Mad, Bad & Dangerous

and the rocks, until the ground was flat and the woods so dense they couldn’t see the sky anymore. She tripped, her right thigh throbbing, the muscles on fire after such hard use with no warm-up, and it finally just refused to work anymore.

She collapsed on the cold, damp ground and, as she went over, Bael fell with her, rolling to take the fall, and then she was sprawled on top of him, naked and panting, adrenaline pumping through her.

His hands touched her back, the scars there, and she recoiled for a second because no lover had ever seen those scars before, but then his fingers skimmed over her buttocks and she caught her breath because it felt good.

He felt really good. Kett lifted her head and his dark green eyes met hers, and then his mouth met hers too, and she grabbed his head by the hair and kissed him, hard, relieved and grateful they were both still alive. Kissing him made the fear and the bruises and the confusion fade away, so she kissed him harder. He tasted good, even better than before, and when he shifted beneath her and she felt his cock growing between them, hard and hot, she rubbed against it.

Bael tore away from her mouth to groan and she nipped his throat with her teeth. His hand slipped between her buttocks and delved lower, finding her pussy lips swollen and wet. Her face buried against his neck, Kett moaned and rubbed her breasts against his chest. His body was hot, damp with sweat, heaving, delicious.

She sat up, slid forward and sank down on his cock. His head back, Bael gasped, and then his hands were clutching at her hips, urging her on. She moved, faster and faster as the heat built inside her, this stranger filling her up, her skin prickling, her blood rushing. He pulled her down and kissed her mouth, her neck, her breasts, sucking one nipple into his mouth and rolling it between his teeth until she came in a sudden, bucking orgasm, crying out, her back arching.

Moments later his cock jerked inside her and he came too, and she fell against him, exhausted, shaking, his hands stroking her back, his arms holding her. Within seconds she was asleep.

Chapter Two

Morning sunlight stabbed Bael’s eyes but he didn’t open them. He felt like hell, his back and his arms aching even before he moved them. Which he did, just to confirm it, and immediately wished he hadn’t. Pain shot down his left arm, his wrist, his shoulder, straight to his spine. His feet were killing him too.

But the movement brought something much more interesting than pain. Warm skin, not his. Someone lying in his arms. A woman.

Well, this was always interesting. Bael grinned and cracked an eye open as he tried to remember who she was and what he’d been doing to end up with her.

Long, snaky dark hair spilled across his chest. Her eyes were closed and there was a small, pale scar on her cheek. Oh yes, he remembered her now. Remembered waking up with her tight, muscular body pressed against his as they dangled from the roof of that cave. Remembered the flash in her weird silver eyes as she rode him into the ground last night.

His cock stirred. Hell, she’d been fun.

She looked a lot less fierce, lying there still and quiet. Awake, she’d vibrated with angry energy, but now she looked more peaceful, younger even, despite the slight frown on her forehead.

He ran his hand down her back and paused at the scar tissue there. He’d discovered the whip marks crisscrossing her spine last night. But, what with her mouth on his and her breasts rubbing against his chest, he’d had other things to think about.

Now he was intrigued. The marks were old, healed, but he could feel the intensity of the lashes, the jumble of scar tissue that said she’d been flogged again and again.

What had happened to result in those scars?

She stirred, her skin sliding very pleasantly against his, and mumbled something in her sleep. He stroked her hair, tangling his fingers in the thick, unruly curls. His fingers found the warm skin at the nape of her neck and stroked.

Her eyes fluttered and she smacked her lips, stretching out her arm across his chest.

Then she froze, and her eyes slammed open, already flashing with silver fire.

“That’s very impressive,” Bael said, still playing with her hair. “How’d you get them to do that?”

“What?”

“Your eyes. They’re all sort of…sparkly.” He stole a quick kiss. “Very sexy.”

She blinked at him. Then she levered herself upright, sitting on his stomach, and stared at him.

“Mmm.” He placed his hands on her hips. “Even sexier.”

She opened her mouth to speak but Bael pulled her down and kissed her. Gods, she was fantastic, all tightly coiled power and fierce energy. He ran his tongue over her teeth and sucked her lip into his mouth, making her moan. Happily he rolled her onto her back, all the better to lick and bite her all over, but he’d only gotten as far as nipping at her throat when a tiny sound made them both freeze.

Bael looked up and saw an arrow. A bow. They pretty much occupied his attention until Kett said, “Why is that kelf aiming an arrow at us?”

Bael refocused. Behind the bow and arrow was a small green figure, three fingers on each hand, skin hairless, eyes huge. It stood immobile, impassive. Inhuman. Bael’s lip curled. He bloody hated kelfs, and this was precisely why.

“Look, I don’t interrupt you guys when you do…whatever it is you do in bed,” he said, rolling Kett away and getting to his feet.

The kelf said something in its own language, which irritated the hell out of Bael. It knew he couldn’t understand it. Kelfs never taught their language to anyone.

“You don’t-” Kett began, stepping toward the creature, and it turned its bow on her.

“Oh no you bloody don’t,” Bael said, lunging for the little green bugger, but it was too fast for him. There was a sudden zip and whine, and then a furious pain in his left arm.

Bael stared at the arrow sticking out of it and whirled on the kelf, murder in his eyes. “Hey! What the fuck was that for?”

“You are trespassing,” said a sweet, feminine voice in accented Anglish.

Before the voice had even died away, Kett had whirled to face it, her hands curled into fists, muscles tight, body low in a defensive crouch.

Bael stared at the dozen or so kelfs that had emerged from the trees, each holding a bow trained on him. Maybe they could smell the blood. Little bastards.

“This is their land,” said the woman’s voice, and he tore his eyes to her. “They graciously allow me to hunt with them, but they don’t like trespassers.”

She wore bright silken robes and perched elegantly sidesaddle on a handsome white horse. A crossbow rested on her lap. She was tiny, with long, glossy dark hair and tilted eyes, and she was smiling. Bael figured that was probably because the armed kelfs were on her side. Oh, and the fact that both he and Kett were totally bollock naked. Literally, in his case.

Kett scowled up at the woman. “Miho?”

The tiny woman smiled wider. “Kett. I didn’t know you were in the country.”

“Well, funny thing.” She relaxed a little, stood up straight. “Neither did I.”

“You know her?” Bael looked between the two women, his tall, scarred warrior and the tiny, delicate creature on the horse. His arm throbbed, blood oozing from the wound.

“Yes. Miho and I…go way back.”

“Well, that’s great.” Bael waggled the arrow in his arm. “Reckon she could lend us some clothes? Get some food? Dunno about you, but I’m starving.” He glanced at the kelfs surrounding them, bows still drawn. Bloody kelfs. No smiles. They wound him up beyond belief. “Maybe we could eat one of them.”

Kett didn’t smile.

“Apologies for your injury,” said Miho, nodding regally at Bael. “There are medical supplies at my house.”

Bael nodded and considered grabbing the kelf’s bow to shoot back at it. Not that it would have done much