Cyborg (25 page)

She smiled dreamily at the memory. It had been the first time the three of them had played together since that first night and she realized she’d almost forgotten how good it felt to have both them at the same time.

The only fly in her soup was the fact that Cain hadn’t seemed interested in joining them. He’d definitely been interested, though. She was certain she hadn’t been mistaken about that. She wasn’t as certain that it was her in particular that he wanted, but at least she did know that he wasn’t immune to her.

She frowned thoughtfully, but she was fairly certain that neither Dante nor Reese would have warned him away from her--and just as certain that, even if they’d tried it, Cain would’ve ignored it. In fact, it seemed that something like that would’ve made him more determined to have her.

She pondered over the possibilities for a while but finally decided that that was a dead end. He wouldn’t talk to her and she didn’t know him well enough to figure it out without some input from him.

He was needy, though. She was positive about that, and just as certain that he was unlikely to find it outside his contract. He simply didn’t strike her as the type to willfully breach--besides which all the females were spoken for--several times over.

She was just going to have to keep battering at him until he caved in. That was all there was to it. Maybe, once he’d had a little relief, whatever it was that was eating him would go away, and even if it didn’t, he would surely be more open with her and they’d be able to work it out.

The best way to start, she decided, would be to put him in the position of not being able to avoid her. As long as he could avoid her, he would, and whatever was bothering him would only fester and get worse.

Throwing the covers off, she rolled out of bed and went to bathe. She debated briefly over what to wear but finally decided to go with the typical dress. A glimpse now and then of the veils would keep all of them more interested than seeing it all the time.

That thought led to an epiphany. Maybe she should try her hand at designing clothing? She didn’t know how to make them, but if she
could
come up with ideas, she could ask Reese to design ‘bots for her to do the actual labor of making them. As far as she’d seen, there was no one on the planet to fill that particular niche, and with a quarter of the population female, there would almost certainly be a demand for it.

Cain, she discovered when she’d searched the house thoroughly, had made himself scarce. “Coward,” she muttered, plunking her hands on her hips irritably.

Balked of that possibility, she decided to try her hand at her idea and went into the study. She couldn’t jack in, of course, which was a real pain in the ass and made for slow going since she had to depend upon voice response and visual. The computer did have access to design programming, but, not surprisingly, none of it dealt with fashion.

Unfazed, since she really hadn’t expected it to anyway, she set to work streamlining a program that would. She was still working on it when Cain came in.

He stopped as abruptly as if he’d encountered a force field. If he hadn’t, Amaryllis wasn’t certain she would even have noticed him, she was so deeply into what she was doing. As it was, she
had
completely forgotten what had brought her downstairs to begin with. She glanced at him absently. “You needed the computer?”

He studied her for a long moment, apparently debating whether to go or stay, and finally crossed to the desk. Propping a hip on the edge, he studied what she was doing for several moments in silence.

“Designing?”

“Mmm,” Amaryllis said absently. Ordering the computer to save and close, she got up and stretched her cramped muscles.

“What is this sudden interest in clothing?”

Amaryllis looked at him in surprise. “I need something to occupy my time.”

His eyes narrowed, then moved pointedly to her rounded belly. “Forgive me for being blunt, but from what I’ve observed you don’t seem to be having a lot of trouble finding something to occupy yourself with--and you may have more than you can handle when that little seed comes to fruition.”

Amaryllis stared at him for a full minute while outrage slowly poured through her, finally erupting. “Seed? It’s not a seed, damn you! It’s a child--a part of this family unit-

-just as you’re supposed to be. Is that what this is all about?” she asked tightly. “The child? Or is it because I welcome my partners?”

“This what?” he responded coolly.

Amaryllis narrowed her eyes at him. Striding up to him, she poked the center of his chest with one index finger. “The cold shoulder you’ve been giving me, because if it is, let me tell you, you can stuff it! I didn’t have any decision in any of this--not in coming here in the first place and not in contracting. Nobody forced you in to it. Nobody begged you. You
demanded
to take part--and I’m doing my best to cope, which isn’t at all easy by damn, whatever the hell you seem to think. And,
yes
, I do enjoy sex with my partners and I’m sure as hell not going to apologize for it! Because I care for Reese, and Dante … and you! But if that isn’t good enough for you, then I’ll tell Reese and Dante you’ve changed your mind and want out of the arrangement.”

He caught her as she moved to go around him, pulling her flush against his body.

She looked up at him angrily.

“All that passion--for me alone?”

Amaryllis made a growling sound. “Don’t tempt me, Cain.”

He stared at her a long moment. “But you don’t mind tempting me, do you, baby?” The question knocked the wind out of her. “I don’t know what you mean,” she said evasively.

“I think you do. I think that little display last night was to see what buttons you needed to push.”

He was so perceptive sometimes it was downright scary.

Or maybe she was just that damned transparent? Embarrassing thought.

She thought it over for several moments. “Did I push the right one?” she asked sweetly.Amusement entered his eyes. “I’d suggest a little more subtlety and a little less bite, but that was a good effort at sarcasm--you did want to, then?”

Amaryllis blinked, mentally grinding her teeth. He’d been on a fishing expedition and she’d landed right in his net. She should have known. Tricky bastard!

She pulled free. “Actually, I netted what I wanted,” she said haughtily, and stalked from the room. He caught up with her in the hallway, caught her totally off guard, swinging her off her feet. By the time her world had stopped spinning, he was halfway up the stairs.

“Exactly what do you call yourself doing?” she demanded indignantly.

He gave her a look. “Consummating our agreement.”

Considering his mood, that was a rather unnerving thought.

She remembered suddenly something her mother had said to her--‘Be careful what you wish for’.

She hadn’t wanted it to be like this, though, she realized with perfect clarity.

She’d wanted him to make love her, not have sex with her.

She had no grounds to object, unfortunately, particularly since she’d goaded him into it--threatened to terminate the agreement.

When he dropped her on her bed, she eyed him warily as he stripped the loincloth from his body, placed a knee upon the mattress and crawled toward her like a cat stalking its prey. Her heart was beating so frantically it felt as if it was trying to achieve light speed. She jerked nervously when he slipped the straps of her top from her shoulders so that her breasts spilled into his hands. He hesitated, his gaze moving from her breasts to her eyes. After a long moment, he dropped onto the bed beside her. Scooping her up, he gathered her close, stroking her back. She heard him swallow. “You were right. I have a nasty temper.”

Amaryllis lifted her head to look at him. “You’re not angry anymore?”

He sighed tiredly. “No.”

She dipped her head and kissed her way up his throat to his lips, brushing hers lightly across his hard mouth. “Then--make love me,” she whispered.

He rolled, carrying her with him and covering her mouth hungrily. Excitement shot through her as his tongue skated along hers, dueled, teasing the sensitive inner surfaces as his taste and scent filled her mouth, invading her mind like a heady drug.

She’d known, she thought dreamily, that his kiss would be this good.

His hands, as he stroked her body, exploring every inch of her flesh and touching off flutters of eagerness in her, were gentle, loving, and exquisitely stirring all at once.

She was already burning with need when he lifted his lips from hers at last and worshipped her body with them, nipping at her skin, lathing her with his tongue. A shuddering sigh escaped her as he burned a path along the center of her body to her belly, paused to strip her briefs from her and meandered upward again. Sucking one distended nipple into his mouth, he unfastened her top and caught the opposite breast in the palm of his hand, massaging it. Fire erupted along every nerve ending, sizzling, sparking and she moaned as her belly tightened with anticipation.

When he’d so thoroughly tormented each nipple in turn that she could scarcely catch her breath, she pushed at him, sprawling on top of him when he rolled to his back and lavishing her own brand of appreciation on his body. He jerked, jackknifing upright when she reached his belly and opened her mouth over the head of his cock, sucking the sensitive tip. Planting her hand in the center of his chest, she pushed him back. After a moment, he settled again, his hands gripping the sheets on either side of him tightly. He began to shake with the effort to remain still. A groan escaped him. Abruptly, he speared his fingers in her hair and tugged. When she released him, he dragged her back up the bed and kissed her deeply, feverishly, moving from her mouth, along her throat to her breasts. She gasped, moaned, parting her thighs and arching against him. “Ohh, Cain!

Now! Please!”

For several moments, she thought he either hadn’t heard her or he’d chosen to ignore her plea. Finally, he released her nipple and covered her mouth once more, pressing the head of his cock against the mouth of her sex. She gasped into his mouth as he pushed inside of her, forcing her body to yield to him. Tearing her mouth from his, she arched her head into the pillow, pushing up to meet him. Her body tensed, pleasure coiling tightly inside of her as his turgid flesh slowly invaded, stroking the sensitive inner flesh and touching off waves of exhilaration.

Wrapping her arms around him, she moved her hands along his back, stroked his dark head as he set a pace that spiraled her higher and higher until her moans of appreciation became sharper, keener cries that bordered on screams until, suddenly, her culmination burst upon her in a blinding flash of ecstasy. He shuddered, began to thrust more quickly, bringing his own crisis thundering down upon him.

They lay locked together for some time afterwards, each reluctant to sever their joining. Finally, Cain lifted slightly away from her, moving his cock slowly in and out of her almost playfully. Amaryllis opened her eyes a fraction to look up at him, her lips curling. “It feels sooo good to have you inside of me,” she murmured lazily. “I would just as soon you stay.”

His features went taut and Amaryllis felt him filling her, his cock growing hard.

Her eyes widened as his thrusts became more purposeful. The heat that hadn’t even completely dissipated began to rise inside her, as well. Within moments, she found her body hovering once more on the edge of the precipice. When she came again, it was harder, more explosive, longer than the first time and dragged a keening cry from her throat. She was so sated afterwards, she was barely conscious when he rolled off of her and gathered her against his chest. She drifted lazily for a time, half asleep, half awake.

She had no idea of how long, but the room grew dim as the day waned.

She stirred after a while, hearing footsteps in the hallway. Cain’s arm tightened around her as the door opened. There was a significant pause and then the door closed again. Smiling, she pressed a kiss against Cain’s chest, whereupon he rolled her onto her back and made love to her again, teasing her endlessly until she could no longer keep it inside of her and cried out in rapture.

Reese was no less attentive to her needs when he came to her the following night.

Nor did Dante stint on displaying his affection. After nearly a week and half, Amaryllis was so exhausted from her lovers’ eager attention that she didn’t even go down on the evenings that were hers for fear one or the other might take it as an invitation.

It was merely by chance, therefore, that she discovered the rivalry between her men had been taken onto an entirely different field--hers. She didn’t know whether to be more amused or irritated to discover that they were vying to see who could make her

‘sing’ the loudest and the longest. She also didn’t know how they finally determined a winner, but she was obliged to consider herself the primary winner in the contest.

Whatever the case, a tentative bond formed between them and if Reese and Cain continued to occasionally butt heads, those occasions were fewer and further between and fairly mild compared to some of their earlier disputes.

Somehow, though, true contentment continued to elude her and she was finally forced to face the demons she’d been trying so hard to keep at bay, the demons Reese, and Dante, and Cain had helped her banish to the furthest reaches of her subconscious by their demands upon her and their loving attention to her needs.

Cain had woken her fears on the day they’d argued and it was he who brought her whole world crashing down around her once more the night he felt the child stir beneath his palm.

They’d made love until the wee hours and Amaryllis was more than nine tenths asleep when he sat up abruptly and stared down at her belly.

“I felt it.”

“Mmm?” she asked drowsily.

“The child. I felt it move.”

Amaryllis was instantly as wide awake as if he’d tossed a pail of cold water over her. She didn’t react or respond in any way. She was too frozen with shock even to think for several moments. Finally, she’d merely rolled onto her side and pretended sleep and after a while he’d lain down again.