Swept Away: A Krinar Story (3 page)

D
elia woke up gradually
, the images from her dream lingering in her mind as she slowly returned to consciousness. Her eyes still closed, she smiled, thinking how she’d never had such a sublime dream before. Even now, her sex throbbed pleasantly from the memory of the god’s possession—of his powerful body driving into her as she lost herself in the heated rapture of his embrace.

There had been pain too, she recalled, but it had been over with quickly. She’d felt torn in half when Arus had first entered her, but then he had done something—touched her neck in a way that had initially stung—and the pain had dissolved, replaced by unimaginable ecstasy.

By a sexual pleasure so intense just the thought of it made her insides clench.

Still smiling, Delia rolled over, reluctant to wake up fully. It was incredible how vivid her dream had been. The storm, the bubble-like shelter made of transparent walls, even the god’s unusual name—she’d never been able to remember so many details from her other dreams.

This dream had felt real. So real, in fact, that she could still smell the clean male scent of Arus’s skin and feel his hand stroking her hair.

Wait a minute. There
was
a hand stroking her hair.

Delia bolted upright, her eyes flying open, and she saw him: the god she’d just been dreaming about.

Except it hadn’t been a dream—it couldn’t have been, because she wasn’t in her family’s ramshackle hut.

She was on a strange bed in a room with ivory walls, and she was naked in front of Arus, who was sitting next to her dressed in an odd-looking white outfit.

Gasping, Delia grabbed for the nearest piece of cloth—a sheet that felt incredibly soft as she wrapped it around herself. Her heart racing, she jumped off the bed and gaped at the god, who was regarding her with an unreadable expression on his beautiful face.

“Where am I?” Delia’s voice shook as she cast a frantic glance around the room. “What is this place?”

Everything around her was ivory-colored, and there were no windows or doors. And the bed— No, surely her eyes were deceiving her.

The bed, which was just a flat white board, was floating in mid-air.

“You’re on my ship,” Arus said, getting off the board to walk toward her. His dark eyes gleamed as he stopped in front of her, causing her to crane her neck to look up at him. “I brought you here so I could make sure you weren’t sore after last night.”

Delia must’ve looked as uncomprehending as she felt, because he explained, “We have healing technology here.”

“Oh.” Overwhelmed, Delia stared up at him. Now that he’d pointed it out, she realized there wasn’t even the slightest soreness between her legs. Details from last night continued to return to her, and she remembered how painful the initial breaching of her maidenhead had been—and how he’d kept thrusting into her afterwards for what must’ve been hours.

By all rights, she should’ve been
very
sore.

“You healed me?”

“I did.” Raising his hand, Arus cupped her jaw with his large palm, his thumb stroking gently over her cheek. “I didn’t want you to be in pain.”

“Oh.” Delia exhaled, everything inside her reacting to that warm, comforting touch. She didn’t know what to do, how to respond to his peculiar kindness, so finally she just said, “Thank you.”

Arus’s chiseled lips curved in a smile. “You’re welcome, darling. Now, are you hungry?”

Delia’s stomach chose that moment to rumble, and he laughed. “Sounds like you are.”

H
e fed
her food that tasted like ambrosia—a mixture of some unfamiliar fruits, vegetables, and nuts, with a sauce that made Delia’s taste buds weep with pleasure. He got the food directly from one of the walls. It had parted at his command, delivering the bounty they were feasting on while sitting at a floating table—which had also come out of a wall.

“What kind of ship is this?” Delia asked when she was full. She didn’t understand Arus’s magic, but it didn’t terrify her quite as much anymore. It was clear to her that he didn’t intend her any harm—and that he had to have come from Mount Olympus, despite his earlier protestations.

“It’s a ship that carries us between distant worlds,” Arus said, and his answer solidified her conviction. “The stars you see are not just little lights in the sky; they’re suns, like the one giving Earth heat and light. Those suns have planets like Earth orbiting around them, and I come from one of those planets.” He paused, waiting for her questions, but Delia had no idea where to begin.

All she got from his explanation was that his ship had carried him here from the stars—which meant that Mount Olympus was a place in the sky, rather than the mountain of legend.

Arus sighed, looking at her. “You don’t understand, do you?” A rueful smile tugged at the corner of his beautiful mouth. “I guess I should’ve expected that. I wish I could convince you that none of this is supernatural, that we’re just a more advanced civilization, but you’d have to learn a great deal before that would make sense to you. So for now, if it helps you to think of me as a god, you may do so.”

Delia smiled, oddly reassured by his words. “You
are
a god. What else could you possibly be?”

“I’m a Krinar,” he said, and she saw his face assume a more serious expression. “Delia,” he said quietly, “there’s something I’d like to ask you.”

She blinked. “What is it?”

“I have to leave soon. To go home to Krina.”

Her chest squeezed painfully at his words. “Of course,” she managed to say. “You said it’s beautiful there, and you have to return.”

Arus nodded. “I do—and I would like you to come with me.” Before she could do more than gape at him, he said, “I know I’m still a stranger to you, and that everything about this”—he swept his hand out in a wide arc—“must seem foreign and frightening. But I promise I won’t hurt you, and I’ll take care of you. You’ll be safe with me.”

Delia couldn’t believe her ears. “You want me to come with you? To the world where you live?”

“Yes, to Krina—or Mount Olympus, or whatever you want to call it.” Arus reached across the floating table and took her hand. “It
is
a beautiful place, and if you come with me, I can promise you a life beyond anything you can imagine.”

Delia had to be still dreaming. “Why?” she said in disbelief. “Why would you take me with you?”

Arus rose to his feet and pulled her up with him, his gaze filling with carnal heat as he stepped around the table. “Because our time together wasn’t nearly enough for me,” he said, drawing her against his hard, aroused body. “Because I had you, and I want more—so much more. I want you to be mine, so I can have you every day and every night for a long, long time.”

Delia’s pulse was rabbit fast, and a million questions crowded her mind as Arus gazed down at her, his erection pushing against her belly. His blunt declaration was far from tender words of love, and there were so many things she didn’t know about him and the world he wanted to take her to. But he was giving her a choice, and that fact alone helped quell her fear.

She could stay and live an ordinary life—most likely as the blacksmith’s wife—or she could follow this gorgeous stranger to a mysterious place in the sky.

“What about my family?” she asked as the thought occurred to her. “They need the mussels and I—”

“I’ll leave them your weight in gold before we go,” Arus said. “They won’t lack for anything ever again.”

“But—”

“Come with me, Delia.” Arus’s eyes glittered as his arms tightened around her back. “Your family will be fine, I promise. Come with me, and let me show you the wonders of my world.”

She stared at his magnificent features, remembering how he’d saved her from the storm—how he’d sheltered her, fed her, healed her, and given her more pleasure than she’d ever thought possible. He was right: her family would be fine without her—better off, in fact. Even without the gold, she was an extra mouth to feed. And if Arus truly gave them that much wealth, her sisters would have their pick of suitors instead of being forced to marry out of desperation.

It was that last thought that solidified her decision. Delia had no idea what would happen to her if she came with him, what his world was like or how they could travel to the stars, but at that moment, caught in her god’s embrace, she knew she wanted to find out.

It was unthinkable, insane, deliriously frightening, but Delia took a leap into the unknown and said, “Yes, Arus. I’ll come with you.”

A
uthor’s Note
:
Close Liaisons
is the first book in my erotic sci-fi romance trilogy, the Krinar Chronicles. While not as dark as
Twist Me
and
Capture Me
, it does have some elements that readers of dark erotica may enjoy.

B
reathe
, Mia, breathe
. Somewhere in the back of her mind, a small rational voice kept repeating those words. That same oddly objective part of her noted his symmetric face structure, with golden skin stretched tightly over high cheekbones and a firm jaw. Pictures and videos of Ks that she’d seen had hardly done them justice. Standing no more than thirty feet away, the creature was simply stunning.

As she continued staring at him, still frozen in place, he straightened and began walking toward her. Or rather stalking toward her, she thought stupidly, as his every movement reminded her of a jungle cat sinuously approaching a gazelle. All the while, his eyes never left hers. As he approached, she could make out individual yellow flecks in his light golden eyes and the thick long lashes surrounding them.

She watched in horrified disbelief as he sat down on her bench, less than two feet away from her, and smiled, showing white even teeth. No fangs, she noted with some functioning part of her brain. Not even a hint of them. That used to be another myth about them, like their supposed abhorrence of the sun.

“What’s your name?” The creature practically purred the question at her. His voice was low and smooth, completely unaccented. His nostrils flared slightly, as though inhaling her scent.

“Um...” Mia swallowed nervously. “M-Mia.”

“Mia,” he repeated slowly, seemingly savoring her name. “Mia what?”

“Mia Stalis.” Oh crap, why did he want to know her name? Why was he here, talking to her? In general, what was he doing in Central Park, so far away from any of the K Centers?
Breathe, Mia, breathe.

“Relax, Mia Stalis.” His smile got wider, exposing a dimple in his left cheek. A dimple? Ks had dimples? “Have you never encountered one of us before?”

“No, I haven’t,” Mia exhaled sharply, realizing that she was holding her breath. She was proud that her voice didn’t sound as shaky as she felt. Should she ask? Did she want to know?

She gathered her courage. “What, um—” Another swallow. “What do you want from me?”

“For now, conversation.” He looked like he was about to laugh at her, those gold eyes crinkling slightly at the corners.

Strangely, that pissed her off enough to take the edge off her fear. If there was anything Mia hated, it was being laughed at. With her short, skinny stature and a general lack of social skills that came from an awkward teenage phase involving every girl’s nightmare of braces, frizzy hair, and glasses, Mia had more than enough experience being the butt of someone’s joke.

She lifted her chin belligerently. “Okay, then, what is
your
name?”

“It’s Korum.”

“Just Korum?”

“We don’t really have last names, not the way you do. My full name is much longer, but you wouldn’t be able to pronounce it if I told you.”

Okay, that was interesting. She now remembered reading something like that in
The New York Times
. So far, so good. Her legs had nearly stopped shaking, and her breathing was returning to normal. Maybe, just maybe, she would get out of this alive. This conversation business seemed safe enough, although the way he kept staring at her with those unblinking yellowish eyes was unnerving. She decided to keep him talking.

“What are you doing here, Korum?”

“I just told you, making conversation with you, Mia.” His voice again held a hint of laughter.

Frustrated, Mia blew out her breath. “I meant, what are you doing here in Central Park? In New York City in general?”

He smiled again, cocking his head slightly to the side. “Maybe I’m hoping to meet a pretty curly-haired girl.”

Okay, enough was enough. He was clearly toying with her. Now that she could think a little again, she realized that they were in the middle of Central Park, in full view of about a gazillion spectators. She surreptitiously glanced around to confirm that. Yep, sure enough, although people were obviously steering clear of her bench and its otherworldly occupant, there were a number of brave souls staring their way from farther up the path. A couple were even cautiously filming them with their wristwatch cameras. If the K tried anything with her, it would be on YouTube in the blink of an eye, and he had to know it. Of course, he may or may not care about that.

Still, going on the assumption that since she’d never come across any videos of K assaults on college students in the middle of Central Park, she was relatively safe, Mia cautiously reached for her laptop and lifted it to stuff it back into her backpack.

“Let me help you with that, Mia—”

And before she could blink, she felt him take her heavy laptop from her suddenly boneless fingers, gently brushing against her knuckles in the process. A sensation similar to a mild electric shock shot through Mia at his touch, leaving her nerve endings tingling in its wake.

Reaching for her backpack, he carefully put away the laptop in a smooth, sinuous motion. “There you go, all better now.”

Oh God, he had touched her. Maybe her theory about the safety of public locations was bogus. She felt her breathing speeding up again, and her heart rate was probably well into the anaerobic zone at this point.

“I have to go now... Bye!”

How she managed to squeeze out those words without hyperventilating, she would never know. Grabbing the strap of the backpack he’d just put down, she jumped to her feet, noting somewhere in the back of her mind that her earlier paralysis seemed to be gone.

“Bye, Mia. I will see you later.” His softly mocking voice carried in the clear spring air as she took off, nearly running in her haste to get away.

I
f you’d
like to find out more, please visit my website at
www.annazaires.com
. All three books in the Krinar Chronicles trilogy are now available. Please click
HERE
to get your copy.