Chapter 10
CHAPTER
TEN
“Iknow you joked about not wanting to live in the same building as me, Lee, but I thought you should see this place.” Akran tapped in a code and the door to the apartment swung open. “It’s only a floor down from mine. It’s basically the same layout over two floors.”
Anna followed him into the empty space, and looked around the familiar room and out of the big windows overlooking the city.
By the time she’d woken up, Kai had gone and she’d been left with a quiet, very courteous companion who treated her with as much warmth as a robot.
Not that she could blame him. He was a fucking robot, after all, programmed by the government to do one thing and unable to believe he was capable of anything more.
“The government will give you a generous furniture allowance to fill it up with all that greez women love.” He kept walking, opening doors as he went, and she silently followed him. He wore a tight black T-shirt and jeans low on his narrow hips.
“Of course there are a lot of other complexes where you could live. This one has good security, but if you wanted to live near Kai or Malke, you could see if they have anything over there. It’s about five kilometers away on the other side of the city, overlooking the lake.”
“The lake sounds nice.”
He paused to look down at her. “You think so?” He shoved his hand through his hair. “You’d get priority if there was a place vacant. Do you want me to take you down there today, or should I call Kai to meet you?”
She turned away from him and looked over the sunlit city. “I appreciate your help.”
His reflection shrugged. “It’s the least I can do.”
“You’re just keen to get rid of me so that you can have your own space back. I get it.”
“No, I—” He exhaled. “Believe me, Lee, I just want you to be happy. I want you to have anything you fucking want.”
“Except you.”
“What the fuck would you want me for?” He cleared his throat. “I’ve been thinking about that. If you still want sex, I can do that. I’ll—”
She held up her hand. “Sex when you won’t come, and won’t even let me help you come? Do you really value yourself so cheaply?”
He placed the key on the countertop with the code underneath it. “I’ll leave you to look around, okay? Let me know what you want to do.”
“Palk really did a number on you, didn’t he, Rehz? Made you feel like all you were was his personal sex toy to be used and abused whenever he wanted.”
“That’s not true.”
“Then why are you afraid to ask for what you want? What will it take to get through that thick skull of yours?” She took an impulsive step toward him. “You survived the Ungrich , Akran, twice .” She shook her head. “I can’t even fathom how you did that.”
“By shutting down everything inside me that wasn’t useful or necessary to survive.” He slowly raised his head to look at her, his gray eyes bleak. “You can’t be weak in there, Lee. You know that. They’ll tear you apart and enjoy doing it.”
“You’re not in there anymore. You’re not even in the program. You’re done! What are you going to do now, Akran? Live the rest of your life like this?” She swung around in a circle. “So emotionally closed off that nothing is allowed to get through to you?”
“Don’t do this, Lee.”
“Do what? Make you angry, make you care about something?” She raised her chin. “You picked me as a Tribute. You know I won’t back down for anything or anybody. You taught me how to be strong, so how can you be such a coward right now?”
He moved so fast she gasped as he hauled her against the wall, one hand wrapped around her throat. Well, she’d wanted to see him lose it, and now she was going to experience it up close and personal.
“Shut up, Lee.”
“No, I fucking won’t.” She glared into his furious gray eyes. “Make me.”
His mouth descended and she moaned as he kissed her, his hand on her ass, molding her sex against the hard rod of his erection. She bit his lip and he cursed, jerking his head back and loosening his hold to readjust his grip on her body.
He reached between them, yanking down the fly of his jeans and shoving her pants out of the way until the crown of his cock pressed against her clit. Then he slid lower, impaling her on his stiff length in one brutal thrust.
She screamed and wrapped her legs higher around his hips as he pounded into her.
His strokes grew shorter and more ragged as he groaned with each thrust. Unwilling to release him, she dug her heels into the pumping muscles of his ass and rode him harder, keeping him deep inside her as he fought to escape.
“No,” she screamed as he tried to detach himself. “You goddamn stay right there and come in me. I want your come; I want you.”
She bit down hard on his shoulder, and he jerked once more and with a helpless groan started to come in an endless hot stream of pulses. His knees gave way and they both slid down the wall, still wrapped together, heart to pounding heart, mouth fused to mouth.
He licked her lower lip. “This is what I’m scared of, Anna Lee. That I want you like this all the time, hard and fast and . . .” He shuddered. “I need it like that. Need you too much. I don’t want to hurt you.”
She stroked his damp hair. “You didn’t hurt me.”
He eased out of her, wincing as his come flooded out on her splayed thighs.
“I like this too, you all wet from me. I’d like you wet all the time so that whenever I wanted to fuck you, you’d take me.
” He buried his face in the crook of her neck, his voice muffled.
“And then I hear myself saying that, and all I can think is I’m just like Palk , expecting you to be my forever fuck toy. ”
He moved back, still on his haunches, and studied her. “If you stay with me, you need to know that’s what I’m like, what I’ve become used to needing. I . . . can’t change that.”
Anna nodded as he got to his feet and headed to the bathroom. She stayed where she was, her body curiously numb, and tried to decide how she felt. She had to be careful. Both she and Akran were too vulnerable to mess this up.
He returned with a wad of wet tissues and knelt in front of her again. She supposed she should take them from him; close her legs, pull up her pants, and do something to allay the anxiety in his eyes. But she was tired of being passive. She wanted to live.
“Anna?”
“You do it.”
He swallowed hard. “I want to use my mouth.”
“I don’t mind.”
With a savage sound, he bent his head and licked her still-throbbing clit, his tongue delving through her swollen folds, cleaning and arousing her with every subtle motion.
Anna closed her eyes and just enjoyed it, until that wasn’t enough and she shoved her fingers in his hair and pushed his face hard against her.
He used his tongue to probe her cunt like a cock and made her come again.
Releasing his head, she shoved him until he overbalanced onto his back and she climbed aboard, grinding her sex against the hard zipper and ridge of his cock behind it.
He groaned and bucked under her. She shifted her position, tackling the straining zipper, and released him again to let him surge up into her waiting cunt.
This time she came the second he was in her, and then she forgot everything but the sensation of having him, of making him feel something, even if it was just physical desire.
He couldn’t dispute that he wanted her. His body didn’t lie.
She shoved her hands up inside his T-shirt and pinched his nipples until he cursed and thrust even harder against her.
Didn’t he understand that the need went both ways?
That he’d created her and that his desires were now hers?
She couldn’t imagine a world without him in it, fucking her brains out, grounding her against all the Mitan bullshit.
He was her anchor and had been right from the start.
It had just taken her a while to realize it.
With a moan, she fell over his chest and lay there. Listening to the erratic thump of his heartbeat, and his harried breathing.
“I’ll take this apartment.” Beneath her he went absolutely still.
“But only because I want to screw as much money out of the Mitan government as possible. I’ll even furnish it, but .
. .” She levered herself up on his chest until she could look down into his wary eyes.
“I won’t be living in it. I’ll be with you. ”
His shaking hand came up and cupped her chin. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.” She smiled at him. “I want to be with you, Rehz. Do you want that too?”
He rolled her beneath him and set about tearing off her clothes. Soon she was naked and so aroused her nipples were aching for his touch.
“Yeah, I fucking well do.” He hesitated. “I’m not a good man, Anna Lee.”
She gave him a shaky grin. “Well, that’s okay, because I’m a pardoned criminal.”
“But I’d lay down my life for you.”
“That’s so sweet.”
Anna gave a contented sigh and tugged on his hair until he came down low enough to kiss her and slide his cock home again and they climaxed together.
Now that they were both out of the Tribute program, she hoped that he wouldn’t have to live up to his promise, but it was good to know they were finally on the same side.
She could only pray that in this fucked-up world, that would be enough to last them a lifetime.