Rock Hard
Rock Hard
by
LJ Vickery
Book One
Immortals
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.
Rock Hard
COPYRIGHT © 2014 by LJ Vickery
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press, Inc. except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
Contact Information: [email protected]
Cover Art by
Angela Anderson
The Wild Rose Press, Inc.
PO Box 708
Adams Basin, NY 14410-0708
Visit us at www.thewilderroses.com
Publishing History
First Scarlet Rose Edition, 2014
Print ISBN 978-1-62830-631-6
Digital ISBN 978-1-62830-632-3
Published in the United States of America
Dedication
To my wonderful husband and my two children,
Aaron and Sarah, for making life so sweet.
To my mother, Dorothy, and my mother-in-law,
Diane, much love, I couldn’t have done it
without either of you.
To Angela, my editor, thanks for making dreams
come true, and last, but not least, a very special
shout out to my dear friends Irving and Linda
for their cameo appearance.
Trademarks Acknowledgement
The author of this work of fiction
acknowledges the following trademarks:
Calacatta Pearl: Gerd Mattheiss JFR
Spandex: Invista N.A., LLC
Louis Vuitton: Louis Vuitton Malletier (sa)
Prologue
Deep in the Underworld
1624
“They seem more aggressive than usual!” Marduk was holding his own with a spawn from hell.
“I’m not sure why…watch your back!” Anshar’s blade came down, severing a hand and moving smoothly to stab the demon, saving Marduk from being skewered.
The group of thirteen gods was surrounded, which was unusual. Most of their battles in the underworld were fought singularly, god on goblin. It was their lot, their punishment: to battle and be slain with painful regularity, only to be resurrected and fight again.
Marduk looked around at his immortal compatriots. There was no doubt about it, they were being forced into a tighter and tighter circle, flames erupting at their feet to help the fiends battle them back. Strange that none of them had yet been dealt a fatal blow. Stranger still that their god and goddess jailers—Nergal and Ereshkigal—had just appeared on the outskirts of the fray. Marduk wasn’t the only one to notice.
The demons disappeared and the group of immortal warriors lowered their weapons. Marduk raised his brows questioningly at the new arrivals.
“Now that I have your attention,” Ereshkigal announced, stunning in an evil way with her thick black hair drawn back harshly from a pale white face. She walked forward. “You’re being given a new assignment.” She ran a sharp, red nail down Marduk’s chest.
“Let’s see how things unfold for you this time.” Ereshkigal raised her free hand and whipped it around her head.
Chains appeared from nowhere and bound the stunned deities before they could react.
“What is the meaning of this?” Marduk demanded. “Our unending punishment is not enough?” He stared at his shackled wrists with disdain. His companions all raised their voices in ire.
“Silence!” Ereshkigal commanded, and the gods found themselves unable to speak. She laughed evilly.
“Lovely power these chains have,” the goddess purred. “They make even my most powerful beings docile as kittens.” She gave Marduk a knowing look. Ereshkigal had used the restraints on the god before.
“Begone before I change my mind!” She swirled the air again, and thirteen gods vanished into mist.
Chapter One
Present Day
At least this time he had clothes on! Tess was sure it was the same guy she had seen on Wollaston Beach the week before, wandering the tide line, unabashedly naked in the frigid April morning. He had seemed completely unaware of anything around him…that was, until he had looked down at his feet and gone dead still.
She had been sitting on the seawall, twenty feet from the water, pondering the sunrise over the water, when the figure had emerged from the morning mist. At first, she thought her imagination was playing tricks. The man was impossibly tall, more impossibly broad across the shoulders, and most impossibly…devoid of any clothing. She’d watched as he had drawn closer, unable to tear her gaze away from his exquisite proportions. She had never seen a man walk so fluidly, almost gliding across the sand, with only the slightest ripple of taut muscle evident as he moved.
Thick, dark hair brushed his shoulders, swept back from what looked, at a distance, to be an arrogant but noble face and a squared-off chin. She’d had the oddest impression that he was absorbing the air and water around him, growing stronger as the sun sent its first tentative rays reaching skyward.
His corded muscles had swelled with the dawn and he’d turned his back to her, raising his hands to the elements. Tess had been unable to separate the secret places on the front of his body from the shadows still lingering, but there was no doubting the magnificence of his hardened flanks.
If she were the swooning type, this definitely would have been the point where she would have gone down hard. Instead, she’d sat and watched the show. In fact, she had felt compelled to watch, couldn’t bring herself to look away.
Mr. Magnificent had taken another deep breath, his back swelling to an even grander scale, then brought his eyes downward and immediately he’d frozen in place. Tess watched the man go still. Had she imagined that the surf calmed and the seabirds, just beginning to awaken, had silenced? She’d inhaled, shakily, waiting.
The man had raised one foot and placed it gently back down. He’d raised the other foot and moved his toes, then dunked it back into the water and purposely created a small splash. Once through investigating his feet, he’d brought his trembling head up and breathed…no, sniffed the air.
Tess still wasn’t sure why, but she had shifted on her rocky seat, suddenly and overwhelmingly drawn to the man, but feeling the immediate urge to flee. Her instincts had been correct, thank God. When the stranger had finally turned and skewered her with a look of confusion, she had already scrambled to her feet. Her alarm had increased when his eyes burned toward hers. Seeing her body poised for flight, he’d begun sprinting in her direction. He was totally freaking out!
Tess had needed no further prompting. She’d disappeared over the seawall and into her beat-up, rust green SUV, turned the key, and backed onto Quincy Shore Drive. She never looked back at the solitary figure, and it had been a good thing. If she had glanced in her rear-view mirror, she would have been the one in a panic. The glorious male’s body had slowly dissolved into the mist of the early morning light.
Tess had shaken all the way home and, try as she might, she hadn’t been able to dislodge the stranger from her mind all week long.
Now, here stood the same luscious male at Boston’s Fenway Park, leaning casually on the railing behind the box seats facing home plate. He was enjoying the game along with 20,000 other fans. She let her eyes roam over his body and sighed. Yup, same nice ass, only this time it was packed into tight, faded jeans. The man was sinfully built, showing rippling muscles underneath a confining white T-shirt. Her attraction to him ignited again.
It was the top of the seventh on a cool but moonlit Friday night. There were two outs, and the shortstop for the visiting team was at bat. Two strikes and the crowd was getting ready for the seventh inning stretch. Tess sat a mere dozen rows above the dark-haired giant and fumbled for her purse, poised to bolt for the exit ramp if he spotted her. Why she felt the urge to flee again, she didn’t know, especially since she enjoyed looking at him so much. Surely he wouldn’t even recognize her as the peeping chick on the beach, but she was taking no chances.
Several rows below, Marduk felt Anshar’s stare. “Marduk,” the invisible god murmured, as casually as possible under the circumstances. “Don’t say a word.”
Marduk turned his head. “What’s your problem?”
“Dammit man! I told you not to speak.” Anshar swore in frustration, and Marduk’s skin began to crawl. He knew what Anshar was going to say before the words emerged from his friend’s mouth.
“You’re visible again, you supreme idiot.” The invisible gods could always see each other, but the obvious transparency they’d carried for centuries was now missing from Marduk.
“Fuck!” Marduk looked first at his hand, then took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of pretzels and hot dogs, popcorn and beer. Before he got too carried away, he shook off the wondrous sensations and swiftly, with determination, turned to scan the crowd. “She must be here, Anshar. Look for her. A small woman with the slight curves of youth…brown hair like winter straw and black frame glasses.” He spoke out of the side of his mouth, glad there was no one nearby to hear him speak to empty space. The girl was here! He could feel the slight vibration in his chest that had accompanied her presence before.
Marduk had Anshar look around. The thunder god sensed his buddy’s frustration. Every third woman in the stadium fit the description he’d given. Anshar was, however, lord of the whole sky, and known for his unerring eyesight. Marduk willed him to open his senses, and knew when Anshar’s stare was drawn to the mystery woman. She was glancing surreptitiously in their direction with a nervousness that bordered on panic.
“Is that…”
“And now it’s time for the seventh inning stretch!” The booming voice came over the loudspeaker and interrupted Anshar. Marduk cursed as a surge of pressing bodies emerged into the aisle around him, bumping his body ever so slightly as they crowded around to relieve cramped limbs and join in the traditional song. He tried to shake off his discomfort and bring his focus back to Anshar.
“Up there, Marduk. Is that her?” The sky god pointed over the crush of people.
Marduk was momentarily unable to answer, overwhelmed by the “feeling” of humans brushing against him. Not to mention the hard, solid ground beneath his now supple boots, tactile feelings he hadn’t experienced in centuries.
Stop! He breathed in real air. He had to ignore the compelling sensations swamping his body, and force his mind to the important task of finding the girl. He followed Anshar’s finger.
Marduk knew the very instant she became aware of his gaze. She grabbed an absurd bag to her chest and fled, insinuating herself frantically into the stream of traffic. Up the cement steps and down the next aisle, she exited by a ramp several sections away, obviously hoping to lose him.
“I’m going after her.” Marduk was speaking aloud for the first time in centuries, and his voice sounded rusty with dis-use.
People in the vicinity heard his voice as a painful resonance and covered their ears in distress. Marduk grimaced. Surely they wondered what that horrible sound had been and who he was talking to, but after taking one look at his scowling face they all declined to ask. He launched himself toward the bowels of the ballpark, uncaring. “I’ll catch you later.” His voice exploded back to Anshar.
