“I want to believe it. Believe you…”
The scared note in her voice speared his heart right through. He pulled her tighter and slid his hand under her top to caress the warm skin beneath. She murmured softly under her breath and arched under his hand.
“Then believe me, love,” he breathed, turning his head to brush his lips against the top of her head. “We’re going to get out of this, then go back to the station and get married.”
Her lips brushed his neck, whispering a trail of kisses up to the underside of his jaw. The need and passion that was never far away when he was near her uncoiled and wrapped around him. His c*ck rose hard and aching to press against the confines of his pants. God, he wanted her. Even now, when he should be offering comfort, he wanted to flip her to her back and bury himself in her welcoming warmth.
“I want to believe that. You’re so sweet…big, protective. Possessive.” She shivered as she flicked a hot little lick around the corner of his jaw, just under his ear. Johnny groaned, unable to contain the sound before it escaped. “And I’m stupid for even thinking about falling in love with a bot.”
Yes!
His heart leapt at her soft words as she shifted position to straddle his still body. Her br**sts mashed against his chest as, further down, her spread thighs pressed her p**sy against the hard length of his cock. Another groan slipped from him as he realized nothing more than thin layers of fabric separated them.
“Listen,” he turned his head as she worked her way to his lips, planting soft kisses in the corner of his lips. “You’ve got this wrong. I’m not a bot. I am Joh…”
His words were cut off as she shifted her weight and boldly slid her hand down to caress his c*ck through his pants. He groaned in pleasure, the hardened shaft pulsing in delight and pressing eagerly against its fabric confinement, eager for release and the touch of her soft little hand.
“Yeah, yeah…you’re Johnny Ram. Big bad stripper extraordinaire.”
Amusement quirked her lips and she stole kisses, sexy little nips, as she unsnapped his pants and released his cock. Johnny lost the power of thought as she wrapped her hand around him and pumped slowly.
“Or perhaps you’re the Aries 7000 for real. I could really do with a killer cyborg on my side right about now.”
She nipped his lower lip, then laved the spot with a soft brush of her tongue as she rubbed a finger over the tip of his cock. His h*ps jerked upward, shoving the rigid length through the tight cage of her fingers to leave a slick spot where it slid against the fabric of her pants.
“Whatever you are, whatever you’ve convinced yourself, I don’t care. Just love me, Johnny. Make me forget where we are, make me believe we’ve got forever.”
She squeaked as he surged into movement, wrapping her up in his arms and flipping them so he loomed over her. Two pairs of hands worked at her pants, pulling them down and off before he spread her thighs with a hard knee. A second later, he had his c*ck at the entrance to her p**sy and looked her in the eye.
“Forever, Milly. I promise you forever.”
“Ready, sweetheart?”
Johnny’s deep voice brought Milly out of her reverie. Two hours since they’d been thrown in here and the ship had finally dropped out of jump space. Locked up, they had no way of telling where they were, but one thing was for sure. The troopers were coming for them, and it wasn’t going to be pleasant. She shook her head, her voice shaky as she laughed.
“No, not at all. Tell the universe I need a time out.”
He laughed from his position by the door, and rolled his shoulders. Big built anyway, his physique was impressive. Muscles perfectly sculpted to imitate nature and the man he had been modeled on. With a start, Milly realized that she’d stopped thinking of him as a copy.
When had that happened? He’d become a distinct separate entity in her mind, just the thought of him evoking heat and need in her core. Feelings and memories absent when she thought back to watching the real Johnny Ram perform on stage. She sighed and shook her head. God, she had it bad. Perhaps insanity ran in her family and they just forgot to tell her, because falling for a bot was the highest level of lunacy she could think of.
“I’ll send it a memo.”
His expression turned serious as he looked over and the look in his eyes took her breath away. Sadness, resignation, determination…they were all there.
“They’re going to come in hard and fast, sweetheart. I won’t lie, it’s going to get hot in here and there’s a shitload that can go wrong. I’ll do my best, and if I get hold of a weapon we’re home and dry. But if I don’t…”
His expression shuttered a little. Instinctively she knew what he wasn’t saying. If he didn’t get hold of a weapon, then it was unlikely he was going to survive. Although hardier than hers, not even an android body could stand up to a hail of bullets.
“You will, and we will be.”
Her voice was filled with a firmness she didn’t believe as she glared at him, daring him to argue. He didn’t, shooting her a small smile as he turned to the door and rolled his shoulder again.
She wondered at that as she hunkered behind the remains of the crate. It was the kind of movement that indicated an old injury, scar tissue tightening up and making a joint click. Her grandpa, a veteran of one of the many system wars, had had the same problem. Perhaps it was a gesture his creator had picked up and coded into his behavioral sub-routines…
She didn’t get time to ponder it any further. The sound of heavy boots on the walkway outside filtered through the thick door. Her breath caught, her heart hammering in her chest. Barely keeping down panic, she looked around to check their preparations.
With nothing else to work with, they—well, Johnny—had ripped apart the electronics crate. Half of it was wedged against the back wall of the hold, padded with the shroud packing into a makeshift shelter for her. The expensive contents had been scattered across the floor, each array and relay stripped of their outer casing so the small, marble-like spheres lay twinkling in the overhead light to create a rocking and rolling assault course for anyone trying to navigate the floor.
She tightened her grip on the makeshift club fashioned from the broken up crate. One wrong step and whoever was idiot enough to try would be hitting the deck, which was her cue to get primal on their ass while they were down. The way she felt at the moment, they’d be better off with the pissed off bot at the door because she was feeling her inner bitch.
The locking mechanism on the door rolled, metallic clunks reverberating through the small room as each of the locks released. There was a second’s silence, then, with a click, the door started to swing inward. Standing behind it, Johnny grinned and shot her a wink, as he mouthed two words.
Showtime.
Everything happened at once. Johnny grabbed the muzzle of the rifle that was poked through the door and yanked. At the same time, he shoved his shoulder into the door, slamming it closed on the trooper caught between it and the frame. The scream was cut off with a sickening crunch, becoming a rattling groan of pain. Johnny slammed the door twice more in quick succession. Shouts and shots echoed from the other side of the door and it burst inward, troopers spilling through the gap.
Screaming, she ducked behind the impromptu shelter as the air filled with energy bolts. Fear and adrenaline slammed through her body with every rapid beat of her heart. Peeking out she saw Johnny in the middle of a group of men. Her jaw hit the deck. She’d seen fleet troopers in action on the news streams and they were shit hot, but Johnny…he was something else.
A whirling dervish of fists and feet, he twisted and spun like a dancer in the middle of the troopers. Grunts and cries of pain greeted each strike, but there were just too many of them for him to make headway. As soon as he knocked one guy out of the fight, one of the others took his place. Her eyes widened. Behind Johnny, a trooper who had just stepped through the door lifted his rifle.
“Johnny, watch out!”
She screamed as she burst out from the shelter, pushing it over onto the relays and giving it a hard shove toward the men on the right of the door as she ran toward the fray. Time slowed and stretched out. Johnny turned toward the threat. Not quick enough. Her blood pounded in her ears, drowning everything else out as the trooper fired.
The shot hit Johnny in the middle of the chest. She screamed again, falling and sliding on the relays. He jerked to a stop, his jaw dropping as the bolt zapped him, wrapping his torso in a blue web of high yield energy. He dropped to his knees. Swayed.
“Nononono,” she sobbed, tears pouring down her cheeks as the light faded from his eyes. Scrambling forward, she tried to reach him, but a hard hand on the back of her neck stopped her and hauled her upright.
“Oh no, you little bitch. You’re going nowhere.”
His breath leaving his lungs, Johnny toppled to the deck with a thump. Crying and twisting in her captors hold, Milly kept looking at his fallen form as she was dragged out the door. A trooper stepped in the way, pulling his pistol from his holster.
“This is for Hudson, you bastard piece of shit,” he spat and shot the fallen man in the head.
Chapter Thirteen
“Fucking bitch. Get in there.”
The hard voice of the trooper half dragging, half carrying her ordered as the door to the lift opened in front of them. It had taken two of them to get her across the walkway. All she wanted to do was get back to Johnny, the image of his fallen body etched forever in her mind.
Stumbling forward, she collided with the back wall of the lift and used it to hold her up. Her legs were weak, hopelessness and misery invading every cell of her body. They’d shot him in the head, the two retorts of the pistol still ringing in her ears. Her stomach rolled. She didn’t even want to think of the damage that had done.
She’d seen broken androids before. The Starflame had transported a bulk load of military spec damages last year. It had been so eerie to see them lined up in their racks, faces blank and impassive, if they had them, despite massive damage to their physical forms. Then Simons, the assistant quartermaster, had gotten a little too curious and activated one to see what sector they’d been fighting in. None of the crew, her included, had realized that military androids were remote linked. The first bot had activated the rest and they’d ended up with a hold of androids all screaming in pain.
Hands grabbed her from behind and she was turned around. A troopers face leered above her as he pressed back against the lift wall, his hands cruel as he groped her waist, her br**sts before shoving one between her legs to cup her mound. She whimpered, trying to push him off, but he was too strong.
“That’s it, little slut. You feel that? Feel that cock?” His breath washed over her neck in hot pants as he ground his crotch against her, his c*ck already hard. “That’s what you’re getting. I’m gonna split you in two…”
“Jenkins, get the f**k off her. You don’t get her until the boss says, and we got the unload to do first.” A voice behind warned and Jenkins released her with a frustrated growl. His pale eyes glittered malevolently as she slid away from him and down the wall to huddle in a crouched bundle. His eyes were familiar, but she couldn’t quite place them. Her eyes widened as recognition hit. The pilot Johnny had killed. It was his eyes looking back out of Jenkins face. He grinned, but the expression had nothing to do with humor.