Six
“You don’t want me.” Lethe’s face heated. “That’s why you’re not answering me.”
Mortified, she looked away from him, her gaze moving to the main viewscreen. It displayed open space, the blackness stretching before them. She wished to disappear into that void.
Because the cyborg she now thought of as hers didn’t want her.
“I should have known,” she mumbled. “The previous males had fucked me only once but they had other females and you don’t have anyone else, so I thought…” She had thought he’d be desperate enough to fuck her again. “I don’t know what I thought. I won’t—”
“Mine.” Ghost grabbed her arm, swung her around to face him. “Want.” He placed her hand on his hard cock. Her fingers instinctively curled around his girth, his flesh pulsing against her skin. “Always.”
Always. Lethe suspected the damaged cyborg didn’t know what it meant. None of the males had stayed with her past one fuck. She found it impossible to believe he’d want her forever.
He wanted her now. She ran her hand along his length and a thrillingly primitive growl escaped his lips, reassuring her. “I’ll give you what you want.”
She was to give. He wouldn’t take. That was what he had stressed during their earlier encounter. Lethe reluctantly released his cock and quickly undressed, leaving her boots on. She carefully folded her garments and set them on the console, her fingers trembling with nerves, with anticipation.
Ghost watched her. His shaggy black hair partially concealed his glowing blue eyes, the strands casting interesting shadows on his gray cheeks. “Beau-ti-ful.”
She did feel beautiful when he looked at her. Wearing only her big black boots, Lethe lifted herself upward, set her bare ass on the cool console. “I’m yours.” For as long as he wanted her. She leaned back, bracing herself by her elbows, and she spread her thighs.
He’d mount her now, thrust in and out of her a dozen or so times and come, like he’d done that first time, like all of the other males had done, using her, not caring about her pleasure.
But with him, she would find pleasure. The nanocybotics in his cum would ensure she found release.
Ghost crouched between her legs, his gaze trained on her pussy. A normal female might find that close perusal unnerving. Lethe didn’t. There had been little privacy after the Humanoid Alliance attack, in the remnants of the settlements, on the crowded ships.
He breathed in, his nostrils flaring, and a jagged bolt of energy lit his eyes. “Want.” Warmth caressed her inner thighs.
“I want you too.” With the other males, that had been a lie she’d told to close the deal. With Ghost, it wasn’t. She wanted him. Her pussy was wet. Need circled her.
He gripped her knees, spreading her legs even more, opening her to him and then pressing downward, pinning her to the console. Even if she wanted to escape him, which she didn’t, she couldn’t. Her primal male had restrained her.
He didn’t straighten, didn’t mount her. Lethe looked at him, confused, her body prepped by the kissing, the hair pulling, the sting of pain over her scalp.
She welcomed the roughness, trusted it more than any gentleness. The universe was brutal. Fucking should be the same way.
Her big C Model cyborg extended his tongue. Lethe stiffened. He wouldn’t, would he? None of the other males had—
He licked her from ass to clit, his tongue rasping against her sensitive flesh, his nanocybotics coating her, bubbling, fizzing. She screamed, arching her back, coming hard, the pleasure mind-meltingly intense.
Ghost held her in place, not allowing her wiggle away from him. “Good.” He grunted, bent his head, and proceeded to eat her out as though he were dehydrated and she was the only source of liquid.
He burrowed his face into her pussy, sucking on her folds, circling her clit, not allowing the bliss to recede, rebuilding her passion, ratcheting it higher. Her fingers and toes curled. Why was he doing this? He already had her. There was no need to tend to her yearnings.
Yet he did. With a stunning ferocity. Growls and rumbles came from her cyborg’s chest, the vibrations felt through Lethe’s body. He plunged his tongue into her pussy hole, laved her inner walls. She twisted and writhed, waves of sensation hitting her.
“Ghost.” Her voice was stretched with desire.
He lifted his gaze, met hers. His gray skin was speckled with her juices. His lips glistened. “Mine.” He resumed licking, sucking, tugging on her.
“Fuck.” Lethe sank her fingers into his thick black hair. She had to touch him, had to be an active participant in this sure-to-be short-lived debauchery. At any moment, she expected him to realize she was a guaranteed fuck, that he didn’t have to do this, didn’t have to ravish her pussy.
Until that time, she’d enjoy herself.
And she’d come. Multiple times. Lethe shook, bombarded by ecstasy yet again. Ghost slurped her wetness, drinking from her, his expression blissful as though he was the being pleasured, not she.
Tears rolled down her cheeks. She panted, her chest tight with wanting. It was too much, too good, and he showed no signs of stopping.
Lethe held on to his hair, gripping it as though it was a lifeline to her sanity, because he was making her crazed. She quivered and cried out, elation advancing and retreating, advancing and retreating, an unrelenting army of emotion marching over her captured form.
“Need. You. In. Me.” She spoke, as he did, in fragments. Sentences were beyond her capabilities.
He filled her pussy with his tongue and she huffed, frustrated. She yearned for the hardness, the thickness of his cock.
“No.” She pulled on his hair, trying to force him to move. “Fuck me.”
He raised his head. “Breed.”
“Yes, breed.” Lethe didn’t care what he called it. She needed him inside her.
He licked her once, twice more.
“Cyborg.”
Ghost straightened, his lips twitching. The blasted male knew what he was doing to her.
She glared at him. “Now.”
“Now.” He grasped her hips, positioned himself at her entrance and thrust hard, deep. One moment she was empty. The next moment she was fuller than she’d ever been.
She screamed her approval. That was what she craved, what she needed. She wrapped her legs around his waist, locking him in place.
He pulsed inside her, the connection between them tightening. It was more than physical and that scared her because he didn’t truly know her.
When he discovered the things she’d done, he’d abandon her, leave and never return, finding a more worthy female, a female who hadn’t used her body as payment, who hadn’t spread her legs for strangers.
For now, he was hers and she’d please him. She tilted her hips. He slid deeper and they both groaned. She felt all of him, the bloom of his cock head, the veins on his shaft, the firmness of his base pressing against her pussy lips.
He lowered on top of her, his chest flattening her breasts. His form was skin and muscle stretched over the strongest metal, a wall between her and a dangerous universe.
She gripped his shoulders and he started to move, pulling out and driving into her, the force shaking her body, clattering her teeth. Her savage male rutted as fiercely as he ate pussy, giving her as much as she could take.
She could take more than the average female, having survived invasions, battles, pain, loss. They crashed together again and again, her nipples, hips, pussy lips heating, spanked by his skin, the pain accentuating her pleasure.
Lethe gazed into Ghost’s unusual eyes, captivated by the energy surges within his irises. Those strikes intensified as the two of them waged their erotic war, the interval between thrusts shortening.
She’d broken her personal record for orgasms in one planet rotation and she didn’t expect to come again. Yet, an erotic anticipation built within her. He would push her over the edge again and she was helpless to stop him. Her satisfaction belonged to him.
“Yours.” She was his. Lethe dug her fingernails into his skin, marking him as he was marking her.
“Mine.” His voice lowered to an exciting growl. He mouthed over her neck, the scent of her on his breath.
“More.” She raked her fingernails over his back.
He snarled and fucked her harder, punishing her with his chest, his hips, his cock. She throbbed and burned, pushing upward, as wild for him as he was for her.
Sweat dripped between her breasts, beaded on her arms and legs. She was hot, so hot. Lethe licked her cyborg’s chest, tasting salt and metal. He shuddered, rumbling, past words.
She didn’t need them. She kicked her booted heels against his clenched ass cheeks, losing herself in their fucking, in his eyes. His jaw jutted. His eyebrows lowered. He was the image of savage determination.
Stars. She ached for him, her pussy constricting around his shaft. All she needed was—
He thrust deep and swiveled his hips, grinding against her. She broke, screaming his name, clenching his cock.
He howled, his back bowing, and he pushed deeper. His eyes flashed. Hot cum hit her inner walls and her scream extended.
It was too much, too good. The bridge of her newly acquired warship rotated around her. Lights dimmed and brightened. Sound rushed in her ears.
It was as chaotic as a bombing, her world collapsing around her, her senses blown to bits. Except she wasn’t alone. Not this time. She had Ghost, her cyborg, her male, and she wasn’t letting him go.
Lethe clutched his shoulders as sensual assault after sensual assault bombarded her, her body rocking, battered by the ferocity of each release.
“Can’t.” She couldn’t take it, wouldn’t survive this.
“Safe.” Ghost covered her with his body as though trying to protect her from her own orgasm. The weight of him was comforting.
She closed her eyes, breathed in, breathed out, breathed in, breathed out. The aftershocks eased. Her control returned.
“Mine.” He nuzzled against her neck. His nanocybotics bubbled within her.
“I’m not a good being, Ghost.” Lethe needed to inform him of that, remind herself. She was becoming attached to the male and that couldn’t happen. “I traded my body for this warship.”
“Want me.”
“I do want you.” Lethe gazed up at her cyborg, unwilling to lie to him. “But if I hadn’t wanted you, I still would have fucked you.”
“Breed.” Ghost acted not at all disturbed by her revelation, his tone edged with fondness, not disapproval.
She didn’t know the difference between breed and fuck. They meant the same thing to her.
“You don’t understand.” Lethe sighed. “Or maybe you don’t care.”
“Mine.” He remained semi-hard inside her.
She found his state reassuring. He might wish to fuck her again. She touched his handsome face. They might experience this sense of connection again.
The fuck wounds on his back and shoulders had healed, the skin a paler shade of gray. Lethe brushed his hair away from his eyes, smoothed his eyebrows, trailed her fingers over his model number, down his cheeks.
Ghost turned his head and kissed her fingertips, one by one.
That unexpectedly sweet action from her feral cyborg caused her breath to catch.
In the past, she felt dirty, used, less than worthy, after being fucked. The males had gotten what they had wanted from her. They had left or rolled over, fallen asleep.
Ghost had gotten what he wanted from her also. Yet she felt like she was more than she once was. She was stronger, more energized, her body fizzing with his nanocybotics. And, when he touched her, kissed her, she felt cared for, cherished.
It was an illusion. She was unworthy of tenderness. He’d soon discover that fact.
“You’ll leave me,” she whispered, needing to say that, hear that. “Like the rest.”
“Not rest.” The lines around her cyborg’s lips deepened. He bracketed her face with his hands. “Mine.”
The possessiveness in his voice thrilled her. “I’m yours.”
“Yours.” He leaned his forehead against hers.
Was he hers? Did he belong to her as she belonged to him? “I haven’t had anyone since I had fourteen solar cycles.”
She’d fought with her parents the planet rotation of the invasion. They had wanted her to find a role on Mercury Minor.
She didn’t know what she was seeking, why she was restless, but she knew it wouldn’t be found on their small planet.
Lethe had told her parents she was leaving Mercury Minor. She wouldn’t live their lifespans. She was meant for different things.
Her father had yelled. Her mother had looked hurt and disappointed. Her siblings and their mates had shaken their heads, gazing at her with disapproval.
Lethe had grabbed a handheld to use as a light source and had stormed out of the domicile. She’d exited the settlement, sat on the top of a hill outside the walls.
It had been a favorite place of hers. There, she had a clear view of the stars, a wide unencumbered space with no beings, no structures. She could breathe, could hear her own thoughts.
When the Humanoid Alliance ships had appeared, she had marveled at the beauty of the vessels, the alien shapes, the bright lights, the settlement sky glow bouncing off their gleaming panels. She had thought it was a sign that she was meant to leave Mercury Minor, to explore the universe.
Then the bombing had started.
She’d been right. She’d left the planet. And she hadn’t lived her family’s lifespans because they had all died in that first strike.
“If you were mine, truly mine”—petting his neck, she stroked his skin, finding comfort in the act while soothing him—“I wouldn’t take you for granted. I would never leave you. I’d appreciate you.”
“Yours.” His eyelids partially lowered, a look of contentment on his primitive countenance.
He wasn’t hers forever but for however long this lasted, she could pretend he belonged to her. Lethe touched him, learning the shape of his face, the lines of his jaw, the square set of his chin.
The link between them remained. It was physical, their bodies connected, and emotional. “I can’t care for you this much.” Her feelings scared her. “I barely know you.”
His eyes opened. “Care.” He pulled away from her.
Lethe missed his warmth but that was what she was accustomed to—males leaving. She sat, glanced over her shoulder at the main viewscreen, looking for Humanoid Alliance warships, for the enemy.
All she saw was the merchant ship and open space.
Metal creaked. A wrapper rustled. She returned her gaze to Ghost.
He held out a nourishment bar. “Eat.”
She reached for nourishment bar. He batted her hands away and raised it to her lips.
Feeling self-conscious, she took a bite, chewed, swallowed. “I can feed myself. You don’t have to hold the nourishment bar for me.”
“Want.” He pressed it against her lips. “Care.”
Lethe took another bite. Her cyborg wanted to feed her, to take care of her. No one had done that in such a long time…since a few planet rotations before the invasion.
During one of her nocturnal escapes from the settlement, she had stayed out too long. The temperature had dropped and she’d become chilled.
The next planet rotation, her mother had taken one look at her pale face, clucked her tongue and made her a container of hot spicy liquid, a recipe that had been in their family for generations.
Moody and discontent with the world around her, Lethe had grumbled about being too exhausted to eat it. Her mother had stroked her hair and patiently fed her the nourishment.
Lethe had complained about that also, telling her she was no longer a child. Her mother had replied that Lethe would always be her child.
Secretly, Lethe had relished the caring. She could clearly remember the way her mother had hummed slightly off-key as she had fed her, her warmth, her sunshine-and-spices scent.
Her love.
Tear pricked Lethe’s eyes.
Ghost cupped her chin and gazed at her with concern. “Damage?”
“There’s no damage.” She blinked away the tears, forced a smile.
He lifted his eyebrows. Her cyborg didn’t believe her.
“I’m still hungry.” She gazed pointedly at the nourishment bar, trying to distract him.
Ghost grunted and patiently fed her the remaining bar. While she ate, he watched her, his expression intense. The task meant something to him.
Lethe didn’t understand what that something was. She knew what she wanted it to be but that was unlikely. As she had said earlier, he barely knew her.
He certainly didn’t know all of her secrets.
“Do all cyborg males feed their females?” she asked, hoping the answer was ‘no’.
Ghost tilted his head to the side. There was a pause as though he was thinking. “Yes.”
“Oh.” Her shoulders slumped. She wasn’t special to him. Feeding females was a sexual quirk his kind had. “That’s why you’re doing this.”
“Want.” His eyes glowed, lit with energy. “Care. Mine.”
Her gaze lowered to his groin. He was fully erect. “You do want.” That knowledge lifted her spirits.
“Always.” He grinned, looking so adorably mischievous; she had to smile back at him.
“Always.” She wished she could believe in that word, believe in him.