Free Touch If You Dare by Stephanie Rowe Page A

blinked. Who was he?
    Natalie ripped her arm free of Jarvis’s grasp with strength he wasn’t prepared for (hadn’t he learned not to underestimate women by now?). “I love you, Reina, but I have to do this.” She lowered her shoulder and charged.
    The intent on her face was clear. She was going to hurt the woman he’d come to recruit. The woman who had, for the first time in his life, turned him on with real, honest-to-God desire. “Screw that.” He whipped his sword around and butt checked the handle of his sword into Natalie’s head. She dropped instantly on the pavement and didn’t move.
    Oh, shit. Women didn’t usually like when you knocked out their loved ones. “Uh, sorry, Reina—”
    But in an entirely unexpected turn of events, Reina looked at Jarvis with utter relief on her face. “Thank you!”
    As she knelt beside her sister, Jarvis felt like the king of the world. Yeah, he’d saved the girl. Rock on. He grinned and cheerfully levered the point of his sword at the other man as he reached for Natalie.
    “Don’t even think about it,” Jarvis said. “Leave.” His fingers twitched on the sword. “Or stay and fight. I’d be down with that.” Well, not really. He had a feeling that if he let go a little bit, he was going to lose it all. But that didn’t stop the hate monster inside him from wanting to engage.
    The man glanced at Natalie, then eyed the sword with its black, glowing blade. He inclined his head in capitulation. “I defer.” Then he turned and stepped into a limousine that was waiting by the curb.
    The sleek silver car roared and then slipped out of sight around the corner.
    Jarvis sheathed his sword. “Okay, Reina. Let’s go.”
    “Hey, sweetie,” Reina said softly.
    He stiffened at the tenderness of Reina’s voice. Women who spoke like that were never to be trusted. Sword up, he turned sharply, only to see she was stroking Natalie’s cheek, cradling her the way a mother would hug a small child.
    His sword dropped at the tenderness of the moment. There was no guile in that embrace. Simple, pure tenderness. For a moment he was too shocked to do anything but stare. The corners of Reina’s mouth were tight, tears were glistening in her eyes, and her shoulders were shaking. With relief? Agony? Terror?
    He took a step toward her. Wanting to help her. To ease her pain. He had a sword. He could kick the ass of anything that was scaring her. He was good at that. Really good.
    “Hey, Natalie,” she whispered, her voice trembling. “It’s going to be okay. I’m here for you.”
    The pain on her face was soul-deep anguish. It was so different than the pain when a warrior got his foot spliced by a half-demon succubus. It was real, worse, so deep he could almost feel it in his own gut. He reached out to touch her, not even sure what he was trying to do—
    Then something hit him in the back of the head and he was out.

Chapter 5
     
    Reina looked up as Jarvis teetered forward and toppled over, landing beside her with a thump. For a second, she was too surprised to move. Seriously, it wasn’t every day that a towering hunk of manliness went belly-up on Newbury Street for no apparent reason.
    Had the sight of female bonding been too much for his scarred and tortured soul to handle? A late afternoon sugar crash? Or was it some Pavlovian response to something Angelica had drilled into him? Not that it mattered. Even the tall, dark warriors harboring undefined black souls were supposed to always be on their feet and ready to defend, preserve, and protect. “Um, Jarvis?”
    She patted his unresponsive cheek, then she noticed the five pointed pink star protruding from the back of his head. “Jarvis!” She threw herself over his inert from instinctively, trying to protect him.
    She knew who carried pink stars. She knew who killed with pink stars. She knew who assassinated with pink stars. Please let me be wrong. Cautiously, so ridiculously terrified of what she might find, she