“You’re alive,” she said lamely.
His hold on her loosened. “Yeah,” he said again.
Norah tried to read him by only his eyes and she couldn’t be sure her assessment was correct. The metal glistened with condensation and she tried to imagine the mouth underneath. But she couldn’t.
She shivered. “I–I missed you.” She shook her head as almost dried coils of hair moved in soft waves over her shoulder. “What happened?”
Stryker looked at her, holding her in place with his gaze alone. “The flyer is gone.”
Her face fell.
“I couldn’t lift it back up. By the time I managed to get underneath the vessel, it had sunk too deep, and my strength has its limitations. I’m sorry but we’ll need to go back to your base.” His words sounded clipped and heavy behind the metal.
“I never really thought that you could.” Norah leaned over the side and looked below.
“Thought that I could what?” His voice hardened into sharpened, edged steel.
“Lift the flyer.”
Stryker’s hands grasped her, one found her chin and tilted it to meet his masked face and metal eyes. “You don’t trust me?”
She didn’t know if it was a question or statement.
“No one could lift it,” she breathed.
His hands peeled off her skin and the silence that followed was uncomfortable and made her feel a little guilty. She looked away again and back down at the water below. It was hidden but for a few small slivers between the foliage. The patter of rainfall upon the surface was like a muted symphony.
It would’ve been calming if it weren’t for their dire situation.
The contours of the man’s muscles moved against her body as his long, strong arms reached out to bring a pack into view. Stryker’s eyes drew her gaze and were as hard as obsidian, but they weren’t looking at her.
She felt a strange wave of butterflies fill her belly.
The Cyborg lifted out rations and unwrapped them. The flutters turned into growls as he handed her the food, which she scarfed down within minutes. She had rations in her emergency supplies but she hadn’t eaten since the day before and now that her nerves had softened, she felt the needle of hunger again.
She looked up. “Aren’t you going to eat?”
He remained motionless, alert. “I don’t need to.”
Oh no.“Don’t be a martyr on my account.” She lifted the second half of her ration and pressed it against the man’s metal band. “Everyone needs to eat.”
He didn’t move, neither did she, she wasn’t going to back down until he submitted toonerequest from her. She also wanted to see the rest of his face. If his eyes were any indication, her savior was handsome.
Norah looked away.What am I thinking?
The rain fell into a veil around them.
He didn’t lift the metal mask, even at her coercion.Am I being… Wrong?
Stryker took her hand, took the bar out of her fingers, and held it between them.
“I,” his voice hoarse and low behind his mask, “don’t need to eat.” He pressed it into her lips.
She took the rest of it in her mouth, chewed, and swallowed it. She didn’t know why but it felt oddly erotic in an oh-so-wrong way.
Norah finished her food as he watched. Every curve and edge of his frame pressed into her side. A lone peal of thunder sounded somewhere far in the distance. Heat, humidity, and unease sizzled between them.We may be the only two people alive on this entire world.
“No saving then?” she whispered.
