Free Burning Up Flint by Laurann Dohner

stilled, wrapped around each other as Flint stood there holding her tightly.
    “You are mine,” he finally whispered. “I will never let you go.”
    She should have resented the words but she didn’t. She didn’t want him to let her go. As much as she might miss her family, the truth was she rarely saw her parents. Her father was always traveling the world with his business and her mother’s circle of charity benefits always kept her from making time for either of her two children. Mira’s brother was a senator and she only saw him every few years. With her job as a sales rep for Firmaline , a company that sold products to space stations, she traveled too often to have a boyfriend or keep friends. There really wasn’t much to give up or miss on Earth.
    Logically she should be fighting her captor. She should hate Flint for taking her from that shuttle but the truth was that she didn’t. She’d been excited when she’d seen the cyborgs after her initial shock at their continued existence. If he’d left her on that shuttle she’d have blown up and her life would have been over anyway. Thinking of it like that reminded her that he’d saved her life. She was drawn to Flint and she was experiencing strong feelings for him that went beyond his sexual skills. The thought of how he’d gotten those skills finally drew her out of her post-coital euphoria.
    “No more hookers, okay?”
    Flint tensed, holding her, and lifted his head. He frowned at her. “Hookers?”
    “Female pleasure ship workers. I’m yours now and you don’t need another woman, right?”
    He blinked, tilted his head. “It disturbs you, yes? I see anger in your eyes at the thought of me having sex with other women. Am I reading you correctly? Why?”
    “You don’t want to share me with other men.”
    He nodded. “That is correct. You are mine. I own you.”
    His words weren’t what she wanted to hear. She wanted him to understand that it went both ways. He didn’t want men to touch her and she didn’t want women to touch him. She chewed on her bottom lip and tried to get him to see it from her point of view.
    “Well, since you don’t want to share me and don’t want other men touching me, I don’t want to share you either. If I am yours then you are mine right back.”
    Dark blue eyes narrowed as his body tensed. “You are small and fragile. They could harm you. Other women couldn’t harm me.”
    Mira tensed in shock as his painful words hit her and sank in. “Is that the only reason you aren’t trading me to other men? You’re afraid I’ll get damaged somehow?”
    “It’s a real possibility. You are mine and I want to protect you from ever getting hurt. If you are harmed, I could lose you and I want to keep you. You wouldn’t be useful to me if you were damaged.”
    Her heart plummeted. He didn’t care about her in the way she had thought. He was looking at her as if she were valuable property. Her brother used to collect ancient cards, which he kept in vacuum-sealed boxes to preserve them. Only he could take them out, touch them, because he hadn’t trusted anyone to handle his cards with enough care not to damage them in any way. Her stomach roiled a little, realizing she was like that card collection to Flint.
    “Please put me down.” Mira lifted off him, forcing his semi-erect cock out of her as he set her down on her feet. She backed away from him then turned to hide the tears that threatened. She didn’t want him to see. “I’m going to get clean.”
    She had nowhere to flee and the corner wasn’t far enough away. She pushed the button for the cleaning unit walls to slide up. In seconds foam doused her. She grabbed a cloth to scrub at her body as the foam melted into liquid, trying to clean off every trace of Flint that she could reach, avoiding her brand because the skin was still a little red and puffy near the markings. She hit the button and shut her eyes as foam doused her again to rinse her body one last