by Cynthia Sax
Barrel skimmed his lips over hers once, twice, three times, a light teasing caress. She tasted sweet yet tart, submissive yet strong, and he was humbled she was his.
He resisted the temptation of her mouth and tugged gently on her bottom lip. She moaned, wiggled closer to him, pressing her fabric-covered mons against his cock.
Frag. She stripped his control.
“Undress me, Barrel.” Her eyes were dark with passion.
Barrel lifted his female, set her on the console, an unworthy pedestal for such a celestial being. The main viewscreen was behind her, stars framing her gorgeous face, her rapidly expanding hair.
He unfastened her flight suit, eased the garment over her shoulders, kissing along her neck, her collarbone, her arms, paying homage to her body, her skin, her curves.
“Yes, kiss me.” She threaded her fingers through his hair, arched her back, holding him to her, claiming him as he was claiming her.
Her breasts were full and heavy, her nipples dark, tight, sensitive. He nuzzled against them and she twitched, her sharp inhalations of breath titillating him. She was warm and soft, a vivid contrast to the coldness, to the unrelenting cruelty the Humanoid Alliance had inflicted upon him.
“Suck my breasts, Barrel,” she instructed. “Cover me with your nanocybotics.”
All males would know she belonged to him. Barrel tugged, licked, laved, eager to please her, glimpsing a future he never dared to contemplate, one filled with love and laughter and kindness.
Her flight suit fell to her waist. He raised her with one hand, pushed the suit over her ass with the other. Fraggin’ hole. His cock bobbed. Her hips were wide and welcoming, her stomach rounded, her mons bare of all hair.
“Rub against me.” She spread her thighs. “Cover your cock with my wetness.”
Barrel slid his shaft along her folds, breeding without entry. Her breath hitched with every stroke, his tip bumping against her clit. His chest swept over her nipples.
“That’s it.” His Nola clasped his shoulders with her small fingers, dug her heels into his clenched ass cheeks. “That’s the right rhythm.”
He swiveled his hips, grinding into her.
“Stars.” Her eyelashes fluttered. “Stars.” Her fingers curled.
Not wanting her to come, not yet, he eased his erotic torment, returned to the slow thrusts.
His Nola’s breathing leveled. The lines bracketing her mouth disappeared. “You’re good at this.” Her voice was breezy. “A natural.”
“I have a skilled Expert.” Barrel grinned, pride straightening his shoulders. He would please her and she’d never look at another male, would eventually trust him, confide in him. They’d be partners in all ways.
“You’re wet enough.” She lay back on the console. “I need you inside me.”
He needed that also. His balls felt as though they’d soon explode.
Barrel eased into her tight pussy. Frag. She was hot, slick, snug, her inner walls hugging his tip, her purely female fragrance surrounding him.
“Slowly.” His Nola clenched around his arms, digging her fingernails into his skin.
He progressed bit by bit, pushing deeper and deeper and deeper. She moaned, her eyes rolling back.
“You can take me, my Nola,” he assured her. She was designed for him, the only female genetically compatible with him, able to accommodate his nanocybotics.
“Can. Take. You.” She gasped.
Finally, his base touched delicate flesh. He stopped, gazed down at her. Her cheeks were flushed. Her eyes were glossy.
“Did I damage you, my female?”
Her lips curled upward. “You’ve damaged me for all other males.”
“There will be no other males.” Barrel frowned. The thought of a rival touching her caused his emotion system to malfunction. “I’m yours. You’re mine.”
She blinked. “You don’t have a female wherever we’re going?”
She continued to doubt him. He gritted his teeth. “There’s only you. There will always be only you.”
His Nola looked to the right. “And if I’m not who you think I am?”
“You’re my female.” That was enough for him.
“And I’m an Expert.” She didn’t deny that she was his female. “That much is true.”
Her gaze returned to his face. She took a ragged breath, held it for two human heartbeats, exhaled.
“Move.” She bounced her heels against his ass.
Barrel smothered a smile. His female was fierce. She’d tell him all of her truths eventually. They’d breed now, reinforce the already strong link between them.
He pulled back, pushed forward, pulled back, pushed forward, his tempo leisurely, smooth. She rocked with him, tilting her hips.
Beads of sweat formed on her dark skin, glistening like distant suns. He licked every droplet within reach, tasting salt and aroused female.
“Deeper.” She panted. “Faster.”
Frag. Barrel ratcheted up his efforts. She was wonderfully demanding, asking more, more, more of him. His body smacked against hers, her curves absorbing the force of his breeding, a buffer of softness, of caring.
“Yes.” She pumped her hips, meeting him midway. “Body. Hard.”
“Metal frame.” It protected him from damage, physical damage. Nothing could safeguard him from the battle his female was waging on his control.
“Like. It.”
He loved this. Barrel now understand why warriors risked reprimand, flaunted death to breed with their females. He’d lived for many human lifespans and had never experienced anything like being inside his Nola.
Pleasure radiated from all areas of contact. Energy coursed along his circuits. His processors whirled, trying to capture all of the sensations, to apply meaning to emotion so intense; it defied description.
They ravished each other. Barrel plunged his tongue into her mouth and his cock into her pussy. His balls slapped against her skin, the tinges of pain escalating his desire.
She pierced his shoulders with her fingernails, branding them with crimson crescents, leaving her mark on him. Her chest heaved, her generous breasts rising and falling. Her scent engulfed him.
“Barrel.” Her inner walls closed around his shaft. “Clit.”
His female required more stimulation. He braced himself upward with one arm, reached between their bodies and tapped her clit.
“Yes.” She arched her back and clenched down on his cock, removing the last of his battered restraint. He bellowed her name, pushed deep and came hard, spurts of cum jetting from his tip.
His essence made contact with her flesh and she screamed, her form convulsing under his, her pussy squeezing his shaft harder. More cum shot from his beleaguered cock, setting off another explosion inside his Nola.
She came, squeezed him, came again, these aftershocks decreasing in ferocity. Waves of bliss swept over him, causing his processors to malfunction. He collapsed.
His Nola absorbed his weight with no complaint, lying limp underneath him, her expression dazed. He rested for a moment, relishing her warmth, her stillness.
Then he pushed himself backward, plunking his ass in the chair behind him, taking her with him. She straddled his hips, pressed her cheek against his left pec.
“I told you I was an Expert in human female biology.” Her voice was muffled. “I thought that was the truth but clearly I lied.” She mouthed against his skin. “I’ve never experienced anything like that, never read about it in any database.”
“That was breeding.” He petted her hair, which intriguingly made the strands even more wild. “We’ve bonded. We’ll have this connection for the length of our lifespans.”
“Your nanocybotics are still fizzing inside me.”
“They’ll never fade.” Barrel kissed her forehead. “You’ll heal faster, live as long as I do.”
She gazed up at him, her brown eyes wide. “In the database, it stated that cyborgs are designed to last forever.”
He nodded. She�
��d share her long lifespan with him.
“So that’s true.” His Nola’s forehead furrowed. “It also stated that cyborgs are programmed to always tell the truth.”
“That’s correct also.” He dipped his head once more. “I’ll never lie to you.”
“Oh.” Other warriors’ females had been relieved to hear their males couldn’t lie. His female appeared disappointed. “Lying isn’t always bad. It could be a good thing.”
“It isn’t required between a warrior and his female.”
Her lips moved soundlessly as though she was debating with herself. He waited for his female to tell him her secrets, to confide in them.
“If a cyborg lied--”
“He would be deemed defective and decommissioned.” Some warriors were born more human than machine. Those males never progressed past training.
“Decommissioned?”
“He would be sliced into pieces while alive, harvested for parts and then killed.”
Her face paled. “You’d be killed?”
“In the most horrific way possible.” Barrel twirled a lock of her hair around his right index finger, focusing on that black strand, not on the images of friends who had met that fate.
“Stars.” She gulped. “That’s harsh.”
His lips flattened. “The galaxy is harsh.”
His female didn’t respond. More lines edged her mouth, creased the delicate skin between her eyebrows. He’d worried her.
“I’ll protect you from that harshness, my female.” He cupped her face, rubbed his thumbs in soothing circles over her cheeks. “You’re safe now.”
She made a strangled noise.
He drifted his lips over hers, seeking to comfort her. She opened to him, her response pleasing him. He dipped into that heat once, twice, caressing her tongue, and retreated. “Our destination, the planet where the offspring are located, is under cyborg control. No other beings can approach it.”
“Who.” Her voice squeaked. “Who is teaching the offspring now?”
“My friend Zip leads their training.” Barrel received constant updates on their progress. As he spoke with his Nola, his friend communicated over their private transmission line.
“Training?” Some of her pigment returned to her face.
“Battle training.”
“How many solar cycles do they have?”
“The most newly manufactured offspring have two solar cycles. The--”
“You’re training children to fight?” She stared at him.
“They should be able to defend themselves.”
“They have two solar cycles.” She repeated that fact as though it was significant. “They can barely hold weapons.”
“That exercise was a disaster,” he admitted. There hadn’t been enough warriors to comfort all the upset offspring.
“You gave weapons to children with only two solar cycles?” Her voice rose.
“We took them away.” Not soon enough.
“There will be no fighting.” Her sternness was extremely sexy. “You’ll teach them to march. That’s it.” She pursed her lips. “What other subjects are you exposing them to?”
Her tone communicated he should be relaying knowledge to the little humanoids. Fraggin’ hole. He had suspected that. “Their brains aren’t fully developed.”
Ka-Na’s brain might never be fully developed.
“You’re not teaching them anything else.” His Nola narrowed her eyes.
“We’re not.” He gazed back at her.
“You should be teaching them other things,” she stated. “They’ll fall behind on their development.”
Barrel couldn’t disagree with her. They were already far behind a cyborg’s development.
Moments passed.
“You need me.” His female crossed her arms defensively.
“I do.” He needed her in more ways than one. “We have forty-one planet rotations before we arrive on Earth Minor. Will that be sufficient to craft the plans for our new Academy?”
“Our new Academy.” Her words were edged with wonder. “I can craft any plans I desire.”
“We can craft any plans,” he corrected. “We’re partners, you and I.”
She smiled at him.
Chapter Four
For forty-one planet rotations, they traveled through space and planned, creating the Academy of Nola’s dreams.
It would have to be tweaked. Unlike many Humanoid Alliance Experts, she believed every child was different and had slightly different learning requirements.
But the framework was set.
Barrel had listened to her, incorporated her suggestions, viewed her as the Expert she was. She felt respected, valued.
Loved.
When they weren’t talking or eating or she was sleeping, they were having sex, breeding as her cyborg called it, becoming one, unified, a couple. His nanocybotics bubbled inside her, never fading. Their connection strengthened. He’d shown her a happiness exceeding any she’d ever experienced.
That happiness would soon be a bittersweet memory.
Their voyage was over.
The landing on Earth Minor had been rough, an ominous indication of the events to come. Barrel hadn’t been worried, his grin widening with each lurch of the ship. Nola had been terrified, her stress not dissipating after the engines were cut.
“We’re here.” Barrel glanced at Nola. His smile faded. “Are you damaged, my female?” He scooped her out of her seat, and plunked her on his lap. “Tell me where and I’ll repair you.” He ran his big hands over her flight suit.
“I’m not hurt.” She trembled with arousal, fear, dread.
Once they stepped outside the ship, once the Tau Cetian children spoke to her, expecting a fluid reply, he’d know she hadn’t told him the entire truth.
Maybe if they bred one more time, it would make the difference. Maybe he’d forgive her deception. Maybe their relationship would survive.
“I want you.” Nola wiggled her fabric-covered ass against the ridge in his body armor.
“We’ll breed after we meet with the others.” Barrel clasped her hips, stopping her movements and her plans to seduce him. “They’re expecting us.”
They expected an Expert with abilities she didn’t have. The Humanoid Alliance had killed cyborgs for lying.
Barrel would safeguard her from an attack. His honor wouldn’t allow any other response. But he’d be disappointed with her and that would hurt as badly as a physical assault.
Even now, he rubbed his thumbs in circles over her hips, mouthed along her neck, trying to soothe her, soothe the stress he didn’t know was from deceiving him.
If the truth was revealed in public, in front of his cyborg brethren, the children he loved, he’d be hurt and embarrassed.
She loved Barrel too much to do that to him.
Stars. Nola stiffened. She loved him.
It was inevitable. He was kind and brave and intelligent. She turned her head and gazed at his strong chin, his brilliant blue eyes, his dark as night hair. It would be impossible not to love him.
She had to tell him.
Nola took a deep breath, counted to five, exhaled. “I’m not the Expert you need.”
“You’re the only Expert for me, my female.” He kissed her forehead. “Don’t damage yourself. The offspring will love you as I do.”
He loved her. A fierce joy filled her.
“You can’t love me.” She ruthlessly pushed her exhilaration back. “You don’t know me.”
“I know enough.” His eyes glowed. “Can’t you feel the link between us?”
She felt it in the depths of her very being. “You want the children to be warriors.” Her gaze slid to the right. “I couldn’t help you with that. I don’t know how to fight.”
“I want them to be able to defend themselves.” Barrel cupped her face. “I’ll teach you to do the same. You’ll learn quickly, my Nola. You already know battle strategy.”
That’s all she knew—strategy, theory
, nothing real. “When I had four solar cycles, I arrived on Vulpeculae 5 and I never left the planet.” She slipped out of his embrace, away from temptation. “I’m not an experienced traveler.”
She stood, gazing at the tall fir trees filling the main viewscreen, the trunks straight and true.
“Now that we’ve arrived on Earth Minor, our traveling will be limited.” Barrel’s voice held no condemnation. “Experience isn’t necessary.”
His understanding was more difficult to deal with than his disappointment. Because those two confessions had been minor deceptions.
She clasped her hands before her, her fingers trembling. “I’m not suitable for this role, Barrel.”
He got to his feet also, his chest brushing against her back. “Tell me why, my female. Trust me with your secrets. I’d never damage you.”
His proud warrior was pleading with her.
She’d forced him to do that. Nola sighed. There was no avoiding the truth. She had to share it with him. “I can’t speak the language, not properly.”
Silence stretched.
Nola widened her stance, bracing for his reaction, for the male she loved to reject her.
She’d been dismissed by multiple Superiors but this termination would be the worst, an excruciating pain, a wound from which she might never recover.
“You’re speaking the Universal Language proficiently.”
“I can’t speak Tau Cetian proficiently.” Her knuckles whitened. “I’ve studied the language. In theory. Everything I’ve done has been in theory.” She couldn’t hold back her bitterness. “But I’ve never spoken to a Tau Cetian local and the nuances of language are important and--”
“Come here.” Barrel turned her, pressed her face into his body armor-clad chest. “This was the big secret you were hiding from me?” He petted her hair, her back, her ass. “All of the offspring speak the universal language, my Nola. Knowing Tau Cetian isn’t a requirement.”
“I had it listed on my accomplishments,” she mumbled. Why wasn’t he angry? “You chose me because I knew the language.”
“I chose you because, once you opened your beautiful mouth, I knew you were mine.” Barrel hugged her closer to him.
“I deceived you.” She grasped his shoulders. “I didn’t want to but I was desperate for the role and--”
