HeroRising (5 page)

He gritted his teeth and caught her about the waist as she
jumped and flung her arms around his neck. Since he was a good two heads taller
than she, her feet swung above the floor as she hugged him tight.

“It’s been too long,
lebshone
.” When he set her down
she grabbed both his ears and shook his head with a stern frown. “No calls. Not
even a text for weeks. You know how I worry and still you do not take care to
contact me. I should whip you for the insolence. But I see you have brought me
a gift, so I shall forgive you. This time.”

“My apologies,” he murmured.

She turned toward Ari and clapped her hands with glee.
“Introductions. Please.”

Amaryllis’ excitement at meeting this new person brushed
over his skin with ticklish fingers while Ari stared at the slight woman with
large, uncertain eyes.

Bale bent in a formal bow. “May I introduce Amaryllis
Kilsgaard and her mated husband, Lucian. My
roylea
, I present Ari…uh,
Ari…”

“Rayner,” she supplied and offered her hand. “I’m Ari
Rayner. Pleased to meet you.”

“The pleasure is truly all mine.” Amaryllis grasped Ari’s
hand and pulled her into an enthusiastic hug. “Welcome to our home. Sit, sit,
sit. Are you hungry? Parched? Lucian, fetch us some refreshments, please.”

“Thank you, your high—Amaryllis, but we have already eaten,
unless you have a need, Ari?” Bale asked. Damn, he was really going to have to
watch his language around the human.

“I’m fine.” She perched on the edge of the suede sofa,
hugging the bag on her lap while her gaze swept over the room. “Your home is lovely.”

“Thank you.” Amaryllis sat next to her and clasped Ari’s
hand between her own. “So, Bale, what have you been up to? How did you two
meet? Have you known each other long?”

“We have recently become acquainted. Ari is to be a new
resident in the city, but unfortunately her vehicle could not complete the
journey. I found her stranded and offered a ride. She was intelligent enough to
agree. My hope is for her to stay here until we can retrieve her car and she
finds a place of employment.”

“No,” Ari shouted then covered her mouth with her free hand.
Red swept up her face from her neck to her hairline. “Sorry. I meant just for
the night. I don’t want to impose or intrude or be disruptive in any way. One
night is all, really, unless you are busy now. I can leave and go elsewhere.”

“Ari.” Amaryllis stopped the litany with a finger pressed
across Ari’s lip, who gasped in surprise at the contact. “Not another word. We
would be honored to host Bale’s lady.”

“I’m not his lady,” she mumbled around the finger, before
Bale had a chance to make the correction.

To hear Ari say the words he himself intended to speak was
like a sucker punch to the kidneys. No, she was not his lady, and he had no
intention of changing the label, but the thought of laying claim to such a lovely
creature heated his blood. Unbidden, the image of Ari laid out on his bed
clouded his mind. Her red hair, a tangled cloud on his pillow as she looked up
at him with sex-drowsy eyes and lips swollen to a deep pink from his kisses.
Bruises marked the pale curve of her breasts and chest, where he had bitten
her, like tribal tattoos. She’d have her thighs spread wide in welcome,
revealing her slick sex that glistened with his seed as he came over and over—

A sharp cough and a jab in the ribs from Lucian’s elbow
jarred him from his lusty thoughts.

Ari stared up at him with a confused frown while Amaryllis
beamed with a smile as bright as a million-watt light bulb.

Double damn. Ari might be clueless to his dirty thoughts,
but with their empathic powers, Lucian and Amaryllis possessed the ability to
feel his hungers as if they were their own. By the tension humming off Lucian
and the rosy flush on Amaryllis’ cheeks, they both knew exactly what he had
been thinking.

“I apologize,” he rasped in a voice steeped with residual
desire. “It has been a long journey and I am succumbing to the effects. Was
there a question?”

“No.” Amaryllis chuckled. “I have absolutely no questions
for you.”

He choked down a groan and forced himself to keep his facial
expression pleasantly blank. He’d already given his princess enough cause to
plot a scheme to bring him and Ari romantically together. The more he
protested, the harder she’d dig in her sharp heels and force the matter.

“
Akita
,” Lucian interjected. “I have a few business
matters to discuss with Bale. Why don’t you take Ari to the guest quarters? I’m
certain she would enjoy a nice soak in the tub.”

Amaryllis’ eyes narrowed and her lips pinched into an
expression that said she knew exactly why she was being sent away. The determined
light in her irises did not give Bale confidence that any plans she had hatched
had been deterred in any way.

“Very well. Is this the last I will see of you tonight,
Bale?”

“Yes. I will be returning to my own quarters when Lucian and
I are finished.”

“Then I expect you at breakfast.” She stood and crossed to
his side to buss his cheek. “Good night. Lucian, let’s leave him alone to say
good night to his lady.”

Lucian said not a word, but his amusement tickled the back
of Bale’s neck. Hopefully the general would remain silent about the subject
when they met later.

“I am sorry for any assumptions Amaryllis may have made,” he
said once they were alone. “They are not used to seeing me consort with women.”

“And here I thought you brought back strangers all the
time.” She winked and her smile made his breath catch. “She seems very nice,
they both do. And they’re beautiful. Freakishly so. Is everyone back where
you’re from gorgeous? What are they feeding you people?”

Beautiful? Was she including him in that remark? Impossible.
He was scarred and somber, which left marks on his face that usually made
people cower in fear. He knew females desired him. He was tall and muscular,
which was a combination that seemed to elicit passion in human women. But he
didn’t believe himself to be an example of beauty. Masculine, yes. Beautiful,
no.

Ari, now she was…exquisite. Soft in the right places, lean
in others. Her femininity soothed his warrior spirit like a gentle breeze on a
hot day, but there was a fire inside her that jolted his base urges like a live
wire. He’d never experienced such a dichotomy before.

Not even with Natalia.

At the thought of his wife, his desire cooled and his
mission became getting Ari ensconced in a guest room and then locking himself
away in the solace of his own apartment. She had been enough of a distraction
for one night.

He straightened his posture. “Amaryllis will see you have
anything you need, and I will warn you, she will not listen to any protest you
have of her doing otherwise.”

“I’ve kinda noticed that.”

“The entrance to the main house is on this floor. The floor
above are apartments they lease to their employees. These floors and the garage
you can access. You’ll be able to roam wherever you wish, but stay away from
the second floor.”

“What’s on the second floor?”

Debauchery in mass quantities. “Businesses you have no need
to have access to.”

“Like what?”

“Stay away.” He bit his tongue for he realized how harsh the
command sounded. “Look, I do not want you to find yourself in trouble for wandering
where you should not be. I only wish for you to take care.”

“Okaaay.” She rose and adjusted the strap of her bag across
her chest. “So. Is this goodbye then?”

“More than likely, yes.”

“Oh. Well, thank you for…you know, everything.” With her
left hand she held out his jacket, and her right hand for a handshake as she
stared up at him with those blue eyes he felt he could lose himself in for the
rest of his life and be perfectly happy.

The journey of his hand traveled in slow motion as he raised
it to clasp around her dainty palm. The anticipation of the moment when their
palms would meet raised his temperature. This touch was going to be different
than when he had helped her off his motorcycle. This time there wasn’t the
distraction of the elements and the situation to detract from the texture of
her skin.

An electric current raced up his arm as their hands grasped
and he felt the answering jump in her pulse as she drew in a sharp breath. How
easy would it be to pull her an inch closer? To lower his head enough to brush
his lips against her parted ones?

Too easy.

He dropped her hand as if she burned him and took the
jacket, bending into a slight bow. “Good night, Ari. Sleep well.”

Without another word he turned on his heel and all but ran
for the sanctuary of Lucian’s office. He didn’t bother to knock as he flung
open the door and shut it as if the great dogs of the seven hells were after
him.

“I never thought I’d see the mighty Balellanos so terrified,
especially by a tiny female.” Lucian chuckled from behind his desk.

“She’s not that tiny.” He straightened from where he had
leaned against the door.

“I like the essence of her spirit. I can tell why you are
attracted to her.”

Bale gritted his teeth. As much as he wanted to deny it,
Lucian spoke the truth and they both knew it. “She does have spirit.”

“How did you meet? Truly?”

“I had passed an abandoned vehicle on the mountain pass.
About a mile farther I came upon a truck that was parked off to the side of the
road and the two male occupants were chasing her down. Just as I came to a stop
one of the men tackled her to the ground. I was able to stop her fall.”

“And prevented much worse, I am certain.” Lucian rose and
crossed to the bar. He gestured to a bottle of amber liquid. “What of her
attackers?”

Bale shook his head at the offer. “They live. For now.”

“Bale—”

“If they die, it will not be by my hand. Unless I discover
them harming another.”

Lucian sighed and folded his arms across his massive chest.
“Bale, I understand your mission, I do. If…” He shut his eyes. His throat
worked as if he swallowed down an ugly thought he did not want to express.

But Bale heard it anyway. If Amaryllis should be taken from
him the people of Earth would share his anguish. And Bale knew firsthand what
the general was capable of for he had been on the opposite end of Lucian’s
sword when he had come to take her life.

Lucian had been lucky. Bale had not succeeded and his
commander was free to bask in the warmth of their love every day.

Yes, lucky bastard indeed.

“As I was saying,” Lucian continued. “While I applaud your
efforts to stop the persecution of innocent people, you have got to rein in the
desire to end all confrontations with death.”

“I only kill when it’s in self-defense, and even then only
for those who deserve it.”

“According to you. You cannot be judge, jury and
executioner.”

Bale matched his imposing stance. “According to you.”

“According to the laws of civility and common sense. While
the humans’ processes may be slow and contradictory, they must be of our utmost
consideration. Do what you must to protect. And that is all. If you are
discovered carrying out ultimate justice, you risk exposing all of us and our
powers.”

“I am always careful.”

“But you are not perfect. Someday you will fail.”

“And if I do, then I will fail on my own.”

“No.” Lucian crossed to stand in front of him and placed a
hand on his shoulder. “You are family. Maybe not by blood but because we’ve
spilled blood together. Whatever fate befalls you, we will always be at your
side.”

Bale’s eyes stung at the fervor in Lucian’s declaration. “I
do not deserve such consideration.”

“But you have it. Always.”

Damn him. Bale pinched his lips together. Damn both him and
his mate. When he had been hell-bent on revenge no matter the cost, life was
simpler. Once the two had shown him how misspent all that anger had been, he
redirected his focus. They reminded him what it meant to care. What it meant to
matter to someone else. To have another care for you carried the possibility to
disappoint.

While Lucian’s words were of caution, they were of little
use. If Bale was ever to be discovered carrying out his brand of vigilante
justice he’d fall on the sword before Lucian and Amaryllis felt the fingers of
discovery upon them. On this he vowed with his life.

“And what of the girl?” Lucian asked.

Damn her too. Until Ari had come into his life he didn’t
have…wants. He didn’t hunger for something soft. Until Ari he had no need for
the touch of a woman, yet ever since he held her hand he had thought of nothing
else.

“What of the girl?” So what if his tone was on the defensive
side?

“You care for her, otherwise you would have not brought her
to us.”

“She was in danger and I saw to her safety. That’s what I
do.”

Lucian’s smile suggested he saw through the flimsy excuse.
“What of her family?”

“She has not spoken of any. Whatever she left behind I sense
was painful for her. She wants to make a new start here, but circumstances have
not been kind to her. I was hoping Amaryllis could assist in Ari’s new
beginning.”

“Do not fear. I believe my wife has found a new project in
your Ari.”

Bale bit back the need to correct Ari’s title and chose to
change the subject. “I shall only be in town for a day. I plan on leaving for
the East tomorrow. Kristos and Brett may have need of my service while she is
on maternity leave.”

Lucian laughed. “Who would have thought one tiny baby could
cause so much chaos?”

“But that little girl is loved.”

“Beyond measure,” Lucian agreed. “This family has much to be
thankful for, and much to celebrate. Perhaps there will be more in the near
future.”

“Perhaps.” Bale bowed. “If there is nothing else, I will
retire to my quarters.”