Kingston 691: Book Two of Cyborgs: Mankind Redefined
Read Kingston 691: Book Two of Cyborgs: Mankind Redefined Online
Authors: Donna McDonald
Tags: #Science Fiction Romance, #Paranormal Romance, #Humor
Kingston 691
By
Donna McDonald
* * * * *
Copyright 2015 by Donna McDonald
Cover by Black Raven’s Designs
Edit by MYST Partners
Edition License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should delete it from your device and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is coincidental.
This book contains content that may not be suitable for young readers 17 and under.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to my husband Bruce for sharing me with my characters.
You are every hero to me.
Dedication
This book is for Dr. J. who really knows what a sexy hero looks like.
Thanks for the inspiration for my second cyborg. He’s all for you—lol.
Chapter 1
King grinned as he watched the couple making excuses to the tough, no-nonsense maître d’ he had hired for his restaurant. Regardless of what they said to Franco, he could tell the
real
reason they were twenty-five minutes late from the way Peyton couldn’t keep his hands off the woman. While a smiling Dr. Kyra Winters was charming his employee, his former captain and most of the time friend, was steadily drawing slow circles on her back with the fingertips of his human hand.
King shook his head as he contemplated their passionate relationship, barely holding in his sigh of envy. He didn’t blame Peyton for publicly staking his claim tonight. Doc was quite the picture in her lacy black dress and sharp, pointy heels. Best of all, underneath those alluring feminine clothes was a real woman that both he and his friend admired.
Because Doc had the guts to try and right the mistakes of her past, evicting soldiers from Cyber Husband hell was her full time job now. She went to Norton and faced angry converted men every day, yet kept going back the next to restore yet another one. He’d seen the stress of her heroics cut her down more than once, but so far she hadn’t let her personal meltdowns stop her. At least Peyton’s fawning attention to her every sexy body movement kept a smile blooming on her face.
King didn’t know whether to laugh or swear at what happened next. “Peyton, you lucky bastard,” he whispered under his breath. Having finally gotten her way with Franco, Doc turned a shy but victorious smile in her husband’s direction. Peyton’s wink of approval made her smile even wider. It was the only time in the history of their friendship where King knew for certain he didn’t stand a chance in hell of luring the good-looking woman away from his friend’s side.
Damn it. He needed to start dating and find a woman or two of his own, but the restaurant opening had taken all his time and energy. Or at least that’s how he’d rationalized his celibate lifestyle so far. The price of the space in this commercial use building had been too good to pass up, even if fixing the aftermath of the previous owner’s parting temper tantrum hadn’t been fun or easy. He sighed, feeling confused as usual about his personal motivations. It was a common occurence since his restoration.
Shaking his head to rid himself of his serious thoughts, he went to meet the couple. For the present, he would just take his pleasure where he could, which tonight meant yanking Peyton’s chain as hard as possible. His long legs ate up the floor space as he hurried across the polished gleam of its recovered stone surface.
“I’ll seat them, Franco. Thank you. Every spot is booked tonight and you’re incredibly late, Peyton. Don’t you ever let this woman out of bed when she’s not working?” King asked, his words and tone infused with as much sympathy as he could manufacture.
Ignoring Peyton’s eye roll, he looked down at the beauty beaming up at him and smiled. “I have to say Doc, you’re looking especially gorgeous tonight. Why don’t you dump this guy and let a real man show you a good time?”
King grinned as she laughed at his teasing. Before Kyra could answer him, the man beside her interrupted their conversation.
“You’re wasting your breath, Kingston. Why would my wife trade in her custom made husband for an oversized rogue put together with mix and match parts?”
King grinned at the insult, happy to have provoked Peyton’s possessiveness so easily. “Because I could give this woman a graceful life. You wouldn’t know refinement if it bit you on your tightly toned ass.”
King enjoyed Peyton’s glare as he picked up Doc’s hand. He pretended he was going to kiss her fingers, but instead used it to pull her to him so he could soundly kiss both cheeks. Doc’s giggle of surprise—and gasping pleasure at being hugged—earned him a middle finger salute behind her back, something he hoped the rest of his wealthy patrons didn’t see.
“If you don’t get your clever hands off my woman, you’re going to need them replaced tomorrow.”
King belly laughed at the nearly genuine threat, bringing all eyes in the place to the three of them. “Doc would just see I received better ones. Wouldn’t you, gorgeous?”
Kyra shook her head. “Oh, no you don’t, King. Leave me out of your man-up debate with my husband. I just came to eat. What’s good tonight?”
King tucked her hand in the crook of his massive arm as he walked them to their table.
“Honey, you have definitely come to the right place if you’re hungry. Tonight we have Louisiana fare:
Shrimp and Grits
or
Crawfish
É
touffée
. If seafood doesn’t sound good, try the simulated filet mignon. Chef Tony perfected it this week. It’s got just the right balance of nutrients and tastes way better than most simulated twenty-first century beef.”
“Please don’t be disappointed, but I don’t eat meat or even seafood anymore,” Kyra said softly, working to look apologetic. “I gave up that kind of protein when I was in my forties. My body just doesn’t process it correctly.”
King turned loose of her at their table. He put his hands on his hips and sighed as dramatically as he could. “Well, my crush on you is over then, sugar. Now I know it will never work out between us. I can’t be fooling around with such a strict vegetarian. Do you at least eat vegetable protein?”
“If you can hide it in a lot of real vegetables. I eat a lot of salads.”
At Kyra’s guilty head shake, King laughed and looked at Peyton. “You can keep her, Peyton. I’m looking for a meat eater.”
Peyton punched King’s arm hard, but barely got a snort from his massive friend. “Don’t be insulting. If my wife leaves your new restaurant hungry, I’ll light up your media presence with your culinary failure. My processor is lightning fast compared to your archaic one. I can hit a thousand sites in about ten seconds.”
“Fine. I’ll put in an order for a Kingston House Salad with plant protein as well as some real tomatoes,” King said, looking as dejected as he could fake doing. “What about you, Peyton? You want a salad too?”
“Me eat salad? Hell no. I’ll take the largest serving of protein on your menu. And if it even vaguely resembles a twenty-first century steak, I’ll kiss your ass.”
King snorted, mostly because he knew the protein was a near perfect facisimile. “Really? What would you do for the real thing?”
“Don’t make me debase myself for something I know will never be on your menu. I’ll only hate you for it later,” Peyton declared.
King grinned widely. “I’ll get the order in and have Greg bring over a couple glasses of wine. He recorded your preferences from the interview we collected with your reservation—unless you want something different than what was on it.”
When they shook their heads no, King turned toward the bar, but instead ended up looking straight into the face of a woman he never thought he’d see again.
“Hello, Kingston.”
Having been trained to be unfailingly polite since childhood, King wasn’t surprised when Annalise Harrington turned and smiled in apology at the couple he’d been talking to. He put his full attention on her so he could use his cybernetics to study her body signals and analyze her level of stress. As he expected, her readings were extremely high.
“Hello, Annalise. How wonderful it is to see you.”
King lied as casually as possible, holding out his hand as his mind pulled up her contract file contents from storage. Doc had pulled the Cyber Husband chip, but since his long term storage had the space, he’d kept a copy of all the data on it. The well-preserved gray-haired beauty now smiling at him had been his last contract wife in the program. Heiress to several fortunes, she had been widowed twice from human males before she’d ever bought him. Annalise was the mother of three and grandmother of two. She liked to have tea at precisely four in the afternoon. She was also a master gardener. Her tomatoes won awards every year.
“So how did the tomatoes turn out when they ripened? I’m sorry I never got to see them,” King said, nearly meaning it. Annalise had been kind to him…and not asked him for anything physical…which is why he felt compelled to be kind in return tonight.
Since his restoration, he had developed his own system of rating the past events. His memories of Annalise were blessedly neutral.
Did she answer about the tomatoes?
Like all the many other times he recalled doing it for his contract wives, as well every other woman he’d known, he lifted Annalise’s fingers and placed a chaste kiss across her knuckles.
“I’m sorry if you were inconvenienced by my departure, but I must confess that I am happy to be free of the program. I hope my honesty about the matter doesn’t offend you.”
Annalise pulled her hand gently from his as she shook her head. His cybernetic readings of her indicated she was telling the truth with her negative head movement.
“It doesn’t offend me at all. As odd as it might seem based on what you know about me buying you, I am happy for your freedom, Kingston. May I talk to you privately for just a minute? I promise I didn’t come to make a scene in your new restaurant. In fact, I’m very happy to see you adjusting to your circumstances so gracefully. It doesn’t surprise me at all. You’re one of the most adaptable men I’ve ever met.”