“Do you want to play?”
His question was so simple, so coy, dripping with enough subtext that if it had a smell, it would smell like caramel. Norah gripped the railway again and squeezed the metal, trying to let go of the tension within her. But Stryker continued to pet her from behind, and the more she tried to ground herself, the more she was overcome by the man behind her.
The man that had answered her distress call. Had saved her life and had even changed her so much that what had mattered most to her a month ago no longer mattered at all.
An image of them in the vehicle, sinking within the flood waters, the coilers barraging them from every side. That moment when he held her, stared into her eyes, only to look past them and into her soul. Stryker had stolen her from death itself.
She had been meant to die on Axone. She was sure of it.
She was meant to suffer at the hands of Mother Nature for being the greedy, curious human she was. For invading another world; for scouting a place for humanity to move so their mistakes in caring for their homeworld could be swept under the rug. For having the audacity to believe that humanity deserved a second chance.
Norah turned around and met Stryker’s eyes. She gave no thought to the fact that his face had completely healed, only that he was perfect again.
And his question, dripping with sex, had assailed her.
“I love you, Stryker,” she announced as her heart exploded in her chest, forcing its way from her ribcage and up her throat. “I love you so much.”
The Cyborg bulked up and let out a deep breath that whistled under his mask.Please don’t deny it.
She covered her torso with her arms and hugged herself, her belly strained from the air she held captive, ready to protect herself from the vulnerability she felt.
Norah continued with a stutter, “I fell in love with you in the car, that moment when our eyes locked before we almost drowned. I felt so much at that moment that when we survived, I doubted my feelings for shock, maybe even trauma, or just the excitement of thwarting death. But It stayed and, well, I didn’t want the feeling to go and when it didn’t go away, it was such a relief. I keep thinking back to that moment, I had barely met you, and here we were dying together and it felt so right,” she rambled. It wasn’t like her but she hadn’t been herself since the attack. “I loved that moment. I love you…” She took a breath. “Please say something.”
His brow crinkled and she could have sworn if she saw his face, that he was smiling.
“I loved you the moment I heard your voice. When you called for me.” Stryker picked her up in his arms and led them back into the ship.
Matt’s constant musings and complaints trailed off with every receding step.
“So we’re both irrational.” She gripped the lapels of his space suit.
“We are, but don’t tell anyone else–I have a reputation to maintain as a Cyborg,” he teased as he stepped through the threshold of a new door.
“I promise, my lips are sealed. I have a reputation to maintain myself.” Norah laughed and peered around the room that she had been brought to. “We have nothing to tell.”
“Nothing is error.”
“Not in our case,” she murmured and reached up to cup his face, loving the cold metal of his mask over his face. “Can I see you?”
Stryker bent his head down and looked at her. “I can’t risk it, babe.”
“Even if I stand on the other side of the room?”
He sighed. “I’ve killed so many in the past, maimed my brethren, and made mistakes. Even on the other side of the room, if you make one wrong move, I could snap out and bite you before I regain control.”
“I promise I won’t make a move. Trust goes both ways, right?” she implored, her hands twisting into the cloth at his chest.
He set her on her feet and she could’ve kissed him on the mouth with excitement.
Norah rushed to the farthest corner and waited as Stryker did the same. He stared her down, eyes ablaze with electric fire and even worry as he lifted his hand to cup his mask. “Don’t come at me. Don’t move.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
He lifted it off his nose and let it settle around his neck. Norah stopped herself from leaning forward to get a better look at him, one that wasn’t disrupted by a violent fight.
Stryker didn’t look like a snake, he didn’t look like any creature other than a human. She had thought he may have had scaly flesh, a receded nose, maybe even a popped out mouth but he had nothing.
Norah canted her head and took him in, placing each curve and groove within her memory. The skin was paler than the rest of his face and where there was a hook for his nose on his mask, the real thing was straight and unbroken. She wanted to kiss every inch of him, more so because she knew she never would be able to.
