“You should arrest him for being stupid,” Rio said to the patroller. “Now can we get out of here? Our friends are expecting us home for lunch.”
“Nella is coming with me,” Linginian said.
Rio changed from a man annoyed to one with animalistic strength in an instant. He had Linginian’s throat in his hand before the patrollers or Linginian’s men could react.
“She’s not going anywhere with the man who tried to force her and then kill her.”
Whatever the patrol captain felt about open weapons, she hated aggressive Shareem even more. She raised her stun rod. “Get away from him.”
The rod came down. Rio spun Linginian in his grip, letting Linginian catch the stun rod full against his back.
The smaller man screamed, his body jerking with the electric shock. His men snapped out their weapons again. Rio tossed Linginian at the lead patroller, grabbed Nella’s hand, dove through an opening among the startled patrollers, and ran.
His hand was like a band around Nella’s, his strength pulling her faster than she’d have been able to run herself. She heard pursuit behind them, patrollers shouting, Linginian’s men pounding along the street.
Rio dragged Nella around a corner, through the crowded market, and out through another street. This narrow lane was quiet and deserted, and fed into the open area where the third ship waited.
Rees waited there as well. The ship’s engines had started, filling the air with a roaring sound and the smell of burning fuel.
“I got him to wait, but he’s in a hurry,” Rees said as they neared him. “He didn’t like the patrollers suddenly appearing.”
“He didn’t like it?” Rio said. “How did he think I felt?”
Rio softened his grip on Nella’s hand but didn’t let go. They followed Rees quickly toward the transport.
Three light bolts and two metal bullets flew past them, striking the dirt around them and sending up little rivulets of dust. “Fuck,” Rio snarled and ran faster.
Shots came again, this time striking the ship. Behind her, Rees grunted, and Nella turned in time to see him clasp his shoulder, red leaking between his fingers.
“Rees!”
“Go on!” Rees shouted.
Rio dragged Nella forward, his face set. He ran behind the ship just as a barrage of shot pelted it. Because of the ship’s spaceworthy hull, the bullets did nothing more than flake off bits of paint.
Then the boom of a pulse cannon sounded, and the ship shuddered. A hiss of air exploded, and a metal plate burst upward and landed on the ground with a metallic clang.
The pilot, a lanky man who was not Bor Nargan, appeared in the hatch, swearing and looking around in outrage. He spotted Linginian’s men, all ten of them, winding up their pulse cannon for another shot.
“Shit,” the pilot said. “Are you the cargo?”
“That’s us,” Rio said. “I suggest we go—fast.”
“Only one of you, now. That shot blew out the oxygen system. We’ll have to use enviro-suits and there’s only one spare.”
“Then we have to find Rees and go back to Rylan’s,” Nella panted.
“No,” Rio said. “You get on the transport and go.”
Nella shook her head. “Not without you.”
“You have to. I can deal with the patrollers. You need to be safe from that asshole.”
Nella clung to his robes, Rio’s body firm beneath them. “But they’ll arrest you. You’ll never get off Bor Narga.”
“No time to argue,” Rio said, his voice harsh. “Go. I’ll be fine.”
Rio scooped her against him and kissed her, hard. Nella let her lips cling to his, wanting him, hungry for him, the Bond screaming at her to not let him go. Nella knew Rio felt the breaking too, because pain flared in his eyes.
He set her on her feet and swatted her backside. “Get on that transport, princess.”
The Bond cried out, pulling her. “Rio.”
“You have to do this, Nella. It’s your only chance to be safe.”
Nella knew he was right. If she went back to Rylan’s, Linginian would find them. She could tell the Bor Nargan patrollers who she was, but with her DNA signature changed, she might not be able to prove it for some time. And the patrollers would likely argue that she would be better off with Linginian, a man from her homeworld, than a Shareem, in any case.
But leaving Rio behind terrified her. Not only was Nella leaving a part of herself, Rio might not escape the wrath of the patrollers. It would take time for Nella to get back to Ariel and arrange help for him. And by that time . . .
“I love you,” Nella cried.
“I love you too, sweetheart. Now go.” Rio held her gaze with his hot, intense eyes. “Trust me.”
Nella smiled weakly, touched her fingertips to his lips, then spun around and scrambled up through the hatch and into the transport.
The hatch snapped shut as soon as she was inside, closing off the heat, Bor Narga, Rio’s face, and the tears in his Shareem-blue eyes.
Chapter Sixteen
The Gallery of Light
“Don’t move, Shareem,” the patrol captain said.
Rio ignored her. He watched the small ship climb up and up through Bor Narga’s perfect, blue, cloudless sky. The Bond between himself and Nella pulled at him, hurting like nothing else had ever hurt him in his life.
The captain and her patrollers surrounded Rio. At the edge of the field, the outraged Linginian watched as his men were arrested for carrying weapons in a public place. Not only that, but for shooting at people—even Shareem—and damaging a transport ship. Bor Nargans took their weapons laws very seriously.
“Go on, arrest me,” Rio said, looking at the patrol captain’s flat, angry face. “I really don’t care.”
*** *** ***
The patrollers did arrest Rio, and he spent the night in a tiny cell with a surprisingly comfortable bed, fresh paint on the walls, cool, well-circulated air, and a computer slot that provided exactly one meal. They had way better jails out here in the sticks than in clinically correct Pas City.
Rio sat on the bed, leaning his back against the wall and didn’t eat. He wasn’t hungry, and he’d not lied to the patroller who’d arrested him. He truly didn’t care what they did to him.
Rio stayed in the cell only one night and was released the next day, while reporter bots circled the small trial house.
It seemed that the patrollers couldn’t produce one shred of evidence that Rio had been planning to take the transport off-world. He’d been escorting Nella to the transport, that was all, and Nella, as a non-Shareem and a citizen of Ariel, could come and go as she pleased.
The judge, a thin woman with a long nose, had found out all about Linginian, including the bulletin from Ariel that he was wanted for kidnapping Princess Nella. Alarmed, she made recommendations for Linginian to be expedited to Ariel for them to deal with. Plus she charged him an enormous fine for instructing his men to fire weapons in the quiet town of Canyon Roble.
Rio wasn’t sure how Rees and Talan had covered things to make it look like Rio hadn’t been going anywhere, but they had. Rio walked back with them from the trial house to Rylan’s, knowing he should be grateful, but only feeling numb.
In Rylan’s living room, Rio stood staring out the huge glass windows, wondering whether Nella and the transport had made it to Station 657, and wondering if she’d send ever word to him when she did.
Rees, Rylan, and Maia left him alone. Rio knew that pain radiated from him, and being Shareem, they would be sensitive to his emotion, feeling it too. Not that Rio minded them staying away. He wanted to be alone right now.
Talan, however, didn’t let anything stop her. She entered the sitting room behind Rio, the soft scent of her perfume and her light step announcing her presence.
“If you came to feel sorry for me, don’t bother,” Rio said, keeping his voice as calm as he could. That’s all he needed, to turn into a whining fool.
“I do feel sorry for you.”
Talan came around him, her blue eyes filled with sorrow. She put her arms around his neck and pulled him down to her for a hug.
Level threes don’t hug, he wanted to say.
Instead, Rio wrapped his arms around Talan and buried his face in her neck. There was nothing sexual about this caress; it was friendship alone.
“You love her,” Talan said.
“Yeah. Damn it all.”
Talan released him, keeping her hands on his shoulders. “She loves you. She’ll come back for you.”
“Maybe.”
“Or you can go to Ariel. I’m perfectly happy to pay for another transport for you. Rees can arrange it.”
Rio gently pried Talan’s hands from his shoulders. “Not for a while, he can’t. The patrollers will be watching me extra close, because they know I was up to something. They’ll watch Rees too. I don’t need him getting terminated for helping me.”
“Rees knows how to work it so he won’t get caught—”
“No.” Rio gave her an emphatic look. “We need to lie low for a while. I have to think about things.”
Talan nodded, though Rio knew she’d not dropped the idea. “You’ll see her again, Rio.”
“Sure.” Rio tried to sound like he believed it.
“You will.” Talan patted his arm, then turned to leave him alone. “Trust me.”
*** *** ***
Days lengthened to weeks, and Nella made no contact with Bor Narga. Rio knew she’d made it to Ariel, because days after her departure, a news digital showed her, garbed in a filmy golden gown, waving from a balcony with two older people who must be her parents.
A tinny voice from the digital feed said: After three harrowing months, Princess Nella of Ariel has at last returned safely to her family in her home city of Adrina. She had been kidnapped and held hostage by a man called Lord Linginian, who has been arrested and transported to an incarceration satellite to await trial. Princess Nella escaped, unharmed, and using only the resources of her courage and intelligence, fled assassin bots to arrive safely again on her home planet, to the relief and joy of her family.
Rio recorded the digital feed and played it over and over again, muting the inane voice and watching Nella. In the picture, she emerged onto a balcony between her parents, her beautiful face serene, her eyes emerald green and tearing with emotion.
She lifted her plump hand and waved at the people gathered to cheer her, looking so damn beautiful that Rio’s Shareem cock hardened.
From watching a recording of her light-years away, for the gods’ sakes.
At least Rio no longer had to worry for her safety. Nella was home in her big palace with her family and all her guards. She’d be going to parties, the news people said, held in her honor. They speculated that there’d be plenty of men at those parties, and wedding bells might ring soon for the heroic and beautiful Princess Nella.
“Meanwhile,” Rio said, waving his hand to dissolve the holo-picture, “her Shareem former lover gets drunk and sappy thinking about what might have been.”
Rio had come home to d’Enela Street and Kamile’s shop and his own small flat cluttered with bondage paraphernalia. Not that he felt much like using any of it.
But Shareem had to have sex, or at least release, or they burned up from the inside out.
One day six weeks after Nella’s departure, Rio showered himself as usual, then stood naked in front of a slim mirror in his front room. He was still tall, still muscular, and still hung like the Bor Nargan god of love and sex. Only bigger.
“I’m Rio,” he told himself. “There are dozens of women out there who’d give anything to suck this cock. Three of them at a time, even.”
His cock was supposed to leap at the thought of three beautiful women on their knees licking him—maybe two in front and one behind. But not until one of them smiled at him with Nella’s smile and looked at him with Nella’s enhanced green eyes did it start to lift.
“Damn,” he said, and deflated again.
“I need to finish this,” he told his reflection. “No more nights with just me, a butt plug, and my hand. That’s sad.”
His reflection nodded back at him. “And what’s even sadder,” Rio said, “is me standing here, naked, talking to a mirror.”
He turned away, dressed in his usual leather, tucked what he needed into his pockets, hung his breather on his belt, and went to Judith’s.
Aiden and Ky were there. Rio sat down with them, glad he could at least spend the evening with friends. Of course, Aiden knew Nella, and the man kept shooting Rio sympathetic glances, which didn’t help.
Aiden and Ky were full of themselves over how they’d diverted the patrollers’ attention so Rio could get to Canyon Roble without fuss. Rio didn’t blame them for the patrollers catching up to him—that had been Linginian’s fault.
The three Shareem talked and drank for a time. Ky got up and approached the bar for more ale, his tight leather-clad ass attracting the attention of every woman in the room.
“You tell him yet?” Rio asked Aiden.
Aiden’s face remained neutral, but Rio detected a flicker of unhappiness. “No. And you’re not going to.”
Rio lifted his hands. “Hey, I can keep a secret.”
“I don’t want him to be uncomfortable around me. If I can’t have anything more, then I at least want me and Ky to stay close friends.”
“I’m not uncomfortable talking to you, and I know about your longings,” Rio said.
“But I’m not lusting after you.”
“You have a point.”
Aiden absently turned his ale glass. “On the other hand, Ky and I were thinking about giving Judith a birthday present. A double-Shareem present.”
“Is it her birthday?”
“I don’t know. Who cares? Why don’t you join us? She’d love it—she really likes you.”
“Three on Judith?” Rio waited. Nope, the cock didn’t move. Crap. “Every time I do anything with Judith, she yells at me for weeks about how sore she is.”
Aiden grinned, his perfect face sliding into its usual handsome lines. “Notice she never complains during the activities that make her sore?”
Rio chuckled. “Yeah, I noticed that.”
“What’s so funny?” Ky thunked three glasses on the table with his brawny hands as he sat down.
“Us on Judith,” Aiden said.
Ky flashed a smile, showing white teeth in his swarthy face. Rio supposed Ky was sexy, not that he’d ever thought about it. Ky had an unpredictable quality—a lady never knew whether he was going to caress her or go for his whip.
“I’ve been hankering for a good menage,” Ky said. “You with us, Rio?”
“Sure.” Rio drank the ale, letting the strong alcohol tingle his tongue. He was certain his cock would start working better once he got into a Shareem-filled room with the willing Judith spread and wet before them.
It had better start working, anyway. He’d die if the other two thought he couldn’t get it up because he was whining about a woman.
See what happens when you’re not careful? his inner voice told him.A love bond. Right. She just wanted to get into your pants, cock-brain.
Oh, shut up.
Rio had felt what she termed the Bond with her. When he’d entered her fully for the first time, it had wrapped itself around him, binding him to her as sure as any manacles or chains.
He thought he could still feel it now, and if anything, since Nella had been gone, the bond had grown stronger.
“Rio.”
He looked up to see Rees standing in front of him. Rees’ face was calm, but his eyes glittered with suppressed emotion. “Follow me and don’t say anything,” Rees said.
Rio got to his feet in one swift move, sliding his ale glass back to the table. Aiden seemed to know what was up, because he said, “Take care of yourself, Rio.” Ky nodded at him, his eyes steady.
Rees led Rio to the alcove that housed Judith’s call console and the bathrooms. As they passed J
udith, Rees snaked his hand around Judith’s wrist and pulled her along with them. Anyone in the bar would think that the two Shareem and Judith were going in the back for a little fun.
Down a dusty, narrow hall was Judith’s back door, and she unlocked it for them. Then Judith flung her arms around Rio’s neck and kissed him on the mouth. “I’ll miss you, Rio.”
She hugged him again, hard, then waited until the two had slipped into the alley before locking the door behind him.
Rio’s heart beat faster, but he didn’t say a word. He and Rees moved quickly and quietly through alleys shadowed by the setting sun.
They went all the way to the docklands in silence, then Rees motioned Rio into a rundown landing bay. A small ship stood in the center of it, its body dwarfed by engines huge enough to boost it out of the planet’s gravity.
Rees clapped Rio on the shoulders. “You packed?”
Rio took a small bag from his leather tunic that held all the money he had, his whip, and his manacles. “All the essentials. Never leave home without them.”
“Good. The contact’s waiting on Station 657. Now get the hell out of here.”
Rio tucked the bag away and clasped Rees’ hand. “You’re a good friend, Rees.”
“I know.”
“Tell Talan goodbye for me. Give her a great, big—”
“Kiss?” Rees’ eyes glinted.
“Smack on the ass. In a loving way.” Rio squeezed Rees’ hand again, wondering if this would be the last time he saw the big hunk of a genetic experiment.
“Go on, get out of here,” Rees said.
Rio glanced at the ship, the thing that would lift him off Bor Narga forever. “Hey, what if it turns out I’m afraid to fly?”
“Tough shit.” Rees shoved him gently. “Shareem can’t feel fear. Good thing, right?”
“Yeah, just great.”
As he eyed the transport in trepidation, the door opened and he saw something that wiped out all his worries. A woman stood in the doorway, cloaked and hooded in the Bor Nargan style, but Rio knew every inch of the form underneath and his Shareem hormones sat up and started raging.
“Damn,” he whispered.
Rees clasped his shoulder. “She contacted Talan a few nights ago, and they arranged this between them. She’s got Ariel ready to welcome you with open arms—which took some doing, she said. They don’t let just anyone in.”
Tales of the Shareem, Volume 1 Page 35