Burning Up Flint (8 page)

Logically she should be fighting her captor. She should hate Flint for taking her from that shuttle but the truth was that she didn’t. She’d been excited when she’d seen the
cyborgs
after her initial shock at their continued existence. If he’d left her on that shuttle she’d have blown up and her life would have been over anyway. Thinking of it like that reminded her that he’d saved her life. She was drawn to Flint and she was experiencing strong feelings for him that went beyond his sexual skills. The thought of how he’d gotten those skills finally drew her out of her post-coital euphoria.

“No more hookers, okay?”

Flint tensed, holding her, and lifted his head. He frowned at her.
“Hookers?”

“Female pleasure ship workers.
I’m yours now and you don’t need another woman, right?”

He blinked, tilted his head. “It disturbs you, yes? I see anger in your eyes at the thought of me having sex with other women. Am I reading you correctly? Why?”

“You don’t want to share me with other men.”

He nodded. “That is correct. You are mine. I own you.”

His words weren’t what she wanted to hear. She wanted him to understand that it went both ways. He didn’t want men to touch her and she didn’t want women to touch him. She chewed on her bottom lip and tried to get him to see it from her point of view.

“Well, since you don’t want to share me and don’t want other men touching me, I don’t want to share you either. If I am yours then you are mine right back.”

Dark blue eyes narrowed as his body tensed. “You are small and fragile. They could harm you. Other women couldn’t harm me.”

Mira tensed in shock as his painful words hit her and sank in. “Is that the only reason you aren’t trading me to other men? You’re afraid I’ll get damaged somehow?”

“It’s a real possibility. You are mine and I want to protect you from ever getting hurt. If you are harmed, I could lose you and I want to keep you. You wouldn’t be useful to me if you were damaged.”

Her heart plummeted. He didn’t care about her in the way she had thought. He was looking at her as if she were valuable property. Her brother used to collect ancient cards, which he kept in vacuum-sealed boxes to preserve them. Only he could take them out, touch them, because he hadn’t trusted anyone to handle his cards with enough care not to damage them in any way. Her stomach roiled a little, realizing she was like that card collection to Flint.

“Please put me down.” Mira lifted off him, forcing his semi-erect cock out of her as he set her down on her feet. She backed away from him then turned to hide the tears that threatened. She didn’t want him to see. “I’m going to get clean.”

She had nowhere to flee and the corner wasn’t far enough away. She pushed the button for the cleaning unit walls to slide up. In seconds foam doused her. She grabbed a cloth to scrub at her body as the foam melted into liquid, trying to clean off every trace of Flint that she could reach, avoiding her brand because the skin was still a little red and puffy near the markings. She hit the button and shut her eyes as foam doused her again to rinse her body one last time.

The cleaning unit walls collapsed when she was done. She grabbed a towel and started to dry her body. She knew eyes were on her and quickly glanced back and saw Flint, naked still, standing where she had left him, a frown on his face. He appeared to have shut himself down from the way he stood statue-still but his eyes followed her every movement.

“How have I upset you?” His voice was soft.

She turned on him. “You wanted me to think more of you than you being just a computer with a humanoid body.” Her pain turned to anger quickly. “And I believed you had feelings and real emotions. I was wrong.”

Anger sparked in his eyes. Those dark blue depths looked even darker as he glared at her. “I do have feelings and emotions.”

“So do
I
!” She shook her head. “I was being stupid. I thought you had real feelings and emotions for me.”

“I do.”

“No. You have ownership. That’s all I am to you. I’m property, like the damn shirt you dropped on the floor. You don’t want other men to wear your clothing either, I bet. There’s no difference to you between me and that damn shirt.”

His lips twisted. “That isn’t true in the least.”

“Right.
Your shirt might wrap around you but it doesn’t get you off, does it? Yeah. I’m different because you can fuck me.”

Flint watched her warily. “You are very upset and that shirt analogy is not even something I’m willing to debate. It is too irrational. Do I need to take you to Doc to check your chemical levels?”

“I’m a human and I don’t need my levels checked. I’m upset, I’m pissed off, and worse, I’m hurt. You go on about how you don’t want me hurt but you’ve hurt me with your words. I’m more than property, damn it. I’m a person with feelings. I…” She threw up her arms. “I don’t even think I can make you understand just what is so wrong about you treating me this way.”

“You are tired and you have had a lot of distress in a small amount of time. I’ll leave you to rest.” He dressed quickly in fresh clothing. In less than a minute he sailed out of the small living quarters, leaving her alone to simmer and stew.

Mira walked to his bed and collapsed on it as hot tears fell down her face. What if he thought another
cyborg
wouldn’t hurt her? Would he trade the use of her body then? Terror hit her. She’d rather die than be passed around for bartering. The idea of other men touching her made her sick. She wasn’t a pleasure worker. She had mistakenly thought Flint was so possessive of her because the idea of someone touching her would make him jealous. She thought he gave a damn about her and had real, fond feelings for her. Instead she was just property he was securing from possible damage. She didn’t even bother wiping at her tears as they fell.

She sat there for a good twenty minutes before she moved, putting on one of his shirts to pace the room thinking. She needed to escape from Flint. The
Star
was a large ship, and they all had escape pods. Its pods were probably outfitted for at least ten persons. Survivors could live for weeks in a pod designed to accommodate a lot of passengers.

An escape plan comforted her. The
Star
had been an Earth ship according to Doc so the pods would be preprogrammed to head for Earth. Hopefully the
cyborgs
had not changed the programming since they would be able to fly them and set any course as needed. The fact that she was a small woman would help her use less air. Her only hope of escape would be to get to an escape pod and launch. It was the only option. She wasn’t going to be a heartless man’s “thing”. She was more than a piece of property.

An hour later when Flint returned she was calm. He entered the room carrying her new clothing. She eyed the black leather material he held, realizing that all the
cyborgs
she’d seen seemed to like to dress in black leather. She wondered if her new outfits were made from the same material as their uniforms. Her next thought was,
Is
he putting me in uniform?
She didn’t ask.

Flint placed the clothing on the bed. “Two pairs of pants, two shirts, and one flight suit.”

“What about a bra and panties?”

He shook his head. “We don’t have a clothier machine on board that has been programmed for women’s bodies. The Doc had to modify your shirts by hand to show off your markings. That was the extent of his sewing ability. Unless you can make your own underwear you won’t be wearing any until we reach Garden.”

“What about the ones I was wearing?”

“I got rid of them.”

She frowned as her gaze went to the clothes and then nodded. “Thank you.”

“You are still agitated. Your heart rate is accelerated and you are flushed, implying you are angry and distressed. I thought you would have learned to control yourself while I was gone.”

She looked down at his boots. “What happens if one of your damn
cyborg
buddies swears he won’t damage me? Are you going to barter with my body then?” Her gaze shot up to his and she glared at him.

He blinked. “I hadn’t considered it.”

“Consider this,” she ground out. “You have to sleep sometime, Flint. If you let someone else touch me I’ll kill you.”

He frowned. “I said I would not share you. You’re being totally irrational. You got angry and unbalanced over the topic of me having sex with other women. I don’t follow the jump from that conversation to you threatening me harm if I let someone touch you.”

“It wasn’t a jump. I thought you wouldn’t let another
cyborg
touch me because you felt possessive of me in a caring way that implied you would be bothered emotionally at the thought of another man touching me. That’s how I felt about you and the thought of you with other women. I thought you had the capacity to have those kinds of feelings. You put me in my place and set me straight now so I am perfectly aware that I’m just property.” She took a deep breath. “Don’t you have somewhere else to be? I think leaving me alone so I can find some control would be nice. I need a lot more time though.”

Dark blue eyes regarded her, but he masked any emotions he had. “Do not ever threaten to kill me again, Mira. I don’t take threats well.”

Pain stabbed at her. That was all he had to say on the matter? No denials of what she’d
said,
no clarifications that he had emotions for her. She’d secretly hoped he’d tell her that he did have some feelings for her. He didn’t.

He watched her closely.

“I have a raid to plan. We’re going to go after the
Piera
shuttle.”

“What is that?”

He sighed. “Are you always so full of questions?”

“Yes.”

He shifted his weight. “The
Piera
is a large shuttle that travels from the
Vonder
Station to Earth and back.”

“
Vonder
is the scientific station that is in orbit over Arian Nine, right? I read something about them trying to plant the planet with enough vegetation to create adequate oxygen on the surface to sustain human life.”

“That’s the one. From our reports, they are almost successful. They have a high volume of human females who work on
Vonder
and they rotate the crew monthly. Our reports state that Earth Government hires mainly human women for the station.”

“Why?”

Irritation flashed in his eyes. “I’m not certain. My best guess is that females are smaller and use fewer supplies than their male counterparts. I don’t work for Earth Government and I do not know their reasons. I just know that when we have scanned their shuttles they are mostly carrying women. In fourteen hours we will intercept the shuttle. It’s a fast transport but it’s not heavily armed. I believe if we order them to let us board with the clear intention of not killing them or stealing the ship that they will not try to fight. The
Rally
is faster than the
Star
and maneuvers better so we’re taking it. It would be suicide for them to fight since the
Rally
is faster and is heavily armed.”

Mira almost snorted. “You think that will work? The pilots on my shuttle thought you were pirates. That general tried to kill me, thinking he was saving me from pirates and that I’d be sold into the sex trade. Most women would want to die before they faced that kind of life.”

“You didn’t die. You locked yourself away, to safety.”

“If pirates had taken me I’d have earned them more money by returning me to Earth than they would have made selling me for my body in the sex trade.”

“I will go to Control and be back in a few hours. One of the men will bring you food but don’t let him in the room. He’ll just open the door and hand you a tray. Are my instructions clear?”

“Perfectly clear.”

He nodded and left. Mira sat down, chewing on her lip as she thought. She could try to escape when her food arrived but it would be hard to fight her way past a
cyborg
. All the
cyborg
men were big and really strong, designed to be fighting machines. She shut her eyes. No. Her best bet would be to try to escape when some of the men weren’t on the ship as when Flint and his men went after the
Piera
shuttle. Flint had said they were going to use the
Rally
to capture the shuttle so that meant it would be away from the
Star
, giving her pod a real shot at escape.

She nodded. That was the plan. When Flint and his
cyborgs
went after the
Piera
shuttle she’d go for one of the pods. It was the best shot at escaping and winning her freedom.

Chapter Seven

Later that night when Flint returned to his quarters, he nudged her but Mira pretended to be asleep. She heard Flint enter the room, heard the rustle of his clothing as he stripped to bare skin to climb into bed behind her. She almost jumped when his hot body curled against her back. Now he was trying to wake her and she had a really good guess as to what he wanted.

“I know you are awake.” He sighed. “I want you.”

She tensed. She knew he was always aware of her heart rate and breathing patterns. He knew she was awake. She scooted away from him until she was against the wall.

“I don’t want you. Go find a pleasure worker since any woman will do.”

He took a deep breath. “You are still angry. I have thought about our conversations and I understand why you are upset.”

She carefully turned over in the small bed. The room was dark and she couldn’t see him but she knew he was inches from her.
“Really?
It doesn’t matter to you that I’m just property but it does to me, Flint. I’m not just something you own.”

“I do own you though, Mira. You belong to me. You carry my brand on your body. You might not like that fact right now but it doesn’t make it any less true. Does it really matter to you why I won’t let another male touch you? I won’t barter your body. Isn’t that the important issue? The reason doesn’t really matter as long as you are content with the result.” He paused. “Lights, dim.”