Aiden and Ky Read online

  “News travels fast,” Ky said.

  “It does among Shareem. As soon as you went in we heard.” Braden paused. “I called Rees.”

  Shareem usually went to Rees when things went bad. Ky had never figured out what level Rees was, and Rees wasn’t telling. He had been an experimental Shareem at DNAmo, not encouraged to fraternize with the rest of them. Whatever the researchers had done to him had left him aloof even now, but the man was damned resourceful.

  “That pretty little thing he bamboozled into marrying him has friends in high places,” Braden went on. “She’s why you’re out, gentlemen.”

  “Lady Talan d’Urvey.” Aiden’s lips curled into a smile. “I wonder if she’d like an oil massage as a thank you?”

  “Only if Rees lets you,” Braden said.

  “He could watch. I’d make it worth his while.”

  The blue in Aiden’s eyes widened to spill over into the white. A Shareem aroused.

  Braden grinned, his eyes going bluer, and Ky knew his own eyes were joining the blue-fest. The thought of pretty Talan lying on her stomach, her dark red hair in a knot while Aiden slid oiled hands over her didn’t help Ky’s rising temperature.

  Aiden made up his own oils, blending formulas that could bring a woman to climax when she sniffed the bottle. Aiden claimed that the right oil with the right woman made the experience with a level one as good as a sub had with a Dom.

  Rees would watch Aiden slowly rub Lady Talan’s body, while she squirmed against the table. Rees would be rock-hard, maybe holding a whip so he could spank his wife when Aiden was done for daring to enjoy another Shareem’s touch.

  Ky’s body temp rose higher. Braden’s cheekbones were flushed and Aiden smiled, a faraway look in his eyes. The water would start boiling any minute.

  “Stop,” Ky said, his voice harsh. “I haven’t released, and I’m not doing it in front of you two.”

  “I might have to find a private room too,” Braden said, his hand stealing under the water.

  “Level threes,” Aiden said mildly. “Can’t hold it in.”

  “Bite me,” Ky returned.

  18

  Aiden and Ky

  Aiden shot him a thoughtful look. Ky instantly remembered Aiden’s male scent as he pinned Ky against the transparent wall in the jail, and the rough taste of Aiden’s tongue slicing into his mouth. Ky returned the look, his skin heating.

  Braden wasn’t paying attention. “We should change the subject. Except I can’t think about anything but fucking.”

  “How’s Calder?” Ky asked abruptly.

  The blue in Braden’s eyes receded a little. “He’s a pain in the ass. So about the same as usual.”

  “He ever coming to Judith’s again?”

  “Give him a break.”

  “Hey, we don’t care what he looks like,” Ky said. “I mean, look at my face.”

  Braden laughed. “I’ll tell him you said that.”

  Calder rarely left the elaborate compound he’d built for himself with the fortune he made from women who wanted to be with him. He chose what women he’d pleasure from an endless list of applicants, some from off-planet. The women were allowed to be with him only once, and Calder made the experience unique and worthwhile.

  He did not visit the baths no matter how many times Judith asked him, because Calder would not undress in front of other Shareem. He had been ruined long ago at DNAmo, his body disfigured by chemical and plasma burns. Ky didn’t know the full story of the incident, and Calder never offered to explain.

  Ky also didn’t know the extent of the damage because he’d never seen anything but Calder’s face. Calder’s shape was fine—he dressed from head to toe in tight black leather, covering his hands in formfitting gloves. The leather outlined a body as tall and honed as Ky’s.

  Calder usually kept his face covered, easy to do in the desert climate of Bor Narga.

  Most people wrapped sun-blocking cloths around their heads and donned goggles to keep the deadly sun at bay. When Calder went out, he looked no different from other Bor Nargans—apart from his Shareem body and his ability to bring women to their knees wherever he went.

  He’d had reconstructive surgery performed by Dr. Laas, one of the original DNAmo scientists and a genius at genetic sculpting. She’d said that the reconstruction had given Calder back his life, but she could never make him the perfect Shareem again.

  The burns had been too extensive, stripping him down to muscle and bone. She’d barely been able to save him.

  Artificial skin and grafts helped, but according to Dr. Laas almost every inch of Calder’s body was brutally scarred. One side of his face had escaped except for slight pulling around his mouth, but the other side was a scarred ruin.

  His cock must be in good working order, Ky thought, because women couldn’t get enough of him.

  19

  Allyson James

  No one knew exactly what Calder did with women in his pleasure palace—they could have tea and cakes for all Ky knew. A woman who’d gone to Calder had once told Ky, It was worth it, every minute of it. Sometimes I dream about it, but when I wake up I’ m safe again.

  Ky was curious, but he’d never violate Calder’s privacy and ask him. Shareem didn’t do that. They’d been so scrutinized at DNAmo and now by patrollers that it was an unwritten code that they left each other in peace. Braden was the closest thing Calder had to a friend, and even Braden didn’t know that much about him.

  Ky came out of his thoughts to find Aiden talking about their incarceration at the hands of Brianne d’Aroth.

  “Brianne d’Aroth?” Braden mused. “I see why you’d want to ravish her if you could. She’s lickable.”

  “I liked her,” Aiden said. “Even if she did get me arrested. In the coffee bar, when she was watching me, she acknowledged she wanted it, but knew she couldn’t have it.

  She didn’t pretend not to be interested.”

  Braden grinned. “Lucky for her you’re a level one. Nice soothing sex. If she’d seen me or Ky and started fantasizing about a chain between her nipples, hands bound, the slap of a strap on her sweet, smooth ass…”

  Ky stood up, water cascading from his naked body, cock ramrod stiff. He was still angry at Brianne but Braden’s description put him over the top. Not only that, it gave him an idea he’d work out later. “I’m out of here.”

  If he didn’t release soon, his body could overload, killing him. Sex wasn’t just fun for Shareem, it was a release valve. Sex was survival. Ky had gone too long today, the stint in jail not helping.

  “If you need a lady, I’m sure there are a few watching.” Braden glanced at the smoked glass at the end of the room.

  It didn’t help Ky thinking of women behind the glass, flushed with need, hands stealing to their thighs or breasts while they fixed their gazes on his body. His heart rate increased, temperature far above what a normal human could tolerate.

  “Set the shower for freezing,” Braden snickered as Ky grabbed towels and moved toward the inner rooms.

  * * * * *

  The ice-cold water didn’t do much to relieve Ky’s tension. He held his cock in one hand, the swollen tip hard and dark. He braced himself with his other hand on the cool shower wall, willing the cold to penetrate his skin.

  He let his head drop back as his fingers dipped to his balls, smoothing their tightness. He let his anger spin into his Shareem wanting, first imagining Brianne d’Aroth as he’d seen her on digitals, all prim and neat and businesslike, then imagining her with her clothes open, her brown hair mussed and her eyes filled with hunger.

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  Aiden and Ky

  He would do it.

  He opened his eyes to see Aiden leaning against the wall opposite him. Aiden’s cock was stiff and straight, but he made no attempt to stroke it and give it comfort.

  “The water doesn’t get any colder than this,” Aiden said. “It would ice up in the pipes if it did.”

  “Shut up.” Ky squeezed his cock, forcing
his fingers tight around it. He felt Aiden’s gaze going to his cock, watching what Ky did. Aiden’s eyes were hot blue, the color pushing out the white.

  Ky’s body tightened. He thought of Aiden’s kiss in the cell, the rough masculine feel of it. His lips had tasted good, salty and smooth.

  Aiden’s sculpted face ran with water, his hair slicked back, his throat exposed where he rested his head against the wall. What would Aiden do if Ky crossed the tile floor, grabbed Aiden and kissed him? Ky imagined Aiden’s startled look changing to that slow smile of pleasure he got when he liked what someone did to him.

  Ky would lick all the way across his friend’s lips, maybe dip his tongue inside that Shareem mouth and taste him again.

  Even better if Aiden were in manacles, a leather collar around his throat.

  Ky groaned. His hand tightened on his cock and he spilled his seed, letting it wash harmlessly away with the water. He leaned on the shower wall, breath coming fast.

  “Feel better?”

  Ky looked up at his friend, unable to stop his imagination from putting Aiden in a collar, making him obey every command. Aiden met his gaze as though he knew exactly what Ky was thinking.

  “It’s forbidden,” Ky said automatically.

  “If we never did what was forbidden, we’d all be dead by now.”

  “You have a point.” Ky straightened up, breathing a little easier now that his cock wasn’t such a flagpole. “I’m going to punish her.”

  “Brianne d’Aroth? You just got out of jail, you want to go back in?”

  Ky went to Aiden, moving slowly, controlling himself. “She almost killed you. She owes you. And me.”

  Before Aiden could reply Ky slanted a kiss across his mouth, brief and hot, meant to singe more than caress.

  Forbidden, right. The researchers had watched avidly as Ky had done what was forbidden. He opened his mouth to say this, then his brain darkened and refused to form the words. Damned programming was still there. You’ d think after twenty years…

  He backed away, mind blanking out the memory again. Aiden watched him, his eyes filled with blue, his Shareem pheromones covering Ky and making him stiff again.

  “Do you want me to help?” Aiden smoothed one finger across Ky’s cheekbone.

  “With Brianne d’Aroth, I mean.”

  21

  Allyson James

  Ky grinned suddenly. He licked Aiden’s lips from one end to the other, enjoying his friend’s startled look. “Oh yeah. I’m counting on it.”

  22

  Aiden and Ky

  Chapter Four

  The Message

  Shareem.

  The word shone softly on Brianne’s console screen the next morning. It had come in as a text message, that one word, nothing else. Her console could not trace it.

  Her heart beat faster as her fingers hovered over her touch pad. She could send a reply—but to who and where? What if it was a journalist trying to get a good story about how Brianne d’Aroth could not resist Shareem?

  Best to ignore it.

  She removed her fingers from the keypad, finding her palms slick with sweat. Her instincts told her the message came from no journalist.

  But she could not risk it. Publicity about yesterday’s incident was not what she needed.

  They’ re just animals, aren’ t they? Dranis had said, sincerity ringing in his voice. He’d been puzzled by her question, and Brianne had been surprised by her answering anger.

  She should care nothing about Shareem, not even when they’d been arrested for daring to look at her. They were not part of her world, she never need see them or know about them.

  And yet the Shareem in the coffee bar had been so incredible. He’d known she reacted to him, because all women reacted to him. It had been a normal afternoon for him.

  I want to see him again.

  Brianne got abruptly to her feet. She could not have these thoughts. She could not go anywhere near Shareem. Another highborn woman might indulge in Shareem, but not a d’Aroth. She lived her entire life on the screens of everyone’s digital readers.

  Not entirely.

  As an adolescent she’d learned how to fool the surveillance cameras and the journalists and her own bodyguards to slip out from time to time. Later, when she realized how dangerous it was to wander around alone, she’d ceased. Sensible Brianne, always thinking logically.

  She left her rooms before her thoughts could take her places she didn’t want to go.

  Outside, in the vast hall of the elegant compound belonging to the d’Aroth family, her bodyguards snapped to attention. She gave them a cordial nod, then walked past on the way to her endless rounds of meetings. A normal day. Nothing special.

  23

  Allyson James

  When she returned that evening, tired and irritated at certain council members, notably those from the Ministry of Non-Human Life Forms, several messages waited on her console.

  One was from her grandmother about a business matter from one of the meetings.

  Two were from friends who wanted to talk about preparations for the wedding. The last one was unsigned and contained only one sentence.

  Enjoy your dreams.

  Brianne’s fingers grew cold as she darkened the console.

  Was this seduction? Or stalking? Maybe it was one and the same with Shareem.

  Brianne moved to her research terminal and brought up the public database of the Ministry of Non-Human Life Forms. Nothing on Shareem, although much on a sand mollusk thought to have been extinct that some biologist had just found in the southern deserts.

  The Shareem are a part of Bor Narga’ s history, and all anyone can talk about are mollusks.

  Brianne used her codes to tap into the nonpublic databases. There she found the Shareem, locked away behind several code walls like dirty laundry. She could pull up only the most general information about them—more was hidden behind doors she could not open.

  What she found was a brief description of DNAmo and profiles of the Shareem themselves. Short blurbs of information accompanied a holo photo of each, probably provided so the patrollers could keep tabs on them.

  Brianne moved through the database to find the Shareem she’d unintentionally gotten arrested. Aiden.

  Oh my.

  Even the slowly rotating Ministry holo shot could not disguise the perfection of this man. A tail of golden hair reached all the way to his backside, swept back from a square forehead and a symmetrical face.

  Face-sculpting was not unusual, though considered the height of vanity, but this man was an art form. Most people got face-sculpted when they were adults and tired of their original looks, but Aiden had been created to be beautiful before he was born.

  His makers had programmed his bones to grow to exact proportions, his muscles to fall over them in perfect patterns. His Shareem blue eyes were of the exact size to be sensual, not too big, not too small.

  A woman could feast her gaze on this man and never grow tired of him, which was the point.

  Brianne’s quim was filling again. She thought of the way he’d lapped cream from his coffee, the way his tongue had curled it into his mouth like he’d never tasted anything so good. She suspected that every woman in that coffee bar had thought will he smile like that when tasting me?

  Mmm.

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  Aiden and Ky

  If she thought of him when she went to bed, she’d enjoy her dreams indeed.

  Maybe that’s what the message had meant.

  She started to sign out of the database, then had another thought. A second Shareem had come to find out what happened to Aiden and had been arrested by her bodyguards as well.

  Would an animal be that worried about his friend?

  What had the second Shareem’s name been? She’d seen it on the report her head bodyguard had reluctantly showed her.

  Ky.

  Brianne tapped in the codes and another Shareem rose from her screen. She dropped back in her seat, breath rushing from
her lungs.

  Holy mother goddess.

  Ky had not been face-sculpted or body-sculpted. He was nowhere near as handsome as Aiden—he was not even as handsome as Dranis.

  What he had was raw sexuality that singed her like heat lightning in the desert. He was built like a god—one of the brutal warrior gods that no one, not even another god, wanted to mess with.

  His arms held strength, muscles bulging as though the skin just contained them.

  His shoulders were broad and powerful, his waist tapered. The modest holo photo did not show his hips and below, but from what his torso looked like, his lower body was sure to be fantastic.

  Brianne touched her hands to her face and found her cheeks burning. What was the matter with her? Aiden hadn’t had this much of an effect on her, even in person.

  Ky’s face was hard and powerful, his eyes so burning blue that they seared her even from the holo photo. It was as though he looked right at her instead of at whatever patroller had burned the photo long ago.

  Gods, what it must have been like to take his picture.

  She knew now who’d sent the messages. Not Aiden, who’d enjoyed a sensual moment with her in the coffee bar. Not the Shareem who’d known she liked watching him lick cream from his cup.

  Not Aiden at all.

  Ky.

  The words seemed to leap from his image, coupled with his burning stare. Enjoy your dreams.

  Brianne moaned softly. She wanted to touch herself. No, she wanted him to touch her. She wanted to watch Aiden run his tongue around the inside of his coffee cup while Ky stood behind her, pinning her in his strong arms and dipping his fingers into her quim.

  25

  Allyson James

  Gods, why did she want something so depraved? Not only one Shareem, but two?

  Had she lost her mind?

  On impulse, she split the screen and pulled Aiden and Ky up side by side.

  Mistake. Her imagination fed her images of Aiden coming closer, maybe bringing the cream with him to lick from her throat while Ky played with her clit, his breath hot in her ear. She could even feel the abrasion of Ky’s cheek against hers.