“Women have been doing so since the beginning of time, for one desperate reason or another.”
“The key word being ‘desperate,’ I suppose?”
“The Tedra De Arr need never feel desperate,” a new voice said behind her.
She stiffened as she felt Corth’s hands on her hips and was very quickly pulled back and pressed against him for a reminder of just how fully functional he could be. Face flaming, she whirled around and pushed away from him.
“Martha!”
But she saw that the small intercom screen had gone blank, Martha pulling a disappearing act now that she’d been found out. That interfering metal nightmare, how dared she ignore a direct order?
Tedra glanced back warily at Corth, but he was merely watching her. “I thought you couldn’t lie,” she accused him.
“I cannot,” he said placidly.
“Can’t you? You said she’d changed you back. But she didn’t, did she?”
“I am as you want me to be, Tedra De Arr.” He repeated what he’d told her two days ago.
“And what has Martha got you believing I want you to be, Corth?”
“Patient. The Martha added patience to my new programming. I can wait until you are ready to use me.”
“But in the meantime you’re going to keep the pressure on, is that it?”
“If I do not remind you of my eagerness to give you pleasure, you will give no thought to changing your mind about my use.”
Tedra rolled her eyes. Stars, how she wished Martha had a neck she could squeeze.
“Patience, huh? I’m the one who’s going to have to have patience if I have to keep telling you to back off. Youwillback off, won’t you, if I tell you to?”
“Of course.”
“Then back off, babe. I’m here to exercise with machines, not you.”
He just grinned—until she realized what she’d said, and then her laughter filled the room.
The sudden loud beat of bass drums shook even the walls, and Tedra was half out of bed before she realized it wasn’t an invasion, just the music she had programmed to wake her, albeit with a bit too much volume.
“Lower, please!” she had to shout before the noise fell to a bearable level.
“How can you stand that Ancient’s caterwauling?” Martha’s voice came in with the quiet.
The Ancient’s music did take getting used to with its accompanying words that most times didn’t make sense, and wild beats and rhythms. Kystran music didn’t include words, much less the things called drums. Ancient’s music gave most Kystrani headaches, yet Tedra found it stimulating, usually feeling the need to tap her toes or move in some way when she listened to it. Right now her only need was to ignore Martha.
“You wouldn’t answer me yesterday, coward. Today I’m not speaking to you,” and she promptly buried her head under her pillow.
“Sec l’s are above sulking, kiddo.”
She would have to hear that and agree that it was so. She threw off the pillow, and immediately Bolt, her robocleaner, came out to pick it up from the floor. She barely noticed.
Testily, she said, “I miss my bedmate, Martha.”
“Then why did you send him away?”
“Because I don’t trust him to just hold me anymore since you tampered with him.”
Tedra called out the massager and climbed in, enclosing herself in the body-shaped box. It looked much like a meditech unit, only didn’t possess so many miracles, just one, the easing of sore muscles, and she had a few after the strenuous exercise she had put herself through yesterday when she became furious over Martha’s silence. The hundreds of little rollers and skin-pressers moved over her body from head to toe, almost putting her back to sleep, which was why the massager would open of its own accord after it had diligently worked top and then bottom muscles into loose relaxation.
