Light of Kaska (10 page)

He ignored most of it. This was familiar territory and he had a destination in mind. The crowd parted for him, his aura of dangerous menace a little too real in this fantasyland. Halfway there, he almost lost his hold on Sukeza, her small wrist jerking in his grip. He turned to see that another man had grabbed her other arm. He was grinning lazily down at Sukeza, his eyes avid while he studied her. He said something but the blaring music covered it.

Stryker saw Sukeza pull futilely at her trapped arm and felt a startling wave of crimson rage wash over him. It was irrational and inappropriate, considering where they were. It would have been unusual to get through the place without at least one offer made. But he couldn’t seem to help it, staring at the man’s hand on his Keza with a murderous fury that washed away thought.

Just before he tore the man into bloody bits, Sukeza pulled her wrist out of his grip and, swift and fluid, struck the other man across his grinning face with the flail. “Bad dog!” she bellowed over the blaring music, an incredible feat in itself. “Sit!”

The man obviously hadn’t seen it coming. Stryker sure as hell hadn’t seen it coming. He stared down at his little country mouse with as much shock as the other man, watching her raise the flail again in clear threat, her small form taut. The man let her go, rubbing his red-striped face while his buddies roared with laughter. Grinning, the man dropped to his knees and pantomimed a panting, begging dog.

Sukeza turned her back on him, amber eyes desperate when she met Stryker’s gaze. He slipped an arm around her, giving the offender a steely look that had him scrambling to his feet and backing away. Keeping her close to his side, Stryker pushed through the crowd to the bottom of the stairs leading to the second floor. A bodyguard stood at attention, his sharp gaze and ready bulk a warning sign that no one tested.

No one except Stryker.

“I need to see Bella,” he hollered over the deafening noise.

The man lifted his eyebrows and shook his head. It was a new guy, one Stryker hadn’t seen before.

“Tell her it’s Stryker. We’ll wait at the tables,” he told the guard and turned away without waiting for acknowledgement.

He pulled Sukeza down a wide hallway lined with cubbies, most of which had their privacy screens on. Noticing that all were filled, he stopped at one and keyed in the code that most people didn’t know. The screen dropped and the threesome inside shrieked with dismay and anger. Unmoved, Stryker jerked his thumb over his shoulder in dismissal. One of the women continued to spew invectives which he couldn’t hear over the music, but the man gathered clothes and toys quickly, eyes downcast while he pushed the two women out of the booth and around Stryker.

When the place was clear, he waved Sukeza in. She stared at the wide, C-shaped seat with dubious eyes until he touched a small receptacle, pulling out a sani-wipe and handing it to her. With what looked like suppressed humor, she took it from him and nodded gravely, wiping while she made her slow way into the booth around the small table in the center. Smothering a grin, he slid in the other side.

She set the used wipe and the flail down on the table with exaggerated care and he studied her face in the smoky atmosphere. Was she feeling the Haze? She had to be. He felt a twinge of concern and reached over, touching her chin to lift her gaze to his. Her eyes were a little glassy, but other than that she looked all right. A little shell-shocked but basically all right.

“Okay?” he mouthed and she nodded.

Satisfied, he was about to activate the privacy screen when a man appeared. Her overeager whipping boy. Stryker stiffened, feeling the hackles rise on the back of his neck, but the man held up his hands and smiled disarmingly at them both. Stryker was about to send him packing anyway when he noticed Sukeza edging closer to his side.
Interesting
. He considered the man’s engaging smile and sat back, putting an arm across the seat behind Sukeza. They had a few minutes and he was frankly curious to see what she’d do with the guy this time.

Sukeza shook her head, but the man seemed to be taking his cue from Stryker. He sat down, a charming smile still on his face even while she shook her head more vigorously. He lifted his eyebrows, looked pointedly down at the flail and back to her face, ducking his head like a chastised boy, before coming up with a wolfish grin and hungry eyes. He slid closer.

Sukeza almost climbed in Stryker’s lap.

While this was a very pleasant turn of events, Stryker could see that the other guy thought she was open prey, at the very least a shared treat for the two males. Time to end the game. Stryker leaned forward slightly, catching the other man’s attention. Then he tipped his head toward the passageway. The man tried a silent entreaty, but Stryker didn’t relent. Looking crestfallen, the man slid out of the booth slowly, giving Sukeza a hot, regretful glance before he disappeared.

Sukeza seemed to go boneless with relief, her body sagging into the seat, her head flopping back onto his arm. He activated the privacy screen, shutting out most of the noise. There was a faint ringing in his ears and his voice sounded muffled when he asked, “You okay?”

“You just had to pick this place, didn’t you?” she responded in a hoarse voice, her eyes closed. Then she looked at him, her mouth curving in a small, wry smile. “I’m never going to be the same, thanks for asking.”

He blamed it on the smile later, the first she’d ever given him. Or maybe it was her eyes, heavy with Haze and bright with humor. Or the feel of her soft body pressed all along his side and the fact that she didn’t move away. She wasn’t afraid of him and it went to his head like a drug.

He lowered his mouth to hers. Right about then, his world turned over. She gasped, inhaling his breath and then giving it back to him on a sigh. He breathed her in, soaking in her sunshine smell like an addict as he brushed his lips over hers. Her mouth was so soft, lips pliable and giving under his, at first cool then moist and hot under his kiss. She tasted like nectar and his head swam with it, delirious and disoriented like a first time drunk.

He lifted his head slowly, trying to right himself, trying to remember how to think. Breathing deeply, he listened to the deafening beat that was not the music but just his heart and looked into her eyes.

Just like that, he was lost.

The amber was hazy, lids heavy and lashes a sultry sweep. The hunger he’d been keeping on a thread-thin leash broke free. Lowering his head, he kissed her again, hard, hot, and demanding, devouring her. He curled his arm around her shoulders and slipped his other hand over her hip, pulling her closer. Her hands lifted but didn’t push him away. One hand fisted in his shirt and the other tightened around his bicep, fingers kneading his muscles with an urgency that nearly made him explode.

He needed her closer. He needed to be inside her. Taking possession of her sweet mouth wasn’t enough. He couldn’t get deep enough. Her slick tongue and sharp little teeth were driving him wild, but it was her moan that pushed him over the edge. He started to drag her onto his lap, to straddle him so he could thrust inside her, but something hard slapped him on the shoulder and a deep voice boomed, “Hey!”

Stryker whipped his head around, snarling with very real, very savage fury at the interruption. The bodyguard straightened away but didn’t retreat, meeting his rage with a flat, impersonal stare. That was when Stryker remembered where the hell he was. And why.

Holy shit.

Straightening slowly, he gave the man a grim nod and released Sukeza. She sat up, blinking with dazed incomprehension from him to the bodyguard. Pointing to the passageway, he gave her a little nudge to get her moving. With the privacy screen down the music was back full force, a blast of sound that pressed on his eardrums and prevented conversation. He hadn’t noticed the dropped screen or the music. He hadn’t sensed anyone watching, hadn’t even remembered where they were.
Kessu,
one kiss and she’d completely blasted his mind away.

She moved slowly and he followed, registering the tremors in his body and the deep, grinding ache in his groin. The worst part was, even knowing where they were, if the bodyguard reset the screen and walked away Stryker knew he’d be pressing her down onto the seat, stripping her bare, and burying himself balls deep in her sweet body. He shuddered, trying desperately to block that image.

Impossible.
He’d never lost control like this in his life, not even when he was a teenager. Control was all he had. But nothing had ever mattered this much. Nothing had ever made him feel this raw, this lost. And it had only been a single damned
kiss.

Sukeza stood and swayed. Stryker rose swiftly, steadying her on one side while the bodyguard caught her arm on the other side. Clenching his jaw against the urge to beat the guy bloody for touching her, he gave the guard a stiff nod instead.

The man nodded in return, releasing Sukeza and stepping back to wave them down the passageway. “Bella’s waiting,” he hollered.

Stryker nodded again but didn’t move. Glancing down at Sukeza, he assessed her condition. She seemed steady on her feet now, but there was still a dazed look in her eyes, a blankness to her features that was unusual. She waved a distracted hand and said, “I’m okay,” her voice swallowed by the music, but he read the words clearly enough on her lips.

He ushered her down the passageway, wincing a little at the constricting rub of his clothes when he followed her. It wasn’t easy to walk with a hard-on like a steel rod in his pants. He shook his head again in despair. One damned kiss.

Sukeza walked up the stairs, a feat she was rather proud of. She was extremely surprised she could walk at all, considering the fact that she couldn’t feel her legs. Or, well, she could sense them, but they seemed too distant and weak to actually respond to her brain’s commands. The rest of her felt just as wobbly and unfamiliar, as if her brain had been transplanted into someone else’s body. It wasn’t the Haze. She knew it would surprise the hell out of Stryker, but she’d had Haze before. She’d felt a little dizzy and loose-jointed from the smoke earlier, but her current condition was entirely due to him and his kiss.

Sweet Goddess.
Her mouth still tingled. She could still taste him on her tongue, a flavor like dark chocolate, like wild, hot nights and freedom. She was still trying to remember how to breathe. Walking was a damned miracle. Paying attention to her surroundings was just flat impossible. She went where Stryker led and let her muzzy mind circle around one very important question—why? Why would he kiss her? Was it the Haze? One of its effects was euphoria, like a mild aphrodisiac, but some people had a stronger reaction than others.

She mused on this for a while before she realized that she was no longer moving. She was standing in what looked like a sitting room, lots of low, sumptuous couches and cushions everywhere. Lots of low lighting and dark, silky colors and dreamy, suggestive music. And she and Stryker were alone.

Her mouth went dry and her heart began to sprint, but before she could follow that thought to its tempting conclusion, a door slid open and a woman stepped into the room. Behind her, before the door slid closed again, Sukeza saw something that made her blink and wonder if she was imagining things. Then she caught sight of the woman’s outfit and forgot about the man—or men?—who dangled in awkward contortions over a large bed.

The woman wore leather straps. And not properly concealing ones, either. Sukeza couldn’t seem to pull her gaze away from the dark red nipples with their fine, dangling chains, knowing her chin was resting on the floor but unable to do anything about it.

“Darling,” the woman said, her voice low, throaty, and infinitely seductive. She strode toward Stryker, her body moving with cat-like grace, all muscled power and sleek control.

“Hey, Bella. Sorry to interrupt.”

The casual tone pulled Sukeza’s attention away from the woman’s exposed body parts and she looked at Stryker with a mix of alarm and fatalistic despair.
This
was the kind of woman he was usually with? This lush goddess with the tawny skin, killer body, mane of wild honey hair, and zero modesty? Oh yeah, his kiss had definitely been just the Haze.

“Sweetie, you know I don’t mind,” she purred, planting a kiss on his mouth then glancing down his body. “Especially when you look so happy to see me,” she added in a feminine growl.

One corner of his mouth curled in an expression that was almost a smile. Sukeza had never seen him smile. Her stomach curdled with hopeless jealousy and she wondered how the hell she was going to get out of this room before they started going at each other.

Then Stryker turned his head and looked at her. As always, the force of him stunned her immobile, his steady, dark gaze pinning her like a bug, rooting her in place. “Bella, this is Sukeza bet Marish. Keza, this is Belladonna Lace.”

The goddess turned her head as well and Sukeza felt her stomach flip under that proprietary gaze.
Oh damn,
another predator.

“Mmm, what
did
you bring me?” the woman purred, gliding toward Sukeza, her light brown eyes taking in every detail. “Such a demure package, and she
trembles
so. But she’s matrilineal, Kaskan, unless I miss my guess. Always a challenge. Scrumptious.” The creature actually licked her lips.

Sukeza saw her life flash before her eyes.

Stryker made a rude noise in the back of his throat. “When’s the last time I brought you a play toy, Bella?” he asked in a dry tone.

Sukeza took a deep, relieved breath when the woman’s sharp gaze turned away, a light frown forming between her tawny eyes. “Good point. You never bring me play toys. Why don’t you bring me play toys?”

“You find plenty on your own.”

“Also true,” she said with a shrug, turning back to Sukeza with a lazy smile. “Even better, though. She can make her own choices.”

“Not interested,” Sukeza said quickly, taking a large step back from the woman’s looming figure and hugging her arms to her chest. “Though it’s very nice to meet you, Bella,” she added to be polite.