Ghost of a Machine

by Cynthia Sax

  “And if the enemy had—” She gazed at the main viewscreen and her jaw dropped.

  “No enemy.”

  “No enemy,” she repeated, cutting the engines. “We won.” She jumped to her feet. “Ghost, we won.” She threw herself at him. He caught his tiny human, bemused by her reaction. “We won.” She hugged him, bouncing up and down.

  “We won.” Ghost held her, relishing the feel of her jiggling curves against his hard muscle, enraptured by her excitement.

  He had never doubted they’d win the battle. He wouldn’t have allowed his female to enter the fight if he thought they’d lose.

  She mustn’t have been as certain but she hadn’t shown her concern. He gazed down at the top of her head with pride. His female was strong and brave and skilled at flying. She deserved her role as captain.

  “We made a good team, you and I.” She tilted her head back and gazed up at him. Gold specks danced in her brown eyes, the color matching her hair.

  “Good team.” He sank his fingers into her soft curls. They would be a team for the rest of their now almost-unlimited lifespans.

  As long as he protected her properly.

  She blinked. “Your speech is improving.”

  “Copy.” He had simply echoed her communications. The words were in his processors. Putting them together remained a challenge. When she did that for him, it was easier.

  “Hmmm…” She hummed, her lips vibrating.

  Ghost had to feel that movement, that softness. He caught her trembling bottom lip between his, pulled it into his mouth.

  His female pressed her palms against his bare chest and pushed. He sucked on her, extending her flesh more and more, teasing it with his teeth.

  Her fingers curled and she sighed, opening to him. He stroked into her with his tongue, his tempo hard and fast, a reckless taking of her mouth.

  For one, two heartbeats, his female blocked him, jabbing back, trying to stop an unstoppable force, trying to deny their indisputable passion for each other.

  Then she capitulated, inhaling his tongue, pressing her breasts, her hips, against his hard form, her warmth, her scent surrounding him.

  His cock pushed against her stomach. Their tongues twined and tumbled, his lips slanted, sealed over hers. Her breath wafted against his cheeks, a delicate caress meeting skin that had previously known no softness.

  Being a primitive C Model, an equivalent gentleness was beyond Ghost’s capabilities. He ruthlessly claimed her mouth as he’d earlier claimed her, demanding her submission. She whimpered against his lips, opened wider to him, offering more of her to take.

  He plunged into her mouth, twisted her curls in his hands, securing her to him. She quivered, straining against him. He was naked. Only her garments separated them.

  Ghost gripped her ass coverings, his savage soul telling him to rip them into two, remove that barrier between them. She’d then be his. Completely.

  His female clasped his wrists. He paused. She didn’t have his strength to stop him, didn’t have the physical power to prevent him from tearing the fabric, and he wanted her more than he’d ever wanted anything or anyone.

  But resisting her urging would damage her fragile trust in him. Ghost would never do that. He allowed her to move his hands, to place them on her garment-clad breasts. Her generous curves filled his palms, the most decadent consolation. He squeezed and released, squeezed and released.

  She murmured encouragement against his lips, her words not decipherable yet their meaning understood. His nanocybotics bubbled in her mouth. Her eyes were darkened with desire.

  For him. A sense of wonder filled Ghost. This enchanting being wanted him, belonged to him.

  He was damaged. Speaking was a hardship for him. Tasks that would have been simple for other cyborgs were a challenge.

  And he’d failed other females, females he should have protected. That guilt would always cling to him, should have rendered him unworthy of happiness.

  Yet the universe had sent him this dazzling creature, his chance for redemption, for peace.

  Ghost pulled his head back to look at her, his beautiful human. Her gaze was unfocused. Her lips were plumped with passion. “Mine.”

  She stepped away from him. Cool air swept over his heated skin and he frowned, not liking the distance between them. Her gaze flicked to his hard cock and then back to his face.

  “We had a deal.” She fidgeted.

  “Ship yours.” Ghost gazed at her, confused over her comment. He wasn’t challenging her for control of the vessel. Why was she mentioning it?

  “Yes. Yes.” She waved her hands dismissively. “I know you’ve held up your part of the deal.” She unfastened her chest covering. “I want to hold up mine.” She paused, looking adorably uncertain. “Unless you preferred that I didn’t?”

  He preferred that she bred with him because she wanted to, not because she felt obliged to uphold her part of a deal he’d never sought to make.

  Ghost studied her.

  His female desired him. The scent of her arousal flavored the air. But she had desired him previously and not wanted to breed with him.

  Should he turn down her request or did she want him to say ‘yes’?

  He didn’t know.

  Human females were complicated beings.

  Chapter Six

  “You don’t want me.” Lethe’s face heated. “That’s why you’re not answering me.”

  Mortified, she looked away from him, her gaze moving to the main viewscreen. It displayed open space, the blackness stretching before them. She wished to disappear into that void.

  Because the cyborg she now thought of as hers didn’t want her.

  “I should have known,” she mumbled. “The previous males had fucked me only once but they had other females and you don’t have anyone else, so I thought…” She had thought he’d be desperate enough to fuck her again. “I don’t know what I thought. I won’t—”

  “Mine.” Ghost grabbed her arm, swung her around to face him. “Want.” He placed her hand on his hard cock. Her fingers instinctively curled around his girth, his flesh pulsing against her skin. “Always.”

  Always. Lethe suspected the damaged cyborg didn’t know what it meant. None of the males had stayed with her past one fuck. She found it impossible to believe he’d want her forever.

  He wanted her now. She ran her hand along his length and a thrillingly primitive growl escaped his lips, reassuring her. “I’ll give you what you want.”

  She was to give. He wouldn’t take. That was what he had stressed during their earlier encounter. Lethe reluctantly released his cock and quickly undressed, leaving her boots on. She carefully folded her garments and set them on the console, her fingers trembling with nerves, with anticipation.

  Ghost watched her. His shaggy black hair partially concealed his glowing blue eyes, the strands casting interesting shadows on his gray cheeks. “Beau-ti-ful.”

  She did feel beautiful when he looked at her. Wearing only her big black boots, Lethe lifted herself upward, set her bare ass on the cool console. “I’m yours.” For as long as he wanted her. She leaned back, bracing herself by her elbows, and she spread her thighs.

  He’d mount her now, thrust in and out of her a dozen or so times and come, like he’d done that first time, like all of the other males had done, using her, not caring about her pleasure.

  But with him, she would find pleasure. The nanocybotics in his cum would ensure she found release.

  Ghost crouched between her legs, his gaze trained on her pussy. A normal female might find that close perusal unnerving. Lethe didn’t. There had been little privacy after the Humanoid Alliance attack, in the remnants of the settlements, on the crowded ships.

  He breathed in, his nostrils flaring, and a jagged bolt of energy lit his eyes. “Want.” Warmth caressed her inner thighs.

  “I want you too.” With the other males, that had been a lie she’d told to close the deal. With Ghost, it wasn’t. She wanted him. Her pussy w
as wet. Need circled her.

  He gripped her knees, spreading her legs even more, opening her to him and then pressing downward, pinning her to the console. Even if she wanted to escape him, which she didn’t, she couldn’t. Her primal male had restrained her.

  He didn’t straighten, didn’t mount her. Lethe looked at him, confused, her body prepped by the kissing, the hair pulling, the sting of pain over her scalp.

  She welcomed the roughness, trusted it more than any gentleness. The universe was brutal. Fucking should be the same way.

  Her big C Model cyborg extended his tongue. Lethe stiffened. He wouldn’t, would he? None of the other males had—

  He licked her from ass to clit, his tongue rasping against her sensitive flesh, his nanocybotics coating her, bubbling, fizzing. She screamed, arching her back, coming hard, the pleasure mind-meltingly intense.

  Ghost held her in place, not allowing her wiggle away from him. “Good.” He grunted, bent his head, and proceeded to eat her out as though he were dehydrated and she was the only source of liquid.

  He burrowed his face into her pussy, sucking on her folds, circling her clit, not allowing the bliss to recede, rebuilding her passion, ratcheting it higher. Her fingers and toes curled. Why was he doing this? He already had her. There was no need to tend to her yearnings.

  Yet he did. With a stunning ferocity. Growls and rumbles came from her cyborg’s chest, the vibrations felt through Lethe’s body. He plunged his tongue into her pussy hole, laved her inner walls. She twisted and writhed, waves of sensation hitting her.

  “Ghost.” Her voice was stretched with desire.

  He lifted his gaze, met hers. His gray skin was speckled with her juices. His lips glistened. “Mine.” He resumed licking, sucking, tugging on her.

  “Fuck.” Lethe sank her fingers into his thick black hair. She had to touch him, had to be an active participant in this sure-to-be short-lived debauchery. At any moment, she expected him to realize she was a guaranteed fuck, that he didn’t have to do this, didn’t have to ravish her pussy.

  Until that time, she’d enjoy herself.

  And she’d come. Multiple times. Lethe shook, bombarded by ecstasy yet again. Ghost slurped her wetness, drinking from her, his expression blissful as though he was the being pleasured, not she.

  Tears rolled down her cheeks. She panted, her chest tight with wanting. It was too much, too good, and he showed no signs of stopping.

  Lethe held on to his hair, gripping it as though it was a lifeline to her sanity, because he was making her crazed. She quivered and cried out, elation advancing and retreating, advancing and retreating, an unrelenting army of emotion marching over her captured form.

  “Need. You. In. Me.” She spoke, as he did, in fragments. Sentences were beyond her capabilities.

  He filled her pussy with his tongue and she huffed, frustrated. She yearned for the hardness, the thickness of his cock.

  “No.” She pulled on his hair, trying to force him to move. “Fuck me.”

  He raised his head. “Breed.”

  “Yes, breed.” Lethe didn’t care what he called it. She needed him inside her.

  He licked her once, twice more.

  “Cyborg.”

  Ghost straightened, his lips twitching. The blasted male knew what he was doing to her.

  She glared at him. “Now.”

  “Now.” He grasped her hips, positioned himself at her entrance and thrust hard, deep. One moment she was empty. The next moment she was fuller than she’d ever been.

  She screamed her approval. That was what she craved, what she needed. She wrapped her legs around his waist, locking him in place.

  He pulsed inside her, the connection between them tightening. It was more than physical and that scared her because he didn’t truly know her.

  When he discovered the things she’d done, he’d abandon her, leave and never return, finding a more worthy female, a female who hadn’t used her body as payment, who hadn’t spread her legs for strangers.

  For now, he was hers and she’d please him. She tilted her hips. He slid deeper and they both groaned. She felt all of him, the bloom of his cock head, the veins on his shaft, the firmness of his base pressing against her pussy lips.

  He lowered on top of her, his chest flattening her breasts. His form was skin and muscle stretched over the strongest metal, a wall between her and a dangerous universe.

  She gripped his shoulders and he started to move, pulling out and driving into her, the force shaking her body, clattering her teeth. Her savage male rutted as fiercely as he ate pussy, giving her as much as she could take.

  She could take more than the average female, having survived invasions, battles, pain, loss. They crashed together again and again, her nipples, hips, pussy lips heating, spanked by his skin, the pain accentuating her pleasure.

  Lethe gazed into Ghost’s unusual eyes, captivated by the energy surges within his irises. Those strikes intensified as the two of them waged their erotic war, the interval between thrusts shortening.

  She’d broken her personal record for orgasms in one planet rotation and she didn’t expect to come again. Yet, an erotic anticipation built within her. He would push her over the edge again and she was helpless to stop him. Her satisfaction belonged to him.

  “Yours.” She was his. Lethe dug her fingernails into his skin, marking him as he was marking her.

  “Mine.” His voice lowered to an exciting growl. He mouthed over her neck, the scent of her on his breath.

  “More.” She raked her fingernails over his back.

  He snarled and fucked her harder, punishing her with his chest, his hips, his cock. She throbbed and burned, pushing upward, as wild for him as he was for her.

  Sweat dripped between her breasts, beaded on her arms and legs. She was hot, so hot. Lethe licked her cyborg’s chest, tasting salt and metal. He shuddered, rumbling, past words.

  She didn’t need them. She kicked her booted heels against his clenched ass cheeks, losing herself in their fucking, in his eyes. His jaw jutted. His eyebrows lowered. He was the image of savage determination.

  Stars. She ached for him, her pussy constricting around his shaft. All she needed was—

  He thrust deep and swiveled his hips, grinding against her. She broke, screaming his name, clenching his cock.

  He howled, his back bowing, and he pushed deeper. His eyes flashed. Hot cum hit her inner walls and her scream extended.

  It was too much, too good. The bridge of her newly acquired warship rotated around her. Lights dimmed and brightened. Sound rushed in her ears.

  It was as chaotic as a bombing, her world collapsing around her, her senses blown to bits. Except she wasn’t alone. Not this time. She had Ghost, her cyborg, her male, and she wasn’t letting him go.

  Lethe clutched his shoulders as sensual assault after sensual assault bombarded her, her body rocking, battered by the ferocity of each release.

  “Can’t.” She couldn’t take it, wouldn’t survive this.

  “Safe.” Ghost covered her with his body as though trying to protect her from her own orgasm. The weight of him was comforting.

  She closed her eyes, breathed in, breathed out, breathed in, breathed out. The aftershocks eased. Her control returned.

  “Mine.” He nuzzled against her neck. His nanocybotics bubbled within her.

  “I’m not a good being, Ghost.” Lethe needed to inform him of that, remind herself. She was becoming attached to the male and that couldn’t happen. “I traded my body for this warship.”

  “Want me.”

  “I do want you.” Lethe gazed up at her cyborg, unwilling to lie to him. “But if I hadn’t wanted you, I still would have fucked you.”

  “Breed.” Ghost acted not at all disturbed by her revelation, his tone edged with fondness, not disapproval.

  She didn’t know the difference between breed and fuck. They meant the same thing to her.

  “You don’t understand.” Lethe sighed. “Or maybe you don
’t care.”

  “Mine.” He remained semi-hard inside her.

  She found his state reassuring. He might wish to fuck her again. She touched his handsome face. They might experience this sense of connection again.

  The fuck wounds on his back and shoulders had healed, the skin a paler shade of gray. Lethe brushed his hair away from his eyes, smoothed his eyebrows, trailed her fingers over his model number, down his cheeks.

  Ghost turned his head and kissed her fingertips, one by one.

  That unexpectedly sweet action from her feral cyborg caused her breath to catch.

  In the past, she felt dirty, used, less than worthy, after being fucked. The males had gotten what they had wanted from her. They had left or rolled over, fallen asleep.

  Ghost had gotten what he wanted from her also. Yet she felt like she was more than she once was. She was stronger, more energized, her body fizzing with his nanocybotics. And, when he touched her, kissed her, she felt cared for, cherished.

  It was an illusion. She was unworthy of tenderness. He’d soon discover that fact.

  “You’ll leave me,” she whispered, needing to say that, hear that. “Like the rest.”

  “Not rest.” The lines around her cyborg’s lips deepened. He bracketed her face with his hands. “Mine.”

  The possessiveness in his voice thrilled her. “I’m yours.”

  “Yours.” He leaned his forehead against hers.

  Was he hers? Did he belong to her as she belonged to him? “I haven’t had anyone since I had fourteen solar cycles.”

  She’d fought with her parents the planet rotation of the invasion. They had wanted her to find a role on Mercury Minor.

  She didn’t know what she was seeking, why she was restless, but she knew it wouldn’t be found on their small planet.

  Lethe had told her parents she was leaving Mercury Minor. She wouldn’t live their lifespans. She was meant for different things.

  Her father had yelled. Her mother had looked hurt and disappointed. Her siblings and their mates had shaken their heads, gazing at her with disapproval.

  Lethe had grabbed a handheld to use as a light source and had stormed out of the domicile. She’d exited the settlement, sat on the top of a hill outside the walls.