Fuck, fuck, and just for a change, fuck.
He watched her with an implacable expression as she glanced around the room. The guards had cleared out, leaving them alone, and the ceiling tiles were going to be no help. A warm wash of breath against her skin warned her a second before his lips nuzzled the sensitive spot just below her ear.
“What the…ohhh.”
Even if she’d wanted to put up a fight, she couldn’t. Heat washed through her body, tingles radiating out from where he kissed her to render her body pliant in his hold.
“Have dinner with me, Cynthia,” he whispered, leaving a trail of tiny kisses along her jaw. Somehow he’d gotten both his arms around her waist, half bending her over the desk behind her, dominating and cutting off her view of the world with his broad shoulders. “Or should I just kiss you until you say yes?”
“Please, let me go.”
She was reduced to begging, her voice betraying her panic, but right now Cyn didn’t care. She had to get away from him. One slip, that’s all it would take, and he’d realize what she was. Already he’d found out her name in the time it had taken to kiss her, so he had to have an active uplink to the station database.
He moved, a soft grunt in the back of his throat as he pulled her upright. His fingers were firm, but not cruel on her jaw as he turned her back toward him and his kiss teased at the corner of her lips.
“So tempting,” he sighed and lifted up. “But I won’t take anything you don’t want to give. Not even a kiss. Dinner. One evening. Then I promise to leave you alone, if that’s what you want.”
Wariness wound its cool fingers around her spine. Any moment she expected the room to be filled with commandos and the dulling bite of magnetic cuffs as he slapped them over her wrists. She’d heard tales of what they did to captured cyborgs. The investigations, the dissections…often while the victim was still alive. A shudder shook through her before she could stop it.
“Okay. Dinner. Tomorrow?” She could be gone before then.
He shook his head, the curls at the nape of his neck dancing over his collar. His gaze was warm green, with a core of heat as he watched her. Like a big cat watching its prey.
“Tonight. Eight o’clock. I’ll pick you up.”
Nine hours. She could pull a disappearing act in nine hours. Johnny would understand. Smiling, she nodded. “Okay. I’d better give you my habitat nu…”
“I have it.” The corner of his lips twisted into a small, sheepish grin before his expression turned serious. His gaze latched onto her lips, eyes darkening as she wet them with her tongue self-consciously.
“God, sweetheart… Don’t look at me like that.”
The devil riding her shoulder made her smile, tilt her head. Quite what she was playing at she had no idea. Playing games with Quinn Lindsey was suicide.
“Like what?”
He muttered something explosive under his breath and his hold, which had loosened off, tightened as he pulled her up hard against him. His lips crashed down on hers, hard and demanding, and she was lost.
Chapter Twelve
He watched the door until the locks had cycled all the way through, on the minute chance that they malfunctioned and sprang open. The smallest element of surprise, that was all he needed to wreak havoc and bloody vengeance. His eyes narrowed dangerously.
The guy who’d had his dagger to Milly’s neck was first up. Johnny’s fists clenched at his sides as he imagined the crunch as the guy’s neck cracked under his hands. Before the body hit the ground, he’d have the guy’s blade, the grip rough against his palm as he buried it hilt deep…
A soft sound behind him ripped him from the daydream. Whipping around, his gaze instinctively raced over her, looking for signs of injury. Had the guy managed to cut her and he just hadn’t seen it? Was she bleeding out while he daydreamed about kicking ass and taking names.
His frantic visual examination of her creamy skin, darkened in places by forming bruises, yielded no sign of blood, but he didn’t care. He needed to touch her. Closing the gap between them, he yanked her into his arms just in time to catch her strangled sob against his shoulder.
“Oh my god, I can’t believe it. Jason… W-why?”
She buried her face into the curve of his shoulder and neck, burrowing into him like a small animal trying to find comfort. She’d kept it together during a near rape, using the only weapon she could find to brutally wound her opponent. That took strength and balls of steel. Yet her ex-husband showed up and she was a mess. Just what kind of number had the bastard done on her?
“Shhh…it’s going to be okay. We’ll get out of this. I promise.”
How he was going to make good on the whispered promises, he had no idea, but he would. He pulled her tighter against his tall frame, her curvy little body fitting just right against him. Jilan-ma. Perfect match.
The feeling of rightness he’d had when he first kissed her in the airlock what seemed like years ago assailed him again and his hold tightened protectively. His lips found her temple, nuzzling her soft skin as she shuddered, fingers curled around his upper arms in a needy way that made the male animal inside snarl and posture. She was his, his woman…doubts of whether a human and a cyborg could make it work were blown away under the sheer depth of feeling running through him.
As though she’d planted a sign over her head, he felt her start to pull herself together. A part of him pouted in disappointment as she straightened up and pushed her hair back from her face. He liked her soft and clinging to him, it fed something deep inside that needed to wrap her up and never let anything hurt her again.
“Oh, breakdown over,” she announced and stepped back. Her lip quivered, but she looked around with determination and Johnny lost his heart all over again.
“You’re amazing.” The words slipped out before he could stop them, but he didn’t do anything to hide the expression on his face as she looked up at him.
“Huh? What do you mean?” For a moment they were caught, gazes locked, then he shook his head, breaking the moment.
“I’ve never met anyone like you. After everything that’s happened, you just keep going. It’s…” he shrugged and repeated his words. “You’re amazing.”
Her short laugh was soft as it rolled around the small room. Metal floor, walls and ceiling with a mag-locked door, it was an effective cell. They just had to hope that Templeton didn’t drop them out of jump space too near a sun because it would also become a very effective oven.
“Yeah, well. You’re a prototype so your experience of people is what…a demographic of like, two? Sorry, bud, you need a way larger sample group before you start going and deciding I’m anything special.”
How could she have such a low opinion of herself? She was wrong. Totally and utterly wrong. The denial was on the tip of his tongue, but she moved away before he could utter it, searching the room with speed and efficiency. He trailed after her, a frown marring his brow. He needed to tell her what he was, that he’d lied to her…
Yeah, right. Like that was going to go down well. He slid her a sideways glance as she pushed the top off one of the two crates that were the room’s only contents. The firm set of her shoulders and spine was belied by the tremble in her lower lip and the suspicious sheen in her eyes. She was only just holding it together. Finding out he’d lied to her as well…that could tip her over the edge. Even though he knew the excuse was tenuous, Johnny clung to it, shoving his explanation to the back of his mind and taking the heavy lid from her.
“Micron relays, by the look of it,” she said absently as she flicked the edge of the packing shroud up to reveal neat rows of crystal-based chips and connectors. Her interest in the crate died as she dropped the shroud and swore. “Fuck it, why couldn’t we have gotten stuck in here with something useful? Like auto-cannons or assault rifles? Something to help us break out of here and make that bastard up there pay.”
A soft lurch under their feet announced that they’d just entered jump space. She sighed and looked around the empty room. “That’s it then, we might as well get comfortable.”
Silently Johnny nodded, reaching into the crate to grasp the shroud. The soft, thick material would at least give them something comfortable to sit on as they waited for the ship to come out of the jump. When the troopers came back to get them though, that was a whole different matter…
Yanking the shroud, he started to pull it free, winding it over and around his arm. The chittering sound that answered his movements froze the marrow in his bones. His muscles locked down, and his gaze riveted on the edge of the soft fabric as four spindly legs emerged. Then two more, and another two until a fat space spider hauled it’s bulbous body around to sit on top of the fabric. Beady black eyes glittered as they regarded him with malevolence.
“Nac-na-na-nac…”
His jaw clicked as a strange noise emerged from his throat, an instinctive sound of hatred and revulsion as everything within him urged him to drop the fabric and back up. He couldn’t, he was frozen in place, the fear so powerful his biological systems, the muscles and sinews of his human wetware over-riding the metal and hydraulics of his cybernetics.
“What…” Alerted by the sound, Milly turned and spotted the spider. She rushed forward, flapping her hands. “Bloody thing. Shoo, get lost!”
Hissing and chittering still, the spider bolted, leaping to the floor and scuttling to the corner of the room where it flattened itself and disappeared between the hair-thin crack between the bulkhead plates.
“Things would be so much easier if we could do that.” She grabbed the rest of the shroud and shook it out, making sure there were no more spiders lurking in the folds. “You okay?”
“Fucking hate those things.” Johnny shook himself, color flaring over his cheeks. “What?”
She chuckled, shaking her head as she dragged the fabric over to the other side of the room, thankfully well away from the spiders last known location, and spread it over the floor.
“You remind me of my brother…he hates earwigs. Loathes and detests them with a passion. It makes me laugh, the big mean fleet commando afraid of a tiny bug. Or the big scary bot scared of spiders. Your maker really did a great job. Giving you phobias as well, I’d never have thought of that.”
“Yeah, well. They eat electronics.” And cybernetics.
Sitting on the soft surface, she dragged her knees up and wrapped her arms around them. Her expression was so forlorn, it made his heart ache. He dropped down next to her and reached out to pull her into his arms. She didn’t protest, nestling against him and closing her eyes.
“I can’t believe this is happening.”
Her voice was low, so low that he almost didn’t catch her words.
“We’ll get through it. I promise, little human.”
Rumbling a sigh in the depths of his chest, he settled onto his back and tucked her in against his side. His hand roamed over her back, stroking up from her h*ps to the middle of her shoulder blades, slowly. Over and over. Soft and gentle, as he would pet a cat. Or how he imagined he would anyway. He’d never seen a real one, but he’d always imagined they would be a good pet to own. The credit needed to purchase one was far beyond his reach, even with his success on the stripping circuit. Every credit he and Cyn earned went toward the shop and maintaining their cover amongst the humans.