Stolen Desire (Outlawed Realm) Read online

  In the distance, he heard the faint rumbling of an ice tsunami, the spitting and crackling sounds warning this dimension’s creatures to flee or risk its mammoth weight pulverizing them. The mountain of ice was faintly visible now and moving quickly past the enormous drifts. Zekin figured they had just enough time to reach the route to the colony before the tsunami arrived.

  Paige swallowed loudly, then gulped air at his quickened pace, the sounds transmitted from her facemask to his. She rested her free hand on his chest. “Thanks for holding on to me. I’m having trouble walking… Thanks.”

  The heat of her fingers quickened Zekin’s already rapid pulse. Her gratitude soothed and humbled him. She still had no idea what they faced but trusted him far more than when he’d entered her room, a cage decorated with rich velvet, silk and candlelight, built by the guards. Thankfully, none of them followed now. If they had, Zekin wouldn’t have been able to fight all of them off. He’d used most of his darts at their outpost. With only a few shots left, he had only his fists for added defense.

  Tightening his arm around Paige, Zekin held her close, keeping her as safe as he could. He’d promised her that. Although he was a criminal on E2, sentenced to imprisonment and death in this harsh realm, he wasn’t a man who went back on his word, even if it meant murdering others.

  There’d been a time in Zekin’s life when he would have experienced horror and remorse at what he’d done to the guards. No more. Paige’s anguish when he’d first seen her told him all he needed to know. No matter what it took, even if it meant his life, he had to help her.

  He recalled how she’d looked when he promised to bring her home. Something had shifted within her, the emotion sparking briefly in her eyes, a hazel shade that complemented her pale skin and light blonde hair. She wore it parted on the side and chin length, the ends turned up slightly.

  Hardly the kind of female the rulers craved. Zekin sensed the guards had abducted her because she’d been available, unprotected. Unlike the female pleasure slaves who were designed to be perfect women, Paige wasn’t beautiful. Her features were ordinary…until she smiled. A radiant smile, the most dazzling he’d ever seen.

  It had reached her eyes, and, strangely enough, had touched his soul.

  Zekin wasn’t certain what to make of it. He’d been raised in a culture where emotions weren’t allowed. Duty to the realm mattered above all for the populace. Only Vakar, their highest ruler, and his inner circle were exempt. At least when they visited E4’s Pleasure Palace, created for their basest desires. Few of Vakar’s subjects knew the place existed. For the majority of the citizens, there was no indulgence in raw lust, no displays of love, anger, joy. Their conditioning precluded that. Order ruled.

  Zekin’s world was nothing like what he knew of Paige’s.

  As a privileged boy, he’d studied the major languages on Earth and the life on each of its dimensions. Hers had alarmed and fascinated him. There was so much chaos, wars and tragedies interrupted by brief moments of indescribable joy. A man adoring a woman who felt the same about him. The ecstasy of creating new life. Loyalty to one’s children and family that made even the worst situation bearable and all things possible.

  Values that his teachers and parents had denigrated, warning against them.

  How foolish they’d been. How stupid he was for having believed them.

  He continued to marvel at the weight of Paige’s hand on his chest, the comfort of her body nestled against his. She was a tall woman, her ample curves far more feminine and natural than the narrow waists and too slender thighs of the female slaves and the women on E2. To Zekin’s way of thinking, Paige was rounded and soft as a woman should be. Yet, he’d seen her unease as she’d undressed. It appeared to reach deeper than being watched by a man she didn’t know. It was as though she were ashamed of her—

  “Oh my God,” she cried, breaking into his thoughts. “What’s that?”

  The first wave of the ice tsunami creaked upward. Taller than all the drifts, it blocked out what scant light bled through the clouds.

  With little time to spare, Zekin headed for the next body of water, now only a few yards away. From several areas of it, frail threads of steam trailed upward before the wind blew them apart. Quickly, Zekin pulled Paige onto the barely frozen surface.

  “What are you doing?” she cried.

  He yelled above the noise of the crashing ice, “Hold on to me.”

  “Wait.”

  Zekin couldn’t, not if they were going to live through this. Pressing the length of his body to hers, he kept one arm around her waist, and wrapped the other across her shoulders so she couldn’t break free.

  Clearly terrified, she tried.

  He tilted their bodies to the right.

  They hit the fragile ice, breaking through it, falling into the water just as the tsunami crashed above them.

  Chapter Three

  Paige shrieked.

  With an unyielding grip, Zekin held her so she couldn’t escape. She punched his shoulders and kicked his legs. He was going to drown them both. What in the hell was the matter with him?

  “Breathe!” he ordered.

  Had he lost his mind? Paige clenched her teeth, too afraid to open her mouth again. They had no source of oxygen, no tanks. She whimpered loudly, her lungs burning from lack of air.

  Down they went, like two bullets shot into the water. Massive chunks of ice from the glacier, floe—whatever the hell it was—followed. Mere seconds separated its descent from crashing into and crushing them.

  Paige flinched as a jagged chunk of ice the size of an SUV plummeted past. Her mouth opened on another cry of horror. It was only then that she realized she could breathe, as though there was a ready supply of fresh air.

  How? From where?

  That wasn’t the only surprise. No water gushed past her facemask or the rest of the material she wore. The fabric kept her warm even though she knew parts of the water had to be frigid, while the rest of it…

  Suddenly, Paige couldn’t pull in enough air. She clung to Zekin rather than fight him.

  In several areas of the lake, lava spewed. Even from their distance—what she guessed was a half mile or so—Paige heard the hiss and spit of fire as it made contact with the water. Plumes of grayish smoke drifted upward but didn’t dim the light from the eruptions.

  It illuminated portions of the muddy depths turning black to varying shades of scarlet, gold and orange. Within the lighted areas, large fishlike creatures swam in schools. They darted to the left, the right, avoiding the lava flows, their protruding mouths gulping water. Their bodies were colorless, the same as their eyes, the irises milky. Were they blind…or could they see her and Zekin?

  As one, the creatures turned, heading in their direction.

  Shit. Paige dug her fingers into Zekin’s shoulder and shouted, “Those things—those fish are following us.”

  Seconds before, he and she had stopped falling through the water. He now swam them to the left.

  Paige looked behind them.

  The fish things followed. Goose bumps rose on her skin, prickling it. She beat her legs, desperate to get the hell away.

  The monsters edged closer, closer. So near, Paige saw them clearly now and realized they couldn’t close their mouths because of their long, needlelike teeth. Weird, hairlike growths protruded from the tops of their heads, swaying with their effortless movements.

  No. Noooooo.

  One was only inches away. It bent its grotesque head, ready to take a bite out of Zekin’s feet. With as much strength as she could, Paige rammed her body into his.

  He let out a startled sound, then pulled his legs up—away from the creature—as though to stop a fall.

  “Stop fighting me,” he hollered.

  “I’m not. One of those things behind us was about to chew off your leg.”

  He looked over. The creatures were still behind them, clearly not wanting to give up the chase. Zekin muttered a word Paige had never heard before and cou
ldn’t possibly understand. He swam them in a zigzag pattern.

  The monsters lost their tight formation, clearly bewildered at Zekin’s odd moves. Their confusion didn’t last. Again, they tore through the water, intent on catching up with them.

  She shouted, “Hurry, they’re coming, they’re—”

  Paige’s words died on her sharply drawn breath. Within the inky depths, something moved, making the water bubble intensely. Another volcanic eruption? An earthquake?

  The creatures scattered, darting in every direction. From within them rose a leviathan, neither fish nor whale, rather an unholy union of squid and eel, with several writhing snakelike heads. The lidless eyes followed her and Zekin’s every movement. Jaws snapped. Scores of deadly sharp teeth flashed inches from them.

  Blue light pulsed from within its tentacles, which appeared to confuse the other creatures further. Many seemed drawn to the eerie illumination. As they swam close, the giant whipped out its many tongues, capturing, then devouring them. The rest of the school fled. Their predator pursued, thrashing its immense body through the water.

  The current it created pushed her and Zekin farther away as though they weighed nothing. Paige’s teeth chattered. Let it be over. Please, don’t let them come back.

  The things receded into the distance. Foam marked the monster’s feeding frenzy.

  Paige heaved air, wanting to laugh in relief, while also needing to cry. This was nuts. They couldn’t keep dodging the weirdo creatures down here or escape what was on the surface by swimming beneath it. Zekin’s grip around her waist had already loosened considerably. She knew he had to be beat.

  To take the burden off him, Paige swam them from the gushing lava toward the surface.

  Instantly, his hold tightened. With surprising strength, Zekin turned them around and moved in a downward trajectory again.

  Paige yelled, “What are you doing? You’re going in the wrong direction.”

  “No. This is the correct way.”

  How could it be? “If we stay down here any longer, we’ll either get eaten or we’ll be too exhausted to swim back to the surface.”

  “We’re not going there.”

  Paige stared at him, convinced he was so tired he couldn’t think clearly any longer. Sweat dotted his forehead and upper lip. The small beads glittered in the lava’s faint reddish light. He pulled in more air, straining with the effort.

  Was he ready to pass out? Paige increased her grip around his waist. “We have to go back to the surface,” she argued. “There’s nowhere else left.”

  “Yes there is.” He swallowed, then spoke on a weary sigh. “Ahead.”

  Fire glowed from within the rocks’ slender cracks, flooding the area with light until the water was nearly the color of blood rather than a solid black. Steam belched from both the rocks and marine floor. Within the phenomena stood a series of large, circular pods constructed of a transparent material that allowed those confined within to see freedom but never experience it.

  It was what the rulers of Zekin’s dimension had demanded for their newest penal colony, one unknown to their people, the same as the Pleasure Palace.

  Confinement to this prison had been the penalty Zekin earned for his crimes, the same as the other convicted criminals. Men who now followed him. Little did the rulers know what he and his group had done to the guards who’d once terrorized their prisoners, meting out too little food, too much punishment.

  With the last of his strength, Zekin swam Paige toward the first pod, where he’d been introduced to starvation and beatings intended to break him and ensure his obedience in all things, making him as unquestioning as the others in his realm.

  Not for a moment had he bent to the brutality. It made him stronger, more resolved to fight back, even if it meant his end. Better to die an honest man than to be anyone’s slave or puppet.

  The interior lighting of the pods tinted the sea around them a pale azure. With his free hand outstretched, he placed his fingertips on the door’s alloy panel. It required only a moment to recognize his identity. Soundlessly, the metal doors parted. Keeping his arm firmly around Paige’s waist, Zekin swam them inside.

  Once the doors closed, the water receded within seconds. They stood dripping and facing each other, their thighs, bellies, chests touching. Not knowing how Paige would react to that now that the danger had passed, Zekin released her and stepped back.

  She noted that, then regarded the few puddles still draining into the floor’s narrow vents that glowed with light, making the space almost too bright to regard for long. She lifted her face to the transparent walls above them, crisscrossed with metal supports. Thousands of small creatures emerged from the water’s sooty depths, their bodies transparent, revealing their beating hearts. They swirled around the pod. She drew her arms in as though to protect herself.

  “They can’t harm you in here,” Zekin said. He touched the back seam on his suit. His facemask slid up, followed by the silvery-blue material slinking down, away from his head. He gulped great mouthfuls of the sanitized air, welcoming it.

  Paige clawed at her own mask until she recalled how to remove it, fumbling in the back of her suit for the seam. The moment the thing was off her, she spoke in a rush. “I’m not worried about that—I’m not scared.”

  Her teeth clacked and her body shook.

  A wave of worry coursed through Zekin, mingled with unexpected tenderness. An emotion he’d rarely allowed himself to feel. Cautiously, so as not to alarm her further, he stepped a bit closer and lied, “I know you’re not afraid.”

  She smiled weakly, clearly struggling to appear undaunted by all of this. “Can I ask you something?”

  He nodded, prepared for her endless questions about who he was, where he’d come from, where this place could possibly be. Followed by her horror from his answers.

  Her mouth trembled. “Would you mind holding me for a second? Just a second, until I can calm—”

  His embrace interrupted her plea.

  With her arms wreathed around his neck, Paige nuzzled close, her face against his shoulder. Whimpers poured from her, sounding both relieved and embarrassed. Zekin wanted to assure her there was no need for shame. However, the right words, ones that would soothe, were beyond him. She was a woman filled with emotions he’d been trained to ignore and deny.

  How could he do so now?

  Her hair smelled of something sweet, a plant from her side, perhaps. Each time she breathed, her erect nipples pressed into his chest. Zekin’s body reacted as any man’s would, his blood growing heated, his cock thickening. Physiological changes he understood when it came to simple lust. However, the emotions bombarding him continued to stun. Not only did he experience a primitive urge to protect her, as he would any human, but also to matter to her as a man should to a woman. To be wanted, valued, cherished.

  Everything he’d never known and had a small glimpse of now.

  Her caress provided an abundance of comfort that Zekin found enchanting, suddenly requiring it as much as she seemed to. He rested his cheek against her silky hair, inhaling deeply of its wondrous fragrance, so unknown on his plane where everything was sterile and precise, perfection without passion. Without thinking, reacting only as a man responding to a woman, he brushed his lips over her temple.

  A velvety sound poured from her that called to everything male within Zekin and offered encouragement. Closeness that couldn’t be denied. Intimacy that restored.

  He slipped his fingers beneath her chin and lifted it so she had to look at him. Her eyes sparkled, the honey-colored irises flecked with brown and green. A pink flush darkened her cheeks. She parted her lips. An invitation?

  Zekin didn’t want to ask. He took a chance and claimed.

  She yielded, her lips’ sweet heat and cushiony softness more than Zekin could resist. On a helpless groan, he angled his head and slipped his tongue inside her mouth. His kiss tender, imploring that she accept him. She did immediately, with an appreciative purr, suckling his
tongue, drawing him into her.

  His soul soared. His body rejoiced, every part of him recognizing the wonder of this moment. Deepening their kiss, he abandoned all convention, the reserved existence he’d been taught so well. All those lessons meant nothing when faced with the wet heat of her mouth, the luscious contours of her body and glorious fragrance. A womanly bouquet—musky, alive, enticing.

  Zekin growled, stirred beyond restraint. He eased her closer, holding her with hands that had killed and would do so again.

  If Paige sensed that about him, it didn’t frighten her. She gave of herself as no woman had in his realm. Only the pleasure slaves had shown such abandon, but they’d been bred and trained to see to a man’s needs, while forsaking their own.

  Paige denied herself nothing. She pushed her fingers through his hair, trapping him now so he couldn’t pull away from her. They turned in place as they each struggled to get closer, demanding all they could from their kiss.

  An unexpected moment. One that shouldn’t have happened.

  Paige paused suddenly and pulled her hands away. She broke free of his caress, then backed up, putting distance between them. Her lips were a darker pink now, slightly swollen from their desire. Surprise at her response to him flared in her eyes, along with something else.

  A thread of lingering need, carnal hunger that also pumped through Zekin, threatening to overwhelm.

  Such a small space separated them. One he could easily cross, demanding all she could give.

  Zekin didn’t, not moving, not speaking, waiting for her to break the charged silence. To tell him what she wanted…what she’d allow.

  She swallowed and pushed her fingers through her hair, dragging it away from her face. No doubt, stalling for time. Zekin had had too much of time in this place. The rulers had seen to that when they’d banished him here, leaving his punishment to the guards’ discretion. They could kill him immediately or torture him for their amusement for as long as they wanted.