The Krinar Code

by Emma Castle

  “You are tempting me in ways I’ve never been tempted before, but we can’t. Not tonight.” He licked his lips, and his eyelashes fanned as he blinked almost dazedly, staring intensely at her mouth. “But soon.” He whispered the words with such sensual promise that she trembled with excitement.

  “Soon,” she echoed, still a little stunned that she had just tried to take him to bed when she barely knew him.

  “I want to know you, all of you. Inside and out.” He brushed the pad of his thumb over her lips, and she closed her eyes, savoring his touch. It felt so good she almost cried. Had it really been that long since she had let a man touch her like this? With such intimacy? Not just to get her in bed? Not in the last couple of years, it seemed. The realization made her eyes fill with tears, and before she could stop herself, she was crying.

  Seth wrapped his arms around her, and she burrowed against him. Despite the pain inside her, her thoughts were dancing drunkenly around her head. She had held on to so much hurt, so much loss for so many years. Not even her brothers knew what she’d been burying all this time. Yet this man holding her had broken down her defenses with one searing kiss.

  “Hush…” He pressed his cheek against the crown of her hair. Then she was carried into her bedroom as though she weighed nothing at all. He set her down and turned to study her dresser.

  “Pajamas?” he asked in a soothing voice.

  She sniffled, hating how vulnerable she was in that moment, but the tears still flowed freely down her face, and she couldn’t make them stop. “Top drawer.”

  He came over and handed her the pajamas, then pulled back her comforter and sheets. She got up and headed for the bathroom to change, but then she paused at the doorway.

  “Please don’t go. It’s not about sex. I just…” I just want to be held. She thought it with such agonizing sorrow that it made her body burn with shame. This level of vulnerability was too much for her.

  “I’ll stay,” he promised and settled back on her bed.

  She rushed into the bathroom, changed, brushed her teeth, and wiped a cleansing cloth over her face before she came back into the bedroom. She hoped the puffiness around her eyes would go away soon. There was nothing worse than being near a gorgeous man and looking like crap.

  Seth lay on his back now, still fully clothed. He nodded at the empty side of the bed in silent invitation. She came over on anxious tiptoes and climbed into bed, turning off her nightlight. Silence settled in the room. Her heart pounded as she turned toward him, and even though he lay on top of the covers on the other side of her bed, he cocooned her, as if he knew that was exactly what she wanted.

  “Good night,” she whispered, the tears finally starting to dry upon her cheeks.

  “Good night…Queenie.”

  Ordinarily she never would have let anyone call her that. That belonged to her mother. But when he said it, it felt like a promise, a vow, an endearment, and a hundred other intimate things that made her chest tighten and hope blossom inside her.

  Whoever you are, Seth, you’re already making me fall in love with you. And I swore I’d never do that again.

  Sef lay awake long after Harper had fallen asleep, his mind racing and replaying that kiss over and over. Somehow, the human female had gotten even deeper under his skin than before. He was mere hours into this mission, and already he was losing control of himself. He knew he should contact Arus, perhaps have another guardian assigned to the Kings, but he didn’t want another Krinar male anywhere near Harper. The mere thought of it choked him with possessive fury.

  Was this how his brother had felt about the president’s daughter Bianca? The woman he had betrayed his very position to woo? It was no wonder why they had come to blows over her. Sef had been ordered to remove her from Soren’s presence before they became too attached, but it had been too late. Once a Krinar had claimed a charl, they became highly territorial and fiercely possessive.

  He was already feeling that way now about Harper. Damn it all.

  He held her until just before dawn, then carefully and silently slipped out of her bed and wrote her a note, leaving it in view on the pillow next to her before he left. Instead of returning to his room, however, he pulled out a small device from his jeans that could unlock any door and used it to pass through the garage and into King’s Bar.

  Sef took an hour placing small microdot cameras in key locations inside the bar and the storeroom. The storeroom was quite large, and ten chairs had been set up for a meeting. By the looks of things, the meeting had already been held. Sef took a mental note of the number for his next report. Ten rebels. Mason, Liam, and eight others, and they had connections to other rebel movements throughout the United States. He needed faces, though. The cameras would pick up their faces, and they could be run through the Krinar databases, which had access to all of the United States’ identification systems—not that the Americans were aware of that fact. They could run driver’s license photos, passports, thumbprints, criminal mug shots, all of it. Then they could track their past movements and see just how far this infestation had really spread.

  He would figure out who the other rebels were and then determine how to proceed. Whatever he did, though, it would hurt Harper. At the very least, her brothers would be taken into Krinar custody for threat evaluation. If they were determined to be beyond rehabilitation, they would have their minds wiped and be reeducated to remove the danger they posed to his people. Such was the way of things.

  Harper would lose her brothers, or at least lose the men she had known. They would become different people. It was a harsh punishment, but it was necessary to protect lives, both Krinar and human. The sooner the humans trusted the Krinar and accepted them and let them maintain control of certain things, the better off everyone would be.

  Except for Harper. She would never forgive him. That shouldn’t have chilled the blood in his veins and made him dread the future, but it did.

  4

  Harper woke alone, reaching for the warm body that had helped her sleep clear through the night, but she didn’t find it. She blinked blearily at the folded piece of paper lying on the pillow where his head had been not too long ago. She opened it up, ignoring the familiar stab of pain at trying to read then note..

  Queenie,

  Thank you for trusting me last night. I’ll see you in the shop later.

  Seth

  She lay back, staring up at the ceiling, baffled by her behavior last night. He’d punched a man to defend her, so she had invited him to dinner—that was odd enough. Then she’d kissed him and started crying. Then he’d taken her to bed and held her while she slept. How crazy was all that? What the hell had happened to her? And how was Seth so cool with it? That kind of behavior tended to be a hot single guy’s worst nightmare, a crying woman who clung to him like a second skin all night.

  Wow.

  Pushing her covers back, she headed into the bathroom to shower. She halted a second later when she took in a familiar scent. She lifted her arm closer to her nose. Seth’s rich, intoxicating scent was still there, clinging to her skin. The thought of washing it off made her frown, but that was insane. Showering would make her feel awake and refreshed. Even as she stripped out of her clothes, she held up her T-shirt and inhaled deeply, his scent calming her. Then she set it in her laundry hamper, ignoring the flicker of regret she felt before she got into the shower.

  As the hot water poured down her body, she focused on her work schedule for the day and which clients she knew would be expecting their vehicles. An hour later she was in her gray jumpsuit and ready for anything, even if part of her mind was still lost in last night.

  She turned on the shop lights, unlocked the heavy hangar doors, and hit the automatic lift buttons. Morning began to fill the shop, bathing the stained white linoleum floor in gold as the hangar doors rose into the ceiling. She blinked against the skyline and saw a vintage Mustang idling outside. Whoever was behind the wheel of that baby had good taste. She retrieved her sunglasses fro
m her desk and went out to meet the customer. She froze when she saw that it was Seth. He was leaning back against the door now, his legs crossed at his ankles. Was there a handbook out there that taught hot guys how to lean against things, especially cars, in a way that made a woman say “Damn!” under her breath?

  “Morning, Queenie. You said I could leave my car here? This spot okay?”

  She swallowed and smiled, her nerves running riot through her as she walked closer to him. “Uh…yeah. That’s fine.”

  “Sorry about last night. I didn’t mean to kiss you without warning like that, and when you…” He couldn’t seem to find the right words to describe what had happened.

  “Had a meltdown?” Harper offered.

  “Not my place to say, but I didn’t feel right leaving you alone like that. Must have seemed awkward as hell to you.”

  She stared down at the toes of her work boots, too mortified to meet his gaze. “I’m more worried about how weird that was for you.”

  His hand lifted her chin, and their eyes locked. “I liked last night. How about tonight I cook for you?”

  His offer stunned her. “You want to do that for me?”

  With a teasing wink, he nodded. “Honey, I’ll do a lot for an intelligent, pretty woman. What kind of men have you been with that not one has offered to cook you a good meal?”

  “Apparently not the right ones.” She managed to laugh, even though she was more than a little embarrassed.

  “So, you’re working here today at the bar?” she asked as he followed her back into the shop.

  “I am, but not until five and it’s only a three hour shift tonight. You need any help here? No charge, not till I prove myself useful. I like cars. I could help you.”

  “I bet you could. That car you have outside is a classic, and it has a good purr. That means you either know a good mechanic or you know your way around the car.”

  “The latter. I’ve loved machines ever since I was a kid.” He glanced around at her shop, openly impressed.

  “Well, I won’t turn down free help. Alan and Jeff don’t work on the weekends. They both have kids and I wanted them to have family time.” She also wouldn’t turn down the chance to watch Seth today, to smell him, to just be near him. She’d never felt this addiction to a man before, where she wanted to be near him so bad it almost hurt.

  “So what’s first?” he asked, looking at the three cars in the shop.

  “The Ford F150 needs some heavy work on the transmission, and the two Hondas need oil changes, tire rotations, and twenty-four-point systems checks. All the stuff on here.” She handed him a colorful checklist. It had pictures of parts and little colored blocks to check on the condition of the parts—red, yellow, and green to indicate how good or bad the part was. This was her secret method of keeping her dyslexia from hurting her business, but it also provided a level of direct simplicity her customers enjoyed, especially if English wasn’t their first language.

  “What would you like me to do?” Seth asked.

  “You can start on the Hondas. It’s pretty basic stuff, and it’ll give me a chance to see how good you are. I’ll tackle the truck.” She grabbed her tools and rolled under the truck on her creeper to take a quick look before she got up to start working on the engine.

  Once she popped the hood, she quickly lost herself in the world of mechanics. It was a language that made sense to her; there were no headaches here. But even focused on her job, she ended up shooting a glance in Seth’s direction, and she bit her lip as she stopped to admire his muscled body. He’d taken off his shirt and now wore only a black tee, which clung to him so tightly she could see the shift of each and every muscle as he cranked a wrench and refilled oil. Now that was a whole other kind of machine she’d like to get her hands on…

  “My, my…” A feminine voice came from behind her. Harper jolted and smacked her head on the hood of the truck.

  “Ruby,” she groaned in a whisper as she faced her desk clerk. Ruby handled the customer paperwork and took payments, and she was early today.

  Ruby leaned back against the welcome desk. She was forty-five but always looked a decade younger. She wore a short skirt and high heels and a tight top. She was a single mother with a twelve-year-old son, and she was also a hopeless romantic. Harper adored her, but she did not care for the way Ruby was eyeing Seth.

  “Who’s that?” Ruby whispered loudly. “Please tell me he’s single.”

  Harper wiped her oily hands on a rag and came over to Ruby’s desk so Seth wouldn’t overhear their conversation.

  “He’s working at the bar for a while. He’s helping this morning for free. So hands off,” she warned.

  Ruby swept her dark-blonde hair over her shoulders and grinned at Harper. “Oh my God, please tell me you are hitting that. Hard. It would be a crime to go to bed alone when you could have someone like him to keep you company.”

  “You don’t know anything about him,” Harper countered.

  “What’s there to know about him, other than in the biblical sense?”

  Heat flushed Harper’s face. “We only just met, and…it’s complicated.”

  Ruby cut her off. “Honey, there’s no such thing as complicated with a man like that.” She took one more lingering look before she sat back down at the reception desk. Seth glanced their way, and Ruby waved at him.

  “I’m Ruby,” she shouted. “Nice to meet you, handsome.”

  Harper almost slapped her palm against her forehead, but Seth laughed and winked at Ruby.

  “Seth Jackson. Nice to meet you, ma’am.” He then returned to work on the Honda.

  “Ma’am,” Ruby echoed, her face turning red as a cherry as she fanned herself. “He has manners, at least. Not like those louts in town who think belching is the same thing as a please and thank you.”

  Harper groaned in further embarrassment. “Ruby…”

  “What? You know you love me, hon.”

  “God help me, I do.” Harper shook her head. Ruby was like a young favorite aunt, and a wild one at that. She was vivacious and outgoing, sexy and fun. Everything Harper felt she wasn’t and it was nice to be around sometimes. Ruby reminded her how to have fun and be a woman every now and then.

  “Harper, honey, little tip. Unzip the top of your jumpsuit—show off the goods if you want to get his attention,” Ruby muttered to her and then focused on her computer screen.

  Harper glanced down at her jumpsuit. She’d never given any thought to looking sexy while on the job. When she was working, the last thing she needed was a man tripping over himself just because she’d decided to show off a little bit of cleavage. But Seth didn’t strike her as the type of man to trip over himself.

  She worked for a few more minutes before she reached up and pulled the zipper on her suit down. She had on a tank top underneath, and she had to admit, it did give a good view of her breasts. Feeling like an idiot, she waited for Seth to notice, but his back was to her as he bent over the engine of the second Honda. She walked over to stand beside him and put her hands on her hips, which pumped her chest up a bit more.

  “How’s it going?” She tried to sound casual.

  God, this is so stupid. What the hell am I doing?

  Seth shot her a glance and then did a double take, his eyes fixed on her cleavage.

  “Better now,” he said, his gaze burning with a desire that sent her own body into a hungry spiral of need.

  What the hell was happening? He was making her nuts with just a look. Maybe they both just needed to get it out of their system?

  “I’ll…be in my office for a few minutes.” She wasn’t sure why she was telling him. Did she really want him to follow her? Yeah, she did. She rushed to her office, leaving open the door that led to the hall between the bar and the garage, her heart hammering. A minute later he came inside and closed the door.

  “Lock it,” she said, her body throbbing now.

  He flicked the lock in place and stared at her, eyes locked like a predator findin
g its prey. The feeling was mutual. Her feet seemed to drift along inches above the floor as she moved to him just as he came to her. She ripped at his shirt, pulling it off violently while he yanked down the zipper of her jumpsuit. She shrugged her arms out of her sleeves and pulled her tank top off, leaving her top bare except for the black lace bra she wore.

  “You are so fucking gorgeous.” He reached up to brush a thumb over her nipple through the fabric of her bra.

  This attraction between them was as tumultuous as a summer storm and just as maddening as it swept through them both on a dizzying current of arousal. Her womb clenched so hard she clamped her thighs together.

  “Don’t say no, not this time,” she begged as she ran her palms along his hard chest. He was so warm, so virile. She felt almost drunk, being so close to the pleasure she sensed instinctively he could give her.

  “I should,” he growled, the sound rumbling deep from within his chest and into her. “But I can’t. If I could, I would fuck you for days.” He lowered his head to hers, the kiss so gentle compared to his rough words. “I want to make you scream my name. I want to brand myself on you, feel you clamp down around my cock and beg for more.” The pictures he painted in her mind were carnal, raw, and utterly…devastatingly perfect.

  “Yes please, do it,” she moaned against him, and their hands roamed wildly, tearing at each other’s clothes, pulling away fabric.

  Her jumpsuit ended up in pieces on the floor, and he tore her shorts down her legs and tossed them away. Then he pulled her up and set her down on the desk, scattering paperwork to the floor. She started to laugh, but he hooked his fingertips in her panties and ripped them clean off. It didn’t even hurt. She whimpered as he laid her down on her back on her desk, pushing her knees wide as he stared down at her exposed sex. She stared up at him in turn, tongue-tied as he ran a fingertip down her slit, slowly stroking her. She burned in the wake of that touch. He slipped his finger between his own lips and licked it clean. His eyes rolled back in his head as he growled at her taste.