Dominance (Fox Meridian Book 8) Read online

  They actually found Neiman, dressed in a gold, silk wrap, in one of the rooms in the studio block. He was sitting on one of those folding cloth chairs with ‘DIRECTOR’ printed on the back, facing six nude women who were all standing there with bored looks on their faces.

  Neiman did not look bored. To Fox, the producer, or director, or whatever, looked like a kid who had just been handed a bag of assorted sweets and was delighted at having to pick one, knowing he would get the others later. He was, like Ashburton, handsome, but more of his body and face had come from genetics. He had had his nose reshaped, his cheekbones sharpened, and his eyes turned a deeper blue, but his hair was naturally blonde, quite full and falling to his shoulders in a tousled mess, and he had had minimal muscle grafting done. Fox had seen a workout room through one of the glass walls and it looked like Neiman used it.

  The man looked around as Fox walked in with the blonde, who Fox had decided to christen Bubbles until someone supplied a name. ‘Oh,’ Neiman said. ‘Where have you been all my life? Get your clothes off and line up, honey. I don’t got all day.’

  Fox sighed and transmitted an ID pulse. ‘I’m Captain Tara Meridian. My PA called to ask if you could answer a couple of questions about Thomas Winsford.’

  ‘Oh… Oh, yeah. I saw something. I’m in the middle of this casting call. I need someone for–’

  ‘The pool scene?’

  Neiman blinked at her. ‘Uh, yeah, how did you–’

  ‘All cops can read minds, Mister Neiman. Number two. Second from the left. More athletic, longer legs, but she’s still got boobs.’

  ‘Uh, yeah, well…’

  ‘And now we’ve sorted that out, I just need ten minutes of your time. Alone.’

  ‘Yeah, yeah, right. Piper, get number two there on the standard contract and, uh… Studio four’s empty, right?’

  Bubbles, who was apparently Piper, beamed some more. ‘Yes, Davy. They’re shooting the dream sequence in two and the DP scene in one.’ For someone who seemed to have very little up top, or above her chest anyway, Piper seemed to have a good memory. Fox reconsidered the little blonde girl for a brief instant and came to the conclusion that Bubbles fitted her better.

  ‘Okay. Right,’ Neiman said, getting to his feet and picking up his chair. ‘Thank you, girls. We’ll be in touch if we need more. Sorry if you didn’t make it. Blame the cop.’ And he set off toward the central section of the studio block which was some sort of crossroads between the various rooms. ‘How did you know what we needed for the pool scene anyway?’ he asked, assuming Fox was behind him. She was.

  ‘Bub– Piper said I’d be good in it. I picked the closest one to my body type. She looked about a D-cup though. Not that I think your clientele would complain.’

  Neiman looked back at her as he pushed into another of the recording rooms. ‘No, but they’d sure as Hell be happy enough with you. Shame.’

  Studio three was at the back, overlooking the ocean. Or it would have been if not for the huge wall that was in the way. Instead it overlooked a garden, of sorts, which looked like it had been planted up to provide areas they could use for outdoor sets. There were trees in a block, bushes in a block, and a square lawn. There might have been further regions there, out of sight behind the main house. At a guess, this was the largest of the indoor sets, unless the pool room counted, and it was a blank white space at the moment.

  ‘I thought everything was done with virtual sets these days,’ Fox said. ‘Why do you need the garden? That’s set up for outdoor recording, right?’

  ‘Oh yeah. Most of it’s done with v-tags and filled in in post. Have to have the furniture, o’course, but that’s mostly standard and dressed in post too. Except… You can’t really do that with sensies. We don’t do so many of those, but if we want to do an outdoor scene for a sensie, we need an outdoors to do it in.’

  ‘Not at this time of year, I’d imagine.’

  Neiman let out a braying laugh. ‘No way. No market for feeling like your balls are freezing off while you bang a bimbo.’

  ‘Oh God, he’s a sleaze,’ Fox said silently. ‘I thought Ashburton was bad, but…’ Aloud, she asked, ‘I believe you know a club named Sheela Na Gig?’

  ‘Yeah. Yeah. Bondage place.’ His smile turned leering. ‘Some great talent in that place, even in the public rooms.’

  ‘You mentioned it to Barrymore Ashburton.’

  ‘Might have mentioned it around Barry. Mentioned it to Thom Winsford. He’s old, but he likes the BDSM vids I do. Did, obviously. O’course, he looked at me like I was something he’d scraped off his shoe when I suggested the club, but I figure he tried it. You get to know people’s kinks in this business. Thom was into some kinky stuff.’

  ‘Mm. Did you supply him with anything kinky aside from the bondage vids?’

  ‘Like what?’

  Fox shrugged. ‘Cuffs, chains… drugs.’

  ‘Fuck no! Cuffs and chains you can get anywhere these days. Drugs would be illegal, right? You’re not talking about prescription stuff.’

  Fox smiled. ‘Right. Just for my records, Mister Neiman, could you tell me where you were on Saturday night between nine and midnight?’

  ‘No, but if you ask Piper, she’ll tell you. I went out clubbing with her and a couple of the other girls. She’ll know where we went and when. I think we got back here about two and we got to sleep about four.’ He was leering again.

  ‘You and Piper?’

  ‘Me and all of them. I’ve got a big bed.’

  ~~~

  ‘Fox?’ Marie wandered down the corridor in Fox’s apartment, pausing when she heard the shower running. She leaned in through the bathroom door. ‘Fox?’

  ‘Yeah, I’m here,’ Fox said from the walk-in shower area. ‘I’ll be out in a minute.’

  ‘Showering at four in the afternoon?’

  ‘Washing the slime from two large slugs off.’

  The water cut off and the blowers started, and Marie waited for them to stop before speaking again. ‘I thought you had this super-auto-cleaner thing in that body.’

  Fox walked out of the shower, stark naked and not the least bit abashed. ‘Sometimes, a shower is more of a symbolic thing than a need for actual cleanliness. How did your modelling gig go? Finished?’

  ‘We wrapped about three. They seemed happy with it. They’re planning to run four different blips. They’ve bought time with IB-nineteen for the first two weeks of M.J. after the mid-season break. I asked.’

  ‘Well, Belle records those anyway.’ Fox walked through into her bedroom and pulled a fresh bodysuit out of a drawer. ‘Did you just come up here to chat, or was there something specific?’

  Marie shrugged. ‘Chat. Sam’s out with a client. Should be back at six. Hey, do you want to come down and pretend to eat food tonight? Kit too. We haven’t done the “house evening meal” thing in a while.’

  ‘See what Sam’s mood is like when he gets back. Sometimes he just wants to hide in a corner for an hour or two. But otherwise, sure, why not? Kit?’

  Kit’s gynoid avatar walked in through the bedroom door, rather than the bathroom connecting door. ‘I should quite enjoy that, Marie. Thank you.’

  Fox nodded. ‘Looks like it’s a date.’

  ~~~

  ‘I was wondering,’ Fox said as she put down her knife and fork and relaxed back in her chair. She felt relaxed, and was dressed relaxed having come down in just the black bodysuit she had put on earlier. It was a new, quite simple design – a high-hipped tank with almost no back – but she had taken to wearing them in black after Jason’s death and had not changed back yet. Plain black had developed into something a little translucent with a sparkle in it, but it was still black.

  ‘You were wondering?’ Sam asked when she said nothing further. He had finished a few minutes earlier and complimented the chef, Marie, on her cooking. Marie had suggested that he should really compliment Belle’s recipe-tutor library.

  ‘Okay, um, you guys have been seeing each other for a wh
ile now. About eighteen months by my reckoning and you haven’t got sick of each other yet. I was wondering whether you’d given any thought to formalising it a bit more.’

  ‘Marriage?’ Marie asked, frowning. She still had some of the Thai stir-fry she had made on her plate, even though her portion had been smaller than everyone else’s. Marie had noted Fox’s choice of outfit and run off to the bedroom, returning in a burgundy teddy and purple hold-up stockings with matching six-inch, platform pumps. The teddy was mesh with strategic lace in it and it came from the range she had been modelling for the last two days. ‘I don’t think we, um…’

  ‘I was thinking more of you moving up to Sam’s apartment properly. Rather than keeping the clothes you don’t want in the basement and barely ever going down there.’

  Sam’s eyes narrowed. ‘I assume there is an ulterior motive for this concern over our living arrangements.’

  ‘It’s not concern, it’s… I just thought that Kit should have a space of her own, and if Marie moved upstairs, Kit could use the basement.’

  ‘I should point out that I do not require additional space,’ Kit said ‘I manage perfectly adequately in Fox’s apartment.’

  ‘But it would be nice to have somewhere more personal to you,’ Sam said. ‘That I can understand.’

  ‘Me too,’ Marie said. ‘I don’t really use the rooms downstairs, uh, well, except when Sam has a client in.’

  ‘Rare,’ Sam said, nodding, ‘but it does happen. I accommodated one out-of-town client overnight once.’ He frowned, crossed his arms, and looked thoughtful. ‘It’s a double bed downstairs, isn’t it?’

  ‘Uh-huh. Not a big one, but it’s a double.’

  ‘So, if we did need somewhere for you to hide, Kit could accommodate you for a few hours, or even overnight.’

  ‘Of course,’ Kit replied. ‘I’m sure we could come to some arrangement.’ She gave Marie a grin which had the actress’s cheeks colouring. ‘And I would pay rent for the space,’ Kit added. ‘I have an income from Palladium which largely accumulates in an account the company set up for me. I really don’t have a great deal to spend money on.’

  ‘I’m sure we can come to some arrangement,’ Sam replied, flashing Kit a smile which had the gynoid’s cheeks colouring. Marie giggled. ‘Let’s give it some thought for a few days. If no one can think of a reason why this won’t work, we’ll go ahead. Uh, assuming that you’re amenable with moving in with me, Marie?’

  ‘I practically live up here anyway.’

  ‘Yes, but this is a decision to make that, as Fox said, more formal. It’s…’

  ‘Doing it on purpose instead of the natural osmosis that seems to happen with relationships,’ Fox said.

  ‘Oh,’ Marie said. ‘I… I don’t think it changes anything. Like you said, let’s think about it.’

  ‘I think that would be a wise idea,’ Kit said.

  ‘Good,’ Fox agreed. ‘Hey, I got an actress a part in a vid today?’

  ‘You did?’ Marie asked, blinking.

  ‘Uh-huh. Not the kind of thing you’d want to audition for. Well, audition might not be the right word. It was more like a cattle market. Porn vid of some sort.’

  ‘You move in strange circles, Fox,’ Sam said. ‘What were you doing at a porn audition?’

  ‘Landing the part if I’d been willing, apparently. I went out to Long Island to interview a guy named David Neiman.’

  ‘Ah, hence the shower when you got back,’ Marie said, grinning.

  ‘Yeah. Guy was anthropomorphic slime.’

  ‘I have a couple of his productions in my collection,’ Sam said.

  Fox raised an eyebrow. ‘Seriously?’

  Sam smirked. ‘He sometimes has a budget. He’s done a few high-end vids, with a plot, and acting which is bearable.’

  Fox picked up her wine. ‘Well, put one on. I can call it research.’

  ~~~

  Slavers of Lesbon 9 was… Fox was having a little trouble coming up with appropriate terminology, and Kit had made an excuse and left, so she was not there to provide useful terms.

  It was not actually that bad, but calling it good seemed a little too strong. It had a plot and the acting was not entirely wooden. The CGI seemed to have been done by a professional. The lead was Lilian LaCroix, who Fox had actually heard of and was not that bad. She was, unfortunately, playing Queen Lesbia of the Lesbons, who came from a world peopled entirely by beautiful women who wore barely any clothing and had to steal women from other worlds to keep their population up.

  ‘Couldn’t they just come up with some worthwhile biotech?’ Fox asked as Lesbia set about introducing a new Lesbon to the delights of girl-on-girl action. ‘I mean, they have faster-than-light spaceships…’

  ‘It’s impolite to point out plot holes in the barely viable plot of a porno,’ Sam replied.

  Lesbia set about some enthusiastic cunnilingus on her chained, apparently virgin, captive, and Marie said, ‘At least it has a plot. A-and the sex is kind of hot.’

  ‘That would be the point of it being a porn vid.’

  Fox listened absently as Sam and Marie discussed the merits of the sex in the, relatively few, videos Marie had watched from Sam’s collection. Her mind was more on the scene being played out. Okay, so this was lesbians and bondage, but this was the kind of thing Winsford had engaged in: chain down some girl and then have at her. Lesbia had even shared the ‘Draught of Lust’ with her victim prior to doing the chaining, and Winsford had used Cupie and Rockit. Fox could understand the psychology: it was basically rape. Rape for someone who wanted the dominance and control, and wanted the assurance that his victim was willing and enjoying the experience. With Cupie in her, any woman became a sex-starved hooker. It worked on men too, but using it could be dangerous since it reduced them to little more than animals.

  The psychology behind Winsford’s other activities was a little more opaque. Why would a man who treated women the way he had have any desire to be chained up and whipped? Some sense of guilt? A desire to be punished? Naomi had said that Winsford had only been able to get off that way, but he had clearly come up with other ways to get his end away.

  Fox was just coming to the conclusion that she needed to talk to Naomi again when she felt the shoulder strap of her suit being pulled down. Frowning, she looked down to see Marie working the plazkin past her elbow and Marie had her arm free before Fox could decide on a reaction. And then Marie leaned over and sucked Fox’s left nipple into her mouth.

  Sam, Fox discovered when she glanced over, was aware of his girlfriend’s actions and was now watching that rather than the vid. As Marie reached down, sliding her fingers under the front of Fox’s suit, Sam lifted Marie up into a kneeling position on the sofa and spread her legs. Marie moaned, sending vibrations through Fox’s breast, as Sam’s tongue went to work on Marie, but Fox was more concerned about the fingers Marie was currently using to considerable effect on her clitoris.

  Briefly, Fox considered the idea that she should say something. Say something which would stop this. But Kit had been right: Fox had been ignoring that kind of physical need for six months and there was no stopping the orgasm which was building. Frankly, she did not really want to.

  12th January.

  ‘So, uh, that happened,’ Fox said at breakfast.

  ‘Sure did,’ Marie replied. Fox had put her suit back on after getting up, but Marie had elected to wear one of Sam’s shirts and had not done it up especially well.

  Sam was, as was often the case, shirtless and barefoot. ‘I think we can all agree that that happened. Given that it stopped happening around three a.m., I think we can all agree that we enjoyed it.’

  ‘Duh,’ Fox replied. ‘You live up to expectations and you’ve taught Marie a few new tricks.’

  ‘Since we’re passing out the compliments, I should add that my belief that I was missing out by not taking you to bed was entirely accurate.’

  ‘I said we should try a threesome back when Sam and I first got togeth
er,’ Marie pointed out, smirking.

  ‘So this is all your fault?’ Fox asked.

  Marie blinked. ‘I don’t think there’s fault… I was a little tipsy, and there was Queen Lesbis–’

  ‘Lesbia,’ Fox corrected.

  ‘Queen Lesbia getting all…’

  ‘Lesbian?’

  ‘Yeah. And there you were, wearing just about nothing. I haven’t been with a woman since you, and I thought, “Well, why the fuck not?” Sort of thing. Uh, and I figured Sam would take the hint and he did. I slept like a baby.’ Marie smiled, rather contentedly. ‘A really exhausted baby.’

  Fox shook her head, a vague grin on her lips. ‘I slept just like I always do. Just a bit later than usual.’ She looked at Sam. ‘Any… regrets isn’t quite right, but anything?’

  Sam took a thoughtful sip of coffee. ‘No. If I had to be analytical about it, I believe that was the right way for us to finally get together. It wasn’t us getting together, it was…’

  ‘A very small orgy?’

  ‘I think you need at least four for an orgy.’

  ‘Right. So, next time we don’t let Kit sneak off before it starts?’

  Kit appeared beside the table, in kitsune-avatar form. ‘The next time an evening meal starts out with Fox and Marie barely dressed, I shall join you.’

  ‘Next time,’ Fox said. ‘Right. What about Vali, huh?’

  Kit looked thoughtful for a second. ‘Well, obviously, if I can persuade him to come for a visit, he can join in too.’

  ~~~

  ‘So, um, I ended up in a threesome with Sam and Marie last night.’

  Naomi paused briefly in the process of sitting, and then she smoothed her skirt under her, sat down, crossed her legs, and smiled. ‘Did you enjoy it?’

  Fox rolled her eyes and laughed. ‘Sam has not been neglecting Marie’s education and he lives up to his reputation.’

  ‘Marie suggested you were no slouch, even prior to getting a spine you can almost fold in half. So you had some fun, but you’re worried it might change things?’

  Fox lifted her coffee cup and sipped. ‘I… It was three friends having some fun, not me and Sam, or me and Marie again for that matter. I don’t think it’s a problem because it just felt friendly. Well, no, it felt fucking amazing, but–’