They were good, she had to give them that.
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Adamas brushed his lover’s hair back from his face and pressed a gentle kiss on his brow. Now that didn’t seem like the action of a madman. Quite the opposite, not to mention caring and affectionate. After covering him with a blanket that he spun—no, dragged—from nowhere, Adamas rose and snagged a high-backed chair that was situated with a desk near the door. The elegantly designed white chair looked fragile and unable to hold his considerable weight.
She could only watch and admire Adamas’ predatory feline grace as he made his way toward her, the chair lifted effortlessly in his large hand. She imagined being held in those huge hands, sure that she would feel like a delicate doll tucked into his protective strength. Yet, where a brittle, porcelain doll evoked the feeling of weakness, she felt warmth and safety, cherished. His hanging cock caught her gaze—it was about at the level of her eyes, after all—and despite its flaccid state, it was still a considerable size. She swallowed hard, desire humming once more in her veins. To want him again so soon—
Well, she hadn’t really had him, just some ghostly cock that could belong to anyone. Nearing her, he set the chair down backwards and straddled it.
“He’s sick, isn’t he?” Sympathy swelled in her breast, especially after she’d witnessed Adamas’ love and care for his mate. She tucked her legs under her, one hand brushing through her short hair and patting it into place.
“Yes, Damaon’s sick, but not in the way you mean.” His face contorted in a grimace. “I apologize for his behavior. He’s not…himself these days.” He eyed her with sudden interest and his nostrils flared. Good God, was the scent of her arousal still in the air? “I thought you’d be gone by now—I certainly didn’t think I’d see you here, especially there on the floor. Why? The bed not comfortable enough for you?”
She wasn’t going to admit that she wanted them with a hunger that bordered on pain. “That was a low trick you did,” she snapped.
“What trick?” he asked. A bewildered frown appeared on his forehead.
“As if you don’t know,” she retorted.
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“No, I truly don’t,” he said.
His sincerity stabbed at her and she looked at him with uncertainty. “You don’t?”
He shook his head. “But before you tell me, perhaps you’d like to move to the bed. It’ll be more comfortable for you. Or I could make a cot for you.”
Dazed, she copied his movement. She rather liked the cool marble behind her back and beneath her ass. It kept her grounded and balanced, because stunned at his response, she could only stare at him. “I felt as though you—he—both of you were caressing me when you were making love,” she said in a whisper. “And…and…and when he thrust into you…”
“He drove his cock into you too?” he asked hoarsely. Her shock was reflected in his.
“No—yes—I don’t know,” she cried out and clenched her legs tight together. “Not his cock, per se, because he was obviously occupied with you, but a ghost of it, maybe a projection of his or—”
He was shaking his head again. “I don’t understand this. Neither Damaon nor I are psychic, and we didn’t acquire any mind power with the office of the gem immortal. The other immortals aren’t psychic either, so it’s nothing to do with our function as caretakers of the gems.”
“It couldn’t be me,” she croaked. “I’m not psychic either. My family doesn’t have a history of telepathic powers.”
“This is most curious.” Adamas gnawed on his lip as his gaze turned inward. “I have to do some research—”
A long, low groan interrupted their discussion. Their heads swung toward the other man who lay on the cot.
“You should get him to a doctor.” Raisa cast a look around the huge room. Though it contained merely the basics—a bed, a table, two chairs and a built-in wardrobe—its sumptuous décor and the elegant furniture all looked to be edged with small, glittering diamonds. “You look like you can afford it.”
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Adamas sighed. “It’s not as easy as that. For this illness, only you are the cure.”
Her mouth dropped open in shock.
He continued, almost as an afterthought, “This time around, anyway.” His silver eyes flicked over her in a long, lingering look and his gaze was a sensuous phantom caress that trailed fire in its wake. So far, he hadn’t pounced on her, though he could have, so he must only be testing her mettle. Also, she sensed that he was different from his lover—kinder, gentler. He’d even apologized for his mate, so no, she didn’t think he would force or charm her into having sex with him.
But test her? She’d oblige.
She stretched and purred like a cat, displaying herself to better. A flame leaped in his eyes and she wasn’t surprised to feel an answering throb within her. She’d accepted and reveled in her sexuality from the first moment she’d been introduced to sex, but by no means was she indiscriminate in her partners, nor was she the type to jump from bed to bed. But like any woman who lived her life to the fullest, she knew she’d regret it if she didn’t go to bed with a stud like Adamas even once, especially in light of the chemistry sizzling between them, even if the earlier phantom sex hadn’t happened. And yet, something held her back, some basic instinct of selfpreservation.
“You look like a woman who enjoys sex,” he said, apparently finished with his inspection. “And your lack of a fake sexual modesty is so refreshing.” She watched him warily when he stood up, spread his hands and made a slow turn. Like one hypnotized, she couldn’t take her eyes off his perfect body. He was drawing her into a sensual web of his making and she was powerless to resist. Like Damaon, Adamas possessed yummy, taut buttocks. She couldn’t wait to touch them and sink her teeth into them.
“Do you like what you see?”
“Yes,” she said, breathless.
A slow smile bracketed his mouth. His hand cupped his cock in a light, sensual caress and stroked with languid motions, causing a liquid molten heat to snake through 26
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her bloodstream. “I assure you, we have the skill to go with our equipment. You will be so thoroughly satisfied you’ll be begging us not to send you away. We will fulfill your every fantasy, everything your heart desires—”
She was this close to saying “yes”, but the image of herself, on her knees, begging, jarred her awake. She wrenched her gaze away. “No, damn you.” She squeezed her eyes shut to protect herself from any further visual temptations he might provide. “Go get another woman.”
“Why are you so against this?” Adamas sounded perplexed. “All we’re asking is just sex for a limited period of time.”
“That’s the point.” Frustrated at his denseness, she shouted at him. “I’ve never done
‘just sex’. I’m not that kind of woman. All my sexual experiences have been within the boundaries of a relationship. I won’t be treated like a slut.”
That and the exciting strangeness of their crystalline cocks were the reasons for her resistance. As much as she was fascinated by their rigid shafts, she was afraid their appearance was the result of some obscure disease she’d never heard of. She had to struggle not to touch them and hold them in her hands, to test their texture and to…do so much more. And she was very afraid that the lust they aroused in her was overshadowing her good sense.
“I am not a slut,” she emphasized for good measure.
“We never thought you were.”
“You stripped me naked without a by your leave and you mauled me in my sleep.”
Well, she may have exaggerated a bit, since she wasn’t mauled at all, but how to make her point otherwise? Oh damn, that reminded her. Her eyes flew open. “Where the hell am I? Why am I naked and how the hell did I get here? Why does your cock look like a crystal dildo?”
Oops. Had she really said that about his cock? Well, she’d neve
r been shy and that was her first question, anyway. She thought it said a lot about her restraint that the question had emerged as the last.
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His shoulders shook and she could see that he was trying not to laugh. Unfortunately, he couldn’t quite hold it in and his guffaw spilled out. “Are you always this forthright?”
“Shoot straight, that’s my motto,” she said.
“We do that, too, if you’re interested to know,” he said with a bland expression and she knew they weren’t talking about the same thing. She fought the urge to laugh with him and she realized with a start that she hadn’t laughed in quite some time, burdened as she was by material concerns. “In any case, answering your questions will take some time. Are you hungry? Do you require anything?”
“Some clothes would be good,” she suggested wryly. Adamas’ perfect masculine nakedness and utter lack of self-consciousness was a distraction she could do without. She would hear his explanations and walk away, though not without a twinge of regret. A wiggle of his fingers and air spun around her. When the mist cleared, she was wearing cloth of the softest white. It shimmered in the sunlight that shafted through the windows and settled against her, the fabric molding and clinging to her skin and outlining her slight curves.
“This is—” She stared down at herself and fingered the cloth and discovered it so sheer and smooth that she didn’t want to release it. “How the hell did you do this?” She had a plausible explanation for the cot—well, she thought she did—but this…this defied reason and logic and everything she had been taught. There could only be one explanation, but to believe that meant—
“I didn’t create something out of nothing, if that’s what you’re asking. If you were on the bed, you would notice there’s only one pillow left. What I did was to rearrange the pattern of the missing pillow into a robe for you—”
“No!” she shrieked. What was he talking about? “Who cares about the stupid pillow? Where am I?”
“You’re no longer on Earth.” Adamas voiced her worst fear. 28
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“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.” She slumped back against the wall, shocked. “How the hell did that happen? Who are you?”
“As you know, my name’s Adamas,” he said, “and my lover’s Damaon. We are the Diamond Gem Immortals.”
Immortal. Stallion—er, Damaon—had said that awhile ago. In fact, Adamas had mentioned the word too, if she wasn’t mistaken. So Damaon hadn’t been mad. She was the one who hadn’t understood. “Gem immortal? What’s that?” Her voice came out as a shocked whisper.
“Exactly that. Damaon and I are immortals and we take care of the gem diamond.”
“You take care of the diamond,” she repeated in a daze. Her mind, normally running full speed ahead, was slow to process the information. “Take care…meaning?”
“Meaning we grow the diamonds on a farm, like the way your farmers grow your crops. Diamond is the gem Damaon and I are privileged to care for and you’re now in the Diamond Palace, as evidenced by the material used to construct this building and the color scheme used to decorate it, if you haven’t noticed yet.”
She did notice the stark white or silver scheme of the décor and the tiny diamonds decorating the edges of the furniture in the room. She’d thought Adamas and Damaon were filthy rich, but to have the power to grow diamonds, well, that was wealth beyond imagination.
Her neck was also getting damnably tired from looking up at him. “I think I’ll go back to the bed before we resume this conversation.” Once she was seated with her feet tucked under her and she rolled her aching neck a few times to ease the strain, she asked, “So, if we’re not on Earth, where are we?”
“We’re…” Adamas checked himself. He had moved his chair beside the bed so she could see every expression that crossed his face. “In Earth terms, we’re in another dimension.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Seriously?” She’d thought all those science fiction books she’d devoured when she was a youngster were just that—stories. 29
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“Strictly speaking, the demesnes of the gem immortals don’t stay in any one particular place. We go where the need takes us.”
“Need?” She was starting to sound like a parrot. Then she nodded sagely. “Ah, like when you need a woman for sex.”
“No, we don’t need to go where the woman is,” he answered so patiently she knew he hadn’t caught her sarcasm—or else he’d ignored it. “She comes to us.”
“What!” she screeched. “I knowingly went to you, with my own free will, for sex?”
I don’t believe it. I never would’ve done something like that. “Why don’t you tell me what really happened, buster?”
He eyed her with trepidation. “I understand you’re upset, but you have to understand that you have also played some small part in your being here. Do you remember holding an exquisite diamond shaped like a star?”
“Yes.” She sniffed. “I thought it was the answer to all my troubles.”
“That was our calling star. It drew you, ‘called’ to you, and the moment you picked it up, you were teleported here.”
Raisa stared at him, aghast. “That’s cheating! What kind of choice was that?”
His spine stiffened. “You could’ve chosen not to take the diamond.”
“I repeat, what kind of choice was that? Diamonds are of great value and much prized on Earth, in case you don’t know. Nobody would turn away from them, if he so much as caught a glimpse of one.” She knew she shouldn’t have thought about saying goodbye to the house, even if it had been the place where she had grown up in, where all her happy memories were. She wasn’t sentimental at all— aha. She sagged once more against the headrest. “The calling star’s compulsion was so strong it drew me when I was two levels below it.” She shook her head, sickened. “There was no choice at all. What kind of monsters are you immortals?”
Shock stole across his face. Adamas leaned forward and frowned. “It shouldn’t have happened that way. The compulsion weave was embedded within the gem, but it 30
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would have been triggered only when you saw it and not one moment before. That’s how I’ve always done it.”
“Then you must have done something different this time, because it cost me my freedom,” she said bitterly.
“Only for fourteen days…uh… What’s your name?”
“Did you mean to ask that before or after we had sex?” Seeing his darkening expression, knowing he was being kind and patient when he must be so obviously worried about his mate’s health, she hastily said, “Raisa Sheldon.”
He controlled his rising ire with effort. “Raisa, mortals can only stay in an immortal palace for fourteen days, then they have to leave or the demesne does it for them.”
“You mean the…” She made a gesture in the air. “The palace boots out the mortals?
Is it a sentient being?” She gazed at the walls with new respect.
“Sentient? I’m not sure, but I think it works in the same way as your body does with foreign objects. Like, if you eat something that didn’t agree with you, you’d vomit it up,” he explained. “I’m sure you’ve realized by now that your mortal clothes aren’t allowed in here and if you want to know, they’re lying on the ground where you found the star. Fourteen days from now, you won’t be here either. The palace will send you back to Earth.”
Two weeks. Well, at least she wouldn’t have to worry about food or a roof over her head for that period of time. Too bad she’d paid an advance on her hotel room for three days.
“Raisa…” Adamas hesitated, then his expression firmed and became determined. “I wouldn’t have asked if it weren’t important, but since you’re here, I would like to offer you a choice and ask you to reconsider having sex with us. Damaon needs you and soon I would also need—hell’s gems, Raisa. He’s dying!”
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Chapter Three
Raisa shuddered at the anguish and torment in his voice. She hadn’t realized Damaon’s illness was that grave. “You’re obviously delusional, because he needs a doctor, not more sex.” She glanced at the hapless man still stretched out on the cot some distance away. Perhaps she should have offered the bed—no, Adamas could’ve magicked a bed for his lover if the cot were uncomfortable. “I know some very experienced doctors—”
“Sex is exactly what he needs, but with a woman, not with me.” Adamas buried his face in his hands. “Soon, I will need the same thing.”
What kind of disease was it that more sex was needed to cure it? Maybe something that affected only immortals. Numerous questions barraged her mind and she wasn’t sure she believed him.
“Why? What can sex do? If you’re so sure sex could heal him, why not get more women so that he could…you know, go nonstop if his stamina is that good? Since you’re an immortal with vast power at your disposal, I don’t see how that could be a problem.”
Adamas laughed, but the sound was without mirth. He lifted his head and his silvery eyes were bright with unshed tears. “Vast powers indeed, but not limitless. Once the calling star expended its inherent energy to teleport the woman—you—here, it misted into the air, something like returning to the elements.” He drew in several breaths and grounded his fists against the chair. “That particular plant grows only one calling star every fifty years, but we don’t have fifty years in which to wait.” Adamas released a ragged sigh. “At best, I think…Damaon has another year before—” He broke off, anguish stealing across his face, then continued, “and I…maybe five or six years.”
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Raisa drew a deep, shuddering breath, hating the feeling that was coming upon her. She felt as if she were being gently trapped—into a gilded cage, but trapped nevertheless. “What is this disease you’re talking about? Why would you need a woman and what could the woman do?”
Adamas speared her with his frank gaze. “Let me tell you first that this disease didn’t come from sexual activities. As immortals, we are immune to the viruses and bacteria that may live in a human body.”
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