Illicit Desire: Outlawed Realm, Book 2

  Dedication

  To my fellow authors at Sweet ’n Sexy Divas and Romance Books R’ Us. You provide hope on my darkest days, and you’re always there to celebrate a success. I don’t know what I’d do without you guys.

  Chapter One

  Her image haunted Lukan. The hologram was all he had left of her.

  In the darkened room, he circled her likeness, nearly life-size. She turned, seeming to follow his movements…seeming to want him, her violet eyes hooded, the ends of her silky black hair swaying above her waist, her naked flesh flushed with arousal.

  Lukan reached out, aching to touch her tawny skin, grasping air instead. Reality precluded contact, as did the distance separating them. Unable to stop his grinding need, he whispered, “Arez.”

  It was the name he’d given her, as she had none on E4. There, she was no more than a pleasure slave, created to offer her body and obedience to the men in power, no different from him. Lukan had promised never to abandon her or to leave her lonely again and wanting, but he had, and soon she’d die unless he intervened.

  His body went hot, then cold. He wanted to run back to her, or at the very least move closer to her image, but he couldn’t manage a step. Her expression tempted, holding him in place. Each breath became a struggle. Powerful memories returned of her skin’s scent, perfumed with female musk and a sweet fragrance used to excite males. Lukan hadn’t needed any enticement. From the start, her caress had undone him, given not only in pleasure but with tenderness.

  Their masters never knew about their bond. Lukan witnessed it now as his image came into the hologram.

  The heightened color in Arez’s cheeks and throat acknowledged his presence, for she could do little more to prove her true passion for him. Slaves weren’t allowed to speak to each other. Their gazes were never to meet for more than a second. Cruel manacles held her arms above her head, precluding any embrace or resistance, the heavy chains secured to a bolt in the ceiling.

  Surrounding the candlelit stage were E2’s rulers who hailed from the second dimension on Earth, a place so unlike its fourth realm, E4. On E2, emotions and desire weren’t allowed. All men resembled each other in coloring and facial features, their varying ages the only thing that differentiated them. The same held true for E2’s women, no female being distinct from another. Such a sterile existence hadn’t been enough for the ruling males. They’d created E4’s Palace and its slaves for their pleasure.

  A few of the leaders smiled lewdly in anticipation of the coming performance. Others conversed in tones too low to overhear or understand. When he’d been on the stage, Lukan had no idea if they discussed trivial matters or ones that would mean his death. Nor had he cared.

  Being close to Arez was all that had mattered. For her, he would die. For her, Lukan wanted to live. He watched his image doing what he could not. Naked, he stood before her, cupping her full breasts with a right the rulers had given him. If he performed well, it would mean more food. Although he was always hungry, giving Arez pleasure soon became Lukan’s most pressing task. The moments they had together belonged to her and him, no one else.

  His thumbs grazed her nipples. Instantly, the long tips hardened at his attention, and the areolas grew tight. He drew closer. Their thighs touched; his cock nestled against her moist cunt.

  He recalled the sensations that followed, heat pooling in his groin, thickening his shaft painfully, overwhelming him with an urge to take Arez. Even so, his desire to speak to her was greater. He’d pressed his cheek to hers as though to bury his face in her hair. However, his mouth was on her ear.

  She’d whispered before he could. “Take me as though you mean it. I know you do.”

  As always, her assurance surprised him. So did the playful tone beneath the smokiness of her voice.

  “You know?” he whispered in return, running his hands down her lush hips to her buttocks. Cupping the cheeks, he pulled her into him, proving his strength, demanding she yield. “How? You’re able to read thoughts?”

  “I can read your body,” she countered, grinding hers into his, biting his shoulder lightly.

  He pushed to his toes at her hot tongue licking his skin.

  The sensuous move was no match for her suckling his throat. Tingles shot down Lukan’s back and to the top of his head. On his prolonged sigh, she breathed, “You can’t hide your hunger for me. You stare as though I’m your ration of food.”

  Her words had made him smile, a gift stronger than the tastiest morsel or life-giving water. Eager to tease in return, he said, “Tonight, you are my meal.”

  He dropped to his knees, wordlessly directing Arez to part her legs. She complied. Not because she was a slave expected to entertain her captors, but because she demanded what Lukan did—a connection between them that enriched the sex and surpassed it, nourishing the soul. He pressed his face to her dark curls, so earthy like the rest of her, smelling of lust and life.

  She moaned at him licking her mound. Deliberately, Lukan avoided her clit, determined to draw out her anticipation and longing for him. To affirm it in the only way he knew. How many times had he wanted to give up a week’s ration of food for the thrill of searching her face as she searched his? To have the privilege of looking into her eyes in order to see what was in her heart. That he mattered. He was important to her. He had a name. They had hope. A future.

  He swallowed and moved around the hologram, absorbed with what it showed—his fingers running down the length of Arez’s cleft, already damp with her excitement, her moisture slick and warm.

  More than a dozen candles burned around the stage. In the flickering flames, perspiration shone on her shoulders and beneath her weighty breasts. Torn between tasting her skin’s sweet saltiness and focusing on her nub, he’d settled on the latter, inhaling deeply of her sex, cleansed and oiled for his use. Wanting her to smell of him, he teased her nub with the tip of his tongue.

  Arez’s mouth sagged opened on her throaty grunt, the noise telling Lukan how much he’d pleased her.

  Sounds of approval rose from E2’s rulers. Several of them left their chairs, moving closer for a better view.

  As he’d been trained, Lukan spread her vulva to show the men her rigid clit, scarlet with her rising passion. At a measured pace, he licked the hard rise of flesh, then retreated, just as he liked and the rulers most often demanded. They wanted their slaves to earn the privilege of climax. A captive’s frustration heightened a master’s experience.

  Lukan brushed his lips over Arez’s cunt, savoring her unique flavor, her velvety skin. An intolerable amount of time passed. Her hitching moans filled the cavernous space, reaching the shadows beyond the faint golden candlelight. A flood of warmth rolled through Lukan’s limbs, weakening them and his resolve to delay her climax.

  Despite the danger, his sole focus became burying his cock in her snug, heated sheath, pounding into her until Arez lost all control and regarded him fully and at her leisure…giving him a taste of the forbidden in the Pleasure Palace, their prison.

  After which, the guards would surely punish her.

  The thought of them refusing Arez food or causing her pain had stopped Lukan more quickly than a blow or threat. He knew he’d kill any man who tried to harm her, and then he’d be eliminated, unable to offer Arez his protection. Better to play the part for which he’d been created. A compliant slave bringing a female to a lazy and maddening climax.

  Her cunt tightened around the fingers he’d worked inside, his hand holding her in bondage more easily than the most savage restraints. Even so, she kept shifting her weight, trying to get away from his infernal licking as she reached the edge of her climax and tumbled over.

  Lukan
wouldn’t allow her retreat. He pressed his other hand into her supple ass, keeping her captive, doing as she’d said…taking her as though he meant it. Could he ever do otherwise? Not only did Lukan cherish her, he had to convince the rulers he could still perform to their expectations. Slaves who failed to do so didn’t remain at the Palace. Only after Lukan’s liberation did he learn of their deaths.

  A fate Arez had spared him, having already risked her safety to save his life.

  Once more, he reached out in a futile attempt to make contact with her likeness. He stared at his. In the hologram, Lukan pushed to his feet at the height of her orgasm and used his body to support hers. Arez wrapped her legs around his hips. Her still-chained arms rested on his shoulders. She whimpered at him thrusting his cock into her channel, stretching it, forcing her to shelter him.

  Unknown to those who watched, Arez had tightened her inner muscles around his shaft, urging him deeper.

  He complied, burying himself to the root, their curls touching.

  Lukan remembered how hot her cunt was, how narrow, straining to contain his size. Did it pain her? Had he been too brutal?

  He studied Arez’s expression now, what those in power had denied him all these years. Joy registered on her lovely face, making her features even sultrier, telling Lukan she’d been designed for him as he’d been for her.

  To E2’s rulers, it didn’t matter. On Arez’s next climax and before Lukan reached his, two of the men strode across the stage, their presence warning that tonight they wouldn’t allow him release. Sweat bathed his body. He gritted his teeth but said nothing. How could he? Although Lukan didn’t care about himself, he had Arez to consider. Angering their masters could put her in jeopardy.

  The younger of the men unlocked her shackles. The older male carried her to the large bed draped in red silk. There, she went to her hands and knees, lifting her ass, knowing what the ruler wanted. He’d enjoyed her often in the past. While he viewed Arez’s servile position, causing her to wait until he entered her, Lukan knelt before the younger man, obediently taking his stiffened cock, prepared to offer him relief.

  The performance marked one of the final times Lukan had been inside Arez, the hologram made so the rulers could relive the event at will. It was their due as the elite. Not once had Lukan believed his brief moments with Arez would end so unexpectedly. Somehow, his heart must have known. Before the others had come on the stage, he’d dared to lean close and whisper, “I’ll always protect you. You’ll never be without me.”

  Days later, she was.

  Turning away from the images, he made a fist, wanting to smash it through the stark white walls of this room, his newest prison, so different from the last with its dark purple and scarlet velvets or silks. He’d been here too many days. What had happened to Arez during that time? Was she safe? Did the guards give her enough to eat? Surely she wondered where he’d gone. Did she believe he’d lied to her? That he’d forgotten his promise? Or worse…did she worry about his health as she had in the past? Had her questions about him brought punishment?

  Lukan paced the room, pounding his fist into his palm, fighting to control his worry and rage. He stopped abruptly and drew back at a shaft of sun falling across his face, the light bleeding through thin strips called blinds. The glare startled and disconcerted Lukan, forcing him to retreat into the shadows. From behind, Arez’s image cried lustily, performing well for the ruler who took her, entreating him to use her even more.

  He had, along with many of the other men in the audience. They’d swarmed over the stage like a marauding horde. For hours, they divided their attention and carnal hunger between her and Lukan. Tongues licked. Mouths suckled. Hands probed. Cocks penetrated every orifice. Too many times, they wouldn’t allow Lukan or Arez orgasm, pushing to see how much their slaves could endure.

  Lukan pretended excitement, submission, whatever the rulers expected. Inside, he’d felt nothing. His full concentration remained on the sounds of delight and satisfaction coming from Arez. At the end, she’d earned an extra portion of thick bread and steaming meat. She tried to slip both to Lukan, but he refused, wanting her to have the additional rations.

  He turned off the hologram, no longer consoled by Arez’s likeness. He had to act before Vakar arrived at the Palace to collect her, duping Arez into believing he’d be a good master, seeing to her welfare. Lukan had learned otherwise. Vakar was E2’s highest ruler, a man corrupted by absolute power. A slave’s death meant nothing to him except as a means of amusement.

  Arez would be his next target. She’d die unless Nikoli Zorr helped Lukan to reach her. Months before, Nikoli had crossed over from E2 to this plane, ridding it of Andris, Sazaar and the other vampires, doing what had once appeared impossible. No doubt, Nikoli thought his troubles had ended there.

  How wrong the man was if he refused to give Lukan what he required.

  He turned at the sound of subdued voices in the hall. One belonged to Meelo, the genetic scientist who’d created him and the other pleasure slaves. With him was his mate, Damir, also a geneticist. She spoke hurriedly, as though urging Meelo to be cautious. Why? What bad news did they have for him? Or did they fear his decision about contacting Nikoli?

  The door opened. Its wood stuck slightly with the humidity, causing it to vibrate. The noise sounded too loud in the otherwise quiet house. A structure as simple and unadorned as the Pleasure Palace was vast and opulent. But then, they were no longer on E4. They’d travelled through several dimensions to E1, the realm closest to the sun, and a place called Seattle in a land known as Washington State.

  Sunlight from the other rooms blazed behind Meelo and Damir, hiding their features. Lukan turned away, shielding his eyes from the hurtful glare.

  “Close the blinds, please,” Meelo asked Damir.

  “Of course,” she said and hurried away.

  Lukan tugged his hood over the side of his face to protect it from the piercing light. “Take me to Nikoli Zorr.”

  Meelo entered the room, his steps recorded on the hardwood floor. He didn’t walk with the assurance of a scientist who’d once played God. His halting movements belonged to a man shamed by his past actions, ones he’d tried to correct. “We’ll leave at dusk when the light won’t bother you. But there’s no guarantee Nikoli will do what you ask.”

  “I have no intention of asking him for anything,” Lukan shot back. “I’m going to insist he help me if he doesn’t want to die.”

  Meelo hesitated, then spoke quietly, reasonably, as though they were discussing nothing more pressing than what to eat, not Arez’s life. “Harming him won’t accomplish what you want.”

  Lukan bristled. He wanted to grab Meelo and shake him, then toss him across the room. Instead, he matched the man’s outward calm. “If he refuses, I’ll enjoy killing him.”

  “Have you considered Nikoli’s limitations on this plane, Lukan? What if he can’t open a portal? What if he’s unable to get you back to E4? What if—”

  Lukan slammed his palm on the table that held the equipment for the hologram, shaking it and the furniture. Meelo fell silent. Lukan spoke through his teeth, his patience at an end. “Don’t say that. Never say that.”

  “Lukan.”

  Damir. She went to Meelo, taking his hand, no doubt to assure him that she would act as referee in this battle. One Lukan and he had engaged in since Meelo had liberated him from the Palace.

  Today, Damir’s soft, coaxing ways wouldn’t sway Lukan. He had to make her listen to him, perhaps even fear him, even though he meant no real harm to either her or Meelo. When he’d been a young boy, he’d loved them and hoped for their affection in return.

  Not once had they offered him a smile, a caress or even a kind word. They delivered his food and provided shelter, then turned their backs on him without a simple farewell.

  At the Palace, he’d thought of them for years, fantasizing about being their son, worthy of their regard, protected within their home.

  Had they missed him for even
a moment?

  In his early days of servitude, he’d tried to believe in the notion. It was all he had. Months, then years passed before he accepted their indifference as fact. He wanted to hate them, but beneath his outrage was pain. Even after so long a time, it still tightened his throat.

  However, he had no intention of backing down. Arez was his only concern now. He understood and accepted what a man’s love for a woman could do. It reduced even civilized males like Nikoli Zorr to a savage state, no different from an animal determined to protect its mate. It also convinced reluctant men to obey.

  Lukan had learned that truth firsthand during his years of bondage in the Palace. “You’ve seen Nikoli’s woman, Regina. What does she look like? Does he still love her? Will he want to protect her?”

  Damir sighed. A sound she would never have made on E2. There, she’d suppressed every emotion beneath a mask of serenity. Here, in the land of Seattle, she didn’t bother to hide her worry. “Nikoli will kill you if you even think about hurting Regina.”

  “He’d have to catch me first. Do you think he’s as fast as I am? As strong?” Lukan directed his next comments to Meelo. “Didn’t you design me to be superior to most men, at least physically?”

  The older man lowered his face. “I was wrong in what I did. I’ve tried to make amends.”

  “By keeping Vakar and the other rulers from exterminating me like a wild animal or an insect? What about the rest of the males and females you designed?” Lukan continued to accuse. “Will their deaths be any less horrible than what might have happened to me? Am I only special because I was your first creation?”

  “Of course not,” Damir murmured, reaching for him. “You know that’s not true.”

  Lukan stared at how her hand trembled. Out of fear? Shame? Sorrow? As a boy, he would have run into her arms. The simple act of her wanting to touch him would have bound him to her forever. As a man, he was more prudent in his emotions.

  “I know only what I’ve lived,” he said. “And what I need to do now. Nikoli will devise a means for me to return to E4 so I can bring Arez to this realm. How difficult can that be for such a brilliant quantum physicist?”