Breathing Vapor (9 page)

Her head jerked upward. “Your back.”

“Is healing.” Her concern warmed him.

She scurried backward. “Lie on the sleeping support.”  She patted the surface.

“Cyborg warriors don’t need to rest.” And he wasn’t merely a cyborg warrior. He drew himself up to his full height. He was the best.

“Do this for me. I need to see your wounds.” Mira gazed up at him, turbulence in her normally ice cold eyes. “When they shot my mom, I refused to leave her side. I was certain she’d heal like my father’s cyborgs did. But her wounds never closed and the puddle of blood around us expanded more and more. My mom’s heart slowed, stopped. She was dead yet I stayed, unable to accept her passing. Warriors had to drag me away.”

“Were these warriors cyborgs?”

She shook her head. “They were human.”

Good. Vapor didn’t like the thought of some of his kind hurting her.

“I have to see for myself that you’re not like her.” Her hands twisted in the covering. “That you won’t die. I need to be reassured that you’ll heal.”

His female had lost so much and didn’t want to lose him. She cared about him—a cyborg. Struck mute by emotion, Vapor climbed onto the sleeping support. He faced downward so she could see his back.

Mira leaned over him, her perusal heating his circuits. “You’re no longer bleeding. There’s a thin layer of skin over your wounds now.” She touched an undamaged patch. “Are you in pain?”

“No.” He closed his eyes, tracking her exploration of his body with his other senses. Her caresses were light, dancing on his skin, and she smelled of him.

That pleased Vapor.

“Should we help your friend?”

“He doesn’t need help.” Thrasher, judging from his never-ending reports via the transmission line, was bored out of his processors, guarding the entrance to the tunnels.

“We should do something.” Mira rested her head on Vapor’s arm. Her breathing slowed. She wasn’t a cyborg warrior. His little human required rest.

“Sleep.” He rolled onto his side and gathered her to him, savoring her curves and her soft compliance. It wouldn’t last, he knew. His female was in shock, her thoughts occupied by the attack. Once she recovered, she’d battle him as she had in the past. “When you wake, we’ll take action.”

“We should take action now.” She yawned.

His lips twitched. “You’re in no condition to breed with me.”

Mira blinked. “You wish to breed with me again?”

He wished to breed with her always. “Yes.” Vapor cupped her head, pressing her face to his chest. “But first, you must restore your energy levels.”

Chapter Eight

Mira had no wish to restore her energy levels. She was emotionally exhausted, could barely focus her eyes, but she knew what was waiting in the darkness.

Staying awake was preferable to her nightmares.

The dreams never changed. Each rest cycle, she revisited every death she had caused, every life she’d inadvertently ended, starting with her mom’s execution. She’d see the shock on her mom’s face when she found out her best friend, her husband, even her daughter had betrayed her. Gunfire would ring out, shockingly loud. Her mom’s body would dance in the air. Mira would rush to her side, feel her heartbeat slow under her palms. Blood would pool around her knees.

The other deaths were as gut wrenching. She couldn’t, wouldn’t relive them.

Vapor rubbed her back, up and down, up and down, the motion soothing. Mira’s eyelashes fluttered. Each blink became slower and slower.

She fell asleep.

And dreamed about nothing.

When Mira woke, Vapor’s arms were wrapped around her tightly. His nanocybotics bubbled within her. He must have protected her from her memories.

She didn’t want to leave his sanctuary, didn’t want to face the devastation, the death, the guilt. Feigning slumber, she lingered in his warm embrace.

“You’re awake,” Vapor rumbled.

“No, I’m not.” She remained still. “I’m asleep.”

“You lie even about that.” He snorted softly. “How can any being ever trust you?”

Vapor didn’t lie, yet she couldn’t trust him. His first loyalty was to his fellow cyborgs, not to her, never to her. “You
can’t
trust any being. I’ve learned that much in my lifespan. My mom was betrayed by the husband she loved, by the friends who vowed to always remain by her side, by me, her own daughter.” She whispered that last part.

Vapor had cyborg senses. He heard everything. “Did you lie to your mom, also?”

“Worse. I shared information about our secret place with one of her friends.” Lydna had resorted to tears to gain that knowledge. It was a tactic Mira found difficult to resist even to this planet rotation. “That’s how they caught us.”

“You were a child, in the early stages of development.” Vapor shifted his weight over her body, pressing her ass into the sleeping support. “You were too young to play those grown-up games.”

That didn’t mean she wasn’t guilty.

“Open to me, female,” he ordered. “I want to breed with you.”

“I’m asleep.” She spread her legs, giving him access to all of her. “You can’t wish to breed with an unresponsive female.”

“You’ll respond.” He entered her slowly, sliding his broad cock head into her pussy, his girth creating a tantalizing pressure against her inner walls.

She fought the urge to move.

Fuck. She tingled.

His damn nanocybotics would ensure that she responded.

But not yet. She gritted her teeth. He’d have to work for his victory.

“Mira.”

“I’ll never respond.” She curled her fingers.

“That’s another lie.” Vapor grasped her hips, tilting them to better accommodate him. “Your stubbornness knows no limits. I should redden your ass, teach you to tell the truth.”

She envisioned herself sprawled naked over his lap, his hands heating her skin, and her pussy moistened even more.

“You want that.” Her damn cyborg detected the increase in her arousal. “You want me to punish you.”

“No.” Her protest was weak.

“Yes.” He pushed his cock home, flattening her intimate folds with his base. “Your body doesn’t lie, unlike your mouth.”

She had to work on that.

Mira waited. Vapor stayed locked in place.

“I thought you were going to breed with me.” She opened one eye, then the other. He was braced over her, his biceps bulging, his chest muscles flexed. “What are you waiting for?”

“Your response.” Vapor’s eyes gleamed.

“You’ll be waiting for a long time,” she warned.

“Then I’ll wait.” He appeared unconcerned. “Being inside you is enough.”

He couldn’t be serious. Males needed to come. It was painful if they didn’t.

Or so she’d been told.

Mira’s gaze drifted over his neck, shoulders, chest and then returned to the determination in his face.

Human males needed to come. Vapor was a cyborg. He’d endured wounds that would have killed another being and hadn’t even flinched.

She could lose this standoff also.

“Is this enough for you?” She lifted one eyebrow. “You don’t feel the need to fill me with your seed, with your scent, to reestablish your claim so every male knows I’m yours?”

Her possessive cyborg’s face darkened.

“Your nanocybotics are fading.” That was a lie. They remained as strong as ever, fizzing inside her. “Your mark on my breast has healed.” Breeding with him had erased the wound on her shoulder also, restoring her to full health. “There’s no sign of your ownership anywhere on my body.”

Vapor’s nostrils flared. “You
are
merciless.”

She flinched.

With those three words, all of the joy dissipated from their challenge.

“Mira—”

“No.” She pushed at his chest, hurt that he continued to see her as the others did, as a female without honor, without kindness. “I allowed you to have me once because I felt sorry for you. You’re a cyborg, about to be deployed. You won’t get another opportunity to breed.” Those were lies, all lies. She wanted him to touch her, wanted him to care. “That once was enough.”

“Once isn’t enough, not for us.” Vapor lowered his lips to hers and kissed her hard, the intensity of his embrace driving her head against the sleeping support, waging war on her emotions. He ravished her mouth with his tongue, pulled on her bottom lip with his teeth, made the room spin and her resolve weaken.

“You want me because I’m the only female available.” She wished to be more, to be special to him.

“I want you because you’re mine.” He pulled back, thrust forward, pulled back, thrust forward, fucking her with a heart-pounding vigor, slamming the sleeping support against the wall.

Mira wrapped her legs around his hips and humped him as ferociously, pouring all of her frustration, all of her anger into their encounter. “I’m nothing to you. Only a hole to stick your cock into.”

Vapor growled, his face twisting with anger. “In this moment, you’re my entire universe, my beginning and my end.”

Those words promised much and said nothing. They were as meaningless as their fucking. “You hate me.” Their bodies smacked together, their rutting brutal and harsh.

“I hate wanting you.” He was unrelenting power, human muscle over indestructible machine, built for battle and lethal as a lover, demolishing her flimsy defenses.

Mira countered each thrust, squeezing his shaft with her inner walls, raking her fingernails over his shoulders. He fucked her harder, having a cyborg’s stamina. She wouldn’t win this contest of wills. Sweat trickled between her breasts. Her nipples hummed, abused by his chest. Desire spiraled skyward.

She nipped at his skin, savoring the taste of metal and male, and Vapor shuddered, a surge of energy coloring his irises with splashes of gold and green. He might not like her or trust her but he responded to her touch. He wanted her.

That was undeniable and it should have been enough for her. He would be deployed. A lasting relationship between them was impossible.

But it wasn’t enough, not nearly enough. Mira slapped his pecs, punishing him for the feelings he’d invoked in her. His love was as unattainable as her father’s. She’d never earn it and he’d eventually betray her.

Vapor grunted and drove forward, slamming her back into the sleeping support. She threw her body against his, challenging him, seeking to invoke his fury. Maybe then he’d purge the unreasonable expectations from her heart.

“Female.” His warning rolled down her spine, along her legs.

She wasn’t a replaceable female. She had a name. “Fuck you, cyborg.” She bit him.

Vapor howled and then there was no more thinking, no more wishing. He pounded into her, pushing the air from her lungs and the rebellion from her soul. His eyes were wild, his rhythm fast and furious and uneven.

All she could do was hold on. Her arms and legs shook. Her pussy closed around his shaft. She panted, fighting for each breath.

“You will come for me,” he issued another order.

“Never.”

“More lies.” Vapor bared his teeth. “Come.”

She quivered, his threat unspoken, thrilling her. “No.”

“Yes.” He surged into her, bent his head and bit her right breast, reasserting his claim on her.

Mira called his name, her spine bowing, the sharp pain shattering her. Pleasure radiated from her core, pieces of her flying outward. She squeezed him with everything she had, holding onto him, her one constant in a distrustful world.

Vapor roared and drove deeper, touching virgin flesh. Liquid heat bathed her pussy. His essence tingled inside her, setting off another wave of mind-numbing bliss.

She screamed and screamed until her voice grew hoarse, her throat aching. He pushed forward, filling as much of her with as much of him as possible. His cock pulsed, setting a tempo her entire body followed.

Then he collapsed, his form heavy, warm, comforting. She held him. His heart pounded against her breast. His breath caressed her skin.

Silence stretched. His nanocybotics spread to her fingers and toes, changing her, she suspected, forever. She’d never be the same.

“You came,” he mumbled. “And you responded to me.”

“So did you,” Mira countered. “You came and you responded to me.”

“My reaction to your touch was never disputed.” Vapor rolled onto his back, taking her with him. “Doubt everything else, my wary female.” He settled her on top of him. “But never question my desire for you.”

“Desire doesn’t last.” Neither did love.

“A cyborg’s desire does.”

* * *

They lay on the sleeping support, Vapor’s body folded around hers, and they talked. Mira shared some truths and some lies, the obvious untruths drawing a rumble of disapproval from her cyborg.

This magical moment of togetherness stretched. She didn’t know if the sun had risen or if it had set once more. She’d lost all sense of time.

She did know that she was in trouble. Her need for her cyborg hadn’t lessened and her fascination with him had increased. The more they spoke, the more she wanted to know about him.

“You scanned the entire Humanoid Alliance database?”

Vapor nodded, the wounds on his face fully healed.

She nibbled on her bottom lip. “Should I be worried?”

He met her gaze. “Why would the Designer’s daughter be worried?”

Because she was helping cyborgs escape, was sending Tau Cetians off planet, was guilty of countless other small rebellions. “There’s no reason. I was merely curious.”

His lips twisted. He realized she lied but he had no inkling of the truth. “You’ve been proposed as a mate for several high-ranking males but deemed unsuitable.”

That hurt. “Because of my looks?” She ran her hands over her excessive curves.

Vapor’s eyes glowed with admiration. “Because of your personality. The weak humanoids don’t know how to deal with a strong female.”

“You don’t either.”

“That’s another lie from your lips.” He turned his palms upward, reminding her of his previous threat—to redden her ass, and Mira’s pussy moistened. “Tell me more lies and I’ll show you how I’d handle you.”

He looked serious. She decided not to push him. “What do you know about Lydna Listmann?” She changed the subject.

Vapor paused. Was he debating what to tell her, censoring his response? Was no being completely honest?

“Your friend is much older than you,” he finally shared.

“She’s not my friend.” Mira hated her. “My mom thought she was hers.”

“Thought?”

He knew the rest of the story. It wouldn’t put him in any additional danger to say more. “She relayed information about my mom’s activities to the Humanoid Alliance.”

Vapor stared at her. “And she continues to live?”

Mira’s face heated. “It’s not that simple.”

“It is.” He curled his top lip. “She betrays you. She dies. Instead you kiss her cheek and smile and act as though she’s your friend.”

“Killing her would do nothing.” Except get herself killed. Then she couldn’t help others. Her life and her mom’s death would have served no purpose.

“Killing her would be more honorable than your lies.”

They had returned to this subject again—her lack of honor. “Not every being perceives honor as you do.”

“Humans have no honor. They—”

He stopped, tilted his head, his gaze unfocused. There was a pause and then Vapor sprang into action, jumping off the sleeping support, pushing the machinery away from the door.