Chase You To The Sun (19 page)

“You’re not a criminal at all,” Lana whispered. “You were trying to save those children. You still are.”

“Oh, I’m a criminal all right,” Bruce said softly. “After I left the Randall Residence, I looked up as many Elite big wigs as I could – since I knew where they lived, it wasn’t hard to find the men and women who worked together with my father, and with yours. The more I talked to them, the more I discovered about our society, and how dark it gets if you dig deep enough. If I didn’t like their attitude, I killed them. Sometimes I made them watch as I killed their loved ones first. Afterwards, I stole everything they owned and used the money to eventually get myself a fleet of unregistered ships. In the first few years of my killing spree, I still thought I could one day take Prometheus by force. But that turned out to be quite impossible. So I took out smaller Elite bulwarks of abuse and cruelty. I helped the Croatians to sabotage the feudal system that the Great Germans imposed on them – that’s how I know your friend Alen Novak. And while I was at it, I used my money and influence to feel better about myself and the world. I don’t exactly remember when I became addicted to Neutrazol, but those pills sure helped to keep the nightmares at bay. You can only kill so many people before they come back to haunt your dreams, you know. I’ve been clean for two years, but I still feel the temptation to use it every now and then.”

When Bruce looked up at her to meet her eyes, Lana couldn’t hide the alarm on her face.

“I told you,” he sighed. “I’m not a very nice guy.”

“No, you’re not,” she admitted. “But you’re real. And you had your reasons for becoming the way you are.”

“Don’t start liking me,” Bruce warned her with a weary frown on his face. “I’m violent and I’ll hurt you if I need to.”

Lana smiled wanly. “I think it’s a little late for that warning.”

He didn’t say anything. Instead, he just took her hand and sat up to face her. “You silly girl,” he said at last, frustration and gladness warring for precedence in his expression.

“A silly girl with a new world view.” Lana let out a sharp breath. “I don’t even know if I should thank you.”

“Probably not.” Bruce looked at his fingers entwined with hers. “But in the end you’ll be better for it.”

She scooted closer. “Hold me,” she said softly.

He pulled her in his arms. “You really think I have the power to comfort you?”

Lana rested her head on his shoulder. “Maybe. Or maybe it’ll comfort you to hold me, instead.”

Her shoulders felt tense, but as Bruce rubbed her back, she gradually relaxed, cradled in the arms of a man who had threatened to rape her not ten minutes ago. It wasn’t pretty, but it was what it was.

“I was angry with you,” Bruce said at that exact moment. “I couldn’t stand the fact that you were shutting me out, so I tried to force my way in.”

It was as if he’d read her mind. “Did you want to hurt me?” she mumbled.

He hesitated for a second. “Yes. Your words cut deep.”

“Well.” Lana looked up at him. “You can’t fix yourself by breaking someone else.”

Her remark evoked a slight smile on his face. “True.” He ran his hand through her platinum-blonde hair, touching her cheek with his thumb. “I think it’s too late to fix me, anyway.”

“If that’s true, maybe we should focus on fixing the world outside,” she replied quietly. “Let’s do that. Let’s work together, like you suggested.”

“You want to do something?”

“Of course. Although I do understand what your brother was talking about back then, about the system crumbling and such. But that still doesn’t make it right.”

“What will you tell your father?”

Lana bit back tears. “I’ll make him listen. Look, I know you hate him, but he can be kind, too. He’s the best dad ever. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that he’s running his company like that.”

“I’m – sorry,” Bruce said gently, pausing on the word he probably didn’t use a lot. “I should give you more time to accept the idea that your father is as much of a villain as I am.”

She smiled feebly. “Thanks, I guess. For being patient with me.”

“Well. You deserve it.” He shrugged, obviously trying to make it sound more casual than it really was.

“Why?” she wanted to know shyly.

“I already told you.” Bruce lowered himself back onto the bed, hugging Lana to his chest. “Because you’re brave. Stubborn, much too cheeky for your own good, but genuine. Very different from Elite girls I used to know.” He captured her wrists in his hands and rolled her over, the weight of his body pressing her into the mattress as he leaned in to kiss her. “I’m happy I chased you to the sun and caught you,” he mumbled against her lips.

“Me too,” Lana sighed. As Bruce kissed her, she felt fresh tears pooling in her eyes. He had turned her world upside down, burnt her up and scorched off her wings, but in a way it felt as though she was alive for the first time in five years. Bruce deserved her trust, too. In a way, she would always be a little scared of him, but she sensed that deep down, he was a kind soul.

Bruce slipped his hands around her ribcage, brushing her boobs through the lace of her bra with his thumbs. His kiss deepened and made her ache for much more than just being felt up. Longingly, Lana arched her hips and spread her legs to wrap her thighs around his waist. He grunted, his lips drifting to the tender skin of her neck, his tongue softly licking the spot where he’d bitten her last night. “You want more of me?”

Only if he stayed afterwards, but she couldn’t utter those words. “I do,” she just confessed.

With a slight grin, he pulled down the zipper on her skirt. “I’ll make it good,” he breathed. His hot fingers trailed down her bare butt as he took off the item of clothing before he reached up to get rid of her top and bra, too. “You’re dressed so Elite today,” he commented on the fancy skirt and blouse she’d just been stripped of.

“I was out of casual clothes.”

“Hmm.” He dumped the navy-blue skirt on the floor. “That skirt is way too short to wear to official conventions, Miss Ivanova.”

“It’s the latest fashion in Novi Moscow,” she protested.

Bruce chuckled. “I bet some guy designed it.” He kissed her belly button, resting his hands on her hips as he slowly went down, his mouth making a warm trail down her abdomen toward her shaven mound. Lana’s breath hitched when his lips halted on the hood above her clit. He gently sucked the spot just shy of the sensitive bud, sending shivers through her entire body. And then she felt the swipe of his tongue across the swollen center of her desire, opening her up like a flower to the sun. She was so wet and hot with need that she couldn’t help bucking under his delicious touch, throwing her head back on the pillow. “
Bozhe moi
,” she exhaled.

“Still calling upon the Almighty, are you?” Bruce murmured before licking her opening from bottom to top. “Sweet
pizda
, little minx.”

Lana flushed crimson. Somehow, hearing Bruce say ‘pussy’ in Russian made her even hotter. “Thanks,” she moaned, abandoning herself to his touch. He was so good at this compared to the guys she’d been with. With a sweet quiver of lust, she remembered how he had made her come the first time. Secretly, she was hoping he’d do it to her again. She’d rather die than beg him to put his finger in her asshole, though.

Scintillating minutes passed by as Bruce languidly fingered and licked her slit. By some means beyond her understanding, he knew better what turned her on than she did herself. And he also knew exactly when to stop and take a break in order to postpone her orgasm. Lana’s hands gripped the sheets in desperation when he pulled away again, leaving her on the edge of a blissful climax. “Please don’t stop,” she whimpered.

Bruce shook his head. “I want to feel you come around me.” He propped himself up on his arms, wiping his mouth with one hand. “Lie on your stomach.”

For just a moment, her throat went dry. “What are you – why?”

He shot her a crooked smile as he pulled down his pants. “Don’t worry. I know which hole you want me to use.”

Lana exhaled nervously. “Okay. Your finger felt, uhm, good there, actually. But that’s a lot smaller.”

A mischievous light danced in his eyes when he leaned forward to kiss her. “Next time you should ask me for stuff you’d like me to do to you, Lana. Don’t be shy.” She blushed an even deeper red. “Now turn around.”

She complied, gasping as he kneeled between her legs and ran his hand over her swollen labia. “You’re so ready for me,” Bruce whispered, steering his hard shaft toward her dripping entrance. “So hot.” With a groan, he entered her with a swift thrust, his cock hitting her G-spot even better now. Lana closed her eyes and bit her lip in sheer delight. The sensation of him penetrating her sent goose bumps all over her body. Supporting her weight on her elbows, she lifted her upper body slightly off the mattress. “Can you – touch my breasts?” she asked.

Bruce lowered his lips to her neck, his mouth gently brushing her earlobe. “Sure,” he said huskily. He cupped one of her tits in his large hand, squeezing her nipple between his thumb and forefinger before running his palm over the hardened bud.  Meanwhile, he slid in and out of her tantalizingly slowly. Lana moaned softly when he rubbed her other nipple before pinching it so hard it almost hurt, but not quite. She wouldn’t be surprised if her body was covered in bruises by the time they were done tonight. Her butt, her neck, and the delicate skin of her boobs – he’d marked her everywhere. For all intents and purposes, she was his – and she couldn’t deny liking it. If Bruce really meant to keep her here for a long time to come, he was now in ‘deep trouble’, as he’d put it. She could no longer really be his prisoner. Not after everything that had happened in this room. Not after his confession to her.

“Oh yes,” she murmured when Bruce moved his hand back to her hips, pulling her left leg sideways and wedging his fingers between her abdomen and the bed to reach down and touch her clit again. As he started to increase the pace, pounding her more like he’d done before in his anger, Lana could feel a tingling, warm, tight ball of heat in her stomach as it fizzed and whirled in eagerness to make her come. She raised her hips off the bed to meet his strokes, licking her lips as his index finger expertly circled her burning clitoris. “Finish me,” she groaned. “Please.”

“With pleasure,” Bruce rumbled.

He pushed inside even deeper, finally sending her body soaring. Little stars exploded behind her eyelids as her muscles convulsed, seizing with an orgasm rolling over her in waves and eddying around his hard cock. “Bruce,” she softly muttered his name when she finally came down from cloud nine, slumping down onto the pillow. “Could you feel me?”

Lana could hear him exhale raggedly. “Oh yes. You feel glorious when you come.” He ran his hands over her smooth ass, making her shiver with delight. “Now face me.”

When she got up on her knees and turned around to look Bruce in the eye, something had changed in his expression. His eyes were less guarded, and the gentle smile around his lips made him look younger – vulnerable, almost. He looked so much like the Bruce in the collection of old pictures she’d found that it made her heart stop. Was she ready for this – slowly unraveling a man who’d kept himself locked up in an ivory tower of hate and violence for so long? “Hey,” she said, suddenly shy.

“Hey yourself,” he replied. Even his voice sounded youthful in the absence of bitterness in his tone.

Lana blinked. “What – what would you like?”

“You.” Bruce inched forward and wrapped his arms around her slender upper body, kissing her forehead. “All of you.” He lay her down, touching her everywhere as though he was trying to memorize the shape of her body. When he entered her again, he kept his gaze locked on her face as he slowly started to move. Now that her blood wasn’t burning with blind need, Lana appreciated just being close to him and opening up to him without expecting anything in return. He was beautiful. Terrifying, unpredictable, but beautiful, and somehow exuding a kind of purity she had never expected to find in him. When he closed his eyes and finally spilled his seed inside her, Lana wrapped her arms around his chest and softly nuzzled his shoulder.

“You’ve seen all of me,” she whispered, running her hands down his back to rest them on his butt.

He smiled. “Not true. I’ve only just begun.” When he kissed her, Lana sighed contentedly. Had he finally stopped pushing her away just to keep up his cool façade?

“You mean there’s more to me than meets the eye?” she inquired.

“Much more,” he confirmed, pulling out of her and rolling to the side. “I always hoped you were like your mom, but your lifestyle certainly made me believe otherwise. The fake name, the business studies, your strategic position at Desida One. I thought you were your daddy’s little puppet.”

“I’m close with him,” she said, her voice faltering. “Or so I thought, anyway.”

Bruce reached out and gently touched her face. “I know the feeling. Sometimes, even the ones closest to us don’t share everything going on in their hearts.”

“Well, I want to help you,” Lana announced determinedly. “You said you wanted to take Prometheus by force? Maybe I know things about the Russian lines of defense that you don’t. Or maybe I can talk to some people I know in the Desidan Alliance. They can’t all be bastards.”

“Only the richest ones,” Bruce replied cynically. “Because there’s too much at stake for them. And the others refused to believe me since I didn’t have proof.”

Lana bit her lip. “Well, we do now. The founder of the Alliance talked about equally sharing scientific knowledge and technology among all the peoples of the Earth. I know I sound like a text book on Desidan history right now, but Dame Desida was a good person. She was genuinely interested in improving the lives of as many people as possible and bringing them together. It was her motto. That’s why those space stations are populated by all kinds of nationalities. Fifty percent of the Desida One population is of common origin, even. I bet Commander Aataaq will take action if I tell him about the things happening on Prometheus.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Bruce sighed. “Aataaq has a Russian ambassador on board – Piotr Yeltsin. There might be too much at stake even for him.”