He frowned to himself as he contemplated his fate. Strangely, the idea of spending the next six months of his life buried on a remote rock at the far end of the system with Leita didn’t bother him. But the very fact that the idea didn’t bother him bothered him. He was a mover and a shaker, a get-things-done kind of guy. True, he’d been thinking about settling down to a quieter lifestyle right before he got shipped here, but he’d had the same thought a thousand times before—usually when he was in a tight spot. He’d never actually expected to follow through on it.
And you’re not gonna follow through on it now, either, he reminded himself sternly. He had to remember he was only here for a little while and not let himself get attached to Leita. And if possible, he didn’t want to let her get too attached to him either. She seemed like a sweet, trusting girl and he didn’t want to break her heart. Not that there was much chance of that—as long as she thought he was a robot or a cyborg or whatever the hell those man-whore-things from Osiris were, she’d have to be crazy to let herself fall for him. Almost as crazy as Pierce would have to be to let himself fall for her.
Never gonna happen. He put the thought out of his mind as he stepped from the shower and began toweling off. Still, the memory of Leita, all pink and flushed and pretty, straddling him and panting his name wouldn’t quite leave his mind.
Chapter 4
“Well, I hope you’re happy.” Schneider was curled on the waist-high counter, his lashing tail telegraphing his disapproval when Leita walked into the kitchen unit.
“Actually, I am.” She hummed lightly to herself, looking at the directions on the back of the purple nutrient powder to be sure she got the ratios right. She was wearing an old red flannel robe that was soft and thin from many trips through the auto-fresher and a smile that just wouldn’t quit. What was it about good sex that made you feel on top of the world? The rush of endorphins from the orgasm, she supposed. But she didn’t walk around wearing that cat that got the cream smile after a session with her vibrator—no, it was Pierce who had made the difference.
“So the oversized dildo satisfied your every sexual need?” Schneider’s tone was pure acid but Leita felt too happy to let it get to her.
“That ‘oversized dildo’ has a name—it’s Pierce,” she said, fixing her best friend with a glare. “And he happens to be the single best purchase I have ever made, hands down.”
“Well.” Clearly Schneider was at a loss for words. But not for long. “I can’t believe you already named him!” he exclaimed, tail lashing harder than ever.
“I didn’t.” Leita smiled as she poured boiling water from the warmer into a small bowl filled with purple granules and watched them melt into goo. “He came already named.”
“What? You spend thousands of credits you can’t afford and you don’t even get to name him?” Schneider sounded incredulous. “I don’t know, Leita—that doesn’t sound right. It says clearly on the website that you get to pick the name.”
“That’s with the Companion 2000 series,” Leita said, stirring the purple goo with a spoon. “Pierce is a prototype of the 3000 series—that’s why he’s here instead of what I ordered. I was picked in a random drawing to receive him.”
“Don’t you think if that was true the dildo factory would have notified you?” Schneider demanded. “Instead of just sending you an upgrade at random?”
“Oh, Schneider, stop being such a killjoy,” Leita snapped. “Why do you always have to pick everything apart? Pierce is here and I’m happy he is.” She waved the spoon which dripped purple goo at her friend. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t need you too, or that you and I won’t be friends anymore. He’s a cyborg, Schneider—he’s not going to come between us.”
Schneider sniffed loudly, clearly not mollified. “Well, I just don’t like it. The whole things smells—just like your new sex toy!”
“Who smells like what?” Pierce walked into the room, a towel draped dangerously low on his lean hips. Leita bit her lip at the sight of his muscular, hairy chest. He was drying his thick, short brown hair with another towel and he looked disarmingly human.
“Um, your dinner smells. Good, I think,” she improvised, holding the bowl of purple paste out to him. The nutrient goo did give off a certain chemical-like odor and when Pierce lowered his head to sniff at it, he wrinkled his nose.
“No offense, honey,” he said carefully. “But what in the blue hell is that stuff?”
“Well, it’s your nutrient paste. See?” Leita pointed to the five-pound bag that was still quite full of purple powder. “Your manual says you’re supposed to love it.”
Pierce nodded. “Oh, the manual again. You know, that manual, it’s really for a 2000 series Companion. Uh, I mean, I don’t know what idiot packed it in with me instead of the 3000 series manual but there’s a lot of changes—a lot of differences between me and the old 2000s.”
Leita raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms over the soft red robe she was wearing. “Such as?” she asked pointedly.
“Such as we don’t live on purple cream of crap,” Pierce clarified, nodding at the bowl she held. “It, uh, gums up our works. We eat regular food just like, um, humans.” He smiled at her. “Of course, I can cook for myself if you just show me where the grub is. Cook for you too, if you want. I don’t expect you to take care of me or wait on me hand and foot.”
“Well, that’s a relief, seeing as Leita is the one who ordered you through the mail and not the other way around,” Schneider remarked acidly.
Pierce ignored him. “Just show me the food synthesizer or if you don’t have one of those, a stove will do fine,” he said. “I’m, uh, programmed to cook either way. One of my extra features.”
Leita frowned thoughtfully. “No, you sit. I’ll cook because I like it, not because I’m waiting on you.” She turned to the cold food storage unit and began pulling out some irradiated eggs that were produced by cloned chickens. Not all of Old Earth’s species had been lost to the mists of time. Genetic clones of the more useful animals were still popping up all over the galaxy. “How do you like your eggs?” she asked.
“Scrambled is fine,” Pierce said easily. “But are you sure there’s nothing I can do?”
“Apparently not, unless it has to do with sex,” Schneider observed snidely.
“Schneider!” Leita was really getting fed up with his attitude but Pierce only turned to her best friend, a little smile quirking at the corner of his mouth.
“Say, buddy, you don’t like me much, do ya?”
“My, such keen powers of observation.” Schneider sat on his hind legs and began grooming his whiskers. “Whatever gave you that idea, Captain Dildo?”
“Maybe the way you keep referring to me as a ‘dildo’,” Pierce said, still keeping his temper in what Leita considered an impressive display of self-control. Then she reminded herself he was probably programmed to keep his temper, no matter what. Still, the muscle working in the side of his jaw looked so real she could almost believe that he was holding himself back on purpose.
“I call them like I see them,” Schneider said, still grooming. “And right now what I see is a humongous, out of control sex toy that never should have been let out of its box in the first place.”
Pierce took a deep breath and Leita saw his large hands squeeze into fists. For a moment, she was actually afraid. Then he smiled, with what looked like an obvious effort and the tense muscles in his big body relaxed.
“I’m not here to take your place, little guy,” he told Schneider. “You’re still Leita’s friend and I respect that. But she seems like a pretty big-hearted lady so maybe there’s room in her heart for both of us. You think?”
“No, I don’t.” With an offended sniff, Schneider leaped off the counter and sauntered to the door, tail held high. “If you want me, I’ll be in another part of the pod, Leita,” he said over his shoulder. “Any part that’s away from this overpriced thing you ordered to service you.” And with that parting shot, he left the kitchen unit.<
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“I’m so sorry,” Leita said, knowing it was ridiculous to apologize to a cyborg but unable to help herself. “Schneider can be a little…possessive at times.” She reached up and grabbed some plates for the eggs that she had been cooking the whole time. She’d made enough for three, one of them being Schneider, but now it looked like her best friend wouldn’t be joining them after all. She put his portion in a small stay-hot bowl and brought the full plates to the table.
“You don’t say,” Pierce said dryly, taking the plates from her and setting them on the table. “Well, he’ll come around once he sees I’m not tryin’ to steal you away. Did I, uh, really cost that much?”
Leita felt funny discussing how much she’d paid for him with Pierce but it wasn’t like it would hurt his feelings or make him feel obligated to her. He was just a machine, she reminded herself for what felt like the hundredth time that evening. She mentioned a figure and Pierce raised his eyebrows and whistled appreciatively.
“Damn, that’s as much as…I mean, it’s almost like having a bounty on your head.”
It seemed like a strange comparison to Leita. “Not really,” she said, taking a forkful of eggs. “Actually, a model like you would have cost me more than four thousand more. What I ordered was a small blond guy, about my size. That’s why I was kind of surprised when I got you instead. Not that I’m not really happy to have you,” she added quickly, realizing that it sounded like an insult. If you could insult a machine, that was.
“Oh.” Pierce looked thoughtful. “So you’re, uh, satisfied with the, uh, service I provided?”
Leita felt herself blushing. “More than satisfied,” she admitted, still picking at her eggs. “You know—it’s kind of funny. You were actually the exact model I wanted, I just couldn’t afford you.”
“Well then.” Pierce smiled at her and speared a forkful of fluffy eggs. “I guess it works out for everyone, huh?”
Leita sighed. “Everybody but Schneider. I’m afraid that once he decides not to like someone, that’s pretty much it. He may go on being an ass for a while.”
“Let him.” Pierce smiled at her, a warm flash of white teeth in his tanned face that made her insides feel almost as gooey as the abandoned nutrient paste. “I don’t give a damn what he says as long as I’m here with you.”
“Oh, Pierce.” She made a shooing gesture at him, wishing she could believe the compliment. No doubt he was programmed to say such things to whoever owned him. Still, it was nice to hear that he liked her company, even if he had no choice in the matter. Or did that even make sense? Maybe she was thinking crazy because it was so late—Pierce’s box had arrived in what was basically the middle of the night on the small moon she inhabited and she’d had some fairly stressful activity since he got here. Stressful in a good way, that was, but tiring nonetheless.
Leita covered her mouth just in time to catch a yawn. Now that her stomach was full of eggs and her sexual tension was relieved, she was beginning to feel exhausted. She’d spent the entire day fixing a downed droid ship and she still wasn’t done with it. The loss of one ship’s cargo of ore wouldn’t jeopardize her bottom line, but she needed to get it working again quickly to minimize the loss. Spending so much on a Companion was really going to take a bite out of her disposable income for a while.
“You tired?” Pierce asked, catching her yawn.
Leita nodded and yawned again. “Sorry, yeah, I am. You sort of came in the middle of our night here and I, um, couldn’t wait ‘til morning to unpack you.” She smiled at him shyly and he returned her smile with one of his own. “I know you’re probably not sleepy yourself, since you were sedated and basically sleeping the whole way here…”
“No.” Pierce shook his head and yawned himself. “Actually, I’m feeling kind of worn out too. Wonder why that is?” He winked at her and Leita found herself blushing.
“I’m uh, sorry about that,” she stuttered, forgetting he was a cyborg and she didn’t have to apologize. “I know I kind of, um, jumped on you. It’s just been so long and I—”
Pierce raised a hand to stop her. “Please, Leita, you don’t have to apologize to me for what we did. That’s what I’m here for, after all.” He took her hand in both of his and kissed the palm gently, sending a rush of warm fire up her arm. “Besides,” he murmured in that deep, sensual voice, “It was Goddessdamn amazing.”
“I…I thought so too.” Leita looked down at her hands, unable to meet his piercing blue gaze. “I, uh, guess I’ll go to bed now, then.”
Pierce smiled at her. “Do I get to come with you? Just to sleep,” he hurriedly explained. “Unless you want to do more than sleep, of course.”
“Well, uh…” Leita frowned, thinking of her fight with Schneider earlier about where her new sex toy was going to sleep. “According to the manual, you’re supposed to want to sleep in the box you came in.”
“The box?” Pierce looked a little pale. “Look, honey, if you don’t want me in your bed, I can understand, but don’t put me back in that box. It’s really, really close in there—too damn claustrophobic.”
Leita propped her chin on one hand and frowned at him. “So, another discrepancy between the Companion 2000 and 3000 series? The 2000s love the box and the 3000s don’t?”
Pierce nodded eagerly. “Somethin’ like that.”
“Well, maybe I should send for a new manual, then,” she murmured thoughtfully. “To make sure I’m doing everything right.”
“No, no,” he said hastily. “You don’t have to do that, honey. I’ve got a…a built-in manual. That’s another special feature. Anything you need to know about me, just ask me, and I can tell you straight off, no problem.”
“All right then.” Leita sighed and rose from the table. She was too tired to think about it now. “Let me stack these in the sanitizer and I’m going to bed.”
“I can sleep on the couch if you want,” Pierce offered, taking the dishes away from her and beginning to stack them himself. “If you have one, I mean.”
Leita bit her lip, considering. Schneider was already pissed off but she didn’t see that she should have to give up everything she wanted just to appease his temper. And one of the main reasons she’d bought a Companion in the first place, was to have someone warm to hold her in the middle of the night. Looking at Pierce, she knew she wanted to feel his large, masculine body curling around hers, to feel the scratch of his broad, hairy chest against her back in the darkness. To smell his warm, spicy scent when she leaned against him, to feel those strong arms wrapped around her and pretend, just for a moment, that he really loved her.
“Honey?” Pierce was looking at her with question in his eyes and she realized she was taking too long to decide.
“Okay,” she said at last, giving in to her longings. “You can sleep with me but Schneider’s pillow is absolutely off limits. I don’t want him feeling any more displaced than he already is.”
“He sleeps with you, too?” Pierce raised an eyebrow at her and Leita shrugged.
“Sure, I mean, he’s been my best friend since I was sixteen, you know? My dad found him while he was out on a scouting trip. The ship he was on had lost almost all life support and Schneider was the only survivor. Since Tarbians are solitary by nature, life out here on our little mining operation suited him just fine. Schneider isn’t really his name, by the way, but it’s as close as I can get to the Tarbian pronunciation.”
Pierce whistled. “So he’s been with you since you were sixteen? No wonder he feels like I’m horning in on his territory. I’d be pissed off too if some strange guy came around and started…well, started something with my woman.”
Leita blushed. “It’s not like that between Schneider and me,” she protested. “We’re just friends. And even if we wanted to be more—which we don’t—we couldn’t. Incompatible body parts, you know?”
“That doesn’t always make a difference, honey,” Pierce said knowingly. “A male is a male is a male and Schneider doesn’t want me in his territory—
can’t say that I blame him, actually. I get the feeling that it’s gonna be tough to get him to see that I’m not here to take his place.”
“Of course you aren’t.” Leita yawned again. “Look, I want you to sleep with me,” she told Pierce, feeling suddenly bold. “It’s one of the reasons I, uh, bought you. Just keep away from Schneider’s pillow and hopefully we can avoid any bloodshed. All right?”
Pierce nodded. “Got it. So let’s go to bed.” A wicked smile appeared on his face and suddenly he bent down and swooped her up in his arms, making Leita shriek with surprise.
“Pierce, what are you doing?”
He grinned wolfishly at her. “Takin’ you to bed, baby girl.”
Leita couldn’t help grinning back. Maybe she wasn’t quite so sleepy, after all.
Rustling in the darkness woke him. For a moment Pierce didn’t know where he was, then the warm familiar scent of woman filled his head and he remembered everything. He’d been sleeping curled behind Leita with one arm thrown over her waist, but she was up now, standing beside the bed and dressing. Her side of the gel- foam mattress was already getting cold.
“What…?” He sat up in the dark, taking in the dim outline of her shape as she dressed. “What’s goin’ on?” he asked.
“Oh.” She jumped and put a hand to her chest, clearly startled. “Nothing you can help me with, Pierce. Go back to sleep.”
“What is it?” He couldn’t see her face too well but Leita’s voice sounded troubled. He liked her enough that hearing her sound like that bothered him—bothered him a lot.
“Just…” She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “Schneider came to tell me the collision alarm went off. My main droid ship’s been hit by an asteroid. It’s on its way back here now so I’m off to the mech bay to fix it.”
“You fix ships? By yourself?” Pierce couldn’t keep the admiration or surprise out of his voice.
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