Chapter 20
TWENTY
KSENIA
My eyes are shut, and I’ve barely started coming down from the wildest and most intense pleasure of my life, clinging to Kharon.
His arms suddenly release me, his finger slipping out of my ass and his cock from my pussy. I feel him shifting above me, but I only cling tighter. I’m not ready for the moment to end as aftershocks from my intense orgasm continue to quake through my legs, making my toes flex and point.
“Ksenia,” he says, and a tense note in his voice makes me open my eyes.
Which is when I gasp and let go of him.
Because we aren’t in the dark church anymore.
No, somehow we’re outside, but it’s not snowy—
What on earth? Sunshine?
Kharon lifts off me, and I scramble to my feet, looking up in confusion at the bright, sunny, cloudless sky. The green grass is soft as feathers beneath my feet, and a warm breeze blows against the wetness dripping between my legs.
“What is this?” I ask, stunned. I look around, not believing my eyes. It’s like some vacation paradise. Where are we? How did we—?
“I plane jumped,” he gasps, looking around. “With you.”
“Why would you do that?”
“I d-didn’t mean to!” he scrambles, his top hands going to his head as he spins, looking around. “I’ve never traveled with anyone before. I didn’t know I could—”
And then he swings around to look at me, and a horrified look takes over his face. “Oh no.”
“What?” I ask.
“That’s not true,” he whispers, his eyes still wide with horror. “I’ve traveled with many humans. But they do not come back.”
I think I get what he’s saying. “You mean, I— I’m dead?”
He shakes his head, a determined look on his face. “No.” And then he storms over, covering the space between us in a moment.
Before I know what’s happening, he wraps all his arms around me, holding me tighter than he ever has. “Close your eyes,” he says.
I squeeze them shut, and my stomach drops to my knees as the ground falls away. It’s like being on the world’s fastest-falling elevator.
And then he’s crying out in joy. “It worked!”
I open my eyes, startled to find us back in the dark church—me on my back with Kharon between my legs, his cock and finger still inside me.
“Sorry,” he scrambles gently off of me, pulling out again. “When you return from the other plane, it is to the exact position in time and space you jumped from.”
“What just happened?” I squeak.
He’s shaking his head. “I’m not sure. I’ve never done that before. I didn’t know I could take anyone with me. . . and return with them.”
I blink, my heart racing as I tug the covers over myself. I typically have a hard time adjusting when a lot of things happen at once, and that was just a lot of things at once.
I definitely just got the world’s most intense orgasm.
I mean, I thought the one yesterday was mind-blowing, but turns out I didn’t know anything.
He’s really getting into the orgasm denial and, oh my god, the spanking.
And opening my eyes to find myself in, well, paradise, then being hit with the information that I might be dead—
But no, not dead. My hands move from my head to my chest to my— Dear god, I’m a mess. It’s really time to get cleaned up.
There’s a pot of warm water on the stove that I start toward but pause, thinking about the river I saw twinkling in the distance when we were. . . there.
I take a deep breath. “If I spend more than just a moment there, does that mean I’m in more danger of. . . being dead?”
“What?” Kharon all but chokes out. “You want to go back?”
I look around the dark, cold space and glance up at the snow that’s already covered the hole Kharon dropped us through.
“Well, it was warm there. And you said it’s just a different plane of existence or world, right?
It’s not actually the afterlife. So if we have to wait out the storm, why not do it there? ”
“It will not be waiting out the storm. We return to the exact position—”
“Well, at least we’d get a break from the cold, wouldn’t we?
” I interrupt. “And I could get cleaned up? Or feel like I was clean, anyway.” I look down my lap and grab the rag to scrub between my thighs.
I’m covered in his cum. I bite my bottom lip and shiver a little, this time in delight.
Oh my god, hottest sex of my entire life, hands down. My toes curl at the memory.
But even with the warm water, the rag quickly gets cold. “It feels like forever since I’ve been clean.” Because yeah, apart from the mind-blowing sex, being in this dark, cold church is miserable. I had to pee in an old bucket in the furthest, darkest corner last night.
I clean myself as much as I can and tug on some clothes while Kharon stays quiet. I’m not sure if he thinks it’s a terrible idea or—
“All right. I do not know if I’ll be able to return with you there because I’ve never— But we can try. I understand needing an escape when things in this realm become difficult.”
I look his way. “I like the company,” I say softly. “It’s just the setting that’s a little lacking.”
My eyes are on his mouth, so I see when his lips turn up at my words. “May I hold you?”
I nod, shivering already. I can almost feel the sun on my face. It seems impossible that I was in a place like that just moments ago. It’s freezing here, but it was warm there. Beautiful. More beautiful than any place I’ve ever seen.
If Kharon has access to a place like that, I’m shocked he ever spends time here.
Kharon quickly comes to me, surrounding me with his arms and squeezing. “Hold tightly. I will hold tightly to you.” Oh, okay, so we’re doing this now—
I barely have time to shut my eyes before the floor drops from beneath us. The thousand-story elevator drop is no less unsettling the second time. Well, the third, but the first time I was so lost in the ecstasy of a mind-blowing orgasm.
I feel the solid ground underneath us and blink my eyes open. Half of me is sure it’s a trick of some kind. Surely we haven’t actually traveled to another world. Or realm, plane of existence or whatever you want to call it.
But the sun shines warmly on my face. Warm but not too hot.
Perfect, as is the warm breeze on my cold skin.
The grass is soft beneath my bare feet. Which is good because I didn’t think to put my heavy boots back on, and now I’m glad I didn’t.
Somehow I know there won’t be thorns hiding in this soft grass.
I look around at the lush field surrounding us.
A grove of fruit trees in the distance is nestled at the foot of some gently rolling hills.
I can only blink, astonished at how beautiful and pleasant it is here.
I walk towards the trees and catch a sweet aroma in the air.
I don’t know if it’s from the trees and their heavy, ripe fruits or the bursts of bright, blooming flowers nestled here and there in the grass.
I pause, listening, then turn to Kharon. He’s following behind me, a slightly uneasy look on his face. “Is that music?”
He nods.
“Who’s playing?”
“Some of the souls seem to enjoy spending their time with instruments.”
I blink, turning around again. I don’t see anyone, and the music is distant. It sounds like some sort of stringed instrument and a. . . flute? Then I think I catch some voices, too.
“How big is it?”
“The realm?” he asks, then reaches up to scratch his head, shrugging.
In the other world, he’s always so imposing and in charge of every situation.
Here, he looks awkward and unsure of himself.
I don’t understand it. Doesn’t he spend a lot of time here?
“Big. Unending as far as I’ve seen. But I haven’t tried to make a map of it, so I cannot be sure. ”
I can only stare in his direction. If I had access to this place, all I would do is explore.
“And I don’t spend much time in the golden realm.” He looks around uneasily.
“Where do you go, then?”
“The shadowed place.”
I shiver and wrap my arms around myself. “Well, let’s not go there while I’m here. Okay?”
He nods. “Yes. I understand. We can return to the church if we want dark and cold.”
“Exactly. Good.” I nod decisively. Then I look around and feel so. . . happy. It’s a strange emotion for me. Unfamiliar. In my normal life, even before my uncle’s betrayal, I was just busy. . . I kept busy. No one thinks about being happy.
Usually I was too busy planning my next target. Checking in with Dad on how things are going with the larger operation and doing whatever I can to help. All he could focus on for forever was getting his empire back, but in the last few years, he’d started talking about me taking over.
Was that why Uncle Pavel did it? He’d essentially been running the operation in Russia, but if he heard Dad flapping his mouth about me taking over. . . Well how better to solve that problem than to invite us to a secluded location, ambush us, and both his problems would be gone all at once.
My head starts to hurt just thinking about it.
Kharon said I could be home as soon as tomorrow night. I frown, unhappy yet feeling guilty at the same time. I have to go home. Dad. I have to find out what happened to Dad. I have to find out if he’s—
“Ksenia?”
My back has been turned to Kharon during my long silence, and I look to the blue sky as if it can offer any answers, blowing out a long breath.
Is it so wrong, for just a day, to want to forget it all?
To escape to this paradise with a man who can make me feel like Kharon does and in a place that’s literally outside of time?
I’ve never taken a vacation in my whole life.
Maybe the timing is really screwed up. And maybe I’m just avoiding reality and in denial about Dad.
But what I don’t know can’t hurt me.