Runner: The Fringe, Book 3 (35 page)

Of course, anyone would understand why her newly widowed mother might decide to give up her young baby when she barely had the resources to care for her other four children. It had been the responsible thing to do, given the situation. Supposedly, she’d wanted Aria to have a better life than she could provide—but wasn’t being surrounded by brothers and sisters and a parent who loved her a much better choice than leaving her all alone in the world, rejected by the one person who should love her no matter what?

Logic dictated that her mother could not have truly loved her.

Aria stiffened her back against the debilitating pain, refusing to meet the man’s gaze.

“I don’t want to leave my world behind.”

He leaned toward her, his hands folded between his knees. “If he weren’t a king, you could have negotiated where you’d live. Our home world or yours. But in this case,
nata’tai
has given you no choice.”

No choice. Déjà vu
or what? She knotted her fingers together and sighed heavily. “Will I be expected to have sex with this guy?”

He smiled, kindness lighting his eyes. “That’s usually what two bonded people do.”

She glared at him. “Why do you think I’d have sex with a strange man after being abducted?”

He smiled broadly. “You mean, you’d have sex with a strange man if we hadn’t abducted you?”

She stared at him blankly. She couldn’t believe it. This alien captain was teasing her.

Alien
.

Oh, God. Although he looked quite human, he was an alien. A man from another planet.

She felt trapped. Fear and pain built inside her as she realized this was really happening. This man—this alien—had kidnapped her and intended to drag her untold light-years from Earth. She was being torn from her home, again, regardless of what she wanted.

All the tension that had been building in her ever since she’d taken that strange elevator ride curled around her chest and tightened painfully. Dizziness overwhelmed her and breathing became difficult.

Everything went black.

Runner

Anitra Lynn McLeod

There’s always a loophole. Just don’t let it close around your neck.

The Fringe, Book 3

Bounty hunter Foster Nash is a ruthless bastard—just ask him. Thanks to an ex-girlfriend who robbed him blind, and another who nearly bit off his trigger finger, he’s not too high on women in general right now.

Desperate for funds to refill his retirement coffers, he jumps at a very lucrative contract: to bring in the doctor who created the Tyaa plague. Except his voluptuous target doesn’t behave like a criminal. Instead of rattling the bars, she accepts her fate with cool, cultured aplomb.

Jynx Brennan toiled for three years to save humanity from a disease she’s now blamed for creating. Since she refuses to use her psi ability as a weapon, it doesn’t help her escape Never-Fail Nash. In a moment of clarity, she decides there’s no point in denying herself a last fling with a living, breathing erotic fantasy.

After he recovers his surprise, Nash indulges the full depth of his physical needs upon her body—often, and to their mutual pleasure. But when it leads to unexpected emotional intimacy, he finds himself willing to risk everything to break a contract that will force him to deliver her to certain execution.

Warning: This futuristic romance contains one bad-ass bounty hunter, a refined lady doctor, a ship with a vile history, a villain with a viler history, and a wide black leather belt, slung low.

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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

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Runner

Copyright © 2012 by Anitra Lynn McLeod

ISBN: 978-1-60928-562-3

Edited by Linda Ingmanson

Cover by Kanaxa

All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
electronic publication: January 2012

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