“But the lounges still get raided.”

  “They do, and because we’ve got people standing watch, the vast majority of us get out every time.” He absently ran his fingers through my hair. “And it’s not just security that keeps us coming back here.”

  “It isn’t?”

  Aiden shook his head. “The thing is, once you’ve broken that rule about physical contact, you realize just how distant and isolated you are from everyone else. How much you need to be around people who aren’t keeping you at arm’s length. I mean, people come here for sex, but that’s just the beginning. There are people who come to these things and never have wireless sex with anyone. They dance, they might kiss, but that’s as far as it goes. I’ve seen people just strip down and get naked without ever having sex with anyone. They just need to be touched.”

  Strange how that wasn’t such a weird concept anymore. Despite everything I’d thought I knew, as I slid my hand along Aiden’s bare forearm, everything he’d said made sense.

  “I can’t imagine going back to that,” Aiden said softly, almost as if he were talking to himself. “Not touching people. It’s…” He trailed off and then pulled me closer.

  I wrapped my arms around him. “Hard to believe there was ever a time when this wasn’t a crime.”

  “I know.” He stroked my hair. “It’s a fucked-up world we live in.” He paused. “Have you heard what they’re talking about doing with the sim programs?”

  “Which part?” I asked dryly. “They’re always modifying the damned things.”

  “Rumor has it, they’re working on a program where the visual stim is just abstract colors, things like that. They might even remove the visual feed and have people essentially blindfolded.”

  “Yeah, I’ve heard about that,” I muttered. “And I hear they’re talking about implementing it as early as next year.”

  Aiden nodded. “Right. So people will be conditioned to get their sexual stimulation without associating it with a human partner.”

  I scowled. “Somehow that’s supposed to remove the temptation to go wireless.”

  His lips tightened. “That’s the theory, but it’ll never work. Even if people aren’t consciously associating a warm body or a pretty face with sex, the drive is still there.”

  “So what do you think will happen? People will start looking for wireless lounges in greater numbers?”

  “That, or we’ll have a population that’s even more fucked up in the head and can’t connect with each other. Probably both.”

  “The more time I spend with you, the more I’m starting to believe that.”

  “I figured you would.”

  I searched his eyes. “Why me?”

  “Hmm?” He slid his hand down my arm. “What? I’ve already explained—”

  “I know, but there had to be something. You had to know you were playing a dangerous game when you told me about this.” I turned onto my stomach and propped myself up on my forearms. “What made you think I’d come with you instead of turning you in?”

  “Sometimes you can just tell. There’s always that bird in every cage that wants to be anywhere but there while all the others are perfectly content, and I realized you were that bird.”

  “You must have known before I did.”

  “Well, it might have been some wishful thinking too.”

  “I think you were right, though.” I slid my hand into his and traced gentle arcs with my thumb. “Now that I’m here, I can’t imagine…”

  “Once you feel this close to someone,” he whispered, stroking my hair, “it’s hard to imagine going back.”

  “It’s not just that I feel closer to you.” I swallowed hard and didn’t lift my gaze from our hands. “I feel further from everyone else. Detached.”

  He touched my face. “This is how it’s supposed to be. We’re not meant to be that far apart.”

  I shut my eyes and pressed against his hand.

  “People need to touch each other. And sometimes”—his thumb brushed my cheekbone—“sometimes that connection runs deeper. Gets more…intimate.”

  I opened my eyes. “But the laws. And raids, the lounges, and…” I shook my head. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “No, it doesn’t.” He moistened his lips. “For the record, I never wanted to put you at risk when I brought you out here. I swear it.” He was quiet for a moment. “I brought you here because I thought you’d enjoy it, but also because I just had a feeling this would happen.” He caressed my cheek. “The truth is, I wanted to know you like this.”

  I held his gaze, unsure what to say or how to even comprehend the feelings fluttering in my stomach and aching in my chest.

  “And it doesn’t hurt,” he whispered, trailing his fingertips down my cheek, “that I’ve hoped every day since I started coming to that simhouse that you’d want this. Because I really have wanted you from day one.”

  “Have you?”

  “I have.” He tipped up my chin with his finger so we were looking in each other’s eyes. “And you haven’t disappointed.”

  “Neither have you.”

  He smiled. “Do you have to leave any time soon?”

  “How long do you want me to stay?”

  Aiden lifted himself up and kissed me, teasing my lips apart with his tongue as his hand slid between us, and when he closed his fingers around my hardening cock, I deepened the kiss. Aiden stroked my cock, encouraging my erection. I shuddered. He didn’t have to give me an answer. He already had.

  Stay until I have you again.

  Stay until we make each other come again.

  Stay.

  So I stayed.

  Chapter 14

  Three nights later, despite my lingering concerns about Rodney, I went back to the lounge. A few nights after that, again. I couldn’t get enough. Of the atmosphere, of the palpable pheromones in the air, and especially of Aiden. I couldn’t stop thinking about his touch, and about the look in his eyes when we were lying together, shrouded in the secrecy of suspended sheets and illuminated only by the harsh light of a single bulb.

  “I’ve been dying for this all day,” he murmured one evening.

  “You and me both.” I kissed him, holding on tight because I’d be damned if I was letting go anytime soon.

  Aiden said nothing. He leaned down to kiss my neck, and I arched against him. His chin was rough against my collarbone, and I bit my lip and gasped as he nipped the side of my neck. His lips and his teeth drove me insane. His breath, warm and soft, raised goose bumps all along—

  Bang! Bang!

  Metal on metal, and it echoed through the room. Aiden’s head snapped up. His eyes were wide, focused in the direction of the door, every muscle in his body tense. All around us, moans stopped abruptly. The whole place was eerily still.

  The lights suspended above us flashed twice.

  Instantly, the stillness was replaced by sharp cursing and the sounds of rushed movements.

  I looked at Aiden. “What’s—”

  “We have to go.” He scrambled to his feet and tossed me my suit. “Put it on. Quick.”

  I didn’t question him. I suited up and shoved my feet into my boots.

  Someone ran by us. Then another.

  I stood. “Fuck. It’s—”

  “A raid. We’ve got less than five minutes to get the hell out of here.”

  “Do—”

  “No time. Let’s go!”

  I didn’t argue. I followed him out of the curtained alcove. Other people, all disheveled and still zipping up, headed in the same direction, hurrying down the narrow hallway in the opposite direction of the lounge.

  He ran, and I stayed hot on his heels.

  At the end of the hall, someone opened up a makeshift hatch in the floor, but Aiden gestured at a ladder that went up into the ceiling. “This way.”

  Up?

  But before I could protest, he scaled the ladder and disappeared through another hatch. The others, including the one who’d opened the hatch in the floor, looked at me expectantly. Without much time and no other options to speak of, I followed Aiden up that ladder and then two more.

  This may have been an office building at some time. The walls had been gutted, stripped of wires, pipes, insulation, and anything else that might have been of value. The floor was littered with chunks of drywall, broken glass, and bent furniture, which we body-swerved, jumped over, or ran right across if there was no other choice.

  The others who’d come up with us scattered, some going this way and some going that way. At every turn, the group split up. Before long, Aiden and I were alone. We were getting close to the outside too. There was a lobby up ahead, the cracked floor covered with debris and glass.

  And outside, flashing blue and red lights said this was the wrong way.

  “Shit,” Aiden muttered. “Come on.” He turned and headed down another hallway. At the end of that hall, a blue arrow had been spray-painted on the wall, and it was fairly recent, but it pointed right, and Aiden went left.

  “What about the arrow?” I asked as we ran.

  “Decoy. I’ll explain later.”

  I didn’t argue. I just followed.

  Aiden darted around the corner and stopped. He motioned for me to stay against the wall, and then he glanced back around the corner.

  “Shit,” he muttered again and grabbed my arm as he started running.

  “What the hell? Are we blocked in?”

  “Nope. There’s one more way out.”

  One more. Oh. Great. Awesome.

  But I didn’t have much choice, so I followed him. The hallway took us out to an outdoor mezzanine. No exits, and up ahead was a waist-high concrete railing. A dead end. If my heart could have beaten any faster, it would have. I didn’t look back. There were booted feet behind us now, and they were close enough I didn’t need to look back.

  “It’s a dead end!” I said.

  “Do you trust me?”

  “Uh, yeah, but—”

  “Then do exactly what I do.”

  He picked up speed, heading straight for the railing. I cringed inwardly. Oh God.

  Aiden put his hands on the railing, swung his legs over, and disappeared over the other side.

  Heart pounding, I did the same. My boot caught on the railing, and I stumbled, but Aiden grabbed my arm when I hit the ground just a few feet below, and he kept me upright.

  Once I had my feet under me, he let go and brushed past me.

  To his bike.

  I looked around and realized we were on the other side of the building where his bike was parked.

  “Quick!” Chain rattled against metal. “Get on.”

  He got on the bike, and I joined him.

  Shouts. More shouts. Thundering boots. Motorcycles firing up all over the place.

  Aiden peeled out. The bike fishtailed. My heart leaped into my throat, and I was already envisioning us skidding across the ground when he righted us, straightened the bike out, and accelerated down a straightaway.

  We leaned hard to the left and took a sharp turn. A few meters later, another hard turn to the right.

  I didn’t dare look over my shoulder for fear of unloading both of us, but craning my neck just a little gave me a good view of one of the dust-covered side mirrors.

  “Aiden,” I shouted over the engine. “They’re right behind us!”

  “I know that. Hang on!”

  I held on tighter and buried my face against the back of his neck. That didn’t help. It only made my equilibrium feel even more compromised. Apparently it was eyes open for this ride.

  Fuck, I’m gonna die.

  He took several sharp turns and then went down an alley that, thanks to some abandoned cars and trash bins, was so narrow my knees were just centimeters away from scraping something as we flew past. At the end of the alley, I expected him to turn, but he kept going straight, and I cringed as we headed straight for a building.

  He followed a concrete ramp up, and glass and debris crunched beneath the tires and the engine echoed off the interior as we rolled in through a lobby.

  Just beyond the lobby, he stopped. We both got off the bike. Aiden killed the engine, walked the bike into a side room, and leaned it against the wall. Then he gestured for me to follow him.

  We moved deeper into the structure, creeping down dark hallways across the remnants of clumps of dirty pink fiberglass and tangles of rusted wires.

  Inside a windowless room, he motioned for me to stay against the wall, and with a finger to his lips, ordered me silent. I stayed as still as I could. Silent was more difficult. I’d mostly caught my breath from getting out of the lounge, but I hadn’t run like that in a long time.

  Aiden released a long breath. “They’re gone.”

  “Are you sure?”

  He nodded. Shoulders rising and falling as he tried to catch his breath, he glanced back as if to check for our pursuers. “Fuck. They’ve been getting aggressive lately.”

  “Yeah, it’s been all over the news.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Half of those are bullshit. But yes, there have been more raids than usual.” He touched my face, his glove dull and cool against my skin. “You don’t have to keep doing this. I can’t ask you to put yourself at risk.”

  “I knew the risks before I came the first time.” I looked in the direction we’d come from. “Well, most of them. But I knew I was taking a risk.” I put a hand on his waist. “And I’m still taking that risk.”

  He chewed his lip, brow furrowed like he wasn’t sure how much to push the argument.

  “Besides”—I grinned—“that was kind of fun.”

  “It—fun?” He stared at me incredulously. Then he laughed and wagged a finger at me. “You’re insane.”

  “Then I’m in good company.”

  “Yes, you most certainly are.”

  I smirked. “And don’t tell me you didn’t enjoy speeding around on that bike.”

  Aiden tried and failed not to smile. “Well, I mean, it does go fast, and—”

  “Uh-huh. That’s what I thought.” Laughing softly, I drew him in for a kiss. “So what happens now?”

  “The lounge will relocate. Then people will start trickling back—”

  “No. I mean, what happens now?”

  “We—”

  I cupped him through his suit, and his breath hitched. “We’re here. We’re alone.” It was strange, feeling him but not; we were touching through insulated layers, the gesture warm even though the contact wasn’t. I rubbed my thumb along his erection as if I might find some weak spot in his suit and feel the heat of his flesh for even a fleeting second.

  He groaned. “This is so dangerous.”

  “It is. But I can’t help it. I can’t stay away from you.”

  “And you think I can?” His lips met mine, their warmth contrasting with the coolness of the night. My heart raced, but the lingering sense of danger only added to the kiss, heightening the eroticism and making me want to drag him down onto the ground right where we stood.

  A distant engine startled us enough to break the kiss. We both looked in the sound’s direction, holding our breath and holding still.

  It approached, but then abruptly started back the other way and faded into the distance.

  Aiden exhaled. “We need to get out of here.”

  “I know we do. But I don’t want to, and I don’t think you do either.”

  His eyes widened. “You know this is—”

  I kissed him, and he didn’t resist anymore. He pulled me to him, pinning my hand between us and pressing it against his hardening cock. I teased him through his suit, and he hissed sharply. We were both panting and sweaty, with a thin layer of dust clinging to the perspiration on our skin, but that gave the kiss a hot, raw feeling, an animalistic taste. When we pulled apart, we were still out of breath, and my God, I knew that look in his eyes—we were going to finish what had been interrupted in the lounge.

  He kissed me this time, and he kissed me like he only did when he was inside me—deep, breathless, like this could be over at any moment, but he wanted it to last forever.

  I took in a deep breath through my nose. Even with the dust and decay, the air here was cleaner, devoid of the club’s sweat and perfume. Everything I breathed, everything I tasted, was us. When we were silent, so was the world around us. No thumping bass. No stomping feet. No voices shouting, moaning, singing. The walls and floor didn’t vibrate. Everything around us was still, and without all the sensory distractions, I was even more aware of every touch we exchanged and every sound either of us made.

  Nerves had my heart pounding and my stomach fluttering, but desire kept me from hesitating. I closed my fingers around his dick, and in the silence of our hiding place, I heard him whisper, “Ooh, fuck,” as I drew down the zipper on his suit.

  “Think we should stop?” I whispered.

  “Of course we should.” His arm snaked around me. “But don’t you dare.”

  As if I could.

  We opened zippers and pushed suits off just as far as we needed to in order to stroke each other’s cocks. Then he kissed me, and we stood there, against that crumbling wall, half-naked and breathing each other in as we drove each other insane. I’d never been this close to him outside of a lounge and the near-silence made my head spin. I could hear everything—skin rubbing skin. Our suits creaking against each other and Aiden’s hissing against the wall. Both of us breathing sharply and erratically through our noses. The soft wet sounds of kissing that I’d never heard this clearly before.

  A noise startled us both, and we froze—not moving, not breathing.

  It took a second to register what we heard, but as the motorcycle engine made itself known, my blood turned cold. Through the hole in the wall where there’d once been a window, more sounds came. Footsteps. Voices. Another bike approached and skidded to halt, spraying gravel against the wall Aiden leaned on.

  My heart thumped, and I started to release Aiden, but his arm tightened around my waist.

  “Aiden, we—”

  “You like it dangerous.” He grinned. “This is dangerous.”

  “I know it is.” I shivered. God, yes, it so was. “But we—”