Powerful Moves [L.U.S.T.] (Siren Publishing Classic) (6 page)

“Why? Wait, before you answer that, you should probably explain Terra. What is it? Or rather where, is likely the better question.”

“It’s an alternate realm much the same as Earth yet different.”

“No shit?” Her expressive eyes danced with amazement. Tavius wondered what expression he’d see in their hazel depths as he probed her tight channel with his thick cock. “So there really
are
other realms. This is awesome! There have always been rumors of such but nothing that could be confirmed.”

“Well, I guess I’m your confirmation.” Tavius picked up the sandwich she’d set on his plate and bit in. It tasted so good he nearly groaned.

“Does it operate on the same time as Earth? You said it’s different. How? What are the people like? Do they all dress like you? Does everyone have powers? Where do you live? What—” She winced. “Too many questions. Sorry. It’s just so fascinating.”

No, you’re fascinating
. Tavius didn’t want her to stop rambling. He liked watching her lips move. He wanted to touch them, to feel the warmth of her breath fan his lips as he brushed his mouth to hers. He wanted to slip his tongue between her parting lips as she welcomed him inside.

Tavius pried his attention from her mouth. He pulled a handful of chips from the bag on the table between them, looking for a different avenue to satisfy his taste buds. The greasy potato failed miserably in comparison to his imagined taste of her.

“Terra is a more technologically advanced realm than Earth. We have things there that have yet to be invented in this realm.”

“As we have things like spandex and paper that you don’t have in Terra.” She twisted the cap off her second bottle of beer. “Or things that aren’t in great supply.”

She had to bring his attention back to the spandex.

Tavius wondered if the synthetic fiber contained some form of ferromagnetic material. The way the mere thought of the spandex clothing pulled at his gaze and held it captive in a desperate attempt to penetrate the barrier felt nothing short of magnetic. He wanted to strip off her shirt, cup her plump breasts in his palms, and lift them to his mouth. He wanted to feast on her nipples until his hunger for her lessened and she cried out for more.

Tavius crunched on another chip as he continued. “For a realm of overly intelligent, powerful people, Terra was careless in the one thing that mattered most. Centuries ago, the people of Terra nearly demolished their own existence.”

“How?”

“They cut down too many trees. By the time they realized their mistake, there was barely enough left to produce the oxygen needed to survive.”

“But what about plankton, plants, other things that make oxygen?”

Tavius shook his head. “Plankton falls into the category of ‘don’t haves’ on Terra. The plant life wasn’t strong enough to produce the needed amount on its own. We have other ways of making it now. Researchers developed a process through electric current and water. Still, trees are essential to survival, as my Terrian ancestors realized almost too late. Today, Terra is less populated than the Earth realm. People live closer, in townships or city-states rather than large cities like this. Atnalta, where I live, is one of those city-states. The lands are controlled by the regime, the trees protected. Our structures are made from stones and metals rather than wood.”

“And the people, what are they like?” Elena polished off her sandwich and leaned back in her chair, one hand curled around her beer.

Tavius stared at her long, slender fingers, at her short, manicured nails. He wanted to feel those fingers curled around his shaft. He wanted to feel her nails digging into the flesh of his shoulders as he sheathed his cock inside her as deeply as he could and then some.

“Do they all have powers like you?”

“We have various species on Terra. Not all are human as you and I are. Most have powers, yes, though not all.”

“The ones with powers, the non-humans, they are seen as normal?”

There was a wistfulness in her tone that tore at him. He wanted that devious grin back. He wanted to hear her breathy laugh again. He wanted to make her moan and writhe and beg him to take her, to fuck her, to make her come. He slanted a look at her. “You think I’m normal?”

That got him a small semblance of her smile. “Perhaps normal was a poor word choice.”

“No being on Terra is seen as a monster, if that’s what you’re asking. In a sense, all beings are considered equal as long as they do harm to none.” Some were more powerful than others. Some could be meaner, stronger, and more dangerous. Some were guarded, even restricted, but all were given free rein to roam about, to live in the open amongst others as long as they abided by the laws of the regime.

“It must be nice,” Elena whispered. “To live in a place where you are accepted rather than viewed as a freak or feared as evil.”

“Evil comes in many forms, Elena,” Tavius said softly.

“Yeah, I know that. I’ve seen it firsthand.”

He started to ask how. What kind of evil had she faced down? Did it have anything to do with the men in the pictures? Somehow he didn’t think so. Vampire or not, neither man looked capable of harming her. He decided to save the question for a later discussion.

Tavius picked up his beer, drank, and studied her. For a moment, he toyed with the idea of attempting to tap into her mind, maybe try for a sweet suggestion that would turn the weariness he saw beneath her beauty to one of a hot and willing desire. But there were things he needed to know about Earth, things that didn’t quite add up.

“Help me understand, Elena. You know of vampires. You have them in this realm.” He gestured to the photos on the wall and caught the quick widening of her eyes, the flash of surprise before she masked her expression.

“How did you know he’s a vampire?”

Yes, only one of the twins pictured was a vamp. Tavius realized that just before he turned to find her leaning against the wall looking like a clothed version of his favorite wet dream. He believed the other to be some sort of shifter, though he wasn’t certain of the breed. “We have many vampires on Terra. Atnalta especially is full of them. They aren’t so difficult to identify.”

“We had quite a few of them here, too, once. We also have vampire hunters.”

Tavius nodded. “People who hunt and kill them. That’s why you wouldn’t take me to your bosses. They are the founders.” He gestured to the pictures again. “And one of them is a vampire. You’re protecting him.”

“I’m protecting both of them. And you won’t go near either of them until I know everything about why you’re here.”

“They are more to you than just your employers.” The question of how much more had an uncharacteristic bubble of jealousy popping in Tavius’s gut.

“I owe them everything,” Elena said softly.

Tavius reached for her, covering her hand still curled around her bottle with his own. Touching her again sent slivers of electric fire raining through his system, settling in his cock. It was lust, it was desire, and it was more. The “more” was the part he didn’t want to consider at that moment. “Elena, you can trust me.”

She met his gaze with a steady, determined, and totally unfazed one of her own. “I thought you weren’t going to tell me that because I wouldn’t believe you anyway.”

“Believe me.” This time when he said it he gave her mind a gentle push with his evocative power. He felt her resistance push back. Not a shield exactly but an inner strength that spoke more of the woman inside than any metaphysical power could.

“I’ll decide if I can trust you, Tavius.” She pulled her hand free of his. “Tell me about the vampire you followed here.”

* * * *

Elena thought the way he looked at her drove her hormones wild. Those quick trips through Panty Cream Land had nothing on the turbulent flight to Orgasmville that his touch sent her on. She took a long pull of beer, wishing all the while she had something much stronger to drink. A couple of shots of Jack Daniel’s would’ve been nice right about now, something to calm the nerves standing on end and soothe the erotic blocks of want that had stacked in her belly the moment he turned to face her back on the hiking trail.

He only touched her twice, a brush of his fingers down her cheek, the covering of her hand with his. Both times she felt her world tilt and her body explode with needs she’d failed to entertain for too long now. Gods, what would happen to her when he touched her elsewhere?

When
?

Yes, when. She had made up her mind about that during her reprieve to her bedroom to change her shirt. She never denied herself a man when she wanted him, never refused her body the sex it craved when the mutual attraction presented itself. And, ah yes, the mutual attraction between her and Tavius stood up and saluted while waving a giant do-me flag. Why subject herself to a release of her own making, one that would certainly be far less satisfying, when she could have this incredible male specimen of pure mouth-watering temptation right here in front of her? When she could have his mouth on her heated flesh, his calloused palms on the very sensitized areas of her body, his impressive cock deep inside her pulsing channel?

Because she already decided casual sex with him could be a serious understatement?

So, what’s your point, Elena?

When did she start taking the safe road? She lived on the edge of danger. If she had learned one thing in her life, it was how to protect her heart while giving her body exactly what it wanted. Right now, it wanted the man sitting across from her in every position stated in the Kama Sutra and some that had yet to be documented.

“His name is Regulus Le Mort. I remember that much.” And the name still sent a cold chill through her very being. “Why are you following him? How did you follow him here?”

“I realm jumped.” Tavius settled back comfortably in his seat, long legs stretched beneath the table, one hand holding his beer bottle at rest on his thigh. His other hand, the one he used to touch her, to take her blood on a roller coaster of loops and turns, lay relaxed on the table. “Is that not a power the people of this realm possess?”

“Not that I’ve ever heard of.” Nor had she ever heard of anyone having this visceral physical reaction to a man before.

He kept her on edge, made her feel shaky and disoriented and so freaking horny she could barely think! Power hummed around him, calling for her to climb onto his lap, burry her hands in his hair and slam her mouth to his. It unnerved her even as she felt drawn by it.

“A few can teleport, move about this realm by disappearing in one place and reappearing in another. But none can move between realms.”

Elena envied the power. What would it be like to simply get away whenever it suited her fancy, to zip and pop all over the Earth? What would it be like to leave Earth behind all together?

“Can everyone on Terra do it?”

Tavius shook his head. “No, and those who can are watched closely. It’s a highly guarded and strictly regulated ability. Travelling between realms isn’t done without good reason.”

“Like following a rogue vampire,” Elena supplied. “Did this Le Mort have good reason?”

“I’m sure he thinks he did,” Tavius said on a dry chuckle. “But he doesn’t have the ability to realm jump. He stole—or rather I should say had someone else steal—plans and materials to build a portal that allowed him to jump between your realm and ours.”

“Is that why you’re after him, because he travelled without permission?”

“I’m after him because, along with the plans for the gate, schematics for several weapons were taken.”

Elena felt the blood drain out of her head. “Weapons?”

“We know of three for certain. I believe he constructed the gate to bring them here, to have those weapons built here or to sell the plans to the highest builder.”

“What sort of weapons?” Gods, that’s all her world needed, more tools of destruction to wreak havoc on human life.

“Bad ones.”

Elena rolled her eyes. “Isn’t ‘bad’ synonymous with ‘weapons’?”

“I don’t know. I can think of a few weapons that are good. Take you, for instance. Everything about you is a weapon, but for the life of me, I’m having trouble finding anything bad in that.”

“Oh, please.” Elena expelled a dry laugh. She shouldn’t be charmed by a line that could’ve come right out of the latest Pickup Lines for Dummies, but damn it, she was.

She let her gaze drift over him. The burlap sack he wore in lieu of a shirt still managed to show off his chest to mouth-watering perfection. Her palms burned to feel the hard-toned muscles, to glide along his pecs, his abs, lower…

Lower
. She swallowed as her attention followed her thoughts. In his relaxed position, his leather pants hugged his lower body like a second skin, revealing more perfect muscles. One in particular, long, thick, and impossibly hard, held her attention for a good long time.

“You’re so freaking beautiful.”

His whispered words drew her attention back to his handsome face. His electric eyes sparked with a warmth that melted the chill in her blood. His strong jaw was stubbled. Elena swallowed the desire to run her tongue over those coarse hairs, to nip and soothe the muscle ticking there.

What was with the sudden mark of anger? Was he mad at himself for finding her attractive?