Hadaen [The Marujan Brothers Series] Book One (4 page)

"I'll see you later." Amelia giggled
and shook her head. "Dinner's on me."

Hadaen watched as the girl
jumped to her feet and the clicking of her heels against the marble
floors resounded out of the room. He was about to finally confront
Amelia when he felt the presence of another person. He slipped
deeper behind the shelf and studied the unfamiliar energy. Sighing
softly, he swallowed and waited. Whoever it was, he or she was no
threat. The energy was neutral with a tinge of grudge. But then
again, Hadaen figured it was a natural thing he had observed in
humans. In a minute the figure rounded the same corner the girl
named Reese had left. Hadaen stilled. It was a man. Scanning his
person, Hadaen discovered that the man's name was Mac. Short for
Mackenzie. He was maybe a few inches shy of Hadaen's six feet four
inches. But not as large...not even close. Mac was an asshole by
day...and a bartender by night. Hadaen felt a twinge of anger when
he saw Amelia flinch.
What did the fucker
do to her?
Tapping into Mac's memories, he
could see him in a bed curled up next to Amelia and whispering
softly in her ear. Shutting the connection off completely, Hadaen
breathed out steamy rage as the darkness within him threatened to
snap. No one touched what belonged to his. And what the hell was
she doing in bed with the man? Hadaen vowed to himself that after
he fucked her senses back into Amelia, he'd murder that fucking
Mac. Feeling satisfied with his intentions, he nodded to himself
and listened again.

"What do you want, Mac?" he heard
Amelia say, obviously annoyed.

"Saw you come in few minutes ago." He
dropped himself into the seat next to hers. "Thought I'd come say
hi. It's been a while, Lia."

"It's Amelia," she retorted hotly.
"You've said hi so could you just leave me alone now. I'm
busy."

"I heard you're looking for a job."
And he just dropped it on her like a bomb. The last thing she
needed was for someone like Mac to know her business. She was
desperate to hear his suggestion but she knew too well that he'd
want some type of repayment. Eyeing him wearily, she stared at the
monitor. "Jack's been requesting for some new servers. You could
come join the gang." Amelia held her breath. She had seen the
uniform that servers wore at that club. It wasn't bad and she'd go
for wearing skin-tight leather pants any day over miniskirts. But
the mere fact that Mac had been the one to mention it made her
angry. The last thing she wanted was to feel indebted to
him.

"And you'd just love that, wouldn't
you?" She twisted her face into a scowl.

Mac grinned and leaned in towards her.
"Nothing like getting back to old times." Hadaen
stiffened.

Shrugging him off, Amelia got to her
feet and stood akimbo, glaring down at Mac. "We kissed one time,
you fool. And it was no Fourth of July either."

A chuckle came from his lips—it was
more like a snort. "Hardly. Sure you don't want to scream for me
again?"

Pointing a finger at the retard, she
scoffed heavily. "I was drunk that night, asshole. But not drunk
enough not to realize that nothing happened. Getting between my
legs would have been the greatest fucking achievement of your
sorry-ass life," she muttered, trying to keep her voice low. "So if
you know what's good for you, you’d kindly take your pencil dick
and go jump off the nearest fucking cliff."

Hadaen's lips twitched with amusement.
Could the woman get any more perfect? Slipping closer behind the
shelves, he could feel the anger vibrating through Mac. Amelia's
words had cut him sharply but he wouldn't dare strike at her. Not
that he could. Hadaen was pretty sure that he'd have the man by the
throat and gutting him like a damn fish before he even found the
chance to raise a hand. Within a moment Mac uttered a few
expletives and stormed from the room.

Hadaen watched her expression as she
released a heavy breath and then slumped against a shelf. She
looked weary and he wanted nothing but to wrap her in his embrace
and bury himself deep within her warmth. Hell, his cock was already
straining against his fly. How he wanted to sex her senseless and
finally make her his own. But first he needed her to remember
herself for who she truly was.

Amelia, Daughter of
Liberty
.

I
t
was 5:30 already. She had already lost most of the day and had
barely gotten anywhere with finding a job. At least any she was
willing to take, anyway. She was sure about one thing though: her
life sucked. She was jobless and completely paranoid. She had felt
quite complacent with her lifestyle until he had shown up and
ruined everything. And now she was curious about things she never
even knew existed. Amelia wasn't a regular drinker but at the
moment, she felt for a few beers.

Tucking her cellphone deep into the
front pocket of her jeans, Amelia sighed and headed for the
restrooms. She moved by a few heavily stacked bookshelves and down
a tiny aisle. A tickling sensation in her gut caused her to stop
dead in her tracks. Blinking, she turned around but saw no one.
Sweat beaded her nose and she licked her lips nervously. She
probably recognized the feeling better than anyone else. Someone
was following her.

"Who's there?" she said. "I know
you're there."

There was a short silence. "Do tell me
what gave me away..." Amelia jumped and almost screamed. She knew
that voice. It wasn't a sound she could ever forget.

"Who are you? And why are you
following me?" She searched behind the nearest shelves, hoping to
locate the stranger before he scared the living hell out of her.
Suddenly a strong hand grabbed her from behind, another stifling
her inevitable scream. She felt her body being squeezed against a
much larger one; a masculine physique that smelt too damn good to
be resistible. He shifted behind her and she could feel his
erection stabbing into her back. Amelia froze, her arousal by the
touch coming as a shock to her.

"Do not make a sound."

Amelia nodded quickly and the hand
fell slowly from her mouth. In one swift movement she was spun
around and brought face to face with the man that haunted her
dreams. Well, not exactly face to face since she had to tilt her
head all the way back to see up into his countenance. She
swallowed. He was wearing dark sunglasses, his mouth pressed into a
thin line. His expression was intimidating. Shoving instinctively
at his chest, Amelia cursed beneath her breath, shooting him one of
her killer glares. She knew many men who would have cowered at that
look but this one didn't even move an inch.

"W-What do you want?"

The man removed his sunglasses at that
point and she wished she had kept her damn mouth shut. He looked
wicked straight down to the steely pools of his eyes. A scar
slashed through his left brow, adding to the rugged danger that his
appearance portrayed. Power and strength reeked from him so
intensely, Amelia almost choked on it.

"My name is Hadaen Maruj,"
he said.
Oh god!
"And you belong to me."

"And this must be 'World's Fuckhead
Day', you moron!" she spat before even considering her words and
jabbing him in the chest. "You've got some nerve. Now let me go. I
don't belong to anyone."

Her chest rose and fell
rapidly as she tried to catch her breath.
Damn lunatic!
And the jerk only
stood there staring down at her and smirking as if he thought she
was insane. Shrugging, Amelia was surprised when she found herself
escaping his grip. She ran an agitated hand through her hair. The
silence between them stretched far longer than she would have liked
until she heard him speak lowly.

"You talk very much."

"Why thank you. It's my specialty.
Look, I'd very much appreciate it if you'd just cut the chit-chat
and tell me what you want with me."

"You are Amelia Kunar." He
said it with utmost confidence. "
Daughter
of Liberty
."

She scoffed. Last time she checked she
was an orphan. She shook her head at him. "I'm no daughter of any
'Liberty' person. As far as I know, my parents died when I was
baby. You've got the wrong girl."

Half way into pivoting away
she was grabbed by the arm again. Amelia glowered at his hand on
her arm and then met his eyes angrily. "You have some
serious
issues with
touching, don't you? Let me guess... You haven't had some ass in a
while. If you want to talk, we can talk. There's no need to get all
friendly. And before you say anything," she said, tilting her head
to the side. "If you're some sex-slave freak looking for a toy, I
think it's my duty to inform you that I'm one hell of an unwilling
participant."

Hadaen snarled. The First surely had a
master sense of humour. If this woman was truly his intended mate,
the first thing he'd do was calm that tongue of hers. Her attitude
and talkativeness was bound to drive him fucking crazy. And she was
only making him angry...and damn horny at the same time. Grabbing
her by the chin, Hadaen pulled her up to him so that she had no
choice but to look straight up at him. Her eyes widened to saucers
and he fed on her sudden flood of fear. He then tightened his grip
just a bit, not to hurt her but just to let her know how serious he
was.

"Listen to me, Amelia. You're damn
mouth is pissing me off and I can guarantee to you that you do not
want to get on top of my nerves. So I suggest you shut the fuck
up...listen and speak when I want you to. Got it?"

Amelia frowned obstinately, looked
away for a couple seconds and then squeaked out reluctantly. "I'm
all ears, tough guy." Hadaen released her momentarily. As much as
it killed him to be rough with her, it was necessary if he ever
wanted to get anywhere with his plans.

Hadaen followed her as she moved
towards the seat she had occupied earlier and then pulled up a
chair before her, straddling it. Amelia glanced at him. It was the
first time she managed to look him all over. He was dressed in snug
black jeans, the thick bulge behind the fabric causing her to
blush. Over a black T-shirt, he wore a matching leather jacket. She
looked down to his feet and could have sworn she saw her reflection
on his leather boots. Reese would have been doing backflips if she
were there. And if Amelia wanted to admit it to herself, she'd
always thought there was something sexy about bad boys in leather.
She wondered if he had some crazy sick tattoos she couldn't see or
a big bad motorcycle parked outside. For an instant, she felt the
strongest urge to run to the nearest window but the cold stare he
was currently giving her kept her rooted in her seat. Amelia
cleared her throat.

"Are you quite done?" he said,
roughly.

"Like I said, I'm all
ears."

"Good," he muttered and then quirked
an eyebrow at her. "The Harley is parked across the street, by the
way." Amelia blushed and decided to stare at the spine of a random
book instead. She felt oddly assaulted. She knew she hadn't said
anything about a motorcycle out loud. Who was he? Hadaen's lips
turned up into a half smile. "Now... do you know of a place called
Maruj?"

"I don't know," she muttered
nonchalantly, picking at her nail buds. "Read an article about it a
few minutes ago. Didn't say much."

Hadaen frowned at her. He could sense
that she was holding back something from him. But somehow he was
barred from her mind...again. He listened with his inner ear to see
if anyone was nearby. Someone was definitely shielding her. But who
was it? He needed to know because whoever it was, they were very
strong. It took someone very powerful to be shielding someone else
from an obviously far distance. However, he found interest in that
she had been researching Maruj. That could only mean that she had
remembered something.

"Who told you about Maruj?"

"No one. I don't get it; why is this
such a big deal?"

"Just answer the damn
question."

Amelia rolled her eyes. "I dreamt
about it, alright?"

Hadaen stiffened and moved in closer.
Amelia stilled. "When? Tell me about the dream."

"Last night. And you were there. I
called you 'Lord Hadaen' or something like that. There was a lady
there too, I don't remember her name. I was sitting in a garden."
She then glowered at him. "You basically told me you wanted to fuck
me and make me yours, mentioning something about an initiation."
She saw his eyebrows raise and she smirked. "That's right. And I
guess it's only a nightmare since you had only scared the shit out
of me a few hours before."

Hadaen tried to control his breathing.
What he was hearing surely did please him a lot. He smiled at her
genuinely and spoke softly. "Listen to me carefully, Amelia, and
believe this. That was no dream. It was a memory. A memory we
shared seven hundred years ago."

Amelia stared at him for a long time.
Then a giggle escaped her lips and she laughed hard at him.
Covering her mouth to stop the laughter, she exhaled sharply and
opened her mouth again to say something when the tears finally
clogged her eyes and she started to laugh again. Holding up a hand
at him, she held her belly with the other and hiccoughed another
giggle. "You are one crazy dude, I'll tell you that."