***

A SHIP CYCLE WENT BY and she still couldn’t wrap her head around what happened with Gunner. Her lips were raw and although he hadn’t stripped her bare and taken her, she felt claimed.

After he left her cell—left her cell—the guards came in and flashed their brights over all the prisoners, spotlighting them one by one in the dark. It hadn’t frightened her like the previous times, because somewhere deep in the darkest pits of her soul, she knew she was safe.

Not one of the prisoners outed Gunner. Not one. They looked at him like how she knew she was looking at him—as a personified ember of hope. His secret was safe. He could leave his cell at will, and now that that knowledge was known, no one was willing to risk the consequences of talking about it.

Then the overhead lights came on, blinding everyone anew.

The men from down the row were taken away, and even seeing the beaten, sickly one still alive hadn’t diminished her mood.

Elodie knew Gunner was after his ship but it didn’t make sense to her why he remained, now knowing the power he had, the absolute power that could save them all.

Her body had never felt so alive.

He remained at her side through the daunting hours that followed, standing up, and taunting, taking the questions the guards roared throughout the entire process. Taking all the attention from the other prisoners as best he could, she knew it wasn’t for them. He was doing it for her.

She cried out when they beat him. Couldn’t breathe when they shocked him with their electrical prods. And he took it all with a pained smirk, sneaking glances in her direction, with dark eyes demanding her to stop reacting.

Elodie couldn’t help it. The sight tore her heart out, and it only got worse as his shirt was torn, seared, and burned off his body. As his skin welted over and bruised. As his face swelled up and his skin trickled rivulets of bright blood. But he egged them on until the pirates were called elsewhere, and his body was slumped in an unmoving pile.

A half-dozen armed androids filtered into the space after that and took up shop, standing sentinel and watching them through their metal and plastic eyes. They were given food, but she couldn’t eat.

She glared at them but they didn’t glare back.

“Ely...” Gunner’s voice rasped out.

“Shhh,” she said, moving up against the bars they shared. “Don’t speak.”

“They can’t hear us, not now, at least.” He shifted into a sitting position and slumped over into her bubble.

“It doesn’t matter. You’re hurt.”

“I’m pretending. You know I am.” His eyes glinted for the first time in a cycle.

Elodie frowned and caressed his cheek. His lips twitched and she pulled her hand back.

“Your touch feels real...”

Real? She looked at him hard, confused, her finger twitching to touch him again. After an internal battle, she did, sliding her hand through to comb his tousled locks. “Because it is,” she whispered.

Time seemed to slow to a pause as she brushed his hair with her fingers, pulling it softly away from his face. His ghoulishly dead-looking eyes watched her, but she couldn’t read them. Neither one of them wanted the moment to end.

Strangely, as she continued to pet him, comfort him, needing the contact just as much if not more than he did, Gunner began to heal before her eyes. It started with the bruises clearing his face and chest. The swelling went next, until all that was left was the deep welts of his electrical burns until they were gone altogether too.

When it was all over he caught her hand and brought it to his mouth.

The whole universe could be looking at them at that moment and she wouldn’t care.

His lips touched her palm, kissing it, sucking on it, his hold tightening as he moved her hand up to bury his nose at its center as his tongue licked her wrist.

An electrifying jolt shot straight from her red-hot cheeks and down between her legs. Her insides knotted and her core clenched as she stared at him sucking on her wrist. His eyes never left hers. The ache grew with each passing second, making her feel emptier and emptier. The only thing that could fill her back up was him, his power, and the steady unrelenting assurance he exuded. Whether it was with words or with his body, she didn’t care.

Her fingers twitched as she pressed her legs together, his gaze holding hers captive. It would be a lie if she didn’t imagine him staring at her as he spread her legs, as she imagined his rippled arms caging her in. Despite everything, the fantasy was something she no longer wanted to fight. The flat of his tongue settled hotly over her wrist.

Slowly, Gunner sat up, pulled his mouth from her skin, released her, and leaned his back on the wall. Elodie hugged her hand to her chest, her heart strumming beneath it.

They continued to watch each other in measure. The rest came and went.

Elodie could feel his power break open and crumble her many shells, laying her out naked and vulnerable and there was nothing she could do to stop it, because in turn, she was doing the same to him. He offered all his secrets willing while hers had to be pried out.

It wasn’t until one of the androids flitted by, dropping a new set of rations in their cells, that their enchantment broke.

She and Gunner shared their food in silence and as the light water gel was rushing down her throat, she decided to make the first move.

“Will you...” she started. His eyes hardened and she swallowed, beginning again. “Will you save us?”

Gunner turned his face from hers and looked slowly around the brig. More time went by and she couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, waiting for him to answer.

“My price is high,” he said at last.

Elodie nodded, knowing it would be. “I’ll pay it.”

He returned his attention to her, his entire body strained with tension. Her pulse jumped.

“I don’t think you understand the price.” Gunner’s voice darkened her ear.

“Me?” she whispered.

“And more.”

Her brow furrowed. I don’t have anything else to give... However, she knew what she was asking for was worth more than just her body.

Elodie shifted under his gaze, uncertain. “More?”

He moved like a predator stalking inside a cage, waiting to pounce. Suddenly, Gunner gripped the bar, starling her.

He didn’t speak—didn’t elaborate—and she nodded in agreement. His hand joined the other and she hugged her arms to her chest tighter. His intensity was frightening.

She needed to do something before he broke the metal that twisted under his grip and gave them away.

Elodie placed her hands atop his and squeezed. The touch immediately eroded the power in his body and he visibly shuddered from the contact. She pressed her thighs together tight as his abs rippled with the aftershock and the huge tent over his groin became apparent.

More emptiness and anticipation filled her as she stared at it, imagining the feel of it pushing against her quim all over again, and his hands feeling up her body.

“Ely,” he ground out, jerking his hips in her direction, half on his knees now, fully facing her.

“Elodie.”

“What?”

She chewed on the inside of her cheek. “My name’s Elodie.”

“Elodie,” he repeated. “I like it. It’s mine now.”

His? Her body convulsed and her core throbbed. Am I his? She’d never been anybody’s before. Can I even survive belonging to a Cyborg? Survive him? Her body cried out in a way that wanted to writhe and moan and wail yes. Her mind and the emotions that went along with it thought differently.

An android moved by them and she dropped her hands, sliding away, watching it as it continued on down the rows and the remaining prisoners.

“Tonight,” Gunner said when it was gone.

She nodded.

“Remember. You chose this.”

I know.

***

HE STOOD SLOWLY AND everyone’s eyes locked on him. His body ached, his cock painfully erect, and with his energy levels half-depleted from healing, Gunner prowled about his cell leisurely, quietly.

The six androids that hung around the entrance, only moving through the brig once every hour, no longer belonged to the pirates. He spent the day lying in his own blood, cuddling up under his swollen human flesh, just so he had enough power to feed them with looping videos on repeat.

If he were smart, he’d lay low for another day, continue to recharge, but no amount of pain could erase Elodie’s taste in his mouth. It was embedded in his systems now. His body craved a return to the contact.

Even when the guards knocked out his teeth, even when his mouth filled with his own blood, it couldn’t erase her taste.

The anticipation was tangible.

His eyes slid to her as he moved toward the panel. Her face contorted with worry.

It’s been a lifetime... Gunner deleted the thought before it could finish.

His hand met the cold metal cell door and he seeped into the systems.

The first thing he knew was that there were more androids powered on than before. The second was that the men were all now in groups of twos and threes. Most of them were on the move, patrolling. The fire had been lit under them but they had yet to ignite.

Tonight, though, his target was Ballsy. Not because the man had done anything to him personally... Besides try and crack the codes on his ship—Gunner hissed through his teeth—but because of the information he held. Information that would leave the captain and the bridge crew intact until the very last moment.

His hand palmed the AutoMag on the inside of his thigh.

He fell back into his body, momentarily weaker than he was before. His eyes roamed over the prisoners that watched him.

“Gunner.” Elodie’s voice made him turn. “Don’t hurt my dad.”

She tastes so fucking sweet.

I’m going to take everything from her.

He corrupted the security feeds.

She has no idea.

The lock pinged open and he stepped out. No one spoke, the androids didn’t move, and with only his teeth, his fists, and his gun, he slipped from the brig in silence.