by Laurie Roma
“Emma,” he groaned.
When she didn’t slap him or push him away, he growled and took the kiss deeper. He captured her gasp, stroking his tongue deep as he slanted his mouth over hers, careful not to prick her with his fangs. He groaned again as her own tongue tentatively stroked against his. He lost himself in the taste of her. The scent of her arousal wrapped around him, taunting him until all he could think about was claiming her, taking her over and over again until they both couldn’t move.
When he heard a noise, he tore his mouth away from her and turned toward the sound, prepared to protect her from any threat.
Jais was leaning against another column, watching them with a wide grin. He was dripping wet, but he didn’t seem bothered by that fact. “Got your stuff.” He lifted the two black garbage bags he was carrying a few inches. “I didn’t want it to get wet, so I stuffed everything in these.”
“Thank you, Jais,” she said with a smile.
Trip eyed the bags. “Did you steal something else from them?”
“I got more donuts. Don’t worry, I left enough credits to cover what I took,” he promised. “Shall we go inside, or would you like me to leave you out here to continue what you were doing?”
Trip sighed heavily as Emma blushed. He was sure whoever was working security was also snickering about what they’d been watching on the monitors. He wouldn’t put Emma on display for anyone’s amusement. “Just open the damn door.”
Jais chuckled as he walked away.
Emma gently placed her hand on Trip’s chest. “I don’t think I should go in there. I could get everyone in trouble if Doug and Edwin report me.”
Trip smiled down at her. “This is a sanctuary. The Alliance has no power here.” His amusement faded as he recalled something one of those fuckers had said earlier. “What did that male mean when he said they had offered to take care of you?”
She didn’t respond, but even with her head bowed, he could see the flush of embarrassment coloring her cheeks.
Anger had him snarling, “I should have killed them.”
“Those two won’t be bothering you again,” Jais called from the doorway. “Don’t look so worried, they’re still breathing. Or they were when I left them. Go on in. I’ll lock up.”
Trip grabbed Emma’s hand and pulled her into the dark interior. His eyes immediately adjusted, but he slowed his pace when she stumbled. She didn’t seem bothered by the feel of his rough, calloused palm against her soft skin. He’d never understood the hand holding thing when he’d seen other couples doing it.
It always struck him as foolish to leave a fist unavailable in case it was needed for a fight, but he’d risk it, so he could keep touching her. Although he would have preferred to lift her back into his arms, he was content walking down the long hallway into the main bar area with her by his side.
“Have you ever been here before?”
“A couple of times for lunch. I have to be at work so early that I haven’t had the chance to make it over here at night. I’ve heard it’s fun, though.”
“That’s why I haven’t seen you here. I usually work nights.”
“What? Are you allergic to sunlight?” she teased.
He grinned at her. “Only when I have to work while it’s out.”
During the hours that Exodus was open to the public, the bar was usually filled with the sound of voices, laughter, and pounding techno music. The interior of the sanctuary was made of a combination of wood and black and brown stone. There was a square bar in the center of the massive room, and smaller tables were spread throughout the open floor. Wooden chairs rested overturned on each of the tables, and the distinctive scent of cleaner told Trip that everything had been washed down.
The double doors that led to the club on the lower level were closed and locked. The maze of open rooms was a hot spot in Zion, but it was only opened during the late-night hours. A wide staircase led up to the second-floor balcony where the privacy booths were located. Large, paper-lantern light fixtures in the shape of boxes and balls hung down from the high ceiling, but they were currently unlit, and the shields had been lowered over the massive row of windows on the front side of the building.
The pendant lights over the square bar were on, and two individuals were illuminated under the soft glow. A male Krytos was sitting on one of the barstools, and a female was sitting directly on the bar top, swinging her legs back and forth. While most of the inhabitants of the sanctuary preferred wearing leather while they were in the bar, Fiona was currently wearing a comfortable set of pants and hoodie in a shade that could only be described as searing pink.
“What is that you’re wearing? That color hurts my eyes.”
She smiled as she looked over. “I believe it is called fuchsia. These are my travel clothes, so don’t hate. Who is your friend?”
“This is Emma. Emma, meet Fiona and Levi Marsa.” Trip gave the introductions as they walked over to the bar. “I didn’t know you guys would be home today. Krytos looks good on you, Levi.”
“Thanks. We’ve been planning it for a while but didn’t want to tell anyone in case...well, you know.”
“Whoa. I didn’t know you were converting. Nice. Glad you didn’t die,” Jais said as he walked over. He began pulling boxes of donuts out of the large bag he was holding, then he placed them on the bar. He offered the smaller bag to Emma. “Your stuff is in there.”
Emma took the bag. “Thank you again for going back to get it for me.”
“My pleasure.”
Trip let out a low growl, then coughed to cover it up when Emma glanced at him curiously. He took the bag from her before she could protest. “I’ll hold it for you.”
Levi reached for one of the boxes. “I can’t seem to stop eating since my conversion.”
“We do eat a lot. Did you change Violet, too?” Jais asked as he opened one of the boxes and pulled out a donut covered with chocolate and silver sprinkles.
“No. She was sick for most of our vacation on New Vega. That’s why we came back early. She’s never done any space travel, so we didn’t know she’d get so ill.”
“She okay now?”
“Dr. Bannon checked her out in the med-center. She said she’s fine, but she wanted to monitor her vitals a little longer,” Levi told them.
“Doc kicked us out,” Fiona added. “I swear, that female gets bitchier every time I have to deal with her. It was a good thing we caught her before she went to sleep, or she might have killed one of us.”
“You have a doctor on staff here?” Emma asked.
“Two doctors and half a dozen med-techs on rotation. People tend to get injured around here,” Trip divulged, then he turned back to Fiona. “Glad you guys are back. Now that you are, you can start looking for a few new bartenders.”
She groaned. “Please tell me you didn’t kill any of our people while I was gone.”
Trip scowled at her. “No, I didn’t. We built another bar station upstairs that we’re going to need someone to work. Oh, and we’re hiring Emma.”
Fiona nodded, then smiled warmly. “Welcome to Exodus, Emma.”
“What? Wait—what?”
Jais smiled with satisfaction. “That’s brilliant. You like cooking, and we like food. And Trip did get you fired this morning.”
“She didn’t get fired. She quit, sort of. Hell, it was all my fault,” Trip admitted.
“I quit,” Emma corrected. “But you can’t just give me a job.”
“Why not? You can take some time to decide what you’d like to do. I haven’t slept in the last few days, but we can go collect the rest of your things after I get some rest.”
Emma gaped at them while Trip, Jais, Fiona, and Levi were looking back at her as if they couldn’t understand why she was protesting. Actually, she didn’t really understand why she was objecting, either. Since she could no longer go back to The Donut Stop, she needed a job, desperately. But it felt wrong to just take what Trip was offering so freely.
It was
far too generous.
“Thank you for offering me a job,” she said with sincere gratitude. “I really do appreciate the opportunity to work here, though, I don’t blame you for what happened. It was my own fault for trusting Doug to keep his word.”
“Who is Doug?” Fiona’s voice noticeably chilled. “Do we need to hurt him?”
“It’s handled, for now,” Jais assured. “Let me know if you need help packing later. I also need to get some sleep before I do anything that requires going back out in the rain.”
“All of you should get some rest. We can take care of it for you,” Levi offered.
“And I’ll put her on payroll this afternoon,” Fiona added.
This was all happening so fast, Emma’s head felt like it was spinning. “I appreciate everything, but why would we pack up my things?”
Trip tilted his head to the side as he studied her. “Everyone who works at Exodus has the option to reside here. You will enjoy living here more than that sh—” He’d almost called her tiny apartment a shithole, “—more than your current residence. You’ll save on rent, and you’ll be safe here.”
“This is so generous. I have plans to go out of town in a few days, but—”
“Then, that doesn’t give me much time,” Trip muttered, pulling Emma with him as he started walking toward the back of the bar.
“I’ll take your shift tonight...and for the rest of the week,” Fiona called after him.
“Appreciate it,” he shouted without glancing back.
“Trip?” Emma whispered. “What exactly do you need time for?”
He took a deep breath, then told her the truth, “I need time to convince you to stay with me...because now that I’ve tasted you, I’m not sure I can let you go.”
CHAPTER THREE
Emma was quiet as Trip led her to his quarters.
He’d filled some of the silence by talking to her about the sanctuary. Since it was still raining outside, he took her through the underground tunnel that connected the main building to the high-rise where he lived. As if her moving to the sanctuary were a foregone conclusion, he painted her a mental picture of the grounds, explaining where everything was located.
“Most people think the bar is the actual sanctuary, but that designation covers all of the buildings on this block, including the residences and the arena. Everything is protected,” he told her.
All of the buildings were connected by the underground tunnels. Instead of scary, poorly lit dirt pathways, the tunnels were actually well-constructed corridors that reminded her of what could be found on a space vessel. She wasn’t surprised that nothing was exactly as it seemed at the sanctuary, but she was a little shocked that he was actually showing her such closely guarded secrets.
The coliseum where the Baxxtora Tournament was held every year took up most of the area to the right of the main building where the bar was located, and on the left, a renovated high-rise building towered over the rest of the block. The high-rise was one of the only preserved structures from before the war with the Zyphir, and now it housed dozens of single Exodus employees.
To the right of the high-rise was another building where most of the mated unions lived in larger suites. All of the females who had been granted sanctuary also lived in the building, enjoying the smaller, private quarters located on the middle floors where they were completely protected. All of the buildings had been reinforced to withstand the salty breeze blowing in from the oceanfront behind the residences.
The Dragon Warriors had transformed the courtyard area in the center of all of the buildings into a tropical jungle with lush green plants and exotic flowers that glowed with inner light. Just hearing about it was enough to fascinate Emma, and she couldn’t wait to see it with her own eyes.
She could call this place home.
That was still something she was having a hard time believing. Things like this just didn’t happen to people like her. So many thoughts and emotions were racing through her head. There was confusion and denial, of course, but there was also hope, exhilaration, and a healthy dose of anxiety swirling around inside of her.
She had no misconceptions about herself. Emma understood who she was, and most days, actually enjoyed her life. Compared to many, hers was a small existence, but she made the best of it. No matter how many friends she had, to most of the other races, she would always be an insignificant human.
She understood that, accepted it as reality.
But something had changed the moment she’d met Trip.
Regardless of his race, she should have known he would help her if he could. Trip was a good guy, and it didn’t matter to him that she was human. He didn’t look down on her because of it. He had never treated her as if she were less because of her race, and she was ashamed for thinking he would. Nevertheless, he couldn’t know exactly what he had done for her. To some people, the offer of a job wasn’t a life-changing event, but for her, it was.
He had given her the world.
Even better, he had given her the chance to change her own destiny.
Working at a sanctuary had never even been a goal she’d considered since it was almost impossible to achieve. There weren’t many positions a human would be qualified for, and any job that was available had hundreds of people fighting for it. Credits flowed freely in a sanctuary, and most of the employees were paid far more than they could make anywhere else.
A job at a sanctuary meant safety, in more ways than one. Having a Krytos alpha as a boss came with instant protection. She’d heard that anyone who worked in a sanctuary was considered part of the pack. She wasn’t sure if that rumor was true, but if it were...that meant having a family. It meant belonging to a place where people watched out for one another.
It meant that people cared.
Emma had been so shocked by the offer that she hadn’t really believed it at first. It just hadn’t sunk in that the offer was real. She wanted to kick herself for initially refusing, but Trip had completely caught her off guard. Thank the stars he hadn’t listened to her protests.
However, that wasn’t even the most shocking thing about today.
Trip wanted her.
When he’d kissed her in the rain, it had all felt like some sort of fantastical dream. Her heart had begun hammering in her chest, and she’d been worried that she was going to faint at his feet. She would have simply melted if he’d kept it up, and her body practically hummed with anticipation for him to touch her again.
Announcing that he was going to convince her to stay with him had made her want to laugh with the sheer joy she felt. His interest in her went beyond being kind or offering support to a friend. Honestly, she didn’t understand how such a potent male could want her, but she was just glad that he did.
And she was going to enjoy every second she had with him.
Thinking about it made her want to fling herself back into his arms and tell him she didn’t need any convincing.
How could she fight kismet?
And why would she want to when she was being given a dream?
Since they’d left the bar, they hadn’t run into another living soul. It was still early, and like Trip, most of the staff probably slept during the daylight hours. They took the elevator up to his floor, and when the doors slid open, she saw a large lounge area in front of double doors leading out to a stone balcony. She wanted to walk over and peek out at the city view, but Trip was already dragging her down the wide hallway.
Emma thought she would have been a little afraid to go home with him, but she wasn’t. She was a little nervous, but that was normal. It wasn’t like she did this kind of thing often. She knew he would never hurt her, and that wasn’t just her own instincts telling her she could trust him. Besides being a fighter, Trip was also known as a fierce protector of the females in the sanctuary.
He was a male of honor who lived by a code.
The doors to his quarters slid open as soon as he came to a stop in front of them, making her raise a brow in question.
He sighed before pulling her inside. Dim lights immediately turned on, and as the doors slid shut, he released her and put the bag he was carrying down on the floor.
“All of the doors are bio-locked, but the Dragon Warriors recently did something that...I don’t know what they did exactly and thinking about it makes my head hurt. All I know is my door opens on its own now. We’ll scan you into the system later. When Rogan, Lucian, and Jade return from the Capital, you’ll probably get the instant access pass to wherever you need to go, too. It’s a pretty cool security measure, since no one can bypass the magic they use, but it’s still weird.”
“I’ve never met a Dragon Warrior. Are they as scary as they seem?”
“They can be. I’ve known Rogan and Lucian a long time, so it took a while to get used to them having magic. They’ve also got these freaky, glowing red eyes now, but you get used to them.”
She glanced around his home and was surprised to see how clean and organized everything was. The walls of the large living room was painted a neutral taupe, and the stone floor was a mixture of cream, brown, and gray. The cream-colored sofa and chairs were huge, obviously made to fit his larger body, and the rest of the furniture was made of wood so dark, it almost looked black. The room would have been boring if not for the bold paintings on the walls and the pillows and blankets in shades of a brilliant sunset.
It wasn’t what she had expected of his personal space, but it suited him perfectly.
Her attention was pulled toward the wall of windows as lightning flashed in the sky, illuminating a dark storm cloud from within. The power of the storm was awe-inspiring and watching it from such a height was also slightly unnerving.
“It’s like standing in the storm. Very frosty,” she said softly. She jumped, then laughed at her own reaction when he placed a blanket on her shoulders.
He looked extremely uncomfortable as he took a step back. “Sorry. Thought you might be cold. I can get you something to change into but...” He blew out a breath, then folded his massive arms over his chest. “I’d rather get this part over with first.”
