by Jenna Ives
She had his jumpsuit undone in three seconds, and he was out of it in even less time. His boots, socks and underwear followed. Climbing under the sheet, he simply held her for a moment, memorizing the feel of her naked body against his. How her soft curves and hollows melded so perfectly against his hard muscles and bone.
It felt right. Comforting.
Even if it was human skin pressed against synthetic polymer.
“I wish to please you, Leith.”
He wished he could please her, too. Physically please her. But that was impossible. Still, because he knew that pleasing him would please her, he smiled. “Well, I heard about a couple of interesting positions this morning. The padlock and the plow.”
Ginger smiled. “The padlock requires a table, or at least a piece of tall furniture. Do you wish to leave the bed?”
“Hmm. Tell me about the plow.”
“We can incorporate the bed in that one, but we’ll both have to move.”
“Show me.”
“Very well. Stand up.”
As Wyatt got out of bed, Ginger threw back the sheet, and crawled to the bottom of the mattress.
Watching her, Wyatt swallowed hard. Damn, she looked so fucking sexy with her tousled red hair cascading like a luxurious silk curtain down her back, and her lush hips swaying with each knee she put forward to move down the bed. Wyatt’s cock hardened not only from the sight of her, but also from the hot anticipation of being inside her.
When she reached the bottom of the mattress, Ginger turned and propped herself on her elbows, positioning herself half-on and half-off the bed, with her upper torso still on the mattress, but her lower body kneeling on the floor. It looked to Wyatt like some version of doggy-style as he went to stand behind her.
“Now lift my legs and enter me.”
“What?”
“Step between my legs, grab me by the hips, lift my lower body, and penetrate me. If it’s easier, you can hold onto my thighs as I raise my legs. It’s meant to be like you’re guiding a plow. I’m the plow. That’s how we start.”
And I’m going to plow into you. Wyatt felt a rush of pure sexual adrenaline as he followed her instructions. He thought the position might be awkward, but her lower body maneuvered easily, and as soon as he pulled her up and entered her, Ginger bent her legs to wrap her calves and feet around his buttocks to hold him close. And the fact she was on her elbows on the mattress would offer them a wide range of motion as he thrust.
Still, no human woman could do this.
Except, maybe, an acrobatic one.
Ginger looked back at him over her shoulder with an inviting smile. “Fuck me, Leith.”
Wyatt needed no further encouragement. He held onto her hips as he thrust. The motion was so easy. He could hold her still while he pushed his hips forward, or he could pull her back against his rigid cock. Or a combination of both. And the sensation was fucking incredible. He was deep, deep inside her, the sensitive head of his cock exploring unknown territory, the friction new and exciting.
He quickly found his rhythm, and the pleasure began to build.
“Ginger,” he ground out, “tighter.”
She complied instantly. Her opening narrowed, causing the stimulation along Wyatt’s sensitized shaft to increase dramatically, forcing a guttural moan from somewhere deep in his throat.
He was lost. The pleasure was just too much. His fingers dug into her hips and his strokes became faster, frenzied, until he finally reached his breaking point and shouted his release. His cock contracted violently, spilling inside her with powerful spasms, milking the amazing pleasure for as long as possible.
“So… fucking… perfect,” he gasped, his legs suddenly feeling wobbly.
Gently, he disengaged himself from her body and lowered her hips until her legs were back on the floor. He practically fell to his knees beside her in sexual exhaustion, then managed to kiss her beautiful ass, her back, and up her long, graceful neck, finally making his way to her earlobe.
“I need to get you dressed,” he whispered, giving her a little love bite. “We’re going to see Theus.”
Chapter Eleven
“What the hell is this?”
Wyatt blinked. He had expected Theus to be upset that he’d delayed their meeting to discuss the developments in Terra Acer, but he hadn’t expected him to be quite so… furious.
He shifted on his feet in front of the premier’s desk. “Sir, let me explain—”
“What the hell is a Beautiful Doll doing at the headquarters of the High Council?”
Wyatt glanced at the woman in the camouflage jumpsuit standing quietly next to him. “Sir, this is Ginger. She’s—”
Theus slammed a hand onto his desktop. “I know what model of machine she is, agent Wyatt. What I want to know is what the fuck she’s doing here.”
“Sir, with all due respect, she’s not a model. She’s Ginger. She’s—”
“Silence!”
The air in the room seemed to evaporate at Theus’ deafening command. Everything went completely still. Wyatt knew better than to speak, or breathe, until Theus made the next move.
“Tell me,” the premier said, his voice now dangerously calm, his eyes two cold black chips of ice. “Did you delay your meeting with me this morning because of this machine?”
“Sir—”
“Tell me.”
Wyatt swallowed. “Yes. But there was a good reason—”
“I can guess the reason. I warned you not to let a Doll interfere with your job, agent Wyatt. I cautioned you not to let your head lead your head. A Beautiful Doll is just a machine, no matter what you may project onto it.”
Ignoring the fury in Theus’ eyes, Wyatt forced himself to speak. “She’s not just a machine, sir. She’s sentient. A technological miracle.”
Theus growled in frustration, and pushed his chair back from his desk. He gave Wyatt a disgusted look.
Wyatt ignored that, too. What he had to say was too important. “Sir, Anson Carron has plans to assassinate all five members of the High Council.”
Theus’ face went from fury to shock. He shot forward in his chair. “What?”
“And Ginger is going to help us stop him.”
That startling pronouncement temporarily silenced the premier. Wyatt quickly grabbed his opportunity. “There’s a lot I need to update you on. May we sit?”
Theus shoved a hand roughly through his black hair, blew out a harsh breath, and indicated the chair in front of his desk. Wyatt directed Ginger to sit in it, and remained standing next to her.
“Damn it, agent Wyatt, what the hell’s the matter with you?” Theus spat out. “Let the Doll stand! It’s not as if it’ll get tired. It’s a fucking machine.”
“I’m almost-human, Sir Theus,” Ginger said quietly.
Theus arched an eyebrow at her response, and turned his fierce gaze to her. “No, I’m afraid you are not. No matter what agent Wyatt here may have told you.”
The Doll didn’t even hesitate at Theus’ response. “I am self-aware, Sir Theus. That makes me sentient, does it not? And I know right from wrong. Mr. Carron wants to terminate your peace-keeping High Council members using his robot soldiers, so I’ve shown Leith how to shut the robots down. Mr. Carron is a bad man.”
Theus’ mouth dropped open at Ginger’s patient explanation.
Watching the premier’s reaction, Wyatt’s chest expanded with an enormous sense of pride at Ginger’s spirit and courage. “She’s an android, sir,” Wyatt said quietly. “She’s no longer just a robot.”
Theus waved a hand at him, but never took his eyes off Ginger. “Agent Wyatt, there’s another chair in the corner of the room.”
Wyatt smiled in relief as he retrieved the chair from a far corner, and brought it back over to Theus’ desk. He positioned it next to Ginger’s, and sat. “You may remember I told you there was something different about her when I warned you a sex disc might be coming.”
Theus scowled. “Start from the beginning.”<
br />
So Wyatt did. He brought Theus up to speed on everything that had happened in the last few days, starting with Ginger.
“They wanted to addict me to her,” Wyatt explained, “because they want me in their pocket, in order to use me. I realized it from the start, so I played into this supposed obsession by begging Carron and Veraine to let me take Ginger home with me when the three of us returned from Terra Acer last night. In reality, it was to get her away from them before they realize she’s sentient.”
“What? They don’t even know what they’ve created?”
“I’m 99-percent certain they don’t. Ginger says Veraine has been experimenting on her in private using various programs, but that she’s been very careful to hide any… changes… she’s noticed in herself.”
Theus gazed at Ginger speculatively.
“It’s true, Sir Theus,” she confirmed.
Theus’ gaze switched back to Wyatt. “So you took her home.”
“Yes.” Wyatt continued. “I knew they would use this supposed ‘gift’ of her to establish a tighter hold on me, use Ginger as leverage to force me to help them with their plans. This morning, they made their move.”
“What do you mean, this morning? I thought you were with the Doll this morning.”
Wyatt shifted in his chair. “Um, Carron called me to his factory first thing this morning.”
“And you answered his summons and not mine?” Theus roared.
“Sir, Carron’s summons came before yours. And then, too, I felt I had to appear as if I’m under their thumb. To play the part. They want me vulnerable, so I feigned vulnerability. They laid out what they want me to do, and as I expected, they threatened Ginger if I don’t cooperate.”
“What do they want?”
“Nothing less than control of Tau Cetus. Anson Carron wants me to set up a meeting of all the members of the High Council, ostensibly so he can proudly demonstrate the abilities of his robot soldiers.”
“You mean their ability to kill us. To wipe out the entire council at one convenient time and place.”
“That’s my guess.”
Theus blew out a rough breath. “Insane. I know how dangerous Carron is, but this is beyond reason. He must know that for safety reasons alone the five council members are never together in the same location.”
“I told Carron as much, but he insisted that I make it happen or they’d destroy Ginger.”
“Destroy her? How? You have possession of her now. How could they destroy her?”
“The programmer Titus Veraine says there’s a self-destruct sequence built into every robot they make. He claims it’s to prevent the sophisticated technology of the soldiers from falling into enemy hands, but he intimated it was built into Ginger as well. Into every machine.”
“I’ve run a self-diagnostic but can find no trace of such a program, Sir Theus,” Ginger supplied.
Theus looked at Wyatt. “If Veraine is telling the truth, can we hack into their system and remotely use this self-destruct feature on the soldiers ourselves?”
“I doubt it. The safety protocols involved with the program would undoubtedly be ironclad. But I have Zan Talesin subtly questioning Carron’s man in Terra Acer to see if he can discover how to work it from there.” Wyatt paused, then frowned. “Although… It may be complicated to isolate only those machines we want to disable. And we may tip off Carron in the process if Zan presses too hard.”
Theus steepled his fingers thoughtfully. “Well, then. If Carron’s plan is to assassinate the members of the Council, we simply assassinate him first.”
“I’ve thought of that, too,” Wyatt admitted. “But we’ll need someone who knows how to keep the robots under control after Carron’s gone.”
“One of his employees, perhaps, who would prefer life over a traitor’s death?”
Wyatt nodded. “Titus Veraine made it clear to me that he’s an ambitious man. He’d like to replace Carron, but I don’t know if we can trust him not to tell his boss if we try to approach him about disabling the machines. Remember, Carron is in a powerful position. He has a robot army of five-thousand men, each with a particle disrupter weapon provided by Callex Industries. There’s nothing we can do to defeat a force like that if it turns against us. I just can’t say for certain whether Veraine would choose Carron, or gamble on a potential chance to become the High Council’s right hand.”
Theus leaned back in his chair. “Give me other options, then.”
“Here are my thoughts. First, we need to keep that army in Terra Acer, far away from here. Make up some excuse – establishing the new border after Egidia’s surrender, or maybe have the soldiers patrol as a show of force to deter other neighbors who may have entertained similar takeover ideas. Give them a big job to do. Something. Anything. Just keep them there.”
Theus nodded.
“And then we give Anson Carron exactly what he wants. A meeting with the High Council.”
Theus smiled grimly, a tight, determined line. “You mean a High Council of phonies.”
“Exactly. Everyone on Tau Cetus knows your names: Zelonis, Troian, Alon, Reigh, Theus. You are all legendary, but no citizen has ever seen you.”
“That’s for security reasons, as you well know. But Carron has seen me. I took a very personal interest in torturing him after he shot Marque Callex and your partner, Miss Turner.”
“That’s why you’ll be here. To lend authenticity to the panel.”
Theus’ smile stretched a little tighter. “Not to be killed?”
“No, sir. Not to be killed.”
“And how do we ensure that?”
Wyatt indicated the woman next to him. “That’s where Ginger comes in. She knows how the machines can be shut down in a way Carron will never anticipate. She’s our best chance at getting through this crisis.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“I’ll show you instead.” Wyatt turned to Ginger and smiled. Now that he knew her sentience was not at risk, he had no qualms about turning her off. “May I demonstrate for the premier how to shut down your fellow machines? Don’t worry, I’ll be quick.”
Ginger blinked, then smiled back at him. “Certainly, Leith. I trust you. Although, I must admit that I hope you don’t plan to do this too often. It’s a vulnerable feeling.”
Wyatt laughed at her response. Could she be any more human-like in her nervousness? He wanted to lean in and kiss her, to reassure her that he would never turn her off again, ever, after this crisis was over, but perhaps it wasn’t smart to show the depth of his feelings for her in front of Theus just yet. For right now, he stood, and then helped her to her feet as well.
Wyatt cleared his throat in an effort to wipe the smile off his face and concentrate on the task at hand. He glanced at Theus. “The switch is here.”
The premier leaned forward in his chair to watch as Wyatt ran his hand down Ginger’s left side and stopped just at her waist.
“There’s a slight indentation just above her hip. Ginger tells me it’s in the same spot on every machine.”
“It is, Leith,” Ginger confirmed.
Wyatt pressed gently. Odd. It was a little harder to isolate and depress the switch through the material of her camouflage jumpsuit. He’d have to make a note of that. Carron’s robots would be wearing clothes during their meeting with the Council. It would make Wyatt’s task all the more difficult.
He looked up. Ginger had gone completely still. Wyatt hated that blank look in her starburst eyes, the frozen stillness indicating that all the life had gone out of her.
Theus stood, and came around from behind his desk. He waved a hand in front of Ginger’s eyes, getting no response. “Fucking hell. Is it that easy to disable them?”
Wyatt grimaced. “Remember, we’ll have to get this close to them in order to do it. That will be the trickiest part. And they won’t exactly hold still while we’re attempting to shut them down. But I have an idea how to deal with that.” Wyatt paused, then nodded toward Ginger. “Do you wan
t to turn her back on?”
Theus seemed to hesitate. “First, I want to apologize to you, agent Wyatt.”
“Excuse me?”
“To all of Tau Cetus, actually, but you’re the only one present to hear it.” Theus raked a hand through his jet black hair and took a deep breath. “In my ten years as premier of the High Council, I’ve kept this planet safe. By whatever means necessary. Sometimes those means haven’t been the most noble, but I’ve always put the protection of our people as my top priority. We both know this planet couldn’t survive another Great War.”
Wyatt thought briefly about that awful time, when nearly half the population of Tau Cetus had died, including his own parents. “That’s my goal as a police agent as well, sir. Peace on the planet.”
Theus shifted uncomfortably on his feet, and sighed. “I should have killed Anson Carron when I had him in custody after the shooting of Marque Callex. We wouldn’t be in this situation now if I had. It was hubris that led me to believe that keeping my enemy close would allow me to control him. That, and my greed. Carron’s robot soldiers are a powerful weapon. I wanted that asset in my arsenal of peace. Yes, I am to blame for this current crisis. I hope for all our sakes we can find a way out of it.”
“We will, sir,” Wyatt assured him. “The alternative is unacceptable.”
Theus barked out a short laugh. “I certainly got the right man for this case, agent Wyatt. Thank God for you. Now, where’s that switch?”
Wyatt guided Theus’ hand to Ginger’s side. With one push from the premier’s finger, Ginger was reactivated. She seemed surprised to find Theus standing in front of her.
“Ginger? From now on, I want you to call me Theus. Not Sir Theus. Just Theus.”
The Beautiful Doll nodded. “Yes, Theus.”
The premier gave her a small smile, and headed back behind his desk. They all sat.
Wyatt leaned forward. “With your permission, sir, I’ll go ahead and tell Carron he’ll get his meeting with the Council, but that it will take two days for all the members to travel to the Council headquarters. During that time, you can organize the impersonators, and I’ll train our men in how to shut down the machines, using Ginger during our drills. We’ll need the practice; we’ll only have one chance to get this right.”