And she’d only been imagining things. What would it be like to be with them in reality?
She shivered. And smiled. And shivered again.
Brianne touched her finger to her lips and pressed it to the console screen. “Good night,” she whispered.
She went to bed that night without body monitors and did what she hadn’t done since age eighteen. Then she had some very interesting dreams. In the morning, when she opened her console, she found a message waiting.
Sleep well?
Shaking all over, Brianne sat down and pounded out a text message on the keypad.
YES!
* * * * *
Ky chuckled as he read the one word on the console screen. “I’m enjoying this.”
“Remote bondage?” Aiden said.
“I’m getting under her skin. Now for the next step.”
He tapped the console’s pad, sensing Aiden approach and look over his shoulder. Aiden’s pheromones slid over him, comforting and soothing as usual. Level ones were made to make you feel good.
“She’ll never do it,” Aiden predicted.
“She might.”
“Getting her to think about us is one thing. Getting her to meet us in person is something else.”
Ky sent the carefully worded message. “She’ll refuse at first, but then she won’t be able to resist. This is fun. I should have tried this years ago.”
“Instead of going straight for the manacles?” Aiden slid his fingers across Ky’s bare shoulder. “The art of slow seduction can be—good.”
Ky felt his muscles automatically relax under Aiden’s touch. Level ones were bred to soothe—even a friendly pat on the back made you smile and your skin warm.
Lately it was doing more than that. Under his clothes, Ky grew long and stiff.
This was getting dangerous. He hadn’t thought of the experiments the jackass scientists had done on him at DNAmo for a long time. White lights, pain, spreading his legs in pleasure. He closed his eyes.
He knew Aiden could sense his arousal. Aiden was Shareem, of course he could. Aiden’s pheromones changed, becoming less soothing and more seducing. Broad fingers slid down Ky’s bare chest and touched his small gold nipple ring. Ky’s cock stretched farther, pressing the tight leather into an obvious bulge.
Aiden flicked the nipple ring with one finger, then eased his hand down to cover the length of Ky’s cock. He pressed his palm against the bulge, sliding down it in one long stroke.
Ky laced his fingers around Aiden’s wrist, stopping him. Aiden glanced sideways, his Shareem-blue eyes darkening.
Ky slowly shook his head. Aiden’s expression went still.
The kissing had been fine. Hell, Ky wanted to explore the kissing and see how far it could go. Nothing had happened except a stir of pleasure when they’d kissed. Anything more might trigger…
If he and Aiden were going to experiment—shit, he hated the word experiment—they needed to go slowly.
Ky moved Aiden’s hand upward again until Aiden’s fingers rested on Ky’s nipple ring. That was fine.
Watching Ky carefully, Aiden drew his fingertip around Ky’s flat areola. “Do you want me to go?”
Ky looked up in surprise. “Go where?”
“Anywhere.” Aiden’s expression was guarded. “Anywhere not here.”
“Why? Because you want to touch my body?” He made a show of shrugging. “I know I’m irresistible, I’ll just have to live with it.”
He rose from the chair, shaking off Aiden’s touch. He caught a glimpse of his friend’s face before he turned away, and stopped, disquieted. Had he seen hurt in Aiden’s eyes?
He and Aiden had been friends forever, and he figured they’d go on being friends until their Shareem bodies wore out from all the sex they had. Then they’d be dead and taken to the gods together.
“A kiss and a fondle isn’t going to turn me into a recluse,” Ky said. “If you were Braden, on the other hand, I’d have thrown your ass out.”
“Braden’s another Dom.” Aiden’s voice was low, sensual. “I’d want to be a sub.”
Ky’s cock leapt again at the thought of seeing Aiden in his collar. “You’d make a crappy sub. I’ve never seen you be obedient.”
“Doesn’t that add spice? When you have to train the sub?”
They looked at each other. Aiden was taller than Ky by half an inch, his shoulders just as broad but not as loaded with muscle.
“Come here,” Ky said.
“Why?”
“See? You’re already disobeying. You’d suck at being a sub.” He smoothed the hair off Aiden’s forehead. “We’re friends, you and me. I probably would have died after we ran from DNAmo if not for you. I’m not letting that go to hell because you want to kiss me. Friends should be able to kiss without it being a big deal.”
Aiden watched him with a neutral expression. It was always hard to figure out what was going on in Aiden’s head, whereas Ky’s emotions were right out in the open. That was one reason they got along so well—their differences. Ky’s weaknesses were Aiden’s strengths and vice versa.
Ky leaned forward and licked Aiden’s lips from side to side as he had the night before in the showers. Aiden didn’t move, but he responded with slight pressure, kissing Ky’s tongue.
More. Ky wrapped his strong hand behind Aiden’s neck and pulled him into the kiss, snaking his tongue into the other man’s mouth. The spicy, dark taste of Aiden made his cock harden still more.
Pleasure, his body said. There is much pleasure to be had here.
Aiden was made to please with slow, soothing pleasure. Ky had been made to please with punishment and the sting of the lash. The combination would be explosive.
And so damn dangerous.
Ky eased his mouth from Aiden’s. He waited a moment, but nothing happened, and he slowly let out his breath.
Aiden hadn’t touched him the whole time, standing as still as a desert snake trying to decide whether to flee or strike. Ky had his hand firmly against the nape of Aiden’s neck, holding him as fast as an iron collar.
“This,” Ky murmured. “This I can do.”
The bastards at DNAmo had at least not taken away the joy of kissing his best friend.
Aiden’s eyes filled with blue, and Ky kissed him again. Their lips bumped and explored, tongues tangling. The heat of Aiden’s mouth fascinated Ky, and he delved to the corners of it.
His cock swelled as he tasted and probed, liking the feel of Aiden’s breath on his face and the scent of him so close. Ky felt pulsing at the base of his staff, ready to go at this new sensation.
Aiden splayed his hand across Ky’s chest, his thumb flicking the nipple ring. At the tingling sensation, Ky’s seed threatened to burst from him.
“If I don’t stop, I’m going to come in my pants,” he said against Aiden’s cheek. “The great, powerful Dom you live with.”
Aiden pulled away slightly, but his hand remained in place on Ky’s chest. “We should stop then. I’m not paying for your laundry.”
Ky’s clouded mind tried to come up with something witty to say, but the console chimed just then, saving him the effort.
He turned away, breaking the contact, his body temperature in the stratosphere.
“The lady can’t resist,” he said.
Aiden followed him to the console. Ky brought up the message which contained one word.
No.
Ky laughed and twined his fingers together, cracking his knuckles. “She’s on the hook now. Later today, we reel her in.”
Aiden folded his arms over his hard chest. Ky could read the signals rolling off him, the chemicals sliding through the air to mix with his. There were two very erect Shareem in the room, that was for sure.
“Good,” Aiden said quietly. “I’d like to see her again. In the meantime…”
He feathered light fingers through Ky’s hair. Ky reached up and pulled him down for another long, satisfying, tongue-filled kiss.
Chapter Five
&
nbsp; The Train
When the next message came, Brianne nearly panicked. I can’t want this. I can’t.
Warm afternoon sun slid through the shielded windows of her office and touched her fingers on the keypad of her console. A text message blinked softly.
You are ready.
Her hands slick with sweat she typed, No.
She sent the message, trying not to feel disappointed in herself. The Shareem would soon tire of the game and move on to another woman.
What she’d read about Shareem told her they could not touch a woman until she said they could. It was a built-in mechanism to keep them under control. No Shareem could ravish a woman, whatever Dranis thought. Once she said no, the Shareem had to leave her alone. So that was that.
Brianne let out her breath as she tried to put the incident and the messages behind her. She needed to concentrate on her upcoming functions, a charity for the small communities beyond the dry sea and a project to allow children in the poorer parts of town to learn music.
The console chimed softly and a new message spread itself on her screen.
Take the last outbound train of the afternoon from Pas City toward Elred. Move to the front car after the stop at Ahjed. We will have two hours of uninterrupted journey.
Good gods, the Shareem called Ky must be sitting at his console right now. His dark brown hair would be tumbling to his waist, his intense blue eyes fixed on the screen, waiting for her reply. Her cold sweat returned.
It would be so easy for her to turn the messages over to her head of security, to let him track down the Shareem and punish him for stalking her. That would be the wise thing to do.
Her imagination returned to the coffee bar and the blond Shareem dipping his tongue into the cream, blue eyes fixed slyly on her. Her heart beat swiftly.
She wrote, What part of no don’t you understand? and sent it.
Not a moment later came the reply. You are so ready.
Brianne slammed her hand to the console’s off button. She rarely turned off her console, because she received important messages all the time, but she couldn’t take any more of this.
She pictured Ky smiling his Shareem smile on the other side of the screen, knowing she’d be on that outbound train. No matter what she tried to tell herself, she knew deep down inside that she’d go.
She wouldn’t be able to resist.
* * * * *
As the hover train shot her northward, Brianne understood why the Shareem had wanted her on the service to Elred. This late on a weekday evening, very few travelers were interested in the remote communities along the canyons to the north. After Ahjed, the front car was completely empty.
Hover trains were steered from the rear, the car guided by grav fields which interacted with the field of the track. The front car gave a view of miles and miles of nothing fading to dark as the glaring sun set.
Brianne touched controls to opaque the windows between the front car and the one behind it, although no one sat in that car either. Alone, she sank into a seat and watched the walls of the box canyon close in on the train.
Two hours ahead was Elred, a small community of crystal miners and people who wanted to retire someplace quiet and remote. Deep wells dug by state-of-the-art equipment allowed people to exist in the dry canyon where water hadn’t flowed above ground for at least a million years. She’d been there once at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new well. Very few had turned out for the event.
When the door of the car opened behind her she tensed but didn’t turn. She knew the Shareem entered—she could feel the strange combination of excitement and relaxation pour over her as it had in the coffee bar.
“Close the door,” a male voice said.
She jumped, thinking he meant for her to get up and do it, but she heard another man rumble in the affirmative and then the door closed. Dear goddess, both of them.
Brianne looked around in alarm. The blond Shareem she’d seen in the coffee bar turned from closing the door and bathed her in a slow smile. Her blood heated and she swallowed, knowing he remembered every detail of her reaction to him. He carried an intricately carved box under his arm, which he set carefully on a seat.
The Shareem with him looked like he had no humor in him at all. Dark brows drew together over his Shareem-blue eyes and his bulging arms were folded across his leather-clad chest.
This was Ky, she recognized from his holo photo in the ministry’s database. He was not as tall as Aiden but more massive, his dark hair flowing in tangled waves to his waist. A level three, made for bondage and domination, not just sex—more sex than a woman could handle. Walking sexuality.
I came here to apologize to them. Nothing more.
Her tightening quim told her she lied to herself.
She dipped her head in a cordial nod while Aiden smiled and Ky scowled. She could at least be polite.
“I am Brianne d’Aroth,” she said.
“We know who you are,” Ky rumbled. His voice was rough and grating, used to command.
“I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience of your arrests.” Brianne was expert at saying the proper thing even when agitated. “My bodyguards acted without my knowledge. I assure you, the mistake—”
“Strip,” Ky said abruptly.
“—will be made up to you… What?”
“Strip,” Ky repeated, unmoving. “So I can paddle your ass.”
“Level threes like to get right to the point.” Aiden casually opened the carved box revealing a row of glittering bottles resting on black velvet. His voice was lower, quieter, more seductive. Come with me, darling, and I’ll make you feel good, it said. “We can’t force you. You might enjoy having me help you out of your clothes, but if Ky does it, he won’t be gentle.”
Brianne glanced at Ky whose hard face gave truth to the words. “Because you’re a level one?” she stammered at Aiden.
“Yes,” Aiden said. “Level ones are about pure sensuality. Oils smoothed on you so my hands glide over you. A piece of silk brushed over your skin. Water trickled down your back to slide between your ass cheeks.”
She swallowed, feeling each sensation as Aiden described them as palpably as if he were doing them.
Aiden lifted a bottle from the box and cradled it in his palms. “Ky will tie your hands and spank you until you do whatever he wants. I’ll smooth your body with oil and do whatever you want. Which would you like first? Maybe Ky to punish you and me to soothe it all better?”
She looked from one to the other, backing up a step. “I didn’t come here for—anything sexual. I came to apologize, to offer recompense. Nothing more.”
Ky moved toward her. “Yes, you did.”
“Did what?” He confused her.
“You came here for something sexual. If you didn’t want that, you would have sent a note.”
She shook her head. “I have no intention of having sex. Ever. I’ve never had sex. Not with a man.”
Aiden’s smile widened. “Then you have had it with a woman?”
Brianne gasped. “No, of course not.”
“There’s no shame in enjoying a woman.”
“I meant that I’d gone to the clinic,” she said hastily. “I’m not a virgin. But I’ve never…”
“Had a man inside you,” Aiden finished. “Had his cock fill you until you moaned with it, never had him make your pussy wet.”
A vision suddenly shot into her mind of Ky buried deep inside her, his muscled arms bunching as he drove himself into her. Aiden would hold her head in his lap, hands soothing as Ky fucked her.
And fucked was not a word Brianne d’Aroth was used to using. They were doing something to her, the pair of them.
Mirth danced in Aiden’s eyes as though he knew what she’d just thought. The two of them had every intention of doing something to her, his look said.
“Remove your clothes,” Ky said. “I’m losing patience.”
“I’d do it,” Aiden advised. He caressed the glass stopper of the bottle, finger movi
ng lovingly around it.
Her heart squeezed. “What if someone comes in?”
“They won’t,” Aiden said. “This train is mostly empty, only a few hardy souls in the back who don’t look like they’ll move until the last stop. We’re alone.”
Ky added in a soft voice, “If they do come in, what will they see? You naked for us?”
Brianne blushed. She’d never been bare in front of anyone but her doctor, a middle-aged woman who saw the human body as a collection of biological components. Never in front of a man, or anyone who’d be interested in her in a sexual way. She didn’t know anyone interested in her in a sexual way.
Ky took another step toward her. Brianne looked at his large hands and could almost hear the fabric of her robes tearing. She grasped the top clasp. “All right. I’m stripping.”
She touched the catch that held her robes in place and the magnetic seals came apart. She wore no body monitors, having removed them and left them in her apartment. She’d left her pagers, too. She’d told her bodyguards that she would spend the rest of the afternoon and evening meditating and didn’t want to be disturbed. Everyone on her staff understood, thinking she needed to recover from her “ordeal” yesterday.
She’d come out here alone with no way for her bodyguards to find her.
She had to be out of her mind.
But they were Shareem. They could not harm her. Their programming made it so that they would do only what she wanted.
In their own special way.
The look on Ky’s face told her that he’d push the boundaries as far as possible, never technically violating his programming.
Brianne’s heart beat swift and hard. She let her robes fall, catching them before they could touch the floor. Aiden took them from her, smoothing them over a seat. Beneath the robes Brianne wore a plain sleeveless tunic of costly fabric that skimmed her body.
She sensed their pheromones rise as they looked at her. Ky had a definite bulge in the front of his leather leggings, and Aiden’s eyes were brilliant blue. Two Shareem males aroused.
Because of her.
It was exciting making men excited. Dranis had never been excited in his life.
Tales of the Shareem 04 - Aiden and Ty Page 4
