Relava took in his entire length, then let him slide almost all the way out. Then she got down to the rhythm of sucking him off. Her hand slipped up to cup his balls, and her thumb stroked him along the line of skin between his anus and testicles. Eddie’s jaw clenched.
It is harder for the male Ops than for the female. Women are just naturally better at separating themselves from what their bodies are being asked to do. It’s probably a defense trait to cope with things like menstruation and childbirth. Since becoming mecho, I am unable to do either one.
What Relava lacked in creativity she made up for in enthusiasm, aided by her hand between her legs. She lifted her rear in the air while she put her fingers inside herself and busily masturbated. She was already moaning. Her buttocks flexed as she moved against her hand. The cry she made was muffled with her mouth still wrapped around Eddie’s cock, but still audible. She’d had another orgasm. I sat up straighter in my chair, watching for signs Eddie might need help in subduing her.
“Now I’m going to perform sexual intercourse with you.” Eddie motioned for Relava turn around. “We’re going to begin in the male from behind position.”
Relava’s eyes were glazed. She still smiled. Now the skin on her face jumped and ticked, still in a way that untrained eyes would pass off as flirtatious expression. To me it boded trouble.
Now Relava faced me on her hands and knees, with Eddie behind her. He took a breath, probably to clear his head, then pushed his length into her. Even though she’d had two previous orgasm, Relava let out another low moan of pleasure. She couldn’t help it. She was programmed to love fucking.
Eddie put his hands on her hips and set up a slow, teasing pattern of strokes that had Relava quickly pushing herself back against him. Eddie maintained the pace, but after a few moments, it no longer mattered. She went into overdrive.
She put her head down low, so I could only see the top of her head. Now she flung her head back so fast and far the white curve of her throat met my gaze. Maybe she was trying to speak, or to scream. What came out of her was a hideous, low grinding, the sound of rusty gears gone too long without oil. Relava’s back hunched even as she continued to thrust herself on and off Eddie’s erection. Her body shuddered as her hands clenched the sheets so hard they came off the bed.
Eddie looked grim, and sweat broke out on his forehead. “She’s going over.”
“You got it?”
He nodded. “She’s in clenchdown.”
“You’re in for a helluva ride, Eddie.”
Clenchdown was an unfortunate autoresponse to an ignition on the fritz. She’d clenched her pussy down so tightly on Eddie’s cock he wouldn’t be able to pull out until she finished…or was inactivated.
We’d trained for this lots of times, but it’s different in real life. In training, you know you’re not going to get hurt. In the field, nothing is monitored. Nothing is safe. This bot could ride Eddie until he broke and then keep fucking his corpse for hours. Or she could just constrict his dick so forcibly she popped it off like a cherry from its stem. Either prospect wasn’t pretty.
Eddie barely flinched. The muscles on his arms stood out as he gripped her pounding hips. “I’m going to try and get her to come. Maybe she’ll calm down.”
“Or maybe she’ll get even more fired up.” I patted my stunner. “I’ll cover you.”
“Thanks, G.” Now his voice revealed some of the strain he was under. Agony and ecstasy warred on his face for a moment before he smoothed his features again. “She’s a wild one.”
Relava bucked against him. Her smile never faded. Her hair had begun to tangle from all the head tossing.
Eddie reached around and found her clitoris with his index and middle fingers. The instant he touched her there, Relava yelped and shuddered. He pressed against her again, and she came again. Her hips never stopped moving, thrusting against him, pulling him in and out of her. Fucking him in overdrive.
“She’s not stopping,” I said. Watching her still fascinated me.
Eddie shot me a glance that said he knew damn well she wasn’t stopping. He grabbed both her hips again. His own thrusts were becoming ragged.
“I’m close,” he muttered through gritted teeth.
“Really?” I was surprised at first, then not. Relava was really giving him a ride. He wouldn’t be human if he didn’t get off on it.
Eddie gave me another one of his looks. “When I’m done, you pull her off.”
We’d have a few scant seconds when Eddie’s semen might override the clenchdown. Pleasurebots are programmed to release at the presence of ejaculate. I wasn’t hopeful this one would. She was too far gone.
It shouldn’t have been sexy to see Eddie being fucked like crazy by a bot out of her mind. But it was. Any man on the verge of orgasm looks totally hot. The way his eyes closed, as though he couldn’t keep them open. The way his mouth thinned as he tried not to moan. His chest muscles rippled, followed by the hard, smooth planes of his abdomen. A man this close to coming is sheer perfection.
I positioned myself at their sides and wrapped my arm around Relava’s waist. Her skin was hot, practically burning up. She rolled her hips, probably trying to arch her clit toward my fingers, but I wasn’t cooperating. I held her harder.
Eddie made a familiar, low noise. I glanced over my shoulder. He was going to come.
When he growled, I yanked. At first, nothing happened except that Relava and Eddie both hollered at the same time. I yanked again. Relava and I both flew forward and ended up in a tangled heap on the floor. I was up in an instant, but she didn’t move. She remained, crumpled and twitching. The strong stench of ozone and something burning filled the room. She was smiling.
“I’ve got her secured,” I called back to Eddie, as I slipped the stuncuffs loosely over her wrists. She didn’t move. “But…I think she’s done.”
Eddie wiped himself clean and got dressed with swift efficiency. “We’ll have to take her in.”
I nodded. “Another life saved.”
He punched me lightly on the shoulder. “Better me than some poor, unsuspecting sucker, right?”
“Yeah.”
I watched Relava stir. Coherence returned to her eyes, and she looked at her bound wrists.
“Okay,” she said. She’d stopped smiling.
Chapter Seven
Whatever passivity had been programmed into Relava’s nature was quickly overcome by the instinct of self-preservation. As soon as Eddie and took her out of the Inspection station, she ran. I’m ashamed to say she caught me by surprise, but my thoughts were of the seeing Declan that night and not on making sure the bot in my custody didn’t escape.
Before we even got to the pedtread, Relava drove her stiletto heel into the side of Eddie’s calf. Our boots are designed to prevent such injuries to our feet, but she got him just above the top of the boot. Right in the muscle. With a curse that echoed off the buildings around us, Eddie went down. She didn’t wait to see if I’d help him or go after her; she just took off.
A human woman running with bound hands and wearing stiletto shoes would’ve tripped herself and fallen in moments. Relava, however, had the advantage of permanently arched feet and perfect balance. She also had the advantage of never tiring.
I left Eddie writhing and bitching on the sidewalk and ran after her. My feet had to slap the pavement twice as fast as hers just to catch up, but I’m in shape—and I’m mecho. I have enough tendon and sinew made from indefatigable materials to keep me going longer than unenhanced citizens.
Relava, however, had me beat. Her break was so unexpected she had the time to get a good head start, and desperation fueled her. She dodged through the growing crowd as we crossed Districts. Hardly anyone looked twice at the half-clad, stuncuffed woman fleeing in their midst, though I got a few sideways glances as I passed. I couldn’t get close enough to her to use my stunner.
She zigged, and then she zagged, and ducked into an alleyway I’d never have noticed if she hadn’t shown m
e with her flight. The crowd parted, but barely, and only when I screamed at them to move, move, move! By the time I got to the alley myself, Relava had disappeared.
I couldn’t even hear the sound of her feet pounding the pavement. I looked up, thinking she might have crawled up one of the concrete walls, but still saw no sign. Wherever she’d hidden herself, it was good.
“Damn.” I put my stunner back in its loop on my belt and rubbed my temples. I was going to have a helluva headache when Rando got wind of this.
By the time I exited the alley, Eddie had managed to limp up. Blood stained the navy uniform a dark violet. He’d wrapped a strip of bandaging from his first aid pack around his leg, and the blood there was bright red against the cream gauze. Seeing the blood and Eddie’s murderous expression, the crowd gave us a wide berth.
“She got away?” Eddie asked.
“Yeah.” I jerked my thumb toward the alley. “Down there.”
He peered over my shoulder down the shadowy corridor. “Ahhh, Rando’s going to have a field day with this one. We messed up, G.”
I nodded. “We didn’t know she’d run, Eddie.”
He gave me a look. “You think Rando’s going to care?”
“No.” I urged him away from the main traffic area and closer to the wall. “Let me look at the wound.”
He leaned against the building, and I bent to lift his trouser leg. The puncture her heel had made was deep and nasty looking. It had already begun to clot. It needed more attention than a sloppy bandage.
“We need to get you to a medstation.”
Eddie shook his head. The crowd’s curiosity had passed, and people moved in front of us on their way to the pedtread without a backward glance. Attending to their own business, like good Newcitizens.
Eddie shook his head. “We need to find that bot and take her in to a repair station. If we don’t, Rando is going to go nuclear on us.”
“We’re not the only Ops to lose a bot, Eddie.”
“That’s the point, G. Rando is furious with this coming on the heels of those Ops using the Inspection Stations for private assignations. The whole Academy is coming under fire for incompetence, and she’s not going to let her department have any slack.”
He was right. I unsnapped my own medkit from my belt and took out the tube of antibacterial gel and a fresh pad of gauze. I peeled off the bloody bandage and ignored Eddie’s muttered curses when the material stuck to his skin. Then I cleaned and rebandaged the wound. I couldn’t do anything about his bloodied uniform leg, which had already begun to stiffen.
He must’ve been feeling better, because he gave me a lascivious grin when I got to my feet. “It’s been a long time since I saw you kneeling at my feet like that. Maybe you should get back down there.”
“Dream on, Eddie.” I smiled. “You couldn’t handle me anymore.”
He put a hand to his heart and made a fake grimace. “Ooh, that hurts.”
“You’ll get over it.” I repacked my medkit and used a squirt of alcohol gel to clean my hands. “Where do you think she went?”
Eddie reached down to rub his leg, then straightened. “I’m guessing she went to ground. That’s what they usually do.”
That meant making the rounds of the kennels. It would take hours. We didn’t have much choice. If we went back to the patrol station without an arrest to report, Rando would have our heads.
“Check her stats. See where she’s registered,” I said.
Eddie glanced over the small viddy screen she’d left behind. Then he let out another muffled curse. “She’s regged in every District in Sector 1.”
Bots in public service often did that so they could’ve a broader home range. Since they couldn’t go more than forty-eight hours without returning to a kennel for recharging, registering in more Districts gave them more flexibility. The problem was, Newcity has one hundred Districts. Each District can have anywhere from ten to fifteen kennels, depending on its size.
“We could get lucky,” I offered. “Find her in the first one.”
Eddie lifted his leg and shook it at me. “Do you feel lucky? I don’t.”
The good mood I’d been nursing all day slowly dissipated when I realized how long this search was probably going to take. Suddenly, I didn’t feel so lucky either.
It made sense to start with the kennels closest to where I’d lost her, but Eddie and I didn’t think Relava would’ve sought shelter there. She was a bot on the run. Her sense of self-preservation would’ve sent her as far from the perceived threat, us, as she could get before she had to recharge. That meant we had to head over to District 56 first.
“We don’t have time to pedtread, G.”
I nodded and tried to pretend my stomach hadn’t just leaped into my throat. “I’ll be fine.”
“I’ll try to get one that doesn’t go too fast.”
“Eddie.” I shot him a look. “The only hovertaxis that don’t go fast are the ones ready to break down. I think I’ll take my chances on the speed.”
He patted my shoulder. “You’ll be okay.”
I forced a cocky grin I didn’t feel. “Hell, yeah.”
The truth was, I couldn’t ride in a hovercraft without breaking into a sweat. My hands shook, my throat constricted, panic set in until I thought I might faint. I avoided them whenever I could.
“At least we don’t have to follow her Offworld.” I made a feeble attempt at a joke. I couldn’t even get in an outer atmospheric vehicle. I went practically catatonic from terror. I’d undergone three years of counseling, only for the therapist to determine my “irrational” fear of motorized craft stemmed from my accident on Solaria. No shit. I quit therapy and used the pedtread.
Eddie hailed a passing hovertaxi. As soon as I saw its distinctive blue and green stripes, I had to swallow. Hard. Nausea warred with the cold sweats to overpower me. I fought them both back with a series of mental exercises Kaelyn had taught me. They helped…a little.
“District 56.” Eddie paused to read Relava’s records. “Brenda Kitten’s SexKennel.”
The driver, a bald Nivian with tattooed, bulging arms, looked over his shoulder. “Fare in advance.”
Eddie and I slid up our sleeves to show him our own tattoos. Meager in comparison to his plethora of inkings, but more powerful. He gave me a smirk and turned back to the controls.
“Sorry, officers,” he said. “Didn’t recognize you.”
“Submit a bill to Department 42,” Eddie said. “You’ll be reimbursed.”
“Yeah, yeah,” the driver said. “I know the drill.”
I couldn’t say anything at all. I concentrated on my exercises. Breathe in. Hold. Breathe out. Hold. Picture a lovely place, a happy place. Breathe in. Breathe out. What worked like a charm for the Elovenians required a lot more work from me.
With a whir that dropped my stomach from my throat to my toes, the hovertaxi lifted. It moved smoothly into the stream of traffic, and I was grateful for that.
We got to Brenda Kitten’s SexKennel with no incidents. Eddie held my hand, tight, the entire way. He’s a great partner, but he’s a better friend.
If the Nivian thought anything strange about two Ops holding hands like love-struck teeners, he didn’t say anything. His gaze met mine in the rearview mirror, and he nodded, almost imperceptibly. When he lowered the craft to its resting place, he spoke.
“Must’ve been a real bad accident.”
I shouldn’t have been startled. Nivians know better than anyone else about the aftereffects of accidents. They are, after all, a race that prides itself on scars.
“It was.”
He nodded again. “You take care, now.”
His sincere comment took me aback for a moment. “Thanks.”
I watched him for a minute as he sped away. When did people start surprising me again?
Brenda Kitten’s wasn’t one of the fanciest kennels I’d ever seen, but it was clean and well-run. Brenda herself met us at the front desk. Her eyes flickered at our uniforms
and our tatbadges, but she didn’t try to stop us from entering.
“I ain’t seen her,” she did say. “You can look, but she ain’t here.”
We didn’t take her word for it. Eddie and I went down the dim corridor and searched the communal dressing area. The room was quiet. All Pleasurebots are programmed for small talk and idle chatter—but when they’re alone they don’t bother. They have nothing to talk about with each other. Several units sat in front of the dressing table mirrors, and others rifled through closets of sexy outfits. Though the room had several comfortable couches, the only bots who sat on them were those putting on their shoes.
Eddie cornered an auburn-haired PSSY 75 struggling into a latex dress. “We’re looking for one of your sisters.”
She stopped struggling long enough to look at the holophoto in Relava’s ID unit. “Sorry.”
Eddie tapped her shoulder through the thin dress. “Look again.”
The bot gave the picture an even less impressed look, if that were possible. “She’s a Passion Model.”
“We know that,” I told her.
Eddie wasn’t so patient. “Just look at the holo.”
She gave it a third, equally uninterested glance. “I think I did a ménage with her last week.”
I put a hand on Eddie’s arm to prevent him from losing his temper. “We need to know if you’ve seen her today.”
“No.” The PSSY 75 went back to smoothing the material of her dress over her thighs. “But she could be in one of the booths.”
After the violently orgasmic half an hour she’d spent with us, Relava would definitely need recharging. The question was, had she chosen Brenda Kitten’s kennel to do it in?
All kennels are laid out the same way. From the communal dressing area, several corridors branched off. One led to a bathing room, with multiple shower heads and minor repair facilities. Pleasurebots don’t eat, so they don’t need to eliminate—but they do need to bathe. Tables with tools they’d need to fix minor malfunctions and injuries lined one wall. The other corridors, four in the case of Brenda Kitten’s, were lined with a dozen each small doors. Booths. They were the reason these recharging stations had come to be known as kennels. Walking down the row of booths was just like walking through the old animal shelters where people used to go to find pets somebody else hadn’t wanted. Dog and cats had become a thing of the past, but people still kept pets. Some of them kept Pleasurebots.