Bonded Read Online Free PDF

his first mate didn’t seem to notice. “Now, isn’t that something? Not even my best friend trusts me to be a perfect gentleman.”
    “That’s why I don’t trust you.” Especially with the way he kept eyeing Taimi. Like a starving man looking at a banquet. “I’ve known you too long. Heard a few too many of your stories. She’ll stay with me, in my quarters. It’s the safest place.”
    “Safe. Right , Captain.”
    Throughout the introductions, Jaren noticed his crew spent an inordinate amount of time staring at that damned slave collar, though none chose to question it. He gave orders to begin the takeoff sequence and placed Dev in charge of the bridge.
    Ignoring the knowing looks passing among his men, he led Taimi to his quarters.
    He wasn’t going to touch her again.
    He wasn’t.
    Maybe if he kept telling himself that, he might begin to believe it.
    * * * *
    The bars of Lady Ethlinda’s cell clanged in the particular rhythm only one guard used, the ringing metal sounding almost like a melody. Out of place in this disgusting pit. Ethlinda took a deep breath of the foul air and prepared to face him. She knew what she would see.
    Men were so predictable.
    Especially this one.
    Another deep breath. Control. Composure.
    She turned. Expected to see him pressed up against the cell, his trousers open and his cock poking through the bars. He always hoped for a reaction, though she’d never given him the satisfaction. He enjoyed his privilege of waving a hard-on in her face whenever he wished, though his vanity was decidedly misplaced.
    His cock was nothing to brag about. Short and stubby and with a definite crook to one side, it barely peeked out from under his not-so-flat belly. His pride far exceeded its merit. Perhaps that was why he seemed desperate to offer its use to her at every opportunity. He certainly didn’t have enough appeal to find willing partners easily, if at all.
    Several times, she had been tempted to use her magic to teach him a lesson. Two options were particularly delicious.
    One, to shrink his cock so he would need an alchemist’s scope to find it again. Or, and equally amusing, to expand only the head, so he could no longer draw it back between the bars.
    That would leave him in an interesting predicament with his fellow guards and his superiors.
    Unfortunately, the spell-worked walls and bars neutralized her powers. It was frustrating to be so helpless. The lack of magic bothered her far more than the physical bonds.
    Today, he kept his cock in his pants, but the heavy heat of lust in his gaze remained. Puffing his chest out more than usual, he waved a heavy packet of folded parchment in the air, brushing the ends against the bars. “Special delivery for you, lady .”
    She ignored the particular edge he placed on the pronunciation of her title. It was a common insult. Ethlinda had not been born to her rank, and her jailors would love to see her beaten down to what she had been, so long ago. An ordinary nothing. Like them. She stood. The chains on her wrists and ankles clanked in time with every step, and her strides were reduced by half, thanks to the chain linking one ankle bond to its mate. Plus, it was difficult to manage her skirt with her hands bound. “What is it?”
    “Now how would I know that?”
    Ethlinda slanted him a quick look. She expected to have no privacy in her correspondence, though she rarely received any. All her previous acquaintances had been far too eager to drop their relationship after her sentencing.
    The seal on the parchment was intact, the red wax molded into the type of ornate medallion favored by the courts. No wonder it was unopened. Not even her guards would dare interfere with official business. She broke the seal, a little clumsily, still unused to the extra weight of the chains on her wrists.
    She didn’t need to open the packet. She knew what it was.
    A divorce decree.
    “After all this time…”
    “Good news, lady?”
    The guard’s words