Driven Read online

  Driven

  Megan Hart

  DIGITAL

  ISBN-10: 1-940078-42-3

  ISBN-13: 978-1-940078-42-7

  * * *

  PRINT

  ISBN-10: 1-940078-44-X

  ISBN-13: 978-1-940078-44-1

  Driven

  Copyright © 2004, 2011, 2017 by Megan Hart

  Previously published

  * * *

  All rights reserved. By purchasing this digital book, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

  * * *

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Contents

  Blurb

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Passion Model

  Anything You Want

  Also by Megan Hart

  About the Author

  Blurb

  In this searing addition to the Newcity world, Linna Fortense is a mecho posing as a Pleasurebot to avoid persecution. When the Newcity raids begin, her only option is to escape through the dome along with Del, the hovertaxi driver who’s befriended her. Del thinks of Linna as more than a friend, but there’s on problem with taking their relationship to the next level. Xanderrans mate for life. When a deceitful spaceship captain tries to force Del to become part of her harem, Linna manages to take her place, bonding herself to Del instead. When they end up on his home planet though, and Linna discovers Del is more than a simple taxi driver, the most important question of all is put to both of them: Is it really love if there isn’t any choice?

  Dedication

  Well, of course to Vin since he was the inspiration, and to Ray, Isaac and Philip K. who helped me discover other worlds.

  Chapter 1

  "Need a ride?"

  Linna Fortense's stomach took the same low, rolling tumble it always did at the sound of that familiar deep voice. "Hi, Del."

  Del had been leaning against the side of his battered hovertaxi. Now he stood upright and opened the back door for her. "C'mon. I'll take you home."

  She thought of the long hours she'd just finished working and the three stingy clients who'd barely made it worthwhile. Then she thought of her empty credaccount and her emptier stomach. She looked longingly at Del's taxi, but shook her head.

  "Thanks, Del, but you don't have to. I can walk." Linna forced a smile she definitely didn't feel. Her feet, crammed into tottering high heels, hurt. Even taking the pedtread most of the way meant she'd have to be on them for another twenty minutes. Still, she didn't have the credits to pay for Del's services tonight. Not if she wanted to eat tomorrow.

  He flashed her a grin designed to melt even the most stoic of feminine hearts. "C'mon, pretty lady. No charge."

  For one horrible moment, Linna thought she might weep at his kindness. "I can't ask you to do that."

  Del spread his arms and gave an exaggerated look around. Dawn was just beginning to rise over Newcity. Most of the casual Lovehut traffic had already gone home, while the hardcore patrons wouldn't be done for hours.

  "You see anybody bugging me for service? Nah. I got to get home myself. I live over in Caldyx Heights. Might as well give you the ride you need."

  She knew he didn't mean that the way it sounded, but that idea was as tempting as the free ride. Linna took in Del's broad, muscled chest and arms. Unlike her three clients, Del didn't wear the artisilk jumpsuit or tunic shirt so fashionable right now. An old-fashioned, articotton t-shirt, unnervingly white, clung to every curve and ripple of his upper body, while plain dark tight-fitting trousers hugged equally muscled legs. Add that killer grin to the firm body, and his offer was one any woman would jump at.

  The problem was, Del didn't know she was a woman. Linna forced her gaze away from his chest to meet his eyes. His grin told her he'd noticed her staring. Years of self-control had taught her not to blush, but heat flooded her body anyway.

  "I meant let me take you back to your place."

  "I know what you meant."

  Del tilted his head toward the cab. "Get in, Linna."

  She sighed. "You always have to have your own way, don't you?"

  He spread his hands and shrugged. "So my Ima always told me."

  "Thanks, Del." Linna got in the back of the hovertaxi with a sigh of relief so loud it made Del laugh from the front seat.

  He turned to look at her over his shoulder. "Where to?"

  She was taking him up on his offer of a ride, but that didn't mean she had to take advantage of his generosity. She named a kennel in the same district as Caldyx Heights. Besides, that kennel was as good as any.

  "Brenda Kitten's, please."

  His dark eyes crinkled at her in the rearview mirror. "Don't you usually go to Frederico Fucktini's?"

  "You've driven me way too many places, Del." Linna laughed despite how weary she felt. She had gone to Freddy's before, but his fees were higher than at Kitten's, which had used to be high-class but was now a low-service facility and charged accordingly.

  She caught him looking at her again, his dark eyes intense even in the reflection. Then the hovertaxi lifted off with a minimum of bucking and groaning, and Del eased into the light morning traffic.

  Linna looked out the windows at the pedtreads, where Newcitizens who worked the early shifts were already congregating. Their day began as hers was ending. She peered further out the window, up to the sky. She couldn't actually see the sun, not with the electrical-chemical Dome protecting Newcity from damaging ultraviolet rays. Linna wondered sleepily what it looked like, what the sky and stars looked like. She'd never been out of Newcity, not even to an Offworld vacay. Not even when she was married...before...

  Linna awoke with a start when the hovertaxi slowed abruptly. She hadn't meant to doze off. She scrubbed at her face furtively and cursed her lapse in self-control.

  Del must have seen her sleeping, but he said nothing, only slid the taxi into the open space in front of Brenda Kitten's SexKennel.

  "Home sweet home," he said.

  Linna stifled a yawn with a wide grin out of force of habit, but her mind was whirling. She'd been exhausted, but that was no excuse. She'd fallen asleep in front of a witness. Del was a friend, at least as much of a friend as Linna could afford to have, but her mistake could prove just as fatal with him as a witness just as well as a stranger.

  "Thanks," she said, her voice hoarse.

  "No problem."

  Del got out of the cab at the same time she did, and held her door open while she climbed out. He shut it gently behind her, and with a firm hand on her upper arm, helped her over the curb and onto the sidewalk. Linna's bare skin tingled from his touch.

  "Thanks, Del," Linna said again. "I wish you'd let me pay you."

  "How many customers did you have last night?" He cut right to the heart of the situation.

  She sighed. "Three."

  "None of them upperrankers, I