The Pleasure Palace. Evangeline Anderson

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СКАЧАТЬ then…how do we turn them off or tune them out or whatever?” Ty thought she sounded a little panicky. Was she really that nervous about having him inside her head? Or was she worried about being inside his?

      “Faron will tell you everything and help you master the symbiotes without fail. And now, you must go. The launch window is closing even as we speak.” The Minister pushed them toward a small, recessed door that led to the private shuttle.

      “Wait a minute…” Ty started to say but the door hushed closed and he found himself in a small, oval space with four comfortable-looking chairs that had multiple straps hanging from them. The entire shuttle was a uniform pale lavender, even the carpet and walls, and there were no windows. Only the strangely shaped air ducts set high on the walls provided relief from the monochrome effect; they glowed a dull silver. A low, female voice could be heard saying, “Will all passengers please be seated and secure your safety harnesses. We are due for liftoff in three minutes. Will all passengers please…”

      “Well, guess we’re on our way,” Tyson remarked, glancing at Shaina, who was already sitting down in one of the plush lavender seats and trying to figure out the complicated tangle of buckles and straps. “This your first trip off-world?”

      “Yeah,” she grinned shyly at him. “I’m a little scared, you know?”

      She should have thought of that before volunteering for this crazy mission, Ty thought but aloud he only said, “Me too, McCullough. Me too.”

      5

      “Welcome, welcome, Master, Mistress. I thank the Goddess you have arrived safely.” The clear tenor voice greeted them even before they had disembarked the small, functional shuttle and come aboard the ship. As Shaina rounded the corner and stepped through the air lock, she saw the person the voice belonged to.

      “You must be Faron.” She tried not to stare.

      “I have the honor of being so called,” he replied, still in that clear, rather beautiful voice. “You may look at me if it pleases you, Mistress. It will not distress me,” he added, perhaps sensing Shaina’s curiosity. That was another thing about Glamerons, she remembered; they possessed low-level empathic telepathy so that they were easily able to sense their masters’ moods and thoughts. Just another trait that made them the perfect pleasure slaves. She gave in to her curiosity and stared, since Faron didn’t seem to mind.

      The being in front of them was so beautiful he was almost mesmerizing, although she could hardly say why. Dressed in a flowing gray robe, the Glameron had a slim, androgynous body about five standard feet, six inches tall, and wide, luminous eyes whose color seemed to shift continuously. His shoulder-length hair looked black to her, as black as Ty’s, but when he shifted minutely, it turned a brilliant copper-red hue. A full, red mouth framing white teeth, high cheekbones, and hawklike facial features made him even more attractive—at least, Shaina thought so. His skin changed like the rest of him. One minute she was sure it was the same even, golden tan of Ty’s and the next it looked creamy and pale.

      “You look like someone I know,” Tyson spoke behind her.

      “I was just thinking the same thing. You look…familiar somehow. I’ve never met you before, though; I’m sure I’d remember it.”

      “Forgive me, Master, Mistress, but this is a reaction that most humans have to me. I look familiar to you because I resemble the person you each most desire. I am shaped by your psyches. I differ with every Master or Mistress I serve.”

      “But what if the person you are serving desires you most?” Shaina asked, trying not to think about the way the Glameron appeared to her and what it might mean.

      Faron turned great, jewellike eyes that melted slowly between amber and ocean-green in her direction. “Alas, I have been long away from my home world, where anyone desired me for myself. I fear I have forgotten my true form.” The Glameron bowed his head briefly as though acknowledging an ancient pain and then looked up again. “But there is no time to speak about me. Soon the ship will move into hyperdrive and we must all be safely tucked into our sleep chambers before that happens. I have less than an hour to show you around your quarters. When you wake, I will have but a day to instruct you before you must disembark to Syrus Six.

      “I understood that we were going to have more time to get adjusted before we moved into hyperdrive and more time after we woke up to learn to use the symbiotes.” Tyson sounded disgruntled and Shaina couldn’t blame him. Minister Waynos had given them a very different understanding of the amount of time they would have before attempting this mission. Faron only shrugged, a beautifully fluid motion that looked like a dance step.

      “Come.”

      He turned and swept before them, leading the two officers through a gilded real-wood archway and into the most luxurious room Shaina had ever seen. There was another real-wood floor done in a parquet pattern and real-wood furniture and carvings everywhere she looked. Expensive-looking one-of-a-kind holo-prints and even some genuine, antique-looking oil paintings hung on the round walls, which were covered in a soft, gray moss about a half an inch long that seemed to caress her hand when she ventured to reach out and touch it.

      Faron showed them around to several more small but luxurious rooms: a food prep and dining area, several personal chambers, the fresher room where the sonic shower and necessary areas were kept. Each one led into the next in a kind of circular floor plan until they found themselves back where they had started in the central chamber.

      “The hypersleep chamber is in the center of the craft. If you wish, you may take off your outer attire and put on the sleep robes provided for your comfort.” The Glameron made a delicate one-handed gesture as he spoke and an opening appeared in the curving surface of the wall without a sound. The opening led into a dimly lit chamber where four empty hypersleep tubes stood in a row. Shaina looked at them mistrustfully; they reminded her of the syringes the symbiotes had been in, silver-sleek and utterly foreign looking. Each tube had a rounded front access flap, which was currently standing open, and one small window at eye level for its occupant to look out of.

      “Is it time already?” she asked. Instead of answering, Faron handed her a short, plush robe, made of high quality synthi-cotton, that tied at the waist with a sash. He handed a similar if somewhat larger one to Ty, who immediately started stripping out of his pleather jumpsuit to put it on. Shaina tried not to watch as her partner’s broad, golden-tan shoulders were revealed, along with his smooth, muscular chest and flat abdomen, corded with muscle. When Tyson pulled the jumpsuit casually down past his slim hips to show the silky trail of black hair that ran from his navel into the low-slung waistband of his snug black briefs, Shaina heard herself make a soft sound, deep in her throat. Ty must have heard the noise too, because he looked up from pulling the jumpsuit down, frowning slightly.

      “See something blue, McCullough?” he asked, pulling the jumpsuit the rest of the way off and standing tall to stretch his firm arms over his head. The movement caused all the muscles in his abdomen to stretch and twitch in an absolutely mesmerizing manner and Shaina became suddenly aware that she had been staring at him for nearly a full minute. He had never looked so wild and untamed, so D’Lonian. Her breath was coming a little fast as she answered him.

      “No, just thinking. It’s my first trip in hyperspace, you know. Will we…are there any effects I should know about?”

      “It has never been scientifically proven, but many people claim to have a dramatically increased libido after a hypersleep experience,” Faron remarked, coming up behind her.

      Great, she thought, СКАЧАТЬ