Adonis 5000 Page 3

  Chapter Five

  Arlissa watched Cayce as he slept beside her. The morning sunlight already had started its slow creep across the bedroom floor until it fell, at last, on his thick crown of dishwater-blond hair. Arlissa stroked a lock of the hair away from his face and was rewarded by the glide of his hand over her bare hip. He wrapped his arm around her backside and pulled her to him. His eyes remained closed, but a smile played at the corners of his mouth and a morning erection pressed itself against Arlissa’s stomach.

  His lips nuzzled past her hair to caress the sensitive skin of her neck. “Mmm…what time is it?”

  “About four hours before the board demonstration of Five Thousand, and two hours before I absolutely must be at the lab,” Arlissa answered. Cayce ran his hand up her side. He thumbed her nipple and turned the last of her answer into a pliant moan before crushing her mouth in a hungry kiss.

  Forcing Arlissa onto her back, his hands explored her body while his lips and tongue continued to ravish her mouth in a series of licks, nibbles and deep thrusts. His fingers played along her clit, probed the already moist entrance to her pussy. Arlissa opened for him and he broke from her mouth, trailing a line of rough kisses down to her toes.

  And then he stopped.

  Arlissa opened her eyes in time to see Cayce slipping on the white silk shirt he had worn the night before. Her voice was charged with sexual torment as she asked him where he was going.

  “To call my driver and make us breakfast while you have your morning shower,” Cayce answered. He ran a finger along the instep of her foot. His lower body still was unclothed and his erection throbbed in protest at its master having passed over the warm, wet treat that had trembled so close to it.

  “But—”

  Cayce grabbed her ankles and pulled Arlissa down the bed in one fluid motion. He stood between her spread legs. The tip of his cock pressed against her clit, the shaft filling the space between her lower lips with a sensuous thickness that threatened to have both lovers begging for the other’s caress. She moved to sit up, to wrap her arms around him but he forced her back onto the bed. The mushroom-shaped head pushed against Arlissa’s impassioned hood of her clit as he bent down to whisper in her ear.

  “Be warned, Lissa, I plan on having you all weekend long as soon as this board meeting is over.” The words were raw-voiced from his throat, his breath hot against her ear. The friction of his cock against her clit as he swiveled his hips produced a heavy moan from Arlissa, and she wrapped her legs around him. He put his hands on her hips and eased back until the engorged head of his cock was blocking the entrance to her pussy, pressing against the spongy exterior, sending her cunt into tormented contractions as she tried to draw him into her.

  “No, Lissa,” Cayce said, and pulled further back. His hands replaced his dick, and he worked her to near climax as he threatened her with more sweet torture without release. “Baby, I’m going to tease this body of yours all weekend. Tease you until I am the only thing you want next to you, inside you, filling you with my heat, fucking you beyond the edge of sanity.”

  He pulled Arlissa to her feet, wrapped his hands in her dark hair and pulled her to him. He covered her mouth in more heated kisses while he continued to caution her. “Because, even if I will never have your mind consumed with me…” he paused, and kissed her temples before dipping down to tongue her nipples. “I will possess this body and the heart it encases.”

  Cayce released Arlissa so suddenly that she plopped back onto the bed. She could only stare at him, openmouthed, as he started from the room, still wearing only his white silk shirt.

  “Oh,” he said, and turned back toward the bed. “How many eggs do you want in your omelet?”

  Arlissa continued to stare at him, her mouth incapable of forming an answer.

  “Well, I’ll just make you a three-egg omelet,” he offered, and threw a wink at her. “You’re going to need the nourishment for the weekend I have in mind.”

  He moved into the kitchen. The sounds of him pulling out a skillet and dishes drifted down the hall, as did the smell of coffee brewing. Coffee. The thought of there being at least one warm item to fill her revived Arlissa.

  In the bathroom, she hung her kimono back on its hook, and stepped into the glass-enclosed shower. Aggravated with Cayce, she tried to scrub the still lingering sensation of his touch from her skin. Her nipples jumped to attention as she lathered her chest and arms, and the image of his naked body intruded into her thoughts. He’s wrong, she scolded herself as she stepped from the shower and dried off, he already holds my body at his command and my mind isn’t that far behind.

  With her kimono covering her, she entered the dining room, where Cayce had just finished putting down a plate completely covered by a steaming omelet. He sat down in front of the plate and motioned for Arlissa to join him. Her gaze caressed his body, and she noted that he was now wearing a frown with his shirt, but nothing else.

  “Is something the matter?” she asked, as she went to sit opposite him.

  “Can’t raise my driver,” he answered. Arlissa tried to pull the chair out but saw that he was blocking it with his feet. “Not there,” he half-smiled.

  “Is that usual?” she asked, about the driver. She moved to a side chair, but he kept it pinned to the table with one hand.

  Cayce shook his head from side-to-side. He cocked one sandy eyebrow at her and the smile erupted into a mischievous grin. “You’re getting closer,” he advised and pushed his chair back until she could squeeze onto his lap.

  His left arm immediately encircled her waist, and his hand dipped beneath the folds of the robe to lightly trace lines along her thighs. With his right hand, he chopped off a piece of the omelet with his fork and brought it to her lips. Arlissa’s eyes went wide with surprise as she slowly chewed the bite he offered.

  “Where did you learn to make omelets like this?” she asked, her lips pushing forward to take another piece from the fork.

  “Sometimes the safest place in the house when I was growing up was in the kitchen with Cook,” he answered her. He brought the fork to her mouth again, watched the lips part and her delicate pink tongue dart out to pull the egg in. Cayce put the fork in her hand and then untied her robe.

  Arlissa thought of the sixty-room house to which he referred and the reportedly cold, stubborn man that had haunted it. Jonathan Cayce had been a brilliant man, but she couldn’t imagine having him as a father.

  “What are you thinking, Lissa?” Cayce asked. He had pulled her kimono away from her shoulder and was delicately pinching the curve of her neck with his lips. He cupped her breast, pulled its nipple taut.

  Arlissa arched against him. Her ass wiggled impatiently against his erection, and she lifted herself just enough to sweep away the layer of cloth that kept their skin from touching. She put the fork down and reached back to curl her arm around his neck. “I was just thinking that I would have had you over for breakfast much sooner if I had known you could cook, too.”

  Cayce unwrapped her hand from his neck, and urged her to pick the fork back up. “I want to watch you eat the breakfast I made,” he said. He slipped his hand between her legs and stroked her clit before searching lower. Cayce eased two fingers into her, his strong hand contorted to allow him to tease to a heavy throb the sensitive nub he had just abandoned. “I want to see you take the food into your mouth.” His fingers slid deeper, manipulated her body in persuasive thrusts. “Imagine it’s my cock between your lips, gliding against your tongue and kissing the back of your throat before you swallow me.”

  Arlissa dropped the fork onto the plate, and grabbed the edge of the table with both hands. “Segrin, I want you inside me,” she moaned, and pressed her back against his chest, grinding her cunt against his still thrusting fingers.

  “I am inside you, Lissa.”

  But then he wasn’t, and the menacing growl that erupted from her throat both shocked and thrilled Arlissa. In answer to her growl, Cayce pushed the plate to the center of
the table and forced Arlissa forward until her breasts and stomach were flat against the wooden surface. He pushed the kimono over her hips, and laved the folds of her pussy with a single swipe of his tongue that started with her clit and embedded itself inside her. He drove her legs further apart, wedged them open with his shoulders as he tongued her to the brink of climax. Then he pulled away from her and stood up, his wide stance continuing to keep the muscles of her pussy pulled tight. Her legs began to tremble from the strain, but then he thrust his thumbs into her, his cock skimming against her clit.

  “Do you want me to fuck you, Lissa?” he asked. His voice was thick with his own barely contained passion.

  “God, yes, Segrin. I want you to fuck me,” Arlissa moaned, and backed closer to him. “I want your cock filling me, stretching me until I snap.”

  “Then come for me, Lissa, come for me like this.” Cayce kept one thumb inside her, and lodged the tip of his cock into the entrance of her pussy. His other thumb, slick with her juices, danced around the rosy little hole that winked at him. “Will you come with just a little bit of me inside you, just a little bit of me teasing this hot, tight box of yours?”

  Arlissa jerked against Cayce in response, her torso rising from the tabletop, her hands teasing her breasts and nipples as she rode his hands and the tip of his cock to a final, bone-shattering climax.

  Chapter Six

  On the short drive to the research complex, Arlissa flashed amused glances at Cayce from where she sat in the driver’s seat. He had tried repeatedly after breakfast to reach his driver, or any other member of his staff. Only one had answered his call, but the woman had hung up after cryptically telling him that she had been warned that he would call. He was dressed in the prior evening’s clothing, except for his silk boxers, having preferred, instead, to go commando.

  “You don’t have to look so cheerful about this,” he said, as they pulled up to the security gate.

  Arlissa smiled, and squeezed his knee when she was sure the guard wasn’t looking. “It’s just that this is the first time that I’ve seen you when you didn’t seem to be in total control of the situation.”

  Cayce lowered his eyelids, and let his gaze lick at Arlissa’s erect nipples hidden behind a thin layer of azurite shantung. “Yes, you have,” he assured her in a throaty rumble. “You just haven’t learned to recognize it when it happens.”

  Arlissa felt the familiar heat begin to build between her legs, and barely missed another researcher’s car as she pulled into her parking space. Other staff members were arriving and their heads swiveled as Arlissa and Cayce exited the car.

  Cayce nervously scratched at the edge of his hairline and cast Arlissa a sidelong glance. “I must look like hell,” he joked as they entered the building.

  “Just the opposite,” she murmured, as those standing in line waiting for Jimmy to clear them parted to let Cayce through.

  “Mr. Cayce?” Jimmy asked, as he took the security card that Cayce offered him.

  “Yes?”

  “Didn’t you…” Jimmy’s voice trailed off, and a perplexed look covered his already confused features. “I mean…”

  “You mean what?” Cayce’s voice was beginning to take on the same edge it had held when Arlissa had activated the Five Thousand.

  “Uhm,” Jimmy stuttered. “I’m just glad to see that you found it.”

  “Found what?”

  The tone had grown sharp and those standing near Arlissa and Cayce began to back away. Arlissa was surprised to find herself gently grasping Cayce’s elbow and steering him through the narrow gate.

  Cayce turned and looked at Arlissa, his face pinched into a worried frown. “Something is wrong.”

  “You can call Dautrich from my lab,” she suggested quietly, and took her card from Jimmy. “Your bloodhound hasn’t had enough to do recently.”

  Cayce grunted his agreement. His long strides forced her to quickstep to keep up with him. At the lab door, she pulled the key from her purse but Cayce took it from her and opened the door. He crossed over to her desk and punched in the number to Dautrich’s extension while Arlissa went to the gurney.

  “Se-se-grin…”

  Cayce turned to see Arlissa clutching to her chest the sheet that had covered the figure on the gurney. Her face was pale, almost ashen, but not as grayed as the figure on the gurney. Where Five Thousand should have been waiting, prepped for the morning’s demonstration, was Cody Talaveras, staring glassy-eyed at the lab ceiling, his jaw slack, the raised mat beneath his head dyed black with his coagulating blood. Dashing across the room, Cayce caught Arlissa just before she hit the floor.

  “He’s dead!” she stuttered.

  Cayce could see her choking back the need to vomit. He felt his own stomach flip as he lifted Arlissa to her feet and helped her to the desk chair. He called security, his voice shaking as the phone trembled next to his ear. Arlissa made a movement as if to stand, and he gently pushed down on her shoulders. He put his hand between her shoulder blades, and urged her forward until her head rested between her knees.

  “Take deep breaths, you look like you’re going to pass out,” he cautioned, and rubbed at the building knot of tension at the base of her neck.

  The guards came through the door, and Cayce pointed at the gurney.

  “Don’t touch anything,” he warned them before asking, “Has anyone located Dautrich?”

  “He left about half an hour ago.” It was Jimmy, the front desk security guard, who spoke from the doorway. “And he was with you.”

  Cayce staggered backwards, his hands reaching for the desk in search of support. “With me?”

  “Yeah, you said your security card was lost,” Jimmy answered. “Mr. Dautrich told me to clear you.”

  “Segrin, a $47 million robot with your face has left the research complex,” Arlissa said, as she fully realized what had happened. She pulled his hand from where it tightly gripped the edge of her desk and gave it a soft squeeze. “I really think it’s time to call the police.”

  Cayce picked up the phone on Arlissa’s desk and nodded at Jimmy. “Find a phone and call the police—I’m calling my banker.”

  Chapter Seven

  Cayce had his arms wrapped around Arlissa’s shoulders as they waited in silence for the police and forensics team to arrive. Several million had been withdrawn from his personal accounts in New York. Another dozen transactions had been stopped by his call before the transfers were completed.

  When the police did arrive, Arlissa and Cayce were questioned separately. The coroner asked Arlissa to answer a few of his own questions. It was another two hours before she saw Cayce again. He summoned her to his office after the police left the complex.

  A small bar was built into the ebony cabinets behind his desk, and he filled two brandy snifters.

  “I don’t—” Arlissa began, but he pressed the glass into her hand.

  “You don’t drink, in general,” Cayce agreed. “But this is Di Dolcetto, your favorite.” He settled back into the deep burgundy chair and took a long drink from the glass.

  “Does it say that in my file?” Arlissa asked. She managed a weak smile, and wished that she could have made it more forceful, more genuine.

  A slim, green folder lay in the center of Cayce’s desk and he pushed it toward Arlissa, nodding at her to pick it up. Arlissa hesitated, ran a finger along its edge.

  Cody Talaveras.

  “The police wanted a photocopy of it,” Cayce explained. “So we busted down Dautrich’s office door.”

  Arlissa pulled the file onto her lap but didn’t open it.

  “Do you think Dautrich killed him?” Cayce asked, his voice catching at the end.

  “No,” Arlissa said. She pressed her palms flat against the folder and drew in a deep breath before answering. “I think Five Thousand did it.”

  “That’s not—” Cayce began.

  “It is possible,” Arlissa assured him. “You saw the recognition scores. The reflex scores are just as high
—and his operating system is programmed for defense.”

  Cayce waved the idea away. “Even if it was Five Thousand, Dautrich had to put him up to it—the machine hasn’t been programmed to kill.”

  “The head wound was from blunt force, ‘incredible blunt force’ to use the coroner’s words, and there was latex webbing, the same as Five Thousand’s skin shell, embedded in Cody’s skull.” Arlissa looked at the folder on her lap. “I didn’t program it to kill, Segrin,” she said. “I also didn’t do the textures and skin.”

  “What do you mean?”

  She hesitated and then opened the folder. “I mean that I wasn’t the one who made Five Thousand look like you—Cody did.” Arlissa flipped through the pages before sliding the folder back across Cayce’s desk. “This is an awfully thin personnel file,” she said, her voice low and contemplative. “Especially for Dautrich.”

  “So they were working together?” Cayce asked, and opened the folder to reexamine the report on Cody Talaveras.

  “It makes perfect sense,” Arlissa explained. “Dautrich knows everything about you—your bank, your account locations, everything. And Cody…Cody had the ability and the access to make Five Thousand pass for you.”

  “But why kill Talaveras?”

  Arlissa shrugged her shoulders, and looked blankly around the room. “Why not? I imagine the same holds true with stolen money as with love—two’s company and three’s a crowd.”

  Arlissa took a deep drink of the brandy, and then covered her face with her hands. “Christ, if I had only been in the lab this morning.”