Meet BAD KITTY
and her two bad boys
Bad Kitty
by
Teresa Noelle Roberts
When you make the Devil’s bargain, be prepared to take
the heat. A lot of heat.
Most of cat-girl Xia’s early
memories are repressed, thank the Great Cat Mother. But her body remembers how
to kill.
The longer she and her fellow
Malcolm crewmates are holed up on
lawless Cibari hiding from assassins, the twitchier she gets—until the planet’s
insanely sexy warlord, Rahal Mizyar, borrows her skills to take out slavers.
Rahal suspects Xia is his
mate, but the human-raised female never learned the finer points of felinoid
rituals. The solution: make her fall hard and fast for him, even if it means
playing dirty.
Hired to determine if Xia is
the long-missing granddaughter of the felinoid prime minister, Cal Janssen has
finally tracked her down. Getting past Rahal, though, is a problem—until he’s
mistaken for a notorious arms dealer and playboy. And he finds himself the
object of both Rahal’s and Xia’s seduction.
When their first mission
brings Xia’s memories bulleting back to the surface, she realizes she’s fallen
for two men who don’t exist. Running away, however, could be her deadliest
mistake.
Warning: Contains an assassin
with a swiss cheese memory, a badass warlord who’s getting tired of his own
con, and a freelance lawman. Secrets, lies, and hot sex with no rules.
Series
In
the 26th century, humans and numerous alien races share the galaxy.
Technology has advanced massively. Old Earth is a vast preserve and museum, and
humans have spread to the stars. But some things remain the same. Love, lust,
and money motivate both humans and other sentient species. Politics can get
ugly. And crime can pay very well indeed.
Meet
the crew of the independent freighter Malcolm.
They usually succeed in keeping things only a little bit illegal. But then
a seemingly legit job goes supernova—and they’re on the run, hiding from
assassins, a planetary government, and their own dark pasts.
It’s
the perfect time to fall in love!
In
the 26th century, humans and numerous alien races share the galaxy.
Technology has advanced massively. Old Earth is a vast preserve and museum, and
humans have spread to the stars. But some things remain the same. Love, lust,
and money motivate both humans and other sentient species. Politics can get
ugly. And crime can pay very well indeed.
Meet
the crew of the independent freighter Malcolm.
They usually succeed in keeping things only a little bit illegal. But then
a seemingly legit job goes supernova—and they’re on the run, hiding from assassins,
a planetary government, and their own dark pasts.
It’s
the perfect time to fall in love!
“Predator?”
Cats, the domestic animals that had traveled from Earth with the first human
settlers, were predators, but small, tame ones content to eat synthfood from a
bowl. And he’d always thought felinoids weren’t that closely related to those
animals, despite the resemblance.
The
attaché smiled again, but this time it wasn’t truly a smile, more of a way of
showing his fangs. He flexed his fingers, and suddenly his hands sported
lethal-looking claws. Cal found himself wondering why he’d ever thought of
felinoids as cute and harmless.
“Predator.
We aren’t among the largest of the sentient species, but we have exceptional
natural weaponry. And while we’re known for our friendliness, it’s not wise to
push us. If this woman is the missing Xia Merrin, odds are she wasn’t raised to
recognize proper prey and curb her more violent instincts. She is now an adult,
at her full strength and speed, and with both a prey drive and a mating drive
that can cause an unprepared young person to make regrettable choices.”
“I
didn’t think your species believed in regrets.”
“Most
of the time we learn from bad decisions and make sure we don’t get caught next
time. But you can’t learn if you’re dead, or if you’re awaiting execution on
Improved Texas. The woman who surfaced on San’bal blinded a professional
assassin in one eye and came close to gutting her.”
“You’re
saying she’s a dangerous criminal? My rates just went up. A lot.”
“The
family will pay what it must. Accumulating money is dull unless you use it, and
what better use could there be than bringing a missing loved one home?” He
shrugged, a lazily elegant movement that Cal couldn’t help admiring. “As for
the young woman who made news on San’bal, whether or not she is Xia Merrin, she
isn’t a criminal.” A smaller version of the shrug. “Well, technically, she is,
but only because so many species don’t have our senses of style or humor. In
the case of the assassin, the girl was defending herself and her friends, which
is not a crime.
“But
she’s dangerous. She has the instincts and reflexes of a predator, without the
skills we teach our kittens so they can control those instincts. She’s a
spacer, living a rough-and-ready life in a galaxy where people are quick to
exploit pretty females. Sooner or later, someone will push her too far and she
will kill. She’s like a child in some ways, but the law will see an adult who
killed, and most planets can’t see anything funny about murder. Which, I
suppose, is good.” He didn’t sound convinced about that part. “Will you help us
bring her home before that happens?”
Cal
had intended to say no as soon as he heard the ridiculous parameters of the
job. Screw that, he’d wanted to walk out of the damn posh office, with its
cushions on the floor instead of furniture a human could sit in comfortably,
and leave the annoying diplomat staring at his retreating ass. The money was
potentially great, enough to cast its usual hypnotic lure, but it wasn’t worth
the pain of failure, of having to tell a family that their newly raised hopes
were futile and their little girl was long dead.
But
if there was any chance this young woman was the missing Xia Merrin, or even
another felinoid displaced as a child, it seemed he owed it to her and everyone
who came into contact with her to see that she learned how to deal with the
darker side of her nature. Stars, he’d never known felinoids had a dark side.
Even when they were robbing you blind or seducing your partner, they were so
charming you ended up laughing about it.
But
he’d never been around an enraged felinoid. They did have teeth and claws
like…what was the Old Earth animal that’s featured in pre-Expansion stories? A
liger or tigon or something like that. A gigantic wild feline that sometimes
ate humans.
“I’ll
take the job,” he said. “Please tell the family I can’t guarantee the results
they want, after such a long time. But I guarantee I’ll do my best for them and
hope to find them some kind of answers, if only the closure of knowing their
Xia is dead.”
When
the paperwork was complete, the attaché asked for his neurorelay code and
transmitted the background on the case. Cal spent a few minutes in a fog while
the files sorted themselves in his brain—and then he knew all the information
that had been amassed since Xia Merrin disappeared almost two decades ago.
He
only had one thing to say. “She’s the marling prime minister’s granddaughter?
And she disappeared after both her parents were murdered during an
assassination attempt on Madam Merrin? My rates just tripled. The only reason
I’m not ripping up the contract and walking out is that if she’s still alive,
she deserves to know she has a home and a family.”
Teresa
Noelle Roberts started writing stories in kindergarten and she hasn’t stopped
yet. A prolific author of short erotica, she’s also a published poet and
fantasy writer—but hot paranormals and BDSM-spiced contemporaries were her
favorites until she realized science-fiction romances offered new possibilities
for outrageous adventure, wild sex and love that overcomes serious obstacles,
including being from different species! Find her at www.teresanoelleroberts.com, on
Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AuthorTeresaNoelleRoberts,
or on Twitter, where she hangs out as @TeresNoeRoberts.
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