her properly.
He heard the door latch disengage, and sighed with relief.
Finally, after years of waiting and lusting, Star had arrived.
* * *
Star entered the darkened cottage with a deliberately noisy step, tossing off her cloak with a shrug of her shoulders. If there was a woman inside being kept against her will, Star wanted her to know that help was at hand. But as she sniffed the air, she relaxed. There hadn’t been any sex going on in this rental in awhile. Her prey, however, smelled delicious. A dark, spicy scent filled the room, and she breathed it in, finding it both arousing and familiar.
Shaking off the distraction, Star forced her attention back to the task at hand. The innkeeper assured her that a Jacian male had checked in yesterday, and according to the security vid, he hadn’t left. So where was he?
He’d kept the lights out, but that was more to his disadvantage than hers. She was a Huntress. Her people could see in the dark, smell from great distance, and move with amazing rapidity. In fact, they were known so much for their physical attributes that most other species had forgotten how smart they were. A fatal mistake in most cases.
Star blinked, putting into place the thin optical membrane that made night vision possible, affording her an unhindered view of the room. A bed, still made, took up the center, with two small tables on either side of it. To the right, a door led to the bathroom. To the left was a desk, beside which stood a cooling and heating unit. From the smell of it, the ambassador hadn’t eaten since he’d arrived.
Great, he was horny and hungry.
She snorted derisively. What a shitty case. But then she always ended up with the most undesirable assignments. She was the first of the Hunter species to attain the bench, and because of that she had to work twice as hard, and hand down twice as many verdicts, just to get the same respect and the same number of judicial credits. Two of her classmates had already moved up to the Supreme Court, despite having far less experience than she. They’d both failed and had been retired quickly.
Sure, Hunters could track and kill anything, but they could also be gentle, fair, and wise—basically, they had brains to back up their brawn. And it was her life’s goal to show that fact to the universe. Her species was depending on her to prove the Council wrong.
“I hope you didn’t dim the lights for me,” she murmured, the hilt of her small dagger gripped firmly, but not tightly.
“I certainly didn’t do it for me,” came the low, velvety voice she knew from her dreams. It swirled around her, originating from nowhere and yet permeating everywhere. “I would much rather see you. You do hunt naked, like the rest of your species, don’t you?”
Star paused mid-step, her pulse quickening at the sound of that deep growl of sensual promise. She shook off the tingle that coursed over her skin. “Who are you?” she breathed, every nerve ending flaring to life. “Where are you?”
The room was empty.
“That depends. I’m either your prey or your lover. You have to decide which.”
She checked the bathroom. Nothing. “I don’t know you.”
“Don’t you, Star? I’ve held you in my arms, caressed you, licked every inch of your skin. You have a scar on your left hip.
A battle wound. I like to kiss it. Suckle it, like your nipples…”
“Shut up.” Her spines shot out, a sign of arousal and fear. She was the predator here, but she didn’t feel that way. “Get out of my head.”
“Can I get in somewhere else?” he purred. “I’m rather desperate at the moment. You took longer than I expected.”
For a moment, she swore she could feel the heat of him behind her. She tilted her head back, and looked up at the ceiling a moment too late. The Jacian dropped down from a harness, and caught her up. He ran to the wall, and pinned her hard against it. The blade in her hand skittered away, but still she moved to grab him, finding instead that her spines had sunk into the wall and held her securely.
“Oh shit,” she groaned, as he cupped one breast in a familiar grasp. If she stayed aroused, she’d be stuck for awhile. “I’m so screwed.”
“Not yet,” he breathed, his tongue flicking across her nipple. “But you’re about to be.”
CHAPTER 2
Roark opened his mouth and surrounded the peak