Cyborg Nation (18 page)

“I thought it was only me,” Gabriel said after a prolonged silence. “I almost feel better to know that I am no more irrational than you.”

Gideon rolled his eyes. “I can not imagine why that would make you feel better! And if it was only you, then we would not
all
be spending more time in the hold pounding on each other than doing our work. I have sustained less damage in entire campaigns than I have had since we took that female! I have begun to think my nanos will wear out repairing the damage.”

“I have wondered the same,” Jerico agreed tiredly. “We can not continue as we have. We must find a way to get her to agree to contract or give up on the notion altogether.”

Gideon and Gabriel both turned around to stare at him in disgust. “You give up the notion,” Gabriel ground out. “I am not ready to do so.”

“Nor I,” Gideon agreed.

“I did not say that I was ready to concede defeat!” Jerico snapped angrily. “I said we must resolve this … somehow.”

Gideon sagged lower in his seat, scrubbing his hands over his face. “I can not think!”

“It is your rest period,” Gabriel pointed out. “You should rest and then you will be able to consider this more clearly.”

“I do not
trust
Bronte enough to sleep near her at the moment,” Gideon ground out. “Nor trust
myself
near her at the moment after what I had to do to get answers from her. And I am not about to allow her to know by ordering her out of the cabin.”

Jerico and Gabriel exchanged a curious glance. “She was
that
angry?”

“You have not seen her angry before,” Gideon said. “You only
believe
that you have because you did not see her when I left.”

“You do not think she learned her lesson?” Gabriel asked.

“I believe she taught
me
one,” Gideon said wryly, absently massaging the ache in his genitals. “I do not know why she was so furious. She could not have failed to know that it affected me just as much, probably more. She does not have
these
to swell up and ache like hell.”

He fell to drumming his fingers on the arm of the chair, thinking. “She was angry because I did not finish,” he said pensively.

“That
was
the point,” Jerico said.

Gideon shot a look at him but it was clear his mind was elsewhere. “She does not like
that
anymore than we do,” he decided. “We can use the same tactic against her that she has used to such effect upon us.”

“I do not think I like the direction this is going,” Gabriel said uneasily.

Gideon frowned. “We can not gain her affection. We can not offer contracts as a tactical advantage. Pleasuring her has not convinced her that she wants us. Mayhap withholding it will do what nothing else has done … Or at least withholding culmination? We will make her suffer as we have been and then we will have something of value to offer to encourage her to contract with us.”

“I think your fluids have backed up into your brain!” Jerico growled. “Exactly how do you think that will convince her?”

“We can not wait until I have had her to do this?” Gabriel demanded furiously.

“I am sick of hearing you complain!” Jerico snarled. “If you can not find the balls to approach her, shut up!”

Gabriel was out of his seat and had pinned Jerico to the wall, his hands around the other man’s throat before he had even finished speaking.

Gideon ignored them. “The hold,” he reminded them absently.

When they emerged some thirty minutes later, he looked them over and calmly proceeded to outline the new plan.

“I
still
do not like this,” Jerico said gustily, still struggling to catch his breath.

“I do not like it either,” Gabriel announced, glaring at Jerico and daring him to say more. “
I
will go and fuck her now, and then we can implement the new plan.”

Gideon sent him a look. “She is ripe now—hungry. We must keep her that way until she begins to feel desperate and then offer the contracts.”

“Fine!” Gabriel ground out. “I will give it a week.”

“You will give it however much time is required,” Gideon said implacably.

“But we are less than a month out!”

“And likely we will need that much time … if it works at all!” Gideon retorted, shoving himself to his feet and heading toward the hatch to the hold. “I think I will rest in the hold.”

“There is no bed,” Jerico pointed on.

“I would
rather
sleep on the floor than wake to find Bronte trying to saw my balls off with a toothbrush!” Gideon snarled. “Unlike Gabriel, I am fond of mine!”

* * * *

The remorse that Bronte suffered over the anxiety that she had wounded Gideon didn’t last. She moped about it for days and finally decided that she would try to make it up to him the next time he initiated sex. She’d been too caught up in enjoying what he was doing to her to even think about trying to pleasure him in the same way. It occurred to her, though, that that was what she needed to do to make amends, not merely allow him to take his pleasure but to go out of her way to give him pleasure herself. If she
demonstrated
her feelings, he was bound to realize that she did not want anything to happen to him … to any of them. She didn’t hate them. It was important that they know she didn’t.

She could simply tell them, of course, but she saw no reason why they would believe her. She didn’t think they would’ve believed her
before
they had caught her at the helm. It seemed much less likely they would believe her now. In fact, it was more likely that they would only become deeply suspicious …
more
suspicious than they already were. Because she couldn’t deny the fact that she’d nipped their budding trust and wasn’t likely to regain it.

It was Jerico who gave her the first opportunity, however. Unfortunately, she was so caught up in worrying that Gideon might take it badly if he was second when it was
him
she had talked so nasty to that she was thoroughly enthralled before she could reason it out. She was dismayed when he broke away from her almost as abruptly as he had seized her. Feeling perfectly blank when he left, she finally decided he’d abandoned her because he had been hurt, too, and he had thought she didn’t want him to continue because she hadn’t tried to encourage him to.

She should, she thought unhappily, have realized that they must all know what Gideon knew, or thought he knew.

By the end of the week, she was forced to accept that they were actually avoiding her. They weren’t even resting in the sleeping quarters anymore if she was in the room. She didn’t know where they were sleeping, but it wasn’t anywhere around her.

This was much, much worse than she’d thought it was! As loath as she was to accept it, it seemed unavoidable that they thought she might try to smother them in their sleep or something equally underhanded.

Becoming desperate, she finally decided to try the same tact with Gideon that she had tried with Jerico the first time. She made sure she was in the shower, available and naked, when she knew it was time for him to take his bath.

Her belly tightened with nerves the moment she realized he’d entered the room. She braced herself for impact. When nothing happened beyond him standing as still as a statue, she pretended she still hadn’t noticed him and began to soap herself as seductively as she could manage given that she was shaking all over with a combination of nerves and need. She was still annoyed with him for arousing her so thoroughly, until she was ready to scream with need, and then abandoning her. That only made her more needy now, though. She thought she would’ve been even if Jerico hadn’t left her wanting, because
this
was Gideon, but that unpleasant conclusion certainly hadn’t helped matters.

Her body was already hot and liquid with desire and he hadn’t even touched her. She had to remind herself that she couldn’t just allow him to ease his need on her. She had to
give
to him, show him with caresses that she
did
care about him. She didn’t want anything to happen to him … even if she had mentally called down curses on him and thought, for a little while, that she hoped an asteroid would land on him.

Relief flooded her when he stepped into the bathing unit with her, caught her against his chest and then pinned her between himself on the wall. Shuddering as he captured her face with her hands and covered her mouth, as if he thought she would try to elude him if he didn’t hold her, she pushed herself up on her tiptoes and looped her arms around his neck. And, despite the dizzying rush of burning need, as he thrust his tongue into her mouth, she kissed him back, stroking her tongue along his as he caressed her.

He began to shake worse than she was as she rubbed herself against his chest, arching her hips to press her mound against his erection. Uttering a deep groan after only a moment, he wrenched himself away from her and moved beneath the shower spray. It took her a moment to gather her wits and brace her wobbly knees.

Dismay filled her as she stared at his broad back.

Swallowing with an effort against the sense of hurt and anger that welled in her at his blatant rejection of her overtures, she finally decided she probably deserved it. She should not have been surprised that he was unwilling to allow her to try to wound him again. He didn’t trust her any more, she reminded herself.

It still took all she could do to gather the nerve to try again.

He flinched all over when she placed her palm lightly on his back. She hesitated and finally allowed her hand to skim downward until she cupped one hard, rounded buttock. He whirled on her with a snarl when she did that. Seizing her shoulders, he shoved her roughly against the wall again. This time instead of kissing her mouth, however, he focused on her throat and breasts. Jolts of sensation shot through her with each open mouthed kiss he dragged along her throat, but that paled by comparison to the fire that boiled through her when he began to suckle hungrily on first one breast and then the other. She completely lost sight of her objective, too drunk with pleasure to begin to think, too focused on trying to keep her legs under her when they’d turned boneless with weakness.

When he shoved away from her again, she uttered a faint sound of protest, but she was too shocked to manage any more than that. It took all she could do even to stay on her feet as she watched him leave the bathing unit and then the bathroom itself as he was fleeing. He hadn’t even paused to grab a sheet to dry off, she thought numbly. He’d stalked from the bathroom dripping puddles of water.

Dragging in a shaky breath, Bronte turned to finish her bath mechanically, trying to figure out what had happened. He wanted her. He wouldn’t have kissed her like that if he hadn’t. Why would he do that? As much as she hated his idea of punishment when she did something he didn’t like, she was obliged to admit it wasn’t nearly as bad as some things he could have thought of—like locking her into the hold. This felt a lot like his brand of punishment, but she couldn’t believe that this was the same thing. She hadn’t done anything … lately.

Undoubtedly, she thought miserably, she’d underestimated just how angry he was about it. He hadn’t seemed to be the type to hold a grudge before. Either she’d been mistaken and he was, or she’d screwed up a lot worse than she’d thought she had.

When Jerico did the same thing to her the very next day, she decided it couldn’t possibly be just a matter of hurt or resentment. She hadn’t said anything to Jerico. Why would
he
be holding a grudge?

It wasn’t bad enough that the way they treated her made her feel lower than a snake. She was horny, too, damn it! After a week of that, she was just about ready to claw their eyes out. She would’ve run if she’d had anywhere to hide, or if they’d given her enough warning to try.

She reached a point where her own resentment—and desperate need—extinguished every sense of charity and remorse she’d been nursing. Gabriel, she realized, was the only one who wasn’t going out of his way to torment her. In fact, just the opposite. He’d begun to avoid her like she had the plague. It was more because he hadn’t tormented her, she thought, than because he seemed to be in full retreat that fixated her interest.

She didn’t
think
it was a hunter’s instincts that had drawn her attention.

But what did she know?

She knew she was beginning to feel really desperate and she hadn’t managed to push either Jerico or Gideon beyond a certain point—that point being the critical time when she was hovering on the brink of coming and ready to mount their shaft herself if she could’ve gotten hold of it.

The bastards!

Gabriel, she decided, was just too sweet to bring himself to behave as badly as Jerico and Gideon were behaving. He didn’t trust her any more than they did, which was why he kept his distance, but he couldn’t bring himself to be mean.

The problem was, even after she’d focused on her target, she discovered Gabriel was a lot harder to nail. If he came into the room and she was sleeping, or propped up in the bed reading, he left again without having moved more than three feet into the room—as if there was some invisible barrier he’d run into. If he came in to bathe and she was in the bathing unit, he retreated immediately. She would’ve had to chase him down and tackle him to mount him!

She’d begun to think Gabriel was unattainable when he finally gave her the perfect opportunity to get what she wanted.

Chapter Twelve

Bronte was sitting on the bed reading when Gabriel came in. She barely glanced up when he froze, sending her the hunted look he’d begun to cast in her direction whenever he found himself alone with her. He hesitated when she pretended to ignore him and finally crossed the room to stand beside the bunk.

Bronte sucked in her breath and held it the moment she realized he was striding toward her, tensing all over. Trying to regulate her frantic heart beat and rapid breaths, she kept her eyes on the text, hoping that he meant to lay down to sleep.

He didn’t lay down or sit down. Instead, she realized that he was holding something out, waiting for her to take it. Lifting her head, she discovered it was her long lost glasses.