by Annalise
Evans felt a shiver of something that was not sexual. A shrink would probably say it was fear. She shifted out of his embrace and pulled the airy gown down her body like a shield.
He was going back to Mars. Without her. And soon.
“That was a fabulous mind fuck, Link. But let’s keep it casual, shall we?”
He withdrew with a jerk, his gaze still locked on her face. “Sure. If that’s what you want.”
“That’s what I want.”
The ride back to the hotel seemed ten times longer than necessary. She couldn’t remember which parking entrance they used, or how they reached his room.
He said nothing, stripping and taking a shower. A small chime from the communication center drew her there. She saw that it was a message from the management.
Link was way over his officer’s allotment of water and would be charged a 100% surcharge on all future showers.
“Well, he certainly won’t care. He’s rich as a LaGrangian smuggler, now.” She frowned when she realized she’d been speaking to a message screen.
When he came from the bathroom, toweling off, she noticed he made no effort to don a robe or otherwise cover himself. And she knew why when he bent over to flick back the bed covers. Grace8 had marked him, sucking a nice love bruise on his left cheek.
She told herself she didn’t care. But in the shower, taking her time, knowing he was being charged usury rates for the water, she knew she did care. Grace8’s hands had been all over Link.
But that shouldn’t matter. The mission mattered. Angel Martinez mattered. But Evans faced the fact that Grace8 wasn’t about to be a conduit of anything but Link’s sperm.
The lights were dim when she stepped back into the room. Link lay on his stomach, face to the bank of windows, curtains open. The suck mark stood out starkly against the Mars-pale skin of his buttocks.
She went to the window and looked up at the sky.
Venus had moved out of sight. There was nothing to see now but the moon and city glow.
She slid into bed beside him and listened to the sound of his deep breathing. Tomorrow or the next day, they would try again. This time with two attendants in a bathing chamber.
It was smart of him to do the upgrade. It didn’t look suspicious and it allowed them to pick two attendants at once.
Great… twice the torture.
Chapter 17
Link ate a large serving of the real bacon he could now afford, using his fingers and not his fork. Evans ate almost nothing, waiting impatiently, pulling the plate out from under his hands as he picked up the last greasy slice. She packed the dishes into the discard recess while he wiped his fingers on a gleaming white napkin that bore the hotel’s embroidered logo. There were more changes here than she’d expected when they moved from the headquarters hotel into a commercial, luxury one.
She activated the card and asked over her shoulder, “We’re looking for young, aren’t we?”
Link finished wiping his mouth. “Yep. We need to pick the youngest we can find.”
Evans nodded. And younger still the next time. And so on, until they reached the other menus, the exclusive ones she was sure existed. The one that featured girls who should be at home, learning how to apply makeup or mulling over the body improvements they could opt for when they turned 21 and were legally permitted to make their own decisions.
* * * * *
The enforced wait for their appointment was agony. She and Link moved around each other as if there was an invisible shield between them, preventing touch. They ate and slept.
Watching him sleep was a choice torture. He usually lay on his stomach, stark naked, Grace8’s suck mark vivid on his ass despite the low light.
He moved restlessly, muttering unintelligible phrases from time to time. She grew tired of sitting in a chair watching endless infocasts she could neither care about nor concentrate on.
“Come to bed,” he said near dawn.
She could hear no edge in his voice. Instead, it had a husky tone that touched something deep inside her. She knelt by the head of the bed, her face inches from his.
They stared at each other for a while. His eyes were dark and unreadable.
He touched her hair. “I liked it better short.”
She shrugged.
“What’s that? The I-don’t-care-a-damn-about-anything shrug?” He gripped a handful of hair.
“Link—”
He pulled. She climbed on the bed and straddled him. “Let go.”
“Maybe.” He thrust both hands into her hair and held her head. Then he pushed her face toward his groin.
“Shit, Link. Stop it.” She wrenched away, breaking his hold smoothly, rolling to her feet.
He surged from the bed. “See how easy it is.”
“Easy? What the hell are you talking about?” Her scalp stung where he’d pulled her hair.
“Easy to get away from a man. Not to brag, but I’m pretty strong and you broke my grip.”
“What’s your point?” She knew what was coming. She wrapped her arms around her waist.
“Why didn’t you fight the clients? Why did you—”
“Just suck them off like I did you?”
He sat down heavily on the edge of the bed. “I can’t wrap my mind around it. I see you in my mind’s eye giving head to some guy who’s fat and ugly. Or taking some guy up your ass—”
“Stop it, Link. This is completely non-productive.”
“Is it?”
She knelt before him. “Yes, it is. I know you don’t approve of what I did. I know you think it’s somehow way beyond the call of duty, but… maybe you should think of it this way—”
“It is way beyond—”
“Shhh.” She touched his lips. “What if the Secretary had sent me to the Uron Conference six years ago? I was on the list of available operatives.”
“The Uron Conference.” He grimaced and shook his head.
“You know what happened there. You know what history will say about Uron. A flare-up of the corporate wars. A minor blip in peace. But I know you have the clearance to know the truth.”
His gaze held hers. He did know, but she continued anyway.
“Seven Homeland Security operatives died there. Three were dismembered during torture. They died doing their duty, and they knew the odds were terrible when they went in. But they saved lives—fifty of the Uron employees, to be exact. I’d have been there if I hadn’t been delayed during a debriefing in Hawaii.”
“Shit, Evans.” He pulled her in close, wrapped his arms around her.
She shoved at his chest, resisted the siren song of his embrace. “I could not have refused the Uron Conference assignment any more than I could the one at The Palace.”
She entwined her fingers in his, but had to bow her head to avoid his eyes.
“Is it dishonorable to follow orders? Even if you do something others might deem objectionable? That’s what we do, Link, we follow orders. At Uron, I’d have killed people for my country. At The Palace, I just fucked them.”
He turned her hand over. She had a small scar across the pad of her thumb, more evidence that she was unimproved. He traced it and thought about what she’d said.
“I’m a miserable fuck.”
At last, she smiled. A real smile. “No, you’re a good fuck… maybe a little set in your ways—”
“Set in my ways?” He grinned. “I’ll show you set in my ways. Stand up.”
She arched a brow, but did as he asked. He had to get them back to a comfort level. A level he could take. They’d moved off it and he needed to find it again.
Link pulled her to the center of the room and then walked slowly around her, sweeping his gaze up and down her body. Although the room was filled with grays in the dawn light, he was pretty sure he detected a pale pink glow on her cheeks.
He licked a fingertip and touched her nipple. She shifted her hips. He licked his finger again and stroked the other.
“Kiss?” he asked, leaning forw
ard so only their breath touched. When she parted her lips, he parted her other lips, dipping a fingertip into her. Her insides were satin smooth, warm, and lushly wet. Her fragrance floated around him. Enticed him.
Their kiss became a tangle of tongues. He thrust a second finger into her. She moaned and pressed down on him, gripping his wrist.
“Don’t touch. Stand still,” he ordered and she obeyed.
Her long hair flowed across her breasts. He lifted her and she wrapped her legs around his waist.
“No,” he whispered as she reached for his cock. “I wouldn’t want to seem set in my ways.”
“I lied,” she gasped as he took her earlobe and bit on it.
“Too late.”
He walked to the bed and threw her on it.
She lay there, legs spread, her surprise easy to see in the half light.
“Try to get away.”
She cocked her head and considered him. Then she bolted. He caught her ankle. She twisted. But he hung on, locking his fingers around the slender ankle and dragging her close.
She fought. Used tactics he knew well and knew how to counter. They bounced off furniture, sweating, panting. She slipped his grasp, then he slipped hers.
Finally, she lay on her back, panting, and he held her, ankles firmly locked in his fists.
“Okay. Now what?” she asked.
Inch by slow inch, he dragged her toward him, pulling her up until her legs draped over his shoulders and he had only to bend his head to lap at her fragrant center.
“Link,” she gasped when he tongued her clit.
She crossed her ankles behind his head and curled up to grip his forearms.
Then she fell back, stretched in a long, enticing flow of sweet, toned muscles. Her belly quivered. She covered her face with her hands and moaned when he nuzzled her clit again. He thrust his tongue into her and she almost crushed his head as her thighs tightened.
He spread her nether lips and teased her clit until she came. Then he let her slide into an upside-down heap on the bed.
She flopped to her side and glared at him. “So what did you prove? You’re stronger than me?”
“No. I proved I’m not set in my ways.” Her gaze shifted to his penis. “Hey, some things never change.”
“Thank our lucky star.” She pointed.
Venus stood just at the horizon. And he stood painfully at attention. She smiled and turned around, going up on her knees.
He slid into her from behind. It was quick. Just two quick, hard pushes into her slick passage and he felt the uncontrollable shift from conscious to unconscious rhythm. The climax came from deep within him and left him breathless, buried inside her.
Chapter 18
Evans entered the bathing chamber first. Link had selected a forest milieu from a menu at the same time he’d reserved the attendants. Angel had not been among them, though they had all looked like what Link had termed “jail bait”.
The chamber was scented like the deep woods, the lighting muted, a wide pool of dark water ringed with what looked like real rocks. She felt as if she’d stepped into a clearing in the forest. The two attendants sitting with their legs dangling in the pool looked like forest fairies and a lot like Angel. The girls were slight and dark, with elfin features. Evans felt big, gawky, awkward.
Real ferns and flowers decorated the verge of the pool as well as the attendants’ hair. Their naked pussies, quite visible with their spread thighs, enhanced their appearance of being childish. Although both the attendants were young, it was clear neither one was below the legal age of 21. As she got closer, she decided the one with the darker hair might even be pushing thirty.
Link shucked his robe and draped it over a stack of artfully placed boulders. Evans wrapped her arms around her waist, but Link bumped her with his hip and she stumbled into the pool.
The attendants were superbly trained. They didn’t laugh and both even managed to keep their eyes downcast.
She hoped Link would be true to his word and get this over with as quickly as possible. They needed to look further for Angel.
And if she admitted it, just the thought of another woman’s hands on Link made her blood boil.
How ironic. Once more, she was here on a mission, thinking of The Palace’s sexual activities as a task. She wanted to get on with it, complete their mission, not just for Angel and her family. She’d much rather have Link all to herself, she thought, as Link stepped down into the water.
Evans found that for some reason, the licking and stroking the elves lavished on Link bothered her not a whit compared to the tiniest touch of Grace8’s fingertip to his nipple. In fact, as Evans wiggled her feet in the heavenly warm water, she contemplated the consequences of biting off one of Grace8’s slim fingers for the audacity of making Link’s nipple tighten.
Link held out a hand. “Come here,” he said and she had to obey.
Evans settled within the circle of his arm and watched as one elf held her breath and went underwater to suck his cock.
Link crossed his eyes. Evans pressed her face against his shoulder to keep from laughing.
“We have a special offer available to those who like water play. Your attendants are skilled in all water sports. They have the equipment at hand to please you any way you choose. Imagine the joy of knowing you’re clean both inside and out.”
Red flared across Link’s cheekbones.
“Simply say, ‘Upgrade to water sports.’”
Link pantomimed fastening his lips closed with a key. She took the lobe of his ear between her teeth and bit gently. While he sought her mouth, she went for some space on his cock. She failed to outmaneuver the eager elves, so she shrugged out of his embrace and worked her elbows until she had made a place for herself between the two, in front of him.
She dipped down in the warm water until her chin kissed the surface and put her hands firmly on his thighs. As the elves caressed his cock, she slid her hands up the insides of his thighs to his balls.
She blew some bubbles across the surface of the water. Sweat ran down his chest and one of the elves leaned to sweep the drops off with her tongue.
Evans saw his gaze move to the young woman, so she took the opportunity to palm his balls. She squeezed. When he gasped, she eased the pressure.
The next time his gaze went to an elf, she squeezed again.
He kissed the air in her direction before boosting himself out of the water to sit on the edge. Water sluiced down his well-honed body.
Evans found herself gulping for air, floundering beneath the water. The elves had shoved her quite blatantly aside—and under. Blowing water from her nose, she stifled an urge to dish out the same treatment. But she had a role to play in this farce, and it did not include assertive behavior. Much as she’d like to dunk an elf or two.
The elves were oblivious to her. One held Link’s cock ready while the other prepared to climb astride his lap.
To Evans’s utter amazement, Link blocked her efforts with an extended arm.
“Not yet. I want my partner pleasured. And I want to watch.”
She shot him a look she hoped would shrivel his gonads when the elves swept her up into their strong little arms, pulling her out of the water to lay her on the smooth stone edge of the pool.
One elf parted Evan’s thighs while the other licked her nipples.
Link knelt behind her and lifted her head onto his lap. He smoothed her cheeks, her eyelids, her lips with his fingertips while the elves teased and pleasured her.
“Make her come,” he ordered the attendants.
To her intense embarrassment, they redoubled their soft touches and light kisses. She closed her eyes so she could not see Link’s watchful eyes looking down on hers. She closed her eyes to feel the caresses more intensely, to hurry the rising climax. Her fingers itched to touch him, but all she could reach were the elves or his wandering hands.
She wanted to feel his cock inside her, not their fingers. The yearning for him to fill her added t
o the tension building inside. Frustration swamped her, almost overpowering the effect of the elves and their adept little tongues and hands.
But if pressed, she’d have to say the pleasure was superb when it came.
* * * * *
A young blonde woman, with startlingly beautiful eyes, came into the changing room just as they entered from another door. She hastened forward, took Link’s robe, then helped him dress.
Evans took a moment to recognize her. It was Cloud9 with the reddish tint gone from her hair. After all the time she’d spent in this prison and the brief time she’d been free, it amazed Evans how long it took her to recall some things and people. Was it because of all the drugs they’d fed her?
“May I offer you a drink, sir?” Cloud9 pushed a recessed door and it swung open to reveal a tray with two glasses. One was tall, frosty, and pale green. The other was a deep purple and steamed. “The Emerald Elixir is said to restore vigor to those unable to take advantage of erectile enhancers.”
“The other?” Link asked.
“It is meant to soothe. We do not recommend it if you are personally piloting a PF.”
“Do you have something for my partner?” he asked, taking the green drink.
“What do you require for her?” Cloud9 asked.
Evans opened her mouth, but Link spoke first. “I would like her to have something for the rather extensive irritation between her thighs. On our last visit, the attendant deliberately scratched my partner. Today’s attendants were quite gentle, but their play has undoubtedly caused her further discomfort.”
Cloud9 bowed and withdrew.
Link took a long swallow of his drink and watched Evans over the glass’s rim. She dropped her gaze and remained still, sitting on one of the dressing room’s benches, her robe demurely closed over her knees.
She kept her features still and hid her joy. Link did care, more than she’d expected. Then she sobered. Would Grace8 be punished as she had been by his complaint?
Of course, Grace8 probably didn’t have her own defiant genes. Grace8 wanted the success The Palace offered and would never refuse the retraining process, regardless of who was given time with her. She’d undoubtedly do her best to enjoy it.