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

lip for a moment. “I don’t think so,” she admitted reluctantly. “But as you pointed out, I don’t have any way to check.”

There was anger in his voice when he spoke again. “When did you think that you should tell us?”

She broke his hold on her and turned to look at him angrily. She’d been scaring herself with horrible possibilities for weeks and the anger and accusation in his voice broke the dam she’d been trying to hold. “When I knew something to tell you!” she snapped.

His lips tightened. “You believe you do know!” he growled accusingly. “Can I not even trust you to guard your health? To uphold the terms of our agreement and keep us informed of things that affect all of us?”

It made her angrier that he was right—again—that she couldn’t even defend her behavior. They did have the right to know if her health was an issue that could affect all of them, and she had been willing to risk sex when she had no idea what was going on inside of her beyond the fact that she didn’t hurt anymore. She just hadn’t wanted to think that having sex might cause more damage than her body could take. “So I’m in breach! Throw the damned contracts away for all I care! You might as well, because I’m pretty damned sure the crash destroyed any chance I might have had to have children and I probably can’t have sex either because I’m totally fucked up! You could hire anybody to do what I can do now!

“And I don’t care if it was unethical not to tell you before. You know now. I’ve told you in plenty of time to just throw the damned contracts away and you won’t even have to go to all the trouble of taking me to court for breach!”

She would’ve loved to have delivered that speech and then stalked away without giving him any opportunity of a rebuttal. Unfortunately, there was no stalking anywhere when she was breast high in sea water.

Particularly since Gideon, as furious as he was, wasn’t about to let her try it. He did let her have the last word, though, mostly, she thought, because she’d so thoroughly pissed him off he couldn’t think of anything to say. Scooping her up into his arms despite her furious resistance, he stalked to the beach, set her oh so carefully on the sand, and then strode away. He didn’t stop until he’d reached the edge of the woods. She didn’t think he would’ve stopped then except that everyone’s attention was caught by a sound all of them had begun to think they would never hear again—the sound of an engine.

Chapter Twenty One

Bronte was so stunned when she turned toward the sound and saw a craft heading directly toward them, or at least toward the beach, that she simply stared at the thing dumbly as if she’d never seen one before. Jerico brought her back to awareness by dropping the blanket around her shoulders and pulling it snugly around her.

The look of censure in his eyes took her aback. “There will be men on board.”

Bronte blinked at him in surprise. It was the first time he’d behaved the least bit jealous or possessive toward her and it hadn’t occurred to her that he felt that way about her—not that she’d realized she was still stark naked. She’d been too shocked to think. “I was just surprised,” she said uncomfortably. “I didn’t think....”

His gaze flickered over her face. Some of the tension left his expression. “I will carry you into the edge of the forest to dress.”

Nodding jerkily, Bronte took the clothes he handed her and looped her arms around his neck when he bent to pick her up.

As little time as it took to cross the beach and dress, the craft landed while she was dressing. She heard the engine die and moments later the voices of strangers. She couldn’t see anything. She hadn’t gone far into the woods, but Jerico took care to block her from the view of the men exiting the craft and that ensured that she couldn’t see either.

He examined her critically before he picked her up to carry her back. That look unsettled her almost more than the first. She’d always thought of Jerico as the ‘easy going’ one. She didn’t know what to make of this heretofore unseen side of him until she noticed the speculative gazes of the men they approached.

It would’ve been easy to guess they were military only by their bearing, but the uniforms certainly seemed to cinch the identification. The discussion, whatever it covered, was over by the time she reached the men. Without a word, she was carried into the craft. Jerico settled her into a seat and helped her with the restraints and within a few moments everyone was aboard and the craft rose from the beach.

Her stomach knotted with terror the moment she felt the craft rise. She hadn’t had time to consider how frightening it would be to climb into another ship of any description after their crash. It was probably just as well, she thought wryly, and yet she hadn’t even had time to brace herself, or to try to focus on ‘good’ thoughts, or give herself a pep talk. All she could think about as she heard the engines roar to life and then rev until she could feel the vibrations running through the ship was those minutes that seemed like days when they’d been falling. Struggling against hysteria, she focused her panicked mind the best she could on trying to breathe slow breaths, curling her fingers into the arm rests.

Jerico had left her once he’d adjusted her safety harness. She glanced around hopefully for Gideon or Gabriel and discovered that neither of them were seated close to her either. The stern, unyielding faces of complete strangers was all that met her gaze. Reluctant to allow anyone to notice how terrified she was, Bronte