Illicit Desire: Outlawed Realm, Book 2

by Tina Donahua

  He grabbed her wrist and pulled her hand away. “What do you think I’ve been trying to do?” With a sweep of his arm, he gestured to all the crap on his table. “None of these things work as I need them to.”

  “Can’t you modify them in some way?”

  “How?”

  She lifted her shoulders. “Wouldn’t Meelo or Damir know? Have you asked them? Can you call them? Do they have a cell phone?”

  “Even if they did, they’re geneticists, not quantum physicists.”

  “How about the Internet? Can you research what you need there?”

  He pressed the heel of his hand into his forehead. “Under what? Devices to move people from one realm to another? Portals R Us dot com?”

  Regina inhaled deeply, then spoke on a hard sigh, “Of. Course. Not.”

  Her snotty tone told him to cool it. She was only trying to help. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the kind Nikoli needed. He murmured, “Come back here.”

  She’d moved away, but he easily pulled her into him, resting his face between her breasts.

  After a moment’s hesitation, Regina cupped the back of his head.

  Inhaling deeply, Nikoli caught her fragrance, loving the scent so much he wondered again how he’d lived so long without it. “You smell really good.”

  “It’s not me. It’s the Cap’n Crunch.”

  To his surprise he laughed, then sighed just as quickly.

  “Okay, that’s it,” Regina said. “You need to chill.” She eased back so she could sit on his lap. Once there, she lifted a spoonful of the cereal to his mouth. “Come on, baby, open up for Mama.”

  He arched one brow. “I’m tired and frustrated, not senile.”

  “Only because I take such good care of you.”

  He rolled his eyes. She grinned. “Eat.”

  The first bite was such a jolt of sugary pleasure, Nikoli took the utensil from her and shoveled more of the cereal into his mouth, speaking around it. “Do you want some?”

  She made a face and leaned away from the spoonful he offered her. “Watching you eat it is punishment enough.”

  He finished the bowl, then ate most of the English muffin, licking mayonnaise and pretzel bits from his lips.

  Her expression didn’t get any better.

  Nikoli chewed and swallowed. “The trouble with you is that you have no sense of adventure.”

  “Really.” She fingered crumbs from the corner of his mouth, wiping them on one of the napkins she’d brought. “I fucked you in the backseat of our car when you dared me to.”

  “It was parked in the garage. The door was down.”

  “But the lights were on and we did tape it, remember?”

  How could he forget? Many a night they’d watched their performance rather than the dumb things on TV. “I still think my ass looked big.”

  She barked a laugh. “You’re nuts. I’m supposed to be saying that.”

  “No kidding? I thought you liked my butt.”

  Her shoulders shook. She sputtered. “You know what I mean. I’m the one who’s supposed to have a body image problem.”

  How was that possible when she was so perfect? Nikoli put the plate on the tray and wound his arms around her, drawing Regina nearer. “I like you just as you are. Don’t ever change. Please.”

  “I wasn’t planning to.” She spoke with as much emotion as he had. “You won’t be leaving me, will you, Nikoli? You’ll see this through, by my side, no matter what?”

  Her question surprised him. He didn’t know what to say.

  “You’re really squeezing me,” she said. “So is that a no?”

  He loosened his grip.

  Regina cupped his face. Her earlier laughter was gone, replaced by naked concern. “Don’t sacrifice yourself for me. It’s not what I want or need. Promise you’ll never leave me.”

  “I won’t,” he said, knowing it wasn’t a total lie. He’d always be in her heart and mind no matter where he was physically. No matter if circumstances demanded they were separated so she’d be safe.

  “Promise,” she ordered.

  “I will. I am.”

  Regina studied him, no doubt probing into his psyche as she loved to do. Before she saw something she shouldn’t, Nikoli said, “I need to get back to work.”

  “You’re sure you don’t want to take a ten-minute nap?”

  “I’ll sleep later. When Arez and Lukan are here.” He eased her from his lap and held back a sigh at the unfinished device. Maybe if he doubled up on the components, they’d give him the power he needed…unless that blew the circuits. At this point, he had little choice except to experiment. To have the same sense of adventure he’d teased Regina about.

  She remained at his side, observing.

  Without glancing her way, he said, “I need to get back to this. I can’t do that if I keep smelling your perfume.”

  “It’s the cereal you smell.”

  This time, neither of them laughed. “It’s you,” he insisted. “It’ll always be you.”

  Lingering for a moment, as though she wanted to say something more, Regina finally kissed his cheek, took the tray and left the room.

  She put the dirty plates, bowl and spoon in the dishwasher then went to the foyer, trying to see as much as she could of the street past the stained-glass windows. The thick glass precluded it. Sucking her bottom lip, Regina went into the living room and adjusted the shutters just a bit to peer outside.

  The cars parked there were the usual ones, not Sheehan and Goddard’s with them staking out this place like something from a bad police procedural.

  The moment they came back, Nikoli was going to tell them everything— about E2, the vampires, how those abominations had murdered Bakshi and threatened her. Whatever it took to keep her safe. Regina could feel it.

  She squeezed her fists so hard, her knuckles hurt. She wanted to hit something, mainly Nikoli. Why in the hell didn’t he believe what she’d said? Even if she was in deep shit with the law, didn’t he know she’d want both of them to run, rather than leaving him to face the authorities alone?

  No way was she going back to the empty existence she’d known before him. No way was he going to fail Arez and Lukan with that guilt crapping up their lives.

  There might not be a Portals R Us dot com available, but there had to be something from the quantum physicists on this side that would help him out. She hurried down the hall to her office and fired up her computer, bringing up Google. Her fingers were poised on the keyboard, ready to search, when she froze.

  What if Sheehan and Goddard returned with a court order for her computer so they could check its hard drive for information about Bakshi? What would they think about her searches for portals or scientists like Nikoli? That she was a murderess? A Trekkie?

  She giggled uncontrollably. Goddard’s and Bakshi’s eyes would bug out if they really knew the truth. Not that they were going to. If she had to tie Nikoli to their bed and gag him, she wasn’t going to let him reveal anything.

  Resolved, Regina keyed in “portals between dimensions”. Within a second, seventy-two million hits came up. God. Scrolling down the screen, she saw that most of the info was junk with only a few sites hosting scientific theories or true-life stories.

  The first-person events were probably bogus, unless others from E2 were on this plane and had written about their experiences.

  Yeah, sure.

  Bypassing that stuff, she searched the scientific articles, working as quickly as she could. Even so, it took her over an hour before she had everything printed out and highlighted for Nikoli. She had difficulty understanding most of the content, but maybe he could make sense of it.

  Papers in hand, she went upstairs, stopping in the doorway to his office.

  Bent over the table, he had one arm folded beneath his head. His other hand rested palm up, a coil of wire resting on it, his fingers relaxed in sleep.

  A rush of love hit Regina, its intensity frightening, defying reason. For him, she’d lie, cheat, s
teal and even risk death, just as long as he was safe. She ached to smooth his unruly hair, to trace the curve of his rich mouth and run her fingertips down his stubbled cheek. To make him happy. That was all she asked of life. To give them a chance.

  What if he couldn’t work this out? What if Lukan and Arez died? Regina knew Nikoli was so honorable he’d never forgive himself. He wouldn’t be the same man.

  It might break him.

  What then? Would he become ill? Although he’d said there was no disease on E2 and he was immune to those here because of Sazaar’s bite, that didn’t mean it was impossible for him to get hurt. Damn, why hadn’t she thought of that before?

  What if he cut an artery, fell or was in a car accident? It wasn’t as though he could go to a doctor or a hospital.

  How would a physician treat him? What if a medical procedure on this side had the same effect on Nikoli that chocolate did on E2? What if—

  Oh my God—stop.

  Regina wrapped her arms around herself and squeezed as hard as she could to keep from losing it. He didn’t need her breaking down when he had so much else pressing in on him. Besides, there was always Meelo and Damir to fall back on now. As geneticists, they had to know the physiology of their people perfectly. If anything ever happened to Nikoli, they’d help him. They’d invent a freaking technique or medicine to make him well again, unless they wanted to deal with her rage.

  Quietly, she went to him so as not to disturb. His upper lip fluttered with his quiet exhale of air, causing a curious mixture of lust and tenderness to well within Regina.

  Thank God for vampires, portals and all that other nutty stuff. If not for that, she would never have met him.

  I’m not losing you. Count on it.

  She wrote him a note at the top of her research, telling him what it was, then placed the papers near his outstretched hand. He continued to sleep.

  Resisting the urge to touch him, to whisper her love, she went downstairs to check the street again.

  Chapter Twelve

  Sheltered within Lukan’s arms, Arez drifted between wakefulness and sleep as he told her all that he knew about Regina’s dimension. A place where planes flew like the birds here, somehow carrying people in their bellies, taking them unharmed to faraway destinations. A realm where children played outside in areas called yards, amusing themselves with toys designed to keep them happy.

  It was when he’d been speaking of them that he started to tell her of his childhood, long before he’d come to the Palace.

  “When I was five,” he said now, “I wandered into Meelo and Damir’s lab in this series of rooms we shared. They didn’t call it a home, not like people do on Regina’s side. And it wasn’t. I never had the feeling of really belonging there or being free to express myself like the children I’ve watched in Regina’s neighborhood. It was simply a place where we all lived together. One afternoon, they were in another part of it, working on something, and didn’t notice that I was looking at pictures of myself on their monitors. I’d seen my face in mirrors before, so I knew those were images of me.”

  Arez wanted to ask him what a mirror was, but given her fatigue, it was too much of an effort, so she simply listened.

  “I was thrilled they had those pictures,” he said. “It proved to me something they wouldn’t. That they cared. Why else would they keep my likeness where they stored important data? I had so many questions when they came inside. Ones I’d been afraid to ask before. Why did they have names when they referred to me by a genetic code? Would I have a name when I became a man? Was that the event that would warrant it and their love? And where were the symbols on their arms like the ones on mine?”

  Absently, he stroked the inside of Arez’s wrist, not seeming to realize he touched the marks on her as he continued.

  “I could read fairly well by that time and caught several words before they turned off the monitors, reprimanding me for coming inside and looking at things that belonged to them. Although they spoke quietly, I could tell how displeased they were.”

  He inhaled deeply, his chest pushing into her back. On a noisy sigh, he released the air he’d taken.

  “I didn’t care that they were upset. I wanted to know why the words ‘experiment’, ‘creation’ and ‘prototype’ were beneath my pictures. I had a faint idea of what those words meant, though not what they had to do with me specifically. Were they labels that proved I was special? Was that why I was living with them? If so, why didn’t they ever look at me for very long? Why didn’t they touch me unless they absolutely had to? Even then, I worried something was wrong with me. That I’d somehow disappointed them even though I wasn’t certain how.”

  Hearing his sorrow and confusion, Arez squeezed his arm, wanting him to stop talking about such an awful time. She didn’t know Meelo or Damir, yet she hated them for bringing him such pain and doubt.

  “What is it?” he asked, his lips close to her ear. “Did you see something outside?”

  It was still raining, the air growing cooler with the continuing moisture. Not used to the chill, she shivered.

  “You’re cold,” he said.

  Instead of warming her with his body as Arez wanted, he helped her into her tee and jeans. She would have protested but didn’t want Lukan to think that anything he did displeased her.

  “Better?” he asked as he finished tying her shoelaces.

  Arez lied with a nod, waiting until he dressed before she held out her arms, offering him all the love he’d missed.

  With no hesitation, he hugged her so hard she squeaked.

  “Sorry,” he said, then returned them to their earlier position, her back to his front so they both faced the mouth of the cave. No doubt to keep watch for predators.

  Not wanting to think about that, she said, “Tell me more about the stores on Regina’s side and how the rulers there do everything they can to make certain you’re not unhappy.”

  Laughter rumbled in his broad chest. “You like to hear how I order people around?”

  Arez enjoyed hearing him laugh. It was the most wonderful sound she’d ever heard. “I do.” She turned her face to the side. “Is that wrong?”

  “No.” He caressed her gently this time, then rocked back and forth, the movement lulling, the same as his tone. “One time when I was in the store’s checkout line—that’s where you pay for what you want—this man started to put my items into a paper bag. Immediately, I gave him a frown, telling him to stop.”

  Arez murmured, “Why? What had he done wrong?”

  “He hadn’t asked me what he was supposed to…‘paper or plastic’. The choice of container was mine, and he’d made the decision for me.”

  She frowned to show her outrage. Snuggling closer, she asked, “What did you do to him, Lukan? What else did you say? Tell me.”

  His hand went to her breast, claiming it with a right she adored.

  He whispered, “I ordered him to take every item out of the paper bag and put them into a plastic one, because I like those better. He apologized for the mistake and followed my order without hesitation.”

  “As he should,” she said. “What else?”

  He told her about other incidents, clearly proud at how commanding he’d been, how brave.

  She wanted to let him know how much she approved of what he’d done, but exhaustion again pressed in, precluding it. As he continued to speak, her thoughts drifted, picturing him in one of those stores.

  In her mind, Arez saw that it was larger than the Palace and lit with so many candles its intense light matched his description of the portal. Even so, the powerful illumination didn’t bother him. Nothing did. With the same courage he’d shown when striking the guards in her room and the hall, he took her hand, leading Arez through the store.

  No one stopped or questioned them. The store’s rulers stood on each side, watching quietly. A glance from Lukan—or worse, his frown—caused a few of them to take a step back and cower as the slaves always did in the Palace.

  He
re, Lukan reigned.

  He brought her to a circular area in the center of the store, a kind of stage where a large bed stood. Unlike the one in her room, a sweet-smelling blanket, not silk, hung over its mattress.

  Cool air drifted past. Arez’s nipples constricted. For the first time, she realized she was nude. So was Lukan.

  He turned to the rulers who’d followed them and now surrounded the stage. “Arez belongs to me,” he called out. “She’s mine to do with as I will. Exactly as I want. For as long as I desire.”

  With his hand on the back of her neck, he brought her to him, capturing her mouth, plunging his tongue inside. His kiss was rough and demanding, the sounds he made lewd, proving his ownership of her.

  Murmurs of approval rippled through the spectators.

  Arez submitted even further, draping her arms over Lukan’s shoulders, her response telling him she’d offer no resistance. She wanted him to conquer her. To take her in full view of the others, showing them what they would never have.

  He carried her to the bed, placing her on the center of the mattress. To her delight, his eyes were again blue-green, his hair blond. She reached out to touch it.

  He grabbed her wrist. “On your hands and knees, Arez. You know what I want.”

  She did. To have her in the most subservient of positions, ass lifted, legs spread wide. Her cunt and anus offered to him, affirming his mastery.

  And hers.

  His command had been harsh as befitted a ruler, but his expression yearned. She recognized his endless need of her. The power she had over him. Because of it, she wasn’t about to make him wait for what they both desired.

  Unconcerned as to what the others thought, Arez positioned herself, making her body as exposed and vulnerable as she could.

  It wasn’t enough.

  “You,” Lukan said to one of the rulers. “Bring me that.”

  What?

  The man scurried forward, placing a set of shackles on the bed, its chains and bands clinking against each other. Rather than using the irons to bind her wrists and ankles, Lukan wrapped the metal bands around her thighs, then secured the smaller ones to her biceps. The links between her arms and legs were taut, keeping her thighs open. Even if she’d wanted to move, Arez knew she couldn’t until Lukan freed her, allowing it.