Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 55375 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 277(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55375 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 277(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
K-lx looked and saw that—sure enough—there was a blanket and pillow on the floor at the foot of her bed. So she wasn’t even going to let him sleep beside her. Fuck.
He felt a surge of anger but also of remorse. He had fucked this up himself—had gotten himself into this situation. And he couldn’t blame her for not wanting to let him into her bed—not even to sleep—after the things he’d said.
“Can I at least move the blanket along side the bed instead of at the end of it?” he asked.
“No.” Her answer was clipped. “I’d put you out in the hall if I didn’t worry about the safety of the rest of the station. But like it or not, you’re my responsibility so you’re staying here in my room tonight. At least until I can find someplace else safe to put you.”
“Fuck,” he groaned in a low voice. “I know what I said, Mistress, but I’m not going to hurt you! I’d rather fucking die than hurt you!”
“No, you just want to breed me.” She turned her head briefly to look at him and he could see how upset she was. “I’ve never had a Cybernetic Unit threaten me like that before!”
“I didn’t mean to threaten you. My programming would never allow me to breed you unless you wanted me to!” he protested. “You have to believe me.”
“I don’t have to do anything but try and get some sleep,” she snapped. “You need rest too. Put yourself into sleep mode and don’t let me hear anything else out of you until morning.”
She was phrasing it as a direct order and while he knew he could fight against it, he doubted he would win. Going into sleep mode wasn’t going to hurt him or make him hate himself. Not anymore than he already hated himself for threatening her, that was.
With a sigh, K-lx lay down on the floor—which was fucking hard and cold. He might have metal overlays on his arms and legs, but they had just as many nerve receptors as the flesh underneath them—more in some cases. So lying on the floor wasn’t comfortable—especially when he compared it with the comfort of having his Mistress cuddle with him in bed the night before.
But there was nothing he could do about it. He lay on his back on half the blanket and draped the other half over himself. Predictably, it was too short and his feet and legs stuck out. There was no way this was going to be comfortable in any way so K-lx did the only thing he could do—he activated his sleep mode, which he normally only used when he couldn’t get to sleep naturally—and allowed blackness to swallow the world.
18
CORINNE
Corinne lay there, shivering and miserable, wondering how everything had gone so wrong. Her breasts, still filled with nectar, ached mercilessly and she was still hot and wet between her thighs but her mind was in an even bigger turmoil than her body.
What was she going to do with K-lx? She could no longer pretend to herself that she had complete control of him. He’d admitted that his makers—the Tolleg surgeons—had allowed him some free will, which was unheard of in the Cybernetics world of today. Either a Handler had complete control of a Cybernetic Unit…or she had none.
Corinne knew where she fell in that equation.
The big K-Unit was dangerous—he’d proved that the night before. And he was able to disobey a direct order, which made him a menace to the whole station. By the ethical standards of Modern Cybernetics, she ought to have him decommissioned and scrapped.
But she didn’t want to do that! Even though she’d known him such a short time, she was already disturbingly attached to the big Cyborg, she admitted to herself. He woke things in her that no human man ever had. The raw intensity of his emotions for her was frightening…but also strangely intriguing. No man had ever felt so deeply for her. And she’d never worked with a Cybernetic Unit that had so much passion and intention and personality.
K-lx was unique and the secrets of making a Cyborg like him had been lost to the sands of time. Destroying him would be like smashing a stained-glass window or slashing the canvas of a priceless painting. It would be wrong—Corinne felt it in every fiber of her being.
That’s not the only reason you want to keep from junking him, whispered an accusing little voice in her head. You’re catching feelings for him, Corinne. You like him—admit it!
She flipped over to her other side in bed, trying to deny the accusation. But she couldn’t—it was true. How could she help liking someone who was so clearly enamored with her—who wanted to protect her so badly he would go against his own programming? Who—