Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 119846 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 599(@200wpm)___ 479(@250wpm)___ 399(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 119846 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 599(@200wpm)___ 479(@250wpm)___ 399(@300wpm)
Lupin clapped his hands briskly, shattering her daze.
“Well, let’s get you dressed! We can’t have you parading around in the nude—there are modesty standards to be upheld, even in this facility.”
Noelle turned quickly, grateful for something to break the eerie fascination she had with her altered body. But she couldn’t find the outfit she’d taken off earlier.
“Where are my clothes?” she asked, looking around the arm of the spa chair where she’d folded her outfit earlier.
“Oh, those old things?” Lupin wrinkled his nose. “I tossed them down the furnace chute. Hideous fabric—most unflattering. You should thank me.”
“You what?” Noelle stared at him, aghast. “But those were my only clothes!”
“No need to worry.” He produced a small red bundle and handed it to her with a flourish. “Here. Try this on.”
Noelle unfolded the garment slowly.
It wasn’t a dress—it wasn’t even a slip. It was a red silk negligee, barely long enough to cover her hips.
Noelle had half a mind to throw it in Lupin’s face. But the cold air against her bare skin and the reality of having no other clothing to wear stopped her. Gritting her teeth, she tugged the negligee over her head. It slipped down her new, smooth curves like a second skin. Then she looked at herself.
The bodice was sheer, the fabric whisper-thin and cut low enough to show the soft curves of her newly firmed breasts. The hem clung to her thighs and the thin silky cloth did nothing to hide the sensitive peaks of her nipples. Also, there was no bra—not even panties, she saw with dismay.
“This is underwear,” she said, frowning. “I can’t wear this out in public!”
“Nonsense!” Lupin exclaimed. “You ought to be grateful—it’s the latest style. Very desirable. The silk is woven from the cocoons of the Looja moth—exquisitely rare. And you look lovely in it.”
Noelle ran her hands down her sides. The ultra light silk felt undeniably sensuous and barely there—like she’d been wrapped in a whisper.
When she turned back to the holo-viewer, her breath caught again.
She didn’t just look young now. She looked…
Sexual.
Lush…curvy…ripe in the way of red-light temptresses and forbidden male fantasies. She looked like a woman made for sin. Was this the middle-aged teacher who had been almost too shy to let Bright and Burn kiss her on the cheeks under the mistletoe? Surely not—the woman in the viewer was younger, riper…ready for sex.
Noelle took a stumbling step back.
Dios, I don’t even recognize myself anymore!
“Much better!” Lupin declared, stepping back to admire her. “Yes, you’re going to be very popular at the auction—I do believe you’ll fetch the highest price there. Come now, let’s get you back to your cell before the evening meal. I’m sure all that cellular stimulation has worked up an appetite.”
Still dazed, Noelle followed him, the ultra-thin silk negligee clinging to her like mist.
Her feet padded softly over the metal floor. Her skin prickled, her insides still throbbing faintly from the treatment. Her cheeks were hot with embarrassment, confusion… and a strange, reluctant thrill.
She wasn’t sure who she was anymore.
But the men waiting for her in that cell? They were going to notice the difference.
And she wasn’t sure how to feel about that.
19
BURN
Burn knelt by the cell door, his forehead pressed to the cold, unyielding metal. His fists were clenched, resting on his thighs, blood still crusted over his knuckles from the last time he’d pounded against the bars. The bruises throbbed in time with the ache behind his eyes, but he couldn’t feel it anymore. Couldn’t feel anything but the polluted flood of memory washing over him—dark, murky, and relentless.
He tried to hold it back. Tried to stay in the now.
But now was agony too.
Noelle was gone. Taken. Just like the others.
And I let her go.
That thought repeated in his head like a poisoned mantra, circling endlessly, burrowing deeper with every rotation.
I let her go. I let her go. I let them all go and they never came back…never came back…
His breath came in shallow pants. His chest felt too tight to expand properly. His shoulders hunched inward like he could collapse into himself and disappear, and maybe that would be better. Maybe he didn’t deserve to be here at all.
He barely registered Bright sitting beside him, as close as the contact-repulsion manacles would allow. His best friend hadn’t spoken in a while, just sat there with his hands resting between his knees, glancing at Burn, not pushing. But at least he was there…solid…present. Burn could feel him wanting to ask questions, to offer reassurance…but there was nothing he could say that would make things any better and clearly Bright was smart enough to know that.
A whisper of something—comfort, maybe—brushed the edges of Burn’s fog.
Then he heard himself speak aloud, his voice hoarse and broken, not even realizing he was saying it until the words were out.