by Viola Grace
“Good. I need to find some makeup that matches my new colouration.”
“Oh. Here.” Corianne sent her a business name for a pricey cosmetic boutique. “Go there and pick what you like. Usa will put it on my account.”
“I can’t do that, Patron.”
“Escorts are allowed to accept gifts. Consider this more useful than a bunch of flowers while you were in a coma.”
Arcady chuckled. “I hardly had a chance to enjoy them before I was whisked off for my alterations.”
“Then, it is most important that you get something pretty. May I have another kiss before I head back to my table?”
Arcady smiled and held out her hand. “That would be nice, Patron.”
Corianne leaned in and kissed her again, a soft kiss that slowly grew to a boil of heat, and then, Arcady cooled it down, and her patron eased away with a sigh and a smile. “I have missed that.”
Arcady smiled shyly and looked away. Corianna chuckled. “I had always wondered what your eyes looked like when you did that. Now I have a complete picture. I can wait, but don’t make it too long. I have missed you, Seventeen.”
Klauz stared at his guest as she sashayed back to her table to be stared at and spoken to by the eager humans.
He looked back to Arcady. “So, you actually are one of the escorts.”
“In the evenings, when I am not working for Researcher Krizt.” She blushed at the look Klauz was giving to his brother.
“Krizt, you are okay with this?”
“This is what she is, who she is. Her occupation is tied up with her sexuality, and that is a portion of her that I am definitely interested in.”
Arcady’s blush went up a few notches. “That is news to me.”
Klauz looked down and shook his head. “Damn. I am going to have to redo this. It melted.”
He left them, and she turned to look at Krizt. He was smiling. “How many of your patrons are female?”
“Um. Two. The other six regulars are male.”
“Are they all actives with physical identifiers?”
She smiled. “I have no idea. I don’t see them in anything other than heat and infrared. I was as surprised by her appearance as she was by mine. It was the taste of her that gave her away.”
“You can tell people apart by taste?” He stroked her hair.
“When they have a specific flavour. My patrons are all very distinct.”
She turned her head toward him. “I won’t be forgetting you in a hurry either.”
“Are you sure?”
Arcady cocked her head and frowned. “Pretty sure.”
“Perhaps I should remind you.” He pulled her toward him, and she stared up at him for a moment.
With a smile, she leaned up toward him and kissed him softly, then, when she got his participation, she knelt on the seat of the booth and wrapped her arms around his neck. The high back of the booth kept her from being seen by the restaurant, so she moaned slightly as he stroked her through the dress, across her breasts, and between her thighs.
When Klauz came around the corner, Arcady was cuddled up against Krizt’s side.
The item was another quenelle, but this one had dessert just about stamped on it. “This will be it for this afternoon. I think you can use a nap after the overstimulation of the day.”
She nodded and looked warily at the ice cream surrounded by fruit carved in the shape of little animals. “Wow.”
She knelt on the seat and leaned forward. She picked up the spoon and crashed it through the spun sugar. The little fruit animals scattered, and she got a bit of everything in the one bite.
She couldn’t help it. She moaned. Klauz grinned. “Be careful. With sounds like that, I am not going to stop until you weigh three hundred pounds.”
“Don’t worry. I only moan once per course.” She smiled and ate the next bite, humming happily.
Krizt said, “It’s true. You should see her over a box of gourmet donuts or cupcakes or anything sweet, really.”
“Moderation is key.” She ate a strawberry monkey and then finished the ice cream.
She sat back with a sigh, and fatigue swelled over her.
She heard Krizt say, “The private entrance?”
Klauz nodded. “Go ahead. It would look a little odd to carry her out in that state.”
Krizt chuckled. “Put today on my tab.”
“Excellent. The price is that you return with her tonight.”
“I will have to check to see what kind of clothing Zera sent along for her. I don’t want her embarrassed.”
“Sabba might be able to help.”
“Arcady is going to get some rest. I don’t want her subjected to prodding and poking.”
He got to his feet with her in his arms.
Arcady whispered, “Why am I so sleepy?”
“Atrophy. You have been pushing your body to be what it was, but you haven’t been able to move a muscle for weeks. Give yourself time to recover.” He pressed a kiss to her temple.
She sighed and relaxed against him. She breathed deeply and was secure in the fact that Krizt was going to keep track of her. She was the only assistant he had had longer than two months for years.
The window in her bedroom was floor-to-ceiling, and she got up and stood, looking out. She was naked, but that didn’t matter. They were above the restaurant by several floors, and only one of the fliers in the city could see her. None were in the vicinity.
The golden-orange of the light made her smile; the colour of the sinking sun always made her happy. It meant it was time to get ready for the evening. First, she needed a cup of coffee, and for that, she needed something to wear. She actually was in a guestroom.
The closet had familiar clothing in it, as did some of the dresser drawers. She pulled out a folded silk gown that she liked and slipped it over her head. She found an ensuite bathroom and brushed her hair. The purple was brighter, and the white was nearly the colour of snow. It was strange that she still saw herself in the reflection. She had always thought that the people who had a physical transformation must lose a sense of self, but here she was, and there was nothing. She was still Arcady.
She crept out of the bedroom and went in search of the kitchen as quietly as she could. She pattered past an office and saw a flash of blue then kept going. She needed coffee first.
When she found the kitchen, she was horrified. She had no idea where to start, but she just remembered that Krizt only drank herbal tea.
She had rifled through the third cupboard when an arm wrapped around her and a bag was set down in front of her. “Zera thought you might need this.”
She smelled the coffee and went nose-first into the bag, inhaling deeply. There was a drip coffee funnel, Arcady’s preferred type of coffee, and a mug with lightning bolts all over it. She sighed in relief. “Do you mind if I make myself some coffee?”
He chuckled. “Dressed like that, you can do anything you like.”
She looked at him, and his face was relaxed, and there was a warmth to his expression. “Wow. You are different at home, boss.”
“Here, I would like to be addressed as Krizt.” He chuckled. “Or darling or sweetie or honey, but that will come with time.”
She blushed. “Where is your kettle?”
“Hot water on tap. That tap.” He pointed, and she saw his forearm, and he wasn’t wearing a button-down shirt. She twisted in his arms. “What are you wearing?”
He snickered. “I always thought that was a question for com sex.”
“I just have only ever seen you in a buttoned shirt with a starched collar.” She turned in his grip and looked at the t-shirt stretched to containment capacity. She looked at him and frowned. “How do you get the neckline over your horns?”
He grinned. “Practice. Now, how was your nap?”
She looked up at him. “Coffee.”
He kissed her softly, and when he parted their lips, she whispered, “Coffee.”
He laughed and kissed her again.
He held her head as he kissed her and then raised his head again.
“Mmm. Coffee.”
“I can see you wake with a single thought.”
She smiled sleepily. “Yup. There are two hours of stumbling around before you see me in the mornings. Much coffee disappears during that time. I am having a clandestine relationship with the coffeemaker at work.”
He snorted. “Everybody knows. The receptionist on the main floor is going to be holding some kind of an anniversary party for you two when you have been at Z-Tech for a year.”
“Aw... how sweet. We want coffee filters. First anniversary is paper, after all.” She slid her arms around Krizt, and he tensed.
“What is happening here?”
She yawned. “Second sleep cycle. If I don’t have coffee in the next ten minutes, my body will just go for a nap and keep surfacing at regular intervals until coffee magically appears. Some days, I use the disguise of ordering donuts just so I can order three cups of coffee to start the day without the delivery guy judging me.”
“Can I put subcutaneous monitors on you to keep track of your biorhythms?”
She looked at his excited face. “You have the strangest kink. Sure.”
He shifted away from her. “I will be right back.”
“Dude. You keep implants in your house? You need to get a life.”
He chuckled. “I am working on it. Make your coffee.”
She nodded and assembled her giant mug, filter, and the coffee grounds. She knew that she was going to burn herself at least once with this arrangement. So, she would assemble another deposit and rent another apartment and get a proper kettle. The things she would do for a cup of coffee.
The hot water was hot. By the time Krizt came back, she had the back of her hand stuck in her mouth, and she was applying honey to her coffee; the powdered milk that came in the bag was already melted and swirling slowly.
“What happened?”
She mumbled around her hand. “This is trickier than it looks. With a kettle, you move it, and the water goes where you want it.”
He pulled her hand out of her mouth and examined her hand with the red splash across it. “You ran cold water over it?”
“Yup. Took most of the sting out of it.” She stirred her coffee, picked up the cup, and sighed in relief as he prodded at her burn.
He went to his kit and took out some swabs, cleaning the surface before putting a cream on her skin that pulled the red out and left her skin slightly shiny but feeling normal.
“What is that?”
“An experiment. Glad to see it worked.”
She chuckled. “An untested experiment. Oh. Goody.”
He looked at her and braced his hands on his hips. His jeans were low on his hips, and she remembered the tail. The coffee cup was set aside, and she looked at his hip, leaned to one side, and then the next. He was amused. “What are you doing?”
“I wanna see the tail.”
She was tapped on the shoulder and whipped around, but a blue blur retreated behind him. He laughed at her expression.
A slight caress down the outside of her left hip, and she looked down and saw the pointed tip leading to the thick cable of his tail. She touched it, and he narrowed his eyes as she slid her hand down the tail, and it looped around her arm.
“How much weight can you carry with it?”
He grinned, looped it around her waist and lifted her. “Enough.”
She blinked and swayed at the narrow contact point. “Oh. Fair enough.” She looked at his horns and then his tail as he set her down. “I guess you get into a sleep position carefully.”
He smiled. “I don’t use a pillow.”
“Oh. Well, that probably helps.”
He grinned. “My tail wraps around my thigh to keep it out of the way.”
She looked at the thick muscle in the jeans and the erection straining at the denim and jerked her gaze up to his twinkling eyes. “That was a trap.”
“It was indeed. Nice to know that you can take the bait. Going back to work Monday is going to be so much fun. I have identified over two hundred places not completely visible to cameras where I could get you alone.”
She closed her mouth with a snap the moment she realized it was open. She thought about it and said, “I can only think of one hundred and twelve.”
He pressed his forehead to hers. “I look forward to expanding your awareness of your surroundings.”
Arcady looked forward to it, too.
Chapter Seven
“Ow.” She paused and waited. “Ow.”
“Only sixteen more transponders to go.”
Arcady watched as he finished putting the monitors around her temples, neck, and shoulders. The injector gun went to the areas on the scan that he had produced from his med kit. “Should I be worried that you have my med scans in your kit?”
He fired another two units into her, and he paused to meet her gaze. “Like, do I masturbate to your bio-scans? No, but it is an idea. I will keep an open mind.”
She blushed.
He smiled. “I need to get at the rest of you.”
She crossed her arms, caught the thin straps, and moved them down so that the fabric caught on her hips. Krizt froze. “That was unexpected.”
She grinned. “Over my working with patrons, I have found that partial nudity is often far more alluring than complete nudity. Your opinion?”
He knelt in front of her and leaned his head forward. She stroked his horns with a light touch and then traced the skin around the base of each one.
“That tickles.” He slowly lifted his head and stared up at her with her breasts framing his features. He took the injector and went under each breast. “The implants run off your own body heat and will relay nerve responses to my database to determine how the alterations to you are having an effect on your senses.”
“How long do they last?”
“They will break down in about six months.”
“How big are they?”
He fired into her belly below her navel. The fabric slithered to the floor. “You should have asked that question before they went in.”
She snorted. “I never ask first. That would freak me out.”
He pressed his forehead to her belly, and she thought he was groaning, but then, she realized he was inhaling. “Hey, I am not going to stand naked in your kitchen for much longer. The tile is cold on my feet.”
He nodded, gripped her hips, and set her on the counter before he parted her thighs, and she yelped as four monitors went in around her sex, and another was near her rear entrance.
“Okay, out of everything, that one was embarrassing.”
He swiped and shot the rest of the sites until he had put thirty tiny monitors in her body. The image of her body on the med scan showed tiny points of light, and they were different colours. After hopping off the counter, she bent and picked up her gown, arranging it so she could pull it on over her head. It slithered back into place, and she watched him watching the screen.
She pulled her hair out of the nightgown and smiled. “So, it is a feedback display. What’s the baseline?”
His eye gleamed. “We will have to arrange the baseline.”
“Arrange?”
“It will only take a few minutes to run the baseline. Are you hungry yet?”
She checked her stomach and nodded. “I can eat.”
He grinned. “Good. Wear a cocktail dress, and we will be going down to torment Klauz when you are ready. Forty-five minutes?”
She nodded. “Uh, is the height of the skirt an issue?”
“Whatever you are comfortable with.”
She grinned. “Don’t ever say that.”
She left the kitchen and headed for the guestroom. If Zera had packed it, Arcady knew just the outfit.
She walked out of the guestroom and found Krizt’s bedroom. Krizt wore an all-dark suit in a deep charcoal, black shirt, pewter tie, and glossy black shoes.
She leaned against the do
or and whistled slowly. “Looking good, Doc.”
He glanced at her, looked back at the mirror, and then paused. “Do you know how to tie a tie?”
“You do them every day. What is the problem?” She walked up to him and took a look at his tie, tightening it and smoothing the fabric with her palm.
“Nothing, I just wanted to see your face and butt at the same time. You are stunning.”
“You are looking at my butt in the mirror.”
He stroked a hand over her hip, and his eyes closed as he breathed deeply. “Do you skip underwear at work?”
She rocked a hand back and forth. “It’s fifty-fifty. Sometimes I am a little sore after a particularly enthusiastic date, so skipping the underwear is a nice option. Hooray for longer skirts.”
He groaned. “Let’s go. You look lovely, by the way. Did you get taller?”
“High-heeled platforms. I am betting on not having to sprint at all tonight.” Her nose was even with his collarbone. “And I will have to hang onto you a bit as we make our way. Are you ready?”
He nodded and offered her his arm. “Let’s keep you in one piece.”
“Thanks, boss.”
He groaned. “Please, don’t use that phrase.”
She tapped her lips with the tip of her finger. “Why not?”
“Because you call me boss at work, and I don’t want to start getting a hardon whenever we are getting you into a bio-suit.”
She grinned and pressed her breasts against his arm. “Yes, Researcher Krizt.”
He covered his face with his free hand as they walked to the elevator. “Krizt. Just call me Krizt. I am trying not to create an association between you and the way you look, and the way you are looking at me, and any audio cue.”
“No problem, honey.”
He shuddered, and they arrived at the restaurant, three floors below his apartment.
“Bio-locks?”
He nodded. “If you don’t have horns, the doors won’t open unless I send an override.”
“Oh. Good to know. Cuts down on spontaneous family visits.”