by Lora Leigh
The three men who had popped into the sitting room earlier wouldn’t have those problems. They were Prime Warriors, Alyx had assured her. The best of the best. Alien. Advanced. Undefeated. She turned away from the bedroom and paced back into the sitting room. She hated aliens. She really did.
“Riding the waves,” her brother had called the little trick the three men had used to travel the distance between their offices in New York and the sitting room in Kentucky. A dimensional wave that none of their psychics could reach. They could feel it. They knew it was there. But no one born to Earth had ever learned its use that she knew of.
Dragon, or Alyx, was going to be a problem. She had seen the lust in his eyes, the way he looked at her, as though he were starved and she was the meal awaiting him. Even more confusing was her response to him.
His lips… She drew in a hard breath as her own tingled in remembrance. He had weakened her, made her think of something other than the job at hand or the psychic impressions that often bombarded her brain. His touch had stilled something inside her, had eased the ragged impulses of power that often tormented her. And, she admitted, that scared her more than anything else had in years.
Then there were the psychic sparring matches he seemed to delight in playing with her, waves of sensuality that she fought to block. Sometimes it was no more than the awareness that he was finding a way to catch her alone, to impress upon her the desire that flowed between them. In turn, she was forced to find a way to stay out of reach. At times, it had almost been amusing. At other times, it was too intense for her to bear.
She had taken the coward’s way out, though. She had run from him and had escaped him at every opportunity. She was terrified that if given the chance, he would walk away with something she had sworn she didn’t possess. Her heart.
The past two days had been harried as the agents attempted to align their powers with the beings suddenly in their midst, so avoiding him hadn’t been that hard. It was imperative that they all worked on the same psychic plane. Otherwise, their powers were weakened, diminished, and their abilities to communicate during an attack would be hampered. Learning to work with the Prime Warriors wasn’t easy, though.
And though Alyx hadn’t overtly stepped in as commander of the mission, the very strength of his power demanded that she stand aside. He knew Jonar and his tactics much better than Lynn or her brothers. He knew how to counter the attacks that Lynn’s agents were falling beneath. They couldn’t afford to lose more men. But letting go of her position of leadership to the arrogant alien wasn’t coming easy. No matter the logic that demanded it, it irked her.
Rationally, she knew it wouldn’t have bothered her nearly as bad if it weren’t for this reaction she was having to him. She had stepped aside many times for her brothers when their unique strengths outmatched hers in a given area. Several times, she had aided Devlin’s warriors, assuming a position of backup rather than leadership in missions that had begun as her own. She felt no resentment when it was required. Felt no need to prove herself stronger than she was. It was seldom necessary.
The very nature of their business demanded that the strongest lead. The one with the most power had a greater ability to stabilize the others and center the force where it was most needed. To do otherwise only endangered the mission and the client.
“You worry too much.”
Lynn couldn’t halt the squeak of surprise that came from her throat as the alien was suddenly there again. In front of her. Staring down at her with those strange silver eyes.
His long silver hair lay past his shoulders, thick and tempting to touch. If she could reach it, she told herself silently. Every inch of his body was corded with muscle, and between his thighs… She jerked her gaze up, flushing at the knowing glint in his gaze.
“You’re supposed to be outside,” she snapped, fighting her response to him with every weapon she possessed. “Not in here scaring the hell out of me.”
A wicked, knowing glint flared in his eyes. As though he were well aware of the fact that her body liked having him around.
“Hell is a bad place, baby. If you have it in you, then it shouldn’t matter how it comes out, as long as it does.”
She gaped at him. She would have wondered at his supposed intelligence if his lips hadn’t quirked just slightly at the corners.
“Ha ha.” She rolled her eyes as she tried to put more distance between them.
She didn’t know what that black, form fitting cloth was he wore for clothes, but it made him look too big, too broad, and too damned sexy for her peace of mind.
“You should rest. One of my men will watch the girl.” She was sure he wanted it to sound like a suggestion. Unfortunately, it came much too close to an order.
“My post,” she snapped. “I’ll nap on the couch when I feel all the safeguards are in place.”
She couldn’t make sense of the psychic waves suddenly surrounding the house. The tentacles of power from the newcomers were too difficult to follow, which made it harder for Lynn to be confident Ms. St. James was safe enough for her to allow herself to rest.
“I give you my word as a Dragon warrior she is safe. Should an attack come, you will be awakened. You need to rest.” His voice was infinitely soft, caressing.
Lynn’s eyes narrowed as she felt energy weaving around her.
“You put me to sleep and I’ll kick your ass on a wave straight out of here,” she snarled. “Rein it in, buster. I don’t have time for your macho tricks.”
The energy dissipated but his amusement seemed to grow.
“Fierce little thing, aren’t you?” He glided over to the couch, taking a seat with a casual confidence that smacked of male arrogance.
She wasn’t little. She wasn’t petite. She wasn’t delicate. His tone made her feel like a love kitten and she didn’t like it.
“Arrogant bastard, aren’t you?” She smiled sweetly.
The wicked smile that tipped his sensual lips had her heart rate picking up in speed. Unfortunately, it also sent her libido into overdrive. She could feel her breasts swelling beneath her sports bra, her nipples peaking. Further down, her pussy was moistening at a frightening rate. She wanted to be fucked. She wanted to be fucked by him, and she wasn’t pleased by the thought.
She didn’t have time for this. And she sure as hell didn’t need to get involved with an alien. God, she needed to be one of the innocent millions who had no idea of the power games being played in the universe.
She was growing tired, she realized with a sense of resignation. Tired of fighting the same battles, the same dark forces, the same nightmares within her own mind. Unfortunately, she was starting to get the feeling that Alyx had more than a little to do with those nightmares.
“Arrogance is worth little without the power to back it up.” He shrugged his shoulders casually, the black material rippling over the powerful muscles.
Lynn’s fingers curled at the need to touch. Maybe she did need to sleep, she thought with a touch of fear, because she was having a very difficult time keeping her focus here.
She had gone from calm and controlled, to the type of woman she hated above all things. A woman whose body overruled her head. In her entire life she had never been faced with her desires, her needs, overcoming what she knew was best for her and her goals. Learning that Alyx could well become her greatest weakness wasn’t a piece of knowledge she welcomed.
“Don’t you have work you need to be doing?” she finally sighed as he continued to watch her with those intent, strangely colored eyes.
“I’m going to fuck you, Lynn.” He propped his chin on his palm, his elbow braced on the arm of the couch as he watched intently now.
Lynn blinked. He hadn’t just said that. Had he?
“Excuse me?” She swallowed tightly. “I don’t think I heard you right.”
“Yes you did.” He smiled with a touch too much confidence. “You just want to pretend you didn’t.”
She licked her dry lips quickly, fighting b
ack the excitement building through her system and reminding herself, He’s an alien, Lynn. You know. Not human. No red blood. Not Earth-based. Alien.
“Look, I have a job to do here…” she began furiously, fighting to keep her voice low, to keep from disturbing the woman sleeping in the other room.
“It is being taken care of.” He shrugged. “My men are the best, little one. They will let none of Jonar’s men through. You may take time to play now.”
His eyes seemed to glitter, the strange silvery color deepening, swirling with a sexual threat she had to fight herself to deny.
“Oh, may I?” she sneered as she fought her own response. “Unlike big bad aliens, I like to be certain my job is done and done correctly. So forgive me if I just stumble around on my own here, and do just that. I think it’s time you leave.”
“Leave?” He lifted a brow with mocking amusement. “I don’t think so, my lady. I will not leave you, even for a second. You will not escape me, Lynn. And you will, before much more time has passed, be beneath my body screaming in need for me. I promise you this.”
He rose to his feet as she watched him in amazement, astounded by his sheer nerve. She stood stock still as he approached her, certain this had to be some amazing dream that she just hadn’t awakened herself from yet. No man, human or alien, could be this arrogant. Could he? Or touch her so deeply in such a short time.
But she admitted that arrogance, that supreme confidence, drew her like a magnet. No man had ever made her want to forget herself, her inhibitions and fears of submitting to such hungers, until Alyx. That he was alien was a problem. But she was starting to fear that it was only a problem because she had unconsciously known that only one of the Guardian warriors could be powerful enough to defeat her. It was hard to desire a man she knew she could best with only the strength of her mind.
The thought that such ability, such power strong enough that it could overcome her own, made her body heat by several uncomfortable degrees.
“Look how hard your little nipples are.” Lynn trembled in response as he stepped close to her, his hand reaching out, the tip of one finger touching the hard little point poking through the cloth of her bra and shirt. “I want it in my mouth, Lynn. My tongue swirling around it, making you moan for me. I want this very badly.”
She slapped his hand away, jumping back out of reach, her pussy sizzling with a sudden fiery ache to feel him pushing inside her, taking her. Hard. Oh hell.
Lynn put as much distance as she could between her and the strange alien watching her curiously. As though her response was no more than he expected. Her flesh craved his touch. Something hidden in the very core of her being seemed to be awakening, and though it terrified her, she was finding it harder to fight each day.
“Touch me again and I’ll leave,” she snapped, knowing she couldn’t fight herself as well as his touch.
To admit to that weakness was the hardest thing Lynn thought she had ever done in her life. He had a power over her that came close to terrifying her.
“You’ll leave?” He tilted his head, watching her with a faintly quizzical look. “Are you not in charge here? I rather expected a threat to force my departure instead.”
As though she could force him into anything. She had tried several times already, pitting her power against his and coming out weak and disoriented as he watched her blistering arousal. It had turned him on, sparring with her psychically. It had turned her on as well. And she couldn’t seem to manage to turn it back off.
“I’m not a fool.” She shook her head as she backed into the desk she had sat at earlier. “You and your men are stronger than my whole force. You don’t need us here. You could take care of Jonar yourself.”
He shook his head at that. “You are wrong there,” he informed her softly. “Her life is tied to your presence. The power you hold is aligned with hers. You will give her strength she will not accept from me. If you leave, little love, she dies. And with her goes the hope of your world. If she dies, then we all fail. Will you risk this?”
She thinned her lips as anger overwhelmed her. He thought he had her, and in a way, he did. But she’d be damned if she made it easy for him. Her body might be caving in to him, but that didn’t mean she had to give into it easily.
“Will you?” she retorted softly. “You aren’t here out of the kindness of your heart, Dragon. She’s important to you as well.”
She didn’t like the smile that tipped his lips. It was a crooked, amused grin, filled with wicked sexuality and devilish intent.
“Wrong,” he whispered. The sound was almost a physical caress. “I come to aid you alone, little love. I come to take what is mine. To claim what was stolen from me before. I came, Lynn, as I have already told you, for you…”
Chapter Four
Lynn was nobody’s fool, but she almost believed the declaration Alyx had stated that afternoon. By that evening, she could feel a sense of anticipation, almost a foreboding, trembling in the pit of her stomach as she met him in the deserted living room of the mansion.
She had felt the psychic emanations whispering around the grounds. The threads of power he was laying in place. Even her own people couldn’t sense them, let alone penetrate them. But she could. They made her edgy. Nervous. It was a power she couldn’t identify or push past and she didn’t like it.
“What the hell are you doing?” She stood with her hands on her hips, her eyes narrowing in suspicion at the stone hanging from his neck. It glowed with a rich, mercury as faint wisps of the color seemed to weave about his body and fade into the air around him.
His eyes opened, the tense concentration that had held him coiling in the muscles of his body.
“I’m setting trackers.” His voice had roughened measurably, becoming darker, hungrier. “Can you sense them?”
She crossed her arms defensively over her breasts. “Of course I can feel them, and I can’t get past them. You’re hampering my job, Alyx. Now stop it.”
“If you can sense them, then you can weave through them.” He began to move about the room, circling her slowly as she watched him with wary interest. “I aligned them with your agents and the powers they possessed to keep from affecting them in the jobs they perform. But it allows me to know each time they reach out, and where the power flows. It eliminates any possibility of betrayal.”
His voice was pitched low, the graveled texture of it caressing her senses like rough velvet. She liked it too much.
“My people are completely loyal,” she informed him testily. “There’s no reason to track them.”
“It also tracks any power coming in and where it’s headed,” he told her. “Jonar’s warriors can ride on the power of any of your men and enter the grounds. This is how your men died before.”
She had been afraid of that. The two men had been the weakest of the agents, though physically capable of defending anyone. She had sensed something malicious; some tainted feel to their power just before their deaths. She had prayed she was wrong.
“Why can’t my people sense the threads then?” He was making her nervous, watching her so closely, gliding with such male grace around her smaller body.
“They aren’t powerful enough,” he told her almost gently. “I am surprised you sensed them. I thought it would take longer.”
He had no more than said the words when she felt a surging force flow from him.
Lynn dropped to the floor and rolled quickly out of the way before coming up with a strong mental shield.
“Good try,” she snapped as she felt the force flow back into him.
It had been harmless actually. It would have sizzled over her body, sensitizing flesh sensitive enough already. Sneaky bastard!
“Good catch,” he murmured. “What else can you do, I wonder?”
It wasn’t a psychic pulse he came at her with; it was physical. His hand stopped inches from her face in what could have been a killing blow. He had managed to penetrate more than a foot of her mental shield before coming to a
stop.
Lynn stood perfectly still, staring into his eyes, building on the energy that hummed so strong and deep inside her. As she did, she felt a strange, arousing flare of heat. She could play with Alyx. She could test herself, build her powers and have no fear of harming him. No one, not her brothers nor any of the agents under her, could penetrate her shields in the slightest. But to strengthen them, she had to work them, spar with them. No one was strong enough to allow her the ability to do that.
Alyx’s lips quirked as he drew back.
He had exerted very little energy, she knew. If he had wanted to hurt her, he could have. She breathed in deeply, centered herself and flung her senses onto the psychic plane he had established for her and her agents.
“Wimp,” he chided her as he moved higher.
She could feel the open gate leading onto the next level. Exhilaration flared inside her. If she could get into that plane then she could learn how to open it herself.
“Where is your power, Lynn?” he called back to her, taunting her. “I dare you to follow me.”
She felt the forbidden then. The dark surging tide of unfamiliar energy that twisted in the very bowels of her power’s center. The only place she had never delved, had kept locked out of desperation. They were powers she had always known weren’t her own. Releasing them, she feared, would release something she had no hope of controlling.
“You want to test yourself, but only on your own terms,” he taunted her. “You were given a gift you’ve denied all your life, and still refuse to see.”
He sounded almost angry.
A lifetime of visions stormed through her brain. Visions of blood and death and, as she took her last breath, an alien presence fusing to her soul, traveling with her to wherever she was taken. She shook it off, breathing in deeply. She could reach the next plane without that dark power, she assured herself.
Alyx chuckled as she reached out for the next level. Time and again she pulled on her power, built it, fought to reach him and each time she fell back, defeated.
