Catch the Lightning by Catherine Asaro Read Free Book Online

stay here tonight? You can sleep on the couch.”
    I shook my head. “Thanks, Nita. But no thanks.” I backed out the door. “ Muchas gracias ."Then I was out in the hall and running to my apartment. It was a relief when I heard her door close.
    Althor was still sitting on the bed. His curiosity tickled my nose like pepper. When I sat next to him, he eased the box out of my clenched hand. He opened it and pulled out a small square of foil, turning it this way and that.
    “What do we do with it?” he asked.
    “When it’s—well, that’s the time. You know. With us and all. That’s when you do the thing.”
    He laughed. “I must be slow tonight. I have no understanding of what you just said.”
    My face burned. “I’ll show you. When it’s time.”
    “All right.” He put the foil back in the box and set it on the floor near the head of the bed. As he turned to me, the tickle of his curiosity faded from my skin. He replaced it with a real tickle, the touch of his finger as he trailed it along my arm to my shoulder, then down my neckline.
    Althor eased us down to lie on the bed. Holding me close, he worked at the laces on my uniform, pulled and pushed, ran his finger over the holes. But he couldn’t get the laces undone. Finally he made a frustrated noise. “Does it come with manual explaining how it works?”
    I laughed, a soft shy sound. Pushing my hand between us, I unfastened the laces. After he pulled off the bodice, and the bustier under it, the cool air raised goose bumps on my breasts. Then it was warm again, as he hugged me. While he worked on my skirt, I fumbled with his vest, having no more luck than he had with my clothes. I found no hooks, snaps, buttons, ties, or anything. My hand just slid over the leather, or what I thought was leather. It was actually a synthetic material designed to insulate against cold and heat.
    He pushed up on his elbow and ran his finger down the front of his vest, popping it open. I had no idea how he did it, but there it was. Or wasn’t. His chest was beautiful, muscles and smooth planes, with a dusting of gold hairs. Strange, though. The aureoles around his nipples glinted in the dim light, more like metal than the rest of his skin. I touched one, expecting it to be cold. But $ wasn’t. It just looked like metal.
    Althor took off all my clothes except the stockings and garter belt. He kept playing with them, not so much as if he had never seen such clothes, but as if he never expected to meet a woman who actually wore them. To me, they were just the impractical blue lace stockings that came with the uniform. I didn’t realize that to him, they were lingerie in a style over three hundred years old.
    Watching him undress almost made me forget how nervous I felt. He was gorgeous. His body was all muscles, wide at the shoulders and narrow at the hips. When he lay down again, I told myself I wasn’t embarrassed. In truth, I was so self-conscious I could hardly think.
    Althor spoke against my ear. “What’s wrong?”
    I blushed. “I’m okay.” Wrapping my arms around his torso, I ran my hands down his spine, from his neck to waist, exploring his muscles, his socket, his—
    His socket?
    Socket. He had a socket. At the base of his spine, just below his waist. I probed the circle with my fingertips. The opening was less than half an inch in diameter.
    Althor kissed my ear. “It’s for a psiphon plug.”
    I had an image of a gas station, attendant siphoning fuel into his body. It was too strange. Then, in the midst of my confused whirl of thoughts, Althor started trying to enter.
    “Wait.” Panicked, I forgot the socket. “Althor, wait. The thing.”
    “This?” He picked up the foil packet from the floor. “You must show me what to do. I have no data on this stored in my memory.”
    His memory? I was making love with a guy who thought he was a computer. I wondered if everyone’s first time was this strange. I still wonder that, actually. Not too many people lose