Dangerous Lovers (174 page)

Before she could answer, he was gone. She hurried to the shower and finished her routine. Checking her hair, she decided she was in need of a trip to Jaylen’s. Her roots were in bad shape since her hair had grown in the two and a half months since she’d had it cut.

Deciding to brave it, she quickly pulled on her new leather pants and top. She glanced at herself in the mirror and gasped. She looked like an assassin ... or maybe a hooker in leather. She couldn’t decide which. The pants were so tight her ass looked like it was wedged in a black rubber inner tube getting ready to explode. She bent down to test them, just to see if they’d stay intact. It was at that very moment that Jurek flashed in.

“What in all the gods’ name are you doing?” he asked. She was bent in half, her knees almost in a full on squat and her head was as close to being up her ass as it could possibly be.

Holy shit on a stick! Why does this stuff always happen to me?

“Um...I’m looking for love in all the wrong places?”

Jurek let loose a howl of laughter, the likes of which she’d never heard from him before.

The whole scene was too funny not to laugh at so she joined in and they both were now bursting with laughter.

Finally, Jurek asked, “Seriously Davidson, what the hell were you doing?”

Still chuckling, she told him, “These damn things are so tight I was testing whether they’d fly off of me if I were in a compromising position. I wanted to make sure I could trust the motherfuckers.”

“Yeah, well, do us all a favor and don’t pose like that in public, okay?”

“No worries on that one. But damn these are tight.”

“Davidson, they’re leather, they’ll stretch. Give them a little time.” He looked at her again and his eyes darkened. “I think you’d better change or we’ll be late for dinner,” he said, his voice husky.

***

Dinner passed without any issues. The food and wine were tasty, even if Liasare did drink a bit too much. They were headed back to Earth in the morning. Then they’d be on the hunt for anything and everything they could get their hands on regarding this new army of minions. They had to find out where they were keeping these beings because these abductions had to stop.

Jurek walked Liasare back to her room and when they got there she told him she was frightened. “What if we don’t find what we’re looking for? What do we do then?”

“We broaden our search beyond Earth.”

“But isn’t that like looking for the proverbial needle in the haystack?”

“It’s better than doing nothing at all. Something will show up. Ludo thinks the Xanthians are searching for a place to house a colony and that’s why so many bots have been sent out this far in space. He thinks that’s why we keep getting scanned and why they’re using a different type of bot now.”

Liasare kept staring at his mouth as he spoke. The wine had gone to her head and the only thing she seemed to be able to focus on were his lips.

Why does his mouth have to be so sexy? His lips are so enticing. I want to taste them again...gawd, it’s been far too long.

Without another thought, she leaned into him and kissed him with everything she had.

He always tastes so damn good...and smells so yummy. I wish...I wish...

She still wasn’t sure if she was doing it right or if he liked it this way, but what the hell. She didn’t care because all she wanted was to feel his lips and tongue beneath hers. And God help her, he was kissing her back, completely undoing her.

Wrapping her hands in his hair, she moaned in his mouth. “You feel so right Jurek. Don’t stop kissing me...ever.”

He didn’t...for a few more moments, but then he broke it off, moving his lips to her cheeks and finally her forehead.

“We have a busy day tomorrow so I must say good night.” And just like that he was gone, once again leaving her in a frustrated mess.

Chapter Twenty

Their new headquarters were similar to the old ones but this was an old dilapidated looking building. Looks can be deceiving and they were in this instance, because the interior of the building was incredible. It was outfitted with the latest and the greatest of everything. The other big change was that Jurek made sure Liasare had her own quarters. While they weren’t as elegant as his, she had her own fancy bed, along with a nicely decorated room, plush carpeting and her own bathroom. She felt spoiled since she’d never lived in anything so extravagant before. Even her own bedroom on Vesturon had never been this fancy.

Their first night out was a disaster. They went to the club Cosmos. Everything was great until Liasare was accosted by a group of Xanthians. They’d recognized her from the night she’d rescued the girl ... only it hadn’t been a rescue after all. The girl had been a decoy, for she was actually a Xanthian sex slave. They had used her to entrap Liasare. The girl was back at Cosmos and had pointed her to them.

Liasare suddenly found herself swarmed by Xanthians. With her adrenaline surging, she desperately tried to reach her teleporter, as their plan dictated. Going on a massive killing spree in the club would only bring unwanted attention, so she had the idea of letting them escort her outside where she thought she would be able to escape. That was a huge mistake because as soon as they left the building, they teleported to a Xanthian warehouse.

Now in a full-blown panic, she fought and struggled as they put her in restraints and began interrogating her.

“Who are you?”

She refused to answer them.

When they kept asking and didn’t get a response, they started beating her. They didn't play nicey-nice either. They beat her from every angle, punching and kicking her, and she fought back, though to them she was nothing more than a rag doll. Then they started hammering away on her face. She would have screamed when they broke her jaw, but she’d already lost her voice. Her throat had become raw and felt like it was in flames from all the wailing she already done. When her nose and mouth spurted blood, she was sure everything on her face was busted up too. The worst was when they broke her arm. One of them took his meaty paws and just snapped it in his hands, like a skinny pencil. She had clenched her fists so tightly that her nails had gouged out pieces of flesh from her palms, which was pretty bad because she didn’t have any nails to speak of. She was nothing but a broken and bloody mess by the time Jurek and his men got to her.

She had been recuperating for several days when Jurek finally came to see her. His eyes were dark and hard as flint.

“Why didn’t you follow the plan? It was there for a reason ... to prevent this,” he swept his arm across her, “from happening.”

“I tried, but ...” her voice was still hoarse from her ordeal.

He cut her off, “I want a team member that can follow directions. Can you do that?”

“Yes, I ...”

He cut her off again. “You didn’t show up at the meeting site and then we had to switch gears to hunt you down,” he snapped. A vein pulsed in his temple and Liasare could feel his power notching up. “Do you have any idea how ...” he stopped, turned away from her and rubbed the back of his neck. When he continued, his voice was edged with roughness, “You have to follow orders.”

“I know. I’m sorry, but I ...”

Still facing away from her, he interrupted her again. “This won’t happen again. Why didn’t you teleport?”

“My teleporter was in my pocket and I couldn’t reach it. I tried, dammit! I didn’t want them to beat me. You act like I wanted this. They hurt me goddammit!” Her eyes stung and she forced back tears she refused to let him see.

Jurek was at her side in a flash. He clenched his fists and stared at her. His eyes told her a million things his mouth didn’t and he stood there as he drank in the sight of her. He wanted to pull her into his arms and feel her skin against his. He wanted to slide his fingers through her hair and wrap the satiny strands around his hands binding her to him. Instead, he whispered, “Never! Never would I want this Liasare. Never would I want to see you injured like this. I would rather it had been me.”

Then he boomed, “Marik, in here, NOW!”

Marik popped in. “Yes, my lord.”

“I don’t care what you do or how you do it but I want you to come up with some kind of contraption where her teleporter is strapped to her wrist. I don’t care if you have to use duct tape. Make it happen. The next time she goes out, that teleporter is on her wrist within a finger’s reach, you got it?”

“Yes, my lord.”

“And you,” he said, turning to Liasare, “are not to go anywhere without me by your side, until I am comfortable that you are capable of fighting alone. Understand?”

“Yes, master.”

“This isn’t a damn joke,” he growled and flashed out of the room.

***

“I need to have my hair done and I know you don’t want me out and about alone. So how do you want to do this?”

“They know who you are. The hair doesn’t help anymore, unless you want to go blonde. Do you?”

“No. I don’t.”

“Then grow it out.”

“I don’t want to have half of my head brown and the other half black and red. It looks terrible.”

He sighed. “I’ll take you.”

Jurek left her at Jaylen’s and they decided to make her a brunette again so she wouldn’t have to keep up with the coloring.

Putting the last bit of color on her hair, Jaylen mentioned, “Jurek sure is a grump today.”

“He’s always a grump.”

“Interesting. I think it’s you.”

“What do you mean?”

“I think he’s playing Mister Protector.”

“I know that. Here’s the strange thing. I probably shouldn’t even be talking about this but it’s driving me nuts. I ... we ... well, I want to have sex with him.”

“And?”

“He won’t do it!”

“Oh please Liasare. You expect me to believe that? I know that man and he’s not one to go without. He’s been around here plenty of times so I know what kind of sexual appetite that man has.” When she noticed Liasare’s widened eyes, she said regrettably, “I probably shouldn’t have said
that
. Me and my big mouth.”

Liasare ran her hand across her face and replied, “No, it’s okay. I figured that out. But I swear what I’m telling you is the truth. The man hasn’t touched me. Well, not in
that
way. He gives me really lame excuses but nothing understandable or concrete. I’m about to combust too.”

Jaylen chuckled. “I can only imagine. Gee, I’m really amazed at that. It doesn’t sound like the Jurek I know.”

“Maybe it’s me.”

“Oh it’s you all right. He looks at you like he’s going to devour you right here and now. And I know what I’m talking about. I make my living dealing with men, honey. The way he looks at you ... it’s like you’re
his
. I pity any man who tries to even so much as talk to you. Jurek will take them out. I swear Liasare. I
know
the man.”

“Hmmm. I wonder what his deal is then. Ugh, now I’m running my mouth and I need to shut up. Thanks for listening though.”

***

That evening, they were assembled in the meeting area getting ready to hit the streets. Jurek and Liasare were going to Raunch. She wasn’t pleased about that, because it was her least favorite club in Center City. At least Jurek would be with her. They would go out around ten and then after one, they would start hitting the streets, taking out Xanthians and looking for information, hopefully leading to clues to the whereabouts of some of the missing people.

Liasare had just finished dinner when Marik came to her with a teleporter. “I had this designed to strap onto your wrist.”

He showed her how to wear it so it would be on the top of her left hand so it wouldn’t interfere with her fighting. She’d only have to tap it with one finger, as it was preprogrammed to take her to the meeting place where someone would join her to bring her back here.

“Thank you Marik. This will be great.”

At ten, Jurek joined her and they left for Raunch.

“I hate this place,” she said as he flashed them to the alley behind the club.

“Not your kind of place is it?”

“Ugh, no. Those stinking ...”

“Don’t say it. I don’t want to hear your tirade. It’s enough we have to smell them, but to listen to you only makes it worse.”

“You really think so?”

He grabbed her arm and turned her to him. He adjusted her collar and straightened her jacket. “Yes, I do or I wouldn’t have said it. I hate them as much as you, but complaining about it only makes it worse. Doing something about it is what helps. Now come on and let’s give it a go.”

Raunch was filled with people. All sorts of people from the lowest of the low to the upper echelon of society. Liasare marveled at how such a blend of people could be squished in a club, all sweaty and half drunk from liquor. That was most likely the ticket, she thought. They had to be liquored up to endure this.