Choosing Riley

by S. E. Smith

  “I have to check on the ship, meet with my brother, and go over a few other things before I return,” Vox said brushing her wavy hair back from her face. “I cannot take a chance of you getting into anything.”

  “The least you can do is let me go!” Riley snorted angrily. “You can lock me in the room. You don’t have to leave me hooked to the frigging bed!”

  “I am not willing to take the chance of you figuring out how to get out,” Vox replied. “I will not be long,” he added brushing the back of his knuckles along her flushed cheek.

  “I don’t care how long you take! You can just forget I’m even here. I hope you get lost. I hope you ….”

  Vox cut off her words the only way he knew how, with his lips. He held her head still between the palms of his huge hands while he devoured her. His need for her threatening to override his sense of responsibility to his men. He drove his tongue deep into her mouth, dueling with her tongue as she fought back with a ferocity that ignited his blood to boiling.

  He reluctantly pulled back and pressed his lips to her forehead. “You fire my blood, Riley. I have never felt this way before about another female in my life,” he whispered.

  Riley pulled back and gazed up into his eyes to see if he was just saying that to make fun of her or if he really meant it. The look in his eyes was so intense she drew in a shocked breath. He looked like…. like…. like he loved her! It was the same look some of the male leads had for the heroine in the movies.

  “I will return soon,” he repeated, brushing a hard kiss over her lips and leaving her lying on the bed stunned.

  That had been one nap and several hours ago. Riley now believed that she had been totally mistaken about the look in his eyes. It had not been love, it had been lust. Just like every other guy she had ever met. She worked herself into a fine temper as she lay there. She also needed to pee! Since it didn’t look like Vox was going to be returning anytime soon she figured it was time to get herself out of the pickle she was currently in. It wasn’t like this was the first time she had been in this situation. Well, not exactly this situation but the first time she found herself handcuffed. No, that privilege was for the idiot cop who thought he could offer her a deal in exchange for a speeding ticket when any fool could have told him that was an impossible task for her little Ford. She had kneed the guy in the balls when he did a pat down on her.

  “I am so going to kidnap me a trader,” Riley muttered. “I don’t care who it is. I’m going to head home. If I need counseling when I get there, who cares! Everyone has a counselor now a days. It is considered the ‘in’ thing.”

  Riley worked one of her earrings off and gave a regretful sigh that she was about to destroy it. Straightening the long metal loop, she worked at the lock until she heard the slight click. The cuffs fell off. Riley breathed a sigh of relief. Thank God Tina had shown her how to pick locks. Her little sister might have a metal bar up her ass most of the time but she was a very avid reader. Tina had checked out a book on how to pick locks from the library one summer. She and her little sister had spent the rest of the summer picking every lock they could just to see if it really worked.

  Riley slid off the bed and hurried into the bathroom. A loud sigh of relief escaped her as she relieved her overfull bladder. Hell hath no fury like a woman denied a bathroom when she needed it, she thought savagely. She would love to tie his ornery ass up and see how he liked it!

  As soon as she was finished, she marched over to her large handbag and began rifling through it. She laid her mini Taser and pepper spray on the bed before she unzipped her suitcase to find something suitable to wear for her great escape. She pulled out her black leather pants and a black T-shirt from the bar with the slogan ‘Bikers, Boobs and Beer – I have it all at The White Pearl’. She quickly dressed in her weekend at the bar outfit. She even attached the spiked dog collar she had picked up for Halloween last year. She pulled her black, stiletto ankle boots out and pulled them on. She knew she looked hot in this outfit. Craig, her grandma’s three hundred pound bouncer, always groaned when he saw her dressed like this. He knew he would be ultra-busy when she did. Last, she pulled out the jacket her sister had gotten her for her birthday a few months ago. It was a fake, black mink jacket complete with a fake mink head draped over the left shoulder. The beady little glass eyes dared anyone to mess with her for fear of taking its place around her neck. She slid the jacket on figuring she would need it. It was the only one that really went with the leather pants besides the one jacket Vox had already destroyed.

  “And if I had more time, I would make him pay for a replacement,” Riley growled out.

  Determined to leave in style, she pulled her makeup bag out and added a dramatic touch of varying shades of blue around her eyes to make them pop before doing a heavy outline of black liner and mascara. Bright, glossy red lips and a swipe of blush and she looked like one very bad bitch. Grabbing her hair gel, she poured a generous amount into the palm of her hand and ran it though her wavy strands. Pulling her brush out, she quickly pulled her hair into a tight, slick bun. She pulled out the crystal hair clip and fastened it to hold it in place. She studied her reflection for a moment before adding a pair of huge silver hoops. Damn, she made the ‘bad girl’ look good even if she was an Amazon!

  She would like to see any of those guys give her the ‘look’ like they did when Vox brought her aboard. Turning, she snatched up the mini Taser and slid it into the back of her waistband under her jacket before pocketing the pepper spray. Finally, she slung her large handbag over her shoulder. She was so totally ready to go kidnap someone and get the hell out of here!

  Riley ran one hand over her slicked back hair one more time before heading for the door. It opened as soon as she brushed her hand over the panel. With a self-satisfied smile on her blood red lips, she strode out of the room like she own the place. Two men walking toward her stopped in shock as she approached them. She ignored their stares and added a little more sway to her hips as she approached. Just as she reached them, she thrust her hands out, palms flat against their chests and shoved them to the side.

  “Out of the way, boys,” Riley snarled in a husky voice. “Momma is looking for an exit and she is ready to bust any balls that get in her way.”

  The two men stumbled back in shock and watched as Riley walked away. Their eyes glued to the tight black leather covering her lush, rounded ass. Both men growled low with desire as they watched the seductive sway of her wide hips.

  They turned, looking at each other before a huge grin creased their faces. “Mine!” They both growled out at the same time.

  *.*.*

  Vox ran his hands through his hair again as he listened to Viper cover the events that had happened since he, Tor, and Lodar had been kidnapped. Gods, he could barely keep his mind on the tasks at hand. His mind kept drifting back Riley. He couldn’t forget the passion in her kiss, the way she looked spread out on his bed with her hands bound, and the thrust of her beautiful breasts. He remembered how they overflowed his hands as he sucked at the taunt peaks when he claimed her. It had been too long since he had even a moment alone with her. He needed her.

  “Vox!” Viper snapped. “What is wrong with you? You have been groaning for the past several minutes. Do you need a healer?”

  Vox jerked and looked at his brother in irritation. “No, I don’t need a healer. I need Riley!” He retorted in frustration. “I need to mate with her. I haven’t been able to think straight since I first saw her,” he admitted reluctantly.

  Viper frowned darkly. “Does she have some type of control over you?” He demanded, looking hard at his older brother.

  Vox shook his head. “I don’t know. She is my mate. I’ve heard talk of when we found our mate we would want them with a need unlike anything we have ever felt before but I never really believed it. I know how father is with mother but I just thought it was him and her. Now I am not so sure. All I can think about is being with her,” he said rubbing his hand over the back of his nec
k before clenching his fist and laying it on the conference table in front of him.

  “How did you meet her?” Viper asked with a deceptive calm.

  Viper was really worried about Vox. Never before had he ever seen his older brother act like this, especially around a female. He had never seen a species like her until he caught sight of Creon and Mandra’s mates. They looked different from the one Vox had but their features were close enough he was sure they were the same species. He wondered if this was an unknown alien species’ way of infiltrating their worlds and taking them over. He would need to contact their parents and brothers and warn them of Vox’s unusual behavior. It might be necessary to eliminate the female if she posed a danger.

  Vox leaned back and looked at his younger brother with a small grin. “She was giving the Antrox running the mining asteroid a piece of her mind. She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Her eyes were flashing fire, her body was made for loving, and her voice was like ….” Vox shook his head at his brother’s open mouth look of disbelief. “I knew she was my mate immediately. There were five of us in the Choosing Room. She chose us all. When the Antrox tried to tell her she couldn’t, she gave him one look and the next thing I know we were all escorted to her living quarters.”

  “She chose five mates?” Viper asked in disbelief. “How could she choose five?”

  “She is Riley St. Claire from Denver, Colorado and she can do whatever she wants,” Vox grinned as he repeated his mate’s words. “When I tried to claim her she knocked me on my ass – twice! She was magnificent.”

  “So, how did you escape? You said you would tell me when you got on board,” Viper asked in confusion.

  “Riley,” Vox said with another shake of his head.

  Viper listened in disbelief as Vox explained about the tools, Riley getting hurt and having to go to medical and what happened the next morning. He found it impossible to believe that a female could do the things that Vox was saying. Sure, he knew of the females who had betrayed them. He currently had two of his brother’s females locked up. Still, they used their bodies and wiles to fight. They didn’t go shooting, blowing up, or fighting against males. His suspicions that this species might be a deadly opponent and need to be eliminated was growing. They could be extremely dangerous if they were allowed to run free or even mate with the most powerful members of their species. His thoughts turned to the fact that all five of the Valdier royals were mated to such creatures. Their takeover had already begun.

  “You cannot mate with her,” Viper said coldly looking at his older brother with determination. “She needs to be either contained or eliminated.”

  Vox surged out of his seat, reaching out and grabbing his brother around the throat in a deadly hold. “She is my mate. No one will touch her. No one will harm her. She is your queen and you will not forget that,” he snarled, his teeth growing longer as his cat rebelled against the other male.

  “You are not thinking clearly,” Viper growled hoarsely, ignoring the tightening on his throat. “I swore to protect our King and our people. I will not let an unknown species threaten either of them.”

  Vox stared into Viper’s dark green and yellow eyes and swore. “She is no threat.”

  The door opened just as Vox let Viper go. “My lord, the female has kidnapped Nahuel. She is demanding he take her to an unknown planet.”

  Viper rubbed his neck and threw his brother a disgusted look. “No threat?”

  “Shut up, Viper,” Vox grunted out as he headed out the door. “She is always doing things like this.”

  *.*.*

  Riley wasn’t sure her ‘bad ass’ girl outfit was working. Instead of scaring the men away they seemed to be multiplying – exponentially. The two she had encountered originally were still following right behind her and if she wasn’t mistaken, they were purring.

  “Will you two go take a hike off a short bridge?” Riley snapped out as she turned and walked backwards. “Go on, shoo, get out of here, go fetch a stick or something.”

  Tadzio grinned as his eyes dropped to the deep Vee on Riley’s shirt. His eyes were glued to the abundant cleavage showing. His eyes rose to look at her glistening lips.

  “The only thing I want to fetch is you,” he growled out. “Do you have milk in those?”

  Riley was so stunned that she stopped walking backwards in shock. Her mouth dropped open as she stared at him in disbelief. What was it with men and boobs? She totally could not understand their fascination. They had them too but that didn’t mean women went around staring at them.

  “I know you did not just ask me something so rude!” She snapped out indignantly.

  “Yes, he did,” Nahuel replied with a grin.

  Riley’s mouth snapped shut at the same time as her eyes narrowed dangerously. She rolled her shoulders as her hand slipped to the waistband of her pants. It looked like the mini Taser was going to be used sooner than she thought. She took a seductive step toward them as a small crowd of men gathered around her.

  Biting her lower lip, she pushed it out so it pouted as she looked both men over carefully. “Would either one of you two gorgeous hunks happen to know how to fly one of those shuttle thingies?” She asked in her best Marilyn Monroe voice.

  Nahuel’s eyes glazed as he watched the voluptuous female walk slowly toward them with a roll of her hips. “I am one of the best pilots on board,” he answered in a hoarse voice.

  Riley walked up to him and ran her fingernail down along his cheek over to his nose where she tapped it gently. Leaning into him, she let him feel her warm breath on his lips as she answered him. A smile curved her lips as her other hand moved to the beltbelt loop on her pants where she had hidden the wrist cuffs Vox had used on her.

  “Well, I guess today is your lucky day,” Riley breathed out huskily. “Yes, they do produce milk but only on special occasions.”

  Nahuel’s eyes rolled in delight just as Riley slapped the wrist cuff on one of his wrists before she ducked under his arm, twisting his arm behind him at the same time as she kicked the back of his knees, dropping him to the floor and slapping the other one on. When Tadzio took a step forward, she lifted her hand and touched his chest squeezing the trigger on the newly recharged Taser. She would have to remember to thank Tor for the neat little recharger he had given her. It had come in handy.

  Tadzio jerked and dropped as spasms went through his body. Riley jerked Nahuel up and pressed the Taser into his lower back in warning. It took a couple of seconds for the men surrounding her to realize what she had done. When they did, they jerked back defensively.

  “Now, if you don’t want to enjoy the same level of discomfort as your friend, you will do as you are told. You are now my prisoner. I want you to take me home,” Riley said in her normal voice. She grinned at the huge alien she had captured with excitement as she didn’t really think it would be that easy. “Come on, chop – chop. I’m not getting any younger.”

  Tadzio groaned as his body jerked again. “What did you do to him?” Nahuel asked looking down at his friend with narrowed eyes.

  “Oh, he’ll be alright in a little while. I did the same thing to Vox. I think it took about an hour or so. He recovered from that much faster than he did the pepper spray. Poor Tor was miserable for hours afterwards even though he kept telling me he wasn’t. Oh, can you remind me to thank Tor for the charger. My poor Taser would have been dead if not for him,” Riley replied cheerfully. “Now, let’s go. I need to get away before the big hairball finds out I’ve escaped from his living quarters.”

  “You are too late. The ‘hairball’ already knows,” Vox growled out loudly as he came down the corridor toward her.

  “Great! Just great! I finally have everything going my way and what happens? Busted! That’s what! I swear I hate being the supporting character,” Riley grumbled as she tried to shuffle Nahuel so he was between her and Vox. “If I had been the heroine I would have not only been on a super charged shuttle heading home, I’d have a ton of gold and be e
ating caviar on little toasted crackers.”

  Several of the men standing around choked back a chuckle as they listened to Riley talking to herself. They had her surrounded so they knew there was no way she would escape but they could tell that she really believed she had the upper hand. Now, they watched as the fiercest warrior on their planet faced off with the unusual female.

  “Riley, let him go,” Vox growled out.

  “No! I caught him fair and square. He’s mine!” Riley snapped back.

  “If she really has milk, I am totally willing to remain in her captivity,” Nahuel offered with a grin.

  Vox snarled at Nahuel. “Her milk is mine!”

  “Hello! Do you two have any idea how embarrassing it is to be talked about like I am some kind of a milk cow? No one is going to be drinking any milk from me. Now get your minds out of the gutter and shut up already!” Riley’s voice rose at the same time as her temper and the burning inside her as the damn thing hiding under her skin threatened to break free again. She looked furiously at Vox. “I want to go home! I captured me a pilot so I should be able to just go.”

  “I already told you no,” Vox snapped back as he took a step closer to her. “What have you done to your hair?” He demanded studying her face and realizing she looked – sexy as hell!

  “Why?” Riley asked forgetting that she was supposed to be holding onto Nahuel for a moment and running her hand over the slicked down strands. “I call this my bad girl hair. I wear it like this when I go to the bar sometimes. Don’t you like it?”

  The moment she released him, Nahuel jerked forward and turned away from her. He grinned as he snapped the restraint on his wrists. He had learned that trick when he was in basic training.

  Vox’s deep snarl ripped through the corridor as his cat reacted to the creature wrapped around his mate’s neck. Vox shifted between one jerky step and the next as his cat took over. He vaguely heard Riley’s scream followed by his brother Viper’s roar to stop but none of it mattered. The beady-eyed creature stared in challenge, as if daring him to take Riley from him. Vox’s teeth sank into the neck of the creature just as his massive paws knocked Riley over Tadzio’s inert figure. He pulled, listening with satisfaction as the creature came apart in his mouth. The creature tasted foul but he didn’t stop until he had torn it to tattered pieces. Only then did he realize that Riley wasn’t yelling anymore. It was her heartbreaking sobs that finally broke through the haze of rage coursing through him.