Forbidden Worlds - Box Set (45 page)

Chapter 15

What seemed like hours later, Tess awoke with a gasp. As soon as she realized she was alone, her artificial heart began to pound. Where was Marc? He’d promised to stay with her.

Annoyed, she grabbed the bedside clock. No need to squint at the numbers with Sydney’s perfect vision. If she’d actually been asleep it had only been for a little less than an hour. She glanced at the bathroom door, hoping Marc had merely slipped away to attend nature’s call. The door was open, the light off. Panic seized her for a second. Maybe he’d never been here at all. What if she’d imagined his visit and his tender words that had lulled her into a peaceful rest, if not a true sleep?

Dismissing the notion that her captive brain could be playing such elaborate tricks on her, she headed for the bedroom door but stopped with her hand on the knob. Marc’s muffled voice reached her. Ear to the closed door, she listened. Sydney’s hearing rivaled that of a cat. Once she concentrated on the direction of the sound, Marc’s words came through as clearly as if he were standing right next to her.

“Why can’t this wait until morning?”

No response followed his question. She guessed he was on the phone.

“As long as her body isn’t showing signs of organ failure, I don’t see what the rush is. Let her sleep until morning.”

Was he speaking to Jared?

“Fine. I’ll bring her in now. I guess it’s better that we get started on the system modifications as soon as possible...and yes, I intend to dial down the sensory receptors. What you put her through was unacceptable.”

Tess straightened. So Marc and Jared were conspiring to put her back into her own body tonight. Fear made her shiver. She wasn’t ready to go back. Jared had promised her.

Galvanized by a survival instinct that clearly belonged to Sydney, Tess raced across her bedroom, scooping up a pair of jeans, her shoes and purse. She closed the bathroom door behind her and quietly slid open the window next to the vanity. A wide ledge outside served as a secondary fire escape and afforded her just enough space to stand and sidle her way to an industrial-size drain pipe that ran the ten feet down to the ground level. A protruding bolt caught the skin of Sydney’s left hand and tore a gash, but Tess didn’t feel it. She’d hide the injury later with a bandage, but right now she needed to escape. She wasn’t going to give Sydney up without a fight.

Headlights swung in a wide arc, catching her as she pivoted toward her car. Unable to see past the high beams, she froze. Had Jared come for her?

Tye pulled up alongside Tess, the fortified engine of his car rumbling like a jungle cat. “Hey, babe, what are you doing out here? Just getting home? I called you before to see if you wanted to hang.”

With a quick glance back at her bathroom window, Tess flung open the passenger door and hopped in. Marc would figure out soon enough that she was gone, but at least he wouldn’t know where to begin looking. “Take me to a hotel, no place close.”

Tye raised a brow, but apparently being ordered to spirit a beautiful woman off to a rented room somewhere didn’t shock him. He threw the car into reverse and zoomed back out of the apartment complex parking lot. “I know a place you’ll love.”

She leaned back in the soft leather seat and closed her eyes. “I’ll love anyplace that’s far from here. Just drive.”

Two hours later they pulled into the parking lot of a place called Sunset Harbor. Tess’s cell phone rang as Tye wedged his car into a narrow space. She fished the device out of her purse and eyed the caller ID. Jared. She wondered what had taken him so long.

Tye had hopped out of the car and come around to open her door for her. She dropped her phone into his back seat before taking his hand and allowing him to escort her into the hotel.

“So what’s got you all hot and bothered?” he asked before they reached the front desk.

“The walls were closing in at my...at Tess’s apartment. I need a change of scenery.”

“This should fit the bill.” He smirked and slid his credit card and another rectangle of silver plastic across the deck to the well-dressed desk clerk. The young man accepted the cards without a word and scanned them into his computer. A second later a broad smile lit his tanned face.

“Welcome back, Mr. Wilson. Would you like your usual room?”

“Perfect. Thanks.” Tye accepted his cards back, placed his thumb on the scan pad and then tilted his head toward the elevators. Curious, Tess followed across the lobby, her gaze wandering over thick tapestries, lush indoor plantscapes and a bubbling fountain.

Tye hit the button for the third floor, and a minute later they stepped out into a quiet, dimly lit hallway. “I love this place. You will too.”

Three doors down, he pressed his thumb to the door lock and let them in to a room fit for a porn star.

Red satin draped the huge oval bed. The white plush carpeting swallowed Sydney’s feet. Water tumbled down a wall of faux stones and real tropical plants set along the far wall. A slight mist rose from a mini-pond which spilled into a Jacuzzi set into the floor. Jungle sounds played from hidden speakers along with subtle mood music that included the occasional orgasmic moan.

Tess might have laughed, but at the moment she didn’t care what the room looked like, as long as Marc, Jared and Melissa couldn’t find her. She threw her arms around Tye’s muscular neck and kissed him. “I love it. Now fuck me.”

Chapter 16

An hour later, Sydney straddled Tye. She wore nothing but the tattered remains of his T-shirt, which she’d torn from his body, then later draped around herself. The shredded cotton brushed her nipples as she rode him, arching her hips in a sultry rhythm so that each downbeat allowed the tip of his cock to hit that hidden nerve bundle Jared had buried deep in her pussy.

He lay beneath her, moaning his approval of her sensual attack, his hands kneading her hips.

As soon as she’d impaled herself on his ready erection, her core temperature had begun to rise. That short reprieve, where she’d felt almost normal, had ended, and now she wanted nothing more than to come and come and come until her body gave out from the pleasure of it.

She pinched Tye’s brown nipples and bent to suckle one of the hardened tips. He groaned and let go of her hips to capture her hands and hold them against his chest. His movements slowed, though, and he pulled her left hand in front of him to study it.

“Hey, what happened to you?”

Tess stiffened. She was seconds away from the orgasm she needed desperately and not in the mood to discuss her injury. Quickly, she pulled her hand from his. “It’s a scrape. Don’t worry about it.”

One more thrust and she’d be there. She angled her supple body over his and worked at tightening her muscles around his rock hard intrusion. There!

The nerve bundle triggered the desired reaction, and her body shook. Waves of electric sensation lashed out from her core, threatening to paralyze her with an ecstasy no human body could hope to match.

Tye’s appreciative sigh became a grunt, then an exclamation of surprise as her cunt milked his cock for everything it was worth. The heat of his cum exploded within her, and he bucked his hips, alarm widening his eyes.

“Damn, girl...oh God...shit, Sydney, that hurts!”

She couldn’t move, couldn’t respond. Her vision clouded, but she held on, shuddering as Tye’s frenzied movements intensified her pleasure.

“What the hell? Sydney...come on, let go!”

Tye rose up and managed to roll her underneath him. She lay stiff, fighting the suffocating sensation of her throat closing convulsively, her ass clenching and every synthetic nerve ending in her perfect body igniting with pure, brilliant pleasure.

Tye didn’t quite share her exhilaration. Fortunately, after a moment, her cum provided enough lubrication for him to pull out of her. He fell beside her, panting and swearing.

“I didn’t see you use anything. What the hell is that stuff you put in you?” He rubbed his still pulsing dick as his own cum shot out in pearly strands. “You’re too fucking tight. I never thought I’d say those words.”

“Hmm.” Tess managed a throaty giggle. “I never thought I’d hear a man complain about a pussy being too tight either.”

He sat up and turned to stare at her. “You’re superhuman, you know that? Where did you learn to fuck like that?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” She ran a trembling hand up his arm. “I need more. How soon can you be ready to go again?”

He rolled his eyes. “My dick is sore, Sydney.”

She climbed up on her knees, trailing kisses along his biceps to his throat. “Your tongue still works, doesn’t it?”

His long-suffering sigh was tinged with laughter. “A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do, I guess.” He pushed her back down onto the sheets and spread her legs. “Wait a minute. You’re not going to do to my tongue what you just did to my Johnson, are you?”

Sydney bit her lower lip and tried to look concerned. “Ooh, I hope not.”

He actually looked skeptical. “I have a better idea.”

She pouted. “Better than oral sex?”

“Better than a tongue transplant.” He vaulted off the bed, showing off his athletic build and stamina. Any other man would have been limping after what she’d just done to him, but Tye had bounced back miraculously. He even had the beginning of another erection. Sydney licked her lips. More for her.

From a cabinet next to the room’s fully stocked wet bar, Tye produced a long, pink dildo wrapped in cellophane.

Sydney eyed the fake cock with a mixture of blatant lust and confusion. “That just happened to be here?”

“Babe, have you looked around? This is what the place is for. Don’t worry. They’re all sterilized and pre-wrapped. There’s a dozen of ’em in there. Handcuffs too and lots of lube, but you don’t fuckin’ need that.”

Sydney laughed. A dozen dildos? Oh, the fun she could have. She lay back on the bed. “That thing is longer than you are.”

Tye pouted. “No, it’s not.”

“It looks it. Let’s measure.”

He held the dildo out of her reach. “No way. I don’t need the competition. Lie back, close your eyes and let me get it done for you.”

“Ooh!” She obeyed, her internal muscles already tightening in anticipation. She brushed a hand across her nipples, which stood rigidly at attention, then along her stomach. The heat there startled her. Her skin burned. “Tye, I should have some...ah!”

Before she finished her sentence, he inserted the dildo in a long, steady thrust. She groaned.

“How’s that?”

“Oh, God, yes.”

“Try not to break it,” he said as he began to work the bright pink column of faux flesh in and out of her pussy while he rubbed her clit with his thumb. “They’ll charge extra.”

Sydney writhed on the slippery sheets. Already she’d begun to pump cum onto the dildo, making it slick and hot. Tye used it expertly, angling it with each insertion to stretch her tightening walls. Fortunately he couldn’t hit her G-spot with its length, or she might have done some damage to it. She laughed and reached for his hand, guiding him to thrust harder and faster. One more orgasm, then she’d drink some bottled water from the wet bar to renew her supply of internal lubricant and she’d be ready to go again and again.

She needed her final day in paradise to last as long as possible because once Sydney was gone, Tess would never feel this free again.

Chapter 17

A siren blared. Tess wanted to scream for the noise to stop, but she couldn’t.

An unfamiliar voice reached her. “What happened to her hand?”

“It was like that,” Tye answered.

Bands of light cascaded over her. Someone threw a blanket across her, heavy as lead. A tight belt cinched across her stomach.

“Cuff him. He can tell his story at the station.” A burst of static interrupted this voice.

The high-pitched whistles and tones of a dispatch radio played over Tye’s protest. “I didn’t hurt her. She asked me to bring her here.”

“She’s not responding. Pupils are fixed and dilated, but her pulse is like a jackhammer.”

“Gotta be drugs.”

“You think just because she’s a hooker you can do stuff like this to her?”

“She’s not a hooker!” Tye’s voice rose, but he seemed to be farther away. “She’s some kind of scientist.”

“Yeah, pal. She’s a scientist. She’s got her PhD in
pornology
, right?” Harsh laughter drowned out another complaint from Tye, then she heard nothing for a long time.

A brilliant flare illuminated her left eye, then her right. Tess tried to speak, but her mouth was so dry she couldn’t make her tongue move.

“She has a fever,” someone said.

Marc’s voice cut through the din of distant conversation and the beep of machinery. “You understand there are to be no medical records kept for this woman.”

Tess wished she could see him, talk to him. She needed to apologize for what had happened, what she had allowed to happen again. She’d been in the bathroom at the hotel. After stumbling across the bedroom on shaky legs, she’d fallen and hit her head on the marble rim of the sunken tub. It hadn’t hurt, but Tye had seen her fall and rushed over to help her.

He’d felt the heat of her, and by then she couldn’t see or speak. Her limbs had gone limp. She’d listened to him frantically call 911, and silently pleaded with him just to give her some water. It would all be okay if she just had some water.

“Mrk?” Finally a sound escaped her throat.

“It’s all right. We’re taking you back to Gentron.”

“Sry.”

“Don’t try to talk. Your systems are damaged. I don’t know if I can get them back on line. When you wake up, you’ll be back in your own body.”

“Plzzz...”

“Tess, you need to rest. I understand why you ran out on me, and I don’t blame you.”

A cacophony of sound drowned out the rest of his words. Panic coursed through her during the silence that followed. She was almost used to not being able to see, but the deafness terrified her. With no sound to orient her, she was truly a prisoner in Sydney’s failing body.

Would they be able to get her out?

She screamed to no one and prayed Marc could fix everything.

“Tess, can you hear me?” Finally! After an eternity, Melissa’s voice cut through the emptiness.

Tess moaned.

“I need you to listen to me carefully. There’s been a delay. Your own body has developed an infection. We’re administering a high dose of antibiotics now, but you’re going to be staying in Sydney for a few more hours. Once we lower your core temperature, you’ll be able to speak and see, but you won’t have enough energy to move around. You shouldn’t try. Do you understand?”

Tess whimpered. What she’d planned as a coherent response came out as a kitten’s mewling.

“I’m sorry it came to this.” Tess smelled Melissa’s perfume and sensed a pressure on her fingers. Was the psychiatrist holding her hand? Where was Marc? Was he with her real body, trying to save her actual life, the one she’d been so eager to leave behind?

“I feel like we let you down by putting you into Sydney when we should have tried to match your own body more closely. This experiment ravaged your psyche. It destroyed your sense of self.”

Tess would have laughed. How much self did she really possess in the first place, if she’d been so joyful about shedding that skin and stepping into a new one? She hadn’t lost her identity at all. She’d gotten a glimpse of who she really was. Too bad she wasn’t sure she liked the real her.

“I’ll be with you after the transfer and we’ll talk. You’re going to be okay.”

Tess’s humorless laughter faded to a sob when the silence returned. Had they shut her down? Was she in limbo?
I’m dead. Maybe I was never alive to begin with.

“Open your eyes, Sydney.” Jared Simon’s voice dragged Tess out of the quiet, dark hole into which she’d fallen. She rushed to obey his command and sighed at the brilliant, beautiful sight of the laboratory ceiling and the fluorescent track lighting.

“Am I—?”

“Still Sydney. Still marginally functional. Tess’s body is fighting off the infection. You have a few more hours.”

She tracked the sound of his voice and found him standing at the foot of the bed. His cold appraisal made her shiver. “It was instinctive,” she said, thrilled with the ability to form words. “Running, I mean.”

“That’s your excuse for essentially stealing a ten-million-dollar piece of equipment and taking it for a joy ride?”

“You wanted to kill me.”

“That’s Sydney talking. That’s my girl.” Jared moved up the side of the bed. He brushed hair away from her face and traced a finger down her arm, more to guide her vision to the thick leather cuffs holding her to the bed frame than to convey any tenderness. “To keep you in line, we’ve had to restrain you.”

“I’m not going anywhere. Melissa said I wasn’t going to be strong enough to move anyway.”

“Oh, you can move.” Jared pinched her naked thigh. The pain raced up her nerve endings, and she grunted.

“What was that for?”

He shrugged. “A test. I need to know how much damage the body sustained.” He held up her other hand. A white bandage covered the gash she’d received climbing out of her bathroom window. “The doctors at the ER did this. They were amazed to see such a deep cut that didn’t appear to bleed. Do you have any idea how much time and trouble it will cost to keep them all quiet about what they saw?”

Tess sighed. “I—”

“The irony is, that overstuffed barbell you were fucking actually helped us. After he called 911 and they booked him for sexual assault, he remembered my name and told the police. They called me since they had no records of a Ms. Sydney Simon fitting your description.”

“They booked him?” Panic clenched her muscles. Of course it must have looked bad. An unconscious woman in a sex hotel, dildos everywhere...

“Marc bailed him out. His idea, not mine. Gentron will be making a large donation to the PBA this year as a thank you for their recovery of our valuable equipment. I will say, the officers who arrived on the scene were relieved that it was only an incredibly lifelike android and not a real live woman who’d been fucked into unconsciousness by a steroid-crazed weight lifter. Melissa concocted a story that will cost Mr. Wilson a night in the psych ward at the hospital, but won’t stain his permanent record. Needless to say, he was freaked out about the pool of silver blood leaking out of the back of your head after you fell in the bathroom. You have no idea how lucky you are that half your life’s memories weren’t sopped up with a wad of toilet paper. Losing as much fluid as you did could have left you with permanent brain damage after the transfer back to your body.”

Tess cringed. She must have hit that marble really hard. Maybe the loss of fluid explained why she could barely recall anything that happened after Tye fucked her with the neon pink dildo. 

“We debated whether to tell him you were an alien or a robot. In the end, a shot of a strong sedative and some post-hypnotic suggestions from Melissa and he’ll only remember that Sydney passed out and after a night at the hospital flew back home to New York.”

“Maybe you should have told me about the side effects of transfer.” The words “I’m sorry” had hovered at the edge of Tess’s brain, but Jared’s condescending tone wouldn’t allow her to admit her shame in all of this. “Sleep deprivation and heightened sex receptors, and I’m supposed to be a good girl all week? What did you really expect me to do, Jared? Just fuck you when I could have anyone I wanted?”

His gaze sharpened to daggers. “You could have honored our bargain. I offered you everything, including myself, and you threw it away on a sex romp with a stranger.”

“I overheard you telling Marc to bring me back here last night so you could do the transfer early. What was that about?”

Jared put his hand on her knee. “That was scientific concern. Melissa reported the sleep deprivation to me. Marc confirmed it. That, along with the core temperature instability, told me we needed to put the brakes on. This experiment is too important to fail. You knew that.”

Slowly his hand slid up her thigh. Tess caught her breath, and her nipples hardened. “And you knew I’d lose control of myself, didn’t you?”

Jared stroked her thigh higher and higher until his fingers brushed her mound beneath the thin blankets covering her body. “I knew. And I planned to be there when it happened. You ruined it, Sydney. Now your body is damaged. There are two courses of action we can take from this point forward, which one is entirely up to you.”

“Oh, really?” Warmth coursed through her as his fingers parted her pussy lips. Bound to the bed, she should have been screaming for Marc or Melissa to save her, but Sydney still reigned supreme, and she wanted Jared to touch her. She wanted desperately for him to shove his fingers inside her and make her come one last time before she faded away.

“Marc is at the hospital, talking to the doctors there. Melissa is writing her reports. It’s just you and me and Tess.” Jared moved the opaque curtain aside to reveal Tess’s body in the next bed. She looked terrible. Her skin was gray and lifeless. The machine that breathed for her seemed to be laboring.

“You can go back to your body and write a glowing report about this experience, explaining how everything went exactly according to protocol. Or you can remain in Sydney because Tess’s frail body just can’t fight off the infection she contracted in the lab.” Jared’s fingers parted her pussy lips, and he applied pressure to her clit with his thumb.

Sydney’s body arched, and he slipped inside to massage the tightening walls of her pussy.

“You know what you want, Sydney. You know what I can do for you every single day for the rest of your eternal life. You saw JT. Imagine it’s him inside you and it soon will be.” He thrust more quickly, and his finger curled forward to hit that nerve bundle that blessedly still worked.

Pain and pleasure seized her. Long, slow pulses of energy coursed through her while he pumped his finger in and out. The G-spot reaction made the slim intrusion feel as long and thick as the neon dildo Tye had filled her with. She shuddered, and her hands clenched reflexively.

“Make your choice, Sydney. Either way, I win. There’s no alternative to that. The only question is, do you? Win or lose? Sydney lives forever or Sydney dies today. Make your choice.” He thrust one last time, and Tess cried out. Her final orgasm sent her into momentary oblivion.

When the waves of sensation finally stopped, she lay panting. Jared smiled at her, a wicked gleam in his eye. “I think you’ve made your choice,” he said.

She glared at him. “Yes, I have.”