Amy's Advantage (2 page)

“There’s soap and shampoo in the bathroom.”

“I’ll just wait until I hear from Aurora or Ellen. We were
all staying here together.”

There was a pause as Jordyn looked at her, and Amy was sure
he was trying to put pieces together that would never fit because he was
missing most of them. She intended to keep it that way.

With a glance around the room, empty of all personal belongings
except Chloe’s old diaper bag, he added, “It looks like no one intended to
return.”

Thinking fast, Amy explained. “Aurora and I were planning on
driving back to Austin tonight and Ellen always travels light.”

Jordyn’s eyebrows rose slightly at her explanation, but he
didn’t question it. “Neither Ellen nor Aurora will be coming back here. I’ll
give you some privacy and get some supplies.”

“Supplies? Supplies for what?”

“You and Chloe.”

Amy pushed off the bed. “We’re fine. The room’s been paid
for, so there’s really no reason for you to stay.” Flicking a straggling curl
off her face, she said, “Thanks for the help at the River Walk and making sure
Chloe and I got back to our hotel okay.” With a shrug, she gave him what she
hoped was a nonchalant, don’t-worry-about-us smile. “It was all a little
bizarre, but we’re all fine now. I’m sure you have somewhere else to be.”

Her placating tone was hard to hang on to with such an
intimidating man scowling down at her and making no movement to walk out of the
room.

“Sooooooo
¼
” she
said, tilting her head toward the door. Not wanting to provoke the large,
dangerous man in front of her, she was doing her best to curb her normal
directness. “You’re free to go.”

The man’s face could have been made of granite for all the change
in expression her statement wrought. He was really starting to exasperate her.

“Look,” she said, crossing her arms and throwing her weight
to one hip and giving up on the subtle approach, “I don’t know why you grabbed
us in the first place, but I was going to let it slide, since there were
apparent maniacs on the loose and my daughter was in the middle of it. But now
you’re pushing things. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself and my
child and we both need our rest, so I’d appreciate it if you left without
giving me a reason to call the police.”

“You are free to go to sleep,” he said.

“Ha!” she barked, throwing her arms in the air. At her
outburst, a whimper of sleepy complaint came from Chloe. Amy turned to see if
she had woken up, but after scooting deeper into the blankets, Chloe fell
silent again.

“See?” she hissed at Jordyn. “You’re waking up the baby.”
When he made no move to respond to the baiting, she continued, “And there is no
way I’m sleeping in a hotel room with a strange man.”

Jordyn’s eyes turned flint hard and his face settled back
into granite.

For the first time, she started to worry about the man’s
true intentions. There might have been something to all the trust issues Ellen
had with these people. If this man was any indication of what an Ilyrian male
was like, no wonder her sister had been less than happy that they had made an
appearance after an absence of over twenty-five years.

“Just who the hell are you and what do you really want?”

Jordyn could feel the pull of muscles in the outer corners
of his eyes as he stared down at the beautiful puzzle in front of him. To him,
it was painfully clear that his commanders didn’t have the full story when it
came to this woman, who had a habit of brushing her deep red curls off her face
whenever she got nervous, not seeming to notice that they simply fell back into
place within seconds.

Dark circles underlined her clear green eyes—clear as the
Ilyrian sea green eyes. She pushed a wayward curl back out of her face and
continued to stare up at him.

Officially, he should have been on his way back to Colorado.
Though one of the highest ranking officers in the Ilyrian military, he still
followed the commands of the Royal Heads of House he served. Amdyn Kilth, the
eldest and the firstborn of the First House, was in charge of this arm of the
mission to recover the Mystic daughters who had disappeared into this world
when Magdalyne took all four of her children and escaped through an unmanned
portal during an enemy attack.

According to the last message he’d received from Amdyn, the
final two daughters they’d sought had been found and were at that moment
returning with their mates to Colorado, and from there, back to Ilyria. After
so many years, it should have brought him only peace that the last of
Magdalyne’s daughters had finally been found. He should have been feeling
nothing but relief at being assured all four women with the Mystic bloodline
necessary for the survival of his world were on their way back to Ilyria. It
absolutely should have.

It didn’t.

And the reason it didn’t was staring up at him with wary
emerald eyes that pulled on him in a way he wasn’t ready to accept. But he
couldn’t let it go either.

The woman wasn’t being honest with him. He knew things
weren’t adding up from the incident on the River Walk, but he was already out
of time. Tonight, Esraina and Ellyna had been found and returned to their
rightful mates, Connyn and Amdyn. The prophecy was well on its way to being
fulfilled and Amdyn wanted all personnel heading back to Colorado to start
clearing out of this world immediately.

But every honed sense he possessed was screaming at him that
this woman in front of him was hiding something. Something that was very, very
important.

She shoved another curl away from her face, tucking it
behind her ear this time, and asked, “Are you going to answer me or just stand
there staring at me?”

The curl she had just tucked away sprang forward again and
he had an unexpected urge to reach out and touch the rebellious ringlet. Dark
streaks of fiery red strands wound through all her curls, and in the
low-wattage light of the hotel lamps, her hair glowed as if it had been set to
a slow-burning blaze. But touching her the first time had been a mistake.
Touching her now would border on extreme idiocy.

“Well?” she pushed, impatiently crossing her arms under her
breasts and drawing his attention to the deepened cleavage visible from the
neckline of her sweater.

Slowly, he dragged his gaze up from her breasts to the fire
sparking out of her eyes.

“I think,” he said pointedly, “the better question is, who
are you and what were you doing with Ellyna and Esraina?”

The woman paled just enough to emphasize a scattering of
light freckles over her nose and cheeks, yet she didn’t back down. In fact, she
leaned slightly forward, leading with her chin. “If you’re talking about Ellen
and Aurora, they’re my friends. They were watching my daughter while I did some
quick shopping.”

A scene from tonight’s incident flashed through his mind. At
the time, it hadn’t seemed quite right, but everything had happened so fast,
there hadn’t been time to think it through. Now he realized that it proved the
woman was lying to him, because it had been her reaction that had signaled to
him that something was wrong. Besides, now that she was standing in front of
him, actively trying to mislead him, he realized just how bad a liar she was.

“They were babysitting?” he asked, letting his skepticism
bleed through his words.

“Yes.”

“When they were planning on meeting men?”

Amy shrugged and looked away. “I don’t know anything about
that. You’d have to ask them.”

Her reaction solidified the hunch that she was hiding
something. Jordyn took a step closer to her and lowered his voice. “You do
know.”

Those deep green eyes that were beginning to have a serious
effect on his concentration swung back to him, once more ablaze with anger.
This time, however, there was clear fright beneath it. “Look, you might think I
owe you something for helping to get my daughter out of there tonight, but I
didn’t ask for your help on the River Walk and I’m certainly not asking you for
anything now. You’ve fulfilled your heroic duty for the day and are free to
leave. Emphasis on
leave
.”

For some perverse reason, having her tell him to go away
stirred up more than anger inside of him. Adding a threatening edge to his
voice, he leaned in closer. “You weren’t shopping. You were watching Ellyna and
Esraina from behind a vendor’s cart.”

Eyes narrowing to slits of green fire, Amy matched his
movement, bringing her within inches of him. “I was checking on my daughter.”

She was lying again. Her stillness among the rest of the
holiday crowd had caught his attention tonight when Amdyn and Connyn had met
their mates. Amdyn still shared the telepathic link with his mate that had
begun to be forged in the five years after their Matching Ritual. Since the
ceremony took place when they were both so young, he’d been afraid the link
wouldn’t continue to hold until he could find her.

Indeed, it had seemed to have faded almost completely for years
at a time before gaining sudden sporadic bursts of strength and clarity. One of
those telepathic blips had led them to where Esraina and Ellyna were going to
be tonight. How the Predators knew as well was a question that still needed
answering and he had a strong feeling that Amy was somehow connected to that
answer.

She had watched the scene play out between Connyn and Amdyn
and their mates with a dedicated focus that had pricked his senses and brought
her to his awareness before the Predators had shown up. Moments before the
Sleht trackers entered, she had jerked abruptly and looked around in panic,
fright stamped on her face. She was already moving toward Chloe before the
first Predator made an appearance. But he’d had the advantage of having a closer,
clearer shot at the child and scooped her up and away from danger before Amy
could reach her.

“You knew the Predators were there before anyone else.”

Amy’s eyes widened with shock and her head snapped back so
quickly, a cascade of curls flew forward to cover her eyes. Immediately she
shoved them back. “Are you saying I had something to do with those monsters
being there?”

Slowly, Jordyn straightened. Folding his arms over his
chest, he considered her carefully. Anyone who had seen her expression as she
raced toward Chloe would not for a second believe she’d had anything to do with
Predators’ arrival tonight. Driven by an obvious desperation and determination
to reach her child, the woman had cut a path through the crowded open café that
would have done a crazed bull proud. Yet she was definitely hiding something.
“Possibly.”

Curling her hands into fists at her sides, Amy took a deep
breath and let it out with a hiss. “Get out.”

“Did you?”

“As I said before, you don’t know me. I would
never
put
my daughter’s life at risk. Not for any reason. Now get out.”

An oath sat on the tip of his tongue. He should already be
on his way back to Colorado along with the rest of his team. The situation had
been handled and the two sisters had been removed to safety. His commander had
told him to leave. This woman had told him to leave.

Instinct was telling him to stay.

Chapter Two

Ellen jumped as the door crashed against the wall of the
large master bedroom she’d been sharing with Amdyn since her arrival at this
large, rambling farmhouse the Royals had remade into a small, but well
fortified compound for the duration of their stay in this world. Located in the
middle of the Colorado mountains, it was well hidden from general civilization
and the prying eyes that accompanied more populated areas.

Though she knew it was coming, she still cringed as the door
slammed shut. Pretending to ignore the noise, she kept brushing her teeth and
steeled herself for the angry hunk of man sure to be bursting through the
bathroom door in about four seconds. Her estimation was off by at least two
seconds.

Violently, the bathroom door swung open and the doorway was
immediately filled by a very large, very sexy and very angry man. Her Ilyrian
“mate” stood glaring at her, arms crossed over his muscular chest as he met her
gaze in the vanity’s mirror. For someone with eyes the color of clear blue ice,
the man could set the ocean on fire with the blazing fury he leveled on her.

“When were you going to tell me?”

She blinked to break the eye contact and set her toothbrush
on the counter. Picking up the towel that she’d placed next to the basin, she
wiped her mouth slowly, giving herself time to shore up her mental defenses.
She could already feel him pushing against her mind, his probe fueled by a depth
of anger she’d not seen in him before. Surprising, given that she’d defied him
on so many levels over so many things since the night he’d whisked her away
from her sisters on the River Walk several weeks ago.

“Tell you what?” she asked, turning to face him. She kept
her voice neutral, but her fingers nervously tugged the belt of her robe
tighter.

Amdyn stepped forward, crowding her against the vanity’s
countertop. “Aurora.”

Ellen’s heart pummeled her breastbone with a brutal beat.
“What about her?”

A muscle in Amdyn’s jaw ticked as he glared down at her. He
drew in a long, slow breath. “She is not your sister.”

Instinctively, Ellen’s chin tilted up in clear defiance.
“She is.”

“Not by blood.”

“In every way that truly counts, she
is
.”

Amdyn’s frown darkened, but he did not challenge the
comment.

“Where is Esraina?”

Ellen broke eye contact and looked away. “If she wanted to
be found, she knows she has that option.”

“Was she there?”

“Where?”

“Damn it!” Amdyn’s hands came down hard on either side of
the vanity, pinning Ellen between it and him. “This is not the time to play
games. You continue to put yourself and your family in danger and I won’t have
it!”

She didn’t understand the intensity of his anger about this
situation with Aurora. This time, she hadn’t even outright lied to him. She had
simply allowed him to believe what he thought was the truth—for the most part.

It wasn’t as if she hadn’t been living in defiance of him
and his world both before he found her and ever since. She’d even run from him
when Brooke had warned her that the warriors from their homeworld were closing
in on her position. And when he had caught up with her, she had consistently
refused to cooperate in locating the other missing daughters. Her opposition in
this last confrontation seemed minor in comparison, but for some reason, it had
struck him unreasonably deep.

Ellen breathed out slowly and held tightly to her temper.
“Won’t have it? No one was in danger until you and your royal entourage came
blundering into my world.”

Amdyn’s fingers curled into fists. “This is
not
your
world. Ilyria is your world.”

A sudden fury erupted inside Ellen. “Ilyria might have been
my world once. But not anymore. For hours we stayed in that cave, waiting for
the soldiers to come to our rescue like my mother promised us they would. To
take us back to
our
world. Instead, a Predator came after us. Attacked
my mother and nearly killed me. For years—
years
—I waited for you, for
anyone
from Ilyria to come find us. But no one came. No one.” Roughly, she pushed
at his arm, but he didn’t move, keeping her trapped.

“We searched for you from the moment we knew you were gone.”
The edge of anger wasn’t gone from his voice, but was paired with a grief she
refused to deal with. The time for feeling sorry for her or her sisters was
long gone.

“Meanwhile,” she said very deliberately, “we all grew up and
got lives. Lives we should have the chance to keep if we want, not just have
them ripped from us to satisfy some fairytale from a world that nobody but me
even remembers the name of.” This time, when she shoved his arm, he yielded and
she stepped around him to exit the bathroom. Amdyn followed close on her heels.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

Sighing, she stopped and turned around. “What question?” She
winced as a sharp pain shot behind her right eye. “Stop trying to push into my
mind. You’re giving me a headache.”

“If you quit fighting me—”

“I’ll quit fighting you when you let me go!” The words burst
out of her in a rush of emotion, and the moment they were out, she inwardly
cursed her momentary lack of control.

A dangerous light flashed in Amdyn’s eyes. “That will never
happen, Ellyna. I can not let you go. I will not.”

She turned away from him, blinking away tears of fury. “God,
you’re arrogant.”

He reached out and grabbed her arm, his whip-sharp voice
lashing out at her as he spun her back to face him. “I’m your mate.”

The action forced the tears out of her eyes. Angrily, she
swiped at them, but he caught her hand. The hard lines of his expression
softened, tempering the rage in his eyes.

“Ellyna.” Her name, falling from his lips in a gravelly,
frustrated whisper, sounded as both a curse and an endearment. With his thumb,
he brushed away the wayward tears. She slapped his hand away.

“You’re twenty-five years too late to worry about my stupid
tears.”

“They’re not stupid.”

Taking an unsteady breath, she shook her head. “Whatever. I
need some space.” She turned and reached for the doorknob. Amdyn’s large hand
covered hers and immediately she jerked hers from underneath his. Still, she
wasn’t quick enough and the simple touch from his palm sent a jolt of sensation
licking up her arm. Once again she found herself cursing whatever bond from her
distant past that had linked them so intimately.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

She dropped her forehead onto the smooth, cool surface of
the heavy wooden door. “I told you. I need some air.”

“I don’t think so.” Amdyn’s arms came up to cage her from
behind and his hands flattened on the door in front of her. The heat from his
body radiated against her back and suddenly the thick terrycloth robe that had
been so comforting minutes ago felt heavy and itchy against her skin.

“We’re not done talking.” Slipping one of his hands inside
the front of her robe, he caressed the slight curve of her belly. “And you’re
not wearing nearly enough clothes to walk around in front of my men.” His hand
dipped down until his fingers brushed the top of her curls. He gave them a
gentle tug and kissed her neck just below her ear. A sensual shiver caught her
breath and she pushed against the door, managing only to press herself even
closer to her captor.

“Amdyn—” she gasped as he tugged on her curls again, this
time slightly harder. “This isn’t a good time.”

Disregarding her words, he released her curls to untie the
belt of her robe.

“I mean it. I’m too upset with you,” she said.

“And I’m mad as hell at you.”

Her body trembled as he slid the robe off her shoulders,
forcing her to lower her arms so it could drop to the floor around her ankles.
The cool air of the room set an immediate contrast to the heat of Amdyn’s body
radiating against her back. She held herself rigidly away from him, fighting
the instinctive need to lean into his warmth. Then his hands came up and
covered her breasts as he pulled her toward him, giving her no choice but to
back into his solid, unyielding body.

“Fuck.” She hated that she couldn’t keep her damn voice from
rasping or her nipples from peaking.

“Exactly,” he growled. Pushing his booted foot between her
bare ones, he forced her to spread her legs as he squeezed her breasts.

She started to turn, but one of his hands dropped to splay
over her stomach and he clamped her in place against him. Her pussy clenched at
the sudden, full-body contact and she bit the inside of her lip to keep from
moaning. He shifted behind her and the layer of clothes he still wore did
nothing to conceal the hard muscles underneath. Even if his shirt and jeans had
managed to camouflage his desire, he was swamping her mind with erotic images
from their previous sexual rounds.

Though she was facing the door, she was seeing what Amdyn
had seen yesterday morning when he had joined her in the shower.

“Not fair,” she hissed, lust curling through her as memory
became greedy flames of need licking under her skin. The ache for Amdyn started
to spiral as she felt his desire for her, both now and then. She lifted her
hands and pressed them solidly against the door in an attempt to anchor herself
in the present and not be sucked entirely into his sensual trap.

Just as her back was to him now, so had it been when he’d
stepped into the shower, but she’d known he was there, had felt the shift in
the air. Now she knew his gaze had swept over her shoulders and across her
back. It had lingered on the faded, but long scar from a slashing wound she had
received as a child. Even in his memory, the cold anger roused in him at the
sight of that mark was sharp and clear. He knew how she’d come by it, though
she had refused to speak of it herself. The pain was etched too deeply into her
soul to share with a man she didn’t trust.

His gaze had continued to travel down to her legs and then
back up to focus on her ass. His long fingers cupped the right side of her ass
as his thumb slid in between her buttocks, brushing over her anus and evoking a
deep, carnal pull inside of her she hadn’t been prepared for.

As Amdyn shared his memory, she could feel the sharpening
lust her reaction had caused in him. The sight of her ass in his hand and
instinctive clenching of her muscles as he pressed the tip of his thumb into
the tight little opening had made him so hard, he had struggled with the need
to immediately replace his thumb with his cock.

“You weren’t ready,” Amdyn said, his hand sliding between
their bodies and down over her ass. He kneaded one globe, his thumb brushing
over the same sensitive spot. The breath shuddered out of her as she saw the
fantasy playing through his mind of sinking his cock deep into her ass.

“I…I don’t…not…” Jesus. She couldn’t think straight enough
to get a coherent sentence out.

Amdyn’s thumb stopped moving and his hand shifted. “Not
what?” he whispered. His tongue traced the edge of her ear before sucking the
lobe between his lips.

“Not…not…”

His teeth scraped over her lobe as he pulled his mouth away
and his hand moved between her legs. “Not this?” As he asked the question, he
inserted one long finger firmly up into her cunt.

With a gasp, Ellen jerked, but Amdyn held her steady against
him, with his other hand still low on her belly. His finger stroked deep inside
of her, pressing forward as his other hand pressed back. “Cream for me.”

“N-n-n-no,” she stammered.

“No?” His finger slid out and back in easily, thanks to how
turned-on she was becoming. His teeth scraped down the side of her neck as his
finger repeated the motion, emphasizing just how wet she already was. “Too
late.”

“I mean—that’s not—that’s not it. That’s not…” Her words
faded on a moan as he found the spot that made her knees buckle. Only his arm
wrapped around her kept her from falling as her hands slid down the door. He
was talking, but she couldn’t remember what she had been saying “no” to. Though
the smug amusement in his tone at her struggle wasn’t lost on her, she was
having a difficult time following his conversation.

He kissed the side of her neck as his fingertip started to
make tiny circles on the front wall of her cunt. “I love that you get so wet
for me.”

With an effort intended to push away from the door, Ellen
lifted her arms, but instead of pushing away, her arms folded and she dropped
her forehead against them. “Arrogant bastard.”

Pushing two fingers up high inside of her, he twisted them
and whispered against the nape of her neck, “Tell me something I don’t know.”

He rotated his palm on her stomach, pressing in with the
heel, magnifying the sensations of his fingers inside of her. His lips were
doing wicked things just below her ear as his mental assault picked up again.
After he’d fondled her ass in the shower, he’d turned her to focus his
attentions on her front.

From his vantage point yesterday, her breasts, round and
glistening from the shower’s spray, filled his hands as he lifted and pressed
them together. Her nipples were rigid and dark, aching as he had circled them
with his thumbs. The image had her breasts aching for his oh-so-talented mouth
and her pussy clamping around his fingers as she began to drip down the inside
of her thighs.

“Good. Real good.” Even though he was taunting her with his
voice so darkly sensual and his words reinforcing the rhythm of his stroking
deep inside her body, she didn’t care. Couldn’t care.

She gave up all pretense of resistance and rocked her hips
forward. Immediately, Amdyn withdrew his fingers and slid his hand back up
between her ass cheeks, trailing a cooling line of her cream from her cunt to
her anus. Coated in her juices, his finger pushed into her back hole with
little resistance. Still, it was a tight fit and he’d caught her off guard.
When he pressed and twisted his finger in deeper, all her thoughts scattered
and there was suddenly nothing in her world but a fiery carnal sensation and
desperate need.