Stolen Desire (Outlawed Realm) Read Online Free PDF Page A

against them.
    How foolish they’d been. How stupid he was for having believed them.
    He continued to marvel at the weight of Paige’s hand on his chest, the comfort of her body nestled against his. She was a tall woman, her ample curves far more feminine and natural than the narrow waists and too slender thighs of the female slaves and the women on E2. To Zekin’s way of thinking, Paige was rounded and soft as a woman should be. Yet, he’d seen her unease as she’d undressed. It appeared to reach deeper than being watched by a man she didn’t know. It was as though she were ashamed of her—
    “Oh my God,” she cried, breaking into his thoughts. “What’s that?”
    The first wave of the ice tsunami creaked upward. Taller than all the drifts, it blocked out what scant light bled through the clouds.
    With little time to spare, Zekin headed for the next body of water, now only a few yards away. From several areas of it, frail threads of steam trailed upward before the wind blew them apart. Quickly, Zekin pulled Paige onto the barely frozen surface.
    “What are you doing?” she cried.
    He yelled above the noise of the crashing ice, “Hold on to me.”
    “ Wait. ”
    Zekin couldn’t, not if they were going to live through this. Pressing the length of his body to hers, he kept one arm around her waist, and wrapped the other across her shoulders so she couldn’t break free.
    Clearly terrified, she tried.
    He tilted their bodies to the right.
    They hit the fragile ice, breaking through it, falling into the water just as the tsunami crashed above them.

Chapter Three
    Paige shrieked.
    With an unyielding grip, Zekin held her so she couldn’t escape. She punched his shoulders and kicked his legs. He was going to drown them both. What in the hell was the matter with him?
    “Breathe!” he ordered.
    Had he lost his mind? Paige clenched her teeth, too afraid to open her mouth again. They had no source of oxygen, no tanks. She whimpered loudly, her lungs burning from lack of air.
    Down they went, like two bullets shot into the water. Massive chunks of ice from the glacier, floe—whatever the hell it was—followed. Mere seconds separated its descent from crashing into and crushing them.
    Paige flinched as a jagged chunk of ice the size of an SUV plummeted past. Her mouth opened on another cry of horror. It was only then that she realized she could breathe, as though there was a ready supply of fresh air.
    How? From where?
    That wasn’t the only surprise. No water gushed past her facemask or the rest of the material she wore. The fabric kept her warm even though she knew parts of the water had to be frigid, while the rest of it…
    Suddenly, Paige couldn’t pull in enough air. She clung to Zekin rather than fight him.
    In several areas of the lake, lava spewed. Even from their distance—what she guessed was a half mile or so—Paige heard the hiss and spit of fire as it made contact with the water. Plumes of grayish smoke drifted upward but didn’t dim the light from the eruptions.
    It illuminated portions of the muddy depths turning black to varying shades of scarlet, gold and orange. Within the lighted areas, large fishlike creatures swam in schools. They darted to the left, the right, avoiding the lava flows, their protruding mouths gulping water. Their bodies were colorless, the same as their eyes, the irises milky. Were they blind…or could they see her and Zekin?
    As one, the creatures turned, heading in their direction.
    Shit. Paige dug her fingers into Zekin’s shoulder and shouted, “Those things—those fish are following us.”
    Seconds before, he and she had stopped falling through the water. He now swam them to the left.
    Paige looked behind them.
    The fish things followed. Goose bumps rose on her skin, prickling it. She beat her legs, desperate to get the hell away.
    The monsters edged closer, closer. So near, Paige saw them clearly now and realized they couldn’t close their mouths because of their