“Spoilsport.”
“Well, since your sport involves two balls and a stick, yeah, I am a spoilsport.”
“Ah, but I do love getting it in goal and going for extra points.” He chuckled next to her ear.
A knock at the door got their attention. An abashed intern said, “There is a shower available, and Researcher Zera, here are some clothes.”
It took a certain amount of balls to walk into a room with two naked actives. The intern put the clothing down on the table near the door and escaped.
Zera dropped the shreds of her top and started removing monitors. The first one to go was the slender one inside her. She set it on the table, and then, purple hands started to take the rest of them off her.
She murmured, “Shower now and play later, sir.”
He laughed and left the room.
She groaned and stretched as she got the last of the pods off. The interior com opened. “Miss Zera, there is a small shower in the corner where you can clean up.”
“Um, why? I can just shower and get dressed.”
The voice was embarrassed. “He told us that if you weren’t naked and waiting when he got back, he would try it with us.”
She laughed and took the cool shower before drying off and hearing the door open and close. When she saw that it was definitely Torun, she jumped into his arms with her legs around his waist. “Hey, baby.”
He chuckled. “Naughty little miss. What have you been doing since I have been gone?”
“In the last five minutes? Just scrubbing up.”
“Are you clean now?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Mostly.”
“Excellent. Me too. Hold on.”
He slid into her and fucked her standing up. The observers were making notes on the other side of the glass, and she blew them a kiss right before she gasped as the first release hit her.
The observers were in for a varied and detailed show.
Chapter Eighteen
Zera was carried back to her cell and tenderly tucked in by a smug Torun.
“You cheated,” was all she could mumble.
“They had to get their data. I was just giving them a large sample.” He grinned.
“We took the monitors off.”
“The room was rigged with sensors.”
She stuck her tongue out at him; her body hummed with satisfaction. She chuckled. “We totally destroyed that room.”
“We did.”
“Did they mention their conclusions to you?”
“You are chatty when you are exhausted. I didn’t know.”
She snorted. “You are rarely around when I am coming down.”
“Ah, I have reason to believe that that will change.”
She was suddenly awake. “What?”
“The tribunal is taking the findings of our interactions into account, and they wish to keep you protected. Since there is no one better than me for that, they are looking at putting you under a version of protected arrest.”
“For how long?”
“Until you cease being useful to the program.”
She sat up. “What? No fucking way.”
“That is what they have said.”
“Delightful. They are about to find themselves out of all kinds of tech.”
He frowned. “What?”
“Do you remember my day job as a researcher? All the tech that the teams wear? All the non-lethal weapons and tech that the peacekeepers wear? That is all me. I have gotten all of the major supply contracts over the last five years. My companies design them all. It would be a shame if I became less than creative or shut down those branches of Z-Tech.”
He smiled. “You would do that, wouldn’t you?”
“Of course. You know me well. Hell, you know me best of all, but I do not like being hounded, pursued, or cornered. They will not put me under house arrest for the rest of my life and whore me out when they want to give one of their actives a boost. I decide. Legit citizen here. Some of the actives are just jackasses, and I don’t want them near me or any of my team. Power does not make someone a good person.”
“I know, Zera, but think about it. We could be together.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I would love that, but you are on an international team, and if I am locked to you, where do I go when you are out of town. Into a box? Into a cell? I am a free citizen of this state. I have the rights of a citizen. I am a registered body-hopping active. No one bothered to ask what happened after I did that.”
He chuckled. “You acquired your copying skills.”
“Yes. I went into a body and came out with the copy activation.”
“Who was it?”
She chuckled. “He’s dead now, so don’t worry about it.”
“Vencorin.”
“Yeah. Did you meet?”
“Yes, but he wasn’t quite the same style of copycat that you are.”
She shrugged. “I am one of a kind.”
“Yes, sweet. You are, now get some rest. The tribunal is going to speak with you when you are a little less—”
“Sticky?”
He grinned. “We took a shower, remember?”
She hummed happily. “Oh, yeah. That is where I got sticky again.”
He kissed her head. “Sleep, you naughty creature.”
She grinned and laughed. “Bossy, sir.”
“You know it.”
He eased her flat and made sure she was covered before he left. She watched him go and surrendered to warm, achy sleep.
She was given a team suit to dress in for the verdict. She was wearing purple and black and had a feeling that it was significant. It had a low-keyhole neckline and a high collar. She ruffled her fingers through her hair and extended her hands for cuffs. The embarrassed keeper shook his head. “They are not necessary today, researcher.”
She raised her brows and nodded. “Fair enough. Shall we?”
He nodded, and there was a blush in his cheeks. They were walking the hall, and he kept looking at her.
“Somewhere on a security monitor, there is porn starring Torun and me, right?”
“Uh, yeah. I haven’t seen actives having sex before. Your eyes glow.”
“Oh, yeah. That is a power-restraint thing. You are a peacekeeper?”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“Well, there is way more un-active porn out there than you
