Enhanced: Brides of the Kindred 12 (The Brides of the Kindred) (23 page)

“I do,” he said gravely, reaching for a
strange, lumpy looking grayish sponge thing about as big as his fist which was
sitting on the edge of the pool. “But perhaps it would allay your nervousness
for you to scrub me first?”

Mei-Li frowned. She had been dreading this
entire encounter for hours, ever since she found out they were suddenly diving
in (ha-ha no pun intended) to their bathing week early. But the idea of being
in control, of being the scrubber instead of the scrubbee held a certain
appeal.

“Actually…it might,” she said, nodding.
“So give me the, uh, the sponge thingy, whatever it is.”

“This is a
spoing,”
Six explained,
handing it to her. “You put your hand inside it and rub your flesh.”

“Oh, like a sponge glove?” Mei-Li took it
from him and was about to insert her hand into the small slit in the center but
stopped. “Hey, this isn’t like the beanbag bed that eats dead skin cells is it?
There aren’t any teeth in here or anything, right?”

“Do you think I would give you something
that would hurt you?” Six looked almost offended. “It is quite safe.”

“Of course. Sorry.” Gingerly, she slipped
first her fingers and then her entire hand inside. The minute she did, the
spoing
molded to her hand, fitting like a glove. “Oh—it kind of…grabbed onto me.”
Mei-Li tried to keep her voice light but her heart was pounding.

“Yes, it does that,” Six said patiently.
“The firm grip allows you to scrub without fear of it slipping off when you get
covered in its slippery secretions.”

“Slippery secretions? Don’t you mean
soap?” Mei-Li looked around. “Where
is
the soap, anyway?”

“If you are referring to a cleaning agent,
the
spoing
manufactures its own. Simply begin to rub your flesh—or mine
if you prefer—and you will see.” He held out one muscular arm for her,
indicating that she should try it on his skin first if she was nervous to use
it on hers.

“So…it’s like a soap filled sponge,”
Mei-Li said, rubbing the gray, lumpy surface of the
spoing
lightly
across his extended arm. His skin was a natural, smooth tan with very little
body hair which was nice—she wasn’t a big fan of hairy men.

As soon as she touched it to his skin, the
sponge-glove creature began emitting thick dark blue foam. Mei-Li sniffed it,
wondering if it was the source of Six’s incredibly alluring scent. But though
it smelled good, it didn’t have the distinctive sharp, clean scent with a hint
of dark musk she had come to associate with the big Kindred. Hmmm.

“I think that my arm is clean now,
Mei-Li.” Six’s deep voice brought her back to the present and she realized
she’d been working on his right arm for some time.

“Oh, uh—sure.” Now that she was actually
scrubbing him, Mei-Li found the task wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable as she’d
thought it would be. After all, what was the big deal? So they were both
naked—so what? At least she had the big, lumpy sponge between her hand and his
bare body so it wasn’t like she was actually
touching
him. This was
going to be
easy
.

She stood on tiptoes to reach his
shoulder—trying not to notice that her bare breasts were visible when she
did—and then motioned him to turn around so she could do his back. She couldn’t
help admiring the width of his shoulders and the broad, muscular expanse of his
back as she scrubbed him with the blue foam. His body really was a work of
art—she wondered how he kept so incredibly fit. There wasn’t an ounce of spare
flesh anywhere on his massive frame. It was all rippling muscle and smooth, tan
skin—well, except for the silver metal of his enhancements, that was.

Speaking of his enhancements, she was
coming back around to his front now. Her hand hovered uncertainly over the
metal that covered his left hand and forearm. Should she scrub it too? Would it
be hurt by the soap?

“Is there a problem?” Six asked, breaking
the silence that had somehow grown between them as she tended to him.

“I, uh, was just wondering if…I mean, I
don’t want to hurt your…the metal parts of you.”

“My enhancements are fully waterproof, I
assure you,” he said.

“Oh. So the inner machinery can’t get
wet?”

He frowned. “There
is
no inner
machinery. The enhancement lies over my existing arm—it does not replace it.”

“What? So you have an actual working arm
and hand under there?” She tapped the silver metal with her free hand.
“Really?”

“Of course. Look.” Raising his hand out of
the water, he flexed it in a certain way and suddenly the metal began to part
from his skin. It separated itself into concentric bands first and then opened
up to reveal a normal hand and arm underneath.

“Wow…” Mei-Li looked at it closely. “I
thought it was a replacement part, like the ones we saw in Yipper’s lab.”

“No, it simply gives me greater strength
and greater sensitivity.”

Mei-Li raised an eyebrow. “Greater
sensitivity?”

“The same way your new lenses allow you to
see more detail,” he explained. “My sense of touch is greatly increased on the
hand wearing the enhancement.” He flexed his fist again and the metal slid
smoothly and silently together, once more covering his flesh.

“That’s amazing,” Mei-Li said. “It’s kind
of nice to know you’re a real boy after all.”

“What?” he looked confused.

“Never mind. Do you mind if I ask, is your
eye—?”

“My ocular scanner is also built over the
original structure,” Six said shortly. “But I do not take it off.”

“Oh…Never?” Mei-Li couldn’t help the
wistfulness in her voice. She had grown used to his Terminator-like appearance
but it still might have been nice to see him without all the hardware.

“Never.” Six sounded so unyielding about
it that she decided it wasn’t worth arguing.

“Okay, then—back to the bath. Raise your
arm again—I see a place I missed.”

“You do?” he raised his left arm again and
she went to work on his side and armpit. To her surprise, Six made a strange
sound and jumped back as she ran the sponge over his ribs.

“Did I hurt you?” she asked.

He shook his head. “No, not hurt
exactly…it simply felt…strange. Forgive me—please go on.”

He raised his arm again and once more she
began scrubbing up and down his muscular side. Six held still for the operation
but she had the feeling he was forcing himself to do so—willing himself not to
move. Even so, after a moment she saw the corners of his mouth twitch upward
and a surprised sounding snort of laughter came from him. He jumped back from
the sponge again, looking at her uncertainly.

“I’m sorry…I don’t understand…”

“Oh my God!” Mei-Li laughed herself.
“You’re
ticklish.”

“I am what?” Six frowned. “Is that some
kind of medical condition?”

“No—it just means you’re sensitive. Here,
let me see the other side.”

But the big Kindred was scooting away from
her.

“I do not think it is necessary. I can
bathe that area myself.”

“Oh, no you can’t,” Mei’-Li said with mock
severity. “The contract says you get to wash me all over so
I
get to
wash
you
all over. Like you said—it’s only fair.”

“I didn’t know I would have this kind of
reaction to being bathed by another,” Six protested, still retreating.

“That doesn’t matter—rules are rules,”
Mei-Li lectured. She was chasing him slowly but surely around the perimeter of
the pool by now, with the lumpy gray sponge held out menacingly in front of
her. It was ridiculous and kind of funny—like a mouse chasing a lion. For the
first time since she’d stepped into the pool, she found she was enjoying
herself.

“But I don’t—” Six began, coming to rest
in a corner of the pool.

Mei-Li pounced. Surging forward, she slid
the slippery sponge between his muscular upper arm and his torso, tickling his
ribs mercilessly.

Six’s one exposed eye was wide and shocked
as great gusts of laughter suddenly erupted from his deep chest.

“Mei-Li,” he gasped, trying to get away
from her. “Please…no…”

But Mei-Li was a veteran of too many
tickle fights to count—though most of them had happened back in grade school
when she went to slumber parties, she still had all the right moves. Though Six
ducked and dodged, she too small and quick for him—the minute he shielded one
side of his big body, she attacked the other side, tickling until he was red in
the face from laughter and begging for mercy.

Mei-Li was laughing too in sheer delight.
The last thing she’d expected during the scary sex bath was a playful interlude
but she was enjoying herself to the hilt. Also, she liked Six’s laugh. It was
deep and rumbling and completely genuine—as though he couldn’t believe he was laughing
and yet couldn’t stop. Which made sense, since she continued to tickle him.

At last the big Kindred was doubled over
with laughter, tears streaming from his eye.

“Please…” he gasped, holding out a hand in
a gesture of defeat. “Please don’t…don’t do that anymore. I don’t…I can’t…” But
he couldn’t finish.

“It’s called tickling.” Mei-Li stopped but
stood over him with the sponge glove on her hand as though she might decide to
start again at any time. “Do you yield?”

Six nodded quickly. “I yield—I yield to
you. Only please, stop tickling me!”

“All right, I’ll stop…” Mei-Li winked at
him mischievously. “For
now
, anyway.”

“Thank you.” The big Kindred straightened
up carefully, keeping an eye on her in case she decided to resume.

“I’m guessing you’ve never been tickled
before,” Mei-Li said, deciding to take mercy on him and stop for good. “That’s
not surprising considering—Z4 hardly seems like the kind of place for pillow
fights and tickle wars. What did you think of it?”

Six shook his head in wonder, the corners
of his mouth still twitching upwards as if a few bubbles of laughter lingered
somewhere inside.

“I have never felt such intense
sensations. And it caused me to make such strange sounds…”

Mei-Li grinned. “It’s called ‘laughter.’
You were laughing.”

“You were laughing as well,” he accused
her. “And I was not ‘tickling’ you.”

“I was having fun—weren’t you?”

“Fun?” He shook his head again. “I…do not
know the meaning of the word.”

“Now you do,” Mei-Li pointed out. “Or one
meaning, anyway. Tickling, laughing, being silly together…that’s
fun
.”

But Six was still looking confused. To
Mei-Li he looked like the victim of a hit and run who was mildly stunned and
doesn’t quite know what happened to him. Only in his case, she supposed, it was
tickle and run.

“Have you really never laughed before?”
she asked, honestly curious. “I mean before you were, you know, the way you are
now? Emotionless?”

He frowned. “I…do not remember. Perhaps
before my transition to one of the Enhanced. But those memories are stored away
and I do not choose to examine them.”

“So you can get rid of your memories?
Just…store them away? Just like that?”

Six looked away. “It is one of the steps
of becoming one of the Dark Kindred. It was mandatory but I did not mind. I
was…more than willing to give up the memories of my life before I became one of
the Enhanced.”

Mei-Li opened her mouth to ask why…and
closed it again. She remembered Yipper saying something about Six having a
tragic past. Was that what he had chosen to forget? And what exactly was it
that he had pushed away and closed off?

I’ll probably never
find out.

“Anyway,” Six said, straightening up some
more. “I believe it is my turn to bathe you now.”

“What? But I only did half of you,” Mei-Li
protested. Not that she actually
wanted
to scrub Mr. Happy down there
under the water but still, every minute she spent washing Six was a minute he
wasn’t
washing her.

“Half is enough for tonight.” He sounded
stern. “We still have other bathing rituals to get through and the water will
be getting cold soon.”

“Oh…all right.” Reluctantly, Mei-Li tugged
at the lumpy
spoing
until it came off her hand with a sucking sound. She
handed it to the big Kindred but he shook his head.

“Upon reflection, I believe the rough
texture of the
spoing
might scrape or otherwise damage your tender skin.
May I bathe you with a
nissel
cloth instead?” From the edge of the tub,
he produced a flat, thin thing that looked a little like a square of glass. But
when he dipped it in the water, it went soft and floppy and took on the appearance
of a wet, see-through washcloth.

“Oh, um…” Mei-Li’s heart began to pound
again. She hadn’t minded washing him and had actually enjoyed tickling the big
Kindred because she felt in control. Now, she was feeling nervous again because
it was his turn to do the washing and instead of the large, lumpy sponge thing
between them, there was only going to be a thin piece of cloth.