Authors: Sheri Fredricks
Ella parted her lips, but the words died before she spoke. She shook her head, dropping her eyes to somewhere around his chin.
Aleksander blew out a breath and ran a hand over his goatee. The fact she was holding back or didn’t feel comfortable discussing whatever bothered her, bothered him. His arms tightened their hold and he snuggled her closer, kissing her cheek.
A thought occurred to him. Since when did he give a rat’s ass about what a female thought?
“Since you met Ella, you idiot,”
Meat Wrench piped in again.
Seventeen
E
lla awoke with her heart in her throat. In her dream, the hand squeezing her neck seemed all too real. Pulse pounding a rapid-fire beat, her eyes flew open and took in the unfamiliar bedroom. Dustless rock walls gleamed under the glow stone’s illumination, their chiseled edges a tandem black and grey. Reality crashed into her semi-wakefulness and quickly filled in the blanks.
The heavy arm lying across her esophagus moved lower, and her breathing restored to normal. Scents of sexual musk hung in the still air, pulling
the girls
into tight spiraling points. Her head lay pillowed on Al’s enormous bicep and her hair tangled all around.
“Why are you awake?” Al nuzzled the back of her ear and ran his hand over the tip of her breast.
“Your arm was choking me. It was either wake up or die.”
Behind her, his rumbling chuckle vibrated her back. “Sorry. I’m not used to sleeping with anyone.”
“Ha! I find that hard to believe.” Ella rolled to face him and pushed the hair out of her eyes. “Try it on a different Troll. This one isn’t buying it.”She rolled away and reached her toes for the edge of the bed.
“Where are you going?” Handsome and appealing, he stretched his forelegs, pointing his hooves, before tucking them under to make room for her.
“I’m hungry and thirsty.” Ella slid from the comfort of Al’s warm arms and planted her flat feet on the colorful rug beside the bed. Reaching both arms overhead, she gave a huge yawn then reached to pull-on yesterday’s dirty shirt. “I’ll try to find something for us to eat.”
“That sounds like an excellent idea.” With overstated flourish, Al fell back on the pillows and feigned a loud snore.
She smiled. The little colt charms she’d fought to resist, wormed their way inside her.
Little wonder he broke hearts all over Boronda. Tanned, muscular arms thrown wide, mouth opened to an exaggerated width, erased the lines of responsibility from his fine-looking face.
If she were in the market for a forever type relationship, Al would be her number one contender.
After stepping into her panties she located near the dresser, Ella padded off to rummage in the kitchen. She opened cupboards and drawers, the cold box and pantry, pulling ingredients together to combine into some semblance of dinner. It wasn’t more than a few peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, canned peaches, and two glasses of rosé wine. Having missed breakfast and lunch, her stomach’s orchestra played a full symphony.
In a slim cabinet next to the cook range, she found a well-used cookie sheet and carefully arranged their food on top of it. When she returned to the bedroom with a gourmet dinner fit for a Troll, she found Al propped up and leaning against the headboard. Curled to the side, his four dark legs had kicked the blankets into a knotted bunch beneath him.
“I’m surprised you found anything.” Alek smiled, stretching his goatee wide.
Ella’s heart thudded in a wild tribal beat. Walking away when this was over might prove to be her biggest challenge of all. She returned his smile, sat on the edge of floorbed, and handed him a glass of wine. “As you can see, it’s not much. Personally, I’m craving fried chicken and a turnip salad, but this’ll have to do.”
Al made a face at her, wrinkling his nose.
“What?” she asked.
“It’s hard to think about eating meat when I’m in my true form. Every twelve hours, I’m a vegetarian.”
“And every twenty-four, I’m carnivorous.” Ella took a big bite of her PBJ, wishing it were pastrami, and closed her eyes to munch. Sweet wild berry jelly swept over her tongue and mixed with the salty taste of peanut butter.
“It’s true, you know. I’m not used to it.”At her raised brow, Al finished his mouthful of sandwich and continued. “Sleeping with someone.”
She studied his dark eyes as he studied hers, not sure what to make of his confession.
Dare I believe him?
Even so, her heart fluttered at the possibility he didn’t make it an everyday habit. “Your sex life is none of my business. Have a peach slice.”
Al took her offered slice, and sucked the juice off her fingers. He drew deeply and twirled his tongue around her nails.
The Girls
crimped tighter and her womb clamped down. This Centaur, this unbelievable male, was the sexiest mythic in all the world.
And he seriously messed with her head and future plans.
Ella pulled her fingers from his hot, wet mouth, watching the twinkle grow in his mischievous eyes. He licked his lips, and she groaned.
The man made peanut butter an aphrodisiac.
She took another bite of her sandwich, and didn’t taste a thing.
“What about you?” he pointed at her with the end of his crust. “Why do you want to move out of your family nest?”
“You met my brother. That’s one reason.”
“He’s a bit of an ass, I agree.”
“Not to my parents.” The familiar wave of sadness, anger, and jealousy rippled through her. “To them, Eli is the golden cub. He can do no wrong.”
The bite of her second half of sandwich turned to dust in her mouth. Rather than try to choke it down, she set it on the tray and took a sip of rosé. “Imagine never being smart enough, or thin or good…or pretty enough. Now imagine being reminded of your faults on a daily basis. That’s why I want to move away.”
Tears of frustration burned the back of her eyes. Ella blinked rapidly and tried to ignore the way her throat tightened. Next to her thigh, his hide-covered foreleg wavered through her watery eyes before she shoved the awful turmoil back into the mental box where she stored them.
“Ella.” Al moved the tray of uneaten food to the floor, out of the way. He would have taken her rosé, but she wasn’t giving it up. “You are none of those things, and far from it. What your parents do to you is abusive. Do you understand that?”
She continued to stare into her wine glass, watching the ceiling’s glow stones turn red in the shifting liquid.
Al took her free hand and squeezed, giving it a shake until she looked at him. Sympathetic concern etched lines between his dark, expressive eyes.
He leaned in and tucked a stray lock of hair behind her pointed ear. “You are beautiful to me.” At the roll of her eyes, he pressed her hand a little harder. “Stop it. If you could only see yourself as I see you. You started your own successful business—you did it because you’re smart.”
She watched as his gaze traveled from her wild red hair, over her pudgy, shirt-covered body, to her thick bare legs. Desire shone in his chocolaty depths, warming her cheeks and tingling the spot where they’d connected earlier.
“You have a gorgeous, mouth-watering body. If I made love to you every day for the next century and a half, I’d never tire of you.”
“Al…”
“It’s Aleksander.”
Ella sighed and acquiesced. “Aleksander, more than anything, I want to believe you. But it isn’t easy.” When she tugged her hand, he let go, and she clasped her fingers in her lap. “This morning, I was on my way to meet a landlord who has nests for rent. That’s when the hunter caught me off guard. I lost my purse, my—”
“No you didn’t. I found everything where you dropped them. That giant bag of yours and the notebook are safe. I’ll get them for you when we leave.”
Immediate relief spilled over, washing away her sense of dread. Al must have sensed her instant mood change because he opened his arms and Ella dove into them. She relished his warm bare chest and the security she felt. While held in his muscular arms, nothing bad could ever touch her. Beneath her cheek the beating of his heart syncopated her pulse to his, and she closed her eyes.
Aleksander’s arms tensed a split-second before a male voice came from the open doorway.
*~*~*
“My, my. Isn’t this a cozy scene?”
Unhurried, Alek straightened the tangled blanket beneath his hocks and casually covered Ella’s bare legs. He didn’t want any other male eyes to touch his honey-Troll.
She tried to sit up, so they weren’t breast to chest, but he tightened his arm that wrapped her shoulders, preventing little more than her head to swivel.
“We were until you showed up.” Alek gave the older male a lopsided grin. “How’s it shakin’, Nubbs?”
Nubbs didn’t look happy. The man looked all businesslike and determined, ‘coolness under pressure’ bottled up and ready to explode.
Oh no, he didn’t look happy at all.
Aleksander didn’t blame him. He wasn’t damn happy with the situation, either. Lifting the wineglass, he went to take a sip, but he’d already drained it dry.
Plastered against his chest, Ella managed to slowly lower her glass. Her breath quickened. She was probably scared; her wide eyes never left Nubbs’ face.
Nubbs wore a burnt orange dress shirt, collar wide-spread with the first button open, tucked into a pair of charcoal grey dress slacks. His feet were stuffed into what looked liked lizard lace-up shoes. The two-legged Centaur looked very chic…and lethal, even in the safe house.
In control as always, cold and calculating, Alek noted; dangerous, hard, and unforgiving.
Life had not been easy for Nubbs.
“You didn’t hear the bolt slide?” Beneath the neatly parted dark blond hair, his ice-blue gaze flicked over their unfinished meal. “You’re losing your touch, Alek.”
“Didn’t think I needed the Beretta. Besides, I was a bit—preoccupied.”
Damn!
Two legged or not, he should’ve heard the front door open. Mistakes like that caused major FUBAR results.
Nubbs took in Ella’s disheveled appearance, the color riding high on her cheeks, the bra hanging by a strap off a dresser knob. His chiseled features relaxed and he chuckled. “I guess you’re safe enough.” Then, his gaze skimmed the length of Ella’s gracefully curved spine. “Maybe not. Come out here and talk to me.”
When the door latch clicked shut, Ella released a breath. “I take it that’s the friend who owns this place?”
Alek pushed the blanket back and helped her to sit up. “Yes, he’s someone I work with. I’ll see what he wants. Get dressed and meet me out there when you’re ready.” He pulled with his hooves to slide over the mattress edge, then stood front legs first, respecting the soreness in his injured foreleg.
Ella’s toes tangled in his tail and their eyes met. She wore a saucy little grin and gave him a peek-a-boo between her legs.
“Later, like in nine hours, do that again and you’ll have a different response.” He shook out his equine body and crossed the room with only a slight limp to his gait.
Before she disappeared from his view, Alek took in her physical stats once more. Even in clunky heels, she barely reached his collarbone. He knew how much she weighed—light enough to lift onto his cock in the shower.
Smooth skin ran the length from her neck to her shoulders; firm high breasts painted with pink tips, a tapered waist and flared hips. He burned the sight of Ella into every cell that made up his hairy hide.
She smiled back at him. “I’ll straighten up and be right out.”
Careful not to catch his tail, he shut the door behind him. As he clip-clopped down the hall, he recalibrated his head.
Time to go from lover to warrior.
Sounds from the kitchen caught his attention.
Then, Nubbs called him from the living room. “In here.”
The older man sat with a crossed leg on the threadbare recliner as if it were a throne.
Alek grinned, tilting his head toward the sizzle of food coming from the other room. “What’s in there?”
“Dinner. Now what the hell’s going on that kept you off your hooves to watch a Troll’s ass?” Brusque and to the point as always, Nubbs never minced his words.
Aleksander gestured to his foreleg. “Got my dick broke by a human hunter. Ella helped patch me up.”
“Sure, she did.” Skeptical, his friend and comrade lifted a brow. He flicked a wooden match with the edge of his thumbnail and the stick instantly flared alive. Using the flame, Nubbs lit the coffin nail between his lips. “Watch your six, Kempor Aleksander. Action like that can get a mythic killed.”
Dirty but dressed, Ella appeared from the hallway. She held his boots in one hand and his clothes, rolled like a sausage, in the other.
Aromas of garlic and onion drifted from the kitchen, reminding him they’d need to eat some real food soon.
“Ready to go?” Alek asked her.
She nodded, then addressed Nubbs. “Thank you for letting us use your place. It’s very nice.”
A thin stream of smoke snaked to the ceiling on an exhale. “Anytime, sweetheart. Alek, do you need a clean-up crew?”
Aleksander shook his head. “By my orders, Bomani and a few scouts took the human to the palace. I’ll figure out what to do with him later. We’re a no-kill zone, remember?”
Nubbs took another drag off his cigarette and drew the smoke deep into his lungs. “Damn ridiculous, if you ask me. And how in the hell does that little fart smeller always seem to be where you need him the most?”
They grinned at each other, both admiring the big-hearted Centaur in a pint-sized body.