Dangerous Lovers (164 page)

She had intended to grab the robe behind the door, but looked in dismay as the door lay on the floor, the robe lying beneath it. She turned to leave, but Jurek grabbed her wrist before she could take another step.

“Not so fast. We have unsettled business between us.” He dragged her back into the bedroom and pushed her down on the couch.

“I’d like something to put on, dammit.”

“I like you just the way you are.” His eyes raked over her and he didn’t miss one tiny detail. He ran his tongue along his bottom lip as he put his hand behind his neck. She watched as every muscle in his body leaped out at her, almost as if they were taunting her.

Liasare wished he didn’t have this effect on her but every time he did that little thing with his tongue on his lip, she wanted to grab his head and start kissing him, taking up where his tongue left off. Her lips parted as thoughts of that kept swirling through her mind and, dammit all, she looked down to see her nipples standing at full attention.

Fuck shit hell damn!

She lifted her eyes to his and saw that he wore a smug expression on his face. Her face began to burn with embarrassment and she scowled. She had no doubt he knew exactly where her thoughts had been as his eyes dropped to her chest.

“Oh, rest assured Liasare, you have quite the same effect on me.” His eyes glanced down to his groin and hers followed and she sucked in her breath as she clearly saw the outline of his ample erection through the flimsy boxers he wore.

“So, what did you want to discuss?” she squeaked.

“I want to know all the details of exactly what happened last night.”

“Why? So you can throw more things around and scare me again? Does that make you feel strong? Let me know you’re my
superior
?” Every word dripped acid, and Jurek flinched, feeling ashamed of how he’d lost control.

“I need to know for safety purposes. And I won’t apologize for my loss of control. You disobeyed me and made a fuck-up out of everything.”

“Look, it seems to me that you want me to trust
you
with
my
life, yet you don’t think I’m capable of anything except for fucking things up. Tell you what. Let’s pretend none of this ever happened. I’ll go my way, and you go yours. I know where my brother is. I don’t know what’s happened to him. I know he’s not himself, but I’ll figure it out. I’ll become a Xanthian sex slave if I must.”

Jurek reacted to her words as if he’d been struck and before she could utter one more thing, he growled, “You’ll do no such thing. You will
never
be slave to a Xanthian. I will kill any Xanthian who so much as touches you.”

Liasare was shocked by the vehemence in his voice.

“Jurek, I can’t stay here anymore. You don’t think I’m smart enough, or worthy enough, or strong enough, or whatever to be trusted with what you’re not telling me. The ‘it’s complicated’ thing keeps getting in our way. We always fight. This attraction, or whatever it is between us, clouds our judgment but it also seems it can’t be ignored either. Last night, when I saw my brother, I touched him.”

“Oh gods, please tell me you didn’t,” he threw back his head and moaned.

“Why?”

“Just tell me!”

“I touched him Jurek! I touched him last night because I
had
to.”

“Fuck! This is not good.”

“That was my
brother Jurek!
I don’t expect you to understand this, but he was the one who nursed me back to health after my accident. He blamed himself for it every day of his life. He took care of me after every surgery I had. He was the one that clapped for me when I graduated from the Academy of Sciences. He was the one who kept me company when I didn’t have any friends, when they all called me names because I was so scarred. He was the one who wiped my tears when they made fun of me. It was never my mother it was my brother. That’s why I had to touch him. He didn’t even know me Jurek. And then he put a fucking bullet in me,” she finished, dropping her head into her hands.

Jurek was on his feet yelling, “Tak, Ludo, Marik! In my quarters!
NOW
!” The walls shook with his voice and Liasare felt it penetrate to the very depths of her bones. She thought she would have heard him if she’d been in the next county.

Beams of energy streaked in the room seconds later and the three men appeared.

“All plans to abandon the warehouse are now in effect. Teleport everything of importance...data files, our Praestani weapons cache and so forth. I’ll handle the security equipment in here. Everything that has a Praestani footprint goes to Lare-Stell. We have--on the very outside--thirty minutes. Set security and shields and then set for self-destruct. I don’t want those bastards to find anything, got it?”

“Yes. Like your outfit, Brownie,” Tak said right before he flashed out of the room. Liasare and Jurek had forgotten she was all but naked.

“Christ!” Jurek snapped. “Davidson, go to my closet and put on a goddamn shirt. We have to get out of here.”

Liasare grabbed the first shirt she could put her hands on. Meanwhile, Jurek had opened a hidden door on the wall in the bedroom that led to the security room and was in there teleporting equipment. When she entered, he tossed her a teleporter saying, “It’s set for Lare-Stell. Just point and tap. Everything goes.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I’ll explain later. If I tell you to go, teleport yourself. Everything’s set. Just tap the teleporter and get out of here. You got it?”

“Yes,” she said, her head spinning.

Twenty minutes later, the room was empty. She looked at Jurek and he grabbed her arm at about the time they heard banging on the outside doors. “Let’s go.”

Chapter Twelve

Lare-Stell Base

Jurek, Liasare, Ludo, Marik and Naroo sat around the conference table discussing their options.

“I told you already. I didn’t know their bullets had tracers in them. I didn’t know if I touched them they could track me. Maybe if you would bring me in the loop and tell me these things, I wouldn’t have made such a mess, dammit. You blame me for the fuck-up. If you ask me, it’s your fault. How the hell was I supposed to know this? Osmosis?”

“Osmosis?” Tak echoed.

“Yes, osmosis dammit! It’s a metaphor, Tak.”

“You’re funny Brownie. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but she makes a good point Jurek. We never told her any of that.”

Jurek gave Tak a withering look and snarled, “It doesn’t matter. She was instructed to get me if anything unusual happened. Seeing her brother would certainly be classified as unusual. I could have brought him to the warehouse for questioning.”

“Ugh! Why don’t you put me in jail then? Or ground me? Or maybe take away my dessert for a week? You have the maturity of a damn twelve year old, or at least that’s the way you’re behaving,” Liasare ground out.

Jurek glared at her as she slouched in her chair. She was exhausted. Mentally and physically. Inwardly she was fuming though. She was still wearing his shirt and those damn thong panties because he hadn’t allowed her to change clothes.

They’d arrived at Lare-Stell, Jurek’s space station, which was his main base for his business operations, LS Enterprises. There was so much about this man Liasare didn’t know. For instance, everyone at Lare-Stell
revered
him, as if he were some type of regal entity. They literally bowed to him. Liasare laughed when she first saw it.

Jurek, noticing Liasare’s exhaustion motioned to Naroo, another female, to escort her to her quarters. Though Liasare left Earth as a young girl, she had traveled by means of a teleporter. The only other time she traveled through space was when she came back to Earth to find Tommy. She was in a deep sleep then so in reality, this was her first time in space. Naroo noticed how Liasare’s eyes grew bigger each time they passed a viewing station.

“You will have ample opportunity to star gaze from your quarters. You have a large viewing deck there for your pleasure.”

“Really?” Liasare asked, intrigued. Naroo also intrigued her. She was quite stunning in a most unusual way. She was completely bald. In fact, all of the women Liasare had seen here were bald. She made a mental note to ask Jurek about that...that is if she ever spoke to him again. Naroo also had tattoos that covered the side of her neck, face and head. They were the same markings that Jurek had on his arms. Her eyes were the same as Jurek’s--lavender, rimmed in indigo with silver swirls in their depths. Tall and golden skinned, she was truly beautiful. Exotic was how Liasare thought of her.

“Oh yes, and there are many other things at your disposal. I will show you.”

Naroo gave her a brief tour of the station en route. She also gave Liasare some additional items of clothing. Liasare was very grateful and was sure to thank Naroo for her kindness.

When they reached her quarters, Naroo gave Liasare brief instructions. Her quarters looked tiny. They consisted of a small bathroom and another small room sparsely furnished with a bed, side table and the viewing platform as promised. There was a built-in seat that ran the length of the platform, which Liasare immediately thought would be an ideal spot to curl up and read a book.

“Don’t let the size of your quarters fool you my lady, the transmuters on the wall can alter this room into anything you wish for it to be,” Naroo said.

“Huh?”

“My lord Jurek will explain this to you later. I can see you are in need of sleep so I bid you good night.”

“Thank you Naroo.”

Liasare felt her eyes drifting shut before she made it to her bed.

***

The tawny-skinned man grabbed her and pulled her to him, kissing her and running his hands over her body. She sighed as she leaned into him, wanting more. Even though she felt something was missing, she didn’t want him to stop. She couldn’t see his face, so she asked him to turn to the light.

“I want to see you. Reveal yourself, please.”

No response, yet his hands didn’t stop what they were doing to her. They pulled her shirt from her body, sliding it sensually along the way, and when it was gone, she felt the cool air brush across her skin, teasing her nipples into hardened buttons. His mouth dropped to her breasts as his tongue made tiny circles on her skin, growing closer and closer to her sensitive nubs. Suddenly, he took one of her nipples into his mouth, sucking on it, sending tingling waves of pleasure down to that place between her legs. She moaned and arched her back.

“Do you intend to sleep away the week?” a husky voice breathed in her ear. Instinctively, she reached out her arms and entwined them around his neck, pulling him against her.

That scent she had come to love filled her nostrils and she inhaled deeply. Heady exotic spices permeated her head as she rubbed herself against him. “Why do you have to smell so damn good?” she murmured. She opened her eyes, and felt like she had been doused with a bucket of ice cold water.

“What the hell?” she yelled, pushing him away and scrambling around in her bed, getting tangled in her sheets.

“Must’ve been one hell of a dream you were having Davidson,” he remarked dryly.

“Is nothing sacred around here? Can I not sleep in private? Do you ever knock or announce yourself? You are so rude!” she yelled, trying to hide her mortification.

“So I’ve been told! But tell me Davidson, what
were
you dreaming about that had you moaning so?” His eyes raked her over, lingering on her hardened peaks, still aroused from the sensuous dream he had interrupted.

Liasare, finally untangling herself from the sheets, rolled out of bed, red faced, and headed to the bathroom saying, “It’s none of your damn business Jurek!”

His laughter followed her. She prayed he would be gone by the time she finished her morning routine. That wasn’t the case.

“We need to have a talk,” he announced as she came out of the bathroom.

“Is that so?”

“I think it’s time I shared some things about myself with you.”

Liasare’s jaw hit the floor as she looked at him like a deer in the headlights. “Wait a minute. You look like Jurek and you even sound like him, but there has to be a mistake. Where’s the real Jurek?”

“Funny, Davidson. I’m trying to open up here and you’re making a joke,” he snapped.

“I’m not making a joke.” Okay, maybe she was. Dammit, the man constantly messed with her head. She never knew what to expect from him--flying furniture or compliments. She narrowed her eyes and perused him from head to toe.

“I hope you like what you see because you’re spending a hell of a lot of time checking me out.”

“You think you’re so damn hilarious, don’t you?”

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. My charming sense of humor has never gained me any friends or influenced anyone. It would do you well to remember that.”

“Well, go on then. Tell me what you feel is so pressing about yourself now, when before I was an inconsequential nonentity unworthy of hearing any details of your great existence.”