Dangerous Lovers (167 page)

It had taken her awhile, but she finally figured out how to get from her quarters to the training facility. This place was confusing as hell. She took an elevator that didn’t just go up and down, it went backwards, forwards and sideways. She was so discombobulated when she got off the damn thing, she could never figure out if she had to go left or right. After days of wandering around in no man’s land, she began trail blazing. Wrapping elastic hair ties everywhere, she was finally able to find her way around.

What she didn’t know was that Tak and Jurek found out about this and early this morning, they changed the location of all her hair ties. They were spying on her as she wandered around, and unbeknown to her, she was walking around in a large circle. Everything looked the same on the space station...white, white and more white. There were no signs anywhere...well, none that she could read. There were symbols everywhere, similar to the tattoos that Jurek bore on his arms and that sexy one on his hip. Her mind drifted to that work of art and its location and how she wanted to run her fingers across it.

Whoa ... where the hell am I? I should have been there by now!

Liasare turned around and backtracked, but dammit all, everything looked the same to her. She wondered why these Praestani had such a penchant for white and monotony. She felt like taking some spray paint and livening up this place.

Tak and Jurek were howling as they watched her. “Do you think we need to rescue her,” Tak asked.

“I suppose that would be the nice thing to do,” Jurek laughed.

“She has provided us with some badly needed amusement, hasn’t she?”

“And no doubt we will pay for it later.”

Liasare stood there, trying to decide what her next move would be. She was damned if she’d call out to Jurek. As her bad luck would have it, she looked up to see Tak approaching her.

“Hey there Brownie. What are you doing all the way over here?”

“Oh, I thought I would go for a stroll. What the hell does it look like?” she snapped.

“You’re late, and the lord of the manor is not happy.”

“The lord of the manor can kiss my ass. Do you Praestani not believe in any color besides white?”

“What do you mean?” Tak wondered, truly puzzled by her odd question.

“Open your eyes, fool. Every-fucking-thing is white. Is that the only paint choice you have where you hail from?”

Tak burst out in laughter and didn’t stop for a long time.

They entered the training facility and Jurek raised his brows at Tak.

“Brownie was asking if we had other colors on Praestan.”

“What?”

“Everything here is white. White walls, white furniture, white clothing. I could stand next to the wall and you wouldn’t even notice me.”

“Oh, I would definitely notice
you
Liasare,” Jurek said in a throaty whisper.

Liasare’s stomach immediately turned into a handful of twisted knots.
Okay, change of subject here.

“Sorry I’m late. I got a tad lost.”

“You’re fighting Tak today. Gear up,” Jurek said curtly.

Hmmm, insta-change-a-mood,
she thought.

She looked at Jurek beneath her lashes and saw him staring intently at her. Her cheeks grew hot as she flushed and she could barely tear her eyes away from him. She sighed deeply as she put on her protective gear.

Jurek instructed her every move while she fought Tak. As the day progressed, so did her technique. Immensely. Her improvement was so great, he commented on it at the end of the day, surprising her.

“I think you want to hurt Tak. You fight him like a warrior. Excellent job Liasare. Meet us in the dining facility in one hour for dinner tonight. We discuss our return to Earth.”

They both popped out of the room, leaving her standing there, her mouth forming a huge O.

Chapter Fourteen

Dining facility? Return to Earth? WTF!

Liasare fumbled her way back to her room. It took her quite a while to get there, having to stop and ask directions several times. That left her little time to get ready so she took a brief shower and hurriedly dressed in a pair of white (no surprise there) form fitting pants with a matching long sleeved shirt. Then she wondered how the heck she was supposed to get to the dining facility, wherever that might be. About that time, her viewing platform lit up and Naroo’s face appeared.

“My lady...”

“Ahhh,” Liasare screamed as she spun around. “Crap Naroo, you scared me to death!”

“Forgive me, my lady. My intent was not to frighten you. I wanted to ask if you were ready. I was told to escort you to the dining facility.”

“Yes,” Liasare sighed, her heart pounding a million beats a second. “Thanks, I think.”

She heard a pop and there stood Naroo.

“Why didn’t someone tell me that window could do that?”

“I apologize, my lady. I suppose we all forgot,” Naroo said, bowing. She was dressed in a white flowing robe that tied at the waist.

“Whew, you really scared the crap out of me. And Naroo, please call me Liasare.” Liasare rubbed her chest as she spoke.

“Oh, that I can’t do, my lady. As a guest of my lord Jurek, I must address you appropriately.”

“May I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“Why do you call Jurek, ‘My lord?’”

“Because that is what he is. He is our lord and ruler.”

“Oh.” This really puzzled Liasare. Lord and ruler of what, she wondered? “May I ask you something else?” Naroo nodded. “Why is everything white?”

“White is the color of power and Praestani equates it to power. It is Light or the opposite of Dark. It is the true meaning of our species my lady.” Naroo’s beautiful eyes were wide and glowing when she spoke and her lips had curved into a soft smile, making her even more beautiful. Liasare decided she liked this woman very much.

“Thank you for sharing that Naroo. Please don’t think I’m hitting on you or anything, but you are very beautiful. I’ve never met a woman without hair and you are the loveliest thing I’ve ever seen. You’re tattoos are amazing.”

Naroo face flushed. “Why, thank you my lady. The Praestani women have no hair. Some hate it but I don’t mind it. Less time in the shower I say,” she laughed. Liasare joined her in laughter.

“Okay, this is going to sound really strange but I find myself drawn to you. As in friendship. I’ve never had a girlfriend before. When I was young, all the kids made fun of me because I’d been in an accident that left me covered in horrible scars. So I never hung out with any of them. Anyway, I hope you don’t think I’m geeky or anything,” Liasare ended, as she reached for Naroo’s hand and gave it a slight squeeze.

“What happened to your scars, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Oh, Jurek healed me,” Liasare informed her.

Naroo’s eyes widened. “My lady, this is true?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“My lord Jurek normally doesn’t heal humans. You must be special to him indeed.”

Liasare’s heart tripped at Naroo’s words. The simple thought of that man did strange things to her body. “I don’t think so. I think he barely tolerates me.”

“You don’t truly believe that. Your mind is telling me quite a different story. My lord Jurek is a difficult man, yes, but a great man, to be sure. My lady, he will guard you and protect you. This I can say with certainty.”

Liasare grabbed Naroo’s arms. “Why? Why does he do this?”

“Who is to say? He has his reasons. Come, we must go before we are late.”

***

When they entered the dining hall, all the men were already seated. Jurek sat at the head of the table, with Tak to his left. Sitting next to Tak was Ludo. Across from Ludo was Marik. There was an empty seat that was suspiciously empty on Jurek’s right. His eyes motioned to Liasare to have a seat there. Naroo sat at the end opposite from Jurek.

Liasare eyed Jurek as she took her seat. He was dressed entirely in black, which contrasted with the lightness of his lavender eyes.

The men were drinking some sort of golden liquid and Jurek reached to fill Liasare’s glass. She watched the muscles of his shoulders shift as his shirt stretched across them when he poured the liquid into her glass. She briefly wondered if he dressed like this to entice her, or if wore tight shirts just to emphasize his beautiful physique.

“Go easy on this. It’s Praestani wine. It’s much more potent than what you’re used to.”

Liasare took a sip and the wine slid down her throat with ease. It was the most delicious wine she had ever tasted.

“This is wonderful!” she exclaimed. Jurek lips curved into a sexy smile that she would have liked to stare at all night, except Tak interrupted her thoughts.

“So Brownie likes our wine, does she?”

“Yes, she does. Are you going to be pleasant tonight Tak or are you going to be a big pain in my ass?”

The others at the table chuckled, but Jurek reached over and grabbed Liasare’s hand and asked, “I would ask that you both behave tonight. We have some important matters that need to be discussed.” He leaned back in his chair, but failed to release her hand.

“So, what’s on the agenda?” Liasare asked.

“We will go back to Earth in two weeks time. Tak and Marik have found us new headquarters and are nearly done outfitting them. Then we need to continue our work. Marik has some information you may have some interest in Liasare.”

Liasare’s eyes swung to Marik. Generally the quiet one, he wasn’t comfortable speaking in front of the group. Possessing the same dark hair, lavender eyes and tattoos on his arms, his facial features were harsher, giving him a more frightening appearance.

“I have more information on the Xanthian minions. The warehouse your brother used as an address is where some of them live. There are others just like it dotted across the city. The Xanthians use the minions for their dirty work. They take orders and are expendable. We’ve tracked some of them through their DNA and they match some of the missing persons that have been reported. The problem is that there are so many missing now, it would be virtually impossible to track every single person. What we want to do is use you to help us find your brother so we can bring him in for questioning. If that fails, then we will need to employ our mind reading capabilities.”

Tightening his hold on her hand Jurek leaned forward and asked, “Are you up to this task Liasare? This would mean another confrontation. You will have to put your feelings aside and deal with him as you would someone you had no connection to. Can you do this?”

Without pausing to think, she instantly answered, “Yes. Absolutely. I want to know what’s going on and I want to help in any way I can. I definitely want to help Thomas. So yes, count me in.” She looked around the table to see them all, except for Jurek, regarding her skeptically.

Tak eyed her for a moment and then said, “No fuck-ups this time Brownie. That last one set us back big time. I don’t care if you come face to face with that POS brother of yours a dozen times. No reaction. Got it? Or I’ll personally kick your ass back to Vesturon. Are we clear?”

“Yes, I hear you loud and clear asshat. And for the record, my brother is
not
a piece of shit.
You
got that? Something’s going on. I
know
it. Thomas wouldn’t do this because he wanted to become a Xanthian. You don’t know him like I do.”

When she finished, her hands were trembling. Jurek took her chin in his hand, turning her head toward him. He lowered his voice to almost a whisper. As usual, it sent shivers down her spine. “Tak’s right Liasare. We can’t afford any more mishaps. If you don’t think you can handle this, let us know tonight. I do not judge. I only seek to move this mission forward.” He was lightly drawing circles on the inside of her wrist with his thumb, making it difficult to concentrate.

“
Look at me Liasare
.” She knew he was using his Praestani mojo on her because her will fled and she did as he commanded. “Are you able to assist us without becoming emotionally entangled?”

“I am. I swear I won’t mess things up.” She felt his power flee as he released her.

“Good. Tak, what are our plans?”

“Excuse me...are we going to eat soon. I’m starving,” Liasare interrupted.

“Humans,” Tak said under his breath.

Liasare flipped him off and Marik laughed.

Jurek snapped his fingers and servers surrounded the table with platters of food. Some of it smelled delicious and then there were things that, well, smelled a bit sketchy to Liasare.

Jurek picked up Liasare’s plate and filled it with all sorts of things.

“Hey, what is that stuff?” she wanted to know.

“Things you will like. One day, you will learn to trust me,” he informed her.

She eyed the food suspiciously, but she was so ravenous, she tried the first bite and it was so tasty her plate was wiped clean before she was aware of it.