“Leave him alone, sweetheart,” Rees told Talan in a soft voice.
Gods, they pitied him. Calder drank more ale, pretending he didn’t care. Why should he care about what Katarina did? He’d told her to go away, and she’d gone.
Rees understood. His blue eyes were shrewd, but at least Rees knew when to shut the fuck up.
Talan didn’t. “When I fell in love with Rees, he didn’t believe me. He thought I was responding to Shareem pheromones, nothing more. It took me a while to convince him that I meant it.”
Rees gave Calder a look that said, Humor her.
Calder took another nonchalant drink of ale. “Yeah?”
“I did mean it. I fell in love with him. With him, not just because he was Shareem. Not just because he was an experimental model. I love Rees, the man.”
“Lucky Rees.”
“Lucky me that he finally believed me,” Talan said. “Think on it.”
Calder switched his gaze to Rees. Rees wore a tight tunic that bared his arms and emphasized his broad shoulders and strong chest. His skin was whole and smooth, normal. No wreck of a man lingered beneath his clothes.
“She’s a medic,” Calder said to Talan. “Medics always want to study me. Not me, but this hunk of ruined flesh. It happens every time I meet a new one. They all think they’re unsung geniuses. If they fix me, they’ll rise to prominence. Sorry, I’m tired of being a slug under a microscope.”
“I can’t blame him,” Rees said.
“You aren’t helping,” Talan returned. “I think Dr. d’Arnal’s interest goes beyond slugs.”
“All women find me fascinating,” Calder said. “Even you.” He didn’t boast—it was true, and he hated that it was true.
“Well, yes, because you’re different.”
“Because I’m like Rees. The scientists at DNAmo fucked Rees up on the inside and they fucked me up on the outside. That’s irresistible to women who want to fix everything, to make it all better.”
Talan started to answer but Rees interrupted.
“He’s right, baby. Don’t shove him at Dr. d’Arnal before you know what she really wants. It hurts when you realize they don’t actually care.”
“I care.”
“That’s because you’re a special lady,” Rees said. “You convinced me. Calder has to work this out for himself.”
Talan scowled. “Men.”
“You mean Shareem,” Calder rumbled.
“Males, then. I don’t care what you call yourselves. I’m sure female tortoises get just as pissed off at male tortoises.”
Rees rocked with laughter. He turned Talan to him and gave her a long kiss.
Calder watched them in envy. They were so easy together, a Shareem and his lady, friends, lovers, lifemates.
And now Braden had made his move on Katarina. Why? To make her a lifemate?
Braden liked women, every woman. Katarina had a soft heart—obviously, or she’d have reported Calder the day he’d swatted her ass in the clinic, not to mention doing it more thoroughly in his lair.
Braden would make Katarina believe he liked her. Then he’d move on to the next woman, leaving Katarina bereft and hurt.
Calder should be glad of that. Katarina needed to learn to leave Shareem alone. Nice that she wanted to help them at the clinics, but in her personal life, she had to back off.
Gladness was not what Calder felt. He wanted to break Braden’s neck.
He got to his feet. Talan and Rees looked up at him. “You going?” Rees asked.
“Have things to do.” Calder tossed a credit strip on the table. “Tell Judith to keep the change.”
He strode out. He couldn’t help noticing that, as he left the table, Rees’ look turned cautious, Talan’s smug.
*** *** ***
“Calder.”
Katarina’s pulse raced with delight as she opened Braden’s door to find Calder on the other side.
He’d muffled himself all in black again, sun-blocking cloth covering the left side of his face, even though it was dark outside. He pushed his way in, brushing Katarina’s body as he passed.
“Where’s Braden?”
“Out.” Katarina tried to keep the disappointment from her voice. Calder hadn’t come to see her.
Calder swung around. The apartment on d’Enela Street was tiny, and Calder’s presence dwarfed the front room. “Out where?”
“I don’t know. He didn’t say.”
Calder slammed open the door to Braden’s bedroom and looked inside. He swung to the opposite door and opened it too.
Katarina stepped in front of him before he could enter the second room. “Do you mind? I know I sneaked into your apartment, but I never invaded your bedroom.”
“Lights on,” Calder said to the bedroom. As the lights obeyed, he studied the neatly made bed, the clean hand sterilizer, the bare wall that concealed storage. “This is your room?”
“Yes. Braden’s is much messier. Did you think I was sleeping in there with him?”
“Yes.” Calder turned his half-masked face to her. “He’s Shareem.”
“And Shareem are irresistible?”
“Shareem are horny.” Calder’s voice went harsh. “He’ll try to seduce you every second.”
“Yes, but Shareem can’t touch a woman if she says no. That’s probably why he’s out. I keep saying no.”
Calder’s visible eye narrowed. “So he has tried to seduce you.”
“Like you said, he’s Shareem. He has to have sex.” Katarina had learned to talk about it without blushing. “He goes out for that.”
Calder’s stare pinned her. She shivered, rubbing her hands up and down her arms. “Why do you wear that?” she asked.
His scowl deepened. “Wear what?”
“The face cloth. I know what you look like. I didn’t run away screaming before, and I probably won’t now.”
Calder went very still, and Katarina’s chill increased. She knew he was dangerous—he was level three and Braden had told her that he was scarier than even most level threes. But she wasn’t about to let him see her fear or let him use it against her.
He yanked off the face cloth. Katarina smiled, thinking his face hard and handsome despite the scarring. Both blue eyes pinned her now, and her heart fluttered with something besides fear.
Katarina reached up for his cheek but he caught her wrist.
“The rules are, you don’t touch me,” he said.
“Whose rules?”
“Mine.”
Katarina smiled a hot smile. “In your place, maybe. This is my place.”
“This is a Shareem apartment. It used to be Rio’s. It’s got the stink of Shareem pheromones all over it, and don’t tell me you don’t feel it.”
“Well.” Katarina admitted to herself that she went to sleep every night warm and aroused, especially when thinking about Calder and what he’d done to her in his lair.
“It makes you wet,” Calder said. “You’re wet now, aren’t you?”
Katarina shifted. Her cleft was uncomfortably hot. “How can I help it? You’re here.”
“Show me.”
“Pardon?”
“Put your fingers on your pussy and show me.”
Katarina stared at him for several heartbeats. A few months ago, she’d have been outraged at such a command—no, a few months ago she’d never dreamed anyone would even give her such a command.
Now her heart hammered, and she found herself unfastening her leggings and dipping her fingers inside them. She sank fingers into the wetness between her legs then drew her hand out, fingertips sparkling with dew.
Calder caught her wrist, drew her hand to his mouth, and licked her fingertips.
Katarina dipped her other hand in and held it up. “Look,” she whispered. “I’m still wet.”
Calder took the offered hand, kissed her palm and closed his mouth over a finger.
Katarina’s knees weakened. She wanted to melt into a puddle, or maybe fall to her knees as she’d done in
his pleasure palace and rub her face on the arousal behind his leggings.
He licked her fingers from base to tip then kissed her palm again. “I didn’t tell you to touch yourself twice.”
“I couldn’t help it.”
“I don’t like disobedience. Take down your pants.”
Katarina stared at him. “Why?”
Calder’s eyes filled with blue. “You know why.”
Katarina let go of her loose waistband and her silk leggings pooled around her ankles. Calder wrapped his arm around her waist, pulled her the short distance to the bed, sat down, and bent her over his knee.
Katarina still wore underwear, but Calder yanked it down. He lightly caressed her buttocks with his gloved hand, then he pulled back and started spanking her.
She squealed and squirmed. It didn’t hurt exactly, with the glove instead of his bare hand, not even as much as when he’d done this in his lair. He rained quick spanks down on her, each one barely stinging, but feeling so good. Katarina started to laugh.
“I’m punishing you,” Calder said. “Stop laughing.”
She couldn’t. She screamed as Calder spanked harder, but the fun of it and the joy of having him here made her laugh again.
Calder lifted her from his lap and deposited her facedown on the bed. “Your ass is red.”
“It feels like it,” Katarina said, hugging her pillow. “Are you going to make it feel better, like you did before?”
“No, I’m going to punish you some more.”
Before she could ask how, Calder seized her ankles and dragged her legs apart. She felt his weight behind her, the warmth of him, the cool of the leather.
He jerked her hips up then buried his face between her legs.
Oh gods.
Calder licked her opening, parting the lips, kissing her there the same way he kissed her mouth. He plunged his tongue into her, a hot, wet, probing, beautiful tongue.
I want to die like this. Katarina wasn’t sure whether she thought the words or shouted them. Please don’t stop. Ever.
Calder let his tongue travel over her clit, caressing, stroking, suckling. He ran his tongue around her opening again and plunged back inside her.
Katarina’s mind whirled with thoughts she never dreamed before. She wanted him to pull out his cock, like he’d done in his apartment. She wanted to see it, touch it, taste it. She wanted it inside her.
His tongue kept moving, all over her pussy and between her buttocks. She wanted him to wet her ass then shove his cock in. She wanted him to slap her while he rode her, wanted to scream as she found beautiful climax.
“Calder,” she moaned. “Please. Will you . . .”
Calder lifted his head. He rolled her over on the small bed, then parted her legs again and pressed his large body between them. “Will I what?”
He was so strong, so heavy, and yet he didn’t crush her. His hands pinning her wrists were firm but not cruel.
She looked into his face, his eyes, which were blue and enormous. “Will you have intercourse with me?”
Calder stilled. “Intercourse.”
“Yes. I’m ready. Please.”
“You mean fucking.”
Katarina had grown used to Shareem and their crude speech enough that the well-bred lady inside her flinched only slightly. “Yes. Please.”
“Say it, then. Ask me to.”
Katarina longed to touch him but he held her wrists against the mattress. “Please, Calder, will you fuck me?”
“Why do you want me to?”
“Because I want to feel it. To feel you.”
“Feel what?”
Katarina swallowed. “Your cock. Your hard, long, beautiful cock. Fucking me.”
“Is that what you truly want, Katarina?”
“Yes.”
Calder let go of her and stripped off his gloves, then one hand went to her clit, massaging, stroking. Katarina rocked with his touch, words dying in her mouth. His thumb teased, his palm soothed—then he inserted two hard fingers into her pussy.
Katarina groaned. Calder stroked into her, his fingers opening her. She’d touched herself after she’d met Calder the first time, still did when she thought of him at night, but she’d never put her fingers all the way inside.
She was so wet that Calder’s fingers went in without restraint, and his palm pressed hard against her clit. Katarina arched to rub against his hand, loving the burning friction. After a few minutes, a third finger joined the first two, and the sensations spiraled.
Calder’s gaze on her was intense. His jaw locked as he stroked her, a though he put every bit of thought into what he did. She smelled his sweat and leather, felt the heat of his body. His groin bumped her thigh, his cock hot and hard though his clothes.
He wanted her as much as Katarina wanted him—his eyes and cock betrayed that. His breath came faster, scalding her cheek. She turned her head to face him as her pussy squeezed his fingers.
“Calder.”
Very slowly, he kissed her. The deliberate, leisurely heat of his mouth made her clamp down on his fingers. She found herself suckling his tongue, harder, faster, and his fingers moved in response.
She was still suckling when her climax came. She latched fingers onto his shoulders, her hips pumping of their own accord. The hot feeling went on and on, until Katarina couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, and didn’t care. She didn’t know what words she yelled or how hard she clutched him, but she couldn’t stop, and she couldn’t let go.
Calder’s eyes had filled entirely with blue, his body temperature now roasting hot. A Shareem fully aroused.
Katarina lifted to him, catching his lips between hers in little kisses. “Please, fuck me, Calder. Fuck me now. I need you to.”
Calder drew back a little, then he leaned to her, his satin smooth lips brushing hers. “No.”
“Wha...?”
Calder smoothed her pussy one more time then slowly withdrew his fingers. Katarina fell back to the bed, gasping and flooded with disappointment. She wanted to weep. “Why not?”
Calder lifted his fingers to his lips and unhurriedly licked them clean. “Has Braden fucked you?”
“No.”
“Has any other Shareem fucked you?”
“No.” Katrina took a deep breath, trying to gather her wits. Her voice was hoarse and tired. “I’m not a whore, Calder, thank you very much.” Not that she hadn’t just let him lick her pussy and her ass and bring her off with his fingers.
“If you’ve never been with a Shareem, you aren’t ready. I could hurt you. I’m way too big for you. Have you ever even done a human man?”
“No,” she said, her voice weakening. “Of course not.”
“You shouldn’t start on Shareem. Get yourself a human male and get used to it.”
Katarina struggled to sit up. Her body burned all over and felt wonderful at the same time. Calder’s eyes were still filled with blue, his cock rampant against his leggings. He wanted sex, that was certain. “Screw you. I don’t want another man, Calder. I want you.”
“That would be like falling into very deep water before you’d learned to swim.”
“I don’t want to have sex just for the experience.”
“No? Why the hell else would you want it?”
When Calder scowled, it pulled at the scars around his eyes. What would it be like if he smiled? He’d be beautiful then.
“I want to be with you. Not just for sex. For you.”
Calder drew back. “So many women want to be with me.”
In her anger, Katarina reached for words she’d heard Braden use. “You arrogant shit. Go be with them then!”
“That’s the wrong reaction, kitten. You’re supposed to threaten to scratch their eyes out. Or mine.”
Katarina folded her arms, trying to make her body calm down and stop wanting him. “You don’t care what I think anyway. Why should I demean myself by being jealous?”
He studied her as though he wasn’t sure how to respond—and she reali
zed in a flash that he didn’t. Calder didn’t have much experience with women.
Yes, he’d had scores of women wanting his level-three dominance, but no experience with simple conversation. Calder knew exactly what the women who craved him wanted, but he looked at Katarina now as though she spoke to him in an alien language.
“Why did you come here tonight?” she asked him. “Why did you, really?”
“To tell Braden to leave you the hell alone.”
“If you don’t want me, why shouldn’t I go to him?”
Calder’s face went hard. “Because I know him. He’ll use you then forget about you in the space of a day. Shareem sluts know this and accept it, but you . . .”
Katarina brushed his scarred cheek with her fingertips, and he didn’t jerk away this time. “You think he’ll hurt me.”
“You don’t understand Shareem, no matter how much you examine them in your clinic.”
“The only Shareem who can hurt me is you,” Katarina said quietly.
Calder regarded her in silence a moment, again probably not knowing how to respond. When he spoke, his voice was low and halting. “I can’t hurt you. I can only do as much as you tell me to.”
“I didn’t mean physically,” she said.
“Some women weep when I tell them their time is up.”
Cows. “Because they don’t want the pleasure to stop. That’s different.”
Calder pulled away. “Don’t make yourself believe you care for me. Don’t confuse obsession with caring.”
“Don’t confuse caring with pity.”
They stared at each other. Calder snarled and got off the bed.
“Wait.” Katarina reached for him. “Don’t go yet. Let’s not argue. I’d rather play, like we were.”
Calder leaned down, coving her with his body again. “I don’t want games with you, Katarina. What I want will be real and raw and more than you can handle.”
Katarina ran one finger along his jaw. “Try me.”
“I’m level three. You aren’t even ready for level one.” He jerked to his feet again, pivoted, and strode out of the room.
Katarina scrambled from the bed. “Calder.”
By the time she got her leggings on again, he’d opened the front door. Hot night air poured into the front room, competing with the faulty cooling system.
Tales of the Shareem, Volume 2 Page 8
