Stripper: The Fringe, Book 4 Read Free

known you longer than anyone else in the Void. You seem to be more than willing to piss away seven years with me. Ridding yourself of Diane is one thing, but what of who you are?” Michael stopped pacing once he was close and faced him. Red silk and black leather made him seem even taller than he was. When he tilted his head, the lights glittered in his military-short brown hair. “I don’t care how arrogant this sounds, but, damn it, what of me?”
    “Are you going to stop me?” Duster asked, only because they both knew that he could. With one snap of his fingers, guards would imprison Duster for as long as Michael ordered. Michael was so close Duster smelled the citrus and pine aftershave he favored. His scent was as familiar to Duster as his own. And he would miss him more than words could ever say.
    “As tempting as it is, no, I won’t interfere with your decision. But I won’t help you either. I won’t support you in doing this, but I won’t stop you.” Michael placed his hand on Duster’s shoulder. “The only thing I can do is ask you, as a friend, not to do this.” Michael looked right into his eyes. “Ask? No. I’m begging you. Don’t do this. You’re tossing away seven years of your life. You’re holding me accountable for Diane’s crimes.”
    “No, I’m—”
    “You toss her away, you toss your best friend away. Hell, Duster, you’re tossing your entire life away because of that worthless woman. Don’t do this.”
    When Duster realized tears filmed Michael’s golden-brown eyes, he almost changed his mind. Still, as touched as Duster was, he simply had no other option. “If you really are my best friend, Michael, you’ll understand that I don’t have any other choice.”

Chapter Two
    Diane peered down at her sleeping client.
    Duster.
    Out of the trillions of people in the Void, the one man she thought she’d never see again landed in her ship to have painful memories stripped away. He wanted to go back to a specific day, a fateful day, and remove it from his mind forever.
    Diane stroked his face with trembling fingers. Sensitive tips traced the thick shadow of his beard, then marveled at the smooth plush of his lips. Duster didn’t respond. He couldn’t. Duster would be incommunicado for the next twelve hours.
    She leaned close to smell the leather and canvas of him. Most people wore self-cleaning fabrics of strex or enotex, but Duster had said he hated the way they felt against his skin. Natural or nothing, he’d said with a grin that made her vote for nothing. And where most people slathered themselves in a chemical soup of personal products, Duster preferred simple soap and water. A deep breath of his scent refreshed a hundred erotic memories she’d worked desperately to submerge.
    Succumbing to long-denied cravings, she put her lips against his, but his drug-slackened mouth didn’t come close to her fantasies. She pulled back.
    “Seven years.”
    He’d been both willing and eager to pay the hefty 1Mil-per-year fee to be stripped, but she’d put the job off time and again. Seven years was an eternity. Stripping a mind so deeply would cost her dearly, which was why she was alone with him in the ship. To do her work, she needed absolute privacy, not only so she could mentally and physically connect to her client but so that she could recover afterward. Seven years of memories would leave her drained for days. Tenacious, her mysterious client had jumped through hoops to sway her. After a year of negotiations, she’d accepted and signed the contract.
    “I had no idea my desperate client was you.” Diane trailed her fingers through his dusty blond hair. Buzzed short, the strands tumbled through her fingers with barely a whisper. In the past, his hair had been long and shaggy, tangling up in her fingers, allowing her leverage to pull him ever closer in a frenzy of passion.
    “I have a feeling you came to have meeting me removed from your mind.” Regret, sharp and shameful,