Jaci's Experiment (14 page)

“Come for me now, baby. Come on my hand and show me how much you want this.”

She came on command for him, shocked by her own behavior, but too sated to question why this man had such power over her responses. It didn’t matter anyway. She trusted him. She loved him. Everything else would fall into place given those two amazing facts.

“You’re so beautiful when you come for me.” He soothed her as she came down from the height he’d pushed her to, kissing her temple and stroking her intimately.

“What about you, Michael?” Jaci made a lethargic attempt to cup him through the damnable pants he still wore in the dreamstate.

“No, love. This was for you.” He pushed her hand away with gentle but firm motions. “I’ll cherish this memory, Jaci. And I’ll take you up on that offer someday. Don’t forget, you owe me one.” He winked and smiled, making her chuckle weakly in response. She felt so drowsy after that amazing climax, she had trouble keeping her eyes open.

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Michael cradled her in his strong arms and before she knew it, she’d drifted off to sleep, safe and secure in her lover’s embrace.

The very next night, two dreamwalkers joined Jaci on the dreamplane. As promised, Michael brought his cousin along on the vision quest into Jaci’s dreams and she welcomed them both with open arms.

“I can’t believe you’re here with me,” she said through tears of joy.

“We wouldn’t be anywhere else,” Michael said, his eyes making promises as David walked right up to her and swept her into his arms.

David stole her senses with a mind-numbing kiss.

It felt even more real than it had before. She could taste the sexy flavor of David as more than just the dreamy echoes she’d grown used to. She pulled back, gazing from David to Michael. “Something’s different.”

“It’s the crystal boost,” Michael said. “I’ve worked out how to use it even better than I did last night.

You’re dreaming in Technicolor now, babe.” The smug smile on his face made her want to laugh, but he was very obviously proud of his achievement and she loved the new, more real-feeling texture of the dreamplane.

“It’s amazing!”

“
You’re
what’s amazing, Jaci, my love,” Dave kissed her nose and passed her off to Michael’s waiting arms. He kissed her in welcome, the feel of him igniting her senses and her desire, but he pulled back before she could tug him closer.

“Before I totally lose my mind, I have to ask—did Mara reassign you yet? Did she even tell you about it?”

Jaci shook her head, confused. “I haven’t had communications from Mara12 in several days and nothing about my duty assignment.”

“Dammit!” Michael swore. “Davin got her to agree to send you down here weeks ago, and she hasn’t told you yet. The cold-hearted bitch.”

“When Davin asked for us and Ruth, he also asked to have you reassigned to his facility—ostensibly to monitor and assist Callie with the baby,” David clarified. “Mara 127

agreed, but demanded you stay up there until you’d finished preparations for some big experiment.

You’re supposed to be reassigned at the beginning of this next quarter.”

“Shards! Is this true?” Jaci couldn’t believe the good news.

“I was supposed to make sure you knew last night,” Michael admitted. “I got a bit…distracted. I’m sorry, babe. I feel bad for leaving you in doubt for even one day when you could have been looking forward to moving down here with us. We’ve got big plans. Davin gave us a nice big suite—more of an apartment, really—where we can live together. As close to free as a human can be in this brave new world.”

“This is fantastic news!” Jaci laughed and cried at the same time, as joyful as she’d ever been in her life.

She was moving to be with her mates. They would be together, for real, very soon. Things were looking up, where before she’d been in abject despair of ever seeing them again.

“We definitely have to celebrate,” Michael said, conjuring a glass bottle with some kind of fermented liquid inside. He poured elegant glasses of the substance and handed one to each of them, holding the crystal so that the glasses chimed together just once for each of them. “To us. Together. As it should be.”

Jaci followed their lead and drank from the pale liquid that had bubbles rising within it. They popped and tickled her nose with innocent abandon as she tasted something she’d never experienced before. She wondered at Michael’s ability to make her feel, see, taste and smell things she had no frame of reference for. He was truly gifted.

“What is this?” she asked, sipping more of the delicately fruity vintage.

“Champagne,” David said. “One of the finest vintages ever produced in France. In Michael’s dreamscapes we can experience the best of our old life any time we want. This bottle is a memory of the one we shared when we opened our business. We started as we meant to go on—with the best. This one bottle of champagne set us back our first month’s profits, but it was worth it.” A nostalgic smile lit David’s handsome features. Jaci didn’t always understand their references, but she wanted to learn. She wanted to know what their lives had been like before. She wanted to know all about her men, down to every last detail.

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But she had a lifetime to learn. Or so she hoped.

“Remember those Japanese clients?” Michael asked his cousin with a grin.

“And the karaoke bar they insisted on visiting?” David rolled his eyes.

“Or the strip club they wanted to go to after?” Michael countered.

David’s gaze lit on Jaci speculatively, his mouth quirking up in a sexy grin. “Now that’s a memory I’d love to explore with our little seductress here. Do you know how to strip, Jaci?”

“Strip?”

“Take your clothes off in a teasing, tantalizing way. Dancing around to entice your man,” Michael filled in, explaining the concept. “Some women in the old world used to work at strip clubs where they would entertain horny men by taking off their clothes, slowly, to music. Dancing around naked, shaking their…assets…for the crowd. We’d tip them generously. Give them money to dance over by our table and more for a job well done. It was kind of sleazy, but also kind of exciting, in its own way. I always thought it would be better if it was just my girl stripping for me. To have someone willing to do that just for me was a sort of a fantasy of mine.”

“I’d be willing to try,” Jaci said with a bit of shyness. “But I’m not sure I really understand what you want me to do.”

A grin lit Michael’s face. “Not to worry. How about I show you the way it was?”

As he spoke, the scene changed. They were in a dark room filled with tables and chairs. Men sat around the tables, with various kinds of drinks set before them. Smoke drifted into the air from a number of lit sticks that some of the men put to their lips every few minutes. More tendrils of smoke wound up into the air above, giving the entire room a smoky haze. Spotlights lit a stage and runway of sorts that had silvery poles anchored to both ceiling and floor at strategic places.

Pretty girls in skimpy outfits moved around the room, serving drinks and smiling at customers as they patted their bottoms and handed them money. Whether the money was in exchange for the drinks or the liberties the men took with the girl’s bodies, Jaci wasn’t certain.

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Music started somewhere in the room, though Jaci could see no source of the strange, rhythmic beat.

The sound was intense, electrifying and sultry.

“The floor show is about to start. Why don’t we sit down and have a drink?” Michael asked as a table covered with a sparkling white tablecloth materialized in front of them. It had only two chairs so Jaci sat on David’s lap, facing the stage, eager to see what would happen next.

“Do you remember her?” Michael asked his cousin as a leggy brunette with massive breasts slinked onto the stage. She made her way down the runway, gyrating all the way and stopped to pose right in front of their table. Conveniently, one of those poles was right behind her, so she used it to perform a number of acrobatic moves that Jaci had a hard time following.

“Yeah, I remember. She’s the one who kept shaking her tits in your face. She sure liked you, cuz.”

“I don’t think I want to hear this,” Jaci objected, looking at the image of the woman with hatred.

Instantly, the brunette disappeared from the stage and Michael turned to Jaci, taking one of her hands.

“She liked the money I kept throwing at her, but that’s all it was, Jaci. And it was a long time ago.”

He had a valid point. Anything any of them had done before meeting didn’t really count and Jaci had no real right to feel jealousy, but yet there it was.

Michael stroked her cheek. “I like that you’re proprietary. You can bet David and I feel the same way about you, now that you’re ours. If another man even looks at you funny, we’d probably break his legs.”

She laughed at his outrageous statement and the mood stabilized. David was making light patterns on her thigh with his fingers and she suddenly became aware of his hardness beneath her bottom. He was getting more excited by the moment. And so was she.

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“So do you think you could do what she did? For us?” David surprised her by asking. The idea made her insides jump as David pushed her slowly off his lap so she stood before him in her night attire—a plain grey tunic and pants.

“I can’t wear this. What was that girl wearing?” She’d never seen an outfit like the one the stripper had worn.

Michael smiled. “That was a bikini. The smallest one it’s ever been my pleasure to observe, in fact, but they came in all different styles. Originally, it was designed as swimwear.”

“Really?”

“Hey Mike,” David leaned back in his chair, watching her with an amused but smoldering expression.

“Why don’t you let her model the different kinds of swimsuits for us? You can handle that, can’t you?”

“You’ve got a creative mind, cuz.” Michael turned his attention to her form, creating clothing for her out of the fabric of their dream. The first creation was a sleek, sleeveless body stocking that had hi-cut thigh holes. It was stretchy and shiny, of a fabric that felt slinky against her skin. “That’s a typical one-piece,”

Michael informed her, motioning for her to spin around. Mirrors stood behind her now, in a three-paneled formation so she could see many angles of the suit in one glance. “Then there’s the sporty racer-back style, the bare midriff style and the classic bikini.” Colorful fabric in smaller and smaller proportions clothed her as he talked.

“And this was for swimming?” she asked, uncertain of the efficacy of such a volatile arrangement of fabric.

“And lying on the beach, looking beautiful. Getting tan and making grown men drool,” David added with a mischievous chuckle. “And, baby, you have definitely got the body for it. You look good enough to eat.”

“Then there’s the string bikini, the hi-cut bikini and my personal favorite, the thong bikini.” Michael’s voice deepened as the outfits became skimpier and skimpier. More of her skin showed with each new version until she was wearing something almost exactly 131

like the brunette had worn. “Spin around for me, babe,” Michael instructed as the music started again in the background.

She did as he asked and wound up facing the stage again, Michael standing close behind her. His warm hands cupped her bare ass cheeks, one in each hand as he squeezed. His hot breath blew into her ear as he dipped his head.

“Will you dance for me?”

“I’m not sure if I can.”

“Will you at least try? I’d give anything to see you move to the music for me. Tease me with glimpses of your beautiful body.”

“I’ll try.”

“That’s my girl.”

Michael boosted her up onto the low stage, smiling broadly as she turned to face him and David, sitting back like a king to watch the entertainment. She only hoped she didn’t look like a fool.

“Feel the beat of the music, sweetheart. Let it move you.” Michael’s words helped. “Close your eyes.

Just listen.”

Jaci liked human music. This particular melody, accompanied by driving rhythm and a low thrumming drum beat touched her deep inside, stirring something to life that had long lain dormant. Her hips began to sway, as she’d seen the other woman move. At first, she just tried to emulate some of her rhythmic movements, but after just a short while, the music grew louder and she felt invigorated. Inhibition disappeared. She didn’t worry about looking foolish, she just let the music drive her motions.

A long, low wolf-whistle sounded and her eyes snapped open. Both Michael and David were grinning in that sinful way that made her squirm. She didn’t know which of them had made that jarring noise, but she took it for the compliment she could clearly see on both of their faces.

“Turn for us, babe.” Michael made a spinning motion with one finger and she complied. Feeling decidedly wicked, she bent from the waist, displaying the strip of 132

fabric that just barely hid her bottom from them. A growling sound from behind her made her smile.

They liked that.

As she swung her bottom from side to side, the stage suddenly disappeared, the illusion of the club fading to blackness beyond their immediate area. Michael was losing focus, or perhaps he just didn’t care to have the strip club atmosphere anymore. Either way, she was pleased. All she wanted was her mates.