The Exchange Part 1 (9 page)

“TALK TO ME.” Sapphire’s just finished helping me out of my jacket and wiping the
blood off my face. I won’t even get into what her tending to me like that did to me.
Sitting next to me, she’s now preparing to remove my gloves. “Deimos—”

“I’m awake,” I mumble, trying to focus on her passed the white letters I still see.

Integration at 9
%.
Repair initiated. Platelet reproduction doubled.

Damn, it’s slow. But it seems to be enough. I’m no longer fighting with every breath
to stay awake.

“Good. But your eyes being open isn’t enough. I need you to talk to me and tell me
what’s going on there.”

I move my hand and grab hers, squeezing down
lightly
. “You’re shaking. Too much.”
Worried about you
.

She looks like she’s lost as much blood as I have. Which isn’t true. It’s her emotional
processors on the fritz.

“I’m fine. Please. We can’t work on sealing the wounds ‘till I get these gloves off.”

She isn’t going to let this go. I can tell.
Get back on your own feet then you can take care of
her. With a sigh, I give in. “I’m awake. Talking. Do your thing.”

Her grimace is apologetic. “These are
probably
stuck to your wounds.”

“I have no doubt,” I tell her.

“
Gonna
hurt and
possibly
rip off bits of your skin that had already started healing.”

I shrug. “Yeah, but I can’t heal until you do it. So…”

Unexpectedly
, Sapphire leans forward. The soft brush of her lips against my forehead makes me
choke on a gasp.

Did she… but no one has—not even my mother...

Man, she’s making me think about shit
long
buried.

She pulls back and gives me that smile again. The one that makes my chest feel way
too tight. “Strong man. Fighter to the core, aren’t you?”

I stare up at her, eyes wide.

Her cheeks go pink. Sheepish, she hides behind her hair and reaches for my gloves
again. “Ready?”

My heart is roaring in my head. I know I’m strong. My team knows I’m strong. Anyone
who knows about me knows I’m strong.

But if any of them admire it, they’ve never said so. Never even hinted at it.

I never even wanted them to.

Why would they tell me? We’re comrades, but I’m their leader. We hang, but I never
let them too close.

No one gets close.
             

Right now, I realize, she is. She’s getting in there. She’s going deep into the core
of me.

Calm down, it’s the blood loss talking.
Has to be. No way I’ve developed the ability to care this much. No way I’m letting
someone in. Not now, not under these circumstances.

Definitely not her. Can’t be her.

“Deimos?”

“
I
’m ready.”

She peels the first one off. Quick, like a band-aid. Just as painful, too.

I don’t see the inside of the gloves, don’t have to. No doubt I’ve left nice chunks
of my DNA up in there.
I
hiss, unable to stop it, as blood wells around the edges of my reopened wounds.

“
I
’m so sorry. Tried to be quick.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I say to Sapphire, watching the blood coagulate.

“So what’s your teammate’s name?” she asks while reaching for the other glove, trying
to distract me from what she’s about to do.

I wish she’d picked another topic, instead of showing interest in Gage.

Yes, I came close to dying. That doesn’t mean I gained any control over my infantile
jealousy, alright?

“His name is Mars.” I give her his codename instead. His real name and identity is
his to give out, not the organization's, and definitely not mine.

“He seems nice.”

Yeah, because he
fucking
wants you.
Not true. Okay, partially true. Gage is downright cavity-inducing when he wants to
be—Misty’s birthday every year proves this disgusting fact—but he’s also nice to Sapphire
because he wants to fuck her. That’s how us guys are, for the most part. It’s a biological
programming that not even us “cyborgs” can erase.

The second glove comes off. I clench my jaw and control my reaction this time. As
soon as its off, new letters blink in front of my eyes.

Integration at 17
%.
Cellular regrowth commence.

Man, a few years ago, if someone had told me that this kind of shit existed, I would’ve
laughed at their crazy asses. Not even while working for the military was I aware
that we’d gotten so far technologically.

I got picked for the bionic parts
after
I’d helped build Adelphi. And I hadn’t known about it. I’d been comatose, both my
arms destroyed on the insides. Then I’d woken up, and
viola
. Advanced technology a decade or more away from existing.

Now this.

“Hold on, I have some antibacterial wipes in my bag.”

I stop her with a hand around her wrist. She
tsks
and moves my hand off her, making sure I lay it flat on my abs, next to my other one.
“Don’t bend your fingers.”

I
ignore her soft scolding. As soon as she heals me, and the adrenaline starts to ebb,
there will be a crash. Whether it’s a bad one, or an epically fucked-up one that lands
her in a hospital, all depends on me calming her down a little now.

So I grab her wrist again, ignore her protest once more, and bring her closer.

She stumbles off her knees, catching herself by slapping a hand on my chest. Not quite
landing on me, but so damned close. Her hair fans over her shoulders and over my chest,
the dark blue ends caressing my neck. Her heat surrounds me. It’s like being drugged.
My lids grow heavier and my internal scan beeps, alerting me to my rising heartbeat.

This was not what I had in mind when I pulled her closer.

Sapphire moves her hair away from her face. The scent of it reaches me, and I inhale,
hungry to take more of it in. Remaining half-bent over me, she looks up at me from
under her lashes.

My eyes drop to that fleshy bottom lip of hers. I want it in my mouth so I can suck
on it.

I shouldn’t even be able to want such things right now.

Sapphire’s breath leaves her on a shaky exhale. She blinks, her lashes hiding those
eyes from me for a moment. When she opens them, they land on my mouth. They’re darker,
hungry, reflecting every damn thing I want.

I could get lost in this. I could lay here, and let her do whatever she wants to me.

My cock thickens in my jeans, throbbing against the material at the thought of being
at her mercy like that.

She’s hyper-feeling and needs an outlet. She must be so fucking overwhelmed, and I
know from experience that sex is a great way to burn it off.

But it can’t happen. I refuse to take advantage of her like that. What if I’m misreading
the whole thing because of what I want? “Sapphire…”

She leans closer, her chest brushing mine. Her eyes are fixated on my lips. I react
to that stare, my entire body revving up like it hadn’t been close to shutting down.

Integration at 30%. Cellular regrowth at 25%. Platelet reproduction at 48%.

My BCI’s way of saying that I should not be this excited right now.

I have no choice. No control over it. Sapphire is too close now, her breath teasing
my lips.

She wants a taste.

I want my fucking tongue deep in her mouth. Want to trace it across the plump curve
of her lips. Want to do things to her that
she’s too innocent to deal with.

“Sapphire, we shouldn’t—
uhn
,” I break off on a moan at the feel of her lips, a soft caress that was more a tease
than an actual kiss.

Sapphire echoes my moan with a small one of her own.

She’s shaking; I’m trembling beneath her, the muscles in my chest bulging as I struggle
to hold myself back. My hands clench and
unclench
in the air at her sides, the thin, newly sealed skin stretching uncomfortably.

Her lips are shaking above my mouth, echoing the movements of her body. Her lashes
lay on her cheeks; the space between her brow is furrowed.

It’s unquenchable, this God damned hunger. That tease of her lips has proved it.
I
’m screaming at myself to stop this even as my blood roars in my veins, the pressure
so intense that it sets off my internal scan again.

I
need to regain some control first then I’ll focus on the rest. Right now, the urge
to flip her over and give her the relief she needs is fighting to take over.

She’d be so hungry underneath me, so responsive. I can tell.

Sapphire lets her eyes open halfway, enough to pierce me with her gold-and-green irises.
“Deimos.”

I grind my teeth, but there’s no ignoring how she said my name. No denying what's
in her tone and the next urge that blossoms, the one demanding that I make her say
my
real
name.

Why do I care? I
am
Deimos. I’ve never needed anyone to acknowledge me as the man I was born as.  It
usually
annoys me when people say my real name.

It wouldn’t annoy me with her. For some reason, I have this insane idea that hearing
her say my real name would make me come so freaking hard.

You’re fucking crazy, and she’s going to regret this once she’s calmer.

So true, and the last thing I want to do is have her look at me with regret because
I took something I had no business taking.

I cup the sides of her face in my trembling hands. Her lips part, and she shifts,
her chest pressing against my own. Oh, God, her breasts on me. The way she feels sets
my imagination racing.

Why the hell am I so attracted to this girl?

She blinks, eyes tracing the lines of my face, and her pupils dilate again. There’s
a sense of wonder in her stare, a reminder that this is all new to her, and the angles
of her face are pure perfection.

Made for sex, yet so freaking innocent.

My sick, starving cock pulsates, the moist head sliding across my jeans.

Pre-cum. Already.
Fuck.

She’s made to attract any male, and on top of that, there’s no denying the lure of
being her first. Not sure if Magdalena ever had sex, but Sapphire hasn’t. That much
I can tell. And one day, some lucky
sonofabitch
is going to get to have her.

I want to be that
sonofabitch
. Real, real bad. Thinking about anybody having that honor makes my inner killer itch
for death. The most bloody, messy, violent kind of death possible.

“Deimos.” Her tongue peeks out as she wets her bottom lip. “How are you feeling?”

Her question catches me by surprise, and a small laugh leaves me. She smiles down
at me, and I just want to fist her hair and bring that mouth back to mine. “Not dying,
if that’s what you’re asking.”
Liar
, my BCI seems to say as another beep sounds out inside me.

“Okay. That’s good.” She stares into my eyes, a stare so direct that I’m awkward before
her. “Your eyes. They’re so blue.” Her eyes flicker back toward my lips. My turn to
wet them, and the way her eyes get darker when I do thrills me. It shouldn’t, but
it does. “Any chance you won’t mind me doing that again?”

She’s already heading for my mouth, so close now that if I lick my lips, I’ll taste
her.

God, how can I be this hard right now?
Seriously
,
how
?