HeroRising

by Anna Alexander

  “Ari, why don’t you go on home?” Amaryllis smiled and touched the girl on her arm. “You’ve done so well this week and I thank you, but I also don’t expect you to devote all your time to the restaurant. Go rest and I will see you tomorrow. Take your man with you. Make sure to see to all of his needs.” She winked and walked into the kitchen after ordering a busboy to attend to the ruffled party.

  It took a herculean effort to lift his gaze to hers. “Ari. I apologize if I embarrassed you in any way.”

  She shook her head. “Let’s go,” she said in a quiet voice that to him was as powerful as a shout.

  Neither said another word as he followed her while she retrieved her purse and coat, then led him to her vehicle. The silence stretched during the drive home. A pressure that expanded and pressed on his body, much like being submerged deep underwater. His empathetic powers should have made reading her emotions an effortless endeavor, but all he sensed was a deep sense of concentration. She was thinking hard about something, but damn if he could tell what it was as he watched her from the corner of his eye.

  With each passing second he pressed his lips tighter together, refusing to ask what was on her mind. If her thoughts were positive, then he didn’t want to ruin it by saying something stupid. If they were negative, he didn’t want to know.

  They arrived at the apartment building and Ari used her keycard to gain entrance into the garage before coming to a stop near the elevator. The closing slams of their car doors as they exited echoed across the floor in a wave that mimicked the pounding of his hearts.

  Inside the elevator she pressed the button for his floor and the one for hers, and his stomach dropped. Was she really not going to say anything? Even with his limited knowledge of human women, he realized this to be an anomaly. Gods, how badly had he fucked up?

  “Look, Bale,” she finally said and he practically wilted with relief she had spoken. “I’m not quite sure what to say right now. Part of me is glad that you put that little shit in his place, but you can’t go around manhandling men like that. What if he called the cops or pulled a gun on you?”

  “As if he could overtake me,” he scoffed before thinking.

  “Bale!” She rounded on him.

  “I am sorry.”

  “My point is, I work in an industry where there are creepy people. It comes with the territory and you have to build a thick skin. If I needed backup, I would have asked for it. Don’t put yourself on the line like that for me.”

  “I am going to anyway.”

  “Well stop it.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Well you’re gonna have to.”

  “I will not!” He stalked forward, inching her backward until the wall stopped her progress. “I cannot stop protecting you.”

  Her eyes widened, the yellow flecks in the iris sparked as a shudder shook her body, yet he sensed no fear of him as she whispered, “Why?”

  “Because.” He paused to swallow. “Because…”

  A thousand reasons why he should follow her wishes engaged in a battle with the thousand why he refused to yield. There was no place in his world for a female, even one as fiery and passionate as Ari. But the thought of walking away made his stomach turn inside out with the familiar ache of regret. There was so much in his life he wished he had done differently. Was this moment to become another?

  “Why, Bale?” Ari whispered again.

  “Because I care about you. Your well-being means everything to me.”

  “Can’t you show it in a different way?”

  He shook his head. “This is the only way I know how.”

  No. That wasn’t entirely true.

  He raised his hand and placed his palm against her cheek. She stilled beneath his touch as his thumb brushed over her lips. Words were never his strength, so he’d just have to communicate without them.

  With the decision made, he struck. His lips covered hers, stealing her breath as she gasped at his sudden movement. With a turn of his head he pressed deeper, sweeping his tongue into the well of her mouth. Her groan of pleasure vibrated down his torso to his tightening cock. At the touch of her little hand against his chest, her fingers digging into his pecs, he lost his mind.

  Sliding his palm around to cup the nape of her neck, he swept his other hand over her backside to lift her into the cradle of his pelvis. In his arms she became a live wire, twisting and grinding her soft curves into his hard planes as if she wanted to crawl under his skin.

  She tasted so good. Sweet and peppery, like a fine liquor that shot straight to both heads. Though her lips looked petal soft, the strength with which she kissed him back was so fierce, for the first time since he landed on Earth he felt weak.

  With a strangled cry, she latched on to his shoulders and climbed up his body as if he were a tree. Her skirt rose over her ass as she wrapped her legs around his waist. Jesu, she tested his control as the hot press of her sex against his stomach tempted his inner animal to claim what was his. Somehow he found the strength to resist and wrapped his hands around the handrail of the elevator, the metal bending in his grip as if it were made out of aluminum cans.

  “Woo-hoo!”

  “Holy shit, man. They’re fucking!”

  They wrenched away from each other with startled gasps. The elevator door was held open on the parking level for The Cavern. A half-dozen club goers watched them, some with smirks, some with wide eyes and others giving them a round of applause.

  One man turned to his friend. “See, I told you this place was wild. Don’t stop, dude. You’re doing great.”

  Bale roared out a battle cry and pressed the button for her floor. As the doors slid shut, the expressions on their faces fell, and he thought he might have detected a hint of urine as one boy began to cry.

  Ari giggled as she caught her breath. “Well, that was interesting.”

  Fuck. What in the seven hells was he doing?

  Not more than thirty minutes prior he was ready to draw blood because a man dared to disrespect her, and here he was doing far worse as he rutted against her like a beast. In public of all places. He should be hanged for such crimes.

  “I am deeply sorry, Ari.” He set her on her feet and did his best to smooth out the wrinkles in her skirt. Damn, feeling her curves against his palm was not helping his control. He pulled away as far as the car allowed. “I did not mean to hurt you, or compromise you in any way.”

  “You didn’t.” She tilted her head and regarded him with watchful eyes. A smile flirted on her kiss-stung lips and he felt her amusement tickle his skin like tiny bubbles. “I liked it.”

  “I was too rough.”

  “That’s what I liked about it.” She took a step forward just as the elevator doors opened.

  Ah, room to escape.

  He dashed into the hall and drew up short. Lust, need and self-recrimination tore him in different directions. The result made his feet stay planted as if his body knew where it wanted to be.

  What was he running from? Happiness? The past? Guilt?

  Yes. Yes and yes.

  He ran a shaky hand over his face. “Ah, Ari, you are driving me to madness.”

  Delight touched her smile as she stalked closer. “How so?”

  “You make me forget.”

  “Is that bad?”

  To forget was liberating and terrifying all at once. Ari made him forget that he was dead inside. She reminded him what it was to be a man with needs and wants.

  But he wasn’t a man. He was something else altogether. A creature who was a hundred times stronger than she. A creature who had a past. A history. A wife.

  A wife.

  Bale closed his eyes on a ragged breath and tried not to think of the delicate, dark-haired female who had agreed to be his wife. It wasn’t Natalia’s fault she died, just as it wasn’t Ari’s fault she had come into his life second. The two women were different in so many ways, yet he cared for both as one would a lover, a confidante, someone to share his innermost self with. Yet his
insecurity had prevented him from letting Natalia see who he truly was, and here was another woman silently asking to be let in.

  If he joined with Ari, she would steal into his soul, for Ari was not an instrument of pleasure. Even he with his stunted emotional capacity understood that. And while Natalia might have been content with only the parts of himself he allowed her to share, Ari was going to demand more. She already was. Could he give her what she needed?

  “I don’t want to hurt you.” He fingered a lock of her hair. Somehow, some way, he’d find a way to fuck this up.

  She took his hand, kissing his knuckles. “Why do I think you couldn’t, even if you wanted to?”

  “I’m starting to question your sanity. You should be running as far away from me as possible,” he said, helpless to resist brushing his lips across her forehead.

  “I know.” She laughed. “I shouldn’t be thinking about men at this time of my life. But I do. I think about you. All the time. I want you, Bale.” She pressed her belly against his erection. “I need you.”

  There were the words. Combined with her desire pooling in his loins and the fire building between them, he felt his resolve crumble. Could he be what Ari needed? Dare he take the risk?

  Amaryllis had once told him that he had been given the gifts of today and the possibility of tomorrow. Natalia was never coming back. Ari was here. Now. His present and potentially his tomorrow. If he dared.

  “Damn you, woman.” He took her upturned mouth and ravaged her lips again until the sound of the elevator bought him two seconds of sanity. “Your place. Now. Before I take you right here.”

  The excited flare in her eyes toyed with his control until she gasped. “Oh, wait. I don’t have any supplies. I don’t suppose you do?” There was a hopeful yet jealous color in her query.

  “Supplies?” What did that mean? Was there some unusual ritual or requirement for sex here on Earth? From what he’d seen from his employers, it looked very similar to intercourse on Skandavia.

  “You know. Condoms. Until my insurance kicks in, I can’t get on birth control, and condoms weren’t on my shopping list this week.”

  Ah. Yes. She must be speaking of the rubber-looking balloons he’d seen down at the club.

  Stupid man. His hearts beat an irregular tempo as the implication of just how mixed-up his thoughts were sank in. Thank the Gods one of them had been thinking. A woman in his life now was a complication of its own. To add a child to that mix? A nightmare of epic proportion.

  “Go to your home and I’ll go retrieve some. I won’t be but a minute.”

  “Okay.” Her flirty smile and goodbye kiss almost made him say fuck it all, but he remained strong and raced down the stairs the second she turned her back to go to her apartment.

  The word condom was a constant litany in his mind as he brushed past the doorman and strode down the darkened hall toward the playrooms. Without bothering to knock, he burst into the first doorway, startling the occupants inside.

  “What the fuck?” a petite woman he recognized as Mistress Jasmina shouted with her hand raised mid-swing. At her feet a man kneeled with his bare ass raised to the sky. The globes of his cheeks were pink from where she had been striking him with the paddle in her hand.

  “Condoms. Now,” Bale growled.

  “Seriously? A knock would have been polite. As you can see, I’m working here.” She tossed her dark hair over her shoulder and rested her hand at her hip. Her nails tapped a rhythm against her stiff corset as she raised her brow in expectation.

  “What?” he bit out.

  She looked pointedly at the door.

  Grrrr. “Fine.” He knocked on the wood. “Condom.”

  “Please.”

  “Woman.”

  “Then leave.”

  “Fine!” Damn Dominatrix. “Please, Mistress Jasmina. I need condoms.”

  “Was that so difficult?” She sashayed to a chest of drawers, pulling one open to reveal a rainbow of thin packets. Her gaze alighted on the erection threatening the fabric of his jeans and she smirked. Handing him a couple oversized packets, she said, “Looks like you’re an extra large. Lucky girl.”

  He didn’t bother with a thank-you and left the woman to continue with her work, cursing the tiny wench for wasting precious seconds he could have been in Ari’s arms.

  Outside Ari’s apartment he raised his fist to pound on the wood, then pulled back at the last second. Judging by the way his muscles twitched, he was going to tear her apart. He had to get his shit together or leave her be.

  As if he were out in the field, preparing for battle, he focused on slowing his breathing and stemming the effects of the adrenaline overstimulating his senses. Very gently he raised his fist and knocked, but even with the conscious effort to curb his strength, the walls rattled under the demand of his knuckles against the oak.

  Ari opened the door, all smiles and softness. “That was fast. I barely had time to take my shoes off.”

  With one deliberate step, then another, he entered her home, closing the door behind them until they were the only people who existed on the planet.

  His voice rumbled like a cement mixer. “Take off your dress. I don’t want to tear it.”

  A siren’s smile flirted with her lips and her eyes sparkled like gemstones as she slowly reached for the tab under her arm and dragged the zipper down catch by catch. Without dropping her gaze, she slipped the garment off her shoulders with a little shimmy and let it pool at her tiny feet.

  Jesu. He fell back against the door. Not in his most illicit fantasies did he imagine a sight as sinful as Ari dressed in nothing but scraps of white lace cupping her curves. So sexy, so alluring…

  And so Gods-damned human.

  He beat the back of his head against the door and closed his eyes. How in the hell was he going to keep from harming her?

  “Bale, what’s wrong?”

  He opened his eyes to see her earlier confidence had vanished. Her hands fluttered across her chest as if to shield the sight of her cleavage.

  “Don’t, Ari.” He raised his hand. It wasn’t her fault he was fucked in the head. “You’ve done nothing wrong. You are so beautiful, and I am so not. I’m afraid I will crush you.”

  “And I’m afraid I’m going to faint right here unless you touch me.”

  Didn’t he know it. Her arousal reached out with an invisible hand and grabbed him by the base of his cock and twisted in agonizing delight.

  Man up, brotkja. Take what is yours.

  He clenched his teeth and sucked a breath in through his nose. He could do this. He had to do this. He’d die if he didn’t.

  Resolve strengthened his spine as he stalked toward her. Control was all in his mind. He’d have to remind himself that he was fully capable of restraining his depraved hungers as he had in the past. To touch her, taste her, even with the tightest leash on his control, would be well worth the effort to be gentle.

  “Take off the lace,” he ordered. He’d do it himself, but he hadn’t a clue as to how to work the complicated-looking contraption binding her breasts.

  Her hand trembled as she reached for the left strap. “I want to see you naked too.”

  And reveal his scarred body? No. “That will take too long.”

  The bra hit the floor, followed quickly by her panties. “I can wait.”

  But he couldn’t. The site of her rosy nipples and the pink flush of arousal painting her creamy flesh made him want to fall to his knees and bury his face against the soft pillow of her belly.

  “Ariel. You’re beautiful,” he rasped.

  The pure joy in her smile made his throat tighten. “Take off your clothes. Please.”

  As a concession, he pulled off his boots and jacket and sweatshirt then removed his belt before sweeping her up in his arms. He drank from her lips as he strode into the bedroom and sat upon the mattress, settling her across his lap. Without the barrier of her clothing, her wet heat burned through the denim stretched across his erection and the ti
ps of her breasts prodded his chest in teasing glances. Under his palms the muscles of her back flexed as he smoothed his hands up and down. Curling his fingers around the fleshiest part of her ass, his fingertips discovered the moisture seeping readily from her slit.

  “Bale, please.” She panted into his mouth. “I need you.”

  She was wet for him. Ready for him. Aching.

  For him.

  Next time… Next time he’d spend hours learning her body, but his need was just as great. Reaching into his pocket with one hand, he retrieved the crinkly packets while wrestling with his zipper with the other. Ari trailed kisses down the column of his neck, teasing the beast within him. He ripped the pouch open with his teeth and promptly sputtered as the foul taste touched his tongue.

  Ari laughed. “You’re supposed to use your fingers, silly.”

  Gods, that was horrible. He licked along her shoulder to replace the unpleasantness, then did it again because he loved the sigh she made when he did so.

  Behind her back he withdrew the rubber disk from its package and eyed the foreign object over her shoulder. How the hell did this work?

  “Let me.” Thank the Gods Ari interrupted his confusion by taking the condom from his hand with a sultry smile and looked at his lap. Her smile fell and her eyes boggled. “Oh my God.”

  “What?” He looked as well. Nothing unusual, just his turgid, pulsating cock pointing to the sky.

  She began to giggle and slapped her hand over her mouth. “Sorry. Sorry.” She giggled again. “I just…never… Oh my God.”

  “Ari,” he grated out in a strangled moan as she wrapped her hand around his length and gave him a firm squeeze.

  “I’m sorry.” She stared transfixed as she rubbed up and down the shaft. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.”

  His hips bucked. “Woman,” he growled.

  “You’re right.” She jerked up and rolled the balloon down his shaft with a deft hand. “Screw foreplay.”

  Fore what? The thought was obliterated as Ari pushed him back and straddled his hips. They both gasped as she notched the crown at her opening and began a slow descent.

  Sweet heaven. She was tight. And hot. And glorious with her red hair flowing over her shoulders and her breasts shimmying ever so slightly as she worked to impale herself on his thick pole.