Acquired Possession (The Machinery of Desire Book 1)

by Cari Silverwood

  “Fucking poet.”

  “Sir.” He sank teeth deep into her bared ass, and she shrieked.

  With his mouth there and the pain escalating, she gasped out a “Sir.”

  “That’s the right word. Let’s go find this friend of yours.”

  He hauled her up and sat her on the seat with her pants in place, though her shirt gaped open.

  “JI? I thought you were going to feed me first?”

  “I think I just did.”

  Was that a joke?

  “My hands?” she dared to ask.

  “They’re good. I checked. I like them tied.”

  “So you said.” She slumped back in the seat, eyes part-closed, drifting as she recalled what he’d done, how it’d felt.

  “How am I doing this, Emery? Killing the mech yet not killing?”

  “Find him first.”

  “I know you can talk directly to his mind.”

  Shit. Her eyes opened fully at the shock of those words. That was a secret she’d hoped to keep for a long time.

  “I figured it out,” he said, as if it were nothing.

  Intelligent man – she’d never seen him in that light. Yet he was taking her to JI, where she might warn him?

  “Doesn’t matter much if I’m just shooting him down. The DRAC won’t care, but I need to know what you plan on telling him before we get there. I want to trust you, to think you honest, but so much is at stake here. Tell me the plan. Now.”

  “So the trust is one way?”

  “I think we both have our reservations.”

  So true. She had to tell him anyway. “The aux-mech today – that was him. He can swap brains, or that’s what he called it. The aux-mech was inside his main body.”

  “And yes, he wasn’t killing. I saw that. A pacifist military JI-mech? Incredible. But I get your idea now. Kill the main mech while he is in the smaller one?”

  “Yes.”

  “One or two possible problems, assuming you want this to help it...him. One. Can he survive inside the less-complex mech body? I’m thinking yes. Two. The mechlings that are on the top hull of this Ramm will be recording it all. Any discrepancies will end up on record for the Governance to see.”

  Now the last one might be a worry.

  “Let me think on it. Can you even find him?”

  “Easy. I’ve been tracking him for ages, just waiting for you two to separate so I could kill him and keep you alive.” He eyed her in that assessing manner of his. “Told you I wanted you.”

  As if that didn’t make her uncomfortable. Obsession could end in so many ways. If he tired of her...

  She grunted in reply.

  “Then find him. If anything or anyone can solve this, he can.”

  A small metal trunk waved into sight and she followed it down to beneath the dash of this Ramm vehicle.

  “Mammoth? Ohmigod!”

  The mechling climbed her leg and sat in her lap, before shifting around to face forward, his trunk probing the air.

  “Where is all his purple fur?”

  “That? Oh, I pulled it off. Why? It was a terrible color.”

  “The hell it was.” Pouting, she tried to get comfortable. “If you don’t undo my wrists, I’m going to have cut marks on them.”

  Mako mashed one button repeatedly then stood after the Ramm chimed. “We’re on our way.” He leaned her forward and she felt his fingers run over the bindings. “I’ll change them. I brought soft cuffs, though you won’t get out of those either. I planned for this. Don’t do anything too naughty or you’ll see exactly what I have.”

  “Naughty?” She scoffed as if his threat meant nothing, as if it hadn’t reawakened her nipples and run ice down her spine. “Nothing could be worse than stripping Mammoth of his fur.”

  “Oh there is worse, Emery. Much, much worse. Have you forgotten what I like to do?”

  No, she hadn’t, though she did wonder at the mechanism that made her mind fill with imagined possibilities. He’d hurt her many times, made her climax as if she were a whore he could play upon as easily as a man might master a violin.

  Evil man.

  There was her answer. That was why heat curled through her body, filling her with lewd thoughts of his hands on her, his mouth, his teeth, his cock inside her. He’d programmed her to respond.

  Freedom, she reminded herself, when he wrapped a hand under and around her breast and squeezed. Freedom. That was her goal.

  She needed to behave for Mako up to the point where he launched that one missile he had that could destroy JI. Once that was done, she was free to violate this agreement he’d drawn from her. It’d been blackmail. There was nothing dishonorable about defaulting on a contract that asked you to give yourself to a man just because he wanted you.

  She needed her hands freed, or at least at her front.

  Two ways to leave. Jump out an open door and run, assuming he landed before they returned to the Swathe. Or...kill him and do whatever she wanted. Then she’d have this ship, providing flying it was possible. Amend that. Kill or disable him.

  He had saved her from the spear and the Scavs, though his reasons were suspect. He wanted her for himself, so she owed him, the teensiest amount.

  Amended plan three: Get that gun of his and shoot a few holes in his legs then.

  That was it. Plan sorted.

  Guilt for what she hadn’t yet done crept up on her. Damn. She’d find him a doctor. Letting him bleed out would be awful.

  With this Ramm ship she could find JI then go anywhere on this world with the hull mechlings recharging it.

  She sneaked a look at Mako where he knelt beside the big missile strapped to the wall of the Ramm. He wasn’t quite as terrible as he’d been on the royal ship. He remembered Shakespeare. Rescued damsels in distress. Maybe by the standards of this world he was a good man?

  Next she’d be knitting him socks.

  “You ever thought of leaving the Swathe and just going...out there? Freeing yourself from all those laws?”

  Still kneeling, he turned his head and studied her, taking his time before answering.

  “Often and always. There are reasons why it’s impossible. One day I will tell you those. We’re on autopilot while the Ramm follows the trail.”

  Okay. She’d tried.

  Back to shooting Mako afterward then. The aux-mech would fit into the Ramm.

  “In the meantime...”

  With her thoughts buried deep in her dark plans, his voice had made her flinch. He stepped up to her seat, his boots a quiet menace. A set of red wrist cuffs swung from his fist.

  “I’ll replace those cuffs, and I believe I need you naked for that.”

  Then he had her stand and he untied the bindings on her wrists, and she thought of doing something rash in those seconds. Except he could beat her in every way, unless she had him asleep or unconscious, or completely off guard.

  The gun at his hip tempted her as he pulled her shirt off over her head, cloth whispering over her breasts and upraised arms, then the bandeau top came off. She caught glimpses of the gun tucked in the holster, its black butt shining like a beckoning star.

  Grab it and shoot him.

  Oh yeah, so likely.

  “What are you thinking?” he asked, wrapping the new cuffs on both her wrists and locking them somehow – she heard the clicks. “My gun? I’d like to see you try that. I’d get a great excuse for whipping you, making you a pretty striped thing. Don’t think I won’t go there still; it’s what excites me most. I’m a sadist through and through, just I can make you like it when I want to.”

  “Wasn’t.” She turned away her head.

  Standing naked, with him behind her, making those threats, was a small revelation. It had thrilled her to hear them. She almost wanted to try it just to be wrestled down. His will was eating away at hers – like damn propaganda, chewing at her soul, her mind, making her a puppet.

  “You weren’t? Sure of that are you?”

  Then he turned her, slowly, letti
ng his hands run over her hips and belly as she moved to face him, looking down at her and smiling in that dry, enigmatic way. Little shivers of anticipation played havoc with her skin, her nipples, her lips, even her breathing.

  Any moment those smiles of his could turn amused, or turn dark. Day and night.

  “Yes. I’m sure. Can you, umm, put the cuffs on at my front?” Worth a try.

  “I don’t quite believe you. And no, I won’t.” He hooked a finger beneath her collar, making her crook her head to remove pressure, making her fear a little, as she did whenever that blood-sucking collar was touched.

  He brought her to his pilot’s chair, sat her sideways on his lap.

  “Though I want to believe. Pretty girls make a man want to believe them, but I’ve learned from the past. I see falsehoods in your eyes, Emery. Lies. I aim to change that. Make you believe in me as I will believe in you.”

  Big words.

  Why did he want this though? Because she came from another world? She was nothing unusual.

  And wanting to put non-lethal holes in him faded as a priority when she was here, on his lap, without clothes on.

  A vulnerable place to be for it was frightening how easy it would be for a man to do anything to her – including killing or maiming, as well as what she almost expected – invading, being intimate where she had not invited him to be. She couldn’t deny how he aroused her, not when his hands were on her, casually seeking new skin to smooth over.

  The man cast a spell on her.

  Awed and a little mystified at her own reactions, she watched his hands move over her stomach to her hips, up to and over her breasts, toying with her nipples until she couldn’t help squirming or gasping. One of his hands delved between her legs, partially disappearing from view as his fingers slipped into her pussy as if this were an everyday event. A vanishing act that seemed unbelievable even as she felt herself grow wet, felt every twist and pump of his fingers, the press of his thumb against her clit, his knuckles on her thighs. The small gush of her own wetness cooled on her labia and thighs as his fingers fucked her.

  That a man could violate her and turn her on all in the one moment.

  “Mmm.” She let her head go back, breathing in the lust, moaning, writhing on his fingers as they did whatever he wanted them to – fucking her slowly, pinching, while his mouth was at her neck, her shoulders, murmuring you can come in her ear.

  “Let me see you come here, now, while I have you like this. Just you, riding my fingers.”

  She couldn’t, shouldn’t. So wrong to be made to in such a nonchalant manner, as if he could do this whenever he wanted. Then he leaned in and sucked on her nipple, bit her, sucked and tongued. The rising swell burst through her thoughts, defying her, taking her higher until what lay between her legs overrode all logic and slammed through her mind. Every atom of her rode that ultimate wave, before she shuddered to the endpoint of sheer exhaustion. His fingers were still in her, his mouth and hands on her, holding her while she collapsed, because it was impossible not to.

  To loll against his hard body, catching her breath, wishing...

  Wishing he’d just fuck her properly.

  How she ached to be filled.

  Wouldn’t hurt.

  She planned to go soon.

  “Fuck me,” she whispered, blindly finding his ear with her mouth, licking him as he had her.

  Mako straightened, took her collar again in fingers, wet fingers. “No, Emery. Not until I see submission in your eyes instead of lies.”

  “Oh.”

  She didn’t bother denying it this time. He knew. She knew. Guess that was to be never then.

  Already she recovered, although resting her head on his chest beneath his chin was entirely allowable.

  The engines throbbed quietly.

  In the distance, through the glass or whatever the see-through stuff was made of, she could see JI-mech laboring across the land. His huge bouncing gait had been reduced to a hobble. She frowned. All because she forgot to bring those extra mechlings.

  “Time to do what I have to.”

  He stood, dumping her off his lap and pulling her upright. Then he wrapped his whole hand around her throat, collar and all, and pinned her to the nearest bulwark, high, so she was on her toes and coughing to breathe. “I know you have no qualms about betrayal, but I’m not letting you go. Anything you do will be remembered, by me.”

  The switch from orgasms to threats had her shuddering as he released her throat and let her slide down the bulwark.

  Scary, and yet the thrill in her veins wasn’t entirely from fear, and that was almost scarier. There was an electrifying rapture to be found in fear that she’d never known before.

  With his thumb playing across her the base of her throat, he said softly, “Be a good girl.”

  Her pussy chose then to squeeze in.

  Fuck. This man...

  Crunch time.

  Chapter 37

  It wasn’t exactly punishment, depriving her of him coming inside her. He’d thought, fleetingly, of coming on her but again, he simply could not, would not, do so. He wanted her to be his willing slave and was happy to deprive himself until then.

  Happy was the wrong word. She didn’t deserve such a consideration.

  He craved seeing submission in her eyes. He’d get it. He could wait.

  This was one of the riskiest things he’d done in his life. He’d implemented a few circuits of the ailing JI-mech while she communicated with it, and had no idea what information they’d exchanged. And now, apparently, the mech she called JI wished him to land beside it so that it could manipulate his mechlings to leave no trace of this encounter.

  He could’ve simply blown it to pieces from miles away.

  What he did was for her, for the sake of their agreement – an agreement he’d seen as faulty soon after agreeing to it. She didn’t know how to submit to him. Not yet. Lying down on his orders, spreading her legs...it had been enough in the past. Not now.

  And so this. Risk.

  Then again, what was life, if not a never-ending duel with risk? This was what made life worth living.

  He smiled as the door of the Ramm peeled upward. Whatever happened, he welcomed it.

  In consideration of her weird friend, he’d dressed her again, but to let her loose upon the ground? No.

  “Come.” He tugged at the chain that ran to her collar. “Let’s see what your JI can do with my mechlings.”

  The semi-transparent bra top, skirt, and panties Emery wore were more revealing than her original clothes and her rock-still mouth was no doubt for that reason. Tough. Her nipples showed, and he approved.

  “Only had time to pack my whore kit.” Truthfully he’d had dark dreams of dressing her kinky, always knew he’d run her down in the end...but this was all he could get a hold of at short notice. “Mechs don’t care what women wear.”

  “You don’t know JI.”

  “True.” He helped her down, pleased at the jiggle of her tits when her feet hit the earth. The Ramm’s exit door was made for soldiers to leap from, and not for women with chains on their neck and their hands bound at their back. “Is he learning to fuck?”

  “Why don’t you ask him?”

  The JI-mech towered over them both. Strange that it’d decided to change its color to polka dots. Lined up between JI and them were his mechlings, including the one called Mammoth.

  “He’s gone pink and polka dotty.” Emery sounded delighted.

  “Yes.”

  “You wouldn’t understand,” she muttered. “It’s an in joke.”

  A what?

  “Greetings, Mister Mako Laste.”

  “Greetings, JI.” This was another first – talking to a self-aware mech. “I saw your activity in the town, while you were in the aux-mech. Emery says you have decided not to kill?”

  “I...cannot. I think it has to do with some ancient damage to my systems, to my brain.”

  “I see.”

  It was fascinating. Fa
scinating to even converse like this.

  “You have no doubt calculated the risk in this?”

  “I have.” His giant rectangular head region nodded. The curved part at the top would house his optical systems.

  “Myself, I understand anything might happen. I made a bargain with Emery.” He extended his arm to vaguely point at her then lowered it. “That I would save you if she came to me willingly. Will you honor that?”

  This was a point that seemed pivotal. From what Emery had said, this JI appeared to have a strict code. Not unusual considering how his mech brain was designed for logic. He prayed that was so, because...in a way, the Mekker system of honor hinged on similar logic.

  Not honoring a bargain or a contract would seem a huge error to a mech...wouldn’t it?

  “I look at you, Mako Laste. I see a man, a Mekker, who is difficult to comprehend.”

  Uh-oh. Not what he wanted.

  “You do?”

  “I’ve also seen inside Emery’s head. She has such contradictory thoughts that they puzzle me. I wish to understand humanoids. I desire to understand things that puzzle me – lying, sex, especially sex. Humor.”

  He smiled. “You want what many people still haven’t figured out.”

  “Ah-haha hah!” JI’s laugh boomed. “You see. That is funny.”

  Emery scuffed her feet in the dirt. “JI, can you do what I asked you to?”

  The mech lowered himself, somewhat, folding his heavy metal legs. “I can do what should be done, Miss Emery. I have looked in your head and in my heart...if I have one. Send the mechlings to me so I can manipulate their memories both now and in the soon-to-be future. No one will suspect this collusion has happened. You may destroy this part of me, Mako, once I am in the aux mech and many miles away. Your contract will be completed. Most of me, the most dangerous part, will be dead and gone.”

  The mechlings scampered toward a metal cord JI had lowered from his body and connected themselves, one after the other.

  “And so it happens. I am transferring a small program. It won’t be detectable to any others. I have had some time to fashion this.”

  Like twenty minutes? He supposed to JI that might be a large amount of time. So easily done though? It scared him to think what he might do if allowed access to the Swathe’s systems.