Cecilia's Mate Read online

  He shot her another look. “Well it’s an interesting sensation, especially that first time. A lot of people don’t realize how it affects them until they get sick. If you feel any nausea once we’re underway see medical quickly. They can give you something to counteract the effects until your body becomes acclimated.” She nodded, all smiles, moving so that she could see everything and take it all in. “This is amazing. Do you think we’ll be able to experience zero gravity? It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. Please?”

  “There’s a large room on the destroyer that has no gravity in it. We use it for training of various simulations. I’ll get you clearance to go in there if you want, or take you myself if you’d prefer.” He made some adjustments on the panel in front of him, then pointed. “There’s your brother’s ship. We’ll be coming in from underneath her, so this is pretty much the only time you’ll get to see the outside, at least in profile.”

  “Will you go with me?” she asked, reaching out to put her hand on his arm. “This is the start of firsts for me. Will you be with me for all of them?”

  “As many as you want me to be there for.” He gave her a crooked smile before returning his attention to what he was doing. They slipped into the shadow of the large destroyer, then underneath its bulk. The hull of the ship went whizzing past the screen at a pace that told her they were going faster than it would first appear. The tramp banked slightly, and a section of the hull slid open. Draven pressed a few more controls and they eased up through the hole of the hull and settled onto the interior deck. “We need to wait a few minutes for it to seal and for the atmosphere to be returned before we step off. Let’s head to the ramp so we can get moving. I really need to go sign for this damned delivery.”

  She was so excited. She’d practically been dancing in her seat when he had taken her into the tramp to head up to the destroyer but what she saw had her in total awe. “This is amazing,” she said with a grin and moved along with him. “You did that so effortlessly, like you’ve done this a hundred times before.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “While we’re waiting…will you hold me?” She wanted to be back in his arms. “The views, they’re exquisite, but the sensations of moving up and through space are a little unsettling, even if they’re exciting.”

  “I’ve done it at least triple that many times,” he said. Opening his arms, he wrapped them around her when she stepped in close. “All you have to do is ask, little one. I will always hold you whenever you need it.”

  She took in a deep breath and sighed, feeling the coarse fabric of his uniform jacket against her cheek. “I’m glad I have you to lean on now.” She looked up at him and heard the seals starting to open. Before she could stop herself, she said, “You were my first kiss. You will be my first everything. Thank you.”

  His lips curled into a full smile, the first she’d ever seen from him. “I shouldn’t be so pleased by that, but I am.” His fingers were warm against her face as he held her for a light kiss. Then he drew back, tucking her hand in his arm, and led her off the tramp. They went out into the corridor of the destroyer, where he veered to the right, and from there she was lost as he wound them through the ship, up a couple levels, and to another set of double doors that she was guessing led to a similar landing bay as the one they’d arrived in. “Stay out here so the shippers don’t see you. If they don’t see you they can’t recall you to anyone. I won’t be more than a few minutes, and then I’ll take you up top and show you around a little more.”

  “Sounds like a plan. You go and do what you need to do. Don’t worry, I’ll stick close to here. Knowing my luck, I’d get lost and walk out of an airlock or something.” She didn’t have the best of luck most times, except when it came to this man. She had hit the gold mine when it came to her bond mate.

  He smiled and shook his head before disappearing through the large doors. A few minutes later he came back out with another officer. Draven was giving him instructions. The young man shot her a curious look but nodded to Draven and returned to the bay behind them. “Ready?” he asked, holding out his hand to her.

  “Yes.” She placed her hand into his and moved to his side. She allowed him to take her bag and slipped her arm around his middle to let him lead them away from the bay and further into the destroyer itself.

  His arm wrapped around her shoulders as he directed her to the lifts. When he led her back off he explained they were on the topmost deck, the command deck. “There are a few offices up here, some storage, but the majority of the floor is for this room.” When he pressed his hand to a scanner a large set of doors slid open to reveal the command deck. “This is where all the fun happens. Everything on the destroyer is controlled from up here. There are areas below to manage each section, but this is where the crew does all the navigating from. And of course, big brother’s chair.” He pointed to the large padded seat in the middle of the room.

  She took a seat in her brother’s chair and wiggled slightly. “I don’t like it. It’s too hard,” she grumbled and rose to her feet. “What about you? What do you do? I know you are his right hand. He’s many times said that he wouldn’t know what to do without you, so where do you sit?”

  “Me? Sit?” He snorted at that. “Not likely. I have to be mobile at all times when I’m on the command deck. Bracken doesn’t even sit down all that much. Sadie usually gets the chair whenever he’s up here and she’s visiting. The only time I really sit is in my quarters, or in my office when I’m tending to the mountains of paperwork involved in keeping this beast going.” He put his hand on her back and led her to a door off the command deck. It was tucked out of sight on one side. “Your brother’s office has a door leading off here on the opposite side, plus one into it from the corridor. Same with mine.” He keyed them in and let her go through to his office first. All in all it was relatively neat. For a disaster area, that was.

  She walked into his office and closed her eyes, the scents of the man pulling her deeper into the room. “I like your office. You could use a little help with organization, but you have a wonderful office. The colors are very you,” she told him and walked to one of the stacks of paperwork. “Can I help you with anything? I’m a professional when it comes to organization and filing.”

  “Are you actually saying I don’t have a system? I’ll have you know that I know exactly where everything is in here. So don’t go getting any ideas of reorganizing anything.” He set her bag down on a chair before walking toward her. Taking her hands in his, he pulled her around to face him. “If I let you go and mess up my system how would I find what I need, when I needed it?”

  “Have me find it for you? Would give me an excuse to spend time just milling around your office with you at any given moment of the day. Right?” She moved so that she was pressed front-to-front with him, her arms up and around his neck.

  “I see, an ulterior motive,” he said with a smile. “All right, I’ll let you organize my office. As long as you swear to me you’ll be able to find everything in here again when I need it.” His hands moved to her hips before slowly sliding down to cup her ass. Pulling her up tighter against him, Draven lowered his head so his lips hovered right over hers. “Your brother’s going to demand my balls for this, you realize. Even knowing that it’s chemistry that connects us he’s still going to go off on me.”

  “He would never really hurt you. Bracken loves me and I adore him. He wouldn’t do anything that would make me sad. You know that. Now he might give you a bit of grief from time to time, but he would never really hurt you,” she told him and brushed her nose to his. “I like when you touch me, when you hold my butt like that. When you squeeze it too. It makes me wet,” she blurted, her face suddenly feeling hot.

  His eyes lit up at her words, and his fingers flexed on her ass. “It does, does it? Good to know for future reference.” He gave her another squeeze, grinding her against him so she could feel the outline of his cock pressing to her belly. “You make me fucking hard with barely a look so it’s nice to
know I have some tools to get you in a similar state.”

  “All you have to do is look at me and I feel myself getting wet. I want to learn everything. I want to know all parts of being with you and all parts of being a person’s bond mate.”

  “My bond mate, Cecilia. Not just anyone’s, but mine. There is no other for me, and definitely no other for you so don’t go thinking otherwise, young lady.” With another squeeze he slid his hands up her back. “Let’s keep going. I’ll show you the officers’ floor, and the quarters you can have if you wish.”

  “And if I don’t like them?” she wanted to know. “If I liked, say, your quarters better?” She didn’t want to be without him, not now that he was there with her and they had finally told each other how they felt. She wanted to have him with her and at her side for the rest of forever.

  “If you don’t like them, then I’m sure I could show you a few others.” His lips twitched. “Or you can stay in mine. I definitely wouldn’t mind. But I also want you to be okay and comfortable with it, with me. Yes we are bond mates, and yes we know a good deal about each other, but there is still a lot we don’t know and that takes a little bit of time. Let’s go look at the first set of rooms. Then I’ll show you mine and you can make your decision.”

  She looked up at him, his profile intriguing to her as it always had been. “I have a feeling that I’m going to prefer yours over any others. Yes, we have a lot to learn about each other but I want to get to know everything there is to know about you. We’ve put off our bonding for four years, since I’m assuming you were waiting for me to come of age, so shouldn’t we have that time together?”

  “Damn straight I waited for you to come of age,” he muttered. “I had to, at the very least.” Brushing a kiss to her nose, he took her hand and tugged her out of the office and led her to the lift. A couple minutes later he was leading her up a corridor. He pressed his hand to a scanner, then stepped aside to let her enter through the door that slid open. “Standard quarters for our guests.”

  She walked into the room and frowned. The room was bland, sterile and boring. There was no view to the stars and the space was confined and made her feel closed in. Making a fast turn, she shook her head. “No, thank you.” She hoped his room would have a viewing portal at least. She would love to be able to see out of doors or in this case out of the ship. “Do you think maybe I can use this space for projects?” She needed to tell him what she did, but she wanted to tell him when they were in private. She laughed at herself. Yeah, they were in private now. “I have something to tell you.” She wet her lips. “Something Bracken doesn’t even know. I paint and draw. But my paintings…” She began to flush and whispered, “Have you ever heard of D.A. Mann? That’s me.” The play on the name was his name.

  He didn’t say anything, just took her hand in his. He led her directly across the hall to open another door. The scent that reached her told her it was his space. He tugged her inside and turned her to face one of the walls. A wall with several of her paintings on it. “I knew all along, Cecilia.” He spoke softly from behind her. “Though I may need to have words with you for the pseudonym you’ve been using.”

  “How? How could you have known? I don’t understand.” She turned to look at the paintings, then him. She could only grin. “And the pseudonym was because you are the singularly most important being in my world. Now and for all time. That’s the truth.”

  “I didn’t right off, but a couple felt familiar to me. Then I saw this one.” He moved around her to tap one of the paintings before moving his finger to a corner. “You were doodling this little piece right here one of the times I was with Bracken at the house. As soon as I saw it on the painting I knew it was you.”

  “I didn’t think you saw that,” she whispered. “Everyone has always thought my drawings were the ones that the four-year-old child made for me. No one ever knew I had talent. This one was originally called My Heart but the dealer changed it to Destiny. I painted it when I thought of you. Odd, I know.”

  The painting was awash with blues, silvers and grays but it also had hints of yellow, the same colors that swirled in her eyes and his, respectively. She touched the corner of the image and smiled. “You were both so taken with the lake. I think it was seven years ago?” She tilted her head to the side and shrugged. “That’s the first time I really looked at you like a woman would look at a man she wanted and you took my breath away. It was just after this painting sold that I had your name forever emblazoned on my chest. The moment that this was sold to an unknown dealer, it felt like a sign from the cosmos that maybe one day, like the painting, all of my wishes would come true.” The boys had wished that day for a clear and warm day to swim. They had wanted to let go of the shackles of manhood for an afternoon and their wishes were granted, which was why she had painted the waterscape as she had.

  “I always saw everything you did, Cecilia. Hard not to when your very heart is in the same room as you are.” He leaned back against the wall of paintings to watch her, his arms crossed over his chest. “You haven’t looked around yet. Need to know if I have to get creative and find you somewhere you’ll want to rest your head or not, little one.” He reached out and tucked a stray lock of her incredibly long, bright red hair behind her ear.

  “I don’t need to look around.” She moved to him and laid her hand on his forearm. “You’re here. That’s all the convincing I need. You are it for me. Where you are is where I belong. As long as the bed is big enough for both of us, I’m good with it.”

  “Pretty sure you’ll find the bed satisfactory. But since you seem concerned about it, you should go take a look. Through the sliding doors behind you,” he said. A corner of his mouth was curled up, giving him a slightly bemused look.

  There was something she was obviously missing. She began to smile along with him, though, and moved back from him. She walked toward where the bedroom was and the moment she stepped into the room she stopped dead in her tracks.

  Chapter Four

  “Oh.” Suddenly the squeezes he’d given her ass had nothing to do with how wet she was between her legs. That was all to the bar that was hanging from the ceiling with the silk bindings on the edges and to the massive bed with the soft cuffs at the head and foot. “Please tell me those are for me and no one else has been in here?” She would likely have to melt and die if he’d had others here before her.

  He came up behind her, slipping his arms around her waist to pull her back against his body. “No one else has ever been in here. Only you, Cecilia. These are for you, and you alone. I purchased them and some other items when you came of age. They’ve been here since that day and never once touched.”

  “And will we use them?” She was leaning back against him now, loving the way it felt to have him holding her like this. “You’ll show me how they all work?”

  “Of course. We’ll use them—often, if I have any say in it. Once we have a contract in place between us so I know what you’re interested in, and what you don’t want. And I can purchase more items to satisfy all your needs.”

  “I don’t know what I might or might not like.” Her face was turning red if the heat she felt was any indication. “I’ve never been with a man before. But seeing these makes me very, very wet and needy. Can we have in the contract that we will explore all options and add the things I don’t like after we experience it, if I don’t like something?”

  “We can do whatever we want, Cecilia. The contract is for us, and us alone. No one will ever know what is or isn’t in our contract. We can amend it as many times as we want so that it’s perfect for us.” Moving her hair to the side, Draven pressed a kiss to her neck. “How are you doing, little one? You’ve had a horrible day so far but you’re holding up surprisingly well, I have to tell you.”

  “Because of you,” she admitted. “That’s the one and only reason I’m feeling as well as I am right now. Perhaps you’ll be able to make me feel a bit better?” she asked and tilted her head to the side automatically. �
�How long will it take for us to draw up our contract?”

  “Shouldn’t take too long since it will mostly be open to addition. We can start it right now if you want. Then we can decide what to do for the next couple of days while we finish resupplying, and prior to the crew returning to the ship. For the most part it’s us here alone except for a skeleton crew to keep things functioning and keep watch.”

  “Especially since Bracken will likely have to remain planetside to keep my mother from coming after me. He’s going to have his hands full, sadly.” She nodded then. “I’d like to get started. I want to experience everything with you. As long as you are willing?”

  “Like you even have to ask,” he muttered. He bit her neck, scraping his teeth over her skin gently before pressing a kiss to the spot. “Hop up on the bed while I grab one of my data pads. When we’re done we’ll grab a quick nap because, and I hate to tell you this, but you look exhausted right now.”

  “It’s been years since I’ve slept more than an hour at a time. They removed the locks to my door so I was never able to lock it and I’ve been too terrified of what they might to do me when I slept to spend much time sleeping.”

  “No one can get to you here. They’d have to get through me first even if they managed to get through that door.” Leaning over, he pressed a kiss to her temple, then gave her a gentle push toward the bed before turning and walking back into the other room.

  She trusted him in that. She trusted him with everything. Once she was alone in the bedroom she pulled off her clothing and folded it neatly before pulling back the bedding and climbing into the massive and surprisingly comfortable bed.

  Draven walked back a couple minutes later with a data pad in one hand and two bottles of water in his other. He stopped dead in his tracks when he spotted her clothing on the chair. Slowly his head turned toward the bed, and up went an eyebrow. “Comfortable?” he asked, his voice a little rougher than she’d ever heard it.