Free Don't Call Me Kitten! by Arwen Jayne Page A

changing shades of a
person’s skin... And if you could touch a person even better. The
temperature and moisture or dryness of their skin or a thin bead of
sweat could tell you oh so much. But the woman’s breathing hadn’t
changed and there was no wave of heat or cold coming off her, no
pheromones of fear or arousal. So it wasn’t any thriller, horror or
romance she was reading. She doubted her companion’s book was much
more than a guide to negotiating her next business deal. Maybe it
helped her go to sleep.
    Personally she
didn’t trust the man seated five rows back so she only lightly
immersed herself in one of her favorite novels. Her No 1 kick ass
heroine was busy sucking the life out of some psychopathic shape
shifter who'd badly messed up one of her men. Helena let the
adrenalin and vicarious arousal the story gave her keep her awake.
Another few hours and they’d be landing in Sydney. If she could
lose her tag maybe she could get some sleep on her connecting
flight.
6
     
    The feel of
the Bentley's keys in her hand gave Tyra immense pleasure. It had
been months since Simon had given her his old Bentley GT Sports
when she'd asked for it. She hadn't had the heart to see it sold.
It had soul. Simon's essence pervaded it. Convincing George
Morrisby, Simon's chauffeur, to let her drive it had been a whole
different kettle of fish. He'd insisted she learn to drive it like
it deserved. Now that she'd finished all her advanced driver
training George no longer had any excuse not to hand over the keys
but he'd still been reluctant, seeing it as his job to drive her to
the council meeting. In the end Tyra had gotten devious. She knew
George had a soft spot for the local electrician Ally. They were
more than just good friends, they were a team. Often working late
into the night on one engineering project or the other. Sometimes
ably assisted by Upal and Mendal, two ex-Din who were now their
friends as well as allies.
    Trouble was
Ally seemed resistant to George's more intimate advances. Rumour
had it that she'd had her heart burnt when she was a teenager. The
offending fink had long since left town but Ally hadn't had a
relationship since.
    Tyra, knowing
that Ally was a closet gourmet, convinced George to entice her with
some of the food from his homeland. With the help of their local
chef extraordinaire, Simon, they had prepared a sumptuous mix of
vegetarian delights. Not something that was that easy given that
most Sudanese food was meat based or full of onions and hot
chillis. One of the side effects of the retrovirus all the mortals
in the town had taken was an aversion to such things. Which meant
the town had a burgeoning trade in swapping vegan recipes. Given
the learning curve everyone was going through it hadn't proven too
difficult to pique Ally's interest in trying something different
and exotic. So George was serving dinner tonight and Tyra had the
keys to her car.
    Simon settled
into the passenger seat beside her, immediately relaxing into a
trance. Tyra thought it pretty cool that Simon was that prepared to
trust her driving. The two discretely but heavily armed warriors in
the back seemed content to nut out the workings of the backseat DVD
system. Thex and Arion had recently discovered Sci-fi and were
avidly working their way through the genre, every time they got a
free moment. The fact that the Galaxy's supreme commander of the
space fleet and his second in command were cuddled up in the back
enjoying an evil alien shoot em up just plain did it for her. Life
was good. It would get even better if she gave in to the urge to
test the Bentley's speed from zero to sixty miles per hour,
rumoured to be about 4.2 seconds. She glanced guiltily at Simon's
peaceful form before glancing in the rear-vision mirror at Thex. No
help there, reading her mind he just grinned and gave her a thumbs
up. A fleeting mental connect to the town's local cops and she knew
where they were. The road was all hers. Biting her lip to quell