So Tain was left with no choice but to stand and squirm where she’d been put. She could hear the sound of something like leaves moving in a small breeze, which probably meant they’d stopped in a stand of woods of some kind. If she hadn’t been tied she would have stumbled off into those woods even if she couldn’t see where she was going, and once she put enough distance between herself and her new owner she would have had the time to do something about the blindfold and the leather on her wrists.

But tying her like this effectively killed that plan. Being so hot didn’t encourage clear thinking, but even with the heat raging around in her body Tain was getting suspicious. Why would someone who had bought an “obedient slave” have her wrists tied behind her and then tie her to a tree or something? It just didn’t make any sense—

“Oh!” Tain cried out as a big hand smacked her bottom once, hard. The smack hurt, but more than that it had made her even hotter than she’d been. The man was back near her and doing something from the sounds Tain heard, but she didn’t know what that something was until she was picked up and put down on her back on what felt like a blanket. The length of leather tying her to a branch or a bush was now slack, but the looseness did her no good at all.

And then two lips and a tongue came to her hardened left nipple, the tickle from the tongue making her moan and squirm even harder. A big body was now positioned between her knees, probably in a crouch, and when the tongue moved to lick her right nipple two hands also came to caress her body. Nothing but mewling came from Tain’s throat as the sensations seared through her body, that body bouncing and kicking in a silent demand for easing. And then—

A scream forced its way from Tain’s throat as the unseen man thrust himself inside her, a scream of victory at getting what she needed so badly. Then she choked some when the size of the man became very clear, a size she hadn’t been expecting. But when he began to stroke in and out of her the mewling returned as she matched his motions, as she was forced to match his motions. The demands of her body let her do nothing else, and in no more than a moment she was lost to the incredible sensations.

The sex lasted for quite a long time, allowing Tain to explode again and again in an easing of need. Not being able to see somehow made the time more intense for her, focusing all her attention on what she was being made to feel. When the man finally let himself join her latest explosion, Tain couldn’t decide if she was relieved or disappointed. The experience had been incredible, and when the man withdrew to lie beside her his hand came to gently touch her middle.

“That was almost as good as I thought it would be,” the man drawled, his hand on her middle downright possessive. “But don’t worry, Kitten, I wasn’t really disappointed. And as the days pass I know you’ll get better and better. You won’t be given a choice about that.”

The man chuckled over what he’d said, but Tain was so shocked she almost forgot to breathe. She now knew why so many precautions had been taken with her, and also knew why the man hadn’t spoken sooner. That deep, arrogant voice couldn’t possibly be missed, not when she’d spent so long a time avoiding the man who owned it.

It was a small relief to know she’d been found and retrieved by someone from her department, but why did that someone have to be Jake Killen? And what the hell had he meant about her “getting better?” He couldn’t possibly be thinking of keeping her as a slave? No, he was probably just trying to torment her…

Wasn’t he…?

“Do you think it’s safe to untie me and take off this blindfold now?” Tain finally forced herself to say, letting a hint of disdain color the words. “If you’re afraid I’ll attack you, I can always promise not to.”

“Before I untie you we need to get the ground rules straight,” Killen answered, sounding a lot less disturbed than Tain had hoped he would. “I’m in charge this time, not you, so we’ll be doing things my way. There are a number of reasons why I’ve been put in charge and told to stay there, not the least of which is the fact that you’re not entirely your old self.”

“I’m also not completely and totally under the influence of the drug, something you ought to know,” Tain countered, getting more unhappy by the minute. “If not for that fool female I was saddled with—But that’s beside the point. The fact still remains that I can do what I have to even with that drug in me.”

“But not nearly as well as you normally can, and there’s no getting rid of the drug until we’re back where we belong,” Killen stated, his voice taking on a hardness Tain didn’t like at all. “You can’t go back to being an upper class woman, not when there’s a chance someone will say something to show you do have the drug in you, so you have to stay a slave. That means doing as you’re told, not whatever you care to.”

“That’s garbage,” Tain said, making the mistake of moving in annoyance. The movement started that insertion to working on her again, and having to lie absolutely still to calm the thing again multiplied her annoyance. “If I’m dressed as an upper class woman and you’re acting as my protector, everyone we met would talk to you rather than me. You’re just trying to—”

“And if I don’t happen to be around every minute of the day and night?” Killen interrupted, still with that hardness in his voice. “All it would take would be one bit of bad luck, and then the game would be over. Do I have to remind you what’s done to slaves who pretend to be free?”

Tain had parted her lips to snarl at the fool, but his last words left her with very little to say. She did know what happened to slaves who dared to pretend they were free, and to say the fate wasn’t pretty was to understate by a mile. Death was a happy thing compared to what would be done to her…

“And where do you think I would get the clothes and other requirements of an upper class woman?” Killen went on after only a very brief pause. “My character is nothing but a mercenary, and even if there were stores to go into where the clothes and things could be bought, how could I explain why I was buying those things? And then there’s my companion, who’ll be joining us in a short while…”

“What companion?” Tain asked automatically while her mind scrabbled around looking for a way out of the mess. A way she could live with… “Who are you talking about?”

“We’ve managed to recruit one of the natives of this world who’s willing to work with us,” Killen said. “Tandro is smart enough to know that enslaving women is bad for his world, so he’s going to try to help us change the practice. But he grew up with the rules this planet operates under, and he knows I just bought you at the slave auction. He’ll expect you and the girl to be treated like any other slave, at least until we get you both back to where you came from.”

“The girl,” Tain said, knowing the place Killen meant was the very well-concealed base they operated out of. And that had to mean he’d been at the base when her tracer and Ennie’s had shown they’d been taken. “Are you telling me your friend is the one who bought Ennie? And I thought I’d be rid of her for a while.”

“I couldn’t very well let her be sold into real slavery, now could I?” Killen asked, amusement having entered his voice. “Tandro bought the girl and I bought you, and we each left the compound with our slaves and headed in a different direction. Tandro will circle around and meet us here, where we’ll camp for the night. First thing tomorrow we’ll all head back, he and I taking care of our assignment on the way. The assignment shouldn’t take long, so this will all be over almost before you know it.”

The amusement had strengthened in Killen’s voice, and Tain didn’t have to wonder why. He sounded like a used-car salesman, trying to talk someone into buying one of his lemons.