Page 17 of A Ruthless Bargain

Jax stepped toward me and lifted my chin with his fingers. “I would rather not kill you.”

“Why do you sound surprised by that?” I whispered, the silky texture of his fingers on my chin causing me to wish he was stroking other body parts.

He pulled his hand back and resumed his previous stance. “You are not wrong. I am an enforcer for my boss.”

On this planet, only two groups needed enforcers, mafia and street gangs. He didn’t strike me as a gang member. Not with those suits. “Intergalactic mafia?” I asked. “That’s a thing?”

“We do not call it a mafia.” He paused. “In your tongue, the Syndicate is the closest word.”

“It is the mafia,” I said, oddly proud of myself for learning this, while also increasingly terrified that he’d kill me, despite his apparent desire not to. Understanding dawned. “Oh. Yeah, that’s not good. Your fugitive stole from a mob boss.” I shook my head. “That’ll definitely get you dead on my planet.”

His mouth twitched like he wanted to laugh. “It did for my runner.”

“Runner? That’s what you call—called—him?”

“Yes.” His lips curled in apparent irritation. “He had already sold the information he stole.”

“That’s what you thought he might have passed to me?”

“Yes. Something like a thumb drive here.”

“Oh.” His comment about hiding objects in vaginas popped into my mind and my sexual need roared back at the memory of him frisking me to find it.

“He not only already sold the information, he already blew the money on a game of urze.” The disgusted tone in Jax’s voice was unmistakable, even between species.

“Er-whatsa?”

He spelled it. “It is similar to poker. He had a gambling problem.”

“Oh. What was the runner doing on Earth?”

“Hiding. Like a coward.”

“In his defense, he wasn’t wrong to hide,” I said. “You found him and, um, he’s no longer on this planet.” My voice faltered as I repeated his exact language.

“You are argumentative.”

“Thanks?”

“Earthlings are a combative species.”

I harrumphed. “Well, one, we aren’t just the species Earthlings, we have millions of different species on Earth. And two, we humans believe in expressing ourselves.”

“Indeed, you do. We are much more matter-of-fact where I come from. Not so much back and forth, so much chatter.” He waved his hand dismissively, a remarkably human gesture, as far as I was concerned.

“Gee, sorry to be such a bother,” I snapped. “Maybe if you’d chattermore—”

He stepped toward me again, now invading my personal space. I dropped my head back to stare up at him. I could almost see the bottom of his eyes behind the sunglasses.

Fear and desire flared. His nostrils flared in response, and I wondered if he could somehow detect my body’s reaction to him. I wouldn’t ask, wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing the effect he had on me. Instead, I stood. Mere inches between us, my height, while tall for a human female, still dwarfed by his. “I’ll be leaving now.”

“Tell me why I should not kill you for interfering,” he repeated his earlier statement. His breath smelled like mint, and I idly wondered if that was natural or an earthly mouth spray.

“You said you didn’t want to kill me.” A shiver ran through me.

“I do not.” He curled a finger around a lock of my hair. “But, my boss does not like loose ends.”

I reached up to cup his hand. “I’m a loose end?”