Marked for Pleasure by Jennifer Leeland Read Free Book Online Page B

kept her fingers on his mark, knowing that he must be experiencing the same intensity from her touch.
    This time, when his cum streamed inside her, the mark flared with sensual pleasure, not burning pain, though Rhea wasn't sure she knew the difference anymore.
    They were both shaking. She could barely stand, devastated to her very soul by what had just happened.
    His head rested on her shoulder, and she lifted her arm to stare at the mark.
    Circular, like his, with a shower of stars inside it. Impossibly intricate, and different than any other she'd seen. How could she have ever believed they were branded on the skin in any normal way? “How?”
    He was still breathless. “It's in my sperm. I can control the chemicals in my semen and mark a woman as my mate.”
    “But why the arm? Yours is on the inside of your hip,” she said and stared at where their bodies were joined.
    “I don't know,” he admitted. “It's a visible sign of possession.”
    Her eyes narrowed. “Convenient for you.”
    He met her gaze. “And I can only do it once. It's irreversible. The only way to undo it is if one of us dies.”
    The enormity of what he was saying spliced through her. “What?”
    He studied her face for a moment and then slid away from her. “Don't worry. I probably wouldn't have mated anyway. This way, you have a built-in protector.” His tone was so bitter.
    “I never asked for that,” she snapped, her body cold, the mark aching.
    “It's done.” He turned and started to dress. “Don't worry. When I'm dead, the mark will fade.”
    Her stomach churned, and she gripped his arm to yank him to face her. “Why? Why did you do this?”
    He sighed and handed her a flight suit. “I told you. Because someone wants me dead, little bird. If we had dropped into a different system, I could have left you there safe and sound. But we're in the Sethos system, and the only way to protect you is to mark you.”
    “You didn't tell me it was permanent. You have a lot of nerve,” she snapped. Nothing he was doing now added up with the man she'd been researching for two years. Apparently, she'd been so caught up with catching him, she hadn't learned a fucking thing about him or his people. She'd known the mark was part of their ritual, but permanent? Until one of them died? What the fuck was going on? The man she'd been chasing was a cold bastard who let hundreds of people die for his greed. He was a killer, a crook, a fucking scourge of the galaxy. She shook her head. It didn't add up. “You don't make any sense,” she muttered as she zipped up the flight suit.
    He headed for the cockpit, and she followed him. “I'll keep it short and simple. I've been undercover for three years trying to stop a group of highly trained murderers.”
    She blinked. Okay, she hadn't been expecting that. He glanced at her and gave her a tight smile. “You met some of them on the Star of Pleasure .” He slid into the pilot's seat.
    She nodded. “The Brotherhood.” She still didn't trust him. “And who are you working for?”
    His smile held no humor. “For the Teran governments. The problem is that some of the intel I've collected involved some powerful people.” He flicked the autopilot off and headed for Sethos Five. “It seems that I've been slated to be eliminated. By both sides.”
    Her throat was dry. It all made too much sense. The things she knew about him, the way her heart never believed what her head insisted was true. “But you raided that supply ship. You delayed that serum.” She clutched his arm.
    He shook his head slowly. “You don't get it, do you? There was no serum, Rhea. That supply ship never existed.” His eyes narrowed to slits. “The Blueshift Brotherhood didn't dust your planet with anything that could be cured. Only survived.” One of his eyebrows rose. “Let me see if I can guess who told you that. Does the name General Halloway sound familiar?”
    Abruptly she sat down in the copilot's chair. She wanted to hurl.