“Why not watch from the car, then, where I couldn’t find you or shoot you?”
Justin pushed buttons that summoned the chauffeur. “You wouldn’t understand.”
Bor Nargan glass tended to be very thick and full of shielding. Looking through the shielded glass of Brianne’s car to the heavy windows of the coffeehouse rendered the coffeehouse’s windows an almost opaque gray. If he stayed in the car, he wouldn’t get a clear view of Sybellie.
The car slid to a silent halt at the other end of the alley. Justin grabbed Deanna’s hand and towed her along with him toward it.
The car’s back door slid open. Justin all but shoved Deanna inside and climbed in behind her, dropping onto the seat with her before the door closed again.
The chauffeur turned and looked at them through the window of his compartment. Deanna’s gun was obvious, but Justin shook his head.
“It’s all right,” he said through the speaker.
The chauffeur, used to Shareem by now, turned away and darkened the window between passenger and driver compartments.
The car was a bubble of privacy and luxury. Cushions softer than any bed Justin had owned cradled his backside. The air was cooled and lightly scented with the odor of meadow flowers. Justin had walked across real meadows on Sirius, and knew that they smelled of mud, decayed grass, and the last passing cow. But none of that would do for the highborn ladies on Bor Narga.
“How did you afford this?” Deanna asked, looking around in wonder.
“I didn’t. It’s a friend’s. She loaned it to me for the afternoon.”
“What friend?”
“Brianne d’Aroth.”
Deanna made a noise of exasperation. “I might have known. She’s been very helpful, hasn’t she? Is she one of your . . . clients?”
“No,” Justin said with emphasis. “She’s just a friend.”
“Why should I believe anything you say?”
“Why are you trying to make my life hell?” Justin countered.
They faced each other, Deanna breathing hard, red-faced, and still sexy.
“Why did you come back to Bor Narga?” Deanna asked.
“Why is it any of your damned business?”
“Because it’s my job to protect women from people like you!” Her voice rang in the small compartment.
“Oh, right, to protect the women who make so many rules that my friends and I can barely exist? The same women who hire us in secret to make them orgasm all night? You’re protecting them from me?”
“You didn’t have to come back here,” Deanna said hotly. “You lived on Sirius, for the gods’ sake. You left there to come back to this hellhole. You’re up to something. I need to know what.”
“Nothing that’s going to hurt you or the precious women you’re protecting.”
“How the hell can I know that?” Deanna shouted. “Shareem aren’t supposed to lie, but you’re doing it. Shareem can’t touch a woman without her permission, but you grabbed me and shoved me around without a flicker of pain. Has someone been messing with you inside? Did they break your programming? Who was it, and what does it have to do with those girls?”
“I broke it.” Justin grabbed her wrist again without mitigating his strength and twisted the stun gun from her hand. “I broke my programming myself. It has nothing to do with anyone on Bor Narga. With more than twenty years on Sirius without the stupid inoculations, I had plenty of time to practice.”
Deanna stared, openmouthed, as he clicked on the stun gun’s safety and tossed the gun to the other side of the car. “I could have you terminated for doing that.”
“Fine. Then do it.” Justin shoved his handheld at her. “Call your patrollers. Arrest me. Terminate me. Hell, I don’t care anymore.”
He did care, but Deanna was right. He shouldn’t have come back to Bor Narga. But after Shela had died, his craving to see Sybellie wouldn’t leave him alone.
Now he realized his selfishness. Deanna wasn’t stupid. If she figured out what was going on, if she reported it, he might as well have killed his own daughter.
Deanna took the handheld, but she rested it between her fingertips and didn’t turn it on. “I don’t want you terminated, Justin.” Her voice was low, that bedroom silkiness again. “I told you that when you were in the cell. I would have helped you out of there, without you having to bother Brianne d’Aroth. Why didn’t you believe me?”
“You’re a patroller.”
“You’re a Shareem.”
She continued to rotate the handheld between her fingers, not making any move to use it.
“That means we’re always enemies?” he asked her.
Deanna’s eyes were soft. “I don’t want us to be.”
Justin didn’t want them to be either. Not enemies. In different circumstances he’d be happy to get to know this lady. She had beauty, strength, and grit, as the plain, hardworking folks on Sirius liked to say.
As Deanna continued to turn the handheld, Justin scooped the veil back from her face. He caressed the corners of her mouth with his thumbs, parting her lips, studying the red, moist heat of her mouth.
Justin leaned closer, her breath on his skin as soft as the silk veil. Her hands came up to rest against his chest, the corner of the handheld pressing his tunic.
Justin parted her lips a little more before he slanted his mouth across hers.
He tasted the heat of her as he stroked his tongue inside her, felt the pulse pounding in her throat as he slid his fingers down her neck.
Deanna opened her lips to his, trying to imitate what he did. The flicker of her tongue was erotic as hell, making his already hard cock that much more rigid.
Justin slid his knee between her thighs, liking the tight coverall that let him feel every part of her. She gasped as he pressed her legs open, then her eyes softened as he stroked his thigh against her pussy.
Her little noise of surrender made his Shareem needs kick in. Justin looped his hand around her wrists, holding them locked together while he pushed her down to the seat.
She squirmed under him, but Justin held her firmly, continuing to lick and stroke her mouth. His questing fingers found the fastening of her coverall, and he jerked the coverall open from neck to waist.
Beneath it, Deanna wore an almost sheer tunic, the rosy buds of her nipples displayed against the fabric. Justin held her down while he tongued one nipple through the tunic, loving how it rose and tightened against his lips. Deanna arched up to him as Justin closed his mouth over her breast and suckled.
He could have her now, holding her down on the soft cushion of the seat. He could tear the silk open and feast on her bare flesh, licking his way down to her pussy, which he could scent was wet and open for him.
She’d taste good, her hot spice flavoring the bare flower of her pussy, the hard berry of her clit. Then he’d have the coverall off, and he’d thrust into her, sating the need that was burning him up.
The driver couldn’t see—he’d cut off sound and sight to give his passengers privacy. The man was used to driving Brianne with Aiden and Ky. He’d probably learned a long time ago that it was best not to know what went on in his backseat.
Justin’s imagination flicked briefly to Aiden and Ky, two hard-bodied Shareem sandwiching pretty Brianne, in this compartment, pheromones thick, and his libido snapped tighter. Justin liked a bit of voyeurism now and again to whet his appetite—these days, he didn’t have much more than that.
But the picture quickly dissolved. He wanted it to be just him and just Deanna, for them to find their deepest pleasure alone together.
Justin kissed his way up to her throat. “Hire me,” he whispered.
“What?”
“Hire me.” He raised his head. “Like I offered before, let me show you what being with a Shareem can be.”
Deanna gave him a little smile, her eyes languid. “You mean, this isn’t it?”
“No.” Not by a long way. He wanted to discover every single one of her desires and feed them t
o her. “Hire me, and I’ll give you a night you’ll never forget.”
From the heat blossoming in her eyes, she wanted it. She wanted him. Her body gave off desire in waves, the female scent of her kicking Justin’s hard-on into high gear.
Her eagerness died. “I can’t.”
No, no, sweetheart, don’t say no. “Yes, you can.”
Deanna shook her head. “I don’t want it to be like that.”
Neither did Justin. He wanted her to be with him because she wanted him, nothing more.
On Sirius, selling sexual favors had been illegal. Sex between two consenting adult beings—human, alien, cyborg, same sex, same whatever—was fine, but no using sex as a commodity. Almost the opposite of Bor Narga, where physical sex was taboo, but ladies secretly hired Shareem for forbidden pleasure.
Justin traced her cheek. “Here’s what I want you to do. Go home. Get plenty of rest. Then come back and find me. I’ll give you a night. Just you and me, no strings, no contracts. Just you and me,” he repeated, kissing her. “Understand?”
“Justin, I’m a patroller.”
“On leave of absence. Leave the uniform at home. We’ll be Justin and Deanna, not patroller and Shareem, not anybody but us.”
The car slowed and stopped, and Justin knew they’d reached his apartment. “All right?” he asked, not moving.
Deanna’s breath came fast, her chest rising to his. “I’ll think about it.”
“Think until dark. Then come to me.”
“I said, I’ll think about it.”
Feisty sweetheart. “Fine.” Justin sat up, gently pulled her coverall together and fastened it, then turned on the speaker to the chauffeur. “Take the lady wherever she wants to go.”
“Got it,” the chauffeur answered.
The door next to Justin slid open, revealing the dusty street and Justin’s front door.
Justin pulled Deanna up for one last kiss, then he extricated himself from the car and signaled for the driver to go. He stepped back and made himself not give in to his impulse to dive back into the car and ravish Deanna all the way home.
The car sped off, spewing dust all over Justin while he stood in the street and watched them go.
*** *** ***
Justin knew he’d never last until Deanna came back—if she came back. She was the kind of woman who’d talk herself out of giving in to her desires. Justin might have to chase her a little harder, but he didn’t mind the chase. In fact, he looked forward to it.
But right now, his body was hot, his cock pounding hard again. His choices for release were to spend more time with his hand, to get falling down drunk, or to work it off.
He didn’t want to be falling down drunk or hung over if Deanna returned, and his hand wasn’t the funnest date, so he decided to work it off.
Judith, the sweetie, had rented out a small warehouse and turned it into Shareem paradise. The place contained baths and showers, a private place to hang out and be with Shareem friends, and a dungeon-like room underneath where Shareem could bring their more adventurous ladies.
The enormous pool in the bath area had one mirrored wall, behind which women could sit and watch Shareem cavort, if cavorting Shareem was their thing.
Usually the pool was for Shareem alone, but today a lady was there—Jeanne, the lover of Eland. They were in the water together, both naked, Jeanne with legs wrapped around Eland while Eland cradled her hips in his hands. They never minded who watched whatever they did, those crazy kids.
Jeanne had been a factory worker who’d met Eland right after DNAmo shut down. She’d protected him from the patrollers who were hunting Shareem to terminate them, and Eland and Jeanne had hit it off.
When the termination order for all Shareem had been lifted, Eland and Jeanne had stayed together. They sometimes brought in other partners, male or female, for fun, but the two had formed a permanent bond.
Watching the two now in the water together, gazing into each other’s eyes, gave Justin a lonely feeling. He was glad for them, but their happiness underscored the emptiness inside him.
“Get a room,” Justin said jokingly as he stripped to the skin and splashed his way into the pool.
Chapter Seven
“We did,” Eland rumbled. “We’re relaxing.”
Eland was big, even for a Shareem. A level three, he had muscles like a heavyweight wrestler.
Justin swam a lap, liking that the water was cool today, refreshing after the heat. Water cascaded into the pool from a stone spout high in a wall, and Justin came up under the waterfall.
“You’re displacing half the pool with that cock,” Eland said. “If you’re going to blow in here, tell me so I can get out first.”
“That’s why I’m under the cold shower, idiot,” Justin said. “Trying to deflate.”
Jeanne sent him a smile. “We can help you, you know.” She wriggled her tongue to let him know her mouth was available, as long as Eland was there to watch her use it.
But Justin wanted Deanna’s mouth. Her red-lipped, soft mouth that turned up into such a cute smile.
Shit, why did he have to think of that? She wouldn’t come to him tonight, and he’d have this erection forever.
“Thanks, but I’ll swim it off.” Justin tried to sound nonchalant, but his voice cracked.
Jeanne laughed at him. “I’m the wrong lady, am I? Uh-oh.”
Justin snaked his hand under the water and squeezed his cock. Calm down, dry up, go on vacation, he told it.
It wasn’t listening. Okay, change the subject.
He swam over to Eland and Jeanne, who watched him approach without much curiosity. When Justin was close enough that his words wouldn’t carry to anyone who happened to be behind the mirrors, he asked, “Jeanne, any word?”
Jeanne glanced at the wall and also lowered her voice. “I might know someone who used to know her. A friend of mine said she knew a woman named Lillian who she thinks once worked at DNAmo.”
Justin’s heart beat faster. “Is this friend still in touch with her?”
“She hasn’t seen Lillian for years now, she says. They’d been close friends, but Lillian moved from Pas City and never kept in touch.”
Too much to hope for. “Can I talk to this friend?” Maybe she’d know enough about Lillian to give Justin a lead on where she might have gone.
“Sure,” Jeanne said. “I’ll set it up.” She cocked Justin a look. “Sure you’re not up for a little threesome action?”
“Not today, honey. I have a cock-ache.”
Jeanne only shrugged. Eland gave Justin a look of sympathy, but one that told him he was an idiot for passing up the chance for sex.
Last week, Justin might have taken them up on it and gotten some heat out of his system. After meeting Deanna—not as appealing. Sex with friends was not what he wanted right now.
I have to be crazy. I’m looking for something deeper with a patroller.
Justin took himself out of the pool and hit the showers, setting the water temperature to freezing. He still needed his hand to finally release, so he could walk home without a big stick hanging between his legs.
He really needed a better life.
*** *** ***
Deanna was home an hour before she stopped shaking. She hadn’t even been able to enjoy the ride in the luxurious car, something she’d probably never have the chance to do again.
She still felt Justin’s mouth on hers, robbing her of breath, his big body pressing her into the seat. He’d been heavy, too strong to fight, not that she’d wanted to fight.
Mouth on her nipple, tongue bringing it to life, making it his, as he’d stroked between her legs with his thigh. He’d been hard and ready, the ridge of his cock against her unbelievably huge.
To feel that going into her would be . . . Deanna had no idea. She had no context.
Her shaking finally stopped when her mother’s companion, Reda, brought her mother home from the rehab center. Reda shook her head when Deanna looked a question, which told
Deanna that her mother was having one of her bad days.
Deanna hugged her mother though the woman sat straight and unresponsive in her chair. Her eyes were focused on nothing as Reda combed out her silver and black hair.
The disorder that had afflicted Deanna’s mother was technological, not physiological. Kayla Surrell had been on a layover in a space station and wandered by accident into an area that had been closed off for radiation leak repairs. She’d gotten dosed with some complicated chemical that Deanna still didn’t understand, which had at first paralyzed her.
Kayla had survived by good luck alone—someone had spotted her and dragged her out into good air—but she’d never spoken again. The chemicals had tangled up her nervous system, and now, though she still had most of her motor functions, she did not respond to stimulus much of the time.
Some days, Kayla would almost respond, and Deanna would grow hopeful that her mother was getting better. Then she’d relapse into nothingness and have to have her every bodily need met by Reda and Deanna.
Deanna kissed her mother good night and let Reda put her to bed, though it was still early afternoon.
Justin had asked Deanna to return tonight, to be with him.
So, so tempting. Deanna would love one evening to forget everything, to feast her senses in a man like Justin, to feel something.
But she couldn’t afford to let him bamboozle her. Her mother was why Deanna couldn’t lose her job.
Deanna fixed a bite of late lunch in the kitchen and shut herself into her room with her computer. She had a pretty high clearance in the computer databases of Bor Narga, even on a leave of absence, and she was going to learn everything she could about Justin.
Not long later, Justin’s case files from DNAmo opened like flowers under her fingertips. These records had been sealed, but now that more than twenty years had passed, access had been granted to those with the right clearance. A Patroller First Class, the highest level of the uniformed patrollers, had the right clearance.
Deanna went through the records, reading every word.
Tales of the Shareem, Volume 2 Page 39