Free The Barbarian's Captive by Maddie Taylor

her.
    Maybe she’d take a brief cat nap. The constant stress of being captured was getting to her. Not to mention being transported through space, her molecules somehow disappearing into thin air and miraculously reconfiguring here on the ship like something out of old Hollywood. And the supposedly minor surgery that had followed—who knows what they had actually done to her body or her brain—had taken its toll.
    Yeah, she’d close her eyes just for a minute...
    A light brush against her skin roused her. As her eyes opened, she looked down and saw long, tapered fingers unfastening the front of her borrowed shirt and easing it open. She blinked, still dazed from sleep, until she felt the slow drag of material across her skin as her breast was bared. Coming wide awake at the sight of her nipple, crinkled in reaction to the cool rush of air, she closed her hand around the busy fingers at the same time she twisted her head and looked at him. Lying beside her, his head propped on his hand, his gaze drifted down to her exposed chest.
    “Did you sleep well, sprite?”
    Releasing him, she clutched the open placket of her shirt. Or rather his shirt; it was all that she could find to wear since he’d ripped her flight suit into shreds the night before. It was three sizes too big, hanging like a voluminous caftan to well past her knees, yet it covered her nakedness. She thought it would provide some protection. Boy, was she wrong.
    She glared at him. “Don’t call me that. My name is Eva. I don’t even know what a sprite is.”
    “It is a small imaginary creature with special powers. You don’t have such lore in your world?”
    “We call that a fairy. And I’m nearly six feet tall, neither small nor imaginary, and if I had special powers I wouldn’t be in this predicament, would I?”
    “Mm, someone woke up on the wrong side of their nap, I see.” He continued to work the odd closures, baring her abdomen despite her hands gripping the material. “As far as being small, you are tiny compared to me, and you also hold great powers of the mind. I can’t stop thinking about you.”
    “I’d prefer to keep my clothing on, thank you.”
    “And I’d prefer you naked, which I have ordered twice now. I want no barriers between your beautiful body and my touch.” His eyes shot to hers, warm and glimmering, like liquid gold. “We’re going to have trouble with you doing as I ask, aren’t we?”
    She blinked, unable to keep the smart response from her tongue. “First, you didn’t ask, you ordered, so yes. And second, I don’t think you are going to be the one who has trouble with it.”
    “Did you disobey your captain’s orders back in the United States Interstellar Space Forces?”
    “No.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because they had authority.”
    “I have that here.”
    “Not in my opinion.”
    “Your opinion doesn’t matter.” He grinned when she sucked in a breath full of outrage. “Were you allowed to do as you wanted, to espouse your opinions whenever you liked? Override your superiors’ dictates?”
    “Not if I wanted to stay out of trouble…” After a brief pause, she glared up at him. “I know what you’re trying to do — and the situations are entirely different.”
    “How so?”
    “Part of my job was to follow orders.”
    “On Primaria, being my mate will be your job. I am your leader and you will follow my orders.”
    “I don’t consent.”
    “You consented to be in the Space Forces?”
    “No, they drafted me into the force, but I volunteered for this mission. One I’d like to get back to.”
    “Drafted is being inducted into service to your people, I’m assuming. Into an army of sorts.”
    “Yes, but—”
    “Consider yourself drafted then, into my personal detail — to serve.” With an easy smile, he leaned down and placed his lips on the flat space between her breasts.
    “You’re twisting my words to suit your purpose.”
    “And you are very beautiful,” he whispered against her