Being Green (Cyborg Sizzle Book 5) (4 page)

“That was your suggestion. I lined the container also, as you advised.”

He’d listened to her. Her spine straightened with pride. “Is that why Windy is looking so much better?” The leaves were no longer wilted and brown.

“One of the reasons.” Green moved closer to her. Heat radiated from his big body. “Changing the light source helped too.”

That had been another one of her suggestions.

“She’s not completely happy.” He tenderly stroked one of his plant’s bright red petals. “Her little flower head is drooping.”

“But she is flowering.” Her gaze tracked his fingers. She remembered how wonderful his hands felt against her skin. “That’s a good sign. Plants don’t flower when they’re on the verge of death.”

“The flower faced the sky when I first met her.”

“It isn’t the same flower.”

“It is,” he insisted, his expression sincere.

“It can’t be.” She glanced up at him. “Poppies flower for fourteen planet rotations. How long have you had her?”

“Over two hundred planet rotations.”

“I’ve never heard of a poppy flower lasting for almost a solar cycle.” What did that mean? Had she misidentified Windy?

Shelby had taken one quick glance at the plant and assumed she was a common poppy. As she’d taken one look at Green and shamefully assumed he was killing machine.

She’d been wrong about Green. Had she been wrong about Windy also?

Shelby studied the plant more closely. The leaves were slightly more rounded than expected. The coarse hairs on the stem were softer, shorter, almost like fur. These differences, in isolation, wouldn’t be noteworthy, but when combined, they raised questions in her mind.

Could Windy be a new species of poppy? Excitement mixed with foreboding. A new species belonged to the uncertain future, didn’t belong on Earth Minor, wasn’t in her area of expertise.

“You can repair her.” Green wrapped one of his arms around her waist. “I know you can.”

She glanced at him. He gazed back at her, no doubt reflecting in his countenance. He believed in her, in her abilities. She couldn’t say no, couldn’t tell him to take his plant to a more qualified expert.

She didn’t know if that being existed. She could be their best option.

She couldn’t abandon them.

“I’ll do my best to cure her.” Shelby instinctively folded her body into Green. Lost in the challenges of determining the needs of new species, she barely registered his nude state, the skin-on-skin contact feeling natural, right. “Where did you find her?”

“Nebula Seventeen.”

She wasn’t familiar with that planet. “I can leave Earth Minor for a couple of planet rotations. We could travel to Nebula Seventeen and—”

“You’re not going anywhere near Nebula Seventeen.” Green’s face grew hard. “When we escaped Humanoid Alliance control, Mantidae swarmed the surface of the planet.”

“Oh.” She couldn’t face the beings that had killed her parents.

“What do you require from there?”

She required everything. “Soil, sunlight, air readings. If we replicate the environment, Windy should flourish as she did there.”

“We can tell you everything you need to know.” His confidence was adorable.

Shelby didn’t have the same faith in his abilities. “The average being’s observation skills are unreliable. You’re not a scientist. You’re a warrior and you were battling the enemy.” He wouldn’t have noted much.

“I’m not the average being. I’m a cyborg.” Green straightened. “Terrain intelligence is necessary to successfully fight an enemy. The readings from my mechanics would be accurate. And there are six hundred and fourteen other cyborgs to corroborate my observations. We’ll provide everything you need, my Shelby.”

He had six hundred and fourteen brethren. She was alone. He’d never stay on Earth Minor, never choose her and her ancient world over his cyborg warriors and their modern surroundings.

And why did she care that he wouldn’t? Choosing her implied a future together and she never looked past the next planet rotation. “I’m not your Shelby.”

“You are.” He caught her fluttering hands, his grip on her fingers gentle yet secure. “That’s a fact. Cyborgs don’t lie.”

Her gaze shot to his. “I read that.” They were manufactured to always tell the truth. “But the future is uncertain. To count on it--”

“Don’t count on it.” Green placed her hands on his chest. “Count on me.”

“How can I do that? You could die,” she whispered.

“You shot me and I survived.” He solemnly addressed her fears. “I battled multiple Mantidae at once and emerged victorious. The Human Alliance sought to decommission me and I escaped. I’m not easy to kill.”

Shelby slid her hands lower and touched his healed wound. He was right. He
wasn’t
easy to kill. “Every being I’ve ever cared for has died, Green.”

“Those beings weren’t cyborgs.”

He sounded so certain and she wanted to believe him. Her solitude was eating away at her soul. “Even if you survived our relationship, you’d want to leave the planet permanently and I can’t. I’m tied to Earth Minor, responsible for maintaining its ecosystem.”

“I’ll assist you with those responsibilities. You can relay your knowledge.” Green had an answer for that concern also. “And I won’t ever leave you. You’re my female.”

Cyborgs don’t lie. “Thinking of the future scares me. There are so many variables, so many possibilities for pain.”

“Then don’t think of the future.” Green pulled her closer to him, his body warm, solid. “Think of now, of me, of how I want burrow my face between your wondrous breasts and never again surface.”

Her lips twitched. He was hard, his cock pressed against her stomach. “Shouldn’t I be thinking of a cure for your plant?”

“You said Windy’s condition wasn’t life threatening.” Her cyborg brushed his cheek against hers.

With his gentle touch and reassuring words, he tempted her to forget caution, to forget her past. She wouldn’t be able to resist his charms for long. She had to cure his plant and send him on his way. “I’ll draft a list of the information I require concerning Nebula Seventeen.”

Chapter Three

Once he received his little female’s list, Green uploaded the information she required from his processors and transmitted those answers to Zip. His friend would compile the responses from the other cyborgs, construct the most detailed and accurate view of the ecosystem possible.

With that duty delegated, Green donned the flight suit he’d stored in the shuttlecraft. The battle armor Zip and Barrel had convinced him to wear during their first meeting now required repairs, due to the quick response of his female.

Green then devoted his energy pulses to helping Shelby with her daily tasks. He broke up soil with primitive tools, carried containers of water from a nearby stream, gathered fallen branches for the fire now blazing before him. His sexy botanist taught him about the various plants, the planet they currently inhabited, and the original Earth they came from.

She also showed him parts of herself, her passions, her dreams, her fears. This sharing enthralled him, made him want her more and more.

Green inhaled deeply, savoring the scent of female, burning wood and her mother’s roses. He craved her
and
the homeland she’d built. Judging by the footage his brethren had relayed to him, the cyborg homeland was more crowded and more noisy than Earth Minor. Structures reached into the sky.

On this planet, trees softened the horizon, swaying in the wind. This was the place he’d envisioned when he was enslaved by the Humanoid Alliance. Peaceful and quiet.

His female was more than he’d ever dared to dream of. He sat beside her on a great rock and watched, bemused, as she mumbled to herself, expressing her concerns about how much of the ash they should add to Windy’s soil, if the quality of ash was the same, what would happen if it wasn’t. She’d worry as much about their offspring.

Green hooked one of his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to him. He wanted to make those offspring immediately. Shelby’s beautiful face was lit by the flames. Her brown curls caressed her cheeks. The stars shining above them were reflected in her green eyes.

His gaze dropped to her lips. Their first kiss had almost shorted his circuits. Would their second kiss do the same?

“Is that your ship?” She pointed to a bright light in the sky. Her fingers were calloused, rough, fingers a male could trust to hold his family safe.

Green looked upward. “Yes.”

“They must expect you to return soon.” The sadness in her voice warmed his chest. She wanted him. He smelled her arousal. And she wished for him to stay with her.

“They know why I’m here.” Green rubbed her arm, savoring her softness, her proximity. “Barrel and Zip envy me. You’re beautiful and intelligent and strong.”

“They haven’t seen me.”

“My friends saw you during our first transmission.” She didn’t know that. Barrel and Zip had remained silent while they spoke.

“That transmission was scrambled.”

Frag. She’d scrambled it intentionally. Knowing her intelligence level, he should have realized that. “We thought it was a malfunction and fixed it.”

“Oh.” Her cheeks turned pink. She stared into the fire.

Silence stretched. He continued to touch her, exploring the dimple near her elbow, the curve of her forearm, her delicate wrists.

“I thought scrambling the transmission would keep me safe,” she whispered.

“I will keep you safe,” he vowed.

His little female had taken some precautions, but not enough. Her only defenses against attackers were a scrambled signal and the gun she’d used on him.

Green understood why. She feared the future, refused to plan for it. His Shelby lived in the past, maintaining the ecosystem her predecessor had built, following his planting schedules, working the same fields. The elderly human male hadn’t considered the possibility of invasion.

That responsibility was now Green’s.

He’d spent most of his lifespan in battle, had once wondered if that would be all he’d experience. He’d considered ending his life.

Now, he knew why he had fought, why he had endured the killing and the pain. The battles had prepared him to safeguard his female, her plants, her planet. His past suffering would ensure their future happiness.

“I’d die before I allowed you to be harmed.”

She turned her head and stared at him. “You’d risk death for the possibility of breeding with me?”

“I’d battle the world for you and I want more than to breed with you.” Green traced each of her fingers from her pinkie to her thumb. “I want to fall asleep inside you, wake with you in my arms. I long to watch your seedlings grow into mature plants, harvest their bounty, enjoy another meal like the one you created this planet rotation.” The experience of eating food gathered straight from the source, ripened by the sun, had been wondrous, the flavors distinct. “I seek to be the male you choose to stand by your side, to assist you, to love you.”

“Love?” She blinked, her eyelashes long and dark. “We met, in person, for the first time this planet rotation.”

“I knew the moment I saw you.” He placed one of her palms over his heart. “Don’t you feel the connection between us?”

She splayed her fingers over the fabric and nibbled on her bottom lip.

He waited, allowing her to think.

“I can’t trust this. It’s too much.” She shook her head, her curls bouncing around her face. “You’re speaking of love, talking of future planet rotations, hinting at a life span spent together. I can’t leave Earth Minor.”

“I wouldn’t ask you to.” He’d realized as soon as he opened the shuttlecraft’s doors that she’d never leave the paradise she’d found.

His Shelby’s forehead wrinkled. Her eyebrows knitted together. His past-loving botanist struggled to understand the changes he’d brought with him.

It was too much, too soon for her. He cupped her cheeks. “Don’t think about it.” He was patient. He’d wait for her to catch up to him emotionally, to trust in a future together. “Feel.”

He slanted his lips across her. She opened to him with a relieved sigh and he pushed into her, tasting the mint leaf she’d been chewing on and the flavor of frustrated female.

With each stroke of his tongue, her shoulders lowered and her eyes darkened, her worries visually dissipating. Her hands slid up his chest, curled around his shoulders, and she shifted, drawing nearer.

She remained too far from him. Green eased her forward until she straddled his waist, her ass filling his lap. Shelby felt right there, made for him. He swirled his fingers in small circles, massaging her ample hips, as they kissed.

Insects buzzed. A branch fell in the fire and sparks shot skyward. Shelby’s breathing in and out added a constant rhythm, an underlying pulse to the sounds around them. Her breasts brushed against his chest, teasing his body. Her ass wiggled. Her mons ground against his hard cock, layers of fabric separating them.

“You’re scrambling my processors.” He dragged his lips down her neck. “I want you so much. I can’t think.”

“Think?” His female’s expression was dazed.

He grinned. She was more lost than he was. He nipped at the collar of her chest covering and she trembled. “We’re wearing too much clothing.”

Speaking was a mistake. Doubts flashed across her face. “I—”

Green formed a protective cage around her body with his arms and legs and rolled onto the soft ground. The scent of crushed grass and aroused female teased his nostrils.

He nuzzled and kissed and caressed until she was delirious once more, panting and writhing underneath him. Her nipples were taut. Would they be pink or a deeper gold than her skin?

He had to find out. Green pulled the garment she called a sundress over her head. She sucked in her breath. He did the same.

“Beautiful,” he murmured. Her breasts were paler than the skin on her neck. Her nipples were a color he’d not yet seen on a human, lighter than red, darker than pink, with a hint of blue. He’d ask her for the word later. He had to touch her now.

Green cupped her curves, savoring their weight. These were breasts manufactured for suckling. He fastened his mouth to one of her nipples and inhaled, drawing her into his mouth. She moaned, arched her back, her response exciting him.

He sucked, released, sucked, released, her right breast, while working her left breast with his fingers, flooding her with sensation, drowning all of her concerns.

She was his focus. Green ignored his hard cock, aching balls, the desire pulsing through his circuits, screaming for satisfaction. He was intent on pleasing his female, binding her tighter to him, ensuring she never wanted another.

“Yes.” She threaded her fingers through his short hair and dug her fingernails into his scalp, the sharp bite of pain snapping more of his control. “Need you.”

He looked upward, meeting her gaze. “Who do you need?”

“You.”

“Who?” He flicked her nipple with his thumb and she quivered. “Say my name.” He wanted to hear it on her lips.

“Green.” A sensual huskiness was wrapped around that one syllable. “I need Green, my cyborg.”

“Your male.” He bent his head and ravished her, mouthing her skin, nibbling on her nipple, giving her curves the devotion they warranted. Never had he seen a female so stunning, so alive, so his.

“My male.” She held him, pushing more of herself into his mouth, embracing him as eagerly as he embraced her. “Cover me with your nanocybotics. Make me tingle all over.”

“I’ll fill you with my nanocybotics.” He slid one hand over her rounded belly, threaded his fingers through her brown private curls. “You’ll feel me for planet rotations.”

He’d never allow them to fade, would breed with her once a planet rotation, more often if that was viable. Green cupped her mons, dipping his fingertips into her wetness, and she jerked.

“Be calm,” he soothed his skittish female. “I have you.” He glided his fingers up and down, drawing more moisture, more musky scent from her core.

“Green,” she cried, moving with him.

He slipped his index finger into her heat and she clenched around him. Frag. She was tight, made for him. He plunged in and out of her, watching her face. She panted, her lips parted, her skin flushed. His female eclipsed the most stunning sunset, taking his breath away.

Green added a second, and then a third finger, preparing her for his girth.  Shelby’s tremors increased in intensity, jiggling her breasts, her hips. She called her name, her voice stretching with strain. Her juices dripped down his hand, branding his skin.

“Please, Green.”

He couldn’t deny her anything. “Come for me, Shelby.” He brushed his thumbs over her clit.

Her inner walls squeezed his fingers and she called his name, throwing her lush form upward. His little human didn’t fly very high. Her curves smacked against his fabric-covered muscle and she fell. Green followed her descent, maintaining their connection, his gaze fixed on her glowing countenance.

This was what he had survived for, this moment, this female. All the pain, the torture, the killing had been worth it. He’d do it again to pleasure her one more time.

“You’re wearing too many clothes, cyborg.” She opened her thighs wider, her body languid, an intriguing smile curling her lips. “I need you inside me, and by you, I mean your cock, not your fingers.”

“Frag, yes.” Green gripped his lapels and yanked. Fabric tore.

His Shelby grinned, her eyes sparkling. His female liked his eagerness.

He removed the remnants of the flight suit, leaving on his boots. “Are you ready to be claimed?” His cock was hard, eager for her heat.

His beautiful botanist blinked and he stifled his groan. She was overthinking their relationship again, fretting about the future.

“Focus on now
,
” he advised. “Not the next planet rotation or the planet rotation after that.” He prodded her pussy with his tip. “What do you want
now
?”

The shadow falling across her face lifted. “You. I want you now.” She wrapped her legs around his waist. “Take me. I’m yours.”

“And I’m yours.” This would be a mutual claiming.

Green pushed into her entrance, met tightness, withdrew, pushed again. How human males lasted through breeding, he didn’t know, because it took all of his machine’s rigid restraint to keep from coming, from thrusting hard. His female felt too good, too hot, and wet, and snug. She clasped his shoulders, holding onto him, his strain mirrored in her eyes.

Her pussy lips pressed against his base and he paused, relishing her intimate grip on him, allowing her to adjust to his size. “Are you well, my Shelby?” He met her gaze.

“No. Yes. I don’t know.” She was delightfully confused. “You feel…”

“Large?”

She lowered her gaze to his chin. “Right.”

Her voice was faint, would be inaudible to a human, but Green was a cyborg. He heard her and smiled. They stayed locked in place, neither of them moving.

Gradually she loosened around him. She shifted. He sank deeper and they both groaned, the impact felt through his physique.

“Green.”