by Jodi Redford
A swishing noise sounded behind him. He turned as Ruby drew to a stop in the entry. His scrutiny fell to her tall leather boots. She shifted, and the soft swishy sound he’d detected earlier made a repeat performance. It was the damn boots riding along her thighs. Great, like he needed that fucking visual in his head. Ten to one the boots would be playing a starring role in his wet dreams tonight. Son of a bitch.
Ruby glanced around the cramped space, not trying in the least to appear un-nosy. “Nice place you have.”
He grunted. “It’s a shithole.”
“It’s not that bad. I’ve seen worse.”
He gave her a prodding look, and she sighed. “I was trying to be polite.”
“Don’t be. It’s not like I live here regularly. My place at the Neon Palace is thousands of times better than this joint, but we obviously can’t go there.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and hugged herself. “Are you ever going to get around to explaining to me why—and how—you ended up working for my father?”
“It isn’t that interesting of a story.”
“I sincerely doubt that.”
Teague tried for a casual shrug. “He needed an executive assistant, and I fit the bill.”
Ruby inclined her head. “Okay, that explains the how. But why would you want to fill the position?”
“I needed a job. Stop building a mystery when there isn’t one.”
Skepticism furrowed her brow. “From day one, you never liked me. Is it because you don’t trust me? You think I’m like the rest of the Winstons, don’t you? Well I’m not. I’m nothing like them.”
“Princess, I think you’ve made that more than clear.”
“Then why don’t you like me?” She didn’t voice the question with any hint of whiny petulance. Only with intense curiosity shining in those big, luminous eyes of hers.
If a man weren’t careful, he could drown in her spell. He dropped his gaze to the floor. “I never said I don’t like you.”
“You call me princess all the time.”
“What the hell does that have to do with anything?”
“I think it means a lot, Teague.”
“You’re imagining things.”
She plunked her hands on her hips. “Am I?”
What the hell have I gotten myself into? Growling at his own stupidity, he pivoted and stalked to the cabinet in the corner of the room. The second drawer down, he located his digital camera. Twisting the cap off the lens, he turned back to Ruby. “Say cheese.” Not waiting for her response, he clicked the autofocus and captured her scowling image. He keyed in the sat link for Colin’s computer and sent the picture off into cyberspace. With Colin’s scary-good Photoshopping skills, the kid would have no problem doctoring both Ruby’s and Teague’s images so they’d look enough like themselves not to raise suspicion at any security checkpoints, but also not too closely resemble any Wanted posters that would invariably be handed out. “I’m putting in a call to my contact for new IDs. Make yourself useful and see if you can scrounge up something in the kitchen for us to eat.”
He fully expected her to argue at his high-handed tone, so he was suitably surprised when she sidled past him without snapping a single complaint. Flicking on the hall light, he ventured into his office and checked the status on his signal scrambler before punching in the number for Colin.
The kid’s wolf whistle shrilled through the receiver in less than two rings. “Who’s the hot babe?”
“None of your damn business.”
A chuckle escaped Colin. “Then why you sending me her pic? To rub it in that I can’t get me a chick like that?”
Teague grinned. Smartass. “She and I need new identities.”
“Yeah? Color me intrigued.”
Teague deliberately ignored the blatant interest in Colin’s tone. “Make this a rush job. I need to be out of the city first thing in the morning. Oh, and while you’re at it, see if you can’t rustle up some disguises. The more low-key, the better.”
“Will do, boss.”
Colin’s promise secured, Teague hung up. Rather than return to the main room, he sank deeper into his chair and rested his head against the padded cushion. A slight tremor shook through his body, a belated reaction to his power exchange from earlier.
It’d been months since he’d fired off any kind of energy blast. Considering the great risk such exposure could bring, it was wise to limit that sort of activity. But he hadn’t completely forgotten the wild exhilaration that flowed through his veins when he gave full rein to that side of himself. It was a high like no other. Intoxicating, consuming and almost sexual in its intensity. Just remembering it made his cock stand at rigid attention. He dropped his hand and squeezed his erection. He was hard as a damn board. Not the best timing ever.
Although, that depended on how you looked at it. If Ruby was draped naked on his lap right now, they could have the best fucking time ever.
Yeah, not in a million years.
He grabbed the arms of the chair and began to straighten just as Ruby sauntered through the doorway carrying a platter of crackers and sliced canned meat. He quickly ducked back into his chair to hide his erection.
She placed the food in the middle of his desk before dragging one of the neighboring seats over. “I checked the expiration date on the can. I think we’re good to go.”
He wasn’t worried. In the scheme of things, food poisoning was the least of his concerns.
Ruby sat across from him and started assembling a small tower of crackers and ham. “I noticed none of the stuff in your pantry carries the Shadow brand. Black market?”
He nodded. “Remember I told you my associates live off the grid? They also produce their own goods.” He picked up one of the pieces of Spam and grunted. “Pretty damn ironic this is one of the few substances on the planet resistant to Shadow mind-control.”
Ruby handed him the stack of crackers and meat. He accepted it with a terse thanks and added the extra slice of Spam before woofing the whole thing down. The entire time Ruby watched him like a bug under a microscope. Unable to take it a second more, he stacked his arms on the edge of the desk and cocked an eyebrow. “You’re not eating. There a reason for that?”
“You fascinate me. I’ve never known another like me. A Light Guardian, I mean. Of course, I didn’t even know that’s what I was until a few days ago.”
The last thing he wanted to do was talk about their shared heritage, but he couldn’t exactly see a way around it. “How the hell could you have not known before then? Your powers should have been a dead giveaway.”
“I never displayed any until I put the bracelet on. I…I think it somehow triggered that part of me.”
A Light Guardian with dormant powers? He hadn’t heard of such a thing, but then he’d also never met one of his kind who had the blood of a Shadow Czar running through her veins too. Possibly the power booster Reginald had been injected with somehow passed on to Ruby and tampered with her Light Guardian genes. The reminder of Ruby’s crazy mixed DNA jogged a disbelieving snort from him.
Ruby stopped nibbling on a cracker and eyed him. “What?”
“I’m just wondering what cosmic misalignment brought Reginald Winston and Luna Light Fire together to conceive you.”
“Apparently even superwomen have lousy taste in men and go for the bad boys.” A flash of vulnerability flickered in Ruby’s eyes, and she fidgeted with the cracker. “According to my father, they’d been having an affair for almost a year.”
Teague coughed into his fist before arching his brows. “He told you that?”
“In a manner of speaking.” Ruby reached down and dug around in her boot. All of the wiggling she was engaged in nearly popped her boobs from the cat suit.
Sucking a harsh breath through his teeth, Teague concentrated on the platter of food.
“My dad left me a letter in a safety-deposit box.” Ruby held up a fat envelope.
“You’re carrying that around in your boot?”
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“I had to bring it with me because it wouldn’t have been safe at the Winston mansion with my nosy cousins roaming around whenever they feel like it. The boot was my only option. In case you didn’t notice, this cat suit doesn’t have pockets, or much room for anything besides me.”
“Trust me, I noticed,” he grumbled around a mouthful of Spam.
Her cheeks pink, Ruby discreetly tucked her boobs back into place and fished several folded sheets of stationery from the envelope. “The letter was with Luna’s cat suit and bracelet. He could never bring himself to destroy her things. He wanted me to do it.”
“Why?”
“To guarantee I wouldn’t end up like her.”
“In other words—dead.” Teague scratched his jaw. “I confess to not being the biggest fan of your dad’s, but he was right in that regard.”
Moisture gleamed in Ruby’s eyes. “No, he wasn’t. He had no right to expect me to be something I’m not.”
“Maybe he was only trying to protect you.”
“By attempting to mold me into a female version of him?” A stubborn tear broke free of her lashes. “Do you have any idea what it’s like to have no damn idea who you are? What you are? I’m human, daughter of a Shadow Czar and superhero all rolled into one, and I don’t know how to be any of them.” Her dejected gaze fell to her lap, and she crinkled the papers in her fist. “When I put on this suit and the Light Guardian cuff, I thought everything would finally click. I’d be whole instead of three half-assed parts. I thought I could take Luna’s place and make everything right again.”
He stared at her. Hard. “Take your mother’s place? Are you out of your fucking head?”
“Probably.” She knuckled her nose and glanced up at him. “But I can’t sit back and do nothing. Something has always driven me to go against the Shadow. Now I know why.”
“You can’t save the whole damn planet.”
“Singlehandedly it would be tough. But the two—”
“Don’t fucking go there, Ruby. I’m not a damn hero, and neither are you.”
“We could be.”
“I have no intention of killing myself trying to defend a world that can’t be saved.”
“You don’t know that, Teague. What we did tonight—”
“Was stupid as hell, and something I plan to never repeat.”
“How can you just turn your back on who you are? What you were born to be?”
A familiar anger built inside him. He’d heard this same argument from Joe, Miles and Sabby too many times to count. No one understood that having powers meant jack shit when the enemy outnumbered you by the millions. “Let’s get something clear. I didn’t ask for any of this. I’m a byproduct of two people I don’t even fucking know, much less remember. The only thing that matters in this life is survival. The sooner you realize that, the better off you’ll be.”
Not about to meet the recrimination no doubt lurking in Ruby’s eyes, he stalked past her and slammed the door behind him.
Chapter Four
She didn’t get it. How could a Light Guardian not at least try to defeat the bad guy?
Ruby spent all night tossing and turning with that humdinger of a question tumbling around in her mind. Was Teague just an unfeeling jerk? Maybe working all those months under her father’s employ had leached him of all sense of decency.
Maybe the Shadow had broken him.
It was a sobering thought. One she didn’t want to lend credence to. She was all too familiar with how persuasive the villainous side of life could be. For God’s sake, her father had been relentless in his quest to turn her to the dark side.
Without warning, Teague’s earlier words floated through her head. Maybe he was only trying to protect you.
She supposed in some twisted way that might be possible. It didn’t ease the sting of betrayal or the knowledge that even after her dad’s death, she was still proving to be a disappointment to him.
Shoving her glum musings aside, she returned her focus to the problem of Teague. Surely there was some kernel of goodness within him. He had rescued her from Reginald’s minions. Why would he do that if he truly didn’t give a damn?
She more than understood what it meant to be scared. She was terrified beyond belief at what was in store for her if she continued to go up against the Shadow. But now that she’d opened the proverbial can of worms, she couldn’t go back. There was no place for her with her supervillain side of the family. Not that she’d ever fit in there to begin with. She might not excel at this superhero stuff, but it was what she wanted to be. More than anything.
Right on cue, the nagging doubts that’d plagued her the majority of her life stampeded into her brain. Every past attempt she’d made to thwart the Shadow had been unsuccessful. Last night’s catastrophe was living proof of that.
But she had disabled the dispensers. That was more than she’d ever accomplished before. Surely that was something to cling to.
Deciding to hold that promising nugget close, she tossed aside the thin blanket she’d bundled into the night before. Indulging in a full-body stretch, she abandoned the lumpy couch in the main room and went in search of the bathroom. Trying to recall which was the correct door, she twisted the knob on the left and prayed she wasn’t about to stroll into Teague’s bedroom. No doubt that’d get his jockeys in a bunch.
She walked into the room and slammed to a staggering halt. The good news was she’d opened the right door. The bad news was Teague apparently didn’t wear underwear—or anything else—at seven o’clock in the morning.
They both stood stock-still, staring at each other. At least she assumed his gaze was glued to her. Hers was too occupied with the vision of his morning woody at full mast to notice much else.
“Could you stop ogling my dick?” Teague demanded in a strained voice.
“Sorry. Am I?” Her focus remained pinned to his erection.
“Yes. You are.”
She swallowed. Hard. “It’s a very…nice dick.”
“You said the same thing about my shithole house. Minus the dick part.”
“I’m being honest this time. You have a very nice penis.” She’d always had a bad habit of blabbering away in awkward situations. This time proved no different.
Teague cleared his throat. “It’s called a dick. And I’d really like it if we stopped talking about it like it’s not in the room.”
“But it is. It’s right there.” It probably wasn’t necessary to physically point, but she did anyway.
Teague glanced desperately toward the sink—presumably for his nonexistent underwear—before mumbling, “Damn it,” and brushing by her. Really brushed, as in some definite contact between her hipbone and his Mr. Happy Bone. It took every ounce of control she possessed not to reach down and give it a good-morning kiss. Right there on its fat, plum-shaped cap.
Teague stalled in the doorway, his mouth tight and his erection straining in her direction. “If you want to take a shower, there’s plenty of hot water. My courier should be showing up with our paperwork within the hour. I’d like to be out of here shortly after that. Capiche?”
She resisted the urge to deliver a sharp salute behind his retreating back. Maybe she should have kissed his penis. Perhaps it would have sent some of his crankiness packing.
She stripped from the cat suit and cranked on the faucet in the shower. At least the grout in there was clean and minus any mold. Nothing tested her gag reflex more than mildew. Except maybe dirty toilets. And a sink drain trap. Or a smelly dumpster. Yeah, those were disgusting.
Staving off a shudder, she closed her eyes and ducked beneath the spray to rinse out her hair. She tipped her head back, her throaty murmur of pleasure escaping as the hot water cascaded over her in a massaging caress.
Fifteen minutes later, she reluctantly dialed off the water and snagged the towel waiting on the basin. She lifted the cloth and began drying her hair. Funny, she didn’t recall the towel being there before. Had Teague placed it in here for her
while she’d been showering? Her gaze automatically veered toward the glass-enclosed stall. Even with the steamy condensation dripping down the walls, the interior was clearly visible. He would easily have been able to see her sudsing away, and she would have been none the wiser if he’d walked in while she was washing her hair.
That bastard. Sneaking in on her while she was wet, naked, and thinking about things that tested her gag reflex. Her mind immediately sidetracked to his massive penis. Okay, that was probably an inappropriate thought.
Deciding to let his sneakiness slide this once, she finished drying off and pulled on the cat suit. Soon as she had the opportunity, she’d find some other clothes to wear. More than likely Teague had something she could borrow, but she suspected she’d float in anything he gave her. He was so huge. She latched on to an image of his dick again. Stop that.
She pushed open the door and ventured into the hall, the citrus-scented steam cloud from the bathroom following her. She found Teague in the main room inspecting a packet of papers. He was fully dressed, unfortunately. Lowering the documents, he swept her with an appraising look that held several degrees of excess heat.
Ohh yeah. He’d definitely watched her in the shower. Her own cheeks grew uncomfortably warm. Crossing her arms to hide her stiffening nipples, she nodded toward the items in his hands. “Are those our new IDs?”
“Yes. Colin did an excellent job on such short notice.”
“Colin?”
“My contact.”
She wanted to ask him why he kept someone on retainer who could come up with fake IDs at the drop of a hat, but decided to wait for a more convenient time—such as when he wasn’t eyeing her like a T-bone steak…that she’d gladly let him devour.
“I also had Colin bring these for you.” Teague stooped and grabbed a bundle of clothes from the couch.
Her previous concerns about the possibly shady nature of Colin’s character fled as she rushed to take the garments from Teague. “Oh wow, if Colin was still here, I’d plant a big smacker on him. Could you thank him for me the next time you see him?”
