He raised the hem of the gown, revealing a pair of tiny matching panties, and had to bite back a groan. He ran a finger across the thin strip of silk and her legs parted. He stroked her gently, watching in fascination as the silk dampened and she began to writhe against his hand. How could she be so responsive and yet so scared? He pulled the cloth tighter, revealing each delicate fold through the thin fabric. Lowering his head, he licked her, adding his own wetness to hers. The scent of her arousal filled his head and he could feel her clit swell and harden beneath his touch. Still stroking her with his tongue, he slid a finger under the fabric, probing gently at her entrance. The heat of her flesh teased him as he very slowly slid a finger into the tight little channel. Her body clung to him, enveloping him in liquid heat. He had never wanted anything more than to bury his cock in that silken fist, but he wouldn’t rush her.
He curled his finger, stroking her inside wall and she moaned. Without lifting his head, he looked up at her and saw her eyes open, wide and startled but already heavy with lust.
“Sam!”
“Good morning, angel.”
His voice against her clit made her shudder with ecstasy and she arched against his mouth.
“What—what are you doing?”
“It’s my turn.”
“You don’t have to,” she gasped, even as she clutched at his shoulders.
“What was it you said to me yesterday? I’m doing this because I want to.”
He saw the startled smile cross her face before he returned to the enticement of her sweet little folds. Her cunt was firmly clasped around his finger and he gently worked in a second digit. Her legs shifted restlessly but she didn’t attempt to pull away. He lathed her clit with his tongue, delicately teasing the swollen flesh still encased in purple silk. She gasped and her hand came to his head, her fingers tightening in the short dark strands.
“That’s right,” he murmured approvingly. “Hang on to me.”
“I didn’t mean to—oh!”
Ignoring the start of her apology, he fastened his mouth over her taut little pearl and sucked, relishing the faint sting as she tugged on his hair in response. Her sweet taste flooded his mouth, her narrow channel hot and slippery around his fingers. Very slowly, he added a third digit. He could feel her small entrance stretching to take him, but she didn’t protest, didn’t draw back. Instead, her fingers tightened in his hair again, and her hips lifted towards him. Teasing her through her panties was no longer enough. He yanked them aside impatiently then swept his tongue across her swollen nub as he gently but firmly pushed all three fingers deeper. With a startled cry, she arched and came, her sweet cunt clenching around him so tightly that his cock ached with longing. He ignored it, setting a steady rhythm with his hand as he continued to worship the tiny bud. A second round of wetness flooded his tongue and he finally reduced his pace, easing her back down.
When he looked up, she was smiling, her cheeks flushed and her eyes heavy, and satisfaction filled him. He had given her this happiness.
“Did you enjoy that, angel?”
“You know I did.” She tugged gently at a lock of his hair and smiled at him.
“I didn’t hurt you?”
“Of course not. I—” Her eyes went wide and she looked surprised. “You didn’t hurt me.”
“No.”
“And you were inside me.”
“I most certainly was.” He held up the three fingers he had used, then lazily sucked them into his mouth.
“But… I thought there was something wrong with me.”
Anger clouded his vision but he managed to keep his voice quiet. “No, angel. There was never anything wrong with you.”
She burst into tears and he swore, changing their positions so he could cradle her in his arms.
“Please don’t cry.”
“It’s just such a relief.”
He was definitely going to find a way to kill that bastard, but he kept his murderous thoughts to himself, rocking her gently until her tears stopped and she gave him a shaky smile.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to cry all over you.”
“I hope you never need to cry, but I’m here if you do.”
“Thank you, Sam.” She reached up and kissed him, a shy, gentle kiss and he ignored the heat raging through his body and returned it just as gently.
“Now,” he said. “Breakfast first and then we can begin work.”
“What about you? Aren’t you, um, unsatisfied?” Pink tinged her cheeks.
“I think you need time to think about what just happened,” he said honestly. “Your pleasure is enough for now.”
She started to protest but he lifted her to her feet and gave her a gentle swat on her butt. “Go get dressed while I make breakfast.”
She pouted over her shoulder at him, then headed for the bathroom with an undeniably provocative sway to her hips, and he had to restrain the impulse to follow her. Nonetheless, the morning’s events filled him with satisfaction. He had not only pleased her but hopefully shown her that she had no reason to be frightened. Despite his aching cock, he went to the kitchen area with a smile on his face.
Addie’s good mood lasted until they reached the lab.
Sam sat down on the exam table, looking perfectly calm, but even though he was sitting there of his own free will rather than being chained to the table, she couldn’t help remembering those awful days back on Earth. She had to talk to him.
“Sam, I—”
“What do you want me to do?” he asked simultaneously, smiling at her, and her courage deserted her.
“I want to start by taking a blood sample,” she said, forcing a smile of her own. “Our understanding is that the nanites in your system deteriorate as soon as they leave your body.”
“They do?”
“I’ve never personally witnessed it, but that’s what I’ve been told.”
“Does it matter?”
“It implies that there is a symbiotic relationship between the nanites and the… host. We are trying to replicate that relationship for someone without, um, cybernetic parts.”
“You mean if they want to survive on Mars without ending up like me?” he asked dryly.
“Well, yes.” She hurried on. “But really, it’s an artificial distinction. If we can create working nanites that are capable of altering the body’s chemistry and ability to withstand suboptimal conditions, they will fundamentally alter the host. They’re really no different than cyborgs.”
“Except in the eyes of Earth Government.”
“Under current law, yes.”
She busied herself assembling the test apparatus before cautiously approached him with the syringe. He held out one big, muscled arm readily enough, but she was the one who cringed.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“You don’t need to be sorry. I volunteered—and this time, I know what I’m getting into.”
She gave him a shaky smile, then fastened the tourniquet around his arm and carefully inserted the needle.
“Was that all right?”
“Addie, stop worrying. I barely felt it. And my body has experienced much worse. Fuck,” he swore when he saw the look on her face. “I didn’t mean it like that. We have to stop pussyfooting around this.”
“I know. It’s just still so… hard to think about that time.”
“Then don’t think about it.”
“I don’t think I can unless I tell you—”
“Addie, I don’t want to know. Just let it drop. For now.”
She nodded reluctantly and returned to her work. Having filled two vials with his blood, she removed the syringe and carefully placed a bandage over the small pinprick, even though he wasn’t bleeding.
“What are you going to do with those?”
“This one is going into the mediums that were already injected with nanites. Then I’m going to test this one.”
“That’s it?”
“For right now. Based on the results, I can determine
the next steps.” She smiled at him. “You can put your shirt back on. If you have to.”
He shrugged. “Not much point. I assume you’re going to stick me again?”
“Probably.”
He sat there on the table watching her process his blood. She looked over at him several times and noticed that he was frowning. Her heart sank. Was he having second thoughts?
Forcing her attention back to her tests, she tried to concentrate on the experiment. As expected, the nanites in his blood sample were completely inert; however, the ones injected into the medium did not die off immediately. Would they be enough to prevent the out-of-control replication?
“How much do you know about the colonization effort?” he asked out of the blue.
“Not a lot really. It’s still being advertised very heavily on Earth, but I don’t think they are getting as many applicants as they expected. People tend to prefer the devil they know, no matter how bad the conditions. It tends to be desperate people who are willing to take the chance.”
“Were you desperate?”
Yes.
“Very much so.”
“Why?”
“Derrick was determined to make sure I ended up with nothing. He wanted to take everything from me.” It was the truth, although not the entire truth.
“Bastard,” Sam swore and she felt oddly comforted by the rage on his face.
“But why are you asking?”
“Something someone said to me—that Mars would be better off governed by Martians, in other words, by anyone living here. Then no one would have to worry about whether or not they had enough humanity to claim their rights.”
“We’re still very dependent on Earth,” she pointed out.
“But becoming less so each year. Eventually, the terraforming process will reach the tipping point and we will have both a breathable atmosphere and the ability to produce our own food without artificial assistance. If—when—your experiments succeed, they would also reduce our dependency.” He drummed his fingers against the table. “Of course, that still leaves the problem of GenCon.”
“Why are they a problem?”
“They have a very heavy investment in Mars. I suspect they have their own ideas about controlling that investment.”
“It’s just a company,” she protested, then thought of Derrick and his cruelty, of his unwillingness to let anything prevent him from getting what he wanted in business as well as his personal life. “I know some of the executives can be quite ruthless, but you can find bad apples in any group of people.”
“And sometimes the whole tree is rotten.”
Was it? She thought of the pressure that had been placed on them to perform.
“They have always been demanding,” she said slowly. “But I assumed it was like that everywhere. And we always went along with it because it was important work.”
“It may be like that everywhere,” he agreed. “The top corporations are always jockeying for power. But GenCon has a stranglehold on Mars and I’m not sure they’re willing to let it go.”
Before she could respond, the monitor beeped.
“Damn. The first one has failed already. And faster than I expected.”
Chapter Fourteen
Addie looked so despondent that S-756 got up and put his arm around her.
“It’s all right, angel. You said that you expected this to happen.”
“I know, but it doesn’t make it any easier.”
“What is the next step?”
“I was thinking…” She hesitated and he could see the doubt on her face.
He already suspected he wasn’t going to like the answer, but he asked the question anyway. “What were you thinking?”
“That maybe there’s a way to trick your nanites into thinking that they are still part of your body.”
“How?”
“If I used an IV to both draw blood and return it to your body, it would set up a continuous loop. Unlike when I draw blood samples, it would never be completely isolated. It might work.”
He tried to suppress his shudder, but he knew she saw it anyway. One of Mingol’s favorite tests was to hook him to an IV and inject him with a paralytic drug. The compound caused his nanites to go into a type of hibernation and sapped the strength from his body, leaving him weaker than a human.
“We don’t have to do it,” she said quickly. “There are more things I can try.”
“But you think this has the best chance?”
“I think so, but there are eleven more samples still processing.” She gestured at the lab table.
“All right, then let’s wait until those are complete before we decide.”
A moment later, the monitor pinged again.
She looked at him and he could see the knowledge in her eyes before she looked away. While she went over her notes, he went to set up the hydroponic garden, noting each time the monitor sounded. By the time he finished his work and they ate lunch, all of the tests had failed.
“All right, Addie. Let’s try your idea.”
“Are you sure?”
No. What if she was just fooling him again? But he looked at those big worried eyes and couldn’t convince himself that she was lying.
“It’s why we’re here.”
She bit her lip, then nodded. “Let’s give it a try.”
He almost balked when she asked him to lie down on the metal lab table but there were no chains to bind him this time. He could leave whenever he wanted.
“Could you, um, remove your shirt please?”
He obeyed silently, but he saw her watching him from under her lashes and his body inevitably responded. At least it gave him something to think about other than the waiting IVs. Just as that morning, her hands were deft and gentle as she carefully inserted a needle in each arm.
“Now what?”
“I want to test the flow first. Are you comfortable? Does anything feel off?”
He examined his systems, but everything was processing normally, and he didn’t feel any weakness or other side effects.
“I’m fine. What’s next?”
“I’m going to insert a sample of the medium in the blood flow and see if it will pick up the live nanites without devolving.” She put a soft hand on his chest. “I’ll need you to lie still for an hour. Can you do that?”
He hated the idea, but once again, he was doing it of his own free will. He nodded.
“Thank you, Sam.”
She bustled around the lab while he forced himself to hold still for an interminable hour, frequently returning to check on him.
“Everything looks good,” she announced at last. “No degradation so far. I’m going to separate it from your blood flow and see what happens. As soon as I remove it, I’ll take out the IVs.”
Ten minutes later, he was free, and he sat up with a relieved sigh. Addie finished with her sample and turned to him.
“Thank you, Sam. I know that was hard for you.” She chewed on her lip. “Why did you let me do it?”
“I would do anything for you.” The words came out before he had a chance to reconsider.
She stared up at him, her eyes wide, and threw herself into his arms. “I would do anything for you too.”
Something about her words caught his attention but before he could focus on it, Addie was tugging him down so she could kiss him. At the feel of her mouth against his, all desire for speech left him. She kissed him with a mixture of tenderness and passion that had his cock and his heart both aching.
“I… I’m ready,” she whispered when he finally lifted his head.
“Ready for what?”
“I want you to make love to me, Sam. Completely. I want to feel you inside me.”
“I told you there’s no hurry.”
“I know, but I don’t want to wait any longer. I’ve been waiting for you for twelve years.”
“You’re sure?”
“Oh, yes.”
Color infused her cheeks, but her hands were steady as sh
e started to unfasten her coveralls. His cock was so hard he was afraid it would burst through his pants. He reached for her, then remembered where they were.
“Hold that thought, angel.”
Ignoring her shock, he left her long enough to retrieve both bunk mattresses, placing them on the floor in front of the window.
“I think you’ll find this a little more comfortable.” He held out a hand and she didn’t hesitate to place hers in it. “Now let’s get back to what you were doing.”
Her hands went back to her coveralls and this time he let her proceed, watching with hungry eyes as she slowly undressed. He knew that it was shyness rather than a desire to tease him, but he couldn’t help a frustrated growl when she hesitated before slipping out of the garment. Startled eyes flew to his but whatever she saw on his face must have reassured her because she smiled and let it drop.
Pale pink lace today, barely darker than the color of her skin, and so sheer that he could see the shadow of her areolas and the small patch of blonde curls between her legs. Lush, curvy, perfect.
“You’re beautiful, angel.”
He watched in fascination as the pink on her cheeks extended down over her chest to the lacy edge of her bra and he was suddenly reluctant to have any barrier between them.
“This is very pretty.” He ran a finger over the sheer lace, brushing lightly across her nipple. “But I want to see all of you.”
Reaching back, she undid the clasp and the bra slid away, leaving his hands filled with the soft, heavy weight of her breasts. He circled the taut peaks, relishing the silky feel of her skin, and she gasped.
“Much better,” he growled.
She looked up at him from under her lashes, unexpectedly provocative, and then she bent over to remove the tiny panties, deliberately brushing the lush curves of her ass against him as she straightened, and he could barely restrain himself from demanding more.
A Fistful 0f Cyborg (Cyborgs On Mars Book 2) Page 9