“I really wanted to use the cream,” Rees said as they entered the bathroom.
He still held Talan’s hand and felt her trembling. That had been close.
Thank the gods he had noted the placement of the door and window control panels when they’d gone into the garden in the first place. He always took note of control panels in case a sudden storm blew in and he needed to get to the nearest shelter.
Talan hadn’t known where to go. She’d been blundering into the middle of the garden when he’d caught her.
He watched Talan shake the sand out her skirts. The sandstorm had been a blessing in disguise, because Rees, in the garden, had lost control.
Sha reem never lost control. It’s our gift, Rio had said. Rio was always in control. Whenever Rees and Rio shared a lady, Rio was always master.
Rees let him for his own reasons. Rio decided whether he would watch while Rees fucked, or whether Rees would offer his cock to the lady’s mouth while Rio took her from behind. Rio was always in charge.
No matter what they actually did, it was all about control. The lady in question surrendered control, which was what was so exciting about the Sha reem. She surrendered herself to Rio and his exotic moods—or to Rees, who was unpredictable.
Rio always took control because he knew what would happen if Rees did.
In the garden, Rees had wanted Talan so bad, he’d have hurt her to get it. She’d gotten excited and started begging him, but that was just her biochemistry going crazy in reaction to his.
If the sandstorm had not pulled him back to sanity, Rees would have fucked her and fucked her, then put her under his arm and dragged her off home with him and kept her there.
His woman, to fuck when he wanted, kiss when he wanted, put his arms around when he wanted.
In the holo-block weeks ago, he’d wanted that too. He hadn’t been simply reacting to her pheromones. He’d wanted her. He had to be insane.
Thank gods the sandstorm had hit.
Now he was back in control. This was his room, his job, his rules, no matter how much she smiled at him.
He locked the door, picked her up, and dumped her into the flowing stream.
She squealed. She scrambled up, lifting her dripping skirts. “My dress will get all wet.”
He didn’t laugh. “It’s all sandy. What’s the difference?”
“Don’t you want me to take it off?”
“I want you to pull up your skirts and sit down.”
She looked bewildered. “Why?”
“I told you not to ask questions. Obey me and sit down.”
She smiled a little and plopped into the stream, her skirts above her hips.
His pulse sped. She sat square in the water, her sweet ass all wet and waiting for him.
He pulled his sand-ruined tunic from his body and tossed it on the floor. Naked, he straddled the stream, one foot on either side of it, and looked down at her. “It’s too bad about the cream,” he said softly. “But we don’t really need it.”
“I can send to the kitchens for more.”
Gods, what a woman. “Shut up and spread your legs.”
She did. She held the skirt bunched on her stomach. The water flowed past her legs, wetting her cunt. Droplets glittered like jewels in her red hair.
“You have a pretty pussy,” he said softly. “Show me your pussy.”
She did not know what to do. She lifted her hips a little, touched her clit.
“Show me,” he purred. “Spread it out.”
She put her fingers on either side of her opening, pulled it open. Sweet and pink and beckoning to him.
“Do you want me to lick you?” he asked.
Her eyes rounded, dark pools of blue in the shadows. “Yes. Please.”
Much tamer, this. He put his feet in the water, enjoyed the cool flow over them. He knelt in front of her. He stroked one finger all the way down her opening.
She moaned. He put his finger in his mouth, sucked away the cream.
She tasted fine, like honey on a summer’s day.
Poetry again. What was wrong with him?
He put his face down to her. She smelled good. He stroked his thumb along her clit, and then followed it with his tongue. She made a faint noise in her throat.
His control wavered for a split second before he regained it again. Sheesh, he was only licking her cunt.
He raised his head. “If you don’t want me to do this, Talan, you have to say.”
Her face flushed, her eyes closed. “I want it.”
I want it, too. I want all of you.
And I can’t ever have you. I’ll take you as far as you need to go, and then I’ll leave and never see you again.
It was enough to make a grown Sha reem cry.
He lowered to her again, circled her clit with his tongue, tasting the spice of her. Then he slid his tongue into her opening.
She squirmed, making hot noises. Sweet cream touched his mouth. She was wet, oh, she was wet, she was loving this.
He licked and licked her. His tongue grew sore, and still he licked her. He traced her opening, thrust inside again.
Her hands tangled in his hair. She forgot to hold up the dress, and it fell over his face. Sand trickled into his mouth.
He turned aside, spat it out. Then he raised the dress himself, leaned down to her again.
“Rees,” she whispered.
Rees .
Not a play name, not what he told her to say. Just her sweet voice calling his name.
His cock throbbed, hard. He wanted more than anything to push her back, slide right into her.
Not yet. Not yet. He was supposed to be slow and sensual, bringing her to complete readiness first. Then he’d take her slowly, teach her to want it, teach her how pleasurable it was to have a man inside her.
Control.
She leapt under his mouth. She was coming. His tongue was all wet with her, and she pulsed around him.
Now, now, now! Take her!
You are Rees. You can have whatever you want, and you know what you want.
Rees sank his fingers into her thighs, held himself in place. She bucked and rocked and screamed her pleasure.
Her pleasure. That’s why he was here.
He sucked at her clit, driving her ever more wild. He drank her down, and then he sat back on his heels and licked it from his lips.
She lay down, her dress all wet, the water running between her legs. Her screams had wound down into breathy sighs, and her eyes were half-closed.
She was beautiful.
“You look sweet,” he said, grinning.
“I do?”
“You’re beautiful, Talan. Don’t let anyone tell you different.” He licked the last drop of her from his lips. “And you taste so good.”
“I do?”
He laughed. “Better than anything I’ve ever tasted. Here.”
He pulled her up into his arms and brought his mouth down on hers.
Her lips were soft, curious. They slid against his, and then, whether she meant to or not, opened for him.
He probed her tongue with his, then slanted his mouth over hers. The kiss grew deep. And dangerous.
Her tongue moved against his, unpracticed. He tasted her to the corners of her mouth, even as she tasted him.
He sank his hands into her hair.
He wanted her so bad. He wanted to slide into her and show her what it was like. He wanted her to beg, not because he told her to, but because she truly wanted him.
Women wanted Rees because he was Sha reem. He wanted this woman to want Rees.
Take her , R294E8S said. Let her scream. You’ll have gotten what you came for.
R294E8S could really be a bastard.
Rees eased the kiss to its end. She clung to him, her lips parted, her breath hot.
“Did you like it?” he asked.
She nodded. She twined her arms about his neck, brought him back down for another kiss.
He kept this one shorter, though it was
just as heady.
“You have nice eyes,” she whispered.
Rees, by the gods, felt himself blush. “Thank you.”
“Can I suck you again? Like I did in the garden?” Her lashes swept down, and she looked coy. “Like a good girl?”
“You are learning, darling,” Rees said. His cock throbbed so hard, he had to shove it somewhere before he died.
She got to her knees, holding her soaking dress. “Sit down,” she said, a wicked glint in her eye. “And spread your legs.”
He obeyed.
He came two more times in her mouth, he was so desperate, until Metri piped in a message to say that the sandstorm had gone.
* * * * *
Lady Petronella returned home safely, having waited out the sandstorm at the home of her friend. She summoned Talan to her as soon as she settled in her suite to repair her makeup.
“Well?” she said to the mirror. She’d dismissed the maid so that she and Talan could speak alone.
“Well, what?” Talan asked from the window.
She knew exactly what, but she pretended to watch the street and the park in the middle of the square. Work women and hovercraft had emerged to repair the damage from the storm, at the same time Lady Pet inspected damage to her face.
“Well, have you lost your fear of sex?”
“I never feared it,” Talan answered. Below her, a woman in coveralls rose on a grav-free lift to trim a broken limb of a succulent tree. “I only said I did not wish it in my marriage.”
“Well, the Sha reem will not marry you. And I asked you if you liked it.”
“It is not the same thing, is it?” Talan turned from the window. “He is trained to make me like it.”
Lady Pet’s gaze was intense. “So you do like it.”
“So far.” Her face grew hot. “He has not done much more than touch me.”
That was true—in a technical sense. But what he’d said to her, what he’d made her feel, the wicked games he’d made her play, the phrases he wanted her to speak—
A dark feeling coiled in her belly.
Lady Pet looked surprised. “That is all? Metri said you were with him all morning. He has not even had intercourse with you?”
“Not yet.”
“Why on earth not?”
Talan pressed her mouth shut. She did not want to discuss this with Lady Pet. Not only did it embarrass her, but she wanted to keep it private. Rees was hers.
Hers. Now where had that foolish idea come from?
“Talan,” Lady Pet said. She turned in her chair, tapped her toe.
“He said I was not ready,” Talan replied.
“Hmph. He’s drawing it out so he can enjoy the luxury of my house.”
“No, he is being kind. I am not ready.”
She remembered herself in the garden, begging him to fuck her—in her behind, no less.
He’d told her that she did not mean that, that he’d cast his Sha reem spell on her, but he was wrong. She’d wanted him, wanted him any way possible.
“Yes, well, I’ll spare your delicate feelings for now. But if he does not hurry, I can always hire another. The back streets are thick with Sha reem if you know where to look.”
“No.”
Talan’s answer rang loud in the room. Lady Pet’s perfect brows arched.
“No,” Talan repeated. “I know Rees now. I don’t want anyone else.”
Lady Pet looked at her for a long time, brows raised, her look interested. Then she shook her head and turned back to her mirror. “Very well. But he needs to finish. I do not like being taken advantage of.”
Talan could bear no more. She walked stiffly to the door. Usually gentle-tempered, at that moment, she was very, very angry.
“It’s nothing to do with you,” she said in a hard voice.
Lady Pet stared at her in the mirror, then turned around as if she had not heard right.
Talan went on, “It is to do with me, and my life. Not you.”
Lady Pet continued to stare. Talan closed her mouth. Breathing hard, she left the room.
She would not have been happy to see what Lady Petronella did after she marched away. Lady Pet turned back to the mirror and grinned at her reflection.
“About time that girl stood up to me,” she said.
* * * * *
Rees chewed the last morsel of his apricot salad just as the door chime softly rang.
Everything in this house was quiet and polite. He punched the enter button and door slid open.
Talan stood framed in the doorway, her lovely red-gold hair covered with an opaque veil that hung down her back. Her gown, long-sleeved and hanging to her ankles, covered her completely, but the silk of it clung to her curves.
“Oh,” she said, looking at his empty plate. “I was going to take you out to lunch.”
A bite of disappointment surprised him. “Metri sent it. He thought I’d be hungry, for some reason.” He grinned. “Besides, where would you take me that you could be seen with a Sha reem?”
“I hadn’t thought of that.” She looked agitated. “I just wanted to go out, get away from here for a while.” She glanced about the Spartan room. “Is this where Metri has put you? I apologize.”
Rees followed her gaze, surprised. The room was plain, yes, but well-sealed and temperature-controlled and had every luxury. She should have seen what they made him live in at DNAmo.
“So it doesn’t have pillows and piped music. Sha reem don’t need much.”
She did not answer. She just stood there like she wanted to say something and didn’t know how.
He didn’t mind as long as he could look at her. She was beautiful, though she might not believe it.
She had a plumpness that was not fashionable, and she had curves. Who couldn’t love those curves? But upper-class ladies liked to make themselves lean and flat and unattractive to men.
Whatever Rees didn’t like about Lady Pet, she had at least let Talan be beautiful.
Talan had been even more beautiful that morning, when she’d laid down in the water and come and come. With her hair raining down her back to swirl in the stream, her eyes half closed, her face soft with ecstasy—
He got hard just thinking about it.
Correction, he’d had a hard-on as soon as she appeared in the doorway. He was perpetually hard around this woman.
“Rees,” she said suddenly. “Take me somewhere.”
He got up. He walked to her, drew her inside and let the door close. “We’re somewhere now.”
“No, I mean out of the house—somewhere I can be seen with a Sha reem.”
He traced her cheek. The scent of her danced in the air. “What’s wrong, little Talan?”
She did not want to be placated. She stepped away from him. “I want to be with you, away from here. Take me—” She paused, cheeks flushing. “Take me to your world. To the back streets.”
She said it like it was a distant planet. He smiled. “Sure you want to? It’s not pretty and clean, like here.”
She rubbed her arms, as though trying to scrape something off her sleeves. “I don’t care. I just want out.”
Out of her gilded cage? “Poor little rich girl,” he teased. “All right. I’ll take you. But if you want to keep your reputation, you’ll have to go in disguise.”
She looked intrigued. “I have a long cloak, and I can hide my face—”
He laughed. “No, baby. The minute anyone spots you in a rich cloak and veil, they’ll peg you as high-born. You want to end up on a news digital?” He tugged off her veil, setting her hair free. “You need to hide in plain sight.”
He gathered her hair in his hands, lifted it from her neck. “Pin that up in a knot. You have a short-sleeved tunic, maybe some pants to go under it? That would be perfect.”
She grinned, getting into the spirit of it. “Lady Pet will kill me.”
“Lady Pet probably put up her hair and went out on the town plenty. She looks the type.”
“You might be right
. I’ll tell Metri to send the litter ‘round.”
He shook his head. “No litter, no bodyguards. Just you and me. We’ll take the hovertrain.”
Her eyes lit up. “I’ve always wanted to do that.”
“Gods, you are a poor little rich girl. Go get ready. I’ll wait for you downstairs.”
They had to ditch Metri. The enclosed courtyard held another cool fountain and a place for getting in and out of a litter, and for some reason, Metri watched it anxiously.
Like two naughty servants, Talan and Rees hid in the shadows of the hall, waiting, but Metri wouldn’t move.
Then Talan got the idea to send him a bogus call from upstairs, and when Metri, sighing, went to answer, she and Rees slipped through the courtyard and out into the road.
Talan flushed and grinned as Rees took her arm and started down the street in the direction of the station.
“Oh, gods, what if the neighbors see me?” she whispered, turning her face from the blank-walled houses.
“If they see us at all, they’ll think we’re two servants out to enjoy ourselves. And we are. Out to enjoy ourselves.”
“I’m already enjoying it,” she said shyly.
“You have a bad life if you think running down the street in the heat is fun.”
“It is with you.”
Don’t look at me like that, sweet lady. You make me want to be a very bad Sha reem.
They ran along, hand in hand, like a man and his girl off to catch a train.
The streets grew crowded as they neared the station. Shopping and restaurants for the rich were everywhere. The sudden sandstorm this morning had caught many by surprise. More than one restaurant was repairing broken awnings and fetching chairs smashed into neighboring restaurants.
At the same time, litters letting off well-born women, bodies covered against the sun, flanked the restaurants, and slim men in servants’ garb bade the harried restaurant owners to let their ladies in for lunch.
Talan kept her head turned to Rees’ shoulder as they hurried past and into the cool shade of the hover station.
Talan was ready to run across the platform and into the open doors of the nearest train, and Rees pulled her back, laughing. “You have to buy a ticket.”
“What?”
He dragged her to a ticket dispenser. “A ticket. You can’t ride for free.”
Rees Page 6
