Vanquished by Allyson Young Read Free Book Online Page A

far deeper and far reaching, like her concealed grief. A startling need to protect her coursed through his veins and he
approached the bed.
    “Move to the far side, lie back
and raise your hands. I’m going to cuff you and shorten the tethers. I need to
rest, and I don’t trust you as yet.”
    “So sleep elsewhere. I prefer not
to be tied up.”
    “This is my cabin, little warrior. And we will share quarters from here on
in. Move over and raise your hands.”
    She obeyed him, clearly having
weighed the alternatives, but her anger simmered, tangible and cloying. He
restrained her wrists and hooked a length of silken rope to one of the bolts,
leaving enough slack for her to roll over and also partially lower her arms to
allow blood flow, but not enough to allow her to cause him bodily harm while he
slept. He didn’t care to be garroted. How he’d actually sleep was anyone’s
guess, when his balls ached as though he hadn’t emptied them for gordis .
      She was so lovely, with her round breasts
lifted as if for his touch, the long line of her waist and slight swell of her
hips drawing him in. The thin strip of dark curls on her mound was in direct
contrast to the smoothness of her labia, and he longed to open her there and
trace her inner petals, search out her nub of pleasure and find her opening. He
yearned to fuck her and wondered how he’d ever restrain himself until the
holding period was over. His beast paced within. For the first time, Vayne
cursed his culture but allowed it was steeped not only in tradition but in
solid common sense. The Shadalla had kidnapped females in the distant past, and
the rules put in place then held considerable practicality today. It was why
they’d turned to them again—with human females.
    “Are you comfortable?”
    “Fine.” She bit off the word and looked
away.
    “Slide farther over, my little
warrior.”
    With a huff, she did as he
instructed, nearly to the wall, breasts bobbling enticingly. She then turned
onto her side, giving him the length of her back. His own breath caught as he
viewed what he’d missed earlier—the scarring of her skin, thin welts placed
precisely, one beneath the other, from her shoulders to the small of her back.
Squinting, he could see fainter marks on the fullness of her buttocks and upper
thighs. Clearly, the additional tissue there had healed more easily than the
thinner skin of her back. She had been whipped countless times, and perhaps her
flesh hadn’t healed between the assaults, the ridged lines as exact as if drawn
by a straight edge. The fine line of skin between each of them was a mockery of
what had likely been as beautiful as the front of her.
    Vayne wrestled with such a surge
of rage his temples pounded and the breath stuttered in his chest. He opened
his mouth to ask her what happened, then shut it
tightly. The markings may well have been consensual. Many cultures practiced
such things, humans among them. There was much to learn about his intended.
    She rolled her head slightly and
caught him staring, perhaps had felt the heat of his gaze. “I told you I
recognized perverts. Your Lordship.”
    He reared back and sought the
words, any words, for she’d confirmed his darkest thoughts. He reached out and
touched his fingertips to her back, tracing the welts, feeling the silken skin
between the scars ripple as she shuddered away. Perhaps he was wrong, and he
had to know. “Did you ask for this? Want this?” It was better than the
alternative.
    “Fuck you, Sovereign. You get no
more from me.”
    She looked toward the wall as he
brought his reaction under control. There would be time tomorrow to address her
withholding. The process of integration had already begun. He could feel it,
unable to think of anyone but her, the empty place in him eagerly preparing to
be filled and completed. He climbed into the bunk beside her, aware of its
width, or lack of it, and relished the closeness. She wouldn’t be able to hide
from him for