And then they got into her car in the nearly empty parking lot—a trusty little Honda Civic she’d recently paid off. It had one hundred and fifty thousand miles on it with zero bells and whistles, but it started and went every day and had cheap gas mileage, and to Hannah this was all that mattered. And then she thought about her meager possessions in the tiny two-bedroom apartment she shared with a roommate she’d met recently through Craigslist. Not much to miss there. And she didn’t have any pets or family anymore. Grandpa and Grandma had been gone for two years now. She wasn’t invested in a real career yet; she needed to go back to college for some kind of specialization or degree but hadn’t decided what that was going to be. Working at the winery was a great position, but not necessarily her be all end all.
She’d feel terrible knowing that if she left Earth with Heriot the police would probably think the person who’d hurt her friends and murdered that unknown woman on the hilltop had murdered her, too. And then Ron and Daisy and her other friends would all be put through that torment…
But was this reason enough to stay on Earth and give up Heriot?
No.
She’d been insisting all along that she wasn’t leaving Earth. No fucking way. But on the other hand, why stay?
Hannah sighed and nervously tapped on her steering wheel as she pulled out onto the highway. She glanced at the sun setting over the ocean, wondering if it would be so bad if this was the last time she saw that?
Heriot had been open about his intentions all along. To him, this wasn’t just a hookup. She wasn’t his sexual respite while he finished his mission. He cared about her, wanted to marry her and have children together. He said he was in this for the long haul and he wanted her with him. She knew he fully expected her to leave with him on his ship and they’d start their life together.
Which was sweet. Loyal.
But still, she couldn’t help the doubt that nagged at her mind.
Staying here on Earth was a sure deal. Leaving with Heriot was the unknown.
He lived on some planet called R’Etor with a race of people with pointy ears, who were all white-skinned with silver eyes. She would be the only human. If she left with him, she might never see another human again, her whole life.
She glanced over at Heriot and grinned at the sight of his longer-than-long legs bent up to his chest as he sat uncomfortably in the too-small front seat. His eyes were glued to the tablet propped on his knees. He’d been communicating with his brother, who was apparently bringing their ship in close for Heriot to board.
“Turn here,” he ordered.
“Here? Are you sure?”
“Yes. Stop the vehicle right there.”
She did as he asked, confused because they were now off Highway 101 and close to the beach. He’d had her park next to a strip of hotels lined along a seaside cliff in San Simeon. Normally this section of the central coast was quiet since it mainly consisted of one giant nature preserve, two streets of hotels, three restaurants and a mini-mart. But today happened to be the Fourth of July, so there were more people walking to and from the beach than usual.
How was Heriot planning to board some kind of spaceship here? She’d assumed he’d have her turn inland, and they’d end up hiking into the hills in order to meet up with his brother.
“Heriot? How…?”
“Let’s go.” He was out of the car in seconds, slamming the door shut behind him.
Hannah glanced out the window to see his black jacket billowing in the wind. Well, shit. She got out too and followed him as he strode up the dead-end street.
It was dark outside now, the sun having completely set behind the ocean. The roar of the surf hummed in her ears.
Heriot held his silver bag in one hand, glancing down at his tablet in the other. He looked up and turned left onto a dirt path. It cut across shadowy fields of coastal nature preserve. Most of the people milling about on the street were descending wooden steps to the beach down below. Only a few brave souls were entering the path to walk along the dark windswept cliff.
“Where the heck are we going?” she tried to yell to him, but the wind and the roar of waves crashing on rocks drowned out her words.
And why was she following him? Did she want to be with Heriot until the last second in order to give him a tearful goodbye? Or was she there to leave with him?
Hannah trudged behind Heriot, following the dim green glow of his tablet as they hiked along the narrow, rutted path through the rough grassy field. To her right was the cliff and the roar of the Pacific Ocean. Over the rise in front of her she could make out the distant peekaboo of red and blue Fourth of July fireworks.
Heriot stopped. She bumped into his back. “Follow me,” he ordered and took her hand as he turned right, cutting off the path and stepping through the thick grass, going straight to the cliff. And they stood there, on the edge of raw natural beauty. The vast, dark ocean stretching off to infinity in front of them.
There was no one else here. Everyone following the path had quickly walked forward to make it over the rise in time to watch the fireworks. No one was this far back, in the utter dark next to the cliff.
“W…why are we standing here?”
Heriot pointed down, over the edge. “This is where my brother is waiting for us. Our ship is cloaked and hidden down there, invisible to human eyes.”
She leaned forward slightly to look over the sheer cliff, making out the distant outline below of white foam crashing around dark, jagged rocks. “Down there?” she squeaked. “There’s a spaceship hovering on top of the ocean?”
“It is the perfect place to hide the ship. You and I need to get on board and leave. The gate we arrived through is set to deconstruct soon.”
Hannah glanced back up in time to see fireworks exploding in the nighttime sky over Heriot’s shoulder. The far-off boom reverberated in her chest. From this vantage point they could easily make out the multi-colored circles blooming above the distant, sparkling coastline of Cayucos.
Heriot turned. “What is that?” he asked.
“Today is the Fourth of July.” She shrugged. “It’s a celebration.”
“Of what?”
“An American holiday.”
He shook his head. “We need to leave right now.”
Her jaw clenched. “Heriot…”
He slid his tablet in his pocket, stepped forward and pulled her into his arms. Oh hell, he smelled so good, it was hard for her to think clearly when he did this.
“You are my truemate and we are leaving Earth together right now,” he told her.
She lifted her chin. “Baby, I’ve only known you for like, nine hours. Nine. Hours. And you expect me to leave Earth and go live with you on some planet where there aren’t any humans?”
“Yes. R’Etor is much better than Earth.”
She snorted. “How can I decide on such an important decision so quickly?”
“I expect you to decide because you are my mate and being with me is now the most important factor in your life. We are mates, Hannah. I cannot live without you. And I cannot live on your planet because they are primitive and have not made first contact. They would never accept me or our younglings. It would be disastrous. But you can live with me on R’Etor. There are often other species living there. R’Etor know of humans. You would fit in easily. And with this hair”—he picked up one of her curls again and placed it against his nose and inhaled—“you will in fact be a celebrity for this hair. It is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. The R’Etor will be as entranced with you as I am. But they will know you are mine.”
“My job. My planet…”
“R’Etor is your planet now. As my truemate you will automatically be considered a citizen. You can join Herriot & Jadzion.”
“That picture you showed me, of the golden castle in the snow. Is that actually your home, or just somewhere nice on your planet we can visit?”
“It’s my home. You and I will live there with our younglings. It is very large. We will all
be comfortable. And also, my planet is clean. It is a healthier environment for our younglings to be raised in.”
“Younglings?”
He placed a hand over her stomach. “I will plant my seed in your womb and watch your belly grow large with our young.”
She whimpered. Oh hell, he was so good at this, so very good at talking her into leaving. He deserved a medal.
“Do you have family here that are important to you?” he asked.
“I…well, no. Not anymore. I’m actually an orphan now.”
“Then all the more reason to leave. My family will be your family. My brother has messaged me to expect his mate to return with us. Apparently, he has also found his truemate. So, there will be a human in our family for you to speak with.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Oh shoot.” She gave him a rueful smile. “Okay then, you’ve talked me into this. I’m leaving with you, right now.”
“Good,” he said. “Let’s go. We will jump together.”
Holy. Fucking. Shit. “Jump? Jump where?”
He gave her a questioning glance. “I’ve done this maneuver a hundred times. The ship is directly below us. We will jump and drop into the ship.”
“You expect me to jump off this cliff?” She stood there, her heart slamming in her chest. Her breaths still labored from the trek across the field and the anxiety of the decision she just made. The wind whipped her hair around her head.
“I wouldn’t have you do this if it wasn’t safe.”
She stared at him. All that she knew about his planet was what he’d told her. What if she hated it? What if…
He held out his hand. She took it, pushing the doubt away.
“It’s dark and my ship is cloaked, so you can’t see it. You’re going to have to trust me that it’s down there. We will jump together and below us the portal will open, and we’ll automatically be placed in the ship. It will catch us. I’ve done this many times. It is safe.”
“Jesus Christ,” she muttered, scared out of her mind. Her heart thundered in her ears, her breath coming out in short puffs. Tears formed in her eyes and her nose started to sting. Was she really about to jump off a seaside cliff into the dark?
Really?
“I love you,” he said. “Trust me.”
And she jumped.
11
“We’re home!” Heriot shouted.
“Finally!” a male voice yelled back through some kind of fancy video imbedded into the wall. Hannah could see the man replying looked a lot like Heriot, but with a thinner face and no beard. “Strap in,” the other man groused, “we’re outta here.”
Heriot walked over and stowed the silver bag containing T’Antor’s head in some kind of compartment, and then immediately pulled down two seats. The next thing she knew they were seated side by side and he’d clicked them both in with thick, industrial-grade-looking seat belts.
“Who was that?” she asked.
“My brother.”
Hmm. They were really very handsome men. She wondered if these brothers were considered eligible bachelors on R’Etor. Women secretly stalking them, trying to see if they were their truemates. “He looks and sounds a lot like you, but nicer.”
Heriot chuckled.
And then the gravity shifted, her spine and hips shoved back into her seat. Like the sudden pressure of a rollercoaster or a fast-moving elevator.
She gasped, and swallowed hard, her eyes watering.
Heriot grabbed her hand in his and rested them both on his enormous thigh. “The first time’s always the worst,” he remarked.
She clutched his fingers with a death grip, her other hand white-knuckled on the arm rest, imagining a day in the future where she’d be as blasé about being pummeled with gravity and jumping off treacherous seaside cliffs as Heriot was. And suddenly as it began, it was over. She let out a huge sigh of relief when the pressure lifted from her chest, like ropes being loosened.
Heriot unclicked, stood up, and yelled out, “Jadzion. Status?”
“We’re out the other side and back in our system. Looks good. Course is set for R’Etor.”
Hannah looked around, her eyes searching for the location of the video or intercom or whatever the brothers were talking through, but she couldn’t find it. Damn, this ship was fancy!
“I’m taking my mate to use the cleansing unit,” Heriot said. He leaned down and unclicked her belt with blinding efficiency, helping her to stand on her suddenly shaky legs. “And then we are staying in my room, alone, for the rest of the trip,” he announced.
“Of course, you are,” his brother laughed. “Gotta wash that filthy planet out of your hair. We’ll meet up again later and introduce our mates prior to arrival in R’Etor. I transferred the flight path and ETA to you. And Heriot…Mom is going to love this.”
Hannah noticed a rare smile hover at the edges of Heriot’s mouth as he thought about his mother.
“Yes,” he answered. He met her gaze with sparkling silver eyes. “She is going to love this.”
“Don’t touch anything,” Heriot ordered as the door to his room slid shut behind them. He started pulling off weapons strapped to him and hidden in his jacket. Her eyes widened at the pile that was growing on the shelves he had built into the wall, she assumed, for this purpose. One thing after another, heavily clanging as he put them away. It took him a while to take all his weapons off.
“I cannot believe you were walking around with all that.”
He grinned. “I come prepared.” Then he began stripping out of his clothes. He glanced over at her. “Take your clothing off, too.”
Both of them naked? This sounded like a terrific idea. She took off her jacket and dropped it to the floor.
Heriot sucked in a sharp breath. “Our clothing is not being washed, it’s going into the incinerator.”
“Oh, sorry.”
“Continue, I will fix this.”
Heriot barely gave her growing nakedness a second glance, he was so intent on his task. He shook out a shiny foil-looking bag, scooped her jacket off the floor and stuffed his clothes and hers into it. Then he tied it up and slid the door to his room open, threw the bag out into the hallway and closed the door again.
“Nuking those Earth germs from orbit, just to be sure, aren’t you?” she laughed.
He crooked an eyebrow at her.
She shrugged.
Then he pulled her into his “cleansing unit” and began scrubbing her everywhere, his big body sagging with relief. Her new husband was obviously a germaphobe.
But none of this bothered her because all she could think of were those three words he’d said just before she’d jumped off the cliff. I love you. The words she hadn’t said back in reply but were stuck right there in her throat.
She loved him, so much it hurt.
She bit her lip. “Heriot,” she whispered, wanting to make sure this spectacular male knew what he was getting himself into. If he was a clean freak, he needed to know she was the opposite.
“Hmm?” he answered, a determined look on his face as he washed her stomach.
“Baby, I’m just trying to warn you I’m a bit of a slob. I’m well known for dropping my dirty clothes on the floor, not bothering to fold the clean ones and put them away, just leaving them in a crumpled pile I dig out of later. And, um, I allow clutter to pile up. I never dust. And I rarely do any dishes and instead eat take-out on disposable plates…”
A shiver of disgust shook his frame. “Stop. Stop,” he said, looking pained. His giant hands reached up to cup her face. “I’ll teach you my routines.”
She laughed and pulled his huge, wet body in for a tight hug. “And I’ll teach you to loosen up a bit. Sometimes germs are good for you. You gain an immunity to them when you let them in.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw. “You sound like my brother.”
She smiled. “Good.”
Hannah glanced up at his face. His pinkened eyes and flushed skin. She took in his
naked form for the first time, from head to toe, memorizing the shape of his shoulders, his biceps. His incredibly muscled chest. The enormous red dick that was pointing up at his stomach. He was so very, very masculine. The top of her head barely reached his chin. She studied the finest male she’d ever seen. With clothing or without.
“You’re so sexy,” she sighed.
“You accepted me the moment you met me,” he noted.
It was true. She so, so had.
“Baby, you’re turning red again,” she said, stating the obvious. “It must hurt…” This would be the last time she’d see him this way, red and in pain. He would come inside of her, and as his truemate, she would cure his pigment transformation. She loved this idea, that she was the one for him.
He nodded absently and studied her nakedness with an equal amount of wonder, his eyes darting up and down. “The natural flush of your skin, your hair—it is glorious.” He cupped her breasts in his hands and pressed them together, playing with them. Then he bent down and sucked a pink nipple into his mouth, tugging hard.
“Oh,” she gasped, tangling her fingers tight in his hair. He ministered to her breasts, one nipple and then the other, until she thought she might go insane from all the pleasure.
He lifted his head. “Are you ready for me?”
“I’ve been ready all day.”
He leaned into her, bracing her back against the wall. He lifted her leg and fingered her cunt. She was so dripping wet they could both hear the sound his fingers made in her folds. His fingers slicked against her clit and she bucked in his arms.
“Female, you are ready for my hard cock. I need you. Now.”
“Don’t make me wait,” she hissed.
He turned the cleansing unit off, scooped her wet form up into his brawny arms and carried her to his bed. She giggled as he set her down, loving the fact that he’d carried her, which gave the moment that hint of romance she’d always longed for. It was about to happen, her first time with her husband. The first time for both of them.
“Open your legs.”
Her pulse sped up. God, she loved this bossy man.
Tell me what to do. Order me around.
The Alien Assassin’s Stolen Bride Page 9