by Olivia Myers
“Right.” He paused, shifting uncomfortably. “And what needs to be ordered, how much is it going to be?”
She lifted her head to look back at him, as if not expecting the question. She didn't answer for a moment. “Don't worry about it. It's little stuff.”
Unsure how to respond, he opted for silence and she looked back down at her work for the next hour.
*
Stella tried to concentrate on her work, and Zain spent the time gritting his teeth, letting out short grunts or muffled groans. Stella could swear he blacked out at least once, but thankfully there was no screaming. There had been something endearing about the brave front he’d put up for what she knew was an excruciating operation. Her dad often did the same, even working on himself at times.
“All right,” she sighed and pulled back. “I’ve done what I can for now. I’ve taken your strength down a notch, but that’ll prevent further lock ups until I’ve got all the parts for a thorough repair.” She noticed his eyes fixed on her with an expression she didn't quite recognize. “What?”
He didn't speak immediately. “Thank you. It’s been a long time since somebody has done something like that.”
He wasn't looking at her anymore, his eyes downcast. Nothing like his usual cocky attitude. And she realized what that look was. Vulnerability.
“It’s no big deal. It was just like one of my father’s pain spasms from his prosthetics. Couldn't very well leave you alone knowing how much those hurt.” She paused. “And it wasn't your fault you smashed the desk.” She added the last part a little bit sheepishly. Like hell was she about to admit she was at wrong in shouting at him.
He looked up at the mention of her father. “Your father had neuroprosthetics? Was he ex-military?”
Stella shook her head. “Nah, he was miner in one of the nearby mining satellites. Faulty safety protocols led to the loss of both his arms, huge lawsuit. Enough to buy the prosthetics and set up this little business in Orcus proper. But what about you? You ex-military?”
Zain looked like he was about to withdraw again, but he relented with a sigh. “Yeah, Orbital Trade Route Wars veteran. This arm here is a gift from the government, for dedicated service.” He paused, as if unsure if he wanted to continue. “But they won't ever make up for what all of us lost there.”
He averted his gaze, that thousand yard stare Stella had seen countless times in the Understation where her dad had worked, of men who’d lost too much to count.
***
They slipped easily back into their routine. Zain found himself quietly becoming fond of this woman. Yes she was attractive, but he'd had his share of attractive women. Stella was different in her dedication and will alongside the glimmers of sweetness and the well-maintained mask of callousness. He was finally giving her credit for her depth.
Meanwhile, Rhett was showing up more and more often at the shop, always with a petty excuse. Zain noticed it more lately, and that day would be no different.
“Hey love, I brought those flux capacitors you requested.” The sound of Rhett's voice hummed through the room as he threw a bag at Stella, who just barely managed to catch it.
Stella peered inside the bag and let out an exasperated sigh that set off a twinge of glee in Zain's churning stomach. “One, flux capacitors aren't a real thing, and two, what the hell are you doing bringing me chocolate?”
Rhett shrugged. “Figured we could eat some while we discussed real business. In private.” He added the last part with a pointed look in Zain's direction.
Stella didn't look too pleased. “All right, fine. Zain, keep the shop and call me if anything urgent happens.”
Zain shrugged and went back to work. There was still plenty to be done and he figured she’d be back out rather quickly. He could occupy himself with going back to helping some of the other employees with doing inventory.
Minutes continued to tick by though, and by the time the hour mark hit, Zain was past feeling a little suspicious. What could possibly be taking so long was up to his overactive imagination, but the work kept him busy enough that it was only at the back of his mind.
Rhett finally emerged from Stella’s office just short of the two hour mark, fingers fiddling with the buttons of his shirt.
“Wild woman, isn't she, Zain? See ya later, boy-o.” Rhett grinned at him and clapped Zain's shoulder as he passed.
Zain's stomach turned at the thought of Rhett's grimy hands scouring Stella's tiny frame, coaxing forth soft gasps and groans, but he wasn't sure what to do with this new wave of emotions. So he immersed himself back into the inventory work. She was his employer, he reminded himself. Their arrangement was one of convenience, not passion.
*
It was no sooner than he had managed to get his greasy shirt off that there was a sharp rap on his door, followed immediately by the click of the slide mechanism and Stella's all too familiar combat boots tromping toward him.
“Woman!” He turned, not bothering to cover himself. “I was getting dressed!”
Apparently, so had she before she decided to visit. She had made her entrance in nothing but a towel wrapped loosely beneath her underarms, her damp hair plastered against her pretty cheeks and her pale skin still tinged pink from the hot water. This kind of entrance wasn't unusual, but he wasn't expecting her that night. She usually told him when she wanted to be laid rather than bursting in without notice, and never looking so . . . vulnerable.
“Nothing I haven't seen before.” She shrugged and her eyes flitted over him before reaching for his mechanical arm just a bit more roughly than usual. Her small hands were unlikely to damage him without a wrench in them, but he noticed. “How's your new synth-skin? Holding up?”
“Holding up fine.”
“You feel that?” She traced the tips of her nails along the inside of his wrist, where a human arm had veins but his mechanical one had a series of thousands of tiny neural transmitters beneath his fake skin.
“I feel that.”
She nodded, but didn't look up at him as she leaned in to press the softness of her breasts around his mechanical bicep and rested her head against his chest. Pressed against her the way he was, he could feel her heart beating. “Feel that?”
He tilted his head to look down at her, and carefully swept his real hand down her back to rid her completely of her towel. The sensitive touch coaxed her to arch right into him. But he could feel that something was off. Nothing about the current arrangement was normal and, as he recalled, she had been on edge all day. Not only with him but with everyone in the shop – sometimes even customers who got too mouthy. She’d been in a mood for the past several weeks, really, since Rhett had started hanging around like he had a right to be there. The guy was making impromptu visits to hang out in her office for hours on end or to poke his nose into everything around the shop, and Zain, quite honestly, was unsure why she tolerated him. It wasn't Zain’s job to confront her about it though. He was her employee, and if she was fucking someone else for whatever reason, it wasn't really his business.
“I feel that.” He combed his fingertips along her ribcage to lightly massage her breast. “You need to get something off your chest?”
She scoffed, but he was almost sure it was to mask a laugh, and laid her hand over his. He'd learned that that was an order not to move it. “It's just been a long day.”
Stella lifted her head to rest her chin against him and peer up with soft gray eyes. And for a moment, Zain couldn't recall a prettier woman or softer, sweeter, pinker lips begging to be kissed.
He bent to meet her, gently probing her lips with his tongue as his other hand found her opposite breast to lightly knead. She pressed into his touch with a soft moan.
He pulled back only to breathe, and plucked her up easily.
“You can talk to me.” The words left him casually, though the need to know what was bothering her was more than he'd anticipated. Without prompting, Stella's legs wrapped tight around his waist, and he leaned in to envelope her pre
tty pink nipple between his lips. She wrapped her arms around his head to keep him close and he responded with a firm squeeze of her bottom.
She answered him just when he thought she'd decided to ignore his offer. “Rhett. The robots. Customers.”
She sighed and rolled her hips against him, her signal that she wanted his touch. He obliged by slipping two fingers into her, surprised to find her already wet for him. “Bots are acting weird, short-circuiting. Being returned before their lease is up-ah...” She nuzzled his hair as his fingers pressed deeper, beckoning her tender nerves toward an orgasm. “Nothing danger-oh... Zain...”
He lifted his head and found her lips again for a brief kiss before meeting her eyes. “We'll figure out what's happening with the bots, Stella.” The words sounded more reassuring out loud than they did in his head. Or at least they seemed to for her, since she responded by nodding and rolling her hips closer to his touch. “You want to do it yourself, or let me help?”
She smirked, but he thought he caught a hint of sheepishness. “I need you harder.”
“I’m plenty hard.” He turned to the bed to let her down and shifted to climb on top of her, letting his body echo his claim as he pressed his length against her. Missionary wasn't usually their style. Stella liked him to fuck her hard from behind. He supposed that sex for her was a brief excuse to lose herself and not have to pay for it later. Probably why she kept to bots and didn't try her hand with other men. Too much risk. He understood.
Stella's arms tightened around him as he slipped into her, coaxing a low moan from her lips with the first thrust. It was all the encouragement he needed to continue, her soft moans turning to gasps as he pounded into her. He'd never felt so relieved to have her legs wrap around him, meeting his thrusts with a firm smack of wet flesh. This transaction was distinctly different than their usual business.
Stella's legs tightened around him as she reached her peak, whimpering softly when he responded by rolling his hips to ensure long, deep strokes as she clenched around him. The delicate noise was nothing he'd heard her make before, and he only just managed to slip out before finishing inside of her.
And to surprise him again, she rolled away despite the sticky mess they both were, and stretched out on the opposite side of the bed. Instead of getting up and walking away. He didn't open his mouth to question it, but sank beside her to watch as her back rose and fell with her deep breaths.
“Stella?”
She was already asleep.
***
Zain wasn't aware that Rhett was visiting when he walked into the storage room, until he caught a glimpse of the silky white shirt beyond the door of an open crate. But Rhett didn't seem too aware of him either. Zain hesitated for a moment near the door before moving quietly through the boxes to get a closer look.
Rhett was standing in front of an open bot box with the android's chest wide open. Zain might have mistaken him for doing an inspection if it wasn't for the fact that Stella had told him on multiple occasions that Rhett was an idiot and knew nothing about the bots she sold.
A soft clink sounded as Rhett dropped something into the inner workings, and Zain didn't need another catalyst to confront him.
“Rhett. What was that?”
The other man jumped nearly a foot in the air at the intrusion, but didn't miss a beat with his response. “What was what, Zain?”
“You dropped something in the robot. I saw you.”
“Just something Stella asked me to do.”
“I remember hearing that you're mechanically worthless.” The quip came back before he could check himself. But it was too late.
Rhett put on a big smile as he approached Zain and clasped a hand on his shoulder in that annoyingly familiar way he thought he was entitled to.
“Listen here, you little upstart shit,” he started conversationally. “You are to talk to no one of what you saw. If I even get a hint you did, I can ensure you spend the rest of your days in a space debris prison on any amount of charges. I know you’ve been getting really cozy with Stella, but I got news for you. She is mine.”
Zain could feel his blood go hot with every syllable. “Look man, I don't know what you’re up to, but Stella sure as hell doesn't want anything to do with you.”
Rhett laughed. “Is that what she tells you, you little lap dog? What do you think we do in her office for hours on end? Surely you don't think it is ‘business,’ do you?”
Zain frowned. He knew they’d been a thing in the past but that was over. She'd told him on plenty of occasions that he was nothing but a pompous, annoying prick and she'd be glad to be rid of him. But she never did disclose what they were up to alone.
“That has nothing to do with anything.” Even he could tell he didn't sound convincing.
“Look, you little stow away, you forget I own you until that debt is paid off. So let’s just keep this little incident in between us or I might have to make Stella throw you out.”
“No – wait a minute! What did you drop?”
Rhett had turned to leave, but Zain latched onto his arm with his mechanical grip to hold him in place as he took a step toward the open bot. Rhett yanked, but to no avail, and Zain found it all too easy to ignore his yell of indignation. And he was all too engrossed in what he'd found. It seemed like a tiny sphere no bigger than a marble, but when his hand brushed it, his arm shot up with excruciating pain and consciousness left him before he could register what happened.
*
The yell of agony could be heard throughout the shop and up the stairs in the apartment. Stella sprinted down to the storage cell, only to find Rhett on the floor with Zain in his arms.
“What happened here?” The question came out more demanding than she intended as fear made her stomach turn. What Rhett was doing in her storage room was beyond her, but that could wait until she found out what happened to Zain.
“I don't know, he was just by this box. He screamed and dropped out cold. Was twitching for a few seconds.” Rhett looked up at her, and back down to the cyborg he was holding. “Is he sick or something?”
Stella crouched, checked for breathing, and let out a sigh of relief. Zain was still alive, but what Rhett was describing were the same neural feedback problems Zain had exhibited before. A problem she had fixed herself.
“This box?” She got up to move to the open crate and frowned at the android looking ready for operation. “Did you see what he was doing? Was it a bot malfunction?”
Rhett shrugged. “I thought I saw him drop something inside. Figured he was doing maintenance or something for you, until he seized up and knocked himself out.”
She nodded absently as she rifled through the bot's insides, only partially listening to him since he didn't seem to have anything particularly intelligent to say. Luckily, this model was pretty clean cut, which should make finding the malfunctioning part easy. And it did. Stella's fingers closed around the glossy marble and she lifted the piece to her eyes for inspection. She didn't speak immediately, but was aware of Rhett's eyes on her as she studied the nearly microscopic mechanics inside. In that moment, she knew two things: Rhett had been sabotaging her business. And Rhett was lying, because he could not have possibly seen Zain drop this into a robot and been the first to his rescue. That explained his presence in the shop, and his habit of dragging her into her office with the excuse that he wanted to talk business. “This? He was holding this?”
Rhett pushed Zain back to the floor to get closer and nodded. “Yeah, I think that was it. I saw him drop a few before he freaked out.”
Stella blinked at him in disbelief, hesitating only half a second before hauling back with her right arm to land a hard punch to Rhett’s face.
It was punctuated by a satisfying crack and a yell of pain and surprise from the ganglord in front of her. “What the fuck, Stella! Are you crazy?”
“Do you think I'm a fucking idiot?” She held up the marble. “He can't touch this! His body is nearly half robotic, this could damn near kill him!
”
Rhett's eyes widened. Obviously, he had not been aware of the brutal flaw in his plan.
“You didn't fucking know, you idiot!” She shook her head. “You have been doing this! You've been sabotaging my business and almost killed one of my men – for what?”
He opened his mouth and closed it, apparently unable to summon words. “I—I didn't sabotage! He's bad for you! He's dangerous, he's going to drag you down and you know it's supposed to be you and me, Stell—”
“Holy hell – you're lucky I don't beat the shit out of you right here! Do you know that?” She grabbed the nearest object, a dismembered leg from a bot she'd been working on the previous day, as if she was still thinking about it. Rhett took a step back and lifted his arms in defense.
“Stella, you're overreacting. You don't know what's been going on—”
“No, I think it's pretty clear.” She lifted the leg and let the weight of it fall back into her hand with a firm thud, and then lifted it again with both hands to connect with Rhett's head. His eyes widened at the impact, but he dropped back unconscious a moment later.
Stella reached for her phone, keeping her eyes on Rhett as she dialed. “... Yes, I need an officer to my shop. Correct, Omega Block, Cell 540. Yes, I can give a statement.”
***
The room was dark when Zain opened his eyes, except for the soft lamplight at the bedside. It took him several moments to recall that he was in his bedroom – Stella's guest room. And his memory was only stirred by the presence of the pixie of a woman at his bedside with a book in her lap. On advanced mechanics, naturally.
He shifted to sit up and groaned at the throbbing in his head – which immediately reminded him what brought him there. His gasp for new air was what woke her.