Illicit Desire: Outlawed Realm, Book 2 Read Online Free Page A

older. So how had she and Meelo managed to travel from their dimension to this one? Regina grabbed Nikoli’s arm, digging her fingers into him. “How’d they get here and know where to find you? Are E2’s authorities looking for—”
    “No,” Nikoli interrupted once more. “No one from E2 will ever look for me. Meelo and Damir travelled through a portal just as I did when I came to destroy the vampires.”
    Regina’s belly rolled. She turned, trying to see his face. “Are you saying there are more of those things here? We didn’t get them all?”
    “We did. They’ll never return.” He paused to swallow. “Meelo and Damir had travelled to E4 and were supposed to return to E2 but came here instead with my father’s help.”
    That made no sense at all. “Your father didn’t want you over here but sent them to join you? Why? To convince you to return?” Was this never going to end? Regina understood his father’s concern, but why couldn’t he respect what Nikoli wanted? That was, if he still wanted it. Oh hell, she wanted to be sick. “You’re not thinking of going back, are you?”
    A look of annoyance passed over his face. “How can you even ask?”
    She frowned. “Well excuse me for being worried when people from your dimension suddenly show up in our house. If they haven’t come here to take you back—”
    “They haven’t,” he said. “They can’t.”
    That sounded final. The same as when he’d said no one from E2 would ever coming looking for him. “Why not?”
    He brought back his arm but didn’t release Regina. Turning her to face him, he clamped his hands on her shoulders and gave her a hard stare. “In order to explain my absence, my father told the authorities I died fighting the vampires when they tried to cross through the void between the dimensions. He claimed Sazaar also died that day. The rulers gave us a state funeral reserved for heroes.”
    Really. Then where was Nikoli’s previous shame for having come over here, abandoning his heritage and people?
    “That doesn’t bother you?” Regina asked.
    “Not any longer.” His dark brows drew together. “When Meelo needed to escape our rulers, my father told him what I’d done, where I was and that I would help him.”
    Regina didn’t like the sound of that. “With what?”
    “We need Nikoli to help Lukan,” Meelo said in English, his accent the same as Nikoli’s, foreign, untraceable on this plane.
    Nikoli didn’t give Regina a chance to ask who Lukan was. Taking her hand, he led her into their living room.
    The last of the sun seeped past the edges of the closed shutters, creating a pool of honey-colored light on the shiny hardwood floor. None of the Tiffany-style lamps was on. In the gloom, she saw a man standing near the marble fireplace. A black hood hung over his forehead. Sunglasses hid his eyes. A bit taller than Nikoli’s six-three, he was dressed in that hoodie, a black T-shirt and jeans of the same color. The clothing draped his perfect build. Broad shoulders. Narrow hips. Long legs.
    Animal heat radiated from him, a masculine allure Regina sensed rather than saw. She reached over to switch on the lamps.
    Nikoli grabbed her wrist, stopping her. He spoke over his shoulder. “Did you get the candles?”
    “I couldn’t find them,” Damir said in English.
    Her voice was identical to Sazaar’s, breathy, coaxing. “Let us in,” Sazaar had begged when she and the other vampires had arrived here that night. Regina shuddered.
    “Everything will be all right,” Nikoli murmured. “Where are our candles?”
    “Ah.” Unable to form more words, she gestured with her hand.
    “Where, Regina?”
    She stared at Lukan, wanting to see more. Somehow compelled to do so. Did he affect all females this way? “In the right cabinet above the sink.”
    Damir hurried back to the kitchen.
    Behind his dark lenses, Regina sensed Lukan appraising her. Given the set of his mouth, he wasn’t pleased.
    His coloring was as rich as