Programmed To Protect (The Tau Cetus Chronicles) (10 page)

He could have sworn the Doll frowned, as if she was trying to figure out how this could possibly please him.

“It’s called foreplay,” he explained. “Humans do it.”

Ginger nodded uncertainly.

He took a step toward her, placed both his hands gently on her naked shoulders, leaned close to her left ear, and lowered his voice. “Are the cameras on?
Whisper your answer.”
Then he nipped playfully at her earlobe. The polymer skin tasted a bit like rubber, but he ignored the alien flavor.

He pulled back, gave her a smile, then pointed to his right ear. “Now me.”

She hesitated, then suddenly smiled brilliantly at him. She’d figured out his tactic.

Following his example, she put her hands on his shoulders and leaned in close to his right ear. “Yes. The cameras are on.” She bit his right earlobe much too hard to be pleasurable, but Wyatt was happy to suffer the pain in return for information. She pulled back.

“That was very nice, Ginger,” he lied. “Now I’m going to kiss your other ear.”

To make it look good for the cameras, this time Wyatt threaded his fingers into her hair in what he hoped was a romantic gesture as he moved in for his kiss. Damn, but her hair felt like the finest silk.

Stop it! Concentrate on what you need to do.

This time, he sucked her right earlobe briefly into his mouth, surprised he was already getting used to the artificial taste of her.
It’s not so bad.
He lowered his voice. “Is there something else about Titus Veraine you want to tell me that you can only say in private?” Then he pulled back.

Ginger again followed his lead, moving in toward his left lobe. “Yes, Leith. Titus has been…
experimenting
on me.”

Experimenting?

As in…sexual experimentation?

Why did the thought of that upset him so much? Ginger was, after all, a Beautiful Doll. She’d been created for sex. Still, it didn’t sit well with him. She’d obviously been in service for a while, so why was Veraine experimenting on her now?

Wyatt frowned, but then let out a quick moan of pleasure for the benefit of Veraine’s camera as Ginger bit his ear.

Wyatt pulled back, and stared at the Doll. Damn, but he wished he could read something in those stunning starburst eyes of hers, but unfortunately, there was no emotion in those green depths that he could discern.

Sexual experimentation. I need to be sure that’s what she’s saying…

Really? Or do you just want to keep touching her?

He hesitated. He could afford one, maybe two more questions before Veraine would know something was up with this extended foreplay. Unfortunately, Wyatt couldn’t count on the fact that whatever sexual position Ginger had planned would bring them close together. After all, neither of the previous two had brought their mouths and ears within range of each other.

“Ginger? I’d like to try something else. I’m going to kiss your neck
and
your ear. This is a favorite…turn-on…of mine. Just hold still.”

He leaned forward and trailed his lips up the side of her silky neck, this time inhaling her unique scent as he went. It wasn’t metallic, it wasn’t synthetic, it was just…
Ginger.
He was so close to her now that he could feel her soft breasts nudging his chest. Were those two hard points her nipples?

Damn it, keep your mind on your job!

He forced himself to concentrate on reaching her earlobe. “Do you mean to say that Veraine is
sexually
experimenting on you?” he whispered carefully.

He pulled back, only to see a deep frown on her face.

“What is it?”

“I can’t kiss your neck that way with your shirt on, Leith.”

Wyatt’s eyebrows reached his hairline. He hadn’t considered she’d be so literal about mimicking his actions, but he was the one who’d started this. And she was right about his tunic. It covered his neck, blocking her access to his throat.

But…

You’ve already had sex with her twice, what’s so upsetting about taking off your shirt?

Because the possibility of having her breasts pressed hard up against his naked chest seemed far more…intimate…than the actual sex they’d had.

Unfortunately, he could see no way around it. And he needed to hear her answer to his question. Before he could second-guess himself, he grabbed the hem of his tunic in both hands, and pulled it up his torso and over his head. The tunic landed on the floor at his feet.

Ginger smiled her approval and moved closer to him.

Wyatt held his breath as she pressed her breasts against him while she trailed a path of odd, suction-like kisses up the side of his neck. Coupled with the brush of her pert nipples against his hot skin, the action sent a message directly to his groin.

But her next words helped put a damper on his erection.

“Not sexual experimentation, Leith. He has been running programs on me. He keeps asking me questions. He says he wants my
opinions
. It’s so confusing.”

Wyatt went completely cold. In a clever move, Ginger had tilted her head so that her curtain of hair hid her mouth as she spoke, but Leith wrapped both his arms around her to hold her close while his brain raced feverishly.

Good God. Titus Veraine was experimenting on Ginger to try and make her sentient.
Hell, Ginger
was
sentient! She’d been dropping obvious hints every time they’d met. Her fear at disobeying Veraine’s instructions. Her moral judgment that Veraine’s cameras weren’t ethical.

Fucking hell. She was sentient. But what did potential sentience mean for an army of robot soldiers?

He buried his mouth in the smooth silk of her hair and whispered urgently into her ear. “Has Veraine realized that you’re…different?”

She nuzzled his other ear. “No. A Beautiful Doll cannot lie, but I’ve been…careful…in my responses. He has been frustrated.”

While Wyatt’s brain was swirling with the far-reaching implications of Ginger’s monumental revelation, she eased herself out of his tight hug, took him by the hand, and led him toward a long couch positioned against one wall of Veraine’s lab.

Of course. Sex. They needed to have sex in order to maintain their cover.

And it was the Doll who was keeping the level head about it. But how the hell was Wyatt supposed to perform under these circumstances?

She’s a Beautiful Doll. Just concentrate on what she does to your body.

Wyatt forced what he hoped was an eager smile to his face. “What position did Veraine instruct for today?”

They’d reached the edge of the couch, which was probably twice as long as Wyatt was tall. Ginger turned toward him, and, with one hand, she shoved him forcefully enough to topple him into a sitting position onto the cushion.

Damn, he’d known she was strong. But sudden fantasies of being submissive and at her sexual mercy wormed their way into Wyatt’s brain.

She bent over and lifted his feet off the floor and onto the couch, effectively positioning him flat on his back.

“Titus said to ride ‘em cowboy.”

Wyatt shivered.
Ginger on top?
Dictating his pleasure?
Hell, that was domination enough for his cock to spring to instant attention.

Ginger mounted him, one leg on each side of his thighs, just below the level of his groin. She reached unerringly for his belt, unhooked it, unbuttoned his trousers, lowered his zipper, and worked his cock free.

Fuck. The silky glide of her synthetic hand stroking his shaft made Wyatt buck up for more contact, and desperate to touch her in return. He reached up and filled both his hands with her luscious breasts. They were as soft and full as any human woman’s, and felt just as real. And they were lush enough to spill over the confines of his fingers. He stroked his thumb back and forth across her two erect nipples, and moaned low in his throat.

Ginger must have taken his reaction as a signal, because she shifted her body, moving away from his fingers. She raised herself onto her knees, positioned his cock with one of her hands, and then slid herself down onto his hard shaft.

“Fuuuck…”
Wyatt’s eyes rolled back into his head, and he screwed his eyelids shut.

She was smooth and tight, enveloping him in the most intimate of caresses. She anchored her hands on his hips and moved up. Then down. Then up. Then down.

Just like riding a horse.

The rhythmic stroking soon had Wyatt’s hips thrusting in time to match her movement. Ginger slowly increased her speed, which increased the friction along Wyatt’s sensitized shaft, sending him on an upward spiral toward a familiar goal.

It was nice. It was good. It would work. But it was too…tame. Too human. What the hell was wrong with him?

Wyatt made a frustrated sound, and opened his eyes.

Ginger was watching him, her speed and movement never varying.

“More,” Wyatt said desperately. “I need
more.”

Ginger paused, tilted her head to the side, and then gave him a brilliant smile. Grabbing him by each wrist, she jerked his hands high above his head, and held tight against the sofa cushion. As if he were tied to a bed. Helpless. Spread out beneath her. At her mercy.

And then she really began to move.

Leaning over him like that, she turned on her full nineteen-mile-per-hour speed. She pumped him hard and fast. Like a rod and piston. Like a jackhammer. Her body alternately squeezed and stroked his willing cock until Wyatt literally lost control of his body. He began to shake. He began to sweat. He definitely began to swear. The pleasure in his body built and built until it reached a climax so powerful it shot right out of his cock in the biggest orgasm of his life.

He screamed so loudly that he was glad Ginger’s ears weren’t human.

Hell, if he hadn’t been lying down already, he would have fallen down from the force of such pleasure.

“Holy Mary, Mother of God…”

Ginger throttled down on her pumping, as Wyatt desperately tried to catch his breath and slow his pounding heart.

Fucking hell. His body would never be the same.

Still holding his wrists, Ginger leaned down the last few inches toward Wyatt’s right ear, her hair falling like a curtain across his face. “You are a Tau Cetus police agent, Leith Wyatt,” she whispered. “You told me you are programmed to protect. Protect me.
Help me.”

Chapter Seven

Help me…

Eighteen hours had passed since Ginger had made her impassioned plea for protection, and here Wyatt stood at 0630 the next morning on a dusty airfield, still in shock.

Sentient.
She was sentient.

In the moments following that stunning realization, Wyatt had very briefly considered if one of the programs Ginger said Veraine had run on her was intended to
feign
sentience – another possible ruse by Verraine to manipulate Wyatt in some way – but he’d quickly dismissed the idea. What would Veraine or Anson Carron gain by the deception?

Unless it was to make him fall so hard for the Doll – incredible sex
and
implied sentience! – that they could control Wyatt through his access to her.

Ironically, considering the way he felt about Ginger, they could actually do that. She was beautiful, sweet, and the sex was incredible. She was the perfect woman.

But he didn’t give Carron or Veraine that much credit. No. They were more interested in recording his sex with the Doll simply to get him fired and off their backs.

Which had failed.

Wyatt could still remember the apparent glee on Anson Carron’s face when Wyatt had reported to Carron’s office after his session with Ginger to discuss the transportation details for the robot army. Not even Veraine could keep the smile off his face as he’d teased Wyatt about Ginger’s energetic ride ‘em cowboy technique, which led Wyatt to wonder if Veraine’s cameras had not only recorded the sex but also allowed him and Carron to watch it live.

Good thing he hadn’t known that beforehand. It would have really put a crimp in his reaction.

Wyatt had firmly steered the conversation to the logistics of the army’s travel, which had sparked an idea. He’d insisted that he needed Veraine’s expertise loading the robot soldiers onto the planes, which would effectively keep the programmer far away from Ginger until their mission to Terra Acer was complete. Wyatt was determined to give Veraine no opportunity to run more programs on her, or, more importantly, to realize that he had succeeded and that she was already sentient.

At least that was Wyatt’s plan until he could figure out what to do about the situation.

Of course
he was going to help Ginger. He just didn’t know how yet.

Buying time will give me a chance to think…

He and Veraine had left Carron’s manufacturing facility at 1400 yesterday with the first military transport truck carrying the initial one-hundred robot soldiers to the airfield. They’d spent the rest of the day and well into the night overseeing the loading of the entire army of five-thousand onto the two airships, with Wyatt only pausing briefly when Theus had sent him an FEO for-eyes-only message on his personal communication device.