Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 85794 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 429(@200wpm)___ 343(@250wpm)___ 286(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85794 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 429(@200wpm)___ 343(@250wpm)___ 286(@300wpm)
“What is it—what’s wrong?” he demanded.
“He…he’s got a…it’s a spider.”
She pointed at the shop keeper who had opened his cupped palm. On it was a creature that seemed to be made of gold. It had many long, jointed legs and a cluster of ruby red eyes that glowed with some internal light. It did, indeed look remarkably like the Earth arachnid called a spider—albeit a mechanical one.
“What is that thing?” he demanded, instantly protective of his protégé. He put out an arm and drew Phoebe close to his side as he spoke.
“Why, it’s just my measure-bug.” The shop keeper looked surprised at their reaction. “It crawls over the customer’s body and makes exact measurements so I can get the fit of the harness just right.” He held out the mechanical spider to Phoebe. “So if you’ll just hold still—”
“It’s supposed to crawl on me?” Phoebe’s eyes widened even further and she was already shaking her head. “Hell, no!”
The shop keeper looked positively astonished.
“You allow her to act in this way?” he demanded, turning to Sirex. “You allow her to refuse the orders of a male?”
“Phoebe has a phobia about bugs,” he explained smoothly. “Don’t you have another way to measure her?”
“Well…I do have an old pair of measurement gloves, but they’re not nearly as quick or accurate as the measure-bug…” the shop keeper said.
“Get them,” Sirex ordered. “We’ll stay here.”
“Fine.” The shop keeper walked around the corner again, muttering something under his breath about “irrational females.”
As soon as he was gone, Sirex looked down at Phoebe, who was still pressed against his side.
“Are you all right?”
“Fine.” She took a deep breath and straightened up, looking ashamed of herself. “I’m sorry about that. I didn’t mean to freak out, but the idea of that thing crawling on me—”
“Don’t worry about it—I wouldn’t want it crawling on me either,” Sirex assured her, though to be honest, he had no fear of any kind of insects or arachnids.
He was about to add something else when the shop keeper reappeared. He was pulling on a pair of gloves that seemed to leave most of his hands and fingers bare—they were basically a few long metal wires with jeweled nodes at the fignertips. The wires joined together in a kind of metal cuff around his wrists.
“Now then, if you’ll just hold still so I can measure you,” he began, reaching for Phoebe’s bare breasts.
“I don’t think so.” Sirex stepped between them. “No one touches my woman but me.” He didn’t have to fake the protective growl in his voice. The very thought of another male putting his hands on Phoebe made his blood boil!
The shop keeper threw up his hands in disgust.
“This is ridiculous! First you don’t want anyone seeing your female and now you won’t allow me to even measure her? How am I supposed to fit her for a harness if you won’t allow me to touch her?”
It did seem to be a problem, but Sirex didn’t know quite what to do about it—he just knew he didn’t want another man’s hands on his woman’s breasts—or anywhere else on her body for that matter.
“What do those gloves do?” It was Phoebe, poking her head out from behind him.
“Excuse me?” The shop keeper frowned.
“I mean, do the gloves do the measurements themselves?”
“Well yes—they relay the measurements to my implant as I run my hands over the female’s breasts and body,” he said, tapping the shiny gold implant where his left eye should have been. “Then I know which size harness to use on her and how many alterations to make.”
“If the gloves do all the work without any input from you, why not let Sir wear them?” Phoebe suggested.
Sir turned to her in surprise. Did she really want him to do this? He raised his eyebrows at her in a silent question but she nodded her head firmly.
“Well, I don’t know,” the shop keeper began, frowning. “It’s most irregular, letting the customers do the measurements themselves…”
“But you still get the measurements, no matter who wears the gloves, right?” Sirex asked.
“Well…yes.” The shop keeper nodded reluctantly.
“Good. Then give them to me.” Sirex held out a hand impatiently. “Or would you rather we got to another shop?”
His threat seemed to work because the shop keeper reluctantly removed the gloves one at a time from his own hands.
“Just one moment—I must adjust them and make them larger,” he said to Sirex. “Your hands are huge—I can’t have you breaking them.”
Sirex waited as the shop keeper made some adjustments, making the golden metal wires longer and the metal cuffs larger before helping him to carefully put on the measurement gloves.
They looked more like some kind of elaborate hand jewelry than actual gloves he thought as the shop keeper fastened them carefully around his wrists. They tingled faintly, as though a slight electrical current was running through the golden wires. The jeweled nodes, which were located at the fingertips, hummed softly.