Shameless Desire (The Outlawed Realm) (12 page)

Shit. Why? “What’s wrong?” she panted. “Did you hear something—oh crap, did you smell someone’s scent?”

He pressed his face to her shoulder and inhaled deeply. “Yes…yours.”

Okay, so there weren’t any guards outside ready to burst in and hurt them. “Nice.” Gwen grinned like a lunatic at him licking her back. “Play with my pussy—cunt—sex—between my legs.” She wasn’t certain how much slang he understood. “I want to come. Climax. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“I do, and you will.”

Not with him pulling out of her, she wouldn’t. “What are you doing?”

“Enjoying you.”

He ran his fingers from her pussy to her anus, using her natural lubrication to moisten her tight ring.
Lord, lord, lord.
Gwen dropped her head to the mattress and gripped the bed linens for all she was worth.

Never having been taken in this manner, seldom having a man to sleep with, she didn’t have condoms on hand. Although that would have disturbed her with anyone else, it thrilled her with Kuma. She wanted his skin against hers, even in this.

He didn’t rush to mount her. Instead, he drew out the pleasure as though following some primordial script that told men how to put women at ease in order to deliver the greatest satisfaction. He worked the tip of his finger inside her passage, exploring its narrow confines. Given how big of a man he was—and so blessedly hung—Gwen had no idea how he’d manage to get all of his cock inside.

If Kuma thought the same, he didn’t show his concern. He withdrew his finger and rubbed the tip of his crown against her opening. Gwen breathed in sharply, surprised at how sensitive that part of her was. Torrents of sensation travelled from it to her nub, already aching for his touch.

He ignored it. Inch by magnificent inch, he worked his stiffened rod into her smallest opening. Gwen lifted her ass farther, delivering herself to him, wanting him deep.

Kuma didn’t stop until the base of his cock was snug against her body. The pressure was incredible and deliciously base, making her feel more female than she ever had. Gwen moaned in delight. He puffed out a breath, then cradled her with surprising affection, his cheek to her shoulder. As well as she could manage, Gwen turned her head to kiss his temple.

He offered a sound of contentment and eased back, his hand returning to her exquisitely sensitive clit. As he pumped in and out of her, he also rubbed her tiny nub.

Oh my freaking God.
Gwen squirmed, trying to get away from too much stimulation, uncertain whether she could take it. With Kuma’s cock imprisoning her, she had little choice. Within seconds, her climax crept close. She bit her lip to keep from crying out, her fingers digging into the mattress, her body twisting beneath his.

He continued without pause, as though he understood what she required.

Defenseless against his actions, Gwen lost all of her air on a noisy sigh.

The sound seemed to free something deep within Kuma. He behaved like a man possessed, thrusting and rubbing with flawless grace. Gwen cried out, the noises she made sounding choked. Perspiration bathed her skin. She gulped air. It did little to calm her. Her arms and legs turned rubbery at the orgasm consuming her.

Kuma grunted, an enchanting male sound that peaked her nipples even more. He came without inhibition as she had, but he didn’t stop. His persistent thrusts shook the bed, its legs tapping the floor.

Through a fog of satisfaction, Gwen wondered what Staci must be thinking about all the noise.

Kuma didn’t give Gwen a chance to dwell on it. Sated finally, he bent over her, lips to her shoulder, hands on her breasts, fingers playing with her nipples.

With each flick of his thumbs, she panted her approval, loving what he was doing. Given the pressure inside her anus, she knew he was still hard, and had to ask, “Did you come?”

“I did.” His breathy whisper skipped across her skin, tickling it. “As I told you before, I’ll be able to mount you for hours.”

No kidding. He was one helluva guy in more ways than he probably knew. “I may need to rest before the eighth or ninth time.” She wanted to laugh in delight but didn’t dare, fearing he’d misunderstand.

“Then I’ll allow you to rest,” he murmured.

What a doll. Gwen smiled, until she considered something she really didn’t want to think about. “If I fall asleep, you won’t leave, will you?”

His fingers stalled on her nipple.

Not a good sign. All at once, Gwen was alert, the warm, fuzzy feelings from a moment ago gone. “We need to talk.”

He pulled out of her.

“Hey,” she said, panicking as he left the bed. “Where do you think you’re going?”

He gestured to the bath.

Oh. In the available light, the head of his cock glistened from his ejaculate. “Don’t take too long.”

He padded inside. Gwen scooted across the mattress, watching him at the sink as he worked the faucets until he got the water to the temperature he liked. He ran a damp washcloth over his groin and rod. Still erect, frigging gorgeous.

She wanted more of it and him. No way could she allow herself to sleep tonight.

He returned to the bedroom with another washcloth.

Gwen regarded it, then him, suddenly struck by what he was doing. He’d lived in a jungle all of his life. She blurted, “How do you know to wash off after what we just did?”

“As an adolescent, I watched the guards. When they hunted the slaves in the jungle and mounted them, or had the slaves penetrate them instead, they always did this afterwards. Right before they killed them.”

Gwen was sorry she’d asked. Not waiting for his direction, she went to her hands and knees and lifted her ass. She moaned as he ministered to her. The damp terry was wonderfully warm, his touch light and loving, telling Gwen she was important to him. He liked who she was.

She smiled softly.

He tended to her for minutes, neither of them speaking. It wasn’t necessary. Serenity replaced their previous ardor, this new feeling as wondrous and possibly more powerful.

At last, he finished and tossed the cloth into the bath. It smacked against the tile floor.

Gwen looked over. He’d scooted to the edge of the bed, too far away. Dropping to her side, she faced him and spoke fast. “I have the next week off from my job. I work seven and take off seven—days, that is. I want you to stay here with me. I don’t want you out there.”

With his forearm across his thigh, he leaned toward her and eased a wayward strand of hair behind her ear.

She turned her face into his hand

“I need to kill the guards,” he said.

He’d announced it with such troubling ease, Gwen stopped kissing his wrist and frowned. “What about the others in your pack? You said one of them had killed the guard I saw in the emergency room. How many of your pack are over here? Don’t you communicate on a regular basis with each other? Why can’t you tell them to take care of the rest of the guards?”

He brought back his hand. “You’re talking too much again.”

“And you’re not talking enough.” She pushed up and sat cross-legged on the bed.

His attention dropped from her face to her breasts to her pussy, remaining there.

Thank God some part of her had his full consideration. “Answer my questions.”

His brows inched up. “There were so many.”

Yeah, sure. He wanted to dodge the issue. “Start with the first I asked and work your way through the others.”

He sighed loudly, as all guys do when they can’t BS women. Falling to the mattress, he rested his arms above his head, revealing the dark brown hair in his pits.

It was too much of a temptation for Gwen to resist. She bent over and pressed her face to that part of him, as she had in the shower, inhaling deeply of his soapy, musky scent.

Kuma chuckled as she tugged on several strands with her teeth. “What are you doing?”

She kissed his pit and straightened. “Waiting for you to talk to me.”

He looked like a man ready to bolt. Considering his talent for turning into a wolf, he wouldn’t even have to pause long enough to pull on his clothes.

“Please,” Gwen begged. She ran her fingertips down his taut belly.

His muscles quivered. He murmured, “Five.”

“What?”

“Five in my pack followed me into the portal. Only Teeko and I managed to survive in your realm. The last time we spoke, he said he smelled a ruler here. I told him it was impossible, but he insisted. We don’t know why someone like that would be on this side or if he was responsible for the two slaves escaping E4. Not that it matters. We’ll have to kill him as we’re doing with the guards that keep coming over.”

Gwen snatched back her hand. “Oh, fuck that. You can’t keep murdering people.”

“Guards,” he corrected, his expression growing dark. “And a ruler. Both abuse the pleasure slaves without a thought to their pain. I’ve seen them force slaves out of the Palace when the rulers want to hunt them with crossbows. They do that to women younger than you because the rulers feel they’re too old. I’ve heard them speak of it. Some slaves are murdered simply because they didn’t obey quickly enough.”

She shook her head, not wanting to hear it.

Didn’t stop him. “That’s now the fate of females from this realm, unless the guards take them to E5. From the stories my ancestors passed down, it’s a dimension of ice and fire, so far from what you call your sun, it’s always dark there, the land frozen. However, there are pockets of heat from the planet’s molten core. It’s within those rings of warmth that the guards are bringing the women they abduct and doing whatever they want with them. Rape, murder, both. It depends upon the female, whether her appearance pleases them for long periods or not. Whether she’s perfect or—”

“Okay, okay, I’ve heard enough.”

He brought down his arm and rested his hand on hers. “Then you know why I have to do this.”

“I didn’t say that.” She turned her palm to touch his. “You could get hurt or…” Gwen shook her head. She leaned into him and whispered, “What if the guards hit you with one of those darts and bring you back to E4? They’d torture or kill you, probably both. Are your parents still alive? Do you have siblings? Brothers? Sisters? Do you have children?”

With each question, he’d pushed into the mattress as though to put distance between himself and her. “Why?”

“Do you want them to witness your return to E4? You getting tortured and—”

“My mother died giving birth to my brother, who didn’t last the day. The guards took down my father when I was still a boy. Zule was pregnant when they murdered her.”

Shit. She shouldn’t have asked. He was right; she talked too much, not that it stopped Gwen from continuing. “I know you want to get back at them for what they did to your father and Zule. I know you want to protect the women over here, but surely there has to be another way.”

He pulled his hand from hers. Gwen brought it right back, holding it to her chest. He might have been ready to die in this realm, but she wasn’t about to allow it, not without one helluva fight.

“There is no other way,” he argued, “unless you’re willing to let the guards harm women from this dimension so that I’m protected. You can’t have everyone’s safety.”

Of course she could and would prove it to him, no matter what it took. They didn’t even know each other, but dammit, there was a connection, and not only because he’d saved her. It had more to do with the kind of man he was. Already Gwen had allowed herself to get closer to him than she had any other guy. With him, she didn’t feel diminished or demeaned. What if he was the home she’d never had? The family she’d longed for? What if he was her future? A long, wonderful future.

There had to be a way to fix this.

Her thoughts raced, pausing on one possibility. She could go to the cops she’d met while working in the ER and tell them she’d been attacked, show them the wound on her neck. She’d lie and say other women had come to the hospital with tales of similar assaults. She could convince them to put out an alert to the media. The newscasts would warn Seattle that there was another murderous nut in their midst.

It could work.

Unless the cops started asking questions of her coworkers, who’d say they didn’t know what Gwen was talking about. The officers would wonder why she hadn’t reported her assault immediately to them or at least gone back to the hospital after she escaped the maniac who’d attacked her. They might start investigating her background. They’d come here and would see Kuma.

No. Couldn’t happen. She wouldn’t put him at risk…nor could she allow the women here to be sitting ducks for creeps from another dimension.

“Do the guards ever attack during the day?” she asked.

Curiosity and a touch of caution flashed on his handsome face. “They’re more comfortable in the dark, as my kind are.”

“Because there’re fewer people outside watching? Or because the sun’s so faint on your side? They can see better at night.”

His frown deepened. “Why are you asking about the guard’s habits?”

“Because it’s nearly dawn.” She gestured to the clock. “My guess is, they won’t be active when it’s light outside. We’ll have until tonight to make a plan.”

Somehow, Gwen was going to ensure that no guard abducted another woman and that Kuma didn’t get hurt or killed.

Chapter Nine

Behind Nikoli’s chair, Regina paced. Watching her from his computer screen were Meelo and Damir, their expressions as neutral as Nikoli’s despite what was happening on this side…what it could mean to all of them. Their absence of emotion was a vestige from their days on E2 and made Regina nuts.

She stopped at the edge of Nikoli’s table and leaned against it, trying to find comfort in what had happened minutes earlier. After trying for two solid days, Nikoli had finally located his father in a remote lab the older man used on occasion. Using his device, Nikoli opened a portal. Where their kitchen wall once stood, a gateway appeared, its barrier as clear as glass and more impenetrable than steel to keep all intruders out of E2. Domm Zorr had regarded his son with no surprise or affection. Except for their age difference—with those years turning Domm’s hair white and lining his face—he and Nikoli were identical in appearance.