Page 219 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Agatha

There was a knock on my door just as I was getting ready for bed. I had never had any visitors—especially not at this time—so I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sound. I pressed my hand to my pounding heart, which I could feel through the thin white fabric of my sleeping shirt.

My hair was down, and it had gotten really long since I’d been abducted into space.

Amar’s species, the Ulinial, believed that cutting your hair was unnatural, that it was like cutting family ties.

Wishing to respect their culture, I hadn’t cut my hair while I’d lived aboard their small, cobbled-together spaceship.

Now, I hurried to drape my long hair over my shoulders so it gave some kind of cover over my breasts. I smoothed my hands over the soft leggings I was planning to wear to bed. Was that enough clothing? Or was whoever was on the other side of that door going to think I was underdressed?

Another knock reverberated through my door, and, worried that I’d anger the person on the other side, I stopped dallying.

As I pulled the heavy panel open, I was shocked to discover Sunder standing on my doorstep.

His huge body filled the entire doorway, his horn-crowned head as tall as the door lintel.

With his wings slightly spread, I couldn’t even see past him into the hallway.

Gulping down a few swallows of air, I tried to push away the memory of petting that wide chest. I had definitely been under the influence of that foul drug, and Sunder had known that—he’d said so—but it was still embarrassing.

Even more embarrassing, faced with that wide chest, I really wanted to do it again. I had zero excuses this time.

“Hello,” he said, his voice dropping into a low rumble that I felt deep in my belly.

“I hope I’m not interrupting you…” His head tilted at an angle as his slate gray eyes slid over me, taking in my clothing and my long hair.

I saw how that look lingered on my hip, on the shape of my breasts; I felt it like a caress.

“No, I was just getting ready for bed. What do you want?” I asked, and then I cursed myself.

What do you want? Really? As if it weren’t obvious after he’d just ogled my boobs.

I might as well have said, come in, let’s have sex.

I struggled a little with the thought of this particular male just showing up at my door, hoping for a booty call… He seemed so serious and intense.

His gray eyes heated, a glimmer indicating that he found humor in my words, that maybe he’d had the same thoughts I just had. He didn’t move into my space, didn’t make any overt kind of moves, just held out a palm.

“Why, Miss Aggy, I didn’t realize your hair was this long.

Such a shame you keep it up in that stern little bun all day…

” His head tilted at an angle as he scanned my face, following the long strands of hair over my breasts and down to my hip.

“Although now I know what you look like with your hair down, I know what I’ll be thinking about when I see you tomorrow. ”

I was so uncertain about this male; he had me on edge.

Why was he nice to the kids? Why was he nice to me?

And then he said those flirty things? I was just a schoolteacher from Minnesota, old enough by now to be considered on the shelf.

I wasn’t used to this kind of male attention, to feeling pretty when someone looked at me.

Let’s not forget the part where he was a guard at this place, either; he was the bad guy.

“Why are you here?” I demanded, fed up with my own hormonal response.

I needed to get this guy out of my room.

I didn’t want to feel this kind of attraction for a person who might later try to stop me when I rescued the boys.

I really hated how jealous I felt of Jett’s excited praise of anything this male did; he’d prattled about how awesome training was all evening.

Sunder had moved a little closer, stepping onto the threshold of my room, invading my space just a little.

I refused to back up, so we were quite literally toe-to-toe.

I had to tilt my head back to be able to look at his face.

I had to tilt it back really far. He smirked down at me. “Tell me, Aggy, why are you here?”

Oh, shucks. Were they on to me? Was he here to figure out what I was up to?

My heart wasn’t racing now; it felt like it was ready to burst from my chest. My hands went clammy, and my knees felt like they were about to give out.

Somehow, I held it together, tilting my chin at him. “None of your beeswax.”

That seemed to confuse him, because he frowned, his eyes growing big as he tried to decipher what I’d just said.

I cringed when I realized that my habit of substituting any kind of swear word with something PG meant that the translators didn’t always understand what I meant.

I’d wanted to come off as firm and not afraid; instead, I sounded like a lunatic.

Sticking out my hand, I shoved him in the chest, trying to get him to leave my room.

To nobody’s surprise, that didn’t move him an inch, but it did shake him out of his confused expression, and he snapped out a hand to trap mine against his rock-hard body.

“Tell me, Aggy. Why did you take this job?”

I felt heat burn up my arm at the contact, and for a brief, insane moment, I thought he was a good guy, trying to figure out if I was good too. Then I shook off the thought, yanked my hand back, and stuck my finger under his nose. “It pays the bills. Now leave. I have better things to do.”

Wagging my finger like that had certainly always impressed my students, but it did nothing for the huge Tarkan.

He smirked, possibly amused by my attempt to get him to leave, but there was an angry, frustrated glint in his gray eyes and a threatening set to the way he’d raised his wings, shifted his stance, his lion-like tail twitching in agitation around his legs.

Without another word, he turned on his heel and stalked away, leaving me a shaking, derailed mess. Well, that was not how I had expected this evening to go. At least I’d managed to spend an extra hour with the boys, leaving them only when they had fallen asleep on the bunk in the back corner.

I locked my door tightly, not that that would keep anyone out if they really wanted to get in.

Crawling into bed, I piled my own blankets high, shutting out the cold worry that tried to ice across my skin.

These were worries for tomorrow; there was nothing I could do.

The nights were too strictly regulated, with my access to many of the gates withdrawn.

If we were to escape, it had to be soon and it had to be during the day.

I didn’t think I’d get the opportunity, but somehow luck was on our side that next day.

After I’d given the boys some of my breakfast in the bunkroom, we arrived in the courtyard to discover that Uron was already sprawled out in one corner.

He was passed out on the stone bench he preferred, with another of those foul-smelling bottles lying on the ground at his side.

Sunder was not present, leaving us completely without supervision.

How long would we have until he arrived?

With worry over last night’s confrontation gnawing at the back of my mind, I decided this was the chance, we had to take it. “Come on, boys, we’re leaving,” I said, and I firmly grabbed hold of Amar’s little hand. “Jett, like we talked about, head for those kitchen tunnels.”

The six-year-old looked at me with his big gray eyes, thinking hard. Did he remember the plans we’d discussed? The route I’d decided on? He gave me a shrug, then headed for the exit of the courtyard and started leading us into the palace tunnels, just like we’d planned.

A few times, he paused as we walked, and all of us would listen intently for any sound of people approaching.

Sometimes, Jett would look over his winged shoulder at me for reassurance, and I’d reach out to pat him on the back.

“We got this. Just a little further,” I whispered.

My skin prickled with awareness when we reached the kitchen exit and still hadn’t run into anyone.

It shouldn’t be this empty. Where was everyone else?

There were dozens of slaves working in the kitchens or cleaning this humongous building at all times of the day.

Why weren’t they here now? I hadn’t been worried about them, because they had no stake in ratting us out.

They would likely assume I had a reason to take the boys out anyway, as I was not a slave myself.

I made Jett wait, holding Amar’s hand, while I tried the door. It was locked, but I had tested this door before and knew my access allowed me to open it. Raising my hand, I was just about to press it to the palm reader when a voice shattered the tense silence.

“What the fuck are you doing?” came an angry growl from behind me.

I recognized the gravelly tones and felt ice skate up my spine, my heart racing.

I turned slowly, clutching the boy’s hands and tugging them behind my back.

Tilting my chin, I tried to look confident as I grasped for the feeble excuses I’d prepared earlier.

When I saw him, those fled my mind, and pretty much any other thought, too.

He filled the hallway with his big, stony body and his massive wings.

With his face drawn into deep, exaggerated lines, horns glittering atop his skull, and tusks sticking out of his mouth, he looked intimidating.

It got my hackles up just enough that I fell back on some old patterns for dealing with blustering parents. “Mind your language, Sir!”