Kissing Steel (14 page)

were curved downward in a frown. Frustration rose in Rena as she helplessly pushed

against his wide chest, not able to move him an inch. It was like trying to lift a car off

her.

“There is no need for you to get emotional,” he finally said. “I’m not the same as

your males. I was just running scenarios in my mind while I evaluated the relevant facts.”

She stared at him in disbelief. “Why? You either want me or you don’t. It’s that

damn simple, Steel.”

He shook his head. “It is anything but simple.” He paused. “What do you know of

my kind?”

“Just what my father and his friends told me. After my mother left he had his buddies

over all the time so it was like having a dozen fathers, so someone was always with me.

They all hated cyborgs and told me chilling stories about how you were brutal killers.”

A muscle in Steel’s face twitched. “When we were created they kept us in a kind of

stasis until we were physically the size of a human teenage male, our growth accelerated

so from Petri dish to the time we were awakened was just a matter of months. They

thought we’d be blank slates, mindless brains they could program.”

Rena hadn’t known that. She was horrified and sympathy welled inside her over the

image of waking up to life in a teenage body without parents, without love, without any

of the things she’d had.

“We evolved into what they were not expecting. We had thoughts and emotions.” He

paused. “They put chips into our minds that would shut off access to parts of our brains

but we worked around those blocks, learning how to turn them on or off at will, to

secretly hide that we were more in control of ourselves than they realized. They said we

didn’t have souls but we did.”

“That’s why they wanted to destroy your kind. They realized they couldn’t totally be

in command of you and make you the way they wanted you to be.”

60

Kissing Steel – Laurann Dohner

Steel took a deep breath. “Yes, that is why. Did you hear me? I can turn off parts of

my body, Rena. I can deaden my arm, for example, so we can’t be tortured effectively.

An enemy couldn’t make me suffer enough pain to tell them what they wanted to know if

they cut off fingers because I would just block all sensation to that arm.”

Speechless, Rena didn’t say a word.

“When I awoke to being restrained on the bed with you on top of me I could have

turned off sensation to my lower body.”

Shock seeped into her mind as she realized what he was saying. Steel had grown

hard under her when she’d straddled him and tried to seduce him. Gene had said he was

resisting his body when he’d held her to detect if she was telling the truth or not, but

when he’d admitted it was difficult to control his body and had stopped, he’d gotten an

instant erection. She swallowed.

“I don’t know why but I found you appealing, and the fact that you had me restrained

turned me on. I chose to allow myself to experience the sensations and respond.” Steel

cocked his head. “When you cried I could have deactivated my emotions but I chose not

to. I held still and allowed you to find comfort with me. I lay there without fighting to

break free any longer because I liked you sleeping on top of me and I felt protective of

you. It isn’t a logical response and it disturbs me that something about you draws me,

Rena.”

Staring into his eyes, thoughts ran through her mind.
Why is he admitting this? Why

hadn’t he just shut himself off? He wouldn’t have gotten hard and we wouldn’t have been

able to have sex. Afterward he lay still and just allowed me to cry myself to sleep, stopped

pulling on the bed or trying to break the frame.
Her mouth opened.

“That is why I hesitate to answer you without giving it some thought and

consideration,” he said quickly. “I’m acting in an irrational manner and it disturbs me. I

don’t know if spending more time with you will make me more irrational or if it will give

me the answer to why I’m so drawn to you so that I can no longer have you in my

thoughts constantly. You are a mystery to me.”

“What is the worst that can happen if we continue to sleep together until we reach

Outpost Five?”

Steel hesitated. He lifted off her, separating their bodies as he climbed from the bed.

Rena thought he wasn’t going to answer her as he started to head for the bathroom but

then he paused by the door, turning slowly to gaze at her with his beautiful eyes. “I could

change my mind about giving you your freedom and keep you.” He took a deep breath.

“Come get clean with me and then we’ll share a meal. I know we both are hungry.”

As he disappeared out of her sight into the bathroom, Rena sat up slowly,

swallowing the lump that formed in her throat. Steel even saying that he might keep her

should have made her want to avoid his touch since right now he was set on letting her

go. The thought of saying goodbye to the tall, sexy cyborg made her heart squeeze in her

chest. No man she’d ever met made her feel anything close to the way he did.

She moved to get off the bed, following him almost eagerly. The
Vontage
had real

water showers, a rarity on spaceships but it had been built to be a luxury hotel.
The water

tanks on the ship have to be huge,
she thought, walking toward the bathroom.
If I have a

brain in my head, I’ll avoid Steel to make sure he doesn’t change his mind about letting

61

Kissing Steel – Laurann Dohner

me go.
She stepped into the bathroom to see Steel bent over, filling the large tub. Her

focus fixed on his rounded, firm ass, watching muscles flex there as he straightened to

turn his head. Her gaze lifted to his, her heart pounding when he smiled at her.

You’re not the only one being totally irrational, Steel
, her mind whispered, as she

moved toward the big cyborg.

62

Kissing Steel – Laurann Dohner

The planet wasn’t similar to Earth one bit. Rena inched closer to Steel wondering

again why the hell he had made her go down to the surface with him. She glanced up at

his face where he stood next to her but his attention was focused on the cyborg women

surrounding them, a deep frown on his face.

Peering at the hundreds of cyborg females was a shock to Rena’s system. The

women looked similar to ancient Amazons with their warrior-sized muscular bodies

covered in tattered clothing that barely hid their girl parts, not much else, and they were

all about six feet tall, their skin tones were darker shades of gray than the cyborg men

from the ship, probably made that way from all the exposure to the sun.

The few cyborg males were barely dressed as well, wearing loincloths, their large,

muscled bodies also darker from the sun. They looked barbaric and some of them carried

swords that were obviously fashioned from metal scraps.

They stood at the edge of a large camp surrounded by woods. The trees were big

blue cottony things resembling weird weeping willows. The homes the women had built

were mostly constructed from metal pieces that they’d salvaged from the ship they’d

crashed into a nearby moon and had shuttled to the surface of the nearest planet, the one

they stood on now. It was as if Rena had stepped back in time as she looked around her at

the very basic living conditions of the camp, the only difference was that these were

cyborgs.

A redheaded cyborg woman, who looked to be about six-foot-four, stepped forward,

gripping one of those homemade swords, an angry expression on her face, her bright

green eyes fixed on Rena. “What is that?”

“My human. Hello, Fiona. I assured you that I would return within a few days. Are

your people packed? The repairs will be done in a matter of days. We want to start

transferring your people within the next forty hours to slowly settle them aboard your

ship where life support and basic functions have been reestablished.”

Fury gripped Fiona’s features. “You dared bring a human near us?” She took another

step forward, gripping her sword in her fist. “We hate humans. We had to leave Earth and

we were marooned here for all these years, too afraid to use the last of our fuel to venture

into space seeking help for fear of them discovering us to finish us off like they tried to

do on Earth.”

Steel stepped in front of Rena, putting himself in the path of the enraged cyborg

female, protecting Rena. He tensed and his hands fisted at his sides. “Back up and lower

your weapon.”

“She’s a human.” The woman turned her head and spit on the ground.

“She’s mine.” Steel nearly growled the words. “You will respect my property. You

have humans here.”

63

Kissing Steel – Laurann Dohner

“Five of them but they were strong supporters of us.” Fiona stepped back, lowering

her sword. “Is she a supporter?”

“She has no animosity for cyborgs.”

“Then why is she your property? Human supporters are our friends and comrades but

you said she was your human.”

Sighing, Steel relaxed. “On Garden all humans are property, but you wouldn’t know

that since you’ve never been there and are unaware of our laws. It doesn’t mean they are

a danger to us or that they are a threat. It just means they have that status.”

Fiona didn’t look happy as she returned her attention back to Rena, curling her lip. “I

never trust them, even the supporters.”

Still frowning, Steel tilted his head. “She can’t harm you.” He paused. “I’ll protect

you from the fearsome little human.” Sarcasm nearly dripped from his lips as he spoke.

Dark green eyes narrowed in response while Fiona handed off her sword to another

large female who stood behind her and then faced Steel head-on as she took a step toward

him and then another until they were just a foot apart. The redheaded cyborg woman

glared up the few inches into Steel’s handsome face. One hand rose to place it on Steel’s

chest.

“I heard you are no longer contracted to a woman.”

Steel’s body tensed. “How did you hear about that?”

“Word travels and crew from both ships have been going back and forth to the

surface.” She inched closer. “We would make a great match. You know I’ve wanted you

since you discovered us and now you no longer have a reason to deny me.”

Fury overwhelmed Rena. She opened her mouth and then slammed it closed,

knowing she had no claim on Steel and that they weren’t in a relationship so she couldn’t

exactly tell the Amazon bitch to take her hand off her man. It burned though and when

Steel didn’t jerk away from the woman’s touch that anger turned to pain. A horrible

thought struck her as she stood there tense and waiting to see what would happen next.

Would Steel take the bitch up on her offer and sleep with Fiona?

“Let’s take a walk,” Fiona’s other hand came up to curl around Steel’s biceps,

squeezing the thick muscles there. “We’ll test out our chemistry.”

Steel turned to look at Rena. She stared up at him with her lips pressed tightly

together and she realized her hands were fisted at her sides. She unclenched them without

looking away from him and crossed her arms over her chest. If he walked off with that

cyborg woman she didn’t know what she’d do, but she knew one thing for damn sure—

Steel would never touch her again. She wouldn’t allow it.

“Are you looking at her to get permission?” Anger rolled off Fiona’s tongue. “Your

little human looks a bit pale now, Steel. With her body language speaking for her, I

would say she doesn’t take well to me touching you. Interesting. Who owns who, Steel?”

Steel turned to glare down at Fiona. “I own her.”

“Then prove it and let’s go test our chemistry. No one here will harm your little

human while you are gone and she can help out while we get to know each other

physically. We’re mostly packed but we could always use a slave to help with closing up

64

Kissing Steel – Laurann Dohner

the camp.” Fiona jerked her head at someone behind Rena. “Take her to my home and

have her pack my clothing and clean the cooking dishes.”

A hand clamped down on Rena’s arm in a bruising hold, startling her. Steel didn’t

even turn his head. Rena stared up at the cyborg woman dressed in ragged clothing who

was touching her. “Get your hand off me, please. I know how to walk on my own.”

The woman arched an eyebrow but didn’t release Rena. Instead her hand clamped

tighter on her upper arm, making Rena gasp in pain, feeling as though her arm was being

crushed. The urge to kick the woman was strong, but before Rena could act on it, a hand

clamped over the one on her arm—a large masculine hand that tore the woman’s hold