Chapter 8 #2
Listening at the door, she heard a set of rhythmic bangs and crashes start, and slowly forced herself to move down the stairs. There was no natural light down on this level, which scared the crap out of her, but there was light. She reached the bottom of the stairs and sank onto the last one.
Akran was stripped to the waist and pumping iron with a ferocity that terrified her.
Sweat gleamed on his skin as he forced the bar up and over his head, his chest straining and his breathing as harsh as her own.
When the machine beeped, he moved to a punching bag and laid into it like it was a real person.
Anna let out her breath. “Will Palk come after you for what you did?”
He froze and then slowly turned toward her.
“I don’t know.”
“You’ve never threatened to kill him before?”
“I’ve tried to kill him several times. But he always had the power.” He tapped the swinging leather bag with one mighty fist and sent it swinging away from him. “Now he doesn’t.”
“Are you sure about that?”
He shrugged. “I’m not on my knees sucking cock and being whipped, am I?”
“When you came out from Ungrich space, was he waiting for you?”
He slowly wiped a hand over his mouth. “Yeah, he was.”
“God. How long did he give you to recover?”
“About three days.”
“Before he did what?” She had a terrible sense she knew what he was going to say. Part of her didn’t want to hear it because she didn’t want to have any sympathy for him at all, but the rest of her needed to understand that he had suffered too.
“Before he made me fight him and then he fucked me raw until I bled. All my nightmares rolled into reality. I thought I was going to crack up, but I didn’t.” His voice was curiously flat. “The second time he didn’t even need to fight me. I just gave it up.”
“What do you mean, the second time?”
“One year, none of our potential trainees graduated into stage two.” He shrugged. “There was some kind of virus that took them all out. Someone had to go as Tribute. Kai and I volunteered.”
She covered her mouth. “Oh my God.”
“I survived that, and Palk.” He turned away, found a towel hanging on the bars, and used it to wipe himself down. “I’ll survive you too.” He nodded. “I’m going to take a shower.”
She rose to her feet. “I’ll start dinner.”
He stared at her as though she’d announced she was having sextuplets.
“You’ll cook?”
“Sure. It’s the least I can do. You saved me from Palk.”
She went back up the stairs, tears streaming down her face. And for the first time in a long while, they weren’t even for her.
Hours later, after they’d eaten in near silence and watched some kind of sport on the screen, she’d pleaded exhaustion and gone to bed.
But she couldn’t sleep. All she could think of was Akran’s matter-of-fact explanation about surviving the Ungrich twice, and then having Palk fuck with him both mentally and physically.
Sure, she’d hated him for what he put her through, but she’d never sensed his actions were personal, just that he was doing his job. That had terrified and infuriated her at the time, that detachment—but she got it now. She could even almost understand it.
He was a survivor.
Like her.
Grabbing her robe, she put it on and made her way back into the living area.
His bedroom was on the other side of the space and occupied the prime position, with a view out over the city.
She’d peeped in there one day when he was in the shower, but there was little to see.
The furnishings were as dull as those in her room, with no sense of his personality at all.
She opened his door very carefully, but knew almost at once that he wasn’t there. Holding her breath, she turned around and padded across to the kitchen. A light shone under the door that led down to the gym, so she followed her instincts and tiptoed down the stairs.
“Lee.” He was sitting on one of the workout benches, head bowed and muscles gleaming with exertion, his expression careful. “You having nightmares?”
She shook her head and took off her dressing gown, which left her in just her panties. It felt strange being naked in front of him now, almost as if it were their first time. He straightened as she approached him, a muscle flexing in his jaw and his hands fisting at his sides.
“What do you want, Lee?”
“Maybe Palk was right about something.”
“That I didn’t want you to see him fucking me? Damn straight.”
“That wasn’t what I meant.” She cupped his chin and he flinched. “Maybe you should’ve done what he did.”
His hand came up and gently grasped her wrist. “Don’t play these games. Don’t fuck with me.”
She smiled into his wary eyes. “Well, if you won’t fuck with me, will you fight me?”
“Lee—”
“I need to feel something. I need something apart from the crazy world in my head full of . . . them.”
He nodded once and rose to his feet. She followed him to the mat in the corner.
He held up his hands. “Fight me, then.”
She was shaking so hard she wanted to scream.
Instead she drew back her fist and punched him hard in the chest. He rocked back on the balls of his feet, but he didn’t budge an inch.
With an incoherent scream of rage she ran at him, climbed him, and started hitting any bit of him she could reach, scratching and biting.
She yelled until her throat was raw with it.
He stood as implacable as a rock. “This isn’t fighting, Lee. It’s girlie slapping. You know better than that.”
She screamed again. Her knee almost connected with his balls and he took a hasty step back and tripped, sending them both down onto the mat, her on top of him.
“Fight me!” she yelled into his face.
“I don’t want to hurt you anymore.”
She drew back her arm and slapped him. Shock exploded in his metal-gray eyes, but he still didn’t retaliate. A red mark bloomed on his cheek as she straddled him and felt the kick of his cock against her panties.
“Fill me then.” She moaned and rocked against him. “Make me forget what they did to me.”
His hands fell to his sides on the mat. “Lee, you’re not thinking straight.”
“I know that!” She snarled in his face and he visibly flinched. “I haven’t had a normal thought since I ended up on this godforsaken planet.” She shivered. “You owe me. Give me that big thick cock of yours. Fill me up.”
He licked his lips. “If you want it, Lee, you know where it is. Go ahead.”
Without even allowing herself to think it through, she rose on her knees and dragged down his shorts to expose his hard, wet cock. The familiar scent of him tantalized her nostrils. He lifted his hips so that she could complete her task and uncover that fine ass of his too.
Although he was making no effort to run away, she scrambled to remove her panties. He lay on the mat, his arms at his sides, his hands clenched into fists, and his cock bare to her needy cunt.
He swallowed hard as she grasped the base of his shaft and rubbed the wet crown against her clit.
“Are you . . . okay to take me?”
She eased him in a scant centimeter. “No.”
“Then let me—”
“No. I want to feel you, not them.”
An image of slick tentacles and protrusions flashed inside her mind, and she instantly banished it. Akran’s cock was wet, but she wasn’t. She’d have to work to take every bit of him, and that was just how she wanted it.
And God, he let her, lying quietly beneath her as she took her time easing him inside her tight, reluctant pussy.
He kept his hands on the ground; only the occasional tremor ran through his muscled frame as she rocked against him in an agony of slow possession that made everything feel real and raw for the first time in weeks.
“Oh, damn,” she whispered as she finally claimed all of him. “That’s just what I wanted.” She opened her eyes and stared down at him. “Will you help me?”
His agreement was instantaneous, but contained within a small nod.
“Play with my breasts, but do it hard. Pinch me, but don’t . . . lick or suck or . . .”
“I get it.”
His big hands rose to cup her breasts, his thumb and forefinger tightening on her nipples and twisting them.
With a groan, she started to move on him, one finger rubbing her clit as hard as she could take it.
Akran started tugging at her nipples in time to her strokes over his cock and soon the pleasure and the pain bonded together and she had to shut her eyes to take it all in—to force the new memories in over the old—to make sense of the unexplainable.
Her climax caught her unawares, raging through her clit and clamping her pussy around Akran’s shaft until she was writhing over him, her fingernails buried in his shoulder as she gasped in pleasure.
Rehz held himself still under her, his hips coming off the floor as she gripped his cock so hard that he wanted to yelp with the force of it.
He let her use him as she wanted, riding him until she started to cry and collapsed over him.
He wanted to roar out his pleasure, roll her onto her back and kiss her until she let him fuck her again, her heels digging into his ass, urging him on .
. . but he wouldn’t. He’d take what she’d offered and not an inch more.
With a sigh, he eased out of her and gathered her close, her head on his shoulder as she cried and shook. Greez, he had to swallow hard to stop bawling himself. He wanted to keep her safe from everything . . .
Eventually, she kissed his throat. “Thank you.”
“For not fighting you?”
She sighed. “I’m sorry I slapped you.”
“I probably deserved it.”
Her hand slid down over his hip, and he tried to turn away from her questing fingers.
“You’re still hard.”
“I’ll fix that when you go and shower.” He kept his voice low and soothing. “Or I’ll wait, if you want to fuck me again.”
She rose over him, her fair hair a tangled mess and her face blotchy from all the crying. Her nipples were hard buds from where he’d . . .
“Why didn’t you come?”
“You said you wanted cock.” He shrugged. “I gave you cock. If you want more, I’ll give you that too. Palk made sure I can stay hard all night.”
“I’m not Palk.”
“Yeah. I get that. I’m not bleeding.”
At the mention of blood, she swallowed hard and he wanted to kick himself. Instead, he put his hands around her waist and lifted her away from him and onto the mat.
“Akran . . .”
“If you’re done with me, I’ve got to finish my workout.”
He rose to his feet and, with some difficulty, pulled up his shorts over the hard pulse of his cock. He smelled like her now. He’d have no problem making himself come after she left.
Fixing his attention on the abs machine, he placed his hands on the bars and started moving. She’d go soon. She’d gotten what she’d wanted.
Eventually she stomped back up the stairs. He wasn’t sure how she made so much noise in bare feet, but she managed it. The moment he heard the faint sound of her bedroom door slamming, he stopped and sank onto the bench beside the machine.
She’d left her panties on the mat.
Hating himself, he reached over and picked them up, bringing them to his nose to inhale her scent.
Palk was right. He was a weak fool.
With a soft sound, he shoved down his shorts, wrapped her panties around his cock, and forced himself to a hard, deeply unsatisfying climax.