Alexandre Read online

  Lily gritted her teeth and stared in horror as the male strode closer. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. She wouldn’t make the same mistake again.

  “What…what are you doing?” The clear stammer brought a frown. Confidence was the key in dealing with most things. Aliens couldn’t be any different. She stood straighter and thrust back her shoulders. “Did you want something?”

  He stepped around the corner of the wooden desk and halted a foot from her quivering frame. His brown eyes settled on her face then drifted to her breasts. Her nipples peaked against the cotton of her bra while she was suddenly very conscious of the drape of her top and the fit of the elastic waistband of her black skirt. His spicy scent enticed her to think outrageous things that an innocent human had no right considering. Lily desperately wanted to touch. To run her fingers down his broad chest, grasp his hips and pull him close.

  Lily heard a low groan. It came from her. Mortified color flooded her cheeks, bleeding downward to her neck and upper chest. She couldn’t look him in the eye and see the pity on his face. Because that’s what she’d see. Men didn’t look at women like her. Aliens probably wouldn’t be any different.

  She stepped away from him, away from temptation and further embarrassment. Lily dropped into her swivel chair, ripped the envelope and started reading.

  Lily,

  This place is amazing. Dad and I are having a ball. Not sure when we’ll be back—it all depends on the company Hinekiri is negotiating with to update charts.

  We met Alex on our travels, and he spent several days with us before he left for Earth. He seems an okay bloke and since Dad and I knew you’d welcome the business, we sent him your way. He gave us his word he’d treat you with courtesy—

  Lily snorted. How did Luke think he could enforce a promise when he was in Dalcon? By ESP?

  Janaya had a word with him, too. Don’t know what she said but it put the fear of God into him.

  Anyway, he wants to start up in the tour business running tours from Dalcon all over the universe. He intends to include Earth as a destination so I figured you should profit. He’s willing to pay big bucks for your expertise. From what I can gather, he wants someone with local knowledge to show him around New Zealand.

  Love, your big bro,

  Luke

  Lily extracted another sheet of paper from the envelope aware of the golden male pillaging her office, picking up brochure after brochure. At the rate he was going, she wouldn’t have any left to offer customers. She unfolded the other sheet of paper and frowned at the unfamiliar writing.

  Dear, Sister,

  I hope we’re doing the right thing sending this male, Alex, to you. Now that I have a sister, I don’t intend to lose her in a hurry. I’m afraid you’re stuck with my Aunt Hinekiri, and me.

  If you feel threatened or need help handling the male—

  Well, that was a given. Lily raised her eyes to his denim-clad butt and shuddered. Oh, yeah. She felt threatened all right, but it was her hormones that were the problem. For some unknown reason, she couldn’t stop looking at him and that made her grumpy. Very grumpy. She would tell him to go to hell. That’s what she’d do.

  But you can’t afford to, a little voice of reason whispered. Not if he’s offering business. She put Janaya’s letter down and glanced at the man—Alex. “Can you tell me what you had in mind?”

  The golden man turned away from the brochures with a slightly glazed look in his amber-brown eyes.

  Lily’s mouth set in a firm line. Was she that dull and boring? She heaved an inward sigh, thinking that she didn’t know why she was worried. Her virtue was safe from the golden cat.

  “What did you have in mind?” She drew in a deep breath and felt as though she were teetering on the edge of a precarious cliff. “How much are you offering to pay me?”

  “I want to see both the North and the South Island. A month would give me time to research places to stay and sort out reliable contacts. That is what I need your help with—figuring out the right places to visit. As to payment—I can’t afford to pay much. How does one thousand dollars a day sound plus shelter and meals?”

  Shock kicked her in the gut, robbing her of speech, but thoughts galloped through her mind. One thousand dollars. A day. One thousand dollars. There were thirty-one days in March. That equated to thirty-one thousand dollars.

  “How much?” Lily asked hoarsely.

  “It’s not much, I know.” A frown marred his handsome face for an instant before his brow smoothed out. “Once I start bringing tours through, I’ll need help. We can discuss this—maybe I could pay you a commission as my local agent?”

  Lily nodded abruptly. “Where do I sign?” She worked hard to restrain her celebratory cheer. Any sudden moves might scare off her cash cow before she’d signed on the dotted line. She didn’t want that.

  “I have a treaty with my belongings. I left my bags in a secret hole until we had time to talk. We can discuss the rules and regulations over dinner.”

  Dinner. That meant dressing up. “Can’t we do it now?” Her one good dress was at the cleaners after she’d had a wee accident involving her food and the wandering hands of the man who’d sat next to her at the travel agent convention last month. She couldn’t afford to collect it yet. “Or at least discuss the details so we can formalize the agreement tonight.” Lily scowled inwardly. Rules and regulations sounded rather daunting.

  “Time is of the essence,” he agreed in his accented drawl. “Before I left, I had word of an entrepreneur in the Jupiter sector wanting to set up a similar business to what I have in mind. I intend to be first.”

  Lily’s eyes widened. “Just how many aliens are there on Earth?”

  The curves of Alex’s mouth lifted in a wide grin. “Frightened we’re going to experiment on you? Perform kinky sexual deeds to see how you work?”

  “No!” Lily’s cheeks felt as though they had caught fire. The trouble was he wasn’t far from the truth. Except in her graphic imagination, she was the aggressor. It astounded her that she’d have these thoughts let alone visualize doing them with an alien. “Of course not!” Time to conduct this conversation along official paths. “Tell me what you’ve done in the way of research. What places did you want to visit?”

  “I’ve spent the last two moon rotations researching Earth and its people—one of your Earth years. I want to visit both islands of New Zealand. Your brother suggested I ask you to take me to the main sites.”

  Lily found a notepad then searched for her pen. She patted the papers on the desktop before remembering it had somersaulted onto the floor. For an instant, she considered grabbing another pen but superstition propelled her to search for her lucky pen. She dropped to all fours and crawled under her desk.

  A soft choking noise made her freeze. Her cheeks heated anew and a fine tremor ran the length of her body. She didn’t want to start imagining how she appeared from Alex’s perspective. But since the damage had occurred…

  Lily ran her hands across the tight pile of the gray carpet in search of her pen. Ah!

  She seized the silver pen and backed from under her desk. Halfway out, her bottom connected with something hard. Lily glanced over her shoulder in puzzlement and twisted about to come face-to-face with Alex’s legs and manly equipment. Startled and totally flustered, she shot upward. The side of her head connected with the desk. Pain exploded through her skull, shooting stars soared past her closed eyes.

  “Ouch!” Shit, that hurt! Lily fingered the sore spot and came away damp with blood.

  Masculine hands seized her around the waist and pulled her to safety. Suddenly she was up close and personal with the alien, her heart thudding loud enough to wake the dead, her senses swamped with him. Lily looked deep into his amber eyes, mesmerized—dazed.

  “Are you injured?” His hands skimmed her body in the most delicious manner. She tried to concentrate on the fact she wore granny pants under her skirt but it was difficult when she stood so close to him. “Where does it hurt?”


  God, it hurt everywhere. Her breasts throbbed and lower her pussy tingled with longing. Said granny pants felt uncomfortably damp. She shuddered, unable to speak for fear of blurting out her desperate need of him.

  “You’re bleeding.” He stepped away from her, and Lily wanted to protest. Then he yanked off his shirt, and she forgot how to breathe. The need to run her tongue across the broad expanse of his hairless chest pounded through her confused brain. She really didn’t enjoy sex, but oh, man, she wanted to do it with him.

  Chapter Two

  Panic of colossal proportions assaulted Alex as he trailed his hands across Lily’s silky skin. His tom stirred, pressing against his Earth clothing with an insistence that was almost painful. He closed his eyes and tried to think of anything but the warm, feminine body he held in his arms. A spasm started in the biggest digit on his right foot. This felt like bonding to him, and he damn well didn’t have the time or inclination, even though her hips fitted the span of his hands perfectly. That bloody charlatan of a medical man had given him faulty travel pills. The only explanation. The pills should halt the bonding urges. The thought pounded through him with relentless truth.

  One thing was sure—the second he set foot on Dalcon again, he intended to sue. After he’d exacted his pound of flesh from the pompous little windbag. Was it his fault he was allergic to the quills they sourced from Dalcon’s fodo bird to inject the travel inoculations? No, the medical man had assured him if he took the pills, he’d be sweet. He’d have no problems with the trace elements in Earth’s atmosphere. No problems with illness and certainly no fuckin’ bonding for life with a receptive Earth female.

  Lily sighed, her warm, moist breath feathering across his chest to hit his nipple. Alex suppressed his shudder of pleasure while he frantically pondered possible solutions. There must be some way to escape this situation. He hadn’t felt the bonding ties until he’d touched her. Maybe if he refrained from physical contact again? Swift on the heels of this thought came another. Luke and Janaya Morgan were gonna kill him.

  He was dead meat.

  Lily edged closer to him and sighed again—a soft breathy sound that sent lusty thoughts roaring out of control. Alex clenched his teeth and fought against the desire to remove her clothes, part her legs and claim her as his mate. That couldn’t happen. Despite his royal connections, he had no means of support. He’d risked everything he owned to get his new business off the ground. If he gave in to the need coursing through his veins, he’d be back where he started. A pampered pet for the women of the royal court to paw over and use for their gain. Damn it, he wanted his own identity. He wanted people to look at him and see a self-made man instead of standing in awe of his pretty face. Was that too much to ask?

  The woman stirred again, reminding him of how he’d gotten himself into this mess. She’d hurt herself. Alex inched away, and then steeling himself against the jolt of sensation he knew he’d feel, tilted up her head to see the extent of the damage. Blood had trickled from a scrape on her temple down her face and neck. He grabbed his shirt off the desk and started to wipe the blood from her face.

  Voices outside the travel agency made him pause. Familiar voices. The sound of the door handle turning made Alex turn. No! He stiffened and waited for the painful death beam of a blaster.

  “What the hell have you done to my sister?” Luke Morgan clenched his fists and loomed over the desk that separated them. The man looked ready to rearrange Alex’s features.

  The devil-spotted dog bounded into the office with a threatening bark. “Woof. I’ll bite him before he eats more blood. Woof!”

  “I told you to keep your hands off my sister,” Janaya snarled.

  Resigned, Alex waited for his punishment. Two more people—Hinekiri, Janaya’s aunt, and Richard, Luke’s father—crowded into Lily’s office. Great. The gang was all here.

  He was going to die.

  Lily tugged from his grasp and straightened her top. Alex’s heart wrenched at the separation. But he wasn’t fool enough to do anything about it, not with her overprotective family gunning for his blood.

  “What are you doing here? You told me you were staying on Dalcon for at least another month before you headed off again.”

  “Aren’t you pleased to see us?” Luke demanded.

  Lily looked confused. “Of course I am, stupid. I just don’t understand why you’re here.”

  “We’ve come to pick up my fishing gear,” Richard said.

  Lily’s brows rose. “All the way from Dalcon?”

  They were lying, of course. He knew it, and judging by the expression on Lily’s face, she had trouble swallowing their story too. It had more holes than a fishing net.

  “We’re finally going fly fishing in Alaska. There’s a big fishing contest in Anchorage. I wanted my favorite lures. My lucky lures,” Richard added.

  “I tried to tell Richard I was going to catch a bigger salmon than him,” Hinekiri chirped with a toothy grin. “That’s when he decided we needed to come back here to pick up his lures.”

  Janaya strode up to the desk and scrutinized Lily closely. She winged a glare at Alex. “Have you bitten her neck?”

  Trust the bodyguard. She never let go of what was important. They trained the best on Dalcon.

  “Well?” Janaya snapped.

  Alex took a step back, eying her warily. The fire in her eyes wasn’t good.

  “What do you mean?” Lily asked. “Alex hasn’t bitten me.”

  Luke put his hands on his hips. “Then why are you bleeding?”

  Killer barked, the hot air she expelled heating Alex’s leg even through his Earth jeans. “Vampire,” she barked.

  “I am not a damned vampire,” Alex snapped. Royal princes didn’t have permanent fangs, for a start. The spotted devil behaved more vampire than him. Look at the way she was eyeing his buttock flesh.

  Lily patted him on the arm. “No one said you were a vampire.”

  Interesting that everyone understood the dog except Lily. The dog slinked closer.

  “Tell them how you hurt yourself,” Alex said, giving Killer a suspicious look. She was awful close, definitely within biting distance.

  “I hit my head on the desk when I was getting my pen,” Lily said, looking at her feet. Her head jerked up again to glare at her brother and sister-in-law. “You know how clumsy I am.” Both her words and her body language spoke of mortification.

  Luke laughed. “You hit your head? Klutz. I could never understand how you managed to be so good at bowling a cricket ball when you were so clumsy the rest of the time.”

  Alex clenched his fists angry on Lily’s behalf. He made an instinctive move to comfort then jerked his hand back before physical contact. Lily was his employee. His means to make his plans for the future come true. He couldn’t afford to touch her again and cement the bond further.

  “We told you to have your inoculations,” Janaya said with a bite in her voice.

  Alex backed up, moving closer to Lily. No way was he stupid enough to let Janaya within striking distance. But then perhaps this wasn’t a good move either. His heart felt the pull, the tug of Lily’s soul calling. Alex jumped away, glaring at them all. He would not sacrifice his dream.

  Lily broke the taut silence. “If you’ve come back to collect your fishing lures, why are you here in Papakura? Why aren’t you in Sloan?”

  A perfectly logical question. Alex smothered a smirk. That was his little moon heart. He arched a brow at Luke and waited for the Earthman to extract himself from the hole he’d dropped into with their fabricated excuse.

  “We came to see you,” Hinekiri chirped when Luke hesitated. “You’re family. Of course we’d want to see you.”

  Surely, Lily wouldn’t buy the blatant lie? Alex narrowed his eyes then groaned inwardly as he glanced at her. The sunshine smile said it all.

  “Alex and I were about to discuss our itinerary,” Lily said.

  Alex bit back a grin. Her words had her family sharing panicked glances alt
hough they rallied quickly. There was a lot of silent communication going on between Luke and Janaya. He couldn’t let them talk Lily out of helping him. He needed her expertise.

  “Lily is organizing her relief staff, and we’re leaving this weekend.” Alex met Luke’s frown without a flinch. As far as Alex was concerned, this was war. He’d get Lily to help him through fair means or foul alien tricks. Apart from the bonding. He agreed with her family about that.

  “A suggestion,” Hinekiri said. “Lily isn’t going to get much done with us underfoot. Why don’t we leave her to sort out things and meet her in Sloan? Perhaps tomorrow morning?”

  “Good idea,” Janaya said before Alex could offer an opinion.

  Panic jumped in Alex’s gut. Frankly, he didn’t want to let Lily out of his sight in case she changed her mind. With her travel background and her knowledge of aliens, she was the perfect candidate for what he had in mind.

  He checked Lily for her reaction and froze. For an instant, lust fogged his thoughts—a vision of naked skin and luscious, plump breasts offered up for his tasting delight danced through his mind, leaving him breathless. Wanting. His tom twitching in readiness to follow the through.

  Hinekiri coughed loudly. “Alex, you can drive down to Sloan with us, and Lily can come down once she’s sorted everything here.”

  His vision dissolved into reality. They were trying to come between him and his goals. There was more than one way to pluck a fodo bird. This was war.

  * * * * *

  They stowed his bags and piled into a vehicle called a land something or other. Luke and Killer took the passenger seat and Richard drove. They hemmed Alex in the rear, making him a potential target of the bodyguard and the explorer. The only weapon he had to protect himself with was an Earth jacket.