Aiden’s brows lifted. “Almost?”
Brianne wondered whether Aiden felt jealousy hearing Ky describe his past encounters, but the look he gave Ky bore only tender relief. Shareem were like that, she was learning, able to not let the past mar their present or future.
Rees shifted against the door. “I’m betting there was no way the researchers let you be happy. They didn’t have it in them.”
Ky grew somber. “Meyet and I found out too late that we were part of a two-step experiment. Part one, Given the chance, will Shareem want to have sex with each other? Answer, Yes. Part two, How are we going to stop them?”
“Oh no,” Brianne breathed. “Because Shareem were created to pleasure only women.”
“Oh yes,” Dr. Laas put in, her tone acid. “DNAmo was making a fortune breeding the perfect pleasure slaves for wealthy women. With all that sexiness bred into them, it was logical that they might start experimenting on each other, and maybe prefer it over what they were supposed to do. And DNAmo might lose money.”
“The gods forbid,” Rees murmured.
“So we had to be stopped,” Ky said.
Brianne shuddered. “With the nano-computers?”
“They tried psychological conditioning first. They put us back into the same room and left us alone again. We were thrilled and started fucking right away. Then they punished us. First with shocks or loud noise, then with food deprivation.
“We agreed to stop while we were in the room so they wouldn’t hurt us. That was hard because we were back to our hands alone for release, but they let us out soon, thinking they’d taught us a lesson. But they’d only taught us not to do it in the experiment room or where they could catch us.”
Aiden snorted. “Idiots. DNAmo scientists had egos so big they couldn’t see anything in front of them. Sorry, Dr. Laas.”
“I agree with you,” Dr. Laas said crisply. “They were idiots.”
Ky continued. “Meyet and I kept on meeting whenever we could. I don’t know if we were in love, but we couldn’t keep our hands off each other. I only did it with him, but he started seducing other Shareem. I don’t know how many of them he snagged, but he was having fun. I didn’t mind—like I said, I don’t think I was really in love with him.
“Then one day the researchers came into my room and knocked me out with anesthetic. I didn’t think anything about it, because they did it all the time for experimental techniques on our bodies.
“When I woke up I didn’t feel any different, and they didn’t tell me what they did. I didn’t realize what had happened until I met Meyet a few days later, and we started playing. I felt a tingle in my arm but I was too distracted to pay attention. All the sudden it was full-blown pain, so bad I was screaming.
“I recovered, but it took a while. The researchers told me, smiling like they were so damn clever, that they’d given me implants to counteract my ‘behavior’. They told me that any time I started with Meyet, the nano-computers would trigger and start to tear me apart from the inside. Scared the shit out of me.
“Meyet hadn’t felt anything, and the researchers told me they hadn’t doctored him. They’d figured only one of us was enough to teach us to lay off.
“Meyet had already started having sex with other Shareem. I warned him to stop before they got him too, but he didn’t. One day a Shareem he’d been with came and got me, scared to death. We found Meyet in an unused room rolling around on the floor, blood everywhere, kind of like you found me. We got him to the medic, and they tried to turn off the implants and stop the bleeding, but they couldn’t. Whatever system they used on us hadn’t been tested, and they didn’t know how to control it.”
Ky’s voice went on in a monotone, though his eyes held depths of pain. “So Meyet died. The researchers kept it quiet, telling everyone he’d been sold off-planet. They threatened me and the Shareem who’d found him—who conveniently disappeared off-planet soon after—not to say anything. They said they couldn’t take the implants out of me without killing me, but as long as I didn’t try to have sex with a Shareem I’d be all right. They made me sign something swearing I wouldn’t tell anyone else on threat of termination.”
“They never asked me,” Dr. Laas broke in. “I could have gotten the implants out. I didn’t know about the experiment until a long time later, after DNAmo shut down. And I didn’t realize it was Ky they’d experimented on, until last night.”
“When Rio told you …”
“Rio, who can’t keep his mouth shut,” Aiden growled.
“I’m glad he didn’t keep the secret,” Brianne said, running her fingers across Ky’s hand. “It saved you.”
“Yeah, well, I’ll talk to him later,” Ky said. “The implants worked in one sense—I never wanted to do what I did with Meyet again. I moved in with Aiden, and we got along fine. It was good to have a friend. I never felt the pain again and after a while I assumed the implants had ceased to function.”
“Until we started,” Aiden said.
“Exactly,” Ky finished.
The room went silent. Aiden folded his arms, meeting Ky’s gaze. “You should have told me.”
“I know.” Ky drew a breath. “Like I said, I couldn’t talk about Meyet and what happened for a long time. But I should have tried. For a while I hoped it didn’t matter, but I didn’t realize the damned implants would last twenty years.”
“You won’t have to worry about them now,” Dr. Laas said. “I found all the nano-computers and destroyed them. I know why DNAmo never told me about them—they knew I’d pitch a fit. Genetic research and discovery is one thing, torture and manipulation is another. Assholes.”
Ky grinned at her. “I always liked your attitude.”
“Shareem were my idea, the culmination of a dream. I care about the well-being of all of you, even if I’m stuck hiding out in a compound.”
Aiden blew her a kiss. “And we love you too.”
“Most of you do.” She stood up and brushed off her pantsuit. “Time to take me back to my dungeon, Rees. Lady d’Aroth, will you walk out with me?”
Brianne pressed a kiss to Ky’s cheek and scrambled off the bed. She followed Dr. Laas and Rees to the living room, closing the door on Aiden and Ky, who were still watching each other.
Rees, enigmatic as ever, stood behind Dr. Laas, arms folded across his massive chest, eyes quiet.
“Take care of them,” Dr. Laas said to Brianne.
“Ky and Aiden? I will. I plan to stay here until Ky gets better.”
“I meant all my Shareem. I can only help them indirectly, when they come to me. Talan does what she can, and Nella is trying on Ariel, but you, my dear, are a d’Aroth.”
“I have some ideas,” Brianne promised her.
Dr. Laas closed her hand on Brianne’s. “It will be hard. Shareem are feared for what they are. You will have to battle that.”
“I know.” Brianne drew a breath, as though trying to draw courage from the air.
“I will help as I can. My compound is a refuge and only Shareem know where it is. I won’t tell you how to find it, but if you need to, one of them will bring you to me.”
“Thank you,” Brianne said, catching her hand. “Thank you for saving Ky.”
Dr. Laas eyed her speculatively. “You really care for him?”
“Yes. And Aiden.”
Dr. Laas smiled. “Well, I can think of worse relationships to be in than with two Shareem. Good luck, my dear.”
She swathed herself in robes again, donned sun-blocking goggles, and followed Rees out into the waning afternoon.
*** *** ***
Inside the bedroom Aiden and Ky sat silently. Aiden laid his hand on Ky’s leg, his hand warm through the bedcovers.
Aiden smiled, eyes watchful. “And here I worried that if you knew I was getting hard for you, you’d leave town.”
Ky threaded his fingers through Aiden’s. “I thought maybe if we just played a little nothing would happen. I didn’t know it would get serious.”
/> “That sucks about Meyet dying. I’m sorry.”
Ky remembered Meyet’s warm red hair, his blue eyes, his laughter. The way he’d groan when Ky entered him, That’s it, right there, gods don’t stop.
“I don’t think I loved him, although I thought so then. I was excited by him, and man, could he spur my imagination.” Ky shook his head. “But it’s different this time.”
“This time?”
Ky slanted Aiden a look. “With you, asshole. We’ve been friends for twenty years, and you know me better than anyone else. The things I think of doing with you are …”
Aiden’s eyes grew more blue. “Are what? Don’t leave me in suspense.”
“Explosive. I want to feel you moving under me, hear you begging for me.”
“Begging like a sub?” Aiden grinned. “I have power of my own, big bad Dom. I can lay you flat with just a touch.”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
Aiden slid his hand to Ky’s groin, looking pleased to find him hard. “So am I. As long as you’re really all right.”
“If Dr. Laas says she got all the implants, she got them all.”
“Thank the gods for Dr. Laas.”
“She’s responsible for us existing at all,” Ky pointed out.
“I like existing. Life at DNAmo was bad and people still treat us like shit, but I have you and Judith’s bar and the bathhouse and life as a sex toy. It’s not all bad.”
“And Brianne.”
Aiden looked thoughtful. “Brianne. What are we going to do about her?”
Ky shrugged. “Spank her, lick her, fuck her. You do level one on her, I’ll do level three. What’s the problem?”
“I’ve gotten attached to her. So much that I don’t want to un-attach from her.”
“Yeah, but she’s highborn, she’s in the ruling family, and after what she saw today, she might be finished with us.” Ky grunted. “I told her I’d show her what Shareem were really like, and I guess I did. I probably ruined her crusade to save us.”
“I don’t know. She was pretty worried about you.”
“She’s not like us,” Ky said. “She’s soft and spoiled. Not resilient.”
Aiden shot him an incredulous look. “You’re kidding, right? After the train, and you taking her to the dungeon, and me giving her the first fuck of her life while she sucked on you? Her first time, and it was a menage. She survived all that and she came running down here to find me when she feared you were in danger. I’d say she’s resilient.”
“Maybe I’m just trying to let myself down easy. I’ll miss her.”
Damn, but he would. Ky remembered her wriggling and swaying in the train as he and Aiden stroked her, remembered her look of pure pleasure when she bent over him in the train compartment going home. The rapture in her eyes when Aiden slid inside her and the eagerness with which she turned to enclose Ky’s cock with her mouth made him warm.
Ky had liked seeing her ass cherry-red after he spanked her, and he wanted to plant himself inside it. He’d have to use Aiden to relax her before he could, because she was an ass virgin.
He grinned. Ass virgin. Did he just coin a term? He’d never been with a woman who hadn’t been with Shareem before. They usually started at level one and worked their way up.
Aiden’s smile widened. “You’re thinking about it, aren’t you?”
“Thinking about what? Fucking her? What else would I be thinking about?”
“I meant asking her to stay.”
Ky came back to reality. “She won’t. She might think it would be fun for a while, but she won’t.”
Aiden hauled himself off the bed. “I’ll ask her.”
“What, you mean right now?”
“We won’t know what she wants until we do.”
“Let it go, Aiden.”
Aiden turned around. His big, handsome body was heating up—Ky could feel the pheromones already pouring off him. “Screw you. I let it go for twenty years, and I almost lost you before I could say I love you, Ky. I’m not letting this go.”
Ky stilled. “Twenty years? You were thinking about doing me for twenty years?”
“Hell yes. Why do you think I wanted us to live together?”
Ky tried a smile, but his mouth wasn’t cooperating. “I thought it was my stunning personality.”
“No, it was your stunning cock. I knew you’d freak if you knew what I was thinking, and I figured having threesomes with you was the next best thing.” He wet his lips. “And it has been.”
Ky thought about the number of times the two of them had been inside a woman—or two—Aiden’s hand planted on Ky’s ass, or Aiden’s arms around him with the lady in the middle. Sometimes Ky had wanted to turn around and bury himself inside Aiden, but he’d automatically stopped the thought before it formed. He’d learned his lesson at DNAmo.
Maybe Dr. Laas—and Brianne—had given him a chance to learn differently.
“You can ask her,” Ky said, pulling up one knee under the blanket and resting his arm across it. “But she’ll say no.”
Aiden glared at him, then opened the door and called her in.
Chapter Fourteen
Beginnings
She said maybe.
Brianne entered the bedroom to find Aiden standing ramrod straight, his arms folded, his blue gaze fixed on her. Behind him Ky waited on the bed, his brawny arm on one bent knee, looking good enough to eat.
“When you say stay with you,” Brianne asked nervously in response to their question. “What exactly do you mean?”
“Be our sweetheart,” Ky said, his expression unreadable. “Our lover. In a threesome. A menage a trois. You’ve heard of those?”
“I understand that.” Brianne felt herself blush. “I meant in practical terms. What do you mean? Me live here?”
Ky made an indifferent gesture. “Sure. Or whatever.”
Aiden broke in. “Women like to have things all spelled out, asshole. I mean live with us. As lovers. Exclusive lovers. You move in here or we get a bigger place so we’re not tripping over each other. Although that could be fun too.”
Brianne looked from one to the other. “Move in with you?”
“We knew you’d say no,” Ky said, his voice a growl. “You’re Brianne d’Aroth, member of the ruling family, a high-profile socialite. Why would you ruin your reputation by moving into a dump with two Shareem? Aiden insisted we ask. But fine, stay in your high-rise and take champagne baths or whatever you do up there.”
“Champagne baths?” she asked, amazed.
“Ky’s an idiot,” Aiden said. “What he means is, we love you, Brianne, and want you with us. But we’ll understand if you go.”
A lump formed in Brianne’s throat. She looked at Ky. “Is that true?”
Ky scowled. “Aiden might understand. I’ll be pissed off and hurt. But I can’t force you to stay with us, much as I’d like to.”
“I meant the love part.”
Ky’s blue gaze bore into Brianne’s eyes as intensely as it had the first time she’d seen him. “That part’s true.”
Brianne felt a rush of happiness, but with it came pain, excitement, and fear. “It’s a lot to ask. A big step for me.”
Ky looked away, pasting a neutral expression on his face. “We figured you’d say no.”
“Wait a minute. I haven’t said anything yet. I need to think. There are so many things I’d have to do …”
Then the happiness surged, wiping out the fear. All Brianne’s life she’d been in the spotlight, had done her job to the best of her ability, had worked hard for various causes, and gone to bed every night vaguely dissatisfied with her world.
Suddenly she had something to work for—two someones to work for—a purpose that would fill her heart. She’d have to make sacrifices, but it was easy to sacrifice for ones you loved.
Brianne held up her hands. “I have to talk to people and arrange a lot of things. It might take me a while. Don’t go anywhere.”
Ky raised his br
ows. “I’m staying right here, darling. I feel like crap anyway.”
“Good. I mean, not that you feel like crap. Oh, you know what I mean. I’ll be back.”
With that Brianne whirled and ran out of the bedroom, grabbed her robes from the outer room, rushed back in, flung her arms around Aiden and kissed him. Then she kissed Ky, laughing at his fearsome scowl.
“I love you too,” she said, then ran out the door again.
*** *** ***
After three days in bed, Ky felt almost normal again. He sensed Aiden watching him cautiously, but Ky insisted on getting up and going to Judith’s on the third night.
Braden was at Judith’s as usual, and from his good-natured greeting, he’d heard nothing about Ky’s ordeal. He’d assumed that they’d holed up with a woman for a while in another pleasure game.
Judith looked happy to see Aiden and Ky, but she kept peering distractedly into the corners. Finally she asked Braden, “Where’s Calder?”
Braden shrugged. “Don’t know, haven’t seen him in a while.”
“Oh,” Judith said, disappointed.
“He’s a one-shot,” Braden answered. “Now with me, it’s any time.” He gave her a you want to? look. Judith nodded, but her expression made it plain she regarded Braden as second best.
Ky laughed, surprised at how strong his voice sounded. Judith slanted him a warm glance.
“If Braden and I have some fun,” Judith said, looking hopeful, “why don’t you join us? Aiden too.”
Ky winked at her but shook his head. “Have something else to do tonight.” Again Judith looked disappointed.
Braden growled, “Hey, what am I, chopped liver?”
“No.” Judith leaned down and kissed Braden’s cheek. “You’re lovely leftovers.”
Ky and Aiden roared with laughter, and Braden glared at them. “I’m never going to live this down,” Braden said. “Why I put up with it, I don’t know.”
Ky knew why he put up with it. Being with Judith wasn’t something to be tossed aside lightly, and Braden would forgive her.
Tales of the Shareem, Volume 1 Page 52