Dangerous Lovers (176 page)

Her best course of action, she decided, was to forget it ever happened. It was probably just a fluke, a one time occurrence. She quickly dressed and went to hunt down Jurek.

He was in the main area, chatting with Tak, and she almost decided to avoid both of them. She wasn’t up for any more of Tak’s comments about her huge appetite, but before she could retrace her steps, Jurek called her name.

“Davidson, how much food are you consuming each day?”

Crapitty crap! Can’t that pain in the ass called Tak keep his big mouth shut for one minute?

“I don’t know. I don’t keep a running log of what I eat.”

“Then I suggest you start.”

“Why?”

“Because I said so.”

Liasare decided to bite her tongue on that one.

“Can you take me to Jaylen’s?”

“I thought you just had your hair done?”

“I did,” she answered, crossing her arms, preparing for battle.

“Then why do you need to go there?”

“Because I want to.”

Jurek cocked his head as he stared at her. Whenever he did that, she could almost feel his mind waves searching her innermost sacred thoughts. She stiffened her spine and he raised his brow.

“What are you hiding?”

“Huh?” she asked in confusion.

“Why Jaylen’s? Answer me now!”

Before she knew it, she was plastered against the wall, his body pressing into hers. Her breath was cut off as he held his hand against his throat.

“No lies Liasare. I mean it,” he growled.

“I ... I...” she couldn’t speak for his hold on her had cut off her air supply. Her mouth opened and closed like a stupid fish out of water and she was pissed. As her anger built, the urge to push him away overwhelmed her, but his strength prevented her from moving. She wanted nothing more than to punch his lights out, but if he didn’t let her go soon,
her
lights were going to go out. Everything started to go grey when he released her. She immediately dropped to her knees, gulping in as much air as she could. When she regained her senses, she slowly pushed herself to her feet and her hazel eyes shot sparks of golden fire.

“You flaming asshole.” Then she flew at him and punched him wherever she could land one, his face, his neck, his belly, his chest. She kept at it until she lost the ability to swing anymore.

Her chest heaved from exertion and she dripped sweat.

“Are you quite through?”

“No! For your fucking information, not that you deserve an explanation after what you just did to me, I wanted to go to Jaylen’s because I
like
her. I think she’s cool and she’s a friend. I’ve never had any female friends before I met her or Naroo and after a morning of being told I eat like an animal, I wanted to go somewhere where I would feel comfortable, where I wouldn’t be judged, or where I wouldn’t be questioned, or
attacked
.”

She whirled away and stomped back to her room, slamming the door.

Damn stupid men! Nothing but trouble and a major pain in my ass!

Turning around, she didn’t know what to do with herself. She was so angry, she really didn’t want to stay in her room, but she didn’t want to go out there with
them.
Pacing, she thought about reading a book, when she looked up and saw her reading device flying toward her.

“What the hell?”

Good thing she had quick reflexes or the thing would have hit her in the head.

Okay, maybe this stuff wasn’t a coincidence. Well, it had only happened twice. Nothing to be totally alarmed about, right?

“Liasare let me in.” Jurek was knocking on her door.

“No!”

“Either let me in or I’m coming in anyway.”

“Whatever.”

Jurek flashed in and stood before her. “I apologize for that little incident out there. I overreacted.”

“Is that what you call it? Because in my book, it’s called psycho. You ask me a question, and then you give me an opportunity to answer, and maybe after I answer you get angry. That’s overreacting. Asking me a question, not giving me a chance to respond, then putting me in a fucking body lock and cutting off my air supply and making it impossible to respond—that’s psycho.”

“You’re right and I apologize. I wasn’t expecting you to request to go to Jaylen’s. It caught me off guard.”

“Oh, so every time I catch you off guard, I can expect that kind of reaction from you? Thanks for the warning, Rambo on psycho-steroids. What the fuck Jurek? What do you want from me? Tell me. Or better yet, write down a list that I can follow so I know when to expect my neck to get broken, okay?”

He was in front of her before she finished the sentence, surprising her once again. Her breath caught in her throat, and her mouth turned to sawdust, making it impossible to swallow.

Why, oh why does he have this effect on me?

He grabbed her chin and gruffly said, “Liasare, your neck was never in danger. Your neck will
never
be in danger around me. Other things perhaps, but not your neck. I will always keep you safe. Remember that.” And he was gone.

***

Marik escorted Liasare to Jaylen’s where she’d spent the afternoon. She had a relaxing time and enjoyed Jaylen’s company.

“Why won’t Jurek let you come here on your own?”

“Because I’m a walking disaster. Trouble follows me around Jaylen. I’m a magnet for it.”

“Well, if you ask me, you’re a magnet for Jurek and he doesn’t want you out of his sight. Any luck in that area, by the way?”

“Hardly. I’m not expecting any either. Besides, I disagree with you. I think he has plans for me, but I’m not sure what they are.”

“I’m not following you.”

“You know, I don’t know if I’m following me either. That man confuses the hell out of me. He’s so mysterious.”

“I know, right? But that’s why he’s so sexy. Don’t you think?”

“Oh he’s sexy all right. Too sexy, if you ask me.”

“Why don’t you just seduce him? Quit waiting for him to make the move?”

“It won’t happen,” Liasare said. “Can we change the subject? This is depressing me. Rejection isn’t fun, you know.”

“Sure honey. Did you ever find anything else out about your brother?” Jaylen asked. She was straightening up the parlor, with Liasare’s help.

“Other than he’s a minion, no. I wish I could get him out of there. I haven’t seen him since the night he shot me.”

“Yeah, you were lucky that bullet just grazed you. You could’ve been killed!” Jaylen didn’t know about Jurek ... what he was or his healing powers, so they had told her the bullet didn’t do much damage.

“I know. The most damage I sustained was the knowledge that my own brother didn’t even know me. You haven’t heard anything else have you?”

“No. When the FX come in here, they don’t ever talk about anything but sex. Sometimes, the girls will get them drunk out of their minds and they might slip, but that doesn’t happen very often.”

“Jaylen, what’s an FX?”

“Oh, sorry hon. That’s my lingo for the fucking Xanthians.”

They both laughed. “I’ll remember that,” Liasare decided.

“You know, I did hear something though. There’s talk about this club called Down. I’ve never heard of it before but some of the FX’s were running their mouths, laughing about it. I think it’s one of those edgy places where anything goes. They were commenting about it being the place where they were getting their supplies from.”

“Hmmm. Interesting. I’ll have to share that with Jurek. If you hear anything else like that, would you mind sharing it with me?”

“Sure thing.”

***

Jurek was in the kitchen when Liasare returned from Jaylen’s. “Have you ever heard of a club called Down?”

He looked pensive for a moment and answered, “No. Why?”

“Jaylen mentioned we may need to check it out because the Xanthians said they were getting their ‘supplies’ there, whatever that means.”

“Well, isn’t that interesting?”

“My exact thoughts.”

“Marik!” Jurek shouted suddenly, making Liasare jump. He looked at her and shook his head.

Seconds later, Marik showed up.

“Marik, I need all the information you can get on a club called Down. ASAP.” Turning to Liasare, he asked, “So how was your afternoon?”

“Very good, thanks. And yours?”

“Fine. I was going to recommend a night off for everyone tonight.”

She nodded. “Probably a good idea. If this club pans out, maybe we can hit it tomorrow.”

Jurek stared at her for what seemed like a very long time. “Have dinner with me tonight. In my quarters, please.”

What the hell? In his quarters? Like a date?

“Yes, Liasare, like a date.”

“O-Okay,” she stammered.

“Come at seven.” He turned around and walked away, leaving her there staring after him.

***

Marik found that Club Down was a sex club where anything went. You could get anything and everything, anyone’s choice. Jurek didn’t like the idea of Liasare going there. The last thing he wanted was to have Liasare exposed to that kind of club.

“What do you mean I can’t go? I’m the one that found out about it. And besides, I’ll be with all of you. It’s not like anything can happen to me with you around.”

After lots of arguing, Jurek promised to give it some thought.

Liasare couldn’t decide what to wear to dinner. Should she wear a dress or go casual? She changed her clothes twenty-one times, or at least it felt like that many times to her, going from casual black pants and a black blouse to a dressy green silk strapless top with a knee length black skirt.

It would be nice if she had a female roommate to ask. Too bad she couldn’t be like Jurek and just pop on over to Jaylen’s and get her opinion. It was so frustrating trying to figure this all out. She didn’t want to dress too fancy, nor did she want to dress too casually. She decided on a simple black knit dress that was fitted, sleeveless and hit her mid thigh. It showed off her curves and her legs, but wasn’t overly dressy. She wore flats and let hair do its own thing. Of course, it wasn’t like she had a choice in that regard, because she didn’t really know how to fix it anyway. She wished her nails looked better; they were cut to the quick and not exactly what one would call smooth. She never took care of things like that, never indulged in manicures or salon services.

Her stomach was an army of fluttering butterflies as she knocked on Jurek’s door. She heard him calling for her to enter.

“I’m sorry. I’m running a bit late. I had to take care of some business that took longer than I expected. I’ll be out in a minute,” he called from the other room.

Liasare walked around his sitting room, admiring his exquisite furnishings. She wondered how he could procure such finery, and on such short notice. Either they were miracle workers at locating these things, or he had some kind of connections with certain people at high levels.

She was inspecting a painting when he joined her. “It’s one of my favorites. I’ve had it for years. An artist from Vesturon actually painted it. Vesturon has such scenic places that its artwork often reflects it beauty. I fell in love with this one long ago.”

Liasare stared at it and it reminded her of the view she and Tommy had seen the day they flew on the speedster. It was a painting of the coastline where it met the mountains. The artist did a remarkable job of capturing the colors of the setting sun as it made its descent over the sea. She thought back to that day and how the view had amazed her. She had never known anything so beautiful had existed.

“What are you thinking about? You have a pensive look on your face.”

“Oh, it’s nothing. The painting only reminded me of the coastline of Vesturon. It’s very beautiful.”

“Would you care for some wine?” he asked as he headed toward the small refrigerator. She noticed what he was wearing then: snug black pants, hanging low on his hips and a crisp white shirt that was unbuttoned halfway down his chest, exposing his sculpted muscles. His sleeves were turned up, baring his muscular forearms, and Liasare couldn’t tear her eyes off of him as he moved across the room to fill the glasses with wine.

“Please.”

He handed her a glass and they took seats on the couch and chair. She started fidgeting, for she didn’t know what to do or where to look. What she truly wanted to do was simply ogle the man, but that wouldn’t do. The silence was unnerving so she thought to make some small talk.

“So are you cooking tonight?”

“No, although I enjoy cooking occasionally. I thought it best if I had someone else do the work.”

She gave him a questioning look.

“It’s being sent from Lare-Stell. I’m cheating Liasare.”