With my heart in my throat, and my hands clammy at my sides, I stepped around the corner to face him. The very foe I was here to fight.
He should look like a monster, but all I saw was the handsome man from before. Golden tan, tousled surfer blond locks, and those deep gray eyes. His features were so human, so how could he be what I now suspected he was? The alliance I wanted to expose… every indication was that the creatures involved looked nothing like us.
The stare he leveled me with was challenging. His chin lowered, his jaw firm. Then he reached up a hand slowly and brushed his gold hair behind his ear revealing a sharply pointed tip, rather than the usual curve. He had freaking elf-ears, like a creature of myth, or some weird, abnormal mutation.
That one gesture was meant to show me the truth, to show me what he was, but I couldn’t figure out why he’d do that. Emotions swept through me at his revelations, fear foremost, but also rage. He was one of them, for real, an alien bent on using the Earth for his own gain.
My mind flashed to my good friend Stella, a former pilot who’d had her own dealings with the aliens, and with the government. I’d helped her, and so had Pike, another friend. And now she was gone, forever. But her last act of defiance had been a broadcast heard by every ham radio on the planet, demanding people look at the sky.
The media was still abuzz with it a week later. With the objects spotted in orbit over Earth, objects that were definitely not meteorites. Speculation ran rampant, and governments worldwide were doing everything they could to cover it up. Here was my evidence, an actual flesh and blood alien, and I knew he was here to conquer, not protect.
With an angry cry, I leaped forward, my training kicking in. I’d already identified the handful of places he could have hidden his loot, the data chip I was after. I just needed to take it, catch him by surprise, and then escape.
I caught him by surprise: my first blow struck him in the neck at a specific angle. It should have made him drop like a ton of bricks, but it didn’t. I was small, and I was not nearly as strong as the opponents I was often up against, just like him. That blow should have hit a nerve just right… Of course, alien that he was, he probably didn’t have a nerve there.
He was ready for my next attack, dodging agilely, and catching my fist in his palm. My kick slashed him in his side and he made an ‘oomph’ noise as it forced air from his lungs, but pain shot up my shin as if I’d struck concrete. “Stop, you’ll hurt yourself…” he warned with his next breath.
The condescending prick didn’t know who he was up against. I didn’t give up because it stung a little. He wasn’t attacking, only defending, and he wasn’t trying to restrain me. That was downright insulting. We traded blows, and he took a few to the chest before stumbling a step back from a glancing blow to his iron-hard jaw. “Ouch!” I yelped, my knuckles aching, and I reflexively shook out my now numb hand.
“Enough!” Ian growled, the sound deep and inhuman as it erupted from his chest. In a blurring move, so fast I couldn’t track it, his arms shot out, and he yanked me into his chest, pinning my arms at my sides. The bastard had been holding back all this time, and with fury, I realized I never stood a chance against him. He’d beenhumoringme, it was humiliating.
I snarled in his face, his handsome and still so human-looking face. “Let me go!” It was obvious he had no intention of doing anything of the sort, and the dangerous glint in his eyes made my insides squirm. My pulse thrummed between my thighs, letting me know that my body knew what he’d planned, even if my mind hadn’t fully caught on yet.
His mouth descended, crashing against mine. An indignant protest was muffled, then embarrassingly morphed into a breathy moan. The adrenaline of the fight, the sense of betrayal, clashed in my body with the intense desire and attraction I felt for him.
“That’s it, Tally,” Ian murmured against my lips when I melted in his arms. I wanted to deny him that victory and tell him he got my name wrong, but then his tongue swept into my mouth. I clung to his wide shoulders, my legs going limp as passion took over.
Chapter 6
Killian
My mate clung to me, she filled my mind with her taste and scent. It was easy to forget where we were and let this passion sweep us away, but I couldn’t slack on my duties, especially not when it came to protecting her. I’d known that we’d explode once we collided, and we were ready to combust right this instant, like the planned fireworks later tonight.
Daria threw herself into anything she did wholeheartedly. It was obvious in her anger when she discovered I’d stolen what she was after, it was obvious in her kiss, too. I tried to keep my senses open to danger, but when she threw her leg around my hip, I lost that battle for a long, pleasurable moment.
Picking her up, I spun us until she was pinned to the nearest wall, and our hips collided. Her moan was music to my ears when my aching cock pressed against her core. So trusting, she clung with her legs around my hips, and her arms around my neck. I felt the brush of her pretty breasts against my chest and was ready to plunge my hands into the sweeping neckline to claim them.
“Killian! Are you there, brother? I’ve got extra intel.” Callum’s voice jarred me from the haze of lust that had descended on us, a very unwelcome reminder of the danger we were in.
I lifted my head, only barely managing to disengage the kiss. Daria’s pink mouth tilted eagerly toward my face, it was almosttoo much of a temptation. Determined to get back on track, so I could spend forever kissing that mouth when she was safe, I thumbed the hidden switch on my hand and engaged my com device. “I’m listening, Callum. What is it?”
My voice was rough with a growl I couldn’t mask, and Callum’s startled silence made it clear he’d noticed. “We picked up chatter that a rogue CIA operative is after the same data.” His words made me grin, meeting Daria’s confused expression.
“Rogue CIA operative? You don’t say…” I trailed off when Daria went pale and stiff in my arms. I didn’t let her go, keeping her pinned to my chest. “Don’t worry about it, Callum, I’ve got it handled.” I thumbed off my com again and ignored my handler’s spluttering and demands for more information.
“You’ve gotithandled?” Daria spat angrily at me. “What are you trying to do? Win the award for the biggest asshole of the year? You even got my name wrong!” Her words made me want to laugh, a smile pulling at my lips before I could stop the impulse. She had every reason to be upset, but once she heard the full story, I was certain she’d be on my side; she was my mate.
“I do,” I said, and I lifted her higher in my arms. Despite a hint of initial resistance, she melted when I gently brushed her mouth with mine. “And I know your name, Daria. Tally is an endearment.” It was more than a simple word of affection, it meant everything; soulmate, wife, lover,beloved. It was a word of great importance in my language, and she’d soon learn that.
“Now, little spy, are you going to tell me what you’re up to? It seems to me that we’re after the same thing and that we should work together.” I was inclined to press my hips forwardand remind her that I wanted to do more with her than work. A moment ago, she was ready to fuck me right there, against the wall, and my cock was painfully reminding me of that fact. I didn’t back away, savoring her nearness, even if it was a little torturous at the same time.
Her deep brown eyes flashed with anger, but the nibble on her lip made it clear she was trying to hold back. The gears in her head started spinning and at the same time, she started sliding her hands over my chest in a gentle caress. I knew what she was doing, and I didn’t stop her when she slipped the pin with the data chip from my pocket in a practiced stealthy move.
I had uploaded the data to Callum as soon as I’d left the party’s noise and the crowd of prying eyes. She could have the chip, I already had what was on it. “The data chip,” I said out loud and she froze for a fraction of a second, the move so slight the untrained eye would have missed it. “You can have it,” I added quietly. “Though I doubt you’ll get out of this museum with it, not without my help.”
“Why?” she asked, opening her palm between us to show me she held it. Good girl, there was no reason to hide the theft if I was willing to give it to her anyway. And I was willing, very willing.
“Because I want to know what the Dragnell and the Praxidar want on your planet just as bad as you do, darling. Because I think if an alliance should be formed, ours would be the one that deserves the light of day.”
