Wrapped in Their Arms (Twin Kindred #4)

Chapter 1

NOELLE

“Damn it! I can’t…quite…reach.” Noelle Rodriguez stood on her tiptoes on the step ladder, reaching far above her head to try and place the glittering gold star on the Christmas tree.

She was almost there…the tip of the tree was in reach.

Now if only she could manage to slip the bottom of the star over the spiky topmost branch…

Suddenly her center of gravity shifted and she felt the rickety stepstool she was standing on tilting under her. Before she knew it, she was falling, heading straight for the hard metal floor below.

“Madre de Dios!” she gasped, waving her arms frantically, as though she could suddenly learn to fly.

The ground rushed up to meet her but at the last minute a pair of strong arms scooped her up and she found herself being cradled close to a broad, muscular chest.

“Whoa there, my lady,” a masculine voice murmured, and a pair of hazel-green eyes looked down at her worriedly. “Are you all right?” the huge Kindred warrior asked.

It was Shines Brightly—Bright for short.

He was a Twin Kindred—a Light Twin to be exact—and he had the sandy brown hair and easy, open mannerisms to prove it.

In fact, truth be told, Bright was kind of a flirt, which always made Noelle’s stomach flutter, even though she was sure he was just being nice.

After all, why would a seven-foot tall, handsome, muscular warrior who was ten years younger than her want anything to do with an over-forty divorcee who wasn’t exactly thin? In fact, she was afraid she must be hurting his back, although he held her as though she weighed next to nothing.

“I…I’m fine. Just clumsy, that’s all.” Noelle tried to laugh but it came out shaky and weak.

She couldn’t help thinking she’d never been this close to the Light Twin before and up close, he smelled really good—like clean clothes and cedar and some kind of masculine spice that reminded her of the ocean.

Also, he showed no interest in putting her down.

“You’re not clumsy, that stool is too unstable,” he observed, frowning down at the stepstool, lying on its side on the floor as though it was a disobedient dog.

“What were you doing up there, anyway?” he asked her.

“You don’t need to stretch to reach the topmost branches—let Burn or I do it for you. ”

“Oh, you don’t have to—”

“Burn,” Bright called, before she could even finish her sentence. “Come here—we need you.”

Burns Hot, another Twin Kindred, came over to them.

He was a Dark Twin, which was easy to tell by his thick black hair and beard.

His eyes were so dark they looked like endless pools of midnight.

Noelle had never been close enough to the big Dark Twin to be able to tell if they were black or just really dark blue.

To be honest, she found Burn rather intimidating.

Even aboard the Kindred Mother Ship, which was filled with seven-foot-tall alien warriors, he stood out in a crowd.

He was a head taller than every other male on the ship, for one thing.

And there was something about his eyes—a kind of spark far back in their darkness that hinted at hidden violence.

Also, he talked only rarely, in a deep, rumbling voice that seemed to resonate through Noelle’s whole body whenever he spoke to her—which wasn’t often.

Burn was something of a silent giant—he also wasn’t Bright’s brother.

Twin Kindred always came in pairs—they were together from womb to tomb, living in the same household all their life, sharing a wife and children, and often dying on the very same day.

But neither Bright nor Burn had a twin…which was possibly why the two of them had formed such a close friendship, Noelle speculated.

She almost never saw the two of them apart.

She knew that Bright had lost his twin at birth but she wasn’t sure how Burn had lost his…

and she was too intimidated by the huge warrior to ask him.

Not that he talked much—Bright usually played the interpreter for his enormous best friend.

He seemed to know what Burn was thinking and often answered questions for him.

“What happened?” Burn asked now. The words seemed to be pulled out of him, as always, and his voice was a low rumble, like boulders rubbing together at the bottom of a riverbed.

“Noelle nearly fell,” Bright explained. “She was trying to reach the top of the Christmas tree.” He looked down at her. “Why were you doing that, anyway? It looks fine to me.” He nodded at the strings of white twinkle lights and the many colorful ornaments that decorated the tree.

“I was trying to put the star on top,” Noelle explained. She was still somehow clutching the star in one hand and she gestured with it. “It’s the finishing touch.”

She told herself she wished that Bright would put her down…but deep down, she didn’t really want him to. She liked being close to him—he smelled so good. But she was probably hurting his back. “You should put me down,” she said to him. “I’m too heavy for you to keep holding me like this.”

Bright looked offended.

“Are you impugning my strength, my lady? Are you saying I’m not strong enough to hold a beautiful, curvy woman in my arms?”

Noelle felt her cheeks getting hot.

“Dios, I didn’t mean it like that!” she protested. “It’s just…I’m not exactly skinny. I don’t want to hurt your back.”

“You couldn’t hurt me with your sweet, curvy body, my lady—no matter how hard you tried,” Bright murmured. His hazel-green eyes were suddenly half-lidded as he looked down at her.

Noelle’s heart started pounding.

“Oh…I…” she began, not sure what to say. “What…what do you mean by that?” she got out at last.

“Bright means you’re an Elite,” Burn rumbled and his eyes were half-lidded as well. “A mature Elite.”

“A…a what?” Noelle asked, looking up at both of them. She’d been living in the Mother Ship for the past month and a half, but she still didn’t get all of their references.

“An Elite is a woman the Goddess has blessed with extra full curves,” Bright murmured. “And a mature Elite is one the Goddess has also blessed with wisdom. Any warrior would be lucky to have a mature Elite as a mate.”

“Oh, well…thank you, I guess.” Noelle wasn’t sure what else to say. The way the two of them were looking at her was making her heart pound like crazy. When was the last time a man had looked at her with such desire?

Branson used to look at you a lot, whispered a little voice in her head.

But her ex hadn’t looked at her with desire—he looked at her like she was something he owned that wasn’t working right. Like a toaster that always burned the toast or a car that wouldn’t start.

That didn’t mean he wanted to get rid of her though—no, quite the opposite, Noelle thought with a shiver. He’d wanted to keep her around forever—or at least until he got tired enough of her to actually kill her—which could be any time he flew into a rage.

“You’ll never get away from me,” she heard her ex’s snarling voice in her head. “No matter where you run, no matter where you hide, I’ll find you, babe. And then you’re going to be fucking sorry you tried to hide in the first place.”

That was what Noelle was doing up here on the Kindred Mother Ship—hiding.

She’d left the divorce papers on the kitchen table and taken a shuttle up to the Mother Ship, to get away from Branson’s wrath.

The Mother Ship orbited around the Moon—roughly two hundred and fifty miles away—she just hoped that was far enough that her ex couldn’t find her.

Unfortunately, this was only a temporary gig.

Her best friend, Sylvia who was married to a Beast Kindred, had gotten her into a program where she was responsible for teaching Kindred warriors who had just come to the Mother Ship all about Earth holidays and traditions.

But Christmas was coming up soon and after it was over, Noelle would have to exit the Mother Ship, December 24th on the dot.

She was sorry she was going to have to leave—she’d enjoyed teaching the massive warriors all about Christmas, so they would be prepared when they called human brides from Earth.

In fact, that was how she’d met Bright and Burn in the first place—they had been students in her class.

Though honestly, she wasn’t sure how they were going to call brides for themselves since both of them were what the Twin Kindred called “loners.”

One thing she’d found out, from asking around (in a discrete way of course) was that a loner Twin Kindred couldn’t call a bride by himself and couldn’t father children without his twin brother to help him.

There had been one case where a twin had managed on his own, but from what she’d heard, it was incredibly rare and had something to do with the Kindred Goddess working some kind of miracle.

I wonder if Burn and Bright could share a woman, even though they’re not really related—not really brothers? whispered a little voice in her head.

The thought brought a vivid mental image with it—Noelle pictured herself being held between the two huge warriors as both of them touched her…tasted her…

Stop it—what’s wrong with you, imagining things like that? she scolded herself. Neither of them would be interested in doing anything like that with you! They’re both way too young for you.

Still, just the thought made her cheeks feel like they were on fire and she wished again that Bright would put her down.

“Mmm, my lady, why are you blushing?” the Light Twin asked, giving her a knowing grin. “Are you having naughty thoughts?”

“What? No! No, of course not!” she denied quickly. Could he somehow read her mind? But no—of course he couldn’t. “Why…why would you even say that?” she blurted.

“Because you smell fucking hot,” Burn growled, his dark eyes traveling up and down her body.

“I what?” Noelle put a hand to her chest indignantly. Unfortunately, she forgot she was holding the pointy star. She gave herself a nasty scratch and jerked her hand away. “Ouch!”