Unending Desire: Outlawed Realm, Book 1 (18 page)

She was back to that? He spoke through his teeth. “Don’t say that. I won’t allow them to harm you.”

“Nor will I allow them to do anything to you. We’ll protect each other.” Not giving him a chance to comment, she took his hand and headed for the table. Nikoli held back. Regina looked over, her expression pleading.

Nikoli’s reason warred with his emotions, with neither of them winning. If he left to safeguard her, as he should, she’d foolishly put herself at risk to find and save him, driven by whatever was going through her mind. Without his protection, she had an even lesser chance of survival.

Defeated for the moment, he followed her, noticing a black garment draped over the top of one of the chairs.

Regina offered the item to him. “Put the robe on. It’ll keep you warm while I finish making breakfast.”

He didn’t take it.

Not letting that stop her, she shook out the robe and eased it up his arms, then pushed to her toes, touching her lips to his ear. “We can talk while we eat. Please. If you care for me, Nikoli, don’t deny me this.”

He forced down a swallow. “Is there nothing I can say that will change your mind?”

“No.” She smoothed the robe over his shoulders and pulled the edges of it across his chest. Chewing her lower lip, she regarded him.

“What?” he asked.

“Do you care for me?”

He grabbed her arms, pulling her close. “You know I do and more. So much more.”

Her smile was quick. “I feel the same about you.”

Nikoli stared at her, unable to comprehend that she would truly want him given what had happened, what he and Sazaar had brought into her life. He tried to reason. “What you feel is guilt, Regina. Perhaps gratitude. Maybe—”

She interrupted. “For a smart guy, you don’t know anything.”

He frowned. “I know I should be doing this alone.”

“No, and that’s final.”

Nikoli wanted to scream at her for fighting him on this. Instead, he pulled her into his arms, desperate to touch her as much as he could.

Regina sagged against him, denying nothing. He tightened his hold, eased it, then crushed her to him again, unable to make up his mind.

Through it all, she sighed contentedly, then lifted her hand, stroking his bristly jaw and throat. “You never have to be alone again, Nikoli. I’ll be there for you.”

That’s what worried him—her refusal to let him get on with the business of destruction and dying. On a frustrated sigh, he released her.

She didn’t seem happy, but she wasn’t defeated either. Waiting until he sat, she backed away toward the oven. Short of reaching it, she glanced over at the skillet, then returned her attention to him. “I’m making bacon, eggs and cinnamon rolls. Do you know what that is?”

“Food?”

She laughed. “Yeah. What I meant is, do you have anything like this on your side? Is this what you eat?” She frowned. “What do you eat?”

He toyed with the thought of telling her they dined on rocks and dirt. Knowing Regina, she’d start preparing it. Maybe she did really care for him. Thinking about that, knowing she shouldn’t, he said, “What you do on this side, only we refer to it by different names.”

Nodding, she turned the oven back on and set the burner to a low flame beneath the skillet. “Then you don’t have any food allergies, something that would make you ill if you ate it over here?”

“Our food hasn’t caused illness in centuries. We have no disease.”

Regina’s hand stalled near the skillet’s handle. She stared at him.

In spite of his best intentions, the picture she created sent Nikoli’s pulse racing. Her fiery hair slid over her shoulders, with several strands snagging on the soft fabric of his sweater. Her erect nipples pressed against it. He regarded her naked thighs and calves. The sight of her bare flesh banished reason, encouraging emotion, cherishing the few hours they had left before dark and the coming battle.

“You have no disease at all?” she asked.

“What? No.” He cleared his throat and continued. “Long ago, our scientists sterilized the air, eliminating what you refer to as viruses and harmful bacteria. Most on my plane live well past a hundred years, with some having to wait until their sixties or seventies before they’re allowed to breed.”

Her brows inched up.

He answered what he sensed she wouldn’t ask. “My father was one of them. He’s already reached his hundredth year having sired me when he was in his mid-sixties. He had hoped that I wouldn’t have to wait as long, that Sazaar and I would…” Nikoli stopped, unwilling to finish.

Worry crossed Regina’s face.

Again, he assured her, “Those on E2 won’t be looking for me.”

“I know.” She frowned slightly. “You said the air on your side is free of all harmful organisms?”

He nodded.

“It isn’t here.” She took several steps toward him and stopped. “Will our germs harm you?”

“No.”

Regina’s expression remained unconvinced. “Why not?”

He wanted to lie. He sensed she’d know if he had. “Sazaar’s bite, the poison within her, gave me immunity.”

She glanced at his wrist, the puncture marks hidden by the robe.

Nikoli pushed to his feet, sending the chair scooting backward, its legs scraping the floor. “Regina, I’ve already told you, I won’t become what they are. Nor is your air toxic to me.”

She pressed her hand to her throat.

“Why won’t you believe me?” he asked.

“I do. It’s just that I don’t want anything happening to you. I couldn’t go through losing someone again. My mother…” Stopping, she shook her head.

Nikoli padded across the room to her. “What happened?”

Regina spoke on a pained sigh. “She had breast cancer. I got her the best doctors and treatment. No matter what they did, no matter how much I paid them, they couldn’t save her. She suffered so much. It was so fucking unfair. She’d always had such a lousy life. First, my father abandoned her. She had to work constantly, but we were always so poor. By the time I was able to get us a nice house and she could relax, she got too sick to enjoy it.”

Wrapping his arm around her narrow shoulders, Nikoli pulled her close. Without hesitation, she released her weight into him.

“I’m so sorry,” he murmured, recalling when he’d lost his mother. How hopeless the world had seemed. How large and frightening. “If I had known about you then, if I could have helped, I would have.”

She fisted her hand in his robe.

Leading Regina to his chair, he eased her into it, then hunkered down at her side. With his fingers beneath her chin, he rested his thumb on her plush bottom lip. “I’ll finish making breakfast.”

The corners of her mouth ticked up slightly, the beginning of a smile. “You know how?”

He confessed, “I watched you do it many times during the past weeks.”

Color flushed Regina’s throat and face at the reminder of him having observed her during the most mundane and personal endeavors. He feared it embarrassed her until she ran her hand down the edge of his robe, her fingertips touching his chest.

His pecs and belly quivered at the small intimacy. His cock thickened.

She murmured, “You watched because you were worried about Sazaar coming to my place and you wanted to protect me from her?”

“I watched because I wanted to look at you.”

Chapter Eleven

His guileless answer touched Regina’s soul.

He was a man who’d been indoctrinated from birth to reason, never to feel, to always put duty above the most basic needs of his heart. What many men on her side had endured from the demands of their various cultures, though for Nikoli it was to a far greater and more tragic degree.

He seemed so young suddenly, not a quantum physicist with an intolerable burden to carry, but a boy who’d simply wanted to be cherished.

Cupping his face in her hands, she drew her thumbs over his stubbled cheeks, ever mindful of the wounds from Sazaar. “So many times I sensed your presence.”

Nikoli searched her face, his expression uncertain. “Did I frighten you?”

“Oh no.” She spoke in a whisper, running her thumb over his chin. “You provided comfort and peace, Nikoli, along with a thrill I’d rarely known.”

His eyes closed in what appeared to be relief.

Eager to reassure him further, Regina leaned toward him, kissing his lashes. His breath spilled out on a sigh. She murmured, “On some level, I recognized you when you came into the coffee shop. You saw it on my face, didn’t you?”

He cleared his throat. “I wanted to. I wasn’t certain if I had only imagined it.”

“You didn’t.” She eased back. “We’ve been looking for each other for a long time. And now, we’re together.”

He seemed ready to comment, perhaps to refute her statement, reminding her of what awaited them tonight.

“We are,” she insisted.

Easing her hands from his face, turning them over, he kissed both palms.

Regina’s fingers curled, touching his cheeks.

Nikoli allowed it for only a second, and then he pushed to his feet and backed away. “I’ll finish making breakfast.”

She wanted to follow him, to force the issue, but decided against it. In silence, she watched Nikoli cook their meal. Having a task to complete and with his emotions buried for the moment, he moved fluidly, his large body at ease in the kitchen.

It reminded Regina of the morning she’d laid her mother to rest. Well before dawn, she’d cooked feverishly, preparing for the gathering after the wake, eager to do anything to keep her mind off her loss. To escape the emptiness the next hours and days would bring.

To lose Nikoli now that she’d found him was more than Regina could bear. Heat prickled her skin. She tried to swallow but couldn’t.

Gripping the edges of her chair, she lowered her head. Stop it,
she ordered herself. They weren’t defeated. They wouldn’t be. Her plan would work.

With great effort, she focused on the moment, determined to make the most of their time together, to convince Nikoli of what he didn’t yet believe or trust. Pulling his sweater up her torso and off, she flung the garment to a side chair.

It missed, hitting a wooden rooster on the counter. The ornament rattled in place.

At the sound, Nikoli glanced over, staring at her tightened nipples and her reddish bush.

Surprise and immediate lust registered on his face.

Stoking it, Regina draped her arm over the back of her chair. Legs spread, she planted one foot on the furniture’s horizontal bar to display herself.

Nikoli’s chest rose and fell with his heightened breathing. Tossing the spatula on the counter, he moved toward her.

The oven’s timer dinged.

He started at the sound, his steps halting, his attention returning to the appliance.

Regina spoke on a silky purr. “Go on, finish up. I’ll still be here.”
No matter what you say or try to do, I won’t desert you.

Staring at her fingers dipping over her mound and touching her clit, Nikoli withdrew the same amount of steps he’d advanced. His arm hit the counter. A plate clattered.

He ignored the sound. Repeatedly, his focus jerked from his meal preparations to what she was doing.

Regina loved seeing him like this. He was so flustered and wanting of her, he dropped the spatula twice, a fork once. The plates kept getting in his way. He cursed one in his language and hers.

Giving him no relief, continuing with her show, Regina stroked her nub, then brought her finger to her lips and licked its length, surprised at her boldness.

She was no beauty, but Nikoli wanted her.

Hurriedly, he cooked the eggs, scooping them onto their plates, followed by bacon and the cinnamon rolls. With the tube of frosting between his teeth and a plate in each hand, he approached, setting the dishes on the table, still watching her.

Regina lowered her foot, touching his. Nikoli looked down. A smile spread across his face. She guessed he liked her polished toenails. The women on his realm probably didn’t indulge in such frivolity. Bringing her arm from the back of the chair, she pushed to her feet and slipped her hands beneath his robe, fingers brushing his hot skin. In a murmur, she asked, “Will you be cold without this?”

He stared at her, then shook his head, sending several locks of hair tumbling over his forehead. Between his teeth, the tube of frosting wiggled.

Smiling at how human he looked, how very male, she eased the robe from his arms, letting it drop to the floor.

Before she could make another move, he pulled her aside and sank to the chair. Taking the tube from his mouth and tossing it on the table, he offered Regina his free hand. With her fingers curled around his, she straddled his body.

“I want you inside of me,” she murmured. “Do you want that too, Nikoli, or are you too sore from last night?”

“Are you?”

“I’ll work through the discomfort.”

“And I won’t?”

Pleased at his macho response and the intensity, the vulnerability she saw on his face, Regina released his hand and wound her fingers around his rigid cock.

He whispered something she didn’t hear.

Her hand caressed his weighty organ, directing the head to her lips, slick with arousal. Piercing them, she slithered down, taking his full length slowly, giving herself and him time to adjust to the slight sting.

It passed quickly even as his rod widened her channel, straining against her tight inner muscles.

At the delicious friction, his breath caught and so did hers. Regina gulped air and tried to quiet the intense pounding of her heart.

Nikoli set it to an even faster pace. Jerking his hips, he drove his shaft more deeply inside, their groins and curls touching.

Weak with arousal, the feeling of being filled completely, Regina slipped her arm around his shoulders, leaned down to his ear and whispered, “Comfortable?”

He grunted, one hand cupping her ass, the other on her breast, his thumb dragging over her nipple.

Her lids sagged down. She inhaled deeply, filling herself with his scent. Masculine. Musky. “Ready to eat?”

He made another sound, this one impassioned, just short of uncivilized. Lifting his hand from her ass and his other from her breast, he wrapped his arm around her waist, then leaned toward the table as though reaching for something.