An Excerpt from STUDENSTEIN!

Here's a little sneak-peak of my new release, STUDENSTEIN. Hope you enjoy...

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She wound her way through the crowd at the edge of the dance floor. The music changed and the black-clad patrons flocked toward the new song, clearing the way for Shani to get to the stairs. She climbed to the second story and went to the bar. “Scotch, neat,” she shouted over a couple heads.

A cry sounded behind her and Shani turned. She spotted the stein she’d been sent to rescue, standing in the middle of a corded-off area. His shoulders spanned beyond the stupid leather vest he wore, but his body narrowed to a slender waist and hips. Skintight pants displayed a bulge so large Shani figured they’d grafted it off a black man.

Even with a few scars, his face was pretty enough to upstage his body. Shaggy black hair fell to his chiseled jaw, giving him an “I may be sensitive inside, if only you can reach me” vibe. A lock fell across his big brown eyes, highlighted cheekbones that could cut glass. His lips—thin and arguably the only non-perfect thing about him—twitched up on one side before he swung his arm in a wide arc and flogged the female strapped to a table.

His client cried out in her bindings. Her forehead scrunched up in pleasure.

Dang. Shani reached past a necking couple to get to her drink. This is some fucked-up lifer shit. She raised her glass for a sip and felt ice against her lip. Spinning back to the bar, Shani shouted, “I said neat, not on the rocks.” She slammed her drink down and glowered at the bartender until he tossed out her beverage and replaced it with the one she’d asked for. When she turned around to watch her mark, he’d disappeared. Some human guy had taken up beating the woman’s ass in the play area.

“You’d attract more flies with honey than vinegar.”

She smelled him standing too close, and knew before she turned around who it was. “Ya know, I never understood that.” Shani swiveled to face the other stein, refusing to let her eyes focus on his too-straight teeth or the sparkle in his eyes that said he was having way more fun than a slave-boy should. “Why the fuck would I want flies?” Shani threw back her drink. She growled at the feel of liquor burning her throat.

The guy’s face went slack as if he didn’t know what to think. He blinked once, and Shani wondered if maybe he’d only been programmed with a few phrases. Like, “You’re so fine, baby” and “Suck it, slut”. A lot of steins had sub-human intelligence. The ones built for laboratory studies couldn’t even talk.

Shani tried to catch the bartender’s eye, hoping for another drink before she had to figure out how to get the guy outside. The bartender pointedly ignored her, so she turned back to her mark.

A shit-eating, I-told-you-so grin spread across his face. He held out a hand, lifted an eyebrow in a way that had to have been programmed it was so choreographed, and said, “I’m Royce Harden. What’s your name, gorgeous?”

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