Synthetic Dreams by Kim Knox Read Free Book Online Page B

further obscuring them, and her other hand slipped over her mons. An ache inched across her shoulder blades as she strained to keep her chin from slipping into the water. For a second, she closed her eyes. “Can we do this when I’m out of the water?”
    There was that hint of a smile again. It ran a shiver under her skin, a strange mixture of fear and arousal. “Yes, we can.” He stood, pulled a large cream towel from an alcove and held it open. “I’m waiting.”
    Vyn pushed at her memory, trying to remember if men in N-District always behaved this way. Vague images rose, but nothing like Paul Cross. She stepped out of the bath. He wrapped the towel around her, the hard strength of his arms holding her tight to his chest.
    She willed herself to breathe as his lips brushed her ear, the heat of his mouth on her skin hurtling her thoughts back to the simulacrum. His scent warmed her, wove around her, caught her in such an unexpected way that she didn’t move, didn’t want to. She swallowed, her mouth dry. “What is this?”

    “I believe you’re attracted to me.”

Chapter Five
    Vyn felt the heat rise under her skin to burn her face. She was relieved he couldn’t see her mortification. “I live with skanks. I don’t get prime flesh very often.”
    “So it would appear.”
    She pulled herself free, taking the towel with her, and turned to face him. “What’s the Box?”
    “The First Family don’t believe in exotic names.”
    He was very good at answering questions she wasn’t asking.
    Vyn tucked the towel firmly over her breasts. The damp air brushed her skin and, after the heat of the bath, she shivered. Wet tendrils of her hair dripped water over her shoulders. The Box. It was something of which the Fomorians were ignorant. She’d certainly never heard of it and she had Ossian’s sharp ear. Practically nothing escaped him.
    She frowned. “Do you think I’m a hacker?”
    “You’re a very specific one.”
    Vyn snorted. “And you said you know everything about me. I don’t hack.” She grabbed another towel and wrapped it around her head. “I play with code, refine it. If you want to break security, find someone with a death wish. That isn’t me.”
    Paul took her arm, his fingers hot and strong against her skin, and guided her into the bedroom. “‘The Box’ is a euphemism. It’s more than a detention centre. Those replaced and vanished are…stored there. You, and these—” he traced his thumb over the thin white lines swirling over her bicep, and her skin tingled, “—are the key to getting in.”
    He pointed to the bed. “Sit.”
    Vyn dropped to the edge, the mattress firm under her thighs. They stored the vanished? How was that even possible? Her thoughts twisted, imagining how the Corporation could hold so many against their will. She winced. Her mind had to go to a particularly unpleasant place. To the extreme edge of technology. Mind-shock. Thoughts, a brain caught in a trap, held, frozen, looping as the body aged. But mind-shock was a myth…just like simulacrum.
    “I play with glamour. That’s my skill.”
    Paul walked across the room on silent feet. He opened drawers and pulled out clothes. “I don’t need your skill so much as what you are.” He handed her a long-sleeved T-shirt and loose trousers. His fingers traced the pattern of scarring across her shoulder, a light touch that flushed heat under her skin and made her very aware of wearing only a towel. “What they made you into.”
    Her mouth was dry and her heart drummed. “And what’s that?”
    His dark eyes held her, the flicker of unknown emotion shifting there. “It’s not magic, demonic or otherwise. Your scarring forms an organic circuit. You’re a key.” His thumb teased down over her collarbone, and her nipples peaked, her body choosing to ignore his impossible words. “You can open the Box. Free my brother.”
    She caught his hand against her skin. She had to think. “I’m a circuit? ” Unconsciously