Cyborg Nation by Kaitlyn O'Connor (english readers TXT) 📗

It brought home how woefully undersized she was next to them more than anything else had. God! What had their designers been thinking to make them so huge! They could have been half the size they were and they would still have been four times as strong as their human counterparts.

After studying it over for a moment, she knelt and rolled the legs up until the fabric wasn’t dragging the floor to trip her up and then did the same with the sleeve ends until she’d uncovered her hands.

Combing her hair, she left it loose to dry. She didn’t especially want to leave the cabin, particularly after what had happened between her and Gideon, but she was starving and besides that Gabriel had made it clear that he would come and get her if she didn’t present herself.

They were talking, she discovered when she reached the cabin door, and obviously she was the subject under discussion … or at least part of the discussion. She froze, listening intently with her ear to the panel.

“ … I am almost tempted to forget she is a human,” Gideon murmured thoughtfully.

“How could you forget that when she is afraid of her shadow?”

“She has reason enough to be frightened. I would think her witless if she were not,” Gabriel responded coolly. “And I would have no interest in her if she were, even though she is beautiful.”

Bronte felt her face heat. He thought she was beautiful?

My god, she thought, firmly tamping the pleasure the comment had given her. Whatever women he was comparing her to must be a pathetic bunch! She wasn’t even close to beautiful! Pretty might have been stretching it, though she supposed she had had enough appreciative glances from men to support the possibility that men, at least, seemed to find her passably attractive—though women had certainly never viewed her with any envy at all that she could discern.

She’d always figured the masculine appreciation was because of her hair, though. It was dark, very dark, but also definitely red and there seemed to be something about red hair, even as dark as hers, that fascinated men.

It was hardly surprising that cyborgs, designed and programmed predominately by men, and also utilizing biological materials donated by men, would be a lot like the human males who’d created them.

“Your desire to find a mate has fried your brain receptors. Rose is far more beautiful, and she is cyborg.”

One of the others uttered a laugh that lacked humor. “Tell that to someone who has not seen the way you look at Bronte! In any case, Rose has already chosen three. She will not take you as her fourth. The women are far more interested in the Hunters than those like us. We are too ‘cold and emotionless’ for their tastes … when we are not being ‘uncontrolled barbarians’ because we are more used to killing than trying to figure out how to woo a female. She bit me,” he added after a moment, cluing her in to the fact that it was Gideon speaking.

“What did you do to provoke it?” Gabriel growled, his voice almost menacing.

“Nothing!” Gideon snarled back at him. “I was only … curious. She did not seem to be either afraid or repulsed by me when I slept beside her.”

“What did you do when she bit you for doing something I know damned well you had no business doing?”

That voice was the other male, the one whose name she still didn’t know, and he sounded almost as angry as Gabriel had.

“I taught her not to bite me! How are ‘brutes’ like us to learn how to woo a female when we can not get within a hundred yards of a female of any description?”

She heard a noise that sounded like one, or more, getting abruptly to their feet. She was so intent on listening to hear what would happen next that she accidentally placed her hand on the door control, depressed the button, and stumbled through the doorway since she was leaning against door panel as it flew open.

All three cyborgs were on their feet. At the sound of her scrambling to catch her balance, all three whirled to stare at her. She stared back at them in wide eyed dismay, feeling guilty color creep up her neck and into her cheeks, wondering if they would realize she’d nearly fallen out the door because she’d been leaning against it eavesdropping.

The three men exchanged looks that promised to continue the discussion later and returned to their seats. Bronte really wanted to sink into the floor when they turned to look her over, Gideon as if he was looking for signs of damage … or maybe just anger about what he’d done to her, and the other two as if they were wondering what he’d done to her.

She sure as hell wasn’t going to enlighten them! And she was going to bite Gideon a lot harder if he told them!

None of them looked the least bit disconcerted or uncomfortable. She couldn’t decide whether it was because it hadn’t occurred to them that she’d been listening to their discussion or if it was because they didn’t care whether she’d heard it or not.

It wasn’t as if they’d made any attempt to talk quietly.

On the other hand, she was embarrassed even if they weren’t. She was also burning to know what they’d meant. She’d heard them clearly enough. She just didn’t understand the implications … beyond the fact that all three of them had more interest in her as female than she’d thought they did.

That was an unnerving thought, particularly when she had no idea how long she was going to be trapped in space with them before they reached their destination. It was certain to be a long time, but it was bound to seem even longer if she was going to have to be trying to fend them off.

She perched uneasily at the table where they were finishing their meals,