Eric 754 (25 page)

He knew too much about her, wanted too much for both of them. But if she asked him to stop right now, or to leave her body, he’d probably die.

Or worse, he’d refuse.

Then he’d be just like all the other men she’d known. He pushed in deeper still, wanting to own a woman for the first time in his life. It was just as painful and just as phenomenal as he’d always feared it would be.

Moments later, Lucy’s fierce grip on his head made him forget anything but pleasuring the woman in his arms. Her thrusting tongue kiss drove all thoughts of anything else from his mind.

***

They woke a dozen times, showered, and ate. At one point, they had started watching a vid, but had gotten distracted by each other. She had woken earlier than him and brought breakfast to him in bed the next morning. They had enjoyed it together, talked a little about what they liked to eat, and then ended up diving into each other again when the meal was over.

Now he sat up with her astride him, rising to meet her downward driving hips with an upward surge of his own. Sweat glistened off both of them, which was quite a feat for two cyborgs who normally didn’t tire for hours.

The intense stare between their eyes spoke volumes about the straining efforts of their bodies to brand each other. Lucy might not understand the concept of love, but he thought she definitely had the concept of sexual ownership down. After last night and this morning, she was the only woman he could remember ever leaving any mark on his psyche.

Her drugging, sweaty kiss as she sank down on him one last glorious time brought his arms around her in deep contentment. She was no longer constrained from the personal enjoyment of what they shared. That alone was worth what Kyra had done to her.

He let his body follow hers in release, more satisfied physically than he could ever remember being. Her messy hair was positively hellcat looking now after having had his hands in it all night.

Lucy curled her body around his, purring like a cat. He’d never been happier and refused to think they couldn’t just have this forever.

She sighed into his shoulder. “Someone is trying to reach you on your wrist com.”

Eric hugged her tighter. “Neither of ours has gone off yet.” How did she know the call would come on his and not hers? Damn. She was strangely wired.

“Yours will go off soon,” Lucy said, sighing against his shoulder. “I could stay here in bed with you all day… perhaps even for a week or two. Is this what happiness feels like to those that are still fully human?”

Eric took a deep breath and released it slowly. “We’re human too remember, just… redefined. Evil Brad was at least right about that.”

Lucy raised her head and met his gaze. “I read a lot while your ears were being fixed. I don’t think our existence as cyborgs has made things any better for the world. Peyton says we won the war. Perhaps that is a good enough reason for what was done to us.”

Eric said nothing as Lucy slid from his lap. He wanted to call her back, even after spending nearly the whole night inside her. He didn’t because he didn’t want her complying or using her programmed patience to tolerate such a request. He would just have to deal with his emotions. He’d let her have some space. But he wished he could tell how much of what she expressed to him was really her instead of the coded interest from her New World Companion programming.

His wrist com sounded. He looked at it and saw it was Nero. Sighing, he glanced at Lucy, who shrugged about being right. He didn’t answer it because he needed to tell her something first. “Are you up to another surprise? There are a couple more people pretty anxious to see you. I’ve held them off for as long as I can.”

Lucy shrugged again. “Do I already know them?”

Eric lifted his com and swiped to connect. “Give me five, Nero. I’m just now explaining it to her.”

“They are here and driving me insane, Eric. Call back quickly,” Nero ordered.

Eric snickered at the other man’s consternation as he disconnected. He looked at Lucy again. “Remember those two female cyborgs you apprehended in Montana?”

Lucy looked at the wall. She was checking her files. He had come to recognize the signs when she was lost in reading one of her many stories.

“Aja 490 and Meara 491—yes, I have a record of their capture. They tranquilized you,” she said.

“That’s right. Any other recollections of them? Maybe something older?” Eric asked.

Lucy shook her head. “No. Not that I’ve found so far.”

Eric rose from the bed and started dressing. His body was a little stiff. He smiled at the woman who had caused it. Lucy noticed it too, but said nothing in sympathy for once. Her silence over it made him grin.

Every bit of tiredness and muscle ache could be erased by a bit of focused pulsing but he didn’t want to erase proof of his time with Lucy. He wanted to feel tired. He wanted to feel like he’d spent the night making love. He wanted her to be proud of causing him to walk like a hundred year old.

He shook his head ending his wicked, distracting thoughts. “Those two women served with you when…” he stopped. “Did Peyton tell you this?”

Lucy nodded. “I am aware now that I was once an Army captain. I am aware that I was converted into Evelyn 489 as part of my military service. I am aware that my original cybernetics have been damaged beyond repair. We talked about alternatives and consequences.”

Eric nodded. “Okay. Well, those two women were honestly trying to rescue you when they attacked us. They knew you before your conversion and served under your command afterward. I think they are your friends.”

Lucy considered it and then turned to look at Eric. “Like Marcus and Peyton are your friends?”

“Yes. Exactly like that,” Eric said, walking over to her. He looked down at her naked body and sighed. “You are very beautiful.”

Lucy lifted a hand to his face. “Do you want to take pictures of me and store them in your memory?”

Eric laughed. “Honey, my human side has already memorized everything about you, from your cute toes to your frizzy hair.”

His laughter ended when Lucy’s hand dropped away from his face. She looked appalled. What had he said?

“My hair offends you? I am sorry. I will fix it at once.”

“No. No. God, no,” Eric exclaimed, fighting to not laugh again at the genuine hurt on her face. “Your hair does not offend me, Lucy. I made poor word choices. I just want it to look as beautiful as the rest of you.”

“It’s okay. I understand. I will fix my hair today. You should have told me before now,” Lucy said tightly.

“Lucy, I really didn’t mean to offend you. Please don’t misinterpret. I’m just a stupid guy.”

She shook her head, turned, and headed to the bathroom. Eric sighed. Now she was going to check her hair in the bathroom mirror. Who knew what action she would take about fixing it?

“Don’t change the color or the texture or anything like that. Just make it a little smoother… a little less kinky.”

When there was no answer to his statements, he sighed again. Damn. Damn. He sucked at being careful with women. He’d never stuck with one long enough to get any practice.

“So can I tell Nero Aja and Meara can visit you? Aja is going to drive everyone crazy until she sees for herself you’re okay.”

He heard a short, terse “Fine” from the recesses of the bathroom. Then the shower cut the rest of their conversation off.

Sighing with a male frustration that he now totally understood, he lifted his wrist com and reconnected to Nero.

Chapter 19

“May the gods have mercy on us. They’ve got Lucy locked away in a fecking dungeon. It wouldn’t surprise me to find a dragon at the bottom,” Meara said, walking down the third flight of stairs.

Aja snorted. “It’s an underground bunker meant to contain explosions. She’s here because of her bomb, Irish. Otherwise, they’d stick Lucy in a soulless apartment like they have us.”

Meara nodded. “Give me another week, Aja. I’ve been casing several shops that put their wares outdoors. I believe I can make our apartment have all the soul it needs with a wee bit of time.”

“Why don’t you just wait until we get our UCN blood money? We can legitimately buy what we need then,” Aja said flatly.

“Spend blood money on everyday stuff? Why would I do that? I don’t even want the money, but if they insist on giving it to me, I can do much better with it than buying pots and pans. Besides—I prefer living by my wits. It’s not like the shops don’t have enough insurance to cover the minor losses I’m going to cause them. Most might not even miss the stuff. There’s gluttony in our area of the world.”

Aja laughed to think Meara would prefer to steal something other than buy it. It felt strange, but it also felt good. She really was going soft. Next thing she knew she’d be making tea for someone. May all her gods forbid such a fate. She was a warrior now—had made that choice long ago. She was going to have to find some usefulness for her soldier skills before she accidentally maimed someone she shouldn’t.

She smiled wickedly. “You know Irish, your klepto ways could one day land you in a dungeon just like this.”

“Not if there’s a guard I can blow…”

Aja stopped and turned around. “Meara MacDonald. You will
not
be trading sexual favors for freedom or anything else ever again. That is behind us now. Promise me. I’d rather you kill the shop owners than lower yourself that way ever again.”

Meara chuckled. “What do ya take me for, Aja? I was just having another go at ya. I haven’t dropped to my knees in years. The last time was just before we got our brains fixed. Nice bloke though for a cyber scientist. Took me about two minutes. Nothing major.”

Aja turned back around and started her downward trek again. “Speak no more about those dark days. They are behind us. Wasn’t it you who said we were starting over now?”

“I did. But the darkness will always be there lurking to alarm ya when ya least expect it to. Ya need to cultivate a keen sense of humor to beat it back,” Meara declared.

Aja snorted, thinking of her argument with Nero. “Yes. I need to develop a sense of humor. So I’ve heard many times.”

She thought of Nero kissing the knuckles of her cybernetic hand with its missing fingernail. It was merely a manufactured sensation she had felt—she knew that. Why then did it still have the power to make her stomach flutter?

They walked down another flight. She glanced back when Meara’s steps slowed. “What’s wrong, Irish? You’re practically hissing.”

“Are ya as nervous about seeing Lucy as I am? She wasn’t very friendly the last time we got this close.”

Aja nodded. “Yes. I am wary. But I’m also tired of taking everyone else’s word about her. I want to judge for myself. I am well aware that the last time I saw the woman awake she kicked my ass. Maybe I want to see if I’m ever going to have a chance to get even. I’d like to think I’m better than that, but who knows?”

“Go on with ya, Aja Kapur. I know ya don’t mean that. Lucy could have killed us, but she didn’t. I want to think on some level she knew it was us and would never have done so,” Meara said.

Aja let a tense breath out slowly. “That’s a very pretty story, Irish. Don’t get your hopes up though. Lucy isn’t Lucy anymore. She’s something the gods never intended her to be. If anyone ever deserved our compassion, it’s her, but by damn, I still get angry when I think of everything the cyber scientists did to us.”

They got to the cut off bars and made a face at them. Their appearance validated the story Peyton had shared about what had happened. They stepped over the broken barrier and down into an area much more comfortable than what they had been issued by Norton. Both of them gaped at the giant wall com and at the comfortable couch before they actually saw the man sitting on it.

Meara smiled in greeting. “Oh, hello Eric. Nice to see ya again. We’ve come to visit Lucy.”

Aja nodded, relieved when Eric nodded back without addressing her. She really wasn’t in the mood to be more polite.

“Lucy is getting dressed,” Eric said cautiously, looking at the bathroom door that hadn’t opened since their hair discussion. “Uh… I sort of made Lucy mad at me.”

“That I can easily believe,” Aja stated, taking immediate offense for her missing friend. “Did you make Lucy do something she didn’t want to do? If so, we’ll be taking this discussion outside to be settled.”

Eric dropped his head and shook it. “No. I would never do anything like that, Aja. All I did was accidentally insult her hair this morning. She’s locked herself in the bathroom and won’t talk to me. I apologized, but it hasn’t done any good.”

Meara laughed her tinkling laugh. Aja looked like he’d punched her.

“What?” he asked. “Why are you both looking at me that way?”

“Boy-O, ya stepped in it deep. Lucy hates her fecking wild woman hair. It was always wiry and coarse. Her mum said her da was Caucasian, but I beg to differ. The woman has ethnically challenged hair. It needs oiling, or some genuine conditioning with heat. Mine would be a frizzy mess if I let it go like she has hers.”