Breathing Vapor

by Cynthia Sax

  She did but not silently. “You’re bleeding too much.”

  “It’ll stop.” He’d suffered deeper wounds and survived.

  Mira pressed herself against him as though trying to stem the bleeding with her lush form. Vapor savored the contact, inhaling her scent.

  They stayed like that for endless moments. Not talking. Not moving. Simply being, connected by experience, by pain, by their physiques.

  He didn’t trust her. One truth from her lips didn’t offset all of the lies he’d heard. But he desired her, considered her to be his. The heat of her pussy permeated the flimsy fabric of his ass covering.

  “I want you.” The pain must have removed the filter from his mouth.

  “You’re hurt.”

  That wasn’t a ‘no.’ “I’m not that hurt.” He turned, facing her.

  Her pretty white garment was soaked with his blood. Her hair was mussed. Her eyes were wild. She was the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen.

  “You want me.” Vapor inhaled deeply, drawing her tantalizing musk through his nostrils, into his soul. “I smell your need.”

  Her cheeks turned pink. She nibbled on her bottom lip with her teeth. “Beings died. It wouldn’t be right.”

  “It would be right.” He cupped her face with his hands. “You could have been one of those beings.” The thought of her dead made him crazed. “If I hadn’t been there—” His voice cracked.

  “Yeah.” Mira took a ragged breath. “But I would have deserved—”

  He couldn’t bear to hear what she thought she deserved. Vapor covered her lips with his, silencing his female. She hesitated for a moment and then opened to him.

  He plunged inside her. She was warm and wet and tasted of strength and sweet rebellion. His tongue twisted, entwined with hers, flesh sliding over flesh, setting his enhanced senses ablaze.

  Mira moaned, the sound making his already rock hard cock even harder, and she wiggled against him, brushing her curves against his muscle. His female was soft all over, and ready for him, her juices soaking the front of his ass covering.

  They kissed and teased, bumping tongues and bodies, rubbing skin against skin, building the fire of desire and then retreating, building and retreating.

  Vapor threaded his fingers through her hair, loosening the strands. The locks fell to her shoulders, down her back, capturing the light.

  She was a star fallen to ground, glowing, beautiful and rare, destined to disappear. He’d hold her, perhaps only in this moment, and dream of her for a lifespan.

  Vapor dragged his lips down her neck, tasting more of her. The caress of her hair against his cheek was decadent, unlike anything he’d ever experienced in his harsh violence-filled lifespan.

  “Touch all of me, Vapor.” Her head fell backward and her fingers splayed over his pecs.

  How had he ever thought his female was cold? She sizzled his circuits, fried his processors.

  He needed to touch more of her. Vapor gripped the fabric binding her and yanked, freeing her curves. Her breasts spilled out, filling his hands.

  He cupped her gleaming pale skin, rubbed his thumbs over her delicate pink nipples, the contrast of tautness and suppleness fascinating him. She arched, pushing against his palms, stimulating noises coming from her parted lips. Her musk intensified.

  This was truth. Vapor nuzzled against her breasts. She might lie with her words but she couldn’t conceal her passion. He licked and sucked, tugged and pulled, making her squirm and sigh and plead. She wanted him as badly as he wanted her.

  “My skin is covered with your nanocybotics.” Her voice was husky. “You’re everywhere.”

  “I’m not everywhere. Not yet.” But he wanted to be. He curved his right hand over her mons, dipping his fingertips into her wetness, and she jerked, her eyes widening.

  “Yes, there.” She spread her thighs. “I need you inside me.”

  “What do you need inside you?” Vapor stroked over her feminine folds, teasing her clit. “My fingers?” He prodded her tight little entrance. “Or my cock?”

  “Your cock.” Mira plucked at his ass covering. “Fill me with your nanocybotics.”

  He’d fill her with everything he had. “Humans consider cyborgs to be machines.” Vapor stripped off his garment. “Do you wish to breed with a machine?”

  He stood in front of her, wearing only his boots, his cock hard, his balls aching. Her gaze dropped. She wet her lips with her slick pink tongue.

  “I wish to breed with you.” Mira reached for him, curled her fingers around his shaft and drew him to her. “This might be wrong, but I want you too much to care.”

  He didn’t care about anything except her. Vapor grasped her hips, pushed his tip inside her pussy. Frag. She was snug, her skin stretching around him.

  “Mira?” Was he hurting her?

  “I’m okay.” Her voice was strained. Grooves etched around her lips.

  His blasted female was lying to him. Again.

  “Tell the truth.” He didn’t move forward, ignoring the primitive part of his programming that demanded he claim her, breed with her, cover her with his scent.

  “The truth is I want this.” She met his gaze, her eyes brilliant blue. “And the pain of my desire surpasses any pain you can possibly inflict on me.”

  He felt the same acuteness of feeling. “I’m a cyborg.” He forged deeper and deeper, forcing himself to move slowly, to allow her body to accommodate his. “I can inflict endless amounts of pain.”

  “But not on me.” She grimaced, lifting her hips, taking more of him.

  “Not on you,” he admitted. Any plans of prolonging her death had vanished the moment she’d touched him. “I’ll kill you quickly.”

  That earned him a shadow of a smile. “Your breeding talk needs work.”

  His base pressed against her pussy lips. Stars. She felt like the Homeland the other cyborgs talked constantly about, a mythical place filled with happiness and acceptance.

  Vapor paused, gazing into his female’s eyes, his worlds revolving around her, the agony of his back eclipsed by the pleasure of being inside her. “Train me in breeding talk.”

  Her smile faded. “So you can impress another female?”

  “There will be no other females for me.” He rested his forehead against hers. Vapor doubted any other being would affect him as she did. “I wish to impress you.”

  “You saved my life this planet rotation.” She looked at him as though he was special. “That’s impressive.”

  She was a rare female and warranted protection. Any male would have done the same thing.

  “And.” Her eyes glowed with mischief. “One part of your anatomy is very impressive.” She squirmed, the movement causing her inner walls to massage his cock.

  “Only one part?” He pulled out to his tip and drove back inside her hot pussy.

  She gasped, clutching his neck. “Maybe more than one.”

  Vapor repeated the motion. “Maybe?” Her juices oozed between his balls.

  “Definitely.” Mira wrapped her legs around his waist. “Give it all to me.” She kicked his clenched ass cheeks.

  “Fierce.” He drove into her harder, shaking the sleeping support. “You’re so fraggin’ fierce.”

  Vapor rode her in earnest, smacking his chest against her breasts, snapping his hips against hers. Heat radiated from the connection. She raised her hips into each thrust, meeting him halfway, his equal.

  He’d almost lost her this planet rotation. If he had, he wouldn’t have experienced this wonder, wouldn’t have known this softer, more vulnerable part of her. Vapor rumbled, unable to put that possible loss into words.

  “You’re hard.” Mira licked his chest and he shuddered. “Soft skin over unrelenting metal.”

  If she could complete her sentences, he wasn’t breeding with her vigorously enough. Vapor plunged into her, tempering his strength so as to not damage his delicate female.

  “Oh, Vapor.” Her fingers crept upward, spreading over his s
calp. “This. Never. Never.”

  “Yes, never.” No other male would ever touch her, not like this. She was his and his alone.

  A sheen of moisture covered her generous form, darkening her hair. She panted, dug her fingernails into his skin, marking him as he yearned to mark her.

  His nanocybotics would eventually erase her claim on him. Other males wouldn’t know of their bond…unless he bred with her constantly.

  If he could do that, he would. Breeding with her was better than battle. Vapor grunted, the bliss of her form challenging his restraint, weakening his willpower.

  “Vapor. Vapor.” His female’s vocabulary had been reduced to one word—his name. She laved his skin with the flat of her tongue, raked her fingernails over his scalp, drummed her heels against his ass cheeks.

  He absorbed all of her wild passion, committed it to his memory, both mechanical and organic, watching her eyes brighten and her skin flush as he ravished her. The scent of breeding masked the stale air. Her voice sang through the quiet chamber.

  She was alive and his and unabashedly open about her needs, demanding more, harder, faster. Vapor gave it to her, his joy tied to hers. His balls hugged his shaft. The pressure inside him increased to the breaking point.

  “Vapor.” Mira tilted her beautiful face upward, parting her lips.

  He bent his head and took her offering, delving into her mouth with his tongue, into her pussy with his cock. She mumbled words he couldn’t decipher. Her body tightened and tightened and tightened around his shaft.

  Unable to hold back, Vapor thrust hard and swiveled his hips. Her spine immediately straightened, her muscles flexing, her lips vibrating against his, her pussy clenching down on his shaft.

  That snapped his control. He roared into her throat, pushed even deeper and came as he’d never come before, filling her with never ending jets of cum.

  Mira bucked, her form shaking, reacting to his nanocybotics. Vapor held her to him, murmuring illogical phrases into her right ear as she reached release again and again, taking all that he had to give, leaving him empty of everything except circuit-blowing ecstasy.

  Moments stretched. She quieted, slumping forward. He rubbed between her shoulder blades, down her spine. Their bodies remained joined, their connection surpassing the physical. She was a part of him, his.

  Her head jerked upward. “Your back.”

  “Is healing.” Her concern warmed him.

  She scurried backward. “Lie on the sleeping support.” She patted the surface.

  “Cyborg warriors don’t need to rest.” And he wasn’t merely a cyborg warrior. He drew himself up to his full height. He was the best.

  “Do this for me. I need to see your wounds.” Mira gazed up at him, turbulence in her normally ice cold eyes. “When they shot my mom, I refused to leave her side. I was certain she’d heal like my father’s cyborgs did. But her wounds never closed and the puddle of blood around us expanded more and more. My mom’s heart slowed, stopped. She was dead yet I stayed, unable to accept her passing. Warriors had to drag me away.”

  “Were these warriors cyborgs?”

  She shook her head. “They were human.”

  Good. Vapor didn’t like the thought of some of his kind hurting her.

  “I have to see for myself that you’re not like her.” Her hands twisted in the covering. “That you won’t die. I need to be reassured that you’ll heal.”

  His female had lost so much and didn’t want to lose him. She cared about him—a cyborg. Struck mute by emotion, Vapor climbed onto the sleeping support. He faced downward so she could see his back.

  Mira leaned over him, her perusal heating his circuits. “You’re no longer bleeding. There’s a thin layer of skin over your wounds now.” She touched an undamaged patch. “Are you in pain?”

  “No.” He closed his eyes, tracking her exploration of his body with his other senses. Her caresses were light, dancing on his skin, and she smelled of him.

  That pleased Vapor.

  “Should we help your friend?”

  “He doesn’t need help.” Thrasher, judging from his never-ending reports via the transmission line, was bored out of his processors, guarding the entrance to the tunnels.

  “We should do something.” Mira rested her head on Vapor’s arm. Her breathing slowed. She wasn’t a cyborg warrior. His little human required rest.

  “Sleep.” He rolled onto his side and gathered her to him, savoring her curves and her soft compliance. It wouldn’t last, he knew. His female was in shock, her thoughts occupied by the attack. Once she recovered, she’d battle him as she had in the past. “When you wake, we’ll take action.”

  “We should take action now.” She yawned.

  His lips twitched. “You’re in no condition to breed with me.”

  Mira blinked. “You wish to breed with me again?”

  He wished to breed with her always. “Yes.” Vapor cupped her head, pressing her face to his chest. “But first, you must restore your energy levels.”

  Chapter Eight

  Mira had no wish to restore her energy levels. She was emotionally exhausted, could barely focus her eyes, but she knew what was waiting in the darkness.

  Staying awake was preferable to her nightmares.

  The dreams never changed. Each rest cycle, she revisited every death she had caused, every life she’d inadvertently ended, starting with her mom’s execution. She’d see the shock on her mom’s face when she found out her best friend, her husband, even her daughter had betrayed her. Gunfire would ring out, shockingly loud. Her mom’s body would dance in the air. Mira would rush to her side, feel her heartbeat slow under her palms. Blood would pool around her knees.

  The other deaths were as gut wrenching. She couldn’t, wouldn’t relive them.

  Vapor rubbed her back, up and down, up and down, the motion soothing. Mira’s eyelashes fluttered. Each blink became slower and slower.

  She fell asleep.

  And dreamed about nothing.

  When Mira woke, Vapor’s arms were wrapped around her tightly. His nanocybotics bubbled within her. He must have protected her from her memories.

  She didn’t want to leave his sanctuary, didn’t want to face the devastation, the death, the guilt. Feigning slumber, she lingered in his warm embrace.

  “You’re awake,” Vapor rumbled.

  “No, I’m not.” She remained still. “I’m asleep.”

  “You lie even about that.” He snorted softly. “How can any being ever trust you?”

  Vapor didn’t lie, yet she couldn’t trust him. His first loyalty was to his fellow cyborgs, not to her, never to her. “You can’t trust any being. I’ve learned that much in my lifespan. My mom was betrayed by the husband she loved, by the friends who vowed to always remain by her side, by me, her own daughter.” She whispered that last part.

  Vapor had cyborg senses. He heard everything. “Did you lie to your mom, also?”

  “Worse. I shared information about our secret place with one of her friends.” Lydna had resorted to tears to gain that knowledge. It was a tactic Mira found difficult to resist even to this planet rotation. “That’s how they caught us.”

  “You were a child, in the early stages of development.” Vapor shifted his weight over her body, pressing her ass into the sleeping support. “You were too young to play those grown-up games.”

  That didn’t mean she wasn’t guilty.

  “Open to me, female,” he ordered. “I want to breed with you.”

  “I’m asleep.” She spread her legs, giving him access to all of her. “You can’t wish to breed with an unresponsive female.”

  “You’ll respond.” He entered her slowly, sliding his broad cock head into her pussy, his girth creating a tantalizing pressure against her inner walls.

  She fought the urge to move.

  Fuck. She tingled.

  His damn nanocybotics would ensure that she responded.

  But not yet. She gritted her teeth. He’d have to work fo
r his victory.

  “Mira.”

  “I’ll never respond.” She curled her fingers.

  “That’s another lie.” Vapor grasped her hips, tilting them to better accommodate him. “Your stubbornness knows no limits. I should redden your ass, teach you to tell the truth.”

  She envisioned herself sprawled naked over his lap, his hands heating her skin, and her pussy moistened even more.

  “You want that.” Her damn cyborg detected the increase in her arousal. “You want me to punish you.”

  “No.” Her protest was weak.

  “Yes.” He pushed his cock home, flattening her intimate folds with his base. “Your body doesn’t lie, unlike your mouth.”

  She had to work on that.

  Mira waited. Vapor stayed locked in place.

  “I thought you were going to breed with me.” She opened one eye, then the other. He was braced over her, his biceps bulging, his chest muscles flexed. “What are you waiting for?”

  “Your response.” Vapor’s eyes gleamed.

  “You’ll be waiting for a long time,” she warned.

  “Then I’ll wait.” He appeared unconcerned. “Being inside you is enough.”

  He couldn’t be serious. Males needed to come. It was painful if they didn’t.

  Or so she’d been told.

  Mira’s gaze drifted over his neck, shoulders, chest and then returned to the determination in his face.

  Human males needed to come. Vapor was a cyborg. He’d endured wounds that would have killed another being and hadn’t even flinched.

  She could lose this standoff also.

  “Is this enough for you?” She lifted one eyebrow. “You don’t feel the need to fill me with your seed, with your scent, to reestablish your claim so every male knows I’m yours?”

  Her possessive cyborg’s face darkened.

  “Your nanocybotics are fading.” That was a lie. They remained as strong as ever, fizzing inside her. “Your mark on my breast has healed.” Breeding with him had erased the wound on her shoulder also, restoring her to full health. “There’s no sign of your ownership anywhere on my body.”