“Why not?” Mia whispered, her voice starting to shake.
“Because you haven’t been fully yourself, my sweet,” he said gently. “The differences are subtle, but they’re there. You’ve noticed it too, haven’t you?”
Mia sucked in her breath. She had. Of course she had. She’d wondered at how well she was adjusting to her new world, to living in an alien colony with a lover she’d just met. A lover who was now as necessary to her as food and air.
“Couldn’t there be a different explanation for this?” Mia knew she was clutching at straws, but the alternative was too much to process. “What if my memories aren’t really gone? What if they’re still there, suppressed somewhere deep inside? That would explain everything: why I feel so comfortable here, why I’m learning so fast, why I fell in love with you –”
Korum closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, his gaze was bleak. “You didn’t, Mia. You didn’t fall in love with me. You barely know me.”
“But if I still remember you on some level –”
He drew in a deep breath. “You don’t, my sweet. Ellet ran tests on you before you woke up, and there were signs of damage consistent with a memory loss. I really wish it were otherwise, believe me.”
Mia blinked, swallowing hard to contain the growing knot in her throat. He thought she was damaged. Defective. Incapable of real emotions. “So what now?”
“It’s your decision,” Korum said, his voice oddly flat. “You can either stay with me or return to your old life.”
“Return to my old life?” She could barely say the words. “You . . . Y-you want me to go?”
“What? No!” He looked startled at the idea. “Of course I don’t want you to go. You’re my entire life now, don’t you understand that?”
Mia almost shuddered with relief. He still wanted her, despite the damage from the procedure.
“You are my entire life as well,” she told him. “I know you think the way I feel is the result of what Saret did, but I don’t believe it. I loved you before, despite everything that happened between us, and I fell in love with you again in these past couple of days. You may not think it’s real, but I know my own mind. Yes, I noticed I’m not reacting to things as I would’ve expected, but so what? Isn’t it a good thing that I’m learning so fast? That I’m becoming as comfortable in Lenkarda as I was once in New York? Even if it is a result of Saret’s procedure, it doesn’t change the fact that that’s how I am now – that that’s the way I think and feel. It doesn’t make my emotions any less strong . . . or any less real.”
As she spoke, the little grooves of tension bracketing his mouth began to dissipate. “Are you sure, Mia?” he asked, his eyes filling with familiar golden heat. “Is this what you really want?”
“To be with you? Yes!” Mia had never been more certain of anything in her life. The thought of leaving him, of going back home and never seeing him again, was unbearable. When she’d thought he was dead, she had wanted to die too. Life without Korum was not worth living.
“Then you will be with me.” His voice was rough, his hands hurried as they reached for her and pulled her into his arms.
His mouth was ravenous, like he wanted to consume her, and Mia responded in kind, her hunger matching his. She ached for his touch, his embrace. The shocking ecstasy of their post-Arena lovemaking had left her wrung out, drained, and yet she already wanted more. More of Korum, more of the magic.
His hands were frantic on her body, ripping off the dress, leaving it lying in shreds on the floor. His clothes met the same fate. Before she could blink, she found herself pressed against the wall, her thighs spread wide as he lifted her up, rubbing his erection against her bare sex.
“Fuck,” he growled. His expression was that of a man in pain, his breathing harsh and uneven. “I have to be inside you, Mia. Now.”
“Yes,” she whispered, holding his blazing gaze. “Yes . . . please . . .”
As though she had given him permission, he plunged into her, his shaft unbearably thick and long, s
tretching her, filling her to the brim. Mia cried out, the pleasure-pain of his possession as intense as it was startling. With the way he was holding her, she was completely open to him, unable to control the depth of his penetration in any way. He was in so deep she could feel him nudging against her cervix, her channel tightening in a futile effort to keep him out.
He paused for a brief second, letting her catch her breath, and then he began hammering into her, his thrusts pressing her into the wall. Mia moaned, her body overwhelmed by the sensations. There was no slow build, no gradual transition from discomfort to pleasure; instead, the orgasm hit her suddenly, her inner muscles spasming around his cock with no warning.
He groaned, his pace picking up further, and she climaxed again with a scream, unable to control her body’s helpless response. Her skin was too hot, and she was panting, gasping for breath, but he was relentless, driving her toward her third peak mere minutes after her second.
And just when Mia thought she couldn’t take anymore, he came with a savage roar, his head thrown back and his cock pulsing deep inside her.
* * *
The next morning, Korum waited impatiently as Haron – the mind expert in the Arizona Center – carefully examined Mia.
She was lying on a float, her eyes closed and her expression relaxed. She had been lightly sedated to allow for a more thorough examination of her brain. Haron was brushing her hair back, exposing more of her forehead to attach his equipment there.
Korum had given the other male permission to touch her in this instance, but he still felt like ripping him apart for it. He had been equally angry to learn of Arus restraining her during the fight, even though he knew it had been for Mia’s own protection. The territorial instinct was primitive – and completely irrational given the circumstances – but Korum couldn’t help it. When it came to Mia, he was no more evolved than an amoeba.
By the time the examination was over, Korum was in a dark mood. “Well,” he demanded as soon as Haron put away his equipment.