Captured by the Cyborg (11 page)

Her wings had been beautiful, eliciting compliments from envious Faria. Shimmering and translucent, they had appeared as delicate as gossamer but had been as strong as tree limbs swaying in the wind. How fast she’d flown! After they’d been cut from her body, the stumps had shriveled and curled to unsightly lumps. She’d never considered herself vain but she hated for him to see the ugliness.

Her expression must have revealed something of her thoughts because his eyes darkened. “Are you sure about this? We don’t have to.”

The other time had occurred under the cover of darkness. The lights were low now but bright enough to reveal her injury. What if the scars repulsed him? If they proceeded to make love, how would that affect the future? Would this be the start of something—or the end?

Confidence wobbled, and she didn’t like it.

She disliked the fearful, hesitant person she’d become. She’d fled from evil; she would not run from good. She wanted him; she needed this. If she ran, it would be toward Dale, not away from him.

Begin as you mean to go on.
“I want to.” She spread her hands over his hard chest. His heart thumped, and his scent rose to tease her senses, the merest whiff coaxing her closer.

He stroked his knuckles along her cheek, catching threads of her hair, sending a shiver along her nerves. Her hair had always been sensitive, but never so much as with him. Only he affected her like this, the slightest touch kindling hot tingles and deep yearning. She’d never imagined herself with an alien, part man/part machine, but, here and now, she’d couldn’t envision being with anyone but him.
My cyborg.

He brushed his mouth over her lips in a light caress. She clutched his shirt and deepened the kiss, needing more. He gave it to her with a growl. His erection twitched against her. Slow caresses turned fervent. Between kissing and groping, clothing, his and hers, joined the heap on the floor.

He was more powerful naked than clothed. His legs were long and stout, not weak like hers. Corded muscles bulged in his arms. Dark curly hair matted his massive chest, arrowing down a ripped abdomen to a nest around the base of his thick erection. Her core fluttered.

“Are you checking me out?” he asked.

She lifted her gaze. “I did promise to ignore the room.”

“Let me show you the bed at least.” He pointed. “Bed.”

“Noted,” she replied, smiling.

They stretched out side by side, face-to-face. Mouths fused and tongues mated in a sexual fury, but his hands were gentle as he roamed them over her body, finding and igniting hotspots. He fondled her throat, her breasts, her tummy, between her legs, the backs of her knees. Every touch deepened the hunger for that final completion.

From scalp to tip, he combed his fingers through her hair, and she shook with need for him.

“Are you cold?”

“No.” She grasped his cock, stroking its length. Body hair teased her nipples as she scooted down to take him in her mouth, to tease him until he shuddered the way she did. She sucked and laved his erection, swiping her tongue across the head, drawing him as deep as she could then pulling back with a long, slow drag.

“
Jesus, Buddha, Lao-Tzu!”
He growled some foreign words she had no translation for. But the meaning was as clear as the ache in her center, as the urgency that spiked when he threaded his fingers in her hair. Heady, mind-spinning pleasure climbed to a crescendo.

He pulled her on top of him.

She wrestled away.

Confusion knit his face.

Illumina stretched out onto her back. Pain jabbed at her spine, but she ignored it and reached for him.

Bewilderment cleared from his expression, but he held back. “What about your…injury?”

“It will be fine.” The pressure against scarred nubby bone felt like jagged rocks, but she wanted him on top, craved his possession in this way.

“Try this.” He grabbed a couple of the pillows they’d kicked to the floor. He flattened them out with a punch. “Lie on these.”

She raised up so he could position one under each shoulder blade lifting her spine from the bed, and she relaxed. Better. Not totally pain free, but better.

“Okay?” He leaned over her.

She wound her arms around his neck. “Perfect,” she lied.

With a little jockeying, he found his place between her thighs. She locked her heels against his buttocks, and his erection nudged her. With a push, he breached her entrance and rocked inside. Despite the twinges in her back, satisfaction filled her as deeply as his cock, and she released her breath with a hiss. If she’d had wings, she would have wrapped them around them both. She moaned and clung to him, her body moving, encouraging his thrusts.

He kept his weight off her torso, bracing himself on his elbows. Veins pulsed in his temples, his throat, and face as their bodies slid together. He twisted fistfuls of her hair, sending tendrils of piercing rapture careening through her body, driving her to desperate heights. She clasped his neck, digging her fingers into taut muscle.

Mind and body separated, her psyche soaring on wings of ecstasy. She flew, unfettered and free, as waves lifted her up, up, up. Her pussy contracted around him, igniting more jet streams of pleasure.

Dale groaned.
Need her. Want her. Love…oh fuck…
His thoughts flowed into her consciousness. She jerked, and he did, too, going wide-eyed before he grimaced, plunging deep, his cock convulsing and releasing. His spasmodic tugs on her hair sent her spiraling again.

Passion spent, she lay beneath him.
I did it again
.
Glided right into his head.
Maybe the violation hadn’t registered. He’d been
preoccupied
, on the verge of orgasm. He hadn’t said anything about it but panted against her neck, his breath steamy.

He pressed a kiss to her throat then lifted up and rolled off. “Are you okay? I didn’t crush you did I? How’s your back?” He eyed her, his expression concerned.

Whew.
She surreptitiously pressed her thumb and pinky finger together in a Farian gesture of thankfulness. “I’m fine,” she said.

His scrutiny turned calculating. “You really are a computer sensate, aren’t you?”

Fuck
, she swore silently. Profanity didn’t exist in the Farian language, so she stole a curse from his. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. It was an accident.”

“It happened the last time, too, didn’t it?”

Miserable, she nodded. “I hoped I could control it. I assumed because I wasn’t mentally prepared before… I’m sorry.” She rolled over to get out of bed.

He grabbed her wrist. “What are you doing?”

“Going to my quarters. You have a right to be angry because I invaded your privacy.”

“I’m not mad.” He hadn’t released her, leaving her no choice but to lie beside him. After hooking the thermal cover with his toe and pulling it over them, he faced her, his hand beneath his head. “I’m not mad, but I am going to have to watch my thoughts. What if I’d been thinking, gee, she looks like she put on a few kilos?”

She gasped. “You-you—”

He laughed. “I’m kidding. Trying to lighten the mood.” He tugged on a lock of her hair, and sensation coiled between her legs. It would be wise to never tell him how strongly playing with her hair affected her.

He squinted like he had a headache. “Can you tell what I’m thinking now?”

She shook her head.

“You’re not getting any thoughts or images of purple cats?”

“It doesn’t work that way.”

“How does it work?”

“I’m a
computer
sensate. I can’t read your human mind, but I can tap into computer software, and since you’re a cyborg…”

“You have access to what my microprocessor records.”

“I don’t do it deliberately. I try to avoid it, actually. But, during strong emotion, when my barriers crash, it sort of happens. I have to be touching you, though.” She had to physically connect with a computer system to integrate into it. That was the way her gift had always worked.

“Has it happened with anyone else?”

“No. You’re the only cyborg I’ve been with.” And the second man ever.

“So it didn’t happen with…?”

“Not in that way.”

He frowned. “Not in that way? What does that mean?”

“Alonio and I had been matched as lifemates, and when we joined in marriage, we formed a psychic bond that forged an awareness of the other even when we’re apart.”

“Wait a minute—”

“I severed the bonds,” she added. “The lifemate connection enabled him to hunt me down when I first left him. It also allowed me to sense when he was around so I was able to escape. Every time he found me, I identified and broke the psychic threads. I think they’re all gone now.”

“You think?” He pulled back.

“He found me within a matter of days the other times. I’ve been here about a month. That he hasn’t shown up and I haven’t sensed him at all, are good signs.” She sought to reassure him.

“How long were you on run before you came here?”

“About two months. The first time, he found me two days later. I had to flee the hospital.” Still in critical condition, nowhere near healed, leaving the infirmary had jeopardized her life, but staying would have ended it for sure. Alonio would have killed her in her bed. “Gradually, it has taken longer and longer for him to find me.”

“How long was the previous longest stretch?”

“A week.”

He relaxed with a sigh. “So a month is a good sign. Probably you have cut the ties, but with this new information, I’m glad I called for reinforcements.” He pulled her against his chest, and she tucked her head on his shoulder. His heart thumped comfortingly and she snuggled close.

He caressed her arm. “Now, back to us…when did you realize you could get in my head?”

“When we were intimate in the observatory.” She bit her lip. “I got a hint at the interview. When we shook hands, I sensed I might be able to connect to your processor.”

“Huh.”

He seemed to be taking the news well. She scanned his face. “Why aren’t you angry?”

He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, sending a zing zipping along her nerves. “I’m used to communicating via wireless with other cyborgs. It’s almost like telepathy. So having you listen in when we’re having sex isn’t that unsettling.” He grinned. “Besides, I doubt that you’ll pick up anything more interesting than,
Fuck, I’m going to come,
but now that I know you have this ability, I’ll erect a firewall to keep you from gleaning any deep, dark secrets.” He glanced at her. “No offense.”

None taken. Instead, a load of guilt lifted off her shoulders. “Do you have deep, dark secrets?” she teased.

“Two or three. You already know one of them.”

“And what’s that?”

“How much I like you.”

Yeah, she’d caught the drift. “I-I like you, too.”

“Care to test it?”

“Test it?” she asked then felt his cock twitch against her leg. “Ah, you mean the firewall. Maybe we should. Just to be sure.” She smiled and traced the arrow of hair down his abdomen.

He was right. When she spiraled to the height of rapture and her consciousness connected with his microprocessor, the only thought she picked up from him was,
Oh fuck, I’m going to come
.

The Terran’s shoulders twitched, and then he scratched his nose, signaling the computer had dealt him a good hand. The other players folded. Dismay and anger flitted across his face like a vid reel. If anyone should have avoided gambling, it was the Terran. He had so many tells, everyone in the gaming hall knew what kind of hand he had. Alonio almost felt sorry for the pathetic loser.

A gag-inducing stench reminiscent of rocket exhaust wafted into the room several long seconds before the
Barbadian
henchman-for-hire sauntered in. Drool dribbled down two tusks protruding from his mouth. His bulk blocked the entrance as he scanned the crowd. When his gaze alighted on the Terran, he grunted.

“Perfect,” Alonio murmured. He couldn’t have asked for better luck.

The Barbadian loomed over his quarry. “Mr. Jennetta would like to speak to you,” he growled.

“I’m in the middle of something right now.” The Terran shifted on the stool and looked to the other gamblers with a beseeching expression, but they had eyes only for their gambling screens. The android game monitor turned his back.
See no evil.
No one wanted to tangle with a Barbadian.

With a chortle of satisfaction, Alonio crossed his arms. If he had planned this, things couldn’t have gone better.

“Now.” The Barbadian grabbed the Terran’s arm and yanked him off the stool.

“Well, all right. All you had to do was ask.”

“This way.” The henchman jerked his head toward the exit, flinging a string of mucous spittle onto his captive’s shirt.

Disgusting. Alonio glanced at his pristine white suit and shuddered. He’d have to be sure to stay out of range. When the right time came. For now, his best strategy was to let the situation ride.

The Terran nodded, and the two started to weave through the gaming cubbies. They’d taken a half dozen steps when the Terran broke away and ran. The alien bounty hunter caught him by the scruff of the neck and hauled him kicking and blubbering out of the hall.

Alonio smoothed the sleeves of his suit and slipped into the vacated chair. “May I join you gentlemen and lady?” He guessed the noseless, earless creature with facial horns was female.

“You got the credits, you can play,” the monitor bot said.

He tapped into his screen and sent five hundred thousand credits to the android. Linking his consciousness to the computer, he altered the gaming code. After three rounds, which he won, he decided the Barbadian had had enough time. He cashed out his winnings, wished his companions luck, and departed.

The henchman’s body odor and his quarry’s screaming led him to a back corridor of the casino, deserted except for a few android service workers who weren’t programmed to care that a man writhed on the ground, clutching a dislocated shoulder.

“I have the credits, I swear!” the Terran cried. “Let me go to Exchange, and I’ll transfer them to Mr. Jennetta’s account. I was on my way—”