Lucius is Spartan, a
genetically enhanced soldier created for the sole purpose of fighting. But what
is he to do when the war is over? Exiled with his unit to an island off the
Pacific coastline, Lucius is shocked when he finds more than a deserted island
when he meets Ari, a man determined to live by his own rules even at the cost of
his own life.
Ari was just a teenager
when he was abandoned by his family and exiled because he didn’t meet the new
moral code. He does what he needs to do to survive. When he meets Lucius and the
other Spartan, he finds that the fierce warriors need even more help than he
does.
Emotions have been drummed
out of the Spartans, deemed useless to men taught nothing but killing. Teaching
them to feel just might be harder than Ari thinks, especially when he needs
Lucius to be the killing machine he was born to be in order to save them all
when the enemy attacks. But the cost might be the man he is falling in love
with.
STORY
EXCERPT
Ari tightened his fingers
around the knife in his hand to hide the tremble that flickered through his
entire body. The soldier standing before him was the biggest damn man Ari had
ever seen in his life. He stood taller than the wooden doorframe.
Ari didn’t move other than
to try and draw some much needed air into his lungs. He wasn’t stupid. He knew
he was facing off against a Spartan warrior, one of the fiercest fighting
machines ever created.
The three black tattooed
lines on the side of the man’s face were a dead give-away. All Spartan had them.
Each line was a mark of rank. Ari had no idea what this man’s rank was but he
hoped it was high enough up that he could keep the others from killing
him—assuming he didn’t kill Ari himself, which was a very real
possibility.
Ari had seen the Spartan
warriors in the cities during the war. He had seen them fight and seen them
kill. He knew what they were capable of and he was fully aware of the fact that
he didn’t have chance in hell of beating the one standing in front of him or the
ones standing behind him.
“Who are you?” the man
repeated.
“Ari.” Fuck, man this guy was huge. Ari
swallowed hard, trying to bring some moisture back to his dry throat. “I live
here.”
“No one is supposed to be
on this island.”
Ari cocked his head to the
side, a small frown of confusion working its way across his forehead. He slowly
lowered the knife in his hand but didn’t let go of it. He would most definitely
lose a fight with this soldier, but he’d cause a lot of damage as he
died.
“Who told you that?”
“My superiors informed us
that this island was uninhabited.”
“They were
wrong.”
Ari gulped when the man’s
lips thinned in obvious anger. He quickly held his hand up to placate the guy,
and hopefully keep his head attached to his shoulders. “I’m sure they thought
the island was uninhabited but it’s not. There are a lot of us
here.”
Ari groaned when the
warrior’s eyes narrowed at him. He knew he talked too much when he was nervous
and a person couldn’t get much more nervous than he was right now. If he didn’t
tuck his lips in he’d start spilling about every damn thing floating through his
head.
“How many are
here?”
Ari pressed his lips
together and shook his head rapidly. He was in enough trouble. He wasn’t taking
anyone else down with him. The next instant, Ari found himself disarmed and
lying down on the floor on his back, his arms pinned down above his head and the
biggest damn warrior in the group sitting on him.
“Speak,” the man growled,
low and menacing.
Ari swallowed again, just
knowing he was enjoying his last few minutes on earth, and then he shook his
head. He might not like everyone that was stranded on the island, but he refused
to divulge their numbers or whereabouts to a bunch of
soldiers.
Nothing in the world could
have prevented the squeak that fell from Ari’s lips when he felt the very sharp
edge of a knife blade press against his throat.
Yep, he was going to
die.
“Speak.”
Shaking his head was out.
He’d just end up cutting his own throat. “No,” Ari said with as much bravado as
he could muster up considering he was so scared he was about to piss himself.
“Then you will
die.”
Ari almost rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, I kind of figured that.”
“Then speak.” The Spartan
sounded confused; almost as if he couldn’t quite understand why Ari wouldn’t
speak if refusing to do so meant his life would be forfeit. And maybe he didn’t
understand.
From what Ari had seen
during the war, many people would give up their mothers for the right incentive.
Ari’s mother had died during the war. Ari barely remembered her. But that didn’t
mean he didn’t have people in his life that he cared about.
Ari refused to give the
others up. He might not like some of them, but he had made friends with a lot of
them. Besides, Ari had always known he would die at some point. It was kind of a
fact of life. And he’d rather go out protecting his friends than from starving
to death or getting a cold.
“No.”
“Do
you want to die?”
Ari’s lips twitched. He
almost felt like laughing. “Not really.”
“Then speak,” the man said
in a deep voice void of emotion. “Tell me how many others there
are.”
“You might as well kill me
now because I won’t tell you anything.”
“So be
it.”
Ari braced himself, waiting
for the killing blow. But instead of dying, Ari was yanked to his feet. He found
himself spun around then he was picked up and tossed over the large warriors
shoulder. The Spartan started out the door, pausing on the doorstep to look back
at the other warriors.
“Burn it,” he said before
carrying Ari out of the building.
“No!” Ari screamed as he
started to struggle, visualizing all of his hard work going up in flames. “No,
please, don’t—”
“Then speak,” the Spartan
said as he dropped Ari down to his feet.
Tears blurred Ari’s vision
as he glanced at his house. It had taken him nearly two years to get the place
livable, to carefully cultivate his garden and get all of his food stores canned
and in his pantry. He had worked so hard, often from sun up to sun down. He
couldn’t watch it all go up in flames.
“No,” Ari whispered as his
shoulders slumped. Even if it meant his home, he couldn’t betray his friends.
His house could be replaced. His friends couldn’t.
A lone tear slid down Ari’s
pale cheek as he watched the first flicker of flame come to life on the torch
one of the warriors held. He knew once the torch was fully engulfed with flames,
the Spartan would toss it on his house, beginning the process that would take
everything from him.
He’d seen it
before.
Ari jerked back when the
large Spartan with onyx eyes wiped his tear away with a single finger. “Why do
you cry?” the Spartan asked. “This is your decision. Tell me what I want to know
and I will not order the building burned.”
Ari’s nostrils flared as he
inhaled hard. “Fuck you!”
ADULT
EXCERPT
Ari
yelped when he was suddenly grabbed around the neck and yanked forward. Hard
searching lips pressed against his…and that was it. Ari waited for something
more to happen—movement, the slip of a tongue,
anything.
He
got nothing.
Lucius was frowning just about as deeply as Ari had ever
seen when the man leaned back. “I am not sure I fully understand why everyone
seems so excited by a kiss, Ari. While I find that my pulse increases and my
penis grows harder, this kissing thing does not seem to be a good enough reason
to be so excited.”
Ari’s
jaw dropped. “That wasn’t a kiss, Lucius. That was just you pressing your lips
against mine.”
“A kiss is the act of pressing one's lips
against another person’s, is it not?”
“Yeeaahh, sorta. There’s a
little more involved than that.” Ari chuckled as he pushed the blankets down and
moved to sit on the edge of on the bed. He patted the mattress in front of him.
“Come over here and I’ll show you why everyone raves about kissing.”
Well,
Ari hoped he could show Lucius what was so exciting about a kiss. He was pretty
sure that Lucius was interested in men if he gave the Spartan a hard on. That
did not mean he would like kissing. Not every man did. Ari, on the other hand,
loved kissing. He dreamed of making out with a lover for
hours.
If he had a
lover.
Once
Lucius had moved into place, Ari when to grab him when he noticed the flak
jacket he was wearing and the gun holstered at his hip. While the man was
prepared to go into battle, this was not a battle.
It
was a kiss.
“Can
you take off the flak jacket and gun?” Ari gestured to the nightstand. “You can
put them there within easy reach.”
Lucius looked hesitant, his jaw firming as if he was
fighting his instincts, but finally, he unbuckled his gun belt and laid it down
on the nightstand then pulled his flak jacket off, laying over the top of his
gun holster. When he was all done, Lucius settled back down on the
bed.
“Now
what?”
Ari
chuckled just because the situation was so fucking weird. “Close your
eyes.”
“Why?”
“Please?” Ari would never admit to Lucius that he was
too nervous to have the man watching him while they kissed. Lucius’s dark eyes
assessed everything, looking for strengths and weaknesses. For once, he just
needed to feel.
Ari’s
stomach fluttered when Lucius’s eyes slowly slid closed, and that was a telling
moment in itself. Ari knew that there had to be at least some level of trust for
the man to close his eyes around him.
Ari
held his breath as he cupped Lucius’s chiseled face between his hands and leaned
forward, touching his lips to Lucius’s. His tongue stroked across Lucius's lips,
caressing his mouth more than kissing it.
Groaning, Lucius opened to him, and Ari swept his tongue
inside, exploring, conquering. Tasting the warrior that he had wanted since the
moment he saw the strong man standing before him with a knife in his
hand.
Ari
started when he was suddenly crushed against Lucius’s chest, the man’s large
hands fisting him his hair. Lucius pressed his mouth to Ari’s, claiming his
mouth with a savage intensity that seared Ari to his toes. Ari returned Lucius's
kiss with reckless abandon, wanting more, wanting
Lucius.
Now,
this was a kiss.
When
the full weight of Lucius’s muscular body pressed into him, Ari fell back
against the pillows. A deep growl rumbled through Lucius’s chest as he crawled
up and settled over the top of Ari, the width of his hips spreading Ari’s thighs
until they almost hurt.
The
pain was worth it to feel the monstrosity of a cock Lucius was sporting press
against him. Ari’s breathing sped up as he hitched his hips and wrapped his legs
around Lucius’s waist, bringing their two cocks together.
Ari
bemoaned the fact that fabric separated them when he so desperately wanted to
feel Lucius’s naked cock against his own. He reached down, wiggling his hand
until he could get it between them, searching for the buttons of Lucius’s
pants.
The
moan that fell from his lips came partly from the victory he felt when he found
the buttons and got them undone, and partly from the lips that continued to
devour his. Lucius kissed Ari with a hunger that rivaled his own, threatening to
consume them both.
Ari
slid his hand inside of Lucius’s pants. The very moment his hand wrapped around
Lucius’s wide girth, the man’s head snapped up, breaking the kiss. Lucius stared
down at Ari for what seemed like a million years, and then tossed his head back
as he roared, bucking wildly as hot cum filled Ari’s
hand.
Ari
just laid there, stunned, his own cock throbbing, aching. After watching
Lucius’s display, he was so close to release that a stiff wind would have sent
him over the edge. He just needed a little more, a
little…
Ari
cried out, his entire body going ramrod stiff as Lucius’s lips slammed back down
on his, the man capturing his lips in a kiss that showed who dominated who.
Lucius’s hand wrapped around Ari’s throat and the underside of his jaw, tilting
his head back. The other one moved down Ari’s body, sliding down under him to
grab his ass.
He
was so damn close.
Ari
almost went out of his mind when Lucius’s single hand covered a fair amount of
both ass cheeks. He ripped his lips away from Lucius and stared up into Lucius’s
unfathomable eyes, the intensity of the man’s gaze making his entire body clench
with need. Ari swore he could see flames leaping to life in Lucius’s dark eyes,
an invisible web of attraction building between them.
“Lucius.”
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