Page 1 of Kidnapped from the Paradise Resort

1

KARA

“And now we’ll be boarding all of our Ultra Express Economy passengers,” the flight attendant said. “Passengers boarding the shuttle to Paradise Prime holding Ultra Express Economy tickets, please come forward.”

“Finally!” Kara muttered. She brushed a long strand of dark brown hair out of her eyes and looked down at her ticket. It was printed on shiny silver foil in an alien language she could read only because she’d had a shot of Translation Bacteria when she came to work aboard the Kindred Mother Ship.

The Kindred were huge alien warriors—most of them over seven feet tall and all extremely muscular. They were also a race that was ninety-five percent male, which meant they were always traveling the universe, looking for women to Bond and mate with. They had come to Earth almost fifteen years ago, and now their Mother Ship orbited the Moon. By an arrangement with the World Council, they were allowed to call human brides.

But Kara hadn’t come to the Mother Ship as anyone’s bride. She had already been married when she took a job as the head of one of the Kindred’s PR teams. Because the Kindred were so big and muscular, a lot of humans were scared of them. Kara’s team did what they could to make the huge aliens more accessible and friendly, so the women who were called as Kindred brides wouldn’t be frightened.

Kara loved her job, but her husband—now herex-husband—hadn’t liked it at all. He had been extremely insecure about the fact that Kara was working with such big, muscular guys all day and accused her of trying to find a replacement for him.

This was absolutely untrue, but Kara had to admit she could see why Kevin, her ex, would feel that way. The Kindred were big and rugged and handsome and they treated women like goddesses. It didn’t help that she’d been given a gorgeous assistant who was willing to wait on her hand and foot and do whatever she asked as soon as she asked it.

She’d tried inviting J’orn—that was her assistant’s name—to dinner with herself and Kevin one night…but that had only made things worse. Kara had been trying to prove that her assistant was no threat to their marriage—after all, he waswaytoo young for her, as she had repeatedly pointed out to Kevin. Just because he was seven feet tall and his muscles had muscles didn’t make him a threat—right?

Wrong, unfortunately. J’orn spent the whole night doing everything Kevin couldn’t be bothered to do. When Kara dropped her napkin, he bent down to pick it up. When her shoe came untied, he dropped to his knees to tie it. He even brought a bottle of expensive wine and a bouquet of her favorite flowers—lilacs—to dinner because he said he’d heard it was an “Earth custom.”

Kevin, who hadn’t bothered to bring her flowers in several years, most definitely felt threatened. Especially when J’orn had come into the kitchen and started helping with the meal. Kevin could barely make himself a sandwich but the big Kindred had expertly julienned vegetables for the salad and then helped make the pan sauce for the chicken dish Kara was cooking.

Her assistant had also brought the ingredients for a quick chocolate mousse because he happened to remember it was Kara’s favorite. He whipped it up in no time flat and they had it for dessert.

Kara had to admit it was the best chocolate mousse she’d ever had—but it wasn’t worth the fighting that followed. Kevin accused her of liking J’orn better than him just because he “sucked up” to her.

“If by ‘sucking up’ you mean he does the things I ask without complaining or just flat out refusing, the wayyourefuse to put your dirty socks in the hamper instead of leaving them lying all around the house, then yes, I guess he’s ‘sucking up,’” Kara had finally exploded.

How could she explain that it wasn’t the way J’orn looked, but the way heactedthat attracted her?Notthat she was attracted to her much younger assistant, of course. Because she wasn’t, Kara told herself. Shereallywasn’t. But Kevin thought she wanted the big Kindred because of how he looked. He was sure he couldn’t compare with her assistant because he was only five foot nine and on the skinny side. He didn’t seem to understand that his refusal to help around the house in any way or to take even a little of the burden of cooking and cleaning off her shoulders was the main thing that was driving her away from him.

But Kara had to admit, J’orn certainlywaseasy on the eyes. He was mostly Beast Kindred but he had some R’drager DNA which gave him dark purple skin and intense, pale lavender eyes ringed in black. He also had two curving horns growing from either side of his forehead that made him look wild and animalistic.

But it was the way he acted—the way he treated her—that she wished her husband would emulate. The way he looked at her, as though she hung the Moon, as her Granny used to say. The way he was always so protective and eager to do what she asked without dragging his feet or complaining or resenting her for being a woman who just happened to be in charge…

Stop thinking like that,she scolded herself as she moved slowly towards the shuttle that would take her to Paradise Prime, “The Ultimate Vacation Planet” as it was billed in all the brochures. Thanks to buying her ticket last minute, she was at the very end of the line. This trip was supposed to be all aboutforgettingboth her divorce and her assistant.

Ex-assistant now. She’d gotten J’orn reassigned in a last-ditch effort to save her marriage—which had already been on life-support. But shortly after J’orn had gone to work in the Kindred Elite Espionage Corps, Kevin had served her with divorce papers anyway.

It had been a big mess—Kara couldn’t quite block it out of her mind. Her husband had demanded that she quit her job aboard the Kindred Mother Ship and work exclusively on Earth.

“What are you talking about? Work where?” she’d demanded. “The Kindred pay twice as much as any Earth-based PR firm and we get free healthcare from them—including vision and dental! What other place can I go that can offer us that?”

“None of that matters.” Kevin shook his head stubbornly. “You need to leave those big bastards alone and come back to work on Earth, Kara.”

“Look, I let J’orn go and asked for a female assistant,” she reminded him. “What else do you want me to do?”

“I told you—come back to work on Earth. It doesn’t matter that you let him go—you’re still surrounded by those…thosealiens.”He made the word into a slur. “They’re all trying to seduce you,all the time!”

“That’s ridiculous!” Kara exclaimed. “Most of the Kindred I work with are already mated and married. They’re not like human men, Kevin—they’re completely monogamous. None of them is ever going to cheat on their wives to come after me!”

“J’orn wasn’t married or mated!” he spat. “He was all aboutpleasingyou—all the damn time! And I don’t just mean in the office—I saw the way he looked at you, Kara! He was constantly undressing you with his eyes!”

“Well, maybe ifyoutried to please me—even a little—we wouldn’t be in this position!” Kara had exclaimed, losing her temper completely. “You know I haven’t had an orgasm with you in the past five years, right?”

The minute the words were out of her mouth, she knew she’d gone too far. But damn it, it was true! Kevin didn’t eventryin the bedroom anymore. He never wanted to go down on her—he didn’t seem to want to do any foreplay at all. He just rolled on top of her, pushed himself inside, and gave half a dozen weak thrusts she could barely feel before rolling off again and going directly to sleep. How was she supposed to get off when their whole sex life could be boiled down to five minutes every other week?

“Look, I didn’t mean—” she began.

Kevin pulled out a sheaf of paperwork and waved it in her face.

---