Marcus 582: Book Three of Cyborgs: Mankind Redefined

by Donna McDonald

  “Some…times,” Rachel agreed, nodding.

  “Hey. You could have denied it, you know,” Marcus declared, laughing again.

  Rachel felt her mouth twitch. “Too…true…to…deny.”

  Marcus ran a hand through his hair. He was going down in flames. His processor was spinning wildly. “Fine. I’m an asshole. Do you think I have any redeeming qualities at all?”

  “A…few.”

  Chuckling again, Marcus stepped in close. His head spun when Rachel didn’t step away. “I admire you so much. You got an implant so you can talk. You work alongside Evil Brad and haven’t killed him. I dream about doing that nearly every day.”

  “I…do not. Too…bu…sy…dream…ing…about…you,” Rachel admitted, holding her breath.

  She noticed Marcus staring at her mouth for long moments before finally dipping his head for the kiss that had been a long time coming between them. A rumble in her throat started when his lips gently touched hers. He slid across them in one direction, then turned his head and slanted them the opposite way. She slid into a cozy, thick lust haze where only what they were doing mattered.

  When he let her breath again, she whispered one word. “More.”

  Marcus turned his head back to the first position and deepened the kiss another layer. Rachel helped by opening her mouth to let his tongue inside and by putting her arms around his neck to pull him closer. He lifted her from the floor and pushed her against her door. Her legs wrapped around him—those incredible legs he’d admired so often. It felt so right.

  “I got rid of most of my memories of doing this. Will you make a memory with me that I’ll be happy to keep for the rest of my life? It’s been a long time since a woman sincerely wanted me.”

  His words eased inside her making her attraction to him come into full bloom. Rachel let her body grow heavy and drop against his. In the process her crotch got dragged across the bulge in his wore-out jeans. The first stages of bliss sent shivers coursing through her. If she didn’t have him soon, she was going to implode anyway.

  “I…want…you…too,” she confessed against his mouth.

  Marcus groaned at her admission and the sound made her shake harder.

  “Can I come inside?” he asked.

  “Hur…ry,” Rachel ordered in answer, bouncing against him as she smiled against his mouth.

  Marcus laughed at her flirting. “I meant your apartment, but I happily accept that offer too.”

  He put one arm around her hips to hold her in place, and then dipped down to retrieve her carryall from the ground.

  Rachel rummaged around in the bag, ignoring the handheld as it bumped her fingers. Finally, she pulled out her access key. She handed it to Marcus. Seconds later, he was carrying her across her threshold and locking up in between small biting kisses across her lips.

  As Marcus held her against the door, his hands under her hips widened her thighs so he could push firmly between them. His erection felt glorious rubbing against her. Reservations about what she was doing were nowhere to be found.

  “You…don’t…feel…old…at…all,” she whispered.

  Marcus grinned at the compliment as he kissed her more deeply, daring to let his tongue make promises too. On one such exploration, the woman in his arms latched onto his stroking tongue and sucked. The pleasure of it coursed through him, blanking out everything except the need to complete their physical connection in every way possible.

  When they hit her bed, he followed Rachel down, resting on her in bliss. He pulled away from their kiss to look at her flushed face and swollen lips. He pushed her hair back from her face and took a moment just to memorize how happy she looked.

  “You are so beautiful. Are you sure about this?”

  His answer was her hands getting busy between them while her feet hooked behind his knees. He groaned and put his forehead against hers while he let her have her way. Somehow she worked his pants down over his hips and was soon stroking him in a slow rhythm that made him forget everything but getting inside her.

  When he could bring himself to move, his hand crept under her shirt and deftly unfastened the thin lace restraint keeping him away from heaven. Once freed the breast he cupped rose to fill his palm, her peaked nipple proving her lust equaled his.

  His hand left her breast and joined the other one as he divested her of her pants. He removed the shirt as well and disposed of the bra still dangling from her arms. He kicked off his jeans and bent back over her, letting her draw him slowly inside. It was a better joining than he’d anticipated. Her body pulsed around his as he moved gently, but steadily into her.

  After a few serious mind-blanking thrusts, her back arching was the signal he had been waiting for. He slid his hands under her lower back to help hold her in that position. Rachel’s gasp seconds later was accompanied by her body clenching joyously around his.

  “Damn…I could watch you do that all day,” he whispered. “Let me show you something else.”

  He moved up into her farther and changed his angle, plunging deeply and holding. When he withdrew, the slide out was slow, torturous, and had Rachel squirming to stop his retreat.

  Marcus smiled and bent his lips to her forehead before letting them slide to her ear. “You might as well know it now. I’m bossy in bed too,” he whispered, plunging in hard and all the way.

  He repeated the process of withdrawing slowly again. Her body lifted to his in perfect agreement with what he was asking of it. His well-practiced ability of hitting the perfect spot was a lovemaking talent he was more than happy to share with the incredible woman in his arms.

  Just before he lost his mind, Rachel’s body seized violently beneath his. Her nearly out of control orgasmic bucking almost managed to lift him away from her. He laughed at her strong reaction and pressed down hard as he let himself finally find blessed relief. When his mind cleared, Rachel had gone very still. Smiling, he kissed his way down her face, pausing at her throat to pay homage for a kind of sacrifice he well understood.

  He let himself slide gently out of her a final time, chuckling when she moaned and tried to resist once more.

  “A…gain,” she said slowly, running a hand over his bristled jaw that sorely needed a shave.

  Marcus smiled. Pride overwhelmed him as he scooted lower and laid his head on her smooth as silk stomach. “Any way you want, as many times as you want,” he vowed softly.

  Rachel’s response was her hand aggressively dragging his head back up so she could kiss him senseless. For the first time since his restoration, he felt like the luckiest man on earth.

  Chapter 6

  Rachel’s hand went to her throat as she caught herself trying to hum for the twentieth time that day. She rubbed the skin around the resonance implant. For the first time, she found herself wondering if getting a new processor would let her get rid of it.

  When the lab door opened, she turned quickly expecting to see a new patient being brought in. Instead, Edward walked inside and smiled at her. He’d somehow finagled security into letting him have routine access to where she worked. She dropped what she was doing and walked over to hug him.

  “Wow. What a nice greeting. You look a lot happier today. Is the thug treating you right?”

  Rachel grinned and nodded, trying to not laugh. Laughing hurt now. And speaking was getting harder again. She’d begun taking painkillers to ward off the worst of her constant discomfort.

  “Lunch?” she asked hopefully.

  Edward nodded as he pulled free of her hug. “Yes—God, yes. Let’s get lunch and do something normal. Frickin’ counseling sessions are done for good finally. What the hell can a man younger than you possibly understand about the life I’ve lived? Nothing. Norton’s wasting their damn money. They should pay you to counsel me. Just looking at you makes me feel better.”

  Rachel smiled and pointed at her bag and jacket hung on the wall near the door. He nodded again and went to retrieve them for her.

  She lifted her work portable an
d sent Seetha an internal com to let her know where she was going. Setting it back down, Rachel slid into the jacket Edward held for her.

  “Tell…me…all,” she croaked, pleased to be holding his arm as they opened the lab door to leave.

  Unfortunately, Nathan was standing there with his hand raised to knock. It put an immediate damper on her day. She wanted to dig in her bag and give him back the phone that still had never turned off, but she didn’t want to ruin her good mood or her lunch with Edward by making a scene.

  “Oh…sorry. Hey. Is this your dad?” Nathan asked.

  She watched his gaze raking Edward and instantly dismissing him. She wondered what Nathan would think if he caught her with tattooed Marcus. Being a person given to speaking the truth, Rachel instantly shook her head.

  “Lunch…date,” she said as proudly as her mechanized tone could convey.

  Something strange flickered in Nathan’s gaze, but it was gone so fast, Rachel thought perhaps her discomfort with him had made her imagine it. He shrugged and smiled.

  “Oh…okay. I was going to see if you were free…but of course you’re not…so I’ll see you around.”

  Rachel nodded politely and wrapped her arm around Edward to drag him out the door with her. They left Nathan scratching his head and were in the airlift before she could breathe easily.

  “Another boyfriend?” Edward asked, his mouth quirking.

  Rachel snorted. “Bad…bad…cof…fee…date.”

  “Not someone easily discouraged, I take it,” Edward commented.

  Rachel turned her head to see Edward looking serious. “He…is…strange.”

  Edward nodded and leaned back against the wall. “Sweetie, I was just thinking the same thing.”

  ***

  Marcus rubbed a hand over his naked chin. Even the AI bots at the scanners had looked at him strangely. Losing his facial hair was going to take some getting used to, but he’d have to see what Rachel thought about it.

  He walked into the labs and dropped down in the chair next to Eric. “Is your ass glued to that seat? Every time I look for you, you’re at this freaking console.”

  Eric turned his head, intending to retaliate, but the sight before him robbed him of speech. “Who the hell are you?” he demanded. He laughed when Marcus landed a hard punch on his upper arm.

  “I shaved and got a haircut—on your advice. Don’t start giving me shit. I’m self-conscious enough about it. I didn’t even know what that felt like until you told me how bad I looked. Stay out of my brain.”

  Eric chuckled as his gaze swept up and down. “New jeans. New shirt. No holes except the ones in your head. So how long have you been sleeping with Rachel?” His answer was another hard punch in his arm. He laughed as he rubbed. “So I guess you’re not talking about that yet?”

  Marcus leaned an elbow on the virtual keyboard counter in front of him and turned to look at his smirking friend.

  “I followed our geeky cyborg for three days. He never goes anywhere but home and to Norton to work. He hasn’t dated other women, which makes me more worried about him focusing on Rachel. I think he recently moved out of his mother’s house because some older female showed up at his residence. She was there ten minutes and left crying. He followed her outside and kept repeating he was not going to be moving back home.”

  Eric chuckled. “Sounds like a reality vid show.”

  “It was,” Marcus agreed. “What did you find out?”

  Eric turned his attention back to the console. “Something that’s kept my ass in this seat for a few days. Nathan 180’s file has a sealed version about three levels down. Evil Brad couldn’t break the code. More concerning is that I found twenty-nine more just like him. In the pattern, a new entry is being made every two months. It’s been going on for years. And get this…they’re all geeky programmers of one sort or another. You can tell the early ones by their well filled out pecs. I think that’s the hook. Nathan is just beginning his muscle building.”

  “Why aren’t they on the rescue list?”

  Eric leaned back and crossed his arms. “To be rescued from what? They’re not in the Cyber Husband program. They’re not assigned to work camps. They’re all walking around in regular society working normal jobs. They’re routinely bypassed in our database searches, and for the most part, appear to be like the cyborgs who’ve been restored. Plus their minor conversions make them uninteresting.”

  “So they’re hiding in plain sight,” Marcus stated.

  “Yes, but so far I can’t find out where these guys—and so far they’re all guys—are getting it done. I’m sure the answer is somewhere in those sealed levels.”

  Marcus ran a hand over his bare chin. It felt so strange to him. A small cosmetic change could throw you off your game. His self-consciousness about his appearance had plagued him until he’d had no choice but to act. Now he wished he’d asked Rachel for her opinion first.

  Eric pointed at the screen. “Neural enhancements aren’t anything new. People who can’t cut it in society get neural implants all the time. That was actually how Kyra Winters got started in cybernetics. She designed chips and code and a delivery system that corrected mental illnesses. It allowed people with those problems to live mostly normal lives. Those are not considered full cybernetic conversions though. It’s the pecs that tell the story for our cyborg geeks.”

  “How so?” Marcus asked.

  Eric lifted one shoulder. “They had to be fully wired to tie their processor into their nervous system, otherwise the pulses would have nothing electrical to travel on. The oldest cyborg geek in the database looks like King now. My guess is those muscles of his aren’t just for show either.”

  “You think there’s a black market for cyborg conversions?”

  Eric looked up at the ceiling. “Possible. Geeks do tend to make good money. You should see Nero’s sweet ride. Not something you and I are ever likely to afford.”

  “Would muscles be enough reason for these guys to get themselves converted?”

  Eric laughed and smiled. “You shaved and got a haircut for someone, didn’t you?”

  “That’s a little different.”

  “Marcus. Marcus. Marcus. Did you ever have any problems getting laid? I’m guessing no, or I wouldn’t have to explain this to you.”

  Marcus snorted. “Not really…I mean I wasn’t as lucky as King with the ladies…but I passed up my share even after I married.”

  “Exactly,” Eric said. “These guys are naturally inept with women. Genetics seems to either favor your brain or your brawn, but rarely both. Most of these guys probably lived at home with their mother before they made this decision. I imagine having pecs changes things for them. And pulses are useful in other ways…if you know how to direct them wisely. A talented cyborg in the sack could conceivably keep two or three females happy enough. I’ve never personally tested that theory, but there are times I could go all night and never get tired.”

  “So the guys getting this done go from no-game-geek to instant stud with this conversion,” Marcus declared.

  Eric nodded. “It would explain the appeal to that sort of individual, but I wonder what happens to their genetically gifted brains when all that testosterone starts pumping through their bodies. Our processors were set to stabilize after a while and just maintain us. King’s extreme muscles are mostly natural. However, you and I don’t look like King because we’re not programmed to look like him. Based on what I saw of the first guy before his conversion, his muscles won’t stop developing until his body loses its capacity to produce testosterone.”

  “Even then, there’s always shots,” Marcus said, thinking about it.

  “Scarier still,” Eric declared. “I think it's time we talked to the others about this. Even though I’ve learned to cloak my search requests, it’s only a matter of time before Norton catches on. If I manage to decode one of those locked files, a security breach notification will be sent to Norton’s IT department.”

  “Should I kee
p following our boy toy?” Marcus asked.

  Eric nodded. “Better still. Put a tag on him…and one on Rachel. My gut has a bad feeling.”

  Marcus frowned, now worried more than ever.

  Chapter 7

  Not happy, Eric plodded along after Peyton. King or Marcus usually went with him when he needed to talk to the crazy lady. Today Marcus was following their cyborg geek on his day off and King had some pressing business at his restaurant. There’d been no one else available and he’d had no excuse to give Peyton for refusing without confessing what he and Marcus had been investigating. So he trudged behind Peyton while wishing he was back at the console working on decoding the geeky cyborg’s file.