I knew better than to ask, of course.
My mind did come up with a few alternate explanations, however.
I had a fit of paranoia before we left the bunker that Terian might have another lover here, among his subordinates. I wondered whether this other lover might be the real reason he didn’t want me introduced with any hint of impropriety to his senior officers.
Terian felt that flicker of possessive anger on me.
Not long after we left the control room, he acted on it, dragging me roughly into a supply closet where he promptly ordered me to service him after all, regardless of the open construct. He demanded an apology from me as well, a formal one, with additional promises regarding penance and a few other stipulations, most of which also probably made it to the construct in some form.
In all, we didn’t make it outside for another thirty or so minutes.
By then, I was in a lot of pain, high on a few lines of coke Terian conveniently had on him in the aftermath of our supply closet detour, and strongly of the mind that I was in over my head.
When I stumbled outside into the heat and humidity of the Brazilian jungle, I got the sense those of my (now ex-) pod could definitely feel all three things on my light.
I noted a few grumbles, if only from behind the Barrier.
I’d heard more grumbles in the time since.
I still didn’t care.
My focus remained on Terian, and my reactions to him.
My pain wasn’t getting any better from the sex.
If anything, it seemed to be getting worse.
Between that and the obsessive coils and rotations I still felt in Terian’s aleimi around Dehgoies, I found myself watching the seer semi-compulsively from behind the Barrier, not to mention in the physical. My attention wasn’t reciprocated most of the time, but that only made my obsession worse as I tried to determine what it was about our connection that I found so difficult… and he found so easy… to ignore.
It didn’t help that my aleimi continued to act possessively towards his.
Often this happened outside my conscious willing.
When Gregor ventured too close to Terian behind the Barrier, I slammed him so hard in the space, I gave him a nosebleed.
Terian liked that, too.
Twelve
I Never Was
The Fairmont Hotel
Nob Hill
San Francisco, California
June 6, 1962
“So how was that?” She kissed his lightly-sweated chest, her voice a murmur as she climbed further up his naked body, curling a tongue around his nipple, kissing the hollow of his throat, her fingers tracing the muscles of his ass and thigh.
“Was that good?” she murmured, kissing his neck. “Was it how you like it?”
He glanced over, giving her a half-smile.
His black hair was half-sweated to his neck, sticking up over parts of his head. His skin was flushed from the sex, but she recognized the darker look in his eyes.
He wasn’t done.
The realization gave her a thrill of heat, a harder pulse of separation pain.
“You want another round?” she purred.
He answered at once, with zero hesitation.
“Yes.”
Reaching around her, he grabbed her ass, gripping it tightly in iron-like fingers and yanking her naked body up against him. The combination of those fingers and the look in his cut-crystal irises made her separation pain sharply worse.
Before she could control it, he leaned up, kissing her full lips.
After a bare pause, he parted them with his tongue, putting light into his kiss, into his fingers as he gripped her tighter, into his mouth as he inhaled her, deepening the kiss.
When they finally parted, a few seconds––or minutes, she honestly wasn’t sure which––later, she felt light-headed, nearly drunk with his light and touch. He pulled on her with his light, coiling tendrils of aleimi through her belly and thighs and she let out a satisfied little moan.
“What about you?” he murmured, kissing the sides of her lips. “More?”
She fought to catch her breath, feeling another thrill of separation pain, a nearly giddy flush of heat as she felt his desire pulse out at her.
She’d never met anyone who could kiss quite like him.
Dehgoies made kissing into an art form.
And gaos… he really did love female bodies.
He got off on just looking at them, on their differences from his own. She saw his eyes staring down at her breasts and belly even now, and just the looking made the heat on his skin worsen. He approached her female body so much differently than he did male ones.
She thought it too loud.
Seeing him frown faintly, she tried to smooth it over with a smile, grinding up against him with her hips, pressing her breasts into his chest.
“Can I be on top this time?” she said, pouting her lips.
He was staring at her though.
His narrow mouth thinned as she watched, his cracked-crystal eyes growing faintly hard as he took in her face.
She felt his light in hers then, no longer scanning her for ways to turn her on, or ways she wanted to be fucked by him. Now he was scanning her like an infiltrator, ID’ing her like she was some ordinary mark, someone sent in here to fuck with him.
She was still staring down at that hard, angular face, when his narrow lips tightened into an angry scowl. Before she could fully take in the facial expression, or read what exactly was behind it, he shoved her off him, roughly, using both hands.
He rolled to the side even as he did, moving like he did in fights, like he was about to engage in full-blown combat.
He was up and on his feet before she’d finished blinking her eyes.
“Gaos d’ jurekil’a!” he snarled, motioning down at her. “Ridvak jurekil’a mak rik’ali!”
She held up a hand.
“Revi’, calm down…”
He swore louder, staring at her with disbelieving eyes.
“Terry! You sick, psychotic, piece of shit asshole––”
“Calm down! It was just a bit of good fun! Are you going to tell me that was so terrible? Getting to fuck this body?” She motioned down at her generous chest, small waist, and long, lean legs. “Or getting a blow job from someone who knows you so well––?”
“You’re out of your fucking mind!” he snapped.
Yanking his pants furiously off the hotel room floor, he shoved first one leg into them, then another, still staring at where she sprawled out on the bed on her side, her large breasts hanging down as she propped her head and jaw up on a palm.
“You’ve totally fucking lost it, Terry!” he growled. “You’ve lost it!”
Terian laughed. She couldn’t help it.
She’d known it was risky, going up to her friend where he sat at the bar in the Tonga Room tiki lounge and restaurant, wearing this body.
She couldn’t resist.
It was just too fun, especially knowing her friend’s tastes as she did.
This body and face were practically made for Dehgoies to fuck.
“Oh, come on,” she said, laughing again at the disbelieving look on her friend’s face as he threw a shirt on over his shoulders. “It’s funny! You must admit to the amusing aspects of this situation at least…”
“Fuck. You.” Revik growled.
Snatching his belt and shoes off the floor, he turned, stalking out of the hotel bedroom and towards the front door.
“Revi’… you are being ridiculous!” Terian called after him.
She would have gone on.
Before she could…
The door slammed behind her friend’s retreating form.
Still laughing a little to herself, she climbed off the bed, looking around for the dress she’d worn up here, to her own room at the famed Fairmont Hotel. She wasn’t worried overly about Dehgoies leaving the building… much less blowing off the meet the following day.
He had a room her
e, the same as her.
They had work in this hotel tomorrow, and early. Galaith would be here by then, as his flight was coming in around six in the morning. Dehgoies wouldn’t risk not being here when their fearless leader arrived, for they’d both be called in to brief the Head of the Org in person, likely over breakfast in the hotel restaurant.
For the same reason, she knew exactly where Dehgoies would be.
She even suspected he would wait for her there, downing shots of bourbon every few seconds as he cursed her under his breath.
Grinning, she pulled up a pair of black silk panties and hooked the back of a double-D bra before shimmying back into the bright red, tassle-covered micro-mini dress she’d worn to go looking for him when she first arrived.
After arranging the fabric over her small waist and curved hips, she bent down to pull on her four-inch pumps, one by one.
Only then did she turn the mirror, and examine her make-up.
After spending a few minutes re-doing her face, including the blood-red lipstick and rouged cheeks, she winked at herself in the mirror, grabbed her matching clutch bag, and headed for the hotel room door to go find her friend.
“You are a piece of shit,” he growled.
Dehgoies gestured at her in seer, using the hand holding the rocks glass he clutched lightly in his fingers. He aimed that gesture, which wasn’t a particularly polite one, at Terian when she walked up to him at the bar.
He was drunk enough to use a seer gesture.
Here. In public.
A few other patrons looked over, frowning, but it wasn’t the hand gesture he’d used that caused those frowns. Terian saw a few of them look her over in the red dress, then frown at Dehgoies, likely thinking him a prick for speaking to a woman in such a way.
The thought made Terian grin wider.
“Batshit fucking crazy,” Dehgoies muttered, downing the last of his shot. “Psychotic, loony-bird asshole––”
“You, my friend, need to relax,” Terian said, sliding onto the barstool next to him. She smiled at him when he gave her an incredulous look, patting his thigh with her hand. “Come now. Lighten up. It wasn’t so bad.”
Dehgoies jerked away from the hand, scowling at her.
“Do you seriously not realize how fucking crazy you are, Terry?” he growled.
He was clearly about to go on, but Terian rolled her eyes.
“Give it a rest, Revi’,” she said, exhaling as she pushed her long, dark hair over one shoulder, clicking under her breath. “You are such an old man at times. Develop a sense of humor again, will you?”
“Old man. A sense of humor.” Dehgoies grunted in disbelief, turning to flag down the bartender for a refill. “Sure.”
When the bartender saw him and approached their stools, Dehgoies pointed to his glass.
“Another double,” he said, his German accent thicker than usual. “The Woodford again.”
The bartender began to accede, and Terian watched the man pour, propping her jaw up on her hand. Seeing Dehgoies scowl, his clear eyes as hard as the mirror behind the bar, she clicked at him again, softly, letting her eyes look over the Tonga Room itself. The lagoon down the middle of the decorated space created a very tropical-like atmosphere, not to mention the tiki torches and the fake palm trees and the real, living jungle plants.
When she glanced back at Dehgoies again, he was scowling at her.
“Buy a girl a drink?” Terian said, winking.
When Dehgoies’ scowl hardened more, she simpered.
Before he could swear at her, another voice intervened.
“I’ll buy you a drink, sweetheart.”
Terian turned his head, along with Dehgoies.
An older human stood just behind them now, wearing a tuxedo and a red carnation at his lapel. He was probably one of the diplomats, here for the same peace talks they would be attending in the morning.
The human smiled at her, his eyes warm. He paused that smile only long enough to give Dehgoies a harder glance, his eyes significantly less friendly under an arched, disapproving eyebrow.
Terian smiled up at him, batting her eyelashes.
“My white knight,” she purred, grinning up at him. “How… reassuring, that gentlemen still exist in this dirty, unruly mess of a world.”
The human’s smile grew and Terian held out a hand, which he took with light fingers, caressing her skin.
“Yes, you may buy me a drink,” she said grandly. She turned then, grinning at Dehgoies. “This one is such a savage… don’t you agree?”
“Yes, ma’am,” her new friend said.
His voice was deep, tinged with a human accent from the Southern United States.
His words and voice were openly disapproving when he added,
“…I most certainly do agree.” He aimed a second hard stare at Dehgoies. “He might want to learn how to speak to the fairer sex, if he hopes to have any luck in the world.”
Dehgoies grunted, not hiding his contempt.
Reaching towards the bartender, who’d been about to leave their segment of bar, Dehgoies grabbed the bottle of Woodford right out of the male human’s surprised hands. Gripping the bottle’s neck, Dehgoies plucked his new drink up off the counter with his other hand and rose gracefully to his feet.
“Your funeral, mister,” he said to the Southerner, taking a big swallow from the glass and tipping an invisible hat at him. “A word of advice, though. You might not want to turn your back on this… lady.”
He scowled at Terian as he said it, who laughed in his face.
The human frowned, but Terian only laughed again.
She loved the way her laugh sounded.
Like bells pealing.
Crossing her long, thin legs, she watched, still laughing, as Dehgoies retreated to a darker area of the Tonga Room, slumping into one of the leather booths, one that gave him a view of all of the bar’s exits and entrances.
Even now, when he was furious with her, he was as predictable as clockwork.
“How about that drink, sweetheart?”
Terian turned, smiling widely at the handsome, white-haired human.
Batting her eyes at him again, she winked at him, wriggling on her stool.
“Sure thing, darlin’,” she drawled, patting the stool next to her and re-crossing her slim legs in the micro-mini. “Have a seat, while it’s still warm.”
She wandered back over to Dehgoies after four dances with two different men, and at least five more drinks.
She figured she was drunk enough now, given their vastly different body weights, to be more or less matched to where Dehgoies was likely to be.
Psychologically-speaking, that is.
Slumping into the same booth across from him, she set down her sparkly clutch and grinned.
“Are you done pouting, my friend?” she said, pushing out her lower lip.
Dehgoies, who’d had his head leaned against the back of the booth, staring up at the ceiling, scowled, even before he lowered his eyes to meet hers.
“You are a piece of work, brother,” he said, uncapping the bourbon and pouring himself another drink.
He offered the bottle to Terian, but she waved it off.
“Sister,” she corrected primly. “And what’s the big deal? It’s just sex. When did you become such a humorless prude?”
“It’s fucking twisted, is what it is,” Dehgoies said, staring at her across the table, his eyes pale in the low light of the booth, catching only flickers of the candlelight from the booth and surrounding tables. “Seriously. What is wrong with you?”
Terian grinned, shrugging.
Then, changing her mind, she reached for the bottle of Woodford, and took a swig from the mouth of it, without bothering with a glass. Gasping a little as she lowered the bottle, she wiped her mouth, pleased to see she’d left a smeared imprint of her lipstick on the neck.
She’d probably left some on her friend’s cock, too.
“You’re a headcase,” Dehgoies growled.
He gave her an incredulous look. “Do you seriously not get how fucked up that is? What you did? Jesus, Terry… I’m going to have to tell Galaith about this. You know that, right? Not only is it outside ethical protocol to molest another Org officer, technically, I’m your fucking boss, Terry––”
“Molest?” She stared at him for a beat, then burst out in a laugh. “You’re not seriously saying that was some kind of––”
“You know exactly what I’m saying, Terry.”
His voice was lower that time. He stared at her, every shred of playfulness and even irritation erased from his face and eyes.
That time, it was pure warning, pure hard light, zero bullshit.
Seeing that face, those eyes, she hesitated, then abruptly backed down.
She shrugged, flicking the bottle of bourbon with red-painted fingernails.
“I don’t know why you’re so bent out of shape,” she said, her voice carefully neutral that time. “This is your type, right?” She motioned down at her body and face. “Dark hair. Blue-green eyes. Curvy? Isn’t that what you like? What’s the problem?”
Dehgoies stared at her a beat longer, that harder, colder scrutiny still in his eyes. Then he seemed to decide to back down, too, maybe to meet her halfway. He clicked at her, taking another few swallows of bourbon and glaring out towards the dance floor.
“Where are your friends?” he grunted, motioning with his fingers towards two of the male humans she’d danced with. “Aren’t they going to be pissed off, seeing you talk to me?”
She laid her hand on his arm, but he removed it, glaring at her.
“Cut it out, goddamn it––”
“Gaos, Dehgoies… calm the fuck down. Seriously.” She frowned. “Think of it as having screwed my sister, if it bothers you so much.”
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