by Cara Bristol
Dale flung himself into the pilot’s seat and Kai assumed the co-pilot’s. “Buckle up, ladies. We got a limited window of opportunity,” Dale said.
“Here, you might need this.” Janai shoved the rag into Dale’s hand and took a seat at the rear of the cockpit with Mariska.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“Obido’s DNA,” Kai replied.
“His essence,” Janai said.
Dale’s face screwed up. Kai laughed. “Glad you’re holding it and not me.”
“Let’s get this baby out of here so I can wash my hands,” Dale said. “Computer, open a channel to the control center.”
“This is the control center,” responded a digital voice.
“Open launch bay doors.”
“Authorization?”
Fuck. I knew it couldn’t be that easy, Dale groused.
How did you get in?
Activated the cloaking device I had installed and snuck in behind a returning cruiser.
“Control center!” Janai said in a strong voice. “Authorization four seven six, one four zero.”
“General Obido acknowledged. Confirm identity with DNA scan.”
“Swipe the screen with the rag,” she instructed.
Dale made a face but did as she said. Kai held his breath.
“Identity confirmed,” came the response. “Doors to open. All personnel, clear the bay.”
“Computer, prepare to launch,” Dale said when the star-filled expanse appeared.
Engines roared. Were they sitting on a rocket? The vibrating floor sent jolts up Kai’s body. What the hell did you do to this thing? he demanded.
Just a little tune-up.
Kai twisted in his seat to peer at Mariska. “Are you all right?” he mouthed. His microprocessor calculated their chance of success at 99.99 percent, but after everything they’d been through, it didn’t hurt to check.
She nodded, and shouted to be heard over the jet noise, “I love you!”
“I love you, too! We’re going home!”
Dale smirked.
You wait. Your time will come.
They blasted into space.
Booya! Piece of cake.
Chapter Twenty-One
Mariska curled her toes into the Terran sand as foaming white surf lapped over her feet. The sun beat down on her head, but it wasn’t as warm as the strong arms encircling her waist from behind. Her heart filled with contentment she couldn’t have imagined.
“Why do you persist in wearing a swimsuit?” Kai nuzzled her neck. “There’s nobody around for miles and miles.”
“Maybe I do it to tease you.”
“Now that I believe,” he said.
“Besides, you’re wearing swimming limbs.”
“Swimming trunks,” he said on a cough that didn’t cover his chuckle.
“It should be called swimming limbs,” she argued. Since arriving on Terra a month ago, she’d immersed herself in the culture, getting an implant to facilitate learning the language, but the idioms mystified her. “It doesn’t cover your trunk, it covers your legs,” she reasoned. His thighs, anyway. Such fine ones, they were, too. Strong. Muscled. Dusted with hair. And pressed so close against her, she could feel the hardness between them. She wiggled. He growled.
Maybe she had worn the suit to tease him. They were on a small private island in the middle of the ocean. The only other inhabitants were the caretakers—who lived on the other side.
“We can call them swimming limbs if you like.” He slipped the straps of the top half of her suit off her shoulders and kissed the bared skin. Unhooked it, and let it drop. The tide picked it up and carried it away.
“Kai!” she chided.
“It might come back. I give it a 65 percent chance.” He tugged at her bottoms. With a sigh, she stepped out of them. Like a slingshot, he flung them into the surf.
Of five suits swept away this week, three bottoms and four tops had washed back up onto the beach.
His swimming trunks sailed over her shoulder into the ocean, and then he embraced her again. She hugged his arms. The gold band with its brilliant stone sparkled on her third finger. Traditional, he’d said. A wedding ring. He wore one, too, but his didn’t have a stone. My mate. She was Terran, and proud of it, but, in her heart, Kai would always be her mate, even if the proper term was husband.
It was incredible she was on Terra. Life on the station seemed so long ago—except when the night haunts came and she awoke in terror, imagining herself there or being sent to Katnia. But, always, Kai was there to soothe her, comfort her, make love to her.
She squeezed his arms then twisted so she could peer into his eyes. She palmed his hair-roughened cheeks. “Thank you for keeping me safe, for loving me.” He’d waited anxiously during the debriefing that dragged on for days. A man named Carter had asked her question after question about Obido and Lamis-Odg—often the same one phrased multiple ways as if he’d been trying to trip her up. She’d answered honestly, providing as much information as she could. Her patience had held, but Kai’s hadn’t. He’d stormed in one day, told Carter to “fuck off,” pulled her out of the debriefing room, and whisked her away.
He’d surprised her with a trip to meet her Terran father. She’d have recognized him anywhere because his face was a masculine version of her own. How nervous he’d been, but warm and welcoming. His smile had been gentle, his eyes misty. Years and distance had melted away. He showed her images of her mother. She resembled her, too.
Her father, his second wife, and their son, Mariska’s teenage half-brother, had attended the small ceremony in which she and Kai had married. Soon after, they’d arrived at the island. A real one with unlimited blue sky and turquoise water stretching beyond what the eye could see. No dome. No thatched huts, quaint as they were. Just a sprawling, palatial house cooled by lazy fans and open verandas. Kai had used his “connections” to secure use of the entire island.
His eyes darkened. “I should have done a better job keeping you safe.”
“You did everything you could. If not for you, I wouldn’t be here.” She stood on tiptoe to kiss him, and he met her halfway, slanting his mouth over hers. He licked at her lips, his tongue mating with hers, causing heat to pool in her core.
Kai cupped and squeezed her breasts, drawing a moan from her throat. She melted against him, her legs shaking. With his touch, came remembrance of all she had to be grateful for. He was her life now. Her man. Her mate. Her cyborg.
He’d sat her down before they married and clarified what that was, how it affected him, what it meant for their future. He’d been so uncertain, nervous, pacing around the room. “I’m Terran,” he said. “But not totally.” He’d tapped his head. “I have a computer interfaced with my brain. Part of me is machine. I have some prosthetics.” He lifted a shoulder. “I’m 76.1 percent organic human, 23.9 percent mechanical parts.”
It explained why he’d recovered so fast when shot. Why he could run so fast. Why he seemed to have supernormal strength. Why he sometimes stared into space for no reason.
“I should have told you sooner,” he’d said, glancing at her but not holding eye contact, as if he feared what he’d see.
She’d slid off the bed then and padded over to him. He’d flinched when she touched him, but she’d encircled his waist. “You’re 100 percent Kai to me.”
He’d sighed as if the weight of the world had left his shoulders and embraced her so tight, she’d feared he’d crack a rib.
She hugged him that way now. His hardness pressed against her tummy. She wiggled. Then squealed when he lifted her in his arms. His chuckle vibrated through her heart and nested beside the love she carried for him.
He continued to kiss her as he carried her up the sandy beach to a large blanket he’d spread out. He lowered her. “You planned this,” she said, kneeling in front of him.
White teeth flashed. “Hoped. I hoped.”
“You!” She
poked his chest.
“Mine,” he said, and covered her breast with his large palm. He planted his mouth against hers again.
“Yours,” she agreed, when they came up for air.
They sank to a reclining position on the blanket. Mariska arched when Kai sought out the damp curls between her legs. Breath hissed through his teeth when she wrapped her hand around his impressive member. They took turns stroking and teasing, giving and receiving. Loving.
She licked the salt from his neck then trailed her tongue down his torso. Drew him into her mouth and poured out her heart and soul in giving him pleasure. He groaned and tangled his hand in her hair, drawing it around them like a curtain, as if to shield them from prying eyes that did not exist.
She would have brought him to completion, but he twisted away to part her thighs then proceeded to drive her wild with his fluttering tongue and magic fingers.
“Now, now,” she cried.
He rose and flipped her over onto her tummy. Grabbing her hips, he guided her to her knees before presenting his cock to her entrance. In one delicious, pulsing thrust, he seated himself. For her, he did this. He preferred face-to-face, but she drew strong satisfaction from being mounted from behind, from being cocooned under his hard body, from being taken.
“Oh, Kai.” She raised her hips to buck against him.
“That’s it, baby, yeah.” He cupped her mons, kept his fingers moving.
Her womb and core began to flutter seconds before lightning sheeted through her entire body. Waves of pleasure undulated, one after the other.
“Yes, baby, yes.” Calling one’s mate baby was one of those nonsensical idioms, but, growled in his gravelly voice, with his cock jerking inside her, it sounded somehow perfect.
After reaching the peak together, they remained joined, and he continued to thrust, wringing out every last sensation of pleasure for both of them. Then, keeping her pressed against him, he rolled them to their sides.
He kissed the damp hair plastered to her nape. Beneath the wonderful lassitude fluttered a leaf of sadness. Their honeymoon would end soon.
“We don’t have much time left,” she said.
“No, a couple of days.”
“I’ll miss this place.” A new adventure would begin. Ordinary life, most Terrans would consider it. Living in Kai’s skyscraper apartment in the heart of a Terran metropolis would be new to her, but it had a rooftop garden and was a short stroll from an urban green area spanning hundreds of acres.
“We’ll come back. I promise.” He kissed her shoulder. “Don’t be scared. I’ll never be more than a short sky-tram ride away.”
“I’m not scared,” she denied, lying only a little. Newness overwhelmed her when she envisioned the future. Everything was so foreign; she had so much to learn. Fortunately, Kai would be near. While he had to report to Cy-Ops, he would remain Terranside; his transfer had been approved.
“Good,” he said. “Besides, I have much more of Terra to show you.”
“Mountains,” she said.
“Mountains. And woods. And the desert, if you’d like. The Great Wall. The Acropolis, the Grand Canyon, the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Great Barrier Reef, Buckingham Palace, Sagrada Familia, Ephesus, the Taj Mahal, Champs-Élysées.
“One World Trade Center.” He reeled off places she inferred were planetary treasures, but had no idea what they were. But they were hers. Components of the homeland she’d been denied. Monuments of her mother’s great sacrifice.
Though her new life and family—a mate, a father, a stepmother and a brother—filled her with warmth and joy, it could not erase all sadness. Inside, she wept for her mother who’d been taken from her by an iwani.
Someday, Mother, I shall avenge your death, I promise.
That was why it hadn’t mattered how much Carter had grilled her. If any detail, no matter how small, could assist in bringing down Lamis-Odg, she wanted to share it, to shout it from the top of the mountains she hadn’t seen yet or from the rooftop garden of Kai’s skyscraper.
Someday, maybe I’ll work for Cy-Ops. Then she could have a real impact. She wasn’t a cyborg, but neither was Carter, and he directed the organization. But, first, she had to prepare. While Kai worked, she’d be taking language, culture, and re-education classes to learn everything she could. Someday, Mother, I promise.
“Maybe you would like to visit Janai?” he asked.
Mariska twisted in his arms. “Can I?” She and Obido’s mate had found time for a brief talk on the flight and had cleared up some misunderstandings. She’d thought Janai had hated her.
“I envied you. Though you were scorned, you enjoyed a freedom, a safety I never did,” Janai had surprised her by saying. Mariska had never felt free or safe.
“I never had a choice whether to be Obido’s mate. See what he did to me!” Janai had traced the deep scars on her face then pressed a hand to her stomach. “I want my daughter to have options.”
“You’re pregnant?” Mariska had gaped.
Tears in her eyes, Janai had nodded. “Yes. I just found out. Testing showed it will be a girl.”
Once they landed at the AOP shuttle port, Janai had been whisked away. Mariska hadn’t seen her and had been busy jetting around Terra, meeting her new family, getting married, honeymooning.
“They’re done questioning her?” Mariska asked.
He nodded. “Carter sent word he finished the interrogation. She’s been cleared. They’re sending her to a medical facility to repair the damage to her face. She’s considering having the ridge removed, also. Perhaps you’d like to visit her in the hospital?”
“I would. Thank you.”
Kai poked her shoulder with his finger. Her skin whitened and then turned pink where he’d pressed. He tugged her to feet. “Let’s go back to the house. You’re getting sunburned.”
“Sunburn? What’s that?”
“You’re about to find out. But I have some soothing lotion I can rub on you,” he said with a leer, before his expression softened. “I love you, Mariska.”
“I love you.” My cyborg mate.
About This Book
Mated with the Cyborg is the second book in the Cy-Ops Sci-fi Romance series about cyborgs finding love as they fight for truth, justice, and the Terran way. Stranded with the Cyborg is the first book. Watch for book three in the spring of 2016. To be notified of its release, sign up for my author newsletter: http://eepurl.com/9aRJj.
Books by Cara Bristol
Science fiction and paranormal romances
Stranded with the Cyborg (Cy-Ops Sci-fi Romance 1)
Breeder (Breeder 1)
Terran (Breeder 2)
Warrior (Breeder 3)
Goddess’s Curse
Longing
Spanking Romances
Unexpected Consequences
False Pretenses
Body Politics
Disciplinary Measures
Reasonable Doubts
Irresistible Attractions
Long Shot
Coming to Terms
Milestones
Nonfiction
Naughty Words for Nice Writers
About the Author
Multi-published, Cara Bristol continues to evolve, adding new subgenres of erotic romance to her repertoire. She has written science fiction, paranormal, contemporary, and spanking romance. No matter what the genre, one thing remains constant: her emphasis on character-driven, seriously hot erotic stories with sizzling chemistry between the hero and heroine. Cara has lived many places in the United States, but currently calls Missouri home. She has a husband and two grown step kids. When she’s not writing, she enjoys reading and traveling.
Cara loves to hear from readers. You may post a comment on her Web site/blog, http://carabristol.com, or follow her Facebook page, Cara Bristol, Erotic Romance Author, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cara-Bristol-Erotic-Romance-Author/178661122147994.
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Cara Bristol, Mated with the Cyborg
