Eland and Jeanne (Tales of the Shareem) (17 page)

Dreamwalker (forthcoming)
“A Little Night Magic”
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Hot for the Holidays
(short story “prequel”—Jamison and Naomi’s story)

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Rees

Tales of the Shareem, Book 1

Chapter One

A Shareem male.

Easy to tell he was Shareem, first because he was tall, more than six and a half feet. Second, because of the slim black chain on his biceps. Third, because he was naked, except for a loincloth around his waist.

From the other side of the airy white hall, Talan watched the Shareem pause in front of the door to a holo-block.

He dark blond hair pulled into a tail that hung between his shoulder blades. His back muscles were sculpted to perfection, tapering to a narrow waist and muscular thighs.

The loincloth left his backside bare. Talan had never seen a man’s backside before. It was enough to dry her mouth and make her hot all over.

Reading about Shareem—researching in a dusty library—was one thing. Seeing a Shareem in the flesh was something completely different.

Talan knew now why women had once gone crazy trying to get them.

Shareem
. Genetically enhanced males, grown and bred for the pleasure of females. A fashion twenty or so years ago, very illegal these days.

Despite the cooling system inside Talan’s robes, sweat trickled down her back.

The Shareem paid for the holo-block with a credit strip, and the big door slid open. Beyond, Talan glimpsed an ocean, palm trees, and a beach. Good choice.

The Shareem entered the room. The door started to close.

Talan had never broken a rule in her life. Talan d’Urvey would never, ever sneak into a holo-block rented for only one person, without paying. That would be wrong.

But she’d followed him this far, and she couldn’t linger for hours waiting for him to come out.

The door had nearly closed. Talan flung herself across the hall and into the holo-room just before the door boomed shut behind her.

***

Rees gazed out across the blue-green waves of the tropical ocean, sank his toes into the warm sand, and thought about the woman following him.

Rees liked oceans. The desert world of Bor Narga had no oceans, except for a dried-up one in the middle of the planet.

He liked the soothing cool of the water and the tropical air touching his ass, kissing his skin like a woman’s lips. It was a perfect place to ponder the problem Rio had brought to him and to think about the woman.

She’d been following him all morning, ever since he’d left the bazaar. At first he’d thought she was a patroller, one of that fine body of women who enjoyed harassing the now-free Shareem.

A closer glance told him no. Her robes placed her as upper-class. The patterns and colors on them indicated she was unmarried, educated, and celibate.

A celibate young woman following a Shareem. He wanted to laugh.

She’d followed him into the holo-block then dived for cover behind the broad-leafed plants and stayed there.

Maybe he should give her a show. He could stretch out on the sand, place his hand on his thigh and brace his cock so it would point straight to the sky. He’d spread his legs a little, show her that his balls were tight and lifting for her.

The DNAmo programmers had designed Shareem to respond to even subtle stimulation. Just being watched by an interested woman could make Rees’s cock rise.

Besides, she was cute.

He imagined her coming out from her hiding place, kneeling and taking him in her mouth.

Mmm, he wanted that.

A celibate wouldn’t know what to do. He’d have to show her. His cock tingled in anticipation.

She must not know what Rees was, or she’d have run away as fast as her high-heeled boots would let her. She should have picked a level-one Shareem to follow. Level ones were pretty harmless. Even level twos could be fun, if a lady enjoyed, say, a little spanking.

Level threes could get even more creative.

Rees was a level all by himself.

Even ladies used to Shareem said Rees was dangerous. They said it with an excited tremor in their voices.

Rees was one of the reasons Shareem were taboo now. He’d been an experiment, a risk, a step too far.

One day Rees had heard the scientists say that they needed to terminate the dangerous experiment. He’d been pretty sure how they were going to do that.

He’d gotten away, and the next week the company had gone bankrupt. DNAmo, which had thrived for a hundred years breeding the perfect servants and then the perfect males, disappeared overnight.

People had looked for Rees at first, then had forgotten about him. They believed the DNAmo scientists had fled with him. No one even knew what he looked like.

Rio knew. Rees knew. A few women thought they knew, but couldn’t be sure.

And here he was.

Rees could taste the lady’s pheromones on the air. She was wet and wanting him. Well, she’d get what she came for. She should learn not to play with fire.

He turned around and made for her hiding place in the greenery. He’d give her a chance to leave. That was only fair.

Rees stopped right in front of her. Between the broad, flat leaves behind which she crouched, her fire-colored hair and translucent veil nestled like a flower.

“Come on out,” Rees said.

The figure didn’t move.

“You’re not really hiding,” Rees said, trying not to laugh. “I see you.”

She quivered a second, then slowly stood up.

Rees took a stunned step back. Did he say
cute?
She was gorgeous.

Red hair framed the round face of a woman in her early twenties. Thick, black lashes enhanced the bluest eyes he’d ever seen. He imagined her fluttering those lashes over his lips, over his balls ...

Her robes mostly hid her, but he could see the swell of breasts and the round of her hips and backside. He liked imagining what she looked like under all that fabric. He’d like to take off those robes, layer by slow layer.

“Well?” Rees said.

“Well, what?” She was trying to be snooty, but she was too nervous.

“Why are you following me?”

The woman got more nervous. “I thought this room was empty.”

Liar
. He laughed. “No, you didn’t.”

Another thing enhanced on a Shareem was his voice. He could soothe a woman just by saying hello, make her shiver by speaking her name.

The woman looked anything but soothed. “I thought ... I didn’t mean ... It’s all right, I’ll leave.”

She swung around, robes whirling in the tropical breeze. Rees caught her arm, and she turned, startled, then glared at him.

A Shareem never touched an upper-class woman without her permission. It wasn’t done. His friend Rio, a level three and not ashamed of it, did it all the time.

“I’m just a bad-ass,” Rio would say. Rio would have already lifted this lady’s skirts and showed her what a level three could do. Rees was a little kinder.

“I can think of only one reason a celibate woman would follow a Shareem,” Rees said.

She blinked. “Oh? Why?”

He lowered his voice, made it still more seductive. “Because she wants her first fuck. Why else?”

She stared at him in amazement, and her face turned bright red. “Of course not.”

“You didn’t follow me to play hide and seek, sweetheart. You’re celibate. You want me to make you
un
-celibate.”

“No, no,” she said. “I’ll go to a clinic for that.”

Upper-class women had clinics for sexual health and for donating DNA to make children. None of them had anything to do with sex. Not swollen cock in hot, slippery pussy kind of sex anyway.

“Then what?”

Her blush spread. “I just wanted to see a Shareem.”

Rees spread his arms. “Here I am.”

The woman made no pretense of not looking. Those blue eyes moved as she examined him from his blond hair all the way down his muscled chest and flat stomach, his thighs, calves, and bare feet.

Her gaze rose again, lingered on the loincloth, and landed on the black chain on his biceps.

“Do you mind being a slave?” she asked.

“Shareem aren’t slaves,” Rees said quickly. “We do what we want.”
Mostly
.

“But you were made in a factory.”

“Grown in a vat, yeah. But here we are.”

She looked him up and down one more time. “You’re not what I expected.”

“What did you expect?”

“You’re human,” she said, in wonder. “I didn’t think you’d be so human.”

That stunned him. Most women looked no further than his huge cock and didn’t much care about anything else. Rees wasn’t considered human. Humanoid, maybe.

Something in his heart warmed a tiny bit. He should be kind to her. Let her get away.

No. Hunt her through the brush and out into the waves—

Rees stopped the thought. “You shouldn’t have followed me. A level one, maybe. But not me.”

Her brows rose. “Why not?”

“Because I’m Rees.”

Her look told him she’d never heard of him. “What’s a Rees?”

She made him laugh, lucky for her. The rest of his body screamed at him to throw her down, fuck her, get it over with.

“Rees is my name.”

Her cheeks got red again. “Oh.”

He laughed out loud. “Don’t worry about it, babe. Come and swim with me.” He pitched his voice to seduce. “The water’s nice.”

Her breath came fast, her delectable breasts rising. “I can’t. No. Thank you for asking, but I’m not ready.”

“Not ready for what?”

“For swimming. Or anything else. My research isn’t complete.”

“Research?”

“On Shareem.”

He stared at her. “You’re doing research on Shareem? What is there to research?”

“Oh, many things.”

Rees wanted to laugh again. He wouldn’t mind helping with a little research. He’d pull off his loincloth, lay her on the sand, lace his fingers through her warm, red hair. Then spread her legs, thrust his tongue inside her fine pussy. Yes, any research was fine with him.

“I wondered if you would ... ah ...”

Her stammering broke off as Rees leaned closer. She had a sweet scent overlaid with the tang of excited woman.

What do you want me to do, love? Fuck you? Lick you? Fill your mouth?

Bind her hands, part her legs. Take ...

Again, Rees stopped his runaway thoughts. She was celibate and clueless. She had no idea what he could do, what Shareem could do, what
Rees
could do.

The woman drew a calming breath. “I wonder if you’d give me a sample of your DNA.”

Rees stared at her. “I’ve had bizarre requests before, but ... What do you want to do? Grow your own Shareem? That’s illegal, darling.”

“No, no. I only want to look at it. To see what’s different about you.”

“What’s different is I don’t have parents. Or, maybe I have multiple parents. Or scientists with nothing better to do.” She frowned as she listened, as though she didn’t know what he was talking about. “What’s your name?” Rees asked her.

She wet her lips. “Talan.”

“Pretty name for a lady researcher. Okay, Talan, you can have my DNA. Mind if I think of some fun ways of giving it to you?”

“That’s all right, I’ll just take cells from your finger.” Talan reached into her robe, pulling out something that looked like a sharp knife with a tube attached to it.

Rees took an instinctive step back. Clinics, tubes, and knives always bothered him.

“Ready?” she asked.

Rees made himself hold up his finger. The holo-block sunlight glittered on his tanned skin and the black chain.

As though she saw nothing but his finger, Talan scraped a little of the skin from his fingertip. She closed the tube over the knife and put it back into her pocket, looking satisfied.

“Is that it?” Rees asked.

“Yes, thank you. Thank you very much.”

“You’re welcome.”

Rees shouldn’t touch her, he knew that, and not just because it was taboo. This little sweetheart stirred him up, and stirring up Rees was dangerous.

But he
wanted
to touch her. He needed it. One touch, that was all, and then he’d let her go.

He reached out and brushed a strand of hair from her forehead.

Talan stared up at him in amazement, then her eyes softened. Rees’s Shareem touch, his voice, his gaze, were all created to melt a woman.