Anya Bast

Sometimes love knocks softly…and sometimes it breaks down your door.

Anne’s morning starts like any other normal day—and ends in a race for her life. The surprise that interrupts her regular date with a latte looks a lot like Frankenstein, except this monster is for real. And it chases her straight into the arms of two mouthwatering hunks who whisk her away from everything she knows. That would be Earth.

Suddenly life isn’t so normal anymore.

Caleb and Van have been watching Anne for several weeks. Women are scarce in their world, a situation that sometimes forces two or more males to share one wife between them. Anne is their perfect match. Now all they have to do is convince her of that—while trying desperately not to let their intense desire for her scare her away.

Then there’s the little matter of protecting her from the Guardians, who want to make sure no match is ever made…

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Excerpt from Taken, by Anya Bast
Copyright 2009

She set her glass on the table in front of her. “Hmmm…so you guys are aliens, then?” She split her fingers—making a separation between her middle and ring finger. “Nano, nano?”

Caleb frowned for a moment, and then smiled. “Ah, you’re making an obscure reference to an old television situation comedy, aren’t you?”

She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. “Okay, so here’s the deal. I have established that I am not dreaming, but I could be in a coma. So, if I am in a coma, who are you guys? Are you manifestations of my subconscious, maybe? Symbols of some deep-seated fears or…uh…desires that I’m harboring. Are you gatekeepers to my conscious mind and do I need to deal with you two in order to wake up?”

Caleb stared blankly. “Anne, I don’t understand. You’re not in a coma, you’re here, with us. You bear a little Harmon blood in your DNA. That’s how our oracle found you in your world. You’re our perfect match, Van and mine—”

“I heard this before. I’m not buying it.” She made a sound of frustration. “I just want to go home! Can’t you just send me back? I don’t want to be your match, no matter how gorgeous you are. I don’t want a passel of kids. I want my work, that’s all, just my work. Everyone will be missing me by now. They’ll have called the police and filed a missing person’s report—”

Caleb shook his head. “No, don’t worry about that.”

“Don’t worry about that? How can I not?”

Van eased over to her on the couch. She could feel his body heat. It was…disconcerting. “That life you had is now over. It isn’t our doing though, Anne, you must comprehend. It’s the Guardians. They’ve been rooting out and destroying all human females with Harmon blood. If you go back to Earth, you will die. Don’t you understand?”

She shot up from the couch. “No, I don’t understand any of this!”

Caleb stood and walked to her. He touched her arm, and then pulled her against him. Despite everything, her body reacted to his closeness. She enjoyed the heat of his body, the scent of him and the sound of his beating heart.

God, despite everything, she wanted him. How could that be? She should be trying to kill him, but she just…didn’t have the will.

He threaded his fingers through her hair and kissed her temple. She suppressed the urge to sigh. “Our people have practically been wiped off the face of Harmon. They have targeted the females of our race. That means you, too, even though you don’t reside here.” He cupped her face in his hands and forced her to look at him. “You were located by our oracle as a perfect genetic match for Van and me. A perfect match in every way, as partners for life. You will bear us daughters, which we need in order to continue our species.”

“So I’m just some-some brood mare to you?”

“No.” The word came forcefully, from Van of the few utterances.

“No,” repeated Caleb. “You are our…wife or mate or whatever term humans use for a sexual and romantic match. A match with respect, caring and honor. And please understand that even if our oracle had not located you and we had not found you in your world, the Guardians would have. They would have hunted you down and exterminated you, Anne.”

“What if I don’t believe you?” she whispered.

He shrugged. “In time, you will. This truth does not require your belief. In time circumstances will prove the situation you are in.” He paused. “If we’d had a choice, Anne, we would not have ripped you away from all that you knew this way.”

She only sighed. Her brain was overloaded and she couldn’t process anything more. “I don’t know—”

Caleb tipped her chin up and kissed her. It was a chaste kiss, closed-mouthed. It still set every nerve in her body flaring to glorious life. His lips brushed across hers slowly, as if savoring the taste of her. Then the kiss became a little more demanding. He flicked his tongue against her lips and she parted for him. His tongue slid easily into her mouth to rub against her tongue. He tasted of coffee. Pleasure seared up her spine and made her feel hot and achy.

Then she was being pulled from one heaven and immersed in another. Van eased her from Caleb’s grip and enveloped her in his arms. Her lips still tingling and swollen from Caleb’s attention, Van sealed his mouth over hers and took her in a passionate, near bruising kiss that made her knees go weak. Where Caleb had been seductive and soft, Van was overwhelming and purely sexual.