14
Lilica woke up crying, and it broke something inside Dallas. Resistance, maybe. Or a link to a past he would rather forget, where a little boy feared losing the people he loved and did his best to remain detached.
This beautiful, strong woman should only ever laugh . . . or moan with pleasure.
When more than twenty Schön had swarmed the apartment building, Dallas had remained by Lilica’s side. He and the agents positioned nearby had put their SS guns to good use, bagging and tagging every soldier. Trinity had planned ahead, but so had he. No one had reached Lilica’s vulnerable body. He would have died first.
Now he gathered her in his arms, needing contact the way he needed air. She buried her face in the hollow of his neck and wrapped her arms around him, clinging to him as she sobbed, her hot tears trickling over his skin.
He combed his fingers through her hair, some strands black, others honey brown. “Trinity’s men had orders to hide her body the moment her spirit left it. AIR was able to free her prisoners, but not capture her. Not at first. John followed her and was able to lead us straight to her. She’s now in custody and on her way to a holding cell.”
“Good. I’m glad. But Jade . . .” Shudders racked Lilica. “She stole a portion of the disease, as well as a portion of the otherworld abilities Trinity acquired.”
Silence. Such oppressive silence.
“She’s going to be all right,” she said. “Yes? She’s never kept what she’s stolen. Ever. She’s never been strong enough. The abilities have always returned to their owners.”
“I don’t know. Nothing like this has ever happened before.”
“I want to see her. I need to see her.”
“She’ll have to be locked away. For her own good,” he added before she could protest. “For yours too. For everyone in New Chicago.”
Her nails dug into his shoulders. “I don’t care. I love her, and I have to know she’s being treated well.”
“Yeah. I thought you’d say that.”
He made some calls before driving her to the facility in No Man’s Land, where AIR had also locked away the rest of Trinity’s victims. Lilica stared out the window, her features blank. The worst part? He couldn’t feel her emotions through the bond.
Why couldn’t he feel her emotions?
As soon as he was parked in front of the warehouse, he gave her a mask and gloves to cover every area of exposed skin. The filters in the nostril holes would prevent her from breathing in the acidic air.
“I used to live out here, you know,” she said, her voice soft and yet heavy. “The institute is only a few miles away. From one prison to the other.”
Wind whistled as it swept over the car, and sand pelted the doors. Ping, ping, ping. An eerie soundtrack. The only one audible within the thirty-mile stretch of desolation and ruin. This was no place for a child.
“Your life is better now,” he said, squeezing her hand.
“Is it, though? Both of my sisters are suffering.”
The words haunted him as they raced inside the building. Armed guards were hidden throughout the terrain, and the number of ID scans had tripled. After decontamination, Dallas and Lilica stripped off the extra gear. He took her hand, holding on tight. Too tight. But he couldn’t help himself. He felt as if he would lose her. As if he was already losing her.
Mia was there, staring into Trinity’s cell. “I can’t believe we have her.”
Trinity huddled on the floor, despite the cot in the corner. Her pale hair was tangled, her skin smeared with dirt, but she bore no sores.
Dallas said nothing, following Lilica.
“Lilica,” Trinity called. “Lilica!”
Lilica paid her eldest sister no heed, moving past her cell to stop in front of Jade’s. John was there, silent but not stoic as he watched her pace from one side to the other. Fury pulsed from him.
Lilica trembled as she flattened her hand on the glass. The room had all the comforts of home. A soft bed with even softer covers. A toilet hidden by a privacy screen. A minifridge. Even a holoscreen TV. Jade noticed her and rushed over, pressing her palm against Lilica’s. Unlike Trinity, she was covered with open sores. Her once silky hair was now limp and dull.
“Why did you do it?” Lilica demanded.
Tears welled in Jade’s red-rimmed eyes. “It was the only way.”
“It wasn’t. The disease is going to return to her, but part of it may stay inside you, your own personal infection. You might have done it for nothing. Nothing!”
The hurt Lilica projected, the pain . . . as if she’d finally been crushed. The doctors who’d raised and tortured her hadn’t been able to break her, but her sisters had managed to do so. Tears burned the backs of Dallas’s eyes, and he had to blink them away.
—Everything could work out for the best. Let’s not give up hope.—
He pushed the thought into her mind, but seconds passed . . . a minute . . . and there was no response. Could she not hear him anymore?
Frowning, he dug through her memories, the ones the bond had stored in hidden corners of his mind. Determined to find the reason, and the solution. To his consternation, many of the memories were no longer as clear, as if the corners they’d been stored in had been flooded, the boxes ruined. Even so, he found the answer he sought.
He and Lilica hadn’t had sex, and the bond was fading. Soon he would have no tie to her at all.
Every cell in his body shouted a denial. He wasn’t sure when he’d stopped resenting the bond, or when he’d come to rely on it, expect and need it, but he had. It had happened, and he didn’t want to go a single day without a tie to her. She meant something to him. More than he’d ever thought possible.
But . . . did she mean enough for him to make things permanent?
How did she feel about him?
“What are we going to do if you remain sick?” Lilica whispered.
Jade offered her a sad smile. “We’re going to say good-bye. The Schön will die one way or another—because you’re going to kill it.”
“Kill you, you mean.” Lilica slammed her fist into the wall. The glass was bullet-, pyre-, and shatterproof, and she hissed, her knuckles crunching, her skin splitting.
A wound he didn’t acquire. He bit the inside of his cheek.
She glared at her sister. “You would leave me on my own? To endure this terrible world without you?”
She would never again be on her own. She would always have Dallas.
The thought jolted him, because suddenly he knew. Yes. She meant enough to him to make things permanent. She meant everything to him, and right now she was breaking what was left of his heart.
“I’m sorry,” Jade said, her tears continuing to rain. “I’m so sorry. But now you have a chance to help Trinity. The one you wanted.”
“I don’t want it anymore.” A screech from the depths of her soul.
Jade bowed her head. “I’m sorry,” she repeated.
Dallas wound an arm around Lilica’s waist. “We won’t know if the disease is going to return to Trinity until tomorrow morning, or how Jade will be affected afterward. Let’s go home and wait there.”
Her shoulders rolled in, and she allowed him to lead her away from the cell without protest . . . down the hall, where she once again ignored Trinity.
“Lilica! Please,” Trinity called. “I’m sorry too. I never meant—”
Lilica missed a footstep. “Begging,” she whispered. “But it’s too little too late.”
As they entered the decontamination room, she swallowed what looked to be a sob. Together they reapplied the safety masks and gloves, and Dallas ached for her all the while. For the girl she’d been and the woman she was.
Lilica remained silent the entire drive home. He reached for her hand, but she drew back, and he didn’t need the bond to tell him why. She was preparing herself for their separation, arming herself against him.
He gnashed his teeth, but kept silent. She was hurting right now, and he wouldn’t add to her problems.
He hustled her inside the apartment; as soon as the door was locked, a laser bar engaged, and he kissed her temple and said, “Wait here.” He strode to his bedroom, where he dug inside his dresser.
If he was going to do this, he was going to do it right.
He held the small gold ring to the light. Worth more in sentiment than cash, but all the best things were.
It had first belonged to his grandmother. A thousand times over, his mother could have sold it. She should have sold it. They’d desperately needed every penny for food. Instead, she’d saved it, as if her parents’ love and affection were the only ray of hope in the doom and gloom of her life.
Lilica had missed out on so many human experiences, but no more. Not on his watch. More than that, she needed as many ties to him as he could give her. Hell, he needed those ties.
He needed a bond . . . in body and in soul. Marriage could protect her—the sister of a predatory otherworlder—in ways humans would respect.
He strode out of the bedroom, but skidded to a stop when he spotted Lilica. She sat in the recliner, gloriously naked and partially hidden by shadows. One hand held a glass of iced whiskey while the other clutched the arm of the chair.
“Look how pretty,” she said, and a bolt of sizzling lust struck him. Just like in the vision. She cupped her mouthwatering breasts. “We can pretend. You like to pretend, yes? You are a man, and I am a woman, no problems between us.”
This. This was the vision coming to life. He shot hard as a rock. “Sex?”
“No. It’ll be like before.” She set the glass on the side table and stood, the light falling over her, revealing small but pert breasts, nipples like diamonds, the scrolls etched into her skin glowing. “In the shower.”
Her delectable scent hit him, arousal in its purest form, and he nearly fell to his knees. “I want more,” he croaked. “I want sex.”
She frowned at him. “But . . . the bond.”
“I know. I want the bond too.”
Her eyes widened, the pulse at the base of her neck fluttering wildly as her skin changed a thousand different colors.
When he’d first met her, he remembered thinking the heart within mattered most, her beauty just a bonus. She’d more than proven herself a woman of incredible worth. Loyal to the bone. Honest. Fiercely protective of those she loved.
“I want the bond. And I want marriage, want us legally bound in front of witnesses. I want you to become my permanent inconvenience.”
“Marriage?” she gasped out, as if the notion were preposterous. “Permanence?”
He didn’t back down. He couldn’t. Somehow, she’d become the most important part of his life. It had happened too quickly. Fine. Whatever. But the simple fact was, it had happened. He could have lost her today. He wasn’t prepared to lose her.
“I want you, all of you. I want everything you have to give.” He closed the distance and held out the ring. “I want you to bear my name. I want to be your partner. A legal pain in your ass. I want you with me, always and forever.”
Her hand fluttered over her mouth. “Dallas . . . I don’t . . . I can’t believe . . .”
“We’ll never be alone again. No matter what happens, we’ll have each other.”
“But . . . why do you want me? I’ll never be your type, and my situation is—”
“You are my type,” he interjected. “You are my only type. And we’ll deal with your situation the way we’ll deal with all our problems. Together.”
She trembled as he slid the ring on her finger. She looked at the band, then at Dallas, then at the band again.
“I know it’s not much. I’ll get you something better. Just say yes.”
“Why would I want something better? There is nothing better. This is absolutely exquisite,” she whispered as she petted it.
With a groan, she leaped into his arms, smashing her lips against his.
He opened for her, their tongues thrusting together, rolling and dancing. A mating dance. Her sweet taste sparked a passion-fever inside his veins, her titillating scent enveloping them both, creating a cocoon. No one and nothing else existed outside this moment.
She tugged at his clothing, ripping the material. “Get naked. Get naked now.”
Need consumed Lilica. As soon as Dallas was bare, she forced herself to slow. He was her man. Willingly. Happily. She wanted to know more about him. All about him. Wanted to save him.
She caressed the musical notes etched into his pec. “Tell me,” she beseeched.
His pupils flared. “For you? Anything.” He kissed her temple. “My mother was an Onadyn user, and during the rare moments she was lucid and cheerful, she would sing to me.”
Onadyn. A drug some otherworlders needed to survive Earth’s atmosphere. Humans used it to get high, even though it destroyed portions of their brains.
Her fingertips stroked a path of fire to his rib cage, where the tree of life bloomed.
“A reminder every time I look into the mirror,” he said. “Every word and every action is a seed. One day something will grow from it. Whether good or bad. Just depends on the kind of seed I planted.”
“That is beautiful.” He was beautiful. She bent down to flick her tongue over one of his nipples, then the other. “And the eyes on your feet?”
One corner of his mouth quirked up. “A reminder that someone is always watching.” He dragged his fingertips along the tätoveerimine marking her shoulders. “The first time I noticed these, I wanted to lick them. I still want to lick them.”
“Me first.” She pushed him into the chair, and he stared at her, utterly transfixed, as she dropped to her knees. “I’m going to be much nicer to these from now on.” She kissed one testicle, then the other. “I promise.”
He chuckled, and she loved the sound. As charming as he was, as carefree as he sometimes seemed, very few people could make him laugh with genuine amusement.
I am one of the few. I’m special!
She curled her fingers around the base of his erection. “As you may or may not know, I’m fascinated with this part of you.” Out flicked her tongue. She traced the outer edge, then the slit in the center. A bead of desire welled, and she lapped it up.
He sucked in a breath—and she sucked him to the back of her throat, soon growing used to the way he stretched her jaw.
“I’ve wanted you too badly for too long,” he rasped. “You keep that up, and I’m going to blow in your mouth. I’d rather blow inside you.”
Inside her . . . yes. Her first time. Their first time. She stood and straddled his lap, the long, hard length of him bobbing between them. “I will finish you in my mouth next time.”
“And you won’t hear any complaints from me. Maybe a few commands for you to work me harder and faster, but that will depend on your skill level. We’ll evaluate and discuss.”
“Funny man.” She wrapped her hand around his shaft. “Are you sure you want to tease me when I have control of your precious?”
“Yes. Teasing you is my new favorite hobby.” He kneaded her breasts, his thumbs brushing over the puckered crests. “Such a perfect view.”
As he leaned forward to run his tongue over the scrolls etched on her shoulders, sensation shot straight to her core, where she ached with molten desire. This man . . . oh, this man . . .
He was every dream she’d ever had, every dream she’d never known she’d had, and every dream she would ever have. And he wanted her too. Wanted her fiercely, madly, deeply, as if she were a prize.
“You are a prize,” he said, and tortured her nipple with a glorious suck.
The bond had begun to strengthen again! For a moment she could even see herself through his eyes. An exotic creature with extraordinary markings to explore. Her curves were an irresistible smorgasbord. An all-you-can-eat buffet.
He smiled at her slowly, wickedly, before fitting his teeth over her other nipple. He did something with his tongue . . . something strange and wondrous, as if his Arcadian powers stroked her too. Stroked deeper.
She cried out in bliss, her hands moving to his scalp, her nails digging in deep to hold him in place. He caressed down . . . down the ridges of her spine before cupping her ass to yank her closer. Her core rubbed against his shaft, the pleasure too much but not enough.
“It’s as if you were created just for me,” he said, the awe in his tone undoing her. “As if I gave the lab a list, and they made my perfect woman.”
The warmth of her breath fanned the shell of his ear before she bit the lobe . . . kissed the stubble along his jaw . . . finally reaching his lips. As their tongues thrust together, he reached underneath her to slide a finger deep, deep inside her, making her gasp.
“So hot,” he praised. “So wet.”
“More.” Her voice was so thick with arousal, she sounded drunk.
“I’ll give you whatever you need. Always.” He fed her another finger, stretching her, moving the two in and out of her, mimicking the motions of their tongues. They weren’t just having sex with their mouths and his fingers, they were making love.
“Don’t stop. Please, don’t stop. Please . . . give me more. All.”
I’m willing to beg?
As a child, she’d refused to beg Walsh for mercy. Refused to beg for treats or scraps of affection. She’d feared revealing a weakness, a vulnerability. Had only broken to help her sister. Nothing else had ever tempted her. Until this man. Yes, she would beg. Wanting him was a very real part of her being. The fabric from which a new, stronger Lilica had been made.
“Would rather die than stop.” —Can’t get enough of her. Will never get enough.—
His thoughts drifted through her mind, as rapturous as his touch. Need for him grew into a frenzied rush. She bit his tongue and sucked on the wound, savoring the taste of his blood. Her head fogged, making her ravenous for more. The same hunger consumed him. His hips jerked up, his rigid length sliding more firmly between her legs, creating a friction that sparked a thousand new fires in her veins.
She flattened her hand on his chest, just above his heart. The muscle was as hard as the rest of him, the organ itself pounding swift and erratic. Pushing herself up so that her breasts hovered just out of reach, she peered into his eyes.
“Your other women—”
He scowled, interjecting, “No other women. Can’t remember them.”
Tenderness swamped her, but she continued as if he hadn’t interrupted. “—they didn’t know you, because you wouldn’t let them. I know you, and I want to see you as you fill me.”
“Yes. I’m going to fill you up, brand you, make you mine in body as well as soul.” With his fingers anchored on her hips, holding her tight enough to bruise, he guided her to the tip of his erection.
She reveled in his strength.
“I don’t want anything between us,” he rasped. “Do you?”
She hadn’t even considered using protection, had been more concerned with the present than the future. But, like him, she wanted nothing between them. Not this first time.
“I just want you. And don’t worry. I won’t get pregnant. The birth control I was given hasn’t yet worn off.” She pressed down, taking an inch of him . . . tried to take more but couldn’t. He was so big, so wide, and she needed a moment to adjust. Panting, she said, “No . . . going back . . . after this.”
“Don’t want to go back.” Sweat trickled down his temples, falling to his shoulders, rolling down his chest. All the while, their gazes held. His pupils were blown, arctic irises hidden by a pool of black.
And . . . she gasped. Amidst the black were pinpricks of light, like the ones found within her eyes.
They were becoming . . . one?
The knowledge electrified her, aroused her to the point of madness. With a desperate cry, she slammed down on his erection, burying his length inside her. A sharp lance of pain quickly vanished beneath an onslaught of undiluted pleasure; she was fully seated on him.
“Okay? All right?” he panted.
“Good, so good.”
He levered himself to his feet, still inside her, his hands on her ass to keep her balanced as he walked forward, every step wringing a moan from her. Sliding him in and out. In the bedroom, he eased her onto the edge of the mattress while he remained standing.
She lay before him, a feast for the taking . . . and take he did.
He pulled out of her slowly . . . only to slam back into her swiftly. The pleasure—oh! For a moment, she was almost blind with it. “Dallas.”
“My Lily.” He slid out, slammed in again, and hissed a curse.
“Yes!” Enjoying the ferocity of the ride, she arched her back and reached overhead to fist the covers.
His—control—snapped.
He hammered into her again and again, completely unrestrained. She loved it. Her head thrashed, and her hips rose to meet him. Without slowing his thrusts, he leaned down, taking one of her legs with him. Her thigh pressed against the mattress, making her more open to him, more vulnerable.
He kissed her then, his taste as drugging as his sex. Pressure built inside her. Pressure and pleasure, pleasure and pressure, until the two were the same. A heady combination. She bit at him, sucked on his lip, demanded more . . . more . . . oh, he gave her more!
She gasped his name until she was no longer coherent, until all she could do was moan and groan. He reached between them, his fingers finding the heart of her, where she throbbed. With a single press, he sent her hurtling over the edge, screaming her release.
As her inner walls clenched and unclenched around him, he thrust into her a final time, threw back his head, and roared.