“Come, Tav, come for me. Give me a taste of your pleasure.”
She broke wide open, gasping as her body released a gush of cream into his waiting mouth. Her pussy clenched again and again, seeking his cock to fill the aching emptiness.
He became aware of her voice inside the close confines of the vehicle—her voice, broken with passion, calling his name over and over, and her body smelling of love.
He'd been petting and stroking her cunt since she'd come with his tongue in her pussy. She could sense his arousal. But for the first time in her life, she was content to soak up the attention he seemed willing to lavish on her without worrying about reciprocation.
“You have the prettiest pussy I've ever seen.”
“Think so?”
He growled and sent his fingers on another long stroke through her wet pussy that caused a tremor throughout her sated body.
“Mine,” he murmured. “This is my pussy.”
The intensity in his voice sent a faint ring of alarm through her mind.
He pressed a kiss to the inside of her thigh. “My pussy, my body, you're all mine now.”
His lazy strokes increased, sliding over her engorged flesh and teasing her creamy opening.
“Don't tease, Xave. A girl like me can take a limited number of orgasms before becoming a total addict.”
He fixed his pale eyes on her face. “How many men have given this pussy an orgasm?”
She gasped as he increased his pace and slid a single cream-coated finger into her anus. Could she tell him such a damning thing? How could she trust him with such a sensitive piece of information? It would be tantamount to declaring herself his property.
“How many?”
She swallowed and forced herself to breathe. “Just you.”
The revelation in his eyes made her belly clench in a way that had nothing to do with the cresting wave riding her to climax.
“And again,” he murmured.
Pressing farther into her anus, he slid three fingers into her pussy and rubbed a relentless rhythm on the thick pad of muscle between her two openings. Overwhelmed, Tavish bucked once before a shattering climax whipped through her body.
As she came down from her euphoric state, Xave pulled her dress back into place and tucked her into the curve of his body. His heat lulled her into a state of languid relaxation.
“I'm not sure what smells better, your arousal or the afterglow.”
“I didn't know either one had a smell.”
“Most people don't.”
“You mean you can actually
smell
that?”
He growled an affirmation and slid into silence.
Her brain whirled into action, piecing together the things she had already observed about Xave and forming a picture that bordered on terrifying. He wasn't what he seemed. He seemed human, but he also had to be something else. Incredible hearing, sharp eyesight, and he could
smell
her moods?
“Xave?”
“Hmm?”
“Where did you say you were from?”
His body stiffened beneath her. “I didn't.”
“Well, where
are
you from?”
“Why this sudden interest in my background?”
Tavish sucked in a breath and held it. She was dying to ask. She had to know what made him so different from everyone else. But the possibility that she wouldn't like the answer loomed over her like a meteor cloud.
“C'mon, Tav, you reek of nerves.”
She reeked of nerves? How was that possible? “What are you, Xave?” she whispered.
“I grew up with my mother in the Helix system.”
That didn't sound too bad.
“My father was bred on Earth.”
Bred? His father was bred on Earth?
“My father was a Generation 8 enhanced combat model. He met my mother when he and his unit drifted through the Helix system.”
The blood drained from her face. Xave's heat at her back became extreme as her body temperature plummeted in response to his answer. She wanted him to be lying, to be wrong about his own origins.
“Tavish?”
She tried to swallow, but her throat was dry. “That's impossible. Cyborgs are like droids. They can't reproduce. They don't have babies!” Her tone escalated until her words echoed inside the close quarters of the transit unit.
She scooted away from him, settling herself near the door. How was this possible? How could someone who already seemed so much a part of her be like the heartless creatures that had destroyed her home and family? Blood roared in her ears, the pounding of her heart drowning out everything else. How could she have believed this man was different when he was far worse than the others?
She watched his face, waiting to see what he'd do next. Would her reaction anger him enough to loose the beast that must be hidden beneath his mask of calm? A moment passed, and she was surprised to see hurt flicker across his stoic face before the emotionless facade settled back into place and his uncanny blue eyes hardened to shards of ice.
“I'm not a cyborg. My father wasn't a cyborg.” He eyed the ring in his hand. “Those cyborgs we saw earlier
are
like droids. The Alliance contractors used basic clone technology in the Gen 5 series. By Generation 6, they had added artificial intelligence, but the cyborgs still couldn't function on their own. It wasn't until after Gen 7 that they scrapped the idea of an organic machine and turned to reproductive technology. Cyborgs walked off an assembly line. The Gen 8 models were born in test tubes.”
“They're still monsters, still machines!” She hated the fear in her voice but was powerless to hide it. “The Gen 8 models destroyed more colonies than all the rest put together. And they
can't reproduce
!”
“You're wrong, Tav.” He lifted his gaze, and the touch of his blue eyes on her body was almost too much. “The Alliance never told anyone the truth about the Gen 8 models. It would have caused too much controversy. Already the cyborgs suffered accusations of atrocities all across the systems. How could they admit that they'd created a new line of superhumanoid soldiers that they had no authority over?”
Tavish slammed her hands down on either side of her, making the seat quiver beneath her. “Accused? You think the cyborgs were
accused
of willful torture and murder and destruction of entire colonies? I was there, Xave! They did those things! They did them to me, to my family!”
His eyes softened, and he lifted his hand as if he wanted to reach out to her. She drew back, wanting nothing to do with this man who could not be a man. His big hand dropped and clenched into a tight fist.
“The cyborgs were ordered to kill innocents. That's why the Gen 8 models broke away from the Alliance and rebelled. They were human enough to realize that wanton destruction of noncombatants is wrong.”
“Is that what your
father
told you?”
“I never knew my father. He stayed with my mother only long enough to conceive me.”
“So a monster raped your mother, and you're justifying it?”
Xave's gaze sent slivers of ice through her heart. “If that's true, it's proof positive he wasn't a cyborg. Cyborgs are incapable of rape. They don't possess the desire or the capability. Like you said, they can't reproduce.”
It was too much to process. She breathed deeply, trying to find a thread of sense in this insane notion he had presented her. This man—this wonderful, unusual, not-like-any-other man, who'd given her endless orgasms—wasn't human. How could this be? How could she have not noticed such an obvious defect?
“I'm human,” he insisted. “I carry a few genetic enhancements, courtesy of my father's bioengineering, but I'm not a machine. I'm faster, process things a little quicker, hear better, have a more acute sense of smell, and I heal faster.”
“Do you die?”
A smirk twisted his mouth into the parody of a smile. “Are you planning to kill me?”
“As if I could,” Tavish whispered.
“I bleed and age like any other man.”
“Approaching the Persian Maiden, sir.”
The driving droid's electronic voice shattered the tension inside the vehicle. He seemed to remember he had a job to do. At least she now understood his dogged desire to pursue his quarry. There was nothing more important to a machine than a list of priorities.
The garish green and blue lights of the upscale Persian Maiden Casino glittered against the orange-tinted sky of Janus 5. The white alloy structure vaulted countless stories into the air, and the area on the ground teemed with service droids, security personnel, and patrons. She sucked in a deep breath.
What was she doing? She had no business pretending to be a bondsman. And for what? For Xave? For a man who wasn't a man? For some hyped-up guy who kept trying to convince her he wasn't a cyborg, that he wasn't a machine, that he was some kind of strange, bioengineered superhuman? Xavier Kovuchenko was insane, and she was going to trust him with her life? What did that say about her sanity?
Grabbing on to an image in his head, he focused until he'd fleshed out the avatar in detail. He reached down and turned the crystal on his IID clockwise. Every cell in his body tingled. It wasn't painful, just irritating. The holo image of an elegant businessman settled like a blanket over his enhanced senses.
He glanced at Tavish to gauge her reaction to this abrupt change in his appearance, but her attention remained focused out the window. A stab of regret lanced through his gut, and Xave had to tamp down the rise of emotion that once again threatened to overwhelm him.
It was nothing new. In fact, he should have expected it. In his younger years, before age and experience had taught him to keep details of his heritage private, Xave had gotten similar reactions from other people. But none of them were Tavish. None of them had been his perfect match, the one person in the universe who completed him.
He shook his head. The transit-unit door hissed open, and he stepped outside, looking to the right and the left. Casino patrons and staff crowded the entrance area. Security cyborgs stood sentinel at the entrance, arms folded before them. Xave clenched his teeth, noting their dead stares. How could she think he was anything like them?
He planned to help Tavish down from the vehicle like any solicitous gentleman. But if there was one thing she excelled at, it was bringing his plans to ruin.
“Security!” She popped out of the opposite side of the vehicle and pointed at him. “That man is a bondsman in disguise, trying to infiltrate your casino to harass your customers. If I were you, I'd get rid of him before your boss sends you to the scrap heap!”
The scene in front of the Persian Maiden ground to a halt. Droids paused in their work, staring at the damsel in the lavish dress pointing an accusing finger at him. Customers hid horrified stares and whispers behind their hands, giving him distasteful looks of hauteur.
The four cyborgs on duty at the front entrance snapped to attention and surrounded him. Cursing beneath his breath, Xave fought to hold on to his holo image. If they knew he wore an IID, they might be inclined to take it, and he had a feeling he'd need it again before the night was over.
A cyborg wearing a captain's badge gripped Xave's arm. “Come with us, sir. We require you to submit to a security search before entering the premises.”
From the corner of his eye, Xave watched Tavish fade into the crowd of onlookers now surrounding the scene.
That cheeky little imp…
Xave had two options. He could allow the cyborgs to take him, then evade them once inside, find Mendez, and take him into custody. Or he could get rid of the cyborg squad now and go after Tavish.
“Sir?” The cyborg increased his grip, making the decision for him.
Xave pulled away. “Sorry, guys, I just don't have time for a security check.”
The cyborg captain snatched Xave's arm and attempted to twist it up behind his back. Xave rotated his arm and swung around to position the bulk of his body behind the captain.
A tingle of awareness told him the other three were engaging. Xave let his holo image go, then lashed out with his heavy boot and planted it in an advancing cyborg's pelvis. It stumbled into the others, and they all went down. Xave wrapped his arm around the captain's head and snapped its neck. The sickening
crack
sent the captain to the ground. The remaining cyborgs gained their feet, two fully functioning and one injured from Xave's kick. They approached with newfound caution. He kept the transit unit at his back, unleashed his daggertail, and attacked.
Silver links gleamed in the overhead lights. The serrated chain wound around the injured cyborg's arm, biting into its flesh. Bracing against the daggertail, Xave pivoted and put the heel of one boot into the side of a second cyborg's head and sent it sprawling.
The injured cyborg wasn't giving up. It used the daggertail still lodged in the skin of its arm to reel Xave closer. Leveraging his weight, Xave cartwheeled in midair, bracing both hands on the end of the daggertail. The links tangled around the cyborg's neck. Xave spun it around to snap its neck just as his two remaining opponents charged.
The silver links rippled as Xave yanked them free. They whipped around both remaining cyborgs and sank into the flesh at the bases of their necks. Metal teeth snagged in the intricate wiring of their spinal cords. Time ebbed, slowing as the cyborgs locked eyes with Xave. He used his body weight to pull the daggertail tight before springing backward from their now-lifeless husks.
Xave wrenched the daggertail's links free of the carnage, and the weapon settled itself around his arm. Heedless of the stunned and horrified silence blanketing the entrance, he took two steps toward the remaining cyborg, reached down, and twisted its neck until he heard the unmistakable
pop
. It was time to go. He had to find Tavish before anything else did.