A Touch of Lilly Read online

  “I really would like to go to my hotel room,” she whispered.

  His hand slid up her belly and cupped her breast, the sharp nail of his finger grazing her sensitive nipple through her shirt. “I think a private meeting would be quite nice.” The buzz of his words tickled along her ear. His hand slid down her belly, fumbling with her skirt.

  This stage—when the energy connected her so completely to the male and overrode her logic—was the most difficult to control. All it would take is one touch of his long fingers to her clitoris and the orgasm that lay just out of her reach would be hers. Lilly breathed deep, focusing herself away from the sexual need. Away from the screaming tension in her loins. Away from the reality that the Znedu’s desire had been created by forces out of his control.

  This was a job. A job meant credits. Credits meant survival.

  Inhaling deeply once again, Lilly filled her lungs with resolve, refocused and pulled the Znedu’s fingers from her thigh. She brought his hand to her mouth and kissed the triangular palm. “Not here. I prefer my parties in private.” With his hands off her, she was able to focus not on the needs of her body, but on the job at hand.

  “I have place not far.” The singsong buzz translated in her ear.

  “Let’s go.” She nudged his side, encouraging him out of the booth. His annoying contingent jumped to their feet as well.

  His body trembled when she stood up next to him. No one understands what you’re going through better than me, Dude. Lilly pressed her body against him. The energy pulsed through her, pushing him beyond all sense of reason. “I want to go alone.” She dragged out the last word and the Znedu waved off his sidekicks again. They dropped into their chairs, the confusion obvious on all their faces.

  “You lead the way,” she said.

  He turned and she put her hand on his back. He walked stiffly, no doubt trying to hide his erection. Too bad for him. He’d be jacking off in some jail cell within the hour while she was back in her hotel room, putting new energy crystals in some of her latest toy acquisitions, relieving the stress of her job.

  Unlike her, Venair Grebetz had no idea what was in store for him.

  * * * * *

  This couldn’t be happening. QAL had planned every minutiae of this mission down to who would wipe the guy’s nose if he sneezed. To have some two-bit streetwalker waltz in and gum up the works just didn’t fit into his plans.

  Dallas had watched Lilly from the moment she’d strutted into the bar. The woman was good at her job. He had to give her that. Despite the number of females filling the joint, when Lilly had drifted onto the dance floor, her body swaying with the slow croon of the music, every guy in the place had turned to admire her. And it wasn’t because she was the only human female in the joint, though he suspected that did factor into the drooling equation. The woman’s body oozed sex. Combine that with the slow roll of her hips and the graceful movements of her hands, she was a visual hard-on. Shit.

  When she’d scoped out the joint and her gaze nearly found him, Dallas had done a quick duck and cover, tying nonexistent shoelaces on his cowboy boots. But it appeared she was looking for someone else. He nearly gagged on his ale when she culled Venair Grebetz from the crowd. That little sway and shift as she bumped into the Znedu accidentally had been right out of the QAL handbook.

  Thaegan cussed about the situation as she plied her wares in the booth as if Dallas wasn’t also watching her mooning over the alien. As his fist clenched and unclenched and knots wound in his gut, he couldn’t be sure whether it was the team leader worried about the mission or his male ego jealous over another’s attention on this woman. Either way, there was no way Grebetz was leaving this joint with Lilly. He didn’t care if he cost her another trick, if indeed she was some high-priced streetwalker—which he was beginning to seriously doubt.

  It wasn’t until the pair stood and she positioned herself behind the rigid Znedu, that he knew she held some kind of a weapon on the alien.

  “Sawyer, you getting this?” Thaegan’s incredulous voice sounded again in his ear.

  “Roger that, gamma two.” Dallas shifted, keeping Lilly and Grebetz in view. The two continued to move awkwardly through the crowd. Even Grebetz’s henchmen had backed away.

  Yeah, this woman definitely had plans for the alien that didn’t include screwing his brains out. Without Grebetz, the meeting with Jones couldn’t happen. Without the meeting with Jones there was no taking down the Znedu’s suspected boss Hij’Rozhod. And after months of planning and the shit that had led up to this moment, there was no way Dallas was going to let that happen.

  “I don’t know what the hell she’s up to,” he said. “But that hooker can’t leave with the Znedu.”

  “Fight or flight?” asked Thaegan.

  Thaegan was on the same wavelength. “Fight,” Dallas said into his wrist.

  “Roger that.”

  Dallas swigged the last of his Regent’s ale. Anyone who’d been watching would believe the human’s alcohol consumption would have him waxing the floor with his face. The fact he staggered away from the bar barely caused a ripple of interest. But when he bumped into the Braugtot disguised as a human female on the dance floor and made a rather lewd body motion, several aliens took notice.

  “Baby! How about you dump this loser Ka’al and come home with me?” The words slurred from Dallas’ mouth as he wrapped himself around the Braugtot’s body. From the smell he even wondered if it was really female. But whatever the sex, the jealous Ka’al reacted just the way he’d hoped.

  “Rrracht narctch, rraollk.” She’s with me, asshole. Beefy hands grabbed his shirt and flung him through the air. Dallas landed unceremoniously on the nearest table, breaking up a quiet conversation between two Xericks.

  Sometimes he hated this part of the job. Dallas came up swinging. A left hook to one head and a right uppercut to the second and the male Xerick went down, taking out several unsuspecting Drikspa dancers. Dallas ducked as a chair flew.

  Alcohol, male hormones and boredom created the diversion they’d hoped for. The fight spread like a virus through the tavern. Dallas avoided a tussle between two Ka’als, took down another Ickbata and made his way toward Thaegan, hoping he’d managed to stop Lilly before she got through the door with their man. A very unladylike scream from the front of the bar confirmed that his partner had things under control in that area.

  Dallas pushed his way to the door, watching Grebetz slip out onto the street, a Xerick close at his heels. “Gamma Team. Phase two. Znedu loose. Track him and report.” It was all he got out before meeting up with Thaegan and Lilly.

  “Roger that,” echoed in his ear.

  “I’ll let you up if you stop fighting me.” Thaegan had the woman face down on the floor, her arms behind her back. The Ka’al was more than twice her size, still Lilly kicked and bucked, trying to work herself free. As the fight around them escalated, Lilly’s body stilled, but not her mouth. Dallas didn’t know many dialects, but it was clear Lilly knew the word asshole in all thirty-two major languages of the Nebulae Galaxy and several more he’d never even heard of. He had no doubt the words she strung with it would have gotten him several weeks detention from the nuns at St. Christopher’s Academy back home.

  He bent low and met her eyes. “Lilly, we have no intention of hurting you.”

  The fear in her eyes softened to confusion and immediately hardened to anger.

  Well, didn’t this just suck? Lilly had no idea how’d she’d gone from mentally counting her reward to a face plant on the sticky floor of the tavern. No amount of maneuvering had budged the three-hundred-pound Ka’al holding her down. And now the man who would star in her nightly fantasies for the next month stared at her with an amused expression.

  Though Lilly knew fighting wasn’t going to get her anywhere, she screamed her frustration and kicked out, trying to dislodge the monster. She only managed to slam her foot into a table leg, which just pissed her off all the more. Dallas didn’t do a very good job of hi
ding his amusement.

  “If you know the asshole doing chiropractic on my spine, could you kindly ask him to let me up?” she asked, her tone dripping with sweetness.

  Dallas nodded and the Ka’al stood, hauling Lilly to her feet in one effortless move. The alien’s mahogany skin glistened with the coppery sheen of a man under stress. His muscular chest, barely covered by the deeply V’d tank top, heaved. Holding her down had taken no effort, but the energy she’d tried to use on the Znedu was still high and the Ka’al was paying the price of touching her.

  Lilly’s body pulsed and throbbed. Her nipples were oversensitive and her sex tingled. There was no way in hell these two guys weren’t also feeling the effects of the current snapping in the air. If the residual energy she’d pulsed through the Znedu hadn’t done it, then her anger at being stopped at the door would be enough to have these males dropping to their knees. If only the Ka’al would let go of one of her hands, she might be able to do a little more work up close and personal.

  Lilly leaned toward Dallas and yelled over the confusion, “I didn’t need saving this time either, but thank you again.”

  Dallas shook his head. “You don’t understand. You’re coming with us.”

  What the hell? She had work to do, and it didn’t include servicing these males.

  The bar erupted into a state of total chaos. The fight that had started as a scuffle between two horny males on the dance floor had erupted into a full-fledged brawl. All the better to ditch Dallas and his sidekick and recapture Grebetz.

  A Znedu came flying at them. The Ka’al blocked the alien’s body and swung a punch at the angry Braugtot looking for a fight. Dallas turned his back to her to assist the Ka’al if the big alien needed him. It was just the distraction Lilly had been looking for. She slipped the dagger from her sleeve, and when Dallas turned back, she lunged. Lilly had only wanted to nick him, but he saw the glint of the knife and moved. The deadly weapon sliced up his inner thigh. Blood spewed in a thick red rope from his leg. Shit. She must have opened a major artery.

  Disbelief had Dallas staring at the gash, blood gushing from his body in pulsing waves. His leg gave way and he fell to his knees. He looked at her, the question written in the lines of pain on his face.

  “I’m sorry.” She mouthed the words and turned to run.

  “Thaegan.” The word croaked from Dallas’ lips.

  He hadn’t needed to say anything. As if one with Dallas, the Ka’al turned, wrestled the dagger from Lilly and threw her over his shoulder. It pissed her off how easily this alien could control her. Nothing in her years of combat had ever taught her how to deal with an alien who outsized her by two hundred pounds. But she had one weapon no male could fight—and she had every intention of using it.

  Sirens sounded in the distance.

  Dallas attempted to stand, but his leg gave out once again. Without slowing, the Ka’al threw the wounded man over the other shoulder and joined the rest of the patrons streaming out the door and fleeing from the authorities.

  Lilly watched the stone walls of the alleys pass by in a blur. The chaos and sirens from the main thoroughfare receded as they crisscrossed their way through the bowels of the city. Thaegan’s bare feet slapped out a steady rhythm on the bricks. She had no idea what they intended to do with her, but she wasn’t going to wait to find out.

  Shoving Dallas’ bouncing arms out of the way, Lilly pressed both palms in the center of the Ka’al’s back and focused her energy. The motion of the alien’s jarring pace made it nearly impossible to maintain the contact. With so much of her body touching the big male, she focused on pouring the sexual heat out through every cell.

  The grip around her waist relaxed a fraction and she held her breath willing the big alien to drop her. When he didn’t slow, Lilly forced the energy higher. Her own body burned with the need searing through her. She would be hard-pressed to ease the ache between her thighs on her own. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was getting away from these men.

  Thaegan stumbled, a warrior cry ripping from his throat. “Stop, witch! I will not succumb.”

  His words startled her. How did he know? No male had ever been aware of what she was doing. She didn’t have time to contemplate the question. Her only concern was freedom. Lilly pushed another wave of energy and the big Ka’al went down on his knees. His arm went lax, releasing her as her feet hit the pavement. She stumbled backward, falling to her ass. Momentum carried her back and she slammed her head on the concrete. Pain rang in her ears as she fought to remain conscious.

  Rolling to her side, she watched the Ka’al fall on his face. Dallas lay motionless where Thaegan had dropped him. She had no doubt, from the way blood had been gushing back at the tavern, that she’d very likely delivered a fatal wound. It wasn’t what she’d intended, but running through the events of the evening, she wondered if they’d discovered her identity and decided to kidnap her and sell her to the highest bidder—it wouldn’t have been the first time.

  Dallas had conveniently shown up at the same tavern where she’d intended to take down Venair Grebetz and then he’d gotten in the middle of her taking the alien into custody. Perhaps they were working for the Znedu. The thought soured in her stomach.

  She fought to get to her feet. Lilly had expended so much energy her body was weak and screaming for sexual release. A side effect of her gift and one she didn’t usually mind. But right now, with survival her top priority, she pushed those needs aside.

  Standing on unsteady legs, Lilly surveyed her surroundings. A van was parked not far from where she’d taken down the Ka’al. The kidnapping scenario tripped once again over her synapses. The consequences of their success brought on a new wash of fear and pushed her into action. With a quick glance into the night sky, she calculated direction by the position of the moons and chose a back alley she believed would take her west toward her hotel. She sensed more than saw motion from Dallas but didn’t expect he could do much in his condition.

  The unmistakable whoosh of a laser echoed in the alley only a second before pain seared through her shoulder and the world went black around her.

  Chapter Four

  Fuck. That’s what this whole thing had become. One fuck up after another.

  Dallas pocketed the Treljon laser and rolled to his back. Pain seared through his leg as he fought to sit up. The woman he’d just shot had attacked to kill, not wound. The thought soured in his gut. It wasn’t like he’d never been in the crosshairs, but he’d sure as hell never had sex with a working woman who’d put a target on his back either.

  Through the fog of agony, Dallas wondered if he’d been set up.

  Whatever had happened, he’d let his guard down and managed to endanger himself and his partner—again. A dry run. What the hell was that? Dallas had known something wasn’t right when the human female had come on to him. He’d naively operated on the misconception that she’d actually been attracted to him and wasn’t working some hidden agenda. Well, that’s what he got when he allowed his dick to do his thinking rather than paying attention to the facts. And it looked like Thaegan may have paid the ultimate price for his lapse in judgment.

  Dallas had no idea what Lilly had done to his partner, but there was no doubt in his mind she was responsible for whatever caused the man to cry out in torment before hitting the ground like a felled sequoia.

  Dallas pushed himself to his hands and knees, fighting the dizziness and the nausea. He walked his hands up the nearby handrail of the stairs until he was upright. Neither Thaegan nor Lilly were moving. The laser shot he’d delivered probably hadn’t killed her, but at the moment, he didn’t give a shit one way or the other. The pain in his leg had subsided to a sharp ache. In the yellow wash of the naked bulb over the doorway, he checked his wound. With rapt fascination he watched the blood continue to clot and the wound slowly heal. It was an odd tingling feeling that Dallas hadn’t quite gotten use to.

  Satisfied that he wasn’t going to bleed to death, Dallas limped over to
the big Ka’al, checked for wounds before rolling him over on his back. Thaegan appeared to be sleeping, one side of his mouth curved in a drunken smile. What the hell had the woman done to his partner that had brought him down without any outward sign of injury? He slapped Thaegan’s cheeks and his partner’s eyes fluttered.

  “Thaegan. Wake up. Looks like you’ve fallen asleep on the job.”

  Thaegan’s eyes opened, the pupils dilated and unfocused. He mumbled something incoherent about his ex-wife’s oral prowess. Without knowing what was wrong, Dallas had no idea how to help him. He slapped the man’s cheeks a couple more times.

  Thaegan swam from the mist of unconsciousness, focused on Dallas, and immediately jumped to his feet. “Get that woman away from me.” He turned in a quick circle, confusion furrowing his brow. “Where the hell’s the little witch?”

  “If you mean Lilly, she’s—”

  “No, the Seraphelium. Where. The. Fuck. Is she?” Thaegan asked through clenched teeth.

  “The woman you carried from the tavern is down for the count.” Dallas pointed to Lilly’s still form. “I stunned her with my laser after you went down.” He wondered if he’d hurt her but pushed the thought aside. He shouldn’t give a rat’s ass about the woman who’d tried to kill him.

  Thaegan stormed over to the van and threw open the back doors. It had been parked there in anticipation of collecting Hij’Rozhod tomorrow night. No one expected they’d be taking anyone into custody this night.

  The big alien leaned in. From the noisy crashes and bangs, it sounded as if he were emptying some of the supply boxes on the shelves. Triumphantly, Thaegan came up with a length of rope. “You’re going to tie her fucking hands.” He stalked to Lilly, his breath coming hard, sweat glistening on his forehead. “I don’t want her touching me again.”

  Dallas’ leg was down to a throbbing pain, the blood no longer flowing from the gash laid open by the dagger. Still, he limped as he followed his partner and worked to assess the situation.