Chapter 14 #2
Before he realized what he’d done, Nik grabbed the man around the throat, yanked him up, and slammed his against the wall. “Where did she go?”
Arar’s eyes flickered around like crazy, not landing on any of them and avoiding Nik completely.
“I don’t know, man.” When Nik shook him, Arar’s voice rose.
“I don’t, I swear! She was here one minute, whispering hot things in my ear, the next she hit me, took the invite and was gone. Like a fricking nebula ghost.”
Nik released him and watched him drop back onto his butt.
“Xander, don’t worry. We’ll find her.”
Malin’s voice yanked Nik out of his dark thoughts. One glance and he saw the CenSec was as tense as a board and obviously ready to hurt someone.
“I’ve failed.”
For the first time, Nik heard something in the cyborg’s voice that wasn’t just mechanical blankness. Desolation? Despair?
“No.” Mal had a hand pressed to the cyborg’s arm.
Nik’s frown deepened. He really didn’t like whatever the hell was going on with his cousin and this Centaxian. She was going to get burned…badly.
“Without the invite, I have no way to get to Technis. My planet….” With a shake of his head, he pressed his hands to the wall, his head dropped to his chest.
“It isn’t over yet, CenSec,” Nik said. “Everyone spread out and look for Darc. Justyn, get to the front entrance. If she didn’t make it out already, stop her from leaving.
Xander and Mal, search the dance floor. She might be hiding somewhere in the crowd.
I’ll search these back rooms. We still have a chance to find her. ”
Xander visibly pulled himself together. With a short nod, he left with the others. Nik looked down at the nightclub owner sniveling at his feet.
“Get out of here.”
The man swiped a hand over his mouth, lurched to his feet, and practically ran out of the room.
Okay. Think. Where would Nera go? He raked a hand through his hair. He’d brushed up against Nera countless times on various hunts. Usually, he was the one with bruises. She was deadly, no doubt about that, but damned if that kept him from obsessing over her.
His brothers kept telling him she was going to kill him one day.
He suspected that was true.
It didn’t stop him from being drawn back to her. Again and again. Half the time he didn’t know if he wanted to kill her or fuck her brains out.
Where would Nera go?
He knew the answer in an instant.
Nowhere.
Nera Darc didn’t run. She sauntered—when it suited her. And she didn’t hide by cowering in a crowd.
His hands dropped to his sides. “You can come out now, Nera.”
Against the wall, there was a shimmer of the spectrum camouflage she favored, and she appeared.
Nera Darc, lethal treasure hunter with dubious morals.
The most beautiful, fascinating and frustrating woman Niklas had ever seen.
“Very good, Niklas. I see I’m beginning to become predictable.”
“Only to me.”
She tilted her head. “Yes, only to you.”
She usually favored light body armor but since she couldn’t wear that to a club, her long, lean body was covered by a black catsuit that slicked over every single one of her slim curves. The top of it was open a little, low enough to show the tops of her small, high breasts.
Her hair was short, and a pale platinum blonde like starlight. A long, slim neck that made him think of regal queens led upward to a perfect face dominated by those multi-colored eyes—a blend of pink, green, blue, and silver like a collection of gems scattered on black velvet.
“Predictable is never a word I’d use for you,” he said. “Where’s the invite?”
“I heard the Technomancer is throwing a ball to celebrate a fabulous new artifact he’s acquired. Something very, very old. Something Terran and invaluable.” She shrugged her slim shoulders. “I couldn’t resist the opportunity to…remove it from his collection.”
“I need the invite, Nera. An entire planet’s safety is dependent on it.”
Her spectacular eyes narrowed. “Have I ever given you the impression that I’d care about a planet that has nothing to do with me?”
“I know you aren’t the superbitch you portray to the galaxy.”
Her face didn’t betray any emotion. “You don’t know me, Niklas.”
He knew she was smart, devious, and fascinating. And dammit to hell, he wanted to know more.
She turned away with a graceful move that drew his gaze down the leather hugging her body. Dammit, he felt his cock go hard and he cursed his weakness.
“I’m guessing the planet you’re referring to is Centax since I saw the cyborg with you.” Her eyelids lowered. “I think Centax and her cyborgs can look after themselves.” She shrugged. “Besides, I think I’m in the mood for a ball, so I don’t think I’ll be handing the invitation over.”
She sprang over the table and sprinted for the door.
With a curse, Nik chased after her. She ran down the corridor and into the club before he caught her.
Dammit to hell. He thundered into the club. The lights blinded him for a second. If anything, the place was more crowded than before, the dance floor packed to bursting.
Something tugged on his senses, and he glanced into the heart of the dancers. And saw her moving leisurely through the crowd, like she belonged there. Like she was just a woman out for a fun evening with her friends.
He followed. When a cute, curvy blonde snagged his arm, he scowled down at her and gently shook her off.
Ahead, Nera was smiling at a big square-jawed man who looked about twenty and was grinning at her like a fool. The man gripped her hips, starting to pull her closer.
Nik reached them and slid his arms around her.
“Back off, kid,” he grumbled at the boy.
The young man thought about arguing, but one good look at Nik’s face and he held his hands up and dissolved back into the crowd.
The music beat around them. Loud and hard and rhythmic, like the drum of a racing heart.
Nik succumbed to the need he never let himself think about.
He pulled Nera backward until her spine was pressed hard against the front of him.
Her ass nestled into him, and he bit back a groan.
She was almost as tall as him and her head pressed against his neck and shoulder.
“Niklas.” She whispered his name, but even over the music he heard it. He clamped one hand on her hip while his other slid over her flat belly.
The crowd around them moved, gyrated. They stayed still, pressed so close together their hearts were beating in sync.
He pressed his lips her ear. “There was a coup on Centax. The new dictator is enslaving the planet’s women. They aren’t allowed to work, get an education, they are completely dependent on the men. Some are being sent off planet as payment to the mercenaries.”
Nera stiffened. “Slaves.”
“Yes.”
She went silent and shifted. It rubbed her body against his. The world had narrowed to just the two of them.
He knew she couldn’t miss his huge fucking erection prodding against her ass. Sometimes he didn’t have a clue what the hell he was doing with this woman.
Closing his eyes, Nik drew in the scent of her hair. Leather, steel, and lime. That fresh citrus scent was one he always associated with her.
“You’re so damned beautiful, Nera.”
She shivered against him. “Niklas.” She turned her head and her lips pressed against the thundering pulse at his neck.
Fuck. He nearly lost it, right there in the middle of a crowded dance floor. He was a man who’d always prided himself on his control. But this woman seemed to shred it with ease.
He moved them to the edge of the dance floor. She curled into him, her hands gripping his shoulders, her lips nipping at his skin. His hands slid down and cupped her ass, pulling her tighter against him.
He heard her small moan, and it enflamed him.
He wanted her. He didn’t care who she was or what she’d done.
Then she bit him. Hard.
“Nera,” he growled.
With a cool, feminine laugh, she lapped at the mark she’d left. “I’d like to bite you all over, Niklas Phoenix.”
His cock leaped at her words. He wanted to strip off that slick suit and get to the skin beneath. He wanted to put his mouth on her, between her legs, eat her until she came all over him. He wanted to fuck her all night long, so hard she’d feel his possession for days.
“I want you.” His voice was hoarse. “I need you now.”
She pulled back, her hand at his nape, fingering his hair. Something flashed briefly in her colored eyes, something he couldn’t read. “You’re a good man, Niklas. Too good.”
Her hand slid down his neck.
Then her fingers dug in and pain flared through his body before his vision blurred.
“N-Nera—” For some reason he couldn’t get the word out properly and he was falling.
He felt warm breath on his face and thought he heard a whispered “I’m sorry,” but since she’d just killed him, he figured he’d imagined it.