Interlocking Hearts (23 page)

Chapter Twenty-Four

Waiting for legal council to assist you in your breaking and entering charges wasn’t fun. Watching that same lawyer begin to salivate at the possible career-making case gave Paisley the giggles.

Samantha Peat had advertising all over the city, and it was well known that she only handled the high-end clients herself. She’d worked to get an entire apartment complex shut down last week. Samantha knew how to work the media’s influence to secure judge and jury favor in a trial. The first thing she’d told Paisley when she walked into the holding room was, “A picture is worth a thousand words, and your face hasn’t stopped talking all day.”

Now Samantha was scribbling notes faster than Paisley could peek over the data pad to read them.

“You had a right to enter the building. It not being business hours isn’t much of an issue. When you are working on legislation like you were doing, there are many late nights. You were arrested for being in your place of business and shutting the door. Are you sure you don’t want to file charges? We could squeeze these assholes until they cry for their mommies.”

“I’m not above using the threat of a lawsuit as leverage, but I think we need to stick to setting a legal precedence for the rights of robotic citizens.” There were a lot of things Paisley learned working within a building full of elected officials and bureaucrats. They were only interested in how the paperwork they filed affected their ability to be re-elected. And Paisley wasn’t about to propose the robotics bills and amendments be put up for a vote. Rights were rights, not decisions to be voted on. It was time the world realized that.

“You are a better person than I am.” Samantha shook her head, but flipped to a clear page, and Paisley saw she was already prepping for the upcoming battle.

A snort of derision came from behind her and Paisley’s heart filled to see Coral and Quinn in the room.

“She’s an idiot,” Quinn said.

Coral pulled up a chair and sat next to Paisley. “Am I supposed to kiss your hand as a show of support?”

“People usually hold hands as a show of support. Kissing my hand would show a romantic interest,” Paisley explained as she grabbed and squeezed Coral’s hand.

The bandaged area around Coral’s elbow still pulled the air out of Paisley’s lungs. She cocked an eyebrow at Quinn.

He gave her a very slight nod before he pointed to the lawyer. “Is she good enough? We’re paying out the nose for her. They said she’s known for busting some pretty big balls, but if you’re not happy, we’ll keep looking.”

“I’m the best representation money can buy,” Samantha stated without being insulted.

“You’d better be,” Coral chimed in. “Otherwise we have overpaid.”

“I’ll pay you back,” Paisley told her friend.

Coral held up her arm. There was a small pinkish dot of her lubricant staining the gauze at her elbow.

“You already have.” Coral squeezed Paisley’s hand until her knuckles popped, then backed off to make sure she didn’t cause damage.

Ms. Peat cleared her throat. “You know it would be beneficial if you could produce the medical equipment that seems to have gone missing from the DMA during your incident there.”

Paisley glanced at Coral’s arm and then told her lawyer, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Samantha snorted. “As long as you can say it like that in front of a camera, I won’t press.”

After only a few more minutes, the lawyer did what Paisley hoped she’d do. Using the magistrate’s questionable actions regarding the robotic citizens, and Paisley’s employment in the City County Building as leverage, Paisley was released pending further investigation.

No more zip cuffs, and the electrified gate opening, were beautiful sights.

After she signed for her things, a large envelope was emptied in front of her. Paisley put on her earrings and smartwatch. She put her dead phone in her pocket. She’d need to borrow a charger until she got hers back from the palace.

“I need to go to the palace and pick up my things.”

Assuming Matilda hadn’t tossed them out. Something told Paisley she’d find her things unpacked and in a room somewhere.

“We’re already on it,” Quinn said. “My cousin is expecting us.”

It wasn’t a bad thing to have your best friend’s man related to royalty. Paisley hoped she could go back into the palace and not have the overwhelming urge to clean things. Since she hadn’t had those urges when it was her job, she’d probably be okay.

Speaking of jobs…

“I’m probably fired, since I am going to help you all work on a lawsuit against my former employer. I need to get on with a job hunt ASAP.”

Samantha kept talking to herself as she took notes. “This is causing you financial hardship. Even more reason to sue the DMA officials and get their nuts in a vise.”

“Hey!” the cop behind the electrified laser shield called out. “Just because you have a distinct lack of nuts, doesn’t mean you should talk about squeezing other man berries.”

He pulled the tablet Paisley signed for the release of her items back under the break in the shield.

“I have the biggest balls in my profession. I step on any that get in my way with a stiletto and a smile.”

Both Quinn and the guard backed up a step.

Coral stepped forward. “I am sure that was an expression, but I want to clarify that stepping on Quinn’s testicles with a sharp shoe heel will definitely come out of your pay.”

“Don’t worry, I have no plans for Mr. Briggs’s testicles,” Samantha said. “He’s a good one, Miss Sechshundert.”

Coral relaxed her shoulders once she clarified that the lawyer lady wasn’t going to crush Quinn’s happy bits. “That is good. I just told him I loved him today, and I have heard it makes for very pleasurable sex when you are in love. So I wouldn’t want his performance impaired.”

Quinn wrapped his arms around Coral from behind and nipped at her ear. “I love you too. Especially when you talk about my performance.”

Coral misread the cue. She leaned into the lawyer. “He is quite talented. He has learned how to take advantage of his mechanics even more recently. There are pistoning mechanisms in his legs. We’ve found that by releasing one of the knee locks he can—”

“Coral.” Quinn interrupted. “We need to get Paisley back to the palace, our lawyer needs to get to work, and we have a meeting with the king and queen before you can unlock my knees.”

Coral considered this and left without saying goodbye. Paisley did the formalities and exchanged information with the lawyer before catching up with the robotic love birds.

She fell into step with Coral. After clearing her throat to remind her robobestie that manners were important, Paisley said, “I told the law lady goodbye from you.”

“She is under my employ. I thought pleasantries were important for friendships. I have to tell her goodbye?”

“You have to close out a conversation. Goodbye is one of the quickest ways to do so.”

Coral hugged Paisley. “I love having you nearby to explain things again.”

Paisley hugged back. “I love being nearby to talk to you.”

Coral released Paisley but continued watching her as they walked to Quinn’s truck. Coral’s GPS allowed her to focus attention on whoever she was speaking with. A few people on the street turned to stare at Coral as she avoided a grate. Her focus was totally on Paisley’s face.

“Your tone is different. Are you affected emotionally by something?”

Paisley wiped at the mist in her eyes. “I missed you, Coral. That’s all.”

“I would say we should spend time together, but I don’t want you to have sex with Quinn, and that’s what I’m doing tonight.”

Paisley’s smile got bigger than she’d felt it in a long time. “I’m happy you finally told him you loved him.”

Coral disengaged her focus at that. “I found myself incredibly sad at the possibility of being shut down and never seeing Quinn again. I realized that I could survive without him at my side constantly, but knowing that I would never see him again caused such an awful emotion. He makes me happier than I thought I could be, and he accepts every gear I have, even those I want to update. There is something about me that he has deemed to be the essential part. Even if I change everything about my physical form, he’d still love me. I realized I felt the same about him. I decided that was love.” Coral’s chin snicked to the side and her eyes lost focus.

“You’re adding that as the definition of love to your database, aren’t you?” Paisley asked.

“I started another file,” Coral said when she came back from whatever she’d updated. “I’m keeping record of what things mean to me. I have my own opinion. I’m keeping record as I discover important things about myself.”

“Or you could keep a journal,” Paisley said.

“You mean write the words down on paper?”

“I write things down sometimes when I need to get my thoughts in order. I haven’t done it in a long time.” Paisley realized she hadn’t written in a journal since before she met Coral. “I need to do that more. We could go shopping for some nice journals together if you like.”

“I want to have sex first.”

“Me too,” Quinn said with a laugh.

So did Paisley. She thought about the men she’d kissed goodbye before the arrest. If she was honest, she was replaying a few key scenes from their night together and was quiet for most of the ride to the palace.

When you’re riding with robotics, you don’t have to keep up with small talk. Yet another benefit. But as they neared their destination, Paisley’s heart couldn’t take it anymore. She had to ask.

“So…I’m assuming Ben and Jon got the chip out of your arm.” Paisley tried to appear more nonchalant than she felt. “Where did they disappear to?”

“We used the incinerator at the repair shop to dispose of them,” Coral replied.

Paisley had to be missing something. “You did
what
to Ben and Jon?”

“I did nothing to Ben and Jon. I incinerated the chips we pulled from the local CoH applicants. I wouldn’t do anything with Ben and Jon. They are yours,” Coral concluded.

Quinn leaned around Coral as she sat in the middle and grinned at Paisley. “Oh,
are
they now…”

Paisley wrinkled her nose at Quinn. “I don’t know if I’d go that far, but I wouldn’t mind seeing the two of them again.”

“Why do you want to see them?” Quinn asked her.

Channeling her inner Coral voice, she replied, “Well…when a group of adults are sexually compatible and endure a life-threatening event together, I find sex is a fun way to release some stress, Quinn.”

“I agree,” Coral chimed in. “Sex would be good for Paisley, and I don’t want her to have sex with you. But Paisley, Jon and Ben have left to find the others on the application list. They are going to remove the chips from the applicants who aren’t local.”

Paisley found the fact that they left without saying goodbye harder to swallow than it should have been. She tried to tell herself she could find some hot guy to take her mind off the two she obviously wouldn’t be relieving stress with tonight.

It didn’t sound all that appealing.

“Dammit.”

“What is wrong, Paisley?”

“I’m having feelings and I don’t know that I like it.”

“They do complicate things,” her robotic bestie agreed.

It was a damn shame that knowing you had feelings didn’t help you figure out what to do with them.

Chapter Twenty-Five

The palace was alive this time of day. It was cleaning hours. The bots that had been recharging were set loose on the dirt and dust, and the maids were busy doing everything to prep for activities planned for the day. No matter what happened in the outside world, cleaning hours still went on.

Paisley looked through the heavy wooden door, but was having trouble stepping inside as a guest and not cleaning crew. It had taken her nearly ten minutes just to make it down a hallway as one of the vacuum bots whirred past. Its calibration was off and it didn’t quite go in a straight line. The little silver unit bumped into a wall and did the little dance of a mechanical tool revising its path.

Paisley was halfway down the hall going after the little machine before she realized she didn’t work here anymore, and she wouldn’t be taking the unit in to Mr. Montgomery for repairs. She stood watching the bot struggle. She’d seen Mr. Montgomery adjust these guys a million times.

“Screw it.”

Paisley walked down the hallway and pressed the unit’s power button. As it powered down she sat on the floor next to it.

After flipping the unit over, she removed the hatch at its base. The dials inside all had what looked like a foreign language on them, but she remembered making a joke about Mr. Montgomery fiddling with the bot’s penis knob. So, reaching down, she tweaked the knob at the very bottom.

She flipped the sweeper over and tapped the power button until it read “Test”. It whirred to life and began going in circles. Paisley powered it down and tried it again. She’d obviously spun the knob the wrong way.

A few more attempts and an hour passed before she finally sent a fully functional sweeper off to finish its rounds.

“I’m not paying you for repairs.”

You’d think she’d be used to people sneaking up on her with the company she kept, but Paisley jumped at Miss Matilda’s voice. The woman hopped into her nightmares on occasion and told her to scrub toilets.

Paisley hugged her anyway.

Air whooshed from Matilda’s lungs at Paisley’s grip, and Paisley tried to figure out which flavor of e-cig had been on the menu tonight. She couldn’t nail the scent.

“Is that pumpkin?”

“Sweet potato pie. I’m trying to watch my weight. I thought this would help. It just makes me want pie.”

Paisley hadn’t had pie in days. “Do you have any left?”

“With all the work you make for their majesties, I should make you eat crackers.” The old lady puffed a big cloud of smoke around her face. “But you helped Coral today. So for that…I have chocolate cake.”

Paisley nipped at Matilda’s heels all the way to the kitchen. If she couldn’t have sex, at least she could have cake. As it turned out, it was the
better than sex
chocolate cake the cook made for the staff on occasion. Paisley completely disagreed with the name, but she did love the gooey chocolate dessert.

She was well into her second piece when Coral and Quinn made their way to the fridge.

“Done already?”

Coral pulled one of her maintenance drinks from the cupboard. There had been a ton in the palace when Coral had lived here, and since she was the only one who could drink them, there was still a big stash.

“Needed lubricant,” Coral said as she tipped the bottle back and drank deep.

“No she didn’t.” Quinn kissed Coral’s neck and grabbed a beer, but Paisley noticed he chugged a bottle of water first. They’d been busy.

Quinn downed the entire bottle of water and half the beer before he noticed Miss Matilda and the cake.

Paisley pulled her plate closer to allow for easier food inhalation. “Nope. You got to have sex. Back off my cake.”

“Why don’t you go have sex, Paisley?” Coral asked. Coral was the one woman on the planet who wasn’t affected by cake. Paisley would have to see if she could give her friend an upgrade that would help her appreciate the chocolatey goodness.

“I’m already in for the night,” Paisley grumbled.

“Would you just admit that you have feelings for my comrades, already?” Quinn worked his way over to the cake.

Miss Matilda smacked his hand with a spatula as he reached for a taste. “I agree. This is cake for people who don’t get to be lucky.”

Paisley shoved another bite in her mouth. “Didn’t get lucky,” she corrected as she chewed.

“Either way, he doesn’t get cake.”

Paisley swallowed her bite. “He did already have pie.”

Quinn rolled his eyes and turned to Coral. “Pie is a euphemism for pussy.”

Coral nodded and she probably added it to her database.

“Paisley, why don’t you go share your pie with Jon and Ben?” Coral asked.

“It would be kind of difficult to do that when they ran off into the sunset.” Paisley saw Coral’s brow furrow. “I can’t have sex with them since they went out to help other people remove the chips the magistrate put into their arms.”

“They arrived at the palace twelve minutes ago. Should I have not suggested they stay in your room?”

Paisley didn’t even think about it. Within seconds she dropped her fork and bolted from the kitchen. There were far too many stairs and hallways in this damn palace.

She should have stayed in the servants’ quarters. It was a shorter jog. Paisley wasn’t out of shape, but she was starting to sweat as she came to her room. Her hand stalled on the doorknob.

They had kissed her before they left. They’d also called her stupid for staying. She wondered if they knew what had happened. She wondered why they had been let in the palace after causing a scene at the formal dining table. She wondered if she could just walk through the door and have fantastic sex and forget about all the noise in her brain.

Usually, great sex satiated her appetite for any man. It calmed her hunger for multiple partners as well. Sex always recharged her batteries and let her move on with what she had to do to get through a day.

Now she was nervous. No matter what she told herself, if she had sex with these guys again, it would mean something. And if she wanted it to mean something, she’d have to actually open the door and talk to them about it.

They had been together with other women. They had touched each other. They had feelings for each other. This was fucking messy.

“You do realize I have enhanced senses, and know you are standing outside the door rather than coming in here so we can ravage you properly,” Jon called from inside the room. “Apparently it is frowned upon to be naked in the palace in places other than a bedroom.”

This was why it was great to be intimate with a robotic human. They laid it on the line. Paisley put her hand on the solid mahogany to hold herself steady.

“I don’t know if we should ravage each other. I’m trying to decide if it’s a good move or not,” Paisley told the closed door.

“If you stay on that side of the door, you’ve obviously made a choice not to be ravaged,” Ben pointed out.

Hearing their voices together, Paisley’s heart rate clicked up a notch. It would be hot sex. It would mean something to her. But… “What would it mean if we have sex right now?”

“It would mean you would suck our dicks. Mine first, preferably, because I’m getting really damn hard thinking about it,” Ben said, and Paisley felt the need to rip off her clothes. “Then we would kiss and rub your body until you had at least two or three orgasms. We brought lube, but it doesn’t taste nearly as sweet as you do. Then we would take you. Hard. I think we agreed that I get to fuck that delicious pussy of yours tonight, and Jon would ravage you from behind. But we are open to suggestions.”

“From
this
side of the door,” Jon emphasized.

“I don’t know if it’s a good idea.” Paisley started to unbutton her pants, but shoved her hands in her pockets.

The door opened and Ben stared at her. Watching his pupils expand for her was the most beautiful sight. His face crinkled with some expression, but Paisley could only stare at his eyes. There was honesty in there and she needed to see it. The words she wanted to hear from him didn’t mean a thing if they weren’t the truth.

In the past, the truth had never been a good thing. Now…she hoped her luck was changing.

“I want to have sex with both of you, but I want it to be about more than pleasure.”

Ben looked at her and she held her breath waiting for his answer. She didn’t know how to continue. By his silence, he obviously didn’t either. What was right, and what was right for her heart didn’t seem to be lining up.

“You’re saying you care about us…or Jon…or me? You want to start a relationship? We aren’t exactly tied down to any place. We have to travel for our jobs,” Ben said.

Paisley realized she didn’t even know what they technically did for work. “Are you still spies?”

Jon was the only thing that could tear her gaze away from Ben. His mouth tipped downward as he answered. “Usually, spies are tied to a particular governing body. We are more investigators with a specific skillset. We prefer working with people who are on the right side of the issue, but there is a lot of gray area. And we recognize there is a difference between legality and what is right sometimes.”

Paisley’s hands fisted in her pockets and it pulled her zipper further apart. “That’s really hot.”

Jon’s frown reversed. His lips turned up and the tiny twist at the corners was near predatory. “I find myself pleased that you are intrigued by our chosen line of work.”

“But it’s hard to make and keep promises with what we do,” Ben interjected.

Paisley looked at both of them. “I’m not proposing marriage. I just need tonight to be about more than physical attraction. Can you promise me that if I open up myself for the next few hours, we’ll see if there’s something between the three of us that’s more than sex?”

Jon grabbed the little belt loops of her pants. He yanked her forward and Paisley heard the door shut behind her. Jon’s hands readjusted and he palmed her ass with his thumbs pushed through the rear loops.

“I wanted more than sex that first night.”

“You wanted information,” Paisley reminded him, but it was getting harder to form words as she heard the door lock.

“Yes, but I didn’t have to take you back to my room for that.” Jon’s hands squeezed and he pulled her tight against a very distinct erection. “I knew I could make you feel good right where we were, but there was something about you that made me bring you back to our room. The way you held me with your hands and dug the very edges of each nail into my skin made me want to hold tighter too.”

Paisley reached behind her and tried to get a handle on where Ben was. Her hand went a little lower than intended, and she realized there was a very good reason he wasn’t up against her. He’d been taking his clothes off.

When her hand landed on his dick, she wrapped around it without even thinking, and he pressed forward to make sure she didn’t let go. The warmth of his bare skin was seeping through her clothes.

With hardness pressing against her on either side, Paisley felt everything in her soften. She hadn’t allowed herself to be soft in so long. Being with these two let her relax.

Ben flexed and throbbed in her hand. “Are you wet for us, Paisley?” he whispered into her ear.

“You know she is,” Jon said.

He released the sides of her hips and he used those magical mechanical fingers to undo every snap, zipper and button she had on. He didn’t make any moves to remove her clothes, and Paisley sure wasn’t going to let go of the hot handful behind her.

“How about you take off my clothes and make sure?” she prompted.

Ben’s breath touched her ear as he said, “In a minute.”

Paisley felt Ben’s hands wrap around her. One arm crossed over her belly and his fingers dipped just inside the elastic waist of her underwear. The other arm pressed against her collarbone and bent her backward to accommodate her hand on his shaft. She held on as Ben fucked her fist in short slow strokes. She felt the little bit of precome leak onto her fingers and she clenched, wishing she could see it.

She began to turn until she noticed what Jon was doing in front of her. He pulled his shirt over his head and watched her reaction as he began to unbutton his pants.

Paisley didn’t know where to look. Every time she snuck a glance to see how much progress he’d made in getting those damn pants opened, she’d glance back up to see what Jon was looking at. It was always her. He was watching her expression. He smiled a little more each time she looked down again.

“You’re a tease.” She whimpered as Ben began to thrust in longer strokes into her hand. He went just a touch farther below her waistband, but stayed to the side of her hips.

Paisley wiggled as much as she was able, but she wasn’t even getting a nipple tweak out of this.

“We enjoy playing with you, Paisley,” Ben said into her ear. “I wish we could give you more than just a night.”

“Don’t,” she whispered. She didn’t want them to break a promise right now. She wanted honesty, but if the honesty was going to be painful, she could wait to hear it.

Jon finally dropped his pants. He began to stroke himself through a pair of snug boxer briefs.

“You’re stunning, Paisley. Your body is made for us to touch and please, but your strength is so much more than physical. You were beautiful today.”

She started to pull away, but then Jon dropped the underwear. “We didn’t expect to see you in those offices,” he said.

“I was the only one that could get in there. Besides you two, it seems.”

Jon strode up with the confidence of a man wearing a three-piece suit. He wore his sex appeal like another piece of clothing. He slid the tips of his fingers around her in soft intricate patterns. The tiny sliver of skin Ben had worked free between her pants and her shirt erupted in goosebumps as he trailed his light touch across her belly.

“You said you want this to mean something.”

Paisley didn’t want to think about her feelings. She couldn’t go there if they were leaving. She was just getting used to wanting to have them again.

Jon looked at her. She knew she should probably say something, but she was fried. The day had taken her nerves and roasted them. A hint of chocolate from the cake was still on her breath as she exhaled, and she sucked the air back in, but it wasn’t enough to say what she needed to.