Pursued by the Imperial Prince (Imperial Princes Book 1) Read online

  Because security was so tight, she’d never even tried to get near one. With so many agencies on the lookout for her, trying to stow away on any of the commercial liners was a no-go. She’d have been picked up in seconds. She’d kicked the idea about for months, trying to figure a way to get aboard one. Once on board, all she had to do was locate an emergency pod and bam, she was home clear. Even the meager landing thrusters on a pod would enable her to navigate in the ebbs and flows of the jump stream.

  All her plotting and planning had come to nothing though. With retinal and DNA scans standard procedure at all jump-stations, there was no way for a wanted woman to get anywhere near check in, never mind departures.

  All fields were heavily guarded, even this one. It had patrols and automated level-six defense drones on all sides. Bar one—the side covered by an “impenetrable” asteroid field. Jaida allowed a small smile to cross her lips as she set a direct course for the shimmering violet-blue of freedom.

  Clunk-click. Slam.

  The sound of metal on metal sounded overhead and reverberated through the small shuttlecraft. She jumped, wincing at the tortured scream of the shuttle’s space frame as something latched onto it.

  “Shit! No! This isn’t happening.” Her gaze raced over the pilots’ consoles. Her hands followed suit, but she knew it was hopeless. Something large and powerful had locked onto her with clamps, the high magnetic fields starting to disrupt the smaller vessel’s systems as it was reeled in.

  “No, no, no. I won’t go back…I can’t go back.”

  Tearing her harness off, she was out of the pilots chair in a second. Desperation hummed through her frame as she looked around the small cabin. The shuttle was two man, with one interior room and no escape pod. A single low-rise bulkhead separated the cockpit from the tiny living area.

  Her eyes widened as a new sound entered the fray directly overhead, a grinding, squealing noise. As she watched, the bulkhead above her started to glow in a distinctive circle. Instinctively she ducked as the sparks of the boarding-cutter began to fly.

  She backed up into the corner, tears of anger and frustration pricking at the back of her eyes. She’d been so close…so close she could almost smell freedom. Her gaze latched onto the glowing, spitting circle in the roof as she slid down the wall into a tired, defeated little ball. Defeat rose up to overwhelm her. She would never be free of him.

  Ever.

  THE BOARDING CUTTER was almost done. Seth stood by the machine and waited impatiently as it did its work, cutting through the layers of high-tensile steel and tri-titanium plates, which made up the hull and interior compartments of Jaida’s shuttle.

  It would be ruined, of course, but once he had her aboard the Prince’s Dream he’d cut it loose to become just another piece of debris in the asteroid field. It wouldn’t take long for random collisions with the rocks within to render it unidentifiable and its technology too smashed to be useful to anyone.

  Finally the cutter was done. His eyes gleamed as it snapped off. With a whir the laser ring lifted and withdrew back into its recess, taking the section it had cut from the shuttle below with it. Gas hissed as it was released and the air pressure between the two vessels equalized. An old hand at boarding other ships, Seth swallowed and wiggled his jaw until his ears popped.

  He approached the hatch with care, scooting down to look around the compartment revealed below. She was armed, or at least she had been on his flagship if the empty holsters of the incapacitated guards were any indication. The last thing he wanted was to dangle his legs through there and get shot in the family jewels.

  His hair brushed the deck plating as he lowered his body into a push-up position to get a view of the back of the shuttle. Grease and whatever they used to clean the plasti-flooring wafted up to his nose as he scooted around.

  His silver eyes narrowed. She was in the back corner, curled up into a ball with her arms around her legs and her head on her knees. He frowned. What in blazes was she doing?

  Checking the restraining clip on his sidearm Seth dropped through the hatch and landed lightly. He kept his eyes on her all the time in case she went for a weapon. She didn’t move. She didn’t even flinch as his boots hit the deck plating.

  “Jaida?”

  There was no reply. In fact she didn’t respond at all as he walked toward her, and he was left in the unusual position of not knowing what the hell to do. Where were the pistols she’d taken? With half an eye on the seated woman, he cast his gaze about the cabin, finally locating them in the foot well in front of the copilot’s seat. His frown deepened. Nothing about this was making sense. Why would she run again, and not use them when he caught her?

  “Jaida, honey…are you hurt?”

  He crossed the cabin in long strides. Worried, he searched for signs of blood. The madcap moves she’d been pulled could easily have thrown her from the pilot’s seat and knocked her out.

  “I’m not hurt.”

  Her voice was quiet, and finally she moved. Her hand disappeared under the fall of her hair and he got the distinct impression she was wiping her eyes dry.

  “Look at me.”

  Crouching in front of her, he tried to see under the cascading purple locks. He was expecting to see teary eyes filled with the tiredness he’d seen earlier. What he wasn’t expecting was for her to burst into action. In his haste to make sure she was okay he hadn’t noticed how she was sat, with her legs half bunched under her.

  Big mistake.

  Using the power from her coiled legs she threw herself at him, knocking him off his feet, and heading for the cut-out boarding hatch that led to his craft.

  “What the—” Seth swore as he landed on his ass. Her slender, lithe form shot over him, just out of reach of his grasping hands. He twisted, forcing his body into movement. If she got through that hatch and hit the disengage switch, he was going to be sucking cold space. The fact that Jaida would be put to death for the murder of an Imperial Prince was scant comfort. He’d still be dead.

  She reached the hatch, leaped up and dangled from it as she prepared to haul herself into the shuttle above.

  “Oh no you don’t.” Adrenalin surged through him as he threw himself toward her. She squealed, a soft exclamation of denial and frustration as she tried to haul herself out of the way. He hit her midsection and they fell from the hatch in a tangle of limbs.

  Seth found himself holding onto a wildcat. Someone, somewhere, had taught Jaida to fight. His breath left his lungs in a hiss as he blocked rapid-fire punches. She didn’t hit hard, but she was fast, and good as he was, some sneaked through his guard.

  “You little—”

  After what seemed like an age, he latched a hand around one of her slender wrists and slammed it into the deck above her head. His lips compressed into a hard line as he grabbed the other one and forced it to join the first.

  “What the fuck do you think you were doing?” He glared down at her, but she wouldn’t look at him. Her eyes remained closed tight and her face turned away. He was too angry at first to notice the way her body felt under his, the way her curves fitted to his hard planes, but that didn’t last long.

  His cock hardened in a heartbeat, a fact that just fueled his anger. Warin was right; there were other women who would welcome his love, yet he wanted the one who’d run. Wanted the one who’d planned to kill him…and he still wanted her.

  What kind of sick bastard was he?

  6

  “Look at me!” The hard grip on her wrists brought tears to her eyes. “You were going to condemn me to cold, hard space so the least you can do is look at me.”

  Jaida felt the flames of Seth’s anger licking at her skin as he hauled her to her feet. Even if she had gotten into his shuttle, she hadn’t a clue what she’d been going to do. She’d run out of desperation, but she hadn’t meant to kill him. Not even to save her own life, not even if it meant she could escape him forever. She’d never have done that.

  “No. No…I wasn’t. I swear!”
r />   For once she didn’t fight him, just lifted her eyes to his, a pleading expression in them. She needed him to believe that. For some reason deep inside, she couldn’t bear that he thought she could do something like that.

  “Can it.”

  His voice was as hard as his hands as he pulled her upright and spun her around. Air exploded from her lungs in a cry as he twisted her arm up her back. A firm grip held her wrist painfully high between her shoulder blades and the sound of him searching in his pockets came from behind her. An agonizing ache throbbed through her captured arm. All she could do was stand there and concentrate on breathing. Even the tiniest move sent fresh waves of agony through her body.

  “Please,” she whimpered, hating herself for the pathetic note in her voice, but begging anyway. “You’re hurting me.”

  Coldness clamped around her wrists, first the one up her back, then when he released it, around the other. Jaida couldn’t focus for a moment; a bone-cracking jolt of pain surged through her body as he released the pressure on her wrist.

  She staggered forward, catching herself on the single cot at the side of the compartment and hugging her abused arm close to her body. Long seconds later the pain subsided and she could breathe again.

  “What the hell was that?” Instinctively she rubbed her hands down her arms and paused as she encountered something new. Around her wrists were two narrow metal cuffs. “What the—”

  “That was a Terranian pressure point hold.”

  He yanked her to her feet and pushed her toward the hole in the ceiling. “And those are neural restraint cuffs,” he said, bundling her through the boarding hatch as though she weighed nothing. She squeaked as she flew through the air, his hands getting very familiar with her butt. Too familiar.

  Then she hit the hard deck plating of the shuttle above. She still had enough wits about her to try and scramble away and put as much distance between herself and Seth’s anger as she could.

  “Oh no you don’t. Cuffs, mag-hold.”

  Seth’s order was sharp as he hauled himself up after her. The bracelets on her wrists yanked her arms down until she was forced to her hands and knees. The metal of the cuffs clicked against the deck plating and stuck.

  Grunting with effort Jaida yanked on them but they refused to budge. Sticking her ass in the air, she put one foot against the floor next to her wrists and heaved.

  “Son of a bitch!” she cursed as she managed to take three layers of skin off the inside of her wrists. “Seth. You let me out of here, right now!”

  His laughter rolled around the cabin as he walked past her and her upturned ass. It wasn’t a nice sound. There was no humor and lots of bitterness in it. She shivered and dropped to her knees, shuffling around to keep him in sight. Ignoring her, he worked at the main console, his tall broad-shouldered form blocking the view out the main window.

  Behind her the boarding mechanism whirred into action. Metal grated against metal in a high pitched and tortured squeal as the hatch started to move.

  “Hope you didn’t have anything valuable on there.”

  The view of the other shuttle’s interior disappeared from view. A heavy thud reverberated through the small vessel as the docking clamps disengaged. The floor lurched on release, and Jaida’s knees slid across the floor. The cuffs rubbed another layer of skin from the inside of her wrists before she could brace herself and stop her movement.

  “If you did, tough shit. It’s gone.”

  Wariness hummed through her body as he turned toward her. For a moment she was caught up in just watching him. He didn’t walk; he stalked. Every movement held the grace and beauty of a warrior in his prime. A predator. One with all his attention focused on her. She’d spent five years running from his wrath, but in that instant, she realized she’d never seen him this angry.

  Anger swirled around him like a storm, fury and frustration rolling off him in waves as he approached. Her heart stilled in her chest as he stood over her. His silver eyes were hard as he studied her. Seconds crawled by and stretched out to occupy centuries. She searched his eyes, looking for something, anything, but they were devoid of expression. Shuffling back, she tried to put distance between them, only to be stopped by the cuffs on her wrists.

  “Damn it! Let me out of…” She didn’t get to finish her demand, high pitched with nerves as it was. He sliced his hand up for silence.

  “You wanted to be treated as a whore?” His voice was cold as ice as he reached down to grab her wrist.

  “Well, I didn’t me—”

  “I’ll tell you when I want you to speak. Mag-release.”

  His hand was on her arm, hauling her upright before she could take another breath. Then he let go but didn’t move away, just stood so close she could feel the heat of his body beating against hers. Warily she lifted her gaze to his. Heat and intent burned in the silver depths.

  She swallowed and backed up. For each step she took backward, he took one forward, stalking her across the cabin. Her flight stopped when her shoulders bumped against the metal bulkhead of the wall.

  “Nowhere left to go, Jaida.”

  His voice was low, almost seductive, but she shivered at the sound. Her heart thumped painfully against her ribcage as he stepped toward her. His hand stroked down her shoulder and slid down her arm until he reached her wrist. Gently he captured one hand then the other, stretching them over her head. Any illusion of choice was just that. She didn’t dare move or argue for fear of bringing his wrath down on her. The cuffs clicked against the metal wall and she knew what was coming before he spoke.

  “Cuffs, mag-lock”

  Jaida tried to keep the tears from her eyes. She didn’t want this, not with him angry with her. Hard hands skimmed over her figure in a hard caress. One paused in the curve of her waist as the other reached down and hooked the back of her knee. Lifting her leg, he pulled it over his hip and pressed into her. She caught her breath as the thick hardness of his cock rubbed against her. Even with the layers of clothing between them, the friction and pressure against her hypersensitive clit almost had her eyes rolling back in her head.

  “You keep telling me you’re a whore, so you win. I’ll treat you like one. I’m fed up with treating you like a lady and getting it thrown back in my face. Whores get fucked, which suits me just fine.”

  Her heart ached at his cruel words. Then his hands were moving over her body and scattering her thought processes, cruel hard caresses as he explored the curves and lines of her body, ones that made her burn with shame…and squirm with need.

  “We don’t need this. Whores don’t wear clothes.”

  His hand caught in the neck of her suit and tore it down the front in one savage move. Cool air washed over skin as he shoved the fabric out of the way to reveal her body from neck to crotch. She squirmed, her breasts jiggling slightly as she realized he could see everything. Heat surged through her as she saw herself as he must see her.

  Arms above her head, bare breasts rising and falling with each breath as her nipples tightened into tight little buds begging for attention. The softness of her belly as it gave way to the neatly trimmed triangle of hair over her mound just visible at the end of the tear.

  “Of course,” he continued, his voice hard, but his eyes hotter than a star going supernova. “Wearing this adds another black mark to your already impressive record.”

  He shook his head then reached out and tweaked one of her nipples. Liquid heat flooded her body, slipping from her pussy as it made itself ready for him. Her face burned with shame.

  “Impersonating a Sector Seven operative is a serious offense. By rights I should have you thrown in prison.”

  His fingers slid under the last bit of fabric covering her modesty and pulled. The fabric gave again, this time the tear going all the way along the seam, only stopping halfway up, just below her tailbone. Jaida whimpered. She was completely open to him and helpless. He could do whatever he wanted to her now. Who was she kidding? From that moment in the dockyard offic
e he’d been able to do anything he wanted to her.

  He kissed down her neck, but the touch of his lips panicked rather than aroused her. Tears welled in her eyes and spilled down her cheeks unchecked. She didn’t care that he saw, didn’t care what he thought anymore, whether he thought she was weak or pathetic or not. She didn’t want this, and every kiss with no feeling in it that he placed on her skin broke her heart.

  SETH REACHED up to brush her hair back from her face and claim her lips. His fingers encountered wetness and he frowned. She was crying.

  He froze, his heart twisting painfully.

  Silent tears streamed down her cheeks, her head turned away from him. Lady, what kind of monster was he? He’d never forced a woman before, especially not one who meant as much to him as Jaida.

  “Oh Lady…I’m sorry. Mag-release.”

  As soon as the cuffs released, Seth gathered her up into his arms and carried her to the bed. Her suit was ruined but her hands fluttered around the torn front, trying to pull it back together and cover her nakedness. Seth tried to help, only to have her flinch from his touch.

  “No, no. I can do it,” she muttered, her voice thick with tears.

  He stood up, unsure of what to do. She flinched when he touched her, fear and pain in her eyes. Even in his blackest rages, he hadn’t wanted that. Not for her to fear him and dread his touch.

  “Here.” He tried to make his voice as gentle as possible as he recovered a blanket from the compartment above the bed and draped it over her. She pulled it around her like a shield and drew her legs up close. Her shoulders shook harder, the sobs still silent, as though she’d learned not to show her pain to the world.

  Seth winced, feeling every silent sob like a spear to his heart. What had he done? Was his revenge really worth this, to break her so completely? He’d never wanted this. Unable to stand by idly he sat down on the bunk next to her and pulled her into his arms.