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

cabin. Deciding to ignore her when she did not even look up, he strode past her, cutting a glance in her direction when he neared her.

It was as well his resolve failed him, he decided angrily. Otherwise he would have missed the evil glare she focused on him as he strode past.

Gabriel took one look at his face and bolted out of the command chair. Dropping heavily into his seat, Gideon glared at the panel before him without really registering the read out, most of his attention on the woman behind him, burning holes in the back of his head with her eyes as if she had laser sight, and on his companions, who he knew were looking at him questioningly.

“Jerico,” he growled finally. “Go rest!”

Frowning, Jerico left.

After glancing at him several times, Gabriel finally leaned on the arm of his chair nearest Gideon’s. “Problem?” he asked in a low voice.

Gideon slid him a fulminating glare. “Why would you think that?” he snarled.

Gabriel shrugged. “It sounded like everything was going well, but then there was death in her eyes when she came out. I would not have believed she could manage such a look.”

Gideon dismissed everything but the first part. “Sounded?” he prodded in hopeful interest.

Gabriel shrugged. “A good deal of gasping and moaning and groaning. We could not hear her very well over you, but....”

Gideon felt his face heat. “You are developing a sense of humor,” he growled, unconsciously adjusting his aching balls.

Gabriel’s brows rose in surprise, but he didn’t miss the movement. “Am I?” He sounded surprised but pleased, but then frowned. “You did not achieve …?”

Gideon slid him a warning glare. “I did,” he said coldly.

“Why is that still bothering you then?”

“Because …!” Gideon bellowed before he thought better of it and then broke off. “I do not know,” he finished finally, his voice a low growl.

A sudden thought struck him, the culmination of the hours he had spent pondering his situation instead of sleeping as he had intended. “I achieved orgasm,” he added slowly, trying to wrap his mind around the realization.

Gabriel sent him a disbelieving look. “Simulation....”

“It was no simulation,” Gideon said sharply. Abruptly his lips curled in a pleased grin. “I spilled my seed inside of her.” The smile vanished as another thought hit him and he frowned. “I think.” He cupped his balls in his hand, studying them with a good deal of admiration, even though they were still aching like a son-of-a-bitch. Finally! His body had evolved as the others had. He had begun to suspect that they were either lying or that some essential element was missing from his own make up and he would never evolve entirely and become ‘real’ as they were, a new life form capable of reproduction of his species.

Gabriel eyed him resentfully and somewhat enviously for several moments. “Well, you did not do something right,” he said finally. “Else she would not have been looking as if she wished she had a weapon when she came out of the cabin.”

* * * *

Strain though she might, Bronte could not hear the low voiced conversation between Gabriel and Gideon. Their voices were little more than a low drone and unless she got up and moved closer, which they would notice, she could only guess what they were discussing.

A product of paranoia or not, her first thought was that they were sharing the lurid details of what had happened between her and Gideon. She fumed over it for a while, certain that must be it. As angry as she’d been when she left the cabin, she didn’t believe she’d misinterpreted the expressions of Jerico’s and Gabriel’s faces. Either they’d known when he went into the cabin what he had in mind, or they’d been able to hear just enough to figure out what was going on.

Considering Gabriel had just tried and left with his cock in his hand, she finally decided he wouldn’t have been Gideon’s cheering section. It seemed to her, though, that he would have been angry about failing where Gideon had succeeded, but she supposed he thought once one of them had ‘tapped’ it the rest would get the chance.

He shouldn’t hold his breath!

It irritated her almost as much that they didn’t seem to resent her having had sex with Gideon as it had that Gideon hadn’t even attempted to cuddle afterward.

Not that she’d been in any doubt about the way they felt about her!

But she would’ve thought pleasure bots would have been programmed to please a woman in every way, and what woman wanted a man to just fuck them and then go to sleep! God! If a woman wanted that she could just stick with a real man!

Four out of five of her lovers had behaved like that anyway and one out of four had been downright nasty about not wanting to be touched afterward. When they were done they were hot and sweaty and out of breath and just wanted to be left alone to sleep it off, the hell with whether or not she needed a little reassurance or wanted to feel appreciated. One had actually rolled over and told her to lock the door on the way out. If some woman hadn’t bashed the bastard over the head by now, she would be surprised.

So much for thinking she could avoid being used if she could avoid them! She couldn’t avoid them any more than she could escape. The tiny ship was crawling with horny cyborgs!

Contrary to logic, instead of cooling her temper and her resentment, the fact that all three men gave her a wide berth over the following week did nothing but make her more resentful. By the end of their second week in space, all three had begun to watch her broodingly any time she moved, Gideon most of all.

She had never considered herself a vengeful sort of person, but the hurt and anger she felt about their behavior toward her finally drove her to do something that