Breathing Vapor (8 page)

“Cyborgs don’t see medics. Our bodies repair without any assistance.”

“You’re half human. You feel pain.” Pain she’d caused. She gazed around them. It was doubtful that the laboratory had pain suppressors and even if it did, they’d be old. She wouldn’t trust their effectiveness. “I have to get supplies.”

“No, you don’t.” Vapor loosened his grip on her and looked down. Whatever he saw in her face made his expression soften. “You have to fix your mistake.” He released her and turned. “Remove the shrapnel.”

Maybe if she did that, her guilt would ease. “I will.” Mira moved closer to him, straddling his ass with her legs, the hem of her fabric wrap riding up to the waist. “But it’ll hurt.”

“It’ll hurt more if the skin heals around it.”

It would. Mira gazed at his shredded back and bile crawled up her throat. “If we had pain suppressors--”

“Pain suppressors aren’t used on cyborgs. You’re the Designer’s daughter. You’re aware of that.” He rolled his shoulders back, his exposed muscles rippling. “You can do this. You’re the strongest female I know.”

“I’m the only female you know.” She wasn’t strong, far from it. Steeling herself, Mira gripped the piece of metal at his nape and pulled. It didn’t move. She tugged harder and harder. Finally, it dislodged, leaving a huge gash.

Vapor gave no indication that he felt the removal. “I met forty-seven females this planet rotation.”

Many of those females were now dead. Mira clutched the shrapnel embedded in Vapor’s right shoulder. “Thank you for protecting me. I realize I was your mission and cyborgs always complete their missions. But I’ll never forget how you saved my life.”

“I didn’t protect you because it was my mission.”

“No?” She paused, resting her fingers on the metal fragment.

“No. I protected you because you’re mine.”

“I’m your kill.” He’d end her life and she wouldn’t fight that fate.

She deserved punishment, pain and death.

Chapter Seven

Vapor’s back was on fire. Sharp pangs of agony shot across his form. It was excruciating but he swallowed every anguished howl because, this planet rotation, he’d discovered there was something worse than a frame-deep wound.

Mira’s tears.

When his brave, rigidly self-controlled female had cried, something inside him broke. He wanted to kill the beings who had hurt her.

One of those beings included himself.

Her mother had rebelled against the Humanoid Alliance and they had executed her. Judging by Mira’s distress, she’d seen it all. She would have been a child at the time, too young to remain silent.

But she hadn’t said a word to any being, fearing that ‘bad things’ would happen if she talked. She must have been forced to lie, to hide her anger and her grief and her fear, imitating the cyborgs she thought her father loved.

When she finally broke her silence, telling him the truth, he hadn’t believed her.

He
was
a bastard.

Not showing his pain was one small way he could make amends. Her fingers slid over his back, her touch tentative and light.

“There’s one piece of shrapnel left.” Concern warmed her voice. “It’s large.”

Vapor felt it protruding from his left shoulder blade. “Remove it.” He gripped the edge of the sleeping support, bracing himself for the pain.

She pulled and pulled and pulled, each tug of her hands nearly blinding him with torment. Vapor gritted his teeth.

“Shit. It’s slippery.” Skin rubbed against fabric. “I’m trying again.”

She wouldn’t be strong enough to dislodge it. “Wait.” He stood, moved to the wall, turned his face so she couldn’t see his reaction, and rammed his back against the hard surface.

Stars exploded in his brain. Vapor swayed on his feet. Frag, that hurt.

“What are you doing?” Mira shrieked. “Come back here right now.”

Vapor tried his best to obey her instructions but his legs weren’t functioning properly. He made it halfway to her and tumbled backward, landing with only a quarter of his ass on the sleeping support.

Mira wrapped her arms around him, seeking to hold onto him. His little human wasn’t strong enough for that feat. He slid downward.

“Vapor.” Her panicked voice pierced his sluggish processors.

He clasped the edge and pulled himself upward. Metal groaned but the sleeping support didn’t collapse.

“Loosened the shrapnel.” He slurred his words.

“I’ll loosen your skull from your neck if you ever do anything like that again.” She waited. He stabilized. She gripped the piece of beam. “This will hurt.” She pulled.

Flesh tore. The beam fell to the floor. Another hot wave of pain swept over Vapor. His circuits shorted and he sagged against her, relying on his female to support both of them.

She did but not silently. “You’re bleeding too much.”

“It’ll stop.” He’d suffered deeper wounds and survived.

Mira pressed herself against him as though trying to stem the bleeding with her lush form. Vapor savored the contact, inhaling her scent.

They stayed like that for endless moments. Not talking. Not moving. Simply being, connected by experience, by pain, by their physiques.

He didn’t trust her. One truth from her lips didn’t offset all of the lies he’d heard. But he desired her, considered her to be his. The heat of her pussy permeated the flimsy fabric of his ass covering.

“I want you.” The pain must have removed the filter from his mouth.

“You’re hurt.”

That wasn’t a ‘no.’ “I’m not that hurt.” He turned, facing her.

Her pretty white garment was soaked with his blood. Her hair was mussed. Her eyes were wild. She was the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen.

“You want me.” Vapor inhaled deeply, drawing her tantalizing musk through his nostrils, into his soul. “I smell your need.”

Her cheeks turned pink. She nibbled on her bottom lip with her teeth. “Beings died. It wouldn’t be right.”

“It
would
be right.” He cupped her face with his hands. “You could have been one of those beings.” The thought of her dead made him crazed. “If I hadn’t been there—” His voice cracked.

“Yeah.” Mira took a ragged breath. “But I would have deserved—”

He couldn’t bear to hear what she thought she deserved. Vapor covered her lips with his, silencing his female. She hesitated for a moment and then opened to him.

He plunged inside her. She was warm and wet and tasted of strength and sweet rebellion. His tongue twisted, entwined with hers, flesh sliding over flesh, setting his enhanced senses ablaze.

Mira moaned, the sound making his already rock hard cock even harder, and she wiggled against him, brushing her curves against his muscle. His female was soft all over, and ready for him, her juices soaking the front of his ass covering.

They kissed and teased, bumping tongues and bodies, rubbing skin against skin, building the fire of desire and then retreating, building and retreating.

Vapor threaded his fingers through her hair, loosening the strands. The locks fell to her shoulders, down her back, capturing the light.

She was a star fallen to ground, glowing, beautiful and rare, destined to disappear. He’d hold her, perhaps only in this moment, and dream of her for a lifespan.

Vapor dragged his lips down her neck, tasting more of her. The caress of her hair against his cheek was decadent, unlike anything he’d ever experienced in his harsh violence-filled lifespan.

“Touch all of me, Vapor.” Her head fell backward and her fingers splayed over his pecs.

How had he ever thought his female was cold? She sizzled his circuits, fried his processors.

He needed to touch more of her. Vapor gripped the fabric binding her and yanked, freeing her curves. Her breasts spilled out, filling his hands.

He cupped her gleaming pale skin, rubbed his thumbs over her delicate pink nipples, the contrast of tautness and suppleness fascinating him. She arched, pushing against his palms, stimulating noises coming from her parted lips. Her musk intensified.

This
was truth. Vapor nuzzled against her breasts. She might lie with her words but she couldn’t conceal her passion. He licked and sucked, tugged and pulled, making her squirm and sigh and plead. She wanted him as badly as he wanted her.

“My skin is covered with your nanocybotics.” Her voice was husky. “You’re everywhere.”

“I’m not everywhere. Not yet.” But he wanted to be. He curved his right hand over her mons, dipping his fingertips into her wetness, and she jerked, her eyes widening.

“Yes, there.” She spread her thighs. “I need you inside me.”

“What do you need inside you?” Vapor stroked over her feminine folds, teasing her clit. “My fingers?” He prodded her tight little entrance. “Or my cock?”

“Your cock.” Mira plucked at his ass covering. “Fill me with your nanocybotics.”

He’d fill her with everything he had. “Humans consider cyborgs to be machines.” Vapor stripped off his garment. “Do you wish to breed with a machine?”

He stood in front of her, wearing only his boots, his cock hard, his balls aching. Her gaze dropped. She wet her lips with her slick pink tongue.

“I wish to breed with you.” Mira reached for him, curled her fingers around his shaft and drew him to her. “This might be wrong, but I want you too much to care.”

He didn’t care about anything except her. Vapor grasped her hips, pushed his tip inside her pussy. Frag. She was snug, her skin stretching around him.

“Mira?” Was he hurting her?

“I’m okay.” Her voice was strained. Grooves etched around her lips.

His blasted female was lying to him. Again.

“Tell the truth.” He didn’t move forward, ignoring the primitive part of his programming that demanded he claim her, breed with her, cover her with his scent.

“The truth is I want this.” She met his gaze, her eyes brilliant blue. “And the pain of my desire surpasses any pain you can possibly inflict on me.”

He felt the same acuteness of feeling. “I’m a cyborg.” He forged deeper and deeper, forcing himself to move slowly, to allow her body to accommodate his. “I can inflict endless amounts of pain.”

“But not on me.” She grimaced, lifting her hips, taking more of him.

“Not on you,” he admitted. Any plans of prolonging her death had vanished the moment she’d touched him. “I’ll kill you quickly.”

That earned him a shadow of a smile. “Your breeding talk needs work.”

His base pressed against her pussy lips. Stars. She felt like the Homeland the other cyborgs talked constantly about, a mythical place filled with happiness and acceptance.

Vapor paused, gazing into his female’s eyes, his worlds revolving around her, the agony of his back eclipsed by the pleasure of being inside her. “Train me in breeding talk.”

Her smile faded. “So you can impress another female?”

“There will be no other females for me.” He rested his forehead against hers. Vapor doubted any other being would affect him as she did. “I wish to impress you.”

“You saved my life this planet rotation.” She looked at him as though he was special. “That’s impressive.”

She was a rare female and warranted protection. Any male would have done the same thing.

“And.” Her eyes glowed with mischief. “One part of your anatomy is
very
impressive.” She squirmed, the movement causing her inner walls to massage his cock.

“Only one part?” He pulled out to his tip and drove back inside her hot pussy.

She gasped, clutching his neck. “Maybe more than one.”

Vapor repeated the motion. “Maybe?” Her juices oozed between his balls.

“Definitely.” Mira wrapped her legs around his waist. “Give it all to me.” She kicked his clenched ass cheeks.

“Fierce.” He drove into her harder, shaking the sleeping support. “You’re so fraggin’ fierce.”

Vapor rode her in earnest, smacking his chest against her breasts, snapping his hips against hers. Heat radiated from the connection. She raised her hips into each thrust, meeting him halfway, his equal.

He’d almost lost her this planet rotation. If he had, he wouldn’t have experienced this wonder, wouldn’t have known this softer, more vulnerable part of her. Vapor rumbled, unable to put that possible loss into words.

“You’re hard.” Mira licked his chest and he shuddered. “Soft skin over unrelenting metal.”

If she could complete her sentences, he wasn’t breeding with her vigorously enough. Vapor plunged into her, tempering his strength so as to not damage his delicate female.

“Oh, Vapor.” Her fingers crept upward, spreading over his scalp. “This. Never. Never.”

“Yes, never.” No other male would ever touch her, not like this. She was his and his alone.

A sheen of moisture covered her generous form, darkening her hair. She panted, dug her fingernails into his skin, marking him as he yearned to mark her.

His nanocybotics would eventually erase her claim on him. Other males wouldn’t know of their bond…unless he bred with her constantly.

If he could do that, he would. Breeding with her was better than battle. Vapor grunted, the bliss of her form challenging his restraint, weakening his willpower.

“Vapor. Vapor.” His female’s vocabulary had been reduced to one word—his name. She laved his skin with the flat of her tongue, raked her fingernails over his scalp, drummed her heels against his ass cheeks.

He absorbed all of her wild passion, committed it to his memory, both mechanical and organic, watching her eyes brighten and her skin flush as he ravished her. The scent of breeding masked the stale air. Her voice sang through the quiet chamber.

She was alive and his and unabashedly open about her needs, demanding more, harder, faster. Vapor gave it to her, his joy tied to hers. His balls hugged his shaft. The pressure inside him increased to the breaking point.

“Vapor.” Mira tilted her beautiful face upward, parting her lips.

He bent his head and took her offering, delving into her mouth with his tongue, into her pussy with his cock. She mumbled words he couldn’t decipher. Her body tightened and tightened and tightened around his shaft.

Unable to hold back, Vapor thrust hard and swiveled his hips. Her spine immediately straightened, her muscles flexing, her lips vibrating against his, her pussy clenching down on his shaft.

That snapped his control. He roared into her throat, pushed even deeper and came as he’d never come before, filling her with never ending jets of cum.

Mira bucked, her form shaking, reacting to his nanocybotics. Vapor held her to him, murmuring illogical phrases into her right ear as she reached release again and again, taking all that he had to give, leaving him empty of everything except circuit-blowing ecstasy.

Moments stretched. She quieted, slumping forward. He rubbed between her shoulder blades, down her spine. Their bodies remained joined, their connection surpassing the physical. She was a part of him, his.