Close Liaisons (9 page)

A scary thought suddenly entered her mind, causing her eyes to pop open. “You didn’t use any protection,” she hissed at him, horrified at the realization. “Am I going to catch some kind of a weird STD or worse – get pregnant?”

He laughed, throwing his head back. “No, my sweet – both would be an impossibility. You’re far safer having sex with me than with any human male, regardless of how many condoms he wears.”

Mia exhaled in relief. The gel he’d used earlier and the hot water were doing wonders for her physical state, and she felt nearly back to her old self. She was also hungry, she realized.

“I should get going,” she said, looking around the bathroom for a towel or a robe to wrap herself in. She still didn’t feel comfortable being naked in front of him.

“Why?” he asked lazily, moving his muscular back to take better advantage of the jets. “You already missed your class and you don’t have anything on Wednesdays.”

Apparently, he knew her class schedule by heart.

Mia shrugged, no longer surprised by anything. “I’m hungry, and I want to go home,” she said, telling the truth.

He grinned at her, looking happy for some reason. “I’ll make you something to eat. Why don’t you relax here some more, and I’ll come get you when the food is ready.”

She nodded, deciding not to argue at the memory of the delicious meal he’d made before.

Still smiling, Korum rose and stepped out of the tub, water streaming down his golden skin and well-defined muscles. Despite everything that happened, Mia felt a spark of arousal at the sight of him fully naked. His back was broad and muscular, and his hips were narrow. His ass was the best she’d ever seen on a man, tight with muscle, and his legs looked powerful. She wondered if Ks needed to work out to maintain their looks and resolved to ask him at some point later.

“Like what you see?” he asked with a sly smile, obviously noticing her scrutiny.

Mia blushed a little and then told herself not to be a ninny. “Sure,” she said with a straight face. “You’re very pretty, like a male Barbie doll.”

Far from offended, he laughed with genuine amusement. “Not like Ken, I hope. Isn’t he missing the requisite equipment?”

Mia just shrugged in response, not wanting to get into this kind of banter with him right now. Grinning, he exited the room, leaving her alone to enjoy the jacuzzi for the next twenty minutes.

By the time he came back, Mia was already showered and wrapped in the familiar robe she’d discovered in the bathroom closet. She even found the slippers she’d worn before and gladly put them on. Showering here was becoming a habit.

She accompanied Korum to the kitchen, her mouth watering at the delicious smells emanating from there. He had made another one of his signature salads and a dish of roasted buckwheat with stir-fried carrots and mushrooms. Feeling like she was starving, Mia attacked her food with appreciation, and so did he. For a while, the kitchen was silent, except for chewing noises and the clattering of their silverware. Finally feeling replete, Mia leaned back in her chair. He was done with his portion, as usual, and was observing her with a half-smile.

“What?” asked Mia self-consciously, wondering if she had a bit of lettuce stuck between her teeth.

“Nothing,” he said, and his smile got wider. “I just love watching you eat. You do it with such enthusiasm – it’s very endearing.”

Mia flushed a little. He obviously thought she was a glutton. Shrugging her shoulders, she said, “Yeah, what can I say? I really like food.”

He grinned. “I know. I really like that about you. Very unexpected in a girl your size.”

Mia smiled back tentatively and got up from her chair. Now was as good a time as any. “Okay, well, thank you for the meal. I’ll just change and get out of your hair.”

The smile left his face. He clearly didn’t like hearing that. “Why don’t you stay?” he suggested softly. “I promise not to touch you again today, if that’s what worries you.”

Mia swallowed, suddenly feeling on edge. “I really have to get going,” she said, hoping that she was misreading his body language – that he didn’t really have the intention of keeping her there against her will.

He looked directly into her eyes. Whatever he had seen there seemed to make up his mind. “Okay,” he said slowly. “You can go home.” Mia’s breath escaped in relief – prematurely, as it turned out. Because he added next, “But I want you to come back here tonight. Gather whatever you need for the next day or two – or I can buy you new things if you prefer – and come back here by 7 p.m. I’ll make us dinner.”

Mia stared at him. “And if I don’t?” she asked defiantly.

“Then I will come and get you,” he answered, the look in his eyes leaving no doubt of his seriousness.

“But why?” Mia burst out in frustration. “Why do you want to be with someone who doesn’t want you? Who hates you, in fact? Surely, there can’t be a shortage of willing women for you. You’ve already gotten what you wanted from me. Can’t you move on to another victim?”

His eyes narrowed in anger. “Well, Mia, you’re right. There is no shortage of women who would love to be in your shoes, and I could easily get myself another ‘victim,’ as you so nicely put it.” He took a step toward her. “The reason why I want you – as unwilling as you pretend to be – is because chemistry like ours is very rare. You’re very young, even for a human, so you don’t realize what we have. Do you honestly think that sex would be like that for you with another man? Or that just any woman could have that kind of effect on me?” He paused and continued in a softer tone, “This kind of attraction happens once in a blue moon, and I know better than to give up on it even if you’re running scared right now.” Staring into her shocked face, he added with a familiar golden gleam in his eyes, “I know this is all very new to you, and that you probably felt more pain than enjoyment today. It won’t be like that again. The next time you’re in my bed, I promise that your only screams will be those of pleasure.”

Mia left his apartment and walked home, her thoughts whirling in chaos. She was no longer a virgin, and she had the residual soreness between her thighs to prove it. His gel thingy had helped with the majority of the pain, but she could still feel echoes of his fullness inside her. Her vagina clenched slightly at the memory of the orgasms he’d given her, and she shivered with the intensity of her recollection. And he wanted to see her again, tonight. In fact, it sounded like he had no intention of dropping his pursuit – in complete disregard of her wishes.

At that thought, Mia got angry again. He had no right to do this to her. His species may have guided human evolution, but that didn’t mean he owned her. Whatever special chemistry he thought they had did not excuse his behavior, and Mia hated the idea that he thought he could have her whenever he wanted. She wished there was something she could do to thwart him, but her own response to him had made a mockery of any resistance.

It was a long walk back to her apartment, but Mia wanted to stretch her legs and clear her head before potentially seeing her roommate. By the time she got to her building, she was sufficiently tired that going up five flights of stairs seemed like a chore. She was looking forward to plopping down on the couch and doing something totally brainless – like watching a show on her laptop.

This was not her day, however. Jessie had guests, Mia realized as she opened the door and heard masculine voices in the living room. Walking in, she was surprised to see two men she’d never met before.

One of them – an Asian guy – looked to be somewhere in his mid-twenties, while the other had to be at least thirty. The older guy caught her attention immediately. There was something about the way he sat on the couch that gave her the impression of a coiled spring. His hair was blond, and his ice-blue eyes were extraordinarily watchful. He looked to be of medium height and lean, maybe even a bit on the skinny side.

At Mia’s entrance, they both got up. Jessie remained sitting, looking pale and strangely guilty. “Hi, Mia,” she said with some hesitation. “This is my cousin Jason and his friend John.”

Mia’s eyebrows rose. “The Jason we mentioned this morning?” she asked in confusion.

The Asian guy nodded. “The one and only.”

“Oh, hi . . . nice to meet you,” Mia said politely, trying to connect the dots.

“They’re here to talk to you,” Jessie said, and Mia realized why she looked so guilty.

“Are you guys, like, the Resistance or something?” she asked incredulously. At their non-response, she drew her own conclusion. “Look, I don’t know what Jessie told you, but we really don’t have anything to talk about –”

“On the contrary, Miss Stalis,” John said, speaking for the first time in a slightly raspy voice, “we have a lot to discuss. Jason – why don’t you catch up with your cousin while Miss Stalis and I conclude our discussion?”

Seeing Mia’s response in the stormy expression gathering on her face, Jessie gave her a pleading look. “Please, Mia, I know you’re mad at me, but I really think they can help you. Just hear them out, okay? Jason said they can give you some good tips on how to handle this situation – that’s why they’re here.”

Mia sighed heavily and bit out, “Fine.” Apparently, her relaxing afternoon at home was not to be.

“When does he want to see you again?” John asked quietly.

Mia blinked in surprise. “Uh – tonight at seven.”

“Okay,” he said, “that gives us enough time to bring you up to speed. Tell me – have you been shined?”

“Shined?”

“Did he use any kind of alien device on you that shined a reddish light on any part of your body where the skin was broken?”

Mia stared at him in shock. “How do you know about that?”

Taking that as an affirmative, he said, “You can’t leave the apartment then. Jason – why don’t you take your cousin to see a movie while Miss Stalis and I talk here?”

Jason nodded and left with Jessie in tow, although Mia could see that her roommate was just dying with curiosity.

When they were alone, Mia asked angrily, “What do you mean, I can’t leave the apartment?”

“You have been shined. He basically branded you – you now have little nano machines embedded in whatever part of your body has been shined on. They transmit your location to him at all times. If you were to do something he doesn’t expect, such as leaving your apartment when he thinks you should be home, he would know immediately – and it could make him suspicious.”

Mia looked at her palms in horror. “You mean, when he healed my scrapes, he was really putting a tracking device inside me? Why would he do this?” She raised her head with suspicion. “And how do you know all this?”

“Miss Stalis –” he said wearily.

“Please call me Mia,” she interrupted.

“– okay, Mia,” he agreeably repeated, “we have been fighting the Krinar for a very long time. Don’t you think we would’ve learned a lot about our enemy in the process?”

“Okay,” Mia said slowly, “let’s say I believe you. Why would he do this? Brand me like that?”

“To know your whereabouts at all times, of course. It’s standard operating procedure for them.”

Mia stared at him with shock. “Well then, what can you do to help me?”

“We can’t help you, Mia,” John said bluntly. “But you can help us.”

Mia inhaled sharply. She was afraid it might be something like this. “I think you’ve been misinformed. I don’t want to get involved with your cause in any way, shape, or form. You can’t win, and the last thing we need is to return to the days of the Great Panic. I just want to be left alone – by Korum, by you, and by everyone else – and if you can’t help me with that, then you should just get out.” She pointed at the door.

“You are already involved, Mia, whether you like it or not. Do you know who your K lover is?”

“He’s not my lover!” Mia said sharply.

“You haven’t slept with him?” Seeing the color flooding her face, he said, “That’s what I thought. I’m sure he wasted no time taking exactly what he wanted from you, just like they took our planet.”

Mia fought her embarrassment. “What do you mean, do I know who he is?”

“Did he tell you anything about himself? Do you know why he’s here, in New York? How the Ks ended up coming to Earth in general?”

Mia nodded slowly. “He said that he’s an engineer, that the company he works for made the ships that brought them here to Earth.”

“An engineer? That’s rich.” John let out a humorless chuckle. “He’s one of the most powerful Ks on this planet, Mia. He owns the ships that brought them here – his company, in fact, has been the driving force behind them settling on Earth.”

Seeing the look of sheer disbelief on her face, he added, “He’s part of their ruling council – some even say he runs the council. His company provides everything for their Centers. Without him, there would be no K Centers and no Krinar on Earth.”

“I don’t understand,” Mia said in confusion. “If he’s all that, then why is he here? And what does he want with me?”

“He’s here because, for the first time since K-Day, we actually stand a chance against them.” John’s eyes glittered with excitement. “Because he knows that we’re very close to being able to give them a fair fight. Because he wants to stamp out the Resistance before we go any further.”

He took a deep breath. “As to what he wants with you, it’s pretty obvious. Do you know what a charl is?”

Mia shook her head, feeling overwhelmed.

“The literal translation of charl is
one who pleases
. It’s the term they use for the human slaves they keep in their settlements. The purpose of the charl is to provide Ks with pleasure. As you may or may not know yet, they enjoy drinking blood during sex. So they keep us as captives, locked up in their high-tech cages, and use us whichever way they want.”

Mia felt hot bile rising in her throat. “You’re lying. Why would they do this? We’re intelligent beings.”

“They don’t necessarily think of us that way. Most of them regard us as pets that they bred explicitly for this purpose – little better than the primates they’d hunted into extinction on their planet.”

“So what are you saying? That Korum wants to keep me as a slave?” Mia asked incredulously. “That’s bullshit. If he wanted to keep me locked up, I wouldn’t be here, now would I?”

He sighed. “Mia, I don’t know exactly what game he’s playing with you. Maybe he finds it fun to give you the illusion of freedom for now. It’s not real – you understand that, right? If you tried to leave New York instead of staying here and going to him whenever he wants, I don’t know what he would do, whether your family would ever see you again. You’re a smart girl. You sensed that, right? That’s why you haven’t been exactly avoiding him. That’s why your roommate was so scared for you, why she came running to Jason even though they haven’t spoken in three years – because she said you were in way over your head.”

Mia wanted to throw up. If John was telling the truth, then her situation was far worse than she’d imagined. He was right; her subconscious must have realized the danger of running from Korum because she had never seriously contemplated leaving town. Her brain buzzed with a million questions, even as a hopeless pit of despair grew in her stomach.

“So what do you want from me?” she asked bitterly. “Did you come all the way here to tell me that I’m screwed? That I’m going to end up as an alien’s pet, locked up somewhere and used for sex? Is that what you’re here to say?”

“Yes, Mia,” John answered calmly, his expression oddly flat. “There are no good options for you. If he gets tired of you, then you might be able to resume your life – particularly if you’re still in New York at that time. Of course, you might also catch the attention of some other K and never be seen again. That’s what happened to my sister – that’s why I’m doing what I’m doing, so that other innocent young women can have a normal life.”

Mia looked at him in horror. “Your sister? What happened to her?”

His mouth twisted bitterly. “What happened is I gave her a trip to Mexico as a college graduation present. She went with her girlfriends and met a handsome stranger on the beach. Turns out, he wasn’t exactly human . . . The night before they were supposed to return home, Dana disappeared from her room. For the longest time, we had no idea what happened – just suspicions that the K was somehow involved. That’s why I started fighting the Ks, to avenge my sister. It wasn’t until a year ago that I learned she’s still alive and is being held as a charl in the Costa Rican K Center.”

Mia’s eyes welled up with tears as she pictured his family’s suffering. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” she said. “Is there any way you can get her back?”

“No.” He shook his head with angry regret. “Even if we succeeded in rescuing her from there – an impossibility in and of itself – she’s been shined, like all charl. They will always know her exact whereabouts – there’s no way we can reverse that procedure.”

“Shined,” Mia said. “Like all charl – like me.”

“Like you,” John agreed.

She wanted to scream and cry and throw things. She settled for asking, “So why did you come here today?”

“Because, Mia, although we can’t really help you, you are actually in a position to help us. If we succeed, not only will you get your life back, but you will also have saved countless other young women – and men – from my sister’s fate.”

“I don’t understand . . . What are you asking me?” Mia said slowly, her pulse picking up.

“We want you to work with us. To notify us of Korum’s whereabouts, what he likes to eat, how he sleeps, any weaknesses that he might have. And if you happen to come across any information that might be even remotely useful – any passwords, security measures, anything at all – to convey that information to us.”

“You’re asking me to spy for you?” Mia’s voice rose incredulously.

“I’m asking you to make the best of your admittedly unfortunate situation. To help yourself and all of humanity. All you have to do is keep your eyes and ears open when you’re with him and occasionally report your findings to us.”

“And you think I will be able to pull this off? With no training of any kind and no acting skills? Somehow fool one of the most powerful Ks on this planet? What makes you think he’s not already aware that you’re here, particularly if his goal is to crush your movement?”

“This apartment is not bugged – we checked. He would have no reason to spy on you here if you don’t do anything suspicious and continue to play along. He doesn’t know that we’re here
–
if he did, we’d already be dead. Look, we’re not asking you to be James Bond or some kind of femme fatale. You don’t need to try to get close to him or seduce him or anything like that – just continue your relationship with him, such as it is, and occasionally give us information.”

“How? And what would that accomplish anyway? What makes you think you have a chance in hell when all the governments in the world with their nuclear weapons were completely helpless in the invasion?” The whole thing was insane, and Mia had no intention of becoming a martyr in the name of some hopeless cause.

“The how – leave that up to us. If he still gives you a similar degree of freedom, it will definitely be much easier. If not, then it gets more complicated, but we have our ways.” He paused for a second, apparently debating the wisdom of his next words. “As to why we think we can win, let’s just say that not all Ks are the same. They don’t all share the same beliefs about human inferiority. I can’t tell you more without putting you in danger, but rest assured – we have some powerful allies.”

Human allies among the Ks? The implications of that were mind-boggling.

“I don’t know,” Mia said, trying to think it through. “What if he catches on? What will happen to me then?”

He said truthfully, “I don’t know. He may choose to have you killed or punished in some other way. I honestly don’t know.”

Mia let out a short bitter laugh. “And you don’t care, right?”

John sighed. “I do, Mia. More than anything, I wish that things were different. That I wasn’t asking you to do this, that the only thing you had to worry about were your midterms. But we don’t live in that kind of world anymore. If we are to regain our freedom, we have to risk everything. You are our best chance to get close to Korum. You can really make a difference, Mia.”