Illicit Desire: Outlawed Realm, Book 2 (2 page)

How wrong the man was if he refused to give Lukan what he required.

He turned at the sound of subdued voices in the hall. One belonged to Meelo, the genetic scientist who’d created him and the other pleasure slaves. With him was his mate, Damir, also a geneticist. She spoke hurriedly, as though urging Meelo to be cautious. Why? What bad news did they have for him? Or did they fear his decision about contacting Nikoli?

The door opened. Its wood stuck slightly with the humidity, causing it to vibrate. The noise sounded too loud in the otherwise quiet house. A structure as simple and unadorned as the Pleasure Palace was vast and opulent. But then, they were no longer on E4. They’d travelled through several dimensions to E1, the realm closest to the sun, and a place called Seattle in a land known as Washington State.

Sunlight from the other rooms blazed behind Meelo and Damir, hiding their features. Lukan turned away, shielding his eyes from the hurtful glare.

“Close the blinds, please,” Meelo asked Damir.

“Of course,” she said and hurried away.

Lukan tugged his hood over the side of his face to protect it from the piercing light. “Take me to Nikoli Zorr.”

Meelo entered the room, his steps recorded on the hardwood floor. He didn’t walk with the assurance of a scientist who’d once played God. His halting movements belonged to a man shamed by his past actions, ones he’d tried to correct. “We’ll leave at dusk when the light won’t bother you. But there’s no guarantee Nikoli will do what you ask.”

“I have no intention of asking him for anything,” Lukan shot back. “I’m going to insist he help me if he doesn’t want to die.”

Meelo hesitated, then spoke quietly, reasonably, as though they were discussing nothing more pressing than what to eat, not Arez’s life. “Harming him won’t accomplish what you want.”

Lukan bristled. He wanted to grab Meelo and shake him, then toss him across the room. Instead, he matched the man’s outward calm. “If he refuses, I’ll enjoy killing him.”

“Have you considered Nikoli’s limitations on this plane, Lukan? What if he can’t open a portal? What if he’s unable to get you back to E4? What if—”

Lukan slammed his palm on the table that held the equipment for the hologram, shaking it and the furniture. Meelo fell silent. Lukan spoke through his teeth, his patience at an end. “Don’t say that. Never say that.”

“Lukan.”

Damir. She went to Meelo, taking his hand, no doubt to assure him that she would act as referee in this battle. One Lukan and he had engaged in since Meelo had liberated him from the Palace.

Today, Damir’s soft, coaxing ways wouldn’t sway Lukan. He had to make her listen to him, perhaps even fear him, even though he meant no real harm to either her or Meelo. When he’d been a young boy, he’d loved them and hoped for their affection in return.

Not once had they offered him a smile, a caress or even a kind word. They delivered his food and provided shelter, then turned their backs on him without a simple farewell.

At the Palace, he’d thought of them for years, fantasizing about being their son, worthy of their regard, protected within their home.

Had they missed him for even a moment?

In his early days of servitude, he’d tried to believe in the notion. It was all he had. Months, then years passed before he accepted their indifference as fact. He wanted to hate them, but beneath his outrage was pain. Even after so long a time, it still tightened his throat.

However, he had no intention of backing down. Arez was his only concern now. He understood and accepted what a man’s love for a woman could do. It reduced even civilized males like Nikoli Zorr to a savage state, no different from an animal determined to protect its mate. It also convinced reluctant men to obey.

Lukan had learned that truth firsthand during his years of bondage in the Palace. “You’ve seen Nikoli’s woman, Regina. What does she look like? Does he still love her? Will he want to protect her?”

Damir sighed. A sound she would never have made on E2. There, she’d suppressed every emotion beneath a mask of serenity. Here, in the land of Seattle, she didn’t bother to hide her worry. “Nikoli will kill you if you even think about hurting Regina.”

“He’d have to catch me first. Do you think he’s as fast as I am? As strong?” Lukan directed his next comments to Meelo. “Didn’t you design me to be superior to most men, at least physically?”

The older man lowered his face. “I was wrong in what I did. I’ve tried to make amends.”

“By keeping Vakar and the other rulers from exterminating me like a wild animal or an insect? What about the rest of the males and females you designed?” Lukan continued to accuse. “Will their deaths be any less horrible than what might have happened to me? Am I only special because I was your first creation?”

“Of course not,” Damir murmured, reaching for him. “You know that’s not true.”

Lukan stared at how her hand trembled. Out of fear? Shame? Sorrow? As a boy, he would have run into her arms. The simple act of her wanting to touch him would have bound him to her forever. As a man, he was more prudent in his emotions.

“I know only what I’ve lived,” he said. “And what I need to do now. Nikoli will devise a means for me to return to E4 so I can bring Arez to this realm. How difficult can that be for such a brilliant quantum physicist?”

Striding past them into the darkened hall, Lukan spoke over his shoulder, “Especially one who will do anything to assure that Regina continues to live.”

Chapter Two

There were no more monsters. No more threats. Just endless traffic and too many red lights that took forever to turn green.

A long line of cars stretched ahead of Regina’s BMW, all of them inching through the city. She rolled her shoulders, wanting to get home to Nikoli and enjoy the coming evening like everyone else.

Couples of all ages crowded the streets, window-shopping or dining at quaint outdoor cafes. A young woman with a star tattoo on her neck trotted behind her Rottweiler, tugging its leash, straining to control her pet. At the crosswalk, a teen stopped texting long enough to clamp his hand on a young boy’s shoulder, keeping him from entering the street. The child, possibly five or six years old, bounced in place.

Regina smiled at his reckless joy, knowing how he felt. Gone was yesterday’s rain, replaced by a sky so blue it almost hurt to look at it too long. On the horizon, the sun’s rays pierced fleecy white clouds, tinting the edges a soft pink and gold. The summer air had a clean, scrubbed scent perfumed with flowers and vegetation.

Perfect weather for her and Nikoli to eat dinner on the back patio. They could take in a movie afterwards or go out for ice cream. There was no longer any need to hide.

Months had passed with nothing out of the ordinary happening. No vampires coming after them, or Nikoli’s father opening a portal from E2, begging his son to return. In those first weeks after Andris and the others were destroyed, Regina kept flinching at unexpected sounds or a sudden rush of cold, no matter how crazy her fear. For a psychologist who specialized in anxiety and panic disorders, she’d made a lousy patient.

Nikoli, on the other hand, was beyond serene. At times, his unwavering objectivity was really a bitch, making Regina want to slug him.

He took her meltdowns in his stride and continued to assure her,
“Only good will happen now.”

The man hadn’t lied. A few weeks ago, Nikoli had shown up at her office, shortly before her receptionist Carly had arrived for the day. Closing but not locking the outer door to her suite, he’d faced Regina with an expression she recognized all too well. He wanted to fuck. Here. Now.

Had he lost his mind?

In spite of the dull, needy ache in her pussy, Regina maintained the same composure his people demanded on E2. Feigning ignorance, she’d asked, “Why are you here?”

He hadn’t answer, nor had he smiled. Pure sin flared in his eyes. He used his big body to back Regina into her desk. She grabbed the lip of it to keep from falling back and knocking off her lamp.

With his hand on her breast and his mouth to her ear, he whispered, “Why do you think?”

Was he serious? Thinking wasn’t something she could do with his lips brushing her throat while his fingers tugged her nipple. “We can’t.” She swallowed and bit back a moan. “We shouldn’t.”

“We will.”

He pushed her patient charts aside. Folders smacked the floor, the papers inside drifting free. In less time than Regina would have believed possible, Nikoli tugged her pants and panties down, spread her legs and entered her without hesitation or restraint.

Despite his outward calm, he’d acclimated very well to her dimension’s just-go-for-it lifestyle.

She was with him all the way, her nails raking his tight ass, possibly drawing blood.

Nikoli didn’t complain. He stroked her clit in concert with his assured thrusts, muffling her moans with his impassioned kiss.

They went at it like teens on a hormone high or adults who’d gone nuts. If anyone came in, she could kiss her professional license good-bye. Not that it stopped Regina. She gripped the ends of Nikoli’s longish hair, using it to keep his mouth on hers, his tongue inside.

All too soon, her cunt was deliciously sore and she had trouble sucking in enough air. Nikoli was still sporting an erection and panting when he left the suite, promising they’d continue when she came home, ten long hours away. Regina muttered an oath and had just finished zipping her pants when Carly came inside. The young woman frowned at the files strewn over the floor. Her brows lifted at Regina’s mussed blouse and hair.

“Oh my God,” the young woman said, rushing to her. “Were you mugged?”

In a manner of speaking. It took all of Regina’s will not to giggle.

She grinned at the memory and drove through the green light, heading for her neighborhood in Seattle’s Queen Anne district. In a short while, she’d be making Nikoli’s favorite meal in this realm—spaghetti with bananas on top. Go figure the man’s taste in food. Not that she minded. As long as he avoided chocolate, which the rulers on his side used to execute malcontents, Regina didn’t care what he ate or drank.

Early on, she’d learned he could consume vodka and whiskey like water without getting drunk or even tipsy. Amazing.

Along with the other groceries she just bought, she’d added a bottle of Smirnoff’s Green Apple to surprise Nikoli. Regina enjoyed seeing him happy. She wanted him to keep loving her.

He’d given up so much for them to be together—the only life he’d known, the possibility of ever seeing his people and father again. Although she should have, Regina never asked if he missed them. She was a coward, not wanting to know the truth. Besides, Nikoli was too honorable a man to reveal it.

“You are my world,”
he’d said the night they’d defeated the vampires and he chose her above everything else.

Be grateful for that. Stop worrying. Everything’s all right.

She truly wanted to believe that they could build a future. Several weeks before, while Nikoli was studying one of her childhood pictures on the mantel, he’d asked, “Would you like us to have a child?” Before she could answer, he added quickly, “Not now…someday.”

She slipped her arms around him, pressing her palms against his broad back to ease him closer. “Do you even have to ask?”

Hope softened his rugged features, though not for long. Brushing her bangs aside, he kissed her forehead, then started to reason like the quantum physicist he was. “What if we can’t?” His breath was hot on her skin, his argument quick and logical. “Our genetics may be too different. My fingerprints are nothing like yours. You saw how long it took me to adjust to time moving more swiftly on this side. What else about our physiology could cause something to go wrong? What if my fertility doesn’t return because of what I ate on E2? Even if it does, what if our child doesn’t fit in with the rest of your people? What if—”

“Shhh.” She rested her fingertips on his lips to stop him. She loved his features, so ruggedly handsome, his skin a warm olive color. His black hair was a bit longer than it had been when they first met. It made him look faintly wild, like a pirate. “There’s no guarantee for anyone that they’ll have a perfect child.”

He pulled her hand aside. “But the people here are from the same dimension, unlike us. No, we can never have a family.”

Regina knew better than to argue. Nikoli would come to the correct conclusion by himself.

His shoulders slumped as though he didn’t know what to do. He mumbled, “We shouldn’t.”

“We can if we want…someday. When the time comes, we’ll work it out,” she assured him, then begged him to screw her senseless until she couldn’t take any more pleasure.

He performed as he always did, staying hard for hours even after his many orgasms, his supercharged testosterone a gift from E2’s genetic scientists.

Now there was a group that deserved the Nobel Prize and the thanks of horny women everywhere. Chuckling, Regina pulled up to her house, parking on the driveway rather than in the messy garage, and hauled out her groceries.

In the next yard over, twin girls played, their tiny voices shrill with excitement. Across the street, several dogs barked. Normal stuff Regina barely noticed before Nikoli came into her life. Ordinary moments she treasured now.