Stress Relief (5 page)

“Don’t.” Impulsively, she put a hand on his muscular forearm even
though she knew she had no chance of stopping him if he wanted to slit his
throat or wrists. “We can work something out, Matt,” she whispered, looking
into his eyes. “You don’t have to end it this way. Please…” She swallowed hard.
“Please don’t kill yourself. I just found you, I don’t want to lose you so
soon.”

“Hey, now…” He put down the knife and cupped her cheek. “You don’t
have to cry, Andi. That wasn’t what I meant at all.”

“I’m not crying…am I?” Andi raised a hand to her face and was
surprised to feel the warmth of tears on her cheeks. Did he really mean that
much to her, even though she had really only gotten to know him in the last
hour?
Yes,
she thought, looking up at
the chiseled features and piercing eyes that were suddenly soft with emotion.
He’s important to me. He’s more than Agent
Alpha, he’s Matt and as stupid as it sounds, I think I may be well on the way
to being in love with him.

“I didn’t know you cared so much.” He was almost whispering, his
deep voice filled with intensity.

Andi let out a laugh that was more than half sob. “I didn’t either
but I
do
. I can’t help it—you made me
care.”

“I care about you too.” He leaned in and kissed her mouth
tenderly, then looked at her again. “I care what happens to you.”

“I care what happens to you, too. I don't want you to die or get
taken away by Central…Oh, my God.” She put a hand to her mouth. “What time is
it? You have to get out of here—Central is sending a transport to take you back
to the director of the Agency for debriefing at o-seven hundred. And you know
what that means.”

Matt looked grim. “Yeah, I know. I figured they’d want to see me. I
knew they’d want to know why I ditched my last mission.”

“Why did you?” Andi looked at him doubtfully. It seemed like
forever since she’d been ordered by Central to go give Agent Alpha some stress
relief. She had almost forgotten the reason his readings had been in the red in
the first place. “I mean, you’ve never failed to complete a mission before.
You’re their most valuable agent.”

“I
was
their most
valuable agent. But I’m leaving tonight—going off the reservation.” He picked
up the knife again and brought it up to his own chest. “I’m through killing for
them. No more.”

Andi bit back a gasp as he sliced a single neat furrow in his own
flesh, neatly bisecting the wolf’s head tattoo above his right pec. As a thick
trickle of blood began to flow down his muscular chest, he inserted the sharp
tip of the knife and flicked his wrist. Something small and silver flew out of
the wound and landed on the bland cream colored carpet at their feet. To Andi,
it looked like a bloody dime but when she looked closer, she saw that it was
square instead of round and there was some kind of intricate tracing on its
surface.

“What is it?” she asked, eyeing the strange object warily.

“The implant connected to the indicator back at your office. This
way when I go, no one can track me.”

“Oh.” It made sense suddenly and Andi was filled with a strange
mixture of relief that he was neither suicidal nor homicidal and regret that he
was leaving just when she had found him. To her embarrassment, she found that
her eyes were wet again.

“Hey, what’s with the waterworks, sweetheart? Why are you crying
now?” Matt put down the knife again and cupped her chin.

Andi shook her head and pulled away. With a quick, jerky motion
she wiped the tears from her eyes. “I guess…I guess it’s just that I’m going to
miss you. I’ve thought about leaving too but I know I can’t. They—the
Agency—has eyes and ears everywhere and I don’t have the skill to get away from
them. It’s like living inside some kind of Orwellian novel and you can never
leave, never go away and have any kind of a normal life ever again.”

“Well, I don’t know about having a normal life, but we’re sure as
hell leaving tonight.” Matt had grabbed a swatch of fabric—it looked like a
plain white t-shirt—and absently pressed it against the wound he had made on
his chest.

Andi looked at him, uncertain if she had heard him correctly. “We?
You mean…you mean you’re taking me with you?”

“You didn’t really think I’d leave you behind, did you?” He
grinned at her, his blue eyes flashing. “Not after I finally got to know you…if
you wanna call it that.”

Andi blushed but found herself smiling too. “I guess we can call
it that. But I hope we’ll get to know each other a lot better in the future.”

“You can count on it.” He leaned in and gave her another swift
kiss. “Look, it won’t be a normal life, like I said. We’ll be on the run but
we’ll be together and I know I can keep them from finding us.”

“That sounds wonderful,” Andi said fervently. “But…but are you
sure I won’t just slow you down?”

“Hell, no, sweetheart. Don’t worry about that.” He barked a short
laugh. “I’ll use their own training against them. We’ll just fade into the
woodwork, never to be seen again. Probably end up down in Rio
or somewhere like that. So what do you say, will you come?”

Andi thought of it—a real life. Traveling the world instead being
stuck in the dark, cramped apartment controlling agents and girls and slowly
dying inside because she couldn’t ever have any kind of personal relationship
again. Not if she wanted the person she had it with to survive, that was. And
spending her life with Matt—a man who looked like the most frightening killer
on the outside but was capable of patience and tenderness she’d never known
before on the inside.

“Yes,” she said, smiling at him. “Yes, absolutely, let’s go.”

“All right then, it’s getting late and we only have…” He looked at
a black clock hanging on the plain white wall of the apartment. “Five hours to
get a head start. So you’d better get dressed.” His pale blue eyes scanned
briefly over her body, and he gave her a slow, lazy smile. “Unless you want to
cut that to four hours.”

Andi felt a warm, sexual flush starting between her bare breasts. In
all the excitement with the knife and his offer to take her with him, she had
completely overlooked the fact that they were both naked. “No, that’s all
right,” she said, reaching for the red silk shirt and black leather mini skirt
which had long been discarded. “I think we’d better get moving. But maybe I can
get a rain check for later. You know, being on the run might be kind of hectic.
So by the time we get wherever we’re going tonight, you might need some
stress relief
again.”

Matt laughed. “Absolutely, sweetheart. That’s exactly what I’m
gonna need.” Then he pulled her close suddenly and gave her a long, demanding
kiss. “I meant what I said, you know. I do love you, Andi, even though we
hardly know each other. I’ve been thinking about you for years, wanting to get
to know you, to get to love you in person instead of from a distance. I’m glad
you came tonight instead of sending one of the girls.”

“Me too.” Impulsively, Andi kissed him back. “Now let’s get out of
here. We have our whole life ahead of us and I want to start living it.”

End

 
Read on for the first chapter of Exiled, book 7 of Evangeline's Brides
of the Kindred series.

Chapter One

“I can’t wear this! Not out in public where everyone can see me!”
Lissa stared down at herself in horror. The gown her new friend Kat had
squeezed her into was the complete opposite of the flowing white priestess
robes she was used to wearing. It was a rich royal purple and the material was
stiff and binding. But it wasn’t the cut or color of the gown that Lissa objected
to—it was the fact that it was completely obscene.

“Lissa—” Kat began in a reasonable tone of voice but Lissa shook
her head.

“Just look at me, Kat! I…I’m
exposed.”
She pointed down to
the stiff molded cups of the gown that cupped her breasts in a tight embrace.
The problem was, the gown only cupped the
bottoms
of them, leaving her
nipples bare except for two tiny pieces of pale gold lace that fanned out of
the tops of the cups to act as flimsy shields. They covered her—barely—as long
as she stood perfectly straight and didn’t shift around too much.
But what
if I need to move quickly? What if I drop something and need to pick it up?
Lissa
was sure if that happened, she would fall out of the dress completely, baring
herself to anyone watching.

“You’re fine as long as you don’t bend down,” Kat said, obviously
having the same thought. “Just stand up straight and don’t wiggle.”

“But…but what about the bottom part?” Lissa motioned to the lower
half of the gown. The skin tight bodice hugged her waist and hips and flowed
out behind her in an elaborate, shimmering, crystal encrusted train. It was the
place where the bodice split, a few inches below her belly button, that worried
Lissa. The dress showed her crotch in a most provocative manner.

“I know it’s kind of…revealing,” Kat said, frowning. “But you
do
have decorative panties to go with it.”

Decorative was a good word to describe them, Lissa thought,
because they really weren’t very practical at all. A tiny triangle of gold lace
that matched her nipple shields barely covered the small thatch of blond curls
at the apex of her sex. The back of the panties was a string—just one little
gold string that ran up the back of her behind. Lissa had never worn
undergarments like this before—Kat had called it a “thong.” Lissa called it
perverted.

“Please, Kat,” she begged. “I just can’t. It’s not just that I’m
ashamed to be seen in public like this. It’s…it’s that
Saber
will see me
too.” She could barely force her kinsman’s name from her dry throat but she
made herself do it anyway. He was the real reason she didn’t want to appear in
this obscene get up. Lissa was naturally modest and shy but his was the only
opinion she really cared about. And if he saw her looking like this…
What
will he think of me?
Lissa asked herself and was too afraid to contemplate
the answer.

She and Saber were of the same clan—the Sun Clan of the Touch
Kindred—and she had been adopted into his family after her parents had died.
There was no blood tie between them but according to the strict laws of her people,
the two circumstances made Saber her older brother twice over and as such,
completely off limits.

Despite this taboo, Lissa had allowed an illicit love to grow
between them—a love she had subsequently ended. But to her lasting shame, she
still had feelings for the tall warrior with the hazel eyes. He had comforted
her after the death of her family and defended her from the bullies at the
school they both attended as children. He had also saved her life when she was
wandering in the dessert, dying of dehydration. With so much history between
them, how could she not still feel something for him? How could she not care
what he thought?

A look of compassion and understanding filled Kat’s blue eyes. “I
get it doll, and I’m really sorry,” she said softly, breaking into Lissa’s
ragged thoughts. “But this is how they dress on Yonnie Six. In fact, this is
one of the more
modest
designs—believe me, I searched through all of
them. Those Yonnie girls aren’t afraid to show a little skin.”

“A
little
skin?” Lissa looked down at herself again. “Are
you telling me there are worse gowns than this in the cube you packed for me?”

Kat cleared her throat and looked uncomfortable. “Just a few.
Mostly the ones for more formal occasions like court balls and banquets. It’s a
good thing the Mother Ship has a clothing pattern replicator—I never would have
been able to sew them all myself.”

“But I can’t be seen like this,” Lissa protested, frowning.

Kat frowned. “You
have
to be, Lissa. You have to fit in or
your mission is going to flop the minute you step foot out of the shuttle. How
do you expect to recover the ancient scrolls that tell how to defeat the Hoard
if you don’t blend in with the rest of the Yonnites?”

“But—”

“You look gorgeous,” Kat said firmly. “And don’t just take
my
word for it.” She turned toward the door, smiling. “Hi Saber. How do you like
your new outfit?”

Her heart in her throat, Lissa whirled around before she could
stop herself. She found herself face to face with her kinsman.

“Hello, Lissa,” he said quietly.

“Saber. I didn’t know you were here. I…I didn’t want you to see me
like this.” She crossed her arms over her nearly bare breasts protectively and
took a step back.

“You’re beautiful, as always,” he replied, his deep voice husky
with emotion. “But I won’t look if you don’t wish me to.” Resolutely, he kept
his changeable hazel eyes, flecked with gold and green, fixed firmly on her
face.

“Thank you.” Lissa dropped her own jade green eyes and found that
she couldn’t show him the same courtesy he had given her. Though she tried not
to look, her gaze wandered up and down the length of his large, muscular body.
He was tall—over six foot six as all Kindred were—and his skin was a deep,
natural tan. She couldn’t help noticing that his chest was bare, revealing
shoulders twice as broad as her own and rippling abdominals. Tight black
trousers made of some stiff, shiny material clung to his lean hips and long
legs. Lissa tried not to look at the crotch where an impressive bulge pressed
hard against the fastening of the skin tight trousers. Instead, her eyes
skipped upward to his throat and her breath caught in her chest.