Free Chained (Brides of the Kindred) by Evangeline Anderson

smoothly and pulled
her to him. Before Maggie could say anything, he took her mouth in a sweet,
breathless kiss.
    At first she was stunned, but then she
pushed against his broad chest, breaking the kiss.
    “Wait a minute—what do you think you’re
doing?”
    “Where I come from, we seal an agreement
with a kiss.” He looked at her innocently. “Isn’t that how you do things where
you live?”
    “No…no, absolutely not.” Maggie’s
heart was thumping and her cheeks felt hot. God, she never felt this way when
she kissed Donald. Which wasn’t very often since he disliked kissing.
    “I’m sorry.” He shrugged as though it was
no big deal. “Well, shall we go? I believe our car is waiting, Lady
Pope’nose.”
    “Yes, I…” Maggie took a deep breath. “I
guess we should.”
    As she allowed him to help her into the
luxurious hovercoach which reminded her of a stretch limo, she still couldn’t
explain why she’d agreed to go with him. She only knew that being around the
huge, muscular prisoner seemed to turn part of her brain off—namely the part
that reasoned and kept her from getting into trouble.
    But it’s going to be
okay, she told herself as she settled back
against the plush, velvet gray seat cushion. As soon as we get to this spa
place, I’ll call Ferna and Ratner and tell them where to meet me. Then we can
get on with our mission and I’ll never have to think about Yonnie Six or Kor or
anything that happened here ever again. Right?

Chapter Six

 
    Kor was relieved that she had agreed to
come with him of her own volition in the end. If necessary, he had been
prepared to pick her up, throw her over his shoulder, and take her with him by
force. He didn’t want to do that, though—Maggie was already wary of him
and it would have been much more difficult to win her trust back if he'd had to
resort to such measures to keep her with him. But he would have done it if he
had to.
    He couldn’t completely explain it, even to
himself, but he was unwilling to part from her. The universe was vast and
wide—huge beyond imagining. If there was one thing Kor had learned it was that
once you lost someone in that deep, black void, the chances of ever finding
them again were a trillion to one. So he planned to keep Maggie with him by
whatever means necessary—at least until he was sure she was safe. Or so he told
himself.
    Kor made sure the privacy screen between
the driver’s and passengers’ compartment was up and then settled into one of the
plush gray seats. He didn’t want to take a chance on their alien driver
overhearing their conversation.
    "Comfortable?" he asked, cocking
an eyebrow at Maggie.
    “Hardly.” She
relaxed in the seat across from him, putting an arm across her face. “Will it
be a long trip, do you think? I’m dying to get out of these shoes.”
    “Not long. Here.” He reached for one of
her small feet and began removing the ridiculous strappy green shoe she was
wearing.
    “Hey!” Maggie sat up with a jerk and would
have yanked her foot right out of his hand if he hadn’t kept a firm but gentle
grip on her ankle. “What…what are you doing?”
    “Giving you a foot massage… Mistress.” Kor
raised an eyebrow at her and then finished taking off her shoe.
    “But you don’t…you shouldn’t…” she
protested weakly. “I mean you don’t have to do that.”
    “I want to,” Kor said simply. Really what
he wanted was to touch any part of her at all and if he could bring her
pleasure at the same time, so much the better. They were going to be together
for a while—he wanted Maggie to get used to having his hands on her. He rubbed
the sole of her little foot, which was barely as long as his hand, then kneaded
the arch with his thumbs.
    “You don’t…ooooh…” Maggie’s eyes rolled up
in her head. “You’re, uh, really good at that.”
    “I know.” Kor grinned at her.
    She opened her eyes and frowned at him.
“But…where did you learn to do that, anyway? I