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)
At last, Corinne’s curvy body—which had been so tight and tense—sagged back against the mattress.
“Ohhh…” she groaned and K-lx felt her go limp. “Oh my God…oh God…”
And then she started to cry.
All right—that wasn’t in the playbook.
K-lx got up hastily and leaned over the bed. She had curled on her side and was sobbing as though her heart was breaking.
Had he hurt her in some way?
Feeling through their Link, he didn’t detect any physical pain. But he did feel emotional distress and guilt. A whole lot of guilt.
“Oh, baby…” He settled beside her on the bed and gently took her in his arms.
Corinne resisted at first but then she curled against his chest.
“Shouldn’t…shouldn’t have done that,” she choked out, between sobs. “It was wrong.”
“It wasn’t wrong, baby,” K-lx argued softly. “How could it be wrong to let yourself take pleasure?”
“Because I’m breaking all the laws of Cybernetic ethics with you!” She looked up at him with wet eyes—her long eyelashes spiky with tears. “Do you know what they would do to us if anyone found out? I’d lose my job and probably be put in prison for the sexual abuse of a Cybernetic Unit but it would be even worse for you—you’d be scrapped! Or else mind-wiped so you couldn’t remember me or what I’d done to you.”
K-lx felt a cold finger of fear run down his spine. She’d said such things before, but he’d never really believed there could be such severe consequences just for the two of them doing what came naturally. However, the pure distress he felt coming through their link and her sobs of remorse had him much more worried than he had been previously.
Somehow, he had to make her feel better about what they had done—but how?
“Hey, baby, it’s okay—it’s going to be okay,” he murmured, stroking her hair out of her eyes. Leaning down, he kissed her wet cheeks gently. “Everything is going to be okay, Corinne—no one is going to find out,” he promised.
She shook her head.
“I just…I don’t know what to do. We can’t keep doing this. And it’s not that I don’t want to be close to you, K-lx,” she added, looking at him earnestly. “I do want to be close—too close. That’s the problem.”
“Look, baby, when they made those laws about not ‘abusing’ Cybernetic organisms, they weren’t talking about me,” he argued softly. “I’m different from the kind of Cyborgs you have now. Those things barely even have brains. Of course they can’t think or defend themselves if someone was to try something with them. You know if I didn’t want it, I’d let you know.”
“I know.” She sniffed and swiped at her eyes. “And the thing is you need it. You need all the, uh, contact we’ve been having.”
“Well, that’s what the manual says, but we don’t have to follow it,” K-lx pointed out. “If what we’re doing is making you feel this bad, then I don’t want to do it anymore.”
“But, K-lx…I don’t want to stop.” Her eyes went wide and he felt the conflicting emotions warring inside her. Guilt and remorse were fighting with desire and…could that be love? If not that, then at least affection. His heart swelled when he realized how much she cared for him.
“It’s okay, baby. I don’t want to stop either,” he murmured. “But we can’t go on like this—it’s tearing you up inside.”
She shook her head and swiped at her eyes again.
“There must be some other way to help you suppress your memories. But…I don’t want to stop touching you.” She reached up and cupped his cheek and K-lx felt like his heart might melt. “I don’t want to stop sleeping with you or being close to you.”
“I don’t want that either, baby,” he said gently. He frowned, as a sudden thought hit him. “I wonder if there’s anything in the old lab that could help with this? With my old memories, I mean.”
“The old lab?” Corinne furrowed her brow. “Actually, there was a mention of the lab in your manual. But wouldn’t it be gone by now? Bombed or looted or torn down?”
“I don’t think so.” He shook his head. “The main part of it was located underground—deep underground. And we Kindred are second to none at building protected structures with plenty of power backups. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s still intact.”
Corinne looked thoughtful.
“Maybe we could take a little trip to Old Earth. I’m sure Silas would be glad to get rid of us for a while.”
“You think he’d let you go?” K-lx raised his eyebrows skeptically.
“Probably.” She sighed. “If that little snake hadn’t stolen my job, I wouldn’t have to ask him for permission—I’d just go.”
K-lx frowned.
“Wait—he stole your job? What do you mean?”
“Oh…I used to be the Director of the Cybernetics Division here on the station,” she explained. “But then my protégé—a good friend I loved very much named Isla—was killed when her Cyborg went Rogue. Silas used her death as leverage and claimed I was incompetent or I never would have allowed her to be matched with C-17 as his Handler in the first place.” She shook her head. “I was so upset about her death, I wasn’t paying attention to what was going on. Before I knew it, Silas was the new Director and I was stuck in a Cleaning Detail. That’s one reason he was so mad when I Linked with you—it gave me Handler status and got me back into the lab when he wants to keep me out.”