The Bid by Jax Page A

body jolt up off the floor. He automatically countered, the warrior in him taking over and certainly not caring about anything but his goal. She’d taken him by surprise because he’d underestimated her. He wouldn’t double the error.
    He grabbed her by her hair and jerked her cleanly off her feet by it. The power he used to drag her back against himself sent her spine crashing into his breastbone.
    And that was the end of it.
    Vejhon learned the instant he touched her in violence the power of the deterrent she had affixed around his arm. The pain that launched through every molecule of his body was so extraordinary, it was almost fascinating. It lasted only a few seconds, probably because that was all it needed to render him completely unconscious.
    Hanna was held captive by her hair as the Goliath behind her seized from the feedback of pain and then fell backward onto the floor. She landed with a grunt on top of him, her back to his chest, and took a moment to gasp for breath before cursing loudly to the empty room.
    “You stubborn son of a bitch!” she growled in frustration.
    She’d known that, though. And she’d expected this, too. Hanna rolled around on top of him, straddling his belly on her knees as she leaned over him and smacked him lightly in the face. He jerked at the slight stimulation and she braced her hand on the floor by his head as she waited for him to come out of the stun. It acted harshly and quickly, but it also didn’t last long. It was meant to give just enough time to bind the slave safely, but she wasn’t going to do that. She didn’t even want to use the damn deterrent, but Najir had insisted and she realized he was right.
    Case in point: one unconscious, pigheaded alien male.
    “Come on, wake up,” she coaxed in a singsong voice as she smacked her fingers lightly against his cheek again.
    His eyes flickered open, revealing that beautiful green-yellow coloring and, as close as she was, the fact that his pupils were more ovoid than round. She was distracted by that just long enough to be taken by surprise when she felt his hands clamp around her rib cage.
    “Get off!”
    He threw her off of him, sending her tumbling on knees and elbows over the carpet. To her credit, she ended up in a spry roll and rounded up into a crouch. Not a bad trick in a dress, he had to say. She also got honorable mention for the fact that his ribs were on fire from her strike earlier.
    Vejhon got up and, letting his frustrated anger propel him, he crossed to the wardrobe and jerked out a pair of pants to replace his inadequate towel. If he was in for a battle with her, he was damn well sick of fighting naked. Especially when she insisted on climbing all over him! It was damn dirty pool for her to sit over him like that when she knew she wasn’t wearing a single damn thing under that dress. It was a short wrap of silky blue fabric that almost matched the powder-soft tone of her skin, and reached no farther than mid-thigh on her. Needless to say, he’d gotten a good feel of the warmth and softness of her bare sex as she’d sat astride him. He forgave himself for the instant push of heat in his blood because of it. Like bathing, food, and all the rest, it had been a long time since he’d had a woman, something else he’d been used to having with a measure of regularity before his incarceration.
    Besides all of that, he was growing increasingly confused. He felt no remnants of the pain used to knock him unconscious, and a glance at the steam coming off the food she’d brought told him he hadn’t been out for very long at all. What kind of a deterrent was that? Effective for a minute or two, perhaps, probably long enough to drug or shackle a violent slave, but she had done neither.
    He watched her warily as she rose to her full height, finally taking time to look beyond the curvaceous swells of her body and the femininity of her wardrobe. He quickly began to see more. Long, powerful major muscle groups that