Nina leaned in to read it, glancing at him over her shoulder. “The experimenters built a house that could be flooded up to five feet in depth, allowing the dolphins to swim and interact with their human ‘roommates.’ The dolphins were spoken to as though they were children, treated as part of the family, and subsequently, trained to respond to human speech with their own language.”
She looked again into the tank where the graceful animals were now swimming in underwater barrel rolls. “Do you think they believe their parents abandoned them? Or did they move out on their own, like they went off to college or something? Do the experimenters visit?”
“They went to prison, I think. For unlawful animal experimentation. At any rate, I’m sure Hale banned them from coming here. They wouldn’t be able to get past security.” Ewan stepped closer to the glass to look inside it. One of the dolphins swam closer, its mouth opening in what looked like a grin.
“That seems cruel. They were taken away from their family. No wonder that one looks so sad.”
He’d never known her to be sentimental, but she wore it well. “I thought it looked like it was smiling.”
“You can smile when you’re sad.” Nina put a hand flat on the glass. “So beautiful.”
In the blue-green light, wavering and soft, Nina was the beautiful one. Her dark curls, tied at the nape of her neck, hung over one shoulder. Her smile curved. Her eyes, the color of excellent whiskey, gleamed as she looked at him.
“Why did you bring me here today, Ewan?”
He spoke without having to think, not even for a second. “Because I’ve spent plenty of time making sure your stomach is fed, but I haven’t done much to make sure anything else is satisfied. I thought you’d like this. It’s something not many people get to experience. I wanted to share it with you.”
“That might be one of the nicest things anyone’s ever said to me,” Nina told him after a few seconds. “One of the nicest things anyone’s ever done. Thank you, Ewan. That means a lot.”
Nina didn’t trust herself to say anything else to him, not without a hitch in her voice. She turned her attention back to the dolphins in their tank. “This is so much better than a virtual viewing.”
“You don’t have to stay,” Ewan said after a moment.
Nina didn’t answer at first, her gaze fixed on the dolphins now circling each other as though they were dancing. “I’m not ready to go yet.”
Ewan touched her shoulder so she’d look at him. “I didn’t mean the Aquacenter.”
“I know that.” She smiled a little, wishing all of this didn’t have to be so hard. That might be what made it worth everything, in the end. That none of it had been easy. Right now, all she could do was take it one step at a time.
They watched the swimming dolphins in silence for a few minutes. Earlier, she’d been foolish enough to take his hand. She wanted to do it again now but didn’t, even if the memory of how his fingers had felt linked in hers wouldn’t go away.
Ewan had hired her this second time, not because of any real threats to his life, but as a way to bring her back to him. She’d stayed originally because she was stubborn. Now, Nina wasn’t entirely sure of her reasons, but one thing she did know—just because there weren’t currently any threats against Ewan’s life, that didn’t mean nobody was out to harm him. Nina thought about the girl Betts at the lab, and her suspicious reaction to the alleged vandalism.
“You first hired me to protect your life from people who wanted to kill you,” Nina said quietly.
“Yes. And you did. More than once.”
She glanced at him. “You hired me this time for different reasons.”
“Yes,” Ewan admitted after a hesitation. “That’s why I’m telling you now that you don’t have to stay with me.”
“Do you think you’re not in danger anymore?” The dolphins had gone away from the glass, so she and Ewan started moving toward the next exhibit.
This room was full of floor-to-ceiling glass tubes, some with bubbles constantly rising in soothing waves. Others, softly lit from the inside with bioluminescence. The biggest tubes had jellyfish in them. The room was designed so viewers wove their way through all of the tubes, like walking through a field of trees.
“I guess, considering what I do, I might always be in danger of some kind of threat,” Ewan said.
Nina paused between two giant tubes of jellyfish. She studied them. They moved constantly. “I don’t know very much about jellies, but I imagine their lives must be pretty peaceful, don’t you think? I mean, they eat. They reproduce. Do they sleep?”
“I have no idea,” Ewan said, by her side.
“Do they love?”
She reached to snag his sleeve. She didn’t tug him closer, but moved herself instead. One, two, three steps until she could kiss him. Their last embrace had been rough and almost brutal; this time, Nina was conscious about making sure she offered, but did not insist.
Ewan sighed into her mouth as one hand slipped beneath her hair to cup the back of her neck, his fingers tickling the skin bared above the scooped neckline of her shirt. The kiss deepened. They moved closer, their bodies fitting perfectly together. She put her hands on his waist.
Ewan broke the kiss and pressed his forehead to hers. Eyes closed. He drew in a sigh and let it out softly. “Nina.”
“I want to forgive you,” she whispered and closed her own eyes, so that the soft mutter of the bubbles in the tubes and the shifting light casting shadows through her eyelids could soothe her. “I want to, Ewan. So much.”
“But you can’t?”
She opened her eyes and pulled away enough so that she could meet his gaze. She took his face in her hands. Her thumbs stroked the bristles along his jaw. She traced his lower lip with a fingertip and jerked it back with a startled giggle when he nipped it.
“I want to,” she repeated.
Ewan nodded as though her answer was no more than he’d expected. “I never wanted to hurt you, Nina. I hope you believe that.”
“I believe you never wanted to. But you did.”
He sucked in a breath as though her words had stung him, but she couldn’t be sorry she’d said them. It was the truth, no getting around it, and it would serve neither of them to pretend otherwise. Ewan nodded again after a second, perhaps having rethought whatever protest he’d been considering.
Nina kissed him again, a little harder this time, and if it was because she wanted to hurt him, that was because she knew he would like it. Her body pressed to his again, also harder this time. More insistent. Her fingers dug a little into him just above his hips, and she thought about sliding up his shirt, tugging it free of his pants, to get at his bare, smooth skin beneath. He’d be warm. Firm. Her hands almost ached with the desire to touch him that way, but she kept herself still.
“There are cameras here,” she murmured into his mouth. Without human staff, there had to be a very sophisticated security system including visuals. “Right?”
“I’m sure there are . . . ask me if I care . . .” His hands roamed over her back. One came around the front to slide up and over her breast.
Her body reacted at once, her nipple peaking tight and hard under his palm through the soft material of her shirt. She didn’t gasp, but only because she bit back the sound. She spoke around giddy laughter. “We’ll end up streaming on the viddy gossip channel.”
“Again,” Ewan said through a series of nibbling kisses, “ask me if I care.”
Her laughter rippled up and out of her as smoothly as the air bubbles in the glass tubes surrounding them. “I care. I have a reputation to consider.”
“Are you saying you’d be embarrassed?” Ewan kissed her deeper, both hands moving up to cup her breasts now as he walked her backward toward a small, shadowy nook and pressed her against the wall.
Nina turned her face as Ewan mouthed her jaw and neck. With a shiver, she whispered into his ear, “Mortified.”
He nudged his face against the curve of her shoulder as his heated breath cares
sed her. She turned her face into the soft brush of his hair and took in the particularly delicious and unique scent of him. No lover had ever smelled so delectable to her, and she took in a long, slow breath to savor him.
“Can’t say that I blame you. I really have nothing going for me. I’m surprised you’re not sick to your stomach right now at the very sight of me.”
She laughed again and wound her fingers into his hair to tug his head back so he’d look her in the eyes. “It’s been a struggle. A couple times I almost had to run off, but I managed to hold it back.”
“You’re amazing,” Ewan said, but this time it didn’t come out sounding like a joke. His smile softened, as did his gaze. He brushed a kiss over her lips, then shifted a little with a glance between them. “I need a minute.”
Nina loved that a few kisses could affect him that way. It made her want to touch him again, this time maybe to pinch a little. She wanted to watch him jump, to see his eyes go heavy lidded and his lips part on a gasp he wouldn’t be able to hold back. She wanted to reach between them and stroke him until he was thick and solid, rigid in her fist.
She hadn’t been serious about being embarrassed, but the security cameras were certainly real. The last thing Ewan needed was a series of viddy stories coming out featuring him in a shadowy clinch with her. If nothing else, it would bring unwanted attention back his way, maybe even from one of those groups that had been so determined to end his involvement with the Enhancement Repeal Act.
No matter how angry she’d ever been with him, no matter how betrayed or how little she felt she could trust him, nothing could change the fact that Nina would always protect him from any harm as long as she could.
“Let’s go home.” Nina didn’t miss the way his eyes blazed at the offer. She took his hand, squeezing their fingers together. “You can embarrass me there.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
One of the benefits of using the transpo service instead of private cars was that transpos could bypass regular traffic by using both normal roads and the raised rail lanes. It wasn’t a perfect system, though. Now, for example, a sudden electrical storm had disrupted the rail service and stalled the transpo lanes.
Ewan tapped at the control screen but sat back with a frustrated sigh. “Backups all along the rails. We can’t even get off to take the highway until things start moving.”
The transpo control beeped and said in its gender-neutral voice, “All routes will be returned to normal passage as soon as possible.”
“Stupid,” Ewan said. “The whole point of this system is so you don’t get stuck in traffic.”
Nina laughed at his frown. “You should know as well as anyone that no matter how advanced the tech is, you can’t rely solely on it.”
“I wanted to get home,” he told her with a raise of his eyebrows that made her laugh.
She made a show of looking around the passenger compartment. “But it’s so comfortable in here. So secure. So . . . private.”
He was already moving across the seat to her. When he kissed her, Nina put her hands on his sides, inching his shirt out of his waistband the way she’d been eager to do for the past few hours. At the touch of her fingers on his bare skin, Ewan muttered something low, under his breath.
“What?” she asked, pausing.
He looked at her. “I said, ‘please.’”
“So polite,” Nina replied, and the edge in her own voice sent a thrill of arousal through her. She dug in her nails for a second or so, long enough to make him wince but not long enough to really hurt him. “This?”
“Yes. Please.”
She might never be fully used to the idea that he wanted her to hurt him, just a little, or that she liked it so much. Again, she was reminded how rare this thing was that they’d found together, and again, Nina remembered that it had only lasted a short time before ending.
She wasn’t going to fool herself into thinking this was a new beginning. It was an interlude, no more than that. The door to their relationship had not yet managed to close all the way. They had things to work through. It didn’t mean they were getting back together for good.
But for now . . .
Nina leaned into Ewan’s kiss, her nails digging once more on his skin. He pushed a hand between her thighs, his knuckles stroking through the material of her leggings, different than the ones she wore when she was in uniform but still thin enough that she could feel every touch. She didn’t hold back a gasp this time. She let her head fall back against the seat cushions for a second as she concentrated on the pleasure building beneath his skilled fingers.
She’d forgotten, briefly, how hard she was pressing into him. Not until he gave a low cry. She eased up, but before she could pull away, Ewan was kissing her again. His fingers stroked her. He put his other hand on hers, pushing it back against him.
The back of the transpo could seat six adults, which meant there was plenty of room for the two of them on the wide synthleather backseat. They moved together, sliding, winding, grinding. He was between her thighs, on top of her. Kissing. Touching. She pushed his shirt up to get her teeth on him. She sank them into his chest, right over his heart.
“Yes.” Ewan ground out the word. “That. More.”
Laughter eased out of her, broken into pieces by her gasping sighs. She pinched him harder, both sides. “This? More?”
Wriggling, he tried to get away from the bite of her fingertips, although the hardness of his erection was proof of his arousal. She bit him again, harder this time, as she gripped his cock through his trousers. Ewan bucked his hips into her grasp. He cursed under his breath, but when she tried to pull away, he shook his head.
“No,” he said. “Don’t stop.”
Instead of biting him again, Nina let her fingers stroke over the wounds with small, soothing strokes. His mouth slanted over hers. His tongue slipped between her lips. She sucked it gently, then caught it between her teeth. She didn’t bite, but the tension in Ewan’s body told her he was expecting her to.
She smiled into the kiss and released his tongue. She lifted her hips, nudging her body against his erection. Around them, the transpo shuddered and began moving.
“How much time do we have?” she asked.
Ewan thrust a little against her. “Maybe half an hour, if nothing stops again.”
“We’d better hurry, then.”
His expression made her laugh once more. Without a word, Ewan tugged his shirt over his head and sat up to unbuckle his belt. Nina lifted her hips to tug down her leggings and the synthcotton briefs beneath. Utilitarian underpants, nothing sexy, but the way he stared made her feel as desired as if she’d been fully outfitted in lace and satin.
When he moved down her body to nestle his mouth against her heat, Nina couldn’t hold back her low murmur of longing. She threaded her fingers through his hair, urging him closer. His tongue swept along her folds, finding the point of her pleasure effortlessly. He worked her body with such expertise that she was writhing within minutes.
“I love the way you taste.” His words, muffled against her, nevertheless were easy to hear and sent a rush of desire circling through her. “I love how you sound when I’m getting you closer. I could spend all day doing this.”
“Not . . . all . . . day . . .” Nina managed to say, breathless from the pleasure. “I need you inside me at least some of the time.”
Easily flirting, her words a truth she was unlikely to admit without the distraction of his tongue and lips on her. She’d bite her tongue harder than she’d ever bitten his before admitting more than that. In this moment, anyway, all she could do was focus on how good he was making her feel. She’d worry later about the aftermath, and what this meant. For now, she could only give up to Ewan’s tender stroking tongue as he sent her hurtling over the edge into an orgasm so fierce she went totally blank for a few seconds.
* * *
Ewan would always be ready to lose himself in pleasuring Nina, even if it meant no release for himself. She’d climax
ed within minutes of the first swipes of his tongue, and feeling her body moving under his mouth got his cock so rock hard he thought it was going to burst out of his pants. He wanted to slide up her body and fit himself inside her, but Ewan couldn’t manage to pull himself away from between her thighs.
Nina’s fingers twisted in his hair, but he relished the tiny, bright sparks of pain and bent back to worship her sweetness again. He lapped at her, finding the tight knot of her flesh with his tongue and then sucking gently until she writhed and cried out his name.
When he felt her second climax, her body tensing and releasing under his lips and tongue, Ewan though he finally understood what heaven was supposed to be. Muscles low in his belly tightened. The transpo was dinging, though, a warning that it was almost at his exit. They’d be back at his house in under ten minutes.
He kissed her heat, breathing in deeply to capture the full deliciousness of her scent. He lingered, eyes closed, for another half a minute before getting up on his knees to find his shirt. She pushed onto her elbows to watch him.
“You don’t want to—?”
He grinned with a gesture at the transpo controls. “No time.”
“You could make it.” Her amber eyes had gone dark, pupils dilated. Her gaze dropped to the front of his pants and the obvious bulge still there. “If you hurry.”
“I’d rather take my time.” He pulled his shirt on and watched her wriggle back into her leggings. “Nina, you’re so beautiful.”
He’d seen her take compliments before, sometimes flirtatiously, sometimes with a sarcastic reply or a falsely exaggerated and therefore endearing arrogance. Today, she frowned. Her brow furrowed. She passed a hand over the dishevelment of her curls.
“You make me feel that way,” she said after a moment.
“Because you are. I could look at you and nothing else, forever.” He would have kissed her again, but the transpo shuddered as it left the rails and began bumping over the regular highway.
Nina looked out the window with a small frown. “Almost home. Just in time for dinner.”
“You . . .” He’d been about to make a joke about her constant need for food, but paused at the sight of her expression. “What’s wrong, baby?”