“My posterior,” she said.
He chuckled. “Your sweet ass.”
Talan took hold of her courage. “My sweet ass.”
“That’s a good girl.” His hands moved in slow motion. “Your ass that I want to paddle. I really want to. But I won’t. Not yet.”
Rees pressed a finger into the cleave of her buttocks through the cloth. He smoothed all the way down, pushing the silk a tiny way into her hole. “I’m going to go here one day. With my finger and my tongue.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really. And my cock. Would you like my cock in your ass?”
Talan swallowed. “I don’t know. Is that level one?”
“Sweetie, you keep making me laugh. No, not level one. But I want to do it anyway.”
Talan’s body tightened. She gave one, hot shudder.
“Am I scaring you, sweetheart?”
Rees pulled her against him. She rested her head against his hard shoulder, wishing she could pull from the manacles and hold on to him. “A little,” she said.
“Shh,” Rees whispered into her hair. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. It will be pleasure, pure and simple. It’s what I’m made for.”
Talan leaned against him, loving his smell, the feeling of his bare skin under her cheek. She could hear his heartbeat—thump, thump, thump—fast and excited. His skin was hot, damp with perspiration, even though the room was temperature controlled.
She loved to be close to him. She wanted her experience with him to last a long, long time. “Why did you decide to stay, today?” she asked him.
“Hmm? Because when I saw you in the holo-block, I thought you were beautiful. I wanted you so much.”
Talan remembered the low velvet of his voice, the silken sound of his words when he’d asked her to stay with him.
“Why did you want me?” she asked.
“Because you’re beautiful, sweetheart.”
“I’m not beautiful. I’m . . . chubby.”
“You’re perfect.”
Not according to Lady Pet, who kept encouraging Talan to have surgery to get rid of her plumpness.
“Would you have done it, then?” she asked. “If I had asked you?”
“Probably,” Rees said. “I wanted you a lot, love. I still do.”
Rees leaned forward and kissed her collarbone, and she felt his cock jump against her belly.
“Is it different, now that you know why I want you?” she asked.
“Yes.”
Disappointment trickled through her. “I wish . . . “
“You wish what?”
I wish it could be just you and me and nothing else between us. I wish it could be real.
“I wish I wasn’t so afraid,” she finished.
“Don’t be afraid, Talan.”
Talan leaned into his chest again. “When you talk to me like that, I’m not afraid.”
“That’s because my voice was made to soothe you.” Rees looked down at her, eyes dark. “But you should be afraid of me, sweetheart. You should be afraid of all the things I want to do to you.”
“You just told me not to be afraid.”
Rees slanted his mouth over hers, briefly. Talan’s lips parted, wanting more.
“I’ll do what you and your Lady Petronella want, teach you what it’s like to be with a man. But what I want to do, sweetheart—what I want to do . . . “ Rees nipped her ear. “I want to fuck you every way there is to fuck you.”
Talan could barely breathe. “Do you? When will you?”
Rees straightened up, taking away his devastating touch. “Not now. You’ve had enough for now.”
“No, I haven’t. I haven’t, really.”
Rees gave her a severe look. “I said you’ve had enough. I am the teacher, you are the pupil. Right?”
“Yes, teacher.”
Rees leaned over and picked up the loincloth he’d dropped. How he would fit it over that rampant cock, she didn’t know.
“I’m going to release you, and I’m going to walk out of here. If you want satisfaction, you’ll have to do it yourself. In fact, that’s your homework. You aren’t leaving this room until you’ve made yourself come. All right?”
Talan stared, eyes wide. “I—”
Rees came back to her and pinched her jaw between his thumb and fingers. “I said, all right?”
Talan gasped. “Yes. Teacher.”
“Good. Now, goodnight.”
He turned and strode away. Talan watched his ass, so tight and fine, his tapering back, his wide, strong shoulders.
Now that he’d stopped talking, the room was too quiet. The soft trickle of the water and the artificial breeze in the trees would never be as soothing as Rees’s dark voice.
When Rees reached the door, he lifted a remote from a shelf near it. She thought it was for the holo, but when he pressed it, her manacles released.
Talan’s arms came down, half-hurting, half-tingling. She rubbed her wrists.
“Make yourself come, Talan.” Rees opened the door, blew her a kiss, and walked out of the room.
Stark naked. Metri would faint. The door closed, and Talan was left alone.
Talan throbbed with need, whimpering with it. He’d opened something inside her, stirred fires she never knew she had.
She fell to her knees on the damp holo-earthen ground. Talan could only think of his hands on her, his mouth on her, his voice telling her to say things she’d never have dreamed of saying.
She slid her hand between her thighs to cup herself. She was slick and hot, and her fingers went willingly into her opening. Talan wasn’t sure what to do, but she started to rub, and rub, and so began her release.
Chapter Four
Rees reached the bedchamber they’d told him was his without meeting anyone on the way. Lady Pet must have instructed the servants to keep clear.
The chamber was plain, though comfortable—the bedroom of a servant. Rees had a bed, a closet for his belongings, and a monitor. A tiny adjoining room contained the necessaries. It wasn’t much, but still better than what they’d given him at DNAmo.
They’d been afraid of him at DNAmo.
Rees entered the room, tossed his loincloth to the bunk, and tried to tell his cock to calm down. It didn’t listen.
Gods, he needed that girl. He needed to bury himself inside her and come and come and come.
His cock was acting like one of those magic swords of legend that had to taste battle before it could be sheathed. It told him it had to taste her pussy before he could put it away again.
Rees wrapped his hand around it. He remembered running his hands over her warm body through the silk, the brief, tantalizing taste of her tongue, the longing he could smell and feel in the air.
If you want satisfaction, you’ll have to do it yourself, he’d told her, trying to act like he didn’t care.
He’d give anything to run back, spread her legs, find her release for her.
Talan would be in there, alone, her hands filled with cream, shaking and sobbing as she touched herself.
Rees glanced at the monitor. He remembered seeing a small round lens near the ceiling of the holo-room. Security, he’d assumed.
He found the remote that switched on the monitor. Playing a little, he found the frequency of cameras inside the house, and after a time, the one in the holo-room.
Talan was still there. She knelt on the floor, her silk shift hiked above her hips, her lovely red hair falling past her shoulders. Her eyes were closed. Her lips had parted, her chest lifting with her rapid breath.
She stroked her right hand over her pussy, moaning with the pleasure of it. Her fingers gleamed.
Look at all that come. Sweet little girl, I want to taste that.
Rees imagined his tongue between her thighs, she filling his mouth. His hand moved on his cock.
Yes, baby, stroke it hard.
Talan’s left hand played with her breasts through the silk, fumbling a little, as though she didn’t know how.
As though she heard him, Talan rubbed faster. Her little cries increased.
Rees stroked his cock, which tingled and throbbed under his touch. “Come for me, baby. My cock is jumping for you.”
Rees focused on her hand, watched her push her fingers inside herself, watched her hips rock as she did.
“That’s my cock, Talan. My cock in you, so hard.”
Rees imagined it, her hot sheath squeezing him tight. She was a virgin—she’d be so tight, as tight as her ass.
Talan started to scream. The sound startled her, and her eyes flew open. She shoved both hands hard against herself, keeping up the agonizing strokes on her clit. Her hips moved, little female noises escaping her mouth.
In his room, Rees also came. His hips moved with his strokes, his come on his fingers, wishing it was Talan wrapped around him.
In the holo-room, Talan lay on the earth floor, her hair damp with humidity and sweat, her hand still pressed to her pussy. She was quieting now, her gasps winding down into little sighs. She lay still, a small smile on her face, her eyes aglow with wonder.
Gods, Rees wanted to be holding her right now. She’d kiss him gently, wrap her arms around him, pull him close.
Rees hadn’t needed to leave her alone, but his nature had wanted to torture her a little. So who’s being tortured here?
Shaking, Rees pressed a kiss to his fingertips, then touched them to the screen.
*** *** ***
In the morning, Rees found the garden, a real one, which he reached through a maze of hallways. Holo-outdoor scenes looked and felt real, but they could never be perfect. The shadows would be wrong or the water not quite right or the temperature of the surfaces just a bit off.
But this garden was completely real. Trees grew along a fenceline, blocking the place from the harsh reality of the street. A canopy of shade cut off the heat of the sun, the cool scent of rich earth and grass pervaded. Roses twined through a trellis and climbed the trees, their red and yellow blossoms lending perfume to the air.
Rees stared in wonder, never having seen a real garden before. He wondered briefly how they kept out the desert sands, until he watched an insect bounce off an invisible field far above.
What must it be like to have so much money you could have a permanent outdoor garden? Not only did Talan live in a huge, maze-like house with every comfort, but she could go outside and have the heat and sands kept at bay.
This was how Talan had grown up. Privileged, pampered, her every need met. And yet she was not spoiled or grasping, as she could have been.
She was sweet as spring sunshine. Her skin was a joy to touch, her cries the most exciting sounds Rees ever heard.
Listen to him being poetic. Rio would die laughing.
Rees walked across the leaf-strewn path to the opposite door, reveling in the cool joy of the garden. No sign or force field had forbidden him to walk there, so he assumed it was open to anyone in the house.
The door on the other side of the garden led to a dining room. The room had a clear glass wall so that those inside could look out to the roses, and the door stood open to the cool breeze.
The people in the dining room, Metri and Talan, did not see him approach. They were too busy arguing.
“There is no reason he can’t take meals with us, Metri,” Talan was saying. “Why should he eat with the servants? He’s not a servant, any more than you are.”
Metri turned red behind his beard. It must rankle Metri to be lumped into the same category as a Shareem. “Lady Petronella does not wish it.”
“Did she say she did not wish it?” Talan asked.
“Not in so many words, my lady, no. But Shareem do not share a table with highborn ladies. It isn’t done.”
“Highborn ladies shouldn’t even speak to Shareem. Are we to be hypocrites then, and pretend he isn’t here?”
Metri looked exasperated, poor guy. Rees entered the dining room, and Metri’s bearing became stiff.
“I heard,” Rees said. “Your majordomo is right, Talan. Shareem shouldn’t share tables with highborn ladies.”
Talan flushed. Her eyes went all starry when she did that. Rees remembered the feel of her skin beneath his hands, the salt taste of her lips. This woman had a great capacity for pleasure, and Rees had barely tapped it.
“Ridiculous,” Talan said. “Sit next to me, Rees.”
Sweet girl. Was she being generous, or trying to put one over on her guardian’s majordomo?
“Please,” she said. She slid out the chair next to her and patted it.
Rees winked at her, shot an apologetic grin at Metri, and sat down.
At least Metri did not have to worry about Rees being naked. Rees had found, when he’d risen and washed, a clean, insulated tunic and dark blue outer robe with a finely woven belt. He’d donned all this, thinking that living like a rich boy wasn’t such a bad thing.
The food was already on the table, kept warm or cool in its own programmed dish. Talan nibbled on a piece of bright orange hothouse fruit. Her soft lips closed around the orange section as she gently sucked.
Rees watched her a minute, enjoying it. Then he piled his own plate with fruit and covered it with cream.
Talan’s pheromones were thick in the air. That and watching her suck on the fruit had made Rees’s already stiff cock even harder. She was driving him crazy.
But it wasn’t just her pheromones. It was her. Rees had been with plenty of women, played similar games with them. He’d ordered them to bring themselves off while he watched, and had engaged them in much harder, much more dangerous activities. The excitement had been all sexual, all physical.
When Rees had watched Talan in the monitor last night, not one pheromone had reached him in his remote part of the house. He’d gotten off just watching her, reveling in her pretty face, her look of wonder, the soft smile when she’d understood at last what an orgasm felt like. He hadn’t been anywhere near her.
Metri left them—probably to lie down and get over his shock of seeing a Shareem in the dining room.
“Did you sleep well?” Talan asked Rees.
Rees took a bite of fruit, and the juices filled his mouth. “Not really.”
Talan looked concerned. “Why not? Was the bed uncomfortable? The room too hot? I told Metri to adjust the temperature—”
“The room is fine. I spent the night thinking how much better the bed would be with you in it.”
Her face went rosy.
Why had he said that? Rees was here to train her, to rid her of her fears about sex. Not to blather like an adolescent about how much he wanted her.
The situation was deteriorating fast. He should leave.
But if Rees left, Talan would simply hire another Shareem. That Shareem would touch her, would teach her . . .
No! came the explosive thought. Mine.
He heard his own sardonic laughter in the back of his mind. Yours? You are Rees. If you really want to be nice to this woman, you’ll walk out this morning and leave her alone.
Fuck that.
“I did what you told me,” Talan said shyly.
Rees dipped a hothouse strawberry into the thick cream, popped it into his mouth. “What was that?”
“I touched myself.” She closed her eyes and drew a breath that raised her breasts against her thick garments. “I’ve never felt anything like that before.”
“I know you did. I saw you.”
Her eyes widened. “You saw me? How?”
“In the monitor. I watched you.” Rees chewed the strawberry, swallowed. “You were a good girl. I won’t have to punish you. Not yet.”
Her mouth became a round, pink O.
Down boy, said the voice inside him. Stick to level one.
“What do you want to do this morning?” Rees asked her, trying to make his voice light.
“Lady Pet has gone out to shop,” Talan said, a little breathlessly. “I thought I would study.”
“A good idea. Yes, let’s study.”
“I mean my texts. Philosophy.”
“Mmm. Sounds boring.”
“Oh, no, it’s quite interesting. About how to free your mind from the body and become purely intellect. No emotions, no feelings to drag you down.”
Rees took another bite of fruit, enjoying the bright taste of it. “But your mind is always connected to your body,” he said. “Unless you cut off your head.”
“Don’t be silly. You have no idea of the freedom and bliss that comes with following the pure intellect.”
Rees gave her a narrow look. “Is the bliss anything like what you felt last night?”
Talan blushed. “That was different. I haven’t yet learned the discipline to pull away from my body. That’s one reason I wanted to bring you here. To learn to resist. I want the discipline. I don’t want—” She broke off and looked embarrassed.
“To be like me?” Rees shook his head. “Talan, you’ll never be able to separate your intellect from your body. You have to learn to enjoy your body, to learn to live in it every moment. Not become separated from it.”
“You’re Shareem. You say that because that is how they trained you.”
“I didn’t learn that growing up at DNAmo. What I know I learned from surviving. I’ve learned to listen to my body, but not to let it dictate my life.” At least, not until now. “But if I’d tried to separate my thoughts from my body, I’d be dead.”
She looked puzzled. “You grew up there? But DNAmo went out of business twenty years ago.”
“Shareem age slowly,” Rees said in a neutral tone. Especially R294E8S. That had been one of the experiments, to expand his lifetime, to slow down the aging process, even more so than on most Shareem.
Talan’s eyes filled with curiosity. She opened her mouth to ask him another question, but suddenly the pressure in the house changed. The morning sunshine vanished, blotted out by a thick yellow cloud that struck the house full force.
For a moment, Rees felt like someone was pressing an invisible weight on the top of his head. Then the fields protecting the house adjusted to the change in air pressure, and the sensation went away.
“Sandstorm,” Talan said worriedly. “It wasn’t supposed to hit until this afternoon.”
Tales of the Shareem, Volume 1 Page 4