Kingston 691: Book Two of Cyborgs: Mankind Redefined (15 page)

King studied the woman across the table. He still didn’t know her. All he knew was he wanted to kiss her again. He wanted to kiss her until he figured out
why
he wanted to kiss her. It was nearly as imperative as any military mandate he’d ever received and felt obligated to follow.

He unfolded his napkin and draped it over his lap, careful not to dwell on the evidence of his rising interest.

“Despite how happy I am to be a free person, I’m not angry with you for buying me. In fact, I’m actually grateful. Peyton has nothing but horror stories to share about his husband contract days, including having to get a cybernetic heart because one wife stabbed him. All I have is a memory gap of several years. Until I found out about you, I really had no past to traumatize me. Now I want to know why Norton took my time with you away. Those bastards don’t do anything without it serving the UCN’s corruption.”

Seetha nodded, picked up her sandwich, and took a bite to stall her answer. She knew why…or at least she suspected why. Just like she knew why she had been tricked and captured. But since she was starting work for Norton on Monday, it was probably not a good idea to talk about her theories too much. Sipping her tea, she decided to approach her sharing from a different angle.

“You were never typical. When I bought you, your record was full of notes about what your other wives called
weird behaviors
. Being a calibration engineer, I figured it was to be expected when you combined organic beings with cybernetic parts. Even the most well-programmed bot has a blip now and again. The bigger the blip—the bigger the behavior shift in them. It seems rather logical the blips in cyborgs would be astronomical in comparison.”

King picked up his sandwich, inspected it, and prepared to take a bite. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to talk about your observations of me in our past. What kind of blips were happening to me when I was with you?”

“Well for starters, I never saw what the other women mentioned. I can only tell you what happened to me…or to us…however you view it,” Seetha said.

King nodded and swallowed, glad to hear her defend him. Oddly, it made him relax more. “Good chicken salad. Simulated or real?”

Seetha snorted. “If a man who owns his own restaurant can’t tell, I’m for sure not saying. Eat it. It’s healthy and filling. That’s all you need to know.”

King grinned at her bossiness. “I bet you gave AI Unit G356 a hard time every day.”

“You mean, Rodney? Of course I did. He chased me down every time I ran away and then would lock me in leg chains to keep me from running. I called that metal head every filthy name I could think of, and I did it every time I saw him. I think maintaining a rebellious attitude is one of the reasons I’m in fairly good mental shape now. I found a way to vent out my frustration, even though it didn’t do me much good.”

“Just before the war ended, I was captured and tortured for two weeks. The cybernetics mitigated the worst of the physical pain I endured, but fighting not to let them reduce me to mental instability was the hard part. They made me watch them dismantle a soldier…not one of my team…but they ripped off his enhancements and let him bleed to death while he suffered. I hated not being able to do a damn thing to stop them. After I was restored, nightmares about what they did to that soldier in front of me returned briefly. I’ve learned to gather up those things, label them as data, and file them away somewhere in my brain they can be ignored. It’s actually a positive use of my cybernetic chips.”

Seetha put down her sandwich. It was just not going to be possible to eat with any real attention to the food. “How did you escape?”

King shrugged. “Peyton came after me. It was the only time he disobeyed orders. He set me free and together we took care of them to make sure they didn’t capture anyone else.”

Seetha blinked. She shouldn’t pry any deeper, but she had to know. “Like you took care of Rodney?”

King sighed. “It suddenly occurs to me this is not great table conversation for our lunch.”

“But we’re not normal people just having a simple lunch. We’re both survivors of being tortured. Now tell me what happened, King—the truth please,” Seetha ordered.

“Peyton didn’t bring his gun with him. We had to improvise.”

Seetha nodded and picked up her sandwich. She took a determined bite to show him she didn’t care…and she didn’t.

“And after surviving all that hell, you got put into the Cyber Husband program.”

“Yes,” King said, nodding once.

“Fucking Norton—they’re manipulating bastards,” Seetha said sharply. “I can’t believe I agreed to work there.”

“What were you thinking? Get out of it. Who hired you?” King demanded.

“Dr. Winters—your buddy—and I already gave her my word.”

King was dumbstruck. Why would Doc do that?

“What are you going to be doing?” he asked.

Seetha finished the last bite and leaned back in her chair. “Calibrating cybernetic enhancements on the soldiers after their restoration. She doesn’t care how much I hate the company. For all she knows, I could be coming there to blow the place all to hell and back. I’m not sure it would bother her if I did, other than take away her lab.”

King snorted. “It wouldn’t bother her. You’re in good company with Doc. She once intended to do that very thing. Peyton is the reason she didn’t. Now she’s using Norton to undo the Cyber Soldiers. She’s averaging one or two a day, but we don’t even have them all gathered up yet. It’s going to take at least two years to get them all done—after we locate them.”

Seetha frowned and folded her napkin. “I suppose William 874 was restored.”

King shook his head. “Not yet, but he’s in the queue.”

Seetha sighed. “He always made me nervous, but I don’t know why. With my luck, he’ll be one of the ones I have to work on.”

“I don’t like the idea of you being at Norton every day, Seetha.”

Her eyebrows arched up as high as they would go. “That’s quite an unsolicited opinion there, Kingston. As the good Dr. Winters pointed out, having Norton and the UCN listed in my employer file will make my next job more lucrative.”

King finished his food and pushed his plate away. “They can’t be trusted. And they monitor everything that goes on in the facility. Kyra’s not under any illusions. They’re watching her every move.”

“That doesn’t bother me. I’m used to being watched 24/7. And I’m sure all the restored soldiers are a challenge in one way or another. Who wouldn’t be in their situation?”

“Cyborgs are tolerated, but freed ones are not approved of in current society. We are the current version of the glamorous
other
that is both admired and feared.”

Seetha laughed. “Now that kind of speech sounds exactly like the you I remember. You always talked very poetically for someone who chose a career as a soldier.”

King looked away, trying not to be uncomfortable. “I was studying to be a literature teacher. My parents were both killed in a pod crash. Money wasn’t a problem, but my head was, and my grades bombed. At the end of that semester, I dropped out of college and joined the military. I guess you could say I went looking for another family and made my own. When Peyton and Marcus volunteered for the enhancements, I didn’t think twice about getting them myself. I still don’t regret that decision…even after all that’s happened.”

Seetha nodded. “Regret never changes the past anyway. Why are you here, King? Is it just because I’m a mystery to your cyborg side?”

“Why does a man need a reason to have a pleasant lunch with a beautiful woman?”

“A man doesn’t…but you do. You’re supposed to be mad at me for buying you.
That
would be normal. Anything else is suspect.”

“Hard to be mad at a woman you want to kiss every time you see her,” King said, smiling as she dropped her lifted chin and sighed.

“Yes, but when I kiss you, I’ll be kissing a man I kissed every day for seven years. Who will you be kissing? To you, I’m still a stranger…even if you keep trying to convince me you remember.”

King stood and sent a half dozen hummingbirds scattering. He smiled as they zoomed by his head to get away. He grinned and wondered if Seetha would be scattering next. Walking around the small table, he held out a hand. He grinned harder at her resigned sigh as she took it. He pulled her from the chair and into his arms. Her shiver turned him into a rock wall and it felt good to tug her pliant body up against him. She was tall, but not as tall today as she had been last night in her heels.

He lifted her face to his with one hand and stared into her worried gaze. “I will be kissing a woman I want to kiss. That’s really all I’m clear on at this time.”

Seetha nodded against his palm. “Fair enough,” she said, straining to meet him when his mouth descended to hers.

Today she was conscious of his arousal again, and it relieved her on about a thousand levels to know King could want her without any prompting.Their kiss spun out in the midday sunshine. Their mouths explored each other’s. She felt herself lifted by her hips and pulled tight against his straining erection.

She wrestled her mouth free. “I want to relieve that for you more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life.”

King shook against her. Capitulation was not something he’d counted on gaining so easily. “I have to go back to work. Will you come there later?”

“After last night, I don’t know if I’m brave enough to come back to the restaurant.”

King snorted. “You were enjoying yourself. What did you do wrong?”

“I climbed you like a tree in front of your customers. I even embarrassed Franco,” Seetha exclaimed.

Laughter bubbled up and out of him. He bent to kiss her neck. He wanted her climbing on him again—as soon as he could arrange it. “Embarrass yourself again tonight, and I’ll take you home with me afterwards.” Her shiver sent him running hands down the back of her to soothe her.

“King, I don’t look like I used to look. If you do remember, I’m going to fall way short of the woman I was,” Seetha declared.

“Okay—I don’t remember. See how well this is working out? Maybe my forgetfulness is a good thing.”

Seetha shook her head. “Maybe it is for you. I’m not sure I will ever feel the same.”

King swooped to her mouth, his tongue doing what he wanted to do with a more demanding appendage. Her body straining against his was more exciting than the first day he opened the restaurant. He groaned in her ear as his mouth left hers and traveled over her face. He was tempted to dip a hand inside those tight leggings she wore and send her keening. The possibility of Annalise potentially catching them was the only reason he didn’t indulge.

“Wear something short and easy to get out of,” King ordered, keeping hold of her while she shivered again. “And heels. I want you taller…at least when we start. I’ll take them off later.”

Seetha pushed slowly away, her hands reluctantly pressing against his chest. She felt drugged…drunk…not to mention on the verge of another crying bout. She searched his face, but saw only lust in his gaze on her. It was enough. She’d just have to be satisfied with it or cut him loose…and that wasn’t happening again voluntarily.

“Mother will be thrilled beyond belief when I ask for yet another damn shopping trip. This is the third one since I’ve returned. She’s beside herself.”

King laughed and reached out to take Seetha’s hand. “I liked what you wore last night. Just wear that again.”

Seetha snorted. “A Harrington show up in the same public place wearing the same thing twice? No, thank you. I would be disowned.”

King grinned and tightened his fingers on hers. He turned when they stopped at the door. “I think I like you, Seetha Harrington.”

Seetha felt tears gathering, but she blinked them away. Her former husband just said he liked her. Was her life so pathetic that she’d settle for so little after having so much? She blinked and saw his quizzical gaze studying her reaction.

“I guess that’s a good thing because I like you too,” she said sharply. “And I make it a rule to only have wild monkey sex with men I like, so you’re in luck. I’ll be there around nine. I’ll wait in the bar until you close.”

“No flirting with my bartender this time.”

“No promises…but I’ll try to behave.”

King laughed, kissed her hard on the mouth once more, and then she watched him jog down her sidewalk to a new airjet parked at the curb. It looked too small for him, but somehow he folded his gigantic body into it. She watched it lift and zoom away from the curb, zigging and zagging through the streets just like a hummingbird fleeing her mother’s backyard.

The irony of watching him leave hit just as his vehicle disappeared from her sight. It released a waterfall of tears as she closed the door.

Chapter 12

It made her smile when Franco’s gaze dropped from her short blue dress to her legs the moment she came through the door. She arched one eyebrow high as his gaze remained on her while he sent off a couple with a junior host to be seated. His nod to her and his knowing grin both made her want to giggle.

“Welcome, Ms. Harrington. I see you’re back a second time with no reservation. Are you planning to wait in the bar again for another two hours?”

“Yes, I am waiting in the bar, but I promise you won’t need to call for a getaway pod this time. I’ll be leaving with your boss at the end of the evening. King and I have a date…a real one this time.”

She laughed when Franco made a face and sighed.

“Then I shall feel sorry such nice legs will be crammed into that tiny airjet Mr. West purchased. Those beautiful legs should have all the room they need to move around freely.”

“Why Franco, that sounds like serious flirting…and almost wicked.”

She was delighted when Franco smiled wickedly again to assure her it was meant exactly that way. His maleness made her laugh. Her mother would be pleased she was feeling so female in the dress they had chosen together.

“Though it pains me to confess, I’m just sucking up to the boss’s girlfriend,” Franco teased. “But my elegant ass kissing doesn’t make it less true about your legs. You should never hide those in pants.”