Neptune's Lair (sensual paranormal romance) (The Protectors) (2 page)

“Excuse me,” she said, again. This time she didn’t sound the least bit sorry. “Do I know you? Oh, never mind. It doesn’t matter. I have an appointment to get to, and I’m already late for it.” She dragged in a deep breath. “Let me go.”

He was about to release her when he felt it—
the darkness—
the destructive force that existed only to infect all that was good and bright in the universe. It was close. And searching.

“Damn my luck,” she bit off as she struggled in his arms. Her sudden irritation seemed to cause
the darkness
to shrink back a bit. She licked her glossy lips. They were full. Very pretty. Kissable lips. “This morning has been an absolute disaster. I wish I could just start this day over.”

Brendan felt the pull of the dimensions. It felt as if his arms were being stretched out of their sockets.

“Oh, no you don’t.” He tightened his grip around her. “I’m not waiting around for you to play out this day again.”

“
Again
?” She managed to twist herself loose. “I don’t— Never mind, I don’t have time for this. Everything has gone wrong this morning. Don’t you understand? I have an appointment, and I can’t be late!”

The dimensions continued to stretch.

“How many times do you have to repeat today to figure out that there might be a reason you don’t make this appointment of yours?” He grabbed her again and tightened his arms around her, hoping he could keep her with him in
this
time and
this
place.

The dimensions stretched even further.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” There was no fear in her voice or in her grassy-green eyes. She didn’t seem to mind that he was holding her so tightly. Or that she was in a deserted alleyway with a stranger. Too brave for her own good. It was a common trait among their kind.

They called themselves
the Protectors
, but no one, not even the highest ranking members of their council knew exactly what they were or their true purpose for being in the world. They weren’t human. And they had the ability to command the powers of the universe...sometimes, too well.

“You have to understand,” she cried, “this appointment is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me.”

“Believe me, I know all about those.”

If she kept this up, the dimensions would soon snap back into place, sending them all tumbling backwards in time several hours.

He’d land back in his bed with his partner’s hand on his cock.

Again
.

And he’d be forced to leave before anything good could happen.

Again
.

Hell
.

He had to take her mind off that job interview. And he had to do it fast. Reasoning with her would take too long. Knocking her senseless simply wasn’t his style. So he did what came naturally to him.

He kissed her
.

His lips glided across hers. She was as warm and soft as he imagined. With a little urging she parted her lips.

She tasted like a spring morning, all cool and moist. Yet at the same time there was a surprising amount of heat spiraling between them. His hands traveled down her back until he cupped her perfectly rounded ass. He lifted her so her mound pressed against his now fully aroused cock.

She groaned in his mouth. His body instinctively responded. He fought an almost uncontrollable need to peel off her clothes and taste every inch of her.

It was insane, he knew.
The darkness
—it was hovering out there in the brisk morning air, waiting for an opening. Any opening.

He had to take control. But then she swirled her tongue against his and his sense of self-preservation seemed to take flight. What was one stolen moment?

She was one of them. Like him, she was a
Protector
. Hell, she belonged with them in every sense of the word.

He unhooked one button and then another. Soon, her blouse parted and he got a good look at her lacey bra and the breasts it was straining to contain. Their eyes met and all that power she’d harnessed in order to throw back time was now being focused on him. A searing fire between them flared.

He couldn’t think. Dammit, he could barely breathe. The world narrowed until they were the only two bodies that existed. It didn’t matter that they were in a very public, very chilly alleyway. All that mattered was his need to touch her. Taste her.

Her entire body trembled beneath his touch. And her kisses grew more demanding. She wanted him. He could taste her need as strongly as he could taste his own.

Her hand skimmed down his chest and went lower. She caressed the front of his jeans, tracing the length of his arousal.

She suddenly broke the kiss. Fire flashed in her lust-darkened eyes as she licked her well-loved lips. He almost expected her to drag him into the nearest alcove and have her wicked way with him. But like that damned white rabbit she seemed to be mimicking, she twisted out of his embrace.

She glanced at her watch and swore softly. “Look-look at the time.” Her voice quivered. Tears sprang to her eyes. “I don’t know what I’m thinking.”

She held up her hands as if trying to push him away. “I’m not usually like this, I swear I’m not,” she said and darted toward the busy street beyond the alley, her heels clicking as she ran. “I can’t believe I’m going to be late.” Her words faded as she escaped.

* * * * *

“I don’t understand why I didn’t slap him. Or scream. Yes, I think I should have screamed,” Dallas said more to herself than to Janice, whose mouth had dropped open as she listened quietly. It had been Janice’s idea to meet for lunch at their favorite sandwich shop. Of course, her friend had been expecting to hear about the interview...not about some shocking alleyway kiss with a handsome stranger.

Dallas had been
this close
to letting a stranger push her against the nearest wall and...and...

She buried her face in her hands and groaned. She couldn’t seem able to stop thinking about what she’d done with him—how he’d touched her and how he’d made her body ache, especially
down there
. Her panties had been nearly soaked through.

No man had ever made her feel so completely...crazed. And she didn’t want to keep thinking about what should have been the most embarrassing moment in her life.

Yet she couldn’t seem to stop herself. The insistent feel of his mouth on hers. The way he’d taken control and opened her blouse. How he’d known just how to touch her.

None of her past boyfriends had ever kissed her in a way that had made her so aware of how fast the Earth was actually spinning through space.

“I’ve really got to meet this one,” Janice said with a laugh. “By your description, he sounds as if he was hot enough to melt through stone.”

Lord help her, he was
that
hot. Dallas could still clearly picture him. And worse, she could still feel his sandalwood scented heat clinging to her body.

The scent felt familiar, as did his broad shoulders and the dark, brooding look that gave an air of danger to his brown eyes. It was that familiarity, she supposed, that had tricked her into returning his kiss with such urgency.

“Don’t groan so,” Janice said. “You met your dream guy. It’s not a bad thing.”

“Not a bad thing?” Dallas choked out.

She’d touched him…
down there
! He was a stranger that had accosted her in a shadowy alleyway. She was lucky to have escaped.
But from who had she escaped? From that sex god? Or herself?

Part of her wanted to relive the frenzied touching. The kisses that had melted through her tension and had settled so deeply into her body that she couldn’t seem to shake it. Certainly, if she had it all to do over she would have done a few things differently. She wasn’t some sex-crazed nymphomaniac. She didn’t even know any sex-crazed nymphomaniacs.

It had to have been
him
. He must have done something to her, hypnotized her perhaps. No, she’d been aware of her actions. She’d been willing. It had been his body that had tempted her beyond reason and had made her lose control.

That alone frightened her more than anything else.
He
frightened her.

“I missed my big interview. And it’s all his fault, you know. I didn’t even get beyond the front desk secretary at HH&G. She sent me away without giving me the chance to reschedule or even explain. And get this, she told me that the jerk I was supposed to meet wasn’t even in the office. He’d probably left five minutes after my appointment time to go hang out at his club or something.”

Dallas glanced up at her friend and caught her smiling.

“What’s so damned funny?”

“You, silly. Didn’t you say you were already twenty minutes late for your interview? That’s why you took the shortcut down the gypsy woman’s alleyway in the first place?”

She had said that.

“Be honest now. You can’t really blame your sexy stranger for missing that interview, can you?”

“But I would have never—”

“Perhaps that’s your problem. You never let your walls down…not even for a drop-dead gorgeous man.”

“It’s not as if I’ve never—”

“As long as he follows your rules. No kissing until the third date. No touching until the sixth date. And
pulh-lease
, you won’t let a man sample your goods until you’ve dated him for at least two months. Your rules. Your walls.”

There was nothing wrong with taking things slow or with being cautious. Janice was being unfair.

“He was a stranger. So stop talking about me as if I’m frigid. Even you don’t go around kissing strangers.”

“Perhaps I should start.” Janice fumbled around in her purse until she pulled out a cosmetic mirror and held it up so Dallas could see herself. “Look.”

Dallas leaned forward and blinked in concert with the flushed face staring back at her. Her hair hung in loose curls around her temples. Her cheeks were bright, nearly as bright as her eyes. And her lips—her cheeks burned with embarrassment—her lips were deep red and swollen.

“You’ve never looked so well-loved,” Janice said. “Not one of your tame and oh-so-patient boyfriends ever made you look so…um…
relaxed
…and all he did was kiss you, right?”

Dallas touched her fingers to her lips. Hours had passed since he’d claimed them for his own and yet they still tingled.

“And here I was thinking you’d spend my whole lunch hour complaining about how you aren’t going to be able to pay your rent.”

“My rent!” Hell, Dallas didn’t need to be reminded. Her landlord was going to want his money in a few days.

She couldn’t pay him. And if she couldn’t pay him, he’d kick her out. That was a promise he’d made last month when she talked him into letting her pay two weeks late and only half the full amount.

In less than a week’s time she was going to be homeless and living on the mercy, and lumpy sofas, of others. That was something she’d vowed never to let happen again.

Dallas suddenly felt woozy. She buried her head in her hands again. “What am I going to do?”

“You really want my opinion?” Janice asked. “If I were you, I’d go hang out in deserted alleyways hoping to bump into that mystery man of yours again.”

* * * * *

The woman in the alleyway needed his help. Just because they’d escaped
the darkness
that one time didn’t mean it wasn’t still out there. Searching. Wanting.

Brendan may have been raised in a world very different from the one he was living in now, but he’d learned over the past few years the meaning of loyalty. There were reasons beyond the material for scarifying a little in order to help another in need.

Whether she knew it or not, that spitfire belonged to their motley group of non-humans known as
the Protectors
. Not only that, she needed to be protected until she could be brought into the fold and educated.

Her awakening to what she was and to her powers was a dangerous time for her. She was vulnerable to all sorts of attacks right now and not just from the all-consuming darkness.

He had to find her.

With that purpose in mind that evening, Brendan lit several dozen lavender-scented candles in his spacious master bathroom. He stripped off his clothes and lowered himself into the large, round tub. Hot water swirled around him. With his face barely breaking the surface, he drew in a deep breath and quieted his mind. Slowly, he closed his eyes.

His breathing slowed as he slipped deeper within himself. Using a form of astral projection, Brendan tapped into the powers of the universe that swirled around everyone. He used those powers to reach out into the universe. Like
the darkness
, he was searching.

The New One was nearby. He could feel her spirit bouncing nervously around in the ether.

His mind stilled. It took some concentration, but he managed to push through the veil between the dark world of souls and spirits and peek like an invisible ghost into the room where his missing woman from the alleyway now paced.

She’d changed her clothes. A teasing leather skirt hugged her shapely bottom. A matching pair of black leather boots outlined her slender thighs. And a loose, crocheted silvery sweater gave a peek-a-boo show with the black tank top she was wearing underneath. His cock stirred, which didn’t surprise him. She’d teased his poor neglected body to the point of flames and had cruelly left him wanting.

He almost cried out as he watched her cover all that lovely flesh with a long wool coat.

Her ruby lips were moving. He strained, trying and failing to hear what she was saying. In order to find out anything about her, he’d have to get closer.

Slowly, the image around him came into sharper focus.

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this,” he heard her say. She hugged her coat tight against her body. “Do I really have to dress like a hooker?”

“You don’t look like a hooker,” said the woman in the room with her. “Well, not exactly. Besides, if you want a second chance at getting that associate position, I think you’d better wear whatever Tony wants. Though he’s only been with your dream law firm for a few years, he says he has an ‘in’ with the principals. You make him happy, and he’ll pull some strings and get your missed interview rescheduled.” The woman accompanying Brendan’s spitfire gave her a shove. “Come on, we’ll be late.”

Directed visions were tricky devils. Frank Stone had made Brendan practice slowing his mind and honing his focus time and again until forcing a vision almost came naturally to him. The problem with them, though, was that they rarely gave him the freedom to do simple things like read the number on her apartment door or peek at the mail on the small table in the front foyer in order to get her full address.

He’d get snatches of conversations and images and not much more. With the New Ones he’d watched over the years, he never needed to do much more than that. He’d periodically check in and see how the New One was doing. Pop in. Pop out. Nothing difficult.

But with this one, they knew next to nothing about her and her situation. He didn’t even know her name, which meant that if they were going to have any hope of finding her before
the darkness
closed in, he was going to have to break a few rules and actually put himself inside her head.

Ignoring the dull throb in his temples, he drew himself even deeper into the vision and called on the darker, forbidden powers swirling around him. Feeling his way through the haze, he moved closer to his elusive target.

At the periphery of her thoughts, he banged up against a thick barrier, a protective wall that must have taken years for his target to build around herself.

I suppose this is how you were able to keep yourself hidden from even the all-knowing Frank Stone, my lovely headache
. But he wasn’t one to let a wall keep him out. He drew in another deep breath and tried a different tactic. Following the faint connection he’d created between them by kissing her, he could work his way around her barriers. He hoped.