Aramus (13 page)

Holy smokes, she’d gotten more than she’d bargained for, in a good way. Aramus had come to her, torn by his desire, but also unable to resist. It made her melt inside to see the inner battle he fought, for once his expression not a guarded mask as desire fought with wariness…and wistfulness.

He wanted what she offered, but didn’t trust it.
In the end, he couldn’t help himself. They made love. Wild, unbelievable love, and even when he came, shouting her name, his voice raw, he didn’t forget about her. Instead of collapsing atop her—which would have probably crushed her to death—he remembered her more fragile human nature and rolled, keeping them connected, until he lay on his back with her splayed atop him.

Catching her breath,
with her cheek against his skin, she noted something strange and couldn’t help but ask, despite the intimate moment, “Why can’t I hear your heart beat?”

“Because I don’t have one.”

The answer startled her enough that she pushed herself up so she could look at his face. “Excuse me? I thought I heard you say you didn’t have a heart.”

A crooked grin curled one corner of his mouth
, softening the harsh lines of his face. “Your ears are functioning. I don’t have a heart. One of my upgrades involved removing that particular organ and replacing it with a more efficient mechanical one.”

“It pumps
your blood? Keeps you alive?”

“Yes.”

She sighed in relief. “Oh, thank god. For a minute there I thought I just had amazing sex with a dead guy.”

“I would have thought my actions would have proven
I was more than alive,” was his wry reply.

A giggle slipped from her. “Sorry. It’s just
if you approach this from a logical standpoint, then, when you don’t hear a heartbeat, it’s because a guy is usually a vampire or a zombie.”

“You are comparing me to
a make-believe character?”

“It’s not an insult. I love reading romances where vampires seduce the girl.”

“Except, in this case, you seduced me.”

“So I did.”
Riley grinned. “And, might I say, I’m glad I found the guts to do it.”

“That would make two of us.
”

“You’re not going to dump me on the floor now and run away
, are you?”

For a moment, something passed across his face
, regret, sadness, something else? But his words put her fears to rest. “No. For as long as we are stuck together on this ship, I won’t avoid you.”

Something about the phrasing of it bugged her, but she couldn’t have said why. “Gee, how romantic.”

“If you expect me to turn into a sappy, poetry-spouting idiot, then think again. I don’t do flowery speeches. I don’t give compliments. And I don’t cuddle.”

“Then what do you call what we’re doing?” She wiggled atop him and arched a brow.

A slow, naughty smile stretched his lips. “Preparing for round two.”

Aramus made love to her again, slowly and with reverence. He explored her body with his hands and mouth. For a man who professed he wouldn’t compliment her, he gave lie to his words with the way he worshipped every inch of her, treating all of her body like a temple, with him as the devoted acolyte in charge of it.

She’d never felt more beautiful or desired. Several days they spent in bliss. The only time they separated was when he left to attend his duties on the bridge. They ate in her room. Napped together. Bathed together and made love countless times.

But they didn’t just make love. They also spoke,
she of the life she used to lead while Aramus, with a lot of prodding, told her of his liberation and how he came to sentience. She could tell how the experience had scarred him and how he resented the fact that, unlike some of the other cyborgs, he could remember almost nothing of his past. She heard the affection in his tone as he told her stories of others, his friends. She was fairly sure that Aramus, Mr. I-Don’t-Feel-Anything, had no idea how his face lightened when he relayed some of the pranks and missions they’d done together. During all of their discussion, not once did he bring up his hatred of humans. She thought he was finally beginning to trust her. Thought he’d come to care for her.

How could I have been so wrong?

I don’t believe it.

“They’re leaving.” Even as she stared out the spaceport window, watching the
SSBiteMe
pull away from the docking area, she couldn’t believe it. Aramus had dumped her. Dumped her as a lover, and so coldly, like she was an unwanted piece of cargo, and on a bloody space station in the middle of nowhere.
How could he abandon me?
She bit her lip, hoping the pain would keep the moisture welling in her eyes at bay.

“Well
, at least they didn’t k-k-ill us,” Percy said.

Might as well have
because it sure felt like she’d been stabbed in the heart.

Only
Carmen didn’t seem too shocked as she snorted. “Of course they didn’t kill us. Cyborgs might call themselves machines and talk about how they are without emotion, but they’re more human than they want to admit and subject to many of the same weaknesses. A true robot wouldn’t have hesitated to terminate us so we couldn’t tell anyone what we learned. But, apparently, they’re not logical enough. They let their feelings rule,” she sneered, not bothering to couch her usual disdain in a veneer of civility. “They were weak and let us go.”

“It’s not weak to have empathy,” Riley answered.
Although, according to Aramus, it was. Or at least that formed the basis of his logic and why he’d fled with his crew instead of dealing with the fact he felt something for Riley.
I know he cares for me.
She’d seen it too many times over the course of the past few days to doubt it, which made his abandonment without so much as a goodbye or chance to argue so much harder to bear.

“
If you think that, then you’re an idiot. Leaving loose ends is a failing, not a redeeming quality. No wonder the cyborgs failed as a project. The military should have burnt their ability to feel from their brains.”

“Are you insane?” Riley couldn’t help but exclaim. “Are you actually criticizing the fact they’re capable of feeling? Th
at they retained their humanity and that, despite the changes to their bodies, they’re more than machines?”

“No, they’re not. They’re cyborgs. Built to serve mankind.
The military and the company who developed the idea took flawed human beings, specimens who either gave back nothing to society or were injured in such a way as to pose a burden, and gave them a chance to be something more. Something better. What a shame they ended up such utter failures.”

“How can you say that? You spent time with them. Hell, you were even sleeping with one.”

“More than one, but that’s neither here nor there. They made a mistake in leaving us here. In their shoes, I would have killed us all or kept us as tools.”

“With that kind of reasoning, then you’re no better than the
monsters we escaped.” And much more knowledgeable about the cyborgs than she’d formerly let on. It bothered Riley to know Carmen had lied, apparently about more than one thing, given her vitriolic diatribe. She wished she could tell Aramus. He’d probably want to question Carmen again, given this new insight. Just one problem. Aramus was gone, and she’d never speak to him again.
I guess it no longer matters.

“
Did I forget to mention I don’t care about your opinion? As a matter of fact, I don’t care for your presence. I’m out of here.” Carmen whirled on her heel and strode across the mostly empty room that served as bar and restaurant for this section of the space station. At this late hour, it held nothing but a handful of patrons, lost in their thoughts as they nursed drinks and murmured quietly amongst themselves. They didn’t spend more than a moment glancing at the drama unfolding in their corner.

Riley resisted a childish urge to give Carmen a single finger salute goodbye.

Percy, on the other hand, seemed perturbed at Carmen’s departure. “Where are you g-g-going?”

“N-none of your d-d-d-damned business,” Carmen mocked. “I’ve got better things to do than hang with you losers.”

Bitch.
Leave or stay, Riley didn’t care. She’d not associated much with Carmen while on the cyborg ship, so she didn’t really care what the woman did now that they’d achieved quasi freedom, especially given her rude remarks about their captors.

Maybe she’s the smart one though. I don’t see her mooning and moping about the fact her lover
s ditched her.
If only she could set aside her own emotions so easily. But the cranky cyborg had gotten under her skin. Made her see the man who thought he couldn’t care. Made her fall in love then left her with a broken heart, alone on a space station with no money and no way home.

What the hell am I supposed to do now?
Call for help?
Carmen’s warning—was it only just over a week ago?—about not communicating with her family lest the company kill her, and them, echoed in her head. But if she couldn’t contact them for a flight home, or even hitch a ride back to earth lest she trigger some kind of alert, what could she do?

Apparently, the uncaring cyborgs
had made some accommodations. Rooms had been booked for each of them and paid through until the next month, so at least that took one dilemma out of the equation. They’d also been left enough credits to feed themselves and purchase some necessities, so she wouldn’t starve or run around in the same pair of undies. Now if only she could figure out what to do with the rest of her life.

Which
, as it turned out, might not last too long.

The attack occurred
only hours after their arrival, hours she’d spent crying until she fell into an exhausted sleep. The station was invaded while she slumbered, and it seemed she wasn’t the only one to miss it. No alarms rang. No premonitions warned her. However, it was pretty hard to ignore the hand clasped over her mouth or the gun held to her head when she blinked the sleep from her eyes.

“Don’t fucking move or
scream, or I’ll blow your head off.” In the dim light of her room, she could only nod as the intruder, clad in space riot gear—helmet, goggles, and spacesuit complete with air recycler—yanked her to her feet.

“Who are you?”

The blow to the back of her head sent her to her knees. “What part of keep fucking quiet did you not get?” Eyes stinging, noggin throbbing, she bit back a sob, lest the thug hit her again for not obeying. She’d forgotten what it was like to deal with jerks. Her time with the cyborgs had spoiled her, how ironic. “Get up, you stupid bitch, and move where I tell you. And I don’t want to hear a fucking peep.”

Thankfully,
Riley had worn a T-shirt and track pants to bed because her attacker didn’t give her time to dress, not even to slip on a pair of shoes before he marched her to the door. Into the hall they stepped, where more of the mercenaries clad in stealth gear waited. She noted Percy, his mouth clamped shut in a tight line, his hands bound and his eyes wide, in the grasp of another thug.

Icy fingers tickled her spine. Shit.
This was so not good. Obviously, this was a targeted kidnapping, a belief reinforced when she saw Carmen exiting her room ahead of another soldier.

The other woman didn’t appear flustered or surprised at all
. As a matter of fact, she strode ahead of the accompanying kidnappers, a princess with attendants instead of a prisoner. Suspicion reared its ugly head.
Is Carmen in cahoots the mercs?
Surely not. But she daren’t ask, not with Mr. Smack-Happy at her back.

“Is this all of them?” one of the thugs queried.

“Yes. These are the ones they wanted.”

Who wanted?

Percy stupidly asked and got a slug to the gut for a reply. Riley decided she didn’t need to know that badly. Eyes down, she stared at her bare feet and moved where they prodded. She wasn’t about to test their patience by disobeying orders or attempting to escape. With these kinds of odds, even if she was a super healing cyborg, she’d hesitate to act. Suicide wasn’t in her best interest.

Through the space station they wandered, the late hour meaning they traveled mostly in gloom as the lights of the facility were on nighttime mode, simulating the time zones back on earth. What surprised her was the lack of bustle and the quiet when they got to the docking area. Space ports, from what she knew, always had
something happening, whether it was refueling, reloading, or maintenance, during off times. Then again, those things would be better accomplished by staff not slumped over their stations, dead or asleep; she couldn’t quite tell.

The bodies ignobly splayed on the floor
, on the other hand, in a chaotic half circle in front of the open door and ramp to a parked vessel, didn’t need their puddles of congealing blood to announce violence had recently occurred.

Her sense of dread deepened.

She dragged her feet, yet that didn’t halt the inevitable. A cuff upside the head, a gloved hand twisting in her hair, and a yank toward the opening in the spacecraft meant she had no choice. Sometimes it sucked being just a normal girl. What she wouldn’t give for some super cyborg strength right about now. She was getting mighty tired of violent men dictating to her.

Once aboard, s
he wasn’t surprised to see Dennison’s sneering face. “Welcome back, Doctor. I hope you didn’t think we’d abandoned you.”

“A
person can hope.” And see that hope dashed.

“Once an employee of
the company, always an employee.”

“What does a girl have to do to get fired?”

The slap across her face rocked her and loosened a few teeth. Big surprise, Dennison still enjoyed smacking defenseless women around. Where was an unfeeling cyborg when you needed one?

“Mouthy bitch. It seems someone has forgotten her manners. No worries. I’ll be by later to
give you a refresher. Just as soon as we catch up with some machines who need to be reminded who is in charge.”

“
You’ll never find them.”

“Don’t tell me you’re rooting for the
robots? Ah yes, I’d almost forgotten. According to my sources, you developed a fondness for one. Fucked him apparently.”

How did he know? Who told him? She played dumb. “What are you talking about?”

“Oh, don’t play stupid with me. I know all about your little fling with the ugly brute who now calls himself Aramus. Do you know, before the military drafted him, he used to be a homeless urchin? Begging on street corners. Petty theft. A few assaults. Such a prize.”

“He’s changed.”

Dennison laughed. “I’ll bet he has. And he has the company to thank.”

“Don’t you mean the military? I thought he was a soldier.”

“He was. The military took him in and tried to make him into an obedient little soldier. But, as with many of his ilk, it failed. That’s where the company stepped in. He was volunteered to the cyborg project.”

“Volunteering implies choice.”

“People like him don’t deserve one. They’re too stupid to do what needs to be done. That’s why there are people like General Boulder to make those hard choices.”

“And people like you?” She didn’t say it nicely
, but he smiled as if she’d paid him a compliment.

“Yes, like me. I saw the potential in him, in all that healthy, strong flesh.
We gave him a third chance. A chance to become something greater than he was. A chance to serve. But, once a fuck-up, always a fuck-up.”

“
Aramus is a good man.”

“
Machine. You seem to forget that.”

“You might have given him some electronic and metal parts, but he’s still very much a man.”

“Apparently, and quite the lover too judging by your defense of him. If I’d have known you were so desperate for male attention as to fuck even a robot, I would have rectified your problem, even if you’re a little big for me. Never fear. Fat ass or not, I’ll make sure you don’t feel neglected this time round.”

The sadistic gleam in his eyes let her know it wouldn’t be a gentle experience. Rape never was.
More than ever she wanted to scream and cry, but giving in to the terror coursing through her blood wasn’t an option. She needed to remain alert and in control, lest she miss an opportunity to free herself from this nightmare.
Foolish hope because how do I expect to free myself from a spaceship?
Maybe she should hope for aliens to beam her aboard. Surely, their idea of probing was preferable.

“What
, no tears? No begging to spare you? Or are you harboring a slim hope that your cyborg lover will rescue you?”

“Aramus and his crew are long gone. You’ll never find them
.”

“Gone, but not lost.”
Dennison laughed. “I can see your confusion. Surely you didn’t think we’d let you escape so easily? We had plans in place in case something like the cyborgs invading our installation happened. Actually we counted on it, as we required more specimens.”

“You bugged us.”
Why did that not surprise her?

“And risk the cyborgs catching on? No.
Nothing like that. But we did leave bait at the installation, which the stupid machines took.”

She caught his implication.
“One of the captives was a spy.”