“I know you can, Sam, but for once let me play the Alpha male.”
“You do comprehend the precariousness of your situation do you not?” The Red Falcon asked.
Tyler nodded and boldly kept his emotions in check. “Yes,” Tyler admitted.
“Right then. I was just checking to make sure,” The Red Falcon muttered.
He turned away from them, and quickly left them alone.
“So what the hell took you so bloody long to come and get me?” Tyler demanded. Gradually, the look of love faded from his green eyes.
Chapter Twenty
Samantha stared mutely at him. How could he say such a thing?
Feeling the fury roll through her she took a hold of his jacket collar and pushed him. He stumbled backward until he slammed up against the nearest wall.
“What took me so long?” she mimicked, staring at him in open-mouthed amazement. “Why you arrogant, self-serving, egotistical man!”
He put his fingers up to her mouth and stared down at her tenderly.
“I’m just joking for cripes sakes!” his eyes softened.
She licked her lips. She always jumped to conclusions. Mental note, give Tyler a chance to explain in the future.
“We need to put a bit of distance between ourselves. You can contact Johanna and tell them to transport you back to the ship. I have a few more things to clear up with Red.”
“With Red or with Devlin?” he asked softly, as she walked away.
*****
Samantha walked out of the dining hall and screamed when someone grabbed her and put their hand over their mouth. “It’s just me, Samantha,” Devlin whispered.
She relaxed as he released her. “Come with me, so we can have some privacy.”
She didn’t know what was possessing her, but she followed him down one corridor after another until he finally stopped at a room. He entered a sequence of numbers into the security pad and the door opened.
Standing on the threshold, she contemplated her next move. Should she go with her gut and walk into Devlin’s lair?
Oh, hell, she was always one up for a new adventure.
She stepped into his large accommodations. “You always stay in the best, eh, Dev?” she asked.
Anticipation welled through her body. She had waited for this moment for years!
She jumped up and wrapped her arms around his neck. Coiling her legs around his middle she sighed. Being near him. Feeling his body heat and staring into his eyes was like being transported to Heaven. Stunned, his eyes widened when she hungrily molded her lips to his. She kissed him with everything she had and managed to take as much as he had to give. She was so damn hot for him. She felt as if she burned from the inside out. She really wanted to rip his clothes off him.
He moaned, making her wrap her arms tighter around him. She could feel his want for her rioting through his body. She waited until the perfect moment and then she fell away from him. His breathing became laboured. She stood on her own two feet and looked up at him.
The sexual tension was palpable between them. She had to root herself to the floor to keep from jumping him again. She wanted him so badly that she ached with the need, but she wasn’t going to drop head first into the deep end, without first getting the answers she so richly deserved.
“As much as I’d like for us to continue, I can’t. I have to get the answers I need from Tyler and while you want his head, I can’t be with you.”
“I don’t want his head—I want his neck, stretched a little—that’s all,” he said in his charming way.
Damn it why did she always fall for the charming rogue type?
“He didn’t do it, and I am going to prove it.” With those words, she walked away from him and stopped at the door that remained shut even though it had to have sensed her presence.
“Open the door so I can leave, please.”
“I don’t want you to go.”
“Deep down, maybe I don’t want to leave, but it is what is best for us right now.”
He sighed heavily and said, “Door open,” the door opened and silently, she left.
*****
Through some miracle, she found her way back to where she’d last seen Tyler and wonders of all wonders, he hadn’t transported back to The Excalibur.
“We need to talk about you leaving me.”
“I know,” he said softly. “Did you work things out with your old lover boy?” he asked, trying to rub the salt into her already opened wounds.
“You don’t get to put this on me. When you left, Devlin wasn’t in the picture and I was actually trying to make things work between us, so you, and only you have this on your shoulders. I take it you didn’t just leave so you could go and work for Red?”
“You would be correct,” he said.
“So you just left me because you wanted to.”
“I regretted it almost immediately.”
“Almost?” she asked incredulously.
Tyler had abandoned her when he had been unwilling to trust her to take care of herself. But she had been there when he had been in dire need of her and yet, when she had needed him the most, he hadn’t been there to support her.
“You gave me an ultimatum and you know I don’t play that game, Tyler. I won’t change for anyone, get that?”
“Yes…I understand that now,” Tyler said, “and I shouldn’t have expected you to change in the first place.”
“If we try again—I have to know you won’t go and take off on me when the going gets tough.”
What was she saying? Maybe she shouldn’t offer to try again with him. Maybe she should just go and run into Devlin’s arms and never leave…and yet…
He stared at her in utter confusion and she moaned nearly doubling over in pain. She wanted to remain stoic and untouched, but she wasn’t made of ice. She was a human woman, and she had red blood coursing through her veins.
Her heart could be broken, and she needed to protect it from any further suffering. Devlin was the only man who could break her heart. She could put on a cool façade with almost anyone. But with him, well, things were different.
“We can’t go back to the way it used to be. I fear we are damaged beyond repair.” she didn’t want him anymore.
She wanted Devlin. She’d always wanted Devlin.
“We aren’t good for each other, Tyler. We’re poison when we’re together.” Samantha turned on her heel. “You should get to med bay. I know you’re still hurt. That healing gauze will only do so much. What if the laser that struck you was encrypted with some sort of virus? You can’t play around with that stuff, and you know it.”
She felt bereft and deflated. She still had to prove his innocence and deal with her conflicting emotions.
She had to figure out what to do about Devlin. She might be able to physically turn herself away from him, but she knew she would never be able to stop loving him. In order to stop loving him, he’d have to do something pretty terrible.
“I worked on our marriage. I devoted myself to you and you repaid me by leaving. You haven’t done a damn thing to show me that you have changed the way you feel about things. For now I can accept this, but as soon as I clear your name, I want you to leave. I want you out of my life, at least as my husband anyway.” She moved closer to the door and felt him come up behind her.
“Don’t do this!” he pleaded.
Her hackles rose to massive proportions. Here he was, asking her to rethink her decision. The man was more of a bastard than she’d originally believed.
“Take your hands off of me. We are through, Tyler.”
The door made a whining noise as it automatically opened.
“We’re stuck with each other for now. But as I said once everything is settled, we’ll go back to the way things were when we were apart and I’ll sign those goddamn papers,” she said.
She hated herself for forcing out such cruel words, and she wanted to tear her hair out when she saw the searing pain in his eyes. But there was no
other way.
A clean break was the only way that festering wounds could heal. She walked out into the hallway and made her way back to the bridge.
She wanted the hell off of this sad imitation for a battle cruiser. It looked like a warship on the outside but in the inside it looked like a cruise liner and then she understood what the Red Falcon had been trying to tell her. She was always in control on the outside, when in fact she was tearing herself up on the inside. God, how she needed an ass to kick!
Samantha collided with Johanna and caught her sister before she fell to the floor. Johanna stared at Samantha wonderingly, but kept herself focused on the information she had come to deliver. Johanna looked extremely stressed, and hives had broken out across her face and neck.
“How did you…oh never mind. What is it?” She inclined her head. Johanna definitely had something important to tell her. For once in her life, she actually wished she’d been born a certified mind reader.
It did run in the family. Unfortunately, that gift had sort of skipped her. Well, at least that’s what she liked to believe. For now, she’d just tune out the random telepathic whispers that sometimes entered her brain.
She hooked her arm through her sister’s. Johanna would occupy her mind so she wouldn’t be able to obsess about Devlin and Tyler.
That was what sisters were for, after all. Johanna guided her through the massive ship and she smiled, realizing what a crappy sense of direction she had. Whatever would she do without Johanna?
“Lord Devlin is here onboard The Emerald Star,” Johanna whispered.
“I know,” she said. “We just have to make sure Tyler doesn’t fall into Devlin’s hands… and all will be well.”
She turned around to make sure that Tyler still followed them. She instinctively wanted to get him to safety, despite their recent angry exchange. Her eyes darted back to her sister, and she fortified herself, for what was to come.
“Do you think we can get Tyler back to The Excalibur without Lord Devlin noticing?” Johanna asked.
The familiar sensation she got whenever he was around washed over her.
“Oh, no, we need to turn around and move fast, Johanna. Devlin is right around the corner…”
But her warning came too late.
Damn.
They skidded to a halt just in front of Devlin. She regarded him coolly and discreetly glanced behind her. Butterflies swarmed through her stomach.
Tyler was gone! She relaxed slightly, until the Red Falcon appeared and pulled her urgently against him.
“Tyler is no longer on the ship, Devlin. You’re not getting what you want today.”
“You’re the only thing I want,” Devlin said.
“You can’t have her,” Red whispered. He pulled her against him. He kissed her passionately. She had caught the knowing hint in his blue eyes, which kept her from beating him black and blue.
For the sake of Tyler, she kept her anger in check, and even dramatized the effect further, by sinking into his embrace. He nestled her against his chest, and then turned her around, and looped his arms possessively around her.
“Bloody Brilliant,” she muttered between breaths, staring unwaveringly at Devlin.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Well, that was most assuredly something I had never expected to see. Not even in my wildest dreams. And if you weren’t so important to me, you would be dead, my boy. It’s good to see that you’re finally getting some action, Danny, but you’re going to have to pick another woman. How about Johanna? She’s almost as pretty as Samantha.”
“Hey…what did I ever do to get pulled into this kind of a spat? I don’t know what is going on here, but I want absolutely no part of it.”
“Neither do I,” Samantha said. “How many times must I tell everyone that I don’t belong to any man? I don’t belong to you, Dev, and I certainly don’t belong to Danny or whatever the hell his name is!”
Even more annoying was the approving full body inspection that he gave her. She wanted to slap Devlin for acting the way he was acting and she wanted to slap Red as well.
Men were far too much trouble. They just weren’t bloody well worth it. It was a shame she loved them so much.
Red was looking at her in a way that told her he didn’t want to have a scene. But she was so great at making scenes. He probably had a point. She couldn’t keep a ghost of a smile appearing across her features when he squeezed her hand. She didn’t know if she could trust him completely, but between Devlin and him, he was less dangerous. He didn’t hold command over her the way that Devlin did. Devlin would lead her into temptation and she would not be able to resist much longer. She wasn’t that strong.
Red had just saved their butts, and if she succeeded in controlling her hot head, she might just get Tyler out of this whole convoluted mess. She didn’t know how she’d swing it, but hell, she was really good at plucking fat white rabbits out of a magician’s hat.
Samantha wondered where Tyler had disappeared to and was tempted to look behind her once again, when she remembered Red’s transporter system. Tyler could be anywhere and at the moment Red was the only one that knew his whereabouts.
Which meant, she had to stay really close to Red if she ever wanted to see Tyler again. The question was, did she really want to see Tyler again?
“Devlin, I’m not altogether sure that the lady wants you to stick around so maybe you should go,” Red said.
He sounded as if he had sand paper lodged in his mouth. Samantha stared up at him and noticed the slight twitch in his jaw.
So, the ever-cool Red had a difficult time remaining calm as well. She snorted, finally comprehending the irony of the situation. He couldn’t even stand his mentor’s highhanded ways and yet because he felt obligated to him he put up with his stupid shenanigans.
She smiled and felt something resembling grudging respect well inside of her. As much as she loved Devlin, he could be a hard man to deal with, and if Red was willing to stand up to him, then he had her respect.
If her circumstances had been altogether different and she hadn’t already met and fallen in love with said mentor, she would’ve been liable to tempt fate, and risked losing her heart to this scoundrel.
That was her problem—she was far too attracted to bad boys with hearts of gold. Red certainly had one multi-faceted personality. His complexities would probably keep her entertained for a lifetime.
“Johanna, I had reports that you and your sister had rescued Tyler Cassidy from the authorities,” Lord Devlin stated.
He completely ignored her, and addressed Johanna, which pissed her off. So they were going to play that game. Well, she could play ball. She would treat him with as much respect as he’d decided to treat her.
He’d just thrown a bucket of ice water over the hots she had for him. She didn’t like being treated as if she’d suddenly become invisible. Lord Devlin was at it again. Just because he was a titled English Lord, with a posh British accent didn’t mean he could act superior to others.
Bloody fat head. That’s what he had. Maybe just maybe she had to knock him down a peg or two.
“But I must have been mistaken, I guess she’s spread her wings since she belonged to me. She never used to be that loose. Your sister seems far too busy entertaining my lad to have been involved in such a ludicrous escapade.” Devlin swiveled his gaze over to land on Samantha.
She resisted the urge to haul off and belt him one. How dare he say that about her? She was a great many things but fast and loose was not one of them!
Johanna gave Samantha a cautionary look, which blatantly told her to keep her mouth shut. Actually, come to think of it, Johanna gave her that particular look a lot. Which was kind of insulting, now that she reflected upon it. She knew when to keep her mouth shut.
Well, maybe she slipped now and then, but honestly.
Samantha stiffened her spine. She could sense and almost hear The Red Falcon imploring her to keep a level head.
She grimaced, and at
tempted to reign in her emotions. One minute she wanted to slap Devlin silly and the next minute—she wanted to kiss him silly. It was a bad affliction to have.
She was afraid to open her mouth, in case she finally gave him what he wanted. For once, she stepped back and wisely allowed the other adults to do the talking. Though she briefly reconsidered her decision when Devlin opened his mouth again.
“If I was the sharing sort, I’d let you have Samantha—but I don’t like to share what belongs to me,” Devlin purred, causing Samantha to almost blow a gasket. The lights in the hallway dimmed.
“I don’t belong to anyone, you…you…”
Cool air rushed toward them. Devlin looked surprised and a little apprehensive. He gave her a curious gaze.
That was it!
“Bring it down a bloody notch. I don’t know what you have burning inside of you, Samantha but cut it out!” The Red Falcon hissed in her ear, low enough that Johanna and Devlin would not overhear.
All of her love for Devlin almost evaporated as she imagined what she was going to do to him. How dare he insult her like that? He kept claiming ownership over her and she was no man’s property!
She was going to rearrange Devlin’s face, and then make sure that she ripped him a new… Her thoughts were interrupted when Johanna jumped to her defense.
“Why don’t you stuff a sock in it, Lord Devlin,” Johanna fumed, stamping the floor. She walked up to him and glared at him with as much detestation as she could possibly muster. This was a huge step for Johanna. She was usually so reserved, but Devlin had awakened her protective side.
Samantha was delighted by her sister’s public display of abhorrence and wanted to run over and kiss and hug her. Instead, she waited with baited breath for her sister to knock Lord Devlin down a few more notches.
“I second that,” Samantha said, with absolutely no sympathy for Devlin or worrying that he might get his feelings hurt.
He blanched visibly and puckered his brows slightly, sticking his lip out in a pout.
She’d expected him to retort with an incensed quip, and yet here he stood as silent as a stone statue. She almost felt guilty for what she and Johanna had said--almost.
Reckless Bounty (Intergalactic Justice Book 1) Page 15
