Taunting Krell (6 page)

“No.” There was no way he wanted a female, especially that one, and Zorus couldn’t make him agree.

“What if she really is Emily Pleva? She saved all of our lives and Mavo will eventually hear about her. I’ll have to tell him that I came to you, explained the situation, and you didn’t even try to protect her. He’s still your friend, isn’t he? I heard he named one of his sons after you and listed that child as your required replacement. He had a child and registered it as yours, just to alleviate your duty to produce one. I can use public opinion to give her an exemption from our laws if you’re able to determine she really is the human who helped us rebel. Every cyborg knows Emily Pleva the one human who has always been our friend. They’ll see her as such and not as a cyborg. Our laws won’t apply to her. She won’t be forced to live with males she doesn’t wish to. She’s very set against it. Think of how much that would mean to Mavo if you protected her. He’s done a lot for you.”

“We should contact Mavo, have him return to Garden and speak with the prisoner. He could determine if she’s telling the truth. He knew her well.”

“But what if she is a spy and not his precious human? Do you remember how torn he was? The agony and guilt he suffered leaving her behind after all she’d done for us? He felt certain she suffered punishment for her actions. It would rip open those old wounds that have healed if he’s given hope she is who she claims to be but tear him apart if she’s not. I would really prefer he not find out about this until we’re certain of who we are truly dealing with. I can prevent him from learning about this while he’s assigned on the
Vontage
with Steel. I can even extend their mission to give you a few weeks to discover the truth. That way when the ship returns home we’ll be able to tell him the truth.”

“You’re an asshole.”

A grin suddenly curved the other cyborg’s mouth. “So are you. We both care about Mavo and he cares about that human. We don’t want him to be hurt.”

Krell knew when he’d been outmaneuvered. That would be the sinking feeling inside his gut and the anger that heated his blood. “There will be no joining ceremony. This isn’t real. It’s temporary. I’ll prove she’s a spy, unworthy to live, or that she is Emily Pleva. This nonsense ends as soon as I am certain either way.”

“Agreed.” Zorus had the nerve to chuckle. “I’ll inform the council that you wish to join with her. They’ll easily agree since she acknowledged she knew you from before or at least claimed to. It will be a relief to them to avoid making that decision.”

“I never met her while on Earth.”

“They’ll be happy to have a resolution. You’re a good candidate.” Zorus paused. “Is your sperm viable? That may be considered by them as a negative if it isn’t.”

“I’m not touching her.”

“I know that but the council doesn’t.”

“Unbelievable,” Krell growled. “I have viable sperm if I take the injections to activate it. I am not completely sterile.”

“Perfect. I see nothing for the council to object to.”

“She won’t agree.” Hope soared inside Krell at that prospect. He’d thrown the female across a room and while she hadn’t been afraid of his appearance, she wouldn’t welcome it. “You said it yourself. She is very set against joining a family unit.”

Zorus smiled. “I’ll handle that. Make an appointment with Medical to get the shots. We want this to look good. I have a friend there who owes me a favor. I’ll contact him, make him agree to state that you took the shots, and after he agrees, I’ll tell you who to see.” Zorus hesitated. “You refused to put name markings on your body due to your abundance of scars. I’ll tell the council you still hold an aversion to putting more on your body to explain your lack of wishing a joining ceremony to be performed. They’ll accept that easily.”

“I’m not touching her.”

“You won’t have to and you don’t really have to take the shots to activate your sperm but we want all the paperwork to appear real. That’s why I’m calling in the favor.” Zorus spun, opened the door and sailed out.

Krell glared at the closed door and growled. “I hate that jerk.”

Chapter Four

Cyan watched the big cyborg cautiously as Krell’s cold blue eyes raked down her body. His scars were revealed clearly, his long black hair pulled back inside a leather thong behind his neck in a long braid that fell to his waist, and she was pretty certain he’d purposely done it to intimidate her. He wasn’t wearing a uniform now. Instead he wore a black tank top that showed off the scars on his throat and his arms. More scars were displayed on his chest where the material didn’t cover.

“I have a guestroom,” he grunted, his raspy voice harsh. “You are not permitted to leave my home. I’ve been warned of your hacking skills if you are the human you claim to be. I will refrain from saying that name due to being told it causes you pain. The systems have been taken offline and only work manually with my palm print.” He raised one hand, showed it to her, and his eyes narrowed. “You’d have to drag my unconscious body to the door lock to get it open. It would register if I didn’t have a pulse.” The hand tightened into a fist as it lowered to his side. “I wouldn’t recommend attacking me. You’d lose.”

“Okay.” She took a deep breath. “My, aren’t you friendly.”

“Is that a joke?” He didn’t appear amused.

“I guess not.”

He growled under his breath. “This was not my idea and I’m not pleased with having a houseguest. I don’t trust you. I believe you’re still working for Earth Government but the council refused to detain you. You need around-the-clock supervision.”

“And it was your lucky day?”

Blue eyes narrowed more.

“Keep doing that and you won’t be able to see me.” She mimicked him, hoping to draw a smile, and wondered how well he could see her. “You’re blurry.” She stopped squinting at him and smiled. “Who did you piss off to get this assignment?”

He frowned but his eyes opened fully. “It was determined by Councilman Zorus that you should stay here. He knows I won’t touch you while other males might be inclined to do so.”

“Touch me? As in ‘I look human and they wanted to mess with my face because I’m the enemy’ or in a way that would make me castrate them?”

“Either way. I don’t beat on females without cause and I’m not interested in you physically.”

“Good thing.” Her gaze raked up and down him with a quick sweep. “You’re huge. I can’t say her real name either without it causing pain, so I’ll call her Bee. She used to tell me that while she’d had a hand in creating males, she made everything size proportionate to their bodies. She had a twisted sense of humor and couldn’t resist arguing that point in the developmental stages. She won that fight.”

The cyborg frowned.

“Bee was your creator’s assistant from the beginning. She helped him with every step of the process in creating cyborgs. She also fought to give you the ability to grow hair quicker because she had a thing for long-haired men.” Cyan shrugged. “She also hated hairy men from the neck down.” She glanced at his black pants and her smile widened before she jerked it up to his face. “No manscaping needed.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means you don’t have a lot of body hair and you don’t need to shave. You can thank a man on the team for having armpit hair. He said you’d look odd without it. Some Models were given a little chest hair because of him as well.” She glanced at the bare skin showing above the material of his shirt, no hair in sight, and met his gaze again. “You didn’t get any. You weren’t designed for a mining assignment. They worked with their shirts off because of the extreme heat. He wanted those Models to fit in with human workers.”

He stared at her for a long moment while Cyan shifted her stance. “Too personal? Sorry. I tend to babble when I’m nervous.”

“What else do you know about us?”

She hesitated. “You were designed to be a security model. Your height and tankish body give it away. They wanted you to tower above the average human and be built for intimidation. Mission accomplished. You sure do that. I bet it’s tough to find shirts big enough to fit you.”

He said nothing.

“Be happy you aren’t purple. That was Bee’s favorite color but the guys on the team refused. They chose gray tones instead since they were ordered to make it obvious you weren’t human. She wanted to go with a nice magenta, which is kind of bright and a little pink. It totally would have ruined the badass look you have going on.”

Anger glinted in his eyes. “You find this amusing?”

“Not really but it beats us having a staring contest, doesn’t it? You’re not real talkative and that leaves it up to me to open a line of communication.” She watched him.

“I’ll take you to your room. I’m sure you’re in need of rest.”

“No. Please? I’ve been locked to a med bed and was about to go out of my mind. I’m used to activity. I’m not into sitting still much or a big sleeper.”

He didn’t speak and it started to bug her. She’d rather argue with him than just stand there mute. Anything would be better than being locked inside a room until she screamed from boredom. She studied his clothes, the way his muscles were tense, and glanced around the room. A workout area had been set aside and he had a punching bag, weights to lift and a lot of padded floor.

“Were you working out when I arrived?”

“Yes. I do that to stay fit and healthy.”

“You were designed that way so it doesn’t matter if you work out or not. You’ll always look like this.”

He growled at her in response.

She frowned. “Look, I’m the same way. I could eat and eat but I don’t gain weight. It kind of sucks. I never thought I’d bitch about that but after a few decades you just want to change something, anything, but it doesn’t happen. My body maintains and so does yours.” She glanced down at her chest. “Be happy you’re a defense model. I think they stole a sexbot design to make this body and scaled everything back but the breasts.” She tilted her head slightly, staring at him. “Talk about uncomfortable. I wonder how long they had the body displayed inside the lab, in storage. They don’t clothe them, you know. The team who designed it had to have seen it every day. Yuk. Talk about needing therapy.”

Emotion finally showed on his face when he expressed shock. “A sexbot?”

“Yeah. I’ve got double-D cups. Those are sexbot specifications. No other work Models or clones were made with breasts that size. I wish they hadn’t screwed with my height though. I’m betting they did it to hide the fact that no Models were designed this small and it helped hide the fact that this body isn’t totally human. I looked up the measurements for the sexbots and standard on them is about five foot seven or eight. They shortchanged me. That’s a joke.” She smiled. “Get it? Short and they changed me?”

He stared at her.

“Do you have a sense of humor at all? I’m trying real hard here to get you to crack a smile.”

“No.”

“Big surprise. Great. I’m locked up with the grim cyborg. Maybe you should call Councilman Zorus and tell him to assign me to someone else. At least jerks who want to beat on me or nail me would talk. You know, telling me I suck for being human-looking or how I should suck on them.”

His mouth twitched.

“Ah ha! You almost smiled, didn’t you?”

“No. That was a grimace. I understood the crude reference.”

“I’m just grateful you got the innuendo. There’s hope for you yet.” She glanced at his workout area again. “Want to spar?” Her gaze slid to his. “Since you aren’t much of a talker? I could use the physical outlet.”

“It wouldn’t be fair and your leg is injured.”

She bent and removed her boots since he wasn’t wearing any footwear. She removed her socks before she straightened. “I heal fast and the leg is all good now. I know it won’t be fair but I’ll try to go easy on you. I won’t hurt you.”

His mouth dropped open and his eyes widened before he hid his shocked response. “I meant it wouldn’t be fair to you. You are no match for me.”

She inched closer and grinned. “The bigger they are, the harder they fall. That’s an Earth saying if you don’t remember or never heard it. You’re going down.”

“You’re serious? You want to spar with me?” He backed up into the center of the padded mats and actually smiled.

Cyan had to remember to breathe. It changed his face so much and despite the scars, she could tell he’d once been truly handsome. He still was—the scars on his face gave him a rakish, dangerous look. She followed him onto his training mats. Her hands rose, palms open, and she rolled her shoulders to loosen up.

“How about a little wager? If I win, you have to try to talk to me more, Krell. The tall, dark and moody thing drives me kind of nuts. I’ve spent too much time with an annoying computer over the past few weeks. Your doctors just wanted to ask me questions that gave me a migraine and that kind of ruined hearing another voice. Deal?”

“You’re a soldier, correct? Earth Government trained you to fight?”

“Yes.”

“I’m going to win. Their training wasn’t sufficient.”

“Really? What do you want from me if you win? Notice I said ‘if’. Don’t get too cocky.”

“Silence for five hours.”

“Ouch.”

His hands lifted and his palms opened. She had to admit feeling a little relief at the gesture. She didn’t want to box with the cyborg. A punch from one felt like hitting a wall, from what she remembered. He couldn’t break her bones but he could cause damage to her body. Bruises or split skin hurt.

“Deal?” He almost appeared happy to her.

“Fine. Now I know you’re going to kiss the mat, Too Tall. I can’t shut up for that long.”

“I’ll take it easy on you. It will be considered my win after you’re pinned flat and unable to move.”

Cyan laughed. “You’re so confident. I’ll have to tell you all about my likes and dislikes after I pin you down. I like that in a man though. That bit of info was free.”

He crouched a little, his blue eyes glinted with amusement, and it brought him down more to her level. It was a mistake but she appreciated him trying to even their heights out as much as possible. It told her he was into fair fights and it made her like him more.

“You come at me,” he rasped in that deep, husky tone of his, “when you’re ready to rest on the floor.”

“You ready? I don’t want you whining afterward that I took you by surprise.”

He actually chuckled, a wonderful sound. “I’m prepared to enjoy five hours of non-chatter.”

“I’ll remember you said that and we’ll talk about it.” She suddenly lunged to his left and made him twist his upper body to try to follow her. She threw out an arm, nailing him in the hip.

He stumbled off balance, his crouched position already putting him at a disadvantage, and she pounced. Her fingers gripped his forearm, hot skin registered as she touched him, and she yanked him forward to put him totally off balance but used the hold to propel her at him in the same motion.

Their bodies collided but she had the advantage as they fell. She landed on top of him. He twisted onto his back a split second before he hit the mat and shock widened his eyes when he found her sprawled over his chest. She moved fast, threw a thigh over his hip, straddled him, and used her free hand to slam the palm of it into his diaphragm as she lifted to sit on his hips.

It knocked the air from of his lungs as he hissed out a breath and her hold on his arm slid up to his shoulder. She used all the strength in her arm to pull as she lifted up, grabbed his hip and rolled him while he fought to catch his breath. Her weight collapsed onto his ass when she straddled him again, grabbed for his wrists and yanked them behind his back, twisting them up to the point she knew he’d feel pain but it wouldn’t hurt him too much.

“What is that I hear, Krell? Did you say uncle?”

He gasped in air and his body tensed under hers. She clamped her knees on his hips tightly, lifted her feet, hooked them between his partially spread thighs and leaned forward enough to jerk them apart. Muscles strained and she knew she was going to hurt later from pulling a few but she managed to spread his thighs enough to make it harder for him to roll back over.

He snarled, not really a word but it might have been a curse. His head reared back but she jerked hers to the side just in time to avoid him smashing her face with the back of his skull. He tried to roll but with his arms twisted up his back and held in the center of his spine, he couldn’t find any leverage.

“You’re pinned, Too Tall.”

When his body felt as if it turned to stone under her she actually experienced fear. He was stronger and in a lengthy fight, he’d win. She’d had surprise to her advantage and knew she couldn’t hold him down for long.

He took some deep breaths but only turned his head to stare at her over his shoulder. Anger burned in those chilly blue eyes. “I could get free but I’d have to seriously injure you.”

“Don’t be a sore loser.”

She released his wrists and her legs relaxed. She managed to bite back a groan as pain shot up her thigh to her butt. That move would cost her for sure but she’d heal within a few hours from the muscle damage. The guy was really strong. She didn’t move from her seat on his ass but she did straighten.

He suddenly rolled and surprised her. Cyan gasped as her back hit the mat and she ended up pinned under about two hundred sixty pounds of muscular cyborg. He moved fast, jerked her arms above her head to secure her wrists with his hands, and since she’d been sitting on him with her legs spread, his hips ended up snugly cradled between her thighs. She swallowed and stared up at him with a little worry. He wasn’t crushing her but enough of his weight rested on top of her that she could barely draw breath.

“How did you do that?”

She stared into his eyes. “You underestimated me. It’s a common mistake. I am short, appear to be totally human, but I’m stronger than they are. Faster.”

His gaze lowered to her mouth and he adjusted his weight to ease some of it off her chest. It did however move his hips as he slid a few inches upward. Her eyes widened and her lips parted in surprise. That wasn’t just his hips pressed against her. Something hard and thick wedged along the seam of her pants.

“Are you angry?”

He met her gaze again. “I’m surprised and slightly irritated but the latter is directed at myself.”