bad. Because I always liked to play Little Red Riding Hood, only with a big knife and some nunchakus. I don’t fight fair.”
“Neither do I.” He pushed a strand of hair away from her face and tucked it behind her ear. “Not when it comes to chasing down something I want very, very badly. I can be quite ruthless. Like a wolf.”
“And here I thought you were a puppy dog, Lieutenant Commander. A seemingly nice guy with too much starch in your collar.” She tried to duck beneath his embrace, but he caught her and pinned her against the door.
“You don’t want to know what I’m capable of, Keira. And you’d better pray you can handle what I deliver, because I guarantee by the time I finish with you, you’ll be in no shape to fight me. I’ll know every cell of you, every inch of you. And there will be no secrets between us.”
He lowered his head toward her. “None. I’ll cull every last one from you. So start now by telling me the truth.”
She bit back a moan as he traced her lower lip with his thumb. Oh, gods, this was a risk Keira knew she’d have to undertake, but she didn’t reckon with the magnetic power of Dale Curtis’s personality.
The force of his will.
Keira felt herself begin to crumble as the commander stroked her bottom lip, his touch gentle and erotic. His piercing gaze seared into her. Please, don’t ask the question, please. I don’t know if I can withhold the truth....
The commander would kill her. She knew it. Keira tensed as he whispered.
“You’re bound to me. The contract states it. Now, tell me the truth. You must. Who the hell are you and why the hell are you really here?”
Chapter 4
“I’m a Luminaire....”
“I know what you are. Who are you?”
His aura pulsed bright red, spiked with black. Sexual energy, as well as negative forces. Keira shoved lightly at his chest, breaking the physical contact.
“I’m your new housekeeper, a woman who needs a job, okay? I’ve been roving from town to town.”
“Why?”
The man was relentless. “I like helping people. I search for individuals that need enlightenment and then help them heal. Ask your neighbor if you need a reference.”
“I did. Odd how you showed up just when she needed you.” He lightly clasped her wrist. Sexual current sizzled between them.
Keira closed her eyes and breathed deeply, channeling every bit of white light she could to fight the temptation to lift her face to his and kiss him. “I heard her crying. Psychic cries, not real cries. I’m a healer and it compelled me.”
“Right.”
“There’s enough darkness and negative energy in this world. What’s wrong with trying to eradicate it and make people feel better?”
“Maybe there’s no hope for them.” He dropped her hand.
Keira watched a shadow drape across his expression, then his face smoothed out. Dale Curtis was hiding deep pain, pain she knew well, because she’d caused it.
Suddenly he went still. Keira’s heart dropped to her stomach as she caught the small, scampering sounds.
“Damn mice,” he said. “One reason why my housekeeper quit.”
“That’s not a mouse,” she said and bolted down the hallway, hooked a right and ran into a locked door. Keira jiggled the knob. “Open this,” she told him as he pulled up short behind her.
A fierce scowl tightened his face. “That’s private.”
“If you want to get rid of your pests, open it. Now.”
He looked shocked, as if no one ever talked to him that way.
Dale clicked a series of buttons on a brass plate and opened the door. She burst inside, barely noting that it was an office, with stacks of papers piled on the desk. Her sense of smell overtook everything. Those little, nasty creatures, smelling like a bad combination of bad breath and rotting cabbage...
“My report to the admiral...”
Ignoring Dale’s mutterings as he sifted through papers on his desk, she dived to the floor by the credenza. Keira groped beneath the furniture and felt slicing pain scrape her hand. She peered down. The imp had affixed razor blades to the credenza’s bottom, effectively making a protective nest for itself.
Two red, beady eyes glared at her. It started to lash out with its tiny claws and then backed away, obeying the hidden compulsion in the slave armband. Keira stretched out her fingers and summoned the power deep inside.
The creature squealed as it slid into her hand. She wriggled from under the credenza, clutching it tight.
“Jar,” she gasped.
Dale stared at the creature as it wriggled in her hand. Blood seeped down her clenched fist. “What the hell...”
“Jar, hello, could use a little help here, get a jar, something to hold it. Please hurry.”
He seized a heavy metal pencil holder from the desk, dumped out the contents.
Keira squatted down. “Be quick, they’re really, really fast... I’ll let go and you trap him. On three... One, two, three!”
As she released the creature, Dale slammed the pencil holder down. Damn, the man was fast.
He picked up a scrap of paper and tossed it down with a disgusted sound. “My report to the admiral... It’s chewed to pieces.”
“Uh, of course. They adore paper. Almost as tasty as flour.” Keira examined her injured hand with a rueful sigh. “If he’d have gotten to your computer, your hard drive would be royally screwed.”
To her surprise, he gave a small, wry smile. “Never did like anything royally screwed, especially my hard drive. I prefer the commoner’s touch.”
It took her a minute to realize the joke. And then to her enormous chagrin, she blushed. He gave his rusty, deep laugh again. And then he looked at her injured hand and stopped laughing. Dale took her hand very gently and examined it. His touch was absolutely gentle. Fishing out a clean, white square from his pocket, he wrapped it around her bleeding palm.
“Remind me to be careful dusting under there. It fastened razor blades to the credenza’s bottom to keep anyone from going after him.”
Dale focused his attention on bandaging her hand. “Even without a contract, you’d have to stay now. Can’t have you leaving here wounded.”
“It’s not much. It’ll heal.”
“I always take care of my own.” He looked slightly dangerous as he stared at the floor. The pencil holder trembled, but the creature was effectively trapped.
“What
