I hate that blonde haired bitch, she wrote, and stared at the letters until they blurred with eyestrain. Sue-Eye was a bitch, too, in the purest possible sense. A whiny, obsequious, tail-wagging, slobbering bitch-dog.
“Can I, Kane? Please?”
“No.”
Raven glanced covertly into the dark mirror of the TV screen and saw Sue-Eye’s hand hovering over Kane’s crotch. He was pretending to ignore her as he tossed his chicken bones to the floor, but pretend was clearly the operative word. He was enjoying himself, enjoying the torture of his ichuta’a, and if he knew how much it bothered Raven, he’d be enjoying that, too.
“Please? I want you so bad.”
Kane sniffed at his waffle, and then dropped the Styrofoam box holding the rest of his dinner on the carpet. “Go take a shower,” he ordered, balancing his computer on his thighs. “And I warn you, ichuta’a, if you like your hands, you’ll keep them off your cunt. I’ll know if you cum.” He drew in a deep breath pointedly and showed his sharp teeth in a grin. “And I won’t be happy about it.”
Sue-Eye stood up obediently. “Can’t I blow you at least? Please. I need your cock.”
“Maybe later.” He flicked his claws at her, all his attention on his computer. “Now go on. I’m working.”
Raven couldn’t stop herself from looking up as Sue-Eye went by. She was caught, chilled by the gleam of victory carefully hidden in the other woman’s eyes. There was a plan at work here, and it was going in Sue-Eye’s favor.
Raven returned her eyes to her work, but her movements were all by rote. Sue-Eye was making herself noticeable. She was making herself useful. How long before she made herself indispensable?
Kane had said he would take Raven with him when he left Earth. Saying wasn’t the same as promising, but she still believed him. Kane didn’t have to lie, not when he could just give her one to the stomach to shut her up. Raven was by now almost entirely convinced that he would never kill her, not unless she did something dramatic like stab him, but he still had moods and he was still pretty quick about slapping her around. Questioning him about whether or not he really meant it when he said he’d take her with him might just annoy him enough to earn her a few bruises.
God, her DNA was scattered over half a dozen crime scenes by now. She’d rather be killed than be left behind to have to explain everything. At least Kane’s way was quick. Looking at prison, at gang rapes and stabbings and everything that went with it, right up until she was plugged into that last hot wire, Raven felt like throwing up.
It wouldn’t happen. Not now. Not after he finally got her the way he wanted. He wouldn’t throw her away now.
Raven ran a hand up her side, her fingertips lightly brushing over the metal outlining her breasts, the metal stiffening her nipples. Silver and gold. He’d made her his treasure. You didn’t do that to someone you were just going to abandon.
But then again, why not? It wasn’t like he’d paid for any of the jewelry. Raven gripped at her own arm, twisting around to see her new tattoo clearly. E’Var, it said. She could read it now. He’d put his name on her and taught her to read it.
“What are you doing?” Kane. He was smiling at her crookedly, his hands hovering over the keyboard of his computer.
Raven looked at him, but thought of Sue-Eye. Sue-Eye and her games. Sue-Eye, who thought she was winning them. Raven thought so, too, and it was a terrifying thought to have. Hesitantly, unsure of just what she was doing, she said, “My period’s almost over. I think I’ve stopped bleeding, but…you know…I just want to be sure.”
“Mm.” He waited, his body relaxed and his expression lazy and sly-a great golden cat with the bird already under his paws.
Raven made a few scratches with her pen, avoiding his gaze. “I see her with you and I…I’m actually jealous.” The words stung, even in her own mouth, and she hated them for being even a little bit true. She shook her head. “I…miss you. How wrong is that?”
“Very,” he said gravely.
She put her pen down and faced him, her heart hammering. “Can I ask for something?”
Kane’s eyes flicked towards the wall separating them from the bathroom where water from Sue-Eye’s shower drummed endlessly. His smile broadened. “Oh, let me guess.”
“When I am done,” Raven interrupted. “My period, I mean. When I’m all the way done, will you let me…let me…” Her nerve was failing. Heat crawled and burned in her cheeks. She didn’t know what she was saying, and he was going to see right through her anyway. But he was gazing at her again, unblinking and horribly aware of her, and she had to say something. “Will you let me do things?” she asked, her voice cracking. “Things that I want?”
His head cocked, his features scored with surprise. She’d caught him off-guard and that had to count for something. Clearly, he’d thought she was going to ask him to get rid of the competition.
Kane stared at her, his thoughts unspooling hidden behind his shark-black eyes. Finally, he folded down the monitor and closed his pack, resting his hands atop it. “Things,” he echoed. “Such as?”
This was dangerous. When he’d thought she’d lied to him about the reason for her bleeding, he’d been ready to kill her. This was worse. If he suspected her of anything at all—
She couldn’t stop now, or he’d know for sure she’d been trying something.
Raven stood up and went to the foot of the bed. “Things,” she said, crawling cautiously onto the mattress.
Kane pushed his pack to one side, freeing the broad field of his chest for her to climb, and she obliged him, touching her lips to his warm flesh as she moved up his body. She could taste him, the clean male sweat of him, and it was not an unpleasant sensation. When she placed her hand over the alien place his heart beat, she realized she really had missed him.
“Things,” she breathed, and let her lips just brush his. “Things that humans do.”
“Be careful,” he warned her, his voice low and amused. “I bite.”
“So do I.” She let her teeth close and pull at his lip, and then she slid her tongue past the double-row of his sharp teeth. He did not respond, but he did not discourage either, and she melted against him, exploring his strange mouth with sensuous abandon.
“Humans are very strange,” Kane said, once she’d drawn away. But he was smiling.
“Will you let me?” she asked, letting her hand caress his face. It was a handsome face, she realized, for all that his eyes were so awful and empty. She kissed him again, and this time, his tongue came to meet hers. Her hand drifted down, across his chest, over his hard stomach, toward the stiffening core of him, but then away and down the inner slope of his thigh.
He chuckled into her mouth and pulled his face away. “You’re teasing me,” he said with gentle menace. “That can be dangerous.”
“Humans do that,” she said, licking at the hollow of his throat. “When they want to take their time.”
“Is that what you want? To take your time?” He twined his hand lazily in her hair, and then pulled her down into his kiss. It was a deep kiss, hungry and unskilled, but kindling real desire in her nonetheless. “To play with me?” he murmured, breathing into her mouth.
“Yes. Will you let me?” she asked again. She began to move her hips in small circles, just brushing against the front of his pants, light as a feather. The sensation was pure silver, tiny strokes of lightning arcing up through her, and she closed her eyes to enjoy it.