C791 (Cyborgs: More Than Machines) (11 page)

“You do realize he is cyborg?”

“What?” Startled from her inner fantasy of Joe’s butt naked, she focused her attention on Solus, who remained behind.

“I am detecting an odd warmth in your body when you gaze upon my brother. My memory banks suggest it might be affection. For your own safety, you should be reminded that, while we appear human in many respects, the ability to feel has been stilted and for some, like myself, completely unrecovered.”

“Are you trying to tell me Joe won’t ever love me?”

“That is a valid assumption.”

“I never asked him to. But look at it from my point of view. He kidnapped me, expects me to sleep with him and has been a better friend to me than anyone I can ever recall. It is natural for me to feel something for him.”

“Even if he might never return the affection?”

She shrugged, kind of depressed by Solus’s words but not willing to show it. “A heart can’t help what it wants.”

“Humans.” He just about sneered the word. “You are such irrational creatures.”

“And yet, didn’t you start out as one?” she taunted. “Isn’t it kind of oxymoronic to hate yourself?”

“I never said I hated humankind; that would require me caring. What I do feel is akin to pity for your constitutionally weak and non-upgraded state.”

She blinked. Then laughed. “Oh my, I do believe you’re a cyborg snob.”

His back stiffened, and he shot her a dirty look.

She giggled louder. “That’s it, cock your lip a little and give me an aristocratic sneer.”

“You need to get your mental faculties checked out,” he snapped.

“Whoa, did somebody say the cute little human here needs some
checking
?” Seth entered with a wide grin and a waggle of brows in her direction that sent her into gales of laughter. Seth joined her, always ready for fun while Solus glared at them both.

“I fail to see the humor.”

“You know, you could learn a lot from The Wizard of Oz,” she stated, biting her lip so as to not snicker.

Seth guffawed before singing, “If I only had a brain.”

Solus stomped out as Chloe leaned against Seth, overcome with mirth.

Joe returned while they still laughed. “What is the ruckus? And why does Solus snarl I need to get my human in order?”

Chloe and Seth looked at each other and then sang, “If he only had a heart.”

Perhaps it was the words to the song, or the fact she and Seth had slung an arm around the other’s shoulder so they could do a little shuffle dance, but whatever the trigger, Joe went a little berserk.

And she had to admit it was pretty darned hot.

*

The sight of Chloe and Seth so at ease with each other, and worse, touching each other set something off inside Joe, a combination of irrational anger sprinkled with a covetousness he’d not experienced but had heard of. Jealousy.

Whatever the name for the emotion, he found himself unable to halt it as he ripped Seth away from Chloe’s side and sent his fist into the grinning face. He maintained enough control to not beat his friend to a pulp — barely — but he couldn’t stop himself from slinging Chloe over his shoulder and stomping off to their room.

“What the heck was that about?” she exclaimed as she dangled down his back.

“You seem to have forgotten who you belong to.”

She didn’t say anything for a moment. “Are you jealous?”

“No.”
Yes!

“It’s normal to feel that way. It just never occurred to me you would.”

“I don’t. Jealousy is a human emotion. I am a cyborg. We are above such petty wastes of our time.”

“Really. Well then, someone should probably explain that to Seth’s face,” she drawled.

“This is not entertaining. You were practically inviting him to take ownership of your body.”

“I was not,” she exclaimed, and a small rational part of him knew she spoke truly, but he’d lost the ability to decipher logic from madness where she was concerned.

Arriving at their room, he tossed her onto the bed and quickly tore at his clothes.

“What are you doing?” she asked, her eyes wide, but not with trepidation if the protruding nipples through her shirt were any indication.

“Showing you who owns your body.”

“Me.”

“Wrong answer,” he growled. “I do. And it seems I must show you.”

He fell on her, and despite her previous defiant answer, she welcomed him with open arms and a fierce kiss. Her legs spread wide to accommodate his body, but while he’d denuded his frame, she remained dressed. Their hands met at the closing to her pants, their impatient battle to remove them more of a fumbling parody. When he finally managed to strip them from her, he was ready to sink himself into her. He retained enough wits though to realize she required preparation for his penetration. With sex bots, that never proved a concern as they arrived to service pre-lubed. Human females however, according to his studies, required stimulation to achieve the same state. He slid a hand between her thighs and, to his relief, found her already soaking wet. It pleased him, on a level he did not understand, that Chloe achieved this state around him without means of manipulation.

He wasted no more time. He propped himself above her and thrust into her sex. Oh, the exquisite, unexplainable feel of her channel clamping tightly around his cock. He would never tire of it. Never tire of her. But did she feel the same about him? He had to know.

“Tell me who you belong to.”

Her eyes opened part way, her lids heavy with arousal. “Why do you care?”

He rammed into her hard. She gasped.

A growl left him. “Do not toy with me. You are my female. Not Seth’s. Not anyone else’s. Say you belong to me.” He almost roared the words, desperate to hear her say it.

For a moment defiance flashed in her gaze. “And if I don’t?”

The very thought she might leave, go to another melted his fury and filled him with an inexplicable tightness he found most disconcerting.

Before he could say anything in reply, she raised a hand to his cheek. “My poor, confused cyborg. I shouldn’t tease you like that. I belong to you, Joe. You and only you. I want no other.”

A knot of tension eased inside him, and an exultant joy took its place. With no words to express himself, or at least not words he dared say aloud, he did the only thing he knew to show her how he felt. He pleasured her body. With long strokes, he thrust in and out of her, not allowing himself to completely let loose until a tremble shook her frame. As she screamed her pleasure and her sex milked his cock with hard muscle spasms that felt beyond pleasurable, he threw his head back and yelled. He loosed his seed in her, filling her with his essence. In that moment, he fervently wished he were human again that he might impregnate her with his child. Bind her to him with a babe born from their intimacy.

But such a dream would never happen. He would have to rely on his ability to please her to keep her satisfied and at his side forever. The weakness of this knowledge humbled him.
Brought down by a human, and she never lifted a single finger.
Although she did later on put her tongue to good use.

*

After a mad night of sex with almost no words spoken — unless “Please” or “Stop teasing me dammit!” counted — they ended up back in the common room. They needed to because her body required time to recuperate from his vigorous, if welcome, lovemaking.

Ever since his jealous fit, and his strange request that Chloe declare she belonged to him, he’d acted like a cyborg on a mission. He made her scream in pleasure, over and over, his light blue eyes staring at her with such intensity that it frightened her, and yet at the same time, she reveled in it. Pretended it meant he felt something for her that went beyond enjoying her as a sexual convenience.
That he cares for me.

A foolish fantasy. She couldn’t pretend to understand what he wanted from her, well, other than sex. That was obvious But after last night, she had to wonder what he truly needed from her, what he hoped to accomplish in his mad quest to make her climax. He and the other cyborgs claimed they didn’t feel, and yet, why the jealousy? Why his desperation to have her admit she only wanted him?

So many questions, and yet, she dared not ask him. Didn’t want to hear his clinical dissection of the situation. Hear how she was letting her foolish human emotions imprint him with feelings he just didn’t have. But gazing at him as he sat across from her, looking so handsome with his lips curved, a smile that seemed permanent around her, she couldn’t help wishing she had the guts to try.

Once a chicken, always a chicken though.

At his request, and for distraction, she taught him human mannerisms so that he might better blend in if the occasion arose.

It was while they were in the midst of a slang lesson that she stopped to ask him something that nagged at her.

“Why aren’t there any female cyborgs?” she asked.

Joe shrugged. “Because females do not make good soldiers.”

She stuck her tongue out at him. “Chauvinist. Seriously though, the creation of some super strong cybernetic chicks would seem like a no-brainer. I mean, think of it; they’d make great spies.”

“Perhaps they eventually intended to create them, or it could be they tried and it failed.”

“Speaking of failing, what really happened to make the military decide to execute you all? Did you ever find out the reason?”

“We’ve debated about this, and while none of us can know for sure, we believe it was because some of us achieved sentience and managed to override our core programming.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Before the revolution, we truly were no better than robots, doing what our programming told us to do. Letting the military control our every action. Then a few of us woke, I guess you could say, and regained our sense of individuality.”

“Were you one of them?”

He nodded. “One of the first from what I can ascertain. But I didn’t do anything about it or let anyone know until the orders came through to destroy us.”

“What did you do then?”

The smile that crossed his face sent a chill through her, the menace in it frightening, and yet exciting, because of the very danger it represented. “We killed our way to freedom.”

“But how did you wake up in the first place? Or was it a case of their programming not covering all the bases?”

“I was hit with several EMP pulses in a row. It scrambled my neural processor and somehow re-established pathways to the organic parts of my brain. Others achieved this rebirth on their own.”

“And those that never got either?”

“Once we fought our way free, we blasted them with EMPs. It worked with some. Some also died. Those that survived but still didn’t achieve awakening, we reprogrammed.”

She shuddered. “That sounds awful.”

“Awful is knowing we had a past, sometimes catching glimpses of it, but never truly remembering.”

“I’m sorry.”

His hand brushed her cheek. “Don’t be. It is not your fault, and while I might not recall who I used to be, I am quite content with who I have become. Even more so now.”

Leaning forward, he brushed her lips, his caress soft yet still igniting a flame in her. He always managed to do that. No matter how many times they made love a day, arousal arrived almost immediately when they touched. She draped her arms around his neck and slid from her seat to straddle his lap. Their kiss deepened, the wet dance of their tongues making her blood pound, awakening every inch of her body.

“Will you kill me if I watch?” Seth’s joking comment saw her unceremoniously dumped off Joe’s lap onto a chair. Her lover stood and stalked toward Seth with his fists clenched. “Whoa, boss, just checking. If you feel that strongly, I’ll go away, but you might want to think about closing a door. This is known as the common area.”

“Do you have a purpose other than irritating me?” Joe growled.

“If you’d been paying more attention, you’d know we’re about to dock with the asteroid. Solus says we should plan to stay here for at least forty-eight hours to make sure there is no sign of pursuit.”

“I want the vessel fueled before the mechanics check it for damage,” Joe ordered.

“You think we might need to make a quick getaway?”

“It is best to be prepared. Also, they are to run any major repairs that might impede lift off by me before undertaking them.”

Seth clacked his heels together and slapped his forehead in a mock salute. “Aye, aye, captain.”

“Idiot,” Joe muttered as the other cyborg left.

“Oh, he’s not so bad,” Chloe said, coming to Seth’s defense. “He’s actually kind of funny.”

She no sooner spoke than Joe reeled her into a tight hug. “You are mine, little one.”

“So you keep saying,” she replied, before kissing the tip of his chin. “That better not change when we get to your home planet.”

“I will never let you go,” he announced. The seriousness of his expression made her heart stutter. It was perhaps not a declaration of love, but she couldn’t deny that, except for the lack of three little words, he acted in every other way like a man besotted and committed.

As he left her — the passion of his kiss making her eager for his return — she sat and looked out the porthole. She didn’t really pay much attention to the asteroid they slowly approached. How could she when as usual her thoughts revolved around Joe? She’d come to the conclusion she loved the cyborg. As far as she could tell, it probably began back when he was still a prisoner. Not that she would admit it aloud. She understood that, while still human in origin, Joe didn’t perceive the world in the same way she did. Didn’t feel things like a human would. It didn’t mean he was incapable of love but chances were he wouldn’t recognize the emotion even if he got smacked with it.

Despite his initial claim he wanted her for sex, he’d shown her in so many other ways that, in reality, he wanted her as a companion. Yes, they spent a lot of time naked, but they spent an equal amount of time talking. He proved eager to learn everything about her life, much of which she glossed over. Especially the last few years, which jumbled in her mind.