“Yeah, the matter conversion takes basic material and energy. If we don’t take time to fuel we get tired.”
“So replicating food makes no sense.”
“Depends.”
“On what?”
“Whether I wanted to indulge my brave cupcake’s craving for truffles when I don’t have any chocolate on hand.”
Tori’s cheeks grew redder at his teasing.
He reached to activate the replicator.
“Don’t you dare. You need your strength to heal.” She dug both hands into his forearm as if she could stop him.
“Mechs can multitask. Bots handle repairs. The replicator is entirely separate.” He allowed her to pin his arm.
“Tell me more about these bots. I’d love to understand more about your medical technology.” She kept one hand curled around his wrist.
He could take care of himself, all the mechs could, but he loved her fierce protectiveness. “Have you forgiven us for invading your privacy when we studied your personal communications?”
“Of course you’d remember that. I may have overreacted a tad.” She averted her gaze. “Actually, I was falling hard for all of you and I hated learning I was the triad’s seduction mission.”
He lifted Tori’s chin and forced her to meet his eyes. The move made his head throb. Bile rose in his throat. He swallowed hard. He stayed right where he was. Making sure she understood she was everything to them was much more important than a headache. “You think we don’t want you?”
Despite the hold he had on her face, she refused to look at him. His hearing had improved but she spoke so softly he had to focus on her sensuous mouth to understand her. “No, you all made your interest quite clear.”
Then what the hell is the problem?
The threat of nausea kept him from venting his surge of temper. The feeling he’d missed an obvious clue nagged at him as persistently as the nasty headache. He replayed her words. She wanted them, they wanted her, so no problem there. A few cyborgs left to kill then they’d formalize their bond. Afterward the triad would spend the rest of their lives protecting and cherishing her. Best of all, she integrated with them perfectly, she protected them fiercely—hell, she completed them.
So why wouldn’t she meet his gaze and why was her beautiful mouth drooping at the corners? These were not signs of a happy woman. He focused on her face. Determined to capture any clue, he tried to convey how much she meant to them. “Time travel isn’t like driving a vehicle. Access is limited to highly trained mech teams. Our triad placed first in every area to win the chance to come for you. Even then, if we hadn’t passed the seduction classes the second-place team would’ve been assigned to rescue you. The competition was brutal. The other teams were excellent. The final scores between us and the runner-up triad were tenths of a percent apart.”
“Better and better,” she muttered and twisted from his grasp.
Somehow the more he explained how hard they’d fought for her, the worse he made things. He sank back against the pillows, clueless and temporarily defeated.
Her lashes lifted, revealing eyes brimming with emotion. She snuggled closer, resting her head on his chest.
He wrapped his arms around her and simply held her while her tears bathed him.
If anyone deserved a good cry, Tori did. Gideon was happy to provide shelter and hoped he gave her comfort for whatever troubled her. Everything about her soothed him and lessened his pain. His headache eased along with the swelling on the back of his head. The nausea was nothing but a bad memory. Even sobbing, he loved being with her. He just wished he knew what the hell was wrong.
He curled around Tori. His body tightened everywhere in response to the soft weight of her breasts pressed against his stomach. At some point, he’d been stripped of his uniform and covered with a sheet. He canted his hips to keep his hard cock from poking those luscious mounds and turned up his thermal output.
Eventually she ran out of tears. She patted his thick chest and levered herself away from him.
He pried his arms loose, freeing her, and cocked a knee to keep from tenting the bedclothes. Uncontrolled weeping wasn’t a sign she was up for sheathing his rampant hard-on.
She crawled off the mattress, headed for the bathroom then turned to say, “I’ll get you a towel.”
Tori’s nose was redder than the whites of her eyes. Rebellious curls sprang in every direction where they’d escaped her braid. She was still the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. He stared at the door she’d closed behind her like the greenest awestruck cadet, which pretty much summed up how he felt.
Okay, he was hopelessly gone for her, but she deserved his best, not some lovesick fool. He’d fake firm and in control well enough to demand to know what was wrong. Whatever the trouble was he’d fix it. He was a mech and that’s what mechs did—they solved impossible problems.
At last Tori reentered the bedroom. Her hair was loose and brushed smooth. Her eyes were large and soft and minus the red. Her freckled nose was only slightly pink. Her one piece had vanished and the towel she’d mentioned was wrapped around her perfect curves.
His plan to insist on answers retreated like defeated troops. She came closer and the lush scent of her arousal bloomed. He caught a new note in the complex fragrance. He compared the blend to his databank and hit a match. She was ovulating. The need to claim what belonged to him erased everything except a primal need to bury his cock in her satin heat over and over and over.
Tori had gone into the bathroom to repair the blotchy mess crying made. But the longer she was away from Gideon the more she craved him. Her breasts were tender and swollen. Her clit was engorged with need. Her skin had shrunk and grown itchy all over. If she didn’t know better, she would’ve sworn she was hormonal. She washed her face in cold water and put soothing drops in her puffy eyes. Her pussy wasn’t merely wet it was sticky. She set aside the damp washcloth, toed off her boots and socks then stripped off the jumpsuit.
A twinge pinched deep inside her lower belly. Once upon a time the tiny hurt had been an indication of ovulation, but that seemed unlikely. She hadn’t had a period in months. She quickly dismissed the fleeting stab. There were lots of reasons for stomach pain. Besides, if by some miracle she was fertile, and lucky enough to conceive, she’d love a child. She knew instinctively the survivors’ community in California would cherish children. They were mankind’s future. When the mechs’ mission ended they’d return to their own time. The next best thing to having them in her life would be a living reminder of three incredible lovers.
She craved their touches, their heat and their closeness. Even if it was just sex to them, it was incredible sex and she wasn’t about to shortchange herself. She was going to enjoy every second and soak up enough erotic memories to last forever.
With another deep breath for courage she let the towel slide south and prowled onto the bed as if she seduced fierce mech warriors every day.
The enormous ridge resting flat on Gideon’s abs gave her confidence a much-needed boost. Thank goodness he wanted her. Without his desire she would’ve crawled under the bed and sucked her thumb.
He swept aside the sheet and palmed his erection. “Come here, cupcake.”
His voice grated, deep, harsh and reverberating with demand—exactly what she needed. At the possessive sound, she quit overthinking the situation and her nerves calmed. A lust that would’ve given a sane woman pause surged through her. The sensible nurse was so far away Tori wasn’t sure she’d ever make a comeback. A new wanton woman possessed her body. She was full of wicked intention to obey every order this warrior issued. She straddled his thighs, edged closer to his magnificent cock and arched to make the most of her breasts.
When she hovered over his root, a rough palm closed around her hip, locking her in place. “Put my cock head in your cunt.”
She shivered at his raw order. Her nipples bunched tighter and fresh honey slickened her pussy. “What, no foreplay, sugar?”
His fingers tightened on her and his erection tapped rigid abs, making her even hotter. He drew thick fingers through her swollen, damp folds, and mashed her throbbing clit. “You don’t need any. You’re on fire for me.”
She dropped her gaze, already desperate to come. She licked the hollow of her palm and covered the small slit on his plump head, spreading the pre-cum and teasing under the sensuous ridge before tracing the thick vein on the underside. He kicked back his head and groaned. Happy with his response, she complied with his orders, fisting his thick shaft and notching the broad crown at her entrance. The hot honey easing his entry made him grateful he’d ignored her small rebellion. As wet and ready as she was, his wide head still stretched her inner walls. The burn of invasion seared her pussy in the best possible way. She whimpered for more.
“Lean forward, I want to taste those beautiful tits.”
His plan so worked for her. She obeyed eagerly. His hot lips closed around a needy peak. The sensation shot straight to her clit and pulled a blissful moan from her mouth. Still more cream rained from her slit, easing his slow, hot plunge.
Gideon suckled her sensitive tips and slid deeper in small increments, always waiting until she’d adjusted to his size and wriggled in his implacable hold, wordlessly telling him she wanted more.
Her inner walls clenched and released, greedy to massage the velvet-covered steel, rubbing, stretching, filling her to capacity and somehow pulling more moisture from her channel, stretching her farther until his crown bumped her cervix and his balls snuggled against her ass. He was exactly where she needed him—hilted in her cunt.
A sigh of utter satisfaction escaped her lips before he captured them in a mind-melting kiss that left her clutching his shoulders and craving his spicy flavor.
He rolled them until she was beneath him, surrounded by welcome heat and enough weight to keep her immobile. Her eyes drifted shut.
“Look at me. I want you to know who’s fucking you.”
Her gaze flew to his. She locked on dark eyes on fire with a hunger that shook more than her body. She whispered, “You are, Gideon.”
“Damn right.” His hips levered back just long enough to tuck a pillow under her butt before he drove into her.
The exquisite burn of his possession coiled everything inside her tight. Then tighter still until she began to quiver. Each thrust scraped her sweet spot, making her buck uselessly against his relentless claiming. His command and the long, slow, hard strokes of his massive cock kept her grounded and tuned to him so completely, she ceased to exist, except as a vessel to please him.
Her channel fisted then clutched at the cock filling her so completely. The edges of her vision blurred as an overload of erotic pleasure pulled her toward a freight train of release she couldn’t stop. “Permission to come, sir.”
“Yeah, come for me cupcake. Now.” His deep voice granted mercy.
She felt the first hot splash of his semen blast her core as her cunt shuddered with an orgasm that broke her into tiny pieces and scattered them in the storm of pleasure.
When the world came back into focus, cool dampness cleaned her pink bits with amazing tenderness. The cold cloth dipped between her folds. The wetness skimmed through the left side, circled her overstimulated core then slid up the left side before pausing to gently wipe her clit. An aftershock of ecstasy rippled through her at the light caress. Her heavy eyelids lifted enough to provide a sliver view of Marcus.
Did Gideon leave me without saying a word?
Not even Galahad’s very fine bare chest distracted her from the hurt. The idea clenched her stomach and made her skin crawl with imaginary filth.
To distract herself from her neediness, she thought about Horace. A longing for his irreverent trash talk and sweet-hot teasing swept through her. “Where’s Horace?”
“Standing guard. After losing you to the cyborgs, we’re done taking chances. One of us is on duty even in a secured building.” Marcus looked more serious than she’d ever seen him and utterly delicious.
Certainty she should stop worrying about falling for the mechs hit along with missing her other two lovers. She would’ve never guessed she needed three guys to make her happy, but she couldn’t deny the sense of incompleteness when she wasn’t with all her mechs.
Somehow she’d slipped over the attracted and caring line into total goner zone. Too bad she hadn’t figured out caution and restraint a tiny bit sooner. Every time she was with them she gave these incredible warriors another piece of her soul. Unable to resist them and unable to guard her foolish heart, she’d fallen in love, and falling back out wasn’t part of her skill set.
She instantly chided herself for being such a baby. These incredible warriors were only hers for a little while. This wasn’t a permanent commitment kind of relationship. She’d best keep that firmly in mind. If she failed this one small memory test her heart would break like safety glass—in so many tiny pieces she’d never love again.
As if he’d read her thoughts, Gideon was there. His special blend of dark spice soothed her fear. He rolled her onto her side, settled himself behind her and pressed an impressive erection into the seam of her ass. “I’m right here, cupcake.” The snick of a plastic cap coming off was all the warning she had before cool lube replaced his hot cock and trickled between her rear cheeks. “I want you to make Marcus very happy.”