by Tina Donahue
He watched as she eased her thumb over the slit in the crown, using his pre-come to lubricate the cap. His shoulders bunched at the sensations Regina knew were rushing through him. He spoke on a prolonged sigh, his words halting. “I won’t hurt you. I’d never hurt you. It’s just that…”
Regina worried at his obvious uncertainty. Her first thought was to ignore it and simply give him all the pleasure she could. The look on his face, his aching doubt wouldn’t allow it. “What?”
“I need to tell you something.” He glanced away as though it pained or embarrassed him to continue. “Before I begin, I want you to know it doesn’t affect my performance in the least.”
“What are you talking about? What doesn’t?”
He kept his profile to her and spoke impersonally as if they were strangers. “On E2, I’m not allowed to breed, so there’s no reason for you to fear that I’ll—”
“Nikoli, stop.” Pushing up, Regina wound her arms around his shoulders, cradling him in her embrace, her heart aching at the thought of him never having a child to love and cherish. She whispered, “What did they do to you?”
He shook his head, his nose rubbing her shoulder, his words muffled by her body. “It’s not what you think, nor is it permanent. The government can reverse it when the individual earns the right to breed.”
Earns the right? Regina’s skin crawled with outrage and disgust. She couldn’t imagine him existing in such a place…or returning to it, living out his days without love, emotion, pleasure. Warning herself not to say anything harsh about E2 or beg him to stay on this side, she murmured, “I’m not worried about a child, Nikoli, or anything we do. I want you inside me.”
To prove it, she stroked his cock in one hand, using the other to guide his mouth to hers, drawing her tongue over his bottom lip. He trembled and moaned, the sound a thirsty man makes when offered life-giving water.
Gratified, wanting to give him everything he’d never known, she angled her mouth to deepen their kiss.
With a swiftness that surprised her, Nikoli took command, filling her with his tongue. She moaned lustily. He stole the sound with his passion that lasted only a few moments before he tore his mouth free.
Gulping air, he placed his hand on her shoulder, guiding her to lie down on the chaise.
With great reluctance, she released his stiffened shaft, smiling at how its rigidity made it bob. “Have I told you how amazing you are?”
Giving her a self-conscious smile, Nikoli ran the tip of his forefinger over her bottom lip, sending tingles from it to the back of her throat. Wanting more, Regina opened her mouth and sucked his finger inside.
His lids slid to half-mast, while his body continued to bunch, indicating their play wasn’t enough.
Regina wanted more too, everything Nikoli had to give, for as long as she could keep him with her.
There was no way she was going to allow him to leave at dawn. She had no idea how to stop him, but would figure it out when the time came.
Pulling his finger from her, he crawled onto the chaise, settling between her legs, guiding her to lift and draw them back. Once Regina had, Nikoli rested his hands on her knees, the pads of his fingers pressing into her flesh, keeping her opened to him.
How she loved that, welcoming his dominance and the picture he created. Firelight danced on his smooth, broad shoulders. It lightened the ends of his hair and cast shadows on his rugged features, sharpening them, making him seem every bit a vision from another world. A dangerous angel. Hers.
A pulse beat steadily on Regina’s temple and at the base of her throat.
Releasing one of her legs, Nikoli lifted his cock in his palm, running his fingers over the small duct in the crown. His pre-come glistened in the quivering light. Regina stared at it, her heart missing a beat, then racing at such beauty.
Every inch of her body yearned for his and the end of loneliness endured for too long. Each minute apart from him stretched endlessly. It took all of Regina’s will not to make another demand that he mount her.
As though Nikoli sensed her turmoil, he glanced up. With their gazes locked, he ran his free hand up her moist slit to her erect nub.
Her body flinched at the delicious sensations, her legs parting even more.
Leaning forward, he drew the tip of his cock up her cleft. Regina shivered. Nikoli’s smile told her how much her reaction pleased him. Watching himself, he brought his crown to her cunt.
Taking his time as he’d pledged, Nikoli eased his organ into her opening, stretching her, using her, pausing only when he’d buried the crown inside with a confidence that said she belonged to him.
Regina’s breasts jiggled with her heightened breathing. The pressure between her legs intensified her passion, magnifying her arousal. “More,” she whispered.
Pleasure at her response transformed Nikoli’s features, turning them boyish and eager.
“Quickly or slow?” he asked.
“As fast as you—” She didn’t finish. There was no need. With one masterful thrust, Nikoli had tunneled through her channel, burying his cock to its base, his balls smacking her ass.
Oh, wow.
Regina’s delighted moan turned into a gasp at his fingers stroking her nub. “No,” she cried, wiggling her hips. “My clit’s too sensitive.”
“You want me to stop?”
Of course, she did…and didn’t. Sucking her lower lip, she shook her head.
Nikoli drew his thumb over her erect bud, his gesture deliberately prolonged, teasing.
An oath of frustration and joy bubbled in Regina’s throat. Before it broke free, Nikoli eased out of her until only his crown remained inside, and then he thrust back in.
The room spun, and the world went quiet except for the sounds they made—the tapping of his sac as it spanked her cheeks, his lusty groans, her pants and whimpers. The noise of a man and a woman who wanted nothing except each other, who’d had little of substance before they met.
Nikoli represented a life without loneliness and intolerable longing. She wasn’t going to give him up without a fight. She wasn’t going to lose him.
Gripping his upper arm, digging her fingers into his biceps, Regina focused solely on him. Sweat bathed Nikoli’s neck and chest. Still, he continued to pump and stroke, fighting climax as much as her, both of them defiant.
Minutes passed. Jaw clenched, he lifted his face to the ceiling, his throat and shoulders corded.
Wanting to give him some much-needed peace, Regina tightened her inner muscles, squeezing his cock, impelling him to orgasm.
His body shuddered. He rubbed her clit faster, harder, intent on delivering his own brand of relief.
Within seconds, they came together, Regina shouting, then panting, only to shout once more. Above her, Nikoli continued to pump, opening her with his flesh, savoring her, pleasuring himself. He roared in satisfaction.
The sound rang through the room as a shiver tore through him. On his elbows, his body trembling, Nikoli draped his torso over hers.
Wrapping him in her embrace, Regina smoothed back his damp hair and wound her legs around his slim hips. She kissed his shoulder and neck, tasting the faint saltiness of his sweat.
His cock flexed in her cunt, still hard…or rather harder…just as he’d said.
Already prepared for more.
Chapter Nine
Domm stared at the message on Nikoli’s monitor. One addressed to him, one Nikoli had intended Domm to find, though not tonight—tomorrow evening.
Forgive me, the communication began.
The room seemed to close in on Domm. With mounting horror, he read the missive that told of Nikoli crossing over to follow Sazaar, keeping her from harming a woman named Regina, Nikoli building a device that marked him as a traitor, planning an assault on the vampires to prevent them from destroying Regina or from entering E2.
Domm fought dizziness. The room continued to pitch. Gripping the edge of the table, he struggled to slow the rapid pounding of his heart. It m
issed several beats as Domm recalled Thomo’s words as to what he’d seen in the other room.
“…an unusual color. At least a portion of it, at the top.”
“Red…the color of blood.”
The woman’s hair? Most likely. And Thomo had seen it.
Domm’s pulse raced at the thought, and another far more terrifying. Had Thomo also caught a glimpse of Nikoli?
“Tall,” the younger man had said when describing the shadow he’d seen. “At least my size or yours.”
Domm’s shoulders and arms trembled uncontrollably. He tightened his hold on the table, tensing his muscles even as his mind raced over what had most likely occurred. Nikoli had been with the woman, having brought her to E2 as a temporary tactic to protect her from the vampires. Although Thomo had seen his childhood friend, he hadn’t expected the form or recognized it to be Nikoli.
Would Thomo keep revisiting the memory of what had happened? Would his mind continue to work each detail until he realized the truth? That Nikoli had altered their security system to keep Regina from harm on this side, preventing those on E2 from knowing about her. That he had compromised everything his people had worked on for millennia.
And all for a woman from the next dimension.
“I couldn’t allow Sazaar or the other vampires to harm her. She’s an innocent, Father.”
Shoulders bunched, Domm pressed his fingers against the table’s hard surface. His thoughts raged. She wasn’t one of them! She was outside their realm!
“Honor demanded I do this.”
And what of honor for his own people?
“The vampires won’t enter E2. My plan is to destroy them.”
And what if his plan didn’t work? How could it with one man against so many monsters? Outrage at his son’s foolish actions cleared Domm’s mind and quieted his breathing. He had to tell his superiors about this and warn them of the breach. His duty was to them and E2, not his son.
Pushing away from the table, he strode across the room, stopping at the door, an image of Nikoli filling his mind. Not as the man he now was, but as a child of five years, his dark eyes wide, his expression confused at the incomprehensibility of his mother’s passing.
“She didn’t suffer,” Domm had explained at the time, using reason, a force more powerful than any emotion, even love. “The other individual wasn’t at fault. His vehicle and your mother’s tried to avoid each other, but the path was too narrow, there were too many others on it. To save them, your mother sacrificed herself. You should be proud of her. You mustn’t cry.”
The anguish on his son’s face had remained, but Nikoli hadn’t wept. He’d taken Domm’s hand, his little fingers holding tight. “Don’t leave me,” he begged, panic causing his words to jump. “I’ll be good. I’ll do whatever you tell me, Father.”
And he had, growing into the man Domm had wanted him to be, what their people expected, living a good life filled with safety and comfort.
“I wanted to be all that you asked, Father,” his message had stated, “but I’ve failed. I love her.”
Fists clenched, Domm spoke quietly, his words laced with rage and sorrow. “How could you think such a thing, Nikoli? How could you do this to us or yourself and throw everything away?”
“I couldn’t allow anyone to harm her. She’s an innocent. Honor demanded…”
No! He owed her nothing. His life was here…or had been.
The Strii in Domm urged him to tell his superiors everything he knew, to show them Nikoli’s note, to be the catalyst in bringing his son back to E2 for execution as a traitor. To use him as an example to others who might consider doing the same thing.
“The vampires won’t enter E2. My plan is to destroy them.”
His plan was to save Regina. She, not his people, not his dimension, mattered most.
“I wanted to be all that you asked.”
“Don’t leave me. I’ll be good.”
Domm’s fingers stalled inches from the door.
“I’ll do whatever you tell me.”
The words of a child, Domm warned himself, not of a man who’d deluded himself into believing in the futility of love. Even if it were possible for Domm to repair the damage Nikoli had caused, how could he convince his son to return to this side, not as a traitor, but as an honorable member of their society?
“I love her.”
Scorn pushed Domm’s hand forward. His memory of Nikoli’s features, the good he’d accomplished for E2 prior to seeing the woman, kept Domm’s fingers from touching the metal.
Sweat bathed his face. Go on, his thoughts ordered. Do what you must.
Rather than moving forward, his hand trembled in place, betraying a father’s weakness when faced with the ruin of his only child. Arm falling at his side, he glanced at the wall. Is that where Nikoli and Regina had crossed into E2 to escape the vampires? If Domm constructed a device similar to what his son had built, a simple matter really, would he see them on the other side when he opened a portal? Would he be able to convince Nikoli to forsake the woman and return to—
His thoughts stalled at the sound of conversation in the hall. Remaining perfectly still, Domm listened.
“I understand Murr’s with Thomo,” a male said, his tone subdued by the barrier of the door.
“They’re still working,” a female responded. “We shouldn’t disturb them.”
“It will only be for a moment. If they won’t join us for a meal, we can offer to bring them something back.”
“Very well.”
A ragged sigh escaped Domm at the thought of them speaking with Thomo and Murr. Would Thomo tell them about what he’d seen? In the time that had already passed, what else had he recalled?
Hurrying back to the monitor, Domm hesitated only a moment before he destroyed Nikoli’s message, an act of treason on his part. His stomach got queasy, nausea threatening him. Ignoring it and honor, he left his son’s laboratory, his mind racing as he returned to the room where he’d last seen Thomo and Murr.
Nikoli mounted Regina numerous times, taking her on the chaise and in front of the fire, their bodies cushioned from the hardwood floor by a large sheepskin rug, the afghan and his topcoat. Repeatedly, he sank his cock into her heated sheath, burying his face in her wondrous hair, marveling at her peaches-and-vanilla fragrance, her body’s musk, the scent of sex.
Only when they smelled of it more than anything else did Nikoli finally relax, his limbs weakened, his shaft limp. Arms above his head, legs sprawled, he watched Regina’s fascination at his depleted strength.
Hampered by her own fatigue, she struggled to a sitting position and cradled his flaccid cock in her palm. Her touch stirred feelings of tenderness rather than arousal. The caution with which she held him told Nikoli of her fear…that she’d somehow injured his organ during the last hours.
He held back a smile at the thought of it coming to harm in a cunt that fit him perfectly, one that was nothing but wet, smooth heat.
She asked, “Are you all right?”
Never again would he be since experiencing this night with her. Once they parted, his purpose for living would end. At the moment of his death, he would have already been reduced to nothingness, not unlike the existence he’d known before meeting her. To hide his sadness, he forced a smile and nodded. “You?”
Regina sank to his side, snuggling the length of her body against his.
Her willingness to be near him, her softness and warmth, the comfort she provided was beyond anything he’d imagined in his days on E2, working tirelessly, taking as little time as he could to eat, sleep or indulge his sexual needs. He warned himself to be grateful for these few hours, not to want anything more.
With her arm hugging his chest and one leg draped over his, she murmured, “Tired. How about you?”
Fatigue pressed close, pulling at his lids, insisting they close. A yawn edged near. Fighting it, knowing he couldn’t sleep, that he had to leave and destroy the vampires, Nikoli told a partial truth. “I am.”<
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Her fingertips circled his nipple, then tugged at the small tip.
Nikoli smiled so quickly and so hard, his cheeks hurt, unused to the action.
Regina whispered, “Sleep.” She kissed his shoulder. “It’s still night. It’ll be dark for hours more, Nikoli.”
He glanced at the windows, the continuing rain that protected them. Past the trees, the sky showed no signs of the coming dawn.
“It’ll be dark for hours.”
He had to leave.
As if she knew, Regina huddled closer, her hand moving to his arm, her fingers buried in the dark hair in his pit, her foot sliding past his calf, anchoring it with her heel.
“Sleep.”
He couldn’t. He shouldn’t. He had to protect her and his people. His life meant nothing when compared to theirs and hers.
Regina adjusted her head. The scent of her shampoo drifted up, a floral fragrance unknown on E2, the same as color, intense light, reckless joy. Her hair flowed over his arm. Nikoli stared at her tresses, so fiery, like silken flames.
He lifted his hand to touch them. Exhaustion pulled his arm back down.
Regina didn’t stir. Her breath poured over his skin, heating it more than the fire he’d stoked a short time ago.
“Sleep. It’ll be dark for hours.”
He needed only a moment’s rest, enough time for Regina to fall asleep so she wouldn’t notice him slipping away from the confinement of her arm and leg. So she wouldn’t beg him to stay.
Nikoli’s belly twisted at the thought of looking back on her one last time, then moving forward into the day and his death.
His vision blurred with fatigue. At last, he closed his eyes, counting the seconds as they passed on his plane, not hers. He’d wait for ten minutes to slip by and then he’d free his body from Regina’s. He’d—
The thought died in his mind, refusing to return as exhaustion overcame him.