Kidnapped from the Paradise Resort (Kindred Tales Spicy Shorts #2)

1. Kara

1

KARA

“And now we’ll be boarding all of our Ultra Express Economy passengers,” the flight attendant said. “Passengers boarding the shuttle to Paradise Prime holding Ultra Express Economy tickets, please come forward.”

“Finally!” Kara muttered. She brushed a long strand of dark brown hair out of her eyes and looked down at her ticket. It was printed on shiny silver foil in an alien language she could read only because she’d had a shot of Translation Bacteria when she came to work aboard the Kindred Mother Ship.

The Kindred were huge alien warriors—most of them over seven feet tall and all extremely muscular. They were also a race that was ninety-five percent male, which meant they were always traveling the universe, looking for women to Bond and mate with. They had come to Earth almost fifteen years ago, and now their Mother Ship orbited the Moon. By an arrangement with the World Council, they were allowed to call human brides.

But Kara hadn’t come to the Mother Ship as anyone’s bride. She had already been married when she took a job as the head of one of the Kindred’s PR teams. Because the Kindred were so big and muscular, a lot of humans were scared of them. Kara’s team did what they could to make the huge aliens more accessible and friendly, so the women who were called as Kindred brides wouldn’t be frightened.

Kara loved her job, but her husband—now her ex- husband—hadn’t liked it at all. He had been extremely insecure about the fact that Kara was working with such big, muscular guys all day and accused her of trying to find a replacement for him.

This was absolutely untrue, but Kara had to admit she could see why Kevin, her ex, would feel that way. The Kindred were big and rugged and handsome and they treated women like goddesses. It didn’t help that she’d been given a gorgeous assistant who was willing to wait on her hand and foot and do whatever she asked as soon as she asked it.

She’d tried inviting J’orn—that was her assistant’s name—to dinner with herself and Kevin one night…but that had only made things worse. Kara had been trying to prove that her assistant was no threat to their marriage—after all, he was way too young for her, as she had repeatedly pointed out to Kevin. Just because he was seven feet tall and his muscles had muscles didn’t make him a threat—right?

Wrong, unfortunately. J’orn spent the whole night doing everything Kevin couldn’t be bothered to do. When Kara dropped her napkin, he bent down to pick it up. When her shoe came untied, he dropped to his knees to tie it. He even brought a bottle of expensive wine and a bouquet of her favorite flowers—lilacs—to dinner because he said he’d heard it was an “Earth custom.”

Kevin, who hadn’t bothered to bring her flowers in several years, most definitely felt threatened. Especially when J’orn had come into the kitchen and started helping with the meal. Kevin could barely make himself a sandwich but the big Kindred had expertly julienned vegetables for the salad and then helped make the pan sauce for the chicken dish Kara was cooking.

Her assistant had also brought the ingredients for a quick chocolate mousse because he happened to remember it was Kara’s favorite. He whipped it up in no time flat and they had it for dessert.

Kara had to admit it was the best chocolate mousse she’d ever had—but it wasn’t worth the fighting that followed. Kevin accused her of liking J’orn better than him just because he “sucked up” to her.

“If by ‘sucking up’ you mean he does the things I ask without complaining or just flat out refusing, the way you refuse to put your dirty socks in the hamper instead of leaving them lying all around the house, then yes, I guess he’s ‘sucking up,’” Kara had finally exploded.

How could she explain that it wasn’t the way J’orn looked, but the way he acted that attracted her? Not that she was attracted to her much younger assistant, of course. Because she wasn’t, Kara told herself. She really wasn’t. But Kevin thought she wanted the big Kindred because of how he looked. He was sure he couldn’t compare with her assistant because he was only five foot nine and on the skinny side. He didn’t seem to understand that his refusal to help around the house in any way or to take even a little of the burden of cooking and cleaning off her shoulders was the main thing that was driving her away from him.

But Kara had to admit, J’orn certainly was easy on the eyes. He was mostly Beast Kindred but he had some R’drager DNA which gave him dark purple skin and intense, pale lavender eyes ringed in black. He also had two curving horns growing from either side of his forehead that made him look wild and animalistic.

But it was the way he acted—the way he treated her—that she wished her husband would emulate. The way he looked at her, as though she hung the Moon, as her Granny used to say. The way he was always so protective and eager to do what she asked without dragging his feet or complaining or resenting her for being a woman who just happened to be in charge…

Stop thinking like that, she scolded herself as she moved slowly towards the shuttle that would take her to Paradise Prime, “The Ultimate Vacation Planet” as it was billed in all the brochures. Thanks to buying her ticket last minute, she was at the very end of the line. This trip was supposed to be all about forgetting both her divorce and her assistant.

Ex-assistant now. She’d gotten J’orn reassigned in a last-ditch effort to save her marriage—which had already been on life-support. But shortly after J’orn had gone to work in the Kindred Elite Espionage Corps, Kevin had served her with divorce papers anyway.

It had been a big mess—Kara couldn’t quite block it out of her mind. Her husband had demanded that she quit her job aboard the Kindred Mother Ship and work exclusively on Earth.

“What are you talking about? Work where?” she’d demanded. “The Kindred pay twice as much as any Earth-based PR firm and we get free healthcare from them—including vision and dental! What other place can I go that can offer us that?”

“None of that matters.” Kevin shook his head stubbornly. “You need to leave those big bastards alone and come back to work on Earth, Kara.”

“Look, I let J’orn go and asked for a female assistant,” she reminded him. “What else do you want me to do?”

“I told you—come back to work on Earth. It doesn’t matter that you let him go—you’re still surrounded by those…those aliens.” He made the word into a slur. “They’re all trying to seduce you, all the time!”

“That’s ridiculous!” Kara exclaimed. “Most of the Kindred I work with are already mated and married. They’re not like human men, Kevin—they’re completely monogamous. None of them is ever going to cheat on their wives to come after me!”

“J’orn wasn’t married or mated!” he spat. “He was all about pleasing you—all the damn time! And I don’t just mean in the office—I saw the way he looked at you, Kara! He was constantly undressing you with his eyes!”

“Well, maybe if you tried to please me—even a little—we wouldn’t be in this position!” Kara had exclaimed, losing her temper completely. “You know I haven’t had an orgasm with you in the past five years, right?”

The minute the words were out of her mouth, she knew she’d gone too far. But damn it, it was true! Kevin didn’t even try in the bedroom anymore. He never wanted to go down on her—he didn’t seem to want to do any foreplay at all. He just rolled on top of her, pushed himself inside, and gave half a dozen weak thrusts she could barely feel before rolling off again and going directly to sleep. How was she supposed to get off when their whole sex life could be boiled down to five minutes every other week?

“Look, I didn’t mean—” she began.

Kevin pulled out a sheaf of paperwork and waved it in her face.

“Leave the Mother Ship and the Kindred now or sign these,” he’d demanded.

Kara had had enough at that point. Their marriage was dead—perhaps it had been dead for a long time. And she knew at that minute that there was absolutely no saving it.

She’d pulled out a pen and signed.

Now, as she walked slowly forward, glancing down at her shiny, silver ticket, she tried to put the past out of her mind…and failed.

It wasn’t like Kevin had been such a great husband—he hadn’t. He’d been a complete slob who left a trail of crumbs and dirty clothes and dishes wherever he went and always expected Kara to clean up after him. He refused to learn to cook because his mom had always cooked for his dad and so “that was how things are supposed to be—the woman serves the man.” Even when she started making more money than him, he still expected her to do all the cooking and cleaning.

Really, Kara didn’t know why she hadn’t left him sooner.

The one thing she really regretted was letting her assistant go to try and save her already failed marriage.

Sending J’orn away had been a horrible, gut-wrenching affair almost worse than the scene she’d had with Kevin. She still felt terribly guilty about it when she remembered it…

“Can I talk to you?” she remembered J’orn saying, on the last day they worked together.

Feeling resigned, she had nodded and led him into her office. She shut the door, making sure they wouldn’t be disturbed, and then went to lean against the edge of her desk. Arms crossed over her breasts, she nodded at him.

“All right—talk.”

To her surprise, J’orn was suddenly on his knees before her.

“Why?” he asked, his deep voice nearly breaking. “Why are you sending me away from you, Kara?”

Kara was taken aback—she hadn’t expected such a passionate reaction to her request to reassign him.

“Well, first of all, it has nothing to do with your performance,” she began, trying to soften the blow. “You’ve been nothing but absolutely excellent and I promise that was exactly what I said to Commander Sylvan when I asked him to reassign you.”

“I don’t care about that!” he insisted, looking up at her. “I care about you sending me away. Why are you punishing me like this?”

“ Punishing you?” Kara shook her head, dumbfounded. “What are you talking about? I’m not punishing you.”

“Yes, you are!” he’d insisted, his pale eyes blazing. “You’re punishing me for wanting to serve you—for wanting to be near you!”

“J’orn, I never—” she began. She felt really uncomfortable having this conversation with him on his knees before her. “Look, if you could just get up…”

“It’s because of your mate, isn’t it?” he’d demanded, frowning at her.

“No, of course not,” Kara lied uncomfortably, but she couldn’t meet his eyes as she spoke.

Clearly, her words didn’t convince J’orn.

“Kara, I would never seek to end a true Bonding between mates the Goddess has put together, but he is not worthy of you!” he exclaimed. “He doesn’t go out of his way to serve you or help you with any of the household chores—I’ve heard you speak of it to some of the other women aboard.”

Kara frowned at him.

“Wait—have you been spying on me?”

“No, of course not!” J’orn ran a hand over his curving horns. “I’m just attuned to you—I can’t help hearing you if you’re anywhere near me. I try not to listen but it’s not just the things I overheard you saying that convinced me your mate is wrong for you.”

“J’orn—” she began in a warning voice, but her assistant was still talking.

“He doesn’t listen to you or value your opinion—he acts like your work isn’t important,” he went on recklessly. “He doesn’t even satisfy you sexually!”

“What?” Kara had stared at him in disbelief. “How could you possibly know that?”

“I can smell your heat,” he said simply. “Your need is so strong some days I can barely keep from reacting to it. No woman who was being properly serviced by her mate would have such a heated scent.”

Kara’s cheeks had gone hot with an embarrassed blush. It was true she never got what she needed from her husband anymore, but that wasn’t her assistant’s business! She remembered that she’d read how women in their forties and fifties sometimes went through a period of extreme sexual desire while men declined at the same age. Maybe that was the problem with her and Kevin. But even if that was the truth, it still wasn’t any of J’orn’s business.

“I think you’d better go now,” she’d said to her assistant in her best, steely, “I am the boss” voice. “My life and my marriage aren’t your concern.”

“But don’t you see—I wouldn’t be concerned if I didn’t care for you!” he’d protested.

Kara had taken a deep breath. So this was where all the late-night work sessions, and the snack breaks, and the easy, light-hearted friendship with her assistant had gotten her. She should have been stricter—should have made sure to keep some professional distance between them. Instead, she’d allowed the feeling that J’orn thought she was attractive get to her.

It was the way he looked at her—Kevin was right—there was longing in those pale purple eyes every time he glanced in her direction. But she’d ignored it and now look at where they were.

“J’orn,” she said in a steady voice. “If you’re saying what I think you’re saying, you need to stop and reconsider. I’m forty and you’re not even thirty yet. I’m too old for you. And I’m not exactly skinny either,” she added ruefully. “You should go find a nice girl who’s your own age—some pretty, skinny young thing who’ll?—”

“I don’t want some other woman,” J’orn protested. “And don’t speak that way about yourself, Kara. You’re what we Kindred call a ‘Mature Elite’—a woman of wisdom blessed by the Goddess with extra bountiful curves. I know I’m not worthy of you now but if you’ll give me time?—”

“I’m afraid we’re out of time,” Kara said firmly. “This is your last day in the PR department, J’orn. I’m not sure where Commander Sylvan is sending you, but I know you’ll be a credit to whatever department?—”

“Don’t give me that bullshit!” he’d said roughly, surprising her by cursing, which he almost never did. He rose to his feet to tower over her and for a moment, she was afraid he might get angry and start shouting or break something—that was definitely what a human guy would have done.

But J’orn didn’t start trashing her office—he didn’t even raise his voice. He just looked at her with such an intense gaze that Kara found she had to drop her own eyes because she couldn’t meet his anymore.

“This isn’t over, Kara,” he rumbled.

For a moment she’d thought he was threatening her. But the words weren’t spoken in a menacing tone of voice. It was like he was simply telling a fact he was sure she would soon find out.

“What do you mean by that?” she’d demanded, daring to look at him again.

J’orn leaned closer—leaned over her. He rested his fingertips on either side of her on the desk and his big, muscular body seemed to surround hers. She could feel his heat and smell his scent—that clean, warm, woodsy scent that she’d always liked so much. But now it had a wild tang to it—some dark spice she’d never smelled on him before.

He smelled dangerous , which didn’t make any sense but that was what her body insisted as her heart rate picked up and her pulse began to race.

“J’orn?” she asked, her voice coming out breathless and uncertain as she looked up at him. “What?—?”

“I meant exactly what I said, Kara,” he murmured, dipping his head to speak in her ear. His warm breath sent a shiver through her whole body. “There’s a reason I was sent to serve and protect you. You can send me away now, but we’re not done with each other yet.”

“Stop…stop talking like that!” she’d demanded breathlessly.

She put out her hands to push him away but her fingertips barely grazed his broad chest before he rose to his full height and took a step back. Then he’d turned and left her office, closing the door gently behind him instead of slamming it, like she might have expected.