Page 23 of Thruster (Hunted Relics #9)
I had no idea how good sex could feel with a CyberTitan because I hadn’t ever considered it. But Thruster pays attention to everything that works.
He rocks his hips into mine as I sit on his lap, his thumb working over my clit, his capable mouth suckling a breast, teeth gingerly taking over my nipple. Thruster steadies me inside the curl of his other arm. Even that hand massages me gently. But it’s his searing hot, engorged cock, pulsing and penetrating me, that has control.
Every extremity seems dedicated to my pleasure. He is in command. Thruster makes me feel safe, admired, protected, all the things I need to let my guard down and focus on this moment with him.
He rumbles a low, hungry note as my climax nears. Thruster bonds us harder, deeper, and faster, until I am riding a glittering cloud of weightlessness and on fire in every corner of my body.
I tense around his pulsing shaft. He grunts as he fills me. My hips heat as he pumps into me until he is spent. Then he clutches me to his chest like I’m fragile and gently eases himself in and out until I melt.
Thruster sighs with what sounds like irritation. He kisses my temple. “I have been requested for a patrol. Fury is outside our door.”
I rest my forehead on his chest, still out of breath. “Back to work, already?”
“I will snag you every moment I can.”
Leaning back, I smile up at him. “You better.”
Thruster picks me up and carries me to the shower stall. He switches on the water, helps me rinse off, and then does the same for himself. But as I'm about to grab a nearby towel, he snakes a hand around my belly and draws me back and against his rigid body. He whispers in my ear, "Please stay on the ship so I can find you as soon as I'm back."
“Promise. And I have something for you.”
Thruster turns the water off. “You do?”
"Yeah, Clover and I built it." I dry off and climb into my armored clothes, then grab the case by the door and open it.
Thruster dries himself in a flash with a pop of engine heat. The moment Thruster has the lower half of his black webbing on, the door opens, and a huge orange Titan peers inside. "Mmm, smells like sex in here. Heard you found a mate, Brother."
Thruster and Fury salute each other. “I’m sorry, I’ve been off duty for a few days.”
“We all do that when we find our mates. They deserve to be fought for. Settle the business, then get down to business, yeah?” Fury gives Thruster a devilish grin.
I collect the devices from the case and step aside as a wooden pole reaches through the doorway and slaps Fury in the ass.
He barely flinches. “Keanna, quit flirting. I have to work soon. I hate sniping with a raging hard-on.”
“Oh, my stars, Fury!”
The woman outside our door wears furs and beads in her hair. She blushes bright red.
“Now you look like me,” Fury teases.
I extend a hand to her. “Hi, I’m Kelta.”
She rights her staff and stands it beside her, then reaches around it to shake my hand. "Keanna, Fury's mate. Celeste is around here somewhere. She's Chaos' mate, a thin blonde. Just a heads up, he splits into three dudes. Anyway, a few others will arrive soon. I'd be happy to show you the ship while they work."
“Thanks. Clover kind of put me on a mission right when I got here.”
“I heard. She is a bit of a perfectionist, also hyperactive.”
I nod. “And speaking of…” I walk up to Thruster. “Our second project was to engineer you a body shield.”
Thruster’s smile fades. “You can’t be serious.”
“Totally.” I attach the shield generators over his chest and around his body. “Obviously, they won’t shield your engines while in operation. But Clover made them nano-responsive, so they don’t need commands, though they can take them.”
Thruster glances over his shoulder at me as I place the last generator over the back of his neck. It softens into his synthskin and melds with it until it’s just a dark circle in his skin.
“How do I make it work?” he asks.
I motion for Keanna’s staff, which she eagerly hands me. Then I swing it at Thruster’s side.
He catches it with ease, but the shield bursts to life in an iridescent layer close to his body.
“You look like a Titan bubble,” Fury says, poking the shield as if somehow it will pop.
“In theory,” I say, “it can handle what the BlazeStar can. But your insides might not take quite that amount of force. So I’d just keep fighting like you have been, and stay cautious of the hits you take.”
Thruster releases the staff and looks at his hands. “But how do I grab stuff?”
“Just like you did the staff. It’s all instinct. That’s a perk of being a CyberTitan—every cybercell in your body knows what you want to do in any given instance, right?”
Fury hugs his arms. “Any chance you can make more of them? It would be nice to have that when I’m sniping.”
I nod. “Clover has a lab already replicating this set up, as many as we can with limited materials.”
“What do you need so every Titan can have this?” Thruster asks.
“Soiridium mostly.”
“I think we need to get you to Drillbit. He knows where the ore is at.” Fury turns to Thruster. “Mission-ready?”
“Fully charged. Just need some armament.”
Fury grins. “Now you’re talking. Keanna, love, you might want to show Kelta the viewpoint. She can watch Thruster from there. I imagine she will want to.”
Keanna gives her mate a dirty look. “Don’t cause too much trouble.”
“You know I will.” Fury kisses her, then leads the way out of the room and to a forward hangar, where Thruster gears up with a set of guns and a special sword.
“A zembi? Where did you find this?” Thruster asks. By Fury’s shrug and quiet head shake, I think they’re back to talking in their heads.
Thruster walks to the edge of the hangar and looks at the watery shield. “Better go below. We don’t want them seeing us launching in or out of here.”
“Agreed,” Fury says. “Soon, though.”
Thruster picks me up as our group walks back to the ramp. He kisses me as we descend to the mountain’s carved out landing. “Promise me that you will stay here with Clover while I work. No getting in another ship and coming after me again.”
“Promise. Call if you need backup. That FeatherLite is pretty fun to fly.”
“We will likely need you during the final escape,” Commander Savage remarks from where he is gathered with a group of Titans.
“I’d be happy to.”
"Good. Holo brought this up to give to you." Savage scoots my dusty and charred duffel to me.
I can’t believe Holo still got it to me after everything we’d been through.
“I hope it was worth it,” Savage says.
I frantically unpack it and free the tablet. I offer it to him. “This has all the rebel fleets’ data on it.”
Savage’s scowl softens as he takes it and unlocks it with the passcode I give him. His surprise is encouraging. But when he takes a knee and salutes me, I’m not sure what to do.
Thruster salutes me, as do all the other titans in the area.
“Please tell me what’s going on.” I glance at Keanna, who shrugs.
Savage gets up. “Leah, my mate, will be eager to speak with you. Your fathers served together when they were young. And your mother, Oralia, she trained us to pilot our fighters.”
I swallow against the growing lump in my throat. “I wish she was here to see what you’ve all become. She would be proud of you.”
Savage nods as if in understanding and sad acceptance that she is gone. So many are that I think it is just normal to hear of another loss. “A star has gone out in the sky. We will remember her.”
Coil joins us. “Thruster, come on! There are Skysprinters all over the valley!”
Savage gets up and returns to speaking with the others.
Thruster draws me in for one more kiss. “Be right back.”
I savor his heat against me and try to burn it into my memory. "You better be."
He smiles, runs to the edge by Coil, lights up his engines, and flies down the shaft.
“Stars, I wish I had his skill,” Fury says, hanging his rifle over his shoulders.
"Me too." Coil groans. "Lugging your fat ass up and down here every day is taxing."
“I am not fat.” Fury looks over at Keanna beside me. “Am I?”
She licks a lip. “Only the parts I care about, baby.”
Fury chuckles as Coil collects him and jumps into the shaft.
"Come on," Keanna hooks an arm around one of mine and leads me between tool benches and crates of supplies to a narrow crack in the mountain. "Took us a day to clean this out after the destruction, but we set up a shield."
She leads me out into the daylight and onto a landing of rock surrounded by a mirage. Keanna points far below us, where a gold rocket launches out of the ground. "Mine has Torch mode, too, but he doesn't fly. Not like yours. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I've ever seen Thruster quite this bright before. Whatever you did to him, keep doing it."
I watch him zigzag across the sky, easily knocking Skysprinters down and dodging every bullet. I bet it was an even more amazing spectacle when he was among his Brothers. "I wish he wasn't alone out there."
A bullet arcs up from where Thruster exited the mountains.
Keanna tilts her head toward the gunfire. “Fury’s got Thruster’s back. Someone always does. That’s just how things are here. You’re not alone anymore. None of us ever will be again.”