Keisha focused her thoughts on the monstrosity, and relief washed through her when she found a glimmer of her powers had returned. She probed its mind to access its level of intelligence. It was a beast ruled by instinct and reaction. There wasn’t a lot of room for reasoning or analyzing inside its small brain. She sent it a projection, tried to cast a visual illusion by tricking its synapses into believing she, too, was a towering monster larger than it. It stopped and backed up a bit, appearing confused, which gave her enough time to remove the other wristlet and her ankle shackles. She slipped her holographic sword from her boot and squeezed the helm to retract the shimmering façade of sharp steel.
The stinking wall of muscle and anger came at her again, loping across the concrete floor, sending up chunks of rock the size of Keisha’s head. She gripped the helm hard and assumed a defensive stance.
Still under the power of her projection, the creature swung too high, thinking she was far taller than her five foot six. Its meaty fist missed her completely, but it lost its balance in the force of its swing, and Keisha scrambled away, running to the left as the stinking wall of flesh fell toward her. Its shadow swallowed the scant bit of light the corridor had to offer. Keisha found the consuming blackness disorienting, and she smashed into a wall before her. She could hear the whistle of the wind the creature created as it tumbled toward her.
Before it could crush her with one of its massive arms, something just as large as her attacker dashed from an archway a few feet away from Keisha. It took concrete with it as it came, smashing the archway to smithereens as it snatched up her pursuer and shook it like a rag doll. She thought the new creature was a snake-headed conglomeration, but in the blue glow of her attacker’s skin, she saw it was an elephant-headed beast with a torso that dwarfed her stinking opponent.
The elephant monster trumpeted in triumph as it swung the silver-skinned monster above its head, and then slammed it down into the concrete so hard Keisha lost her balance and fell to her butt from the aftershock. To finish the silver giant, the elephant creature crushed its chest with a squat foot that was part human.
Then it changed. Keisha gripped her sword hard and got to her feet, readying herself for a new battle as the elephant creature shrank to a third of its prior size and became a man with long, curly hair that fell to his shoulders. He held up one hand in a gesture of peace as he neared, while the other hand began to ripple and morph, becoming a torch that burned orange and lit up his face.
“We’ve managed to take the cameras out on this floor,” he said, smiling as he stopped a couple feet away. “The Elites can’t see our fancy tricks down here.”
He extended the hand he’d used to sign peace, but she didn’t take it just yet. Instead, she took him in. The man standing before her was one of the most beautiful specimens she’d ever seen. His golden brown skin shone in the torch light, and it would be easy to stare into his almost black eyes for hours, she thought. He wore a tight, white undershirt that clung to his every muscle from the sweat of exertion. Khaki pants defined his trim waist and pulled snug over his thigh muscles.
Keisha shook her head, chided herself for loosing her thoughts to horny fantasy, and gripped her sword tighter.
“I’m not a threat,” he said, holding the torch hand and regular one above his head, which only gave her a better view of his triceps and pecs. “I’m here to welcome you, fellow misfit.”
She was still unsure, but she dropped her sword a bit. Keisha didn’t trust easily, and she didn’t lower her guard.
“What are you? You’re more than a shapeshifter.” she whispered.
He flashed another sexy smile, and she tried to resist the disarming affect it had on her. It had been a long time since she’d been with a man, with anyone, and this guy was getting to her. She wasn’t sure she liked that. Survival was the only thing she should be focused on right now.
“Let’s just say I had a little accident,” he told her, holding out his hand for her to take. “I can take any shape I choose now. The Elites weren’t so happy with that, so I ended up here, like you.”
Reluctantly, she took the hand he offered, squeezing her sword to deactivate it. Her heart hammered in her chest as his gaze held hers. A definite something passed between them, but Keisha pushed the reaction to this man violently from her thoughts. This was no time for distractions.
Chapter 2
“What’s your name, newcomer?” he asked as he led her away from the troll’s cooling corpse.
“Keisha,” she told him, offering nothing more.
“Rashid.”
This one guards her secrets carefully, he thought. After giving her his name, he led her toward the archway where Omar waited.
Rashid watched the woman’s reaction when the alchemist emerged from the shadows. Rashid’s partner in Funhouse survival for the last three years, Omar stood just a head shorter than Rashid, but he knew his partner equalled him when it came to the intimidation factor.
Keisha remained silent as the alchemist stepped into the light of the torch. In the light cast by Rashid’s hand, Omar’s skin shone the same shade of dark brown as the newcomer’s. His eyes were a warn chocolate brown, and his hair was clipped short against his head, shaved at the sides. Similar to Rashid, he wore a tight white undershirt and form fitting khaki pants. In addition he sported a dusty, grey trench coat, which billowed out behind him as he walked forward.
“An alchemist,” Keisha whispered. “I thought they’d all been wiped out on Altar-4.”
Omar whirled on her, trench coat twining about his knees, eyes narrowing. “How did you know that?”
She stepped back, and Rashid felt the tension thicken in the cramped tunnel.
The newcomer’s face tensed. “I’m a mind bender. Your energy signature hit me like a brick.”
Omar raised an eyebrow and stepped closer. “You’ve been peeking into my thoughts?”
“N-no…I can sense a misfit’s gift, if it’s strong enough.” She pointed to Rashid, who now thought it best to step between his partner and the newcomer. “I knew he was a shapeshifter, but not like any I’ve ever met.”
“Just stay out of my mind.” Omar touched the tip of her nose with his finger and glared.
Rashid gently pushed the alchemist back. “Let’s not scare the lady, okay?” He turned to Keisha. “By the looks of things, the night’s been rough on you already.”
Brushing her face, he probed one particularly bad scratch on her cheek, and she winced away in pain. Rashid apologized and then proceeded to lead them forward. At the camp, he and Omar would have something in their supplies to help the mind bender, heal her wounds.
Rashid took her hand, and they dashed down a wide hallway lined with broken cameras. A great commotion sounded above them, complete with blaring sirens and red lights that glared down at them from the crumbling ceiling.
“They’re letting the rabids out,” Omar said to Rashid, as he stopped to trip a wooden-handled lever at the end of the corridor.
A metal door hurtled down from the top of the archway, sealing them in this new chamber, and sealing it off from any pursuers. A small rectangular window with three bars running down it was the only view of the corridor they’d left behind, but through the squarish hole, Rashid saw no one pursuing.
He watched Keisha take in the large, round room where he and Omar had set up a temporary camp. In here, the howling of the rabids was amplified by the acoustics of their surroundings, and the newcomer’s eyes widened as the chaos created by the infected misfits passed over top of their safe haven.
“Don’t worry,” he said, as he slid the window in the door shut. “They can’t get through this door, or the protection spell Omar put on it. We’re safe.”
The large room they’d temporarily stopped in housed some sleeping bags crumpled against the wall opposite them, a bowl shaped fire pit scooped out of the concrete floor, and a worn couch. Rashid led her to the couch, while Omar tended to the fire pit. He left her at the couch long enoug
h to grab some medical supplies from his backpack.
“Let’s just get some antiseptic on those scratches.” He brushed a stinging solution over her cheek and she tried not to wince from the pain and sharp smell the bit her nostrils. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”
She shook her head. “My back’s a bit sore—probably be stiff in the morning—but I’m okay otherwise.”
Smiling, she thanked him as he applied a bit of gauze and tape to a deeper cut on her bicep, where a chunk of rock had gotten her. Omar continued to busy himself by the now crackling fire, and judging by the smells wafting Rashid’s way, he’d started preparing supper.
“Would you like to get cleaned up?” He pointed to her bandage. “We’ll have to watch that arm, but we have a place where you can shower, if you like.”
Judging by her reaction—a raised eyebrow and a distrustful frown—he’d given her his best rogue smile. Damn, he wasn’t hiding his intentions very well, he realized, but then he’d never been good with subtly. Rashid’s approach was all about charming the pants off his paramour. Omar was more the subtle lover, providing a balance to Rashid’s admitted bravado.
“That’d be great,” Keisha said, but her expression remained watchful, unchanged.
Rashid would take it slow and easy with this one, seduce her with finesse, unless she indicated she wanted it otherwise. He sensed Keisha wasn’t a girl to be pushed into corners. She needed to be tempted out of hiding with tasty morsels, like a shy creature.
Rashid led her to the old shower area. It was a leftover from when the Elites had a troop of agents stationed in the Funhouse, before they cut back on their secret service, at least where Funhouses were concerned, due to the abuse of misfits scandal that rocked the foundation of Altar-4. Rashid and Omar had taken the section over a year ago, using it as a home base while they planned an escape route out of the Funhouse. Step one of their plan was to take out all cameras that broadcast their daily life to the citizens and Elites of Altar-4. So far, they’d successfully disabled cameras on the entire first floor, and along the escape route they were plotting out.
He adjusted the water for her, and then stepped back as warm spray jetted from the rusty showerhead.
“You can get undressed in here.” Rashid led her to the locker area. “You’ll probably want some help showering, with that.” He pointed to her bandage, then chanced a look at her to gauge her reaction.
She bit her lower lip, seemed to ponder his thinly-veiled suggestion, and then sat on the bench placed between two rows of green lockers.
“I am feeling tired,” she said, matching his openly lustful stare with one of her own. “Guess I could use a hand.”
So, she was game after all. Rashid felt his cock begin to stiffen with a rush of blood, and he smiled as he held a hand out to Keisha.
“Here, let me help you undress.”
She came to him, her gaze still somewhat tentative, but heated just the same with a sexual curiosity. Keisha leaned into his chest and let his hands fall to her chest, caress her large breasts as he slid her t-shirt up over her torso and head. She sighed as he kissed her neck, and when she pressed closer into Rashid, he nipped at her ear, licked and kissed a trail down her neck while he massaged her now naked breasts.
His hands traveled lower, and she didn’t stop him when he unzipped her pants and slid them from her rounded hips. Before he removed her panties, he slid his fingers beneath the black, lacy fabric, finding a nest of tight curls. His fingers moved lower to stroke her clit, and Keisha arched forward when his fingers dipped inside her labia, lubricating his fingers on her wetness. He went back to stroking her clit until she bucked against him, then he traded off between teasing the nub of flesh and digging his fingers deep into her cunt, where he stroked her g-spot ever closer to climax.
She came in his arms as he used his free hand to slide her panties off. Gently, Rashid sat her on the bench while she still trembled from her orgasm. He quickly shed his clothes and joined her, taking her in his arms and kissing her deeply. Her tongue answered his, twining around his, when he parted her lips with a seeking lick.
Rashid parted her legs and urged her to lie back on the bench. He dipped his head to kiss and nibble a trail down one thigh and up the other. When he reached her pussy, he teased her mercilessly, kissing up the labia, but not touching her clit, placing gentle kisses in the thatch of hair above it. He didn’t satisfy her until she moaned out “please,” then he licked her clit with long, flitting strokes before he nibbled, sucked, and licked her to climax once again.
As she was coming down from orgasm number two, Rashid stood. “Well, I should let you get to that shower…”
He let his fingers linger in her hand, and she squeezed them as she sat up. He stopped and turned back to her.
“I thought you were going to help me?” Her smile was sexy and irresistible.
“Of course.”
Rashid led her back to the shower, underneath the warm spray. He smiled as he welcomed her into his arms, enjoying the slickness the warm water added to her voluptuous body. Sliding his hands up her firm stomach, he embraced her heavy, rounded breasts and squeezed as she trailed a hand up his thigh then wrapped it around his cock.
He reached behind himself and turned slightly, grabbing some soap from a wire basket hanging from the showerhead. Rashid lathered up his palms and then handed her the soap, while he coiled his fingers around her generous breasts once more. He relished the feel of them—soft yet firm—as he took their fullness in his hands and massaged with soap-smooth fingers.
Keisha worked his cock like a masterful lover. She used the soap to lubricate her grip well, then held him tight while her hand glided up and down his hard shaft. Coupled with the needles of hot shower spray tickling his back, Rashid soaked in a feast of sexual stimulation. He moaned as she cupped his balls in the cushion of her palm and squeezed every so lightly. When she went to her knees and took his full length in her mouth, the sensation exploded through him, sending a liquid fire of bliss from his groin to his belly, then spreading farther through his chest as she slid her hot, wet mouth up and down.
He spread his fingers in her tight, short curls, now damp against her head, as she flicked her tongue up and down his penis, then swirled it under the thick ridge of the head. Molten pleasure made him rock his hips and growl out his enjoyment. His breath quickened, and his heart beat faster, as she caressed his balls in time with her mouth’s skilful working. She buried his shaft in her throat to his root, and Rashid felt a sublime tingling from his toes to his neck as she flitted her tongue up and down while she still swallowed him whole. His mind burst in an onslaught of ecstasy.
He was about to come when Omar interrupted them. “You two ever plan on getting some dinner out here?”
Omar stopped when he came into view and saw the two of them. Rashid met his eyes and tried to shake off his lust-drugged state. Omar’s face remained impassive as his gaze went from Keisha on her knees to Rashid’s face. Rashid held his breath, listened to his heart play the drums in his ears, and waited for his partner’s reaction.
It wasn’t like this was the first time Omar had caught him in such a state. Omar had discovered him and Veronica in a similar state when she’d first joined them, making their duo a trio, but then, Rashid knew Veronica had left a bad taste in Omar’s mouth when she left them.
“I’ll leave you two alone,” Omar whispered, and turned to leave, but then he stopped, tilted his head as if he listened to something.
Keisha stood when he turned back and gave her a glare. Rashid felt confused, and he frowned down at his new lover.
“I told you to stay out of my mind,” Omar said to the newcomer.
“I just wanted to reassure you—”
“Don’t.” He held up a finger and pointed at her. “Bother.”
“Look, I’m no threat to you or him.” She looked up at Rashid and her eyes pleaded with him to back her up. “This just … happened.”
“Right.” Omar turned aw
ay again, and this time Rashid spoke up.
“Come on.” He walked around Keisha, towards Omar. “You know what this is about. You’re still letting Veronica haunt you.” Then he turned back to Keisha. “Omar and I have an open relationship, but something happened—”
Omar shot him an angry frown and widened his eyes, cutting Rashid’s words off.
“There was another,” Rashid continued, walking back to Keisha, ignoring his pouting lover. “She betrayed our trust, and, well…Omar’s still sore about it.”
“You big-mouth bastard,” Omar growled. “You barely know this woman, and already you’re fucking her and spilling our secrets.” He threw his arms up in the air. “But why should I be surprised? It’s your usual M.O.”
Rashid shrugged and crossed his arms over his bare chest. “I’m the rogue and you’re the brains. We agreed on that long ago.”
“I just wish you’d show a bit more self-control.” Omar sneered.
He turned from them, but before he could take his first step, his broad back went straight, his shoulders stiffened, and he whirled on them anew. “You did it again.” He pointed at Keisha. “What part of stay out of my mind don’t you get?”
“Look, when I get nervous, upset, sometimes…it’s instinct. I have to work on my control, okay?”
She stepped closer to the towering alchemist, glaring back, and Rashid followed, ready to place himself between the two of them and end the squabble.
“Don’t even give me that excuse.” Omar brought his face closer. “You’re just trying to influence my thoughts. I’ve known other mind benders like you. Never can trust a head player.”
Keisha’s nostrils flared and her hands balled into fists. Rashid took this time to step in between.
“You’re not being fair, Omar. We’ve got enough against us, Elites trying to watch our every move, without turning on one another.”
Surrender Boxed Set (Surrender Series Volume 1 - 7. BDSM romance with man love, bad boys, and billionaires.) Page 65
