Read Online StrategicLust by Elizabeth Lapthorne - Free Book Online Page A

indicated to Josh that they intended to kill Kate and kidnap him.
    It didn’t take a rocket scientist to realize what would
occur when they dragged him back to their lair. They would steal his memories
of the dark ritual—by force and with glee at the destruction of his mind that
would cause—and then they would kill him too. Josh’s mouth dried up as his
senses returned to normal. He reached out a hand to touch Kate’s arm,
determined that they should turn and run.
    While fleeing might not be the macho, manly thing to do,
they were outnumbered. Kate was a warrior—Josh knew that without a doubt—and he
was not precisely useless in a fight. But these wizards meant business, and if
they were more than happy to assault a defenseless, innocent human woman, they
would not play fair or have scruples. Josh wanted no part in fighting these
men. He would much rather flee and live to tell the tale.
    Many things appeared to happen at once. Josh felt Kate pull
him farther back—hard. A strange blowing sound came from above him. The three
men rushed forward and Josh tried to balance himself and prepare to attack them
in return. It was obvious that Kate had no intention of running, and Josh would
rather sever a limb than run alone and leave her there to face them.
    Wooziness came over him like a wet, heavy blanket. The world
around him became disjointed and Josh wasn’t sure of the exact order things
occurred in.
    “Kate, get away,” he insisted firmly, surprised as hell when
his voice sounded thick and slurred, as if his tongue had swollen within his
mouth.
    Part of his mind could tell that Kate had dragged him
partially back down the street, but his legs and feet felt as if they were encased
in cement. The men were rushing them far more quickly than they were
retreating. Swearing ferociously with a truly vile curse—something that until
that moment Josh would never, ever have believed would pass her
lips—Kate inserted her body between Josh’s and the thugs.
    “You cock-sucking donkey fuckers,” Kate swore at them. “You
do not want to piss me off like this.”
    Josh wanted to simultaneously cheer for Kate and snicker at
her foul mouth. He never would have guessed—Kate appeared to be such a placid,
calm young witch. Gray-and-gold energy gathered around her hands in a very
prominent warning before Josh could force his mouth and tongue to follow his
brain’s orders.
    One of the thugs halted in his tracks, his eyes widening in
clear understanding of the inherent power Kate demonstrated. The other two
either didn’t notice or didn’t care. Kate picked the physically larger of the
two and shot the lightning bolts at the dead-center of his chest.
    Lightning flared, blinding Joshua for a moment. When he
managed to recover and blink his eyes clear, the thug Kate had hit was on the
ground, huddled into a heap, and the other two men were running away.
    “Bam!” Josh shouted…or he tried to shout, his voice
coming out hoarse and thickly slurred now. He half-heartedly pumped a fist in
the air in celebration, his body seeming to shut down on him.
    “Josh, pull the needle out of your neck,” Kate ordered
sternly. Josh blinked uncomprehendingly at his lover.
    Needle? My neck? Huh?
    Clumsily, he groped his hand around his neck, his fingers
feeling as thick and useless as sausages. After a moment a sharp prick told him
he’d found the needle Kate had told him about. With a wince, he pulled the
sharp item from his skin and swayed sickeningly.
    Before he could conjure words to speak with, a slender body
jumped down a few feet from them. A witch in what looked like leather pants and
a catsuit-cut top molded to her torso landed agilely on her feet. Long blonde
hair pulled back into a braid fell most of the way down her back.
    “Give him to us, Kate Williams,” the witch insisted firmly.
Josh blinked again, certain he was hallucinating this. A few times he’d
fantasized raunchily about two highly trained warrior women fighting