Ajax (Olympia Alien Mail Order Brides Book 3)

by K. Cantrell

  Yeah, sure, that’s the reason. The worst part is that he does truly believe in his madness. “I wouldn’t call it eager. But I did want to tell you that you don’t have to worry about my husband any longer. He’s going back where he came from and we’re getting a divorce. So forget about him.”

  “Oh, I don’t think so,” he says with a cocky head shake. “He touched you and therefore, he’s a problem. You’re mine.”

  My throat closes. “Leave him alone.”

  “If you’re getting a divorce, what do you care?” Malcolm shrugs. “You should be the one not worrying about him. Is there more here that you’re not telling me?”

  I curse. How could I have forgotten how good Malcolm is at reading me, at figuring out how to push my buttons in order to further his end goal? God, I just want this nightmare to end. I sent Ajax away for his own protection and that’s slowly sliding away. “I mean it, Malcolm. You’re getting what you want. I’m not with him anymore. Focus on me.”

  That’s when I get the first wave of unease slithering down my spine. He slides a once-over down the length of my body and sidles closer.

  “Oh, I am.”

  He’s so close I can smell his invasive cologne. We’re pretty isolated and a little hidden by the trees growing up near the water. He wouldn’t really try to hurt me in what’s essentially a public place, would he?

  He reaches out and fingers a lock of my hair.

  My hand flies up automatically to knock him away. “Back off. We’re just talking.”

  That was a mistake. His mouth twists up and he rears back, then cuffs me hard across the cheek.

  My vision blurs in pain, but I still register a flurry of movement and Malcolm flies off of the ground.

  Ajax.

  My darling’s face is twisted into an enraged mask as he carries Malcolm over his head toward the water. Malcolm struggles, spewing half sentences of disbelief and making empty threats. Holy crap.

  I can only watch in abject fascination as Ajax doesn’t even pause at the shore line. He wades in and tosses Malcolm at least fifteen yards into the West Bay. The cretin sinks like a stone, flailing around as he tries to tread water and fails. Ajax crosses his arms and stands like a conquering warlord in the shallows of the West Bay, daring anyone to come between him and me.

  I might be swooning.

  But not so much that I can’t get my legs to move. I come up behind Ajax, more than happy to let him act as a shield against the drenched man struggling to stay above the surface while he swims to shore.

  “Um, what are you doing here?” I murmur at my husband’s broad shoulders and finger my cheek. It’s stinging a lot but not as much as my eyes.

  Ajax is here. My heart swells and tumbles over as my husband’s clean scent filters through my senses.

  “Follow Brooklyn. Keep you safe.”

  Oh, man. Even after I dumped him. He’s the worst/best white knight I’ve ever heard of. “You’re supposed to be on your way back to Switzerland.”

  From this vantage point, I can see half of his face as it quirks up. “Not go. Cancel Charmaine.”

  “You…what? How did you cancel Charmaine?” The better question is why. But I think I already know the answer. He’s smarter than I gave him credit for and realized that something was going on besides a change of heart on the part of his wife.

  At that, he grins. “Push buttons phone.”

  Apparently he’s learned to use my phone, which either means I left it unlocked or he’s memorized my code. Either way, I can’t be sorry he followed me, or that he didn’t go back to Switzerland like he was supposed to, especially given that Malcolm wouldn’t have let Ajax fade into the background of this situation after all.

  I almost ruined the best thing that ever happened to me because I was too messed up to think clearly. Thank God one of us is.

  “What’s your plan now?” I ask, my own lips curving up into a relieved smile. “Are we just going to stand here and wait for him to drag himself from the water?”

  “Yes,” Ajax says matter of fact. “Break all bones.”

  My heart flutters despite the underlying violence in the statement. He would stand here until sunset if need be in order to make his point with Malcolm. I’m not sure it’s necessary. But I’m willing to find out. I cross my own arms.

  Eventually, Malcolm rolls onto the shore, breathing heavily. He’s missing his custom made sports coat and his shoes, and I sense those are not the only things he’s lost in the bay. Most of his bravado and all of his swagger is also glaringly absent.

  “You’ve screwed with the wrong person,” Malcolm says with a sneer that loses a good bit of effectiveness due to the amount of water from the West Bay streaming down his face. He yelps as Ajax strides toward him.

  Without a word, my husband’s hand closes around Malcolm’s upper arm and drags the man to his feet. Snap! Ajax has cracked something beneath my ex’s skin. I flinch as Malcolm cries out.

  “What the—” Malcolm wisely closes his mouth as he catches sight of Ajax’s furious expression. Pain etches deep lines around his mouth and I manage to feel a little sorry for him. When that happened to me, I had a magic fixer-upper alien in the vicinity and Malcolm does not.

  “Leave Brooklyn alone,” Ajax rumbles and tosses Malcolm to the ground. “No more.”

  Thank God those were completely coherent statements. Easy to follow. No explanation needed. Malcolm scowls.

  “Do you know who I am?” Malcolm shouts.

  “Yes.” Ajax doesn’t blink, staring down the filth that stands almost a head shorter than him. “Hurt Brooklyn, hurt you. Leave now.”

  Malcolm gapes like a fish out of water, which technically he is. No one threatens him and gets away with it. Except my gorgeous husband, apparently, because Malcolm suddenly slithers away, holding his arm. I’m guessing he thought better of what else Ajax might be capable of.

  We both watch him leave and when I’m sure he’s gone, I lever Ajax’s jaw between my palms and kiss him thoroughly.

  He doesn’t sweep me into his embrace like I wish he would, but the kiss heats up none the less. But then he pulls back, a line between his brows as he stares down at me.

  “Cancel Charmaine. No divorce.”

  I nod. “I will. I’m sorry. I thought I was doing the right thing. I was trying to protect you.”

  I expect him to laugh but he doesn’t. Instead he leans down and picks up the kiss where it left off—gathering steam. This time he lays his fingertips against my neck as gently as possible. My skin absorbs his touch, craving more. I don’t get it but that’s okay. One step at a time.

  I slowly begin to forget the name Malcolm Roberts as Wednesday flows into Thursday. Ajax and I are still a little tense around each other. My fault. I keep hearing the snap of bone each time he touches me and I can’t make it go away. It didn’t bother me in the moment, but it does now and that’s no one’s fault but mine.

  I’m damaged and probably unbalanced besides.

  Okay, I know Ajax will never hurt me, not on purpose anyway. But seeing my abusive ex brought back a lot of painful memories, not the least of which is the fact that I’m half the equation. No, I do not take responsibility for Malcolm’s actions. But I did excuse a lot of early signs. I did give in to fear over and over again before I finally found the courage to leave him.

  I do not want to fall back into the same vulnerabilities. Neither do I know how to move forward with Ajax when it would be smart to contact Charmaine and end this whole thing. Then I never have to worry about whether I’m making a poor judgement call again. Besides, I probably don’t need a bodyguard anymore. This is a great time to part ways and be done with this madness.

  Except…I’m in love with him, and if that means the same thing in his culture as it does in mine, he feels the same. How fair is it—to either of us—to give that up?

  On the one month anniversary of our green card marriage, Ajax insists on cooking me dinner. It takes him two hours but he’s so cute doing it
that I don’t complain. The steak is burned to a crisp on the outside and raw on the inside and the mashed potatoes have lumps. He’s so proud as he serves that I smile and eat every bite.

  “Brooklyn happy?” he asks as he clears the plates.

  “I am,” I say and mean it.

  Yeah, I wish we could have more normal interaction, like the way Ares and Clementine are. I long to sit on the couch and just hold hands. Sometimes we can for very brief periods, but he always pulls away before he loses the ability to control the amount of pressure. Which I appreciate even as I curse the necessity.

  After dinner, Ajax leads me to the bedroom and I sense he’s in a randy mood well before he turns to me, lust heavy in his gaze. “Surprise Brooklyn.”

  “Oh?” This piques my interest because he rarely surprises me. “Did you get me something?”

  He nods. “Learn pleasure.”

  I have to laugh at that. “Everything you do is pleasurable.”

  But he’s not satisfied with resting on his laurels and grabs two great handfuls of my dress, baring me instantly as the fabric rends in two, then falls to the floor. Shameless must be my middle name because it gets me wet in a flash of dense heat.

  “Well that was definitely a surprise,” I say, my voice low and breathless.

  He’s not done. He situates me on the bed and kneels between my legs to draw off my panties without even popping a seam. Sometimes I think he can control his strength better than he lets on and uses the potential of losing control as an excuse to do whatever he pleases.

  Right now, it pleases him to lay me back and drag his tongue up my thigh. I gasp because he’s never done anything like this before. Sure we’ve had a lot of sex but he’s almost always tied up. This is new. A little dangerous. And one hundred percent exciting.

  When he hits my center, he takes a long slow lick right in the heart where I’m slick and achy. Oh, God that feels amazing. His tongue is hard and stiff and so very talented. He has enough power behind it to get me good and revved up instantly.

  That’s when he dives in with gusto and I learn what he means by “pleasure.” It spirals through me relentlessly the harder he licks and yes, his tongue is the strongest muscle in his body. It feels like he’s not holding back in the slightest and in seconds, I’m climbing the ceiling as I seek release. He pushes his tongue deeper, rumbling my name simultaneously and that’s when I shatter with a cry.

  Ajax kisses my thigh and climbs up by body, kissing as he goes until he claims my mouth, treating me to a taste of myself as he plunders my lips thoroughly. Finally he rolls to the side, his torso heaving and I have just enough wits about me to note that his hands are clenched by his side so tightly that his knuckles are white.

  He’s nearly crushing his own bones with the effort to hold back. My heart skips about forty-seven beats as I reach out to sooth the white places. “You can let go now. Let me do the rest.”

  “No.” He punctuates that with a head shake. “Too much. Wait.”

  I nod because of course I can wait. The surprise orgasm courtesy of his tongue cost him. I can see the pain etched in his gaze and that’s pretty much my undoing. “I love you. I’m sorry I messed up by calling Charmaine. I won’t do that again.”

  And that’s as good as a sworn promise in my mind. I’m in this for the long haul. For better or worse.

  His eyelids shutter a fraction. “Love also.”

  Okay, I lied. I can’t wait. I snuggle into his body and spread my hand over his heart. He doesn’t embrace me in kind, but it’s okay. He’s doing what makes sense to him in order to keep me safe.

  The thing is that I have learned that safety is an illusion. You can never insulate yourself 100%. All you can do is face your fear. Ajax has enabled me to practice being brave and that’s better than keeping me safe.

  There’s no man on Earth I’d rather be with. As long as he’s on board with spending a lot of time learning new ways to be together without hurting each other—emotionally or physically—that’s the best recipe for marriage I can think of.

  Epilogue

  On the morning my lawyer calls me to inform me Malcolm has been arrested for violating the restraining order, I finally organize a get-together at my house for my and Ajax’s friends. Penelope and Eros arrive first, followed by Clem and Ares. My apartment is scarcely big enough for three ginormous Torvians but we make it work.

  That’s what Ajax and I have been doing too, one day at a time. It’s not the marriage I’d envisioned—it’s better. We’re in love and my husband has not exhausted his creativity yet when it comes to figuring out ways we can be intimate without any issues.

  Penelope eases down onto the couch, her pregnancy advanced enough that she’s experiencing all the joys of swelling ankles and a changing center of gravity. I eye her curiously.

  “There’s nothing weird about carrying an alien baby?” I ask her.

  She laughs. “Since I have nothing to compare it to, I’d say it’s no weirder than being married to one.”

  Eros grins. “Not a baby.”

  Rolling her eyes, Penelope happily lets him wedge in next to her on the couch cushion. He strokes her stomach, his love for both his wife and unborn baby evident in his expression of pure adoration.

  “Only because I trained you how to function like an adult instead of a toddler. He ate ice cream for breakfast when I first got him,” she says to me in an aside.

  Clementine points at Ares with a Dorito. “That’s why I ordered mine already acclimated. We jumped straight to the good stuff.”

  Ares pauses the rumbly conversation he’s having with my sweetheart husband and murmurs something in Clem’s ear that puts an edge in her smile. It won’t surprise me if Ares and Clem leave early.

  That’s fine by me. Once everyone is gone, I might open up a conversation with Ajax about his feelings toward alien babies. The whole idea scares the mess out of me. I mean, a human baby is frightening enough. What if a baby conceived with a genetically modified alien turns out to be completely screwed up?

  But that hasn’t stopped Penelope. If she can be brave, maybe I can too.

  Clementine clears her throat. “Ares and I have something we’d like to talk to you about. We’re interesting in opening our own security company but we need some help. Two more Torvians on our roster would round things out nicely. You guys know anyone in the market for a partnership?”

  With the smile I have grown to believe I cannot live without, Ajax raises his hand. He’s so cute. Eros quickly follows suit and Penelope laughs.

  “You’re going to break Ricky’s heart if you and Ares both leave your security jobs at his dealership,” she says, referring to her brother-in-law, who employs both of the Torvians in question. “But I’m supportive one-hundred percent.”

  “Me too,” I add sincerely. “It sounds great. If you need someone to do the accounting, I’ve taken a couple of classes.”

  “I run a small business,” Penelope reminds us. “So I can give you some advice on how to file paperwork to get started and that kind of thing.”

  “That would be great,” Clem gushes and the conversation veers off into an hour long discussion about some high-level logistics.

  Instantly, I have a new business partnership with my husband and friends to look forward to. I’m living my life, no holds barred. If that’s not the definition of bravery, I don’t know what is. That’s the only way I know of to fulfill all your dreams, even the new ones I didn’t know I had until I opened my heart to the unexpected.

  Did you miss the first two books in the Olympia Alien Mail Order Brides? Read Eros and Ares today!

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  Visit me online at http://katcantrell.com

  Don't miss these other sexy aliens!

  Penelope Boswell needs a fake boyfriend to save her from her meddling family. But when the Intergalactic Dating Agency matches her with a sexy alien willing to play pretend in exchange for her help assimila
ting to Earth culture, she gets way more than she bargained for: Eros is seductive, pushy and has no intention of faking anything, least of all their relationship…

  Don’t miss Penelope’s story. Check out Eros now!

  Clementine Daily has struck out so many times in the dating game that she’s had to move on to another species. When the Intergalactic Dating Agency matches her to a Torvian who needs a marriage of convenience to stay on Earth, she’s happy to help—who wouldn’t love a sexy alien as a reward? Except her new husband is scarred by secrets from the past and wants nothing to do with love or romance, and Clem's seduction strategy suddenly needs a whole new game plan.

  Don’t miss Clementine’s story. Check out Ares now!

  About K. Cantrell

  USA Today Bestselling Author Kat Cantrell (writing Science Fiction Romance as K. Cantrell) read her first Harlequin novel in third grade and has been scribbling in notebooks since she learned to spell. What else would she write but romance? When she’s not writing about characters on the journey to happily ever after, she can be found at a soccer game, watching Friends or dancing with her kids to Duran Duran and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Kat, her husband and their two boys live in North Texas.

  Follow Kat on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

  More from Intergalactic Dating Agency

  Olympia Alien Mail Order Brides:

  Eros

  Ares

  Ajax

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