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

“No!” she finally responded implacably when Gabriel finally gathered enough energy to roll off of her. “I already told you I would. You don’t need to convince me!”

Sitting up with an effort, she scooted to the edge of the bed and put her feet on the floor. “I’m going to bathe,” she finished weakly, wondering if her legs would hold her up long enough to do so.

“We should sign contracts first,” Gideon said.

“I am not signing any damned thing stark naked and dripping come!” Bronte snapped.

Gideon frowned. “It will only take a few moments and then it will be done.”

“This has to be recorded since we can’t appear before a judge or anything, right?”

Gideon nodded.

“Then NO!”

Gideon’s face went taut with anger. “This is an order, sol....”

Bronte shot to her feet, stalked over to him, and poked him in the chest with her index finger. “I am not one of your damned soldiers! You might as well get it through your thick skull right now that I am not going to follow orders! We will co-habit as equal partners or I’ll have nothing to do with it and you can shove that tablet up your ass!”

He looked taken aback, obviously was, because he didn’t make any attempt to detain her as she stalked from the room and into the bath.

Chapter Fifteen

Gideon managed to ignore the accusing glares Gabriel and Jerico bent upon him for the first few minutes that he paced the length of the ship’s mid-section and back again. The moment he became aware of it, however, his temper shot up several degrees.

“You have something to say?” he growled, finally coming to a halt when it occurred to him they were offering him an opportunity to work off some of his nervous energy.

“Yes!” Jerico growled back at him. “We had only just got her to agree to sign and now you have made her angry and she is not going to sign at all!”

Since Gideon had just spent the past ten minutes trying to understand himself what she’d meant and still wasn’t certain the comment diffused his anger somewhat. “She did not say she would not,” he said uneasily. “She said she would not be ordered to do so.”

“But you did order her!” Gabriel pointed out furiously. “If she said she would not if you ordered her to, and you did, does that not mean she has changed her mind?”

Gideon scrubbed a hand over his face. “That part has been worrying me also. She said we would be equal partners or she would not. I will tell her that we will be equal partners and then she will,” he said decisively. He glanced toward the cabin door uneasily. “I think I will wait until she comes out and see if she is still angry.”

“She said you could shove that tablet up your ass,” Jerico said thoughtfully.

Gideon glared at him. “Well, I can not! And I do not want to if I could! It will do us no good there!”

“I think it was what they call a ‘figure of speech’ or maybe slang,” Jerico said after a moment.

Gideon stared at him impatiently. “Well? What does it mean?”

“That she is angry … I think.”

Gideon gave him a look of disgust. “She did not have to say that to make me understand she was angry! She must have meant something when she said it!”

“I will shove it up your ass myself if she says she will not contract now!” Gabriel growled. “Then she will be happy again and contract with me!”

“You can try,” Gideon snarled. “Mayhap I will shove it up your ass!”

“I do not know why you had to order her at all!” Jerico said with rising anger.

Instead of stalking over to Jerico and planting his fist in his face, which was what he wanted to do, Gideon resumed his pacing. “Because we passed the outer rim of the system nigh an hour ago! Command center will have picked us up by now and we will not get the chance to have the contracts signed if we do not do something quickly!” he bellowed angrily.

“We must have several hours left!” Jerico said worriedly.

Discovering a ragged nail, Gideon began to gnaw on it as he paced. “Three … at most,” he acknowledged. Successfully removing the offending nail, he spat it out, and examined the others. He had already gnawed those to the tips of his fingers, though. Disgusted, he dropped his hands to his sides again. “That is only until we dock, however. Command center will contact us as soon as we are in range, and then they will know about Bronte. For you may be sure that they will ask about the success of our mission. And when I report, as I must, then they will begin to make plans for her that does not include us! Or worse, they will instantly realize that we would have used the tactical advantage of having her with us and order us not to contract! If we have already signed the contracts they can do no more than throw us in the brig for a few months.

“What is taking her so long?” he demanded of no one in particular, halting abruptly and swiveling toward the cabin door.

He’d barely gotten the question out when the door opened and Bronte stepped out. She gave him a look. “I was trying to find something to put on. Someone, naming no names, ripped the suit I was wearing!”

Gideon stared at her blankly. “You were not wearing....”

Jerico and Gabriel turned to glare at him accusingly.

“We do not have time to ‘discuss’ this now!” Gideon ground out surging forward to grasp Bronte’s arm and lead her to the table where he had set the tablet. He discovered when he had set up the vid to record the event that she was reading it. Swallowing the urge to point out that he had already read it to her, he settled on the bench beside her, drumming his fingers on the