To Woo A Warrior (Southern Sanctuary) (9 page)

“Sure I like it rough Flyboy. But
somehow I’m not sure you’re capable of handling what I can dish out.”

A loud bang sounded at the far end
of the table causing Hadleigh to shift her attention immediately to
Vaughn.  He was glaring down the table at her and Flynn. Around her the
table had gone quiet, all the men giving Vaughn their undivided attention. Damn
the man was even sexier when he was angry. Those eyes of his had turned a dark
liquid gold that made her stomach twist and her knees wobble, thank the Goddess
she was sitting down.

“Okay enough with the fun and
games.” He sent that scowl pointedly in her and Flynn’s direction.

Perhaps he was still upset with
Flynn for disrupting the breakfast earlier or perhaps her for stabbing his
friend. Blanking her features she accorded him all her attention.  His
rebuke was understandable. She was here to do a job, not make friends or joke
with his men. Attentively she listened as Vaughn ran through a series of
updates on the previous day’s missions,
then
listed
the proposed sites for the episode to be filmed later in the week. Both Rafe
and Marcus made notes on their tablet computers whilst everyone else remained
respectfully quiet and attentive. Then Vaughn ran through the list of
assignments scheduled for today. At the end of which he lifted his head and
with a dark look issued a challenge. “Any problems?”

Rafe lifted his head. “We need to
swap the pairs around. I’ll take Hadleigh for the day you need to meet with
Michael to discuss next year’s budget.”

“Surely that can happen another
day?” Vaughn’s
scowl
actually blackened.

Rafe seemed unperturbed, shrugging.
“
Michael’s flying
to London tonight to discuss the
syndication deal. If you don’t touch base with him today we lose almost three
weeks.”

Vaughn sighed, running a frustrated
hand through the silken mass of his white gold hair. Hadleigh could sympathise,
running Maat Enterprises along with the team’s work for Maat must be a heavy
burden on Vaughn’s shoulders. That’s why she kept things simple instead of
moving into an office based role at the Sanctuary, plus she really
really
liked to behead things; hardly an activity conducive
to a corporate role.

 “Fine.” Vaughn conceded,
though his tone seemed to say it was anything but. “Rafe you and Hadleigh
tackle that problem in New York. I’ll grab Michael and get the budget squared
away.”

Rafe sent Hadleigh a charming smile,
his forest green eyes dancing with amusement.  “Excellent, I’ve been
hearing great things about you Hadleigh, I can’t wait to get you out in the
field and see the magic in action.”

Hadleigh dipped her head slightly at
the compliment. She would have preferred to
have spent
the day with Vaughn but at least this way with Rafe she’d be able to focus on
the job at hand and not make a fool of herself. Rising to her feet she made to
follow the rest of the team.

“Just a moment Hadleigh.”

She turned to find Vaughn still
scowling. Double damn if he didn’t stop looking so angry and downright edible
she was going to throw herself at him and rip that tight t-shirt and fatigue
pants right off the man. “If this is about my underwear don’t worry it won’t
happen again.”

His scowl changed instantly to a
perplexed confused look. “What?”

Darn, so that wasn’t what he’d
wanted to talk about. “Sorry, I thought you wanted to talk about what happened
to Xander.”

“Well … maybe we should since we’re
on the topic.”

“It was supposed to be a joke. 
My apprentice put a spell on my underwear.  First person who touches it,
wham.”

“That was some spell.”

“Yeah.” She shifted uncomfortably.
“There’ll be ramifications don’t worry, someone could have gotten seriously
hurt. It won’t happen again trust me.”  She felt suddenly warm as Vaughn’s
eyes instinctively dipped to the v of her top. Discussing her underwear with
him was making her hotter than Hades, time to shift the conversation along,
grab a cold shower and hit the road. “So what did you want to talk about?”

“Flynn.” The scowl was back.

She couldn’t keep the guilty look
off her face.  Damn she knew she wasn’t going to get off lightly for
stabbing him. “I don’t need a lecture I feel guilty enough.”

The perplexed expression once more
flashed across Vaughn’s face before settling back into the scowl. “Well see it
doesn’t happen again. And if you must do it find somewhere private.”

“What?” Hadleigh was now the one
feeling perplexed. “You want me to stab him with cutlery somewhere more
secluded?”

“I don’t care about the stabbing.”
Vaughn yelled and if anything it turned Hadleigh on even more. “I’m talking
about the flirting, take it elsewhere.”

“I wasn’t flirting.” Hadleigh’s back
came up ramrod straight in angry defiance. “I don’t flirt.  I never
flirt.”

“I know what I saw.” Vaughn took two
steps closer to her, the muscles in his jaw working hard to unclench before he
pulverised his teeth.

Hadleigh took a couple of steps
forward of her own, bringing her almost nose to … well chest with him. That was
a new experience for her in itself, having to look up to a man. “Flynn was
flirting with me.”

“You were flirting back, I know what
I saw.” He was breathing heavy, his eyes looking like pools of melted gold they
burned so hot.

“I was not flirting.” She inched
even closer, her eyes the colour of storm clouds. “I couldn’t have been
flirting.” So close now the tips of her breasts rested against the material of
his t-shirt. “I don’t even know how to flirt you idiot!”

They grabbed for one another
simultaneously, bodies moulded together, his mouth coming down on hers, hard
and insistent. Yet she didn’t shrink from him, rising up on her toes to push
back, giving as
good
as she got.

She couldn’t keep the moan from
escaping as liquid heat pooled between her legs. And that was all Vaughn
required, that small needy sound of acknowledgement to wrap his arms even
tighter around her, wedging her back against the table, pushing her legs apart
to fit his lower body snuggly against hers.

The feel of his hard length rubbing
against her hot needy core made Hadleigh ache for release. For a moment all her
problems, all her deficiencies when it came to men dropped away.  She
stopped worrying and she started enjoying; the masculine smell of him, the
taste of him, the feel of his heated skin through the thin material of his
t-shirt and the hard planes of all those muscles.  Goddess she loved that
he was taller than
she, that
his strong arms held her
with a promised strength that they wouldn’t bruise or break under her
touch.  It was a heady
feeling,
unlike any other
previous encounter she’d shared with a man.

She’d never felt hotter, ached so
much, been so acutely aware of how much her partner desired and needed her in
kind. It was Vaughn for pity sake, the golden god and she felt if she didn’t
have him here, now, she’d explode in a fiery ball of unfulfilled anguish. She
loved the feel of his mouth on hers, his big hands moving up and down her back,
clutching at her insistently as if he intended to never let her go. She was
seconds away from ripping his t-shirt down the back when the crash of several
plates hitting the floor broke them apart abruptly. Looking down she noted the
mess on the floor from where they’d knocked several of the trays left on the
trestle table to the floor.

Breathing hard she looked up into
Vaughn’s eyes and there was something in those depths that made her breath
catch and hold. He was looking at her with passion, as if she were the woman of
his dreams and that was a lie wasn’t it? She was a warrior. She didn’t know how
to flirt, tease or fulfil a man.  As a woman she was a notorious failure.
And Goddess help her she didn’t want this man to know that. With a hard steady
push against his chest she managed to create enough room to slip out of his
hold.

It took Vaughn a deep couple of
steadying breaths to realise that Hadleigh was pushing him away. By the time
sanity returned she was standing a few feet away looking rumpled and slightly
breathless herself but those clear grey eyes of hers were cool and remote. He
didn’t know what had changed but suddenly she looked untouchable.

“Rafe’s waiting for me.” She issued
the words casually as if the last ten minutes of passion had never happened.

“We should talk.” He felt the anger
he’d experienced earlier at watching her laugh and smile with Flynn begin to
build once more.

“There’s nothing to talk about, what
just happened … shouldn’t have.” She squared her shoulders. “My apologies.” She
shifted and the corners of her mouth lifted but it wasn’t a happy smile. “All I
seem to have done since I’ve got here is apologise.”

“Hadleigh.” 
For
some reason he wanted to comfort her.

“It must be the corporate
environment, I’m more of a slash and behead move on to the next kill kind of
girl.”

“Sweetheart.”

Her eyes lifted and for a brief
moment he saw a flicker of pain in their depths at the use of an endearment.

“Please Vaughn.” Her voice was
barely a whisper. “Let me go.”

As if he had some physical hold on
her keeping her in place.

Once again she confused him. 
He needed time to think about what had just happened between them.  To
analyse everything she had said. He knew there was an answer in there somewhere
to understanding her behaviour.  Why she blew hot and then froze him in
place with a blank look. Clenching his fists he gestured for her to go. “Rafe
will be in the equipment room waiting on you.”  At his words she hurtled
towards the exit like he’d pulled the pin on a grenade. “Hadleigh.”

She stopped at the doorway but
didn’t look back.

“Stay safe out there.”

The muscles in her back visibly
tightened for a split second then she was gone, leaving Vaughn frustrated but
determined to get to the bottom of what made Hadleigh Valhalla flinch when the
going got hot.

Chapter Ten

Vaughn was in
trouble,
his arms, neck and shoulders were on fire. His stomach muscles were so tight he
swore any moment they’d snap like rubber bands. Okay he admitted to himself at
this late stage, as a river of sweat dripped down his face burning his eyes,
working out whilst angry had been poor judgment on his behalf. Trying to lift
this amount of weight, even with the strength imbued upon him by a Goddess had
been utter madness. He should have asked one of the guys to spot him but since
they were essentially why he was so freaking angry he’d hit the gym solo.

As a result of his stupidity the
weight bar visibly wobbled above him, inches away from the rest hooks, but the
way his arms were trembling those inches might as well be miles. As he faced
imminent injury he might as well put the blame for his anger on the root cause,
Hadleigh Valhalla
;
six foot six inches of gorgeous
frustrating trouble.

It had been three days since they’d
kissed in the canteen and the woman had managed to duck and weave being alone
with him ever since. Maat, when
they
were in the same
room
she
barely did him the courtesy of making eye
contact. In over a hundred years he’d never dealt with such a challenging
female. Yet even now, as his arms visibly trembled, the bar above his head
noticeably swaying he still ached for her.

 “Problems Cupcake?”

If Vaughn hadn’t been struggling
with the massive weights about to crush in his skull he might possibly have
jumped at the sudden appearance of a Goddess bending over him.

“No, I’m good.” He managed to get
out between gritted teeth.

Maat threw back her head issuing a
hearty chuckle. Reaching over with one hand she grabbed the bar and placed it
safely back on its resting hooks. Vaughn collapsed back onto the bench,
gasping, willing the muscles in his upper body to stop screaming.

“Punishing yourself
Sweetling
?”

With monumental effort Vaughn
managed to sit up, grabbing his gym towel he swiped it over his face, rubbing
hard. Lifting his head he found Maat seated directly opposite him on a clean
bench, studying him intently with bright eyes that shimmered like rivers of
sand shifting in the wind. Her long black hair was tied back in a loose plait
and she was wearing loose white yoga pants and a matching top. His Goddess
looked like a woman in her sixties who took exceptional care of herself, her
dusky coffee coloured skin glowing with rude health. Except for her eyes she
might have passed for human.

“No, I’m not punishing myself.”

“Then who are you punishing?”

He sent her a hard look meant to
shut down her line of inquiry but being Maat and a Goddess she just laughed and
gave him a knowing serene look. “No one but a woman could put a look like that
on a man’s face.”

He tried ignoring her, instead
focusing on wiping the bench down on either side of him. Sometimes if you
refused to play her games Maat grew bored and went on her merry way.
Unfortunately as he noted her intense look out the corner of his eye, today was
not going to be one of those days.

“So tell me about her? No doubt
she’s blond, petite with big blue eyes that gaze up at you in adoration as she
clings to your mighty muscular arm for protection.”

The very thought made Vaughn laugh.
“You couldn’t be more wrong.”

“
Ohhh
.”
Maat continued to smile, the shifting sands of her eyes beginning to swirl and
cascade. “She sounds…”

“Frustrating?” He provided.

Maat laughed again. “I was going to
go with intriguing but for you I think frustrating would be good.”

Vaughn chuffed a laugh. “You would
see me punished My Lady?”

“Not at all Toots, not at all. But
I’ve known you for over a hundred years, a woman who was predictable … easy ...
she would bore you to tears. This one she sounds … interesting, and you are
interested, you fairly vibrate with it.”

Vaughn allowed himself a shrug,
pleased to note the feeling was starting to return to his shoulders.

“I’d like to meet this woman, where
is she?”

“She took an extra shift.  She
and Nate are tracking down a Lure in Florida.”

“She’d rather spend a day in the
swamps than in your bed?”

“It’s not like that. I mean we’re
not like that.”

“
Ahhh
you’re taking things slow, how very old fashioned of you.”

Vaughn grit his teeth. “Hadleigh is
just a work colleague.
A temporary one at that.
 
She’s only with us for four weeks.”

Maat raised a fine dark eyebrow for
a moment. “So you have no problem with her spending the day with Nate? Now
there is a man who knows women. I sometimes think the man flirts in his sleep
and he always knows the perfect words to win a woman’s heart, if only for the
night. But I’m sure if he put his considerable talents to the test he could win
a woman for eternity, if he so chose.”

“Hadleigh’s already shut Nate down
once.”

Maat laughed again. “She sounds like
an extremely smart woman. Nothing would catch Nate’s attention more than a
woman who failed to recognise his charms immediately.” Maat pursed her lips for
a moment looking thoughtful. “Though now I come to think about it her actions
sound rather calculating. Is she a tease?”

“No!” Vaughn didn’t even have to
stop to think about that question.

“Perhaps her interest lies elsewhere
and she is baiting her hook for silent but oh so sexy Drum or
mayhaps
one of our delectably naughty Flyboys.”

Vaughn shook his head in
exasperation. “I’m pretty sure that’s not her game plan, unless you count
stabbing Flynn with a fork or besting him on the challenge mats as a come on.”

Maat’s eyes shon
with merriment.
“Well I don’t but
knowing Flynn he’s probably half way in love with the girl by now.”

“They’re all halfway in love with
her.” Vaughn couldn’t stop the flow of words issuing from his mouth.

“And what about you, Pumpkin, are
you halfway in love with her?”

“Of course not.”

Vaughn shook his head in bemusement
at the very idea of being in love with a woman he’d known less than a week. But
how else to explain the way he felt about
Hadleigh
from the first moment he’d seen her emerge from the elevator and the word
‘mine’ had burst from his lips? That word had come from somewhere deep inside
him and he needed to face the fact that from the moment he’d laid eyes on
Hadleigh Valhalla she had somehow claimed a piece of him.   He tried
to look casual and unconcerned, wondering if his Goddess would call him on his
flirtation with an untruth.

“Then if you have no feelings for
the girl take my advice Gumdrop and send her away. She sounds like more trouble
than she’s worth.”

The thought of Hadleigh leaving
caused his stomach muscles to clench as if he were still trying to get that
massive amount of weight tucked safely away.  “No it’s good, we need a
replacement for Serena on the show and it is only for four weeks.” Again his
stomach muscles
spasmed
, maybe he’d done some
internal damage. “Speaking of, have you seen Serena? Do you know if she’s
okay?”

Maat gave him one of her cool
enigmatic smiles. “I’m sure the little witch is fine.”

No one did unperturbed like the
Goddess of truth and balance.

“So there’s no reason for me to
worry about her?”

“You? No.”

Vaughn didn’t particularly like her
answer but Maat never lied, although that never stopped her from bending the
truth when it suited her.

The Goddess rose gracefully to her
feet.  “Well I’m late for my mediation class.”  She stopped abruptly
and cocked her head to the side as if listening to something unseen.

“Problem?”  Vaughn tensed,
ready to face the threat.

Instantly Maat relaxed again, the
amused smile once more teasing the edges of her lips.  “Just the usual
Lambchop
, I sense chaos trying to nibble away at the
balance of the world.”

“Give me a direction and I’ll gather
the team.”

Maat shook her head.  “You know
I’m forbidden from giving away the secrets of the future.”  Her pupils
swirled like sand being swallowed into a whirlpool.  “Danger is
coming.”  She smoothed back a few stray hairs.  “But when isn’t it
circling?  Try not to get distracted Dumpling over the coming days, you’re
going to need all your wits to defeat what is coming.” 

Between one blink and the next his
Goddess was gone
;
leaving him with nothing but a few
cryptic clues and an uneasy feeling stirring in his gut.

*                  
*                     
*

The smell hit Vaughn as he entered
the open shower area and as much as he’d been sweating in the gym the stink
wasn’t emanating from his own still slightly shaky ass.  No that hideous
smell could only be coming from one source, Nate, who stood under one of the
showers frantically shampooing his hair whilst at the same time scrubbing hard
any piece of flesh he could reach with a loofa. 

“Maat, what is that smell?” 
Vaughn waved a hand in front of his face as he yanked off his t-shirt and
shorts before kicking off his shoes and stepping under a stream of water of his
own as far across the tiled floor as was possible.

“That smell would be me!”  Nate
growled.  Picking up the shampoo bottle and dousing his head with what
looked like half the contents.

Vaughn dunked his own head under the
water for a moment before reaching for the soap.  “You had problems with
the Lure?”  He queried, wondering if Hadleigh was in a similar state.

“Hardly.  That was a
twenty minute
re-location exercise.  Some developer
asshole is putting up a golf course in its territory.  We moved it inland,
very swampy, isolated, shouldn’t have any more problems.”  With gritted
teeth Nate commenced trying to scrub a particularly stubborn patch of slime
behind one shoulder.

“So how did you get so ...
fragrant?”  Vaughn rinsed the soap away reaching for his own shampoo.

“All I said.”  Nate spat out
some shampoo.  “All I said, I swear to Maat, is that her hair reminded me
of a fire in a frozen winter landscape and that her eyes were like a summer
storm.  Next thing I know she turns, gives me this really cold look, says
I warned you and wham, I’m flying over the side of the hovercraft into the
swamp.  And not just any part of the swamp mind you, it’s the most
stagnant, slimy nightmare you could imagine.”

Vaughn fought back the urge to
laugh.  “Well she did warn you to knock it off.”

“That’s all you have to say?”

“On the bright side it could have
been worse.”

“Worse! Worse! Can you not smell me?
I’m on my second bottle of shampoo and my eyes are still burning from the fumes
emanating from my own hair.”

Vaughn couldn’t help but shrug,
biting on his inner cheek to halt the laughter that threatened to erupt from
his throat.  “Nate, she carries like twenty knives on her, it would have
been real easy to paralyse you with one.  She kicks you overboard, out
there in the swamp, just the two of you alone … glug, glug, glug.  She
returns with a sorry tale of how the Lure got you.  I’m just saying it
could have been worse than a black eye.”

“It was just a compliment!  A
little harmless flirtation.”  Nate was reaching for the shampoo bottle yet
again.  “Please Maat on the golden sands tell me what I did wrong
exactly?”

Vaughn just shrugged again. 
“She did warn you, witnesses and everything.”

“She’s not normal.”  Nate was
muttering to himself now.  “It was a compliment for Maat’s sake. 
Every woman loves to be complimented on how she looks.”

Vaughn ducked his head under the
water for one last rinse before grabbing a towel and heading out to the locker
area.  Tying the towel around his waist as he went he thought on Nate’s
last words.  What woman doesn’t like to be complimented on how she
looks?  Hadleigh, that’s who.  And it wasn’t that she wasn’t normal,
it was just that she was a warrior first.  What had she said before she’d
exited the canteen that morning they’d kissed?  That she wasn’t a
flirt?  No, that wasn’t right.  She’d said that she didn’t know how
to flirt.

  Maat he’d been going about
this
all wrong
.  How did you win a warrior? 
No not win, because that would mean someone would have to be defeated. 
How did you woo a warrior?  Not with pretty words that was for sure. 
Grabbing fresh clothes from his locker he started dragging them on, pondering
his dilemma.  A gift maybe, yeah a gift and the more he thought about it
the more he liked the idea.  In fact he had the perfect thing. 

Time to woo a warrior.

*                  
*                     
*

Once Hadleigh had finished checking
back in all the mission equipment she was in desperate need of a shower
herself.  Heading back to the roomy luxurious apartment she was assigned
she forced herself to be brutally honest.  It wasn’t the tropical strength
bug spray and sunscreen she was hoping to disappear in the privacy of her
shower it was the all-consuming frustration that had been eating away at her
for the past three days she was hoping to take the edge off of.