Sophie woke up naked on a table.
Though the surface felt hard, she was comfortable. The cool metal dipped and cupped her curves as if it had formed around them. The air shifted over her bare skin at nearly her exact body temperature. Comfortable, perfectly cradled, and terrified.
Thin wires wrapped around her wrists and ankles, not biting, but restraining through some combination of warm energy and the steady blinking glow the filaments emitted. She twisted to watch the dance of light, pulled against the tethers that didn't give an inch.
Her thoughts wandered, drifting through a fog she guessed to be drug-induced. How had she ended up here? Where were her clothes? Where the hell was she?
She felt her panic rising, but her pulse remained steady, her breathing calm and slow. The drug again, or whatever had stolen her memory. It seemed she still suffered some effects. The last thing Sophie remembered was the pub. God. She hadn't even been drinking, just sitting with a tumbler of ice and soda water and watching the new guy wipe down tables.
The new guy had become her sole reason for frequenting the place. Not that he noticed her, but Sophie had been there with friends the night they hired him, and she'd had to come back again--and again. He had the weirdest eyes. He had long fingers that swept the rag across the table in a way that managed to make her blush--even from across the room.
She'd sat there, every night, squirming and imagining the things those fingers could do. Sophie had a vivid imagination. She had nursed the fantasy for a week, and it had left her burning to catch the man's attention, to satisfy the hunger his intense gaze fed the few times his weird, brilliant eyes looked her way.
But she didn't remember drinking.
In fact, she didn't remember doing anything after sitting there watching him work. She certainly couldn't explain falling unconscious, waking up in a room that looked like it belonged on an episode of the X Files. She couldn't explain her lack of attire or her body's weird calm despite the scrambling of her brain. Something seriously fucked up was going on.
She twisted again and scanned the room for anything recognizable. A mechanical arm folded over her head. The end dangled a cluster of filaments, not unlike those restraining her. It looked like a high-tech cat toy. As she watched, they lit up. They flashed, and a mechanism hummed to life beyond her field of vision. The arm moved, unfolding and dangling the electric threads over her face. It lowered, and Sophie tensed. She might have screamed if the drug hadn't distanced her thoughts from her body. Instead, she experienced the surge of fear but had no power to struggle or even call out.
The ends of the toy brushed at her cheek. Tiny, soft fingers of light and fiber stroked her skin. She felt the micro bursts from each tip, electric, but not unpleasant. The arm unfolded a fraction more, and the filaments squirmed over her jaw and down along her neck.
Little shocks tickled her, and her body reacted with pleasure. The neck had always been one of her favorite spots. Sophie leaned into the sensation and heard herself moan softly. She'd never felt anything like it.
The arm moved again, swinging the tentacles across her chest. They spread out and she held her breath. Waiting for the inevitable with only a shadow of fear behind her anticipation. It just felt good--too good for a mind already dulled by whatever gripped her. A filament brushed her left nipple. The shock amplified in her nervous system's response, and she groaned aloud. Her back arched. The cat toy shifted to focus on the spot, as if it caught her delight and sought to please her.
They clustered there, flicking over and around her breast until Sophie wiggled against the table and pressed her torso up into the thing, hoping to increase the contact. Her breath broke free of its spell, and she panted and gasped at each new twist, every soft shock of electric arousal.
Her body tingled. Her sex already throbbed with want. The arm shifted position, and she had the space of two breaths to recover before it reached the other breast. The filaments explored her body, probing and electrifying her nerves. They curled up, making contact with the second nipple, and Sophie moaned and arched into the touch.
She lifted her hips, and felt the heat racing lower, sending spasms through her center. God, what would it feel like, to have that thing touching her there, exploring and doling out little electric kisses?
As if on cue the arm moved the device lower. The fingers explored her belly, traced firey circles over her abdomen. Sophie wiggled and shifted her legs apart to welcome it. She turned her head, angling to see better, and noticed the cameras for the first time.
*
He watched her writhing on the table. Her mouth parted and little sounds came out, sweet, human sounds that made his genitalia pulse in time to the music of her. Sovan, shifted his weight from foot to foot, and flicked a glance to the data recorder as if he still cared about his research.
Her mating calls tore his attention back to the viewing wall. His primary member convulsed and he was forced to brace one arm against the wall, shivering, overflowing with his own selfish needs.
Unbiased observance. He could have choked on the term now. He didn't care what the machine found. He didn't care about the experiment, the project or even his people's future. His body wanted that. He squinted at her form, beautiful, stretching to meet the probe's sensors, and his hunger overwhelmed any sense of reason.
He'd wanted her all along.
She'd come to his place of employment every night. She'd watched him with eyes that burned and screamed of primitive, fiery desire. Sovan had made his choice that first evening, the first second he'd seen her. By the time the data gatherer was prepped, he'd been unable to wait any longer. He should have known he'd do something crazy. He should have expected it to get personal.
But as she moaned and twisted on his table, he was surprised by his body's reaction. He wiped beads of fluid from his forehead, blinked, and let another spasm shiver from his sex organs all the way to the tips of his long fingers.
