“They must be very good friends.”
Rio grinned. “You could say that. If I’d known you were up, I would have asked you to join us.”
Her eyes widened. “Join?”
“Why not? We might have watched them with me inside you. Or let them watch you kneel to me and take my cock in your mouth.”
Her face went even redder. “I don’t understand such things.”
“No, but you enjoyed watching from the shadows. Maybe you like that better?”
“I like nothing,” her mouth said. Her screaming pheromones told Rio the complete opposite. “I need to leave here,” she said. “Unless I am a prisoner?”
“Why should you be a prisoner?” Rio reached again to the burning red of her hair. “’Course, you can be one if you want to be. I could wrap you in chains and promise to let you go after I’ve pleasured you countless times. The more you begged me to release you, the longer I’d keep you bound.”
Her eyes were round, caught between panic and desire. Her breath smelled good, spicy and salty. She probably tasted just as good.
Rio leaned down and gently brushed his tongue across her lower lip.
She gasped and jerked back, and he sensed her body sending her conflicting messages. Be afraid of this man, it was telling her, at the same time it urged her, Let him do as he likes.
She wanted him, and she didn’t want to want him.
“Rio,” Dr. Laas’ wry voice came from across the room. “The poor woman just got over alkaloid poisoning. Give her a few minutes.”
The young woman tried to turn away so she wouldn’t expose her backside to Dr. Laas, but the movement only exposed her to Rio.
He saw round, pretty hips, the cleft of her buttocks and sweet hollows at the small of her back, before she grabbed the loosened folds of the sheet and hid herself again.
“Alkaloid poisoning?” the young woman asked.
Dr. Laas nodded. She’d exchanged her coveralls for a form-hugging dress of gold silk. “You’d been shot with a poisoned dart, and Rio carried you to me, so I could fix you. The antidote was simple to concoct, but if more than a drop of that poison had gotten inside you, I couldn’t have saved you. Rio grabbed that dart out of your leg just in time.”
The young woman turned back to Rio, her eyes enormous. “Thank you. Both of you.”
Dr. Laas smiled. “It was a pleasure. Rio was right to bring you here.”
“You are a medical healer?” the woman asked. Rio found it interesting that the implant didn’t translate doctor quite right.
“I am a research professor.” Dr. Laas smiled, eyes crinkling. “I made the Shareem.”
“Like I said,” Rio drawled, “she enjoys her work.”
“You made them?”
Dr. Laas made a modest shrug. “I and a few fellow scientists came up with the design for Shareem. Rio and Rees were some of our very best.”
The woman’s startled gaze flicked back to Rio. “Are they androids? Not real?”
“Oh, I’m real, darlin’,” Rio said softly. “Very, very real. I think you saw how real.”
She drew a breath. “I think I don’t understand.”
Dr. Laas opened her hands. “The Shareem might have been a mistake. Maybe we got carried away playing gods.” Her smile turned wicked. “But oh, what workmanship.”
“Thank you,” Rio said dryly.
“Now,” Dr. Laas went on, “what can we do for you, my dear? Rio feels guilty that you got hurt from someone chasing him, so how can we make it up to you?”
The woman glanced quickly at Rio. Ever so slightly, he shook his head. Let Dr. Laas think what Rio had thought for now.
She took Rio’s cue. “I could do with some clothes.”
“Baine is searching for some,” Dr. Laas said, dismissing the problem as solved before turning to Rio. “Talan and Rees have gone downstairs to wait for you.”
Rio chuckled. “Can they still walk?”
“They’re a bit shaky.”
“We’d better go down there, then,” he said, “before they get tired of waiting and start again.”
Dr. Laas and Rio shared a laugh, but the young woman looked more baffled than before. Innocent.
Rio gestured to the lift. “After you.”
The woman scowled at him. She knew damn well he wanted to get behind her in case the sheet fell again. Hell, he was so horny, he might grab it off her altogether.
Watching Talan get fucked had made Rio hard, and watching this woman watch them had only made it worse. His skin was burning, and he needed release. Shareem needed release, or else their chemistry churned them up inside, overloading their bodies. A Shareem who didn’t release often enough could die.
The woman he wanted to release with scurried to the lift in front of him, the sheet swaying against her luxurious body.
Rio wanted her with something primal and possessive. Maybe saving her had stirred up the primitive protectiveness within him.
He loved Talan in a friendly way, and never said no when she and Rees invited him to make it a threesome. He joined in pleasuring Talan because he liked her, and also because it felt good.
Rees and Talan loved each other—Rio was just the toy boy. He didn’tmind being the toy boy—he liked being taken out and played with. But his feelings for this woman, whoever the hell she was, were completely different.
Mine. To have and to hold.
The words of the ancient wedding ceremony weren’t far off the mark. He wanted to hold her in his arms, to have her in every way, and—because he was a level three Shareem—to get into some bondage fun.
He saw Dr. Laas eying the sheet speculatively, and he frowned at her. Dr. Laas enjoyed women almost as much as she did men. Anything in the pursuit of sensual pleasure.
Not this time. The woman was Rio’s. Not for sharing, and not for just once. He again felt the tenuous bond he’d sensed when he’d looked down at her on Dr. Laas’ exam table.
Mine.
Every one of his sex-mad friends had better get used to that.
*** *** ***
Downstairs in another lounge, they found the blond Shareem man and his wife, Talan.
The two were clothed now, he in a body-hugging tunic, she in long, flowing robes of elegant material. She’d re-dressed her hair in a braided coil, a strand of glittering stones circling it. Everything about her ensemble cried its expense.
The robes told Nella that Talan was one of the highborn women of this planet. Bor Nargan women of the upper classes sometimes visited fashionable Ariel, and some of the highest born got invited to the palace to meet the royal family.
Bor Nargan women wore robes of varying shades and lovely geometric designs. The designs all meant something—whether the woman followed a certain religious order, whether she was married or a celibate, or whether she occupied a certain political niche, or a combination of these. Nella’s protocol officers had always sorted it out and told Nella what she needed to know.
Nella had no idea what the designs on this woman’s robes meant. Also, she couldn’t see them well, because the woman sat on the lap of her Shareem, shamelessly kissing him.
What Nella did know about Bor Nargan highborn women was that they didn’t like sex or sexuality. They shunned sensual pleasure in favor of intellectual pursuits. But Talan was blatantly enjoying her lifemate, had blatantly enjoyed him upstairs, without shame.
Rio cleared his throat and Talan sprang to her feet. Talan blushed, but the man Rees only looked annoyed that they’d been interrupted.
Rees stood up, putting his arm around Talan. He matched Rio in height, and while Rio was slightly larger in bulk, Rees’ chest was plenty broad, his tunic tight on his shoulders. The chain on his biceps was a black streak on his bronze-colored skin.
Rees had blue eyes in common with Rio, enough alike in shape and color that they could have been brothers.
Nella wondered why, with all her studies on otherworld cultures and her knowledge of Bor Narga, she’d never run across any men
tion of Shareem.
“Are Shareem slaves?” she asked. Slavery had been outlawed for millennia on Ariel, but she knew that some planetary systems still practiced it.
“No,” Talan said quickly.
“Well,” Rio drawled. “We can be if you want.”
Nella had the sudden flash of seeing Rio, in his leather leggings, kneeling with thighs spread, his hands behind him, his brawny wrists encircled by wide cuffs with a chain between them.
Rio’s gaze locked to hers, his eyes nearly filling with blue, as though he knew what was in her head.
Then she noticed Rees. He’d stilled, his irises also widening. His large hand moved to cup Talan’s waist and pull her toward him. The tunic couldn’t hide the fact that his cock was stiffening and lengthening.
“Better stop whatever you are imagining,” Dr. Laas said to Nella, amusement in her voice. “You have two Shareem males erect and randy in front of you, and you’re only wearing a sheet. Who knows what the consequences will be?”
“Can they read my mind?” Nella asked in surprise.
“No,” Rees said, his voice rumbling and low. “Your pheromones.”
“They pour over us like water, sweetheart,” Rio said. “When your body is craving us, we get all hot and bothered. We can’t help it.” He moved to her. “Later, I’ll make you tell me what you were thinking about.”
Bad idea. A very bad idea.
Talan seemed the only one able to take the situation in stride. She broke away from Rees and came to Nella. “You poor dear. I imagine you are quite confused. Come and sit.” She glanced at Rio. “Couldn’t you find her any clothes?”
Rio shrugged. “I like her the way she is.”
Talan gave him an exasperated look and led Nella to a low sofa. When they sat, the sofa moved beneath them, adjusting to fit their bodies.
“Baine is working on clothes,” Dr. Laas said. “Nothing I have will fit her, and she’s taller than you, Talan.”
“Baine,” Talan said to the air. “Do you have clothes for our guest, yet?”
The soft male voice that had spoken to Nella in the elevator floated out to them. “I am attempting to locate a shop that will accept computer-to-computer interaction without a human interface. Alas, so many stores these days have gone over to the fad of human-to-human service, as though computers are not as good as humans.
“Based on conversations between you five and a rough interpretation of events, coupled with extrapolations from news services, I concluded that it is not desirable for anyone to know the whereabouts of this young woman at present, and so I must purchase clothes for her and have them delivered with no human realizing the event has taken place.”
“In other words,” Dr. Laas broke in, “No.”
“Precisely”.
“Who is Baine?” Nella asked.
“My computer,” Dr. Laas said. “A man I had an affair with programmed the voice in before he left. I told him to go, you see, and this was his revenge. Baine sounds just like him.”
“Do not insult me,” Baine answered. “I am a thousand times superior to your fly-by-night lover. He is now in jail on Station 1217, by the way, for indecent exposure.”
“Really?” Dr. Laas brightened. “How delightful.”
Rio crouched beside Nella’s left knee, leather stretching over his thighs. He rested his hand on her leg. “You don’t need to be afraid of us.”
His hand was large and warm. A need to relax flowed through her, a need to trust, to put her fate in his so-strong hands.
“Yes, she does,” Rees said softly.
“Pay no attention to the man with the large hard-on,” Rio said. “You’ve been afraid for a while, haven’t you?” He stroked her thigh, massaging with expert fingers. “Your muscles tell me that, and so does your breathing. It’s been a long time since you could relax.”
On her other side, Talan took her hand. “Tell us your name,” she said, her voice as gentle as Rio’s touch. “We’ll help you, I promise.”
Nella swallowed. As much as she wanted to trust these people, as much as she was grateful to Rio and Dr. Laas for saving her life, knowing who she truly was would be dangerous—not only for her, but for them. Rio could fight one assassin bot, but not a horde of them.
“Lita,” she said, lighting on the name of one of her mother’s childhood friends, now deceased. Lita had always been a sunny person.
Rio’s fingers moved, stroking her thigh. “A beautiful name.”
Baine snorted. “Are you all stupid? She’s only been on every news digital for the past five years, or do you pay no attention to the off-world channels? She’s been the most popular woman on Ariel since she came of age, and there’s now a big hullabaloo because she seems to be missing.”
Nella froze. Rio’s fingers stilled, and Rees, Talan and Dr. Laas stared at her.
Talan understood first. “Goodness, I thought she looked like her, but I never dreamed . . .”
“Enlighten me,” Rio said, tones cool.
“She is none other than Princess Nella Ellerina Natalia Vascian of Ariel. She and her family are figurehead rulers of the planet, meant to inspire and unify their people. The princess is unilaterally adored. She apparently ran off with her supposed lover, a man called Linginian, but he has been unable to produce her, which has many worried about her whereabouts and safety.”
“By the gods,” Dr. Laas said in an awed tone. Rees and Talan said nothing.
Rio stroked Nella’s thigh again while he looked at her with eyes dark blue and unreadable. His lips quirked into a smile.
“Damn,” he said. “Did you all hear that? My girl’s a princess.”
Chapter Four
First Lesson
The princess tried to run. Rio rose to his feet, grabbed her sheet, and hauled her back to him.
“Stay with me,” he said. “I told you, we won’t hurt you.”
“That was before you knew who I was.”
“Doesn’t matter. You’re with me, now.”
Nella stopped struggling, but her breathing was rapid. Rio drew his hands across her belly, sensing the terror that rushed through her.
“People would pay you much money for knowledge of my whereabouts,” Nella said. “That changes things.”
Her accent was sweet. Rio could listen to it all day.
“We don’t care,” he said. “Talan is filthy rich already, Dr. Laas is an outlaw and likes hiding out with her computers, and Rees and I are Shareem. As long as we come five times a day, we’re happy. All the money in the universe can’t change that—and hell, who’d want it to?”
“We’ll not betray you,” Talan said to her.
Rio leaned down and kissed the corner of Nella’s eye, finding her lashes wet with tears.
He wanted to lick her and kiss her until she calmed down. And then until she wound up again. He hadn’t been joking when he’d said Shareem had to come about five times a day.
“I thought I could trust before,” Nella said. “People I thought were my friends betrayed me.”
“Shh,” Rio soothed. He closed his eyes, willing her body to relax. “That’s all over. You can trust me.”
“I can’t.” Her voice was ragged.
“You can. I will teach you to trust again, Nella. I’m an expert at it.”
She shook her head, but his touch and his Shareem voice were already working. She sank into him, and Rio slid one hand up to cup her breast through the sheet. “Feel better?”
Her eyes drifted closed. “It is dangerous for you.”
“We are dangerous, Nella. Anyone who messes with you has to mess with us first.”
Nella leaned against him, her body warming, reacting to his.
“Ah,” Baine interrupted. “Success. I have procured a set of nondescript clothing for the princess. They are down in the lab.”
“Save them for later,” Rio said.
He lifted the unresisting Nella into his arms and walked to the lift. The others let him go without a word.
*** *** ***
Nella felt slightly better by the time Rio carried her into her room again. The sparse, pale room was comforting, somehow safe. Even the spicy scent of the air encouraged her to relax.
She knew the feeling was false. Decorators on Ariel used chemicals in the air and even in paint on the walls to calm a room’s inhabitants. Some restaurants did that so the diners could leave the stress of the day behind and better enjoy their food.
“I have to leave,” she told Rio.
His lips curved to a smile that nearly knocked her over. “Not in that sheet.”
“In the clothes that Baine—that the computer found.”
“Later. Maybe.”
She folded her arms, hugging the sheet close. “I am a prisoner here, then?”
“No.” His eyes darkened, and he closed the space between them. “Unless you want to be. I’ll bet Baine could fix us a holo-room where I could chain you to the wall, and we could play some fine games.”
She stared at him, unable to imagine what kind of games he was talking about. He was so close to her that she could not tell where his body heat left off and hers began. When he slid his strong hand over her backside she wanted to jump away, but at the same time, she craved his touch.
“I have to go,” she repeated, but her voice had weakened.
“Where to?” Rio asked. He caressed the hollow of her hip with his warm palm. “Out to be chased by assassin bots again?”
She fell silent. She had nowhere to go, and she knew it. Ariel had no embassy on Bor Narga, the two planets being ten stations remote from each other. She hadn’t even been able to send a message to the consul on the next station in line, 657, because Linginian had paid men to make sure she could not get near a call terminal.
“You see?” Rio said, as though he could read her thoughts. “This compound is hidden. No one knows about it but Shareem. It’s a good place to hide. Consider us friends.”
Nella wanted to sink into his warmth and lay her head on his shoulder. She found her body doing just that, even though she told it not to.
“My friends betrayed me,” Nella said. “They sold me out to a man who wanted to make me his slave.”
Tales of the Shareem, Volume 1 Page 20