Bastard.

  Something beeped faster as fury set in. She relished the sweet bitterness of it. One quick motion released the small blade in her ring and she turned into him, knee pressed against his groin, blade pressed at the point under his jaw, where his pulse beat.

  She grinned at him, a showing of teeth. “Fucking bastard,” she gritted, her throat raw. “You’re dead.”

  His hand wrapped around her wrist almost gently. His cock twitched under her knee. “Fucking bastard,” she repeated. And breathed in the musk of an aroused male.

  She lifted her knee higher, heard him grunt just a bit. “Payback’s a bitch,”

  she muttered, and leaned in, intending to bite the hard muscle on his chest… and found herself kissing him, a brutal fusing of lips and tongues and breath.

  Her thighs turned to gel. His hands clamped on her ass, bringing her closer. She bit down on his lower lip. Someone moaned. Someone coughed.

  And he pulled away. “You’re bleeding again.”

  Someone coughed again. “You really shouldn’t stimulate the chip so soon.”

  “What?” Dazed, she brought her hand to her lips where something wet trickled. It came away with blood on it.

  The roar in her head deafened her. A vision screamed through her mind --Brenner holding her as machines beeped over her head, lines of light scanning over her. And another one, a deeper one --her strapped to a table, unable to move, to speak…

  “Here.”

  Dinah focused on the man as he approached with a small piece of cloth. Dark, ugly splotches covered it. Blood, dried. Wordlessly, she pressed the cloth against her nose. She moved away from Brenner’s touch and studied the stranger.

  He was tall, gangly. Familiar somehow. She tried to keep from staring at the deep scars on his face, on his bare scalp. He studied her with calm eyes of pale, pale blue. She’d seen a similar shade before, but where?

  “Ian Frank,” he said. “You can call me Med.”

  “Your implant malfunctioned.” Brenner’s voice was cool, impersonal --as if he hadn’t been pressing his twitching cock against her a second ago. Her brow furrowed in confusion. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

  “Your implant --”

  “Yeah, I got that part. What implant?”

  “Put the blade away.”

  Dinah realized her blade was a centimeter away from her eye. She snapped it shut, lowered the cloth. Raised an eyebrow at him. “Happy now?”

  The other man, Ian/Med, turned away, and walked toward a diagram displayed on one of the screens ringing the walls. They were in a gym of sorts, probably the same room where that fucker cuffed her. Workout equipment, manual and computerized, took up most of the wall space. The punching bag looked well worn. The place smelled of musk, men and leather.

  Somehow, it was comforting.

  “You have a vTech implant at the top of your spinal cord.” The diagram zoomed out to display an x-ray of a skull. Hers, she supposed. Involuntarily, her hand reached to the base of her neck, massaging it.

  “How do you know it’s vTech?”

  He zoomed in again, and the tiny letters grew bigger. “Patent. You were not aware of it?”

  She shook her head. “No. If I knew vTech had put a chip in my brain I would have asked for more money.”

  Brenner moved closer. “Dinah --”

  “Don’t,” she bit out. “Don’t touch me.”

  He dropped his hand.

  She turned away, met Med’s eyes. “Can you tell how long?”

  “It was in you?”

  Dinah nodded.

  “It’s hard to tell. Post scarring was removed.” Med touched a fingertip to a scar on his own face, the short one that ran from cheekbone to jaw. “But at least six Terran months.”

  “And its purpose?”

  “Blocks impulses to the cerebral cortex. You probably have a high pain tolerance already.” He didn’t meet her eyes. She had a feeling he knew more about the damned chip than he was letting on. “After a while, you will come to a point where you won’t feel anything at all.”

  “Anything?” As if against her will, her gaze was drawn to Brenner.

  “I honestly can’t tell. If you didn’t know about it, I doubt it can hurt you.”

  She nodded, tearing her gaze away from Brenner’s green eyes. Med cleared his throat again, shrugged, as if indicating this wasn’t his business. “You may need to alert MicroSel.”

  “Not just yet,” Brenner answered and Dinah released a quick breath.

  “Try to get some rest,” Med said as he walked out. Brenner hadn’t moved.

  “I want to fight you.” She tried to keep her tone calm. Control had to be reestablished, even if just over her voice.

  “What?”

  “I could have killed you just now. I didn’t.” She wasn’t sure where the blood lust was pumping from, but she craved it.

  “Come on.” He couldn’t tear away from looking at her, her cheekbones flushed now, her hair a dark contrast against the cream of her skin.

  “What’s the matter?” She stood now, stepped closer to him. “Can’t get it up without handcuffs?”

  “You’re fucked up.” He turned away.

  She laughed, a mocking sound devoid of humor. “I’m fucked up? You cuffed me. You used my own fucking body against me. Did I give you the damn key?”

  He turned back but didn’t look at her. “No.”

  “That’s something then.” She inhaled, letting it out slowly. “I want to fight, Brenner.” Her voice was calm, deceptively so, and the sensors above her didn’t have to tell him her heart rate was spiking. The fluttering pulse at the base of her throat was enough. “A little hand to hand to even the score.”

  He shoved a hand over his hair. “You’ll bleed on me again.” He had to get out of here --before he gave her his own version of hand to hand.

  “Pussy.” She laughed. “You need the key?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m willing to fight you for it.”

  “No.”

  “Why not?” She started circling him. “If I were a man you would fight me. Let’s pretend I’m a man.”

  “Don’t think so.” Watching her move, her cheeks flooded with delicate color, her eyes a molten heated gold, made his cock throb painfully. “Not with your nipples poking through your shirt.” He wondered if her eyes would turn that same color during sex.

  She struck him hard, the flat of her palm cracking against his cheek. His head snapped back, but he stood still.

  The smile she threw him was pure sunshine. “Put your guard up, asshole. I’ll be disappointed if it’s too easy. Again, I might add.”

  There was only so much goading a man could stand. He brought his hands up, elbows bent, forearms protecting his torso.

  “Ground rules --” he began, but she shook her head.

  “Nope. No rules.”

  He really hated being cut off mid-word. “I’m not hitting you.”

  “Now he’s a gentleman.” She feinted, jabbed once, missed, and sidestepped. “But don’t you worry. Apparently, I don’t feel anything.”

  “I’m still not hitting you.”

  “Fine.” A kick flew out, fast and furious, aimed high into his nose. The surprise of it had him raising his guard and she took immediate advantage, managing to land two solid blows into his exposed ribs --which moved him right into seriously pissed.

  “Sounded like you felt something when you begged me to fuck you,” he growled, advancing forward, now stalking.

  “Asshole.” She panted it, circled with him. “You didn’t exactly live up to expectation.” She feinted again, and as he made a move to block, connected solidly with his chin. Bone cracked as it met bone.

  “You’ll pay for that.” He ground it out, the sharp burst of pain shooting sparks over his resolve to fight clean.

  She laughed. “Sure I will.” Another jab, followed by a hooked kick to his chest, and a roundhouse with the other leg to his head, which he evaded by centimeters.

  Her body warmed. Blood sang through her muscles --and froze in shock as he simply jumped on her, landing heavily and tumbling her down. She sprawled face first, her body trapped under his.

  Her breaths came in quick bursts through her teeth.

  “You didn’t believe me?” Holding her struggling body down, he extended her arms forward, cuffed them together in his hand, simply lay on top of her and let her cuss.

  “You know,” he said calmly, and she could feel his dick was already twitching against her ass, “we never finished.”

  Dinah grew still at that, the lust for blood churning into arousal. His breath tickled her ear and involuntary shivers raced down her back. Anchoring himself on his knees, Brenner turned her so she faced him, keeping one hand around her wrists as the other traced the line of her lips.

  “You are a bastard.” She whispered now, because her throat had gone dry.

  “Yeah.” He leaned in, brushed her mouth softly with his. “I know.”

  And he was kissing her, gloriously, as if he wanted to devour her whole. Helpless, blood pounding in her ears, Dinah reveled in the sensation of his mouth on her, of his hard body pressing hers into the mat. When he slid his thigh between hers, she moaned into his mouth --and he tore away.

  “Yes or no, Dinah.”

  “Let go of my hands.” She couldn’t breathe. Air was liquid. If she didn’t have his cock inside her she would die.

  “Yes or no?”

  And then it didn’t matter because he wouldn’t stop kissing her. With his free hand he stripped off the ring she wore, tossed it aside and pulled her wrists down, to loop around his neck.

  She clenched his shoulders as he trailed hot open-mouthed kisses down her cheek, her neck, lightly biting the small fluttering pulse at the base of her throat.

  She arched upward, desperate to feel skin, desperate for contact. He obliged, stripping off his black T-shirt, then hers, before attacking her flesh with lips, teeth and tongue.

  He rolled with her, bringing her above him.

  Her voice was breathless. “What are you doing?”

  “Evening the score.”

  She leaned over him, her breath fanning his face. “I can be a real bitch.”

  Plastering herself against him, she looped her hands under his neck, lifting his head for a brutal kiss. His hands gripped her ass roughly and he lifted her, tugging her pants off.

  “Uh-uh.” She bit his lip. “This time I call the shots.”

  She slithered lower, tugged open his pants, and his cock sprang forward, fully engorged. She wrapped both hands around him.

  “I’ve always wondered what you’d taste like.” She slid her hands along his skin to lift up his balls and leaned down. Breathed in deep. Nuzzled his flesh with her lips, and slowly, torturously, slid the tip of her tongue up his shaft, right over the clear liquid that glistened on the smooth head of his cock.

  His hands cupped her head, fisted in her hair. His eyes were open wide, deep green, locked with hers.

  “Take me in your mouth.”

  She laughed, a harsh sound. Her tongue swirled around his cockhead and he lifted his hips off the floor. “My way.” She licked her lips and softly closed them around him, scraping her teeth lightly against his sensitive flesh before engulfing him with her hot wet mouth. His groan filled her with dark pleasure. “You like that?” she asked as his cock popped out of her mouth and she stroked him, two hands wrapping tightly around it, spreading saliva along his length.

  “Dinah --”

  “Would you rather fuck?” She gave his cockhead a final lick and lifted herself, guiding his cock inside her wet opening, slowly settling herself onto it, the feeling of fullness causing sparks along her nerve endings. Slowly, her eyes closed, she lifted herself, slammed down on him hard. The wet slap of it almost made him come.

  She leaned down, brushed his lips with hers as she braced herself on the hard ridges of his chest and, with his hands guiding her, rode him. Soft glides alternated with rough strokes. She pleasured herself on his cock, devoured his mouth. His palms were damp on her hips, his grip biting as he worked her, fighting her for control, lifting his hips to meet each thrust. Her sleek, tight wetness enveloped his cock and the slurping noise of her pussy fucking him was the most erotic sound he’d ever heard. He fought himself, feeling his control slipping. She watched him, those golden eyes almost molten as she pumped herself down and up his rigid cock. “You gonna come, Brenner?” she panted against his mouth. His fingers molded her ass. “Not until you do.”

  Another brutal kiss. “You really think you can hold out much longer?”

  She rolled her hips in a circular motion around his cock.

  “Sure. We’ll just change the parameters.” With a death grip on her ass he rolled with her, trapped her under his body, his cock buried deep inside her cunt.

  She didn’t fight him.

  He pulled out almost all the way, tortured them both by going back in centimeter by maddening centimeter. Her legs wrapped around his hips when he tried to pull out again.

  “Finish.”

  He compensated by a short creamy stroke, grinding his pelvis against her clit. He thought he felt his circuits frying.

  “You first.”

  “I can’t. The chip --”

  He cut her off. “You did before. Loudly, as I remember.” To remind her he snuck a hand between their bodies and lightly rolled her clit between two fingers as he lengthened his strokes.

  “Fuck you.” The slow rubs of his cock were primal, his fingers on her clit sending sparks of sharp pleasure through her.

  “Darlin’…” his voice was breathless, his muscles taut, “…I am fucking you.”

  His tongue flickered over the firm bud of a nipple. She was close now, her muscles stretched and tensing, her thighs and calves gripping him. “Don’t do me any favors,” she managed between breaths.

  He licked her other nipple. “I assure you --” he lifted her ass higher so that her clit rubbed against the base of his cock, “--the pleasure is all mine.”

  He plunged deep.

  She exploded. Shattered. Someone screamed. She thought it might be her, but she had no breath left. Her body shuddered under him, her taut inner muscles milking him, squeezing tighter until he followed her over the edge, moaning his release into her mouth.

  Boneless, she felt him collapse on top of her, dropping his head next to hers.

  “Well…” her mind was slowly ticking into gear, “…we haven’t done that before.” Her arms were wrapped around him. The intimacy of it was somehow uncomfortable.

  He lifted his head, smiled at her. The tenderness of it made her heart stop for a second before beating wildly. Mentally she smirked at her own idiocy. “So what now, Brenner?”

  He rolled off, got up in one smooth motion. “Up.” He extended a hand to help her.

  She clasped his hand with both of hers. If her pulse picked up a bit at the feel of his large warm hand on her small one, it was strictly because those hands were just on her. In her. Whatever. “Well?”

  “I need the sequence.”

  “Again with that?”

  “Did you expect otherwise?” His tone was matter-of-fact --as if he hadn’t just fucked them both into oblivion.

  “You didn’t mention it earlier.”

  “You were riding my cock at the time.” He caught her fist a moment before it would have cracked against his chin, squeezed it in warning. “No more foreplay.”

  “Bastard,” she hissed, perilously close to tears. She’d be damned if she’d let him see them.

  His chuckle was devoid of humor. “We’ve already established that.” He let go of her, lightly shoving her back. Tossed her clothes at her. “Get dressed. You’ll be locked in the brig until you give me the sequence.”

  “And what, you’ll be fucking it out of me until I do?”

  As he shrugged into his own clothes, his gaze roamed over her body, deliberately insulting. “The prospect doesn’t interest you?”

  “You really are an asshole.” She struggled into her pants, pulled her top over her head.

  “Again with the creative swearing. You could use more training in that department.”

  If he said it just to goad her, she was happy to oblige. She leapt on him, but he simply pivoted, used her wrists as leverage to swing her forward and pressed her against the wall, his big body crowding, overpowering hers. Even as heat rose again, she fought against it.

  “I need that sequence, Dinah.” She could smell sex on him. She didn’t know how he could switch off and on like that but was too damn tired to care.

  “I can’t.”

  “I’ll have to turn you over to MicroSel authorities.”

  Her shoulders slumped. She gritted her teeth against tears. “Do what you have to do.”

  Jaw set, he grabbed her wrist and dragged her out to the hall, into a small enclosure where he deposited her. She could feel the heat of him dissipating as he stepped away from her and keyed in the forceShield to active. She refused to meet his eyes, just sat there, head bowed, her hands on her lap.

  And though she wasn’t supposed to feel pain, it curled in her belly as she sank to her knees and pressed her hands to her eyes to hold back tears.

  Chapter Five

  “She still hasn’t eaten.”

  Med didn’t turn away from the stars dancing by the window as Duke sat down next to him, taking a swig from the bottle dangling from his fingers. Nasty shit, but what can you expect from an Organics colony?

  “Getting soft, Med?”

  The other man chuckled. “You know me.”

  For a moment, they shared the silence.

  “You know Brenner will hate himself.”

  Duke nodded. “Yeah.” He sighed, already dreading what he was going to do. “I know.”

  “EmShuttle 2 is stocked.” Med kept looking straight ahead, even as Duke got up to leave.

  “Figures.”

  * * *

  Dinah finally slept, dreamlessly, as if in a dark hollow pit. When a hand clamped on her arm, she reacted before even waking up. One hand grabbed hold while the other clenched in a fist, and she opened her eyes to male irritation.