Page 42

Loneliness had been my constant state for so long, even after having Kier and Gav back in my life, to know that it was banished in the warmth of Sherrod’s love rendered me speechless.

I had thought I’d already given him everything, but each time we were together, new pieces of my broken soul were found and healed.

Sherrod was putting me back together one kiss, one caress at a time, and every single part of me he healed belonged to him and only him.

He was hard already, and I gripped his cock tight, giving it a tug and then wiping the precum around his tip.

“What you do to me,” his voice trembled, “it’s perfect and terrifying and I love it.”

“Sherrod,” I gasped when he pinched one of my stiff peaks.

He drew back studying my face, looking to see if I was as devastated and exquisitely happy as he was.

“Go on, put me inside your greedy little pussy. Let me show you how much I fucking adore you.” His voice was liquid sin, a devil tempting me to the best kind of depravity.

When he was at my entrance, I started to lower myself at the same time he slowly raised his hips. I was a bit sore, we’d been doing a lot of fucking the past few days, but it wasn’t the small pinch that made me whimper.

Something inside me was being forged anew, broken apart so long ago, and now found and fused back together by this equally broken man.

My first love.

My lost love.

And now, my found love.

“I love you,” I breathed, “I love you so much.”

One arm went around me, while the other gripped my hip, grounding me as he plundered my mouth and filled me.

When he was completely inside of me I stilled, my hips rolling just a little as his piercing hit my clit just right.

I wanted this to last forever, this moment where everything was right because I was in his arms, when nothing could tear us apart.

“I love you,” he said between desperate kisses all over my face and neck, “I love you…mine…mine always…”

“And you’re mine,” I started to move just a little, my fingers in his hair as I held him to my neck. “Mine…forever.”

“And ever,” he vowed, sucking and biting at my flesh.

I would have another bruise to match the one on the other side and the realization made an inferno sweep through me.

I became lost on a lava flow of sensation as we slowly began to make love to one another, the movements as erratic as they were sacred.

This was so very different than all the other times, a promise we were making with our bodies, the words written on our battered souls and sealed with kisses.

When my release broke over me, I let out a warbling cry that Sherrod devoured with his mouth on mine, whimpering and grasping at my body as if he were afraid I’d disappear.

“Yes…you’re…everything,” he roared, his own release hitting him like a hammer. “Everything…everything…fuck…Zephyr!”

I sobbed out his name over and over, our movements jerky, kisses sloppy and neither of us gave a damn.

We clung to each other as the orgasms receded, my head over his heart and his cheek against my head.

His heartbeat was fast at first, then slower.

I could’ve listened to it all night as he whispered sweet promises into my hair.

Neither of us wanted to move, but eventually our limbs demanded it. Though we untangled our bodies for a moment, we laid down next to each other and his body molded itself against my back, and I wove my fingers between his. One cyber, one flesh and blood and it was perfect.

“Sleep,” I whispered to him, “I’ll chase away your nightmares.”

“I know. And I’ll chase away yours too.”

“You already have,” I pressed a kiss to his fingers and snuggled into his embrace.

When I arrived at the gym the next morning, I expected to see the head guard that Zelena had mentioned last night. Instead, Cypher stood at the far end of the gym, his back to me, wearing a tank top and tight pants, either finishing or starting his workout.

The bottom dropped out of my stomach and a rush of fury went through my veins. I could almost feel his throat in my hands, hear the desperate gasp of breath as I choked the life out of him.

When he turned and leveled a serpentine smile at me, my skin crawled.

“Right on time,” he said.

“If you’re in the middle of your workout, I can come back,” I said, turning for the door.

“No, you misunderstand. Lady Seraph’s guard is required elsewhere, I’m your trainer today.”

I was glad to be facing away from him because I could feel the color draining from my face, sweat breaking out on my palm.

“Warm up on the track and then come back for sparring.”

I clenched my jaw and got on the stationary running track.

If Sherrod had been here, he’d be fuming at the change in trainers, so I was glad he was in a meeting with other fight coordinators.

I didn’t mind Cypher knowing that I didn’t like him, but I didn’t want to reveal too much right now.

I doubted he’d be easy to crack, and so I’d need to throw him off his guard, get under his skin.

As I jogged, I thought through everything I knew about him, which was mainly informed by the lives he’d taken and ruined.

From his targets I could surmise that he liked chaos, and loathed the GUP.

He seemed to be a gun for hire, and from the expensive modifications to his appearance, I knew he took the highest bidder.

He didn’t appear to have any kind of moral compass, and there was no indication that he’d ever had a family or lover.

But, that didn’t mean he couldn’t be hiding that fact.

I mulled that over for a minute or two and tossed it out.

My few interactions with the man led me to believe that he was far too cold for attachments of that kind.

But maybe it’s a money and chaos thing. Maybe those are what he treasures. Now how to exploit that?

By the time Cypher called time, I was no closer to a strategy.

I took a water break, toweled off a little and met him on the sparring mat.

Two of Zelena’s guards were here with me, standing silently by the door, so I didn’t fear being truly hurt by him.

I worried more that I’d lose control and injure him before we had a chance to find out what he was doing with Lady Seraph and where Norris was.

We squared off on the mat and he attacked first. His fist came at me fast enough that almost didn’t have time to dodge it.

Half of fighting was figuring out your partner’s tells as quickly as possible, just like poker.

So I focused on him like I would any other sparring partner, compartmentalizing my feelings as best I could.

For the first ten minutes or so the only sounds were shouts and snarls as we fought one another. Each of us would get a foothold, when the other would find a way out. Back and forth it went until we were both panting and sweaty.

“You’re very good,” he said with a sly smile.

“Thanks.”

“Brevity, I like that.”

“Don’t much care what you like.”

He chuckled and missed my fist careening toward his jaw. He took the hit with hardly a flinch, my hand throbbed after the contact. I stared at him with wide eyes and his smile widened.

“You have implants,” I said.

“Or perhaps you just don’t hit hard.”

He was trying to goad me, and it nearly worked. My cyber hand clenched and I was a hairs breadth away from slamming it into his face when I remembered what I needed to do today. Instead, I shrugged, but from the look on Cypher’s face I knew he’d seen how close I’d been.

Our sparring became more vicious, quicker. I didn’t feel the need to hold back now, I wasn’t worried about hurting him. If he had implants under the skin, then I needed to unleash so I could find any weaknesses he might have.

I seized his fist, and spun around to kick his legs out from under him.

At the same time, he lost his balance. I tackled him to the mat, sitting high up on his back and twisting his arm behind him.

At this angle it would only take a little pressure to dislocate the shoulder and I brought the arm to the brink of it.

The pain would have been enormous, but Cypher didn’t make a sound.

“Yield,” I demanded.

“No.”

“I can dislocate your shoulder like this.”

“Go ahead.”

I was stunned. Did he think I wouldn’t? Was this a test of how far I was willing to go?

So I took the bait, too late realizing that he was just toying with me. As I started to pull back on his arm, the joint popped and I expected a scream, a grunt, something.

But all I got was a deep laugh.

Cold settled in my stomach at the hollow, unnatural sound.

I dropped his arm at the same time he began rotating his body.

Cypher rolled, throwing me off him onto my stomach.

I was attempting to get to my feet when he seized my ankle and yanked so hard that I actually caught air before slamming back down to the mat.

When I turned over, intending to use my feet to kick him away from me, the son of a bitch climbed on top of my torso and sat just below my breasts, pinning my hands overhead with one of his large ones and then capturing my throat with his other.

His fingers put just the right amount of pressure to make me feel like I was choking by slow degrees.

The guards should’ve intervened, but when I slid my panicked gaze to the door, they weren’t there. For the first time in a very, very long time, I knew real, potent fear in the midst of a fight.

I stared up into eyes that held absolutely no trace humanity or warmth. He was as unfeeling as a corpse, the position of his body far too intimate for my comfort.

I struggled, kicked and hissed at him.

He threw his head back and laughed.

“You were one of the few worthy opponents I’ve faced,” he said, still holding my throat, with a casual air that only further infuriated me.

I struggled more, desperate for air now.

He leaned closer and I hated how I froze under his stare. Suddenly I was a child again, without power and at the mercy of someone else.

“You’re so much like him,” he mused, his eyes scanning my face like I was a specimen. “It’s incredible, even with all that tech on your face…maybe it’s because you lived with him.”

I couldn’t breath and it had nothing to do with him choking me.

He was talking about my uncle, he knew him but…

My uncle trained this monster, that’s the only explanation. And Cypher went AWOL, betrayed him and killed him.

“Oh there!” His dark eyes glittered, the first sign of life in them. “That sickly revelation of who I am. What I am. I have wanted to see that for so long.”

He was close to my face now, and I had a horrible moment when I thought he might kiss me. But he just hovered there, his fingers tightening.

“It’s such a shame,” he whispered, “I think we were his greatest creation.”

“Hey!” Sherrod’s voice cut through the panic seconds before he tackled him off of me.

I rolled over, coughing and gasping for breath. Black spots still crowded the edges of my vision and I swore that I heard the bastard laugh at the situation.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing to my fighter!” Sherrod fumed.

The two men stood face to face by the time I was able to sit up. Sherrod looked ready to tear Cypher apart with his bare hands while Cypher had the same unconcerned expression on his face.

“I’m alright,” I croaked.

“He was trying to kill you!”

“It’s called training,” Cypher said with a mocking tone. “Or don’t you know that?”

“That wasn’t training, it was assault.”

“Just stop,” I said with another cough, stumbling up to Sherrod. “It was a rough training session that went wrong, that’s all.”

I tried to convey everything I couldn’t say out loud, without revealing anything to Cypher. But now that I knew he was trained by my uncle, I knew that was likely impossible.

He called me his greatest creation…

The ick I felt from that could not be understated, but I couldn’t deal with it right now. I had to stop Sherrod from blowing all of this to hell.

Sherrod’s body went even more tense than before, though I hadn’t thought that possible, and I put a hand on his chest.

“Can I just finish my training session please?” I asked, pushing as much nonchalance as I could into my voice, even though inside I was a hurricane of emotion.

“We’re done,” Cypher said. “Finish up with stretches and get a good night’s sleep. You’re going to need it.”

And with that ominous warning hanging in the air, he walked out.