Without Regret (Pyte/Sentinel #2)(12)
Author: R.L. Mathewson

She was vaguely aware of his curse when she looked down and raised her shirt yanking the waist of her cargo pants down to look at the area that hurt. She expected to find a bee or a spider or something, but there was nothing.

Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Her once light brown birthmark was now bright red. She ran the pad of her forefinger over it and moved to do it again when a large tan hand pushed her hand aside.

She was a bit surprised to find Chris kneeling in front of her, staring intently at her little crescent moon and cross birthmark. Well, at least they looked like a crescent moon and cross to her. The easy going smile he gave her a minute ago was completely gone and replaced by a look of deep concentration as he ran the tip of his finger over her mark.

A startled gasp escaped her as intense green eyes met hers. His hand dropped away from her and he stood abruptly, never taking his eyes off her. It was almost as if he was afraid she would disappear if he looked away for even a second. A little odd, but nothing compared to the oddities of the last twentyfour hours.

He gestured with the candy bar, her candy bar, for her to stand up. Again she shook her head. He glared at her as he took a huge bite out of her candy bar. Oh, when she got those kickboxing lessons she was so coming after him!

“Look, we can do this the easy way or the hard-“

“Thanks,” a very beautiful woman with gorgeous silky black hair and a golden tan to die for said as she snaked a hand around Chris and stole the candy bar out of his hand. Isabella’s jaw dropped as the woman took a bite of the candy bar and closed her eyes in utter rapture, but that’s not what shocked her. No, not even close. The woman was only wearing a sheet.

Her eyes darted from the woman who looked like she just came from a marathon of sex to Chris, who was only wearing jeans, unbuttoned jeans at that. The first time she saw him he was only wearing boxers, probably just something he threw on after doing the mattress mambo with this woman. The way the woman took her candy bar from him indicated they had a close personal connection.

Yeah, they were definitely lovers.

She thought over her reaction to this man, one she’d never had for another man and she had her answer, finally. They drugged her food with some kind of hallucinogen laced with an aphrodisiac. They were probably hoping to use sex to get her program out of her.

Not in this lifetime.

Well, she may have considered, maybe using sex with this man as a means of escape. Not to see if she would enjoy it of course, that would have been a plus, but after seeing the priests she kind of hoped this was a celibate cult. She was going to use his lack of sex to her advantage and try to get him to help her escape. Well, she could trash that plan since he was obviously getting some from the Native American beauty behind him, who was nibbling the candy bar as if she was savoring it for eternity.

A horrifying thought occurred to her. What if this was the opposite of a celibate cult. What if this was like one of those orgy cults she heard they had in the seventies and they drugged her expecting her to sleep with everyone, including women?

Oh, heck no! She so did not swing that way! Just because she couldn’t get off with a guy didn’t mean she was willing to accept a substitute.

Chris sighed heavily. “I thought you were supposed to stay upstairs, Madison.”

The woman snorted and held up the last inch of candy bar. “Chocolate,” she said simply as if that explained everything. “Ephraim left to get me some, but I couldn’t wait any longer.”

“Now you have it, so go!” Chris snapped.

“I want to help,” Madison said, pouting.

“No, just go. I’ll handle this.”

“But, what if-“

“No!”

The woman’s lower lip started to tremble.

Chris groaned while Isabella slowly slid to the right, trying to get as far away from the odd couple as the large bathroom would allow.

“I just wanted to meet her,” Madison said softly.

“Now’s not the time, Madison,” Chris said firmly.

Madison dropped a hand to her flat stomach and gently rubbed. “I hope your brothers don’t inherit this surly attitude of yours,” she muttered.

Isabella’s brows nearly shot to her hairline as she eyed the woman’s hand lovingly rubbing her stomach.

Brothers? That meant she was not only sleep with him, but his father as well.

Ew!

“Anyway, I just wanted to meet your wife,” the woman named Madison said with a heavy sigh.

Seriously, ew! This woman was actually sleeping with father and son? That was just—wait, what?

“You could have met her later, Madison. Right now there are a few things we need to handle,” Chris said, looking at her intently.

He thought she was his wife? There must be a mistake.

There was no way this guy was delusional enough to actually think that she was his wife. Madison nibbled the chocolate bar as she gave her a little wave. Her eyes shifted to Chris, who was watching her almost possessively.

“Hi, I’m Madison Williams,” Madison said, reaching out to offer her hand.

Isabella desperately tried to squirm away from her, them, this crazy situation, but there was nowhere to go.

This was crazy. She couldn’t do this. She wanted to go back to her life, back to her computer and programs and endless supply of caffeine and chocolate.

“Just go upstairs and wait for dad. You’re scaring her,”

Chris said, looking at the other woman while he gestured towards her. Deciding it was now or never, she took action.

Grabbing her bag, she literally dove for freedom through Chris’ parted legs, knowing if she was going to escape it would have to now while he was in the midst of a lover’s quarrel.

“Um, what are you doing?” Chris asked, sounding very amused.

She shifted and squirmed, trying to get the rest of her body through his legs only to discover that she was stuck. Damn br**sts! This wasn’t the first time they’d gotten her into trouble. Now as she tried to squirm her way to freedom they wouldn’t squeeze together.

Actually, it was a bit embarrassing to have her escape attempt foiled because her br**sts couldn’t squeeze through the narrowed space that her shoulders made it through easily.

Isabella squirmed harder, twisted, and turned, determined to make a break for it. She ignored Eric’s bored sigh from somewhere to her right as she struggled to get loose. All she needed was to get loose and then she’d run for the door and make it to the road and flag someone down. She could do it, she couldA panicked squeak escaped her as she suddenly found herself free of her leg prison. The sudden unexpected movement caused her to land on her bag with an, “oomph.” Just as her mind was registering freedom she found herself suddenly off the floor and tossed over a hard bare shoulder and her bag ripped from her hands.