Choosing Riley: Sarafin Warriors Book 1 (17 page)

“Oh hell,” Riley huffed out blowing her hair
out of her eyes. “Not again! How many frigging things can go wrong
in my life?”

“That’s alright, Riley,” Fred said coming
over to where Vox had his arms wrapped tightly around her. “I’ll
get your pink case for you.”

“You might want to let me get it, Fred,” Tor
said with a deep sigh. “It’s heavy.”

Riley smiled at the guys, happy that everyone
appeared to have survived the attack. “Thank you, guys, for
protecting me and everything.”

Vox listened as Riley’s voice softened when
she talked to the other males. His cat hissed angrily, blaming him
for the mess they were in. All he wanted to do now was to get back
home so he could have Riley in an environment totally controlled by
him. He hoped if he was at least on his home turf he could finally
quit acting like such an idiot where she was concerned.

“Come get us off this piece of worthless
Trillian shit,” Vox snarled out to the
Horizon
. “There are
ten of us on board. You can kill any number over that,” he added as
he pulled Riley closer to him.

“A shuttle will be dispatched immediately,”
the male responded with a chuckle. “It is good to hear your voice,
my old friend.”

“Yeah, well your uncle isn’t going to like to
hear it. That piece of Valdier royal ass is mine! He’ll wish he had
never messed with this Sarafin prince,” Vox bit out harshly as he
recognized Creon Reykill’s voice.

“Yewww, the big puddy-cat is hissing again,”
Riley’s sarcastic voice grated out. “Watch out, the next thing you
know you’ll be shooting hairballs,” she snapped out in a drawl as
she stomped down on his instep and darted away from him when he
jumped back with a startled yelp.

“Riley, so help me I’m going to wring your
neck when I catch you!” Vox snarled out as he watched her jump over
a pile of dead purple bodies as he stomped after her.

“Tor!” Riley called out loudly as she hurried
down the corridor after Titus, Adur, Cross, and Banu who were
laughing loudly. “Vox is being mean to me again.”

“Don’t you listen to a thing she says. I am
not being mean to her! What did I ever do to deserve a mate like
this?” Vox groaned out before the communications link blinked out
as the emergency power failed.

Riley nervously smoothed down the robe over
her nightgown as she stared out the viewport at the darkness of
space. She had always been a sucker for sexy lingerie. It was the
one thing that made her feel all girly and not like an oversized
cow in a china shop. She had to admit, she thought she looked good
in the stuff. She had a full figure with an hour glass shape. She
was big on top and had wide hips which made her waist look small.
She shook her head when she remembered what one boy told her when
she was fifteen. She had gone to an afterschool dance, it had been
the first and last one she ever attended. She had been standing
awkwardly to the side watching as one girl after another got asked
to dance. The night was almost over when one of the football
players, Todd Patterson, came over and asked her to dance with him.
It was a slow song and she had been thrilled. Sure, she stood a
couple inches taller than him but it wasn’t that bad. He had placed
his hands on her hips and they had rocked back and forth for a
couple of seconds before he squeezed her, pulling her closer.

“You feel good,” he had murmured in her
ear.

Riley had felt an excited shiver run down her
spine. She wondered if he would kiss her. A part of her hoped that
he would. She often listened to the other girls talk about what it
was like when one of the boys kissed them. The lights had been dim
with the flickering of a disco ball lighting up the area making it
kind of romantic. She could hear other couples talking quietly over
the music the band teacher was playing.

“Thanks,” Riley had replied shyly. “Uh, you
do too,” she added nervously.

“You know, with hips like this you were made
for having babies,” he whispered in her ear. “Do you want to go out
back for a little while? I could show you how it’s done.”

Riley flushed as her Grandma Pearl’s warning
came back to her. “You’ve got big boobs and a big ass, Riley girl.
Every guy between the ages of twelve and eighty are going to be
wanting a piece of you. You need to decide if you are willing to
give it away for nothing and if you do, are you willing to pay the
price for giving away your body to someone who only wants to use
you.”

Riley had pulled back and looked down into
the smirking, know-it-all face with a sinking feeling. “What did
they bet you to dance with the Amazon?” She asked in a deceptively
quiet voice.

Todd had flushed before he glanced over to
his friends along the wall. They were watching them and laughing.
“Twenty bucks if I get to fuck you. Ten if I get to cop a feel of
your big tits.”

Riley smiled sadly down at the flushed face.
“Thank you for the dance,” Riley said pulling out of his arms. “I
won’t humiliate you because you were honest about why you asked me.
May I give you a bit of advice, though?” She asked as she stared
down at his shocked face.

“Uh, sure,” he said awkwardly.

“Even Amazons have feelings, think about that
the next time you want to use one of us as a whore. Now, I think
your friends need to pay up. It’s the least they can do for forcing
you to have to dance with me,” Riley said as she turned to look at
the three football players lounging along the wall. Her eyes
glittered with fury.

She had gotten a three day suspension and
told she wouldn’t be allowed to attend any more after school
functions but it had been worth it. She had taken the punch bowl
and poured it over the three guys who thought it would be fun to
pick on the big girl. She had then proceeded to relate a long list
of observations about the guys to the entire sophomore through
senior class. She never got asked to dance again. Hell, she never
even got asked out on a date. She had focused on her school work
and started dual enrollment the next year. The unfortunate
consequence was Tina was also punished for what Riley had done. Her
little sister had been ostracized for simply being related to
her.

She started in surprise and turned when the
door opened to the living quarters she had been shown to earlier.
She bit her lower lip as Vox strode into the room as if he owned
the place. They had been rescued earlier in the day from the old
freighter and brought aboard the
Horizon
. There were several
different alien species on board this ship – warship – Riley
corrected herself. There were quite a few that looked like Adur and
Cross and a few that looked like Vox, Tor and Lodar. She hadn’t
seen any others that looked like Bob or Fred, though. What did
surprise her was when she saw two other human males. They had been
with two of the same purple creatures that had attacked the
freighter, only they didn’t appear to find the purple females
unattractive.

“What are you doing here?” Riley asked
nervously, looking at Vox as he stopped to stare at her intently.
“You know it’s polite to knock or something before entering
someone’s room.”

Vox’s lips curved and his eyebrows rose at
the nervous wobble in her voice. “I am here because this is my
living quarters, therefore there is no need for me to ask for
permission to enter,” he said quietly.

Riley could feel her throat moving up and
down as she tried to say something smart but nothing came out. Her
mind went blank as her eyes focused on Vox’s fingers. He was
undoing the hooks on the front of his vest. Her eyes followed the
movement as he slowly pulled the black leather apart then slid it
off his broad shoulders. Her tongue came out and she licked her
suddenly dry lips as his hands moved down to the front of his
pants. She groaned softly when he paused to toe off his boots. Her
gaze flickered up to his briefly before moving back down to his
fingers. She trembled as he slowly undid each button.

“I need you, Riley,” Vox said softly. “My cat
and I want you so badly we can taste your sweet crème on our
lips.”

“You can,” Riley replied faintly. “I mean you
shouldn’t. I can’t…. I’m ….. This is a bad idea,” she stammered
looking up into Vox’s dark tawny eyes.

They were darker than before, the yellow
containing more gold than before. “Why can’t you? Why would you
think this is a bad idea when I can smell your desire every time we
are in the same room?” He asked. “I know you want me.”

Riley looked up into his eyes again. “You’ll
just use me, like the other men wanted too. Once you get tired of
me, I’ll….” Her muttered words faded as he closed the distance
between them and pressed his lips against hers in a savage kiss
that left them both shaking.

“Does this feel like I’ll just use you? I’ll
never get tired of you, Riley,” he said, pulling back until his
lips barely touched hers and ran his large hands up over the silky
fabric of her robe to her shoulders, drawing her closer.

“I promised myself I wouldn’t give in to a
man unless he put his ring on my finger and promised me forever,”
Riley tried desperately to explain. “I don’t want to end up raising
a baby on my own.”

Vox’s dark groan filled the air at the
thought of Riley rounded with his cubs. A fierce wave of need,
stronger than anything he had ever felt before swept through him.
He closed his eyes in an effort to regain control of his slipping
hunger. If he didn’t, he would take her hard, fast, and often. His
hands slid back down along her arms and he gripped them tightly as
he tried to breathe deeply. He knew that was a mistake the moment
he drew in the heady scent of their combined arousal.

“You will not raise our cubs alone, Riley. I
will be there for you always,” he growled out in a deep voice.

“Vox?” She choked out as her eyes widened at
the dark possession reflected in his.

“You are mine, Riley. I claim you,” he purred
out in a rough voice as he gripped the silky fabric in his hands
and tore it from her body. “I have waited too long for this. My cat
and I must mark you, claim you.”

“But…” Riley cried out startled as the fabric
of her robe tore under his hands. “I can’t….”

Vox’s mouth descended again, blocking her
words of protest. His hands caressing all thoughts of resistance
out of her mind as they ran up and down her back until he pulled
her against his swollen cock. Riley raised her hands shyly up,
touching his stomach and feeling the muscles tighten under her
fingertips. A shudder ran through him giving Riley a heady sense of
power that her touch could draw such a reaction out of so powerful
a man. She opened like a flower to the sun under his skilled lips,
moaning as his tongue swept into her mouth. She tentatively
returned his caress with her own. Her hands moved up to his chest
where she ran her thumbs over his distended nipples as she flicked
her tongue along his sharp teeth. She ran the tip along one of his
slightly longer canines and was rewarded with a reverberation of a
purr.

“Gods, Riley,” Vox pulled back and choked out
in a strangled voice. “You fire my blood.”

*.*.*

Vox was fighting a losing battle with his
control. He wasn’t kidding when he said she fired his blood. The
feel of her soft, sweet flesh under his hands and the taste of her
lips ignited his blood to a raging fury. He could feel his cat
pacing back and forth, determined to mark his mate with his
essence. Her hands running up over his stomach to his chest tore at
him. The soft, sweet hands moved slowly, as if unsure of his
response to her tentative touch. How any male could resist her was
beyond comprehension. He believed Tor and Lodar when they said it
had been killing them. Riley had an innocence about her that
brought out the protectiveness in him and his cat and her natural
sensual nature was enough to cause both of them to want to pounce
on her. The sway of her hips, the flash of humor in her baby blue
eyes, and the way she nibbled at her bottom lip when she was
nervous all played havoc on his system.

Vox deepened the kiss, sliding his arm down
under her knees so he could pick her up. He silenced her objection
with his kisses, holding her tightly against him so she would know
there was no more protesting. He would take her. He carried her
across to the large bed. Bending, he gently lowered her onto the
soft covers never releasing her lips. He didn’t want to give her a
chance to change her mind. The way his body and his cat were
reacting at this point, he wouldn’t have stopped anyway. It may
have been wrong but he knew she was his even if she wasn’t sure.
There was absolutely no doubt in his mind.

He had talked privately with Creon Reykill.
Creon had been very receptive, even amused and if Vox wasn’t
mistaken relieved, when he had explained he would not be able to
fulfill the requirements of the treaty between his people and the
Valdier. Creon had laughed and slapped Vox on his shoulder and told
him there was no need to worry, he was positive Zoran would have no
problems with the changes. Creon had explained that all of them had
taken a human female as a mate and could appreciate the effect the
species had on a male. Vox had to admit after he met Creon’s mate,
Carmen, he was thankful she had come into the young lord’s life. He
could see the difference in his friend and thanked the Gods for
sending the female to help Creon heal.

His fingers trembled slightly as he gripped
the thin straps of the gown that Riley was wearing. He pulled them
down as he continued running kisses along her swollen lips and down
along her neck. He drew in a deep breath as her large, plump
breasts brushed seductively against his chest. His cat was in
heaven. The only thing that would make it completely happy was when
it could mate with the she-cat that was about to be born. He would
give a part of himself to his mate, allowing her body to change.
His cat couldn’t wait to see what its mate would look like. The
thought of her silky fur brushing against his male was enough to
make him want to bite her and release the chemical regardless of
whether she was ready or not.