Braden chuckled.
“Because I know what you really want.” Calder touched Katarina’s temple. “I told you that in here, I know what you truly crave, what you want deep inside yourself.”
His touch was warm, soothing, melting. Katarina would love to fall to her knees and tell him she longed to obey him. But somehow she knew he wanted her to do that. He was using his Shareem pheromones on her, or trying to.
“No, I don’t think you do,” she said.
Calder’s brows went up the slightest bit, the only betrayal of his surprise. Otherwise he stood like a rock.
Braden laughed and let Katarina go. “I think you’ve met your match, my friend.”
Calder yanked Katarina to him again, his mouth coming down on hers. She realized that their last kiss had been gentle. This one was brutal, demanding, Calder not caring that she didn’t know how to kiss him back.
His unshaved whiskers burned her face, his hand bruised her neck. He stroked his tongue through her mouth, commanding complete surrender. She’d taken his cock into her mouth, swallowed his semen, but that was nothing to this powerful kiss.
Katarina touched his face. The left side was smooth with scars and skin grafts, the right side almost normal.
Calder pulled back, his brows jamming together. Katarina caressed his ruined cheek, wanting to pull his head down and hold him against her.
“Tie her hands,” Calder said to Braden. “I don’t want her touching me.”
“Nah.” Braden’s voice had receded behind her. “It’s more fun to watch you squirm.”
“Then get out.” The harsh command was directed at Braden.
Katarina didn’t hear Braden leaving. She wanted to turn and look at him, but she was too mesmerized by Calder’s eyes. She again ran her fingertips across Calder’s face.
“This is my house, Braden,” Calder growled.
“Your lair, you mean. I think I’ll stay and make sure the lady is all right.”
“Why wouldn’t she be?”
“Because you can get a little . . . exotic. She’s not ready for exotic, and she’s too cute to be broken by you.”
Katarina sensed Calder’s fury mount. “Do you think I’d ever hurt her?”
“I know what Judith told me,” Braden said.
Calder’s mouth flattened. “I knew what Judith wanted.”
Dismay lanced through Katarina’s delight. Who is Judith?
“I think I’ll stay as long as Katarina does,” Braden said.
Braden sounded worried, but strangely, Katarina didn’t feel worried in the slightest. Was it because of the soothing Shareem chemicals or because she believed Calder truly wouldn’t hurt her?
She’d believed in him yesterday, even with all he’d done to her. She’d been thoroughly pleasured and not hurt at all. Excited, not afraid.
“It’s all right, Braden,” she said, still caressing Calder’s face. “You don’t have to stay with me.”
She liked the contrast between the warm smoothness of the scarred side, the rough whiskers of the other. Both were strong with muscle, his cheekbones hard and even.
“This is Calder, sweetheart,” Braden said. “One of the best level threes ever made. Means he’s gentle as a kitten one minute, dangerous as a desert tiger the next. You never know what he’s going to do.”
But that made him more exciting. “I don’t mind.”
Calder closed his hands around Katarina’s wrists, his grip like steel manacles. “Braden, take her and go.”
Katarina chilled but her body was tight, her heart beating hard and fast. “I don’t want to go.”
“We are finished.” Calder moved his hot blue gaze to Braden. “Don’t let her come back.”
“Calder, don’t be a stupid fuck,” Braden said.
“I don’t want you here, either.” The light that had been trained on Calder went out, and he disappeared into deep shadow.
Katarina ran forward, reaching for him, and found nothing but another seamless black wall. Calder had used the tricks of his lair to elude her yet again.
“Too late, he already is a stupid fuck,” Braden said.
Katarina shivered, suddenly bereft. Calder was gone.
She turned to find Braden next to her, the man stark naked. His body was perfectly formed, his black hair flowing over well-muscled shoulders, his eyes intense Shareem blue. She’d touched this man, taken him into her mouth.
And yet, she didn’t respond to him like she did to Calder, not even when he put his arm around her.
“My clothes are wet,” Katarina said, biting her lip against the tears that filled her eyes. She couldn’t leave in wet clothes. How stupid that this practical detail made her cry.
“It’s all right. He keeps spares.”
Braden’s voice was comforting, but what he said made Katarina’s tears spill out. Foolish Katarina. Of course she was only one of dozens of women who’d fallen under Calder’s spell. What made her think she’d be special to him?
“Poor sweetie.” Braden pulled her against his warm, wet body, stroking her hair. “Forget about him, love. It’s the best way.”
Damn it, why was Braden so nice? He was a Shareem, a being meant to be shunned, a man who lived only to pleasure women.
Here he was, naked and aroused, comforting her because his friend had rejected her. And all Katarina could do was cry on him.
*** *** ***
Katarina tried to take Braden’s advice and forget about Calder. After all, she’d lived twenty-seven years without knowing the man existed. She could return to life before Calder and continue her job.
Calder would likely find a different clinic for his next six-month checkup, and she’d never see him again. Shareem could go to any authorized clinic they chose, because information on their scans and inoculations was fed from the medic’s handheld to the centralized Ministry of Non-Human Life Forms computer. It didn’t matter which clinic did the actual checkup.
The practical side of Katarina’s mind told her that. But every time a Shareem entered the clinic, her heart beat wildly in hope.
Braden had spread the word that Dr. Katarina d’Arnal was a medic nice to Shareem, and so Shareem had started coming to her.
Katarina seemed to have a Shareem in once a week. Some came for their six-month scans and inoculations, but some returned for her to treat their every minor cut, scrape, and bruise.
When she pointed out that Shareem were amazingly healthy and didn’t need much medical attention, they said they came because they liked playing doctor with her. They’d laugh—charming, male, seductive laughter.
Katarina found that she liked their attention. She met level ones, who smiled lazily and turned every medical exam into a striptease. Level twos liked to tell crude jokes and promise a night of unforgettable fun if she would just come out with them.
Level threes confused her a bit. They didn’t tease, and they weren’t playful. They told her, blatantly, what they envisioned doing with her, not caring when she squirmed.
She would smile and turn down the offers from all of them. She wondered at herself, knowing she could have night after night of amazing sexual experiences. And foolish Katarina only craved Calder.
Katarina never saw him. Calder didn’t come in, she never saw him when she walked from her flat to the clinic, and she didn’t see him when she purposely lingered in the market near his warehouse.
She’d ask the other Shareem, casually, if they’d spoken him, but they always said they hadn’t. Some of them had never even met him, although they’d heard of him and his pleasure palace.
Katarina also met a few women who’d become the permanent lovers of Shareem.
Two Shareem, a level one called Aiden and a level three called Ky, visited for their six-month at the same time, accompanied by a lovely young woman.
“I have to come in with them because they’re shy,” the woman told Katarina as all three of them squeezed into the exam room. Then she laughed.
“Right, Brianne, b
aby,” the blond one called Aiden said. “Ky’s about as shy as a rock.”
Dark-haired Ky growled. “Fucking level ones.”
He stripped off without embarrassment, as though being naked was more comfortable for him than being clothed. Katarina supposed it was, since Shareem body temperature was higher than a normal human’s, and Bor Narga was a hot place.
“Hey, you like fucking level ones,” Aiden said.
“Asshole.”
Katarina kept her face averted during this crude exchange. She’d gotten more used to Shareem, but their casual approach to everything sometimes caught her off guard.
“Get on with it,” Brianne said. “Dr. d’Arnal doesn’t have all day.”
Aiden smoothed Brianne’s hair and gave her a tongue-filled kiss. “Sure thing, sweet baby. I know you like it when we get naked.”
Brianne blushed rosy red but she didn’t look unhappy. Ky finished stripping his powerfully built body and stood under Katarina’s scanner. He kept muttering about fucking exams, fucking Ministry, fucking clinics.
Aiden laughed at him as he slowly shed his clothes, conscious of his audience. Katarina kept her eyes averted but Brianne watched with enjoyment.
Brianne unnerved Katarina even more than did her two Shareem. Brianne d’Aroth was not only a highborn woman but a member of the ruling family of Bor Narga. Last year she’d broken up with her fiancé, forsaken her luxurious lifestyle, and moved in with not one, but two Shareem in the slums of Pas City.
She’d made an official statement that she’d done it to look into the way Shareem were treated on Bor Narga. They were second-class citizens, and she’d set out to disprove some myths about them.
It had been the scandal of the decade. Brianne d’Aroth’s name wasn’t mentioned anymore in highborn ladies’ circles. Hypocrites, Katarina thought. The same ladies who went to Shareem in secret shunned women who openly sought them.
Studying Brianne, Katarina decided that the lady hadn’t moved in with her Shareem simply to prove a point. She was besotted with them. Both of them.
“Braden told me you met Calder,” Brianne said.
Katarina jumped, nearly dropping the hypo she was preparing for Ky. “Yes. I did.”
“More than met him,” Aiden said. “Braden says you spent some time in Calder’s lair and then went back for more. Interesting.”
“Braden talks too damn much,” Ky said. “Leave her alone.”
Aiden ignored him. “Calder never lets a woman in twice, I hear. Not even Judith. But he did you.”
Judith again. Who was this woman?
Ky interrupted. “Can we stop talking about Calder and finish my exam before I freeze my balls off?”
Katarina turned on the full body scanner and watched the readouts to keep from looking at Ky’s muscled torso.
Brianne regarded Katarina thoughtfully as she finished the scans of Aiden and Ky and inoculated them both. When Katarina went to her cubbyhole of an office to finish the report, Brianne followed her.
“I’ve met Calder,” Brianne said. Behind her, Aiden and Ky were dressing, their gorgeous Shareem voices rumbling.
“Have you?”
“Not as his client,” Brianne said quickly. “He helped me when Ky was in trouble. He didn’t trust me at all, but he was willing to help for Ky’s sake. I have a soft spot for him for that. Calder’s had a difficult time.”
“How did he get burned?”
Brianne shook her head. “I don’t know. The only one who knows is Calder himself and a woman called Dr. Laas, who healed him. Dr. Laas is a strange woman, but she’s good to the Shareem.”
“I’m glad someone is.”
“You’re good to them too.” Brianne put a cool hand on Katarina’s shoulder. “Why do you think Ky came here today? He hates the clinics, but he was willing to come to this one. Your reputation for not treating the Shareem like insects has spread.”
Katarina felt herself blush. “I just do my job.”
“No, you treat them like they’re human beings, give them their dignity. I’m trying to change the laws that say they aren’t human, but it’s slow going. Fears and prejudices die hard.”
“I’m not as brave as you are,” Katarina said. “Braden asked me to move in with him, but I told him no.”
“Courage has nothing to do with it. I live with Aiden and Ky because I love them, and I need to be with them.” Brianne grinned. “Besides, I’ve seen how Braden keeps his rooms. I wouldn’t live there either.”
After Aiden and Ky left, Brianne sandwiched between them, Katarina felt a bit depressed. Brianne had sacrificed her old life and reputation to be with Shareem, and Aiden and Ky showed every indication of being besotted with her.
Calder had pushed Katarina away. She hadn’t seen him in weeks. How many “clients” had he entertained since then?
Katarina’s heart burned.
Anger and jealousy was getting her nowhere. She needed to act. She needed help—and she knew just where to get it.
Chapter Eight
Calder slammed out of his apartment for his nightly prowl.
The streets were crowded. Pas City came alive after the heat of the day was done. Lights glared but he could still find shadows to walk in, moving like darkness himself.
He ached with need. He’d put his services on hold, not wanting to touch another woman, least of all the silly cows who paid to be chased and ravished by the Beast.
Gods, did they have nothing better to do? After listening to Katarina’s laughter in the artificial rain, he couldn’t stand the thought of letting another woman into the lair.
Idiot. It will kill you.
Shareem needed to release every day. If they didn’t, their body temperatures rose to unbearable levels, their metabolism spiraling out of control, and they died.
The ever resourceful Shareem had invented all kinds of pleasure toys for those days when a woman wasn’t available. But toys and Calder’s own stroking could only satisfy for so long. He needed relief.
Judith’s bar was full tonight, with patrons spilling out onto the street around it. Calder strode through the noisy crowd and inside, making for his usual table in a dark corner.
Someone had already claimed it, another Shareem called Rees. On Rees’ lap was the pretty red-haired woman, Talan d’Urvey, who had consented to be his lifemate.
Calder didn’t mind Rees, the only other Shareem who understood what Calder had gone through at DNAmo. Rees had been created to be the ultimate Shareem, all three levels rolled into one. Unpredictable, uncontrollable. He’d been separated from other Shareem at DNAmo and tested and tortured.
Rees had also been the only Shareem who’d managed to escape DNAmo before the company went under. Some said that DNAmo was shut down because they’d created Rees. He was smart, resourceful, dangerous, and mysterious. The pint-sized redhead on his lap loved him to pieces.
Rees looked up as Calder slid onto his stool in the corner. Rees had blond hair, which he wore gathered into a ponytail at the base of his neck. His irises were wide and blue, a Shareem aroused. After nodding once at Calder, he went back to nibbling on Talan’s neck.
Talan gently elbowed Rees. “Be civil, we have company.”
“Calder likes to be ignored,” Rees said, transferring his teeth to Talan’s earlobe.
Rees was right, but Calder made himself nod to Talan. “Lady d’Urvey.”
“How are you?” Talan asked him.
“Thirsty.” Calder signaled a harassed-looking waitress and tapped the empty table in front of him. The waitress jumped when she saw who he was, then faded back toward the bar.
Talan continued to study Calder with her warm eyes, a little smile hovering on her lips. Calder tried to ignore her, but it was like being stared at by a puppy. A determined puppy.
“What?” he snapped.
“You haven’t heard, then.”
“Talan,” Rees said in a very soft voice.
Talan ignored him. “Your medic, Dr. d’Arnal. She’s move
d in with Braden.”
Calder stopped. He stared at Talan, but she kept on smiling, as though Calder would celebrate the news by doing a dance.
“Like hell she did,” he snarled.
“A couple of days ago. He’s been pestering her to do it for a while, and she finally gave in.”
Calder’s heart pounded, anger making him hot. At that moment, a dripping metal mug of ale slid in front of him, placed there by Judith, the bar’s owner.
Judith also had red hair, a common color for Bor Nargan females. Her eyes were deep brown, and she revealed luscious curves by wearing her one-piece pantsuit open to the navel.
“Long time since you’ve darkened my corner, Calder.”
Once, about a year ago, Calder had given Judith a taste of what he did in his pleasure palace. He’d made her close the bar and they’d done it here—on the floor, on the tables, on the bar itself. He hadn’t made her make an appointment or sign the consent form. He’d done it as a favor for a woman who was good to Shareem.
Every time Calder had come to the bar since, Judith had given him a hopeful look. She wanted it again, but Calder never capitulated.
Now, with his fury mounting and his need too long unfulfilled, he wanted to grab Judith by the hair and drag her upstairs.
He caught her eye. Judith arched her brows, understanding what he meant.
Fuck, what am I doing? He didn’t want Judith, he wanted Katarina, damn her cute little ass.
Judith studied Calder a moment, then she smiled and shook her head. “Thanks, but no thanks.”
Rees jerked his head up. “Did I hear right? Judith turned down Calder? Have the desert sands turned to water?”
Judith skimmed her hand across Calder’s shoulders. “Calder has someone else on his mind. I don’t want to be a substitute.”
“I just told him that Katarina moved in with Braden,” Talan said.
Rees leaned into her. “Talan, baby, I need to take you home and make your ass cherry red.”
Talan didn’t seem intimidated by his threat. “He deserves to know.”
Calder poured cold ale into his mouth but it didn’t cool him down. Judith gave him a wink and a smile and sashayed away. Another Shareem slid his arm around her, and Judith fell happily into his embrace.
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