Beatrix’s mouth fell open. “Why in the world would any sane man want to do such a thing? Hasn’t he ever heard of dysentery?” She flailed her arms in the air, then slapped them down to her sides.
“Well, I don’t think he’s trying to bring back the diseases. He wants a more organic, simpler lifestyle for his people without the threats they lived under before. From what he says, sounds like Vaturia was a lot like Earth when we left it. Impersonal, cold, too dependent on technology. He wants something more.”
“Oh God, he’s a romantic.” Violet came forward and put her hands on Naveenah’s arms and gave her a little shake. “Please tell me you’re not in love with him!”
Naveenah pulled away, feeling more exposed than she wanted. “Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous. But haven’t you ever wanted to be a part of something bigger than yourself? I see that opportunity here and, yeah, honestly, it excites me.”
“Naveenah, you have Stockholm syndrome.” Beatrix came over and placed her hand across Naveenah’s forehead, but she swayed out of reach.
“Even if I did, I wouldn’t have a fever.”
She walked away from her friends and out onto the balcony. She was distressed and frustrated that she couldn’t figure out a way to properly communicate what she saw and how she felt to the girls.
“Stockholm syndrome, indeed,” she muttered under her breath.
If she were going to have Stockholm syndrome, it would have been for the guards she’d been watched over by for the last four years, not with men who...Her mind filled with sexual images of both Nikolai and Antares. Good Lord, she wanted them both so desperately. She leaned on the balcony rail for strength for her now-wobbly knees.
She viewed the courtyard below. It was totally overgrown and in much need of some maintenance, but then, wasn’t most of the planet? She wondered what it would be like to garden, to bring life forth from the ground. The idea appealed to her deeply, and she wondered how Kai was doing on his project.
“Honey, I don’t think they meant anything by it really, but, well, you are different, Naveenah.”
She turned to see Rosalind standing in the open doorway looking sympathetic. “Doesn’t matter.”
She turned back to look at the courtyard. Rosalind came to stand beside her.
“Wow, you could get lost down there.”
Naveenah shrugged, in the midst of a mad pout. Rosalind bumped their shoulders together.
“Talk to me. You know I’ll listen.”
It was true. Beatrix was a bit overly dramatic and prone to theatrics, and Violet was incredibly naïve, but Rosalind had always been a perfect shoulder to lean on and an ear for listening.
“He was just so different from what I expected.”
“Antares, I assume?”
Naveenah nodded, feeling drained and defeated.
“I’m glad then, because I know you have been stoking a slow-burning hatred for the man for years, but when you were talking before, it seemed like so much more than just a simple He’s different.”
Naveenah shrugged again. “You won’t understand.”
“You won’t know unless you try me. At the very least, I promise not to be harshly judgmental. That’s something!”
She half-smiled, still feeling petulant and irritable, but she did need a friend. She needed someone who’d tell her if she truly had lost her mind as she feared.
“It’s just that I saw something I never even knew I was missing, but when I saw it, I knew.” She looked at Rosalind, feeling ridiculous. “Did that sound as dumb as I think it did?”
“Actually, no. I think I understand. Go on.”
Encouraged, and craving the opportunity to really talk about all she was feeling, she continued.
“It’s just home wasn’t all that spectacular, if I’m to be truthful. I had the dumbest government-sanctioned job that was so mind-numbingly boring I dreaded it. The only real friends I had were on-line and lived so far away there was no way we’d ever get together for anything. The only real enjoyment on our planet was virtual, and here… here it’s so real. I’ve ridden horses! I’ve had my hands in dirt. I’ve bathed under a waterfall. Oh my God, Rosalind, I’m so much happier here than I ever was back home. So much more alive.” She hesitated and looked away, afraid of the condemnation she might see in her friend’s face when she admitted the truth. “I don’t know that I want to give that up just for the principle of how I got here.”
Now that she said it, she felt stronger, but she needed to know if it was just her, or if perhaps there was as much wrong with her society as she was beginning to think.
“Rosalind, honestly, were you happy back home?”
“I hadn’t given much thought to it, really. I mean, when you wake up on a spaceship, forcefully taken from the only world you know, then spend four years in the equivalent of a summer camp under guard, I don’t think it matters if you were happy or not before. You’re just dealing with the victimization of it all.”
“Naveenah!”
The sound of Beatrix and Violet in chorus sung out from the bedroom, completely derailing her thought. Irritated, she yelled back a less than cheery, “What!”
“Come. Here.”
The more forceful voice of Beatrix alone was harder to ignore. She poked her head around the corner to see immediately what had caused the commotion, and her heart stopped. Joy like she couldn’t remember feeling since she was a child poured into her entire being, and a smile that she couldn’t have stopped if she tried bloomed across her face. As ridiculous as it would have sounded to anyone she tried explaining it to, she felt as though her entire world went right and suddenly everything made sense.
“Antares.”
Chapter Fourteen
Antares felt the strangest sensation in the pit of his stomach as Naveenah stepped into view. He felt so much joy in just seeing her that it was remarkable, really. He truly had missed her this past week. It could not have been helped, but he was so glad to be with her now. Once they were alone together, he could show her just how very much he had missed her.
“Naveenah.” He walked to her and kissed her cheek before bowing his head to the other females in the room. “I simply stopped by for a moment to invite you all to share a meal with me this evening in my quarters.”
He was not at all happy with the way the three other females were looking at him, particularly the redhead, but he had experience dealing with less-than-happy females. He attempted a charming smile, certain that would put them all at ease. The result seemed to only make them glare at him all the more.
He pushed it from his mind and turned his attentions back to Naveenah. Along with his other pressing business of the past week, he had taken it upon himself to study human sexuality and anatomy along with popular customs of Earth in the hopes of making Naveenah more at ease with him. However, at ease was the farthest thing from what he was feeling looking at her through the lens of his new knowledge.
“Naveenah, may I talk with you in private for a moment?”
“Of course.”
She smiled at him the way he remembered, instantly setting his world right again. He wondered if she was as anxious to be alone with him as he was her. He held his arm to her, and she took it, allowing him to lead her out the door.
“I’ll only keep her a moment, females.” This time he swore the redhead growled at him.
He quickly ushered Naveenah away from a situation he was now concerned was growing violent. After stepping into the alcove, he closed the heavy wooden door solidly behind them.
“I don’t think your friends like me.”
“I didn’t like you until very recently myself.”
She smirked and won the point.
“I suppose I’ll have to give you that one, but that does imply that you like me now?”
She positioned herself with her back against a side wall. Antares stepped very close and inhaled the sent from her hair. It smelled different than the last time, which confused him. He hadn’t read anyth
ing about Earth females being able to change their scent.
“I’m not confirming either way. If I say yes, that automatically gives you the upper hand, and as you have so many things in your favor already, you really don’t need another.”
He smiled, delighting in her sense of play. He caressed her cheek, and she leaned into his touch, making him want to kiss her. It took all his fortitude not to start something he could not finish now.
“You tempt me in ways I have never been tempted before. You excite me in ways I never knew existed. I have missed you, magita, more than I ever knew was possible.” He searched her eyes, wondering if he would be able to see all he was feeling reflected back at him. “Please say you will stay with me tonight after dinner.”
The only light in the alcove was what flickered through the holes in the old wooden door, but he saw a faint shade of pink tint her cheeks before she looked away from him.
“Your Majesty, are you asking me to spend the night in your bed?”
“I am.” He breathed her in. “When we are alone, I am never the king, only a man besotted with a female and hoping she feels similarly.” He gently pressed her cheek, moving her head so her eyes would be forced to look into his. “Tell me you do, Naveenah. Tell me you think of me.”
It almost galled him how much he needed to hear her say it. When he was with her, he was not the same Antares who had claimed such victory on the battlefield or who had been proclaimed king. When he was with her, he was simply Antares, man.
“I do, Antares. More than I should, I’m sure.”
She placed both her palms against his cheeks, then slid her hands up into his hair. He loved it when she did that. He thought he could spend six lifetimes with that interaction alone and never tire of it.
“I will stay with you tonight.”
His overwhelming delight pushed him to pick her up and swirl her around in the alcove. It was ridiculous really, but this heady sense of giddiness that settled on him was as if he were a boy again, only this time, his boyhood had been a happy one and everything in his world was exactly as it should have been.
“I will return you to your friends, then, before they begin to suspect me of serving you as our dinner entrée, but I cannot tell you sincerely enough how much I am looking forward to this evening.”
He brushed a kiss across her fingers, then walked her back inside her room.
“I will see you all this evening.” He tried another smile, but it still received only malcontent in return. “I’m looking quite forward to it.”
He backed out the doorway cautiously. He truly did not trust that redhead. She seemed the type of female who might just cut off his head while he slept.
* * * *
Naveenah nervously paced the length of her room over and over. She had no idea what time dinner would be, but as her stomach had been rumbling the better part of an hour, she hoped it would be soon. She’d been ready for an eternity, nervously waiting. She half wondered if she’d get through the night with her sanity intact. First, there were the girls. With the exception of Rosalind who’d promised to keep an open mind, Violet and Beatrix were not happy about being forced to have dinner with Antares. It hadn’t helped either when she tried to point out that they hadn’t been forced, merely invited.
It was a bad situation, and anybody’s guess how dinner would go. On a purely selfish note, Naveenah wanted the evening to go smoothly. She was giddy with anticipation about spending the night with Antares, so much so that she wished it would simply be the two of them at dinner. Besides being so much simpler that way, she wouldn’t have to spend the night hiding her feelings. She and Antares might even have made love before the main course had even been served, but it was not to be. She couldn’t fault Antares for wanting to include her friends. It was a kind offer, and she saw it for the peace offering it was.
The sound of knocking stirred her from her musings, making her stomach flip. She pressed down the fabric of her gown, fluffed out the folds in the skirt, then checked her hair before answering, “Come in.”
She wasn’t sure if it would be Antares himself or one of the small staff she was coming to know and like. She had in no way prepared herself, though, for it being Nikolai who stepped through the door dressed in a deep purple silk shirt, open at the neck, and his usual black leather pants and boots that came to his knees. He looked like a very wicked pirate from one of those old movies she’d see occasionally on the computer. She thought she could fall into him for an entire lifetime and never have enough.
“My brother sent me for you, but dinner is not quite ready, so we have time to waste.” His smile grew teasingly lecherous. “Any ideas how we could waste them?”
A nervous bubble of laughter rose from the pit of her stomach and came out as the most ludicrous giggle. Nikolai was a damn sexy man. He was the kind that fantasies were made of. He was gorgeous, dark, flirty, and knew his way around a woman’s body like a tailor knew cloth, but hadn’t all her thoughts just been consumed with Antares?
What is wrong with you!
He stepped closer. A combination of nerves and arousal began to shut down her higher brain functions as he whispered against her ear.
“You won’t believe me if I tell you how much I missed you.”
He pushed his fingers through her hair and cupped her head in his hands. Her body became warm, and the only thought she had was how badly she wanted to spend another day in bed with him.
“Naveenah, I want to fuck you as much as I need my next breath. I ache from the want of you. I can barely control my urges. You have cast a deep spell on my soul, and I fear there is no way out.”
He fisted his hand in her hair and brought his mouth down on hers. Her knees went weak, and her better judgment dropped to the floor faster than their clothing as it suddenly started peeling off. She practically ripped the fabric of his very beautiful shirt as she tried to pull it over his head. Her kisses were frenzied as she covered his neck and chest with them, her thumb playing with his nipple while she reached for his cock with the other hand. It was pressing hard against the leather of his pants, and both their fingers tangled with each other as each reached for the strings to untie the laces.
Eventually, he let her do it, although the scorching kiss he gave her made her lose her place momentarily while his tongue forced its way into her mouth. He groaned as she sucked on it. He picked her up and placed her on the dresser, shoving up her skirts, reaching under her gown for her panties and tearing them from her body. She furiously went back to the laces on his pants, finally freeing him into her hands. She squeezed and massaged his cock only a few times before he put his hand on hers and stopped her.
Against her lips he murmured, “Don’t. I don’t have that much control left.”
He pulled her thighs closer to the edge of the dresser and tilted her to just the right angle to plunge into her tight cunt.
“Oh God!” The moment she felt him inside her, the orgasm rolled over her.
“Fuck yes.”
She pounded her fist against the dresser as her other hand wrapped around his neck, holding herself steady as he fucked her hard with raw intensity. He growled out his satisfaction as she sheathed him firmly. Their panting and grunting rose and fell with the rhythm of their bodies slamming into one another.
“God, I need more. I need all of you, sienta.”
He fumbled with the laces at the back of her dress while she felt another orgasm beginning to build. She had no idea how he was accomplishing it, but every time he entered her body, he maneuvered in such a way that he stroked her clit as well. It was brilliance.
The dresser began to bang against the wall in the same cadence his body was slamming into hers. Nikolai finally managed to pull her dress down around her waist and began biting and sucking her breasts. She screamed in pleasure as he sucked long and hard on one nipple. He dug his fingers into her ass and pulled her tighter onto him. His thumb went to her clit and began abrading it. In seconds, she felt his entire body tens
e, and she screamed out as an orgasm so strong grabbed her into its clutches and wouldn’t let go. “Fuck…me…dear fucking…yes!”
Nikolai cried out and rammed himself into her four more times before she felt his essence fill her. Then he grabbed her from the dresser and fell like dead weight to the floor with her on top of him. “Good God, female, you’re going to kill me.”
He kissed her hard once more, then dropped his head back to the floor with a clunk. She didn’t have the strength to move, so she lay out atop him. Her ear against his chest, she listened to his heart beating fast beneath the skin.
What are you doing?
Even as she questioned it, she realized she didn’t really care.
No, it wasn’t that she didn’t care—she did care about Antares and his dream more than she ever thought possible—but this thing with Nikolai was so astonishing, so mind-altering, so fucking hot, that in the moment, nothing else mattered. She just wanted to be able to keep experiencing it for the rest of her life…or at least twenty or thirty more years until she was too old to keep up.
Nikolai rubbed his hand softly over her back, then rose up and kissed the top of her head.
“You are the most amazing female I have ever met.”
She looked up at him.
Stung slightly by his words, she lashed out. “You don’t know anything about me. So what you’re actually saying is that I’m a good fuck.”
Feeling offended, she started to roll off him, but he tightened his arms around her waist, holding her solidly in place.
“That is not what I said…although it is true.”
“Let go of me!” she half screamed and kicked her legs.
To Love a King [The Reformation 1] (Siren Publishing PolyAmour) Page 14