Mad, Bad & Dangerous

“What?” he asked.

Okay, Kett, stay calm. This probably isn’t as bad as it seems. Someone playing a joke on you, perhaps. Someone at Koskwim who still thinks it’s funny to torment Mad Kett. At least they chained you to someone really hot. You’ve been in worse situations. At least you’re not actually dead this time.

For all her luck this was probably some screwy marriage ceremony. She’d probably met this guy at the Maharaja’s party and had too much to drink and forgotten that marriage was the worst idea ever invented. Even after years of fuckwits she could still be a sucker for a pretty face.

“I’m okay,” she said, trying to see over his distressingly broad shoulder. “Apart from the fact that I have no idea how I got here, or who you are, my arm feels like it’s gonna pop out of its socket and, oh yeah, I appear to be naked and bloody and chained to a complete fucking stranger. What else could I be but fine?”

“Whoa,” he said, “keep your knickers on.”

“I’m not wearing any.”

His grin said he’d noticed. “I mean calm down.”

“Calm?”

“Opposite of what you’re doing. I’m as much in the dark as you are. I haven’t a clue what’s going on.”

She brought her eyes back to his-it wasn’t hard, they were about four inches away-and saw honesty in their warm green depths. Aware that her bosom was heaving against a complete stranger’s chest, she tried to take his advice and calm herself. If only because she’d never thought of herself as having a “bosom”, and it made her feel old.

Only she wasn’t so good at being calm. She preferred totally and utterly freaking out.

Right, Kett. What’s going on? A cave, silver chains, amnesia. She didn’t recall there being all that many caves in the Maharaja’s palace. Had she offended someone there? Possibly-Kett was good at being offensive-but the Maharaja’s court was into more public punishments.

See, this is what happens when you extend the hand of friendship. Some bugger bites it.

She went through a list of enemies in her head, but most of them were dead. Those Federacion bastards were at the top of the list of the living, but she still couldn’t fathom why they might have left her here. A slow death, maybe. Pain and starvation.

Maybe Striker was playing a joke on her. She couldn’t work out why, but then she’d never wanted to understand the innermost workings of his mind.

“You have no idea where we are?” she asked, trying the calm thing.

“A cave.”

“You think?”

“Ooh, tetchy. Don’t think there’s anyone else here. I called out but no one answered.”

A hundred ideas came to her, none of them pleasant. They’d been strung up here to die, that much was clear- but were they being left as meat for hungry bears or dragons, or to wait for the tide to rush in or what?

No, this place didn’t smell damp. If anything, it smelled like something had recently been burning here.

Great. They were going to be barbecued. Back to the dragon theory. Well, at least Kett understood dragons, although unfortunately what she understood was that they liked fresh meat.

And the blood. Didn’t seem like an accidental cut-wrist to wrist, that looked a lot like something ritualistic. She hated bloody rituals.

Still. Kett had a trick or two up her- Well, she had a trick or two.

She concentrated on thinning out her wrist and escaping the chains stringing them up to the ceiling.

Nothing.

She tried a little harder. Granted, it was harder to change a little bit of your shape than a lot, but she’d had a lot of practice. Kett shook herself and tried to wake up a bit.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Shh. I’m concentrating.”

He frowned but said nothing. She still wasn’t getting anything from her wrist, so she decided to go for broke.

“Don’t freak out,” she warned him, and changed her form to that of a snake.

He didn’t freak. Probably because she didn’t change.

“Uh, I’m not freaking,” he said. “Should I be?”

Real panic was setting in now. “This ain’t working.”

“What ain’t?”

“I-” She looked at him, and knew she couldn’t tell him. Not yet. She had no idea who he really was or why he was here with her. Chances were he had something to do with this setup, and she wasn’t about to give him any reason why he should keep her chained.

“I was trying to get free,” she said. “Not working.”

“Yeah,” he said. “I think that’s the point.” He glanced around the cave a moment. There was a faint glow from somewhere in the distance, but she couldn’t make out any details. Couldn’t even see the floor.

“Bael,” he said eventually.

She blinked at him.

“My name,” he prompted. “It’s Bael. And you are…?”

“Kett,” she said vaguely.

He grinned. “Nice to meet you, Kett.”

“Yeah. Real nice.”

She tugged on the chains again, harder this time, then harder again. Every movement rubbed her body against Bael’s, which was damn distracting. He was pretty nicely shaped. Warm skin, hard muscles, his biceps bulging against her arm.

She swallowed and tried to concentrate her mind. Why couldn’t she change her shape? Apart from those unfortunate stone years in her childhood, she’d always been able to change her form however and whenever she wanted.

Only severe injury, enchantment or death had ever stopped her. And Kett wasn’t entirely sure which one of those was the most likely right now.

“Look, Bael. Do you have any idea how to get out of here?”

He glanced up at the chain as if he hadn’t really thought about it before and gave it an experimental tug. He frowned, tugged again, then gave her a sort of facial shrug.

She gave him a facial slow-hand clap.

“Well, I don’t see you coming up with anything,” he said defensively.

Kett looked up again. “Maybe if we both pull together,” she said.

He looked up at the chain again. It disappeared into darkness, the ceiling of the cave totally hidden. At least, she still assumed it was a cave. The echo suggested bare stone.

Bael nodded, and she shifted herself against him to get a better grip. This proved to be a bad move, since it involved rubbing her naked self all over his. Which, ordinarily, would be a great thing. But right now she didn’t really need the distraction.

Her nipples puckered against his chest and she knew he felt it. She licked her lips, tried to lean back a little, and succeeded in pressing her hips tighter against his.

Oh yeah. He’d felt it.

Stop, Kett, stop. Focus. Chain, cave, blood. This is all of the bad. Focus on getting out of here, then you can do as much rubbing of your naked self all over his as you like.

He cleared his throat and gripped the chain suspending them. She wrapped her hand around his wrist, tried not to think about the warm pulse beating there and made her eyes meet his.

He gave a tiny nod and they both yanked down on the chain. The movement jolted her against him, rubbing her already-sensitive nipples against the light hair on his chest and nudging his cock against her.

A shock of heat rippled through her. Bael’s body was hot, really hot. The roughness of his thighs abraded the soft skin of her legs. His chest rose and fell, rubbing her nipples delightfully. His penis swelled between her legs.