“Uh-huh,” Matrix mumbled. His gaze followed Rue as she stood gazing around the room.
Sparx frowned at him. “Are you all right?” he asked, shifting Lucy in his grasp as she planted him with kisses and nuzzled his chest.
“Uh-huh,” Matrix said, still watching his new obsession. He wanted everyone to go away so he had her to himself. Preferably naked. He grinned at the image that popped into his head, his imagination running wild with what he might find under the clothing that was covering her luscious curves. The tunic she was wearing cupped her breasts deliciously before falling loose to the top of her legging-encased thighs.
“’Trix?” Sparx tried to get his attention once more before noticing where his friend’s attention was centered. Matrix saw his friend grin out of the corner of his eye. “Rue?”
The humor he heard in Sparx’s voice as he spoke her name made Matrix uneasy. He didn’t see anything funny about the situation. In fact, this situation was serious. He looked away from Rue long enough to cast a glare at Sparx, who simply winked at him.
“I’m going to take Lucy back to our quarters. Do you mind if I have Matrix walk you back to yours?”
Matrix stepped forward at the suggestion that explained the wink that had been lost on him moments ago. Puffing out his chest, he waited for his obsession to look at him. Something that was taking longer than he’d expected—or liked, for that matter. He’d felt her gaze on him earlier, but she’d looked away before he could catch her eye for longer than a cursory glance. He wasn’t too proud to admit her lack of attention in return had been an unexpected punch to the gut.
Why wouldn’t she look at him?
“Who? What?” Rue asked quickly. Her eyes darted around the room as if just now noticing they weren’t alone. Her eyebrows shot up as she scanned the space. “Oh. Which one of these guys is Matrix?”
Everyone stopped what they were doing to stare at Rue, who seemed to be looking at everyone but the man in question. Oblivious to the tension in the room that was radiating from him. He growled in frustration, needing her eyes on him more than he needed his next breath. The crowd around them shifted at the sound, the men of Fyeir giving the four of them space in the center of the room.
“M-me,” Matrix answered, his voice coming out more uneven than he expected. He cleared his throat, stepping forward with a purpose. “Me. I’m Warlord Matrix.”
“Veruca Salazar. Nice to meet ya,” she said, stepping forward with one hand out in greeting.
“Sparx called you Rue.” Matrix picked up her hand in his own and turned it over. With everyone watching, he kissed the back of her wrist where her pulse beat heavily. She caught her breath at the contact before pulling away with a snort.
“I know him,” Rue pointed out saucily, cocking her hip and giving him a challenging stare. “I do not know you from Adam.”
“Who’s Adam?” Matrix asked, the scar on his face wrinkling with the accompanying frown that followed the question. He had no problem killing whoever this Adam person was, if they had any sort of claim over the female he had no doubt was his own. “Where is he?”
“I don’t know.” Rue shrugged, giving him an impish grin as he contemplated murder over her affections. “Didn’t I just say I don’t know him?”
Matrix stared at her with an expression of utter confusion while he tried to untangle her words. She was definitely a clever female, if this short conversation was anything to go by. He liked that. Just as he was about to open his mouth and tell her so, she turned and began walking away from him, making the words faulter in his throat.
He barely resisted his instincts to reach out and pull her back to him. Barely.
“Don’t worry about me though. I can find my own way back. My sense of direction got me here, and I didn’t even know where here was. Unlike that one.” She stopped and pointed her finger at Lucy. “I’m serious about not letting her wander around here solo. We got separated once at Target for over half an hour, and I had to walk around honking a goose call to find her.”
“A goose call?” he echoed, unsure what exactly that was.
“Yeah.” Rue shrugged as if what she was saying made perfect sense. “It’s like our own personal version on Marco Polo. She hears my honks and yells at me to shut the fuck up before I embarrass her anymore, and voila, I find her.”
Then she made an awful sound, cupping her hands over her mouth to make the noise louder.
Lucy giggled against Sparx’s chest, earning a soft smile and wistful look from Rue before she looked at him again.
“Really?” Matrix asked, unsure if he should take her seriously or not.
“Yeah, really.” She shot him a frown before she turned to looked at Sparx. “Who’s this guy again? One of your helpers?”
Matrix almost choked at her words, unable to believe what he was hearing. Sparx snorted before straining to suppress a laugh as his mate Lucy hid her face against his chest and giggled.
They thought this was funny. He did not.
While he didn’t appreciate the humor, he did find Rue entertaining. His obsession would keep him on his toes with the vibrant energy he could practically feel flowing from her as she eyed him mischievously.
Her sassiness was so beyond blatant that a few muffled chuckles escaped from the others in the room. Instead of being angry at her audacity, he wanted more of it. Even now, his hands itched to smack the round ass he’d been granted the pleasure of watching as she bounced around the room. He restrained himself, knowing that he needed to at least introduce himself before they could talk about the possibility of spanking.
“I am Warlord Matrix, reigning warlord of Gunninng.” Matrix’s announcement had everyone in the room standing at attention, except for the woman he had intended to impress.
“Oh dear,” Lucy whispered, leading him to believe that maybe he hadn’t taken the right approach with his introduction.
Matrix gave a mental shrug. He couldn’t go back and change it now.
“Well howdy-do, Warlord Matrix from Gunninng,” Rue drawled as she moseyed forward and eyed him up and down. When she was done with her perusal, she raised one of her eyebrows in what he hoped was a challenge. “I’m Ms. Veruca Emmaline Salazar…but I guess you can call me Rue. I mean, any friend of Sparx is a friend of mine.”
“Oh.” He let out on a deep chuckle, stepping forward with a wicked smile. “We’re going to be much more than friends, Rue.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked as her expression shifted into one he couldn’t quite decipher. It was not fear he saw, but more along the lines of suspicion. She continued to keep stepping back as he approached, stalking her like the hunter’s instincts she had brought forth in him.
Chapter Twelve
Rue tried to swallow but couldn’t find enough spit to complete the action, emitting a small choking sound as her back hit the wall. The wall she had no idea she was being herded towards until she was out of escape options.
She’d done the one thing her self-defense instructor had warned her against time and time again. She’d put herself between a rock and a hard place. The rock being the cave wall behind her—literally—and the hard place was the delicious, scarred man in front of her who was eyeing her as if he owned her or something.
It was the possession she saw in his eyes that unnerved her. She’d never been on the receiving end of someone so determined and hot before. It was unsettling. It didn’t help that she’d noticed the gigantic hunk of hotness in front of her the moment she knew that Lucy was taken care of.
Up until that point, she’d been too distracted by the amount of pain her friend had been in to pay much attention to anyone else. The entire situation had scared the hell out of Rue. After what she’d witnessed, she was a teensy bit grateful she’d dodged that whole mating bullet. Yeah, it sucked that she was going to be sent home and most likely never see her sister-from-another mister in person again, but watching Lucy physically hurt by just being apart from her mate was no bueno. No Bue
no, indeed. Her description of what she was feeling as they’d hustled here sounded similar to the horrible pain she’d endured for years living with endometriosis. It was an agonizing sensation that Rue was all too familiar with.
Gah! Just thinking about it made her shiver. All of it, every single bit, weirded her out. She didn’t care if Sparx was Lucy’s cure to this literal mating heat; it was just too much. In fact, as she’d ushered Lucy into her mate’s arms, she’d felt as if she’d passed the proverbial torch. She was no longer responsible for her bestie—not that she’d ever minded the weight of being the Keeper of the Goose. Now, Lucy and the shenanigans that came with being the Goose were now under Sparx’s jurisdiction.
Rue knew he’d not only protect Lucy better than she ever could, he’d also accept her for who she was. He was also smart enough to take the preventative measures needed to ensure everyone’s safety when it came to Lucy Goosey. She’d already witnessed it happening, if the all the new rugs in their apartments were anything to go by. He’d pretty much began Goose-proofing their home, which Rue had done herself the moment they’d moved in together all those years ago. Seeing that particular act on Sparx’s behalf helped ease her mind. The fact that he obviously loved her friend made the torch passing easier than she ever thought it would be.
Once Rue had stepped back and let Sparx and Lucy do…whatever it was that mates needed to do in situations like this one, she’d finally noticed him.
Technically, she’d noticed him the moment she’d burst in about ten minutes ago. Now, she noticed him. She didn’t want to betray sudden interest, so she’d checked him out on the down-low. Sneaking glances when she knew he was looking away, she’d eaten up what she was seeing in those quick glimpses that resulted in a whole damn meal by the time she’d finished.
Which was delicious.
Not even the scar splitting his beard could detract from how attractive he was. Instead, it gave him a rakish air, especially when he smiled at her. He carried himself different than the others, and the way he commanded attention gave her the same vibe she’d felt first seeing Sparx. By the way he stood, she immediately deduced that he was higher in the ranks than the others. He radiated the standard man in charge attitude without him ever needing to say a word. An attitude that was totally not her type, regardless of how much she presently wanted to climb him like a ladder and never come down.
“You know what that means, Veruca,” he drawled, close enough that she had to tilt her head to look up into his eyes.
She gulped, swallowing easily as her mouth watered at the enticing scent of his cologne. She couldn’t put her finger on what it reminded her of, but the feeling it evoked was a powerful one. One that took her back to the first time she’d smelled CK1 on her high school boyfriend’s letter jacket. Her stomach fluttered as she breathed deep.
“What does it mean?” she asked, her voice huskier than she could ever remembered hearing it.
“It means you’re mine.” The words came out hot against her lips as Matrix dropped a teasing kiss against them.
That simple brush with his lips made her feel as if all of the oxygen had been sucked out of her lungs, and she knew she needed to shut down whatever…this was. Past relationships never ended well when they mixed her personality and that of the typical alpha-male type. They were like oil and water; each would fight for dominance and they’d be doomed from the start. She’d learned her lesson and wasn’t about to make an exception. Not even for a hunk like Matrix.
Pulling away, she shook her head to clear the lustful fog that continued to roll into Port Veruca the longer he invaded her space. Rue needed her wits to combat whatever magical vagina powers he wielded over her.
“Who the fuck do you think you are?” she asked, propping one hand on her hip. She poked a finger at the hard chest in front of her, fighting the temptation to linger and test just how hard his muscles were under the leather. She tried to give him her best glare, but it fizzled as he caught her in his electric-blue gaze. Framed by his dark looks, they seemed over-bright as they watched her.
That color couldn’t be real, could it?
“Your eyes…” she said softly before the thought trailed off as he smiled down at her.
For some reason that smile—that goddamn knowing smile—made her want to spit nails.
“Why are you smiling?” she asked, regretting the question the moment it flew out of her mouth. First, she didn’t want to engage with him any longer than absolutely necessary. He was scrambling her bits without even trying and she didn’t like it. The longer she was around him the more she was bound to feel out of sorts. The second reason was because Rue had a sneaking suspicion that she wasn’t going to like his answer. Not even a little bit.
“You want to know why I’m smiling, Veruca?” he repeated, earning another scowl from her.
“Stop it,” she snapped, feeling unsteady as he emphasized her name between his perfectly sculpted lips. Lips that she wanted to feel on her own again, despite her earlier protests.
What was up with that?
“Stop what?” he asked, his smile growing even cockier as he watched her. His eyes let her know that she couldn’t hide, no matter how hard she tried. The electric-blue had snared her from the get-go and she couldn’t look away.
“Saying my name like that,” she answered after a slight pause as she struggled to remember what they were talking about. Rue blinked, hoping it helped knock her out of whatever power his blue eyes seemed to be able to wield over her. “I thought you wanted to call me Rue?”
Matrix shook his head, and his smile grew deeper as he studied her as she squirmed at the attention.
She had no idea what was going on with her, but she felt like she had an entire packet of Pop Rocks shooting off in her stomach—but not necessarily in a bad way, if that made any sense. She fizzled with a restless energy she couldn’t control or understand, and because of that, she didn’t like it. Her reaction to Warlord Matrix, reigning warlord of Gunninng made her uncomfortable both physically and mentally. It was unsettling.
“You said that your friends call you Rue.” He lifted a brow as if waiting for an answer, even though what he said wasn’t a question.
“And, like I said before,” she started, unsure why talking to him made her feel so off balance, “any friend of Sparx is a friend of mine. Also, is there a reason why you’re in my personal space?”
“It’s funny that you think I’m in your space, while I believe we’re still not close enough,” he said, giving her a wink that did something strange to her insides.
“What—”
“We’re going to be much more than friends, Veruca.”
Rue snorted, practically in his face since he leaned down a bit towards her. Matrix moved back slightly but not far enough for her liking. He was making her palms sweat.
Looking around the big body that had backed her into a corner, she made a face at Lucy and Sparx, who were shamelessly onlooking. “Can you believe the cojones on this dude, Goose?”
“What’s that?” Sparx asked.
“It’s Spanish for balls,” Lucy said with a giggle before turning to whisper into his ear. Whatever she said must have cleared up any further confusion because a look of understanding came over Sparx’s face when she was finished.
“Veruca?”
Rue fixed a scowl on her face before looking up at the warlord, who, for some reason, was intent on getting under her skin.
Chapter Thirteen
Matrix couldn’t stop smiling at his good fortune. Not only had their ancestors blessed him with a mate who made him harder than stone, they’d given him one that was more than simply pretty. The longer he watched her, the harder he fell. He’d witnessed her protective and caring nature when she’d first entered, followed by her sass and firmness as she’d lectured Sparx. The worry that she had for her friend was endearing, especially when she’d nibbled on her lip as she’d hovered. He’d been hooked long before she’d ever even looked his way, only sinking
deeper when he finally caught her dark-brown eyes.
When her gaze turned his direction, he’d been surprised at the intelligence and inner strength shining there. Within seconds, he knew Veruca would make the perfect partner for him.
And a perfect Lady of Gunninng.
“Why are you looking at me like that,” she asked with a scowl on her gorgeous lips.
Lips that he wanted to feel again underneath his own. Matrix was addicted. He’d only tasted them once and already couldn’t imagine going without ever again.
“How else would I look at my mate?” he asked huskily as he propped one arm on the wall behind her. He knew he was in her space but was past the point of being able to stop himself. The way he figured, this was most likely more acceptable than what he truly wanted to do, which was cover her body with his own.
“What?”
Matrix blinked. If he hadn’t seen her lips move and heard the tiny whisper, he would have thought his announcement had shocked her silent—something he was sure hadn’t happened before.
Cupping her soft cheek in one of his roughened hands, he gently ran his thumb over her cheekbone. He couldn’t believe how soft and fragile her skin felt compared with his own. The more he studied and stroked her, now moving down to her neck until he’d collared her with one large hand, the more the differences between their kinds were amplified.
It wasn’t a turn off in the least. He wanted to be more for her. Stronger. Bigger. More protective. A better provider. The fragility of Veruca, his obsession, made him want to wrap her in furs and dull any sharp corners she could ever possibly come into contact with. Matrix new it was silly, but it wouldn’t stop him from doing it.
“What did you say?” she asked, this time with more words and a completely colorless face as she looked up at him.
Matrix moved his hand from her throat to her shoulder, holding her steady as she swayed.
Was his mate ill?
The mere idea of his obsession being unwell sent his stomach plummeting all the way down to his boots. Just as he was about to scoop her up into his arms—a move he’d seen Sparx do to his own mate earlier—two small palms landed on his chest. Looking down, Matrix marveled at how small her hands appeared against him. The visual of her soft, dainty fingers resting against the hardness of his muscled chest was more than arousing.
Miners of Djaromir: Matrix Page 7
