Following him wasn't ethical. She knew that. But Scar had long ago given up thinking ethical thoughts about Antony Tyler. She'd stopped the minute her employer's new bodyguard had introduced himself, wrapping his strong fingers around hers, the hint of a smile lifting his perfectly lush mouth. From that moment, she'd become a woman on a mission. She had to see him naked.
Scar sucked in a breath, ignoring the flare of heat low in her belly. Damn it. Everything about the man had her body in rebellion. And that wasn't a good idea when she was stalking him. Her target paused, the soft light from the ship's gangway splashing over his shoulders. Scar shrank back against the wall, her palms pressed against the warm metal, and took slow, controlled breaths.
From the hard, suspicious looks he'd been giving her over the past few days, he had to know she'd taken to stalking him. His dislike of her was understandable. She was too alien for most people, with her stained skin and, well, her short, stubby tail. That freaked most of the pure-human population, too used to seeing her alien features as the enemy.
Tyler's dark head tilted to the side, no doubt listening for her. Her gut cramped and she tried to feel guilt for her obsession. But she couldn't as her gaze wandered down his lean body, over the well-cut suit their employer had bought him and she tried not to imagine him stripped naked. She failed. Her all-too-vivid imagination conjured up lithe muscles, allied with strength and agility. Rochester said Tyler used to be in the Federal Army Corps. She almost groaned at the thought that she would find battle scars, the mark of a warrior, branding his skin.
Her fingers curled into tight fists.
She cursed her Caraniae half, her father's contribution burning a wildness through her that she often couldn't contain. Something in Tyler called to that wildness even though he was a pure-blood human. She knew he was pure. He'd been in the Corps. Any hint of non-human DNA and he'd be gone, drummed out and disgraced. She'd performed the test anyway, with sloughed skin and a hair tag. Tyler was thoroughly, stinkingly human.
She ran a hand through the wild tangle of her hair, her fingers fisting. She'd never burned like this for a human, her skin hardly her own, her thoughts consumed. Shit, she'd never had such an overwhelming rush of lust for anyone before.
No, where Tyler was concerned, nothing made sense.