Close Liaisons

Chapter 7



Streaming sunlight woke up Mia the next morning.

Keeping her eyes closed against the brightness, Mia thought with a minor annoyance that she must’ve forgotten to close the blinds last night. It didn’t matter, though; she felt well-rested and extremely comfortable. Perhaps too comfortable? At the sudden realization that the bed she was lying on was much too soft to be her own IKEA mattress, Mia jackknifed to a sitting position and stared in shock at her surroundings. Memories of yesterday rushed into her brain, and she recognized where she was.

She was also completely naked and alone.

Pulling the blanket up to her chest, Mia warily surveyed the room. She was sitting in the middle of the giant round bed – she guesstimated it had to be at least fifteen feet in diameter – in Korum’s beautifully decorated bedroom. A few potted plants were thriving near the large window that looked out over the Hudson River.

Noticing the robe and slippers that Korum must have left for her, she put them on and went in search of the restroom. Surprisingly, there wasn’t one connected to the bedroom. Peeking out into the hallway, Mia spotted the bathroom door. She made a quick beeline for it, not wanting Korum to know that she was awake yet.

After taking care of business, Mia gratefully brushed her teeth with the toothbrush that he left for her and washed her face. Staring into the bedroom mirror, she was surprised to see that she actually looked quite well. Her pale skin was almost radiant, and her eyes looked unusually bright. Even her hair – the bane of her existence – seemed silkier, with dark brown curls glossy and nicely defined. Whatever shampoo he had used on her yesterday clearly worked miracles. As did orgasms, apparently.

Mia wondered where her clothes were. Her tummy rumbled, reminding her that the dinner last night was already in the distant past. Still wearing the robe, she decided to go in search of food.

Entering the living room, Mia heard voices coming from somewhere to her left.

Thinking that Korum might be watching TV, she headed in that direction. The voices got louder, and she realized that they were speaking in a foreign language she’d never heard before. Slightly guttural, it nonetheless flowed smoothly, unlike anything she was familiar with.

Mia’s breath caught.

She had to be listening to the Krinar language – which meant that Korum likely had visitors, and there were other Ks in the house. This might be her chance to learn something useful, she realized even as her heart skipped a beat.

Quietly approaching the room, she was startled when the heavy doors abruptly slid open in front of her, revealing its occupants and exposing her to their eyes.

Korum and two other Ks stood around a large table that had some kind of a three-dimensional image displayed on it. At the sight of her, Korum waved his hand and the image vanished, leaving only a smooth wooden surface.

Mia froze as three pairs of alien eyes examined her.

The expression on Korum’s face was cold and distant, unlike anything she’d seen before. The other male K, about Korum’s height, had brown hair and hazel eyes, with a similarly golden skin tone. The female was a bit lighter-skinned, closer to Jessie’s color, and the silky hair streaming down to her waist was an unusual shade of dark red. Her eyes were nearly black and looked enormous in her strikingly beautiful face. She was also tall, probably close to 5’9”, and wore a dress that looked like it had been poured on her curves. She could have easily stepped off the pages of an old Victoria’s Secret catalogue – if they had first air-brushed the image, of course.

Standing there in her bath robe, Mia felt like a naughty child getting caught stealing from a cookie jar.

There was no help for it. She cleared her throat, heart pounding in her chest. “Um, hi. I was just looking for the kitchen –”

A small smile appeared on Korum’s face, warming up his features, and his distant look vanished. “Of course,” he said, “you must be hungry.”

He turned toward his visitors. “Mia, these are my . . . colleagues,” he said, seeming to hesitate slightly at the last word, “Leeta and Rezav.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Mia said politely, eyeing them with caution.

She had a strong impression that those two were not happy to see her. Leeta stared back, her beautiful mouth pinched with dislike. Rezav was a bit friendlier, curving his lips in a half-smile and inclining his head graciously toward her. Speaking to Korum, he asked him something in their language, to which Korum absently nodded in response.

“Okay, well, I didn’t mean to intrude,” Mia apologized, her pulse roaring in her ears. “I’ll leave you to your work.”

Korum gestured toward the kitchen. “Feel free to grab some fruit or whatever you wish. I’ll join you soon.”

With a muttered thanks, Mia escaped as fast as her shaking legs could carry her.

Entering the kitchen, she sank down on one of the chairs, hugging herself protectively. Her head spun in a sickening manner, and her stomach churned with nausea.

Because in Rezav’s question, spoken entirely in Krinar, Mia had caught one familiar word: charl.



* * *



By the time Korum came to the kitchen, Mia had managed to compose herself.

At his entrance, she gave him a small smile and continued eating her blueberries as though she had not a care in the world – as though she had not just heard him confirm her worst fears.

He came toward her and bent down, thoroughly kissing her mouth. For the first time, Mia simply endured his touch, the bile in her stomach too strong to allow her normal sexual response.

She didn’t know why she’d needed this confirmation. For the most part, she had believed John when he’d told her about the Ks and their atavistic approach to human rights. Yet some small part of her must have been clinging to the hope that John was mistaken – that Korum would feel differently about her, that she was somehow special in his eyes.

To hear him admit that she was his glorified sex slave – his human pet – was like being punched repeatedly in the stomach.

If he had treated her with cruelty from the very beginning, it would have been easy to hate him. Instead, his arrogance toward her was often tempered with tenderness – and that made the whole thing so much worse. Despite her better judgment and common sense, he had succeeded in getting under her skin, and today’s revelation felt like the cruelest of betrayals.

Sensing her lack of response, he pulled away and frowned slightly. “What’s the matter?” he asked, perplexed. “Are you feeling all right?”

Mia’s brain worked quickly. It would be dangerous for her – and for the Resistance – if he knew she had understood Rezav’s question. However, she couldn’t hide the fact that she was upset – Korum was too astute for that. Suddenly, a risky but brilliant idea came to her.

“I’m fine,” she said with quiet dignity, obviously lying.

“Uh-huh,” Korum said sarcastically, “sure you are.”

Sitting down next to her, he lifted her chin toward him so he could look into her eyes. “Now tell me again what’s going on.”

Mia felt a furious tear escape. “Nothing,” she told him angrily.

“Mia,” he said her name in that special tone he reserved for intimidating her. “Stop lying to me.”

Staring directly into his beautiful eyes, Mia channeled all of her frustrated fury and irrational feelings of betrayal into her next words. “How often do you f*ck her?” she threw at him, summoning up remembered feelings of jealousy at his familiarity with Ashley the hostess. “In general, how many women do you go through in any given day? Two, three, a dozen?”

At the surprised look on his face, she continued, injecting as much bitterness into her tone as possible, “Why are you even forcing me to be here if you have her? And Ashley, and God knows how many others?”

Still holding her chin with his fingers, Korum said slowly, “Are you talking about Leeta? You think we’re somehow involved?”

Mia allowed another tear to slide down her face. “Aren’t you?”

He shook his head. “No. In fact, we’re actually distant cousins, so that would be an impossibility.”

“Oh,” Mia said, pretending to be embarrassed about her outburst. She tried to pull away, and he let her go, watching as she got up and walked over to the window, carelessly wiping her face with the robe sleeve.

Mia stood there, looking out over the Hudson. Some stupidly romantic part of her was foolishly glad to hear about Leeta, even though her little jealousy act had been designed to throw him off track. She didn’t say anything when he came up to her, embracing her from behind. He didn’t make any promises or offer any other clarifications, Mia noticed. Of course, why should he try to reassure her, to convince her that she meant something special to him when she clearly didn’t? She wouldn’t have been particularly concerned about her dog’s feelings either.

“I’m thinking of going for a walk in the park,” he murmured, still holding her close. “Would you like to come with me?”

She was to be given a choice? What would happen if she said no? “I don’t know,” she said. “I have some studying that needs to get done, and I wanted to catch up with my parents. Wednesday is usually our day to Skype . . .”

She couldn’t see his expression, and she was glad about that. Now he would show his true colors, she thought.

“Okay,” he said, “that sounds good.”

Mia blinked, surprised. Then he continued, “For tonight, I made us a reservation at Le Bernardin at 7 p.m. I’ll pick you up at 6:30. Since you don’t seem to have any nice clothes, I’ll have something appropriate sent to your apartment.”

Now that was the dictator she knew – and now truly hated.

“I don’t need any clothes,” Mia protested. “I have better dresses. I just didn’t wear them that time.”

Turning her around in his arms, he looked down and smiled. “Mia, no offense, but I haven’t seen you wear a single piece of clothing that was in any way flattering. You’re a very pretty girl, but your clothes make you look like a ten-year-old boy most of the time. I think it’s safe to say that dressing nicely is not one of your strengths.”

Mia flushed with anger and embarrassment, but decided to hold her tongue. If he wanted to dress her up like a doll, then let him. It was hardly the worst thing he would likely do to her, anyway.

At the mutinous expression on her face, his smile got wider and his eyes gleamed with gold. Lifting her by the waist, he brought her up toward him and kissed her again. His lips were softly searching on hers, and his tongue stroked the recesses of her mouth with such expertise that Mia felt a spark of desire kindling again. Relieved that she no longer had to act, she looped her arms around his neck, let her mind go blank, and focused on the sensations. Her body, already so used to his touch, reacted with animal instinct, and she kissed him back with all the passion she could muster.

At her response, he groaned and pressed her closer to him, grinding his hips against her and letting her feel the hard bulge that had developed in his pants. Mia’s insides clenched, and she found herself rubbing against his body like a cat in heat. All of a sudden, he was no longer satisfied with just kissing. Mia felt the shift of gravity as he lay her down on the table, her butt near the edge and legs hanging over the side. Stepping between her open legs, Korum pulled apart her robe with impatient hands. Before she even realized his intentions, he already had his jeans unzipped and was pushing his penis into her opening.

Mia was wet, but not enough, and he could only get the tip inside her before she cried out in pain. Pulling out, he lowered himself to a squatting position, his head between her spread thighs, and licked her labia with his tongue, spreading moisture around her entrance. She arched, blindsided by the sudden intensity, and he pushed his finger inside her, rubbing the sensitive spot until her inner muscles spasmed uncontrollably. Before the pulsations even stopped, he was already over her, pressing his thick penis to her opening and pushing it inside in a slow, agonizing slide.

Mia writhed beneath him, little cries escaping from her throat as her vagina tried to expand around his cock. Despite the orgasm, his penetration was far from easy, and she could see the strain on his face from the effort it took him to go slowly.

There was no pain this time – just an uncomfortable feeling of invasion and extreme fullness. He felt too big, his penis like a heated pipe entering her body. Yet there was a promise of something more behind the discomfort. He continued his inexorable advance, and Mia gasped as her vaginal muscles gave way, allowing him to bury his full length inside her. He paused, letting her adjust to the unfamiliar sensation, and then pulled out slowly and pushed back in. A wave of heat rushed through her veins as his cock rubbed that same sensitive spot, and she cried out from the intense pleasure, digging her nails into his shoulders.

At the feel of her sharp nails on his skin, the last shred of his restraint seemed to dissolve. With a low growl, he began thrusting in a deep, driving rhythm, each stroke of his cock pushing her back and forth on the slick table. Somewhere in the distance, a woman’s cries seemed to echo his thrusts, and Mia vaguely realized that she was that woman. Every cell in her body screamed for completion, for relief from the terrible tension that was gripping her every muscle and tendon, and then it was suddenly there – a climax so powerful that it seemed to tear her asunder, leaving her bucking uncontrollably in his arms even as he reached his own peak with a guttural roar.