City Of Tears by Cyndi Friberg Read Free Book Online Page A

heat. She was wet, her desire-soaked uniform dampening the material separating them. “Saebin, you have to wake up. Saebin  —”
    Her knees clasped his hips, her body trembling violently. Heat pulsed from her core, making him gasp and flinch. Did this always happen when she had an orgasm? It would be down right dangerous for her lover. She cried out, and the implant in her hand discharged, the narrow beam drilling a small crater in the floor. Scrambling off him, she ran toward the utility room.
    “Saebin.” He rolled off the bunk and hurried after her.
    “Stay back!” She punctuated the demand with a warning shot that barely missed his thigh.
    Reluctantly, he stopped in the archway as she crossed to the sinks. “Are you all right?”
    She aimed her hand over her shoulder, the threat unmistakable.
    “I’m not leaving until I’m sure you’re —”
    “I’m fine,” she snapped. “Get the hell away from me.”
    He moved back from the archway, sorting through the details as he went. Had he inadvertently triggered the erotic dream? He’d teased her and touched her, perhaps this was the result. She hadn’t known how to respond, so her subconscious took over. That didn’t account for the bursts of heat and the spontaneous discharge of her weapon. A smile curved his mouth. He’d heard sexual release called stranger things.
    When she returned to the main room a short time later, her face was still flushed, and she wouldn’t meet his gaze.
    “Did I hurt you?” she asked, her tone hushed and awkward.
    “Luckily your hand was pointed at the floor. Do you know why this happened?” She glanced at the bunks, her arms folded over her breasts. “Would you rather go back to sleep? We can talk about this in the morning.”
    She shook her head and motioned toward the cupboards. “I’d like some more blish.”
    “Has this sort of thing happened before?” He retrieved the supplies as he spoke … his manner as calm and composed as he could make it. “That seemed like more than just an erotic dream.”
    “I dreamt of my first kill.”
    He paused and looked at her. He’d heard of warriors who went into a lustful frenzy after battle. Had she been conditioned to react that way? “Did you want to make the kill?”
    “No. It was a senseless act.”
    “What made you do it?” He kept his voice low and conversational, while compassion squeezed his heart.
    “I was hungry and …”
    “You were deprived of food by your handler, or you ended the life so you could eat?”
    “My handler utilized a variety of motivations — isolation, starvation, humiliation, and pain.”
    “Those are textbook behavioral control techniques.” Unable to stay the impulse, he lightly touched her arm. “If you’ll let me help you, I can figure out exactly what they did to you and why.”
    “I know what they did to me, and why was never a mystery.”
    What he knew about Saebin only scratched the surface of what she’d endured. Each incident she entrusted to him, each vulnerability she revealed, made him all the more determined to protect her. Whether she wanted one or not, she’d found a friend.
    “Let’s get back to what happened a few minutes ago.” He nodded toward the section of the bench where they’d sat earlier. “I’d love to think you were overcome by my masculine appeal, but you had no trouble shoving me away in the shower.”
    They sat, and she took several sips of blish. Turning her face away, she stared across the room.
    He touched her chin, bringing her head back toward him. “You don’t consider yourself a virgin, yet you’d never been kissed. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to figure out what you’re not telling me.”
    “I was never raped, if that’s what you’re thinking. Pleasure can be used just as ruthlessly as pain.” He continued to stroke her face, tracing her jaw line and the crest of her cheek. Even though he kept his touch light and caressing, he half expected her to retreat. “We were