Why did I have to fall for a complete jackass?
Braden came up behind him and draped an arm over his shoulder. “You look like you could use a dip in cold water, my friend. Hit the baths?”
Aiden tried to pull himself together. “Sure.” Nice soothing water, maybe a massage, maybe a willing voyeur who’d agree to a plain old-fashioned fuck.
He stopped the thought, realization pouring over him. The only lady his imagination had him touching and spreading was Brianne.
Hell.
His heart beat faster as he pictured her lying beneath him, her body scented with the oils he’d rubbed on her. Her eyes would be heavy with desire, her pussy moist for him, her lips curved into a smile.
His wayward imagination put Ky into the scene, Ky angling his cock to fit Aiden’s mouth while Aiden fucked Brianne.
Damn it. He had to quit wanting what he couldn’t have. Stupid to think Ky would go for anything so satisfying as a relationship and that Brianne would want two Shareem screwing up her life more than they already had.
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He needed to be like Braden— sex and more sex, as long as the lady’ s willing. Or Calder— give them what they crave deep inside themselves and then never see them again.
Rees had given in to his heart and was bound now to a sweet-faced lady called Talan. And Rio, the bastard, had married a princess on Ariel, far away from the rocky heat of Bor Narga. Lucky Shareem.
Aiden would ask Rio if he could come to Ariel. The princess was trying to allow Shareem to immigrate there unilaterally, but the wheels of government were slow even on enlightened Ariel. Aiden could blast off Bor Narga and leave the complications of being Shareem behind. Those complications included Ky and the heartache that had started inside him.
If Braden noticed Aiden’s whirling thoughts, he made no sign. “Let’s go. Coming, Calder?”
Calder, in the shadows, shook his head and glanced at Judith.
“I see,” Braden said. “Hey, we know when we’re superfluous. After you, Aiden.”
Braden was trying to ease the tension he sensed with his Shareem abilities, Aiden knew, but it wasn’t working. Still fuming, Aiden fell into step with him as they turned to the hot streets, leaving the cool bar behind.
* * * * *
Judith cleared tables as customers drifted away to their evening meals. As the sun set, dimming the street outside, the bar grew quieter and her nervousness increased.
Calder remained in the shadows, nursing his ale, shaking his head ever so slightly when she offered him more. He did nothing frightening, yet he radiated a danger she didn’t understand.
What would it be like to be with him?
She’d heard ladies in the bar talk of it. They called him The Beast and agreed that an experience with him was like no other, but they were frustratingly vague about the details. If Judith asked point-blank, the lady would grow quiet and maybe give a little shiver.
Judith understood the shivering. While she enjoyed bantering with Braden, she couldn’t imagine teasing this dark, silent man whose hard blue eyes took in every move she made.
As the last customer waved and said good evening, Judith plucked up her courage.
Her customers would return after supper and her bar would be full again until the small hours of the morning.
She approached the table, cloth in hand, and started to wipe it down. “Anything else?” she asked lightly. “Ale? Wine? Fellatio?”
Calder’s massive hand fell on her wrist like a manacle. “Close the bar.”
“Why?” Her voice shook. “You’re leaving?”
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“No, I’m staying.”
“Oh.” She swallowed, straightening slowly until he took his hand from hers. “I told you I can’t afford you.”
“You can’t afford to come to me. So we’ll stay here.”
Her heart beat in strange, bumping strokes. “Why would you do that?”
“You are kind to Shareem. I can appreciate that.”
Their gazes met, his hard and blue. She felt her nipples tingle, liquid pool in her quim. “Why do I get the feeling I should say no?”
“You may say no, and I will go. If you say yes, you allow me to do whatever I wish to you for a period of two hours. After that I will go and not touch you again.”
Judith exhaled slowly, her mind turning over what he might mean by whatever I wish. “And in those two hours, I can ask you to stop, or I can say a safety word?”
He slowly shook his head, the cloths that half covered his face moving. “No safety words, no stopping.”
She clenched the dishcloth, her nails digging into her palms. She’d done many things with Shareem, from sensual stroking to hardcore bondage. She’d acted as a slave and on one occasion let five Shareem have her one after the other.
But in every encounter, even the most exotic, she’d known in her heart that her Shareem would never hurt her. They gave her pleasure and demanded nothing in return. She trusted them.
This Shareem, the one who’d been broken and ruined, was different. How brave was she, really?
But she knew she’d never have another chance to be with him. Some women saved for years to gain admittance to his palace of pleasure. If she walked away from this chance, she’d never forgive herself.
Her heart raced. “All right. I’ll do it.”
“Go close the doors.”
Shakily Judith crossed the room and pulled the storm door over the faded red awnings. She’d installed no windows because insulating glass was too expensive and the Bor Nargan sun too intense to let pour through non-insulated windows. Once she closed the door, they were shut into a cool, dim cave.
When she turned back she saw that Calder had risen from his seat and moved to the bar, though she’d never heard him cross the room.
“Are you going to show me what you do in your pleasure palace?” she asked, trying to keep the tremble from her voice.
“No, you have limited space here. But I will show you the heart of it.” He flicked a switch behind the bar and plunged them into darkness.
Judith froze. She couldn’t hear him or see him, and the sensation unnerved her.
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She jumped when his strong hand came down on her shoulder. She could see only a huge shadow and the faint glitter of his eyes, but she could feel the warm bulk of him, smell the scent of leather and Shareem.
He slid his hand to the nape of her neck and put his mouth against her ear. “What do you truly wish, Judith? Deep down in your heart?”
Her heart right now was flip-flopping, and she had no idea.
“You’ll tell me,” he said. “Before we are finished, in this space of time, you will tell me what you truly want.”
“But I don’t know what I want.” Except for you to keep touching me.
“You will learn. We will learn together.”
His hand tightened on her neck then she felt a cool leather strap encircling her throat. His eyes burned in the darkness, and she had the strangest sense he could read her thoughts, even those she hid from herself.
What don’ t you want me to see, Judith? It was Calder’s voice, but not harsh and broken as when it came through his throat.
“I—”
Her words were cut off as Calder swept her legs out from under her. She landed on her back on the hard floor and he crouched over her, one knee ruthlessly pinning her.
Judith tried to squirm away and couldn’t. As Calder’s large hands ripped her shirt open from neck to navel, she started to scream…
* * * * *
Brianne lay her head in her hands, elbows on the clear glass top of her desk. She wore a body-skimming silk dress, having thrown off her more formal clothes when she came home from the interviews. She couldn’t stand to be dressed as a responsible member of the ruling family right now.
The silk felt good against her skin, nothing hampering her. This was Bria
nne as herself, nothing more.
The deed was done, the engagement over. She’d told Dranis the night before that she could not continue with the bargain of marrying him. He’d taken it badly.
Badly was an understatement. He’d started by jumping up from the table where they’d been eating dinner and throwing his glass of wine across the room. Brianne had stared in shock, never having seen Dranis show any kind of emotion before.
He’d started raving about suing her and her family for breach of promise, then he’d sneered that she’d turned into a Shareem whore.
Brianne had frozen in place, wondering how he’d found out about her train rides with Aiden and Ky. But as he’d rampaged on she realized he was only talking about her seeing Aiden in the coffee bar.
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What happened there, Brianne? he’d snarled. Did you let the animal touch you? Is that why you released him from jail, because you like animals?
Dranis’s face had been purple, his eyes bulging, and she’d thought he’d get violent.
Her guards had registered her distress on her body monitors and rushed in to see what was going on.
The bodyguards had to escort Dranis from the room, from her apartments and from the compound. Then had come the official announcement, the statement read in the formal enclosed garden on the other side of the compound. The hundreds of cameras in her face, the reporters eager to be first with the story.
She’d read her statement—which her grandmother’s staff had vetted, making at least a hundred changes before they’d let her say anything—and refused to answer any questions.
Dranis m’ Aren and I were not a compatible fit for lifemates, and I made the decision to let him pursue his own interests.
The inevitable questions were screamed at her. Did you have a fight? Did your grandmother tell you to break up? Did it have anything to do with the Shareem arrested for molesting you?
She’d turned and walked back to the safety of the compound as though she didn’t hear the questions.
It had everything to do with the Shareem, but not in the way the reporters thought.
Aiden and Ky had opened her eyes, not only to her sexual feelings but to how narrow her life was in truth.
Brianne d’Aroth gave to charities and helped the downtrodden, but she did so from a safe distance, from inside her guarded compound. She didn’t know the people she helped or even if she truly helped them.
She’d known in the back of her mind that Shareem existed and were treated as less than human, but she’d never bothered to investigate what their lives were really like.
They were basically slaves, genetically bred to want nothing more than to give a woman the best sex possible. If their lives were empty besides that, they shouldn’t care.
Their ability to feel deep emotion had been taken from them, in order to keep them under control.
But they did care, and they did hurt, and they resented that they were treated like crap. Powerful Brianne d’Aroth hadn’t done a thing about it, but that would change, starting now.
She’d never known it was possible to feel affection for Shareem, to wonder what they did when they weren’t with her, to want to make their lives better. She’d seen that Ky cared for Aiden and knew that Aiden, for all his carefree attitude, cared for Ky.
Brianne wanted to make sure they could enjoy their deepening friendship in peace.
The door to her inner apartment slid open. “I said I don’t want any visitors,” she snapped without looking up.
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“I convinced them to let me in.”
Brianne raised her head with a gasp. Ky leaned against the doorframe, his long body taut, his blue eyes giving her a measuring stare.
She stood up. “No one told me you were here.”
“I asked them not to.”
She couldn’t imagine her curt head guard Harbourgh taking orders from a Shareem. Then again, if Harbourgh thought Ky’s request was in Brianne’s best interest, he’d let him in. Harbourgh had his own ideas.
“What do you want?”
Ky walked across the room, his stride slow, never moving his gaze from her. He halted next to her and twined strong fingers through her hair, forcing her to look up at him.
His face was granite hard, no softening for her. She realized she was looking at the level three, the male Dom, the real Ky. He leaned down and spoke into her ear, voice hard.
“A master always punishes his sub when she’s done something bad.”
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Chapter Eight
New Sensations
Brianne’s eyes widened. “Something bad?”
Ky’s strong fingers loosened her hair from the tight coiffure she hadn’t combed out yet. Locks of brown hair fell to her shoulders and slithered down her back.
“Did you ask me before you broke off your engagement?” Ky said. “Did I give you my permission?”
She looked at him in confusion. “What? That had nothing to do with you.”
“Don’t lie to your master. Spankings are hardest for lies.”
Warmth pooled at the base of Brianne’s spine. “I’m not lying. I would have broken it off with Dranis even if I hadn’t met you…”
She faltered. Would she really have done so? Or would she have continued lying to herself, saying that marrying him was best for herself and her house?
Ky drew one finger down her cheek. “The reporters made the connection between Shareem and your decision. I made the connection. I’m betting Dimwit m’Aren made the connection.” He brushed his thumb across her lower lip. “Why did you break it off, Brianne?”
Her throat squeezed, dry. “I had to. It wasn’t fair to him.”
Ky’s fingers closed around her chin. “Why did you break it off, Brianne?”
“I told you. I could no longer go through with it. I couldn’t let him marry me.”
“You’re lying again. You didn’t break it off for him. You did it for your own selfish needs.”
Her anger flared. “Very well, I loathe him. I’ve always loathed him but I didn’t realize it. He’s petty, narrow-minded and selfish. He calls you an animal and is disgusted by you when you are ten times the man he is.”
“I’m not a man.” Ky withdrew his touch but did not step away. “Neither is Aiden.
You’re throwing away everything you have for Shareem grown in a vat, who don’t care about you one way or another.”
“Do you think that matters?” She glared up at him. “Do you believe I broke off my engagement so I could tell you ‘I’ve fallen in love with you, let’s shack up’?”
“That would have been even stupider.”
She tried to ignore the sting his words caused. “Whether you or Aiden speak to me again doesn’t matter. I’m surrounded by people who were willing to kill Aiden for even looking at me, and you for trying to help him. I have the power to try to change that 69
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and I will use it. And I can’t have a husband who curls his lip at Shareem and undermines my work behind my back.”
She ran out of breath. Ky watched her, eyes still, the power of him making her want to back up a step. She held her ground.
“So you’re not doing this for me,” he said. “But for all Shareem.”
“Yes. Talan d’Urvey does what she can, but she hasn’t got the power base that I do.
I’m in the ruling family. She has the wealth, she understands Shareem, and I have the power. Think of what we can do together.”
A muscle in his jaw twitched. “You plan to turn the Ministry of Non-Human Life Forms upside down? To give Shareem the same rights as other Bor Nargans?”
She nodded. “Is that so bad?”
“Very admirable. If you can do it.” He moved to her again, fingers in her now-loose hair. “But you’re still lying.”
“About what?”
“Your motives. You are still lying to me, and you’re
lying to yourself. But if you want to save Shareem, sweetheart, let me show you what Shareem really are.”
Her heart thudded. “I know what you are. I was with you and Aiden on the train.”
He traced her cheek, his fingers light, but she could tell his gentleness was forced. “I was being nice to you because Aiden was there. He likes it when I’m nice.”
“Where is Aiden?” she asked nervously. “I thought you were a team.”
“I like to work alone on occasion. Like this one.”
“You came here to berate me.”
“No.” His fingers moved over her eyelids, down her cheek, traced her lips. “I came here to teach you about Shareem. About level threes. Do you know the ancient saying, In for a penny, in for a pound?”
“I’ve heard it. I’m not certain what it really means.”
“Your adoring fans likely believe that you had an affair with a Shareem. So why not have one all the way? We gave you a taste, now really sink your teeth in.”
She swallowed. “Why do you want me to?”
“To show you what you’re trying to save.” He tilted her face up to him with strong fingers. “Halfhearted efforts will only make it worse for us. You need to know everything about us. You have to truly want to free us or walk away.”
“Why would you try to change my mind? Don’t you want to be free?”
His smile was feral. “I do, darling. But I want your efforts to be sincere. Are you willing to be my sub, Brianne? Are you willing to find out if this is really what you want?”
“To let you be—my master?”
“You know a little about it, do you?”
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“I’ve been reading.”
“You’re precious, Brianne.”
She gave him a hard look. “I am a determined woman. You won’t break me that easily.”
His voice softened a notch. “I don’t want to break you, love. I want to educate you.
Are you willing to let me teach you?”
He needed her permission to begin. Shareem were powerful, but their lady had to say they wanted it or they couldn’t touch her.
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