Close Obsession (31 page)

Korum carried her up the stairs and into the large bathroom on the second floor. Placing her gently on her feet, he turned on the shower and adjusted the water settings while Mia stood there, weaving slightly and listlessly observing his actions. A kind of merciful haze had descended on her mind, partially shielding her from the brutal reality of the situation. She knew what she was seeing, but it didn’t seem to touch her in any way, as though it were happening to someone else.

Korum’s entire body was covered with blood and sand, his hair encrusted with it. He looked like he had been through a battle – which, actually, he had been. If she had understood that gruesome scene correctly, he had killed the other K with his bare hands.

Hot bile rose in her throat again, and she held it back with effort. Even though she knew it was self-defense, she was still horrified that her lover was capable of that level of violence.

But what frightened her even more was the fact that she was too.

Because underneath it all, she was ferociously glad that the other K was dead – that it was his body, not Korum’s, lying there in pieces. If he had succeeded in his attack . . . If he had managed to kill Korum, Mia would have gladly killed him herself – either that, or died trying.

Her eyes drifted to the left, and she saw her own reflection in the large mirror hanging on the wall. Streaks of dried blood were all over her face, all around her mouth area – from when she’d bitten Leslie, she realized. Dirt, sand, and dried bits of grass covered her mostly naked body, and small twigs were stuck in her hair, adding to the overall murderous madwoman impression.

“Here, let’s get you in there,” Korum said softly, carefully picking her up and bringing her into the shower stall where he’d gotten the water to perfect temperature.

The hot spray felt amazing on her skin, and Mia realized that she felt chilled, frozen inside despite the hot weather. She was also trembling. Her body must’ve gone into shock, she thought with almost clinical objectivity. She didn’t dare look at her arm for fear of embarrassing herself again; for now, the pain was somehow tolerable, as though she’d received an anesthetic of some kind. Unlike most people, Mia had never broken anything before, and she wondered if this is what it always felt like. If so, then it was truly not all that bad, definitely survivable.

“Stay here,” Korum told her. “I’ll be right back with something for your arm.”

Mia obediently nodded, and he disappeared for a minute, returning with a small pill in his hand. Stepping into the shower, he gave it to her and told her to swallow it.

She did so, and the dull throbbing pain eased almost immediately.

“Close your eyes and don’t look,” he said. “I mean it, Mia. Keep them shut.”

Taking a deep breath, she squeezed her lids tightly. She could feel his hands on her injured arm, manipulating it gently – and somehow, it didn’t hurt at all when he straightened it, popping the bone into place.

“It’s done,” he told her hoarsely. “You can open your eyes now.”

Mia looked at him, and the frozen shell encasing her suddenly cracked.

Harsh sobs broke out of her throat, and she sank to the floor, shaking uncontrollably. All the terror and the violence she’d just experienced came rushing to the front of her mind, completely overwhelming her. She could’ve lost him, they could’ve both died, he had brutally slaughtered another Krinar, and she might’ve killed Leslie . . . It was too much, all of it, and Mia brought her knees to her chest, her body shuddering with the force of her gasping sobs.

“Mia, shhh, darling, it’s over. It’s over, I promise you . . .” he murmured, kneeling and gathering her closer to him. Reaching up, he directed the shower head so the water cascaded over them and simply let her cry, knowing that was exactly what she needed right now.

After a few minutes, her sobs began to quiet, and he lifted her, placing her carefully on her feet and removing her swimsuit. Then, pouring soap into his palm, he washed every inch of her and shampooed her hair, removing all traces of blood and dirt from her body. Afterwards, he did the same to himself, until they were both completely clean.

Turning off the water, he stepped out of the shower stall and came back with a big fluffy towel, which he wrapped around her. Too traumatized to do anything else, Mia just stood there, accepting his ministrations.

“Is she dead?” she asked dully, thinking of the girl she’d left bleeding and unconscious by the pool gate.

Korum shook his head, toweling himself off as well. “I don’t think so – I saw her breathing as we passed by. I called the guardians who were in the area watching your family. They’re almost here. They’ll take her into custody and clean up the rest –”

“Who was he? Did you know him?”

For a second, rage flashed in his eyes, and then Korum controlled himself with visible effort. “I did,” he said, and she could hear the barely suppressed anger in his voice. “I had no idea he was involved with the Keiths, none at all. I can’t believe he fooled all of us like that.”

Mia continued to look at him, and he took a deep breath, trying to calm himself.

“His name was Saur,” Korum explained evenly. “He worked in your lab – in Saret’s lab – ever since we first came to Earth. He was the one who left a few weeks ago, creating the opening that you filled. Saret had always spoken very highly of him. Saur was his youngest and most brilliant assistant – at least until Adam had arrived. I don’t know what motivated him to get involved with the Keiths; he had so much to offer our society . . . And why he came out here to kill us, I have no idea . . .”

“To kill
you
,” Mia corrected him, feeling cold again at the thought. “Leslie told me her orders were to keep me alive and out of the way while he dealt with you . . .”

His eyebrows rose. “I see,” he said thoughtfully, leading her out of the bathroom and into the bedroom.

He had already prepared clothes for her to wear to lunch with her parents – a pretty peach-colored sundress and a silky white thong – and he dressed her carefully, as though she were a small child, his hands particularly gentle around her broken arm.

Which didn’t hurt at all now, Mia realized.

Mildly curious, she glanced down at her left side and blinked, hardly able to believe her eyes. Where there had been a bloody gash with bone sticking out just a few minutes ago, there was now perfectly smooth skin, without even a trace of any injury.

Surprised, Mia moved her arm, and it worked quite well. She lifted it, flexing her bicep, and everything appeared to be functioning normally. How did a little pill do this?

In general, she felt much better now. The shower and the medicine he’d given her had done wonders for her physical state, even if her mind was still trying to come to terms with everything they’d just been through.

“It should be all right now,” Korum said, watching her testing out the arm.

He had already dressed himself as well, putting on a white T-shirt and a pair of jeans. He looked so gorgeous – and so
alive
– that Mia almost started crying again at the thought of what had almost happened.

“Now,” he said softly, coming up to her and tilting her chin up with his fingers, “tell me . . . What the fuck you were thinking, risking your life like that?”

Mia blinked at him, startled by the quiet fury in his voice. “Leslie said he was going to kill you. Sh-she said you were b-being turned into p-particles . . .” Her voice trembling with remembered horror, she could barely hold back the tears that filled her eyes again.

“So you what? Jumped an experienced fighter who held a gun on you? Tackled a Krinar who could kill you with one blow?” Korum was almost shaking with rage now, his eyes completely taken over by those dangerous yellow flecks. “Don’t you realize how fragile, how delicate you are? How easily something can hurt you, snuff out your life completely?”

Mia swallowed. “I couldn’t bear it if something had happened to you –”

“To me? How do you think I would’ve felt if something had happened to
you
?” He was almost beside himself, his teeth tightly clenched and a muscle pulsing in his jaw. She had never seen him in this state, and Mia vaguely wondered if she should be afraid. After all, he had just brutally killed an intelligent being. Yet, for some reason, she couldn’t muster up even an ounce of fear. Somehow, in the last couple of weeks, she had gone from thinking he would kill her for spying on him to feeling completely safe with him. Even angry, he wouldn’t hurt her; she now knew it with bone-deep certainty.

“I don’t know,” she told him, and watched his eyes turn even brighter. Faster than she could blink, he picked her up and sat down on the bed, cradling her on his lap. Holding her so tightly that she could barely breathe, he buried his face in her hair, and Mia could feel the fine tremors shaking his big, muscular frame.

“You don’t know?” he whispered harshly. “You truly don’t know that you mean everything to me?”

Hardly daring to believe her ears, Mia pushed at his chest to put a little distance between them so she could look up at his face. “I do?”

“Of course, you do.” His gaze burned into her with an intensity she had never seen before. “How could you doubt it?”

“Are . . . are you saying you love me?” she asked tremulously, afraid to even voice such a possibility. What if he said no? What if she’d misunderstood him, and he would now laugh at her silliness? Her chest tightened in anxious anticipation.

“Mia, I love you more than life itself,” he said, his voice rough with emotion. “If anything happened to you . . . If you were gone, I would not want to go on living. Do you understand me?”

Mia nodded, too overcome by her own feelings to say anything. He loved her? This beautiful, amazing man loved her?

His eyes narrowed. “And if you ever, ever put your life in danger like that –”

Mia didn’t let him finish. Instead, she reached up and buried her hands in his hair, bringing his head down toward her. And then she kissed him, expressing the full depth of her emotions in the way in which they had always communicated best.

At first, he froze, as if wary of hurting her, but then he groaned low in his throat and kissed her back, his hands tightening around her again and his mouth hungry and desperate on hers.

Mia clung to him with equal desperation, her earlier fear and adrenaline morphing into a frenzy of arousal. He was alive – they were both alive – and her body wanted, needed to reaffirm that fact in the most primitive, instinctual way possible.

She ended up on her back on the bed, pinned underneath his hard, muscled weight, her hands frantically tearing at his T-shirt. She felt like she was starving, like she would die without his touch, her body crying out to be filled by him. His kiss consumed her, his tongue stabbing deep into her mouth, and Mia sucked on it, craving his taste, wanting all of him. She felt unbearably hot, her skin too tight, too sensitive to contain the desire burning within her, and she arched toward him, frantically trying to get even closer.

He groaned again, her frenzied response provoking an equally passionate reaction from him. His left hand twisted in her hair, holding her head still for his mouth’s ravishment, while his right hand bunched up the skirt of her dress, exposing her lower body. Now only her tiny thong and his jeans stood between them, and he made short work of that too, tearing off her underwear and unzipping his pants. And then he was inside her with one powerful thrust, his cock penetrating her in one smooth slide.

Gasping at the shock of his sudden entry, Mia dug her nails into his shoulders, both stunned and immeasurably relieved to have him inside her. He was unbelievably hot and thick, and the blunt, heavy force of him was exactly what she needed right now. Her vaginal muscles quivered, stretching around his large shaft, even as her inner core melted, liquefied at the feel of him filling her so perfectly, quenching the emptiness inside.

He began to move, each stroke of his penis pressing her deeper into the mattress, and she was screaming, the tension inside her peaking until her entire body seemed to explode with the force of her orgasm, her sheath uncontrollably pulsing and clenching around his cock.

Panting, he rose up on his elbows, staring down at her with eyes that were almost pure gold. Droplets of sweat were visible on his forehead, and his face was flushed underneath the bronzed hue of his skin. He looked magnificent and savage, and Mia couldn’t look away from the blazing intensity in his gaze. He hadn’t climaxed yet, and his cock was still hard inside her.

“You’re mine,” he told her hoarsely, and Mia couldn’t dispute the truth of that, not with him lodged so deeply inside her body, inside her heart. She felt incredibly vulnerable like this, but she now knew that he was vulnerable too – that she also held power over him.

“And you’re mine,” she whispered back, her hands tightening on his shoulders, and felt his penis jerk inside her as his body reacted physically to her words.

He began thrusting heavily into her again, his hips hammering and recoiling, imprinting himself on her flesh with a ferocity that she almost matched. She felt each thrust deep within her belly, the head of his cock pushing against her cervix, the pleasure so sharp it was verging on pain . . . and then she could feel him swelling up further inside her and her body tightened as another violent orgasm ripped through her. At the same time, he bucked in her arms, achieving his own climax with a hoarse cry, his semen releasing inside her in a few short, warm bursts.