In Other Worlds Read Free Page B

away or die.”
    Fear flickered deep in the man’s eyes. It was a look Adron was used to.
    Without another word, the man left them.
    Adron returned to her lips.
    Livia moaned as he deepened his kiss. The guards and her fear forgotten, she sighed in pleasure. Foreign emotions tore through her as he buried his lips against her neck and sent white-hot chills through her. His arms tightened around her waist as her breasts swelled.
    What was this deep-seated hunger she felt?
    This unbearable ache?
    He made her light-headed and breathless. And she wanted him desperately. “Would you make love to me?”
    Adron pulled back in surprise. Had he been sober, he would have sent her away, but there was something about her that called out to him in a way he’d long forgotten. It’d been an eternity since he’d last slept with a woman. Years of bitter, aching loneliness and pain.
    And here she was offering herself to him.
    Don’t even think about it.
    But for once he didn’t listen to that inner voice. Instead, he found himself getting up from the booth and leading her through the crowd.
    Livia didn’t know where they were going, but she made sure none of the guards saw her as they left the bar. In the back of her mind, she was terrified. She didn’t know anything about this man.
    Not even his name.
    Never in her life had she done anything so compulsively foolish. And yet she instinctively knew he wouldn’t hurt her. There was pain in his icy blue eyes, not cruelty.
    Even so, had she not been so desperate, she would never have done this. Not even for him.
    He kept a possessive arm draped over her shoulder as he walked by leaning heavily on a silver-tipped cane. She wanted to ask him what’d happened to his face and leg, but didn’t dare lest it cause him to reconsider, something that would spell the end for her.
    He led her outside the club, to a transport.
    After they got in, it took them to a high-end apartment building that wasn’t all that far from her hotel. At least that would make it easier for her to get home once this was over with.
    Livia relaxed a tiny bit as they entered the grand lobby. Thank goodness she wouldn’t be taken in a dark, filthy back room somewhere. Krista had well prepped her on what to expect. Right down to an estimation of how long a man would take before he let her go.
    Taking a deep breath for courage, Livia figured she would be back in her hotel room by midnight. There would be questioning, and eventually her father would learn the truth.
    God have mercy on her then.
    But she’d made her decision, and once her mind was set on something, that was it. She would not be swayed.
    Without a word to each other, they took a lift to the top floor.
    Once it opened, he led her into an opulent apartment that was almost the size of her palace wing, which was huge. And as soon as he closed the door, he pulled her into his arms.
    This time his kiss was fierce. Demanding. And it stole her breath as he pressed her back against the wall. Her head swam at the powerful feel of his hands roaming over her.
    What are you doing? You can’t go through with this. You don’t even know him.
    Shut up, conscience. She had no time or patience for it. This had to be done. It was her life, and she was going to claim it. No one would tell her what to do with her body again. And she wouldn’t allow her first time to be with an old man who made her skin crawl.
    With that thought in mind, she started unbuttoning his shirt.
    Adron sucked his breath in sharply at the feel of her hand against his bare chest. Her touch seared him. He could only vaguely recall someone other than doctors, nurses, or therapists touching his flesh in more years than he wanted to account for.
    To her credit, she didn’t cringe or comment about the multitude of scars that bisected his body. She didn’t even seem to notice them.
    That was why he hadn’t been with a woman since that