DarkRevenge by Jennifer Leeland Read Free Book Online Page B

him.
    “Please, Tory.” She didn’t even know what she was asking him
for.
    “You should have come with me, Alexandra.” He raised his
head and stared at her.
    “You were under Tribunal arrest,” she protested. “What you
asked was too much.”
    His eyes flickered, hardened, something bitter and ugly back
in his face. “I suppose it was. I should have known you would always choose
Teran One over anything real.”
    “Teran One is my home.”
    “And I was a disgraced Commander with a nothing bloodline.”
His cock, still buried inside her, twitched. “But now, you have no one but me.”
He lengthened, hardened. “You see, they sold you out. I claimed you. They
rejected you.”
    “No!” She knew he was right. But it made everything she’d
ever believed pointless, worthless.
    “Yes!” He gripped her hair tighter until she cried out.
Stars, it hurt, but not as much as the possibility that she could have had
something special, something real, with this man and had thrown it away for
nothing. For a king who had sold her out. For a planet that wanted her dead.
For a brother who betrayed her.
    “Betrayed!” She shouted the safeword at him.
    The tears she’d cried for the last twenty-four hours dried
up and she was numb. It didn’t matter what he did to her. It didn’t matter.
Nothing did.
    Immediately, he slid his cock out of her and released her
hair. But he didn’t leave her. Gently, he stroked her hair, his body still
naked on hers. “Shhh, little Alexandra. You will find my revenge more
pleasurable than your duty.”
    He slipped away from her and pulled on his clothes. “Until
you are willing to give yourself to me completely, I will keep you restrained.”
    What the hell did he mean? She had given herself to him.
Didn’t he realize that? He gazed down at her, his finger slid along her
tear-stained cheek. “I don’t just want your body, Commander Zeerah. I want your
loyalty. I want your ‘duty’ to be only to me.”
    “Then you’ll have to leave me tied up forever,” she said
bitterly. She would never shirk her duty to her planet for sex. Never.
    He shrugged. “That’s no hardship for me.”
    She opened her mouth to berate him, but he was gone before
she had a chance. He left her thoughts of the past swirling through her brain.

Chapter Four
     
    “Pacing will not make the information come faster,” Jezar
informed Tory. As if he didn’t know that. Years of careful cultivation, of
money spread in the right places, wouldn’t be rushed because he was in a hurry.
His sources on Teran One were questionable and their verifying information took
time. Alex probably thought he’d walked away from Teran One, hurt and vengeful.
The truth was more complicated.
    Part of his vengeance meant cheating Teran One merchants,
especially those with government contracts. That required sources and agents on
the planet. Yes, he’d stayed in touch these past few years. He’d planned his
revenge on Alexandra for a long time.
    Now, he needed real-time news. His sources were transitory
and on the move. Chaos had taken over on Teran One.
    His new mate had no idea of what events had transpired while
she had attempted to carry that cargo.
    Essentially, if his informants weren’t a bunch of liars, a
civil war was brewing and the two sides were not the ones Alex thought they
were. On one side, the Royal Family. On the other side, the hungry First
Families all vying to take over. So far, the ruling family had maintained
control. But not King Darius. He was finished. Pontoon ran the government now.
Darius sat on the throne but he had no power. Did Alex know her cousin
essentially ruled with an empty hand?
    Her fear for her sister seemed justified now. She hadn’t
asked Darius not to marry Celeste off. She’d asked Darius not to let Pontoon marry her off. Perhaps Alex had figured out her cousin was king in name
only.
    “Keeping up with your thoughts is like chasing a star
speeder,” Jezar commented.
    “Then get out of