As she stepped out of the shower and toweled off, Tabitha felt the lead weight of dread fill her stomach. Was he finally calling her in for her formal punishment? Maybe he had used the three days between when he’d brought her back to the ship and now as a cooling-off period, so he could discipline her again without losing his temper. Remembering his temper and the results of it, she shivered. Well, there was no way to find out what he wanted except to go to him. Like she had a choice in the matter.
Laying her towel on the side of her bunk, she wriggled into her uniform as best she could, trying to hide the rope lines beneath the thin fabric. Then she took a deep breath and glanced in her viewer. It was no good—her nipples were very obviously erect and if anyone looked closely they would be able to see the puffy outline of her cunt lips, which were still being held open by the Drudinian cords. Even worse, the bump of her swollen clit was apparent between them. Tabitha shifted, trying to find a position that both hid her shame and kept the material of her panties from rubbing against the over sensitive bundle of nerves. She wouldn’t even be wearing the uncomfortable undergarments if it wasn’t for the fact that she was hoping desperately that another layer of fabric would help hide her shame. Finally she gave up. It was too late to worry about what she looked like now—she had to get to the captain’s quarters and hope like hell Keer wasn’t waiting to punish her again.
Keer paced impatiently, waiting for his most junior officer to arrive. Of course he’d been waiting for her to come to him almost from the minute they’d gotten back to the ship. He knew she couldn’t get the damn love knots off without him, even though her conspicuous water consumption proved she was trying. He also knew that she had seen the vial of blue liquid V had given him along with her bill of sale. Tabitha wasn’t stupid—she would certainly deduce that the liquid was some kind of solvent. So why hadn’t she come to him and demanded that he give it to her?
Of course, that wouldn’t have done any good since the solvent by itself wasn’t what she needed to get free of the knots. Keer only wished that it was. But at least he could have explained as much to her without having to call her to his quarters.
Once it became evident that she wasn’t going to come to him on her own, he had decided to call her. But first he had to deal with the V situation. Thanks to the vid-evidence he’d gathered when he was rescuing Tabitha, the next Intergal ship in their region had been able to arrest the intergalactic slaver and hold him. He was currently being held and awaiting trial—a trial in which the vid of him publicly auctioning off Tabitha to the highest bidder would greatly figure into his conviction. Now that he was taken care of, Keer was ready to deal with his stubborn sergeant—whether she wanted to be dealt with or not.
He could imagine what the rest of the crew was thinking now that she had been ordered to come to him over the intercom. Never before in the time he had been captain of the Pride of Justice had he exercised his captain’s privilege. And I’m not going to tonight, either, he told himself sternly. Well, not if I can help it, anyway. But that was surely what every other officer aboard was thinking. What else could they think after he’d brought her back from the forbidden zone, naked in his arms except for his purple robes? He could have gone to her quarters to get her privately and spared himself the humiliation, but Keer wanted to do things officially—to keep things as formal and professional between them as possible. Despite what he was going to be forced to do once she showed up at his door. Maybe in that way he could keep a rein on the troubling emotions that threatened to overwhelm him every time Sergeant Tabitha Bryce was anywhere near him.
As if in answer to his thoughts, there was a low ringing of chimes outside his quarters—the signal that a visitor was requesting entrance. That would be her, Keer thought. Well, there was no time to lose so he might as well get this over with. He took a deep breath and prepared to do what had to be done as professionally as possible.
“Enter.” As he murmured the command, the revolving doorway at the end of his quarters whooshed open, revealing a frightened and defiant Tabitha.
“Captain, you wanted to see me?” She entered his quarters uncertainly.