Indulgence (106 page)

“Shhh…I’m back.” Firm hands clasped her arms. “I’m here.”
She was pressed against warm skin, hard muscle. “I have you.”

“Rage.” Joan breathed in his distinctive scent, her heart
pounding. “Don’t leave me, sir.” She climbed into his lap, straddling his hips,
clinging to him.

“I won’t. Never again.” He rubbed her back, up, down, up,
down. “You dozed off in my arms. Logic told me that you’d be more comfortable
on one of those sleeping supports the other humans use. I didn’t want to crowd
you.”

“Crowd me. I don’t want to be alone. When you touch me, the
darkness doesn’t get me.” She realized she was talking nonsense but she
couldn’t remain silent.

“I’m touching you now.” Rage splayed his fingers, covering
more of her bare skin. They were both naked, nothing separating them, the full
body contact easing her fears.

She should be the one caring for him. “You must think I’m
foolish.”

“With one brush of your palm, my anger fades.” He circled
her wrists, raised her hands to his face, and kissed each fingertip. “I feel a
peacefulness I’ve never known.” His blue eyes gleamed. “Is that foolish?”

“No, sir.” She gazed at him, caught by the emotion
reflecting in his rugged face. Rage looked back at her, want and need building,
building, building.

“Joan.” He surged forward and captured her lips, his sensual
attack hard and fierce. She gasped. He pushed deep, forcing her to open wider
to him.

They dueled for dominance. She knew she wouldn’t win yet she
tried anyway, sucking on his tongue, sinking her fingers into his long hair.
Her lips hummed. Her jaw ached. Her worlds narrowed to him, to this big,
brutish cyborg before her.

Rage curved his hands under her ass and stood, lifting her
easily. With two strides, he had her back pressed against a cool metal wall,
her shoulders pinned by his weight. Stars. He was powerful. She moaned her
appreciation into his mouth.

He grunted a reply and rocked against her, rubbing his shaft
over her pussy lips, wetting his flesh. His rim skimmed along her clit. The
scar on his cock added decadent texture. All of her senses snapped and sizzled.

“You want me.” Rage drew his hips back, found her entrance.

“Yes, sir.” She’d never wanted any being as much as she
wanted him.

He pushed into her and met her gaze, pausing with only his
cock head engulfed in her heat. “Which male do you want?”

He was a possessive, primitive cyborg and he wanted every
being on the ship to know he owned her. “Rage, sir.” She wouldn’t fight him on
this. It was the truth. “I want Rage inside me.”

He huffed and slid deeper but not far enough. She wiggled,
trying to tempt him.

“Be still, female.” He swatted her ass, she clenched around
him, and they both groaned. “The others may talk with you. You may upgrade
their mechanics. But you breed with me and with me alone.”

She blinked. He was giving her permission to upgrade the
mechanics of other cyborgs? She never thought he’d agree so easily to that.
“You’re the only male I’ll breed with, sir.”

Rage sank farther into her, again stopping frustratingly
short. “Ever.”

Fuck. He was torturing her. “Rage is the only male I will
ever breed with,” Joan shouted so the entire ship could hear her. “I will never
love another being as much as I love C899321. He owns my body, my heart, my soul.”
Her gaze locked with his. “Enough chatter. You vowed to use me hard. Keep your
vow.”

Rage grinned. “You’re ferocious, female.” He drove into her,
smacking her ass against the wall, the sting sharp and exciting. “A good match
for a C model cyborg.”

“I’m…a…perfect…match.” She panted as he rode her vigorously,
not giving her a chance to catch her breath. Skin slapped against skin, his
muscles providing little cushion between her and the metal plates protecting
his body.

A rush of energy lit his eyes, casting a shadow on his harsh
countenance, accentuating his scars, his blunt features. Joan dug her heels
into his clenched ass cheeks, encouraging him to ravish her with more of his
strength.

She hadn’t been lying when she said he’d be the only being
she’d ever breed with. Even if he discarded her, traded her for a female of his
own kind, she’d remain faithful to him, knowing that no male would ever
compete. He’d reshaped her body to fit his cock, bound her happiness to his.

Rage was her destiny. She arched into him, flattening her
breasts against his chest. He was the reason C345925 had saved her. It didn’t
guarantee them a future together. His sadness surrounding the Homeland bothered
her. But right here, right now was enough, more than she’d ever had.

He thrust again and again. Her sweat covered both of them,
making his gray skin shine like polished metal. Their scents entwined,
complementing each other. She clasped his shoulders, reveling in the undulation
of his fit physique. He could defend their private sanctuary, this tiny chamber
on board the ship, against any being.

And she would stand by his side. Joan licked the vein
pulsing on his right pec, tasting salt and metal, and a rumble rolled up his
chest, his pace increasing.

They fucked like two wild creatures, unencumbered by any
masters, any rules. They were free. Joan no longer reported to a sadistic
Commander, didn’t have to look over her shoulder, watching for threats in the
darkness. Rage didn’t have to fight wars he didn’t believe in, didn’t have to
breed with females he’d never met before.

He chose to breed with her. That could be out of necessity.
She was the only female on the ship. But no one else dictated his actions and
that warmed Joan’s chest. He didn’t need her help to escape, didn’t require her
to complete maintenance on him.

He was with her because he wanted to be with her.

“Rage.” She reached upward. He rounded his back, lowering
his scarred face and she sucked on his square chin. His lips curled upward and
his cock swelled inside her.

The first shudder was slight, the gentlest of quivers
progressing outward from her pussy, zipping up her chest, along her arms and
legs. Rage thrust into her, his rhythm steady and sure and, with each drive
forward, her tremors grew in intensity, rising, a crescendo of yearning within
her.

Joan’s ears buzzed with sound. Her pussy pulsed with
wanting. She leaned her head back and called his name to the same tempo, her
voice stretched with desire.

Rage joined her erotic symphony, grunting “Joan, Joan,
Joan”, his choice of word propelling her to the brink of release. Lost in
passion, he didn’t see her as a replaceable female. He wanted her and only her.

“Rage?” She shook, fighting the urge to come.

“Let go.” Her cyborg filled her pussy with his hard cock. “I
have you.” He rotated his hips, the sensual grind severing her hold on reality.

She screamed his name, hitched her hips, taking him deeper,
and squeezed his shaft with her inner walls. He roared, jerking forward,
bathing her with hot spurts of cum. The relentless caress of his nanocybotics
drew another round of mind-destroying ecstasy.

Joan fought to escape him. Rage didn’t allow this,
restraining her body with his, holding her still.

“Yes. Oh. Please. Sir. I,” she babbled gibberish against his
chest.

“Did I break you, little female?” He carried her to the
sleeping support and climbed onto the surface, not releasing her.

“Did I break
you
, sir?” She snuggled on top of him.
“You told me I could upgrade the other cyborgs’ mechanics.”

He scowled. “Crash and Gap wouldn’t give me peace until I
agreed. You touch them. They will
not
touch you.”

She smiled. His tolerance only extended so far. “I don’t
want them to touch me, sir.” She remained wary of other beings. “Will they be
leaving us when we reach the Homeland?”

There was a long pause. Her cyborg might be an early model
but he wasn’t stupid. He must know she was searching for information.

“They say they won’t,” he finally answered.

“But you don’t believe them.” She lifted her head to gaze at
Rage. Lines were etched between his eyebrows. He didn’t want to part ways with
his friends.

The solution was for all of them to stay in the Homeland
but, for some reason, he said this mythical place wasn’t for him and for her.
Which didn’t make sense because it sounded like all of the other cyborgs were
welcome there.

All of the other
cyborgs
.

Shit.

“If you hadn’t met me, would you stay in your Homeland?”

“I met you.” Rage tightened his grip on her.

His avoidance of an answer told her everything she needed to
know. Humans weren’t welcome in their precious Homeland. Joan’s heart twisted.
She couldn’t ask Rage to give up everything—his friends, his sense of
belonging, his home—to be with her.

When they reached his Homeland, she’d have to let him go.

Twenty-one planet rotations with no fighting and he was
still sane. She was the cause. Rage watched Joan as she fiddled with Gap’s
thigh mechanics, the two of them chattering away, smiles on their faces. She
was so beautiful, so his.

Intrepid sent these for her.
Crash plunked a handful
of nourishment bars on his console. He was dressed in a flight suit, as were
Joan and Gap.

Rage was naked. He stretched out his legs. The largest
garment Crash found on the battle station didn’t fit him. Humans were tiny
beings. His gaze returned to his little female.
Intrepid is besotted with
her.

Every cyborg in our fleet is besotted with her. Even
Chuckles, that grim human-hating bag of bolts, inquired after her, asked if she
could look at that knee he’s always complaining about.
Crash flopped into
the seat beside him.
And the bars might be needed. Human female nourishment
consumption is erratic. The first planet rotation, she ate one bar when she
woke, barely finishing it. When she woke this planet rotation, she ate six.

Six?
Rage stared at Joan. That equaled his
consumption and she was half his size. Fear skittered through him. “Female, are
you ill?”

“No, sir.” She cast a dark glance at Crash. “Is this about
the nourishment bars? I didn’t mean to eat so many but I was ravenous, and once
I ate one, I couldn’t stop.” She closed Gap’s thigh compartment and
straightened.

Her flight suit was stretched tight around her breasts and
stomach. Her extra curves appealed to Rage but he wouldn’t risk her health to
gain them.

“Is that level of hunger normal?” He knew very little about
human females.

“Is breeding three times a planet rotation normal?” Her
cheeks turned an enchanting shade of pink.

She was breeding with a C Model cyborg. His fears eased. It
was logical that she’d eat like one. “Come here.” He patted his bare thighs.

She hurried to his side and he pulled her onto his lap.

“Satisfy your hunger.” Rage handed her a protein bar.
“Chuckles wishes for you to repair his knee. Other human handlers have tried.”

“They obviously didn’t try hard enough.” She munched on the
bar and chattered about the upgrades she’d like to perform on the war-battered
cyborg.

Rage listened to her flow of words, breathing in her womanly
scent. It had changed over the past couple of planet rotations, become even
more tantalizing. He inhaled deeply and warmth spread across his chest. She
smelled like home, like happiness.

He stroked her messy brown curls, watched the emotions flit
across her face. Every third or fourth sentence, she touched his chest, his
cheek, his shoulder, as though to reinforce their connection, to assure herself
that he was there. He doubted she was aware of what she was doing.

He was, very much so, the flit of her fingertips heating him
down to his circuits, making his huge cyborg heart stop and start.

“Are we close to the Homeland, sir?” Shadows darkened her
big brown eyes. Joan asked that question every planet rotation.

She worried. He did also. He had proposed privately to the
other cyborgs that they land on a nearby trading planet, that Gap and Crash lead
the fleet to the Homeland, and he stay with his little human. His friends
refused to leave them, Gap babbling about finding females of their own,
ignorant of the risks to Joan.

Rage was certain they would change their minds once they saw
the Homeland, once the cyborgs living there embraced them. He couldn’t deny
them that future.

“We can see the Homeland.” He pointed to the left of the
main viewscreen. A blanket of stars was laid across a backdrop of black.
“That’s its sun.”

“It has only one, sir?” She wiggled, driving her ass deeper
into his already tormented groin. “Depending on the distance from that sun, the
planet could be cooler, ideal for a variety of crops.”

Rage’s lips twitched. Once an agri lot female, always an
agri lot female. “I’m not interested in crops.”

“I can’t picture you tending the fields.” She grinned and a
fierce joy seized him, her happiness feeding his. “There could be large
predators to hunt.”

“Unarmed animals hold little challenge.” He needed the
thrill of battling an intelligent foe.

“Hmmm…” Her lips twisted. “There will be other cyborgs with
the same desires, sir. I’m certain they--”

“An A Class warship is approaching us.” Crash brought the
image on the viewscreen. The vessel was unmarked, well-armed, and twenty times
the size of theirs.

“Are they cyborgs?” If they weren’t, the only option was
retreat.

“Don’t yet know.” His friend shrugged. “I’m performing a
life-form scan.”

“They’re hailing us.” Gap plugged into the console.

“Open hailing frequencies.” Rage wrapped his arms around
Joan.

A face filled the main viewscreen.

He’s a cyborg
, Crash informed him unnecessarily.