Cyberella: Preyfinders Universe Read Free Page B

took his hand from the girl’s neck and encouraged her to stand, then drew her with him as he marched to the doors. The long plait of her dark hair lay across one shoulder and he stopped a second to rearrange it so it fell down her back.
    Pretty. He liked how it looked there. What a good handle that would make to hold her still. Perhaps that was how her lover liked her to wear her hair.
    Despite her obvious fears, she had her head up and appeared to be cataloguing everything in this room. Clever little trader. Information was knowledge to traders. Her masters should be happy, whoever they were.
    When at last they exited this underground citadel of Kalfa’s and emerged into the fierceness of the sun, he paused again to inhale. Dry, dusty, hot air. One of his last breaths on this planet. He had his long bag of weapons, his clothes and sundry items, a girl he owned for a little longer, and ninety thou he hadn’t had yesterday.
    Perhaps the pretty girl was worth more than that at auction. He needed money badly.
    “Come.” He jerked on her plait then indicated his lime-spotted qualarfa stallion. They’d have to ride together to Besk. Her ship would be there. So were the auction yards.
    Once he’d saddled the qualarfa, she turned her back to him and jiggled her tied hands. “Free me.”
    “Not yet. When we are off the Kalfa lands. I don’t want them to think I am too lax or I might lose my head early.” He hoisted her up onto the beast, to the front of the saddle area.
    “That’s ridiculous,” she muttered, glaring down at him.
    “Is it?” He mounted behind her and took up the reins. His thighs nudged in behind hers and her ass was inches from him. This ride would be interesting. “What is a true pity is that a good Sicar warrior keeps his word. Certainly, I do. I will free you when I say, but not before.”
    She harrumphed as if disappointed. “I think my fingers must be going blue.”
    He checked, feeling them for coolness also. Women had such fine fingers. “They aren’t blue or cold. Wriggle them.”
    She did so, and the sight of her lashed-together wrists and her fingers down there, wriggling and barely inches from his groin made his cock stir.
    “Good. You are so lucky,” he murmured, then he clicked his tongue to stir the stallion into a smart canter.
    “Lucky? You call all this lucky?” She jerked her chin toward the citadel.
    “Yes. Lucky. I could have caught you back there in the coldroom with little effort and given you to Kalfa. I could have said a secret word to make our agreement void so that I could keep you myself after all, to sell or to be my slave. I didn’t.”
    “What?”
    He grinned at the dismay and incredulity in her voice, then he leaned in until his lips were an inch from her ear. “Not all of us are honorable to Outsiders. I need money. Lucky, you’re so very lucky.”
    Torgeir wrapped his arm about her waist, pleased at the feel of her softness then he began to hum a battle song he’d learned from a dying warrior on the planet Gerrelt...or was that the moon of Lun? So many strange, new places and more out there to discover.
    He had an armful of delightful, if spirited, female and he was free for the first time in his life to do as he chose. The woman was a reminder of his decision to tread a more civilized path where slavery was but a memory. He needed nothing more than the stars and a ship to ride among them.
    And some money. Ships were damn expensive.
    If he wasn’t so nice, he could have sold her.
    Her luscious ass jiggled against him again and his cock swelled. Every breath brought him her feminine scent, for it lingered in her hair and at her nape. Torgeir cleared his throat. Really, if he was still taking slaves, he would have kept her. He would’ve dragged her off the mount, made her sit on her knees on his rug, facedown, flipped up her little skirt, and taken her, here, now.
    The old ways had their benefits.

Chapter 3
    “What’s your name?” he asked her yet