by Lynn Tyler
Her heart pounded painfully, and her stomach was in her throat. If she failed at this, there was a very real chance she could find herself attached to a complete and utter stranger. Hell, that stranger wouldn’t even be of her own species.
Her nerves got the best of her, and her feet began to jog the final distance, almost as if they had a mind of their own. By the time she reached the halfway point, she was literally racing. Perspiration began forming on her skin even though it was a cool night. Almost there. She could practically taste the freedom.
Before she could reach the gate, a huge, hulking figure stepped in her path. Her heels skidded on some loose gravel as she tried desperately to avoid a collision. Her feet shot out from under her, and she flailed her arms wildly, hoping to regain her balance. It was a useless gesture, and she prepared herself for the inevitable impact. The impact she expected never came. Instead, a strong, hard pair of arms wrapped around her and hauled her upright.
She found herself staring at the most gorgeous man she had ever seen. He was tall enough that she had to look up at him, which was rare for her at five foot ten. The man had flawless mocha skin, milk-chocolate eyes that tilted slightly upward at the outer corners, and a strong, stubborn jaw. His long black hair hung loose down his back, ending just above his hips with a tiny braid plaited at each temple secured by tiny gold bells. He was dressed head to foot in tight black leather that emphasized the large bulge in his pants.
Goose bumps broke out over her whole body, and her skin crawled with the need to rub up against his own naked skin. The folds between her legs dampened immediately, and her clit plumped in anticipation. All she wanted was to take this man back to her bed and crawl all over his nude body and ride him like a cowgirl until they were both too exhausted to do anything other than sleep. Oh mercy, she had never wanted anyone this badly in her life.
The man’s nostrils flared, and he inhaled deeply. His eyes widened, and his mouth flattened as he surveyed her speculatively. He scented the air again, and she got the strange idea that he was able to smell her instant arousal. Crossing her arms over her chest, she glared up at him until it suddenly occurred to her that this very fine specimen of all that was male was surely not supposed to be here. A tiny thread of fear shuddered up her spine, chasing away the last of her excitement. “Who are you?” She tried to make the question sound as threatening as possible as she mentally went over the self-defense moves she had learned in one phys-ed unit from years ago.
The man paused in his inspection and tilted his head inquiringly. He seemed to think over her words for a few seconds until comprehension dawned. He formed his words carefully, his sensuous lips overemphasizing each word in his effort to communicate. “I am Varin, High King D’Arik’s head of security. I am here to determine how much security the king will need for tomorrow night’s dinner. But the question is, who are you?”
This man, this beautiful male, was one of the aliens that had bargained for the use of her species’ females? Why, oh why, couldn’t he have multiple arms or eight eyes or at least be short and green? No woman she knew would ever turn down the chance to be with someone who looked like him, whether they were simply used for breeding or not. She cringed mentally at the thought, sure she’d just set the feminist movement back by three or four decades, but there was no denying this man’s intense sexual appeal. If the rest of the males of his species looked like him, women would be fighting for a chance to sign the damn registry.
A loud harrumph sounded and broke through her reverie. She let her eyes focus back on his face and found that he was staring at her expectantly. Of course. He was waiting for her to answer him. What was his question again? “Your name, lira?”
Lira? It was probably alien for idiot, which she certainly felt like, staring at him with her tongue practically hanging out. “Jacy Townsend.”
Crap on a cracker, she’d just given him her real name. She crossed her arms under her breasts and tried to cover her embarrassment with a show of temper. She realized her plan had backfired when her rebellious movement simply lifted and framed her cleavage for his perusal. “I’m a staff member,” she lied, wincing at her petulant tone. “I’m on my way home for the night.”
God, she hoped she sounded confident. She wasn’t good at lying, but she had everything to lose if he didn’t believe her.
“Jacy.” His voice was like velvet scraping down her spine, and she almost moaned out loud when she watched that man form her name. His top lip was a little on the thin side, but his bottom lip was full and oh-so biteable. She wondered what else he could do with those lips. “What are you doing out here, Jacy?” He said her name as if testing out what it felt like on his tongue.
She shivered and glared at him even harder. Maybe if she kept giving him the evil eye, he wouldn’t notice how hard her nipples suddenly were. “I told you. I was on my way home for the night.” Perhaps if she just kept repeating the lie, he would believe her.
Cocking his eyebrow at her, Varin took her arm and steered her back toward the White House. “Really?” He still seemed to think carefully about his words. Would he consider what to do with a lover as hard and as precisely as he chose his words? The stray thought flittered through her mind, causing her nipples to harden and tingle. She could just see him stretched out beside his lover while he considered just what to do to make his partner scream with pleasure.
A puff of breath escaped from her lips as she fought to maintain her rage over being treated like a possession instead of giving into the urge to jump his bones. “Yes, really,” she snapped.
Varin’s face closed instantly, his beautiful mouth flattening into a hard, solid line. “You will listen to me now, Jacy Townsend. I have studied your culture and your father’s role in your society. I know exactly who you are, and I know you are far from the normal human female. There are people out there who would do you harm, just because of whom your father is. I suggest that you allow me to escort you back into your residence.”
Jacy scrunched up her eyes, knowing her face probably resembled a pout, which irritated her even more. “I can walk there myself.” She tried unsuccessfully to pry her arm from his grip.
He tightened his hold on her significantly. He wasn’t hurting her, exactly. She got the impression he was just letting her know that he could make her do whatever he wanted if he so chose. “Nevertheless, I will escort you, just to make sure you get home all right.”
Jacy tugged on her arm harder. Neither Varin’s expression nor grip changed. “I am not a cow that needs to be led around. Neither am I a possession to be traded.” Her anger was returning in leaps and bounds now that she found extracting herself from the situation at hand impossible.
He stopped and turned to stare down at her. The corners of his lips quirked, as if he was holding back a smile. Any other time, she would want to see that smile. She bet even a Mona Lisa smile from him would transform him from gorgeous to breathtaking. “Unfortunately for you, lira, you have very little choice in the matter. You either agree to become the mate of a Helan male, or we withdraw our offers of support.”
So he did understand what her reference had been to. “What does it matter if I sign the stupid registry and become a mate? I mean, there are probably plenty of women who would be willing to mate with you.”
His stare turned to something hot and liquid. His eyes traveled along the length of her body, pausing at her breasts and finally settling on her lips. “Trust me, lira, it matters a great deal.”
She huffed, outraged that he would treat her in such a manner. He was obviously one of those men who cared about nothing except how a woman looked. She was loath to admit that his blistering gaze had done nothing to cool her raging libido.
His next words, however, were more effective than a bucket of cold water. “Besides, Jacy Townsend, you do have a choice. Either sign the registry and willingly accept a Helan suitor, should you be chosen, or have the deaths of potentially thousands of humans on your shoulders. You see, you are much mor
e than just a woman. You are a symbol. Should you sign the registry and accept a Helan male as a mate, your fellow females will follow suit. Without your females on that registry, the technology will not be made available.”
Of course he would bring that up. That was the only thing that had saved her father from a tongue lashing for siding with the rest of the world’s male leaders and accepting the aliens’ terms.
Medicine, food, and protection. The sheer number of lives that could be changed or even saved was staggering. And when she thought about it, she really couldn’t justify having those deaths on her hands.
He gave her one last lingering look and relaxed his grip on her arm slightly. “Now, you have yet another choice. You can either walk back with me, or I can carry you over my shoulder.” One look at his grim expression told her he wasn’t bluffing. She decided to keep a little bit of the dignity she had left. Jacy sighed and let him lead her back, pretending the whole way she had a choice. She had a nasty suspicion that he knew exactly what she had been out for and that he was making sure she couldn’t escape again.
Chapter 5
In a desperate attempt to salvage some of her pride, she schooled her face into an expression of disdain and straightened her shoulders as they entered the foyer. Her father, of course, was just entering the hallway himself.
Her father always charged everywhere. He never walked sedately, and this was no exception. He looked harried, though every piece of clothing and every hair was still in place. God forbid he ever let anyone see him as anything but perfect. He stopped dead when he saw her standing with Varin. “Jacy. Where have you been? We have been looking everywhere for you.”
Man, how was she going to get out of this one? She steeled herself for the lecture about duty to one’s own people she was about to get. Whatever. She would sign the registry to save lives, but she didn’t have to be happy about it. Before she could confess, though, Varin spoke up. “President Townsend. Your daughter has been kind enough to show me the grounds so that I may be better able to determine what type of security High King D’Arik needs for tomorrow evening.”
Her father looked at her skeptically but thankfully didn’t question Varin. “Fine, good. Jacy, please go to your room and get some rest. Tomorrow is a big night for you. Every eye in the world will be on you.”
Gritting her teeth, she nodded sharply at her father and finally succeeded in extracting her arm from Varin’s hold, although she knew if he really wanted to hold on to her, nothing would have made him let go.
Bidding good-night to Varin and her father, Jacy started off toward the wing of the house where the first family resided. “Jacy?” her father called. She could tell by the sound of his voice that he hadn’t believed a word of what Varin had just said. She paused but didn’t turn around, sure the expression on her face would give away her guilt. “I’ve decided to switch security details with you. We don’t want our security to get complacent. We wouldn’t want anyone to be able to able to sneak in or out while they were looking the other way, would we?”
Damn, she was busted. Her stomach twisted nervously. Hopefully her security team wouldn’t feel the brunt of her father’s anger, since he couldn’t actually have any proof that they had anything to do with her disappearance. She nodded brusquely and marched back to her sitting room, ignoring the new guards that were posted at her door. She was willing to bet that there were guards now posted outside her window, too.
She was grateful that they hadn’t escorted her to her bedroom. The small sitting room had a ground-floor window that, if given the opportunity, she could wiggle through.
The door shut forcefully behind her, and she made a face at the wooden surface. She would bet anything that her father would be storming in as soon as he had a spare second to give her the lecture of her life. He wouldn’t be fooled by what Varin had told him.
God, this sucked. She had no doubt that she would end up on some damn spaceship, pregnant with some alien’s baby within the month. And there was very little she could actually do about it. She just hoped the funds she had funneled into the hastily organized evacuation and rebellion movement went a long way to making sure other women weren’t placed in her situation.
Well, she may as well check to see if there really were guards posted at the window. She would feel pretty damn stupid if she missed an opportunity to get out of here just because she hadn’t bothered to look outside.
She eased the window open and stuck her head outside. Sure enough, two agents were posted outside the window. The one on the right, Sully, was her father’s personal bodyguard. He was a stickin-the-mud and was notorious for sucking up to her father.
The guard on the left, though, was different. O’Neill was a big softy, though he hid it behind a gruff exterior. She could probably talk him into letting her leave if she could get him alone.
Of course, Sully wasn’t about to let that happen. “You had best be staying inside, Miss,” he said on a sneer.
Before she could pull her head back in, Sully pressed his communication piece farther into his ear. He sighed and looked at his partner. “That Varin wants some changes made to the security detail. Apparently he doesn’t think the alien king will be safe enough. I gotta go and check on a few things. Stay here and make sure nothing gets out.”
Jacy rolled her eyes even as her heart began hammering again. This was it. She could probably convince O’Neill to sneak her out given enough time.
For now, though, she did as Sully said. The guy wouldn’t leave until she was completely contained.
She fired up the laptop on the desk and fiddled around on the Internet for a few minutes while she waited for Sully to get a good long way from the window. She amused herself for a while looking at funny cat photos.
Finally, she rose and crept back to the window, peeking around the curtain to confirm that Sully had indeed left. When the only person she saw was O’Neill, she slid the window open again. “Hey, O’Neill.”
The man looked at her with a sympathetic smile. “Evening, Miss Jacy. How are you holding up?”
That was just the opening she was waiting for. She didn’t even have to fake the tears that gathered in her eyes. “Not great. I don’t really want to be traded away, no matter what Earth gets in return.”
The guard nodded and rooted around in his pocket, coming out with a package of tissues. He pulled one out and handed it to her. “I know, Miss. It’s just not right. Maybe you won’t be chosen.”
She could hear the doubt in his voice. “You and I both know that I’ll probably be among the first chosen. My dad will make sure of that.”
“I’ll be so sorry to see you go, Miss Jacy. It’s just not right,” he repeated.
“You know, I could get out of this. Maybe disappear for a few months.” Or years, she thought.
He looked at her through slitted eyes. “Where would you go?”
This was it. O’Neill would either help her or he would sell her out. It was a risk, but she had to try. “There’s an underground movement, an evacuation. I can’t tell you exactly where. The final location is very hush-hush, but some very influential people have donated large sums of money toward a number of different safe houses. If you let me go, I could get to one.”
O’Neill’s eyes narrowed even more. “It would be very dangerous, Miss Jacy. Who knows what could happen to you on the way.”
His voice trembled a little. He had been with their family since Jacy was little, and she knew he thought of her like the daughter he’d never had. She felt bad for taking advantage of his tender feelings toward her, but she had no choice.
“But I know what would happen to me if I stay here. I can’t do it.”
O’Neill sighed and rubbed his forehead. “All right, Miss Jacy. I can cover for you, but you need to leave right now.”
Relief flooded through her, and she leaned out the window and kissed his prickly cheek.
Before she could even swing a leg over the windowsill, a large hand gripped Agent O’Neil
l. He was thrown sideways into a clump of bushes, leaving a large, very pissed-off Varin in her sight.
The alien turned to her guard and stormed over to the shrub he’d landed in. She would have smiled at the way the CIA agent, among the best in his agency to be trusted to guard the first family, cowered among the shrubbery if Varin hadn’t looked so downright scary. “This is what you call security?” he asked, growling threateningly. “You didn’t even hear me walking by. I could have severed your sorry excuse for a head and slit her throat before you even knew someone was there.”
He spun on his heel and marched back to her window, his eyes snapping. She swore she could see sparks flying from those furious, beautiful eyes. “And you. Don’t you have any regard for your own safety?”
She stared at him in shock. This was the same man who had lied to save her from her father’s wrath? Before she could think of a good retort, he crowded into her open window and jumped the sill. He took her by the elbow and dragged her to the door, throwing it open and pushing her into the hall.
A flush started to rise in her cheeks as she realized where he was taking her. “What do you think you’re doing?” she shrieked as they neared her father’s office.
He didn’t stop moving, didn’t even deign to look down at her. Instead, he pushed open the door to her father’s office and directed her inside, closing the door with a slam. “She will have the implant inserted right away.”
Chapter 6
Her father paled and looked at her, his eyes widening at her state of dress. “What is going on here?”
