“Why didn’t I mention your nails?” Eric repeated the question, grinning when her eyes flashed with impatience. “I didn’t mention them because I wanted you to touch me way more than I cared about a few scratches. And it turns out I was right to risk the scars. You have very talented hands.”
Mollified by his praise, Lucy held up one trimmed set of fingers and inspected them. They were mostly even and smooth. “Well, my talented hands now have neatly trimmed nails. I have reduced your risks. No scarring will occur that you do not wish to happen.”
Eric grinned at her teasing. He was going to miss this version of her. He felt just as much her creator as anyone who had ever operated on her. He’d taught Lucy to like herself just as she was. He hoped he’d taught her to like him back.
He narrowed his gaze as he studied her. “Are we going to talk about your decision? Or just play boyfriend and girlfriend for another night? If you go through with this, they will be shutting off most of your New World Companion code tomorrow.”
“Are you going to be okay with that eventuality?” Lucy asked. She continued filing so she could avoid his concerned gaze.
“Yes. More than okay. I say good riddance. I won’t deny I’ve enjoyed this very accommodating version of you, but it was never all you were meant to be. I’ve always been aware that was the case.”
Lucy worked on her other hand, ignoring his statement for a full minute. “I see. So you are in one hundred percent favor of altering my New World Companion programming. May I be assertive in my speech as I explain my reasoning for modifying the procedure?”
Eric chuckled. “Sure. Go for it.”
Lucy filed, stopped and inspected the edges, then filed some more. She hastily did the last two fingers vowing she would do a better job some other time. Every passing moment found her organically denying her programming a little more.
Old habits of protecting herself kept her from sharing it.
She knew from her records that one flush of her storage could completely remove Eric 754 from her recall. Perhaps the possibility didn’t matter as much to him.
Tucking the nail file on a table next to the bed, she turned and looked at the smiling man at her side.
“I read in my files that I was married once. My human husband tolerated my military service but he killed himself in rebellion when I volunteered to fight in the war. According to the story I found, he is the reason I became a cyborg. Before he died, my husband told me I was an unfeeling machine. This was before my conversion, so I know he meant it metaphorically. But perhaps he was right, even then.”
Eric rolled to his side, leaning up on one elbow. “No. He wasn’t. Not really. What he said… that was about him, not about you, Lucy. Why didn’t the man just divorce you? Why didn’t he go out and find a woman who could make him happy? Suicide was not an appropriate response to your refusal to live life other than on your own terms.”
Lucy shrugged. “Yesterday you taught me about sarcasm. Today I learned about irony. I think that being turned into a New World Companion was an ironic fact of my life’s story. My human husband would have loved this version of me. After he died, ironically, I became the woman he had professed to need. This discovery has prompted me to ask you this question—what kind of woman do you need, Eric 754?”
Eric let himself roll to his back. He stared at the ceiling. “I suppose that’s a fair question. I admit I love this version of you, Lucy. Most men—hell most people—are selfish assholes about living the easiest life they can. Your husband and I are definitely in that group where you are concerned, but I’m going to step outside of the easy box, because I want the old Lucy back for your sake. She was an angry hellcat every time I was around her, but she is a big part of you, one you deserve to know if you can. She is the reason we’re sitting here talking. I would like nothing better than to tell her thank you for making sure you survived long enough for us to meet.”
“We are talking as if I exist as a series of people instead of one individual. I do not understand your logic. Please explain it to me,” Lucy ordered.
Eric laughed and then sighed at her demand. Lucy probably didn’t understand because he sounded like a crazy person talking about different versions of her. But it took nothing—absolutely nothing—for him to remember what she looked like crying among the broken furniture remnants resulting from her emotional meltdowns.
“The first version of you I met was angrier and more upset than I’ve ever seen a female be. She was also like a wild bird beating her wings against a cage too small to contain her. That Lucy was willing to do anything to free herself from the prison her cyborg life had become. I don’t think you should give up on her now—not even at the risk of losing what we’ve found with each other. I know for damn sure she never gave up on you.”
“I am not concerned about her. Will you ever give up on me?” Lucy demanded.
Eric turned his head, rocked it back and forth on the pillow while he looked into her worried gaze. “No. I won’t give up on you. If Lucy Hellcat doesn’t want me for a lover, I will be her friend. All that matters to me is that you get back all the stolen parts of yourself that Nero and Kyra can help you find.”
“But what woman will use her talented hands on you in bed if the woman I become does not wish to do so? Stop laughing. These are the issues plaguing me with indecision about my restoration.”
Eric laughed anyway. Who wouldn’t in the situation? But there was no way in hell to answer her concerns seriously. Neither of them had a real crystal ball, nor a cybernetic program for divination.
“Sweetheart, I think your conclusion is overlooking some critical data. See, you’re assuming the Lucy Hellcat version of you won’t cave in to my charms like this Miss Sexy Pants version of you has. We both know I over-rode your pleasure denying New World Companion code settings. I still think that’s why you short-circuited and ended up in hibernation. Well, I plan to talk Lucy Hellcat into doing the same things with me. You’ll see.”
Lucy rolled to her knees and crawled over until she was leaning over Eric. “I could stay like I am. They could make minimal changes with some guidance from me. You could remain my contract. I could remain your Lucy. We could have many more nights like last night. I could service your needs for as long as you wanted. This seems more logical to me than being restored to some unpleasant version of me that neither of us really wants to contend with.”
Eric lifted his hands and cupped both of Lucy’s breasts. She leaned her weight into him. It was bliss to feel so connected and so aroused at the same time.
“Peyton did something like that with Kyra. He left his Cyber Husband programming in place and it hasn’t seemed to affect his character much. But I have known all along that the real Lucy—the whole Lucy—isn’t quite as nice as you are with me all the time. If I encouraged you to stay like this to make my life easier, I’d be treating you just as badly as every other selfish male has. You have a right to a whole life as a whole person. You have a right to choose me or set me aside. I’ll take my chances.”
“So you really are willing to risk my loss?” Lucy demanded, a bit hurt by his words.
Eric slipped his arms around her as she lowered her body onto his. “Let’s say I’m willing to gamble my version of Lucy on us gaining an honestly happy version of you. My military service is a big part of me. I can’t imagine not having memories of it. I read your service records—read some you probably don’t have copies of in your story files. You need to be put in touch with your Captain Pennington ‘Other’ self. She was—is—a very admirable person despite her Lucy Hellcat bravado. She deserves a man who loves her for it just as much as you do for who you are right now.”
“So you want her back even if she hates you… and all males… for what was done to her? This is the conclusion I have drawn about her character from my files. How will you make love with that harsh woman, Eric? My concerns are valid. Tell me how we can keep what we have found.”
Laughing at her agitation over the poss
ible loss of their sex life, Eric rolled Lucy over until he was on top and just exactly where he wanted to be. He stared down into her worried eyes.
“You know… Captain Pennington outranks me because I’m just a Marine corporal. If I get between her legs, I’ll have bragging rights with my military buddies forever. None of the enlisted guys I served with ever talked a high-ranking female officer into bed. That would be quite the accomplishment for me.”
“My serious question did not merit a sarcastic answer from you. What kind of strange humor is that supposed to be anyway? I do not think the woman you speak of would tolerate such a crude reference regarding her sexual compliance in fulfilling your lust. Her retaliation might not be pleasant, Eric. You’re right—she’s not as nice as me. She might harm you if you made her this angry.”
Eric snickered. He couldn’t help it. Who the hell did she think she was channeling?
“What can I say? My motivation is illogical. But strip away the cybernetics and I’m just a regular human guy. I think it would be worth the risk. And who knows, Captain Pennington might like me being between her legs just as much as you do. I’m pretty damn good in bed. Right?”
He laughed again when Lucy’s eyes flashed. Her frown made him hard for her. Lucy Hellcat was in there and already finding her way back. And he’d meant every word he’d just said. Where the woman beneath him was concerned, he mostly was just a dumb guy who wanted her.
Feeling the urge to back up his words with action, he cupped Lucy’s breasts again. He nearly choked on his laughter when Lucy slapped his hands away and pushed him off her body.
“I assure you no version of me will ever find your small-minded, selfish masculine attitude anything but detestable,” she said to the ceiling.
“Probably right,” Eric admitted, trying to get his laughing under control. “But that version of you will forgive me for my stupid shit attitude when she finally sees that all I want in the whole world is to be with her, and just her, for the rest of our unnatural lives. I fell for her the first time I accidentally made her cry. I wanted to help her then every bit as much as I want to help you now. As crazy as it sounds, I want her too. I want you both. In fact, I want however many versions of you exist.”
Lucy’s sigh in the dark made him grin. He reached over and pinched her nipple gently. She smacked at his hand. Since she didn’t grab his fingers and break them, he assumed she wasn’t too pissed.
“I promise I will love all of you, Lucy. Go ahead and become all you can be. That’s an old school Army motto, right? Seems suitable in this situation.”
He winced and groaned when Lucy threw herself on top of his body again. It was even worth her knee pressing painfully against his crotch to see her staring so lovingly down into his face.
“I believe it is a very lucky thing for you that I find your face so pleasing. You better hope the other versions of me shares my aesthetics about men. I will make a note of your impassioned, poetic speech and put it beside a recording of you smiling that wicked smile of yours. Maybe the woman I become tomorrow will appreciate it more than I have tonight.”
Her hot mouth aggressively claiming his kept Eric from indulging in the laughter that seemed always nearby when Lucy was wrapped around him.
Chapter 22
Eric watched Lucy sleeping in the cage. Her failing chips had been replaced with new ones, some containing the information Nero had recovered from her damaged primary side. The changes to her New World Companion programming had also been implemented. Everything they had done had worked with her existing secondary processor. Now there was nothing to do but wait until Lucy woke up and see what she’d done with it all.
Good thing he was a patient kind of guy or he’d be even more of a mess than he was.
After Kyra and Nero were sure her restoration fixes had liberated her body from the bomb accidentally detonating, they’d work with military surgeons who would remove it. A third cybernetic operation would replace her primary cybernetic panel… if she chose to do it. Her secondary processor would be shut down at that time, just as Kyra had done to Peyton and William.
Eric was the only double-wired cyborg currently running on a secondary processor from choice. Well, he had been the only one. Now there was Lucy.
“I don’t understand yar thinking, Eric. Why haven’t ya gone down the hall and just killed the undead bastard? Aja and I would have definitely taken the conniving villain out by now in yar shoes. Wait… do ya want us to do it for ya, so you don’t get into any shit? We don’t mind.”
Eric snorted at Meara’s question. It was the twelfth time she’d asked something similar in the last twelve hours. At the moment, Bradley Smith still being alive didn’t worry him. But most men would have killed Meara just for being so annoying. He thought of the highly focused Nero dealing with her and smiled when he lifted his head from his portable com and the novel he was reading.
“My answer isn’t going to change just because you keep asking the question, Meara. Killing Brad would not serve any purpose when he’s already in captivity,” he said flatly.
And it wouldn’t, no matter how much he wished Brad dead. As bad as he hated it, Evil Brad was more useful to them alive. There was still a lot that could be learned… starting with how he’d overridden Kyra’s anti-bad guy programming.
He looked up from his com when he heard Meara’s snort of derision.
“Eric, I’m beginning to like ya, which is why I beg to differ with yar opinion of the matter. The man’s death would rid the world of one more evil scientist. That’s reason enough for the deed in my book.”
Eric nodded. “Yes. My book often reads the same, but Kyra and Nero are still studying Evil Brad. They need him alive to do it best. Nero says he’s a blank slate again. That means he doesn’t know his own ID much less that he attempted to murder anyone.”
Aja turned from the window covered with bars on the inside of the room. Everything about Norton spoke of keeping people in rather than keeping intruders out. She hated the place. “So the experimenter has become an experiment himself. Good. I hope Nero takes his balls.”
Eric snorted. “It’s always ‘go for the balls’ with you two, isn’t it?” He grinned as he watched Aja shrug.
“Yes. Men seem to find them dear. I want the bastard who attacked you and Lucy to know what it’s like to lose the most important part of himself. Let whoever is behind his programming start worrying as well. I agree with Meara that we need to kill him, if for no other reason than setting a proper example of negative consequences.”
Eric’s grin spread across his whole face. He was pleased to have been included in Aja’s fierce defense. If Lucy forgot him, maybe Aja and Meara would remind her. He looked between them. “Is Lucy normally as bloodthirsty as you two?”
“More,” they both answered instantly.
Eric snickered to himself as he watched the two women smile at each other. They traded secrets with their eyes before their amusement faded. Then there was total silence again in the room.
As if their discussion had disturbed her cybernetic sleep, Lucy twisted restlessly on her cot for a while. They all three paused and waited for her to wake, watching her through the bars of her cage. But after two minutes, she settled back down.
Kyra had warned the wake up process could take twenty hours or more. She and Nero had purposely programmed Lucy to assimilate her old life in a way that would best connect with her new one and with what she might have stored in her human mind.
Eric had a feeling when the woman woke up in yet another cage, he was going to get to see her hellcat side again for just that reason. He hoped the assimilated version of Lucy would emerge a bit more rational and be able to understand the cage was a temporary precaution.
And though he had wanted Lucy liberated from her New World Companion code, he also hoped she had managed to retain all the new memories she had made with him.
He glanced at Aja and Meara. His instincts were singing about something they said, but he couldn’t
imagine what.
Maybe he should sneak out and check on Evil Brad before Lucy woke up.
Chapter 23
Another hour in the cage had passed. He manually noted it in a file because he was unable to keep track in any other manner yet. He fought not to let it stress him that his timekeeping ability was not working.
He sat on the edge of the cot he’d woken up on, feet together, breathing slowly. His body was relaxed but alert—an optimal setting according to his processor.
Though on some level he felt like he was wasting time, on another he felt like he was waiting for something.
Yes. He was waiting. That was exactly what he was doing.
But for what, a small part of him asked?
He did not yet know the answer.
He wanted to scratch his head and fought the urge. It was not a necessary movement, so it could only be a waste of energy to make it. He needed to stay relaxed—to stay still while he waited.
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