Kat
Arik strode into the kitchen, the Mr. Sadistic face he wore when we trained firmly in place. Great. “You ready, Kat?”
If I’d learned anything in the past weeks, it was to read Arik’s moods. Outside of the workout room, he was charming, to say the least. Friendly, considerate—he made me feel at home in a world I didn’t truly understand. He’d even handled the awkward conversation about my lack of a period without flinching. Turned out Archai females only ovulated every few years. If they hadn’t—I considered the possibility of being fertile constantly for a thousand years and shuddered. Yeah, I was perfectly happy with a period every five or ten years, thanks.
And then there were those moments when just a look from Arik seared me with desperate, hungry heat. That, I was slowly getting used to. He’d kept his promise, not pushing me faster than I could handle. If my days in bed had become long hours of lust-filled dreams, that wasn’t his fault, at least not entirely.
But either of those moods was preferable to this one. That tone of voice was all I’m gonna enjoy this, but you probably won’t. Like the crack of a whip. This Arik, the one I’d come to think of as Trainer Arik, I’d learned to be wary of, because it usually meant I’d be hurting and exhausted by the end of the night.
“Ready for what?” I asked, gathering my dishes to dump into the sink.
He jerked his chin in the direction of my plate. “Finish that fruit and I’ll tell you.”
“Does that mean I don’t have to eat the fruit or do whatever you’ve got planned?” I emphasized the sugary-sweet note in my voice and batted my eyelashes like Betty Boop.
“Don’t know. Why don’t you try me?”
Uh-uh, not with that look in his eye. I sat back down with a pout. The pull on my lower lip made me feel like a two-year-old, but dang it, I didn’t like fruit. I wasn’t trying to be difficult; it was a texture thing.
Just stomp your foot while you’re at it, Kat.
Maybe he’d reward my noncompliance by coaxing me the way he had the last time we’d had this argument.
“Eat, Kat,” he commanded.
Or not.
Fruit and torture. Not a good morning. The smile flirting with Arik’s sensual lips as he watched me choke down the rest of my breakfast, made me want to hit him—which, I was beginning to suspect, was why he did it.
“Good girl,” he said when the last piece of banana—gag!—disappeared into my mouth. I flashed him a strained smile and swallowed the piece whole, no chewing. A shudder shook me as my throat threatened to close. The fact that it was soft just made the whole thing worse.
A quick swirl of water helped wash the taste away.
“Grab the coat, boots, heavy socks, and gloves I put in your room.”
Well, that was different. We were going outside? The realization that I’d be breathing fresh air for the first time in weeks sent me in a giddy rush down the hall, yucky fruit almost forgotten. By the time I returned, I was vibrating in my boots. I caught a sly grin on Arik’s face as he led the way out the massive front door of the lair.
Icy-cold air slapped me in the face with my first step outside. Brrr. Winters in Nashville were mild compared to the rest of the country, but thirty-five degrees was thirty-five degrees, and we hit it often in the middle of the night. “At least it’s not snowing,” I grumbled.
“At least it’s not Alaska,” Arik countered.
“There’s the trainer we know and love,” I muttered under my breath. Avoiding the glare I was sure the comment would earn me, I glanced around. Every day was full of a sameness that had definitely given me cabin fever, but all of Arik’s talk about the dangers of the Anigma had kept me from even considering a step out the door. Now that I was here, though, with Arik guarding my back, I was curious.
And what I saw astounded me.
The door had opened into a concrete courtyard, the sides curved up in the shape of a bowl. Half of the bowl was missing, allowing me to look out into what might be a pasture, though I couldn’t be certain in the dark. No super night vision for me, apparently. The lair itself and the open concrete area were carved into a hillside, the gentle swell of which I could see on either side of the courtyard.
“Wow. How did you find this place? I’ve never heard of anything like this in the area.” And I’d lived in Nashville all my life.
“A friend found it for me. And if you’d heard of it, it wouldn’t be secure, would it?”
I grunted something indistinct, my mind back on his “friend” comment. A girl “friend”?
Turning myself away from that thought, I eyed the darkness around us. “So, what are we doing?”
Arik headed for the dark beyond the courtyard. “Follow me.” He stepped out onto the grass, leading me around one side of the lair and up the hill. As we climbed, the grass gave way to brush, taller weeds, sticker bushes, then finally trees, first small, then older and thicker clumps. Typical Tennessee outdoors. I couldn’t see the top of the hill, but we hiked long enough for my breath to be heaving in and out, even with all the training I’d done. I was wishing desperately for a rest stop before we reached a small, mostly level clearing bathed in moonlight.
Of course Arik showed no sign of strain as he strode across the tufts of grass and underbrush. “Time for a bit more active target practice.”
I snorted. “You’ve seen my target practice, right?” I knew he had; he didn’t leave me alone when I was testing my power.
“I have. You need bigger targets than water bottles, and I’m not sacrificing another punching bag. I’m running out of replacement funds—not to mention the cleanup.”
A flush heated my frozen cheeks. My lack of control hadn’t gotten better. Not that I didn’t try. It didn’t help that the worry I’d be dumped out in the cold if I didn’t perform lurked constantly in the back of my mind.
Rather than answer, I glanced around the clearing. “What exactly am I targeting?”
Arik pointed at the ground. “You stay here. I’ll show you.” And with that non-answer, he strode toward the trees at the opposite end, disappearing into the shadows.
Why couldn’t I have been stuck with the talkative trainer, if there was one? But no, I got the guy who didn’t even bother with answers when I—
Without warning, a chunk of wood the size of a basketball sailed through the air straight at me.
“Shit!” I dodged the flying missile. “Arik?”
The white oval of Arik’s face appeared in the dark yards away. “What?”
I glanced at the wood, then back at him. “What the hell?”
Even at this distance, I caught his pointed look. “Target practice.” He disappeared again.
Oh shit. I tensed.
This time the missile was a stump. I tried to breathe, target, and push out a barrier, shield, some kind of energy to protect myself. Maybe all at the same time. As the projectile seemed to block out the night sky, power shot from my hands in a panic. I missed the stump—which barely missed me. I did manage to hit something, though—a tall cedar at Arik’s end of the clearing. The top half of the tree disappeared in a blaze of wood chips.
Oops.
Arik’s disembodied voice reached me. “Deflect, Kitty Kat. Not destroy.”
“No kidding.” Serves you right, asshole.
A flash of amber—Arik’s irises—shone in the dark, almost as if he’d read my mind. “Get it under control.”
Sometimes I really hated Trainer Arik.
Right. Okay. I tried to focus, I really did, but the more I missed, the more panicked I became. A few pieces landed a bit too close for comfort, so that I began to struggle not just with hitting them but also dodging, dividing my focus. The pieces I managed to hit, I didn’t deflect at all; I annihilated them. They shattered just like the trees surrounding Arik did, scattering shards of wood and tiny splinters all around me, over me. The occasional piece lodged in my skin, my clothes. Everywhere.
And then Arik heaved up a massive chunk of limestone and threw it.
I ran.
“No way! Arik, stop. You can’t be serious.” A shattered rock would scatter chiseled spikes everywhere. That was probably why he’d thrown it, so fear would force me to get the block right, but imagining the possible outcome made the stress stomachache clamping down on my belly ten times worse.
“I am damn serious.” He stalked toward me across the minefield of wood chunks and chips covering the grass between us. “What do you think will happen if someone shoots you? Throws a knife or, hell, a boulder? We’re strong enough to pick up just about anything worth throwing. You have to be able to shield yourself.”
My stress—and yes, fear—did a one-eighty to anger. “I don’t have the control for that, okay? I don’t!” Maybe I never would. After tonight, I sure as hell would never risk using my power around anyone else; I couldn’t risk the results with another person in the danger zone.
“You have to.”
“I don’t!” I swept my hand out, indicating the rock Arik had thrown. “I don—”
The hunk of limestone cracked where it sat on the ground. Just…cracked. Two even pieces jerked outward, their insides jagged evidence of a power I hadn’t even known I’d wielded. I staggered back, gaze locked on the rock, my breath too fast and too thick and suddenly not nearly enough to keep me conscious.
A gesture. That’s all it was. And yet…
God.
Before I could lose it completely, before my temper and my emotion and my…everything…could come out in ways I had no control over, I turned my back to Arik and his asshole commands. Frustration roiled and rose, higher and higher, with every step I took away from him, until all I could do was let it out in a shout that echoed off the surrounding woods long after all the breath had left my lungs. I watched in horror as, one by one, the line of trees edging the clearing right in front of me snapped in two.
“Kat, stop it!” Arik was right there, jerking me around, anger to match my own blazing in his glowing eyes. “You can’t give in to it, ever. You have too much power for childish temper tantrums. What if those had been people, huh? What then?”
I didn’t bother pulling away; I didn’t bother telling him I’d already made that realization myself. All I could do was hang limp in his grasp and shake.
This was my life now. Frustration or anger or disgust—what about love? Or despair? No matter what it was, I could never let my emotions go. Never.
Just the thought filled me with absolute exhaustion.
Tucking my hands beneath my arms, afraid I’d make the wrong move and kill Arik instead of some helpless trees, I stood there and just…shook. “I can’t do this, Arik.” I curled over, fighting the emotion that now seemed everywhere, overwhelming my every thought. “I can’t. This is never going to work.” Except what choice did I have? It wasn’t like I could ignore my power, shut it down…was it?
Arik gripped my arms, forcing me up, and pulled me against him. I expected his touch to be rough, angry, but instead it was gentle. “You can do this,” he told me. Leaning back, he cupped my chin, made me meet his gaze. His electric eyes blazed down on me. “I wouldn’t be working with you if I thought you were a waste of my time. I don’t waste time, Kat; you of all people should know that.”
I tried to pull away, but Arik was having none of it. “You don’t know me, Arik,” I pointed out, “not really. You don’t know what my life was like.” I went to wave a hand, indicating the mess I’d made of the clearing, then jerked myself back from even the thought. “This is my life. I’m failing at being a psych just as thoroughly as I did at being a human. That’s not self-pity; that’s fact.” I wasn’t strong, and this… Nothing in my life had prepared me for this. The pressure was immense, every move scrutinized, every failure examined and reprimanded. Not to mention that one wrong move with my power meant people could get hurt. People like the Archai. Like Arik.
People I cared about.
Arik’s face went hard. “I’ll tell you what’s fucking fact. You will control your power. You will learn to use it. You will because I want you to, and because there’s no other alternative. Do you understand me?”
I opened my mouth to tell him exactly what he could do with his ultimatum. Before a single word escaped, Arik’s mouth took mine. His hand on my chin refused to release me, refused to let me turn away. Except he need not have worried. From the moment his hard lips separated mine and his tongue pushed inside, all ability to resist fled. As did my anger. Every emotion but hunger left my brain as my body went completely limp, trusting Arik to hold me up, and every cell, every thought, every breath focused in on him—the inflexible demand of his mouth, the silken slide of his tongue, the sting of his fangs as they pricked my lip.
I groaned when he stepped into me, fitting our bodies together despite the heavy coats we both wore. I could lose myself right here, in Arik’s arms; I could be happy. All I wanted was his kiss, his body, his hands reaching to lower the zipper of my coat, then his own.
Heart pounding, breath speeding up, I waited, needing his touch like I needed the next pump of my heart. His lips traced my jawline, the sensitive skin of my throat, the hollow at the base of my neck. His hand took up the journey from there, sliding from my collarbone, down over my sweatshirt, outlining hard-tipped breasts and a quivering stomach before finally, finally slipping underneath to make contact with my skin.
My moan sent a white cloud of breath floating up between us. I watched as it rose, little by little, my head tipped back to open myself completely to him. His fingers were rough, calloused against my sensitive skin, and everywhere he touched, fire entered my veins. Needing to see, I lowered my head, and he was there, waiting, watching. His warm fingers found the clasp of my bra, and staring straight into my eyes, he set me free.
Hot hands on my breasts— “Oh God.” My eyelids drifted closed as I arched into his touch. Palms massaged, molded. Fingers and thumbs pinched my sensitive nipples. A scream of pleasure gathered inside me with every touch, but before it could escape, it was captured by Arik’s mouth. I pressed myself against him, feeling the hard jut at his pelvis, the restless assault of his tongue and teeth, the rough abrasion of his hands on my most sensitive spots. I wanted him with a desperation that frightened me, needed him with a power that could no longer be denied. In his arms, feeling his pleasure, I knew it had to be tonight. I would give myself, my virginity to this male tonight. “Arik—”
He tore himself away.
I stood, stunned, watching him walk away until the winter air biting into my bare skin registered. The silence pressed in on me. Condemned me. Stupid, stupid, stupid! When was I going to learn one simple fact: nobody truly wanted me.
Slowly I put myself back to rights—my clothes, my panting breath, my shaking hands. My expression, though… When Arik turned back to me, I was afraid it revealed everything.
His wry grin strained at the edges. I fought the urge to slap it off his face.
“I’m sorry. I hadn’t intended—”
“Stop.” This night couldn’t get much worse, but to top it off with him apologizing for kissing me? Touching me? “Let’s just get back to work.” I didn’t know how I’d focus, but I’d force it somehow.
“I think you need a break.”
The laugh that left my mouth was ragged. “Well, if you think it, it must be so.”
I hadn’t realized I was rubbing my aching forehead until Arik’s hand closed around my wrist, dragging it down as he tilted my chin up. I refused to step back from his touch; he already knew how much he affected me anyway. What was a little more humiliation tonight?
“You’ve worked hard, Kitty Kat. You’re trying; I know that.” His thumb stroked back and forth across the curve of my chin, keeping needs I didn’t want to think about alive. The glow had left his eyes, leaving them soft and somehow…concerned, maybe? “You’re overwhelmed, tired, confused. I know I’m pushing you, maybe too hard. And this”—he waved a hand between us—“doesn’t help. I get it. So let’s take a break.”
I wasn’t touching that last observation. A glance around, looking for anything to distract me, only served as a reminder of why Arik had been pushing. “But—”
Warmth hit my neck as Arik leaned in. I stiffened, as much from his closeness as the sharp nip that stung my earlobe. “Break. Let’s go.”
He didn’t wait for my agreement; he turned me around and landed a heavy smack on my layer-protected rear. “Home.”
It took a couple of deep breaths before I could think straight, a couple more before my jelly-filled legs actually moved. Arik’s comment about the amount of energy required for psych skills came back to me on the return journey to the lair, but with every step I was forced to admit that I was shaky for more than one reason: partly lack of energy and partly the remembered feel of Arik’s hand burning on my left butt cheek.
I just had to make it to my bedroom without embarrassing myself. Just a few minutes more and I could retreat.
Okay, hide.
Arik’s words as we entered the lair nixed that idea.
“How about you take a bath while I cook? We could watch a movie after.”
“A movie?” I hadn’t seen the first bit of entertainment in the bunker except the widescreen TV, which currently only got local channels. Not that I’d had much time to enjoy even that. “We have movies?”
Arik’s chuckle shivered down my spine. “That’s what Netflix is for.”
Anger sparked in my tired brain. I hadn’t been able to afford a smartphone, hadn’t had one on me when we arrived, so there’d been no way for me to check for a signal of any kind. Had never seen a box or stick allowing the TV to connect to the Internet. I’d certainly never seen a computer anywhere around the lair, though I had seen some locked doors. “We have Wi-Fi?”
Arik knelt at my feet, nimble fingers untying my boots far faster than I could have managed. “Duh.”
I smacked the side of his shaved head with the flat of my hand, then froze. Had I really done that?
On second thought, yeah, I had.
And he’d deserved it.
Arik seemed to take it in stride. “Watch it, Kitty Kat. Keep that up and there’ll be no popcorn for you.”
“We have popcorn?”
Arik stood, shaking his head. “I’ve definitely worked you too hard if you’re this out of it. Go. Bath.” He turned away.
I huffed my opinion of that as I toed out of my boots, leaving them by the outer door. On the way to my room, I passed Arik heading into the kitchen, and stuck my tongue out at his back.
“I saw that,” he taunted.
“Good.” But I scuttled down the hall before he could retaliate.