Cyborg (12 page)

A fine sheen of moisture broke from his pores. His muscles began to quiver with the effort of his restraint. Groaning, he lifted her up and thrust again. Sinking inside of her that time to the root of his cock, he went still, squeezing his eyes tightly shut, gasping hoarsely.Amaryllis’ eyes drifted closed as she leaned her forehead against his, willing her body to adjust to the almost painfully tight intrusion of hard flesh. She opened her eyes again when she felt his palms along her cheeks.

“Amy,” he murmured huskily, brushing his lips lightly across hers before he covered her mouth and kissed her deeply. Her body quickened, clenching around his cock. Groaning, he tore his mouth from hers and began to move. Stroking his cock along the sensitive inner surfaces of her sex with each thrust and retreat, he lifted her hips upward, then pressed her down in counter to each hard thrust. With each stroke waves of electrifying, heated pleasure washed through her, building toward a crescendo. She clutched his shoulders, groaning almost incessantly as the tension built inside of her to a fever pitch, began to expand beyond containment.

His cock jerked as he reached his own crisis. Abruptly, ecstasy exploded inside of her, dragging a sharp cry from her throat. She buried her face against his neck, clutching him tightly as it rocked her with shock wave after shock wave of purest bliss as she felt his body erupt inside of her with his own culmination.

Every ounce of strength seemed to leave her. She collapsed weakly against him, gasping for breath, felt his arms surround her in a tight embrace as he struggled to regulate his own breathing. Warmth of a different sort filled her as he held her closely against his chest and began to stroke her back soothingly.

“I know you’re afraid and confused, but we are not as different as you imagine,”

he murmured after he’d caught his breath. “And I would never allow harm to come to you.” It took an effort to lift her head and look at him. “You know.”

“Yes.”

“Dante?”

He shook his head. “I always knew. From the very moment I first saw you I knew that only nature could produce something so wonderfully, uniquely beautiful. I knew I shouldn’t tear you from your own people, but I could no more resist doing so than I could self-terminate. I want you for my life mate. It’s why I brought you.”

Awkward didn’t begin to describe Amaryllis’ feelings as she was thrust through the barracks door by the guard Reese had handed her over to when he’d bowed to her wish not to be seen returning her. However, it was only partly because she could feel dozens of interested gazes as she strode quickly through the barracks and into the latrine beyond. Most of it revolved around the things that Reese had said to her, her complete lack of self control, and her horror and confusion over the fact that she’d fucked both Reese and Dante with the same mindless enthusiasm and within a matter of days.

After all her internal wailing and breast beating over the fact that Dante had given no indication that the event between them was more than merely a desperate physical need. Goosebumps erupted on her flesh as her mind instantly conjured images of her sitting astride Reese’s lap, his cock buried so deeply inside of her that she couldn’t think or feel beyond the exquisite pleasure of their joining. Before the image had even faded, the memory of her writhing in an agony of ecstasy beneath Dante arose within her mind’s eye and her sex throbbed in reaction.

She didn’t know how long she stood stock still, simply staring blindly at her own reflection in the mirror above the lavatory as if she’d never seen herself before, her mind a tumultuous wreck. Finally, physical discomfort penetrated her turmoil, however, and she looked down at herself. A sticky wetness had soaked her briefs.

Semen.

She reeked of sex and doubted anyone she’d passed had failed to notice even if they’d been too blind to see that her clothing was in disarray, her hair looked as if she’d been standing in a wind tunnel, her lips looked swollen and bruised and the skin of her neck and upper chest were reddened from Reese’s caresses.

“Jesus Christ and all the saints!” she muttered the curse she’d so often heard her father use, wondering if it was merely seminal fluids or if it was ‘loaded’.

She’d been too stunned by what had come afterward to give it any thought, but she realized now that Dante had ejaculated inside of her, as well--which was the reason, no doubt, that Reese had sent her into the shower, to wash the scent of Dante’s possession from her.

And if the meds had worn off that kept her libido in check--which seemed indisputable--then her birth control was no longer working either.

She brushed the thought aside. She couldn’t deal with that possibility at the moment. At any rate, regardless of what the cyborgs claimed, she simply couldn’t accept that they were capable of reproduction.

She’d idolized Reese, thought he was quite possibly the most magnificent representation of mankind ever born--and she supposed, even though now she knew he hadn’t been ‘born’ at all, subconsciously she still idolized him. Possibly that was why she was so susceptible to his attentions. But how could she possibly excuse her behavior with Dante? How could she excuse her complete break with the traditions of her upbringing by making love with both within so short a time--and there was no sense in trying to lie to herself about that. She might not know how either of them truly felt, but she knew herself. She wouldn’t have felt passion so keenly if she hadn’t felt more for both of them than mere lust.

She knew very well that no one on any of the ‘civilized’ worlds considered such archaic traditions worth a second thought. The idea of sex purely for recreation, and not as a part of a relationship, didn’t particularly bother her for that matter.

What bothered her was that she’d felt such passion when neither of them was human in the strictest sense of the word, regardless of the fact that they weren’t much, if any, more android than she was.

What disturbed her more, and totally confused her, was that she knew very well that it hadn’t been anything as simple as purely recreational sex … with either Dante or Reese. But what worried her the most was that she was very much afraid that no amount of reasoning was going to make her any less susceptible if she found herself in a similar situation again.

She discovered the following day when they filed into the rec room that she’d been relegated to invisible again. She wasn’t particularly surprised. She wasn’t even deeply regretful considering the state Violet had put her in the day before. She was a little disappointed, though, that Cain didn’t make any attempt to approach her. It would’ve been nice to have someone to talk to occasionally even if she had to mind her tongue.After weeks of travel, fear of discovery gave way to the misery of sheer boredom, which she missed when new anxieties reared their heads. Occasionally, she managed to get a deck of cards and play a few rounds of solitaire, but by and large she did nothing more than pace the room restlessly, as bored as she had been before they’d been allowed to spend a part of their days in the rec room.

The voyage began to seem interminable. She’d never taken such a prolonged space voyage and found it unnerving to think that the place where they were going was so distant from all that she knew. The possibility of escaping dimmed as time passed and was finally extinguished altogether.

She’d made it a point, at first, not to look up at the observation windows, but even when she finally decided a surreptitious peek now and then would probably go unnoticed, she saw no sign of Reese for nearly two weeks. It occurred to her to wonder if their tryst had been discovered and he’d been confined to the brig as Dante supposedly had, but she had no way of finding out. She wasn’t even privy to the gossip circulating among the hunters since they had a disturbing way of falling silent whenever she passed near enough to overhear their conversations.

She caught glimpses of Dante often enough, but seeing him unsettled her almost as much as not seeing Reese.

Two weeks after her encounter with Reese, she was curled up on a couch, staring out of a porthole at the unending, and infinitely depressing night of deep space when Cain settled next to her. She glanced at him in surprise.

“I’m not at all certain that I’ll ever be able to look at a night sky with any sort of admiration again,” he said pensively.

The comment dragged a reluctant smile from her. “I was just thinking much the same thing.”

He smiled faintly in return. “I’d claim to be extraordinarily perceptive except that I’m fairly certain everyone here is thinking much the same thing. You’ll note, no one glances toward the portholes any longer.”

Amaryllis chuckled wryly. “And here I thought they were simply avoiding the area for fear of contamination,” she retorted dryly.

Lifting a dark brow, he glanced around the rec room and finally up at the observation windows. Curious, Amaryllis followed his gaze. Her heart jerked in her chest when she saw that both Reese and Dante were standing at the observation window above, scowling at the man who sat beside her.

“I expect you’re at least partially right. It
is
for reasons of health, but I don’t think it’s fear of contamination.”

Amaryllis resisted the urge to fan her heated cheeks. “I don’t think I follow,” she said stiffly.

A mixture of amusement and annoyance lit his green eyes. “I think you do, but if it disturbs your sense of modesty to speak of it, I completely understand.”

Amaryllis sent him a sharp glance and reddened again. “They’re afraid to speak to me because of … the rumors?” she demanded with a mixture of indignation and disbelief.

Both of his dark brows rose this time. He tilted his head curiously. “
Is
it merely rumors? The cyborg twins seem to have a different perspective on the matter. One or both can generally be seen standing at the observation windows, usually wearing identical scowls if any of the hunters even start in your direction.”

Amaryllis frowned thoughtfully, digesting the comments in silence and trying to decide whether there was any truth to it. She often had the sense that she was being watched, but she’d thought a good bit of that could be put down to hypersensitivity or plain, old fashioned paranoia. It was understandable given her situation, a combination of her fear that they would realize she was human and her certainty that her behavior was being judged as much because of her own sense of guilt as because of the snide comments two of the huntresses had made to her.

She
had
noticed that any time she glanced toward the observation windows, though, and either Dante or Reese was there, that they were looking directly at her. It was the main reason she avoided looking in that direction. She didn’t want to encourage either of them to think she was interested when she didn’t know how she felt about them.

That didn’t necessarily mean that either Reese or Dante was warning others away from her, but it was possible their interest could’ve been interpreted that way.

“You think they’re afraid of the cyborgs?”

He shrugged. “Under other circumstances, it would be more accurate to say

‘respectful’. Under current circumstances….”

She could see his point. “If you think that, then why are you speaking to me?” she asked curiously.

He studied her in silence for several long moments and finally a grin dawned.

“Either you are the most adorably obtuse female I’ve ever met, or, like every other huntress in this room you are far too deeply engrossed in sorting through your feelings on the matter to realize what’s going on around you.”

Amaryllis blinked at him, mildly offended by the comment despite the fact that he’d obviously not intended to be insulting.

“Men are actually pretty simple creatures … even if they happen to be cyborg men and not human men. In one fell swoop we’ve ceased to be an army and become colonists for a distant world. It, surely, can’t have escaped your notice that, in this room alone, hunters outnumber huntresses roughly two to one. By my calculations--depending, of course upon just how many cyborgs await us on our new home world--those numbers are obliged to climb sharply. I’d thought, perhaps, your interest was engaged elsewhere.

Since that still seems to be a matter of debate I see no reason not to pursue my own interests.”

Amaryllis felt her jaw go slack with surprise. “You’re … uh … you’re … flirting with me?”

He grimaced. “Not very well apparently,” he said wryly.

She frowned. “Because there aren’t enough females to go around?”

A pained expression crossed his features. “In fact, very, very badly,” he amended.

He tilted his head at her speculatively. “I don’t suppose you’d believe me if I said that it was love at first sight?”

“No.”

He sighed. “I thought not.”

Amaryllis couldn’t help but chuckle. She decided he must be teasing. “You first saw me three years ago when I arrived for training.”

“At first notice?” he suggested.

She repressed the urge to smile. “Which was when you finished counting heads, I suppose?”

His lips tipped up at one corner, capturing her attention. He was certainly not unfamiliar to her even though she’d never worked with him. Up until Reese had joined their group, though, she’d been inclined to think Cain was probably the most attractive of all the hunters. His features were sharp, too angular to really be considered ‘beautiful’, and there was nothing at all boyish about him, but there was something so thoroughly masculine about him that he was extraordinarily attractive in an indefinable way. He had been to her, anyway, but then she’d been starved for male attention and, she thought, inclined to fall for any attractive male that glanced in her direction without a look of revulsion crossing his features.

After the corrective surgery that had made her ‘normal’ the boys she’d known throughout her childhood had ceased to torment her and tried to engage her interest, but she hadn’t trusted any of them enough to allow them to come near her.

And she’d still yearned to be courted as the other girls were and more than half hoped she would have the chance of some sort of relationship once she left the colony. It was born in upon her the moment she entered training that that wasn’t going to be an option. Fraternizing wasn’t allowed, at least not that sort of fraternizing, and the company took steps to ensure the temptation was minimized by lacing their contraceptives with drugs that inhibited sexual arousal … which only meant they weren’t preoccupied with sex, not that they never thought about it.