“So, you are something else.” He frowned. “Something not human.”
“I appear human on scans, and that is what matters. It is just assumed that my active status mutated me a little.”
“What happened to the other four males?”
“I blew them up. They had started to age quickly and were eyeing the female researchers. When one of them made a move on Mom, I had to kill them all. They were getting really aggressive. With Mentor, it appears that I missed one. I made sure of it this time.”
“What was their purpose?”
“To procreate and fill the world with offshoots of our kind.”
“What was your purpose?”
She chuckled. “To rule them.”
He stepped toward her. “That is a very natural state for you, isn’t it?”
Zera wrinkled her nose. “It just seems to happen.”
“What did you do to me? There was something different after I met you and for the next decade and a half.”
“Ah, I took your killing rage, lover. I took it and held it until you were able to deal with it again.” She smiled. “When I could give you a physical outlet, you could take the rage back and use it for your own benefit.”
He stared at her for a minute, and her smile faded. “Did I say too much?”
Torun walked toward her and kissed her. “Are you saying that you use sex to calm me down?”
She shook her head. “No, it is strictly a form of appreciation for your efforts on behalf of the population. And fun. It is a helluva lot of fun.”
He grinned. “Glad to hear it. You know what my next question is, don’t you?”
“Maybe, but can we have sex first? I don’t think I have really ever gotten to sleep the night through with you.”
“You think I want to sleep the night through with a strange and mysterious alien?”
She blinked. Unsure. Suddenly, her heart hurt, and that didn’t normally happen. She looked up at him, and her eyes filled with tears. “I guess not?”
She stepped away, and he caught her and held her against him. “You guessed wrong.”
She kissed him with relief and stroked his cheeks, his neck, and ran her hands down the front of his suit. “I thought you wouldn’t want me if you knew.”
“I will always turn to you. You know that.” He slid his fingers into the closure of her suit. “I do love you in purple.”
“I do love purple in me.” She smiled as the suit was opened, and he knelt to use his mouth on her breasts. She shivered and wove her fingers through his hair. She moaned and held him to her as his hands continued working her suit off. She had to lose her grip on him until she was naked from the waist up. Her body throbbed, her blood hummed, and she slowly moved to the closure of his suit. She exposed him inch by inch, and when the suit was open, she touched the warm skin and felt his pulse under the muscles of his chest.
She shuddered when he started to use his teeth and yelped as he playfully tugged on a nipple. “Wiseass.”
He peeled out of his suit to the waist, and he pulled her against him, wrapping his arms around her and burying his head between her breasts. Zera inhaled the scent of him, and she said softly, “Have I thanked you properly for coming to support me today?”
“No thanks necessary. It was nice to be able to do something for you for a change.” He smiled. “Aside from paying to train more escorts.”
“You have been an amazing patron, Torun, and a better friend.”
“Is it a good friendship or what the modern un-activateds call friends with benefits?”
“I will take the friendship and give you the benefits.” She stroked his face softly.
He nodded. “I think we are overdressed.”
“I would agree. If you let me go, I can do something about it.”
“No, while you are under my roof, you will obey my rules. I get to undress you.”
She shivered but blinked. “I don’t know. Your rules usually end up with me tied up.”
He chuckled. “I haven’t shown you the playroom yet. That is where that sort of thing will take place.” His fingers eased the suit off her hips.
“There is a whole room for it?”
“Certainly. It isn’t the sort of thing Ryma would enjoy doing to you. Tycho said he would like to watch, and I need an outlet for those dark impulses, dear Zera.”
She shivered. “Oh.”
“I see you like the thought of being at my mercy.”
She bit her lip and then said, “You don’t have any mercy, sir.”
“Ah, pet, you know just what to say. Step out.”
She stepped out of the suit, and he took it, shook it out carefully, and hung it up. “You had it made for me.”
He chuckled. “I have been keeping it for just such an occasion when my clear support could not be missed.”
“Is it wired for sound and full of trackers?”
He grinned. “Yes. Now, where were we?”
“You were overdressed and promising me unspeakable torments.”
He grinned. “That will wait; tonight, I want to see pleasure in your eyes.”
She looked at him and cocked her head. “In that case... strip.”
He laughed and pushed his suit off his hips before sitting and yanking off his boots and the last of the fabric.
He reached for her, and she fell into his arms, locking him in a kiss that curled her toes and made him hold her tight.
Torun fell back and rolled with her until they were in the centre of the soft space. She was pinned under him, and he smiled, stroking her cheek and neck. “So very soft. Your eyes changed when you grew. The original green was striking.”
She smiled. “I had to change it when I tried to be human. It was too striking for someone who was otherwise normally pigmented.”
“And your
