Page 6

CORINNE

Corinne minimized the manual and turned once more to K -lx.

The Cyborg was sitting on the edge of her bed with his legs spread and his elbows on his knees. He was quiet, as though awaiting orders and she wondered what he was thinking.

Of course, she could have pushed through their Link to find out and she would have with an ordinary Cyborg , but she felt reluctant to invade his privacy. He clearly had more going on mentally than any other Unit she’d worked with before. It would be better to draw him out verbally, she decided.

But first she had to get him cleaned up.

She walked over to the bed and put a hand on his broad, bare shoulder. He looked up at once, his pale blue eyes searching hers.

“Yes, Mistress ? What do you require of me? Is there a battle you wish me to fight? Something heavy you need me to lift?”

Corinne smiled despite herself.

“No, K -lx—nothing like that,” she said. “ I just want to get you cleaned up and examine you. Come with me to the bathing chamber, all right?”

“Yes, Mistress .”

He rose at once, moving smoothly for such a huge male.

Corinne led him to the bathing chamber, in the corner of her room.

Despite being demoted, she had been allowed to keep her room and her lab equipment.

Mainly because of her contract, which stated that she couldn’t be moved to new quarters or stripped of her belongings without her permission no matter what occurred.

She’d had that clause put in especially when she’d signed up with the Company five years before, knowing how cutthroat things could be in the far-flung stations.

Under the brighter luminescence of the bathing chamber’s glow-tubes, she could get an even better idea of how huge her new Cyborg was. K -lx really was enormous…and she was going to wash every inch of him. But first, if she was really going to do this, they had to set some ground rules.

“Listen to me, K -lx,” she said, tilting her head to look up at him. “ We’re going to take a shower together now and I’m going to bathe you. Are you able to protect your cybernetic parts from water?”

“My Cybernetics and Cybertronics are fully waterproof up until one thousand meters of liquid immersion,” he rumbled. “ A shower will not hurt them, Mistress .”

“All right.” She nodded. “ That’s good to know. And K -lx, you really don’t have to call me ‘ Mistress .’ Just call me Dr . Virelle or Corinne .”

She knew other Handlers who insisted that their Units call them by some variation of “ Master ” or “ Mistress ” but she had always believed that such titles put distance between a Handler and her Cyborg . It was better to establish dominance in other ways—actions speak louder than words, after all.

K-lx frowned, as though considering her words.

“Cor-rinn,” he said at last, slowly, as though he was tasting her name. “ Little Corinne .”

“Well, I don’t know about ‘little,’” Corinne said, frowning. There did have to be some limits. “ I’m not really considered little among my people,” she added.

Which was true—she was full-figured and curvy and had been that way all her adult life. She preferred her natural shape to the wasp-waisted, anorexically thin look which was currently popular and achievable only through extreme body-modification.

Most of the time when women underwent the modification surgery, their abdominal organs were put into their pelvis to achieve the impossibly narrow waistline current fashion demanded.

This often led to complications later in life—complications Corinne preferred to avoid, even if she did get a lot of unsolicited criticism, mostly from males who felt entitled to comment on her body.

So “little” she definitely was not.

But K -lx was undeterred.

“You are quite little compared to me,” he pointed out. Which was true—though at 5 foot 9, Corinne wasn’t short, the top of her head didn’t even reach his shoulder.

“That doesn’t matter,” she said firmly. “ You will call me ‘ Corinne .’ Not ‘little Corinne ’ or any other nickname. Understood ?”

The big K - Unit frowned.

“I will consider your words,” he said at last. Which wasn’t exactly a promise to do as she said, Corinne thought.

She wasn’t sure what to say in return. None of the other Units she’d ever worked with would disobey a direct order unless they had gone Rogue . She’d never heard of one refusing to obey just because he was stubborn. Still , K -lx hadn’t said “no,” he had just said he would consider her words.

Pick your battles, Corinne , she told herself and decided to move on.

“Okay, strip for me,” she commanded. “ Let’s see what we’re working with here.”

For a moment he just stood there. Then , slowly, he took off his boots.

Corinne was surprised that the boots were removable.

Modern Cyborgs were almost all metal with just the head and spine left intact to interact with the Cybernetic parts of their new body.

However , it appeared that while K -lx’s arms and legs were mostly Cybertronic , his face, torso, and feet were still human. Or rather, still Kindred .

“Let me see your hands,” she told him.

Obligingly, the big K - Unit held out his hands to her. Corinne took one in hers—noticing that it was twice as big as her own—and turned it over. Sure enough, his palm and wrist were intact. She frowned as she examined the healthy flesh.

“This must mean that your Cybernetic and Cybertronic parts are overlays rather than actual replacements,” she remarked, running her fingers up and down his palm and watching as his long fingers twitched reflexively.

“The Tolleg surgeons said my enhancements would fit over my arms and legs and work with my body to make me stronger and faster,” he rumbled. “ They added a lot but they didn’t take any part of me…except for my memories.”

Again, Corinne found herself surprised. So much knowledge in her field had been lost in the battles for Old Earth before the Companies formed and started shipping people off-world. K -lx almost certainly had a wealth of stored information somewhere in his programming.

“Do you know why they wiped your memories?” she asked, looking up at him. Most Units didn’t even know they’d been wiped. She wondered if any knowledge of his past life had been left to him.

But the big K - Unit shook his head.

“No. The Tollegs thought it was for the best. They said my past would only give me pain.” He shrugged. “ I believed them.”

Well that was one thing that hadn’t changed from the early days of Cybernetics to the present, Corinne thought. It was much better to try and wipe out the trauma and pain of the past. If memories were left intact, most Cyborgs went Rogue within hours of being activated.

“All right,” she said. “ That’s interesting to know. Now finish stripping—we need to get you into the shower.”

His big hands went to the waistband of his trousers but he paused, lifting an eyebrow at her.

“Are you taking a shower with me, Corinne ?”

It was the first time he had used her name and she found she liked hearing it in his deep, rumbling voice. But his question was a little too pointed.

“Yes, I am,” she said briskly. “ I’m going to clean you up and make you presentable. I’m your Handler now, so you’ll need to get used to me handling you— all of you,” she added sternly.

K-lx didn’t object to this. He only nodded and began to pull down his trousers.

Corinne turned her back to him and began to strip as well. She tried to ignore the way her stomach clenched nervously at the idea of being nude with the big Cyborg .

He’s just a Cyborg , that’s all. Not human. Mostly machine, she reminded herself. There’s no shame in doing what has to be done—you have to follow the manual!

But despite her little self pep talk, she couldn’t quite hide a gasp when she finished hanging up her clothes and turned to see K -lx without his trousers.

Naked, the big Cyborg was even more imposing than he had been clothed. The metal overlays covering his long legs couldn’t hide the heavy muscles of his thighs and calves. But it was what was between his legs that really drew her attention.

Merciful Stars ! I’ve never seen one that size before!

The big Cyborg’s massive cock hung down almost to his knees and there was a strange knot at the base of the long shaft.

As she watched, the enormous cock twitched…and then began to grow. It got longer and thicker, standing upright until the broad crown almost reached his navel. Corinne estimated that it was thicker than her wrist and that wasn’t counting the swelling at its base, which was bigger than her fist.

“Like what you see, Mistress ?”

His deep rumbling voice made her realize she’d been staring. When she yanked her eyes back up, she saw a half-smirk on his face which was definitely most un- Cyborg -like.

K-lx met her eyes for a long moment, then dropped his gaze to look up and down her naked body in a way that made her blush. She wanted to cover herself but that was ridiculous. He was just a Cyborg —she didn’t need to be embarrassed around him!

Then she had a sudden realization—he was getting hard because he was looking at her!

She wondered if this shower was a mistake.

But then, the manual had warned if she didn’t shower with her new K - Unit and get him used to having her handle him, depressive and aggressive episodes would occur.

She was just going to have to deal with this, she decided.

“All right—enough of that,” she said sharply, snapping her fingers in front of his face. “ My eyes are here, K -lx. There’s no need to look lower.”

“I don’t agree, Mistress ,” he rumbled. “ You’re a fucking gorgeous Elite and you’re standing there naked. I’ve never gotten to see an Elite naked before.” He frowned. “ Or maybe I have—can’t remember. But how can I resist looking at your luscious curves?”

“You can resist because I told you to resist,” Corinne said sternly but she couldn’t help noticing that lust she felt coming through their Link had made him much more articulate. “ What’s an ‘ Elite ’ anyway?” she asked.

“A woman the Goddess has blessed with extra-full curves,” he rumbled. To her surprise, he made a motion with both hands, sketching out an over-full hourglass shape in the air.

“I…see,” she said at last. “ And …do Kindred , er, like ‘ Elites ?’”

“We fucking love them.”

His voice came out in a low, hungry growl and Corinne was reminded again that the manual had said her new K - Unit would have “physical and sexual needs.”

“I might not remember much of my past, but I know that much,” he added.

“Well…there’s no need to stare,” she said again, pointedly. “ Come on, let’s get into the shower so I can wash you off.”

“Can I wash you, too?” was his immediate question.

Corinne frowned at him.

“No! Absolutely not. I am your Handler , K -lx. That means I get to handle you —not the other way around. You are not to touch me. Am I understood?”

He shrugged his broad shoulders.

“Doesn’t hurt to ask. All right, Mistress — I’ll keep my hands to myself.”

“Good.” Corinne turned to start the water running. Luckily , the showerhead was located along the top of the entire ceiling of the shower unit, so the water rained down. Meaning they wouldn’t have to share the warm spray since there would be plenty for both of them.

She thought she could feel K -lx’s eyes on her ass as she adjusted the temperature. He was really coming alive and becoming more verbal by the minute.

God, she’d never had a Cyborg act like this before!

Such open displays of lust and his naked admiration of her bare body were two things a modern Unit would be wholly incapable of.

But it was clear that the Cybernetics experts of the past had decided to leave much more of their Cyborg’s personality intact.

Well, she would have to be extra stern and keep control of the situation, she decided firmly.

“All right, it’s ready now,” she said, turning to K -lx. She was very aware of the way her bare breasts swayed as she moved and the way his pale blue eyes were tracking her every motion.

He made a motion with one metal-covered hand.

“After you, Mistress .”

Well, it seemed like she wasn’t going to be able to break him of that, Corinne thought with an internal sigh. But she could at least be sure he knew who was the boss.

“No, after you . Get in when I tell you to,” she ordered.

His eyes widened but he shrugged again.

“As you wish, Mistress .” Then he climbed into the shower unit.

Feeling a surge of trepidation, Corinne followed.

What was she in for? She had no idea…