Breathing Vapor

by Cynthia Sax

  “I was never your master.” She sucked on his chin and he groaned, unable to resist her. “You were always my male, my equal.”

  “I’m the best.” Vapor rubbed his cock against her, teasing her clit with his tip, moistening his length with her juices. “And I deserve the best female. That’s you.” He brushed his chest against her nipples and her breath hitched. “I want you.”

  “You have me—my heart, my body, my soul.” She undulated against the wall, massaging him with her curves.

  “That’s not enough. I want more.” He fluttered his tongue against the pulse point in her neck. “I want your honesty and your lies, your submission and your rebellion, your unbreakable spirit and your unending softness. I want to be your now and your future, the male you wake up with and the warrior you fight beside.”

  “I want you to fuck me.” Mira slammed her booted heels against his ass.

  “Behave.” He nipped her skin and her heartbeat sped up. His aggression aroused his feisty female. “Tell me a truth, any truth, and I’ll breed with you.” Vapor laved the pink mark he’d left on her neck.

  “And if I don’t?” She pulled on his hair.

  His little human wanted to be punished. “If you don’t, you won’t sit for the rest of the planet rotation.” He squeezed her ass hard.

  “Mmm…” Her eyes sparkled and her lips curled upward.

  “You also won’t come.”

  Her smile faded. “You’re merciless.” She smacked his right pec.

  Frag. She heated his circuits. “I’m waiting.” Vapor ground his shaft against her feminine folds. She was dripping for him. “Tell me a truth.”

  Her gaze dropped to his chest.

  She wanted to confess to him.

  “Say it.” He slid his cock along her softness, building her passion higher and higher. “Share your truth with me.”

  Her lips moved. Even with his cyborg hearing, he couldn’t hear her.

  “Louder.” A bead of nanocybotic-infused pre-cum formed on his tip. Vapor skimmed it over her clit.

  She whimpered, clutching him with her arms and her legs. Her pussy clenched his hard flesh, trying to draw him in.

  It took all of his restraint not to yield to her sweet temptation.

  “Mira,” he barked, his control frayed.

  Her spine straightened. “When you told me that I hadn’t shot Lydna, that you had, I was relieved.” She looked down at his chin. “She deserved death. She was a terrible being and would have hurt more innocents. I knew that, yet I didn’t want to kill her. That makes me weak but—”

  “You’re not weak.” Vapor gazed at his tormented female, his heart swelling with emotion. “You care about life, all life, good or bad. That takes strength. I love you for that.”

  “You do?” She blinked up at him. “You love me for caring?”

  “For caring, for seeing the universe in a different way, for challenging me, for being.” He pressed his lips to hers. “I love you for everything you are.”

  “You love me.” Her smile dazzled him.

  This beautiful creature was his. “I love you.” Vapor prodded her entrance with his cock head, aligning himself properly. “You’ve been a good human and deserve a reward.”

  “Yes.” She pushed her hips forward, impaling herself on his tip.

  He gritted his teeth. She was hot, wet, thrillingly tight, fitting him like his body armor. He sank deeper and deeper. Her inner walls hugged his shaft. Mira clawed at his shoulders, the bite of pain accentuating his pleasure.

  He filled her completely, then paused, gazing into his female’s eyes. They were a darker blue, warmed by her wanting, eyes a male could stare into for a lifespan.

  Mira wasn’t that patient. “Fuck me now, cyborg.” She whacked her boot heels against his ass. “I’m not getting any younger.”

  She wasn’t getting any older either. He pulled out to his tip. His nanocybotics would extend his female’s life almost infinitely. They’d never age, always be together. He thrust back into her, slamming her ass against the wall.

  Mira must have liked the spank of hardness against her curves. She gasped, clenching his shaft with her inner walls.

  Vapor grimaced, her grip on him shredding his control. He retreated once more and then thrust harder. She squealed, her boots bouncing against his skin.

  Retreat, thrust, retreat, thrust. He set a heart-pounding pace, spurred on by Mira. Her urgings of more, faster, deeper, were punctuated with the smack, smack, smack of her skin against the wall.

  She’d be sore after this breeding but that fate didn’t dampen his female’s enthusiasm. Her wetness streamed down his shaft, coating his balls with her scent. Her arms and legs trembled and her eyes were excitingly wild.

  Loving her was what he was designed to do. Mira was his focus, his reason for being. He had been wrong when he said she was part of him. She was all of him, every cell and every mechanic.

  Vapor rutted into her. His thigh muscles flexed and his biceps bulged. Not from his effort. He used only a fraction of his strength, aware of how breakable his human was.

  The strain on his body was from not coming. He gritted his teeth. She was delicate and soft and yielding, embracing him with her entire form.

  “Vapor.” She called to him, her head flung back against the wall. “Vapor.” Her voice was husky and raw, the edges of his name smoothed with a love he heard, tasted, felt. Her face glistened with sweat, glowing like a moonbeam in a universe that would otherwise be too dark, too harsh.

  She was his female, his love. He licked her cheek with the flat of his tongue and she quivered, her inner walls closing around his shaft, creating more delectable friction, more seductive sensation.

  “Please.”

  Mira waited for him, for his approval. She was strong, the best, the only.

  “Come for me, female.” He retreated. “Come now.” Vapor slammed back into her, driving her ass against the wall, and he swiveled his hips.

  She screamed, constricting around his cock. That was too much for him. He crashed into her with a fierce roar, unable to hold back. Everything he had, he poured into her, all of his essence, all of his strength, all of his love. He gave and gave until there was nothing left.

  Mira battled her release, raking long grooves in his chest with her fingernails, pummeling his ass with her boots. Vapor felt only the most exquisite ecstasy, the smuggest satisfaction, his processors whirling, his circuits buzzing.

  He thrust once, twice more and became still, his chest heaving against hers, his balls empty. A strange peace fell over him, a calmness he only felt with her.

  Vapor brushed his lips over hers again and again, murmuring comforting words. He told her of the planet they would find, the home they would build, the beings they’d free.

  His female would want that—to continue the duty her mother had passed to her, to liberate the suppressed. They’d start with the cyborgs, showing his brethren the way to the Homeland, using Vapor’s skills in battles and Mira’s talent for strategy.

  They’d be a team. He cuddled her close to him.

  Outside their storage chamber, the ship hummed with excitement.

  Ace and Thrasher argued. Thrasher teased Ace about being uptight. Ace dryly commented that at least he used his processors once in a while.

  Strive strutted around the decks, boasting about how many kills he’d made this planet rotation. Grin and Raw accompanied their friend, ensuring that none of their brethren thumped humility into him.

  Other cyborgs discussed their futures.

  They could make plans. They were free. The battles they fought would be of their own choosing. They answered to no one.

  Vapor gazed at his female. Almost no one. His heart answered to hers.

  “I love you, Mira.” He lowered her to her feet.

  She swayed, holding onto him for support. “I love you too.” Her lips quirked upward. “And I’ve marked you as mine.” She touched his chest. Her scratches were already fading. “As you ma
rked me that planet rotation K017282 was adopted.”

  Adopted. Vapor covered her hands with his. She’d supported adoption for another offspring-less couple. Could that be an option for them? “I plan to continue to mark you. No one would ever doubt you’re mine.”

  “Good.” She smiled at him. “Seal that intention with a kiss, cyborg.” She tilted her lips upward.

  That was one command he was happy to follow.

  Epilogue

  Mira had spent forty-one wonderful planet rotations on board the ship, her time divided between loving Vapor and getting to know his brethren.

  She’d also learned how to be. Since her mom’s death, she’d hidden her true self. Acting naturally was no longer that—natural.

  It was becoming easier to speak freely, to openly express her emotions, but she still lied, often about trivial things. And, from time to time, she slipped back into her Mira the Merciless role, especially when she was stressed.

  As she was now.

  The ship had been hailed by representatives from the cyborg council. Mira stomped through the hallway, Vapor following her closely. If she stayed with her warrior, he’d be denied entrance to his planet, his Homeland.

  She should let him go.

  She didn’t want to. For the first time in her lifespan, she wanted to be selfish and bind him to her by any means possible.

  But she loved him, wanted the best for him always, and that meant parting ways from him, allowing him to be with his brethren, his friends.

  “Tell them you’re leaving me on a nearby planet.” Her chest strained against the front of her pale blue flight suit. Strive had found the garment for her, mentioned that it matched her eyes. That observation had earned him a punch in the shoulder from her overprotective male. “I won’t be responsible for you being blocked from your Homeland.”

  “You’re my Homeland, obstinate female.” Vapor lifted her off the ground. She shrieked, surprised, her feet flaying. “I have you.” He slung her over his shoulder. “And I’m keeping you.”

  “You’ll miss your friends,” she mumbled against his body armor. “I don’t want to hurt you that way.”

  “Do you miss the other humans? Did I hurt you by taking you away from them?” His stride was fast and smooth.

  “You freed me, allowing me to be happy.” And she was happy with him, happier than she could ever remember being. “But that’s different. They were never my friends.”

  “My friends have a ship. They can visit us.” Vapor placed one of his palms on her ass. “We’ll see them again.”

  “But—”

  “No buts.” He cuffed her curves. “We won’t be spending much time on any planet we choose to inhabit. Not while cyborgs remain under the control of the Humanoid Alliance.”

  “I’m helping you free them.” She wasn’t a warrior but she had other skills.

  “We’re counting on that help.” They were a team, Vapor had told her a few planet rotations ago. “Your knowledge of the Humanoid Alliance’s strengths and weaknesses is invaluable. And few beings can match your cunning. You betrayed the humans for solar cycles and they never once suspected you.”

  “I’m a great liar.” She beamed.

  “You’re the best liar.” He said that like it was a good thing.

  Silence stretched. He walked toward the bridge, carrying her.

  “Some of the cyborgs will be freed from planets besieged by war.” Vapor’s voice grew gruff with emotion. “There could be humanoid offspring on these planets. They might not have parents to care for them.”

  Mira lifted her head. “That’s possible.”

  What was he suggesting? It couldn’t be what she thought, hoped, dreamed. Her heart beat faster. They hadn’t discussed offspring since they left Tau Ceti. She’d accepted that she might never be a mother, had concentrated on the two of them, on helping all cyborgs escape.

  Vapor set her feet on the floor. He slipped his right hand into one of his holsters, scooped out some cloth, and pressed it into her palms.

  Mira smoothed the fabric and her breath hitched. It was a doll, constructed of scrap material, formed with binding. The face was crudely drawn, the eyes lopsided, the smile uneven.

  Her rough tough warrior had crafted this toy. He was talking about offspring. Hope unfurled in Mira’s chest.

  “What is this?” She had to be certain she wasn’t misunderstanding his meaning.

  “It’s an Ulu.” Vapor shifted his weight from his right foot to his left. He looked down at the doll, not meeting her gaze. “We’ll give it to the offspring.”

  “To the offspring?”

  “To our offspring.” He touched the doll’s garment. His fingers shook. Her normally confident cyborg was nervous. That’s how much this conversation meant to him. “It will relay our thoughts.”

  Mira stared at him, remembering another Ulu, another child. “And what will we tell it to say?”

  “Ulu,” Vapor addressed the doll. “You will tell our offspring that we love her, that she has a domicile with us, that we’ll always care for and protect her.”

  A lump formed in Mira’s throat. “Her?”

  “Or him.” Vapor’s lips curled upward, his grin adorably boyish. “I have no preference.”

  He wanted to adopt children, had made this doll for them, constructing it in secret with his own hands, a visible symbol of his hidden wish—to be a dad.

  He’d be a great father, capable of making any child feel safe, loved.

  Mira turned the bundle of cloth in her hands, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears. “You want this.”

  “I want this with you.” Vapor rubbed her bare arms, his palms warm against her skin.

  “And if we conceive offspring?” She couldn’t adopt a child and then give him or her back. That would break her heart. “What would we do then?”

  “We can’t conceive offspring.”

  “If we did conceive,” she pushed. “What would happen to the offspring we adopted?”

  Vapor frowned, his forehead furrowing. “If we conceive, and that’s an unlikely if, the offspring we adopt will have more siblings. They’ll manage. I have four hundred and ninety-three brethren. That didn’t damage me.”

  Mira’s eyes widened. “We can’t adopt four hundred and ninety-three offspring.”

  “Not at first.” His head dipped. “I’ll craft more Ulus.” He took the doll from her and placed it carefully back in his holster.

  “You’ll craft more Ulus.” She trembled with excitement, with love. “For the offspring we’ll adopt.”

  He nodded.

  “Oh Vapor. I love you so much.” Mira threw herself into his arms.

  Vapor caught her. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and her legs around his waist, kissed him with all of the passion in her heart.

  He responded as enthusiastically, pushing her against the wall and driving into her mouth with deep, hungry strokes, his tongue sliding over hers again and again. A growl rolled up his form, the rumble felt down to her boot-clad toes.

  She’d have a home, offspring, this wonderful male, love and belonging. Mira sucked on his tongue, drawing him deeper into her mouth, savoring the metallic taste of him.

  Bubbles popped and fizzed over her tongue and teeth. Vapor’s nanocybotics covered her entire body. The two, three, sometimes four sex sessions every planet rotation ensured they spread, thrived, part of him always remaining inside her.

  Mira brushed her thumbs up and down his cheeks, relishing the warmth of his skin. He grazed his teeth over her bottom lip and she quivered, the tinge of pain escalating her arousal. She wanted him, couldn’t remember why she couldn’t have him right here, right now.

  He must have forgotten also. Vapor licked her tender flesh, flicking his tongue over her lips, teasing her, his eyes as dark as open space.

  A throat cleared behind them.

  Vapor’s jaw clenched. “Give us a moment.”

  “Take all of the moments you need.” Thrasher sounded cheery. �
�We’re waiting for the two of you to arrive before answering the hail. That delay might jeopardize our relationship with the cyborg council but the aggravation you’re causing Ace is well worth that risk.” He looked over Vapor’s shoulder and meet Mira’s gaze. His eyes twinkled. “Judging by the look on his face when he sent me to find you, his circuits are close to shorting out.”

  “There was no need for Ace to send you anywhere,” Vapor muttered. “I received his messages, all twelve of them.”

  “He gave me this to relay to you.” Thrasher waved a nutrition bar.

  Mira shouldn’t be hungry. She’d already eaten three times her usual consumption this planet rotation. But she was. She eyed the bar. “I don’t need it. I’m okay.”

  Vapor sighed. “My female is lying. She’s hungry.” He turned and walked with her, heading back to their chambers. “Give the bar to her.”

  Thrasher complied. Mira unwrapped the bar, took a big bite and moaned with joy. He was right. She was famished.

  “The ship’s bridge is in the other direction.” Thrasher trailed them.

  “There’s no need for us to be present. We know how the conversation will progress. They’ll deny Mira access to the Homeland.” Vapor smacked her ass and she jerked, the sweet abuse exciting her. “And we’ll find another planet to settle upon.”

  “Will there be other females living on this planet?” Thrasher’s eyes lit up. “Will they require males?”

  Mira popped the rest of the bar into her mouth and chewed. He was interested in females? She swallowed. She’d assumed Thrasher and Ace were a couple.

  “Will there be females, Mira?” Vapor rubbed her fabric-covered curves.

  She thought about the planets surrounding them. “If the planet has an ecosystem favorable for sustaining life, it’s likely to already be inhabited. Some of the beings could be female. They might require males.”

  “You’ll introduce us to the other females.” Thrasher nodded, appearing pleased with this possibility. “I don’t require an exclusive claim on one. I could share a female.”