Illicit Desire: Outlawed Realm, Book 2 Read online

  Striding past them into the darkened hall, Lukan spoke over his shoulder, “Especially one who will do anything to assure that Regina continues to live.”

  Chapter Two

  There were no more monsters. No more threats. Just endless traffic and too many red lights that took forever to turn green.

  A long line of cars stretched ahead of Regina’s BMW, all of them inching through the city. She rolled her shoulders, wanting to get home to Nikoli and enjoy the coming evening like everyone else.

  Couples of all ages crowded the streets, window-shopping or dining at quaint outdoor cafes. A young woman with a star tattoo on her neck trotted behind her Rottweiler, tugging its leash, straining to control her pet. At the crosswalk, a teen stopped texting long enough to clamp his hand on a young boy’s shoulder, keeping him from entering the street. The child, possibly five or six years old, bounced in place.

  Regina smiled at his reckless joy, knowing how he felt. Gone was yesterday’s rain, replaced by a sky so blue it almost hurt to look at it too long. On the horizon, the sun’s rays pierced fleecy white clouds, tinting the edges a soft pink and gold. The summer air had a clean, scrubbed scent perfumed with flowers and vegetation.

  Perfect weather for her and Nikoli to eat dinner on the back patio. They could take in a movie afterwards or go out for ice cream. There was no longer any need to hide.

  Months had passed with nothing out of the ordinary happening. No vampires coming after them, or Nikoli’s father opening a portal from E2, begging his son to return. In those first weeks after Andris and the others were destroyed, Regina kept flinching at unexpected sounds or a sudden rush of cold, no matter how crazy her fear. For a psychologist who specialized in anxiety and panic disorders, she’d made a lousy patient.

  Nikoli, on the other hand, was beyond serene. At times, his unwavering objectivity was really a bitch, making Regina want to slug him.

  He took her meltdowns in his stride and continued to assure her, “Only good will happen now.”

  The man hadn’t lied. A few weeks ago, Nikoli had shown up at her office, shortly before her receptionist Carly had arrived for the day. Closing but not locking the outer door to her suite, he’d faced Regina with an expression she recognized all too well. He wanted to fuck. Here. Now.

  Had he lost his mind?

  In spite of the dull, needy ache in her pussy, Regina maintained the same composure his people demanded on E2. Feigning ignorance, she’d asked, “Why are you here?”

  He hadn’t answer, nor had he smiled. Pure sin flared in his eyes. He used his big body to back Regina into her desk. She grabbed the lip of it to keep from falling back and knocking off her lamp.

  With his hand on her breast and his mouth to her ear, he whispered, “Why do you think?”

  Was he serious? Thinking wasn’t something she could do with his lips brushing her throat while his fingers tugged her nipple. “We can’t.” She swallowed and bit back a moan. “We shouldn’t.”

  “We will.”

  He pushed her patient charts aside. Folders smacked the floor, the papers inside drifting free. In less time than Regina would have believed possible, Nikoli tugged her pants and panties down, spread her legs and entered her without hesitation or restraint.

  Despite his outward calm, he’d acclimated very well to her dimension’s just-go-for-it lifestyle.

  She was with him all the way, her nails raking his tight ass, possibly drawing blood.

  Nikoli didn’t complain. He stroked her clit in concert with his assured thrusts, muffling her moans with his impassioned kiss.

  They went at it like teens on a hormone high or adults who’d gone nuts. If anyone came in, she could kiss her professional license good-bye. Not that it stopped Regina. She gripped the ends of Nikoli’s longish hair, using it to keep his mouth on hers, his tongue inside.

  All too soon, her cunt was deliciously sore and she had trouble sucking in enough air. Nikoli was still sporting an erection and panting when he left the suite, promising they’d continue when she came home, ten long hours away. Regina muttered an oath and had just finished zipping her pants when Carly came inside. The young woman frowned at the files strewn over the floor. Her brows lifted at Regina’s mussed blouse and hair.

  “Oh my God,” the young woman said, rushing to her. “Were you mugged?”

  In a manner of speaking. It took all of Regina’s will not to giggle.

  She grinned at the memory and drove through the green light, heading for her neighborhood in Seattle’s Queen Anne district. In a short while, she’d be making Nikoli’s favorite meal in this realm—spaghetti with bananas on top. Go figure the man’s taste in food. Not that she minded. As long as he avoided chocolate, which the rulers on his side used to execute malcontents, Regina didn’t care what he ate or drank.

  Early on, she’d learned he could consume vodka and whiskey like water without getting drunk or even tipsy. Amazing.

  Along with the other groceries she just bought, she’d added a bottle of Smirnoff’s Green Apple to surprise Nikoli. Regina enjoyed seeing him happy. She wanted him to keep loving her.

  He’d given up so much for them to be together—the only life he’d known, the possibility of ever seeing his people and father again. Although she should have, Regina never asked if he missed them. She was a coward, not wanting to know the truth. Besides, Nikoli was too honorable a man to reveal it.

  “You are my world,” he’d said the night they’d defeated the vampires and he chose her above everything else.

  Be grateful for that. Stop worrying. Everything’s all right.

  She truly wanted to believe that they could build a future. Several weeks before, while Nikoli was studying one of her childhood pictures on the mantel, he’d asked, “Would you like us to have a child?” Before she could answer, he added quickly, “Not now…someday.”

  She slipped her arms around him, pressing her palms against his broad back to ease him closer. “Do you even have to ask?”

  Hope softened his rugged features, though not for long. Brushing her bangs aside, he kissed her forehead, then started to reason like the quantum physicist he was. “What if we can’t?” His breath was hot on her skin, his argument quick and logical. “Our genetics may be too different. My fingerprints are nothing like yours. You saw how long it took me to adjust to time moving more swiftly on this side. What else about our physiology could cause something to go wrong? What if my fertility doesn’t return because of what I ate on E2? Even if it does, what if our child doesn’t fit in with the rest of your people? What if—”

  “Shhh.” She rested her fingertips on his lips to stop him. She loved his features, so ruggedly handsome, his skin a warm olive color. His black hair was a bit longer than it had been when they first met. It made him look faintly wild, like a pirate. “There’s no guarantee for anyone that they’ll have a perfect child.”

  He pulled her hand aside. “But the people here are from the same dimension, unlike us. No, we can never have a family.”

  Regina knew better than to argue. Nikoli would come to the correct conclusion by himself.

  His shoulders slumped as though he didn’t know what to do. He mumbled, “We shouldn’t.”

  “We can if we want…someday. When the time comes, we’ll work it out,” she assured him, then begged him to screw her senseless until she couldn’t take any more pleasure.

  He performed as he always did, staying hard for hours even after his many orgasms, his supercharged testosterone a gift from E2’s genetic scientists.

  Now there was a group that deserved the Nobel Prize and the thanks of horny women everywhere. Chuckling, Regina pulled up to her house, parking on the driveway rather than in the messy garage, and hauled out her groceries.

  In the next yard over, twin girls played, their tiny voices shrill with excitement. Across the street, several dogs barked. Normal stuff Regina barely noticed before Nikoli came into her life. Ordinary moments she treasured now.

  Balancing a
bag on her hip, Regina unlocked the front door, expecting Nikoli to be bounding down the stairs as he usually did to greet her.

  The stairway was empty. She glanced at the antique clock on the wall, noting she was later than usual because of her trip to the supermarket. If anything, that should have brought him down here even faster.

  Where is he?

  Regina dropped her keys on the cherry-wood table near the foyer’s entrance and glanced down the hall at the dining room, hoping to see Nikoli coming around the corner from the kitchen.

  The area was deserted.

  A soft breeze wafted in from behind her, brushing against the leaves of her philodendrons. In the dining room, the edges of the lace tablecloth fluttered slightly. Specks of dust danced in the waning light. Beneath thick, patterned rugs, the hardwood floor gleamed.

  Nothing was different.

  Yet something had changed. Regina could feel it. Nikoli should have been here. Was he in his study, working so hard on his inventions that he’d failed to notice her return?

  That wasn’t like him.

  A thread of anxiety curled in her belly, turning her skin cold. She gripped the bags harder than she’d intended, causing the paper to crinkle. In the relative quiet, the noise seemed too loud. Although Regina wanted to call out to him, she held back, not knowing why. He’d assured her nothing bad would happen. She’d begun to believe it.

  The fetid odor of the vampires had long since faded in her bedroom. She smelled nothing more this evening than the citrusy furniture polish she used, a hint of the bacon she and Nikoli had enjoyed for breakfast, the cinnamon toast they’d made.

  She started at a clicking sound. It reminded her of the night the vampires had come here, not in human form but as bats, landing on the roof, their nails clawing at the shingles, their seductive voices coaxing her to let them inside.

  Stop it.

  The noise continued, becoming louder, telling Regina it was footfalls. Not Nikoli’s. She knew the sounds he made. These were lighter. Belonging to a female? Had one of her patients come here? Had Nikoli let her inside? Why would he?

  A flash of blonde caught her attention. Regina stared at the woman who stopped abruptly at the other end of the hall in front of the dining room table. Her face was exquisite, the kind that belonged to a model or film star. Long tresses the color of winter wheat flowed over her narrow shoulders.

  She wore a look of anguish, no different from when she’d sought Regina’s services months before, exposing her and Nikoli to the vampires.

  Sazaar.

  How had she escaped annihilation? Were Andris and the other vampires also here? Oh my God, had they harmed Nikoli?

  The bags of groceries fell from Regina’s hands, spilling a box of spaghetti, bananas and the bottle of vodka. Oranges, another of Nikoli’s favorite food, rolled across the floor, bumping against the beige molding like balls on a billiard table.

  A cry of agony rose in Regina’s throat, the same as Sazaar’s when she’d begged Andris to love her, giving up her life and Nikoli’s safety to assure it. The vampire hadn’t cared. He’d used her then and was certainly doing the same now. Regina bolted toward Sazaar, wanting to tear her apart…to find Nikoli. How dare she come here and ruin what they had. Why couldn’t they destroy her? Why did she have to keep returning?

  Just short of reaching her, Regina heard a flurry of movement from behind, footfalls coming from the living room. An arm snaked around her waist.

  “Regina, no,” Nikoli said, pulling her back. “Stop.”

  She couldn’t. Adrenaline pumped through her, along with primal fear. Had Sazaar already turned Nikoli? Was he one of them now? Was that why he was dragging her away? Regina writhed in his arms, trying to get free so she could find a way to undo this. To somehow save him.

  His grip tightened.

  She cried, “How did Sazaar get in here, Nikoli? Did she bite you?” Her hand went to his wrist, the faint scars from the last time Sazaar had attacked. “We can fix it. There has to be a way to—”

  “She isn’t Sazaar.” He pressed his cheek to hers and spoke softly. “She’s not a vampire. Her name is Damir.”

  What? Who? Regina didn’t understand, nor could she believe what he’d said. “Let go of me.”

  “When you calm down.”

  That wasn’t going to happen. From Nikoli’s left, Regina caught movement. A man.

  Although he was older than Nikoli by decades, they bore an eerie resemblance to each other, their features decidedly masculine, their coloring identical. The same as the scientist Regina had seen when they’d been on E2, hiding from the vampires. What had Nikoli called him? Something beginning with a T, like Timothy or Thomas.

  Thomo.

  This couldn’t be the same man. His left arm hung limply at his side, no doubt paralyzed. A brutal scar marred the left side of his face and throat. The wounds were an angry red, certainly fresh. How had he gotten them? Why was he here? “Is that Thomo?” she asked.

  “No,” Nikoli said. “It’s Meelo.”

  Who the hell was he? Regina glanced at Damir, who’d edged down the hall. Given the concern on her lovely face, she was prepared to retreat the same distance.

  Although her features and coloring were strikingly similar to Sazaar’s, she was also older. So how had she and Meelo managed to travel from their dimension to this one? Regina grabbed Nikoli’s arm, digging her fingers into him. “How’d they get here and know where to find you? Are E2’s authorities looking for—”

  “No,” Nikoli interrupted once more. “No one from E2 will ever look for me. Meelo and Damir travelled through a portal just as I did when I came to destroy the vampires.”

  Regina’s belly rolled. She turned, trying to see his face. “Are you saying there are more of those things here? We didn’t get them all?”

  “We did. They’ll never return.” He paused to swallow. “Meelo and Damir had travelled to E4 and were supposed to return to E2 but came here instead with my father’s help.”

  That made no sense at all. “Your father didn’t want you over here but sent them to join you? Why? To convince you to return?” Was this never going to end? Regina understood his father’s concern, but why couldn’t he respect what Nikoli wanted? That was, if he still wanted it. Oh hell, she wanted to be sick. “You’re not thinking of going back, are you?”

  A look of annoyance passed over his face. “How can you even ask?”

  She frowned. “Well excuse me for being worried when people from your dimension suddenly show up in our house. If they haven’t come here to take you back—”

  “They haven’t,” he said. “They can’t.”

  That sounded final. The same as when he’d said no one from E2 would ever coming looking for him. “Why not?”

  He brought back his arm but didn’t release Regina. Turning her to face him, he clamped his hands on her shoulders and gave her a hard stare. “In order to explain my absence, my father told the authorities I died fighting the vampires when they tried to cross through the void between the dimensions. He claimed Sazaar also died that day. The rulers gave us a state funeral reserved for heroes.”

  Really. Then where was Nikoli’s previous shame for having come over here, abandoning his heritage and people?

  “That doesn’t bother you?” Regina asked.

  “Not any longer.” His dark brows drew together. “When Meelo needed to escape our rulers, my father told him what I’d done, where I was and that I would help him.”

  Regina didn’t like the sound of that. “With what?”

  “We need Nikoli to help Lukan,” Meelo said in English, his accent the same as Nikoli’s, foreign, untraceable on this plane.

  Nikoli didn’t give Regina a chance to ask who Lukan was. Taking her hand, he led her into their living room.

  The last of the sun seeped past the edges of the closed shutters, creating a pool of honey-colored light on the shiny hardwood floor. None of the Tiffany-style lamps was on. In the gloom, she saw a man standing n
ear the marble fireplace. A black hood hung over his forehead. Sunglasses hid his eyes. A bit taller than Nikoli’s six-three, he was dressed in that hoodie, a black T-shirt and jeans of the same color. The clothing draped his perfect build. Broad shoulders. Narrow hips. Long legs.

  Animal heat radiated from him, a masculine allure Regina sensed rather than saw. She reached over to switch on the lamps.

  Nikoli grabbed her wrist, stopping her. He spoke over his shoulder. “Did you get the candles?”

  “I couldn’t find them,” Damir said in English.

  Her voice was identical to Sazaar’s, breathy, coaxing. “Let us in,” Sazaar had begged when she and the other vampires had arrived here that night. Regina shuddered.

  “Everything will be all right,” Nikoli murmured. “Where are our candles?”

  “Ah.” Unable to form more words, she gestured with her hand.

  “Where, Regina?”

  She stared at Lukan, wanting to see more. Somehow compelled to do so. Did he affect all females this way? “In the right cabinet above the sink.”

  Damir hurried back to the kitchen.

  Behind his dark lenses, Regina sensed Lukan appraising her. Given the set of his mouth, he wasn’t pleased.

  His coloring was as rich as Nikoli’s, though more golden than olive. His features weren’t at all similar. He had the classic good looks of a Greek god, the perfect male. Had he come from E2? How was that possible when all the males there looked the same, just as all the females resembled each other?

  Wait a sec. Regina recalled Nikoli saying something about E4. According to him, there were five dimensions on earth, all inhabited. Had Lukan’s race evolved on the fourth dimension?

  “I have them,” Damir said, hurrying to Nikoli, halting when Regina turned to her.

  “We mean you no harm,” the older woman said quickly.

  Kindness and sorrow rang in her words, unlike anything Regina had heard when she’d hidden with Nikoli on E2. The conversations she’d overheard there were colorless, lacking warmth or animation.