AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Okay. Are you… going to let me go through it first?”
He answered without hesitation. “No.”
“Excuse me, what?”
She studied him, looking for any indication that he was joking or… or she had misunderstood. But Caligher looked dead serious.
No,she wasn’t going through the portal first.No,she wasn’t going home. Ever.
Hopelessness swallowed her. In the back of her mind, she’d figured that going home would always be an option, a last resort. But if he had his way, the option would disappear. She’d never see Earth again.
Her eyes burned. Her throat burned. Even her face felt bright red as the freedom that space had once offered turned into the walls of a prison. She didn’t know what was going to happen to her. Everything was in his hands.
Caligher rose from the console so abruptly that she leaned back in her chair. His path brought him to a stop beside her, where he lingered.
“Your goal was the jump point, wasn’t it?” He cocked his head down at her.
She nodded. Should she plead with him? She hadn’t even been certain she wanted to leave this place, but if her friendship with Caligher was dead, then what was the point of remaining?
“You were going to make a run for your homeworld,” he said.
“That was the idea once. If things hadn’t turned out…”
His eyes seemed to pierce through her. “If I hadn’t taken your ship?”
She stared ahead in silence.
“If I hadn’t taken you captive?”
Captive?
All thoughts of home abandoned her as she met his stare.
Shooting her gaze forward, she refused to feed into it. They were too shaky and she didn’t know where that thread would lead them. If it meant getting thrown out of an airlock or into an alien prison, she didn’t want to play that game.
Still, he lingered, visibly picking apart her attempt to ignore him. “We can call it what it is. You’re my prisoner.” The words made her shiver. “I’d keep you in a cell but… I imagine this ship is its own kind of cell.”
Her mind felt thick and slow, all the words he’d said to her before colliding with his towering presence now. He was all disdainful superiority.
“I won’t be dropping you off at Morwong’s for any reward,” he’d said before learning what she was. “You would be the reward.”
She doubted she could cash in on that promise. The thought of him dumping her off once he tired of her stung. It would kill her. The heartache she’d been fighting suddenly throbbed deeper than she could bear.
“Is this my punishment for being human—or for keeping the fact from you?” Now that he was here, she might as well learn which was worse in his eyes.
His eyes flashed. “Punishment?”
Her stomach flip-flopped at that word on his tongue.
“That’s an interesting thought,” he said. “Maybe that’s what this whole deranged situation calls for.” His gaze ignited as it raked over her skin. Like they were still… something else.
But they were nothing. He hated her. He had to. And he was toying with her in an act of pure cruelty that made her want to cry. Maybe it made him feel better because it made her feel worse.
“Do you think punishment would help things now?” he asked, studying her face unremittingly.
She bit her inner cheek and said nothing, but her face warmed. Caligher burst out with a short, mocking laugh. “You would like that, wouldn’t you? Would it help you feel better if I bent you over and—”
“Stop!” She stared at him in horrified shock.
