Tempted by Celestial Bodies

Chapter 5

chapter five

kori

Fury made her hands shake as she dug through her drawers for a fresh pair of shorts. Wrex still sat on her bed, their pants back on, looking miserable. Did they think she was angry with them?

Kori dropped to her knees, clasping their hands. “Who did this hack job to you?”

Wrex looked away, jaw muscles tight. The circuitry beneath their skin emitted a faint light that glowed gold through the surface epidermal tattoos on their arm. “It’s a standard procedure in the Consortium. All contracted courtesans are cybernetically and biochemically enhanced to service a wide clientele base.”

“How horrifically clinical,” Kori sneered. There were plenty of courtesans who chose to upgrade their bodies with all sorts of enhancements. This Consortium appeared to take the choice out of the equation. And a House that could subject their courtesans to mandatory alterations was capable of any number of unsavory activities. How these bastards managed to maintain legality for such activities was questionable, but right now, she had to help Wrex. She squeezed their wrists. “Will you let me examine the internal circuitry?”

They frowned at her. “Why?”

Kori hesitated. She had a terrible suspicion that the bio mechanic who worked on Wrex left them in this physical limbo on purpose. “How do these implants work during sex if you can’t physically feel them?”

Another shrug while Wrex refused to meet her eyes. “Mechanically, they perform in accordance with the actions of the client.”

It was true that the pocket dimension pussy had reacted to her, twitching and contracting like living muscle, but she’d still noticed the disparity between her stimulation and Wrex’s reaction. “Please let me look.”

Indecision warred on Wrex’s beautiful face. Kori waited them out. After several long, silent minutes, Wrex sighed and rolled over onto their stomach, hugging her pillow to their face. Kori snagged her precision toolkit from her desk and sat on the floor beside them. Her fingers traced down their spine, searching for the camouflaged seam in that smooth expanse of pale skin.

The shift in texture let her know she’d found it, tapping her fingers at the edges until it rippled open to reveal the delicate tangle of circuitry interwoven with living tissue and nerves. Kori bit the inside of her cheek to silence her visceral reaction. Those assholes had soldered Wrex’s nerve endings, leaving them scarred and unanchored. A cruel, careless job, but a fixable one. Kori would stake her professional reputation on it.

“Wrex.” She laid her hand on their shoulder, their silver eyes loaded with tension when they peered back at her. “I can fix this for you if you give me the time, but you must remain still. Do you trust me to work on you?”

They sucked in a sharp breath, worrying their lip stud with their tongue. Wrex swallowed once, twice, hands clenching and unclenching on the sides of her pillow before they gave one definitive nod.

Kori went to work.