Calder wondered if she’d started touching herself, unable to resist the urge. He got hard picturing her stretched out on the black sheets, her legs spread, her hands working, her eyes closed in pleasure.
But when he walked into his apartment he froze, every enhanced sense telling him Katarina was in danger.
Quietly he slipped off his robes and crossed to the small control room where he could see all parts of his lair without being seen. From here, he used to talk to the waiting ladies, instruct them, watch them in cams that sent him feeds from each corner.
He didn’t need all the cams to see Lady Demata, the woman who’d been harassing him more than any other—holding a pistol on Katarina.
Shit.
His first impulse was to scream at the woman to get the hell away from Katarina. But he made himself remain silent, fearing he’d startle her into shooting.
Making no noise, he left the overview room and slid back the section of wall that led to the lair. He’d reach the woman, disarm her and throw the bitch out.
“If Calder told you he refunded your money, then he did,” Katarina was saying. “Go back home and find it.”
“It won’t be enough to compensate me,” the woman snapped. “I want him.”
“For your twisted fantasy?”
Calder’s heart pounded. He loved that Katarina was so brave, but now was not the time for courage.
“Your twisted fantasy is that he’s in love with you, isn’t it?” Lady Demata ranted as Calder made his quiet way toward them. “You believe you’ve tamed him, but I have news, darling. I know much about Calder. He’s serviced friends of mine. He figures out what you want and then he gives it to you. That’s the beauty of him. That’s why everyone wants him. I have some very interesting fantasies I want to play out. They’d shock you.”
“Calder is different now.”
“I’m sure every woman hopes so. Do you really think he’d fall in love with you? I wonder how he’ll use that fantasy to torture you.”
“Because you’re leaving, you’ll never know.”
Lady Demata’s mouth set. “Bitch!” She shot one of the candles, which exploded into wax and flame. “I’m going to let him do to me what no man has ever done. Do you want to watch? Maybe that will cure you of thinking he’s domesticated.”
Katarina started to answer but Lady Demata shot again. Calder leapt at Demata and grabbed her arm, and the shot went wide. A net of energy slammed out of the pistol, frying part of the roof and searing shut the door to his apartment.
“Shit!” Calder shouted. “Katarina, get out of here!”
He hit the ground as Lady Demata shot again, lightning forking across the room. “Who the hell are you?” she demanded. “I want The Beast.”
“He’s not home.” Calder got swiftly to his feet at the same time Katarina hit the woman in the back.
Lady Demata stumbled and went down but before Calder could reach for her, she swung her arm around and shot at Katarina.
Katarina dove, but a lash of energy caught her side. She screamed, landed on the floor…and lay still.
The sound that came from Calder’s throat was primeval and savage. Lady Demata shot wildly, not trying to kill Calder, he realized, but trying to destroy his lair. Payback.
The polished copper waterfall exploded into shards of hot metal. The next shot made the bed burst into flame, the third sent the candles rocketing around the room in little combustions.
Calder tackled the woman. She wanted The Beast, she’d get him.
The real Beast—the one who protected the woman he loved.
Another shot seared open the wall, baring wiring and pipes. An explosion shook the building. Calder yanked the pistol away from Lady Demata, powering it down. He locked his arm around her waist and dragged her to the door to the green maze, shoving her through. “Get out!” he screamed.
Lady Demata, looking scared now, gathered her robes and fled.
Calder turned back.
His lair was engulfed in flames. They spilled from the walls and ceiling where the energy pistol had ripped open the light, heating and cooling systems. The rainspouts sprang to life but did little to dampen the fire fed by the fuel in the pipes.
Katarina lay unmoving on the other side of the wall of flames—and he saw a flame crawl onto her robes.
“Bloody fucking hell!”
The fire brigade would never get there on time. Would they even hurry when they discovered it was a Shareem residence that triggered the city alarm? They might move to save the buildings on either side, but it would be too late for the Shareem’s dwelling, and no one would much care.
The intense heat transported Calder back twenty years. He heard again the screams of the two women trapped inside the room that was supposed to be safe for them. He smelled the flames, the acrid stench of burning flesh, the choking smell of plastic and wiring.
Memories of pain flashed through him so intensely it made him sick. He saw again the fire engulf his body as he grabbed each woman and flung her to safety. He remembered lifting his hands and seeing the fire burning him, consuming him, greedily eating him alive.
He’d fallen on his side, thigh flung over his bare cock, curling in on himself in instinctive preservation. Then he’d felt a weight on his body, agony screaming through him, then nothing.
Until he’d woken, a wreck of a man in hellacious pain while researchers coolly talked about killing him.
It took a split second for this to flash through his mind. In the next instant he saw Katarina, her shy look when he’d first come to her clinic, her need to help him pouring from her.
Then her wonder when she’d come to his lair, her compassion when she touched his face. This must have hurt you so much. Her generosity in figuring out a way to heal his skin, no matter how much it cost her in time and resources. She hadn’t done it for the sake of experimentation or to advance research.
She’d done it for him.
For The Beast.
For Calder.
Calder dove through the flames. He lifted Katarina in his arms and ran back through the fire, feeling it catch his hair, his tunic, his skin. She wore thick sun-blocking robes, thank the gods, and though flames had caught them, they’d protect her from the worst of it.
She opened her eyes and stared at Calder in horror. Calder shoved her down onto the tile floor in the maze, rolling her away from him. The flames in her robes extinguished and she scrambled to her feet, starting back for him.
“Get out!” he tried to shout.
His own body was already burning, his face melting—just like last time—and his voice wouldn’t work. He lifted his hands and saw the flames consuming the beautiful skin Katarina had just given him. Her gift. Because she loved him.
Calder threw himself onto the floor, rolling, trying to put the fire out. He smothered some of the flames but the burning room exploded outward, engulfing him and the greenery he’d filled the place with. It was dying with him.
“I love you, Katarina,” he said.
It came out a croak. Then a weight fell on him, and all was darkness.
* * * * *
“He’s conscious,” a male voice whispered. “Gods, how can he be conscious?”
Calder dragged his eyes open. The pain of the tiny movement nearly killed him.
He could see nothing but a gray haze and lumps of darker gray. He summoned all the air in his lungs and forced his lips to form words.
“Fuck you, Braden.”
“Whew,” Braden said. “At least he’s not crazy.”
“Calder.”
Katarina’s warm voice was the most beautiful thing in the world. Too bad Calder wasn’t. Here he was again, a black husk of a man stretched out on a slab.
He started to laugh, a harsh, ugly sound.
“Don’t.” Something cool touched his face. “Don’t move at all. I’m going to give you something for the pain and something to make you sleep. Then Dr. Laas and I are going to fix you.”
“D
on’t want to sleep.” If he slept, he might never wake again, never see Katarina again.
“Foolish boy.” Dr. Laas’ clear voice, rife with cynical intelligence, reached his ears. “I can’t rebuild you while you’re twitching and moaning. You really must stop letting burning buildings fall on you.”
“Bite me, Doc.”
He heard a squirt of air and then his body relaxed, his already-blurred vision going black.
But this time things were different. This time his friends were around him—he sensed Braden and the taller mass of Rees, with Rees’ true love Talan hovering nearby. He smelled Judith’s perfume. Overlaid with that, the oils Aiden liked to use on Ky and Brianne. So that threesome had showed up too.
His friends had come to him, had brought Dr. Laas, a woman who would be arrested and probably terminated on sight. She’d risked her life to come here—or to have him brought to her. He didn’t know where the hell he was.
Best of all, Katarina was there. Calder felt her breath touch his face, smelled her sweet scent.
The last time he’d been dying, he’d been surrounded by cold researchers, interested in him only for their DNA samples. This time he had friends who cared for him. And Katarina.
“Katarina,” he whispered, loving the feel of her name.
“Shh. Sleep now.”
He managed to move his lips to form one more sentence. “I love you.”
He sensed her bending forward to catch his words, heard the little sob in her throat. “I love you too, Calder.”
The world was a fine place.
* * * * *
“Calder.”
Hours later, Katarina let her tears fall on Calder’s hand, bandaged and coated with healing oils.
His one unbandaged eye opened and his lips twitched. “Hey, baby.”
She exhaled in relief. He wasn’t angry or morose. He smiled like he hadn’t been so happy in his life.
“You’re going to be fine,” she said in her best doctor manner. “I injected you with my nano-Shareem cure again.” She bit her lip. “It might hurt a little.”
“It’s excruciating,” Calder said.
Alarmed, she reached to the tubes snaking out of machines above him. He caught her arm in surprisingly strong fingers. “No. I want to stay awake. To look at you.”
Katarina let go of the painkiller line and sank back down.
“I thought I’d lost you in there,” he said, his voice like gravel.
“I thought I’d lost you.” She caressed his fingers where they were whole. “They arrested that Lady Demata. For negligence with a firearm.”
“Yeah?”
“They let her go though, since she was from Delta-Terra and no one wants to anger Delta-Terran traders. Besides, the patrollers said the only damage was to a Shareem and his home. She was escorted to her transport, but that’s it.”
“Figures.”
“Brianne and Talan are furious. They filed a formal protest.”
“That’s nice.”
“I’m sorry about your lair. It’s pretty much destroyed.”
“I don’t give a rat’s ass about my lair. But I want to strangle the woman for hurting you. Let Brianne and Talan do their worst.”
“But she didn’t hurt me. I got only a touch of the blast, and my robes protected me for the most part.”
Calder’s eye narrowed as he studied her face. He let go of her hand to trace the burn scar that ran from her cheek and down her neck. “You got burned.”
“A little. From the fire.”
“Didn’t it heal right? I want it healed.”
“It doesn’t hurt anymore. Dr. Laas helped.”
“Then why is the scar still there? You’re not Shareem, and you’re rich. You’re allowed to have the best human skin replacement in the galaxy.”
“I didn’t want to heal it.”
Calder traced the path again, his fingers warm. “Why not?”
“Because I want to know a little bit how you feel. How you felt. Disfigured—though I know this is nowhere near what happened to you.”
“Sweetheart, you don’t want to know that.”
“But I do. It makes me feel closer to you.”
“Why the hell would you want to be close to me? I’m a mess. I don’t mean my body. I mean in here.” He tapped his head. “They made me crazy.”
“Because I love you.” Katarina wasn’t afraid to say the words anymore, whether he wanted to hear them or not. “If you don’t want me to stay with you, if you want me to send you home when you’re better and never see you again, that’s fine. But I’ll always love you.” She touched the scar on her cheek. “And through this, I’ll remember you.”
“Don’t talk bullshit.”
“You can shut me out of your life if you want. But too bad, you can’t shut me out of my own thoughts.”
“I meant it’s bullshit that I’d never want to see you again. I want to see you always. Every day. If I heal, I want you where I can touch you any time I want.”
She swallowed, her throat tight. “You’ll heal. I promise.”
“Then you’ll stay with me.” His hand clamped down on hers again. “Understand? Because I love you, Katarina. I’ve never loved anyone before, but I know I love you. I’m not letting you go. All right?”
Katarina couldn’t stop her smile, though tears slid from her eyes at the same time. “All right.” She kissed his lips. “I can live with that.”
“So you’ll stay?”
“I kind of have to. This is my house.”
“Good.” Calder let his eye close, his body and the drugs drawing him back into healing sleep. “Because if you want to leave me, I’ll have to spank you.”
Katarina’s heart sped, her entire body tingling in anticipation. “Spank me anyway,” she whispered. “I’m looking forward to it.”
Epilogue
Six months later
“Behold, the woman who tamed The Beast.”
Braden slid into his place at Judith’s bar and grinned across the table at Calder and Katarina. Calder held Katarina a little closer, liking the feel of her backside on his lap.
It had taken a long time for him to completely heal, but his skin was mostly in place and mostly whole. He still had a few burn scars on his face and a couple snaking down his neck and his arms, but he had ceased to cover them up. Let the world see what he’d done to save the woman he loved.
The night was hot and the patrons sat languidly, sipping cool drinks. Judith flirted with a human space captain who sat at the bar, the man flicking curious glances at the Shareem.
“The Beast is gone,” Calder said to Braden.
“That’s what I mean,” Braden said. “Too bad though, eh, Katarina? No monster ravishing you in his lair.”
Katarina stretched, which pressed her breasts enticingly into Calder’s side. “I don’t know. We manage to have a lot of fun at home.”
Calder lived with Katarina now, despite the shock of her neighbors. He’d let his wrecked place go without qualm, rescuing the very few belongings he treasured. Katarina was the only treasure he wanted.
“I’ll bet.” Braden’s look turned wistful. “Tell me a little?”
Katarina gave Calder an inquiring look, and he answered with a nod. Let Braden eat his heart out.
“I like the restraints,” she said. “Calder has all kinds of them. I don’t know where he gets them.”
Braden’s gaze went glassy. “Certain vendors cater to level threes.”
“Yesterday, he dismissed all the servants and tied me to the railings on my staircase. There I was on the stairs, face-up, naked and spread-eagled, unable to move. Anyone could have come over and seen me like that. And done whatever they wanted to me.”
Braden made a strangled noise in his throat.
Calder recalled the “lesson” he’d taught Katarina. He’d left the house entirely and returned a half-hour later, coming upon her as though he were a visitor who’d found a delectable woman displayed for his use.
He remembered that he’d meant to wander the city for an hour or so before returning, but the thought of her waiting for him drastically cut the time. He had to have her before he died.
Katarina had begged him to be good to her. Calder hadn’t listened. He’d taken out the level-three toys he’d purchased on his outing and fucked her with every single one of them. Then, thinking he was about to explode, he’d turned her over and fucked her himself.
Calder was already hard, and he watched Braden’s skin flush as Katarina continued. “Calder has taught me to take it in the ass. He taught me gently at first, but now I’m learning to take it rough.”
Calder followed the swallow down Braden’s throat. “Really?” the man croaked.
“He says I should be ready to take two cocks very soon.”
Braden nearly knocked over the table getting up. “How about now?”
Katarina looked at Calder, her eyes twinkling. His bad, wicked baby—he’d taught her well. He’d dared her to get Braden worked up if they saw him today, and she’d done it in thirty seconds flat.
“Want to?” he asked her.
Katarina’s eyes widened. He hadn’t told her that part.
“I…” She looked back at Braden, who was begging for it with his whole body. “I think I would. If it’s all right with you.”
Calder nuzzled her ear. “You ask permission nice, sweetheart. I think you’re ready for two Shareem. I want you to have that. I want to hear you scream in pleasure.”
“I think I’d like that too.”
“So can we go?” Braden asked. He must not have released today—he looked like he was ready to drag Katarina across the table and screw her right there. He’d never make it to her house up on the hill.
Calder took pity on him. “Judith.” He gestured to the door that led to her stairwell. “May we?”
Judith looked up from her pilot, absorbed enough in him to not ask to join them. “Go ahead. Don’t leave it a wreck.”
“We won’t,” Katarina said. She wouldn’t. Katarina was an incredibly tidy person, even though she had all those servants to clean up after her.
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