Science Friction: 15 Book MEGA Sci-Fi Romance Bundle (Excite Spice Boxed Sets) Read online

  “I need you too.” He stroked her cheek. “And I love you. You know that, right?”

  K let out a shaky sigh. “I don’t exactly know what it means but yes, I know.”

  “I told you I’d teach you and I still will,” Boone promised. “Right now, though, we need to get going. The sooner we face the music, the sooner we can figure out a way to get out of here.”

  K nodded and allowed him to lead her out of the carriage. She held Boone’s big hand and drew strength from his large, solid form as they passed through the assembled lines of soldiers. But in her other hand, she clutched something small and tightly wrapped and black.

  She didn’t want to put the skinsuit back on. But she would if she had to.

  Chapter Twenty

  “I love K,” Boone said stubbornly, glaring up at the Empress who was sitting high on an impressively ornate solid gold throne. He wasn’t used to having to look up at anyone and it didn’t sit right with him that he couldn’t look her squarely in the eye. Especially considering how important this conversation was.

  The minute they’d gone into the palace, he and K had been rushed away in different directions. K hadn’t wanted to leave him at first but then she’d caught sight of her old nurse—the person she’d imprinted on as a baby, apparently. Boone had reluctantly allowed himself to be parted from her so she could have a little reunion but when he’d found himself installed in separate quarters in a whole different wing of the palace from K, he’d decided it was time to say something.

  Accordingly, he had marched to the throne room where, to his surprise, the Empress admitted him at once. Now he was standing in front of her throne, trying to get the whole situation straightened out.

  “I love her,” he said again.

  The Empress gave a long suffering sigh. “Spare me, please. You’ve only had Krissana in your custody for a single solar month. I’m sure you think you love her—”

  “I don’t think, I know,” Boone growled. “And she loves me too. Do you know how much that means—do you have any idea of what she’s been through? Because I do, your highness. I know about what was done to her when she was taken away from you. I’m the one who held her all those nights to keep her from shaking herself to pieces. I’m the one who comforted her—who helped her learn to feel again after that damn skinsuit had been pumping her full of emo-dampers for most of her life.”

  “For which I am most grateful, giant,” the Empress said patiently. “But if you truly care for Krissana, you must let her go.”

  “Like hell I will!” Boone growled. “I’m responsible for her. I’m the one who found her in the first place.”

  “You mean you captured her in hopes that she would come in handy while trying to retrieve your sister.” The Empress tapped long, shapely nails on the golden arm of her throne with a metallic click, click, click. “You don’t have to worry about that, by the way. We have several Purist ships in our royal docking bay—ones we’ve captured in raids. I’ll have one outfitted and we’ll be in and out of Midas before the Purists have any idea we’re not one of them. Consider your sister saved.”

  “I appreciate that, your highness,” Boone said. “But your generosity doesn’t change my feelings for K or my obligation to her.”

  “Your obligation ended the moment you brought her back to her rightful home,” the Empress snapped. “You’ll have nothing more to do with her.”

  “I think that’s for K to say.” Boone’s voice was quiet but dangerous. “If you ask her, I think you’ll find she still doesn’t want anyone but me touching her. Let alone doing anything more... intimate.”

  The Empress raised an eyebrow at him.

  “Are you inferring that you should be the one to mate and bond with Krissana?”

  Boone lifted his chin and glared at her.

  “I may not be royalty but she could do worse.”

  The Empress gave an incredulous laugh.

  “Forgive me, my dear giant. I have checked your background and I will admit you have rather impressive credentials in your field. And so, it is to your scientific mind I appeal, rather than your wounded male pride. As a renowned geneticist, how much do you know about the Erian mating cycle?”

  Boone shifted uncomfortably. “Well, you’re all so secretive about it...”

  “Nothing,” the Empress cut in scornfully. “You know nothing. But listen closely, for I am about to enlighten you.”

  “By all means, please do, your highness.” Boone crossed his arms over his chest. “What is it that’s so special about your cycle that I can’t be with K?”

  “Tell me something, giant...” The Empress leaned back in her golden throne and glared down at Boone. “When you have sexual relations with a woman, how many times do you usually satisfy her?”

  “Satisfy her? As in...” Boone cleared his throat. “You mean give her an orgasm?”

  “Not just an orgasm. I’m asking how many times you penetrate her. When you take a female to your bed, how many times do you have sex with her over the course of a single night?”

  Boone frowned. “I don’t know... two? Three? Maybe four?” Although that was really pushing it. He was a virile male in the prime of his life but he was only human, after all.

  The Empress gave him a cold smile. “Try fourteen.”

  Boone’s throat was suddenly dry. “Fourteen?”

  “At a minimum. Though some females in their first cycle may require penetration and completion up to twenty or even twenty-five times.”

  “That’s...” Boone coughed. “That’s simply not possible.”

  “Not for one of your species, no. But for an Erian it’s the norm.”

  Boone shook his head. “But... we’re all human. All our people came from Earth-that-was.”

  “That was millennia ago,” the Empress snapped. “We’ve evolved. You only have to look in the viewer at your own excessively large frame to see that. Where would your people be if they hadn’t mutated in order to live on a heavy G world? In the same way, my people have adapted to live on Eros. The compounds in our atmosphere have molded us into what we are today—a highly sexual people.”

  “I... see,” Boone said slowly.

  “You begin to see,” the Empress corrected him. “I hate to be blunt, but there’s simply no way you could satisfy an Erian female’s sexual appetites during her mating cycle. Especially not a royal one. Our appetites are more... voracious than most.”

  Boone frowned. “So you’re saying I can’t be with K because I can’t get it up twenty times a night? There are other ways to satisfy a woman, your highness.”

  The Empress’s eyes flashed. “Indeed? And you’re really so full of hubris that you believe your crude sexual methods could help Krissana get through what is certain to be the most difficult trial of her life?”

  “I think she’d have an easier time being with someone she wanted,” Boone said stolidly.

  “The mind may be willing but the body is weak,” the Empress said, frowning. “You think that because you were able to help her through the first phase of her cycle you will be able to finish the job.”

  “I would certainly try,” Boone said.

  The Empress shook her head. “Trying isn’t enough. Though you might be able to satisfy her cravings manually or orally during the first and second phases of her cycle, when she goes into the third phase and her eyes turn pure gold, Krissana won’t just crave multiple sexual encounters, she’ll die without them. Only a pure bred Erian can help her.”

  “Damn it,” Boone growled. “There must be a way—I know I’m not the only non-Erian to love somebody from Eros. I won’t stand by and let K be raped by some stranger just because he has the right bloodlines and I don’t.”

  The Empress actually threw back her head and laughed—long peals of mirth that made the short hairs on the back of Boone’s neck stand on end.

  “Oh, do forgive me,” she said at last, blotting her eyes daintily with an embroidered linen napkin. “But rape? You speak of rape? You
really don’t know anything about the Erian sex cycle, do you?”

  Boone glared at her. “I don’t know what’s so funny. What else would you call putting K in a room with a stranger and telling her to go for it even if she doesn’t want anything to do with him, because he’s your choice to be the future Emperor?”

  The Empress sobered. “Firstly let me say that whoever Krissana chooses as her consort with be simply that—a consort. He will never be the ruler of this planet. Only Krissana has the exulted blood—only she can rule. And secondly, let me inform you that it is much more likely that she will rape him—whoever it is that she chooses—than the other way around.”

  Boone shook his head. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “About matters beyond your span of knowledge, obviously,” the Empress snapped.

  Boone struggled to control his temper. “Well then please, your highness, enlighten me.”

  “Gladly.” She leaned forward on the throne. “When a female royal goes into the third and final stage of her cycle, there is no stopping her—no controlling her. She must mate and she often becomes quite... feral at that time.” She steepled her long, slender fingers and looked at Boone. “Believe me, I am actually doing you a favor by taking away Krissana.”

  Boone frowned. “What exactly are you implying? I don’t—”

  The Empress cut him off with a wave.

  “I’m afraid this conversation is at an end. I have many matters to attend to and you have taken enough of my time.” She nodded at two of the guards who were standing on either side of her throne. “Escort him out and see that he goes only to his own chambers. I don’t want him anywhere near the princess,” she ordered.

  Boone started to protest but the guards had both leveled their pulse sabers at him. Clearly this discussion was over. He turned to leave but he couldn’t resist saying one last thing.

  “This isn’t the end, your highness,” he told the Empress. “I swore to K that I would take care of her and that I wouldn’t leave her.”

  “My dear giant,” she returned. “Did it ever occur to you that Krissana might not want you to keep your promise? She’s back where she belongs—she has a home and a life and duties to take on. She doesn’t need you anymore.”

  Boone wanted to say that the Empress had no idea what K needed—no idea at all. But by that time he had already been herded out of the throne room and was being marched back to his quarters.

  I’m sorry K, he thought with a mixture of frustration and regret. Sorry I brought you here at all. But I swear I’ll figure something out. Some way to get you out of here.

  But how when they were practically under house arrest here at the elaborate and well-guarded palace? And even if he did manage to escape with K, what was he going to do with her? He wasn’t afraid for his own safety—even if she did go feral when she entered her third phase, he could handle himself. But he did worry about her dying if he couldn’t give her what she needed. If he couldn’t satisfy the sexual demands of her body.

  God... Boone ran a hand over his face as they passed down the long marble hallways that led to the guest suite where he’d been installed. All this was so much simpler back before I kissed her and started her damn cycle.

  But as problematic as it was becoming, he couldn’t regret his deepening relationship with K. Couldn’t regret loving her or stop hoping that she could learn to love him back.

  “I can’t believe it—nothing has changed.” K looked around her old room in wonder.

  In the center of the room her old sleeping platform still stood. It was big and puffy and pink with delicate white hand stitched lace edging everything. Her favorite stuffed animal, a purple bearicorn, was lying in state in the center in the middle of the many pillows. To the left of the bed was a shelf filled with toys and to the right was a dainty white dressing table, a miniature of the one she remembered being in her mother’s rooms.

  “I used to sit here,” she murmured, placing one hand on the back of the tiny ornately carved chair. “Sit here and pretend I was getting dressed for a ball.”

  “That you did, child.” Vanja, her old nurse, smiled. Her kindly face was just as K remembered it—a bit more wrinkled and careworn, maybe, but the faded blue eyes with their thin outer gold rings were still kind and understanding. “You loved playing dress up and pretending you were a grown up lady,” her nurse went on. “It was your favorite game.”

  “I guess... it won’t be a game for much longer.” K sat heavily on the pale pink sleeping platform and ran a hand through her hair. She had tucked her skinsuit into one of the inner pockets of the stylish red dress she’d gotten from Illesca so she didn’t have to explain it to anyone. It made barely a lump under the silky red fabric but K was very aware of it, especially as the needs of her body grew. Her nipples were already tender and tight and between her legs she could feel herself growing damp and sensitive. The feeling of emptiness inside her was becoming too intense to deny.

  K knew she needed to put the suit on soon... but something still stopped her. How would she feel about Boone once the suit was on again? Would she retain any emotion at all? Or would it wipe her clean and turn her back into the emotionless killing machine she’d been before he found her? More importantly, did she want to go back? Her doubts that morning had been almost overwhelming. But now all she could think about was being with Boone again and finding some way to get through this mess she found herself in so they could be together.

  “Oh dear, you’re deep into the second phase of your cycle, aren’t you?” Vanja’s voice pulled her out of her worried contemplation.

  “Are my eyes glowing again?” K asked, turning to face her.

  “I’m afraid so, dearie.” Vanja sat down beside her. “Would you like me to ask your mother to send in someone to take care of you?”

  “Take care of me?” K frowned.

  Vanja cleared her throat delicately. “You know... someone to give you a release.”

  Understanding washed over K. “You mean she’ll get some stranger to contaminate me,” she said flatly. “No thank you. I’d rather feel the pain.”

  “Now dearie, it’s not so bad,” Vanja said reasonably. “After all, the second phase doesn’t last very long. And once it’s over, you’ll have a little reprieve before you enter the third phase. Your mother should have all the candidates lined up and ready for you to pick from by the time your eyes turn solid gold.”

  “But—” K started.

  “She’ll get you a good selection, my love, never fear,” Vanja said earnestly. “You can pick the one you want.”

  “Unless the one I want happens to be Boone,” K muttered.

  “Well, no,” her nurse acknowledged. “You can’t have the giant, dearie—he couldn’t help you anyway. Not when it came to satisfying your first cycle.”

  “He did fine satisfying me last night,” K muttered and then felt her cheeks get hot. Why had she admitted such a thing to Vanja?

  But her old nurse seemed completely unperturbed.

  “He might be able to see you through the first phase of your cycle—maybe even the second, my love. But no non-Erian could possibly help you get through the third.”

  “Why?” K demanded mutinously. “What’s so special and different about Erians?”

  “Why, an Erian male can give you satisfaction as many times as you’ll need it to get through your cycle.” Vanja spoke as though it was obvious. “You’ll need to be bred, dearie. Fourteen, fifteen—maybe as much as twenty or more times. The male you’re with when those urges come on you must be able to give you what you need.”

  K felt her stomach drop. “When you say bred, you mean... penetrated—right? He’ll have to be able to... to penetrate me that many times in a row?”

  “And fill you with his seed. That’s the mating urge.” Vanja still seemed extremely calm and unembarrassed. Apparently this wasn’t an awkward topic for her at all.

  Probably because they’re so disgustingly preoccupied with sexual procrea
tion here, K thought, feeling ill. The idea of letting a stranger penetrate her over and over and inject his essence into her made her stomach roll like the spicy helikat Loki had given her the first time she’d tried eating.

  “I can’t do it.” She jumped up and began pacing.

  “You’ll have to, dearie—your body will force you to choose,” Vanja told her. She leaned forward, a cautioning expression on her face. “Only, don’t pick the one you want for your permanent consort as your first lover.”

  “Why not?” K turned to face her. “And why would I pick more than one?”

  “Well, my love, you royals are so high strung...” Vanja looked as though she was trying to think of a tactful way to explain. “Oh dear, this is dreadful. If only you hadn’t been taken so young—you really don’t know anything about your cycle, do you?”