Stolen Desire (Outlawed Realm) (8 page)

Color rose to Eeete’s cheeks. Intense longing radiated from her, adding to her astonishing allure. “I don’t know.”

Paige noticed that Eeete didn’t offer to bring him here…to another woman. She loved him too much. Even a fool could see that.

Paige concentrated on her meal. The silence between her and Eeete grew, becoming a bit uncomfortable. At least for her.

“Are you his girlfriend—that is, are you his woman?” Paige asked at last, not understanding why she cared to know the answer.

“His woman?”

“Are you and he together? Do you stay with him at night…in the same bed…sleeping with him?”

“With him and anyone else who wants me. I’m available to all the men.”

A bit of food stuck in Paige’s throat. She cleared it, then finished most of the cup of liquid. It reminded her of apple juice, sweet and crisp. Her mouth still tasted sour. “Are you saying Zekin actually
shares
you with the other men?”

Bewilderment swept over Eeete’s gorgeous features. “You’re angry at what I said. I don’t understand.”

How could she? Paige had trouble comprehending any of this. Zekin had kissed her as if it rocked his world, even though Eeete clearly loved him and he slept with her…then possibly shared her with everyone else. Could Paige have been so wrong about him?

She hoped not. “A man has no right to pass a woman around, to tell her what to do with her body. She’s not his property.”

Eeete’s confusion appeared to deepen. “Zekin never tells me what to do. He said I should do what I want.”

“Seriously?”

“I don’t understand that word.”

“Sorry, I meant, he doesn’t order you to sleep with the other men?”

“No. Should he? Is that what a man does when he wants a woman as much as she wants him?”

Paige popped another crispy critter into her mouth. Eeete reminded her of women who said their husbands or lovers only beat them because they were so in love. They were terrified of losing the one woman who completed them. Fucking crazy thinking. However, that was in Seattle, the United States, the land of the sometimes sane. Who knew what went on here or what one would consider normal? Paige didn’t want to give Eeete advice that would bring her physical or emotional pain.

The young woman seemed determined to wait for whatever came her way—good or bad—her patience continued, unending. Paige lifted her forefinger, asking for another moment. She chewed very slowly and swallowed before she said, “I don’t know what men like Zekin do or want. He’s not from Seattle, where I live.”

Eeete’s shoulders sagged a bit. In this place, a wild display of emotion.

Again, Paige had an overwhelming urge to hug her. Fighting it, she advised, “Why don’t you ask him?”

“Pleasure slaves aren’t allowed to ask anything.”

Paige smiled. “You just asked me what men do.”

Eeete appeared horrified that she had.

“It’s okay.” Paige stopped brushing crumbs from her mouth. “No harm done. Did Zekin or any of the other men here tell you that you’re not allowed to ask questions?”

“No. It was one of the rules in the Pleasure Palace.”

Where she’d grown up after having gestated in an artificial womb. If not for Zekin, the Pleasure Palace would have been where Eeete died without knowing there was a world beyond it. Freedom from hunger and fear. Happiness that included loving a man. Hope that he might also adore her.

“You’re not there any longer,” Paige murmured. “You have a right to ask the men here anything you want.”

Given how Eeete bit her bottom lip, she didn’t want to chance it.

Unable to eat anymore, Paige regarded the small room, not certain where to put her still-full plate. “I’ve had enough of this,” she said. “Where should I put it?”

Without pause, Eeete took the plate and empty cup.

“I’ll eat the rest later,” Paige promised, knowing what the food meant to Eeete and the others. “I’d never waste it. Okay?”

As though Paige’s question were an order to answer, Eeete said, “Others will enjoy it. When you want more, I’ll bring you something fresh.”

“That’s not necessary.”

“May I go and bring this to them?”

“Sure, if that’s what you want to do.”

With her head bowed, Eeete padded from the room, her naked buttocks bouncing slightly with each step, the ends of her hair swaying across her narrow waist. Quietly, she moved down the hall to the next pod. The perfect female. The perfect servant—or rather slave.

Troubled, Paige stopped watching. What she saw next wasn’t any better.

Several of those trout-like things had affixed their mouths to the pod, sucking the glass nearest her head, revealing their sharp, pointed teeth. Tiny white creatures swam between the fangs. Doing what?

Whatever it was, it must have pleased the larger creatures. Their back fins swished in the water, much like a dog wagging its tail.

Suppressing a shiver, Paige lay on the bed to put more distance between her and the things. Metal arches crisscrossed above her. At the point where they intersected, there was a hook welded into the frame, much the same as the ones she’d seen in the first pod she’d been in.

Her mind went into overdrive. She imagined chains hanging from the hook, ending in manacles attached to a pleasure slave’s wrists, keeping her…or him…from escape. So they could be sexually assaulted or beaten by guards who were no longer here? Who else? Paige didn’t think Zekin had that kind of sick crap in him. Those guys who looked like him—brothers, cousins?—didn’t seem weird either.

In any event, the chains, or whatever had hung from the hook, were gone. Unless they were stored beneath the bed. Paige rolled off it to look. Nothing under there except the glowing metal grating. She recalled what Zekin had said about minimizing the light and looked behind the bed for the panel. It was on one of those metal arches. Paige pressed her fingers to it.

Several of the fish-things raced to the spot, working their mouths, trying to get to her hand. She snatched it back.
Holy crap.
Beneath her, the light dimmed, but it was hardly low enough to allow for restful sleep.

For the first time she wondered if this place had been built to house prisoners or to torture them. Breaking them down with the constant light, the seclusion that offered no real privacy, the promise of freedom beyond the transparent walls. So near, yet so impossible to reach.

Who could leave this place without gear to survive a swim to the surface? Even if someone could manage that, once on land that individual would freeze to death within seconds.

How had she ended up in this bizarre place, wherever it was? How’d she even get here? By plane? Tank? Snowmobile? How could she have been unconscious for so long that she’d been brought here, or rather to the guards’ outpost, without even realizing it?

Paige sank to the mattress before her legs gave out. She wrapped her arms around herself and rocked back and forth.

You’re okay, dammit. Even if you’re not, you promised Zekin you wouldn’t be afraid.

She kept reminding herself of that pledge, hoping she’d be able to keep it, because she was losing confidence fast. Although she hadn’t been harmed in the least and was now partially clothed and fed, she wasn’t out of danger by a long—

Her thoughts paused at lava and steam gushing through a crack in the earth. A faint hiss followed. She watched in fascination and disgust as several of the trout-like creatures were flash-fried by the searing heat, the meat stripped from their bodies, leaving only whitish bones.

She hugged herself harder and turned, sensing movement to the side.

Zekin entered the next pod, separated from hers by several yards. Despite his features being identical to many of the other men here, Paige recognized him immediately. Already, she knew his gait, the way he held himself, which separated him from the others he resembled so closely. He appeared deep in thought, several strands of his midnight hair hanging over his forehead. Worry or fatigue slowed his movements. He stopped at the foot of the bed, unbuttoned and shrugged out of his shirt, dropping the garment on the floor.

Paige’s lips parted on a quiet sigh. Illumination from the floor and a flow of lava to the side washed his torso in a mixture of light, some of it reddish-gold, the other blue, tinted by the water that surrounded them. She stared at his muscular chest, smooth pecs, well-defined abs. His olive skin glowed with youth and good health. His nipples were a dark brown, a bit lighter than his eyes.

Without thinking, she leaned across the bed for a closer look, her breath picking up, liquid heat pouring through her.

He was a beautiful man, well formed and oh so masculine. As he pushed his fingers through his hair, pulling it back, she saw the dark tufts beneath his arms, no doubt fragrant with musk, his masculine scent.

The memory of their kiss returned to Paige, turning her inside out. Rarely had she enjoyed another man’s mouth more than Zekin’s, and she wanted him again, surprised at that. Yesterday—at least she thought it’d been yesterday—she’d been engaged, prepared to marry a man she’d told herself she wanted, but somehow knew she’d settled on so she could have a family, a home.

Maybe Johnny had done both of them a favor by being such an unreliable jerk.

Paige tried to recall his features but couldn’t as she studied Zekin. His powerful arms were as muscular as the rest of him, prominent veins corded, his fingers long, the tips blunt.

No, don’t,
her thoughts begged. She frowned in disappointment as he dropped his hands and turned away, his back to her.

Her gasp sounded too loud. She clapped her hand over her mouth, afraid he’d somehow hear.

Brutal scars crisscrossed Zekin’s broad shoulders and back, the wounds healed but still an angry red as though they’d been inflicted within the recent past. Given their width, they had to be from a whip.

What kind of nutty world was this? Paige rocked back and forth. It was all the movement she could manage, since running out of here wasn’t an option. Nor could she go to Zekin, though it did cross her mind.

Had he been a pleasure slave, faking submission, biding his time until he outwitted or brawled with the guards and escaped? When he was on the run, did he somehow find this place and decide to use it so he could rescue the others?

He turned again and sat on the bed to remove his boots. He wore no socks. His feet were large, his toes long. They’d be warm and dry in her hands, heavy too, their weight as impressive as the rest of him.

Another wave of warmth sluiced through her.

Zekin stood and pushed his pants down. The garment fell to his ankles.

Paige’s heart beat out of time. She stared at his sinewy calves and thighs dusted with short, dark hairs. It grew thicker on his groin, a curly thatch from which his cock hung. The shaft was long and wonderfully thick with pronounced veins snaking down it, the head plump and smooth, a darker shade than his skin. The same as his balls. Pendulous and male, lightly furred, they drew Paige. She imagined their fragrance and slightly rough texture. The salty taste of his skin, its incredible heat.

A whimper escaped her, wanting and female. She longed to have him hold her again. To feel protected and valued within his arms. Crazy thoughts. Futile too.

Zekin looked over as Eeete padded into his room.

“Are you his woman?”
Paige had asked.

With her head bowed, Eeete went to him and waited as she always seemed to do. Perhaps for a sympathetic word, a measure of compassion or love.

Zekin regarded her with kindness, his touch gentle as he eased Eeete’s hair away from her face. He said something Paige couldn’t hear. Eeete glanced at him then. Although she focused on him no longer than a moment, adoration transformed her features, making her too exquisite to be real. She turned her face into his hand, kissing his palm.

He appeared troubled, the emotion flickering across his features before he pushed it away. Calm and detached once more, he said something else. This time Eeete responded by holding his hand in both of hers, brushing her lips over his knuckles and the tips of his fingers, the gesture tender and heartbreaking.

Paige wanted to look away but couldn’t. It wasn’t jealousy or envy she felt. Rather, a curious desire to be with them…to join Eeete in bringing Zekin passion and contentment.

His composure shifted again, replaced with indecision as though his mind and body battled with each other, with neither winning.

Clearly, Eeete had no doubts. On her knees, she cupped his cock in her palm. With her devoted touch, Zekin’s shaft lengthened and grew hard.

Chapter Six

Eeete’s strokes were as light as a sigh across Zekin’s skin, her fingertips moist, soft, skilled as she ran them down the length of his cock.

He lifted his chin, jaw clenched to keep from groaning in delight. Too many sensations poured through him for Zekin to concentrate on any for long. His body—so fatigued a moment ago—came alive now, refusing to allow his mind to control it or stop this. Heat thickened his blood. The back of his scalp tingled and his rod stiffened to the point where the head stung. Soon, his balls would ache, wanting, requiring release.