Rystani Warrior 02 - The Dare by Susan Kearney Read Free Book Online Page A

be the last. He should find a real woman. But he never had time … Besides as a man who’d become accustomed to guarding his privacy from a certain inquisitive computer, he didn’t like leaving clues to his activities behind.
    He helped himself to a shot of rare Maldebaran whiskey. Tossing back the expensive liquor only whetted his appetite to release his tension. Hoping physical satisfaction would banish the fantasies he couldn’t expel from his mind, with one psi thought he altered his suit to transparent, removed the artificial shield on his tavis , and immediately rose to full arousal. Muscles strung taut, he closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, tried not to recall Dora’s sexy tone. And waited.
    The subtle scent of orangeflower struck first, letting him know Xentos had arrived. He opened his eyes to the sight of bronze skin glistening in starlight, her features flawless, her breasts larger than his last visit and making her slender waist seem more narrow. If her perfection spoiled him for other women, he cared not. If she wasn’t real, he cared not. If she was nothing like impertinent, saucy, sassy Dora, all the better.
    Xentos looked real, felt real, smelled real. Her skin was as warm as molasses on just-baked bread. So what if she had no personality? She welcomed him with no hesitation, no judgment, no awkwardness.
    She wasn’t real.
    But Zical didn’t want real. He wanted release, plain and simple, with no complications.
    He’d already had one unsatisfying relationship with Summar and he wasn’t about to start into another with the wrong woman. Next time, his wife would be of his choosing, not a prearranged marriage. Next time, his wife would be a partner, a woman who measured up emotionally, a woman who matched his passion with her own. So a night with Xentos might not be as intellectually stimulating as talking to a real woman or a sentient computer like Dora, and nowhere near as emotionally satisfying as the true bond Kahn shared with his life mate.
    He closed his mouth over her welcoming lips. Lips that parted and applied the exact amount of pressure to satisfy, compel, tease. Mmm.
    “Kiss me, again,” she murmured and he needed no urging. Her arms around him were so close to the real thing that he could lose himself in her sensuality. While he found it ironic that he was using a machine to sate the desire that another machine had initiated, the situation only made him more determined to return to normal.
    As Xentos’ breasts brushed against his bare chest, Zical thought of Dora. Her personality placed in a body was a scary, intriguing, fascinating idea. Dregan hell, she’d be a handful for some lucky man. Zical wished he’d asked more questions, wondered how far along she was in the process.
    As his hands closed over Xentos’ delicious breasts, he realized Dora was correct. He liked breasts that overflowed his hands. With a happy sigh, he dipped his head for a taste and fantasized that he heard Dora’s voice cooing a response, felt Dora’s nipple’s hardening beneath his lips, held Dora’s body in his arms.
    The golden cone of light might have encouraged his fantasy. Or perhaps the idea of Dora’s experiment to merge with a body was suggestively responsible. Zical only knew the combination of Xentos’ skill and his erotic visions of Dora were more than enough to set him on fire.
    In his mind, the holosim’s body and Dora’s personality merged into one, a definite turn-on. It was Dora’s cheek he cradled in his palm. Dora’s body he swept weightless into his arms. Dora’s full curves molding to his hard muscles. Dora who buried her face into his throat, who nipped his neck, who slowly and seductively welcomed him into her willing synthari .
    DORA WORKED AT full capacity. Zical’s find had her circuitry busy examining, identifying, cataloguing, and comparing the images she’d scanned with data on every ancient race. She also carried on her normal subroutines, routing communications,