Captured Boxed Set: 9 Alpha Bad-Boys Who Will Capture Your Heart (31 page)

Unbidden, the conversation from
when they’d awakened in her bed early this morning jumped back into his head.

"I assured them you were fine.
They’ll be here as soon as they can arrange for emergency visas. Next week,
perhaps."

"Damn it, Reya!" he’d
fumed, "don’t get me wrong, I appreciate your not wanting my brothers to
be concerned, but the last fucking thing I need is the James clan prowling
around Belize, dogging my heels."

Well, at least he hadn’t shouted at
her, but he’d been so angry and annoyed his face and ears felt hotter than
hell. When Reya’s eyes narrowed and she barged from the bed, he’d known his "charging
bull" face was in full force.

And he didn’t even want to think
about her patrolling the jungle alone at night. He knew he’d been a royal pain
in the ass about it, but it simply didn’t matter that she’d done it for years,
long before he crash-landed in her bed. In her bed…damn, that had a nice ring
to it.

Now he wished he’d kept his big
mouth shut. The woman had avoided him all day. His chest tightened and it had
nothing to do with sore ribs. It wasn’t an easy thing to admit, but he was man
enough to do so.

Plain and simple, he missed Reya
and doing right by her was important.

Brooding would get him nowhere. He
had a ton of things to do and what better way to get your mind off a woman than
do something else? Besides, he’d decided that this was one woman he wanted to
keep, whether she was mad at him or not.

Chapter
Five

Finally! It was all he could do
to keep himself from yelling his thanks to the rafters! Dr. Matons had given
him a clean bill of health. While the older man cautioned him to take it easy,
he could run, jump, do anything he pleased. Including woo Reya.

As soon as the doctor left Reya’s
apartments with his big medical bag of tape, butterfly stitches, antibacterial
ointments and pharmaceutical goodies in tow, Aaron moved all of his things out
of Reya’s bedroom into her office. He’d had enough of trying to keep himself
from wanting her. But he would do this right. First, since he could get up now,
he had no right to keep her from her bed. Second, he had no right to join her
there without a true commitment. He was beyond ready, and he would seduce her
until she felt the same. If he had his way, soon she’d be banging on the office
room door to jump his bones.

Reya’s office was perfect for what
he needed to do. The woman had everything—state-of-the-art laptop and
full-sized desktop computers with all the bells and whistles, including both satellite
high-speed internet, phones and, thankfully, a very comfortable futon. It was a
bit short for his six-foot-four frame, but he’d make do.

While he worked on getting her
agreement to either join him in Colorado or be his woman here in Belize, he
could catch up on work. And earn his keep.

Quickly showered and dressed, Aaron
put on his own clothes for the first time in almost two weeks. After spending
so much time in nothing but a pair of shorts and Reya’s sheets, he was thankful
she’d had the foresight to have someone wash every article of clothing packed
in the black duffel she’d rescued from the plane.

In a form-fitting black tee shirt,
comfortable black jeans and a pair of comfortable all-terrain half boots, he
made his way down the stairs and into the dining hall.

He almost burst out laughing as
Reya looked up from her table where she sat with Dr. Matons and Bethsaida. The
woman’s mouth had fallen open, and even with Bethsaida poking her in the ribs,
it took her awhile to finally manage to close it. He walked past her, winked
and headed straight into the kitchen.

When he emerged with a crisp white
apron tied around his waist and a tray of beverages, one of the young men was
showing him which patrons waited for their breakfast drinks. Aaron felt Reya’s
eyes on him as he delivered a large tray of goodies to a table full of guests
across the room.

He was
tiring quickly, but damn it, he had a woman to chase and he didn’t have time to
waste on getting back up to his full strength. That would come with hard work
and nothing less. So he may as well get to it, and now was as good a time as
any.

* * *

Lazing in the limbs of a broad
tree near the perimeter of the woman’s home, he watched through the window. A
low growl escaped his throat as his future mate ogled the weak human who’d
crashed in their jungle not long ago. He should have finished the man then, but
couldn’t without harming Reya. And he wanted her to come to him wild and
unbroken of spirit…so he could enjoy breaking her.

Baring his teeth, he watched the
human male move through the food area. Reya’s eyes were plastered on the human
male as he moved around the room serving other humans. He would have to do
something about the man’s attempt to insinuate himself into Reya’s daily life.
It would ruin his plans to ensure she wanted no one but him. And even if she
did, she would have no one but him. The woman was a jaguar shifter, and she
would mate a jaguar shifter. Period.

Reya
belonged to him whether she realized it or not. And if she didn’t fall in line
soon, he would simply take her by force and make her feel the wrath of his
bite.

* * *

Aaron leaned against the wall in
what he hoped was a casual stance. Sweat poured down his back as he tried to
make himself useful, running all over the dining room, helping the staff and
serving Reya’s guests and fellow rangers. How the hell did Reya and Bethsaida
run this place by themselves? There was never an idle moment and always
something to do. After sitting in bed for a week, he suddenly wished he was
back there, at least long enough to get a second wind. A coal black brow rose
in question when a short, bulky young man dressed like a ranger strode through
the dining area and headed straight for Reya.

As Aaron’s eyes followed the bulky
man, another one, young, thin but athletic, walked up to him, placed an ice
cold pineapple juice in his hands and joined him against the wall, eyes on Reya
and Mr. Bulky. Both of them pushed away from the wall and stood at the ready
when Reya’s back went ramrod straight and her lips tightened.

"So you’re the man who crashed
in our jungle, eh?" his companion said easily.

Aaron turned and looked at the man
in the eye. Something about the guy struck him as odd, but he detected no
malice. In fact, he looked like an overgrown kid.

"Yep, that’s me," Aaron
said, holding his hand out in a friendly gesture. "I’m Aaron James. Nice
to meet you."

"I’m Marc, one of the rangers.
I do patrol with Reya sometimes."

The two moved to a nearby table,
sipping cold juice, watching Reya deal with her obviously unwanted company.

"Who’s the guy talking to
Reya?" Aaron questioned, forcing his voice to sound calm and unconcerned.
If he’d been a dog, his ears would be pointing straight up and his hackles
showing.

"Name’s Trefor, the new
director of the sanctuary. She doesn’t like him very much," Marc said
quietly.

"You don’t say," Aaron
said distractedly, his irritation rising by the second when the Trefor person
sat down next to Reya and wrapped his fingers around her arms, causing her to
yank away. Noting the contrast between the other man’s golden skin and Reya’s
darker tones, one side of Aaron’s lip curled up, not wanting any other skin
against hers but his, damn it. Aaron didn’t care if he was the director. Hell,
he could be king for all he cared. If Trefor touched his woman one more time,
he was going to get pounded into the floor, right here and now.

"So how long you gonna be
here?" Marc queried, pulling Aaron’s mind from his murderous thoughts.
Setting his cup down, he turned and cocked a brow at the smiling young man. He
looked just out of college. Probably had a crush on Reya. What young man in his
right mind wouldn’t want such a beautiful, self-sufficient woman on his arm?
Too bad, this one was taken. Time to make it clear.

"How long? As long as the lady
will have me. Clear enough?"

The smile remained on Marc’s face,
but a chill seeped into it as he nodded and said, "Just make sure you’re
worthy of her."

With that and a final sip of juice,
Marc strode away and made a beeline to Reya’s table. One of his hands landed
lightly on her shoulder and Aaron’s frown was instant as she looked up at Marc
and appeared to immediately relax. With a smart-looking smile on his face, Marc
said something to Trefor. Two seconds later Mr. Bulky stomped out of the room.
As Aaron watched him barrel toward the front door, he couldn’t help but notice
everyone was talking to someone, whether guest or ranger. He was the only one
sitting alone. He felt very much the outsider, and the conspiratorial smile
shared between Reya and Marc made him grind his back teeth.

Reya should be looking at him like
that, not Marc or any other man. He was, after all, her new best friend,
whether she realized it or not.

Chapter
Six

Reya slipped out of the kitchen’s
back door and strode purposefully into the jungle. Moving at a good clip, and
thankful for well-worn trails and her unusual strength and speed, she figured
to make her half-mile trek to the Sittee River in less than ten minutes.

Her stomach danced and the hair on
the back of her neck stood on end from the moment she stepped into the dense
fauna of deep jungle. A couple of times she’d actually stopped to look around,
allowing her eyes to shift to enhance her vision. Everything appeared normal
but didn’t feel normal.

"Goddamn it, Trefor," she
yelled when the idiot jumped out at her from somewhere to the right of the path
she’d been traveling. He knew she had a diving appointment today and must have
come out to head her off after she’d told him to kiss her ass earlier at the
breakfast table.

"This seems to be the only way
I can get you alone, Reya," he said cockily with a too-confident smile.

"Look, how many times do I
have to tell you? I don’t want to be alone with you. Not now. Not ever. Not for
any reason. Now go away!"

Turning her back on him, she took
two steps before his meaty hand landed on her shoulder and spun her around.
That hand moved down to her biceps and squeezed brutally. Her shifter senses
might be muted in her human form, but they weren’t non-existent. If he didn’t
watch it, she’d have to give him a jaguar ass whipping and see how he liked
that. Idiot.

"You’re interested in that
black-haired giant staying at your place, aren’t you?" he snarled into her
face. "Everyone is talking about the two of you!"

Snatching her arm away, she snarled
right back. "It’s none of your goddamned business, Trefor!"

Grabbing her arm again, he pulled
her roughly against his chest. She almost giggled at how much shorter he was.
Even if she’d wanted to kiss him—and the thought was too disgusting to
imagine—she’d have to bend her head to do it. Not like kissing Aaron. Her mind
drifted to how it felt to raise her head for his kisses, and how he liked to
grab her by her hair and pull her head back so he could nibble on the sweet
spot just under her jaw line, and…

"Damn it, Reya, I’ll wipe him
from your mind if it’s the last thing I do!" Trefor yelled as he grabbed
at the front of her camo shirt, ripping the first two buttons off. Now that
pissed her off.

The change pressed and pushed at
Reya, urging her to allow the cat to come out and play. And Trefor would be the
toy to her cat as she swatted him between her massive paws. But he didn’t
deserve to see the majesty of her shifted form. The numbskull wasn’t good
enough to lay eyes on such beauty. So she shoved him away from her with enough
force to make him leave his feet and land hard against the trunk of the nearest
tree.

Up quickly, he ran at her and right
into a hard balled fist. Her right hook landed high on his cheekbone and he
went down in a heap. But the idiot just didn’t have enough sense to stay down.

Shaking his head against what she
was sure was blinding pain, he hefted to his feet again. Eyes tight with anger
and his lips pulled back in a nasty snarl, he yelled like a male banshee.

"You bitch! You hit me. Me! Trefor
Dionisio!"

Reya rolled her eyes and looked up
at the glorious sky. God, why did she have to deal with all the goofballs? A
raging scream erupted from Trefor’s throat as he ran at her. Oh this was
definitely not good. He outweighed her by a good fifty pounds and if he
pummeled into her, she’d end up on her back and might have to shift after all
just to get him off.

The world came to a slow roll as
one of Trefor’s thick arms cocked back and let fly. Reya knew she was more than
strong enough to deflect the blow and raised her arm to do just that. She could
clearly make out the size and shape of the knuckles headed for her face. The
blow never landed.

When time sped up again, she spied
a larger hand attached to an even larger body, holding Trefor’s fist in a palm
just inches from her right eye.

Aaron!

Reya gasped in surprise as he
insinuated himself between her and Trefor and smacked the shorter guy in the
exact spot Reya had tagged him. Boy, his cheek would be good and sore tomorrow.
And probably a few choice colors. God, she sure hoped so. Trefor yelped,
lifting a hand to his face while backing away quickly. She giggled when he
slammed into the same tree she’d introduced him to earlier before stumbling
down the trail back toward the ranger station.

Maybe she and Aaron made a great
team after all, both in and out of bed. And the man was sexy as hell even while
he was beating the shit out of someone.

"You all right?" he asked
gently, taking her face in his powerful, slightly calloused hands.

"Oh yeah. My hero," she
sighed as his mouth came down on hers, sweet, searching. Delicious. He tasted
like pineapple and hunger. She broke the kiss and looked up into his sinfully
handsome face. The gentleness was a thing of the past. Oh he was hungry all
right. For hot, wet woman. Judging by the way her womb reacted to that bare and
open expression, she’d be both hot and wet shortly.

Instead, she pushed away. She
couldn’t do this now. She had a boat to catch and had to hurry or it would
leave without her. Besides, he still hadn’t apologized for his little temper
tantrum over her calling his brothers.

"Aaron, I have to…" was
as far as she got. He reached down, picked up the duffel filled with her scuba
gear and tossed it over one shoulder before reaching beneath her knees and
tossing her over the other shoulder.

"Aaron, do you know where
you’re going?" she asked, noting the path he took through the thick trees.
A smack on her backside was his answer, followed by the magical traipse of his
fingers over her ass. It sent tingles down the back of her legs. She squirmed
against the sensation, earning another smack. Oh god, that felt so good she
wished he’d put her down so she could strip out of her pants, lean over and
bare her ass to his strong but gently questing fingers.

But it wasn’t to be. Sigh. Back to
business.

"Aaron, I’m going to miss the
boat. You’re going the wrong way." When he didn’t’ reply, she started to
struggle. "Will you put me down? I’ve got to go."

Smack! Followed by a soothing rub
of his hands all over her butt cheeks.

She stiffened against his shoulder
as a pleasure-pain zing dove straight for her pussy. Oh yum! When he dipped
down into the cleft of her cheeks and played with the little spot between her
slit and her little anal hole, a deep shivering started at the base of her
spine and spread outward. Oh lord, he was making her dizzy, and not from
carrying her pitched over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

He didn’t say a word, just kept
trudging with her out into the wilds. Reya’s keen senses picked up other
jaguars in the area. A female resting in the shade not fifty paces from where
they strode through the jungle. Another female sounded less than a mile east of
them. And they were excited, agitated, yet not in a fearful way. If she weren’t
mistaken, they wished her well with her love play.

Now this was ridiculous. The man
had already won over Dr. Matons and Bethsaida. Now the jaguars liked him too?

Finally, he slowed his stride as
they came out of the canopy and into a clearing. Raising a low-hanging thorny branch,
Aaron ducked underneath and chuckled at her yelp when it made contact with her
backside as they passed. A few branches and thick vines later, he put her feet
on the ground in the middle of a beautiful, though small, secluded meadow.

They were well off the trail and
surrounded by thick trees and fragrant flowers all laid around a thick carpet
of bright green grass. She tore her attention away from the beauty of the place
and back to her captor, and the heat behind his sensual gray eyes pulled a gasp
from her lungs. Oh was he ever up to something. But he wasn’t moving a muscle.
Just stood there, looking at her like she was his favorite steak or something.

"Aaron? What’s going on?"
she asked, a bit wary now. His body language was tense, dangerous. She wasn’t
afraid he would hurt her, but she definitely wondered what the hell he had in
mind way out here. When he started stalking toward her, his body all sinewy
grace and deadly intent, her feet backed up all on their own. Eyes wide, she
felt her back made contact with a very solid tree. Okay, time to go. Or at
least that’s what she thought, but even her shifter reflexes weren’t fast
enough. As soon as her muscles bunched to spring away, he was on her. All over
her.

Aaron’s hard, lean body rubbed
against hers as he pressed her against the towering tree trunk, holding her
hands over her head. The thick, long ridge of his cock pressed into her
stomach, hot enough to scald through her clothes.

"Aaron," she said
breathlessly, the scorching between her legs skyrocketing by the second, "I-I
really need to go. Maybe we can get together later?"

As he shifting his hips, something
hard dug into her side. Not his arousal. Something small, square and
surprisingly familiar—her satellite phone was clipped to his belt loop. The
little silver box gleamed dully in the muted light of the canopy of green over
her head. With both her hands secured in one of his, he used his free hand to
unclip it and flip it open. Too curious to be upset, she looked up at him and
quirked a brow. What the hell was he doing?

"Close your eyes and I’ll let
you call the boat." The words brushed against her ear, low, seductive,
determined.

She did as he said, knowing she had
only a few more minutes to get to the river.

"Good girl. Now just stand
here a second."

Stand here? She didn’t have time to
stand…oooh! Okay, not fair! Warm, sensuous lips nipped at her bottom lip before
sliding down to her neck. Her mind screamed for him to stop. Her body, however,
wasn’t so inclined.

The kiss was gentle, seductive as
his lips moved down to the juncture of her neck and shoulder. Then he laid into
her, sucking fiercely, marking her until she squirmed against him, her breath
coming in shallow gasps. Now the tip of his tongue outlined her ear and she
heard a hiss of air float up into the morning sky. When her lungs burned, she
realized that air had escaped from her chest as her breath seized in her
throat. The man literally took her breath away.

His body kept her pinned against
the tree. She wanted to move against him, grind her hips into the delicious
hardness at his center. But she couldn’t move, except to breathe in the
masculine scent of him and let it out on a sigh, a moan or a gasp.

A beep caught her attention but not
enough to hold it.

"Reya?"

"Oh yes," she breathed,
eyes closed against the assault on her senses. His scent. The feel of his
tongue and lips on her skin. The sound of the wind that floated through the
trees and mixed with her own breathing. The wild call of colorful birds and the
scurrying of insects up the smooth trunks of the trees. The easy burn that
flowed out from her core and wrapped around her clit. She felt, heard and
smelled it all. Now a taste was in order. With a tilt of her head, she caught
his mouth with her own and flicked out her tongue to play with his. He opened
to her and she was lost.

Whimpering with need, she chased
his mouth as he tried to break the kiss.

"Reya, call the boat."

"Huh, why?" she pleaded,
again trying to get to his magical mouth. A mouth that made her want, made her
need.

"Tell them you’re not going to
make it."

She jerked her neck back and asked,
"What? I’ve never missed a booking."

"Yeah. Until today." As
he bent to nip the globes of her sensitive breasts through her camouflage
shirt, she fought to free her hands so she could press him closer.

"Mmmm, that feels so good."
When he bit down on the hard berry of her nipple, she cried out and threw her
head back, unfazed when it made contact with the tree. Boat? What boat?

"Aaron," she gasped. "Oh
lord!"

"Call
them…" he crooned, his words full of a promise he’d damned well better
keep.

* * *

Aaron flipped open the phone and
held it out to her, then changed his mind, realizing he would have to release
her hands.

"Tell me the number," he
ground out. The erection pressed tight against his zipper bordered on pain.

"What? You want me to think
now?" she protested.

A self-satisfied smile spread over
his face. So she couldn’t think, eh? Good. He’d make sure she was flat-out
mindless as soon as the phone call was made. She would think of no one but him.
Not Trefor, not Marc. Nobody. Just him.

Deliberately teasing her, grinding
his cock against her fluttering belly, he said again, "The number, Reya.
Tell it to me."

She spit out the numbers between
gasps. He keyed it in and held the phone against her ear while his mouth played
with her skin.

"H-Hello? Hi, this is…oh god!"
she screeched, when he’d given her a full, open-mouthed lick from her
collarbone up to her ear. "T-This is Reya Daines. Sorry, I, I’ll need you
to…Jesus!" He’d just bitten the sensitive spot on her shoulder. "I
c-can’t make it to my dive appointment. Please have Shelly in Hopkins take the
crew out for me. She’s on standby, thankfully."