Dangerously His
A.M. Griffin
Loving Dangerously, Book Four
Justin “JB” Blake has never met a woman he couldn’t bed—or one he wants to keep. That changes the second he lays eyes on Princess Saia Xochis. The beautiful alien makes his body burn and his heart ache. She will be his. All JB has to do is risk life and limb at the hands of her abusive father, her protective brother, and her warmongering intended mate.
The possibilities of death and dismemberment have never stopped him before.
Inside Scoop: This book has a small taste of female/female fun—as well as scenes of abuse that are decidedly not fun.
A Romantica® sci-fi erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave
Dangerously His
A.M. Griffin
Dedication
This book is dedicated to the real JB. May you find your princess and live happily ever after.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to my wonderful family, who has endured more than their fair share of pizza nights and fast food restaurants because of writing schedules and deadlines. Ryan, Jori, Myles and Mia, I love you with all my heart, and because of your continued support, I’m able to continue this dream.
Thank you to my little sister Arthella, who seems to always have my book in her hand, ready to tell a friend, family member, coworker or stranger about how wonderful it is. You’re not only my sister, but you’re also my vacation partner, friend and avid supporter, and I love you for always having my back.
Thank you to my wonderful author friends, Danica Avet and Lea Barrymire, who are always available to listen to my rants, indulge my whims or talk me off the ledge.
Thank you to the readers. You guys rock. You don’t know how many times a tweet, Facebook post or an email has lifted my spirits. I want to hug each and every one of you, but I won’t because that would be totally weird.
Thank you to my editor extraordinaire, Kelli, for helping me do justice to JB, my bad boy.
Thanks to my daddy, Arthello. We have our differences but two things remain constant—our love for each other and your unwavering support. I love you.
Most of all, I’d like to thank my mother, Diana. Without you, I wouldn’t have the passion to write. Because of you, I know stories can and should be told. You’ve taught me not to be afraid, to always be strong and to write about what makes me happy. I love you.
Prologue
Taken Year: Three
Justin Blake tried his best to ignore the near-freezing temperature of the night air. Tonight, as on so many nights before, he thought of the hot, humid temperatures of his hometown, Little Rock, Arkansas. And like those other times, he mentally kicked himself for having complained about Little Rock being too hot.
Heat would feel real good right now. The rags that passed for work clothes did nothing to keep out the biting chill, and only reminded him of how futile reminiscing about heat actually was.
He crouched inside the mine, in a small crevice in the wall, fifteen feet from the entrance. He could hear the gusts of wind whipping past heavy machinery and across the landscape. While it was cold, he knew it was colder outside.
He kept his eyes and ears tuned to the entrance, where wooden slats supported the walls. Every now and then, gales would come barreling through and make the already-rickety boards at the entranceway rattle and knock together, making Justin think they might collapse at any given moment. If that were to happen, being trapped in the mine wouldn’t be such a bad thing. At least he and the rest of the human slaves would have a quick death and would no longer have to deal with the Galontaers, those big, ugly beasts the Loconuist had sold them to.
A quick or an easy death.
He sighed at the thought. He’d long since stopped thinking death in a Galontaer mining camp would be either. When Justin and the other human slaves had arrived on Toquel after being sold, his first thought had been, Well, at least I’m off the Loconuist vessel. He’d breathed fresh air, and after not feeling sunshine or warmth on his skin for two years, he thought this place had been a step up.
Wrong.
Yeah, the Loconuist had invaded Earth in 2012 and pretty much destroyed life as he knew it. Yeah, they had kept thousands of humans in what he believed was the belly of an enormous transport vessel. Yeah, they had separated families when they began selling humans. But the Loconuist had never beaten anyone.
That wasn’t the case here.
Galontaers used the whip freely. Justin suspected sometimes they used it as a means to say hello or just to let him know they were nearby—as if he could ever forget.
The Galontaers weren’t that much taller than humans. Their bodies were wide and stocky but it was their facial structure that made looking at them difficult. Their eyes were the size of dimes. The irises were black and took up the majority of the eye, leaving just a hint of white to outline them. Their skins appeared to be stitched together, scars zigzagging along cheekbones, around eyes and chins. Their lips were wide and stretched the length of their faces, with small, pointy teeth that protruded and sometimes cut into their lower lips, causing blood to drip as they talked. A line of hair that could only be described as a mane began at the top of their foreheads and traveled to the base of their skulls to disappear underneath their clothes.
And to top it off, their attitudes were just as bad as their looks. JB would do anything to get away from them, even if it meant going through with this crazy plan.
The wind billowed through again, tearing a board loose. It fell to the ground with a thunk. The whole damn entrance could fall apart at any minute, trapping them inside. How long would it take him and Terrance to starve to death? One week? Two? That wouldn’t be so bad, considering they’d all been wasting away and slowly dying for the past year. But even that dream was short-lived. The Galontaers would just dig them out and reset the entrance, as they’d done the other times it had collapsed.
But now there was hope. Not of a quick death but of an escape from the Galontaers, the mine and this wretched planet.
Rapid-fire puffs of white air burst from his mouth, suggesting two things. One, his breathing was erratic and fast. Two, if he didn’t want to get caught by any of the patrolling Galontaers, he should shut his mouth and breathe through his nose.
He snapped his mouth shut.
On his first inhalation, he remembered why breathing through his nose wasn’t an option. His nostrils were painfully raw and sore from the low humidity of Toquel and if the crisp air didn’t make his nose bleed, the smell surely would.
The smells of shit, rotting flesh and more shit were forever burned in his brain.
Immediately he parted his lips and breathed through his mouth again. The smell seemed to cling to the back of his throat, making it itchy.
This was the only planet he’d been on besides Earth, but Justin, or JB as he preferred to be called, was sure this had to be the worst-smelling planet in the galaxy, maybe even the universe. The Galontaers didn’t believe in wasting precious water on bathing, and certainly didn’t accommodate their human slaves in that regard.
JB didn’t know which was worse, the smell coming from him or the stench of the Galontaers.
Terrance, his companion, shifted to his knees from a crouching position. The crunching sound of his boots on the gravel was almost drowned out by the wind blowing outside. “We should have gotten the signal by now,” he said in a whisper.
“Don’t worry. We’ll get one,” JB assured.
He and Terrance had waited in the cramped crevice for what seemed an eternity. Both were more than anxious to move to the next checkpoint.
“God, I hope so.”
Terrance shivered and sh
ifted closer. JB didn’t mind, he welcomed the added warmth. He’d known Terrance since the third grade. Even after high school, the two of them had stayed close. When JB started his construction company, Terrance had been one of the first men he’d hired.
When JB was captured, Terrance had been right by his side.
JB knew he was lucky to have a friend with him during this troubling time. Few others on Toquel could boast the comfort of a childhood friend to ease the stress of enslavement. At least JB had someone to lean on, to help him navigate through uncharted waters. And being abducted by aliens and sold to a mining colony was definitely high on the list of uncharted territory.
Terrance pounded a fist on his thigh. “Come on, come on, come on,” he chanted in a hurried tone.
JB stilled him with a hand. “Hold tight, be patient.” Killing a Galontaer takes time.
This was something both he and Terrance knew firsthand. They had killed the Galontaer who lay in a stinking heap not more than five feet from them. Even though the alien was tucked against the wall and covered with dirt, rocks and any other debris they could find, his nose-hair-splitting stench wafted through the air, reminding them of his presence.
Dead Galontaer stench and shit. Great.
There was no escaping until they got the signal from Kyle. A flash of light would let him and Terrance know that the mine entrance was clear and it was safe to proceed. And no signal at all would mean their great escape plan was a bust. It would also indicate that Kyle was probably dead. And JB’s and Terrance’s deaths would come in the morning when the dead Galontaer was found.
Either way, he was escaping this hellhole.
Terrance shook his head. “Man, I don’t know how you can stay so calm.”
“I’m not. My insides are tied in knots.” The contents of his stomach felt heavy as a stone and he’d had to swallow his vomit on more than one occasion. But that could’ve been caused by the smell, and not his nerves.
Terrance shifted again, this time taking a small step away. When he did, the warmth from the two-hundred-plus-pound former linebacker left with him. “Maybe I should go and take a quick peek?”
JB’s response was quick. He reached out and held Terrance in place. “No, let’s stick to the plan. We wait here for Kyle’s signal.”
“But what if something happened? We could be waiting here all night.” Terrance inhaled sharply. “What if…what if they left us?”
JB tried to run a grimy hand through his shoulder-length hair. His fingers snagged on one of the many tangles. Disgusted, he snatched his hand away. “No, they wouldn’t leave us. Don’t start psyching yourself out.” The longer they waited, the more Terrance seemed to work himself up.
“I don’t know. This escape could boil down to every man for himself.”
JB gave Terrance’s shoulder a tight squeeze and looked him directly in the eyes. “We’re brothers, family, all of us.”
Terrance returned his gaze with a squint. “If you had a chance to leave this place, would you take it or would you pass it up for two people?”
A small niggling of self-doubt gripped JB’s chest, but he pushed it away. All the men in their work detail shared a bond. They’d spent three hellish years together. Two of those had been on the Loconuist vessel and the last had been trapped on Toquel.
The bond was forged deeper than any of them could have ever imagined. They’d all lost loved ones during the invasion, on the ship and in the mines. While some in desperation might be willing to leave a man or two behind, most would not.
On the last count there were less than twenty men working this particular mining detail. The original number had been closer to fifty. They were dying, literally being worked to death. Ryan, the pilot, told them there were more than eight hundred work details spread around the planet. And JB didn’t doubt his words.
Ryan was a former Air Force pilot, and the only human JB knew of who had one of those fancy universal translators in his brain. The Galontaers had implanted the device that allowed him to understand any alien language, and they had also taught Ryan how to pilot their vessels in order to help transport the metals from the various mines to the processing centers.
As for JB and his fellow slaves? The Galontaers had told him on more than one occasion that they wouldn’t live long enough to justify the expense of translators. The only thing JB and the others had to do was follow simple commands—or get the whip.
“I would wait for everyone. I wouldn’t leave anyone behind.” If he could, he would also rescue the other men on the planet. But even JB knew that was highly unlikely since their escape plan was a toss in the dark to begin with.
Terrance’s gaze shifted to the mine entrance. “Let’s just hope Kyle and Ryan feel the same way.”
JB said a silent prayer. He didn’t think either man would leave anyone behind. It was Ryan’s skill that could…no, would aid in their escape.
He didn’t hold Terrance’s fears against him. He had lost a brother and an arm in the mines. Years of friendship or not, Terrance would probably take the first opportunity he had to leave Toquel, the mines and the Galontaers behind without a backward glance as to whom he was leaving.
Terrance was on the verge of a mental breakdown, and relying on an escape plan riddled with holes was enough to put anyone on edge.
JB began to feel himself slipping deeper into uncertainty along with Terrance just as the flicker of a small light shone in the distance.
Thank you, Jesus. “Come on. That’s our cue,” JB said.
He and Terrance dropped to their hands and knees and hastily made their way across the hard, rough terrain toward the light. While his work clothes protected his knees from the rocks, large and small, there was nothing protecting his hands. Each and every sharp object dug into the skin of his palms.
Terrance grunted and wobbled beside him. Even with the use of just one hand, determination pushed him forward.
Aside from Terrance’s grunts, all JB could hear was the sound of the blood rushing through his ears as they approached the light. The first thing he noticed when he crawled outside the mine entrance was the dead Galontaer guard slumped on the ground. Kyle flicked off the light while Eli kept his eyes on the terrain, keeping watch for any more Galontaer patrols. JB had never been so happy to see both men in his life.
“Help me move him,” Kyle said.
JB and Terrance didn’t waste any time dragging the dead guard inside the mine’s entrance and out of sight of anyone who might pass by.
From there, they set off for the next checkpoint—the huge bin that held the coal from yesterday’s haul. Eventually the bin would provide cover for a total of ten men, all waiting under the shelter for another signal. Being trapped with nowhere to run if they were caught made him nervous, but he really didn’t have a choice. With aliens on patrol, waiting behind the bin was too risky.
They all knew if there were any glitches in their plan, it would happen here, under the bin where they were briefly vulnerable. For half the men, it was the last checkpoint before making a break for the vessel.
Kane, a former lawyer from New York, had for the past year tediously studied each of the guards’ habits and had formulated the escape plan. Every step had to be done in a perfectly coordinated effort. It was dicey but for men who were hanging on to life by a thread, it was the only hope they had.
From where they crouched, they could see the vessel docked by the Galontaer stronghold. It was so close—they were so close to freedom. JB tore his gaze away from the vessel and scanned the land around it. Small huts that accommodated the sleeping Galontaers dotted the landscape. Waking any number of them would lead to a quick death. While they could take one Galontaer at a time, none of the men could ever hope to overpower more than that. The aliens had bodies that resembled the creatures from the movie Predator, but on steroids. Everyone, including JB, was weakened, battered and in some cases disabled.
For that reason, they all waited impatiently just inside the mine entrance for t
he next signal from Jori. Once it was safe for the escapees to pass through the Galontaer camp and to the vessel, he would signal.
Anxiety was high.
The fear was almost palpable.
JB’s mind raced with everything that could go wrong. Had Kane’s observations of the aliens’ habits been incorrect? Would Jori accidentally signal a Galontaer to his position?
One flash of light, then another.
JB’s heart sang as he moved forward with everyone else. Quietly and quickly they reached the coal bin.
“Thanks, man,” JB whispered to Jori as they all scurried beneath. “How many made it through already?”
“You’re the first group…” Jori looked off into the distance, squinting. “Hold up, I think I see another group coming this way.”
JB followed his gaze.
Nothing.
Then he noticed darkened masses scurrying along the ground toward the coal bin.
Jori gave the signal.
“Toluk’ siez sotrl fe.”
Everyone froze. JB’s heart thumped painfully at the sound of a Galontaer overseer not more than fifty feet away.
Oh shit.
“Hix fron ca,” another replied.
“Oh fuck. They’re going to catch us,” Terrance whimpered.
“Shhh,” three men including JB hissed.
JB didn’t know what was being said but as far as he could tell, the aliens didn’t know their prisoners were hiding under the cover of night. The Galontaer language was hard on the ears, to say the least. JB could only speak and understand a handful of their words and it had taken him a year to learn those. Learning an alien language was difficult enough, and since the Galontaers weren’t too interested in teaching it to the slaves, it was almost impossible.
Right now, JB figured all they had to do was keep quiet until the aliens passed. But across the jagged terrain, the other group of men could be seen. There was no way to tell them to stop. There was also no way to alert them to the danger they faced.
Dangerously His: 4 (Loving Dangerously) Page 1
