Enhanced

  But if he doesn’t care, why did he heal my knee so gently? Why did he carry me to bed in his arms and cradle me all night to make me feel warm and comforted? Why did he kiss me back and touch me like…like I haven’t been touched in so long?

  Maybe he really was just pretending, like Mr. Metal Teeth had said. Just being polite to the stupid little Feeler. After all, how dumb could she be to let herself feel anything at all for the big Kindred? He was the very definition of emotionally unavailable. She would have to be the stupidest—

  Suddenly she looked up and saw a huge creature bearing down on her. At first she thought it was a man driving a tank with his top half sticking out. Then she realized he was part of the tank—that he was only human or Kindred or whatever from the waist up. The rest of him was the body of the tank whose huge, merciless treads were getting closer and closer.

  Like a centaur, Mei-Li thought numbly, frozen in place as the monstrosity rolled on and on. Only instead of having the bottom half of a horse he’s got the bottom of a machine. He’s a cen-tank. Or a tank-aur. Or maybe just a man-tank—

  “What in the Seven Hells is wrong with you?” Six growled in her ear. A muscular arm swept her out of the way just as the massive tank-man rolled over the place she had just been standing. He hadn’t seen Mei-Li at all—she could tell by the blank, impassive look on his face. Or maybe he had seen her and just didn’t care. Either way, he wouldn’t have stopped and she would have been crushed to strawberry jam if Six hadn’t pulled her out of the way.

  Which didn’t really make her any less irritated with him.

  “Let me go.” She pushed against the muscular arm wrapped around her waist.

  “I don’t think so,” he said, changing his grip so that he was cradling her in his arms like a baby. “We need to get back to my domicile before you get crushed by a wheeler or mobbed by the sniffers.”

  “Wheeler? Sniffers?” She stopped struggling because he clearly wasn’t going to put her down. But she held herself stiff in his grip, refusing to put her arms around his neck for balance or to let herself lean against him.

  Clearly, Six didn’t care about her nonverbal display of irritation.

  “Never mind. I will explain later,” he said, still holding her firmly.

  With long strides that ate up the dull, silvery-gray pavement, he strode along, holding her in his arms until they turned down a slightly less busy side-street. He turned again and they were in a long block of metal doors identical to the one she’d seen on his boss’s house—or apartment or whatever you called the living areas here. Domiciles, she supposed.

  Six put her down at last after giving her a stern look to make certain she wasn’t going to run away. With an inward sign of defeat, Mei-Li admitted to herself that she probably wouldn’t. The half seen sky overhead was starting to grow even darker and she had no wish to be trapped outside after nightfall on this strange planet with no protection from the weird, half-robot people who roamed the streets.

  “This is my domicile,” Six said, stepping back as the metal door slid open and motioning her to precede him. “And yours as well for the duration of our Claiming Period. Welcome.”

  “Thanks,” Mei-Li muttered, walking into the long, narrow metal hall which looked a lot like One’s. She wondered if all the houses looked alike here. It wouldn’t have surprised her a bit it they did. After all, what was the point of individuality or decoration if there was no one who had the capacity to appreciate it?

  “Greetings, Six,” came the same mechanical voice she’d heard issuing from his watch aboard the med barge. “It is good to have you home.”

  “Greetings, Ter,” Six said aloud, addressing the disembodied voice. “This is Mei-Li who will be staying with me for the next nine solar days. During her visit, you will extend the same courtesies to her that you do to me.”

  “All courtesies? What about command sequences?” Ter demanded.

  “All courtesies,” Six repeated firmly. “I wish her to feel as much at home as she can while staying here.”

  “Affirmative. But I must state that I do not believe it is a good idea to allow a Feeler to have access to command sequences. She may make illogical decisions.” The voice sounded cranky now, as much as a robotic voice could.

  “Don’t worry,” Mei-Li said aloud, joining the weird conversation. “I have no intention of setting off your self-destruct sequence or anything like that. I’m just here to do my time and then get back to my normal life on my own planet.” She looked at Six when she said it and he frowned back in return.

  “Ter would not destruct the domicile even if you did order it,” he said. “It is an illogical command and Ter is a thinking, intelligent system, not a mindless drone who will do anything you may dream up in the heat of the moment.”

  “Oh, good for you—you got it right that time.” Mei-Li favored him with a slow clap. “So what you’re saying is that I would do something stupid and illogical like try to blow up your house because I have emotions but Ter wouldn’t follow my irrational orders because he doesn’t have emotions.”

  “This is becoming tiresome,” Six growled. “I have never called you stupid—to the contrary, I have a high regard for your intelligence or I would not have spoken to Ter and told him to allow you free access to all commands. But since you bring it up, I will say that you are acting most illogical now.”

  “Oh, and why is that?” Mei-Li put a hand on her hip. They were through the narrow metal hallway and in what she supposed was his living room now. It had one large blue-gray couch and plain gray plastic flooring. One wall was taken up by a massive screen bigger than any wide-screen TV she’d ever seen on Earth and there was some kind of huge black cube that looked like electronic equipment in the corner, though it didn’t seem to have any apparent use. Probably it was to play the Z4 equivalent of video games or some other perpetual bachelor hobby.

  “I say you are being illogical because plainly you have allowed yourself to grow an emotional attachment to me—hence your current state of anger and unhappiness that I have no such attachment to you.”

  “Why, you…you egomaniacal, misogynistic—”

  “Furthermore,” he continued, while she was trying to think up even worse things to call him. “You are afraid if we continue to follow the Claiming Contract—as we must—that your emotional attachment will grow and you will have considerable difficulty leaving me at the end of our Claiming Period.”

  “Oh, no… No, I can’t believe you just said that!” Mei-Li was so pissed off now, she was literally seeing red through her fancy new lenses. “You think I can’t be just as detached as you?” she demanded, stalking over to him and reaching up to poke a finger at his broad chest. His exoskeleton hurt her fingertip but she didn’t even care.

  Six folded his arms over his broad chest, his face impassive.

  “Honestly? No, I do not. I have heard from reliable sources that a female Feeler cannot give her body without also giving her heart, as the saying goes. I do not believe you will be an exception to this.”

  “So you think I don’t want to do the…contract sex things with you because I’m afraid I’ll fall in love with you?”

  He frowned. “Falling in love? Is that what Feelers call it? Falling seems an odd way to describe an emotional attachment.”

  “Listen, you big jerk,” Mei-Li snarled. “The point is, I can be just as cold and unfeeling and uncaring as you can—even colder!”

  He raised an eyebrow at her. “Meaning you can follow through with the Claiming Contract without forming an emotional attachment? Without ‘falling in love?’”

  “Absolutely—I can hit it and quit it with the best of them,” Mei-Li declared, lifting her chin. “And to prove it, I think we need a little modification in this contract.”

  He frowned. “We must follow it to the letter, you know that. There is no legal room for leeway.”

  “I’m not saying we should leave anything out—I’m saying we should put some things in,” Mei-Li snapped.
In the back of her mind, a little voice was trying to tell her she was being rash—that her mouth was writing checks her ass would eventually be legally required to cash and that wasn’t what she wanted. But she was so angry she couldn’t seem to stop.

  “Add some things in? What do you mean?” Six asked.

  “I mean that stupid contract is all about what you can do to me. It’s the most misogynistic piece of crap I’ve ever seen and I wish to God I would have read it over before I signed it,” she said, glaring up at him.

  “Your point being?” He raised an eyebrow again.

  “My point being that anything you can do to me, I ought to get to do to you. All this…this bathing and oiling and rubbing and, uh…and tasting…” Her voice trailed off for a moment as she realized exactly what she was saying. But it was too late, Six had already taken the bait.

  “All right,” he said nodding. “I believe you have a valid point. I will agree to your demands.”

  “Um, you…you will?” she asked, weakly.

  “Most certainly,” he said mildly. “And further, I will apologize for saying that you would be unable to complete the contract with me without forming an emotional attachment. Your determination to follow through on our legal obligations without becoming emotionally involved—without ‘falling in love’—is clearly an extension of that spirit which I so admire in you.”

  “Uh…thank you.” Mei-Li tried to feel triumphant but instead all she felt was sick. What had she just agreed to do? Had she really just doubled her sexy-times ratio with the big Kindred out of a stupid, misplaced sense of pride?

  You idiot! screamed the little voice in her head which had been trying to get her attention before. You just agreed to do all kinds of crazy, kinky sex and you put it in the form of a challenge so neither one of you can back down. Take it back—take it back right now before it’s too late!

  She opened her mouth to do just that but Six was looking at her steadily with an expression of almost admiration on his chiseled features. Clearly he respected her now, whereas he hadn’t earlier. As stupid and prideful as it was, Mei-Li didn’t want to lose that respect. She wanted him to think of her as an equal and the only way he would do that was if she held her ground.

  Besides, she told herself. Who says I can’t do this—who says I can’t do the deed and be cold about it afterwards?

  Will you listen to yourself? demanded the little voice. You’ve never even had a one night stand! You don’t know how to “hit it and quit it” and where the hell did that come from, anyway? Did you send your brain on vacation to the 90s?

  Well I have to try now, she told herself stubbornly. And who knows what might happen? Six thinks he’s so cold—that he has no emotions at all. But then why has he been acting the way he acts? Maybe there’s more to him than he admits—than he even knows. Maybe I can bring it out.

  Maybe she would be the one to thaw his cold heart and have him groveling at her feet, admitting his love by the end of the nine days they had together…

  Mei-Li sighed to herself. Right. Somehow she doubted that.

  Nine days, she reminded herself. I only have to get through nine days of this and then I can go home.

  Nine days. How in the world was she ever going to make it?

  Chapter Seventeen

  Six decided that he would let the water in the bathing pool cool a little before inviting her to join him. To tell the truth, he needed to relax and let the hot water ease some of the tension in his muscles before he and Mei-Li formally began their second week together.

  Who knew that a Claiming could be so mentally exhausting? Just as he’d begun to think he was starting to understand her emotions, they changed and then changed again. She had been very upset with him—even angry if he was reading her correctly—and their last exchange had been colored with discord. Six found he didn’t like that—he especially didn’t like being the cause of her distress.

  He knew that he shouldn’t care how she felt—that it shouldn’t disturb him in the least, but somehow it did. If he hadn’t known that his emotion damper was working perfectly he would have been concerned. But he had been given a clean bill of emotional health—or the lack thereof—from Yipper so he refused to entertain the worries that had consumed his mind earlier. Still, the fact remained that he disliked being at odds with Mei-Li.

  I am not at odds with her anymore, he reminded himself. She has consented to repress her emotions and act in a more logical manner. In exchange for equal rights during their Claiming Contract proscribed erotic activities, of course, which Six was happy to concede to her.

  He closed his eyes for a moment and sank deeper into the steaming water, imagining how it would be to have her small, soft hands on his body. How it would feel if she kissed him again and he felt the press of her small, perfect breasts against his chest…

  Beneath the water, his shaft began to grow and harden. Gods, just the thought of her brought on a powerful physical response! She was so beautiful and so complex, like a puzzle he needed to solve. But why did he feel the need to solve it?

  “Ah-hem.”

  The soft, embarrassed sound caught him off guard. His eyes flew open and his hand, which had been about to slide under the water to grasp his heated shaft, curled into a fist.

  “Mei-Li.” He tried to speak softly but his voice came out sounding rough and too deep.

  “Um, hi.” She was just standing there, wrapped in a too-large bathing sheet which covered her from her chest to her knees. But it was clear she was bare beneath it which made Six’s shaft throb again. Gods, had he really been about to touch himself? He never did that—there was no need for physical release when there were no emotions to engender such a response to stimuli. And yet, as he watched Mei-Li, the need inside him to find relief did not die. If anything, it grew.

  “Are you here for the first night of our bathing week activities?” he asked, trying to make his voice sound more normal this time.

  She nodded. “I figured we, uh, might as well get down to it. But I guess you got the jump on me.” Her eyes flickered over his nude form, half submerged in the water and he saw her cheeks go red.

  “If you are made uncomfortable by my nudity, I can find a garment to wear in the water,” he offered, hoping he was reading her emotions correctly.

  “What, like a pair of swim trunks?” She shook her head. “No, that’s silly. I mean, it’s called the bathing week, not the swimming week—right?”

  “That is true,” Six conceded, wondering where she was going with this line of reasoning.

  “So then we should just…just get to the bathing of…um, of each other.” She took a deep breath and lifted her chin. “And I’m fine with that—really I am.”

  Six wondered if she was trying to convince herself or him. Her cheeks were still flushed and her eyes were bright and uncertain but her chin was high and there was a look of determination on her lovely face. Again he felt a flash of admiration for her. Plainly this situation made her uncomfortable—yet she was not backing down from it at all. Instead, she was confronting her emotions head on and overcoming them. She was not allowing them to rule her.

  Six had never considered that such a thing might be possible. In his mind, a Feeler would always be swayed by his or her emotional responses. But Mei-Li wasn’t acting in that manner at all—a fact which only increased his respect for her.

  But though she wasn’t running away, she was still wrapped in the towel and standing on the edge of the bathing pool instead of swimming towards him. What could be the matter?

  “Would you care to join me?” he asked politely, hoping to set her more at ease.

  “Not really but I’m going to.” She took a deep breath. “Oh, God—that really came out wrong. It’s not that I don’t want to, uh, take a bath with you. It’s just that I’m nervous and I have body issues.”

  Six frowned. “Body issues?”

  “Yes, you know—like I’m too fat, I’m too thin, my behind is too big or too small or too round or
too flat. My boobs aren’t big enough…” She nodded down at her chest ruefully. “Body issues. All girls have them.”

  “But you have no need for such concerns,” Six said, honestly puzzled at her worries. “I have seen you in nothing more than your thin white sleeping gown and I can assure you that your body is lovely. Also, as I have said before, your breasts are perfect.”

  “Um…” Mei-Li’s cheeks got even redder and she coughed. “Thank you. That’s…it’s good to know you think so.”

  “I do,” Six said softly. “So why do you not join me? I find myself…quite eager for your companionship.”

  She raised an eyebrow at him. “Companionship? That’s why you want me naked in this bathtub pool thing you’ve got going here?”

  Six cleared his throat. “I will confess, it is not the only reason. I am also looking forward to touching your bare skin. Under the laws of the contract, I am allowed to wash you everywhere—including your beautiful breasts and your soft little pussy. I…I find myself longing to do that. No—burning to do it. I…” He took a deep breath. “I want you quite badly, Mei-Li.”

  It felt strange to admit such a thing aloud but Six told himself if she could be honest about her emotions, he could be just as honest about his physical reaction to her. She deserved to know the effect she had on him.

  Her cheeks went an even darker pink but she lifted her chin. “Isn’t that—what you’re describing—an emotion?”

  “Merely a physical response to your beauty,” he assured her. “Which would be greatly intensified by seeing you without the bathing sheet wrapped around you.”

  “You mean…like this?” Her voice was high and breathy as she unwound the white piece of material from around herself and dropped it on the ground.

  Six sucked in a breath. Gods, she was exquisite! From the long, silky black hair brushing her shoulders to her small, lovely breasts with their dark, pouting nipples to the small thatch of neatly trimmed black curls at the apex of her thighs she was perfect. She was small and so delicate that he feared his might break her and yet all he wanted to do was take her in his arms and kiss her with the utmost care and passion. He wanted to touch her and hear the soft, breathless sounds she made when she was feeling pleasure—and he wanted to be the cause of that pleasure.