Tempted by Celestial Bodies

Chapter 4

chapter four

Khor Drath picked up a tablet from his desk and passed it to me. “Here’s the contract.” The metal felt cool against my skin, but light. “Take your time. Once you’ve signed, your dreams belong to me.”

His words sounded like a promise, one I didn’t know if I wanted, but it sent a shiver down my spine. The text on the screen blurred for a moment, then solidified in English like the signs on the street. The first page was all “the client this” and “the client that,” then turned into “the broker this” and “the broker that” along with a bunch of legalese definitions which created a pulsing ache in my temple.

I swiped to the next page. My stomach plummeted when the bottom of the screen read two of one hundred twenty-two. Shit. I only had tonight to do this if I wanted to catch the transport back to Earth in the morning. Reading through everything would take up all my time. I jerked my eyes down the page, trying to get the gist of it all before swiping to the next. By page twenty I was skimming hard-core.

Swipe. Swipe. Swipe. Swipe. All the words blended together. Exhaling with frustration, I dropped the tablet in my lap and peered up at the big, swirling nebulous guy. “How do I know I’m going to be safe here while I’m sleeping?”

“You didn’t read page seventy-seven, did you?” His eyes crinkled with humor and I kind of hated him for it.

“Just tell me.”

“The only thing to touch you are the synapse nodes. It’s why the whole thing is recorded. You’ll be sent a copy of the external recording at the digital address you provide upon completing the contract.”

My fingers flexed on the edge of the tablet. “And the ones buying my dreams, they won’t know it’s me? It remains anonymous, right?” When he gestured to the contract and looked like he was going to tell me to read it, I held up my hand. “Give me the gist of it.”

One of his brow ridges—teal now from the way the color on his body shifted—rose in what appeared to be both disbelief and superiority, but he replied, “They experience the dream through your eyes, so no. Not unless you’re standing in front of a bunch of mirrors, and I can scrub reflections in post.”

It sounded like he’d been doing this thing for a long time. “What’s a Sawarstian like you doing in a place like this?” The question blurted out of my mouth before I could think better of it. “Stealing people’s dreams? Aren’t you supposed to be fighting other planets’ wars for them or something?”

His expression shuttered and I immediately regretted the brash statement. He didn’t know me and didn’t owe me answers.

Tapping on the terminal in front of him, he turned away. “Any other questions about the contract?” He didn’t look at me when he spoke.

I shook my head, though I knew I should be asking a million more—if I had any other options.

He gestured at the contract. “Name, date, DNA signature, and digital address on the last page.”

I kept swiping until I landed on page one hundred twenty-two, filled out my information, then passed the tablet into his waiting hand.

“Pick a unique phrase,” he said tossing it to the side of his desk without looking at it. “I’ll program the dream machine to wake you when you speak it. Fail-safe.”

I swallowed against the nerves renewing their path up my throat. “Pineapple pizza.” Where in the world had that thought come from? I didn’t even like pineapple.

“Pineapple pizza,” he repeated, his brow ridge, now burgundy, inching its way up into his hairline.

“I said what I said,” I muttered, too embarrassed to change it now.

He tapped on his terminal, then gestured to the chair in the middle of the room. “Make yourself comfortable.”

My focus narrowed on the black padded seat. I approached it and the tangle of wires like a nest of vipers. Acid swirled in my stomach with each hesitant step.

The ekku leather squeaked beneath me as I sat on the edge and felt soft and cool under my palms. Every shift of my body increased the sound until I settled my weight fully, my neck supported by the pillow-like top and my legs stretched long. The scuffs and dirt on my black boots glared at me, sand from outside trickling from the bottoms to the pristine seat. I grimaced, snapping my head in Khor Drath’s direction to see if he noticed I’d dirtied his chair, but his focus was on the screens in front of him, not me.

Fidgeting, I lay back and stared at the ceiling. The wires above seemed even more tangled, a chaotic swirl of black, red, white, and blue. Not quite as mesmerizing as Khor Drath’s nebulous skin, but hypnotic nonetheless.

His face loomed above me and I startled, not having heard him move. The nebula on his skin had shifted to reds and oranges. Did his mood affect the change? I was about to ask, when he reached into the mess of wires, pulling a bundled strand of blue and white with a suction cup node on the end.

I tensed, bracing my hands against the arm rests of the chair, then stayed still as he guided the node toward my temple. His fingers were warm, electric, against the cooling sweat on my forehead. I shivered, though the touch remained brief and professional. Another strand of wires came at me, this bunch red and black, and he secured it to the other side of my head with the same efficiency. For a second, I leaned into the touch, then forced my body to keep still.

The chair lurched as he braced his hand above my head and stretched further within the tangled wires. Rose-colored abdominal muscles rippled inches away from my face. Moisture filled my mouth like it would when presented with a decadent dessert. I swallowed, then looked away from his flawless example of physical fitness, forcing my gaze upward again. The wires swayed and jiggled while he searched. My eyes kept straying to his abs. He yanked hard and out popped another node, this one with a wide, clear hat-like cap.

I sank into the chair as far as I could go, fingernails digging into the armrests. Khor Drath tilted his head at me, eyes laughing like he wanted to call me a sissy or something. Scowling, I jerked my chin in challenge, egging him on even though my heart pounded in my throat.

The lines in the corners of his eyes deepened as he sat the curved cap on my head. Something pinched. I hissed through my teeth, frowning up at him.

“Page fifty-four.” His voice rumbled through me.

I blinked, not following. “Huh?”

“On page fifty-four of the contract it states the main synapse node may cause mild discomfort.”

“Right, yeah. Of course.” The fucker knew I hadn’t read the contract. Jerk . Big, beautiful, jerk.

After one last adjustment, he stepped away from the chair, giving me the once over. “As soon as you close your eyes, we’ll begin.”

I wondered if I looked like Medusa with all this shit attached to me. Guess I’d find out in the replay recordings. Khor Drath strode across the room. My eyes took in every flex and shift of his back muscles before he settled behind his desk. He tapped on his terminal, and the lights around the perimeter of the room darkened, circling me in a ring of light.

Fortifying myself, I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.