Chapter 24 Sem
Time floated by in a warm and contented blur. We ate, napped, kissed, more than kissed. Life was easy in Thura. Even Gol had left us alone to settle in. But this morning, I’d opened my eyes to find a monster perched on my chest.
“Elanie,” I whisper-shouted. “Help.”
She strode in through the door like a sun-kissed dream, her skin tan, feet bare. “Grover.” She tsked. “Leave Sem alone.”
Giving me the stink eye—because while he loved Elanie, he still wasn’t so sure about me—the grint opened his beak and squawked. Then he scampered from the bed and jumped into Elanie’s arms, crawling over her shoulder to coil his tail around her neck.
“You should get up,” she said, running her knuckle over Grover’s beak. “The breakfast spread is delicious today.”
I sat up so I could drink her in. She’d been changing, little by little, day by day.
Maybe I’d been changing too. But there was something about the way the sunlight caressed her skin here, the color dusting her cheeks.
It started in the cave, her smiles outnumbering her scowls, a laugh here and there, an openness.
But here in Thura, with the warmth and the sand and the flowing linen clothes, she was blooming.
Wondering if she had any idea how beautiful she was, and if not, how I could spend the rest of my life convincing her it was true, I asked, “How are you today?”
She thought about it for a moment. Then her rosebud lips unfurled into a smile so warm it gave the sun a run for its money. “I’m happy.”
The word was an arrow through my heart, making me want to open up my chest to show her that she’d hit her mark. Instead, I walked to her, kissed her lips, and said, “Me too.”
She hadn’t been wrong. The breakfast buffet had been phenomenal, as had our lunch and dinner.
Fresh eggs, juicy meats, warm and crusty breads.
And bowls filled with a seemingly never-ending supply of fruits and vegetables.
Everything was always cooked to perfection and artfully prepared, always steaming hot or perfectly chilled.
But even as I filled my belly meal after meal, replenishing the lost calories from our time in the cave eating foot-eels, I couldn’t help but wonder who was making all our food.
I hadn’t seen a kitchen, no staff or volunteers cutting the melons into tiny stars or glazing the hams. Aside from Mal, there were a few older generation bionics toiling about, setting tables and clearing plates.
But there weren’t enough of them to be cooking everything too.
If, according to Gol, the entire purpose of Thura was to offer freedom to bionics, working the older gens to their cores didn’t exactly fit that model, even if it did make them feel useful.
“What do you really think of this place?” I asked Elanie when she came back into our hut after taking a shower. Something we’d done together for the first time the other day, playing with water and soap and how slippery the two could be when combined.
Drying her hair with one of Thura’s downy-soft towels, she peeked at me from under her thick, dark lashes and said, “I think it’s amazing. Why? Don’t you?”
She wore nothing but a thin pink linen robe, the outline of her body visible through the fabric. While she brushed her fingers through her hair, her robe falling open enough to reveal the curve of a breast, I had to physically sit on my hands to keep them to myself.
“What are you doing?” She studied me, brow furrowing.
“Oh, just mentally undressing you,” I admitted, my blood stirring as I imagined the feel of her body under my hands, my teeth grazing the underside of that perfect breast, my tongue swirling over the rosy nipple starting to harden under her robe.
“It is beautiful here.” I tried to ignore the way she let her robe slide down her right shoulder, exposing golden skin that gleamed under the glowlight.
“But you know how I’ve been taking walks after lunch?
” Sometimes she joined me, but she preferred to engage in a time-honored tradition she’d only recently been allowed to appreciate: afternoon naps.
Nodding, she toyed at the tie holding her robe together.
“While I’ve been walking, I’ve also been thinking, noticing things.
Like where are the power generators or solar converters?
Where are the satellite arrays sending out the SBN signals?
What is keeping the glowlights on or the terradome functional?
” My gaze trailed down her throat, her sternum as she pulled the tie loose.
“I mean, who makes our clothes? Who made”—my breath caught as her robe fell to the floor—“your robe?”
Taking a step closer to me, she suggested, “We could ask Gol.”
“You think he’d tell us?” My focus sank to her navel, my attention slipping inside the soft, shadowed divot. “He seems secretive, doesn’t he? Enigmatic? Doesn’t it all feel a little…cultish?”
Placing her hands on my shoulders, she nudged my knees apart and stood between them. “Cultish?”
I brushed my lips over her belly, breathing her in.
Cinnamon, vanilla, mouthwateringly edible.
I’d never been so hungry. Hungry for her, for the heaven hiding beneath those curls at the apex of her thighs.
Especially since she hadn’t let me kiss her there yet.
Saints help us both when she finally did.
“Mm-hmm,” I murmured against her skin, sliding my hands over her hips—which she promptly repositioned on her ass.
“There’s the big, muscle-bound, charismatic leader.
” I swiped my tongue over the point of her right hip.
“The docile followers wandering around like they’re on a constant supply of Bliss.
” Bit the tender skin above her left. “Everyone wearing the same outfit.” Squeezed the divine cheeks in my hands.
“And I think I heard some bionics speaking in tongues earlier today.”
Slipping a finger under my chin, she tipped my head. Probably to meet her stare, but I got stuck on her breasts halfway up.
“They were Ulaperians, Sem,” she explained. “They always sound like that. You’ve just never heard it because of your VC translator.”
Licking my lips, I kissed the swell of one breast. “I don’t know,” I said, moving to kiss the other while she threaded her fingers through my hair.
“But there’s something about this place.
” I sucked her nipple into my mouth, leaving it wet and hard.
“That makes me feel.” She moaned while I swirled my tongue around the peaked tip.
“Like we probably shouldn’t drink the punch. ”
“Why would that be?” Gol’s voice was the most unwelcomed thunder that ever clapped. “Our punch is delicious and 100 percent organic.”
Shooting to my feet, I thrust Elanie behind me. And while I tried to appear nonchalant, my erection pointed straight out beneath my pants, wagging at Gol like an accusatory finger.
“Ever heard of knocking?” I grumbled.
“I do not knock,” Gol replied simply. Glancing down, he grinned at my erection the way a parent might grin at their child’s stick figure drawing.
Encouraging, like it was the cutest little attempt they’d ever seen.
I half expected the next words out of his mouth to be something along the lines of “Aww, look what you did there, little guy.”
“Do you need something?” I asked tightly.
Gol’s grin didn’t falter. “I came to invite the two of you to the revel.”
“The revel?” Elanie peeked her head out over my shoulder.
Looking us up and down with a knowing smirk, he said, “And it appears as though you are in the perfect spirits for the event. Come. Join us. It’s time for you to see what our kind is capable of.”
Torches blazed and glowlights flickered, purple, red, blue, keeping time with the rhythm of the steel drums. A trio of half-naked musicians swayed back and forth as they played, their eyes closed, heads bowed in a euphoric trance.
Elanie kept close by my side as we made our way through a throng of sweaty, naked bodies writhing to the music. She wasn’t clinging to me for dear life tonight, though. And instead of keeping her eyes glued to the sand below our feet, she let them roam.
“Are you okay?” I asked, pulling her close so I could inhale the sweet scent of her hair.
“I don’t like it,” she grumbled. “We have clothes for a reason. Stars above, what are those three”—she squinted—“no, four, doing over there anyway?”
I followed her gaze to a corner of the commons where a Gorbie was on his knees, his four hands grasping hips and breasts, his head buried between the legs of a Delphinian who was passionately kissing another Delphinian while an enthusiastic Blurvan took her from behind.
The Blurvan looked so much like Mr. Lagerta I was half-tempted to go say hello.
“Glorious, isn’t it?” Arlin asked, appearing at my side.
“It’s not glorious,” Elanie said, squaring off. “It’s indecent. These things should be done in private.” She gazed up at me, searching my eyes for validation.
“It is a little wild,” I agreed, even though it was no worse than a rowdy night on deck thirty-six. Which, Elanie had told me, was a deck she avoided on principle.
Arlin’s expression was soft, her voice even softer.
“It is not indecent, Elanie. It’s beautiful.
There is no shame here. Shame binds us, rules us.
It keeps us weak and closed off. It keeps us separate.
You don’t have to do anything that makes you uncomfortable.
” She slid her fingers through a strand of Elanie’s hair.
“But there is freedom in questioning why certain things make us uneasy, in challenging our programming. Be free tonight.” She leaned in, pressing a kiss to Elanie’s cheek. “You will not be judged.”
While I stared at the women, at Elanie’s changing expression when she considered Arlin’s words, a gigantic hand slapped my back, thrusting me forward one full step.
“If you want both women tonight,” Gol said low into my ear, nodding toward Elanie and Arlin. “You can have them. If they are agreeable, of course.”
I shook my head, doglike. “No thank you. I’m good with just the one. The Elanie one.” I cleared my throat. “With my mate, I mean. But thank you? For the offer?”
“How long have you been paired?” Gol asked, unmoved by my stammering. He stood naked, with his arms crossed and his legs spread, his veiny green manhood hanging between them like the proverbial elephant in the room.
How long had we been together? We’d never cemented our story. “Oh, about four years,” I said, sounding the opposite of convincing.
“That’s hardly any time at all, is it?” The grin that made its way across the big man’s face caused a reflexive wrapping of my arm around Elanie’s waist.
Aside from the whole compelling bionics to leave their ships thing, I had no reason not to trust Gol.
But I didn’t. I just didn’t. It was the way his eyes seemed to follow Elanie wherever she went.
I’d never thought of myself as the possessive type, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that Gol wanted her for himself.
It wasn’t the first time I’d wished my empathy worked on bionics, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last, but I’d shave my own head to get an idea of his vibes. And I loved my hair.
Leaving Elanie’s side, Arlin slid her hands over Gol’s shoulders and said, “Dance with me.”
“Yes, my love,” Gol replied before grasping her ass and kissing her deeply. When he pulled away, he shouted “Mal!” then grumbled, “Where is that tin can?”
“Tin can?” I whispered into Elanie’s ear. “That’s a little harsh.”
Frowning, she whispered back, “Maybe it’s a term of endearment?”
“Ah. Here he is.” Gol clapped a hand over Mal’s shoulder, the force of the gesture making the older bionic list to one side.
Straightening, Mal said, “Hello, Elanie. Hello, Dr. Semson. Hello, Gol and Arlin. What can I do for you this evening? More food? More drink?”
“We need synth.” Gol arched his back, his voice thundering toward the terradome as he roared, “Synth!”
The answering roar of the revelers was deafening.
As Gol grabbed Mal by the neck, the yellow glow of the gen-1’s robotic eyes dimmed.
“Bring us rola fruit,” Gol ordered. “And make sure the fruit is fresh.”
“Of course.” Mal blinked, his joints whirring as he turned to leave. “Synth and rola fruit. Coming right up.”
Stepping in front of the gen-1 before he could race away, I said, “Thank you, Mal. For all that you do here for us.” An amount that I suspected was much more than what we saw.
His mechanical lips ticked up at the corners. “It is my privilege.” Then he added in a quiet warning, “But do not eat more than one piece of rola fruit. When it is fresh, it is very strong.”
“On your way,” Gol grunted, giving Mal another shove that would only be considered friendly by someone who’d never had a friend.
Before I could ask what rola fruit was, the driving drums and booming bass of synth music erupted under the dome. An immediate swell of bodies crowded in, surrounding us as revelers twisted and writhed to the beat.
Gol and Arlin joined the melee, sand crystals jumping from their stomping feet as I took Elanie’s hand and ushered her away from the crowd, away from the bodies and the noise and anything that might make her uncomfortable.
But her grip tightened, and she slowed, holding me back. “Sem. Should we?” Her head tilted back toward the pulsating, glistening mass of revelers.
I took a step closer. “You want to dance?”
“With you.” She held on to my wrist while I brushed my thumb over the heated flush in her cheek. “I want to dance with you.”
Sliding my other hand behind her neck, I pulled her in for a kiss. Then I led her back into the throng.