Kissed by the Alien Mercenary Read online

  “I don’t think human females are used to multiple matings,” he warned in a low voice. “Some might be. I don’t know. Perhaps you can mention it as a possibility when you register your interest?”

  The farmer nodded, rubbing at his beard. “We figured the only way we could ‘ave a chance at a female was if we were willin’ tae share. But we’ll take one any way she’s willin’ tae ‘ave us. It would just be nice tae ‘ave somethin’ nice to look at, yea know?”

  Saal nodded. Most males he knew would agree to just about anything to get a female. Hells, he’d even share Lady Lizzie if he had to, if that was the only way she’d accept him. Anything to know the love and softness of a female in his life.

  “You can register at the palace,” he suggested. “The mate program is open to all. As far as I know the emperor is negotiating with the human leaders about allowing us to have their unwanted females.”

  “Unwanted females…” the farmer murmured, as though such a notion was completely alien to him. And to be fair, it was. Had the Lathar still had females, not one of them would be unwanted. They’d long ago learned their lesson on that score.

  Then he snapped out of it, shaking his head and looking directly at Saal. A look of contrition crossed his face. “Sorry ‘bout that,” he said, gesturing toward Saal’s injuries.

  Saal shrugged and smiled. “Don’t worry about it. One of the advantages of working in the healer’s hall, eh? Well… good luck with your application, my friend.”

  “Ye too,” the farmer smiled, and with that turned to head out the way he’d come.

  The rest of Saal’s journey to the palace was uneventful. Before long he’d logged in and was checking patient stats on one of the secondary healers’ orders when he stepped out of a bay and almost walked right into the lord healer himself.

  Laarn’s hard expression didn’t alter but Saal knew he’d noticed his injuries from the would-be street fight.

  “Anything you want to tell me, orderly?” he asked, one eyebrow raised.

  Saal kept his expression level. As Laarn was hall master as well as lord healer, by law he should report any and all acts of violence to him. But… he couldn’t. The farmer had just been doing what he thought best for himself and his brothers. In his place Saal might have done exactly the same. It was an impossible situation. One he was glad he wasn’t in.

  “No, my lord. Nothing to report.” He added a small, rueful smile. “Just an argument with a door, to my embarrassment.”

  “Hmmm,” Laarn grunted, obviously not believing him. Neither would Saal if he’d been in his shoes. The marks of violence on a male’s face were unmistakable. “Well, make sure you limit your… disagreements with doors. I will not have any member bringing disrepute down on this hall. You will be exiled if you do. Understand?”

  Saal didn’t argue but simply nodded.

  “Yes, my lord. Perfectly.”

  He didn’t move, waiting as per protocol.

  Laarn looked at him for a long moment and then nodded. “Dismissed. Make sure I don’t see you again until your face is healed.”

  4

  She had to agree to his claim.

  Lizzie hadn’t been able to get the handsome warrior’s words out of her head. They, and he, had haunted her dreams the night before. The memory of his lips on hers followed her out of sleep and into daydreams. She wanted more, of his kisses and his company.

  Wandering through the healer’s hall, she couldn’t spot him, so she strolled out toward the gardens. Perhaps he was on duty out there today instead? But he wasn’t among the gardeners either, so she walked back toward the palace. Maybe it was his day off today? Her mood took a nose-dive at the thought of not seeing him today.

  Then she found him, quite by accident. Turning a corner, she almost ran into him. He stopped abruptly in surprise, a hand out to stop her as dirty water from his bucket almost slopped over her toes.

  “Careful, my lady!” he warned, setting it down carefully and urging her to take a step sideways away from the dirty puddle.

  “What are you doing out here?” he asked, a surprised expression on his face as he indicated their surroundings. They were in a service area, where the servants went about their business.

  It wasn’t an area she would normally have been in. If any of the servants saw her, usually they gently but firmly guided her back to the more “acceptable” areas of the palace. She didn’t see why. These areas were often far nicer with less ostentatious decoration.

  “I was looking for you,” she admitted.

  “For me?” A burst of pleasure showed in his eyes and he smiled. “How can I help, my lady?”

  “I… Err—” He had to go and ask that. Didn’t he? Make her put it into words. Then she caught the edge of a wicked little smile cross his lips and she gasped. “You evil man!”

  He chuckled, the deep sound sending shivers across her skin, and swept her up into his embrace. Pulling her into a darkened alcove nearby, his lips were on hers almost before she’d registered the movement, and she melted in his arms.

  “Can you blame me?” he murmured when he broke the kiss, both their breathing ragged. He rested his forehead against hers. “It’s not often—like ever—that a female as beautiful as you comes looking for me.”

  She smiled, winding her arms up around his neck. “I’m sure if the Lathar still had women, you wouldn’t even look twice at a plain little nobody like me.”

  The expression of surprise and outrage on his face as he pulled back took her breath away.

  “Plain nobody?” he demanded, his hands on her upper arms as he gave a little shake. “Don’t you ever let me hear you put yourself down like that again. Do you hear me?”

  She bit her lip and nodded, rendered speechless by his vehement reaction. How could she explain to him that she felt she was always living in her twin’s shadow? How it felt always being seen as the quieter, less successful twin? The one who always stayed home while Jess was off traveling the stars.

  Only that wasn’t quite accurate anymore. Was it? They weren’t on Earth anymore, but on an alien planet… under a different star than Earth’s sun. So Lizzie had traveled the stars as well.

  “I’m the nobody here.” Saal smiled, putting a finger over her lips when she went to argue with him. “Oh, I am and I know it. You’re a K’Vass and I’m just a J’Qess. I’m surprised Laarn even allows me to be in the same room as you.”

  She batted his hand away, annoyed. “I am not a K’Vass. Mom and Jessica are. I am a Kallson and proud of it! And I’ll talk to whomever I damn well please. They don’t get to decide my friends for me. No one does.”

  He’d captured a lock of her hair, winding it around his finger.

  “Then are we friends, Lady Lizzie?” he murmured, using the movement to pull her closer until their lips almost touched. Her heart stuttered and then hit double-time within her chest, matching the butterflies dancing in her stomach.

  “I’d like to think so,” she breathed, hardly able to frame a thought with him so close. Not with his lips almost brushing hers.

  “Good,” he smiled against her lips and then kissed her quickly.

  It was over almost before it had begun, leaving her aching for more. Hot and cold chills raced over her skin, her body on fire as she rode the keen edge of sexual frustration.

  “I have something for you,” he said, reaching into his pocket. “Close your eyes.”

  “You do?” She couldn’t help the small gasp of delight. “But it’s not my birthday!”

  He shook his head. “Do I need to wait for your birthing day to give you something?”

  She laughed softly and closed her eyes as ordered. “No, not at all.”

  She smiled as she waited, her ears strained for any sound or movement from him. Curiosity filled her. What had he gotten her? There was the rustle of cloth and then something small and cool was placed on the front of her chest, just below her throat.

  “Oh!” Opening her eyes, she looked down to find he’d pl
aced a star-shaped pendant on a ribbon around her neck. It had delicate silver rays reaching out from a central blue stone, wrapped by silver wire in an intricate pattern.

  She sucked a quick breath in. “Oh, Saal, it’s beautiful.”

  Twisting, her gaze snapped up to his. “But I don’t have anything for you!”

  He shook his head as he tied the ribbon at the back of her neck, his fingers brushing her skin. She bit back her shiver at the tiny contact.

  “A gift given with expectation of something in return is not a gift,” he said in a soft voice. “I just wanted to make something for you.”

  “You made this?” she asked in wide-eyed awe. Her fingers brushed the pendant again. It was so pretty and delicate, she couldn’t believe he’d actually made it. For her. “No one’s ever made anything for me before.”

  “I did. When I was a kid I was desperate to join the engineer’s hall…” He shrugged. “Things didn’t work out as I planned but I keep my hand in it.”

  He smoothed the ribbon flat and turned her around to admire her wearing his creation.

  “It’s not much, just the central crystal from a decommissioned comms unit,” he said, a faint hint of color across his cheeks. “Not like the jewels in the K’Vass family vaults—”

  She stepped forward into his arms, pressing her fingers against his lips to shush him like he had to her. He responded by kissing her fingertips, which made her giggle softly.

  “I love it,” she whispered, reaching up on her tiptoes for another kiss. It was a long time before either of them were aware of anything around them. Only the sound of someone calling Saal’s name snapped them out of their romantic clinch.

  “Draanth,” Saal growled, letting her go after another quick kiss. “The Lord Healer has had it in for me all day. I should go.”

  “Wait!” She stopped him with a hand on his arm. “Will I see you tonight? There’s some kind of ball…”

  He shook his head and then winked. “They don’t invite the riff-raff, I’m afraid. I’ll see if I can get on the wait staff, though, so keep an eye out for me.”

  “SAAL! CLEAN UP IN BAY FOUR!”

  With another wink and hard kiss, he was gone.

  * * *

  Latharian culture was the strangest thing. They walked around in combat leathers armed to the teeth, like they were the baddest of the bad alpha males who took what they wanted when they wanted it. But then it turned out they had rules about how to conduct themselves in polite society that wouldn’t look out of place in a regency ballroom.

  Lizzie sat on a silk-covered couch to one side of the large hall, next to her mother and sister. They were dressed in beautiful gowns with flowers in their hair, flanked by Laarn, who stood, casting a forbidding eye over anyone who dared to wander close. Several warriors already had, the light of interest in their eyes as they looked at Lizzie, only to be warned off by a growl from Laarn. The scene was being repeated all around the room, each group of women flanked by one or more stone-faced protectors.

  “They know you’re unmated,” Jess leaned in to murmur, the delicate flowers in her hair making a tinkling sound like tiny bells as she moved. Herris blossoms. She’d been told only the imperial family were allowed to wear them. Of all the women in the room, they were the only three with Herris in their hair. “So they’re trying their luck to see if Laarn deems them worthy of an introduction. But so far, no dice.”

  She nodded. None of the men who’d approached had interested her in the slightest. Oh, they were all handsome and ripped, their heavily muscled physiques screaming power and virility, but none made her stomach flip-flop like Saal had yesterday.

  Just thinking his name made the memories of the incident in the garden flood back. Her lips still tingled from his kiss, heat flowing in her veins at the way he’d held her. All his talk of soulmates had resonated within her, even as it scared her a little. How could someone know, just like that, that they wanted to spend their entire life with a person.

  Love at first sight maybe? A tiny voice sounded in the back of her mind. It was so soft it would have been easily overlooked, but it was like silence had fallen in the room suddenly so she paid attention to it, frowning. She didn’t believe in love at first sight. Did she? That being said, a few years ago, she didn’t believe in aliens either…

  Raised voices on the other side of the room made them all turn in surprise. One of the circling males had tried to sit down on a couch with a woman in a sweeping silver dress while the warrior with her was caught up in conversation with his two accomplices. As they watched, the two males tried to stop him getting past them to where his female was being charmed.

  “Oh, this should be interesting…” Jess commented, a hint of amusement in her voice.

  Lizzie didn’t see what was amusing. It was a pincer maneuver on the poor woman on the couch. She was tall, yes, and slender, but no nowhere near as tall as the Lathar trying to crowd her. Lizzie’s heart rate sped up in worry. If a fight broke out, that poor woman would get hurt—

  Then the woman pulled her arm back and punched her would-be suitor right in the jaw. Lizzie gasped, hands pressed to her mouth, as the alien warrior sprawled all over the floor, a look of shock written on his face.

  The woman stood in a graceful movement, her skirts swirling around her, and leveled a heavy hand-gun, aiming it right between the alien’s eyes. Even at this distance Lizzie could see the stone-cold resolution in her eyes and the fact that the gun didn’t waver one iota. She looked like a woman who really meant business.

  Jess chuckled as the warrior and his friends scuttled away like their asses were on fire. “Must be new at court… and they pick on Jane. Poor bastards.”

  “You knew that would happen?” Lizzie breathed, in awe of the woman in silver as the pistol disappeared somewhere in the voluminous skirts. She hadn’t missed the heavy combat boots the woman wore under the masses of her skirts.

  “Hell yeah. Jane’s been kicking ass since we got here.” Jess smiled as she turned back to their little group. “Killed the guy who poisoned Karryl—that’s her mate over there with her—and tried to claim her point blank. Bullet between the eyes. She’s been a legend here ever since.”

  “Wow…” Eyes wide, Lizzie looked over at the couple again. The big Lathar had taken his human mate in his arms, leading her out onto the dance floor. He didn’t seem at all bothered that she had what amounted to a hand cannon hidden somewhere in her skirts.

  “Like I said, they must be new at court. No male who recognized her or Karryl would be stupid enough to make a move on Jane.” Jess frowned as she looked at her glass, now empty. “Dammit, this stuff is too nice.”

  “Here. Let me get you another.” Lizzie held her hand out for the glass. A quick glance at her mom’s revealed it was mostly full, forgotten as she chatted with a woman from a nearby group.

  “No, no. Don’t get up. I’ll go in a moment.”

  “Seriously,” Lizzie huffed in frustration. “I was lying down for like… months. I’m sure I can get a drink without a problem.”

  Taking the glass, Lizzie was off like a greyhound before her sister could decide to come with her. She loved Jess to bits, but sometimes she needed a little space from her prettier, smarter and funnier twin. It had always been the same, Lizzie feeling like she faded into the background when compared to Jess. She knew her sister didn’t do it on purpose and would probably be horrified that Lizzie felt that way sometimes, but… yeah, occasionally she needed a little space.

  Heading across the room, she smiled at a couple of women as she passed them. She tried not to make eye contact with the alien men, not after seeing how those guys had moved in on Jane. And unlike the tall blonde, Lizzie didn’t have the back-up of a cannon in her skirts.

  She reached the drinks table without incident and refilled both glasses she carried. But, just as she was about to turn and walk back to her family, a group of males swept past her and a hand under her arm swept her out of the room and onto the terrace. It was
done so quickly and neatly, she barely had time to protest. One moment she was in the ballroom, and the next she was backing up away from the three big men trying to surround her.

  “Hey, pretty lady,” one of them smiled, but the expression didn’t quite reach his eyes. It made her shiver. In a bad way.

  “Excuse me, please. I need to take these back,” she said, holding up her glasses.

  “That’s not polite,” another, leaning against the wall, protested. “You’re a guest on our planet. The least you can do is talk to us.”

  She didn’t want to talk to them. She didn’t want anything to do with them. Unlike the Lathar she’d met so far, who were polite and pleasant, these sent the hackles on the back of her neck rising.

  “Actually, I’m a guest of Laarn K’Vass,” she said, keeping her voice just this side of polite. With a definite option of “not polite” or even “I will be making a complaint to your boss.” She’d had to deal with assholes like this in lab placements before, so she knew how to handle them. She hoped anyway. “So direct any issues with my manners to him.”

  The mention of the lord healer seemed to make the two at the back nervous. “Errr… Raaneth… perhaps we shouldn’t bother the lady any further?”

  “Yeah, I mean if she doesn’t want to talk to us, others might.”

  Huh, wouldn’t count on it, boys, she thought. Not with this approach.

  But either Raaneth was stupid, or… he was stupid. He shrugged their concerns off.

  “No, she’ll talk to us. Wouldn’t you, beautiful? Grab her…” he ordered, lunging forward.

  But Lizzie was ready for them. She flung the contents of her glass into their eyes with a shriek and ran, vaulting the low wall and fleeing into the gardens.

  * * *

  The ball was well underway.

  Saal lifted his head and leaned on his scythe to listen to the sound of music drifting over the imperial gardens. He’d opted to work tonight because of the ball. Too lowly ranked to hope for an invitation, it was the only way he could get anywhere near Lizzie and have a hope of glimpsing her in her finery… even if she probably had no clue he was out here. But then the sounds of music were drowned out by other, closer noises and he frowned.