usually wrong.
“Hey.” The hottie’s voice sounded very close to her ear. “Wake up.”
She decided not to. His body was all warm and hard. And naked. And hot. And naked. All in all, a pretty nice dream, apart from the screaming pain in her right arm. She’d have to work on getting rid of that.
“Wake up,” he insisted, his voice all warm and husky. Then he paused. “Are you even alive?”
“I’m asleep,” she mumbled, snuggling a little closer. The bedclothes were trapping her other arm behind her back. “G’way.”
“You know, I’d love to,” he said, his voice rough, as if he hadn’t used it in a while. “Sadly that’s not an option.” He moved, and there was a jangling sound.
Dread stole through Kett as her rational brain gave up the fight and the possibility occurred to her that she wasn’t actually dreaming at all. She peeled open one eye.
“Hi,” he said. He had green eyes and shaggy dark hair and he was still all warm and hard and naked.
“Mmm,” Kett sighed. And then she blushed. Which she hadn’t done since…ever.
He grinned, which made him a little more delicious. “Nice of you to join us.” His smile faded a little. “Are you all right?”
She took stock. The entire front of her body was pressed tight against his-shoulder to shoulder, breasts to chest, crotch to crotch. They were both completely naked. Even the feet that brushed against hers were bare.
Kett shifted against him, and it was an entirely pleasant thing to do.
A chain bound them together at the waist. Her right arm stretched way above her head, supporting her full weight from the chain that was suspended from the roof of what she suspected to be a cave. Her new friend’s arm was bound to hers, wrist to wrist, and while the chain that held their weight was of the heavy regular kind, the one that bound them together about their waists appeared to be silver.
There was a trickle of blood between their bound wrists.
Kett began to get a really bad feeling.
“Five by five,” she murmured, rattling the chains experimentally. Her left arm was twisted behind her back by the waist chain-not by bedclothes, dammit-and caught tight enough that she couldn’t move it. From the looks of her handsome although irritatingly calm friend, his was too.
“What?” he asked.
Okay, Kett, stay calm. This probably isn’t as bad as it seems. Someone playing a joke on you, perhaps. Someone at Koskwim who still thinks it’s funny to torment Mad Kett. At least they chained you to someone really hot. You’ve been in worse situations. At least you’re not actually dead this time.
For all her luck this was probably some screwy marriage ceremony. She’d probably met this guy at the Maharaja’s party and had too much to drink and forgotten that marriage was the worst idea ever invented. Even after years of fuckwits she could still be a sucker for a pretty face.
“I’m okay,” she said, trying to see over his distressingly broad shoulder. “Apart from the fact that I have no idea how I got here, or who you are, my arm feels like it’s gonna pop out of its socket and, oh yeah, I appear to be naked and bloody and chained to a complete fucking stranger. What else could I be but fine?”
“Whoa,” he said, “keep your knickers on.”
“I’m not wearing any.”
His grin said he’d noticed. “I mean calm down.”
“Calm?”
“Opposite of what you’re doing. I’m as much in the dark as you are. I haven’t a clue what’s going on.”
She brought her eyes back to his-it wasn’t hard, they were about four inches away-and saw honesty in their warm green depths. Aware that her bosom was heaving against a complete stranger’s chest, she tried to take his advice and calm herself. If only because she’d never thought of herself as having a “bosom”, and it made her feel old.
Only she wasn’t so good at being calm. She preferred totally and utterly freaking out.
Right, Kett. What’s going on? A cave, silver chains, amnesia. She didn’t recall there being all that many caves in the Maharaja’s palace. Had she offended someone there? Possibly-Kett was good at being offensive-but the Maharaja’s court was into more public punishments.
See, this is what happens when you extend the hand of friendship. Some bugger bites it.
She went through a list of enemies in her head, but most of them were dead. Those Federación bastards were at the top of the list of the living, but she still couldn’t fathom why they might have left her here. A slow death, maybe. Pain and starvation.
Maybe Striker was playing a joke on her. She couldn’t work out why, but then she’d never wanted to understand the innermost workings of his mind.
“You have no idea where we are?” she asked, trying the calm thing.
“A cave.”
“You think?”
“Ooh, tetchy. Don’t think there’s anyone else here. I called out but no one answered.”
A hundred ideas came to her, none of them pleasant. They’d been strung up here to die, that much was clear-but were they being left as meat for hungry bears or dragons, or to wait for the tide to rush in or what?
No, this place didn’t smell damp. If anything, it smelled like something had recently been burning here.
Great. They were going to be barbecued. Back to the dragon theory. Well, at least Kett understood dragons, although unfortunately what she understood was that they liked fresh meat.
And the blood. Didn’t seem like an accidental cut-wrist to wrist, that looked a lot like something ritualistic. She hated bloody rituals.
Still. Kett had a trick or two up her- Well, she had a trick or two.
She concentrated on thinning out her wrist and escaping the chains stringing them up to the ceiling.
Nothing.
She tried a little harder. Granted, it was harder to change a little bit of your shape than a lot, but she’d had a lot of practice. Kett shook herself and tried to wake up a bit.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Shh. I’m concentrating.”
He frowned but said nothing. She still wasn’t getting anything from her wrist, so she decided to go for broke.
“Don’t freak out,” she warned him, and changed her form to that of a snake.
He didn’t freak. Probably because she didn’t change.
“Uh, I’m not freaking,” he said. “Should I be?”
Real panic was setting in now. “This ain’t working.”
“What ain’t?”
“I-” She looked at him, and knew she couldn’t tell him. Not yet. She had no idea who he really was or why he was here with her. Chances were he had something to do with this setup, and she wasn’t about to give him any reason why he should keep her chained.
“I was trying to get free,” she said. “Not working.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I think that’s the point.” He glanced around the cave a moment. There was a faint glow from somewhere in the distance, but she couldn’t make out any details. Couldn’t even see the floor.
“Bael,” he said eventually.
She blinked at him.
“My name,” he prompted. “It’s Bael. And you are…?”
“Kett,” she said vaguely.
He grinned. “Nice to meet you, Kett.”
“Yeah. Real nice.”
She tugged on the chains again, harder this time, then harder again. Every movement rubbed her body against Bael’s, which was damn distracting. He was pretty nicely shaped. Warm skin, hard muscles, his biceps bulging against her arm.
She swallowed and tried to concentrate her mind. Why couldn’t she change her shape? Apart from those unfortunate stone years in her childhood, she’d always been able to change her form however and whenever she wanted.
Only severe injury, enchantment or death had ever stopped her. And Kett wasn’t entirely sure which one of those was the most likely right now.
“Look, Bael. Do you have any idea how to get out of here?”
He glanced up at the chain as if he hadn’t really thought about it before and gave it an experimental tug. He frowned, tugged again, then gave her a sort of facial shrug.
She gave him a facial slow-hand clap.
“Well, I don’t see you coming up with anything,” he said defensively.
Kett looked up again. “Maybe if we both pull together,” she said.
He looked up at the chain again. It disappeared into darkness, the ceiling of the cave totally hidden. At least, she still assumed it was a cave. The echo suggested bare stone.
Bael nodded, and she shifted herself against him to get a better grip. This proved to be a bad move, since it involved rubbing her naked self all over his. Which, ordinarily, would be a great thing. But right now she didn’t really need the distraction.
Her nipples puckered against his chest and she knew he felt it. She licked her lips, tried to lean back a little, and succeeded in pressing her hips tighter against his.
Oh yeah. He’d felt it.
Stop, Kett, stop. Focus. Chain, cave, blood. This is all of the bad. Focus on getting out of here, then you can do as much rubbing of your naked self all over his as you like.
He cleared his throat and gripped the chain suspending them. She wrapped her hand around his wrist, tried not to think about the warm pulse beating there and made her eyes meet his.
He gave a tiny nod and they both yanked down on the chain. The movement jolted her against him, rubbing her already-sensitive nipples against the light hair on his chest and nudging his cock against her.
A shock of heat rippled through her. Bael’s body was hot, really hot. The roughness of his thighs abraded the soft skin of her legs. His chest rose and fell, rubbing her nipples delightfully. His penis swelled between her legs.
“Again,” she said, and her voice came out breathier than she’d anticipated.
He gripped the chain again, his eyes never leaving hers, and she grabbed his wrist and pulled. Again her body quaked against his.
“Again,” he murmured, even huskier than before, and she shifted a little more against him, lifting herself up, resting one thigh on his hip-for a better grip, of course.
Her face was a fraction of an inch from his. His breath was hot on her cheek as they tugged sharply on the chain and shuddered against each other. His hot cock slipped between her legs, rubbing against her suddenly slick folds, and she bit her lip, hard.
“Again,” he said in her ear, and they pulled, rubbing against each other. “Again. Again.”
She squirmed against him until she was making no pretense about it. His cock slid between her legs in strong strokes that could never have been accidental and she closed her eyes, the strength in her right arm fading out completely, forgetting all about escape. His hot, hard flesh stroked hers, nearly entering but not quite, and she moved harder against him.
It had been so long. Too long.
The chain around their waists was constricting and it might have even chafed a little but she hardly noticed. Completely senseless with desire, she bucked against this total stranger, unable to touch him with her hands, or be touched, but connected so intimately it made her gasp and shudder.
Their bodies rocked together, thrusting and convulsing, and then suddenly there was an almighty crack and groan and with a jolt, they both fell several inches, to be jerked to a halt so quickly it made her eyes water.
“What the-?”
She peered up into the darkness. “I think we fucked it loose.”
Bael grinned at her, tugging with his left arm. “Oh sweetheart, we haven’t even gotten started with the fuck- Fuck!”
His tugging yanked free whatever had pulled them up short, and then there was nothing holding them-and they plummeted through the air.
Kett had been in caves that were several hundred feet from floor to ceiling. Caves that had lakes at the bottom. Not poncy little streams or puddles, but great big fathoms-deep lakes.
Thankfully, this wasn’t one of them.
They probably fell three or four feet in total. No more than five, for sure, which was just as well. It had only occurred to her in that endless second of weightlessness that she hadn’t considered how far down they’d have to go.
She’d never been very good at forward planning.
The ground was cold stone, uneven but not jagged or gravelly. Not that it made much of a difference to the pain factor of landing. If she survived this she’d be black and blue.
But she’d been black and blue before, and she’d survived it.
She hoped to hell Bael was a survivor too, especially since he’d landed on top of her.
Kett stilled, trying to see if he was breathing. Then she gave up and kicked him. “Get off me, you great lubbock!”
He nuzzled her neck. “But you’re so comfy.”
“And you’re so heavy.” She wiggled her right arm, which protested the movement, and managed to work her wrist out of the now-loose chain binding it to Bael’s. Result. There was a cut on her wrist, enough to bleed but not enough to kill her. A ritual cut, Kett thought with her hindbrain, but the rest of her took little notice.
Swinging her hand down to tug at the chain around their waists was absolute agony since her shoulder didn’t seem to want to move at all, but she managed it, and tugged at the length binding them.
“Lower,” Bael murmured.
“I’m trying to get us untied here,” she said.
“Maybe we can fuck that loose too.”
“I prefer to have a little more freedom in my fucking, thank you,” she said, and he grinned in the darkness and brought his own arm down to help her.
“Shit, that hurts!”
“Yep,” she said. “Least means it’s not dislocated.”
“Bloody feels like it,” he grumbled, but between them they got the chain off, both arms free, and he rolled them over so she was on top of him.
She sat up, his hard belly between her thighs, and he ran his hands over her hips.
“Much better,” he said.
“Told you.” His hand slipped between her legs and she gasped. “Freedom is a good thing.”
What she should have been doing was getting to her feet and finding a way out. There was every possibility he was the bad guy in this situation. But he was fondling her clit with clever, clever fingers, and she didn’t feel terrifically inclined to stop him. It had been quite a while since anybody had their hand between her legs, and it felt damn good.
Bael slipped his other hand behind her back and pulled her down to kiss him. His lips were dry, his jaw rough with stubble, but that didn’t matter. She didn’t reckon her lips were going to be in a perfectly soft, moisturized state either, especially since they never had been before. It didn’t stop Bael from investigating, thoroughly, every corner of her mouth with his hot, quick tongue. His arms around her, he rolled them to their sides, and then she got dizzy from all the kissing-or possibly the blood loss-and fell to her back.
And then she stiffened and leapt to her feet, sending Bael flying.
“Ow?” he said pointedly.
She shoved him out of the way with her foot, lust evaporating. She’d rolled onto something sticky, something crumbling…something warm. Something that wasn’t plain rock.
She hunkered down to look.
“Ugh,” Bael said from behind her.
“I hear you,” she said, peering through the dimness at the charred, blackened thing on the floor. If she used her imagination-and she instantly wished she hadn’t-she suspected it had once been human.
“I think this might have been a person,” she said, breathing hard, trying to keep the meager contents of her stomach in their rightful place. You’ve seen more disgusting things, Kett. Don’t throw up now.
“I think this might too,” Bael said. He moved, and there was a crunching sound. “And, uh, this…”
Kett peered farther into the gloom. More shapes oozed and fluttered, some of them incinerated and some of them still almost recognizable as bits of people.
“They were…” She swallowed down the bile in her throat. “They were burned.”
“They were incinerated.”
“Uh-huh. How…er, how many, do you think?” She shook herself. She’d seen bodies before. She’d even seen burned bodies. There was no need to be so squeamish.
“I couldn’t begin to imagine.” A warm touch on her elbow made her flinch, but it was just Bael. “You okay?”
“Five by five,” she said, and looked at him. “We need to get out of here.”
He nodded and took her arm, and they picked their way carefully over the remains to the light source at one end of the cave. It turned out to be the night sky, stars and moon shining high up. There was a small clearing outside the cave, and a path leading downward. The rest was trees, sloping away into darkness. A mountain. Impossible to tell how big.
By the scant light, Kett could see symbols scorched into the walls of the cave. They didn’t resemble any language she knew, but they made her shudder nonetheless.
They stood for a second, breathing in the clean air.
And then there was a sound from behind them, inside the cave, a shuffling sort of sound, which was probably made by a small animal or a stray munta but which to her ears was certainly one of their captors, not quite incinerated and definitely coming after them.
Kett shared a split-second glance with Bael, and then they were running, straight into the trees, leaping over logs and ducking under branches, hauling each other upright when they tripped, whipped and scratched by the trees and the rocks, until the ground was flat and the woods so dense they couldn’t see the sky anymore. She tripped, her right thigh throbbing, the muscles on fire after such hard use with no warm-up, and it finally just refused to work anymore.
She collapsed on the cold, damp ground and, as she went over, Bael fell with her, rolling to take the fall, and then she was sprawled on top of him, naked and panting, adrenaline pumping through her.
His hands touched her back, the scars there, and she recoiled for a second because no lover had ever seen those scars before, but then his fingers skimmed over her buttocks and she caught her breath because it felt good.
He felt really good. Kett lifted her head and his dark green eyes met hers, and then his mouth met hers too, and she grabbed his head by the hair and kissed him, hard, relieved and grateful they were both still alive. Kissing him made the fear and the bruises and the confusion fade away, so she kissed him harder. He tasted good, even better than before, and when he shifted beneath her and she felt his cock growing between them, hard and hot, she rubbed against it.
Bael tore away from her mouth to groan and she nipped his throat with her teeth. His hand slipped between her buttocks and delved lower, finding her pussy lips swollen and wet. Her face buried against his neck, Kett moaned and rubbed her breasts against his chest. His body was hot, damp with sweat, heaving, delicious.
She sat up, slid forward and sank down on his cock. His head back, Bael gasped, and then his hands were clutching at her hips, urging her on. She moved, faster and faster as the heat built inside her, this stranger filling her up, her skin prickling, her blood rushing. He pulled her down and kissed her mouth, her neck, her breasts, sucking one nipple into his mouth and rolling it between his teeth until she came in a sudden, bucking orgasm, crying out, her back arching.
Moments later his cock jerked inside her and he came too, and she fell against him, exhausted, shaking, his hands stroking her back, his arms holding her. Within seconds she was asleep.