by K. D. Jones
“That’s what I want to know. She and her friends came to watch a fight. We met afterwards at a party for the fighters. There was instant heat between the two of us. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. She was so beautiful and delicate. We talked, laughed, and danced most of the night. I asked if I could see her the next night and she agreed. We became inseparable. She followed me on the circuit so we could get to know each other better.
“I don’t know what happened. The night before she left, we had a fight over me seeing her flirt with someone else right before a fight. When I confronted her she claimed that I was mistaken, that it had not been her. I left her alone in my suite while I went to get hammered at the local galactic pub. When I woke the next day from having passed out on my sofa, I found a note from her saying that she was leaving me and that she wished me well. I tried to call her phone, tried e-mailing her, and tried contacting her friends and family. They all accused me of doing something to her.”
Rachel was silent as she absorbed everything that he had told her. “Do you still have the note she left?”
Talon reached into his back pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. He handed it to her reluctantly. She spread open the piece of white paper on the table beside her. It was softened by Talon having opened and read it often.
Talon,
I cannot deal with this anymore. I am leaving. Do not come after me.
I wish you well,
Lindy
“Hey Talon, could you grab me some water from the kitchen?” Rachel asked without looking at him.
“Sure.” He got up and walked into the kitchen area, opening a cabinet to find a cup.
Rachel quickly used her own phone to scan the image of the letter. She then emailed the copy to her co-workers in the labs back at headquarters. She asked them to verify the handwriting. She quickly folded the paper and handed it to Talon when he came back with her water.
She took a sip of her water. “I’m sorry about Lindy. I hope she turns up one day and is able to explain what happened. You are a good man and you deserve to be happy.”
He smiled a sad smile. “Without Lindy, everything has been really hard.”
Rage came back through his suite carrying a large bag of clothes for Rachel. He looked at the two of them suspiciously and growled. “Did he try anything?”
Chapter 12
“I don’t think she is who she says she is,” Talon told Rage after he put Rachel down on his bed in the other room to rest. She was exhausted and fell asleep immediately.
“What do you mean?”
“For starters, her name can’t really be Rachel Starr, can it?”
“It is no more unusual than Talon or Rage.”
“Okay, I give you that. But she is clearly not a fighter. Yes, she can fight, but we both know she was not experienced with any circuit before coming here.”
Rage nodded his head in agreement. “True.”
“She keeps asking questions about Lindy and some of the other human women who used to be here.”
“Do you think she’s a spy for someone, maybe working for another promotion company?”
“Maybe, I just don’t know. Look, I like her. She seems sweet, she can hold her own in a fight, and she’s damn easy on the eyes. But I know in my gut that she’s hiding something. You’re my friend. I just want you to be careful about not letting your heart get run over.” Talon told him as he walked to the door to leave.
“Thanks, Talon. I’ll watch my back.” He didn’t want to distrust Rachel, but everything that Talon had said was true. It made him even more determined to figure out all her secrets.
Talon went to his bedroom and found Rachel sleeping soundly. She had kicked the blankets off, exposing her completely nude body. She was so soft and smooth. He instantly hardened looking at her. He growled with his desire. Damn it! She needed rest, not some horny halfsie climbing all over her. He walked slowly towards the bed, taking his clothes off and leaving a trail on the floor.
Tomorrow. He promised himself he would get everything he needed from her tomorrow, when she was recovered. Including the answers to his and Talon’s questions. He climbed onto the bed next to her. She turned, seeking his body heat. She whimpered until he pulled her up against his body. Then she sighed in contentment.
Rachel woke disoriented. Where was she? Her eyes focused to take in her surroundings. Ah, Rage’s bedroom. She was in his bed, alone. Where was Rage? She turned to her right and found him dressed and sitting up in a chair next to the bed.
“Hi.”
“Hi. How are you feeling this morning?” Rage asked.
“Good, better than good. Why don’t you come back to bed?” She lifted the sheet to expose one of her breasts, tempting him.
Rage looked at the gorgeous exposed mound with longing. He could almost taste her sweet nipple in his mouth. He shook his lustful thoughts away. Not now, he needed to get answers first.
“What’s your name?” he asked her, focusing his dark eyes on her.
“Uh … I’m Rachel. Did you hit your head or something?” She sat up, pulling the blanket back over her body.
Rage snorted. “I’m fine. I just want to know what your real name is.”
Rachel looked down at her clenched fingers in her lap. He must suspect something was off. But she couldn’t tell him. It might jeopardize her mission. “It’s Rachel. That’s my real name.”
“Starr isn’t your real last name, though, is it?”
She shook her head. “There are some things that I can’t tell you, Rage. I wish that I could, but I can’t.” When she looked back up at him, she saw the pain that crossed his face. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt him. But eventually, when her investigation was over, he would find out that she had lied to him, and he would hate her then.
“I have to go down for training.”
“I can go with you if you let me get dressed.” She moved to the edge of the bed.
“No, you will need to go to the healing facility first to get medical clearance before you can start training again.” He stood up and started for the door.
“I’ll see you later, right?” Rachel knew she sounded pathetic and hated it. No man had ever made her act like this. So needy, so clingy. It was humbling.
He looked back at her and his heart melted. He could not stay away from her any more than he could stop breathing. He gave her a sexy smile. “Get lots of rest, you’re going to need it.” Then he left quickly before he gave in to his beast’s demands to take her to the floor and make love to her.
Rachel let out a huge sigh of relief before falling back onto the bed. “He still wants me,” she whispered out loud. At least he still did for now. That might change after he learned the truth. This mission was turning out to be a lot harder on her emotionally than she thought it would be. She was getting attached to people involved in the case, which was one of the biggest mistakes an investigator could make.
She got up reluctantly and dressed. When she got back to her own suite, she found Sersan was already dressed for training. “Hey, Sersan.”
“You feeling better today?” Sersan asked.
“Yeah, but I can’t train till I check in at the healing facility first.” Rachel walked over to her closet and frowned. Where was all her stuff? Only a few pieces hung there.
Sersan laughed. “Rage came down and got sssome of your ssstuff. It looked like he planned to keep you for a long while.”
Rachel joined in the laughter. It made her feel good that he wanted her with him. “He’s been very … thoughtful.”
“He isss very protective of you. He even yelled at Resssa when he found her here.”
“Why would he yell at Resa?”
“It’sss kind of an inssside joke among the halfsssiesss. For sssome reassson, if Resssa becomesss a human’sss friend, they all decccide to leave.” Sersan laughed. “It wasss odd to find her here waiting when I came up from the healing facccility. Ssshe sssaid that ssshe came to check on you, but ssshe had n
ever checked on anyone before.”
Rachel was unusually quiet. Resa had approached her a couple times before asking if she would like to have dinner with her and her husband. They were the only married couple traveling on the circuit and usually fought as a team. Rachel had declined because the husband, Tipin, gave her odd looks. She suspected that they wanted to have a threesome with her and she was not into that at all. She respectfully turned down each of their offers.
But why would Resa be seeking her out directly after she had been injured? Resa had never come to her room before. She would have to pull up the report that her boss had provided for her on every member of the GCFA. Alarm bells were going off inside of her regarding the two Rasilians.
“Ssso, you and Rage, huh?” Sersan winked at her. When Rachel refused to answer, she continued to tease her. “Hasss he made you passs out yet?”
“Sersan!” She was blushing from head to toe.
“He hasss I sssee.” She laughed as Rachel punched her arm. “Come on, I’ll walk you to the healing facccility on my way to training.” She pulled Rachel out the door.
Well, the good news was that she got her medical clearance. She could start training that evening. The bad news was, she couldn’t find Rage anywhere. She had planned to ask him to help her with her training. She had to settle for Zara the Amazon.
“Congratulations on not getting yourself killed, Starlight.” Zara circled her on their mat.
“It’s Rachel Starr.” Not really Starr, but Zara was doing this on purpose.
“Whatever you say, Star bright.”
Rachel gritted her teeth and lunged at Zara. The taller woman easily dodged her. She shook her head at Rachel. “Not good enough, Stargazer. Your next opponent is a Slurchan.”
Rachel couldn’t help but cringe. Slurchans were just so … gross. Their bodies were spongy, making it hard to get a good grasp on them. They could suffocate their opponents. And they oozed goo all over. Ugh.
“You have to concentrate on getting a good hold. You might be able to grab their outfit occasionally to help. But to get the count to win the match, you will need to knock them out or put them in a submission hold. Since you’ve been doing Rage, you should know all about submission holds.”
Rachel’s left foot connected with the back of Zara’s knee, making her temporarily fall down. “What’s your problem? Are you upset that a halfsie would want to be with a human? Or are you just pissed that Rage wants me and not you?”
Zara punched Rachel in the face, making her fall backwards. “First, I could care less if a halfsie is stupid enough to be with a puny human. It’s their bad taste. Second, I’m not jealous. If I had wanted to be with Rage, I would be with Rage. I was the one that ended things with him years ago. Enjoy your time with him, human, because he’ll tire of you soon. He always does with humans.” She walked away, swishing her hips.
She knew that Zara and Rage had been together a long time ago. But to know that it was her instead of Rage that ended things was hurtful. It didn’t help her confidence at all to hear that he easily tired of humans. She clambered to her feet again. It didn’t matter. Once he found out she was working undercover and that she had lied to him, he won’t want to have anything to do with her again.
“Don’t let the Amazon get to you,” Resa told her as she walked over to Rachel. Resa was her next practice match. Rachel watched as Resa changed her form into a Slurchan. The sight made her want to puke. They practiced several moves and holds until they found ones that would work on the spongy body. Finally, Resa changed back into her normal form. Thank God for that.
“You’re getting better, Rachel.” She looked Rachel up and down. “Tipin and I would still like to have you over for dinner in our suite.”
Rachel was grateful for having a solid excuse not to go. “I think Rage wanted to spend time with me this evening.”
“Well, I overheard him telling Talon he had to go off ship and wouldn’t be back until tomorrow morning. He wanted Talon to tell you that. So, looks like you’re available after all.” She had a strange gleam in her eyes.
Damn it! “Guess so. But I need to let you know, I’m not into … threesomes. If that was what you had in mind.”
Resa chuckled. “Tipin will be disappointed, but we can handle it if you come as just a friend.”
“Then I’ll see you this evening.
Rachel wore her most conservative outfit, jeans and a light blue cardigan sweater that hung loosely down to her hips. The male, Tipin, answered the door wearing a white shirt unbuttoned and a pair of tuxedo pants. He looked her up and down, licking his lips. It made Rachel extremely uncomfortable.
“Welcome, Rachel. I am told that I cannot have sex with you this evening.” He bent to kiss her hand that he had lifted to his lips. She fought to hide her revulsion at the unwanted contact. She covered up her response by laughing with him.
She walked into the suite and found it similar to all the other suites on the ship. Resa came out of the bedroom wearing a sheer gold dress that barely covered her breasts. “We’re so glad you finally came. I’ve made a special meal just for you. It should be ready in another twenty minutes.” She motioned for Rachel to sit on the nearby sofa.
“It smells delicious.” She took in a deep breath. The aroma coming from the kitchen was divine. Resa was a good fighter and a good cook. Rachel could barely slap a sandwich together.
“Sit down and have a glass of wine. It’s imported from the Eastern Quarter of Theta.” She handed Rachel a large glass of red wine. Rachel pretended to take a sip, but spit it back into her glass. If her suspicions were correct, then these two had a hand in the missing girls’ disappearances. She planned to scrape the inside of her mouth and send the sample to be tested.
“You did well with your first match. Your family must be proud.” Tipin sat a little too close to Rachel on the sofa.
“I have no family. My parents died when I was a kid and I was raised by my Uncle Ted. He passed away a few years ago.” All true. She had learned the best way to lie was to stick as close to the truth as possible.
“So you have no one?” he continued to ask.
“Of course she has someone. She and Rage are an item now. Right, Rachel?” Resa asked as she sat on the other side of Rachel.
Rachel felt uncomfortable. It was one thing to go one on one with a halfsie in the cage. It was a totally different story to be caught in the middle of two shapeshifters in such close vicinity.
“It’s nothing serious. We’re just having fun.”
“Rage looked pretty serious last night when you were hurt.” Tipin sounded doubtful.
Rachel shrugged her shoulders. “You know Rage better than I do. Has he ever been in a relationship with a human for very long?” When both of them answered her in the negative and laughed, Rachel felt her heart sink. “It’s not serious. We’re great in bed. As soon as we’re both done getting what we want from one another, we’ll move on and part ways.”
“Glad to hear it. We have some friends that are very interested in meeting you, but they don’t want to get caught in the middle of you and Rage.” Resa told her with a gleam in her eye.
“I would love to meet your friends. They have nothing to worry about, there’s nothing serious between me and Rage,” she assured them.
That’s when the door crashed open. Rage stood there and he looked beyond pissed. He must have heard what she had said. Oh shit!
Chapter 13
“Let me go, Rage!”
Rachel was practically dragged behind Rage as he pulled her after him down the hallway to the elevators. Once they were inside the tight elevator, Rage turned her around and pressed her up against the elevator wall.
He didn’t give her a chance to say anything else, he took her lips in a brutal kiss. His body pressed up against hers trapping her in the corner. He then ripped her jeans into tiny pieces that fell fluttering to the floor.
“Rage?” she whispered. She should be scared, but instead, she was on fire for h
im. She loved that she could make him lose control.
He didn’t answer her. He went back to kissing her. He didn’t let up, taking almost all her oxygen. She moaned from the ache she felt deep inside of her. She wanted him, had to have him. Rachel fumbled to get his jeans opened. Once she did, his fully aroused cock sprang free. He growled as he reached between their bodies and tore her underwear away. It had been the last barrier keeping them apart.
He gripped her hips, lifting her up. She wrapped her legs around his waist automatically. He shifted and then plunged deeply into her. He hit her core.
“Rage.” She met him thrust for thrust, riding him like her very life depended on it. Her heels pressed against his tight ass, giving her the leverage she needed. She was addicted to him. All day she felt off kilter, lonely, empty. But now she was filled with him, and she couldn’t get enough, would never get enough of him.
She came hard, yelling out his name. When he released his seed a moment later, he yelled back, “Mine!”
The elevator doors had opened and closed a while ago. She hoped that they hadn’t given anybody a show. If they had, well, she just couldn’t find the energy to care. As their breathing returned to normal, Rage let her slide down his body until her feet touched the floor. She looked down and realized she would not be able to put her pants back on, since they were completely ruined.
Rage picked up the shredded clothing from the floor and pushed the button to open the elevator door. They were on his floor. He went to open the door to his suite. “Come.”
Rachel had no choice but to follow him. She was practically naked in the hall. As she passed him, she noted that he had a distracted look on his face. She sat down on his sofa and waited for him to turn his attention back to her. She watched him as he paced back and forth.
When he had sought out Rachel earlier, he had done it with plans of talking to her calmly about things. He had gone to the suite she shared with Sersan. The other woman told him that Rachel had gone to share a dinner with Tipin and Resa. That was when he lost control of his anger. His beast was roaring with jealousy that another man could be touching his Rachel.
