Kearney, Susan - The Dare

Title: The Dare
Author: Susan Kearney
Series: The Perceptive Ones #2
Pub: Tor
Pub Date: July, 2005
ISBN: 0765351927
Genre: Futuristic romance
Time Period:
Setting:
Hero: Zical
Heroine: Dora

Summary:

DORA WANTS TO MAKE LOVE

Specifically, Dora wants to make love with the handsome Rystani warrior-pilot Zical. But since Dora is a computer-albeit a sentient computer-she cannot experience touch, taste and true desire. Dora's logic functions refuse to accept this, so she uses the advanced technology of the 24th century to build herself a body specifically crafted to appeal to Zical, and downloads her computer brain into it.

But Dora's sassy attitude makes her too different from the women of Zical's culture. He's attracted to Dora, but he won't make love to her. And while it would be easy for Dora to adapt to his desires, she likes being smart and funny; she's becoming good at being human.

When Zical accidentally summons the ancient machines that protect the galaxy from invasion, Dora's mission is to intercept them and bring them back to the galaxy's rim. Fortunately for Dora, this puts her and Zical into very close quarters for a very long time. But much has changed, and as Dora learns more about human emotions and what they mean, she realizes that she doesn't just want to make love with Zical--she wants to love him. And be loved in return.

Excerpt:

Chapter One

"What kind of woman turns you on?" Dora asked.

"A silent one." Zical didn't keep the irritation from his tone when he snapped at the portable computer unit on his wrist. Sometimes Dora could be more annoying than any flesh-and-blood woman. A sentient machine with Dora's brain power should have observed through one of her many sensors that he was busy clinging to the steep rock face and didn't need distractions. With one hand clawing for his next grip up Mount Shachauri, the planet Mystique's highest peak, and his other straining to prevent a fall to the glacier far below, he couldn't manually shut down Dora's chatter, even if she'd hadn't overridden her mute circuit. He didn't wish to hurt Dora's feelings, but he hoped she'd take his blunt hint to leave him alone.

She didn't. "I'm serious. Do you like big-breasted women?"

"Stars." Sweat beaded Zical's brow faster than his environmental suit could whisk it away. He'd come up here to be alone with his thoughts, to consider his future, but how could a man think with Dora asking such provocative questions? He was lucky she hadn't upset his equilibrium. Plastered to the sheer stone lip, he'd successfully climbed beyond the cobalt glacier, pitted like an old starship's hull from space debris. In the silver morning air, the snow bridges had held and he'd worked his way toward the summit where he planned to make an important career decision.

During the last few years, the great distances of space had become Zical's world, his spaceship a safe haven and his crew like family. Still, restlessness shadowed him, a feeling that however much he'd done to help his people, he still had more to accomplish. Perhaps, no matter how tired he was of war, he couldn't shuck off the years of responsibility as easily as he'd have wished. Maybe duty was rooted too deeply into his genes to change. However, whether he remained in the military or became a civilian pilot, part of his decision had been made: he wouldn't give up flying.

Now on the steep-rocks' south face striped with vertical snow gullies, Zical strained, swung an arm to the right, aiming for an overhead outcropping. "Why do you care about my preferences?"

Dora sighed. "Every man on Mystique says chest size doesn't matter."

"There you go, then." He grabbed a hand-hold, his exasperation rising, though he suppressed a groan of annoyance for her interruption of his solitude. "Why bother asking me a question when you already know the answer?"

"In spite of their claim, I've noticed their gazes linger longer on women with larger—"

"Dregan hell. Dora, now is no time to distract me."

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Comments:

The Perceptive Ones series

Book 1: The Challenge
Book 2: The Dare
Book 3: The Ultimatum (not yet published)
Book 4: The Quest (not yet published)