Nikandros shut the door as he stepped in behind her. His hands glided over her flesh, at once finding hold on her chest. Insistently, he pushed her forward until her body was pressed against the unforgiving tile wall. His lips dipped to drink from her wet flesh, kissing and licking her delectable skin.
“You taste so good,” he said between sips. She breathed deeply, her hand reaching behind her to feel for him. Her fingers met with flexing muscular hips.
Nikandros groaned, pressing his risen manhood into her tender backside. Quinlan whimpered, gasping loudly as he began to rub himself into the sensitive flesh of her cleft. She knew the house was empty, knew that the robot staff wouldn’t care if she screamed in pleasure.
“You like that, don’t you?” he demanded hotly. His teeth bit into the delicate lobe of her ear. “You want me inside you, don’t you?”
“Yes,” she panted, liking the sound of his voice, the feel of him. His hands were doing delightful things to her breasts, tweaking and teasing the nipples into hard points.
At her admission, Nikandros turned her in the shower to face him. He kissed her softly, passionately. His fingers glided over her hot, wet skin, sending wave after wave of desire through her.
Quinlan was on fire. She felt cream pooling between her thighs, wet and hot and so very ready for him. When he lifted her legs to wrap around his waist, she didn’t protest. His hands supported her. His weight pressed her back into the wall.
Nikandros guided himself forward. Her wet heat called to him. He stroked himself lightly along her opening, parting her moist lips with his hard shaft, testing to see if she was ready to accept him. He’d waited for so long,
tormented by the sound of her voice, haunted in dreams and in wakefulness.
To her surprise, he took her slowly, entering her with a gentleness that made her body weak and strong at the same time. Quinlan had never felt anything like him. He tested her, probing as he stretched her to fit around him. The shower made their skin glide easily, just as her wetness made his claiming all the sweeter.
Nikandros groaned as she fitted around him. She was tight, but her muscles surrendered to his solid heat. Not stopping until he was fully embedded, he growled loudly.
“Oh,” she breathed, wiggling against him. Her fingernails dug into his shoulders. “Yes. Yes.”
Grabbing onto her hips, he began to move, pulling out only to delve back inside. Nikandros grunted. Quinlan screamed. Their bodies slammed together in a primal rhythm.
“Oh, ye-es, Nick,” she gasped, urging him on. Her head fell forward and she bit at his neck. He continued to move, picking up the tempo of his possession.
“Ah, Quinlan, you feel so good, so tight,” he growled, trying to control her hips and touch all of her at the same time. The movements of his body quickened, sparking a reaction deep inside her.
When he pulled back, her eyes were staring into him, wide and trusting. Something inside of him broke in that moment. He saw her loneliness—so deep and raw. He knew she was innocent of everything they thought her capable of. He couldn’t explain it, but he knew it as sure as he knew himself.
The swiftness with which her body peaked amazed her as she tensed against him, arching violently into the tile. Nikandros almost lost his footing on the slick stone beneath his feet. And, as her body tightened around him with forceful tremors, clenching him hard, it was all he could do to hold on as he jerked his release into her.
Chapter Five
Nikandros lowered Quinlan down from the wall. At first, he didn’t move away, keeping her pressed against him, trapped to him. The feel of her soft body made him want to stand there forever, protecting her.
Quinlan quivered against the solid mass of his flesh, feeling secure in his strong arms. She couldn’t explain it, but she knew she was falling for him. She knew it wasn’t completely due to the sensations she’d just experienced—though they had shattered her well-organized world. It was like she knew him, like she’d known him all her life.
Nikandros slowly pulled back, only to kiss her in an effort to cut off anything she might try to say. Whatever she was thinking, he didn’t want to hear it. She moaned lightly against him, easily melting into his passion. At the soft sound, he was surprised to find his body eager to claim her all over again.
“Turn off the shower,” he murmured to her panting lips.
“Shower off,” she breathed, sucking his tongue into her mouth. The water instantly stopped spraying.
“Invite me to your bed,” he urged.
Quinlan nodded, her finger wound up into his soft wet hair, as she whispered, “Mm-hum. Come to my bed.”
His hand found its way over her hip. His fingers moved to touch her intimately, bolding circling around her until she felt her hips jerk in response.
“Invite me to come inside you,” he whispered.
“Yes,” she breathed, growing warmer beneath his touch. Her eyes closed in pleasure. She didn’t know how he managed it, but with a few simple words he’d heated her back past the point of reasoning. “Oh! Come inside me.”
Nikandros growled. Quinlan giggled as he swung her up into his arms and rushed her across her bedroom. Her body glided onto the silk sheets of her bed as he laid her down.
“You feel just like this silk,” he confessed, running his hands over her as he came to lay half way on top of her moist body. Her gray-green eyes widened at the admission. His large thigh pressed her legs down, trapping her beneath him, not that she had anywhere else she wanted to go.
His nose nudged near her ear, pushing her cheek over so he could place hot kisses along her neck. Her body was still wet from the shower and it aided his lips as they slid to envelop the base of her throat, moving along her collarbone. Quinlan shivered, arching into him.
“Where did you come from?” she whispered in awe, breathing heavily as he kissed her. Surely he had emerged from her dreams. Reality was never like this.
Nikandros wanted to tell her the truth, but couldn’t. When his lips stilled in their journey, she pulled back to study him.
“Who are you, really?” she asked, her gaze searching and vulnerable. Quinlan swallowed nervously. She had been alone for so long and never imagined anything could take away the ache she felt. But, with him, she didn’t feel the emptiness.
Nikandros closed his eyes, fighting the truth that tried to spill forth. He’d never realized until the moment of ecstasy in her arms how alone his centuries had truly been. He was old enough to know his feelings for what they were. He was old enough to know his own heart. He was old enough to know he couldn’t blow his cover until he had solid proof that she wasn’t guilty. Taking a deep breath, he said the only truth he could. “I am a man you shouldn’t trust just yet.”
Her eyes fell and he felt her sadness as if it was his own.
“But I am also a man who wants nothing more than to be here right now, making love to you.”
Quinlan took the answer for what it was, knowing that was all he would or could say. She was familiar with secrets. Slowly, she nodded, offering her neck up to him so he could resume his pleasurable torture of her skin.
Nikandros couldn’t help but be awed by how easily she accepted his response. She did not scream or try to coax answers from him. She did not demand anything from him at all, except what he would readily give her. He again kissed her throat, licking at her pulse until it began to speed up at his rapt attention.
His hand found her breast, ripening a nipple with his thumb, while his lips found the other peak, nipping at it with his teeth only to soothe it the next instant with a deep kiss. Quinlan moaned, loving the feel of his strong body. His kisses trailed over her stomach, to her hips, only to center on her most intimate need.
He was surprised to find her so ready for him as his fingers dipped inside to stroke her. Her leg rubbed restlessly against him, her foot working its way to lie against his arousal, stroking him in return the only way she could reach.
Quinlan thought she died when his lips latc
hed onto her moistened center. His fingers began to move more insistently, urging her to climax against his hand. She began to tremble. Nikandros felt the response and sucked her deeper into his mouth. His fingers quickened until her hands were in his hair smothering his lips into her softness. Her head thrashed wildly against her pillows.
“Nick,” she screamed, jerking and tensing against him. It was the most beautiful sound he’d ever heard. He didn’t let up until he milked every last quiver her body had to offer him. A dominant smile on his lips, he released her and crawled up over her weakened body.
He moved as if he would enter her, but Quinlan tightened her thighs on his waist and flung him onto his back with a surprising strength. A sultry vixen’s smile came to her mouth as she eyed his naked and readied body.
“I must have you,” he growled, reaching to grab her hips. She met his hands and pressed them over his head, pinning him down. The moisture from her body slid between them as she sat on his hard stomach.
“It’s my turn to play,” she whispered.
Nikandros was glad she dipped her head to kiss his chest, because his mouth fell open in amazement at the bold statement. Her lips were on his hot flesh, tracing a pattern over the ridges of his muscles, dropping little feathery caresses along him until he squirmed to be free of her torture.
She was amazedly strong, but he knew that if really wanted to, he could buck her off him. As she sat up, he saw the lowered lids of her impassioned gaze and he wouldn’t have stopped her torture for the world. She leaned over to explore his neck and throat, biting him as he had her and then soothing the same way.
“Do you like this?” she asked, licking her way to his earlobe. She was answered by a husky growl.
“Yes,” he groaned.
The loudness of his response pleased Quinlan. She kissed up his jaw to claim his mouth and sucked at his eager tongue, massaging it with her own. His hips jerked and her body slid back along his waist so that her backside was flush against his heavy erection. She felt him against her, large and powerful. The smooth skin of him rubbed insistently into her as he thrust his hips up, searching for his release that could not come unless she took him deep inside.
“I must have you now,” he urged against her mouth, not letting her up from his all-consuming kiss. “Let me inside you, Quinlan, please. I need to feel your silken depths before I explode.”
Quinlan released his arms. He growled, his hands automatically finding her hips to raise her up. With a potent force, he guided himself directly inside of her, hitting hard upon her heated core. Quinlan jerked in surprise.
Nikandros howled with delight at the feel of her on top of him. His stomach tensed and he sat up, rocking her thighs against his hips. The action caused him to go deeper still. His fingers dug into the silk sheets as he braced his arms back. Her hips began to move, controlling the motion of their thrusts. His knees bent and his heels dug into the bed for leverage. His body jerked, impatient to meet the down stroke of her hips, slamming his body up into hers.
“Ah, faster,” he begged her, breathless and gasping for air. “Harder.”
Quinlan began to move faster, instantly discovering the delight of claiming him hard.
“Harder,” he growled, pumping up into her, his whole body tensing and flexing.
She could not deny him. Watching his face, contorted in what seemed like agony, she gave him what he begged for. Her body squeezed him, colliding against him, forcing him to come inside her as she rode him hard. Her body began to peak with desire. Sweat glistened on their skin. She tried to hold back from her climax, wanting to give him his first.
“Oh, yeah, sweetheart,” he implored demandingly. “That’s it. Ah, that’s it. Don’t stop. Just ... like ... that, darling. Don’t stop ... ah. Keep it hard. Oh, you feel so good on me.”
Quinlan couldn’t deny herself any longer as his words washed over her. She pushed him back. She braced her hands onto his chest as he fell over in surprise. Her fingers dug into his nipples. She circled her hips while still pounding into his flesh. Her body began to tense, she could feel it coming, she needed it to come, she needed him to release her....
“Aahh!” she screamed, shaking ferociously as she peaked. Her hands clawed viciously into him.
Nikandros’ head fell back as he arched into her. He never felt anything like it. It was as if her body sucked the life out of him and he willingly gave it to her. His mouth opened, his eyes sought to look at her, wanting the memory of her climaxing pose to forever be with him. He was stunned to see her eyes shifted to the subtlest purple.
“Silk,” he whispered.
Quinlan collapsed on top of him, breathless. She couldn’t move. “What did you say?”
“I said you feel like silk,” he murmured into her hair. She was too spent to move. His lips trailed to her temple to give her a gentle kiss and she fell asleep on his body, his member still embedded within her.
* * * *
Nikandros didn’t know how long he dozed, but sometime during his rest, Quinlan had slid off to his side and now lay nestled next to him on the bed. She was achingly beautiful in her nakedness and his body stirred, wanting to take possession of her again. Her lips parted and she moaned in her sleep, tempting him to a kiss. He held back. He didn’t dare wake her.
Thinking of her shifting eyes, he slowly stood and went to look for the formula he’d stolen from her father’s laboratory. It angered him slightly that she would just leave it lying out like that. He didn’t dream for a moment that a scientist’s daughter wouldn’t know what it was—especially William’s daughter.
Guilt overwhelmed him as he pulled the paper out. Slowly, he read over the encoded documentation. It was part of William’s research. He knew because William had used part of his DNA coding in the research and Nikandros recognized the sequencing.
Getting to the end, he frowned. The work was incomplete and, in the corner, in a tight script that looked just like William’s, it read, All attempts to produce genetic enhancements a complete failure. All subjects unstable and die within twelve hours before any genetic altering can even take hold. Am regretfully calling an end to the project.
It was dated the day before William died.
Nikandros glanced at the bed to the sleeping woman. The smooth curve of her backside was to him. The documents were fakes—good fakes, but fakes nonetheless. He knew because he had seen the real research. Where this paper claimed to hit a dead end, they had surpassed by leaps and bounds.
He sighed, knowing he would be expected to report in. Taking a leap of faith, he grabbed a pen from his pocket and scrolled quick note onto the back of the page. Then, laying it by her head, he placed the rose from his lapel on top of it. He wanted to kiss her again, but didn’t dare until this nasty business was done for good.
Quietly, he dressed and snuck from her bedroom window, leaping down the way he’d gotten in. His body blended completely with the darkness, blurring as he moved, turning into a fine, undetectable mist as he easily went past her security.
* * * *
Quinlan awoke the next morning with a smile forming on her lips before she even opened her eyes. She was thoroughly rested. Yawning, she reached across her large bed, searching for Nikandros. To her disappointment, he wasn’t there. Still grinning like a fool, her fingers hit a flower. She grabbed the bud, sitting up to look around. The fire burned golden, caressing the near empty room.
“Nick?” she called, leaning over to look into the bathroom as she smelled the red rose. There was no answer. She frowned in disappointment. Then, seeing a white piece of paper on her pillow, she picked it up.
I know the truth about your father’s formula. Meet me tonight. Pierson Park. Midnight. Nikandros.
Quinlan’s hand trembled as she turned the paper over. It was the fake sheet she’d put in her father’s office and carefully sprinkled with dust to make it look like an original. Her hands trembled and a tear slid down her face. If Nikandros knew the truth, then others might know it as we
ll. She couldn’t let the secret out. She couldn’t let them make more like her. She had to stop him.
“No,” she whispered, looking down at her naked body in bittersweet dejection. “Silk has to stop him.”
* * * *
Nikandros frowned into the video phone. “I don’t think she is trying to sell the formula.”
Korbin’s eyes narrowed. “What makes you think that?”
“I just do.” Nikandros rolled a little piece of silk residue in his fingers. He’d found it on his chest when he got back to his hotel room, next to the scratch marks from Quinlan’s fingers. He’d also seen the way her eyes changed to a most familiar purple.
“Are you sure you’re not thinking with your—” began Korbin.
“William figured out the formula,” Nikandros broke in. “It’s complete.”
“No,” Korbin whispered, with an expression akin to horror. “Then you know what we must do. We have to get that formula. If it fell into the wrong hands, just imagine the evil we’d be dealing with.”
“I don’t think she’s going to give it out.” Nikandros wondered what made him so sure of that fact.
“You’re not thinking straight,” Korbin said. “I know you like her, but—”
“I think I love her,” Nikandros said. Korbin paled.
“Nick,” Korbin began, almost mournful
“All I ask is that you give me time to talk to her before you send in the other Protectors. If she is trying to give out the formula, I’ll take her down myself—on my honor.” Nikandros stared boldly in the phone.
“All right,” Korbin said. After hundreds of years of working together, he knew to take Nikandros at his word. But, from experience, he also knew that love clouded the mind. He didn’t know what was going on down in Pierson City, but he was sure he didn’t like it. “I’ll give you till tomorrow. But if the formula’s completed, she could already have a buyer lined up for it. I can’t think of a single man at that party I would want to have it.”
Silk Page 5
