Chapter 3

The woman threw herself at him, her legs wrapping around his waist and twisting in a way that would’ve knocked a less sturdy man over completely.

Instead, Cas merely caught her. He’d been hit with heavier fire than a freshly awakened brunette, even if she did seem to be made up of mostly taut muscle and tits. There was a flash of surprise in her emerald green eyes, the color of a power button set to on, as she failed to take him down.

Surprise was good. Surprise gave him a beat to try to explain himself.

“You’re alright,” Cas tried to reassure the brunette. “I’ve gotcha. You’re safe. Just don’t--”

With a snarl, the woman bared her teeth at Cas, sinking them into the side of his neck hard enough to knock him back a step.

“Don’t do that,” Cas groaned, hissing slightly with pain.

She had one hell of a bite, Cas had to admit. And she was clever, too. He could tell that from the way that she twisted her fingers into his hair, pulling his head back to bare more of his neck to assault.

Normally, he wouldn’t have complained. Cas didn’t mind things a little rough. Given the way her cunt was currently pressed up against his belt buckle and her tits were crushed against his chest as she tightened her death grip on him, he might have even found this position worthy of a hard-on. But despite the way his cock twitched at the writhing of the woman’s body against him, Cas knew better than to let himself get lost in the moment.

This woman was a fighter, obviously. Probably a damn fine one at that. But she’d just come out of a forced stasis. That meant two things: she’d either been awaiting a lifetime on a pleasure planet on the Outer Rim or a mining planet beyond that. And despite his attempts to reassure her otherwise, as far as she knew, he was working for whoever had put her into this predicament.

Didn’t mean that he was going to let her rip his throat out over it or anything, but sympathy earned her a little mercy.

Taking hold of the woman around her tight, slender waist, Cas pulled her away from him. That only seemed to make her angrier. She squeezed perfectly shaped and toned thighs hard around him, clinging on. Her teeth gnashed still harder, pain shooting through him as she threatened to almost break the skin.

Growling, Cas took up a handful of her thick, silken curls in his fist and wound the other around her throat. He pulled her mouth off his neck with a grunt, keeping her at an arm’s length by her hair and giving her a stern gaze.

“Now, look here. I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here to-- oof!”

Cas’ attempt at diplomacy earned him nothing more than a punch to the throat. A second swinging blow sent him stumbling backwards hard enough to lose his footing, both of them tumbling to the floor of the hold.

Unfortunately for the brunette, Cas wasn’t some wet-behind-the-ears scrapper. He bore the brunt of the fall on his back, gasping his breath back and rolling on top of her. He abandoned his hold on her hair to capture her wrists instead, pinning them to the ground beneath his hands while his hips pressed down hard against her hips.

“Not. Gonna. Hurt. You.” Cas growled the words down at her forcefully, desperate to try and talk some sense into her even though his patience was wearing thin. She was snarling, spitting and grinding her hips against his, anything to try and get free.

The way that her thrashing intensified as he tried to bring her around made him wonder how many times she’d heard that line before. Made him wonder how many times it had turned out to be a lie.

“Oh, fuck me,” Cas groaned, bemoaning his current predicament. Ten thousand credits for a week, three crates and no questions. It had sounded like such a good idea at the time.

If he’d been a clever man, he would have thrown the brunette back into her cyro-chamber, shut the lid, put her back under and gone to join Roxy in the shower.

Unfortunately for Cas, he just couldn’t shake this newfound sense of “moral obligation” to these girls. Call it guilt, if you like. Either way, it was something he’d have to try and lose out the airlock at some point. Just as soon as he could convince this busty, psychopathic brunette to stop trying to kill him so he could talk some sense into her.

Cas sighed, letting his shoulders slump forward and head tilt down for a moment while he puzzled out what to do next.

It was a mistake that he paid for immediately as the brunette rocked her forehead up to crash against Cas’ nose. The pain shot through him, a cold spike of heat rocketing through the bridge of his nose. He’d have been surprised if she couldn’t have seen little cartoon birdies flying around his head.

Fuck.

She had the better of him now. With a final jerk of her hips, she used Cas’ weight against him, pushing his semi-dazed form up until his muscular bulk dragged them both over. Now, she was on top of him, their situations reversed.

“Commonwealth scum,” the woman snarled, a terrible, gorgeous smile curling on her lips as she settled her pelvis against his. She threw her head back victoriously, chest heaving, wine colored nipples stiff and erect as she pinned his wrists just as he’d pinned hers.

Cas blinked up at her for a moment, stunned for a whole new reason now. She had thick black eyelashes. Full lips, the same rose color as her nipples. Her eyes glinted with dark pleasure at the way she had him trapped beneath her, the emerald in them glittering in the hold’s low light. The dark curls of her hair shone with bronze undertones as it fell down her shoulders, framing her face like a veil. And now that she had him where she wanted him, there was something almost sensual to the way she moved against him.

She was a violent, brutal bitch. Violent, brutal and completely gorgeous.

Not to mention the fact that, despite Cas’ nose currently feeling like he’d decided to run head-first into a brick wall, he could still smell how wet her cunt was.

Cas couldn’t help himself. Despite everything, he began to laugh.

God bless defrost horniness. Maybe this wasn’t going to be so hard after all.

“Hope you’re ready to die, blue cap.” She shifted one hand to his throat, raising the other in a glorious fist.

Cas merely shrugged. “Be more ready if your cunt wasn’t presently soaking through my pants.”

The woman hesitated, a pink tinge rising up on her cheeks. “I ... I ... How dare you--”

“How dare I point out how you’re drippin’ wet?” Cas didn’t bother fighting back his grin. “Or do you mean how dare I do it while you’re grindin’ up on my dick making death threats?”

The woman’s dark, gorgeously arched brows furrowed. Her tanned skin only grew even pinker, burning so hot that Cas could practically feel the heat radiating off of her.

“Oh, you’ll fucking pay for that one.” she swore, her fingers tightening hard enough to make her knuckles crack as she drew her fist back once more.

“Right, and you’ll pay for my laundry bill when I’ve gotta send these pants off to the cleaners,” Cas quipped. “You know how hard it is to get the scent of pussy out of these things?”

“Fuck you,” the woman spat. “This ends now!”

But even as she said it, Cas could hear the soft padding of feet coming up from behind them. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see supple bronze flesh and a flash of blonde hair.

Roxy.

“Captain!” Roxy’s sweet voice cried out. “No!”

There was a dull thunk as the wrench Cas had brought down to the hold earlier swung against the brunette’s temple. The brunette’s eyes rolled back, then closed as she slumped down onto him, out cold.

“Can’t leave you alone for a minute without you getting into trouble, can I?” Roxy grumbled, stepping back and adjusting the dove grey towel she wore wrapped tightly around her breasts. She was dripping wet still, her hair coiled into dark gold tendrils that left beads of water trickling down her shoulders and pooling between her tits.

Cas turned the brunette over in his arms, cradling the heaviness of her unconscious form as he shifted himself upright.

“S’pose I owe you one, sweetheart.” He flashed Roxy the briefest of smiles.

“S’pose we’re even now, Captain.” She returned his smile with one of her own, coy at first then bubbly as ever. “Consider it my way of saying thank you for letting me out of that box.”

Cas smirked. He’d thought the blowjob was her way of saying thank you. But who was he to fuck a gift horse in the mouth?

“Well, she’s awake again.” Roxy slipped out of Cas’ bedroom, clad in one of his shirts and looking vexed. “But she’s not too happy about it.”

Cas took a moment to appreciate the way his best button-down clung to the blonde in all the right places. She had shoved his sleeves sleeves up to her elbows to keep her from swimming in them. The shirt’s hem hit her just at the tops of her thighs.

If she’d been shaped any different, the shirt might have even looked modest. But she’d left it unbuttoned down to her navel, revealing an ample flash of cleavage any time she moved. And, despite having a chance to warm up in the shower, her nipples were still hard and erect, poking out from beneath the white linen in a way that drew Cas’ hungry eyes.

“Well, can hardly blame her,” Cas allowed, shifting himself off of the wall he’d been leaning on. “We did belt her to my bed.”

Roxy gave him a coy smile, her hips swaying back and forth as she came to him. “Oh, I know. I’ve been trying not to get too jealous.”

Cas raised an eyebrow, storing that tidbit of information away for later. With a girl as willing as Roxy, tying them up was never much use. But on an aesthetic level, he could certainly see the appeal.

The brunette, on the other hand. Now there was a girl that needed to be bound up for her own good, at least right now. Hell, there was a good chance she was already trying to gnaw her way through his best leather belt to freedom. That was a little too much the other way, Cas reckoned. There was no fun in a girl who was acting like a varmint caught in a trap.

“You explain to her that I’m not a goddamn blue cap?” Cas asked, winding his hands around Roxy’s waist and drawing her against him.

She reached up to rope her arms around his neck in response. “I did, Captain. I tried to reason with her, just like you ordered.” She leaned in to press her lips up against his ear, her body almost trembling from being so close to him, her body still warming after stasis. “I’m very good at following orders.”

Cas blinked, then swallowed hard.

That there was another mental note to make.

“She believe you?”

Roxy laughed. “Halfway believed me, at least. Says she’s willing to talk to you, long as you ain’t armed.” Her eyes glinted with a grim sort of delight. “Also called us both about every name in the book while she was at it, mind you, but...”

“Aw. Hell.” Cas took Roxy’s chin between his index finger and thumb, turning her face up to his. “I’m sorry for dragging you into this, sweetheart. You just got outta one predicament and here you are doing my dirty work and getting called all kinds’a nasty things for your trouble.”

Roxy giggled. “Oh, but Captain.” Her eyes glittered that supernatural blue as she throbbed with eager energy. “When you really are a cum-guzzling slut, it’s hard to take it as anything but a compliment.” Roxy popped up on her toes to press a kiss to Cas’ lips. “Speaking of ... If you’re going to be too busy interrogating your latest passenger for me to suck you off, is there anything to eat around here? I’m starving.”

Cas grinned, pointing her down the corridor toward the kitchen. “First door on the right. I got protein packs and flavourings in the cold storage. There’s fresh water bein’ distilled down from what we catch as we head through the ice-fields.”

“In that case, I’ll leave you to it, Captain.” She slipped away from him, giving him a cheeky wink in parting. “Good luck. You’ll need it.”

Even looking as pissed off as she was, Cas had to admit the brunette tied up in his bed was quite the sight. Her dark hair pooled at her shoulders in chocolate-caramel curls. Her tightly muscled arms were pulled up over her head, lashed to the headboard by Cas’ belt around her slender wrists. He could see the form of her body, shapely and firm, beneath the blankets that he’d pulled up over her round, pert tits for the sake of a little dignity. Admittedly, he couldn’t imagine a warrior like her would have much of that left after being knocked out by a busty blonde with a pipe wrench.

“Hey,” Cas said, raising a hand in greeting. “How’s your head?”

The woman glowered for a moment, jaw clenched. But then, finally, she spoke.

“I’ve had worse.”

“Yeah.” Cas nodded, approaching slowly. She was bound and nude, sure, but Cas wasn’t taking any chances. He’d seen what she could do after just coming out of stasis. He could only imagine the things she’d be capable of now that she’d had a little time to recover.

Cas had a thought. If he was going to get anywhere with this woman, he needed her respect, first and foremost. And there was only one way to win the respect of an old soldier. Popping the first two buttons of his shirt, Cas pulled the collar away from his shoulder. “Yeah, so have I. You see this scar?”

The woman stared at his shoulder for a moment, taking in the twisted knot of white-pale scar tissue just below his collar bone, then laughed. “Oh, please. A knife wound from some street skirmish? Yes, truly, we are cut from the same cloth. Take me now, Captain.” She spread her legs beneath the blankets, but her voice dripped with sarcasm and her look would have made a lesser man than Cas wither like an old leaf.

“Mighty tough talk for someone with a goose egg on her temple from a little blonde who can barely lift a pipe wrench,” Cas pointed out, nodding to the bruise at her hairline.

The woman blushed at the mention of it, turning her head to shake her head down over the mark and drawing back in on herself. Cas was beginning to enjoy that, watching her blush. She was a proud thing, whoever she was. And a proud thing like that always looked good with a little pink on her cheeks.

“Wasn’t a fair fight,” she grumbled. “Didn’t know she was there, didn’t expect a sucker punch. Sneaky little whore.”

“That sneaky little whore came out of one of those crates, same as you did,” Cas pointed out, bristling at the way the woman spoke about Roxy. Sure, she was a slut, but she was his slut. “Now, I don’t know and she won’t tell me who might have decided to ship your asses all the way to the other side of the Cluster, but I reckon that probably puts you two on something like the same side.”

He continued to talk, his blood a little up, determined to protect the girl who’d been good to him even as he saw something he respected in the strength and tenacity of the brunette. This new woman might have been dangerous, but she had the same unwillingness to stop speaking her mind that Cas had so carefully cultivated for himself.

“After she knocked you out, I was all for putting you in the airlock. It was her who convinced me that we ought to try talking to you first. So maybe you ought to think about who on this boat you might owe one to before you go mouthing off my crew.”

The brunette’s lips twitched for a second, then a genuine laugh sprang out from between them.

“Something funny?”

The brunette shrugged, eyes glistening in dark delight. “I’m just realising that maybe you’re not as stupid as you look, Captain.”

Cas felt something feral growl deep in his chest at the way she said that word: Captain. There was something husky, even sultry about her tone that made Cas’ cock swell to quarter mast.

“Go on, then,” she invited, her eyes softening, focusing on him in a way that they hadn’t previously. He could feel her anger mellowing into something more curious, maybe even something a little playful.

“Go on with what? Putting you out the airlock?”

“Your scar. You seemed so eager to share, I assume there’s some kind of story there. Unless you’re just showing off your muscles. Which isn’t unappreciated.”

Cas placed himself on the edge of the massive bed, far enough away from the woman’s feet that he wasn’t in danger of being caught unawares and kicked to death.

“Commonwealth cuddlers,” he explained, running a thumb over the ragged ridge of scar tissue. “You heard of those?”

The woman’s gaze darkened, all amusement fading from it like blood down the drain. “Stories, yes.”

“They were true,” Cas assured her. “Back in the early days of consolidation, The Company would send out missionaries ahead of their agents. Hand out soft little stuffed varmints to the kiddies. A few months later, in comes The Company, they start throwing their weight around. Maybe they hit a snag or two. Maybe they find themselves in a little too much trouble with the locals...”

The color drained from the woman’s face. Cas watched her swallow hard. “I can imagine. The Cluster’s most brutal insurance policy.”

Cas nodded, recalling the way he’d ripped the stuffed toy away from that little girl on Anders’ Freepost just moments before it had blown. “Blue caps triggered the detonators before their ships had even cleared the atmosphere. I realized what was happening a second before everyone else did. Took a fistful of shrapnel in the shoulder for my troubles.”

“Did the child survive?”

“She did. Lots of others, too, seein’ as I’d raised the alarm.” Cas held the woman’s gaze grimly. “Not all of ‘em, though.”

There was a long, heavy silence that followed. Thin as a razor blade, and just as sharp.

“You could be lying,” the brunette pointed out.

“You really think I could? About that?”

She blinked, then turned away. “No.” She sighed heavily. “No, I don’t think you could.” Cas had to respect her professionalism. He’d built a career on reading people, figuring out just how to sell them his particular brand of bullshit, but even he couldn’t have told you what was going through her head at that minute, as she sat in silent contemplation. “So,” she said at long last. “Not a blue cap, then.”

“Not a Company man, either. Or a Commonwealth scab, come to that. I’m Captain Cas Dawson. You’re on board The Adonia. It’s a freelance cargo ship. And let me tell you, if I’d have known there were women in those crates when I’d taken them on board, you wouldn’t even be here at all.”

“Maybe it’s a good thing you didn’t know then. Hate to think of where I ended up if I hadn’t wound up in your capable hands instead.”

“Maybe so.” Out of habit, he shifted across the bed to strike a hand out for her to shake. She glanced down at it for a moment, then laughed as she twisted her wrists beneath the belt.

“I would shake with you, Captain, but it seems my hands are tied.”

... Right.

Cas let the hand drop. “Could untie you, you know. If I didn’t think you were going to go right back to sinking your teeth into my throat the second that I did.”

The woman smiled, looking smug. “I would’ve had it ripped out by now if that busty little blonde hadn’t stopped me.” Her smile deepened. “Felt how hard you were when I did it, too. Don’t pretend you didn’t like it.”

Cas raised an eyebrow. “Oh, like I couldn’t see how much you were enjoyin’ having me underneath you.” His reply was instinctive, the flirtation coming as a reflex. His smile came easily. In another circumstance, he could imagine how simple it would have been to stumble into bed with this girl. Or possibly to get into the exact same kind of fight that they’d just had. Probably both.

“Roxy tells me coming up out of stasis can leave a woman in all kinds of need. I reckon you’ve about soaked your way through my sheets at this point.”

There was another silence, this one a little sensual this time. A different kind of heavy. Tension so thick, you could fuck it with a knife.

“I would have beaten you, you know.” The woman shifted a little beneath the blankets, straightening her spine and pushing her shoulders back. Cas didn’t miss what that did to her tits, pressing them outward as the blankets slipped down to nearly reveal the peaks of her nipples. His cock swelled a little more in response. “My name is Mercedes Sunbreaker. I’m a commander of the Nova Company. I’ve killed better men than you with my hands tied behind my back.”