Gathering Darkness: A Paranormal Romance Collection Page 13

  As the dinner went on, she found herself straying more and more from the safe topics. Unable to contain her curiosity, she asked him about life on Krina and what the planet was like, in general.

  “Krina is a beautiful place,” Korum told her. “It’s like a very lush green Earth. We have many more species of plants and animals, given our longer evolutionary history. We’ve also succeeded in preserving the majority of our biodiversity there, avoiding the mass extinctions that took place here in recent centuries.” For which humans were responsible—that part he didn’t have to say out loud.

  “The majority, with the exception of your human-like primates, right?” Mia asked caustically, slightly chafing at his holier-than-thou attitude.

  “With the exception of them, yes,” Korum agreed. “And a few other species that were particularly ill-equipped to survive.”

  Mia sighed and decided to move on to something less controversial. “So what are your cities like? Since you’re so long-lived, your planet must be very densely populated by now.”

  He shook his head. “It’s actually not. We’re not as fertile as your species, and few couples these days are interested in having more than one or two children. As a result, our birth rate in modern times has been very low, barely above replenishment levels, and our population hasn’t grown significantly in millions of years.” Pausing to take a sip of his drink, he continued, “Our cities are actually very different from yours. We don’t enjoy living right on top of each other. We tend to be very territorial, so we like to have a lot of space to call our own. Our cities are more like your suburbs, where the Krinar live spread out on the edges and commute into the denser center, which is only for commercial activities. And everywhere you go, the air is clean and unpolluted. We like to have trees and plants all around us, so even the densest areas of our cities are nearly as green as your parks.”

  Mia listened with fascination. This explained the flora all over his penthouse. “It sounds really nice,” she said. Then an obvious question occurred to her. “Why would you leave all that and come to Earth, with all of our pollution and overpopulation? It must be really unpleasant for you to be in New York, for instance.”

  He smiled and reached for her hand, stroking her palm. “Well, I’ve recently discovered some definite perks to this city.”

  “No, but seriously, why come to Earth?” she persisted. “I can’t believe you’d give up your home planet just to come here and drink our blood.” Which he still hadn’t done with her for some reason, she realized.

  He sighed and looked at her, apparently coming to some decision. “Well, Mia, it’s like this. As beautiful as our planet is, it’s not immortal. Our sun, which is a much older star than yours, will begin to die in another hundred million years. If we’re still on Krina at that time, our entire race will perish. So we have no choice but to seek out some other alternatives.”

  “In a hundred million years?” That seemed like a very long time to Mia. “But that’s so far away. Why come here now? Why not enjoy your beautiful planet for, say, another ninety million years?”

  “Because, my darling, if we had left Earth to humans for another ninety million years, there might not have been a habitable planet for us to come to.” He leaned forward, his expression cooling. “Your kind has turned out to be incredibly destructive, with your technology evolving much faster than your morals and common sense. When your Industrial Revolution began, we knew that we would have to intervene at some point because you were using up your planet’s resources at an unprecedented pace. So we began preparations to come here because we saw the writing on the wall.” He paused, taking a deep breath. “And we were right. Each generation has been more and more greedy, each successive advance in your technology doing more and more damage to your environment. As short-lived as you are, you think in decades—not even hundreds of years—and that leads you not to care about the future. You’re like a child who takes a toy apart for the fun and pleasure of it, not caring that tomorrow he won’t have that toy to play with anymore.”

  Mia sat there, feeling like said child getting castigated by the teacher. The tips of her ears burned with anger and shame. Maybe what he was saying was the truth, but he had no right to sit in judgment of her entire species, particularly in light of what she knew about his kind. Humans may be primitive and short-sighted compared to the Krinar, but at least they had the wisdom—and morals—to stop enslaving intelligent beings.

  “So you came to our planet to take it over for your own use?” she asked resentfully. “All under the guise of saving it from our environmentally unfriendly ways?”

  “No, Mia,” he said patiently, as though explaining the obvious to a small child. “We came to share your planet. If we had wanted to take it over, believe me, we would have. We’ve been more than generous with your species. Other than banning a few of your particularly stupid practices, we’ve generally left you alone, to live as you wish. That’s far better than the way you have treated your own kind.”

  Seeing the stubborn look on her face, he added, “When the Europeans came to the Americas, did they let the natives live in peace? Did they respect their traditions and ways of life enough to let them continue, or did they try to impose their own religion, values, and mores on them? Did they treat them as fellow human beings or as savage animals?”

  Mia shook her head in denial. “That was a long time ago. We’ve changed, and we’ve learned our lessons. We would never do something like that again.”

  “Maybe not,” he conceded. “But you still have no problem exterminating other species through negligence and willful ignorance. As recently as a few years ago, you treated the animals you raised for food as though they were not living creatures. And don’t even get me started on the Holocaust and the other atrocities you’ve perpetuated against other humans during the last century. You’re not as enlightened as you’d like to think you are.”

  He was right, and Mia hated him for it. As much as she would have liked to throw their own use of human slaves in his face, she was not supposed to know about that. So she asked instead, “If we’re so awful, then why do you even want me? I certainly wouldn’t want to be with someone of whom I had such a low opinion.”

  Korum sighed with exasperation. “Mia, I never said you’re awful. Especially not you, specifically. Your species is still immature and in need of guidance, that’s all.”

  “Plus, I’m just your fuck toy, right?” Mia said bitterly, not sure why she was even bothering to go there. “I guess it doesn’t matter what you think of humans as a whole in that case.”

  He just stared at her impassively. “If that’s how you want to think about it, fine. I certainly enjoy fucking you quite a bit.” His eyes turned a deeper shade of gold, and he leaned toward her. “And you love getting fucked. So why don’t you stop trying to slap labels on everything and just enjoy the way things are?”

  Sitting back, he motioned to the waiter for the check. Mia’s cheeks burned with embarrassment, even as her body involuntarily responded to his words with swift arousal.

  He paid the bill, and they left, heading back to his penthouse.

  As soon as they got into the limo, Korum pulled her onto his lap and thoroughly kissed her until all she could think about was getting to the bedroom. His hands found their way under the skirt of her dress, pressing rhythmically between her legs until she was moaning softly and squirming in his arms. Before she could reach her peak, they had arrived at their destination.

  He carried her swiftly through the lobby of his building, and Mia hid her face against his chest, pretending not to see the shocked stares from the concierge and the few residents passing by. As soon as they were alone in the elevator, he kissed her again, his tongue leisurely exploring her mouth until she was nearly ready to come again. Without pausing to take off their clothes, he brought her inside the bedroom and threw her onto the bed.

  At their entrance, the background music and soft lighting came on, creating a romantic ambiance. Mia
hardly noticed, her arousal nearly at fever pitch. She watched hungrily as he stripped off his own clothes with inhuman speed, revealing the powerfully muscled body underneath. It was no wonder she was so addicted to him, she thought with some coolly rational part of her mind. He was probably the most gorgeous male she would ever be with in her life.

  He came over her then and pulled off the dress, barely taking the time to unzip it. She was left lying there in her black pantyhose and high-heeled pumps, with her upper body completely exposed to his starving gaze. “You look so hot,” he told her, his voice rough with lust. The thick, swollen cock pointing in her direction corroborated his words. Bending toward her breasts, he closed his mouth over her left nipple and sucked hard, making her arch off the bed with the intensity of the sensation. Doing the same thing to her other nipple, he simultaneously pressed at the throbbing place between her thighs, and Mia screamed as she came, her entire body shuddering from the force of her orgasm.

  Before she could recover, he started kissing her again with an oddly intent look on his face. Starting at her lips, his warm mouth moved down her face and neck, lingering over the sensitive juncture of her neck and shoulder and making her shiver with pleasure.

  Suddenly, there was a brief slicing pain, and Mia realized that he must have bitten her. She gasped in shock, but before she could feel anything more than a twinge of fear, hot ecstasy seemed to rush through her veins. Every muscle in her body simultaneously tightened and immediately turned to mush, and her skin felt like it had been set on fire from within. Her last rational thought was that it had to be the chemical in his saliva, and then she could no longer think at all, her entire being tuned only to the pull of his mouth at her neck and the feel of his body entering her own with one powerful thrust.

  The rest of the night passed in a blur of sensations and images. She was vaguely aware that she climaxed repeatedly, her senses heightened to a nearly unbearable degree. All the colors seemed brighter, and she felt like she was floating in a warm sea, with the currents caressing her skin and lapping at her insides, making them clench and release in ecstasy. He was relentless in his passion, his cock driving into her in a savage, unending rhythm until she was nothing more than pure sensation, her essence reduced down to its very basics, her very personhood burned away in the all-consuming rapture.

  Hours may have passed, or days. Mia didn’t know and didn’t care. At some point, her voice gave out from her constant screams, and she couldn’t come anymore, her body wrung dry from the ceaseless orgasms. He came hard too, shuddering over her several times throughout the night, and then penetrating her again a few moments later. Finally exhausted, Mia literally passed out, falling into a deep and dreamless sleep that ended the most unbelievable sexual experience of her life.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Over the next couple of weeks, Mia settled into a routine—if sleeping with an extraterrestrial while trying to spy on him could be called anything that mundane.

  He insisted on seeing her every evening, for dinner and beyond. She spent every night at his penthouse, no longer sleeping in her own apartment. During the day, he allowed her to attend class, go home to study, or spend time Skyping with her family. Her social life—never particularly active—now revolved around her relationship with him, and Jessie was horrified by that.

  “I’m telling you, Mia,” she earnestly tried to convince her, “I know you said it’s only temporary, but I’m really worried about you. All you do is go to him—it’s like you don’t have a life anymore. It’s not healthy, the way he just completely took over all your free time. I barely see you anymore—and we share an apartment. Can’t you just spend one night away from him, just to hang out with the girls or go to a house party? You’re in college, for Christ’s sake!”

  Mia shrugged, not wanting to get into an argument with Jessie. Let her think that she was simply obsessed with her first lover. It was better than explaining the reality of her precarious situation.

  John contacted her on Thursday, wondering if she had any useful information. Mia had nothing. Leeta and Rezav had come by Korum’s place a few times, but they had gone into that room and Mia had been too scared to try spying on them again. Walking in Central Park, Korum and Mia had once been approached by a group of three Ks that she’d never seen before. Their attitude toward Korum had been somewhat deferential, giving Mia a glimpse of the power he supposedly wielded over the Krinar on this planet. However, they’d spoken in their own language, and Mia had no clue what they said. She was surprised to see them, however; she hadn’t known that Manhattan was such a popular place for the Ks to hang out.

  On Fridays and Saturdays, he took her out to see Broadway shows and new movie releases. Mia greatly enjoyed herself. For some reason, despite living in New York City, she rarely got a chance to go to the shows—and it was fun pretending to be a tourist for a night. He also took her out to expensive restaurants or made gourmet meals at home on the days that they stayed in. For an outsider looking in, her life was the stuff of every girl’s fantasy—complete with a handsome, wealthy lover who drove her around in a limo and generally treated her like a princess.

  Her wardrobe had undergone a complete change as well. The personal shoppers from Saks had gone all out, replacing every piece of Mia’s clothing with something nicer, more flattering, and infinitely more expensive. Stylish new coats and fluffy parkas kept her warm and cozy in the unpredictable spring weather. All of her underwear was now mostly silk and lace, with a few cotton pieces mixed in for everyday comfort and exercise. Her bulky old sweaters and baggy sweatpants were exchanged for comfortable, but formfitting yoga pants and soft fleecy tops. Even her jeans were deemed to be too old and poorly fitting, and designer brands now proudly resided on her shelves. And, of course, the beautiful dresses that now hung in her closet were in a category of their own. Her shoes had not escaped either, with brand-new high-end boots, sneakers, flats, and heels taking place of her old Uggs and worn-out All Stars from high school.

  Mia’s strident objections at Korum’s extravagant expenditures on her behalf were completely ignored.

  “Are you under the impression that this is something more than pocket change for me?” he asked her arrogantly, arching one black eyebrow at her protests. “I like to see you dressed well, and I want you to wear these.”

  And that was the end of that topic.

  The sex between them was explosive—literally and figuratively out-of-this-world. Korum was a very mercurial lover. One day, he could be playful and tender, spending hours massaging Mia with scented oils until she purred with pleasure; other times, he was merciless, driving into her with unrelenting force until she screamed in ecstasy. On days when he took her blood—not every day, because it could be addictive for them both, he’d explained—she thought she could easily lose her mind from the intensity of the experience. Although Mia had never tried the hard-core drugs herself, she knew about the effects of various substances on the brain through her Psychology of Addiction class, and she imagined that the sex-blood combo with Korum was probably like doing heroin at the same time as ecstasy.

  She often felt bitter about that, knowing that she could never feel the same way with a regular human man. Even if she was able to return to her normal life some day, she knew that she would never be the same, that he was too deeply imprinted on her mind and body. With each day that passed, she grew to crave his touch more, every cell in her body aching for him when he was not around. All he had to do was smile or look at her with those amber eyes and she was ready, her body softening and melting in preparation for his.

  The calm, rational Mia Stalis of the past twenty-plus years was replaced with an insecure, emotional wreck. When she was with Korum, feeling his touch and basking in his presence, Mia felt like she was floating on air. As soon as she stepped away, however, she was filled with self-loathing and gut-wrenching fear—fear of being caught spying, of being unable to carry out her mission before he tired of her, and, most of all, of losing him.


  It was inevitable, she knew. Even if he hadn’t been the enemy, even if his kind had not been enslaving her own, there was no future for them. They were different species, and, if that hadn’t been enough of an obstacle, her life span was like that of a fruit fly compared to his. In another few years—a dozen years at most—she would begin the inevitable aging process, and his attraction to her would fade, assuming that it lasted that long in the first place.

  In her darkest moments, a small insidious voice inside her head wondered if it would truly be that awful—being his charl in Costa Rica. Would he treat her any differently from the way he did today? If not, then what did it matter what label was placed on their relationship as long as she could continue to be with him? And then she would be disgusted with herself, sickened that she could even contemplate the idea.

  Despite her best attempts to remain upbeat for them, her family had begun to notice that something was amiss. Her mom ascribed it to stress from the proximity of finals, but her dad was more observant. “Did you meet someone, honey?” he asked one day out of the blue, startling Mia. She had vehemently denied it, of course, but she could see that he still had some doubts. Out of her entire family, her father was the only one who could read the subtleties of Mia’s moods, and she was sure that her artificially bright smile did little to conceal the turmoil within from his sharp gaze.

  The only time she felt like her old self was when she would bury herself in the library, absorbed in her studies. The end of the semester was approaching quickly, and Mia’s workload tripled, with papers and finals looming in the near future. Under normal circumstances, Mia would have been tense and snappy from the stress. These days, however, studying brought a welcome relief from the drama of the rest of her life, and she gladly pored over textbooks and practiced linear regression every chance she got.