Acute disappointment bit her. “Why did you do that?”
“You’ve had enough for today, love.”
“No I haven’t.”
He smiled, but his eyes were cooling, receding to the normal blue. “I’m a level three Shareem, honey. You don’t know what you’re asking.”
“Will you tell me?”
“Don’t sound so eager.” He leaned down and kissed her forehead. “If I took you now, I’d hurt you. Some ladies like that, but you’re not ready for it.”
“I am ready.” She caught his hand, half sitting up. “I am ready, Rio, I feel it.”
“No, you’re not. I’m not going to hurt you now and undo everything I’ve done. Besides, I thought we’d have to get engaged if I did.”
Some of her happiness began to fade. “True, if I go back to Ariel.”
“Which is what you need to do. I’d love to keep you here as my sub—damn, you don’t know how much I’d love that. But you need to get back to princessing.”
“Yes.” Her worries came drifting to her once more. She tried to cling to the sanctuary Rio had given her, but knew it would disappear before long. She touched his arm, her fingers landing just below the chain on his biceps. “Thank you.”
He dangled the manacles from one hand, shouldered the whip with the other, and gave her a hot, bad-boy smile. “You’re welcome. Anytime.”
Keeping the smile in place, he turned and sauntered away from her, still stark naked, pausing a split second for the door to open for him.
Nella thought she had never seen anything more beautiful in her life than the tanned, tight form of Rio’s ass.
* * * * *
Rees and Talan, Baine told Rio as he pulled on his black leather tunic and leggings in the now-deserted mirrored room, had retired to their chamber. Rio had little doubt about what they were doing.
Dr. Laas, Baine went on, was in her lab, deep in research, and did not want to be disturbed. Dr. Ralston, he said dryly, was on her monitor right now, and the two were confabbing.
That was fine with Rio. He didn’t want to see anyone; he wanted to get himself as far away from Nella as he could before he threw his control to the wind and fucked her.
Going slow was a concept Rio didn’t understand. When a lady gave Rio the nod to proceed, Rio didn’t stop. That was why ladies sought him out, because they knew he wouldn’t stop, and they didn’t want him to.
Rio had seven different kinds of whips and floggers, a dozen different manacles, and several styles of collars. Each manacle and collar and whip did essentially the same thing, of course, but the slight variety that could be exciting.
A collar on Nella would look just perfect. A supple leather one, unadorned, with a slim silver chain hanging between her breasts.
He wished he had the money to buy her a gold collar studded with diamonds that would be fit for a princess. She would be his princess, his to command, his to pleasure. She could wear a thin black leather number, one that just covered her breasts and her sweet ass. Better still, she could be naked, only allowed to don clothes when he said.
He was hard again. Rio tightened the clasps of his leggings, telling his cock to behave itself. “How the hell do level ones do it?” he muttered.
The idea he’d had before drifted into his head again. He left the mirrored room, his cock still inflated and his imagination still spinning, found a console in a blue and yellow sitting room, and made a call.
* * * * *
“This is a first,” Aiden, a level one Shareem, said as he slid into the seat next to Rio in Judith’s bar half an hour later.
Judith brought him an ale, her gaze raking Aiden’s body. Her pheromones danced in the air, but she wasn’t directing them at Rio. Her eyes today were only for Aiden.
Even Rio had to admit that Aiden was something to look at, even if he was a measly level one. Blond and blue-eyed, Aiden had been face-sculpted at DNAmo, an experiment that hadn’t been extended to all Shareem. While Rio and Rees looked like naturally gorgeous men who worked out and took care of their bodies, Aiden had been bred to out-handsome every man on the street.
His brow, nose, chin and cheekbones were sculpted in perfect proportions. His jaw was square, his eyes a perfect almond shape, his hair golden and thick and swept back from his forehead. He dressed in a white sleeveless tunic, the kind Rees liked to wear, which showed off his well-muscled body.
Judith’s smile as she approached said she appreciated every molecule of him. “On the house,” she said, setting a self-cooling glass of ale in front of Aiden.
Aiden smiled back, a delight to see—if you were a woman.
“Hey,” Rio said, pretending to be hurt. “You made me hand over my credit slip.”
Judith flashed him a smirk. “I’ve given you so many free drinks, Rio, I’m surprised I’m still in business.”
“Because we’re friends,” Rio said.
“Bite me.” Judith grinned at Rio, then sent Aiden a sultry look. “That invitation is open to you too.”
Aiden chuckled, his Shareem voice low and sexy. “Tell you what. I’ll buy Rio’s and my next round.”
Judith rubbed his brawny shoulder before turning around to sway away. “See, Rio,” she said. “That’s what it’s like to be sweet.”
“Sweet,” Rio muttered. “What I’ve always dreamed of being, sweet.”
Aiden laughed and raised his glass. “To friends,” he said.
“Friends.” Rio lifted his glass in return and took a swig. “What did you mean this was a first?”
“A level three asking a level one for advice? What happened? Did your whip malfunction?”
“Stop it, I’m laughing so hard.” Rio set down his ale glass, licking the spicy ale from his lips in appreciation. “Here’s the thing. I’m sexy as hell, I have women crawling at my feet, begging me to whip them. I can make them orgasm just by looking at them and telling them they want to. What I don’t know how to do is—touch them.”
“What are you talking about? You touch them all the time.”
Rio shook his head. “No, I fuck them. I tease them. I spank them. I don’t touch them.”
Aiden gave him a nod. “I think I see what you mean. Who’s the woman?”
“A gorgeous, redheaded virgin.” He broke off. “I don’t know why, but she’s made me more turned on than I’ve ever been in my life.”
No, he did know why. She was beautiful and sweet and lickable and he wanted to fuck her and fuck her until he couldn’t take any more.
“Uh-oh,” Aiden said.
“What uh-oh? And wipe that grin off your face.”
“Sounds serious.”
“It doesn’t matter what it sounds like. I’m Shareem. She’s not. She’s new to this, and I’m too level three for her. She needs level one, and I can’t be that.”
Aiden drew a thoughtful finger around the rim of his glass. “So do you want me to take over?”
A dart of jealousy pulsed through Rio before he could stop it. But the thought of Aiden going to Nella and pleasuring her slowly made his veins burn.
“No,” he said, more emphatically than he meant to.
Aiden could have said something snide, but he didn’t. He simply took a drink of ale, his perfect throat moving in a swallow.
“What I want is for you to show me how to be level one,” Rio said.
Aiden looked surprised. “I don’t know if I can. We’re bred to our levels—we can’t change.”
“I know that. But you can at least teach me how to touch her like a level one might. Maybe I could hold back my level three tendencies, and leave her when they flare up.”
Aiden studied his ale glass, his dark lashes shielding his eyes. “You must really care about this lady.”
“She’s been through a lot. She needs soothing.”
Aiden’s gaze flicked to him. Aiden was usually a wisecracking pain in the ass, but today he seemed calm and thoughtful. “I can show you how to massage her. You’re Shareem, your fingers would be as
soothing as mine.”
The bar had emptied, the last customer swaying away. The door clanked loudly as Judith let it down. It was the hottest part of the day, when people drifted home and businesses closed to wait out temperatures that could soar to a hundred and thirty degrees.
“You want us to leave?” Aiden called.
“Are you kidding? Stay as long as you like.”
Judith liked Shareem. She was the only bartender in Pas City who did. Most women on Bor Narga shunned the forbidden Shareem, at least in public. Judith, on the other hand, liked Shareem, liked sex with Shareem, and didn’t much care who knew it. She and Dr. Laas and Talan were the only women he knew who treated Shareem like human beings.
Judith began her leisurely task of cleaning off tables, not in any hurry.
“There’s really not much to it,” Aiden began. “Start with her facedown, naked, on a bed wide enough for you to sit or kneel next to her. Have her place her arms to her sides, her legs a little apart. Then you simply start to massage her. Make sure you use plenty of oil so your hands glide and don’t burn her skin.”
“Start where?” Rio asked. He pictured Nella lying spread-eagled on the bed, facedown, her sweet ass beckoning him. He’d start between her thighs, thumbs kneading her flesh, before he moved them farther apart and lowered his tongue to stroke between her cheeks.
“Her feet.”
“What?” Rio jerked himself from his cock-lifting fantasy. “Her feet?”
“It relaxes her, makes her pliable. Women love having their feet rubbed.”
“Most women beg me to rub somewhere else than their feet.”
“They like their toes nibbled,” Aiden said. “And suckled.”
“Rub feet, suckle toes. Got it.”
“Do it slow, the strokes steady. Then move up her legs. Use her muscles as a guide. Not hard strokes, you want to soothe, not press.”
“How long before I can massage her pussy?”
Aiden chuckled. “Gods, level threes are impatient. The trick is to go slow. By the time you’ve reached her ass, she’s sighing with pleasure, but you don’t stop there. You do her entire back and arms while she’s longing for you to get to her pussy. Make her wait.”
“Now that I can get into. Holding back, making her beg.”
He saw Nella again, squirming on the sheets, her red hair tangled on the pillow, her hips lifting toward him. “Please, Rio,” she’d say.
“Not yet, baby,” he’d respond. “I want you good and wet before I get there.”
She’d whimper with disappointment, then he’d lift his strap and smack her sweet little backside.
No, wait. Not that, not yet.
He made the image dissolve. “Massage. Slow. I’m not sure my genes will let me.”
“Like this.”
Aiden moved his ale glass and pressed his hand to the table, thumb and last two fingers on the surface, the other two fingers held loosely. “Glide across her skin, pressing a little. Long strokes, following the curve of her leg.”
He moved his hand across the table, slowly and sensually, his own eyes becoming bluer, as though he pictured a beautiful woman under his hand.
Rio copied his movements, trying to shape his hand the same way, trying press a little, but not too much. It felt awkward.
“I gotta say, massaging this table does nothing for me.”
“Don’t worry, it’s a lot better on flesh. Here, roll up your sleeve.”
Rio pushed his leather sleeve above his elbow and laid his arm on the table, wondering what Aiden would do.
Aiden placed his hand on Rio’s, then slid massaging fingers from Rio’s wrist all the way up the underside of his arm, gliding and soothing.
He was a master, Rio had to give him that. His touch was exactly right, perfect, sensual, not too hard.
“Like that,” Aiden said. He stroked again. “It loosens her muscles, makes her relaxed and very happy. Here, try it on me.”
Aiden rested his bare, brawny arm on the table, tanned skin contrasting the scarred white tabletop.
Rio put tentative fingers on the other Shareem’s skin. Aiden’s arm felt nothing like a woman’s, too hard and too broad, the golden hair that curled around it too wiry. Rio moved his hand from Aiden’s wrist to his elbow, trying to copy what he’d felt.
Aiden shook his head. “Too hard.” He put his hand over Rio’s, guiding his fingers to the right form, pulling him back when Rio tried to indent his skin. “About half the pressure you’re using. Let her own muscles guide you, and whether the woman is small or large, and how much she indicates she can take.”
Aiden guided Rio’s hand a time or two more, then let go. Rio, more sure what Aiden wanted, slid his fingers up the other man’s arm, feeling the sinews relax beneath Aiden’s bronzed skin.
“That’s it,” Aiden said, his voice low. “Use her body to tell you how much pressure you need.”
“Hum,” Rio said. He kept massaging, feeling the shape of Aiden’s arm beneath his fingers, learning to sense where Aiden relaxed under his touch. His Shareem warmth helped, and so did Aiden’s, a sensation that was as soothing to the massager as to the massaged.
It was mesmerizing, really. Rio added his middle finger to the stroke, like he might do to Nella’s pussy, and Aiden responded with a soft noise.
“You got it,” he said, his Shareem voice rich.
Rio lifted his hand away and picked up his ale, pleased with the lesson. “Thanks. That will come in handy.”
He heard a soft noise close by and turned his head. Judith was standing numbly in front of the next table, a tray in her hands, staring at them, lips parted.
“What’s wrong with you?” Rio asked.
Aiden grinned at her and gave her a slow wink.
Judith blinked, unfroze, and moved woodenly back to the bar. “Nothing,” she said. “Nothing at all.”
Rio turned back to Aiden. “All right, so now I know how to massage. What else?”
“Have her turn over onto her back, and then do the same thing again. By this time, she’ll be completely happy and ready for anything you want. Another good thing is to hold her head in your lap and massage her face. That you have to do very gently.”
Rio set down his glass. “Show me.”
Aiden lifted his hands to his own face. “Use your thumbs and fingertips. Do the cheekbones, the temples—pulse points—and jawline. Gently. Here.”
He touched Rio’s face, his Shareem skin warm. Rio flinched.
“Relax and close your eyes.”
Aiden’s fingertips were blunt but featherlight on Rio’s skin. Rio, wanting the lesson, let his eyes drift closed.
Aiden traced Rio’s cheekbones with his thumbs, pressing a little, making Rio relax in spite of himself. He felt Aiden’s Shareem touch begin to flow over him, making him compliant, much as his own touch might work on a woman.
“You can do this when you’re face-to-face, like we are now,” Aiden said, rubbing little circles over Rio’s temples, “when things start getting more intimate. Move at random, don’t massage in any particular order. You want her to wonder what you’ll do next.”
“Mmm,” Rio said, getting into it. Maybe he could teach Nella how to massage him. Mutual massaging could be fun.
Aiden moved his thumbs and fingertips down Rio’s cheeks, gently pinching his jawbone, then his chin. He moved to Rio’s lips, pressing lightly all the way across, his touch soothing.
“You’ll want her lips relaxed and yielding,” Aiden said, his warm breath touching Rio’s mouth. “She’ll have no worry, at this point, only pleasure. She’ll want you, but she’ll wait for you to do what you like.”
Rio felt his shoulders sag, Aiden’s technique and Shareem touch lacing his mind with relaxation. He never thought he’d feel comfortable having another male touch him, but Aiden knew what he was doing.
Aiden slid one finger across Rio’s softened lips, parting them. The next thing Rio felt was something softer than fingers, something smooth and cushionin
g that continued the massage across his mouth.
His own lips responded before the connection reached his brain. He returned the gentle pressure, completing the kiss, then his eyes popped open to see Aiden’s beautiful face hanging an inch from his own.
Rio scooted back from the table. “Did you just kiss me?”
Aiden picked up his ale, smiling, his Shareem eyes filled with blue. “Yes. What’s your problem?”
“My problem is you just kissed me.” Rio swiped his arm over his mouth.
Aiden sat there looking amused. “I was demonstrating what you should do.”
“Warn me next time.”
“Get over it, Rio. I didn’t hurt you.”
“You could have.” He touched his lips gingerly, as though making sure they were all right, while Aiden laughed at him.
“It looked fine from where I’m standing.” Judith was leaning on the bar, a forgotten rag dripping in her hand. Her rushing pheromones touched Rio all the way across the room.
He studied her, his mind calming. “You know, that turned her on,” he said to Aiden.
Aiden nodded. “I’ve had more than one woman tell me she fantasizes about watching two Shareem make out in front of her.”
“Really?” Rio’s heartbeat slowed, his Shareem genes fighting the abrupt emotion of alarm. “I’ve never heard that. Of course, the women I’m with don’t have much time to talk.”
“That’s part of being level one. Sharing fantasies.”
Rio took a thoughtful sip of ale. “That’s really a woman’s fantasy?”
“Yep.”
“Have you ever fulfilled it?”
“No. Not yet.”
“It’s forbidden, anyway,” Rio said automatically. He turned his ale glass around. It was nearly empty, but Judith seemed incapable of movement, so he didn’t signal for a refill. “We were programmed to want women only.”
Aiden gave him a wry look. “Forbidden. Right. How many other things that are forbidden do you do anyway?”
Rio conceded this. “You have a point.”
“It’s not you I’d fulfill the fantasy with, so don’t worry.”
Now that his initial shock was over, Rio started to get curious. “Who then? What Shareem do you think is beautiful enough to go to bed with?”
Rio Page 9
