The grainy sand was almost white, speckled with tiny rocks along the shore. It may be close to midnight in Honolulu, but the moon hung low and was heavy with silver light, beaming off the silent sea like a jewel. Corran had finished collecting samples from the volcano crater, and true to his word, he took me swimming.
“You look spectacular,” he said, and I glanced over at him, still in his jeans and buttoned up shirt looking proper as always. At least he’d removed his shoes.
I looked down at myself in a swimsuit we’d found at one of a handful of stores still open. A skinny black bikini, barely covering the sides of my breasts and so skimpy that I might as well have been naked in the back. Corran had surprised me by insisting I wear it. I tried to tell myself that I didn’t adore the way his eyes glinted when he stared at me, eating me up with his gaze.
“Why do you enjoy dunking yourself in cold, salty water?” he asked.
“Stop analyzing everything.” I grabbed his hand and drew him toward the water lapping across the shore. “It’s such a hot night, and it’s refreshing to go swimming, especially with someone else.” I winked his way. “Especially when the two of us combined should be wearing a lot less clothes than you are right now.” I eyed him head to toe.
“If you’re implying sex, the friction is painful in water.”
I sighed and hauled him closer to the water. “Just follow my direction, okay?”
And to my surprise he nodded.
The water rushed toward us, running up and over my feet. I giggled and latched onto Corran’s arm, while he stood there, the hems of his jeans getting wet. He didn’t seem to notice as he kept staring at me.
“What?”
“Something in your face looks different when you smile today.” He watched me closely, or more like studied me. Corran was always trying to work me out, while me… I just wanted to laugh for a change, stop being afraid.
“It’s called freedom.” And the moment the words fell from my mouth, an awkwardness fell over me because he was my captor and I wasn’t really free. After our time together with him carefully explaining all the data he was collecting on the volcano, I’d foolishly let myself imagine that our situation had changed. All because he’d made me feel incredible in his company, trusting me to help him, taking me to the beach, spoiling me. The hard facts remained however that I remained under his control.
I turned away from him and faced the ocean, my hand slipping out of his grasp. Out in front of me, the dark waters came in gentle waves, proving that nothing would ever tame the ocean.
Corran placed a hand on my shoulder, his touch sizzling hot. “Did I do something wrong?”
When I met his gaze over my shoulder, his lips curled upward, and he reached over cupping the side of my face so tenderly I almost let myself believe he truly cared.
“On my home planet, women are worshipped and adored. We protect them above all else, and we keep them close at all times to ensure they are safe. But you say freedom like claiming you is wrong.”
“Are you listening to what you’re saying?” I said, my mouth hanging open from his response.
“Earth is no longer the place you once experienced,” he retorted. “And it will never be the same. We’ve offered you freedom from what is coming,” he growled, his expression darkening, and in a heartbeat his features schooled, and his words faded as if he’d said too much. “Go, have your swim, we have to leave soon,” he snapped.
I turned and headed into the waters feeling less than a person because the Vepar had this way of giving, then taking away any good they did. Always reminding me of my place. If they revered females so much, why dominate them? My stomach churned with his last words about Earth never being the same again. Something was happening, and it had to do with the test results I found in their secret lab, I felt it in my bones. Regardless of what Corran told me, I wasn’t sure how much I could believe. After all, they’d arrived here, shrouded in secrets, so why would he so easily divulge their information? Nope… more secrets lay hidden, and I had every intention to find them out. If I was stuck with them, hidden from another monster, then I’d at least uncover the truth.
The cool water lapped around my thighs and I pushed deeper into the water, dunking myself into the sea’s embrace, the iciness refreshing. There was an eeriness about floating in water so dark I couldn’t see my hand just below the surface. Who knew what swam around me… but was that any different to being in the company of Vepar?
I stared back to Corran. He leaned against a palm tree, arms folded over his broad chest, watching me. What would he do if I dove under and never resurfaced? Probably drain the ocean to find me. I would laugh if I didn’t believe he’d do exactly that.
I left the water behind, my skin pricked with the cold. Corran hadn’t moved from his position even though the towel he’d purchased lay right by his feet. Instead, he drank me in from my head to toes, his sights fastened on my breasts in the skimpy bikini, at my pebbled nipples. When I reached his side, he picked up the towel and dusted it of sand before wrapping it around my shoulders. He rubbed the fabric over my arms and back to dry me. His moves were smooth and unaffected, but his eyes held a hunger that showed how he truly was feeling.
He leaned down and kissed me, his lips on fire. His breathing escalated and he held onto my shoulder while another hand cupped my breast. With deft fingers, he peeled back the material, revealing one of my breasts. Then he bent over further, collecting it into his mouth.
I gasped, glancing around to see if anyone was around. Finding we were alone I relaxed although the knowledge that we could get caught still filled me with a nervous thrill. His hands fell to my backside and he kneaded my cheeks. The way he sucked on my chest had me swooning, arousal escalating quickly through me, my head fogged with heat. And he wasn’t letting me go either, plucking at my flesh with his lips.
“Corran,” I breathed, fire scorching hot between my thighs. As if sensing my need, his fingers found the edge of my bikini bottoms and slid inside. Caressing me softly, he slowly slid into me. I parted my legs slightly for easier access, only the towel sitting on my back like a cape concealing what was going on if anyone watched. My cheeks sizzled, but nothing compared to the heat I felt that he was touching me so intimately in public.
I groaned, grasping his shoulders, needing him with every fiber of my being. I ought to be pissed at his treatment of me earlier, but as always, his attentiveness won me over, taking all my anger away.
When he turned me around, driving my back to the palm tree, he ripped the bikini top the rest of the way off. I could barely breathe from need. His mouth latched onto my other breast, eliciting another gasp out of me. His fingers pushed back into my bikini bottoms, and his knee nudged my legs wider.
“We shouldn’t do this here,” I moaned, staring around us, but when his fingers slipped inside of me again, I lost myself. Gone were all my thoughts, the only thing remaining was a desperate desire to float on the clouds. His tongue flicked me and holding out seemed an impossibility. His teeth bit down softly on my flesh, and it all become too much, too fast. I fell over the edge, and a cry of pleasure fell from my mouth, my body shuddering.
Diving into my mouth in a deep kiss, Corran’s tongue slayed me, erasing every thought of the outside world until I was breathless, and we had to break away to drag in air. I writhed, soaking, every last inch of desire throttling through me. It took me a few minutes to settle down. Corran kissed me softly before moving away and pulling the towel tightly around my chest. Embracing me once again, I melted into him.
“Come, you must be starved.” We began to walk along the sandy beach of Honolulu. As I stared up at the stars, I knew I would never forget my brief time in Hawaii.
Corran hadn’t touched his Wagyu ribeye, only the vegetables, but even those he only picked at. He seemed miles away as we sat in a restaurant fit for royalty. Embroidered curtains, dark oak tables, sandstone tile floor, and meals were served from silver trays. The restaurant was full, each table bustling, voices buzzing, and a delicate piano played throughout the dimly lit room. I was worried if Corran regretted what had just happened when he finally looked over at me with a smile, the worry he had carried moments earlier vanished.
“You look beautiful.” His attention fell to my low v-neck dress, the one he’d bought me once we arrived in New York for a meal. The trip itself was another testament to Vepar technology since Hawaii to New York had only taken thirty minutes. I blushed all over, the earlier fire from the beach surging through me once again, and I grew hot and bothered as I clenched my thighs. It didn’t take long for him to affect me, for any of them to affect me, just a simple look did the trick. Something had to be wrong with me to react to the Vepar so fast.
I looked down at the blue gown I wore, it was the color of the night sky with tiny sparkles all over it when the light caught it in the right direction.
I blushed when I looked up and he was still watching me with admiration.
“I’m sure this dress could make even you look handsome,” I told him, laughing at myself trying to downplay the fact that he and his friends were the most gorgeous males I had ever seen. Looking around at my surroundings, this place was the most posh and uppity place I had been to in my life. I’d never be able to afford to visit such a place, and if I stepped foot in here without Corran, I’d be marched out. I suspected that the way we had been treated while we were here, like we were royalty, had everything to do with being on the arm of a Vepar.
“I didn’t mean to upset you back by the ocean. I’ve got a few things on my mind,” he explained and reached over to take my hand in his. His thumb stroked the back of my wrist in slow, gentle circles. His hair, the color of mahogany, framed his strong face and his eyes reminding me of milky caramel. Despite being the quieter of the three Vepar, the one who analyzed things first and who seemed to calculate everything before he acted, Corran was incredibly handsome in his own way. But unlike the others, he didn’t seem to know it.
Despite all the logic in my mind and everything that had happened, I couldn’t help but fall under his spell each time we exchanged glances. What would it be like to really date someone who looked this perfect…Someone normal. Not an alien with so many secrets it gave him a Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde personality. I wanted to look past that, to believe Corran meant well.
“Feel like talking about it?”
He sighed heavily. “Some things are better left unsaid.”
I wasn’t sure if that was one of his riddles I had to decipher, or he was speaking directly this time.
He flinched and reached for his pocket, before pulling out a ringing cell. “Give me a moment.” He was on his feet and marching outside with the phone pressed to his ear before I could respond.
Glancing down at my half-eaten gnocchi, I pierced one with my fork and ate it, loving the buttery taste. Why hadn’t I tried these before?
Eating could only distract me for so long and I couldn’t prevent my thoughts from thinking about the complicated situation I had found myself in. For so long my life has been about living to get through the day and into the next. With these three Vepar, my life had become so much more in such a short time. The deep-seated emotion they awakened in me was enticing, and it makes me want to feel even more. The opportunity to taste any level of the type of intensity they brought into my life was becoming a necessity.
When someone flopped into Corran’s seat, I sat up, expecting him, ready to say that was fast, but it wasn’t his face I met.
Across from me sat the Devil, and I shuddered in my shoes.
He wore a black jacket, hair oily and slicked off his face, and he had regained that haunting gauntness in his cheeks of the monster who’d tortured me with whips.
I pushed back in an instant, my seat’s feet scraping the ground in a terrifying screech, drawing attention from those at nearby tables. My heart pounded in my chest, and I shook, unable to stop remembering the way this bastard had hurt me, took my blood, and threatened to come for me. And here he was, trying it in public.
Shit!
“Don’t go,” the Khonsu whispered, glancing toward the door where Corran had left moments earlier. I mentally counted the space between me and the exit. Fifteen, maybe sixteen steps.
I jolted to my feet, but he grasped my wrist before I could get anywhere, also standing, his grip as cold and solid as iron.
“Sit!” he growled beneath his breath, hauling me back to my seat with such force, I stumbled into it, almost sliding off.
Fear pressed down on my chest, squeezing my lungs as he held onto my wrist, not letting go.
I was never going to be left alone. I would always be hunted. I hated this. I loathed the constant terror.
“What do you want?” I snapped, wrestling to free my hand, but he didn’t budge.
“Tonight, you’re not my prey,” he murmured, his gaze flipping back and forth from the door to me, and I prayed Corran returned fast.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I have some information I think you would be interested in,” he replied, picking up Corran’s dinner knife and casually inspecting it as if it held interesting information.
“I can’t think of anything you could tell me that would interest me except why you’re stalking me.” My words came out brave, but inside I was trembling. I set my napkin purposely on my knife and slipped both off the table. I gripped the knife hard under the table determined that when he did try to take me, I would fight back.
“Little human, what have they told you about why the Vepar are on Earth?” he asked.
I studied him wondering why it mattered. “The Vepar are here because their planet is dying and it’s making their females sick.”
“Ever wondered why they seem to care so much about the health of human females?” he said with a sly grin. His question dug in deep to the issues that I had tried to push from my mind.
I said nothing and his grin widened. “The Vepar women are barren,” he stated in a matter of fact tone. “And even though the Vepar have long lives, so long that some would consider them immortal, their numbers are still dwindling without any hope of replacement.” My eyes widened. It had been something that I suspected ever since seeing the graphs in their basement room, but the way Corran had talked to me so earnestly had made me want to not question him. Corran seemed the most trustworthy of the three of them, but what if he was the best liar of them all?
I shook my head. Why was I even deigning to listen to anything that this creature was saying? A creature who had cruelly tortured me for no reason other than I existed.
“Trying to convince yourself that I’m lying?” he asked with a chuckle. “Your three males are three of the most powerful Vepar in their society. To get in that position, don’t you think there has to be something a little bit more special to make them stand out in a race that prides itself on superiority?”
My trembling grew. I didn’t know what was coming next, but I knew I was going to hate it.
“They’re going to breed you,” he whispered to me. “Corran discovered how to make a Vepar embryo be accepted into a human female. Thanks to you.”
“Thanks to me?” I said, my voice sounding horrified even to me. “Your blood had the magic touch,” he said with a shrug. “There’s a whole list of you with the same special chromosome that will allow for you to birth little Vepar.”
“You mean hybrids, right? Half human, half Vepar?” I asked, thinking that it wouldn’t be so bad if the three of them loved me and we wanted to have children someday.
He laughed. It was a dark laugh filled with glee over my ignorance. “No, little human. They plan on knocking you out and putting in embryos just like you humans do with surrogates. Then they’re going to keep you hooked on machines like true breeders until the birth of the Vepars. And then, when you’ve done your job and continued their race, you’re going to die.”
I stared at him, dread threatening to choke me. My mind was having trouble trying to fathom how what he was saying could even be real. An image came to my mind of me strapped with a pregnant belly on a gurney in a tank with tubes coming out of me. I wanted to throw up.
A shadow fell over our table, and I jumped in my seat, so on edge, I was ready to scream.
Corran towered over us, and relief crashed through me. But before I could take another breath, he grabbed the Khonsu by the throat and hurled him across the room. Our table lifted from the alien’s feet kicking in resistance and flew sideways.
And then, panic broke out.
Screams. People running toward the exit, fear gripping their expressions. Chairs and food flying across the room from where the two aliens fought. And this wasn’t just punches and fists, but a battle between two animals. They charged for one another, headbutting, throwing one another against the walls.
Each time Corran fell, I curled over, hugged myself, the idea of him in pain feeling like a blade to my heart.
Every inch of me trembled, and I sat in my chair, frozen with the chaos erupting in the restaurant.
Get out, my mind yelled. I finally leaped to my feet, my muscles high on pure adrenaline. I felt nothing but the urgency to escape drumming through my veins. The grip of panic pushed me, my brain synapses fired away scenario after scenario on how I could die here tonight, but it also came with the idea that this might be my chance to escape.
I felt horrible leaving Corran this way, drowning in a scuffle of grunts and snarls, of blood and aggression, but what could I do? I didn’t even have a phone to call the other two Vepar for backup.
So, I ran. It was something I was good at.
I pushed past the overturned tables and chairs, pushing myself into the bottleneck of people squeezing out the door. Cries of terror surrounded me, and my heart beat faster and harder listening to everyone panic.
I burst out onto the sidewalk with the horde, and I swung right, away from the direction of the shuttle. While I had no idea where I was going, I just knew I had to run. I shoved past people, my mind racing with the need to find a place to hide.
“Ella?” A female’s voice cried out, but I didn’t look back, I didn’t dare.
When someone grabbed my arm, I flinched around, hands fisted, ready to fight. But when I saw Cherry standing there, holding onto me, wearing a strapless dress, her hair curled, and dark makeup around her cerulean eyes, I let out a light cry.
My mouth gaped open at bumping into her.
“Shit, girl, where the hell have you been, and what are you wearing?”
My throat thickened, and despite our past, I leaped into her arms, not caring about anything as it felt incredible to see a familiar face, to feel some connection to the life I thought I’d lost.
She pushed me off her. “What’s going on? I’ve called you for days, and when I went to visit you, the landlord said he’d kicked you out and was selling your stuff to pay for your unpaid rent.” Gripping her hips, she glared at me, waiting for an explanation.
My heart sunk through me, but I didn’t have time for this. “Listen, can we go to your place now? I have so much to tell you, but I’m in danger.”
Her brow pinched. “I’m here with friends. But you can make it up to me tomorrow by taking me out to brunch.”
I shook my head and glanced up the sidewalk behind her where the mass of people hovered near the restaurant. “Please, Cherry. For me, do this for me. I never ask you for anything.”
She rolled her eyes. It seemed she hadn’t changed much. In that moment I finally realized how stupid I had been to ever consider her my real friend.
“Forget it,” I snapped and whipped around to run.
Instead, I crashed into a wall of stone muscle. And when I looked up into Corren’s bloody and furious face, I winced.
Oh, fuck.
“Who’s this guy?” Cherry purred behind me, and was she really flirting?
But I couldn't move. My feet were glued to the sidewalk with dread.
“I told you you’re ours!” And he leaned over, snatching me up before tossing me over his shoulder as if I were a sack.
I screamed and slapped my hands across his back, but people just stared at us, doing nothing.
Corran’s large hands held down my legs, one hand on my ass, and he hiked it back toward the ship.
Cherry stared at me in shock.
“I’ve been kidnapped, help!” I yelled at her. But she simply stared after me, a shocked and jealous look on her face. The last thing I saw before we turned the corner was her making a call on her phone.
What the fuck!