Stolen Desire (Outlawed Realm) (14 page)

She wouldn’t be here forever. He had to find a way to send her home. Away from him.

Zekin’s body shuddered with an awful mixture of lust and sorrow. Fool that he was, he surrendered to passion, driving every other emotion aside. He’d face reality in time. For now, he wanted to indulge in this. In her.

He kissed Paige greedily, roughly, as though he were a young boy who’d never been with a woman and was unable to rein in his feelings. Thankfully, she didn’t seem to mind. She pushed her fingers through his hair, gripping his skull to keep him to her.

Zekin wasn’t going anywhere, not for a very long while.

He pumped his hips, inhaling sharply at the pleasure whisking through him. Each tap of his balls against her body stirred more of his passion, the same as her sheath tightening around his shaft, how she now dug her finger into his biceps, needing him as an anchor.

The same as he required her.

He’d lived too long without experiencing the intensity of being this close to a woman he not only craved but admired. As terrified as she’d been when they’d escaped the guards’ outpost, she’d promised to protect him. She’d given him a reason to smile, a reason to hope, becoming necessary to his happiness.

Until she was gone.

Melancholy gripped him so quickly, Zekin had difficulty breathing. He ignored it and plowed into Paige, his desire insatiable, his need to keep her at his side the only outcome he could endure. Afterward, he’d submit to reason as he’d been taught.

For now, he wanted to live.

His pulse pounded. He was slick with sweat, the same as her, their bodies rocking in unison, their strangled noises signaling climax.

He shuddered from its power, and so did she. Wanting to get even closer, Zekin remained inside and draped his torso over hers, pressing his face into her neck as she’d done with him.

Paige trembled again. Sluggishly, she combed his hair with her fingers, her fatigue obvious. It didn’t stop her from stroking his back, until she touched one of his scars. As though the uneven skin had burned her, she snatched back her hand.

Zekin suppressed a sigh and murmured, “It doesn’t hurt. Not any longer.”

She made a sound that reminded him of a wounded animal. “Did the guards do that to you?”

From the moment he’d arrived at the colony. They’d ordered him to place his feet within the symbols on the floor. Once Zekin had lifted his arms above his head—also on their orders as they’d held crossbows on him with the arrows aimed at his head and chest—they’d shackled and chained him so he couldn’t get free. With his shirt stripped away, they’d whipped him until he lost consciousness.

Covered with blood and sweat, he’d awakened in one of the pods. At that time, there weren’t beds and mattresses upon which to sleep. He and his men had taken those from the guards’ quarters after the revolt. Prisoners were required to sleep standing up, chained to one of the pod’s metal supports. If they managed to slumber at all.

The guards’ cruelty knew no limit. They whipped two of the condemned to death, then ordered three other prisoners to eat the men’s battered flesh. When they refused, the guards fed all five to the water creatures while they forced the rest of their captives to watch.

“The guards learned what they knew from Vakar,” Zekin explained. “For the most part, they were simply following his orders. He could have had me and the others executed immediately with a poison our realm uses. You have it on your plane.”

“Cyanide?”

“No. I believe you call it chocolate.”

“Huh?”

“Our scientists manipulated our DNA so that chocolate is toxic to us. One swallow causes severe convulsions and death within minutes.” Zekin shrugged. “Vakar said that was too humane of an end for my kind. Years ago, he’d had this colony secretly built for those who defied him in the least. To prolong their suffering, he said.”

Paige hugged him with surprising strength. “I’m so sorry. Didn’t you have anyone on your side, from your…ah…”

When she didn’t continue, Zekin finished for her, “Plane, dimension or realm.”

She huffed out a sigh as though it upset her to use the correct phrase or to face the truth of her situation. “Why didn’t anyone help you? What about your people? Your family? You said Vakar built this place secretly. Didn’t those closest to you wonder where you’d gone? Didn’t they try to find and rescue you?”

Zekin brushed his lips over her collarbone, savoring her satiny skin and scent. She smelled of woman, sex and him, fragrances that enriched the sterile air, giving it life, a reason to keep trying, hoping, no matter how futile it might be.

Without meaning to, he exhaled loudly. The noise sounded of defeat rather than resignation to a reality he’d accepted as norm. “My father died in a building fire when I was a young boy. When my mother learned of my crime of insubordination—one Vakar fabricated, saying I’d refused to plan a new city to his specifications, causing Bruda and Qatar to also question his authority—she cut all ties and denounced me publicly on what your realm would call state TV.”

“For not planning a stupid city as he wanted?” As she had before, Paige muttered something that revealed her outrage and distress. Clutching him to her, she whispered, “Please tell me you’re joking.”

“She had no idea what had really happened on E4,” Zekin reasoned. “Vakar keeps his true character hidden from the populace, so my mother did what she thought was right. What she’d been taught. The inviolability of the realm, our allegiance to Vakar and his inner circle are more important than anything. No one dares to question or deny him. As long as he maintains the tenets of our dimension, his word is law and infallible. I don’t blame her.”

Blowing out a sigh, Paige caressed him gently. “What about your brothers? Sisters? Do they feel the same as your mother?”

“I have no siblings.” He kissed her throat, delighted at its texture, the faint saltiness of her skin. “Few are allowed to breed on my plane. Those who are rarely have more than one child.”

Her arms loosened around him. “Allowed?”

She sounded so outraged, Zekin wasn’t certain how to continue…except with the truth, reality, precisely what those on her dimension avoided. Speaking cautiously, he said, “The scientists made certain that the populace only breeds when they allow us to. They…” He paused, considering something he hadn’t thought of before, a matter that would certainly disturb Paige once she considered it. Worried about that, Zekin propped himself on one elbow, searching her face.

She appeared far less disgusted than he’d imagined. She looked wonderful, her skin flushed with lingering desire.

“What?” she asked.

It took Zekin a moment to collect his thoughts and recall what he’d been about to say. He didn’t want to continue, but knew he had to before her passion turned to worry or dismay. “I never earned the right to breed, so you don’t have to worry about having a child with—”

She rested her fingers on his lips, stopping him. Empathy and tenderness flooded her features. “How awful it must have been for you to have been there…to be here.”

Her compassion touched Zekin, restoring a part of his soul he thought had died. He smiled softly. An act he’d rarely engaged in on E2 and had done so even less frequently here. Easing her hand away, he whispered, “It brought me to this moment and you.”

Her mouth trembled.

“Don’t cry,” he begged. Her unhappiness pained him more than any beating could. “There’s no need. I survived.”

That didn’t ease her sadness. If anything, it seemed to stoke it.

Zekin had no idea why his past saddened her so much when it didn’t matter any longer. As he’d said, it had given them these moments. Unless that wasn’t what she really wanted. He considered that, shaken by a new thought, one he hadn’t taken into account. “You miss your home, your people. A man.”

Paige hugged him fiercely. “There is no man. No real family. No love.”

“How can that be? Your dimension is nothing like mine.”

She made a sound that was part sadness, part embarrassment. “It’s more alike than you think.”

Zekin eased back so he could look at her. “I don’t understand.”

“Neither did I…until I came here.” She gave him a sheepish smile, her face darkening with color.

A blush deeper than any Zekin had seen before. Why?

Paige cleared her throat before continuing, “My fiancé, Johnny, called off our wedding plans two months before the date we finally set, as though cancelling so late was no big deal. To him, I guess it wasn’t. I pushed him into it even though I knew deep down he didn’t want to commit. Good Lord, I paid for everything, including the stupid ring.”

She laughed bitterly, a bit of shame obvious in it. “We’d lived together for five years. I wanted a home. Family. Kids. I didn’t know any other way to get that except with him. I mean, I could always have been artificially inseminated. A lot of women do that, but I didn’t want my baby growing up without two parents. It just didn’t seem right. So, I stuck it out with Johnny, hoping, waiting. I’m embarrassed to say I was willing to settle for so little. I’m not a stupid woman or helpless, but when it comes to men, I’d never dated much. Guys weren’t exactly knocking down my door. I’ve never been a babe. When Johnny came along, I told myself I was lucky to have him. I did everything I knew to make him happy. I—I’m talking too much.”

“Say what you need to.”

She shook her head.

“I’ll listen,” Zekin promised, then repeated what she’d told him earlier. “I won’t judge.”

She groaned as though that didn’t help at all.

“Please,” he said.

After a few swallows, she whispered, “No matter how hard I tried, he kept putting off settling down with me. He was too busy at work, there were so many things he wanted to do. Finally, he told me that if I lost…ah…”

When she didn’t continue, Zekin studied her face, surprised to see even deeper embarrassment. Why? “What did he ask you to lose?”

Paige smiled weakly. “Weight. He wanted me to be thinner.”

“Why?”

She stared at him as though he’d said something unthinkable. “He thought I was too big. Plump.”

“Why?”

“You don’t think so, do you?”

Although she seemed to believe he didn’t, she still appeared surprised.

“You look like a woman,” Zekin explained, using the truth and reason. Pleased that he had. The smile Paige gave him was luminous.

“Clearly, there is no man,” she said, then sobered as she continued. “No family either. My dad’s dead. Had a heart attack when I was still in college.” Her eyes shone. She cleared her throat once more. “That’s why I became an attorney like him. It was the only way I could think of to honor his memory. Law was never a passion for me, but I made it work as well as I could, which turned out to be not that great. Before all of this happened, I knew I wouldn’t ever make partner. I put in these god-awful hours, but it never seemed to matter. Still, I don’t regret it, because of my dad. He was such a good guy. Sweet. Patient. We would have done anything for each other. I still miss him.”

Not knowing what to say, or how to ease her obvious pain, Zekin brushed a strand of hair from her cheek.

Her lids fluttered. She breathed deeply, then continued, “My mom abandoned us when I was a kid. Five, to be exact. She hooked up with a guy she met at a bar that she and her girlfriends always went to for their nights out. He worked construction. Last I heard, and that was several years ago, they had three kids. All boys. I never saw her after she left. She never once tried to contact my dad or me. Except for a few acquaintances at my job, not really friends, more like work buddies, I’m all alone. The same as you.”

Zekin wondered about a world that would allow such a thing on any of its realms. “I’m sorry.”

“Me too. You’ve been through so damn much, you poor baby.”

“You poor what?”

She smiled, her sadness thankfully forgotten for the moment. “A term of endearment on my realm. No reflection at all on your manhood.”

He arched one brow, wanting to tease her, something he’d never done with any other woman. It was unheard of. Not allowed.

“Seriously,” she said, serious now. “I didn’t mean—” She stopped and looked at his groin.

Zekin flexed his cock again, its thickness pushing against her sheath’s inner walls. The act of a full-grown man, not a poor baby, and clearly what she hadn’t noticed when she’d been distracted by his scars and their personal stories.

“You’re hard again…already?” she asked.

Zekin brushed his mouth over hers. As he spoke, their lips touched. “As I’ve already explained, our scientists wanted to create perfect specimens. They increased a man’s ability to perform well beyond what nature had provided. I won’t be ready to rest for hours.” He paused, then used a bit of slang from her realm. “Poor you.”

Her sigh sounded awed. Her breath was warm and sweet. “No kidding. Show me,” she said.

He fully intended to.

His smile was awesome and so welcome. It was the first time Paige had seen Zekin behave simply as a man enjoying himself.

He cupped her breast and swirled his tongue around the nipple. The areola constricted immediately. He fitted his mouth over it, suckling hard, then gently, then hard once more, seemingly unable to determine what to do.