“None that come to mind,” Stone said seriously. “But I’ll let you know if I think of any.”
“I’m sure you will,” Cassie muttered.
Luckily her very curious partner hadn’t come up with any more personal questions. He had critiqued the porn, however, pointing out again and again how The Beast’s technique differed from what a “real Kindred” would do.
He didn’t think The Beast was tender or patient enough and he definitely didn’t like the gagging scenes, where his female costars were forced to gag themselves on his enormous cock.
“This is disgusting and wrong,” he growled, glaring at the screen. “He is hurting her again and she gets no pleasure at all from the act. Look at her—she is weeping.” He pointed to the way the girl’s mascara was running down her cheeks.
Cassie thought it was more likely that the girl’s eyes were watering from being forced to choke on The Beast’s huge dick, than that she was actually crying, but she could tell the scene really bothered Stone a lot.
“I don’t like it either,” she admitted.
“Then why do your people have this kind of entertainment—I still don’t understand.” Stone shook his head.
“Why do humans have porn? Seriously? Why do you think? Because it turns people on. Not this, necessarily—I mean, not all porn turns all people on but…” She shrugged. “I mean it’s porn—it’s pretty much found in all human societies.”
“Most of this does not ‘turn me on’ at all,” Stone growled. “Most of it turns my stomach.” He glared at the screen where the girl was still gagging on The Beast’s enormous shaft. “This is not normal or right.”
“So…are you telling me that the Kindred don’t do porn? Not at all?” Cassie had a hard time believing that. Most Kindred were male and males were visually aroused, weren’t they?
“Not like this.” Stone made a face. “Well…” He frowned. “The Twin Kindred do dabble in this kind of vid-scene a bit, but their vids are always made with a mated threesome and only depict loving and consensual mating.”
“And the rest of the Kindred? They don’t do pornography at all?” Cassie demanded.
“We do, but it isn’t visual,” Stone told her.
“Not visual?” She frowned at him. “What other kind of porn is there? Auditory? Do you like to listen to recordings of women moaning or something?”
“No, although now that you mention it, that would be most arousing—as long as it was clear the women being recorded were not in pain,” Stone remarked, looking thoughtful. “But most Kindred pornography is Olfactory.”
“What?” Cassie looked at him in confusion. “Do you go around sniffing women or something?”
“We do not,” Stone said with dignity. “But we do buy scent books, which have the scents of aroused females preserved within them.”
“Wow…” Cassie shook her head. “I knew you guys had much sharper senses than we humans but I had no idea scents could be so, uh, arousing for you.”
“They can be, though,” Stone growled softly. “When I am attuned to a female, I can pick out her scent, even in a crowd.” He looked at Cassie intently. “I could find you, for instance, with my eyes closed, Cassandra. No matter where we were.”
Cassie’s heart sped up and she felt her cheeks get hot.
“Even someplace really crowded?” she asked softly. “Like the Lady A concert we were supposed to go to before this case came up?”
Slowly, Stone nodded.
“Even there. Your scent is burned into my brain.”
Things were getting a little intense. Cassie attempted to get back to the subject at hand.
“The idea of, uh, smell-porn sounds really strange,” she said, trying to make her voice light. “But I guess it can’t be any stranger to me than our kind of porn is to you.”
“Human porn is disgusting for the most part.” Stone made a face. “At least if this is any indication.” He nodded at the laptop.
“It’s not all like this,” Cassie assured him. “There’s actually good porn out there—tasteful porn. Most of it’s made by women, for women. Of course…” She shrugged. “Porn is really subjective, it just depends on what turns you on.”
“Oh?” Stone looked at her with interest. “And what exactly turns you on, Cassandra? I mean, what do you consider to be ‘good’ porn?”
Cassie found herself squirming in her seat yet again. How had they started talking this way when they had so carefully avoided any topics of conversation that were even remotely sexual for the past two years?
“I, uh…” She cleared her throat. “Like I said, there’s porn made for women by women which centers more on the female’s pleasure.”
“Meaning there is tasting in it?” Stone sounded intensely interested.
Cassie nodded. “Well, yes. I guess so.”
Actually, that was her favorite thing to watch, when she did get in the mood for porn. There was a site online called SheComesFirst.com that almost exclusively showed clips of men going down on women.
But she wasn’t about to tell her partner that.
“This porn made especially for females sounds interesting,” Stone remarked. “I would like to view it sometime if you would show it to me.”
“Maybe later,” Cassie said. “Right now, we need to get back to the business at hand.” She pointed to the laptop.
“Fine, but I cannot watch any more of this,” Stone growled. “We have all the information we need on this witness—let’s go on to the next one.”
“Sure,” Cassie agreed readily. “Let’s skip to the next scene.”
But the next scene turned out to be one of The Beast tying a girl down to a four-poster bed. When her arms and legs were spread helplessly and there was no chance of escape, he had pulled out a long, silver knife.
Cassie felt Stone tense beside her and a low growl began to rise in his throat. Her own heart was drumming against her ribs.
Oh God, if he hurts her…I really don’t want to see him cut her!
But to her relief, The Beast hadn’t so much as scratched the girl. Instead, he proceeded to cut off her clothes—which were skimpy to begin with—and then fuck her within and inch of her life.
“Look at that—again he failed to prepare her!” Stone sounded disgusted, but no longer dangerously angry, which was good as far as Cassie was concerned.
“You mean he didn’t, er, ‘taste’ her?” she’d asked, casting a sidelong glance at her partner.
“Exactly. He should have tasted her and given her at least one orgasm with his tongue before he started shoving himself inside her.” Stone shook his head. “Even if we hadn’t seen that he has no Mating Fist, his sexual technique—or lack of it—would be enough to brand him as a fake.”
“Glad to know it,” Cassie had remarked, not sure what else to say. She was trying hard not to picture her partner going down again. So hard, in fact, that Stone’s next words had caught her by surprise.
“Actually, I think I can see some of the appeal in this scenario,” he had remarked.