Forbidden Worlds - Box Set (26 page)

Chapter 4

Nola didn’t miss the spark of surprise in Tarrant’s slate blue eyes. Nor did the frisson of anticipation that surged through her taut body escape her notice. She couldn’t wait to find out—needed to know that he was still inside her, and not just because it was her job.

He blew out a cool breath of air that teased the bare flesh of her stomach before he activated the device. She’d expected more questioning, but he seemed to trust the technology more than he trusted her. Why shouldn’t he?

A mild warmth accompanied the second abdominal scan and after a minute, he held the small, glowing display bar in front of her eyes. “Well?”

Her heart gave one unsatisfied thud. The receptacles had only collected half the required amount of DNA. Any less than a full load might result in the embryos growing too quickly and sustaining cell damage before they could be safely removed. She’d need to have sex with him again to complete her mission or the receptacles would empty and begin to break down.

“No.” She sighed and turned her eyes away.

“I assume that you’re disappointed.”

“Yes.”

He sat on the edge of the bed, turning the scanner over in his hands. “What do I have to do to you to get you to tell me why you want me to impregnate you?”

“You could fuck me. That would make me talk all night.” She grinned. What man could resist the direct approach?

“I told you I was wearing a sterile patch, and so were you. What did you expect to happen?”

“Are you that dense? My sterile patch is a fake. The compound in it is designed specifically to nullify the compound in yours so your sperm will be viable.” A little truth mixed in made the lies easier to tell and easier to believe.

“To what purpose?”

She rolled her eyes and her hips and tugged convincingly on her silken bonds. “Can’t you figure it out? You’re one of the wealthiest men in the galaxy. A simple paternity test would make me a wealthy woman. Easy money.”

“Giving birth and raising a child is easy?”

“With enough cash, anything is easy.”

He stared into her eyes, his gaze penetrating her soul as easily and sensuously as his cock had penetrated her body. She felt him inside her, reading her, touching her inner thoughts, and it made her squirm.

“You’re lying,” he said finally.

“Does it matter now? You’ve caught me.” She tossed her head and wriggled her hips. “My plan is ruined.”

“Hmm. Somehow I’m not sure I believe that.”

“Do you really think you can make me tell you anything else?” She hoped he would try. He looked incredibly sexy, standing over her, his broad chest rising and falling with his determined breaths. The muscles of his hands flexed, and he set the med scanner down on the bedside table then retrieved the U-4EA capsule.

“I’m sure I can. I find it hard to believe that you want to blackmail me into supporting you by conceiving a child.”

“It’s the oldest game in the book.”

“And I can tell by looking at you that you have a lot more going for you than that. You’re beautiful—”

“Thank you.” She winked at him, but the confession made her palms sweat. He meant it on more than a visceral level.

“You’re obviously brilliant. What do you need me to get rich for? I have no doubt you could do it on your own.”

“This is on my own. Why work for a living if you don’t have to?”

“I’m not buying that, Nola. I think you do work, very hard. And I intend to find out who you work for.”

“Good luck.”

* * * *

Tarrant grew more aroused with each movement of her body on the bed. Lying there, daring him with her eyes, she epitomized every wicked thought he’d ever had. He could make her talk, but he’d make her moan first.

He set the metallic capsule on the bed and trained his icy gaze on her body while he unbuttoned his shirt. He shrugged out of the garment and threw it aside, then deftly unbuckled his belt. She squirmed in anticipation.

With practiced ease he slid his fingers along her inner thighs until he found the sterile patch and pulled it off her skin in a languorous movement. “Let’s start with this.” He tossed the durafilm aside and drew a foil packet out of his pants pocket. Disappointment flared in her violet eyes when she realized there would be nothing to counteract the effects of the patch he wore.

“Are you as anxious now for me to fuck you, Nola?”

She sighed. “How do you know that’s the only patch I’m wearing?”

“It is.”

“Go ahead and do what you want to me.” Her challenge pumped adrenalin straight to his cock. “But make it good, because this will be your last opportunity.”

“I doubt that.”

With quick, determined movements, he climbed onto the bed and straddled her. One by one, he opened the remaining buttons of her dress, exposing her long torso, her full breasts. She writhed under him, accepting the caress of his hands with a satisfied purr. “If this is what you consider torture, Mr. Kane, I’ll be your prisoner any day.”

“We’ll see how long you feel that way.” Tarrant dipped his head low and flicked his tongue over her erect nipples. She sighed and bucked her hips against his.

He reached for the U-4EA and opened the applicator. Nola grinned when he placed the first small blue symbol just below her navel. He licked his thumb and followed the application with a swipe of saliva. Within moments her abdominal muscles tightened. A sheen of sweat rose on her thighs and the perfume of her arousal reached him.

“That’s good.” She began to pant and roll her hips from side to side within the barrier of his spread thighs.

She gasped when he lowered the applicator to the gentle curve of her left hip. Once activated, the second symbol made her body vibrate beneath his. She moaned, her muscles rippling beneath her succulent skin as waves of unmet need collided in her core.

“How about one more?” he asked, practically salivating himself.

The third symbol glistened on her inner thigh, wet from his saliva and her own juice. Her hips arched off the bed when this final dose of the compound took effect.

“Go ahead! Do it…please…fuck me and I’ll tell you anything!” The words escaped her in a feral growl as she bucked against her bonds. Despite his own raging desire to accommodate her, Tarrant rose and stepped away.

He stood back, at the foot of the bed, his arms crossed over his chest while the U-4EA turned Nola Rule into a creature of unbridled lust. She called to him, begging, pleading for release. Unfortunately, unaccompanied the aphrodisiac would not induce the orgasm she needed so badly. Only he could do that for her, and he planned to wait until neither of them could stand it any longer. Soon, she really would be ready to tell him anything.

* * * *

Nola cried out to him, pleading for his touch. With her hands bound, she couldn’t even touch herself to set off the release she desperately needed. A triple dose of U-4EA wouldn’t kill her, or even cause any lasting damage, but by the gods, she would suffer. Until she came, she’d be wild with sexual overload. Even the gentle air currents coming from the enviro system overhead set her raw nerves on fire. The caress of the cool breeze that circulated through the room felt like a lover’s tongue on her skin. The gentle pressure of her thong against her clit felt like a hand massaging the aching flesh, teasing her unmercifully. She moaned her gratitude when he reached down and yanked the garment away, leaving her naked to him except for her boots.

“Touch me!”

He ignored her commands, her pleas, and even her curses. Finally, when her vision swam and her racing heart threatened to burst from her chest, he leaned over and placed his hand between her legs.

“Who do you work for?”

“Please! Touch me!”

“Answer the question, and I’ll let you come.”

“I work for myself.”

He moved away, and she cried out for him. “All right, all right. Do you promise?”

“I do.”

“I work for Enviro-Guard.”

“Lie.”

“I swear. They paid me to collect your sperm so they could copy your disease resistance.”

“Why would they need to steal it, when I’ve given it to them freely?”

Nola gasped. That bit of information hadn’t been in his profile. Every news report on Tarrant Kane clearly stated that he refused all offers to sell his genetic material both on principle and due to a prior agreement with the government that had created him. “You’re lying.”

“They paid me a substantial sum, and I agreed to the contract because I felt that it was wrong to withhold such technology from the common populace.” He brushed his fingers over the soft, dark hair of her mound, and she arched toward him.

She needed it. She’d perish without release. “If you…feel that way, why didn’t you contract with In-Teron and the other—”

“In-Teron. That’s the name I was looking for.”

Nola feigned indignation. He couldn’t trace her to In-Teron, anyway. They’d deny any contact with her as assuredly as they would deny paying her now that her mission had surely failed.

Kane pursed his lips and gave her a disapproving stare. “In-Teron makes bio weapons.”

“So do all the other—”

“Not true. In-Teron created more than forty percent of the chemical weapons being used in the war. That’s far more than any other bio-engineering conglomerate.”

“They’ve also saved millions of lives. Their bio-research is just as valuable as Enviro-Guard’s.” The words came fast, blurring as the U-4EA made her muscles tighten and burn. “Please!”

“A few more questions first.” He circled the bed again, taunting her with deft fingers, brushing against her nipples and her clit. “Who was the man in the lobby?”

“A colleague…Oh gods! Do it!”

“So that little scene was designed to peak my curiosity…make me feel protective?”

She nodded, panting and straining at her bonds. With a little ingenuity she could break free and give herself the release she craved, but her brain was too fogged with lust to work properly.

“Tell me exactly what’s inside you, Nola. And exactly what In-Teron wants it for. Then I will help you.” To drive his point home, he opened his trousers now, freeing an erection that made Nola’s mouth water.

“I told you all I know.”

He touched her then, teasing fingers massaging her clit until she thought she’d explode. Splashes of color assaulted her closed eyelids and electric shocks of excruciating pleasure tangled the raw nerves of her belly. “Please!”

“The truth.”

“A colonial…governor wants to…build an army. I’m here to collect DNA for a…bio-crèche.” She sobbed the words out, unspent sexual energy coruscating through her limbs. One swift thrust of that magnificent cock and she’d be done. For now.

He stepped back. “A bio-crèche? An army of me. I suppose I should be flattered.”

“You’re the most wanted man in the galaxy, Tarrant.”

“Hmm. But wanted by the wrong people.”

“I want you.”

“I’m sure you do.’

She moaned. “Please! You promised.”

He obeyed.

* * * *

Naked now, his cock hard as steel from the torture of watching Nola writhe and beg for him, he climbed onto the bed.

She bucked underneath him, desperate for release, but he made her wait a moment longer. He stretched across her body, enjoying the slide of her feverish skin and puckered nipples against his chest. Reaching above her, he freed her wrists from their silken bonds. She lay limp for a moment, her eyes wide. Then she wrapped her trembling arms around his neck. He dipped his face close to hers and plunged his tongue past her parted lips. At the same time he thrust into her, sheathing himself in her volcanic heat.

Beneath him, she became a wild cat, driven by need too long denied. Her body shuddered and trembled as he worked her through wave after wave of orgasm.

The clutch of her intimate muscles wrung his own panting release from him. As he came, he clasped her hips and tilted her body back to accept him fully, deeply.

Spent, he sank against her and lay stroking her trembling body until she stilled.

“Is there…anything else you want to know?” she whispered.

“Yes. What shall we order from room service?”

Chapter 5

Darkness had fallen over the resort when Nola climbed shakily from the bed. She paused at the patio door to peer out at Sensuron’s artificial moon, hanging above the clear surf of the man-made ocean.

She shivered at the thought that in the morning her failed assignment would come to an end. Tarrant would leave her, and she’d be more alone than ever before. A wise woman would have gathered her things and left while he slept, sated from hours of creative sex and a sumptuous meal delivered by the servo-bots.

She could be halfway across the galaxy in a few days and well on her way to forgetting him. If only she had the willpower to be the first to walk away from this ill-fated liaison.

She turned from the window and padded into the bathroom. The brilliant vanity light hurt her eyes, and she switched it off again, blinking in the sudden darkness.

When a warm, muscular arm snaked around her waist, she gasped. “I thought you were asleep.”

“I thought you’d be too exhausted to move.” Tarrant nuzzled her neck, and the last remnants of her triple U-4EA dose set her clit tingling again. Could she withstand another dozen orgasms?

She smiled and leaned back against his chest, then shifted to accommodate his growing erection between the curves of her ass.

“Before we go back to bed, there’s something I need to do,” he said.

“Well, I was here first. You’ll have to wait your turn.”

“Not that. This.” The cool arc of the med-scanner tantalized the flesh of her abdomen. She frowned at their dim reflection in the mirror as he pressed the device to her belly in a strangely intimate move.

“What are you—”

The mild heat of the scan warmed her skin and a moment later he brought the glowing readout up to eye level. “What does it say?”

She pushed the device away, dismissing his joke. Was he mocking her? A bright red dot on the tiny screen caught her attention though, and her heart gave a shocked thud. “What?”

“That dot means the receptacles you carry are full, doesn’t it? They’re beginning to seal,” he said, his arm tightening around her waist.

“But you—the sterile patch—”

“I wasn’t wearing one.”

Nola let out a startled breath. “But you said—”

“Cell mitosis will begin soon. In a few days you’ll have a dozen viable embryos inside you.”

She nodded, her throat tight.

“I don’t want a bio-crèche, Nola. But I think I’d like a son. Maybe two.”

Panic arced through her. Was he insane? “I can’t carry twelve embryos!”

“No, of course not. Come with me to Enviro-Guard. Let them have the receptacles. They owe me several favors. It won’t be too much to ask that they grow one or two of the embryos to birth stage for me.”

“Children? You want children?

He nodded. “Since Earth-Sec retired me, I’ve been less than useless. I have all the money I’ll ever need, and to get more all I have to do is call Enviro-Guard and give them a few drops of blood or semen. Not much of a fulfilling career. I’ve been lounging on beaches and riding luxury yachts to nowhere for months. The women I’ve met want to be entertained, which is fine, but none of them truly want companionship. None of them have purpose. I need a purpose. Maybe it’s time I created a family.”

Nola stared into the mirror, meeting his gaze over her shoulder. “You’re as devious as I am, Mr. Kane.”

“Probably more so, Ms. Rule.”

She leaned her head back against his shoulder and stroked the strong muscles of his arm where it lay above her womb.

“What will you do with the remaining ten?” Genetically, the embryos would be his alone, nearly perfect clones with some manufactured DNA to round out any missing links. Nevertheless, Nola wondered what would become of the ones that weren’t grown. Would he be callous enough to discard them when so many could still benefit from his carefully engineered DNA?

“I’d save them, of course. I have the means to raise twelve sons, but not the energy to do it all at once.”

“Would you mind if I saw the children now and then?” The words caught in her throat. She’d never considered that it might be hard to give them up.

“You could visit them anytime and stay as long as you wish.”

Her heart clenched, began to ache in her chest. “Are you toying with me, Mr. Kane?”

“Not at all, Nola. If you’re working for In-Teron because of the good you think they’ve done, then perhaps we have something in common. I’ve spent my life making war and not by my own choice. It’s time I found a way to do some lasting good, and maybe you can help me.”

She turned in his arms and kissed him, her tongue meeting his in a slow, seductive slide. “I will, Tarrant. I think at this moment, I’d help you do anything.”

He smiled, lifted her in his arms and carried her back to the bed. “That’s perfect, since I can think of a few requests…”

“Anything.”

He settled her among the tangled sheets and joined her, planting kisses on her tingling skin between each word. “That leaves a lot of ground to cover. Are you sure you’re up for that?”

She wrapped her arms around him and stared into his eyes. “Yes, I think I am.”

* * * *

Tarrant woke to an uncomfortable throbbing sensation which he might not have minded had the source been his dick and not his skull.

He moaned and stretched, thinking back over the number of cocktails he’d consumed recently. This wasn’t, after all, the first time he’d given himself a hangover. But when his foggy memory began to clear, he remembered he hadn’t been drinking at all.

With his jaw set tight against the insistent pounding in his temples, he rolled over in the expansive bed and searched the twisted sheets for his companion. Her absence didn’t surprise him, but the sudden stab of longing in his gut did. He didn’t need to check the bathroom or have her paged in the lounge. She was gone, and she’d taken with her, cradled in her hot, tight little body, exactly what she’d come for.

The rage that built in the center of his chest as he scrambled around the disorganized room searching for his clothes should have been directed at her. She’d conned him well, expertly, considering he’d been on to her almost from the start. Yet he couldn’t bring himself to hate her as much as he hated himself for stupidly feeling betrayed. He’d been looking for a good fuck and he got one. How foolish to think he might have changed her and made her want something more than the dishonest life she’d been leading.

When he’d looked into her beguiling violet eyes last night, each time he buried himself in her willing body and they’d come together in climax after shuddering climax, he’d begun to believe her, believe in her.

Tarrant Kane had never fancied himself in love before. There’d never been time. From the moment he’d achieved self-awareness in the lab in which he’d been grown to adulthood in an illegal bio-crèche, he’d had no other purpose but to lead Earth’s all important defense systems. Relationships in his life had revolved around military trainers and advisors, then his contemporaries, and finally his subordinates, from the regiment he’d commanded to the staff of thousands that answered to him when he’d taken his destined role as general. He’d had women of course, almost any one he wanted, but he’d never once considered an arrangement more permanent than the time it took to reach a mutual orgasm.

Then he’d held Nola Rule in his arms and dared to think of a life beyond the fruitless existence his forced retirement promised.

He’d learned a valuable lesson about the enemy and made a mistake he would not ever repeat.

He dressed with singular determination, made a quick reconnaissance of Nola’s bungalow just to assure himself that she hadn’t even wasted time packing her toiletries, and headed back to his own accommodations for a much needed shower and a triple dose of analgesic. Whatever she’d given him to knock him out not only left him with a headache, but a sick, empty feeling in the pit of his stomach, as well. He needed to get over that, to clear all the remnants of her, her scent, the feel of her in his arms, out of his system fast.

After his head stopped hurting, he planned to leave Sensuron for good. It was time to relinquish his fantasies and move on to something more productive than fulfilling the directive of Earth-Sec that he play the role of blissful military retiree.