Aiden and Ky

by Allyson James

  “So this is how the rich travel,” Aiden said, returning the crystal goblet to its holder.

  He sat back again, smothering a yawn. “Sorry. I always fall asleep in trains.”

  “Except yesterday,” Brianne said.

  Aiden grinned, his eyelids drooping. “I had something fun to do yesterday.”

  Ky said nothing. He leaned his shoulder against the wall and blatantly looked out the window. Most people’s eyes flickered as they tried to focus on things rushing past a train, but Ky’s remained fixed.

  Aiden yawned again. His eyes closed and he slumped onto Ky’s shoulder and was soon snoring softly. Ky sat in silence, not looking at Brianne.

  The train swayed on its hover track, buffeted by wind left over from last night’s sandstorm. Aiden swayed with it, lost in sleep, his blond hair falling loose to Ky’s lap.

  When Ky turned his head and looked down at his friend, his face softened. The look was almost imperceptible but Brianne, studying every nuance of Ky, saw it.

  “You care for him, don’t you?” she asked.

  Ky flicked his gaze to her. His eyes looked almost normal now, irises no longer expanded in arousal. But Shareem eyes would never be quite “normal”. They were larger than most men’s and made to shine with seductiveness, to pin a woman in place at all times.

  Ky did not answer, and Brianne went on. “That is why you are so angry with me.

  For getting him arrested and putting him in danger.”

  “Aiden is my friend.”

  The harsh words dragged out of him. Aiden slept on, eyes heavy and closed.

  “I read that Shareem didn’t have emotions,” Brianne said. “Or not much anyway.

  But that’s wrong, isn’t it?”

  He scowled at her. “Why were you reading about Shareem?”

  “Because I know nothing about them. My ignorance of you almost got you killed.

  That makes me feel ashamed.”

  She wanted to tell him, I learned, I understand, I want to help, but his forbidding gaze made her close her lips.

  “All Shareem were nearly killed twenty years ago because of d’Aroths,” Ky said.

  “They shut down the labs, threatened to terminate the lab rats.”

  “I know. That’s why I’m ashamed.”

  He studied her from under lowered brows, his mouth a grim line. Last night he’d spanked her and kissed her and touched her. He’d wanted to chastise her, punish her the only way he knew how.

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  Aiden had been there for pleasure alone. He’d forgiven Brianne already, she sensed, but maybe Ky never would.

  “You care for him,” she repeated. “Why shouldn’t you?”

  Ky studied Aiden’s head against his shoulder. “Because it’s forbidden.” He said it like she ought to know that.

  “To care?”

  Ky transferred his gaze to the empty landscape outside the window. “To fall in love with another Shareem.” He gave a harsh laugh. “We wouldn’t pay much attention to anyone else if we did, would we? We’d be lost in each other. And the designers didn’t want that.”

  “Because you were supposed to please other people.”

  “Because they’d have lost money.” His voice grated. “We please everyone but ourselves.”

  “That doesn’t mean you don’t care.”

  He sat still, a large man in black leather, his dark hair still damp. They’d stayed in a place with a primitive water shower, she realized, while she’d had sterilizers and a soft bed.

  “Why should you care what Shareem feel about each other?” he growled. “Or are you going to write a research paper? What I saw Shareem do with each other in a train?”

  She flushed. “I would never do that. What happened between us last evening is private.”

  “Is it? Or will your bodyguards arrest us when we get off the train for daring to touch your pristine body?”

  “It was my choice. I had to give you permission to touch me.”

  “Would the patrollers believe that? They’d rather think of us as walking menaces to women.”

  “Then why did you take the risk?” she flared. “Why entice me to the train?”

  He grinned briefly, and she saw a flash of what he was really like—intelligent and good-humored when he wasn’t angry. “It was worth it.”

  “Because you wanted to punish me.” She drew a breath. “I know you see me as an upper-class bitch, but I want you to believe I would never betray you. What we did yesterday will hold a special place in my heart. Please, let’s leave it like that. It was…”

  She flushed. “It was wonderful. You knew once I had a taste of Shareem I’d always crave it and know I couldn’t have it, but you made me feel wonderful. Wanted.” She paused. “Thank you.”

  “You sure you mean thank you, not fuck off?”

  “Very sure.”

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  Ky looked her up and down, a scrutiny that took in every line of her, every defect, every flaw. In spite of herself she felt his chemistry touch her, relaxing her when she wanted to remain tense.

  “You’re not like I thought you’d be.” He sounded grudging.

  “What did you think I’d be like?”

  Again the once-over. She might be the highborn woman, member of the ruling family and he a slave in all but name, but he had the upper hand here and he knew it.

  He filled the first-class compartment not only with his muscular body and his Shareem chemistry, but with his glittering eyes, his voice, his power.

  “I thought you’d be spoiled. Petulant. An upper-class bitch, like you said.”

  The words stung and so did the look. “I suppose I can’t blame you. I try not to let how I was raised make me insensitive, but it probably does without me realizing it.”

  Ky grunted. “Must be hell being rich and pampered.”

  “I can’t help what I was born to be any more than you can.”

  He slanted her an ironic glance. “Sure. You can say to hell with this and move off-planet any time you want. People will be pissed at you, but they won’t try to kill you.”

  Brianne thought of her grandmother’s steely eyes and thought of the admonishing messages she’d receive if she embarrassed the family by turning her back on them.

  “Perhaps not, but there’d still be repercussions.”

  “If you’re trying to tell me we’re just alike, you lose. You were raised in a glittering palace. I was I was raised in a hellhole.”

  “DNAmo?”

  “That’s the one. We ate the healthiest foods and were treated like priceless art, but it was still a hellhole.”

  “What was it like? I want to know.”

  His eyes glittered. She felt old anger radiate from him, old pain that time hadn’t erased. “What do you want to hear about? Growth acceleration so you matured in five years instead of twenty? Then slowed way down? When it killed Shareem too weak to handle it, the scientists said, Oh well, bring in the next batch.”

  She looked at him, appalled. “That’s horrible.”

  “Yeah, especially when it was someone who’d been your friend.” His voice softened a notch. “Then tests, people watching you to see how you react, more tests.”

  “Physical tests?”

  She imagined the kind of tests Shareem might be put through—strength, endurance, honing of muscles, bodies working and sweating. Sexual tests too. What enticed them, what didn’t, what they could do to women. Being a researcher there must have been—interesting.

  “And psychological ones,” Ky went on, his look somber. “What you do if you’re kept in isolation. If someone you grow to like is taken away from you.”

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  “Some people might call that torture,” she said indignantly.

  “You might. DNAmo called it science.”

  She drew a sharp breath. “It was wrong.”

  “You think?”

  “Perhaps t
hat was why DNAmo was shut down. Enough people objected to what they were doing.”

  He shook his head. “It was shut down because stiff-necked d’Aroth women couldn’t face what DNAmo was making. Men who might make women succumb to sexual desires. When they disapproved, the investors started to lose money and so did DNAmo.” He made a dismissive gesture. “So we had to go.”

  “I’m sorry.” She felt silly saying it, because she’d been a child when DNAmo had been shut down and the Shareem experiments outlawed. She’d had nothing personally to do with it closing, but he was right, women in her family had made the recommendation. She’d seen the d’Aroth name on the reports concerning DNAmo’s closure and decisions on what to do with the Shareem.

  “Stop apologizing,” Ky said. His eyes softened, and she felt his pheromones touch her as though he were trying to soothe her. “You paid us back last night. We’re square.

  We’re done.”

  “Because I let you coerce me onto the train?”

  To her surprise he gave her a small smile. It was incredible how a smile warmed his face.

  “No, sweetheart, that was for you.”

  “I thought—you were punishing me.”

  “I was.” The smile turned sinful. “Punishing you a little. But I’m Shareem. It’s programmed into me to make you feel pleasure, no matter how much I want to punish.

  It almost killed me to tease you and walk away. You found release twice. I had to hold it in a while.”

  Her gaze dropped to his leather-covered lap. “Why did you walk away? Why didn’t you release?”

  His smile remained though his eyes were watchful. “Would have spoiled everything, wouldn’t it?” he said in a voice that snaked through her senses. “You were bad and we wanted to discipline you a little. But you got us back, sweetheart. We were dying for you.”

  His blue irises started to widen. Arousal. Which made warmth pool in her belly, her quim soften. What was he saying? They’d been so calm and cool walking away from her last night that she’d never dreamed she’d turned them on.

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  “You like to apologize.”

  She flushed. “You make me feel so guilty. You’re a master at it.”

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  “Only because I’m level three. The punisher. I want you to want your punishment.”

  She rubbed her damp palms over her thighs, resisting the urge to push her fingers between her legs. She wet her lips and asked softly, “How would you punish me right now?”

  She sensed Ky’s attention home in on her, his anger fading under growing heat.

  “Bold lady, aren’t you?”

  “I want to be.”

  “Are you sure?”

  She nodded.

  “Why?”

  She nibbled her lip at the question, her temperature rising as his gaze riveted to her mouth. “You gave me such pleasure yesterday. I want to learn how to give pleasure in return.”

  The air in the compartment was very still as he stared at her with his filling blue gaze. “What would you do with your lesson once you learn it?”

  “I’m not sure. But I want to learn.”

  “Aiden’s a better teacher than me. He can be gentle.”

  She shook her head. “No. I want you.”

  He studied her another moment, his gaze arrested. Then he abruptly loosened the catches of his leather leggings. “All right, if you want it so bad, come here and get on your knees.”

  He pulled open his fly, then rose up long enough to slide his pants down his legs.

  Brianne stared in shock at his lap, at the dark shaft that lay hard and full against his abdomen. For a full minute she couldn’t speak, trapped in her first true look at a man’s sex.

  “You know how to kneel, don’t you?” he asked, voice grating.

  Brianne glanced at Aiden but the other man continued to sleep, his legs stretched out, his head firmly on Ky’s shoulder. Slowly she gathered up her layers of robes and knelt in front of Ky’s spread thighs.

  His cock lay there, huge and hard, waiting for her. She stared at it in fascination.

  She’d learned something about male organs from school, but the physiology teacher had skimmed over the lesson, implying that men were ashamed they had such things attached to their bodies. Brianne had never seen real bare male flesh, and she suspected the teacher never had either.

  Shareem had been enhanced to be longer than a normal man and a large handful around. A tight fit, but the way her sex ached now she imagined it opening easily for him to slide inside. His tip was dark, the staff a slightly lighter color, his balls tight and high and surrounded by wiry curls. She could look at him for hours and never get tired.

  She swallowed. “I’m not sure what to do.”

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  “I’ll teach you, love. That’s what Shareem are for.”

  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw his hand stretch to the controls that turned off the privacy on the windows leading to the corridor.

  Brianne gasped and glanced over her shoulder, expecting a dozen people to be peering in to see what they were up to. “What are you doing? Someone might come.”

  “There’s no one else in the car,” Ky said, his voice quiet. “And if there are, maybe they’ll see you, a highborn woman, bent over my cock. Maybe they’d watch.”

  Her face scalded. “I can’t.”

  “You wanted punishment, Brianne. If you refuse this, just imagine what I’ll think of next.”

  Brianne had no idea what he could think of, but her heart raced and her quim tightened at his words. “All right. But if anyone does see—you can’t let on who I really am. The journalists would make a meal of me.”

  “Fair enough. Now kiss me.”

  She started to raise her face to his lips, but he laced his fingers in her hair and gently guided her to his cock. She liked the scent of it, male desire. Daringly she nuzzled the tip then kissed it.

  His cock jumped and Ky made a small noise of pleasure. Brianne flicked out her tongue to taste him and found she liked the smooth sleekness of his tip, the taste of the ridge that curved around it.

  “Suck me,” Ky said, voice ragged. “Put your mouth over it and suck.”

  Brianne drew a breath then opened her mouth wide and slid it over him.

  * * * * *

  Ky let out a groan. Brianne’s innocent questing was perfect. Her hot little tongue, her eager tasting, the experimental way she sucked him between her lips made his cock hot and happy.

  He threaded his fingers through her sleek brown hair and raised his hips, willing her to take as much of him in her mouth as she could.

  “That’s it, sweetheart. Suck me.”

  She did, sending sweet sensations through him. His pulse pounded, the sight of her dark head bowed over his lap, her pale fingers clenching his thighs making him want to release right away.

  Not yet. Let me savor this.

  His world was turning upside down. His Shareem life had been fairly simple—he knew his boundaries. Share a woman with Aiden, walk away. Have a drink at Judith’s bar, share another woman.

  Sometimes the women gave them gifts for their attentions, generous ones if they were rich. Sometimes they couldn’t, and he and Aiden pleasured them anyway. Hell, 54

  Aiden and Ky

  those encounters stolen in the back of Judith’s bar or in a working woman’s tiny flat were the best of all.

  He and Aiden shared a good camaraderie. He could count on Aiden. They no longer had to speak to know what the other wanted to do, whether it was watching sports on the digitals or what they would do next while pleasuring a woman.

  The day before yesterday had changed all that. When Ky discovered Aiden was arrested and likely to be terminated, he suddenly realized he couldn’t live without Aiden. Didn’t ever want to live without Aiden. The pain of that bothered him. He realized he’d taken Aiden for granted all this time, his friend and cohort always b
y his side.

  And this woman—this rich bitch—had been the cause of him nearly losing Aiden forever.

  He’d wanted to punish her, to make her feel the hurt and panic he’d felt. But she’d turned beautiful brown eyes up to him and said, “I’m sorry,” sincerity and innocence in every word.

  She’d taken his punishment without flinching. She had spirit and guts. The pretty face he’d seen on the digitals had strength beneath it.

  He’d already forgiven her, but she didn’t need to know that. When she’d discovered their arrest, she’d leapt to help them. She could have left them in jail to rot, sent them to termination with a smile on her face.

  But her distress had been real, and she’d bent over backwards to help them.

  Mmm, bent over backwards. There’ s a good thought.

  He loved the feel of her hair under his fingers, her small tongue struggling to circle all of his big tip. Sweet, sweet woman.

  She’d make a lovely submissive. He imagined her in nothing but a collar, a slim silver chain hanging from it, her wrists encased in soft leather cuffs. She’d carry it off well, with her long thick hair cascading down her bare back, tangling around her aroused, tight nipples.

  The heat in his cock flared, lifting toward her mouth. He’d gently wrap the chain around his hand and hold her in place while she sucked him, then he’d instruct her to get on her hands and knees while he pleasured her.

  A Shareem’s job was to make her enjoy every second of her time with him. She surrendered to him fully, and he made every minute worthwhile.

  Many women didn’t know they liked being a sub until they were bound and at Ky’s mercy. Then their eyes softened and they begged for him to spank them, begged for him to take control, as Brianne had last night. They learned what it was to surrender, and he made sure they loved it.

  Aiden stirred, probably aroused by all the pheromones flying through the air. He turned his warm head on Ky’s shoulder and glanced down at Brianne.

  “Mmm,” he said. “Nice.”

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