Coming in Spring 2012!

 

Humans are on the menu!

Ravenous alien blobs plan to eat the entire universe. It is up to legendary space courier Annie Johnson and alien rogue Ruul to thwart their evil plans.

Annie takes a dangerous mission for the biggest paycheck of her life. Little does she know that she is at the center of a conspiracy that could destroy the entire universe.

Alien thief and rogue Ruul joins Annie on her quest. Passions ignite as they journey to the most dangerous planet in the galaxy. Will their forbidden love survive the battle to save the universe?

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featured in Tastes Like Chicken

Chapter One

A giant fire-breathing baby the size of an elephant crawled towards Annie, a menacing glare in its red eyes. It opened its mouth wider revealing row upon row of razor-sharp teeth and cried in a deafening shriek. Flames shot out of its mouth singeing Annie’s bright red Mohawk. A wave of heat hit her like she’d opened a door to a blast furnace. Her whole body shook with fear as she raced to come up with a defense. Club it over the head with a giant bottle of formula? Send it to the corner for a time out?

Alarms sounded. Annie startled awake. Her main viewscreen flashed red with the words: Proximity Alert! Unidentified Ship Closing Fast!

Instantly, Annie fully awakened. She executed a series of orders into Hubert’s computer.

A thunderous clang came from the outside of her ship and she jerked forward in her captain’s chair. Something hit her ship hard. If she hadn’t been buckled in, she would have been thrown to the floor.

Her vessel started to shake violently. Something or someone didn’t just smash into her, they’d grabbed her.

White hot fury powered through her veins. Her senses came alive. Her mind sharpened. She was already late delivering her message, she had no time for games.

While she was bounced around, she turned on her main viewscreen. Out the front, nothing but stars and the Feifeid galaxy stretching out before her. Out the back, blackness.

The shaking stopped. A terrible clanking sound of metal on metal came from her hull, then a high-pitched squeal of metal being bent. Her ship lurched sideways. A loud rumbling sound was followed by a thunderous booming, like a huge door shutting.

Great. She’d been captured. She was inside another ship. What a perfect turn of events.

Adrenaline juiced her system, preparing her for the fight. Her heart beat hard against her rib cage, only her hands remained steady. She’d been through this routine lots of times. She knew exactly what to do.

Annie fell prey to one or two robbery attempts a year as a matter of course. The thieves always regretted it.

After a bit more movement, all motion stopped. All sound stopped. Her communication system activated.

Annie thought about arming her exploders and answering the call with a nice, welcoming bomb.

She took a deep breath. She needed to keep her cool and not cause any damage to Hubert. She had to focus and deliver that package to Tex. An astounding amount of severed heads adorned the walls of Tex’s office—from all the people who’d disappointed him. She pictured her own head mounted there and a cold shiver of fear raced up her spine. Best to just get rid of these guys, fast, and not take them on.

Damn it. Kicking some thief ass sounded really good.

Mature, Annie. Must be mature.

Annie turned on her Monster Disguise Unit: a face-and-voice-changing device that transmitted an image of a Carrillian over the communicator. No one messed with the Carrillians. She answered the call.

A grinning bald green-skinned humanoid with red glowing eyes and yellow fangs dripping with black goo appeared on her viewscreen.

A new charge of anger flamed through her body; her fists balled, her jaw set. A Borillian pirate. God, she hated these guys. Entitled, self-important slime bags. The last Borillian to mess with her ended up glued to the outside of his ship. The story must not have made it back to Borill yet.

“Why have you detained me?! I demand that you let me go!” Annie bellowed, doing her best Carrillian imitation.

The Borillian laughed. “Nice Carrillian disguise. But I know differently,” he teased in a singsong voice. “Why don’t you come out and play with me, Earther?”

What a weird thing for a Borillian pirate to say. Why wasn’t he demanding her cargo?

“You insult me, Borillian!” she thundered dramatically. “I am Brahge Malorn of His Imperial Army, release me immediately or prepare to die!”

The Borillian shook his head and laughed harder. “Earther, a Carrillian couldn’t fit through the door of that Hummingbird.”

Undaunted by this piece of irrefutable logic, Annie continued her attack. “You have not heard of midget Carrillians? Your ignorance insults me, Borillian!”

The man convulsed with laughter. As he bent forward, holding his sides, his skin changed color, from green to a tanned white. His hairless scalp sprouted a huge unkempt mane of brown hair that fell across his brow. As he leaned back—guffawing—his features sharpened. Thick brown eyebrows appeared over his red eyes which shifted to an azure blue. His fangs disappeared, his teeth whitened and dimples appeared in his cheeks.

Recognition walloped her like an iron frying pan over the head. It was Ruul, that Thorian she’d accidentally slept with! While inwardly thrilled to see him, she had no time for his games.

She slammed off the Monster Disguise Unit. “Goddamn you, Ruul! I told you have I no time for this crap! What the hell are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking I missed my Annie,” he said, grinning ear-to-ear. “Besides, you have three whole days to get to Marnkar.”

She moved back away from the screen. “How the hell did you know that?”

“It’s all right here.” He indicated the screen on his control panel. “When you gassed me and escaped from me yesterday, I found out all kinds of information about you. Everything I needed to find you. So now I’ve caught you again. Thanks for teaching me this fun chase game, Annie.”

Annie gestured dramatically towards the viewscreen. “I’m not playing now, I told you that. I have a job. Now let me go!”

“Okay, just for lunch. Let me fix you lunch.”

“Oh, right. Then you pheromone me and I never get out of there. Look, Ruul, I can’t spend another eight days in bed with you!”

“Sure you can.”

“No!”

“I love that fire in you, Annie. This will be fun.”

This was so annoying, the man was so darling. Ruul had boyish good looks, was quick-witted, absolutely marvelous company. From his sparkling blue eyes to his carved cheekbones to his dimpled grin, there wasn’t one part of the man that wasn’t enjoyable to look at. She loved the way his brown hair fell casually about his eyes and neck, even his rumpled brown coat suited him. So adorable, like all Thorian Roamers.

Unfortunately, they were also complete pests. Nearly impossible to get rid of once you’d bedded them. Well, until their hormones urged them on to other females, usually right about the time you started liking them.

But she really wished she hadn’t introduced him to chase games. That was a whole bucket of stupid on her part.

His eyes twinkled. “I have some nice brandy, I know you love brandywine.”

“Ruul, no. Goddamn it, Marnkar takes three bloody days to get there. I got a package for Tex Montgomery. If I’m late, he’ll chop off my head and mount it on his wall.”

“No, he won’t. I’ll protect you, my Annie.”

“No, you’re gonna let me go! Now do it!”

His dimpled grin widened, he got a mischievous look in his eye. “Either you come out or I’m coming in to get you. But I may end up damaging your ship in the process. And I know you don’t want me hurting Hubert. Come on, Annie, let’s have some fun.”

Her fury was quickly replaced by exasperation. This man was the worst temptation she’d ever faced. His skin was so soft—a delicious contrast to the steel-hard musculature underneath. His flat, ripped stomach, the V that led down to his amazing, hard tool. The taut, rounded buns of his superior ass. The feel of his granite-hard thighs under her touch. Her toes tingled. A charge went through her.

This was not helping!

“Now, Ruul you listen here—oh, for crying out loud. This is futile. Like talking to a Prutarian Bog Slug. God, I’m too old for all this,” she muttered, rolling her eyes.

He checked a small screen on a panel to the side of him and then turned back to her. “Thirty-one isn’t old, Annie.”

“The hell it isn’t,” she retorted.

His thick brown eyebrows lifted hopefully. “I have beer.”

Squaring her shoulders, she looked him straight in the eye and hardened her expression. “Enough with the nicey-nice crap. You got two seconds to let me go or I’ll freakin’ blast my way out of here, Ruul. You decide, easy way or the hard way?”

His eyes lit up, his grin widened. “You’ve got a lot of fight in you today, Annie. I like it.”

She shrugged and shook her head to herself. “Okay, honey, I warned you. Sorry about this.”

She shut off her screen and tightened her seat belt. This was going to be a bumpy ride. She hoped Hubert could withstand the pressure of the Repeller shield. Last time she used it, her vessel ended up in the shop for two weeks. Damn it!

Annie pressed the button for the view of the outside of her ship. As to be expected, she was in one of the vast cargo bays of Ruul’s enormous ship, locked into two docking clamps, facing a gargantuan cargo bay door.

Escaping should be no problem.

Annie turned off the viewscreen and activated her storm doors, in case her outer hull was breached during her escape. A succession of clanks came from the outside of her ship as the doors slid into place.

She flipped the three switches on the console in front of her, braced herself and pressed the fourth and final button with her toe.

The high-pitched whine of the shield hurt her ears. Hubert shook violently as the Repeller shield began to push him out of Thorian’s docking clamps. Her eyeballs vibrated so fast, double words flashed on her console. As soon as Hubert broke free of the clamps, she’d fire on that damn cargo bay door and get the hell out of there.

A horrible sound came from her hull, like metal cracking along with the whine of the shield. She was thrown forward, then back. Hubert started to move. She was breaking free! She got ready to fire her Verellian exploders.

A big THOOMP sound nearly wiped out her hearing. Like an explosion in a big water jug, only magnified a hundred times.

Annie plunged into darkness and her ship dropped like a rock. She hit bottom hard with an oof! and began to roll. Pain seared her back. She felt like she lost two inches in height from the compression.

Since Hubert was spherical and his landing gear had not deployed, she rolled along like she was in a tire. Upside down, right side up, then the ship hit something hard. It teetered there for a moment then stopped. Dead.

Her emergency cockpit lighting came on.

Some nasty device neutralized all the power in her ship. Goddamn that Ruul, she was going to kill him!

As she sat there, fuming, trying to figure out what to do next, Ruul tapped a happy rhythm on the outside of her ship. The knocking stopped and her main bay door squealed as it was forced open. A loud humming followed by a hissing came from her back room. Great, he was using a laser on her storm doors. They would cost four hundred thousand credits at least to be replaced. Volcanic rage erupted inside her, nearly causing her head to burst.

A thunk sound came from her back room as Ruul pushed a piece of storm door onto the floor. “Come out, come out, wherever you are, Annie Johnson of Earth!” he called out behind her. “Let’s have a party! Just you and me!”

“For pity’s sake!” Because Annie did not want to hurt the man, her choices for self-defense were extremely limited. Her hand-cannon had a low setting, but it was still too dangerous to fire at a humanoid. Her only hope would be to gas him.

Annie unbuckled herself, stood up, grabbed her weapon and shoved it into her holster.

Shit! The knockout gas! She leapt forward and ripped the gas out of its holder.

The gas was still wrapped in shrink-wrap plastic. Damn it! She frantically tried to open it. Why they packaged an emergency weapon in impenetrable plastic, she’d never know.

Another piece of storm door landed in her back room.

“Annie?”

No time left!

She shoved the gas in her pocket and hid in an alcove by the door.

Ruul walked in. She jabbed out with her right, aiming for his jaw. He ducked her fist, grabbed her arm and got her in a good hold in about two seconds flat.

As she wrestled with him, she fought her reactions. Damn this, anyway! His scent was intoxicating, his strong arms around her sent shivers of delight racing through her body. His gorgeous face, mere inches from hers, that twinkle in his deep blue eyes—all she could think about was ripping his clothes off and attacking him.

She tried to push him away, but it seemed as if he had ten arms, all of them stronger and faster than hers. “Goddamn you! You killed Hubert!”

“No, I didn’t. Twenty minutes on a regenerator and he’ll be good as new. Come on, Annie, let’s go outside and I’ll help you hook him up.” He dragged her through the doorway to the back room.

“No! I’ll never get away from you!”

As she fought him, she worked hard to ensure his hands didn’t touch the bare skin on the back of her neck. Thorian pheromones were secreted through their fingertips and worked the fastest on the back of a woman’s neck. Annie wore her black and red Skindex jumpsuit, which covered nearly everything but her head and unfortunately, the back of her neck.

She’d tried to grab a hold of everything on the way out, but the guy was amazingly strong and yanked her along.

When they cleared Hubert’s bay door, he set her down and let go of her.

She stepped back, grabbed the gas out of her back pocket and began unwrapping it behind her back.

His bright blue eyes danced down at her. “I missed you, Annie. You look so pretty today.”

She’d forgotten how tall he was, maybe six foot five and all sinewy muscle. He was so hot, the jerk!

“I’ve been watching you since you landed on Feifeid to get that message for Tex. I used a holo-disguise. You didn’t know it was me, did you?”

“Damn you! You were that Borillian fixing a broken down ship in the parking lot, weren’t you? No wonder you looked familiar.”

He grinned widely.

“Look, Ruul, I’m trying not to hate you here. Those storm doors are super expensive—”

“I have a new set for you, Annie. Right over there.” He pointed to a corner of his junkyard of a cargo bay. There was so much crap stored inside, it was difficult to pick out any one thing.

“Are you sure? For a 2876 Miyaki Hummingbird VX-4000?”

“Yes. Three sets, actually. Got them off a Carrillian warship.”

“How the hell—I don’t have time for that story.”

“What do you have behind your back?”

“Nothing!” she said, wrestling with the plastic. The stupid covering was stuck! What the hell was wrong with the manufacturer?

A mischievous smile grew on his handsome face. “I think I’ll find out.”

She spun and raced for the door to the rest of his ship. He’d locked it.

A wicked twinkle in his eye, he came for her. “Oh, no, I’m afraid you can’t get out that way, my dear, sweet little Annie. Now come on, stop fighting me. I missed you. Come over here,” he said, opening his arms. “All I want to do is be nice to you.”

“There is no way I’m sleeping with you, Ruul!”

He burst out laughing. “Oh, really?”

She pulled out her weapon and aimed it at him. He dove for cover behind her ship. She set her pistol to High, turned and shot the controls for the doors. There was a loud explosion, smoke poured out from the control panel and the large metal doors clanked, then rumbled open.

She dashed through the doorway, his laughter ringing out behind her.

“Delightful!” he exclaimed. “Exciting woman!”

As soon as she cleared the doors, she turned and shot the thick, metal pins that held the door open. Another blinding explosion rocked the area and the giant door slammed shut, making a deafening sound.

That oughta hold him for a while. Long enough to get her knockout gas out of its packaging.

She bit the wrapping and managed to remove a little piece of the corner.

If she was honest with herself, it wasn’t just Tex she was afraid of. She was also afraid of her growing feelings for the stupid Thorian. She needed some distance and she needed it now. She was far too happy to see him. He was way too charming and adorable and there was no way she was getting her heart broken twice in one year. Jacob was enough.

Finally, the stupid wrapping came off.

She smelled Ruul’s scent a second before he grabbed her from behind, knocking the gas from her hand.

Screaming, Annie’s heart exploded into a superfast rhythm. She fought him wildly, but he easily flipped her around and pulled her close to him.

“There you are,” he said with a huge smile on his adorable face.

Heavenly cologne filled her senses. Oh, no. No way. She had to get away from him. She started to get dizzy.

She struggled against him. “Leave me alone!”

“Oh, come on now, you don’t want that.” He moved his hand up to behind her neck.

Not the pheromones! He pressed his fingers to her nape.

A wave of lust crashed over her.

Desperately, she kneed him in the upper thigh and he let her go with a yelp of pain. She dove down and grabbed the gas. As Ruul reached for her, she leapt up and sprayed him in the face. He crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

Doubled over trying to catch her breath, she couldn’t help but notice how handsome he looked as he slept. She yearned to be in his arms. The jerk.

She noticed he’d fallen in an uncomfortable position, so she rearranged his heavy limbs. She turned and got about three steps away. He’d get too cold lying there in the hallway for the four hours plus the gas was effective.

Annie swore to herself and went off to get him a blanket. Since she’d already spent some quality time on his ship, she easily found his cabin. Upon spotting his giant, soft bed, she flashed through a Best Hits movie reel of all the times she’s made love to him there. She sighed. Giving her head a shake, she grabbed a comforter and returned to her Thorian lover.

She covered him up, gave him a good-bye kiss and forced herself away to her ship.

Unfortunately, Hubert was still dead. But weirdly enough, Ruul had hooked him up to the regenerator. She checked the time on the machine, only fifteen minutes to go. Thank the Lord.

She remembered the storm doors, lying in a heap in the back of her ship. They covered her bed and blocked the way to the bathroom. Great.

She activated Ruul’s Unloader and opened Hubert’s main door. To her surprise, the wrecked storm doors were gone.

She ordered the Unloader to grab a new pair from the stack and put them in her holding compartment. When she opened her hold, a new pair already sat inside.

Why did Ruul go to all this trouble? It was as if he wanted to help her escape.

Oh, who cared? What mattered was getting to Marnkar.

Minutes later, Annie was on her way. What a close call. Thankfully, Ruul didn’t make good contact with her neck. A second later and she’d have been on her back.

With any luck that was the last she’d see of her Thorian lover.

Well, at least until her job was done.

* * * * *

Groggy from the gas, Ruul watched his Tracking Grid as Annie’s signal headed away from his ship. He sighed, wishing it hadn’t been necessary to let her go.

He called home to Thora and Lieutenant Schmuurr’s face appeared on the main viewscreen.

Wearing his work uniform, a red jacket with black epaulets, Schmuurr’s craggy face was deep with worry lines. “How goes it with the Earther?”

“I let her escape as planned,” Ruul reported, trying not to sound as depressed as he felt about it.

“Did you put the tracers on her?”

“Yes,” Ruul said. “But the first time I attached them to her, I used some bad Verellian tracers. Stole them from a Carrillian and I think they were old. The energy charge died when Annie was on her way to Feifeid. So I had to recapture her and reattach the tracers. But that was hard. I didn’t want to let her go that first time, letting her go this second time was no fun at all.” He grinned. “She’s quite a woman.”

A quick flash of Annie’s naked body went through his mind. Her creamy skin, her perfect hand-size breasts and her fine rear end. Despite the effects of the gas, he got hard, fast. Thankfully, he was sitting down and the evidence of his lust for Annie wasn’t visible through the viewscreen.

Schmuurr smiled widely. “I’ll bet. Earthers are supposed to be very good lovers.”

“Yes, they are.” Ruul rubbed his eyes and shook off some sleep.

“Are you all right?”

“Just recovering from that gas she used on me. She used it the first time I allowed her to escape from me. Heavy stuff. So this time I took an antidote before recapturing her. I wasn’t out for long, but it still got to me.”

Schmuurr nodded. “You’re sure she didn’t suspect anything?”

“Very sure. She thinks I’m just a big walking hard-on.”

Schmuurr burst out laughing. “Well, aren’t we all?”

Ruul chuckled. “I suppose. But no, she thinks all I want is sex.”

“Excellent, excellent. We’ve worked hard to spread those mistruths and rumors about Thorian carousing. Amazing how well they cover our covert operations. So where is the Earther headed?”

“She’s on her way to Station Quazon to catch the IST,” Ruul explained. “I assume she’ll be taking that to Marnkar. I mean, the Hummingbird could make it, but Annie isn’t one to take risks, not when Tex Montgomery is involved.”

Schmuurr’s blue gaze widened. “Dangerous man, that Tex.”

Ruul rubbed his brow. “I just can’t see Annie having anything to do with this catastrophe, whatever it is. And I certainly can’t see her traveling to the Yuyagonda system. Of course, I can’t see anyone traveling there.”

Schmuurr nodded, his vast mane of reddish hair catching the glints off the zeon light above him. “Grant you, it sounds ludicrous. An Earther going to the Yuyagonda system? It’s like a mouse visiting a planet of hungry cats. But Gizella stands by her prediction. She is absolutely certain that your Earther is central to the event. But that’s all she knows right now. Gizella is going into deep meditation with seven elders from the Council to try to straighten out all the disturbing images she’s been receiving. Hopefully, we’ll have more information tonight.”

“Very worrisome if Gizella can’t see something clearly.”

“Yes. The Alliance is very pleased you’re helping us out, Ruul. There will be plenty of credits coming your way for this.”

Ruul waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. “No problem. Happenstance put me in the right place at the right time.”

“Amazing that the potential destructor of the universe picked you up in a bar on Ro.”

Annie’s dark brown eyes had sparkled when she plopped down next to him. Can I buy your dimples a drink? “Yes, amazing.” Schmuurr had no idea.

After Ruul ended the call, he sat back and smelled his hands. He could still catch her scent on them; a mixture of diamond flowers and sunshine. He got hard again. What was it about this Earther? He wanted her so much it hurt. It went past want, he longed for her, ached for her. Her sweet face, her laugh, her lovely body.

Strange. By now, his hormones should have urged him onto another female. But at the moment he wasn’t the slightest bit interested in any other woman. All he wanted was his Annie.

He looked up at his monitor and watched her signal head towards Space Station Quazon. He wished he’d installed a camera in Hubert’s cockpit. He loved watching her.

He hit a button and called up his portfolio of pictures of her. He selected his favorite. Naked, curled next to him after they’d made love, a smile on her sweet face. Warmth spread through him.

He loved that she didn’t care about her home planet’s societal conventions. That she thrived on freedom. From her career choice to her bright red Mohawk and preference for outdated Skindex jumpsuits, Annie was an original.

He set his photo series of her to SlideShow. Annie laughing. Scowling. Running from him. Her mouth open in a tortured scream as he made love to her.

Ruul felt so lucky to have met her. He’d heard about her from many sources; her exploits were legendary. Every criminal syndicate in the Remote Corner used her services. She was the most reliable, most trustworthy and the most charming courier around. Everyone loved her.

She was also tough as diamond metal. He’d never had more trouble with a captive before. Cunning, brilliant and resourceful. Not to mention very creative.

A Borillian he’d known tried to steal from her on Feifeid and she’d glued him to the outer hull of his ship in full view of the parking lot. Then she’d served free beer below him, attracting a huge crowd of people who’d greatly enjoyed the show. It was hours before the Borillian convinced someone to get him down.

But what perplexed Ruul the most about Annie was that he enjoyed her company outside of bed. That hadn’t happened in years. The entire connection between them was fulfilling and exciting. It made him long for his Domestic days.

His unusual feelings for Annie made this event in the Yuyagonda system worry him even more. While she was talented, smart and strong, he didn’t want her going anywhere near there. Of course, the only place he really wanted her to go was his bed.

As he thought of her fiery scowl, he smiled.

Sweet Varma, how he wanted her.