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  “You son of a bitch.” She was furious as she tilted toward the floor.

  The hand pressed against her tank was familiar by description. She looked up and scowled at Helbri’s flesh and blood face.

  He grinned, the white teeth the only bright point in the otherwise shadowy body. He pressed his forehead against the domed tank and mouthed the word, Soon.

  She crossed her arms as well as she could with the wires in her limbs, and she waited until he waved farewell before she looked around.

  A medic took readings from the side of the tank, and he smiled politely at her before he left.

  Well, if they don’t want me running around loose, they bet on the wrong girl.

  She braced her legs against the back of the tank and her arms against the front, and she pushed. The tank was larger than the one she had been in on the moon, but she managed the reach and pressed hard. It cracked but didn’t break.

  She stopped and looked upward, seeing the opening of the tank, recognizing an easier target when she saw one. She surged upward and broke through the grill that covered the top of the cylinder. The wires were harder to remove on her own, but she pulled them out while she coughed and sputtered.

  Removing the connections was not a memory she would treasure, but it got her loose enough to take the ladder down and find a large medical robe that covered her from neck to knees.

  The halls were sparsely populated, and she was small compared to a Lrrko male. No one was looking for someone of her size.

  Soon, someone was going to notice the puddle she was leaving behind. She didn’t know how many floors there were below, but she could go up.

  The stairs were silent, and she ran as quickly as she could up the steps to the roof. The guards were speaking with someone who had either just landed or was taking off, so Cleo crept around and got on the nearest riot runner, starting it up and taking off.

  The controls were more complicated than she imagined, but as she got the hang of it, she was able to put the med centre behind her.

  There was only one place she wanted to be, and that was next to Helbri. She gunned the runner and headed directly to the airfield. Helbri’s preflight checks would take him some time. The ship had to be refuelled, so Cleo had a few minutes.

  She didn’t know if Helbri had made it out of the med centre, but she wasn’t going to wait. She knew where to hide on the ship, and hopefully, he wouldn’t notice her as a stowaway until it was too late.

  * * * *

  “Well, Helbri, you have come through your projection all right. Your Bride seems particularly volatile.”

  Helbri checked his weapon belt and continued dressing for his journey. “She has a dislike of confinement. It is understandable. She did not precisely come on her own volition.”

  Medic Alveck stared at him. “You are not joking.”

  “I am not. The Elders’ threat to go to Terra looking for the last of our Brides was treated seriously. They drugged and abducted her. She woke in a tank and nearly broke it. We opted to have her sedated and out of the tank while she completed her alterations.”

  “Well, well. None of the other Brides were escape artists.”

  Helbri finished with lacing his boots, and he smiled at Alveck. “Take good care of her, Alveck.”

  “I will, Helbri. I promise, when you are back, she will be in the same shape she is now.”

  Helbri nodded. “Excellent. Well, see you in a week.”

  Helbri remembered Cleo’s face when she woke. Alveck was going to have his hands full. Cleo did not like the tank, and she was not going to be shy about letting them know.

  He got on his riot runner and flew to the airfield. It felt good to be in his own skin again, but what he really wanted was to feel Cleo with his own hands. The sensory input from the bot was just a little too clinical.

  He checked with the ground crew, and they gave him confirmation that the ship was ready to fly. His weapons were still on the ship. It would be a fast mission. All he had to do was take out a cult leader who was kidnapping women and men from nearby worlds for his own public displays of sexual aggression and Helbri could return to Cleo.

  He entered his shuttle, and he could swear he could still smell Cleo. With a sigh of frustration, he ignored the sudden throb in his groin and closed the hatch.

  He swung into the command seat and entered the destination, lifting off while the nav computer plotted his course.

  The familiar pathway through the asteroid belt forced him to concentrate until the computer could take over.

  When the shuttle was on its way to Ytheera, he stretched and stood, heading to the galley to get something to eat. He wished that Cleo was with him, but this mission would be far too dangerous to have her along.

  He smiled as the computer took control of the route, and he got up, heading to the rear of the shuttle to check on his weaponry.

  Cleo had gotten honey on two of his weapons while he was training her, and he didn’t need anything sticky interfering with his concentration while taking aim at his target. With nothing else to do on the journey, he opened his arsenal and did routine maintenance on the tools of his trade.

  * * * *

  Cleo could hear movement on the other side of the cargo hold. She shifted slightly, but the confined space was doing a number on her self-control.

  How long was she going to have to hang out in the equipment locker before it was too late to take her back?

  She winced and shifted again.

  Cleo didn’t hear a thing, but the lid of the storage container flipped open and she was facing the muzzle of a weapon that she had met before.

  The weapon was holstered in a moment, and she blinked at the sudden influx of light.

  “Cleo, what are you doing here?” The growled words were in a familiar voice.

  “I don’t like the tank. I am not staying there.” She muttered it and cuddled against him, relieved to be out of her confinement.

  He held her to him, and as the bright spots faded in her vision, she noted that he hadn’t been kidding. He was sculpted shadow brought to life.

  “Wow. You were not kidding.”

  She reached up and touched his face with careful fingers. She whispered, “This is so weird.”

  He smiled, and then, the smile froze on his lips. “You are bleeding.”

  “Still? I thought that the wounds from the tank wiring would have closed already.”

  He got to his feet without a word, and he walked her through the ship to put her down on the med bed. He stripped her while the scanner moved over her, and he hissed.

  “What did you do to yourself?” He put something on the marks left by the connections.

  She smirked, despite her woozy feeling. “I got loose.”

  “Yes. You did get loose. Now, I just need to make sure that you stop losing blood.”

  She smiled. “Okay.”

  “I have to ask; how did you get loose?”

  “Went through the grill of the tank. It can’t take more than a small amount of impact, so I swam up as fast as I could and then bam! I was out.” She noted the frown on his lips.

  “Why are you upset?”

  “This mission is dangerous, and I am on communication silence. I can’t even tell them that I found you. So, let’s continue; how did you get from the tank to the ship?”

  While he worked on her, she drunkenly told him of her journey. She started at pulling the connections and continued until she was creeping onto his ship and hiding in the storage locker.

  When he angled her legs apart to fix the damage she had done there, she watched the sweat bead on his skin.

  “Are you upset?”

  He glanced up at her from the very intimate examination he was giving her while the small regeneration unit was working inside her.

  “I am not as surprised as I should be. You really don’t like the tank.”

  She wrinkled her nose. “No. I don’t. I hate being o
n display to anyone who walked into the room. I don’t know them, and they get to stare at me? Nope.”

  He smiled at her as he slowly withdrew the probe. “That makes a certain amount of sense.”

  “Thank you. So, can I get up now?”

  He shook his head. “You lost close to ten percent of your blood volume. You will have to remain here. I will get you something to drink and eat.”

  He paused before he turned to go to the galley. “Now, stay put.”

  She nodded and lay back on the bed, shivering a little as the air circulator moved a breeze over her. Butt naked in this environment, she was completely comfortable, but let a stranger look at her and she was filled with rage.

  It wasn’t something she had experienced before, but it seemed in keeping with all of her other mood changes. She was suddenly very particular about who saw her unclothed, and the one authorized person was currently getting her something to eat.

  She was chuckling softly to herself when he returned with a tray.

  “What has struck you as funny?”

  She wrestled herself into a sitting position, and he set the tray on an extending arm that swung over her lap. He kept a hand on her back as she drank the tea, the water and the juice that he had brought her before she attacked the meal with good appetite.

  Between bites, she muttered, “I think I understand the point of the Familiar assignment. It goes beyond just being protected. It is a type of conditioning.”

  He moved his hand in a slow circle on her back. “It is. We were unsure as to how many of the Terrans would catch on to it though.”

  She forked up a tangle of noodles and vegetable and sucked them in with a slurp. “We are far smarter than we look.”

  He chuckled and kept rubbing her back. The slow motion made her sleepy, and before she knew it, she was nodding off against his shoulder. It seemed like the most natural thing in the world.

  Chapter Five

  Cleo shifted, and the arm around her pulled her close against the large and very warm body. She wanted to make a sound, but at the same time, she treasured the silence.

  Helbri grunted as her breathing changed. His whisper in her ear sent shivers through her.

  “Good morning, Cleo.”

  She swallowed. “Morning, Helbri. Is it morning?”

  He shrugged, and she could feel his chest and abdomen move with the gesture. Her back could feel every sculpted inch of him.

  “It is close enough.” He started to move his hands over her body with slow care.

  The teasing of his rough fingertips across her nipples was distracting as hell.

  “May I ask a question?”

  “Of course.”

  “Why are you in bed with me?”

  He pressed a kiss to her shoulder. “You know there is only one bunk on this ship. You also know that my bot body is back on Lrrko. Where did you think I would sleep?”

  She blinked. “I suppose I didn’t think about you sleeping at all. Sorry. I have been a little self-involved.”

  He pressed another kiss to her shoulder before flicking his tongue against her.

  The small pinpoint of wet heat caused another shiver that rippled through her. Her thighs were held tightly together by the tense muscles that didn’t want to relax and betray that her own moist heat was starting to make itself known.

  Helbri rested his hand on her abdomen. “You seem tense.”

  She snorted and put her hand over his. “I am tense. You are naked.”

  He chuckled and kissed her shoulder again. “I am.”

  “And I am naked.”

  “You are.”

  “And that isn’t one of the guns from your collection pressed against my butt.”

  His teeth scraped her skin lightly as he chuckled. “It is not.”

  “So, what do you plan on doing with it?”

  “Now? Nothing. I was just enjoying a leisurely moment to touch you with my own hands. The senses of the bot didn’t do you justice.”

  He stroked his fingers over her hip, down her thigh and across her belly again. Her hand went along for the ride.

  Her emotions were skimming between nervous and aroused. She desperately tried to keep herself contained, but she needed something to do, so she squirmed around in his arms and found herself staring into his solid black eyes.

  He smiled and brushed his lips against hers. The distinct flavour of cinnamon was on his breath, and she smiled when his stroking hand coasted over her back. She was able to touch his chest and drag her own fingers over his skin. His skin had a fine grain that sent trills of enjoyment through her.

  Helbri was exceptionally warm, and she snuggled close to him when she realized that it was only his hand that covered her back.

  She inched her fingers downward in her own exploration, unable to resist the urge to take in the circumference of his erection.

  Her grip was careful and she smiled against his lips and her touch on his cock stilled his fervent kiss.

  She murmured against his lips. “Nervous?”

  He shuddered as she drew her thumb over the head.

  She chuckled. “Don’t worry. I won’t pull the trigger. I don’t want you going off unexpectedly.”

  He wrapped his hand over hers and moved her fingers against him. “I have utmost confidence in your attention to safety.”

  To her surprise, his skin became slick under her touch, as if his body was producing its own lube.

  “I may have missed that particular mention in the files, but is it supposed to do that?”

  He chuckled and nipped at her lips. “It comes with the camouflage gene. It is part of the nature of being this kind of Lrrko.”

  “There is no mention of different kinds.”

  He whispered into her mouth, “You will just have to trust me on that.”

  She welcomed his words and then the hot slide of his tongue. Her legs shifted restlessly as her heart picked up the beat. She took her hand off his cock and lifted her leg, settling her knee on his hip as she moved her hips toward him.

  He pulled away from their increasingly frantic kiss. “I believe you are issuing an invitation.”

  She squirmed against him, carefully gripping his cock before lodging it in her entrance. He slipped inward, and she heard Helbri groan.

  She hissed and moved her hips again. “Shall I make it clearer?”

  He gripped the back of her thigh and pulled her toward him, rocking against her and going deeper than she was ready for.

  She inhaled and tensed. The sensations under her skin were electric and fascinating, but the ache of fullness was a little too intense.

  “Does it hurt?”

  She shook her head and said in a strangle tone, “It’s tight.”

  He grunted and pressed his forehead to hers as his hips jerked, embedding him even deeper. “Oh, yes.”

  She scrambled for leverage and held onto his arm. He thrust, and she rocked into him. It wasn’t graceful, but the bunk wasn’t built for both of them.

  Once he was inside her completely, she circled her hips against him and hooked her leg around him to pull him in as close as she could.

  His thrusts went from slow and careful to frenzied as she matched him motion for motion. The grinding and slapping of their bodies echoed in the room. He murmured encouragements, and she mewled as she started to shake.

  She inhaled sharply and held it while her body shook violently in spasmodic jerks that were shadowed echoes of the burning pleasure rolling through her nervous system.

  Helbri thrust in hard, and he held himself inside her as his cock pulsed within. The tight fit meant she could feel every throb. She shivered, and another wave of twitching ran through her.

  She buried her head in the crook of his shoulder, and she sighed. The air around them was thick with musk. She could pick out her own scent in the mix.

  Helbri shifted his hips and slid out of her. She made a small sound at the loss o
f all that heat.

  He rubbed his cheek against hers. “I was not intending to do that.”

  She returned the small caress. “I was. I didn’t intend for it to be so soon, but I decided not to let the opportunity pass me by.”

  “Well, it was certainly a wonderful start to the day, but now, you need to shower and change. I will start breakfast and then take my turn.”

  She sighed. “Back to the schedule.”

  “Of course. This is no time and place to relax. I am on a mission, and there is death waiting at the end of it for someone. It is no time to have a vacation. We can do that on the way back to Lrrko.” He winked and patted her butt.

  She groaned and rolled off the bed, dropping to her hands and knees before slowly standing.

  “Now, that is a position I would like to have you in on the way home.” Helbri winked and sat up.

  She stared. There was muscle stacked on muscle all over his abs and chest. “I could wash clothes on those abs.”

  It was out of her mouth before she could stop herself. With a hot blush, she turned and left the room, heading for the lav and the solar shower. The trail of cum running down her inner thigh was proof that she needed to clean up quickly.

  The flash was quick and helped her sore muscles. When she wobbled into the common area, one of her suits was draped over a chair. She was lucky that the ship hadn’t been unpacked or whatever they did to it. At least she had something to wear.

  She could smell breakfast, so she wandered over to the galley. Helbri kissed her quickly and left her alone.

  Cleo drank her tea and sat with her plate in front of her. She was just lifting her fork when Helbri returned, dressed in all black and looking like a moving shadow. Only the sparkle in the solid black of his eyes and the crinkling of skin near his temples gave away his amusement.

  He retrieved his meal from the heater and sat across from her. “So, what am I going to do with you now that you are here?”

  She shrugged and focused on her food. “Not a clue. If they hadn’t put me in the tank, this wouldn’t be an issue.”

  “They wanted to keep you safe.”