by Anna Argent
She stood in place while her sense of what the hell faded. Shirtless men clad in armor were not the norm out here in the country, and she wasn’t entirely sure what to think about it.
Other than yum.
She was definitely feeling that emotion in a deep and meaningful way. It hummed along her spine and warmed her all the way down to her toes, burning away all her anger and frustration. Finally, she knew what all of her girlfriends were talking about, why they spent hours in front of a mirror and used every trick in the book to attract male companions.
Only for her, the only male who seemed to do anything for her was Radek.
He saw her staring at him from across the empty parking lot and nodded in greeting. “The steak was excellent. My compliments to the chef. Or the cow. I’m not sure who had the bigger hand in it.”
“What are you doing here?” she asked. Her tone came out more breathless than curt, and she hoped the distance and the wind had masked it.
“Waiting for you.”
Girly little tingles exploded in her stomach and spread out like champagne bubbles in her blood.
“Why?”
He shrugged, and the mammoth expanse of his shoulders became a place she really, really wanted to visit. Maybe stay a while, petting and stroking him. There was plenty of room to explore, and more than enough space to keep her occupied for a good, long while.
“I wanted to make sure Beau didn’t come back for round two. He doesn’t seem like a guy who loses well.”
“He knows I’m armed.” She patted her yoga bag. “Everyone knows about my big ASS YARD stick.”
“I don’t. Don’t I count as everyone?”
As big as he was, he counted as two someones.
She pulled the baseball bat out of her bag. She’d carved ASS YARD in the wood and filled in the groove with purple rhinestones. Thanks to her wicked crafty ways, not one of them had fallen out when she’d wielded it. Which she had. More than once. “It’s my Aggressive Slimeballs Sit Your Ass Right Down stick.”
He nodded with a grin. “You Americans and your love of acronyms. How long did it take you to think that up?”
“I was fourteen. My time wasn’t really all that valuable. I had to do something to entertain myself.”
“Good times.” He dismounted his bike in one smooth, powerful move. “Can I escort you home?”
“I’m walking.”
“Then how about a ride?”
“I’d rather walk, thanks.”
“It’s dark. And cold.”
She nodded at his naked torso, trying not to let the drool spill from her mouth. “Apparently not all that cold.”
“It’s colder where I come from, so I don’t notice the chill.” He grinned, and her whole world lit up with fireworks. He had no right to make her feel like this, and while it was thrilling, she wasn’t entirely sure she liked it. Sure, the tinglies were nice, but she couldn’t think straight. In fact, she was actually considering hitching a ride on the back of a bike with a sexy stranger who was easily twice her size.
No sane woman did that. In fact, there was only one kind of woman who did that: Dead ones. Mutilated, dismembered, skinned, cannibalized, dead ones.
With those images firmly in mind, her resolve hardened, giving her the strength she needed to resist his potent effect on her. “Good night, Radek.”
He grabbed the frame of the motorcycle and lifted it straight up into the air. Muscles bunched beneath his skin, bulging with power. With what seemed to be no effort at all, he set the bike in the back of the truck like it was a stand made just for that purpose.
His blatant display of strength should have been a warning sign—a giant red flag that she was no match for him, even with her bat. Instead, some deep, feminine part of her stood up and clapped. It cheered his strength and melted her insides into a sticky pile of useless goo.
When he finished the job and turned back to her, she hadn’t taken even one step toward home yet. Missing that kind of show would have been criminal.
His charming grin widened, as if he knew she was snared in his trap. “There’s room in the tuck. All nice and warm.”
She wanted to go with this half-naked man—wherever he wanted to take her. That alone should have scared some sense into her. But all she could manage to feel was a buzzing sense of excitement and anticipation, like even she didn’t know what her answer would be.
“I can’t,” she finally managed. “I won’t. I don’t know you.”
His grin faded, but he wasn’t defeated. “Another time, then. Once you get to know me.”
“I think it’s best if we just go our separate ways.” Because she wasn’t going to be able to keep resisting his charms for long. Not that he needed to know that.
He sighed. “You’re going to make me work for this, aren’t you?”
“I’m not making you do anything. Good night, Radek.” With that, she turned on her heels and walked away.
She was almost out of earshot when she heard him say, “I’ll see you tomorrow, Ava.”
Chapter Three
It took every scrap of willpower Radek had to let Ava walk away. The urge to follow her pounded through him, demanding he obey. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth in an effort to resist, but in the end it did no good. He had no choice but to give in to his need to ensure her protection.
Those men meant her harm. How much, he wasn’t sure, but any amount was more than Radek could tolerate.
His kind had been bred to protect and defend, and while he knew she didn’t want his interference, blood was far more difficult to deny than the misguided preferences of a woman who was being hunted.
And if she was who his instincts said, then Beau and his friends weren’t the only ones who wished her ill.
The Raide were here. Radek had seen them with his own eyes. All of their kind he’d encountered were dead, but they’d set their sights on this world. There could be more nearby, cloaked in the armor that rendered them invisible.
If one of them found Ava, he was going to be a lot less friendly than Beau and his asshole buddies had been.
Radek went on foot and followed her heat trail home, hanging behind far enough that she had no chance to see or hear him. The path her warmth left behind was easy enough for him to trace now that he’d taken off his shirt and bared his chest. The sensitive heat sensors in his skin picked up on minute tendrils of thermal variance, telling him where she’d been as clearly as if she’d left a strand of rope trailing behind her.
The cheerful little house she went home to was lit up from the inside. Like some kind of peeping Tom, Radek hovered in a puddle of shadows left by overgrown bushes in the park across the street. From here he could see two other people moving around inside, casting shadows over the sheer curtains. Ava passed through the house into the kitchen, where she poured herself a glass of water. She didn’t drink it. Instead, she pressed it against her forehead as if to cool herself.
Anger and frustration tightened her expression and pulled her shoulders high. Her whole posture screamed of stress and emotional overload. The crazy urge to march across the street and demand she let him rub some of that tension away poured through him. Only knowing that she’d likely slam the door in his face kept him where he hid.
Her skin was too pale. Even the flush of anger she’d worn earlier was gone. Standing alone in her kitchen with no one watching, she seemed to finally let down her guard. And when she did, the tremors of fear or fatigue vibrating through the glass of water were visible even from this distance.
She shoved her springy blond curls away from her face, revealing the sweet line of her cheek. The cute dimples she’d displayed earlier were gone, but not forgotten.
Even for one of his kind, Ava was stunning. And as far as he was concerned, Sorican women were the loveliest, fiercest creatures to grace the universe.
The curve of her waist and hips called out to his hands, tempting him with how perfectly they’d fit. The way her hair curled in a rioting mes
s reminded him of long nights spent in the throes of passion.
As he watched her, his blood warmed, sliding through his veins with pulsing ease. It had been a while since a woman had called to him like she did, and he’d forgotten just how such attraction heightened his senses and thrilled him all the way down to his booted feet.
He wished they’d met on better terms. If they had, maybe he could have knocked on the door and asked for a little of her time to hear him out. Maybe she would have invited him in. Once he told her why he was here—once he told her of the danger she faced without his protection—she would have thanked him for his efforts to find her and keep her safe. Maybe she would have asked him to stay the night to protect her, which he would have gladly done. And as soon as he knew she was no longer afraid of him, he’d soothe away some of her anger and worry in the best way possible.
He’d like to see her try to be worried and mad after he made her orgasm a few times.
The warmth coursing through his blood turned hotter and more intense at the thought. Small tendrils of steam lifted from his skin, dissipating on the cool night breeze.
He had to remind himself that those tempting thoughts were nothing more than fantasy—something Radek knew to keep separate from reality. Prisoners who didn’t, they often went mad inside their isolated cells, raving about whatever world their tortured minds created in order to escape. Some even killed themselves, leaving their families to pay for their crimes.
Radek had often taken solace in the fact that he had no family left. He was the last of his line, and no matter what happened to him, no one he loved would be left to suffer in his place. It was a lonely way to live, but he knew it was for the best.
The price for that peace of mind was loneliness, but one he was willing to pay.
For a while he’d had friends nearby—men who’d always had his back. That was more family than a man like him could have ever hoped for, and he wasn’t going to do anything to screw it up. He was free, here and now, and grateful for the reprieve.
A wave of dizziness slammed into him, knocking him off balance. He grabbed a handful of the nearby bush’s branches to hold himself steady while it passed. As soon as it did, he said a silent farewell to Ava and headed back to his truck.
The freedom he enjoyed here was merely an illusion—something he was reminded of every twenty-six hours. Warden Trathen’s grip was still tight around Radek’s throat in the form of the poison coursing through his system. He had only a small window in which to inject himself with the antidote or his time here—or anywhere—would be over.
Still, illusion or not, Earth and the limited freedom it offered beat the hell out of a prison cell. At least here he was surrounded by strangers, rather than completely isolated, and that was enough for him.
It had to be.
*****
Ava had just rid herself of enough tension for the idea of sleep to seem possible when her little sister Emily came stomping into the kitchen.
Her long, straight blond hair was pulled back into a messy bun. The sleep shirt she wore hung on her thin frame even more than usual. The hollows under her cheeks were more pronounced since the night Beau attacked her, as were the dark circles of fatigue rimming her sleep-deprived eyes. For a second, Ava thought Emily looked almost as sick as Mom, which was a terrifying thought.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” Emily demanded in a harsh whisper.
Ava set the glass of water down and faced her normally calm sister’s fury. “I haven’t touched your clothes in months. Not since I ruined your sweater.”
“I’m not worried about some stupid sweater. This time it’s my life you’ve ruined.”
Emily wasn’t usually a drama queen, so the seriousness of the charge caught Ava off guard. “What are you talking about?”
“Brandon put pictures of himself up on Facebook.”
“Brandon?”
“The man whose nose you broke tonight.”
“It wasn’t me.”
“He said it happened at your restaurant.”
“It did, but I wasn’t the one who did it.”
“You’re lying,” Emily accused, her whisper getting dangerously loud. If Mom heard the confrontation, she was going to start asking questions—ones neither of the girls wanted to answer. Mom had enough on her plate. She couldn’t handle more stress on top of the chemo.
Ava covered her sister’s mouth and did her best to keep her anger in check. “I’m not lying. Someone else broke Brandon’s nose. Because if I’d been the one throwing punches, I probably wouldn’t have stopped until he, Beau, and all of his other asshole buddies were puddles of bloody goo on the carpet.”
Behind Ava’s hand, Emily paled. She pulled away to speak. “You don’t mean that. You can’t. You’ve got to stop fighting my battles.”
“Well, you’re not doing it and someone has to.”
“No, they don’t. Just let it go, Ava. I don’t need you coming to the rescue every time someone bothers me.”
“Bothers you?” Ava asked, her voice rising with disbelief. “The man assaulted you. If I hadn’t known something was up and stopped him, he would have raped you.”
“But he didn’t.”
“Only because I hauled him out of the car and dumped him on the pavement before he could. I know your memory of the events can’t be that bad. It was only a few days ago. Have the bruises even healed yet?”
Emily’s chin trembled and tears filled her big brown eyes.
Ah, hell. Ava couldn’t stand to see her baby sister cry. There’d been far too many tears lately, and it just broke Ava’s heart.
She grabbed Emily up in a gentle hug. “That’s enough of that. I didn’t mean to upset you. Tell me what I can do to fix it.”
“Leave Beau and his friends alone.”
“I can’t do that, honey. Beau needs to answer for his crimes.”
“You know that’s never going to happen in this town. All I want is for the chaos to die down enough that I can get on with my life and concentrate on college. If you keep riling him up, he’s never going to leave me alone. He’s got all of his friends recruited in the Hate on Emily campaign as it is. He doesn’t need more fuel for the propaganda machine, okay?”
The last thing Ava wanted to do was make Emily’s life harder. Between the assault, college exams and Mom’s cancer, things were hard enough.
Still, there was no way she was going to let an asshole like Beau walk around like he hadn’t committed a heinous crime against the sweetest girl in town.
But Emily didn’t need to know that.
“Fine. I’ll let it drop for now.”
“Thank you.”
“But if he so much as looks at you funny, I’m going to hurt him.”
“That isn’t exactly letting it drop. If you keep on like this, Mom is going to find out what happened. She can’t handle that kind of stress.”
Ava let out a long sigh filled with all of the night’s frustration. “I know. I know. We agreed it was best to hide this from her and none of that has changed.”
Emily nodded. “The next time you want to hurt Beau, just think of Mom.”
“You’re playing dirty, sis.”
“No, I’m playing smart. And so should you. If I can be civil to him, then so can you.”
Ava wasn’t so sure, but for her family, she was going to do her best. But if Beau hurt Emily again, Ava was going to delight in hurting him back. Repeatedly.
Chapter Four
Ava’s dreams were filled with the terror of watching her sister being attacked by Beau and his friends, interspersed with the delightful fun of helping Radek beat them all into quivering masses of blood and pain.
As the night wore on, the dreams shifted, sloughing off the darker and more violent aspects and taking on a decidedly sexual flavor.
She and Radek celebrated their victory over their enemies in the most primal way possible. For a virgin, her dreams were vivid and filled with exquisite sensory detail.
By the time her alarm went off, she was shaking and tangled in sweat-dampened sheets. Even the familiar brush of her panties over her mound was nearly enough to drive her crazy.
Whoever Radek was, he’d done this to her—he’d changed her from a sane, rational creature in control of her own body into a woman desperate for relief from the coiled tension and desire raging just beneath her skin.
She was torn between hoping she never saw him again and seeking him out to find out if he could fix whatever it was he’d done to her.
The only problem was she was pretty sure that there was only one way to fix what ailed her, and it involved the two of them naked together for about a week.
Just the thought was enough to send another wave of acute need coursing through her blood.
By the time she’d showered and dressed for the lunch shift, she’d managed to shove all of her sexual frustration into a box small enough she could carry it around.
Of course, just because it was smaller didn’t mean it weighed on her any less.
Every man who came through the restaurant paled in comparison to Radek’s dark good looks. Would any of them have stood up to Beau on her behalf last night, taking on a battle that wasn’t theirs to fight? Sure, at the time she’d been pissed that Radek had interfered, but she couldn’t help but remember the way he’d handled himself.
There was just something off-the-charts sexy about a man who knew his way around a fight.
She wondered if he’d handle her half as well as he had last night’s altercation.
Don’t go there. Not going to happen.
The warning to herself came too late to stop the rush of quivering desire that pooled in her belly.
