Page 23 of Shielded Heart

Rakkob spat some sort of curse before his hand fell away from Samantha’s shirt. She stumbled back, raising her hands to her mouth. Rakkob seemed about to turn on Alkorin, but the sedhi was much faster. With one arm, Alkorin swung the borian around and slammed him face first into the wall.

Grunting, Rakkob lifted an arm to fight back, but Alkorin caught his wrist and forced it down.

“Fuck you,” Rakkob snarled.

Alkorin pulled the borian’s head back and hammered it into the wall again. Rakkob’s knees buckled, but Alkorin held him upright by his hair.

“I don’t understand what’s wrong with the people in this sector,” Alkorin said. He looked at Samantha over his shoulder. “Who is this?”

She lowered her hands and curled them beneath her chin, pressing the backs of her fingers together. “My neighbor.”

“Has he done this sort of thing before?”

Samantha nodded. “He’s…why I called you last night.”

“Oh. Here I was hoping you called me because you couldn’t get me off your mind.” He smiled a lopsided, roguish smile for a moment before he turned back to Rakkob and leaned his mouth close to the borian’s ear. When he spoke again, his voice was unlike anything she’d heard from him thus far—it was a bestial growl. “If you touch her again, if you so much aslookat her wrong, I will break every bone in your body one at a time. Do you understand?”

The borian nodded, scraping his cheek against the wall.

Alkorin squeezed the borian’s wrist, and bone cracked. “I want you totellme you understand.”

Rakkob cried out in pain. “I do! I understand. Won’t touch her. Won’t look!”

“Good. Now go back to your room, and make sure I don’t see you again.” Alkorin pulled the borian away from the wall and shoved him toward the door.

Rakkob dove inside the moment it was open.

Alkorin straightened the silky fabric of his robe, tucked one of his long, thin braids behind his pointed ear, and turned to face Samantha again. His expression was serious as his eyes raked over her, the eye on his forehead moving independently of the other two. “Are you all right, Samantha?”

He stepped closer to her and settled a hand on her cheek, tilting her face up so she met his gaze. The pad of his thumb brushed her cheekbone. It sent a shiver through her that had nothing to do with fear.

Hesitantly, she grasped his wrist and held his hand there, pressing her cheek into his palm. Though it was a simple gesture, his touch calmed her, grounded her, melted the icy fear that had welled in her heart. She needed it, craved it.

“You’re always saving me,” she said.

His smile tilted, becoming a mischievous smirk. “Anything to make me look better in your eyes.”

Samantha laughed. His humor in the face of what had just happened was a welcome change from the usual, just the distraction she needed at that moment. Her smile stretched wide, making her cheeks feel tight, and she tilted her face down as a fresh wave of heat flooded her cheeks. “I don’t think youcanlook any better. It’s already hard for me to believe you’re real…”

Her lips parted, and her breath hitched when his tail sensually brushed along her calves. She longed to feel it against her bare skin.

Alkorin leaned closer. His cheek almost touched hers as he spoke in a low, sultry voice. “Oh, Samantha…you have no idea how difficult it is to resist, do you? No idea how much you tempt me…”

Samantha drew her head back and met his eyes; all three glowed bright, their slitted pupils expanded wide. She released a shaky breath.

Then don’t, Alkorin. Don’t resist.

She wanted to say those words aloud so badly, but they lodged in her throat and refused to budge. All she could do was stare, torn between her undeniable attraction to him and her fear of letting go. Her fear of trusting him.

She couldn’t understandwhy—why her? She didn’t know what the standards of beauty were for alien species, but she couldn’t imagine many women not finding this sedhi sexy as sin. What could he possibly see in Samantha?

Alkorin looked past her for a moment, and a strange, mirthful glint entered his eyes. “Are you ready to leave, little terran? My driver is somewhat impatient, and I’d hate to inconvenience him.”

Sam turned her head to follow his gaze, breaking contact with his hand. A sleek, black hovercar idled on the street just outside her building, its windows tinted as dark as its external paint, which made it impossible to see into the cab.

“That’syourcar?” she asked. “And you have adriver?”

“Yes, and yes,” he replied, lowering his hand to the base of her spine. He gently guided her toward the vehicle. “I hope you don’t mind. I simply wanted the freedom to focus on giving you as wonderful an experience as possible.”

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