And the orgasms? Holy shit, the orgasms. So many. So good. I’d never felt like a sexual goddess, not once in my life. But I did now. I felt sexy and beautiful and powerful. And all because a giant alien man had chosen me. Me!
Crazy. It was all just too crazy to be real. Too good to be true. Braun was wonderful. Amazing.
As I turned the corner and went down my street, I couldn’t help but smile. Braun was a beast. In bed and out.
With him, I’d been wild. I’d never been a prude, but I hadn’t initiated sex much either. The sex I’d had hadn’t been all that great. I hadn’t known before, but now I sure as hell did. Braun was a skilled lover. Generous. Attentive. I came first and more than once. He saw to it.
He took care of me in everything he did. For such a huge guy, he was so gentle with me. I was turning into a lovesick fool. And sex crazed.
But just like when I was thirteen, I was probably thinking fairy tales. Braun was to be on the Bachelor Beast program. While he’d spent the past two days with me, he had twenty-four women who wanted his attention, too.
I pulled into my brightly lit lot and slowed, frowning. I tipped my chin to look out the passenger window. My couch was sticking out of the back of a pickup truck. What the—
Fuck me.
I recognized that fancy truck. Kevin’s. The one with the lift, the off-road wheels that never saw dirt. He had a vehicle worth more than I made in a year and had decided to steal my secondhand couch? What the fuck was going on with him?
Just then he came down the building’s central stairwell with my Crock-Pot and set it in the back with the sofa and whatever else he’d stolen. As usual, he wore a golf shirt and Bermuda shorts with loafers and no socks. He dressed as if he’d come from the country club but was stealing my dang Crock-Pot. As I got closer, I noticed the little lobsters embroidered on his tan shorts.
Nice.
His hair had more product in it than I ever used. It was slicked back, which only showed his receding hairline. His usual sly grin was missing, and I recognized that beady-eyed look. The look that said he knew he was doing something wrong, but he had somehow justified everything to himself and convinced his pea-sized brain—and elephant-sized ego—that he had been wronged. That nothing was his fault. That the world owed him something. Or, based on the amount of my stuff I saw in the back of that truck, that I owed him everything I owned.
Asshole. I’d been so right to dump his ass. Now I just wanted him to go away. To stay away. Compared to Braun, he was a joke. An absolute sham of a man.
I pulled into the closest parking spot and got out, leaving my computer bag on the floor and locking the car behind me. I didn’t want him stealing my laptop. If he was going for a fucking slow cooker, he’d definitely want my computer.
After locking the door, I ran over to him. “What the fuck are you doing?”
He turned his head to glare at me, then went back up the stairs. “I thought you had class tonight.”
I stormed after him, up three flights of stairs and into my apartment, slamming the door shut behind me. He reached behind the TV to disconnect the wires. “That’s not yours. Neither is the couch you’ve stolen… miraculously, on your own.” He’d refused to help me move into the apartment, claiming his bad knee just couldn’t take all those stairs.
After being with Braun for two days, Kevin looked scrawny. Small. Weak. While it wasn’t huge, in order for him to get that sofa down three flights of stairs, he had to be on something. Maybe he had a friend who’d helped him with the couch and then left.
“It’s mine now.”
“The fucking Crock-Pot? You don’t even know how to cook! Are you taking it for your maid?”
“I couldn’t pay the maid. She’s gone.”
Just as I thought. He owed his bookie.
I stood between him and the door, my breath coming hard. I wasn’t fit for sprinting up three flights of stairs. In the heat and humidity, even at nine at night, sweat trickled between my breasts. There was no way he was going to carry my couch back up the stairs, and I wasn’t sure how I could personally stop him. He might be smaller than Braun, but he was bigger than me. He’d never been violent before, but I wasn’t willing to take the risk.
I pulled my cell from my pocket and called the police. I didn’t know what he was on, but surely he was on something. No one was this insane. The police answered, and I ignored Kevin to talk to the operator. “My ex-roommate broke into my apartment and is stealing my things.” I wasn’t going to say he was my ex-boyfriend. That only added salt to the wound that I’d voluntarily let him into my life.
I gave my address, and I had to hope they got here before the place was stripped bare.
He looked up from his task and narrowed his eyes. “They’re not going to believe shit you say. I’m a Barrister. Nothing’s going to stick.”
With his daddy’s name, he was right. Colin Barrister was well-known in politics. In social circles with a few extra zeroes on their paychecks. They made things happen in south Florida. I had to wonder what the hell happened with Kevin.
“This is my stuff,” he continued. “You owe me.”
“I don’t owe you anything, you jerk. You disappeared with my rent. And you stole the money for my grandfather’s meds. You know he has cancer. What kind of person does that?”
Kevin had taken hundreds of dollars from the coffee can I kept in the freezer. He knew I’d saved it for Gramps, but he’d taken every dime and lost it gambling. The moment I’d found the cash gone, that had been the end of our relationship. Game over. I’d suspected he’d been taking cash from my wallet but hadn’t been able to prove it. When I’d confronted him one time, he’d said I was just forgetful and bad with my money. The asshole.
I had no doubt he’d blown through whatever cash he had of his own that Daddy’d given him and was in deep with someone, which was probably why he was back. There were casinos around Miami, but I had no doubt all kinds of illegal games were out there as well.
“We lived together,” he snapped. “What’s yours is mine and all that.”
“This is Florida. It’s not a community property state. What’s mine is mine. Leave the TV alone,” I shouted, waving my arms in the air.
“No.”
God, it seemed I had more chance of talking to the wall than him. “How did you even get in here?”
Now he grinned. “Key.”
I closed my eyes for a second. Of course. He’d given me his key back when I’d tossed him out, but it had been either a random key he’d given me or he’d gotten a copy made. I wasn’t going to think about the fact that he’d had a key to my place for months.
With the couch gone, the place looked bigger.
“Get out, Kevin,” I said, hoping maybe—maybe—he’d just go.
He crossed his arms over his chest. “No. I need this shit, and you’re giving it to me. You owe me.”
Kevin had said that twice now. I tossed my hands in the air. “For what? For you being an asshole? For you stealing money from me?”
“You tossed my shit outside and it rained. Everything was ruined.”
“You stole medicine money I’d saved for an old man who has cancer!”
He didn’t even blink at how much of an asshole move that was and went back to disconnecting my TV. He yanked the plug from the wall and hoisted the TV into his arms.
“Get out of my way.” He took a step toward me, but I refused to retreat.
“No. It’s not yours. The police are coming,” I said again, not sure if he’d even heard me calling 9-1-1. “I don’t know who you owe money to, but that TV isn’t worth much. Leave, Kevin.”
“Get out of my way, bitch.”
Someone knocked. Relief coursed through me at how fast the police had responded. But when I opened the door, it wasn’t law enforcement but Braun. Even better. He could just look at Kevin and scare the hell out of him.
“Hello, Angela.” His voice was gentle and calm, but he looked as serious as usual. “I have some
thing I need to tell you.”
“Who the fuck is that?” Kevin snarled. “Another man, Ang? Who’d want a dried-up slut like you?”
Braun’s eyes narrowed and his jaw clenched. So much so I thought his teeth would crack. A deep rumble came from his chest as he gently moved me out of the way so he could enter, ducking his head.
I was so glad he was here that I almost burst into tears. He was on my side. Mine. And he was big. And brawny. And he was wearing something I’d only ever seen on television, a pair of big, heavy mating cuffs.
Was that what he wanted to talk to me about?
Why was he wearing them? I thought the beasts—Atlans—only put those on after they had claimed a mate. And since he hadn’t claimed me, what was happening?
“Great, you bitch. Already moved on, have you? I knew you were a whore.”
I cringed, the whore comment stinging despite the fact that Kevin was full of shit and had no right to call me anything, least of all a slut or a whore. Rude. Braun snarled and I had to move toward the kitchen to see Kevin around Braun’s body. Kevin’s eyes were as wide as saucers, and his mouth hung open.
“Did you just call this female a derogatory term? Twice?” Braun’s voice was deep. And angry.
Kevin swallowed hard but said nothing.
“Please introduce me, Angela.” While he spoke to me, his gaze was on Kevin.
“This is Kevin.”
“The one you told me about?”
“Yes.”
“The one who stole your money, money meant for a respected and unhealthy elder?”
“Yes.”
“Am I correct in assuming that your couch is the one in the back of a vehicle in the parking lot?”
“Yes.”
Braun’s voice became deeper and deeper with every word.
Oscar perched on the edge of a chair and watched Kevin.
“Stupid fucking cat.” He kicked out and knocked the chair over. Oscar gave an angry hiss but streaked off unharmed.
Braun swept his arm out and used it to move me even more out of the way, placing his body firmly between me and Kevin. I shifted closer to the kitchen.
Kevin still held the TV, now holding it out in front of his body like a shield.
“Who the fuck are you?” Kevin asked, full of false bravado. Any other human guy would have shit his pants by now, only indicating even more clearly that he had to be on some kind of drugs. Or maybe he was just so desperate he was willing to risk getting his ass kicked over the small amount of cash he’d get for my stuff at a pawnshop.
“I am Warlord Braun, and you will put that television down. You will also return the items you have stolen.”
“This shit is mine. She owes me.”
Braun crossed his arms, and a deep rumbling sound came from his chest. I could have sworn he was growing bigger, but that would have been impossible.
No…
Oh shit.
That would be his beast.
Arms loose at his sides, he took one threatening step toward Kevin. Kevin squeaked and retreated but did not put the television down. Instead he backed toward the still-open door, holding the television. “Look, man, I don’t want any trouble. I’m taking what’s mine and I’m leaving.”
“No.” Braun followed Kevin out the door, and I hurried behind him, watching Kevin back toward the open concrete staircase as a police car with sirens blaring and lights flashing pulled into the parking lot directly below us. The walkway was open, as was the staircase, and I saw two officers get out of the car and hurry toward the bottom of the stairs.
Kevin heard them too, twisting his neck around and daring to look away from Braun for just long enough to peek down into the parking lot. Probably to gauge how much time he had left to get away with stealing my stuff. The police had parked on the wrong side of the building, but still, Kevin would have them to deal with in less than a minute.
“Kevin, just leave the television,” I said. “We’ll even help you unload the truck. But the police are here, and you’re not taking everything I own to pay off another stupid gambling debt.”
His eyes grew round as Braun watched him, but he took another step backward, toward the stairs. “This is mine.”
“Don’t be an idiot. Just put it down and walk away.” I leaned around Braun’s wide back to talk to Kevin and couldn’t believe I’d ever seen anything other than the fear driving him. When I first met him, he’d been charming, well dressed, and a practiced flirt. Add that to his family money and he’d been almost irresistible to me at the time. Until I’d found out the truth, that he was empty and desperate and afraid. Everything else was a facade. “Call your father. He can help you. However much it is, or whoever you owe, he can help.”
Kevin was shaking his head. “No. He already said no.”
I nearly gasped with shock. Kevin was one of the most entitled people I’d ever met. One phone call got him anything he wanted. Kevin didn’t face consequences. Ever.
I heard a noise and turned to see the police officers coming up the stairwell.
“Fuck.” Kevin must have heard them too. He turned and tried to make a run for it.
But he was high or drunk or just frantic. He missed the first step and tumbled with a scream. The television slammed into his body with a thump that made me cringe as Kevin flailed on his way down the stairs.
The last thing I heard was a sickening crack before he ended up in a heap on the landing between floors.
With the TV on his chest, he stared up, wide-eyed. Unmoving. Blood quickly began to pool on the concrete beneath his head, and his body was contorted into an unnatural angle.
“Oh my God.” I was shaking as Braun exhaled and pulled me against his chest, blocking my view. “We have to check him.”
“He’s dead. He will not bother you again.”
That wasn’t what I wanted. Well, it was—the not bothering me part. Not the dead part.
I had completely forgotten about the police until a woman cleared her throat. “Ms. Kaur?”
I nodded to the woman. “Yes. I called nine-one-one.”
“Ma’am, no matter what happened here, I have to inform you of your rights. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say may be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney.”
The female officer continued to tell me my rights as I turned from Braun’s embrace to see her partner—who hadn’t come past Kevin’s body on the stairs—leaning down to check his pulse. The officer then tilted Kevin’s head to the side to see the dent at the base of his skull. Blood coated his palms. This was bad. Really bad.
I looked up at Braun, but there was no sign of his beast. Just calm, controlled Braun.
“He’s… he’s dead?” I had no doubt Braun had more experience with death than I ever had. “How do you know for sure?” Maybe I was in shock. Maybe I was a worse nursing student than I thought because I’d asked the crazy question.
He looked at me, and there was no fear in his gaze, no upset. Just acceptance. “My integrations enhance my vision. I can see no electrical impulses traveling within his heart.”
“His heart stopped?” I looked down at Kevin again as the police officer stood, raised a radio he had attached to his shoulder to his lips and said a bunch of numbers which probably meant something to him and—
“Don’t move. Either of you. Hands where I can see them.”
Braun hadn’t been moving to begin with, and he remained still now.
“He’s not the bad guy. He is,” I explained, pointing a shaking finger at Kevin. “He broke into my place while I was at class and was stealing my stuff.”
The two officers might have heard what I said, but they’d never come across anyone of Braun’s size before. They looked a little freaked. One was in his forties, gray hair and mustache. The woman was younger, maybe my age.
“You saw the truck in the parking lot with my couch in it,” I added.
“Is that why you pushed him down the stairs?” the older
officer asked.
I shook my head. Stunned. “What? No. That’s not what happened.”
“He’s the guy from the show, the Atlan,” the female officer said. “The alien.”
“I don’t much care what planet he’s from. Homicide’s on the way. Coroner, too.” The older officer walked up the stairs slowly, hand on his firearm like he was ready to use it. “You two, on your knees. Hands behind your head,” he ordered. “Now!”
Braun did as told.
“Wait!” I got in front of him. “He hasn’t done anything wrong.”
“Ma’am, you, too. On your knees.”
“Me? It’s my apartment.”
“And there’s a dead man on the stairs. On your knees. Now.”
Even with my legs shaking, I knelt beside Braun, my hands up in front of me.
“Angela Kaur of Earth is innocent. There is no reason to be hostile toward the female,” Braun warned.
“We don’t know exactly what happened here.” The older officer spoke.
The female officer was glaring at Braun. “And you’re an alien.”
“Yes, I’m aware I’m not from this planet.”
“So?” I asked. “That doesn’t make him dangerous. Kevin’s the one hyped on drugs and breaking and entering.”
“He’s also dead.”
“It’s all right, Angela.” Braun turned his stoic gaze on me. The way his jaw was clenched and the tendons in his neck taut, I knew he was pissed. And yet he was restrained as usual.
The older officer took a pair of handcuffs from his utility belt and cuffed me behind my back. Braun growled, but I caught his eye and shook my head. “Don’t, Braun. They’re just doing their job.”
“You will not harm the female,” Braun ordered despite the fact that the police were firmly in charge here.
As for Braun, the younger officer tried to put a pair of handcuffs on his wrists. “Shit, the cuffs are too small. What the hell do we do with an alien?”
“Hell if I know. Call the show. They’ll have to have someone meet him at the station so they can figure out what to do.”
“Do not call the Bachelor Beast program organizers. I am no longer associated with the show.”
Maid for the Beast Page 9
