“No. You could choose not to sell it that way, not to package it that way, but the inherent ability to manipulate memory is tied into every single bit of that tech, Nina. And I don’t have faith that whoever decides to sell it wouldn’t also have a back door to people willing to pay even more to figure out a way to control huge portions of the population. I can’t allow the risk of that. That tech, as-is, has done enough damage to enough people.”
Nina frowned. “You talk like somehow it’s your responsibility, all of that.”
For a moment, he didn’t answer her. Then he shook his head again and turned away from her. His shoulders hunched briefly before he straightened. One hand on the mantel, he turned to give her his profile.
“I can’t explain it to you. I wish I could.”
“Me, too.” She waited for him to say more, and when he didn’t, she decided to let it go. She’d thought, for a few minutes, that they were on their way to nudging this uneasy friendship into something steadier. Clearly, she’d been wrong.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Nina had not gone back to reading her book. Instead, she’d moved to the bank of shelving below the living room windows. If everything he’d told her had shocked or upset her, she wasn’t showing it. She was strong in more ways than just physically, Ewan thought, again with admiration.
What had been so important and awful was the question she’d asked him. The truth was that he couldn’t afford for her to know it, and he would never allow her to be reset on his behalf, because if anyone was able to link him to the original tech, they would come after him and not merely with death threats. Ewan had never worked directly with torture tech, but he knew how well it could work. They would use it on him and force him to hand over the existing enhancement tech upgrades, and he could not allow that.
“I haven’t seen one of these in . . . well, I haven’t ever,” Nina admitted as she bent to look at the wooden cabinet and the record player inside it. She glanced over her shoulder at him with a small grin. “Wow. This is a real museum piece.”
She was clearly changing the subject, but that was fine with him. Ewan moved next to her so he could look over the selection of vinyl albums in their cardboard sleeves. He plucked one free, turning it over in his hands to look at both sides. Pink Floyd, The Wall. “It’s been here as long as I can remember. Should we play this one?”
“I’ve heard of that. I can’t say I’ve ever listened to any of the songs. It’s a movie, too, isn’t it? They show it on the viddy stream sometimes, on the classic channel.” She cocked a hip and shifted to look at the album, leaving Ewan very aware of her body heat and the brush of her hip against his.
“Yeah, it’s a classic.” Another album caught his eye and he tucked The Wall back into its place on the shelf. He took out another. Slow Groove Hits of the Sixties. “This would be the nineteen sixties, not the twenty sixties.”
“Obviously.” She laughed and gestured at the album. “Put it on. Let’s hear it.”
Ewan slid the record from the sleeve. He could remember his great-grandmother using the record player, but not exactly how to turn it on. He figured it out in a few minutes, setting the arm on the spinning vinyl disc and stepping back at the crackling noise coming from speakers set discreetly in the walls all around the room.
The slow beat wasn’t at all familiar, nor were the words, but the feeling of the music brought back memories that had him standing in the center of the room for a minute or so with his eyes closed. Swaying a bit. When he opened them, Nina was staring at him curiously.
“My great-grandmother,” Ewan explained. “This must have been one of her favorites. She listened to it a lot. I can remember coming here to stay with her in the summers, and she’d pull this out and play it. My mom would laugh and remind her that she could stream music more easily than by using the old player, but Gigi would only shake her head and say that nothing sounded as good as vinyl.”
Nina cocked her head, listening to the music. “Gigi, is that what you called her?”
“Yeah. G, g for great-grandmother.” One song ended and the next began. “I remember this one, too.”
Nina held out her hand. “Wanna dance?”
“I already told you, I can’t dance,” Ewan protested even as he let her snag his fingers in the cuff of her grip. “Seriously. . . .”
“Trust me, it’s easy.” She turned them both so they faced each other. “Think of it like running, one foot in front of the other. Just much slower.”
Ewan let her pull him a little closer. The hand linked with his gripped, while her other one went to his shoulder. His free hand fell naturally to the curving place on her hip. He’d danced before, of course, even if he’d been bad at it. This was different, somehow.
Like everything else was different because it was with Nina.
Smiling, she drew him closer. In minutes she was nestled against him, his cheek pressed to the soft brush of her dark hair. They found a rhythm, moving in perfect time to the words and music of a song that had been popular long ago yet felt exactly right just then.
He felt rather than heard her speak against him, and he pulled back far enough that he could say, “Hmm?”
He couldn’t have known Nina meant to kiss him until she did; once her lips pressed his, there seemed no way he could have ever thought she meant to do anything else. Her tongue slid against his. He breathed her in.
They danced.
The music stopped, but in the silence they kept moving. Mouths open, tongues searching. Hands roaming. He walked her backward toward the couch where she’d been sleeping all these nights when he was upstairs staring at the ceiling and wishing he wasn’t such an idiot.
Her hands were already on his belt as they fell onto the couch. His moved over her body, his hands touching the complicated set of buckles, straps, and holsters on her harness. He settled his palms on her sides below the leather as they kissed, giving himself a minute or two to adjust to the position.
He’d had his hands on her body before this. Knew she was curvy and firm. What he hadn’t expected were the places on Nina’s body that were also . . . soft. Yielding.
She rolled the two of them so she was on top. Her knees pressed against his hips. She took his lower lip between her teeth, but gently, until he sighed and arched, and she ground herself against his hardness and licked the tiny little spot of pain she’d left behind with her kiss.
“You like that?” She whispered the question into his ear.
“Yes.” For a second he regretted admitting that truth to her, but only a second before she did it again and the bright flare of arousal lit him up inside.
“Take off your shirt,” she whispered.
Ewan hesitated for a second or so before pulling it off over his head and tossing it to the floor. He lay back, his hands running up her sides again. Nina put her palms flat on his bare belly, and his muscles leaped beneath her touch.
“Mmm,” she said. “Yummy.”
“Nobody’s ever said that to me before.” He’d meant to speak aloud, but his voice had dropped to a husky whisper.
Nina nuzzled at his neck, her lips moving on his ear. “What? Yummy? What a shame. Because you. Absolutely. Are. Delicious.”
His heart kicked in his chest as he turned his face toward hers to get at her mouth again. Her fingertips trailed up his ribs, tickling so that he burst into low laughter and wriggled. His hips bucked upward.
Nina laughed, too, but caught at his wrists when he tried to keep her hands from moving against his skin. Ewan arched beneath the touch, not surprised at the strength of her grip but at how his body responded to it so quickly. So fiercely. When she pinned his hands next to his ears, Nina looked just as surprised as he felt.
Ewan stopped struggling immediately at her expression. His tongue slipped out to stroke along his lower lip, and her gaze caught the motion. She stared, then looked into his eyes. Her pupils had gone wide and dark. Her lips were wet; she’d also licked her mouth in an imitation of his motion.
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“No,” he said, when she started to sit up, releasing his wrists. “I mean . . .”
She bent to take his mouth again. Hard. Her lips bruised his, pressing them against his teeth. He gave her his tongue, and she took it between her teeth. The pain was sharp, bright but brief, and it sent a surge of arousal all through him that left his cock aching. Balls tight and throbbing.
She didn’t draw blood. The bite had been short. She sucked his tongue gently after it, then feathered her kisses over his lips as he strained upward, seeking more. She let go of his wrists. He put his arms around her, running his fingertips down the line of her spine to settle at the small of her back. He pushed upward again with his cock, nudging between her legs.
She took a mouthful of his neck between her teeth. Again, he arched under her touch, at the pain, at her strength. She licked the spot she’d bitten. Without moving, she murmured into his ear, “Take off your pants.”
She lifted her body so he could comply as she did the same, both of them working quickly and with a little struggle to get naked. Even with her gear, she was faster than him. She helped him kick off his pants when they tangled around his ankles, but in seconds she was straddling him again. Skin on skin. Her heat sent waves of desire roiling through him. He’d never been so hard in his life.
Nina sat up. Her knees gripped his sides. His cock slid between her thighs and along her center. She wasn’t looking at it. She kept her gaze on his as her fingernails dug lightly into the tender spots just over his hips.
Ewan groaned, thrusting upward. The motion shifted his erection against her, and Nina shuddered. Her head fell back, and she tugged her hair free from its standard braid. She shook it free so her glorious black curls tumbled all over her dark shoulders and down her back. She rocked against him, and it felt so good he had to let out another long, low moan.
She focused on him. The sly twist of her smile was the sexiest thing he’d ever seen. When she leaned forward to cup his chin in her hand, fingers squeezing gently but with the promise of more force, Ewan thrust his cock against her. It would take only the smallest shift to get him inside her, but he waited.
“Open,” she whispered with a tug at his lower lip.
He did. With a muttered noise, Nina bent to kiss him again. Hard at first, with her hand sliding behind his head to cup the back of his neck. Then softer, teasing, flicking her tongue along his lips while he strained to get at her mouth for more. All the while, she rocked against him, her slick heat embracing him but never quite letting him inside.
When he moved as though to slide his hands up to cup her bare breasts, teasing his chest so tantalizingly, Nina chuckled into his mouth and circled his wrists with her fingers again. Her grip wasn’t hard enough to keep him still, not if he struggled, but with a chuckle of his own, Ewan complied.
With Nina, there was something so powerful about letting her be in charge. When she nibbled at his chin and throat, moving lower with her teeth and tongue, he moved in automatic reaction and was reminded to stay still by another gentle squeeze of her fingers. In the next moment, she bit harder. Fiercer. Her grip on his wrists tightened when he arched.
“Too much?” she whispered into his ear.
Ewan shook his head. “No.”
She quieted against him, her breathing rhythmic, soft and tickling. Without letting go of his wrists, Nina shifted, lifting her body and easing the tip of him inside her. When he tried to move, to push deeper, she squeezed her thighs on his hips.
“Shh,” she said into his ear. “Wait.”
He wasn’t sure he could. She was torturing him, using her body to tease and taunt. His entire body shook with the effort of not simply slamming into her.
Slowly, too slowly, with agonizing delicacy, Nina slipped him deeper inside her. Inch by inch, pausing each time, her mouth on his. She took his tongue again, the bite stinging but not hurting, although there was the promise of agony that should have turned him off and instead sent boiling waves of desire coursing through him.
At last she had seated him inside her to the hilt, but she didn’t move. Her kisses eased, sweet again. She let go of his hands with unspoken permission that he could touch her, and with a groan Ewan took hold of her hips as she finally, blessedly, allowed him to thrust upward inside her.
Nina pushed up enough to look into his face. Her skin had flushed, and fine tendrils of hair clung to her forehead and cheeks with sweat. Her lips parted on a sigh that sounded like his name.
They moved together, in sync, as easily as water flowing. Ewan slid his hand between them so his knuckles could press against her. She shuddered and kissed him again, over and over.
He’d been with women in the past who hadn’t mattered enough to him to make the effort of getting them off. He’d been with others whose bodies had been an enigma, impossible to earn a reaction from. As with everything else about her, Nina was different. He needed to give her pleasure almost more than he desired it for himself, but more importantly, he didn’t have to guess how to give it to her, because she told him exactly how she wanted it.
“Yes, yes, that. Right there,” she murmured into his ear and took the lobe between her teeth to make him hiss and fuck upward while he kept his hand placed just right between them. “Oh, fuck, yes. That’s it. Keep going.”
Her voice, her words, the heat and slickness of her body clutching his cock, everything was enough to send him over, but she hadn’t come yet and there was no way he was going to finish before her. There’d been elements of power exchange in this relationship from the first minute he’d met her, but instead of feeling as though he’d given something up, Ewan let Nina’s control run through him like a current. Sparking. Every tensing of her muscles, every sigh, every shift, every single kiss, taught him how to keep her moving toward the pleasure they both sought.
He paid attention to her. Listening. Feeling. The tender internal flutter of her body surrounding his aching hardness teased him closer and closer even as it proved to him she was also on the way.
She started to shake. Her kiss, open-mouthed, sipping at his breath, urged him to thrust a little harder. Deeper. He rubbed at her in slow, steady circles, until she cried out his name and words of praise, of delight, of ecstasy.
And there, at last, he felt the clench and throb of her orgasm. Nina’s eyes opened as though she were startled. Her hands had been on his sides, and now her nails dug in deep to his tender flesh as she ground against him.
“Now,” she breathed. “With me.”
He wanted to keep his eyes open to watch her, so proud and powerful and beautiful as she came, but his own climax hit him so hard all he could do was ride it. His eyes closed. His mouth opened. His hands found her back as he pulled her close, his fingers buried in the thickness of her hair.
She said his name into the kiss, and he answered with hers. Then again when she shivered at the sound of it. The flavor of her name in his mouth sent another surge of pleasure through him.
Spent, all he could do was hold her afterward. She’d snuggled into his neck, saying nothing. His arms went around her, holding her close. He didn’t want to say anything and ruin the moment.
The truth was, Ewan had no idea what to say.
Nina did it for him. She wriggled and pushed upward to brush another kiss over his lips. “Wow. That was great. Thank you.”
Before Ewan could say anything, she’d moved off him, grabbing up his shirt from the floor to use for cleanup. He pushed up on an elbow to watch her as she strode effortlessly to the kitchen to draw a glass of water, which she sipped from as she returned to the couch. She offered him a drink.
He took the glass and sat. “Thanks.”
He didn’t know what to do after that but sip the cool water, which he had to admit, he’d needed. With the fire going and their exertions, both of them were sweating. When Nina curled her fingers around the back of his neck, Ewan paused in drinking to look at her.
She leaned toward him, but although he thought she meant to ki
ss him again, she pressed her forehead to his. She traced a hand over the faint crescent moons on his ribs from where her fingernails had gouged him. She looked into his eyes, but said nothing. Ewan kissed her, his hand flat over hers to hold it to the places where she’d so tenderly injured him.
Again, he thought she might speak. Or he thought he should, except there didn’t seem to be anything to say. This time when she pushed away from him, he watched her grace and strength as she bent to gather her clothes. After a moment, he did the same with his.
“It’s late,” Ewan said finally when Nina didn’t speak. “I’m going to bed . . .”
He waited to see if she made any movement to follow him upstairs, but naked except for her panties, she started to take the cushions off the couch on which they’d so recently been writhing and moaning. “Nina.”
She turned. “Hmm?”
“Do you think it would be . . . safer . . .” Ewan said with a glance upward.
Her small and secret smile told him she knew his game, but was willing to play it. “If you’d feel better with me beside you . . .”
“I would,” he said at once.
Her smile smoothed but remained in her eyes as she nodded. “I’ll be right up.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
She had woken before him to the first pale, cold light of morning streaming through the attic bedroom’s small window. Nina could not remember the last time she’d slept so deeply, or came awake with such disorientation. She’d opened her eyes, dozy and warm, snuggled against Ewan so that she’d been the big spoon, and it had taken her several deep in-and-out breaths before she could figure out where she was . . . and who she was with.
If someone had come into the house, breaking in while they slept and creeping up the stairs to assault them in their shared bed beneath the sloping eaves, Nina knew she’d have woken out of whatever depths of sleep she’d sunk into. She would have protected and defended her client as fiercely as necessary, and chances were very good she would have slaughtered any attacker even while she was still half-asleep.