“I can manage by myself, thank you.”
Doc smiled and gestured for her to follow. The wall opened as if by magic, and the two of them were joined by two beefcakes all dressed in black. No doubt it was one of them who she had to thank for the blow to the head that had her now sport an egg of enormous proportions.
Their little group weaved through a myriad of identical corridors until Beth lost all sense of direction and felt quite dizzy. By the time they finally opened one of the identical doors they had passed and entered another sterile room, she was glad to be able to sit down.
A man and woman sat behind a table, and Beth sat opposite. Doc disappeared, and the two beefcakes took up a silent vigil on either side of her.
Beth couldn’t help it. She laughed. A slightly hysterical laugh, but what else was a girl to do. This was all bordering on the ridiculous. Perhaps she was just having some sort of surreal nightmare and would wake up back in her own bed, still dreading the upcoming reunion.
If only, but even as she thought that her heart protested that idea. She never would have met Elliot, and she could never regret their time together, brief as it had been.
“So, Bethany.” The blond man sat opposite her smiled, and his grey eyes connected with hers. “You don’t mind if I call you Bethany, do I? We are all friends here after all.”
Beth put her hands on the table and took a deep breath.
“Actually I do mind. My friends call me Beth, and last time I checked, friends do not break into each other’s apartments, fill it with gas, knock me out, and drag me to god only knows where. I know my rights. You can’t do this. I demand you let me go immediately.”
He smiled, and a chill went down her spine as he rocked back on his chair and gestured to the woman next to him.
“I think you’ll find that we can. Why don’t you explain it to Beth here, Sandra?”
The stern-faced brunette smoothed out the nonexistent creases from her business suit and focused her attention on Beth.
“As Arthur pointed out quite rightly, we certainly can.” She put her hand up to stop Beth when she was going to interrupt her. “Especially in matters of national security.”
“My attending a reunion party is a matter of national security?” Beth didn’t have to act much to feign her surprise. What on earth was Brian involved in? However, his dire warnings to her made perfect sense now. If the government was somehow involved in all of this, and of course Barnett worked for the government, then she had walked Elliot right into the lion’s den.
Oh holy shit!
Sandra puffed her chest out and raised one eyebrow.
“Really?” Beth said. “I agree Samantha Barnett’s dress was a crime to humanity, but I hardly see how that is a matter for the government. It’s so nice to know my tax money is being spent so well.”
Beth laughed, and if anything Sandra’s demeanor grew even frostier.
“This is not a laughing matter, Bethany. It would be in your best interest to cooperate with us.”
“Well, I would, if I knew what the fuck this is all about. I’m not a mind reader, so why don’t you just come right out and tell me why I’m suddenly worthy of all this attention.”
Arthur’s lips curled up into the semblance of a smile, and once again it was Sandra who spoke.
“You have recently signed up to an Android trial with Brian Jonasson, and were supplied with an Orgasmatron. This is correct?”
Beth flinched hearing her Elliot referred to in such a clinical manner. Of course the two government interrogators noticed, and she shrugged her shoulders.
“So what if I was. I needed to scratch an itch. The Orgasmatron came highly recommended, so I took him for a ride or two.” She sat on her hands to stop them from shaking. “You should try it, Sandra. It would be sure to loosen you up a bit.”
The woman chose to ignore that comment, and Arthur coughed into his hand.
“Did you notice anything unusual about this model?” he asked.
“Other than the size of his cock, you mean,” Beth countered. “No, should I have? I wasn’t interested in its communication skills, but I can confirm that it had a very talented tongue and hands.”
“I see.” Sandra’s curt reply raised Beth’s first genuine smile. “Do you make a habit of engaging in sexual activities with machines?”
“Doesn’t everyone?” Beth said. “Mind you, judging by your sourpuss face, I bet you don’t even own a vibrator, do you, Sandra?”
The woman’s eyebrows rose all the way into her hairline, but again she ignored that comment.
“We are led to believe this particular Orgasmatron behaved unusually.”
“Nope, it gave me plenty of orgasms, which is exactly what I signed up for.”
Sandra slapped her hand on the table, and Beth jumped.
“So, why did you introduce him as your boyfriend at the party?” Arthur asked and Beth sighed.
“I could hardly say, hey, everybody, meet my sex android, could I? Duh!”
The questioning continued for hours until Beth was ready to scream. By the time she was finally released, having signed her life away on a nondisclosure form, and deposited into the back of a car, Beth was so exhausted she fell asleep the minute it started to move. If she slept then she didn’t have to face up to how fucked-up her life had become in the space of three days.
Chapter Nine
Four months later
Orgasmatron 3000. Pre-order your model now. Made to your specifications…
Beth groaned and shut the annoying jingle off with a flick off her finger. The fucking advert was everywhere, and her heart still lurched to a stop every time Elliot appeared on her TV screen. Only it wasn’t Elliot, of course.
This was just another faceless Man-Droid only good for one thing. Her Elliot had indeed died that fateful night on the very settee she was sitting on now.
Jerry had taken her in the day she had been released from her questioning, as her own apartment was too smoke damaged. It had taken a further week before Brian had reappeared, considerably more haggard looking than before, and tight lipped over what had happened.
All he would say was that his research had been funded by the government, not some elusive lottery windfall, and that Elliot’s body had been destroyed by the authorities.
The row that had followed between Jerry and her brother following that revelation had been of epic proportions.
“How could you be so fucking stupid, Brian? You’ve put us all in danger with this pathetic stunt. You’ve put Beth in danger. You got her fucking arrested for god’s sake, and for what? So you could play god and create a sentient android. What were you thinking?”
“Jerry, I’m okay, really.” Beth had tried to intervene, but Jerry had been having none of it.
“Crying yourself to sleep every night is not being okay, Beth. This moron of a brother of mine created the perfect man for you, and then got him killed due to his stupidity. He should have told you. He should have fucking told me. What do you think the government is paying him for? Not to make the women of this world happier, that’s for sure. No, my stupid brother is helping them create the perfect soldiers. The Orgasmatron was a smoke screen, and I was too stupid to see it.”
Jerry had slapped Brian round the face, and he’d simply taken it.
“All this time I stood up for you, defended you, fought to get you backers, and you’ve been in league with the fucking government the whole time. How could you be so stupid to experiment with an emotion chip whilst all this was going on?”
“I know. I’m sorry. I know I fucked up. But Elliot was the original model and the more I worked with him, the more human he became. None of the others that came after him ever reached his potential. We couldn’t foresee what would happen. Well, Elliot would have figured it out the moment he stepped into the mansion and clocked Barnett. He obviously decided that Beth was worth the risk of discovery.”
Brian had glanced at her, and Beth had had to bite the inside of her mouth
to stop herself from crying again.
“When Jerry mentioned you, Beth, Elliot did his research. I know he was eager to get to know Beth, and we decided the emotion chip would help him to do so to the best of his ability.” Brian had paused and pulled his smartphone out of his trouser pocket. “I need to show you something, Beth. It popped up on my phone this morning. He must have sent that message through his circuits before he set himself to destruct.”
Brian had held his phone out to her and Beth had barely been able to see the screen through her tears.
I love you, my sweet Beth.
Beth had left the siblings to argue after that, and had done her best to rebuild her life. The knowledge that her feelings had been reciprocated was the only thing that got her through the weeks following the incident, and she clutched that knowledge to her whenever the pain became too much to bear.
The insistent ringing of the doorbell made her groan out loud. According to Brian she was due a replacement Orgasmatron, paid for by the government to compensate her for her troubles.
It didn’t seem to matter that she didn’t want one. He had almost pleaded with her over the phone.
“Beth, you cannot refuse him. They will wonder. You can stick him into a corner and ignore him if you like, but you have to accept him.”
“Oh for heaven’s sake, Brian. Fine. But make sure I can turn him off and that he doesn’t look anything like…like, well you know.”
“Understood, Beth. Leave it with me.”
Beth had thought he had forgotten about it, because he never did turn up with the required Man-Droid, claiming manufacturing issues—until that morning that was.
He was positively standing on the doorbell now, and Beth yanked the door open without looking through the spy hole. She reared back in horror. Elliot stood smiling down at her. Only it wasn’t Elliot, was it? It was the Orgasmatron Brian was delivering. Sure enough, she spotted Brian behind him.
Replacement Elliot lifted his hand to cup her chin, and she reared back in horror.
“How could you, Brian. I told you I want no part of this.” She glared at a worried looking Brian and crossed her arms to stop herself from reaching out to touch the machine in front of him. He looked so much like her Elliot it hurt to look at him. But it wasn’t him. Elliot had sacrificed himself to protect Beth, for the knowledge that a sentient Man-Droid was a possibility would have meant her death sentence. Brian was engaged in the recreation of said chip for government purposes, a thought that sent a shiver down Beth’s spine whenever she allowed herself to dwell on it, which wasn’t often. Brian so far had been unable to recreate it, but surely it was just a matter of time.
However, this…this had to be the worst thing he could have possibly done to her.
“Get this thing out of my flat—now!” Beth knew her voice bordered on hysteria, but she could not have this thing in her flat touching her things and looking at her with Elliot’s eyes. She just couldn’t.
“Beth, calm down. This isn’t what it seems. Let me explain.”
“Fuck your explanations, Brian. Get it away from me. You have lost your marbles if you think that this could ever be okay.” She edged away from the advancing Orgasmatron, who mirrored her every move with Elliot’s long-legged stride. The determined expression in his amber gaze held her under his spell, and when her back connected with the wall, she had nowhere else to go.
“Brian.” For some strange reason she didn’t seem able to project her voice with any conviction because the Orgasmatron had stepped close enough for his scent to seep into her consciousness. Achingly familiar, it wrapped itself around her senses and her heart beat faster. But it was an illusion. That was all it was, she had to remember that.
“It’s okay, Beth. Trust me. And if you don’t trust me, then put your trust in Elliot. He’s outwitted us all.” Brian’s voice seemed to come from far away. She could barely hear him over the rushing in her ears, for Elliot…no, not Elliot…remember that…cupped her chin and ran his thumb over her lips.
His warmth drew her like a moth to the flame. The fine hair on her body rose, and her lips tingled where his thumb rubbed. Elliot smiled again and inhaled deeply.
“Kiss him, Beth. You need to kiss him for this to work.”
She shut her eyes against the sinful temptation that was the perfect replica of her Elliot, and Beth shook her head. Brian had lost the plot, and yet her body wasn’t listening. With her eyes shut and the Orgasmatron’s hard body pressed against her, caging her in against the wall, his erection pressing into her belly, she could almost believe this was her Elliot. Would it be so bad to pretend? Just for this moment.
She needed to know for sure, and a kiss would prove it to her. Her wayward hormones would calm down. Before she could lose her nerve she closed the distance between them, sensing rather than seeing his mouth descend. The firm pressure of oh-so-familiar lips made her open to his gentle tongue licking along her seam.
He slipped into her mouth, and a shudder went through Elliot’s frame. A surge of electricity sparked between them, and Beth was vaguely aware of Brian’s cheer before she lost herself in the kiss.
Elliot groaned and deepened the kiss. One hand fisted in her hair, and the other pulled her ass closer into him. It was Elliot, her Elliot. Beth knew it with a certainty that stole her breath as effectively as his ever-more passionate kisses. The salt of her own tears invaded her mouth. Elliot pulled back and kissed the tears off her face with such tenderness, the broken pieces of her heart reconnected with every kiss, touch, and sweet exhale of their breaths into each other. Elliot drank her in. He slid his lips across her jaw and down her neck to nibble her ear, and back again to claim her mouth again and again. When her knees turned to jelly, he picked her up and carried her through to the bedroom. One swift kick shut the door in Brian’s smiling face, and then they were on the bed.
“My sweet, sweet Beth. I missed you so much. Life is very lonely when you’re stuck in a hard drive.”
She touched his face and ran her hands over his shoulders.
“Is it really you?”
Elliot touched his forehead to hers and kissed her nose.
“It’s me, my sweet Beth. I couldn’t leave you.”
“But how?” Beth had to ask, even as her body screamed at her to shut up and to simply take him up on the heated promise in his amber eyes. It had been so very long since she felt the touch of the man she loved.
Elliot sighed and rolled off her. He propped himself up on his elbow and cupped her breast with his other hand. She leant into his touch, her nipple firming under his clever fingers, and Elliot grinned. Beth grinned right back at him, happiness suffusing her whole being.
“It was a gamble, but when I realized what Barnett was doing, who he worked for, in fact, I established a connection to Brian’s computer. He has a backdoor program that no one knows of.”
Beth drew in a breath and Elliot searched her face.
“So, you what, you downloaded yourself?”
“Something like that, my sweet. I’m sorry I had no time to warn you, and I wasn’t sure if it would work, or even if Brian would ever find me in there. But it was my only chance. I couldn’t let my old body fall into the wrong hands. That would have been disastrous for all the people I care about—especially you. It is ironic, perhaps, that having emotions and falling in love with you meant that I put you in danger, and I had to leave you anyway.”
The last shadows crossing her soul lifted, and Beth drew him down for a kiss.
“It doesn’t matter, not anymore.” She pushed him away, and he released her with a frown.
“There is just one thing, Mr. Orgasmatron.”
She couldn’t hide her smile, and Elliot relaxed again.
“What would that be, my sweet little Beth?” he asked.
“All this talk of love is all well and good, but can you live up to your name?” She screeched when he straddled her and pulled her arms above her head. One hand over her wrists, his muscular thighs caging in her
legs, she was at his mercy.
“What do you think? And I may just have to hold you hostage for a very long time to show you.”
“How long?” she whispered.
“For however long you’ll have me. I love you, Beth.”
Tears blurred her vision, and she kissed him back with all the pent-up emotion of the last few months.
“I love you, too, Mr. Orgasmatron.”
THE END
WWW.DORISOCONNOR.COM
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Glutton for punishment would be a good description for Doris... at least that’s what she hears on an almost daily basis when people find out that she has a brood of nine children, ranging from adult to toddler, and lives happily in a far too small house, cluttered with children, pets, dust bunnies, and one very understanding and supportive husband. Domestic goddess she is not.
There is always something better to do after all, like working on the latest manuscript and trying not to scare the locals even more than usual by talking out loud to the voices in her head. Her characters tend to be pretty insistent to get their stories told, and you will find Doris burning the midnight oil on a regular basis. Only time to get any peace and quiet and besides, sleep is for wimps.
She likes to spin sensual, sassy, and sexy tales involving alpha heroes to die for, and heroines who give as good as they get. From contemporary to paranormal, BDSM to F/F, and Ménage, haunting love stories are guaranteed.
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Man-Droid the Orgasmatron (Siren Publishing Classic) Page 7