Variant: A Sci-Fi Romance (Variant Trilogy Book 1)

by J. Q. Baldwin

  She was suddenly empty - for a very short time. My whole face nuzzled up through her folds, scenting, sucking in great lungfuls of her. She mewled at the carnal nature of me. She knew where my thoughts had turned and they were dark and possessive.

  I ate from her and it was so destitute and slatternly her clit swelled to advertise its location. I knew her intimately. Could keep her on this edge all night as I’d promised. She was well experienced with my determination and patience. She’d woken many times, swollen, and gushing from my seed and all the memory did was excite her.

  Delilah

  I learned to beg.

  And just when I thought I could take no more, when I reached my limit, he took me higher. Pinched my clit in his tight lips, his tongue under the hood. Pleasure pain.

  “I cant take it Carne. Please, I cant take anymore please let me come,” I wantonly rolled my hips back, begging with my body so he’d hear my pleas.

  “You can take it,” he told me defiantly. “You will,” he promised.

  Please

  “Say it. Out loud,” he whispered softly now, enticingly. Coaxing me to trust him again.

  “Don’t make me say it.”

  “Say it!” He shook me roughly and my will faded.

  I wish he’d take it. Compel me to submit but no he wanted my willing supplication. He wanted me to bind myself with my oath.

  The energy between us crackled.

  “I just wanted one night Carne, one night without reality, cant you give me that?”

  “This is your reality. It always will be. Now say it!”

  I capitulated. Disgusted and feeble. Somewhere in me I wanted to please him, give it over easy. But it wasn’t easy, I knew the toll. Tomorrow would be devastatingly hard to withdraw from him.

  I nodded, lay my cheek to the mattress once more and agreed with disheartened melancholy, “you own me.”

  “I’m yours,” I reiterated.

  Then, he gave me everything. Lightening flashed behind my eyelids, I clenched with his tongue inside me. Every muscle flaring and experiencing euphoria, so much so, I dazed as he rolled me to my back and slid in with love.

  Sharing, he made long, sure strokes as I came down from the high and when he came, and those pulsing jets of seed filled my belly, he never took his face from mine. Never looked away. I was his entire universe and for just this one moment in time, it was the most precious gift.

  Annnnnd then he ruined it by sinking his teeth in, tearing the skin in his haste to mark me again.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Morning daylight filtered into the kitchen as weak as I felt. I sculled a glass of water to replace the fluids I’d lost falling into his trap once more.

  Carne strolled out of the bathroom, crisp and ready to face me.

  “Did you pack a dress?” he asked, breath hot at my neck. His closeness even more of a danger now.

  Confused, I looked over at him from under a heavy brow quirking up at one end. There… was a question he’d never posed. I spun in my seat, away from him.

  “No?” He huffed instead of laughed but it felt joyous. And the way he rubbed his hard hands over my shoulders to my arms in a firm grip was instantly familiar and intimate.

  “Why would I bring a dress on an escape?” It was still an escape. It hadn’t failed yet.

  He sobered. Cooled. His palms stopped dead in their roving.

  The door chimed.

  Carne’s attention shifted eerily. His grip pinching. Unstable.

  As much as I feared my mate, I knew he’d never physically hurt me, that couldn’t be said for anyone found to be taking his share of my attention. I dreaded who was on the other side of that door. If it was Jobe, he might now be closing down into death as Carne stole his bio-electricity.

  “Tell her you are going home for a few days.”

  “Tell her-”

  “Nothing else,” he ended bluntly, still staring at the door.

  I looked up at him, my throat stretching even as he looked down at me.

  He nudged me up, turned back to the kitchen, pointedly awaiting my compliance.

  I waded to the door dumbly. I answered it but stopped from opening fully it. I kept only enough room for my face.

  “Lolly, hi,” I said blankly, thinking wildly, what would be the appropriate proposition to get her to leave without worrying and without Carne believing he’d have to investigate and nullify my friend.

  She tried to walk forward but I held.

  “Umm are you okay Delilah?”

  “Yes, sorry, I’m just about to leave. An emergency at home.”

  “Oh, everyone okay?”

  I should have realised she’d be concerned. A friend would, wouldn't they?

  “Yes, no, well I’m not sure yet but I’m leaving in a few minutes.” What could I say that would convey my wish to return…

  “You wouldn't water the plant while I’m gone would you?”

  “Of course. How... long will you be gone? Want to come with Marsh and I to an underground on Friday?”

  I couldn’t be sure because my own panic was fresh and overriding but Lolly seemed unusually anxious about my leaving. It was probably because I made it so weird. I’d never have expected her to be an underground club type.

  “You got it,” I said. “I’ll let you know when I’m back.”

  “Okay. Thanks.” I waited with the door fused to my face as she backed away, Carne bristling at my behind me. Close now, instead of in the kitchen. Definitely unhappy with any plans to meet at a club.

  I closed the door and turned slowly. Easy slow movements.

  Aggression was a cloud hanging over me. His chest heaved. And it wasn’t because he had to share me momentarily, though that bothered him. It was because he was unaware of a part of my life. I knew someone he hadn't screened, spent time away from him with enjoyment. I’d made connections.

  “She just a friend, Carne. You own me. Remember?” I whispered. I wanted to escape him. To do that I had to have him trust me but … I’d missed his hearty affection. The two of us on an inside joke, the rest of the planet had no notion of. Falling into that would give him ammunition. Another reason to validate my return to Onyxeal, and to him - if making friends hadn’t been reason enough.

  Would there ever be a time he’d give up? I’d been emotionally distancing myself from him for years. Surely he was tiring, if not of me, of constantly wondering if I’d commit?

  “Surely, she will tire, or better, realise the truth before her,” he answered, sweeping in and reminding me he previewed any concept I had the pluck to form. A not so subtle reminder that he could take what he so patiently waited upon. I minded my future thoughts and grew hot.

  I’m allowed a life Carne! Friends, family! You made me a promise atop those monkey bars and you have betrayed me so fundamentally. Now you push your guilt to me and disguise it as my own.

  “I disguise nothing,” he rebutted so brusquely, he reminded me of an android repeating a simple navigational direction with the same inflection the thousandth time as it was expressed the first.

  His non-partisan features had the ability to function in a way that disturbed me. No one else ever seemed to take note. Before Lolly buzzed at the door his brutal features were hidden behind soft lines and a vulnerability that called to me, even his body cambered toward me. Now he was like stone; merciless and inflexible, built to withstand immense weight.

  He changed again when a call came through. He shuffled me into the living room. Placing me carefully on the lounge, as if his big hands fumbled with something so tiny and precious.

  The face he allowed Ven to see was pragmatic and industrious. Disciplined, Carne had always been, and truly this was probably the truest face the world saw.

  “Father,” he nodded.

  “I was able to commission two admissions to Ceretide Biological’s Annual General Shareholders meeting. You were right, third on their agenda mentions a ‘resolution recovering loss, pursuant to new advances procurement.
’ Their investors are worried, so should we. Whatever GMT they’d acquired has gone astray.”

  Carne looked pointedly at me. It said: ‘See? We’re on the same team. After the same objective.’

  “SkyHawkI is stationed at the auction compound, tracking incoming and outgoing deliveries and personnel. Any word on invitations there?” Carne asked.

  “None yet.”

  “We need an organic in. The operation has kicked into gear and refrigerated loads have been coming in thick the past forty-eight hours. Ella, Keota and Troy, have the team split with tracking them.”

  “Anything from Ceretide?”Ven wondered.

  “No.”

  “Mmm. I’d have thought they’d be first in line.”

  “Not if the items for sale are their stolen goods,” Carne replied.

  “Corporate espionage? I’ll look into it. Are you able to pull Ella away to accompany you to the shareholders meeting? The shares have been temporarily owner registered from the broker to participate and execute voting eligibility but they’re of a co-owned investment.”

  I’d busied myself while he discussed work by slipping Tk out to wander the apartment.

  It hurt.

  I so badly wanted it not to hurt. My chest constricted and whatever it was I felt engulfed me entirely. I had to be stronger. He’d been treasonous because of my own weakness. He’d put us first but not me. It was my mistake to believe they were one and the same when they were counter-productive.

  I’d worked with Spartan to kill my flaws. To deaden them, and I had thought I’d succeeded to a point, but the bond had now proved it’d spread like a virus and only lain dormant during our separation. Even as I shied away from him metaphysically, vines grew, tangling, reaching for the structure that held, fed and nurtured them.

  I had so little control.

  So little control over my future, my family, my friends, myself. Carne held it all.

  A tiny nucleus of provocation incited purpose, I’m sure it wasn’t mine but I’d steal it even if it was his.

  To rein this new quirk in and control it would add to a pretty piss poor arsenal but it would add.

  At the moment I had the approval of Onyxeal to be on ‘extended leave’, by that it meant Ava and Troy’s approval. Ven disapproved strongly. It was why I avoided the communication now.

  Ven’s opinion of mine and Carne’s relationship was eerily similar to Carne’s: together we are stronger. As a team we survive. Ven had always been of this mind and I feared it had something to do with his own relationship with Troy and Ava. A relationship Ven had charge of.

  I feared it because his projection onto Carne might come to pass if I couldn’t evade that future. Ven’s opinion in the home and Onyxeal was righteous. Carne was just as righteous.

  “Yes, I can sort something,” Carne directed at me over the call on his arm awakening something altogether different.

  To inflame lust, to hurl it at me was immoral. But we both knew he’d cross so many lines to keep me. It achieved his goal. I lost my zeal, before it had really even taken hold. I cast adrift from the precipice of independence.

  I should run.

  I should just run now.

  But. The GMT loss, seemed awfully coincidental with the escape of ‘the subject’. And ‘the subject’ led me to my twin.

  How could I complain? Bemoan his control if I allowed it? If I chose not to put myself first. Or had Carne chosen for me? Would I ever truly know?

  “Sending details now. And, about Delilah, Son, -”

  Carne cut him off with a pitiless glare, his wrist flexors jumped expressing his dissent. “Delilah is not something I’m willing to discuss.” He touched on revolted that his father had the gall to question him about me.

  “No… I remember the sentiment,” Ven agreed. And I hated him for that agreement. It slashed at me to know that only I fought for my independence. It really slung home: I was on my own.

  You are never alone, Honey.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The dress arrived two hours later. It was well cut, charcoal grey and a lovely wool blend. Instantly recognisable as expensive. It was not because Carne had some predilection to spoiling me. It was a costume.

  On, it was warm and sumptuous to the touch but paired with a coiffed up-style and pointed shiny black pumps it was austere and barren. As empty as I felt en route to the shareholder’s meeting Carne had had no intention inviting Ella to.

  The hover car that picked us up drove us to another pick up point. We worked naturally beside one another. Not conversing but synchronised as we shuffled from vehicle to vehicle. Carne holding the door up in a chivalrous manner even though the door was not in any danger of falling. He was simply in character.

  He cut a suave figure. His suit was navy, fitted and tidy. His pocket tie was a golden chocolate lifting the mood from arrogant to approachable. He couldn’t hide his sturdy thighs or brawny shoulders that admitted dominance but the small flower of colour did help. And again he reminded me of Ven. Not because I was attracted to Ven but because I realised, all those years ago, Ven had played the same character for Ava as we left the orphanage. Both men were more suited to fatigues and boots and one could be forgiven for mistaking them as civilised in their suits if you did not know the very stark and uninterrupted nature they both never strayed from.

  We entered the hotel ballroom in a unified march. His big hand held the small of my back. It was light, almost not there, and a lowly warmth spread around my body in a needy response. My hips swung into a fluid rhythm, the heels tapping the marble floor abusively, soliciting a firmer touch, attention. Greed for something… more.

  More… Yes, just.. more, he agreed. Graphic images slapped me over and over while we wound through to our seats. The most distracting image came with scents as his rippled abdomen undulated over my arse. My back arching and hair brushing the ground, obscuring my view. His palms scouring the taught muscles up the back of my thighs.

  A pulse found music in my core. The burgeoning hunger now starving.

  He starved.

  He couldn’t hide that when he dragged me in so close, down from that lofty darkness.

  Were these insights to Carne an unintended by-product to the affinity he machined?

  I asked myself: did he allow me to starve with him or was I deficient anyway?

  “Loss of acquisition for biological advances.” The Co-Chair and Founder began after their their AGM. “As pursuant to Shareholders concerns - the loss has been covered by trading volume exceeding annual average by 28.5 percent. And as our de-celled programs have shown high growth in demand, the company as it trades sees no cause for concern despite said loss.”

  Does that sound like fancy talk for ‘oops we lost our new product, the one we’d promised would launch the company ‘starward’?”

  That was his permission to separate, to pull away from his mind - a petite liberation as if escaping a hug. I had to concentrate. Become a person again instead of some mindless beggared creature, bothered only by his increasing distance.

  It is interesting - the founder reassuring shareholders, I began. The company is trying to prevent a mass exodus from trading. I galvanised against the urge to look at him, to binge on him and sink to empyrean.

  The founder was a middle-aged but healthy man. Stout in his frame and the moderately quirky royal red leather shoes were a venture to appear affable. He’d made the right choice to voice and attend the concerns of the shareholders. There were very few people in the room identifying as mum and dad investors, devoted to community advancement. No. These were representatives of other pharmaceutical companies with interests in line with Ceretide. And if the co- founder was willing to reassure them, it was either very bad (aka a lie) or an extremely controlled loss.

  As I reviewed the patrons, I could tell it was a mixed reaction. But ninety-nine percent of those available had their vitals smooth at the news the trading volume had exceeded expectations and demand for projected annual growth.
/>   One man was particularly fervent in his attention from his mobility chair. And considering his health was failing him, his own organs deteriorating so bad there were physical representations including jaundiced eyes, sallow skin and erratic heartbeat, I could imagine why.

  That’s François Petre. He looks a bit wizened now but usually he looks a sprightly one-hundred and fifty six. He’s a buyer at the auction we’re trying to infiltrate. Do you recognise the email address?

  He showed it to me in my mind’s eye.

  It was the one corresponding with Ardman. The one who’d lost ‘The Subject.’

  What do you have on him? I immediately interrogated. I knew he’d hidden things from me! Important things! And I’d been begging him to drive his strong cock into me instead of educating me.

  Now he smirked at the direction of my thoughts.

  Officially? Nothing, this is the first time I’ve seen him in a public setting. He was the one person I wanted a strong telepath to near. I thought you’d want to be that person.

  Me? I questioned him cynically. He’d only asked me so I’d owe him. I’d pay for this gift.

  You’re not up to it?

  Oh, to feel the confidence he breathed into me. He bolstered me only to routinely knock me down.

  Kuroyuri.

  What?

  Your Sister’s name is Kuroyuri.

  The unheralded blow was a fission-less blast that destroyed my DNA and left me hollow. In the space of the tiniest increment of time I changed.

  He was despicable.

  You’re a bad mate.

  I was empty. But… I brimmed with something filling that emptiness now. Something vile roiling, a thing. I’d not experienced it since childhood. A sickening, depraved madness that spilled and tempted. I could flay skin and peel it from the arms that suddenly wrapped around me with an anchor.

  Carne stomped on the bond so smartly, it flogged me into submission. My face fell slack and he took complete ownership.

  In my rage I would’ve killed him.

  I know Honey.