I jumped a good foot when phantom hands began caressing my breasts, and a ghostly mouth trailed erotic kisses down my stomach. "Hey! Knock it off! What kind of fight is this?"
"Sensual. You have been with a man before. Draw on that experience to seduce me."
How in the hell did he know about Paul? I smothered a groan. Alejandro. "I'm not going to seduce you. I'm gonna kick your ass."
Voss smirked. "I think not."
"Think again," I snarled and smacked wildly at my chest, trying to knock those ghostly hands off my breasts.
He feathered caresses across my nipples. "Can you resist my touch, my possession?"
I shuddered at the sensation. Good question. I might have his full, undivided attention, but at least he was keeping his distance.
"You will soon beg for me to take you."
"That will never happen."
The Battle Commander arrogantly answered. "Are you so very sure?"
"Never gonna happen," I stated defiantly.
Voss's tongue stroked my clitoris, and his oh-so-amused eyes watched as my hips bucked helplessly. "Are you a screamer?"
I fought back the raw need and hissed, "Your touch disgusts me."
"No, it does not."
My knees buckled as his hot mouth closed over my clit. He licked, suckled, and nibbled my swollen bud of flesh, enflaming every nerve ending. I heard my shallow, ragged, desperate pants as he drove his tongue deep inside me. "Stop!"
"You are mine, little warrior." Voss tweaked my nipples, sending an explosion of pleasure racing over me.
I knew Coletti warlords were experts at mental sex, but sweet Jesus! He made me want and need to feel a man's touch again. Paul had been the only man in my life. How could I betray him? I focused on his handsome face and fought the Battle Commander's seduction.
Voss replaced his merciless tongue with two long fingers. He pumped into me hard and deep.
My eyes rolled back in my head as the flames grew and blossomed, sweeping me into a maelstrom of need.
His mind pushed into mine. "You belong to me."
I whimpered as the Battle Commander's powerful arms lifted me. He filled my senses, stole all reason.
Voss's lips closed over mine, and his tongue invaded, tasted, possessed. He began thrusting into my mouth, the rhythm matching the movement deep inside me.
His every touch twisted the coil of arousal tighter and tighter.
My inner muscles clamped around his marauding fingers. No! I had. To …
Oh God. Oh my God.
Stop him.
"Come for me, little one." He wielded an expertise that had me writhing under his mental seduction.
Paul's familiar face vanished from my memory and was replaced by Voss's hard features.
He rolled my clit with his thumb, and wave after wave of ecstasy pulsed through me. A scream tore from me as I climaxed.
"So very responsive," Voss purred in satisfaction.
No. No. No. He wasn't just in my head any longer. I could feel his hands stroking my body. I had to stop him before it went any further. With what little sanity I had left, I drew my tranquilizer gun and shot him in the chest. "I win."
"Have you?" Voss pulled the dart out and smelled it. "Diatryman root."
"Detja used it on the Overlord, so I figured it would work on you too."
Voss threw his head back and laughed. "A well-planned strategy, but once again a futile one."
I squirmed against this crushing grip. That wasn't quite the response I was expecting. Why wasn't he falling over? He should be unconscious by now.
The Battle Commander speared one large hand into my hair, forcing my head back and exposing my neck. His tongue rasped over my pulse point.
Sheer blind panic flared to life. If he took my blood, he could find me anywhere, any time he wished. "No! Let go of me."
"Never." Voss buried his fangs painfully deep.
Every suck sent fire racing to my pussy. I beat frantically at his mind. "Stop! Damn you. Stop!" My willpower was fading rapidly.
His grip loosened. A second later, the Battle Commander slumped to the floor.
My breath coming in sobbing gasps, I wiggled out from under the warlord's massive body and gave him a hard kick. "I am not nor will I ever be yours."
A growl sounded in my head. "Mine."
"Oh my God!" I shot to my feet and swayed unsteadily for a moment. That's when I noticed my jeans were unbuttoned and pushed down around my knees along with my panties. Shit! I yanked them up.
My frantic gaze settled on the warlord sprawled at my feet. Oh thank God. He still had his pants on. We hadn't done the nasty. The overpowering need to feel his touch on my skin was becoming painful. This was bad. This was really bad. I had to get far, far away from him. I bolted.
Jaylan appeared, blocking me from leaving the mat. "You cannot leave the battlefield until your opponent is either dead or has surrendered."
I gaped at him. The Battle Commander would never surrender, and there was no way I could kill him. "I think I'll take that sword now."
His mouth a hard line, Jaylan reluctantly handed it over. "You know where to place the killing blow?"
"I won our bet, and I'm taking the sword, you creep, not killing Voss."
Relief flared in Jaylan's eyes. "Then you are surrendering?"
"No, I'm not. He's down, I won, and I'm leaving," I said slowly as if I were speaking to a not-too-bright child.
"It is not permitted." Jaylan examined me thoughtfully. "You are not a weak, squeamish female. You have killed before."
I cocked an eyebrow and remained silent. If he thought I was going to turn into Chatty Cathy, he was nuts.
"In Iraq you killed twelve men, and two years later you destroyed an entire squadron of Rodan."
I hadn't really. My mind control had made the terrorists think they were shooting at government troops, not each other. The Rodan I would take total credit for. "What's your point?"
"You have proven yourself in battle."
The big jerk was trying to delay me, but why?
Voss twitched and growled.
Well, that answered that question. "You know, I think I'll go with option B."
Jaylan frowned. "What is option B?"
I darted him. "Nighty-night."
He yanked the dart out and lunged for me. I shot him again.
His fangs bared in a furious snarl, Jaylan fell to his knees. "If you leave the battlefield, you forfeit the match."
"I'm not Coletti, and your fucking rules suck. I can't afford to waste any more time on this nonsense. I've got a murderer to catch." I fled.
Chapter Three
I burst out of the gym and stopped dead. My feet didn't want to move, and I had this overwhelming urge to return to the Battle Commander. What the fuck was going on? What kind of mind games was he playing?
Two Coletti warriors appeared on the sidewalk in front of me. They took a quick step back when my perfume hit them.
One look at their formidable size and forbidding expressions, and I automatically assumed my timid mouse demeanor. Tears rolling down my cheeks, I sobbed. "Please, I don't know what to do. Voss is ill. Can you help him?"
The younger warrior grinned. "The Commander is not ill, and we are to escort you back inside." He politely opened the door.
Crap, this day was starting to suck big-time.
"Diatryman root disabled my body, not my mind," the Battle Commander rumbled in my head.
Smart guy thought he had all the bases covered. I'd just show him how wrong he was. I shot both warriors with the last of my tranquilizer darts, dropped a smoke grenade, and ran like the devil himself was after me.
Growling like enraged grizzly bears, both warriors gave chase for about ten feet before doing face-plants on the asphalt.
"You do not attack my warriors!" Voss bellowed, more than a bit pissed.
"Stop sending them after me, and it won't be problem, now will it?" I skidded to a stop in the parking lot. Dammit, my motorcycle was gone. Good thing I knew the escape tunnels like the back of my hand. I darted across the street and into the military hospital.
Now all I had to do was make it to the basement, and I was home free. I nonchalantly walked down the hallway carrying the big-ass sword and stinking like a herd of rabid skunks.
With gasping cries, nurses, doctors, visitors, and even the patients clamped hands over their noses and fled wildly in every direction.
What? Did they think I was contagious?
An old guy in a wheelchair knocked people down like tenpins in a bowling alley in his rush to get away. An IV stand trailed wildly after him.
A nurses' aide stepped out of a room, took one look at my sword, screamed blue bloody murder, and ran.
I bet the 9-1-1 lines were lighting up like a Christmas tree.
"The base has been locked down. Return immediately, and you won't be punished," Voss snapped in my head.