“It’s said that after crossing over to be with her, he then aided the pleasure slaves’ escape with the help of his device.” Zekin lightly tapped the one near him. Its screen glowed a pale green. Symbols scrolled across it. “We believe this came from other quantum physicists on E2 like Nikoli, built on Vakar’s orders for the guards to use. It can bring us to whatever dimension we choose, the destination we desire, if we know how to use it.”
“We don’t,” Qatar said, repeating what Zekin had stated earlier. “That’s why we haven’t tried. We could risk ending up on E2, facing execution.”
“Or something equally bad,” Bruda mumbled.
Qatar nodded. “It might take us deep into the guards’ outpost on this realm where we couldn’t escape, forcing us to battle them.”
“We could even be transported to E3,” Bruda said, his rich complexion draining of color once more.
Paige spoke to Zekin. “You never mentioned E3. What’s there?”
He didn’t want to tell her.
“What?” she insisted.
Caressing her hand, he said, “E3 is the realm of the dead.”
Chapter Nine
It was too fantastic to believe. Yet, Paige was here with them, wasn’t she?
They had the means to take her back to Seattle but didn’t know how to use it without getting her and themselves killed. For the moment, maybe forever, she was trapped here with them. Surrounded by monsters just outside the pods and on the surface, along with the guards who’d already proven just as vicious.
Panic and hysterical laughter churned in her. She settled on a sigh. It took all her strength to pull in more air.
The men exchanged a glance that said they hadn’t a clue what to do about her reaction. While that didn’t appear to bother Qatar and Bruda, Zekin’s face and throat colored with what she guessed was shame. He’d promised to do all he could to bring her back and no doubt feared he’d failed.
As though he’d read her thoughts, he said, “Periodically, new prisoners from E2 arrive with the guards. One of them may have the knowledge to help us.”
He sounded so apologetic, so lost, she murmured, “It’s not your fault.”
His expression said otherwise.
Paige’s throat and chest ached with sorrow, more for him than for her. He was a good man who’d ended up in this godforsaken place because he’d simply wanted to save others and now blamed himself for what had happened to her.
“You should eat,” he said at last, releasing her hand.
She stared at his, overwhelmed by a sudden, irresistible urge to press his knuckles to her cheek, kiss his palm. Do something to make both of them feel better, even if it didn’t last. What good thing could in this place?
Paige had to clear her throat before she could trust herself to speak. “I’m not hungry. I’d like to go back to my room, if that’s all right.” Was someone cleaning it? Did they have the technology here for the room to do that on its own? Paige wanted to laugh at the crazy notion, until she considered it might not be so crazy.
She looked around helplessly at all these strangers, the odd structure. “I can’t recall how to get there. Eeete took me through a lot of halls—I don’t want to disturb her meal,” Paige added hurriedly before Zekin could suggest it. “Will you take me?”
“Of course.”
They left the table. Pleasure slaves stepped to the side, allowing them to pass. Paige didn’t bother giving them a smile, as none of them glanced at her or Zekin. On the way back to her pod, they walked side by side, not looking at each other, not speaking, behaving exactly as the slaves did. However, it was far different.
Paige sensed his tension, no different from hers. She figured he was struggling for something to say. Words that would comfort.
Upon reaching the space, he stepped aside, allowing her to enter first. The moment Paige did, she turned to him, wrapping her arms around his torso, tucking her face in his neck.
Zekin stiffened, though only for a moment, and then he embraced her in return, his body strong, protective, his arms easing her closer.
Grateful tears stung her eyes. “None of this is your fault,” she whispered, speaking as fast as she could, unable to stop. “Please, don’t ever think that. You’re the bravest man I know. You risked your life to save me and so many others. I don’t want you putting yourself in harm’s way for me. Not again. Not ever. If anything happened to you—oh God, I couldn’t live with myself, I’d simply—”
His kiss stopped her from continuing, his tongue parting her lips, filling her mouth. A sound filled with female craving rushed from Paige. She sagged against him, gripping his shirt, angling her head so he could deepen their kiss.
Zekin responded with pure male lust mingled with exquisite tenderness. Gently, he cupped the back of her head, his strength subdued yet still powerful enough to keep Paige from escaping the passion he needed. The same that she required. He growled in what sounded like delight. She made noises that were more feline than human, her body thrumming with desire, pushing her apprehension and despair away. If only for these moments. There was time enough later to face all the crap that would surely come.
Right now, she wanted relief from pain, craving all that was good. Seldom had Paige felt more alive and touched so deeply by a man.
She pulled at his shirt, needing it off. He did the same with hers, their movements hasty and graceless as they undressed each other. He flung her garment aside and stared. After her bath, Paige hadn’t bothered to put her underwear back on. She was as naked as the majority of the people here.
Zekin’s wolfish smile said he approved. Not only of her nudity but of her, as though she stirred something within him that none of those perfect females had been able to do.
Good boy.
Paige reached for his pants, more than ready to unfasten them. He was quicker, tearing them and his boots off, pitching them away.
She was going to reward him for that big-time.
Zekin seemed to know, his breathing as strained as hers, as if they’d reached the end of a marathon or a long, dry spell when it came to sex.
As far as Paige was concerned, their wait was over. Wrapped in each other’s embrace, their mouths joined once more, they sank to the bed.
Instantly, Zekin proved his superior strength, his intolerable need. With an iron grip, he held Paige’s wrists in one hand, her arms above her head—the same as he had in her earlier fantasy—while his other hand explored the contours of her body. Curves she’d been unhappy with for most of her life. Not now. Not when Zekin seemed to enjoy them so damned much.
His kiss grew gentle and searching, his intent clear as he explored the swell of her breasts, the slight curve of her belly, the damp folds between her legs.
Without restraint or pause, he worked three fingers inside her sheath.
Paige gasped, the sound dulled by his tongue. Her whimpers were louder, unrestrained at the wondrous sensations rolling through her. Carnal need. Savage lust. Devotion too, and a yearning that reached her soul. She responded as she’d never done before. He was a man who deserved a woman’s best.
He was clearly an expert at this. With his thumb, he stroked her clit lazily as though they had all the time in the world. Could be they did, until something new, unimaginable or horrible hap—
No. Stop it. Paige didn’t want to consider that. Not now. They’d both been through too much stuff—him far more than her—for Paige to dwell on the bad. She was determined to enjoy this slice of heaven.
Warmth snaked through her, deliciously seductive, snarling her thoughts, taking over her body. She lifted her hips, pushing her cunt into his hand, demanding that Zekin increase his pace.
He didn’t, his actions those of a man who ruled, who knew exactly what he was doing and what she required.
Paige’s orgasm built slowly, her muted pants and moans filling the silence. Within minutes, a thin sheen of perspiration coated her body and his. Still, he kept that same measured pace. Paige growled,
wanting him to put a move on. He thrust his tongue more deeply into her mouth, insistent on her submission to what he willed.
Helplessly—and then gladly—she gave him what he craved, her body relaxing beneath his.
He worked his fingers within her channel, mimicking what he’d soon be doing with his cock. Pulling them nearly out only to tunnel them back inside, creating friction and pressure that had Paige hungering for more. He gave it as he stroked her clit.
Ahhhh. Her nub was so wonderfully sensitive, Paige came without warning, the climax tearing through her.
Zekin didn’t notice or didn’t care. He continued to rub her small kernel of flesh until Paige thought she’d scream from too much pleasure. Tearing her mouth from his, she panted loudly. “Enough. Please. I need to—”
Her entreaty ended in a breathy sigh as Zekin thrust his cock into her cunt, stretching and filling her, burrowing as deep as a man could go.
Her sheath was warmer than he could have imagined, tighter than he’d dared dream, her inner muscles still pulsing slightly from her orgasm. Pleasure he’d given her. Delight she’d welcomed.
Never had Zekin felt as grateful to a female for allowing him to feel like a man. Not the dispassionate creature he’d been trained to be, but one who was imperfect—frozen in fear and indecision at times, hurt more by loneliness than the lash of a whip. He was all that and sensed Paige knew. Yet she still desired and cherished him.
It was in her touch, wanting him closer, and the way she yielded so completely to him.
An insatiable hunger for intimacy, a true coming together of body and spirit, tore through Zekin, emotions denied him all of his life. He ground his hips into hers, frustrated that he couldn’t get closer. If he’d been able to burrow beneath her skin, reaching the intense heat of her heart, he would have. Paige was the home he’d needed for too long, a woman he had no right to want.
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?”
S
he 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.”
Stolen Desire (Outlawed Realm) Page 10
