She paused in the doorway, looking for Hari. She could never figure out how he could manage to undress so quickly and beat her into the encounter chamber, but he always did. There he was, in a chair in the far corner, watching the cubicle doors with a scowl on his face. His badge glowed the same soft yellow as hers. He had given up trying to find a sexual preference so obscure that no one else at the club had it.
Rishi gave him the barest nod. She had gotten over any modesty about being naked in front of him years ago. Of course, the dim lighting helped. That and the fact that everyone else was as naked as she was.
A tall woman with brown hair down to her waist and classic features passed her and glanced at her badge. She shrugged when she saw the yellow glow and kept walking.
A man stopped in front of Rishi. He was very tall and good looking, and he had a nice smile. “How traditional?”
Rishi glanced at the orange glow of his badge. “Sorry, I’m not interested in bondage.”
He smiled coaxingly. “Not even the tiniest little silken cords?”
When she shook her head, he moved on.
Rishi advanced further into the room. It was crowded tonight. The bar was packed and people clustered together in groups near the stairs to the sex rooms. Most of the people loitering had red badges, for orgy. They were probably waiting for a quorum.
A man with blonde hair and a short beard came up to her. He held out a yellow badge. “Do you need to see my scores?”
She smiled. “If you’re that eager to show them to me, you must be pretty good.” She looked down at the badge. “Whoa! The club speed record!”
He nodded. “And that was for unassisted female orgasm. No mechanical or pharmacological aids.”
She was tempted, but decided against it. Speed wasn’t everything. “No thanks this time, but I appreciate being asked. Maybe later?”
He frowned, but his head swiveled as a well-endowed woman with mahogany skin glided past him in a cloud of heady perfume. “Sure. See you later.”
Rishi picked out a chair with a good view of the floor so she could keep an eye out for men with yellow badges. She was just about to sit down when a broad-shouldered man approached her. He had thick black hair, a square jaw, bushy eyebrows, and a correspondingly hairy chest.
“Hi,” he said. “Traditional hetero?”
She nodded.
“I was beginning to think I was the only one.” He grinned as he held out his badge, a pleasant, friendly sort of grin. “Interested?”
She didn’t bother to look at his scores. “I am if you are.” She gestured toward the stairs. “Shall we go up?”
He looked surprised. “Don’t you want to get a drink first? Maybe talk a little bit?”
“Not especially. I can drink at home.”
“Okay.”
She led the way to the stairs. He followed close behind her as she selected an empty room and inserted her badge in the top slot. He put his badge in the second slot and the door opened. Rishi smiled with satisfaction; he seemed nice, but occasionally someone would sign up for traditional hetero and then deliver something rougher. If his badge let him in, he had a clean record.
In fact, when she locked the door from the inside, he looked just a little nervous.
“This is only my second time coming here,” he confessed. “I broke up with my girlfriend a few months ago, and I’m not ready to get involved again so soon.”
“Good idea.” Rishi moved closer and put her arms around him.
He seemed surprised by the maneuver, but he responded enthusiastically.
Rishi pushed things along at a good clip and was pleased when he matched her pace. When it was over, she sat up. “Nice job. Mind if I use the shower first?”
He shook his head, but didn’t answer verbally. Rishi half expected that he might leave while she was washing, but he was sitting on the bed when she came out a few minutes later.
“That was nice.” He sounded almost shy. “Will I see you again?”
She smiled at him. He seemed like a very nice man. She would enter high scores for him. “Possibly. But I wouldn’t count on it. I think you should stick to your plan. Wait until you’re ready and then look for someone to date. Don’t come here to meet people for anything but sex.”
“You’re probably right.” He got up. “I think I’ll take a shower now, too.”
She gave him a brief, friendly kiss on the cheek. “You do that. I’m going back downstairs. Don’t get insecure if you see me going upstairs with someone else later. I enjoyed myself, but I’m making up for lost time tonight.”
He nodded, and she left him there.
Two hours later, she came downstairs to find Hari waiting by the bottom of the steps wearing only an angry grimace.
“That was the third one,” he said. “Can we go home now?”
Rishi kept her eyes on his face. She had learned early in the game never to look down. “I suppose so. I think I’ve done as well as I can hope for from this crowd.” She laughed as she studied his expression. “Hari, I never knew before that you really can talk through gritted teeth. I thought it was just a figure of speech.”
He made no answer except to glower at her. Leaving him to fend for himself, she retrieved her clothes and other belongings from the locker system and found an empty cubicle to dress.
A few seconds after she went out into the street, Hari came up to her. “I’m getting too old for this nonsense and so are you.”
Rishi hid a smile. “Speak for yourself.”
He harrumphed a few times and launched into a lecture on the dangers of clubs where everyone was able to maintain anonymity.
“At least they can’t hide any weapons,” Rishi said flippantly as she got into the flyter.
“Don’t be facetious!” Hari started up the antigrav engines and set a flight sequence.
“Why not? The whole object of tonight’s adventure was for me to relax.”
He made a sour face as he checked all the panels and then engaged the throttle. “Working out in the gym would be safer.”
Rishi rolled her eyes at him. Really, he was getting worse and worse. ‘It’s not the same thing at all, and you know it.”
The flyter lifted. Hari set his jaw and didn’t speak.
Rishi closed her eyes and leaned back against the seat cushions. Tonight had been acceptable, if not stellar. But still, there was something to be said for picking a sex partner while he was fully clothed. It was true the Satyr Club reduced the chance of displeasing surprises, but it was also true that it totally eliminated any pretense of mystery or intrigue.
She would try somewhere else next time, maybe even somewhere new—if she could get around Hari’s paranoia.
PRAX was on his way back from a lesson with his tutor when Hari stopped him in the main corridor of the security wing.
“Step into my office a moment, Prax,” he said, leading the way.
Curious, Prax followed, and the door shut behind him.
Hari sat down at the desk and tipped his chair back. He crossed one leg over the other, hooked his hands together, and rested them on his knee. He didn’t invite Prax to sit.
“So,” he said, “what happened between you and Nakamura?”
Considerably annoyed, Prax crossed his arms over his chest. This place grew stranger every day. After more than a week on the job, he still couldn’t figure out the rules. He understood that Hari was, in effect, his boss, in the same way that Achilles had been among the Mercouri. On the other hand, Achilles would never have asked him such a question.
Hari lifted his eyebrows questioningly. “What? Is that your way of saying a gentleman doesn’t discuss these things? That won’t wash with me. I’m no gentleman, and you both work for me. I can ask her if you’d rather not talk about it.”
Prax considered. He wasn’t sure what Nakamura would
say if she were asked. “Why do you need to know?”
Hari smiled sardonically. “A couple of reasons. For one thing, Nakamura has a hot thing going with Beecher. I don’t know if it’s over yet. If she’s started something up with you, too, it could be real trouble.”
Prax thought this over but wasn’t convinced. He had noticed Nakamura giving Beecher warm glances from time to time, and Beecher had made his feelings plain. Still, that didn’t mean that Prax should have to lose his privacy.
“Let me rephrase the question,” Hari said. “Did what I think happened with you and Nakamura actually happen?”
Prax decided this was a level of detail he could provide. “No.”
Hari nodded. “That’s progress, anyway. Next question. Would it have happened if Chio hadn’t picked that moment to pay a call?”
Honesty compelled Prax to blurt out the truth. “I don’t know.”
Hari leaned back further and paused, as if debating what to ask next. He waved a hand at the chair in front of his desk. “Sit down.”
Prax sat, but he couldn’t relax. He was almost sweating. He shouldn’t have to talk about this.
Hari twisted his mouth into a grimace. “So, will it happen in the future?”
Prax shrugged. “How can I say?”
“Since you’re one half of the equation, you could certainly rule it out, if you wanted to. I can only conclude that you don’t want to rule it out.”
“It is not your business, anyway,” Prax said, getting heated. “You’ve told me many times that no one owns me. If I’m free, why can’t I do as I please?”
Hari turned to his terminal and hit a few keys. After a moment, he swiveled the monitor toward Prax.
“There,” he said. “That’s your contract. If you want out of it, then you’re out. That’s the way it’s written, and that’s the way it’ll work.”
“I’m not asking to leave,” Prax said, feeling manipulated. “I said I would stay, and I will stay.”
“Then stop giving me a rough time and tell me what I need to know.” Hari sounded impatient. “At the moment, Nakamura is the only woman on the security staff who lives in. That can be a problem by itself. Since she was in your room—very casually dressed from what I hear—I can only assume she’s making a play for you. I want to know if this is going to be a source of tension or not.”
It sounded convincing. Although he sensed no deceit from Hari, Prax still found his rationale suspect. Nothing the older man had said changed the fact that the conversation was about something that shouldn’t be discussed openly. “I can’t tell you!”
“Because you don’t want to talk about it or because you don’t know?”
“Both,” Prax said, with a touch of desperation in his voice. He could feel the closed-in sensation growing stronger every minute. “Can I go now?”
“In a moment.” Hari gave him a steely stare. “I’m not done with you yet. Where do you go when you go out late at night? You don’t come in until early morning.”
“How do you know that?”
Hari smiled. “We haven’t taught you much about the security systems yet. I can check on who’s opened any door at any time. You’ve been going out late quite often. You come in just after dawn. Where do you go?”
“I sleep outside,” Prax said, relieved at the change of subject. “You said there was no rule against it. Sometimes I can’t go to sleep indoors.”
“Where exactly do you sleep—just in case I ever have to find you?”
“Mostly on the hill overlooking the house. There’s a spot near the crest where the ground is level and you can see all around.”
“All right. It’s not a problem, I just needed to know. One last question,” Hari said, as Prax started to rise. “What kind of weapon are you carrying when you go out?”
Prax wasn’t entirely sure what counted as a weapon. “Do you mean my dagger?”
Hari nodded. “That could be it. It’s showing up as a low level alert. Leave the knife in your room for now. You shouldn’t need it. There’s no dangerous wildlife on the estate.”
Prax debated and decided he didn’t really need to carry his dagger. “All right.”
Hari had no more questions, so Prax went back to the gym where he was scheduled for a session with Tinibu. Rurhahn had switched him from working with Chio, the patient teacher, to Tinibu, who had less patience but a more forceful style. Tinibu made him work hard. By the time the session was over, Prax was winded.
“Not bad,” Tinibu said. “You’re shaping up. You still fight weird, but at least you’re learning how to block.”
Prax would have said thank you, but he was too short of breath, so he just grinned and nodded.
He took a quick shower before lunch and went to the small dining room. Rishi was the one who was late today.
“I’m sorry,” she said, sailing in through the far door. “I was tied up. There were some things I had to finish before the party tonight, and I have to get ready this afternoon.”
“It doesn’t matter, lady,” Prax said. She had been more relaxed the last few days, but today she seemed excited.
“How did this morning’s lesson go?” she asked him, helping herself to a slice of fruit.
“It went well. I can read many simple words now. My tutor showed me some new books, children’s books, and I could read them a little.”
“That’s wonderful. Are you working this evening?”
Prax nodded. “We all are. I’m to patrol the grounds with Tinibu.”
Rishi looked disappointed. “What a shame. You’ll miss the entertainment. We’re having a dancer perform. She’s supposed to be very good.”
“That’s all right, lady. I like to be outdoors.”
She changed the subject to the menu for the party. Prax watched her eat. She laughed a lot and chatted freely, but she didn’t eat much of what was on her plate. When she had finished her meal, she jumped up and paused only long enough to remind him that she would miss lunch the next afternoon, and then she darted off to get ready.
Prax fought the urge to clear the plates and went into the kitchen.
Thulan was busy ordering around several assistants hired for the day. She looked up and frowned when she saw him. “Go away. We’re busy.”
Prax had started to oblige when she suddenly called out his name.
“Wait!” she added in commanding tones.
Prax stopped in his tracks.
“There was something I wanted to talk to you about.” Thulan frowned again and glanced around the room at the half dozen minions slaving away at her direction. “Get out, everyone! Take a break and come back in five minutes.”
They all looked up, startled, but none of them protested. Prax waited as the others filed out of the kitchen.
Thulan’s eyes raked him from head to toe, and then she frowned a third time. “What’s this I hear about you and Ingrid?”
“Who?” Prax said, surprised.
“Ingrid Nakamura. Did you sleep with her or not?”
It was Prax’s turn to frown. Was there anyone in the house who wasn’t interested in his private life? “Why should it concern you if I did?”
“Does that mean yes or no?” Thulan demanded.
“It means I shouldn’t have to say,” Prax replied, incensed at her prying. No one on this entire world seemed to have any restraint. “What right have you to ask me? What makes it your concern?”
Thulan looked annoyed. “Anything that might hurt Mistress Trahn concerns me.”
This argument took Prax completely by surprise. “How would it hurt Mistress Trahn?”
She gave him a look of contemptuous scorn. “Because she dotes on you, that’s why. Do you think I can’t see? When I check the video monitor to see if you’re still eating, I see you two together. She’s fond of you, she is. If she hears about this, she�
��ll be upset. You’ll have let her down.”
Prax considered this argument and rejected it. He had told Rishi as plainly as he could that he was willing, and she had said no. “She’s lonely. She wants company.”
Thulan snorted and took a swipe at his head with the flat of her hand. Only quick reflexes saved Prax from getting his ears boxed.
“She had a house full of people all along, and she was never lonely enough to invite any of them to eat with her,” Thulan said with derision. “You’re a bigger fool than I thought, if that’s possible.”
Prax was uncomfortable discussing such a personal subject in the middle of the kitchen where someone might come in at any time. He told Thulan so, but she wasn’t moved by the argument.
“You should have thought of that before you slipped between the sheets with Ingrid.” She slammed a carton of fruit onto the table with a good deal of force.
“I didn’t—” Prax started to say, and then he realized she had tricked him.
Thulan smiled triumphantly. “Good! See that you keep it that way.”
“That’s not for you to decide!” Prax retorted.
“If Ingrid—” Thulan started to say.
“What’s going on?” Rishi’s voice said from the doorway. She stepped into the kitchen and looked at them both. “What are you two arguing about?”
Prax froze, horrified and angry. There was no privacy in his life, and everyone felt free to talk about things they should never discuss. He stood rooted to the floor, unwilling to leave without explaining himself, but too mortified to speak.
Even Thulan looked ill at ease as she busied herself washing the fruit. “It’s nothing, Mistress. Don’t worry about it. You’ve got enough on your mind with company coming.”
“Why are you arguing about Ingrid Nakamura?” Rishi said.
Thulan shot an angry glance at Prax, who flushed.
“Because she’s been too free with one of the staff, dear,” Thulan said. “I told her so to her face and Praxiteles thinks it’s none of my business. I’m afraid I upset him.”
“Oh,” said Rishi. “But that’s nothing, Praxiteles. Everyone knows that Thulan is very direct, but always from the best of intentions. I can’t believe Nakamura would hold it against her.”
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