by Lacey Savage
More important even than the closeness a genuine relationship offered. Intimacy came with risks she wasn’t willing to take. She’d watched her sister slowly give up every dream she’d ever had for her lover. When they ran away together, Laela’s adoptive father — Aline’s real father — had forbidden Laela to ever speak her name.
Now, though, as Nathan climbed on the bed and moved between her parted thighs, Laela couldn’t think of one good reason not to let him order her around if it meant she’d learn what he intended to do next.
The anticipation alone was killing her. In the lab, she was the one in control. Here, she was supposed to be the captor. No, she was the captor!
So then why was she quivering with barely contained arousal, ready to obey this man’s every command?
She couldn’t stop him. She had to let him continue just a little longer to see what he had in mind. She’d record all of his actions in her little notebook later. For the purposes of examining them in more detail and correlating his responses to the effects of the formula, of course.
Sure, she was still putting herself at risk. She was breaking her rule about having repeated sexual encounters with the same man. And the rule about not fraternizing with test subjects. And the one about not sleeping with men she’d encounter again in a work environment. And —
Oh, to hell with it.
“Taste me, Nathan,” she whispered, toying with the words he’d spoken earlier. “Taste all of me.”
He kneeled between her parted legs, his dark eyes boring into hers with a hungry intensity that almost made her want to scoot up the bed a few inches. Almost, but not quite.
He smoothed his palm up her right leg, starting just inside her calf and moving slowly, deliberately, until he reached her pussy. There, he nudged her tender sex lips with his thumb, his gaze never shifting from hers. “You saved me, Laela. I thought of nothing but you.”
Her heart did a summersault in her chest, knocking hard against her ribcage. She wanted to pretend she didn’t know what he was talking about. This was too much responsibility, too much reality, when all she wanted was to lose herself in this man for a few hours until work intruded and logic prevailed.
Thankfully, he saved her from having to answer by slipping his arms behind her knees and lifting them off the bed a moment before covering her pussy with his mouth. “I thought of doing this.”
She could barely make out the words of his ragged whisper, but she could certainly feel what he meant. His breath tickled her swollen folds, sending swirling tendrils of pure pleasure to stream through her overheated cunt.
His first slow lick was heaven. He took his time, working from the base of her slit, keeping his tongue soft and pliant as it slipped through her folds and parted her for him.
The second lick nearly stopped her heart. He focused all his energy on swirling just the tip of his tongue around her clit, and her hips came off the bed in a quick, unanticipated thrust. He kissed her then, the moment her pubic bone made sudden contact with his mouth. And not just any kiss. An open-mouthed kiss right on her pussy, in which his tongue gently delved inside her, found the entrance to her channel, and pushed in while his lips pressed against the engorged and oh-so-sensitive folds.
The whimpers escaping Laela’s throat seemed to go on forever.
God, what was happening to her? She’d received oral sex before! But it had never, ever felt like this. Her entire being hovered on the brink of an eruption. Her mind spun with the implications of his words while her body wanted nothing but the satisfaction he promised with every swipe of his tongue.
He moved further down, gliding from her opening to the tender area between her pussy and ass. Then he slowly swept his tongue back up, licking and nibbling along the way as though the sticky moisture dripping from her was better than any delicacy he’d ever tasted.
Laela shook with need, bucking beneath him as he drove her right to the brink of insanity. And just when she thought he’d take her over the edge, he pulled back a fraction and began his endless teasing anew.
He laved a clean path through her slit before using his thumb to pull the hood back from her clit. The beaded nub ached with tender expectation. He blew a quick breath on it, then licked around it before finally fusing his lips to the small bud and sending sheer bliss through her veins.
Raw heat slid through Laela as her hips rocked, pressing Nathan’s mouth harder against her needy cunt.
“That’s it. Yes… yes,” he whispered, every word sending a unique vibration through her body.
She forgot all about words of protest, rules, and formulas. Tossing her head back, she let him take her to that blissfully erotic place where none of those things existed. Where the only thing that mattered was his mouth on her cunt and the promise of more to come.
—
For the first time in months, Nathan felt at peace. He was on a ship heading for God-only-knew where, with a woman who was definitely not what she seemed. He knew better, yet he couldn’t seem to bring himself to be concerned.
Months ago, she’d given him an experience he’d never forgotten. One he’d used to pull himself through the darkest, most painful nights of his life. If Zone 99 had in fact found her and were using her to get to him, then he deserved everything he got.
But no, he wasn’t overly worried about that possibility. Game-playing wasn’t Zone 99’s style. They were brisk, business-like. They cared only about results. If they had been working with Laela, they could have had him back there on the beach, or even when he’d come so close to infiltrating their compound.
She’d obviously known how to find him, though how she came about that bit of knowledge was something he’d have to ask her later. One thing was certain — he’d gladly let himself be found.
Being here, in this spartanly-decorated cabin with no windows to give him a hint of where they were headed, he felt freer than he’d had in all the months he’d been wandering the streets, sleeping in seedy motels, and doing his best to stay out of sight. That last part hadn’t been difficult. It was living like a ghost that had gotten to him.
He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed simple human interaction until she’d shown up. And by the looks of things, she wasn’t even human.
He’d spent his entire life trying to blend in. That’s what chameleons did. His parents had instilled that lesson in him from an early age. You fit in, or you perish. It wasn’t a difficult concept to learn.
The difficult part was discovering just what his folks meant when they’d said that. Not blending in meant death — or worse, as he found out.
When he glanced up from between Laela’s legs, he found her smiling at him. “What?” he asked, nudging her pussy with his chin, unable to resist smiling back.
“I was just wondering when you were going to fuck me already.”
He couldn’t help the chuckle that ripped from his throat. It felt good. Too good. God, it had been so long since he’d felt comfortable enough to laugh in someone else’s presence.
Grabbing Laela’s waist, Nathan pulled her down on the bed a few inches until her pussy was flush with his knees. “You want to be fucked, do you?”
She nodded, a small blush tingeing the apples of her cheeks. She looked so delicate, so innocent — so far removed from any reality he’d ever known. Resisting her would have been impossible even under the best of circumstances. Her spiky white-blonde hair and alabaster skin stood out in sharp contrast to the burgundy bed sheets, giving her the ethereal look of a magical being she clearly was. Even without the wings, there was no mistaking the unearthly glow that hovered around her, or the preternatural intensity in her gray-blue eyes.
He’d been so preoccupied with being deployed the night he’d met her, he hadn’t looked closer than skin-deep. His focus had been solely on taking what she offered, on spending one last night lovingly wrapped in the long legs of a sexy vixen before heading for much darker shores.
He lifted her hips and ass off the bed. “Straddle me.”
She obeyed and rose with arms outstretched, ready to wrap them around his neck. Her thighs fit perfectly on either side of his. When she came up to hover over the tip of his cock, Nathan closed his eyes, concentrating on the heat emanating from her body and closing in on his shaft.
“Look at me,” she whispered.
Her words snapped his eyes open and made his heart lurch in his chest. The instant the head of his cock brushed against her wet folds, her eyes widened and her full lips formed a delicate “O” of surprise.
He’d regretted not having been able to see all of her that night in the alley. But he had a lifetime to make up for lost opportunities.
The thought should have startled, shocked, and terrified him. Two years ago, it certainly would have. But now he felt like he’d been given another chance. A chance to break away from the shadowy being he’d been his entire life and start over, with this perfect pixie goddess in his arms.
He rocked his hips, his cockhead gliding easily through her slit to find the entrance to her tight channel.
Laela gripped his shoulders, steadying herself. The muscles in her lean legs held her upright over his shaft and she leaned back a little, giving him a perfect view of those plump breasts he’d admired on the beach.
Nathan bent his head and swiped his tongue across a pebbled nipple. His hands came around her and gripped her buttocks while his cock slid slowly inside her. Her inner walls stretched to accommodate him. The soft whimper that escaped her throat matched the slight quiver of her lower lip.
The feel of her velvety pussy wrapped around his hard cock nearly had him coming right then and there. It was a damn good thing he’d been able to release all his pent-up desire while her delicate lips had expertly sucked him dry. If he hadn’t, he knew this experience would only last a minute or two. She deserved so much better than a fly-by-night fucking, which was exactly what he’d given her the first time.
His hands clenched into her buttocks, nails digging into her flesh when she began to move. With her head tossed back, her lips slightly parted and those long eyelashes sending sweeping shadows over her flawless cheeks, she looked lost in the myriad sensations they were creating together. He knew the feeling. If she hadn’t asked him to open his eyes, he’d be lost, too.
This was so much better. Being able to see her, feel her, experience all of her could keep him going through many more restless nights. He only hoped it didn’t have to.
They found a soft, easy rhythm that made him swear he could feel her heartbeat through the connection they’d fused. And when she looked at him, he wasn’t sure if the way the room had begun to spin was due to the swaying motion of the ocean beneath them, or the fact that her startling gaze had the power to make the world tilt on its axis.
She licked her lower lip, then bent her head and swiped at his. The feel of her soft, wet tongue against his mouth nearly undid him.
“Hard, Nathan. Don’t worry about me. I won’t break.”
He nearly laughed again, but the sound caught in his throat. Grabbing that maddeningly sexy lip of hers between his teeth, he nibbled for a second before covering her mouth with his and kissing her deeply. His tongue found hers, thrusting into her mouth at the same time he grabbed her hips and shoved his body upward, impaling her deeply. She groaned into his mouth, urging him on with a slight rocking of her ass.
Her cunt squeezed him, milked him as she rode him, sliding up and down on his cock. And still his rhythm remained even, controlled.
She didn’t know what she asked of him. Losing that last remnant of control would unleash all the fury, anger, and fear he’d bottled up inside. No doubt he’d frighten the living daylights out of her.
“Faster,” she whispered against his lips.
Her plea made it that much harder to contain the growing need inside him. The intensity of sensations swirling inside him made heat pool low in his groin. He sped up his motions, using all his restraint to give her what she wanted while still keeping a tight rein on the multitude of emotions that threatened to break to the surface.
God, he’d had no idea sex could be this… intense.
Laela’s nipples scraped against his chest. Electricity seared his skin everywhere she brushed against him. Her mound pressed against his pelvic bone with every thrust, causing streaming heat to roll through him.
He could let go. He could tell her everything about who he was, what he’d endured. He could lay his soul bare for her to see beyond the Marine façade and into the man who wanted nothing more but to live the rest of his days somewhere where he wouldn’t be hunted. And he could pray she’d accept him, scars and all.
“Nathan.” She whimpered his name as her body tightened. A flush crept up her chest and into her face. She rocked against him, her pussy squeezing and fluttering, the orgasm crashing through her and, in the span of a shattered heart-beat, unleashing his own.
The abrupt release shook the center of his balance and made all other thoughts disappear. Fire blazed in his veins.
Gripping Laela’s hips, Nathan slammed his cock hard inside her and held on as tightly as he dared while unleashing his seed deep in her pussy.
She clutched at his back, her nails raking a fiery path down his skin. The strength of the orgasm pouring through him made his stomach clench and his muscles stiffen. A groan that sounded more like a wild cry escaped his throat, the only release of pent-up emotion he’d allow himself.
As he shook with the force of his release, Laela clung to him, whispering words he couldn’t make out. He knew by her tone they weren’t wild promises of an even more intense sexual frenzy to come. They were too soft, too tentative to be anything good. And then he felt the tears.
Wetness splashed his shoulder, dripped down his chest. He tried to pull her away from him and make out her face, but his hands wouldn’t obey. Blood roared in his head. Darkness crept in around the edges of his vision, blurring the wooden slats that made up the walls of the cabin.
And then, the world really did crash in around him.
Chapter Four
When Nathan woke up, he was strapped to a bed.
Even before he opened his eyes, he could feel the restraints around his wrists and ankles. They bit into his bare flesh when he tried to move, causing panic to rise like bile in the back of his throat.
His shoulder ached, as did the entire right side of his body. It felt as though he’d been thoroughly pummeled and he was willing to bet he had the bruises to show for it.
Forcing himself to thrust away the flash of anxiety building behind his temples, Nathan concentrated on attuning all his senses to his surroundings. Keeping his eyes closed to fool anyone who might be watching, he focused on making out scents and discerning noises, which proved tougher than he’d expected.
He’d spent six months in Zone 99’s laboratory. In his nightmares, he could still smell the acidic stench of the disinfectant they used to keep the odor of blood at bay. This place, however, didn’t have the aroma he expected. In fact, it smelled… pleasant. Sweet, like the perfume of wildflowers.
The infernal beep of heart monitors was missing, too. Nor could he feel wires coming out of his chest or arms, which told him he hadn’t been hooked up to anything. The only noise he heard was a distant crash of surf. For a moment, the possibility that he might still be on the ship knocked the air from his lungs. Perhaps this was all a mistake. Maybe Laela had tied him down with silk scarves, intending to do all manner of naughty things to him.
Nathan’s eyes snapped open.
The first thing he noticed about the laboratory was that it was pink. Hot pink walls clashed brightly with a subdued pink-toned floor. Even the ceilings were pink and dotted with blue stars. Only the variety of lab equipment, ranging from beakers to test tubes and Bunsen burners told him this wasn’t a playroom.
Or perhaps it was. The playroom of a sadistic individual with the mentality of a small child. That possibility chilled him to the bone. One thing was clear — he wasn’t at the mercy of Zone 99 this
time.
Instead of relief, unease grew in Nathan’s gut. Whatever evil awaited him here could be a thousand times worse than what he’d endured at the hands of his former captors.
The sound of footsteps echoing near the door made him close his eyes again. He wanted to gain as much information as possible about where he was and who held him prisoner before he could decide on a plan of action.
“…the dose was twelve times higher than I’d intended to deliver. It knocked him out cold.”
Nathan’s stomach churned as the blood turned to ice in his veins. He’d lost his mind. That couldn’t be her voice. It was impossible.
And yet, he knew that voice. He’d heard it in his dreams. Laela. Oh, God. Laela.
“You put him in danger.” Another female voice, this one unfamiliar to him.
“I — no! Well, yes, but it wasn’t intentional. He startled me. I needed to see him and, well, instinct took over. I drenched him in the raw powder before I could think better of it.”
“Acting without thought for consequences and putting a subject’s life in danger! What’s gotten into you?”
“I didn’t harm him!” Laela protested.
Nathan’s hands clenched into fists before he could think better of it. Anyone watching him would know he was awake, but damn it, the way she justified kidnapping him and bringing him here to be experimented upon made anger leap to life inside him.
Now it began to register. Everything about her… everything she’d said, everything she’d done, had all been a lie. It had all been just a way to ensure he’d come willingly and she wouldn’t have to get her tiny little hands dirty.
God, this hurt more than all the injections and small surgical cuts put together. The raw pain tearing at his soul sent fire streaming through his body. The fact that he’d trusted her when he had no reason to made him feel like a fool.