Purity (Pure and Tainted) (29 page)

Boone,
she thought.
I’m coming. I just hope you can help me when I find you.

Because if he couldn’t, she didn’t want to think about what she
might have to do.

Chapter Twenty-one

Boone was pacing back and forth, his hands clasped behind his
back, his brow furrowed in concentration when he heard the strange noise coming
from behind the ornately carved stone fireplace.

“What the hell?” he muttered, looking in that direction. The room
they had put him in was huge—even for someone his size—and opulently appointed.
There was a vast sleeping platform so wide it looked like a small yacht
floating in the center of the deep blue carpeting and a bookcase full of real
books which appeared to all
be
priceless antiques.
There was a wet bar in one corner with every imaginable liquor and alcohol and
a fresher with a marble tub big enough to swim in. In fact, the only thing
Boone
didn’t
see was a way out.

Must be imagining things,
he thought and kept pacing.

He was pacing because he was worried—he could never sit still when
he had something on his mind.
K,
he
thought,
Where are you? How are you
handling all this?

It had to be a shock to her—finding out she was a long lost
princess with a mother and a people she was supposed to rule at some point.
There were bound to be a lot of messy, uncomfortable emotions involved and K was
dealing with them
all on her own
.

But how
well
was she
dealing with them?

Boone’s main fear was that she would be tempted to put back on the
suit. It had seemed like a viable option before but the more he learned about
Erian physiology, the more convinced he became that interrupting the Erian
mating cycle could be not just dangerous but deadly.

“Never should have given her back the suit,” he muttered to
himself. “She’ll kill herself with the damn thing if she’s not careful. Damn
it, K, where are you?”

The scratching sound came again, this time from the other side of
the fireplace. Boone stopped pacing. This time he was sure he wasn’t imagining
it. What the hell was going on? Had the Erians put some kind of spy cam there?
Something to keep an eye on him?

He crouched low, examining the stone. The fireplace was carved
with a very lifelike image of the Erian goddess of fertility on either side—at
least Boone assumed that was what she was the goddess of. She was naked, her
lush form surrounded by graceful vines overflowing with plump berries and
blooming flowers. If she got any more fertile she might burst, like an overripe
melon too filled with sweetness to contain its nectar any longer.

“Boone!”
came
a muffled whisper.

It surprised him so much he jerked upward and knocked the top of
his head against the underside of the white marble mantelpiece.

“Shit!”
he muttered, rubbing the spot.

“Boone!” the voice said again, sounding very familiar.

Boone’s heart leapt. “K? Is that you?”

“I’m stuck back here,” she whispered. “The release lever is broken
but I think there’s one on your side.”

“Where at?”
Boone started studying the
fireplace again with more interest.

“The goddess on the left—her
breasts.
Push
in the right nipple.”

Boone did as directed and the goddess on the left side of the
fireplace suddenly slid to one side. Looking down, he saw K’s face peering out
of a tiny, dusty crawlspace barely big enough to admit a child.

“Are you all right?” he asked anxiously. “Can you get through
there?”

“Barely…” She wriggled, trying to squeeze out of the narrow
opening. It was a tight fit, especially around her full breasts. For a moment
it looked like she might be stuck. Then the silky material of the red dress
Illesca had given her tore with a low ripping sound and she was through. “Ugh…”
she said, standing up and brushing herself off. “That was easier when I was
little.
And before I had these.”
She nodded down at
her breasts and seemed to realize for the first time that the rip in her dress
exposed them. “Oh…” She moved to cover herself but Boone was already taking her
in his arms.

“K,” he murmured, pressing his face to the side of her neck to
breathe in her sweet, feminine scent. “God, I was so worried. Had no idea how I
was going to get to you—and here you came to
me.
”

“I had to.” She pulled back and looked at him seriously. Her eyes
were glowing—the triple golden rings brilliant in the dim light of the massive,
gloomy room. “I need you Boone. Need you to…to help me like you did last night.”

Boone felt his shaft go hard at once but he wanted to be careful
and take things slowly.

“Are you sure, K?” he asked quietly. “I know this morning you had
some regrets.”

“I’m in pain again, Boone.” She bit her lip pensively. “I don’t
know why I can’t just ignore it, the way I ignored injuries on the battlefield.
But this is so much different. It’s all I can think about.” She looked up at
him nervously.
“You’re
all I can
think about.”

“Been thinking about you, too,
darlin’.”
He
tilted her chin up and kissed her gently, taking his time, feeling the way.

K seemed frozen at first but then she responded, opening her lips
to him, welcoming him in. Boone groaned with desire and slipped his tongue
inside her, probing gently, tasting her, letting her know how much he wanted
her.

Slender, strong arms wrapped around his neck and pulled him closer
as K pressed against him, obviously desperate for contact. God, what must she be
going through with this damn cycle? And how much more would she have to endure
before it was over?

But the thing that worried him the most—the question that wouldn’t
leave him alone was this—would he be able to help her? Could he give her enough
pleasure to negate the pain? Could he see her through this phase of her cycle,
even though he wasn’t Erian?

“Darlin’,” he said at last, pulling back. “I’m not sure…”

“Touch me, Boone.” K tugged at his shirt. “But take off your
clothes first. I need…need your skin against mine.
Now.”

Boone wasn’t about to argue with that. He slipped out of his
clothes—all but his underbriefs—while K did the same, shedding the silky red
dress and the panties that went with it and leaving them in a heap on the
ground. Then she just stood there naked, biting her lip and looking at him.

“K?” he asked softly, seeing the tension in the set of her slender
shoulders and the uncertainty in her lovely gold-ringed eyes.

“I want…I need…” She shook her head. “This is still difficult for
me, Boone. You’re always the one who comes to
me
. I’m not sure…”

“Not sure about being the one who touches first? Who reaches out?”
Boone finished for her gently.

K nodded. “It just seems so…I was trained from an early age to
avoid contamination. To actually actively
seek
it out seems so strange, so
wrong
.
I want to but—”

“Look at me, K.” Boone lifted her chin. “There’s no shame in getting
what you need,” he murmured. “And let me promise you here and now, that I will
never
have a problem with you touching
me.”

“So you don’t mind that I want…that I need…”

“Come here.” Boone held out his arms for her. “Don’t be afraid or
ashamed. Just come to me, baby. Come get what you need.”

With a little cry, K flowed into his arms. Pressing her bare
breasts to his chest she wrapped herself around him as though trying to get the
maximum amount of contact between them.

Boone felt his heart swell as he enfolded her in his arms and
hugged her back. He knew she was so eager to touch him because her cycle was
forcing her to need physical contact but part of him couldn’t help hoping that
there was a deeper motive as well. That K actually
wanted
to touch him on some level, even though she would probably
rather die than admit it.

“Oh, K,” he murmured into her hair which was a soft, dark cloud
around his face. “Oh, baby, I missed you. I was so worried.”

“I’m worried too, Boone,” she admitted in a low voice. “I’m not
sure what we’re going to do, how we’re going to get out of here. But I can’t
think about that right now. All I can think about is
this.”

Tangling her fingers in his hair, she dragged him down for another
kiss so sweet it made his heart pound and his cock ache.

“K,” he muttered thickly.

“Touch me,” she begged, pressing herself tighter against him.
“Please, Boone, touch me now.”

Boone couldn’t deny her any longer. With a low growl of lust and
need, he swung her into his arms and carried her to the sleeping platform.

* * * * *

Boone’s touch was like magic. When he ran his big warm hands over
her skin, K felt herself tingling all over. Her newly blossomed body responded
like a flower opening to the sun.

This,
she thought deliriously as she
arched like a cat under his stroking.
This
is what I need, what I’ve always needed. The suit just wouldn’t let me know it.

The suit.
It was tangled with the ripped red
dress in a heap on the floor. But K didn’t want to think about it now. She just
wanted to feel—to let Boone touch her. Though part of her still felt it was
very,
very
wrong to crave his touch
and the pleasure it brought, she couldn’t help herself. The need growing inside
her was too strong to deny.

“Touch me, Boone,” she pleaded, taking one of his large hands and
pressing it between her legs. “Please, just like you did last night.”

“My pleasure, darlin’,” he murmured and then he was spreading the
swollen lips of her sex and stroking slowly over her throbbing clit, making K moan
and writhe, driving her out of her mind with need and desire.

K had always been quick to learn physical skills and this proved
to be no exception. She was on the brink almost before she knew it and then she
was coming, giving herself completely to the pleasure Boone’s skillful touch
brought.

But even as the sweet release rushed through her, K knew it wasn’t
enough. The need inside her didn’t end abruptly as it had the other night. She
was still hungry—she had to have more.

“Boone…” she pressed against him restlessly. “Boone please, I
need…I don’t know what I need.”

“Tell me,” he murmured encouragingly. “Try to explain it.”

“I feel…” K shifted her hips. “I feel empty inside. Like I need
another release—a stronger one this time.”

Boone looked thoughtful. “Well, I think we can manage that, we
just need to up the intensity.”

“But how?”
K was feeling increasingly
frustrated and needy. “How can you do that without…well, without penetrating
me?
Which I can’t let you do.”

“Because I’m not Erian or because you’re still afraid of
contamination?” Boone asked quietly.

“It’s true I don’t want to be so deeply contaminated,” K admitted.
“Although if I could stand it from anyone, it would be you,
Boone.
But no, there’s…another reason. One I can’t talk about right
now.”

“Fair enough.”
He nodded. “I don’t think it’s a
good idea either. Not until I have a little time to work on the problem.”

“Good.” K felt a rush of relief—at least Boone would be safe from
her when she went into her mating rage.

“But I don’t think we have to make love to help you have a more
intense release, either,” Boone said. “I think we can manage that if you just
let me kiss you.”

“I don’t understand.” K was confused and frustrated. “You’ve
been
kissing me the entire time you were
touching me. It feels wonderful, Boone—it shouldn’t but it does. But I just
don’t see how—”

“I’m not talking about kissing your mouth, darlin’.”

This brought K up short. “But how…where…?”

“Remember I told you a kiss didn’t have to be on the lips?” His
blue-green eyes were half-lidded as he spoke and his voice had dropped down
into that deeper register that sent shivers up K’s spine for some reason.

“I remember,” she whispered, wishing her voice didn’t sound so
breathless. He’d told her that right before placing a soft, chaste kiss on her
palm. But surely he couldn’t mean he wanted to kiss her
there
—between her legs where he was still cupping the mound of her
sex.

“Will you let me?” He stroked her gently, one finger tracing the
lips of her sex. “Will you let me taste you, K? I want to make you come with my
mouth.”

All the air seemed to leave her lungs and her heart was suddenly
pounding. “Can you…can you do that?”

“Mmm-hmm.”
He gave her a lazy smile that
seemed to do things to her deep inside. “If you’ll relax and let me.”

K bit her lip for a moment, considering it. It was yet another
level of intimacy her conditioning and training told her she shouldn’t want.
The very idea of Boone spreading her thighs and putting his mouth—his
tongue—between her legs, should have made her shiver with disgust. Instead, she
felt a warm pulsing in her sex and a rush of desire washed over her.