Cyborg

by Kaitlyn O'Connor

  That didn't necessarily mean that either Reese or Dante was warning others away from her, but it was possible their interest could've been interpreted that way.

  "You think they're afraid of the cyborgs?"

  He shrugged. “Under other circumstances, it would be more accurate to say ‘respectful'. Under current circumstances...."

  She could see his point. “If you think that, then why are you speaking to me?” she asked curiously.

  He studied her in silence for several long moments and finally a grin dawned. “Either you are the most adorably obtuse female I've ever met, or, like every other huntress in this room you are far too deeply engrossed in sorting through your feelings on the matter to realize what's going on around you."

  Amaryllis blinked at him, mildly offended by the comment despite the fact that he'd obviously not intended to be insulting.

  "Men are actually pretty simple creatures ... even if they happen to be cyborg men and not human men. In one fell swoop we've ceased to be an army and become colonists for a distant world. It, surely, can't have escaped your notice that, in this room alone, hunters outnumber huntresses roughly two to one. By my calculations—depending, of course upon just how many cyborgs await us on our new home world—those numbers are obliged to climb sharply. I'd thought, perhaps, your interest was engaged elsewhere. Since that still seems to be a matter of debate I see no reason not to pursue my own interests."

  Amaryllis felt her jaw go slack with surprise. “You're ... uh ... you're ... flirting with me?"

  He grimaced. “Not very well apparently,” he said wryly.

  She frowned. “Because there aren't enough females to go around?"

  A pained expression crossed his features. “In fact, very, very badly,” he amended. He tilted his head at her speculatively. “I don't suppose you'd believe me if I said that it was love at first sight?"

  "No."

  He sighed. “I thought not."

  Amaryllis couldn't help but chuckle. She decided he must be teasing. “You first saw me three years ago when I arrived for training."

  "At first notice?” he suggested.

  She repressed the urge to smile. “Which was when you finished counting heads, I suppose?"

  His lips tipped up at one corner, capturing her attention. He was certainly not unfamiliar to her even though she'd never worked with him. Up until Reese had joined their group, though, she'd been inclined to think Cain was probably the most attractive of all the hunters. His features were sharp, too angular to really be considered ‘beautiful', and there was nothing at all boyish about him, but there was something so thoroughly masculine about him that he was extraordinarily attractive in an indefinable way. He had been to her, anyway, but then she'd been starved for male attention and, she thought, inclined to fall for any attractive male that glanced in her direction without a look of revulsion crossing his features.

  After the corrective surgery that had made her ‘normal’ the boys she'd known throughout her childhood had ceased to torment her and tried to engage her interest, but she hadn't trusted any of them enough to allow them to come near her.

  And she'd still yearned to be courted as the other girls were and more than half hoped she would have the chance of some sort of relationship once she left the colony. It was born in upon her the moment she entered training that that wasn't going to be an option. Fraternizing wasn't allowed, at least not that sort of fraternizing, and the company took steps to ensure the temptation was minimized by lacing their contraceptives with drugs that inhibited sexual arousal ... which only meant they weren't preoccupied with sex, not that they never thought about it.

  It certainly hadn't kept her from noticing that she was surrounded by drop dead gorgeous, extremely well built men, but then none of them, including Cain, had seemed to notice her. Not that that had particularly bothered her. She'd spent her entire life admiring from afar without expectation of actually being noticed herself and found she was completely comfortable with it ... far more so than getting up close and personal.

  "To be perfectly accurate, it was when you arrived for training. I was the one who signed you up, but I'm not surprised you don't remember. I've never seen a volunteer look quite so terrified."

  Amaryllis blushed to the roots of her hair. She remembered. She was surprised he did, though, but then again they didn't get that many recruits—in fact none, except her if she accepted what they'd been told. The others had all been programmed to ‘volunteer’ for service. It flickered through her mind to wonder why they'd decided to induct her when she wasn't one of the soldiers they'd built, but she supposed after a moment that they'd feared unpleasant questions might have arisen if they'd refused her when she was supposedly bionically superior to the other recruits. “I wasn't."

  His brows rose skeptically.

  "All right, I was. But that was only because everything ... was so new to me,” she finished lamely, erecting her guard with an effort, suddenly acutely self-conscious of the fact that her background didn't even begin to match the one common to the others.

  His eyes narrowed speculatively. “I was surprised they accepted you. You didn't seem ... soldier material to me."

  She gave him a look. “I was damned good at it, thank you. Good enough they considered me qualified to work solo."

  "Until your ‘accident',” he amended.

  Admittedly, her performance hadn't been what it should have been, but faulty intelligence had played a part in the fiasco, as well. She'd been tracking one—a female cyborg—she'd never been sent out to take down a male, and certainly not more than one at the time. She knew she should've been more careful, but the plain fact of the matter was that she'd trusted the intelligence she'd been given when she shouldn't have, and found herself outnumbered. “I was outnumbered four to one,” she said finally.

  "I'd always thought that seemed curious. In retrospect it seems less so."

  "How is that?"

  "I think the objective was to capture you—which is the reason I referred to it as your accident. Apparently the company thought so, too, and that's why they paired most of the huntresses with a hunter. I'd requested to be assigned as your partner, but your recovery seemed uncertain at the time and they assigned me to Violet instead."

  Amaryllis was surprised both by his request to be assigned to her and the suggestion that the cyborgs had had plans for them far longer than she'd suspected. “So you're thinking Reese was assigned to protect me?"

  "By The Company, yes."

  She frowned. “But not by the cyborgs, who were really giving him his orders?"

  His lips thinned. “I'd like to say yes, but, in all honesty, I doubt it. You are certainly of value to them ... but more so to some than others."

  "Meaning?"

  He smiled wryly. “I am not going to allow you to badger me into furthering his cause when I've more interest in my own."

  "Which is...?"

  He chuckled. “Pledging my undying devotion, of course, before it occurs to the cyborg twins that a woman wants to be wooed before she's...."

  "Screwed?"

  Laughter gleamed in his eyes. “Made love to."

  The conversation was risqué, for her, to say the least, but she found that she was far more intrigued and entertained than offended or embarrassed.

  "There's a difference?"

  His eyes narrowed speculatively. After a moment, he shifted to face her, laying an arm along the back of the couch and then propping his cheek on his hand. “Worlds. I'd be more than happy to show you."

  Amaryllis chuckled but shook her head. “You have to be in love for that ... not in lust."

  "But I am,” he protested.

  "Which?"

  "Both,” he replied promptly.

  "You always were such a tease, Cain. You were in lust with me last week!"

  Chapter Thirteen

  The teasing light vanished instantly from Cain's eyes. A look of annoyance took its place as he glanced up at Violet.

&nbs

p; "Trying to work your way through the harem?” she added, gesturing to the room at large.

  "I see I underestimated you ... partner. Clever. Any rebuttal on my part will only make me look worse."

  Violet shrugged. “She was never in any danger of taking you seriously. Were you, Amaryllis?"

  Amaryllis glanced uncomfortably from Violet to Cain. He was angry, no matter how well he hid it, but the question was, angry because what Violet had said was the truth? Or because she was lying and he couldn't defend himself without looking as bad as she'd painted him? She managed a tight smile. “We're all bored and anxious, Violet, but I don't think trying to create trouble among ourselves is at all wise."

  Surprise flickered across Violet's face, but anger quickly supplanted it. She leaned down until she was almost nose to nose with Amaryllis. “Then maybe you should consider who you dangle after,” she said through gritted teeth.

  Amaryllis’ fist clenched reflexively. Before she could do anything she might have regretted later, however, she felt a warm hand cover hers in warning. She glanced down at the hand when Violet had straightened and stalked away and then up at Cain. Almost reluctantly, he withdrew his hand from hers.

  "I can't woo you if you're in solitary for belting her in the mouth,” he murmured, his tone teasing. “Not that I wasn't tempted myself,” he added reflectively.

  She gave him a look. “It was the ‘in your face’ thing,” she said tightly.

  He feigned a look of disappointment. “You're not dangling after me, then?"

  A snort of laughter escaped her. Amaryllis clapped a hand over her mouth. “You can laugh. It isn't you she wants to pound into a bloody pulp,” she chided him.

  He grimaced. “No. She has something equally horrible in mind for me, though. She seems to be laboring under the impression that we should make the partnership more permanent."

  It wasn't exactly a revelation. “Really? She suggested she was interested in ... one of the cyborgs."

  He shrugged. “It's my considered opinion that we're all going to need a little reprogramming if we're to manage this mating thing the cyborgs have in mind. Frankly, we just don't have the skills for it. Look at how badly I'm faring and I've at least had a little practice ... programming, at any rate."

  Amaryllis looked as confused as she felt.

  He frowned, all traces of amusement vanishing from his expression. “My programming scenario. It was my wife I lost. But then none of it actually happened, did it? The woman I thought I loved never really existed except in my mind."

  It didn't really matter, though. The mind believed what it had been told. “They really are cold blooded bastards, aren't they?” Amaryllis said angrily. “How could they ... why would they create such awful histories for everyone?"

  He scrubbed a hand over his face. “So that we wouldn't turn out like the cyborgs."

  "But ... everyone has horrible memory implants. Isn't that as bad?"

  "They couldn't leave us with anything we could track down and disprove. Maybe they thought the emotional wounds would make us harder, more dangerous. It's anybody's guess, but, for my part, I rather envy the cyborgs. At least they always knew. It isn't easy going to sleep a man and waking up a cyborg ... enemy of the true people."

  Amaryllis felt a pang of empathy. Impulsively, she grasped his hand and gave it a sympathetic squeeze. She'd been so wrapped up in her own concerns it hadn't occurred to her that all the captives were as confused and anxious as she was. “You think it's as bad as that?"

  His fingers tightened on hers. “I do. I hope you're not still considering going back. Thereis no going back, you know,” he said gently.

  She shrugged. “I will miss ... what I left behind, but I realize the chances of making it back are less than nothing now. Unless they agree to take those of us back who don't want to stay, there's no way we'd ever manage it on our own."

  He smiled faintly. “You're not precisely resigned to your fate then, are you?"

  She forced a smile. “I don't give up on anything very easily."

  * * * *

  "You've been avoiding me. Now why, I wonder?"

  Amaryllis had just settled against a broad column in a quiet corner of the rec room where she'd hoped to escape notice. She jumped at the voice near her ear and glanced up at Cain in surprise. She reddened guiltily. “I haven't been."

  "You don't lie very well,” he said wryly.

  She sighed. “I thought it best to avoid ... trouble."

  He grinned, arching a dark brow. “Now I'm trouble?"

  "Violet."

  The teasing amusement vanished. His lips thinned. He glanced away from her, studying a group of hunters that were engaged in a game of pool at one of the tables across the room. “I thought as much. You believed her, then?"

  Her gaze flickered over his handsome face searchingly. “I don't think you're like that ... but you could be."

  He glanced at her questioningly and she smiled faintly.

  "You are very ... persuasive."

  "Am I?"

  His grin was infectious. Amaryllis felt her own lips trembling on the verge of a smile. She nodded. “And I couldn't help but wonder...."

  "Don't,” he said implacably, then scrubbed a hand over his face. “This isn't a game to me, Amaryllis.” He moved imperceptibly closer, until barely a foot separated them. “I'm in deadly earnest. If we didn't have cyborgs swarming all over us I'd show you just how serious I am."

  His words as well as the promise in his eyes were as tangible as a caress and Amaryllis’ breath left her in a rush. Sensation prickled along her skin. Heat pooled in her belly.

  "If you keep looking at me like that I'm liable to do something really stupid,” he growled warningly.

  It scared her that she wanted him to. She swallowed with an effort and dragged her gaze away. It was more difficult to banish the images that rose in her mind. She cleared her throat. “I'm having a lot of trouble adjusting to ... all of this. I don't know how I feel about anything except ... it has helped more than I can say just to have someone to talk to.” Not to feel so terribly alone and isolated.

  He smiled wryly and shrugged. “I can live with that ... for now."

  She shook her head. “I'm not so sure this would be a good thing—for either of us. I don't want to cause you any trouble."

  She didn't mention Violet, but they both knew Violet wasn't going to stop. Maybe she realized her interest in Cain was a lost cause, and maybe not, but even if she did she'd made it clear that she wasn't simply going to go away.

  Reese had indicated that she was here because he'd seen to it that she was and, she suspected, he considered he had a prior claim on her. Beyond the fact that both Reese and Dante had the ability to drive her over the edge of reason with passion, she didn't know how she felt about either one of them, but she had a feeling neither of them would consider that they'd finished what they'd started. Once they arrived on the new world and were no longer segregated they might take violent exception to Cain, particularly if they decided that Cain was taunting them by taking advantage of the situation.

  It wasn't that she suffered any doubts that Cain could hold his own. She simply didn't want him to have to.

  For that matter, she didn't want to think that Reese or Dante might be hurt because of her.

  "Is this to protect me, or them?"

  Amaryllis reddened. “Maybe it's to protect me."

  He studied her a moment and shook his head. “I'll give you my word I won't provoke a confrontation, but I'm not going to back down from one either. But if you think you can avoid it by refusing to have anything to do with me, you're wrong. They've been watching us together since I approached you and neither of them look the least pleased about it."

  Amaryllis glanced up guiltily at that comment, more than half suspecting that Cain had only said it to gauge her reaction. She saw, however, that he'd stated nothing but the truth. Reese was standing at the observation window directly above them with murder in his eyes. Dante, standing slightly to one side of Reese, looked more angry, if possible.

  A shiver of uneasiness went through her with the realization that she'd instigated just the sort of thing she was hoping to avoid. She glanced at Reese angrily. “You knew they were there!” she said accusingly.

  He gave her an assessing look. “I told you I did,” he said coolly.

  "I mean when you stopped, when you ... acted as if you were going to kiss me."

  His lips quirked upward on one side. Devilment gleamed in his eyes. “I had a lot more than kissing on my mind."

  Her heart fluttered in her chest, making her suck in a sharp breath. In the next moment, her eyes narrowed. “You're trying to provoke a fight!"

  He gave her a look of innocence. “Not I."

  "I don't like this ... at all!” she snapped unhappily. “Am I supposed to be flattered?"

  "Some women would be."

  She poked him in the chest with her finger. “Well, I'm not. And I'll tell you something else, the three of you can slug it out if you want to, butI will decide who I want to be with."

  "In that case, you'll need a sample for comparison,” he growled.

  Amaryllis was still gaping at him in surprise when he grasped her waist, jerked her up against him, and bent down to cover her mouth in a kiss that was filled with both anger and passion and provoked a nearly instantaneous riot of sensations from her.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Taken completely off guard, Amaryllis was too stunned to think, much less to act. The heat and urgency of his mouth filtered through her senses first, warming her to an exquisite awareness of the hard body she rested against. The rough caress of his tongue along hers, the invasion of his unique scent and taste, made her heart quicken, stole the breath from her lungs. Waves of heat swept through her, leaving dizziness in its wake. A heaviness settled over her so that she leaned weakly against him, clutching at him for support.

  Sensing her reaction, Cain's arms tightened around her, his kiss becoming an erotically thrilling imitation of the mating dance. Amaryllis’ body reacted as if it he was making love to her in truth, the muscles low in her belly clenching almost painfully. Blackness swirled around her. Her knees went weak.

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