Shameless Desire (The Outlawed Realm) (3 page)

“Werewolves?”

“Yeah, okay, that.” She slapped his shoulder. “Answer me.”

“Fine.” He pressed his lips to her temple and cheek, so soft and fragrant he held back a groan of frustration at not taking her, at her wanting to discuss this. “I don’t believe he was hunting the creatures. I think it was the other way around.”

“Seriously?” She turned her face to his. Their lips brushed with her words. “Why would they hunt a guard?”

He heard her question but didn’t answer. Couldn’t. Not now. Her breath was clean and sweet, smelling of the minty toothpaste she’d used. Her nipple poked his chest. One of her nightgown’s straps had fallen over her shoulder, exposing more skin. It was dewy with youth and good health. A gentle tug and he’d have the garment pooled at her waist to reveal her full breasts.

“Nikoli.” She ran the tip of her tongue across the seam of his mouth. “Answer me.”

Was she kidding? “What was the question?”

She kissed him lightly, then leaned back. “Why would those things be after a guard?”

Who cared? He and she had this moment; that was all that mattered.

Her lips were amazing, their pale pink color the same as her nipples. At thirty-one, she looked far younger than her years, despite the heavy burden he’d put on her by coming to this realm. At thirty-four, he felt older than the universe at times, having seen too much sorrow caused by the rulers in his realm. For millennia, they’d demanded objectivity and duty from their people, denying them the freedom of emotion, the vibrancy of life Nikoli had found on this plane. With Regina, he’d become youthful for the first time…joyous, capable of some measure of hope.

He tilted his face to her chest, craving that snowy expanse of skin, the soft swells of her breasts.

They trembled with her frustrated exhale of air. He wanted to play. She wanted an answer.

At last, he said, “I’m just guessing, but it might be in retaliation for a guard harming one of their pack on E4. They are enemies there, you know.”

“I do now. Wait.” She cradled his head to keep him focused on what she was saying, rather than her body.

He frowned.

She gave him one of her own. “How could they locate a guard among all the other people here?”

“The usual way.”

“Uh-huh. And that would be?”

He huffed out a sigh. “They probably smelled him. A guard’s odor would be familiar to the creatures, the same as a condemned slave or one of the rulers that hunted the unfortunate man or woman in E4’s jungle.”

“Then—”

“Uh-uh. No more questions. Just this.” He pulled the front of her nightgown down, exposing her tight nipples.

Her frown faded. However, she pulled back, clearly denying him.

Nikoli’s hand stalled on her breast, his thumb no longer stroking her areola. He didn’t want to ask but wasn’t about to guess what was going through her mind. “You don’t want this?”

“What?” She blinked as if coming out of a trance and seemed surprised he was fondling her. “Wait.”

He held back a groan. “Sure…why?”

“If those things recognized a guard’s smell, they would recognize yours, right? You’re from E2, like the rulers—oh my God.”

He didn’t like the way she stared at him. “What?”

“All the males in your dimension have the same coloring, features.”

She ticked them off: the black hair, olive complexion, brown eyes, facial characteristics, powerful build. A uniformity in his race that ensured their superiority. Early on, E2’s scientists had manipulated their people’s DNA to produce the heartiest specimens, removing all variety and risk.

Knowing where Regina was headed with this, Nikoli decided to joke. “I thought you like how I look.”

“Adonis couldn’t be better. That’s not the point.”

“Adonis?”

She waved her hand as if his question bugged her. “A guy from Greek mythology. Handsome dude. A real hottie.”

Nikoli gave her a wolfish grin. “You think I’m hot?”

“Be serious.”

He didn’t want that. Not tonight. There was time enough for trouble tomorrow.

“I’m worried, okay?” she said, then added quickly, “If your features and physiology are identical to the other men on your plane, then your scent would be too.”

To argue with her was futile, so Nikoli conceded with a nod, adding, “But the werewolves aren’t looking for me. I’ve done nothing to harm them.”

“They don’t know that,” she countered. “You and Vakar could be twins, you look that similar. If he and the other SOB rulers hunted the werewolves on E4, the creatures might mistakenly think you’re him.”

“That’s not possible.”

“Why the hell not?”

“Vakar’s older than I am.”

Regina spoke through her teeth. “Fine. They’ll think you’re Vakar’s son—and don’t you dare tell me he hasn’t got one. The distinction’s going to be lost on a werewolf, all right? We have to do something.”

“Right now?” Her fragrance was driving him crazy. His cock couldn’t get any harder. Tonight might be one of the few evenings they had left together. Nikoli didn’t want to waste it on fear. He increased his hold on her.

She managed to wiggle out of his grasp. On her feet, Regina stumbled back a step, then righted herself. “Call Meelo.”

Nikoli didn’t move. He figured Meelo and his mate, Damir, wouldn’t want to be bothered with bad news tonight any more than he had. They were genetic engineers who’d fled E2, the same as him. They’d brought Lukan to this plane to keep the rulers from exterminating him on E4.

Clearly not ready to give up, Regina pointed at the cell phone on his desk. “Tell him what’s happening.”

“What can Meelo do? He’s in Arizona with Damir and—”

“I’m aware of that,” she interrupted. “But you can talk to him and Lukan. The three of you can decide what to do about the guards and the werewolves. You talk constantly about what you can do to rescue the pleasure slaves from E4. You can certainly talk about this.”

Nikoli powered down his computer and stood. “Not tonight.”

She frowned.

Ignoring it, he swept Regina into his arms, pressing his face to her throat, smelling her hair. She resisted for a moment and then her body molded to his, her arm slipping across his shoulders. In spite of her response, he wasn’t about to believe this was the end of their discussion. All he could hope for was a delay.

He carried her down the hall to their bedroom, the brass bed they shared. Its ivory comforter was pulled back, the pillows plumped, waiting for their use. Her shampoo and perfume scented the room, just as he liked, its colors autumnal, far different from the somber shades on E2. A gold-and-red-pattern rug lay beneath two crimson chairs that faced the large window. The sheer beige curtains didn’t entirely hide the outside vegetation, the leaves blazing with fall colors—yellow, red, orange.

How he adored it here. This space was his first real home, a place of comfort and passion, so unlike the sterile atmosphere, the oppressive calm in his realm. Nikoli recalled how often he’d watched Regina from the portal in his laboratory on E2 before taking a chance and crossing over. First, to save her from Andris and the other vampires. Finally, to remain and experience happiness.

She couldn’t have looked further from contentment than she did right now.

“It’s late,” he reasoned, the tip of his nose to hers. “Lukan and the others will be asleep. Arez needs her rest; you know that.”

Regina’s expression changed, her concern turning to understanding, along with what looked to be envy. Or perhaps it was regret. Just last week, Arez and Lukan had told them the good news—Arez was pregnant. A miracle of sorts. Arez and the other female sex slaves were bred to be sterile so they’d never reproduce, leaving them available to service Vakar and the other rulers without pause in the Palace.

Shortly after crossing over here, Damir had promised the young woman that she and Meelo would do everything within their power to reverse what the scientists had done to her. Now, Arez and Lukan had started their family.

Nikoli knew Regina wanted a baby of her own but was afraid to try for one with him. There were still too many dangers from the other realms and this one. The two detectives, Sheehan and Goddard, continued to investigate the murder of Donald Bakshi, an inventor whose home Nikoli had brought Regina to in order to keep her safe from the vampires. Through a portal on E2, he’d seen Andris and the others murdering Bakshi, feeding on him. With the inventor’s home deserted, Nikoli thought it would be a safe place to hide Regina. During their investigation into Bakshi’s disappearance and death, the detectives had found her fingerprints in the man’s home, which raised their suspicions about her role in the killing.

As those on this side would say—what a fucking bitch. He and Regina had managed to destroy the vampires, only to make her vulnerable to the authorities.

Unwilling to dwell on it, Nikoli assured her, “Everything’s going to be all right.” He lowered her to the mattress. “We have the means to escape if we ever need to, not that it’s going to come to that.”

He pulled a small device out of his jeans pocket, an instrument he’d built to open and close portals at will. He put it on the nightstand within easy reach, just as he always did.

“Tomorrow, I’ll contact Meelo,” he added. “I’ll speak to Lukan too.”

Regina clutched the hem of his tee. “Hold me.”

He intended to do far more than that. As quick as he could, Nikoli pulled off his shirt and tossed it on one of the chairs. His jeans landed to the side of the stone hearth. Regina had already laid a fire. Its bobbing flames cast the room in a delicate glow, softening the shadows. Nikoli tugged off his boxers and socks. Naked, he faced her, his cock rigid, prepared to penetrate, to pleasure.

Color stained Regina’s cheeks. Her hair was a deeper red in the rosy gloom, the strands fanned out over the pillows, her bangs pushed aside. She no longer looked like the calm, detached psychologist she played during her patient sessions, but a woman in love, slightly mussed, helpless in his presence, inviting him to take her.

Was there any doubt of his carnal intent?

Nikoli climbed on the bed, his weight shaking the mattress. He peeled back her nightgown, inch by delightful inch, to expose her calves, knees, creamy thighs, the reddish curls between her legs.

Her female musk wafted up, making his head spin. He pressed his face to her springy bush and licked her soft folds…slick with her moisture, slightly salty. He tongued her clit.

She gasped and fisted her fingers in his hair as though to keep him at the task. Maybe that was why she didn’t often cut it. She needed something to hang on to.

Smiling at the thought, Nikoli drew back his tongue and eased her grip on him. “Roll over.”

A frown creased her brow. She ground the heels of her hands into her eyes and whined, “Why’d you stop?”

“So you could roll over. Go on.” He kissed the inside of her upper thigh.

She shivered and dropped her hands. “No.”

That wasn’t the response Nikoli had expected. Did she want to talk again? Now? Before any words, questions or dire predictions could spill from her mouth, he headed back to her clit.

“Wait,” she said.

Again?

“I have a better idea.” She yanked off her nightgown, pitching it to the left. The garment landed on top of her small TV.

“Back,” she ordered. Palms on his chest, she pushed him.

Nikoli resisted, still wanting to play.

Regina didn’t seem as impressed with his strength as he did. She drew her nails down his pecs, circling his nipples, leaving bursts of pleasure in their wake. He forced down a swallow. She parroted his earlier question, “You don’t want this?”

He fell back, hands pillowing his head, legs spread, her willing sex slave. “Do whatever the fuck you want. Just don’t make me wait.”

She grinned. “We’ll see.”

“We’ll what?”

“Quiet,” she cooed, “you’re talking too much.”

Nikoli would have retorted if not for her hand on his cock. She cradled the damn thing much as her pussy would. Her fingers squeezed it gently. She moved them up and down his length, creating enough friction to make his legs stiffen and his toes curl.

He thanked her in his own language, babbling the words.

“Good?” she murmured.

He babbled some more, telling her it was beyond great and not to stop.

Not understanding E2’s language, she did.

Damn. “Regina,” he gasped. “Don’t…” He couldn’t finish.

She’d straddled his body and was now taking his cock inside her precious cunt, though not all the way. She stopped lowering herself onto him and whispered, “You want me to stop?”

“No.”

“But you just said ‘don’t’.”

“I didn’t mean—I was wrong, all right? Go on. Please.” She was making him nuts.

“Oh, okay. If you say so.”

He made a face at her obvious sarcasm.

She responded by taking all of him inside, then tightened her inner muscles around his rod.

He sucked in air, then sighed it out. Nothing could describe the sensations her actions created within him. They were too powerful. A gift only a God could have given to his mortal charges. No matter how many times they’d made love, Nikoli was still astounded at her body’s miraculous tightness and heat.

“Thank you,” he breathed, his hands on her hips to keep her steady as she pumped.

Regina worked their bodies with unbridled lust, the ends of her hair dancing over her shoulders, her breasts quivering. The bedsprings squeaked to join in the music they made—her body’s slap against his, her whimper, his groan, and finally her silence that told Nikoli how hard she concentrated, determined to hold off, not yet ready to surrender.

The way she gritted her teeth said she’d lost the battle. She came on a prolonged moan followed by a tattered sigh. He followed, grunting at the intense pleasure rushing through him…currents of delight wrapped in warmth, pulsing surges that left him panting, speechless but didn’t drain his strength. The males in his realm were bred to sustain erections for hours. Each orgasm made their cocks harder than they’d been before climax.

Having been born in this less advanced dimension, Regina collapsed on top of him, her cheek on his shoulder, her breath puffing against his neck.