Free Imperfect Partners by Ann Jacobs

clothes.”
    “No clothes are allowed on Luna Ten unless we have guests,” Shedir reminded Conan.
    “We’ll see about that.” A ll Conan wanted now was to be on his way, to settle in and start building permanent shelters and service buildings on Luna Ten. A lready he had recruited a handful of workers, mostly displaced Earthlings like himself, to augment the small group of laborers that Guy and Shedir had said would be put under his command.
    Of course he thought about Nebula, too. She’d felt so warm and soft this morning, cuddled up around his back, one arm resting on his lower abdomen—near the cock Pak Song couldn’t seem to forget about. “Don’t worry, I promise to take excellent care of your creations.”
    “You do that. Take care of new mate, too. Excuse me, I must return to palace. Prince A rik would not allow me to examine him yesterday.
    Doubt he will see me today, either, but I must not disobey his father’s order.” A s though anxious to use his skill with cybernetics on Obsidion’s newly returned crown prince, Pak Song prepared to leave for the Diamond Palace as Conan followed Guy and Shedir into Leander’s shop.
    * * * * *
    “You sure you don’t want a shave?” the barber asked when he handed Conan the mating gifts he had ordered.
    “I’m sure. Unless there is some rule on Luna Ten…” He looked toward his friends.
    Shedir shook his head. “Only the rules we imported from Earth, which thank the gods we are free to ignore if we want to. Maybe I should let my hair grow. Only thing is, I’d miss the incredible sensations when Doreen nibbles and licks my scalp. When she rolls her tongue ring over the sensitive spot here, it practically makes me come.” He reached up and ran his finger over a spot at the back of his bronze, oiled scalp.
    “Just about anything can make you come, my friend. Conan, I follow most of the Federation rules about appearance, but it’s mostly out of habit. So do Brad and the rest of us on Luna Ten. Because we want to. If you want to let your hair grow, do it. Nobody will care.” Guy grinned from his spot in the barber chair where Leander was preparing to wax away the stubble from his skull.
    Conan considered taking a seat in that other chair and giving in to tradition. He could shave his head as he had done daily since he was a child, until he had been too weak and broken to care about appearances. He could shave Nebula’s head as well, since doing so was part of the time-honored ritual of mating.
    But he wouldn’t. He’d leave the mating braid attached to her head, loosening it once they found their bed, wrapping the silken strands around his fist. A nd he’d keep his own hair, too. A fter all, he was a eunuch and she a sterilized female. Traditions need not apply to them.
    While they waited for Guy to finish with his grooming, Conan and Shedir talked. When Shedir described the very public mating ritual in the glade on Luna Ten, Conan wasn’t sure either he or Nebula would enjoy taking part in it. “What would you think if I chose to forgo the mating ritual altogether? I find the idea of saying the vows and taking Nebula in private appeals to me greatly.” Shedir smiled, but then his expression turned serious. “It surprises me that you would pass on staking your claim for everyone on Luna Ten to see.”
    “I don’t want Nebula to be embarrassed. She seems sensitive about her tattoo, and I imagine she feels the same about the glowing cock Pak Song gave me, though she hasn’t said so. I know men dominate and that females are supposed to come only when they’re mastered, made to feel helpless against their own desires. It’s just…”
    “Just that you feel less than a man?”
    “Maybe. A t the very least, I feel different. I want to enjoy the kind of devotion from Nebula that you have from Doreen, the same kind I sense that Guy has from Cassie. Nebula has been wounded more mentally than physically. She is only now beginning to believe she can have