Panic over. She slumped against a chain-link fence to catch her breath. Okay, okay, to scold her fertile imagination and wildly thudding heart into submission.
Chalcey was confident she could hold her own against most people. She wouldn’t have walked home alone, otherwise. She was no too-stupid-to-live character in a horror movie—no way. She was taller than average, and years of dancing had given her a few more muscles than the average girl, too. Plus all the dancing meant she was ultra-fit, so she could run pretty damn fast if required. As a last resort, she always carried ’round so much junk in her handbag, one solid wallop with it would knock anyone’s brains for six. But walking home alone in the dark, imagining big bad maniacs with all manner of nasty intentions, wasn’t for her. She wouldn’t be doing this again in a hurry.
Lesson learned. If you’re too damned proud to accept the fare from your best friend, then do the smart thing and always keep aside enough cash for a taxi. Hah. Guess I’m not that much of a badass after all.
The grumble of a car engine snagged her attention. Headlights lit up the sparkly material of her dress like some flashy Christmas tree ornament. The vehicle slowed as it approached and the driver leaned out the open window. “Hey, babe. Need a lift?”
Great. A different kind of nasty. “No thanks, Ray. I’m nearly home.”
“Awww, c’mon. You’re not still pissed about our little misunderstanding are you?”
“Haven’t given you a second thought.”
He frowned, probably mulling over whether he’d just been insulted. “It’s what I said about your tits, huh? Sheesh. Cut a guy a break. It was meant as a compliment. Let me drive you home—show you what a real nice guy I am.”
“Gee, let me think. No thanks.” She continued walking. Sam had obviously made her choice and it wasn’t Ray. Hence him out trolling for someone else to play with. How many other girls had he come on to at the club before he got desperate enough to come looking for her? The mind boggled.
His car purred along beside her, matching her pace. He obviously wasn’t the type to give up in a hurry. Time for some plain talking. “Look, Ray. I’m just not interested, okay? You’re so not my type.”
“Pity, ’coz with those tits, you so are mine.” He giggled, a high-pitched, incongruous sound coming from such a buff guy.
Chalcey didn’t respond. She focused straight ahead, keeping her pace not too slow, not too fast, projecting a confidence she hoped she could maintain.
The car slowed and fell behind. She risked a glance behind her and saw it pulling over to the curb. Ray got out and leaned on the door, striking a pose. “Think you’re too good for the likes of me, huh?” he called.
“Go home, Ray.”
He sauntered toward her. “Don’t be like that. You and me, babe. How ’bout I show you a real good time?”
“I don’t think so.” She increased her pace to a full-out march and, just her damned luck, caught the heel of her shoe in a crack in the pavement. The heel snapped right off, throwing her forward onto hands and knees. “Owww!” To add insult to injury, her handbag went flying.
Ray reached her before she could scramble back to her feet. He grabbed her arms and hauled her up on tiptoes so that her body was plastered up against his. “Aw, you hurt yourself, huh? Let Ray kiss it better.”
His face loomed closer. Chalcey jerked her chin aside. Yeah, he was strong but she could take him. Not to mention, insure that he thought twice about forcing his attentions on any other woman. She’d had a gutful of men who assumed a girl was begging to be pawed just because she had a larger than average cup size and wore something a bit revealing. Well, okay, a lot revealing. But it didn’t matter what she happened to be wearing, he was way out of line. She’d show him. And while she was at it, she wouldn’t feel the slightest bit guilty about taking all her frustrations about the male of the species out on him, either.
She could easily have broken his grip. There were three simple and very effective maneuvers she’d learned in self-defense classes a couple of years back that she could use in this situation. Instead, she pretended to give in, melting into his arms, tempting him to relax and let down his guard so she could hit him where it hurt and deal to him in a way he wouldn’t forget in a hurry. She didn’t have quite enough leverage to knee him in the balls—yet. And she’d only have one chance at making that maneuver count. If it didn’t work, it was no biggie. She’d simply resort to some of the other dirty stuff she’d been taught, stuff that would leave a guy in a moaning sniveling heap on the ground.
He mashed his lips onto hers.
Ick.
His tongue probed her mouth.
Double ick! There sooo was a bottle of mouthwash with her name on it when she got home.
His grip eased up… so he could grope her breasts. Huh. Why did that particular move not surprise her?
While he was occupied, she toed off her useless damn sandals. She’d found her balance and was preparing to carry out Plan A to devastating effect, when an ear-splitting roar sounded behind her.
She froze.
A shadow loomed. It ripped Ray away from her.
“Aaargh!” Ray flew through the air and landed in a sprawling heap on the pavement. He groaned and lay still.
Chalcey sucked in a shaky breath and confronted the shadow’s chest. She gazed up. And up some more. Until she locked eyes with an incredibly large, incredibly furious man, who threw back his head and bellowed so forcefully that the tendons in his neck distended.
~~~
Chapter Two
Whoa. Chalcey mentally fanned herself so she didn’t do something stupid. Like hyperventilate, and get all dizzy and fall on her ass. He’d been poured into those scarred leather pants. And as for the chest-hugging leather vest and shit-kicker boots…. Lord have mercy. He looked like a warrior king of old. He could have stepped right out of one of her private nighttime fantasies.
He turned his back on her and stalked toward Ray. The stiffness of his spine, and the rhythmic clenching and unclenching of his fists, screamed deadly intent and purpose.
Oh no. This could get out of hand real quick. She wasn’t the sort who’d stand helplessly by, wringing her hands in dismay, while a guy got pulped—not even if he did deserve it.
“Hey!” She darted forward and clutched her rescuer’s arm, hauling him around to face her.
His gaze latched onto hers again, ensnaring her. She couldn’t look away. Her heart raced, its beat echoing manically in her ears. Her bare skin prickled as though he’d run cool, caressing fingers down her flesh. She flushed with heat as parts lower down clenched and throbbed with lust. Her body responded to him, cried out for him, even though she’d never met him before in her life.
“Who—?” Her question died when he grabbed her and planted a kiss on her lips that stole her breath.
He speared his fingers through her hair to cup the back of her skull with one big hand. He held her immobile and lowered his mouth to hers. His kiss was hungry, demanding, brutally intense. She was so stunned that she didn’t even try to struggle. He took her mouth as though he would brand her as his own. And she would have let him mark her. Hell, she would stoop to begging!
When her legs wobbled, he clasped her so tightly against his body that she was forced up on tiptoes. She stared into his eyes. So intensely blue… like the sky viewed from a mountaintop on a crystal-clear day.
His mouth hardened on hers, forcing her lips apart so that he could thrust his tongue inside her mouth. Still she didn’t protest. Her head spun. Her eyelids drifted shut. She became a creature of pure sensation. There was only him and her. His lips on hers, her body pressed against his. Her yearning for him to fill a gaping hole in her soul that she’d not realized existed before now. His needs and wants and desires, all of them focused upon her, all of them centered around her. The rest of the world dissolved beneath his sensual assault. Nothing else mattered. Nothing but him.
“Hey!” somebody—Ray—shouted. “Who the fuck d’ya think yo
u are?”
Chalcey blinked. The hulking great hunky stranger, the one who had dealt to the sleaze-bag mauling her, was now… well… mauling her. Did she have “Grope Me” tattooed on her forehead, or something? What was with this guy? He was just as bad as Ray.
So she did what any self-respecting girl who’s had enough of men would do—even if the man was an incredibly hot one who kissed like there was no tomorrow. She totally overreacted. She grabbed a handful of his hair and yanked his head back. And kept on yanking until he quit kissing her and released her enough that she slid down his body. The instant that she had her balance, she drew back her arm and punched him in the face. Hard. Putting all her strength and the power of her body behind it.
He grunted and backed off.
“I don’t know you from a bar of soap. Where the hell do you get off thinking you can manhandle me?” She flexed her fingers, shaking out the pain as she squinted at him, trying to spot where she’d hit him. She’d been aiming for his nose but he’d angled his head at the last second and she’d missed her target. The cheek, perhaps? A reddened patch of skin was the only evidence.
His gaze suggested that he was more shocked that she’d dared hit him than hurt. Huh. Obviously she hadn’t punched him as hard as she’d thought. And she didn’t quite know whether to be relieved she hadn’t done him serious harm, or majorly pissed that she hadn’t defended herself more effectively.
“Nice move, babe.” Ray peeled himself off the pavement. He limped toward The Warrior, as Chalcey had christened her would-be rescuer turned victim in a fit of inappropriate whimsy. All semblance of boy-next-door good looks had fled, leaving Ray’s features twisted and ugly.
In one hand he clutched a wicked looking knife.
The unholy glee lurking in his eyes sickened her. She lost it. She saw red—literally, for her vision became washed in a bloody red haze. “Stuff your ego back in your pants and fuck off, Ray!” Her shout hung in the air, unnaturally loud and menacing in the stillness. “And while you’re at it, how about you stuff that stupid knife where the sun don’t shine, too.”
Ray sized her up as though testing her resolve. She straightened her spine and socked him with the “I’m totally serious so don’t piss with me!” evils.
He resorted to what passed for charm for a guy like him. “Just wanted to give you a lift home. Was worried about ya, babe. ‘Specially with assholes like him looking for some hot tail to tap.”
“For fuck’s sake, spare me the ‘I’m such a gentleman’ routine, Ray. You and I both know it’s a crock. Piss off.”
Ray’s gaze cut to the man behind Chalcey, as if sizing up his opponent. Then he had the nerve to turn his full attention back to her and leer at her chest. “Shoulda told me you liked it rough, babe. I can do rough.”
“Be gone, scum,” a voice rumbled from directly behind her. “The woman is mine.”
“Excuse me?” Chalcey glanced over her shoulder at The Warrior, and before she could so much as squeak, he grabbed her and thrust her behind him.
Ray lunged at him. A scream ripped from Chalcey’s throat. The Warrior slapped the knife from Ray’s hand, sending it skidding across the pavement. Then he grabbed Ray by the scruff of the neck and tossed him aside like he weighed nothing. Again.
Ray scrabbled about on all fours, shaking his head like a confused dog. The Warrior stood legs planted wide, arms akimbo, lips curled in a derisive sneer. “Do you wish to try that again, scum? I do not believe that you will provide much of a fight but I find myself in the mood for some light entertainment.”
Huh. The Warrior was goading Ray.
Men! Bloody testosterone-fueled dickwads.
Well, she refused to provide these two with an audience while they beat on each other. She made a beeline for the knife and crouched to pick it up between thumb and forefinger. A full-body shudder racked her. Nasty. It was so going in the Dumpster. She stood on tiptoe and tossed it in. The foul stench of the garbage made her gag but it was all good. Ray wouldn’t be keen on jumping in to retrieve it any time soon.
Next on the agenda was her handbag. She peered around until she spotted it, stalked over and bent to snatch it from the ground, then kept on walking. There. Just like that she’d wiped her hands of Ray and The Warrior.
It was a pretty good plan except, fool that she was, she couldn’t resist glancing back.
The Warrior had twisted Ray’s arm behind his back. His piercing blue gaze caught hers, and as he forced Ray to his knees, they shared a moment. A really intense “you’re gonna be mine, all mine!” moment.
Commonsense finally crawled out from whatever hole it’d been cowering in, and Chalcey took off at a flat-out run. Jerk-off Ray she could handle, but this guy? Not so much.
All the way home thoughts of him haunted her. His eyes, that expression on his face as she’d turned away—she’d never seen a man look so bereft. And as she searched for her keys to unlock the street door to her studio, she was forced to admit another truth. Never in all her twenty-five years, had she experienced such instant, gut-wrenching wanting for a man.
~~~
Wulf eyed the pathetic excuse for a male cowering before him. He speared his fingers through the man’s hair and dragged him upright. The stench of the man’s piss stung his nostrils. Weak-minded coward. For all his foul-mouthed bravado, the man was soft as a cushion. Even a cosseted priest could have given Wulf a better fight. Or a woman.
One woman in particular. The woman he’d just kissed. She slammed into his mind, rocking him back on his heels as she pervaded his senses and sank deep into his soul.
Wulf did not hesitate to toss the man he had been about to punish aside. Nor did he attempt to prevent him from slinking off like a cowardly dog. A vision such as this was a gods-sent portent, ignored at one’s peril. Wulf would not risk inflaming the ire of those omnipotent beings who might, on a whim, choose to pluck him from this alien world and return him to his homeland. He closed his eyes and acceded to their wishes, allowing the vision to sweep him away.
She was tall for a woman, slim but strong, with breasts that would overflow even his large hands. Riotous curls framed a strong, elegantly boned face. Bones could not lie. She would be a beauty even in her dotage. Her syrup-dark eyes had spat ire at him, before clouding with wanton desire as his mouth possessed her full, soft lips. She’d worn a short, clinging gown. It appeared to have been spun from spider’s silk kissed with starlight, allowing tantalizing glimpses of the pale skin beneath. She was a prize, indeed. A woman worthy of a Lord Keeper, worthy of him.
An emotion he was loath to name clawed his gut. It was a twin to the despair that had smote him when she fled the scene.
He’d let her go, telling himself all the while that chasing after a mere female was far less pressing an engagement than dispatching an opponent. In truth, he’d let her go because his reaction to her had troubled him to the very depths of his warrior’s soul. One kiss had hauled him to the brink of losing himself in her to the exclusion of all else, unworthy opponents and lurking enemies alike. For a warrior of Wulf’s caliber, allowing himself to be so thoroughly distracted when all about him was unfamiliar and potentially deadly was unforgiveable.
He dared open his eyes, blinking until she faded from his mind and his surroundings resolved into light and shadow, and reality—such as it was—again held sway. He swept his gaze about the alien surrounds and spotted his opponent climbing into a strange apparatus the likes of which Wulf had never seen before. Its exterior glinted like the hard carapace of a beetle.
The thing roared, and lamps that shone like miniature suns pierced the darkness ahead. The wheels of its undercarriage spun. Wulf’s jaw dropped as it rumbled past him. He glimpsed the hunched form of the man inside, one of his hands clenching a circular device, the other manipulating something in the interior. He appeared to be directing the apparatus.
Gods above and below. What would the priests make of such an infernal thing? Wulf had listened to the tales of many an old warrio
r dispatched to alien worlds, but never had such a thing been described.
His awe was a fleeting thing, soon supplanted by disgust. If it had been he who had escaped a superior opponent and could command such a device, he would not have hesitated to run his opponent down. One should never leave an enemy at one’s back. The man was not only craven, but a fool.
He made a concerted effort to cease flexing his sword hand, aware that he sorely felt the lack of the weapon that had become so much a part of him. If the apparatus the man had climbed into was commonplace in this world, he would have to learn more about it, and quickly. He did not relish to the task. He much preferred dealing with living beings that he could bend to his implacable will. Horses, for example, were simple creatures. Train them to the bit and bridle, feed and water them regularly, pet them and praise them when their behavior merited, and they were yours to command. Much like a woman….
Hah. He snorted. The woman he’d kissed, the woman who’d drowned his senses and haunted his gods-sent vision, would doubtless protest such simplistic treatment. She would chafe at the bit, challenge him. He would enjoy taming a fiery one such as her.
He didn’t realize he’d moved until he found himself standing at a crossroads of sorts. For the first time in his life, Wulf was unsure, undecided which path to take. A tug of insistence pulled him to the left. Stubbornness made him head right. He managed half a dozen strides before pain knifed his belly. A half dozen more, and pain spiked through his skull. He forced himself to keep walking, and with each step, the throbbing in his skull increased twofold.
So be it. Wulf was a stubborn man, but not foolish, never that. He would not ignore such obvious portents. The pain dimmed to a dull throb as he backtracked and took the left-hand path. He would allow himself to be led by the nose. For now. And, gods willing, he would find her again. The woman who’d set his loins aflame with her kiss, and then shown her displeasure at being manhandled without her permission by punching him in the face.
The Crystal Warriors Series Bundle Page 4