Page 15

CORINNE

“You did a lot of hard work today, K -lx. I think the Cybernetics lab is almost back to normal,” Corinne remarked. She’d spent time with him, “supervising” though really her only reason to be in the lab was to reassure everyone there that the huge Cyborg wasn’t a threat.

K-lx had done his part. He’d been nothing but helpful and remorseful about the techs he’d killed.

He was also charming and incredibly likable when he made the effort to be.

After a while, it was clear that most of the people he was working with had almost forgotten that he was basically a seven-foot-tall killing machine.

Corinne was proud of him…though she really couldn’t take any credit.

Unlike modern Cyborgs , the big K - Unit had a personality of his own.

He was helpful and kind and attentive. In fact, the only time he was less than one hundred percent pleasant was during a moment when Corinne had stepped outside the lab to take a bathroom break and get a drink of water.

This was sometime after lunch. She’d been extra thirsty all day and her breasts had begun to feel fuller and achy. She supposed that meant the DEE concoction she’d ingested was probably starting to work on her, which worried her a little.

Since K -lx has been doing so well, she wasn’t concerned about leaving him.

She slipped into a bathroom and locked the door.

Pulling open her coverall, she tugged up her t-shirt and examined her breasts.

Sure enough, they looked larger than normal and her nipples were much darker than they had been that morning.

Corinne had brushed her fingertips over one of her tight peaks and sucked in a breath.

Her nipple was much more sensitive than was normal for her—so tender that even the lightest touch sent a wave of sensation through her.

And as she watched, a droplet of clear amber liquid formed on her nipple, as though in reaction to the light stimulation.

Corinne stared at herself in the image viewer uncertainly.

This must be the “nectar” she was supposed to start producing.

Crap —what was she going to do about it?

She supposed she could have K -lx come into the bathroom and suck the nectar out now, but if anyone caught them in the bathroom together, rumors of impropriety would surge through the station in no time.

Because it was a small, enclosed world with only about a hundred workers, the station was a terrible place for gossip. Corinne didn’t want to be the subject of any speculation—or to give Silas Drex any reason to report her to the Company .

Reluctantly, she decided she would have to wait until after dinner, when she and K -lx were alone together in her room. In the meantime, she was thirsty.

After washing her hands, she stepped out of the bathroom to get some water…only to find Silas standing there. His beady eyes were narrowed and his hands were squeezed into fists as his sides. Clearly he’d been waiting for a chance to get her alone without K -lx.

“Listen to me, Virelle ,” he snarled. “ Just because you’ve Linked with that antique hunk of junk doesn’t make you his Handler or any part of the Cybernetics Division again!”

Corinne decided to play it cool.

“Oh, so you’ve come up with a new name for ‘ Handler ,’ then?” she asked, looking down her nose at him. This was easy since Silas was about an inch shorter than her.

“Don’t get smart with me!” he snapped, shoving a finger in her face. “ I’ll be watching you! I’ve already written to the Chairman telling him what a mess that walking trash receptacle made of our lab and how he ought to be destroyed immediately!”

“And I wrote a communication letting him know what a wealth of historical knowledge we can gain from working with K -lx and how the only reason he had an Overload incident was because you brought him out of Stasis too quickly,” Corinne said coolly. “ Let’s see who he believes.”

Silas’s face turned red as a synthetic tomato and his eyes narrowed to slits.

“Why, you bitch! You wouldn’t?—”

“Wouldn’t what? Wouldn’t tolerate your verbal abuse?”

Suddenly K -lx was there, looming over Silas in a menacing way, though he made no move to touch the much smaller male.

“You…he…” Silas’s eyes went wide as he stared up at the enormous Cyborg .

“Forgive me for interrupting your conversation, Mistress ,” K -lx rumbled, speaking to Corinne but keeping his eyes locked with Silas ’. “ But I felt a spike in your emotions through our link and I came to make sure you weren’t being hurt or threatened in any way. Are you all right?”

“Yes, K -lx, I’m fine,” she said, lifting her chin. “ Dr . Drex and I were having a conversation but I believe we’re finished now.”

“Yes, I believe you are.” K -lx leaned down to glare directly at Silas . “ I’d better not hear you talking that way to my Mistress again or you’re going to be fucking sorry, little man! I mean it.” His big metal hands curled into fists and his pale blue eyes flashed red as he spoke.

Silas turned pale and took a step back.

“You…you can’t threaten me like that! Get your Unit under control, Virelle !”

“Oh, I’m perfectly under control,” K -lx promised him, straightening up before Corinne could say a word. “ I just won’t tolerate you disrespecting my Mistress . Now get the fuck out of here!”

Silas looked like he wanted to say something else—he wasn’t nearly done swearing at her and threatening her yet, Corinne guessed. But one look at K -lx, who was towering over him with a face like a thundercloud, and he scurried away.

The sight was extremely satisfying…but extremely problematic at the same time.

“Are you all right, Mistress ?” the big Cyborg asked again, once Silas left. “ What did he say to you? Do you want me to punish him?”

“No, K -lx—you know you can’t do that,” she said reprovingly. “ And you can’t talk to him like that either,” she added.

“Why not? He talked to you like that. He called you a ‘bitch’— I fucking heard him!” His eyes flashed red again.

Corinne sighed.

“Silas is not my biggest fan, I’m afraid.”

“Well, I’m not his either—that little asshole had better keep your name out of his mouth and his hands off you,” he growled. “ He’ll stay away from you if he knows what’s fucking good for him!”

“Now, K -lx—you know I gave you a direct order not to harm anyone in the station,” Corinne reminded him, frowning. It really was worrisome how close he seemed to disobeying his programming!

A low growl rose in his thick throat.

“I remember, Mistress . I’ll be a good little Cyborg and keep away from Silas as long as he keeps away from you. But the minute he tries anything physical, there’s no order in the world you could give me that will stop me from ripping his head off!”

He looked so menacing when he said it that Corinne felt her heart skip a beat for a minute.

She was really going to have to work on making sure he acknowledged and obeyed orders.

No one who heard the big Cyborg talking this way would believe that she had complete control of him.

In fact, she was beginning to have doubts herself!

“Not so loud, K -lx!” she hissed, yanking him down by his shirt to speak in his ear. “ You’re doing an excellent job of rehabbing your reputation today—don’t ruin it by going feral on me!”

“I just don’t want him touching you.” His voice dipped to an even lower register as he looked into her eyes. “ You’re mine.”

Corinne was taken aback. The dark, possessive emotions she felt coming from the big K - Unit were beyond what any Cyborg was supposed to feel for his Handler . But then she remembered that his manual had said he would feel extremely possessive and protective of her. She needed to talk him down.

“All right, K -lx. It’s all right.” Reaching up, she cupped his bristly cheeks in her hands and looked into his eyes, trying to bring him down from the emotional spike she could feel through their Link .

“ I hear you. But you can’t hurt anyone just for being nasty to me.

You have to leave them alone, especially Silas —that’s an order. ”

Instead of agreeing at once, he just looked at her.

“I hear you, Mistress ,” he said at last. Which was not the same as agreeing to obey her explicit order, Corinne thought, frowning. They really were going to have to work on this.

“K-lx—” she began.

“Mistress…why do you smell so good?” he asked, interrupting her.

Leaning down, he pressed his face to the side of her neck and inhaled deeply, sending shivers down her spine.

“ So fucking sweet . Like sex and sugar,” he rumbled and when he pulled back, his pale blue eyes were half-lidded. “ Fuck , you smell amazing.”

“I don’t know why I smell…the way I smell.

But it’s not appropriate for you to say that.

” Corinne found herself breathless for some reason.

She couldn’t help noticing that K -lx smelled extra good too.

She had no idea why, but his wild, spicy scent seemed to have intensified.

It drew her to him, almost like some kind of olfactory magnet and made her overfull breasts ache. What the hell was going on?

She had no answers and no time to search for them. At that moment, Jose had poked his head out of the lab and asked if they were coming back to work. Which effectively broke the awkward moment.

Corinne had been relieved at the interruption.

The intense interlude between herself and her new Cyborg felt dangerous somehow, though not in a way that made her feel threatened.

It was more like something completely inappropriate had been narrowly avoided when her colleague called her name and diverted both of them.

The rest of the day had passed without incident and now they were back in her room, getting ready for a shower. Corinne was trying not to think of how tender her breasts had become. The DEE compound was really doing a number on her!