Tempting Traditions Read online

  Tempting Traditions

  Marie Harte

  Warning

  This e-book contains sexually explicit scenes and adult language. This material is meant for mature audiences!

  Tempting Traditions

  A Whispers Publishing Publication

  May 2007

  Copyright ©2007 Marie Harte

  Cover illustration copyright © 2007 Rene Walden

  ISBN Not Assigned

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system-except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a magazine, newspaper, or on the Web-without permission in writing from the publisher.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

  Published by: Whispers Publishing, P.O. Box 1165, Ladson, SC 29456-1165

  .

  Other Titles by Marie Harte

  Blackthorne's Light

  Lurin's Surrender

  The Thief of Mardu

  Winner Takes All

  Seriana Found

  The Fire Within

  Below the Surface

  Gale Season

  Aftershocks

  Deception's Calling

  Darkson's Forfeit

  Firebreather

  A Familiar Face

  Chapter One

  Planet Tergon, 2647

  Sierra Merritt stared glumly at the invitation to her wedding. The double border of embossed creamy dots framed an elegant ecru, single panel card, inviting her closest friends and family to the Hotel Al’on, the most elite resort in Fertu, Tergon’s majestic capital city.

  “Come on, Sierra. Look on the bright side. You might be shackled by Thursday, but you managed to ditch your responsibilities for the next three days.” Cherry Kincaid, her best friend, linked their arms and dragged her out of her hotel room. “Nice job, by the way. You must really be pouring the guilt on your parents.”

  Sierra simply stared at her friend, not wanting to talk about it.

  “Let’s take in the nightlife, eh?”

  Sure. At least this nightlife comes without a curse, without the presence of a damned Tergonian shifter attached. Sierra sighed. “I guess.”

  “No guessing about it. Come on, Ci-Ci, let’s live a little. If you have to marry Jonathan Bain Wright the Third, might as well enjoy your last few days of freedom. What you need is a long, hot distraction.” Cherry eyed a tall man exiting the elevator, and Sierra wasn’t surprised when he craned his neck to watch them before the doors closed.

  Everyone loved Cherry Kincaid, herself included. A perky redhead, Cherry had a zest for life, a wicked sense of humor, and a surprisingly lush though petite frame, which caused most men to stop in their tracks when she passed. But when she batted those bright baby blues, she had everyone, including Sierra, ready to drop everything to help her.

  If only Sierra had a tenth of her charm. Maybe then she could have escaped this marriage. “Do you ever get tired of the male attention? The constant hard-ons, wherever we go?” she asked dryly.

  “Do you?”

  Sierra snorted.

  “I’m serious. Sharra Salvo just spent a fortune in the salon for hair like yours. Unfortunately, her streaks look white instead of blond, and she looks ten years older than both of us.”

  Sierra couldn’t help a snicker. Sharra was such a pain in the ass. Apparently, she’d had her eye on Wright and his money for some time, but “lucky” Sierra, or rather, Sierra’s parents, had nabbed him first.

  “And your eyes are the lightest brown I’ve ever seen. If I hadn’t known you since we were both two, I’d swear they’re implants.”

  “Shut up, Cherry.” Sierra crossed her arms over her chest and stared down, bemused that she’d actually let her friend dress her in such a low-cut green blouse. Her eyes narrowed. And such a short skirt. “Your flattery isn’t working. Nothing can distract me from the sad truth anymore. My life is going straight to hell in three very short days.” Despite the empty elevator, she lowered her voice, aware Wright’s shifter heritage was a tightly-kept secret. “You know what they say about the Tergonians. Once they turn on you, there’s no going back. Marriage to ‘The Third’ will be the death of me.”

  “Oh please. You’re overly dramatic. He’ll take one look at you and be your slave forever.”

  “Great. A rich asshole I’ll never be able to shake.” Sierra frowned at her friend. “How is it you escaped an arranged marriage? You have money. In fact, I think Wright Transport could do much better marrying into Kincaid Enterprises than being stuck with Merritt Industrial.”

  “Ah, but then I’d be stuck with a rich asshole. While I wouldn’t mind all that muscle in the bedroom, that territorial crap would drive me insane. Not that he’ll be that way with you, I’m sure. Taming the savage beast and all that.” Cherry grinned, and as the elevator slowed toward the ground floor, she pushed Sierra ahead of her. The doors opened and Sierra stumbled into a tall, dark-haired man.

  “I’m sorry,” she mumbled, pushing her hair out of her eyes to glare at Cherry.

  The man nodded, and his gaze caught on her friend. Sierra sighed. Typical.

  “No problem.”

  He grinned, and she couldn’t help noticing that he was a handsome man—blue-black hair, gray eyes, and a build she’d kill for. Sierra was such a sucker for a good body. But his eyes refused to leave Cherry, and she sighed again.

  “So where are you ladies headed?”

  “The Suns.” Cherry named the exclusive night club. “It’s Ci-Ci’s celebration, and I’m showing her a good time.” Cherry grinned, licking her lips coyly. “You should join us.”

  “I might at that,” the man murmured and waved, stepping into the elevator before it swallowed him up.

  “My life is on the verge of ending, and you’re still flirting.” Sierra groaned. “Help me, Cherry. Find me a way out of this.”

  Cherry offered her a hug and pulled her out into Fertu’s temperate climate. Three moons hung in the distance, blue and purple bruises of light marring the jet-black band of sky.

  “It’ll be okay, Sierra. No matter how bad Jonathon Bain Wright the Third may be, you’ll always have me.”

  Tears pooled in her eyes, and Sierra hastily blinked them away. Damn it. Why her? She wasn’t trying to cling to a life of party and leisure. For the most part, she worked seventy hours a week, using weekends to catch up on items she’d missed at work, and to occasionally restock her food preparator at home. But the idea of being stuck with the same person, especially one she didn’t even know, for the rest of her life was daunting. And that was to say nothing of his alien origins.

  From what she knew of the Tergonians, they looked human. Everything about them seemed normal, until they turned. No one knew what caused them to transform, or what they actually looked like when they shifted since so many stories had been told about them. Tales ranged from humanoids turning into savage beasts, to blurring into leonine hybrids and even to transposing into larger-than-life demons.

  And the mystery still existed about what had killed off most of the Tergonian population some five hundred years ago. So few in number, it was nearly impossible to tell the natives from the human settlers in Tergon. But in three days’ time she’d be marrying one, thanks to good old Mom and Dad.

  Her parents loved one another dearly and had married only because of it. Though most couples rarely lived together anymore, her par
ents wanted what they thought best for her—marriage with an ideal mate. Yet their version of “ideal” and hers obviously didn’t match.

  They had arranged her first date—at the tender age of sixteen—with an egotistical billionaire teen that had talked about himself the entire time. Her next fiasco of a fix-up had groped her with the hands of an octopus. Since then, her mother had tried repeatedly to set her up with sons of close friends and business acquaintances, all to no avail. Sierra could count on both hands the number of boring, stuck-up idiots she’d dated. And thanks to Jordan Lightsway, a whopper of a mistake she’d made a few years ago, she’d learned she’d only had those pitiful dates because she possessed the right last name, the right pedigree, and nothing more.

  “Why can’t my parents realize I’m not like them?” she asked both Cherry and herself. I’m not interested in a relationship. I just need a quick sexual fix every now and then. Nothing more, and certainly nothing as taxing as marriage

  “Because they want you to be as happy as they are.” Cherry bit her lip. “You know, Ci-Ci, for all that the Tergonians are reportedly possessive, they’re also fiercely loyal. And supposedly hotter than hell in bed.” At the stone look Sierra gave her, she sighed. “Maybe I’m actually lucky my parents hate each other. My mother would rather lose her company and her head than force me into marriage with a man anything at all like my father.”

  “I like your dad.”

  “So do I. But after my parents married and had me, it’s like they became two separate and extremely hateful people, at least, toward each other. On the other hand, it’s nice, but so odd, to see your parents still so much in love.”

  “It is strange.” Sierra nodded in thought as they walked down the clean, blue sidewalk. No trash littered the ground in Fertu, constantly monitored by litter and police services, and she wished she could utilize such an ability to clean up her personal life as easily. “My parents are so not the norm. They’re married, and they love each other. They’re loaded, but aren’t obnoxious. I mean, they know they have money, but they worked to earn it and never take it for granted. A lot of their friends are the same way about their companies. So why are their kids so incredibly stuck-up?”

  “Why aren’t you?” Cherry ran a hand through her hair, tamping down a stray curl the wind tugged free of her braid.

  “Because I can’t afford to be snooty. I have a job that requires constant attention. A little slip and someone else will be jockeying the handling of twenty different mineral and ore refineries.”

  “But it’s your company.” Cherry shook her head. “Say what you want. But we both know the reason you throw yourself into work is because you’re afraid to get a social life.”

  Sierra frowned. “That’s not true. I have sex.”

  “And that’s all you have. Or should I say, had? What’s it been, four, five months? Come on, Ci-Ci. You’ve never had a meaningful relationship with any man save your father. Those pitiful others get what, one night if they’re lucky? And then you kick them out of your bed and out of your life.”

  “Not true,” she said quietly. “I seriously dated once.”

  “Jordan Lightsway, that jerk.” Cherry sneered. “Until you found out he wanted you for the company profits. Then you dumped him and refused to let anyone else into your life.” Cherry sighed and squeezed Sierra’s arm. “Don’t you get it, Ci-Ci? That’s why your parents are all over you to marry. They’re afraid you never will. And apparently they like ‘The Third.’” Her eyes widened. “He’s the ‘Wright’ guy for you. See? It’s a sign.”

  “Ha-ha. Gee, no one’s said that before. ‘Wright’ and ‘Right.’ What a coincidence,” she mocked, causing Cherry to laugh.

  “That’s it, lighten up. Look, you like sex. And you haven’t had any in a while because of work. So you say.” She hurriedly continued before Sierra could interrupt. “So enjoy your next couple of days. You do know what The Suns really is, don’t you?”

  “No, what?”

  “A Pleasure Palace. Why do you think I suggested we come here? Consider it your wed—ah, a gift from me.”

  Sierra stopped outside the black, serhal-gilded doors of The Suns and looked at the huge men guarding its entry. She’d once been intrigued to visit a place like this back on Earth, where she had a life she’d soon be leaving. They called them Pleasure Palaces, nightclubs that mandated their customers have the STD-inoculator and conception shot, as well as a hefty bank account to afford the exclusive joining fee. For Cherry to have accessed passes meant she must have spent a fortune.

  Staring at her friend in surprise, Sierra slowly fought the bands of depression recently weighting her down. Yes, she was being forced into this marriage by her parents, and for all that she disdained the rich fly-boy types of her parents’ friends, she dearly loved her folks. They were only trying to do what they thought right, to cement the future of Merritt Industrial—Sierra’s one true love.

  And what Cherry said had merit, though Sierra would never openly acknowledge that fact. Jordan Lightsway had seriously hurt her at a vulnerable time in her life. And using her the way he had, with sex and flowery words, then cutting her with jibes about her abilities as a woman and lover, he’d hurt her more than she’d ever openly admitted.

  It was no wonder she loved her job. Better than any man, it gave her a sense of purpose, of accomplishment, and didn’t take up more than her time, which was all she was willing to give of herself.

  She glanced back at Cherry and wondered, now that her time had come, if she could make a go of this farcical wedding. The groom was Tergonian, a race she knew very little about, though her parents seemed none too worried about her safety. And as paranoid as her mother was about her only daughter, her lack of worry should have convinced Sierra to give Wright a chance. Did she have the courage to try?

  Her parents had so much optimism about her nuptials. They’d met The Third and liked him a lot. So much so, that they’d agreed to give Sierra as much time before the wedding as she needed, with no guilt attached for not being with them.

  The wedding would happen on Thursday, unless the bride or the groom died beforehand. And as much as Sierra wanted out of the wedding, she didn’t see killing herself as an option. She could run, of course, and bring disgrace down on her entire family, not to mention risking the family business in a surefire breach-of-contract suit. So why not go out in a blaze of glory? Why not end her single life the way she’d wanted to live it in the first place? With abandon and passion?

  “You know, Cherry, I think I’m seeing the light.”

  “Finally.”

  “Yeah. I’m going to live the next three days like they’re my last. Now let’s go get me drunk and maybe find a nice boy-toy to enliven my pathetic days left of freedom.”

  “Now you’re talking.” Cherry beamed, and they walked quickly through the doors into destiny’s waiting arms.

  * * *

  Jack Wright stared moodily at the fancy invitation his soon-to-be-bride had sent out. None of it was in his taste. He was only glad the invite hadn’t been covered in Tergon poppies, the latest trend in scented paper.

  “How the hell did this happen? And it’s almost here.”

  Mark Denton, his cousin and best friend, shook his head. “You know something, buddy? You need to lighten up. So you’re marrying. Big deal. Doesn’t mean you have to change anything about your life.”

  Jack scowled. “So you’re telling me not to change my lifestyle, to fuck whoever and however I please, and to party and game all night long after I’ve said vows?”

  “Hell, no.” Mark frowned. “But you don’t do any of that shit now, at least except for that fucking part. And even there you’ve been dry lately.”

  “In other words, walk the straight and narrow, ‘give her a chance,’” Jack said in a falsetto, mimicking his mother. “Christ, you know you should be the one marrying this girl. You have more need of her than I do. And you’re better husband material.”

  “True.” Mark gri
nned. “But this is your wedding, not mine. Thank God,” he murmured, but loudly enough for Jack to hear. “When I marry, and being the youngest, I can safely avoid an arranged match, I’ll do it for love. Imagine one woman forever.” Mark’s skin visibly rippled along his neck, black stripes gleaming before fading back to golden flesh, and a shiver coursed down his spine. “Damned if that doesn’t beat all. I love tradition.”

  And he did, unlike Jack. Though the rite of marriage had slowly faded until only about ten percent of the populace said vows, those that did were married for life. No more divorces, no more wasted time in courts, no separations of any kind, for the Tergonians and the humans. Unless a spouse died, a marriage held fast. An extremely serious undertaking, marriage was allotted to the very few and only for the best of reasons. So it was with no small surprise Jack had only recently learned of his coming nuptials.

  “They told me just last week, you know. So that it’d be too late for me to find my way out of this mess.” Jack stood in his room, an opulent extravagance he could more than afford. “Why the hell are my parents forcing this, Mark? You know as well as I do that Wright Transport is sitting pretty. We don’t need the money.”

  “True. But you have to admit, a merger between Wright Transport and Merritt Industrial would more than set you up for life. No more worries about where to find raw materials. And you get a wife to boot. What luck!” Mark said with false cheer. “I’m making light of it, but the truth is, there’s no way to back out of this now, not without hurting your parents and your stockholders. Come on, Jack. Think positive. No matter how much of an ice bitch this Merritt woman may be, you can charm her if you put your mind to it. Hell, remember Professor Chavez? Totally hot and totally frigid. Yet you not only scored an A in her class but had her out of her dress by the end of the our time at university.”

  Jack shook his head, reluctantly smiling at the memory of the sexy Julia Chavez in nothing but garters and high heels.