Seth: Futuristic Spy Romance (Cyborgs: More Than Machines) (8 page)

“I said I
did it for you. When I realized what they intended, I got cold feet. I asked for time to think about it. More information. But they made my choices crystal clear. Either I took those nano things into my body then and there, or they were going to kick me out.”

She wrinkled her nose.
“If you didn’t want them, then why did you agree? Why say it was because of me?”

“Because I didn’t want to leave the program.” His gaze rose and caught hers. “I didn’t want to leave you. So if my choice was to become super robot man capable of keeping up with a gorg
eous robo chick or living a mundane life alone?” He shrugged and his lips partially lilted, a wan smile that caused a stutter in her heart. “I chose you.”

If she’d wondered before, the way her heart stuttered to a stop answered for her.
Oh my god, I think I’m in love.

“Oh
, Seth.” She reached up and touched his cheek, cupping it. He angled his face into the simple embrace, and his eyes closed.

“You probably think I’m an idiot. I mean, who gets weird shit injected in them to impress and keep a girl
?”

“A guy who deserves better than me.”

His eyes flashed open. “Funny you say that because I keep feeling like I need to do more to deserve you.”

“Idiot.”

“Not according to my IQ tests.”

Trust him to turn a serious conversation into a joke.
It eased the tension though and she laughed. “What am I going to do with you?”

“Hopefully naught
y, naked things. Hey, do you think they’d let us have some alone time so we could do some testing of our own?”

“Making out isn’t testing.”

“It is if you’re trying to see if this shit they put in us makes us last longer and recuperate faster in the bedroom.”

How could one naughty wink heat her from head to toe?

Before she could reply, their drill sergeant entered the training room and began barking. As Anastasia went through the motions of exercise, she couldn’t help but replay Seth’s words, over and over.
I did it for you.
What did that mean? Was it a declaration that what he felt for her went beyond mere flirting?

A flutter of her heart hoped that answer was yes.

Back to the future.

Three days into their voyage
found Seth no closer to winning Anastasia over. Considering the smallness of the vessel, it should have proven difficult for her to avoid him. But she managed it somehow.

When she wasn’t recharging her batteries in the cyborg version of sleep
, she was plugged into the computer, eyes closed, face blank, sifting through the missives and information that came through her newsfeed channels.

But Seth didn’t like to be ignored. Just ask Aramus or any of his cyborg brothers. He needed daily contact, whether physical or mental.
Her pretending he didn’t exist wasn’t working for him, not when he couldn’t stop himself from thinking about her, recalling all they’d gone through. Pretending they had a future together. Imagining her naked and flushed beneath his heaving body.

Oh no, she wasn’t going to rid herself of him so easily.
I have ways of making myself seen and heard.
And he employed them. With nothing better to do, and determined to get some kind of reaction from her, Seth entertained himself by driving her nuts, a specialty of his.

On the first day she
tried to ignore him, he played with the computer. She cursed him out soundly once she discovered he’d reprogrammed the onboard computer voice from a generic male one to a sultry female one who enjoyed using naughty adjectives and imbued every query with a sexual undertone.

“Hello, captain. How may I
serve
you?” purred the computer from the embedded speakers.

Seeking him out, a glower on her face, Anastasia growled.
“What did you do?”

“
Whatever do you mean, dearest wife?”

“Don’t play dumb. What did you do to the computer?”

“Oh that?” He smiled. “I was bored. So I made some changes.”

“By turning our ship computer into a phone
-sex kitten?”

“I know. Pretty awesome, don’t you think? It took me a few hours of downloads and splicing, but I’m rather pleased with the overall effect.”

An effect that ranged beyond his perverse pleasure into snarky enjoyment as he got to watch Anastasia grit her teeth every time the computer spoke aloud.

But after that short confrontation, she once again deigned to pretend he didn’t exist.

Day two, he did his best to get in her way. Every time she went to move, he happened to get in her path. She reached for a tool to tweak a component on the console, his hand was there accidentally brushing hers. She went to use the tight hall to go from the control room to the cabin, he happened to be there, too, going in the opposite direction, his body rubbing against hers as they slid by in the tight space. She went to sleep in the bunk and woke to him snuggling her, an arm and leg thrown over her body.

“What are you doing?”

“I’d say it’s obvious what I’m doing. Getting some shuteye.”

“In my bed.”

“Our bed.”

“You do know there’s a top bunk.”

“Not anymore, I needed the mattress for something.”

That something saw him pitching it from an airlock into space.

“This isn’t going to work,” she growled as she shoved at his limbs, which he stubbornly refused to move. Good luck. Enhanced or not, she wasn’t budging him unless he decided to move.

“What won’t work? Sleeping together? Why ever not? We used to do it all the time.
Usually naked. But, out of deference to your boyfriend, I kept my bottoms on.”

“This isn’t right.”

“You’re right. I’ll get chafed if I remain dressed. I’ll take my pants off.”

“You will not!”

“Testy, testy. Someone needs her beauty sleep.”

“Someone needs to stop driving me insane. If this is your
lame attempt to get us back together, it’s failing miserably. I already told you I’m not interested. I have a man in my life.”

He adopted a feigned expression of innocence. “You think I’m trying to seduce you?
Perish the thought. The idea never crossed my mind.”

“Liar.”

“If you ask me, I’m not the one who can’t keep my mind out of the gutter. Here I was, just trying to get some shuteye, and you’re turning this into a big deal. It’s not my fault you can’t handle the sight and feel of my awesome body. I realize I’m irresistible, but, really, learn some control.”

“I am not tempted.”

He bit back a smile at her indignation, and the lie that his processor spotted. “Sure you’re not. You can touch if you want. I won’t get offended or tattle on you to your boyfriend.”

For his generous offer, he got a knee to the groin, a shove that sent him tumbling to the floor, and a foot in the gut as she used him as a stepping
-stone on her path to escape him.

He grinned. His plan to get under her skin was working marvelously.

Day three, he did laundry. But did Anastasia appreciate it? Of course not.

“Where
are my clothes?” she bellowed as she woke from her nap. Having just exited the shower, his timing intentional, Seth grinned as he stood underneath the air dryer. In space, towels were considered a waste of space and resources. Why bother when a hot air dryer could do the same thing and not end up on the floor in a sodden heap?

Thus, it was
, with only a smile and nothing else, he greeted his wife when she stormed into the small bathing chamber.

“What have you done with my clothes?”

“They’re in the wash,” he announced, lifting his face into the warm air and letting it evaporate the moisture still clinging to his skin.

“All of them
?”

“Yeah. Funny thing happened. While I was getting dressed, I happened to spill my morning breakfast shake all over our stuff.” Cramped quarters meant little in way of storage.
Apparel for them both shared a large drawer out in the hall. “Somehow I didn’t think you’d appreciate the wet stains, so I threw the entire drawer into the wash, and I even picked up the stuff you’d dumped on the floor.”

“So what am I supposed to wear in the meantime?”

Turning, he eyed her up and down, lingering on the valley between her breasts covered by a generic sports bra then dipping lower to admire the indent of her waist, the slightly defined muscles of her stomach, and finally to the hip-hugging shorts she wore. “If you ask me, you’re wearing too much as it is.”

She crossed her arms over chest. Silly woman. Didn’t she know that just made her even more alluring?

“I’m getting tired of your games.”

“Who says I’m playing?”

“I am not going to sleep with you.”

“As if you’d have time to sleep,” he scoffed.

“You’re impossible.”

“I prefer the term do
-able.”

“Do yourself.”

“I tried. My five fingers just aren’t enough. I want the real thing. I want my wife.” He said the last bit in an utterly serious tone. Some things he didn’t joke about, and his need for her was one of them, and she knew it. He could tell how his words affected her by the way her eyes glazed and her breathing stuttered. She’d always worn the marks of passion so well, and she could never hide them. From him at least.

“I’m going back to bed
,” she snapped.

“Good idea.”

“Alone.”

That’s what she thought. She whirled on her heel and stalked out, but he followed close behind. Despite her claim, she bypassed the
rumpled bunk and headed out to the hall, probably to check into the main control area or the status of their laundry.

Perhaps now wasn’t the time to remember that he’d forgotten to push the start button to get the load
going.

Regulating his core temperature so he couldn’t feel the chillier air of the ship on his bare skin, he trailed her.

Flopping into her command seat, she shot him an evil stare, or tried to. Apparently it slipped her mind that, once sitting, she’d put herself eye level with something that was proving, in a very visual fashion, how happy it was to see her.

Where he failed to hold her gaze, his cock snagged it. “Would you cover that thing?” she muttered in a husky voice.

“With what? All my stuff is in the wash.”

“Then wrap a sheet around yourself or something.”

“Why? Is the sight of nakedness bothering you? It shouldn’t. We are, after all, part machine, capable of controlling both our bodily functions and emotions.”

“If you
’re so capable, then why do you have an erection?”

“Because I, unlike someone I know, choose not
to hide what I feel.”

She didn’t reply, but she did manage to turn away and fiddle idly with the buttons on her console.

Seth wouldn’t let her ignore him though. Not this time. Gripping the armrests to her chair, he spun it, forcing her to face him. She kept her gaze averted.

“When are you going to admit you want me still?”

He expected her to deny it again. But Anastasia always did have a knack for surprising him. “Will you stop harassing me if I admit a part of me still desires you?”

Why do a mental fist pump when he could do a real one? “Hell yeah!” he exclaimed, giving a double air pump. “She still wants me. She thinks I’m sexy,” he sang.

“She also thinks you’re annoying.”

“But that hasn’t stopped you from picturing me and y
ou in carnal positions.”

“
Unfortunately, it hasn’t.”

Okay
, so her tone and expression didn’t exactly scream, “
I’m so in love with you!”
Still, Seth considered it a step in the right direction. Much as she might try and deny it, she felt something for him. And it was more than just irritation.

“
What do you propose we do about it? I know I’m willing to let you have your debauched way with me.”

He expected a slap or punch to the gut for his outspoke
nness. He knew he skated on thin ice with his over-the-top attempt at flirtation, but, in his defense, he didn’t know what else to do. A declaration of undying love would probably send her bolting. Diving on her without express permission could see him seriously harmed. And walking away? Yeah, that wasn’t an option.

What he didn’t expect was for her to give in so easily.
“If we have sex, will you stop this insane campaign of yours to get under my skin?”

“If we have sex, I will do anything you want.”

“Including doing what I say when we reach the mother ship?”

“Sure.” And he meant it, for the moment. As an intelligence model, he possessed the
prerogative to change his mind as conditions changed or new intel was gathered.

“This doesn’t mean our marriage is back on,” she warned as he leaned down to seal the deal with a kiss.

“So it’s all right if I pretend I’m cheating on my wife with someone else’s wife?” he murmured against her lips.

“If it turns you on.”

Everything about her turned him on, especially the challenge she still posed. Yes, she might have conceded the war when it came to lust, but the battle for her heart still required waging.

But now
, how to proceed?

He still stood in all his naked glory. She still sat, partially dressed
, perusing him with an amused tilt of her lips and a challenge in her eyes.

I can’t screw this up.
Which meant he needed to make this about her. Simple enough.

He dropped to his knees, a supplicant to the woman who owned him heart, body
, and metal.

She regarded him from under eyelids grown heavy, a sure sign of arousal. “I’ve dreamed of this moment,” he admitted, skimming his hands up her thighs, the skin as smooth as he recalled, the hitch of her breath still just as a tantalizing
, even after all this time.

He bent his head to trace his lips along the same path his hand took, lightly brushing her skin, inhaling the scent of her. Her legs parted before his subtle caresses, an unspoken permission that he could
proceed.

And he would. At his own sweet pace.

He blew hot air against the seam of her shorts, loving how she couldn’t control the impatient wiggle of her bottom or the musky scent of her arousal as her sweet honey pooled.

Placing his mouth upon the thin fabric, he blew again, warm moist air
, which caused her to gasp and grab at his hair.

“Stop teasing,” she moaned.

“But teasing is what I do best.” But how could he have forgotten that, in that respect, she always beat him? Down skimmed her hand, over the tautness of her belly to the waistband of her bottoms. In slipped her questing fingers, and no matter how many parts the military replaced, no matter how much of his body his BCI controlled, it never could stem his desire for this woman or the fact that a simple act such as her touching herself could still make him drool.