Illicit Desire: Outlawed Realm, Book 2 (21 page)

Nikoli’s gut twisted with outrage and deepening fear. No matter what he tried or had wanted to believe about his abilities, he couldn’t get his device to operate as well as the one he’d built on his plane. And it simply had to. There was no other choice.

According to Meelo, there was a vast jungle outside the Palace along with numerous caves. Presumably, Lukan and Arez were already hiding in one that Nikoli had to find with pinpoint accuracy. Even with the coordinates he’d gotten from Damir, the time differential between the dimensions and the vast amount of space from this plane to E4 skewed his calculations. Even the most brilliant mathematician would have found this challenging, especially with two lives resting in his hands.

If Nikoli didn’t succeed, Arez and Lukan would eventually die from starvation, an animal attack, or the rulers would find and hunt them as they had all the others.

And that wasn’t even the worst of it. He had Regina to consider.

Nikoli sagged in his chair. No matter what she’d claimed, at any moment Sheehan or Goddard might return and arrest her for something she hadn’t done. How could he stand by and allow that to happen? Even if it meant revealing everything, he’d have to act, showing them his fingerprints, telling them to take a sample of his blood. Surely it was different from that of the people on this plane. He’d have to prove he was an anomaly like none they’d ever seen, and that he’d harmed Bakshi, threatening Regina if she told anyone.

He’d have to finally accomplish what he should have from the start—protecting her without intruding into her life.

She’d be safe, and the government would study him like any other laboratory animal. Exactly what he’d deserve for failing her, Arez and Lukan.

Suppressing a groan of despair, Nikoli ran his hand down his face, then turned at a sound from behind.

Regina stood in the doorway to his office, a tray in her hands. She smiled quickly. It didn’t reach her eyes.

“Hey,” she said, coming inside, studiously avoiding the mess on his worktable. “You haven’t eaten for hours. I brought you a snack.”

She’d brought him enough for several meals, piling all of his favorites on the tray. Cap’n Crunch cereal doused in maple syrup instead of milk, celery sticks heaped with vanilla pudding, and English muffins slathered with mayonnaise and crushed pretzels.

When he said nothing, Regina murmured, “You need to eat. You should rest. You’ve been at it all night.”

Failing her, Lukan and Arez.
Idiot, why can’t you solve this?

He turned away. “I can’t stop. I have to finish. They’re counting on me.” Shit. There had to be a way to figure this out.

The materials swam before his eyes, seeming to mock him. Had he tried that component to the right before? Was it the part he’d been missing? What about the two memory boards near his hand? Had he used the incorrect portions of them? Would choosing another section make this fucking thing work?

Carefully, Regina moved several items, clearing a space for the tray. Once she’d put it down, she went behind him, massaging his shoulders. Softly, she asked, “Feel good?”

Better than anything he’d known on E2. Nikoli wanted to sleep so badly, it was an effort to keep alert. Placing his hand on hers, he shook his head. “I want you to leave. Please. I need to work this out.”

She took the component from him, putting it near the tray. “You need to give it a rest, Nikoli. Just for a few minutes, all right?” she added quickly. “I know the pressure you’re under, the guilt you feel, and trust me, that’s what keeping you from finding a solution.”

He really didn’t appreciate her psychoanalyzing him. “I’m all right.”

“You’re beat and hungry. You’re a man, not a freaking machine. Haven’t you learned that yet after all the time you’ve been on this plane?”

“Regina.”

“That’s my name. Here.” With one of the celery sticks, she stroked the seam of his mouth.

The pudding’s vanilla scent reminded him of hers, sans the peaches. It made him quickly horny and aware of his other bodily needs. His stomach growled.

“What do you know,” she said, her brows lifting in mock surprise, “you
are
hungry.”

“I’m fine,” he muttered, but he did chomp on the stuffed celery, chewing and swallowing bites of it until he reached her fingers. Sucking them inside his mouth, he enjoyed their flavor the most.

She beamed. “That’s my guy. So when are you going to admit that I know you better than you do yourself?”

Nikoli made a noise he hoped would tell her how ludicrous that was.

“Not now, huh?” she countered, then sighed. “I know how worried you are, but nothing bad is going to happen to either of us, all right?”

He stopped swirling his tongue around her fingers. Easing her hand from his mouth, he blurted what he’d been thinking for hours. “You should get away from here before those detectives return. Somewhere they can’t find you. They’re not going to give up. They’ll keep returning and probing into your life until—”

“Shhh.” She rested her fingers on his lips, quieting him. “Nothing’s going to happen at this hour. It doesn’t work that way. They need time to discover whatever it is they believe they have on me. It doesn’t exist, remember? Tonight, Lukan and Arez need you to find them and bring them here.”

He grabbed her wrist and pulled her hand away. “What do you think I’ve been trying to do?” With a sweep of his arm, he gestured to all the crap on his table. “None of these things work as I need them to.”

“Can’t you modify them in some way?”

“How?”

She lifted her shoulders. “Wouldn’t Meelo or Damir know? Have you asked them? Can you call them? Do they have a cell phone?”

“Even if they did, they’re geneticists, not quantum physicists.”

“How about the Internet? Can you research what you need there?”

He pressed the heel of his hand into his forehead. “Under what? Devices to move people from one realm to another? Portals R Us dot com?”

Regina inhaled deeply, then spoke on a hard sigh, “Of. Course. Not.”

Her snotty tone told him to cool it. She was only trying to help. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the kind Nikoli needed. He murmured, “Come back here.”

She’d moved away, but he easily pulled her into him, resting his face between her breasts.

After a moment’s hesitation, Regina cupped the back of his head.

Inhaling deeply, Nikoli caught her fragrance, loving the scent so much he wondered again how he’d lived so long without it. “You smell really good.”

“It’s not me. It’s the Cap’n Crunch.”

To his surprise he laughed, then sighed just as quickly.

“Okay, that’s it,” Regina said. “You need to chill.” She eased back so she could sit on his lap. Once there, she lifted a spoonful of the cereal to his mouth. “Come on, baby, open up for Mama.”

He arched one brow. “I’m tired and frustrated, not senile.”

“Only because I take such good care of you.”

He rolled his eyes. She grinned. “Eat.”

The first bite was such a jolt of sugary pleasure, Nikoli took the utensil from her and shoveled more of the cereal into his mouth, speaking around it. “Do you want some?”

She made a face and leaned away from the spoonful he offered her. “Watching you eat it is punishment enough.”

He finished the bowl, then ate most of the English muffin, licking mayonnaise and pretzel bits from his lips.

Her expression didn’t get any better.

Nikoli chewed and swallowed. “The trouble with you is that you have no sense of adventure.”

“Really.” She fingered crumbs from the corner of his mouth, wiping them on one of the napkins she’d brought. “I fucked you in the backseat of our car when you dared me to.”

“It was parked in the garage. The door was down.”

“But the lights were on and we did tape it, remember?”

How could he forget? Many a night they’d watched their performance rather than the dumb things on TV. “I still think my ass looked big.”

She barked a laugh. “You’re nuts. I’m supposed to be saying that.”

“No kidding? I thought you liked my butt.”

Her shoulders shook. She sputtered. “You know what I mean. I’m the one who’s supposed to have a body image problem.”

How was that possible when she was so perfect? Nikoli put the plate on the tray and wound his arms around her, drawing Regina nearer. “I like you just as you are. Don’t ever change. Please.”

“I wasn’t planning to.” She spoke with as much emotion as he had. “You won’t be leaving me, will you, Nikoli? You’ll see this through, by my side, no matter what?”

Her question surprised him. He didn’t know what to say.

“You’re really squeezing me,” she said. “So is that a no?”

He loosened his grip.

Regina cupped his face. Her earlier laughter was gone, replaced by naked concern. “Don’t sacrifice yourself for me. It’s not what I want or need. Promise you’ll never leave me.”

“I won’t,” he said, knowing it wasn’t a total lie. He’d always be in her heart and mind no matter where he was physically. No matter if circumstances demanded they were separated so she’d be safe.

“Promise,” she ordered.

“I will. I am.”

Regina studied him, no doubt probing into his psyche as she loved to do. Before she saw something she shouldn’t, Nikoli said, “I need to get back to work.”

“You’re sure you don’t want to take a ten-minute nap?”

“I’ll sleep later. When Arez and Lukan are here.” He eased her from his lap and held back a sigh at the unfinished device. Maybe if he doubled up on the components, they’d give him the power he needed…unless that blew the circuits. At this point, he had little choice except to experiment. To have the same sense of adventure he’d teased Regina about.

She remained at his side, observing.

Without glancing her way, he said, “I need to get back to this. I can’t do that if I keep smelling your perfume.”

“It’s the cereal you smell.”

This time, neither of them laughed. “It’s you,” he insisted. “It’ll always be you.”

Lingering for a moment, as though she wanted to say something more, Regina finally kissed his cheek, took the tray and left the room.

She put the dirty plates, bowl and spoon in the dishwasher then went to the foyer, trying to see as much as she could of the street past the stained-glass windows. The thick glass precluded it. Sucking her bottom lip, Regina went into the living room and adjusted the shutters just a bit to peer outside.

The cars parked there were the usual ones, not Sheehan and Goddard’s with them staking out this place like something from a bad police procedural.

The moment they came back, Nikoli was going to tell them everything— about E2, the vampires, how those abominations had murdered Bakshi and threatened her. Whatever it took to keep her safe. Regina could feel it.

She squeezed her fists so hard, her knuckles hurt. She wanted to hit something, mainly Nikoli. Why in the hell didn’t he believe what she’d said? Even if she was in deep shit with the law, didn’t he know she’d want both of them to run, rather than leaving him to face the authorities alone?

No way was she going back to the empty existence she’d known before him. No way was he going to fail Arez and Lukan with that guilt crapping up their lives.

There might not be a Portals R Us dot com available, but there had to be something from the quantum physicists on this side that would help him out. She hurried down the hall to her office and fired up her computer, bringing up Google. Her fingers were poised on the keyboard, ready to search, when she froze.

What if Sheehan and Goddard returned with a court order for her computer so they could check its hard drive for information about Bakshi? What would they think about her searches for portals or scientists like Nikoli? That she was a murderess? A Trekkie?

She giggled uncontrollably. Goddard’s and Bakshi’s eyes would bug out if they really knew the truth. Not that they were going to. If she had to tie Nikoli to their bed and gag him, she wasn’t going to let him reveal anything.

Resolved, Regina keyed in “portals between dimensions”. Within a second, seventy-two million hits came up. God. Scrolling down the screen, she saw that most of the info was junk with only a few sites hosting scientific theories or true-life stories.

The first-person events were probably bogus, unless others from E2 were on this plane and had written about their experiences.

Yeah, sure.

Bypassing that stuff, she searched the scientific articles, working as quickly as she could. Even so, it took her over an hour before she had everything printed out and highlighted for Nikoli. She had difficulty understanding most of the content, but maybe he could make sense of it.

Papers in hand, she went upstairs, stopping in the doorway to his office.

Bent over the table, he had one arm folded beneath his head. His other hand rested palm up, a coil of wire resting on it, his fingers relaxed in sleep.

A rush of love hit Regina, its intensity frightening, defying reason. For him, she’d lie, cheat, steal and even risk death, just as long as he was safe. She ached to smooth his unruly hair, to trace the curve of his rich mouth and run her fingertips down his stubbled cheek. To make him happy. That was all she asked of life. To give them a chance.