by Emma Castle
“Are you all right?” The man cupped her chin as he tilted her face toward his, checking where she’d been struck. A flare of warmth seeped from his palm into her skin, and she tried not to shiver at the feminine awareness of him that made her shyly try to step away.
“He got me pretty good, but I’ll be okay.” She needed to escape the heat of his gentle touch. The man was gorgeous, but in a purely masculine way. A blush spread over her face, and her right cheek throbbed hotly with the added rush of blood.
“You’ll need to ice your cheek, or it’s going to swell and bruise. Come.” He caught her hand and started pulling her along behind him toward the bar. Too stunned to object, she followed along.
“Oh my God, Harper!” Jessie met them at the bar, along with Neil. “Should I get Mason and Liam?”
Jessie’s gaze darted to Adonis, and she choked down whatever else she might have said next. She just blinked in a dazed way that Harper completely understood. This man was just the kind of perfect male specimen that would leave any girl gobsmacked.
“I’m okay, Jessie. Mr.…er…what’s your name?” Harper asked.
“Seth Jackson. Call me Seth.” His stormy blue eyes were still filled with concern.
“Thank you, Seth. Why don’t you go back to your table, and I’ll get your…IPA, wasn’t it? On the house.”
“Thank you. But first I want to make sure you are all right.” His lips slid into a slow smile that only intensified her blush. Seth looked toward Jessie. “Can you get me some ice, please?”
“Yeah, sure, hang on.” Jessie retrieved the ice and a towel and handed them to Seth.
“Sit,” he ordered. Harper found herself gently but firmly planted on a barstool. He wrapped the bagged ice in the towel and put it to her bruised cheek. She reached up, expecting him to let her take over, but their hands touched when she tried to hold the ice up. An electric pulse jumped between them, and her body seemed to hum inside from the connection.
Wow. She was turned on just being close to him. The ice had already started to soak the towel and drip down her arm and his. She was captivated by him and the way his gaze seemed to swallow her up, leaving her mind free of thoughts and instead focused only on sensations.
“Thanks. I think I’ve got it now,” she managed to say, embarrassed by how breathless she sounded.
“Okay, but I’m going to stay here and keep an eye on you. You might have a concussion.” He held out his hand. “Let me take your pad. I can get orders for you.”
“No!” she almost yelped. She did not want him to see her hastily scribbled and disjointed words. “I mean, thanks, but I’ll be fine.”
“Harper, he’s right, I shouldn’t have asked you to take orders. Not with your”
“Jessie!” She cut her friend off. She didn’t like people knowing about her dyslexia. It was a common enough condition, but there were always people who didn’t understand and who gave her funny looks or treated her differently when they found out. She did not want Seth to look at her like that.
Because I’m not broken, dammit.
She had to remind herself of that. Having severe dyslexia did not mean that she was damaged or not smart. Quite the opposite. People with dyslexia actually absorbed too much information at once, and while that made reading difficult, it did enhance her awareness of more details than the average person, especially visually. It made her one heck of a mechanic. She could rebuild practically anything mechanical from scratch, all by instinct.
“Seriously, go, I’m fine. I’ll bring you your drink in a moment.” She tried to wave him off, but Seth just grinned.
“You’re bossy, but cute as a button. I’m not going anywhere, and neither are you. Keep your butt in that chair.” He held out a hand to Jessie. “Give me a pad and tell me which tables need orders.”
Jessie gave Harper an apologetic look as she gave a spare pad and pen to Seth.
“Just three tables near the door. We should be good unless someone waves you over.”
“Got it.” Seth headed over to a table, his back to Harper as he talked to the men and women there.
“Damn, that ass is tight enough to bounce a quarter off of.” Jessie giggled and nudged Harper, who was staring at it too. He filled out those blue jeans nicely.
“You need to hit that tonight,” Jessie said as she loaded a tray with a couple of margaritas.
Harper rolled her eyes and adjusted the bag of ice against her cheek. Her fingers were a little chilly but not frozen.
“I’m not tapping anything,” she muttered. “Not tonight, anyway.”
“Pity. He looks like he wants to eat you up…or eat you out.” Jessie was giggling again.
“Get your mind out of the gutter.”
“Girl, it never left.” Jessie’s brown eyes twinkled before she trotted off to deliver the margaritas to a waiting table.
Harper watched Seth take more orders, and she sighed. God, she would love to sleep with a guy like that, but she was done with the whole dating-sexy-guys thing. It didn’t end well. Her last boyfriend, Xander, had been too cute for his own good, and he knew it. Eventually his hands had wandered off, and the rest of him had followed. Harper had gone home to their shared apartment the night of their one-year anniversary and spent two hours baking and cooking for their dinner. By ten p.m. she’d finally blown out the candles, removed her black high heels and her sexy little red dress, and put the food in the fridge. It had been obvious he’d forgotten and wasn’t coming.
She’d crawled into bed and cried so much she’d smeared mascara all over her pillowcase. The next morning, she’d called him and he’d apologized, and then she’d heard the other woman’s voice in the background asking who it was.
She’d never trusted any good-looking man after that, and if she was being truly honest, she didn’t trust any man fully after that. It wasn’t in her nature to leave herself so vulnerable, but Xander had made her want to trust him, and their chemistry had been so good that she’d let her hormones make all the decisions.
Still, she wasn’t opposed to dating or even casual sex with nice, normal guys. But a man like Seth? No. He was trouble. She was done with guys like him for sure. They were too easy to fall for, and she was done with being a sucker for a good-looking guy. Seth was trouble, and she was going to stay the hell away from him.
2
The mission was in jeopardy.
Sef was supposed to be keeping a low profile, posing as “Seth,” a human male ready to join the resistance that the King brothers, Mason and Liam, were running out of the back of the bar. Instead, he was taking drink orders after having almost killed a human who’d struck their sister, Harper, the curvy little human with sweet eyes and a scent that made him want to growl with longing. He was lucky he had pulled his punch; otherwise, he would’ve crushed the man’s jaw and possibly killed the bastard. Though he probably deserved it, that would have created even more complications for the mission.
Focus on being calm. She’s okay. The idiots are gone. She’s safe.
If there was one thing he hated, it was violence toward a female. From the moment Harper King had walked up to his table, he’d caught her sweet feminine scent untarnished by heavy perfumes and had gotten hard fast. She was definitely his type. Small, curvy, and feisty. But she was off-limits.
Normally when he saw a female he wanted, he would seduce her, with her willing cooperation, and then fuck her for a week straight until he’d gotten her out of his system. But if he did that with Harper, it risked his ability to earn the trust of her brothers. For now he would have to play the gentleman, to use a phrase he’d picked up recently. But damned if the little female didn’t tempt him almost beyond reason and control.
As a Krinar male, he could claim her as a charl, which was the Krinar term for a human companion, but he had never taken a charl. It was too lasting, too intimate of a relationship. He was eight thousand years old, and while he’d had hundreds of lovers over the years, he had never chosen to be a cheren to any of
them. He wasn’t so foolish and impulsive as his twin brother, Soren. Taking a charl would be permanent. Any human taken as a charl would be given nanocytes, which would extend their lives indefinitely at peak age and peak condition, keeping them forever young. Sef had never considered any female he’d met to be someone he would share forever with, but Harper King was making his mind and desires stray into dangerous territory.
How had this human so suddenly captivated him? Perhaps he was getting soft spending so much time on Earth. Or maybe it was the fact that Soren had recently taken a human charl, and through their shared bond he was sensing such feelings of contentment that it made him long for a charl of his own.
If that was the case, he was going to punch his brother the next time he saw him. Such feelings of desire, sentimentality, and intimacy were harmful to his mission.
He zoned out, writing down drink orders and waiting patiently for the humans to finish ordering. Then he walked back to the bar and slipped the bartender the order.
“Thanks, man. We appreciate the help tonight. I’m Neil.” The bartender held out his hand over the polished walnut counter.
Sef slapped his palm into the other man’s. He seemed strong, for a human. “Seth Jackson. Happy to help.”
“Thanks for saving the kid. Harper’s sweet. If I’d been closer and not dragged down with these damn crutches, I would’ve done exactly what you did and thrown out that trash.”
Sef nodded and smiled, but a flicker of a strange emotion shot through him as Neil called Harper sweet. For one split second he imagined punching Neil and breaking his jaw.
Was he jealous? Over a human female? If Soren ever found out, he would never live it down. Soren was the Krinar ambassador to Earth, and he had recently done a very human thing and gotten engaged to the American president’s daughter, Bianca Wells.
Sef glimpsed his reflection in the glass behind the bar and for a second didn’t recognize himself. Despite the fact that Sef had left for this mission a few days ago, he still hadn’t gotten used to how his looks had changed for this mission. Like all Krinar, he had brown eyes and brown hair, though his was a little more russet, a color unique to his family and their region of their planet, Krina. But for this mission he had been given contact lenses and a hair treatment to turn his hair a golden blond.
Humans wouldn’t suspect him to be Krinar so long as he kept his super-strength and increased speed hidden from them. That was why striking that bastard who’d hit Harper tonight had been so dangerous. Sef had almost blown his cover just by punching him. But after seeing Harper hit, he’d nearly lost his mind.
There was something about her that called to him and played upon his protective instincts. He didn’t like the way just looking at her made his blood hum and his body ache for dark pleasures. Already he wanted to sink his teeth into her neck and taste her blood. The high it would give them both would be unbelievable. But he had to hold back. He needed to stay undercover, and the last thing he needed was to perpetuate the rumors that Ks were blood drinkers. They were, of course, but his people wished to keep that quiet for now.
Sef spent the next two hours helping Jessie and Neil manage the bar before it was finally closing time. Harper’s face was still a nasty shade of red, and he examined it while Neil cleaned the bar and Jessie tidied up the tables.
“I’m fine.” She blushed and tried to push his hand away. He didn’t like it when she pulled away from him, but given his height and build, it was understandable that a small female like Harper would be wary of him at first. He had no such problems with Krinar females, but at that moment only one female mattered, and she was human.
“Honey, you aren’t fine. That asshole landed one hell of a blow.” In order to soothe her, Sef slipped into the more casual words and phrases he’d learned. It was one of the many talents that made him such a good guardian for undercover operations.
Harper winced. “If he hadn’t had all his friends with him, I would’ve taken him out.” The conviction of her statement confused him.
“You would date that man?”
Now Harper was confused. “No, take out. Beat to a pulp. Taken out on a stretcher.”
Sef chuckled. “Oh, of course. Adorable and bloodthirsty. Are you trying to drive me crazy?” he muttered.
“Huh?” Harper blinked and stared at him.
“Hey, Seth?” Neil called out. “Come meet the bosses.” Neil nodded at the Employees Only door. Two tall human males, almost as tall as him, came out through the door as it swung open. They looked similar to Harper, but where she was small and feminine, they were tall and masculine, decent specimens of human males. Krinar females would be attracted to these two if they ever visited an X-club or a Krinar Center.
“Mason, Liam,” Neil called out, and pointed at Sef with his thumb. “This guy saved little Harper’s ass a while ago.”
“I didn’t need saving.” Harper’s adorable grumble went unheard by all but him. The Krinar had heightened senses, including hearing.
“What happened?” Liam asked. He and Mason came over to Harper by the edge of the bar.
“Some asshole slapped me,” Harper admitted, shame coloring her tone. “Caught me off guard.”
Neil finished the story. “Seth here knocked him out cold with one punch and sent his friends packing. They had to carry the guy out.”
“Jesus, Harper, come get us next time.” Mason tried to look at Harper’s face, but she turned away, annoyed.
“Hey, thanks, man.” Liam offered a hand. “Seth, was it?”
Sef took it, then shook Mason’s as well. “Seth Jackson. You’re welcome. No one hits a woman on my watch.” And I would have killed the bastard if there hadn’t been any witnesses, he added silently.
“What can we do to make it up to you?” Liam offered.
And this was what made his risky action tonight worthwhile. He had hoped to ingratiate himself to the King brothers somehow, and this was a perfect opportunity.
“Actually, I’m passing through, but I could use a job. Maybe a recommendation of where to stay? I’ll be around a couple of months.” He hoped the brothers would offer him a way to stay close until he could infiltrate their operation.
“He was pretty helpful tonight,” Jessie volunteered. “We were down a waitress, and he was great.”
“Oh?” Liam glanced at Neil and Harper, who both nodded in agreement. “Well…would you like that? We pay a few bucks above minimum wage, and any tips you make are entirely yours.”
“Thanks. That would be great.” Sef grinned and noticed Harper shoot him a glance. He wished he could read her thoughts. Her expressions were so guarded.
“We even have a spare room in the apartment next door. Harper lives on the first floor. You could have the room on the second floor if you’re interested. It needs some work, but we would only charge two hundred a month.”
“Sounds like my lucky day. I can afford that.” Sef could afford whatever he needed, but he was here to play the role of a human drifter, moving from town to town. The King brothers weren’t idiots—it would take time to win their trust and convince them to let him join their movement.
“Harper, why don’t you get him a bar T-shirt for work and show him the apartment. We can handle the paperwork tomorrow,” Mason suggested.
Harper blew out a little breath but didn’t argue. “This way.” She led him to a door that connected to the auto shop. There was an office in the small space between the two businesses but it was separated by a door to give it privacy. Harper opened a large cardboard box beside the desk and shot a glance at him, sizing him up.
“XL, I assume?” she asked before turning back to the box.
“Yeah.” He stared at her curvy ass as she bent over, and he licked his lips, unable to stop imagining how it would feel to bend her over the table and pound that soft little bottom, listening to her scream his name in pleasure.
No. Off-limits. Could blow everything.
She straightened and faced him, holding a King’s B
ar T-shirt. He took it and studied the crown logo.
“King’s, huh? You need a shirt that says Queen’s as well.”
Harper’s eyes brightened, and she suddenly smiled. “My dad used to call my mom Queenie. She loved that.”
“Did something happen to them?” he asked.
He already knew they were dead. During the Great Panic that had followed the day his people had invaded, many humans had died. The chaos had been hard to prevent. Soren, his brother, had done much to quell fears and resistance early on by working with the human president here in the United States, but there was still violence, riots and deaths that had been unavoidable—and very one-sided. Even with the Coexistence Treaty in place, there were still anti-K groups and all the dangers that came with that.
“They died during the Great Panic. They were on a bridge in their car. Someone blew up the bridge, thinking it would hurt the Ks, but all it did was kill forty-three innocent people, all humans. They were trapped, drowned. They never even found my mother’s body.” Her voice roughened, and she wrapped her arms around herself, as though she needed a hug.
Sef hated to think that innocent humans had suffered because of them. His people didn’t want to hurt anyone. They wanted to—needed to—live peacefully alongside them, but until humans learned to accept that their world had changed, his people had to retain control.
And it wasn’t like they had been terribly good custodians before the Krinar had arrived. Between pollution and overpopulation, this world needed their protection in order to survive. Sef’s people needed Earth because their own sun was dying. They had only a few thousand years to make Earth stable before they could bring the rest of the Krinar here. Which meant the humans needed to learn to share. And though they didn’t know it yet, the humans owed their very existence to the Krinar.
“Thanks for the shirt,” he said. “I’m sorry about your parents.” He paused, holding his breath. “Do you hate them? The Ks, I mean?”
