The Gate (5 page)

Of course, she hadn’t told him he had
to, but why would he have left it?

She hadn’t told him that he had to stay
in the apartment, but she also hadn’t given him any errands to
run!

Because she hadn’t wanted to risk the
chance of Brenda, or someone else who’d known the real Devlin,
seeing her cyborg!

Damn it!

She’d known when she’d ordered him that
she was taking a huge risk. She’d managed to quiet her conscience
by convincing herself that she could keep it a secret, that Brenda
need never know.

“Well, uh, maybe that’s it?” she
finally said a little weakly, instead of confessing like she should
have. “We’ve been talking about him a lot and you had him on your
mind and you just saw someone who looked a lot like him?

“Or maybe not even a lot,” she added in
a rush when Brenda turned to look at her accusingly.

“Do you know how many Arapaho are in
this colony?” Brenda snapped.

Carly blinked at her. “Uh …
no.”

“Me!”

Carly felt heat flash in her face.
“Well … uh … Devlin was never here at all, right? So it couldn’t be
him.”

“It couldn’t be him because he’s dead!”
Brenda snapped. “He died a year ago in that explosion!”

It occurred to Carly that she was
getting in deeper and deeper. She should confess and take the
fallout she had coming to her, try to explain. Brenda was going to
find out sooner or later anyway, she told herself, trying to brace
herself for the inevitable even while still searching her mind
frantically for some escape.

“Well … uh … I … uh ….” The stammering
didn’t help. No solution magically presented itself. The urge to
confess was nearly overwhelming, but the fear of the nasty
confrontation that would result from confession was more
overwhelming. “So … uh … maybe it was a new colonist? He could even
have been east Indian.”

Brenda narrowed her eyes at her. “We
may all look alike to you white people, but I think I fucking know
my own brother!”

Dismayed, Carly gaped at her. “I didn’t
mean it that way!”

“What did you mean?” Brenda demanded
angrily.

“I’m just saying ….” Carly left the
attempt at another lie hanging. After staring at Brenda for a long
moment in dismay, she blurted out the confession she didn’t want to
make at all. “I suppose it might have been my companion
cyborg.”

The blood drained from Brenda’s face
leaving it a sickly yellowish color and all expression vanished
with the shock that went through her. “Your what?”

Carly winced. “I can
explain!”

* * * *

“You went out!” Carly said
accusingly.

Devlin turned from the window to look
at her with an expression of surprise. The shock didn’t last more
than a few seconds, though. His face closed. “I didn’t realize I
was a prisoner,” he responded coolly.

The comment was delivered in a flat,
emotionless monotone that would have sounded completely inoffensive
if not for the words themselves. It was what he said that changed
it from a neutral response to a cool challenge.

Carly gaped at him in disbelief as that
tone registered and instantly felt her anger escalate. As ready as
she’d been to blame the entire mess she was in with Brenda on
Devlin she hadn’t expected an actual fight about it. She’d expected
to air her grievance and get a humble apology in
response.

He was a cyborg! He wasn’t supposed to
defend himself! He was supposed to accept the blame so she could
feel better!

“You’re a cybernetic companion!” she
snapped. “You can’t be a prisoner anymore than my … cooking unit
can be free! And you upset Bren ….” She broke off and flicked a
glance at the computer sensors as it suddenly dawned on her that
Trude was probably recording the entire exchange.

Devlin flicked a glance toward the
censors, as well. His expression tightened for a second and then
all expression was wiped from his face.

“Your cyborg is exhibiting alarming
signs of defective programming,” Trude announced. “Should I contact
the company?”

Dismay flashed through Carly. “No!” She
calmed herself with an effort, scrambling to think of an
explanation that would sooth Trude’s suspicions. “He’s the … uh …
latest in cybernetic development, designed to behave like an actual
companion. He detects when I have a need for an argument and
responds accordingly.”

It sounded lame even to her, but she
was too agitated to consider that she should have flatly denied the
possibility that Devlin was arguing at all.

She pasted a smile on her lips. “Make
up sex time!” she announced brightly. “Let’s do it in the
shower.”

Turning on her heel, she stalked toward
the bathroom. To her relief, Devlin followed without her having to
command it. The moment the door closed behind him, she sucked in an
angry breath to give him a piece of her mind. She didn’t manage to
deliver the set down that crowded into her mind. Devlin crowded her
against the lavatory, caught a fistful of her hair and yanked her
head back hard enough to produce a sting at the strain of her hair
against the roots. A mixture of alarm and surprise filled her but
before either could do more than register in her mind, he locked
his lips to hers and invaded her mouth with his tongue. Heat washed
over her. Her skin prickled with stinging sensation as if she’d
come into contact with an electrical charge.

She knew the feel of the body pressed
to hers, though, the mouth, the taste and scent of him and her body
responded faster than the logical side of her brain could. She
kissed him back, clutching at him to pull him closer. As familiar
as the sensations were, though, she’d never experienced it with
clothing preventing her from skin to skin contact and that itself
was enough to distract her from complete absorption in his love
play.

“Dev! What are you doing?” she
whispered when he broke the kiss to explore her exposed
throat.

She thought she saw a faint smile curl
his lips for a split second as his head descended. “Make up sex,”
he murmured huskily against her throat.

Carly wavered. She hadn’t expected him
to take the suggestion literally.

Truthfully, she didn’t believe he
had—but it certainly seemed more like something he should
do.

Except for that smile.

Which she wasn’t convinced she’d
seen.

She dismissed her qualms.

What was the point in arguing with a
cyborg anyway? She should have told him not to leave the apartment!
It just hadn’t occurred to her that she would need to. She’d
expected him to respond to her orders not to act autonomously to a
degree that she’d have to tell him not to do things!

In any case, it had been months since
the last time she’d made love with him!

And she’d never done it like
this!

She wedged her hands between them and
searched for the closure of his clothing. He resisted until he
realized what she was doing and then pulled away far enough to peel
her jumpsuit from her upper body. She shivered when his hands
settled on the bare skin of her waist and skimmed upward to cup her
breasts, feeling the muscles low in her belly contract in reaction
as he pinched her nipples between his fingers.

A brief debate raged in her mind as to
whether she most wanted a slow, thorough awakening or something
more rough and impetuous, but it was no contest, really. She was
wet and ready as soon as he kissed her and eager to leap to the
next level. “Now,” she muttered a little feverishly, tugging at his
jumpsuit in a demand that he remove it.

Instead, he hooked his hands in her
clothing and nearly pulled her off the vanity removing her jumpsuit
and her panties. She caught herself and wiggled free, lifting her
legs to lock them around his hips and pull his erection tightly
against her cleft the moment she felt her tether drop away. He
found her lips again as he slipped one arm around her and reached
with his other hand to free his erection. The moment he’d aligned
his body with hers, he caught her hip and speared into the mouth of
her sex. The skin tingled and then burned briefly before yielding.
Surprise flickered through her and then pleasure as he sank
deeply.

It had never happened like that in the
simulation!

She hadn’t felt the fullness of actual
penetration before let alone the sting of a tighter than tight
fit.

It felt … wonderful! The thrill that
went through her shot her excitement through the roof. She moaned a
sound of encouragement, wrapping herself more tightly around him
and lifting to receive as he setup a rhythmic thrust and retreat
within her. Like the bow of a violin sawing across the chords, the
motion and his turgid, heated flesh set off waves of exquisite
vibrations. She felt her inner muscles quaking with excitement,
felt tension building until she reached the moment of crisis. She
caught her breath and held it, focused completely on the goal that
seemed to be within her grasp for one moment and slipping away the
next. She felt herself wavering on the brink for so long that the
fear of failing to reach it began to seep through her and then it
burst, the tidal wave of bliss that seemed to radiate outward and
blast through her entire being not just her body.

Half mindless, she felt him stiffen and
every muscle in his body go rigid before he expelled a satisfied
groan that told her he’d cum right on the heels of her climax. A
sublime sense of victory sugar coated her own climax, making it all
the sweeter because she’d given pleasure not simply gained
it.

“I know you.”

Carly flicked a startled look at
Devlin, trying to shift gears. She was battling the after-fog,
giddiness, and weakness of a powerful climax, however.

She couldn’t help but notice that he
looked like he’d completely recovered. “What?” she asked, sparring
for wind.

His hands tightened on her hips where
he’d gripped her moments before with passion as he’d driven into
her.

“We’ve done this before,” he said in a
deep voice that resonated with conviction. “That’s why you seem
familiar.”

She couldn’t help but notice there was
nothing particularly lover-like in his touch or his expression
anymore. “Uh … when you were a sim,” she responded after a moment,
trying to jog her sluggish brain into some sort of mental acuity.
“I mean, I guess, sort of. They put that in your memory?” She
considered that for several moments, trying to remember what she’d
told the rep when she’d ordered him. She couldn’t remember
anything, though, but telling the woman that she’d picked the sim
Daniel and wanted that ‘personality’ used.

“What are you talking
about?”

She stared at Devlin in dismay. She was
really going to have to give the company a call and find out just
how quickly the AI was supposed to work. It didn’t seem to her that
he ought to be responding the way he was. “When I ordered you
….”

Devlin released her abruptly and ran a
hand over his face. He couldn’t make any sense at all of what she
kept telling him. He’d been a sim? She still thought he was nothing
more than a cyborg? Why would she believe that?

Abruptly, as he stood massaging his
throbbing temples, a memory surfaced. “The dating thing?” he
murmured doubtfully then shot her a look to see if that rang any
bells for her. She looked perfectly blank, even dismayed, but he
was suddenly certain that he’d found a piece of the puzzle. “My
research ….”

He stopped abruptly instead of
completing the explanation he’d been about to give her as the word
triggered a virtual avalanche of memories. “I was in my lab. I’d
just discovered ….” He broke off again and sent her another
searching look, this time feeling distinctly uneasy. “What do you
know about my research?”

Carly gaped at him. As hard as she’d
been trying to ignore his odd behavior and explain it away, it was
impossible to dismiss the fact that he believed he was Devlin
Bear.

Chapter Five

“I want to see him.”

Brenda had that stubborn look on her
face that Carly had learned meant she was absolutely determined and
nothing was going to sway her, but she tried anyway. “Do you really
think that’s … uh … healthy?”

Brenda’s lips tightened. “Said the pot
to the kettle,” she retorted dryly.

Carly felt her face redden and not just
because the remark had struck so close to home. She knew she was
obsessed, but she didn’t want to explain just why and how she’d
gotten so obsessed to his sister!

Not but what Brenda probably had a
really good idea of why and how, but she didn’t want to discuss it
with Devlin’s sister! “Ok, so it wasn’t the healthiest thing I
could’ve done, but that’s beside the point! If I jumped off a
bridge, would you?”

Brenda sent her a look. “I want to see
him.”

“And then, too, you know we don’t
really want to attract the attention of you-know-who,” Carly said a
little desperately. “You showing too much interest could be … uh …
a bad thing.”

Brenda narrowed her eyes, but it was a
speculative look that made Carly hopeful for a few moments. “You’re
suggesting the possibility that I might draw the attention of
whoever was responsible for my brother’s death?”