A Touch of Lilly (7 page)

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 hiding 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.