by Tina Donahue
Nikoli grinned at the hunger he saw on her face. “And what do the men on your side do during their downtime?”
“Snore, mostly.”
“What’s that?”
“They make a noise in their throats that’s similar to gasping or choking.”
He frowned. “Sounds unpleasant.”
“It is. Boring too, for the woman. Take these off.” With her hands beneath his pants and boxers, she shoved them to his calves. “Let me help you with your shoes and socks. Put your hand on my shoulder.”
“I’d rather undress you.”
“In a sec.” She lifted her face.
Her smile weakened any objection Nikoli might have had. Her willingness to touch him, her eagerness to have him inside of her was nearly beyond Nikoli’s comprehension. She was more than he ever dreamed possible, and everything he couldn’t have.
Unwilling to think about that or the morning, he allowed her to undress him. Twice, she paused to kiss his cock. Twice, he forgot to breathe.
She tossed his shoes aside. They hit the floor with two hard whacks, then tumbled across the wood, coming to a stop at the base of the sofa.
After stripping him of his socks, she flung them in the same direction. “Step out of your pants and boxers,” she said. “I have you.” She placed her hand on his.
With her fingers warming him, he did as she asked.
Regina shoved his clothing aside and grinned at his naked legs and feet. “You have really long toes,” she said.
Nikoli smiled, then laughed as she stroked his feet, tickling them.
Eagerly, she asked, “Are you getting even harder?”
He was. “Joy like this makes me hard.”
With a radiant smile, Regina asked, “You’re happy?”
It was more than that. With her, he was home. A sense of belonging, of being whole in a way he’d never imagined filled Nikoli, along with intense frustration because it couldn’t last. It was a myth, no different from the orderly world his people had built on E2. So perfect, it had left him wanting for nothing, until he’d seen Regina.
Then he’d realized just how deprived he’d been, hoping for a woman out of his reach, for the one person who would make life worth living. The one love he could never have.
“Nikoli?”
“I’m happier than you could possibly know,” he finally said, speaking as he never had to another woman. “I regret nothing about crossing over to be with you. I wanted it from the start, the first moment I knew you existed.”
Delight transformed Regina’s features, followed by a challenging smile. Lifting her chin, she said, “Then show me. I want you naked.”
And he didn’t want the same of her? Sensing she was playing a carnal game, perhaps a mating ritual on this dimension, Nikoli crossed his arms over his chest and cocked one brow. “I believe those on your side would say fuck that, or—you first.”
At his response, Regina’s delicate nostrils flared, betraying her mounting passion. Even in the muted light, her skin flushed with desire.
“Very well,” she said, a blend of meekness and wantonness in her response.
How Nikoli treasured that. A woman so filled with emotion she couldn’t contain them all or decide on simply one.
Easing down to her right hip, she brought her legs around, pulling off her high heels and the sheer knee-length stockings that covered her narrow feet and calves.
Her toenails were polished the same shade of red as her hair. He really liked that. She unbuttoned and unzipped her pants. Nikoli enjoyed that even more. Wiggling out of them, Regina dropped the garments on his topcoat and jacket.
He stared at her legs, even more beautiful now than when he’d seen them this morning as she showered.
“You like?” she asked.
The way she asked the question told Nikoli she already knew his answer. Even so, he nodded, his attention captured by her black panties. Made of a delicate material, they were sheer enough for him to see the reddish curls between her legs.
Already beating too hard, his heart slammed into his throat.
Keeping her legs parted—a deliciously arousing pose—Regina pulled her sweater over her torso, past her head and flung it behind her.
In his peripheral vision, Nikoli saw it land on the arm of a chair. The rest of his attention remained on her breasts, the creamy globes confined by her black bra, her stiff nipples pushing against the lustrous fabric.
With a deliberateness that told him Regina knew exactly what she was doing, she ran her hands beneath her hair, lifting it off her shoulders. The movement caused her breasts to wiggle within their satiny prison.
Was she trying to kill him? Didn’t she know his control was at an end? That he needed this game to finish? They had too little time left for them to be separated for even a moment more. Uncrossing his arms, Nikoli yanked off his sweater, pitching it in the same direction as hers.
Regina’s pale pink lips parted as she glanced from his cock to his offered hand. She took it, her fingers curling around his.
Not bothering to temper his strength or demanding need, Nikoli pulled Regina to her feet and into him. Her body softened immediately.
Enjoying the feel of her weight, comforted by it, he leaned down. Mouth pressed to her ear, he murmured, “How does this come off?” He ran his finger beneath the edge of her bra cup, touching skin.
Regina trembled, then sighed at his tongue licking her lobe. She whispered, “There’s a clasp in the back. I can get it.”
“No.” He brushed her hands away. “I’ll do it.”
Her head lolled to the side as he found the fastener and released it, resting his hands where it had once been. At the feel of her smooth, hot skin, Nikoli could barely control himself. Regina’s breathing picked up.
When he eased back, she moaned. “What are you doing? Don’t make me move.”
Nikoli stopped himself before he laughed, sensing she wouldn’t like it. “I have to in order to get this off you.”
On a groan, she inched away, moaning brazenly when he pushed the straps over her shoulders and down her arms. They caught briefly on her hands, and then the item fell to the hardwood floor.
Partially naked, she regarded him through hooded lids, her expression both excited and questioning, as though she wasn’t certain Nikoli would prize what he saw. “You like?” she asked.
How could she pose such a question? “Of course,” he said, then paused to clear the catch in his throat. “How could I not? You’ve already given me so much.”
“I have?”
“Yes.” He cradled her face in his hands. “Your passion, your willingness to be with me tonight, your concern. It’s worth more to me than anything I’ve ever known.” His thumbs stroked her cheeks. “You’re unlike any woman I’ve ever met. And it’s not only your coloring or temperament.”
“No kidding?” Her hand covered his. She smiled. “Then what is it?”
“You don’t want to listen to reason. You argue against anything logical.”
Her brows drew together. “And you like that?”
“It exasperating and magnificent.” Exactly what he craved.
“If you say so.”
“I do. Now, let me look at you.” He stepped back. Regina’s dusky nipples, puckered with arousal, enhanced and complemented her fair skin. The lush globes of her breasts wiggled with her uneven breathing, begging for his hands to hold and possess them, as did her womanly hips.
Sinking to his knees, Nikoli pushed his thumbs beneath the edge of her panties to strip her bare so that nothing separated their flesh.
Regina’s belly quivered.
“Take them off,” she said. “Now.”
“And if I don’t?” he teased.
“You don’t get this.” She ran her finger up the length of her cleft. “Want to risk it?”
“Do you?”
She gave him one of those looks men in her dimension knew not to challenge.
Unfazed, Nikoli took his time undres
sing her, noting her impatient sigh. At last, he tossed her panties aside and stared at her reddish curls. Unused to scents, he caught her musk instantly, his mouth watering at the delicate yet thrilling fragrance. A more powerful urge than one for safety, food or drink consumed Nikoli, urging him to bury his face between her legs as she had done with him. To burrow his cock into her sheath and remain there for the time they had left.
Realizing it would never be enough, resolved to prolong their pleasure for as long as he could, Nikoli wrapped his arms around her hips, resting his cheek against her torso. He heard the wild beating of her heart, the rasp of air in her lungs, so like his own. He smelled her need. It called to the male within, to everything he had never been allowed to be but yearned for now. So foolishly. So hopelessly.
A growl of dismay and anticipation escaped Nikoli’s throat, roughening his words. “Tell me what you want.”
“You,” she said without hesitation, her hands on either side of his head, keeping him close. “Anyway you want me. Anyway you know how.” She paused to swallow and spoke on a ragged sigh. “Make love to me, Nikoli…take me…fuck me.”
Chapter Eight
“I ask that you please touch it,” Thomo said, gesturing to the wall behind him. He exchanged a glance with the young woman at his side. “We need your superior wisdom to determine if our findings are correct, Strii Zorr.”
Domm Zorr regarded the younger man who had been a trusted friend to Domm’s son, Nikoli, since childhood. Although Thomo spoke impassively, there was deference in the slight tilt of his head, the manner in which he held himself in the presence of a Strii. A title given to the most respected scientists on E2.
There was also a hint of emotion in Thomo’s expression, perhaps fear or excitement that he may have discovered a breach in the system. Impossible, Domm knew. In his decades of service to the dimension, he had never experienced such a thing, nor was it in the annals of E2’s history. Despite Thomo’s fine intellect, the younger man had always been prone to speculation when science demanded a dispassionate appraisal. The kind Nikoli provided.
Pride for his son’s accomplishments welled in Domm. Someday in the near future, he knew the government would choose Nikoli from among his peers, bestowing him with the same title as his father, allowing him and Sazaar to breed. To have a son of their own, fulfilling Domm’s hopes and dreams. For now, though, he had to deal with Thomo’s foolishness. “Did the alarms sound? Did the security force find anything when you called them inside?”
The younger man blinked, the only indication that betrayed his surprise at the questions. Clearing his throat, he spoke with a degree of hesitation. “They did not…nor would the alarms sound if there’s a sophisticated breach in our system.”
“Or if you’re mistaken.”
Thomo’s complexion paled at the mild chastisement.
However, to Domm’s surprise, the younger man held his ground. “I touched the wall, as did Murr.” He inclined his head to the young woman.
Domm kept his attention on Thomo. “And you claim there was a current of energy and intense cold that shouldn’t be there, is that correct?”
With caution, Thomo nodded. Once more, he gestured to the wall. “Please put your hand there and experience it for yourself.”
He would not. “You said you caught movement that brought you to the wall. Can you be more specific? Was whatever moved large, small, tall, short?”
Thomo’s expression grew pensive. His dark brows drew together in a frown. “Tall,” he said at last. “At least my size or yours.”
A shadow, surely, caused by the flickering screens and Thomo’s overactive imagination.
“And of an unusual color,” he added. “At least a portion of it, at the top.”
Domm’s mouth closed on the explanation he’d intended to offer—that one’s mind might be able to fabricate motion, shapes and perhaps even a change in the temperature. Color, however, didn’t seem likely.
He glanced about the room, no different from the countless others in this building. The only pigments here were varying hues of silver and gray, broken solely by the monitors’ faint green tint. With a mixture of curiosity and beginning dread, he asked, “What shade did you see at the top?”
Again, Thomo’s complexion paled. “Red…the color of blood.”
Domm stared, not believing what he’d heard, unwilling to be alarmed. This was a mistake. A misunderstanding. It had to be. He glanced at Thomo’s hands, suspecting the young man had cut himself. That was the red he’d seen. That was what had set him to worrying about a breach in the—
Domm’s thoughts stalled at the lack of injury on Thomo’s hands. No blood. As calmly as he could, he asked, “Have you discussed this with Nikoli? Have you sought his opinion?”
Domm knew his son would have a reasonable explanation that would put an end to conjecture and worry.
“I sent Murr to get him.”
“He wasn’t in his laboratory,” she offered, then glanced at Thomo before adding, “When Nikoli didn’t answer my calls, I asked the security force to determine if he was inside his lab. I thought perhaps Nikoli was so engrossed in his work, he hadn’t heard me. But they said he wasn’t in there, nor anywhere else in the building.”
Domm glanced at the timepiece on the wall, noting the late hour. Perhaps Nikoli had finally retired for the evening, no doubt exhausted. Since Sazaar had begun her retreat, his son had spent all of his time in the lab, working nonstop.
“I thought he might have left for the day,” Murr added, “but I didn’t see him on any of the monitors at the stations. Nor could I reach him at his home.”
“We concluded he must have gone out to eat,” Thomo said. “We didn’t want to wait to find him, so we called you.” His expression begged Domm to touch the wall.
“Red…the color of blood,” he’d said.
A tint outlawed on E2 since its people had banished the vampires. Irritation at Thomo’s request warred with Domm’s continuing unease. As he approached the wall, Thomo and Murr stepped aside.
Hand lifted, Domm hesitated, then placed his fingertips on the wall’s smooth surface and felt nothing unusual.
His pulse slowed instantly. On a quiet sigh, Domm released the breath he’d been holding. “There’s no energy or cold here.” His pronouncement put an end to the matter. “Please continue with your work.”
Leaving the room, he went down the hall to his own laboratory. Halfway to it, his steps slowed. He glanced at the door to Nikoli’s lab. As a Strii, he didn’t need permission to enter any of the scientists’ workrooms. The additional markings on his hands, put there by the government, allowed him access to all spaces, even those forbidden to the security force. All he had to do was touch the door.
Domm paused at the thought of intruding upon his son’s workspace. More than father and son, he and Nikoli were now respected colleagues. To enter without invitation, even as a Strii, was a serious violation of etiquette and trust.
A transgression Murr hadn’t dared to consider.
“I asked the security force to determine if he was inside his lab. I thought perhaps he was so engrossed in his work, he hadn’t heard me.”
In the past, Domm had witnessed his son’s intense concentration. Even as a young boy, Nikoli would focus on an assignment to such a degree it precluded him from noticing anything else, including his own need for food and rest until his body forced him to do so.
“We concluded he must have gone out to eat,” Thomo had said.
If he had returned from his meal and was back in the room now, he might be oblivious to a rap on the door. It could be days before he emerged again. By then, Thomo’s all too vivid imagination might have compromised his own work. A matter Domm wanted to discuss with his son. Together, they could reach a solution.
Comfortable with his decision, knowing Nikoli would readily understand the purpose of this intrusion, Domm rested his fingertips against his son’s door, then watched as it opened.
On his feet,
Nikoli drew Regina against his full length, passion evident in his rough breathing, a desire for more than just sex clear in his tender caress. It moved her as few things had. He was a man who’d been starved for simple emotion, the right to be uncertain as well as brave, to experience comfort, not only crushing responsibility.
How many years had he longed for a moment of true warmth, of an embrace given in love, not out of duty? How many times had he denied himself the most basic of needs, remaining resolute, deprived, alone and wanting, even more so than her?
She ached to give him everything he’d missed.
They had so little time. When dawn came, he’d insist on leaving.
Unable to face the thought, she released her weight into him, requiring his strength, the shelter of his body. He made a low rumbling sound in his throat, signifying his approval. A smile touched Regina’s lips at his rigid cock pressing against her inner thigh, the root snug against her mound, their curls touching. Demanding even more intimacy, she drew as close as she could, welcoming his chest crushing her breasts, his mouth seeking her throat.
The brush of his lips delivered a shock of pleasure. Her heart skipped several beats, then hammered fiercely. Releasing a husky moan, she slipped her arms around his torso, her fingers exploring his broad back, tracing his impressive contours, reveling in them.
He had an athlete’s build, lean yet muscled, his pecs and abs well defined, his body hair deliciously masculine, from the dark tufts in his pits to the silky hairs circling his navel to the thick bush on his groin and his lightly furred balls. The memory of them in her mouth, her tongue licking the wrinkled skin, sent another shiver through Regina.
Nikoli held her even closer, his embrace confining and soothing. Lips to her ear, he whispered, “Are you cold?”
“Not at all.” She pressed her fingers into his firm flesh and inhaled deeply, enjoying his wondrous scent…so damned male, so uniquely Nikoli. Eager to let him know his effect on her, that she’d deliver her body willingly…eagerly…she murmured, “Turned on.”
