by Selena Scott
“Why?” she asked quietly. “Is everything alright?”
“With Griff? Yes. But back on Herta things are in chaos. More violence than ever. Shifters got word of what happened in the main city and little revolts have broken out here and there.”
“So what does that have to do with Griff?”
“I came to see how his shifter training was going.”
Milla’s heart sank to her feet. She’d really come to like Griff over the last few months. Both he and Ruby were always around whenever she went back to Green Mills. Milla couldn’t exactly explain it, but the two of them just fit with the Ketos. Milla had always wondered when her siblings would start to partner up, and she wondered what that would do to the family dynamic. But there was just something about Griff and Ruby that sat right. Griff’s annoyance at Ruby’s propensity to mother hen him. Ruby’s stern words when he got out of line. Their trust and love and reliance on one another. It was nice to be around. She hated to think of anything bad coming to either of them. “You want him to go back to Herta.”
Alec shrugged, the shoulders of that jacket she knew so well crimping up for a moment. “Eventually. I think the shifters would rally around him. He might be a real turn in the tide.”
“But not yet,” she carefully read his tone.
Alec scoffed. “Are you kidding? The boy is not a warrior. He can barely shift.”
Kain and Ansel had been training Griff as often as either of them could spare, but he’d matured beyond the normal age of learning how to shift. It was difficult for both his brain and his body to teach him how to do something so new. Milla had been there for a few of the lessons. She’d found them as frustrating to watch as they were to participate in.
She breathed a sigh of relief. She wasn’t ready to see Griff off to war.
“So you came back to Earth to check on Griff and Ansel told you to come check on me.”
Alec shrugged his shoulders to keep from facing her directly as he came around the same side of the bed that she sat on. “He was worried about the gates you were seeing. But I see no evidence that there are any here.”
“I know!” She tossed her hands up in frustration. “I told them they were just dreams. There was no need for you to…” she trailed off. Because he was there, in front of her, and as off-kilter as she was, she didn’t want to actively push him away.
Alec read her face, saw just the smallest chink in her armor, a flashing moment of vulnerability on that perfect, gorgeous face of hers. It relaxed him a little, soothed him. Regardless of what she thought in the big scheme of things, he figured he was at least invited to stay the night.
With that, he flopped backwards onto her bed, making her bounce. “You really sleep on this monstrous throne?”
Milla raised an imperious brow. “This ‘monstrous throne’ is a very standard bed. People on earth use them. And— Hey! Get your boots the hell off of my Calvin Klein bedspread!” She smacked his feet right off her bed and whirled on him.
The only thing that could have disarmed her in that moment happened. He grinned at her. In that way that happened so rarely. His brown eyes warmed and his face lightened. Turning it from plain to irresistible. Milla felt her heart turn over in her chest.
Damn it.
Alec looked so funny there on her bed. In his grubby clothes, surrounded by all that plush material. He wasn’t lounging. She doubted he even knew how to. No, he was both alert and reclined, watching her like a wolf watches another wolf from a rival pack.
She straightened her clothes and looked down at him. “Actually, I don’t think I want any of your dirty clothes in my bed.”
He raised both eyebrows and grinned more. “Is that so?”
Milla stood her ground. “Yeah. That’s so. And you should take a shower while you’re at it, mountain man.”
His brow furrowed. “Is that the thing where the water comes down from the ceiling? Ansel showed me that at his house.”
Milla couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah. Trust me. It’s gonna change your world.”
Well, he couldn’t resist her smile. He was fine to play it cool and distant while she was basically holding him back with a ten-foot pole, but if she was gonna flash those perfectly white teeth and squint those sly eyes of hers, then he was just gonna have to get up and swallow her whole.
He was standing and one step across the room when someone banged on the front door of Milla’s apartment.
Her brow furrowed in confusion and he followed her out to the main hallway of her strange home. He’d been on earth for a few days now and was over the worst of the absolute shock of things like photographs, electricity, homes with running water, indoor plumbing. But still, he couldn’t say he understood earth in the least. Why would people want to live in the sky and stacked on top of one another? He had to admit that everything was soft and clean in her home, but he couldn’t smell even a trace of the natural world, beyond the cut flowers in her vase. How could she stand it?
Alec watched her curvy, delicious body as she leaned against the door and peeked through a tiny window there. A way to see who was knocking without opening the door, he realized. Clever.
“Crap,” Milla muttered, leaning her forehead against the door for a brief second. Then she flung the door open and revealed a man.
Alec frowned and stepped forward. A strange-looking man. Pretty like a woman. With perfectly combed dark hair and teeth as white as Milla’s. The man wore idiotic clothes that Alec had seen many times in his walk from the train to Milla’s apartment earlier that day. He’d heard them referred to as a suit. They looked pointless and confining and barely had enough pockets to hold his knives, much less his bow or his sleeper darts. And the moronic belt the man wore wouldn’t be able to hold up a mace if its life depended on it.
The man’s dumbass smile immediately slid into a frown when he spotted Alec standing behind Milla. His eyes skated over Alec’s attire, confusion marring his face.
“Edward,” Milla said by way of greeting.
This Edward fool looked back and forth between Milla and Alec. “Sorry to interrupt, Milla, but you left your coat in my car. On our date.”
His eyes seemed to say that he’d issued some kind of challenge to Alec but Alec couldn’t care in the least. He didn’t know what a ‘date’ was and he didn’t give a shit. This man was not a rival to him. Not in the world of combat, survival, and certainly not in the world of pursuing Milla. There was no chance Milla was interested in this man-boy who even smelled like a woman.
“Oh.” She reached forward and accepted the coat. “Thank you. Ah. Edward, this is Alec. Alec, this is Edward.”
Edward shouldered his way in through the door and held out his hand for a shake. Alec took it and raised an eyebrow when Edward attempted to squeeze the life out of his hand.
Edward looked back and forth between the two of them, still obviously trying to figure out who the hell Alec was, but Alec had other things on his mind.
“You smell like a woman.”
Milla may have made a peep. And it may have been a laugh. But Alec wasn’t entirely sure. He squinted his eyes at this Edward fool. “You’re pretty like a woman, too.”
Still gripping the man’s hand, Alec held it up for inspection. “Even your fingers are as polished as a woman’s. It’s remarkable.”
The man ripped his hand out of Alec’s grip and glared at him. His gaze turned to Milla. He seemed to steel himself. “Milla, are we still on for next Friday?”
Milla waved a hand through the air. “Sure.”
“I’ll call you with the details this week.”
“Sure,” she said again and didn’t have either man convinced that she was committing to anything.
“Alright,” Alec said, bored of this man who acted like he had a claim on Milla. He reached for the edge of the door and wrenched it out of Milla’s hand, edging Edward out of the door. “Goodbye. We’re taking a shower now.”
He closed the door in the man’s face and flipped the lock b
efore grabbing Milla’s hand and hauling her toward the room where this shower thing was.
CHAPTER TEN
“John!” Milla gasped, laughing and stumbling along after him.
He didn’t stop until he got to the bathroom.
“What?” he asked, inspecting the wall for those light switch thingies and taking just the smallest moment to marvel at the pure, strangely yellow light that flooded the white tile bathroom.
She wanted to tell him that he’d been rude to Edward. That he couldn’t just tell people that they were about to take a shower. That she wasn’t going to take a shower with him. That he was just going to sleep on the couch tonight and tomorrow he could take the train back to Green Mills.
But as the words rose in her throat, they dissolved. She didn’t want to say any of those things. She didn’t care that John Alec was rude. She was rude herself. She was glad Edward was gone anyways. Taking a shower with John Alec the Warrior sounded like the most acute form of pleasurable heaven she could imagine. Even if her heart got sliced to shreds tomorrow morning. Because that was the one thing she was resolute on. John Alec the Warrior was going back to Green Mills in the morning and Milla was getting back to her regularly scheduled programming. But tonight? Well, tonight she could do whatever her heart told her to.
Milla shook all thoughts from her head and stepped past John Alec to adjust the shower to exactly the way she liked it. Piping hot. When she turned back, he was watching her with an expression on his face that she recognized but couldn’t quite bring herself to analyze. It was… almost tender.
Then something flashed in his eyes that looked much sharper.
“You’ve slept with that fool?”
Milla’s back went up in record time.
“So what if I have?” She hadn’t.
Alec scoffed. “If you have, I feel sorry for you. It can’t have been very satisfying. He looked like a light rain could make him weep.”
She pulled her lips in to keep from smiling. That was not her impression of Edward whatsoever. He was actually a very self-sufficient and successful businessman. But there was a little thrilled humming in her chest as Alec’s cavalierly jealous expression deepened.
“I’ve slept with a lot of men, John. Is that a problem for you?”
His eyes darkened as he took a step closer to her. “No. I don’t care what you’ve done or who you’ve done it with. But seeing as you’re the most desirable woman on earth, I think it makes more sense for you to spend your time with a man who knows how to pleasure you.”
Milla refused to let her heart skip at his phrasing. Most desirable woman on earth. God. She knew she was beautiful. And it wasn’t a precious piece of information for her. Men often made sweeping generalizations about the way she looked. But none of those men had looked so positively truthful while doing it. Alec was looking at her right now like what he’d said was inarguable. Like it was a God-given fact and the entire world was just going to have to accept it.
She cleared her throat and made light of the moment. Because if she didn’t, she was sunk. Absolutely overboard. And he was going home tomorrow, she reminded herself. She was sending him home tomorrow.
“But where would I find such a man?”
Alec let out a laugh. This woman. This stubborn, prickly woman. Standing there with her shiny gold cap of hair and regal clothing. Steam from the shower curling around her. She was being haughty and aloof. Punishing him for defying her wishes and following her to earth, he was sure. But he’d show her. He’d remind her.
Milla watched as he shucked off his jacket, pulling a long necklace of some kind from his neck and shoving it in the pocket of his jacket. He kicked off his boots. Milla’s sly green eyes didn’t warm, exactly, but they did go from diamond hard to liquid heat. He couldn’t help the little smile that quirked the side of his face as she slicked off that purple shirt of hers.
He froze when he saw what was underneath that shirt. He’d never seen anything like it in his life and for a moment, he wondered if he was looking at something made of magic. Some kind of cloth that covered her breasts, but somehow it revealed more than it concealed. He could see her nipples through the black fabric, the swell of her, but she was covered at the same time.
He brought his rough hands to her breasts and groaned when he realized that this fabric was somehow making her skin seem ultra-heated.
Milla chuckled and dragged his attention back to her face. “Now do you understand the point of earthly undergarments?”
Alec laughed a mirthless chuckle. “To bring a man to his knees?”
She laughed. “Exactly.”
“Are you wearing this kind of undergarment here as well?” he asked her, dragging one hand across the apex of her thighs.
Milla swallowed a gasp and nodded. And so John Alec, with no reservations, did exactly that. He dropped to his knees in front of her. When her tight little skirt wouldn’t be tugged down he simply whipped her around, grabbed it by the little slit in the back and ripped it off her body.
He groaned full body when her panties were revealed and Milla didn’t even try to restrain the feline smile that rolled over her face. She was in a matching sheer black thong and bra set and she knew it was blowing Alec’s Hertian mind.
“What in God’s name is this?” he exclaimed and she felt his tongue at her ass, his teeth tugging along the thin strip of fabric that disappeared into her cleft.
She didn’t bother with an answer. She was too busy trying to remind herself how to breathe. Without warning he was spinning her again and she was facing him. Looking down, steadying herself against his shoulders.
He had meant to look up into her face when she spun her, but he was too busy staring at the front of these magical undergarments. The thin fabric revealed everything underneath. Clinging to her wetness that was seeping through and showing him that somehow her pussy was completely bare. He dragged his nose across the triangle of fabric and grunted.
A thought occurred to him and had his back going straight. His hands on her hips and his mouth almost pressing against her pussy, he looked up at her. “You wore these things for him?”
Milla immediately shook her head. “No. I’m not interested in him. I would never have slept with him. I…” she trailed off and bit her lip for just a second.
He wanted to know what she was about to say, but his brain was jumbled. His eyes dropped back to her mound. “You’ve made yourself bare.”
She cleared her throat. “It’s called a Brazilian. Women on earth sometimes get them– Oh Jesus God holy fucking Christ!” She had to scream and claw at his shoulders as he’d hooked her panties to one side and was currently exploring her bare skin with his mouth.
“Smooth, different,” he growled, rubbing his chin and cheek into her. “But just as delicious.”
He planted his hands on her thighs and had her stepping her legs apart. And when that wasn’t enough, he pulled her leg over his shoulder. One of her high heels slammed into his back and Milla froze when he winced in pain.
That was very strange. She hadn’t knocked him that hard. Following a small intuition, she pulled her pussy away from his mouth, even when he chased her forward. She stepped resolutely backwards, grabbed his shirt in her two hands and slid it up over his head.
“John,” she whispered in horror. Her hand came up to cover her mouth and she fell on her knees in front of him.
What was one of the worst moments of Milla’s life was one of the best of John Alec’s.
For as long as he lived, he’d never forget the look on her face. His fierce, prickly, stubborn woman was looking at him like she wanted to make every bit of pain he’d ever experienced go away. She was looking at him like she wanted to wrap him in her arms and sing him to sleep. She was looking at him with something akin to tenderness. Well, as close as Milla Keto could get to tenderness.
Milla couldn’t barely believe what she was seeing. A ten-inch gash across the middle of his back, scabbed over but the skin was still black a
nd blue all around it. And there were bruises all along his front as well. Over his arms.
“Oh, John,” she murmured again. “What the fuck happened to you?”
A laugh burst out of him and suddenly, he knew that he loved her. She was like a sun within him. Not the gentle glory of a sunrise, a fan of color. But midday sun. Bright and hot and unforgiving. Love for her burned inside him. So defined and hot that it was almost painful. A different woman would have had tears in her eyes for him. But Milla Keto had fiercely tender demands. Her eyes blazed with fury for whoever had given him these injuries and she was warlike and ferocious in her need to comfort him. Such a strange combination of attributes but one that suited him perfectly.
He drew her to his chest then, ignoring the small bursts of pain all over his skin as he pressed her close. “I told you that Herta was in chaos. There are skirmishes everywhere between shifters and Hertians.”
“And you’ve been fighting alongside the shifters,” she whispered into the skin of his shoulder, already knowing the answer.
“Of course.”
Milla let out a deep breath and then planted her forehead flat against his chest. Alec got the strange feeling that she was surrendering to something.
“Alright. Let’s get you cleaned up.”
She rose and dragged him with her to standing. He noted that though he was still in a very desirous mood, she had moved on to a businesslike demeanor. She yanked his pants and undergarments down, kicked off those shoes of hers, and pulled her own underwear off with clinical precision.
Well, he thought as he looked down at her gorgeous, naked body, if she wanted to baby him a little bit, who was he to stop her?
She opened the glass door to the shower and steam billowed out. He still didn’t really understand the point of these things, but he figured he was about two steps away from being wet and naked with Milla, so he kept his thoughts to himself.
His questions were answered almost immediately when she firmly shoved him under the spraying water.
