He ended this speech only because he ran out of breath. Before Nella could respond, Dr. Ralston turned away and moved toward the lift. “Come down to the lab with me. What she’s doing now is absolutely marvelous. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
The lift doors opened. Nella hesitated, but Dr. Ralston seized her by the arm and dragged her inside. “I’ve got to show you,” he said. “You’ll love it.”
Nella opened her mouth to point out that she likely would have no understanding of what Dr. Laas was doing, but Dr. Ralston started up a monologue on why cave-root bats were difficult little buggers to grow from a genetic vat. He didn’t stop talking all the way down to the lab. Even Baine couldn’t interrupt him.
The lift spilled them out in the lowest level of the compound. The lab was little more than a large, comfortable room with an arrangement of sofas, chairs and occasional tables positioned before a moving mural of a tropical beach. At the opposite end of the room a bank of computers with blank monitors lined the walls, flanked by a console table over which Dr. Laas bent.
Dr. Ralston joined her, sliding his arm around her and kissing the top of her head. Dr. Laas returned the kiss absently, then they both bent over the console, heads and elbows touching, completely forgetting about Nella.
Nella smiled to herself and wandered across the room, drawn by the tropical mural. The mural not only looked like a beach, it smelled like one, and a soft ocean breeze wafted from it.
She wondered where Rio had gone, and if he’d finished teaching her to trust. She hoped not.
Perhaps Nella should pretend that she still didn’t trust him, to see what he’d do. She shivered, imagining his eyes going still, and the dangerous tone entering his voice.
Having him in her mouth had been a heady experience. Nella remembered the exact shape and taste of his cock against her tongue, and the smooth flavor of his seed. She had happily lapped him up, liking it and wanting more.
Baine’s voice sounded softly near her head. “Would you like refreshment? I can offer you seven kinds of wine or five varieties of sparkling wine, or would you simply prefer a ginger mint?”
Nella exhaled, trying to push aside the vision of Rio straddling her on the bed while she sucked his cock and he licked her pussy. “Just water, if you have it.”
“Oh.” Baine sounded disappointed. “Sparkling or still? Flavored with lemon, lime, strawberry, goolberry, diamondberry, or mango?”
Nella tried not to laugh. “Still water, no flavor.”
Baine sighed. “Very well.”
A small panel slid back in the wall near the mural, revealing a crystal glass of pure water. “Thank you,” she told the panel.
“You’re welcome,” Baine said.
When Nella turned around, glass in hand, Rees was standing near the sofa.
Nella jumped and nearly spilled the water. She’d never heard him enter, never even heard the lift doors.
The breeze from the mural stirred Rees’s hair. He wore a sleeveless white tunic that strained over chest muscles and ended at mid-thigh, and nothing else but his Shareem chain. He was barefoot.
Nella looked behind him, searching for Talan, or Rio.
“Nella,” Rees said. He glanced at Dr. Laas and Dr. Ralston, still bent over the console, lost in their own world. “May I speak to you?”
“Of course,” Nella said, with her habitual politeness.
Rees motioned her to a chair, then sat on the edge of a sofa facing her, resting his forearms on his knees.
Nella took the chair he indicated, sipping her water. It was clean and clear, and very good.
“Where’s Rio?” Nella asked. “And Talan?”
“Rio went out. He didn’t say where. Talan is asleep. She needed to rest.”
Nella stopped herself from saying, I’ll bet she did. Then she flushed, remembering how she’d obediently stripped while Rees had watched her.
Rees looked at her, eyes calm. “Nothing about sex embarrasses Shareem, Nella. We see no shame in it.”
Nella was pleased to hear it, but she was still disconcerted at the way she’d so eagerly fallen at Rio’s feet.
Rees went on, “That’s why Rio had you obey him in front of Talan and me. To rid you of fear.”
“Is that why?” she asked. “It had nothing to do with getting excited himself?”
Rees grinned, warm and sensual. “Well, maybe that too. And it didn’t hurt me and Talan either.”
“No, you seemed agreeable.”
The smile crinkled the corners of his eyes, making him devastatingly handsome, then he grew serious again. “I want to talk to you about Rio.”
The chair was trying its best to caress Nella’s shape. She squirmed against it, not really approving of the furniture trying to turn her on. It got the idea after a few shoves, gave her butt one more stroke, and settled down.
“What about Rio?” Nella asked.
“He’s Shareem. Level three. Do you understand what that means?”
“He told me. He likes bondage. He likes to be master.”
“Being level three means that women desire him,” Rees said. “Almost every woman Rio looks at wants him . . . a lot. It’s in his nature to oblige them. He can’t help it.”
Nella turned the glass in her hands. “You’re saying I shouldn’t develop feelings for him, no matter what he’s done for me. Because his Shareem genetics make me want him, and he looks at me the same as he would any other woman.”
“No,” Rees said slowly. “I’m saying this because he’s looking at youdifferently from the way he looks at other women. Shareem were manipulated to remove all strong emotion from them, including and especially, love. That’s a crock, because the removal of emotion didn’t work. We pretend it did, and our bodies try to adjust for it, but it’s not gone.”
His Shareem eyes were cool and neutral. If Nella had not seen the way he looked at Talan, she’d believe Rees to be untroubled by any emotion.
Nella set the glass of water aside. “Then I don’t really understand what you want to explain.”
“About ten years ago, Rio fell in love. He says he didn’t, but I know he did. The lady was an upper-class woman named Serena, and she liked Shareem. Rio was special to her. She had a wild streak, and they did a lot together, tried all kinds of things. He never said anything, but I know Rio started assuming they’d always be together. Serena had him live with her in her house, something no highborn woman would dream of doing, but she didn’t care. He thought this state of things would go on.”
“But it didn’t,” Nella finished. “Obviously.”
“She didn’t even tell him goodbye. One day, Rio went back to her house after being out for a while and couldn’t get in.” Rees’s look turned grim. “She’d changed the palm lock to shut him out, and her servants wouldn’t open the door. He found out later, by watching a digital feed, that she’d gotten married and left Bor Narga with her new husband.”
“Oh.” Nella was indignant. “That was low.”
Rees nodded. “I thought so too. Rio never said anything about it. Later, he got a voice message from her, which he let me hear. In it, she said that she’d decided to marry so she could settle down and have children and carry on her family name, etcetera, etcetera. She’d picked out a husband, who came from a good family and had some money to combine with her own riches. They’d chosen to live in a house off Bor Narga to raise their family. She had decided the best way to let Rio go was a clean break. It had been fun, but Serena knew he’d understand.”
Nella stared, openmouthed. “Poor Rio. How cruel.”
“Rio shrugged it off. Shareem don’t love, he said, and she was just another woman. He said that there were plenty more where she came from, and he didn’t mention her again for ten years.”
“But he did love her,” Nella said, compassion in her heart. “That must have hurt him terribly.”
“Shareem don’t hurt.”
“Oh yes, they do. How can you say otherwise, when you love Talan so much?”
Rees’s severe look relaxed. “Does it show?”
“Every time you look at her. And in her, whenever she looks at you.”
“I was lucky,” Rees said. “When Talan first met me, she saw a man, not a Shareem. It took her a long time to convince me of that, but I finally let her.” He gave Nella a sharp look. “What came to mind when you first saw Rio?”
Nella thought back to the alley, tasting her panic again as she’d crouched behind the abandoned crates, knowing the bot would find her, no matter what. She remembered Rio striding through, getting between her and the bot.
“Tall,” she said.
Rees gave a short laugh. “True. What else?”
“Strong.” Nella mused. “I was terrified, and I felt like he could protect me, even when I didn’t know him. And then he fought off the assassin bot. He outsmarted it and crushed it to bits. I’d like to think he did it for me, but I realize he didn’t know I was there.”
“He might have known. Shareem can see much without seeming to.”
“I didn’t know he was Shareem at the time. I’d never heard of Shareem.”
Rees’s brows lifted. “You must have been sheltered on Ariel. I thought everyone knew about Shareem. DNAmo exported a few off-planet for huge amounts of money before they were shut down.”
“Exported a few.” Nella repeated the phrase, marveling that Rees could say it in such a calm tone. “You mean slaves.”
“Shareem aren’t slaves. DNAmo didn’t force them to go, and even gave the Shareem a small percentage of the price.”
“It’s still human trafficking,” Nella said. “On Ariel, it would never be tolerated.”
“But Shareem aren’t human.” A glint entered Rees’ eyes. “When I say that to Talan, she gets put out with me. Sometimes I say it just to rile her up, because she’s pretty when she’s riled.”
“I am certain she’d be happy to hear that.” Nella found it pleasing that the muscular and unpredictable Rees enjoyed teasing his wife. “When DNAmo was forced to close, did they start production again on another planet?”
“If they did, I never heard of it. They might have changed their name, but they probably never made more Shareem. They lost a lot of money and most of their research notes. The best scientists, like Dr. Laas and Dr. Ralston, stayed here. DNAmo screwed them over almost as much as they did the Shareem.”
“What happened to all the Shareem?” Nella asked. “When you were suddenly free, what did you do?”
“We weren’t all that free,” Rees said. “The government of Bor Narga talked about terminating the experiments, permanently, when they walked into DNAmo. Experiments meaning Shareem. The Shareem heard about it pretty quick and got their asses out of there. I’d escaped before DNAmo was shut down, but not long before. I helped Shareem go to ground—we were created to be imaginative and resourceful, so we put that to use hiding instead of thinking up sexual games. Well, we still thought up sexual games, but first we hid and survived.”
“You helped Rio.”
“I knew how to live in the city without anyone noticing me, and I kind of showed him around. Rio figured out who I was—the experimental Shareem on the loose—but he never told anyone. He’s a pain in the backside, but he’s a good friend.”
The warmth in his voice was unmistakable.
“You’re telling me all this, because you’re afraid I can hurt him,” Nella said. “I think you’re wrong. Maybe, because I’m not Bor Nargan, I intrigue him a little, but he knows I’ll go back to Ariel, and we’ll be finished.”
Tears stung her as she spoke. Nella blinked them away, thinking she must be tired and worried. She wanted to go back to Ariel with all her heart—right?
Nella could offer Rio sanctuary on Ariel. There he could live equal to any other being, but Nella wouldn’t obligate him to go on seeing her. She’d give him the sanctuary without strings.
Besides, when Rio found himself free of Bor Narga’s restrictions, he’d want to live life to the fullest, and that life likely would not include her.
Rees watched her closely. Nella wiped away her tears with her thumb and gave Rees a feeble smile. “I am overly tired. This has been an ordeal.”
“It has.” Rees’ expression gave away nothing, but Nella sensed that he saw much. “I’m working on getting you a transport back to Ariel. You won’t travel in style, but you’ll get there.”
“I’m grateful. I keep bleating that, I know, but you’ve done so much for me. I can’t express what it means to me.”
Rees shrugged, rose, and helped her to her feet. “Give us a tour of your palace, or something, when you’re back to being a princess again. That’s what friends are for.”
He led her out of the room, telling her he’d take her to the kitchens while Drs. Laas and Ralston were busy making love to their computer data.
Nella’s heart warmed as she followed him. She had friends. They were odd and unexpected, but for the first time in a long time, Nella relaxed a little. She was not alone.
*** *** ***
Rio wasn’t alone either, but not in the way he wanted to be. He came out of a shop where he was buying presents for Nella when six patrollers surrounded him.
The patrollers were women, tall and blank-faced, hair scraped back, in nondescript gray coveralls. They carried stun rods and various equipment on their belts, all designed to intimidate.
“Ident card,” the leader said to him.
The women were tall, but Rio topped the tallest by a good half foot. She didn’t like that, and she narrowed her already flinty eyes.
“My hands are full,” Rio said.
The leader glared at three of her subordinates. He let them take away the packages, withdrawing his ident strip from his pocket. “I’m Rio. We’ve met.”
The leader held out a small computer, and Rio pushed the ident strip into its slot. “And don’t tell me my inoculations aren’t up to date, because I’m good for another five months.”
The patrol captain studied the data and looked sour, because she knew she couldn’t call him on it. Rio had made damn sure he couldn’t be arrested on some stupid technicality that would endanger his plan to leave Bor Narga.
“You haven’t been home in a while,” the leader observed, giving him back the strip.
“I have a lady. She’s keeping me busy.”
The patroller gave him a look of disgust. “Her name?”
“None of your business.”
“Where are you staying?”
Rio grinned, though his heart beat a little faster. “None of your business.”
“You’d better tell me.”
“I can’t divulge that.” Rio folded his arms, not taking back the packages the other women held gingerly.
The patroller should know good and well that she couldn’t force Rio to reveal the name of his lady. The women who hired Shareem were often highborn and very touchy about other people knowing what they were up to. An embarrassed upper-class lady was powerful enough to make a patroller’s life hell.
The captain switched tactics. “I heard that you had a transport lined up to take you off-world.”
Rio gave her a bored look. “If so, would I be standing here right now talking to you?”
“I heard,” she went on, her lips tight, “that you missed it because you were skulking around the back streets.”
“You hear a lot of crazy things if you listen. I heard that a gardener in the middle of the dry sea swears he can grow seashells. Says they push up out of the dirt if you give them enough water.”
The patrol captain scowled. “I heard you’ve arranged another transport.”
“That’s news to me.” If Rees had found him one, he hadn’t mentioned it yet.
“You haven’t been home, you’ve been arranging transports, you’ve been wandering the back streets, and now you’ve been purchasing supplies. That’s what’s in the packages, isn’t it? Supplies for traveling off-world?”
Rio shrugged. “See for yourself.”
The captain gave her patrollers a nod. They broke the seals of the packages and rolled back the sun-shielding plastic.
“Oh,” one patroller said. She pulled out supple leather collar with finely-tooled designs on it, the collar clearly woman-sized. The patroller next to her unwrapped a silver chain, and the third held up a leather garment that was very small.
The first two looked repulsed, but the third patroller touched the soft black leather sarong as though it fascinated her. Rio winked, and she blushed.
“They’re for my lady.” Rio retrieved the packages and sealed them up again. “Like I said.”
“That’s disgusting,” the patrol captain said. “And degrading.”
The patroller who’d handed him back the leather dress looked thoughtful, like she wanted to find out whether such things were disgusting and degrading, and thought maybe they weren’t.
Rio gave her a knowing grin. He’d send one of his Shareem friends to find her and show her a few things. Maybe Braden, who had a good sense of humor and liked to teach.
“We’re watching you, Shareem,” the patrol captain said.
Rio tucked the packages under his arm. “Of course you are. You’re always watching me, sweetheart.” He let his pheromones touch each of them, smiling as their eyes and lips softened. “Now watch this ass as I walk away.”
He turned and sauntered down the street, making sure his butt was in full view the entire time. He heard silence behind him, but he knew they were staring at him, unable to look away.
Rio would be more amused by the encounter if it didn’t worry him so much. The patroller knew about the transport and how he’d missed it, and possibly Rees’ involvement.
Tales of the Shareem, Volume 1 Page 27
